[UA] Starting a UA campaign

[Royal Minister of Stuff]

--- Scott Hacker <smilingbandit2 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I'm really
> into the game, but my fellow gamers are skeptical
> about the whole "surreal horror" idea. 

I've found that selling the game as Pulp Fiction with
Magic works.  

> What have you done to get people excited about UA? 

I went down to the game store and posted some fliers
describing the good points: the magic system, the
license given to players in making their own
characters and the character-driven stories (as well
as making some strong occult references.)

> What kind of goals/plots/concepts should a good UA
> campaign have?  

I used to think I knew this one, and most of my UA
games run really well, but I have had a game fall
flat.

Goals/plots/concepts is the toughest one to answer.  I
don't really like to put in anything the players HAVE
to do, but I do like to include a mystery or two.

I like to sit down and have players invent their own
hooks.  "What is it that's going to get your character
involved in all the weird crap going down in the
occult world?"

I also find that forcing players to form a group works
very good.  We use the suggestions in the main UA book
for starters.  Are you more of a cult or reality cops?
Just a circle of friends? Then what keeps you
interested in the Occult in the first place?  Why are
you still going to be friends after one of you goes
crazy and tries to smear the others?

That's both the good point and the challenge of
playing UA.  The "emotional realism" can really
through some players for a loop, but it helps to refer
to action movies.

Why is it more exciting when Jackie Chan looks scared
than when Steven Segal looks bored, for instance. 
Most players will acceed that one.  If you have pretty
obstinate players, you may want to get them into a
discussion of action movies first and wring the
comparison out of them, then make the point.

> Also, some players have been a little disappointed
> by
> the amount of skill points standard chargen gives-
> any
> suggestions? 

I cheat. I turn the stats into blanket defaults and
then add skill points to the stat as a base.  That
means the stats are a lot lower (I only give players
about 150 points for stats) but they can be used as
deafaults in all situations.  (It also means I don't
have to use Driving, Struggle, or any of the other
freebie stats.)

For instance, you put 30 into your BODY stat, giving
you a base of 30 in all Body-related skills.  It also
gives you 30 extra skill points to boost individual
skills. So you could have 1 BODY skill at 60% (30 base
+ 30 skill points) and all others would default to 30%
 or you could have a Body skill at 50% (30 base + 20
skill points), one at 40% (30 base + the remaining 10
skill points) and the rest (unlisted) at the base BODY
stat of 30%.  That works well for players coming from
more structured games, too.

Again, remember that you only roll under these skills
at times of stress.

Another trick I use is having players choose instead
of rolling, especially for things like stress checks. 
You can choose whether you want to be callous, run
away, go bezerk or curl up into a catatonic ball (only
one player in my group has ever chosen the last
option.)  Make sure you assign some pretty nasty
consequences to going berzerk, describe the scene in
unpleasant and, if possible, stomach-churning detail
(the on-line magazine, Critical Miss, has some great
descriptions of physical trauma.  Here's it's url:
http://www.criticalmiss.com/
make sure to check it out.)

Once players get a sense of how nasty combat can be,
it'll mean more, be more useful as a plot device and
be a lot more exciting.

> How powerful is a starting UA
> character,
> relative the starting characters in other
> roleplaying
> games (say D&D, Shadowrun or something)?  

That depends on how you define "power."  A starting UA
character, using the standard rules, tends to hit
their target more often than a starting D&D character,
for instance, but less often than someone in Shadowrun
or White Wolf.  

You do more relative damage in D&D, I think, but
there's an emotional element in UA that you don't get
in a lot of other combats (call on those passions as
much as possible.)

You can certainly get a lot more done with magic in UA
than you can in other game systems (even more than you
can in Mage or Ars Magica), but the price for using it
is much, much higher (and you pay it every time.) 
Regular people have a lot better chance against magic
users in UA than they do in other games, but the magic
in UA tends to be nastier, more likely to rip you a
new butt and a lot harder to dodge (SAVE vs., SOAK,
whatever.)

> How broad
> should character skills be? 

I make them pretty narrow, but I use stats as
"umbrella" defaults, like I said.  When I run UA using
the basic rules, I let the skills be broader
(comparable to the GURPS skill-types and headings
"Combat Skills," "Espionage Skills" and so-forth.)  I
usually make players take at least one fairly specific
defining skill like "Make People Cry with Harmonica
Melody" or "Find Hot, Dirty Lesbians Who Want You" for
a web designer (or porn addict.)

> What are some good ways
> of boosting start character power?

Again, depends on what you mean by power.  If you want
more firepower, start them out with a gym bag full of
automatic weapons in a part of town where police
mostly look the other way.

Inform them.  Let them read through the rule book or
give them a run-down on the heavy-hitters and some of
the secrets of the UA universe.  Once the players
realize that the playing field is more-or-less level,
but there are no rules, they understand that they're
powerful enough.

 
> I know this is a lot of questions, but any tips you
> can give me would be most appreciated.  Thanks!

Ha! I love answering these kind of questions.  I just
hope people are still reading them.


PS.
Hello, Ari.  Good input.


=====
-- Rp Bowman, Royal Minister of Stuff
The Electronic Nation of Yokeltania:
http://www.geocities.com/yokeltania/

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