[UA] Unknown Ages

[Dave Harfield]

> This riff is made up of some of my own ideas, and some
> ideas from other people which have been posed over at
> rpg.net, and here to this list.

Guilty as charged :).  I'm currently working on adding an almighty dollop of
UA to WHFRP.

>
> Mechanically, it works pretty much like Unknown Armies
> as if painted by Frazetta, with the following tweaks.

Nice description.
>
>
> SKILLS
> RIDE is a default Speed skill rather than Drive.
> LORE is a default Mind skill rather than Education.

Personally I'd keep education as is but emphasize its field.  Peasants are
going to learn about subsistence farming, street urchins about what pubs you
can fence a lady's fancy and young noblemen about the classics and fencing.
>
> New skills which would come in handy:
>
>
> No Firearms obviously, though Archery fills the role
> of a ranged attack.  Bows are Long, Compound, and/or
> Laminated (+3 damage for each) and arrows can have
> armor piercing tips (-3 damage, ignore armor).
>
What about crossbows?
>
> ARMOR
> Armor is rated based on three questions:
>
> Is it Ridged?
> Is the armor made of an unyielding material such as
> metal?

I'd change this question to Does it Yield?
>
> Is it Covering?
> Does the armor cover more than half your body area?
>
> Is it Heavy?
> Is the armor thick and sturdy?
>
> Basic light armor- a leather jerkin for example- will
> stop 1 point of damage per attack. Each 'Yes' to an
> above question adds 3 to this protection, but imposes
> a -10% shift to all actions involving Speed, including
> initiative. A suit of jointed plate armor with all
> three questions answered YES, would thus stop 10
> points of damage per attack.

What about flared armour - ignoring jibes of Saturday Knight Fever - given
the baroque designs of Chaos Warriors et al would you give them a bonus for
having their armour specially designed to deflect blows?
>
>
>
>
> POWER OF THE GODS
>
> Avatars are basically given god-names for the fantasy
> setting and used without change.  People who channel
> divine force are considered Clerics, Divine Madmen,
> Priest-Kings, saints, and holy warriors.  The
> conception (whether right or wrong) isn't that reality
> is created bottom-up based on patterns of human
> behavior, belief, and thought, but human behavior
> belief and thought are created top-down by divine
> beings who capriciously toy with the lives of mortal
> men.  The gods are mostly selfish absentee assholes.
>
>
>
> BLACKEST MAGIC
>
> Magic is still based off a Soul skill which must be
> the Mage's Obsession skill.  It still involves
> charge-building rituals and a body of related effects.
>  The Schools of magic are much less symbolic and
> postmodern, and don't generally involve a strong
> internal paradox. here it's more like irony.   Here is
> the basic skinny on some possible schools:
>
>
> NECROMANCY
> Domain:  power over the dead and undead
>
> Minor Effect:  cause minor withering, raise spirits,
> commune with the dead
> Minor Charge:  contemplate death and the dead-
> preferably in particularly morbid environment
>
> Significant Effect:  cause significant withering,
> raise corporeal undead, command spirits to your will,
> steal life like a vampire
> Significant Charge:  Ritually enact your own death &
> burial and spend night sleeping in your own tomb;
> construct a monument to Death; engage in perverse
> ritual mockery of life (plant a field with gravel as
> if it were seed, have sex with a corpse, bind another
> person's wounds with infected bandages and maggots
> etc)
>
> Major Effect:  raise an undead army; become undead
> yourself; slay hundreds
> Major Charge:  die and rise from your own death;
> celebrate death on a mass scale (on the order of the
> Pyramids)- turn a society to Death.
>
> Blast Style:  Withering Touch.  Cheep (1 charge per
> blast)  but requires a touch to work.  Causes victim's
> body to wither and age, bursting open with puss and
> maggots.  Quite nasty.
>
> Taboo:  Act in such a way as to celebrate life (have
> sex, plant crops, tend to another's wounds etc).
>
> Notes:  Necromancy is a great school if you happen to
> be a Stygian priest-king or something.  You can use
> you power to create a great necropolis, in which
> people live in tombs and sleep in coffins.  Mad
> charges to be reaped from such an arrangement.
>
>
>
> MYSTICISM
> Domain:  power over thoughts, the mind, and perception
>
> Minor Effect:  read surface thoughts, create minor
> illusions, shock a person's mind, put a person into
> light hypnosis
> Minor Charge:  deny the flesh, focusing on the mind
> (go without food or sleep, or expose yourself to the
> elements while meditating on the higher mind).
>
> Significant Effect:  control thoughts, read secret
> desires, create fantasy illusion scenarios, travel the
> astral plane, blast a person's mind to chaos.
> Significant Charge:  mortify the flesh, ignoring pain
> and need to invigorate the mind (inflict ritual
> injuries while mediating for several hours- 10 wound
> per charge at least)
>
> Major Effect:  transfer your mind to another body;
> swap minds of two or more subjects, read a person's
> mind utterly and completely, make someone your total
> and utter slave, utterly destroy someone's mind.
> Major Charge:  permanently reduce the flesh- loosing a
> significant body part through ritual sacrifice while
> meditating (self-castration is popular in the East).
> Deny your body's needs while surrounded by temptation
> for weeks (starve yourself while sitting at a table
> loaded with your favorite foods until you are almost
> dead).  Lots of Self and Helplessness checks here.
>
> Blast Style:  Mystics reach inside the minds of their
> victims and scramble their thoughts and fry their
> nervous systems.  A victim blasted by a Mystic has no
> idea where the attack is coming from, and if slain,
> leaves an unmarked corpse behind.
>
> Taboo:  Indulge the flesh for pleasure (eat more than
> required to keep you alive and healthy, have sexual
> relations for a purpose other than to produce an heir,
> bathe more than basic health demands, or dress in
> clothing more sumptuous than the needs of climate or
> modesty).
>
> Notes:  Mystics are often these crazy dirty old men
> living in caves on the top of mountains.  They
> generally have a great deal of insight (from all that
> mind-reading and astral projection) but are usually in
> poor health from their self-denial.  The other side is
> the Eastern mystic- the humble-seeming court advisor
> or minister.  Often a Eunuch, this Mystic is a
> devilish schemer who uses his powers to further his
> ambitions.
>
>
>
> DIABOLISM
> Domain:  the summoning and binding of Demons and other
> Eldritch Horrors from Beyond
>
> Minor Effect:  Summon a Minor demon to perform
> service.  Banish a Minor demon.
> Minor Charge:  Sacrifice food, drink, drugs, and
> valuables of significant value; make living sacrifices
> of animals.
>
> Significant Effect:  Summon a Significant demon to
> perform service, or summon half a dozen Minor demons.
> Banish a Significant demon, or half a dozen Minor
> demons.
> Significant Charge:  Make living human sacrifices;
> sacrifice goods of unique priceless value.
>
> Major Effect:  Summon a Major Demon to perform
> service, or summon up to half a dozen Significant
> demons, or a dozen Minor demons.  Utterly banish a
> similar number of demons.
> Major Charge:  Sacrifice your loved ones or hundreds
> of other living human beings.  Sacrifice artifacts of
> singular power and magic.  Sell your soul to a Demon
> Kahn.  You can only do this last one once. and then
> you are subject to the Kahn's every command (resisting
> is a Rank-10 Self and Unnatural check).
>
> Blast Style:  None exactly, but Minor demons inflict
> +3 melee damage, Significant demons inflict rolled
> value damage, and Major demons pretty much instantly
> kill people.  Being attacked by a demon will often
> lead to both Unnatural and Violence checks.
>
> Taboo:  If you ever break your Contract  with one of
> your demons, all the rest of your bound demons will
> get testy and try and break their pacts with your
> (your metaphysical authority is weakened every time
> you break a Pact).  This requires a Magic skill roll
> vs the Demon's Soul stat.  If it wins, it'll likely do
> it's damnedest to eat your face off.
>
> Notes:  Unlike most schools, Diabolism lets you build
> the charges needed to work the magic either before or
> after you actually summon up a demon.  If built
> before, you spend the charges and roll the dice
> normally, and use this energy to feed the demon and
> secure the Pact.  If you charge up after- essentially
> summoning on credit- then the Demon (and thus, the GM)
> gets to specify the charging conditions under which
> will pay for the spell.  This is how most Diabolists
> get into real trouble (well, this an sacrificing
> people).
>
> The cost of a spell depends on the power of the demon
> you summon.  This also determines the time it takes to
> summon the demon- generally an hour per charge spent.
> Here is the skinny on demon summoning:
>
> Basic Demons:  Your basic demon has the following
> stats, and will perform 1 service with a duration no
> greater than 1 day.  This service can be fairly
> complex- "Find and slay Agoth the Nothman" is just
> fine.  As is "Carry me upon your back to the High Peak
> of Shelas."  You can sometimes bribe a demon to
> perform services beyond those in the original Pact-
> but at double the normal cost in Charges and a Magic
> roll.  The unnatural effects a demon can produce are
> one-shot deals.  They will one perform a finite number
> of such magical feats for you, though offering more
> charges can increase their numbers.  They can have
> Body skills which reflect their demon physiology
> though- such as Flight or Burrowing.
>
> Minor Demons
> Stats:  200
> Attack:  +3 damage
> 1 Minor unnatural effect.
>
> Significant Demons
> Stats:  250
> Attack:  rolled value as damage
> 1 Significant unnatural.
>
> Major Demons
> Stats:  300
> Attack:  instant death
> 1 Significant unnatural.
>
> +1 Minor Charge:  Add 5 Stat points; Add 1 extra Minor
> unnatural effect; increase duration of service by 1
> day; add one command to the pact of a Minor demon.
>
> +1 Significant Charge:  Add 15 Stat points; Add 1
> extra Significant unnatural effect; increase duration
> of service by 1 week; add one command to the pact of a
> Significant demon.
>
> +1 Major Charge:  Add 50 Stat points; add 1 extra
> Major unnatural effect; increase duration of service
> by 1 month; add one command to the pact of a Major
> demon.
>
>
>
> DRUIDISM
> Domain:  Life and nature, fertility and growth
>
> Minor Effect:  command an animal to perform simple
> service; heal a minor wound, increase fertility; hide
> easily in natural setting
> Minor Charge:  Feed blood to the soil and the roots of
> sacred trees (at least 10 Wound points worth, though
> it need no be yours)
>
> Significant Effect:  command many animals to perform
> minor service, or one to perform complex service (such
> as fighting for you). Heal significant wounds,
> increase fertility dramatically, become one with
> natural settings.
> Significant Charge:  Feed great amounts of blood to
> the soil- at least 100 wound points worth, at least 10
> of which MUST be yours.
>
> Major Effect:
> Major Charge:  Feed the life's blood of one or more
> beings- at least 300 wound points worth.  This leaves
> the sacrifices dead.
>
> Blast Style:  Turn the wilderness against the victim-
> birds swoop and attack, limbs fall on him, vines trip
> him, trees fall and crush him.  A Druid's Blast
> doesn't hit immediate, but lingers until he is in a
> setting where it can do the most good.  Such Blasts
> hang around for as much as a week before hitting, as
> circumstances dictate.
>
> Taboo:  allow harm to come to natural settings under
> your protection (beyond the normal cycle of tooth and
> claw and predation).  Further, adopting too many of
> the ways of civilization will cause Taboo- dressing in
> loom-woven cloth, wielding weapons of steel, or
> wearing armor made from anything but hide and leather
> will Taboo a druid.  Also note that using natural
> creatures from your wilderness to Charge is instant
> Taboo. those civilized men who wander in your wood
> should beware.
>
> Notes:  The magic here is pretty straightforward, but
> the irony is that the Druid gains power over life by
> ritually sacrificing life.
>
>
>
> WIZARDRY
> Domain:  wizardry is the power of words, spoken or
> written, and the way words can persuade, awe, or
> dominate.  Words can be used to change a person's
> whole world view.
>
> Minor Effect:  Make a suggestion which the target will
> accept as reasonable.  Curse or bless a target in such
> a way as to affect his fortunes in a limited way.
>
> Significant Effect:  Issue commands which targets will
> find hard to disobey.  Curse or bless a target in such
> a way as to affect his fortunes in a broad way.
>
> Major Effect:  Utterly entrance targets with your
> words, altering their core belief systems (you can
> rewrite their Obsessions and Triggers).  Make terrible
> curses or wondrous blessings.
>
> Blast Style:  The Wizardry blast doesn't inflict
> damage, but is does impose overwhelming awe and
> majesty.  This causes both Fear and Unnatural stress
> checks in those who the Blast is directed against.
> Rank-4 for Minor blasts, Rank-8 for Significant
> blasts.  This Awe can affect more than one person
> easily if they can clearly see and hear the Wizard who
> uses it.
>
> Taboo:  Wizards must always be careful with what they
> say- their words carry power even if they don't intend
> them to.  They don't charge up like normal mages, but
> rather once they have used their words to carry power,
> they become carriers for accidental magic.  Each use
> of Wizardry CRATES a charge (or charges) which hand
> around, waiting to discharge at the GM's discretion
> based on what the Wizard says.  For example, an angry
> wizard who utters "Damn you eyes, why can't you keep
> up!" could accidentally Curse one of his companions
> with blindness (or at least a big negative shift to
> Notice rolls).  These charges work high to low, so
> Majopr charges erupt first, then significant, then
> minor ones.  Wizards are known for their taciturn
> natures and their tendencies to speak in riddles for
> good reason.  To speak too clearly courts disaster.
>
>
> -Ben
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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