[UA] Best of Unknown Armies the sequel

[Mike Mason]

Hi

What happened to the 'first' Best of Unknown Armies? Is it still
available?

Cheers

Mike M

-----Original Message-----
From: ua-bounces at lists.unknown-armies.com
[mailto:ua-bounces at lists.unknown-armies.com] On Behalf Of Chris Cooper
Sent: 28 July 2004 09:25
To: ua at lists.unknown-armies.com
Subject: [UA] Best of Unknown Armies the sequel

Hey all.

This a second proposal for the second Best of Unknown
Armies project since I think we may have all bitten
off more than we can chew with writing up the city
entries.

My second proposal of the BoUA2 is a collection of
Crunchy Bits: alternate and optional rules
modifications; funky skills; formula spells for
existing adept Schools; a couple of generic GMC
templates; cheap and dirty artefacts/rituals; and, if
space is willing, few nifty Critters of Unexplained
(like what was done with Birthday Suits).

The product will be like one of those D&D Netbooks
except it will be good - not hordes of unpronounceable
Demons and yet more shadow-mindflayer-dragonblooded
variants. Professionalism will be the key word. If it
is going to look like a original UA product, it must
be treated as such.

One idea that can be greatly expanded on is lists of
Minor, Significant, and Major Unnatural Phenomena,
perhaps with easy % listings for optional random dice
throwing. I have done something like this for Minor
Phenomena, so it shouldn't be difficult for a mass of
contributors to get two hundred.

As with the first BoUA, no money is garnered, but your
name will be up in burned-out lights with the rest of
the authors and manipulators. Most of the material
would have been tried and used in gaming groups.

If enough is gathered together, quite a heady, thick
document can be drafted and laid out for players to
use. 

I'm trying to put something together that has wide
applicability for all players, but yet is
professionally done.

So in redux we all need:

1. Short, one or two sentence minor, significant,
major Unnatural phenomena.
Reason: They have to be short to be flung quickly and
haphazardly at players during combat scenes.

2. New formulae spells for schools that exist in the
UA2 rulesbook.
Reason: Any new players to UA will only have access to
the printed UA2 rulebook and this will give something
of immediate use.

3. No more than five new rituals and artefacts (the
best will be voted on).
Reason: Rituals and artefacts are rare so only the
niftiest will be chosen. Please, no blast rituals; UA
needs no fireball spells. 

4. Rules Modifications and Alternate Options.
Have a smart, quick house rule you use, hand it over
with your valid Game Designer license and it will be
held in trial before your peers. Reason: Anything that
cunning needs to be shared with everyone.

5. Skills
Despite its open-ended system UA could do with a few
more skill examples so remember that cool one a GMC or
PC had, write it up and send it in with a little write
up.
Reason: Creating a good set of skills will be of
especial help to GMC creation. 

6. A new critter
Has some hole-where-there-should-have-been-a-beastie
been nagging at you? Fill it and sent is the result.
Please make sure that it's not something that has
appeared either in Disney films or Heraldry.
Reason: We don' need no steenking
celestial-vampire-dire-badgers, gringo.

7. The Rumours
The joy of rumours and What You Hear are fantastic -
especially if they're weird and creepy as all hell.
Rumours should be short, tight prose, mesh somewhat
with UA's backdrop universe, and seed little scenarios
in the minds of GMs reading it.

Other possibilities:
Well anything is possible but it must be simple and
keep well within UA's game mechanic-philosophy:
self-contained and self-referential.

Things to avoid
I have decided to rather leave off new adept schools
and archetypes because 1) there already seems to be
glut of new archetypes and schools and 2), developing
current adept schools gives new players more stuff
with which to play. Perhaps for the future new magick
can be expanded upon - they certainly deserve their
own booklet.

Try and avoid Cabals and GMCs, out of context they are
blurry and confusing and there's way too little space
to write them in context. A collection of generic GMCs
sounds good for another future project. Of course
there will be exceptions when the exceptional is
produced.

Avoid multiple rolls, book-keeping, reference charts,
and additional mechanics and other-than-d10 dice. If a
submission is good but a little clunky - modifications
can suggested by everyone in the crew.

As above, contributors will get their name in the
credits, (hopefully right next to their submission).

The final product will be done all fancy like a real
UA product so you can whip out with a flourish while
other people have measly printed Word documents. This
way we can claim to play the superior, player-directed
game.

Of course we hope that Mr. Greg S and Mr. John T will
submit as well or give their nods of approval. If Greg
wants we can do up his Knights of the Bloody
Crossroads (yeah, I know it's a cabal).

I hope that Daniel Solis and Alex Koenig will give
their assistance again. All other volunteers will be
greatly appreciated.

That's it for now. Just mail your subs to this list
and let the ball start rolling.

Last Word: Please, please, please keep the political
jockeying under control. This isn't an opportunity to
ladle fellow UA gamers. Thanks.

Cheers,

Chris.



=====



		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers!
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.unknown-armies.com
http://lists.unknown-armies.com/mailman/listinfo/ua
____________________________________
100% Spam Control by SpamEnder
Free Download and Trial
http://www.spamender.com/