[UA] Character Creation Workshops

[Trent Redfield]

Daniel and other interested parties,

I'd definitely be glad to do that.  The reverse-engineering process is 
pretty simple.  We take a look at the character in reverse.  I'll use 
Jalbreak as an example again.  Steve Updike's obsession skill is ALPHA MALE, 
which is tied back to his obsession of "making people see things YOUR way".  
Uder's obssesion skill is his magick and he's obsessed with magick and 
breaking the veil of reality with that magick.  As each of the characters 
are examined its possible to show new players to UA how the skills and stats 
link back to the much more important aspects of personalities, obsessions, 
and passions.  I emphasize to each of players that UA stresses the 
importance of creating a character's background and personality long before 
numbers are ever applied to stats or skills.  I use the characters from 
Jailbreak and/or characters of mine to show the building process in reverse. 
  It seems to work really well.  Characters in UA naturally flow from the 
obsessions and passions; I just try and show that people.

As to how I relate it to d20.  I use d20/D&D because it is the main 
reference point for a HUGE majority of people in the RPG hobby.  Most people 
have played D&D and all of them have heard of it.  They are intimately 
familiar with the class and level system.  Mike Mearls told me in a game 
design workshop that d20 is all about, at its heart, killing monsters and 
taking their treasure.  No matter what class a character is in d20, the base 
attack bonus always go up.  The game rewards characters by making them 
better at killing things.  Combat is incredibly important in d20.  I tell 
people that this isn't true in UA.  UA does give everyone a basic struggle 
skill, but you needn't ever raise it or do anything with it.  UA, on the 
other hand, assumes everyone character is obsessed with something and that 
defines their lfe and worldview.  UA also assumes that all characters have 
some sort of connection to the occult underground.  It's a modern occult 
game, so that definitely makes sense.

Characters in UA are rewarded for their beliefs and worldviews.  The game 
system reflects that with the obsession skill and the ability to flip-flop 
rolls with a character's passions.  In UA, personality and belief are the 
most important aspects of a character.  Again contrasting that to d20, where 
personality is secondary and there is no game mechanic aspect to it other 
than bluff and diplomacy rolls.

I also contrast the experience point system in UA to that of d20.  D20's 
character growth is diagrammed as a set of stairs.  There is a long where a 
character remains stagnant as they continue to gain experience, but no 
corresponding growth in skills or abilities until they gain a level.  Then 
there is the straight-up line where there is a huge gain in this tiny bit of 
time before they plateau until the next level.  Character growth in UA is a 
curve.  Gains in character abilities and skills come in gradual, but 
constant steps.  There are no plateaus in UA experience and character growth 
because its a constant on-going process where experience is gained, and more 
importantly, spent each session.  This set-up definitely makes more sense to 
me.

Just so everyone knows, I'm not trying to bash on d20 here.  I've played D&D 
for 18 years now.  I do think the system is flawed though and really like 
how UA's system works, because class/level systems have serious flaws.  That 
said I still play and run D&D and don't want to start a d20 vs UA flame war 
anywhere.  So many people play and run d20/D&D that's it makes the perfect 
reference point for a comparison and if we are going to get more UA players, 
we are going to have to recruit from that giant pool of people playing d20.  
There's no problem if they play UA and D&D and White Wolf and RIFTS and 
GURPS, but we definitely want them to be playing d20 and using it as a point 
of reference is the way to do that.  If you ever do a demo or character 
creation workshop for a bunch of White Wolf players (or players for any 
other system), then use that as a point of reference and see how it goes.  
I'd love to hear about and I think the list would as well.

- Trent Redfield

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
>From : Daniel Solis <omnimancer at yahoo.com>
To : The Unknown Armies RPG Mailing List <ua at lists.unknown-armies.com>
Subject : Re: [UA] Demos and Character Creation Workshops
Sent : Saturday, March 27, 2004 4:40 PM

Can you give us an example of the reverse-engineering process you typically 
go
through during the workshop and how you connect it to d20/D&D?

-- Daniel

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