Episode 54 - The Good Friends delve into the Unknown

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PirateLawyer
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Re: Episode 54 - The Good Friends delve into the Unknown

Post by PirateLawyer » Tue Jun 16, 2015 3:46 pm

Dr. Gerard wrote:Unknown Armies has been on my bucket list for years, but this episode has buoyed it right to the top. I have always sought magic systems that are unusual and exact an interesting cost from users. I had no idea how deep the strangeness and the costs really went in UA. I really need to find someone to run it.
Then you'll want to be in the loop when Greg Stolze launches the Kickstarter for the new edition of UA.

I've always said the two best games I've ever run were an original UA scenario I came up with, and Convergence from Delta Green.

So needless to say I'm keen on seeing new editions of both games ...

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Re: Episode 54 - The Good Friends delve into the Unknown

Post by Paul Fricker » Tue Jun 16, 2015 6:38 pm

PirateLawyer wrote:
I've always said the two best games I've ever run were an original UA scenario I came up with, and Convergence from Delta Green.

So needless to say I'm keen on seeing new editions of both games ...
Ohhh, was the Convergence from Unspeakable Oath, in the days before Delta Green had a name? I have fond memories of running that scenario. If I recall it ended with black helicopters arriving to collect the PC agents, but one of them put a bullet in the back of a comrades head before they got on board. Happy days!

I'm certainly looking forward to the DG Kickstarter. Dennis Detwiller has stated that there will be special edition books and DM screens as part of the KS.
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Re: Episode 54 - The Good Friends delve into the Unknown

Post by PirateLawyer » Tue Jun 16, 2015 7:12 pm

Paul Fricker wrote:
PirateLawyer wrote:
I've always said the two best games I've ever run were an original UA scenario I came up with, and Convergence from Delta Green.

So needless to say I'm keen on seeing new editions of both games ...
Ohhh, was the Convergence from Unspeakable Oath, in the days before Delta Green had a name? I have fond memories of running that scenario. If I recall it ended with black helicopters arriving to collect the PC agents, but one of them put a bullet in the back of a comrades head before they got on board. Happy days!

I'm certainly looking forward to the DG Kickstarter. Dennis Detwiller has stated that there will be special edition books and DM screens as part of the KS.
Yes. I was going through law school in the mid-to-late 90s, and between the stuff John Tynes et al. were doing in TUO and then the full Delta Green book getting published in '96, it was like they made a CoC setting just for me. Great times!

I've run Convergence half a dozen times over the years, and it never disappoints. Such a brilliant scenario.

And I'm going to be much poorer when the DG Kickstarter hits the intrawebs, because I'll have to get all the shiny stuff.

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Re: Episode 54 - The Good Friends delve into the Unknown

Post by Tore » Wed Jun 17, 2015 5:44 pm

The "Self" gauge on the madness meter really is the hardest one to use and to explain. the GM pretty much has to ask the player "So, HOW at odds with your character's self image is this?" :) And it's still tough to adjucate, because a player character isn't really a finished personality. It's being made through the game.

Also, the realization that you're not who you thought you were is usually delayed. Think of Martin Hart in True Detective. He's got this self image of being a family man, a loving father and husband. Really he's a liar, a philanderer and doesn't really give a damn about being a parent (except when it reinforces his self image). It takes pretty much his daughters' entire childhood for him to realize that.
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Reeking death, harvest of humans in hatred.
Suck on the shitbag of what you created, what we created.
Yig now incoming, Yig now is here.
Yig he makes everything impossibly queer.

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Re: Episode 54 - The Good Friends delve into the Unknown

Post by Dr. Gerard » Wed Jun 17, 2015 6:48 pm

Difficult to grok though that may be, I'm itching to try a system that overtly pokes at such questions.
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Re: Episode 54 - The Good Friends delve into the Unknown

Post by Paul Fricker » Wed Jun 17, 2015 9:11 pm

Tore wrote:The "Self" gauge on the madness meter really is the hardest one to use and to explain. the GM pretty much has to ask the player "So, HOW at odds with your character's self image is this?" :) And it's still tough to adjucate, because a player character isn't really a finished personality. It's being made through the game.
Yeah, I thought about the UA sanity system and how it might relate to 7th ed. But ultimately I feel that the CoC one is easier to grasp, simpler to apply and open to broad interpretation. I've never had a problem that is mixes real-world trauma and mythos-corruption. Ultimately it's all about what messes your head up.
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Re: Episode 54 - The Good Friends delve into the Unknown

Post by FrankyD » Thu Jun 18, 2015 8:43 am

Tore wrote:Think of Martin Hart in True Detective. He's got this self image of being a family man, a loving father and husband. Really he's a liar, a philanderer and doesn't really give a damn about being a parent (except when it reinforces his self image). It takes pretty much his daughters' entire childhood for him to realize that.
Great description !
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Re: Episode 54 - The Good Friends delve into the Unknown

Post by Tore » Thu Jun 18, 2015 11:32 am

Thanks. :)

I agree that CoC generally doesn't need to have UA's differentiated mental health system. What it might benefit from is a mechanic for the alienation Mythos knowledge brings. It gets a bit hard to say 'please' and 'thank you' when your bones reverberate with the music of the outer gods.
Where Yig doth tread no man treads tomorrow.
Reeking death, harvest of humans in hatred.
Suck on the shitbag of what you created, what we created.
Yig now incoming, Yig now is here.
Yig he makes everything impossibly queer.

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