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To learn what questions are unanswerable and not to answer them: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness.
- Ursula K Le Guin, “The Left Hand of Darkness”
This section of the site lists what races are available for PCs, as well as some occupations, information on magic and making PCs.
'My instincts and my reason are both at one.'
... 'Both tell me that a race that struggles is a race that survives.'
- Michael Moorcock, "The End of all Songs"
This is a listing of the most common species in the world along with some of the most (in)famous, such as vampires.
The Dead
To bring the dead to life
Is no great magic.
Few are wholly dead:
Blow on a dead man's embers
And a live flame will start.
- Robert Graves, from “To Bring The Dead To Life”
The dead are remnants of a dead person, memories of them made real by their need to remain in the world. Ghosts given flesh of sorts, the dead look normal but are unaffected by the weather and can rebuild their bodies upon "death" with a successful soul check. Most people don't like to admit they exist and few families would accept the dead as their loved one. Likewise, the dead often carry a talisman of some sort that links them to their previous life and helps them to remember who they were as well as their reason for returning, if they know it.
| Stats: | Skills: |
| Body: 40-90 | General Athletics 15% Struggle 15% |
| Speed: 30-70 | Dodge 15% Drive 15% |
| Mind: 30-60 | General Education 15% Notice 15% |
| Soul: 30-60 | Lie 15% Aura of Death 15% |
Devourers
We shall live! The music is so gay, so joyful, and it seems as though a little more and we shall know what we are living for, why we are suffering . . . If we only knew -- if we only knew!
- Anton Checkov
Devourers are scientific creations that were made long ago to absorb magic and render magic users without charges. While it worked that way originally, the magic eventually changed them so that they could absorb all forms of energy, not just magic. It is now difficult for the to resist the urge (mind check) to absorb new energy, or to absorb energy just because it is there. The builders of the devourers did make some weaknesses inherent in them, the chief one being to metal, which makes them weak and dizzy and prevents them from devouring, to an extent. Secondly, the older a devourer is, the more the magic being changing them, so that fire can hurt them, and the heat of the sun weakens them somewhat. No one is quite sure what causes this mutation, but it affects all devourers over time. They cannot breed and reproduce by dying and creating a new member of their species with that death.
| Stats: | Skills: |
| Body: 40-80 | General Athletics 15% Struggle 15% |
| Speed: 30-70 | Dodge 20% Drive 10% |
| Mind: 30-70 | General Education 15% Notice 15% |
| Soul: 30-70 | Lie 15% Aura of Death 15% |
Genies
Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?
- Milton, "Paradise Lost"
Genies are humans who were genetically engineered to be different, somehow. Some have psychic abilities while others are stronger or faster or smarter than regular humans. The stats below are the base humans ones. Each genie differs from them, always at a cost to balance things out. So a genie who is strong and fast (Body 30-80, Speed 30-80) would also be weaker in the area of the mind (Mind 30-60) and others (Soul 30-60). All genies are unique and most also have odd physically characteristics - scales, claws and the like - that seperate them from humans still further. Few of them are truly welcomed among humans.
| Stats: | Skills: |
| Body: 30-70 | General Athletics 15% Struggle 15% |
| Speed: 30-70 | Dodge 15% Drive 15% |
| Mind: 30-70 | General Education 15% Notice 15% |
| Soul: 30-70 | Charm 15% Lie 15% |
Humans
Nothing human is alien to me.
- Terence
Humans are the most commonly met species and the most prolific. In truth, every being in the game world is technically human, but the status of weres is somewhat confused and some human purists claim that there are no true humans left in the world, but no one is quite sure what they base that assertion on.
New Humans
New humans are the most common humans and are different from old humans only in that some science won’t work for them and that they can use magic, where old humans aren’t capable of learning magic. Physically they are the same as humans have been for eons.
| Stats: | Skills: |
| Body: 30-70 | General Athletics 15% Struggle 15% |
| Speed: 30-70 | Dodge 15% Drive 15% |
| Mind: 30-70 | General Education 10% Notice 20% |
| Soul: 30-70 | Charm 15% Lie 15% |
Old Humans
Genetically engineered sometime in the forgotten past - or perhaps a strain of humanity in which magic can find no home - the old humans are the masters of science and have the innate ability to use technology as will, as well as to command others to obey their will. There are not many of them left in the world, save for rumours of a pure science city somewhere in the world.
| Stats: | Skills: |
| Body: 30-70 | General Athletics 15% Struggle 15% |
| Speed: 30-70 | Dodge 15% Drive 15% |
| Mind: 30-70 | General Education 15% Notice 15% |
| Soul: 30-70 | Charm 15% Command Others 15% |
NOTES: Old humans can't use or learn magic. However, almost all devices of science will respond to their genetic imprint.
Mages
O Time, your face his human.
O Death, your name is man.
O Humanity, reducing strong elements to dust, your name is blown on a tempest, you frighten the stars, you are ever young, but old, and ignorant as some force of nature.
- David C Smith, "Master of Evil"
Mages are rare people who get taught how to become a piece of magic, to embrace and surrender to the paradigm they follow in exchange for knowledge and even wisdom if they are lucky. Mages do not use power like other magic users so much as they are power and create magic just by existing. They tend to be very rare and few live to an old age before their magic consumes them. Lastly, it is possible for a mage to act outside their paradigm to a certain extent but even they have to be careful. If they betray the magic to another love to often and it will leave even them, leaving nothing behind but a hollow void that even the strongest drink can never fill.
| Stats: | Skills: |
| Body: 30-70 | General Athletics 15% Struggle 15% |
| Speed: 30-70 | Dodge 15% Drive 15% |
| Mind: 30-70 | General Education 15% Notice 15% |
| Soul: 30-70 | Charm 15% Lie 15% |
NOTES: Mages gain +10% to their starting magic skill and begin the game with 2 additional minor charges. Also, each mage must begin with their magic ability (before the +10 modifier) equal to at least half their Soul.
Morphs
When it is not necessary to change,
it is necessary not to change.
- Lord Falkland
Morphs are begins with the ability to change their shape at will. This body skill - morphing - lets them alter their own body into odd shapes, like getting claws or developing spikes or armour plating. It doesn’t allow them to alter their basic form, so a morph can’t become a cat or dog or bear, just alter their actual appearance. Some are able to change theirs enough to look like someone else but this tends to be rare. Morphs tend to look a little odd to others even in their normal form, since they are often rather exotic to look at. Lastly, morphs absorb sunlight - or other forms of light, if need be - to be able to change themselves. They must spend at least 4 hours of the day by a light source to be able to change their forms, otherwise it costs them wound points to change.
| Stats: | Skills: |
| Body: 30-70 | General Athletics 15% Struggle 15% |
| Speed: 30-70 | Dodge 15% Drive 15% |
| Mind: 30-70 | General Education 15% Notice 15% |
| Soul: 30-70 | Charm 15% Lie 15% |
NOTES: All morphs must have a Body skill called Morph. This is what allows them to change their shape. In combat situations, it lasts for a number of rounds equal to the 2d10 (d100) roll, in non-combat it lasts for that amount of time in minutes.
Nulls
. . . ‘the hardest sort of magic is the sort we don’t use at all’
- Terry Pratchett, "Wyrd Sisters"
Nulls are people who were created to resist all magics, or perhaps are just a genetic opposition to mages. Nulls automatically resist any magic directed at them and, if they make a successful resist magic check against the magick directed at a group of people or building they are in (by rolling better than whoever did the magick), the magic won’t affect others around them. It is quite possible to drop a building by magic on a null and have them walk out of the ruins unharmed, a rather unnerving experience for others to see. Some nulls don’t even believe magic exists, solely because it can’t be used around them. Aside from that, very little is known about nulls since they are uncommon and most mages are scared of them and tend to want to kill them rather than figure out what they are.
| Stats: | Skills: |
| Body: 30-70 | General Athletics 15% Struggle 15% |
| Speed: 30-70 | Dodge 15% Drive 15% |
| Mind: 30-70 | General Education 15% Notice 15% |
| Soul: 30-70 | Charm 15% Lie 15% |
NOTES: All nulls must have a Resist Magic soul skill.
Shifter
"We have no choice about where you’re going to hit us, which direction our lives will ricochet -- unless somehow we learn a way into your hearts. Its not a game for us, its survival. It’s how we must evolve. You’re our natural selection.”
- Carolyn Gilman, "Halfway Human"
Shifters are people with the ability to change from a human to animal form at will. This animal form is often a wolf or, more rarely, a giant cat. Almost all shifters animal forms are mammalian, but there might be a few fish or bird ones around. What makes shifters truly unique is that they can take this shape at will without any effort and, according to rumours, can not die. Most shifters tend to be evasive about this, but people have noticed shifters tend to heal faster than normal and those who are given killing blows tend to sink into deep sleeps rather than actually die.
| Stats: | Skills: |
| Body: 30-75 | General Athletics 15% Gnaw On Foes 15% |
| Speed: 30-75 | Dodge 20% Drive 50% |
| Mind: 30-65 | General Education 10% Notice 20% |
| Soul: 30-65 | Charm 15% Lie 15% |
NOTES: Shifters heal 30 damage every time they change form under normal circumstances. They also heal faster than normal, but at no set rate.
Terranaut
Paradise is for those who make Paradise. He did not belong.
- Ursula Le Guin, "The Dispossessed"
Terranauts are beings of flesh and steel and other things, created by science long ago to be explorers of places man could not reach, or do work in dark places. They are impervious to any environmental hazards as well as immune to all poisons, diseases and infections. A terranaut can live for centuries before their self-repairing bodies begin to break down. once this begins, most of them reproduce asexually. Once that is done, their bodies break down faster and they eventually die when their protection against certain environments stops working. They tend to be loners and most of them have a grim and depressing outlook on life.
| Stats: | Skills: |
| Body: 40-80 | General Athletics 15% Struggle 15% |
| Speed: 40-80 | Dodge 15% Drive 15% |
| Mind: 40-80 | General Education 15% Notice 15% |
| Soul: 40-80 | Charm 15% Lie 15% |
NOTES: Twisted ones heal 3 damage each round naturally.
Twisted Ones
If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature’s holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?
- William Woodsworth, "Lines Written In Early Spring"
Twisted Ones are simply genetic/magical experiments gone awry. Most of them would be genies if they were not random mutations or - in most cases - sterile and ugly. They tend to live at the lowest end of social hierarchies and tend to be ugly even by the standards of those living after the end of the world. Any useful ability they have is temperered by some odd flaw in them. Most people tend to look at them in pity.
| Stats: | Skills: |
| Body: ?-? | ? ? |
| Speed: ?-? | ? ? |
| Mind: ?-? | ? ? |
| Soul: ?-? | ? ? |
“Ask the average man for one good reason to promote humanity’s eternal survival. Don’t waste your time waiting for an answer.”
- William Barton and Michael Capobianco, "Alpha Centauri"
For most people, there is only one real occupation in life: survival. To that end, people will do anything necessary to ensure their own survival, and often that of their home in the process.
Geers
Do you believe then that the sciences would ever have arisen and become great if there had not beforehand been magicians, alchemists, astrologers, and wizards who thirsted and hungered after abscondite and forbidden powers?
- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietsche
Deserving their own mention, geers are the last remnant of engineers in the world. Almost all of them are new humans, since most of the worlds powerful technology can only be used by them. Others learn it to be able to fix broken technology or to understand it better. Most geers guard their knowlegde jealously and rarely share it with others save their own apprentice. There are rumours of dark geers who learn how technology works so that they can destroy it, but most geers believe their existence myth.
“You’ve power.”
“So does a river. Still, humans master it,
not it humans.”
- Will Shetterly, "Why Cats Have No Lord"
If God created us in his image, we have repaid him well.
- Voltaire
Character creation is really easy for Unknown Armies. Really. A guide for making a basic PC follows:
PC Name: Your PCs name.
Player Name: Your name.
Summary: Brief biography for your PC. Why are you where you are? etc.
Something Shady about your past: An incident in your past that could be detrimental if brought to light. An example could be knowing some odd secret or having committed murder.
Description: What you look like. Your /me essentially.
Personality: Basic personality.
Obsession: This is THE driving force behind your PC. What drives your life, what's the goal that makes you, well, you? For examples, a PC could be obsessed with being really tough, antiques, surviving at all costs, their religion etc. This is a VERY important part of your PC since it gives you your obsession skill.
Wound Points: How much damage you can take. This is equal to your Body stat.
Each PC has 3 passions, representing irrational or unpredictable part of you.
Fear is the thing your PC is most afraid of.
Rage is what angers you more than anything else.
Your Noble passion is your PC at his or her best, their most kind etc..
These passions can allow you to flip rolls also, so choose intelligent ones and choose with care.
Now the hard part of the PC is done.
Each PC has 4 stats, those being: Body, Speed, Mind and Soul. The first two are self explanatory, mind is how fast you learn things and notice stuff, while soul covers the non-logical things like friendship, magick and charming others.
You have 220 points to divide between the 4 stats. None can be below 30 or above 70 for humans. See the species information able for the other species.
Once that is done, add a descriptor beside each stat explaining why it is that way. For example Mind 70 (lightning fast calculator) or Soul 60 (Hidden depths) or Body 30 (puny) etc.
Skills are percentile listings representing what your PC can do. You have a number of points equal to your stat to place into the skills for the stat, as well as certain skills gained at a free percentage and the rest you make up on your own. You can also change the given ones to something else as long as the GM approves. The basic new human skills are below, as an example:
Body: General Athletics 15%; Struggle 15%
Speed: Dodge 15%; Drive 15%
Mind: General Education 10%; Notice 20%
Soul: Charm 15%; Lie 15%
That's what you get for free if you're human. Now, say you had a Body of 50. You can increase any skill to 50, as well as invent your own. You decide to make Martial Arts 40% replace Struggle, so you use of 25 of your 50 points. As well, you think your athletics should be 20%, so you increase it by 5 and are left with 20 points. You decide your character is big and tough, and give him a body skill of Imposing 20%. You tell your DM it allows your PC to intimidate people a little, and she figures it makes sense.
You now have body skills as:
Body: General Athletics 20%, Imposing 20%, Martial Arts 40%
Repeat for the other 3 categories.
Lastly, a PC has their obsession skill. With this skill you flip all rolls for it, making it easier to succeed with. This skill should be emphasized on your sheet so the GM knows what it is.
The stuff you own. If your pc has a gun, don't bother explaining it in depth. The GM doesn't care - you have a weapon, and it is used to intimidate people. Simple as that.
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