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Dungeon MaestroYou might consider Anagram Gematria. That’s also in Break Today, the Mak Attax book. Significance of words via the way you can rearrange them and such.
Dungeon MaestroYou can buy it from Warehouse 32, Steve Jackson Games’ online store. I paid about $23, and it’s worth that and then some. Really, one of the best books written for UA.
Dungeon MaestroAfter seeing the first part, I think it could exist within UA canon, but it depends on where you go with the truth behind the objects. Maybe they don’t let you speak with or understand the nature of God, but rather let you perceive the Statosphere itself, when combined.
I could see this getting really difficult if you expose the characters to the rest of the UA world at the same time, though. Adepts and avatars would make the game a lot more interesting, but it might simplify some of the problems that arise. Example: would that escape scene from the mansion have been as dramatic if someone could just stop the bullets, slow time, or create some other form of magical “buffer”? I think it’s infinitely more interesting with the players being everyday people, thrust into the whole affair, trying to get by on wits and brains alone.
Also, the forensics guy’s evolution as a character (within the first part) is a perfect example of Obsession, and the development into an adept, or similar. In my opinion.
Dungeon MaestroMike Patton’s latest project, Peeping Tom, feels like it belongs in Unknown Armies. It’s somewhat surreal, gritty, dark, and energetic. Here’s a quick rundown of how it might fit into the world of UA:
1. “Five Seconds”: If there was an overture to Unknown Armies, this might be it. “I’m as naked as I can be in this life/…Emptiness of heaven in your ears and my eyes.”
2. “Mojo”: I think this is a great anthem for Narco-Alchemists, or a junkie duke. (“It’s my party, but I’m waiting for someone to start it/It’s my party, there’s no one but me in the corner/Gotta get my mojo runnin’, engine hummin’, don’t I?”)
3. “Don’t Even Trip”: Practically screams “Sleepers”. A foreboding track with whispered and overt implied threats and warnings.
4. “Getaway”: What might be playing while a group of dukes is being chased or followed by something nasty that they can’t see.
5. “Your Neighborhood Spaceman”: A quintessential anthem for the local duke completely drunk on power. (“When no one is looking/I swallow thunder clouds, I kiss the hollowed ground/When no one is looking,I eat the desert sand and drink the Rio Grande/When no one is looking/I’m crying raindrops and chewing mountain tops.”)
6. “Kill the DJ”: A musically-inclined adept might enjoy this track. Dark ambiance blended with heavy guitar riffs. Themes of control.
7. “Caipirnha”: When you find you’ve gotten in WAY over your head with the occult underground, and you start to go a little crazy, this ought to start looping in your head. (“I wish I was there. Far away/having fun, beneath the sun, my feet in the sand/But here I am/freezing cold, shoveling snow”)
8. “Celebrity Death Match”: All the lyrics involve references to pop culture, like actors, TV shows, etc. with a lot of sexual imagery. Reminds me of what might happen if you got a Videomancer and a Pornomancy to try and work together.
9. “How U Feelin’?”: This sounds like what one might play when it’s very clear that the Clergy is almost full and everything’s going to shit. Whoever this song is attached to, though, is clearly not too worried; seems like they’re almost reveling in it: “Won’t you come in and let’s get started/This angel’s fallen, so heed my calling/Don’t you stop rolling, the tension’s growing/So jump high reverend, walk into heaven”
10. “Sucker”: Norah Jones should never allowed to curse, or sing in this sinister way that she does on this song. But it adds to its disturbing elements. It’s a good song for particularly nasty Pornomancers: “What makes you think you’re my only lover:/the truth kinda hurts don’t it, motherfucker?”
11. “We’re Not Alone”: This would make a good song to play after a group of characters discover that the occult underground is terrifyingly real. (“We’re not alone in this psychrodrome, but I know that I don’t want to lose ya/afraid of the walls behind closed doors well I’m just a baby in your arms”)
Dungeon MaestroI think Boards of Canada sounds like science.
My roommate thinks they sound like the end of the world.
“Roygbiv” on “Music Has the Right to Children” is amazing. And for creepy value, most of what’s on “Geogaddi” is pretty weird. Consider the track “You Could Feel the Sky”; the beat is made up of a sample of a bone snapping.
Dungeon MaestroSome character themes for my PCs:
An energetic, somewhat megalomaniacal avatar of the Trickster: Judas Priest – You’ve Got Another Thing Coming (“If you think I’ll sit around as the world goes by/You’re thinkin’ like a fool cause it’s a case of do or die/Out there is a fortune waitin’ to be had/You think I’ll let it go you’re mad/You’ve got another thing comin’.”)
A gritty, take-no-shit hard-boiled private eye with a dark past (avatar of the Masterless Man, can you tell?): Bon Jovi – Blaze of Glory (“I don’t know where I’m going/Only God knows where I’ve been
I’m a devil on the run/A six gun lover/A candle in the wind.”)
A lecherous, coked-out corporate rising star that’s burning fast: ZZ Top – Sharp Dressed Man (“Silk suit, black tie/I don’t need a reason why/They come runnin’ just as fast as they can/’Cause every girl crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man.”)
Songs that remind me of UA:
Sneaker Pimps – Becoming X: Reminds me a lot of the world and the nature of paradox. (“You can keep breathing, I only fall when you are near me/Incomplete, I only talk when you can hear me, keep dreaming/Can’t wake up until I’m sleeping, lost on me, close to something I’ll never be.”)
Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit: Surreal enough to suit any strange situation, but energetic and driven enough to be an anthem. Makes me think of a tight-knit cabal of young adepts. (“I’m worst at what I do best/And for this gift I feel blessed/Our little group has always been/And always will until the end…”)
Dungeon Maestro“This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Viacom International Inc.”
Looks like they got him, the poor bastard.