10 thoughts on “Thin Black Line”

1. VengeanceTheDog says:

   I finished reading it by the way, and it’s awesome! I was never particularly excited about running an Order of St. Cecil campaign, but now they’re fascinating!

   My only issues are with some of the thematic stuff, namely the idea that styles of magick lose power over time as fewer people believe in them. I’ve always been of the opinion that magick is all about swimming against reality’s current, and if a certain style (namely, old-school medieval occultism) isn’t prominent in this day and age, it’s only because everyone found something better. Still, this is my personal thing, there are plenty of canon examples that show this is how things are (like Cryptomancy).

   Also, as much as I love the new skills, and the fancy powers that Cecilites can get, some of them are really overpowered. One of the Charismata basically lets you become immune to all magickal effects for 1 minor change.

   Despite these issues, it’s a great little supplement, and it makes my heart glad that people out there still remember UA, and the fan community. I’m curious to hear what other people’s thoughts are!

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2. waitingforgodzi says:

   Yeah, a great little book, this one.

   I reckon the “Gift of True Faith” power (the one that provides immunity to magick) is appropriate – it suits the idea that Magick Is Of The Devil, and it’s a role-playing gold mine.

   Also, two important points about Charismatics:
   1) There are three of them in the entire world. This is awesome, and their uniqueness should be milked for all it’s worth.
   2) I reckon these guys would be extremely dysfunctional, even compared to some other adepts. NOBODY wants to hang out with a Charismatic (not even other members of the Order). I’m imagining they probably yell at their allies a lot, making demands on God’s behalf, etc.

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3. Wellbutrin says:

   I guess I’m greedy; I liked what there was, I just wanted more!

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4. Rumba says:

   So many things I want to say about this. First off, to anyone and everyone involved, congratulations. From what I can tell, this has been the biggest and best fan submission since Best of UA, whichever edition was the most recent.

   This had a lot of nice touches to it, the idea of praying to remove magickal influences… the way Cecilites deal with Adepts… the idea behind the Charismatics… heck, even the differentation between Witchcraft, Socery, Magick…

   On the other hand, the representation of Old School Occultism just… irked me. It might help to know just how old-school it was, but it just seemed way too powerful for its lack of effort, in both it’s ancient and modern forms. Not to mention that getting a major charge every month, with each practitioner, sounds like it should have torn the world apart with ripples of demons and reflections of God. *Could be getting some details wrong, don’t have it in front of me right now.* Simply, its less that I’d imagine magick was easier to work back then, but that the barrier to entry was lower.

   Finally, I MIGHT have missed it, but what would have been nice was some sample crew types (with referencial names, such as the Latin or Hebrew words for Scholar and Crusader), loadouts, and any fancy gadgets? Do the Cecilites pack ceremonially blessed pistols? Weaponry concealed in the form of crosses and other symbols? Holy gasoline (for when it absolutely has to face the firey wrath of God)?

   Overall though, a wonderful submission, and hopefully a sign of more and greater things to come. I mean, if we could have THIS, who’s to say the community can’t come together for another big project, such as a sourcebook for the GLS or the Cult of the Naked Goddess (hopefully tasteful, and hopefully detailing the Affinates too), or maybe a just a large collection of the various up-and-commers of the 21st century.

   Also, a PDF of that draft of the Occult Underground sourcebook (maybe even a edit job on it) that got scrapped might be nice. It had a lot of wonderful fluff, and it’d be a shame if it just fell to the wayside. Of course, if there’s any legalities surroudning that one, we might need to clear it up first…

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5. omegonthesane says:

   Major charge per month spent doing bugger all else with your time, mind. Still, it contradicted the leaked drafts for the history of the occult underground sourcebook, which had attempted to explain how adepts and avatars had always been the only common enough to be codified ways of having magical powers, down to working out what schools were present throughout eternity (inc. Thanatomancy and various reemphases of Epideromancy).

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6. sdfds68 says:

   Excellent read. To be honest, the “Celcilite” skill was the best part of it for me. It really showed what UA’s skill system can do without resorting special rules, and at the same time codified a lot of what the Cecilites are about.

   Old School Occultism comment: it seemed like they were trying to shoehorn in routinely epic magical feats into UA’s past. Merlin types, fearsome Middle Eastern sorcerers, shaman who actually spoke to the gods, etc.

   I understand it, but I think it’s not a good system for representing ancient magic and magi. It’s just a little too broad, and a little too over the top. Just because there used to be mighty sorcerers and wizards and shit is no reason to hand out major charges out on a monthly basis.

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7. tklh27 says:

   Thank you Game designers and associates!! This was a great read of both fluff and crunch of UA!

   The Celcilite skill is probably the most interesting, and I have some plans of allowing similar multi-purpose skills in my next campaign.

   For GMs who want to tweak the magic system, the Charismatics and the old-school mages provides an interesting system (could be a great way to add a “cleric class” for UA Fantasy Mods).

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8. Chad Underkoffler says:

   Old School Occultism is flawed because of expectations and execution. (Alo, the Renaissance.)

   Per waiting for godzi, the 3 Charismatics are all kindsa fucked up. SRSLY. (Just be careful which characters you allow their gifts… HOWEVER! “The Gift of True Faith” could *really* work well with an otherwise mundane cop (see DIE HARD, etc.).

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9. Doktor Anon says:

   I hadn’t been wandering the UA communities in quite some time and came across Thin Black Line quite by accident. It was a pleasant surprise.

   Particularly given its focus on dark age and early modern magick, coupled with the fact that I’m running a 1610 Unknown Armies campaign at the moment…

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10. Chad Underkoffler says:

    >>I understand it, but I think it’s not a good system for representing ancient magic and magi. It’s just a little too broad, and a little too over the top. Just because there used to be mighty sorcerers and wizards and shit is no reason to hand out major charges out on a monthly basis. << No, I agree, and I WROTE this shit. We needed (and I was told to write) a catch-all deal for pre-Age of Enlightenment magi. So I hung out around the world in 1600 and hoovered up ideas. The monthly major charges seriously ended around 33 AD. By 1500, there were maybe 6 people racking them up. For the "overpowered" Charismatics, well, I went to the best selling book in the world for that stuff. I think limiting full-on Charismatics as NPCs is cool, but permitting a PC to take one of the Gifts would be as equally cool. In fact, I think they shouldn't be allowed to pick, after character creation. Neither should the GM. Roll the dice! That's what God wants! And the "handing-out shit" really depends on how your campaign goes. It's very much ARS MAGICA vs. D&D here. AM assumes downtime, and has a bunch of stuff to fiddle with. D&D, not so much.

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