THE WORLD

On the surface, the world of Unknown Armies These weirdos know each other. They’re
looks like modern day reality. The same person’s going to know you. If you’re lucky, tough, and
the president, most of the same shows are on demented enough, you’ll get to know them too.
TV, and the Internet works the same way, near There are hundreds of flavors of occultist, but
as anyone can tell. People drive cars and pay if you have to break them down into broad cate-
taxes and whine about partisan gridlock. gories, the hierarchy’s determined by power. Of
It is a world where physical laws are studied course it’s power. What else would you expect?
and trusted, where exceptions to cause and effect Chargers: The people in charge, and it’s no
simply are not accepted. It appears to be a rational, accident charges are the current and currency
steady, objective world where coincidences are of magick. A charger is someone who has
just things that happen at the same time, not proven power to kick something that’s usually
events influenced by secret skeins of meaning. immune to human tampering, whether that’s a
It is a matter of great cultural confidence that law of thermodynamics or the inchoate long-
there is no such thing as magic. Sure, people are ings buried deep in the human heart.
free to believe whatever they want, no matter Checkers: The experiencers, people who
how illogical or unprovable or transparently saw something otherworldly and responded by
wrong. But, you know, fuckin’ grown-ups don’t paying attention and moving closer. That alone
believe in magic. puts them way above the people who ignore
the strangeness and instinctively withdraw
You believe in magick. from it. In all likelihood, the PCs are checkers.
Pony is the current occult term of contempt.
That is, your player character has had They’re vehicles, stooges, and patsies. Nobody
personal experiences with powers that chortle with any self-respect calls himself a pony and
at everyday logic while murmuring, “How saying it to someone’s face is the kind of humili-
quaint.” You’ve seen science with its pants off ation that can make even a mouse roar.
and realized it’s stuffing its shorts when it goes
onstage. Magick-with-a-k is willpower times THE SECRET MASTERS
understanding equals get your wish, which is OF THE UNIVERSE
why it’s spelled differently from the word that Invisible, disembodied things watch this world
indicates the stagecraft practiced in Las Vegas and influence its trends and progress at the
and at children’s birthday parties. The latter highest levels. Their power is undetectable…
is a performer pulling a rabbit from a hat. The almost. It’s so thoroughly baked into the nature
former is a psychic surgeon pulling a tumor out of reality that it looks like physics or mass
of your brain. psychology or good ol’ coincidence. But you
People think the world is consistent and rigid, can see their shadow passing over the world
but you know it is pliable and tattered and full in dreams, in symbols, in sudden outbreaks of
of holes. Sometimes you can slip into a hole and order when events ought to be chaotic.
come out the other side somewhere wonderful. They are called the Invisible Clergy and even
Sometimes you step in a hole in the dark and it a tinfoil hat won’t protect you.
snaps your ankle like a chopstick. Individuals within the Invisible Clergy are
The world must change, and you don’t have called archetypes and they aren’t human.
to be rich, or born special; you don’t have to They used to be, but they fulfilled some broad,
be brilliant, you don’t even need to be white. necessary social role so perfectly that they were
You just have to know enough of the truth and plucked out of the coarse, gross realm of matter
believe enough of it to fix it. and taken up to a place where probability
becomes manifest. This higher realm is known
CREEPY WEIRDOS as the Statosphere.
There are cults out there that want to usher in a The way it seems to work is, if you embody
new dark age with literacy as a hereditary priv- something that enough people recognize as
ilege. There are scary racists running magickal a social role — the Mother, the Hunter, the
training camps. There are mystics so attuned True King — you ascend from mortality into
to their cosmic patrons that they regard the existence as an undying, archetypal represen-
laws of physics as a sometimes-food; there are tative of that principle. But if someone else
others who have no idea what mystics are but comes along and does a better job at being the
who have still amassed hundreds of followers Necessary Servant or the Naked Goddess or the
willing to kill or die or vote as a bloc. Captain, the sitting archetype gets ousted and
There are people who never die. returns to being a mere human.

1
 There’s only so much room at the top though. or order car crashes to go to their room and
The Invisible Clergy only holds 333 former think about what they did.
people, and as soon as it’s full they scrap every- Two of the pregenerated characters — Vince
thing and start again. The archetypes merge Kirkland and Jada Parker — are avatars.
into one great grisly creator/destroyer, they
eject everything in the world like a menstru- ADEPTS
ating uterus and start over, fertile and renewed If avatars are the folks skipping to the front of
and ready to be impregnated by 333 archetypes, the line because they’re dressed right, adepts
starting the cycle once more. are the guys getting thrown out the back
screaming about how they’ll start their own
AVATARS goddamn nightclub! With klezmer music!
If archetypes are the distant, unavailable polit- Adepts have magick and they can Do Stuff.
ical insiders in this mythology, they have their Every adept is obsessed with something
ward-heeling activists in avatars. Or if you don’t important that most people take for granted,
like that metaphor, avatars are the rabid fans to and every adept insists that everyone but them
The rules for Gutter the archetypes’ rock stars. has it wrong. Sex, cars, guns, being clean, you
Magick are on page One becomes an avatar through imitation. name it, somebody’s using it for magick.
181 of Book One: Those who walk the walk work the archetypes’ The pregenerated characters Ellen Kaloudis
Play, in case one of will in the world. It’s not deliberate in the sense and Greg O’Neil are adepts.
the players decides of taking orders, but because overlap between
they want to slum what the avatar’s actions support — and what GUTTER MAGICK
it. For the purposes the archetype stands for — are very near to Most of what mundanes would call rituals —
of Maria in Three complete congruence. effects that you could duplicate with half the
Parts, they shouldn’t The more an avatar resembles the archetype, effort and trips to the local pharmacy or hardware
need to. the more the archetype is able to bend reality store — still hold their appeal, and some of them
and make things go right for his mortal do-boy. actually can produce effects that science would
Usually this takes subtle forms — psychological call impossible. If you don’t want the long, hard
effects, intuitions, or “coincidences” that only road of the avatar or the complicated paradoxical
help. But some more powerful and determined life of the adept, and if you don’t mind getting
avatars can straight-up fly, survive decapitation, really smelly, you might have a shot at magick.

CHARACTERS
Characters in Unknown Armies are defined by WHAT YOU’VE SEEN: SHOCKS
a number of game stats. Here’s an explanation Every Unknown Armies character is a broken
for what these are and how characters work in person, somebody who has been through a lot
this game. before the game even starts. We measure this
For more on characters, see Book One: with something called the shock gauge. The
Play. Creating new characters is handled with shock gauge is comprised of five shock meters,
a group session managed by the GM; that’s and they’re a record of the absolute worst
described in Book Two: Run. For Maria in Three things that have happened to your character.
Parts, we have provided you with a cabal of four
pre-generated characters. Their information Helplessness: Times you’ve been unable to take
and character sheets appear later in this book. action you felt was necessary.
Isolation: When you’ve been cut off from
HANDING OUT THE CHARACTERS society or loved ones.
There are two avatars (Jada Parker and Vince Violence: Pain, injury, death.
Kirkland) and two adepts (Ellen Kaloudis and Unnatural: Experiences that challenge your
Greg O’Neil). When handing out the charac- perception of reality.
ters, give players this quick explanation on how Self: Your most personal failures and violations
Everything shock- avatars and adepts differ so they know what of your deepest beliefs.
related starts on they’re getting themselves into:
page 19 of Book Each meter has space for five failed notches
One: Play. • Avatars have fewer magickal powers, but and ten hardened notches. A failed notch
they can use them repeatedly for free. indicates your progression toward burning out.
• Adepts have more magickal powers, but A hardened notch indicates your progression
they need to pay for them in charges. toward becoming callous.
Your shock meters are affected by trauma in
the form of stress checks. Fail a stress check,

2
get a failed notch. Succeed and get a hardened once a session like the passions, but every time.
notch. The more hardened notches you get, the You can’t redo failed rolls though.
bigger the stress check required to affect you.
WHO YOU ARE: IDENTITY
WHAT YOU DO: ABILITIES The final component of your PC are some Extensive explana-
Abilities measure a character’s raw talent at self-defined capacities known as identities. tions and discussion
broad swaths of activity. They’re untrained and You roll these to accomplish actions that are in of abilities begins
instinctive, and they can change during play. doubt or when you’re in a stressful situation. on page 30 of Book
Every character has percentile ratings in ten What’s an identity? Could be anything. One: Play.
abilities. These ratings are based on the shock Parachutist. Police Detective. Manslut.
gauge. Five of them are derived from hardened Accomplished Pianist. House Painter. Assassin.
notches, and five are based on open notches. No Whatever it is, you get a percentile rating. If you
ability ever drops below 20%, or goes above 60%. have the identity House Painter 35%, you have
a 35% chance of doing anything a house painter
Connect: Forging an emotional connection. reasonably might in the course of painting Book One: Play
Dodge: Getting out of the way. houses while under stress. has a whole section
Fitness: Using and abusing your body. Every standard identity substitutes for at explaining identities
Knowledge: Measuring your relationship to the least one ability, by default. Some can substi- including examples
truth and making sense of it. tute for more. Substituting for an ability, after and descriptions of
Lie: Using deceit and deception. the first, is an example of a feature. Each iden- features, starting on
Notice: Paying attention to the world around you. tity gets two free features, the most common page 42.
Pursuit: Running away from or after others. of which are substituting for an ability when
Secrecy: Hiding objects, ideas,or yourself from you’d normally roll that ability and substituting
others. for an ability when making stress checks. There
Status: Acting as if you belong and capitalizing are other possible features, however, but right
on the trust of others. now, consider identities the stats you’re going
Struggle: Handling yourself in a brawl or fight. to roll most often.
The best way to know if you can substitute
WHAT DRIVES YOU: in your identity is if you’d say, “Of course, I can
PASSION AND OBSESSION __________, I’m a __________”. Of course I
The keys to an individual are in what moti- can tell if the music’s any good, I’m an accom-
vates and drives them. Characters in Unknown plished pianist. Of course I can run that license
Armies have four such keys: three passions and plate, I’m a police detective.
one obsession. Magickal identities, including avatar and
adept identities, are a special exception. They
Fear Passion: What scares you the most, be provide access to magickal powers and do not Stress checks are
it as concrete as crocodiles or as abstract as have an “Of course I can” element. They don’t how you protect your
dying unloved. It always threatens a specific substitute for abilities and have limited features. shock meters. More
shock meter. info on these is on
Rage Passion: What bugs you the most, the WHO YOU KNOW: page 4..
intolerable irritant that you can’t shut up about RELATIONSHIPS
and strive to thwart, wreck, and harm. You‘re not in this alone. You have friends, allies,
Noble Passion: You at your best. It’s what can people who mean something to you. Your rela- Check out page 9 of
make you face your fears and set aside your anger. tionships — Favorite, Guru, Mentor, Protégé, Book One: Play for
By acting in tune with your passion, you can and Responsibility — can be used in place of an more on passions and
re-roll your dice once per session, or you can identity or ability (Connect, Lie, Notice, Status, obsessions.
flip-flop the roll — read the tens die as ones and or Struggle) whenever that person’s the subject
vice versa — if that new result would help you. of the roll.
Each pregen lists another PC as the subject
Obsession: All player characters in Unknown of one of the five relationships. Before starting
Armies are obsessed with something. It’s the lens the scenario, players must explain how their
through which they regard the world, and the character relates to the one listed on their char-
bedrock upon which their assumptions rest. An acter sheet. The other character doesn’t have to Your character sheet
obsession may scare them or anger them some- accept this definition; this is solely how the first has two relationships
times, it may lure them away from their better character feels about the second. filled out but you
natures, but in the end, they can’t leave it alone. Then pick one of the empty relationships and can choose more.
Even moreso than their passions, it’s who they are. add “Cabal” to show how that character feels See page 37 in Book
Your obsession ties directly to an identity about the group. If Ellen’s player picked Protégé One: Play.
(see below) that fits with it. Whenever you roll for the cabal, Ellen thinks the group looks up to
that identity, you can flip-flop the dice. Not just her. The reality could be different. Two charac-
ters can have the same cabal relationship.

3
 THE RULES
The rules of Unknown Armies are not complicated. When the GM tells you to roll an ability or an
identity or to make a stress check, we want that to be easy. So, it’s always a percentile roll.

PERCENTILE ROLLS
You roll two ten-sided dice, usually numbered MATCHED FAILURE
0–9, and read them to get a number from With a matched roll — 99, 77, 55, anything
01–100. The double-0s are read as 100. It has to where the dice are the same number — some-
be clear which die is the tens place and which is thing unusual happened. If that matched roll is
the ones, because getting a 91 is very different also a failure, it was something unusually bad.
from a 19.
If you’re told to add a modifier like +10% or SIMPLE SUCCESS
–20%, apply it to the rating before you roll. If you rolled equal to or under your ability or
identity but didn’t get a match or roll 01, it’s a
RESULTS simple success.You got what you sought after
When you roll, you’re rolling against something or did what you tried. If it’s important to know
with a percentile rating. Maybe you have a which of two simple successes is better, it’s the
rating of 40% in an ability or identity. If you higher number. You want to get close to your
roll a 40 or lower you have succeeded, to some score without going over.
degree. If you roll a 41+, you have failed.
You only get asked to bust out the dice when MATCHED SUCCESS
it’s interesting for an issue to be in doubt or As with matched failures, successes where the
when the situation is stressful. dice are 11 or 33 or 22 are unusually good.
Often, the outcome is not just binary success
or failure. There’s some nuance to your roll. THE CRIT (01)
Not only did you succeed, you clobbered it. The
THE FUMBLE (00) outcome was the best you could reasonably
Any time you get a 00 result, you failed a lot. hope for — maybe even a little better than that.
You got a fumble. Even if your chance was 100%
(in which case, why did you roll?), a 00 means a FLIP-FLOPS
perfect confluence of bad luck and poor action. A flip-flop is when you can switch the places of
Your GM can inflict any vaguely plausible bad the dice so that you succeed. Or sometimes just
outcome, short of death. to get a better success — flip-flopping a 10 into
an 01 can make a big difference.
SIMPLE FAILURE The most common occasions when you can
If you roll something higher than your ability flip-flop your die roll are when you are acting in
or identity, but the dice don’t match, that’s a accordance with your passions or rolling your
simple failure. If it’s necessary to know which obsession identity. You can flip-flop on each
of two simple failures is worse, it’s the higher passion once per game and flip-flop your obses-
number. sion any time you roll that identity.

Tables of sample STRESS CHECKS

stress check ranks A stress check is a roll to determine whether The default ability to defend against each
are provided on page one of your shock meters picks up a hardened type of stress is as follows:
21 in Book One: notch or a failed notch. Stress checks are
Play, as well as in always related to one of the five shock meters, • Helplessness: Status
the free GM screen and always come with a rank from 1 to 10. For • Isolation: Connect
download from example, a character might be asked to make a • Self: Notice
atlas-games.com/ rank 2 Violence check. • Unnatural: Knowledge
unknownarmies. Hardened notches equal to or greater than • Violence: Fitness
the stress check’s rank keep you from needing
to roll. If you succeed, mark off the lowest
Stress checks are rolled against an ability or, unchecked hardened notch on the shock meter.
if you have a feature like “Protects Violence” or This changes your abilities that are linked to
“Protects Self,” you can use that identity instead. that shock meter — your positive ability goes

4
down by 5% and your negative ability goes up When you’re in one of these states, you don’t
by 5%. have to make any more stress checks. You’re
If you fail, mark off the next failed notch too screwed up to process any other stresses.
on the shock meter. Decide if you suffer from
panic, paralysis, or frenzy. GETTING CALLOUS
If you panic, you run away at high speed. You Cops, coroners, and case workers know all
can take no action except to run full out in the about getting callous. When you’ve seen
direction farthest from what made you panic. enough horror, it loses its power to horrify
If you get stuck, you have to continue to fruit- you. The more hardened notches you have on
lessly search for an exit or try to force your way a single meter, the more it takes for that kind
through a barrier. of stress to rip up your head. Once you have
On the other hand, disturbing events often nine hardened notches on a meter you’re so
produce paralysis: indecision, terror, and a jaded about it that only the most extreme and
general “deer in the headlights” effect that heinous incidents can endanger you.
persists until the stimulus ceases. This can be When your total sum of hardened notches is
completely silent or accompanied by screams twenty-five or more, you become burned out There’s a lot of
and moans. — cut off from a broad range of emotional expe- information on the
Frenzy is what it sounds like. You attack the riences that everyone else shares. You can no consequences of
source of discomfort with any means at your longer use your passions. You just can’t relate failing stress checks
disposal. You can’t dodge or attempt any fancy to them anymore, and you don’t get to flip-flop on page 26 of Book
moves, like multiple attacks on a single target. those passion-related rolls. One: Play.
You just shoot or punch or start biting. If you’re an avatar who becomes burned out,
When you fail a stress check, you panic, are you cannot use your avatar identity until you
paralyzed, or frenzy until the stress that trig- get treatment. Avatars rely on an empathic
gered the behavior is gone — or, at least, until connection to the global unconsciousness, and
its immediate manifestation ceases. You can’t burning out slams that particular door shut.
change your reaction once you’ve chosen it, so
choose carefully.

COERCION
Coercion is this game’s term for non-violent WHEN YOU CAN COERCE
attempts to change people or their actions. Shifting someone’s nature is not simple. You
There are two ways this can go. One is that they need to possess some kind of leverage that Coercion gets an
back down and do as you say. The other is that makes the target take your demands seri- extensive treatment
they defy you and face the consequences. ously. You also, as mentioned previously, on page 57 of Book
Because we have the handy shock gauge to need to roll a success on a relevant iden- One: Play but this
measure internal trauma, that’s the target of tity, or possibly an ability. Relevant kinds of summary is sufficient
coercion attempts. Every coercion roll works leverage are described for each meter in the for playing Maria in
like this: sections below. Three Parts.
You establish a credible threat, and you roll Also, can always substitute a relationship
the relevant identity, relationship, or ability. score for any attempt to coerce. If you know
If it fails, they don’t believe you’re serious. someone well enough that she’s your Mentor,
You can carry out your threat and inflict conse- your Guru, or a Favorite, you know exactly
quences on them, but that becomes an entirely how to push her buttons.
separate matter.
If the roll succeeds, the person has a choice. HELPLESSNESS
They either acquiesce and keep their shock To attack someone’s Helplessness meter, you
gauge intact, or they don’t and take a stress need to make them believe you can disempower
check. The rank of the stress check depends on them. You attack it with the Connect ability, by
what you rolled. making the person feel you are communicating,
honestly and directly, the legitimate conse-
• Simple success yields a rank 1 check. quences of contravening your will.
• Matched success or crit yields a rank The leverage for a Helplessness attack arises
2 check. from authority. If the threat’s plausible and the
• Add +1 for each of your passions that is roll succeeds, the target either agrees to do
in play. what you’ve demanded, or faces a Helplessness
• Add +1 for each of the target’s passions roll as they suffer sleepless nights worrying
that is in play. about the future that’s been taken out of
their control.

5
 ISOLATION
Isolation attacks convince the target that unless
they make you happy, you’re going to make
them an outcast. Threatening to cast someone
out is rolled with Status, as you present yourself
as the repository of the cultural capital they
need to live that good life, with a manicured
lawn and plenty of character witnesses.
Leverage for this form of coercion comes
from commonality. If you have that connection
and roll well, the target has to agree with you or
face the loss of prestige.

SELF
Attacks on a target’s Self have to appeal to the
target’s better nature and convince them that
you understand what the right thing to do actu-
ally is. You roll this with Knowledge, because it
takes confidence that you know what you’re
talking about.
The leverage is your understanding of their
wrongdoing or their feelings of guilt.
This is what you use to plead for your life! If
someone’s pointing a gun at your face, you can
beg them to look into their heart and just leave.
If you make your point and have the right guilt
for the trip, the target either agrees with you
or enters an existential nightmare of neurotic
self-evaluation.

VIOLENCE
This one’s simple. Want to threaten somebody?
Roll Struggle to present yourself as someone
who knows a thing or two about hurt.
The leverage is looking as if you could really
do it. That means having something to threaten
violence with, or a reputation of violence.
If you succeed and seem dangerous, the
target either meekly complies or faces a
Violence check as they hyperventilate and panic,
scared that they’re about to get manhandled.

UNNATURAL
Attacks on the Unnatural meter aim to convince
the target that the world really doesn’t work
the way they think it does, and challenges
what they think is real. The ability for coercing
someone’s Unnatural meter is Secrecy. Roll it
to seem plausibly satisfied that you have the
hidden answers.
But you can only make that roll with the
leverage of unnatural events. Using magick
usually does the trick. If you roll right amidst
inexplicable events, the target either goes
along with you, or is haunted by the fear of
the uncanny.

6
COMBAT
Unknown Armies is the kind of game where broken glass? –10% penalty. Blindfolded? Well,
combat is dangerous, brutal, and can maybe the GM won’t let her make a roll at all.
completely change the lives of anyone involved But if everyone’s fighting in the same inferno
in it. Just like in real life! Most of the time it’s of combusting industrial waste, nobody needs Jump on over to page
best to avoid a fight. You can surrender, try to any particular penalty. Just assume that if you’re 60 of Book One:
disarm the other guy, call 911, or even run away. fighting in a cloud of tear gas, their movement Play for a lengthy
But in some cases, the player characters are is impaired as much as your aim. explanation of how
confronted by violent forces they have to fight Sometimes, however, things go your way. You to handle scenes
against. If that happens, use these rules. might be on a balcony with a fire ax and your of violence and
Unknown Armies typically defaults to the enemies have to climb up to reach you. That aggression, including
players and GM taking turns in an organic might give you a +10% bonus. If you’re in a really how to avoid it.
fashion based on who is doing what and who superior position, like firing from a comfortable
is reacting to it. Other games call this initia- enclosure at people who are fleeing across open
tive. If it becomes a question of knowing who ground with nowhere to run, that’s good for +20%.
is going to do something first, use the identity By and large though, penalties and bonuses
rating that’s most appropriate for all characters are a spice to use lightly. They should be the
involved in the fight. Highest identity percentiles exception, not the norm.
go first, then the next highest, and so on. Break
ties with Struggle or just roll off. Taking your turn RUNNING AROUND
to do something is called taking an action. In addition to punching and shooting and
Book One: Play has a lot more about combat fire-axing people, you probably want to move
and things that affect its outcome. The rules in around during the fight, if only to get within
this book should be enough for Maria in Three swinging range of your next target.
Parts, however. You can move across a medium-sized room
in a round and still roll for another action. If What if you don’t
ATTACKING you want to move more than that, declare have Provides
You want to harm someone? Roll the appro- that you’re running and make a Fitness roll. On Firearm Attacks and
priate identity or fall back on Struggle to punch any success, you can move all the way down a you shoot a gun?
and kick. Shooting at somebody calls for an long corridor, or across a big room. If you get All you can do is
identity with Provides Firearm Attacks. If you a simple fail, you move half that. Matched fail? create suppressive
roll a success, you inflict wounds. You can’t move any extra distance. On a fumble, fire —
­ roll Struggle,
If you roll a matched failure on an attack, you fall over and takes an action to get to your and on a success your
you’ve made a tactical error. Your GM can either feet after stumbling, too. opponents need to
penalize you with –10% on your next roll or give make a Violence (3)
an enemy +10% if they immediately take advan- DODGING stress check to come
tage of your misjudgment. If you do nothing other than try to not get at you. See page 66
If you roll a fumble on an attack, you’ve done struck, you don’t have to roll. You just say you’re of Book One: Play
something screwy. If you’re firing a gun, it’s doing it and you penalize everyone else’s rolls to for more details.
jammed now and you’re going to have to take attack you. If the identity you’re using, or your
an action to clear it. If you’re punching and Dodge ability, is less than the attacker’s ability
kicking, you got hurt — maybe you strained or identity they’re using to attack, that penalty
your shoulder with a missed punch, maybe your is –10%. If your Dodge or identity is equal to or
knuckles hit the wall, or maybe you stumbled greater than the ability or identity your foe is
while approaching and tweaked an ankle. The using to attack, or if it’s your obsession identity,
GM inflicts 1–5 wounds on your character. the penalty is –20%.

BONUSES AND PENALTIES DAMAGE

If you’re ever rolling to do bodily harm it The GM keeps track of damage in the form of
means that things are serious. Those numbers wounds. This is a big change from most games,
on the character sheet represent your chance but it’s a crucial part of the horror that is
to complete that task under life-and-death Unknown Armies. Knowing that you’ve taken 11
circumstances. There’s no need to add in lots of wounds and that you have a wound threshold
modifiers, just use the raw number. of 50 is clinical and abstract. Your GM should
That said, when there’s something that is never use numbers to describe injuries, except
unique to one character and which makes possibly when she tells you how many light-
things substantially harder on her, then a ning-quick jabs your face absorbs.
penalty is sensible. If she’s tied to a chair, that’s You can take wounds up to half your wound
going to be worth a –20% penalty. If she’s threshold without any long-term effects and
barefoot on an uneven surface sprinkled with won’t feel it until you’re out of the high-adrenaline

7
 fight scene, at which point you start finding all of If you get a fumble, you hit yourself. You take
those bruises, scrapes, and cuts. 1d10 wounds.
As soon as you take wounds equal to half If you fail and get a match, the weapon
your wound threshold (25 wounds, in most somehow went flying out of your hands.
cases) you feel sore and exhausted when you go Either an enemy disarmed you, or you clumsily
to bed, and you get up feeling tight, weak, and disarmed yourself.
rickety. Expect a lot of joint pain and headaches. If you fail, you missed. Sharp weapons do 1
When you take wounds equal to or greater wound even if you roll a failure, though.
than three-quarters of your wound threshold If you get a success, the weapon does
(38 or more for most people), that’s a very damage normally. 3 extra wounds each are dealt
dangerous situation and the GM should make out for sharp, heavy, or big weapons.
it clear that you’re badly beat up. Depending on If you succeed and get a match, the weapon
what got done on you, you could have blurred does damage like a gun, i.e., the result of the
vision, painful breathing, seeping lacerations, roll instead of the total. If you rolled a 33, you
or broken bones. Those are all nature’s way of deal out 33 wounds.
telling you to get your ass to urgent care. If you get a critical success, the guy that you
When you take wounds equal to 90% of your hit? He’s dead.
wound threshold (45 for most people), you
fall unconscious. GUNS
When you reach your wound threshold (50 Here’s how those work: if you hit with any
unless your identity says otherwise), you’re dead. success, it does damage equal to the roll. You
hit with a 31, you inflicted 31 wounds.
FISTS AND FEET If you get a critical success, you do maximum
If you punch and kick someone successfully, you damage for that weapon (see the damage cap,
do damage equal to the total of the dice. That described below)
is, if your success is a 32, they take 5 wounds. If you get a fumble, your weapon’s jammed
There’s only one special result you can get and you need to waste an action clearing it or
with unarmed fists and feet. If you get a critical checking it.
success, you get a choice. You can knock the Guns have limits on their ranges and they
guy out, leaving him unconscious for one to five also have a damage cap which simply means
rounds and then unable to fight for one to ten there’s a maximum amount of damage that they
minutes, or you can kill him. do, regardless of what you roll. A .22 bullet is
not going to do as much damage as a .45. Bigger
MELEE WEAPONS bullets are bigger.
As soon as you pick up a hand-held weapon of Ranges are defined narratively, rather than
any kind, the situation changes for the worse in strict yards, for simplicity’s sake. Short range
when it comes to damage and effects. Wounds means it’s accurate about as far as you can
inflicted by melee weapons start out the same recognize someone’s face, or as far as you can
as for fists and feet (add together the tens digit throw a flying disk on a still day. Medium range
and the ones digit from your roll), but go up by is about a city block — you can hit someone
+3 wounds for each of the following qualities: when you can clearly see arms and legs. Long
big, sharp, and heavy. range means you can hit someone who’s just a
As soon as you’re using a weapon big enough tiny little speck off in the distance… as long as
to give you a wound bonus, no matter how you’re firing from something stable and aiming
slight, things get more complicated with through a scope. A super-costly, super-accurate
If you’re the type your results. .338 Lapua rifle is a medium range weapon when
who loves big charts fired from the hip.
of weapon stats, go

MEDICINE
to pages 64–65 in
Book One: Play.
Medicine is provided by people with medical GOLDEN HOUR TREATMENT
identities. It could be M.D. 50% or Holistic The golden hour is the first sixty minutes after
Healer 70% or Combat Medic 20%, as long as an injury occurs. If someone provides treatment,
it’s got the Medical feature, it can use the rules even first aid, in that crucial early juncture, it
below to get rid of wounds. helps a lot. If not, the patient has time to bleed
Of course, if you can’t access those sorts out or get infected or be gnawed on by oppor-
of treatments because emergency rooms tell tunistic scavengers, none of which help him
the cops about gunshot wounds, you can just get better.
self-medicate. Any time you perform medicine So! If you’re rolling a medical identity within
on yourself, it’s at –10%. the first sixty minutes, here’s what happens:

8
Fumble: The patient takes another 1–5 wounds Crit: The patient heals all but 1d10 wounds (or
(1d10, divided in half) and passes out. recovers wounds equal to the roll, if that would
leave them with fewer wounds).
Matched Failure: The only thing your patient Getting rid of
gets out of your first aid is a Violence (3) stress Once a patient’s been taken care of initially at wounds and other
check. a hospital, they recover the remainder of their physical or mental
wounds at the standard rate of 1 wound per day. ailments is described
Failure: You’ve covered the problem with gauze If the patient never actually goes to hospital, on page 75 of Book
and tape, but it’s not helping much. they recover at the standard rate, but they One: Play.
might get worse and worse depending on their
Success: Your patient heals wounds equal circumstances (and the GM’s whim).
to the tens place of your roll. You rolled a 34?
Three wounds are erased. THERAPY
Healing the mind is not much different from
Matched Success: The patient heals wounds healing the body but requires an identity with
equal to the sum of your roll. If you got a the Therapeutic feature. You put in the time
22, that’s 4 wounds, and if you got a 44 it’s 8 and effort and you pay attention and make
wounds. gentle, encouraging suggestions until the
patient’s psyche is reassembled. If you don’t
Crit: The patient heals 20 wounds! have the Therapeutic feature, you’re stuck
nodding and scratching your head.
This roll presumes that you’ve got him some- You cannot use any therapeutic identity
where fairly safe and motionless, and that on yourself.
you’ve got access to first aid supplies. If you’re
doing it on the deck of a rolling ship, you might IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE
get a –10% on your roll. The best time to treat someone for a psycholog-
ical shock is soon after it occurs, because that’s
HOSPITAL STAYS when you can frame it properly and demon-
If it’s been longer than an hour and the person is strate a healthy way to think about it. People
admitted to a hospital, a person with a medical who’ve been shocked aren’t in the best position
identity can perform surgery. This can only be to calculate the healthiest way to regard their
attempted once per injury. own damage, so having outside guidance is
very useful. Talk them down in a calm, soothing
Fumble: The patient just took 1d10 wounds and voice, and roll.
is unconscious.
Fumble: The target now also has a Self (3) check
Matched Failure: The patient’s wounds remain to contend with.
unchanged.
Matched Failure: If you have a relationship with
Failure: The patient heals wounds at the stan- the patient it drops by 5%.
dard daily rate of 1 wound.
Failure: No change or effect.
Success: The patient heals wounds equal
to your roll. If you rolled 49, he can erase 49 Success: You can erase a failed notch and
wounds. This cannot heal the very last wound. change it into a hardened notch instead, if the
Only bed rest cures that. They’re probably not person being counseled agrees.
up to any detailed interrogation or mental
gymnastics. Matched Success or Crit: You can erase a
notch the person took, hardened or failed. It’s
Matched Success: Same as a success, but the as if they never faced the stress check. If the
patient also feels pretty good and is capable patient doesn’t want to be helped, nothing
of thinking critically and answering questions happens.
intelligently soon after the operation.

9
Many more arche-
AVATARS
types are found in An avatar is a person who walks the path of Maria in Three Parts has two avatar charac-
Book One: Play one of the archetypes in the Invisible Clergy. ters available to the players. Their archetypes
(available in print or Everything they do in life has to align with what are provided here.
digital format), Book their archetype does, or else they lose their Each archetype listed includes important
Four: Expose (digital power and the connection to that archetype. attributes of the avatar who follows the arche-
only), and Book Five: The more they walk the walk, the greater their type, the taboos that the avatar must avoid, and
Mine (also digital rating in their avatar identity, which in turn the magickal powers they get based on their
only). increases the sort of magick they can channel rating. “The Guide” or “The Warrior” refers both
to change the world. Indeed, a channel is what to the names of the archetypes and the avatars
avatars call their magick. that follow them.

THE GUIDE
ATTRIBUTES poor he seeks to help. The wrestling coach does
We’ve all had that time in our life when we not compete on the mat at the tournament.
weren’t sure which direction to take. Perhaps A Guide, therefore, never becomes that
we lost faith in our religion after a tragedy, which he knows so much about. He is always
perhaps a bad breakup drove us to the banks the one who helps a journey, but never finishes
of the Thames with thoughts of suicide. This is it. Those who cannot do, teach. This can’t be
where the Guide steps in. From the person who overstated. As soon as a Guide begins to walk
drives a taxi to the wise mentor we remember the path hinself, he gives up his connection to
from our youth, the Guide lights a path for us to the archetype. The Guide is that which lights
follow. It may be something as simple as getting the way, he is not the way itself.
Go to page 106 in directions to an address we’re seeking, or it
Book One: Play for might be advice that changes our lives. CHANNELS
the full description The Guide understands the path. His role is Vince Kirkland, the Guide player character,
and channels of the not to complete that path, but to show others has 55% in this identity. This gives him the
Guide archetype. the way. The Guide is a facilitator in its better following powers:
aspects. In its worst, the Guide is an instigator,
for not all Guides send us on the path we Inherent Direction: No matter where the
wanted or even the path we needed to find. Guide is, mentally or physically, he has a chance
Cult leaders and proselytizers alike can be of sending someone in the right direction.
Guides. One instills hope while the other brings
obedience through fear. Both embody an idea This channel can only work when someone
they may not fully understand. The Guide is else activates it by asking for advice, guidance,
a vessel through which others come to know or instructions. The results are as follow:
the path they must take. Cartographers make With a fumble or matched failure, the Guide
maps which guide us around the world. In their gives guidance that seems reasonable enough,
own way, so does the travel show host. The but which directs the recipient to disaster. If it’s
concierge at that nice hotel in New York might at all possible, this should be ironic, backhanded
have been an avatar of the Guide. guidance that fulfills the letter of the request
We see them on the corner — strangers who while transgressing its spirit violently.
point the way to the job interview we would With a failure, there’s no advice to give.
have otherwise missed. We see them on TV With a success, the Guide gives helpful direc-
— mega-preachers offering salvation through tions, though maybe a little vague.
broadcast media. The scale is not important. One a matched success or a crit, the Guide
What counts is that Guides get people on a gets a sense, not only of where to go, but some
certain path. Finding the right specific person intuition about the challenges or obstacles
often becomes their life’s work. Whether for a along the way.
moment or a decade, the avatar of the Guide
has a place in time where he must reside and Advisor: The Guide can offer solid advice to
wait for that lost person to arrive, seeking help. anyone, on any subject, once a day with a
successful roll of his avatar: Guide identity. He
TABOOS has to specifically tell someone what to do or, if
The Guide never completes the path he helps they know what they want, how to accomplish
others along. The cabbie does not get out at it. If the person so advised does as the Guide
the stop. The preacher does not live like the says, they gets to flip-flop their next roll.

10
 Moreover, the Guide has a special connection next rolls. This is called a hunch roll, and it’s the
to anyone who treats her as a mentor or guru or recipient of the hunch roll who gets to decide
anyone she has designated as a protégé. Once when to use it next.
per day, by dispensing some kind of cryptic, The restriction that this can only be done
gnomic, ambiguous whizz-dumb, the Guide once a day is per person. If eight people ask the
can roll percentiles and give the people on the Guide for direction, she can roll eight times, but
other side of those relationships the outcome of never more than once per person per day.
this roll to use as the outcome on one of their

THE WARRIOR
ATTRIBUTES TABOOS
People have a natural inclination to hate and Each Warrior avatar must choose something
fear outsiders. Maybe it’s genetic — an atavism he’s against. It can be a people or a gender —
from apes who excluded mangy cousins for fear or, more attractively, a social ill or malignant
their illness might pollute the pack. Or maybe philosophy. Compromise with the enemy is
it’s psychological, a necessary downside to the Warrior’s taboo. Take, for example, a DEA
affection for society and family. Or maybe we’re agent who is a Warrior against drugs. If his own
all sinners, living in a fallen world. son is found with a single marijuana seed in his
In any event, the Warrior is someone who car, even if there’s a plausible explanation, the
exists to eradicate some problem, policy, or Warrior agent must still insist that the car be
people he deems dangerous to society. He is a seized and the boy charged with possession.
spirit of uncompromising extermination. While Zero tolerance means zero tolerance.
he might die for the cause, he’s far more inter- Similarly, an avatar who declared war on illit-
ested in killing for it. eracy would break taboo if she gave up trying
As warfare became more complex and to teach an adult who couldn’t read — even if
sophisticated, other archetypes muscled in said adult had no interest in learning and was The complete list of
on the Warrior’s territory — but really, the pie actively, abusively resisting. channel abilities and
of human butchery had enough slices for the other information
Unknown Soldier and the Bloodless General too. CHANNELS for the Warrior
The Warrior is distinguished from more recent Jada Parker, the Warrior player character, archetype starts on
military types by his ideological purity — though has 60% in this identity. This gives her the page 123 of Book
of course, the ideological killer is as fresh and following powers: One: Play.
modern as yesterday’s headlines.
The dark side of the Warrior archetype is Stalwart: The Warrior does not need to
easy to see — look at a photo of the grinning make stress checks while directly pursuing
triggermen of the Third Reich, standing over her purpose. A Daesh Warrior makes no
a kneeling rabbi. Examine old postcards of Ku Violence checks while fighting against (or
Klux Klan lynching picnics. Visit Syria. murdering) Americans. Similarly, a crusading
But at the same time, in an age notable for Warrior against poverty can bypass the sort
cynicism and compromise, the Warrior is one of Helplessness check that less committed
figure who draws a line in the sand and says do-gooders must face.
“No further.” There were a few medical Warriors
when smallpox was still an accident and not a This does not mean that the Warrior auto-
weapon. Their philosophical descendants battle matically gets a hardened notch. The meter
AIDS today. The War on Poverty didn’t attract doesn’t change at all.
as many avatars as the War on Drugs, but they
were there. They’re involved in the War on Inspiration: The Warrior’s passion and ferocity
Terrorism, too — for better and for worse. inspire those around her. Anyone who fights
for the Warrior’s cause at her side gains a +10%
bonus to a relevant ability or identity. Note that
the Warrior herself does not get this bonus.

11
 ADEPTS
Practitioners of magick who follow specific also starts with eight minor charges to use as
traditions are called adepts. They have to they see fit. To cast a spell, the adept rolls their
embrace the paradox of their tradition in order adept identity. If they succeed, the spell works,
to build up minor and significant charges, which and the charges are spent. If they fail, the spell
they can use to cast minor and significant spells. doesn’t work, and no charge is spent. Each
In Maria in Three Parts, two of the player spell explains what happens when it works and
characters are adepts. Each adept starts the sometimes what happens when it doesn’t.
game knowing all of the spells provided here To get more charges, adepts must perform
for their tradition. There are more spells for the activity listed under Generating a Charge.
these traditions in Book One: Play — we just Adepts may also access major charges and
included the five of each that we thought were cast major spells, but in the interests of space
most interesting for Maria in Three Parts. Each we’ve left them out of Maria in Three Parts.
The complete

CINEMANCY
list of spells and
information about
major charges for the
Cinemancy tradition AKA AUTEURS, CLICHÉS, TROPERS get someone to remember and describe an
can be found starting Because many writers are lazy, and because overused cinematic cliché, the troper gets a
on page 150 of Book many moviegoers seem to prefer it that way, minor charge. Thinking about it isn’t enough; it
One: Play. many movies have the same conventions, must be described either verbally or in writing.
clichés, and tropes. These tropes have been Neither the cliché nor the person can be reused
driven into the collective mind of humanity, like until a week has passed. Quoting a memorable
ruts driven into the ground by the same damn line is typical, though it has to be verbatim,
car riding on the grass. acted out, and can’t just be repeating what the
Everyone knows you can cure amnesia with a auteur says.
blow to the head, right? Except you can’t. That
only causes more brain damage. But it’s been Generate a Significant Charge: Scenes and plots
used as a cheap writing technique in so many are not the only clichés used in Hollywood. Many
movies that it’s become part of our collective times, entire characters are walking clichés, their
knowledge. More importantly, people believe in role in the film easily recognizable the moment
that amnesia cure. If only a few people believed they come on screen. A cinemancer can build a
that, no biggie. But so much of humanity has significant charge by acting as one of these stock
seen that cliché so many times, the illusion is characters for five straight hours. This doesn’t
more real than the truth. have to be a specific character from a movie, just
That’s where cinemancers come in. Not only the type of character. Examples of these cliché
do they see those ruts in the ground, they can characters include the Hardboiled Detective,
get other people to agree that it was caused by the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, the Dumb Jock, and
a 1998 Nissan Sentra that wouldn’t start when many more. The mask cannot drop or the cine-
a monster was creeping up on it. Cinemancy mancer must start from scratch.
uses magick to make clichés real. After all,
everyone knows about them already. Magick Taboo: Because cinemancers are dependent
just gives the tropes a push needed to manifest on these tropes manifesting in real life, they
in our world. cannot see the beginnings of a cliché and not fill
The central paradox in Cinemancy is that whatever role is necessary to ensure the cliché
movies are fake but more accepted than reality. finishes. If a cinemancer is driving in a chase and
When you think of a newborn, chances are you sees a fruit cart, she must ram it. Otherwise,
picture a pink, impossibly large baby of several she loses all power. They tend to be polite but
weeks old rather than the tiny, jaundiced wad reserved in order to avoid the entanglements
that a newborn really is. of the dreaded meet cute, as the behavior
Cinemancers are often called clichés or of a character in a romcom is usually legally
tropers. They like to call themselves auteurs, actionable.
but other people only use that term when
they’ve been properly scared. CINEMANCY MINOR
FORMULA SPELLS
STATS
Generate a Minor Charge: Much of a cine- DOES THIS SMELL LIKE CHLOROFORM?
mancer’s power comes from humanity Cost: 2 minor charges.
remembering these clichés. Thus, when they

12
Effect: In reality, chloroform won’t knock • 1 charge: “We’re not going to run out
someone out in seconds. The chemical starts to of gas.”
degrade as soon as it hits air, it can take several • 2 charges: “Like I’m going to run into my
minutes to kick in, and even then, it has a nasty ex-wife at this strip club.” Note that this spell
tendency to cause heart attacks. But that’s not can’t be used to violate anyone’s free will.
how it works in the movies, so that’s not how • 3 charges: “It’s not like I’m going to
it works for a cinemancer. With this spell, you get arrested.”
don’t even need the actual drug. You just need a • 4 charges: “Calm down, I’m not going to
white cloth and to come up behind your target get shot.”
unawares. Then you can cover the victim’s • 5 charges: “It’s not like a freak snowstorm
mouth with the handkerchief, cast the spell, will trap us in this cabin.”
and the poor sucker drops into a deep sleep for
about five minutes. Anything that would wake Vague predictions like, “Nothing bad’s gonna
someone from normal sleep breaks the spell. happen” or “We’ll be fine!” cause a serendipi-
tous injury with 1d10 wounds per charge, up to
STOCK WARDROBE five charges. These dice are added together like
Cost: 1 minor charge. hand-to-hand damage.
Effect: Hollywood often gets the outfits of The cinemancer can’t cast this in response to
police, military, doctors, and similar profes- something she says herself. If cast in response
sionals at least partially wrong. Not all doctors to someone who knows how the spell works,
wear blue scrubs, and soldiers don’t usually there’s a 2-charge surcharge, because artificial
wear fingerless gloves and mismatched serendipity is a lot harder for magick to tweak
camouflage. Yet no one in the movie seems than the real thing.
to notice, so why should anyone else? If the This spell only causes coincidences! “She’ll
cinemancer dresses in the traditional outfit of never fall in love with me” is not subject to this
a professional — police, soldier, doctor, and so enchantment. It changes circumstances and
on — no matter how laughable the disguise, objects, not people’s feelings or thoughts.
she’s viewed by others at that professional’s job But within those parameters, the only nega-
as legitimate. A cinemancer could dress up in tive that cannot be made real is something
a police costume with a plastic badge and the incredibly nasty or deadly; no spending five
wrong patches, but still get accepted down at minor charges to kill someone or whip up a
the precinct house. (“Her? New gal, I think. I’m hurricane. Any event that lasts a while, like a
sure she’s fine.”) Note that accepted is not the freak snowstorm, ends after one hour.
same as blanket privileges. But as long as she
doesn’t give people a reason to suspect her, she CINEMANCY SIGNIFICANT
can wander freely as normal for the role. FORMULA SPELLS
One requirement is that the cinemancer only
speak in jargon and clichéd dialogue related to AIN’T GOT TIME TO BLEED
that profession. (“Move along, now. Yes, I have a Cost: 1 significant charge.
warrant. You have the right to remain silent…”) Effect: Whether the hero of the movie gets
This lasts for thirty minutes and can be thrown through a window, mauled by a tiger,
extended in thirty-minute increments, up to sliced up with a knife, or even tossed from a
three hours, by spending more charges. moving vehicle, chances are he stands up, brushes
Also note that it only works on people in the off some dirt, and is ready for action. Just as
mimicked profession. The civilians are going to heroes can ignore injuries that would incapacitate
notice that one of those alleged soldiers is fifty normal folk, a cinemancer can use this spell to
pounds overweight and carrying an airsoft gun ignore the effects of any non-lethal injury. The
instead of a real rifle. wounds are still taken, but no Violence check
is necessary and the wound does not affect any
WHAT COULD GO WRONG other abilities or activities: they can walk on a
Cost: 1–7 minor charges. broken leg, a cut closes that would normally bleed
Effect: What happens when a character in a out, a sucking chest wound doesn’t suck, etc. Any
movie says, “We’ll be fine!” or “What could go lethal injury is still that — no walking around with
wrong?” Right, they get attacked, hit, arrested, their decapitated head in their hands.
lost, or beat down. In order to activate the spell, however, a cine-
Anytime someone else predicts something mancer must say a bad joke or pun related to
like, “X won’t happen” and this spell is cast, the injury or scene. If they were thrown from
whatever “X” stands for happens. How much it a car, they could say, “Was it something I said?”
costs depends on that variable. The bigger the or, “Glad I know how to roll with it.” But don’t
event, the more it costs. Here’s a guideline: worry, it just has to be a quip. It doesn’t have
to be funny.

13
 HE’S RIGHT BEHIND ME, ISN’T HE? come up behind the cinemancer. This isn’t some
Cost: 3 significant charges. kind of teleportation. Events are just changed
Effect: You already know what this spell does so the guy you’re talking about just happens
just from the title, don’t you? See the power to have been nearby all along, and walking up
of Cinemancy? If the cinemancer wants to find behind you was a natural procession of events
someone, he turns his back on a doorway, road, for his day.
hall, or similar path and starts talking shit about Be careful about the repercussions that a
that person. Not just something disrespectful, given person might bring. Use this spell to bring
but downright mean. The kind of stuff that the President of the United States of America
you’d be thoroughly embarrassed to be caught up behind you, and say hello to all the nice,
saying about that person. When the charges are heavily armed agents from the Secret Service.
spent and the cinemancer says the magic words Busting someone out of jail can also have
(“He’s right behind me, isn’t he?”) the universe ugly blowback.
quickly and quietly arranges to have that person

FULMINATURGY
AKA ARMIGERS, GUNSELS, drive by and see her marching around armed,
Everything you SLOPPY SECONDS that’s good enough.
could possibly want Despite the name, this is not a school about
to know about violence. The thousand-yard stare of the gun Generate a Significant Charge: The significant
Fulminaturgy, mage is fixed, not on some sordid squabble, but charge also depends on the prized totem gun.
including more spells, on the disconnect between the crystal-clear Carrying the weapon secretly, for ten hours or
and info on major individual and the amorphous mass of humanity. more outside their home, generates a signifi-
charges, is on page In the frontier era, one could take a rifle into cant charge. It does not matter if the weapon
154 of Book One: the wilderness and thrive or perish, separate is spotted or briefly revealed, as long as the
Play. from civilization. That’s less of an option now, fulminaturge knows that he is carrying it hidden
but the gun within the city is still the tool that from common view. Naturally, this is a lot easier
steels the individual to resist coercion when if your totem is a small derringer than a sniper
outnumbered… or that forces him to knuckle setup. That said, carrying a disassembled totem
under… or that culls him when his resistance rifle in a briefcase works fine. The weapon can
is insufficient. be in pieces, as long as all the pieces are present.
Fulminaturges are known to each other It doesn’t even have to be loaded.
and their friends as armigers. Those with less
kindly inclinations towards the school call them Taboo: There are two main strains of
gunsels or sloppy seconds in what is presumably Fulminaturgy, and their philosophical divi-
a reference to the Second Amendment to the sions are reflected in their taboos. The faction
US Constitution. Ellen Kaloudis, the fulminaturge in this book,
Fulminaturges often have multiple firearms, belongs to regards guns as the means by which
sometimes entire arsenals, but there is always she offsets encroachment by over-reaching
one gun that is theirs in a uniquely mean- authority. She loses her charges if she is ever
ingful way. This is referred to as their totem disarmed. Any time she leaves her house or
weapon, and it’s critical to their charging and vehicle without some form of firearm, her
taboo structure. A fulminaturge must have charges dissipate.
their totem weapon to cast any spell, though She also loses her power if anyone else takes
it doesn’t necessarily have to be out and bran- her totem gun.
dished. If you’ve got the gun in your purse, it
can stay there. FULMINATURGY MINOR
FORMULA SPELLS
STATS
Generate a Minor Charge: Any time the fulmi- STAND ALONE
naturge moves around in a public place openly Cost: 1 minor charge.
carrying their totem firearm, they get a minor Effect: The fulminaturge stands out from the
charge. They can amass a minor charge once crowd. He is distinct and worthier of attention
every two hours by doing this. For charging than those around him. He seems, in a word,
purposes, it must be visible. For this, you can’t important, or at least significant. There are
be carrying it in your purse. The fulminaturge’s times when being noticed is the last thing you
own home is usually considered public as long want, of course, but when you want to catch
as it’s visible from a road. If some stranger could someone’s attention, Stand Alone makes you

14
seem to matter. This can give a +10–20% bonus with normal bullets. She can use any firearm
to a relevant roll if the situation fits. for this, not just her totem weapon. It still
requires a successful roll on something rele-
SERIOUS DEMEANOR vant, but it does damage just like a gun does to
Cost: 1 minor charge. the living. This does not allow anyone else to
Effect: The fulminaturge is no trifling figure, but harm immaterial entities, nor does it give the
rather someone of grave appearance whose caster the ability to perceive spirits that aren’t
words have weight and whose opinions must already visible.
be carefully considered. Attempting to laugh at,
demean, or dismiss an armiger who has Serious NOW I’M A GUN
Demeanor in effect forces a Helplessness (4) Cost: All remaining charges (minimum of 1
check as the mocker realizes the gravity of his significant charge).
foolish actions. Effect: To cast this spell, the armiger has to
Serious Demeanor lasts a number of minutes point a firearm at her target and say something
equal to the casting roll. like “I’m a gun” or simply “Bang.”
The gun does not go off, there’s no sound or
STEADY HAND, STEADY HEART muzzle flash, and no ammunition is expended,
Cost: 2 minor charges. but the target hears a shot and sees smoke
Effect: The armiger can cast this spell as an and flame from the weapon. The target feels
instinctive response to a failed stress check. the sledge-hit of impact, the shearing of flesh,
A hand flies to her totem weapon and in and the spray of hot blood. The pain is — to
that moment, panic fades and clear thought the target — entirely real. To everyone else, it’s
resumes. The gun mage still takes the failed entirely hallucinatory.
notch, but does not have to decide between This spell ignores armor, and possibly light
fleeing, freezing, or fighting. cover; it leaves no forensic traces, and it can set
the target up for Helplessness or Self checks
FULMINATURGY SIGNIFICANT when doctors insist that he’s fine and it’s all
FORMULA SPELLS in his head. The target, meanwhile, continues
to see a bloody, seeping wound. Dodging
.45 CALIBER EXORCISM does not protect against this spell. There is no
Cost: 1 significant charge. damage cap.
Effect: For a number of minutes equal to the The target can perform first aid on himself, but
casting roll, the fulminaturge can shoot demons, no one else can diminish the wound with mere
immaterial spirits, and similar unnatural entities science. Magickal healing can fix it, however.

RITUALS
Rituals are like magick recipes. Anyone with HOW TO CAST MINOR RITUALS If you’d like to read
the Casts Rituals feature can use them. Anyone There’s a ritual in Maria in Three Parts which more about rituals
with an adept or avatar identity has Casts lets the player characters summon a pair of and how to use them,
Rituals, so all four of the pregenerated charac- entities called authority figures. Maria, once go to page 175 of
ters can use them. she’s whole, can teach it to them. They might Book One: Play.
There are a few problems with rituals. want to cast it. Here’s how.
Nobody can make new rituals, and nobody’s Avatars can roll their avatar identity if it’s
sure where the old ones came from. Most better than their Secrecy ability, since an avatar
rituals have been lost. identity has Casts Rituals as a freebie feature.
Many don’t work anymore, either because of Adepts can spend charges and roll their
transcription errors or just because people don’t adept identity, complete with flip-flops, unless
think the right way to understand them. Some for some freak reason another option is better,
don’t even do what they say. since they too have Casts Rituals as a freebie.
Most rituals are taught to people by demons, There’s also a ritual to summon Fancy Pants, a
who always lie. demon, but that’s not going provided by anyone
in this scenario.

15
THE CABAL
A group of PCs working together is called a cabal. In this scenario, each player character knows at
least one of the others, and the four of them together constitute a cabal. The following backgrounds
and roleplaying tips may be photocopied or reproduced together with the character sheets at the end
of this book. See page 2–3 for additional information about assigning relationships.

ELLEN KALOUDIS
Ellen was 19 when she signed up with the US That’s also where she met Detective Jefferson
Navy, happy to leave behind her boring family and Jada Parker (who was one of the fighters).
and job at the Palm Beach Gardens mall. She When she explained this to her sponsor Andre,
was trained as a hospital corpsman and fought he revealed himself to be a fulminaturge. He is
in the Gulf War, losing her right leg below now training Ellen in that school.
the knee to a landmine in Kuwait. That led to Ellen knows she is at a crossroads but
drinking, which led to alcoholism, which led without much direction. She’s excited about
to some mostly successful 12 steps. She’s been fulminaturgy and is considering taking a job
sober(ish) for one year, and she has a healthy as a mall security guard. The urge to drink is
relationship with her sponsor, Andre D. getting stronger.
However, that alcoholism has hurt her. She Roleplaying Tips: Ellen comes across as
worked her post-war years as an EMT, but a few negative and pessimistic a lot (but not all) of
months ago, she made one too many mistakes the time. That’s because she gave up alcohol
while drunk and almost killed a man. Now, no without changing her viewpoint or behaviors.
hospital or private ambulance company will However, she can be surprisingly cheerful at
touch her. She’s running out of unemployment seemingly random times. She’s one of those
benefits soon and has no idea what to do next. people who confuse being honest with being
Back when she was an EMT, she was called untactful — and she likes being honest. When
to a bar where two avatars of the Warrior got it comes to guns, she’s a staunch Second
into a huge fight. She witnessed some magick Amendment defender and honestly believes an
there, which opened her eyes to the occult. armed society is a safe society.

JADA PARKER
Jada grew up in the only African-American payment, Marilyn explained how Jada was likely
family in a small Oklahoma town. Her grades an avatar of the Warrior. Jada has since fallen
were too low for college, so she did a few seriously in love with Marilyn’s ditziness, and
odd jobs in Oklahoma City before taking a job for the first time since becoming a pest-control
with a Pest-N-Critter Defense, a small chain worker, she feels that fire of understanding her
of pest-control franchises. Here, Jada finally purpose in life.
found a purpose for her life. Not only was she After learning about her avatar status, Jada
very good at her job, she took an overgenerous went on a bender looking for fights. She ran
view of her role. She didn’t kill bugs — she was into another avatar of the Warrior and picked
a stalwart defender of people’s homes from a fight to see what would happen. Detective
unseen dangers. Jefferson showed up and probably saved her life.
She moved around a bit, always heading Now, the two are decent friends, and Jada calls
to where a new job existed in the company. her to ask for advice.
These days, Jada’s job is her life. She happily Roleplaying Tips: Jada is full of energy and
works 10-hour shifts and tends to bring up pest life. She’s the type who enters a party and
control at every party or date. This has led to instantly starts talking to people, dominating
her being mostly alone. Instead of giving up, she the conversation and eventually turning it
redoubled her efforts and came across as too towards something she knows. For her, that’s
friendly and talkative. often pest control but not obsessively so. She
Jada recently broke into the occult under- does have some social skills, after all. She also
ground by helping a katharoturge (an adept wants to impress people with how she wants to
obsessed with cleaning things) named Marilyn protect them from danger.
Gibbs keep her home pest-free. As part of her

16
GREG O’NEIL
Greg’s parents were compassionate, loving, and time, a negotiation over a bribe got physical
supportive — and they died while driving drunk and he called 911. That’s how he met Detective
when he was just two years old. His uncle Pat Renee Jefferson.
raised him, although that is being kind. For the The two talked a lot, although Greg did most
most part, television raised Greg. His uncle put of the talking. He texts her now and then if he
food on the table but was too obsessed with expects another negotiation problem. He thinks
football and the local bar to pay much attention Renee looks up to him because he’s a self-made
to his nephew. man. She doesn’t.
Greg graduated college with a BA in film Trevor Hale is his pet project. This young
studies and quickly went to work as a news- kid has started posting film reviews that are
paper film critic. However, his acerbic and as nasty as Greg’s. Although Trevor doesn’t
sometimes faulty criticisms prevented him understand a decoupage from a denouement,
from staying too long in that role. Instead, Greg thinks the kid has potential. The kid is
Greg has created a small business with his site also a budding cinemancer and clued Greg
and YouTube channel Brutally Honest Films. into the occult underground and the mysteries
It doesn’t make him rich or famous, and it of cinemancy
wouldn’t pay the bills if he didn’t supplement Roleplaying Tips: Greg is a jerk online, but
his income with bribes. in real life, he’s mostly a decent guy. His jerk
If a director or studio wants a favorable behavior’s usually directed at wait staff, retail
review, they have to pay Greg. He doesn’t ask salespeople, and others who can’t be mean back
for too much, but without at least a barter or at him without putting their jobs in jeopardy.
something, he’ll create a savage and damaging But to people he considers his peers (such as
review. His viewership increases when he posts the cabal) or people in charge, he’s almost too
such reviews, giving him some leverage. One friendly and polite.

VINCE KIRKLAND
Vince grew up with six brothers, one mom who became a mother-figure for him. As they kept
couldn’t decide whether to get addicted to in sporadic contact after he exited out from the
alcohol or meth, and three different dads over home, she saw signs of his power and explained
the years that mostly ignored him. He eventu- the occult underground to him. Knowing he’s an
ally learned to be a mother to his siblings when avatar of the Guide has brought a direction to
Ma Kirkland took off for a few days to party. his life that he lacked before.
That was preferable to when she was home, as Besides helping others, Vince absolutely
she would scream at her kids and blame them loves live music, especially old-school punk. He
for all the troubles in the world. became friends with a scene kid called Josh
During high school, he sought out social Lucas, who loves Vince like an older brother.
misfits and had some close friends — until his (And maybe a bit more.) He’s also run into Ellen
mom was arrested for selling meth at the school. Kaloudis from time to time and has developed a
Vince lost a lot of friends that day. When she small crush on her. That she vaguely looks like
was released on bail and got home, she and his mother makes him feel weird.
Vince had a huge fight. Finally, he couldn’t Roleplaying Tips: Vince is a gentle giant of
take it anymore. He called Child Services and sorts, but he has a lot of pain that can manifest
reported her for neglect and emotional abuse. as violence. He’s also protective of everyone
After that, the brothers were split and sent to to some degree but especially younger people
different foster homes. They all now hate Vince (like his friend Josh). He’ll hold up his end of a
and blame him for the situation. conversation, but start talking about music, and
Detective Jefferson helped Vince and the he becomes overly talkative.
brothers find decent foster homes, so she

17
 MARIA IN THREE PARTS
SUMMARY on many different unnatural topics that led
A Blue Line helper (see sidebar) goes missing, to successful busts and saved lives. Blue Line
and the players must find her. The helper was considers her a treasure. If someone needed
split into three parts by an artifact, one for each to know about some occult weirdness, Maria
passion, and now some unnatural entities are could help them understand it.
after her. Worse, her triplets are wreaking havoc What the Blue Line doesn’t know — and
at the local hospital. Meanwhile, the demon would be horrified to learn — is that she gets
responsible is on its way to kill a local Blue her spookily accurate information from a
Line leader. demon who calls itself Fancy Pants. When Blue
Line asks for something she doesn’t know, her
BACKGROUND obsession to be correct drives her to summon
Maria Menchaca hates being wrong. She also Fancy Pants and ask it for one of its secrets.
hates bureaucracies. Combined together, it’s Rather than let the demon possess her own
no wonder she impolitely asked to leave the body, Maria brings home men she meets anon-
police department after only four years. But ymously online and lets Fancy Pants possess
during that time, she saw a few weird cases and them. In return, Fancy Pants uses its new meat
became chummy with the Blue Line. suit to cause chaos around town, then returns
As the years passed, she turned into a very to Maria’s house to give the man’s body back.
useful Van Helsing (a nickname for Blue Line Summoning demons, even for good ends,
friendlies who know a lot about the occult). is morally precarious business, and Maria’s
In fact, she was able to give important info conscience has been bothering her. A week
ago, she summoned Fancy Pants to end their
arrangement once and for all. The demon
convinced her to let it control its current
THE BLUE LINE host for a few weeks so it could track down a
Police often come in contact with the occult magickal artifact to protect Maria in case the
For much more on underground, so the Blue Line is an unofficial, men it had previously possessed with Maria’s
the Blue Line, go mostly unorganized group of law enforcement help come back for revenge.
to page 16 in Book officials who know magick is real. They rely on Demons have a way of making even terrible
Three: Reveal. ideas sound convincing, so Maria reluctantly
each other for help. In Blue Line terms, Maria is
agreed. It turned out to be an artifact called
a Van Helsing. That means Blue Line members
the Del Rubio Necklace, which, instead of
contact her to explain the weirdness they saw protecting her, violently split her into three
on the job. From what an avatar is to how best versions of herself, one for each of her passions
to kill a demon, Maria helps the Blue Line’s (fear, rage, and noble). After the split, Fancy
members survive out there. Pants ran away to find a person Maria talked
about a lot, one Detective Jefferson, who Fancy
Pants now plans to hurt in order to punish
Maria further.

1: WHERE’S MARIA?
Before starting the scenario, ask the players to read aloud or summarize any parts of their characters’
backgrounds that they are willing to share. This helps the players realize and assign the relationships
stats between the characters. Then announce they all get the same text from someone they all know,
Detective Renee Jefferson: “Blue Line needs your help. Call me ASAP.”

Renee arranges for a conference call between • Just in case, go to her house at 2117 W.
herself and the PCs to cover the following: Pine and carefully check in with her.

• A Blue Line resource named Maria Renee emphasizes her words carefully and
Menchaca lives in the PCs’ hometown. explains Maria is not only a former police officer,
• She’s very important to Blue Line because she can be difficult if not treated with respect.
she tracks down any info they need within All characters have a relationship with Renee,
a few days. so it shouldn’t be a problem convincing them to
• However, she’s not answering her usual go. Unless players do something weird, they will
phones. That never happens. all arrive at the same time.

18
 The address is a typical low-income house • The basement is home to what at first
on a bland residential street. What’s atypical looks like a BDSM playset with rope,
is how a corner of the house is missing and chains, locks, and even a large wooden St.
police, EMTs, and the fire department are on Andrews cross. This is where Maria would
hand. Part of a wall has blown out, and a dark tie up gentleman callers and summon
and half-destroyed kitchen is plainly visible from Fancy Pants.
the street.
If the players want to investigate the house, The ritual to summon this particular demon
they need to make some rolls (such as Connect, requires a pair of colorful pants, six candles of
Status, Lie, or a relevant identity) to get past different colors, and a photo of Bob Hope. All of
the police. Greg the cinemancer could use these are in abundance down there.
Stock Wardrobe, while Ellen could use Serious Since the PCs are part of the occult under-
Demeanor to intimidate some poor cop. Name- ground, they might know this is part of a
dropping Renee wouldn’t hurt, but the officers demon summoning ritual. A successful roll using
at the scene have no idea where she is. Any call Knowledge or Secrecy (or an adept or avatar
to her phone goes straight to voicemail. identity) reveals:
If they ask about Maria, a gruff police officer
says they can find all three triplets at St. Mattis Success: The PC knows this was likely used to
Hospital. Since they found three unconscious summon a specific demon.
versions of Maria, they assumed all three Matched success: As success, plus the PC can
were sisters and sent them in an ambulance tell multiple people were likely brought here for
to get treatment for second-degree burns and the demon to possess.
minor injuries. Critical success: As matched success, plus the
Inside the house, everything looks pretty PC has vaguely heard of an old chaos-loving
normal except for two rooms: the kitchen and demon with weird pants that fits the bill.
the basement.
At this point, the cabal has two places it can
• The kitchen is where Maria split into go. If they want to find Renee, go to It’s Her
three, so it’s a mess. Dark scorch marks Day Off on page 24. If they would rather start
cover the light wood cabinets and white finding Maria, go to Welcome to St. Mattis
tile floor. All electronics are burned out. Hospital below.
With a successful Notice roll, the PCs If the players don’t get that they need to
can find the singed and soggy remains collect the three Marias, Renee calls them The
of a small gift box and some orange and PCs hear gunshots in the background (she’s
blue wrapping paper. (This held the Del fighting Fancy Pants) and Renee’s desperate
Rubio Necklace.) pleas to get Maria and bring her to the police
station. Then the line dies.

2: WELCOME TO ST. MATTIS HOSPITAL

There are three versions of Maria at the hospital. Each looks identical except for they each have
different injuries. Their necklaces only have one diamond each and clearly are missing two.

Splitting Maria into three people ruled by a • Noble Maria wanted to see people
single passion creates a sort of influence-field struggling and winning, so she wandered
that affects those nearby. The nature of the into the NICU: The Neonatal Intensive
passion defines the effect. The three of them Care Unit.
together in one building created chaos.
As people started to get angry, afraid, and noble
in the same ward, the Marias woke up in sepa- ABOUT THE THREE MARIAS
rate ER rooms and went to follow their passions. Maria has enough occult knowledge to figure
Here’s where each triplet went: out roughly what happened to herself, so her
triplets aren’t clueless. They’re just beholden to
• Fear Maria was obviously mentally ill, so their passions and unable to think clearly about
she was sent to the psych unit on the how to fix this problem.
third floor. She’s still there, hoping she Until they arrived at the ER, all three Marias
doesn’t hurt anyone. were unconscious. Now they’ve woken up.
• Rage Maria overhead two nurses talking If one conscious Maria ever sets eyes on
about the stifling bureaucracy of the another conscious Maria, they each feel drawn
administrators, so she went to the to one another. See Maria Made Whole below
admin offices. for details.

19
EMERGENCY ROOM
The emergency room is chaotic. A pair of nurses
are yelling at a clerk over the price of insulin, a
doctor is painfully twisting the arm of a junkie,
and two patients with sprained ankles are
limping around trying to get medical help for
everyone else.
If the scenario has been moving quickly,
spend some time having the PCs deal with
fear-, rage-, and noble-influenced people. If the
players spent too much time at Maria’s house,
the GM shouldn’t drag the story down with
such encounters.
The PCs can speak to a noble-influenced
nurse or doctor who says that one triplet was
sent to the psych ward, while the others are
in treatment room two. Of course, that room
is now empty since the other two Marias went
elsewhere. If the cabal can speak to a relatively
calm person, the person says they saw someone
matching Maria’s description.

• One witness says a woman matching

Maria’s description heard about the high
price of insulin and said she’d teach those
pencil-pushers a lesson they won’t forget.
• Another witness says a Maria with a
calm smile on her face talked about the
strength of parents and headed up the
elevator somewhere.

The cabal can easily learn the layout of the

hospital from the ER: Admin is on this floor and
a good walk down the length of the building,
the psych unit is on floor three, and there’s a
birth center in between the ER and admin. The
NICU is on the fourth floor.
Since Vince is an avatar of the Guide, he can
get vague directions for all three Marias but not
exactly where they are located. In other words,
the PCs can figure out what ward to visit but
not what room.
It doesn’t matter where the cabal heads
first. Fear Maria, Rage Maria, and Noble Maria
remain where they are until the PCs can get
there. While the Maria in each location reacts
differently if another triplet shows up, the
scenario still runs the same. That means the
players can decide where to go without ruining
things for the GM.

AUTHORITY FIGURES ARE COMING

In each place where a Maria is busy (psych unit,
offices, NICU), the unnatural entities known as
authority figures eventually show up. Their goal
is to capture each triplet. See Authority Figures
on page 27 for their stats and details.
What if the PCs stand and fight the authority
figures? These unnatural entities are not that
tough, and any weapon hurts them. If killed,
they turn into a dark mist and disappear, only
to come back around a nearby corner in
five minutes. FEAR MARIA
If the authority figures find a two-part Maria, This triplet uses the same stats as the real Maria
(see page 23) they suddenly stop and stare at the but the identity below is the only one she has.
ground in motionless embarrassment. However,
they return to their normal stalkerish ways in a
Unnatural Fear Triplet 65%: Coerce
minute. If they see a complete Maria, they look
Helplessness, Substitutes for Dodge,
sad and walk away to disappear around the
nearest corner and never be seen again. Substitutes for Secrecy

PSYCH UNIT
St. Mattis Hospital doesn’t have a fully staffed
psych unit. Instead, it uses a small section of the
third floor for patients clearly showing signs of Unnatural (3) check. As they grow closer, Fear
mental illness. However, things are not well up Maria starts to freak out and tries to run away.
here. Fear Maria’s influence is spreading. If the PCs flee with Maria, the authority
When the PCs arrive, they see no one. The figures stubbornly follow until either killed or
nurse’s station has half-eaten sandwiches and blocked (like being locked in a room). If another
cold coffee, implying people suddenly left. The Maria is here, read Maria Made Whole below for
light is strong and bright here. details on how the two Marias can merge.
The nurses and patients are all hiding in
rooms struggling to deal with their strong ADMINISTRATION
phobias. As with the ER, use this scene to help The administrative section for St. Mattis is
throttle the speed of the mission. If things need found on the first floor on the other end of the
to be slowed down, send them a nurse with hospital from the emergency room. As they
mysophobia so bad she’s literally scrubbing her head there, they meet a loose group of people
skin raw to get rid of germs. running in the other direction. Then they hear
Records at the reception desk show a the PA system gently announce a code silver in
Jane Doe in room 309. As the PCs approach, administration. (Ellen knows that “code silver”
Fear Maria’s influence begins to warp reality. means a violent person is in the hospital.)
Everyone’s heart starts racing and their anxiety At the start of the administrative section
spikes. Whatever their fear passion is, they is a circular desk in front of a pair of double
begin to hallucinate that. (For example, Ellen doors leading to cubicles and posh offices. As
can see an injured soldier in one room, crying the players reach the desk, they see a secretary
for help behind a door she cannot open.) lying bloody and beaten behind it. Rage Maria
Each hallucination requires a rank 4 stress lost her temper over “Do you have an appoint-
check on the appropriate meter — except for ment?” and tore into her before heading into
Jada who can use her avatar channel to avoid the offices.
a stress check. Success (or having enough hard- The double doors are locked, but a successful
ened notches) means the hallucination abruptly roll at the desk reveals how to unlock them.
stops, although they still feel uneasy. Failure Once inside, the cabal sees ten grey office
means they are lost in the hallucination; the cubicles extending away from them. At the far
player must choose between panicking, being end are two offices without windows. One has
paralyzed, or going into a frenzy. (For how long? a shut door, the other is open. Right in front of
If the other PCs cannot help, remove the effect them are two dead security guards who shot
once it’s no longer fun.) each other while under Rage Maria’s influence.
Fear Maria is in room 309, hiding beneath her There’s only one handgun.
bed so she doesn’t hurt anyone. She knows that
she split into three because of that necklace,
and she guesses that her existence is based
on fear. (Remember that the three passions
are game terms, not setting ones.) She feels a
compulsion to merge with her other forms, but
RAGE MARIA
she is too afraid that leads to violence and tries This triplet uses the same stats as the real Maria
to coerce PCs into letting her stay in her room. but the identity below is the only one she has.
Once they get Maria ready to go (or if
the players decide to leave her behind), the Unnatural Rage Triplet 65%: Coerce Violence,
authority figures arrive at the end of a long Substitutes for Pursuit, Substitutes for Struggle
hallway looking like World War I doughboys,
but without rifles. They reach out their arms,
which grow impossibly long. This causes an

21
 Hiding in one of the cubicles is Brandy Once Rage Maria has been dealt with one
Freeman, a payroll clerk. She’s hiding under way or another, the PCs who leave through the
her desk and is in shock over what’s happening, double doors hear police sirens getting closer
having watched the two guards kill each other outside. (Some bureaucrat had enough sense
while Rage Maria laughed. Vince can give to call 911.) Then the doors they just walked
her immediate assistance with his identity’s through fly open to a pair of city cops.
Therapeutic feature. However, that shock was These are actually the authority figures
the only thing protecting her from Rage Maria’s trying to capture Rage Maria. When she sees
angry influence. them, she instinctively tries to run away down
How Brandy reacts after therapy depends on the hallway leading to the other side of the
the characters: hospital. If she flees or calls attention to the
authority figures, their arms hit the floor and
• If they claim to be police or something quickly snake their way to her. This provokes an
similar, Brandy is confused because no one Unnatural (3) stress check.
is dressed appropriately. If she stands up,
she angrily demands some ID. This lets NICU
Rage Maria know they’re coming. Then To get into the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive
she attacks the PC who first found her. Care Unit (NICU), the PCs must reach the
• If they claim to be civilians trying to help, fourth floor and get past a security checkpoint.
Brandy carefully accepts the help. She Then they walk past a waiting area and reach
wants to leave immediately, so anything a hallway that runs a large square. Besides a
other than that causes her to coerce nurse’s station and an employee lounge, there
(Violence) the person who first found are many private patient rooms containing beds,
her to take her outside to safety. If the medical equipment, and in about half of them,
coercion fails, Brandy attacks. should be families with sick newborns.
However, the place looks abandoned. No one
Maria is behind the closed door with the is in the hallway, and even the security station
payroll manager, Arturo Reyes. Vince could use in unmanned. That’s because they all fell under
his Guide powers to tell where she is, but so can Noble Maria’s influence and are listening to her
Brandy if she’s calm since she saw Rage Maria speak in the employee lounge on the other side
go in there. Arturo, on the other hand, is scared of the NICU.
witless after a severe beating by Rage Maria Outside the employee lounge door, the cabal
over $300 pain relievers. He’s slowly becoming can hear Maria’s speech. When they open the
angrier and angrier about it. door, they see parents, nurses, doctors, guards,
If Rage Maria knows the cabal is coming, she and even sick babies all crowded together to
attacks whoever opens the door. (Remember hear Maria speak like some kind of messiah.
that her identity feature turns Maria’s Struggle The lounge is crowded, and even babies
to a 65%.) If she doesn’t, she stops beating in pain are quiet. Standing on a plastic chair
Arturo long enough to turn and stare madly at is Noble Maria, speaking to them about the
the PCs, waiting to see what they do. virtues of altruism in the face of adversity.
She alternates between recognizing hospital
• Do they want to subdue Rage Maria? staff and parents for being amazing and telling
Good for them. She fights back with the stories of the giving people she’s met in her life.
light pistol she stole from the security When the PCs open the door, Maria suddenly
guard. (If Greg wants to use Does This stops and stares. Every head in the room,
Smell Like Chloroform to knock her out, including the babies’, turns to look at the PCs.
he’d have to get behind her first, then Then Maria starts talking again and they go
have someone distract her.) back to normal. (Well, normal-ish.)
• Do they want to coerce her into calming If the cabal lets her keep speaking, she even
What’s a riot roll? down? Targeting Rage Maria’s violence brings up the poor men she lured into her house
It’s a way to find out meter just makes her attack. Other coer- for Fancy Pants to possess, saying they are much
what crowds do in cion can work depending on the credible better than her for having not come back to kill
response to stress. threat offered by the PCs. her yet. The crowd as a whole seems to not hear
More rules for riots • Do they want to convince her into coming the whole kidnapping-for-possession thing and
are on page 98 of with them? That’s not happening, so see focuses solely on how great those men are.
Book Two: Run but coercion above. How can the cabal reach Noble Maria? They
everything you need must deal with the crowd first — and they only
to handle this scene If one of the other Marias is with the PCs at want to bask in this Maria’s noble glow.
is provided here and this point, the players can flip-flop any roll made If the characters try to force their way
with the table at the to help join Rage Maria with the other(s). See through, make a riot roll by rolling percentiles
bottom of the page. Maria Made Whole below.

22
and comparing the result to the table at the
bottom of this page. NOBLE MARIA
The cabal probably cannot survive an attack
This triplet uses the same stats as the real Maria
by several dozen people at once, but thankfully,
Maria has control over the crowd and stops any but the identity below is the only one she has.
fight before the PCs are killed. If another Maria
triplet is present, Noble Maria puts a stop to it Unnatural Noble Triplet 65%: Coerce Self,
after one successful hit by either side. Substitutes for Connect, Substitutes for Notice
Talking to Noble Maria can work, but as
with Fear and Rage, she’s so taken over by
her passion that she won’t just walk away. A
successful coercion roll can work, especially if
the scenario is taking longer than expected. If
there’s time, Noble Maria resists as best she can.
Of course, things are different if another nearby about who people truly are that those
Maria is with the cabal. In that case, Noble nearby must make a Self (5) stress check.
Maria wistfully looks at her triplet and slowly If the PCs are working with a two-part Maria,
walks to embrace her. If they touch, read that Maria’s two passions do not leak out into
Maria Made Whole below. After Noble Maria the surrounding population. For stats, use the
combines with one of her triplets, the spell over main listing for Maria.
the crowd is lifted and everyone quietly shuffles When Maria is whole again, she pauses for
back to their rooms and jobs. a few seconds before bursting into tears. She’s
As the cabal prepares to exit the NICU, a pissed at Fancy Pants for doing this to her, but
pair of hospital security guards turn the corner she’s also overwhelmed with guilt: over what
and look at the PCs. These are real guards she did to the men and what her triplets did
sent to the NICU because the security station in the hospital. If she can be calmed down, she
wasn’t answering the phones. They only fire casually mentions how Fancy Pants said he was
their sidearms if the cabal attacks them on first going to pay a visit to her best friend, Detective
sight. Otherwise, they demand to know what’s Renee Jefferson.
going on. That likely drives the characters to the next
Just as that situation is resolved, two unnatural scene, but what about Maria? That depends on
authority figures come around the corner. These how the players treat her as she breaks down.
look like Catholic cardinals complete with red
zucchettos (beanies), black long-sleeved cassocks, • If they tried to help (such as through on-the-
big red sashes, and large gold crucifixes. They spot therapy), Maria pulls herself together Page 76 of Book
only want Noble Maria and do not interact with and joins the cabal as they head to Renee. One: Play goes into
others. If their long snake arms come into play, it • If they reacted negatively to her crimes even more detail
provokes an Unnatural (3) check. (and to be fair, that’s an appropriate about therapy but
response) and tried to get her arrested the rules on page 9
MARIA MADE WHOLE or something similar, then Maria calmly can do in a pinch.
The Maria triplets can be recombined. In fact, accepts her fate and even thanks the PCs.
the universe helps this happen much like gravity • But if they react negatively and then leave
lets stuff fall. Once two Marias are in the same Maria alone for any length of time, she
room (or thereabouts), any rolls to help them becomes so overcome with grief that she
get together can be flip-flopped. tries to commit suicide. She tries to steal
Each Maria kinda knows they should be joined Ellen’s pistol (or a security guard’s sidearm)
back together. When separate, their passion and shoots herself there in the hospital.
overrules this. But when two or more can see
each other, they feel compelled to embrace. If Maria survives, she can tell the PCs what
When this happens, the Marias combine in a the authority figures are and how they also
blast of light, heat, and pressure like a large want to get rid of demons. She even knows a
firework just went off. It causes damage like a ritual to summon them, which she provides to
fistfight and triggers such weird feelings in those the cabal if they want it.

Roll Result
1–25 The crowd keeps their rapt attention on Maria the whole time.
Three parents (one with her sick baby) come up to the PCs and quietly ask them to leave. If the
26–50
PCs don’t, the parents will try to gently restrain the characters and get them out of the room.
Babies cry and parents shout obscenities at the PCs and demand they leave right now. One
51+
minute later, they attack en masse.
23
 3: IT’S HER DAY OFF
The cabal might visit the local police department in hopes of catching Renee there, but the front desk
informs them it’s her day off. She was at home when Maria split into three. By the time someone
called her to talk about what happened to her friend, Fancy Pants had arrived.

If the PCs already recombined Maria, visiting • It can offer to take possession of someone
Renee might be tricky. They might have to they hate and then do what the PCs want.
explain how Maria was one of the bad guys (and • Or it can just threaten Renee, if it doesn’t
maybe that she’s dead). Then again, Maria may look like the PCS are buying its spin.
be on hand to do that herself — and ask for
Renee’s forgiveness. The ideas above are things Fancy Pants can
Renee’s house is only about 15 minutes from actually do. But past that, this demon offers just
Maria’s, albeit in a wealthier neighborhood. It’s about anything it thinks the PCs want to hear
a two-story home with real brick and a long regardless of whether it can grant that or not.
driveway on the side of the house. The lawn
is green, the windows are clean, and Renee’s GETTING INTO A FIGHT
sedan is in the driveway like normal. The front Some players may want to let fists and
door is locked, but the back door into the magick do the talking. It’s a good idea to estab-
kitchen was busted open from the outside. lish an order in which players and the demon
Game stats for Fancy The kitchen shows signs of a struggle, with take action. As soon as any player initiates a
Pants are on page 27 several bullet holes in the wall near the door. fight or starts to use magick, compare Fancy
of this book. The entire first floor is empty save for the usual Pants’ urge of 65% to the ability or identity
items found in an upper-class home. Inside in the PC is using. If the demon’s urge is higher,
the second-floor bedroom are Fancy Pants it sees what’s about to go down and goes first.
and Renee. Otherwise, the player goes first. Other PCs can
When Fancy Pants showed up, he saw Renee go after Fancy Pants has a turn.
making coffee in the kitchen. He broke in and Fancy Pants uses its unnatural phenomena
attacked, using his demonic powers to over- to confuse the PCs and its urge skill to attack
power the police detective. Then he dragged if it can spread some chaos. (A straight punch?
her upstairs, improvised some restraints with That’s boring, so Fancy Pants only gets the usual
clothes, and tied her down, spread-eagled, 20% chance. Knocking one PC into another so
to the bed. He planned on torturing Renee they both fall down? Use the 65% urge chance
because, in its mind, all police are worthy instead.)
Demons do pretty of a slow, agonizing death because they
much everything enforce tyranny. RITUAL CASTING
with their Urge skill. If the cabal makes a ton of noise or bursts If the cabal knows the authority figure–
See page 106 of Book into the bedroom without any subtlety, Fancy summoning ritual (because Maria taught
Two: Run for more Pants drops a kitchen knife he was holding and them), they can try it here if they have the
on demons. backs up against a window in the far wall. If the right ingredients. Any one of them can do this
cabal sneaks up there with some good Secrecy as Casts Rituals is a feature of their avatar and
rolls (or Greg’s identity feature), make an urge adept identities.
roll for the demon. If he succeeds, he senses the It won’t take long, but Fancy Pants instantly
humans outside the open bedroom door. know what it is if it sees a PC starting the ritual.
Other PCs need to run interference on the
FACE-OFF WITH FANCY PANTS demon. Authority figures summoned here try to
Fancy Pants has been making deals with capture Fancy Pants and disappear, taking both
humans for almost a century now, so either way, the demon and its human host with them.
i ttries to strike a deal for its life.
WHAT NEXT?
• First, it asks if they know Maria and if they Renee is unharmed (unless the players wasted
want to know how to save her. too much time in the house). Once freed, she
• If that doesn’t work, it speaks to one PC thanks the players and lets them know that the
and offers up some secret of value. Pick demon used an artifact necklace to split Maria
one player who hasn’t done too much so into three people. Fancy Pants couldn’t help
far. Ask the player what they think their monologuing after tying her down, so Renee
character would most want to know. knows about the necklace and Maria triplets.
Because demons know secrets, Fancy If Maria is alive and with the PCs, Renee is
Pants knows that. relieved. If they haven’t been the hospital yet,
they should go now.

24
4: ALL’S WELL THAT (MOSTLY) ENDS WELL
By now, the cabal should have finished chasing three Marias in St. Mattis Hospital and dealt with
Fancy Pants at Detective Jefferson’s home. Here’s how to wrap up this scenario in one or two short
scenes, and what effects the PCs efforts may have on their relationships and other stats.

MARIA IS WHOLE AND ALIVE If Maria did not survive, the Blue Line might
In this outcome, play out a short scene with even blame them for Renee’s murder, and the
Maria (and Renee if she survived) in which PCs are forced to go underground.
the PCs are confirmed as trusted allies. Maria If Maria lived, she can cover for the PCs with
says she’s going to start therapy; the Blue Line the Blue Line, but might advise them to lay low.
begins to thrive. Renee is, of course, lost as a relationship if
Add 5% to the Renee relationship and she is dead. The PCs can cross it off their char-
add Maria as a new one (Responsibility is a acter sheets and use that vacant relationship for
good choice). another character in the future.

MARIA IS WHOLE BUT DEAD FANCY PANTS ESCAPES Long term play in
If the cabal helped Maria recombine but she If Fancy Pants escaped (or was allowed to Unknown Armies is
killed herself, play out a short scene between leave), the PCs read the news in a few weeks managed by using a
Renee and the PCs wherein Renee expresses about how six city employees have mysteriously system of objectives.
her distrust of the PCs. Although the PCs likely gone missing. You can read all
rescued her from Fancy Pants, she’s concerned You might play out a short scene where the about them begin-
that the Blue Line suffers from the loss of its PCs regroup to agree to a new objective: find ning on page 12 of
best Van Helsing. and destroy the demon. Book Two: Run. You
Depending on how this plays out, the Renee can also learn about
relationship for each PC could decrease by as FANCY PANTS IS the antagonist phase,
much as 10%, but it may even go up if the PCs CAUGHT OR KILLED which is what the
convince Renee that Maria was the author of If this happens, there are no negative conse- GM does between
her own fall. quences. No one cares about a demon. sessions, on page 38
However, you might play out a short scene of that book.
THE AUTHORITY KILLED MARIA where a surviving ally (Maria or Renee) recruits
If the cabal failed to prevent authority figures the PCs to a Blue Line task force to seek out
from destroying one or more Marias, but Renee other demons.
was rescued, play out a short scene in which
Renee reveals her fear for the Blue Line. CHARACTER IMPROVEMENT
The PCs may be able to assuage Renee’s Beyond just changing relationships, If this
worries and gain +5% in their relationship with one-shot morphs into the start of a longer
her, especially if they volunteer to carry the serial campaign, players can also improve
torch. their characters.
For any identity that a roll failed (such as Jada
RENEE IS DEAD rolling Pest Exterminator in place of Pursuit and
If the cabal failed to save Renee, play out a rolling too high), the player can roll 1d10 and
short scene where the cabal learns that local add half that roll (rounding up) to that identity.
police are hell-bent on finding them, probably Just be sure to review any changes to abilities
spurred on by the Blue Line. brought on by changes to the hardened notches
on the shock gauge.

25
 APPENDIX
MARIA MENCHACA creatures rose up from the earthen cellar and
Maria’s face is chubby with thick eyebrows, attacked her, she completely lost her cool and
but she is otherwise fit for being a 38-year-old emptied her clip into the agrimancer. A review
sedentary person. Her long dark hair has streaks board found her not guilty thanks to the police-
of blond in it, and it often hides very large and man’s code, but she had decided to quit by
gaudy earrings. She always wears a strong, red then anyway.
lipstick color on her lips. Maria favors comfort She dabbled as a private detective, but then
over style with her clothes, leaving her looking the Blue Line asked her for some info on agri-
more overweight than she actually is. mancy. In return, they tossed some seized drug-
Obsession: Proving herself correct. She can dealer cash her way. Maria’s obsession to prove
handle being wrong if she looked hard for proof herself right combined with almost being kicked
she was right and found none. off the force had led her to a new job as a Van
Wound Threshold: 50. Helsing for Blue Line.
Beat Cop 55%: Provides Firearm Attacks,
Substitutes for Pursuit, Substitutes for Struggle. DETECTIVE RENEE JEFFERSON
Fear Stimulus: (Self) Giving in to her violent Renee is tall and wide, like an offensive tackle.
nature. Maria’s temper has cost her jobs and She is light-skinned for an African-American
friends over the years. woman, with short-cut black hair slicked down
Noble Stimulus: Motherhood. She feels that over her head. On the job, she wears pantsuits
she failed her sister, so she’s more than willing and long jackets. Off the clock, she favors long
to help children and mothers. dresses with simple prints.
Rage Stimulus: Bureaucratic rules that end Obsession: Protect the city from criminals.
up hurting people. Seeing firsthand how govern- Renee has ignored her social and romantic lives
ment rules about welfare and Medicaid hurt her in her quest to be the best damn cop she can be.
family, she flies off the handle when someone That includes working hard for Blue Line.
hides behind regulations instead of helping. Wound Threshold: 70.
Van Helsing 65%: Provides Initiative, Resist Fear Stimulus: (Self) Being hurt by making
Read more about Van Unnatural, Substitutes for Knowledge. a stupid mistake. Cops should be careful, but
Helsings and other Possessions: None. Renee worries she’ll one day make a small
Blue Line agents and Maria was born in the slums of Mission, TX. mistake that gets her in serious trouble.
associates on page Her family life was not idyllic by any means, but Noble Stimulus: Non-magickal people strug-
17 of Book Three: her parents were loving and tried hard. It’s just gling against the occult. Although she loves
Reveal. that her neighbors were less than helpful. They working with Blue Line, she will sacrifice to help
teased and corrupted her older sister Sofia. normal folk beat magick.
Before too long, her sister tried mixing retail and Rage Stimulus: Criminals who are freed and
escorting until she caught HIV and rapidly died. know they got away with it. The smug smile on
After high school, Maria applied to the police a released criminal who got off on a technicality
academy and was rejected. Five applications makes her burn inside.
later, she finally passed the tests and became Blue Line Leader 50%: Casts Rituals, Resist
a police officer. She was never the best cop, but Unnatural, Substitutes for Connect.
she was certainly determined and rarely gave up Just a Cop 70%: Provides Wound Threshold,
on a case until it was truly hopeless. The neigh- Substitutes for Fitness, Substitutes for Struggle.
borhood she patrolled found her to be crude Possessions: Police heavy pistol, pepper
and off-putting but capable. spray, police radio, handcuffs, contact info for
That changed when Maria tried to arrest an several Blue Line members.
agrimancer for animal cruelty. When little stone

MARIA MENCHACA
Shock Meter Hardened Failed Abilities
Helplessness 3 0 Fitness 50% Dodge 30%
Isolation 2 0 Status 55% Pursuit 25%
Self 4 2 Knowledge 45% Lie 35%
Unnatural 5 2 Notice 40% Secrecy 40%
Violence 6 1 Connect 35% Struggle 45%

26
 DETECTIVE RENEE JEFFERSON
Shock Meter Hardened Failed Abilities
Helplessness 3 1 Fitness 50% Dodge 30%
Isolation 2 0 Status 55% Pursuit 25%
Self 1 0 Knowledge 60% Lie 20%
Unnatural 3 1 Notice 50% Secrecy 30%
Violence 5 1 Connect 40% Struggle 40%

FANCY PANTS an adept who uses a ritual to make a doppel-

Fancy Pants has possessed the body of James ganger might attract their attention, to both
Bell, an overweight grandpa. He’s 59 years old, the original and the copy. Think of these crea-
dark skinned, and has thick hands and a double tures as the universe’s editors and executioners.
chin. He’s wearing a Tommy Bahama shirt They’re called authority figures because
tucked into his jeans and a Panama hat. they always appear as pairs — one male, one
Wound Threshold: 65. female — of powerful or dominant people from
Urge: Cause chaos 65%. their target’s culture. Authority figures don’t
Turn-of-Last-Century Anarchist 55%: seem concerned with matching the era of their
Coerce Self, Substitutes for Pursuit, Substitutes appearance, though. Chargers in the US have
for Struggle. described these entities showing up as 1920s
Powers: Three times per day, Fancy Pants G-men, a Colonial-era missionary priest and nun,
can create a minor unnatural phenomenon. and two CEOs straight from the ‘80s.
His favorites are dizziness and localized tech- Their purpose is to capture the person that
nology fails. should not exist and disappear with them. Then
Once per week, he can create a significant they do the same to the person who created the
unnatural phenomenon. He loves spatial distor- non-person. They have an unnatural ability to
tions that confuse people. know where such people are. Authority figures
Fancy Pants can also foster dissent in large would love to do the same with demons, but
groups of people. He adds +10% to riot rolls. they can only detect them if one passes nearby.
Possessions: None. Authority figures appear walking around a
In life, Fancy Pants was an Italian-American corner near but not next to their target (and never
anarchist named Errico Tombari active in the in the same room). Then they ceaselessly walk
late 1890s. He blew himself up while trying towards the target. Others are ignored unless
to create a bomb to assassinate President they interfere; then the authority figures attack
McKinley but could not let go of his anarchist until the interference is gone or they are killed. Of
obsession. In time, his passionate political course, “killed” is a relative term for them. Five
desire warped into a love of chaos. He still loves minutes later, they reappear as new authority
taking down governmental figures, but he lives figures and begin the walking chase again.
to spread chaos and confusion. He especially When they close with their target, their arms
hates police departments, which he considers grow impossibly long until they hit the floor
to be tyrannical enforcers of an evil government. (provoking an Unnatural (3) check). The arms
He’s more powerful than most demons, but keep growing, but now they snake towards
he isn’t a leader either. He’s just been careful their target. If an authority figure grabs its
to please whoever summoned him. By making target, the arms coil around them and then
himself useful, he’s gained some experience quickly withdraw back to the authority figure.
and even a few humans who came to think of Once the target has reached them, they smile
Fancy Pants as a helpful pet. They died pain- and kiss the target on the forehead. Then they
fully under Fancy Pants’ hands. both disappear.
Why does he love his namesake decora- Authority figures might be unnatural, but
tive trousers? In his life, everyone wore drab, their bodies are mostly human and suffer
boring clothes. He discovered colored pants in from attacks as normal. However, one hit by
the 1950s and is now obsessed with any pants anything that can exorcise an unnatural entity
that are unusual and colorful. will make the creature disappear, not to return
for five minutes.
AUTHORITY FIGURES Authority figures may be sent away with a
These unnatural entities show up when variation of the ritual that summoned them, or
someone exists that should not. This includes by resolving the unnatural phenomena they are
demons, but it usually means individuals who targeting (banishing a demon, re-uniting the
magicked their way into existence. For example, Marias, etc.)

27
 AUTHORITY FIGURES (MAJOR) If one conscious triplet sees another conscious
Wound Threshold: 40 triplet, it is driven to reunite with them.
Kidnap the Should-Not-Be 60%: Provides Otherwise, once the triplets are awake, they
Initiative, Substitutes for Pursuit, Substitutes for aggressively pursue agendas directly related to
Struggle. Their attacks are usually not harmful. their respective passion.
Instead, they attempt to use their extremely In order to work, the Del Rubio Necklace
long arms to coil around the target (with a must be voluntarily worn by the target. Forcing
successful Struggle roll) and bring them in for someone to put it on does nothing but jazz up
a kiss. However, they defend themselves and an ensemble.
cause standard melee damage (two d10s added
together) plus an additional 6 wounds per hit. RITUAL: CALLING THE AUTHORITIES
Cost: 3 minor charges.
THE DEL RUBIO NECKLACE Ritual Action: Draw a six-foot square in
Power: Major coins or salt on a level floor. In that box, place a
Description: Three diamonds in a column hat belonging to some kind of authority figure
held by a silver band attached to a silver chain. (policeman’s cap, firefighter’s helmet, or crown),
It was created in the 1930s, so the style is a bit a book on leadership, and a drawing or stuffed
outdated by modern standards. A small inscrip- animal of a mythological creature. Urinate on
Artifacts come in all tion on the band reads, “To my girls. Love, Bob.” all three, being careful not to wash away the
kinds of shapes, sizes, Although it can be traced back to the singing box. Then everyone present must turn their
and power levels. Del Rubio triplets, it is unlikely to have created backs on the box and together say, “There are
Read more about them since they worked well together. no monsters, only people.”
them on page 86 of Effect: This is one of those “oh please do Effect: After the magic words are spoken,
Book One: Play. not put this on” kind of artifacts. When the two authority figures appear in the box. They
necklace is worn around the neck, the wearer stand there blinking for about a minute. If there
is paralyzed. As they go through a minor seizure, is an unnatural entity nearby, the authority
their body begins to look out of focus while figures calmly but determinedly walk towards
everything else around them looks normal. In it, hoping to embrace and disappear with the
around three minutes, there’s a tremendous entity. If there are no such entities nearby, they
burst of light as a shockwave blasts outward. attempt to embrace a random human they
The wearer has now become three identical can see.
and unconscious people. The only exception This ritual can be reversed by casting it again
is the trio of necklaces, which now have only but this time cleaning the items in the box with
one diamond each. Witnessing this provokes soap or detergent, turning toward the box, and
an Unnatural (6) stress check. Each triplet is repeating the original incantation.
based on one of the three passions: fear, rage,
and noble. An hour or so after they are split, the
triplets wake up about five minutes apart from
one another, in the above passion order.

28
 ELLEN KALOUDIS Taking the blame for someone else’s mistakes.
Friends of the Blue Line
Find out what happened to Maria.
Being honest when a lie would be easier.

You’re in your forties but alcoholism makes you

look older. Your skin’s dry, but your brown hair is long, curly, and healthy. You favor (Helplessness) Failing vital tasks.
dark yoga pants, loose Hawaiian shirts, and sensible shoes. Your totemic pistol, a Glock
26 9mm handgun, is usually in a concealed holster at your waist. You wear contacts
because your vision’s so bad, and though it’s hard to tell your right leg is prosthetic.

Detective Renee
Jefferson
Jada

45 60

X X

X XX

50
Y
N TIT
GULF WAR HOSPITAL CORPSMAN IDE
ON
SSI
40 OBS
E

Struggle
FULMINATURGY
60
Stand Alone
1
Medical
Provides Firearm Attacks Makes you look more important or notable, adds
+10%–20% to relevant rolls if situation fits.
Lose charges if
RECOVERING ALCOHOLIC
20 you’re disarmed or
if you leave home
Serious Demeanor 1
without a firearm.
Laughing at, demeaning, or dismissing you while this is
Secrecy in effect forces a Helplessness (3-4) stress check.
Protects Helplessness Perceptions of Steady Hand,
social position Steady Heart 2
Protects Self and relationship Can cast as instinctive response to a failed
of individual to stress check. Hands goes to firearm to calm. Still
society. take failed notch but don’t flee, freeze, or fight.

When you’re in public openly carrying your totem firearm you can earn 1 mi-
nor charge every 2 hours. It must be visible and on your person.

Carrying your totem firearm secretly for 10 or more hours outside your home
earns 1 significant charge.

Note: This identity has the Cast Rituals feature.

 JADA PARKER Parasites (more figurative than literal).
Friends of the Blue Line.
Find out what happened to Maria.
Helping the clueless.

You’re in your late thirties, dark-skinned, and

curvy. Your hair’s real short and dyed fire-engine red. You wear large sunglasses, tight (Self) Being left alone with your thoughts.
blouses, loose A-line skirts, brightly-colored flats. On the job, you wear a jumpsuit with
Pest-N-Critter Defense in large black letters on your back. You have a shiny can of bug
spray and several smaller aerosol bottles.

Detective Renee Greg

Jefferson
45 55

X X

X X

X X

50
Y
PEST EXTERMINATOR TIT
60 NI
DEN
WARRIOR
Notice OB
SE
SSIO
60
Substitutes for Pursuit
Zero tolerance
Coerce Helplessness against pests You don’t need to make stress checks when you’re direct-
and other unseen ly pursuing your purpose.
dangers. Driven
to pursue and
eliminate them. Anyone who fights alongside you in your cause gets a
+10% to their identity or ability rolls.

Helmets, blood
stains, fire.

You’re driven to eradicate one of society’s ills, and in your case, it’s
pests (and that includes metaphorical ones). You can interpret that
however you like, but they have to be feeding off society or humani-
ty in some way to count as parasites.

This identity has the Cast Rituals feature.

 GREG O’NEIL Being dismissed as unimportant.
Friends of the Blue Line
Find out what happened to Maria.
People making quality art.

Most people notice your gummy smile or

strong chin first. You started going bald in your twenties; ten years on, most of it (Violence) An argument escalating into violence.
is gone. While you’ve got a surprisingly large beer belly, the rest of your body is a
little thick but otherwise fit. You typically wear a patterned dress shirt under a
navy-blue blazer with dark pants and shoes.

Detective Renee
Vince Jefferson
55 55

X X

X X

X X

Y
50
IT
NT
IDE
CROOKED FILM CRITIC SI ON
SES
50 OB CINEMANCY
Secrecy
70
Stock Wardrobe
Substitutes for Status
1
Protects Unnatural Dress in traditional garb for a profession and pass as a
Can’t see the begin- member of that profession to others in that profession.
ning of a cliché and
not fill whatever role What Could Go Wrong?
necessary to ensure
1–7
the cliché finishes. When someone says X won’t happen, spend
charges to make X happen; +2 charges if that person
knows how this spell works.
Does this Smell like
Movie magick —
illusions based on Chloroform? 2
popular tropes, Cover somebody’s mouth with a white cloth by
genres. surprise; drop them into deep sleep for five minutes,
even without actual chloroform.
When you get somebody else to describe or act out
over-used cinematic cliché, including a memorable an
line from a movie that is
acted out by the person who quotes it.

When you act like a stock character from film for

five hours or more, down to every stereotype and
cliché; if you drop the
mask you have to start over.

Note: This identity has the Cast Rituals feature.

 VINCE KIRKLAND People giving up.
Friends of the Blue Line.
Find out what happened to Maria.
People who know who they are and are happy with that.

You look like you’re around 16 years

old, but you’re actually 25. You’re a basketball coach’s dream: 6’ 7, 230 (Isolation) Having no friends.
lbs, lean, muscular, and lanky. But your mangy orange hair, dark eyes,
and acne scars make you look less “Corn-fed Hoosier phenom” and more
“Don’t let him know where you work.”
Detective Renee
Ellen Jefferson
50 60

X X

X X

X XX

X X

50
ITY
PROTECTIVE BIG BROTHER NT
55 ID
E
THE GUIDE
Dodge SE
SSIO
N
55
OB
Substitutes for Struggle Always the one No matter where you are, you have a chance
of sending someone in the right direction. Success is a
Therapeutic to help others on
helpful albeit vague direction; matched success or crit is
the journey, nev- not only where to go but obstacles and challenges along
er to walk that the way.
path himself. Once a day you can give somebody advice
on any subject with a successful roll. If they follow your
advice they can flip-flop one of their rolls. See Notes below.

Lights, lines on a
highway, GPS on
a phone, maps,
books of wisdom.

Anyone who has you as their Mentor or Guru relationship (such as Greg O’Neil)
has a special bond with you. Once a day per person you can give them some
cryptic advice or guidance and then roll percentile dice; they can use the result
of that roll as one of their own rolls later on.

This identity has the Cast Rituals feature.

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Unknown Armies. This is an occult game about broken people conspiring to fix the world.
It’s a game that presents magick as it might exist in a world built out of crime fiction and secret
histories, as twisting wrinkles in reality created by greater and greater risk, sacrifice, and obsession.

This game book includes rules, characters, and a scenario called Maria in Three Parts that you can
play using the third edition of the game. If you want to run this game for your friends, you’re the
gamemaster (GM) and you should read the whole thing at least once or twice. If you just want to play
it, choose one of the four player characters (PCs) provided and find a friend to be the gamemaster.

You will need a set of percentile dice for each player and the GM.

If you’d like to know more about Unknown Armies, look it up at atlas-games.com/unknownarmies/

or ask at your local game or hobby store. The game comes in three core rulebooks and there are two
additional digital-only books as well. You can get the digital editions of this game at Warehouse 23
or DriveThruRPG or by following the links at our website. Our website also includes more adventure
material, gamemaster screen downloads, and character sheet blanks.

For reference, the Unknown Armies books are:

Book One: Play—The book for players.

Book Two: Run—The book for gamemasters.
Book Three: Reveal—The book of weird things and twisted ideas.
Book Four: Expose (digital only)—A book of designer Greg Stolze’s most unchained creations.
Book Five: Mine (digital only)—A book of miscellaneous expanded rules, characters, and ideas from
our writing team.

Unknown Armies created by Greg Stolze and Art direction: Aaron Acevedo
John Tynes Cover art: Aaron Acevedo
Writing and design: WJ MacGuffin Interior art: Shutterstock
Additional writing and design: Cam Banks, Publishers: John and Michelle Nephew
Greg Stolze Special thanks to Jessica Banks, Bob
Line development, editing, layout, and Brynildson, Jerry Corrick, Aldo Ghiozzi,
project direction: Cam Banks Nicolas Gluesenkamp, Renee Knipe, Kyla
Additional project oversight: Jeff Tidball McT, Michelle Nephew, Source Comics
Proofreading: Jessica Banks, John Nephew, and Games, John Tynes, Trucker Kitty,
Jeff Tidball and Travis Winter
Graphic design: Thomas Deeny

Printed in the United States of America

www.atlas-games.com

© 2018 Trident, Inc., d/b/a Atlas Games. All rights reserved.

Unknown Armies is a trademark of Greg Stolze and John Tynes,
used under license by Trident, Inc., d/b/a Atlas Games.
This work is protected by international copyright law and may not be reproduced in whole or in part
without the written consent of the publisher.

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