Lamentations of the Unknown Armies

So a while back, I ran an early modern Unknown Armies game, which you can read all about in the early modern Unknown Armies tag.  All the early modern Unknown Armies rules are cribbed from The Ascension of the Magdalene, an adventure set in 1610 Prague and part of Atlas Games' Coriolis imprint, wherein they dual-stat adventures for their house rules and d20.

The main problem I found is that Unknown Armies' sleek and fast ruleset bogs quickly when archaic weapons get involved.  Simply put: their archaic armor rules suck, because they require way more bookkeeping than anything else in the game.  And they slow down combat significantly, because hits now do way less damage.  (As I write this, I wonder if archaic armor ought to just impose a flat negative shift on enemy attacks.  Or, even better, it works thus: When taking damage from a melee attack, a wearer with light armor ignores the lower die, and a wearer with heavy armor ignores the higher one.  So, if some dude punches you and roll an 18, somebody in light armor takes 8 damage, and somebody in heavy armor takes 1 damage.  Armor can still knock off weapon bonus damage if you want, but I'd keep it as a flat -3 and -6 rather than tracking what damage type it is.  Less bookkeeping is superior to more in Unknown Armies.)

So, instead of adapting D&D to Unknown Armies, I've been thinking about going the other way and adapting Unknown Armies to D&D.  Specifically, the other early modern variant — Lamentations of the Flame Princess.  It already has fast combat resolution and early modern flair, including guns and early modern armor.

Rules Tweaks:

For Lamentations of the Unknown Armies, there are only three classes — Fighter, Magic-User, and Specialist.  Magic-users can use both cleric and magic-user spells.  To offset rarer healing, and keep with UA's typical action economy, maybe there's a First Aid or Heal skill for Specialists — using it just after a battle lets you heal a hit die roll's worth of hit points, and the rest gets healed by natural healing.

If you want to port the Madness Meters over, everything works just the way as it does in UA2, Chapter Five: Madness, pg. 64-71.  Stress checks are Wisdom checks — roll a d20 against Wisdom.  If you get lower than the stat (or equal to it), you gain a Hardened notch.  If you get higher than the stat, you gain a failed notch, and panic, paralysis, or frenzy as normal.  (There probably aren't many therapists about, but if you can find a sin-eater of some sort around, the Referee can give them a score between 1-20 to act as a psychotherapist.)

Avatars bear special noting: an Avatar path is a new ability score, from 0-20.  Most people start with 0; your Referee might allow you to start with a couple of points in it if you want.  (Maybe you can sink Specialist points into the Avatar ability?)  If you seek the Avatar path in-game, it takes nine in-game weeks to gain the first point, and another five in-game weeks to gain the second point.  Once you hit two points, you gain another point each time you level up.  If you break your taboo, you make a taboo check.  Roll 1d20 — if you roll equal to your Avatar score or below it, you lose a point in your Avatar ability.  If you roll above your Avatar ability, nothing happens.

Avatar scores directly convert from the Unknown Armies book in 5% increments, so you get your first channel from 1-10 points, your second channel from 11-14 points, your third channel from 15-18 points, and your fourth channel from 19-20 points.  You have a chance for godwalker at 20 points, and if you're the godwalker, you choose your godwalker channel at that level.  (You probably want to check out Ascension of the Magdalene for alternate early modern Avatar manifestations.)

Given the humanocentric universe of Unknown Armies, and the general feel of the setting, certain spells, effects, and adventures probably aren't appropriate, although that's up to the individual Referee.  If you want to give characters the option to be a little more versatile, like in regular old Unknown Armies, let them multiclass.  (I'd recommend keeping XP requirements the same, so if you're a level 3 Fighter looking to become a level 4 Magic-User, your next level-up will require +4,500 XP, or 8,500 XP, rather than +4,000 XP.)  If you determine Magic-Users are the adepts of the setting, start them off with 1 Hardened and 1 Failed notch in Unnatural, and make them go through the same rigamarole (you have to go crazy in a Madness Meter) to become Magic-Users.

Better Than Any Man: Unknown Armies Conversion Notes, Part 2

A quick update: the Unknown Armies excursion into Better Than Any Man continues to go hilariously.  Some bandits died, a clockwork robot died, and a lot of PCs quite nearly died.  (Read about it here.)

Since the PCs are quickly exiting Thüngen next session, it seems probable (although not completely certain) that they will miss Dittmar, the bandit leader.  He gets a roughly two sentence description in Better Than Any Man, but since his potential presence seemed notable, I gave him full statistics in Unknown Armies.  So, without further ado...

Dittmar

Personality: Two-Face from Batman.  He seems like a somewhat suave gangster, but his reliance on chance tends to add a little capriciousness and viciousness to his demeanor.
Obsession: Power.  Money's part of it, but Dittmar really likes the control his position brings.  His reliance on chance is just to keep things interesting.  He's likely to become a postmodern Entropomancer if he's not careful.
Wound Points: 65

Rage Stimulus: Messing with his dice.  He will seriously go apeshit.
Fear Stimulus: (The Unnatural) Predestination.  Really, anything that makes him feel boxed-in or otherwise out of control really bothers him.
Noble Stimulus: Gamblers.  Dittmar has a soft spot for people who roll their own bones, and might join them for a game or cut them some slack.

Body: 65 (Toughass)
General Athletics 25%, Hold Your Liquor 20%, Struggle 50%
Speed: 60 (Ready to Move)
Dodge 35%, Horseback Riding 15%, Initiative 30%, Missile Weapons 50%
Mind: 45 (Pragmatic)
Conceal 20%, General Education 15%, Notice 30%, Strategy 25%
Soul: 50 (Superstitious)
Charm 30%, Intimidation 40%, Lying 35%, Roll the Bones 15%

Violence:  7 Hardened, 3 Failed
Unnatural: 1 Hardened, 1 Failed
Helplessness: 0 Hardened, 0 Failed
Isolation:  0 Hardened, 0 Failed
Self:  2 Hardened, 1 Failed

Possessions: Light armor, dirk (+3), short sword (+6), crossbow (maximum damage 50), wheellock pistol (maximum damage 80).  He also has his lucky dice and 8 ducats on him.

Notes: Roll the Bones is a skill Dittmar rolls every time he rolls his dice to determine an outcome.  With a successful Roll the Bones check, Dittmar gains a hunch (UA, pg. 7).

Better Than Any Man: Unknown Armies Conversion Notes

I'm not going to post everything as yet, but here are a couple of my scattered notes.  I'll probably put them in a pdf or something when I'm finished running Better Than Any Man in Unknown Armies.  Obviously, these notes assume familiarity with both games.  The following notes also reference the Unknown Armies books The Ascension of the Magdalene, Hush Hush, and Postmodern Magick.

Willibald Schwartz

Obsession: Conquering death.  Death is a form of spiritual alchemy.  By controlling the doorway, you control that potential.
Wound Points: 45

Rage Stimulus: Pointing out that he might be insane or deluded.  Schwartz might be a murderous psychopath, but he really doesn't enjoy being reminded of it.
Fear Stimulus: (Isolation) Dying of old age.
Noble Stimulus: Helping children.  Willibald crafts art of the bodies of young children because that's the highest gift he can bestow to one killed so young.  He can't help it if his glass tiger gets confused from time to time.

Body: 45 (Living Well)
General Athletics 25%, Hold Your Liquor 20%, Struggle 25%, Work Without Rest 20%
Speed: 50 (Steady Hand)
Dodge 20%, Horseback Riding 25%, Initiative 25%, Taxidermy 35%
Mind: 75 (Learned)
Conceal 35%, Notice 40%, Occult Correspondences 60%
Soul: 90 (Transcendent)
Avatar: The Magus 60%, Charm 30%, Lying 50%, Magick: Thanatomancy 70%

Violence: 7 Hardened 2 Failed
Unnatural: 7 Hardened 3 Failed
Helplessness: 2 Hardened 2 Failed
Isolation: 6 Hardened 1 Failed
Self: 4 Hardened 5 Failed

Possessions: Rapier (+3 damage), dagger (+3 damage), various fine clothes and ritual components

Notes: Occult Correspondences is Willibald's General Education skill.  It also covers his general knowledge of folklore and occultism.
Avatar: The Magus originally appears in The Ascension of the Magdalene, page 53.  Magick: Thanatomancy originally appears in Postmodern Magick, pages 111-115.
In addition to his own magickal prowess, Willibald Schwartz has access to the rituals Song of Ancient Days (detailed below) and Fires of Pure Will (Hush Hush, page 47).

Schwartz's Glass Tiger

Wound Points: 120

Body: 120 (Savage)
General Athletics 50%, Rip and Tear 65%
Speed: 80 (Swfit)
Dodge 35%, Initiative 40%, Sneak 70%
Mind: 30 (Cunning)
Notice 50%
Soul: 50 (Weird)

Notes: The Glass Tiger's exceptional Body stat grants a +3 to all melee damage.  This is in addition to the beast's teeth and claws, which also grant a +3 to damage.  The glass tiger reduces damage equivalent to heavy armor, removing the +3 damage for sharpness and the +3 damage for heaviness in hand-to-hand combat while also reducing rolled damage by three-fourths.  Guns are deal hand-to-hand damage, but aren't reduced but the tiger's armor.  Magick deals damage normally, although it's not made of flesh, so Magick: Epideromancy blasts do nothing.

Song of Ancient Days (significant ritual)

Note: This is the Unknown Armies version of Schwartz's Journey to the Past spell.  In my version of Better Than Any Man, Schwartz was kind enough to give the PCs all the components to enact the ritual, including a copy of the Fires of Pure Will ritual (a charge-building ritual).  Your Schwartz may not be so accommodating.

Power: significant

Cost: 7 significant charges

Effect: The caster and a group of up to eight individuals participating in the ritual are sent back in time to July 14, 10,000 B.C.  They are sent to the same point in time, although they appear in the same geographic location they left.  (So, if the caster casts this ritual in downtown London, he'll end up in the middle of downtown London...before it's ever built.)  To the outside observer, no time appears to pass — the ritualists appear to flicker for a fraction of a second after the ritual ends.  However, the casters are cast back to 10,000 B.C. for an amount of time equal to ten times the sum of the dice.  As such, a caster rolling a 45 will spend 90 minutes in the past, while a caster rolling a 12 will only spend 30 minutes in the past.
Being sent to the past is a rank-7 Unnatural check.

Ritual Action: This ritual requires a simple stone hammer, particularly of the sort that would have been used in the Neolithic.  The caster should use this hammer to break a sandclock, shouting, "Ula atolnay!" with each hammer blow.  When the clock is smashed, the caster should use the hammer to draw the seal of Prince Seere (a goetic demon) in the spilled sand while reciting a chant in Latin depicting a litany of the demon's praises and epithets.  Once finished, the caster should then use the hammer to smash a sundial, deface a calendar, and destroy a seal of King Philip II Augustus.  Again, with each hammer blow, the caster should shout, "Ula atolnay!"  The ritual completes with the final hammer blow.

Note: For easy reference, Prince Seere's seal looks like this: