This is a pretty solid book in terms of material, but the lack of bookmarks makes it kinda difficult to use. I just bought all of the 5th edition books in the bundle of holding, and I was surprised at how many of them do not have bookmarks. ANy chance that this could get resolved at some point?

Having looked at a lot of different adept schools, both from canon and fan materials, this one really knocks it out of the park. Designing adept magick is complicated, and the guidelines in 3e are useful if somewhat lacking. This really hits that balance perfectly. Immediately useful minor spells paired with conceptually interesting sig spells so that everything comes together perfectly. The interplay between everything is really solid, its very versatile yet also with useful restraints. I've been playing a logomancer for over a year in my friends campaign it has been a delight everytime I figure out something clever I can do.

One of the best roleplaying games I know, a must have for everyone. A wonderful setting, supported by excellent supplements. Great game mechanics with the most complete and ersatile magic system I know.

1: normally not on about AI art, but the sheer grotesquerie of it all makes it work.

2: smartly laid-out. A lot of stuff fails this and it baffles me.

3: Fits right in with what I feel is the right tone to use with UA.

4: Takes a wild swing out of the US and into India, which is smart as hell and adds a lot to the book, I feel. Adds a lot of factions (other food chains) and At least one character from each one and why they would be involved, giving the GM an easier time of drag-and-dropping them in. The way the thing is set out you can see all sorts of interesting little lures in basically any entry.

5: In both detail and in words, manages to nail that old 4chan style of speak and then slide easily to the modern internet-speak. There's some lived experience in here and I mean that in a good way. Despite that, it also manages to escape the modern culture of the place.

6: There's not only depth, but breadth. There's something for every tier, and virtually any milleau- from the most GRITTY ASOF&I kind of thing to the more gonzo magic horseshit kinda thing.

7: somehow made a mcdonald highchair the most threatening, ominous artefact. My god, the thing is evil.

On the new Adept and Avatar Stuff:

8: Exesusurgy: fucked up, absolutely gross school but in a way that is hilarious and also annoying. The school of the 'but I'm just a little guy O:^)' combined with classic, classic body-spell stuff.

9: Velociturgy: Straightforward and sensible, but there's all sorts of way to have Adepts 'think' about their school. For example: There's basic physical arts (sprinting, biking) but then there's cars and their phylogenic cousins, but then we get into weird shit: Gamejam participants, those guys who make plushies of pokemon within the hour of it being first revealed. And most of all: Speedrunners. AGDQ is a panopoly of possible Velociturges that would have much the same mechanical effects but a wildly different 'culture. I am obsessed with the concept.

10: Mancymancers: Exactly what a copy class should be. Dead-simple mechanics, incredible ideas for how an Adept realizes it.

11: Cliomancy: o my most beloathed <\3. The face-up makes the school much more approachable for the little guy and also sets up good guardrails for the aspiring cobweb farmer.

12: Only one new Avatar, but it fits in so well that it's surprising I hadn't seen it before. Simple, but satisfying.

World Stuff: As mentioned above, the writers cast a wide net to give people new places to roam. The general worldbuilding in the first half is a good springboard, and the stuff in the second half is a great place to land. Quickly re-establishing NYC as a place to Be A Cabal, the Franchising section is peppered with great locations. Again, the book takes care to have low-to-high level things going down. It also walks the other axis of 'realistic' to 'a house ate and then pooped me out and chewed up my magic :('.

I don't play Unknown Armies so I can't speak to the mechanical details but as a inspiration for modern magic/road travel stuff it's fantastic. Overall hits the sweet spot for me of making modern magic shenangians seem real(ish) while still being weird and freaky. The Speed Bumps section (spells, critters, stuff) is full of cool unique stuff. Passengers (NPCs and groups) is little middle of the road (pun!) but totally solid. Fender Benders (character stuff) is interesting but probably largely lost on me as a non-UA players. On Ramps (places and story ideas) is the knock-out punch for me.

A lot of modern magic/urban fantasy/whatever stuff has a bad habit of re-painting the same stuff from other games, save this person, get this thing, the princess is in another castle, etc. these story ideas are not that. The On Ramps section doesn't fall into that trap, all the stuff here is outside of that mold and very interesting. Love it!

Currently my favourite cat game by a margin (and you bet I've made a beeline for them). It makes it both easy AND fun to play a magical kitty.

Two comments: I found the play time was closer to 105 minutes than my usual 150 for one-shots (including character creation). I don't think this is a bad thing but worth noting. I would really have loved some random tables for creating plots - for such an innovative game it was frustrating that it relied on prewritten stories or ST planning. Although it does have quite a lot of prewritten material available.

Note this is a pirate game with a furry gloss. The book reads like the furry part was a second thought. Most of the book seems to be timelines and a bit of history. Character generation is very simple after reading the rules two or three times. It is very simple to overpower a character. Most is realistic to the time and magic seems to be an afterthought. I just made it very rare so things like the witch trials (are mentioned in the book) make sense because if it is common than why make it illegal.

The system is easy to break and it is interesting telling a player you healed but still might die (I said somewhat realistic). It was fun to play, but easy to make players feel smaller in larger ship battles.

This book is incredibly detailed. It features several drawings of locations important for the adventure. And most importantly, it leaves you with a lot of room for customization, for both Referees and Players. For instance, you can choose which mode of transport you use to get to your destination, and the book describes how that choice changes the adventure.

Oddities and Endlings is probably one of the best statosphere splats out there right now. Clocking in at a highly ambitious 200+ pages, it's full of optional (but well-integrated) rules, excellent rituals for use in a campaign or session, otherspaces, artifacts and identities, and even a whole campaign setting, itself very well put together and cohesive.

Ben Hammond only has one other splat out on statosphere--Me, Myself, & You, which is itself one of the best loved splats on statosphere already. Oddities and Endlings really feels like a labor of love that the author spent a boatload of time, attention and care into creating in order to make a splat as good as any officially published content.

The formatting also looks great, so kudos on that. If you like Unknown Armies, this splat is an extremely worthy purchase, especially if you are running a long-form campaign.

excellent material. the locations and characters are perfect not for running as a canned adventure but dropping into a game or building a larger adventure around them. super excited to drop one of these into my next game.

Unknown Armies is one of those books that would survive a bookshelf purge after a post-New Year’s viewing of “Tidying up with Marie Kondo”. It sparks the same kind of perverse joy on reading that puts me in the same bewildered headspace as I felt after I’d finished Grant Morrison’s “The Invisibles”.

I feel that it has something to do with how the Unknown Armies team of writers were able to tap into the “just maybe…” school of thought, those weird plays of imagination when you entertained, even for just a fleeting moment that if you wanted something enough, reality would play by your rules for once.

The outcome is a mechanically clever, easy-to-run game whose rules tie in strongly with the themes. There’s no fat in the mechanics, it does exactly what it needs to do, then it gets out of the way, letting players experience (second hand) the depths of madness and sacrifice necessary to manifest their wants on the world.

I’ve mentioned before on twitter that Unknown Armies deserves to be required reading in a “How to write an RPG” seminar, and I stand by those words. I highly recommend Unknown Armies for any GM, even if you think it might not be your thing, you’ll find something to amaze you in these pages.

When I was younger, I liked the first and the second edit. Almost month ago I purchased Over the Edge 2nd edit book and At Your Service suppliment for it, as 2nd hand books. And I have been mesmerized by these awesome books full of awesome ideas and whole lotta dark and twisted humour. These are actually better than I remembered them to be. Now I'm thinking about getting the 3rd ed game book and the new coming supplement for it. And this preview finally settled the Question: "Shall I buy these at all or later.." as a "HELL YEAH, I gotta have the 3rd Ed plus the supp. I loved everything about this Preview: Graphics and the layout are top-notch quality, the text are well-written and the whole concept kept me interested from the starting line till the Sweet 'n Sour End ;-) This truly IS better than I expected, which is a LOT. I just looove it, and I humbly thank You for the preview and for da all cool products. Keep up the Good Work! Wishes, Krisse, devoted fan 8-)

No copy paste. Good adventures. Just no copy paste...sad.

This is an exceptional RPG. The original was scary, weird, innovative and clever. What makes the 3rd edition such a finely honed machine is the authors 30 years of writing and games design experience. You should buy this just for the precise and clever narrative mechanic (and the baboons)!

Was expecting more:

I'm new to Unknown Armies and became quickly interested in the setting after reading Book 1 and hearing great things about the system. When I saw this supplement advertising itself as an add-on filled with more information on the world, I bought it thinking it'd give me more NPC's, Schools of Magick, and plot scenarios. While it did contain many blurbs of info (usually in small paragraphs and at most a page), it hardly offered anything mechanical, or more than a handful of ideas to throw into a campaign.

For instance, it tells you a quick paragraph about the existence of Urbanomancers, and Narco-Alchemists, but it doesn't tell you how they work at all. I found most of the info later in the self contained second edition, until I was later told that they were written for the third edition in Book 5.

This disjointed information makes it difficult to run a complete game, and overall I would advise those interested in Unknown Armies to skip book 3. However if you're a veteran to the universe and are willing to make most things from scratch or just want to hear about the latest rumors happening in the modern world. I'd give it a light recommendation.