I'll be honest, Unknown Armies has been one of my favorite RPGs since I picked up the original back in 1998. (You know, the olden days.) Every page inspired me, from the innovative game mechanics to the fresh take on modern occultism. Like many players, though, I struggled with certain aspects of the game when I actually sat down to play it. (Most notoriously, the high rate of failed actions.)
However, the second edition corrects these issues with admirable determination and self-awareness. The biggest change is the addition of two "levels" of actions: Minor and Significant. Both of these radically increase a character's chance of success in less stressful situations. Though the book still recommends running combat actions the old way (i.e. as Major actions), there's nothing to stop you from using the Significant actions method to decrease your whiff factor.
The other major improvement is a heavy infusion of example Narrative Structures, as the book calls them. Many GMs had trouble figuring out what the Hell the characters were supposed to DO in an Unknown Armies campaign, so second edition goes out of its way to give suggestions. LOTS of suggestions. And it works, too. I had dozens of good campaign ideas by the time I closed the cover, plus the dozens of cool villain and plot ideas I would have taken away from first edition.
Finally, a ton of time and attention has gone into making the book more... useful, for lack of a better term. The table of contents and index are astoundingly detailed and complete. The new book draws on the entire first edition line of supplements to fill out the schools of magick, archetypes, NPC groups, and so forth. There's even a handy page in the back that tells you what material from which supplements is duplicated. It's easily the most usable RPG book I own.
Production values are more of a mixed bag. The new cover art is serviceable, but I prefer the old one. I understand the dark, morbid piece is something of an acquired taste, and it still appears on the inside cover, but I was sad to see the look of the book change. The interior art ranges from excellent to okay, but is generally evocative of the setting. It has a hardcover construction with binding that looks sturdy enough.
For those of you new to the game, here's the low down...
John Tynes set out to create a totally new mythology for the modern occult genre. Inspired by the works of Tim Powers, he populated it with self-mutilating magi, avatars of the Mystic Hermaphrodite, an obsessed millionaire's personal foreign legion, and other things that make all of the above seem tame by comparison. The writing drips with style from cover to cover and the setting has acres of room for wily GMs to play in.
Greg Stolze's game mechanics marry a simple, percentile system to a set of innovative dice tricks and other gimmicks that place the game's focus squarely on its characters. Combat is bloody and brutal, just like in real life. The Madness system is, quite seriously, the best there is. Now that the Incompetent Characters Syndrome has been cured in the new edition, it gets my full endorsement.
So, there you have it: A rich, creative setting plus innovative, character-focused rules equals one of the best RPGs on the market.
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