Dice Mechanics

Below is a quick overview of the game mechanics of Unknown Armies so that you may have a better idea of what your character's stats mean. Mechanics can be divided into three parts:

Regular mechanics describe how skills are used in normal tasks.
Madness mechanics describe how your characters mind can be affected in the game.
Combat mechanics describes the rules for combat (should you be so unfortunate as to need them)

Regular Mechanics

Minor - Minor checks are everyday events. Parallel parking, looking something up online, selecting the nice fruit in the grocery store - that kind of thing. Basically there is some challenge, but nothing major. Those with 15% or higher in their skill are assumed to have achieved a success without rolling (although the GM may ask you to roll just to see how well you do.) If you roll at or under your skill, you succeed well. If you roll over your skill, you succeed in a shabby manner. (For example, if you succeed on your roll to parallel park the car, you make it in on one try. If you fail, you need to drive back and forth a couple times to get the car in.)

Significant - Significant checks are those checks that represent genuinely challenging uses of the skill but which don't represent any danger or other pressure. If you roll at or under your skill, you succeed strongly while a roll over your skill indicates a weak success. An example could be acting on stage or taking a timed test. Most rolls in the game will be significant simply because they are far more common than major checks (below) and most minor checks won't require rolls to begin with.

Major - Something important is hanging on the line. All rolls in combat are major. Alternatively, getting the truck's engine fixed in the sandstorm when the enemy forces will be within firing range in a few minutes would also be a major check. Major checks succeed if you roll at or under your skill. Rolling over your skill is a failure.

Three special rolls need to be noted: fumbles, crits, and matches. 00 (100%) is a fumble. It means things went horribly wrong. Guns jam, you drop the fish tank you were carrying, that sort of thing. 01 (1%) is a crit. It means that things went as well as they possibly could. Strikes do their maximum damage, you can repair the engine in less time that anyone expected, etc. Matches occur when the two percentile dice come up on the same number (ie 1 and 1, 2 and 2, 3 and 3, etc.) What happens here depends on your skill. If the roll is under your skill, something good happens. If the roll is over your skill, something bad happens.

In some cases you will not only need to succeed in your roll, but also roll greater than some other numbers. Called shots and some opposed tests are this way.

The other neat dice trick in the game is flip-flop rolls. In these situations you roll the dice, and then get to choose which one is the tens digit. This greatly enhances your chances of success. In general, you will be able to flip flop rolls made based on your passions or obsession skill (see character generation for explanations of these).

Finally, the question of what to do if you want to do something you do not have a skill for. First, the GM needs to rule that this is something an untrained person could do. Brain surgery and flying a jet do not fall under this category. Otherwise, if the check is minor or significant, you roll your attribute with a -30% penalty. If you roll at or under this target, you get a marginal success (akin to failing a normal significant check). Otherwise, you fail. If the check is major, you roll your attribute with no penalty, but only a match or crit will succeed, and this will only be a normal success. Otherwise, you fail badly.

Above and beyond this, penalties or bonuses may be imposed due to situational modifiers. The game calls these "shifts", and they can be positive or negative. (I.e. if you have a 50% skill but experience a -30 shift, you would need to roll less than or equal to 20 to score a normal success.

Final note:

I am including all this information, not because I think it is important for the players to know it, but because I think it would be unfair for you to be asked to make characters without knowing what all the numbers mean. Your focus, however, should not be optimizing for the mechanics. In fact, Unknown Armies makes this very difficult by making sure that most skills remain quite low. The three types of checks mean that, a skilled person has little to worry about in day-to-day activities, but when placed in a stressful situation, their skills are no sure thing. There are two reasons for this according to the book. First, this is a horror game. If you have skills that you can rely on to pull you through in the clutch, that lessens the impact of the genre somewhat. This way, you have no aces in the hole, as it were. Secondly, the fact that your skills are so low when they are most necessary means that you shouldn't hinge your plans on simple rolls of the dice. You should find as many things as possible to put things to your advantage (ambushes, cunning arguments, etc.) Ideally, your plan should be executed without any dice rolling at all.

Madness Mechanics

One other thing that needs to be discussed for Unknown Armies: madness. Characters in UA do not start out as totally stable individuals in the first place, but there is so much further they can fall. Each character has five "madness meters", each of which represents one way in which their sanity can be hammered. Moreover, within each category, checks are divided up by level from the least severe (1) to the most (10). The madness meters are:

violence - You make violence checks when exposed to violence. The violence may be directed at others, at yourself, or performed by yourself. Being attacked with a weapon would be a rank 1 check. Watching as someone you love is tortured to death would be a rank 10 check.

the unnatural - You make unnatural checks when confronted by something that should not exist. Experiencing a preternatually strong deja vu would be a rank 1 check. Realizing that the reason you and your spouse of 10 years never had children is that he is not entirely human would be rank 10.

helplessness - You would make this check when you experience a sense of powerlessness. Unintentionally humiliating yourself in public would be a rank 1 check. Being possessed yet aware as your body commits unspeakable acts would be rank 10.

isolation - You make isolation checks when you are in some way isolated (surprise). Spending a day without seeing anyone you know would be a rank 1 check. Spending a month in a sensory deprivation tank would be rank 10.

self - You make self checks whenever you act in a manner contrary to your own self image. Breaking a minor promise (that you intended to keep) would be a rank 1 check. Deliberately destroying everything you've risked your life to support would be a rank 10 check.

Note that, especially at lower levels, madness checks will only be made if it is relevant to to story.

Each meter has 10 "hardened" notches and 5 "failed" notches. If you are faced with a madness check, you need to make a simple Mind attribute roll. If you succeed, you mark one of the hardened notches and act as normal. If you fail, you mark one of the failed notches and will either flee (run away), freeze (become unable to move until whatever caused the madness check is gone), or frenzy (attack the source of the madness until it is gone). Once one of these three is chosen, your character will act that way until until the source of the madness is gone. If you frenzy an indestructable opponent, you don't get to change your mind once you realize this - you are too far gone to be thinking that rationally.

Hardened notches indicate your resistance to further madness checks of that kind. Every madness check has a rank from 1-10. If you have N hardened notches, you do not need to make mind rolls if the check is rank N or lower. If you have 10 or more hardened notches on a single meter, you will never need to make a roll of that kind. Basically, you have become so callous to that stimulous that it no longer affects you. This is seldom a good thing. Note that the level of the stimuli does not have any affect on your mind roll. You succeed if you roll at or under your Mind stat regardless of whether the stimulus is level 1 or level 10. All the level determines is how much hardening you would need to ignore the stimulus completely.

Failed notches indicate how disturbed your character is by the given stimulus. If all five of your failed notches are marked, you develop a clinical nurosis. In addition, any further exposure to the given stimulus (that is at a rank higher than your hardening) will automatically have you go into flee/freeze/frenzy mode with no mind roll.

Both hardened and failed notches may be removed through therapy. Any notches of either type usually have some manifestation in the character's personality.

As a final note, understand that madness (in all its incarnations) is part of the game. Any marks on either harded or failed meters will show up in your character's personality. Also, note that, if you gain 5 failed notches, you are not out of the game. In fact, in many respects, madness is just the beginning.

Combat Mechanics

Combat in Unknown Armies is extremely dangerous. Firearms can kill in a single shot and knives take only a few good stabs. For this reason, characters should fear combat. As this is a role playing game, however, combat will probably enter into the picture at some point. Unknown Armies doesn't have a highly detailed combat system. The major aspects of combat are as follows.

Initiative:

All people potentially involved in the combat must determine their order in the combat. The normal way to do this is to roll against your speed stat. All those who succeed in this roll get to go before all those who do not. Within either group, those with higher rolls go before those with lower. (In this case, crits, fumbles, and matches have no effect.) If, however, you have the Initiative skill, you may simply use the value of your skill as your successful initiative roll. No roll is required. Finally, if you have ambushed someone, they must roll as normal, but you simply use your Speed stat as your successful stat roll. In the case of a tie, a coin is flipped.

Attack:

The attack is a major skill check using whatever skill is appropriate for the weapon (or lack thereof) that you wish to use. The GM may impose a positive or negative shift based on the circumstances.

You may declare a "focus shift". This basically means that you are going to concentrate on a single target. (The GM may rule that conditions prevent you from concentrating effectively.) Focus shifts must be declared at the beginning of the round, not when your turn comes up. You can choose a focus shift of +10, +20, or +30. When your turn rolls around, you are able to apply this bonus to your skill. The cost? It is obvious to anyone paying attention that you are focusing on a specific target. If they are able to attack you, they can do so with the same shift that you have against your target. Specifically, if you want a +20 shift against target A, everyone gets a +20 shift against you.

In addition, there are some special rules for firearms:

You can perform called shots by accepting a minimum roll value. (For example, to shoot someone in the leg, you would need to accept a minimum roll of 30.)

You may fire multiple shots (up to 3 per round) by dividing your skill (after all shifts have been applied) between the shots. You decide how the skill is divided.

If you fire more than 3 shots in a single round you are doing what is called suppressive fire. In this case, you are not trying to pick off a target but are instead trying to fill the air around them with lead. You will only hit someone if you roll a crit. However, everyone in your field of fire suffers a negative shift as they keep their head down. The amount of the shift depends on the number of shots that are in the air during the round. (This is the total number of rounds. If multiple people are laying down suppressive fire, add their shots together to determine the shift.) You can only start laying down suppressive fire on your turn, but may continue doing so at the beginning of the next round. (I.e. Those who have higher initiatives than you in the round you start shooting will be unaffected, but next round, should you continue suppressive fire, they will need to take cover.)

Note: you cannot draw and use a weapon in the same round - it takes a round to ready a weapon.

Dodging:

You may declare that you are going to dodge on your turn. From that point in the round on, if someone makes a successful attack against you, roll your Dodge skill. If you make your Dodge skill and roll over your opponent's attack roll, you take no damage. If you fail your Dodge roll, but your opponent's attack roll was less than your Dodge skill, you take half damage (round up). Otherwise, you take full damage.

Note that dodging only affects the people who act after you in the round you declare that you are going to dodge. You may not dodge those who act before you in that round. After the first round, however, you may declare at the beginning of the round that you will continue dodging. From then on, your dodge will affect all opponents.

While dodging you may perform no other actions.

Damage:

Damage is pretty straightforward:

Hitting and punching does damage equal to the sum of the numbers on the die of your successful strike. Using hand to hand weapons adds between 3 and 9 to this total, depending on whether the weapon is heavy, or sharp, or otherwise nastier than your bare hands.

Firearms do damage equal to the value of your successful roll up to a maximum determined by the type of firearm. For example, a .22 pistol can do no more than 30 (assuming there isn't something about the gun you don't know about...). A .44 can do no more than 80. So, for example, if you shot someone with a .44 with a successful roll of 58 you would do 58 points of damage. That would kill most people instantly.

If you (or your opponent) roll matched successes in your attack roll, the damage can increase dramitically.

Your hit points are equal to your Body stat. (Human average is 50.)

You are never told how much damage has been done to you. The GM will just tell you how much you hurt. Periodically, the GM will inform you that you have taken an injury that warrents a negative shift.

Healing:

The GM will keep track of each injury you take in a combat. Healing is done per-injury, rather than against the total number of hit points lost. How an injury is healed depends on the severity.

A minor injury causes you to lose less than 10% of your hit points. Someone can roll their first aid skill and, if successful, you regain hit points equal to the sum of the dice on their roll up to a maximum of the amount of injury caused by that wound minus 1; there is always at least one point per injury that will only heal with time. First aid may only be attempted once per injury.

A major injury causes you to lose more than 10% of your hit points in one shot. This requires someone with legitimate medical training, preferably in a legitimate medical facility. If you make it to the hospital within an hour of your injury a doctor can heal you of damage equal to their successful roll up to a maximum of the amount of damage that injury did minus 1. (As with minor injuries, there is always one point that only time will heal.) If you do not make it to the hospital within an hour, the doctor will only be able to heal up to the sum of the digits of their successful roll (with the same maximum healing as before). This is assuming the doctor rolled their skill successfully and had good equipment at their disposal.

(Note that the 10% value that divides the minor and major injuries is a fuzzy line. The GM may rule that, due to conditions or the nature of the attack, this boundary may move around.)

An injury that does more than 50 points of damage in a single shot will cause permanent damage. The nature of this damage can vary. Possibilities are permanent loss of hit points, lowering of stats or skills, reduced senses, and lost limbs. While you may heal the hit points you lost, the permanent damage will not go away ever.

Any remaining hit point loss after treatment can only be healed with convalescence. If you have fewer than 60% of your hit points back, you need to remain under the care of a doctor or nurse and should not be up and about. If you follow doctor's orders, you will heal 2 points per day. Once you have healed back to more than 60%, you can start resuming your life. If you take things easy, you will get 1 point back today, if you remain in bed you get 2, but if you push yourself, you will not heal anything that day.

As noted earlier, the GM is the only one who knows how many hit points you have. You will be informed how your character feels and will need to use that to determine whether it is time to leave the hospital.

Final Notes:

A few final points here. First, please note that combat is extremely dangerous. Getting in a punching match with someone is probably not going to kill you, but as soon as someone pulls a knife, you have a very real risk of at least receiving a serious injury and firearms can kill in a single shot. Keep this fact in mind, both in terms of protecting your own character, and when considering how to deal with enemies.

Second, remember that the setting is the real world (mostly). Not everyone is armed with machineguns and not all conflicts will be solved with gunplay. Combat may very well be avoidable. If you can't think of any other way, make sure to fight on your own terms. Make sure you don't go into this with the common gaming idea that combat, at least in the climax, will be inevitable. If you enter into combat, there is a very real chance of death for your character. It should not be viewed as the easy option.

As a corollary to the above, remember that you are (probably) not a psychopathic killer. You have probably never killed anyone. Attacking someone, as well as being attacked, requires a madness check for violence (of varying severity depending on the nature of the attack). Executing someone in cold blood is a level 7 check. The same goes for your opponents. This isn't the type of game where everyone fights to the death. (Some might, but not everyone.) Remember that, both for yourself and when dealing with enemies. Think about what things are so important to you that you would kill or die over them. If you have the type of character who would pull a knife if insulted, you would be advised to have a backup character in mind very quickly.

Finally, do not forget about the police. If people hear guns fired, the police will be called. If you show up in the hospital with stab or gunshot wounds, the police will be called. If you are a suspect in a crime, the police will investigate and you had better have a good explanation why the blood of the victim is on your sleeves. Response times and attitudes will vary, but the police will be present after any potentially lethal altercation. Keep this in mind.