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A musical introduction to Strong Bad is here. And Strong Bad answers your letters and emails here. (My favorite so far is the letter called "Techno.")

Unknown Americana Character Ideas

Here come a couple of lengthy posts about the UA game.

Underneath all the macho talk, the guns and the BOHICA rolls and so forth, Unknown Armies seems to me to be a game about character. I want to give the players as much input as possible as to the nature of their characters and the kinds of adventures they're embarking on. I have a setting in mind (highways, trailer parks, burger joints, motels, roadside attractions), a cast of supporting characters, and lots of ideas. But rather than impose a narrative structure right off the bat, I'd like the players to have input into who they are, why they're together, and, (in at least a general sense) what their goals are.

I've brainstormed some rather lengthy lists of ideas that will hopefully spark player creativity and suggest the kinds of things that I have in mind. But everything is open to negotiation.

( First, some ideas about individual characters. )

Unknown Americana Campaign Frames

The first edition of Unknown Armies, cool as it was, left a lot of people scratching their heads and saying "yeah, but what do we actually do?" The second edition tries to answer that with a series of "campaign frames" that spell out: who are the PCs? why are they together? and what are they up to? There's some very good suggested campaigns in the rule book. (I'm especially partial to "The Friends of Charlie Verrick," "Mobius Dick," "Guns Against Magick," and "The Tuxedo Brigade," plus the Ken Hite campaign referenced on p. 201. And "Banjo Music Aversion Therapy" from the 1st edition.) I've also come up with a bunch on my own (stealing from a number of sources), oriented to my goal of a traveling "road movie" campaign.

( Some possible campaign frames... )

And people wonder why I haven't finished my dissertation yet...