History TabletopGame / UnknownArmies

** Kryptomancers gain power from finding secrets and leaking harmful ones, but they can't auditorily tell anybody truths that the persons hearing didn't know or can reasonably assume to be true. So you'll have to either pretend to be mute and speak via signs and writing (text-to-speech being out of question), or be a pathological liar even when it comes to trivial things, along with avoiding direct answers, especially since others might be listening without your knowledge. Wanna tell your friends where you're holding your birthday party? Better have a map and some markers handy.

** Personamancers can impersonate other people, but must sacrifice their own identity to do so.

** Urbanomancers gain power from the city they live in. ''Only'' that city - if they leave, they're powerless. Oh, and if you see yourself as an observer of the city from the outside, then you can't use it's protection against elements, so you'll have to sleep on the streets or in a vehicle.

* AddictionPowered: Narco-alchemists gain their minor charges by consuming mundane drugs, allowing them to then cast a spell.

** Kryptomancers gain power from finding secrets and leaking harmful ones, but they can't auditorily tell anybody truths that the persons hearing didn't know or can reasonably assume to be true. So you'll have to either pretend to be mute and speak via signs and writing (text-to-speech being out of question), or be a pathological liar even when it comes to trivial things, along with avoiding direct answers, especially since others might be listening without your knowledge.

* FaceHeelTurn[=/=]HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:One of the biggest events in 3rd edition is the Freak and the Comte de Saint-Germain switching places and inverting morality. The Freak is now an idealistic androgine that calls hirself the Human Eternal and is in charge of being the new First and Last Man (the only constant between universes), and the Comte is a [[GrumpyOldMan bitter, cranky old lady]] called Old Mother [[MeaningfulName Apocalypse]] who wants to make the current universe eternal and stop new ones from being created, by killing all of humanity if necessary.]]

* GodWasMyCopilot: The [[spoiler:Comte De Saint-Germain]], immortal [[PhysicalGod uberpower]], [[SociopathicHero sadistic bastard]], and appearing in at least half the stock campaigns as a bit part, sometimes in simultaneous roles halfway across a state. Often provides DeusExMachina and DiabolusExMachina.

* YourWorstNightmare: Oneiromancer blasts are all about this, which cause tangible injury to the victim in addition to making them suffer mental trauma.

* CriticalResearchFailure: InUniverse, in the second edition corebook, one cabal is a group of radical feminists trying to replace the Naked Goddess with their own creation, the Womyn. They know just enough about the Statosphere to be completely wrong. [[spoiler:First of all, to join the Invisible Clergy, you have to represent a concept the world recognizes as universal, like the Mother or the Hunter. There aren't ''nearly'' enough radical feminists for the Womyn to qualify. Even if there were, to ''replace'' a member of the Clergy, you have to represent a different facet of their concept, like the "bounty Hunter" replacing the "survival Hunter". If the Womyn ascended, she would do so ''alongside'' the Naked Goddess, not ''in place of'' her.]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Also, "pornos" was not the Greek word for "female slave", and isn't what "porn" is short for anyway]].

* {{Deconstruction}}: The game plays with most of the tropes you see in modern fantasy games, but makes sense of them the most mundane ways possible. If they can change reality, why aren't Adepts in charge? Because the very nature of their power makes them loony, and the price they pay to work their miracles makes them as useful as a carefully chosen tool, only weirder. Why is magic falling behind technology? Because technology is just better, and more reliable. Why isn't the supernatural more widespread? Because it makes you batshit crazy, and you don't trust what batshit crazy people tell you.

* OtherworldlyAndSexuallyAmbiguous: The Mystic Hemaphrodite archetype is the embodiment of magick. It represents not just men and women, but other dualities as well: love and hate, war and peace, and killing and mercy. Notably, it's the only archetype in the game whose Avatars can ''also'' be Adepts without triggering the usual backlash... so long as the Avatar's chosen school is not one built on logic. (Entropomancy, yes; Kryptomancy, no.)

* {{Immortality}}: One goal to aim for; apparently, if Dirk Allen could ever get this for the Freak, the Freak would stop hating him so much...

* OtherworldlyAndSexuallyAmbiguous: The Mystic Hemaphrodite archetype is the embodiment of magick. It represents not just men and women, but other dualities as well: love and hate, war and peace, and killing and mercy.

* RevolversAreJustBetter: Averted. Revolvers have all the flaws they do in real life (low ammunition capacity, bulk, and etc.), making pistols and, for that matter, automatic weapons far more usefull. Entropomancers love revolvers though. To their minds, what good is owning a gun if you can't play Russian Roulette with it?
* RhetoricalRequestBlunder: Less scrupulous (and less sane) Avatars of the Executioner have been known to interpret statements like "that guy really pisses me off!" as an excuse to murder someone- an Executioner can't kill anyone they haven't been ordered to by someone they consider an authority.
* RitualMagic: Certain rituals seem to be "baked in" to reality itself, allowing people who aren't Adepts or Avatars to get in on the sweet magickal action. Ritual spells are unreliable, can be difficult, and are usually pretty small potatoes compared to what Adepts and Avatars can sling around... ''but'', they do handily sidestep the whole "ruining your life to gain charges" thing.

* SleepDeprivation: Oneiromants gain their charges through suffering from it, and one of their skills forces the target to briefly suffer the same lack of sleep as the adept.

** SmokingIsNotCool: On the other hand, any use of the spells basically has a 1% chance of letting the GM screw you by supernaturally giving you cancer, leading to a quick death for any practicing adept. Fortunely, being diagnosed with cancer will give you a major charge, allowing you to cast a potentially world-altering spell.

* YourMindMakesItReal: Oneiromancer blasts will cause the victim to suffer nightmares, which will cause the victim to wake up (or die in their sleep) with real injury and mental trauma corresponding to the nightmare suffered.

** Bibliomancers gain power from owning books, the rarer the better. (Actually ''reading'' the books is optional - by a strict reading of the rules, you technically don't even need to be ''literate''.) All those books can get mighty expensive, especially if you're looking to do the more powerful spells.

** Bibliomancers gain power from reading books, the rarer the better. All those books can get mighty expensive, especially if you're looking to do the more powerful spells.

** Mechanomancers sacrifice memories to gain power, and there's only so many memories you can lose before you start having to sacrifice the ''important'' ones. And if you want to accomplish something that really changes the world, the price ''starts'' at the important memories.

* NoManGetsLeftBehind: Part of the taboo for avatars of the Captain, with respect to their crew.

* GunNut: Learning fulminaturgy is likely to make you this, as you have to be obsessed about the magic power of guns, and are encouraged to always carry one, with some adepts breaking taboo by exiting their home or vehicle unarmed. Ironically, those who view guns as a way to enforce civilization will be unable to shoot a human with a gun without breaking taboo

* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: Supplement ''Statosphere''. One of the ways for an Avatar to replace a Godwalker of their archetype is to kill them in a symbolically correct manner. For example, to replace the Executioner you would have to render them helpless and then execute them, preferably with an axe.