TEXT: Universalis Ressources 
   
  GettingStarted ............................................................................................................................. 2 
  Where“ „to begin?  I start with what the game is about.  ................................................... 2 
  Then I talk about the game preparation phase and facts.  .................................................. 2 
  Setting up the Scene  .......................................................................................................... 3 
  Other Stuff  ......................................................................................................................... 5 
  Intent and Departure from Tradition .......................................................................................... 6 
  Coins and Currency .................................................................................................................... 8 
  The Importance of the Social Contract ...................................................................................... 9 
  More Details on Story Elements .............................................................................................. 12 
  Using Challenges to Regulate the Game .................................................................................. 17 
  The Purpose of Complications  ................................................................................................ 19 
  Traits, Challenges and Enforcing Story Logic ......................................................................... 20 
  The Importance of Tenets ........................................................................................................ 23 
  Telling Straight Stories ............................................................................................................. 25 
  Game Preparation Add-ons ...................................................................................................... 27 
  Game Play Add-ons ................................................................................................................. 30 
  Component Creation Add-ons .................................................................................................. 33 
  Making the Protagonist Special ................................................................................................ 38 
  Narration Add-ons .................................................................................................................... 40 
  Complication Add-ons ............................................................................................................. 41 
  Intersession Add-ons ................................................................................................................ 48 
  Player Driven Metaplot ............................................................................................................ 50 
  Scenario Creation ..................................................................................................................... 50 
  Setting Creation ........................................................................................................................ 50 
  LARP Backstory ...................................................................................................................... 51 
  On-line Play .............................................................................................................................. 51 
  Group Authored Fan-Fic .......................................................................................................... 51 
  Space Traders Early Playtest .................................................................................................. 53 
  Zombie Summer   ..................................................................................................................... 55 
  Zombie Western DemonCon 2002 ........................................................................................ 57 
  Alien Love GenCon 2002 Demo .......................................................................................... 60 
  The Psionic Mines GenCon 2002 Demo .............................................................................. 62 
  The Gangs of New New York GenCon 2002 Demo ............................................................ 64 
  The Pregnant Pope Thanksgiving 2002 Actual Play ............................................................ 66 
  Space Pirates Actual Play 4/5/03 ........................................................................................... 71 
  Hobbits are for Eating GenCon 2003 Demo ......................................................................... 74 
  Space Patrol GenCon 2003 Demo ........................................................................................ 76 
  The Great GenCon Plot GenCon 2003 Demo ...................................................................... 78 
  Cattle Country GenCon 2004 Demo ..................................................................................... 81 
  A New York Mob Story GenCon 2004 Demo ..................................................................... 82 
  War in Hell GenCon 2004 Demo ......................................................................................... 84 
  The Rise of Set GenCon 2004 Demo ................................................................................... 86 
  More Space Pirates GenCon 2004 Demo ............................................................................. 88 
  Shrek III GenCon 2004 Demo .............................................................................................. 90 
  Guadalupe the Pirate GenCon 2004 Demo ........................................................................... 93 
  Zombies in Vegas GenCon 2004 Demo ............................................................................... 95 
  
  Getting Started 
   Universalis is not a difficult game to play, but it can appear rather daunting at first.  If you re a veteran 
  role player you ll notice right away that most of the familiar places to begin (like character creation or 
  how to make a skill roll) don t exist in Universalis.  If you ve never played a role playing game before 
  you ll notice that the rules and game play aren t very similar to the traditional card and board games 
  you may be most familiar with.   
   When it comes time to actually play the game for the first time and introduce a bunch of friends to it, it 
  can be hard to know where to start.  For this chapter I ll describe the method I ve used over the last 
  two years to introduce new players into the game.  My method is to break the game up into stages, 
  describe the basic core of each stage, but leave the more advanced or tangential parts for later.  I ll 
  structure this chapter kind of like a script.  It s the sort of things I say at the table when teaching the 
  game. 
    
  Where to begin?  I start with what the game is about.  
   “Universalis is a game about creating stories.  Every story needs a setting, characters, and plot.  We ll 
  be developing those as we play.  Each of you count out 25 Coins from the Bank, there.  Coins are the 
  resource that gives you control over the story.   Every character you create and everything you have 
  those characters do will cost Coins.  setting element or character you create,  everything you have 
  those characters do, and every place you have them go will cost Coins.  The Coins are a way of 
  regulating how much of the story any one person can tell at a time.  Basically,  every statement you 
  make that establishes some fact about the story will cost 1 Coin.  
   “When you run low on Coins you re actually running low on the ability to influence the story, at least 
  until you acquire more Coins.  Everyone will get a few additional Coins periodically during the game 
  but the best way to replenish a low supply is to introduce plot conflicts, obstacles, and complications 
  into the story (usually on another player s turn).  We ll get into that later.”    
     
  Then I talk about the game preparation phase and facts.  
   “First we need to decide what kind of story we re going to be telling.  Is it going to be an action 
  adventure story, a romance, a mystery, a psychological thriller?  Is the mood going to be dark and 
  gritty, a light comedy, outrageously absurd humor?  How strictly are we expecting the other players to 
  abide by the conventions of the genre we re playing in?  What s the setting?  Is it going to be a 
  science fiction story featuring space ships, or will it be set on an alien planet, or is it a future version of 
  earth?  Is it going to be fantasy, based in actual history, a western…?”  I go on like this using 
  examples of movies or TV shows until its apparent everyone gets what we re talking about.  Usually it 
  just takes a couple.  
    “To do this we re going to go around the table and everyone is going to spend 1 Coin to add one 
  element about the type of story we re going to tell.  As I mentioned, anytime you make a statement 
  about something in the game it costs 1 Coin.  Once you spend a Coin on something it becomes Fact.  
  Facts are important when there is a disagreement among players about a statement someone made.  
  Basically, anything anyone says about anything related to the story is subject to being challenged by 
  one of the other players who doesn t like it or thinks they have a better idea.  But once something is 
  established as Fact its more difficult to challenge it later.  
    “When a disagreement arises you discuss what you don t like and offer suggestions.  If you can 
  come to an agreement, great, play goes on.  If you can t agree, then a full Challenge occurs where 
  everybody spends Coins voting for the outcome they prefer.  We ll talk more about that if it ever comes 
  up, for now just be aware you can do that.”  Often this has been all I ve ever said about Challenges for 
  
  the whole game.  Players just worked it out amongst themselves with Negotiation and never felt the 
  need to call for the full bidding process.  
    “Ok, so, let s start collecting the elements of our story.  I ll start and we ll go around clockwise how 
  ever many times we need to.  Once everyone feels they have a good idea what kind of story we ll be 
  telling we ll move to the next part of the game.  As we go along start thinking of a good opening scene, 
  like the opening scene of a movie, something that will get our attention and give the story something to 
  build on.  Usually, once you get an idea for a good opening scene you have enough to work with and 
  its time move on to actual play and get that scene started.  Ok, here s my Coin, tonight we ll play a 
  game that involves…”  
   Usually I try to keep my opening Tenets pretty basic for a first game so that there is a familiar genre or 
  story style for players to latch on to.  While Universalis can be used to do a story like Memento or Pulp 
  Fiction, such play is best left for experienced players.  For first time play I stick to convention and 
  cliché (although depending on the group I may make a point to mention that this is for teaching 
  purposes only).  
   If play has gone around a few times and after a little prompting no one seems like they re really 
  getting an opening scene idea I ll grab one (again relying on cliché or scenes stolen right out of a 
  movie) and bring this phase to a close.  There are 3 keys to keep in mind during this phase.    
  1)       If the other players are struggling with it you need to kill the prep quickly and get to the fun 
  parts before they get discouraged and lose interest.  
  2)       If the other players get into it full bore right away you want to try to avoid starting to actually 
  play scenes in the middle of prep.  If that s happening, they ve obviously got it, so kill the prep 
  and get right to the scene bidding.  
  3)       I really prefer that one of the new players come up with the opening scene unless it just gets 
  obvious that isn t going to happen.  The reason is that, if I do the opening scene, it can get 
  players thinking that I m running the show and am in charge of how the story is supposed to 
  go.  Its best is when one of the players immediately grabs the opening scene and runs with 
  it…shattering that expectation right from the start.  
       
  Setting up the Scene  
   “Ok, now we re going to get into scene by scene play.  The whole game is played in scenes just like 
  the scenes of a movie or TV show.  All scenes in the game start by being framed, which just means 
  establishing what s initially going on so the other players can visualize what s happening.  All scenes 
  have a beginning and end.   Before each new scene begins three things happen:  1) everyone gets 5 
  new Coins.  2) We bid for the privilege of framing the new scene, and 3) the scene gets framed.  Ok 
  everyone take 5 Coins.  
    “Bidding for the scene works like this.  Everyone, secretly take a number of Coins into your fist as 
  your bid.  If you have a really great idea for what to do with the next scene bid a lot of Coins. If you don 
  t, bid few or none.  Keep in mind that a big part of the overall direction of the story will come from what 
  scenes are played so being the framer is a fairly influential thing.  Since this is your first game I d keep 
  your bids to less than 8-10 Coins but I ve seen players bid more than that once they got the hang of 
  things.  
    “Bids will be revealed simultaneously and whoever wins will frame the first scene.  Losers will get to 
  take their Coins back.  Winners will spend their Coins during the scene”  I don t get into ties and all 
  that stuff unless it happens.  Usually this part goes pretty easy and if you re really lucky you have 2 
  players both bidding high, which means at least 2 people have some really good ideas for what to do 
  and you can sit back and watch them go.  I always bid 0 or 1 at this point unless I m convinced I m 
  with a group that really requires additional hand holding before they ll try it themselves.  
  
   “Now that you ve won the bid you have to frame the scene.  You ll spend the Coins you just bid to do 
  this (plus any others you want).  Your job as scene framer is to set the stage for us.  Tell us where the 
  action is taking place, when its taking place, and who s there.   At this point, assuming the player 
  doesn t require additional prompting, I generally will let them riff for about a paragraph or so.  Then I ll 
  stop them and say, “Ok, hold up a second and let me tell you how much all of that costs”  
   At that point I ll pick up the pencil and summarize what the player said, writing down statements he 
  made that I can identify as Components and Traits.  I indicate what specifically I m writing down and 
  the rough hierarchy I m placing them in to give a sense of how the game stats are organized.  
  “Congratulations, you just created your first game Components.  The location you just named and the 
  characters you just introduced are now officially part of the story.  They exist and can be used and 
  manipulated by any of the other players throughout the game.  Those descriptive phrases you added 
  about each of the characters are now Traits of those characters and cost 1 Coin apiece.  .  
   “Anything can be a Trait.  Even the character s name (if they re important enough to bother giving 
  them one) is a Trait.  Think of how you d describe a person you know or a place you like to hang out to 
  another friend.  Just about any phrase you d use can be treated like a Trait in the game.  For a person 
  this can include how smart they are, what they look like or even what their goals are, what the own, 
  and who are their friends.  If a Trait is supposed to be particularly important it can be purchased more 
  than once.  
   “Any time one of these people, places, or things is brought into the story from now on, all of their 
  Traits come with them and are considered Facts of the game.  Note that you don t have to pay a Coin 
  for every single detail.  If its just a minor descriptive feature that adds a bit of color but isn t really 
  important its free.  But if you didn t pay for it, it doesn t get written down and it isn t considered a Fact.  
    “Ok, now go ahead and begin to describe what happens.  Give us a little bit about what s going on 
  and what the characters are doing.  When you think you ve done enough, pass your turn and the next 
  player will continue with the scene with those same characters.”  After another paragraph or so I ll stop 
  them and repeat the pricing routine, this time referring to Events instead of Components.  Most players 
  at this point are a little tentative and are fairly quick to pass.  If the player seems like he s heading 
  down the road of trying to tell the whole story in a single scene I ll point out how many Coins he s 
  spending relative to how few Coins he got at the beginning of the scene; and suggest he let some of 
  the other players help pay.  
   When it s the second player s turn to go, I introduce the concept of Control.  “Great, before you get 
  started let me tell you a little something about Control.  Right now, everything in the scene belongs to 
  <player 1>, not because he created them, but because he brought them into the scene.  It never 
  matters who created what, only who introduced it into the scene.  You can t do anything with those 
  Components, because you don t Control them.  So here s what you can do:  you can either introduce 
  your own characters and other things into the scene and have them do their own thing, or attempt to 
  have them do something to his characters…or you can pay 1 Coin and simply take Control of one of 
  his characters so it becomes yours.”  
  At this point one can bring in the Dialog rules or Complication rules as needed.  I will typically wait until 
  it seems like people are grasping the nature of Control and the “paying Coins to do stuff” routine 
  before bringing up the ability to start interrupting each other…especially if it looks like there are 1 or 
  more shy or reserved players at the table.  I definitely want them to get at least 1 turn in before other 
  more vocal players start interrupting them.  Also, unless someone specifically asks, I don t mention 
  how to bring a scene to an end until it gets back to the first player and everyone s taken a stab at 
  scene one.  
  For my own turn, the first time around I do one of two things.  I either take the lead and create some 
  interesting characters who have obvious sources of conflict (or create conflict for existing characters); 
  or, if it seems like the players are getting the hang of it themselves, I try to hang back and let them go 
  without much interference.  As I m taking my turn I ll take a handful of my own Coins and drop one in 
  the bank every time there s something worth paying for.  This gets the players into the habit of 
  counting out the Coins as they re talking rather than stopping the narrative to do accounting, and also 
  clues me in as recorder what they think is important enough to pay for.  Once they get in the habit of 
  
  that I ll interject just enough to keep everybody at about the same scale of what they re getting for 1 
  Coin.  
     
  Other Stuff  
  From there the game starts to take care of itself.  All of the other subsystems of the game are brought 
  up only when a player starts to do something for which those rules might apply, or if they express 
  puzzlement about how to “do” certain things.  The first one that usually arises is the Group Trait.  
  Another early one tends to be Importance, depending on how eager the players are to start offing the 
  characters.  Using Traits to represent negative features like “He s been shot” or giving the car a “Flat 
  Tire” is often an epiphany moment for many players.  I ll often make a point to do this one myself as an 
  illustration if no one else has thought of it.  
   Once things get going and its clear that players are grasping the basics I ll start to introduce other 
  elements, usually by doing them myself as an illustration or pointing out when they d be appropriate 
  for someone else.  These include things like Rules Gimmicks, Framing Scenes into the past or into the 
  future, Mini Scenes, Fines, Fading to Black, cutting back to a previous scene.  Any thing to highlight 
  the flexibility the players have and to get them thinking of how to use the rules creatively.   
   More advanced techniques like Master and Sub Components or nesting complications I usually save 
  until later unless the players seem in the mood to dive right into the deep end.  
  Universalis is actually pretty easy to play once the basics are grasped and we tried to draw on familiar 
  concepts like scenes and spending Coins to make play pretty intuitive.  This chapter provides a few 
  tips I ve picked up over 2 years of running demo games for new players.  If you use any of these 
  successfully, or develop a few of your own, we d love to hear about it on our discussion forum at 
  www.indie-rpgs.com.  
  ----Ralph Mazza 
  
  Intent and Departure from Tradition 
  Universalis is not the first game to push the envelope of what role-playing games are. 
  In fact, elements of the Universalis can be seen in games like Story Engine, Once 
  Upon a Time and Baron Munchausen. Even so, it is quite different from any of those 
  and vastly different from any traditional RPG. Many aspects of Universalis are so 
  different that it has led some to question whether it is even a role-playing game at all. 
  We think there is great opportunity for role-playing within Universalis, but it all 
  depends on how you use it. More than anything, Universalis is a tool kit for the 
  creation of stories. With it, you can create entire worlds and civilizations to whatever 
  level of detail you desire. You can populate those worlds with a cast of characters 
  limited only by your imagination and the needs of the story; and you can concentrate 
  on defining only those aspects of the world that are important to that story. 
  The plot of the game is entirely created and motivated by the players. Other games in 
  the past have used various mechanisms to give players a degree of control over the 
  story. "Hero Points" as a way of cheating death, or "Drama Points" used to achieve 
  some cinematic effect, are examples of granting limited power of this kind to players. 
  Other games use "Plot Points" to give players a great deal of dramatic control over 
  the course of a game�s events. Some even empower players to describe the entire 
  resolution of a conflict in whatever manner they choose. Universalis goes further and 
  puts the entire story in the hands of the players. Not only what the characters want to 
  achieve and how they will achieve it, but also what their enemies are doing and what 
  obstacles they�ll have to overcome along the way as well. All of it (including 
  everything normally reserved for the Game Master only) is player created, player 
  developed, and player driven. 
  There is no pre-established setting. While many games are designed to be generic in 
  that they can be used with a variety of different settings, Universalis can be played 
  literally without defining any setting at all in advance. While it is possible to play 
  Universalis using already published settings for inspiration, or predefining a few 
  features; the game is at its most revolutionary when players sit around a table for the 
  first time with no characters and no clear idea of even what sort of game is about to 
  be played. Everything in Universalis is under your control as a player: the setting, the 
  genre, various genre conventions; even the theme, mood, situation, and plot are all 
  decided upon and moved forward by player interaction, collaboration, and even 
  competition. Every mountain range, every city, every NPC, every monster, every 
  mission, every powerful evil empire is totally invented by you and your friends as you 
  are playing. Even the characters in the story will be created "on the fly" as play 
  progresses. Universalis�s rules are designed to promote the creation of a good 
  story, and a good story can be told about any place and any situation. 
  There is also no Game Master. Almost all traditional RPGs, and even most non-
  traditional ones, rely on a Game Master. The Game Master is the one who does not 
  play an individual character himself but rather controls the game world and everyone 
  else in it. In Universalis the GM�s powers aren�t just shared with the players, 
  they�re totally ceded. Player�s have all of the control, all of the power, and do all of 
  the decision making. As players, you will decide where the characters of the story are 
  
  going and what manner of obstacles they will find when they get there. You will 
  decide the nature of the adventure, who the enemies are, and what those enemies 
  are plotting. You will decide the reward for success and the price of failure. You alone 
  have absolute power. Essentially, every player is a Game Master and Coins are a 
  measure of your authority. 
  But don�t be fooled into thinking there is no game to be played, that with absolute 
  power there will be no suspense and no challenge. Indeed the opposite is true. For 
  while it is true that you have enormous power to influence the world and everything in 
  it, so do each of the other players. Each of them will have their own ideas of what to 
  do, and where to go, and what should be found there. Instead of several players 
  trying to unravel the twists and turns of a single GM�s story you have several 
  players trying to unravel the twists and turns of several GM�s stories. You can�t do 
  everything your way. You can try, but then you�ll quickly run out of Coins and hence 
  out of power. The collaboration, competition, and even subterfuge of play provides its 
  own very powerful form of suspense and challenge. 
  But don�t take our word for it. Head on over to the Play Examples page and see for 
  yourself the kind of stories that have been told using Universalis. 
  ----Ralph Mazza 
  
  Coins and Currency 
  Every RPG has its system of rewards. What kind of activity in the game earns a player a reward? 
  What form does that reward take? What can that reward be used for? In many traditional fantasy 
  RPGs for example, characters are rewarded for defeating monsters. The reward takes the form of 
  experience points and treasure. Experience points are used to make the character tougher by 
  increasing his skills or level; and treasure is used to make the character tougher by giving him 
  powerful items or the gold to buy powerful items. The effect is to render the character better able to 
  defeat more monsters and thus earn more experience and treasure. 
  This circular system of rewards functions as the game�s currency, or money. In the real world people 
  pursue different ways of earning money, and then spend that money on the various products and 
  services that are available. While playing the game, players will pursue various ways of earning game 
  rewards, and then spend that reward in whatever manner the game makes available. The game�s 
  flavor text may say that the game is "about" something. But it is the system of rewards provided that 
  determines how it will really be played. 
  The core mechanic of Universalis is its system of rewards. Beginning with the thought that these 
  rewards function like a game�s currency, Universalis uses Coins as its primary resource. They are 
  spent to gain dramatic control over the story and all aspects of the game world itself. The entire game 
  world is available for player creation and manipulation: geography, economics, politics, religion, and 
  the people and creatures who populate it. Likewise the plot will be written, developed, and negotiated 
  by the players through the mechanism of Coins. 
  The spending of Coins creates an entire Coin based economy to the game. As a player, you will notice 
  that your play is different you are "wealthy" than when you are "strapped for cash". You will learn to 
  keep a close eye on the "money supply" of the game and who is currently rich and who is currently 
  poor. This economy is the driving factor behind the entire game. All game mechanics are essentially 1) 
  a means of spending Coins, 2) a means of acquiring Coins, or 3) a means of settling disputes (in the 
  absence of a Game Master) about how Coins are spent or acquired. 
  It is important to understand what Coins represent in Universalis, which may be most easily explained 
  by what they are not. Coins are not a literal measure of in game character wealth, nor are they "Hero 
  Points" which allow characters to achieve extraordinary feats. They are not a measure of Action 
  Points, or who is more powerful. In fact, they are not associated with individual characters in any way. 
  What they are is very simply clout. Players as a group have ultimate authority over every single aspect 
  of the game. Coins are a measure of how that authority is currently distributed among those players. 
  You achieve control over the world and story by spending Coins. Your current Wealth is your store of 
  potential authority for the future. This has great impact on play. If you spend a lot of Coins in a brief 
  amount of time you�ll have had tremendous impact over events and the scope of the world. However, 
  your impact in the future will be more limited because you will now have fewer Coins relative to your 
  fellows. Horde Coins in order to have decisive control in the future (enough to win Challenges or 
  Complications with ease) and you�ll find a large part of the story has already been told, and a large 
  part of the world defined without you. Balancing this dynamic is a key to play. 
  Universalis can be compared to a team of scriptwriters working on a TV show episode. Everyone has 
  ideas of what they�d like to see in the show or how a scene should play out and many ideas are tried 
  and discarded and batted around for commentary. What Universalis does is superimpose a game 
  structure on this collaborative process, using Coins to measure each player s ability to contribute. 
  ----Ralph Mazza 
  
  The Importance of the Social Contract 
  Before the game begins, players are encouraged to establish a Social Contract, that is to get a 
  consensus about individual play style preferences and expectations on the record in advance. Chapter 
  Two mentions several features that can be included in a Social Contract. The Contract is an explicit 
  acknowledgement that every group has its own dynamic. Everyone has their own preferences and 
  their own expectations. They have their own ways of dealing with situations and with other players. 
  Preferences are a collection of things a player likes and dislikes. Often times if a game does not fit 
  within a player�s set of preferences there is not much to be done. Everyone is different, and 
  everyone is entitled to like what they like. This means Universalis may not be for everyone. However, 
  most of the time, preferences are flexible. There is usually a lot of gray area between features players 
  insist on having and things they refuse to play with. This is where expectations come in. 
  Expectations are what a player believes he will be getting when he sits down to play. In any game, if a 
  player�s expectations aren�t being fulfilled they are going to be dissatisfied with the experience. 
  However, much of the disappointment can be avoided if players are clear about what they can expect 
  from the game right at the start. Universalis offers a game that is unlike almost any other RPG out 
  there. We think it is a damn good game: a lot of fun and a powerful story creating took kit. However, if 
  a player comes to the table expecting seafood and instead gets served a thick steak, he will likely be 
  disappointed, regardless of how good a steak it was. The Social Contract is the way to make sure 
  everyone knows what�s on the menu. Items to discuss in a Social Contract include: 
   
  Outside Distractions:  
  Some groups have no problems playing a game amidst many distractions. Other groups have very 
  strict bans on things like cell phones, televisions, Monty Python jokes; or discussing sports, a favorite 
  movie, or a new computer game. Some groups forbid food and beverages at the gaming table, and 
  establish set break periods where the game halts at a predetermined time for such activities. One of 
  the first parameters that should be established by any playgroup is its policy on distractions. A 
  rambunctious, talkative group with lots of out of game camaraderie will present a very different play 
  experience than one where such things are banned and total focus on the game is demanded. Players 
  expecting one will be very disappointed if presented with the other. 
   
  Table Talk:  
  Related to this is the idea of table talk. During a player�s turn is it encouraged, permissible, 
  discouraged, or even forbidden for other players to offer suggestions, reminders, or threaten 
  retribution to the player taking his turn? Some groups will find that the story is more collaborative if 
  collaboration is allowed at all times. Players can actually work together to help another player craft his 
  turn in the best way possible. Other groups feel that such efforts stifle individual creativity and lead to 
  bland predictable stories. Still others simply find that it�s distracting, promotes too much chaos at the 
  table, or allows powerful personalities to dominate play. Some will permit a suggestion or two if a 
  player seems stumped but discourage it in general. Games will function much more smoothly if a 
  group�s attitude towards table talk is identified before hand. 
   
  Game Rule Priorities:  
  How fast and loose vs. meticulous and detailed does the group as a whole desire to be with regards to 
  game rules? Some groups will fall into the fast and loose category. They may get so absorbed with 
  slinging around cool descriptions and clever plot twists that they forget to keep track of exactly how 
  many Coins they�re supposed to have spent. Later, when they realize this, they might be satisfied to 
  
  simply say "yeah, that would have been something like 6 Coins or thereabouts". Other groups will 
  want to be far more meticulous in their accounting. They will explicitly cost out every detail and if the 
  player is a Coin short, they�ll expect him to cough up another one to make good. Either method can 
  make for an entertaining game, but all players should be on the same page as to what to expect. 
   
  Pacing:  
  Universalis is a game focused on the creative process in which brainstormed ideas serve to shape the 
  game world�s reality. The ability to Interrupt another player�s turn to add details of your own, is a 
  cornerstone of game play. Some individuals are not as quick as others at this and prefer a more 
  deliberate pace where they have time to carefully think each item out and frame it "just so". Others are 
  brainstorming dynamos spitting out ideas by the bushel. If your group includes a mix of these types, 
  players should discuss in advance how to keep the "rapid fire" players from dominating play and 
  leaving the "deliberate" players behind, and conversely how to keep the "rapid fire" players from 
  getting bored with a more "deliberate" pace. 
   
  Adherence to Conventions:  
  An important item to establish up front is how rigidly you plan on adhering to Game Structure decisions 
  about genre and theme and the like. If the genre is one of Dark Horror, how much "humor" or silliness 
  will be tolerated before the Challenge mechanic is used to drag the story back on course. If the genre 
  is a gritty realistic police drama, how much tolerance will there be for over the top kung fu escapades 
  and open flaunting of authority. Some groups couldn�t care less and are willing to follow the story 
  wherever it takes them. Other groups will demand players adhere to the setting and genre conventions 
  as they�ve been established. Spelling this out up front, will save a lot of headaches and Challenges 
  later on. 
   
  Level of Simulation:  
  Universalis gives players a great deal of power to author and direct the story as they see fit. In this 
  sense a player is much like a screen play writer bound only by his imagination and his budget. 
  However, he is also bound by his ability to "sell" his ideas to the other players. When engaged in a 
  scene, should players attempt to use their authority to ensure that the actions in the scene are 
  "realistic" and reasonable? Is verisimilitude important to the game? Or are players free to be as 
  outrageous and over the top as they desire? This is yet another issue that is almost sure to cause a 
  great deal of conflict within a group if all of the players are not in accord. Many groups will expect the 
  players to be self limiting. That is to say, each player voluntarily limits his own power to alter the world 
  to what makes sense or is reasonable given that world�s reality. 
    
  It is not expected that players will go down this list item by item and sign a written contract. In fact, if 
  you�re part of a well established group that has been playing together for a long time, you were 
  probably able to recognize where your group already fits as you read through each item. Most likely 
  many of the issues above have been tacitly assumed within your group for some time simply as a 
  result of being familiar with each other. You may, however, have noticed an area or two in which there 
  is some friction because players have different priorities. Or if you�re part of a new group, you may 
  not have a clear idea of what your fellow players  preferences are. 
  Simply being aware that these differences (and many others) exist and that not everyone in your group 
  will share the same view on them as you do can go a long way towards smoothing tensions. Often a 
  simple discussion about an issue can resolve it before it becomes a major source of friction. These 
  principles can be adopted to any game (or really any social activity at all). 
  
  Universalis, however, goes one step further. It allows (and encourages) social contract issues to be 
  introduced as a rule in the game. Items like "no food at the table", or "no chit chat while a player is 
  taking his turn", or "make sure we account for our Coin expenditures exactly" can be proposed as a 
  Tenet of the game. If not Challenged by the other players it is now a rule of the game that the other 
  players are expected to abide by and can be used as part of the Challenge or even Fine mechanic if 
  necessary. 
  ----Ralph Mazza 
  
  More Details on Story Elements 
   
  Genre:  
  A category of literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content 
  Genre is often one of the first choices that will be made in a game of Universalis. Universalis is truly a 
  universal game, games can be about anything. Genre will help to define the style, form, and content of 
  the game world. It will be the first indicator of what is or is not appropriate to create and do in the 
  game. Genre conventions are those aspects of a genre that are recognizable characteristics of that 
  particular genre. They may either be definable or too subtle for definition, but they are what make one 
  genre feel different from another. As an example compare the detectives Sherlock Holmes and Poirot 
  with Rick and AJ Simon and Thomas Magnum. Obviously there is a noticeable difference in feel 
  between the adventures of Holmes and Poirot and those of Simon and Simon and Magnum PI. These 
  differences are in the genre conventions. 
  At the macro level, genre encompasses major literary divisions of the type of categories you might find 
  in a bookstore. Romance, is separate from fantasy which is separate from westerns which are 
  separate from science fiction. When someone in a game of Universalis declares "tonight we are 
  playing a Murder Mystery", he is setting the genre of the game. Other common genres might include: 
  cyberpunk, horror, anime, spy thriller, kung fu action, Hollywood action, or something else more exotic. 
  At the sub level, genre can be broken down further. Fantasy, for instance might be more specifically 
  defined as "Swords and Sorcery" (ala Howard and Liebler), "High Fantasy" (ala Tolkein and Jordan), 
  Dark Fantasy (ala Moorcock), or even "Historical Fantasy". Science Fiction might be based on near 
  future hard science, or it might be a sweeping space opera. Westerns might be about cavalry and 
  Indians, or cowboys, or pioneers, or prospectors or gunslingers. 
  We suggest that when a player first introduces a genre he specify only the macro level genre leaving 
  the sub genre to be specified on a later turn or by another player. 
   
  Theme:  
  An implicit or recurrent idea. What a piece of writing or artistic work is about 
  Themes are useful tools to ascribe to a game of Universalis. They don�t so much determine plot as 
  they suggest what the purpose of the over all plot should be. Themes can generally be summed in just 
  a sentence or two. A game�s theme might be about "the struggle against tyranny", "the search for 
  redemption", "vengeance", "vindication", "survival", "the struggle to maintain tradition in the face of 
  change", "the decent of greatness into decadence", "the corrupting influence of power", "the loss of 
  innocence". These are just samples, but hopefully they�ve sparked some ideas of your own. Players 
  are encouraged to frame scenes and Originate Complications (explained in Chapter 6) which serve to 
  illustrate the story�s theme. This will help give focus to the story and help keep if from being simply a 
  collection of events happening to a group of characters. 
  Universalis is a game about telling stories. Theme can be thought of as the reason you are telling this 
  particular story. Besides the entertainment value, what message might you try to convey, what 
  avenues of the psyche might be explored. What hidden moral might be pursued. What commentary 
  are you making about the nature of life. Plot is a tool through which you will explore theme. Theme is 
  the reason you are taking the journey. 
   
  Premise:  
  
    A proposition antecedently supposed or proved; a basis of argument. 
  A proposition stated or assumed as leading to a conclusion 
  In his seminal work, The Art of Dramatic Writing, Lajos Egri introduced the world of theatre to the idea 
  of premise. Premise is very similar to theme but to Egri it is much more powerful, decisive and less 
  open to misinterpretation. The goal of any good play must be to prove its premise and all aspects of 
  the play must be focused on leading the audience to that conclusion. Offered as examples are 
  premises such as: "great love defies even death", "Blind trust leads to destruction, "Jealousy destroys 
  itself and the object of its love". 
  To Egri, premise trumps both situation and emotion. "No idea, and no [unusual] situation was ever 
  strong enough to carry you through to its logical conclusion without a clear-cut premise". "No emotion 
  ever made, or ever will make, a good [story] if we do not know what kind of forces set emotion going". 
  Both situation and emotion are necessary but a story only becomes great if these are both focused on 
  proving a premise. 
  The idea of premise must go through some alterations if it is to be applied to role-playing. In the 
  theatre, the playwright is separate from the audience. The playwright must be convinced of the truth of 
  his premise and must do all in his power to prove that premise to the audience. Role playing games 
  are far more interactive, and in games like Universalis the players are both playwright and audience. 
  The Forge has been the leading proponent of adapting and applying the concept of premise to 
  Narrativist RPGs. The adaptation takes the form of altering the idea of premise as a truth to be proven 
  to one of a truth to be uncovered and discovered through play. In other words, in a role playing game, 
  the premise is not a statement of fact but rather a question or inquiry. The answer to the question is 
  explored through the game and the results of game play. 
  For role playing purposes then, the above example premises might be restated in the following 
  manner: "Can great love survive in the face of great opposition and even death?"; "Can anyone, even 
  family, ever be trusted completely and without question?"; or "At what point does strong desire stop 
  being a motivator and start being self destructive?" The answers, rather than being decided by the 
  playwright (GM) and proved to the audience (players), are instead unknown until the players decide for 
  themselves based on the results of their role-playing experience what lesson is to be learned. 
  Narrative Premise is an exceedingly sophisticated role-playing technique. It is not one that will be 
  mastered easily. It is also certainly not required for a role-playing game to be enjoyable. But it is a 
  technique that can turn an enjoyable experience into a truly powerful and moving one. Egri indicates 
  that it is not necessary to establish the premise first, that it is possible to have the sketch of a story in 
  mind, and from that derive a suitable premise. Likewise in Universalis, premise may be left until a 
  suitable one shows itself in the story before being introduced as a Game Structure element. For 
  maximum effectiveness, however, if it is to be used at all, it should be introduced early on and all 
  players should endeavor to stay focused on it thereafter. 
   
  Situation:  
  The relative position or combination of circumstances at a certain moment in time. 
  A critical, problematic, or unusual state of affairs. 
  A particular or important complex of affairs at a given point in the action of a narrative 
  If theme or premise is the driving factor behind the meaning and importance of plot, then situations are 
  the specific facts leading up to it. Situation is what gets the story going. It provides the starting place 
  from which players can begin to narrate. Most episodes of The Twilight Zone began with an 
  introduction something like: "Picture this, a small town. A town, like any other town in middle America; 
  and a day like any other day. Until today�" These opening remarks defined the situation that was 
  going to be explored in that episode. 
  Traditionally, situation has been the focus (often the exclusive focus) of RPGs. Many a game 
  campaign begins simply by the GM framing a situation and the players deciding how to react to it. 
  
  Similarly, games of Universalis must have a situation. There must be some starting point to focus 
  players� attention and act as a catalyst for the rest of the action. Universalis can also be played 
  exclusively as focused on situation created by one player and responded to by another. Hopefully 
  some of this section will have offered ideas on how to incorporate other story elements into the game 
  as well.. 
  Situations may simply be a jumping off point from which the players begin before taking the story in 
  any direction desired. This is often a fun and enjoyable means of playing. However, situation can also 
  be used to provide an overreaching story arc to the campaign. The direction of the entire game might 
  be established by the resolution of a specific initial situation. 
   
  Setting:  
  the time, place, and circumstances in which something occurs or develops. 
  Setting is often closely tied to Genre and Situation. Setting does not refer to a specific location but 
  more to the period, style, and color of the story that will pervade all of the locations. For example the 
  setting might be that the story takes place on a stark, harsh prison planet, or in a fairly tale kingdom 
  amidst the clouds, or in 17th century France, or in Texas right after the fall of the Alamo. 
  If a player has a specific location in mind that he wants to create during the Game Preparation Phase 
  (see Chapter Two), he can do so, but only after a setting has been accepted. 
  Note that it is entirely possible for players to use an established and well known setting for their game 
  of Universalis. They may model the setting after a favorite movie, a series of novels, or the setting of 
  another RPG. If this is done, many of the genre convention and mood choices will already be made. 
  There are three basic ways of using a pre existing setting in Universalis. 
  The first is the "Inspired by" method. This method most closely resembles a standard game of 
  Universalis in that the game starts with no Components (see Chapter Four) being predefined. Rather 
  the players play as they would any Universalis game but take their cues from the established setting. 
  Locations and characters and organizations and such can be created when needed and loosely based 
  on the inspirational setting. 
  The second method is "full conversion". In this case a selection of key locations, characters, and other 
  important features of an existing world are taken and defined in terms of Universalis Traits and Facts 
  before game play actually begins. Play begins with a substantial number of Components already in 
  existence and already defined according to their actual capabilities in the converted setting. 
  The third way is actually highly encouraged, and that is to use a previous session of Universalis as the 
  existing setting. In other words each game can continue to build on the world created and defined 
  before. Players may wish to move to a slightly different geographical location, fast forward to different 
  point in history, or even use the events of the previous game as part of the legends and mythology of 
  the new one. In this way playgroups can write their own trilogies and decologies of stories. 
   
  Mood:  
  A conscious state of mind or predominant feeling. A distinctive atmosphere or context  
  Mood very well may be the most pervasive story element in Universalis. Players who select and agree 
  to a mood (especially if the Social Contract calls for it to be strictly enforced) are influencing virtually 
  every scene and Complication that will take place during the game. This even includes creating the 
  elements of the world itself, as visual imagery and the appearance of those elements goes a long way 
  towards establishing mood. 
  
  Mood is often closely tied to genre. In fact, mood may well be part of the conventions of a particular 
  genre. Mood is what sets a police drama like Hill Street Blues apart from a show like CHiPs. Mood is 
  what made Miami Vice a sensation. It is the dark and brooding angst ridden mood of neo-gothism that 
  made Vampire: The Masquerade one of the most widely played RPGs of all time. 
  Games can be full of in your face attitude, wit, or even silly. Despite similarities in genre, clearly the 
  mood of Rush Hour is much different from that of The Dead Pool. The mood of Star Wars is much 
  different from that of Blade Runner. Mood often evokes a particular emotional response: despair, 
  humor, hardness, grit, hyperactivity, and silliness are just some examples. Stories told with a 
  consistent mood throughout will be much more memorable and less disjointed than those whose mood 
  fluctuates widely. A player expecting a game of serious soul searching will be greatly disappointed by 
  a rampaging farce and vice versa. 
   
  Realism:  
  Fidelity to nature, fact, and reality and to accurate representation without abstraction 
  The level of realism is another facet that players should agree upon. Few factors are as likely to cause 
  disharmony among players than differing priorities regarding realism. Some players get a great 
  amount of enjoyment from establishing the precise differences and effects on game play between a 
  9mm Beretta and a .45 Automatic. Some desire an exact accounting of the money that characters 
  spend and the items they have on them at the time. Some want to know the acceleration limits of a 
  sports car, and precisely what handling penalty is incurred for a wet road. Some players desire to 
  establish how a suit of plate mail protects differently from a suit a chain mail when faced with a heavy 
  bludgeoning weapon. It may become important to them to see these differences reflected in the actual 
  Events and dice mechanics of the game. 
  Other players care little for the real world statistics of what, to them, are merely story props. A gun 
  shoots until its dramatically interesting to run out of bullets, nobody dies unless there is a good story 
  reason for them to do so. Travel times are based on the need to arrive in the nick of time not on 
  encumbrance and terrain features. MacGyver really can make a bomb out of bubble gum and a 
  paperclip, but only when it�s dramatic to do so. So what if Arnold walks calmly out in front of a dozen 
  trained soldiers who all have automatic weapons and doesn�t suffer a scratch�hey he�s the star 
  right? 
  The game of Universalis plays most smoothly with the latter sort of attitude towards realism than the 
  former. However, given the level of authority players have over the game direction, it is within their 
  power to ensure the choices and decisions they make adhere to whatever standard of realism they 
  choose. Deliberate use of advantageous and disadvantageous Traits can be made to illustrate the 
  performance differences between a Ferrari and a Corvette, or a grenade and a stick of TNT, or a 
  masonry wall and a steel reinforced concrete barrier. Rules Gimmicks, (which are basically player 
  decided customized house rules) allow for the establishment of effects like fire vs. concussion, 
  impaling vs. slashing, or anything else players can imagine. It should be noted here, that while the 
  core rules of Universalis do permit this sort of realism, they do not offer any details or guidance on how 
  to accomplish it. It is assumed that players who prefer a high level of realism normally play games that 
  provide a high degree of realism and thus already have experience with how things should or 
  shouldn�t work in game terms. We leave it to those players to manipulate the rules of Universalis to 
  create the effects they desire. 
   
  Role:  
  A part played or a character assumed with a socially expected pattern of behavior 
  determined by an individual�s status in the story. 
  
  All Components in Universalis have a role. Role is the first Trait that must be defined for any 
  Component. For most Components Role is pretty self explanatory�a gun has a Role of "gun" (or 
  perhaps some specific model of gun). This discussion will concentrate on the roles of characters in 
  Universalis. 
  All stories involve characters and all characters have a role to play in the story. Role indicates 
  (although it doesn�t restrict) much of what the character�s purpose in the story is. A role can 
  indicate an occupation like "battle hardened ex-soldier" or simply carry story weight like "scrappy 
  sidekick". Roles can be virtually anything, but every character should have one. Example roles 
  include: wizened old hermit, wise old mentor, hard-boiled hero, wise cracking assistant, or buddy 
  partner. However, Universalis supports a wide range of less clich�d roles as well. A character may be 
  the ghost of another character�s father, or even a favorite pet. In one of our play test sessions a 
  character was given the role of a sentient starship. Villains, of course, also have roles to play. Even 
  lesser characters have a role to play in the story, even if its only as "Thug # 3" 
  Role is always the first Trait to be assigned to a character. The reason for this is to define a narrative 
  territory for a character that other players should act within when controlling that character. Since you 
  will be manipulating the game world and story line primarily (although not exclusively) through 
  characters and their Traits, a character�s place in that world and story will heavily influence the 
  nature of those manipulations. The type of narrative you as a player will create while controlling the 
  "Lantern jawed hero", will be decidedly different from that which you create while controlling "Joey, the 
  eager boy scout". Roles are crucial to establishing what sort of story involvement the character should 
  have. Players should use these when narrating the story as guidelines for what sort of activities they 
  should be engaging in and how much "camera time" should be focused on each character. Side kicks, 
  may periodically have the story focused on them (as is often done in television) but by and large the 
  primary story should be being told about the protagonist. 
  If a player has an idea for a specific character at this point it can be Created now, but only after a Role 
  has been established for him. 
    
  ----Ralph Mazza 
  
  Using Challenges to Regulate the Game 
  In a game with no Game Master, one might wonder who decides what is appropriate and what isn�t? 
  Who decides, amongst many players competing to put forth their own view of how the story should 
  progress, which vision gets realized? Who decides when a player�s "creative interpretations" of the 
  rules is spoiling the gaming experience for others? In Universalis that�s where the Challenge 
  mechanic comes in. 
  First it should be noted that the Challenge mechanic goes hand in hand with the Social Contract and 
  the selection of appropriate Story Elements in the Game Preparation Phase. If those things are 
  complete, then most players should already be on the same page about what to expect and what is 
  considered appropriate. If these steps are skipped, then everyone will be running off in their own 
  directions and may not understand or appreciate the directions of others. While this sort of totally free 
  form and chaotic game play can be fun (and can also result in some of the most powerfully creative 
  and bizarre games you can imagine), it too is best established in advance that this is how the group 
  intends to play. Giving some thought to Social Contract issues and complete set of Story Elements will 
  go a long way to avoiding unnecessary Challenges because your players will already have a good 
  idea about what is likely to be Challenged and what isn�t. 
    
  The importance of the Negotiation phase of a Challenge can not be stressed enough. By far, the 
  majority of Challenges in the game should never make it to the bidding stage. Most Challenges are the 
  result of a player taking a dislike to something another player is doing, or thinking they can do a better 
  job themselves. Often times, the acting player will be willing to make adjustments to what they are 
  doing to enhance the enjoyment of their fellow players. They may actually agree that the other 
  player�s idea is a better one then their own and will welcome the suggestion. They may just be willing 
  to compromise for no other reason than the expectation of similar consideration in the future. 
  Sometimes they may even convince the Challenging player to drop the Challenge because their way 
  is better. If any of these are true, no bidding ever needs to occur. 
  Since Challenges do not require an Interruption of a player�s turn, most of them can be quite 
  informal. In fact, many playgroups already engage in some degree of kibitzing and friendly 
  suggestions to other players in all of their games. They may not even realize that this sort of activity is 
  part of a formal Challenge mechanic in Universalis. 
  Only if absolutely no accord can be reached do you have to resort to bidding, and even then a quick 
  straw poll may be enough to estimate who the likely winner of such bidding would be, causing one 
  side to concede. Using Coins for the bidding is a way of causing you to put your money where your 
  mouth is. If your opinion on a Challenge item isn�t strong enough to be worth paying for, it isn�t 
  worth delaying the game for either. Allowing all players to participate in the bidding ensures that the 
  preferences of the entire audience are represented. 
  While the most basic use of the Challenge mechanic is to prevent players from violating the rules or 
  agreed upon Story Elements, it should not be thought of as purely confrontational. In fact, the 
  Challenge is a powerful collaborative tool enabling all players to ring in on how they�d like to see a 
  particular Component or plot point developed. Negotiation backed by bidding is designed to allow the 
  players to achieve consensus even if they don�t all agree on every detail. 
    
  Fines should not be overlooked as tool either. It is a tool of last resort, but one that fills a very 
  important function in the game. Unlike Challenges it does not employ Coins so there is no bias in favor 
  
  of the rich. The Fine mechanic gives every player equal voice as an audience member to vote their 
  displeasure (or lack of displeasure) with a player�s behavior. 
  The actual penalty is a modest one. The primary use of Fines is as a gauge of player sentiment. If a 
  player repeatedly engages in play behavior that other players find dissatisfying, the first step should be 
  Negotiations, moving on to full bidding Challenges if necessary. If neither of these has the desired 
  effect, a Fine, especially one universally levied by all other players, can serve as clear and 
  unmistakable notice that the behavior is not appreciated. Conversely, if there is a behavior that you 
  find intolerable, but when you calls for a Fine the other players do not vote in favor of it, you now 
  clearly realize that your distaste is not shared by the rest of the group and it is a behavior you�ll have 
  to live with if you�re to continue playing. What the Fine mechanic does is serve as a formal 
  adjustment to a players expectations. A player who expected to play a certain way is told in no 
  uncertain terms that the other players have different expectations. A Fine that is not supported by the 
  other players informs the initiating player that the activity is acceptable to them and that he is the one 
  who must adjust his expectations. 
  Through the Challenge and Fine mechanic, Social Contract items can be recognized, addressed, and 
  ruled upon during game play until all players are familiar with the expectations of the group. 
  ----Ralph Mazza 
  
  The Purpose of Complications  
    
  In our Discussion Forum, Ed Heil asked: "One thing that seems vital 
  that is a little hard to get into is exactly what Complications are for 
  and how they work. They re clearly at or near the heart of the game, 
  but they have no exact parallel in any other RPG" 
  Complications are indeed a key facet of the game.  Here are some of the ways in which we ve used 
  them.  If you ve found some other good uses for them, let us know. 
   
  1) An idea starter:  
  Sometimes you have a scene with a lot of potential but you don t have a clear idea what direction to 
  take it, or how best to spice it up. One way of doing this is by Originating a Complication. The act of 
  Drawing upon Traits (and which Traits get Drawn on) can provide a ot of interesting details to the 
  action when it comes time to resolve the Complication. Often whole new branching story ideas can 
  come from how players responded to an otherwise innocuous Complication. 
   
  2) An alternative to Challenges:  
  Complications can be used to guide a story another player is telling in a desired direction without 
  resorting to Challenging that player or Interrupting them completely. Rather, a Complication can be 
  used to introduce elements into a scene and force other players to react to those elements. 
   
  3) To introduce a certain degree of challenge or difficulty: 
  Sometimes in the course of a narrative a player may be having the hero perform all kinds of high flying 
  actions (or even not so high flying). At some point you may want to interject a very traditional concept 
  of "hey lets make him roll to see if he succeeds at that). This is where the Obstacle Complication 
  comes in. When another player is narrating an Event and you want to interject an element of 
  uncertainty into the outcome you can Originate an Obstacle Challenge. The twist is that the roll doesn 
  t determine success / failure of the Event directly. Rather it determines which player (or combination of 
  players) gets to decide how the Event happens. 
   
  4) Another means of adding an element of suspense to the game:  
  Which player wins will often make a big difference in the direction the story goes.  That this is 
  determined with a dice mechanic can add an element of unknown and surprise. 
   
  5) As a way of generating new Coins: 
  Complications are one of only two ways to earn additional Coins in the game.  The interesting detail of 
  how this works is that it encourages you to base Complications off of elements that already exist in the 
  story (which helps maintain consistency). It does this because of the way Complications work.  The 
  more dice you roll, the more likely you are to get more Coins out. Also the Winner statistically should 
  average 1.5 times the Coin output of the Loser and the more dice you roll, the more likely you are to 
  win. So obviously, more dice in should lead to more Coins out.  There are 2 ways of getting more dice.  
  One way is to buy them at 1 Coin each. However, if you are paying Coins for most of the Dice in your 
  Pool, your net profits will likely be slim (or even a loss if you wind up Losing the roll). So the better way 
  is to get most of your dice from Traits that are already present in the scene. Someone else paid to put 
  those Traits there (or you Introduce a Component that has many useable Traits for just 1 Coin) and 
  you capitalize on their presence. 
   
  If you can arrange a situation where you are rolling a lot of dice for which you paid very little: a) you 
  are likely to reap great profits allowing you to pocket those Coins you earn in excess of those you use 
  to bring the Complication to a satisfying resolution, and b) the Complication is likely to be consistent 
  with the story being told because it was built from elements that already exist in the scene. 
   
  6) And, in point of fact, I find them to just be flat out fun.  
  ----Ralph Mazza 
  
  Traits, Challenges and Enforcing Story 
  Logic 
  Sometimes a game of Universalis can get somewhat chaotic.  Because the story is driven 
  forward by the input of several different people things can from time to time start to look a bit 
  piecemeal.  Different players can have different ideas about what the main character is like, or 
  even who is the main character.  As a result the story can start to drift to and fro as if buffeted 
  by gale force winds every time a new player takes a turn.  
  Sometimes this can be a lot of fun.  Some of the most entertainingly bizarre games I ve played 
  have been when people just cut loose and go where ever the brainstorming madness takes 
  them.  However, other times this sort of play is inappropriate and may detract from some 
  players  enjoyment of the game.  Universalis provides many ways to bring focus and vision to 
  the story, this essay is going to concentrate on one of the more subtle, and I ve found, 
  underused methods:  Traits. 
  Every player knows what effect Traits have in Complications.  They are a source of free dice 
  to roll.  They have a noticeable and measurable impact.  But what about outside of 
  Complications?  Are they just words on a sheet meant to serve only as a storage place for 
  dice? 
  In a recent thread on our discussion forum, veteran player Tony Irwin explained how to use 
  Traits as a powerful tool for articulating your vision of a character and how to see that that 
  vision is followed by the other players. 
   
  [equals notations by me to Tony s original post] 
  Tony Irwin: 
  I ve seen people use characters/components that were central to the story, in ways that were 
  upsetting to others; either because they were using them purely to win coins (and the coins 
  weren t even being used to fund anything) or they were using them with disregard for the 
  story logic that other players took for granted. 
   
  What we came up with was that Traits should be viewed not just as "situational modifiers" 
  either giving or removing a dice, but that clever selection of Traits can be used to enforce 
  story logic. For example: 
   
  I give Frankie the trait "loves Johnnie" 
   
  Now I get a die when Frankie is protecting Johnnie or I can probably remove a die from 
  someone if they try to make Frankie attack Johnnie. 
   
  But what people forget is that any time someone uses one of these characters in a way that 
  seems to defy that Trait, I can Challenge for it. I just say "Frankie loves Johnnie, so Frankie 
  wouldn t do that". My coins are worth 2 for every 1 of theirs. People forget that I can 
  Challenge the Complication before it ever gets as far as building dice pools. 
   
  
  [Players often forget that all Traits are automatically Facts]  You just declare a fact "Frankie 
  loves Johnnie" or "Norgoth feels betrayed by the zombies" or even "Norgoth is slow to 
  anger", and now you have the option to enforce some story logic when people want to 
  introduce Complications [or just narrate something contradictory] 
   
  The thing about facts is that they re very obviously control mechanisms for your vision of the 
  story. As soon as you introduce one, everyone (that I play with) starts thinking "How will this 
  affect me and my interests".  
  I m going to share a really sneaky secret... 
   
  Bid ten coins to get to Frame the scene. Use however many coins you need to get some basic 
  stuff in the scene. Then use the rest of those coins to create Facts that complement and 
  supplement each other. No one can Interrupt while you re framing the scene until you ve 
  initiated an Event. Another time to do this is after winning a Complication when you get your 
  uninterrupted opportunity to spend the Coins you won. 
   
  Because your Facts supplement each other if someone later says "Here s a coin to get rid of 
  the Frankie loves Johnny fact" then you ve still got 3 other Facts as a basis to challenge them 
  doing that. 
   
  e.g. 
  Frankie loves Johnny 
  He was her man 
  She paid 100 hundred dollars for Johnny s new suit of clothes 
  She loves her man 
   
  [Now you ve got a key relationship in the story sewn up tight, and can use the Challenge rule 
  with the double Coin bonus if other players try to violate this relationship].  All that people 
  can do is to Challenge your Facts one by one as you introduce them (if you can even slip the 
  first one by them then you ve pretty much ensured you re in there to stay unless the whole 
  table turns on you), or have a big vote to penalize you if they feel you re "at it" and Fine you 
  coins. (I ve seen that happen). 
   
  Yeah people can, and will, still take Control of these characters [and use them in ways you 
  didn t expect] but at least now you can pressure them to make sure that their Complications 
  [and narrations] are appropriate to what you envision for the characters and so aren t 
  disruptive to the game. 
  Once we discovered how to generate lots of Coins [with big Complications] we were very 
  worried that we d broken the system but soon we discovered ways to balance that (and 
  balance it just by playing the rules as written - no Rules Gimmicks required). 
   
  Facts really changed the way I look at Complications. Previously I d be going into a 
  Complication thinking "How many Coins can I win and keep for my little bank". Now I 
  actually think in terms of "Exactly how many Coins do I need to win in this in order to get my 
  Facts (and events and all the other stuff) into this game during the resolution". 
   
  Same goes for framing scenes. I ve played lots of games where no-one was bothered about 
  who framed the scene. If you didn t have anything you especially wanted do then the default 
  
  bid was 0, because we figured "If I need to I can just take Control". Now however, I and a 
  couple of friends have twigged that framing a scene (and spending Coins when resolving a 
  conflict) is actually the most powerful phase of the game.  Its important sometimes just to bid 
  high to stop one of your buddies getting the chance to do something wicked! 
   
  Disclaimer: I know that all sounds terribly competitive as if we re playing for money rather 
  than trying to make a story! But actually all that stuff about using Facts to control the game, 
  and also framing scenes is just a way of clarifying "This is what I want the story to be about, 
  and as an equal partner in this game I m willing to commit myself this much (in Coins) to 
  seeing it go this way". We do create great stories and have a wonderful time doing so! 
  Honest! 
   
   
  Tony 
   
  What Tony had hit upon is a masterful use of Traits in the game.  Traits provide the structure 
  to the whole story.  Build a network of relationships with your characters.  Who hates who 
  and why.  Who is loyal, who is subservient.  Who leads, who follows.  Give the characters a 
  set of personality Traits that establishes behavior parameters.  Who is devious, who is honest, 
  who is secretly jealous, who harbors an old resentment, who is gullible, who has trouble 
  controlling their temper, who consults a psychic before making tough decisions.   
  Go a step further and actually record goals and objectives.  What does the character want.  
  What is the character willing or not willing to do to get it e.g. "More than anything Stacy 
  wants money, she s willing to betray her husband, lie to her family, cheat her employer, but 
  she would never do anything to hurt her son"  Depending on your play group the above may 
  be anywhere from 2 to 5 distinct Traits.  You ve not only solidified your vision of the 
  character for the other players (who most often will be more than happy to work with your 
  directorial cues, but you ve also got a solid foundation for Challenging players who try to take 
  the character somewhere you d rather not go. 
  Broaden your thinking beyond the characters into the organizations or factions that make up 
  the backdrop of the game.  Even locations can have Traits beyond simply the descriptive 
  "dark and spooky".  What about a Zen garden that enhances "Tranquility and Calm".  A street 
  corner where "anything can be had for a price".  A bar that s "prone to violent knifings"  
  If you find someone doing something with a character or other Component that seems 
  radically different from what you had in mind, take a look at the list of Traits you gave it.  Did 
  you provide enough Traits to give the other players a sense of what you d been thinking?  
  Most of us aren t mind readers after all.  When another player turns your dynamic femme 
  fatale into a sad subservient doormat check the Traits.  Is there anything there that the other 
  player s description is contradicting that you can use to bolster a Challenge?  If not, there 
  probably should have been.  Fortunately in Universalis its a relatively simple matter to invent 
  a new character to be your heroine and make sure you fill the record sheet with Traits 
  reflecting your vision. 
  If you haven t spent Coin on it...it isn t true. 
  ----Ralph Mazza 
  
  The Importance of Tenets 
   
  I have personally experienced cases where individual players have gone through tenet phases 
  without adding anything substantial to the set of tenets, while other players have added things 
  that they were excited about. In fact, I ve been that player once or twice. And I ve observed 
  the same phenomenon in all of these cases - the player in question basically drops out of the 
  game. Oh, they may participate nominally. But they don t have the energy that the players 
  who put in "real" tenets do. They ll pass a lot, and they ll tend to only add a little color here, 
  jump in on complications with secondary pools, etc. and never really instigate conflict. They 
  may create characters, but these don t seem to end up going anywhere - even other players 
  don t "get" the point of the characters. 
   
  It s not enough simply to agree tacitly to the other players tenets, either. Or even just modify 
  them via challenge. These indicate a superficial interest in playing what s being thought up, 
  but not the kind of investment that you really want a player to have. RPGs have a sort of 
  "problem" in that the material that s produced is really only engaging if you are invested in 
  that material. Audiences of RPGs (and worse, readers of transcripts of RPG play) note that 
  they find such output to be rather boring. It takes a long time to produce action, and the 
  process is so visible, generally, that it s not at all like watching TV or similar media. The only 
  time these sorts of games are fun is when you re actively participating because you have 
  invested in what s going on. 
   
  Universalis has a method to make such an investment explicitly. Instead of the general 
  agreement that you have in most games simply to play the material that s provided, 
  Universalis doesn t provide any material up front that the player might invest in. The players 
  have to produce it themselves. And, again, tacitly accepting other s Tenets is not a sign of 
  investment. It s a sign that the tenets are inoffensive at best. The only way to know that a 
  player is really going to be engaged is if they get that bright look in their eyes as they toss a 
  Coin in and say something like, "But the monkeys are intelligent!" That s the point at which 
  you know that the participant has made the game, in part, theirs. And that they ll have a real 
  personal interest in making it come out in an interesting fashion. 
   
  Interestingly, I find that if you skip the tenet phase entirely, this works too. Essentially 
  everyone is agreeing to a big gimmick in which you all are agreeing to walk the tightrope 
  without a net. Just being in on such a bold dare seems to engage people. And what happens 
  then is that people understand that the tenets are really going to be established in the first few 
  turns that each player takes as they happen in play. This dynamic can work well. 
   
  The point is that the tenet phase, even if omitted, must be an agreement forged amongst all the 
  players about what will be fun to play. If any individual player is not an active participant in 
  coming up with the totality, they simply won t be as engaged as the players who have invested 
  a bit of their creativity in determining what the game will be about. 
   
  So don t let a player fall by the wayside. If you see them floundering during the tenet phase, 
  don t succumb to the temptation to close the phase and just "get on with it." And don t accept 
  just any mailed-in tenets, either. If a player doesn t seem to have an idea, they might be 
  tempted to just toss something out there that comes to mind, but which they aren t really 
  interested in, just to have completed a social obligation to appear to have invested. Make sure 
  
  you get that bright-eyed look from them before you head into play. This might only be one 
  tenet if it s important enough. But you ll know it when you see it. 
  ----Mike Holmes 
  
  Telling Straight Stories 
   
  A common experience with Universalis is for play to wind up silly, or bizarre, or a strange 
  mishmash of competing genres.  This is perfectly normal for initial games.  Folks confronting 
  Universalis for the first time often require a bit of a "shake-down cruise" to grow comfortable; 
  comfortable both with the rules and with opening ones own creativity up to the judgment and 
  appreciation of ones peers.  It can be a daunting task to realize that you aren t there "to be 
  entertained" but instead to actually participate in the entertainment.  Often times the safest 
  play is to retreat into silliness so that any criticism can be shrugged off. 
  Eventually, however, new players realize that the friends they re playing with (if they re worth 
  playing with at all) aren t there to be critical and judgmental but to enjoy the experience of co-
  authoring a story.  They learn that Its ok to to delve into drama and tragedy and try to create 
  stories of poignancy and beauty.  And they especially learn that its ok to fail at creating such 
  stories, because the experience of the shared creative journey is its own reward.  That and 
  when you do finally hit on one of those special moments when every one leans back a little 
  stunned and speechless it will be all worthwhile. 
  But what can you do to help the process along?  What advice is there for people who want to 
  tell a "serious" story using Universalis? 
  First:  play a couple of games of Uni completely open without any expectation of getting to a 
  story that is even marginally good literature.  As noted above it can  take a few games for 
  players to get their feet under them, figure out the flexibility of the system, and get 
  comfortable with the the level of ownership and responsibility they have.  Early games have a 
  tendency towards farce because its easier to generate low humor than high drama and less 
  embarrassing when one "screws up".  Once players get over the fear of "screwing up" I ve 
  found them much more prone to generating good meaty stories. 
    
  Second:  pay especial attention to the Tenets being established.  If one wants serious play its 
  necessary to first identify what specifically makes a story "serious" to you, and then ensure 
  that those things get created as Tenets.  Emulating an example from literature is a good basic 
  start.  There is nothing wrong with a Tenet like: "This story will be like Wuthering Heights", 
  or "Its set in Dickensonian London".  
  Even better is to identify what it is about Wuthering Heights or Dickensonian London you 
  find most appealing and make the Tenets about that.  The more specific and actionable, the 
  better.  Pick your Tenets with an eye towards leading to similar situations in the game. 
   
  Something like "All true love affairs must end tragically", "Every character must have a 
  romantic interest in another character as a Trait", "Every character who is married must have a 
  trait that expresses dissatisfaction with their spouse", "Every character must identify another 
  character as their confident whom they ll tell everything to as a Trait".   
   
  Gimmicks are a great way of introducing some specific genre flavor into the game.  Imagine a 
  Gimmick where the protagonists own conscience is Created as a separate character.  How 
  perfect for a character like Hamlet. 
  
    
  Third:  Traits, Traits, Traits.  Choose Traits that evoke the genre you re trying to achieve.  If 
  you re playing in Dickens  London, create Traits that could come right from the pages of a 
  Dickens novel. 
  Consider: 
  Flora (1 Coin) 
       Pick Pocket (1 Coin) 
       Heart of Gold (1 Coin) 
       Mother (1 Coin) is dying of Tuberculosis (1 Coin) 
  But don t limit yourself to just a static list of attributes.  What role is Flora meant to play.  
  Sure we know she s a pickpocket, but so what.  Traits that express relationships with other 
  characters are especially powerful and especially effective at keeping stories from veering off 
  into the space.  When no one has any clear idea of what to do next, people start brainstorming, 
  and raw brainstorming can lead to silliness.  Creating a tangled web of relationships with 
  Traits means players will always have a notion of what to do next, simply advance those 
  relationships.  This will cut down on those groundless flights of fancy in a hurry. 
  Consider the effect of adding a Trait like "Has a romantic interest in Flora" to the school 
  teacher.  Consider how this will likely play out much differently than adding "Believes the 
  school teacher is sweet on me" as a Trait to Flora.  All s you have to do is throw Flora s friend 
  Jane (who is "Jealous" and "has a crush on the school teacher”) into the mix along with the 
  teacher s wife and peers and every player at the table will be instantly chock full of 
  possibilities for the next scene.  Possibilities that are entirely in keeping with the desired genre 
  because the selected Traits are all pointing the way. 
  And don t stop there.  Give some thought beyond characterization to why you, as an author, 
  even want this character in the story to begin with.   What is Flora s purpose?  Is she there to 
  be the exemplar of innocence in stark contrast with the corruption of the other characters?  Is 
  she there to provide light comic relief?  Is she there to be the one sympathetic character whose 
  tragic story tugs at the heart strings?   
  Any of these can make splendid Traits.  Not only will they serve as guideposts to the other 
  players as to how Flora should be used but they ll give you the weight of Fact to back up any 
  use that doesn t conform. 
  Consider the difference between adding "Perpetually sweet and Innocent" and "Her happiness 
  is always fleeting" as Traits.  Consider the effect of adding both. 
    
  Once players are ready to take their Universalis play beyond superficial pastiches of assorted 
  genre tropes effective use of Tenets and Traits will pave the way for stories of startling power 
  and depth.  Not every time, to be sure.  It would be unreasonable to expect works the caliber 
  of Bronte or Dickens every time you sit around the table with friends.  But I bet you ll wind 
  up with stories of much greater caliber than you imagine.   
  ----Ralph Mazza 
  
  Game Preparation Add-ons 
  Some optional rules that change the way the Game Preparation Phase is handled. 
    
  Additional Coin Refreshment Before First Scene 
  Submitted by Roy Penrod  
  In the core rules, Refreshment occurs at the end of a scene and before the next scene begins.  This 
  means that there is no Refreshment before the first scene.  Players begin the first scene with whatever 
  Coins they have remaining after the Game Preparation phase (Chapter 2). 
  With this Gimmick, groups can allow a standard Refresh before the very first scene of a game to give 
  everyone a few more Coins to start actual play with. 
  VARIANT 
  Instead of a standard Refresh, reset each player’s Wealth back to its starting value (25 Coins is the 
  default) before the first scene.  This will encourage players to really spend Coins to add additional 
  detail to the setting during the Game Preparation Phase since any Coins not spent then are wasted 
  since everyone will be reset back to full. 
  In the core rules the starting Wealth for each player is set before the Game Preparation phase 
  (Chapter 2).  The default is   Refreshment occurs  
  Coins refresh to 25 before the first scene is bid on (applies to the first session only).  
  ----I really like this one and intend to use it for my own games, Ralph. 
     
  Setting Creation Phase 
  Submitted by Mike Holmes  
  After the normal Game Preparation Phase, but before the first scene is framed, insert a new special 
  Setting Creation Phase.  Give each player a separate pool of 25 Coins (or more if you like) just for this 
  phase. During this phase only setting information can be generated. This includes, but is not limited to, 
  declaring Tenets that relate to the setting, Creating Components that exist within the setting, and 
  establishing a variety of Facts related to historical events.  Anything is possible really, as long as the 
  player can rationalize it as setting development (and the other players do not challenge). The phase 
  will continue until all players have either spent all of their Coins, or until all players pass (or the phase 
  can be extended at that point with a new gimmick). At which point any unspent coins are returned to 
  the Bank.  
  NOTES 
  Use this Add-on for a game that emphasizes a more developed setting before play begins.  This is a 
  more involved version of Roy s Coin refreshing Add-on above.  
  OPTIONS 
  One can also insert separate special phases to address characters, or to develop a detailed situation 
  or premise. Whatever you think needs more attention. 
  Serial Game Structure 
  Submitted by Roy Penrod  
  
  Declare that a game is to be part of an ongoing series of sessions. Players are required to leave at 
  least one plot thread dangling to be picked up at the start of the next session. 
   
  NOTES 
  I use this Rules Gimmick to add a serial structure to a campaign game of Universalis.  It s really just a 
  reminder to make sure we leave a plot thread dangling so we have something to look forward to next 
  session.  
  Metagame Jobs 
  Submitted by Mike Holmes  
  These Gimmicks can be established at any time, but are least disruptive to institute during the Game 
  Preparation phase. Essentially, a player may be designated with a title and certain responsibilities for 
  which he receives some scheduled remuneration in Coins. 
  The game pays the player Coins from the Bank to perform certain duties. The payment can be 
  received on a per scene basis; or, for multi-session games, at the beginning or end of each session.  It 
  can be on a "per item produced" basis, or any other schedule of payment. The amount and timing 
  should be well designated as well as the nature of the duties. Gimmicks can also be instituted, of 
  course, to terminate any such contract between a player and the game. 
  Some sample jobs: 
   
  Record keeper - Potentially onerous depending on the speed of play, this player is responsible 
  for taking notes on the game. He records all Components created, all their Traits, and all 
  Facts, and organizes their presentation so that he can recount details when necessary. 
  Having one player do all this (as opposed to each player making his own notes) makes 
  recalling records easier, and frees the other players from note taking leaving them less 
  distracted. 
   
  Librarian - often the same player as the record keeper if there is one, this player is responsible 
  for keeping all notes between sessions of play. If there is no sole record keeper, he collects 
  the notes from each player. The downside to the librarian is that he must be present at every 
  session, or have his archive accessible for play. Else play is very difficult. 
   
  Illustrator - players can sell articles of art created during the game or between sessions to the 
  game on a "freelance" basis. Truly gifted artists might be able to do a running account in 
  which case they could be paid per scene, theoretically. 
   
  Journal Writer - between sessions a player can write the reflections of a character into a 
  fictional journal entry. These can be submitted like art for payment. 
   
  Disc Jockey - a player can be paid to act as DJ for a session, ensuring that a constant supply 
  of appropriate music (or sound effects) is provided. Discuss well with the group what music is 
  appropriate before hiring a DJ, and promptly fire a DJ that gets out of hand. 
   
  Host - consider paying the host of the session a fee to account for the problems associated 
  with having the players over. 
   
  Caterer - similar to the host, payment can be assigned for food brought to share. 
   
  Prop Master - players can be paid for creation of interesting and evocative props. 
   
  Multiple Tenets 
  Submitted by Ralph Mazza  
  Over the course of many games, one of the most frequently forgotten rules is the rule that limits a 
  player to Proposing only one Tenet on their turn.  This rule was designed to make sure that all players 
  had an equal opportunity to set the Tenets for the game by limiting each player to just a single idea at 
  a time.  As it turns out some ideas require more than 1 Tenet to express properly (especially Story 
  Elements involving adding Traits to Components) and so its become commonplace in many groups to 
  allow players to introduce multiple Tenets on their turn so long as they’re all related to the same basic 
  idea  
  
     
  Seed Element 
  Submitted by Adam Kelly  
  Discussed in This Thread, this is one of those clever ideas I wish I d thought of myself.  Its ideal to use 
  for an experienced Uni player to use when teaching the game to a new group and makes a fantastic 
  way to give focus to one shot convention play. 
  The experienced player (or the one hosting the convention game) comes to the table with a single 
  Component already Created.  That Component has a largely ambiguous name or role Trait plus 1 
  other Trait which, while equally ambiguous, serves as a call to action.  This Component is then 
  presented at the beginning of the Game Prep phase, introduced as the first Tenet. 
  In the above thread the Component was named Orion.  A perfect choice.  It could be a man s name, or 
  a woman s, or the code name of a secret government agency,  a constellation, a mythological 
  character, or an entire planet.  What exactly it is, is left unsaid it serves as a creative seed for the other 
  players and their efforts to define it is what will give the game focus.  This gimmick was used at 
  several different tables and in each Orion was something different.  In one it was a ship carrying the 
  last remnants of humanity, in another a teacher in a school beset by zombies (of course, there are 
  always zombies), and in another Orion was a political party seeking equality for wingless faeries. 
  The second Trait Orion had was the equally effective "needs to be rescued".  A specific call to action 
  where the specifics (why, from whom or what) are left open.  Other Traits could also be effective such 
  as "On a mission from God", or "seeking Vengeance", or just simply "Searching".  
  
  Game Play Add-ons 
  Some optional rules that change Turn Order or Game Flow. 
  Open Scene Framing 
  Submitted by Ralph Mazza  
  In the Core rules there is only 1 active scene at a time. Other scenes may remain unresolved and 
  waiting for completion, but before players can return to them, the current scene must be formally 
  declared ended by the Framing Player and a new scene started which returns to that previous one. In 
  between, players Bid for Scene to determine who has the privilege of Framing that new scene.  Mini 
  scenes allow for small, short, scenes to be inserted into the main scene.  This add-on allows several 
  full scenes to be going on simultaneously. 
  The Bidding for scene procedure was written to keep the flow of the game very structured and 
  progressing in a clearly delineated way.  This is especially valuable for introducing new players to the 
  concepts of total player control. The Open Scene Framing Add-on is an advanced technique that does 
  away with all of the above mentioned structure. 
  When using this Add-on there is no Bidding for Scene Framing. Two new options are added to the 
  player�s turn. "Frame New Scene" and "Switch Between Scenes" either of which costs 1 Coin. 
  To Frame a New Scene a player on his own turn pays the 1 Coin and then proceeds to frame the 
  scene exactly as described in Chapter Five. After he Establishes a Location, Sets the Time, and 
  Introduces Components, he continues with his turn normally. 
  At any time a player can on his turn pay 1 Coin to switch from the current scene to another of the 
  currently active scenes to continue the action there where it was left off. He, or some other player who 
  Interrupts him, can then pay a Coin to switch back again. The Framing Player for a given scene can at 
  any time on his turn close the scene by paying the 1 Coin to Fade to Black. Once closed the scene 
  can no longer be switched to. 
  This technique is fairly advanced and demands good organization to keep all of the separate scenes 
  straight. It is not recommended that more than 2 or 3 Scenes be active at any one time. 
  It is also possible (and in some cases encouraged) to use this Add-on like a Rules Gimmick. In other 
  words use the Core rules for Bidding for Scene as the standard in the game. Then, only on the 
  occasion where rapid fire switching between scenes becomes desirable, propose this rule be adopted. 
  When that sequence of scenes is over, revert back to the standard rules. 
  Judgment, Challenge Variant 
  Submitted by Kirt Dankmyer  
  This Add-on replaces the normal Challenge Variant.  It offers the opportunity to bring a more GM like 
  influence to the game. 
  If players disagree about the legality of a move or the interpretation or application of a Gimmick or 
  Fact, then the player who spent Coins before the current player s turn is to is to be the Judge and 
  decide the question. Disagreement for the purposes of this rule may be created by the insistence of 
  any player. This process is called invoking Judgment. 
   
  When Judgment has been invoked, no one may Interrupt or pass the turn without the consent of a 
  majority of the other players. 
   
  The Judge s Judgment may be overruled only by a unanimous vote of the other players taken before 
  the next Coin is spent. If a Judge s Judgment is overruled, then a player chosen at random from those 
  
  remaining (i.e. not the one of the previous Judges or the player on whom Judgment had been called) 
  becomes the new Judge for the question, and so on. If all Judges are overruled, well, then, the player 
  on whom Judgment was called can continue without further Judgments regarding that action. 
   
  New Judges are not bound by the decisions of old Judges. New Judges may, however, settle only 
  those questions on which the players currently disagree and that effect the completion of the turn in 
  which Judgment was invoked. All decisions by Judges shall be in accordance with all the Facts and 
  Gimmicks then in effect; but when Tenets and Facts are silent, inconsistent, or unclear on the point at 
  issue, then the Judge shall consider game-custom and the spirit of the story before applying other 
  standards. 
  Alternate Reality Variant 
  Submitted by Kirt Dankmyer  
  This variant requires very careful record keeping with regards to scenes.  Scenes should be arranged 
  on a chronological number line. 
  At the end of any scene, you can split off a "mirror scene".  This puts a fork in the number line 
  immediately prior to the just finished scene and adds the mirror scene.  This mirror scene starts the 
  same way (time, location, and introduced Components) with no additional framing cost.  At that point 
  the group plays the same scene again, likely with different events and outcomes.   
  There are now two alternate realities.  The first where the events proceeded according to the original 
  scene, and the second where the events proceeded according to the mirror scene.  There can be 
  many branches formed in this way.  The same scene can be mirrored multiple times and each branch 
  may then branch out itself.  Only the very first scene of the game, the starting point, cannot be forked. 
  The cost for creating a mirror scene in this way is 1 Coin per fork (including the newly created one) 
  between the mirror scene and the original first scene of the game. 
  Each Branch needs to be labeled and each Component must be identified with the branch it belongs 
  to.  A component is part of each successive branch after it is Created, but if it is altered subsequently, 
  it is only altered for that current branch (and subsequent ones) and so a duplicate Component must be 
  made specific to that branch.  Whoever splits off a new branch, should be appointed record keeper for 
  that branch. 
    
  Friendly Control 
  Submitted by Kirt Dankmyer  
  Whoever Controls a component can cede Control at any time to another player, at no cost to anyone 
  Variant:  Anyone can take Control of any Component on their turn for no cost.  The current owner can 
  Challenge this with the weight of Fact behind him to prevent it. 
    
  Free Dialog 
  Submitted by Bob McNamee  
  Whoever Controls a component can cede Control at any time to another player, at no cost to anyone 
  Variant:  Anyone can take Control of any Component on their turn for no cost.  The current owner can 
  Challenge this with the weight of Fact behind him to prevent it. 
    
  
  Losing Challenge Bids 
  Submitted by Mike Holmes  
  In the Core rules all Coins bid in a Challenge are considered spent and returned to the Bank 
  regardless of who wins.  This rule is in play to counter the puffing strategy common in auction games 
  where a player who doesn t really want to win the bidding bids up the price for another player who 
  does. 
  However, some groups have found that since you stand to lose both the Challenge and a sizeable 
  number of Coins you may be less likely to back down.  This can lead to unnecessary bidding wars 
  once both parties have too much invested to afford to lose.  With this Gimmick you allow one party to 
  concede and recover their bid making them more likely to back out rather than fight to the bitter end. 
    
  Using Challenge Bids 
  Submitted by Ralph Mazza  
  If the acting player loses a Challenge, this Gimmick allows him to use any Coins that he bid on the 
  Challenge (that  would normally be lost to the Bank) to pay for whatever changes the Challenger 
  required.  Any surplus Coins are lost to the Bank as normal. 
     
  Using Cards as Coins 
  Submitted by Jonathan Nichol  
  [Presented with some modification]  
  Instead of coins, each player gets a deck of cards from which the face cards have been removed to 
  use as the Bank.  Shuffle the deck and whenever the rules call for the player to gain Coins, draw a 
  number of cards from the deck instead.  Keep these cards in a face down pile to be your Wealth. 
  Instead of spending Coins, spend the top card from your Wealth by discarding it next to the Bank.  
  When the Bank is empty reshuffle the discards and start a new Bank. 
  In a Complication, when Coins are spent to add dice to a pool take the cards from the Wealth pile but 
  leave them face down.  When Traits are called on to add dice, take the cards from the Bank and add 
  them to the pool face down.  To resolve the Complication each player takes the face down cards that 
  have been added to their pools and counts Aces (one) through 5 as a Success treating the face value 
  exactly as a number rolled on a d10.  If Coins earned in the Complication are to be added to a player s 
  Wealth, discard the cards from the pool and draw new face down cards from the Bank accordingly. 
  Variant. Don t remove the face cards but instead create a Gimmick for what they represent when 
  spent.  For instance a revealed Jack could mean the person to the right spends the Coin, a Queen, 
  the person to the left, and a King the person across.  In a Complication each Jack in the Pool could 
  cancel a Success while each King could count as an extra Success (for purposes of determining the 
  winner but not effecting any Coins earned).  A Queen could give you a free Coin but not count as a 
  Success. 
  
  Component Creation Add-ons 
  Some optional rules that change the way the Components Get Created, including three 
  variants on the oft requested "PC Add-on". 
    
  Greater Control Over Created Components 
  Submitted by Bob McNamee  
  Add a Trait to any Component you Created called "Controlled by _player name_" (as in "Controlled by Bob").  
  This doesn t prevent other players from Controlling Component s that you ve Created but it is a Fact that gives 
  your Coins double value to Challenge for Control. 
  ---I call this the PC-lite rule.  It is by far the simplest means of gaining a degree of traditional Player Character 
  like authority over a particular character in the game. 
  ---Note the possibility for a "hostile takeover" as other players attempt to remove and replace a "Control" Trait 
  and this attempt is Challenged.  
  OPTIONS 
  Allow this Add-on to apply only to characters not other types of Components.  Allow each player to buy this 
  Trait only once, limiting each player to a single controlled character.  Allow this Trait to be applied to a 
  Component even if the purchasing player didn t Create it.  Disallow "hostile takeovers" by ruling that Control 
  Traits can never be eliminated or altered.  
     
  Public Domain Trait 
  Submitted by Kirt Dankmyer  
  This add-on is something of the reverse of the Greater Control add-on above.  Instead of adding a "Control Trait" 
  that makes it harder for others to take Control of a Component, the player adds a "Public Domain" Trait to the 
  Component.    
  This Component can now be Taken Over for free, without spending a coin to do so. The Take Over can be 
  Challenged as usual.  
  ---This gimmick would be useful in a variety of situations such as:  Large complex locations like a castle or city 
  that every player wants to be able to add Traits to at any time without having to spend a Coin to Take Control 
  each time, reoccuring villains so that any player can initiate a Complication using that villain without needing to 
  pay to control him.  
  ---See also the Friendly Control Add-on for a similar way of handling this. 
  Royalty Add-on 
  Submitted by Ralph Mazza 
  Must first be playing with Bob s Control Add-on above.  This Add-on allows players to take Control of a 
  Controlled Component without fear of Challenge if they first play an additional 1 Coin from Wealth, directly to 
  the player named in the Trait. 
  ---Royalties were actually a concept from way in the early days of Universalis, whose intention was to motivate 
  players to Create interesting Component, by paying them if they were something other players would want to 
  
  use.  This motivation proved completely unnecessary and so the rule was scrapped; but it fit so nicely with Bob s 
  clever Control rule above that I resurrected the concept just for it. 
    
  Player Character Add-on   
  Submitted by Mike Holmes  
  A player can, once during the game (across all sessions), spend 5 Coins, and permanently Take Over 
  a single character. This character becomes the Player s Character (PC).  Add a Trait to the character 
  of "_Player Name s_ Character" (as in "Mike s Character".   
  The PC can only thereafter be Controlled by that player.  Further Take Overs of that character are not 
  allowed.  The PC can not be altered in any way (such as buying Traits for the character) by any player 
  other than the owner, except through the use of Coins received from a Complication in which the PC 
  was a participant. 
  This includes being Introduced into scenes.  The PC can only be Introduced to a scene with the 
  agreement of the owning player (who still retains Control despite not having Introduced the character).  
  If a player wants to Introduce a PC against its owner s will, he can frame a Mini-Scene in which the PC 
  is involved in a relevant Complication and use Coins won in the Complication to Introduce the PC into 
  the main scene.  
  The owning player is also solely responsible for all of the character s dialog. 
  ---This Add-on can really alter the game in subtle, but powerful ways.  Shifting the player s emphasis 
  from the story as a whole to a specific character, can lead to player myopia and disinterest in parts of 
  the story not involving the PC.  It is suggested that not all player utilize this option at the same time.  It 
  is perhaps best used to give the hero of the story to a particular player as a PC, and perhaps the major 
  villain of the story to another player as a PC, but for the rest of the players to remain unattached to 
  specific characters.   
   ---See also the Judgment Challenge Variant Add-on for a way to bring a more GM like influence to the 
  game.   Ralph  
     
  The PC Endowment Pool 
  Submitted by Mike Holmes  
  When a player adopts a PC he gets an Endowment of 25 Coins, which are kept in a separate pool. 
  These Endowment Coins can only be used to give Traits to the PC, or to add to Complication Pools in 
  the case of Complications in which the PC is involved.  These Coins are never Refreshed.  When they 
  are spent they are gone. 
  OPTION 
  Set the number of Endowment Coins at a different amount based on the character s importance to the 
  story and the level of realism in the game.    
     
  PC Plot Protection 
  Submitted by Mike Holmes  
  With this option it takes double the normal number of Coins to eliminate a PC by reducing Importance.   
  
  ---This rule has the interesting effect of causing players who are determined to eliminate a protected 
  character to concentrate first on removing the character s Traits, thereby lowering the PC s 
  Importance before having to pay to reduce it.  I recommend considering this sort of protection for 
  major villains or other important Component as well.   Ralph 
  OPTIONS 
  Allow this Add-on to be purchased individually for any important Component, not just PCs (even in a 
  game that isn t using the PC Add-on).  Alternatively players can make it illegal for any player except 
  the owner to reduce a PC s Importance.  Thus only the owner can decide if and when it s time for the 
  PC to be eliminated. 
     
  PC Descriptive Paragraph Add-on 
  Submitted by Ralph Mazza  
  This is a special method of generating Player Characters which should be used in conjunction with the 
  Endowment Add-on above.   Players must write a paragraph (or several) describing who their 
  character is and what he s like. Game balance issues are not important here (they will come into play 
  below) but players should strive to keep their description limited to 100 to 200 words. This will help 
  ensure that the description is tightly worded, and focused on the most essential aspects of the 
  character. Sentences that are merely lists of things the character can do are to be discouraged. 
  Key elements of a paragraph would be cultural and social background, occupation, personality, 
  important possessions, friends or contacts, hobbies or things the character does exceptionally well. 
  Take this paragraph and use it as a source to draw the character s Traits from.  Pay for those Traits 
  (or at least as many as possible) out of the character s Endowment.   
  ---This Add-on is inspired by several RPGs such as Hero Wars which use just such a descriptive 
  paragraph to create their characters.   Ralph. 
     
  PC Story Drivers 
  Submitted by Ralph Mazza  
  This Add-on should be used in conjunction with the Endowment Add-on above.  
  The Story Driver is some compelling feature about the character�s personality or motivations that 
  serves to provide interest. The Story Driver is the reason why the character is part of the story being 
  told. It is the reason the character is a protagonist of the story and is the motivation that drives the 
  character through the story. If the character does not have a Story Driver it probably isn�t compelling 
  enough to be a player character and is best left as an NPC. 
  The Story Driver is that facet of a character that makes him of interest to the audience. It may be tied 
  to the character s role but this is not necessary. It answers the questions: "Why should we care what 
  happens to this character?", "What makes this character suitable as a protagonist?", "What keeps the 
  character moving forward through the story?", and "Why is this character worth telling a story about in 
  the first place?" It may be a quest to complete, a vendetta to pursue, a mystery to solve, a promise to 
  keep, or a destiny to fulfill.   It may also simply be an interesting situation that the character is in that 
  requires immediate action to respond to.  For supporting characters, it may be largely tangential to the 
  main story line (which should be concerned with the Story Driver of the protagonist) but it should 
  provide the opportunity for subplots, and exciting narrative in its own right. 
  The Story Driver should not just be a static tag line. It should be an ongoing theme in the character s 
  life which become more developed as the story progresses both from the character s perspective and 
  
  the audience s. The player should make an effort to work elements of the Story Driver into his 
  narrative where appropriate and keep in the back of his mind the potential for its ultimate resolution or 
  fulfillment, if such is possible. 
  The Story Driver for a player character can be altered and changed during play as the character 
  evolves and the details of the surrounding world and events get filled in.  In this way a character 
  whose Story Driver includes following in the footsteps of his dead and heroic father, can, later in the 
  story, latch on to the idea of making the main villain of the story his father, who is not dead after all. 
  The elements that make up a Story Driver write-up are not considered Facts for game purposes. They 
  are merely the perceptions of the character whose actual veracity may vary. Elements of the Driver 
  that the player wishes to be irrefutable can be purchased as Facts normally. 
  Whenever the player manages to focus attention on his Story Driver he can earn Coins from the Bank.  
  For each scene in the game that addresses some aspect of the character s story driver, the owning 
  player may draw 1 Coin from the Bank and add it to the character s Endowment Pool. 
  Whenever the player manages to actually resolve his Story Driver (if such is possible) the owning 
  player may draw a number of Coins from the Bank equal to the total number of game sessions that 
  character has participated in with that Story Driver in place and add them to the character s 
  Endowment Pool. 
  ---This Add-on is inspired by features found in many games, such as Sorcerer s Kickers.   Ralph 
  Durable Components  
  Submitted by Bob McNamee  
  This is an add-on designed to make it more difficult to remove Traits or Eliminate Components from 
  play.  
  When Components are Created, they can be designated as "Durable".  This is a special Trait that 
  costs 5 Coins and cannot be Removed from the Component.  For the rest of the game it takes 2 Coins 
  instead of 1 to Remove a Trait of that Component or reduce the Component s Importance.  This will 
  make killing Characters, destroying Locations, etc much harder. It will tend to skew things toward 
  making existing things gain Importance, since it is cheaper to add a Fact to something than to destroy 
  a Fact from it. 
   
  A combat example... 
  Bob s has character A attack B. Character B is Durable.  After resolving the Complication. A side wins 
  with 10 coins, B side gets 3. B is an Importance 6 character. With this Add-on, instead of reducing 
  Importance to 0 and describing the 6 "coin moves" and keeping 4 Coins- killing B like the normal rules, 
  Bob can t kill B (he would need 12 coins to reduce the importance), so he adds 6 Coins worth of Facts 
  (like...Flesh wounds x2, Weak with Blood Loss x2, Broken Nose, No match for Character A) and keeps 
  4 Coins. These added traits will have the effect of acting against B in other Complications, but they 
  also increase the Importance of character B to 12. These "negative" Facts are also difficult to remove 
  from B. (and perhaps Bob will destroy one or two trait Facts and add a couple wounding traits etc 
  instead of using them all one way) 
   
  If you want to make sure that the groups creative work hangs around longer, this might be a good 
  Add-on for you. 
  ---Mike and Bob worked on this Add-on on our Discussion Forum.  I added a couple small tweaks to it 
  before posting it here.  Ralph 
  Enigma Traits  
  Submitted by Christopher Chinn  
  
  This rule allows players to conceal the hidden facts about a character or other Component. You can 
  buy Traits for Components that are not known to the other players, although they do have to be written 
  down, and cannot be used for Complications or Challenges until revealed. 
  You have to pay 2 Coins for an Enigma Trait (essentially 1 Coin for the Trait and 1 for the privilege of 
  keeping it secret).  The Trait is written down and not revealed to the other players.  At any point the 
  player desires he can reveal the Trait and bring it to bear in a Complication or Challenge or simply 
  refer to it in narrative. 
  The purpose of an Enigma Trait is to allow a player to secure "first dibs" on an idea but yet still keep it 
  secret to "spring" on the other players at a dramatic moment.  Players can always add "surprise" or 
  "plot twist" Traits to Components via the normal rules.  But by waiting for the right moment to purchase 
  those Traits other Facts may be purchased by other players in the mean time that invalidate the player 
  s plans. 
  For instance.  Dave might really want to add a Trait to Elton Frakes that he is, in fact, a werewolf.  He 
  decides to wait to a suitable moment to buy the Trait and reveal Elton s secret.  Before he gets the 
  chance, Ed buys "Immune to Lycanthrope" as a Trait for Elton.  Now Dave could Challenge this, but in 
  addition to the expense it may make his announcement anti-climactic.  Using the Enigma Trait rule 
  Dave buys the Werewolf Trait for Elton but records it in secret.  Now if Ed tries to render Elton 
  "Immune" he will be too late.  Dave can now challenge Ed with the weight of the newly revealed 
  Enigma Trait serving as Fact. 
  These traits work well for mystery stories, noir stories, heroes with undiscovered powers, and soap 
  operas. Memento comes to mind as a movie that would incorporate this very well. 
  ---This Add-on was first proposed in our Discussion Forum.  I tweaked it a bit before posting it here.  
  Ralph 
     
  Making Protagonists Special  
  These Add-ons suggest a few ways to mechanically make the main characters of your story more 
  involved and influential than the supporting cast.  
  
  Making the Protagonist Special 
  Sometimes it can be hard to tell who the protagonist of a story is.  Sometimes the story gets 
  overcrowded with so many supporting characters that the main plot gets lost. 
  These Add-ons suggest a few ways to make the Protagonist more special if you find yourself 
  in such a situation.  Most are player submitted and represent great examples of how to use 
  Rules Gimmicks to achieve the style of play a group prefers. 
    
  Protagonist Refresh Boost: 
  Submitted by Ralph Mazza  
  After any scene in which the identified main character was present (i.e. Introduced), the standard Coin 
  Refresh is 7 Coins instead of the normal 5 (or whatever level you ve set your group s Refresh rate to). 
  Inspired by a game where it was suddenly realized that the main character of the story hadn t been 
  present in the last several scenes; this Add-on provides a mechanical incentive for not forgetting to 
  include the protagonist more frequently. 
  Additionally the main antagonist could be included in this rule.  
    
  No New Traits During Complications: 
  Submitted by Alan Barclay  
  No buying new Traits during a Complication. The ban covers all components, whether they re in play 
  or not. Once the dice are rolled and results tallied, the ban is lifted. 
   
  This moderates a tendency for surprise traits to appear when needed. It encourages players to think 
  ahead and add Traits carefully during regular play.  Since main characters are the ones players will be 
  spending the most time thinking about and interacting with, they will tend to have the most complete 
  set of Traits, which helps to distinguish them as the protagonist.  It also forces players to rely on 
  purchased dice (and creative descriptive justifications for them) during Complications. 
  ---Alan has noticed that often times during Complications players will add Traits to characters that are 
  amazingly just what the character needed at the time.  Mike Holmes points out that this is actually a 
  feature of many movies and TV shows that reveal in the thick of the action some new skill or talent we 
  didn t know the character had.  But for some genres this can be inappropriate.  Also at times Traits of 
  questionable legitimacy may be purchased just to boost a dice pool.  While Challenges are the best 
  way to handle this, if it becomes habitual a Gimmick like this can put an end to it. 
  OPTIONS 
  As an alternative to a complete ban, I suggested differentiating between set-up scenes and climactic 
  scenes.  The Framing Player can buy a Trait of "Climactic Scene" if desired.  During such scenes the 
  above ban is enforced.  During set-up scenes, Complications can be thought of as a vehicle for 
  illustrating the characters abilities and Trait purchases during them may still be allowed. 
    
  Named Character Limit: 
  Submitted by Alan Barclay 
  
  No more named characters may be Created. 
   
  I bought this gimmick halfway through a a game. I thought we had enough major characters and 
  wanted play to focus on them, instead of new, last-minute creations.  Limiting the ability to name 
  characters did indeed limit the creation of new major characters. 
  ---An effective technique in games experiencing a good deal of character bloat.  This gimmick forces 
  players to think in terms of using existing characters rather than to keep inventing new ones.  Of 
  course, for an newly thought of important character, it is a simple matter to propose another Rules 
  Gimmick which permits an exception be made. 
    
  Only 1 Trait per Turn: 
  Submitted by Alan Barclay 
  No character may gain more than one neutral or advantageous Trait per turn (or even per scene).. 
   
  This is intended for introduction after major character s have been introduced, to limit burgeoning 
  casts.  The limit makes it difficult for any new characters to achieve the same number of Traits (and 
  hence Importance) as the main character(s) were able to pre-gimmick. 
    
  No Purchasing the Same Trait Multiple Times: 
  Submitted by Alan Barclay 
  No component may purchase the same Trait multiple times (e.g. Marksman x3), except to represent 
  numbers. 
   
  Instead of Marksman x3, this Gimmick encourages more creative thought like: Marksman, Eagle Eye, 
  Combat Reflexes, or the like.  The goal here is 1) for the additional variety of Traits to flesh out main 
  characters in more detail, and 2) to make it more difficult to suddenly invent a minor character who had 
  a high degree of proficiency in just one thing 
  ---This Gimmick is a direct replacement of a rule from the book which expressly does allow for Traits 
  to be purchased multiple times.  Which is entirely acceptable for a Gimmick to do. 
    
  Protagonists Must be Most Important Character: 
  Submitted by Ralph Mazza  
  One character is named as the "Main Protagonist" (by buying this as a Trait). No other character in the 
  story can ever have an Importance higher than the "Main Protagonist" except for the "Main 
  Antagonist". 
  A variant would allow each player to select 1 main character for an ensemble cast. No other character 
  can have an Importance higher than the highest Main Character (or alternatively the lowest Main 
  Character).  Again, except for the equivalent antagonists. 
  
  Narration Add-ons 
  Some optional rules that change how players can narrate the story. 
  Plot Pools 
  Submitted by Mike Holmes  
  If you have a particular idea for a subplot or even main plot that you want to ensure has a life of it s 
  own, give it a Plot Pool. Depending on how important the plot, give it between ten and fifty Coins from 
  the Bank. Any player may, on their turn,  spend up to two of these Coins per scene so long as their 
  spent in a way that relates to developing the action or backstory of the plot with which they are 
  associated. 
   
  OPTION 
  Adjust the rate of spending, increasing the number of Coins per scene to bring a Plot to the forefront, 
  or reducing the rate to draw its conclusion out. 
    
  Plot Thread 
  Submitted by Matthijs Holter  
  This Add-on is designed to help keep story plot lines tight and focused by offering rewards to other 
  players for picking up a desired thread and following through with it.   
  The Plot Thread is Created as a Component defined as "an unresolved conflict". It costs one coin to 
  Create, and must be given an appropriate name that summarizes the nature of the conflict.. The 
  Creator must identify any number of existing Components that are part of, involved with, or tied to this 
  conflict.  Each Component named in the Plot Thread costs an additional coin. 
   
  Each time a Plot Thread is introduced into a scene (costing one coin), it gains a point of Weight. 
   
  When a Plot Thread is resolved, the player resolving it gets its Weight in coins.  Declaring a Thread 
  resolved can be challenged as usual. 
   
  VARIANT 
  submitted by Christopher Bradley 
  Plot Threads cost 1 Coin to Create as above, but no additional Coins have to be spent for identifying 
  involved Components.  Plot Threads are not Introduced but instead automatically increase in Weight 
  by 1 each scene.  When a player resolves the Conflict they gain its Weight in Coins. 
  VARIANT 
  Submitted by Ralph Mazza  
  Plot Threads cost 1 Coin to Create and can be given additional Traits further refining the nature of the 
  conflict exactly as for ordinary Components.  These special Components can be Introduced and 
  Drawn Upon to provide dice in Complications related to that conflict.  Like any other Component a Plot 
  Thread can be Eliminated by buying off its Importance, or, as it moves towards resolution, individual 
  Traits can be bought off through narration exactly as for damage or injury.  
   
  
  Complication Add-ons 
  Some optional rules that change the way the Complications are handled. 
    
  Dice Can Only be Added to Dice Pools 
  Submitted by Roy Penrod  
  The core rules allow dice to be added or subtracted from dice pools.  This rule prevents dice from being 
  subtracted from a pool.  Any event that would logically be justified as subtracting dice from a pool is instead 
  added to an opposing pool.. 
   
  NOTES 
  I use this Rules Gimmick to make sure we never end up with an empty dice pool (no dice to roll). 
   
  For example: A named character only has 1 die to contribute to a Complication (e.g. his name). He does, 
  however, have a Trait that can be used against him (e.g. Cowardice). Using the standard rules, the character 
  would end up with an empty dice pool. Using this Rules Gimmick, the character still contributes 1 die to his dice 
  pool while the opposing dice pool is also given 1 die for the character s negative Trait. 
  
  Multiple Targets to a Complication 
  These Add-ons illustrate several different variations on the standard Dice Pool for 
  Complications which players may find more accurately reflect a given situation. 
  If there are multiple Targets to a Complication there are several different ways they can be 
  treated.  Sometimes the standard system described in the core rules may not necessarily reflect 
  the nature of the Complication as its been defined. 
  The following choices are available to handle multiple Target Pools differently. Any player 
  can propose one of these choices as for any Rules Gimmick and, if not successfully 
  Challenged, it becomes the way this Complication will be resolved. Players are free (and 
  encouraged) to use these choices as suggestions and come up with their own variations if they 
  desire. 
    
  Standard Pool: 
  This is the system described in the Core Rules, included here for completeness.  All of the 
  Complication pools are counted together as a single side.  And all of the Target Pools are counted 
  together as a single side for purposes of determining the Winning side.     
  All of the Pools on the same side are counted together as one, and all Pools on a side Win or Lose 
  accordingly. Each player then spends his own Coins from his Pool himself. All Winning Pools narrate 
  in order from most to least Coins before any of the losing Pools which then narrate in order from most 
  to least Coins. Ties are handled in clockwise order from the Originator. 
  This method works well in an abstract fashion for most Complications. Combat or other confrontations 
  between a group of protagonists each with their own Pool against a number of opponents rolled in the 
  aggregate is handled particularly well. 
    
  Independent Target Pools: 
  Like the Standard method, all Complication Pools are counted together as a single side.  The various 
  Target Pools are not combined together, however, as a single side.  Each Target Pool opposes the 
  Complication Side separately. 
  Each Target Pool rolls one at a time, and all Complication Pools (the same number of dice, with the 
  exception of bought dice that only apply against limited Targets) is re-rolled against each one. There is 
  a separate Winner and Loser determined for each match up and all Free Coins are spent before rolling 
  for the next Target Pool. Essentially, there is a separate Complication for each Target. Target Pools in 
  this method can either all be built first before any are resolved.  Or they can be built one at a time in 
  whatever order is appropriate. This depends on what is appropriate for the nature of the Complication. 
  The multiple Pools can be resolved in any order the players choose (often determined by which 
  character goes first). If disagreements arise, Pools with the most Dice are resolved first, and in the 
  event that this is tied, closest to the left of the Originator goes first. 
  Targets who roll first can use their bonus Coins to Buy Dice for Pools that haven t rolled yet if it can be 
  justified how such assistance is possible. 
  
  This method works well for situations where the characters are confronted with a hazard and each 
  character will make it or not on his own. Scaling a wall is an example of a hazard where each Target s 
  Dice Pool could be built separately, one after another. Surviving a bomb explosion is an example 
  where each Target s Dice Pool should be built at the same time. 
  Note:  This method is essentially the same as originating a series of Standard Complications against 
  each Target separately, except that the Complication Pools only need to be built once. 
    
  Split Allocation Pool: 
  This method is very similar to Independent Target Pools above. However, the Complication Pool is not 
  re-rolled for each Target. Instead all of the Pools are rolled at the same time.  The Originator then 
  takes the Successes rolled from each of the Complication Pools (from any player) and allocates them 
  against each of the Target Pools in whatever manner he chooses. Each Target Pool will then Win or 
  Lose based on how it compares to the Successes the Originator allocated. 
  This method is generally much quicker than Independent Pools and gives largely the same type of 
  results (each Target can Win or Lose independently of the others). However, it gives the Originator 
  much more control over which Targets Win or Lose which may or may not be an appealing feature to a 
  given play group. 
  Technically, this method does not have to be limited to 1 Originator vs. Multiple Targets. It could just 
  as easily apply to a single Target faced with multiple opponents run by different players (such as when 
  a hero is confronted with multiple enemies). 
  ---This method is one of my personal favorites.   Ralph. 
    
  Individual Pools: 
  This method is very similar to Independent Pools except there is a separate Complication Pool facing 
  each Target. All Targets make their own roll opposed by their own Complication Pool. Many times this 
  can be combined with the Split Allocation Pool where some Targets are faced with a separate 
  Complication Pool and some gang up on another Complication Pool. 
  Resolution order is determined as for Independent Pools and bonus Coins in one Pool can be used to 
  purchase additional dice into another Pool. 
  This method is suggested only for situations like a climactic combat where each hero is facing off 
  against a separate villain 
  Note:  this method is very similar to running a series of different Standard Complications 
  simultaneously. 
    
  All or None Pool: 
  All Target Pools make their own roll at the same time, and all Complication Pools are treated like a 
  single side. The worst Target Pool result is the only one which is compared to the Complication Pool 
  and all Target Pools are considered to have Won or Lost based on that worst Pool s result. 
  Each Pool calculates its bonus Coins based on its own pool using the overall winner or loser status. 
  
  This type of Complication is appropriate for situations such as when characters are attempting to hide 
  or sneak or are in disguise as a group and a slip up from any one of them will give them away. 
    
  Best Efforts Pool: 
  This method is essentially the reverse of the All or None Pool.  All Target Pools make their own roll at 
  the same time, and all Complication Pools are treated like a single side.  The best Target Pool result is 
  the only one which is compared to the Complication Pool and all Target Pools are considered to have 
  Won or Lost based on that best Pool's result 
  Each Pool calculates its bonus Coins based on its own pool using the overall winner or loser status. 
  This type of Complication is appropriate for situations where multiple characters are cooperating, and 
  due to the shear number of involved Targets the Target pool would be exceptionally large and almost 
  certainly overwhelm the Complication Pool.  This method can be an alternative to the Originator 
  having to find extreme ways to enlarge the Complication Pool in order to make it competitive. 
  
  Nested Complications 
  Submitted by Ralph Mazza  
  A nested Complication is nothing more than a new Complication that is Originated before an existing 
  Complication has been completely resolved. This sort of Complication can either be internal to the 
  current Complication or external to it. 
  An internal Nested Complication is one where the source of the new Complication was generated 
  within the current Complication. For an example inspired by Ron Edward s Sorcerer, imagine a 
  Complication which involves a party of sorcerers fighting an enemy deep in an underground 
  stronghold. One of the players seeks to draw upon Traits from a powerful demon that a character is 
  bound to.  This demon has not had its Needs met in a while and so is likely to resist its master s 
  commands.  Another player begins a new Complication pitting the character against his demon in a 
  battle of will to see if the demon will obey or not.   
  An external Nested Complication is one where the two Complications are entirely separate and 
  running parallel to each other, but where the outcome of one Complication can influence the outcome 
  of the other. The classic example of this is where one group of characters is responsible for 
  establishing a "diversion" while another group proceeds with the mission. These Complications could 
  be going on separately within the same scene or actually simultaneously in two different scenes. 
  Both types of Nested Complications are handled the same way. One of the Complications must be 
  resolved first and has the capability to impact the Dice Pools of the other. In the case of multiple 
  Nested Complications going on simultaneously, they all might impact the same primary Complication, 
  or they may all impact the next Complication up daisy-chain style. A word of caution: multiple Nested 
  Complications are an advanced technique that, while they can be extraordinary fun, requires lots of 
  dice, lots of table space, and careful organization. Which Complication is resolved first is up to the 
  player Originating the new Complication. Almost always it will be the new Complication being resolved 
  first. 
  Each Nested Complication will have its own set of Dice Pools, and are separate Complications for 
  purposes of Drawing upon Traits. Resolving the Nested Complication is handled just as any other.  
  Common uses of the bonus Coins generated by a Nested Complication include: purchasing a new 
  Trait attached to the scene which can then be Drawn upon to provide dice to another Complication; 
  describing Events and Facts related to the Nested Complication that can be used to provide 
  justification for Drawing upon Traits in another Complication that otherwise couldn t be used; to 
  Introduce or Create new Components that can be used in another Complication; or to  damage or 
  even eliminate Components that could be useful to another Complication before they re Drawn on. 
    
  Using d6s Instead of d10s 
  submitted by Jonathan Nichol & Wilhelm Fitzpatrick  
  When resolving Complications one normally rolls d10s with 1-5 being successes and the sum of the 
  numbers rolled being the bonus Coins received.  In a thread in our discussion forum, Jonathan and 
  Wilhelm described using d6s instead. 
  Simply treat odd results as successes (which maintains the same 50% chance of success) and add 
  the numbers normally.  In this case the numbers 1, 3, and 5 have the exact same average sum as the 
  numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 when using d10s. 
  As Wilhelm said, "the simple elegance of that approach is astounding"; which leaves me a little 
  embarrassed that I hadn t seen that myself. --- Ralph 
     
  
  Extended Complications 
  submitted by Christopher Bradley  
  After dice pools are assembled for a Complication but before the dice are rolled, a player can make 
  the complication "extended."  This means that rather than resolving the complication with one roll of 
  the dice, the dice pools are divided and each is rolled separately. 
  The person who pays to extend the complication gets to decide how many sub-pools the complication 
  will be divided into.  The dice in each side s pool are then divided as evenly as possible into that 
  number of sub-pools. 
  The smallest sub-pools on either side are rolled first.  Edge dice are accumulated in the sub-pool that 
  rolled them.  The winner narrates the victory as usual.  Then proceed to roll and narrate each of the 
  other sub-pool pairs in the same way. 
  The purpose of this Gimmick is take a complication and convert it into a number of separate stages 
  allowing the full complication to be narrated back and forth in multiple steps rather than resolved all 
  at once.  This is especially useful for climactic battle scenes with arch villains and other similar scenes 
  where players might want the action to trade back and forth. 
    
  Using Cards Instead of Dice 
  submitted by Jonathan Nichol  
  Instead of coins, each player gets a deck of cards to use as their "coins".  Another deck is used for the 
  Complications placed face down to the side.  Shuffle the decks and draw your starting Wealth in Cards 
  into your hand.  When you use a coin, play the card of your choice from your hand face-up into a 
  discard pile.  When you refresh draw new cards from your own deck.  For Complications play cards 
  face down secretly, to be revealed during the resolution.  Only cards 1-5 count as successes.  When 
  drawing upon existing Traits draw the top card from the Trait Deck and play it to the Complication.  
  Cards are reshuffled only when that deck is exhausted. Be sure to discard cards into their appropriate 
  discard pile. 
   
  Complications would be resolved a lot faster since the coin spending and die rolling is combined into 
  one card-playing action.  Also, there is a little resource management going on as you play the higher 
  cards for traits and such but save the lower cards for complications. 
  Quirk #1:  Drawing from the Bank Deck in Complications won t have the same 50% chance of 
  success.  Ignoring the fact that cards mess with probabilities as they become "used" there are 13 
  different cards in a suit, making a success as defined above 5 out 13 (somewhat less than 40%) 
  rather than 5 out of 10.  You d need to discard out of play the face cards (or find some cool new 
  Gimmick where they represent something special other than a normal "coin") to keep the odds the 
  same 
   
  Quirk #2:  The current rules reward developing permanent Traits for Components and then reusing 
  those Components throughout the game (so you can keep getting free Dice out of your initial 
  investment).  You lose some of this when you go to a hand of Cards that you can choose from.  
  Calling on an existing Trait may give you a free draw from the Deck, but its a random draw.  
  Inventing a new Trait or environmental feature on the spur of the moment, however, lets you play a 
  card from your hand...where you can select intentionally the card you want to use; guaranteeing 
  success if you have the right cards.   
   
  VARIANT 
  submitted by Ralph Mazza 
  Play as above but keep each player s Wealth in a face down stack in front of them.  When ever a 
  "Coin" is spent draw the top card off of the Wealth stack.  When additional Wealth is earned add the 
  
  new cards to the bottom of the stack.  When Bonus Coins are kept following a Complication shuffle 
  the kept cards into the Wealth Stack.  As an alternative rule have players discard the kept cards and 
  draw fresh cards from their deck to add to the bottom of the stack to maintain randomness.  
  
  Intersession Add-ons 
  For games of Universalis that are intended to go for more than a single session, 
  players may want to set up a set of Tenets for continuing play. Below are a set of 
  standard Tenets that can be adopted by the group via social contract before play, or 
  paid for with a single Coin after play has begun. They are very standard and intuitive, 
  and most people playing adopt something very similar even if the specifics are 
  unspoken. 
  Standard Intersession Rules 
   
  The first scene framed in the subsequent session is considered concurrent with, or 
  immediately following the end of the last scene of the previous session, unless Coins are 
  spent to set the time differently..  
   
  Scenes that are open at the end of the last session are still considered open, and can be 
  continued as normal. 
   
  All players begin the next session with the same number of Coins that they had at the end of 
  the previous session.  at the end of the last session. 
   
  At this point play continues as if there had been no interruption 
    
  Players Present Limit 
  Submitted by Mike Holmes  
  Subsequent sessions can only be played if all players from the first session are present, and wish to 
  play.   
   
  Revisit Game Tenets 
  Submitted by Mike Holmes  
   
  At the start of the subsequent session, a new Game Preparation phase occurs wherein players can 
  discuss and modify current Tenets. When this is finished begin with a new scene.  This gimmick is 
  intended to address any concerns players may have over the direction the story is going, and to make 
  sure everyone is on the same page to start the new session (players satisfied with the current direction 
  of play may just pass in this phase in order to get directly to the first scene). 
   
  Introduce New Players 
  Submitted by Mike Holmes  
  Each new player is introduced to the game by a special Rules Gimmick so that the other players can 
  object to the new player s presence if they so wish. Alternatively, one can have an "open-door" policy, 
  and allow any player to add any other new players that they like. 
  If new players are allowed, the number of players who are involved in the story can be capped, as can 
  the total allowed to play in a single session. If the latter is selected, and too many players present 
  themselves for play, players should bid Coins in round robin fashion for the right to play. Those who 
  bid lowest cannot play in that session.  
  If persons who were not players in a prior session are allowed to become players, then a rule for how 
  many Coins they start with needs to be adopted. Often a group will endow new players with whatever 
  the standard starting Wealth is for that play group. Other options include starting them with the same 
  
  number of Coins as the player with the most or least Coins; or an average. Any number that seems 
  sensible can be selected. Such a Coin level Gimmick can be declared to be a one-time thing, or a 
  policy for all new players. 
  (One can also see here the possibility of using similar player-adding gimmicks to allow new players 
  mid session. The author highly recommends this.) 
   
  Coin Option Gimmicks 
  Submitted by Mike Holmes  
  Some players may wish to allow for the level of Coins to be adjusted between sessions. This can take 
  many forms: 
  For example, the end of a session can be treated like the end of a scene, and additional refreshment 
  can occur. 
  Or, normalization of Coin totals for each player can occur, perhaps resetting the number of Coins to a 
  certain level (perhaps the starting level) at the beginning of each session.. This latter option will have 
  the result of having players spend all their Coins during the course of a session as the "Use  em or 
  lose  em" mentality sinks in. 
  As always, any adjustment of Coin availability will affect the pacing of the game; potentially 
  dramatically. Players can conceive of other methods of moderating the number of Coins available, and 
  should consider the potential effects before putting them into play (or allowing them into play 
  unchallenged). 
   
  Create Components Between Sessions 
  Submitted by Mike Holmes  
  Gimmicks can be established to allow players to flex their creative muscles between sessions.  
  Allow for a limited amount of Coins to be spent between sessions on creating things. Potentially 
  players may be given a pool of Coins for just such a purpose that are used or lost between sessions. 
  The results of such creativity can be presented at the time of the Game Preparation phase at the start 
  of the following session, each player presenting one Component on his turn, at which time they can be 
  challenged. 
  
  Player Driven Metaplot 
  There are several benefits to a strong, well-detailed metaplot.  They provide a number of 
  ready made plot hooks for the GM to build upon and give the players a real sense that the 
  world actually exists.  In other words that there are things going on in the background that the 
  characters may or may not be a part of.  There are some strong disadvantages to metaplot too.  
  If the source material is too tightly woven to it, then large parts of the game setting may 
  become unusable based on a play groups actions.  Even worse is when players become 
  disinterested in major elements of a meta plot.  No matter how good the game is, if the players 
  don t buy into the story and become committed to moving it forward play can quickly become 
  lack luster.  
  Universalis is a great way of providing metaplot to your games while avoiding many of the 
  disadvantages.  In between sessions of regular play, players can get together for a quick 
  session of Universalis (often this can be fit in before a session while waiting for late comers, 
  or afterwards when some players have to leave early.  It s also very easy to do on-line).   In 
  the Universalis game, players will be concerned with crafting the actions of the mover and 
  shakers of the world, playing out what the various factions and power brokers are up to.  For 
  instance, in a Vampire campaign where player characters are relatively weak soldiers, 
  Universalis can be used to play out the interactions and plotting of the influential powers.  The 
  new happenings and story lines so developed can then be easily brought into the Vampire 
  game as current events going on in the city. 
  There are two huge advantages to this.  First, the players will never outrun or render obsolete 
  a prewritten metaplot.  Likewise, GMs won t have to railroad players in order to keep them 
  within the canon material.  Instead the metaplot that is created over time using Universalis 
  will already be customized to the needs of the actual campaign being played.  Second, players 
  will be much more into the story because its one which they helped to develop.  Whatever 
  aspect of the setting that the players find most compelling is the one most likely to be 
  developed in the Universalis game.  Thus, the GM can be assured that when he dangles plot 
  hooks based on that game, his players will eagerly leap at them.  
  Scenario Creation 
  One of Universalis s strengths is the ease at which entire sections of a world can be created on 
  a meaningful level very quickly.  Locations, key characters, and the web of connections 
  between them all get created as part of an ordinary Universalis game.   One of the things we 
  ve been amazed at, is how good some of those Universalis creations would be as a scenario 
  for another game.   The places, people and situations created by the game can be easily 
  modified and adapted into an adventure to use in another RPG.  At GenCon 2002 we ran 
  several demos.  One of those demos would have made a great scenario (with minor 
  modification to adapt to setting specific details) for a game like Blue Planet or The Babylon 
  Project.  Another was practically begging to be played in Feng Shui or even Unknown 
  Armies. 
  Setting Creation 
  
  Beyond just scenarios for other games, Universalis can create entire worlds for other game 
  systems.  A big part of the design of Universalis has always been to allow each game session 
  to build upon the setting created in prior sessions, even if the characters and plot are different.  
  Such an ongoing world creation effort can easily provide the background for an entire setting 
  useable with another RPG system like GURPS or FUDGE.  
  One of our play test groups set out to do just that.  They wanted to handcraft their own fantasy 
  setting, so they started with Universalis.  The earliest characters they introduced would 
  become the gods of their world.  Through play they fashioned a creation story and an entire 
  mythology complete with a war between the gods and gods who were banished or even dead.  
  They moved on history where they fashioned the legends and great historical events of the 
  world complete with mighty heroes and a couple of sagas.  When finished they took the whole 
  thing and wrote it up for play with GURPS Fantasy.  Benefit: every player had a vested 
  interest in the world that they had helped create and all of them shared knowledge of a 
  common history and mythology that was all the more meaningful to them because they had 
  written it.  
     
  "We used Universalis to create a setting and it was splendid. Before the game even started we had this rich, 
  layered, detailed setting. Universalis is a neat, neat game/gaming tool/imagination prod.   --- "Paka" aka Judd  
  who used Universalis to design a campaign for The Riddle of Steel 
  LARP Backstory 
  A LARP session is only as good as the character relationships and plot points which drive it.  
  Coming up with new situations with enough things going on to hook the players and drive 
  interaction forward is a challenging endeavor and can lead to flat game play if not done well.   
  At least one player who organizes LARPs intends to use a game of Universalis to help 
  develop the character map and plot points for an individual run; and also to advance the story 
  arc between runs. 
  On-line Play 
  The format of the Universalis rules makes it ideal for PBEM or chat room play.  In fact, our 
  first play tests of the game were exclusively through chat.  Its exceptionally good with chat 
  rooms with a dice server.  This means that any of the above ideas for using Universalis can be 
  expanded to groups that can t meet face to face.  Universalis can also be used to provide some 
  formal structure to persistent free form chat room or forum based role-playing for groups that 
  would like a few more rules to work within.  Universalis is so well suited for chat-room play 
  that the rules don t need to be modified at all except that references to “clock-wise” player 
  order should be changed to “alphabetical screen names” or something similar. 
  Group Authored Fan-Fic 
  Universalis could be one of the best "fanfic" games ever.  Get a group of players really into 
  Babylon 5, for example, and go to town.  ---Lou Goncey 
  
  Never having really been involved in the fan-fic community, I have to say, this idea had never 
  occurred to me.  But Lou s idea seems like it would work extremely well.   
  In the essay on Story Elements, the section on Setting discusses a couple of ways to base a 
  game of Universalis on an established setting.  Using one of those methods one could easily 
  base a game on a property and from the write-up of the game session have the foundation for 
  a great piece of fan-fic 
  ---Ralph 
  
  Space Traders 
  Early Playtest 
  Our very first play test of Universalis (using a much older and since highly revised set of rules) was 
  played via Instant Messenger between just Mike and myself. I�ve adjusted that session a little to be 
  consistent with the final version of the game (to avoid confusion) but the core elements are still 
  relevant. 
  Mike initiated the game by proposing "sci-fi" as a Story Element. I followed up by making the setting 
  focus on a tramp freighter traveling between the stars. We established that there were two key 
  characters: Ulysses Korosuki scruffy hyperdrive engineer, and Maxwell Smith daring space pilot. 
  During the Game Preparation phase we established that in addition to his role as Hyperdrive Engineer, 
  Ulysses also had Traits of International Politics, and Advanced Robotics, which he learned at the 
  Skorlar Institute. Max had Traits of both Lucky and Reckless. Our ship was called the All�s Fair, with 
  a role of Medium Cargo Ship. She had Traits of Old, Heavily Financed, Three KM long, and Hyper 
  Space capable. 
  We also established that Max had been married to Ulysses sister Susan, but she�d left him and the 
  ship. The Sexy, Android Science Officer named Shiela had been programmed with Susan�s voice 
  and Ulysses had refused to change it, making Max very uncomfortable. 
  We then established the current situation. Our business was transporting cargo between two large 
  interstellar powers: the Terran Unified Polity and an unnamed "Empire". The two powers were 
  engaged in a long cold war with occasional local flare-ups making it difficult to navigate through all of 
  the tariffs, custom requirements, and secured "no fly" zones. As such we�d occasionally supplement 
  our business with more legally-gray activities. 
  Currently we had just departed Mars Colony after a major refit with a cargo Max picked up for which 
  we were being paid a huge amount relative to the cargo�s declared value. Max figured his natural 
  talent and charm had just enabled him to negotiate a good deal. Ulysses was more suspicious. For a 
  theme we selected the entanglements of politics. No matter how hard we�d try to stay out of them, 
  we�d keep getting involved; with especial emphasis on the futility of the conflict in general. 
  The first scene started with an immediate Complication: alarm klaxons going off in the engine room, 
  and warnings about a pressure build up in the hyperdrive. I was the Originator and Mike, in control of 
  Ulysses, was the target. Mike won the Complication but rather than fix the engines he used his free 
  Coins to Originate a new Complication. He stated that there was nothing wrong with the drive system 
  so there must be some problem external to the ship. He made Max the Target as he was in the 
  cockpit. 
  I was in control of Max so I drew upon Shiela�s Role as a Science Officer for a die and purchased the 
  Trait of "Advanced Sensors X2" for the ship for another 2 dice. Mike purchased facts for the game 
  world that sensors didn�t function to the aft where the engines were and used that to add more dice 
  to the Complication. I therefor decided that Max (being reckless) would slew the ship around in "Crazy 
  Ivan / Bootlegger Reverse" fashion and drew dice from Reckless, Lucky, and the Pilot Role. 
  I won the Complication by a huge margin and used my successes to identify the source of the 
  problem. A small drone ship with TUP customs markings was pursuing us. It had caught us in a Hyper 
  Interferon Beam, trying to force us to drop out of hyperspace. 
  For this final Complication, Mike took control of Max and Shiela and the Ship and I targeted all of them 
  with the newly created drone ship. Mike bought Quick Thinking as a Trait for Ulysses and Created 
  
  Rollo the Ship�s Computer to help him out. Max tried to go for a full burn on the engines at the exact 
  moment that Ulysses modulated the drive�s Calax Frequency in the hope of breaking free of the 
  beam. 
  He lost the Complication, and as a result had to shut down the engines to avoid implosion. The ship 
  dropped out of hyperspace and was face to face with a Terran Unified Polity customs vessel�while 
  carrying a suspicious cargo. 
  We called the game at this point as it had been only an early test, but both of us had been so engaged 
  by the story creation process we knew then that this was a game we wanted to see to completion. 
    
  Featured Effect, Suspense: 
  Traditionally in role-playing, suspense has meant the GM keeping secrets from the players and the 
  players not knowing what the GM was going to spring on them next. It quickly became obvious to us 
  that that paradigm wouldn�t work in Universalis. We were afraid that with all players having GM level 
  power there would be no suspense or surprises�"If I have total control over everything, how can I 
  ever be surprised?" 
  The answer surprised us. There was actually a greater degree of suspense in a Universalis game 
  because all of the players have power over the story. Instead of being in a game with 4 players, each 
  of you wondering what nasty surprise the single GM has up his sleeve; in Universalis you�re in a 
  game where each of you are wondering what any of the 4 other players might have up their sleeve. 
  With 4 creative minds working on it you never know what to expect. 
  This is exemplified even in the brief 2 player game example above. The first complication of the scene 
  was originated by me�something was wrong in the engine room. What was wrong in the engine 
  room? Not only was Mike not expecting this problem and so it was a surprise to him, I had no 
  predetermined list of "bad effects" and so it was equally suspenseful for me to see what he�d do with 
  it. 
  Likewise, when I defined the "external problem" as being a TUP customs ship, that was a total 
  surprise�to both of us. Here we were on our way from Mars and the next thing we knew we were 
  being pulled over by the federales. That was no preplanned set encounter from a scenario book, that 
  was completely spur of the moment improvisation that had riveted both of our attentions, because 
  neither of us had any idea how it would turn out. What did the patrol ship want? What was our cargo 
  anyway? Who were we supposed to deliver it to? We as players of the game didn�t know any more 
  than a movie audience would know about what was about to happen, and that was exciting. 
  ----Ralph Mazza 
  
  Zombie Summer 
    
  This game was played with just two players. The genre was to be a high school slasher horror flick, 
  and the action set in an old abandoned mining town a few miles from where the kids lived. 
  The action started with a car-full of kids arriving at the town in an old convertible owned by Rick. In the 
  car was Bobby, captain of the football team, Rick, a rebel without a clue, Lisa, a cheerleader type, and 
  Wayne, an unpopular kid who Bobby had invited along because he owed Wayne for doing his 
  homework. 
  The kids had a bottle of booze, and were a little drunk to start off, with the exception of Wayne who 
  kept his wits about him. They got out of the car, and headed into a nearby house, which was in a 
  dilapidated condition. Bobby and Lisa started making out, and Ricky hitting the bottle pretty hard. The 
  kids hear a noise coming from a closet, and, upon investigation, are scared witless by the grizzled old 
  man that lurches out of it at them. 
  Turns out that it�s just old Zeke, a miner who never left the town after it was abandoned. He 
  confronts the characters, telling them to get out of "his" house. Apparently he feels that squatting here 
  makes it his. He also says that they should get out of town. The kids, however, just move to another 
  room, and continue partying. 
  After a bit, there is more noise out back. Figuring that it�s Zeke again, Wayne and Rick decide to 
  check it out. They discover an old shed out back with the door open, and peer inside. They note that 
  there is a shaft leading down into the ground with a ladder protruding from it, and what look to be a 
  pair of human skulls on the ground. 
  The first complication then occurs. Just as they turn around, a walking corpse, dripping in some black 
  goop attacks them, knocking down Wayne, and taking a big bite out of Rick. Just when it seems that 
  the kids have had it, a blast goes off, taking off the Zombie�s head. It�s Zeke, with his trusty 
  shotgun, just in time to save the kids. 
  The boys ask him about the shaft, and he relates that it leads to some of the mineshafts that riddle the 
  town. He tells them yet again that they should leave, "before it�s too late." 
  But do they? Of course not. They go back into the house to tell Bobby and Lisa that they are going to 
  investigate the shaft. Bobby decides to come with, but Lisa doesn�t want to go. Rick says he�s "not 
  feeling well", and stays behind. 
  Upon returning to the shed, it would appear that Zeke has gone down the shaft. Wayne and Bobby 
  follow, and investigate the shaft. They go a ways, and hear a shotgun blast ahead of them, and 
  sounds of a fight. They proceed forward and after a bit discover Zeke�s body, horribly gnawed and 
  definitely dead. They decide to press on, taking the shotgun with them along with shells they get off 
  Zeke�s body. 
  Meanwhile, back in the house, Lisa is investigating the upstairs, and finds a bureau with a mirror, and 
  a nice old brush inside. She decides to pretty herself up. After a moment, she notes Rick coming up 
  behind her with his hands out. Lisa warns him that she thinks he�s cute, but that she can�t risk 
  losing Bobby. Just before Rick sinks his teeth into her. As a result of the complication, Rick kills Lisa 
  easily. 
  
  Back in the mine, after a bit Wayne and Bobby come across some of the goop on the floor of the 
  mineshaft. They are panicked when it starts to move, and tries to crawl up Bobby�s shoes, starting a 
  complication. Bobby lets loose with a shotgun blast that begins a cave-in, in which Wayne barely gets 
  away. Bobby is caught under a rock, on the other side, and Wayne can hear his screams as the goop 
  covers him. 
  Unable to return to the surface the way he came down, Wayne starts searching about. He quietly finds 
  the source of the zombies after a bit, a huge pool of the black goop filling an entire cavern, with 
  hundreds of bodies floating in it. In the following complication, using his wits, Wayne figures out quickly 
  a way to dispatch the creatures. He uses the mine�s still functioning electrical system to electrocute 
  the goop, which bursts into flame. Wayne runs as the mine fills with flames, and barely makes it out of 
  the main entrance alive. 
  Wayne returns to the house to find his other friends dead and lifeless. With nothing left to do, he takes 
  the keys from Rick�s pockets, gets into the convertible, and rides off into the sunset. Presumably a 
  more self-confident individual than before. 
  Featured Effect: Two-Player Play 
  No doubt about it, it s a bit harder to play Universalis with only two players. Not so hard as to make it 
  impossible or un-enjoyable, however. I�ve played with two players on a few occasions, and the 
  sessions go fine. But fewer players means that the creativity is split less ways, and the synergistic 
  effects show up less. 
  What you have to look out for are the moments where you ll both be out of ideas. As such, it s good to 
  have a source from which to draw. Try playing in some setting that you both know really well. When 
  you feel a slowdown occurring, just look to the setting, and inject some character, creature, place, 
  whatever, from it. If you don�t use a preplanned setting, then rely a lot on the clich�s of the setting 
  and genre selected. If it�s fantasy, for example, have a dragon show up. Out of the blue. 
  Randomness is OK in Universalis to an extent. When you throw something in, just work out through 
  play the reason for the interjection. You still want to create a story. But don t let the worry of 
  unexplained events slow you down. They will probably get explained later, or perhaps not. Which is 
  not the end of the world. In fact, if you play a multi-session game, those loose plot angles give you 
  something to work into in follow on sessions. 
  If you just accept that slowdowns in play may happen before hand, and relax about it, that can help 
  get through these slowdowns. Nothing exacerbates a block like this as much as pressuring yourself 
  too hard to come up with something. If you just wing it, and have fun, the pace will be fine; making 
  Universalis perfectly suitable for two players 
  ----Mike Holmes 
  
  Zombie Western 
  DemonCon 2002 
  The game started out innocently enough. I was hankerin� to play a Western, so with the first turn 
  that�s the Tenet I proposed. The next player set us in a mining town named Dark Gulch, and the 
  player after that made sure the boom times had already turned bust. That�s when it started to get a 
  little weird.  
  The first characters in the story were the crotchety old prospector Dirty Pete, and the skinny piano 
  player. After that came Ruby the saloon girl, with a past. Ruby (plying her trade) had gotten wind of a 
  new, but as yet unclaimed silver strike in one of the abandoned mine shafts. She needed the 
  prospector�s help to claim the strike�only problem was, the area was crawling with zombies�yes 
  zombies.  
  Fortunately, also in the saloon, was the Reverend Ulysses, a drunken, ex-minister turned zombie 
  hunter. Plied with drink and a share of the stake, The Reverend agreed to help clear out the zombies. 
  Unfortunately for them, the prospector was a little drunk himself, and by the time he was done 
  recruiting Ulysses, the whole town had heard of the plan.  
  Zeke, a rival zombie hunter and his side kick Ronnie heard about it and decided to collect the bounties 
  on the zombies for himself. Bruce Ashwood, a local miner, equipped with a steam powered mining 
  pick named Betty decided to head out first and jump the claim. Meanwhile Sheriff Brody had sent a 
  telegraph to a man known simply as Dirk�the most famous Zombie Hunter in the west. Unbeknownst 
  to us at the time but to be revealed later was that Dirk and Ruby had been married before a nasty 
  break-up, and the Sheriff�s daughter Sally had a huge crush on the mysterious hunter.  
  Ruby, the prospector, and the Reverend Ulysses went to the town�s abandoned church which 
  Ulysses used as his headquarters to collect their gear, but zombies had already infiltrated the town. 
  Alerted by Ulysses� pet dog Ghost (who was quite literally a ghost) the characters managed to blast 
  their way through the zombies without getting their brains eaten.  
  They traveled to the mine site where a tremendous horde of zombies were mindlessly making their 
  way into the mine shaft, drawn by the sound of mysterious music. The Reverend was preparing to lay 
  a wild west smack down on the undead when Zeke and the Sheriff Brody arrived on the scene. 
  Wanting the zombie bounties all to himself, Zeke had let the Sheriff know that Reverend Ulysses was 
  hunting without a license. Fortunately the Sheriff had a copy of the necessary paperwork (in triplicate) 
  with him which Ulysses dutifully filled out. Unfortunately the license wasn�t active until it had been 
  properly filed. Scowling, The Reverend turned to his gas powered camp stove and threw the 
  paperwork in the fire. Watching the smoke rise to the heavens, the Reverend informed all present that 
  he�d filed the paperwork with God and anyone having a problem with that could take it up with him.  
  At that point a commotion got their attention. Bruce was bailing out of the mine shaft with a mule cart 
  full of ill gotten silver ore. The zombies made short work of the poor mule and Bruce, seeing the fire of 
  the camp stove, made a bee line towards the safety of Reverend Ulysses and his posse with the 
  zombies not far behind. The strange music was growing louder.  
  As the group prepared to mount a defense, they failed to notice that Bruce had been bitten while in the 
  mine shaft and was turning into a zombie himself. Now fully transformed he attacked Ruby with his 
  steam pick. She managed to shoot it out of his hand�turns out she was a crack shot, taught by Dirk 
  himself.  
  
  The Reverend, Sheriff Brody, Zeke, Ronnie, and the old prospector Dirty Pete tried to hold off the 
  zombie hordes, but it was a losing battle and Pete went down. His fall did manage to occupy several 
  zombies who were intent on eating his brains. Several more turned their attention on Ronnie. Seeing 
  the odds, Zeke abandoned his side kick Ronnie to a painful death and while they were gnawing 
  through his skull he high tailed it back to town. Still the music continued.  
  At that moment Sally showed up with Dirk in tow. She had met her beau at the train station and led 
  him to the mine. Tossing a few sticks of dynamite around sent zombie parts flying, briefly gaining 
  control of the situation. But Ruby was in trouble. Bruce had gained the upper hand and was about to 
  slay the saloon girl, when Dirk�moved by feelings for his old flame, leapt in to rescue her. Ruby was 
  saved, and Bruce put down, but Dirk had been bitten. He helped finish off the last of the nearby 
  zombies but when he felt himself transforming he told Ruby she had to kill him.  
  Ruby was preparing to do so, but Sally leapt in and stopped her, throwing herself over Dirk to protect 
  him. Dirk, now fully a zombie, promptly ripped out Sally�s throat before Ruby put him down with a 
  shot that took off half his head.  
  At this point the strange music had reached a thundering crescendo. Rising out of the mine on a 
  hydraulic lift was a platform containing a steam powered organ. The skinny piano player from the 
  saloon was playing that organ and through its music he was raising and controlling the zombies. As it 
  turns out, he had loved Ruby for years, but she had always scorned him. So he went in quest of dark 
  occult arts that would let him get his revenge.  
  As a fresh wave of zombies came out of the mine, Ruby and Reverend Ulysses made good their 
  escape. Sheriff Brody, shattered with grief over the loss of his beloved Sally went berserk and killed 
  many zombies before he ran out of ammo and was torn apart by the undead.  
    
  Featured Effect, Story Elements: 
  Story Elements are the type of Tenet which governs what a story is going to be about. The rules 
  specify that each player in turn can propose one and only one Tenet at a time. This ensures that all 
  players have input into the type of game being played. However, it can also result in something of a 
  mishmash of different genres and styles as each player puts his own twist on the game. This is not 
  necessarily a bad thing. Some of our best games have involved some wildly disparate Story Elements 
  all being thrown into the same pot and stirred together. 
  This effect can be seen in this play example as the story moved from being a traditional western set in 
  a small mining town to a "weird" western complete with zombies and occultists. As it turned out this 
  wasn�t a bad direction and the game was quite fun with few survivors. However, there are a few 
  tricks to keeping Universalis games more genre pure if desired. 
  The most obvious is to be prepared to Challenge players who introduce elements outside of the genre 
  expectations that have been established. Not only can this mechanic serve as a straw poll of other 
  players as to whether they�d like or dislike the new direction, but if the new element has never been 
  formally proposed as a Story Element the Challenger can most likely claim the existing Story Elements 
  as Facts with which to oppose the new direction. "This is a �western�. There aren�t zombies in 
  westerns" 
  However, more important is to recognize the importance of the Game Preparation phase outlined in 
  Chapter 2. In our example above I defined the genre as being "western". It did not then get narrowed 
  down to "traditional western". If players are truly concerned about genre purity they should take pains 
  to be very specific up front before the first scene is played about exactly what those genre 
  expectations are. 
  
  Also, feel free to make use of negating Story Elements. Knowing the popularity of zombies and "weird" 
  westerns recently, players in this game could have ensured that these things didn�t creep into their 
  game by proposing Story Elements such as "No occult" or "No undead gunslingers" and such. In 
  another game we�ve played that was set in a science fiction universe a player made good use of this 
  technique to declare that there was no virtual reality cyberspace in that setting. 
  ----Ralph Mazza 
  
  Alien Love 
  GenCon 2002 Demo 
  This game was one of the more interesting and challenging to run. Challenging because it didn�t 
  have an immediate action oriented premise which makes a demo game a little difficult to keep moving. 
  Interesting because it had a couple of players who were overtly attempting to outdo each other with 
  convoluted plot twists while another couple of players were trying to reign things in. 
  This was evident right from the pre-game which started out (as all demos I ran at GenCon this year did 
  for some reason) as a Science Fiction game. It was to be a story about a first contact situation where 
  aliens were arriving on Earth for the first time. Then they started twisting it. The aliens were not going 
  to be humanoid, they were going to energy beings who could possess the bodies of humans. But not 
  just any humans, senior citizens. And not just any senior citizens, recently deceased senior citizens. 
  Further the game was to be set in prohibition era Chicago. Finally, the main thrust of the story was that 
  the aliens were in love. One of them was lost on Earth and the other one was searching for him. 
  The first scene started with a bit of a flash back to the point where the first alien came to Earth. It 
  began with the assassination of mob boss Don Finito by a rival family. The Don was elderly, and 
  recently deceased. Lo and behold, the assassination attempt must have failed because Don Finito 
  was still alive. Of course, that was due to his corpse being possessed by one of the aliens, an alien 
  who very much enjoyed his new role as a crime syndicate king pin. 
  The second scene took place in a grimy gym where several boxers were training. Big Tony, a 
  manager and fight promoter, called over one of his star boxers, a wiry middle weight by the name of 
  Little Joe. Tony had some bad news. It seems that he�d just gotten word that Joe�s mother, who�d 
  been hospitalized for some time, had just passed away at a local hospital. Joe lost no time rushing to 
  the hospital. As he left Tony reminded him that he had a big fight the next day. 
  At the hospital we have a brief flashback, to a scene where a number of doctors and nurses are 
  desperately trying to save the life of an elderly woman. We know they failed when the EKG machine 
  flat lines, they draw the sheet over her head and solemnly leave the room. We know an alien has 
  entered her body, when the meter begins to beep again and the sheets begin to stir. [Note: we had no 
  idea at the time whether EKG machines were around in the 20s and 30s but it made no difference for 
  our purposes at the time. Groups desiring a more authentic setting may want to look facts like this up 
  in advance. A subsequent web search revealed that the first EKG machine was invented at the 
  University of Iowa in 1920, but used an actual saline bath for conductivity. The wires and electrodes 
  weren�t added until 1940�oh well�on with the story] 
  The action then cut back to Little Joe in a heated discussion with a nurse who wouldn�t let him past 
  the lobby when suddenly everyone is interrupted by an elderly woman in a hospital gown striding 
  purposefully towards the door�shocked doctors in pursuit. Joe joyfully confronts his mother whom he 
  thought was dead but she doesn�t recognize him at all, instead she keeps saying that she�s looking 
  for someone and has to find him. This alien retained no memories of the host body. As Joe engages 
  the doctors in another heated discussion, his mother slips away unnoticed, disappearing in the night. 
  The next scene cut ahead a couple of days with a beleaguered and unkempt Little Joe being led to 
  see Don Finito on the Don�s patio. The Don, who runs the neighborhood, had had a large amount of 
  money riding on Little Joe and was furious that Joe had never shown up for the big fight. When Joe 
  told the story about his mother who was still missing, the Don ordered his Concigliere, Vincent to find 
  her. Vincent sent two goons, Guido and Vito (inseparable brothers) to get her and bring her back to 
  the Don. During this scene it was also established as another twist that the alien that Joe�s mother 
  was looking for was not the one who possess Don Finito but rather a third alien we hadn�t yet seen. 
  
  In the final scene we ran, Guido and Vito indeed found Little Joe�s alien possessed mother in an ally. 
  She told them she was looking for someone and asked if they could help her find him. The pair said 
  no, but that she was coming with them to meet Don Finito. That was the wrong answer. Glowing with 
  alien energy, the old woman sent the two bruisers flying across the ally into a wall. At this point in time 
  a car drove up with three more goons, these from the rival family who�d tried to assassinate Don 
  Finito. They�d heard Finito was looking for this woman and figured she must be someone important, 
  so they planned on getting to her first. Glowing even more brightly now she cut the three thugs down 
  with blasts of white light setting their car on fire and causing it to explode. 
  At this point we called the demo due to time but did a brief post game wrap-up to try to make some 
  sense of the story. What we decided was this: The alien who possessed Don Finito was a criminal 
  among his own people who fled to Earth looking for a place to hide. The mysterious third alien was 
  actually the second to arrive on Earth. He was there to bring the first alien to justice, but things went 
  awry and he disappeared. The alien who�d possessed Little Joe�s mother was the life mate of the 
  third alien who�d come to find him after he was written off as lost. Her possession hadn�t gone well 
  and she hadn�t absorbed the memories of her host and so didn�t know how to get along on Earth 
  among humans. We decided that the third alien had run afoul of the U.S. Military in some sort of 
  Roswell-esque incident and was a prisoner of the government who were studying him, perhaps with 
  the idea of using his self sustaining energy form as a source of power. Further we decided that Guido 
  and Vito�s description of the incident would tip Don Finito off that another alien was around. An alien 
  he�d now have to kill. Little Joe would find out about the Don�s plan and save his mother and 
  somehow come to discover the truth about her. Together with some as yet uncreated girl friend 
  they�d set out in search of the alien�s lost love. 
    
  Featured Element, Plot Flexibility: 
  At times during the actual session, the play of the demo seemed to drag a bit, but this I think was 
  largely because I had gotten used to a much more rapid fire action oriented type of demo and the 
  soap opera like pace of this session threw me for a loop at first. In the end I sold 2 copies based on 
  this demo, so it must have been well received by the players. 
  What struck me most about the session was how easily the game mechanics adapted to the 
  sometimes bizarre direction the story was going. Even with two players bound and determined to out 
  do each other for the next big plot twist, the Coin mechanics worked powerfully well to limit just how 
  much they could do at a time and allowed the more staid players (including myself) to maintain some 
  sanity in the story line. Despite all of the convolutions, our post game wrap-up demonstrated how 
  easily the session could have been turned into a coherent story if we�d had time to play it out. The 
  elements we introduced in the wrap-up could have been brought out during play and while its likely 
  that a few challenges might have been necessary to keep things from getting too zany or obscure I 
  was really impressed with the tale that we told in a 45 minute session with 4 first time players. We 
  went almost the entire time without a single complication until I finally forced one into the last scene for 
  the sole purpose of demoing how it works. What at the time seemed one of the harder demos to play 
  in retrospect is one of the ones I�m most pleased with. 
  ----Ralph Mazza 
  
  The Psionic Mines 
  GenCon 2002 Demo 
  This demo for potential customers, like many at the con, began with the genre of Science Fiction. Our 
  setting for the game was a mining colony on a distant world. It was to be a gritty realistic setting with 
  no virtual reality cyberspace, or other cyberpunk extremes. 
  There were, however, psionics. The humans were there to mine psi crystals which were extraordinarily 
  valuable for they allowed people to tap into latent psychic powers. The humans had wrested control of 
  the planet from the native species of alien beings whose psionic powers were so developed that 
  they�d never developed a need for advanced technology themselves. There were two problems, 
  however. One, exposure to that many crystals over time could enhance a man�s psychic powers to 
  extraordinary levels�while simultaneously driving him insane. Two, the aliens who�d been driven 
  away from the colony site wanted it back, and the psychically deranged human miners were their ticket 
  home. 
  My instructions to this group of players was the same as I�d used many times. To think in terms of a 
  powerful opening scene for a movie. When a player thought enough background had been developed 
  to give them an idea for one, the game would move to the first scene. Being a demo, we developed 
  the background much more sketchily than I normally do for games meant to be played over several 
  sessions, but this proved to be a perfect amount to promote quick, movie-like, one-shots. 
  The first scene of the game opened in a deep shaft of the mine. There were several miners in enviro 
  suits equipped with sonicvibe mining tools. One of them, a man named Kurtz, had been in the mines 
  too long and his latent psionic ability had just burst forth. Wracked with pain and Screaming Crazy, 
  Kurtz lashed out at he stumbled around the mine shaft. A nearby miner died with the tip of Kurtz�s 
  vibro tool bursting through his chest. 
  Against the far wall of the mine shaft, standing on a high platform of scaffolding was Engineer 
  Blackthorn. He was in charge of this mining crew and this wasn�t the first time he�d seen a miner go 
  berserk. He was prepared for it and drew forth a heavy gun loaded with powerful tranquilizing darts. 
  In the Complication that followed, Blackthorn managed to shoot Kurtz with a dart, but it wasn�t 
  enough to put the miner down. Enraged, Kurtz ripped apart the metal scaffolding with unleashed 
  telekinetic powers sending Blackthorn plummeting to the floor far below. As Kurtz escaped deeper into 
  the mine shafts we saw Blackthorn�s fall slow and stop. The Engineer hovered just off of the ground 
  before landing on his feet. Blackthorn, its revealed, is a powerful telekinetic himself. 
  In the next scene, the Framing Player flashed forward in time several days paying each of the other 
  players 1 Coin to do so. The location was a detention center in an orbiting space station above the 
  planet. Kurtz was imprisoned, ineffectually raging, in an energy field. Blackthorn, revealed as an 
  undercover psi cop, was reporting to his superior officer. 
  We ended the game session with a dialog on the dangerous increase in violent psychic reactions 
  among the miners and what it could possibly mean. All in all it was a powerful opening for a continuing 
  campaign in just a brief 30 minute demo with first time players. 
    
  Featured Element, Flash Forward: 
  The ability to set the time of any scene is one of the most powerful tools in Universalis. For most 
  scenes players will use the default free setting of having the scene occur immediately after or 
  
  concurrently with the previous one. But on occasion, a well framed flash back can be key to really 
  opening up depth in the story. 
  In this demo a first time player demonstrated a skillful use of the more difficult-to-master: flash forward. 
  Thinking like a movie director cutting the scene (or more accurately the movie editor), this player 
  skipped ahead to the important stuff. The second scene could have been a continuation of the first, 
  with a scene of Kurtz running through the mineshafts being hunted by Blackthorn and various security 
  elements complete with lots of violence to innocent miners and equipment and plenty of psionic 
  special effects. But the player intuitively recognized that the story was not about this confrontation 
  between Kurtz and Blackthorn. This was just a taste to cue the audience on what was to come. The 
  real story lay in uncovering the alien plot and dealing with what was likely to be a full psionic war 
  complete with mind controlled deranged miners. There would be plenty of opportunity for high FX 
  scenes of wanton violence in the mines later on. 
  So even though this was just a brief demo played right in the booth in the exhibitor hall, and we ended 
  the game with the scene in the orbital station, it was obvious that we had the makings of a pretty 
  decent story; complete with a group of players who understood the concept of scene framing and 
  pacing. Even though I needed to end the demo to get back to other things, I was left really wondering 
  what this group would have come up with for a third and fourth scene. 
  ----Ralph Mazza 
  
  The Gangs of New New York 
  GenCon 2002 Demo 
  GenCon 2002 was a blitz of Science Fiction based demos for me and this was no exception. The 
  setting was a gritty, post apocalyptic world with pockets of intense radiation scattered throughout the 
  city. The imagery was very Judge Dredd. The situation was to be one of rival gangs battling for control 
  of the city. In an interesting twist, 2 Rules Gimmicks came up right in the preparation phase. First each 
  player (there were 4 of us) would be responsible for detailing 1 gang during set-up. Second, each 
  gang was to have a leader, and the leaders were to be former friends, who were unable to confront 
  each other directly but only through agents like the gangs they controlled. The sense was that these 
  leaders were somehow larger than life and the gangs themselves were just tools they used to strike at 
  each other. A very cool concept. Unfortunately being a demo it was one we didn�t get to explore in 
  detail and only 1 of the 4 leaders even got created. 
  The last gang to get created wound up being the focal point for the session so I�ll detail it first. They 
  were the Post-Messianics. A religious cult who believed the second coming of Christ had already 
  occurred and those who were to be saved in the Rapture had already departed. They believed they 
  were truly living in apocalyptic times and that the people who were left were those that got left behind 
  to suffer. They blamed technology heralding in the end times, destroying peoples faith and opening 
  the door for the antichrist. They were essentially militant, hyper violent Luddites, destroying technology 
  wherever it was found. 
  Their headquarters was in the middle of a radiation zone. They, having repudiated all science and 
  knowledge, had no concept of this, but knew that in certain areas they got sick (from the radiation). 
  Their headquarters housed a holy idol which protects the cultists from the sickness as long as they are 
  near its vicinity. They believed it to be a divinely powered artifact, but in reality it was a high tech 
  detoxifier and radiation dampening device. In other words�technology. 
  The next most important gang to the session was an Akira-style biker gang of mercenaries and bounty 
  hunters. Part of this gang was a group of Juicer Ninjas, assassin/infiltrators hyped up on reflex 
  stimulants and combat drugs. They were designed as a Master Component with the Traits of: 
  Stealthed Bikes, Drug Enhanced Reflexes, Laser Edged Weapons, Built in Radio Chips, and 
  Chameleon Suit. As part of a challenge over how powerful these guys were it was decided that they 
  had limited irreplaceable numbers (100). However, the high tech components that made them up were 
  recyclable and if recovered could be implanted in a new ninja. 
  The first gang created were an organization of serial killers and murderers. They had fully renounced 
  God. Not that they didn�t believe in him, their attitude was "screw-him" and they were dedicated to 
  opposing all facets of Christian morality. They had no role in the session we played, but their leader 
  was the enigmatic, and mysterious, Red Dragon. He was later revealed to be the secret leader of the 
  Juicer Ninjas. 
  The gang I created was "The Law". A group of heavily armored and equipped, very Judge Dredd-like 
  law enforcement officers who patrolled the twisted streets of the city as best as they are able. 
    
  The first scene of the game had the bikers out stirring up trouble with random acts of violence as a 
  distraction while a team of Juicer Ninjas infiltrated the cultists headquarters to steal their holy idol 
  (leaving them at the mercy of the radiation). They had timed the raid perfectly, to a time when virtually 
  all of the cultists were away, and so the HQ was virtually empty. What they did not know (because 
  another player introduced it) was that the reason the cultists were absent is because they were out 
  raiding the various supplies of juicer drugs cached around the city, destroying most of them and 
  replacing select amounts with caustic acid. 
  
  They also did not know that the holy idol had been booby trapped. While trying to remove the central 
  icon (a small key component of the device) one of the juicers fell into a pit of fire, where he was 
  vaporized by his own flammable chemicals. The last two juicers used their acrobatic reflexes to leap 
  over the pit and take the icon, but alarms were sounding and both the cultists and the law were on the 
  way. 
  In the second scene the cultists returned to discover the icon missing. The Law was already on 
  location, and the cultists blamed them for the theft. The Law Troopers were unaware of the cultists 
  closing in as they patrolled the neighborhood in their armored squad car. Their infrared sensors 
  detected the stealthed ninjas leaping from roof top to roof top. With a warrant to kill all juicers on sight 
  the troopers opened fire; one manning a mini gun mounted on the roof and the other with an assault 
  rifle behind an open squad car door. With automatic shells chewing up the roof tops the ninjas 
  resorted to amazing feats of aerobatics to dodge the bullets. Ultimately they were cut down dropping 
  the icon into a dark crevice�but not before one of the ninjas managed to radio back the precise 
  location of both the icon and their bodies. Meanwhile the cultists, armed only with knives and pipes 
  had encircled the occupied troopers and proceeded to bludgeon them to death destroying the squad 
  car and all gear. They never knew the ninjas had the icon to begin with and, since they were stealthed, 
  hadn�t seen them on the roof; and so fanned out to look for the icon. The only other witness to the 
  location of the icon was a strange feral child, known as Wolf Boy, who hung around the neighborhood 
  and had been hitching a ride on the back of the squad car. 
  At this point we called the demo. The Ninjas were sending reinforcements to get the icon, the cultists 
  were out in force trying to recover it and The Law had a full assault team on the way as back-up. 
  Ultimately though, we felt it was probably the secretive and, as yet unheard from, Red Scorpion who 
  would probably wind up claiming the prize�but to what end. 
    
  Featured Element, Challenges: 
  This demo saw more Challenges than any other I ran at GenCon. This excited me because the 
  players had pretty much figured out how Challenges would work before I�d even fully explained 
  them. That speaks well for the intuitiveness of the mechanic. 
  The first thing to get Challenged was the Juicer Ninjas who were turning into an incredibly powerful 
  force before anyone else had even begun to define such things. The Challenge involved their strength 
  and if we really wanted to embark in what would amount to a Coin spending arms race between the 
  gangs. In the end, this Challenge never went to bidding. A solution was negotiated whereby there was 
  only a limited number of Ninja, & they were depended upon vulnerable supplies of drugs for much of 
  their abilities. To mitigate these weaknesses somewhat, they were replaceable if the bodies could be 
  recovered to recycle the technology. 
  The second Challenge involved the Red Scorpion as secret leader of the Ninjas. A player proclaimed 
  the leader of one gang was the real power behind a large segment of another gang, this got 
  Challenged quickly. This Challenge did go to bidding, and the Red Scorpion player won after Coins 
  had been spent all around. The other two of us figured that not only would that be a great plot hook to 
  introduce at some future time, but having a conflict like that could only result in a lot of dead ninjas. 
  The third Challenge involved me in control of the Law Troopers having just killed the two escaping 
  ninjas. I spent Coins to describe how the mini gun had turned the ninjas to hamburger eliminating any 
  possibility of them being recycled. This Challenge would have gone to bidding, but a straw poll 
  indicated that all other players preferred to see the corpses left intact so they could be the focus of a 
  rescue attempt. Faced with such a coalition, I withdrew my Challenge before wasting Coins on one I 
  couldn�t win. 
  ----Ralph Mazza 
  
  The Pregnant Pope 
  Thanksgiving 2002 Actual Play 
  Over the Thanksgiving holiday I had the opportunity to play a game of Universalis with Ron Edwards of Adept 
  Press, Jake Norwood of Driftwood Publishing and Jake s wife Earta. Unfortunately, the game took place fairly 
  late at night after a very busy day and we were all a little off form, but even so we produced one of the best 
  stories I ve had the pleasure to play in. 
   
  The game started with the usual Preparation Phase. Earta was to set the tone for the whole game with just two 
  simple Coins. 
   
  Jake: “This game will involve swords somehow” [yeah, we gave him a bit of ribbing about that one] 
  Earta: “And it will involve the pope.” [bomb #1] 
  Ron: “And there will be a heresy trial.” 
  Me: And here on my first turn would be the first of several challenges in this game. I had wanted to set the game 
  in the near future involving the successor to our current pope, but everyone else was less than enthused about 
  that. But I was determined to not use a general medieval setting, so instead I went with the New World in the 
  16th century. 
  Jake: “I m creating the character of Rodrigo, a Jesuit Priest”. 
  Earta: “The pope…is pregnant”. [With that second bombshell the fabric of the entire game was shaped. As an 
  interesting rules commentary we ruled that just as “Jack is Jill s brother” gives an automatic corollary Fact of 
  “Jill is Jack s sister” that “the pope is pregnant” gives the automatic corollary of “the pope is a woman”.] 
   
  The preparation phase continued for a bit and we established a few more features: The actual story would take 
  place in Cartagena. The character of Cardinal Immanuel was Created. Immanuel had been, and Rodrigo was, the 
  pope s lover. And that out of jealousy at being replaced, Immanuel had sent Rodrigo to the new world as a 
  missionary to convert the natives. We also established that the Cardinal was a skilled swordsman who was in 
  possession of an heirloom sword stolen from Rodrigo s family. Jake added an interesting twist in that the entire 
  story would be told from the perspective of the pope s loyal personal bodyguard. 
   
  In the first scene Ron created a very cool rules gimmick. In order to meet Jake s Tenet about the bodyguard, Ron 
  ruled that all scenes would open with a narrative by the bodyguard. The “audience” would see a much older 
  bodyguard writing a letter in a small room at a Spanish mission in California in which he was describing the 
  events of the story. This cost him 1 for the gimmick, but it also counted as a flash forward since it established 
  that the bodyguard would definitely have to survive the story, and so he had to pay each of us 1 Coin. The most 
  fascinating thing about this gimmick, is that it wound up being used in two very different ways. First it proved to 
  be a fantastic way to deliver a good bit of important factual exposition quickly without needing an actual scene 
  which would have been rather boring (exactly why this technique is used in movies). But second it became 
  almost like an Inspectres Confessional. Not wanting to give too much away about the scene (and thus have to 
  pay for the flash forward) several scenes opened with a vague sort of commentary. Like the cryptic comments of 
  a Confessional then, the players would be motivated to work towards including this element into the scene in 
  some fashion. I ll try to paraphrase these opening narratives as best as I can remember them. 
   
  I write these words by my own hand from the mission at San Pablo Capistrano in Spanish 
  California. They are a true and accurate record of my time as bodyguard to Pope Ignatius 
  III. When we were safely ensconced in our apartments in Cartagena and the pope had 
  removed her outer garments I could see that she was starting to show and would not long 
  be able to conceal her pregnancy. Yes, Pope Ignatius was actually a woman named Anna 
  Marie and she was with child. But I get ahead of myself… 
  The first scene opened with the pope and her bodyguard traveling incognito disguised as a merchant and his 
  servant disembarking a ship having managed to slip out of Rome secretly. She had traveled to the new world 
  seeking Rodrigo her lover. When they arrived, they found a city in turmoil with soldiers and civilians rushing 
  around, some panicked and some with purpose. After asking around they learned that a great chief of the native 
  people named Umanhotep was arriving with an armed delegation demanding to speak with the governor. The 
  audience had been granted and people were either fleeing from the savages or crowding in to witness the event. 
  Anna Marie and her bodyguard were swept along with the crowd to the plaza outside the governor s mansion. 
   
  
  It seems Rodrigo fancied himself more of a soldier of God than a diplomat and had begun his conversion of the 
  natives by marching soldiers into nearby villages and forcibly baptizing the children. Umanhotep was demanding 
  that this practice cease. As the governor and Rodrigo addressed the chief from the balcony of the manse, Rodrigo 
  received a small token from a servant which he was told had come from the servant of a merchant in the crowd 
  seeking audience. Rodrigo immediately recognized the token as coming from the pope and completely lost his 
  composure. He abandoned the summit and rushed to meet the merchant and see him safely and secretly 
  ensconced in private apartments in the mansion. The chief left furious and the governor was horrified at the 
  prospect of hordes of screaming savages descending on Cartagena. 
   
   
   
  Unbeknownst to us at the time, but soon to shape the destiny of us all, Cardinal Immanuel 
  had also come to Cartagena. Alone in Rome he knew where the pope had gone and had 
  followed us here to ensure his own plans. 
  The second scene opened with a silver caravan trudging from the mines through jungle trails to Cartagena to be 
  shipped to Spain. Cardinal Immanuel and two of his special guards had ridden out to the caravan where he had a 
  secret meeting with Chief Umanhotep in the jungle. The Cardinal was prepared to pay the chief in silver if the 
  chief would attack Cartagena and kidnap Rodrigo and the woman Anna Marie. He would arrange things so the 
  warrior could gain entrance to the fort with ease. The Cardinal had two plans. First, he hoped that if he could get 
  Rodrigo out of the way once and for all that he could convince Anna Marie to return to Rome as Pope and return 
  to him as lover and together they would be the most powerful force in Europe. Failing that, however, he could 
  not allow the Pope to be revealed as a woman, for it had been him who had cast the deciding vote for her papacy. 
  He would be ruined. Getting her out of the city, and into a jungle filled with savages should make her more 
  amenable to his plan, or at least more easily disposed of. The chief was to do anything he liked with Rodrigo, but 
  he was not to harm the woman. Umanhotep had other ideas, however. He had a penchant for white women, and 
  any woman that such a powerful man was willing to pay so much silver for had to be something truly special. He 
  intended to kidnap her as planned, but then keep her for himself. Rodrigo he would enjoy killing slow. He and 
  his warriors hated the Jesuit for casting the water spell of his god on their children. Nothing would keep him 
  from getting his vengeance on him. 
   
  The scene closed with the two men in agreement and the Cardinal saying “take your payment then”. At that, a 
  screaming horde of native warriors burst upon the caravan from out of the jungle and slaughtered the Spanish 
  soldiers guarding it. In resolving the complication it was determined that one soldier survived the encounter and 
  even managed to scar the chief with his sword. It is a mark of our tired condition that this poor soldier was 
  forgotten and we never returned to him. 
   
   
   
  Rodrigo s handling of the native savages had been incomprehensible. We should probably 
  have not attempted to contact him at that time, but I had never known him to act so 
  foolishly. When they finally met, my lady would not be pleased. I was beginning to see that 
  coming to Cartagena was going to be an even bigger mistake than I had expected. 
  The third scene was back at the pope s apartments where Rodrigo had finally come to meet the merchant who 
  had brought word of his lover. This was handled using the dialog rules. He was stunned to learn that it was not a 
  merchant at all but the pope herself come all the way from Rome to see him. He was even more stunned to 
  learned that she was with child. But what truly sent him over the edge was learning that Anna Marie had decided 
  that she had had enough of being the pope, wanted instead to be a woman and a mother, and expected Rodrigo to 
  leave the church and become her husband.. 
   
  Meanwhile, the Cardinal had returned to Cartagena and sought audience with the governor. His first act was to 
  demand control of the fort s garrison in order to organize action against the natives. This would enable him to 
  make arrangements that would ensure the success of Umanhotep s attack. His second act was inform the 
  governor that Rodrigo s actions towards the natives had diminished the sanctity of the sacrament of baptism and 
  defied church doctrine and that he intended to have the Jesuit arrested and charged with heresy. The timid 
  governor, who had visions of half naked savages swarming the streets of the city was only too happy to have the 
  trouble making Rodrigo removed and acquiesced to both demands. They went in search of the rogue priest. 
   
  In the apartment, Anna Marie had grown furious with Rodrigo s less than enthusiastic response. He had no desire 
  to leave the church whatsoever. And that was when the Cardinal, Governor and guards burst in. Rodrigo was 
  
  placed under arrest, and when he referred to this woman as the Pope, the governor knew the priest was totally 
  insane. A female pope was too outrageous to even comprehend. The Cardinal, of course, knew exactly who she 
  was. Everything was proceeding according to his plan. 
   
   
   
  Rodrigo s trial was a foregone conclusion. No real evidence was presented, no blasphemous 
  activities were exposed, for Rodrigo was nothing if not fanatically devout. But it didn t 
  matter. He had crossed both the church and the state and the governor and Cardinal both 
  wanted him dead, so guilty he would be. My lady perchance may have saved him. She had 
  the vestments and articles of her authority with her and as pope could have demanded his 
  release. But, perhaps in fear that she would be exposed here, far away from her power 
  base; or perhaps to teach the lover who had scorned her a lesson, she did nothing. 
  In the fourth scene we used the opening narration to largely skip having an actual trial scene. Rodrigo was 
  escorted off to a cell and Immanuel went to the pope s apartments to outline his plans for them. After a great deal 
  of dialog between the pope and cardinal we learned that while Anna Marie respected and admired the Cardinal, 
  she did truly love Rodrigo. Throughout this, the Cardinal was becoming more and more upset, and when she 
  revealed she was pregnant he became fully enraged. Even though she realized her mistake and tried to pretend it 
  wasn t Rodrigo s baby Immanuel knew it was. He decided then and there to have his way with his former lover 
  one last time before the savages (who even then were infiltrating the fort) came and took her to her fate. 
   
  The loyal bodyguard, of course, had other ideas. A complication ensued with me Controlling the dastardly 
  Cardinal and Jake Controlling the bodyguard. We learn that the bodyguard was a veteran of many wars and is 
  something of a romantic. He has a Don Quixote like belief that he is a gallant knight of old serving his noble and 
  gracious queen. We also learn that the Cardinal fights dirty and wields a poisoned dagger in his off hand. I turn 
  the tables on Jake s added “veteran” Trait by using it as justification for the Trait of “Blind in one eye” which I 
  added to the bodyguard to reduce his pool by one. I win the Complication by a large margin but am prohibited 
  from actually killing the bodyguard by Ron s flash forward in the first scene. So the duel is “to the pain”. 
  Brought to near paralysis by the poison dagger, the bodyguard is sliced a dozen times by the masterful sword 
  work of the cruel Cardinal. However, during the fighting, Anna Marie slipped away. She has realized how much 
  she loves Rodrigo and has run off to rescue him. Cardinal Immanuel, of course, knows exactly where she went. 
   
  During this scene we had another significant Challenge. Earta wanted the Indians to burst in on the duel and 
  attack the Cardinal. I thought the duel with the bodyguard was too important to interrupt, and for the first time in 
  the game I was beginning to have a good idea of where I wanted the story to end up, and it didn t involve the 
  Cardinal being killed just yet. Up until now I had added only bits and pieces to the story allowing the other 
  players to push it along. I had put the pope and her bodyguard in disguise arriving in port, but Earta and Jake had 
  come up with the governor s meeting with the chief and the token. I had set up the silver caravan in the Jungle, 
  but it had been Jake who brought in the Cardinal to plot with the Umanhotep. Jake had run the trial and Ron had 
  made sure that the Cardinal had taken control and confronted the pope. So at this point I had saved up a fairly 
  dominant number of Coins. Negotiation could not bring the Earta s Challenge to an acceptable compromise so I 
  simply told her to spend as many Coins as she wanted and I d spend 1 more and win. In the end, she saved her 
  Coins and winning the Challenge cost me only 1. This was a perfect example of the balance between story power 
  now vs. story power saved for the future. Earta, Jake, and Ron had assembled a story dramatically different from 
  where I would have taken it, but now I was in the driver s seat bringing it to a close. 
   
   
   
  Even though I was not there to see it, it would be a very bloody night 
  The fifth scene had us in the prison outside of Rodrigo s cell. Anna Marie had been unable to find the key to set 
  him free and was frantically grasping him through the bars. “Are you looking for this key?” the Cardinal asked 
  as he caught up to her at last, holding Rodrigo s family sword, still covered with the bodyguard s blood. Filled 
  with hate, the Cardinal cast the pope aside and opened the cell, striding in to kill Rodrigo. At that, Earta brought 
  in her Indians. Jake had the debilitated but fanatically loyal bodyguard stagger after his “queen”. He managed to 
  kill one Indian before falling unconscious. The dieing Indian stumbled down the stairs, falling at the gates of the 
  cell with the bodyguard s sword still in him. 
   
  The Indians were there to kidnap Rodrigo and the woman exactly as they had planned. In one of those continuity 
  issues that creep into such stories, I later wondered how they knew where Rodrigo and Anna Marie would be 
  
  found. We were too tired at this point in the game to have picked up on the slight plot hole, but had we been 
  more alert it would have been a simple matter to describe how it had all been arranged that Rodrigo would be in 
  this particular cell and the woman here to visit him at this particular time. Earta helped my desired ending by 
  having the Indians nab and make off with Anna Marie. Ron, however, decided that at this point the Cardinal was 
  so full of hate that he had determined to forgo his original plan and kill Rodrigo himself. He thus found himself 
  fighting off 4 Indians to keep them away from Rodrigo. At last he was disarmed and overpowered, but before 
  they killed him, Rodrigo scooped up his family s sword and saved Immanuel. Immanuel then recovered the 
  bodyguard s sword from the body of the first dead Indian and together they drove back the remaining “savages” 
  and went off in pursuit of the captured pope. Immanuel had acquired a desperate desire for Anna Marie in the 
  last scene and couldn t go through with his second plan to just let the Indian s dispose of her for him. Since 
  Immanuel and Rodrigo were the only characters still in the scene, a single Coin was enough to change the 
  location and bring the two along in their chase. 
   
  After I had ensured that Umanhotep had escaped with his prize, Earta had Rodrigo kill Immanuel, by stabbing 
  him in the back with the sword Immanuel had stolen from him long ago. It was after midnight at this point and 
  this part of the scene fell a little flat. However, I imagine that if it had been earlier it would have included dialog 
  between Rodrigo and Immanuel in which Immanuel, desiring to rescue Anna Marie, would have revealed that he 
  knew exactly where the Indians were going, and in so doing would have revealed that he had been behind the 
  entire attack. When they discovered that Umanhotep had double crossed him and the pope was lost, it would 
  have been then, overcome with grief and rage, that Rodrigo would have struck the Cardinal down. As it was, we 
  had begun to rush the game a bit because we were all well past exhausted. 
   
   
   
  To start the sixth and final scene I proffered a rules gimmick which altered Ron s initial gimmick such that the 
  narrative by the bodyguard would be at the end of this scene instead of the beginning. I had at this point a clear 
  idea of how I wanted to end the story tragically. It didn t go quite as I had planned, despite my still having the 
  most Coins; but Earta s and Jake s additions would prove to make it much better. 
   
  Months had passed, and Rodrigo had finally managed to track down where the savages were. He had tracked 
  them to their new village but was captured at the outskirts. To celebrate the capture of their hated enemy, the 
  Jesuit priest, Umanhotep held a great feast. Rodrigo was to be the main course. Anna Marie had been living as 
  the chief s kept concubine, and she was forced to watch as her lover, and the father of her child was slow roasted 
  on a spit and then devoured by Umanhotep and his warriors. After months of ill treatment, this sent her over the 
  edge. 
   
  We then learn that the loyal bodyguard, mostly recovered from his injuries had secretly followed Rodrigo to the 
  village, but had done a better job at remaining unseen. He watched the feast in hiding and that night, when the 
  chief took Anna Marie to his tent he slipped in to rescue her. Anna Marie had concealed a dagger from the feast, 
  and the bodyguard arrived just in time to see her plunge it into Umanhotep in the midst of his passion. She 
  stabbed him over and over, long after he was dead, until the bodyguard moved to stop her. It was then that he 
  saw into her eyes. The months of mistreatment, the horrible death of Rodrigo, the committing of violent murder. 
  It had been too much for her. The queen that he loved and cherished was gone, replaced only with madness. He 
  knew what he had to do. Drawing his knife across her throat, he put her out of her misery. Anna Marie, Pope 
  Ignatius III was dead. 
   
  It was then he heard the crying. It was a baby. Umanhotep had intended to kill the white baby when it was born, 
  but instead decided it would provide added leverage and control over his favorite concubine. The bodyguard 
  discovered that baby and took it to raise as his own. 
   
  In exhaustion we ended the story there, and I never did give the closing narrative for the scene. If I had, it would 
  have revealed that the letter the bodyguard (who was intentionally never named in the story) was writing years 
  later, was to that boy, who himself had joined the priesthood, explaining to him his true parentage, and why he d 
  been raised hidden away in a mission in California. 
   
  Featured Element, Story  
   
  I never cease to be amazed at the quality of the stories that Universalis produces. Despite all the twists and turns, 
  the story had a clear introduction, build-up, climax, and denouement. It was driven on constantly with few 
  
  sidetracks towards a distinct ending. However, it did so without the least bit of preparation or railroading. Its 
  hard to imagine the above story being told in a traditional RPG without large parts of it having been plotted in 
  advance by the GM. Its hard to imagine getting from a female pope arriving incognito in Cartagena to dieing at 
  the hands of her own loyal body guard after months of being raped by a savage native chieftain without 
  involving a tremendous amount of railroading or a GM with a near superhuman ability to manage games through 
  Intuitive Continuity. Yet using Universalis we managed to create this story late at night, while exceedingly tired, 
  with hardly any stress or strain besides a few awkward (but very brief) moments where none of us was clear 
  what to do next. 
   
  We started the game knowing only that the pope was pregnant, that Rodrigo and Immanuel had been her lovers, 
  that she was traveling incognito to Cartagena, and that at some point there had to be both a sword fight and a 
  heresy trial. Other than that, we knew nothing about where the story was going. We didn t know whether the 
  baby was Rodrigo s or Immanuel s, or even some unknown third party. In fact, we briefly flirted with the idea of 
  the baby being the bodyguard s but quickly nixed it in the interest of time. We didn t know who was going to be 
  on trial for heresy. Early on, the obvious choice seemed to be the pope herself after having been revealed to be a 
  woman. I myself actually toyed with the idea of making the trial be of Umanhotep, in a very different version of 
  the game where he had agreed to be baptized to make peace, and then in anger uttered words that were 
  considered blasphemous. The other players had their own ideas that ensured that the game never got anywhere 
  near those events. We had no idea who would live or who (if anyone) would die (with the exception of the 
  bodyguard who had to live in order to write the letter). In fact, right up to the last scene, Ron and Jake were 
  discussing how they were going to manage to rescue the pope from the Indians. 
   
  I managed to convince them that a dark, somewhat twisted ending was best, but even my planned for ending 
  didn t happen the way I had envisioned. I had envisioned the pope never being found, living out her days as 
  concubine to the chief, secretly raising her son to be the instrument of her vengeance in events to be detailed in 
  some as yet unplanned for sequel. Ron, Earta, and Jake were unanimous in their opposition to that ending, 
  although they did go along with ending it tragically. Earta insisted that any ending that didn t involve Anna 
  Marie killing Umanhotep was unsatisfactory to her, and Jake recognized that if the ending of the story was to be 
  recorded as part of the narrative letter, that the bodyguard needed to be brought in as witness to it. He assured me 
  that he had an ending in mind that would satisfy my desire for twisted depravity, and he didn t disappoint. The 
  scene where he described the bodyguard as realizing that the fairy tale was over and where he had him broken-
  heartedly slit the pope s throat was the climactic highlight of the whole story. 
   
  Ron had visibly faded towards the end of the evening (it had been a very long day) but was instrumental early on 
  in the story when we were flailing around not certain where to go next. He made sure, whenever the story started 
  to stall, to throw in a new bang that we had no choice but to address. Ron introduced the concept of bangs in his 
  game Sorcerer and they really are the key to “story now”. They are much more than simple hooks. They are 
  situations that are impossible for players to avoid reacting to in some way. Yet they are open ended enough that 
  while they force the players to act, they in no way tell them how to act. It was through how we chose to act 
  regarding the various bangs we threw out that caused the initial story to take shape. 
   
  Watching the story unfold was almost like watching a pottery wheel. It started as this misshapen lump of clay 
  and gradually began to look like something, but we didn t know what. Then came the point when it became clear 
  what it was we were making. For me, who spent most of the game clueless about where this thing was going, it 
  came after Ron and Jake s dialog as Cardinal and Pope in scene four. At that point, for the first time, the loose 
  ends made sense to me and I could clearly see where the story needed to go. I also had enough Coins to take it 
  there, but as I described above, even having an overwhelming number of Coins didn t give me carte blanche to 
  control everything. 
   
  This is how I ve found most games of Universalis to go. The first part of the game involves adding stuff. 
  Throwing in characters and plot elements and different branches and hooks until at some point, for some player 
  at the table, it all clicks. That player then usually begins working to tie everything together and take the story in a 
  specific direction. At this point the other players usually clue in, see where he s going, and begin to help and add 
  their own subtle variations until a definitive ending is reached. 
  ---Ralph Mazza 
  
  Space Pirates 
  Actual Play 4/5/03 
  This was a three player game with myself Seth Ben-Ezra of Dark Omen Games and Seth s 
  wife Crystal.  Since we only had a couple of hours we skipped through most of the story in 
  the preparation phase and got right to the climax.  
  This was to be a story about  the crew of the space galleon "Empty Bottle".  It was a space 
  ship alright, but in a very Spell Jammer or Space 1889 kind of way.  The ship was a wooden 
  galleon, sailing between the stars on a sea of ether.  The pirates were searching for buried 
  treasure following a map that had been tattooed to the skin of a young girl.  The treasure was 
  said to be an Emerald the size of a man s fist.  
  As they approached the small planet where the treasure was said to be buried they 
  encountered an area of inky blackness.  The dark nebulae was the home of a Arwen Demon 
  Queen of Nightmares, a cross between a Cthulhu Old One, a Little Fears Closet Land King, 
  and a Noble from Nobilis.  
  The nebulae was her domain, and within it, all of your worst fears gained substance.  Crystal 
  drew her inspiration directly from one of the islands in the Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of 
  the Dawn Treader.  
  Arwen killed the crew and the captain of the ship as they approached her home; but that was 
  not the end of it.  Trapped there in the dark, the pirates did not die and the "Empty Bottle" 
  sailed on a ghost ship, crewed by the spirits of the dead sailors.  All except the girl, who had 
  hid below decks and was spared.  
  The ship sailed on, rescuing a woman who s ship had been capsized by one of the frequent 
  electrical storms of neon purple eldritch energy.  Unknown to the crew, the woman was 
  actually Arwen in disguise trying to discover why her efforts had not stopped the pirates 
  completely.  
  When the ship arrived at a small planetoid where the treasure was said to be, they lowered the 
  ships boats and began to row for shore.  The captain made a copy of the map so the girl could 
  be left safe on board with the rescued woman.  
  Before they reached the planet they were beset by one of the eldritch storms which lashed the 
  boats furiously.  Fortunately, having experienced these storms before, the boats had been 
  equipped with lightning rods and they made it to land safely, though not without severe 
  damage to the boats.  
  To stop them, Arwen teleported to land and summoned a pack of wild dream beasts to attack 
  the crew.  Each taking the form of whatever their victim feared most, the crew was hard 
  pressed.  Thanks to their electrified cutlasses, space muskets, and a small gatling laser cannon, 
  the beasts were all slain, but their blood had stained the crew red, and as long as it lasted they 
  would be shaken and afraid.  
  Moving inland they followed the map to a skull shaped mountain where the treasure was said 
  to be.  Arwen was desperate now to stop them, for the emerald housed her power.  She 
  
  returned to the ship, took the girl and teleported to Skull Mountain.  There her powers kept the 
  crew cowering and afraid.  
  The captain, Ivan Blackbeard (who made his crew drink vodka instead of rum) went on alone, 
  following the map to a secret entrance.  He knew that obtaining the emerald was the key to 
  finally having the tormented spirits of he and his crew laid to rest and he was determined to 
  get it.  
  Just inside the entrance he encountered a hallucination of the demon who tried to block his 
  path, but he cut the illusion down with his sword and strode on to the treasure chamber.  
  Taking the gem he returned to his men and led them to the beach.  
  But nothing happened.  Finally the captain realized that it was not enough to have copied the 
  map from the girl.  She was the key to the emeralds powers and needed to be present in 
  person...but she had been captured by the demon, who fortunately did not yet know about the 
  girl s destiny.  
  Just then the Queen appeared, with the girl and another pack of Dream Beasts.  They attacked 
  the ill prepared crew just as another eldritch storm struck.  At first the pirates managed to fend 
  off the beasts, but when a bolt of purple lighting destroyed the gatling cannon, the crew were 
  overwhelmed, their souls devoured by the beasts.  
  The captain had engaged Arwen herself and managed to rescue the girl.  Only then did the 
  demon queen remember an ancient prophesy about the girl who would be the key to her 
  demise.  She lunged for the girl, but it was too late, Ivan s sword pierced her through the 
  heart.    
  Another flash of lightning struck the sword at that moment and blew the captain backwards.  
  Pulling the blade painfully from her body, the queen swung once, and decapitated the girl.  
  Greatly weakened Arwen recovered the gem and returned to her lair.  Without the girl, the 
  Ivan Blackbeard was doomed to eternity as a wandering spirit unable to find final rest 
  knowing that the souls of his faithful crew, having been devoured by the dream beasts, were 
  spending that eternity in nightmarish torment.  
  The end.  
   
  Featured Element, Story and New Players  
  It occurred to me as I played this game, how differently the story progresses with players who are veterans of the 
  game vs. new players.  Both Seth and Crystal are long time role players, but this was their first time with 
  Universalis.  
  When the game started, I had wanted a game of pirates:  walking the plank, bottles of rum, chests of doubloons 
  on the Spanish Main.  Instead the story became a kind of bizarre conglomeration of different ideas.  The story 
  itself, wound up pretty cool.  One of the strengths of the game, I think is the way it takes a mish mash of ideas 
  and weaves them into a coherent narrative. 
  But what occurred to me was this.  If I d been playing with people who were already fans of the game, I would 
  have taken a much more aggressive role with challenges and well placed complications and a lot of Facts to try 
  and establish more of the game I wanted.  In other words, I would have "fought" harder for the story.  To put it 
  
  another way, I would have made greater use of Negotiation to get the other players on board with my vision, and 
  greater use of Scene Framing to make sure I built in the elements I wanted to see. 
  But since my purpose in the game was to introduce the rules and make sure the players were enjoying 
  themselves I took a much less up front role.  I let most of the mish mash of tenets stand without challenge (I 
  drew the line at making it a "Romance") and the majority of the scenes were framed by the newer players. 
  This leads, I think, to new players gaining a better understanding of the rules and the power they have at their 
  disposal with their Coins.  For me to take charge right off the bat, would limit the new players to being my 
  audience since they would lack the familiarity with the rules to know what they could be doing.  The other side 
  to this is a story that tends to resemble a chimera of genre tropes and takes some bizarre twists and turns before 
  finally settling on a direction. 
  With experienced players I ve found the game to have a greater shared vision, the players tend to have an easier 
  time getting and staying within the same imaginary space. 
  I d love to read your comments on whether you ve experienced a similar phenomenon on our discussion forum. 
  ---Ralph Mazza 
  
  Hobbits are for Eating 
  GenCon 2003 Demo 
  For this game I got to demo Universalis for John Wick, designer of such games as Legend of 
  the Five Rings, 7th Sea, and Orkworld.  As I own and have played the heck out of all of these, 
  this was really quite a thrill.  An even greater thrill was when he came back the next day to 
  play in another demo with Mike Holmes, and brought friends with him, including Tom 
  Denmark, artist of Orkworld and designer/artist of Dungeoneer.  John commented on 
  Universalis in his Live Journal.  
  Enough fan boy gushing.  John started off the game by announcing that this session was to be 
  a Fantasy story.  We later learned that there d be Orcs and an Orc Cult which worshipped 
  Pain.  At this point John saw I was writing Orc with a "C" and immediately implemented a 
  fact that in this game Orc would be spelled with a "K".  After laughing about the joke, I 
  immediately was forced to rewrite everything as "Ork".  
  We then established there were Hobbits.  At this point I assigned Hobbits a few Traits 
  including:  "Hobbits are for Eating", "1 Hobbit can feed 3 Orks", "Hobbits are Fat and Lazy", 
  and they are "Weakling Cowards".    
  The Ork Army meanwhile was "Unruly", "a Horde x2", and armed with "Nasty Rusty 
  Swords".  John Challenged me on that and wanted to have the Orks armed with spears, but I 
  declared that these weren t no pansy spear wielding Orks and won the Challenge.  Nothing 
  quite like sharing Orkworld jokes with the designer of the game.  The Ork Leader, "Zrograr"  
  was "Buff x2", and "Clever".  
  The Hobbit Army was inferior in numbers and armed with "Slings" (of course).  They did 
  hold a solid "Ambush position" and had several rapid firing boulder throwing engines.  
  At this point a unit of elven sharpshooters were added.  They were "Hiding in the woods" and 
  "aiming at the Ork Leader, Zrograr".  They were led by Elf Leader who "Hates Orks", 
  because his "Lover was Killed by Orks".  The Elf Leader was given a name of so many 
  syllables that it was recorded simply as "Really Long Name".  He was armed with a "Magic 
  Blood Bow" whose arrows had been "Dipped in the Blood of his Slain Lover".  
  The battle started off with the elven archers opening fire on Zrograr.  With all of Mr. Long 
  Name s Traits added in, Zrograr was in trouble.  Until the Enchantress Enscalla revealed 
  herself.  She of the "Stunning Green Hair" had "Arcane Powers x3", and an "Aura of 
  Protection on Zrograr".  The Ork Leader barely won the Complication.  The elven arrows 
  struck Zrograr repeatedly but were mostly thwarted by the arcane shield.  Zrograr was left 
  with a "flesh wound" and became "enraged x2".  The flare of the magic shield shot back along 
  the path the arrows had come revealing the elves hidden position and deleting their "Hiding in 
  Woods" Trait.  Enscalla, however, was put into a magical sleep by her exertions.  
  At this point the Ork Bugler equipped with a "Ramshorn" sounded the advance against the 
  Elven Position.  A "Treacherous" Hobbit Spy named "Bob" had warned Zrograr of the Hobbit 
  Ambush, and so a unit of "Warg Riders" was sent to "Sweep behind the Hobbit Position".  
  In the ensueing conflict between the Orks and the Elfves, the Elves won.  The Elf player used 
  all of his Coins to slay Zrograr and send the Ork army into chaotic "Disarray".  But not before 
  
  the Loser used his Coins slay all of the elven sharpshooters and cause the Leader to flee.  The 
  loser also had the Ork Lieutenant who was "Faithful" take command and erase the "Disarray" 
  Trait.  
  The second scene was framed into the future, following the abject slaughter of the pathetic 
  hobbits and the feasting on their fat lazy corpses.  The location of the scene was a nearby 
  shrine where the Apprentices of the Sorceress Enscalla had taken her sleeping body to revive 
  her.  The elf leader, fleeing the recent battle "Filled with Remorse" from his defeat, stumbled 
  upon the shrine and determined to slay the evil Sorceress.  
  Unfortunately that ended our demo.  Jake Norwood needed the table to run a demo of The 
  Riddle of Steel  (one of the all time best Fantasy RPGs) and so we had to call it.  The demo 
  was a success, copies were sold, and Jake sold 4 copies to each of his 4 demo participants so I 
  can t hold a grudge for him bumping me.  But it would have been fun to find out what 
  happened to the elf with the "Really Long Name". 
   
  Featured Element, Combat Tactics 
  One of our design goals with Universalis was to create a game where the level of gritty detail 
  was completely customizable by play group.  For some groups I ve played with entire stories 
  were told with characters who were rarely given more than 1 or 2 broad Traits.  The above 
  combat could have been narrated completely quickly "And the Hobbits were wiped out and 
  eaten".  Instead we took a more detailed approach where some individual units (like Elven 
  sharpshooters and Orkan Warg riders) were independently detailed.  Tactics like ambushes, 
  and arrow volleys, and flanking maneuvers, and charges were used to add Traits and dice and 
  flavor to the overall battle scene. 
  If desired we could have gotten even more detailed.  We could have made several units with 
  several Traits each that would have taken many Coins (and several Complication rolls) to 
  defeat.  We could have made even more use of descriptive "Tactics" that provided dice to the 
  pools and made rules gimmicks that limited how many such "tactic dice" could be added to a 
  pool based on the quality of the troops and leader.  We could have used index cards to 
  represent the units and made rules gimmicks about moving them around the table like a quick 
  and dirty miniatures game with a gimmick that stated that a Complication occurs whenever 
  cards move into "base to base" contact with rules for adding dice for such factors as 
  "frontage" and "flanking attacks" and "unit depth" and such. 
  In short we could have used written an entire little wargame to play out our Ork and Hobbit 
  encounter, either on the fly, or using a standard set of Add-on rules that we return to for such 
  situations.  Instead we chose the middle ground on relying mostly on flavorful descriptions to 
  give our battle character.  Regardless of whether we took a simple narration, flavorful 
  description in multiple Complications, or a miniature war game approach the battle would 
  have been played out in Universalis terms, customized to the level of detail the group desires. 
  ---Ralph Mazza 
  
  Space Patrol 
  GenCon 2003 Demo 
    
  The tenets of this game began with a "Sci Fi" setting in which "Earth is No More" and 
  humanity has been reduced to a "Caravan of Dispossessed Vagabonds".  Human tech is 
  "primitive" and the caravan is "being pursued by pirates" who want to harvest human organs.  
  In an interesting twist, one of the players declared that the pirates were actually the 
  protagonists of the story, not the humans.  This led to some interesting twists as we tried to 
  reach a conclusion where the pirates were more important characters than the humans. 
  The first scene started with a lone straggling human ship being attacked by a trio of pirate 
  vessels including the "K tara".  The K tara was captained by an alien named Jorel who was 
  "Cunning", "Sly", and a "Total Bastard".   
  As one of the pirate ships docked with the fleeing human vessel and began to board her, a 
  mutiny was taking place on the K tara.  The crew of the K tara, feeling that their captain was 
  an "Evil Slave Driver" wanted to leave piracy and join the Space Patrol.  They had taken 
  control of much of the ship and had sent a message to the Space Patrol of their intentions.  
  The Space Patrol Cruisers "Steel Claw" and "Jade Falcon" were dispatched to the scene with 
  orders to aid the pirate crew to defect and protect the humans. 
  There were a few loyalists among the crew and they had notified Jorel of the impending 
  mutiny and so the crew had failed to secure the ship before the Patrol Cruisers arrived.  The 
  Steel Claw was captained by one of the few humans to join the Space Patrol, Captain "Red 
  Jenkins".  He despised the alien pirates who preyed on humanity and despite his Executive 
  order reminding him of his orders to aid the pirates, he determined to attack and destroy all of 
  them. 
  Unbenownst to him, however, the captain and crew of the Jade Falcon were on the pirates 
  payroll and so maneuvered to interfere with the attack. 
  Finally the crew of the K tara overpowered the Jorell and his remaining loyalists taking 
  complete control of the ship.  Meanwhile the Steel Claw finally managed to line up an attack 
  run and drive off the third pirate ship.   
  At that moment an all alert priority one message was received from Space Patrol Command 
  ordering the Steel Claw to terminate its current mission immediately and return to base.  
  Priority One Alerts cannot be refused and Jenkin s XO intimated that he would be forced to 
  relieve him of his command if he disobeyed and continued with his attack.  Both the Steel 
  Claw and Jade Falcon left the scene, leaving the humans to fend for themselves.  They did 
  manage to defeat the pirate boarding party with heavy casualties. 
  Meanwhile, the K tara had frozen Jorell in carbonite and dumped him into space.  They then 
  headed off to a neutral port to refit their ship and rename it the "Leviathan". 
  When the Steel Claw and Jade Falcon returned to base, they discovered that the Space Patrol 
  had been disbanded for lack of funding.  The captain and crew of the Jade Falcon turned to 
  
  piracy while Captain Red Jenkins became the founder of a new  independent Space Patrol.  
  The first volunteer members of the new Patrol were the crew of the Leviathan. 
   
  Featured Element, Giant Complication 
  The most amazing thing about this demo was that the entire story above, all of it, was told 
  with a single giant Complication.  After the tenets were established I won the first scene and 
  opened with the lone straggling human ship.  This quickly led to the introduction of the 
  pirates and a Complication between them and the humans.  Every other even of the above 
  story, (with the exception of the epilogue regarding the founding of the new Space Patrol and 
  the Leviathan volunteering) was told as part of that Complication.  There was no second 
  scene. 
  Each of the elements -- from the mutiny, to the loyalists, to the arrival of the Patrol ships, to 
  the Jade Falcon being on the take, to Red Jenkins being a human wanting to kill the pirates, to 
  his XO desire to follow orders, to the orders themselves -- were all Components invented and 
  Traits added and justifications for dice purchases prior to the actual roll.  When all was said 
  and done there was a three way contest between Jorell and the pirates, the mutinous crew, and 
  the Steel Claw the smallest pool of which was 10 and the largest 18 dice.   
  Everything after that, from the mutineer victory, to the emergency orders from Space Patrol 
  Command, to the stare down between Jenkins and his XO, to the human victory against the 
  pirate boarders, to the spacing of Jorell was part of the spending of the Coins won in the 
  Complication. 
  This was something I d never seen before.  An entire story from beginning to end narrated 
  within a single Complication and a single set of rolls.  It was fascinating to watch as each of 
  the three players maneuvered to try and get the biggest pool and determine how the story 
  would end, while simultaneously trying to figure out how to make the pirates be the 
  protagonists.  Ultimately it would be the mutinous crew who became the main characters, but 
  it could just as easily been Jorell, or perhaps even the crew of the Jade Claw.  Each of the 
  three of us continuously tried to trump each other with counters and counter counters.  I, 
  representing the Space Patrol introduced the Claw.  Jorell trumped me by introducing the 
  Falcon and making them support the pirates.  The mutineers tried to drag me onto their side 
  with orders from Space Patrol to help the mutineers "defect".  I trumped that by making the 
  captain of the Claw a displaced human who would kill all pirates on sight.  They countered 
  me by creating Captain Jenkins  XO as a by the book officer who insisted on following 
  orders.  The mutineers went after Jorell by launching a surprise mutiny.  Jorell countered this 
  by Creating a faction of Loyalists who revealed the mutinous plot and so on. 
  It was truly one of the most impressive displays of Complication cleverness I ve witnessed, 
  and by two first time demo players to boot. 
  ---Ralph Mazza  
  
  The Great GenCon Plot 
  GenCon 2003 Demo 
    
  The first scene of this demo opened knowing nothing more about the story than it would take 
  place at GenCon2003 on Saturday.  It began in the dealer room with an 11 year old boy 
  having just purchased an old boxed Avalon Hill game from Crazy Igors.  After the boy leaves, 
  a man in black Vampire costume and sunglasses approaches the booth and surreptitiously 
  inquires of Igor himself for a particular game that was supposed to be held for him.  The very 
  same game sold accidentally to the boy not moments before...dun, dun, daaaa 
  Meanwhile the boy was lost.  People kept bumping into him as if he wasn t even there and no 
  one he asked for directions paid any attention to him at all.  It was as if he was completely 
  invisible.  He clutched his game purchase tighter and began frantically searching for a way 
  out of the hall.  But the hall was laid out like a maze and there was no possibility of actually 
  navigating the isles without a map and compass.   
  The man in black saw the boy and went after him, grabbing for the game.  The boy, realizing 
  the man was trying to steal his game, tried to escape but no one could see him struggle.  No 
  one that is except Lydia, the blue fairy girl with her chain mail bikini, wings, and large 
  glittery butterfly glasses.  You see somehow the boy had been rendered invisible to everyone 
  except those wearing costume eyewear 
  Lydia got the boy away from the goth wannabe and tried to lead him safely out of the hall, but 
  before she could she was accosted by Sailor Bubba.  Sailor Bubba, a large hairy man with a 
  sizeable beer gut straining against his Sailor Moon costume thought Lydia was all that and 
  wanted to "admire her costume up close".  Before Lydia could extricate herself from his 
  sweaty clutches the boy had disappeared.   
    
  At this point the scene shifts to a dark back room at Jillians where that evil cabal known as the 
  Diana Jones Award Committee were holding a secret meeting.  There we see Ron Edwards, 
  part time Sorcerer / full time Cult leader; Matt Forbeck, breeder of his own private army of 
  future game designers; Peter Adkinson, corporate mastermind who single-handedly managed 
  to figure out how to keep overcrowding down at the con by trapping most of the attendees in 
  line outside; and newly initiated member Jordan Weisman, creator of an army of mutant clix 
  that have been sold around the world and are even now waiting to be activated. 
  They are plotting to take over the world.   
  Unfortunately for them, the secret plans outlining their nefarious plot have been stolen by 
  agents of the Origins Awards and secretly hidden in an old Avalon Hill game to be picked up 
  by their vampire agent.  They had thought this would be a safe hiding place since "no one 
  plays those musty old war game things anymore".  They equipped the box with an invisibility 
  device that would activate once the box was sold so that their agent could escape unmolested. 
  But their efforts were thwarted by a young 11 year old boy who had seen the light.  This boy, 
  this miraculous boy, has cast aside collectable cards, over priced and over sized minis, and 
  
  rubber clicky things.  He has scorned cheap games that come in paper envelopes, and games 
  from foreign lands whose rules have nothing whatsoever to do with the picture on the box.  
  He refuses to have any association with pale poorly dressed people who run around with 
  crossed arms shouting "you can t see me, you can t see me".  He has seen the true roots of 
  gaming holiness...hexes and cardboard counters.  Perhaps if he can escape the clutches of his 
  pursuers with his prize he will single handedly save gaming and usher in a new generation of 
  real gamers... 
  But wait, one of the many hooded and deceitful members of the Cult of Ron has reported that 
  the box and boy were last scene with blue-chainmail-fairy-chick and she has been located.  
  Already Diana Jones operatives are moving into position to intercept her. 
  "Excellent" says Herr Professor Edwards, his fingers steepled and his trademark evil grin 
  upon his face.  "Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen" 
    
  Meanwhile in the elevator lobby of the Westin hotel Lydia waits to return to her room.  
  Suddenly a faint clicking sound is heard.  The sound grows louder and more numerous until 
  the air is filled with the sound of a million clicking beetles.   
  They aren t beetles!  Its a horde of mutant clicks.  They crawl, walk, and even fly, swarming 
  around Lydia and poking her with their little rubber swords and punching her with their little 
  rubber fists.  Lydia tries to defend herself, frantically grabbing them one by one and twisting 
  them till they show triple skulls...but there are far too many points in this army. 
  Suddenly, a hulking shape looms out of the shadows.  Its Sailor Bubba!  Trying to work up 
  the courage to ask blue-chainmail-fairy-chick for a date, he arrived just in time.  Running at a 
  full sprint (just about the speed of an 80 year old man with a walker) Sailor Bubba heaves his 
  bulk into the air.  As a high jump, he might have cleared a two foot bar...but fortunately Clix 
  aren t that tall.  With a mighty belly flop...the splat of which reverberates around the lobby, 
  Bubba crushes hundreds of Clix at a time.  Rolling about on the floor like some sort of break 
  dancing manatee in a pleated skirt, he demolishes the Clix horde giving Lydia time to make 
  her escape. 
    
  What will happen now?  Will Lydia save the boy?  Will the boy escape to realize his destiny 
  of bringing back true gaming to the masses?  Will the corporate shills of the Origins Award 
  Committee succeed in thwarting the plans of their Diana Jones rivals?  Will the evil master 
  minds of Diana Jones succeed in taking over the world, unleashing cosmic destruction?  Will 
  we ever find out who this Diana Jones person is anyway? 
  Who knows.  Shortly thereafter this demo was shut down by agents of evil and all participants 
  were hauled off to some empty foreclosed Wizards-Attic warehouse where even now they are 
  undergoing unspeakable tortures involving thousands of Break Keys.  Only I escaped to bring 
  you this warning.   
  Be afraid, be very afraid. 
    
  
  Featured Element, Yeah, this was a real demo: 
  No lie. 
  ---Ralph Mazza  
  
  Cattle Country 
  GenCon 2004 Demo 
  Scene:  The Texas border under the flag of the Lone Star Republic.  Heading towards the endless 
  horizon, a cattle drive moves slowly north. 
  Eustace Roberts is the head of the Rocking R Cattle Company and he s growing increasingly worried.  
  Bandits have been moving freely across the Rio Grande rustling Texas cattle and taking it back south 
  into Mexico.  They ve been growing bolder under the leadership of Rodrigo Diaz who s gained quite a 
  cult following among the peasants of northern Mexico as a hero of the people.  A hero to the Mexican 
  peasants he may be, but to Roberts he s just a thieving cattle rustler. 
  Two of Roberts  men are scouting ahead on the trail just after dawn.  They ve spotted smoke and 
  head towards it. 
  The smoke is coming from a burning homestead.  Two Texan s wearing Deputy badges are beating a 
  dark skinned farmer while a third watches the farmer s family who look on helpless. 
  Buck is a cowboy with years of experience but his soft heart can t let this situation go unaddressed.  
  He knows the sheriff in these parts to be as crooked as they come, though he doesn t know he s been 
  secretly working with the Mexican government as part of a plot to return Texas to Mexico.  Buck draws 
  on the deputies demanding to know why they re beating this man. 
  The first deputy is about to explain that this farmer is actually one of Diaz s men and they re trying to 
  get the location of the bandits hideout from him before they can hit the nearby cattle drive;  but he 
  barely gets out two words before Jenkins, the second cowboy, shoots him dead. 
  Jenkins is a greenhorn on his first drive with a brand new pistol and trick harness he d been dieing to 
  try out.  Unfortunately, trying to impress Buck with his quick draw, he accidentally tripped his hair 
  trigger and shot. 
  All hell breaks loose.  The second deputy goes for his gun and Buck reacts by fanning several rounds.  
  The second deputy goes down.  The farmer s wife, leaps in front of her husband to protect him and 
  gets cut down by Buck s remaining shots.  Horrified, Buck is unable to react when the third deputy 
  unloads, dropping both him and Jenkins from their saddles. 
  The farmer, who actually is one of Diaz s men, grabs one of the fallen guns and drops the last deputy.  
  Screaming in anguish over his wife s body he unloads the rest of his rounds into Buck and Jenkins 
  before grabbing a horse and riding off to alert Rodrigo... 
   
  Featured Effect, No Zombies:  
  One thing we ve noticed is that new players, armed with an unprecedented level of power and an 
  unusual level of responsibility for moving the story forward, tend to take a kitchen sink approach to 
  genre.  Most early games wind up being quite a mixture of different genres; and showing up frequently 
  in many different games...zombies.  Sometimes robots, aliens, or ninja; but most common of all are 
  zombies.  
  This tends to tone down dramatically once players get used to the power and responsibility of 
  Universalis play, and also once they become more skilled at using Tenets, Facts, Challenges, and 
  Complications to bring more focus and consistency to their stories. 
  Having had my fill of zombie westerns, zombies in space, and robotic zombie ninjas I made sure that 
  the first Tenet I made in this very first GenCon 2004 demo was "no zombie wierdness".  
  ---Ralph Mazza 
  
  A New York Mob Story 
  GenCon 2004 Demo 
  For this demo we established that the story would be a conspiracy involving the mayor of New York, 
  the New York Mob, Sicilians, Indonesian Gangsters, and a prominent New York family.  
  The first scene opens at a wedding reception.  Christina Wheatley has just married Joseph Radford.  
  Both the Wheatleys and the Radfords are important players in New York politics and the Mayor is 
  there to woo their support for his upcoming campaign.  This campaign looks to be hotly contested as 
  the mayor s primary opponent has been questioning his track record on crime.  Those questions are 
  hitting a little too close to home as the mayor has long been in bed with the NY mob.   
  Now both the mayor and the mob are feeling the pressure.  A new syndicate of Indonesian gangsters 
  are pushing into the city using violence and killing sprees to carve themselves out a territory.  This is 
  not good either for mayor s election or the NY families.  Of course, the mayor is well aware that many 
  of his opponent s campaign contributions can be traced back to Indonesian sources.  Not 
  coincidentally, the mayor is introduced to a Sicilian gentleman, a guest of the Radford s.  The mayor 
  knows him to be connected.  He gets the impression the Radfords know it too. 
  At the reception the mayor is attempting to win the campaign support of matriarch Julia Wheatley with 
  charm, flattery, and expensive wedding gifts; but Julia is too distracted to notice.  She seems nervous, 
  even anxious, and not the sort of nervousness normally associated with the mother of a bride.  
  The groom, Joseph Radford, seems similarly distracted, although he is not apparently aware of his 
  new mother-in-law s anxiety.  He has eyes only for Christina who seems to go out of her way to avoid 
  any contact or intimacy with Joseph. 
   
  The second scene opens the next morning in the mayor s office.  We see him pacing impatiently in 
  front of his desk talking animatedly on the phone with a man named Tony; who we gather from the 
  conversation must be mobster.  We hear the Mayor explain that the bride and groom never made it to 
  their hotel following the reception last night.  He suspects they ve been kidnapped by the Indonesian 
  gang in order to pressure the Wheatleys and Radfords to withdraw their support from him.  Tony 
  knows that the organized crime business his family runs in New York has benefited greatly from 
  having a friend in the mayor s office and knows that the mayor s opponent s tough stance on crime will 
  just be an excuse to break the New York families down enough to let his foreign backers take over.  
  They agree that Tony has to find the socialites and get them back. 
  The scene shifts to a seedy pub which Tony knows has connections to the Indonesians.  He and his 
  muscle are all set to pressure the owner but they don t need to.  The owner hands them a letter with 
  instructions and a photograph of Christina holding today s Times.  Unnoticed by Tony at the time, but 
  caught by the camera, we can see a crumpled towel in the corner of the picture.  The towel has the 
  monogram of the Ritz Carlton hotel. 
  The scene shifts again to a hotel room at the Ritz Carlton.  We see Christina there.  She runs into the 
  embrace of a young Indonesian man.  We hear her confessing her love to him as sunlight glints off of 
  Joseph Radford s enormous engagement ring. 
   
  Featured Effect, Guiding Tenets:  
  It generally takes some time for players to grasp the nuances of Universalis play.  Early on Tenets 
  tend to be very broad genre or flavor statements like "High Fantasy" or "the Occult".  This provides a 
  lot of flexibility and a quick and easy springboard to get started with play, but it also typically results in 
  a fairly eclectic mix of characters and events and locations mixing together in the game.  
  As players get more experienced I ve noticed they tend to use Tenets differently, not just to establish 
  broad parameters but also to provide solid elements of plot direction.  This tends to provide a more 
  
  tightly fitting narrative.  It was interesting for me to notice the players in this game grasp that idea 
  almost immediately. 
  The first Tenets included some pretty broad features like "Modern Day", and "Involves a Conspiracy".  
  But later Tenets added some much more focused story elements like "The Indonesian Gangsters are 
  backing the mayor s campaign opponent" and "The story will feature a wealthy NY family whose 
  support is vital to either candidate in order to win the election" 
  Tenets like this serve as a great set of marching orders for player s to spin off of.  There is still plenty 
  of room for twists and turns (like Christina s Indonesian love interest) but the player s are much more 
  able to stay on track with the added guidance.  
  ---Ralph Mazza 
  
  War in Hell 
  GenCon 2004 Demo 
  There is unrest in heaven.  In the midst of this distraction, souls of the dead have been misjudged.  
  The Innocent and the faithful have been sentenced to hell.  The Archangel Michael has led an 
  invasion of hell to get them back.  His forces have carved out a beach head, a bastion of safety in the 
  heart of the abyss.  But the invasion has foundered.  
  A high level betrayal led to an entire battalion of angels being captured and imprisoned.  The unrest in 
  heaven has grown worse and now Michael and his forces are cut off.  They have lost contact with 
  heaven.  They are isolated.  An age of man has passed and they are alone in Hell.  The tenuous terms 
  of a ceasefire have allowed the weakened angels to hold on to their beach head, but something major 
  is brewing. 
   
  Scene one opens with the camera high above the sphere of Earth.  We zoom in closer, through the 
  atmosphere, towards the surface.  We hear the buzz of human speech and thoughts.  They are full of 
  doubt, questions, and unanswered prayers.  We continue down far beneath the surface; down into 
  hell.  It is the hell of the Inferno.  Erupting volcanoes and rivers of lava light the scene with a red glare.  
  Giant, mile long, segmented, many legged worms burst up through the surface before arcing back 
  down again.  Spouts of fire and clouds of smoke fill the air.    
  In the distance we see an enormous city of brass and bronze climbing from the cracked surface like a 
  many tiered mountain.  It is a city of demons and devils.  The camera shifts to a much grubbier place.  
  A ramshackle settlement barely more than a camp, fortified with piles of rubble, craters, and the bones 
  of fallen enemies.  This is the beach head.  The only place in hell where the demon s don t hold sway.  
  The angels have dubbed it Purgatory.  But for the lost souls gathered here it is the closest to heaven 
  they ve been and their last chance for salvation. 
  In a dark  alley of Purgatory we see Michael the Archangel, general of heaven s troops.  He is tired 
  and almost broken.  He is wingless; his wings having been torn off by a greater fiend in a pointless 
  battle centuries ago.  He is meeting with one of his angelic scouts.  We see the scout change shape 
  into a form without wings out of respect for his commander.  The scout reports that the legions of hell 
  are massing, but not for an attack on Purgatory. 
  Whatever the unrest is in heaven, its made the demons bold.  They plan to invade the surface and 
  enslave the world of men.  Lucifer would never have been so reckless, but the lords of hell overthrew 
  him long ago and now hell is ruled by an oligarchy of loosely aligned and constantly jockeying princes.  
  Someone is looking to claim the throne of hell by winning the throne of earth. 
   
  We cut to an enormous edifice of grim stone and heavy iron far beyond Purgatory.  We come through 
  many walls, locked doors, and barred gates.  It is the Brimstone Prison where the captured angels are 
  held.  Deep within a winged angel sits behind a desk doing paperwork.  It is Furion the Betrayer, or so 
  he is called by the inmates he oversees in the prison.  
  Furion made a deal with hell.  When his battalion was cut off and surrounded he bargained for their 
  safety.  That is why they are here in prison instead of laying slaughtered on the battle field.  Hell s 
  price was that he would serve them and that he could never speak of the terms of the contract.  Hell is 
  run on contracts, and once signed they cannot be broken.  Now Hell can never kill the angels of 
  Brimstone Prison and Furion can never tell them that it was not he who betrayed them but rather he 
  who saved them from certain death.  No one is more hated by the angels of Brimstone then Furion 
  whose been assigned as their overseer for the centuries since their capture. 
  Into Furion s office comes Xanphar the demonic warden of Brimstone Prison.  Xanphar has 
  discovered that Furion has been smuggling water to the prisoners above their meager allotment.  The 
  angels who curse Furion for allowing them so little water have no idea how much less they were 
  supposed to have.  Xanphar accuses Furion of violating his contract and so he is being reassigned. 
  
  Furion will be assigned to the front ranks of suicide shock troops when the legion of hell invades the 
  surface.  He will fight his own kind, angels who defend the earth, and if he falls, all of the prisoners in 
  Brimstone will be tortured for eternity with the most horrific punishments the torturers of hell can 
  devise. 
  Before Furion leaves the prison he stops by the cell of Josiah.  Josiah has been  his comrade and best 
  friend since before the universe was formed.  Josiah believes Furion betrayed them.  He hates and 
  despises him with unconcealed fury.  Furion can not tell him the truth.  The best he can do is apologize 
  that they would no longer be receiving the extra water he d been smuggling to them.  
  Josiah is enraged.  He takes up his remaining water ration and hurls it at Furion who can only walk 
  sadly away.  Behind him, gaunt angels throw themselves down on their bellies to lick the spilled water 
  off of the steaming stone floor.  
  In the next scene we see Michael preparing his remaining angelic forces for battle.  The invasion 
  preparations have left them with an opportunity to strike at Brimstone Prison and free their comrades.    
  This is where we had to end the demo  
   
  Featured Effect, Group Discussion:  
  This demo was run for a group of friends who ve gamed together for some time.  It was their habit in 
  their campaigns to stop play from time to time and discuss, out of character, where each of them 
  thought the story needed to go and what they d like to see happen in the future.  They did this multiple 
  times during the above session and so fluidly did Universalis accommodate this that to an observer it 
  would have been difficult to tell where the line between actual game play and brainstorming sessions 
  was.  It was during one of these sessions that we learned that angels curse by taking the Lord s name 
  in vain.  The Commandments of man do not apply to them.  
  Being a demo we could not play through to the end, but the last of these brainstorming sessions 
  revealed the likely direction for the story.  An epic battle for Brimstone Prison would be fought.  Furion 
  would be revealed as the source of much of Michael s intelligence and scouting reports on the enemy, 
  and he would have provided information on hell s invasion plans before departing for the front.  The 
  prisoners would have been set free and, filled with the repressed passions of the ages, the inspired 
  force of angels would have engaged hell s legions and thwarted the invasion.  During this battle, 
  Josiah would have encountered Furion, and not knowing the truth of the betrayal would have cut him 
  down.  After the battle, Michael would have revealed Furion s secret and out of shame and regret and 
  love Josiah would have dedicated himself to service in Furion s memory.  We didn t know what 
  direction the War in Hell would have gone after that, but we knew that Josiah would be the main 
  protagonist of it.  
  At one point one of the players stopped and asked me if it was ok that they actually had these out of 
  character discussions about what each of them wanted to get out of play.  I just smiled and said "of 
  course".  
  ---Ralph Mazza 
  
  The Rise of Set 
  GenCon 2004 Demo 
  For this demo we established that the story would be a fantasy set in ancient Egypt.  The Pharaoh s 
  son has been kidnapped.  There is a prophecy about the return of the evil god Set which will be 
  fulfilled if the son is not returned in 10 days.  We knew from the beginning, as part of the Tenets, that 
  the villain behind this prophecy would be the Pharaoh s chief advisor, Sekhem.  We also knew that 
  one of the advisor s chief servants is having second thoughts about his participation in this plot and 
  has left a map to the son s whereabouts.  
   
  The first scene opens in the throne room where the Pharaoh has just given orders to the captain of the 
  guard to find his son.  Sekhem assigns his servant to help in the search, and to sabotage it as 
  necessary.  But the servant instead warns the guard captain of the advisor s plot.  He saw Sekhem 
  reading the rituals to summon Set back to Egypt from an ancient scroll.  
  The captain reports this to Pharaoh who doesn t believe the ridiculous story and orders the servant 
  thrown in chains.  The queen isn t so sure, and orders Sekhem to be brought before her.  But Sekhem 
  slips away down a secret passage. 
  Anuka, a Priestess of Isis, informs the queen of the prophecy and her suspicions of Sekhem s role in 
  it.  When Sekhem s servant reveals the location of the secret passage, Pharaoh orders his guards to 
  go down it, and Anuka secretly follows them.  The route leads down into catacombs beneath the 
  palace and as the guards follow the servant s map they set off a trap which collapses the passage 
  way.  All of the guards but the captain are killed and Anuka must find another way around. 
  Meanwhile, Sekhem has reached the Pharaoh s son and has taken him to a natural cavern beyond 
  the catacombs.  An inky dark river runs through the center of the cavern.  There is something stirring 
  beneath the surface.  The son is shackled to a post at the river s edge. 
  Here it is revealed that Set is trapped in this underground river.  If one of the royal dynastic bloodline is 
  drown in its waters before the next planetary alignment (in 10 days), the prophecy will be fulfilled and 
  Set will be free to bring a new age of darkness upon the land. 
  While Sekhem is busy preparing the ritual, Anuka reaches the chamber.  She has had a vision from 
  Isis that has led her here and knows what the return of Set means.  She cannot allow the Pharaoh s 
  son to be drowned in that river.  She also knows she is not powerful enough to defeat Sekhem s 
  sorcery.  So before the advisor can stop her she reaches the boy and with her ceremonial dagger slits 
  his throat.  Already dead, he cannot fulfill the prophecy. 
  Set arises from the river in rage.  He speaks words of doom and dark magic.  The priestess 
  desperately tries to ward off his power with her charms.  
  At this point, the lost guard captain enters the chamber.  The advisor is in the midst of casting a dark 
  spell when the captain strikes him unconscious and throws him into the river.  He then tries to take the 
  boy out of the chamber.  
  Here it is revealed that Sekhem, the Chief Advisor to Pharaoh, is actually of the royal bloodline himself 
  and was seeking to usurp his cousin s throne.  As he drowns in the river his own death fulfills the 
  prophecy.  Set is unleashed to bring darkness upon the land.  
     
  Featured Effect, Twists and Turns:  
  This demo was characterized by the many twists the story took.  From the beginning we knew what 
  the problem was (the son and the prophecy), we knew who the villain was (Sekhem the chief advisor), 
  
  and we knew how to start solving the problem (the map to the son s location).  All of this was outlined 
  in advance and known to all of the players right from the tenet phase.  
  Yet it was from there that all of the interesting stuff happened.  In traditional play it is common place for 
  the GM to try to keep secrets from the players so they won t figure out the mystery too soon and ruin 
  the story.  Here, however, we started already knowing most of the key secrets, and due to the 
  authority given to the individual players to direct events still wound up with plenty of suspense and plot 
  twists.  
  The Pharaoh sends the guards to find his son.  Twist: Sekhem sends his servant to sabotage the 
  guards efforts.  Twist: the servant betrays Sekhem to the guards.  Twist: the Pharaoh doesn t believe 
  him.  Twist:  the queen does.  Twist: Sekhem escapes down a secret passage.  Twist: the servant 
  knows the passage and in fact that s what the map is of.  Twist: Sekhem moves the son s location so 
  now the map is useless.  
  The guards and the priestess set off after Sekhem.  Twist: a trap collapses the passage.  Twist: a 
  vision allows the priestess to arrive anyway.  Twist: Sekhem s already on the verge of fulfilling the 
  prophecy by drowning the boy.  Twist: the Priestess kills the boy herself so the prophecy can t be 
  fulfilled.    
  Most of the guards were killed by the trap in the passage.  Twist: the Guard Captain survived and 
  arrives in time to defeat Sekhem.  Twist: throwing Sekhem in the river fulfills the prophecy anyway.  
  The entire demo was an example of playing hot potato with the plot.  In appearance it resembles play 
  where a GM has a huge multi-branching storyline and the players choose one branch or another as 
  they move through it.  But the big difference is that the branching story line was created in play 
  dynamically in real time.  The chosen branches were developed further and the non chosen branches 
  where never developed at all.  The process was at once both cooperative and, with this group of 
  players, (which included co-designer Mike Holmes) rife with one-ups-manship as each player strove to 
  be the one to come up with the absolute coolest ending for the story.   
  ---Ralph Mazza 
  
  More Space Pirates 
  GenCon 2004 Demo 
  Space pirates are a popular genre in Universalis and this GenCon was no exception.  Our Tenet 
  phase left us with a band of 5 misfit pirates on a faulty broken down ship in pursuit of the biggest score 
  of their lives.  A quantum field collapser capable of generating infinite free energy forever.  The value 
  of such a device is astronomical and all of the Big Energy companies in the galaxy are desperate to 
  steal or destroy it before it puts them out of business. 
  The opening scene begins with disabling laser fire from the pirate ship towards their prey.  But they 
  are not the only ones after this juicy target.  The Galactic Space Police is also present in a large 
  number of one and two man patrol cruisers.  But they aren t escorting the energy source, they re 
  attacking it.  It seems the GSP has been bought off by Big Energy after all. 
  Seven of the small patrol craft break off to intercept the pirates.  They re targeted laser fire disables 
  the engines and the craft move in, attach to the ship and begin to board.  The pirates will make perfect 
  scapegoats for the destruction of the energy source. 
  On board the pirate ship, Dr. Bob the ship s physician and sometimes mechanic rushes to the engine 
  room to try and bring the engines on line.  He is accompanied by a second younger pirate known to 
  the crew only as "Bob s Helper".  Bob s Helper doesn t say much but fortunately for the pirates he s a 
  genius mechanic because isn t all that good with a wrench. 
  In moments Bob s Helper has diagnosed the problem and knows just how to fix it.  But he decides not 
  to tell Bob and make Bob figure it out himself, since Bob will just claim credit for it anyway.  After some 
  struggle Bob does manage to bring the engines back on-line.  Sure enough he rubs it in saying "Stick 
  with me, son, and soon you ll make a half decent assistant.  But not yet, no not yet.  Now you re just 
  one step away from useless.  Hand me that spanner". 
  As the engine kicks on and brings the ship to hyper acceleration, the police cruisers docked to the hull 
  are all ripped off and destroyed.  But unknown to the pirates, 4 of the police officers have managed to 
  board the ship. 
  The demo ended with the misfit pirates back in pursuit of their prey. 
    
  Featured Effect, Narrating Complications:  
  One of the things new players have to get accustomed to in Universalis is that the Complication roll is 
  not a skill test or a success or failure check.  It determines which players get to say how much and in 
  what order about how the situation resolves.  The players are constrained to act generally in favor of 
  the side that won or to the detriment of the side that lost but there is no absolute rule regarding failure 
  or success.  The players in this demo had no trouble with this concept.  
  Repairing the engines was the only Complication in the story.  All of the laser fire and the police 
  boarding was handled strictly through narration.  The Complication was initially between Dr. Bob and 
  the broken engine (backed by the ship s Faulty Trait and dice purchased for laser fire damage).  One 
  of the other players invented Bob s Helper.  With a little Negotiation it was agreed that "Bob s Helper" 
  was not a Role Trait but actually the characters formal name.  
  The player rolling for Bob s Helper on behalf of the pirates fixing the engine rolled more dice and got 
  more successes than Bob s player.  In fact, without Bob s Helper the Complication would have been 
  won by the broken engine.  
  Armed with far more free Coins then Bob s player had Bob s Helper set about narrating many things.  
  We learn more about Bob s Helper and his relationship to Bob as illustrated by the narration of their 
  
  interaction during the Complication.  We learn more about the ship and the pirates and how the 
  engines work.  All things that would be considered reasonably related to the task at hand.  
  But none of which actually involves succeeding at the Complication.  In fact, while the player of Bob s 
  Helper narrates that he does know exactly how to fix the engine, he specifically pays Coins for the 
  Fact that he doesn t fix it, nor does he tell Bob how.    
  The big winner of the Complication, spending all of his Coins without ever actually narrating a 
  resolution to the Complication, leaving the resolution wide open for others to narrate.  Beautiful.  
  ---Ralph Mazza 
  
  Shrek III 
  GenCon 2004 Demo 
  This demo began with only 4 simple Tenets.  The story was to be a sequel to Shrek II.  It was to 
  involve Shrek and Fiona s children.  There would be a talking crow who got the children in trouble and 
  Shrek and Fiona would be dead.  Yes dead.  2 minutes into play and we d already killed off two 
  animated screen icons beloved by children everywhere. 
   
  The first scene opens in the swamp with two ogre children, Brian and Jenny, weeping in front of the 
  gravestones of their parents.  Its been exactly 1 year since Shrek and Fiona were betrayed and killed 
  by the dastardly Puss-in-Boots.  They ve been living with Donkey and his half donkey -  half dragon 
  children Benny and June.  Donkey and Dragon have gotten divorced although the kids still fly off to 
  see their mother every other weekend and on holidays. 
  A large black crow named Crackle has become a playmate to the four children.  He s something of a 
  trouble maker but the kids trust him as the only adult they know other than Donkey.  He swoops in and 
  tells the children not to cry.  There may be a chance to get their parents back.  He just overheard his 
  old pal Bubo the Owl say something that makes him think they still might be alive.  Crackle suggests 
  they go and ask the wicked witch who lives in the Gingerbread House in the middle of the haunted 
  woods.  She may be able to look in her crystal ball and help out.  Apparently that whole Hansel and 
  Grettle thing was just a big misunderstanding. 
   
  In the next scene we see Brian and Jenny riding on their flying donkey playmates Benny and June 
  swoop down into a clearing in the haunted woods, right next to the Gingerbread House.  Flying 
  donkeys are awfully convenient.    
  Bubo the owl is sitting on the roof and challenges the visitors with a "whoooo goes there".  When he 
  sees Crackle he calls him various nasty names.  Here we have to pause play for a Challenge where 
  we reassert that this is to be a PG movie and replay that part.  Crackle swoops down with his claws 
  outstretched.  Apparently they aren t such good pals after all.  Bubo beats the air with his massive 
  wings, causing a gust of wind that blows Crackle backwards, but not before he snags a key that hangs 
  from a chain around Bubo s neck. 
  A grandmotherly lady come from the cottage and calms the birds down.  Inside the cottage Brian and 
  Jenny are treated to a bowl of hot porridge while Benny and June wait outside.  Bubo, being a psychic 
  owl, has already informed the witch of why the children are there.  Here, movie goers would be treated 
  to a montage of images from the first two Shrek movies as the witch summarizes their events.  She 
  then informs them that Puss-in-Boots was indeed convicted of the crime of killing Shrek and Fiona and 
  was banished to Never Never Land.  She s not sure, however, that he actually did it, nor that the 
  parents were actually killed.  Their bodies were never found. 
  Brian and Jenny resolve to find Puss-in-Boots and try to learn the truth.  When they ask the witch how 
  to get to Never Never Land she replies "second star on the right and straight on till morning, of 
  course". 
   
  Our next scene involves the four children arriving in Never Never Land.  I told you flying donkeys are 
  awfully convenient.  Below them is the Hollow Tree where the Lost Boys live.  They see Puss is 
  chained up dangling from the tree while Peter Pan and the Lost Boys have him on trial.  Puss has 
  been caught stealing food and now Pan is going to pronounce sentence.  
  Smee is there representing Hook and the Pirates.  He is asking Pan to turn the cat over to them.  They 
  will feed him to the crocodile and while the croc is distracted finally be able to escape from it for 
  awhile. 
  
  Brian and Jenny swoop down proclaiming that they need Puss to tell them about their parents.  The 
  Lost Boys aren t all that interested in parents and Pan gravely informs them that they re in the wrong 
  fairy tale.   While Jenny keeps Pan distracted, Brian and June fly over to Puss, but they can t release 
  him until Crackle remembers the key he stole from Bubo which unlocks the chains.  Puss promises 
  them that he can lead them to their parents.   
   
  At that moment the pirates show up in their flying pirate ship.  Hook is determined to get Puss by fair 
  means or foul and a great battle between the pirates and the Lost Boys ensue.  The pirate ship fires its 
  cannon at the Hollow Tree, but Benny and June (being half dragon) fly around and use their flame 
  breath to melt the cannon balls before they hit.    
  While Peter and Hook are dueling on the deck of the ship, Tinker Bell sneaks below.  The pirate ship 
  can fly because Hook has imprisoned a large number of fairies in great glass lanterns and their 
  trapped magic is what keeps the ship floating.  Tinker Bell releases the fairies and causes the ship to 
  crash. 
  Most of the pirates were trapped under the wreckage of the ship, but Hook was thrown clear. 
  In the confusion Brian and Jenny escape with Puss on the backs of Benny and June flying up towards 
  the star that will lead them home. 
  But Smee isn t done.  He manages to capture Tinker Bell in a sack, and using her trapped magic to fly, 
  he flies after the children. 
  Hook sees his cat, the key to being free at last from the crocodile, escaping and begins to think many 
  evil nasty thoughts.  Everyone knows that Peter Pan can fly by thinking happy thoughts.  We now 
  discover that thinking evil nasty thoughts makes Hook happy.  He begins to fly and chases after Smee. 
  The crocodile has been lurking in the water nearby.  He has been enchanted to follow Hook where 
  ever he goes.  Since Hook is now flying up towards the stars, the Croc follows after him. 
  In the chase Brian gets confused and picks the wrong star.  The ogre children riding on flying donkeys 
  arrive in the sky above modern day New York.  They are followed by Smee with Tinkerbell, Captain 
  Hook thinking evil happy thoughts, and the ticking Crocodile. 
  We figure this would make a good pilot movie for a TV series on the Disney Channel.  Each week, the 
  children would crash through a different fairy tale until ultimately discovering what happened to Shrek 
  and Fiona.   
    
  Featured Effect, Universalis and New Role Players:  
  This demo was run for a girl who was helping her parents out at a nearby booth and who d come over 
  to see what was going on at ours.  She hadn t really done any role-playing and at first was a little 
  hesitant about how to start.  This isn t all that unusual in Universalis where the ability to "create 
  anything" can be somewhat intimidating.  
  The routine I d hit upon for running demos at GenCon was to introduce the mindset required for 
  playing the game as imagining that all of the players are screen writers in Hollywood brainstorming up 
  a script for a new movie or TV pilot.  This proved effective overall at getting past the traditional GM and 
  Player Characters division of most role-playing games.  It also proved effective at getting non role-
  players to grasp the point of play quickly.  Much more so than the typical "its like playing cops and 
  robbers or cowboys and indians" text we often see.  
  In this case in particular it was a particularly effective approach.  The player hit on a movie she liked, in 
  this case Shrek, and we were off to the races.  After the first couple of rounds around the table she 
  had picked up the basic mechanics and was fully into the game throwing out ideas and plot twists with 
  the best of us.  She also quickly got the hang of the Challenge mechanics refusing to back down on 
  
  the idea that Shrek and Fiona were dead or that Puss in Boots had killed them and skillfully getting 
  other players to add their Coins to hers to defend it.  
  Its tempting to think that role-playing requires a higher than usual level of creativity and that non role-
  players don t role-play because they re not creative enough.  But really, role-players hardly have a 
  monopoly on interactive creativity.  We just have an unusual way of applying structure and game rules 
  to it.  Often its that structure and those game rules that keep non role-players away from role-playing.  
  That and the often unusual cultish culture that surrounds our hobby.  
  I ve found Universalis to be especially appealing to non role-players because the structure of play is 
  much more in line with what they consider a normal game structure; as opposed to the rather 
  byzantine and somewhat opaque structure that has grown up around traditional RPGs.  
  ---Ralph Mazza  
  
  Guadalupe the Pirate 
  GenCon 2004 Demo 
  Guadalupe Smith is a pirate.  He is looking for the Skeleton of Cadavra.  He is looking for the Skeleton 
  of Cadavra because Cadavra killed his father.  He d be looking for Cadavra himself, but Cadavra is 
  dead, so Guadalupe Smith has to settle for Cadavra s skeleton. 
  Captain Blind is also looking for the Skeleton of Cadavra.  He is called Captain Blind because he is 
  blind.  We know he is blind because he has a pirate eye patch on both eyes.  Captain Blind has a 
  seeing eye dog named Dead Dog.  The seeing eye dog is named Dead Dog, because it is dead.  
  Captain Blind doesn t know his dog is dead because he s blind and can t see; and because he s really 
  really drunk.  Captain Blind has forgotten his dog s real name, but everyone else keeps saying its a 
  dead dog, so now Captain Blind calls it Dead Dog too.. 
  Captain Blind has a map to the Skeleton of Cadavra.  He can t read this map because he s blind.  He 
  also can t read this map because its tattooed on his ass.  It was tattooed on his ass in a special code 
  that can only be read by a cross eyed donkey.  Captain Blind was really really really drunk that day.  
  Captain Blind would like to call up his friend Guadalupe Smith because Guadalupe owns a cross eyed 
  donkey.  Maybe Guadalupe Smith s cross eyed donkey can read the map tattooed on his ass, 
  because he s a cross eyed donkey and the map can only be read by cross eyed donkeys.  Plus its 
  hard to see because its on his ass.  But that s ok because he can t see it anyway being blind.  But he 
  can t reach his friend Guadalupe Smith because his cell phone is broken.  So he ll have to sail over to 
  Guadalupe s island. 
  Guadalupe is alone in his hut by the ocean on a tiny island.  Guadalupe has been living alone on this 
  island ever since he lost his marbles many years ago.  Guadalupe owns a cross eyed donkey. He is 
  trying to call up his old friend Captain Blind so he can have his ass read his ass, but he can t get 
  through because Captain Blind s cell phone is broken.   
  Guadalupe sees Captain Blind sailing his boat over to his island.  Captain Blind tries to dock the boat, 
  but he doesn t do a very good job because he s blind; and because he s really drunk.  The boat 
  crashes on a reef.  Captain Blind wades to shore pulling his dead dog Dead Dog on a leash behind 
  him. 
  Captain Blind has a new pet parrot.  Captain s Blind s new pet parrot is named New Pet Parrot 
  because that s what people call him.  Captain Blind s new pet parrot likes to crap on people s heads.  
  Captain Blind s new pet parrot, New Pet Parrot  tries to crap on Guadalupe s head.  Guadalupe runs 
  around and around but its no use.  New Pet Parrot craps on his head. 
  Guadalupe sticks his head in the sand to wash off the parrot crap.  It would probably be easier for 
  Guadalupe to wash off the parrot crap in the ocean, but Guadalupe lost his marbles many years ago 
  and now only washes using sand.  
  Fortunately when Guadalupe sticks his head under the sand, he spies his lost marbles.  After all these 
  years Guadalupe has his marbles back.  Thanks New Pet Parrot. 
  Nearby the cross eyed donkey starts laughing. 
    
  Featured Effect, the Bizarre:  
  This demo wins the prize for single most bizarre game ever played in by me.  It resembled listening to 
  a bunch of really drunk people trying to tell a story, structured like reading a Dick and Jane book.  
  It made no sense, it didn t need to make any sense.  Its was just bizarre, almost surreal.  
  
  Universalis games sometimes get silly.  Often this is because players are nervous at the amount of 
  power they have over the story.  They re anxious that they might screw the story up so their first 
  inclination is often to retreat into silly humor.  Its ok if your friends laugh at you when you re doing silly 
  humor.  Its not okay if they laugh at you when you re trying to be seriously dramatic.  So being silly is 
  much safer.  Usually this wears off after a couple of games and a little bit of practice.  The players 
  realize they aren t going to screw anything up and can actually tell a good story themselves.  
  Other times the game gets silly simply because its time to be a little silly.  Maybe its late, everyone is 
  tired, but no one wants to break up the session just yet.  Maybe everyone just has a case of the 
  giggles..  Whatever the reason, Universalis is a fine game to play when you re just in the mood for 
  something ridiculous.  You re not "ruining" a GM s carefully planned scenario by being silly.  There is 
  no prep time being squandered.  Just pick up some Coins and let the free association start flowing.  
  It won t be high drama, but it can be strangely cathartic.  
  ---Ralph Mazza  
  
  Zombies in Vegas 
  GenCon 2004 Demo 
  Games of Universalis will often wind up dragging in a fair number of cross genre elements.  We ve 
  seen zombie westerns, zombies in space, even zombie ninjas (yes, ninja with an "s", its somehow 
  more appropriate that way).  This group wasn t messing around.  The very first Tenet out of the gate 
  was one word, "Zombies". 
  The Tenet phase informed us that this game would involve zombies, Las Vegas, a brothel, an ancient 
  curse on the city, a bus load of convicts, and of course...the King. 
   
  The first scene begins on a dark highway.  The convicts have just taken control of the bus when they 
  stop to pick up a lone hitch hiker in a white sequined jump suit.  Its the King.  He needs a ride.  He 
  suggests stopping off at a great place he knows on the way where the girls are all clean and real 
  friendly.  
  When the bus arrives at the brothel they see a big sign that says "No Elvises allowed".  The convicts 
  demand to know why, they re all down with the King.   
  The madam explains about an ancient curse that lays on the city.  Many centuries ago an evil tribal 
  shaman put a curse on a kingdom that used to be located here so that the people s king  would turn 
  into a zombie.  The curse had laid dormant ever since that ancient kingdom collapsed.  But now it has 
  become active and is once again turning the people s king into  zombies.  There s since been a rash 
  of undead Elvis impersonators plaguing Vegas.    
  Jack Quick the New York Pimp don t wanna mess with no zombies.  He s all for getting back on the 
  bus, leaving off Elvis right here and high tailing it out of the state in a hurry.  But the rest of the convicts 
  overrule him.  After all, the girls are clean and friendly and Elvis offered to pay for everyone, he really 
  is the King. 
  As the convicts all make their way into the brothel, we see one lone convict still on the bus.  Carl the 
  Cannibal locked in a cage.  Even his fellow convicts weren t about to let him out.  Carl coughs up a 
  paper clip, opens the door to his cage and makes his way alone down the dark highway. 
   
  Inside the brothel the girls really are clean and friendly and soon the convicts have all dispersed to 
  private rooms.  Jack the Quick is being hit on by a girl named Cinnamon.  But Jack is totally smitten.  
  Its not just about a "Quick" roll any more.  This is the girl he s always dreamed of.  So while the rest of 
  the convicts are off getting busy, Jack is talking too much, and Cinnamon is getting bored.  
  Suddenly, Jack sees Elvis down the hall.  He is leaving one of the girl s rooms.  He is covered in gore 
  and shambling slightly as he crosses the hall and enters another room. 
  Now we discover that the Elvis hitch hiker really was hit by the curse.  It also happens that in the close 
  quarters of the bus ride, all of the other convicts were infected too, and they re all starting to turn into 
  zombies. 
  The hookers are ready for them.  This has happened before and they all have guns and weapons 
  nearby.   
  Jack screams like a girl. 
  When Zombie Elvis enters the room across the hall he catches  a shot gun blast to the head from the 
  girl inside.  The convict in bed with her promptly chews her throat out.  There s a huge gun fight.  
  Bullets fly everywhere.  The brothel is all shot to hell.   Jack screams like a girl. 
  
  Cinnamon draws a big ass pistol from her purse and begins blasting away.  Blood and gore fly 
  everywhere.  Jack screams like a girl. 
  Jack grabs Cinnamon and knocks the gun away.  He s turning into a Zombie too.  He gnaws 
  Cinnamon s leg off at the thigh.  Cinnamon is loosing buckets of blood but manages to get to her gun 
  and blow Jack s head off. 
  Jack dies screaming like a girl. 
  Finally the last of the zombie convicts are put down. 
   
  Alone in the night Carl the Cannibal is walking down the dark highway.  He starts to shamble.  
  The end. 
    
  Featured Effect, Big Complications:  
  Of course the big fight at the end was one giant complication.  The major Components were Zombie 
  Elvis, the Zombie Convicts as a single group Component, Cinnamon the bad ass hooker, and the 
  brothel prostitutes as a single group Component.   
  Interestingly one player wound up in control of Cinnamon and the Convicts while another wound up in 
  Control of Elvis and the prostitutes.  We decided to use a the alternative dice pool method that lets 
  each player keep and roll their own Dice Pool.  Thus we wound up with the above 4 main pools plus 
  each of the other players had a small pool of their own.  
  In the end, the Prostitutes won.  Interestingly, the same player who was spending Coins for Cinnamon 
  would later be also spending Coin for the Convicts; and the same player who was spending Coins for 
  the Prostitutes would also be spending Coins for Zombie Elvis.  
  It appeared like a hugely confusing tangle at first, but by carefully keeping each pool separate, 
  remembering which Components went into which pool, and then narrating each pool one at a time in 
  the proper order, the whole Complication got narrated out quite nicely.  
  ---Ralph Mazza  
  
   
   
  
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