First Game and Few Questions

[Brennan Taylor]

OK, I had my first game of Universalis a couple of weeks ago, and we had a good session but I am a bit unclear on one aspect of the rules.

First, the game: four players, all brand new to the system. I was the only one who had read through the rules. Initial setup went well, with everyone grasping the Tenet concept pretty easily. We came up with a sort of steampunk world with anthropomorphic animals and a magic vs. technology tension, as well as an evil power attempting to take over the world.

Things started a bit slow as everyone grew used to the rules and got a feel for the value of the coins. Our first few scenes were pretty sparse on detail, and the characters had only one or two attributes given to them. As everybody grew more comfortable with the rules, it got a lot looser, and the final scene that was framed was brilliant--tons of tension, color, and excitement.

One of the things I think we did was try to drive the plot along too quickly and we didn't get enough description and detail in the scenes. I think this will probably be different when we play again, since now everyone is more comfortable with the rules.

Anyway, I do have a question that went somewhat unresolved during play. What does everyone do once a conflict begins? Can you add new attributes to the characters in the conflict after it has started? To me, the rules seemed to indicate not, but after reading some of the posts in the discussion here I am wondering if I'm incorrect.

[Mike Holmes]

One of the things I think we did was try to drive the plot along too quickly and we didn't get enough description and detail in the scenes. I think this will probably be different when we play again, since now everyone is more comfortable with the rules.

"Too quickly" is a matter of taste. One of the things that I like is that you can get an entire story player out in one evening if that's what you want. This may be too little detail for some people for this sort of game to fill out a story, but for others it's fine. Play to your own goals there.

The one potential problem is when you have a sort of shift in the spending and attitude mid-game. That is, if you spend a lot on stuff early on, and then try to get a story resolved, a lot of stuff ends up getting wasted. Still, that's not what your description sounds like, so I'm not seeing much of a problem other than maybe just wanting a longer story.

Anyway, I do have a question that went somewhat unresolved during play. What does everyone do once a conflict begins? Can you add new attributes to the characters in the conflict after it has started? To me, the rules seemed to indicate not, but after reading some of the posts in the discussion here I am wondering if I'm incorrect.

You can add new Traits during Complications. Some people play that this costs double, but it's entirely a taste issue. I wouldn't recommend playing with no ability to add Traits during Compolications, however. Complications are the most dramatic time that Traits can appear, IMO.

Mike

[Bob McNamee]

Page 66 "Traits newly purchased during the Complication can be drawn upon immediately."

You are generally restricted against adding traits to Components that you don't Control, except during resolution portion of a complication.

Half the fun of Uni can come from
James Bond activates his secret watch laser...
during a complication as a surpise.