Previous Topics
In Universalis

12/15/2003 Caynreth: How many players?
I got my copy of Universalis on Saturday and want to try it first time on our school-gaming-day. My question for some experienced players: How many players would you suggest…
In Universalis
Participants: Caynreth, Bob McNamee, Mike Holmes.

12/15/2003 inthisstyle: First Game and Few Questions
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…
In Universalis
Participants: inthisstyle, Mike Holmes, Bob McNamee.

12/9/2003 Christopher Weeks: Scene definition and division
Hi all, Over at The Universalis Arena we have a scene where there might be a lull in the action, but there might be more action to happen in a…
In Universalis
Participants: Christopher Weeks, Mike Holmes, Bob McNamee, Valamir.

11/27/2003 Bob McNamee: Wiki Actual Play
Just a note to folks who might be interested in the Universalis Arena Wiki-based game. We've moved into 'World building' phase, creating a few components prior to scene play. From…
In Universalis
Participants: Bob McNamee, hix, Christopher Weeks, Mike Holmes, Valamir, ScottM, kwill.

12/3/2003 Andy Kitkowski: Universalis Challenge: Make it into another RPG's "Pre
Hey, all! This post is prompted by Ralph's Rant and follow up thread at RPGNet. Basically, my challenge (a "question", really) is this, in two parts: 1) Say you're playing…
In Universalis
Participants: Andy Kitkowski, Mike Holmes, Christopher Weeks, Grimbot, Bob McNamee, Valamir, GreatWolf.

11/17/2003 Kenway: Ending Plot Pools with a bang!
This is a suggestion to the "Plot Pools" narration addon from: http://universalis.actionroll.com/narration.htm After the Plot Pool reaches zero, when a Complication arises, a player involved may announce "X Plot will…
In Universalis
Participants: Kenway.

11/15/2003 Christopher Weeks: Announcement: The Universalis Arena is opening
Hello, If you've kept up with the Play by post/email thread, you might already know this. But if not... The Universalis Arena is a new game of Universalis in a…
In Universalis
Participants: Christopher Weeks.

11/14/2003 Christopher Weeks: tenet breadth?
Hi all, I'd be interested to hear what people think appropriate tenet breadth/size/coverage is. Or is it just one of those things that a play group will define through challenge?…
In Universalis
Participants: Christopher Weeks, Valamir, Mike Holmes.

11/13/2003 GreatWolf: Reincorporation
When I read this article in the Daedalus ezine, I thought of Universalis. The article is quite helpful in general, but I particularly appreciated his discussion of reincorporation. But it…
In Universalis
Participants: GreatWolf, pete_darby.

11/13/2003 Brassel: Master-Components are coin generators
Yesterday we had some high-fantasy-game with armies of creatures making war to each other. Everything worked out just fine, with one exception: In a small skirmish (20 v. 20) we…
In Universalis
Participants: Brassel, Christopher Weeks, Tony Irwin, Bob McNamee, Valamir, Mike Holmes.

11/11/2003 Borogove: Universalis for Two?
Is it worth trying to play Universalis as a two-player game? Anyone have first-hand experience? I haven't successfully done any RPGing for years. Universalis looks like it could be really…
In Universalis
Participants: Borogove, hix, Tony Irwin, Bob McNamee, Brassel.

11/10/2003 dragon_of_colour: Our Second Game
[i]Here is my posting of our game on saturday last. Overall we had a good time, and made definite improvements on our first attempt two weeks ago. We decided to…
In Universalis
Participants: dragon_of_colour, Valamir, Mike Holmes, Fenris_, Bob McNamee, kwill, magependragon, Christopher Weeks.

11/7/2003 hix: Kickers in the Tenets
Reading 'The Pregnant Pope' and thinking about my two games of Uni so far, I've found that there's always a Tenet that defined and focused the story we were about…
In Universalis
Participants: hix.

10/31/2003 Brassel: Challenge during Resolution of Complication?
We just played our first universal story, and boy, we had some fun! There'll be a sequel soon, I'm sure. We found the rules to be very well understandable and…
In Universalis
Participants: Brassel, Valamir, Mike Holmes.

10/31/2003 dragon_of_colour: Our first game
Hello all, Tried out Uni for the first time last weekend. Our first game was really a hit-and-miss affair, but we had fun and hammered out the rules between us.…
In Universalis
Participants: dragon_of_colour, Valamir, Mike Holmes, Bob McNamee, Brian Leybourne.

10/31/2003 Grimbot: World Design
I just got my book and I'm really looking forward to starting up my first session. After a few practice sessions I think I'm going to try to get my…
In Universalis
Participants: Grimbot, Valamir, GreatWolf.

10/22/2003 Christopher Weeks: Play by post/email?
Hi all, Has anyone played Universalis by post or email? If so, how did you handle laying out narration so that interruption could happen? What other concerns does such a…
In Universalis
Participants: Christopher Weeks, Mike Holmes, hix, Bob McNamee, Valamir, ScottM, Trevis Martin.

10/21/2003 hix: Actual Play: A Russian Fairytale
We recently played a five session game of Universalis. Fun, competitive behaviour, stretching the rules, despair, elation and more fun. I experimented with a bunch of different strategies throughout the…
In Universalis
Participants: hix, Valamir, Mike Holmes.

10/10/2003 LordSmerf: A question on setting up complications...
Mike, Rapl, or both of you... I'm fairly new to the game, but last night a question was raised. When does a Complication begin and what can be narrated prior…
In Universalis
Participants: LordSmerf, Mike Holmes, Valamir, Mulciber, dragon_of_colour.

10/7/2003 Christopher Weeks: My first game.
We just played on IRC and it was really cool. I'm psyched! You just can't go wrong with music magic, biomechanical fish, and Kraken combat! You can catch the details…
In Universalis
Participants: Christopher Weeks, Mike Holmes.

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Subsequent Topics
In Universalis

12/23/2003 Caynreth: Reducing or restoring importance?
After my first game of Universalis I have one question regarding Importance. On p. 30 (grey box: actions you can do only on your turn) one option is to 'reduce…
In Universalis
Participants: Caynreth, Valamir, Lxndr, Christopher Weeks, Mike Holmes.

1/8/2004 kwill: uni larp creation *and* play
I obviously have LARP synergy on the brain, anyway, here's an idea for a creation-then-play framework for LARPing... the LARP players get together for a game of uni with the…
In Universalis
Participants: kwill, Mike Holmes.

1/16/2004 motherlessgoose: Existing setting in Universalis
I just recently got my copy of Universalis and have read through the rules. One question that has come up is: How can I use existing settings/characters/creatures in universalis? Do…
In Universalis
Participants: motherlessgoose, Valamir.

1/16/2004 motherlessgoose: newbie question
As a newbie to universalis, it sounds like there is a lot of record keeping involved. I know about the rule: If something is important enough to write down, then…
In Universalis
Participants: motherlessgoose, Christopher Weeks, Valamir, Bob McNamee, RaconteurX, Mike Holmes.

1/16/2004 Brian Leybourne: Book Arrived
Just a quick note to say that my book arrived and in good condition. I've completed one read through. Some questions are bubbling away already, but I'll wait until another…
In Universalis
Participants: Brian Leybourne, Christopher Weeks.

1/30/2004 Dave Versace: [Actual 'Play'] Worldbuilding using Uni
Since it's been a bit quiet here lately, and since I *finally* got the weekly group back together after a long hiatus (which commenced when the most enthusiastic player left…
In Universalis
Participants: Dave Versace, Valamir, RaconteurX, Mike Holmes.

1/30/2004 Christopher Weeks: The absolute best part of playing Universalis
There is this moment in time. An agonizing moment stretched into an eternity when all you can do is wait and watch. When everything is going to shit and you're…
In Universalis
Participants: Christopher Weeks, Valamir, ScottM.

2/1/2004 John Harper: The UniPool -- It's Universalis! It's The Pool! It's both!
I started this thread over in the Random Order Creations forum, but I figure it's just as applicable here. If any Uni folks wanna jump in, here it is: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=9558…
In Universalis
Participants: John Harper.

3/13/2004 ScottM: Game framing, particularly by Wiki
The original Universalis Arena game ran out of steam. Currently we're working on planning out the framework for the next game-- the last wasn't a failure by any means, other…
In Universalis
Participants: ScottM, kwill, Christopher Weeks, Mike Holmes.

3/24/2004 kwill: two player universalis: like tennis
just finished a short session of universalis that dropped from three to two players right at the beginning I found a very different dynamic with two players than the usual…
In Universalis
Participants: kwill, Valamir.

3/31/2004 kwill: single versus sets of gimmicks
what is the difference between adding a single rules gimmick and an set of rules gimmicks? I'm assuming it's dependent on the playgroup as to the cost (hmmm... so you…
In Universalis
Participants: kwill, Christopher Weeks, Mike Holmes.

3/31/2004 kwill: universalis drinking game
based on a very quick discussion after our recent game where templates were abused horribly (Vampires had Martial Arts, Super Strength, Something Else and would Die If Burnt (otherwise immortal),…
In Universalis
Participants: kwill, Valamir, Tony Irwin, komradebob.

4/2/2004 Valamir: Minimilist Trait use
Split from Universalis Drinking Game Second follow up question: Has anyone run into problems in games due to minimalist play style issues for some things with rather more expanded descriptions…
In Universalis
Participants: Valamir, Bob McNamee, komradebob, Christopher Weeks.

4/3/2004 komradebob: Anybody experimented with a GM add-on?
I'm really new to Uni, and come from a more oldfashioned GM+Players style of play. I bought a copy of Uni because I wanted to see how a more open…
In Universalis
Participants: komradebob, Bob McNamee, kwill, Lxndr, Christopher Weeks, Mike Holmes.

4/10/2004 Bob McNamee: Universalis Arena 2- Shards are Building- regular Play soon!
We are rapidly developing some cool Shards for the multiverse jumping City of Hope to visit! Shard list http://www.anvilwerks.com/index.php/TUA2/Shards Overarching Tenets http://www.anvilwerks.com/index.php/TUA2/FrameworkTenets Home page for Universalis Arena II http://www.anvilwerks.com/index.php/TUA2/HomePage We…
In Universalis
Participants: Bob McNamee.

4/12/2004 komradebob: Approaches to assigning Traits
For game purposes regarding complications, are these two following things the same?: 1) Werewolf Pack and 2) Werewolf Pack Enraged, Eco-Terrorist, Lycanthropes I'm assuming there are no Master Components…
In Universalis
Participants: komradebob, Christopher Weeks, Valamir, kwill, Mike Holmes.

4/12/2004 komradebob: Minimalism,color, and Pre-existing Settings
Basically, I want to use Uni as my primary system. I want to use it with settings from other games (Primarily Jorune). Now, I've already seen some discussions of bringing…
In Universalis
Participants: komradebob, Mike Holmes, kwill.

4/12/2004 komradebob: Has anyone "opensourced" a premade adventure produ
Here is what I mean by open sourced: A group of players takes a product (adventure/module) for a game, but instead of playing it with an old school players +…
In Universalis
Participants: komradebob, Mike Holmes.

4/12/2004 komradebob: Experiences w/newgamers vs.oldgamers and Uni
HI I'm looking to introduce Uni to some folks, most of which have little RPG background. I'd also like to introduce the system to some old gamer hands, folks that…
In Universalis
Participants: komradebob, Mike Holmes, kwill, Tony Irwin, Valamir.

4/12/2004 Emiricol: Uni and kids?
Hi, just curious - how appropriate would Universalis be, possibly simplified, as a tool for storytelling with children? Say, 7 years, and then junior high/high school age. I haven't seen…
In Universalis
Participants: Emiricol, Christopher Weeks, Mike Holmes.

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