My original intent for this entry was to go through each of the various Untold cards and explain how they work. However, I decided against doing this for two reasons. First, The website explains what the different cards are and how they work well enough. You can find all of this information here in the Untold Primer: http://untoldthegame.com/primer. Second, I do the same explanation at every Boost event and Con we go to, and it gets really old really fast. I mean, we were so popular at our first three cons, that we had to do extra demo's. And I did the same routine at the beginning of each demo. And with repeating the same thing over and over again, I began to have dreams about it. Anyways, you get the drift. I'll spare you the speech. So, this entry is going to be about how easy it is to customize your character to your own preferences in Untold.
In the past few years, the number of RPG's available has exploded. There are RPG's for just about every genre, setting, or world. However, few RPG's have the flexibility in character design that Untold has. Untold has a pretty general rule of thumb when it comes to character customization: Tell the story about why your character can do what they do. Why does your Klik use a L'na Fireball spell? How does your Highbred use a Klik Enigma Engine? Tell the story about why they can. It is as simple as that. There are no schools or fields your character must refer to in order to gain a new spell or ability.
Now this may sound like it allows the player to pretty much toss out the few rules Untold has and say "I can do whatever I want!" Well...it doesn't quite work like that. People are surprised that while they may have the ability to play any card they like, they need to keep in mind how much UP (Untold Points) they have at their disposal. Also, they will need to keep in mind what powers may be required for other abilities. For example, you may see the card "Mind Control" and decide you want that card. You've even got room in your Swap Buffer for it. However, you also need the "Investiture of Maoru" to use "Mind Control", so that will need to taken into consideration since you will need to spend UP on both. But don't let this discourage you! You can still use both cards, but if you're anything besides a L'na Twilight, you might need to give the GM a story as to why you can do this.
Not surprisingly, players are alarmed just as much as they are surprised at this feature of the game. Many players are somewhat off set when this aspect of Untold is presented to them. Many players aren't used to having so much say when it comes to the story telling aspect of this RPG. Despite what we tell people who first try out this game, we still get the question "Can I do this?" This is one of my favorite aspects of Untold. I've told countless people who demo this game that can they use their power the way they are wanting to IF they can tell me the story. At first, some people have difficulty with this. But after a few encounters and a little bit of play, they soon learn and are telling me stories I couldn't even have imagined.
So here we are. Untold shocks a lot of people when they first encounter it, but usually in a good way. Some people look at the flexibility of Untold and find it to chaotic and disorderly. But many see it for what it truly is, an outlet to give the player more room to develop their storytelling techniques and to develop their own unique character. Many people find this unbelievably refreshing.
Alright, so in my next entry, I'm going to tackle a little more of the nuts and bolts of character building.
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