Unknown Armies:Obsession

Your Obsession is how your player character links into the Occult Underground. He or she could be obsessed with anything, although Adepts are automatically obsessed with the world view that powers their Magick. Avatars do not necessarily have an obsession, although they can take one if appropriate.

Obsession Examples

Breaking & Entering. The violation of a person’s home is an expression of power and daring that pumps you up. The secrets you find inside are just the whipped topping on the dessert of intrusion.

Egyptian antiquities. You not only have a large personal collection and a degree in archaeology, you compulsively track current artistic and design trends looking for ancient-Egyptian influences.

Human motivation. You’re fascinated by what makes people stubborn, what makes them give in, what makes them love and hate different things.

Knowing it All. You want to accumulate all knowledge for yourself. You love the exchange of information, because you always wind up with more than you started with.

Music. To connect with people on a deep level, you use the sister languages of melody, harmony, and tempo. You see music as a bridge between our separate worlds.

Physical perfection. You diet, stretch out every morning and evening, lift weights three times a week, and try to run ten miles or swim sixty laps at least as often. If you don’t get your exercise, you can practically feel your body turning to putty.

Pleasure. You tried S&M, B&D, LSD, PCP, and XTC—and then you tried them all again, only this time on a water slide. Too much fun is never enough for you.

Religion. Your dedication to Roman Catholicism (or orthodox Judaism, or Zen Buddhism, or whatever you want) guides your every action and thought. You strive completely to live a Christ-like life (or to adhere to the laws of the Talmud, or to annihilate your ego, or...).

Shadows. You dwell in the margins, in both literal and metaphysical shadow. You lurk and you plot and you slip through society like a ghost.

Top Dog. You want to be the quintessential alpha, the leader of the pack. In every situation, you must be dominant.

Toughness. You are compelled to be the baddest mofo on the street. Guns, knives, bare fists—they’re all props, all part of the killer mystique you anxiously seek.

Adept Obsession Examples

(Bibliomancy) Self-help books. They are the alchemical texts of the postmodern era, their every sentence a recipe for transformation.

(Cliomancy) Conspiracies. You must learn the secret history behind history, and revel in the power it grants.

(Dipsomancy) Binging. Can you drink yourself so far down a hole that you actually emerge on some unglimpsed other side? Through force of will, you can transubstantiate a toxin into pure wisdom.

(Entropomancy) Vansurfing. There’s nothing like riding on top of a big smoking Ford right down the damn interstate. The ocean is just the ocean; the highway is a metaphor.

(Epideromancy) Blood Freedom. Your blood is your sixth sense. You must release it so that it may share in your experiences and take its secret knowledge into your heart.

(Mechanomancy) Eccentric Genius. You follow in the path of Tesla, a solitary explorer in the unknown future of human achievement. You do not seek to be understood—only respected.

(Narcotic Alchemy) Following the Dead. They stopped touring when Jerry died, but you’re beyond that now. You follow the true dead: souls and the wisdom they impart, the expanded reality you find in every blunt.

(Personamancy) Mental Armor. You have a vulnerable core of being that you must protect at all times. You rely on social and magickal masks to hide your injured, mewling soul from a long-buried nightmare.