Editing Unknown Armies (section)

== The Character Sheet ==
=== Stats and Skills ===

There are four stats in Unknown Armies: Body, Speed, Mind and Soul. Within each stat is a list of relevant skills, some with a free 15% (such as Drive and General Education) and the  rest defined by the player. Skills measure your ability to perform the task under duress. Every stat has a rating of 1 to 99, and the points for each stat are distributed among its list of skills, each of which also gets a rating of 1 to 99. Depending on the "level" of the game (Street, Global, or Cosmic), you will get a certain number of points total to distribute and a bonus amount.

=== Obsession and Passions ===

Motivation is an important part of characters in Unknown Armies. Unlike in many systems, what ''drives'' your character is written right there on the sheet: your '''Obsession'''. The player chooses one skill that relates to his character's Obsession, and on any roll using this '''obsession skill''' he may choose to flip-flop the digits.

The character's Passions, which may or may not be related to his Obsession, are things that profoundly affect him in specific ways. Each character has a '''Rage''' stimulus, a '''Fear''' stimulus, and a '''Noble''' stimulus. Once per session, if one of your Passions is triggered, you may choose to reroll or flipflop a failed roll during that situation.

=== Stress Checks ===

It's hard to stay sane when you get involved with the occult underground. There are five categories of mental stress that can and will affect your character: Violence, the Unnatural, Helplessness, Isolation, and Self. Each stress can gain both '''hardened''' and '''failed''' notches; the former are "successes" that deaden you to the stress, and the latter are "failures" during which you panic, freeze, or frenzy. Every stress check has a rank, and if your hardened notches match or exceed the rank, you do not have to make a check.

As you gain more hardened notches in a stress, you become callous and less affected by it, but with a price. You begin to lose your grip on what is normal, and even highly stressful situations will not get to you. With two full hardened bars or a total of 35 hardened notches, you become a sociopath and can no longer access your Passions. On the other side, as you gain more failed notches in a stress, you become increasingly paranoid or sensitive to it. Once you have five full failed notches, you automatically act as if you had failed the roll.

It is possible to remove notches with psychological counseling, but it is difficult and time-consuming.