Post by Sakuro111 in System Unknown comments

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When I read the premise of System Unknown I instantly wanted to play it. Solo game. You get to play as a villain. Science fiction setting. The dark art (its so good and immersive). All of that held big appeal to me.

System Unknown isn't the greatest game of all time, but it is great at what I feel it sets out to do: guide you along a narrative of dark imperialism with a beginning, middle, and end. It isn't a sandbox. But your choices and play style still matter.

System Unknown isn't a game system like Powered by the Apocalypse. This game reminded me of when I was a kid playing gamebooks like Lone Wolf and Way of the Tiger. Except I got to play the character I really wanted to play: the bad guy.

This game really shoves the evils of imperialistic expansion in your face. There can be some heavy emotions, if you get into the roleplay and invest yourself in it. Dark, evil stuff. It doesn't have gory, graphic detail, but it's there.

I can see potential for replayability. There are multiple character/archtypes you can choose from, multiple patron factions to support, and a variate of randomness. That said, while I enjoyed System Unknown a lot, I'm not likely to play through it again without a pallet cleanser. The secret objectives, too, add an "achievement hunter" element to the game, for people that are interested in that or want to spice tings up.

Speaking of secret objectives, accomplishing your secret objective can completely change up your play style. When I saw that my warrior general style character was going to get his martial prowess completely nerfed and his spiritual side ramped up due to consequences and rewards, I decided to make a judgment call and set aside the secret objective so I could keep the play style I wanted for my game.

My advice to people playing the game is to lean into your character's personality traits and quirks when making decisions. Their skillsets reinforce their personalities.

For MindGame, if you're reading this, first, thank you for the experience. I enjoyed your game. I also have a question: During character creation do you start with 1 in your Skills and Character/Chosen Sub-skills? There are some checks that can happen before you allocate points at the end of episode one.

For anyone curious about my play through/ending: By Fire and Iron. My character was an an Invincible and Ruthless Trailblazer.

Mindgame146 days ago

Thank you so much for your incredibly thoughtful and insightful post. I’m Watcher, the creator behind System Unknown—hearing directly from someone who took the time to play, reflect, and write about the experience means the world.

Your feedback is both valuable and genuinely encouraging. Reading your impressions—what resonated, what challenged you, and what stuck—helps me better understand how the game lands in practice, both narratively and mechanically. Thank you.

To answer your question about Skills and Sub-skills during character creation: You can start with either 0 or 1 in your Skills and Character/Chosen Sub-skills. Starting with 0 means you’ll have no modifiers during episode one, making your early rolls raw and unmodified—so a D6 result of 4 stays a 4. This makes the first episode a bit tougher, emphasizing a kind of "prove yourself" arc. But if you'd prefer to start with a 1 to ease into the mechanics, that's also perfectly valid. I encourage players to shape the system to fit their desired experience.

Also—I absolutely loved your epilogue. Your Ruthless Trailblazer sounds like they walked the line between belief and brutality in a way that’s very much in the spirit of the setting. Genuinely, I could see them as a canonical figure within the larger narrative world System Unknown belongs to.

Thanks again for playing and for sharing your journey. It’s the kind of interaction that makes all the work worthwhile.

– Watcher, Mindgame

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