I got my first taste of Feng Shui about a week ago. Like OTE, I thought there was a lot to digest. Today, I picked up Unknown Armies and my head hurts. There's so much there! It looks great, I want to play, but information overload!
Any advice for newbies?
Chuck
I've just started a short UA micro-campaign to refresh myself on the rules and setting, and, after getting underway a bit, I gotta agree — there's a lotta lotta information.
My best advice is to pick out just two or three occult facets of the setting that interest you (The New Inquisition and concept of pornomancy, say) and narrow your entire play world to just those things. Forbid your players from starting with magic of any kind. Do initial plots that revolve around regular human motivations — revenge, greed, etc. — rather than bizarre supernatural ones. Run generally mundane adventures to start, and slowly blow your players' minds with each new bit of the supernatural that you introduce. And keep in mind that even hardcore UA vets don't use everything UA has to offer in the same game!
I found that the adventure/campaign creation sections in UA2 were pretty well written, and included good advice. (See "Content" and "Plotlines" on pages 269-273, especially.)
Let us know how it goes!