An Unknown Armies sourcebook
Greg Stoltze, John Tynes, et al.
Atlas Games
126 pgs., color cover, b&w artwork
19.95$
****

A concept central to the occult underground, the main background of Unknown Armies, is that of the Sleeping Tiger. People – normal people, that is – generally react badly to magic; history is full of examples of the persecution of perceived magicians. The public, then, is seen as a tiger – but a sleeping one, since most people do not actively believe in magic. Yet magicians – adepts, to use the UA terms – are unbalanced, obsessive sorts, who often create spectacular effects in public.

Then the tiger awakens, and people – both adepts and innocents – get hurt. The Sleepers are there to prevent that.

Hush Hush is the second UA sourcebook dedicated to the various cabals (the first one was Lawyers, Guns and Money, dealing with The New Inquisition), and it keeps the high level of quality that became a standard for Unknown Armies products.

The sourcebook details the history of the Sleepers, their modus operandi, their equipment, and some of their personnel. The NPCs are excellently crafted and written – especially haunting is The Black Dog – and the book contains several "witness reports" of Sleepers operations, which are very well written; these are short fiction pieces, and they manage to send the message "don't mess with us" very clearly, while leaving the Sleepers a mystery. This is a good example of how the outside world sees them – when it does, which isn't all that often.

The sourcebook is designed so that the GM may use the Sleepers either as the villains (and they make excellent villains) or as the protagonists. Naturally, much more space is dedicated to the "Sleepers as PCs" option.

The concept of the Sleeping Tiger and the consequences of its awakening are described well, in a chapter by Ken Hite. A short chapter deals with equipment, from guns to animal repellent. Much is written about the Cabinet, the group which controls the Sleepers – not people you want to meet. The book closes with a number of plot seeds, the best of them being Eat It All, which has a truly shocking twist.

In a way, the Sleepers are the "Delta Green" of the Unknown Armies setting, which many people who don't like the short life spans of the investigators of the Cthulhu Mythos may find more to their tastes. This is hardly surprising, as both John Tynes and Greg Stoltze wrote material for Delta Green. Me, I'd rather use the Sleepers as villains (as I did in my late, lamented Unknown Armies campaign).

I have two problems with this product, which lowered its rating to 4. First, Ms. Angela Forsythe. She is the daughter of the alleged creator of the Sleepers, she was on intimate terms with the real creator, her name appears all over the sourcebook, and she is the main Sleeper NPC in the Unknown Armies rulebook – yet her position is not defined, or, for that matter, mentioned clearly. Second, too much space was dedicated to the description of the dwelling places of the Cabinet members. This gives a taste of dungeon crawling, which is highly inappropriate. Third, and most annoying, are the many references to Post Modern Magick. I like the sourcebook, I think it's essential UA material, but I don't think that buyers of Hush Hush should get the feeling that they have to own Post Modern Magick to enjoy Hush Hush. This has been a major problem, for me, with Deadlands products, which seem to communicate with another. Let's just hope this doesn't become a trend.

These reservations aside, Hush Hush is yet another excellent product. I hope Atlas will continue to print group sourcebooks; I would very much like to see a take on the True Order of St. Germain…