Unknown Armies is a modern occult game that explicitly broke away from the traditions of earlier games like Call of Cthulhu and the World of Darkness, and created an occult underground for the modern world that was a heady mix of pop culture and postmodernism, similar to that found in novels by Tim Powers.

One of the central thematic elements of the setting, if not the core element, is the idea that humanity is responsible for their situation, at both the mundane and the cosmic levels. In comparison to the Cthulhu Mythos, where humanity is just fleas against the hide of the Outer Gods, in Unknown Armies, humanity controls their own destiny, for good or ill (usually ill). While there are inhuman monsters, they aren't in the driver's seat.

A grindhouse pornstar is.