When you
ask the OP to explain Urban Shadows
Urban Shadows is a dark urban fantasy RPG that is "powered by the Apocalypse", meaning it is based on the engine for Apocalypse World, by Vincent Baker, the designer of Dogs in the Vineyard and Mechaton Zero. Apocalypse world was made with the OGL, and so other designers picked up the torch and have turned it into some really cool things, such as this here Urban Shadows, the dungeon crawling
Dungeon World, and the Teen Monster Drama RPG
Monster World.
RIGHT HERE is pdf with all the Basic Moves needed for the game.
Their use is fairly simple--do what you want your character to do, and it may or may not trigger a move. The fiction comes first, however. What this means is that the
how of something is very important, because the fiction itself can determine that you land your hit without the need to roll, or that you fail simply because you try and shoot someone who is impervious to bullets! And at the same time, something you want to do may trigger a Move that isn't necessarily beneficial.
You perform the moves by Rolling 2d6 and then adding the appropriate stat. So, if your Blood was 2, and you
Unleashed on someone, you'd roll 2d6+2. On a 10+ you've got a complete success, and a 7-9 you're facing a partial success, and anything below a 6 is.. well, its not necessarily a failure, but its a bad time. You might still succeed at what you were trying to do, but its going to hurt.
Different from Dungeon World or Monster Hearts or Apocalypse World are two major things: Factions, and Corruption.
Faction is what you know and understand about a given faction. It also is how you "level up" in Urban Shadows. As you interact with the various groups and races, you'll naturally increase your Faction rating with them. Once you have at least a single point each of the 4 factions, you can Advance, and then erase all marks for all Factions--basically, things change, and you don't have a bead on the current situation anymore. This can create a decision point, where you have to choose between a strong connection to factions which you can use to your advantage, or getting personally more powerful.
A note that Factions are not the individual supernatural powers or alliances. Night encompasses both Werewolves
and Vampires, but that doesn't mean they get along, simply that they are connected.
and
Corruption. There are various Moves in Urban Shadows that allow or force you to take Corruption in return for a boost. After every 5 points of Corruption, you then take a Corruption Move, which gives you a new way to gain power as well as tempting you toward more Corruption. And then, lastly, after you've gained a total of 25 Corruption, your character is lost to darkness, likely to become a Threat that the players will eventually have to face.
When you
join a game of Urban Shadows.
To sign up,
!signup. Looking for 4-5 players.
And then
DOWNLOAD THIS PDF with the various archetypes. (Note that the character names/descriptions are just options. Feel free to pick your own.)
Here's a quick rundown of whats inside:
Mortality: The Aware, The Hunter, The Veteran
Wild: The Fae, The Tainted
Power: The Immortal, The Oracle, The Wizard
Night: The Spectre, The Vampire, The Wolf
Skip the part where you assign Debts, as we'll be doing that together in-thread. Still give it some thought though, especially as you're reading through everyone elses characters!
When you
ask what the campaign is about
I don't know yet! I've got some ideas, but the Apocalypse World engine is based very much on "first sessions" not having an actual plot, so I'm going to go with that. How you build your characters, how you assign your Debts, and how your "Start of Session" rolls go are going to determine how this plays out.
Over all though, this is a dark urban fantasy game, and we're going to be using a made-up city that we're going to build as we go.
When you make your character, pick one of these questions to answer:
* What is the name of this city? Does it have any special meaning? Does it have a nick-name? Does that nick-name have any special meaning?
* The city has a rather impressive landmark. What is it? What's some of its history?
* What is the overall condition of the city? Is it falling apart like Modern Detroit? An aging East Coast-style city? A thriving metropolis?
* What is the city most known for?
* What's the worst area of the city known as? What's the nicest part of town? Who controls each?
When you
have another question
Just ask! There's going to be a bit of improv here, as you'll notice that the Archetypes will refer to XP, which actually doesn't exist anymore. In stead, with anything that says "Mark XP" you'll just be "Mark any Faction" for now until they post the new Archetype sheets. But other issues may pop up, so don't be afraid to ask a question so we can work it all out.
I'm not limiting the number of people that can be each type of character, so we can end up with 2 Hunters or 3 Werewolves or whatever--that one random Vampire in the midst of a bunch of Immortals will make for an interesting story!
Posts
The system is really simple. I've taught an 8-year old to play Dungeon World.
Edit: I realized that the OP was missing an important bit for the uninitiated!
That's basically the whole system in a nutshell.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
@OptimusZed Download this PDF (also linked in the op) and that'll have all the archetypes along with a step by step process of making a character of that archetype.
Each one is going to have different starting stats and abilities.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
No worries! I popped back and made it more obvious. The link was kind of buried in a sentence.
so many good choices.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Pretty much how it works. You can take a look at my Dungeon World game to see how their characters are formatted as well, as they're built pretty similarly.
The major aspects are the same, in how Moves work and such. Difference would be small things that shouldn't really cause any confusion if you know one system.
Paranoid Male Caucasian in Inconspicuous Clothing
Blood 1, Heart 1, Mind 2, Spirit -1
Mortality 1 Night 1 Power 1 Wild -1
Tony Flint is a small-time gambler in WAY over his head ever since that night. He's
a native of the town in question, learned about the Supernatural on that same night,
and desperately needs to keep alive in a world that's even scarier than he thought.
The city is worth saving because Tony thinks it's beautiful, in spite of it all, and
if a guy like him thinks something's beautiful, it must be.
Tony's got a beretta. It makes him feel a little safer.
Tony is a Hard-Boiled Snoop who Knows Some Guys.
Chad Greenleaf, Ivy League Dropout Werewolf
A part-time drug dealer with 67 credits toward a BA in Business at a prestigious school, who turns into a wolf at night.
How long have you been here?:
I grew up here. Well, not here, the nice part of town.
Why do you like being a werewolf?:
There's something great about being completely cut off from human responsibility, if only for a night.
Who is trying to save you?:
My family, but most of them are kind of happy I'm gone. There's also this girl from school, Cheryl. She thinks we dated, and that I dropped out because I was depressed.
What do I desperately need?:
To know what happened on that camping trip, and why I'm a werewolf. Also some way to avoid killing all the dudes left in my frat so I can go back to school.
Debt:
I Owe:
Tony 2 Debt for fucking up that thing at the poker game where I killed Simon.
Simon 1 Debt for that time I killed him.
Cassandra 1 Debt because I've been dropping in and kind of creeping on her since I found out we're the same and I sometimes bring the cops with me accidently.
Jessica 2 Debts for keeping me and my frat brothers from mysterious forces.
I Am Owed:
2 Debts from Cassandra because she got me into this mess (though I'm not aware of how true that is).
Male Caucasian in Worn College Clothes
Demeanor:
Volatile
Stats:
Blood 2
Heart -1
Mind 0
Spirit 2
Factions:
Mortality 1
Night 1
Power 0
Wild 1
Gear:
Transformation:
Wolf Moves:
Delinquent: When I get hassled by the law, I get some Faction.
Nose For Trouble: Roll Blood at the start of a session. 7+ gain one hold, 10+ gain 2. Use hold to show up when someone I care about is in trouble.
Chad spends his most of his nights in Silvermist Park, the largest municipal wildlife refuge in the country, and hotspot for supernatural activity, particularly among the Wild. Rumors persist that the park conceals a number of places that were sacred to the local native population. In the early days of the city, the eccentric old patriarch of the Rockwell family built six observatory towers around the park, for reasons no on is quite sure of.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Any chance Chad owes Tony money? I feel like Chad owes Tony money.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Are we supposed to have 1 debt per person or are we all not going to have any special Debt relation to anyone?
Also note that I'm fine if you come up with a better idea for a Debt to replace one of your pre-existing ones.
Cassandra "Cassie" McMasters
look: caucasian female, baggy clothing
demeanor: Excitable
blood 3, heart -1, mind 0, spirit 1
mortality 0, night 1, power 0, wild 2
gear
duffel bag of shit, burner phone, baseball bat, beretta
moves
Nose for Trouble
Blood Hound
The Transformation
3 harm
2 armor
I change every night
I battle as a group
Silver bypasses my armor
Have to Keep My Cool or declare a hunt
Who are you?
Cassie, English Major and TA by day, someone who likes to "cut loose" by night. I bit Chad, but fuck if I'm ever gonna tell him that, let him keep wondering! It's more fun that way.
How long have you been in town?
I grew up in a small town about a half hour east, so I've been around the area since I can remember. The McMasters are one of those big-fish-small-pond families that own half the town and I'm in the big city to get away from that.
What's the best part about the change?
There's nothing like the power. Fur, fangs, claws, plunging deep into the brush and running down your prey, leaping onto them and sinking your teeth... er.
Who is trying to save you?
Tony. He thinks I've got a good heart but I'm not so sure about that. I can fake it, sometimes, but that bloodlust is always there.
What do you desperately need?
Validation and friends. A way to permanently get my family off my back.
Because I looked at that and decided against it because I had no clue.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
that being said, if the group vs nongroup stuff is crummy i might change it to Reckless
I went Full Noir, guys. You never go Full Noir!
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.