Hi all 🙂
I’m running my first session a bit under 24 hours from now.
One player asked about the PCs and if the are allowed to be friends and are in a party.
Our *World experience is mainly Dungeon World and a little Monsterhearts.
I get the impression PCs in Urban Shadows are indebted to each other but may not have any other real connections. Is that the intent? Are they likely to stick together for scenes or split up more? What makes them a group of PCs rather than just four separate people with separate interests? Is it just the debts?
Any help on this aspect and handling the PC relationships and interactions would be appreciated.
Cheers.
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This is mostly a group/archetype decision. I’ve seen casts of characters who rarely interact because they have a lot of their own things on the go and are happy to be that way.
Most groups tend to weave their stories together though, if the Immortal has a mystery he needs solving, he’ll ask the Aware for help with it, that kind ff thing. The Debts tie the characters together both in back story and in favours owed, which is usually enough to get them to lean on each other when they need to.
If your group really wants to push the ‘us vs. them’ mentality, give them some really nasty Threats to deal with that will require them to band together to confront. 🙂
Also, thank you so much for running!
The debts are a way to create relationships in Urban Shadows (my apologies if you already know this part). The PCs can be “friends” or at very least aware of each other’s existence in the city. The same is true of PC inspired/created NPCs. Want a coven of witches? Use one of your debts during character creation to add the coven leader to the group. 🙂 The amount of structure regarding player input into a city or setting is up to the specific group at that specific time. One of my intended games will be set in the world of Pagan Publishing’s Delta Green which has an interesting list of NPCs including several avatars of Nyalarthotep. I wouldn’t have a problem adding some other important NPCs but would also make DG’s NPCs potential allies or enemies for the PCs to have debts with.
In the games that I’ve played my characters have had relationships with most of the other PCs and some have NOT been positive. Most games have a better flow if the characters are more positively aligned to one another but they need to at least be aware of each other.
“How do you know PC character X?” Is one of the best leading questions in *World games and it works.
Offering debts in exchange for things (Information, equipment, muscle) is an EmCee’s prerogative for dealing out a soft move or a 7-9 hard choice on “Hitting the streets” or similar move made by the players. Calling in a debt for PC from an NPC is either a soft or hard move depending upon the EmCee’s mood and amount of threat surrounding the PCs. 🙂
I hope this answers your questions and provides a bit more insight into debts and how they relate to the characters in Urban Shadows.
Thanks everyone! Yep, I think that answers my questions. And I can see how their relationships would differ depending on what factions the PCs are a part of, what debts are in play, and so on.
I’m looking forward to running in. Thanks for the help.