I need some advice. I’m getting ready to run a game in a week with slightly different goals, can you help decide which rules to use or change?
The original idea was to run Mage: The Ascension. The game is about doing stuff in an Urban Fantasy setting, but it’s also about creative problem solving with an open-ended magic system. After considering my options, I felt like US is really close to what I want so I made an archetype for it. My group has played Urban Shadows before, but they prefer slightly more traditional rules, like Call of Cthulhu. Some of them think that US is “soft”
Normally, everyone in the group plays a Mage. There’s enough variety in the archetype for everyone to have unique skills, but I don’t currently have different intro questions.
Also, since the party will all be in one faction, I’m worried that the faction and debt system will feel forced. I’m also not sure I want the game to be too political.
What advice can you give me? Which rules would you change or tweak to support this? Do you think Urban Shadows as written will make for an interesting game or will I be fighting the system?
Thanks guys!
I would think that vanilla US requires that there be a lot of interplay and interaction between whatever you designate as factions with the PCs in the middle of it all. That would lead to a little bit of a political game, I’d think.
You could redefine the factions to fit your story, I think. If you are dealing with inter-Tradition politics, you might want to use the each of the Traditions as a separate faction. That might make advancement a pain, though. You could divide the Traditions up into four types of factions, either by type of magick, philosophy, or role in the city.
Alternatively, you could have wach player choose one of the standard US factions to be associated with and define those with WoD groups: being associated with Night means you have active connections with the Kindred, with Mortality means you have deal a lot with sleeper groups (or act as a protector of them), etc. Or you could align different tradition groups in the area with the US factions: maybe Night is the Hollow One underground or a Euthanatos group, or just all the spooky dark groups and subculture in the area, Wild is the local Verbana coven and the Cult of Xers, Power refers to the old school Order of Hermes mages, etc.
First of all – I doubt it will all be one faction
Mages generally interact with humans, and enforcing human, non-mage relationships is good idea for the game, same as with some of the supernatural creatures (as in my opinion, Mages are those in power to change and shape the existing order, and existing order means existing enforcers of that order and those who just live within it).
In my opinion if some of the groups do not make sense for you, gather with your group and try to define the factions of your game. It may be some internal factions – like traditions in MtA or even clans in your own single order of magic. Important is that the factions have to be core to the game and different.
Unless of course social dynamic is not your pie, and you want to get rid of it altogether, which may be better for some other game, since IMO Urban Shadows is heavily reliant on those social dynamics
Scott Hamilton I really like your idea to have the traditions belong to different factions. I’m working on it now. (See the work-in-progress in the google doc).
+Ганс АндроиA, yeah ok, it sounds like if I want to use Urban Shadows I should make sure and accept that social dynamics will be a big part of the game. Do you think Scott’s idea will work well?
How does this look?
TRADITION
You were adopted and trained by a group that approaches magic in a particular way, with its own beliefs and priorities. You belong to their faction. Choose one:
A coven of witches and druids (Wild)
dedicated to sacrifice and tooth-and-claw nature
A universal religion (Power)
dedicated to preparing the world for Ascension and unification with the divine.
A community of engineers and hackers (Mortality)
dedicated to fixing the world now by engineering the future
A consortium of mad scientists (Mortality)
dedicated to creation, discovery, and the betterment of humanity
An council of ancient wizards (Power)
dedicated to learning, and preservation of knowledge and power
A clique of underground goths (Night)
dedicated to mysteries and the dark things of the world
A cabal of demonologists (Wild)
dedicated to making deals with Fae and outsiders
A death cult (Night)
dedicated to the cycle of creation and destruction, reincarnation, and to killing that which deserves to die
An ancient order of martial artist monks (Power)
dedicated to balance and the middle way
A loose group of Rock-and-roll mystics (Mortality)
dedicated to individual freedom, pushing boundaries, and transcendence
A dwindling group of shamans (Power)
dedicated to healing the Earth’s scars
A lone cast-off (_______)
dedicated to _____________________
Also I changed one of the intro questions to: What does your tradition demand of you?