Hey guys, I’m glad to join this group. I’m writing a campaign divided in two main plots to play with some friends and found that US would be the perfect system to write it as it has all the key elements for the history I’m writing. Once we start playing I’ll add here how it worked and transcript how the story is going and how much mess the players have started hehe. But, as a new MC(second time in this role, first one was as a DM for D&D 3.5 some years ago and will be the first try with US for everyone in the group, including myself) I have close to no experience in this role and I’m in need of some perspectives for each archetype, as I played mostly D&D and GURPS, and only one campaign of Vampire and one of Werewolf, I have small knowledge about the archetypes used in this system. Can you guys share with me some experiences, histories of sessions where the player demonstrated how to pilot an archetype or even books like the ones from Vampire that displays histories of each archetype?
Thanks and regards,
Vacilotto.
Urban Shadows and other PbtA games are not really suited to written, scripted campaigns.
The main book has a lot of really in depth analyses of the archetypes.
I’m not sure what you mean when you ask for demonstrations of the “histories” of each archetype. That’s left pretty deliberately vague in Urban Shadows, so you can fill in the gaps with the implications offered by the moves.
Like, we know from the Vamp’s move options that vampires in Urban Shadows feed on blood, and/or flesh, and/or emotion. In my game, the player of the Vamp decided hers would feed on emotions. I asked if there were other kinds of vampires and she said yes, so I decided the bloodsuckers and flesheaters were different vampire clans from hers, and came up with their weaknesses and political positioning in the city. But if that player had told me, “nope, there are only emotion eating vampires, and they’re more like incubi and succubi,” it would’ve been a very different setup. And while one vamp option specifies that you can have a haven with ghoul servants, there’s never any indication of what a ghoul is – that’s up to you.
Also, for what it’s worth, that same openness also applies to “plots.” You’ll start by asking the players to help offer rumors about the different factions in the setting, and that will help you decide what threats to present. I think it’s fine to go in with some NPCs and potential threats in mind, but you’ll find the mechanics (especially for advancement) encourage a sprawling, player-directed style of play, so be mentally prepared for “plots” to not quite come together.
Urban Shadows has a lot of really great tips for GMs and how to support each playbook. I recommend reading the book cover to cover and taking the advice to heart.
P.S. You might find the Dark Streets supplement handy for offering some examples of specific cities with some situations already in place. If I remember correctly, they give a pretty good sense of how much you can safely have planned or prepped before play even starts – just enough to help set the tone and give players some hooks to build on, but open enough to let the players help determine what the setting will look like.
Aaron Griffin Probably, I’m not experienced in this system as I mentioned but I’ll feel more comfortable if I have something to guide myself in the history to make an interesting plot. I’ve been writing more like plot points than a history at the moment, like main NPCs and some neutral factions that will have an impact in the campaign, but will have this in my mind. Thanks
Jason Tocci damn, I didn’t thought about this approach. As a D&D player I always thought I should plan so many things and have a plan B for any eventuality. I’ll try to be more open to the idea you, and Aaron Griffin, proposed and stop working so hard in writing a big campaign with multiple chapters and just work with some main points and small plans for the players. I’ll read again the MC chapter to clear my mind a little bit. Thanks guys 😀
Jason Corley yes, but I wanted some points of view of the archetypes and see how each play group have addressed them. For me, as I’m not familiar with Fae and the only example I can remember for Tainted is Lucifer Morningstar presented by Fox, it’s a little bit hard to see how they work in practice.
” I’ve been writing more like plot points than a history at the moment, like main NPCs and some neutral factions that will have an impact in the campaign, but will have this in my mind.” After reading this, I’m going to strongly recommend that you spend some time with the GM chapter of the Urban Shadows book. If you spend time working on plot beats, and then try to make sure that the players hit those beats, you’re going to be fighting the system at every turn. PbtA games are built around the conversation between player and MC, and the players have ALOT of agency in creating the story that gets told. The players also have alot of control over how the archetype they’re playing looks,as Aaron Griffin has said. The Urban Shadows books is one of the best out there at describing what this style of play looks like, it will give you a really good sense of how this works. You could also look at Adam Koebel’s GM prep video for an Apacolypse World Campaign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1kJ3OQur6s It’s not identical to US, but it will give you a sense of what prep for this style of game looks like.
“I’ll feel more comfortable if I have something to guide myself in the history to make an interesting plot.”
One of the nice things about PbtA style gaming is that it is not solely on the MC to make an interesting plot. Your players also have responsibility for the story, so you don’t need to stress out about it quite as much. Relax into the conversational give and take, manage spotlight and come up with interesting consequences for failed rolls and mixed successes, the story will almost take care of itself. That said, if you’re not comfortable with that kind of improvisational play, PbtA and US may not be the right system for you.
Jesse Abelman hey, thank you for your suggestions. I’ll take a shot by trying to be more flexible and see how the system works in practice with the group.I already started reworking the material i’ve created to be more fluid and player based, will focus on creating the city the campaign will be in place and just add some NPCs that may have some impact during the players progression. Let’s see how it works and once it happens I’ll share here
You’ve already received some awesome advises, so I will go a different route.
I don’t want to discourage you from running Urban Shadows as it is a great game, but I would advice to park it for a moment and take a look at something that you and your group might be more familiar with to get introduced into the idea of moves, threats etc.
I’d suggest to start from Dungeon World if you come from D&D background.
All PbtA games rely on player involvement and pro activity in driving the plot and that is not something a lot of players are accustomed to, traditionally people expect GM to prep a story and world so they can come and pillage and murder, sometimes solve a quest.
The big change of playing PbtA will not only be for you the MC but also for your players.
I’d advice to instead of playing one time, meet together and watch an actual play on YouTube as there are a few and after that discuss is it what they want to play.
Now to answer your question about archetypes. I find a lot of inspiration in Dresden Files universe, for Fae, Wolfs, Vamps, Wizards etc.
Read a book or two or browse Dresden Files wiki.
Other than that create what you and your players want to play.
Someone wants to play a Vamp, ask him “What clan do you belong to? Who is the leader?” “Can you walk in the sun?”
So in one game all vampires are only blood drinkers that cannot walk in the fun, while in another game maybe Vamps can walk in the sun to play against the stereotype.
One of players is a Wolf and he is assigning debt about job he failed ask the player he assigns it to “What was the job? Against whom?” then ask they Wolf “Why did you fail?”.
Pawel Solowczuk hey, here in Brazil Dresden Files is not very popular, at least for my knowledge, I’ll take a look at the wiki thank you for your suggestions 🙂 I’ll talk with my playgroup and see if they agree to play a short adventure to see if they like the system and see how things go. As part of the group doesn’t speak english and the portuguese adventures I watched are really clunky and not much interesting they wouldn’t like the system it’ll by duty to present the rules and how things work in US
I second +Pawel Solowczuk’s suggestion. While it’s true that the setting and playbooks are intentionally left open, without a specific history in mind, each playbook has definite cultural and literary inspirations, and you might find it helpful to get familiar with those.
The Wizard definitely echoes the character of Harry Dresden in The Dresden Files (and probably other fiction, but that’s the one I notice most easily). As in The Wizard’s intimacy move, Harry’s loved ones are basically in danger just from being his friend, and some folks take pains to keep their distance. As in The Wizard’s End move, when a wizard in the Dresdenverse dies, they can issue a powerful death curse.
The Hunter reminds me of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sam and Dean on Supernatural. The Intimacy move giving you the option to hide details about yourself (to your own detriment), and the corruption move about going into danger without waiting for backup, feel straight out of both of those shows.
The Spectre blends a lot of different ghost fiction. It reminds me especially of Sally on Being Human (but maybe just because that’s the most recent show I saw with a major ghost character).
The Tainted doesn’t actually scream “Lucifer Morningstar” to me just because that character’s very much about being a former angel and ruler of a kingdom, while this playbook is very much about being a former human and an employee of someone much more powerful. I can only think of one fictional example, but it’s a HUGE spoiler for a certain story, so I’ll keep it to myself. Curious if anybody notices other influences.
I’m trying to remember some other playbooks’ influences (aside from generally “yeah, so, vampires”), but I’m kind of blanking….
Jason Tocci the Lucifer reference I mentioned is the role he does and is not present anymore, granting favors in exchange for something when needed. I’m familiar with vamp, wizard(some guys of my group already played the system and told some awesome op stories). I’ve been reading more about the archetypes and searched for references but the Fae is still unclear for me, I saw some videos on youtube but this archetype is realy vague for me 🙁 but thanks dude, the Buffy reference will be very good if anyone in the group is unclear how it works
The Fae reminds me of the In Nomine Ethereal Players Handbook, which makes me wonder if there’s also some stuff in Changeling The Lost that might be helpful….
In my groups (that means other groups probably have other understanding of Fae) they are fantasy creatures, elfs, dwarfs, trolls, gargoyles. They produce strange items, live by strange rules.
In one game we had a hidden Troll Market (like the one from Hell Boy2), in another game elfs living in wooden houses ware stealing human babies to producing healing potions from their diapers (don’t ask what was the taste of the potion).
Yeah, “live by strange rules” seems to be key. They’re supposed to feel alien – they have logic and customs that make sense to them, but not to us.
One of my players played a Fae member of the Storm Court whose monarch had them follow around the other PCs to spy on them. Her own goal was just to do whatever would create as much hilarious chaos as possible, though, because hey, storms! (The Queen was rightfully paranoid that she was in danger of being deposed, since that’s just what happens to monarchs of a stormy domain in my game.)
The favorite fae NPC in our (Boston) game was Foley, Faerie of the Citgo Sign, who never ventured farther from Kenmore Square than Fenway Park, and who was always willing to trade information in exchange for hamburgers. Foley spoke in a rising and falling lilt that matched the pattern of lights on the Citgo Sign. That’s just how they worked.
I love the alien/strange rules thing. I had a Fae in a game who was obsessed with collectibles, like on a visceral level. He would sell out friends for the original Ghostbusters car. At some point, I managed to ask what was up with he collectibles thing, and he responded that there is nothing more human than a trinket like this with no value aside from owning it. The humanity seeps into these things, and surrounding himself with them made him feel like he belonged.
Jason Tocci Never heard about this one but it seems nice to play, it sounds realy close to Sandman scenario. thanks dude, it helped a little bit more to clarify the Fae role
Pawel Solowczuk I didn’t thought they could be so generic, I was thinking they were from some specific culture and not all the fantasy things we can find. If it was a rumor from the session start stuffs, the guy who said about the diapers should have a beer and a hamburger for free this idea was awesome and made me lose my sides
Guys, I have to say these examples of fae you provided sounded awesome and clarified the archetype for me thanks a lot <3 now I'm hoping someone from the group is going to play as one lol, only one guy confirmed which archetype he's going to play. I started describing to him "there's the tainted who was a human that had some deals with the devil and now is like a servant selling pacts" and he just stopped me and said "ok I'm this one", didn't even asked if there was more archetypes this guy always make the most iconic characters in our group... I'm really excited to start playing but we'll only start in January :(
Gustavo Vacilotto I’m glad I helped.
I’ve never played a fae character, but we had one in one game. They are very social focused and you have to be on your guard to catch them lie, they can say as many half truths as they like, but as soon as they lie, they get corruption.
Have fun.