Hi I have ordered the urban shadows book and I’m waiting for it to arrive. I have never been a GM and never played a PtbA game before and my players will have little to no experience with table top RPGs like me. The setting will be Brisbane city Australia. Should I let the players chose any archetype they want to play? Or are some easier then others what would make this easy for my myself and the players?
Hi I have ordered the urban shadows book and I’m waiting for it to arrive.
Hi I have ordered the urban shadows book and I’m waiting for it to arrive.
How could I set this game up to run as smoothly as possible I have some loose ideas but looking at the book online I shouldn’t pre plan anything and let the players chose most NPCs faction locations stories and I add on this via using fronts threats and storms do I have the right idea here?
I have done some research of Brisbane city as the book suggested looking into my city of the setting but I don’t know what information to use or how to use it
Thank you so much for your feedback and help.
Yeah, first session you should just come to the table with a ton of potential ideas. You’ll compile everything after that first session, after players have set stuff up. I’d keep some potential NPCs on hand from the different factions.
I think you should be fine working with whatever archetypes they think are interesting.
Andy Hauge thanks so I should have some basic ideas in my mind and some NPCs named and flushed out such as faction leaders or people of important in the city so I paint out a map and all the play books¿ or just ask the players which acrchetype they want and give them the information to chose one and then paint the ones chosen should I let the players choose where the factions are located does each faction live in one area normally
So like Fae have the court and vamps have clans and wolves have packs how many of these do I need¿
chub shinigami I think a good way to do it is to get a printout of your city – or, in the case of Brisbane, a local suburb – and, as you’re playing, fill in details about it. Maybe you find out from your player that Dorian the Vamp lives just down the street from you, and he frequently visits Davo’s Bar & Grill – a place real or imagined. Take your sessions of Urban Shadows as an opportunity to imagine a world like ours, but with strange people, powers, and places just underneath the surface.
Urban Shadows makes some assumptions, like Vampires forming Clans or whatnot. If you’re not familiar with these tropes, the chapter The Long Game goes into more detail, under “Group Advancements.” There you’ll find some detail about what a Faerie Court or Watcher’s Society might refer to. As for you and your prep, you should feel free to have as many or as few established Clans, Packs, and so on as you like, but Urban Shadows presumes that there are at least a few – after all, every Tainted has a demon overlord, and every Faerie has a monarch in Arcadia.
Do you think Brisbane CBD is to big an area is there a reason you recommend a suburb over the CBD¿
I’m not local to Brisbane, just Australia, so I really don’t know. Going by a quick look at the map, though, it looks like you could totally do that if you wanted to.
High-rise buildings, full of night life and dark alleys? Seems like it’d work great!
I wouldn’t necessarily flesh things out deeply, just have NPC names and concepts for when the game calls for something necessary. Like, if the players are seeking out a goblin market dealer, you should have enough resources at hand that you can give them a name, and a basic idea of the character–whether it’s because you wrote them up ahead of time or because you improvised them.
A map is a fantastic thing to have printed out; it helps give everyone a sense of location, and it gets everyone on the same page, so to speak. But how that map gets filled out…you don’t necessarily have to have that planned. Be ready for players to have ideas about places, and come with your own places.
Overall, focus on building things out after that first session. See what comes out in the first session and then make it more substantial.
Cameron Burns cool that’s what I was thinking 🙂 I think I’m getting the idea just need to read the book when it comes and find people to play with
Andy Hauge thanks does the map need to be detailed like street names or more a birds eye view?
I think both can be helpful,. A birds-eye view gives everyone a good idea of where all the parts of the city are in relation to one another, while a detailed map gives you accurate street names to draw off of.
In my case, I’d probably eschew the detailed street names and refer to things by location; using street names is a bit of flavor that can liven the game up, but it can also be a bear to keep track of. Maybe note down the names of major thoroughfares, and get detailed street names for areas once players get focused on things. I would definitely have some landmarks of note on the map.
Cool thanks Andy
I have a dumb question I’m creating NPCs and can NPCs have debts to other NPCs or is that not a thing?
Strictly-speaking, I guess it’s doable? But I’d recommend avoiding it because it doesn’t interface with the players. Although…you could always create debts and then use that for the “they give you one of their Debts” option for Cash in a Debt.
You should probably assume that there are debts between NPCs. However I wouldn’t actually specify them, just assume they exist whenever they would be useful for the story.
For example: Player A pisses off the corrupt mayor. While the mayor might act through “official channels”, they might also “call in a debt from a mob boss” to have some thugs come along to hassle Player A. Whatever makes interesting story.