Author: Ian Howard

I just wanted to share that my group had done some play testing back in August, maybe even earlier, and than played some other games but we kept talking about US. So two weeks ago we updated characters and changed a few (our werewolf player hated his character is he is gone and our Hallowed didn’t want to let go of him so he is using an old sheet) and than played again. It has been awsome. We all just fell back into Charleston SC and our cast of beings.

The game is a joy. So we’ll done. From the Cedar Street Irregular of Belfast, Maine Thank You Andrew.

Alright second half of my write up of our Urban Shadow Experience.  This will cover Debts and first play session.

Debts are brilliant!

When we got to this stage the table clearly had its doubts when I told them that we would be going around the table one by one and the other player had to accept the debt you chose for them.   We got started and after the first two people most of the table saw the beauty in the system.  The sharing of Debts slowly, allowing time for people to think, and the power to choose who the Debt affected and why (with their input) allowed for some amazing connections.  The Vamp supplying the Hunter with his drug fix.  The Hallowed having provided the information to the police that scared the human traffickers causing them to drown their cargo creating the Spectre.

After having read some of the comments here about the Debts system I told them all that they needed to have at least one PC Debt and one NPC Debt.  This allowed for more creation of a cast of characters as well as tying the group together one step removed since they used some of each others NPC relations.  Overall we were really impressed with how this worked out.  Even in a large nine player group the process was smooth and very fruitful.

This week we sat down to actually play.

One session was not enough.

We started with out beginning moves.  The Vamp used his Web ability to learn a secret about the Hunter (It was that he used to voluntarily feed vampires his blood).  The Oracle used her ability to see the future and got  a 10+ so she was holding two moments of possible vision.  The Immortal used his Session Move to learn that a Fae named Lord Goldenrod of the Summer Court was in the city seeking an amulet stolen from him 3 years earlier by a man named Yanosh.  Who happens to be The Veteran’s assistant.

Then we started the opening move for everyone.  It was great to see who did not trust whom right from the beginning with our Debts already in place.  The information created in this phase was brilliant.  We learned a lot about the supernatural society and a lot of NPCs were named and this info led to almost every member of the group getting embroiled in something from the rumours, gifts and opportunities. The problem was nine players.  With nine players it was really a long process and would have been hard to replicate time wise every session.  We all liked the results but could see the problem with it for such a large group.  This was the only part that felt like we couldn’t pull it off with so many players.  It was nice to be able to mark a Faction though because it allowed you to help the other player if you wanted as well as allowing someone to avoid a lot of Faction contact and still Advance.  I think we will tweak it somehow such as every three sessions do the rumours and such.  Not sure on that one.

Once we started playing everyone knew what they wanted to do. There were so many possible stories, alliances, and setting details already in the collective minds that the characters all hit the ground running.  They werent all running in the same direction but they were all racing somewhere.  It was great.

We all wanted more and will definitely revisit US again.  It is a long campaign game if I have ever seen one. Looking forward to writing up more detail and exploring this system further.

I do not have all of my observations from the players handy so I will need to add those in later.  Great work overall guys. Well done.

I am finally getting to write out our first session report. Our first session was strictly character creation.  There are nine players in the group but only eight were available for character creation.

Our story is taking place in Charleston, SC.  We had voted and were tied for Charleston and Detroit.  I decided on Charleston because it fits the themes and images I was thinking of for an urban fantasy game.  Detroit was a very close second for me because of the imagery of decay and desolation as well as the potential for rampaging monsters through the streets.  Ultimately, though I liked the idea of Charleston better.  None of us have any great understanding of Charleston but that allows us to create a mythical Charleston of our story.

I will first introduce all the characters and then talk about Debts and the creation process.

We have two members of Mortality:

Getharius Chaples (The Veteran) was a Russian Sleeper agent for 15 years.  When his unit was crushed five years ago he went deeper underground and began to find work with the

supernatural underworld of which he was already aware.

Saturday Hawthorne (The Hunter) is a local early 20s punk who took on the mantle of hunting vampires because he couldn’t stop them from killing someone he had cared about.  He is a drug addict.  

We have three Power faction members:

Oracle: She was not here this week but will be making her character Wednesday.

Dr. Henry Caldwell (The Immortal) is a man who joined a secret cult in the early 1800s and quickly became a devout follower.  He sold his own soul and body to his dark masters for power and eternal life.  When his wife died he brought her back with their dark gifts but it was no longer her. He left the cult at this time and has survived as a doctor and scientist studying the connection between life and death since.

G. Jonathan Knight (The Hallowed) is a man blessed with a mission to help those in need.  He is a young man who joined the Guardian Angels motorcycle group for a purpose in life.  One night he could not save a person from a traffic accident without a miracle. That miracle occurred and he knew he had a new directive in life.  He does not know where his power comes from only that he will uses it to protect.

We have one member of the Wild faction:

Alexander (The Tainted) is a being born from a man and the Arch-Demoness Lilith.  He does not know his father and was raised by his mother on her home plane until he was seven when he was cast on to Earth to survive.  That was two decades ago.  He has a love/hate relationship with his mother and he seeks human companionship to show him what it truly means to be human.  

For the Night Faction we have three members:

Emily (The Spectre) is a young girl, around 13, who was being trafficked by smugglers.  The group who were trafficking her got nervous and dump the goods outside Charleston.  Emil has sworn to kill the men who did this before she moves on.

Miguel Villalobos (The Vamp) comes from an old Charleston family.  They chose to become vampires when they ran the largest slave market in the South but after the War of Northern Aggression they became a secluded family who live on crime and monetary power in Charleston.  Miguel revels in his monstrous animal side.

Raphael St. Claire (The Wolf) has been a werewolf for over 1,000 years moving as the need arises.  He has been in Charleston for only a short while.  His territory has turned into a crime ridden neighborhood that also happens to be haunted by a supernatural presence.

That is our cast of characters.  I will do the process and Debts post next.

Had our character creation session last night (for eight players the ninth will join us next week) and it was awesome. We were almost unanimous in our praise of the debts system to create a network of connection at the beginning. One player felt it was too confining and forced him to drift from his concept too much. I will post a long write up this weekend but we had a blast.

I have question about my play sessions and their value for you.  I have a large group. It will be 7-9 players most likely.  I know this is large for a *World game but this is the weekly group we have so we make it work.  We have found that *World games actually handle large group play well.

The problem this creates is do I use the 2.0 archetypes only or mix them with 1.1 as well.   I had released the 1.1 list to the players to be thinking and they have chosen: Wolf, Immortal, Hunter, Tainted, and Hallowed so far.  Will it not be useful for you if I blend them? 

I suspect the remaining players will choose Veteran, Vamp, and Oracle.

Really looking forward to these sessions.

I must be missing something but gearing up to run a few sessions and I see it mentioned to allow players to do opening moves but I cant find any opening specific moves.

Thanks