Category: Urban Shadows RPG

Meeting someone for the first time in play- Faction Moves vs. Skin Moves

So playing US today with Declan Feeney  and when two PC’s met with or interacted with forces loyal to an hostile Immortal, we didnt “Put a Face to a Name” (which is about knowing something interesting or important about them. they owe you a debt or learning their reputation) but rather we went for the very similar Aware:Did Your Homework (Know a dangerous secret about them)  and the Immortal: Been Around (You previously knew them, they might owe you a debt, or something from the past you know or have is useful now). 

But the Skin moves feel a lot like the Faction move, and cover much the same ground thematically (knowing about an NPC to your advantage (or disadvantage on a miss).  So,  in terms of Advance marking, should such moves count as Faction moves? (and be included into their text). 

Or, is the way to play it when meeting a new NPC be for the player to always call for a “Put a Face to a Name” move and then follow up with the Skin Move?  I worry that it could just add extra pressure on the GM to create some cool info on the fly for the Know the Face, and then have to think up even cooler answers to a subsequent roll, moments later. 

I think if the Skin  move covers the same ground as a Factional Move then perhaps they should count as Faction moves and have that notation included in the final text of the playbooks. 

For the Immortal 2.1 skin feedback- I still think the intimacy move misses the tragedy of the Immortal- that people/lovers die around them while the immortal goes on, if not from violence, then old age. Perhaps Intimacy should trigger a flashback scene giving +1 forward to something relevant to the flashback. That keeps the Immortal centred in the past and their history?

I also wonder if Immortal healing times could be ramped up to 1 harm per hour rather than a day like the other Skins? That would fit better for Highlander types. Or make it a move they could take?

Finally the Corruption move implicitly assumes a manipulative mortal, so I’d add in that a Immortals gain corruption if some one is harmed by trouble from the a immortals past (e.g. The Kurgan kills your lover)

Declan Feeney – could we adopt any of these for your game?