I finally had a chance to go through the book last night and I found the Factions and Debts particularly…
I finally had a chance to go through the book last night and I found the Factions and Debts particularly interesting, so I was curious how they’ve played out for different groups.
How have the two influenced an Urban Shadows game in a way that might not have come up in, say, World of Darkness or Dresden Files?
Faction in particular seems ripe for emphasizing overall theme and a sense of “sides” in a vague conflict – and open to redefining under other names or loyalties.
From my Feedback of todays game i understood that my players think of the game as too easy.
From my Feedback of todays game i understood that my players think of the game as too easy. It seems to me that i have problems making the right hard moves, chaining only soft moves until eventually someone just succeeds with a move and resolves the situation.
From my point of view that would be no problem, but my players think that they get their success too cheaply.
Maybe we can gather a few examples for hard moves that the gm can make as a response to failed moves. I really want to avoid being an arbitrary railroad GM but as it is right now, the players can always escape the situations because i always ask “what do you do?” before i get the chance to pull through with a hard move…
Have any rules been made for adapting the Archetypes’ gear to more historical times?
Have any rules been made for adapting the Archetypes’ gear to more historical times? I want to play a game set in 19th century London, but I’m not sure how to augment the items given to each archetype so they’d fit the time period.
I’m looking to pitch a oneshot to a group familiar with Apocalypse World games.
I’m looking to pitch a oneshot to a group familiar with Apocalypse World games. Any recommendations to get everyone up and rolling quickly? Perhaps some juicy opening loaded questions to ask folks?
I have a question about The Oracle’s “Foretelling” move.
I have a question about The Oracle’s “Foretelling” move. I haven’t actually used my hold in-game yet, but every time I try to figure out how it’d work, I get stuck on how and when the +1 Ongoing is applied:
“Foretellings: At the beginning of the session, roll with Spirit. On a 10+, hold 2. On a 7-9, hold 1. During the session, you can spend your hold to declare that something terrible is about to happen. You (and your allies) take +1 ongoing to avoid the impending disaster. On a miss, you foresee the death of someone important to you and take -1 to all rolls to prevent
it.”
Here’s a likely scenario from next week’s session, when I’ll probably (+3 Spirit) have some hold to spend:
James has beef with a local anarchist Fae hacker adhocracy, who’s recent mass-doxings have put him in hot water. He’s going to drop in on them at their combination head shop and hackerspace in downtown campus town. If everything goes well, he’ll convince them to help him get “off the grid” and away from his stepfather, whom has been actively chasing him for years.
So James rolls up to the building and as the player I say “I have a bad feeling something terrible is about to happen.”
My question is: do I have to say what that terrible thing is? Do I have to say “I think this is a trap, these Fae want me dead.” or “The local Vampire Clans surely won’t let this invasion on their territory last, they could bust in here and slaughter everyone at any time!”
The +1 ongoing is only for AVOIDING “something terrible”, but who gets to say what the terrible thing is? Is it part of player skill to guess, like “I think i’m walking into an ambush.” If so, does that mean if they guess wrong – they call ambush, it’s actually Vampires – they don’t get the +1 Ongoing?
Does the MC say what the terrible thing is, so the player can make metagmame-informed decisions about how to avoid it in the narrative? Or do you just declare that some rolls are for avoiding the terrible thing?
I’m looking to play Urban Shadows and it looks like I’ll only have two players.
I’m looking to play Urban Shadows and it looks like I’ll only have two players. That doesn’t feel like enough players for me to bring out complications around different Factions or have many interesting PC-to-PC interactions and Debts.
Is this a problem? Besides getting more people (working on it), where else can I pick up the slack? Should I prod them into giving me lots of fiction to swim around in?
In the NPC section, therules talks about weakness and special abilities for NPC.
In the NPC section, therules talks about weakness and special abilities for NPC. This make me think about how to treat weakness and special abilities for PC. Let it out is a very good way to treat powers that PC don’t have explicitly in their character sheet (for example: Supersenses for vampires and walking through walls for specters). But what about weakness? The sun for vampires, Cold iron for Faes? As a GM I just need to introduce these things like threats? For example if Fae face a mortal armed with a cold iron weapon and the character want to escape ask him to keep his cool and go on? The sun for vampires could be a great and automatical source of damage and blessed water a pain in the ass for tainted?
Finally, how to treat damage for specter. If a Specter is not material, material weapon shouldn’t cause damage to him, right?
Hi Again! I have some new doubts about rules:
Hi Again! I have some new doubts about rules:
1) Which faction i must mark when a intimacy move is triggered?
2) What about these descriptors that gang advancement benefits have? Unruly demonic, savage urge to hunt, etc.) I couldn’t find anything in group rules about this.
thanks!
I have some doubt about the Hunter Corruption move “Divided I Stand”.
I have some doubt about the Hunter Corruption move “Divided I Stand”. What does it means “Mark corruption to advance unleash an attack and keop your cool for the scene. How do you advance a move :S? Maybe I am missing something because I’m not a native english speaker :S
Any ideas for city names?
Any ideas for city names? I’m looking to create an entirely fresh city for my Urban Shadows run; something completely different than anything in real life. If I use the name of a real city, I’ll be tempted to fall back on real world tropes for that city, and it’ll constrict my creativity.
To that end, any ideas? I’d like something that’s not too obvious (“Umberton, Blackvale”), but something that’s not completely disconnected from the genre (“Meadowbrooke, Jefferson Valley”) either.
I’m so hard to please. 😛