Another question I sometimes come up with: where’re boundaries of MC’s ‘setting injection’?

Another question I sometimes come up with: where’re boundaries of MC’s ‘setting injection’?

Another question I sometimes come up with: where’re boundaries of MC’s ‘setting injection’? (That is more or less general *W question, but still)

Players playing X are supposed to be the ones with main knowledge about X, but is there any place for MC to inject their ‘theme’ and basis of the game, and if so – to what extent? If you see this as ‘each game group makes their choice’ – please, at least give your personal view.

Examples:

– I want to state a couple of key Fae NPCs into the picture, and one of the players plays Fae – can I use my ideas at all, should I mould them to what player chooses to describe as ‘what your fae court politics are like?’ or can I just inject it as ‘So, John, you want to play Fae. Main setup for the Fae court is like this: … Where you sit in such picture?’

Should I also first hear other PCs about their relationships with the Wyld? I assume when there’re no players for Fae I have somewhat more freedom with this.

– I want, say, have daemons to be somewhat different (for example, inject setting element from nWoD Daemon, where demons and angels are ‘cogs in the machine’). Can I do that only if no player wants to play Tainted, or do I set this as base for Tainted player, or I should never try to do that because players are creating setting, not me?

– I want to introduce new type of creatures into the story, which I view as belonging to a Fraction (let’s say Night). Can I do that? (or it is assumed that only players can do that) If so, does everyone else in the Night faction have to know that those creatures exist and how they operate?

I feel that there is a sliding scale, on which at one end MC gets to be the usual mostly all-knowing GM, and on other end MC has very little chance to actually affect how world works.

I may be getting stupid, but when I read Vamp’s description of being ‘pure muscle, terrifying and feral when…

I may be getting stupid, but when I read Vamp’s description of being ‘pure muscle, terrifying and feral when…

I may be getting stupid, but when I read Vamp’s description of being ‘pure muscle, terrifying and feral when trapped’ somewhat strange. Besides having Blood +1 he does not seem to have anything that even closely resembles ‘terrifying’. Yes, he can manipulate people, can persuade and manipulate, can get what he wants, but in the end, when he pushed in the corner, he has zero offense beyond not all that powerful +1 Blood and some fictional positioning for Let It Out (which relies on his weak Spirit)

So what am I missing?

Just read ‘The Long Example’ – wow, really amazing.

Just read ‘The Long Example’ – wow, really amazing.

Just read ‘The Long Example’ – wow, really amazing.  Would it be ok to share that with friends who haven’t bought the book yet, and are on the fence about playing the game?  I think it’d get them totally into the idea.

Mark Diaz Truman   some of you speak spanish. I saw in the text a spanish Word :P , Just wondering

Mark Diaz Truman   some of you speak spanish. I saw in the text a spanish Word 😛 , Just wondering

Mark Diaz Truman   some of you speak spanish. I saw in the text a spanish Word 😛 , Just wondering

Urban Shadows PDF live on DTRGP!

Urban Shadows PDF live on DTRGP!

Originally shared by Mark Diaz Truman

Urban Shadows PDF live on DTRGP!

I’m proud to announce that Urban Shadows is live on DTRPG! Huge thanks to Andrew Medeiros, Amanda Valentine, Thomas Deeny, Shelley Harlan, Elizabeth Bauman, Juan Ochoa, Brendan Conway, and Marissa Kelly for making this day a reality. Woot!

We’re working with our printer now to get books, so we will have an update on that shortly. We’ll be including the PDF with a book purchase, so if you want both… we’ll have books ready soon. 😀

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/153464/Urban-Shadows

I have a couple of doubts about Factions.

I have a couple of doubts about Factions.

I have a couple of doubts about Factions.

To me, the concept of Faction imply a combination of identity, ideology and common intent. 

Do the Factions in Urban Shadows necessarily imply one or more of those elements? 

I’m asking this because in the last game I played, the MC just treated the Factions as Tags to distinguish supernatural creatures. Hence, Factions remained an abstract and off-game notion. I mean, in that game vampires, werewolves and ghosts all belonged unwittingly to the Night Faction, just because they were all “creatures who were once human”, and there were not any other implicit connection between members of the same faction.

In doing so, the game just broke, because moves like Refuse to Honor a Debt didn’t work: why, if I refuse to honor a debt with a vampire, I lose face with all the ghosts, if vampires and ghosts don’t know or feel to be part of the same big faction?

Are we missing something here? 

Plus, have you ever tried to reskin Factions?

For example, replace Factions with supernatural races, assuming you are playing with only 3 kinds of supernatural creatures + humans (e.g. Humans, Vampires, Werewolves, Faes).

Or maybe, assuming that the supernatural underworld is split in four courts (e.g. Spring court, Summer court, Autumn court, Winter court) or independent predetermined organizations (e.g. The Cult of Dagon, The Mysterium, The Esoterrorists, The Syndacate).

I find it uncanny that this dropped the day after the publication of the final version of the Urban Shadows PDFs.

I find it uncanny that this dropped the day after the publication of the final version of the Urban Shadows PDFs.

I find it uncanny that this dropped the day after the publication of the final version of the Urban Shadows PDFs.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/comic-review/wolf-1-image-comics