Urban Shadows RPG: Discussion – Page 6 – Powered by the Apocalypse G+ Archives

Hey guys! It’s the GM talking and well, I need some help

I’ve been working on my campaign for a long time now and I got something I’m really proud of. My campaign is called Recognition and it has 7 arks (each ark being called something starting with “Re” because why the hell not). The party playing is also amazing and I’m so excited to get started!…. only issue is that I have the narrative down to the bone, but I haven’t thought at all about the actual game system and mechanics.

I love writing/storytelling and really, if I have the right to, I would call myself a novelist (words from other people who’ve called me that). If I get asked about Recognition, I would put everything in my life aside to sit down and ramble about it in a heartbeat. I love it that much, and all the possibilities and different stories within Galestine (the city Recognition takes place in) are so unique, I’m sure anyone can find a place in this story, and quite honestly, I could talk for hours about this campaign. But with so much lore, I have to find a way to implement the dice rolls, the intimacy and corruption moves, fights, decisions that my party makes and how I react to them, etc.

Basically, I have no idea what I’m doing

And this is the first game I’m ever DMing and I haven’t had the chance to play tabletop games all too often (because life has its way of draining all free time off my hands along with my energy once I DO have free time) so I have no idea what it’s going to be like. I also have the tendency to think that everything that I make has to be PERFECT. It’s a double edge sword I’ve wielded all my life. It makes me think down to the nitty-gritty details of my creations but it stops me from actually showing anything off because “It’s not perfect enough.” (If anything I’m going to probably show this to my friend and ask him if this is good enough to post)

But I’m not here to talk about my life’s biggest issues, I’m here to talk about my campaign! I need help figuring out how to incorporate all the fights and to know what to do during each “encounter” per say…

But I guess for context, the biggest villains of Recognition are the demons. (Not the tainted, for clarification. I mean straight up demons who are patrons in Galestine.) There will be many instances where demons will be a huge influence in the story, more specifically the fights and challenges that the party, (who go by “The Lobos”,) will face. For example, a fight that the Lobos have very early on in the game is a fight with an NPC who is a tainted hunter but is, plot twist, actually a tainted. (He is yet to have a name so we call him THT.) THT was just a goof that the party made, but eventually became the first fight in Recognition.

My idea is that he’s there at the start and he’s kinda what makes The Lobos realize that they work well together (or not; who knows) and he’s what starts this whole adventure, but instead of being killed, THT when (IF) defeated will end up really messed up and run away. He comes back near the end of the first ark, but he comes back as half-demon-half-human. His last encounter with The Lobos left him inbetween forms, so hypothetically, after a while of recovery, he’s gotten stronger and he’s harder to defeat.

I’ve gotten support on the idea, now what I need is to know how this is going to play out. I need to understand how do I make this happen without mucking it up.

Please, if I could get help, any at all, that would be amazing. Sorry for such a long post, but like I said, I could talk for hours about this. Thank you so much to anyone who helps me out!

-Brave

Hi!

My question might be strange for you without some context, so I’m going to address this very briefly so that this doesn’t become a loooong post.

So, I’m completely blind, and I use the computer with applications called screen readers. I can read ePubs perfectly, PDFs not so much, and images I can’t read at all.

That’s why I have a few questions that arise from not being able to see how a character sheet is laid out:

– How should a player choose an advancement? Should they just choose the advancement on their character sheet from one to the next, or they can choose whichever they want in whichever order? For example, can a vamp “Choose a move from another archetype” at the beginning of the first session, or would she have to go through +1 blood, +1 heart, and so on?

– The same with the “After 5 advancements you may select” block: can the vamp just retire her character to safety the first time, or does she have to go through the first 7 advancements first?

– How many corruptions should you mark in order to get a corruption advance? Is it four boxes, like the four factions?

Thanks!

Hi all !

I’ve started Urban Shadows last night, created the characters and started the relationship map. So far, many ideas are popping and I will not have a problem to put problems in front of them.

Two questions, though.

First, the Tainted’s Patron. Is he of Demonic Nature and from the Wild Faction ? Could he be something else ? Like a Mage ?

Second, the identity of the NPC. Could a “Mortal” NPC be revealed as a Mage ? How is the “secret identity” of the characters (PC & NPC) known in the universe ? For example, the Wolf is protecting the University Campus as his territory. How well is his “Wolf identity” known ?

Thanks !

I tried posting this once, but it didn’t work apparently, so trying again.

I’m trying to run a one shot for Urban Shadows, and it’s my first time being an MC.

We’re based in Amsterdam, so I’ll need to come up with the background for the city.

My question is, how much background is enough for a one shot? Should I just make things up as we go? Should I define territories for factions and such? Should I and the players do a quick city building setup before we start the one shot?

Thanks a lot for all the help in advance!

Today I come to you with a MC and player conundrum.

Beware – it’s a long post with a twist.

Overall question is how to make PCs interact for a reason other than PCs are together because they are PCs?

I totally understand that PCs are together in Dungeon World because that’s the genre this game is about, a party of adventurers vs the threats of the dungeon and monsters.

In Urban Shadows there is this MC principle “Give everything a price, even friendship” plus US is also very political game with debts and factions etc. The genre the game is about (for my understanding) is politics and factions. I find it very super weird for a hunter, a wolf and a Fae to stick together just because they are PCs.

And I play with a group of individuals who think like me. We play together for some time, but we realized that sometimes there is a session where we don’t interact with another PC at all or very little like one short conversation and it started to bother us.

Each of us has his own political game, his own enemies and allies. Each one of us is (sometimes) playing his own campaign solo between him and MC.

When we do interact with one other it is short, usually debt exchange “I need you to do this for me” and then “I’ve done this for you, we are now square”.

Where have we gone wrong? Is it our PCs job to connect our political game or is it MCs duty to make our stuff connected?

Do we have wrong setup? should we discuss what is our political game about and have each player somehow attach himself to another player political game?

To give you some concrete examples.

My Vamp tries to play a local Hunters to assassinate Vamp clan leader so he can take his place.

A scholar is exchanging magical items left and right and tries to find a good husbands for his granddaughters.

A Veteran wants his revenge on Vamp clan leader as well, but so far he was working on stuff for Vamp or Scholar because we used debts we had on him.

Mostly the disconnect is between Vamp and Scholar – our political games don’t mix and interact in any way.

—

Conclusion and question:

Why should PCs be working together? Why are they working together in your games?

Is it because they want to get debts on another PC or is it because PC used debt on anther PC to get them involved?

Is it just PCs stick together because they are PCs?

Hello!

We’re set to play a game of urban Shadows. Our MC is a first time MC. And I a, the only one who’s even played other tabletop games before, (Monster of the Week, D&D 5E). The rest of the party Is new, but they are really excited for it!

The city is made up but based on More of a New Mexico/Arizona feeling.

And the base story is a campaign for mayor where one of the main candidates is an oracle, and calls in the party because she’s seen her political assassination. That’s all the MC has told us plot wise. I’m playing a Wolf named Aurelio.(see art) We also have a hunter named Nadia, a Fey named Maeve And our last member hasn’t posted their character yet. We’re really excited, but If anyone has any advice let us know. Our MC really wants to do this right and I love my Hispanic wolf boy. XD

Hey there !

So after our current season of 1-on-1 Monsterhearts2 between my girlfriend and me concludes, it’s likely we’ll take a break from it and we’ll switch MC charges. I’d like to MC Urban Shadows (and just for kicks, have it take place in Portland, since our Monsterhearts setting is a fictional town near Portland). i had two questions.

1/ MH isn’t supposed to be playable with only one player and one MC, but we did it anyway and it’s working great, we didn’t even have to change anything in the rules (beyond a custom move to resist seduction when it comes from NPCs) : knowing this, would US be the same, do you think ?

2/ Among all the playbooks (both Core and Dark Streets), my girlfriend really really loved the Vessel. Of course, she chose the only one that breaks the mold of Corruption. Do you think it’s ok to play US for the first time like this, or will we miss a crucial part of the game by not experiencing Corruption ? (this really bothers me).

She doesn’t want to avoid Corruption, it’s just that as far as “monster types” are concerned, this golem/frankenstein creature archetype really excited her, rather than a more classic urban fantasy archetype.

I’m sad because one of the things I love in US is the fact that Corruption is so enticing; you can keep telling yourself that you just need this special power it gives and then you’ll be careful and never raise your score again.

Category: Urban Shadows RPG: Discussion

Hey guys! It’s the GM talking and well, I need some help

Hi!

Hi all !

I tried posting this once, but it didn’t work apparently, so trying again.

Today I come to you with a MC and player conundrum.

Hello!

Hey there !

Hi guys!

Maybe it’s only me or the examples in the rule book are a bit off?Escape a situation and keep your cool are very…

Hi there!