Category: Urban Shadows RPG: Fan Made Content

About to start work on a Promethean playbook.

About to start work on a Promethean playbook.

About to start work on a Promethean playbook. That is, the US analogue to Frankenstein’s monster. Nothing in yet, but I figured I’d open it up to discussion, thoughts, suggestions, expectations, etc. Will be drawing most directly from the original novel, the original film trilogy (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein), China Mieville’s Bas Lag series (for the remade), Franc Roddam’s film The Bride , Showtime’s Penny Dreadful series. 

Aiming for a blend of body horror and lo-fi scifi (Frankenstein was the first true scifi novel after all). Let me know you what you think and what you want to see.

I hope I’m not terribly out of line here, but I created a subreddit?

I hope I’m not terribly out of line here, but I created a subreddit?

I hope I’m not terribly out of line here, but I created a subreddit? I’ve got some work to do to pretty up the CSS, but otherwise it’s ready for users, mods and content. I’ll probably disable the wiki and direct any constructive conversation to the official website, but given how well the Dungeon World community thrives on reddit, I figured this was inevitable.

http://www.reddit.com/r/urbanshadows

Thanks to a little push from Sean Hess, reworked my basic moves, debt and MC moves to alignment with the US 1.1.

Thanks to a little push from Sean Hess, reworked my basic moves, debt and MC moves to alignment with the US 1.1.

Thanks to a little push from Sean Hess, reworked my basic moves, debt and MC moves to alignment with the US 1.1. 

Updated most of the Archetype moves as well, still keeping with altered versions of Spellcasting and Spook for balance sake … and keeping in Seer with some alterations from an old version of US.

The real change, I am keeping is using an XP system closer to AW: Dark Ages over that of AW.

Looking for some help adapting this into a move … hitting a writer’s wall.

Looking for some help adapting this into a move … hitting a writer’s wall.

Looking for some help adapting this into a move … hitting a writer’s wall.

“Mages of this path are often hypersensitive to the brevity of life and understand just how little time they have to gain the transformative secrets they crave. They often become obsessive about their studies, sleeping only a few hours each night to leave enough time for their research.”

Seeing some big changes to mage traits.

Seeing some big changes to mage traits.

Seeing some big changes to mage traits. Combined with the spell changes we did when we finished the last round of playtests a few weeks ago and I must say I’m excited to see some of this stuff in action.

For those curious as to what was changed, we did away with the boring old +/-1’s and changed some of the Path spells (one of the old spells focused on PvP that I didn’t realize at the time, plus others that just seemed lack luster and useless). Summoning has a new focus on it for those with the creativity to use it. It even got its own corruption move to make it a potent tool for a cost.

Overall, Mage is looking awesome and I’m looking forward to testing the new changes. The changes to Vamp’s traits are also looking interesting.

On a side note. I went over my notes for Demon. While it’s been stated that we were going to do Demon the Fallen, for simplicity’s sake, I largely scrapped the idea (instead using DtF for inspiration as needed) and started looking at Demon the Descent. While the lore is a bit different, I managed to type up a basic description that ties in how a Tainted might become into a full fledged Demon (it’s nothing different, just playing off the idea of how you’re hellspawn).

Let me just say that trying to find a way to work in the varied nature of the demonic form and trying to keep it simple but relevant was difficult work. The end result is something that changes as you gain and lose Corruption (via the “Erase a Corruption Advance” advancement). Playtesting when it’s complete will show whether my choice in constructing the move was a good one.

Until Mage and Slasher are officially called complete and I get a rough draft of Demon done, any new add-ons by me will likely be only in the “I’ll mention the idea” phase, but I will admit that I would be curious in working on Changeling eventually having recently helped a fellow Storyteller make his own Kith. After that’s done… who knows. Second Sight might be a decent book to try and make a Mortality add-on for, but please understand that the possible template are limited as Mortals in WoD are not meant to have the kind of power the other main game lines do.

Real Big thanks to John Layton, Chris Riexax and Anton Dominic!

Real Big thanks to John Layton, Chris Riexax and Anton Dominic!

Real Big thanks to John Layton, Chris Riexax and Anton Dominic! Last night after our Mage game, we made some headway with a few of the moves that we were unhappy with. Wow! Mage is a 100x better now, excited to play it again!

I will be posting an updated PDF with the changes over the weekend.

John Layton, I am thinking about removing all Penalties and Bonuses from each of the add-ons.

John Layton, I am thinking about removing all Penalties and Bonuses from each of the add-ons.

John Layton, I am thinking about removing all Penalties and Bonuses from each of the add-ons.

There are plenty of reasons World mechanic wise, but what are the pros and cons that you can think of coming from WoD?

I tell you what, this would make Tim Franzke happier!