Editing Urban Shadows

'''Urban Shadows''' is a Narrativist Urban Fantasy game created by Magpie Games (the guys behind [[Masks: A New Generation|Masks]]) using the [[Powered By the Apocalypse|Powered By The Apocalypse Engine]]. It's a deeply factional game; where the dead, the living, the mundane, and the fantastical all vie for control of the city they happen to be all stuck in. In 2019, the creators announced that a 2nd edition was coming, with a quick play released for free to the public.

== Mechanics ==
It's PbtA again, with the typical -3/+3 point spread, but this time the character stats are broken up into two separate groups: Main, and Faction.

The Main Stats are your typical physical and emotional attributes; '''Blood''' for any physical challenge, '''Mind''' for mental stuff, '''Heart''' for Charisma, and '''Spirit''' for supernatural shit and willpower stuff. About as bog-standard as it gets. Where it gets interesting is in the Faction Stats, unique to this game since all of the PCs will be getting dragged into gang warfare, corporate espionage, and all sorts of crazy shit, and they need to know who's who. It's notable that these stats are more mutable than the main ones thanks to their inherent nature as a measure of relationships. 

The Factions are:
* '''[[Grand Alliance: Order|Mortality]]''' - Your bog standard, normie human faction. A vast majority of characters will probably start in here some place. While it's probably the most dull faction, dropping too far in the red in this particular stat will make you look either completely schizo or give the game away that you're not quite human.
* '''[[Grand Alliance: Death|Night]]''' - Noted domain of any turned human who's gone from normal to something else. Such examples include Vampires, Werewolves, Ghosts, and Lovers.
* '''[[Grand Alliance: Chaos|Power]]''' - Anybody who's picked up some fancy powers due to study, training, winning the genetic lottery, or getting cursed.
* '''[[Grand Alliance: Destruction|Wild]]''' - Wild is the "Etc." category for Urban Shadows. Demons, Fairies, Extraplanar creatures, Old Ones, Changelings, and other such critters congregate. You're unquestionably weird, but that also means you stand out more.

These factions can be interacted with using special Faction Moves that allow you to gather exceptionally valuable intel, and in a city as big as the one you're in, that can be vital to accomplishing the task ahead of you, and if you do it well enough, you might end up picking up a few Debts along the way. Debts are any number of things you've done for other people in the city that've created a wide array of favors for you to take advantage of, and can be cashed in or used in any number of ways. They're not as normal as say, fighting or looking around places or the like, but it comes up enough that you wanna keep tabs of who owes you what and why. Of course...you're not free of being in Debt to people either, so it can be something quite terrifying to take on yourself if you happen to need something from a powerful character.

There are also Drama Moves, which are used in moments where you could find yourself changing forever. Corruption Moves are when you start to get into the really shady shit; beyond simple fistfights and investigations and actually start to begin considering doing some actually terrible stuff to get ahead in this crazy world, which fills up your Corruption meter. Get too much of it, take a corruption advancement; which has it's benefits, but a mighty steep cost. End Moves are the rarest; they are your way of writing your character off; a death, a retirement, moving away from the city, getting locked in a cellar...however it is you plan on going out, End Moves are your way to do it. Intimacy moves are...well...just that. You wanna bond over drinks and talk about how much the city's changed since you moved back with a buddy? Feed on a willing, living creature? Finally ask that Necromancer Goth gf out? Get in her panties? Well that's the Intimacy Move. Intimacy moves are often defined by their Archetype, so some can be quite obviously more "bitey" than others.

== Archetypes ==
The Playbooks in this game are once again split among the Factions, which means there can be some real friction going on between the players from day one, and typically change which faction and normal stat set will look like.

===== Mortality Archetypes=====
* '''The Aware:''' A PI who's been let in on the true nature of the supernatural world around them. 
* '''The Veteran:''' You're not new to this whole "vampires are real" shit. They get a workspace that can help them find or build the things they need to figure out something.
* '''The Hunter:''' The borderline sociopathic hunter of monsters; though they'll also get some fights in with Humans as well. They're basically serial killers.

=====Night Archetypes=====
* '''The Spectre:''' You're a spooooooky ghost! Unfortunately, that means you have to put in a lot of work to actually interact with the physical world; supernatural or not. You can do a lot of pretty cool things through getting your ghost on, but you didn't die in an okay way, so you're out to get your revenge, and that will -always- come first.
* '''The Vamp:''' Congrats on becoming a Vampire. Now you have to deal with that sneaky addiction to human blood/emotion/flesh, and someone probably turned you at some point. You have a lot of Heart-based powers and charisma, so you end up with a strong Web of NPCs to go from, but you'll have at least be down three debts at minimum for any given moment...and you're always a few bad rolls away from probably ending their lives.
* '''The Wolf:''' You're a werewolf; which means when you change you're basically a fuzzy wrecking ball, but those changes come with a hefty cost, from silver weakness to an agonizing transformation to the fact that you may not be as in control as you'd like to believe. You have a block-wide territory that you have to maintain, but if you can do that you have full reign over the place.

=====Power Archetypes=====
* '''The Oracle:''' I hope you were ready to see the future and all the horrors it holds, shitheel! You get a mandated roll to see some terrible future, and depending on how you roll, you can either completely avoid it by telling everybody and moving on throughout your day, or take a penalty as you try to unfuck the future on your own.
* '''The Wizard:''' Yer a Wizard, Harry. You've got magic, you've got arcane knowledge, you're probably a little crazy, and that sanctum where you've been studying all this time has become both a second home and a royal pain in the ass. But don't get it twisted, if anybody knows you're a wizard, most people are going to try and get you to fix their problems, and you're probably high on a lot of Demons' shitlists. If you die, you can put a painful curse on somebody as one last middle finger.

=====Wild Archetypes=====
* '''The Fae:''' One of the most powerful, but also one of the most alien; you're all about making deals and promises, you get some very interesting illusion and emotion-changing powers, but every single one of them comes at the cost of you having to explain to your Fae-Lord why the hell you just did anything, and you'll inevitably be asked to do something for them.
* '''The Tainted:''' Striking a deal with some kind of dark force turned you into something...else. You can turn into a demon at any time, but your boss has a mandatory list of things you gotta do, and it's generally never anything good.

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[[Category:Roleplaying]]
[[Category:Powered by the Apocalypse]]