Welcome to The City

Welcome, welcome, one and all. The city takes all comers.

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I don't believe I have played with most of your before. Tell us a little about yourself.

Some useful information to include is if you are familiar with the old version of Urban Shadows, or with any PbtA games in general (and which), as well as what sort of other games you are familiar with.

You can also tell use what you are hoping to get from or see in this game, though that might be better placed in the Character and World Creation thread.

Hello, I have got into RPGs back on 2013 and from then, it hasn't stopped. I like most genres of rpgs but dark fantasy, sci-fi, cyberpunk and post-apocalypse are my favourites. I have played several rpgs from D&D, Traveller to PF and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Urban supernatural intrigue has gotten me interested lately, and I have read some of the Chronicles of Darkness gamelines.

Regarding books and novels, I have read Mistborn (Book 1), Stormlight Archive (Upto book 2), Dresden Files series (it was a long time ago and I have forgotten the book name (Spoiler alert), but what I remember is that Dresden made a pact with one of the demons and unlocked hellfire), River of London, The Expanse series (upto to Book 2), etc.

I am fairly new to PbtA and the other pbta games that I have played is Monster of the Week and Masks. Apart from these 2, I have other PbtA games in my collection but I haven't played them yet.

I read the Dresden Files books on my kindle, all at once (up to then end of book 12 (Changes), and then had to wait a year for the next one (maybe you remember why that is significant?:)). Kindle does not show covers and therefore not titles either, so I can't keep the names straight. They are good books.

I have read the whole Rivers of London (Peter Grant) series, and even the short stories and novellas which I don't usually like. They are excellent books and I am very much looking forward to the next one later this year.

I have read the original Mistborn novels. Have not gotten very far with Stormlight and Sanderson's others. I enjoyed Mistborn, though it took me a long to time to finish them. They are not completely relevant to this game though, being 'pure fantasy that is set in a city' and not 'Urban Fantasy' per se.

I read all the Expanse novels. I watched some of the TV too, and still 'plan' to finish the show.

Speaking of 'space' books, I have just picked up the third book in Yahtzee Croshaw's Jacques McKeown series, Will Leave the Galaxy for Good. They are 'silly' but still excellent stories. I got them in Audiobook form —that is how the author intends them to be consumed— so don't know when I will get to actually reading listening to it.

Speaking of Crowshaw, The DEDA Files (Differently Morphous and Existentially Challenged) were excellent urban fantasy with a comedy bent.
That will put you in good stead to get started. They are very different games, but that should not be a problem with how much different/varied stuff you have tried.

Hi there! I’ve been playing on GP for about five years now. I originally joined to play D&D5E but I’ve since ended up experimenting with a bunch of different games and systems. I was in a great first edition game of urban shadows on GP for a few years so I’m pretty familiar with the first edition and I’m excited to play the second! I don’t think I’ve ever played any other pbta games before but I have played a few games with homebrew rules sort of generally based on the pbta system (like I’m currently in a game that’s a sort of improvised homebrew blend of World of Dungeons and Blades in the Dark). I mostly play fantasy games as I’m not a huge fan of sci-fi.

Quite a lot has changed. Mostly improvements, I think, though a few of the playbooks are less appealing to me now.
That is fine. US1 is probably the closest example you could draw experience from. :)
Intriguing. I would like to hear more.
Most Urban Fantasy vies quite far from sci-fi, so we should not have much of that encroaching on this game.

I play RPGs for over 20 years now, mostly fantasy, or DnD to be exact (2nd to 5th edition- also not a huge SF fan tbh), as well as World of Darkness. I also enjoy a cosy dark near future setting (Shadowrun).

Some of the things mentioned in here (Mistborn (read all 3 parts + short story), The Expanse (couldn't warm up to that), Dresden Files (huge fan!)) I already know, some others (DEDA, Rivers of London) I never heart of.

Many years ago I read some Neil Gaiman stories (American Gods (Amazon series by now)), Neverwhere (all time great) and Anansi Boys, which are all an eclastic mix of modern/mystic/urban fantasy genre. Loving these books since then.

Sorry to say that I never came in contact with the PbtA system. Hope to learn it, as for me it is very important that we don't "just" tell a good story, but also are able to change things and (at least sometimes) feel like heroes. Without rules knowledge that gets - in my experience - very hard pretty soon.

I believe the game is public so you can take a look if you like!

I don't know that I have ever heard Shadowrun described as 'cosy' before. :)
Agreed.
OK, we can teach you what you need. There are some hurdles to get over with your mentioned previous realms of experience, many/most of the systems you list are rather mechanics first, and that is what I find to trip up new PbtA players the most.

PbtA is always Fiction First, you always first look to the fiction and only then worry about what rolls may be needed. If you ever find yourself stuck for understanding what the outcomes of a Move mean, remember that they are always based on the fiction that came before, so they should be clear in the context of what is happening in the scene. If the outcomes don't make sense, then the Move probably did not apply in the situation and should not be used.

This will make more sense as you read the Moves and Mechanics, but don't hesitate to ask questions if anything confuses you, we may point you to a different page of the book for answers (in PbP it is either that or we type them up and you have to read them anyway:) since often one needs to understand other concepts before the current one makes sense, and often both rely on each other so for both you have to have read the other first... which is a paradox.
That is a large part of most characters' motivation in the game, the desire to change the world to better fit how they want it to be. See the Factions (and Status) for the most direct way you can do that.
Hopefully we can give you that, but this not a game about heroes. Take a look at the description of the Power Circle in Chapter 2, and compare that to Dresden and Dresden Files; also pay attention to the Corruption mechanic, you are not always playing 'the good guys', though you should still try.
I am not sure what this means. If it is important, then please elaborate.

Thanks. I may do so if time permits.

Well I like quite a lot of Urban fantasy which this seems the genre for. I get the feel of things like John Constantine, Kate Kane, Riley Parra, or Warrior Nun, but not Buffy. This seems a bit grittier than Buffy with more of a Crapsack style.

Two of those might be less well known by others E.G Kate Kane (Investigator series not bat woman) and Riley Parra both of which are Lesbian paranormal series but, trust me they are gritty Urban Fantasy series that this system feels like it captures.

Ooh, yes, that does fit the tone. I only know the movie and the short-lived TV series, I don't do comic books.
Yeah, I have never heard of those. Actually I believe I have heard of Warrior Nun, but I am not into comics, so I don't know anything about it.

Riley Para sounds interesting, I may look into those books.
This is true, Buffy was very optimistic.
I had to look that up. I am not sure how much that applies and that is not a term I would use to describe things, but there are certainly elements that resemble some of what I saw when glancing at the tvtropes page.
'Gritty' has many meanings to many people. But possibly. This game does not have to be 'gritty' or even 'dark', we might live in a dark world, but we can rise above it... if we try real hard.

I never read the Constantine comics either. I did see the TV series and enjoyed it. Weirdly I also actually liked his portrayal in ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ even if that series very much doesn’t fit this style.

I like rising above. Good people with good intentions who try their best to rise above even if, sometimes, they fail.

Hi,

Forever GM at my physical table, and a mix of player/GM in PbP. I'm a former DnD old-school guy who turned to more narrative games like Fate, especially when the PbTA stuff started to appear.

I have run Urban Shadows 1E in PbP, and other PbTAs such as City of Mist, the Sprawl or Legacy Life among the ruins.

Cheers!

I really want to do Legacy, but it is hard to find groups that are interested, and many resist the idea of leaving a still-viable character behind to take on a 'new generation'. :(

City of Mist has a lot of potential (and maybe a lot of Moves:), but I found, in my attempts at running it PbP, that it lost a lot of its luster without the physical cards and attachments. The unique physicality of the game is a big part of it.

Yep, with Legacy you need to explain from the beginning that your PC is not a person, but a whole Family that will span generations. And the individual characters are just incidental "assets" for your main PC, which is the Family. Once you have that buy-in from the start, everything should run smoothly.

Regarding City of Mist, someone seems to have the same opinion and created THIS for online games. :-)

Yeah, but I don't have a group that wants that buy-in.
I have played it in Roll20, they implement the sheet pretty well, but that still misses the physical nature of the card-stock and that whole part of the game's appeal. :(