Précision sur Règles/Rules Explanation

Le play document vous donne toutes les règles dont vous avez besoin pour apprendre à jouer, mais il y manque de nombreux éléments de jeux qui méritent d’être expliqués. Pour faciliter les choses, les explications qui suivent seront seulement en Anglais...

While the play document will give you all you need to learn to lay the game, there are plenty of elements of the game which are not covered by it and which deserves an explanation or some precision on how they work. To make things easier, the following will be in English only...

Rolling
When making moves, the player will roll 2d6 and add an amount to it (usually a stat or faction). A result of 6- is called a miss and the MC gets to describe what happens (you might still succeed at what you were trying to do, but not in the way you where hoping and most likely at a severe cost). A 7-9 is a weak hit, you will succeed at what it is you were attempting (as per the guidelines of each individual moves) and gets to describe what this looks like, however, there might be some cost or a slight drawback. A 10+ is called a strong hit and you not only succeed your action and get to narrate how this looks, but there are either no cost or drawbacks or you managed to gain a higher degree of success.
No matter how many bonuses you have on a roll, the maximum amount you can add to your roll of 2d6 is +4.
Only player characters roll. NPCs do not get to roll. Their moves usually triggers when the players miss theirs.

Hold, +1 Forward, +1 Ongoing
Some moves make mention of Hold, +1 forward, and +1 Ongoing.
Holds are a pool of points that you generate and then "hold onto" and which you can spend (sometimes later) to produce effects, often listed as "spend your holds 1-for-1 to..." or "spend 1 hold to..." in the description of some moves.
+1 Forward means that your character will get a +1 bonus on his next applicable action.
+1 Ongoing means the character gains a +1 on all rolls which fits the current situation.

Escape a Situation
In order to use this moves, you must have an opportunity or an obvious way out.
Let's say a character suddenly finds himself surrounded by Wolves in an alleyway and decides to use Escape a Situation, the MC could tell him "The Wolves are blocking your way out, you will need to make an opportunity to escape. Perhaps you go for a Mislead, Distract, or Trick. If it succeed, you can then take advantage of the diversion to escape next turn?".

Let it Out
Let it Out is a sort of catch all term for your connection to the supernatural. It also can be used to represent any powers you feel your supernatural archetype ought to have but are not represented by a move on its playbook (such as a vampire's hypnotic gaze). As such, whenever you attempt to use one such "generic" powers, you'd use Let it Out.

Lend a Hand or Get in the Way
As previously mentioned, NPCs don't get to roll, so the get in the way part of Lend a Hand or Get in the Way is specifically reserved for player vs. player situations.
Also, lending a hand can be done even after the result of an ally's roll is known, potentially turning a miss into a weak hit, or a weak hit into a strong hit.

Cash in a Debt
When cashing in a debt, it is not enough to simply say "I cash in a debt", you need to remind the person why they owe you. For example, it would not be enough to simply say "You owe me a debt, now help me sneak into the Old Port after it closes", but rather you would have to say "Hey, remember when I saved your ass from those Vamps who were after you? You owe me one! Now help me sneak into the Old Port tonight!".

Advancement

You gain an advancement listed on your archetype play book once you checked all 4 factions. In order to check factions, you need to perform faction moves, intimacy moves, cash in or honor debts (though successfully refusing to honor a debt does not mark faction), or any special archetype moves which allows you to mark factions (there is also the beginning of games which allows you to mark faction, we'll explore that soon).
Once all 4 factions are checked, select an advancement, and then erase all checkmarks, and you begin with 4 blank faction boxes anew. If a faction box is already checked, you cannot check that faction again (ex: if Mortality is already checked and you honor a debt you owe to someone from Mortality, you cannot check Mortality a second time). This mean that you cannot start with a faction already marked after you took an advance (continuing the example above, if a character took an advance, he could not start with Mortality already checked because of the honored debt, that check was "lost").

Taking advance move from another archetype
When taking an advance move from another archetype, you are not allowed to take extras. Extras are moves which begin already checked for a specific archetype, such as the Wizard’s Channelling or the Tainted's The Devil Inside.

Corruption and Corruption Advances
When performing your archetype's corruption move, using a move which tells you to mark corruption, or if the MC tells you to mark corruption, you check corruption on your corruption track. Once all 5 boxes are checked, you gain a corruption advance and erase all the checks on your corruption track. Corruption advances work in a manner similar to regular advance, except that the last one will be retiring your character as a threat, meaning that your character is now under the control of the MC and can come back to threaten the other players at a later point.

Given the sudden re-interest in my game, I'm going to put this here just in case, as I feel that the lack of such information in the past resulted in some frictions between me and one of my former players...

Urban shadows is a narrative-heavy game. When you roll to see if you succeed your action, you're also rolling for narrative control of the game and to decide what happens to your character, within the guidelines given in each moves. If you fail a roll, or fail to act when prompted to, this will most likely trigger one of the MC's moves. There are no "saving throws" or "defense rolls" to resist those moves, they become part of the narration, and your character now has to deal with the situation he ended up in.

Luckily for the players, as the MC, I have a choice between "soft moves" and "hard moves" to use against you. Soft moves are moves where your character is not in any sort of direct danger, but often hint that if the situation does not soon change, the character might very well find himself in very real danger. Hearing the distant roars of something big and angry, being surrounded by a bunch of Wolves, or the warning shot of a Hunter are all examples of a soft move. Hard moves often put your character in a difficult and dangerous situation, sometimes even inflicting Harm right away. When hard moves are used, it usually means that shit has hit the fan and now the character is fighting for his or her life. Being in the clutches of an angry troll, having been pinned down by a Wolf that suddenly jumped on your back, or being shot in the leg by a Hunter are all examples of a hard move.

Hope this will clarify some things.

I had a question about the hit the street mechanics. It says you have to say who you are going to see, but can you use it to actually find a new contact also?

Like, Edouard would want to look for an independant information broker from the Wild faction, could he hit the street to look for one or does he need someone to give him a name or place to look for?

The move says you have to specify who you are looking for before rolling, but nowhere does it specifies you must mention them by name, so I guess "I search for a priest who can perform an exorcist" would probably count.

However, I must point out that the game rules encourages the MC to bring up previously established NPCs when PCs use this move as to avoid having the city feel "too crowded" (like finding a demon hunter on every street corners).

The move also point out that you actually have to get out and physically look for the person you're searching for in order for this move to work, you cannot simply do in internet search or make a few pone calls from your home. Reasons for this range from the mere dislike of the impersonality of an e-mail or phone call to how e-mails or phone calls can be traced, monitored, hacked, etc. In such a political setting where you can have enemies hiding everywhere or might have to threaten or coerce someone in order to convince them to do something for you, it does make sense...

So the way I see it, we're left with a lot of leeway when stating for who you're looking for before performing the move, but at some point in the future, once the PCs will have met a diverse enough cast of NPCs, I'll have to try and re-use a lot of them as much as possible so as to avoid stretching the credibility of the setting too far...

My interpretation for the Vamp's web was that it represented his influence over all the persons who owed him a debt and that the mechanic to "enter the web" were a archetype way of gaining extra debts as an unnatural ability to pull people in codependent relationship.

It made more sense to me than having to track the web and the debts separately.

Oh, I just noticed I had made this ruling a while back...

Also, reading a bit more on the Vamp (p.111 of the rulebook), it does state that others must ente your haven to enter your web. Basically, they must come at the place you reside. Heck, the rulebook even state that this is no excuse for the Vamp to stay at home to just acquire Debts, and that he should go outside and engage in the story.

This still does not gives an answer if starting Debts are considered to be part of your web or not, so I'll leave it for you and the other person involved to decide if they entered your haven to seek the favor. And if both of you agree, I'll allow it. Seems like the best ruling I can come up with.

Actually, the haven is optional for vamps so its just a extra way to trigger the web.

The wording is this : When someone comes to you to ask for a favor, look for advice/info, or
threaten your interests, they enter your web and owe you a Debt.

The book also state that this debt is in addition and not depending on the vamp actually fullfilling anything :
"If someone ends up owing you a Debt as a result of an action that causes
them to enter your web, you end up with two Debts. When a character
comes to you looking for information, for example, they owe you one Debt
and enter your web; they will end up owing you a second Debt if the information
you provide is significant."

Of course, as you put in your ruling, its logical that it requires some kind of investment or intentions, just asking for direction to the nearest metro would not make sense to give a debt :P

Yeah, the Move Heaven where you are safe from danger and have ghouls and an escape route, yeah, that is optional... Although, it occurs the me that the section I read on my previous post is indeed called "Notes on Your Moves". Hmm, I think I derped that one...

Hmm, I've also noticed that it states that at the start of a session, you choose someone from your web and learn a secret about them that they'd rather keep buried... I guess this means that the web applies to starting Debts...

I did not notice that but you are right. If starting debt did not count for web, that would be impossible for the first session.

Which make me wonder, in a forum game, how does "start of session" works?

When you rolled your Start of Session Move, I.e. "X who do you trust the least? Okay Y, choose a Faction for X..."

I had a question about a move. Invocation can be used by a PC or NPC by cashing a debt, however do they need to have acquire the information first or can those who have a debt over my character just "feel' the option is available?

I think it would make more sense if you informed them that they can do that.

Ok, I'll keep an eye for an occasion to "inform" Edouard too :p I ve set up the context for the move but he is not fully aware of it himself yet.

When do we have an option to alter our faction stats, do we have to wait for the end of the storm?

Yes. That's the end of session move.

No. It's more like your mind is being tricked by Vincent's magic. I see "under duress" as being an obvious threat or risk present, as in it is obvious that if you fail to Keep Your Cool, something really bad will happen to you. Right now, aside from messing with you, or possibly misdirect you, Vincent does not seem to present a clear and immediate threat to you at the moment (though, this may change...).

This would have been a good move to roll when the Wolves made that drive-by though.

Yea, i dont have it yet. Just considering it for my next advance.

So, the drive-by would have been considered emotional duress through the fear of getting shot and the obvious threat?