Anyone interested in new original urban fantasy?

[RaggleFraggle]

I couldn’t find an existing thread so I decided to make this one.

I’ve had a few ideas for writing new original urban fantasy settings. Most of my ideas can be described as “dark superheroes.” Dark in the sense of being literally nocturnal and more morally ambiguous like Punisher, but not emo goth grimdark. If you want to play an angel/vampire/shifter/whatever who moonlights as a vigilante or detective, then that’s something I’d include out of the box. I don't want to make this all about me, tho, so if you want more of my ideas then feel free to ask.

What about you? Thought of or written anything you want to share?

 

[Humanophage]

Aren't there enough dark superheroes as it is, with the veritable flood of "serious" Nolanesque cape stuff? Unless you mean something else by superhero.

The current Ukraine conflict avails itself to urban fantasy. E.g., for a game, you play as an occult Azov squadron in besieged Mariupol. There is a dark pagan power hidden underneath Azovstal, but it is willing to endow troops with temporary superhuman abilities in exchange for human lives and torture. So you venture out at night to kidnap folks and enemy soldiers, like a kind of more militant This War of Mine in spirit but with tactics and such. You need to maintain a facade of civility not to undermine the country's war effort or turn the population against you. You also need to keep the secrets from the regular members of your military side, especially the Christians. The nature of the power is unclear. It could be something connected to Kurgan culture, for example. Maybe a few conflicting entities and you need to balance pleasing them. If it's too soon, replace it with some other besieged city, like something from WW1 or the October Revolution.

The idea is combining low fantasy, secrecy, siege, and terrorist/criminal activity.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

no because I hate cities.

 

[Mebrilia the Viera Queen]

No Superheroues were never my thing. If i am not work there is a superheroes pnp somewhere.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

Aren't there enough dark superheroes as it is, with the veritable flood of "serious" Nolanesque cape stuff? Unless you mean something else by superhero.

I mean that whole style of katana trenchcoat stuff that people played in the 90s. I don't know how else to describe it. A mix of Highlander: The Series, Forever Knight, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The idea is combining low fantasy, secrecy, siege, and terrorist/criminal activity.

Neat!

 

[RaggleFraggle]

I forgot to add, I love What We Do In The Shadows and that sort of comedy is definitely something I’d like to incorporate in my writing. A lot of urban fantasy is quite frankly silly and I would love to poke fun at widespread UF tropes like the “fad monster of the week abusive boyfriend”, “centuries old teenage boy who trolls high schools for tail”, “yaoi werewolf male pregnancy”, “that person you met five minutes ago is your soulmate and you’d brave a deadly blood feud to be with them”, “your species is dying out so you need to find a soulmate to repopulate,” etc. (For reference, urban fantasy fiction is mostly paranormal romance where absurd premises like these are normalized.)

 

[J1M]

My level of interest is directly related to what year it is set in.

No interest in a werewolf using a smartphone to hunt NFT scammers.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

My level of interest is directly related to what year it is set in.

No interest in a werewolf using a smartphone to hunt NFT scammers.

What about hunting demons? Or murderous criminals? Or murderous criminals possessed by demons?

 

[J1M]

My level of interest is directly related to what year it is set in.

No interest in a werewolf using a smartphone to hunt NFT scammers.

What about hunting demons? Or murderous criminals? Or murderous criminals possessed by demons?

How would instant text communication make that a better experience?

 

[RaggleFraggle]

My level of interest is directly related to what year it is set in.

No interest in a werewolf using a smartphone to hunt NFT scammers.

What about hunting demons? Or murderous criminals? Or murderous criminals possessed by demons?

How would instant text communication would make that a better experience?

I meant without texting.

 

[Night Goat]

My level of interest is directly related to what year it is set in.

No interest in a werewolf using a smartphone to hunt NFT scammers.

This, the modern world is so horrible that I don't really want to play a game set in it.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

Okay. I’ll keep that in mind. Maybe use a retro 80s setting? Idk

So, anyway, I wanted to write some urban fantasy games but I’m intimidated because the ttrpg market is notoriously insular and beholden to first mover advantage, supplement treadmill, etc. It would be a constant uphill battle to hook customers and keep them hooked.

So I wonder if I would be better off going into writing fiction and/or video games? Or hedge my bets? Urban fantasy is a hugely unexplored setting for video games, after all, and new urban fantasy fiction is always in high demand.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I get the feeling that the people most interested in this would find 1980s to be the most attractive setting, yes.

So, anyway, I wanted to write some urban fantasy games but I’m intimidated because the ttrpg market is notoriously insular and beholden to first mover advantage, supplement treadmill, etc. It would be a constant uphill battle to hook customers and keep them hooked.

So I wonder if I would be better off going into writing fiction and/or video games? Or hedge my bets? Urban fantasy is a hugely unexplored setting for video games, after all, and new urban fantasy fiction is always in high demand.

If you're looking for money, look elsewhere.
If you just want to write an interesting setting, do that. I'd suggest using some OGL ruleset as the basis for it. Likely overlap with people who play call of cthulhu, the system used by it is under the OGL iirc.

To be more specific, you actually want to use the Mongoose Legend system as the basis and not Chaosium's BRP. It's a mess, tbh, Chaosium is shit. Mongoose is cool though. Mongoose published RuneQuest briefly and lost the license, republished the material with the license removed and under the OGL. RuneQuest's system is basically the same one used by call of cthulhu.

oh yea, I believe Delta Green is based on Legend and also released under the OGL, and basically an OGL version of call of cthulhu.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Green

 

[Storyfag]

I couldn’t find an existing thread so I decided to make this one.

I’ve had a few ideas for writing new original urban fantasy settings. Most of my ideas can be described as “dark superheroes.” Dark in the sense of being literally nocturnal and more morally ambiguous like Punisher, but not emo goth grimdark. If you want to play an angel/vampire/shifter/whatever who moonlights as a vigilante or detective, then that’s something I’d include out of the box. I don't want to make this all about me, tho, so if you want more of my ideas then feel free to ask.

What about you? Thought of or written anything you want to share?

Post a writeup for us to dissect.

 

[Maxie]

no because urban always ends up being political and it's so asinine to put this crap in a game

 

[RaggleFraggle]

If you're looking for money, look elsewhere.

Not money, just community.

no because urban always ends up being political and it's so asinine to put this crap in a game

Yeah, I can relate. I prefer more paranormal investigations and freak of the week type episodes. Settings where the PCs are nobodies while the movers and shakers are big fish you have no chance of dislodging just don’t appeal me. I would like to write settings where the PCs are ancient immortals who go through history and get involved in stuff or live in modern times and have flashbacks to historical eras, like Highlander: The Series, but that sort of playstyle never got popular for some reason even though at least three different games I know of tried to use that premise.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

Post a writeup for us to dissect.

I wrote a number of documents, listed at this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/...KlDWZbGiT9l934uvAcUsHL1sZ7ThVLyi-Cp4VVNbZ/pub

Feel free to critique or whatever

 

[deuxhero]

Monster Hunter International RPG for Savage Worlds? Its about a team of government contractors who hunt down monsters before they can hurt humanity, using lots of guns and careful planning. Book series its based on is great (publisher offers first one, the worst by far, for free).

 

[Louis_Cypher]

Highlander: The Series, Forever Knight, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer

A lot of my favorite shows of all time are 'dark/horror/urban fantasy'. Highlander and Angel are good examples. Even Kindred: The Embraced had some merit. Maybe I'll check out Forever Knight. I like 'horror' in games more than 'high fantasy' overall, because I think high fantasy has devolved away from it's point, and only Tolkien ever did it right. Wheras in the dark fantasy horror or sci-fi horror genre you have everything from Doom, to Hellraiser, to Resident Evil, to Lovecraft, to Heretic, to Quake, all hitting the right notes. One of the Codex's favorite RPGs, "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines" is in the urban fantasy genre. It's not a bad idea for a setting, but it takes a lot of awareness; you gotta have a consistent and compelling metaphysical outlook. Buffy lifted a lot of it's metaphysics and mythology from Lovecraft; the Old Ones at the foundation of the setting were basically Eldritch Gods.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

Considering how shitty real life clownworld has become, I prefer throwing the emo goth shit in the trash and emphasizing the fantasy part. What I liked about Bloodlines was the comedy, not hellish dystopia.

Unfortunately, there really aren’t urban fantasy ttrpgs other that those shitty Paradox-owned emo goth ones. God knows other devs have tried: Nightlife, WitchCraft, Nephilim, Invisible War, Fireborn, Buffy, Everlasting, etc. They all died out.

Monster hunter games are fairly easy to find: Chill, Cryptworld, Monster of the Week, Night’s Black Agents, Stokerverse… but those are action horror, not fantasy. That’s like telling a G.I. Joe fan to watch Barbie. “They’re both dolls right? What’s the difference?”

If you’re like me, you’re looking for a game where taoist wizards work at Radioshack, leprechauns run the Irish mafia, werewolves infest Wall Street, and they all drink together down at the local pub. Unfortunately, that game doesn’t exist and anyone who tried making it wouldn’t get traction because the tabletop market is a shithole where only rotting dinosaurs hold any share while video games slowly chip it into nothing.

 

[deuxhero]

If you’re like me, you’re looking for a game where [...] leprechauns run the Irish mafia

MHI Gnomes are gangsters, playing off their extortionist origins. What you're describing in general is d20 Modern's "Urban Arcana" setting (maybe even Eberron, which is a proper fantasy setting that's just inspired by later culture than typical).

 

[RaggleFraggle]

If you’re like me, you’re looking for a game where [...] leprechauns run the Irish mafia

MHI Gnomes are gangsters, playing off their extortionist origins. What you're describing in general is d20 Modern's "Urban Arcana" setting (maybe even Eberron, which is a proper fantasy setting that's just inspired by later culture than typical).

Urban Arcana was one of my favs back in the 2000s. Unfortunately, it’s dead now and nobody is interested in picking up the torch. It’s a game where you can play Tolkien races in modern day and fight cloned velociraptors, candy golem zombies, etc. What’s not to like?

 

[deuxhero]

What’s not to like?

d20 Modern's game mechanics.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

What’s not to like?

d20 Modern's game mechanics.

Why?

 

[deuxhero]

What’s not to like?

d20 Modern's game mechanics.

Why?

This could be its own thread. Very few of the system's new ideas were properly thought out. It took at least two revisions (the still bad Star Wars d20 to the great Saga Edition) to be any good.