The urban fantasy market seems awfully stagnant

Dannyalcatraz · Jun 23, 2019

World of Darkness has a stranglehold on the market. The creativity of other potential settings has no room to shine. Without competition, the genre stagnates.

While WoD is definitely the big dog in this subsection of the hobby, it doesn’t really have enough power to truly stifle creative competition. To the contrary, I’d assert that it’s enormous popularity has generated a significant amount of “Not-WoD” yearning for other designers to tap into.

The only thing is, “Not-WoDism” is not unified in its desires, so it will be very difficult for something different to grow beyond niche status. Hell, there are people playing urban fantasy/horror in the various iterations of CoC, itself a venerable and popular system.

As I write this, I am reminded of how impressed I was playing Monster of the Week. It was only a brief intro style adventure run over a couple of sessions, but I remember it being fun. And my character was a diminutive but sassy young first responder- she had no special powers but for her extensive understanding of what was in her ambulance.

(Used the paddles to give a hungry critter a NASTY shock when it got too close.)

My (limited) understanding of that game leads me to believe it could handle a pretty broad swath of urban fantasy/horror. We were slated to run a different campaign with different PCs, but it fizzled for a variety of real-world reasons. I was to be playing a fallen angel living as a human...

innerdude · Jun 23, 2019

The biggest problem with the popularity of urban fantasy is that vampires aren't cool anymore. There's a dearth of original media material.

Twilight, the execrable films moreso than the books, destroyed "urban fantasy." In terms of books, there's very little original material being produced, because it's passe. Stuff written by once-popular urban fantasy writers like Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, Laurell K. Hamilton, etc., are 15+ years old now. None of the Underworld films after the second one were any good.

As a cultural "zeitgeist," urban fantasy just isn't nearly as much of a thing anymore.

And the OP already touched on the other problem, which is that the most well-known urban fantasy RPG universe has fallen on hard times.

Dannyalcatraz · Jun 23, 2019

innerdude said:
The biggest problem with the popularity of urban fantasy is that vampires aren't cool anymore. There's a dearth of original media material.

Whaaaaaaaaaat?

LuisCarlos17f · Jun 23, 2019

When a fiction genre is too popular then it become "old fashioned", for example the far west movies with indians and cowboys. And people would rather fiction set in "exotic" places. For example a teenage who lives in a little town like sci-fi set in megacities with high skyscrapers but a geek living in a great city would rather fantasy set in country and wild zones. An European feel curiosity about manga set in feudal Japan, but a Japanese boy would rather fantasy in a civilization like European.

When Twilight and the rest of supernatural romance works were too popular, they become old fashioned, like the monsters of the hammer films, or the psycho-killers from 70-80's horror movies. Today to feel true fear they would rather some survival horror videogames like "Dead by daylight".

And there is other reason. Blockbuster superheroes movies, and zombie-apocalypse works, killed the urban fantasy. Now the readers and TV watchers don't want stories about the heroes killing the monster of the week.

Dannyalcatraz · Jun 23, 2019

Now the readers and TV watchers don't want stories about the heroes killing the monster of the week.

Depends on how you define “monster”. Criminal Minds will be airing it’s 15th season this fall. Sure, it’s not supernatural urban fantasy/horror, but MotW is the formula for it and other successful action shows.

I’d argue that Kolchack: the Night Stalker (ABC) and Constantine (NBC) were well received, but their Nielsen numbers were low. But those gross numbers are calculated across demographics, not within a genre’s fan base. They weren’t killed due to unpopularity within the genre, but rather, their lack of appeal to America in general. Both probably would have done better on smaller cable channels like SyFy. Hell, Constantine’s been reprised in the Arrowverse- the character is a regular on Legends of Tomorrow.

GMMichael · Jun 23, 2019

Dannyalcatraz said:
Whaaaaaaaaaat?

That was my sentiment.

I don't think that vampire-unpopularity is a problem though, because Hollywood can pretty easily pop something out and turn that around.

I'd pay to see Gary Oldman in Dracula 2. Just sayin'.

Arilyn · Jun 23, 2019

What sort of rule system do you like? You are going to probably have to go with a toolbox, or a game that has its own world/ lore that can be easily tweaked. Do you like Fate? GURPS? Savage Worlds? Hero? Gumshoe? Are you willing to scrounge around for out of print games? Angel, (sister rpg to Buffy) is really easy to mold into something totally divorced from the tv show.

It's hard to give advice when we don't really know what kind of system appeals to you.

Manbearcat · Jun 23, 2019

Does Blades in the Dark not qualify as Urban Fantasy?

Grimdark, cutthroat urban setting (Duskvol) - check

Paranormal (overruneth and all kinds) - check

Magic - check

Factions/tribes embroiled in endless war to ascend hierarchy - check

TwoSix · Jun 23, 2019

BoxCrayonTales said:
But I digress. You’re right about me arbitrarily discounting a setting. I failed to articulate myself and for that I apologize. I don’t like Mage because I only have a choice between “consensus reality” and “supernal realms.” If the M20 book was anything to go by, the “traditions” are lunatic radicals that hate modern civilization and the “technocracy” are lunatics that want to literally destroy the human spirit like a Saturday morning cartoon villain. The Awakening has a more obvious “not so different” theme for its heroes/villains, but is essentially the same conflict with different window dressing. It’s not as flexible as it claims to be. There is so much baggage in terms of setting and authorial intent. A toolkit it is not.

Have you looked at all at Mage for Chronicles of Darkness 2nd edition? Beyond sharing the name and the broad contours of the magic system, they're extremely different games. No consensual reality, and definitely no bases on Saturn.

Fenris-77 · Jun 23, 2019

Manbearcat said:
Does Blades in the Dark not qualify as Urban Fantasy?

Grimdark, cutthroat urban setting (Duskvol) - check

Paranormal (overruneth and all kinds) - check

Magic - check

Factions/tribes embroiled in endless war to ascend hierarchy - check

QFT - great system.

There are still recent exemplars of urban fantasy that have been excellent. The show based on Lev Grossman's Magicians was good, Supernatural is going into it's 14th season and has been hugely popular, The Strain was good. Heck, even Riverdale is essentially urban fantasy. Ghosts, spooks, magic and the rest in a modern setting are still very popular and still seem to be everywhere - you just need to avoid that particular "sexy vampires in black leather" WoD bit and most people are still very much on board. Even that can be done well - the Dresden Files has some very WoD bits around the edges and is still wildly popular.