Urban Fantasy general discussion thread

[Thomas Shey]

I've found that its hard for me to find one I really seem to engage with; the Storyteller versions require engaging with one of the versions of the core system which I'm profoundly ambivalent about, and most others are PbtA, D&D5e or Fate based, none of which suit me notably. About the only one I liked is Wicked Pacts but its a bit narrower in scope than I prefer. Liminal seems possibly okay, but the mechanics lean a bit more to the minimalist than is my gig.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Hiding? yes, definitional. it was part of the definition of the genre by one of the publishing houses.
And I don't consider Fantasy moderns nor Fantasy Cyberpunk (Shadowrun, Torg's Tharkold and Cyberpapacy) in the UF, either, because the public knowledge makes for different Dynamics with other mundane elements.

Not familiar with True Blood.

I disagree. A publishing house can define something early on, and the genre can expand beyond that early definition. This is the case here.

Looks like wikipedia has a definition of Urban Fantasy

Urban fantasy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I think it matches what I thought of as being urban fantasy.

Wikipedia has a much better description of the genre.

 

[VelvetViolet]

By all rights and expectations, urban fantasy should be right up my alley. But for whatever reason, I've never connected with it as a genre.

I never got into World of Darkness even though I should have been a prime potential customer at its popularity height (late teen / early 20s gamer in the late 1990s). I always found the setting, premise, and writing to be overwrought. Like it somehow was saying, "This is a serious work, filled with sophisticated, complex narratives and themes between these pages. If it doesn't resonate with you, it's because you're not good enough to appreciate it." And what little of the player base I came in contact with largely exhibited similar attitudes.

To which my response was, "Thpppppffffft. Screw you and your over-pretentious musings."

Likewise, I read maybe the first 2 or 3 chapters of the first Dresden Files book, promptly set it down and never felt a single need or compulsion to pick it up again. The core ideas of the setting and character did absolutely nothing for me.

I think some of it may have to do with the fact that even though it's fiction, it's not fiction enough, or something. There's just something about the core conceit of, "It's our modern/post-modern world, but with magic, and hidden dream-like, fey-world stuff" that for some reason doesn't seem to create the kinds of story/narrative backgrounds that I want to inhabit.

For me, I can't think of a trope/narrative/premise/theme that's part and parcel with urban fantasy---particularly the World of Darkness variety---that I wouldn't rather just do in Star Wars.

If I want to play a tortured soul, trying to avoid their own darkness within, I'd much rather do it based on the Sith than as a werewolf or vampire. But to each his/her own.

Strangely, I adore cyberpunk as a genre, and it's not like cyberpunk and urban fantasy aren't within a stone's throw from each other in terms of genre conceits. But for some reason cyberpunk totally does it for me, and UF leaves me absolutely cold.

Even weirder---I absolutely loved Joss Whedon's Angel TV series, but couldn't stand Buffy.

Yeah. I don't get myself either sometimes.

I get you. I have a bunch of ideas for various genres I wanted to write prose for: urban fantasy, pulp fantasy, science fiction, grimdark, fairy tales, new weird, etc.

The one I want to do most right now is military science fiction featuring a bug war. Urban fantasy is just not high on the list of things I’m interested in.

 

[VelvetViolet]

Just learned of Legacy: War of Ages, another WoD heartbreaker with a side order of Highlander. Surprised I didn’t hear about this before. I’ll check it out

 

[Rogerd1]

Just learned of Legacy: War of Ages, another WoD heartbreaker with a side order of Highlander. Surprised I didn’t hear about this before. I’ll check it out

I recommend the original version in Portugese, Imortal. You get the history of Atlantis and stuff which is cool.

Google translate is a must

 

[VelvetViolet]

I recommend the original version in Portugese, Imortal. You get the history of Atlantis and stuff which is cool.

Google translate is a must

It seems that the only version available is a "basic version" on Drivethrurpg. The publisher planned to produce a new edition but this was delayed by the pandemic and a fire at the publisher's. Ouch! I did find a couple of less than glowing reviews, which paint it out as Highlander with the serial numbers filed off and some additional psychic powers added.

There's also a spin-off called Warlock: Black Spiral which is basically another Mage/Ars Magica heartbreaker. Notably, it uses a syntactic magic system where magic relies on skills rather than being limited in effect by level. Which is basically the same mechanic used in Opening the Dark's magic system.

Atlantis is a pretty common theme of several 90s urban fantasy games. I've seen it mentioned prominently in Nephilim, WitchCraft, and some versions of Mage. What's the appeal?

 

[Rogerd1]

It seems that the only version available is a "basic version" on Drivethrurpg. The publisher planned to produce a new edition but this was delayed by the pandemic and a fire at the publisher's. Ouch! I did find a couple of less than glowing reviews, which paint it out as Highlander with the serial numbers filed off and some additional psychic powers added.

There's also a spin-off called Warlock: Black Spiral which is basically another Mage/Ars Magica heartbreaker. Notably, it uses a syntactic magic system where magic relies on skills rather than being limited in effect by level. Which is basically the same mechanic used in Opening the Dark's magic system.

Atlantis is a pretty common theme of several 90s urban fantasy games. I've seen it mentioned prominently in Nephilim, WitchCraft, and some versions of Mage. What's the appeal?

Legacy is exactly Highlander with the numbers filed off. In a similar way that Atlantean Immortals are in Witchcraft - only instead of beheading, you have magical severing.

Edit: I have never found Black Spural, so thanks for that. Guess my googke fu really failed me.

I think it adds backstory, and world building but not everyone may feel the same. There is also a French version of Highlander that is fairly but it does not bother sticking to canon overly much.

See, I love Nephilim, but I could never get an OCR version in pdf - I did email the publishers a few times, to no avail. There is Nephilim Quintessence now out on Drivethtu, so I am hoping this may be OCR, but looking at the preview my hopes are not high.

From a personal standpoint, I think Highlander would fit in perfectly to the Nephilim universe based on my very limited knowledge of the French version. But YMMV really.

 

[VelvetViolet]

Legacy is exactly Highlander with the numbers filed off. In a similar way that Atlantean Immortals are in Witchcraft - only instead of beheading, you have magical severing.

Edit: I have never found Black Spural, so thanks for that. Guess my googke fu really failed me.

I think it adds backstory, and world building but not everyone may feel the same. There is also a French version of Highlander that is fairly but it does not bother sticking to canon overly much.

See, I love Nephilim, but I could never get an OCR version in pdf - I did email the publishers a few times, to no avail. There is Nephilim Quintessence now out on Drivethtu, so I am hoping this may be OCR, but looking at the preview my hopes are not high.

From a personal standpoint, I think Highlander would fit in perfectly to the Nephilim universe based on my very limited knowledge of the French version. But YMMV really.

There is the English Nephilim adaptation by Chaosium. It also has a mailing list group with archives going back to the 90s. Some of the material was adapted as generic magic rules in Enlightened Magic.

The English adaptation isn't a faithful translation of the French version. It takes a lot of liberties with the rules and setting, but is mostly recognizable. I did like the enlightened magic rules, as they feel less arbitrary than the original magic system. The enlightened alchemy rules in particular are fascinating. Unfortunately, the game was canceled due to poor sales and Chaosium hasn't done anything since besides the EM book. They were apparently planning to do something with it, but from what I hear they didn't do much and what they did do was going to be even more different than prior editions.

I wasn't in the group during its 90s heyday, but apparently a common point of contention was that fans were intimidated by the idea of playing body stealing parasites (in addition to the convoluted rules for things like character creation). This despite the fact that games like WoD had you playing as cannibal Manson cultists and weirder stuff.

 

[Thomas Shey]

If you want to look at another game that can be summarized as "The World of Darkness and Highlander had a love child" Immortal: The Invisible War comes to mind here. It has a bad reputation in some circles for opaqueness, but once you can get around the author's incessant need to rename ever damn thing in terminology, including making some of them kind of obscure, I didn't think it was hard to comprehend. There were some mechanical problems (the Seranades were really overly hard to use without spiritually blowing your face off) and conceptual (having a setting where the characters are supposed to be ancient immortal beings but you're still going zero to hero can be perverse, and the comparatively slow advancement didn't help), but I ran a reasonably successful campaign with a few houserules.

 

[VelvetViolet]

If you want to look at another game that can be summarized as "The World of Darkness and Highlander had a love child" Immortal: The Invisible War comes to mind here. It has a bad reputation in some circles for opaqueness, but once you can get around the author's incessant need to rename ever damn thing in terminology, including making some of them kind of obscure, I didn't think it was hard to comprehend. There were some mechanical problems (the Seranades were really overly hard to use without spiritually blowing your face off) and conceptual (having a setting where the characters are supposed to be ancient immortal beings but you're still going zero to hero can be perverse, and the comparatively slow advancement didn't help), but I ran a reasonably successful campaign with a few houserules.

The website is still up and you can download the third edition. Home

I wonder where the writer went. Nowadays you can sell this stuff on drivethrurpg.

The premise is a little bit similar to Nephilim, too. Much more so than the other immortal games. Immortal games were pretty trendy in the 90s, weren’t they? I wonder they’re not made anymore. Adventures spanning the ages where you can meet or play historical figures seem really cool.