VelvetViolet
Adventurer
To continue with the analysis of urban fantasy…
Settings like Shadowrun, Rifts, Magitech, etc fit into a fourth trend that I'll tentatively call gonzo urban fantasy. This trend is characterized by being weird and unique and depicting genres that so far seem limited to these games and haven't filtered into the wider world of fiction (outside of maybe licensed novels). These combine urban fantasy with more distant or esoteric genres like cyberpunk, post-apocalypse, and alternate history.
There's also other genres that you may or may not consider adjacent to urban fantasy. E.g. the cinematic spy thriller meets parapsychology settings such as Agents of Psi or Necroscope, or the modern conspiracy technothriller scifi game StarGate SG-1. I'm surprised that settings similar to these aren't more popular (altho to be fair something like maybe 90% of roleplaying consumption is probably just D&D, so everything else will be neglected).
In addition to presentation and genres, there’s also world building. What I’ve noticed is that there are basically two extremes with regard to the world building: eclectic kitchen sink fantasy on one end, unified magical theory on the other. E.g. Nightlife, World of Darkness, The Everlasting, WitchCraft and Esoteric Enterprises are examples closer to the former end. Nephilim, Invisible War, and Nightbane are closer to the latter end. I don't have a particular preference for any particular point on this axis, as I can see pros and cons in both extremes that make them attractive for different things.
This is of course completely different from the game design aspect of whether characters all use the same universal rules/guidelines or have their own wildly different subsystems. E.g. Nephilim had a unified magical theory where everything in the setting was derived from eight magical elements, but there were several wildly different magic systems based on this conceit. World of Darkness was much worse about this, with dozens and dozens of unique subsystems across goodness knows how many editions and spin-offs that were never designed to interact. Whereas Everlasting had rules for both freeform magic and fixed powers that were generated using the same guidelines. Here I have a definite preference for unified systems simply due to ease of use, but I can make allowances for diverging subsystems so long as they too use some kind of consistent logical guidelines.
What do you think?
Settings like Shadowrun, Rifts, Magitech, etc fit into a fourth trend that I'll tentatively call gonzo urban fantasy. This trend is characterized by being weird and unique and depicting genres that so far seem limited to these games and haven't filtered into the wider world of fiction (outside of maybe licensed novels). These combine urban fantasy with more distant or esoteric genres like cyberpunk, post-apocalypse, and alternate history.
There's also other genres that you may or may not consider adjacent to urban fantasy. E.g. the cinematic spy thriller meets parapsychology settings such as Agents of Psi or Necroscope, or the modern conspiracy technothriller scifi game StarGate SG-1. I'm surprised that settings similar to these aren't more popular (altho to be fair something like maybe 90% of roleplaying consumption is probably just D&D, so everything else will be neglected).
In addition to presentation and genres, there’s also world building. What I’ve noticed is that there are basically two extremes with regard to the world building: eclectic kitchen sink fantasy on one end, unified magical theory on the other. E.g. Nightlife, World of Darkness, The Everlasting, WitchCraft and Esoteric Enterprises are examples closer to the former end. Nephilim, Invisible War, and Nightbane are closer to the latter end. I don't have a particular preference for any particular point on this axis, as I can see pros and cons in both extremes that make them attractive for different things.
This is of course completely different from the game design aspect of whether characters all use the same universal rules/guidelines or have their own wildly different subsystems. E.g. Nephilim had a unified magical theory where everything in the setting was derived from eight magical elements, but there were several wildly different magic systems based on this conceit. World of Darkness was much worse about this, with dozens and dozens of unique subsystems across goodness knows how many editions and spin-offs that were never designed to interact. Whereas Everlasting had rules for both freeform magic and fixed powers that were generated using the same guidelines. Here I have a definite preference for unified systems simply due to ease of use, but I can make allowances for diverging subsystems so long as they too use some kind of consistent logical guidelines.
What do you think?