Anyone playing Urban Arcana?

[Biohazard]

Is anyone out there playing Urban Arcana? I bought it the other day and I've been really impressed with it. Superb production values and some innovative twists on traditional fantasy archetypes. Sort of Mage: the Ascension meets D&D meets Shadowrun.

Anyway, I'm bursting with random, scattered ideas but not sure how to actually implement anything. I'm thinking of doing something along the lines of WW's World of Darkness, heavy on magic and spirits. (As a side note, I *love* Urban Arcana's description of the various types of spirits on page 234-236--does anyone know if this was lifted from the D&D Monster Manual?).

Can anyone share stories/concepts from their own Urban Arcana games? I'd like to brainstorm a bit.

 

[Stormborn]

I would love to be playing in an Urban Arcana game, and ran one for a little while. Player interest killed it. However, if its brainstorming you want:

1. While it was never revealed, in the campaign I was running the Bad Guys were the Beloved who were building a toxic dump as a way of long term sacrifice. I was going to have roach thralls,swarms, toxyderms, and homunculi in a big Dump Crawl at the end. It never happened.

2. Rural Arcana:Gravediggers - Dukes of Hazard + Buffy. An international conspiracy of funeral homes keeps the world safe from the Undead.

3. Nephilim: Players are all decendants of angels and demons, Aasmir and Tieflings or otherwise. Heaven and Hell may have an agenda, but the left over children of that conflict have their own plans. Change it up and have them all be genasi, from FR, instead.

4. Gates: Marvel's Exiles comic + Stargate +Quantum Leap, with a UA twist. Players have to move from reality to reality protecting the multverse by making small specific changes to the timeline. First up: A Yuan-ti Mage is impersonating the president. Fix it.

5. Tarot: The 4 suits are ancient houses and they are running a silent war in the streets. Have each PC choose a card and build a character around it, maybe give them some bonuses and some flaws with it.

6. Secret Archeology: THe world has a secret strange history, the PCs want to know it and preserve it. Read Planetary.

You should check out Blood and Relics and the Menace Manual, use those two together with Urban Arcana and have lots of fun.

 

[Patrick O'Duffy]

Not yet. Probably sometime this year, though, when I wrap up my Ravenloft game.

My main idea, at this point, is that the PCs are established players in the mystic underground, 6th level movers and shakers in a world that has only a very low-level of magic.

But all of a sudden, the world's magic level has increased dramatically. Creatures are emerging every day from Shadow, and many of them are vastly more powerful than the PCs. From being big fish in a small pond, the PCs are now small fish in a much bigger lake. And if they want to retain control over their temporal and mystical power and prestige, they're going to have to adapt fast.

 

[Gospog]

Well, I've used the book, if not the actual setting.

I'm running Shadow Chasers, but I'm using (and allowing) a lot of stuff from UA in the game. It definately gives it more of a "magical", fantastic feel.

It also allows each character to be interesting and have thier own set of "magical powers".
In Shadow Chasers, the Shadow Slayer is special, and almost everyone else is back-up, at best. By adding PrC's from UA, we also have a Mage and a Psi-Blade (from the main book) who can hold thier own.

Also, the magical items (FX) are cool as well.



Edited for spelling

 

[Rolzup]

Don't know when, or if, I'll get around to using UrbArc...but I got a plan.

There's a very good book by Micheal Swanwick entitled _The Iron Dragon's Daughter_, which is set largely in an industrialized version of the classic Faery. Not a particularly pleasant place to live; this isn't one of those happy Victorian Fairylands.

The idea is to have the fantasy incursion in UrbArc come from this sort of world, with most of the newcomers as refugees from a repressive Unseele regime. I love the idea of sending a bunch of heavily armed PCs into this other world's version of New York City on a covert mission.

Everything would start with the PCs finding a copy of this picture...

...and having to investigate to find the source.

Rolzup

 

[Kesh]

I'd say giving the Occultist access to UA rituals instead of scrolls would really improve a Shadow Chaser's campaign without throwing too much magic into it.

 

[Gospog]

You called it, Kesh! Rituals are one of the first things I added to our game, from UA.

I plan on adding them to D&D as well, for that matter. Rituals are just too obvious as a plot device to pass up. Knowing that ther heroes must stop the evil wizard (occultist, cult, etc...) before the ritual is completed is great incentive for the players.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

It's a decent resource, but the Shadow is just too goofy. Goblins in Modern are bad enough, without making them look like "kids" or "hoodlums" or whatever mundanes will see them as.

If I ever run Queen Euphoria I will find it really good.

My best "yoink" from the book is the dragon-blooded template. As a result of that template I've basically tossed the half-dragon right out of my DnD campaign. Booya!

 

[Tellerve]

I think the spell system the guys in the Medallions d20 story hour is pretty neat. Although the exact specifics aren't at my immediate fingertips right now, I think I saved it somewhere. Or maybe they could pass it along, but I seem to recall it having itself built around skills, and possibly a feat or two.

Tellerve

p.s. Rolzup, that head is freaky! I have no clue what that thing is at all. I figure it is just a great mockup of something from someone's mind. But I was trying to think of some sorta messed up creature from RL that it could be and failed.

 

[Psychic Skeksis]

Okay, I'll bite...what the *hell* is that picture???? Damn, is it cool! Please, explain!!!