Experiences with Urban Arcana

[klofft]

Anyone here have some significant experience with UA? Not as a one-shot or mini-campaign, but in extended campaign play? I'm wondering: are there enough resources to keep things interesting once the novelty of the setting wears off? Does the shadow backdrop hold up without raising more questions than it answers in the long run?

I think it's an interesting idea for a setting, and I'm considering some long-term campaign ideas for my group. We are all familiar with d20, but most of my players prefer modern campaigns, while myself and a couple others would like to do something more fantasy.

Thanks in advance.
C

 

[RangerWickett]

This wasn't Urban Arcana, but it was a magical modern campaign, using the magic system from Elements of Magic - Mythic Earth.

High Fantasy Story Hour - The Long Road

I can't say anything about 'the shadow,' but using real world myths mingled with pop culture (the modern mythos) created a hell of a fun campaign. I will say, if you're going to play a modern game, don't use D20 Modern. It's not as fun as, say, Spycraft or a low-Power Level Mutants & Masterminds game (with magic instead of super powers).

What plot did you have in mind?

 

[klofft]

I wanted to run d20M because my group is currently using a hybrid Spycraft 1.0. Prior to that, I ran a 5-year Champions campaign. Therefore, I'm looking for something a little more rules-lite. I know it's humorous to think of anything specifically d20 as "rules-lite," but by comparison...

I have no story ideas at the moment (or even the sure knowledge that I'll be running it). Hence my request for experiences specifically with UA, rather than just "modern fantasy."

Thanks.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Years ago, when the UA book first came out, I ran a campaign that lasted about 9 month. It was a side game for me, and the double prep really wore me out, so I had to give up one.

Back then I was mostly on my own comping up with the campaign -- there was the UA sourcebook and the main books and some other stuff, but not much of what you'd call campaign support stuff. And, since it's been a while, I don't know if that's changed much.

That said, my biggest problem was trying to find story and characters for the game that really fit the game -- I wanted ideas that weren't just D&D with guns. That was hard.

If you're finding yourself inspired by stuff like Dresden (TV Show) and you'd like to have a sort of modern magicish game, but something that doesn't feel like D&D, you might look at something like True20. There are some pretty good campaigns for it, it's a nice easy to work with system, and while the core mechanics are basically the same the system does seem to have a different feel. Haven't had a chance to play it yet, myself, so take all of that with a metric-ton sized grain of salt.

-rg