New generic contemporary/urban fantasy?

[rhythmsoundmotion]

I think that velvetviolet is asking for:
Modern setting (not past or near future)
Monstrous player characters (as an option but humans as one as well)
A separation from a strongly themed property (not VTM or Dresden)
An element of the weird hiding in “plain sight”
BUT I might be misreading it all

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Vigil had a ton of neat organizations to provide paychecks and plot hooks and stuff, some of which were even villainous. Unfortunately it was canceled and replaced with the inferior Hunter: The Reckoning that goes on really insulting tirades against the organizations from prior editions. The writing says all bureaucracy and civilization is evil and only the sanctimonious anarcho-primitivist freelancers can get any work done... despite having zero support infrastructure... look, Reckoning is just an effing mess and a giant middle finger at anyone who liked the various monster hunting organizations in the games of yesteryear and who likes having clean drinking water.

You might prefer the new 2022/5th edition WoD Hunter: The Reckoning, which is a very severely mis-named game, because it has absolutely nothing to do with the "anarcho-primitivist" (not a bad description) H:tR of oWoD, but is instead is bizarrely hypermodern and has vastly more in common with Vigil, and indeed absolutely should have been called Hunter: The Vigil, because that's the ethos. There's tons of stuff about support organisations, even corporatization and gig-work. And like The Vigil, you play fundamentally mortal hunters, who at most have minor supernatural imbuements as per The Vigil, rather than the powerful, burning supernatural force of The Reckoning.

Cards on the table, I personally really disliked it - BUT - that is entirely because I felt it was deeply mis-sold by the title. I wanted trashy anarcho-primitivist stuff with people being chosen and accessing serious supernatural powers of a very specific "destroy the monsters" kind, but this ain't that game at all. It really is a new take on The Vigil, all about very diverse organisations and people who take on monsters in completely different ways.

(I was genuinely shocked after getting the book by how little this was discussed by people talking about the book. I get that H:tR wasn't the most-beloved oWoD game line but from the discussions of the 5th H:tR, I did not get the impression it was completely abandoning absolutely everything about H:tR - but it absolutely does! I genuinely have no idea why they didn't call it The Vigil, given that's what it is.)

 

[VelvetViolet]

You might prefer the new 2022/5th edition WoD Hunter: The Reckoning

That’s the version I was talking about. It’s a horrible downgrade compared to Vigil and has this huge chip on its shoulder regarding Vigil too. The 5th editions are all like that.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

That’s the version I was talking about. It’s a horrible downgrade compared to Vigil and has this huge chip on its shoulder regarding Vigil too. The 5th editions are all like that.

That's a truly weird take then, because the 5E HtR is absolutely not at all as you describe "anarcho-primitivist", whereas the oWoD HtR 100% was. The 5E HtR is on the contrary aggressively hypermodern, and there are absolutely support organisations to the point where you're probably taking to fellow hunters on WhatsApp and doing gig-work killing monsters assigned to you by an app, and being paid by a corporation or the like! Nothing about it is anarchist or primitivist (unless you think working for GrubHub is!). Whereas in oWoD HtR you were magically chosen individuals and only your magic could fight monsters, which arguably was both of those things.

I agree that the 5E editions are typically a downgrade compared to both oWoD (including 20A editions) and nWoD, but your description is just way off here, like, just as inaccurate as the title of HtR 5E is!

Like, are you sure you read the 2022 5E HtR? This one:

Not the 1999 one:

Because those are two wildly dissimilar books. And Hunter: The Vigil (2008) is much more similar to the 2022 one.

 

[Staffan]

ETU is Eastern Texas University a settings book for Savage Worlds DriveThruRPG (I don’t know if it allows supernatural Player Characters.)

Only in a very limited fashion. You can be psychically sensitive or have things like a spirit guardian, and eventually you'll unlock the ability to perform ritual magic (think the kind of things Giles does in Buffy – not the direct magic Willow does in the later seasons, but "banish the demon"-type rituals), but we're not talking fey, vampires, werewolves, or the like.

 

[innerdude]

Only in a very limited fashion. You can be psychically sensitive or have things like a spirit guardian, and eventually you'll unlock the ability to perform ritual magic (think the kind of things Giles does in Buffy – not the direct magic Willow does in the later seasons, but "banish the demon"-type rituals), but we're not talking fey, vampires, werewolves, or the like.

True, but Savage Worlds also gives fairly good guidance for developing custom character traits that fall in line with the standard PC build costs. Creating a custom heritage/character trait set is relatively easy because SW is so hackable.

I'm pretty sure I could come up with a werewolf, or fey, or demon-touched set of edges/trait adjustments in a matter of minutes. Beyond just the actual stat changes, the real things would be the lore --- if you're a "vampire" heritage, which historical lore sets apply? Dracula? Buffy? The Twilight series? The Passage by Justin Cronin? Interview with a Vampire? None of the above?

Whatever you choose will go into the edges/hindrances balance.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

We are really stretching the definition of "new" in this thread.

Here's one that actually is new: It's Only Magic by Monte Cook Games, released last summer. It's a Cypher system urban fantasy supplement.

 

[rhythmsoundmotion]

We are really stretching the definition of "new" in this thread.

Here's one that actually is new: It's Only Magic by Monte Cook Games, released last summer. It's a Cypher system urban fantasy supplement.

Looks fantastic

 

[VelvetViolet]

The 5E HtR is on the contrary aggressively hypermodern, and there are absolutely support organisations to the point where you're probably taking to fellow hunters on WhatsApp and doing gig-work killing monsters assigned to you by an app, and being paid by a corporation or the like! Nothing about it is anarchist or primitivist (unless you think working for GrubHub is!).

From everything I’ve read on the books and been told by players, 5e is supposed to be the polar opposite of how you describe it. It’s about playing “freelancers” who hate and fight “orgs” because bureaucracy is magically evil. You’re the first person I’ve seen mention that it’s about a playing someone in magical gig economy.

If your interpretation is the right one and I’ve somehow been fed a diet of misinformation (including somehow being misled by the official books that demonize orgs), then working gigs still sounds soul-crushingly banal compared Hunter: The Vigil’s much more diverse plethora of options. Vigil lets you work for (or against) a variety of organizations including amateur online message boards, government task forces, secret wings of the Vatican, pharma corporations, and idle rich big game hunters. Some of whom have superpowers. There are very blatant themes of “losing yourself to the hunt” and “blurring the line between human and monster”. Some of the orgs are outright villainous, or at least have purely selfish motives.

 

[Micah Sweet]

First I've heard of this. I'll check that out.


I've read that. The problem I keep running into is that it's all toolkit and no setting. I'm looking for a happy medium between "all toolkit, no settings" and "one setting, no alternatives, no toolkit." So far I haven't been able to find anything suitable.

You could probably put something like what you want together bu combining World Without Number and Cities Without Number, removing whatever rules modules in either game don't fit your vision. Its a great core system, ideal for DMs and worldbuilding, but with a setting of its own.