Urban fantasy? (that isn't WoD)

[VelvetViolet]

I'd suggest virtually any dedicated urban fantasy system will have some degree of setting assumptions baked in. If you want to avoid that, I'm back to suggesting finding a generic system that handles at least moderate levels of power well and going that way (as Danny above obviously is considering).

Urban Shadows doesn’t really have a setting. It has a bunch of playbooks, but not much in the way of setting books.

Night Shift has four separate campaign settings in the core rulebook. They’re basically kitchen sink urban fantasy setting #1, kitchen sink setting #2 (not sure why there are two of these, I couldn’t tell the difference), post-apocalyptic setting with supernatural monsters, and a magic school setting.

d20 Modern had distinct writeups for “Shadow Chasers” (Buffy-style monster hunting) and “Urban Arcana” (D&D monsters and races end up in contemporary Earth, hidden by the veil of Shadow).

Aside from that, I got nothing.

 

[aramis erak]

Urban Shadows doesn’t really have a setting. It has a bunch of playbooks, but not much in the way of setting books.

Playbooks are a means of encoding a subgenre into rules instead of explicit prose.
Not unlike the classes in many of the 80's hearbreakers....

 

[Thomas Shey]

Urban Shadows doesn’t really have a setting. It has a bunch of playbooks, but not much in the way of setting books.

The less specific the mechanics around supernatural are, the less what I said will be true, but notice I said "setting assumptions" not "setting". You can have baked in setting assumptions without a setting to go with them. As an example that was discussed--are vampires bodies possessed by demons? That's a setting assumption even if there's no meaningful setting to go with it.

Night Shift has four separate campaign settings in the core rulebook. They’re basically kitchen sink urban fantasy setting #1, kitchen sink setting #2 (not sure why there are two of these, I couldn’t tell the difference), post-apocalyptic setting with supernatural monsters, and a magic school setting.

d20 Modern had distinct writeups for “Shadow Chasers” (Buffy-style monster hunting) and “Urban Arcana” (D&D monsters and races end up in contemporary Earth, hidden by the veil of Shadow).

Aside from that, I got nothing.

At least D20 Modern was stuffed with setting assumptions baked into the material, especially in its magic and monsters.

 

[VelvetViolet]

I also forgot GURPS. There's Blood Types, Shapeshifters, several books on magic systems... Good stuff!

Btw, I'm currently working on my own treatments for urban fantasy settings. I have one on "romanticized vampires" that's basically a grab bag: there's undead vampires, living vampires, half-vampires, pureblood vampires, the whole lot. I only just started the sections on covens and bloodlines, because damn do I have my work cut out for me.

 

[aramis erak]

Urban Fantasy... it's a broad clade... Thinking its time
Ranging from huge conspiracies in ...

• Dresden Files,
• Old and New WoD,
• Chill,
• Bureau 13 (Great novel, not great game)
• BTVS/Angel (excepting certain episodes; Season 4 gets a bit gonzo, too...)

to the overt holocaust-changes in

• Deadlands, (multiple timeframes)
• End of the World Return of the Gods,
• Shadowrun.
• Ghostbusters
• Buffy/Angel, at end of Buffy S7
• GURPS: Weird War II

Invisible wars...

• Highlander
• Buffy
• In Nomine
• oWoD (Camarilla vs Sabbat, Technocracy vs Order of Hermes, Black Spiral Dancers vs Everyone....)

Then the not quite normal flavors...

• Street Fighter has magic, some real monsters, some other weirdness... and nobody notices.
• Feng Shui - time travel, magic, ubertech, snake-people, animals hiding in human form.... and being disbelieved by oh so many.
• Some of the Wrestling focused games also cross into the urban fantasy space.
• Judge Dredd RPG (Games Workshop Version) - in the JD Companion, Judge Exorcists...
• Kobolds Ate My Baby (It's set in the modern world... but with Kobolds added...)

Quite a range