Why the "shadow"

[Luddite]

Shadow is a crutch. It quietly solves the problem of "how do we have magic, but still have the 'modern' world as we know it?"

Personaly, I like that WotC leaves it vague. That way each DM can do as much or as little rationalization as they desire. Sure, it would be nice to have an "offical" stance. But let revel in the freedom for the DM.

-The Luddite

 

[Ranger REG]

So basically, in Urban Arcana, the Shadow is the portal for which magic and unnatural creatures to "leak" into our modern world?



I'm trying to put them in the context of Shadow Slayer vs. Urban Arcana.

I can understand the magic part, but if you have a world like Urban Arcana and not like Shadow Slayer (sidenote: if you put them in chronological order, it would be Shadow Slayer first where the Shadow start appearing in our world, then Urban Arcana second where the Shadow is occuring daily that we're getting "immigrants" pouring in).

I mean are the so-called Shadowkind "refugees" living among us? Do we as humanity accept them, like a fantasy version of Alien Nation (as opposed to being treated like mutants in X-Men)?

 

[Skywalker]

You can leave it out or make it work differently to suit your tastes and it won't necessitate cascading effects throughout the system. Not in the mechanics anyway. It is up to you to account for the implications, but I'm sure we all knew that already.

Agree. This is not a design feature of UA as it is inherent in any RPG. I still feel disappointed that WotC best shot at dealing with it was "the Shadow".

Plus if you watch the Gamers then you will not be able to say this without laughing

 

[Skywalker]

In the end, it would be way too much work for the average GM.

I can't help but feel that you and WotC underestimate a majority of gamers out there. I personally don't like to see an issue being dealt with by creating an inexplicable blunt tool for all occasions. I think it reduces options and inspiration for stories arising from UA's central idea/conflict i.e. magic in a modern world. All my opinion of course

 

[Felon]

I can't help but feel that you and WotC underestimate a majority of gamers out there.

It's not really about what DM's or players are capable of. When designing a campaign setting like UA, you can take one of two approaches. The first approach is to create a setting that requires a minimal amount of setup for the DM and players before they can get started. The second approach is to assume that the majority of DM's will relish doing a truckload of preparatory work devising ways to incorporate fantastic elements into every aspect of a totally reinvented world (after all, a single book can only cover the basics and maybe offer guidelines for the rest) then getting together with the players to indoctrinate them into a society that will constantly confuse them, being inconsistently familiar one second then alien the next. It's understandable why WotC took the former approach over the latter, especially since the familiarity of a modern setting is one of their big selling points for D20M.

I personally don't like to see an issue being dealt with by creating an inexplicable blunt tool for all occasions. I think it reduces options and inspiration for stories arising from UA's central idea/conflict i.e. magic in a modern world.

Heh. Folks thought White Wolf's "veil" concept was quite an elegant solution back in the heyday of the World of Darkness games. But it is basically a take-it-or-leave-it situation. Ambitious DM's can and will disregard the influence of shadow.

 

[tetsujin28]

Personally, I relish the kind of stories where the players would have been able to convince someone, "Look, buddy, it's the body of a werewolf!" But they can't -- the Shadow hides the evidence. The PCs will never be able to convince mundanes (no matter how powerful) that there are supernatural threats.

 

[Skywalker]

It's not really about what DM's or players are capable of. When designing a campaign setting like UA, you can take one of two approaches. The first approach is to create a setting that requires a minimal amount of setup for the DM and players before they can get started. The second approach is to assume that the majority of DM's will relish doing a truckload of preparatory work devising ways to incorporate fantastic elements into every aspect of a totally reinvented world (after all, a single book can only cover the basics and maybe offer guidelines for the rest) then getting together with the players to indoctrinate them into a society that will constantly confuse them, being inconsistently familiar one second then alien the next. It's understandable why WotC took the former approach over the latter, especially since the familiarity of a modern setting is one of their big selling points for D20M.

The UA approach isn't necessarily any easier than the other. From experience with this type of game determining natural reactions to weird events can be easier than determining artificial reactions to weird events. Changeling and Little Fears who use a similar mechanic became quite difficult when people don't react naturally to stimuli they are provided with.

I agree with your post though in general. The Shadow is a market driven tool, not a design one. So it makes sense. Again my issue with it is that the central issue to UA seemed the interaction between magic and the modern world. The Shadow seemed like a clumsy but marketing savvy solution.

Heh. Folks thought White Wolf's "veil" concept was quite an elegant solution back in the heyday of the World of Darkness games. But it is basically a take-it-or-leave-it situation. Ambitious DM's can and will disregard the influence of shadow.

WW's attempts is a whole new ball game that I won't address. As I said before the ability of GMs to change a game should not be seen as a design feature as it is inherent in any game. I am more focussing that the Shadow is WotC best shot at the idea. I don't like it (again YMMV, IMHO etc).

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Celt, and everyone else...

On the 31st Charles, Rich, Eric, and Stan! will be attending another chat in the d20 modern chatroom on irc focusing on Urban Arcana

I invite all of you to join and ask the designers head on!

 

[King of Old School]

Why did the d20 Modern designers place so much stress on the way “shadow” hides and cleans up everything?

Because it's a convenient way to introduce all the fantasy elements and still have a campaign that could, theoretically, take place in the world as we know it -- stuff that "maybe could have happened" such as urban legends and the like. By comparison, stuff like Dark Inheritance, Shadowrun, or the Marvel Universe are all obviously alternate realities that are far removed from our own.

This is just a choice, it's equally valid and not a "cop-out" just because it doesn't fit someone's preferences.

KoOS

 

[jaerdaph]

The emphasis on Shadow in the d20 Modern Roleplaying Game really only exists in the campaign settings and in some of the creature entries. As for Urban Arcana, that's a campaign setting book, so naturally Shadow is going to be a part of that.

And as others have pointed out, it is easy (effortless, in fact) to remove Shadow elements from the d20 Modern core rules. There's no "mechanic" associated with it. It's even done for you in the Modern System Reference Document.