Urban Shadows - Handful of Dust
We had PC creation for Urban Shadows on Thursday. It went well, though we didn't get to actually starting play (the session was under 2 hour in length). I came out of it with a good handle of the PCs, their issues, and the rapidly evolving setting around them. The story for this short run was quickly whittled out of the wood of ideas.
My process for the session was as follows:
1. I read the 4 page City Guide for Los Angeles.
2. I have been skim reading a travel guide called "A Rough Guide to LA".
3. I came up with a matrix of 6 proto-threats; 1 for each of the 6 pairings for the 4 Factions.
4. I had ideas for an opening scene, with a couple of hazy backup ideas.
The PCs chose (randomly) the Fae, the Oracle, the Tainted and the Veteran. This is good as the first two are prominent supernatural types for LA, and the last is also well established. The Tainted was an outsider but married well with a story line I had thought about.
Character creation was marvellous. The use of directed questions, like those in Dread, and mechanics that simply and transparently establish character concept meant that all the PCs felt different and interesting. Unlike a traditional RPG, where it may be hard to mingle these different PCs together, the differences were interesting for each PC. This was followed by the Debt questions that ensured that the bonds between the PCs were tight.
Then came the the session start moves that gave everyone something to do off the bat. This also gave me a collection of NPCs and they quickly filtered through and settled onto my net of proto-threats. Following the session, I created my Storm Front by have taken my 6 proto-threats and turned two into Dangers and created a third new Danger riffing off existing ideas. Given that the game is likely to be only a few sessions, a single Storm Front with three Dangers seems fine.
As said, I am happy how it turned out. The story feels as if it has organically grown for the PCs even before play began. Most of the issue of traditional RPGs are addressed up front. As a GM, I didn't have to exercise much creative muscle before receiving player input, and the mechanics ensured that those contributions happened and were focused. Add on top of that the ease of play and maintaining momentum, I am keen to see how the game goes. I am also pretty sure that this is where I would like my gaming to develop on the whole. It hits so many buttons for me, and it has finally opened up a genre that has long been closed from me.
My process for the session was as follows:
1. I read the 4 page City Guide for Los Angeles.
2. I have been skim reading a travel guide called "A Rough Guide to LA".
3. I came up with a matrix of 6 proto-threats; 1 for each of the 6 pairings for the 4 Factions.
4. I had ideas for an opening scene, with a couple of hazy backup ideas.
The PCs chose (randomly) the Fae, the Oracle, the Tainted and the Veteran. This is good as the first two are prominent supernatural types for LA, and the last is also well established. The Tainted was an outsider but married well with a story line I had thought about.
Character creation was marvellous. The use of directed questions, like those in Dread, and mechanics that simply and transparently establish character concept meant that all the PCs felt different and interesting. Unlike a traditional RPG, where it may be hard to mingle these different PCs together, the differences were interesting for each PC. This was followed by the Debt questions that ensured that the bonds between the PCs were tight.
Then came the the session start moves that gave everyone something to do off the bat. This also gave me a collection of NPCs and they quickly filtered through and settled onto my net of proto-threats. Following the session, I created my Storm Front by have taken my 6 proto-threats and turned two into Dangers and created a third new Danger riffing off existing ideas. Given that the game is likely to be only a few sessions, a single Storm Front with three Dangers seems fine.
As said, I am happy how it turned out. The story feels as if it has organically grown for the PCs even before play began. Most of the issue of traditional RPGs are addressed up front. As a GM, I didn't have to exercise much creative muscle before receiving player input, and the mechanics ensured that those contributions happened and were focused. Add on top of that the ease of play and maintaining momentum, I am keen to see how the game goes. I am also pretty sure that this is where I would like my gaming to develop on the whole. It hits so many buttons for me, and it has finally opened up a genre that has long been closed from me.