What kind of UFH

[AvengingArrow]

Hello,

I am new to these boards, but not exactly new to Hero. I have been playing Hero for a while and found I like the flexibility of it.

Ok, I am interested in what kind of setting you would run or play in for Urban Fantasy. Also, if you have had any type of success of one type vs another.


I am currently running a Monster Hunter type on Hero Central. You can find that here (http://www.herocentral.net/campaignInformation.htm?campaignId=851435). So far it seems to be going well. I have a stable of monsters and someone to control them. Now for the PCs to stop them.

Thanks for your time,

[bubba smith]

a modern day setting simular to the monster hunter genre in dark champions it could also be like charmed or the dresden files or maybe a harry potter campaign which would be like ravenscroft acadamy as hogwarts students arn't allowed to use there powers in public to avoid causing a panic

[Karmakaze]

Ok, I am interested in what kind of setting you would run or play in for Urban Fantasy. Also, if you have had any type of success of one type vs another.

I'm just finishing a run of a game that I pitched as "Ghostbusters meets Angel" that went fairly well. I used a setting where most folks have a mental block that prevents them from registering the supernatural. Those who can get past that... have odd lives.

[Shadowsoul]

Dresden! We want Dresden!

Let me know if you want to hear from players AA. If not then I'll make a point of ignoring this thread so I won't know what plots you're hatching.

[gojira]

I was thinking of a more classic type of Urban Fantays. Magic is there, folks know about it, but many don't really believe in it. It's kinda like alternative medicine. Who knows if that stuff really works? And there's probably enough fakers out there to keep the doubters doubting.

But sometimes you find the real McCoy...

Hudson City by default, but a somewhat more suburban setting might be cool.

[bubba smith]

Dresden! We want Dresden!

Let me know if you want to hear from players AA. If not then I'll make a point of ignoring this thread so I won't know what plots you're hatching.
UFH character ambrose stone could do equally well he could be dresdens colleague from hudson city

[AvengingArrow]

I have plans to have a Dresden analog in my game. To interesting of a character not to.

The GB meets Angel sounds interesting. I see your point about the mental blocks. To quote Giles from BTVS "People rationalize what they don't believe and forget what they can't rationalize." I tend to keep that in mind when creating a story.

Gojira,
I use Hudson City mainly because of the detail provided. It has various neighborhoods that fit in nicely. I am not sure what you mean by "more suburban", but Hudson City has it, IMHO at least.

[gojira]

I use Hudson City mainly because of the detail provided. It has various neighborhoods that fit in nicely. I am not sure what you mean by "more suburban", but Hudson City has it, IMHO at least.

By "suburban" I meant "Sunnydale." Hudson City is very urban. Around large cities you tend to have sub-urban towns -- smaller towns that are satellites of the larger city. That's a suburb, or at least that's how I'm using the word.

Sunnydale is suppose to be what, 38,000 people? That's a pretty small town. I grew up in a town that had around 50,000 people and it was pretty podunk. Definitely suburban, in my opinion, as opposed to urban.

[Chris Goodwin]

The Bewitched/I Dream Of Jeannie subgenre is sometimes semi-humorously called "Suburban Fantasy".

[Spence]

By "suburban" I meant "Sunnydale." Hudson City is very urban. Around large cities you tend to have sub-urban towns -- smaller towns that are satellites of the larger city. That's a suburb, or at least that's how I'm using the word.

Sunnydale is suppose to be what, 38,000 people? That's a pretty small town. I grew up in a town that had around 50,000 people and it was pretty podunk. Definitely suburban, in my opinion, as opposed to urban.

38,000 or 50,000 is podunk! :nonp:

That's the big city man! ;)

If you want podunk, my home town was 301......

PS. HC is also my US based game city of choice for pretty much any genre these days.




I now return you to your regularly scheduled topic....

[Spence]

To answer AA's question. I would lean toward an Anime based UF. Something based on series like Silent Mobius, X, Blue Seed or Aquarian Age. Though shows like Chrono Crusade, Witch Hunter Robin, Hellsing and Blood+ wouldn't be out of the question.

[shadowcat1313]

I have run a Hero version of Bureau 13/Stalking the Night Fantastic off and on for years, and its usually gone pretty well, I only killed off 2 players, one through extreme stupidity and the other through bad luck. although a third came close when the Fire Drake ate the front end of the winnebago the character was driving.

[AvengingArrow]

Hmmmm....Good ideas here. Need to find more info on some of them.

What is Bureau 13 / Stalking the Night Fantastic? What, in your opinion, is the difference between Anime style and say Buffy (or Angel)? Or even Dresden for that matter? I see them as similar in style, maybe one is darker than the other, but I would say that is more World than and actual style.

[gojira]

I would tend to agree. It depends on which anime or TV show you choose. There's not a general "all anime tends this way" although off the top of my head there's more teams of magical girls, and more shouting out the names of your powers, in most anime.

[Spence]

Hmmmm....Good ideas here. Need to find more info on some of them.

What is Bureau 13 / Stalking the Night Fantastic? What, in your opinion, is the difference between Anime style and say Buffy (or Angel)? Or even Dresden for that matter? I see them as similar in style, maybe one is darker than the other, but I would say that is more World than and actual style.

Bureau 13 was a series of great novels by Nick Pollotta: Bureau 13, Doomsday Exam, and Full Moonster. It was about a ultra top secret Division of the FBI. The premise was that everything we read about really happened. Orson Wells was an agent that 'covered up' the invasion from Mars. Werewolves really do exist. And so on.

B13: Stalking the Night Fantastic was Tri Tac Games RPG adaptation. The books predated Men in Black and IMO told a better story.

About the difference between Anime and Buffy style shows. The question doesn't track. Anime is too wide a film genre. Just like live action movies, Animation as a genre of film is broken down into multiple categories. Anime is usually used to describe animation made in Japan but with the current overlap it is animation made in Japan, Korea or elsewhere that resembles that style. Basically western animation tends to focus on the kiddies in the US, Anime does not. Anime has Drama, Action, Scifi, Fantasy and so on. If you have seen a drama or comedy on TV, then there is an equivalent Anime somewhere.

My personal choice is to watch Anime Scifi or Fantasy. Now there are some types of Anime that have very distinct and very game’able feels and settings. If Anime has a ‘style’ it would be the style in which the characters and setting are drawn. Not the plots and storylines that are portrayed. If I was to answer the question “What, in your opinion, is the difference between Anime style and say Buffy (or Angel)?” directly, it would be Anime is animated and Buffy is live action.:D

[Celt]

I'm planning on running a UFH game for my compadres but haven't figured out whether it will be a hunters-vs-monsters game like TV's Supernatural (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460681/) and Friday the 13th (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092357/), or combined normal and paranormal characters like The Dresden Files (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486657/) and Buffy/Angel, or full-on weirdness a la WoD soup. That'll depend on what the players want. I'm leaning towards the combined myself, and have started some cosmology notes.

[gojira]

38,000 or 50,000 is podunk! :nonp:

That's the big city man! ;)

If you want podunk, my home town was 301......

301 is a skid mark on the road. It doesn't rate podunk yet. ;)

Where I grew up was Napa, California. It was pretty sleepy until about 15 years ago or so, when the wine industry really took off and a lot of money started flowing in. Now it's podunk, but with an attitude. Napa is also 1.5 hours from San Francisco so anyone who wanted to do anything simply left town on a Friday night and didn't come back until Monday morning. I guess that also contributed to the very small town, nothing-going-on feeling: proximity of much larger cities.

[Spence]

301 is a skid mark on the road. It doesn't rate podunk yet. ;)

Where I grew up was Napa, California. It was pretty sleepy until about 15 years ago or so, when the wine industry really took off and a lot of money started flowing in. Now it's podunk, but with an attitude. Napa is also 1.5 hours from San Francisco so anyone who wanted to do anything simply left town on a Friday night and didn't come back until Monday morning. I guess that also contributed to the very small town, nothing-going-on feeling: proximity of much larger cities.

Well, I was 25 miles from the county seat. They had a movie theater and the Walmart :D

[Curufea]

New Crobuzon without a doubt.


Early industrial age with Victorian sensibilities and Shanghai vices. Plus there are empires and monsters of the epic scale to give a real fantasy flavour if you leave the city.
Which reminds me, I really should move http://www.curufea.com/games/crobuzon/ into the Hero Wiki.

http://www.curufea.com/games/crobuzon/6205.jpg

[Markdoc]

Hmmmm....Good ideas here. Need to find more info on some of them.

What is Bureau 13 / Stalking the Night Fantastic? What, in your opinion, is the difference between Anime style and say Buffy (or Angel)? Or even Dresden for that matter? I see them as similar in style, maybe one is darker than the other, but I would say that is more World than and actual style.


I would tend to agree. It depends on which anime or TV show you choose. There's not a general "all anime tends this way" although off the top of my head there's more teams of magical girls, and more shouting out the names of your powers, in most anime.

I think the biggest difference in popular urban fantasy is that Buffy (at least initially) started out more low key: the "Magical power/beings are secret" idea. In a lot of anime, things are more overt - you often have specific police departments or official bodies dealing with occult matters, so - for example, in Silent Mobius, you get detectives examining a gruesome murder and saying "Could be a creature trap - better call the AMP." In Hellsing, in the very first episode you get a police commissioner being chewed out for sending a SWAT team into action, and being told "You know what SOP is - in cases like this, you call the Hellsing organisation!" - and Hellsing has an army liason officer, regular meetings with senior politicians, etc. Often these organizations use draconian - but officially sanctioned - measures to keep magical threats from the public consciousness.

cheers, Mark

[ghost-angel]

One of my favorite Urban Fantasy Anime is Phantom Quest Corp. - which is of the hidden magic variety for the most part. The main character runs a detective agency that specializes in the weird.

Personally, I've always been a fan of the Charles De Lint variety of UF, which doesn't make particularly exciting gaming, but mix it with a little bit of monster hunt, keep the magic element very low key and/or difficult and you could easily maintain the wonder for an extended campaign.

[AvengingArrow]

There is a lot of material to wade through here. Going to have to see about getting some of them. Sheer titles alone seem good enough.

[Spence]

One of my favorite Urban Fantasy Anime is Phantom Quest Corp. - which is of the hidden magic variety for the most part. The main character runs a detective agency that specializes in the weird.



I missed that one. I'll have to go look for it now.....