Steve Long Posted February 3, 2009 Report Share Posted February 3, 2009 Here’s our back-cover text describing UFH: MODERN-DAY MAGIC Fantasy isn’t just wizards and elves and dragons in vast alternate worlds. Some of the most popular Fantasy tales are Urban Fantasy — stories featuring magic and other wondrous things in modern, high-tech settings. And whether your story is about vampires and werewolves fighting a war in the shadows of the city, mages manipulating historical and current events to increase their mystic power, or a world where magic and technology exist side-by-side, Urban Fantasy Hero has everything you need to create it in the HERO System! It includes: —a thorough review of the Urban Fantasy genre, including its themes, elements, and story types —extensive information for creating Urban Fantasy characters, including Package Deals, expanded rules for Skills and other game elements, and example spells and enchanted items —advice for GMs about creating and running Urban Fantasy campaigns, ranging from mostly realistic Low Urban Fantasy stories to “Open Magic” games where magic is as well-known and common as technology —a sourcebook containing four Urban Fantasy campaign settings/scenarios with detailed magic systems, sample spells, NPCs, and more Get ready to find the magic hidden in the modern world with Urban Fantasy Hero! DOJHERO515 $29.99 US ISBN 978-1-58366-113-0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted February 3, 2009 Report Share Posted February 3, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero My copy just arrived today - I LOVE the cover. Quick run down: OK - so I nearly panicked when I flipped to the back, hopefully the Index gets up to the freepage section soon (panic I tell you!) A little over half the book is dedicated to Four full settings (one is Hudson City complete with Ley Lines). The first part is genre info, I ran through pretty quickly but I like it (Musician Package Deal FTW - hey, it's an important genre element). And, Full Review later, I've been looking forward to this book for a while so I can't wait to get into it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akiva Posted February 3, 2009 Report Share Posted February 3, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero Just received mine today as well. First thing I noticed also was that there was no index which I found to be quite startling considering how the HERO books are widely regarded to have not only some of the best indices in the business but also some of the most functional. Other than that, so far it's tremendous. I've been waiting for this book since I got into HERO! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted February 3, 2009 Report Share Posted February 3, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero Just received mine today as well. First thing I noticed also was that there was no index which I found to be quite startling considering how the HERO books are widely regarded to have not only some of the best indices in the business but also some of the most functional. Other than that' date=' so far it's tremendous. I've been waiting for this book since I got into HERO![/quote'] Luckily, the last pages sidebar says it should appear in the Free Section soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akiva Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero Luckily' date=' the last pages sidebar says it should appear in the Free Section soon.[/quote'] This is a good thing. I'd still rather have it as part of the book itself, of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest steamteck Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero Any idea if they'll be another printing with the index in it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Long Posted February 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero No, there won't be. The index was omitted for a specific reason. When you print books, the pages are printed in 8- or 16-page sections (depending on the printer). Thus, a 144-page book is nine sections. UFH came out to 144 pages exactly. We can't just add two pages for an index; we'd have to add 8 or 16 pages, depending on the printer's capabilities. We're not going to pay to add pages to the book just to put the Index on two of them and have 6 or 14 blank pages. That will not only cost us more money but will earn us, for our trouble, a lot of whining about "empty pages" in the back. I'll get the Index up on the Free Stuff page as soon as I can. Flying without a full-time Art Director means some things simply take longer than expected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest steamteck Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero Thanks for the quick reply. I'll grab it up soon as I'm able then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Long Posted February 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero LOL, I just had a funny idea that I would only give the Index to people who came to my weekly chat tonight. Fortunately I am not that mean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Long Posted February 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero OK, you wacky hooligans. Fred Hicks, gentlemanly freelance art director guy that he is, has finished up the UFH index just for you. You can find the PDF on the "Free Stuff" page. Enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Admiral C Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero UFH came out to 144 pages exactly. I'll snap up the index when I get the book but I was hoping UFH would be longer than 144. I guess it's not so bad, the average 3rd Ed GURPS book was 128 or something similar and they had lots of info and PAH wasn't overly long either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero The page count came out to precisely 12x12? How spookily numerological. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero LOL' date=' I just had a funny idea that I would only give the Index to people who came to my weekly chat tonight. Fortunately I am not that mean. [/quote'] Or self-destructive enough to p!ss off your customers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barton Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero Or self-destructive enough to p!ss off your customers. I vote for self destruction... Steve wants to torture us!!! But we still love you Mr. Steve Long! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero 144? My book says 200 Which is 25 8-Page Sections. I think a lot of issues regarding books in general comes from people not having any experience with or knowledge of printing processes, which is understandable really but causes the occasional complaint. All this talk of Indices reminds me I'm behind on my Ult. Index entries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Long Posted February 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero Err, yeah, 200 -- I looked at the wrong book. But the point of "signatures" (as they're called in the industry) still holds. Fortunately PDFs provide a good backup plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero Dang, I thought I got the Ultra Foil Print with the SooperSecret Pages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akiva Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero I'll snap up the index when I get the book but I was hoping UFH would be longer than 144. I guess it's not so bad' date=' the average 3rd Ed GURPS book was 128 or something similar and they had lots of info and PAH wasn't overly long either.[/quote'] I was mildly disappointed in the page length myself. I was spoiled on Dark Champions and Fantasy Hero. But, damn if these 200 pages aren't jam-packed with greatness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Long Posted February 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero Unfortunately not all genres are really created equal in terms of how much there is for me to say about 'em. Urban Fantasy is huge in terms of the number of novels, TV shows, etc. it generates -- but the themes and tropes of the genre, and the subgenres, aren't all that numerous. Fantasy and and Science Fiction Action-Adventure, OTOH, are much broader; many of their subgenres are important enough by themselves to merit entire books. PAH and UFH are two good examples of "subgenre books" that cover subjects worthy of their own books, but that just don't lend themselves to really thick books. Cyber Hero, whenever I get around to it, is the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akiva Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero Steve, I was surprised that you limited UFH the way you did rather than expanding it and including weird, supernatural, conspiracy, mystical, and surreal types of 'urban fantasy'. Stuff like Twin Peaks, Carnivale, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero Steve' date=' I was surprised that you limited UFH the way you did rather than expanding it and including weird, supernatural, conspiracy, mystical, and surreal types of 'urban fantasy'. Stuff like Twin Peaks, Carnivale, etc.[/quote'] They're in there. Heck Twin Peaks is in the bibliography. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Long Posted February 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero I don't regard "weird conspiracy," UFOs, and paranormal stuff like you tend to see on many episodes of The X-Files as "urban fantasy." (This is discussed in the book, but I don't have a copy yet so I can't give you a page cite.) That's a separate genre, which I usually refer to simply as "Weird Conspiracy." If there were enough interest it would justify a book itself, but in the polls we've run Weird Conspiracy Hero has typically not fared well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akiva Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero I remember where you discussed it in the book and that's where my eyebrows raised; I had just expected a broader scope beyond magic-in-the-modern-age. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. I've been waiting a long time for this book and it's great stuff so far. It's too bad about Weird Conspiracy Hero, though. It's pretty much my favorite genre (especially when combined with Urban Fantasy) and I'd be interested to see what you'd have written about it. Luckily, I can pretty much generate whatever I need between Urban Fantasy Hero, Dark Champions, and The Ultimate Mystic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Long Posted February 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero That's part of why people largely seem less interested in WCH. They seem to think that between existing Hero books and standard reference sources they can cover the subgenre just fine. And while I'd certainly love to delve into UFO mythology, cryptozoology, conspiracy theory, and all that cool bizarre stuff and write about it, there's not much point in doing it if the consumer demand is minimal. In this business, you have to constantly arrange compromises between your Inner Artist and Inner Businessman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akiva Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Re: Urban Fantasy Hero In this business' date=' you have to constantly arrange compromises between your Inner Artist and Inner Businessman. [/quote'] Which is something you seem to do remarkably well. My blasphemous, barely-tolerated non-HERO-playing friends are consistently amazed at how you guys can put out so many books of quality (and some of them quite lengthy) each year especially when the RPG industry is more in a valley than a peak right now. Heck, SJG considers Munchkin, a card game, to be its flagship product now rather than GURPS. That aside, have you ever considered doing PDF-only supplements for the genres that you'd like to cover but don't think would merit the cost and effort of print publishing? It think it'd be better to have a 64-page Weird Conspiracy Hero PDF supplement than no Weird Conspiracy Hero supplement at all. Going back to SJG again, they've done really well with this approach and have even added PoD possibilities for the titles that have done really well through PDF-only sales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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