# Urban Shadows tags: #game/rpg/urban-shadows ![[Urban Shadows (cover).jpg]] So, you've decided to dip your toes into the grimy, neon-soaked cesspool of urban fantasy politics. **Urban Shadows** is a game for those who looked at classic monster stories and thought, "This is great, but it needs more backstabbing, social maneuvering, and crushing debt." It's less about being a "bad enough dude to kill the werewolf president" and more about figuring out who the werewolf president owes a favor to, and how you can leverage that to your advantage. You'll play as vampires, wizards, fae, and even a few poor mortals who know too much, all scrambling for a piece of the city. Forget your grand quests; this is about survival, power, and the messy, beautiful chaos of a city that never sleeps and is always hungry. At its core, **Urban Shadows**, in both its first and second editions, is a Powered by the Apocalypse ([[Powered by the Apocalypse|PbtA]]) game. This means you're not rolling against a target number set by a capricious Master of Ceremonies (MC). Instead, when your character does something interesting and uncertain, you describe your action, which triggers a "move." You then roll two six-sided dice (2d6) and add one of your character's stats (like Blood, Heart, Mind, or Spirit). The result determines the outcome: - **10 or higher (10+):** A full success. You do the thing you wanted to do, and probably get a little something extra. - **7 to 9:** A partial success or success with a cost. You get what you want, but there's a complication, a hard choice, or a price to pay. This is where the real drama lives. - **6 or less:** A miss. This is where the MC gets to make a move of their own, and things invariably get more complicated and dangerous for you. It's not a "failure" in the traditional sense; it's an invitation for the story to take a dramatic turn. The first edition of **Urban Shadows** featured a move called "unleash an attack" for when violence was the answer. On a 7-9, the player had to choose what they would lose in the exchange—their advantage, their target, or their own safety. The "let it out" move was a broad, open-ended mechanic for using your character's supernatural powers, allowing for a great deal of player creativity. **Urban Shadows: Second Edition** refines and sharpens these mechanics. "Unleash an attack" is replaced with the more dynamic "turn to violence." Now, on a hit, you always inflict harm, but your opponent gets to choose from a list of consequences for you, making every fight a dangerous and unpredictable exchange. The "let it out" move has been overhauled to be playbook-specific; each character archetype now has a unique list of four abilities they can unleash, providing more concrete options while still allowing for powerful moments. The second edition also introduces "Circles" (Mortalis, Night, Power, and Wild) to replace the more rigid Factions of the first edition, and adds a "faction turn," a downtime phase where both players and the MC can make moves to influence the city's political landscape. This, combined with the new "City Hubs" mechanic, encourages more interaction between player characters and keeps the focus on the tangled web of relationships and obligations that make the city tick. ## References - [Buy Urban Shadows 2nd Edition - Magpie Games](https://magpiegames.com/collections/urban-shadows ) - [Buy Urban Shadows 2nd Edition PDF - DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/495581/urban-shadows-2nd-edition) - [Review of Urban Shadows 2nd Edition - The Gaming Gang](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G_KZbMw8Ms") - [Review of Urban Shadows - Strange Assembly](https://www.strangeassembly.com/2019/review-urban-shadows) - [Discussion of 1e vs 2e Mechanics - RPG Stack Exchange](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/194997/how-does-urban-shadows-second-edition-differ-from-the-original") - [Interview with Mark Diaz Truman on 2e - EN World](https://www.enworld.org/threads/urban-shadows-2e-an-interview-with-mark-diaz-truman-magpie-games.676259/)