#urban combat

[sgtgrunt0331-3]

In one of the most famous photographs from the war in Iraq and still gripping his 9mm Beretta, a seriously injured 1st Sgt. Brad Kasal is carried from the “Hell House” by Lcpl Chris Marquez and Lcpl Dane Shaffer on November 13, 2004.

1st Sgt. Kasal lost much of his blood and nearly lost his right leg after being shot seven times by insurgents. His body was peppered with shrapnel as he used his body to shield an injured younger Marine, PFC Alex Nicoll, from a grenade blast.

For his heroic actions that day while serving as first sergeant of Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, Brad Kasal received the Navy Cross.

(Photo by: Lucian Read)

[blueiskewl]

The Front Line

Border guards of Luhansk detachment in heavy fighting at Bakhmut, Ukraine.

[theokone]

urban combat  

[proud-spaniard]

1280x913 Soldados nacionales en combate urbano, Guerra Civil Española 1936-39 (sin más datos).

[awarree]

-Russian special operation in Mariupol, Ukraine -

[anim-ttrpgs]

Example of Melee Combat in Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy

Here is the recently rewritten and updated example of melee combat gameplay from the Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy rulebook.

This example follows up from where the example of investigative gameplay left off.

An actual combat scene in Eureka should have more colorful descriptions than this, but that has been dialed back specifically to help highlight the mechanics as it is a learning device, and to keep it from taking up too many pages.

When we left off in the Example of Investigation in Chapter 1, detectives Nick Morgan and Hector Law, the investigators of players Addison and Ash respectively, had just discovered a hidden trap door in the office with the secretary, Hugo. The jig is up, and Hugo moves to attack, hoping to clobber at least one of these men and slip away in the chaos.

He swings the marble paperweight Law’s head. There is no “Marble Paperweight” weapon listed in the rulebook, but, the marble paperweight is a bit bigger than a hand, and, of course, made of marble. It is not a stretch of the imagination to say that getting hit by it would be similar to getting hit by a hammer, so everyone at the table can easily agree that the marble paperweight is a weapon that does 2 Penetrative Damage. Because every human character in Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy has 5 Superficial HP and 5 Penetrative HP, that’s enough to Injure a person in 2 good hits, and kill them in 3.

Because Hugo swung first, he automatically gets to take the first turn.

Ash quickly interjects, Law is going to try to react quickly and seize the initiative. This requires rolling Law’s Reflex skill, and if he gets a Full Success, he will be able to make a move first and interrupt Hugo’s strike. Law’s Reflex stat is good, a +2. However, the dice come up as double 1s, ‘snake eyes’. Even if Law had a Reflex of +100, double-1s would always be a Failure. This means that the strike will go through uninterrupted, as Law is not able to meaningfully react quick enough, even as Morgan yells out “Look out!”

Law also does not get any Investigation Points for this Failure, because it was not an investigation roll.

This is a dangerous situation for the investigators. Because he has a hard-hitting weapon, and because of Epicenter Initiative, Hugo could end up Injuring Law before Morgan even has time to react.

Epicenter Initiative means that the two participants that an instance of melee combat starts out with get to make two moves in the first Round before anyone else involved moves, and then every character takes their actions in order or who is closest to the center of the fray.

Round 1

First, there is Morale to account for. 

Morale is like a very simplified Composure for NPCs. There are no rolls for it, it just goes up and down depending on things happening in the fight, and when it goes to 0, an NPC will flee or surrender—though they may flee or surrender before that, at the Narrator’s discretion.

Hugo is a bit of a wimp, he only has a base Morale of 1. At the start of this instance of combat, he is outnumbered by his opponents, which is -1 Morale. (This is not the same as the “Overwhelmed” mechanic which we will get to in a moment. This Morale hit still counts even if not all of the enemies are directly engaged.) However, he also feels like he has no choice but to fight, which bumps his Morale up by +1, balancing it out and leaving him with a Morale of 1. Of course, the investigators could probably force him to surrender instantly just by pulling out their guns, but for the sake of having an Example of Melee Combat, we are saying they somehow don’t have their guns.

If either of the investigators are hit with Hugo’s melee weapon, they will have to make a Melee Weapon Composure Roll. Law and Morgan are both pretty tough guys, their fear of melee weapons equates to a +0 and +1 modifier respectively. Morgan also has the “I’m Fine” Trait, which adds +2 to all his Composure rolls. 

Round 1: Hugo’s Bonus Turn

Now for the attack. The Narrator rolls 2D6+[CQC] for Hugo because he is using a melee weapon. His CQC is -1. (5+5-1=9) A 9 is a Partial Success, meaning the weapon hits, but for only half its regular damage. That is 1 Penetrative Damage instead of 2.

The Narrator lets Ash take this description, because it involves her character. Ash describes that Law is able to move out of the way just enough that instead of hitting the top of his head, the blow hits his shoulder, leaving an earful bruise but nowhere near as bad as it would’ve done to his skull.

Law now has 4/5 Penetrative HP.

At the same time, Ash rolls 2D6+0, Law’s Melee Weapon Tiers of Fear modifier, because taking damage from a melee weapon also means that he has a chance to take Composure damage too. (4+5+0=9) A 9 is a Partial Success. Law takes 1 Composure Damage, putting him at 6/7 Composure.

Round 1: Law’s Bonus Turn

Law jumps to his feet, and Ash declares that he is going to take a swing back at Hugo. An unarmed Basic Melee Attack can use either Athletics or CQC. His Athletics(+0) is worse than his CQC(+1), so the roll will go with his CQC. Ash rolls the dice. (1+6+1=8) An 8 is a Partial Success. Partial Successes with unarmed basic melee attacks deal 1 Superficial Damage. A Full Success would also deal 1 Superficial Damage.

Ash describes that Law stands up and socks Hugo in the chest.

Hugo now has 4/5 Superficial HP.

Round 1: Hugo’s Turn

Not dissuaded by the hit, Hugo goes to swing again. (4+6-1=9) Partial Success. 1 Penetrative Damage again.

Hugo swings the marble paperweight around and clubs Law’s nose with it, blood now drips from his nostrils. Law now has 3/5 Penetrative HP. A Full Success hit from that weapon at this point, and he could become Injured and possibly Incapacitated. Another two hits, and he could die. There is also a Composure Roll. (4+4+0=8). Law loses 1 more point of Composure, now with 5/7.

Ash and Law both realize that even with Morgan’s help, they will probably not be able to outpace the damage Hugo can do with a weapon as long as they’re only using Basic Melee Attacks.

[off to the side] In melee combat, when characters are unarmed, often their best bet is the Advanced Combat Moves, such as Grabs, Holds, etc.

Round 1: Law’s Turn, or is it?

Law changes strategies. Instead of punching, he is going to tell Morgan to Grab Hugo. Law can hold his action and wait for another character to go first, which is just what he’ll do.

Round 1: Morgan’s Turn

Morgan is starting his turn on the other side of the room, which isn’t too far away for him to cover the distance in just a second or so, but is too far for him to swing a fist, so he has to move into engagement range. This is less than 30 feet away, and there are no obstacles in between, so it requires no special roll, Addison just has to say he goes there and he goes there.

Now that Morgan and Law both are within arm’s reach of Hugo, Hugo is Overwhelmed. This means every attack against him will have a +1 bonus for every additional character trying to fight him. Because it’s two against one, this will be a +1 bonus total.

A Grab is an attack that, well, grabs ahold of the enemy. It can use Athletics or CQC, but always has an added penalty of -1.

Morgan’s CQC and Athletics are both +2, so it doesn’t matter which one he uses, but now that Hugo is officially Overwhelmed(directly engaged in melee by more opponents than him), there is an extra +1. Morgan’s Grab Roll is (4+2+2-1+1=8). An 8 is a Partial Success.

A Grab is a somewhat risky maneuver, it leaves the attacker open to a counter-attack. With a Partial Success, Morgan does get a grip on Hugo, but Hugo gets to swing at him as he does. That’s why it was a more tactical choice for Morgan to make the Grab attempt instead of Law, because he still has enough HP left to take a hit if Hugo clobbers him.

(6+5-1=10), 2 Penetrative Damage.

Phew! It’s a good thing Morgan took that hit instead of Law; if Law had taken it, he would be down to 1 Penetrative HP, and he would’ve had to make an Injury roll, and that’s bad news. Now Morgan is down to 3/5 Penetrative HP, which isn’t great, but at least neither of them are Injured. Morgan also has to make a Composure Roll because he took damage. His Melee Weapon fear is +1, and he gets +2 from the I’m Fine Trait. (3+5+1+2=11). An 11 is a Full Success so he loses 0 Composure, keeping him at 7/7.

Round 1: Law’s Turn, for real.

Hugo is now Grabbed, meaning he has an extra -1 penalty to all actions he takes, and any character attacking him gets a +1 to their attack. This stacks with him being Overwhelmed.

Despite the penalties, Hugo is still dangerous with that big block of marble in his hand. It’s a low chance, but a good hit would now Injure either of the investigators. Law needs to end this before that has a chance to happen. He has a lot of options.

He could just punch Hugo with a Basic Melee Attack, but that would only do 1 Superficial Damage at best, Hugo would get to make a move of his own right after.

He could wind up for a Knock-out Blow, and try to take all 4 of Hugo’s remaining Superficial HP in a single strike, which would force him to make an Injury Roll, and making any kind of Injury Roll would take his last point of Morale, but Knock-out Blow carries a -3 penalty with it that is not entirely made up for by the various bonuses, making it unlikely to be a Full Success and do the 4 damage needed. Plus, if Hugo fails that Injury roll, it might actually knock him unconscious, and then Morgan and Law wouldn’t be able to question him. Worst of all, if Law gets a Failure, Hugo could make a counter-attack.

He could try to Disarm Hugo of the marble paperweight, which would not only render him unable to do so much damage, but also take his final Morale point, but that also carries a penalty and a chance for Hugo to counter-attack.

He could Guard, which would make him less likely to take damage if Hugo attacks him next, but that wouldn’t put him any closer to defeating Hugo, and plus Hugo could just attack Morgan instead.

His best option in this specific situation then is probably to try and put Hugo in a Hold. A Hold is a much more effective form of a Grab that can only be attempted if a target is already Grabbed, either by the character attempting the Hold, or by an ally of the character attempting the Hold. It also has a less serious penalty than Knock-out Blow and does not open Law up to a potential counter-attack. Plus, even though a Partial Success on a Hold does not put the target in a Hold, it gives the attacker a +2 bonus to the next Hold attempt, and being put in a Hold takes -1 Morale from NPCs.

Ash declares that Law is going to attempt to put Hugo in a Hold, and rolls the dice. The penalty for a Hold is -2, but he also has his +1 CQC skill, the +1 bonus from Hugo being Grabbed, and the +1 bonus from Hugo being Overwhelmed. (6+3+1-2+1+1=10) A 10 is a Full Success.

Law is able to get a grip on Hugo too and completely restrain him. Now, any action by Hugo would have a debilitating -3 penalty, and any attack against him would get an extra +3 bonus. Law could also put him into Submission, which would automatically do 2 Superficial Damage to him every time it is Law’s turn and make any resulting Injury Roll count as one degree of success lower than its actual result. However, none of that really matters, because being put in a Hold has taken Hugo’s Morale down from 1 to 0.

“Stop! Stop! I give up! I’m sorry! Don’t hurt me!” He cries, dropping the marble paperweight and surrendering to Morgan and Law.

This does not necessarily stop combat, Morgan and Law could continue to hurt him until he collapses or dies, but neither of them is that kind of guy.

Morgan tells him he has some explaining to do, and he better answer all their questions.

Lastly, at the end of combat, Law and Morgan must each make a Composure roll using the Melee Weapon Fight modifier from their respective Tiers of Fear, because they just got in a fight where melee weapons were in play. Ash and Addison roll the dice.

(6+5+0=11) for Law. A Full Success. He loses 0 Composure Points.

(6+6+1+2=15) for Morgan. Also a Full Success. It is also double sixes, or ‘boxcars’, meaning that no matter what the modifier was, it would have always been a Full Success. Even with a modifier of -1,000, double sixes would still count as a Full Success. Morgan loses 0 Composure. 

That whole combat encounter lasted less than a minute in the world of the game, and only took about 5 minutes in real-world time. Combat in Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is fast, exciting, and decisive, and this helps it be every bit as characterful as any other scene in the game without running over on the session time. Like in real life, simulating combat in Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is a small handful of very meaningful decisions happening one right after another in a very short span of time. 

None of these rolls gave the investigators any investigation points, because they were not investigation rolls.

Find out what happens next in the Medicine Example.

You can pick up a free promotional copy of this rulebook and a free starter adventure module for free from the link on our website, and get the full rulebook and two other adventure modules for just $5 on our Patreon.

[mrsbonesmccoy]

[self--other]

[ SELF // OTHER ] - Original 18+ Urban Sci-fi/Fantasy Discord Server RP

There are colossal creatures in the sky, and you have a monster for a soulmate. This is normal.

~ ✦ ~

In the 50s, people began manifesting their souls outside of themselves as autonomous humanoid creatures known as "Others." However, with their arrival, so came the Colossi: massive interdimensional monsters currently threatening humanity.

Earth's last defense is ODIN, a pseudo-world-military shrouded in secrets that combats Colossi. Rumors of its strange experiments and illegal arms deals circulate. Colossi aren't the only thing you'll be fighting, however. Global tournaments as influential as the Superbowl pit Others against one another for gold and glory.

~ ✦ ~

Self//Other is an active LGBTQ+ positive adult RP community. It's set in an modern-day urban sci-fi with fantasy elements. (Think Pacific Rim meets His Dark Materials.) We have monthly events, art giveaways, collectable rewards, and a unique combat/level up system that rewards RP. Lurkers are welcome, check us out today! ✦ - 18+ server w/ SFW and NSFW RP channels ✦ - LGBTQIA+, POC, neopronoun, and system safe ✦ - Lurkers welcome ✦ - Active monthly events and interactive lore ✦ - Rewards for activity & achievements ✦ - Cohesive level-up system ✦ - Original PVP & Team vs GM RP combat systems ✦ - Server shop w/ currency you gain by RP'ing ✦ - Friendly mods w/ dedicated feedback channel ✦ - Variety of fun bots including Tatsu, Pokétwo, and FredBoat!

Join today --> (Discord link here) or (https://discord.com/invite/zVcyQMg5wN)

[equalseleventhirds]

Hey, do you have any recs for long form, more serious ttrpg systems for fantasy settings? I feel like I hear a lot about short/definitively-lengthed systems, but I've been yearning for a DnD-esque system without all the baggage of equip loads and complicated Challenge Ratings and other rules-y baggage I don't super care about.

do i! do i ever!

serious & long-form systems do on the whole tend to be crunchier than shorter systems (not always, but generally); nevertheless, i've picked out a........ handful......... ok there's Several, i did try to control and limit myself but u kno.......... games......... anyway, here are some that are considerably less crunchy than d&d but still lend themselves to long fantasy campaigns.

uh. under the cut for. oh god it's so long. it's so long. tried my best to explain them, u see. (which is also why it took me so long to reply lol, sry abt that)

godeater (& godeater 2.0): play in a broken, post-apocalyptic fantasy world, where dead and dying gods warp the land, and you raid their bodies for divine magic to help support humanity. 2d10-based, get weird & funky with it! i admit a small preference for version 1.0, which gave u some loose examples but left much of the worldbuilding and even character building up to u to create; 2.0 has some extra books that go with it that i haven't much looked into yet, but seem to give more solid lore to work with, if u would like that.

when the guilds pay in copper, crime pays in gold: alchemical guilds pay shit wages to use people for magical experiments. go do crimes on 'em with your own magic. d6 base, assign dice to stats to make ur own dice pool; fairly light rules and in fact very little in the way of instruction or hard lore on the gm's side, so better played with an experienced gm who's good at making their own stuff, but certainly campaign material for the right gm!

third empire - violence + beauty: the world sucks, and has sucked for a while, through two oppressive empires and into a third one. you play adventurers who are trying to carve out a little goodness, a little justice, a little vengeance, in the world. y'know. lasers & feelings based, but expanded beyond the original (which also comes with it if u get it!) into more lore, more character choices, very collaborative worldbuilding, downtime mechanics, etc etc.

ruby radiance 6e: streamlined dungeoneering built to let ppl play the way actual play podcasts sound, essentially. d20 pool system, based on trophy mechanics but v much adjusted. lots of choices to make during character creation & leveling, but much much less to keep track of during the playing part. u get it.

wizard pals: all of you are wizards, going on adventures and trying to accomplish your goals in a fantasy world. d12-based, fairly lighthearted (can lean silly but u could use it for more serious if not super grimdark adventures), much worldbuilding left up to the gm, but very simple rules, so.

grimblade rpg: (speaking of grim lol,) action & adventure in a grim fantasy world; things like character creation and rewards (and magic) fully imply a fantasy world, but worldbuilding is left up to the gm, altho there are many tables to roll on to give some help. uses d4, 6, 8, and 10; all rolls are contested rolls, with dice picked based on how serious the gm feels this roll is.

shattered aether: post-apocalyptic science fantasy, you roam around a fucked up magic world and protect ppl from various dangers. 2d6 based, based on the lumen system so fairly combat-forward in a very high-action very cool asskicking way. for some reason the font chosen for this book is murder on my eyes, but if u can get past that (or just zoom in lots and read a bit at a time) it's straightforward, simple, and fun!

familiars of terra: this one may be a little too crunchy, but i love it a lot and rly the most crunch is in character creation and tracking experience, actual gameplay is (imo) pretty easy. post-post-apocalyptic fantasy world, some science fantasy elements depending on where you choose to focus, bcos there are absolute PAGES of lore on this extremely cool and enormous world; you and your party go around with your soul-bonded animal friends to spread hope and healing and also do cool shit. y'know. card-based, again it is probably more crunchy than ur looking for but less abt tracking what you can do during things and more abt tracking experience in order to level up stats, so.

1400 quest: ok that last one was crunchy, this one's very uncrunchy. pick a handful of things and get going! clearly inspired by d&d, but very very streamlined, so things that were pages of mechanics are like, one or two sentences. gm's side of it is like, a handful of rollable tables and then do whatever, so prolly for the more experienced gm. d6 based, but you may have occasion to use other dice. also if you like this one there's others by the same author focusing on other things (1400 mage, sneak, etc), or you can check out others in the 24XX type of games, which started out sci fi but has since been expanded to a bunch of other stuff. u kno.

beast dream: pokemon-inspired game where you make friends with magical beasts and go on magical adventures! d6-based, forged in the dark, so there is a little crunch wrt deciding on position etc and stuff like stress, but the author rly wanted to focus in on letting u adventure and have fun without getting bogged down in numbers and i think that shows, stuff like load and reputation aren't so much a thing.

cognatons: play as sentient, magic-filled automatons doing whatever fantasy adventures your robot heart desires. d4-based, caltrop core, so you get a fairly simple & defined set of actions; less to keep track of, easy to follow.

dethrone the divine: you're gonna overthrow the gods, and also take their places. you're already either divine, semi-divine, or magically powerful in other ways, and you adventure with the goal of gathering power and followers so you can take the place of the shitty gods in power. d6-based, pretty straightforward system, makes characters v cool and powerful, which is always fun.

perilous: do you love dungeon crawls bcos i love dungeon crawls... streamlined and easy to understand fantasy dungeoneer adventures in this one! d20-based, leans towards tags instead of complicated numerical skill stuff to keep track of. go to dungeons, fight monsters, get treasure. simple n good. (adds in some metaplot, like who sent you, how will this affect the people living here, whatever, but rly strong with the very old core of d&d-style 'go do a dungeon' kinda thing, if that's what u like.)

high magic lowlives: ok my latest obsession bcos i'm currently planning a big ol campaign for friends in this one. there are classic adventurers in this world, out there cleaning out monster nests or whatever, but they're usually in the employ of the immortal aristocracy. you? you make your money by stealing from and humiliating the immortal aristocracy, because you're a lowlife. it's a dangerous gig, but isn't it better than going into student debt at wizard school? melds high fantasy aesthetics with like, magical twitch streaming aesthetics. fun as hell. uses all the dice and also sometimes tarot cards (mostly just for character creation, u kno). easy to understand rules, i'm having a great time.

ellipses rpg: setting-agnostic system (make ur own setting!) with simple, streamlined rules and an emphasis on improvisation. d20 based, rly just some very basic foundation and then a lot of encouragement to make things up and do what's fun. so like, loosey goosey & not super structured if you want structure, but could be fun!

unbound: setting-agnostic system but with much more formal structure, got structure around how to collaboratively worldbuild your setting and everything. obvs this means some crunch, but it's still not super crunchy, nice and straightforward rly. lotta character options but not so complex and math-heavy, u kno. card-based system. designed actually for a series of short campaigns in a linked world, tho, so if ur not up for exploring new characters a lot, may not be for you.

[alyababwa]

to new friends and old friends. TODD GARNER ON TWITTER

[sgtgrunt0331-3]

Lance Cpl. Jason Canellis, sights in from a rooftop, along the main highway through the city of Fallujah, as the Marines of 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance (LAR) company, attached to 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, search houses for insurgents during Operation Phantom Fury on November 10, 2004.

(Photo by: Scott Peterson/Getty)

[sourfruitpatisserie]

Kinda wish there were more slice of life games that take place in cities as opposed to escaping from them. Maybe i’m biased as someone born in a rural town, but there really isn’t much to do in a lot of them and I think that’s why a lot of SoL farming sim type games end up defaulting to similar events that happen in the towns. I think the themes of exploration, settling down, and meeting new people could be explored just as well, if not better, in a more urban setting. Like imagine: you move to a new city, settle into your new space, and then get to explore the new city and all the people there, which there would be a lot of. Find new stores and shops you like, meet your neighbors, maybe start a garden, learn new recipes or recreate ones you try,decorate your apartment, maybe even open your own store to give it the kinda goal progression a farm usually provide in these kinds of games. There’s such a great opportunity to include all these different cultures and identities and stories that usually only show up in more open world games as opposed to SoL games. Idk, just spitballing ig??

[life-spire]

@ b_atchison98

Shop this aesthetic.

[anim-ttrpgs]

Eureka: A lot of bang for your buck!

As mentioned in an earlier post, the rulebook for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is on the longer side of the indie-TTRPG spectrum, coming in at about 230 pages at the time of writing this.

The rulebook dedicates about the first 90 pages to what we would probably call the “core gameplay”: That is, looking for clues, gathering evidence, drawing conclusions, talking to people, making plans, etc. as well as what each Skill and Trait does and how to create a normal player character.

The next 75 or so pages are dedicated entirely to combat.

Characters are fairly fragile in Eureka compared to most TTRPG PCs—they might even be more fragile than Call of Cthulhu PCs—and this serves to realistically and organically discourage a shoot-first-question-later style of play. However, we knew that making the PCs this easy to kill meant that we had to give the combat systems within the game a lot of depth to match, to give the PCs and their players a good degree of agency in the fight, or else they’d just be going along until wham the party is dead after one bad roll and it’s game over before they know it.

The combat rules in Eureka are deep but not overly complex. It’s less about determining the exact right turn to utilize a special ability that synergizes with the rest of the party’s special abilities, and more about positioning, planning around the environment, and striking first. This still uses the same 2D6 system as everything else—except for when automatic firearms come into play, then it’s D12s for a little extra randomness and because it’s easier to roll 10 D12s than 10 pairs of D6s—so you won’t need to really learn a whole new set of rules just to have a fight. Just keep track of the effective range of each category of firearm and how many bullets your character has left!

I’m actually personally very proud of Eureka’s firearm combat rules. They manage to create a very realistic simulation of a real shootout, organically encouraging realistic tactics and strategy without devolving into a slow grind where every character’s turn takes five minutes of math and re-checking the rulebook to resolve. After that, there’s a brief set of instructions on how to convert an adventure module not originally made for it to work well with the Eureka system. This chapter is only a few pages long because it really is that simple!  

And then the last section in the book is dedicated to making and handling PCs that are a bit...less normal. This is about 60 pages, and covers the bulk of Eureka’s actual supernatural lore, and instructions on how to use that lore to create supernatural player characters that fit into that lore.

We’ve gone into this more in-depth in another earlier post, but let me give a simple rundown anyway: There is no “masquerade” in the world of Eureka, no grand conspiracy by either the mundane government nor a secret supernatural government to cover up the existence of vampires and werewolves and fairies and the like, in fact there is no secret supernatural government. Supernatural creatures are simply so rare as to mainly just fly right under the radar of most modern science, with actual sightings being considered the stuff of tabloid trash and unscientific sensationalism by most academic minds. So obscure are these instances of the supernatural that a vampire might not even believe in werewolves, or a werewolf in vampires. They may have even never met another one of their kind in-person. As for why these individuals don’t just get on camera and tell the world that they exist... well, the ones they have the less dangerous magical powers could usually be shown-up by a mundane stage magician in Vegas. Yeah right you can start fires with your mind, I bet you just have a remote ignition switch in your pocket!

And then the ones that have more impressive magical powers, like literally transforming completely into a bat, well, those guys tend to also eat people, so it’s really in their best interest to keep that to themselves, in case anyone comes asking questions about what happened to the neighbors and all those delivery guys....

Perhaps one of the most interesting mechanics here is how supernatural characters like these must not only keep their secrets from the world at large, but the rest of the party too! These PCs’ supernatural status is a secret from everyone except their player and the game master, and they must find ways to dodge their supernatural weaknesses, exert their powers, and take a few bites out of a victim all without alerting anyone else in the party or at the table to their true nature.

Follow @anim-ttrpgs​ for updates and look for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy on Kickstarter later this year!

[mrsbonesmccoy]