I’m way too domesticated to handle the rough streets of a real city, so tonight’s game is going to be a modest hack of Urban Shadows.
The factions are:
HOA: power-hungry control freaks who must be immortal because they have way more time than you do. They’re always on the streets. Watching. Judging. Playbooks are The Retiree, The Fundie, and The Yuppie.
Grownups: An uneasy alliance of ostensibly responsible adults. Playbooks are The Teacher, The Parent, and The Childless.
Kids: They’re everywhere but invisible, darting through your property and staking out their territories. Playbooks are The Preschooler, The Teen, and The Prolonged Adolescent.
Work: All-encompassing and omnipresent, this nightmare faction seeks to crush the dreams and efforts of all the other factions. There is no live-and-let-live; either you give your life to Work, or Work does its level best to make sure your life isn’t worth living. Playbooks are The Manager, The Drone, and The MLMer.
A sample of common moves:
When you leave the recycling bin out, roll +Responsible. On a hit, you remember to get it back in before Wednesday at noon. On a 7-9, any HOA faction member can submit a trouble ticket to the association management office anyway. On a miss, you done fucked up and left it out after noon. The MC will tell you what happens next.
When you are fundraising, roll +Breeder. On a hit, you raise the funds. On a 7-9, pick two: you don’t alienate everyone around you, you don’t make your child hate you for some reason, you don’t have to spend your own money on crap you don’t want.
When you discover someone you know from work lives in your neighborhood, roll +Networking the first time it happens. On a 10+ hold 3. On a 7-9, hold 1. Spend holds to: discover something weird and uncomfortable about your coworker; hide something weird and uncomfortable from your coworker; obligate your coworker to a social or fundraising event; escape from a social or fundraising obligation.
And so on.
Don’t know about Corruption moves yet, but they’re definitely part of the game.
thisisamazing
Fantastic (and close to home…) 🙂
Work: All-encompassing and omnipresent, this nightmare faction seeks to crush the dreams and efforts of all the other factions. There is no live-and-let-live; either you give your life to Work, or Work does its level best to make sure your life isn’t worth living. Factions are The Manager, The Drone, and The MLMer.
Living in the suburbs is work by this definition.
Reporting for abuse.
Is… is this real? Because I want this to be real.
When you are maintaining your landscaping: Roll +Obsessive. On a hit, you maintain your lawn to your neighbor’s satisfaction. On a 7-9 Pick two: You don’t spend all your free time mowing, pruning and weeding; you don’t spend large quantities of money on fertilizer, pesticide and annual bedding plants; you don’t get a “talk” from your neighbor about how you mowed over the property line, killed a Hibiscus plant with herbicide or pulled up one of their silver clematis plants while weeding the fencerow.
#tooreal
Scary
Kickstart this now.
When you are putting a child to sleep, roll +Breeder. On a hit they go to sleep. On a 10+ choose 2, on a 7-9 choose 1:
– you’re not going to have to hear how tired they appear from their judgmental teacher in the morning
– you still have time to help your spouse with that thing they needed
– they weren’t faking and secretly hiding a tablet with YouTube on it under their pillow to watch later
On a miss, you fall asleep yourself in their room and the MC makes a hard move.
^ may be making this move right now
Spectacular.
I’ve been thinking about the ominous Hard Moves that come from falling asleep at bedtime!
Take or exchange harm as established, of course.
I should probably put together the agenda and principles first though.