Magpie Games Launches Gamefound For Urban Shadows Expansion

Magpie Games has launched their new crowdfunding campaign. 

They have an expansion for their game, Urban Shadows, out right now on Gamefound. The expansion’s full description reads: 

“Algiers & Angels is an exciting new supplement for the beloved RPG, Urban Shadows. Urban Shadows: Algiers & Angels is a 30+ page, softcover booklet, 8.5″ x 11″ full-color expansion for Urban Shadows, featuring a new city guide (Algiers), a new playbook (The Angel), and a new City Hub (the Market).” 

Urban Shadows Full Description

Now, for those who don’t know what Urban Shadows is, Magpie’s description for it reads: 

“Urban Shadows is a political urban fantasy tabletop roleplaying game in which mortals and supernaturals alike vie for power in a modern-day city. Vampires, faeries, hunters, wizards, and more clash in the shadows…or make backroom deals for their piece of the streets and skyscrapers. No one is ever safe, and everything is always at stake.

In Urban Shadows, you play unique and powerful archetypes, protagonists who are attuned to the supernatural world. While the mortal world remains ignorant of the struggles of the city’s supernatural denizens, you are caught in the middle of the physical conflicts and political drama of the city’s past, present, and future.

You might be a spectre bound to an artifact, unable to move on until you’ve resolved your trauma. Or you might be a clever vampire who controls the best blood supply in the city, caught up in a war between your kind and those who hunt you. Or you might be a veteran of your city’s ancient conflicts, someone who got out of the game but keeps getting drawn back in by friends and allies.” 

The game uses the Apocalypse system, which has been used for many other TTRPGs, including:

• Apocalypse World 
• Dungeon World
• Zombie World
• Masks: A New Generation 
• Root: The RPG

New City

This new expansion adds the city of Algiers, which Magpie’s description reads: 

“Since the 15th century, the city of Algiers has been held in the grip of the Madrasat al-Sultat al-Mutlaqa, a secretive school of wizards whose roots trace back to those who fled Andalusia during the Reconquista. As Christians returned Spain to the hands of the Catholics, the fleeing wizards found unexpected allies in the local Jinn—allies who helped them impose their own order on Algiers once they arrived. 

Nearly 600 years later, that bond has held fast. The jinn of Algiers—the Dima al-Naar—have never truly trusted the wizards of Algiers, but they have found a productive peace, an alliance that has allowed both sides to flourish for centuries. Meanwhile, the wizards of the Madrasat al-Sultat al-Mutlaqa have tempered their lust for power with a healthy deference to their jinn allies in Wild, allowing them access to sites and rituals normally held under tight scrutiny.

The death of the wizard’s matriarch, Mama Soufian, has thrown all of this into disarray… and threatens to end the political stability of the last half millenia. Both sides suspect the other murdered Soufian, and both seek to profit from the chaos to claim more power for themselves.

Meanwhile, those outside of the alliance—the mortals, vampires, shapeshifters, ghouls, and more—see the fracturing alliance as an opportunity all their own. The wizards have had their chance to rule Algiers, they think. Is it not time for someone else to take the throne?”

New Archetype

Meanwhile, the new Archetype coming into play is The Angel, which Magpie describes as: 

“Beautiful and terrifying, the Angel is a powerful divine instrument, an otherworldly being sent to Earth to fulfill a purpose that will change the city forever. 

The Angels is a divine being sent by their choir to destroy an entire faction that has transgressed against the divine, an Enemy worthy of celestial attention.

And yet… if they choose the path of the sword—invoking their own powers to destroy and humiliate the Enemy—they will quickly find themselves lost in a sea of corruption, an angel more attuned to vengeance than justice. Only by recruiting allies, valuing wisdom over might, and nurturing relationships will they find an end to the Enemy that does not destroy the Angel as well.

God’s grace is infinite, as is his will. But what grace will the Angel find in a city of shadows?” 

There are no stretch goals for the project, but it does end on November 12th, so you have some time to back this amazing project.