ShadowCity: Blood and Neon

Core Rulebook by Chubby Funster

The year is 1981. 

The world is changing rapidly. Digital technology is revolutionizing communications. Music, fashion, and film are reaching for new heights. 

The dark side of this boom lurks in the shadows; crime, drugs, violence, and espionage. You are a Vampire living in those shadows, sustaining your power with the blood of innocent mortals.

Each ShadowCity chronicle is the story of your attempt to survive the eternal night. You probably won’t make it. Every year, mortal technology improves and they get one step closer to discovering your secrets. Every misstep and mistake you make will draw the vampire apocalypse one step closer to becoming a reality.

If you meet your final end, a new dynamically generated city awaits for you to make another attempt. New neighborhoods, new locations, all created with a few die rolls.

ShadowCity is the application of principles that I have learned from two years of work in ShadowDark community:

• Simple rule structure to keep the game moving forward quickly and limit the complexity facing the player.
• Dynamic generation of content as-you-need-it and simple monster abilities to limit the GM burden and reduce session preparation time.
• A brutal play-loop that keeps you right on the edge of your seat. Every night could easily be your last.
• Rumors, random encounters, and instant adventure creation so the players always have something to do, without requiring a meta-plot or narrative.

Characters can be created by choosing options or through randomized tables, if you aren’t sure which choice is right for you. We will have a website where you can create a new character with a click of a button.

• Stats to handle most situations without needing a skill.
• Humanity to track your monstrous nature as you descend into madness.
• Bloodlines to inherit benefits and drawbacks from the vampire that created you.
• Classes to represent your focus in the unlife.
• Disciplines to express your vampiric power, randomly acquired at level up.
• Assets that can be tapped into for help when you need it.
• Touchstones to keep you connected to the mortal world.
• Compulsions to model the monster inside of you.
• Derangements that occur when you fail to control yourself.
• Feeding habits to make drinking blood different for each character.
• Luck tokens to change your fate when you really need it.

Characters can take a break from the action to grind for a few months. Choose a focus like expanding your assets, helping out a touchstone, regaining control over your monstrous nature, gain mastery of a particular skill, or bolstering defenses in your territory to keep rivals at bay.

World creation is generative through tables to take the prep load off the GM and allow them to quickly put together a chronicle framework.

• Create a unique city every time with a d20 table of neighborhood types and a simple hex mapping method that anyone can learn. Create your own city maps in a few minutes and populate each neighborhood with points of interest unique to its type. 
• PCs can move around the city’s hex-based neighborhoods in hours (12 per night). They can capture a neighborhood by controlling all of its points of interest and patrolling each night looking for interlopers. Controlling a neighborhood brings you secure blood supplies, but will attract enemies to nip at your heels.
• If the PCs explore a specific site, time will switch to rounds. You can build any site you need in mere moments with a randomized node-map creation system that works just like a dungeon generator.
• Maintain constant pressure on the PCs with the threat of exposure to mortals. Feeding or using vampiric powers carry the risk of violations that must be covered up through violence, bribes, and favors.
• Encounter tables for every neighborhood type to introduce new NPCs and monsters organically through play. Tap into 38 opponents whenever you need, including angels, animals, daemons, faeries, mages, mortals, undead, vampires, and werewolves.
• ShadowCity introduces a flexible faction creation system so the GM can build their own vampire clans, criminal gangs, government agencies, and more.

Adjudicating the game is simple and easy for the GM. Choose a stat, set one of four standard DCs, and move on. No need to constantly reference the book for applicable rules to narrow situations.

XP awarded for acquiring valuables by theft, force, or coercion. These funds will be needed by the players to pay off mortals and cover up their numerous crimes. Players won’t be wealthy magnates sitting on their laurels, a relentless draining cost structure will leave them struggling to make ends meet from night to night.

Use rumors, random encounters, and player actions (like scouting) to slowly introduce city lore and give the players guidance on what they can explore next. No need for extensive prep before play.

ShadowCity: Blood and Neon is available through DriveThruRPG in Print and PDF.

---

Please note:  The links in the post above are “affiliate links”. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item the author of this post will receive an affiliate commission.