Introducing faction Moves

Get Mixed Up
“In the action business,
when you don't want to say
you ran like a mouse, you
call it 'taking cover.' It's
more heroic.”
-Harry Dresden, Professional
Wizard
A reference guide for
Urban
When you Get Mixed Up in another PC’s affairs, roll+their faction. On
a hit, give them a +1 or -2 to their roll. On a 7-9, you expose yourself to
danger, retribution or cost.
If you cash in a Debt you have with them, you can treat your roll as a
10+ without having to roll.
Hit the streets
When you Hit the Streets to get info from a contact, name who you’re
going to and what faction they belong to and roll+their faction. On a
10+, they’re available and have the info you’re looking for or they know
who does. On a 7-9, they have the info you’re looking for or they know
who does, but choose 1:

They’re tied up in their own affairs

There will be wicked strings attached
If you cash in a Debt you have with them, you can treat the roll as a 10+
without having to roll.

Shadows Gather resources

When you Gather needed Resources from a group, roll+the faction
they belong to. On a hit, they will demand a price but will help. On a 7-
9, they will need some assurances upfront.
If you cash in a Debt you have with a prominent member of that group,
you can treat the roll as a 10+ without having to roll.

The Factions
Mortality, the regular people of the world who could be described as
mundane, without any supernatural talents or powers. Archetypes
include The Aware, The Expert, The Hunter and The King.
Night, once human and now twisted into creatures who stalk and hunt
within the world. Archetypes include The Spectre, The Vamp and The
Wolf.
Power, the beings of the mortal or supernatural community who
channel power from an outside mystical force. Archetypes include The
Hallowed, The Immortal, The Oracle and The Wizard.
Wild, creatures and peoples that are not from this world, yet each day
encroach upon it. Archetypes include The Dragon, The Fae and The
Tainted.
Session End
At the end of every session, consider how you interacted with the
factions. If your actions with a faction reflected positively, increase the
faction score by 1. If you alienated or angered a faction, decrease the
faction score by 1. If neither or both, leave the faction as is. If this
brings a faction to +4, reset it to +1 and mark experience. If this brings a
faction to -4, reset it to -1 and mark corruption.
As a group, discuss who your individual characters might owe based on
their actions during the session and give them each a Debt. Then
consider who might owe your character for their actions and take a Debt
on each of them.
debts
You may cash in a Debt with a PC to do one of the following;

Get Mixed Up with them as if you rolled a 10+

Add +3 to a roll to Persuade them

Offer them an experience point to do something for you

Cause them to Stand Strong in order to carry out a particular action
You may cash in a Debt with an NPC to do one of the following;

Hit the Streets with them as if you rolled a 10+

Gather Resources from them if they are a prominent member of their
group as if you rolled a 10+

Add +3 to a roll to Persuade or Threaten them

Cause them to hesitate and reconsider a choice or action

The MC can cash in a Debt an NPC has on a PC to make a hard move.

Urban Shadows is an Apocalypse World hack written by Andrew ‘Pheylorn’ Medeiros and
friends. If you like what you see, have questions/comments, or just want to say “Hi”, please
feel free to contact me at pheylorn@gmail.com or find our Community page on Google+
blood
Unleash
When you Unleash an attack at someone, roll+blood. On a hit, you
inflict harm on them (as determined by your weapon). On a 10+,
choose 1:

Increase the harm you’re inflicting by 1

Take something from them

Create an opportunity
On a 7-9, choose 1:

They inflict harm on you

You find yourself in a bad spot
 Advanced: On a 12+, choose all 3 from the 10+ list, plus 1 more for
double-effect.
Threaten an NPC
When you Threaten an NPC with violence, roll+blood. On a hit, they
do what you want but take a Debt on you. On a 7-9, you also lower your
score in their faction by 1.
If you cash in a Debt you have with them, you may add +3 to your roll.
 Advanced: On a 12+, they do what you want and lose a Debt on you.
Retreat
When you have an opening and Retreat from a dangerous situation,
roll+blood. On a hit, you get away. On a 10+, choose 1. On a 7-9,
choose 2:

You end up in another dangerous situation

You suffer harm during your escape

You leave something important behind

You owe someone for your escape, give them a Debt

Your fear controls you for a time, mark corruption
 Advanced: On a 12+, choose none and you make an important
discovery.
heart
Take a Chance
When you Take a Chance and do something risky, dangerous or
downright stupid, roll+heart. On a 10+, you do it. On a 7–9, you do it,
but it’s going to cost you. The MC can offer you a worse outcome, a
hard bargain, or an ugly choice.
 Advanced: On a 12+, you accomplish your goal and then some.
Whatever you were trying to do, you master it.
persuade
When you Persuade someone with seduction, bribery or promises,
roll+heart. For NPC’s: On a hit, they do what you ask. On a 7-9, they
demand a price up front or take a Debt on you.
For PC’s: On a 10+, choose 2. On a 7-9, choose 1:

If they do it, they increase their score in your faction by 1 or take a
Debt on you

If they refuse, they must erase a Debt they have on you or lower their
score in your faction and their own faction by 1 (or 2, if the same)
If you cash in a Debt you have with them, you may add +3 to your roll.
 Advanced: On a 12+, For NPC’s, they become an Ally and will help
you in the future without needing to roll.
mind
Study Someone
When you Study Someone carefully, roll+mind. On a 10+, hold 3. On a
7–9, hold 2 and they will hold 1 on you on the same terms. While
you’re interacting with them, spend your hold to ask the MC questions,
1 for 1:

Are you telling me the truth?

What are you really feeling?

What are your intentions regarding ___?

What do you want from me?

How could I get you to ___?

Who is pulling your strings?
 Advanced: On a 12+, ask any 3 questions, not limited to the list.
Keep an Eye Out
When you Keep an Eye Out for trouble, roll+mind. On a 10+ hold 3.
On a 7-9, hold 2, but you expose yourself to danger. While you’re there,
spend your hold to ask the MC questions, 1 for 1:

What’s my best way in/out?

Who or what here is not what they seem?

What happened here recently?

What here is the greatest danger to me?

What will happen here if I leave/stay?

What Faction is in control here?
 Advanced: On a 12+, ask any 3 questions, not limited to the list.
spirit
Let the darkness in
When you Let the Darkness In by tapping into something primal and
powerful, roll+spirit. On a hit, the MC will answer a question for you.
On a 10+, you can mark corruption to ask a follow-up question. On a 7-
9, mark corruption or there will be strings attached. The MC may ask
you some follow-up questions, answer them honestly.
 Advanced: On a 12+, the MC answers two questions for you and you
either heal 2-harm or take +1 ongoing for the remainder of the scene.
Stand strong
When you Stand Strong in the face of danger, fear or pain, roll+spirit.
On a 10+, you master your fear and take +1 forward in the scene. On a
7-9, you panic, flee, or freeze up unless you mark corruption.
 Advanced: On a 12+, you master your fear, take +1 ongoing in the
scene and the MC will tell you something important going on beneath
the surface.
Urban Shadows is an Apocalypse World hack written by Andrew ‘Pheylorn’ Medeiros and
friends. If you like what you see, have questions/comments, or just want to say “Hi”, please
feel free to contact me at pheylorn@gmail.com or find our Community page on Google+
 Introducing
The master of
ceremonies
A reference guide for
Urban
Shadows
harm and Healing
When your protagonist suffers a physical attack or mishap consult the
harm rating of the source and mark off that many boxes on your harm
track, following the track downward as each tier fills. Each time your
harm track enters a new tier, record the type of injury or injuries you’ve
sustained. This will help you remember how your character has been
wounded and give the MC cues to work with.
When your harm hits the Grievous tier, they will require professional or
supernatural help before they can start to recuperate from their wounds.
When your harm hits the Critical tier, your character is in serious
trouble and will need immediate help or will die very soon. If they
receive the needed assistance, they will be stable and will begin healing
naturally. Any further harm received may kill the character unless they
mark off a Scar (see Scars below).
Once healing begins, a character erases about 1 harm per day from their
harm track, provided they take things easy for a while. Healing starts at
the beginning of the track and follows the track until they’ve erased all
their harm. If a character receives harm during this time, the harm is
marked off from the beginning of the track as usual.
Scars
A character who has harm marked off in the Grievous or Critical tier
can check off a Scar to ignore all harm they are about to suffer from a
source. Suffering a Scar reduces one of the character’s four stats by 1,
permanently. Check off the scar, adjust the stat and live to fight another
day.
Armour
When a character is wearing armour (a kevlar vest, stab-vest, chainmail
shirt, etc) they are considered Armoured and are granted a layer of
protection from most physical attacks. When a character who is
Armoured suffers harm from a physical source, they reduce the harm
by 1. If this would reduce the harm to 0, it simply has no effect as the
armour has absorbed the damage. Several Archetype moves may grant a
protagonist the Armoured status without the need to wear actual
armour.
Names
Yolanda, Brittney, Morgan, Sally, Mary Joe, Helen, Elizabeth, Florence,
Alice, Mabel, Rose, Lara, Cora, Josephine, Georgia, Charlotte, Jane,
Amanda, Ayako, Cameron, Onya, Abby, Emerald, Ginger, Harper,
Sabrina, Elena, Victoria, Julie, Piper, Lana, Ashley, Marissa, Tara,
Sonya, Marie, Fatima, Lena, Julie, Elise, Chloe, Emma, Emilija
Peter, Oscar, Lawrence, Frederick, Leroy, Hugh, Leslie, Percy, Alex,
Morris, Dave, Matthew, Felix, Jake, Claud, Steve, Simon, Christopher,
Jerome, Augustus, Conrad, Akai, Aran, Hiro, Ichiro, Jing, Ronin,
Sanya, Pierre, Alex, Lukas, Noah, Theo, Jonas, Dominic, Diego, Jack,
William, Leon, Elias, Arthur, Jaoquin, Carter, Samual, Logan, Jacob
surNames
Jensen, Nyman, Bayer, O’Sullivan, Jacobsen, Dawson, Schneider,
Watson, Bridge, Smith, Kozlov, Brown, Davis, Anderson, Harris,
Alonso, Thomson, Lovric, Johansen, Garcia, Martinez, Robinson,
Niemi, DeBoer, Clark, Rodriguez, Lewis, Costa, Walker, Hall, Allen,
Young, Hernandez, King, Flores, Romero, Wright, Lopez, Diaz,
Mercier, Hill, Scott, Green, Carter, Mitchell, Perez, Edwards, Stewart,
Sanchez, Reed, Leon, Cook, Morgan, Eriksson, Bell, Brooks, Sanders,
Schmidt, Dubois, Bennett, Wells, Gruber, Berger, Dupont, Tucker,
Crawford, O’Reilly, Boyd, Novikov, Ferguson, Mohammed, Long,
Yim, Patel, Petrov, Petridis, Cohen, Watanabe, Shibata, Nakagawa, Ali,
Marino, Han, Yu, Khan, Cruz, De Luca, Vazquez, Rivera, Wong
Example Weapons
2-Harm Weapons
Longbow (close/far), Shortbow (close), Crossbow (close, ap), Small
Calibre Pistol (close), Hunting Rifle (close/far), SMG (close area),
Dagger/Knife (intimate), Brass Knuckles (intimate), Short Sword
(intimate/hand) ,Baseball Bat (hand), Throwing Knives (hand/close)
Spear (hand/close), Rapier (hand), Sword Cane (hand), Claw Hammer
(hand)
3-Harm Weapons
Broad Sword (hand), Axe (hand), War Hammer (hand), Assault Rifle
(close/far area), Large Calibre Pistol (close), Shotgun, Sawed off or not
(close)
4-Harm Weapons
Grenade Launcher (close area), Grenades (hand area), High-Powered
Sniper Rifle (far)
If something isn’t on this list and you want to know how it works or
how much harm it inflicts, ask the MC. Between the two of you, you
should be able to come up with something quickly.
Urban Shadows is an Apocalypse World hack written by Andrew ‘Pheylorn’ Medeiros and
friends. If you like what you see, have questions/comments, or just want to say “Hi”, please
feel free to contact me at pheylorn@gmail.com or find our Community page on Google+
Your Moves
Moves

Separate them or put them together

Capture someone

Expose a dangerous secret to the wrong person

Put someone in a spot

Announce off-screen trouble

Foreshadow darkness

Inflict or trade harm

Take something of theirs

Activate their stuff’s weaknesses

Offer someone a Debt to do a thing

Turn a move back on them

Give someone a Debt or take one away
Don’t Forget

Ask questions like crazy, dig in to the interesting stuff especially

Turn questions back on the asker or over to the group at large

Go around the table, make sure everyone gets a chance to shine

Take breaks and take your time if needed
Workspace Rules
When an Expert goes into their workspace (library, infirmary, etc.) to
accomplish something, whether it is to create a thing, heal a disease or
research an arcane secret, use these rules to help guide how they will
accomplish the goal. This rule is also an exceptionally useful tool for
you as the MC whenever something comes up in the rules that aren’t
covered by the basic moves or MC moves but you believe it should take
a little more than just a simple decision on your part.
Tell the player, “sure, no problem, but…” and then 1 to 4 of the
following:

It’s going to take hours/days/weeks/months of work or recovery time

First you’ll have to get/build/fix/figure out ___

You’re going to need ___ to help you with it

It’s going to cost you an awful lot of resources

The best you’ll be able to do is a crap version, weak and unreliable

It’s going to mean exposing yourself (plus colleagues) to serious
danger

You’re going to have to add ___ to your workplace first

You’re going to need to find something rare and unique first

You’re going to have to take ___ apart to do it

It will require a part of yourself to complete
As MC you might connect them all with “and,” or might throw in a
merciful “or.” Once they’ve accomplished the necessaries, they can go
ahead and accomplish the thing itself. As MC, your job will be to stat it
up, reveal some info, whatever is called for now.
Urban Shadows is an Apocalypse World hack written by Andrew ‘Pheylorn’ Medeiros and
friends. If you like what you see, have questions/comments, or just want to say “Hi”, please
feel free to contact me at pheylorn@gmail.com or find our Community page on Google+
Your principles & agenda
Principles

Address yourself to the characters, not the players

Make your move, but misdirect. Don’t speak it’s name

Make your monsters seem human and humans seem monstrous

Name everyone, make everyone real and dynamic

Ask loaded questions and build on the answers

Respond with adversity and intermittent rewards

Be a fan of the protagonists

Think off screen as often as you can

Sometimes, disclaim decision-making

Trust your players to create problems for themselves, then push!

Keep Debts in the back of your head at all times, who owes who?
Agenda

Make Urban Shadows seem fantastical and dark

Keep the characters lives out of control and evolving

Play to find out what comes next

Mirror corruption back onto itself
Groups and harm
When a group suffers…

1-2 harm: some injuries, a few minor to moderate, no fatalities.

3-4 harm: many injuries, several serious, possibly a couple of
fatalities.

5-6 harm: widespread serious injuries, many fatalities.
Groups work differently than individuals in Urban Shadows. A group is
treated as both a weapon and a single NPC when they fight as a group.
The size of the group affects the damage they inflict and receive. There
are four sizes of groups; Small (5-15), Medium (20-30), Large (40-60)
and Huge (80-100). The initial harm a group deals is based on the
weapons they wield in general. A group of highly trained mercenaries
who carry assault rifles inflicts 4 harm, while a group of bikers with bats
and chains with a few shotguns mixed in would probably inflict 2-3
harm. When a group inflicts harm on a person or group, compare the
size of the attacking group to the receiving group or individual. For
every size category greater the group is, they increase all harm inflicted
by 1. For every size category smaller the group is, they reduce all harm
inflicted by 1. The same applies when suffering harm. When a group
suffers harm from a source, reduce or increase the harm based on the
difference in sizes. If a protagonist is leading or fighting alongside a
group, any harm inflicted on the group are also inflicted on the
protagonist.
Groups can be considered Armoured same as a protagonist, so long as
the majority of its members are wearing armour or are protected in some
similar way.
Groups can suffer up to 6 harm, regardless of size. How much harm a
group will suffer before retreating or surrendering is determined by the
MC and the nature of the group. Mindless zombies are likely to fight
and die to the last “person”, while a pack of human bikers will probably
panic and flee after a few fatalities.
Groups aren’t just faceless weapons to inflict upon your enemies. They
are made up of people (well, usually people anyways) with their own
lives and motivations. Abuse them too often and you may end up with
more trouble than you counted on from them. Trying to get a group to
fight for you isn’t an automatic thing, you need to spur them into action
somehow or bully them, whatever works for you.
Tools of the trade
Weapons in Urban Shadows use Tags, descriptive words that explain
the use, effectiveness and drawbacks of the object. Here is a list of the
tags used and descriptions of what they mean.
Intimate: this weapon can only be used up close and personal.
Hand: this weapon can be used against someone within a meter of your
reach, probably about the length of the weapon you’re holding.
Close: this weapon can only be used against someone within close
range of you, somewhere between 2 to 10 meters.
Far: this weapon can only be used to target an opponent that is far off,
any closer and it’s too unwieldy to bring to bear.
Intimate/Hand: this weapon is considered able to affect targets within
Intimate or Hand range.
Hand/Close: this weapon is considered able to affect targets within
Hand or Close range.
Close/Far: this weapon is considered able to affect targets within Close
or Far range.
X-harm: X is the amount of harm this weapon deals to an opponent,
before armour is applied.
AP (armour-piercing): this weapon ignores 1 point of an opponent’s
armour rating.
Area: this weapon can affect an area with it’s fire. When used against a
Group, it reduces the Group’s size by one when determining harm
inflicted. Spray weapons automatically have the Reload tag.
Example Weapons
2-Harm Weapons
Longbow (close/far), Shortbow (close), Crossbow (close, ap), Small
Calibre Pistol (close), Hunting Rifle (close/far), SMG (close area),
Dagger/Knife (intimate), Brass Knuckles (intimate), Short Sword
(intimate/hand) ,Baseball Bat (hand), Throwing Knives (hand/close)
Spear (hand/close), Rapier (hand), Sword Cane (hand)
3-Harm Weapons
Long Sword/Axe/Hammer (hand), Assault Rifle (close/far area),
Large Calibre Pistol (close), Shotgun, Sawed off or not (close)
4-Harm Weapons
Grenade Launcher (close area), Grenades (hand area), High-Powered
Sniper Rifle (far)
If something isn’t on this list and you want to know how it works or
how much harm it inflicts, ask the MC. Between the two of you, you
should be able to come up with something quickly.
Example wounds

Faint; bruised, battered, first degree burns, mild concussion,
migraine, black eye, sprained ankle, dislocated shoulder, cracked jaw,
grazed, light lacerations, fractured bone, broken nose, split ear.

Grievous; second degree burns, moderate concussion, deep
laceration(s), sucking chest wound, shot, punctured lung, internal
bleeding, broken bone, stabbed, cracked rib, gouged eye, twisted knee.

Critical; third degree burns, severe concussion, heart-attack, stroke,
radiation sickness, severe internal bleeding, cracked skull, maimed,
disembowelled, severed appendage or limb, impaled.
NPC harm
When an NPC suffers harm...
it’s on the MC to decide how that harm affects them. Some people will
be sent to an emergency room with only 1 or 2 harm inflicted on them
while others might be able to suffer 5-8 harm before they can be killed.
Urban Shadows is an Apocalypse World hack written by Andrew ‘Pheylorn’ Medeiros and
friends. If you like what you see, have questions/comments, or just want to say “Hi”, please
feel free to contact me at pheylorn@gmail.com or find our Community page on Google+
 Protagonist tracking sheet
NAME archetype FACTION

Who do they owe? (debts against them) info

NAME archetype FACTION

Who do they owe? (debts against them) info

NAME archetype FACTION

Who do they owe? (debts against them) info

NAME archetype FACTION

Who do they owe? (debts against them) info

NAME archetype FACTION

Who do they owe? (debts against them) info

NAME archetype FACTION

Who do they owe? (debts against them) info