The award-winning tabletop roleplaying game of political urban fantasy returns with a bold new edition!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Shipping Updates
3 days ago
– Wed, Jan 15, 2025 at 10:40:44 AM
Hey all!
Happy New Year!
We are back from the break and diving into some shipping updates for you! Thank you for your patience as we checked with our shipping partners and got the most up to date information. Let’s dive in!
Shipping Updates
These shipping updates are only for people who have pledged during the Kickstarter:
The USA: Deluxe books have just arrived at the office and are beginning to ship out!
Canada: The Deluxe books are on their way to Canada! Things are slow crossing the border currently, but we expect shipping to begin in early February.
EU/UK: The Deluxe books were delivered to our reshipper on Monday! Orders will begin shipping on January 20th!
Australia: The Deluxe and regular books are still making their way to Australia/New Zealand. Both will begin shipping in early February.
Rest of World: Deluxe books will begin to go out to these regions early February!
Late Pledges: For folks who have pledged late, we will begin shipping your packages as soon as we finish with backers! These packages should begin rolling out mid-February!
We’ll continue to update you when new shipping information arrives! Thank you for your patience as we’ve gotten back into the office. We’ll return later this month with another update and another stretch goal!
Shipping Updates & The Angel
19 days ago
– Mon, Dec 30, 2024 at 01:18:21 PM
Hey all!
While the larger Magpie Games office is closed until January 6th, we’re back with a quick end of the year update on shipping and an updated version of The Angel! Let’s get to it!
Shipping Updates
As a brief reminder, we are waiting on a reprint of the Deluxe Edition books due to a printing error with the invisible ink. You can read more about this error in our update from October. Here's where everything stands at the end of 2024:
USA - Shipping for all non-Deluxe packages is complete!
Canada - Shipping for all non-Deluxe packages is complete!
Rest of World - Shipping for all non-Deluxe packages is complete!
EU/UK - Shipping is ongoing, but should be finished soon!
Australia - Shipping is ongoing, but should be finished soon!
If you ordered a non-Deluxe set of reward, please contact us at [email protected] if you don’t receive your package by January 10th. Everything should be in the mail and to you by that time!
Deluxe Edition books: We have approved the final proof for the Deluxe Edition book reprint. Our printer is doing everything they can to get us the books, and we expect them to arrive in our various fulfillment centers by late January. We expect everyone who ordered a Deluxe Edition book to receive their copy by February 10th. Thank you so much for your patience!
The Angel Revamped
We’re so excited to release the next revamped stretch goal playbook to you: the Angel.
The Angel was never officially released for US1E, but it did have a limited release in an Indie+ publication years and years ago. The updated version takes many of the core themes and builds them into something much more driven—you are an angel sent by your choir to defeat a faction that has transgressed against the divine that you must now destroy, an Enemy worthy of celestial attention.
And yet… if you choose the path of the sword—invoking your own powers to destroy and humiliate the Enemy—you will quickly find yourself 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 you find an end to the Enemy that does not destroy you as well.
Obviously, there are many influences for the angel, including archangels presented in film (Legion, The Prophecy, Constantine) and the main characters from The Satanic Verses, but another important inspiration is Gandalf from Lord of the Rings! After all, if one needs to defeat a great Enemy who has arisen to threaten all that is good, what better role model to follow than Mithrandir, the Wielder of the flame of Anor, the Grey Rider who knew that it was hope—not power—that can truly defeat tyrants.
We’d love any feedback you have on the Angel, especially playtesting feedback. Please email your feedback to [email protected] and put US2E Angel Feedback as the subject line! We can’t wait to hear what you think of the revamped playbook!
You can get your copy of the Angel via Backerkit’s digital download system. We’ve already pushed out the files to your account, and you should have received an email letting you know that the files are ready for download. If you didn’t, you can access them directly from Backerkit here:
Once again, thank you all for an amazing year. This project is so incredibly special to everyone at Magpie Games, both because it’s such a huge part of our story as a company and because we’re incredibly excited for folks to get a chance to play the game. Many of us here at Magpie Games HQ have been playing urban fantasy RPGs since the 90s, and it’s an incredible feeling to be a part of that tradition at this level. Thank you again for making it possible!
The official street date for Urban Shadows is March 6th, 2025, so stay tuned for more Urban Shadows news in 2025! In addition to delivering all the Deluxe Edition books, we’re also on track to deliver all the remaining stretch goals by mid-2025, including the four new City Hubs. We can’t wait to bring you even more Urban Shadows goodness next year!
Shipping Updates & The Vessel!
about 2 months ago
– Tue, Nov 26, 2024 at 09:37:07 AM
Hey all!
It’s that time again! We’re doing our update a little early this month as our team will be taking off the American Thanksgiving weekend to spend time with our loved ones and catch some much needed rest!
Shipping Updates
The USA - Shipping has begun! All but around 400 packages have gone (not including the deluxe edition books). Our team is working to get those remaining packages out over the next week!
Canada - Universal will begin shipping to our Canadian friends on December 2nd!
Australia/New Zealand - There has been an unexpected shipping issue that resulted in some of our accessories being sent back from Australia by our fulfillment center. We’re working to get that corrected. Once we have more concrete dates, we’ll let everyone know! That said, most of the books did make to Australia there, and orders with just the Core Book will begin shipping shortly!
EU/UK - Our distributors in the EU were closed all week due to snow but shipping will begin this week provided the weather is clear! We expect orders to have been shipped by the end of next week!
Rest of World - These orders will begin as soon as we complete domestic shipping. This means shipping will begin next week for RoW folks!
Deluxe Edition Books - We are still working with the printer on these, as multiple things we’re trying aren’t coming out the way we wanted. That said, the final proof for the deluxe edition is on its way to us. We are very close and expect to receive the books in the next month or so. As soon as we receive the books, we’ll begin shipping them.
The Vessel Revamped
We’re so excited to release the next revamped stretch goal playbook to you: the Vessel.
Like the Scholar and the Immortal, much of Urban Shadows: Second Edition was influenced by the Vessel in first edition! Instincts, the internal conflict central to the Vessel’s story, gave us a chance to try much more compelling features in play, and we learned a lot that transferred over to playbooks like the Spectre in second edition!
That said, we wanted to take things a bit further in this revamp, radically expanding the backstory for the Vessel to address both their history (Your Creator) and their motivations. Obviously, the Vessel is going to get caught up in everyone else’s problems, but now they have an internal drive, a curiosity, that matches what we see in characters like Edward Scissorhands and Bella (Poor Things).
We’d love any feedback you have on the Vessel, especially playtesting feedback. Please email your feedback to [email protected] and put US2E Vessel Feedback as the subject line! We can’t wait to hear what you think of the revamped playbook!
You can get your copy of the Vessel via Backerkit’s digital download system. We’ve already pushed out the files to your account, and you should have received an email letting you know that the files are ready for download. If you didn’t, you can access them directly from Backerkit here:
Now that books are shipping, we’re focusing solely on getting the final stretch goals to you! We’ve been steadily releasing one stretch goal a month, but realize we aren’t going to hit the end of 2024 deadline. That said, we believe we will have everything completed by summer of 2025!
Here’s what is outstanding:
The Ancient Playbook
The Angel Playbook
The Anointed Playbook
The Restless Playbook
The Witch Playbook
The Block City Hub
Docks City Hub
Financial District City Hub
Skid Row City Hub
Many of these are in progress with our writers and will be coming in steadily through rounds of playtesting and developmental editing by our team. We’ll be updating you as we complete stretch goals, rather than monthly.
On that note, please deliver any final feedback you have for the Immortal and the Revenant to us by December 15th, 2024. We’ll be finalizing those playbooks early next year, and we want all feedback in hand before we do so!
Thank you!
Thank you, as always, for your support and excitement as we head into finishing the final stretch goals over the next few months! Have a great holiday weekend if you’re celebrating! We’ll see you here in December!
Shipping Update & the Dragon!
3 months ago
– Thu, Oct 31, 2024 at 02:05:29 PM
Hey all!
Happy Hallowe’en! We hope today is spooky and fun! We have some updates for you about shipping timelines and a preview of the Dragon! Let’s jump in!
Shipping Updates
Shipping begins shortly! Urban Shadodws 2E is at our warehouse and looks amazing! Standard bundles and individual books will be going out in the next two weeks. Addresses are locked down and boxes are being packed! We’re so excited for you to receive your long awaited Urban Shadows 2E package! You can expect an email from our warehouse via Shopify and from Backerkit detailing your shipping details. Please be sure to keep an eye on your Backerkit and inbox, including spam.
There has been a slight delay for deluxe edition books. The final proof of the deluxe edition books looked great, but the final print has a serious problem—the finishing that the printer applied to minimize fingerprints caused the invisible ink to blur! We’ve worked with the printer to correct this issue and the new books are on their way, but those who ordered a deluxe edition book will receive their packages later than those who chose rewards that didn’t include that version of the book. Once the new books arrive, we’ll update you here and ship them immediately!
The Dragon Revamped
We’re so excited to release the next revamped stretch goal playbook to you: the Dragon. The Dragon is captivated by their past life, striving to discover the truth of their ancient origins and the lost broodmates who were reborn alongside them.
The Dragon’s original incarnation is mostly preserved in this new version–especially the broodmates and Ordo Draconis features—but the Dragon’s original moveset is now completely covered by the new let it out, freeing the Dragon up to do some cool things in the moves themselves. In addition, the Dragon starts at Status-2 in Wild, giving them the opportunity to jump into some higher level faction play at character creation!
One of the new moves that will have the biggest impact on the Dragon in play, however, is the Dragon’s new hoard move. The Dragon now has explicit incentives—almost an alternative advancement system—for bringing in new, powerful items to their hoard!
We’d love any feedback you have on the Dragon, especially playtesting feedback. Please email your feedback to [email protected] and put US2E Dragon Feedback as the subject line! We can’t wait to hear what you think of the revamped playbook!
You can get your copy of the Dragon via Backerkit’s digital download system. We’ve already pushed out the files to your account, and you should have received an email letting you know that the files are ready for download. If you didn’t, you can access them directly from Backerkit here:
There are still a number of steps before you get your books. We’re going to cover everything to come (including our stretch goals) to let you know the progress you can expect to see from here on out.
Stretch Goals: We’re now working to finish all the stretch goals by the end of 2024. As we complete them, we’ll release them to you without art for playtesting. Once we integrate your feedback, we’ll lay them out with art/commentary on moves and deliver them to you!
From here out, we’ll be updating you as we complete stretch goals, rather than monthly.
Thank you!
There aren’t words for how excited we are for you to receive your books! We hope you enjoy the Dragon and we’ll be back shortly with an update on the deluxe edition books!
Last Chance to Update Your Address & the Scholar!
4 months ago
– Mon, Sep 30, 2024 at 09:55:13 AM
Hey all!
Lots of exciting things are happening at Magpie Games HQ and we’re back to share some very exciting news!
Last Call for Address Updates
Shipping for Urban Shadows 2E will begin in a few weeks (early November)! We are so thrilled that you’ll have these beautiful books in your hands! This also means that the time to update your address is closing. After looking at when the books will arrive in our warehouse, our new address change deadline is October 16th, 2024.
Address changes after this time may not be updated in our system. If you encounter any issues, please email us at [email protected]. Emailing us after the deadline has passed does not guarantee your package will ship to the correct address.
We’re so excited to release the next revamped stretch goal playbook to you: the Scholar. Mercenary and knowledgeable, the Scholar trafficks in magic items and supernatural artifacts, selling priceless wonders to his network of strange and wealthy mortals.
The original Scholar—written by Marissa Kelly—was one of the playbooks that helped to inspire Urban Shadows: Second Edition! Marissa did an amazing job creating a whole world of mortals interested in the arcane, and it prompted us to think a lot about how the playbooks created arenas of conflicts and added new locuses of drama (in this case magic items).
The new version of the Scholar will be familiar to anyone who played the original playbook, but it’s been tightened up across the board, improving most of the moves and adding in new let it out abilities that make it clear how the Scholar makes use of these magical artifacts.
We’d love any feedback you have on the Scholar, especially playtesting feedback. Please email your feedback to [email protected] and put US2E Scholar Feedback as the subject line! We can’t wait to hear what you think of the revamped playbook!
You can get your copy of the Scholar via Backerkit’s digital download system. We’ve already pushed out the files to your account, and you should have received an email letting you know that the files are ready for download. If you didn’t, you can access them directly from Backerkit here:
There's still a step or two before you get your books. We’re going to cover everything to come (including our stretch goals) to let you know the progress you can expect to see from here on out.
Shipping: Once the printer has sent us the books, we’ll prepare for shipping. This means locking Backerkit surveys. We’ll give you ample notice for when this happens via an update, as well as when shipping begins and what you can expect from that process.
Stretch Goals: We’re now working to finish all the stretch goals by the end of 2024. As we complete them, we’ll release them to you without art for playtesting. Once we integrate your feedback, we’ll lay them out with art/commentary on moves and deliver them to you!
From here out, we’ll be updating you as these steps are completed, rather than monthly, since the chapter updates are no longer relevant.
Thank you!
We are so thrilled to finalizing shipping details and preparing to send you this beautiful game! We can’t wait to hear that you’ve received your package! We’ll be back shortly when shipping has begun and what you can expect from the process!
