Apology & New City Hubs
almost 3 years ago
– Mon, Mar 21, 2022 at 06:15:03 AM
Hello, friends! We’re back with another update, an important apology, and new City Hubs! We know this project hasn’t gone smoothly, so we’d like to take a moment before we get into project updates to talk about the delays and apologize.
An Apology from Magpie Games
First and foremost, we want to apologize for the slow progress and many delays this project has seen. We have faced unprecedented challenges in the last year, both in terms of team struggles due to the ongoing COVID pandemic as well as the sudden pressure of a massively successful project we hadn’t predicted would be so big. We are a small team, and though our design teams are different, our size means that when one of us is impacted, all of us are affected.
For every case of Covid, our team had to change and adjust to take on work they otherwise wouldn’t have on their plate. The core design team of Urban Shadows has two people who are also owners of the company and their roles have had to expand and change as we faced several health crises and struggles within the company brought about by the pandemic. Even now, one of our team is facing complications from long covid, a condition which impacts all of their work and may result in lifelong health challenges.
Urban Shadows has also had an extended development time after the Kickstarter, longer than we had originally anticipated or intended. We’ve had so much amazing feedback from you that we’ve worked to incorporate it into our work, much more than we expected. While we’re grateful for this important insight—and it has made a better game in the end—those extended rounds of feedback and playtesting have caused additional delays.
We can’t express how sorry we are at the continued delays and miscommunications on effective timelines; we have tried to keep the project moving with limited resources and often misjudged what was realistic. We know many of you are frustrated and disappointed, and we apologize for how these issues have impacted you and the project. While we are working to course correct by adding on more staff (as we mentioned in our last update), it doesn’t remedy your disappointment or frustration thus far.
We also know that an apology won’t fix how late the project is. If you no longer wish to be a backer on the project, and would like a refund due to the delays, we are happy to offer one. Please email us at [email protected] to request a refund. We always appreciate your support, but we understand that sometimes a project is no longer for you.
If you choose to stay with us on this project, we greatly appreciate it! Thank you for your continued patience and kindness as we move to complete this project and get the final game to you. We also want to thank you for all of the feedback on the game, which is helping us make a much richer and more polished game than we ever thought possible.
Thank you to everyone who has backed this project and continues to be supportive, kind, and patient. Thank you for airing your frustrations and concerns while being considerate and thoughtful. And thank you for loving Urban Shadows, a game we also hold close to our hearts at Magpie Games HQ.
New City Hubs: The University & City Hall
We’ve finished two city hubs: The University & City Hall!
The University is a hotbed of political discourse, supernatural research, and strange magical phenomena. Power holds an iron grip over this section of the city—controlling the institutions that determine the city’s very future—but plenty goes on in the shadows they can’t reach. The wizards and immortals might think they control destiny, but the city’s history is often written by those with more mundane hungers…
The red tape of bureaucracy binds all; Mortalis holds sway in City Hall by knowing where the tape is weakest—and who needs to be cut to walk past it. By day, ordinary politicians do “the work” of “the people;” by night, scheming fae make deals behind warded doors and immortal powerbrokers wait in empty parking garages to have their say. You can’t fight city hall, but someone with influence can always pencil you in for the right price.
These new hubs include Residents, Relationships, Hub Moves, Locations, Rumors, Factions, and NPCs. Both have been added to the newest version of the Quickstart which you can download now from DriveThruRPG! (You might remember the University from the first release of the Quickstart!)
Progress Update
We’re working hard with our new project manager to reorganize our work. She has divided up the remaining writing and set deadlines for the additional work required to complete the book. Some of this involves editing work from the first edition, but much of it is writing new chapters that better reflect all the changes we’ve made to the second edition. As our writing team works through everything, we’ll be able to give a more honest timeline. Procuring the final art for the book has also begun!
All of the accessories (Dice, GM Screen, notebook, etc) have finished designs and we are sending them to the printer once we’ve completed the core book so they all print at the same time. This means we’ll have a complete package ready at one time, and won’t need to wait for additional pieces to ship and arrive.
We’ve also begun work on the additional playbooks that were unlocked during the campaign and can’t wait for you to see them and provide feedback!
Until Next Time…
Once we check in next month, we’ll have a more stable timeline for the final production. This timeline will be based upon the writing that we finish in the next few weeks. We don’t want to offer another timeline without substantial proof that we can meet our established deadlines; the last thing we want to do is give you another set of unrealistic dates. Thank you for your patience and we will return next month with a timeline and further progress update.
Thank you, as always, for your feedback, support, and patience on this project. We’ll be back in April with further updates, some new material, and a timeline for the remainder of the project! Till then, stay safe and keep playing games!
New City Hub and Playbook Updates
almost 3 years ago
– Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 02:18:27 AM
Happy February, friends! It’s time for another update and we’ve been hard at work diving deep into Urban Shadows over at Magpie Games HQ. We hope you’ve been having a great start to the New Year!
New City Hub: Art District
We’ve finished out the city hub: The Art District!
In the Art District, colors swirl, pop, and blister; Wild thrives here, tip-toeing the line between artistic passion and corporate assimilation. Buskers stand on street corners with nothing but their aspirations and a beat up guitar case, while the wealthy rub shoulders with overworked gallery owners and preening artists. Dreams are the currency of the Art District... just be careful not to let yours fall into the wrong hands.
This new hub includes Residents, Relationships, Hub Moves, Locations, Rumors, Factions, and NPCs. It’s been added to the newest version of the Quickstart which you can download now from DriveThruRPG!
Playbook Updates
We’ve added some new updates to a couple of the playbooks and finalized their design. These playbooks have had some significant changes, which are approved and added to the playbooks. The Hunter, Sworn, Tainted, and Vamp are the four we’ve been working hard on and are happy to say are complete.
The changes to the Tainted and Vamp are the most significant—both have new sections that help players describe their fictional position within the city. We’ve added a new pick list to flesh out the Tainted’s dark patron, and a brand new extra—a harbor—to give the Vamp a more stable home base beyond the immediate haven. We are excited to get feedback on both!
These final changes have all been added to the newest version of the Quickstart which you can grab on DriveThruRPG!
Progress Update
Unfortunately, Mark had surgery in early January and that has delayed finishing the writing as he needed time to recover. He’s doing well, and while he is still recovering, he has returned to the office full time. Work has kicked into high gear now that he’s returned. We’ve also brought Sarah Doom in as the project manager to help get things moving a bit faster! Sarah’s a great part of the Magpie Games team and we’re excited she’ll be managing the project from here on out so that Mark and Marissa can focus on finishing the writing!
One of the sections that’s next on their agenda is the faction turn rules. If you have any feedback, especially if you’ve gotten a chance to run Urban Shadows with the faction turn rules released in late 2021, please let us know by emailing us at [email protected] with the subject line: Faction Turn Feedback! Thank you!
Until Next Time…
Thank you for your support, play reports, and sending us feedback as you run one-shots and campaigns! We’ve loved all the suggestions and insights you’ve provided through emailed feedback and by talking to us in our Urban Shadows channel on the Magpie Games discord! You’re such an amazing group of backers and the game wouldn’t be what it is without you!
We’ll be back in March with more updates, information, and progress reports for you! We hope you enjoy the last bits of winter and have a great early spring as 2022 continues on! Stay safe, stay healthy, and keep being awesome!
Start of 2022
about 3 years ago
– Fri, Jan 07, 2022 at 09:11:47 PM
Happy New Year, everyone! We apologize for missing the December update! An internal miscommunication meant we didn’t post it and we’re sorry that we dropped that ball! We hope you had a fantastic holiday season!
Team Magpie took some time off over the holidays to celebrate, get ahead on projects, and (safely) spend time with our loved ones!
Progress Update
Playtesting has ended which means… we’re moving into the final stage of writing! Our team has been hard at work going through the text of the first edition, updating it, editing it, and adding whole new writing to the text that matches the updated rules, new mechanics, and with more insights. The editing and revising process is going well!
The core playbooks are complete. New writing to incorporate them in your game and their sections in the book are underway now that we have finished playtesting them and are solid on their mechanics. Because most of the playbooks have gone through major revisions, this writing must be done from scratch and is currently underway.
The city guides for the book are almost complete and headed for editing. As are the city hubs which are going into the book. City hub work is moving well and we’re hoping to have new city hubs available for you soon!
Overall, we’re aiming to have the final draft done for February, and then to go to layout from there. Once we have the final text done and through editing, we’ll post a new update to tell you these final pieces are all done and headed towards layout.
Until Next Time…
Thank you for your support, as always, and for your excitement as we head into the final writing and editing. We know we’re behind and we apologize for the delays that have happened. We appreciate your patience and support as we work through these delays and continue to strive to send you the final product as soon as we’re able.
We hope you are staying safe, playing some great games, and having a great beginning to 2022! We’ll talk to you next month with where these parts of the book are, and keep you posted on the developments as we wrap up the text!
Writing Continues
about 3 years ago
– Thu, Dec 02, 2021 at 01:22:43 AM
Happy November, everyone! We hope you’ve had a great holiday season and are enjoying the Fall and early Winter weather! We’ve been busy at Magpie Games HQ, and here’s our November update for you!
Writing Updates
While we’ve been playtesting the revisions and doing the work of writing, we’ve also had some delays. The playtesting has been going well, with the revisions working nicely and we’re thrilled to hear the feedback you’ve been giving us, both via email and in our Discord! If you have feedback on the latest Quickstart from October, we’d love to hear from you!
The writing continues ever onward. As mentioned, we’ve had a couple of delays. Namely, we’ve had three COVID cases in our office in the last few weeks. Everyone at Magpie Games is vaccinated, but breakthrough cases have happened and have shut down our office twice now while we quarantine and get tested. This has caused delays across the board for us, and as we play catch up after each incident, impacts our writing and production schedule.
We are still working hard to get you a final PDF as soon as we can, but are realistically looking at late Winter, meaning early 2022. We apologize for these delays. We continue to take all the appropriate and necessary precautions around COVID, and are dismayed that it continues to impact our production schedules.
Thank you for understanding and for your continued excitement and support. We can’t wait to show you the final rules and book once it’s complete and will continue to keep you apprised of what’s been happening over at Magpie Games HQ.
Until Next Time…
As always, we continue to strive for excellence in crafting Urban Shadows 2nd Edition. We’re working through the writing and final design, finishing revisions, and steadily working towards the final game for you. Thanks for being awesome, for telling epic stories, and for being so excited as you play Urban Shadows
We’ll be back next month with a full update on progress, with more details about where we are in the process. Thanks for your patience and have a great end of Autumn!
Quickstart Update v5.0
about 3 years ago
– Fri, Oct 22, 2021 at 01:47:03 AM
Happy October, friends! We hope you’re having a delightfully spooky month and we’re excited to share some updates to the game along with what we’ve been up to this past month. It’s been busy over here in Magpie Games HQ and Urban Shadows 2E has had some cool updates!
Quickstart Updates
We’ve been digging in and playtesting some of the major changes here in the office. Playtesting is a huge part of our process and lets us move a good game to a great game by way of ironing out the wrinkles collaboratively. These playtests have resulted in some changes to the playbooks we’ve been retooling and examining, mostly to ensure that the new and revised playbooks are as strong as they can be.
The newest update addresses these changes we've implemented. You’ll see some changes to the Aware, the Imp, the Oracle, and the Sworn specifically, as well as some minor changes throughout to other playbooks like the Tainted. While we said version 4.0 would be the last revision, we wanted to share all these revisions with you right away!
The newest Quickstart is available on Drivethrurpg. If you’ve grabbed it before, the new version will automatically be in your library. If not, you can find it here:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/333500/Urban-Shadows-2nd-Ed-Quickstart
As always your feedback and comments mean a ton to us. You can reach out directly at [email protected] or join our Discord and talk with us there about your experiences running or playing the game!
Faction Turn Revision
One of the major updates in addition to the playbook changes is a large revision of the faction turn. While the core idea of the moves for the factions is working great, we were concerned that relaying all the information to the players after the faction turn interrupted the flow of the game. We want you all to jump back into scenes after a faction turn instead of “downloading” the faction turn for twenty minutes!
To that end, we’ve streamlined the city moves and faction turn one step further: players declare their city moves and roll, the MC then resolves the faction turn and reports back immediate information—including the results of those city moves—and then moves on to new scenes. All of the rest of the faction move outcomes are relayed through in-fiction scenes involving NPCs!
We feel like this revision keeps what’s great about the faction turn—declaiming responsibility for the conflicts in the city—while also keeping more of the action in the moment-by-moment drama that makes Urban Shadows great. Let us know what you think!
Until Next Time…
We’re continuing to work on the game to ensure it meets our high expectations! We’ll keep working on revisions and getting the final PDF ready for you; many sections are already in the writing stages, and we expect to have the PDF for you all this Winter. Revisions can sometimes result in delays, but we are dedicated to ensuring the best possible product while doing our best to meet our timelines.
We’ll be back next month with further updates on progress and what we’ve been working on in Magpie Games HQ! Stay safe and have a spooky month!
