[Urban Decay] Has anyone picked it up? What can you tell me?

[Rated Aargh]

I've circled the new RPG from Osprey, Urban Decay, for a few months. Even before it came out, I was curious but cautious.

For those who don't know, it's meant to be a roleplaying game that emulates stuff like Final Fight and Streets of Rage, but it appears to be more than just a combat system. There's a collaborative city-building element I'd like to know more about, but information is scarce on the ground. I was hoping someone could fill me in on that and everything else.

Help?

 

[SJB]

I wonder if anyone actually plays these Osprey RPGs? On the whole, they appear unsupported and unreviewed to the casual observer.

 

[Silverlion]

I wonder if anyone actually plays these Osprey RPGs? On the whole, they appear unsupported and unreviewed to the casual observer.

I know groups who play Sigil and Shadow, but I pay attention to it because a friend wrote it.

 

[Malckuss]

I'm also interested in hearing about this from someone who has read the game.

I have both Crescendo of Violence and Hard City but haven't gotten either to the table yet. I have run Neon City Overdrive multiple times, which uses the same system as Hard City.

 

[Rated Aargh]

I ordered the hardcover since the PDF is so pricey for what you get, so I'll likely find out soon enough. Fingers crossed!

 

[Rated Aargh]

I wonder if anyone actually plays these Osprey RPGs?

I'd play Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades in a heartbeat if I could find a group. It's certainly not a lack of quality that's affecting the player base.

 

[Baulderstone]

I wonder if anyone actually plays these Osprey RPGs? On the whole, they appear unsupported and unreviewed to the casual observer.

Here is a review of Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades based on actual play, along with a follow-up review of the included adventure.




I was a playtester for it, and I enjoyed it a great deal, but I work with BedrockBrendan on other games of his, so I admit to bias.

 

[Andy-C]

I wonder if anyone actually plays these Osprey RPGs? On the whole, they appear unsupported and unreviewed to the casual observer.

I've GMed a few games each of Paleomythic and Romance of the Perilous Land.

 

[Stumpydave]

I love Sigil and Shadow and I'd play more of it, and the other Osprey games, if I had a regular group. I'm also a fan of their Wargames, particularly Stargrave and Gaslands.

They might not have the presence online of more established games and publishers but they're alright.

 

[Rob Necronomicon]

I've a few of their RPGs and they are all pretty good!

I recently bought Pressure (basically Aliens the RPG). Rules light and a nice game overall. And anyone into Urban Fantasy with a lump of horror I'd highly recommend Sigil & Shadow!
Those Dark Places is good but sparse so I'd recommend Pressure over that, tbh.

I'd definitely be interested in Urban Decay - Assuming it is more than just a beat 'em up per se. I mean, if there was also a fair amount of RPing involved and some character development too. I'm not mad on games that are too combat orientated.

 

[SJB]

I've GMed a few games each of Paleomythic and Romance of the Perilous Land.

How was Romance of the Perilous Land? I own the Osprey version but thought it had less verve than the original free version. And my Osprey copy is badly printed.

 

[Andy-C]

How was Romance of the Perilous Land? I own the Osprey version but thought it had less verve than the original free version. And my Osprey copy is badly printed.

I liked it. Easy character creation and a simple enough set of rules. We didn't play for long, so I can't speak to character advancement or anything like that.

 

[Silverlion]

I'd play Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades in a heartbeat if I could find a group. It's certainly not a lack of quality that's affecting the player base.

I would play and I own this both on Kindle and in print.

 

[Error Biscuit]

Hi there, I own a copy of Urban Decay, haven’t had a chance to play or run it, though. It’s a D100 system, with a focus of “beat’em up” style action, akin to video games like Streets of Rage or Captain Commando. Probably not gonna get a decade-spanning campaign out of it, but seems like a lot of fun for a one-shot or short campaign.

 

[Malckuss]

Hi there, I own a copy of Urban Decay, haven’t had a chance to play or run it, though. It’s a D100 system, with a focus of “beat’em up” style action, akin to video games like Streets of Rage or Captain Commando. Probably not gonna get a decade-spanning campaign out of it, but seems like a lot of fun for a one-shot or short campaign.

Could you please elaborate on the nature of the d100 system? Any interesting permutations?

 

[Error Biscuit]

Could you please elaborate on the nature of the d100 system? Any interesting permutations?

It’s a pretty standard D100 roll-under, skill based system. Everyone starts with the same base stats (all of them hovering between 25% to 35%), and these are then enhanced by choosing your archetype, background, training, and code, then the party as a whole decides what type of crew/gang your characters belong to, which also modifies stats.
Thats the character creation. Haven’t really dug into the combat system very much yet.

 

[Error Biscuit]

I’m skimming combat, and it seems to be a system based on opposed rolls and “clash points”, which are points you can spend for special attack effects.
There are two kinds of attack effects: General (feint, power attack, and precise blow), and Specific (grapple:lock, grapple:throw, Kick:sweep the leg, and Strike: perfect strike). Both cost varying number of Clash Points.
That seems to be the Cliff’s Notes of it, and I’m probably forgetting or misrepresenting something.

 

[AsenRG]

I wonder if anyone actually plays these Osprey RPGs? On the whole, they appear unsupported and unreviewed to the casual observer.

I can confirm I've ran Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blade RPG and Sigil & Shadow. The latter was enough of a success that one of our GMs got the bug to run it, and started an online game.

I don't own any of the others yet, so can't speak to those, but yes, someone plays them, obviously...

It’s a pretty standard D100 roll-under, skill based system. Everyone starts with the same base stats (all of them hovering between 25% to 35%), and these are then enhanced by choosing your archetype, background, training, and code, then the party as a whole decides what type of crew/gang your characters belong to, which also modifies stats.
Thats the character creation. Haven’t really dug into the combat system very much yet.

I’m skimming combat, and it seems to be a system based on opposed rolls and “clash points”, which are points you can spend for special attack effects.
There are two kinds of attack effects: General (feint, power attack, and precise blow), and Specific (grapple:lock, grapple:throw, Kick:sweep the leg, and Strike: perfect strike). Both cost varying number of Clash Points.
That seems to be the Cliff’s Notes of it, and I’m probably forgetting or misrepresenting something.

Both of these sound interesting (well, or "good enough" at any rate)!

 

[Malckuss]

It’s a pretty standard D100 roll-under, skill based system. Everyone starts with the same base stats (all of them hovering between 25% to 35%), and these are then enhanced by choosing your archetype, background, training, and code, then the party as a whole decides what type of crew/gang your characters belong to, which also modifies stats.
Thats the character creation. Haven’t really dug into the combat system very much yet.

It appears the twist here is how the parts come together, that and...

I’m skimming combat, and it seems to be a system based on opposed rolls and “clash points”, which are points you can spend for special attack effects.
There are two kinds of attack effects: General (feint, power attack, and precise blow), and Specific (grapple:lock, grapple:throw, Kick:sweep the leg, and Strike: perfect strike). Both cost varying number of Clash Points.
That seems to be the Cliff’s Notes of it, and I’m probably forgetting or misrepresenting something.

...These very interesting permutations. How clunky is the system for spending these points? Arcane enough to require cheat sheets similar to the AGE system or easier to just improvise?

 

[AsenRG]

It appears the twist here is how the parts come together, that and...

...These very interesting permutations. How clunky is the system for spending these points? Arcane enough to require cheat sheets similar to the AGE system or easier to just improvise?

For some reason, I also thought of AGE!

Then again, that's not a bad thing.

 

[Rob Necronomicon]

I found this overview it might be worth a look:

 

[SavAce]

I have the game, but don't have it right in front of me, so I can't get super specific with recalling particular mechanics. The default set-up has you setting up a particular city with zones, bosses, lieutenants, and big bad at the top. The city has zones and there are rules for traversing the zones, having your own home zone and so on. The game really does take the structure of a beat 'em up game pretty straight, in that the assumed play is to have the characters go through these zones and beat up these bosses to eventually work out what is going on and beat the big bad. That really does feel like it is what every campaign is, and that defeating the big bad is the natural resolution, though you could just keep creating big bads and their gangs and do it all over again with the same characters.

I recall the combat system seemed pretty decent, like, you could have different enemy types and your character can fight someone interestingly different from others. The clash points and what you are able to do with them, choices around whether you decide to take hits so you have more flexibility later, etc. seemed potentially promising, but I haven't actually played and so can't confidently say. Definitely a more interesting combat system than Fight to Survive. I doubt it has the juice to top Street Fighter, but I'm a biased mega-fan of that RPG.

On the negative side for me: The game feels too formal and wedded to a particular interpretation of its source material. Like, your characters are all from the same neighborhood and are fighting to save your neighborhood. That's the baked in structure of what the game is about. So, that's not Final Fight (a mayor, a guy dating the mayor's kidnapped daughter, and that guy's friend [who happens to be named Guy] visiting from Japan). The 1st Streets of Rage is 3 cops, so you could make that work. Cadillacs & Dinosaurs? Final Fight 2 (every stage is in a totally different country)? Streets of Rage 2? Those Capcom D&D Beat 'em Ups? Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun (which is basically HS kids getting into fights.) Nah, none of them have that set up. Can you play a goddamned kangaroo with boxing gloves? I dunno, maybe if he lived in the same neighborhood as the rest of the party. The game doesn't really encourage an expansive take on the genre. It has a defined play loop that is about going from neighborhood to neighborhood and generally beating up folks while discovering what the level boss is up to which leads you to the next area. You do this while basically being part of a neighborhood gang yourself. The game structure also assumes this all happens within the confines of a single city.

So, yeah. The combat system seems potentially pretty cool. The rest of the game seems unnecessarily over-focused on a particular take on the genre that would seem to limit desire to replay it, I think.

 

[Malckuss]

I found this overview it might be worth a look:

...that was terrible, if you are looking for a rules review of the game. He said he hadn't played it, but this was more a recorded reaction to the book; he hadn't even read it! Worst. Review. Evar.

I have the game, but don't have it right in front of me, so I can't get super specific with recalling particular mechanics. The default set-up has you setting up a particular city with zones, bosses, lieutenants, and big bad at the top. The city has zones and there are rules for traversing the zones, having your own home zone and so on. The game really does take the structure of a beat 'em up game pretty straight, in that the assumed play is to have the characters go through these zones and beat up these bosses to eventually work out what is going on and beat the big bad. That really does feel like it is what every campaign is, and that defeating the big bad is the natural resolution, though you could just keep creating big bads and their gangs and do it all over again with the same characters.

I recall the combat system seemed pretty decent, like, you could have different enemy types and your character can fight someone interestingly different from others. The clash points and what you are able to do with them, choices around whether you decide to take hits so you have more flexibility later, etc. seemed potentially promising, but I haven't actually played and so can't confidently say. Definitely a more interesting combat system than Fight to Survive. I doubt it has the juice to top Street Fighter, but I'm a biased mega-fan of that RPG.

This, however, was a very helpful overview, even without discussing mechanics. Thank you for this, SavAce.

Unfortunately, I do have a small bone to (not)pick regarding the following section...

On the negative side for me: The game feels too formal and wedded to a particular interpretation of its source material. Like, your characters are all from the same neighborhood and are fighting to save your neighborhood. That's the baked in structure of what the game is about. So, that's not Final Fight (a mayor, a guy dating the mayor's kidnapped daughter, and that guy's friend [who happens to be named Guy] visiting from Japan). The 1st Streets of Rage is 3 cops, so you could make that work. Cadillacs & Dinosaurs? Final Fight 2 (every stage is in a totally different country)? Streets of Rage 2? Those Capcom D&D Beat 'em Ups? Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun (which is basically HS kids getting into fights.) Nah, none of them have that set up. Can you play a goddamned kangaroo with boxing gloves? I dunno, maybe if he lived in the same neighborhood as the rest of the party. The game doesn't really encourage an expansive take on the genre. It has a defined play loop that is about going from neighborhood to neighborhood and generally beating up folks while discovering what the level boss is up to which leads you to the next area. You do this while basically being part of a neighborhood gang yourself. The game structure also assumes this all happens within the confines of a single city.


So, yeah. The combat system seems potentially pretty cool. The rest of the game seems unnecessarily over-focused on a particular take on the genre that would seem to limit desire to replay it, I think.

Emphasis mine. A brief clarifying question, before my diatribe: Is this bit mechanically enforced, somehow? If it is, the following may be pure balderdash (and may well be, regardless).

Some of this complaint could simply be mitigated by an application of scale and reinterpreting an assessment of your neighbors and neighborhood. As the gentleman, after listening to Jesus proclamation of the three most important aspects of Christianity asked, "Who, really then, is my neighbor?" Christ responded by giving the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan (as Jews in Israel at the time despised and thought ill of all Jews in Samaria).

In Final Fight, the three protagonists are in a neighborhood of peace and Justice, where if someone has a beef with someone, they take it up directly with that person instead of cowardly striking at them through their loved ones. Their neighborhood? The family you choose; Hagar for his daughter, Cody for his his girlfriend/fiance, Guy for his troubled friends.

Streets of Rage? The cops vs those troubling their precinct; the precinct is the section of the community they serve, their neighborhood. In future games in the series, this scope is expanded; now their neighborhood is the entire city, their neighborhood is a city with an ideal of a peaceful and orderly existence, threatened by those who either fall or place themselves outside of that ideal.

I'm not too familiar with some of the others you mention, but I'll use some I am fond of to continue the examples.

In Knights of the Round, Arthur, Lancelot & Percival are Knights defending the 'neighborhood' of the kingdom; the D&D games would fall into a similar category.

In the original Dynasty Warriors arcade games, it was the 'neighborhood' of ancient China vs the Mongolian Hoard, and later each Warring State vs the others.

In the Capcom mecha brawler I can never recall the name of, it's Earth government pilots vs Martian colonial pilots.

This scale/interpretation could even be used to reframe conflicts in the game, not just situationally. For example, you start as Greek heroes fighting brigands, with an overboss which ends the troubles, then expands to a local warlord causing trouble, and so on until finally you are facing Artaxerxes at Thermopile's Hot Gates. Instead of punching one dude in the face, yeah, mechanically, you are punching one dude, but you are routing an entire squad or legion because you are a Spartan.

My guess is the author should have elaborated a bit more on the matter, as that is what the cycle described, paired with dramatic escalation, implies to me.

I will kindly STFU now.

 

[Rob Necronomicon]

I'd play Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades in a heartbeat if I could find a group. It's certainly not a lack of quality that's affecting the player base.

This looks very cool! How on earth did I miss this?

 

[SavAce]

Emphasis mine. A brief clarifying question, before my diatribe: Is this bit mechanically enforced, somehow? If it is, the following may be pure balderdash (and may well be, regardless).

Some of this complaint could simply be mitigated by an application of scale and reinterpreting an assessment of your neighbors and neighborhood. As the gentleman, after listening to Jesus proclamation of the three most important aspects of Christianity asked, "Who, really then, is my neighbor?" Christ responded by giving the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan (as Jews in Israel at the time despised and thought ill of all Jews in Samaria).

In Final Fight, the three protagonists are in a neighborhood of peace and Justice, where if someone has a beef with someone, they take it up directly with that person instead of cowardly striking at them through their loved ones. Their neighborhood? The family you choose; Hagar for his daughter, Cody for his his girlfriend/fiance, Guy for his troubled friends.

Streets of Rage? The cops vs those troubling their precinct; the precinct is the section of the community they serve, their neighborhood. In future games in the series, this scope is expanded; now their neighborhood is the entire city, their neighborhood is a city with an ideal of a peaceful and orderly existence, threatened by those who either fall or place themselves outside of that ideal.

I'm not too familiar with some of the others you mention, but I'll use some I am fond of to continue the examples.

In Knights of the Round, Arthur, Lancelot & Percival are Knights defending the 'neighborhood' of the kingdom; the D&D games would fall into a similar category.

In the original Dynasty Warriors arcade games, it was the 'neighborhood' of ancient China vs the Mongolian Hoard, and later each Warring State vs the others.

In the Capcom mecha brawler I can never recall the name of, it's Earth government pilots vs Martian colonial pilots.

This scale/interpretation could even be used to reframe conflicts in the game, not just situationally. For example, you start as Greek heroes fighting brigands, with an overboss which ends the troubles, then expands to a local warlord causing trouble, and so on until finally you are facing Artaxerxes at Thermopile's Hot Gates. Instead of punching one dude in the face, yeah, mechanically, you are punching one dude, but you are routing an entire squad or legion because you are a Spartan.

My guess is the author should have elaborated a bit more on the matter, as that is what the cycle described, paired with dramatic escalation, implies to me.

While to an extent you could work to re-interpret what is meant by the authors to broaden your conception, I would say the game text does nothing to encourage it or point players towards the idea as a possibility. For example, while the game mentions that GMs could create other neighborhoods in a city, the default neighborhoods are: Docks, Warehouse, Dredges, Manufacturing, Midtown, High Rise, Uptown, Financial. Each of these neighborhoods has predefined links to (2-3) other neighborhoods (though you could swap them around), and each neighborhood has defined District Effects, like... "Spend 2 Momentum points to increase the difficulty of a Stealth or Streetwise check to locate or track someone (because the Docks have a lot of places to hide), but for 3 Domination points the Game Master can ambush the crew."

Also, one step of character creation is "Select Crew Type", and they are: Choppers (you steal cars), Fighting Stable (same dojo, boxing club, etc.), Investigators (you're all part of an investigatory institution), Street Squad (You all live on the block, may offer 'protection' to local businesses, neighborhood watch, gang, part of a mob), Thieves (you steal stuff or are part of a criminal group). Again, you can stretch these definitions to fit things, but as part of character creation all PCs are expected to be part of the same crew type, and certain crew types have a certain neighborhoods they are allowed to choose as their home neighborhood.

So, if you start out with a character concept that's like "I'm an exchange student from Kenya who has made friends with some other gals in Japan" or, like, "I'm the mayor and I'm gonna clean up the streets!" well, the Crew Type makes it difficult for those 2 characters to be in the same party, even if in another game you could invent a fictional reason for them to end up together. I guess we can say they are both part of an Investigators crew (being a crew type that doesn't strongly hint that you're a criminal of some type), but it feels like you're working to squeeze what you want into a game that doesn't really envision supporting your idea, like you're working against what the game wants, or it's working against you. House ruling is always a possibility, I could re-interpret what neighborhood means, invent sensible District effects for those places, come up with new crew types... How crew movement works across the city make some modifications more difficult, you start pulling some threads and it messes up other parts of the game.

On the other hand, if you want a gritty, dark urban beat 'em up, it does do that in its particular way. I mean, the game is called "Urban Decay" after all, so it's not like it's declaring itself to be open to every beat 'em up character or campaign concept you throw at it. Beyond that, though, I'd say it is from a school of design I tend to associate with newer games with more narrow focus. Like, Mörk Borg has this mechanic where you roll a die each dawn, a 1 means a new misery befalls the world, the 7th misery means the world dies. Doesn't really seem like a game I'm gonna want to play a lot of campaigns of, but obviously some folks dig it. Likewise, not a game I'd put a lot of effort into trying to mold into supporting some broader thing. I'll let it have it's own aesthetic and be what it wants to be and look elsewhere for my fantasy kicks. Or, like how the PbtA game Masks isn't about supporting your idea for a particular kind of super hero. It has a focus on young heroes, with just enough powers and set-up to support some of that particular kind of drama, but not even close to any supers concept you might imagine wanting to play.

 

[Triumvir]

I wonder if anyone actually plays these Osprey RPGs? On the whole, they appear unsupported and unreviewed to the casual observer.

I'm a wargamer, and this is one key criticism that is levelled at their wargames rules - no publisher support. If the author wants to support through a website or something, they're welcome to (and some do), but many of their games are orphaned from birth.

There also seems to be little to no quality control in terms of content, although their books usually look pretty. Still, a lot of them are good and popular, especially Men Who Would Be Kings (colonial) and the Rampant games (Lion for medieval, Xenos for SF etc.) by Dan Mearsey.

 

[AsenRG]

While to an extent you could work to re-interpret what is meant by the authors to broaden your conception, I would say the game text does nothing to encourage it or point players towards the idea as a possibility. For example, while the game mentions that GMs could create other neighborhoods in a city, the default neighborhoods are: Docks, Warehouse, Dredges, Manufacturing, Midtown, High Rise, Uptown, Financial. Each of these neighborhoods has predefined links to (2-3) other neighborhoods (though you could swap them around), and each neighborhood has defined District Effects, like... "Spend 2 Momentum points to increase the difficulty of a Stealth or Streetwise check to locate or track someone (because the Docks have a lot of places to hide), but for 3 Domination points the Game Master can ambush the crew."

Also, one step of character creation is "Select Crew Type", and they are: Choppers (you steal cars), Fighting Stable (same dojo, boxing club, etc.), Investigators (you're all part of an investigatory institution), Street Squad (You all live on the block, may offer 'protection' to local businesses, neighborhood watch, gang, part of a mob), Thieves (you steal stuff or are part of a criminal group). Again, you can stretch these definitions to fit things, but as part of character creation all PCs are expected to be part of the same crew type, and certain crew types have a certain neighborhoods they are allowed to choose as their home neighborhood.

So, if you start out with a character concept that's like "I'm an exchange student from Kenya who has made friends with some other gals in Japan" or, like, "I'm the mayor and I'm gonna clean up the streets!" well, the Crew Type makes it difficult for those 2 characters to be in the same party, even if in another game you could invent a fictional reason for them to end up together. I guess we can say they are both part of an Investigators crew (being a crew type that doesn't strongly hint that you're a criminal of some type), but it feels like you're working to squeeze what you want into a game that doesn't really envision supporting your idea, like you're working against what the game wants, or it's working against you. House ruling is always a possibility, I could re-interpret what neighborhood means, invent sensible District effects for those places, come up with new crew types... How crew movement works across the city make some modifications more difficult, you start pulling some threads and it messes up other parts of the game.

On the other hand, if you want a gritty, dark urban beat 'em up, it does do that in its particular way. I mean, the game is called "Urban Decay" after all, so it's not like it's declaring itself to be open to every beat 'em up character or campaign concept you throw at it. Beyond that, though, I'd say it is from a school of design I tend to associate with newer games with more narrow focus. Like, Mörk Borg has this mechanic where you roll a die each dawn, a 1 means a new misery befalls the world, the 7th misery means the world dies. Doesn't really seem like a game I'm gonna want to play a lot of campaigns of, but obviously some folks dig it. Likewise, not a game I'd put a lot of effort into trying to mold into supporting some broader thing. I'll let it have it's own aesthetic and be what it wants to be and look elsewhere for my fantasy kicks. Or, like how the PbtA game Masks isn't about supporting your idea for a particular kind of super hero. It has a focus on young heroes, with just enough powers and set-up to support some of that particular kind of drama, but not even close to any supers concept you might imagine wanting to play.

So basically, you can houserule it, of course, but you'd end up houseruling character creation and a couple in-game effects?


Yeah, that does suck. I mean, I might still do it, but I hate games that try to shoehorn me into their following their ideas...especially if those aren't the ideas I had when hearing about the game!

Yes, I'm picky, why do you ask?

 

[BedrockBrendan]

This looks very cool! How on earth did I miss this?

We flew under the radar lol. There is a new review of the online adventure up as well:

 

[Rob Necronomicon]

We flew under the radar lol. There is a new review of the online adventure up as well:

Ta', man!

 

[Edgewise]

There is a new review of the online adventure up as well:

Seth is probably my favorite RPG youtuber, so it was a delight to see your game get his attention.