The Future of Urban Fantasy

AI Art by @nightcafestudio

Don't ask questions, it's D&D with guns!

That is what I get with Shadowrun, and the more I read and think about the game, the more I realize that this alone isn't the future of the urban fantasy genre. The genre needs to break away from one defining game, and answer the question, why?

Cities Without Number introduces an 'Intruders' concept, where the world is destroyed by magical incursions of alien fantasy monsters and races from other realms. These forces gate in, destroy cities, and bring terror and destruction to the land. They bring magic with them, and the setting is explained. The fantasy races in the book are more a result of genetic modification. Still, there is really nothing to keep you from making traditional elves, orcs, dwarves, and others refugees from the Intruders' world and having them live on Earth and blend in.

Or not. The potential for conflict exists, but in the face of an existential threat, this could force everyone into enclave cities with high tensions, forcing people to get along. This is the problem with D&D and Pathfinder 'writing conflict' out of the story and backgrounds, this happy world where everyone is best friends, like a version of Sesame Street. This does not reflect reality and turns RPGs into silly kids' games.

Urban fantasy needs a break from Shadowrun, like the high fantasy genre needs a break from D&D.

And Shadowrun also needs a break from D&D while we are at it. When you mix these two genres, you need to answer the question of why. Mixing elves and orcs with cyberpunk creates a central conflict between myth and technology. The urban fantasy genre is about the death of myth, magic, and tradition.

This place called the Internet is where our shared culture goes to die.

AI Art by @nightcafestudio

Our fairy tales, myths, shared stories, religion, and core beliefs of who and what we are - the mystic nature of the soul - all die on the Internet. Putting elves, orcs, trolls, dwarves, and others in an environment like this just highlights how these iconic myths are now worthless anachronisms in the face of corporate greed.

An elf in an urban fantasy world is a shadow of a true high fantasy elf.

The myth is dead.

The magic is gone.

Those skyscrapers of the mega-corporations are the leg, neck, and ankle shackles around who that elf is inside. The identity is lost forever. You are just a wage slave with pointy ears. D&D or Pathfinder can't write a background like that; it would trigger someone. Those games are played in the kid's room.

But that is urban fantasy; it is not D&D with guns. It is a story of losing what makes us human through watching others lose what makes them myth and legend. It is a painful, nihilistic, and pessimistic genre that makes us reflect on the loss of identity and self. These destructive forces in our world are brought on by money, Wall Street, and the soul-sucking Internet.

No wonder the genre is either silenced or lacquered over by a corporate saccharine veneer, highlighting cyber's kewl neon opiate looks! The genre is not the flash, colors, looks, and styles.

The genre is a mirror to the darkest parts of our souls.

The flash and neon colors are there to hide the pain of having your soul ripped apart. Your identity is being turned into a number. Your body is being converted into a machine.

If you can't see beyond the lights and colors, the corporate brainwashing is working.

You are too distracted to feel the pain.