Shadows of Humanity

Shadows of Humanity is intended to be a modern-fantasy RPG/setting, in which players can take on the role of characters who live in the modern world that we are all familiar with. However, unknown to most of the world’s population, many of the mythical beings from various legends and cultures do actually exist; but stay hidden from most people’s perception by living in the shadows of our modern world. It has been more than 20 years in the making, starting out as my own created setting for The Everlasting RPG   This is a home-brew system that has influence from several other RPG systems. It uses Tarot cards for randomization, but here on the Role Gate system, I have set up a “custom die” for generating Minor Arcana card draws and another for generating Major Arcana card draws as a way to play-test this home brew system. I will help walk each player through the character creation process. With the mythological aspects of this game, the Tarot mechanics are intended to build on this concept and will allow for some added strategies in combat. It is loosely based off of other modern-day-fantasy games such as The Everlasting, the White Wolf games or Deliria: Fairy Tales in the New Millennium. If you are fan of any of the following Movies or TV shows, you may enjoy taking part in this setting: the Underworld movies, the Blade movies, Constantine, Van Helsing, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Highlander, True Blood, Penny Dreadful, October Faction, The Order, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, Charmed, or any of the other myriad of similar modern-fantasy or dark-urban stories that include an assortment of mythical creatures living within the human world unbeknownst to most of humanity.   There won’t be a single-story theme, but instead each player will be expected to choose what type of game you want to play or what kind of a story you want to experience with their character. By choosing one of the possible Archetypes (detailed elsewhere), this will provide me with a guide as to what direction or challenges you as a player would like your character to encounter or work through. After all, regardless of if you enjoy RPG’s as a form of escapism, or being able to help create an interactive story with the other players, the story that the character experiences will be built around the Archetype chosen by the player for their character. This will also allow for more of a “Sandbox” setting or environment, where players can use their characters to explore or experience whatever they would like to within the setting. Also, being a “Sandbox” setting, while I have detailed a fair portion of the Metro area, there is still a lot of room for players to add details as we go. There are hundreds of NPC’s, businesses and organizations that have already been detailed. If you want your character to own a business or work at a particular type of business and you have the Background Points (part of the character creation mechanics) to justify it, then you can detail whatever type of business you choose, so long as it won’t break the impressiveness of the Modern-Fantasy setting and as long as it is not infringing on the copyright of any existing works or the trademark of any existing business.   The setting is a moderately large and fictitious metropolitan area set somewhere along the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada. Think of it kind of like Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Montreal, Toledo or Toronto in its feel, but a little smaller than most of those. But still large enough that there are roughly a million or so residents in the area and a wide range of industries, businesses and educational institutions (more than 220 already detailed, and room for lots more as I will be using player input/suggestions for further filling out the setting). The area is known as the Metro Area and is made up of several cities grouped together (details elsewhere). The Metro Area also has its own exchange where stocks, bonds, commodities and other assets are traded similar to the larger markets that exist in New York, Toronto, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Vancouver.   If such a setting and or system of RPG mechanics sounds interesting, contact me and we can start the process of creating a character with which you can experience life within the Shadows of Humanity setting: What part will you play? Are you one of the few gifted or “Awakened” who can sense what actually lurks in the shadows of humanity? Or are you one of the mythical beings that resides within those shadows? Who plays the role of a normal person, when in reality you are hiding your true nature as a fantastical or even immortal being? If so, do you try to fit into human society and try not to draw attention to yourself and others of your kind, so that the paranoid humans don’t freak out and start to hunt down your kind? Or do you pull the strings of mortal humans as a behind the scenes puppet master, while appearing to be a common mortal? What part will you play within the Shadows of Humanity?   If this setting or RPG system sound interesting, then please take a look through the other articles, such as the Character Creation series of articles or the Shadows of Humanity RPG Mechanics article, or the Metro Area and associated articles detailing the setting and also join the Shadows of Humanity Discord channel at