Shadows

A tabletop RPG where cyberpunk and the supernatural share one city, and the city keeps score. Welcome to NYTE City, 2099.

The myths never left. They adapted.

NYTE City swallowed the whole Eastern Seaboard. On the surface it's everything you'd expect from 2099: corporate towers, street gangs, and a LINK that sees everything. Underneath, the old stories are still running the place. Vampires own the nightclubs and the blood banks. Werewolves clock in for security work and call out on certain nights. The Fae negotiate contracts with finer print than any corporation. (They also own K-pop.)

A crowd crossing a street in NYTE City, each person wrapped in glowing data readouts.
The surface
A spectral cyan figure bursting through a dark back alley.
Underneath

And the city is paying attention. Steal a car, burn down a corporate front, leave a body in the wrong alley. NYTE City won't stop you, but it will answer.

A stolen car
a fixer remembers
A burned corporate front
the corporation “audits”
A body in the wrong alley
a gang retaliates

Every job leaves a mark your crew has to live with. Shadows is for players who want, in the rulebook's own words, “danger with weight, power with cost, and hope that has to be earned.”

If you've ever wanted cyberpunk and urban fantasy at the same table, this is that game.

Who you can be

What happens next is up to you: three ways to stay human and close the gap, and two ways to leave humanity behind.

Where you start Everyone begins as an ordinary human. The five paths below are how a person stops being one. Meet the Human Character sheet · live Roll your Stats, pick an Archetype, and walk out ready for the table. Build one now (opens in a new tab)

Watch it played

Shadows started with a crew who couldn't find the system they wanted, so they built one and refined it over years of play. A lot of that play is on YouTube: full-length actual-play campaigns, start to finish.

Want to play it rather than watch it? Players and GMs find tables on our Discord (opens in a new tab).

How it plays

Shadows runs on the Synergy System, our own d10 system. One die resolves almost anything a scene throws at you: hacking the LINK, dropping a threat, casting a spell, or talking your way out of a holding cell. The rulebook is still being written, so each Rules Preview page covers a chapter in progress.

The city is already keeping score

Follow on Patreon for development updates and deeper previews as chapters are written. Following is free.

A free follow on Patreon
the next preview finds you
A seat in the Discord
a table finds you

Or join the Discord (opens in a new tab) and find a table.