The following review was originally published in Mephisto 69 and translated from German (find orignal German review below). More reviews can be found in the Mephisto 69 Online Add-On (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/261389/Mephisto-69-Online-AddOn).

Urban Shadows could briefly be described as the role-playing game that results when you combine the World of Darkness with the rules of Powered by the Apocalypse. The setting revolves around a supernatural world lurking behind the facade of a modern metropolis. Vampires, magicians, occultists, hunters and others who get entangled in intrigues and open fights.

With the Dark Streets expansion, the game is expanded. Four new archetypes offer players more material, while the main focus is on eleven different city scenarios, which provide both concrete game material in the form of city descriptions, characters and threats, as well as much material for their own campaign.

Dark Streets provides a lot of ideas and concrete suggestions, but it also expands the game atmosphere rather than defining a canonical background.

Deutsche Version

Urban Shadows könnte man kurz als das Rollenspiel bezeichnen, das herauskommt, wenn man die Welt der Dunkelheit mit den Regeln von Powered by the Apocalypse kreuzt. Das Setting dreht sich um eine übernatürliche Welt, die hinter der Fassade einer modernen Großstadt lauert. Hier tummeln sich Vampire, Magier, Okkultisten, Jäger und andere, die sich in Intrigen und offene Kämpfe verstricken.

Mit der Erweiterung Dark Streets wird das Spiel ausgebaut. Vier neue Archetypen bieten den Spielern weiteres Material, während das Hauptaugenmerk auf elf verschiedenen Stadtszenarien liegt, die sowohl konkretes Spielmaterial in Form von Stadtbeschreibungen, Charakteren und Bedrohungen liefern, als auch viel Material für die eigene Kampagne liefern.

Dark Streets liefert zwar eine ganze Reihe Ideen und konkrete Vorschläge, doch auch damit wird eher das Spielflair erweitert als kanonischer Hintergrund definiert

(Björn Lippold)

Enjoyed this expansion overall. I feel like the playbooks aren't quite what I was looking for, though. A couple of them seemed a little too similar to Apocalypse World playbooks and I didn't feel like the factions most of them are associated with fit my perception of them. This isn't to say that I hated them, or anything. I thought there were some great ideas in there. I just feel like they might not be up to par with the original iteration.

On the other hand, the city examples are fantastic. They're a great resource for creating and fleshing a city, or just to use in and of themselves to save some time.