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Let me start by saying that there is certainly enough in the book to justify its cover price. The problem is that some of it should have been in the core rulebook - rules on ammo and vehicles, scads of modern equipment, great details on the anatomy of a city, character classes like the Glamourist [sic], Thrasher and perhaps even Mystic, Speed Demon and Street Warrior in low-magic games.
Other stuff is clearly at home here. Plenty of races to run, spells and magic items geared towards modern life, monsters like toxic-waste-beasts, malevolent dumpsters & cars, and icky roach things, and organizations such as worshippers of Greyhawk gods, corps run by drow, dragons and beholders, a closer look at Department-7 and the PSI, and an inside joke (whether homage or slight I couldn't tell) on Steve Jackson Games.
Still other material is ported almost verbatim from the Player's Handbook and other D&D core books. All the melee weapons and armor (barring 2 modern types of armor and some Japanese articles), the section on magic weapons and armor, and many D&D feats, monsters and spells that didn't make the d20 Modern book have appeared elsewhere. These portions of the book are perhaps the most frustrating, since I imagine most players have at least the PHB and most likely several other sources for this material. Given that there is a chapter on bringing D&D concepts through [their phraseology] to UA, the same ground could have been adequately covered in a Polyhedron article and therby incorporated all these other books without the repetition.
The presentation of the book closely parallels the d20 Modern Rulebook, which is required before cracking this game open. The layout is very similar to d20 Modern, from the hardback cover to the (trademarked) three-red-panel sidebars. The art itself ranges from excellent - maps of useful city settings like penthouses, factories, and stores (although I know of no malls designed like the one on page 267), Chris Shy horror pieces and realistic artwork (like a great portrait on page 296 of an unwholesome-looking couple) - to almost cartoony-looking items elsewhere (like the demon motorcycle thingy). My biggest dislike is the Gnome on page 21 who looks like Gilbert Gottfried.
The book itself is divided into 10 chapters, and appendices including seven adventures and a character sheet. The Intro attempts to make sense of how fantasy creatures have invaded our world, but by presenting some philosophical horror-type mush and several "theories" by in-game voices it basically concludes S-O-C-K-S [say it aloud in Spanish]. Their use of "Shadow" makes it hard to distinguish Urban Arcana from the Shadow Chasers campaign setting, especially considering that there is a class called a Shadow Hunter which reads like a watered-down Shadow Slayer from SC.
The character chapter includes standard D&D Races plus certain humanoids (Gnolls, Bugbears, Orcs, Ogres and Half-Ogres) and other heavies (Tiefling, Aasimar, Yuan-Ti-descended Snakebloods, and half-Dragons & Dragon-blooded characters - the difference being that half-Dragons have more white meat). UA presents more starting occupations and Advanced Classes, and then supplements these with Prestige Classes that are basically the same as Advanced Classes (there is nothing geared specifically towards rogue-type sneaky characters). So now a character can have a race, occupation, basic class, advanced class, and prestige class. A bit much if you ask me. I disliked the Wildlord Druid-type guy, whose "nature" allegiance is opposed to the "corporate" allegiance: Urban Arcana is D&D, not W:tA. I am also opposed to there being five different types of "fighter" classes (four advanced and one prestige), and that three of four prestige classes are for spellcasters only.
Equipment (Chapters 2 and 4) is a curious mix. Other than the NBC suit & fire-resistant suit, there's no melee items that haven't been adapted from D&D. There are no new guns in the ranged section, and although I agree with Charles Ryan that providing munchkins with stats for every firearm is like giving whiskey to Indians, I expect many readers will be unhappy. There are stats for unconventional weapons like like flare guns, supersoakers, sticky foam sprayers and water hoses.
Arcane and divine spells take up chapter three. They fall into one of two broad categories: the aforementioned D&D utility spells like Darkness, Phantasmal Killer, Diviniation, along with some renamed for modern settings (like Phantom Limo in lieu of Phantom Steed); and new magic useable in modern settings like Clown Car (seat twenty extradimensionally!), Magic ID (now the Weasley twins can get real beer at Hogsmeade), and Synchronicity (think of Morpheus sauntering across the street while Neo trails clumsily behind). There are also rules for incantations, which can be cast by non-spellcasting characters with sufficient ranks in Knowledge (Arcane Lore). These have rules similar to those detailed in the Epic Level Handbook. Although they are not as powerful as this, I don't like them as an option along with garden-variety spells AND the potential for psionic powers - for which there are rules in Chapter 9, along with psionic feats, another advanced class, and a section on expanding the Battle Mind and Telepath classes. Astute readers may recall that these classes appear in the d20 Modern rulebook in the Agents of PSI campaign setting - which was until now entirely distinct from Urban Arcana.
I have talked a bit about Chapters 6 (Organizations) and 7 (Creatures), with the mix of traditional D&D and modern flavor. Oddly, these split one of the best-written parts of the book - examining the urban environment. This begins in Chapter 5 (Running the Game, with rather basic info for Gamemasters that everyone has seen before) and hits its stride in Chapter 8 (Locations). The former has some quick rules and charts for fleshing out a city, but the entries for one of the tables don't get discussed for over eighty pages! Finally, each sector of a city is described in terms of environment, likelihood of Shadow creatures, real-world examples, emergency response times and procedures, average citizen wealth, maps, and adventure seeds thrown in for good measure. The break between sections is quite annoying, but stick it out because it's worth it.
Chapter 10 has more advice, now about adventures, and seven scenarios. Some are really no more than vignettes designed to introduce players to the whole Shadow concept.
Now, two noteworthy omissions. First of all, no introductory fiction piece. They use iconic characters throughout in short examples, but don't look for any long passages. I don't care either way but I imagine it bears noting. More seriously, however, there's over 300 pages in this book and no index.
This review has gotten unwieldy, so I'll sum up. Some of the things in this book should have been in d20 Modern, while d20 Modern contains things that belong here. Some things should have stayed in other D&D books where they belong. And still others will be useful to any d20 player playing in a modern setting with or without magic. Had the authors sorted this hash out, there could have been enough for a core book and a sourcebook for each of d20 Modern's three settings. I got the impression that they tried to squish bits of all three into Urban Arcana. While that leads to a meaty book, let's face it, there are a lot of vegetarians out there.
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