d20 Modern: Urban Arcana/Shadowchasers Campaign

The time period is the here and now. The sights, people and places are all familiar – though they may have traits and twists alien to the real world. This is thanks to the growing influence of Shadow on our world.

What is Shadow? No one truly knows for sure, but its effects on this world are plain to those with the presence of mind to truly see. Throughout history, Shadow has waxed and waned, spawning legends of dragons and monsters in its periods of greatest strength. This is one of those times.

Gangs of kobolds infest the subways and sewers, dragonkin helm multinational corporations, and even the corner grocer is a gnome. To everyone else, these creatures appear to be nothing out of the ordinary. A bugbear newly-arrived in the countryside from Shadow may inspire rumors of sasquatch. A high-profile serial killer may turn out to be a particularly showy vampire – or evidence of the machinations of a devious Shadowkind cult. To those who subconsciously refuse to see the truth – “mundanes” – all these events are explained away as within the realm of “normal” possibility. The rise of Shadow clouds their vision and their judgment.

Your character is different. Whether you are a beat cop who’s seen too much on the streets to hide from the truth anymore, a paranormal investigator who’s known the score all his life, or even Shadowkind yourself, you can see the world for what it truly is – and, for one reason or another, have been sought out by (or sought out yourself) Department 7.

Department 7 is a privately-funded institution devoted to battling the darker effects of Shadow on our world, and protecting innocents from both sides of the veil between our two currently overlapping worlds. As a new recruit, you may be a combat veteran with skills the Department needs, a Shadowkind with insider experience, or just an average Joe with an above-average knack for dealing with Shadow – a knack more and more in demand as Shadow grows more and more powerful.