Newport is one of those towns. On the surface, it could be any North American city. A minor university, a thriving arts district and music nightlife, abandoned buildings on the edge of town, a thriving modern center, an old-worldy market of narrow windy cobblestone streets from when everything was first founded. But if you know where to look, there's magic in the air.
This is an idea for a little light urban fantasy AU -- one where some characters live slightly parallel to reality. Whereas XU has lots of big punchy things and action sequences, this is quieter and more character-focused, and just might be a fun way to play certain kinds of things that don't really fit on the main boards, which are set in a universe where some people fly and some people shoot laser beams from their eyes and that's all quite normal and OK.
I'm cribbing heavily from Charles De Lint's Newford series (as one might have gathered from the name), but also the lighter side of Neil Gaiman, a little more urban Alice Hoffman, the less-horrory bits of China Mieville, stuff like that
It's not Twilight or Dresden Files stuff, where there's, like, secret cabals of werewolves and vampires fighting ancient wars just outside of view, secretly running the world or something like that. Instead, it's a world where the fact that your computer never works might mean you've attracted a stray pixie; where the shop around the corner has both existed forever and wasn't there yesterday; where the leader of the local punk band either has faerie blood, sold their soul to the devil for talent, or quite frequently both. It's where the slums and old city where no one goes may be filled with goblins; where the thin woman sipping her tea may actually be the descendant of the Oak King, and so on and so forth.
Just seeing if there's any interest.
