For those interested in playing Hallowed

Hallowed is a modern take on urban fantasy. Its tone is grim, dark, and occasionally tongue-in-cheek. Players will help shape the world through their characters’ backgrounds and ideas, making the setting truly collaborative.

Most of the creatures’ abilities in the game are drawn directly from real-world folklore rather than recycled pop culture tropes, lending the supernatural a fresh and unsettling authenticity.

When it comes to where you play, the sky’s the limit. Hallowed works in nearly any modern setting, whether you prefer the flickering neon of a decaying metropolis or the quiet menace of an isolated town. Here are a few ideas to inspire your campaign:

New York City — The city that never sleeps is teeming with hidden cults, cursed relics, and old spirits haunting the cracks between skyscrapers.

Los Angeles — Beneath the glamour lies a network of occult power brokers, abandoned film sets crawling with revenants, and ancient forces vying for influence.

New Orleans — A city steeped in voodoo, restless dead, and southern gothic horror, perfect for stories drenched in folklore and decadence.

The West Virginia Mountains — Remote hollows harboring inhuman things, Appalachian witchcraft, and family secrets older than the country itself.

Rural America — Endless fields, lonely highways, and small towns where everyone knows your name—and your bloodline’s hidden curse.

Suburban Neighborhoods — Cookie-cutter homes hiding sinister rituals, suburban legends that are all too real, and monsters behind the white picket fence.

Any City or Nowhere at All — Hallowed adapts to wherever you want to explore: coastal cities, Rust Belt ruins, border towns, or the vast highways in between.

Wherever you set your story, Hallowed will bring out the strangeness lurking just beneath the surface.

 

In the past, I’ve heard players say the hardest part of getting into the Unisystem is simply the sheer number of books it can take to feel ready. I get it—and I think I have a solution.

While it’s definitely worth exploring all the Buffy and Angel material (including the unreleased content if you can find it), you don’t have to read everything to get started. For a crash course in the basics and character creation, you’ll only need two PDFs and my homebrew material.

You’ll want either the Angel Corebook or the Ghosts of Albion Corebook—both cover the core rules. Ask me for a reference PDF called Cinematic Unisystem Qualities and Spells, which compiles character creation options, Qualities, and Spells from all the Buffy, Angel, and Ghosts of Albion books in one place.

My homebrew content mostly consists of racial quality packages designed for creating supernatural creatures in Hallowed, so you can bring your own unique flavor to the game right from the start.

For the most part, you’re free to pick whatever you like from the Cinematic Unisystem Qualities and Spells document. However, for reasons of balance, lore consistency, and personal preference, I do have to restrict a few options.

The following Qualities are not allowed as written:

Elemental Aspects (I’d love to include bending, but by RAW it’s a bit overpowered for my taste.)

Initiative Commando (Can be adapted to fit another organization if needed.)

Watchers (Likewise, can be reworked.)

Nanjin Adept (Needs a new name—Blindsight, perhaps?)

Robot

Slayer

Ano-Movic Demon

Brachen Demon

Chaos Demon

Child of Two Vampires

Ninja Girl

Orphan

Lab Rat

Deathwok Clan

Empath Demon

Fengshandian Demon

Gathwok Clan

Gri’ah Demon

Kailiif Demon

K’ewelkian Demon

Lister Demon

Miquot Clan

Mok’tagar Demon

Oden Tal

Prio Motu

Snakefolk

Tarrack Daemonling

Vengeance Demon

Vampire (Use my homebrewed version instead.)

Werewolf (Use my homebrewed version instead.)

Yarbnie Demon

If there’s something on this list you’re passionate about playing, talk to me—we can look at adapting or rebalancing it to fit Hallowed more smoothly.