When you are playing in or with urban/modern fantasy/horror settings, do you prefer a setting where supernatural creatures are hidden from humanity and where the world seems like the real world from the perspective of a mundane citizen or do you like a setting where the supernatural openly exists and everybody knows about it?

I've always preferred settings with a Masquerade, in large part because I find it difficult to suspend disbelief in settings where everybody knows about vampires and wizards and such and yet the world is largely unchanged - like True Blood. Others have the opposite complaint, that a Masquerade is unrealistic because so many supernatural creatures couldn't remain hidden from mankind.

What are the preferences of the people here and why?

I prefer things to make sense, and that for me means a masquerade until things become public knowledge, and then a reaction that makes sense. True Blood is cool for me in part of its premise (that it tries to have some cause & effect that's creative and makes some sense and is therefore interesting to me) but then it fails in most other parts in that I can't avoid noticing how wrong / unbelievable / silly the other details and reactions seem to me.

I PREFER the supernatural to be a secret in some manner. How it remains a mystery I'm pretty flexible on.

I really liked Ms. Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children (the whole setup on how they just stayed low key to hide the peculiar). I liked that the bad guys can only be seen by certain people with certain gifts but they are present and a threat regardless of where they are. I like the Wainscot Fantasy element of many settings like Harry Potter or Hell Boy where little secret niches can actually be whole markets or kingdoms (or as above, "loops"...). In those worlds, the supernatural works really hard at hiding the supernatural, but there's no real supernatural obfuscation (unless, like a troll in Hell Boy, one of your powers is to hide among mortals...). I also appreciate settings where there IS some supernatural barrier that naturally disguises the supernatural from mortal eyes. Only those "awakened" can see the real monsters, everyone else's brain just alters the scene to fit their understanding.

I really dig True Blood, part of that being that most of the world knew about vampires, but not much else. So there was still a mystery to the setting. We discovered more truth through our protagonists but the rest of the world was still trying to cope with the "one truth" they learned about.

Day Walkers was a good example in my mind of what happens when the vampires come out and no one hunts them down. It seems logical to me that superior beings created from an infection would eventually rule everything. Unless they have some incentive to be benevolent. I wouldn't mind trying out a modern supernatural game where all the supernatural was "out"; dealing with how everyone reacts/copes. Not sure I would be enamored with it as a longer term game.

Preferred: Supernatural is hidden, and the world is largely like our own.
Acceptable: Supernatural is known, and the world has changed to adapt to it.
Not Acceptable: Supernatural is known, and the world is largely like our own.

Prefer Masquerade. Too many unexplored ramifications if otherwise blithely accepted. For me, the meat of play in those supernatural+modernity premises is exploring those ramifications and their affect upon humanity.

Otherwise just play Supers (comic books) and go all "pew pew pew!"

(Which is also a gross simplification, as my favorite comics are those also exploring ramifications upon humanity, in the personal and writ large. But whatever, I know it's fun to also sometimes turn off my brain and go "pew pew pew!" )

Secret, with the world ignorant/unchanged.

Quote from: HappyDaze;974196Preferred: Supernatural is hidden, and the world is largely like our own.
Acceptable: Supernatural is known, and the world has changed to adapt to it.
Not Acceptable: Supernatural is known, and the world is largely like our own.

I think that sums up my own feelings rather nicely. The Matrix, Supernatural, & Harry Potter are all examples of the preferred example above, and all are movies, games, novels and shows I enjoy. The acceptable method above could count comic books as a great example of that style.

I definitely prefer the supernatural to exist but be hidden. This allows it to have minimal altering effect on the world. There have been people throughout history, and continue to be today, who believe in the existence of various supernatural entities. Allowing the folklore to be based in truth, but the supernatural to be hidden and I prefer rare, gives me a campaign world that closely mirrors our present one but with supernatural elements.

Quote from: Skarg;974179I prefer things to make sense, and that for me means a masquerade until things become public knowledge, and then a reaction that makes sense.

Quote from: trechriron;974184I PREFER the supernatural to be a secret in some manner. How it remains a mystery I'm pretty flexible on.

Quote from: HappyDaze;974196Preferred: Supernatural is hidden, and the world is largely like our own.
Acceptable: Supernatural is known, and the world has changed to adapt to it.
Not Acceptable: Supernatural is known, and the world is largely like our own.

Quote from: Opaopajr;974203Prefer Masquerade. Too many unexplored ramifications if otherwise blithely accepted. For me, the meat of play in those supernatural+modernity premises is exploring those ramifications and their affect upon humanity.

Quote from: Philotomy Jurament;974204Secret, with the world ignorant/unchanged.

Quote from: Harlock;974205I think that sums up my own feelings rather nicely.

Quote from: DavetheLost;974208I definitely prefer the supernatural to exist but be hidden. This allows it to have minimal altering effect on the world. There have been people throughout history, and continue to be today, who believe in the existence of various supernatural entities. Allowing the folklore to be based in truth, but the supernatural to be hidden and I prefer rare, gives me a campaign world that closely mirrors our present one but with supernatural elements.

Yep.

Quote from: HappyDaze;974196Preferred: Supernatural is hidden, and the world is largely like our own.
Acceptable: Supernatural is known, and the world has changed to adapt to it.
Not Acceptable: Supernatural is known, and the world is largely like our own.

Yeah, that goes for me as well.
I can think of a bunch of examples I like of the Masquerade version... the Night/Day Watch series jumps to mind... but barely any where stuff is out in the open without completely overhauling the 'known world'. I like Michael Cisco's books, such as The Divinity Student and The Tyrant for offering modern-ish settings awash in magic and weirdness... they're definitely not set in our reality, but they don't tend to go too far into the details of how their worlds work.

True Blood is a border case... what it does is interesting at first, but over the series it didn't go much further with the initial ideas (maybe the books did, I didn't read those).
Chaosium's recent After The Vampire Wars is interesting, but still too familiar I think... maybe the new version using Mythras will expand on the setting a bit and convince me.

Well, I am a bit surprised by all of the support for hidden supernatural settings. I prefer those too, but it seems like lately I have encountering so many people who want the supernatural to exist openly.

Can't say as such setting don't appeal to me at all. I'm not knocking it but it always come across (to me, anyway) as silly. I'm sure the fault is mine and someone could do it well. But I also thought Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Harry Potter sucked, so I'm out of step. What would be an example of it being done well?

Quote from: Dumarest;974223Can't say as such setting don't appeal to me at all. I'm not knocking it but it always come across (to me, anyway) as silly. I'm sure the fault is mine and someone could do it well. But I also thought Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Harry Potter sucked, so I'm out of step. What would be an example of it being done well?

Subjectivity being what it is, I think you might have to find that out for yourself; quixotic though that course may be.

Quote from: Harlock;974235Subjectivity being what it is, I think you might have to find that out for yourself; quixotic though that course may be.

Yeah, probably. Actually I guess I don't care enough to bother since the genre doesn't really appeal to me.

Quote from: Dumarest;974223What would be an example of it being done well?

Night's Edge for Cyberpunk 2020.

Dream Pod Nine's entire line of supernatural/Lovecraftian supplements for Cyberpunk 2020 were pretty damn good in terms of game material. It came out before Buffy, so it never seemed to devolve into the Scooby Gang crap in Actual Play.