The WCVs behind all you can eat food chains like Golden Corral. Or better yet make them predominatly Chinese, they own those little chinese buffets you see in every minimall and shopping center. The ones where you eat four plates of food and an hour later your starving agian.

Columbus Ohio would be great. Findlay ohio would be a miracle wrapped in bacon with cheese.

Another good incognito focus could be a wristwatch with the runes marked on the underside of the watch.

Ive got a character concept whose had a nickname since late childhood. Its become his ring name (hes a boxer). The character is so connected to his nickname thats its part of his True Name, and his True Name can only be correctly given when hes on an adrenaline kick.

The rots in the sun bit I havent seen before. The rest Ive seen, some of it alot.

Thanks all, been reading your comments and doing some thinking. I agree with more gates. I only have down the ones Ive worked out fairly well and are important to the early portion of the story. The probability changing Hex Gate that was suggested sounds like a good fit, likely with a cost of having the ability trigger uncontrolably sometimes.

As for how common magic is Ive had several thoughts. The first was sort of the hidden second world thing most of the urban fantasy uses. I decided it doesnt fit with how random and chaotic the gates are. The current premise is that once opened Gates and that which goes with them were an uncommon but not unheard of occurence. Then at some point the occurence of Gate openings dropped immensely and became legend. About two generation from the start of the story the occurence of opening Gates has spiked to something near the original level. With a few billion more people that means alot more Gates that might possibly open. This has led to vastly differnt opinions, political attitudes, and actions world wide. For instance Hollywood is currently over romanticizing the Beast and Odd Gates (think vampire romance trend). On the other hand you get groups who advocate the containment of everyone with an open Gate and even more radical and usually more ignored groups that advocate immediate execution(these groups do not believe that Gates are inherant in all humans).

So its looking to be a long boring summer for me and I figure its time to start seriously writing a first novel attempt. Anyway Ive read so much fantasy that I cant remember whats my original concepts and whats leaking in from my reader memory. The point is that Id like some people to look at my concepts and tell me if Im directly or very closely copying anything. Id like to do something at least fairly original. Any way Ill toss em out one concept at a time.

Urban Fantasy magic system concept #1 "Gates"

Magic comes from the other side, few truly know what this place is and the ones who do are usually so crazy you cant get a straight answer from them. Magic flows into the world through the human soul, more specifically through the unique Gates that each person has. These Gates are initially closed and for the vast majority of people will never open. For the lucky and unlucky few it oftens take a powerful life shaking experience, direct exposure to magic in some form or another, or a Gate so powerful that it just opens on its own one day. Their are four Gates in total.                                                                             

Beast Gate aka The Primal Gate or The Were Gate: If a person has a Gate that is likely to open it is most likely to be this one or the Odd Gate. The Beast Gate channels the strong primal power of the other side, power more likely to shape you then the other way around. Those who have this gate open can or are stuck with some animal aspect of an animal they resonate with. Depending on the strenght of their gate and luck this can range from full on shape shifting at will to being stuck with bunny ears. As with all Gates the Beast Gate has a cost: in this case losing some aspect of their mind to their animal aspect. The severity of this seems to depend on the will of the affected individual. Can be as minor as a single harmless personality change, to losing your mind entirely to the animal.

Odd Gate aka The Horror Gate or The Legends Gate: The most random of Gates those who have this open should be ready for anything. Any of the fantastic non animal creatures of legend are likely results of the unfortunate souls who have this Gate open. Fairies, demons, dragons, trolls, and just about anything else. Their is no reason to the form a person gets. The costs of this Gate are twofold, the inability to change back to human, and the apparent 50/50 chance of losing your personality to those built into the form.

The Elemental Gate: A very rare Gate to open, those lucky enough to have this gate open find themselves with the ability to summon and control one of the four elements to some degree.These being the classic fire water earth and wind. The cost of this Gate is odd reactions to the elements. For instance a powerful fire elementalist will might develop a water phobia, or might even be hurt by contact with water.

The Seer Gate aka The Fortune Gate: Those rare few who have this Gate open gain the power to see through time. The extent of this power varies to the extreme, some can see the future clearly hundreds of years from now, others just have a strong suspicions of whats going to happen in the next second. Madness is the cost of this Gate, seeming equal to the power the person has. It is said the strongest of these people can see into the other side.

opnions and suggestions would be great.