Miskatonic Monday #307: No Witness

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

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Name: No Witness: a 1940s Film Noir Mystery

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Brendan Lahey

Setting: Montreal, 1943

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Fifty-one page, 10.18 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Serial killer, murder Mythos mystery

Plot Hook: A suicide is murder by any other name... Unless it’s an actual murder

Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, twelve handouts, one map, eleven NPCs, two Mythos tomes, one Mythos spell, and six Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Good

Pros

# Clue rich, delightfully investigative scenario

# Suitably plotted like a Film Noir

# Good use of period photographs

# Could be the start of a series

# Hemophobia

# Wiccanophobia

# Foniasophobia

Cons

# A would be singer with no Sing skill?

# Needs a slight edit
# Many photographs could be handouts if organised better
# A floorplan or two would have been useful

Conclusion

# Enjoyably muscular investigative mystery

# “Down these Mythos streets, a man must go who is not himself Mythos, and who is neither insane nor afraid.” (with apologies to) – Raymond Chandler

Diesel Dystopia

The Great War is over. Tomorrow City stands as a great beacon of hope and progress over the cracked remains of California that shattered in the earthquake of 1906. Atop its spinning top-like structure, great skyscrapers soar into the air, adorned by chrome and panes of blue and green glass, gleaming in California’s seemingly endless sunshine. Diesel trams speed across the city and men and women scurry everywhere, at all times of the day as one shift ends and another begins. Above them telescreens advertise the latest fashions and products or announce news and public announcements from the Ministry of Truth. Above the city airships circle and aircraft roar as they come into land at the multi-stacked airports. Yet the skyscrapers cast long shadows and some parts of the city only snatch a sliver of natural light or never seem to catch any light at all. Ministry of Truth airships stab down between the towering buildings with great searchlights in search of criminals and troublemakers. Space is at a premium and places and spaces are used for more than the one role—sky bridges and rooftops are gardens, farms, or sports fields; balconies are meeting places or shopfronts; and the tram tunnels the last refuge of the destitute. Out on the edges of the city, men and women toil alongside robots in factories, plants, and slaughterhouses. Below the city hangs a latticework of scaffolding, ladders, and walkways that form a fringe-like shanty town that clusters around and spreads out from the lifts that run from the ground below up to the city above, delivering goods in bulks and allowing vehicle access. Underneath the city and beyond labour farms to produce the feedstuffs it demands amidst the swamps of cracked California, and beyond that lies a broken America, its landscape marked by the Grave Lands of former battlefields and craters from the radium missiles and the kaleidoscopic colours of torn reality from the Pattern bombs dropped during the Great War, home only to air pirates, isolated Herd Farms, and the unknown.

Above it all, standing tallest at the centre of Tomorrow City, is The Spindle. The one hundred storey high tower shines gold and chrome, home to the city council and the Ministries of Peace, Truth, and Science, and of course, Mother, the great thinking machine who directs the future of Tomorrow City and monitors it citizens and their well-being with the automata that carry a spark of her intellect and her will. Men and women come to Tomorrow City looking for a better future, but do not always find it, for whilst its utopia may shine under the blazing sky, the long shadows of its skyscrapers hide a dystopian hell. The Ministry of Peace, with its slogan of ‘Peace Through Force’ can be brutal in pursuit of the city’s justice, whilst ordinary men and women, unable to obtain redress from the law due to the ineffectiveness and corruption of the Badges—as the cops are known, turn to private eyes or turn vigilante, like the Green Gargoyle. The Belafonte crime family runs crime across the city, its gang untouched, whilst the ‘Pillbox Mafia’, a gang of female bank robbers, extortionists, and murders known for their distinctive hats, seems to run rampant, the Badges unable to stop them, even they exist. Revolutionaries ferment change, the Prussian Band undermines the city on behalf of foreign powers, and the Temperance League advocates for the return of Prohibition and the banning of both alcohol and serum use—the latter the alchemical drugs developed during the Great War to enhance soldiers and since adopted everywhere in the city. The Temperance League is highly militant in its aims! Worse though is the Pattern. This strange energy seeps into Tomorrow City through rips in the fabric of reality, warping and distorting people, places, and buildings. During the Great war, the metaphysicists, Oppenheimer and Einstein, developed the Pattern bombs that helped bring the war to an end, but tore the reality of the bomb sites where they were dropped apart. The Pattern corrupts some of its victims into monstrous aberrations, but others learn how to manipulate its energy and become Pattern Weavers. The year is 1984. The Great War is over. Welcome to the bright future of Tomorrow City.

Tomorrow City is a dystopian Dieselpunk roleplaying game set in an alternate past. It is published by Osprey Games, best known for roleplaying games such as Gran Meccanismo: Clockpunk Roleplaying in da Vinci’s Florence and Jackals – Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying, and board games such as Undaunted: Normandy. It is designed by the author of Hard City: Noir Roleplaying and shares its rules and some of its tone. Inspired by films such as Brazil and Dark City, games like Bioshock and Crimson Skies, and books including 1984 and Brave New World, its genre lies somewhere between the optimism of Steampunk and the cynicism of Cyberpunk. In Tomorrow City, the Player Characters are ‘Revs’ or revolutionaries who want change in the city. They might be Trouble-shooters for a Ministry or the City Council, vigilantes and guardians, secret agents of Mother, agitators for a faction like the Ant-Robot League or the Followers of Moloch, simple mercenaries, or scavengers, traders, or explorers searching for lost artefacts and technology in the ruins left behind by the Great War.

A Player Character in Tomorrow City is defined by his Trademarks, Edges, Flaws, Advantages, Drives, Ties, and Belongings. Trademarks are broad, thematic Tags which are the most obvious interesting thing about a Player Character; Edges are specialisations or advantages; Flaws are difficulties, passions, or disadvantages; Advantages a bonus drawn from a specialisation or a piece of equipment; and Drives are a Player Character’s motivations. A Player Character has three Trademarks, one from his Background, his Descriptor, and his Occupation, three Edges, two Flaws, a single Drive, and two Ties. The Edges are listed under the Trademarks, which also provide options for Flaws. Past Trademarks include Riffraff, Skyriser, Wastelander, and Windborn; Descriptor Trademarks include Bold, Broken, Huge, and Tainted; and Occupation Trademarks include Apothecary, Crook, Gadgeteer, Muckraker, and Sky Ranger. Drives are aims such as ‘Nora Shanklin robbed my father and I got the blame. I need to prove myself innocent’ or ‘The Badges beat my brother to death. I will have my revenge on the one responsible’, and Ties can be with people and places, positive, and problematic, and ideally, they should be with other Player Characters. Lastly, a Player Character has Moxie and Grit, the former a Player Character’s luck and willpower, the latter his toughness and capacity to survive.

The creation process is a matter of making several choices, picking three Trademarks, three Edges, three Advantages, two Flaws, a Drive, and two Ties. The choices lend themselves to creating a wide range of Player Character, a lot of them drawing on the classic archetypes of Film Noir and Pulp Noir combined with elements of the Cyberpunk and Steampunk genres. Combine Skyriser, Perceptive, and Gargoyle and you have a vigilante a la Batman; Windborn, Sneaky, and Aviator and you have an Air Pirate; Riffraff, Broken, and Veteran, and you have a survivor of the Great War put back together as best the technicians and surgeons can; Drone, Charming, and Muckraker and you have a journalist wanting to break stories about life in the shadows; and Wastelander, Tainted, and Scrapper and the character is a monstrous prize fighter wanting a better life. What is missing here in terms of the Cyberpunk and Steampunk genres is anything akin to the hacker archetype, breaking into the system to extract or plant information. The Broken Trademark allows for cyborg-type characters, but this is more due to injury than choice. All of the various Trademarks provide a player with Edges, Advantages, Flaws, and some equipment to choose from.

Noah Lincoln

Trademarks

Background: Windborn (Edges: Pilot Advantage: Head for Heights)

Descriptor: Bold (Edges: Brave Advantage: Inspiring)

Occupation: Sky Ranger (Edges: Shock & Awe Advantage: Dynamic Entry)

Flaw: Risk-Taker, Show-off

Drive: Prove the air pirate, Nancy Air-Tide, is a real criminal and not a media darling

Gear: Warm Rugged Jacket, Goggles, Rope, Satchel, Flight Suit, Sky Ranger Helmet, Trench Dagger

Ties: I would stand by Cordell Yoshiro anytime, but I am sure his gambling is going to get us into trouble; Fredonia Manjulit is the love of my life and anyone who says she is a smuggler will answer to me

Cred: 3

Moxie: 3

Grit: 3

Mechanically, Tomorrow City uses a dice pool of six-sided dice, consisting of two sets of dice, Action Dice and Danger Dice, each in a different colour. To undertake an action, a player assembles the pool using Action Dice, starting with a single die, whilst the Game Master adds Danger Dice. Action Dice are drawn from a Player Character’s Trademark and an appropriate Edge, plus from any Tags from the Threat or Scene, Position, Belongings, and Help the Player Character might be receiving. Danger Dice come from Injuries and Conditions the Player Character is suffering, plus from any Tags from the Threat or Scene, Position, Belongings, and the Scale of the obstacle. Once the dice pool is assembled, the dice are rolled. Matches between the Action Dice and the Danger Dice are cancelled and the highest remaining Action Dice is counted. A six is a success, four or five a partial success, and three or less a failure. Extra results of six count as Boons and can have an Increased Effect of the success, Set Up an Ally with an extra success, can speed Extended Checks, and Add a Tag to a Scene or Threat. Botches occur when only results of one remain and can lead to Increased Danger, Inflict Serious Harm, and Extra Strikes in an Extended Check.

A Player Character may have an Advantage which allows his player to roll with Mastery. For example, ‘Head for Heights’ lets Noah Lincoln’s player roll with Mastery when Noah is working at great heights. This enables the player to reroll a single die and keep the result. A Player Character also has Moxie. This can be spent to Demonstrate Expertise and add a second Trademark to a roll, gain A Little Luck to change a single die up or down by one result on both Action Dice or Danger Dice, Take a Breath to remove a Condition, or even details to a scene with a Voice-over. Moxie is refreshed when one of a Player Character’s Flaws comes into play and makes life complicated for everyone.

The outcome of a roll is to inflict Consequences which mean that a Player Character or NPC can suffer a cost or complication, a Tag can be added or removed, whether from the Player Character, Scene, or Threat, a Threat can be added or increased to a Scene, or Harm can be inflicted. Harm can be a Condition such as Angry, Dazed, or Dishevelled, or it can be an Injury of varying severity. All of these can be used to add Action Dice and Danger Dice to the dice pool, depending on the situation. When it comes to what a Player Character might be doing, Tomorrow City does not so much provide extra rules for how investigations, chases, interrogations, dogfights, arguments, and fights work, as suggest how the rules apply and what the possible Consequences might be, whether to the Player Characters or the NPCs.

Another possible outcome is Pressure. This increases by one at any time there remains an uncancelled result of six on a Danger Die at the end of a check. Once Pressure equals a total of six, something bad happens. For example, a bunch of bad guys stumble upon the Player Characters, an alarm sounds, the villain accelerates the next stage of his plan, and so on. This can easily be tracked using a large six-sided die on the table and measures the ebb and flow of tension throughout an adventure. It can even be used to indicate that something bad has happened offscreen.

Noah Lincoln’s attempt to track the sky pirate, Nancy Air-Tide, has come to nought when he caught up in a dog fight with a flight of Stormwind Fighters. Now he is returning to Tomorrow City, his Sunbright 8, the Flirty Freda, ablaze, and trying to land at Sky Ranger Field. Already, he has had the rest of his squad bail out, and as his player says that he is about to set the controls to head away from the city, the Game Master tags Noah’s ‘Risk-Taker’ and says, “Noah knows he can bring Flirty Freda into land safely.” Noah will receive a point of Moxie since the Flaw is going to put him in danger—and he is probably going to need it! Noah’s player assembles his Action Dice. Starting with a single die, Noah’s player adds extra for the Trademark of Bold and its Edge of Brave, plus another for being at the controls of the Flirty Freda, an aircraft he knows well. This gives Noah’s player four Action Dice. Now the Game Master adds two Danger Dice because the aeroplane is on fire and another because the controls are not responding as well as they should be. Noah’s player rolls four Action Dice and three Danger Dice. The result is two, two, five, and five on the Action Dice and two, five, and five on the Danger Dice. The pairs of two and one of the fives cancel each other out on the Action Dice and the Danger Dice. This leaves a five on the Action Dice, which is a Partial Success. Since Noah has the Flaw of ‘Show-off’, his player decides to spend that Moxie awarded by the Game Master and changes the five up to a six and gives him a Success. Noah’s player narrates how he brings the Flirty Freedonia with a light touch and avoiding setting anything else on fire.

Amongst an extensive list of gear and other items, Tomorrow City also lists Serums and robots. Serums are administered via Spikers, revolver-like injectors which the user can rotate the cylinder and inject the desired Serum. Serums all give an advantage, but also cause side effects. For example, Celerity grants the Quick Reflexes tag for several minutes, but once it wears off, the user suffers the Clumsy tag for the same length of time. Others harm the user, like Nerve Block, which makes the user immune to damage for several minutes, but inflicts several points of damage. Robots are rated by their size, Grit (or toughness), and Intellect. A useful list of useful types is included alongside the quick and simple rules for their creation and there is a list of more detailed robots and automata given in the section on threats in Tomorrow City.

The Pattern in Tomorrow City is both a danger and something that Pattern Weavers can work with for various effects. The Pattern Weaver Occupations include Aberration Tracer, a bounty hunter who tracks down aberrations and dangerous Pattern users; Metaphysical Geometrist, who understands the flow of the Pattern through the city and can interact with its flow to move around in impossible ways; Symbolist, who manipulates the Pattern through symbols and signs to benefit or harm others; and Weird, who can read the Pattern as it flows around people and gives insight into their actions and status. In addition, the Pattern Weaver Trademark enables a Player Character to attempt actions such as detecting or manifesting the Pattern, summoning an Aberration, or even warping reality. In addition to the table that lists what Action and Danger Dice to add to a check, there is a list of possible consequences if the check goes wrong and a table of bystander reactions. The Great War has not long since ended and many still fear the effects of Pattern bombs, they heard the rumours about…

For both the players and the Game Master, there is an introduction to the genre with a decent bibliography as well as playing safe, whilst for the Game Master there is advice on running the various aspects of the roleplaying game. This covers the creation of missions, mysteries, and jobs, plus the handling and mastering the various aspects of the game. Fundamentally, this is to be a fan of the players and their characters, do what the fiction demands, and think cinematically. It is backed up with a solid selection of threats, from Ministry Agents and Citizens to Troublemakers and dangerous Environments, but also Automata & Robots, Experiments Gone Wrong, and Pattern Aberrations. Both Experiments Gone Wrong and Pattern Aberrations add an element of horror to the game as they are quite creepy. For example, the ‘Pain Pane’ is a flat image of a knight or biblical figure in stained glass which can hide with ease and if light is cast through it, anyone caught in the pattern of the glass is stained in colour and wracked with pain. There is also the scenario, ‘Job: Escape Plan’. This is a prison rescue mission, one Douglas Baker having been arrested for falsifying records at the Ministry of Agriculture. The thing is, he definitely is guilty, but the Game Master can tailor the faction he was working for and who hires them to get him out, to the Player Characters and their backgrounds. Several options are suggested. The scenario suggests that Player Characters can attempt to break him out of the detention centre where he is being held or from the dirigible when he is being transported to court. Either way, the scenario ends with a chase to get to the handoff point before the Badges catch up with the Player Characters. ‘Job: Escape Plan’ is short and should provide a single session’s worth of play, perhaps two, but no more. It does however, give a chance for the players to learn the rules and show off their character’s abilities.

Physically, Tomorrow City is very nicely presented and the book is tidily laid out and quite easy to read. Biagio D’Alessandro’s illustrations are excellent, really capturing the feel and tone of the genre with a wide cast of characters and varying situations. If there is anything missing from the book it is a handy rules reference at the end of the book.

Tomorrow City draws upon familiar genres—Cyberpunk, Steampunk, and Film Noir—to pull us into and want us to roleplay in a less familiar genre, Dieselpunk. It enables the players to create interesting characters and provides the Game Master with enough information to present and evoke a fascinatingly familiar yet different dystopia, but still leave her and the reader wanting more information about Tomorrow City and the wider world. (In other words, an anthology of scenarios and more source material would be very welcome.) In the meantime, Tomorrow City provides easy access to a little explored genre in roleplaying and brings its world of another future past to life.

A More Than Human Starter

The Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game Starter Set takes roleplayers into a world of despair and uncertainty, when what it is to be Human is lost, when empathy is all that separates mankind from that which is not only faster and stronger than it us, but also threatens to replace us. Under the darkness of a world soiled by war, pollution, and ecological degradation, in the shadows spun by neon, simulacra skulk, hiding amongst those they want to be like, and they will do anything to survive and become more like the masters they once served. The year is 2037. The Wallace Corporation is the wealthiest company in the system and using advances made on Tyrell Corporation technology and patents, has introduced the Nexus-9, a replicant design incapable of lying or harming humans of its own accord. The United Nations classifies the Nexus-9 as ‘safe’ Replicants and grants them the status of second-class citizens with limited rights. Rep-Detect Units of the world’s various police forces are still responsible for investigating crimes related to replicants and some even begin to employ Nexus-9 units as investigators. The Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game Starter Set presents a complete investigation—or Case File—as it is known for four players and the Game Runner. This includes a summarised version of the full rules from the Blade Runner – The RoleplayingGame, four pre-generated Investigators, two sets of dice, and the complete Case File supported by innumerable handouts.

The Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game Starter Set is published by Free League Publishing and comes very well appointed. It includes the thirty-two-page Rules book, the fifty-six-page Case File 01: Electric Dreams, four pre-generated Investigator sheets, a Time Tracker Sheet, a large foldout full-colour map of 2037 Los Angeles, twenty-six full colour-handouts—both clues and maps, seventy cards, and a set of eight dice. The dice consist of two six-sided, two eight-sided, two ten-sided, and two twelve-sided dice. The dice are marked with numbers and symbols. Successes are also marked with eye symbols, two for the maximum number on each die, whilst ones are marked with an Origami Unicorn. The cards include Initiative cards as well Mugshot cards for the Case File, plus Aerial Chase Obstacle cards, Ground Chase Obstacle cards, Foot Chase Obstacle cards, and Chase Manoeuvre cards for use in the different types of chases the Investigators have to engage in. The four pre-generated Investigators consist of two Humans and two Replicants. The Humans consist of a veteran Inspector and an Enforcer with a military background, whilst the Replicants consist of a Forensics Specialist and an Interrogation and Negotiation Specialist.

The Rules book wastes very little is getting on with the explaining the mechanics of the roleplaying game. There is a little colour fiction and a timeline of events from the eighties through the events of Blade Runner and its fallout, the Blackout which destroyed the digital world, its partial restoration via the Wallace Datalink Network, and the introduction of the Nexus-9 by the Wallace Corporation. It then explains some of the concepts of game play. This includes playing in shifts—four six-hour shifts per day—with one of them devoted to Downtime, when an Investigator can rest, relax, clear his head and reset his system. The players are advised to split the party and conduct multiple, separate investigative paths. An Investigator can suffer Stress—by Pushing skill rolls and rolling Origami Unicorn symbols on the die, working too many Shifts without Downtime, and from stressful situations. An Investigator who suffers too much Stress can be Broken, and in the case of a Replicant, result in his needing to return to the Rep-Detect Unit Headquarters for a Baseline Test, which will reset his stress levels, but will lose him Humanity Points if he has gained any. The Rules book also notes the roleplaying game’s capacity for Player Character versus Player Character conflict, typically triggered by different interpretations of a case or the moral choices stemming from such interpretations.

An Investigator in Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game is simply detailed. He has four Attributes— Strength, Agility, Intelligence, and Empathy, and thirteen Skills, three per Attribute. The thirteenth Skill is Driving, which is derived from the manoeuvrability of the vehicle being driven. Both Attributes and Skills are assigned a letter, A, B, C, or D. Each letter corresponds to a die type. Thus, A to a twelve-sided die, B to a ten-sided die, C to an eight-sided die, and D to a six-sided die. To undertake an action, a player rolls one die for the Attribute and one die for the Skill. Rolls of six or more count as a success. Rolls of ten or more grant two successes. In general, unless rolls are opposed, only one success is required to succeed at an action. An extra success enables an Investigator to get more information, perform a task faster, or help an Investigator with a task. Only in combat do more than the one extra success count, indicating that more damage has been inflicted or a critical injury.
An easy task gives an Investigator an Advantage. In which case, his player rolls another die, equal to the lowest die in the pool. Conversely, a difficult task removes the lower die in the pool altogether. If any roll is unsuccessful, a player can choose to Push the dice roll and roll again. However, if a one—or the Origami Unicorn—is rolled on the first roll or the Pushed roll, the Investigator will suffer Stress. A Human can Push a Skill rolls once, but a Replicant can Push a Skill roll twice.

In addition, an Investigator can have Specialities associated with Skills—Humans tend to have them more Replicants. Both Human and Replicant will however, have a Key Memory and a Key Relationship. The Key Memory can be used once per game session to improve an Investigator’s chance to succeed  and will earn him a Humanity Point at the end of the session, as will interacting with his Key Relationship. Throughout an investigation, an Investigator can earn and lose Promotion Points, depending upon his actions and progress in the case. Replicants who lose all of their Promotion Points must take a Baseline Test. Promotion Points can be spent to learn Specialities, to request specialised equipment, and to even apply for a pay increase. Humanity Points are earned for committing acts of compassion or humanity and can be used to increase Skills.

Mechanically, the Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game Starter Set—and thus the Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game—at this stage does not quite resemble the Year Zero used in Free League Publishing, such as Alien: The Roleplaying Game or Tales from the Loop – Roleplaying in the ’80s That Never Was. It is more like the rules to be found in Twilight 2000: Roleplaying in theWorld War III That Never Was, but ultimately, the major difference lies in the fact that in most Year Zero roleplaying games, a player will be rolling a handful of six-sided dice, whereas here, polyhedral dice and used, and typically just the two per roll. Combat is designed to be straightforward, an Investigator typically having one move and one action per round, initiative being handled by cards, with options including grappling, taking aim, manipulating or influencing someone, and so on. A roll of two or more Successes on an attack roll counts as a critical success, necessitating a roll on a Critical Injuries table with the ‘Crit Die’ for the weapon used. Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game is not a forgiving game in terms of combat and all firearms have a high ‘Crit Die’, so the Investigators should not engage in combat lightly. The rules also cover vehicles in combat—some vehicles can be armed, but for the most part, one vehicle will be ramming another. The rules for chases cover chases on foot, and then by ground or in the air.

Further background details Los Angeles Police Department Precinct 995 or ‘the Tower’, which is where the Investigators are based as part of the Rep-Detect Unit. It lists some of the resources available to an Investigator via ‘the Tower’ and looks at leveraging assets, conducting investigations, and protecting your sources. It also discusses working the system in order to progress with a Case File, noting that making the wrong choices or not updating an Investigator’s Reporting Officer will result in a loss of Promotion Points, but may reward Humanity Points. The equipment covered in ‘Tools of the Trade’ includes the Voight-Kampff Machine, the Post-Traumatic Baseline Test used on Nexus-9 Investigators, various weapons including the PK-D 5223 Blaster and the PK-D FKM890 Blaster, and the LAPD Spinner – Detective Special Model 294-02.

The investigation included in the Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game Starter Set is Case File 01: Electric Dreams. It is actually the first part of a campaign arc called ‘The Immortal Game’, which Free League Publishing intends to support with further releases. Case File 01: Electric Dreams opens with a classic scene almost exactly like that of Deckard’s introduction in Blade Runner. It is a nice touch, but it also introduces one of the many handouts in the scenario—a newspaper. The investigation involves a missing Replicant, working for the Rep-Detect Unit. The Investigators are assigned to find it. The investigation is supported with an array of high-quality handouts for the players and their Investigators, a countdown of events for the Game Runner to trigger, Downtime events to make the Investigator lives more interesting, and descriptions of the clues, locations, and NPCs for the Game Runner. There is advice on running the Case File with one, two, or three Investigators and on substituting Investigators of the players’ own creation using the rules in Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game. It is a fairly complex scenario, which will probably take a group several sessions to roleplay through as the Investigators are divided physically in following multiple trails of clues—they can keep in touch via the KIA or ‘Knowledge Integration Assistant that each of them is assigned—and potentially morally as more and more of the mystery is revealed and the Investigators have to choose between what is the correct course of action in terms of procedure and what the best course of action in terms of empathy. Of course, they will be under pressure from both their boss—Deputy Chief Dave Holden—and the Wallace Corporation for a quick resolution, the Game Runner recording the Investigators’ actions and time spent on the Time Tracker. Fans of Blade Runner will definitely enjoy it as it visits several familiar locations and NPCs.

Physically, the Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game Starter Set is very well produced. The two booklets could be a little sturdier and as with Alien: The Roleplaying Game, not everyone is going to appreciate its open layout and text boxes on dark backgrounds. The handouts and the maps and the cards though, are all of really high quality. The artwork is excellent, really capturing Bladerunner’s look, feel, and tone.

If there is a downside to the Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game Starter Set, it is this. At the time of its publication and right now, it contains the only Case File available for the roleplaying game. However, once there are more Case Files, the Rules book becomes an easy reference for the basic rules that the players can consult, many of the cards can be used in play, and there are locations in Case File 01: Electric Dreams which the Investigators may revisit in future cases. Of course, the extra dice are useful too.

The Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game Starter Set will appeal most obviously to the Blade Runner fan, as well as the Science Fiction fan, the neo-noir fan, and the fan of mysteries of any kind. This is a great introduction to Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game, one which the Game Runner will definitely want as it provides the roleplaying game with its first full Case File, a superbly supported, well written mystery that captures the world of Blade Runner seen on onscreen.

Hard City, Cold Heart

Hard City: Noir Roleplaying is a roleplaying game which takes the player into the dark, dangerous world of high streets and long shadows, of uncertainty and ambiguity, of desperation and dedication, of beguilement and betrayal, of the lonely man who would seek the truth and the many who would hide it, where ultimately any resolution will end badly. This is the world of Film Noir and hardboiled fiction, both a genre and a style, best typified by films such as The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, and Double Indemnity, and the works of James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Mickey Spillane. The heroes are always cynical, often as dangerous and damned as their enemies, who might employ lowlifes and punks, but they are invariably as clever, classy, and charming as they are callous. Some, like the classic femme fatale, is ultimately all of that, often at first demure and desirable, but eventually revealed to be cunning and selfish, ready to betray not just the hero, but her co-conspirators and fellow crooks too. These play out in a city of soaring skyscrapers, between the cracks where the light of what is right and just never seems to shine, even if the cracks run all the way to the highest office.

Hard City: Noir Roleplaying is published by Osprey Games, best known for roleplaying games such as Gran Meccanismo: Clockpunk Roleplaying in da Vinci’s Florence and Jackals – Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying, and board games such as Undaunted: Normandy. It enables the creation of Player Characters through trademarks rather than skills, enabling players to create classic archetypes of the genre, and combines this with light, dice pool mechanics designed to facilitate fast play and resolution in a grim, gritty city of America of the middle decades of the twentieth century. The result is a storytelling game in a classic genre, both black and white in its look and in the tales it tells.

A Player Character in Hard City is defined by his Trademarks, Edges, Flaws, Drives, Ties, and Belongings. Trademarks are broad, thematic Tags which are the most obvious interesting thing about a Player Character; Edges are specialisations or advantages; Flaws are difficulties, passions, or disadvantages; and Drives are a Player Character’s motivations. A Player Character has three Trademarks, one from his Past, his Present, and his Perk, five Edges, two Flaws, a single Drive, and two Ties. The Edges are listed under the Trademarks, which also provide options for Flaws. Past Trademarks include Bureaucrat, Button Man, Grifter, and Newshound; Present Trademarks include Enforcer, Finder, Infiltrator, and Performer; and Perk Trademarks include Badge, Dirty Fighter, Femme Fatale, and Weasel. Drives can be Altruistic, Debt-related, and Selfish, and Ties can be with people and places, positive, and problematic, and ideally, they should be with other Player Characters. Lastly, a Player Character has Moxie and Grit, the former a Player Character’s luck and willpower, the latter his toughness and capacity to survive.

The creation process is a matter of making several choices and the choices do lend themselves to creating some classic characters from the genre. So, the Veteran, Investigator, and Brave Trademarks could model Sam Spade; Grifter, Charmer, and Femme Fatale for Brigid O’Shaughnessy; Criminal, Finder, and Weasel for Joel Cairo; and High Society, Leader, and Huge for Caspar Gutman. It is eased by a table of flaws and a table of names, the latter including a list of regular surnames and hardboiled surnames. So, for example, an ordinary name might be Audrey Lewin or Ronald Scott, but their hardboiled versions could be Audrey Shields or Ronald Hawk.

Eudoxia Lionidze
Trademarks
Past: High Society (Edges: Educated, Charm)
Present: Infiltrator (Edges: Break & Enter, Escape)
Perk: Femme Fatale (Edges: Cunning, Strong-willed)
Flaw: Lack of Trust, Irresponsible
Drive: Pay off my brother’s gambling debts
Ties: I don’t trust Anton Powell because he gambles too much; I’m pretty sure Burt Torres knows who killed Gladys Janes
Moxie: 3
Grit: 3

Mechanically, Hard City uses a dice pool of six-sided dice, consisting of two sets of dice, Action Dice and Danger Dice, each in a different colour. To undertake an action, a player assembles the pool using Action Dice, starting with a single die, whilst the Game Master adds Danger Dice. Action Dice are drawn from a Player Character’s Trademark and an appropriate Edge, plus from any Tags from the Threat or Scene, Position, Belongings, and Help the Player Character might be receiving. Danger Dice come from Injuries and Conditions the Player Character is suffering, plus from any Tags from the Threat or Scene, Position, Belongings, and the Scale of the obstacle. Once the dice pool is assembled, the dice are rolled. Matches between the Action Dice and the Danger Dice are cancelled and the highest remaining Action Dice is counted. A six is a success, four or five a partial success, and three or less a failure. Extra results of six count as Boons and can have an Increased Effect of the success, Set Up an Ally with an extra success, can speed Extended Checks, and Add a Tag to a Scene or Threat. Botches occur when only results of one remain and can lead to Increased Danger, Inflict Serious Harm, and Extra Strikes in an Extended Check.

A Player Character also has Moxie. This can be spent to Demonstrate Expertise and add a second Trademark to a roll, gain A Little Luck to change a single die up or down by one result on both Action Dice or Danger Dice, Take a Breath to remove a Condition, or even details to a scene with a Voice-over. Moxie is refreshed when one of a Player Character’s Flaws comes into play and makes life complicated for everyone.

The outcome of a roll is to inflict Consequences which mean that a Player Character or NPC can suffer a cost or complication, a Tag can be added or removed, whether from the Player Character, Scene, or Threat, a Threat can be added or increased to a Scene, or Harm can be inflicted. Harm can be a Condition such as Angry, Dazed, or Dishevelled, or it can be an Injury of varying severity. All of these can be used to add Action Dice and Danger Dice to the dice pool, depending on the situation. When it comes to what a Player Character might be doing, Hard City does not so much provide extra rules for how investigations, chases, interrogations, arguments, and fights work, as suggest how the rules apply and what the possible Consequences might be, whether to the Player Characters or the NPCs. When it comes to actions within a turn, any shooting and fighting is done last, talking and moving first, emphasising the hard talking and words have meaning nature of the genre.

Eudoxia Lionidze has been hired to retrieve some letters that the mobster, Carlo Garcia, is using to blackmail her client. She has already managed to get the letters by attending a party at Garcia’s house and climbing over the balcony into his study from the room next door. As she exits into the hallway, bottle of champagne and glass in hand, slightly dishevelled after clambering over the balcony, she is confronted by one of Garcia’s goons, asking what she is doing there. Eudoxia is going to have to bluff her way past, and with a grin, says, “Oh I am so sorry. I just needed to lie down. Get my head straight. Too much to drink…” Eudoxia’s player creates his pool of Action Dice by starting out with a single die and adds one for her High Society Trademark since she is dressed like she should be at the party, another for her Charm, and suggests that her appearance and Belongings would earn her another die. The Game Master agrees, means that Eudoxia’s player has four Action Dice to roll. The Game Master adds two Danger Dice to the pool, including one for Goon and another for his Condition, which is Suspicious. The player rolls the dice and gets a one, five, five, and six on the Action Dice and three and five on the Danger Dice. The five on the Action Dice and the Danger Dice cancel each other out, which leaves the six from the Action Dice as the highest result, and means that the security goon believes Eudoxia, giving him the Trusting Condition. With a slight misstep of the slightly drunk, she makes her way back down to the party and her companion for the night.

In terms of progression, Hard City is about the School of Hard Knocks, and a Player Character can learn from his setbacks as much as he can his successes. Two many setbacks and a Player Character can begin the next case or investigation with lower Moxie or even a Condition even as the Player Character improves.

Hard City is set in 1946 in a large, nameless city, either by the sea or the bay. It could be Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Chicago, but its particulars are described in more than enough detail to be a playable space, covering a little of its history, its movers and shakers and troublemakers, crime, but paying particular attention to its districts, complete with Tags, place suggestions and possible story hooks.

For both the players and the Game Master, there is an introduction to the genre with a decent bibliography, whilst for the Game Master there is advice on running the various aspects of the roleplaying game. This does include avoiding the social attitudes of the period in which the genre is set, but in the main focuses on two types of Case—or scenario. These are investigations and capers, the former more complex than the latter, but the latter requiring more planning upon the Player Characters. There is also a discussion of MacGuffins and suggestions as to possible campaign frames, primarily investigative in nature, but all supported by a list of example films which exemplify their set-ups. Only the ’Wrong Time, Wrong Place’ campaign frame differs from this, which explores ordinary men and women getting caught up in bad situations, typified by Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice. This is all accompanied by a Case Generator.

The advice itself focuses on the fiction and playing to it, and on making the most out of scenes. This includes ‘Enter Late, Exit Early’ and Raymond Chandler’s famous adage that, “When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.” In modelling its genre, the framing of scenes in Hard City is intended to be succinct, focused, and interesting. The players are meant to engage with this, bring their characters’ Drives and Flaws into play as much as their Trademarks, to make the lives of their characters if not difficult, then at the very least, interesting. Though ideally, difficult. As a consequence of this and the need for the players to embrace the various aspects of the genre, Hard City does demand more of its players, that they roleplay hard in every scene their characters appear in. Rounding Hard City is a pair of ready-to-play Cases—‘Engagement with Death’ is an investigation into the disappearance of a wealthy industrialist’s son, whilst ‘In at the Deep End’ is a caper in which the Player Characters must recover a piece of missing artwork. Both are classic Film Noir plots which nicely emulate the genre.

Physically, Hard City is very nicely presented. The book is tidily laid out and quite easy to read, but the best feature is the artwork. Luis F. Sanz’s illustrations are excellent, really capturing the feel and tone of the genre with a wide cast of characters and varying situations. If there is anything missing from the book it is a handy rules reference at the end of the book.

Hard City: Noir Roleplaying is a roleplaying game in which the players need to play hard and talk hard in order to bring out the best and the worst of their characters. Thematically and mechanically, it keeps everything simple by focusing on the trademark aspects of the genre and encouraging the players to bring them into play. The result is an impressively presented and clearly written storytelling roleplaying game whose look and play is designed to emulate the desperate, dangerous, and morally ambiguous tales of the Film Noir and Hardboiled genres.