#109: Let's Talk About Cities
New series tentatively titled "what we talk about when we talk about cities".
I. Dear Reader,
I like cities. In fact, I think most of my games have the word “city” somewhere in the title. It might be a problem. But to channel it into something useful, I’m planning a new series on this newsletter which is going to be all about cities in RPGs. Each issue, I’ll take a look at one city setting and try to understand what it thinks is important or useful to players. I’m thinking of calling this series something like “What We Talk About When We Talk About Cities”.
These aren’t going to be reviews. This is a series that is going to compare these different supplements, sourcebooks, games, etc and try to understand what the writers and designers understand as essential to cities.
This means that I can look across genres. The difference between fantasy and sci-fi cities might be neglible (or it might not be, let’s find out).
I asked on twitter for suggestions and wanted to do the same here. So feel free to suggest some in the comments! My time and the ability to buy PDFs is the main limiting factor here.
If you want me to help me decide where to start, you can answer this little poll. These are all games I already own.
Others that I’m planning on doing: Into the Cess and Citadel (Feral Indie Studios), Ubersreik (WHRFP Starter Set), Dark Streets & Darker Secrets (Old Skull Publishing).
Some that I will do if I can get my hands on the PDFs: Eversink (Swords of the Serpentine), Lankhmar (DCC Box Set), Ptolus (Monte Cook, Malhavoc Press), Oz (Andrew McNeels Publishing). Like I would love to do Ptolus but it costs 60$ for the PDF and that is too rich for my blood. It’s also 800 pages so probably for the best, phew.
Others that aren’t sourcebooks but are about cities that could also make good comparisons: City of Mists, Alone in the Ancient City, A Visit To San Sibilia.
This series is going to start in October because I need some prep time. And I already have the next two issues planned out. I’m going to be talking about Spectres of Brocken (tragic mecha pilots come of age) and Apocalypse Keys (hellboy-esque monsters solve mysteries) as these are both games I’ve played that are coming to kickstarter.
Hope you have a good week!
Yours urbanely,
Thomas
II. Media of the Week
Really enjoyed this video about the types of fun in RPGs. I’m a sucker for theory like this and it was really deftly explained.
An introduction video to Beacon, a new high fantasy tactics game inspired by 4e and Lancer, that sounds pretty neat.
III. Links of the Week
Golden Cobra now has a great portal to browse their catalogue of larps from over the years. So many free and interesting larps!
One More Multiverse are launching an open table, living world game of Blades in the Dark with multiple crews heisting in Duskvol at the same time. Seems like a cool event to promote their VTT.
Do you like Agon by John Harper and Sean Nittner? Here’s a dice roller just for that game.
Technical Grimoire reviwes Haunted Almanac, a beautiful collection of OSR-type work from Nate Treme. Also from them, an article about how the adventure Desert Moon of Karth changed their mind about Mothership.
Judd Karlman nails something I’ve been feeling too in a short worldbuilding post: “I want to play our games in a weird, sometimes horrific, fantasy dreamscape and not a capitalist nightmare.”
The IGDN have announced their 2022 Diversity Sponsorships and are also raising funds to fund the program. They connect you to mentors among other things. If you think you’re eligible, you should apply. I am!
IV. Small Ads
All links in the newsletter are completely based on my own interest. But to help support my work, this section contains sponsored links and advertisements. If you’d like your products to appear here, read the submission form.
Nothing this week!
This newsletter is currently sponsored by the Bundle of Holding.
There’s a new bundle of Heroes Unlimited, the big flashy superhero game from Palladium Books.
Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. I’m half-man, half-beast, half-journalist, half-game designer.
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I'd highly recommend checking out The City. It is the setting for a|state, and easily my favorite city in RPGs.
I recommend Swords of the Serpentine. It's setting, Eversink, is one of the few settings I've used in my 4 decades of gaming. It is a great, smart, interesting and different sword and sorcery setting that does exactly what it sets out to do... give a really clever setting where words can be as effective as a sword or spell. The sorcery rules are brilliant too... as the setting pushes back on the corruption that is the byproduct of sorcery.
Can't recommend this one enough.