[Cold City] - Introduction & Character Creation

[Malcolm Craig]

One of the things I'm currently working on is a small game entitled 'Cold City'. In this post, I've included a very brief introduction to give a feel for what the game is all about, plus the basic character creation system. The base mechanic will be a D10 dice pool vs dice pool system (not unlike Sorcerer, to be honest!), using Attributes as the basis for the pool, with Abilities, Keys and Hatreds giving additional dice.

The basic description of the game would be: Cold War monster hunters in 1950 Berlin.

Intro

World War Two has been over for five years now. Much of Europe remains shattered and ruined, kept alive by American money and know-how flooding in. The Grand Alliance that defeated the spectre of fascism has been blown away on the winds of change. The USA and the USSR now stare at each other with unblinking eyes, waiting for the moment when the Cold War finally goes hot. Britain sits alongside her powerful ally, brooding over the loss of influence and Empire. France contemplates the damage done to her cities and countryside by ravages of war. And Germany, defeated and destroyed. Mangled by aerial bombardment and traumatised by raging battles. Germany tries to recover from the brink of annihilation.

In the ruined city of Berlin, a city slowly rising from the ashes of conflict, another war is being fought. An underground war to turn back the tide of evil unleashed by the Nazis. An evil unseen by most of the world, horrors brought about by the ceaseless progress of twisted technology and lunatic schemings of evil minds.

The great battles may be over, but the war carries on.


What Is 'Cold City' About?

In essence, it's a game about hunting monsters and eldritch creatures in Berlin during the early part of the Cold War, a time when the city is slowly rebuilding itself. The characters are drawn from the former allies who now occupy Germany. Ideally, there should be a maximum of 4 characters: 1 American, 1 British, 1 French and 1 Soviet, although this isn't an absolute necessity. This helps to bring a certain level of conflict into the party at the outset.

The characters are secret agents who have to hunt down scarcely believable creatures and entities, whilst preventing information about their activities from leaking out. Think 'Hellboy' meets 'The Third Man' meets 'The Manchurian Candidate'. Games are intended to be short and quite possibly brutal. The situations that the characters will find themselves in are life threatening and horrific, so they might not last that long. But that's OK, as character creation is fairly swift.

Tension is important in 'Cold City'. Tension between the forces that now occupy German. Tension between various factions struggling to survive in the slowly reviving city. Tension between the characters. By necessity, the game will make so very broad generalisations about various aspects of the setting, this is entirely deliberate. If you want to go into the details of how a French artillery officer would deal with a Red Army commissar, then feel free to do so. However, in this game, it's pretty likely that they will have an instant distrust for each other. All the better for creating conflict.

In the end, all of the characters are forced together by the job that they have to do: hunt monsters.


Twisted Technology

If you look into the technology of World War 2, you'll find there were some crazy ideas floating about. Flying saucer like VTOL aircraft, jet powered intercontinental bombers, death rays and so on. So what if some of this actually came true? What if German scientists actually did produce some of the technologies that we can only see as plans, models and mad ideas? In 'Cold City', much of this has come true. Although the war played out exactly they way it says in the history books, the victorious allies found many things that astounded and amazed them. That's why you'll see disc shaped VTOL gunships flying over Berlin, rocket powered interceptors sitting at airfields and so on.

Then there were the technologies that that Allies kept hidden after the war. The convertors that gave off strange auras, the machines that snatched creatures from strange 'other' places, devices that opened portals into alternative dimensions, the transmitters that brought dead soldiers back to life. This hellish technology, now mostly scrapped by fearful governments, is the raison d'être behind 'Cold City'. This is what gives the monster hunters their purpose: to hunt down the things created by the Nazis and so seek out and destroy the last of the twisted technology.

Foes in 'Cold City' fall into three main groupings:

Alternatives: Snatched from other timelines and universes that might just have been, these are entities from our myths and nightmares. Werewolves, shambling horrors and other things that might just have been.

Incursors: Creatures that were brought into this world from other places and other dimensions, warped beings totally alien to our own way of thinking.

The Dead: The re-animated corpses of those who fell on the battlefield or were killed during aerial bombardment, these shambling zombies know only pain and suffering.


Character Creation

All characters in the game are agents engaged in the Underground War. First off, the player must choose a nationality. Most commonly, this will be either American, British, French or Russian. On occasion, they may be from one of the other Allied nations or possibly German or Austrian (quite a few of whom are employed by various covert agencies).

Character name

Occupation and background.

All characters are, by default, 'agents'. However, this covers quite a lot of ground and characters can have pretty much any background that they choose. Given the fact that WW2 only ended five years ago, it's reasonable to expect that many of the characters have military backgrounds or training of some kind.

Sample Occupations: Serving Military Officer, Traumatised RAF Bomber Pilot, Red Army Soldier, Conniving Diplomat, Self-Righteous Aid Agency Worker, etc, etc.

Draw

How was the character drawn into the Underground War? What reasons do they have for continuing their participation? What circumstances might arise to make them disassociate themselves from the Underground War?

Attributes

There are 3 attributes that serve to define characters in Cold City. And these are:

Body

Body is used when the character takes any physical actions, for example: firing a gun, punching a guard, etc.

Mind

Mind is use when the character is in a situation that requires intellect or perception, for example: working out a tricky puzzle, spotting an Incursor hiding in shadows, etc.

Heroism

Heroism is the most nebulous of the three attributes and represents the heroic qualities of the character. It is used in situations where the character does something that is, well, heroic! Examples of this would be jumping through a window onto the top of a moving train, making a last stand against hopeless odds, etc.

Attributes range from 1 to 5 and players have 8 points to spend on the three attributes.

1 = Poor
2 = Average
3 = Good
4 = Excellent
5 = Almost superhuman

Keys

Each character gets two 'keys'. These are aspects of their personality that drive them, trouble them or scare them. For example:

Fear of flying
Crazy in a fight
Paranoid around Russians

Hatred

This is something or someone that the character hates beyond all reason. Hatred should be chosen carefully, especially if they relate to people. While it would be fine to choose the hatred 'Britain and the British', think carefully about how this would affect the character in play, how they would react to colleagues and so forth.

Abilities

Abilities are skills and talents that the character has learned, acquired or perhaps just been born with. Abilities don't have a level, you just have them or you don't. Sample abilities might be:

Brawling
Driving
Investigating
Lock picking
Occult knowledge
Piloting
Rifle shooting

Players get to choose 5 abilities for their characters.

Sample Character

Major Digby Walters

Occupation: Serving British Army (airborne) Officer
Background: Served since 1942 and was involved in the D-Day and Market Garden operations. Can no longer parachute due to badly injured knee and has been confined behind a desk since 1946.

Draw: Walters yearned for excitement and was drawn into the War by piecing together various bits of intelligence that passed across his desk.

Body  2
Mind  2
Heroism    4

Keys

Immensely proud and stubborn
Has flashbacks to the battle in Arnhem

Hatred

Walters loathes Communism in all its aspects.

Abilities

Marksmanship
Tactics
Hand to hand fighting
Investigating
Flattery


One thing that concerns me is the current extent of the characters. Given the setting, should stats for fear/madness/other be included in order to reflect the stress and trauma that the characters may )and probably will) undergo? Would character creation benefit from greater emphasis on inter-party tension? Any feedback on the basic premise would also be appreciated.

Cheers
Malcolm

[Jason Morningstar]

Wow, that's a great premise.  But it's about monsters like Dogs in the Vineyard is about demons.  I really, really like the idea of a four-person team drawn from the four occupation powers, forced to work together and having nominal access to all areas of Germany. 

I think it would be interesting if your principal decision was which nation to represent - the choice supplying a stereotype that you'd erode (or not) during character generation, but that would still exist for everyone else intact - maybe always, maybe until they got to know you.  So if you were playing a Yank, you'd start out loud and self confident, oversexed and under-smart.  Maybe you'd modify that, but when others dealt with you, those stereotypes would somehow still be in place.  That'd be cool.  I could really see a game like this being all about relationships and betrayal and hard decisions under the worst of circumstances.  Plus, who doesn't love a nazi zombie?

--Jason

[Graham W]

That's a superb setting.

A quick historical point:

Much of Europe remains shattered and ruined, kept alive by American money and know-how flooding in. The Grand Alliance that defeated the spectre of fascism has been blown away on the winds of change. The USA and the USSR now stare at each other with unblinking eyes, waiting for the moment when the Cold War finally goes hot. Britain sits alongside her powerful ally, brooding over the loss of influence and Empire. France contemplates the damage done to her cities and countryside by ravages of war.

As we all know, Britain was actually marvelling at the plucky British spirit in the face of the German menace, not brooding about anything.

Anyway.

The characters are secret agents who have to hunt down scarcely believable creatures and entities, whilst preventing information about their activities from leaking out. Think 'Hellboy' meets 'The Third Man' meets 'The Manchurian Candidate'. Games are intended to be short and quite possibly brutal. The situations that the characters will find themselves in are life threatening and horrific, so they might not last that long. But that's OK, as character creation is fairly swift.

How do you mean? If a player's character dies, does the player quickly roll another character and carry on? Because, if characters really get killed off that quickly, it doesn't sound that much fun. No chance to fight, or tell a story, or anything?

Or do you just mean that players shouldn't get too attached to their character, since they'll probably only last a session anyway?

Tension is important in 'Cold City'. Tension between the forces that now occupy German. Tension between various factions struggling to survive in the slowly reviving city. Tension between the characters. By necessity, the game will make so very broad generalisations about various aspects of the setting, this is entirely deliberate. If you want to go into the details of how a French artillery officer would deal with a Red Army commissar, then feel free to do so. However, in this game, it's pretty likely that they will have an instant distrust for each other. All the better for creating conflict.

In the end, all of the characters are forced together by the job that they have to do: hunt monsters.

Can I just check what you mean by conflict? Do the characters bicker, but basically work together? Or actively sabotage each others' missions? Or are they forced to work together, but have deep reservations about doing so, which occasionally spills over into party conflicts?

On the setting: do the characters know about all the weirdness at the start of the game? Or is part of the game the idea that they gradually discover how weird the world is and what their governments were plotting?

I'm also a little confused about the Heroism trait. I think it's a great idea. But how do you decide whether, say, jumping on a train is a Heroism or Body challenge?

And on Major Digby: Tactics and Flattery seem almost impossibly wide-ranging attributes.

One thing that concerns me is the current extent of the characters. Given the setting, should stats for fear/madness/other be included in order to reflect the stress and trauma that the characters may )and probably will) undergo?

It's an idea. Would it serve a purpose? Do you want a major part of the game to be how characters battle against their own sanity?

Would character creation benefit from greater emphasis on inter-party tension?

Again, it's possible, but what sort of tension would you want?

Thanks Malcolm, it looks good.

Graham

[Malcolm Craig]

Wow, that's a great premise.  But it's about monsters like Dogs in the Vineyard is about demons.  I really, really like the idea of a four-person team drawn from the four occupation powers, forced to work together and having nominal access to all areas of Germany. 

I think it would be interesting if your principal decision was which nation to represent - the choice supplying a stereotype that you'd erode (or not) during character generation, but that would still exist for everyone else intact - maybe always, maybe until they got to know you.  So if you were playing a Yank, you'd start out loud and self confident, oversexed and under-smart.  Maybe you'd modify that, but when others dealt with you, those stereotypes would somehow still be in place.  That'd be cool.  I could really see a game like this being all about relationships and betrayal and hard decisions under the worst of circumstances.  Plus, who doesn't love a nazi zombie?

That's an interesting idea, making your choice of nation one of the fundamental planks of the character creation process. I hadn't actually thought of approaching it in that manner. There are plenty of national stereotypes to draw on: the reserved but pompous Limey, the stoic but melancholy Russian and so on. I think there are definite possibilities there to incorporate more of this kind of thing.

The idea of having a stereotype that overlays your real character is certainly something that has got me thinking and I'm wondering how to actually implement that? I think on this and post more on it once I've got my thoughts into a readable format.

As we all know, Britain was actually marvelling at the plucky British spirit in the face of the German menace, not brooding about anything.

Well, I'd debate the point that this wasn't entirely true and that Britian was slowly coming to terms with no longer being a pre-eminent world power (Korea being a proving ground for this, but that's somewhat out of the scope of the game). However, I do take your point that there was still and certain 'glow' of victory over the odds.

How do you mean? If a player's character dies, does the player quickly roll another character and carry on? Because, if characters really get killed off that quickly, it doesn't sound that much fun. No chance to fight, or tell a story, or anything?

Or do you just mean that players shouldn't get too attached to their character, since they'll probably only last a session anyway?

I should perhaps re-word this section. Characters can come to a fairly swift end, as adversaries are likely to be fairly nasty, however, it shouldn't imply that this is going to be a 'Paranoia' type game of going through multiple characters in the one session.

Can I just check what you mean by conflict? Do the characters bicker, but basically work together? Or actively sabotage each others' missions? Or are they forced to work together, but have deep reservations about doing so, which occasionally spills over into party conflicts?

On the setting: do the characters know about all the weirdness at the start of the game? Or is part of the game the idea that they gradually discover how weird the world is and what their governments were plotting?

I'm also a little confused about the Heroism trait. I think it's a great idea. But how do you decide whether, say, jumping on a train is a Heroism or Body challenge?

I think the answer to your question about conflict is essentially yes, all of these are possible. The characters are thrown together, perhaps they know each other prior, perhaps they don't, that's up to the players and GM. A lot of it stems from the keys and hatreds of the characters: will there be instant antipathy towards one or more other characters? Will they have to struggle to get the job done in the face of personal emnity? Will the communist-hating American GI find that Ukrainian former Guards Tank Brigade captain is really a nice guy with a family he wants to support? Will this mean that the GI suddenly takes a heroic action to save the life of the Ukrainian, possibly at risk to his own life?

One thing I'm keen to incorporate is the potential for one or more of the characters (and it's an extremely likely possibility) spying for their own side, passing information back. Hang on a minute! What if that's an intrinsic part of all the characters, that they are passing information back to their own side? It would be interesting to get the players to write brief secret notes about what they are passing back, to see their varying interpretations of what exactly is going on and modify the game based upon this? Hmmmm, now there's a thought.

As regards the setting: the characters start out knowing about the Underground War in a fairly limited fashion. they have been briefed on what their job entails, they know that there are strange things lurking in the shadows, but they are unaware of many of the specifics. Each adventure should be a journey of discovery, as they find out new things about the world they inhabit.

As far as Heroism goes, decision on how it is applied are contexual and quite subjective. The players and GM should ask themselves "Is this a 'heroic' situation? Is what the character doing more driven by 'heroism'?" Now, I realise there are a few problems with this basic idea:

1) As the definition of what is and is not heroic is very subjective, this could lead to a fair few arguments.
2) If Heroism, as an attribute, is lower than (say) Body, why bother ever using Heroism at all?

I'm toying with the idea of still having Heroism be an important part of the character, but taking it away from being in the realm of Attributes and making it more of a 'drama dice' type attribute that has a limited number of 'shots' per game and can be used to modify pools where the player feels that they really, really must succeed.

On the flipside, I really like the idea of Heroism as an Attribute.

One thing that concerns me is the current extent of the characters. Given the setting, should stats for fear/madness/other be included in order to reflect the stress and trauma that the characters may )and probably will) undergo?

It's an idea. Would it serve a purpose? Do you want a major part of the game to be how characters battle against their own sanity?

I think given the nature of the game, the potential war experiences of the characters and the overall environmnet, I would say yes, I think it would serve a purpose. That purpose being a concrete reminder for the players of how much the character has suffered due to his or her experiences. I shall think on this further.

Thanks for all the feedback and comments, very much appreciated.

Cheers
Malcolm

[Jason Morningstar]

The idea of having a stereotype that overlays your real character is certainly something that has got me thinking and I'm wondering how to actually implement that?

It could be as simple as starting with a fixed template, with "stereotypical" stats listed permanently on the character sheet.  When dealing with people who don't know you, or have reason to distrust you, those are the stats you use.  I can see a lot of problems with something like this, but I think it has potential.  The assumption would be that  way others perceive you is more important than reality.

One thing I'm keen to incorporate is the potential for one or more of the characters (and it's an extremely likely possibility) spying for their own side, passing information back. Hang on a minute! What if that's an intrinsic part of all the characters, that they are passing information back to their own side? It would be interesting to get the players to write brief secret notes about what they are passing back, to see their varying interpretations of what exactly is going on and modify the game based upon this? Hmmmm, now there's a thought.

Couple of ideas - one, trust, a la Mountain Witch.  Perfect mechanism for intra-group rivalry.  Allows a way to narrate in "spying for X" without requiring mechanics for it, which really are not necessary. 

I also think you could do a lot with ideology - it would be amazing if every player was, in essence, playing a different game - the Soviet player interprets, explians, and justifies a supernatural threat through a Marxist-Leninist lens, while the Frenchman sees it very differently. 

--Jason

[Frank T]

Sounds interesting enough. I don't have the time to read everything right now, but two points:

1) Why limit this to Berlin? They could be chasing Monsters all over Germany.

2) What about a German on the team? Someone to speak to the locals and such?

- Frank

[Jason Morningstar]

Yes, you should definitely have the option of playing a German tool of one of the four powers, and Germans would have their own stereotype.  I would totally require exactly four players, each with a character pushing the agenda of one of the four occupying powers. 

[Malcolm Craig]

Sounds interesting enough. I don't have the time to read everything right now, but two points:

1) Why limit this to Berlin? They could be chasing Monsters all over Germany.

2) What about a German on the team? Someone to speak to the locals and such?

- Frank

To answer both questions:

1) I'd like the game to have a fairly tight focus and initially restricting it to Berlin helps with this. Additionally (and more importantly), Berlin is one of the key sites in the Cold War and as such offers a lot of opportunities for conflict and adventure. And, on a more personal level, I like cities! They fascinate me and I often find it easier to write about something which intrigues and interests me. Not that the possibility of chasing monsters all over the German countryside isn't there, but I'd prefer to keep a narower focus at the start.

2) Although my initial idea was to limit the character group makeup to a representative from each of the occupying powers, I can see the value in having representative from other nations (particularly Germany). There was a not in the initial piece about possibly having characters from other nations (germany being mentioned in partcular), although perhaps I should expand upon this.

Yes, you should definitely have the option of playing a German tool of one of the four powers, and Germans would have their own stereotype.  I would totally require exactly four players, each with a character pushing the agenda of one of the four occupying powers.

Well, given your and Franks comments, I shall certainly play around with things and see what comes up.

I've also been looking in to the suggestion of factoring the trust that the characters have in each other and the national stereotyping. Once I've formulated a few more ideas on that, I'll post the revised character creation stuff and see what comes out of that.

Thanks again for your questions and comments, it really is much appreciated.

Cheers
Malcolm

[Przemyslaw F. Szkodzinski]

As we all know, Britain was actually marvelling at the plucky British spirit in the face of the German menace, not brooding about anything.

Yeah, and Poland was simply delighted because of its liberation by our Eastern friends. Hurray CCCP.

Anyway, to the point. A question, if I may:

Care to elaborate on the presence of this "twisted technology" in the setting? How exactly widespread it is? Any connections with the nazi occult, perchance? Would it be possible to show the forbidden technology as something tempting, giving players the choice to either actually fight the menace, or just pretend to, in order to gather information for themselves/their government etc.? It would give PCs yet another reason for distrusting each other.

[Graham W]

Would it be possible to show the forbidden technology as something tempting, giving players the choice to either actually fight the menace, or just pretend to, in order to gather information for themselves/their government etc.?

I think this is a fantastic idea. Actually, I'd love to see the forbidden technology as something the players could actually use to make themselves more powerful (at the expense of their future health and/or sanity, of course). In any case, it would be good to actually see the temptations of this technology in play somehow.

But perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself.

(And nice comeback, by the way)

Graham

[mutex]

Keys

Each character gets two 'keys'. These are aspects of their personality that drive them, trouble them or scare them. For example:

Fear of flying
Crazy in a fight
Paranoid around Russians

Hatred

This is something or someone that the character hates beyond all reason. Hatred should be chosen carefully, especially if they relate to people. While it would be fine to choose the hatred 'Britain and the British', think carefully about how this would affect the character in play, how they would react to colleagues and so forth.

Abilities

Abilities are skills and talents that the character has learned, acquired or perhaps just been born with. Abilities don't have a level, you just have them or you don't. Sample abilities might be:

Brawling
Driving
Investigating
Lock picking
Occult knowledge
Piloting
Rifle shooting

                         +

Given the setting, should stats for fear/madness/other be included in order to reflect the stress and trauma that the characters may )and probably will) undergo?

=
               fallout system

It seems like you already have it in place.  You've Keys, which are significant to driving character.  I absolutely love keys.  It's like they're RPG superchargers; really lovely.  You've Hatreds, which could be extrapolated to aggressive behavior, phobias, etc.  And you've Abilities, which could be beneficial side-effects of your characters contact with Twisted Technology and Nazi Occult.

So, you can kind of assume that shocking or corrupting encounters with TT/NO will yield a risk of a new Hatred, an option to adopt a new Key if applicable, and sometimes even gain a new Ability.

For example:

Abe Sapien discovered an icthyoid Elder One at the bottom of the sea, and then he brought it back to his home for his occult group to study.  No shock, because he was relatively experienced, so let's say he succeeds in avoiding Hatred, but he gains a new Key (Discover the Secret of the Elder One).

Later, he and his occult group are studying the Elder One's husk, when it crumbles to dust.  Something is happening!  Abe is being corrupted by the carcass of the Elder One!  Suddenly, he sees a ghastly image of a half-man/half-icthyoid that is disturbingly familiar.  He fails his roll against Hatred and gains Hatred (Fear of Fish-Man-Thing).  He blacks out and falls to the ground, catatonic.

But...  his occult group are not too callous.  They preserve him in a salt-water capsule with oxygen supply.  When he awakens hundreds of years later, he discovers a new Ability (Underwater Breathing & Swimming).  Additionally, he becomes aware that he is completely amnesiac.  Who is he?!  He gets a new Key (Who Am I?!), and drops his old Key (Discover the Secret of the Elder One), as it no longer applies.  Perhaps, years later, he will discover what he truly is and take it back.

[Malcolm Craig]

As we all know, Britain was actually marvelling at the plucky British spirit in the face of the German menace, not brooding about anything.

Yeah, and Poland was simply delighted because of its liberation by our Eastern friends. Hurray CCCP.

Anyway, to the point. A question, if I may:

Care to elaborate on the presence of this "twisted technology" in the setting? How exactly widespread it is? Any connections with the nazi occult, perchance? Would it be possible to show the forbidden technology as something tempting, giving players the choice to either actually fight the menace, or just pretend to, in order to gather information for themselves/their government etc.? It would give PCs yet another reason for distrusting each other.

Hi Przemyslaw, thanks for posting. I've placed the twisted technology on the same scale as the German atomic bomb project. In fact, I've based the core of the project at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute at Dahlem. I've even chosen the simple route and decided that it was all conducted at the 'Virus House' where the bomb project was handled.

I like the idea of the technology being tempting to others and over the past 24 hours, have written a little more about this, emphasising the mistrust that this causes between the formers allies, right down to the player character level. I'm leaning towards giving a nod to Nazi occultism, but not making it a major theme. Yes, it could easily be tied in, but I'd rather that it didn't dominate the game. The technology is (rather obviously) a McGuffin to allow the monsters to exist. Without the technlogy, there would be no monsters, but without the monsters, there's no need for the technology!

But in answer to the main thrust of the question, yes, the technology and the creatures resulting from it will feed into the game and the mistrust that the characters have for each other.

It seems like you already have it in place. You've Keys, which are significant to driving character. I absolutely love keys. It's like they're RPG superchargers; really lovely. You've Hatreds, which could be extrapolated to aggressive behavior, phobias, etc. And you've Abilities, which could be beneficial side-effects of your characters contact with Twisted Technology and Nazi Occult.

So, you can kind of assume that shocking or corrupting encounters with TT/NO will yield a risk of a new Hatred, an option to adopt a new Key if applicable, and sometimes even gain a new Ability.

Yes, that's great! That's really made me think about the use of keys and hatred in game and how they are modified and changed throughout play. So, yes, I've done a bit of re-writing to incorportate this improved use of these facets of the characters. The use of shocking/traumatic encouners to change the characters is something I wanted to include, but was heading down the road of sanity/madness/fear. However, it's easy to see (as you pointed out), that such a system is pretty much already in place without the need for any additions.

Cheers
Malcolm