Official development blog for the PARANOIA roleplaying game. No description is available at your security clearance. The Computer is your friend.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Cold City RPG 

Malcolm Craig, the Scottish designer who runs Contested Ground Studios (creator of the acclaimed indie RPG a|state), is about to release a new RPG called Cold City. It's sort of an X-Files in occupied Berlin during the Cold War. Cold City evokes suspicion and fear of betrayal that should sound familiar to every PARANOIA player:
In Cold City you take the role of a member of the [Reserve Police Agency], those secretive Cold War monster hunters. Characters are defined not just by who they are and what they are like, but by the views of the other characters and the trust that they have in them. For each character is, at the outset, seen as a national stereotype, a cliched representative of their chosen nation. But is this really the case? Do they live up to the stereotype or do they show themselves to be wholly unique individuals? And how does this affect the trust that the other character have in them?

Craig's forum posts discuss Cold City character creation and the rules system. Note the inclusion of a Trust mechanic inspired by Timothy Kleinert's Mountain Witch RPG. Man, I wish someone had invented that mechanic while I was revising PARANOIA....

Contested Ground has posted an attractive ten-page Cold City preview for free download (2.4MB .PDF).
Posted by: Allen Varney / 10:54 AM

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