I’ve wanted to run Cold City for my current gaming group for a while now. We’ve played a few games together and I’ve been keen for a while now to run one of my own creations. So, last night we sat down to play Cold City.

The evening was, from the outset, going to consist of a discussion of what the game would be like (tone, content and all that sort of thing) plus creating characters, working out their relationships to each other and so on.,

The first real decision was about what the game was going to be like: lightweight and pulpy? Dark and horrific? The main theme that emerged was one of ‘noir’, so we scribbled down a lot of words on the big sheet of paper in front of us, stuff like:

Smokey, pain, public places, cabaret, returns to the past.

There was chat about what the opposition in the game would be: who were the antagonists, what was the threat. Various things were discussed and scribbled down. For example, Joe M. commented that he didn’t want encounters with faceless mooks; random, average heavies there just to beat up the characters. The phrase ‘sympathetic Nazis’ also came up. After some clarification, we came to the conclusion this would mean characters appearing in the game who were former Nazis, but who were not the cackling villains or sinister torturers beloved of some fiction. They should be portrayed as human, with human failings, but tied implicitly to the appalling deeds they participated in.

The occult also came into the discussion: no Lovecraftian gribblies, the desire was for ‘low level occult’, something that is sinister and in the background, not huge and obvious. The phrase ‘the new science’ was used, which fits in very well with the ethos and background of Cold City. Antagonism should also come from within the Reserve Police Agency itself: superiors, bureaucrats and colleagues should provide conflict for the characters. In particular, there was a strong call for the immediate superior of the characters to be hostile to them and create problems.

Finally, just before getting to character creation, everyone participating threw in some scenes that they would like to see take place. Per immediately threw in ‘arson, burning down a building’. Joe P suggested ‘a fight in a sleazy burlesque nightclub’. We ended up with a handful of scenes that gave me, as the GM, a really good idea of the kind of thing the players would like to see taking place in the game in terms of individual locations. We also talked about music: if this were a film, what would the music be like? I kind of like the idea of music out of time, so my thoughts lean towards instrumental hip-hop such as DJ Shadow, Fingathing, DJ Krush and so forth. As for a ‘theme tune’, I’m leaning towards the French cabaret styled cover version of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart, Again’ by Nouvelle Vague. It works in my head.

We then moved on to character creation and immediately threw down things on the sheet, stuff that would eventually form into our initial relationship map for the game. Character creation was fun and very collaborative. Ideas were bouncing around. We also decided to have an ‘open’ game of Cold City. This pretty much means that everyone round the table knows the hidden agendas and secret of the other characters. In character, they may not know, but as players this allow them to push buttons, and bring stuff into the game that really works off the cool stuff that other people have created for their own characters.

The characters came out as follows:

Joe M: Professor Blume (American), a middle aged Harvard professor with a line in crypto linguistics and similar esoteric fields. Father of two young children, his wife (a German) had been killed by the man she was having an affair with. Blume never found out who this man was, but has a deep seated desire for revenge upon him.

Joe P: Jacques Benoit (French), a former collaborator in Vichy France who turned double agent and ended up spying for the Resistance. Not out of any sense of duty or honour, simply to save his own skin.

Per: Eduard Reisser (German), an anonymous man with a past that bears further investigation. A saboteur, assassin and spy who wants the RPA to be a German controlled organisation.

All the names were written down on The Big Sheet, and then some relationships were scribbled in: Jacques was brought into the RPA by a former resistance colleague by the name of Christine Monet. Perhaps there is some attraction between the two of them? As yet, we don’t know. Certainly Christine’s husband Albert may not be too pleased if that happens. Joe M suggested that perhaps Christine recruited Professor Blume as well. Per also put in a connection between Reisser and Blume’s deceased wife: he had been spying on her before she died. Maybe he knows something important? Joe M added a connection to his two young children. How will they fare in Cold War Berlin?

So, we have three intriguing characters with a broad range of backgrounds, interests and relationships. All have hidden agendas that promise to really drive play on and everyone has contributed to creating a tone for the game that promises much.

To conclude the evening, we decided to play out a little individual scene for each character, just to let people get in to playing them and to establish a little story about them. They were:

Blume being recruited into the RPA, having just arrived in Berlin with his children. A great little scene that neatly described Blume’s new home, his kids and his attitudes towards his new line of work. Christine Monet arrived bearing wine and bread, working out if he really was suitable for the job. The conflict in the scene wasn’t about getting the appointment, but about Christine’s attitudes towards Blume and how she would report back to the RPA: would she see him in a favourable light, would she dismiss him as another useful but ultimately ineffectual egghead? Joe won the conflict by a good margin and so Christine is now somewhat intimidated by Blume, by his passion and intelligence (all of this being noted down on The Big Sheet, obviously).

Reisser was carrying out a job, something he had been ordered to do by shadowy elements within German civil administration. A traditional manor house, just at the edge of Berlin (in the American sector, I would imagine), where a German scientist (Herr Doctor, Freiherr von Steiner) is preparing to leave for America. There are crates outside the manor, all stamped with USAF markings. It was decided mid way through the scene that the Doctor should have a son, a crippled veteran of the Eastern Front. Reisser gained entrance to the manor and engaged in a private consultation with von Steiner. When the son left to get Reisser a glass of water, the Doctor was killed by a single stiletto stab to the throat. The conflict in this scene wasn’t the killing, but would the son recognise Reisser for what he really was? Per won the conflict, but with a slight complication. As the son stared fixedly at a tiny speck of blood on Reisser anonymous brown suit, Reisser stabbed the poor man on crutches and then walked away, down the gravel drive of the house. A nicely handled and very effective scene.

The final character scene was between Jacque Benoit (played by Joe P) and the redoubtable Christine Monet, who we all feel will be a regularly recurring character in this game. The scene took place a few months before anything described in the other scenes, happening in a sleazy, down-at-heel Parisian club named The Purple Swan. Benoit is a dishevelled private eye and Christine feels he would be suitable for the RPA. Again, the conflict was not whether or not he would be recruited, but if there would be any feelings between the two characters. Joe lost the conflict (he had expressly said that he wanted there to be a romantic connection between Benoit and Christine if he won), but only by a single success. So, it was left that their relationship was ambivalent. There is certainly the potential for a romantic entanglement later on. Another lovely little scene that not only established the PC, but further established an interesting, maybe even pivotal, NPC.

All in all, it was a very satisfying evening of discussion, creation and play and everyone round the table was looking forward to getting into the meat of the game next week. I’m especially looking forward to taking what was given to me by the players and created something that challenges them, creates conflict and provides an engaging story.

Per has also posted thoughts about the game on his blog, which you can view here.

Cheers
Malcolm