A good help

It is a good book for MCs

TL;DR - Incredibly unique game and one that we want to play in the near future. Fantastic production and value.

DISCLAIMER/BIAS/EXPERIENCE: Backer of City of Mist kickstarters. Leaving this review after publisher's request issued to KS backers. I have run one longish CoM campaign, currently running my second CoM campaign. I assume you're familiar with the basic premises of City of Mist - if you're not, read the blurbs, or better, get a starter set. NOTE: Cultural appropriation potential warning - this book is about mythoi coming back to life in a noir world. This may be a touchy thing, so GMs are advised to do their research before the game and/or reach certain level of understanding with their players. By the way of introducing you to MC TOOLKIT, this is a gamemaster's book (NOTE: Gamemaster = Master of Ceremonies, or MC), so it expands on the basic rules, provides resources for fleshing out the setting and establishes routines specific for MC role. It also sports great layout, comic book art, great one-page summaries and an adventure. NOTE: You need PLAYER'S GUIDE for player-facing lowdown of the rules, to create characters, and building groups, evolving (escalating?) stuff and cinematographic plays. It's also a great primer on Apocalypse World mechanics. I would also recommend getting a starter set for great ready-to-run characters, yet another adventure, and beautiful handouts. MC TOOLKIT, Table of Contents The Master of Ceremonies - Basics of the basics, or how to read the book. 8 pages Word on the Street - Archetypical locales and locals in a city noir genre. No stats yet, it is just a bunch of short writeups of places and people. If your characters make a random stop to buy e-cigs, you can just crack open the book, say THE OLD QUARTER, read THE COBBLED STREET aloud (skipping MC-only stuff), and if the things are going slow, have the PCs meet a wounded old man complaining about thieves, who just took his books. 42 pages Behind the Scenes - A comic, a Quick Reference Sheet, a guide on running the session zero, how to use MC moves, narrating stuff and adjusting challenge level. Then it's Writing a Case (check the HIGHLIGHTS below), and then turning cases into a series. 54 pages This is my City! - Another comic, another Quick Reference Sheet, and everything you need to know about spectrums (how to damage a character), dangers (those who damage the characters), and avatars (you also get four masterminds, unique 5-star dangers that are movers and shakers to drop into your setting). 99 pages Appendices - Various resources (dangers get ratings) with page numbers. For example: House Fire is 2-star danger on page 151. Samuel Valtierra (Baron Samedi) is 5-star danger on page 160. Also included: list of backers, printouts for MC tracking sheets. 10 pages Gambling with Death - An adventure that is NOT recommended for novice players and MCs. The narrative is slightly disjointed and may be difficult to follow by not-yet-invested-in-story characters. Also there are multiple three star dangers - expect fatalities if the characters are not careful. 19 pages Maps - Useful for running scenes. 4 pages MC TOOLKIT, HIGHLIGHTS WRITING A CASE, to me, is probably the best ever section on constructing puzzles for the PCs to unravel. It also ties into Investigate move in a way that makes running mystery scenarios such a pleasure. Here's is a short explanation. A case is like an iceberg: visible tip (depth 0), depth 1, depth 2, ... the visible tip is a list of hooks that the characters look into or encounter. the depths are layered lists of locations or scenes, to which characters gain access after investigating connected corresponding items from upper layers. the characters "move" between these by resolving scenes or gaining clues from locations. at the bottom there is a final confrontation or a revelation. since this is an Apocalypse World-inspired game, new connections may be formed or further challenges added on a fly via devil's bargains or success with complications mechanics. While there are many ways the PCs may proceed forward, the most common way is for a character to make an Investigate move: A player declares an action and what power tags (supernatural or mundane) are used to support the action. The number of tags (minus penalties) used is the POWER rating for the move. If successful, a player gets to ask number of questions equal to POWER rating. Based on the POWER rating, result of a roll (fuzzy, partial, compromise, full success) and the tags used, an MC presents answers. A computer jockey hacking into a mobile will get different presentation from a veteran policewoman interrogating a witness, from a possessed shopkeeper immigrant from Tibet conferring with local spiritual entities, from a destitute satanic sax hobo player who just plays and listens to people talking, from a recently released convict with a hook for his and terrifying violence just bubbling under calm demeanor [a cast of characters from my current campaign]. The answers unlock stuff from current and lower depths, eventually allowing to reach the solution.

City of Mist one of the best games ever made.

I play hundreds of role playing games. And City of Mist has quickly risen to one of my absolute favorites. It has a super compelling theme and setting. But that is not all, it also has a super free form and adaptable system that provides lots of flavor to the game when played. But that is not all, it also has TONS of examples and advice to help you make your character so you don't get analysis paralysis by feeling like you have too many choices. But that is not all, the system is also so flexible that you can mutate the game and use it to run TONS of different things that are outside of the setting. This is the second printing of the game, and I am already seeing subtle improvements to things as I start reading it. One of the best, Cant go wrong.

Classless, numberless, and limitless

Received the Player/MC books from Kickstarter nearly a week ago. The game lives up to the hype, and I'm eager for the upcoming books to fill out the setting and provide campaign fodder. Another great PBtA (powered by the apocalypse) alum. If you haven't played this style game before, you should know that its rules light, story driven, and mechanics light. Much of the content is up to the players to invent seemingly on the spot, leaving the GM to adlib as he goes. What City of Mist does well, is the utilization of themes and tags to create a character built from blocks instead of classes. The blocks (called themes) that build your characters can and will change over the course of a campaign or session. This feature allows the players to have life events accrue over to time to add up to tangible changes to the character (and their sheet). Since each block of the character sheet is tied to a piece of the characters backstory and present life, and also constantly in flux/changing, it feels like the character is really alive and changing with the story. It's natural qualities pull narrative stories out of players who otherwise find RP difficult. Further, the building blocks that build a character are in turn built from blocks themselves (called tags). These allow for easy to reference unique ability traits based on that element of a characters life. To DnD albums, these numberless tags may remind you of skills. However they are used very differently here to form the bulk of every action. The themes and tags form the basis of every character. The building blocks that represent who that person is. Given that this game lacks any classes, you could say that there are infinite combinations that represent unlimited ways to play characters. I guarantee you will never see to characters alike. While this game focuses on the supernatural, myths, and legends it would be very simple to use this for any type of game. Scifi, fantasy, cthulu, etc.. this is simply such a powerful tool, that it would be limited only by your imagination. If you enjoy rules light systems, have players who struggle with RP, or otherwise want to run a game that other systems cant facilitate pick up a copy of this game (or at least their free starter set on their website).