[RPG]: A Dirty World, reviewed by The Unshaven (5/4)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/13/13963.phtml

The Unshaven's Summary:

<i>A Dirty World</i> is an entirely self-contained nugget of beautiful Noir that is elegant of mechanic and polished of imagination, but whose mileage may vary depending on your particular style of gaming group.

Go to the full review for more information.

[Hogscape]

Well, it sounds great. The preview at Lulu looks fantastic and reads sublime.

I curious how it plays with the sliding traits. Wouldn't you wear a hole in the character sheet after the first game? The idea of the changing stats seems like it would get in the way of the game?

[Doc_Chronos]

Great review, Unshaven. I love this game, it's been one of my best purchases of the year. As you say, a very elegant package.

Hogscape: I haven't notice character sheet wear out to be a big problem in practice. One thing you might try, is to put the sheet in a plastic page protector, and use a fine point dry erase marker. That should take care of it.

Doc

[Jesse]

Originally Posted by Hogscape

I curious how it plays with the sliding traits. Wouldn't you wear a hole in the character sheet after the first game?

But isn't that extremely noir? The game slowly wears away at you until you're just a tattered remnant of your former self?

Jesse

[Nitrosyncretic]

So has anyone actually played this game? I own the book, but it seems to be missing a lot of stuff about how to actually play--you know, how to choose your setting and who has input into the setting creation, how to prepare for play sessions, who sets scenes, who narrates test results, that sort of thing... It's like getting a transmission without the engine. Am I supposed to own some other book to play it?

[migo]

Originally Posted by Nitrosyncretic

So has anyone actually played this game? I own the book, but it seems to be missing a lot of stuff about how to actually play--you know, how to choose your setting and who has input into the setting creation, how to prepare for play sessions, who sets scenes, who narrates test results, that sort of thing... It's like getting a transmission without the engine. Am I supposed to own some other book to play it?

Did you see the bit at the beginning where Stolze says he assumes you know what an RPG is, but if you don't there's a link to an article he wrote on playing RPGs? That would cover what assumptions he has made.

As for your questions:

How to choose your setting - it's Noir, take a Film Noir movie you like, or ten, and model it after that.
Who has input into the setting creation - that'd be the GM. It's like a traditional RPG in this aspect. Also the dice, given the adventure generation.
How to prepare for play sessions - prepare an adventure yourself, or use the adventure generator.
Who sets scenes - the GM.
Who narrates test results - well the player says what he's trying to do, and using what powers, depending on the outcome of the dice the GM will state some things about how it turned out

Based on your questions I can only assume that you got introduced to RPGs through the kind of stuff that comes from the Forge.