We playtested the nearly complete version of Noir World by John Adamus tonight. We told the story of three crooks trying for the big score: career criminal Chase Nolan, goon SweetT Sweetums, and Ex-Con Griff Campisi. Chase arranges for the three to make a flashy smash and grab of the Burnam & Bailey’s circus to distract from the real heist happening upstairs, but he didn’t count on Griff ratting them out get his revenge on SweetT for sending him up the river in the first place. After crashing their getaway truck and exchanging blows, Chase and T regroup and decide to hightail it out of New York and back to the old country via Canada.
The game is PBTA but streamlined down to only 4 basic moves and 3 stats, so it moves pretty easily and there never is any question about which move is being engaged by the fiction. With only three players, the restrictions on framing scenes with the rotating MC’s character got in the way fast, so we ditched it and built scenes with all three characters as needed, especially at the end. We didn’t create a great film, but it hung together pretty well and had some good mood and action beats.
Story Games Club 