Cold City plays in Berlin, 1950. The city is occupied by the forces of four countries who were fighting a shared enemy just five years earlier but are now preparing for when the newly forming Cold War might get hot. But there is still some cooperation, especially in one regard - Nazi occult and scientific experimentation has left behind hidden, unusual dangers. The PCs are representatives of the allied powers (typically with the PCs in a group each coming from a different one) who are part of a secret multi-national organization (the ‘Reserve Police Agency’, which even includes some Germans!) tasked with defusing these dangers. But the different forces behind the RPA also have their own agendas, and trust is often thin on the ground. After all, some of these remains might turn out to be useful in the starting Cold War. So on top is another layer of mistrust, infighting, backstabbing.
The game assumes an initial discussion on how to play that goes beyond most session 0 approaches - will the players know from the start what they are fighting, and make it up themselves? Will the game be bleak, noir, comedic, something else? What will PCs actually do? Hunt monsters? Ferret out dangerous technology? Find hidden Nazi personnel that is connected to dangerous technology? Who are the antagonists? All of these and more are questions the game suggests the group answers, not just the GM.
Now, let’s make a British soldier who works for the RPA. Let’s call him John Nathaniel Kent. I like the idea that he was a Royal Military Police Sergeant in the war. He was stationed as a member of the Provost Wing of the RMP (general policing) in Berlin once the war ended to help keep order among the stationed troops. He met the wrong people, people who would see value in him and recommend him as an RPA prospect, and has recently been recruited. Note: All of this is a result of the book asking questions that I answered.
Nate, as he likes to be called, would probably ‘leave the game’, i.e. quit his job and run from the RPA if he ever found them actively using any dangerous tech on people. He has formed clear opinions on the use of such technology, and any use outside of utter emergencies he witnesses would make him feel betrayed. While he isn’t a starry-eyed idealist, there are lines he would not cross and still think he was on the right side. This is a big one for him.
The game has three attributes which start at 1 each, and we can spend 5 points between them. The range is from 1 to 5. So, I go with Action 2 (Average), Influence 3 (Good), and Reason 3 (Good). He was good at his job because he could usually stop fights from happening, and was clever enough to know when to intervene. He is not, as is, an amazing fighter, but the kind of person that likes to prevent fights from happening.
Next, I get to choose some Traits. These are not skills, but similar to approaches in other games (like Tiny D6) they are broad terms that are used to justify or explain boni and mali. John will get five, but two must be negative. I come up with ‘Stubborn as a mule’ for negative, ‘Cannot do subtle if his life depends on it’ for negative traits, and ‘Good guy to have a beer with’, ‘Built like a brick sh’*thouse’, and ‘Hidden depths’ for positive traits.
Finally, he needs Agendas, secret goals of either his own, or orders by his superiors in his own country's government. In play, working in sync with these agendas makes rolls easier. An explicitly possible outcome is that PCs betray each other. John gets one personal agenda, and governmental ones can come up during the game. It isn’t clear if the GM is supposed to provide them, but I assume based on the approach mentioned above that this is up to group decision. I will go with a ‘made by me’ approach. The personal agenda will be ‘Find a way to discredit the German participants in the RPA, and get them out of the program’ - as far as Nate is concerned, the Germans do not deserve to participate. He has nothing against whoever joins forces with him personally, he just wants them out - Germany cannot be trusted. The government has told him to find and acquire a KSK, a Kraftstrahlkanone, a German prototype of an aircraft laser gun, and keep it secret from the non-Brits in the RPA.
Finally, he speaks English and German. If this were the first step of an actual game, now I would have a discussion on how much each PC trusts each other PC and a short description of how Nate sees them. Done! There is no separate sheet this time, so here is a summary:
John Nathaniel 'Nate' Kent, RMP Sergeant
Action 2 Influence 3 Reason 3
Stubborn as a mule
Cannot do subtle if his life depends on it
Good guy to have a beer with
Built like a brick sh*thouse
Hidden depths
Get the German members of the RPA out of the organization
Find a KSK
Speaks English and German
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