Image by Anton Davydov
City Limits | No Dice, No Prep | A Storytelling RPG In Your City
You walk down the street in the snow and see something run very fast across the road. You are not sure if it is a cat or a rat. Do you follow it?
TYPE
SYSTEM
LANGUAGE
EXPERIENCE
AGE
$30.00
/ Session
Details
Bi-weekly / Saturday - 8:00 PM UTC
Session Duration / 1–2 hours
0 / 3 Seats Filled
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About the adventure
You pick a real city - yours, or one you've always wanted to explore. You make a character in two minutes: a name, a job, a reason to get out of bed. Then you're on the streets, making choices, meeting people, and discovering that your city has more going on than you thought. Your character has a goal, something concrete like buying a car, starting a business, getting a promotion. They also have a line of development: five stages of personal growth they move through during the game. Maybe your character is recovering from addiction, learning to trust people, or changing careers. The world will test that growth. If your character is working on sobriety and an old friend invites them to a bar, what do they do? If they hold their ground, the world opens up. If they give in, the goal slips further away. There are no dice, no numbers, no character sheets, no homework. Just come to the call and play. The world is kind. People smile at you, doors open, things work out for those who try. But the world follows real rules, the limits are what is physically and socially possible, not what you assume is possible for you. Most people expect barriers that aren't there. That gap is where the game lives. In one session, two players rescued a stray cat in Manhattan and ended up starting a toy company together. In another, a group of factory workers in a Russian city talked football fans out of a fistfight by proposing to rename the city. Every group develops its own running jokes, its own mythology. No two sessions feel the same. After the game, players tell me their city looks different. They notice buildings they walked past for years. They see characters from the game on real streets. That is the experience. City Limits is for people who enjoy conversation, real places, and stories that stay with you after the session ends. No TTRPG experience needed, but if you've ever improvised a story, played pretend with a kid, or performed on stage, you already know how to play.
Game style
Roleplay Heavy
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(1)
Less than a year on StartPlaying
Highly rated for: Inclusive, Creativity, Rule of Cool
About me
I grew up making stories - first for my little sister at bedtime, learning from my grandmother who was a professor of literature. Then a decade of theatre, a law degree, software engineering, and years of running RPGs for groups of friends and strangers. I created City Limits because I wanted a game that bleeds into real life. It is set in real cities, with real growth, where the limits players assume exist turn out to be limits they placed on themselves. I run games the way a director runs a rehearsal: everyone is heard, the story moves, and conflict becomes material rather than a problem. I've led five long-term groups in the past year and mentored dozens of people through ADPList, where I was named a Top 100 Mentor. I speak English and Russian natively and run games in both.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
Character creation happens during the first five minutes of the session. There is nothing to prepare beforehand. I will guide you through creating a name, profession, backstory, goal, and line of development. The whole process takes about two minutes. There are no stats, no character sheets, no books to read. Just come ready to talk. If you have a city in mind that you would like to explore, let me know before the session. Otherwise, we will choose together.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
No preparation is needed. You will need a device with a microphone for an online call. I use Discord for voice, but can accommodate other platforms if needed. Having a web browser open to follow along with maps and street view is helpful but not required. Join my Discord server before the session so we can communicate about scheduling and any questions you have.
What fetsorn brings to the table
I bring years of performance experience - dramatic theatre, voice, music - into every session. I facilitate the game the way a director runs a rehearsal: everyone is heard, the story moves forward, and conflict becomes material for the story rather than a problem at the table. I provide the world - all locations, characters, events, and challenges are improvised live based on the city we choose and the characters you create. I use online maps, street view, Wikipedia, and AI-generated images to bring the city to life during play. No two sessions are the same. After the session, the story continues to live in your memory of the real city. Many players report seeing their city differently after playing - noticing buildings, streets, and people they had overlooked before. That is the experience I aim to create. I do not use ambient music during play. The focus is entirely on conversation, description, and improvisation. When it comes to voices, I play all the people your character meets in the city - shopkeepers, friends, strangers, officials - each with their own manner of speaking.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How fetsorn creates a safe table
Before we begin, I check in with every player about topics they want to avoid or approach carefully. Because City Limits is set in real cities and modern life, sensitive subjects can come up naturally - addiction, poverty, family conflict, personal ambition. I make sure we stay within everyone's comfort. During the game, we use the X sign with our hands to flag when unsafe subjects are broached. When someone signals, I steer the story in another direction immediately, without requiring explanation. The story adapts - there is always somewhere else to go. The Open Door is always in effect. Anyone can step away from the session at any time for their own well-being, no questions asked. At the end of each session, I check in with everyone. We talk about what worked, what we want to see next time, and how everyone is feeling. The game can bring up real emotions because it is set in real life - that is a feature, not a bug, but it means aftercare matters.
Content warnings
Safety tools used