City of Mist
Here's the lowdown: City of Mist is set in a modern city where legends are real people. Heroes, tricksters, and monsters are reborn inside ordinary people, regular Joes and Janes, who gain supernatural powers connected to their legendary alter-egos. Someone is running the show in this City, and it's up to you to find out who. Hit the streets. Collect the clues. Face small-time villains and demi-gods in epic showdowns. Solve not just the case, but also your own personal mystery and the secrets at the core of this very City. This is your City: gritty, corrupt, and rife with magic and mystery.
Originally created by Amít Moshe
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City of Mist Reviews (7)
See what other Game Masters and players are saying about City of Mist
I first got into City of Mist after playing D&D 5e for a couple months and realizing I wanted something more narrative-driven. After some searching, I found this game and haven’t looked back! Son of Oak Studio clearly puts their heart into their games, and this one is the perfect blend of mystery, myth, and storytelling. What I love most is how the mechanics support the story instead of getting in the way. You don’t have to crunch numbers or roll for every little thing—the game flows like a TV show, where your character evolves naturally through choices and consequences. You can be anything you can imagine! Want to play a janitor imbued with Thor’s power? Done. How about an unkillable "Final Girl" straight out of a horror movie? Absolutely. The noir investigation style is spot-on, and the setting feels alive with secrets waiting to be uncovered. Whether I’m playing or running the game, I always have a blast introducing new players and creating characters. It’s definitely a staple on my gaming shelf, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. City of Mist is a must try and I'll always recommend it to any and all TTRPG buddies!
It is hard to find a system with such evocative, clever, and refined player-forward mechanics as CoM. After trying many systems where the shared story is king and many where the engine is much weaker or stronger, I feel I found comfort in the tag system and its ability to make the narrative king. Every new player I show this system to, even new to TTRPG, ¨gets it¨ and the more they ¨get it¨the more they want to solve problems and engage in the powers of the city.
To be fair to the game, my players would give it a 6 out of 5 if they could. As a GM, though, whoof, I love the concept--regular folk with problems and lives also having to deal with being embodiments of folk stories, fairy tales, and even philosophical concepts--and I'm even pretty pleased with the fusion of PbtA-style dice rolling and FATE-style tags; but in practice, it took me and my players (all of whom are experienced roleplayers) quite a while to figure out how to make it all fit together in practice at the table. Eventually, we did, and the players were happy with how the campaign went, and even want to play again sometime. When we do, maybe I'll come back and change my score from 4 to 5. Until then, enjoy getting lost in the mist!
A great cinematic, investigative, modern noire rpg system which seamlessly blends narrative and game mechanics. Son of Oak has made sure that each of their books is riddled with gorgeous, evocative art that immediately pulls one into the more modern noire world of City of Mist, which is a huge plus in my opinion. The mechanics are perfectly tailored for the specific intended play experience, but at the same time allow for easy adaption where needed and/or wanted, all without having the drawbacks of 'do it all'-systems. The rules are very easy to pick up for both MCs and players, especially so when learned via the official introductory case (adventure). The only 'drawback' is that if one is not at all familiar with how to handle some of the more 'loose, adaptable and sometimes even a little situational' parts of the rules, but this is only a minor problem which disappears altogether if one is in the 'right' headspace - playing it as if it's a movie/series and focusing on the narrative, whilst disregarding what doesn't make sense or is not engaging to the players and MC.
The real power of City of Mist is how it unboxes the full TTRPG experience. In most games, players are restricted to various stats and abilities as determined by the game system. But in the City of Mist system, players write up their characters with several power tags; short text descriptions of the character that can apply to circumstances and rolls the character might need to make. The system opens up the experience and allows players to forge a destiny or persona that simply can't be approached in other systems. I highly recommend City of Mist for those interested in harnessing their own myth and writing their own story without the constraints of prewritten stats.
City of Mist is fantastic. It really allows for player and GM creativity in creating characters and narrating scenes. It treats characters as whole beings, and blends various levels of the real and fantastic without a character who is heavily myth/legend/god based not overpower the other characters who is occupation/relationship/backstory based. In fact, they’re equally powerful, and characters transition from one extreme to the other and back as they level up!
How to play City of Mist
Your City of Mist character is a one-of-a-kind combination of a myth, legend, or fairy tale, and a modern-day walk of life, like a detective, a vigilante, or a homemaker.
Described using tags, your abilities, gear, and personality are completely unique and unconstrained by a fixed list of classes, powers, or attributes - unlike any other tabletop RPG!