Cold City 2e: First impressions review

Following a recent Kickstarter delivery, I now the second editions of Cold City and Hot War, and so I’m turning my attention to Cold City. I’ve had the first edition for years, but for some reason I’ve never got it to the table.

I plan to run Cold City soon, so these are my impressions based on reading the book. Once I’ve run it, we’ll see if anything changes.

What is Cold City?

Cold City is a ttrpg of monster hunting, trust and betrayal written by Malcolm Craig and published by Handiwork Games. It is set in 1950 Berlin, in the ruins of a city shattered by World War II.

During the war, the Nazis experimented with “border science” and created twisted technology and monsters. Now the victors are picking over the spoils.

What do the PCs do?

The PCs are members of the Inter-Allied Scientific Liaison Commission (ISLAC), an international body investigating leftover Nazi technology and border science. So basically, the PCs hunt monsters and twisted technology in 1950 Berlin.

Each PC belongs to one of the four Allied powers: Russia, USA, Britain or France. And none of them truly trust each other, as everybody has hidden agendas – national and personal.

So it’s monster hunting, with a layer of betrayal and distrust. Lovely!

Who are the PCs?

Typically, they are military intelligence personnel seconded to ISLAC. PCs have three attributes: Action (physical stuff), Influence (getting folk to do stuff), and Reason (thinky stuff). I like this; that’s more than enough, and I find many games have too many. (In Traveller, I find it’s never clear when to use EDU rather than INT. I’d much rather have one stat.)

Attributes rank from 1 to 5, and players have eight points to spread among them.

Traits are talents or quirks and might be positive or negative. Characters typically start with four – two positive, one negative and a fourth which might be either. (“Incisive mind, at home with quick reasoning, terrified of monsters.”)

PCS then have two hidden agendas, one national and one personal. (National: “I have been ordered to build relationships with the American agents on my team, suborn them, and turn them to our side.” Personal: “I will perform such a great service to the Motherland that I will be made Hero of the Soviet Union.”)

Finally, characters have Trust with each other. Again, these range from 1 to 5, with a higher number representing more trust. For each level of trust, you must state a reason for that level (eg “He gave me a pack of cigarettes when I had none. He saved me when I was attacked by a creature in the U-Bahn.”). So that helps create bonds and backstory between the characters.

NPC contacts

NPC contacts (“friends, allies, old enemies, family members, lovers, or colleagues”) are created during situation setup (#7 Who else features in the game?). Unfortunately, this happens before players have created their characters. That doesn’t make sense – players don’t know who their characters are yet, so they don’t know which NPC relationships they might want.

While step #7 might help identify interesting NPCs players want to see, Cold City needs a separate step in character generation for connections the PCs already know.

(The worked example even calls this out – as one of the fictional players suggests that they create contacts after they’ve created their characters. I’m not sure how this survived development/playtesting.)

How do they do what they do?

In Cold City, you roll dice to resolve a conflict. Conflicts work as follows:

1. Set goals – each side decides what they want out of the conflict.
2. Create dice pools – each side assembles their dice pools. PCs use their relevant attribute and add dice for appropriate traits, trust and tools. (The GM, or Control, takes dice from a central pool.)
3. Roll the dice – identify the highest dice on each side. Then count each die on the winning side that is higher than the losing side to determine successes.
4. Consequences – the winner has narrative control over the outcome of the conflict, and there are mechanical effects such as gaining or losing traits or attributes.

The rules also include a few special rules, such as using negative traits in conflicts, adding extra characters, and what happens when an attribute reaches zero (a crisis occurs).

My first impression from reading the rules was that conflicts didn’t happen too often. I thought this for two reasons:

• First, there are no re-rolls. If you fail the conflict, the narrative moves on, and you deal with the consequences. You don’t get a second go at fighting the monster – at least, not in the same scene.
• Second, consequences can be character-changing (and Control can run out of dice).

So my impression was that you don’t roll dice too often in Cold City. However, after watching the Unconventional GMs’ video, it’s clear you shouldn’t be afraid to roll the dice. (Note that Unconventional GMs is a playtest – it looks like some rules changed in the published game.)

1950 Berlin

Cold City includes a chapter with information on life in 1950 Berlin, the tension between East and West, and a timeline of events since the end of the war. The game also includes details of notable locations, including the U-Bahn (underground), huge concrete flak towers, Spandau prison, and more.

Cold City also includes details on the organisations PCs might work for or encounter, such as the British Experimental Rocket Bureau, CIA, Gehlen Organisation, GRU, Secret Intelligence Services, French Forces in Berlin, and more. Each has a sample hidden agenda you can use for characters from that organisation.

Cold City’s Berlin chapter finishes with details of key ISLAC personnel – the officers likely to brief the players on their missions.

Situations

And what sort of missions are those? Generally, they involve monsters and border science. Cold City includes five different situations. Each situation consists of several sections:

Tone: Cold City can be played in different styles – my preference is for dark horror, but pulp, black comedy and arthouse are options.

Control dice groups: Identifying which of Control’s dice groups should have the most dice.

Key words/phrases: I’m not quite sure what purpose these serve. As part of set-up, the group suggests key words and phrases to “add definition, nuance, and colour to the wider feel of the game”. But I’m not sure how they help here.

What are we doing? The bulk of the situation: the initial setup and what’s going on.

Who are the antagonists? The characters behind the situation and their goals.

Who else features? Other notable NPCs the players might encounter. (Although see my comment above.)

Scenes: Suggested scenes that might be used by Control.

Unfortunately, the situations aren't particularly detailed. There’s no suggested clue trail, so Control will have to improvise. I don’t mind that too much, as too much detail can be constraining, but my initial impression is that there isn’t enough detail for me to run them from the book. 

And looking at Cold City through the eyes of someone new to the game, I think that’s a mistake. When I buy a new game, I want to run it straight away, and the situations provided don’t give me the confidence that they’re all I need.

Differences between 1e and 2e

While a few terms change between the first and second editions of Cold City (the Reserve Police Agency is now ISLAC, twisted technology is now border science, and the GM is now Control), the main differences are in the system and the look and feel.

System changes

Essentially, the second edition of Cold City is simpler than the first edition.

For players, it’s pretty similar. However, Control (the new name for the GM) now draws dice from five pools: Monsters, Berlin, Internal Enemies, External Enemies and the Cold. 

In first, NPCs and monsters all had stats, and Control built their dice pool in the same way as the players. Now, however, Control simply draws dice from the relevant pool, depending on the nature of the conflict.

(Cold City doesn’t advise how many dice to use, but I’ll get to that.)

Better look and feel

Second edition Cold City is much more polished and professional than 1e.

Cold City is now a full-colour hardback, instead of being a black-and-white softback. It comes with its sister game, Hot War, in a smart slipcase.

What’s missing – an introductory investigation

I think where I struggle with Cold City is that while I understand the rules, I can’t see how it plays at the table. Yes, there’s all the 1950 Berlin background and the hunting for border science technology and monsters – but there’s also the agendas and trust, and I didn’t find it clear how it all meshes together.

What I feel Cold City lacks is a good introductory adventure that explains how it plays.

Yes, Cold City includes example situations, but as I said, none feel developed enough for me to run easily from the book, and it’s unclear how hidden agendas would affect them.

I can also imagine running them with a trad ruleset such as Call of Cthulhu. In fact, I find it easier to imagine running the situations with a trad ruleset. 

What makes Cold City different is trust and hidden agendas, but it looks like they might easily take control of the narrative and pull it away from the investigation. Is that how Cold City is supposed to work?

(Some PbtA books have a section describing what happens in your first session – perhaps Cold City needs something like that.)

I guess I’ll find out when I run it.

Things that made me go hmmmm?

Oddly, for a second edition, some fundamental sections are missing. Such as:

• How many players is Cold City for? It doesn’t say. Apparently the sweet spot is 3-5 players, but why not make that clear?
• What sort of dice do you need? And how many? That's in the book, but it’s tucked away on page 47. (You need lots of D10s.)

(For comparison, both editions of Hot War have a “Stuff you need to play” section early in the book that covers the dice needed, although it still doesn't say how many players the game is for.)

Dice questions

Reading through the new rules also raised questions about dice.

First, it's not clear how many dice Control adds to a contest. Players have a strict formula to follow, but Control just grabs some. They are advised to “play hard,” but there is no guidance as to what that actually means. Control can make things easier or more complicated – but that seems odd when there’s no guidance on how many dice to roll in the first place.

(First edition actually has advice for building a dice pool – three dice for weak opposition, five dice for moderately challenging, seven dice for challenging, and nine dice for very challenging. That will probably be my default starting point.)

(Interestingly, this is something that Gaz struggles with in the first contest in the Unconventional GMs video)

Second, it’s not clear what happens when a dice pool runs out. Presumably, if Control has no dice left in a particular Group, does that end that Group's threat? So if Control has no Monster dice left, are there no more monsters until the dice reset?

Third, how does a one-shot end? In other games, investigations end when the narrative ends. In Cold City, a one-shot ends when Control’s dice start running out. How does that work if you’re not at the end of the investigation? And what happens if you reach the narrative end and Control has dice left?

I assume this becomes clear at the table, but these are obvious questions, and the book doesn’t answer them.

Anyway, I’ll find out because I plan to run Cold City soon.

Overall

So at this point in my review, having read the book and thought about play, I find myself both attracted to Cold City and fearful of it.

The concept of hunting Nazi occult science, technology, and monsters in 1950s Berlin is appealing, but the game's 2000s-era indie storytelling system seems opaque. 

I’m left with a nagging feeling that Cold City is trying for a narrative, player-led story of agendas, trust and betrayal. But it’s shackled to a fertile Cold War backdrop and traditional mission-based horror-investigation mode, which I suspect often smothers the narrative, player-led game.

But I will find out soon.

York Board Games Convention

Yesterday I went to the York Board Games Convention, a lovely little con held at St Peter's Junior School, not far from the centre of York. This is its second year, and I hope it has many more.

Although it’s a three-day con, I went only on Friday. (I only found out a few weeks earlier, and life admin stuff meant I couldn’t go all three days.)

The convention starts at 9 am – which is the same time as the first ttrpg slot that I was booked into. Since I had no idea how busy it would be, I arrived around 8:45 and found three or four gamers waiting to go in. One of the organisers said we could go in as the café was ready to serve, so I had a cup of tea and a bacon butty while I waited. Perfect.

DIE RPG

As it was, one of our players ran late, and we didn’t start until after 9:30 a.m…

I wasn’t disappointed by the delay; it gave us time to get to know Tom, the GM, and the other players. I didn’t know Tom, but it turns out that he had also been at Furnace. 

Anyway, DIE RPG is the game of the comic of the same name – which I haven’t read. But the conceit is that a group of ttrpgers become the heroes of their own nightmarish ttrpg. (It’s wonderfully meta.)

And TL;DR – this was probably the best ttrpg session I played in all year.

The GM played James, the DM who TPK’d our group all those years ago. But James had been provoked, his crush had turned him down, and his other friends had stolen from him. And me? I played his bullied younger brother – and I smashed his prize Warhammer model.

So we spent about half an hour building our “players”- fleshing them out and figuring out their dysfunctional relationships with James and their screwed-up lives. 

The game starts with James inviting us back for “one last game”, and before we know it we are magically transported into a nightmarish fantasy world where we must fight for survival. But first we turn into our characters – I was the Rage Knight, a warrior with anger management issues (focused on James, of course).

Then we had a short but extremely satisfying, emotionally draining dungeon that ended with us finally defeating James and deciding to return home rather than stay to live in the fantasy.

It was so good (and draining) that I struggle to imagine how you’d play DIE for much longer.

The Window

After finishing DIE, I perused the rest of the con and saw a “looking for players” beacon at a table where they were playtesting The Window. So I settled down for a game.

According to the site:

The Window is a dramatic football transfers board game for 2-4 players.

You are the manager of a club fighting to survive in the top division, and the transfer window is only open for another week. Scout players, outbid your rivals, hijack deals at the worst possible moment, and get your signings over the line before the window slams shut.

Anyway, it’s an auction game where you build your squad by bidding on players. The theme didn’t inspire me (I’m not a football fan), but I enjoyed the game. Obviously, I didn’t stand a chance – I was playing against the designers. I came fourth, unable to keep my team from relegation. 

The game itself is fairly easy to understand – but the strategies aren’t so clear.

After that, I did look around to see if there were other games I could join. I could have taken something out of the library and tried to find players, but I was tired (and still drained from DIE), so I headed home.

Some thoughts about the convention generally

The location is lovely. The café is nice, and having individual rooms for the ttrpgs is lovely. I was there on a Friday, when it was quiet. I imagine the weekend is much busier. (I wonder what they will do when they need to expand.)

As mentioned above, they might want to review the scheduling for the ttrpgs.

Communications isn’t great. I think there must be a mailing list or something somewhere, but I can’t find a link to it on the website. When I first learned about the con, there didn’t appear to be a way to sign up to the ttrpgs. It turns out you do that through the app – which appeared randomly on the site one day. I’m sure there was an announcement somewhere...

(Now I've bought a ticket, I may well be on the mailing list...)

They have a Facebook group, and while it has some useful announcements, it’s not a place for the community to post reviews or photos. (So I couldn’t work out if anyone was arranging games, for example.)

I hope it’s a success, and maybe next year I will run something.

Yorkshire Tabletop Gamers: A bigger project than expected

So this turned out to be a bigger project than I originally expected…

Where are all the gamers?

So I’ve wondered this for a while, but it’s annoying that there’s no one place to find other gamers.

This came home to me recently when I discovered a three-day board games convention in York (about 10 miles away, as the crow flies) happening at the end of the month. And I didn’t know about it!

So I decided to use Blogger to create a directory of gaming groups/events in Yorkshire, and I called it Yorkshire Tabletop Gamers. Each club or event is a separate entry, and you can use the labels to filter them.

How hard can that be?

So many groups…

So I started with the easy stuff – Furnace and North Star and Demon’s Wake and the East Leeds group. Events and groups that I already knew about. But as I searched, I found more and more groups…

I had underestimated two things. First, how many clubs and events there are in Yorkshire – and how big Yorkshire actually is!

What is a tabletop game?

One of my early decisions was what to include. I originally included larps (and have added the BOX Larp Festival), but although they’re adjacent, they aren’t tabletop games, so I didn’t include them.

And (at the moment), I’m not including chess clubs. Perhaps I should, but for now, no.

So by a tabletop gamer I’m looking at board games, ttrpgs, wargames and social deduction games.

And then I found Boardgameclubs.org

Then I discovered Boardgameclubs.org, a map-enabled site that makes mine pretty redundant. Or it would, if it were more complete. It has filters for ttrpgs, but it’s clearly aimed at board game gamers.

And it covers the world, rather than focusing just on Yorkshire. So I’m not giving up.

Shops and stores

I haven’t decided what to do about shops and stores yet. I will probably include them, as it’s nice to visit somewhere and know where you can buy board games and ttrpgs. It’s harder to support them if you don’t know they exist.

And many game shops host game nights, so that’s a good reason to include them.

Status: now

So right now, I’ve pretty much exhausted all the cons and events that I could find in my immediate part of Yorkshire. 

I still have clubs to add that are on boardgames.org, and I’ll work my way through them. And I also need to share the project so that others can find me. And, of course, add the shops.

Yorkshire Tabletop Gamers.

Furnace 2026

It’s a mid-October weekend; therefore it’s my annual pilgrimage to Furnace, Sheffield's ttrpg convention.

Here’s what I played.

Saturday

Fiasco (Folly and Fortune)

I started my weekend by bringing Fiasco (second edition). I let the players choose the playset, and they chose the Jane Austen-y Folly and Fortune deck. (Hmm, last year I ran Good Society at Furnace. Am I being typecast?)

I pitched Fiasco because, when it was time to decide what to offer at Furnace, I felt burned out and couldn’t face preparing anything. Fiasco requires no preparation – it can be played straight from the box. And of course, I really like Fiasco – and I get to play as well.

I was slightly worried, as one of the few times Fiasco hasn’t worked was when I played the Fame and Fortune playset at another convention. But I needn’t have worried…

I played Lydia Pembroke, who started the game engaged to Sir Edward Henry St John-Hill (played by Daniel), who painted poodles. Sir Edward was secretly engaged to Elizabeth (played by Fergus) and, during the game, proposed to Samuel (Camille) and Harriet (Becky) as well. 

It was a crazy, hilarious game. I ended up married to Samuel (a double wedding with Elizabeth, who married my father), and Samuel ended up trying to murder Sir Henry using an exotic man-eating flytrap.

Mothership (The B Team)

After lunch, I joined a game of Mothership run by James. I played Lt Rook, the old hand, and the rest of the squad was Lt Sutter (Tony), PFC Bridge (Laurence), and PFC Voss (Ric). 

The scenario was a simple rescue mission: rescue a scientist (who we accidentally blew up with a grenade; I’m not putting that in my report), deactivate the comms (because bad things were going on), and set the reactor to safe mode (which we failed to do).

(On Sunday, James ran another team through the situation as we had left it – I don’t know what they did, but hopefully they sorted the reactor out.)

Although Mothership is supposed to be deadly, we didn’t have any PC deaths – although it was extremely close at the end. I survived without a scratch by being in charge and sending the others in first.

As for Mothership as a system, I thought it was fine. I’ve run a lot of ALIEN, so I found myself comparing the two games. My preference is for ALIEN with its D6s and agendas, but I’d happily play Mothership again. (The only thing I really struggled with was the slightly vague setting – it felt ALIEN-esque, but did that mean that motion detectors and smartguns? What about shields or lifeform scanners? And how human are androids? A setting sheet would have gone a long way to help.)

Sunday

Offworlders (Routine Maintenance)

Sunday started with Offworlders, run by Steve. I knew nothing about Offworlders, but it turned out to be a sort of PbtA does Traveller/Firefly. I played a smuggler, Kiva, while around the table were Thwart (a thief played by Simon), Garvin (a fighter played by Andy), Lara (a psychic played by Oliver) and Athena (a hacker played by Tom). Yes, effectively four character classes – fighters, rogues, and two types of wizards (hackers or psychics).

Something about the system didn’t quite work for me, though I’m struggling to explain exactly what I mean. It’s a feeling rather than anything specific, but if I knew it better, I would either get used to it or pinpoint what doesn’t work for me.

Anyway, our ship needed expensive repairs, and we needed lots of money, quickly. So after exploring a couple of options, we found a local crime lord and ran some errands for him. Thanks to a combination of good ideas and good rolls, we succeeded without too many problems. Sometimes a plan really does come together…

Monster of the Week (Red Mask)

Furnace finished with a Korean investigation for Monster of the Week, run by Sue. I played The Divine, and my co-hunters were The Spooky (played by Steve), The Chosen (Elaine), The Expert (Tim) and The Exile (Nox). Our monster-hunting gang were Korean rich kids, with hangers-on. I was one of the hangers-on.

Our mystery involved a creepy Korean urban legend about a red-masked woman terrorising schoolgirls. Our investigation involved meeting and placating toilet goddesses (apparently a real Korean thing), social media and a sad suicide. We put the trouble ghost to rest using Big Money, rather than Big Magic or a Big Fight, which felt appropriate if a little anticlimactic.

Despite the monsters, the scariest part of the investigation was the Korean school system…

As for Monster of the Week, I’ve run it a few times, but I find it’s almost too trad for PbtA. I was interested to see how another GM would run it, but it still seemed more trad than the idea of PbtA I have in my head (which has more inter-player conflict – but that may just be me).

Furnace 2026

And that was Furnace 2026. Good games and of course a chance to catch up with lots of old friends, and make some new ones.

I’m looking forward to 2027, although I have a horrible feeling it will clash with another weekend…