Now Showing - Hard City

Hard City: Noir Roleplaying is here! Read on to hear from the author Nathan Russell, get a taste of what the game has to offer, and order your copy...

"Hard City is finally here and I am so excited! This is the culmination of two years’ work, and I am so happy with how it has all turned out. The game is fun to play and the team at Osprey Games worked hard to produce a quality book that has the appearance of the cheap pulp paperbacks that the rules emulate – how cool is that? I love the art by Luis F. Sanz which so magnificently captures the gritty toughness of the noir world and brings it all to life.

In creating this game, I tried to capture the essence of film noir and the characters we find in such stories. I wanted you to be able to portray flawed characters who ultimately did the right thing – even if it meant great personal cost. I wanted danger to be around every corner and for every battle to be potentially lethal if you made a wrong move or a wrong choice, and where talking your way out of trouble or even turning on your heels and fleeing was a valid tactical option in the face of danger. I wanted you to play in a world where you could imagine wearing a fedora and trench coat, stalking smoky bars and darkened streets, and talk like you were an old-time gangster. I feel I have achieved this, and I hope you get many hours of enjoyment out of Hard City."
- Nathan Russell, author of Hard City

A roleplaying game of mystery and hardboiled action in a city that never sleeps.

I woke with a start, my mouth tasting like an old glove and my head pounding from the events of the previous evening, though I wasn’t sure if it was the beating from Benny’s boys or the half bottle of drugstore whiskey that had done the most damage. I lifted my eyelids like stubborn blinds to find my gaze fall on a dame with a hundred-dollar purse in one hand and a cheap bean-shooter in the other. I groaned and cursed myself for ever getting involved in this mess…

In Hard City, character creation is swift and simple, generating competent yet flawed individuals and focusing on what sets them apart as they walk the fine line between right and wrong. Fast action resolution places the emphasis on the momentum of the plot, while the sandbox setting provides evocative hooks for adventures – fight crooks, rescue the innocent, thwart blackmail plots (or start them!), or uncover corruption in the Mayor’s office.

Stalk the mean streets of a world filled with two-bit thugs, hard-nosed gumshoes, intrepid reporters, gangsters, and femme fatales, all doing what they must to survive in the concrete jungle. With trouble around every corner, a secret on every lip, and a gun in every pocket, danger is never far away in the hard city.

Hard City is out now. Order your copy today.

• Roleplaying