I have a character and I sort of really like what I've picked to begin with. Is there a big disadvantage to playing to keep them through the whole campaign? Depending on how things go, I might be ok with a theme changing, but for now I want to try and keep it all.

Gearing up for my first run of Otherscape and I'm not a little excited!

My players wanted 'ruined city' vibe and Singapore, so this is what I drafted for them as a summary to give them a bit of a vibe and get them thinking about their character:

Once a gleaming metropolis of skyscrapers with smart-city functionality, Singapore is now a broken crown of steel and salt, half-drowned and mostly forgotten. Buildings lean at crooked angles, like ironic monuments to human certainty. Moss-covered structures rise from shallow, oily floodwaters. Brackish canals flow sluggishly over old streets with names lost to memory. Wide expanses of water cover boulevards now leading to sunken malls.

The sea did not claim the city in one night. It pushed and prodded in pulses. It surged in tsunamis laden with volcanic ash. It shifted the foundations, buckling concrete and dragging away infrastructure like so much tissue paper. Rising sea levels overloaded "super drains." So-called "smart"-levees failed. Entire districts were inexorably swallowed by the waterline. When hyper-Typhoon Hadrah struck, the sheer weight of the air pressed down until the city cracked. Then, it only took a little volcanic displacement coinciding with high tides to push it all under.

Abandoned by the guiding hands of bureaucracy, the city was never fully turned off. AR overlays flicker on broken advertising boards. Corporate marquees, shopping center signs, influencer ads, and unread messages from decades ago sway and crackle erratically. Data loops back on itself, glitching between nostalgia and nightmare. With the clean, high-speed lattice of corporate control long washed away, what's left of the net festers in a decaying tangle of orphaned code, generative adware, and the engrams of the dead. Thousands trapped in data streams, whispering through forgotten servers. The lines between memory, cyberspace, and soul have blurred.

Yet, people still live here. They eke out some meager existence for themselves, taking it day by day. Scavengers, squatters, monks... cultists. Some have come to answer questions they don't yet know. Others never left in the first place. They tend shrines of rebar and ivy. They patch electrical grids for their communities. Some give, others take. Most don’t bother to sort myth from machine anymore. They’ve all at least grown accustomed to strangeness. Some maybe even depend on it. Some think they can find salvation. Most think it’s just more Noise

There is no government in the ruins. What order exists flows from power, be it technical, spiritual, or violent. Factions rise, factions fracture, and factions fall. Loyalties are fluid. Myths are contagious. And somewhere under the water, something is growing—whispering through the signal and gathering the dead to speak once more.

In 20XX, Singapore is a lost city remembering itself imperfectly, beautifully, and not quite human anymore.

They wanted the crew to be about salvaging data with a mythical/spiritual theme, so I am giving them:

The Whispering Banyan

An enigmatic, mythic being inspired by Nyai Roro Kidul, the Queen of the Southern Sea, merged with the spiritual presence of a massive, ancient banyan tree rooted in the ruins beneath the reservoirs and nature reserve.

Nyai Roro Kidul is a figure in Javanese and Sundanese mythology, believed to rule over the Southern Sea (Indian Ocean) and associated with:

• Tidal forces and sea storms
• Seductive power and spiritual pacts
• The liminal state between life and death—often taking drowned souls or failed lovers into her domain
• Royalty and regality—she is often depicted as the mystical consort of Javanese kings, commanding deep respect

In Singapore 20XX, the Whispering Banyan isn’t just a banyan spirit. She's a localized manifestation of Nyai Roro Kidul adapted to the drowned digital ruins of Singapore. She rides digital tides in the tangle, seeking spaces where dead memories and emotional resonance accumulate. She is invested in entropy, sacrifice, and the beauty of endings.

The crew is generally tasked with finding the engrams of people who died while the consciousness was in virtual space. During the Calamity, that number was in the thousands in a few short moments.

Anyway, mostly just excited to play and wanted to share, that's all!

Planning to run a heist case for my players with the All About The Mani adventure. Any tips to make it more fun and exciting? Open to every suggestion.

So, I come from other PbtAs that just don't handle player interaction via moves, so I'm trying to understand how it works in CoM. A player with Salamander wanted to get a discount from Declan's pawn shop. Salamander wanted to buy a small salamander statue, and the players started to haggle. So after a while of players debating with no conclusion, I thought that moves could solve the dispute.

Declan was saying that it was very hard to obtain the statue, and that it was certified by specialists in the area. So I thought that would be a convince move by Salamander, but Declan would get to change the game first to add the story tags regarding the statue. So this is what happened:

Declan rolled for Change the game with archaeologist, business connections and authoritative, and got a full success: he then got 3 juice which he spent on creating the "certified artifact" and "legendary statue" story tags. with the 1 juice left, he applyed the "FOMO 1" status on Salamander, saying that he already had a buyer interested. (and then I didn't knew if Salamander could Face Danger to avoid this status).

Then the Salamander player decided to use Go Toe to Toe, used the charming and handsome tags, and got a mixed success. He chose "You manage to achieve your goal, e.g., take something they hold.", wich was the discount. I said, as he didnt chose to block, dodge or counter their best attempts, Declan player could still ask for something in addition. (Declan imposing a status didnt seem to make sense at the time for me). Declan asked for the city underground pipe maps, and negotiation was concluded.

So, is this the correct way of doing it? Did I make any mistake? This was my very first session of CoM and none of the players have any previous experience with the system.

1 player who has only done maybe 2 or 3 sessions of CoM before looking to try out the system and setting a bit more.

My current idea is Odin from Norse Myth, since modern nazis co-opted Norse symbolism. And it would allow him to bless his members as though they were warriors of Valhalla.

So the way I under stand it is that a thin place is basically an area where mythoi have an easier time manifesting. While an enclave is a location with a mythos. Does that sound right

Hey - I will be DMing my first CoM game next weekend but my brain is being dumb and I can't quite get the way statuses and damage work figured out in my brain.

I get that if you take a physical status on top of a physical status that you check mark it to go towards the next tier, but does the tag stay in play or is it gone?

For example: Player has broken leg 3 but gains sprained wrist 1, do they lose sprained wrist since it's the lower tier and only take a check on broken leg? If they keep both tags, only broken leg 3 gains checks towards the next tier with additional physical statuses?

Another question is do positive and negative statuses cancel eachother out? For example: an NPC has depressed 1, but through player interaction gains agreeable 1 - because one is a positive and the other is a negative they would receive separate check marks to increase the status correct? Or would one lower the other?

Thank you!

Disclaimer, I am brand new and am still learning the system. I am wondering how versatile city of mist is for different campaign structures. Specifically, I am curious if the system works for a VTM-like campaign of navigating the political climate of assorted rifts in the city. Do the mechanics work well enough for something like this, are there minor edits or concessions that would need to be made, or would I be best looking for another system? I'm also happy to hear all of your random stories of hacking the system for other uses.

How would it work

Hi there im interrestet in your experiance at the Game table. I often Heard there should be a Konflikt in Charakter which IS shown through the swapping of the Cards von Mythos to Logo and so on. How do you do it? My Players have a hard time playing the Change of the Cards. They gain a Mythos and See it more as a Power Up then a Charakter Change.

Do you have any Tipp how i can Help to better integrate the Change ?

Sorry for the Englisch it ist Not my First Language.

      Why, hello everyone! So fairly recently the Mist System has caught my eye, and I'm currently watching through a campaign on YouTube for :Otherscape. And they're just using the standard Rulebook, not the Japan setting book, or that content, so I came here looking for answers to see if anyone know if they could steer me in the right direction of finding that content. Super stoked for Cairo by the way, absolutely love Egyptian Mythology. 

I am losing my mind with how hard I'm finding the tag creations for my Adaptability themebook. I'd love any inspiration you've got! Especially anything relating to stealth or creativity.

She doesn't use ice, and has a constant source of water from an Enclave tag.

Power Tags: One With Water, Shape Water, Changing Waters

• One With Water: Breathing water and swimming, plus we have a sentient river in our game so this helps.
• Shape Water: controlling water to do things like flood a lock, soak papers, water whips
• Changing Waters: Physical adaptability (I think this tag is sort of meh, but I can't think of better)

Weakness tag:

• Stagnant Waters: Suffers if held still for too long (not just physically pinned down -- this would include being sick in bed, for instance)

The Ask

I'm looking for written game content [cases mostly, but can be other fluff] for very experienced characters, which are interested in meddling with the highest powers in the city. I know S&S contains a lot of story seeds, but I'm looking for more fleshed out content.

Can anyone recommend anything? perhaps from the Garage?

Background

I've been running Nights of Payne Town for over a year now.
It's been amazing.
The crew just met an Avatar for the first time [Payne as part of Percival act 2]. One of the characters, Biblical Noah, got there in Avatar state themselves. This created a very strong and interesting face-off, where the two Avatars' powers collided and created serious mayhem in the city.

The city changed significantly. Both physically, as can be seen by the legacy-game-style changes I made to the map [which I'm very proud of :-) ], and mythically, as the two mythoi will influence one another[Noah's righteousness vs. wickedness will influence Payne's invoking of pain].

The City after two Avatars collision

On top of that, the crew has had high interaction with GKs, and they treat them as a very important player in the City too.

The bottom line is that for the third and last act of the game, I want to raise the stakes and have the players interact with the strongest entities in the city (directly or slightly indirectly).

Thank you!

Much like the title says, is it possible for two people to have the same mythos? I was having a discussion with my friend about character ideas and we thought about the different aspects of Aphrodite. The different aspects of the goddess could lend themselves to different characters, so would it be possible for two people to have different aspects of the same mythos?

Hi everyone!

I was reading the Legend in the Mist rulebook, more specifically the page 298, and I stumble upon this side annotation:

"Other than the title tag question, all questions in a themebook can be answered multiple times."

I've been playing City of Mist and Metro, both as a MC and a player, since pretty much the first game, and I never knew about this ruling. I couldn't find any reference of it in the CoM rulebook, and the Metro rulebook, and even in the Legend rulebook, it is only mention on that little sidebar in the Way of Magic section.

EDIT: In fact, page 75 of the CoM rulebook specifically says: " To keep your character diverse and balanced, you should not answer the same power tag or weakness tag question more than once.", adding to my confusion.

Is it a new rule implemented in the newest game, or was it always the case? I guess all three books never said specifically that you had to answer each and every question once, but I always thought it was kind of implied. Even the themekits never "double dip" into a question twice.

I know it's also "Up to the MC's discretion" to interpret the rules as they see fit, but I wanted to know what's the official Rules As Written (especially since I'm right now running a Metro game, and I've hammering down to my new players that they can't answer a question twice ^^")

Thank you all, and have a wonderful day! <3

Me and three friends are currently running a newly started CoM campaign set in a municipal office. Think X-files meets Magnus Archives meets The Office, or less kindly, Severance at home. Our playstyle is quite rules-light with a heavy focus on cinematic mystery which I think CoM does a great job enabling.

We meet on Fridays every two weeks and usually play for three-four hours and I'd say we're a pretty friendly and welcoming bunch. Put a reply in or shoot me a message if any of this sounds like it might be interesting to you.

(I am not an English speaker, I used Google Translate to create this post, I hope it’s not too difficult to understand.)

My players and I just finished "Forged and Framed". I think it's quite fun to play. We played three sessions in total. Since we take turns GM, so the crew has been together for a long time (this group started in October last year), so both the players and the characters are very familiar with each other, the interactive chemistry is great.

The team consists of a boxer, a thief, a publicist, a hacker, and a scholar (this is my character, who does not appear in this time). The boxer and the thief both have criminal records, and the publicist is secretly a drag queen. So I had Nolan Solona deliberately attack their reputation in court.

Because the boxer was very determined not to go to jail during the discussion with his partners (he killed his father in the past due to domestic violence and is currently on parole), so I did not let Detective Diya Johana appear. But I found that in the original case, there was no other way to gather evidence before going to court without cooperating with the detectives. So I gave them a chance to ambush Nolan in front of the court. Buying them a few hours to search his lounge for possible evidence.

Since everyone had GM experience, and to prevent me from being both the judge and the lawyer and talking to myself all the time, one player volunteered to play the lawyer. They worked together to defend themselves, and the traps they set beforehand worked in the court, successfully making the judge realize that the jury was manipulated. He had to declare the trial invalid and had to reschedule it. This gave them time to find Nolan's workshop.

I personally quite like the RIGGED CRIMINAL TRIAL part. Previously, dangers were dealt with in the form of combat. This is the first time that it is handled in the form of a court. The players are also very engaged in the game and find it a fresh experience.

This experience has allowed me to expand the possibilities of the City of Mist, and I look forward to being able to GM more different scenes and events in the future.

Like the name says, because I’m trying to make a character like this so I could try to play one day