The Shadow City Mysteries: Quickstart Guide provides everything you need to dive right into Shadow City Mysteries: The Roleplaying Game. It’s free to download.
Featuring streamlined rules, pre-generated characters, and an introductory adventure, this guide lets you explore the dark, clockwork noir world and experience the supernatural mysteries of the setting – all in a single session. Perfect for newcomers and experienced players alike.
A World of Chiaroscuro and Clockwork
The setting, created by Christopher Mifsud, is the standout feature. This is a “clockwork noir” world defined by a fascinating curse: centuries ago, colour left the world. Life is lived in monochrome, a state of literal chiaroscuro. The only exceptions are mystical phenomena and high-tech items infused with a material called “solargium,” or “turnstone”.
This material, a rock that perpetually orients itself toward the sun, powers the Industrial Revolution. Society runs on intricate clockwork, allowing for everything from automobiles and advanced “cybernetic” prosthetics to automatons.
The adventure is set in Soreta, known as the “Shadow City”. It is the largest municipality in the global superpower of Vasepon, a nation waging endless wars to secure more turnstone. Shadow City itself serves as a “safety release for the cultural over-pressure,” the place where the nation’s “geniuses and its malcontents” are allowed to live free from the regime’s expectations. This freedom has made the city a hotbed of internal politics, dominated by six factions:
- The Society of Ravens (the wealthy elite)
- The Court of Rats (the criminal underworld)
- The Iron Union (heavy industry and labourers)
- The Brass Consortium (artisans and entertainers)
- The Church of Astra (the state religion)
- The Cult of Tenebrous (followers of the goddess of darkness)
The System: A 5e Engine with Noir Upgrades
At its heart, the game is “powered by the most popular game engine in the world” and uses the System Reference Document 5.1. However, it impressively builds on this 5e chassis, adding new systems that firmly ground the game in the noir genre.
Lifestyle is treated as a new ability score that reflects a character’s living situation. Its modifier applies to HP recovery and, crucially, to Influence rolls. It also provides a “petty cash” benefit, allowing characters to make daily purchases up to a certain threshold without tracking costs.
The Influence system is a refreshing way to handle long-term social goals. Instead of a single die roll, players work to accumulate “Progress” toward a social project. This is done through in-play “Social Encounters” or downtime “Gladhanding”.
Equipment is also smartly adapted. Ranged combat is dominated by the arbalest, a torsion-powered crossbow. These feature the “Winding” property: they fire a powerful first shot (3 damage dice) but are then reduced to one die, regaining one die per turn as they rewind. Gunpowder has lagged, and while guns are “Ballistic” (gaining a +4 bonus to attack rolls), they are also “Conspicuous,” making them loud and easy to trace.
Characters, Classes, and Magic
The quickstart introduces six new classes, each tied to a specific faction for the pre-generated characters. These classes feel distinct from their 5e inspirations:
- The Infiltrator: A stealth agent who uses Readiness points.
- The Savant: An intellectual who uses Superiority dice.
- The Heavy: A tough brawler who builds and spends Adrenaline.
- The Face: A social specialist who uses Encouragement dice.
- The Mystic: The only class with “real magic”.
- The Maker: A crafting specialist with high health.
Magic in this setting is subtle and rare, fitting the noir vibe. The Mystic is a full spellcaster, but other classes, like the Savant, use spell mechanics to represent “clever tricks” and “smoke and mirrors” rather than actual magic. This is a brilliant solution for maintaining the 5e framework in a low-magic world. Factions also play a key role, providing benefits and even prosthetics, such as the Iron Union’s strong “iron” limbs or the Brass Consortium’s intricate brass ones.
Art and the “Shadow of Debt” Adventure
The guide features fantastic grayscale art by Adam Schumpert, perfectly capturing the high-contrast, moody atmosphere of the setting.
The included adventure, “Shadow of Debt”, is a strong and well-structured murder mystery designed for one or two sessions. The premise is pure noir: the PCs are all indebted to the Rat King, the city’s criminal boss, who tasks them with solving the murder of his friend and informant, Karlo Mercy.
The investigation is smartly paced over three nights.
- Night 1 focuses on forensics at the crime scene and interviewing a cast of local witnesses.
- Night 2 leads the party to a secret Iron Union warehouse, featuring a fun combat encounter against Clockwork Turrets.
- Night 3 is the social climax, as the clues point toward a politician named Cho Silver.
The adventure concludes with a very satisfying noir twist. The PCs discover that their patron, the Rat King, was the one who ordered the murder all along. The final “encounter” is not a battle, but the PCs’ report back to the man who holds their debts, forcing them to decide what they reveal and whose side they are really on.
Quick Links
- DriveThruRPG: Shadow City Mysteries: The RPG quickstart guide.
