City of Mist - where myths make heroes

Image by SON OF OAK GAME STUDIO LLC

[11 min read]

My in-person tabletop role-playing group just wrapped up our mini-campaign of City of Mist. I hadn't really heard about it before playing, but this popular game from 2017 threw us in as contemporary people investigating a crime in a believable modern city. The twist? In the developer's own words:

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.

These myths and legends could come from any part of the common consciousness: characters from classic literature like Frankenstein's monster; figures from ancient religions such as Osiris, Egyptian god of the dead; or even personify objects such as the sword Excalibur from Arthurian legend. Such a cool conceit for a game gave me a tough choice for my own character's mythos - I was torn between the more psychologically leaning Dracula or Dr Frankenstein, versus a more physical manifestation of power like Ares, God of War, or even a legendary historical figure like Julius Caesar!

My play experience

This was my first time playing with the Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) system, although I have had some exposure to PbtA-adjacent games like Blades in the Dark and Ironsworn. We played as an in-person group of five players and a Master of Ceremonies (MC, replacing the  moniker of Game Master in this system), over about 6-8 sessions of four hours each, with the first being solely around character creation. Minimal props were needed - paper character sheets, some printed tracking sheets to represent status effects, and two six-sided-dice for conflict resolution.

At its heart, City of Mist is an investigation game. In order to enhance the experience with more evocative clues, our MC also employed a a wide range of great multimedia options, including recorded messages, images of business cards, city maps, and a slew of AI-generated character art for both the players and the large cast of non player characters (NPCs) in this campaign. I will include some of the character art below, not because I endorse using AI in published material, but because I believe it is a great tool for GMs to help build immersion for their players in private games. Our MC's choice of art style really enhanced the tone of the game too!

I played as Eduardo - a haemophiliac psychiatrist inhabited by Dracula
Image generated using artificial intelligence by Playground AI

As a group we decided our five characters actually belonged to a hispanic multi-generational family  unit (the Santos family), all awakened to their mythoi (plural of mythos), and investigating the disappearance of one of the younger members of the family, Alfonso. Here they are in full:

• Julio - the kindly old grandfather, whose mythos is Father Christmas (not to be confused with the commercial variant, Santa Claus, his arch enemy)
• Rosa - the sweet little old grandmother, whose unthreatening demeanour is juxtaposed with the mythos of the Big Bad Wolf
• Eduardo - the eldest child of Rosa and Julio and an accomplished psychiatrist, whose obsession with blood started from being a sheltered hemophiliac child to awakening as Count Dracula
• Jorge - a feisty teenage punk rocker, son of Julio and Rosa's dead daughter and brother to the missing Alfonso, wielding the metallurgic powers of Edward from Fullmetal Alchemist
• Gwen - a studious college student of law, girlfriend to the missing Alfonso, and accomplished martial artist leveraging the mighty blade Excalibur and searching for the Holy Grail

Law student by day, warrior by night, Gwen is the girlfriend of the missing Alfonso
Image generated using artificial intelligence by Playground AI

Over the course of this mini-campaign the family's pursuit of their missing grandson, nephew and brother Alfonso exposed them to a sinister plot to imprison awakened citizens and experiment on them with dangerous drugs. Behind the pyramid scheme of recruitment included famous and respected individuals such as an esteemed psychiatrist, a CEO, a disgraced socialite, a nurse, and a crooked cop, who were actually powerful mythoi. 

After investigating an intricate web of clues, speaking to the spirit of the now dead Alfonso, and gathering allies to the cause, the campaign climax took place at an opulent party set as a trap to ensnare the guests. The ultimate session saw our conflicted heroes confront two suspected big bad guys, psychologically tormenting one into submission and physically destroying the second, in order to free the enslaved mythos of Penelope, wife of Odysseus, whose blood was being harvested for the experimentation.

This conclusion was both satisfying in uncovering what happened to Alfonso as well as dismantling the immediate threat, but the real leader of the insidious organisation behind the plot was nowhere to be found. It did allow room for a cool epilogue for my character, hunting down the real threat with unlikely friend and ally Naoka Kin, bringing together the mythoi of Van Helsing and Dracula, and causing all sorts of inner turmoil for poor Eduardo.

Naoka Kin, who delighted in poor Eduardo's social awkwardness on their date
Image generated using artificial intelligence by Playground AI

What I liked

The world

When I think about the settings one can escape to in roleplaying games, the modern world is not one high on my list. Nor do I particularly like superhero movies. And yet the combination of the real world blended with myths from any culture or time period encouraged by City of Mist is very appealing to me and really differentiated this TTRPG from some of my more traditional fantasy fare.

When crafting the investigation and the NPCs involved, our MC borrowed liberally from Greek, Japanese, Eastern European, Filipino myths and more. Part of the fun within the story was investigating if an NPC was an awakened 'rift' and to which mythos, which might yield a clue in how to enlist them. Or defeat them. Over the course of our adventure we encountered the rifts of both well-known and obscure legends, such as:

• Gashadokuro - a giant skeleton made of the skulls of people who died in the battlefield
• Odysseus - one of the most influential Greek champions during the Trojan War
• Loki - Norse god of mischief
• Baba Yaga - the witch of Russian folklore
• Erysichthon - King of Thessaly in Greek folklore who was stricken by insatiable hunger
• Il Passatore - the Robin Hood of 1800s Italy
• Rainbow Serpent - of Aboriginal Australian legend, often seen as the Creator god

By day, Nurse Dalasey was preying on the grief of others

Image generated using artificial intelligence by Playground AI

By night, she awakened as the rift of Manananggal who could literally split in half
Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Character creation

My group spent an entire session on building our characters, and I found this incredibly stimulating creatively. Compared to more mechanical systems where you choose a race, class, attribute points etc and try to optimise your build (insert your favourite fantasy RPG here), in City of Mist the focus is on bringing your chosen mythos and your character's 'logos' (or mundane existence) to life in the form of themes and power tags that represent the abilities of each. 

This is probably best demonstrated with my character (see the sheet below). From Eduardo's mythos, Dracula, I wanted to manifest the powers of beguiling speech and vampiric bite. For the former, I chose the Subversion theme, due to its association with secrecy, charm and manipulation. I then fleshed this out by answering questions from the Subversion theme like "what is the principle ability you use to mask or hide your actions?" [Answer: Voice of Authority]. " How do you use your power to distract others?" [Answer: Demonic Seduction]. "Who is most likely to fall for prey to your subversive activity?" [Answer" Prey on the Troubled]. 

I then did the same with my second mythos power, using the Expression theme (a more physical manifestation of power) then another two with my logos: a psychiatrist by day (Routine theme), and a hemophiliac with a troubled childhood (Event theme). These formed the key powers, known as power tags,  Eduardo could draw upon when performing moves (actions) in City of Mist.

Finally, self-identified weaknesses could be invoked by the player or the MC for a penalty to a roll, but when succeeding in spite of them, the character is able to add improvements to that theme faster (a form of character progression). Eduardo's superiority complex and blood thirst weaknesses came up aplenty in our campaign!

Eduardo's themes - two from Dracula, and two from his mundane existence
Character sheet by SON OF OAK GAME STUDIO LLC

Simplicity of the system

At its core City of Mist uses a 2d6 + modifiers for conflict resolution, using failure (2-6), partial success (7-9), and full success (10+) against a set of core moves the characters can take. If you can invoke a power tag in the situation (ie it narratively makes sense), you can add a +1 for each. Existing status effects on you or the target might add or subtract from the roll.

Depending on the level of success, the player can choose from a set of outcomes outlined in that move. E.g. Hitting with all you've got represents a move that can be taken when you have a clear opportunity to use a power on a target. If you partially succeed, you inflict a status of the power level of your roll (ie how many power tags you invoked) AND choose one success option from choices such as: adding an extra level to the status effect, taking cover from retaliation, controlling the collateral damage, holding the target's attention, or gain the upper hand in some way. If you happened to roll a full success, you inflict the status and choose two from the above.

In conflict resolution - which could represent a physical or psychological struggle, negotiation, or overcoming an obstacle - you are trying to inflict status effects to fill up a track of the corresponding type. E.g. in combat, you might be trying to inflict physical wounds, so you are using moves to damage an enemy and fill up their 'harm/subdue' track. Once the track reaches a level of 5, you've overcome the obstacle or that individual is incapacitated and effectively 'out'.

Build up a level 5 status? You're out of the fight. Level 6? Possibly dead.
Image by SON OF OAK GAME STUDIO LLC

Some of the moves are more complicated than others, but after a few sessions, you become familiar with how the system works. And I was impressed at how well the characters can all interact to achieve their goal, even if your power tags may not help directly. In a physical confrontation, Eduardo might use the change the game move, invoking his Prey on the Troubled power tag to verbally humiliate and distract an opponent to give Rosa, the Big Bad Wolf, a tactical advantage on her next hitting with all you've got roll and finish the opponent off. It really encourages collective storytelling in combat, when in some other systems that type of cooperation is not really mechanically encouraged.

Image by SON OF OAK GAME STUDIO LLC

Concerns I had

MC interpretation

While the system is relatively simple to play, running the game for those like me coming from more binary success/failure mechanics, having degrees of success puts additional cognitive load on the MC to adjudicate the results. Luckily our MC was great at improvising the consequences of success with a price (7-9 partial success), but is is not something I am personally used to, and I imagine could be challenging at first for newer MCs or those coming from D&D.

Investigation fatigue

City of Mist is designed for solving mysteries. The investigate move is used often to build up clues, a kind of meta-currency for questions you can ask of the MC to solve the case. I think the system works well, and our MC had crafted a compelling story with a large cast of NPCs, unforeseen twists, and cinematic feel. But after our sessions in Detect or Die, and now City of Mist back-to-back, I've learned that sometimes I really just want to look my enemy right in the face, and fulfill a power fantasy of pounding them into dust! Our group is moving on to play Symbaroum next, so maybe I'll play a simple, brawny melee character instead of the sophisticated, intellectual, but psychologically scarred Eduardo...

Final thoughts

Our mini-campaign with City of Mist was so much fun! The system didn't get in the way of our enjoyment so we were mostly just immersed in the wonderful modern world infused with magic and mystery, exploring our character's awakened selves, and building a collective story that dealt with themes of corruption, loss, inner struggle, but ultimately family. Chef's kiss!

Image by SON OF OAK GAME STUDIO LLC