A Dark And Quiet Room

Matt Wilson, designer of Primetime Adventures, says nice things about Dirty Secrets

NPR interviewed Richard Price about his novel Lush Life, and he made an interesting comment, which is recorded here:

“There’s about six different subcultures down there,” Price told the Bryant Park Project in an April interview. “It’s chaos. And I couldn’t figure out how to write about this place without is sounding like a travelogue. And then I realized, which is something I’ve done before, is when you have a very Byzantine landscape, a crime, if you follow the progression of an investigation, it’s sort of a lazy man’s way to a plot.”

Later, Price explains that he is using a crime story to provide both structure and excuse to explore a particular place. That’s part of why I play Dirty Secrets and what I find interesting about it. Now I need to remember this for Major Crimes. And, for that matter, to perhaps inform future writing? Shrug. We’ll see.

Last weekend, several people played a game of Dirty Secrets at OrcCon in Los Angeles. In fact, the actual play report is right here. Last night, before seeing the play report, I talked with Ryan Macklin, who was one of the players in the game. It was a nifty conversation, but he mentioned a couple of things that clicked and were really helpful.

First, he said that this game of Dirty Secrets was like playing The Shield, which is his favorite TV show.

Second, he said that he’d heard about Dirty Cities, and that he’d love to playtest.

And things clicked in my head.

For a while now, I’ve been concerned that I’m trying to cram too much into Dirty Cities, that I want it to do several things that might not actually be compatible with each other. I’d even been toying with taking my different concepts and breaking them into separate games, either as a series of games linked by a campaign system or as an anthology of some kind.

After last night’s conversation, I’m convinced that I need to do something like that. Because I figured out the core of the game I’m currently calling Dirty Cities.

It’s quite simple, really.

1) Make up a crime organization (or a loose affiliation of crime organizations). Work up what they do and how they do it.

2) Make up a special police squad who has the job of stopping it. This can be the Strike Force (a la The Shield) or a detail (The Wire, Seasons 1 and 2) or Major Crimes (The Wire, Seasons 3 and 4 or The Dark Knight)

Now, play characters in both groups. Go!

I haven’t seen The Shield yet, but this would handle The Wire just fine, thank you very much. And, from all accounts, it will handle The Shield too.

So, a big step forward in the development of this game.

This may necessitate a name change, though. One of my ideas is to have a campaign system that would allow me to link together my various crime/urban games. (Yes, I have others bumping around in my head.) So, maybe Dirty Cities would be the campaign system, while this “major crimes” game would have a different name. Not sure yet, but I’ll keep you posted!

Hey, Barb! I still owe you a response to your question about Traffic and Crash and The Wire. Been a bit busy. However, I think that I have additional experience now to tack on to whatever answer I finally develop.

For those of you who don’t know, last Saturday, while Crystal and I were driving home from Erie (you know, after her mother died and all that particular joy), we were robbed. We stopped in Indianapolis at a Cracker Barrel and, while we were eating inside, parties unknown smashed one of the car windows and stole a bunch of stuff from the back seat.

So, I’m heading out to the car, while Crystal is, uh, attending to some business inside. I see a police car parked near our car. I’m thinking, “Oh no. What’s going on? We haven’t done anything wrong. It’s a rental car….” And so on and so forth. But I continue to walk the car.

Then I see the woman sitting in the passenger seat of the police car. This is a bit unusual. Normally, if you’re busted, you’re in the back of the car. Then I see her car and the shattered glass. Now I understand! She’s filing a report, and the police officer let her sit in the car, where it’s not quite so cold.

My heart goes out to the poor woman. “That’s terrible,” I think. “I can only imagine what that would feel like.”

And then I see our car, window similarly smashed.

Even then, it takes me a moment to realize that stuff is missing from the back seat.

I’m really surprised at how matter-of-fact I felt about it all. At least right then.

The rest of the scenario played out about how you’d expect. We talked to the police officer and filed a report of our own. The other woman, who actually works at the restaurant, ran back inside to check the security camera tapes. No dice; our cars were both conveniently in a dead zone of coverage. We canvassed the area a bit, hoping that the thieves had stashed our stuff somewhere to come back for it. Nope.

All of it was gone.

My laptop was gone. Among other things, it held my gaming archive, including various playtest versions of games, hard-to-find character sheets (like the sheets for The Mountain Witch). It also included notes for various games-in-progress, as well as my manuscript for Showdown.

Gone.

My backups were on external hard drives, in case of hardware failure. They were in the laptop bag.

Gone.

Those of you who have met me know that I carry a large black bag. I’ve done this ever since college. My bag is my toolkit for life. If I think that I might need something, I carry it in there. So, on our trip, my bag contained the following:

–my brand-new ESV Study Bible
–copies of each of my games (including my personal copy of Junk)
–my copies of Breaking the Ice and Shooting the Moon, each autographed by Emily Care Boss
–the game Hive, including the Mosquito expansion
–the book I was currently reading (Homicide by David Simon)
–the book I had finished reading (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)
–my PDA charger
–my phone charger
–several decks of cards
–several pens
–a digital recorder
–a green plastic alien who dangled from one of the zippers, which had been a present from my sister Elizabeth

And more, of course.

My bag is an extension of myself, almost a portable sanctum.

Gone.

The list goes on. Crystal’s dad had given her a couple pieces of jewelry that her mom had bought before she died. They were in another bag in the back seat, which was taken.

Crystal’s slippers.

Several of my CDs, including one on loan from Raquel.

Gone. Gone. Gone.

They didn’t take everything, thank God. But they made out…well, they made out like bandits.

And somewhere in there, my emotions caught up with me. And, besides the anger and the sadness, there was this feeling of being offended. What had I done to these people that they treat me like this?

And then I felt violated. This was more than just my sense of security being shattered, though that’s certainly true. Rather, I felt attacked. These are things that I carry close to me, and they had been suddenly stripped from me. Violence had touched me, leaving me feeling exposed to the cold dark world.

I really needed that laptop to do work this week. Instead, I’m trying to do time-sensitive work while configuring a new computer. That’s frustrating.

I’m so used to carrying my bag everywhere that the lack of it is a constant reminder of what happened and what I lost. Crystal encouraged me to start putting together another bag, which I’ve done. But, it’s not really ready yet. And I’ll never be able to replace that green dangly alien.

And here I am, writing this, and I’m actually starting to cry over a silly plastic alien.

But it was special. It meant something to me. It was mine.

And someone stole it away from me. Just like that. Stole it and probably threw it away, because it wasn’t actually worth any money. Or worse, dangling from someone’s key ring as a trophy of that amazing smash-and-grab where they scored big.

If you have to be a victim of a crime, I guess this is the best kind. Neither Crystal or I were hurt. In fact, neither of us were physically threatened in any way. I mean, I’ve been reading Homicide, right? Those victims don’t get to walk away. So, I’m thankful to God for that.

And yet, we both are still feeling violated and hurt. And, honestly, there’s nothing to do except try to move on from here and say, “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” And, by God’s grace, that’s what we shall do.

But, I suppose, I have also gained something. I have gained an immediate understanding of what it feels like to be a victim of crime. And, if nothing else, I will be better able to empathize with others who have been similarly victimized. And, perhaps, I will be better equipped to help stop others from being victimized, too.

And, lest anyone is concerned, yes, I still plan on making and playing crime games. I mean, after an experience like this, how could I stop?

Dark Omen Games has been getting a bunch of good press lately from Paul Tevis of the Ennie-winning Have Games, Will Travel podcast.

On The Twelve Days of HG,WT: For A Few Games More-mas: Day 6, Paul discussed his top five favorite new roleplaying games of 2008. A Flower for Mara was his number two game, being beat only by the fine Zombie Cinema. Where was Dungeons and Dragons, 4th ed. on this list? Number three.

On The Twelve Days of HG,WT: For A Few Games More-mas: Day 7, Paul reflected on his roleplaying in 2008. He said that his favorite new game that he played in 2008 was Dirty Secrets.

On The Twelve Days of HG,WT: For A Few Games More-mas: Day 8, Paul reviewed A Flower for Mara and had a number of good things to say about it.

So, thanks for all the good words, Paul!

Recorded at GenCon, but now available for your listening pleasure, Rob Bohl and I talk about Dirty Secrets.

For a little bit of context, Rob Bohl is actually a convert to this game. He raised some difficult questions about Dirty Secrets in a forum post on Story Games, specifically having to do with the treatment of race in the game. Then, a crazy thing happened: a productive conversation broke out. By the end of it, Rob’s concerns were addressed and all was well. (Plus, I got another plug for The Wire, which resulted in my watching it, which has resulted in my wanting to design another crime game. So, I guess it’s all Rob’s fault.)

I was really glad to have the opportunity to be interviewed on Rob’s podcast. I enjoy listening to his long-form interview style about other games, so I was looking forward to having the opportunity to wax eloquent about my game. Hopefully you will find it as interesting as I do.

You will, right?

Promise?

Yeah, that’s a subtle subject line.

Anyways, I wanted to announce a new place where you can buy Dark Omen Games materials.

In addition to being able to find my fine games at Indie Press Revolution and Lulu.com and direct from the website, you can now purchase from the Indie RPGs Un-store. This is a new venture, being coded by Vincent Baker, which will act as an aggregator of sorts for a number of indie publishers. While each publisher will handle his own orders and fulfillment, this site enables the customer (that would be you) to browse listings from a number of different publishers, all on the same site.

So, check it out! And buy my stuff!

Jesse Burneko discusses Dirty Secrets in a recent post:

Dirty Secrets is similar. That game is fueled almost entirely by the player’s opinions of the characters and their willingness to express them. The grid is less about generating a surprising random outcome and more about voting. Because the grid is used for all the crimes you’re voting for a given character to be guilty of something. It’s the height of being judgmental. The scary thing about Dirty Secrets is that the only thing you are given to form your *initial* opinion is demographics. That’s by design. But if you don’t put your feelings at the forefront of the application of the rules then the game falls flat.

Also, Berin Kinsman writes about playing Dirty Secrets at a recent con:

If you like crime novels, film noir, detective shows, mysteries, anything akin to those genres, buy this and check it out. It seems like it would be a good party game for mystery buffs who aren’t into roleplaying games and might be a good “gateway drug” to introduce your non-geek friends to roleplaying. It handles genre tropes in clever ways. Definitely a good touch. Nice job, Seth.

Thanks, guys!

So, it occurred to me yesterday that there are several designers and whatnot that read this blog. I am now going to pick your brains, if you don’t mind.

While I have a couple of smaller games in the pipeline (like Showdown and my daughter’s Alien Smackdown!), the next Big Game that is in my head is another crime game. I’m currently calling it Dirty Cities, because I see this as a sequel to Dirty Secrets. I don’t think that name will stick, but hey, we all need working titles, right?

Anyways, I have some fairly lofty goals for this game. What I want is the uber-crime game with interlocking stories (a la Traffic or Crash or The Wire). In other words, I’d like to be able to manage a cast of thousands in a city that is just as much a character as the people.

Oh yeah, plus you set the whole thing in your home town, which you essentially turn into your very own campaign setting for an anthology of crime stories.

As a bonus, it would be nice to be able to integrate Dirty Secrets games into this structure.

I’m already doing my standard media absorption for this project. What I would like from all of you is ideas on how to accomplish my goals and/or games that I could steal from…I mean, be inspired by.

For example, we’re currently playing In a Wicked Age in our Friday group, and I’m thinking, “Hey, maybe I could lift some of this for Dirty Cities.” A small part of me even wonders is Vincent would let me use the Anthology Engine to power the core of the game.

But stuff like that. Please, help inspire and instruct me.

Thanks!

First, check out this video of David Simon, creator of The Wire, talking about Baltimore. Here’s a salient quote:

“Some of the smallest, gentlest moments I’ve ever experienced have been being a bystander to how people relate to this city and to each other as Baltimoreans. The trick is to tell the stories [on the Wire] with enough insider affection and insider angst and insider worry and insider anger that other Baltimoreans recognize that it [The Wire] is something of a love letter. It’s from a conflicted and often frustrated lover, but it’s nonetheless a love letter.”

Replace “Baltimoreans” with whoever you live with. Yeah, that’s how I think Dirty Secrets ought to be played.

As I worked on designing Dirty Secrets, I found myself developing this same affection for Peoria. Yeah, I learned all kinds of badness about my city, and I’m still learning more. But, at the same time, it’s my city…the place that I love. This same sense drives my political critiques and all that. I love where I live, warts and all.

So I hope that some of the players of Dirty Secrets would develop a similar feeling about where they live. I guess we will see.

Okay, I just went through the last month of violent crime reports from the Peoria Journal-Star and put them on Google Maps.

Peoria Violent Crimes 2008

And, as mentioned before, here are the murders for the year:

Peoria murders 2008

And, as a bonus, here are those two maps overlaid!

Peoria Crimes 2008

If I’m feeling particularly ambitious, I may do the non-violent thefts on a separate map. If you’re interested in helping put in the older stories, let me know, and I’ll get you set up.

No, I’m not doing drug crimes (e.g. possession and dealing). First, I’m opposed to drug prohibition, so I don’t really feel like putting the effort into reporting it. Second, it’s hard to tie a drug crime to a particular place, at least from the sorts of reports that I currently have access to. Third, the point of these maps is to try to chart some sense of the danger that crime presents to people in various areas of the city. Possession and dealing simply don’t present a threat of bodily harm to those nearby.

Actually, that leads into a good point about these crimes. “Random crime” often isn’t. If you look into the news stories, you’ll see that many of these crimes were perpetrated on victims known to the perpetrator. Even in crime, it seems that it’s all about who you know.

I’ve been reading The Great Neighborhood Book recently. One of the points it made is that “rough” areas of town aren’t necessarily less safe than “nice” areas of town. Instead, it is often a matter of reputation, not reality.

With that in mind, I’d like to offer this map: Peoria Murders 2008

Notice that two of the three reported murders occurred north of War Memorial Drive. You know, in the “nice” areas of town. Also, notice that none of the three reported murders on the South Side.

(Why am I emphasizing the reported murders? Well, there is that little place on the north end of town, where nearly 800 citizens were murdered this year. But no one really wants to talk about that.)

Yes, there’s more to safety than just the murder rate. I’ve taken to watching the papers, and I know that there’s a lot of violence reported on the South Side.

Yes, this is just for 2008. If I’m so moved, I might try to root around in the Journal-Star’s site and see if I can find the locations of the 2007 murders.

Nonetheless, I think that this is somewhat significant for the core neighborhoods to note, especially in the Heart of Peoria and on the South Side, as we try to address the city’s perception of where we live.

Murder #3 for the year.

Well, except for these murders, of course, which are kept off the stat sheets.

Maybe we weren’t doing as well as I thought.

So, yeah, I wrote Dirty Secrets, a detective noir game. And that meant that I read a lot of the source material. So, trust me when I say that this sounds like something that I would have expected to find in the pages of a Ross MacDonald novel:

Rolling Acres woman’s death remains mystery

Police are releasing few details regarding the homicide investigation of a Rolling Acres woman found dead in her home Friday morning, to the dismay of worried neighbors….”She was a quiet woman,” Lowe said Saturday afternoon. “But she was the most wonderful person you would ever meet.”

Lowe met her neighbor when she moved in five years ago and said Finnegan would always check up on her and see if she needed help around the house.

Lowe returned the favor, recently watering the woman’s flowers while she was out of town. She said she’d planned to have dinner with Finnegan the night she was found dead.

“When I found out she was killed, I was so confused,” she said. “I can’t understand, why would someone kill her?”

Son arrested in Rolling Acres death

Police have arrested the son of a woman who was found strangled to death in her Rolling Acres home Friday morning.

Stark County deputies found John W. Finnegan, 20, sleeping in his mother’s car at a rest stop in Toulon early Sunday. He was detained in Stark County until Peoria police picked him up for questioning.

He was later booked into the Peoria County Jail on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of his mother, Mary T. Finnegan, 43, with whom he lived at 5513 Merrimac Ave.

Bond set for Peoria man accused of killing his mother

Bond was set at $2.5 million Monday for a Peoria man accused of strangling his mother last week.

The death occurred sometime Thursday, when John Finnegan, 20, entered his mother’s room, found her sleeping and “swiftly killed her emotionlessly,” Peoria County State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons said in court, repeating what Finnegan reportedly told detectives.

Mary Finnegan, 43, was found dead around noon Friday, when her other son, 23, stopped by her house and found her naked and wrapped in bedding.

During a five-minute bond hearing in Peoria County Circuit Court, Lyons said the situation had “peculiar” overtones. He cited a “consensual but inappropriate” sexual relationship that had existed between John and Mary Finnegan for about four years. John Finnegan said he and his mother had sex the day before he allegedly killed her.

Finnegan initially denied killing his mother but later told police he felt like he was “bottled up with rage.” He also told detectives he sexually assaulted his mother’s body and then tried to kill himself.

Lyons said Finnegan first tried to drown himself in the bathtub before trying to overdose on various household medications and pills. When that didn’t work, he grabbed some money and left the house in his mother’s car.

He was arrested about 1 a.m. Sunday by Stark County sheriff’s deputies, who found him sleeping in the car. He was then brought back to Peoria.

Scott Dunphy recorded one of his games of Dirty Secrets and then went through the time-consuming process of editing it down to a manageable length. Well, relatively manageable.

Anyways, here are the links to the three parts of the recording:

Story Shtick: “Dirty Secrets” Part 1
Story Shtick: “Dirty Secrets” Part 2
Story Shtick: “Dirty Secrets” Part 3

The third part has Scott’s thoughts on Dirty Secrets. I’ll let you listen to them, but I’ll give you a hint: he likes it.