2024-05-24 - 2024-05-26
The Rainy City is the last refuge in all worlds. It is a city on two islands surrounded by ocean (the Inner, Mid and Outer Swells) and the Stormwall. Refugee ships regularly come through the Stormwall, fleeing their ending worlds, and if they survive the sea monsters, pirates, the wreckers and the currents, they arrive in the Rainy City. There is a bustling trade in exotic food stuffs and objects, so if a new arrival plays their cards right, they can be set up for a good long while - or they can be robbed blind.
It constantly rains in the city. In 3 of the 4 seasons, it is impossible to even light a fire or use a black-powder weapon. Alchemists hold huge sway in the city, because they're the only way you're going to cook anything most of the year. Alchemical and magical research into fire that can be lit at any time is a huge industry.
I'd say The Visitors' Guide is the base setting. The two Miscellany are the GM aids. The other 3 zines are ideas for adventures.
TLDR: Not a must-buy, but has some cool ideas.
I would not call this a sandbox, exactly. It's much more like a terrarium, or an ant-farm. The world has very definite and nearby bounds and you're not leaving.
The zine is an in-world guide to the Rainy City, written by one of the higher-ups in the Tailor's Guild (with a much more pretentious name). Intro; overview of the main sentient peoples living there; the seasons; life in the city; an overview of each of the neighborhoods including factions, landmarks, and things to do (plot hooks) - this also includes the floating pirate haven of lashed together ships; and a list of possible patrons (plot hooks).
The "Things to Do" subsection for each neighborhood is the one place the immersion is broken. It's not really breaking the fourth wall, but it's speaking directly to the players - "join gang A and fight gang B", "join gang B and fight gang A," "be wronged by a member of xxx and seek revenge." Same, if less so, with the Patron section - could almost be read as wanted ads, except for a bit too much detail about underhanded jobs. This isn't a complaint - I think it's a good thing, but it does break the immersion.
In terms of what the zine feels like, the first thing that comes to mind is Atlas of the Latter Earth, but much, much, more zoomed in. The difference is a satellite photo vs Google Maps. Next comparison is Hilgraab, the city supplement for Fallen - neighborhood by neighborhood guide, but without the rumour and encounter tables.
For what the city feels like, take Endon (MIR), after the magical apocalypse MIR is heading towards, but have it destroy the rest of existence instead, surround it by the Stormwall, and make it rain constantly - Endon as Doskvol from BitD.
My absolute favorite thing in the zine is that wisps, a.k.a. "shinebees", are addictive. Yes, they'll lure you out into the bog to drown, but if you can jar one or two motes out of a swarm, they'll induce emotions and give visions, without the full-on enchanting. There is a brisk, illegal trade in shine. And motes with unexpected emotions can give a bad hit.
These zines are where the GM support is. Information on magic and grimoires, lists of NPCs, lists of shops. Pubs, so many pubs. More gangs, guilds, locations. Encounter tables, rumours, shops, Admiralty and pirate ships. Very miscellaneous. Both also contain the start of a story of something shaking up the city that you could easily embroil the PCs in.
A stat-less bestiary of gargantuan creatures that live in the Outer Swells - nothing that your PCs would ever want to fight - in most cases they'd be as effective as a gnat against an elephant. But multiple pages of flavour text for each that can spawn all kinds of adventure. There's also a D10 table related to each creature, a page of famous ship captains and several pages of rarities and relics.
This is a clever, short zine. It's presented as a screed against the vile and degenerate art of puppetry, which is a front of all sorts of crime, organized, or not. It includes a catalogue of Puppethand traits and characteristics, followed by the same for puppets - everything you need to create your own Mark of the Odd-statted Puppeteer PC with accompanying puppet - an overview of popular puppets, a gallery of infamous puppeteers, puppet and crime related rumours and the PupperMaster NPC wizard, stated for Mark of the Odd. This is really fun and imaginative. I could see using the idea in a lot of other urban settings.
A collection of scholarly essays on ghosts, a set of revenants and a ghost hunter in the Rainy City. Mark of the Odd stats for each.