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Tomorrow City: Dieselpunk Roleplaying
A dieselpunk roleplaying game of action, mystery and mad science!
Tomorrow City was one of the cities of the future, built to usher in a new age of prosperity, seizing upon scientific achievements at the dawn of the twentieth century. Then came the War. Radium-powered soldiers assembled, diesel-fuelled nightmares rolled off production lines, city fought city, and the world burned in atomic fire. We survived, barely. Tomorrow City still stands, an oil-stained beacon of hope, part-refuge, part-asylum. Beset by dangers from both within and without, a secret war now rages on its streets. Diesel-born monstrosities stalk the alleyways, air pirates strike from the wastelands, mad scientists continue their dark work, occultists manipulate the city's strange geometry, and secret societies plot in the shadows.
Tomorrow City is a roleplaying game of dark science and dieselpunk action. Swift and simple character creation and an easy-to-learn dice pool system places the emphasis on unique personalities and the momentum of the plot. Join the Underground and fight the crime and corruption at the heart of the city. Sell your dieselpunk tech, occult knowledge, and sheer grit as troubleshooters for mysterious paymasters. Hunt down spies, saboteurs, and science-run-amok. As weary sky rangers, fringe scientists, and radium-powered veterans, you might be all that stands between a better tomorrow and no tomorrow at all.
Tomorrow City was one of the cities of the future, built to usher in a new age of prosperity, seizing upon scientific achievements at the dawn of the twentieth century. Then came the War. Radium-powered soldiers assembled, diesel-fuelled nightmares rolled off production lines, city fought city, and the world burned in atomic fire. We survived, barely. Tomorrow City still stands, an oil-stained beacon of hope, part-refuge, part-asylum. Beset by dangers from both within and without, a secret war now rages on its streets. Diesel-born monstrosities stalk the alleyways, air pirates strike from the wastelands, mad scientists continue their dark work, occultists manipulate the city's strange geometry, and secret societies plot in the shadows.
Tomorrow City is a roleplaying game of dark science and dieselpunk action. Swift and simple character creation and an easy-to-learn dice pool system places the emphasis on unique personalities and the momentum of the plot. Join the Underground and fight the crime and corruption at the heart of the city. Sell your dieselpunk tech, occult knowledge, and sheer grit as troubleshooters for mysterious paymasters. Hunt down spies, saboteurs, and science-run-amok. As weary sky rangers, fringe scientists, and radium-powered veterans, you might be all that stands between a better tomorrow and no tomorrow at all.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published February 27, 2024
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December 10, 2024How? Needed something to pad out an order and this was on sale.
What? It's 1984 and the World War has just ended. Which World War? I can't remember, basically the 20th century was just one big war, a war so big that it destroyed almost the whole world. The one remnant: a shining, rotating city rising over the ruins of LA on a giant spindle. The center of the city is where the government sits -- the Ministries of Peace, Power, etc., sometimes guided by the computer Mother. Around that spindle, there's rich, middle-class, poor neighborhoods with the factories, and underneath, a literal underclass clinging to the bottom of the city. There's robotic police, there's a strange science called the Pattern that is almost magic, and some monsters breaking through to our world. There's trains, trams, airships -- building decorated with gargoyles, only some of them either monsters or robots.
And the PCs play Revs, and they might be legal troubleshooters or illegal revolutionaries. (The name "Rev" sure makes it seem like that's where they'll end up.) The mechanics are the same as Russell's Hard City: Noir Roleplaying: everything has a tag that either adds to a die pool or adds to the anti-die danger pool. Which is light and story-focused.
Light and story-focused is also how I'd describe the setting, really: there's gestures towards what the world is like and the art does some heavy lifting on what Dieselpunk is, which is art deco with more smoke. (Speaking of gestures, the description of the world is so intriguing: after the war, "Underground London closed its tunnels to the outside world; Leviathan submerged itself beneath the waves; Neu Prussia rumbled across the wastelands towards the Caliphates; And Tomorrow City was reborn.")
But there's enough to get started here, with enough enemies and a sample adventure, and GM advice, and some flavorful character options.
Yeah, so? This is the second book by Nathan Russell that I've read -- the other was the non-fantastic Hard City, a 1940s noir game, and my review for that was "how can you sell this to RPG nerds without vampires, magic, mechs?" Funny then, that my first thought with this game is -- it's too fantastic.
Like, I get the Bioshock inspiration (Russell lists both the video games and a novel in his inspiration section), and I get the idea of wanting weird science, but... well, I like a giant computer that runs the city and that you might have to fight against (though that is a bit trope-y for me); I like fighting robots while jumping between airships with jetpacks; I like serum-mad ex-soldiers working for the mob as juiced-up enforcers.
I don't love taking that noir + weird science in the post-apocalypse and adding Pattern magic. Or like, I wouldn't want to start with that as a character option. I might like something where we describe how the atom bombs tore holes in reality (a la Twin Peaks: The Return -- not really a spoiler), but it seems funny in a game about weirdness and decadence to add this other axis. Or put another way: how does the Pattern help reinforce the themes vs. just reiterating them?
What? It's 1984 and the World War has just ended. Which World War? I can't remember, basically the 20th century was just one big war, a war so big that it destroyed almost the whole world. The one remnant: a shining, rotating city rising over the ruins of LA on a giant spindle. The center of the city is where the government sits -- the Ministries of Peace, Power, etc., sometimes guided by the computer Mother. Around that spindle, there's rich, middle-class, poor neighborhoods with the factories, and underneath, a literal underclass clinging to the bottom of the city. There's robotic police, there's a strange science called the Pattern that is almost magic, and some monsters breaking through to our world. There's trains, trams, airships -- building decorated with gargoyles, only some of them either monsters or robots.
And the PCs play Revs, and they might be legal troubleshooters or illegal revolutionaries. (The name "Rev" sure makes it seem like that's where they'll end up.) The mechanics are the same as Russell's Hard City: Noir Roleplaying: everything has a tag that either adds to a die pool or adds to the anti-die danger pool. Which is light and story-focused.
Light and story-focused is also how I'd describe the setting, really: there's gestures towards what the world is like and the art does some heavy lifting on what Dieselpunk is, which is art deco with more smoke. (Speaking of gestures, the description of the world is so intriguing: after the war, "Underground London closed its tunnels to the outside world; Leviathan submerged itself beneath the waves; Neu Prussia rumbled across the wastelands towards the Caliphates; And Tomorrow City was reborn.")
But there's enough to get started here, with enough enemies and a sample adventure, and GM advice, and some flavorful character options.
Yeah, so? This is the second book by Nathan Russell that I've read -- the other was the non-fantastic Hard City, a 1940s noir game, and my review for that was "how can you sell this to RPG nerds without vampires, magic, mechs?" Funny then, that my first thought with this game is -- it's too fantastic.
Like, I get the Bioshock inspiration (Russell lists both the video games and a novel in his inspiration section), and I get the idea of wanting weird science, but... well, I like a giant computer that runs the city and that you might have to fight against (though that is a bit trope-y for me); I like fighting robots while jumping between airships with jetpacks; I like serum-mad ex-soldiers working for the mob as juiced-up enforcers.
I don't love taking that noir + weird science in the post-apocalypse and adding Pattern magic. Or like, I wouldn't want to start with that as a character option. I might like something where we describe how the atom bombs tore holes in reality (a la Twin Peaks: The Return -- not really a spoiler), but it seems funny in a game about weirdness and decadence to add this other axis. Or put another way: how does the Pattern help reinforce the themes vs. just reiterating them?
December 24, 2025
I haven't played this system yet but I can't wait. The setting is just so very cool, the rules detailed but not overly crunchy and the scope for creating interesting characters is huge.
well done Nathan, and Biagio for the art.
well done Nathan, and Biagio for the art.
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