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Greg Stolze is a very active mind in the lesser-known (but not obscure) areas of roleplaying. He's concocted a novel approach to a core mechanic: a dice pool that measures two dimensions. You count up matching dice, and then the value of those matching dice. Not only that, but he's strongly concerned with linking character actions and drama into actual gameplay mechanics.
He sets these goals into a film noir setting, which is the perfect place to explore character conflict. Issues of character morality and allegiance pop up in tandem with one of the most interesting methods of measuring character attributes that I've seen in a while.
Basic Engine
In A Dirty World, you roll a pool of 10-sided dice. Then, you check matching dice, and then derive a "width" and "height" for the roll. A roll of "2, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6" would have a "width" of 3, because of the three matching 4's, and it would have a "height" of 4, because of their value. Larger heights denote more successful actions, and larger widths denote faster actions. It's a very interesting engine, to be sure.
Where it gets truly interesting, though, is a system that Greg calls "Swift Justice". It ties together character attributes, story actions, and conflict, in one nice tidy bundle. Your dice pool is determined by two statistics: a "quality" and an "identity".
Identities are the major attributes, akin to the traditional STR/DEX/CON, etc. Qualities are specializations, of a sort. All Identities and Qualities, though, are dramatic, linked to personality. Identities and Qualities are also paired up as opposites. Vigor/Grace, for instance, opposes the amount of damage you can withstand (or your ability to beat someone up with your fists) to your ability to avoid danger (or your skill at shooting).
Versatility
The truly unique aspect of Identities and Qualities, though, is their fluidity. These attributes change from scene to scene, and can even change within a scene. In fact, during a conflict, at least one Quality is expected to regularly fluctuate. More than one, if things are hopping along. You could start wearing away at another character's Courage, only to have them attack your Innocence.
Because attributes are bound to change at any time, they don't lock the character into a specific way of behaving, and they also provide strong guidelines for play. They make character actions and drama into a dynamic system. This is the only time that I've actually seen character development broken down into a blow-by-blow basis.
Conflict
Of course, film noir is all about conflict: conflict between characters, and conflict within characters. The strongest way that the system encourages this is by using those pairs of Identities and Qualities. See, you're not allowed to have more than 7 total points in an Identity or Quality pair. If your Courage is 3, your Wrath can't go above 4, and Courage is also locked out. The only way to increase one is to decrease the opposite.
This emphasis on paired Qualities also makes for an interesting, "swingy" type of conflict. Whenever you take "damage" to a quality, you'll usually slide over that point in the Quality to its opposite. So if you take a hit to Courage (the quality which lets you fight people stronger than you), you would probably "slide over" that one point in Courage to Wrath, giving you 2 Courage and 5 Wrath.
This allows for dramatic turns in the story. If you're getting Courage beaten out of you, Wrath is getting pumped up, so all you need to do in order to tap it is pull a weapon out, which makes you the "stronger" person in the fight, and thereby eligible to use Wrath instead of Courage during the fight. That's a cool dramatic swing, especially because it involves upping the stakes of the fight.
Production
This is not a big book. It's 70 pages. For such a small book, the $17 price tag might seem a bit steep. It's a good 70 pages, though. The book is devoted almost exclusively to explaining the Swift Justice system, fleshing out its nuances, and showing you how you can apply the core mechanics to different situations. I wish there was more detail about character options, and it would be particularly helpful if the book went into a more lengthy discussion of film noir and its conventions, but there's still a solid ruleset to be had here.
The book itself is laid out very well. The fonts used are crisp and clear, and the illustrations are delightfully made: high-contrast black-and-white photographs. The character sheet is also visually pleasing. I just wish the book were a tad thicker.
On the bright side, this system can be easily ported elsewhere, such as the World of Darkness games, which seem tailor-made for this sort of approach.
Overall Ratings
Game System: Rather brilliant, dynamic, and character-driven. 5 out of 5.
Player Options: Not many; you essentially freeform most of your character's traits, especially considering that the character's only attributes are shifting constantly. The professions rule provides an interesting "twist" option, though. 3 out of 5.
Story Integration: Superb. Who you are is shaped by what you do, in this game, and it shapes what you can do. 5 out of 5.
Backstory Content: Aside from a cursory discussion of film noir, and some material which references a typical setting, there is almost none of this information. 2 out of 5.
Physical Production: Good layout, even if the book is a little thin. Excellent, excellent use of black-and-white photography. 4.5 out of 5.
Overall: 4 out of 5.
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