Demon City is a contemporary horror tabletop role-playing game written and with pictures by RPG-Land's Zak S, with several contributors adding creatures, scenarios, and some art. Before continuing, I need to emphasize the incredible one-of-a-kind graphic design attributed to Shawn Cheng. The book is carried by his efforts in equal measure of Zak's.
I don't mean to discount the actual game itself, Shawn's work is just that good. Anyway, the game's got a lot of sexy mechanics that make it stand out, namely how a cut tarot deck takes the place of traditional dice and how advancement serves as a direct reward for survival. For the former, the game's Host builds a "Horror" deck based around the themes of the particular nasty their players will be confronting. Werewolf conspiracy? Toss Strength & the Moon in the deck. At a minimum, the Horror deck needs a single card representing a scale of 1 to 10. Depending on how committed the Host is, every single card in their Horror's deck can (and should) hold some significance to the mystery the Horror is at the center of. This, to me, adds clues/hints at a meta level. I think of it like when you go to a movie or read a book, even if you do all you can to avoid spoilers, simple word of mouth or the cover/promo material of the content will implant some expectation of what's to come in your mind and the Host of a Demon City game has a unique opportunity to mirror that expectation.
"We don't know what the fuck is going on, but we know that John just threw the Magician and that politician has been thrusting a print copy of his new bill into the air every time he's on TV in the exact same way; it's too suspicious, we should check him out."
Afterwards, the Player deck is made with the remaining non-royal/major arcana cards. We're talking a simple 3 of everything 1 to 10. When both decks are made, the Host then decides if the players or the Horror gets The Fool. This is personal preference but gives one side the ability to fail catastrophically if it is thrown alone.
Throws are the game's catch-all for what you do when you're being contested. At a minimum you're going to draw 1 card from your respective deck. The system hinges on the details of the scene. Before revealing what you drew, you're meant to argue/discuss why you're in an advantageous position over your competition. You're allowed more throws (drawings of the deck) if it's agreed that you have situational or statistic advantages. When the scene is established, cards are flipped and whoever has the highest single card is the one to succeed (or their entire "side," wins, depending on the situation). Some may denounce this as a "mother may I" style of gameplay but due to it being the entire system, it does more to add to the necessity of cementing the scene/world than encouraging players to powergame or otherwise be litigious. And if you do have "that kind" of player, ask them to chill or to scoot.
Characters are generated in an OSR-adjacent fashion. Core attributes are randomly generated (with options for a down-the-line or picking and choosing priorities) but a few skills are chosen. Demon City has "Motives" in place of classes. They serve as horror archetypes opposed to fantasy but serve the same purpose. The Curious is involved with the Horror because it's a Horror; there's just something alluring about the situation they can't resist. The Investigator is here because they're being paid to look into it; a cop, health insurance investigator, stuff like that. There's a total of 5 and they all make unique tweaks to general gameplay and downtime actions.
One of the aforementioned sexy-bits of the system, you advance in Demon City via downtime actions. When there is time to rest your head and forget about the fucked situations of the game proper, make a Throw based on what you're doing when not risking your life and your core stats may improve. It's very fast and leaves room for as much or as little detail as you want to add. Meditate, work out, spend time with loved ones, do people things. When you're done, then you're back to the adventure.
Not strictly a mechanic but equally important to the overall product is the practical advice on how to actually run a horror game. I've been around the block of horror RPGs from various c/nWoD products to Kult to CoC and while all of them have excellent elements to them, I've found that they all lack on the GM advice front. Anyone even remotely familiar with directing or theater production knows that "dimming the lights and lighting candles" is super spooky or how "having a relationship web helps develop/track a conspiracy" if you've seen any corkboard conspiracy meme.
What we have in Demon City are 360 pages dedicated to the Host. After an evocative fluff piece on the "metaphysics" of a Demon City (akin to Zak's introduction to Frostbitten & Mutilated) to get you into the headspace, sections here are no-nonsense breakdowns of various Horror-oriented processes: Crime, Murder, the Occult and pretty typical suggestions on how to start writing horror adventures. But again, they are presented very plainly and directly, which is very appreciated. What isn't typical are the "Adventure Formats." A few originally published on
Zak's blog, these further the practical approach of the rest of this section by plainly giving you formats by which to create elaborate multi-tiered mysteries/conspiracies. A good portion of the rest of Demon City is also on Zak’s blog – but the layout in this book elevates it to 11.
Following that goodness is a section that collects Pitches ("hacks" of the system that uniquely tailor the game to a subgenre of horror) Sketches (developed broad-stroke Horror and adventure ideas to get your gears turning) a collection of prewritten/statted Horrors collecting familiar and exotic myths. And finally, sexy-ass random-gen tables. Really the whole Host section and after is a DIY GM's wet dream. It's basically just Zak telling you "hey fucker, you've got to put in the work but I'm going to help get you started."
There is no implied setting in Demon City, hell, there are even sections dedicated to run horror adventures beyond the city. You're meant to do most of the leg work going forward, perhaps creating your own developed Kult/WoD/Universal Monsters-esq setting out the gate or in the long run; Demon City gives you an unparalleled 450+ page toolkit full of unique ideas.
Many of the contributors, while contributing quality content at the time, have since joined the harassment campaign designed to defame and cancel Zak. The list of harassment campaign contributors includes:
Kenneth Hite
Zedeck Siew
Jordan Shiveley
Zzarchov Kowalski
Richard Guy
Fiona Geist
Mabel Harper
Scrap Princess
Evan Elkins
Logan Knight
Be aware that, while they did contribute to the excellent final product that is Demon City, they also added fuel to the fire that was defaming an innocent man with zero proof on the matter beyond them simply having personal gripes with him and a long-discredited accusation of an unwell ex-partner. It is one thing to dislike someone and another to wish them dead or otherwise wish their life ruined and then to contribute to either outcome.
I've already seen some remark on how disappointed they were with the final product or took issue with how long it took to get out. There have been many dumb, baseless presumptions of quality spread by people looking for someone to group-hate on instead of being patient and trusting the quality of one's their past work and making a judgement based on personal analysis.
I understand that the book has taken a while to come out but I have been running the fully-equipped playtest document for years now and can unequivocally say that it is the horror system for the DIY GM bar-none. It's unique, open-ended, nuanced, and motivating in exactly the way every RPG should be. I pray that designers in the future take note not just of the art and graphic design but to what makes a quality DIY foundation for an RPG.
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