“My heart skipped a beat – maybe a dozen beats – when I realized I was being tailed; tailed by some mug in a rumpled suit who thought he was being inconspicuous. Oh, I saw him all right. But who was he? By the looks of him, I’d say he was a cop, or maybe a shamus. Either way, it could’ve been bad news for me if I made the wrong move. Being on the lam meant that any attention I drew could’ve landed me in the Pen to draw a long stretch. No, I had to give this fella the slip, pick up my cut of the cash and beat feet to Mexico. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Well, let’s just say things didn’t quite play out the way I had hoped. Not by a long shot.”
Spectrum Games is pleased to announce the release of The Big Crime, the roleplaying game that sets out to faithfully and meticulously emulate classic film noir from the 1940s and ‘50s. As with all of the company’s games, The Big Crime is not merely a “universal system” decorated with genre-appropriate art. The system is extremely specific to recreating the mood, themes and nuances of those movies of old.
According to Spectrum President Cynthia Celeste Miller, “When designing this game, I had to make some pretty tough decisions, one of which was how to handle gender. Initially, I made gender a non-issue, but that led to some very awkward situations that simply didn’t replicate the way women were portrayed in film noir. I had to swallow my feminist leanings and institute rules that made things more appropriate to the source material. The results made all the difference in the world.”
The Big Crime features a game system that requires players to generally roll between three and six dice (d6s, d8s or d10s), looking for matching results. The more matching results they roll, the better their characters do. It also integrates Temptation Points. As characters participate in unsavory activities, they gain these points in one of three tracks (Guilt, Desperation and Alienation). When a track reaches ten, specific penalties are put in place to reflect the character’s descent into a life of immorality. Players can also voluntarily gain Temptation Points by utilizing various Temptation Benefits that help them accomplish tasks.
In addition to the game system itself, the 180-page rulebook features rules that enable you to create a character in under ten minutes, a chapter devoted to giving players advice on stepping into the world of film noir, a chapter that teaches Directors to use cinematography and other methods to evoke the feel of the source material and a 25-page “film” for you and your group to play that comes in two flavors: the Theatrical Release and the Director’s Cut. Plus, the rulebook overflows with atmospheric stills taken directly from various films noir.
The Big Crime is available now in PDF format and will be made available as a 6”x9” physical book very soon. You can purchase it here.
Spectrum Games is pleased to announce the release of The Big Crime, the roleplaying game that sets out to faithfully and meticulously emulate classic film noir from the 1940s and ‘50s. As with all of the company’s games, The Big Crime is not merely a “universal system” decorated with genre-appropriate art. The system is extremely specific to recreating the mood, themes and nuances of those movies of old.
According to Spectrum President Cynthia Celeste Miller, “When designing this game, I had to make some pretty tough decisions, one of which was how to handle gender. Initially, I made gender a non-issue, but that led to some very awkward situations that simply didn’t replicate the way women were portrayed in film noir. I had to swallow my feminist leanings and institute rules that made things more appropriate to the source material. The results made all the difference in the world.”
The Big Crime features a game system that requires players to generally roll between three and six dice (d6s, d8s or d10s), looking for matching results. The more matching results they roll, the better their characters do. It also integrates Temptation Points. As characters participate in unsavory activities, they gain these points in one of three tracks (Guilt, Desperation and Alienation). When a track reaches ten, specific penalties are put in place to reflect the character’s descent into a life of immorality. Players can also voluntarily gain Temptation Points by utilizing various Temptation Benefits that help them accomplish tasks.
In addition to the game system itself, the 180-page rulebook features rules that enable you to create a character in under ten minutes, a chapter devoted to giving players advice on stepping into the world of film noir, a chapter that teaches Directors to use cinematography and other methods to evoke the feel of the source material and a 25-page “film” for you and your group to play that comes in two flavors: the Theatrical Release and the Director’s Cut. Plus, the rulebook overflows with atmospheric stills taken directly from various films noir.
The Big Crime is available now in PDF format and will be made available as a 6”x9” physical book very soon. You can purchase it here.
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