Metro Mystery - One Page TTRPG

Embark on a thrilling journey into the heart of urban intrigue with Metro Mystery, a compact tabletop role-playing game where players become vigilant city watchmen tasked with solving the most enigmatic cases in Xentopolis. Uncover clues, interrogate suspects, and navigate unexpected twists in this immersive one-page TTRPG adventure.
                                                                                                          

So I love table-top games, I run a weekly D&D campaign with my close friends so I was familiar with the premise of this challenge. From time to time we'll all get a little burnt-out by it and want to try something up. I always shoot for one-page TTRPGs mostly because they're easy to find, there's a million and one of them out there, and, generally, they're easy to set up on short notice.

And so this is my attempt at the genre. I've never made something like this before, and there's a lot that goes into making one of these things that aren't always obvious. For one, a one-page who's setting is somewhat open-ended are great because the table and I can curate how we want to experience the game. I enjoy that level of autonomy. But in doing so you kind of restrict yourself to having to stick to more vague attributes over more specific ones. 

For example, this idea originally began as a more classical medieval high-fantasy world typical of D&D. The players were originally city guards that would patrol around the city, keeping the peace, and tracking down criminals. But I really wanted this to be able to appeal to any genre and setting. For the most part that meant changing up how some things were worded or named - the Inquisitor occupation was originally called Gatesman, and the player's experience came from them standing at the gates of the city as they permitted or denied people entry. If anyone wanted to play this in a more modern setting, or a more sci-fi setting, cities don't typically have guards standing at gates. At least not in the same way one might in a medieval fantasy genre. So I wound up reworking that occupation into the Inquisitor.

Ultimately, the overall theme ended up with a very classic, and very cliche film noir theme. And I'm not upset by that. It's a mystery game after all.

The rules of play for this TTRPG are also really loosey-goosy, and not without reason. I wanted to maintain some kind of structure with the Action Order rule, but for the most part, everything else is up to the players and their GM. I did this because I wanted to leave room for the potential of a long-form game forming, if it ever happened. A table could succeed in solving their mystery, and they could leave it at that if they wanted. But their characters would still have a job at the end of one mystery, one would hope. They could pick it up again another time with the same characters, but a new mystery to solve. 

That's partly why I incorporated the Powered by the Apocalypse die mechanic. It's versatile, it's translatable. A table could move this game to a more robust system with a fair amount of ease. I gave each occupation an advantage in a unique set of skills also for this reason. This encouraged the party to "play their role", but doesn't restrict them from doing whatever they want in the game.

As a TTRPG enthusiast, I really really wanted to create something that was flexible and inspiring for any table. And I hope Metro Mystery is successful in that endeavor.