Product Review

This is going to sound a bit weird. Noir is one of my favourite RPG’s, but I’m not actually that keen on the game. What? Has he finally gone over the edge, quick stop him before he tries to swallow those dice. Let me try and explain, I bought this book because I'd always wanted a gangster game and the adverts for Noir in Arcane really sold it to me.

Noir is a bit different to other RPG’s, as it has no real setting or background material. Instead it is designed for you to use film noir style settings and play in a place known simply as "The City". So how does the book flesh out the bit’s other games would usually fill with exciting worlds and characters? It explains noir, more specifically it tells you how to give your games a noir style and atmosphere. Don’t get me wrong I like the idea of setting a mood in a game, but this just wasn’t for me.

I think I get what they were trying to achieve. They wanted to try and get away from normal roleplaying and go towards a more serious film style approach. I believe that the game would've been more popular though if they had given you a bit of history and an interesting background to spur you on. Instead they ended up with a game that made it hard to get groups of characters together and when you finally had teamed them up it was hard to give them anything to do.

The problem lies in the fact that most film noirs had a central character that was often against the rest of the characters in the film. This means that you have to try and alter the standard plots of this genre to fit a group of gamers. This can be done, look at Reservoir Dogs for example, but I would struggle to name many other plots that have pulled it off.

Didn’t I say it was one of my favourite games though? Yes I did and the book really comes into it’s own when we start on the game mechanics. I should also mention now that this is primarily what the book is, a system. If you tore out all the rules from this book there would be very little left in it. All you have to do is look at the contents to see this, of the ten chapters seven of them are about game rules. Basically, the rules are amazing and it makes a good job of giving them to you.

The character generation has been really well thought out and helps you build a character you probably wouldn’t normally play. The pros and cons (good and bad characteristics) have all got an upside and a downside. So you may find yourself taking things you normally wouldn’t because they all suddenly seem less black and white and a bit more grey.

The skill testing is great as well and most other RPG’s would do well to take a leaf (or a chapter) from this book. Basically you add your skill number to your trait and roll that number of D6, you then add all the dice results up and see if you managed to get above a difficulty number set by the Director (GM). You also get bonus dice to roll if you add to the atmosphere of the game by being descriptive about what your up to. Giving away dice to players who are playing well is good, it encourages descriptive roleplaying and therefore adds atmosphere. This is also a good way for them to achieve the style of game that they wanted and I feel they could have left it here and got on with a little background.

All in all I think that if you find a copy of this game stashed away in your local RPG shop you should slap your cash on the counter and buy one of the best systems ever. On the other hand if you want a gangster game you better be prepared to put a lot of work into your adventure as they don’t give you much to work with, beyond a good list of mood films to go and watch. When all is said and done though, the best adventure I have ever run was done using this game, so it must be doing something right.

Noir is not only a great outlet for all your gamers Tommy gun wielding, kneecap smashing needs but also one of the finest game systems I've ever used.

Reviewed by Jon Simpson