City of Mist: Fortune Row Review
Introduction
Today, we’re diving into the enigmatic world of City of Mist: Fortune Row. If you love noir settings mixed with the supernatural, this RPG expansion will tickle your fancy, and probably steal your wallet in the process.
Let’s don our trench coats, grab a magnifying glass, and embark on a thrilling review that’s packed with mystery, laughs, and maybe a few plot twists.
What is City of Mist: Fortune Row?
City of Mist: Fortune Row is an expansion for the popular noir RPG City of Mist. This setting introduces new characters, locations, and scenarios that will have you solving mysteries and uncovering secrets like Sherlock Holmes on a caffeine high.
Components
The expansion includes:
- Character Cards: New mythic characters to add to your roster. Ever wanted to be a detective with the powers of an ancient god? Now you can!
- Location Maps: Detailed maps of Fortune Row, the city’s most mysterious and dangerous borough.
- Scenario Booklets: Engaging scenarios that will challenge your deductive skills and keep you on the edge of your seat.
Gameplay
Setting Up
Setting up Fortune Row is like preparing for a night out in the most dangerous part of town. Lay out your location maps, distribute character cards, and brace yourself for an adventure filled with twists and turns.
Turns and Actions
Each turn, players can perform actions like investigating clues, confronting suspects, and using their mythic abilities to solve the case. The synergy between characters and their unique powers is where City of Mist shines.
Combat
Combat in Fortune Row is a blend of strategy and improvisation. Players must coordinate their attacks and use their mythic abilities to defeat enemies and overcome obstacles. Remember, teamwork and quick thinking are key to surviving the mean streets of Fortune Row.
The Story
Scenarios
The scenarios in Fortune Row are inspired by classic noir tales, with a supernatural twist. From hunting down a rogue deity to uncovering a secret society, each scenario offers unique challenges and requires different strategies.
Characters
Fortune Row introduces a host of new characters to the mix. Play as the enigmatic Detective Hades or the cunning Femme Fatale Lilith. Each character has distinct abilities and combos that keep the game fresh and exciting.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Immersive Gameplay: Feel like a true detective as you unravel mysteries and confront supernatural foes.
- High-Quality Components: The artwork and maps are top-notch, bringing the noir setting to life.
- Replayability: Multiple scenarios and characters ensure endless fun.
- Strategic Depth: Using mythic abilities and detective skills adds a layer of strategy that keeps players engaged.
Cons
- Complex Setup: The initial setup can be time-consuming.
- Luck Factor: Some elements of the game rely heavily on luck.
- Expansions Needed: To keep the game fresh, expansions are almost a must.
The City of Mist System: How It Works
The Powered by the Apocalypse Engine
City of Mist uses the Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) engine as its mechanical foundation, a narrative-first RPG framework originally designed by Vincent Baker for the game Apocalypse World. PbtA games share a common structure: players declare narrative actions, the MC determines which “move” applies, and a 2d6 roll determines the outcome. Results of 10+ are full successes, 7-9 are partial successes with complications, and 6 or below are failures that advance the story in unexpected directions.
City of Mist’s innovation within the PbtA framework is its tag-based character system. Rather than numerical statistics (Strength 16, Dexterity 14), characters are defined through narrative tags — short descriptive phrases that represent abilities, relationships, equipment, and characteristics. A character might have tags like “Ancient fire magic,” “Street-smart detective,” “Haunted by visions,” and “Loyal partner at the precinct.” When a player attempts an action, they count the relevant positive tags (adding +1 each) and subtract relevant negative tags, then roll 2d6 plus the net modifier.
This tag system produces characters that feel literary rather than mechanical. A character’s abilities emerge from their narrative identity rather than from optimized number combinations. The fire magic tag applies whenever the character uses their mythic power — in combat, in investigation, in social encounters — without the artificial boundaries that class-based systems impose. This flexibility rewards creative problem-solving and discourages the “I hit it with my sword” default that combat-focused systems encourage.
Mythos and Logos: The Dual Identity System
Every character in City of Mist has two identity layers: their Mythos (the mythological being whose power they channel) and their Logos (their mundane human identity). A character might be channeling the power of Prometheus (fire, knowledge, defiance of authority) while also being a burned-out high school teacher named Dave Kovacs who is three months behind on rent.
The tension between Mythos and Logos drives character development. As characters lean into their mythic powers, their Logos weakens — they become more powerful but less connected to their human identity, relationships, and responsibilities. Conversely, characters who prioritize their human concerns maintain normalcy but at the cost of mythic power. This tug-of-war creates dramatic stakes that combat encounter systems cannot replicate: the choice between power and humanity is the central narrative engine of every City of Mist campaign.
Fortune Row leverages this dual identity system through its neighborhood setting. The characters’ Logos identities — their jobs, families, debts, and social connections — are rooted in the Fortune Row neighborhood. Their Mythos identities connect them to the supernatural forces that operate beneath the neighborhood’s surface. Cases (scenarios) begin with Logos-level concerns (a missing person, a protection racket, an unexplained death) and gradually reveal Mythos-level complications (the missing person was abducted by a reincarnated deity, the protection racket is run by a mythic criminal organization, the death was caused by an ancient curse).
Fortune Row as a Neighborhood Setting
The Physical Geography
Fortune Row is presented as a specific neighborhood within the unnamed City of Mist — a borough with distinct character shaped by its history, demographics, and supernatural undercurrents. The sourcebook describes Fortune Row as a formerly prosperous commercial district that declined into a mixed-use neighborhood of small businesses, residential blocks, and forgotten landmarks. The architecture blends Art Deco remnants with utilitarian renovation, creating a visual environment that evokes classic film noir.
The 12 detailed locations in the sourcebook provide enough geographic variety to support diverse case scenarios without requiring the MC to create locations from scratch. A fortune-telling parlor on the main street provides a Mythos-connected information hub. A diner at the corner serves as a neutral ground where characters of different factions can meet without hostility. A pawnshop operates as a front for supernatural artifact trafficking. An abandoned theater hides a gateway to a mythic realm. Each location includes floor plans, NPC descriptions, and potential case connections that the MC can activate or ignore based on campaign direction.
The Social Ecosystem
Fortune Row’s NPC population is designed as an interconnected social network rather than a collection of independent characters. The diner owner knows the fortune teller. The fortune teller’s landlord is the pawnshop proprietor. The pawnshop proprietor owes a debt to a mythic crime lord whose lieutenant frequents the abandoned theater. These connections mean that player actions affecting one NPC ripple through the neighborhood’s social fabric, creating consequences that the MC can develop into future case hooks.
This interconnection serves a practical purpose for the MC: it reduces preparation time. Rather than creating new NPCs and locations for each case, the MC draws from the Fortune Row directory, connecting existing elements in new configurations. A case that begins at the diner might lead to the pawnshop through a social connection, then to the theater through a physical clue, creating a investigation path that feels organic because it follows established relationships rather than arbitrary plot directions.
The Four Case Scenarios
Case Design Philosophy
The four cases included in Fortune Row follow an escalating structure that introduces different aspects of the City of Mist system. The first case is primarily investigation-focused, teaching players how the tag system applies to information gathering, witness interviews, and clue analysis. The second case introduces combat and mythic power usage in higher-stakes encounters. The third case emphasizes social manipulation and political maneuvering within Fortune Row’s NPC network. The fourth case combines all three elements in a climactic confrontation that tests the full range of character abilities.
Each case also advances a meta-narrative that connects the four scenarios into a continuous story arc. Clues discovered in the first case become relevant in the third case. NPCs introduced as background characters in the second case become central figures in the fourth case. This interconnection rewards groups that play through all four cases in sequence while remaining playable as standalone one-shots for groups that prefer isolated sessions.
Running the Cases as a MC
The case scenarios provide the MC with boxed text for key dramatic moments, NPC dialogue suggestions, and branching investigation paths that accommodate different player approaches. However, the PbtA engine demands improvisational flexibility that pre-written scenarios can only partially support. The MC must be prepared for players who pursue unexpected investigation angles, confront NPCs out of anticipated sequence, or use mythic powers in ways that bypass designed encounter structures.
The sourcebook addresses this need through “contingency notes” embedded in each case — short paragraphs that describe how the case responds to common player deviations. If the players bypass a designed encounter through stealth, the contingency note suggests how to redistribute that encounter’s information across remaining scenes. If the players ally with an NPC designed as an antagonist, the contingency note identifies an alternative antagonist who can fill the narrative role. These contingencies do not cover every possibility but provide a framework that reduces the MC’s improvisational burden.
Comparison with Other Noir RPG Settings
Fortune Row vs. Blades in the Dark
Blades in the Dark (John Harper, 2017) is the most prominent competitor in the “noir-supernatural RPG” space. Both games emphasize investigation, criminal networks, and supernatural elements within an urban setting. The key mechanical difference is Blades in the Dark’s crew system, which positions the player group as a criminal organization with a specific operational identity (smugglers, assassins, occultists), while City of Mist positions the player group as individuals drawn together by mythic connections and neighborhood ties.
Blades in the Dark provides more mechanical structure for heist planning and faction management but less flexibility for character-driven narrative exploration. City of Mist’s tag system produces more varied character expression but provides less guidance for group-level operations. Groups that prefer structured team missions will gravitate toward Blades. Groups that prefer character-driven investigation will gravitate toward City of Mist.
Fortune Row vs. Dresden Files RPG
The Dresden Files RPG (Evil Hat Productions, 2010) shares City of Mist’s “modern noir with supernatural elements” genre and uses the FATE system, another narrative-focused RPG engine. Both games feature characters who balance mundane lives with supernatural abilities, and both set their stories in specific urban neighborhoods.
The Dresden Files RPG draws from Jim Butcher’s established fiction universe, providing a rich but constrained setting that fans of the novels will appreciate and newcomers may find overwhelming. City of Mist creates its own mythological framework that references real-world myths without tying to a specific fictional property, providing more creative freedom for MCs and players who want to incorporate mythology from any cultural tradition.
Mechanically, FATE’s aspect system and PbtA’s move system share philosophical DNA — both prioritize narrative description over numerical optimization — but produce different play experiences. FATE provides more player narrative control through fate points and aspect invocation. PbtA provides more MC narrative control through move consequences and hard choices. The preference between the two systems is largely a matter of group dynamic: groups where players want maximum creative agency favor FATE, while groups that enjoy MC-driven dramatic consequences favor PbtA.
Final Thoughts
City of Mist: Fortune Row is a fantastic addition to any RPG collection, especially for fans of noir and the supernatural. Its immersive gameplay, high-quality components, and endless replayability make it a must-have. Just remember, teamwork and strategy are key to solving the mysteries of Fortune Row.
Expansion Specifications
Fortune Row is a 128-page softcover sourcebook designed for 3-5 players with a dedicated MC (Master of Ceremonies). Sessions typically run 3-4 hours, with the included scenarios forming a connected case arc spanning 4-6 sessions total. The book introduces 8 new character concepts tied to the Fortune Row neighborhood, 4 complete case scenarios with branching investigation paths, and detailed location write-ups for 12 key buildings and businesses. The system uses the Powered by the Apocalypse engine with City of Mist’s unique tag-based character creation, where players define their characters through narrative tags rather than numerical stats. Fortune Row requires the City of Mist Player’s Guide or MC Toolkit to play — it is not a standalone product. The noir aesthetic is reinforced through full-page illustrations by Marcin Sobon throughout the book. The case scenarios are designed to interweave with each other, so clues discovered in one case may become relevant in later investigations, rewarding groups that play through the full arc in sequence rather than cherry-picking individual cases.
Criticism Reminder: While the game is incredibly fun, it’s not without its flaws. The setup can be time-consuming, and some elements rely heavily on luck. But for those willing to embrace the chaos, Fortune Row is an absolute blast.
Get your copy of City of Mist: Fortune Row today. It’s time to uncover secrets and solve mysteries in the most dangerous part of the city!
Related Posts
If you love supernatural RPGs, be sure to check out our reviews of Gloomhaven or Adventure Tactics and CoraQuest.
- City of Mist: Fortune Row Review (Original)
- City of Mist: Fortune Row Art Book
- Gloomhaven Review
- Nemesis Lockdown Review
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