On the eastern coast of the Terra Australis, near the edge of the knowable world, where the Sterling river meets the sea, there is a city. A city positioned on the border of three nations, belonging to none. The Nameless City. It is a city of the future. A city of the past. A city of possibility. A city of death. A city of secrets. A city of truths. A city of the strange and esoteric. A city of the utterly banal.
And it is your home.

WELCOME TO THE NAMELESS CITY

You seem confused... are you new to town? Ah, well, no matter. I'll catch you up to speed on everything you need to know.

First thing you have got to understand about this place is the Districts. Everyone's got one they call home. Well... almost everyone. The city's cut up into 8 of them. Or 9. Or maybe 10? It doesn't matter. They each got their own style. Glass District's got self-important cascy business folks, Rose District's got your blue-blood rich people, Steel District's got factories and factory workers, and the Bronze District's got like, houses and stuff. A lot of houses. Maybe too many houses? Anyways, it'll be pretty easy to tell which District you're in, and which one someone's from, too. They're all very distinct. You'll learn them all quick, trust me.

There's also a buncha groups you are gonna have to get familiar with. They're kinda the lifeblood of this place, y'know? Even if most of them want all the others dead. The main one you gotta know is Rook. Rook Holdings Company. You can see their office in the Glass District from pretty much anywhere in the city. They run the place, kinda. Don't piss them off. There's also the MCM, they're the cops, and they mostly just beat people up. There's the OEC, who are like, super scary spy people. For all I know you could be one of them, they're real discrete. There's the Baine Syndicate, who are criminals. Everyone pretends to hate them, but most people actually really like them. They keep the cops entertained, I guess. There's also the Luddites, the Eurian Church, Radiotech, the Silver Club, the Rose Foundation, the Oak Syndicate, and a buncha other ones too. You'll get acquainted with them all eventually. What's that? The Scarlet Order? Who... Who told you about them? I... I don't know what you're talking about... I've never heard of them before... Let's... Let's move on.

We use the libre here. These sweet pieces of paper are our money. People live and die for this stuff. It's life and freedom in material form. Run out of these, and it's end of the line, my friend. Life here ain't cheap, and unless you're wanting to be eating dirt and sleeping on the cold pavement, you'll need a few in your pocket. Short on cash? Well, there's always a job to be done somewhere. If that doesn't work out, there's always gambling, or taking on debt. And hey, if none of that is working for you, I heard about this bank on Terrace Street with this metal box in it. Turns out, the damn thing's fulla cash, you just gotta get it open. Who knew!?

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?

Yeah, this place is looking worse for wear, isn't it. That's all thanks to the Ekkoran War, I'm afraid. What is Ekkora? What, have you been living under a rock? You surely know about Cascadia, though. No? Taemor? Wow. I guess I'll have to start from the very top.

To the north there is Cascadia, to the east there is Ekkora, and to the south there is Taemor. The one thing you have to know is that Ekkora and Cascadia fucking hate each other. Why, you may ask? Well, it's complicated, but the main reason has to do with the Sterling River. See, the Sterling River passes through the city and inland towards Ekkora. The river is the only way for Ekkoran ships to get out to sea, meaning all Ekkoran seafarers have to pass through the city. 20 years ago, before the war, this was Cascadian territory, which pretty much gave Cascadia power over all of Ekkora's sea trade. And the thing is, while the city is owned by Cascadia, it's mostly populated by Ekkorans, which leads Ekkorans to see this city as an Ekkoran city. Then the Cascadian treasury starts getting tight and they start taxing the hell out of Ekkoran ships. Ekkorans naturally don't like this and firebomb a bunch of important Cascadian buildings, and in response an Ekkoran ship is sank off the coast. Blah, blah, blah, things spiral and get worse, you get the deal. Eventually the two nations start duking it out, and soldiers begin killing each other in the streets. The Cloth District gets blown to pieces, and after about 3 years, it's over. Suddenly. That's probably the strangest thing, actually. One day everyone's gunning for victory, and the next day, the governments of the two warring nations are suddenly desperate to wrap everything up. Just like that. To this day, I've never heard a good explanation to why it ended like that.

So that's the Ekkoran War. That's why you can still see bullet holes in some buildings in the Bronze District. That's why there's an entire district of rubble. But that still isn't the whole story. After the war ended, the war with no victor, the city was declared a self-governing neutral zone. It became nameless. Understandably, not a single person was happy about this. The soldiers, now heavily injured and filled with trauma, were all sent home without so much as a pat on the back, and were told to get along with the people they'd just spent the last four years thinking were the scourge of the earth. Most found their way to the Steel District, where companies happily gobbled up the unemployed and desperate veterans, and offered them mechanical prosthetics in exchange for their undying servitude. Some turned to crime to make a living, a certain group started dealing off surplus military weaponry to make ends meet. That group would eventually become the Baine Syndicate, wouldn't you know. Funny how that worked out.

That's pretty much the whole deal, mostly. I've talked your ear off enough, I think. Stay out of the undercity, don't go anywhere alone, never drink the tapwater in the Salt District, and buy a gun first chance you get, if only as a deterrent. Oh, and most tabacafes offer a discount on their day-old pastries, right? Don't ever buy a day old meat bun. I know they're cheap, it ain't worth it. I spent a week shitting my brains out. Not fun. Well, good luck out there. Take it easy, if you can. At the very least keep yourself alive. Welcome to the Nameless City!

~ THE GAME ~

Gunsmoke is a game about survival, mystery, and risk. It takes place in a retro-futuristic and lovecraftian equivalent to the real-world 1930s, and is heavily based off of a feverish dream I had after watching Metropolis (1927). It's got gunslinging outlaws, mechanically enhanced cyborgs, psychic powers, eldritch cults, rampant corporate greed, political turmoil, sparring crime syndicates, and a bunch more. It's also sort of inspired by Bioshock and Disco Elysium too, I suppose. (Disco Elysium keeps worming its way into my creations lol) A unique aspect of the game is that it is completely diceless, instead using a standard deck of 52 playing cards for all random number generation, with your stats represented by different suits. It is still a game very much in construction, and is constantly changing by the day. In fact, as you read this, there is a non-zero chance me and my friends are in a discord call right now either playing the game or hashing out the mechanics. If you would like to read over the live document, it can be found linked below. If you have any comments, please tell me! I'd very much like to here from you. I've been playtesting this game sparsly over the last two years with the same group of like five people, so it'd be good to hear the thoughts of someone from outside my circle.

>> RULES LIVEDOC <<