Dirty Secrets RPG

Do you feel dirty?

Dirty Secrets is an amazing indie roleplaying game. Its the game that first introduced me to the indie scene, and even though i have played in many times it never gets old.

To understand the indie roleplaying scene you need understand that these games are often very narrow and very unique. Often the game designer has an idea that is not, and cannot, be covered by any of the already established systems. This means that the rules become extremely important. So even though the indie roleplaying scene has an image of being very artsy and loose on rules, i have found that the opposite is actually the truth. The main difference between indie roleplaying games and established games like GURPS or Dungeons & Dragons is that the rules are often not just a framework wherein the players play through a story. Instead the rules are used to actively generate the story, while still giving the players a vast amount of freedom.

Dirty secrets is like many other RPG’s out there. You need a group of imaginative people who are willing to tell a story. The difference here is that where other RPG’s have one storyteller/gamemaster and a group of players, this game instead has one player and a group of gamemasters. The role as lead game master is passed through the group, but all the gamemasters have complete control over everything. If disussions occur, then dice are used to figure out which gamemaster wins the narrative rights.

The player controls an investigator in a classic Dashiel Hammet kind of story. He controls all the thoughts and actions of the protagonist, and has the right to disagree if a gamemaster narrates something wrong about him. In this case, dice is then used to figure out who is right.

The story progresses through a set amount of scenes wherein a crime needs to be solved. The genius part of the system is that no one actually knows who commited the crime. During the play of the game different clues are found randomly, and the gamemasters and player then has to incoporate these clues into their narratives. So forexample; the player is investigating a murder. The game has 6 NPC’s, and everyone knows that one of them did it. As the story progresses everyone agrees that the 9 year old NPC “Little mary” is a nice kid. She goes to school and does her homework and treats the protagonist really nice. Then suddenly, by a roll of dice, it turns out that she is somehow bribing another NPC. Then the player and gamemasters need to figure out how to get that fact to match with the story they are telling. Its all generated randomly and provides for a very very entertaining experience. In the end the antagonist is discovered, and the end scene is narrated.

Its not a very expensive game and i highly recommend it to anyone. The fact that everyone around the playing table has equal say in the story provides for an amazing experience where stories that you had never thought of suddenly appears, and i must admit that even though the initial concept sounded a bit weird to me, i am not totally in love with this game.