by sdonohue

Hometown: Kitty Noir is a 2023 supplement for Magical Kitties Save the Day! published by Atlas Games. It was written by Yeonsoo Julian Kim and features art by Ekaterina Kazartseva and Anthony Cournoyer with cartography by Brian Patterson.

Presentation
This is available as both a pdf and print product. The printed version is a square booklet measuring 9.25" per side and 34 interior pages. The interior is glossy and full color and the covers are of slightly heavier stock. In the middle there's a folded 4 panel pullout map of Sunset City, the setting for this hometown. Overall the book feels sturdy and is beautiful to look at.

Content
Hometowns in the world of Magical Kitties are campaign settings and the one is no different; it even follows a general format for these books which helps to make it easier to use in play. We quickly learn that Sunset City is under the effects of a powerful magic spell. It exists in current times, but the spell makes it so technology hasn't advanced beyond radio. black & white TV, and corded phones. One side-effect of the spell is that people tend to forget the details of their previous life when they enter or leave Sunset City. The spell is the work of the big bad of the setting, Timeless Enterprises, a trio of powerful magicians.

Another side effect of the spell makes crime rampant in the city as people often do things they can't really explain. The kitties are part of the Cat Eyes Detective Agency which has an office in the basement of the human detective agency Diamond & Ace. The humans know about the kitties, but don't know they're magical. In fact, most people in the city who are magical don't realize it.

The book is laid out like other hometowns and combines a number of elements. The first thing that's offered are a couple of noir twists: wiped memory and some modifications to the normal disaster rules. These are meant to drive the flavor as Timeless Enterprises often wipes the memory of its enemies. The next section describes Timeless Enterprises and some of their activities as well as ways the kitties could become entangle with them. It provides a number of potential adventure hooks. Next up in this section is a list of potential cases. Most of these are generic types of cases a PI might encounter like missing persons, stolen goods, blackmail, or sabotage. A few are specific to the setting like Reign of the Rat King or Subliminal Messaging. Each of these is given a short description, a difficulty rating, a typical NPC, and a some adventure hooks.

After that comes several pages of locations. These are organized by street and include several places on the street, each with a short description. Each street ends with another round of adventure ingredients. Some of the more important locations will have longer descriptions or a sidebar with additional details. In addition to 6 streets, there's another section for things on the outskirts of town, some of which are a little shadier than the main locations.

Noir Supporting Cast is next and provides a rundown of the major players in town, both good and bad. These aren't character sheets, they're a brief description of the character, their role, and their motivations. Each character also includes a number of unsolved cases and adventure ingredients associated with the character. For character sheets, there's a page reference, mostly to the core rulebook; a few actually have some stats if they aren't similar to existing creatures.

Disasters are next and they are broken up into city-wide, avenue, and building disasters depending on their scope. They range from a hard rain that has the whole city depressed to bad news no one can stop talking about and from rat swarms to a film shot. In all there are 11 disasters here and they range from fairly mundane to magical problems. Each of them has a number of possible reactions by those affected and some adventure ingredients.

The final selection is adventure recipes. These are blueprint for some common adventure types: blackmailed and the heist, followed by suggestions for creating a longer mystery or a series of events. There is a sample adventure and some more suggestions for elements in different types of adventures.

Evaluation
This book is jam-packed with ideas and it feels like a very noir setting. The adventure ideas are interesting as is the whole mystery of the city and the sometimes bickering leaders of Timeless Enterprises. If you're looking for a way to play some 30s-40s crime dramas as a kitty, this is definitely a great addition to your library. You could probably use it as a guide for other games set in the era if you stripped out some of the magical elements (or not, if your system already has magic).

I recommend this book. I had previously ranked Mars Colony as my favorite hometown, but this one is awfully good.

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by Rachel

Yesterday's secret project... is a bust... for now. Stay tuned! But nothing much else got done today because Mom wanted to play! Woot! Fireworks, Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries, and lots of Ticket to Ride Map Collection 2: India & Switzerland (India side)! And that means I've got even more play reports to share. Catch you all tomorrow!

Game Over On borrowed time...

Happy Sunday and happy playing!
-Rachel

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