After World War 2, the Allied Powers split Berlin into the East and West sides. Policing a ruined city after the most devastating war in history was no easy task. Black marketeering ran rampant. Opportunists exploited the German people when possible. In this chaotic mix, two women are murdered, both apparently by the same killer. Three groups of investigators find themselves forced to deal with the mystery; a pair of American military police, two Russian officers, and a few German criminals. Each have their own secret motives and few actually want to do the right thing for the victims. Can justice prevail in such a dirty world? Find out in this double length episode!
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ohman, this is the only one of the Kickstarter preview eps that isn’t gonna make me go “damn it heard this one before.” just relistened to Andrew’s Fortune yesterday and was reveling in the ridiculous complexity that goes into a Caleb oneshot, so ready to relive Dangers of Frat. and anyone who hadn’t already been converted to Thaddeanity is gonna be ready to take Thadmmunion after five hours of Aldo Rayne impersonation. so much love.
Oh man, this game. THIS GAME. This is in my top 5 RPPR games.
“Are we going to have to have one of our ‘Sarge Talks’?”
The Thad fan thread is going to blow up.
(also I have to add as a German speaker that much as I love that flaw in Thad’s character it’s impossible that an American literate in English could speak German but not be able to read it, German is perfectly phonetic and the letters behave by and large the same as do those of English XD BUT I FORGIVE YOU)
I don’t want to be bitchy or anything, but is anyone else as annoyed by Aaron’s “itslike” as me? I swear in one podcast he said it like 5 times in a row without saying any other word.
I love these podcasts but man, he’s ruining them quite a bit.
Sorry Aaron if you read this, it’s nothing against you, but please first think about what you will say, than say it.
Holy balls Caleb, how do you write stuff like this? Amazing! Such complexity, such interesting characters.
Thad was just…wow. Bravo guys! This is one I’ll remember
@Thanatophagous
Be polite, please.
If you feel the need to apologize twice before actually hitting “post comment,” it’s best to resist your baser impulses and keep those thoughts to yourself.
@Citidel
I stole a lot from noir and war films set right after WWII. Watch The Third Man, The Good German, or the later episodes of Band of Brothers. We like to romanticize that time period because the Allies were the “good guys.” But there was a lot of shady stuff going down.
I also checked out a couple of books on post-war Europe and the construction of the Berlin wall (which wasn’t really in force until almost a decade after the peace, to my surprise). This was my con game last year, so I put more effort than usual into the plot. I had to end up cutting the illegitimate, mixed race child plot thread altogether for purposes of time.
Anyway, thanks for the kind words. I’m glad you liked it.
At that time it could be very much possible to not read german if you speak it. Sütterlin was still the handwriting many had be tought in school and Frakur print was used for many pre-Nazi era documents. So it could at least be hard to read if you are not used to it.
Otherwise I am an hour in and really like it so far and as german historian I am not offended yet. 😉
Can’t wait to listen to this one. I played in one of Caleb’s sessions of this at GenCon and it was amazing.
@Caleb
As they say: Good writers borrow from other writers; great writers steal from them outright.
And name dropping “The Third Man” makes me love you all the more.
Okay, yep. Thad is absolutely great in this one.
I’m gonna poke me a hornet’s nest!
@Biest OH RIGHT. I totally forgot about Sütterlin and standing around outside Denkmäler in Leipzig trying to decipher Fraktur. I read a poor photocopy of an early printing of a 1926 book that, umm, glorified child prostitution in Weimar Berlin and difference between an ß and a b was so minimal in the print that I never decided whether the main character was named Graß or Grab. XD take it all back, scenario is perfect after all <333
@Thanatophagous
I apologize that my verbal tick has completely ruined your listening experience. It is not my intent to bring the podcast down or to cause any undue mental stress while enjoying our Actual Plays. Because of this, I think it only fair that I attempt to reimburse you for the time lost listening to my poor attempts at communication. Unfortunately my only time machine is currently under repair, so I am unable to either A) remove myself from the timeline thus ensuring you a quality “it’s like”-less recording or B)Warn you not to listen to the AP and preventing any loss of sanity from occurring. If there is anything else(in lieu of time travel)I can do to assist you, please let me know and it will put in consideration for future recordings.
That was awesome. It’s a shame the mixed-race baby had to be cut, it’s the best red herring I’ve seen in a game in a long time. Hell, maybe ever. Thad’s Sargent was great, like Ross’s commissar but I really liked Aaron’s mini-commissar, I think it was the reveal of his secret at the end that seemed appropriate and good.
Also, when the word “commissar” came up, did Ross start to drool?
I wonder what “A Dirty World: World of Darkness” would be like?
Wow, that’s a Dirty World you’ve got there, guys. Ouch, dark (I like it.)
Also – slow clap for Aaron. I would *never* have the guts to unleash an audio AP of myself on the world (I’ve got a stutter, which is more than a little worse than saying “it’s like” every now and then) – but if I did, I only hope that I could burn hecklers half as well as that.
Also – best moment: when Aaron reveals his secret OOC, and you realise the significance of the “may god forgive me” line. Very cool.
And Thad, of course, but I think that the (other?) raging Thad-fanboys already have that covered… 🙂
Thad is absolutely sterling in this one. I’d give him an A+. Otherwise, it’s a lovely game of intrigue in early post-war Berlin. The two germans outright gutting the two SS soldiers was quite impressive as well.
The investigative ability of some members of the RPPR crew could stand some serious improvement
@Aaron
Don’t be angry dude, just the time you spend “itsliking” can be spent thinking what you will say and so there will be no verbal tick. BTW you amuse me with your broken time machine, but there is a guy that can help you. He is know as The Doctor, and he is kind of an expert on time machines 😀
@Thantophagous
I’m not angry, I just feel you are beating a horse that if not dead is in imminent danger of expiring. This has been a non-issue for quite a while and I would kindly request that you focus your comments on the gameplay or plot. Though given the issue, I would not recommend you listen to some of our earlier games. You probably would not survive them.
Thanatophagous, I’m not sure you understand how verbal (and other) tics work.
slash how not being an asshole to internet strangers over tics they obviously have a hard time getting over and probably don’t feel great about works a little empathy man
@Aaron
I am kinda new to this site, basically brought here by EP and stayed for the ridiculously great gamning group, so I havent listened to the new world campaign and some of the older stuff. But was it so bad back then?
And I cant focus my attention to the plot/gameplay, there is nothing to say about it, you hardly ever post a “less than absolutely great” game. So I have focused on the only thing that is not so superb.
But I guess Ive got an answer to my original question, no one is annoyed by it, but me (it seems)
I finished listening to it. Good game indeed. Seemed historic enough and a few naming and pronounciation things the German worked out too.
Enjoyed listening to it, like every a Dirty World Game on here.
@Thanatophagous
It’s just not been an issue for quite some time. I addressed this a year or so ago when Patrick and others brought it up in another AP. Everyone has their flaws, but you learn to ignore them and live with them…just as we’ve learned to live with Aaron…for better or worse. J/K
Does that mean you don’t notice those flaws anymore? No, you simply look past them. They may still irritate you from time to time, but you can’t force someone to change something like a verbal tic through criticism. It takes patience, time, and understanding. If we had a speech instrucor, we would all be orators. Of course, this is one luxury item I think we can go withot unless you wanna foot the bill. Now with that said, Aaron’s tic has improved.
@Jason
I must say it really does, I dont know if the last one I listened to was really old, but I was quite annoyed at that point, but as I listened through this AP I must say it is much better, kudos to Aaron. BTW what AP have they addressed it in? I would like to listen to that conversation.
I think it’s just been meta-addressed. people complain about it (there have been faaar crueler complaints in the past) and in turn get told to shut on up by phase two listeners. learning not to hear/not to be annoyed by hearing it’slike is phase two of loving RPPR. phase three is contributing to a Kickstarter. phase four is probably fetish dolls. phase five is probably fetishes.
D:
we’re ruining Ross’ life
Hey Caleb, I know this isn’t the forum for this, but I’m still waiting for my authorization into the actual forum, so here goes. I’m super stoked for your Kickstarter, and re listening to this game made me salivate even more. Question, would you consider putting Lover in the Ice as a bonus prize or something, I thought that game was MASTERFUL, and would love to look at the nuts and bolts of it/run it if I got a chance. Thank you to EVERYONE at RPPR for making my days just a little more bearable.
If you aren’t approved then the spam filter flagged your username. Reregister with a less common user name.
@ Sky
Lover in the Ice will be the bonus scenario exclusive to backers at a certain level. Ean has already done some sketches of the Amante for the trailer. I’m waiting on a few more pieces of art, then I can edit the trailer. We’ll throw up the kickstarter at the end of May, as soon as Ross gets back in town and can help me with the promotion stuff.
I hope that answers your question. Thanks for listening!
SO PUMPT FOR THIS KICKSTARTER
CAN’T WAIT
@Caleb, @Ross Payton
It did answer my question, you can bet you’ve got at least one backer right now, and I’m sure many more. Also thanks for the help with the forum, I’ll retry with a new username.
Wait, so, is Occupied Berlin to Caleb what Occupied Japan is for Ross?
I’ve set one game there! One!
Sheesh…:-)
I think this may be my favorite AP so far.
And, on a side note, I find Aaron to be quite entertaining; listen to Bryson Springs if you doubt Aaron kicks ass.
Talk about flashbacks. THAT was the way Germany was back in the 1980s when I was stationed there. If you got all the additudes, interactions, shadyness, and double-dealing from movies you guys are very good. Great show. My second favorite Ross line “Do you want to make Stallin cry?” CLASSIC. (a hint of my favorite “Siberia”. Again Great Show.
I know this posting is now quite old but I found it through the ‘Best of RPPR’ feature. This game was just fantastic to listen to. It reminds me of all the first runnings of a scenario I’ve had to do before with my players…just without so much wit!
You guys all deserve a pat on the back for being so fucking hilarious.
You all seemed on the ball and like you were having a great time just being in the room while it was taking place. I’ve ran little tweaks on Tom’s Divine Fire game for people before and it’s that sort of electric atmosphere that I saw here.
Thad deserves several cookies for this game, his persona was awesome!
A scene from this game has been depicted on the RPPR Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/16168258