I just saw a link to Cold Blooded Games' Dog Town over at rpg.net. It's an idea that intrigued me but I never made the effort to seriously check it out.  Now the author is giving the entire game line away for free.  I downloaded the core book and it's actually quite substantial, crunchy and filled with an amazing amount of source material.  It's almost like a ghetto Aces & Eights.  It's really quite hardcore.

Has anyone played this?  Know anything about it?  Why is it being given away for free?  

Here's an old interview with the designer.

And here's the game's website.

I've heard of it but knew little about it, I imagine it wasn't selling so well anymore (it is fairly specialised in topic) and they took the laudable decision to release it free rather than see it unused.

If so, good for them, I'm downloading them now.

I decided to give Dog Town away for free because I don't need the hassle from the Inland Revenue (IRS).
I have a decent enough job as a Police Sergeant and with a wife that is pretty frugal I don't have the need for an additional income. I initially sold DT for to recoup some of the $5,000 I had spent on it and because I believed people generally don't value or use things that they get for free.  
The trouble was when I informed the Inland Revenue that I had a small hobby business they classified me as being self-employed with an additional salary as a Police Officer. I already paid tax automatically on that salary and now they wanted to know what savings I had, they considered whether I should pay additional tax and national contributions on boot allowances and professional subscriptions etc.
In short because they wouldn't separate the two (they kept making mistakes) and make the distinction between a a tax paid salary and a small hobby business that wasn't making any money I told them that I was ceasing the business and allowing other vendors to keep any monies earned off my books.  

At the end of the day I designed Dog Town for fun and because I was passionate about the subject matter so the money isn't an issue for me.

Balbinus does have a point as well. DT has been out for nearly 3 years and so obviously sales have declined in that time. It doesn't take long to exhaust a niche market. By releasing it for free a lot more peoople are going to get to try it out, and some of those who wouldn't have bought it will now give it a run.

Well you got me.  I think you are right about the attraction of it being free, because I've started reading it and am now quite seriously considering running a game with it.  I've been wanting to do an inner-city game where players play gangsters on the rise, perhaps cooperatively or perhaps competitively.  I was thinking about Reign, just because of the company rules.  But there is no setting there.  Well, you have provided tons, with exactly the kind of atmosphere and no b.s. (meaning not playing it safe) that I've been looking for.  Thanks!

I'm guessing your dayjob gives you some insight and knowledge into criminal anthrophology, but I imagine your bailiwick is a little different than urban northeast america in the '70s.  From what I've read, it looks like you've done some pretty impressive research.

Ah, the taxman.  It's an ill wind the blows nobody good.

Thanks for the explanation, as well.

The core system is very interesting, but it's too complex for my tastes.  I would like to have seen a streamlined version of it.  I think the Felon's Handbook supplement is a must-have for anyone running a modern day crime RPG.  It's got tons of information on the mafia and various gangs, not to mention pages and pages on criminal rackets and drugs (history, effects, etc.).  The setting books (Pennington and the others) are also great reads--even if you don't play the game, each one is dripping with a ton of crime-related ideas.  The books suffer from some layout problems, but even so, they were well worth the price, and now that they're free, I think everyone who has even remotely considered running a crime game should have a copy on their hard drives.  

Pete

I bought the original game a couple of years ago and thought it was cool.  I'll have to download the rest of the stuff now too.

Quote from: pspahnThe core system is very interesting, but it's too complex for my tastes.  I would like to have seen a streamlined version of it.  I think the Felon's Handbook supplement is a must-have for anyone running a modern day crime RPG.  It's got tons of information on the mafia and various gangs, not to mention pages and pages on criminal rackets and drugs (history, effects, etc.).  The setting books (Pennington and the others) are also great reads--even if you don't play the game, each one is dripping with a ton of crime-related ideas.  The books suffer from some layout problems, but even so, they were well worth the price, and now that they're free, I think everyone who has even remotely considered running a crime game should have a copy on their hard drives.  

Pete

I just read the Felons Handbook. I got to say this thing is a must have for a criminal game. Reguardless if your using the Dog Town setting/system. Or any other system. Petes assessment is dead on.

Quote from: pspahnThe core system is very interesting, but it's too complex for my tastes.  I would like to have seen a streamlined version of it.  I think the Felon's Handbook supplement is a must-have for anyone running a modern day crime RPG.  It's got tons of information on the mafia and various gangs, not to mention pages and pages on criminal rackets and drugs (history, effects, etc.).  The setting books (Pennington and the others) are also great reads--even if you don't play the game, each one is dripping with a ton of crime-related ideas.  The books suffer from some layout problems, but even so, they were well worth the price, and now that they're free, I think everyone who has even remotely considered running a crime game should have a copy on their hard drives.  

Pete

Character creation is a pain. I realise that now. I thought I was being precise and clever but instead I made it overly involved and a barrier to to playing the game. However there is a fix to this with a simple excel program from the CBG site that pulls it all together in around 5 minutes. A customer called Jeremy Seeley wrote it and I use it all the time. This gives the best of both worlds granular character creation without the pain.  

With that out of the way I don't feel the core system itself is very complex, its just that there is probably too much going on around it with regard to different facets of the game like escaping the scene of a crime and police interrogation. There are some short cuts highlighted in the rules that allow you to dispense with things you don't want or need. Don't want to make a balls test - then don't, don't want to roll for reaction slots - then use the fixed number instead, don't like all the potential modifiers provided - then don't use them they're only there as a guide for you to consider if you wish. A lot of the time though less is actually more and if you've got to look up the books for different things then that can become a drag on play.

So with that in mind I am halfway through a very streamlined crunchless version of the rules that will provide a quick alternative to the core rule book. I think ideally games should be like peanut butter offering crunch and smooth varieties to suit taste.