I've wanted to run a Sin City-esque campaign for a long time myself.  I have the same issue through, in that I cannot seem to pick a system.  There are some good noir games out there these days but they are trying to capture the feeling of 1940s and 1950s noir flicks, which I love, but not necessarily Sin City.

I even tried to get into City of Mist to see if I could get it to work but it seems everyone wants to play it as a straight up superhero game instead of emphasizing the noir, emphasize the noir, brooding, dark atmosphere, crime, the corruption, etc.

I'm considered trying Index Card RPG with the Vigilante City setting for it but it also reads as more of a superhero game to me.  I've also looked at The Big Crime by Spectrum Games and Hard City by Osprey, even Streets of Bedlam and Deadlands Noir, but haven't decided what to use yet.

Any suggestions and/or thoughts out there to this?

I've run exactly that using Dust Devils by Matt Snyder with the Concrete Angels expansion by Jared Sorensen. I think CA got directly added into the second edition core book along with the other setting variants.  It's rules light and character focused.  Produced exactly the tone and feel I wanted.

Deadlands Noir was my first thought. If you want to give that little bit of heightened reality without going all the way into superheroes, you could try and get a hold of the "Thrilling Tales" pulp rules for Savage Worlds to mix in.

Pulp Cthulhu could probably do it pretty serviceably as well.

I haven't read the Sin City comics, but from the movie, my understanding is that it's about doing the noir visual style with a greater emphasis on action over detective work, and a slight fantasy element around the fringes. If so, Savage Worlds seems like a natural fit. I don't know if anyone has done a "The Shadow" TTRPG, but that would be in the same tone as well. Film Noir grew directly out of the pulps, and it seems like all Frank Miller did was repaint it with an extra layer of blood and boobies.

EDIT: Honestly, Frank Miller probably didn't even turn up the R-rated stuff much. The original Raymond Chandler and Daschiell Hammet novels, which most of the biggest film noir movies are based on, can get pretty adult. The films had to sanitize quite a lot due to the Hays Code.

Quote from: Batjon on January 29, 2023, 08:43:39 AM
I've wanted to run a Sin City-esque campaign for a long time myself.  I have the same issue through, in that I cannot seem to pick a system.  There are some good noir games out there these days but they are trying to capture the feeling of 1940s and 1950s noir flicks, which I love, but not necessarily Sin City.

I even tried to get into City of Mist to see if I could get it to work but it seems everyone wants to play it as a straight up superhero game instead of emphasizing the noir, emphasize the noir, brooding, dark atmosphere, crime, the corruption, etc.

I'm considered trying Index Card RPG with the Vigilante City setting for it but it also reads as more of a superhero game to me.  I've also looked at The Big Crime by Spectrum Games and Hard City by Osprey, even Bedlam City and Deadlands Noir, but haven't decided what to use yet.

Any suggestions and/or thoughts out there to this?

Sin City the comic was a primary source of inspiration for our Cyberpunk 2020 game. It worked great!

Now that I'm thinking about it, I may try and use the movies for Cyberpunk Red and see how it goes.

There's a setting for Savage Worlds called "Streets of Bedlam" that is exactly what you are asking for.

Quote from: PencilBoy99 on January 29, 2023, 10:15:25 AM
There's a setting for Savage Worlds called "Streets of Bedlam" that is exactly what you are asking for.

I have that on my list of possibilities.

Have you considered a system that uses descriptor-based characters like Fate, Cortex, or Cipher? It might work well with tropey characters like "hardboiled PI", "femme fatale" or "Marv from Sin City".

Quote from: Batjon on January 29, 2023, 10:22:32 AM

Quote from: PencilBoy99 on January 29, 2023, 10:15:25 AM
There's a setting for Savage Worlds called "Streets of Bedlam" that is exactly what you are asking for.

I have that on my list of possibilities.

I Second Streets of Bedlam, though its not supported and hasnt been updated for SWADE so it will take a little work but nothing major

For some reason I want to promote Tiny-D6 Supers, but more specifically the Fallen Justice expansion book. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/310272

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/258462

It's probably the three color art style.  Black, white, and red.  And the fact that Fallen Justice is more about non-powered super heroes that punch, shoot, or use gadgets to take down their enemy. 

The second link is for a standalone game using d20 rules.  The first one you will need Tiny D6 Supers to play it. L

A Sin City RPG session should only use black & white dice.

Except the GM - he gets occassional red dice for bloody effects.