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Dirt City Blues - Redemption's a Bullet Away

Created by The World Anvil Publishing

Dirt City Blues is a TTRPG ispired by Sin City and the cinematography of Quentin Tarantino, about people who should know better: burned-out Badasses with hair-trigger tempers, messy pasts, and a real knack for making things worse before they get better. But Dirt City Blues is also a game about redemption, about that one last heroic act that drags you out of hiding. Someone knocks. Someone bleeds. The quiet life ends. You hang the apron, kill the lights, and step back into the fight. We aim to start shipping physical rewards by July 2026. Digital rewards for already-existing books will be sent when orders are locked down (Mid January 2026). Once they're ready, all other digital rewards will be made accessible (estimated Q2 2026). Pre-order sales are final. Shipping will be charged closer to fulfillment. You can check estimated shipping prices HERE (Shipping and Fulfillment section)

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Vote for the next Stretch Goals, Dev Diary and more
9 months ago – Mon, Oct 27, 2025 at 09:17:45 AM



Hello Badasses,

TL;DR: As promised in the last update, it’s time to vote on which Stretch Goals we should prioritize next. You’ll find all the details below, together with the final Dev Diary and a new interview we recorded yesterday.

Vote on the Next Stretch Goals

As you know, after early feedback, we made the call to include some originally planned Stretch Goals directly in The Folder or as campaign bonuses. Now we need to decide what else to add as the campaign grows and more backers join the fight.

At the end of this update, you’ll find a survey with several options.

You can vote for one, so pick the one that speaks to you most. In 48 hours, we’ll tally the votes and select the top three. We’ll prioritize them based on production complexity, since not all Stretch Goals take the same amount of time or resources to bring to life.

How to Unlock Them: Your Vote, Your Reach

We’re also trying something new to involve the community more directly.

Each Stretch Goal will be unlocked by either:

We’ve set three thresholds: 200, 400, and 750 clicks. We have 15 days to go, and they all feel feasible.

This link is trackable, so please use only that one if you want it to count. You can help by sharing it in places where it’ll matter. Here’s where it works best:

  • Instant messaging apps (WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, iMessage, Signal…)
  • Social media (Bluesky, X, Facebook, Reddit…)
  • Forums, private servers, or niche communities where this game could resonate

We’re not asking you to spam, just share it thoughtfully. Add a sentence or two about why you think Dirt City Blues is worth checking out. Be real. Be specific. A personal recommendation beats a paid ad every time.

This takes a minute of your time, costs nothing, and helps us reach places we can’t hit through traditional promotion. Paid ads have their limits. You? You don’t. The goal is simple: get more eyes on the campaign.
The funding will follow.

Dev Diary, part #4

In the pre-campaign updates we posted three episodes of Raffaele’s Dev Diary. If you missed them, you can find them here:

Today we are happy to share the final part of this series:

Everyone knows everything ends eventually, and the Badasses know the credits tend to roll early for people like them. If they’re lucky, maybe someone sticks around for a post-credit scene. But deep down, they know how this goes: you either go out in a blaze of bloody glory… or disappear again, this time for good.

What they’ve been through because of the Trauma would break most people.

Add to that the fact they’ve pissed off half of Dirt City trying to protect the helpless, and defend the few people they still can’t stop loving—despite everything—and the deck’s stacked against them from the start.

Mechanically, the enemies and loved ones of each Badass fall into two categories: the Black List and the White List. Players decide who goes where, and, when the story demands it, who moves from one to the other. Those choices come with consequences, but also rewards: bonus XP at the end of each Problem for how those Bonds evolve. But when someone gets scratched off the White List, or when their relationship with the Badass crumbles, either from the Badass’s own screw-ups or through the actions of someone on the Black List, something cracks.

That anchor to something human, something worth fighting for? It slips.And when that happens, the Badass risks taking an Emotional Wound. Worse still, they tick one Strain.

Hit four ticks, and the Badass won’t be the same person who came crawling back into the city for one last chance. That’s when the big decision comes: walk away with style… or go down swinging.

Maybe that means introducing a new Badass. Maybe it’s time for a well-loved NPC to step into the spotlight. Maybe one of the crew vanishes again: new name, new city, ghosting the past to protect what little good is left.

There’s always a way out. The credits roll for everyone, we said that already. But every ending leaves a door cracked open, and every good film deserves a goddamn sequel. And in Dirt City? There’s always some poor bastard in need of a Badass.


Interview and Actual Play

Yesterday I had the pleasure of chatting with Mildra the Monk about Dirt City Blues. There was a technical hiccup—Mildra’s questions didn’t make it into the final audio—but you can still hear all of my very wise answers (they start around the 5 minutes mark), so it’s worth a listen as the questions are implied.


Meanwhile, Raffaele ran a session of Dirt City Blues on a friendly Discord server.

The game is in Italian only (sorry, folks), but if you understand the language, check it out here:
 


Connect With Us

You can find us on multiple platforms:
 • Discord: Join our community and chat directly with us.
 • Facebook: Follow The World Anvil Publishing page.
 • Bluesky: Stay updated with our latest posts.
 • Telegram: Get quick updates straight to your device.
 • Instagram: See behind-the-scenes content and more.

Thank you again for being part of this adventure. Together, we’ll make Dirt City Blues the best game it can be.

–Tommaso

We're funded!
9 months ago – Fri, Oct 24, 2025 at 07:42:09 AM


So…we’re Funded!

The news is in: we hit our goal. The plan to clean up Dirt City is officially in motion. You just made a dream real.

That’s no small feat, so from the bottom of our broken, caffeinated hearts: thank you. But this is just the first milestone, the bare minimum to get this thing out the door.

We’ve got a hell of a lot more planned, and with your help, we can take this project from “viable” to legendary.

So if you’re enjoying the ride, help us spread the word. Bring a friend. Share THIS link (right click > copy and paste). Let’s make Dirt City Blues everything it deserves to be.


Some Changes, a Campaign Exclusive and an Upgrade to the Folder

We’ve got good news. The campaign is picking up steam, and thanks to your feedback, we’ve found a better path forward that brings more value, more content, and more game straight to your table.

While things started a bit slower than usual for us, that just gave us time to take a hard look at what we could improve, and the result is a major upgrade to what you get, no unlocks needed.

Over the last few days, we listened carefully to the feedback and decided to throw out our original Stretch Goal structure. What’s replacing it? A set of instant, game-ready rewards that hit harder and go deeper into what Dirt City Blues is all about.

🔥 Effective immediately, The Folder will include:

  • Solo Mode – One Against All: Play through the origin story of your Badass, up to the Trauma that made them hang up the gun… until now.
  • Double the Problems (scenarios): Living and Dying in Fort Reagan, Trouble at the Silver Coyote (Descriptions below)
  • Double the Dirt City Districts: Sparkling Hill, Seaside (Descriptions below)


🩸 Plus: An Exclusive Crossover NPC
All campaign backers will receive an exclusive Broken Tales x Dirt City Blues crossover NPC:
Iskra “Red Hood”, written in collaboration with Broken Tales author Alberto Tronchi.

  • Physical backers get her in print
  • Digital backers get the PDF version
  • Won't be available in retail or our web store
  • Doubles as full page Art Print

NOTE: We can't edit the list on the pledge levels at this point but we'll add it to the Pledge Manager for each pledge.

Daniel Comerci had already drawn an incredible portrait of Iskra, which you can check out below.



🗳️ You Get a Vote
We’re also introducing community voting on future Stretch Goals. Why? Because we want to deliver what you actually want at your table. You'll be also able to pick expansions to the Core Book and not the Folder only. More on that in the next update.

Now, if you want more details on the items included in the Folder:

  • Problem - Living and Dying in Fort Reagan: Every weekend, Fort Reagan turns into a blood-soaked arena. Inmates forced into underground cage fights. Gambling rings run by the sadistic warden James Hogg, just to entertain his rich scumbag friends. But one convict—Aaron T. Duncan—escapes. He knows he’s a dead man walking, but maybe the crew can still do something for the brothers he left behind.
  • Problem - Trouble at the Silver Coyote: Professor Colin Macchio, a brilliant mathematician and black belt in karate, has vanished without a trace. The police are grasping at straws—but Macchio’s genius may have uncovered something that put him in the crosshairs of people with everything to lose… especially from a guy who’s too good with numbers.
  • District - Sparkling Hill: A hilly district built on vice and illusion: gambling, games, and neon-soaked entertainment. Think Las Vegas in the ’80s, but with more bullets, heavier drugs, and barely a cop in sight.
  • District - Seaside: Imagine Malibu: sun-kissed bodies, cocktails by the pool, and not a care in sight. There’s even a panoramic wheel spinning over the skyline. But when the sun dips, the vibe shifts. Shady deals go down in velvet-roped clubs, and high-speed car chases tear through the streets like it’s just part of the nightlife. Stay sharp. Paradise bites back after dark.
  • Solo Mode - One Against All: We know what to do, but this one requires actual development. Details will come later. Every single one of our games has a Solo Mode. You're in good hands.

Connect With Us

You can find us on multiple platforms:
 • Discord: Join our community and chat directly with us.
 • Facebook: Follow The World Anvil Publishing page.
 • Bluesky: Stay updated with our latest posts.
 • Telegram: Get quick updates straight to your device.
 • Instagram: See behind-the-scenes content and more.

Thank you again for being part of this adventure. Together, we’ll make Dirt City Blues the best game it can be.

–Tommaso

Welcome to Dirt City, Badasses!
9 months ago – Tue, Oct 21, 2025 at 06:35:45 PM

Welcome to Dirt City, Badasses!

I’m Tommaso, Creative Director at The World Anvil Publishing, and I’ll be your voice in the alleys, shadows, and smoke-filled updates of this campaign.

Got questions? You can:

  • Drop a comment on the campaign page
  • Comment under any update
  • Or find me on Discord (tommasodb) and say what’s on your mind

I’ll do my best to reply fast, juggling work, sleep, and backer love like any good fixer in this town. It’s the middle of the night over here, but hey… it’s Day One.


A Few Words

We may have grown a bit over the years, but we’re still a small crew doing this alongside our day jobs, burning the midnight oil to make games worth your time.

Dirt City Blues is a gamble. A passion project. An experiment in size, scope, and tone. It’s our way of expanding the kind of stories we tell without losing what makes our games ours.

And you? You’re the ones we count on when the city gets mean.

We’re doing all the usual legwork: newsletters, ads, forum posts. But the truth is, we can’t reach as far as you can.

If you believe in the project and like the vibe we’re putting out, we’d love your help spreading the word.
Share the campaign link in your Discord communities, private groups, forums, or any other smoky digital alley where you lurk. Every shoutout helps.

Also, if you’ve got a Reddit account, even a simple upvote on THIS POST would do wonders for visibility.

Thanks for standing with us. Dirt City ain’t gonna clean itself.


Missed the Live Stream?

No worries, we’ve got the replay right here.

Join me, our guest Matteo Botti from Tin Hat Games, and a time-traveling Raffaele Vota as we talk shop: gossip, questions, games we’re playing, games we’re making, and some juicy deep-dives into the mechanics that power Dirt City Blues.



Update Schedule
We’ll be dropping a couple of updates each week, give or take the chaotic first few days and the final stretch, when the city’s on fire and everyone’s running on caffeine and adrenaline.

Updates will cover practical info, behind-the-scenes looks, and deeper dives into the dirty details of Dirt City Blues. Got something you want us to talk about? Mechanics? Worldbuilding? Favorite noir tropes?
Let us know. 


Stay in the Loop

Got questions, concerns, or wild praise?

Hit us up on Discord, it’s the best way to get our attention. Just keep in mind our crew is spread across multiple time zones, so if we’re not lightning-fast, we’re probably just sleeping, working, or trying to remember what day it is.

Your feedback matters. We’re building this thing with you.

If you’re the “back now, check later” type, all good, but please don’t mute the updates.

We’ll keep them sharp, and you won’t want to miss info about production timelines, pledge surveys, or shipping details when the time comes.


Connect With Us

You can find us on multiple platforms:
 • Discord: Join our community and chat directly with us.
 • Facebook: Follow The World Anvil Publishing page.
 • Bluesky: Stay updated with our latest posts.
 • Telegram: Get quick updates straight to your device.
 • Instagram: See behind-the-scenes content and more.

Thank you again for being part of this adventure. Together, we’ll make Dirt City Blues the best game it can be.

–Tommaso

Pre-Campaign Update #3
10 months ago – Tue, Oct 14, 2025 at 08:13:26 AM

Hey folks,

Time for one last update before Dirt City Blues hits Backerkit Crowdfunding on October 21.

First things first:
If you still haven’t downloaded the free Quickstart, grab it right now [HERE].

Second: if you think you’ll back the campaign, now’s the time to lock down the dry-erase city map. It’ll be available during the campaign as a 15€ Add-On or included in the All-In pledge—but right now, during pre-launch, you can get it for just 1€. When the clock runs out, so does the deal.

In this update:

  • What’s inside The Folder
  • Episode 3 of Raffaele’s Dev Diary
  • A quick peek at the Pledge Levels

Strap in. One last ride before the chaos begins.


The Folder

You might’ve noticed that the Slipcase comes with a weird yellow thing stuck to the side. What the hell is that?



We call it The Folder—and it’s where the secrets of Dirt City go to die.

Designed to look like a real detective’s case file, The Folder is a collection of bonus content, unlocked primarily through Stretch Goals. At launch, it’ll already include:

  • A Problem called “Living and Dying in Fort Reagan”
  • A new District for Dirt City: “Sparkling Hill”

Each of these comes as its own insert: several pages of hooks, NPCs, complications, and scenes you won’t find in the Core Book. And we’ve got more in the works, including content in wildly different formats… but we’re not blowing that surprise just yet.

Almost every Stretch Goal in the campaign will end up in the Folder, except for certain chapter expansions and (maybe) an alternate play mode that fits better in the Core Book itself. You’ll get all the details when the campaign goes live.


Dev Diary – Episode 3

So, funny story: Raffaele actually wrote four parts for his Dev Diary, but we’re almost out of pre-launch runway, and I don’t want to hijack your inbox.

So we’re saving the final chapter for the live campaign. Until then, here’s Episode 3, straight from the mind behind the madness.

Take it away, Raf.

In Dirt City Blues, by now you’ve probably figured it out, you’re stepping into the blood-soaked boots of a classic, hard-boiled Badass. The kind of tormented antihero ripped straight from a certain type of action cinema.

Now, don’t let the ‘80s setting fool you. These aren’t your clean-cut, jingoistic muscleheads from early Reagan-era blockbusters. We’re dealing with damaged goods—closer to the morally bankrupt legends of Sin City, or the dysfunctional wrecking balls in The Boys. Sure, those started as comics, but once they hit the screen, they felt like home. Grit, guts, and more than a little guilt.

And yeah, throw Kill Bill in the mix (the greatest movie of all time, don’t @ me). That thirst for revenge, the trail of trauma, the deadly beauty of consequences catching up with you? That’s Dirt City Blues in a nutshell.

You want more recent examples? Try Reacher, especially that killer second season where the old crew gets back together for one last dance. Or Nobody, with Bob Odenkirk dropping bodies like baggage he thought he left behind. That character might as well have rolled out of our rulebook: a man trying to escape who he was, only to find he still is… a Badass.

As for RPG influences, there are two big ones.

First, Cthulhu Dark by Graham Walmsley—an elegant horror-investigation game that gave me the push I needed to flesh out the structure of Problems in Dirt City. Huge thanks to Graham for being generous with feedback and offering sharp advice when it mattered.

Second? Dogs in the Vineyard by Vincent Baker. That game showed me, probably for the first time, how damn fun it is to drown your players in responsibility, and then sit back and watch what breaks first: their morals or their minds.

After all, in Dirt City, the Badasses are the last unleashed dogs in a city that forgot how to bark.

Pledge Levels

You came here to see the goods, so here they are.

We had two simple goals with this campaign: keep it tight, and keep it affordable. No second mortgage required. Whether you’re a PDF purist or someone who likes the feel of bloodstained cardboard in your hands, there’s a pledge level for you—even if you live in a country tormented by dumb tariffs and weird shipping rules.

Pledges start at 19€ for digital, and top out at 85€ for the All-In. No bloat. No filler. Just the best damn game we could make, packed with love, grit, and the occasional shell casing.



Two quick things before I vanish into the alley:

  • The campaign goes live October 21 at 18:00 CET / 9:00 AM PDT
  • We’re doing a 60-minute livestream to celebrate, chat, and answer your questions starting 15 minutes after launch (18:15 CET / 9:15 AM PDT).

    Set a reminder here (it will be broadcasted also on the campaign page):

    👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umdy8MPaLC8

Pre-Campaign Update #2
10 months ago – Tue, Oct 07, 2025 at 08:20:06 AM

Hi all,

Welcome to the second pre-campaign update for Dirt City Blues!
If you haven’t checked out the free Quickstart yet, you can grab it right now [HERE].
The campaign is launching in just a couple of weeks, and we still have a few things left to reveal.

In this update:

  • Poll Results
  • The Bullet Dice Set
  • Episode 2 of Raffaele’s Dev Diary
  • A new video interview with Raffaele covering many aspects of the game

Ready? Steady? Go!


Poll Results

First things first: in the previous update, we asked you what kind of vibes bring you to Dirt City Blues, and what extras you’d like to see in the campaign.

And the winner is… John Carpenter! (with Tarantino being a close second)

Message received. We’ve already got a few things planned in that direction, but if the campaign goes exceptionally well, we now know exactly where to draw further inspiration.


The Bullet Dice Set



One of the rewards you’ll find in the Dirt City Blues campaign is the custom Bullet Dice Set: a full set of stylish d6s shaped like, well… bullets.

We’ve confirmed with our manufacturer that these beauties won’t just look cool—they’re also balanced and fully functional, just like standard dice.

The three colors correspond to the system’s three-tier dice mechanic (Standard, Advantage, and Drawback)—a format you’ll recognize if you’ve played Dead Air: Seasons or Valraven: The Chronicles of Blood and Iron. That said, they’re d6s, and you can use them with just about any game you like.


Dev Diary – Episode 2

The first episode of Raffaele Vota’s Dev Diary received some great feedback, so here’s part two, straight from the designer himself, as he continues his journey to bring Dirt City Blues to life.

Over to you, Raf:

Why did I choose Monad Echo as the engine for Dirt City Blues?
Well… truth is, I’ve always been better at adapting something that already exists than inventing from scratch. Call it a character flaw.

I’m what you’d call a chronic malcontent. Every time I write something, I second-guess it, tear it down, rebuild it, and second-guess it again. Over and over. A lovely little creative death spiral that rarely leads where I hoped it would, at least not in my head.

I know—it’s a me problem.

People like what I make. Hell, most of the folks who’ve picked up my self-published games on Itch.io seem more than satisfied. By all accounts, I should just take a deep breath, blow out the anxiety, and flash a smug little smile.

But anyway. Let’s not get too soft here.

A while back, after years of circling the idea, I was finally pulling Dirt City Blues together using my own minimalist system. As usual, I wasn’t fully happy with it. Then my buddy, editor, and behind-the-scenes consigliere Andrea “Il Pardu” dropped the line that changed everything:

“Boss, why don’t you take a look at the system from Valraven and Broken Tales? The official SRD just dropped.”

Damn him. I’d known Alberto Tronchi, the mind behind those games, for years. Always respected his work, as a designer and as a novelist. Seriously, look him up. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Alberto’s novels are not translated into English, at least not yet).

So of course I threw everything back into the blender. Again. Typical me.

Long story short? Monad Echo turned out to be a perfect fit for Dirt City Blues. This game needed a system that could handle the weight of these stories—stories about ex-operatives, the Badasses, who walked away after some devastating Trauma. Guys who shelved their guns and tried to disappear.

But the past? It’s a dirty fighter. It comes back swinging, dragging them, their loved ones, and half the damn city back into the muck.

And these Badasses? They answer the call.

Because no one else has the guts, the grit, or the lead to fix what’s broken. Because, for some reason, they still care—about someone, or something, in this cursed city.

And that core question? The one that always comes back, no matter the mission?

“How far are you willing to go to get what you want, the way you want it?”

Monad Echo nails that question. Its mechanics let you play with calculated risk, personal suffering (which, beautifully, turns into XP), and emotional bonds that aren’t just flavor: they shape your story and your growth.

It let me do everything I was trying to do, only better. Cleaner. More human.
You’ll learn more during the campaign.

[the Dev Diary continues in the next update]


The Video Interview

Tommaso again now. Here’s a little conundrum we’ve run into while presenting all our projects: only a few people on the team feel truly comfortable speaking in English. Sure, they understand it, and they can speak it, especially if you threaten them with a waterboarding session, but let’s just say it’s not their comfort zone.

All our games so far have been written in Italian first, then translated into English. That’s never been a real issue, but it does put me—your friendly, glorified producer—in the position of having to speak on behalf of the writers more often than not. I don’t mind doing it, but it’s not exactly my dream role.

Luckily, technology has our back.

After experimenting with a previous project, we’ve learned that translation tools have gotten really good, even for video. So, here’s a conversation between Raffaele and Tuccio from Around the Game, originally recorded in Italian, and now available in near-flawless English.

Raffaele dives into many of the mechanics you’ll find in Dirt City Blues, so it’s definitely worth a watch:



Until next time!