A downloadable game.
I've been playing this over the internet with a friend and I love it so much. The structure of building neighbourhoods, landmarks, and characters really helps to make a city seem vivid and tangible. True names is a really really special incredible mechanic that I absolutely love and have been using outside of the game.
My friend and I have been fudging some of the rules so we can play it for longer. It can be tiring to play, but that's because improv is hard rather than a problem with the game itself! In fact I really appreciate the almost modular way the game is structured because it is flexible to fit what we are more comfortable with. We play an event only when we feel like it--though I imagine with more than two people playing one every round would feel better paced. We've also used the long roll table of ex-novo to help us think of interesting events when we're stuck. We also tend to be abstract with character scenes, or skip them in favour of discussion, or build some of the true name before doing the scene to give us a launching off point. Again, with more people, creating characters through scenes would be easier.
This game is absolutely delightful and inspiring and lends itself to giving the cities or settlements or whatever you create so much life and texture.
