Product Review
I was one of the lucky people involved
in play testing the Mean
Streets Rulebook in preparation for it’s
release. I’ve always been a fan of the mafia
style games and the Noir RPG
has always been popular in our gaming group, so the
release of another gangster game immediately sparked
my interest. The Mean Streets Rulebook certainly didn’t
disappoint and Matt’s review, which can be found
elsewhere on KMANT, will tell you more about the core
rules. But I am here to review the first sourcebook
(or maybe source.pdf is a better way of putting it)
– Vendetta.
So
where does it all begin?
Vendetta – A Gangland Resource
begins with a story. The plot revolves around a private
investigator named Harridan, it helps get you in the
mood for the rest of book, but sadly it gets a good
book off on a poor start. I enjoyed the storyline
but I found the writing a little awkward. The use
of some ‘flavour’ words seemed a little
forced and basically it just feels like it was done
at short notice to add to the rest of the material
rather than a piece that was planned from the start.
But
it gets better right?
It sure does. Vendetta goes on to
cover the subject of - Film Gangsters. This section
begins with a short history of early gangster films
and leads into the thinking behind Gangsters and their
unique anti-hero personalities. The Mean Streets rulebook
simply used the archetype; Gangster, but Vendetta
takes this a step further and breaks down the different
roles a Gangster can take within a Family (or alone
for that matter). This gives you a more specialised
range of criminal types to use as you build your character.
Rather than simply taking Gangster, you can now decide
you’d like to be a Bank Robber or perhaps a
Racketeer. Picking one of these titles doesn’t
actually give you any skills or bonuses, it does however
give you a little info on your particular profession
and will help point you in the right direction.
Great,
so now I can be an Irish Hitman, right?
Yes you can, but Vendetta has quite
sensibly decided not to try and cover all of the different
nationalities in one book. This would have either
lead to a huge, expensive and unwieldy book or a thin-on-the-ground
breeze through the facts. Instead Vendetta focuses
on the crime families of Italian origin and does so
excellently. This doesn’t mean that you can’t
use the information in Vendetta to build your own
crime syndicate from any of the other ‘popular’
gangster groups, it simply means that the most popular
and some would say - best – crime family is
covered in full.
So
what stuff do we find out about the Italians?
Well, for a start it gives us an
insight into how organized crime actually works and
explains the two main ‘payoff’ areas every
crime family dabbles in. The first of these in Clean
Graft, which involves paying people to look the other
way while the offer of certain services, which are
somewhat illegal but not directly offensive to the
general public take place. The second is Dirty Graft
and covers the payoffs that keep the more dangerous
side of the gangster lifestyle, involving murder and
rape, out of the courts.
The best part of the entire book
is up next. The Mob Hierarchy breaks down the layout
of a typical mafia family, right from the lowly enforcer
to the towering Capo Crimini or Super Boss. This is
handy for several reasons a) if you players are planning
on taking an active part in Family life, they will
need to know who not to mess with and how to go about
messing with the people they are meant to mess with
(or something like that?) b) it lets you give people
there correct titles when the characters meet them
in the game.
Any
other good bits?
There sure are. Towards the end
of the book you get a series of Plot Hooks, all of
which are pretty good. Each one gives you an angle
to get the players involved and a suggestion of where
the storyline could go next. Useful to help a failing
imagination or for a veteran GM who wants to add a
new idea to a current campaign. Finally, we have six
links to websites that may prove useful if you want
to find out more about other organized crime groups,
like the Russians, the Triads or the Irish.
So
you liked it then?
Yes, in short, it’s a stand-up
sourcebook for the Mean Streets RPG, which is great
in most areas and lacking in only a few minor places.
If you have Mean Streets I'm sure it will prove useful
time and time again.
Reviewed by Jon Simpson |
