Vendetta: A Gangland Resource is the first supplement in support of Deep7's role-playing game of classic film noir, Mean Streets. In this supplement, players and GMs are treated to a more detailed look into organized crime in America, its roots, founding fathers, and families and puts it all into perspective for those who want to play mobsters and hooligans in a crime/gangster-based campaign.

From the Deep 7 website, which can be found at - www.deep7.com

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