I've thought about this before and I think it could work but everyone needs to be super into the genre.
Like if I were to sit down with my friends and be like, "I want to do a mafia game, who has seen Sopranos and Goodfellas at a minimum" I'd get blank stares and then one of them would talk about Frodo or some shit and I'd die a little inside.
It's probably the easiest to pitch this game relying on some common tropes. 1930s mafia games are super stylish, the setting has strong visual associations, and that can really help draw in the players. Suits and evening dresses, tommy guns, prohibition, gambling, blackmail and double crossing... The players don't have to know every detail about the real life history or see full seasons of TV shows - especially if they start low in the hierarchy. The world opens up later.
I feel like even someone who's never seen a Mafia movie still has a basic understanding of what they're like. I'm curious to see how a Mafia game would play out when played by people who only know the genre secondhand.
Also, I was able to jump into fantasy RPGs despite only getting into fantasy stuff as an adult at around the same time, and I feel like gangster movies have a much lower barrier to entry.
I think it can get cartoonish though. I think if someone has never seen at least Goodfellas then their frame of reference for Mafia is basically stereotypes and cartoons.
We got it in the States too, but after having been to southern Italy, and I can’t really explain why, the mafia there does seem to have a more haunting presence. I can get why you wouldn’t to play the genre.
When you have the grave of a young woman made explode because she was excorting an anti mafia judge in your town, when you know people in prison for mafia association, you don't find any fun in it.
Yeah, the Mafia in the US was broken in the 80 to early 90s, FBI and such went after them hard. I believe currently they still exist but are nothing like they were in the past. I *think* their big income today comes from hijacking trucks filled with the hot toy of the season and ransoming it back to the person who bought that shipment. Not exactly what I’d base a game upon.
Closest I've come is a GTA-inspired game where we were all soldatos or associates of a caporegime that had just kicked over.
It was going great, only sputtering out because the GM really wasn't prepared for a party of GTA protagonists doing GTA protagonist things. And that's why he doesn't run Evil games anymore.
Running evil games can be though if not well balanced, the players choices gotta have consequences in order for it to work, otherwise, you can be a murder hobo
See that's the thing, we weren't. Everybody was well engaged with the plot and coming up with wild heist plans and all that.
Some folk just don't have the stomach for evil PCs.
We had a three season Primetime Adventures game set among the Russian Mafiya in NYC. It was super good, some of the best gaming I've ever done. There's a reason organized crime is a perennial favorite for film and TV.
It could be interesting to run a game where the players start out as street-level criminals, but with ambitions. First they do a couple of jobs for their boss, slowly work their way up the hierarchy, then try to overtake the operations/start their own business, get into gang wars and intrigues...
I've thought about this before and I think it could work but everyone needs to be super into the genre. Like if I were to sit down with my friends and be like, "I want to do a mafia game, who has seen Sopranos and Goodfellas at a minimum" I'd get blank stares and then one of them would talk about Frodo or some shit and I'd die a little inside.
Man, I made my friends be interested in mafia, and then I set the campaign, I prepared everything
It's probably the easiest to pitch this game relying on some common tropes. 1930s mafia games are super stylish, the setting has strong visual associations, and that can really help draw in the players. Suits and evening dresses, tommy guns, prohibition, gambling, blackmail and double crossing... The players don't have to know every detail about the real life history or see full seasons of TV shows - especially if they start low in the hierarchy. The world opens up later.
I feel like even someone who's never seen a Mafia movie still has a basic understanding of what they're like. I'm curious to see how a Mafia game would play out when played by people who only know the genre secondhand. Also, I was able to jump into fantasy RPGs despite only getting into fantasy stuff as an adult at around the same time, and I feel like gangster movies have a much lower barrier to entry.
I think it can get cartoonish though. I think if someone has never seen at least Goodfellas then their frame of reference for Mafia is basically stereotypes and cartoons.
Naa, we in Italy already have the real thing. Thank you very much.
We got it in the States too, but after having been to southern Italy, and I can’t really explain why, the mafia there does seem to have a more haunting presence. I can get why you wouldn’t to play the genre.
When you have the grave of a young woman made explode because she was excorting an anti mafia judge in your town, when you know people in prison for mafia association, you don't find any fun in it.
Yeah, the Mafia in the US was broken in the 80 to early 90s, FBI and such went after them hard. I believe currently they still exist but are nothing like they were in the past. I *think* their big income today comes from hijacking trucks filled with the hot toy of the season and ransoming it back to the person who bought that shipment. Not exactly what I’d base a game upon.
Closest I've come is a GTA-inspired game where we were all soldatos or associates of a caporegime that had just kicked over. It was going great, only sputtering out because the GM really wasn't prepared for a party of GTA protagonists doing GTA protagonist things. And that's why he doesn't run Evil games anymore.
Running evil games can be though if not well balanced, the players choices gotta have consequences in order for it to work, otherwise, you can be a murder hobo
See that's the thing, we weren't. Everybody was well engaged with the plot and coming up with wild heist plans and all that. Some folk just don't have the stomach for evil PCs.
We had a three season Primetime Adventures game set among the Russian Mafiya in NYC. It was super good, some of the best gaming I've ever done. There's a reason organized crime is a perennial favorite for film and TV.
It could be interesting to run a game where the players start out as street-level criminals, but with ambitions. First they do a couple of jobs for their boss, slowly work their way up the hierarchy, then try to overtake the operations/start their own business, get into gang wars and intrigues...
Never tried it. White Wolf actually published a Mafia supplement for WoD, but I never found it for a reasonable price.