NYC Mafia RPG

[M. Laveur]

So I just read some book on the mob and I began to think if an RPG set in 1930-1940's New York City could work.

Basically this is the setting:

April 1931 - Salvatore Maranzano ends the Castellammarese War with the murder of the previous boss of all bosses, Giuseppe Masseria. Two weeks later, he becomes "Capo di tutti Capi".

September 1931 - Seeing Maranzano become a power hungry and overly ambitious leader, the other mafia bosses have him killed, and eliminate the rank of Boss of all bosses, instead building a new ruling structure: The Commission.

In the Commission, the leaders of the main Italian mafia families meet and discuss problems between each other, attacks and vendettas, conflicts with rival mafia groups (russian/albanian/irish mafia) the division of their territories and ultimately, the control of the city's organized crime.

The year is 1935, the Commission has been acting for a while, and the families do their business, however, the ambitions of many and the lust for power may distabilize things, ending in a new war between the Italian families.

Each family would follow this rank structure:

Don - The leader of the family, and its representative in the Commission.
Consegiere - The main counsellor and right hand of the Don, usually at his side in meetings.
Sottocapo - Basically the heir of the Don. Usually one of his sons.
Capo - A commander of the men working for the Don. He's usually the one leading small operations / assassinations, on charge of a few men.
Soldatto - The lowest member of the organization. A gunman, handyman, who may rise to capo and above if he proves his skills and loyalty to the family he serves.

So this is how I imagine it: The main players would take control of one of the families of the Commission (historically it's just 5 families in the commission, but I imagine we could change it a little bit to have a few more), and new members would start as either minor families, or a small time gangster wanna be who would need to find his way up the rank ladder.

The police would be taken by the moderators, allowing us to add control, who would be allowed to act on the event of informants coming to them, a murder scene and other crimes. I was imagining the each player would have a feat known as notoriety, which would indicate how likely it is for the cops to suspect on you for a crime you commited, therefore, after a big hit you should keep a low profile for a while, while things calm down, etc. The players may also have the possibility to buy cops and politicians, pay bribes to get out of trouble, and ultimately even buy the elections of the next governor of the city.

Obviously there's a lot of things to work out, however I first wanted to see if there would be interest among the community for a game with this format. So please comment/suggest/criticize if you find this idea appealing

[Nesimî]

This sounds like a lot of fun, but not everyone has a lot of info on this. Perhaps the most knowledgeable people should play the heads of the ruling families.

[Nikephoros Kapatsos]

I like the idea of this, perhaps I can be the Consigliere of one of the fams.

[Razqua]

I really like this. I could be fairly active and I have a limited knowledge of mafia stuff. I recently played mafia 2( which is a great game by the way). Maybe I could lead a rival gang to the families. I'm sure that someone would have to do it.

[M. Laveur]

I'm glad you like it, though it seems there's not that much interest from the few replies this has gotten :/

Anyone else has some advice/interest? maybe a senior member's critique?

tnx

[Gandalfus]

It would be good for all the modernites to get into, but all the medieval guys like me probably wouldn't play. You would also have to balance guns as well so you don't get people saying they shot each other at exactly the same time etc.

IF there is gunfights Ofc.

[M. Laveur]

Thanks for the feed back

There would definitely be gunfights, so I guess I'll try to make some brief rules (mostly modified from the current ones of other games, I guess) and see if a more formal proposal can get more enthusiasm from the community. If anyone has some proposals / help they want to offer feel free to send me a pm. Thanks!