Tell me, has anyone played a 1920 era gangster campaign?

My GM has a box set of "Gangbusters" which is basically that setting except you play the cops. Never played it.

>>51251584
No, but I've played a 1930s pulp campaign set in Warlords-era China. It was actually surprisingly fun

>>51251584
I demand storytime!

>>51251584
I played a small scale booze smuggler in a Call of Cthulhu game, who rapidly earned the title of "Unluckiest gangster on the east coast." Deliver booze to a big party on the edge of town? They're a big cult, the police raid the place and the house goes nuts. Try and rob an old man who lives by himself? He's some kind of fucked up invincible wizard and my accomplice stole my fucking car keys before getting turned to goo. Plan to knock over a small country bank? Welcome to the First Bank of Innsmouth.

He miraculously managed to survive every brush with the supernatural, each time losing more sanity and resources each time. He had to rat out his small gang to get released by the cops after the cult raid, he abandoned his car in order to take a bus as far away from the old man as possible, and he busted his tommy gun beating a fish man to death with it after running out of bullets.

Yeah.

Deadlands Noir.

It was pretty fun, but it was Savage Worlds so it isn't everyone's cup of tea.

>>51251605
I happen to own a copy of Gangbusters, and it includes rules for playing as local law enforcement, federal agents, and criminals.

>>51251584
I tried making a "Magi and Mobsters" game from Pathfinder. It was a bit of a clusterfuck. Probably would work a lot better if I used a different game as the base.

>>51251584

Whenever there is a break in our regular games, I run one-shots. Lately, I have had the idea of running a series of noir one-shots beginning in the 1900's and running up through the 2000's.

Each one-shot would take place in the following decade; our first took place in the 1920's, shortly after WWI and the second took place in the 1930's shortly before WWII.

I'll greentext since I'm fairly happy with how they've gone. Each game takes place in Baltimore, Maryland.

>First Noir One-Shot
>Inspiration was "The Big Bang" by Mikey Spillane

The PC's
>Giancarlo sent from New York to check on local mob boss Big Sal and make sure he isn't skimming the take
>Mason, hired by the local police to investigate Big Sal's involvement with his lietenant's disappearance
>Richard, hired by the FBI to nail Big Sal on major trafficking charges
>Charlotte, a con woman working as a singer at Big Sal's bar and trying to scam him big time

Importantly, Private Eye 1 and 2 didn't know each other and both were undercover for different enforcement agencies. This was a big plot point later on.

>Big Sal's right hand man had disappeared, suspected dead
>Last seen having a big fight with one of Big Sal's suppliers, Tommy Collins
>Apparently he'd been having an affair with Collins' wife (even as Collins was having an affair with Charlotte)
>Mason gets in with Big Sal by roughing up some yuppy college-kids making trouble at the speakeasy
>Giancarlo sees Tommy get out of an all-white car, looking disheveled. He's out of the lock up suspiciously soon.
>Big Sal says to keep an eye on him
>Giancarlo and Mason investigate who owns the car, turns out it is a lawyer named Saul
>Big Sal lets Charlotte sit in as he grills Tommy about what he told the police
>Believes that he didn't squeal, but tells Mason to kill him anyway
>Mason instead tells him to lie low, he'll be in witness protection
>Charlotte starts shmoozing Big Sal, gets an invite to his mansion
cont.

>>51260439

>Lawyer turns out to be a coke-snorting, drug-addled asshole
>Now affiliated with any criminal gang, though

This is roughly when Richard's player showed up

>They've heard about a huge shipment of drugs coming in, a "Big Bang"
>Big Sal suspects his rivals are bringing it in to try and force him out
>Richard finds out that the disappeared right-hand-man had met with a Professor Armitage of the Historical Preservation Society
>Giancarlo and Mason's confrontation of the lawyer does not go well-- he pulls a gun, there is a fight, he ends up dead
>Ransack his office, find out that the Historical Preservation Society--and Prof. Armitage--are his biggest client
>The Prof. is bringing in drugs, but no one knows who he works for
>They also find the diary of Sam Armitage, the Professor's son
>Son died of an OD
>Meanwhile, Big Sal has been invited to a sit down by his rivals, brings Richard as his bodyguard, sends his personal bodyguard "The Dutchman' with Charlotte
>At the meeting, the rival introduces Prof. Armitage
>Not trying to force Big Sal out, wants to form an alliance-- was the Professor's idea
>Richard does not like this
>Charlotte gets to mansion, sweet talks bodyguard, gets expensive champagne and spikes the bottle with poison AFTER pouring two glasses
>Giancarlo and Mason rush to meeting
>Confront Armitage
>Big Sal and rival are pissed, but they now know where the drugs are coming in
>Tell Richard, Mason, and Giancarlo to find out Armitage's deal, then kill him
>Big Sal heads to the mansion for some celebratory fuggin
>The three start beating on Armitage, who reveals he believes the Baltimore drug problem won't be solved without a groundswell of popular support
>Armitage used to be a chemist
>Most of the drugs are tainted, only he knows which shipments are bad
>Believes if enough people die to bad junk, they'll demand a crackdown on the trade
>Giancarlo draws to kill Armitage, Mason draws to kill Giancarlo, Armitage lunges at Richard
cont.

>>51260559

>Big Sal seduced by Charlotte, who convinces him to fuck her on a big bed of money
>Then poisons him
>Then gets the drop on the Dutchman when he hears his boss choking to death
>Walks out with $100,000, picks up her lesbian lover, and skips town
>Bloody gunfight, Giancarlo kills Richard, Mason kills Giancarlo, and Armitage kills himself with Richard's gun
>Police pull up as Mason stumbles out, covered in blood
>"What happened?"
>"Everything."
End session.

The second one-shot I decided to get a little bit more specific. It took place in 1939. Baltimore's crime elements have been largely subsumed by "The Baltimore Crew", an arm of the Gambino crime family.

Patsi Corbi unofficially running the Crew from jail, his brother Joey Nunzio Corbi does the hands-on stuff.

The theme of the one-shot was an old joke I told to the group before we got started.

A guy is falling from a fifteen story building, on each floor people hear him calmly saying the same thing,

"So far so good"

Each PC was being strong-armed into performing a heist by the Baltimore Crew.

>Tommy Pogue, an Irish boxer who'd refused to throw a fight. He owes 'em $10k.
>Lily Porter, owns a small cab company that she took over after her father moved out west. Refused to pay the Crew protection until they torched one of her cabs.
>Sal Debarra, young up-and-comer who wants to be part of the Crew but doesn't want them to know that he's super queerballs
>T. Burton, a hapless store clerk who had slept with Joey Nunzio's daughter. And gotten her pregnant. And he's black.

The job was to rob a small bank that was getting an infusion of cash shortly before all the stevedores came to cash their paychecks. The Crew provided the details of when the cash-car would be arriving etc. They decided to hit it before it got to the bank, when they stopped to pick up sandwiches en route.
>Used Porter's cabs to shadow the car
>Sal got in the diner ahead of one of the guards
cont.

>>51260733

>Pogue and Lily jacked the car while Sal and Burton knocked out the other guard
>I'm truncating a lot of planning and execution, it was actually really well done on their part
>Used the cover of a nearby mass getting out, intimidated the diner waitress, etc.
>Get the money to Porter's cab garage, money to be dropped off with Nunzio tomorrow
>Then we randomly determine which of them is actually undercover FBI
>Turns out it was Lily-- Mr. Porter never had a daughter, she was planted with the long term goal of getting into the Crew, he was given money to fuck off out west
>Group wants to stick together and wait out the night, Pogue tells them to fuck off and goes home to bang his neighbor
>Everyone but Pogue drops off the money, everyone has bad feelings about it
>Everyone feels like a loose end
>Porter apologizes for Pogue not being there, but Nunzio just tells her that Mister Arditi was going to visit him
>Mister Arditi was a 50+ year old hitter for the Crew
>Former member of the Royal Italian Army, a tough-as-nails mountaineer who carried a trench gun
>Mister Arditi was the boogeyman
>Cue Pogue and his lady waking up to a young thug kicking down his door
>Pogue kills the thug and dives out the window with his lady, naked
>Mister Arditi rounds the corner, Pogue hides behind his lady
>Trench gun turns her into a mist
>Pogue runs
>Nunzio tells Burton and Sal to go home, they aren't needed anymore
>Sal gets caught near his house by a young tough, fails to make it into a nearby house for cover
>Bleeds out in their foyer
>Burton gets picked up almost immediately by the corrupt-as-fuck police
>Someone killed Nunzio's daughter, and he's a prime suspect
>Porter talks her way out of Nunzio's interrogation, they let her go
>She dodges a tail, finds out that Burton has been arrested, barges her way in with another FBI agent
>Manages to pull rank on the corrupt cops and tell them to fuck off, places Burton under FBI protection
cont.

>>51260936

>As Lily and Burton discuss logistics, she explains herself as FBI
>Precinct sarge gets a call, meanwhile
>FBI partner pops in to tell Lily that the cops are just leaving the precinct
>Hello, it's Mister Arditi
>Makes a mist out of the partner, and plugs Lily as she and Burton are dashing down the alley
>Burton escapes, heading for the Lily's FBI handler
>Pogue, meanwhile, shows up at the Owl Bar
>Punches out the guard outside
>Punches out both guards inside
>Then begs for his life when Nunzio draws down on him
>Nunzio puts a bullet in his head
>Burton makes it to Lily's FBI handler, explains himself
>They stop mid-conversation as I play a recording I found on Youtube
>Germany has invaded Poland
>WWII has just started
End of session.

Currently running one right now, actually. Using a heavily modified version of Nemesis.

>>51261226
These sound fucking brilliant and I am supremely jealous of how well crafted your pcs are

>>51263856

Thanks man, benefits of having improv actors as players.