The Burden of being the Party Leader

Douglas Cole recently had a pretty gnarly experience in the Aeon Supers campaign being run by Christopher Rice. From what I've read, Cole is kicking himself a lot for the lack of planning that very nearly resulted in disaster.

I can understand why Cole is frustrated. Cole is playing The Commander. That's not just his character's name, I'm certain it's also his role within the team itself in character.

Many players (wisely) avoid playing characters who are leaders. This is because playing a character who is a leader almost without exception means being a party leader among players as well.

Wring your hands all you want, but the two are largely inseparable.

Mavrick, the guy who plays Sam in Prohibition Mobsters, resisted Sam becoming leader for the first couple of months of the campaign. I've never really asked if it was fear of the responsibility, an attempt to give the other players a bite at the apple if they wanted it, or what.

Now, with Mobsters, my guys plan consistently and constantly. Their tactical planning is overall weaker than their strategic (battle plans vs. plans for taking over the city), but for the most part they're savvy as hell. I should probably investigate allowing Tony a little more oomph for the points he's spent on tactics, natural war leader, and the like.

They're had only a couple of really bad moments of clearly not taking a moment to think throughout the campaign. (Tony's player leads the charge, having had his first PC die session 1 of the campaign and getting Isaac captured much more recently.)

Within the Mob group, there's a lot of group discussion, and Mavrick isn't usually strictly calling the shots. There's a good amount of flex out of character. In character, Sam has things locked down, and is starting to become someone with a decent level of authority over the other PCs and their organization as a whole.

Seriously, pull rank. You spent the points.

That said, if things ever did come down to a serious disagreement about how to proceed, both the decision and the resulting consequences lay at the feet of the leader. Sam's got the high rank, so by extension Mavrick gets to be primus inter pares.

I'm sure the AEON group will figure it out, and I suspect defining the role of leader both in and out of character will provide a useful lever for everyone involved to become a well-oiled machine of great justice.

After all, someone's going to be digging through their trash really soon looking for conspiracies to uncover. Would be unfortunate if they were to uncover incompetence among the ranks.

Prohibition Mob: A Position of Overwhelming Strength?

If you are a Prohibition Mob Player:

The Soldati D'ombra:

Sam: The diplomatic and sociopathic leader of the crew. Sam has been the driving force behind the group's actions since day one, and his feud with Three-Fingers Moran has been a consistent issue for the group.

Red: A 16-17 year old thug whose brother's work in the liftskirt industry got her into organized crime. Red is tenacious, has a fiery temper, and has a lot of maturity issues to work out.

Vinnie: Another thug in the 16-17 year old range, Vinnie is a skulk and thug. Raised on the streets from a young age, Vinnie enjoys gambling, slicing throats and good cigars.

Tony: Tony made sergeant in WWI and made sure that a BAR fell off a truck for his own personal use later. The triggerman of the team, Tony's found himself in the sights of an intrepid bombshell reporter- Rachel.

Isaac: A former cop who has turned into a fixer for various corrupt individuals. Isaac is scary perceptive and would make an ideal serial killer if he were inclined.

Supporting Cast:
Teddy: Sam's brother-in-law and the group's wheelman. Teddy enjoys loud explosions, fast cars, driving fast cars, and causing loud explosions.

Rachel: Possibly the best journalist in the city, Rachel immediately found herself smitten with Tony and is more than happy to dig up information for him. Rachel figures the book she'll be able to write in a decade will be a best seller.

Ben Kincaid: The leader of the Kincaid Outfit, Ben is the boss of the group the players are currently working under. Ben is a smooth operator who would probably be a better fit in an intelligence agency than running a criminal organization.

Senga: Owner of the bar the players use as their base of operations. Legitimate businessman.

Wushu: An asian criminal who specializes in acquiring hard to get items. Cat fancier. 

Prohibition Mob: Craig Bartley

Bartley is a bouncer who generally works up in Queens. He first met Vinnie and Tony while they were trying to hunt down a local loan shark with info on a man they were trying to snatch.

I rolled an 18 for Bartley's reaction to Vinnie, allowing Vinnie to take him as an ally. Bartley is built on 50% of Vinnie's current point total (rounded up slightly).

Bartley's physically fairly strong, above average intelligence, is lucky and can slog through a hit in a fight. As far as skills go, he's a scrapper, having boxing and wrestling at decent levels, with a spattering of various skills he picked up during a year or so in college.

Sam's new Enemy

With Moran dead, and with a points budget that won't allow him to buy off the enemy immediately, Sam needs a new nemesis. I'm still working out some of the details, but here's what I've got thus far.

To my Prohibition Mob Players:

Prohibition Mob: Serendipity, Bitch

The Crew:

Sam: The diplomatic and sociopathic leader of the crew. Sam has been the driving force behind the group's actions since day one, and his feud with Three-Fingers Moran has been a consistent issue for the group.

Red: A 16-17 year old thug whose brother's work in the liftskirt industry got her into organized crime. Red is tenacious, has a fiery temper, and has a lot of maturity issues to work out.

Vinnie: Another thug in the 16-17 year old range, Vinnie is a skulk and thug. Raised on the streets from a young age, Vinnie enjoys gambling, slicing throats and good cigars.

Tony: Tony made sergeant in WWI and made sure that a BAR fell off a truck for his own personal use later. The triggerman of the team, Tony's found himself in the sights of an intrepid bombshell reporter- Rachel.

Isaac: A former cop who has turned into a fixer for various corrupt individuals. Isaac is scary perceptive and would make an ideal serial killer if he were inclined.

Supporting Cast:
Teddy: Sam's brother-in-law and the group's wheelman. Teddy enjoys loud explosions, fast cars, driving fast cars, and causing loud explosions.

Rachel: Possibly the best journalist in the city, Rachel immediately found herself smitten with Tony and is more than happy to dig up information for him. Rachel figures the book she'll be able to write in a decade will be a best seller.

Ben Kincaid: The leader of the Kincaid Outfit, Ben is the boss of the group the players are currently working under. Ben is a smooth operator who would probably be a better fit in an intelligence agency than running a criminal organization.

Senga: Owner of the bar the players use as their base of operations. Legitimate businessman.

Wushu: An asian criminal who specializes in acquiring hard to get items. Cat fancier. 

So, the crew has been trying to work on a heist for the last two sessions- get police uniforms and 'raid' a distillery and appropriate their stills for their own purposes.

This has gone swimmingly after Vinnie sneaked into the back of the dry cleaner's that a lot of local police use to get their uniforms cleans.

Vinnie aced his stealth roles. Even the owner's multiple Siamese cats didn't get upset at Vinnie's presence. Vinnie made it out with the uniforms without alerting anyone.

Which is why Vinnie's player was quite confused when the owner, Wushu, sent a ludicrous bill to Sam for the uniforms.

"I aced stealth! How the hell did he learn I was there? You said there was no magic in this campaign!"

SERENDIPITY, BITCH.

Vinnie had dropped a business card for Senga's while he was at Wushu's on account of Wushu's serendipity.

Wushu is an NPC I've been intending to introduce, largely because I need a way to segue a criminal version of Edsel Ford Fong into my game at some point, and the Asian criminal community in NYC during this time period is tiny.

So am I going to let Vinnie avoid the plot purely due to great dice rolls? Of course not! Luck may be great for mechanics manipulation- but Serendipity can allow you to avoid having to roll at all, which might as well just be an automatic success.

Needless to say, a lot of my villains are getting at least a level of serendipity in the future. My players are pulling off the distillery raid next session, which will probably warrant a full action report. No promises.

Prohibition Mob: Dead Man's Party

Precis- Everyone's favorite criminals crash a campaign donor event to kill Three-Fingers Moran.

I am still looking for gang ideas and participants for a meta-game level of play I want to try out.

The Crew:

Sam: The diplomatic and sociopathic leader of the crew. Sam has been the driving force behind the group's actions since day one, and his feud with Three-Fingers Moran has been a consistent issue for the group.

Red: A 16-17 year old thug whose brother's work in the liftskirt industry got her into organized crime. Red is tenacious, has a fiery temper, and has a lot of maturity issues to work out.

Vinnie: Another thug in the 16-17 year old range, Vinnie is a skulk and thug. Raised on the streets from a young age, Vinnie enjoys gambling, slicing throats and good cigars.

Tony: Tony made sergeant in WWI and made sure that a BAR fell off a truck for his own personal use later. The triggerman of the team, Tony's found himself in the sights of an intrepid bombshell reporter- Rachel.

Isaac: A former cop who has turned into a fixer for various corrupt individuals. Isaac is scary perceptive and would make an ideal serial killer if he were inclined.

Supporting Cast:
Teddy: Sam's brother-in-law and the group's wheelman. Teddy enjoys loud explosions, fast cars, driving fast cars, and causing loud explosions.

Rachel: Possibly the best journalist in the city, Rachel immediately found herself smitten with Tony and is more than happy to dig up information for him. Rachel figures the book she'll be able to write in a decade will be a best seller.

Ben Kincaid: The leader of the Kincaid Outfit, Ben is the boss of the group the players are currently working under. Ben is a smooth operator who would probably be a better fit in an intelligence agency than running a criminal organization.

Senga: Owner of the bar the players use as their base of operations. Legitimate businessman.

I was eager to get to the shooting bits, but my players were very intent on going through the motions of preparing for a mission. This involved a few different things:

• Sam acquired tickets for him and Tony to the event by posing as a Veteran's Advocacy group member who wanted to make a donation to Cedric O'Brien's next campaign.
• Isaac located the headquarters of the catering company handling the company and broke in. There was a short fight with a guard dog, which he put down with a silenced pistol.
• Red and Vinnie both attempted to hit the streets for info. Red didn't locate the right company and Vinnie only found a poker game.
• Tony cleaned guns. Lots of guns. 

Isaac, Red and Vinnie all infiltrated the catering company. They'd hired a lot of extra help due to the sheer size of the event being thrown. Only Red completely escaped detection, her experience working at her family's bakery in the going a long way towards looking like she belonged. Isaac and Vinnie both had a few close calls, but artful lying got them through the day.

The three of them eventually made their way onto the Trident with the catering company. Isaac managed to sneak a small crate of weapons on board, stashing them on the bottom deck.

Once security, ran by Three-Fingers Moran himself, showed up, Vinnie and Isaac were told to leave the ship. Both pretended to comply before sneaking below deck and stowing away.

Tony and Sam arrived very fashionably late, intentionally showing up well after the first rush of guests arriving. They didn't mingle very much, putting a lot of effort into avoiding Moran and the security goons he had on the ship.

Everyone met on a lower deck right before O'Brien was to begin his speech. They took their sweet time trying to plan their next move.

Virgil and crew, sent by Larson to kill the Senator, had no intention of letting him even begin his speech. The second the senator stepped up onto the platform they had setup on the top deck Virgil shot him in the head with a Mauser T-Gew that had been modified to be much more friendly to fire. The shot passed through O'Brien and took out the poor schnook behind him as well.

Pandemonium broke out on the ship with civilians and various socialites running for cover. Virgil and crew continued to throw down covering fire, largely concentrating along their sight lines- the extreme back and forward of the ship.

The players ran for the top deck, exchanging gunfire with Moran's goons. The crew took down those towards the top of the stairs with little difficulty. The fight started to spread out across the top deck of the ship, with Moran's men moving behind a storage room and the players setting up on the opposite side of the room.

They exchanged gunfire through windows, as Tony flanked Moran's men. It wasn't long before most of Moran's men were down, with Moran's leg mangled by a M1903 Springfield shot (7d+1 pi, average damage is in the ballpark of 22 damage).

Isaac took an unlucky Colt Government .45 shot to the head right towards the end of the session. The damage was 7 on the initial hit, being reduced to 5 by skull DR. 20 damage wasn't enough to reduce the HP 12 detective to -1xHP, although it totally knocked him on his ass. Isaac didn't actually lose consciousness, although it definitely took him out of the remaining fight.

Vinnie finished off the guy who shot Isaac, and the last of Moran's men jumped overboard after slicing Moran's throat.

The group escaped via motorboat, which Teddy had acquired (and used to spray tourists near the waterfront while waiting for the signal to pick up the group). A boat that attempted to pursue them discovered that boating materials of the era weren't much protection from rifles meant to pierce tank armor.

Aftermath:

• Sam is strapped for points and likely isn't going to be able to buy off his enemy just yet. I'm working on a replacement. Originally Ben Kincaid was going to be that enemy, but I later changed my mind. The guy who jumped overboard might be the new Moran. Still deciding
• Special elections to replace an assassinated senator is going to be a major campaign event. Everybody and their grandmother wants their man in that seat.
• There's likely going to be an in-game timeskip to move past winter and for the elections to really start up.
• An assassinated senator is definitely going to draw attention, although why Larson ordered the hit in the first place is still unknown to the players.
• Isaac is looking at almost three weeks of recovery for a 20 damage injury, although medical care will likely reduce that a fair bit.

Prohibition Mob: Open Call, Looking for Gangs

I've whipped up a google form to allow people to suggest gang names and other information about them. There's a good chance submissions might actually get used in the game, and in the connected meta-game I'll be explaining below.

Gang Submission Form

Now, in addition to soliciting ideas from the twenty or so people who reliably view this blog, I'm also considering opening up a meta game of sorts within the game where individuals might take over the between session actions of the NPC gangs in NYC. You could say, attack another gang and attempt to steal their booze. Maybe bribing your way into local politics is more your style. Maybe your gang tries to start a protection racket on someone else's territory.

It would involve bookkeeping, stuff I'd likely farm out to one or two of my players to help me with since it would be almost strictly an OOC thing when two small gangs decide to come to blows in a way that doesn't directly affect the player group. This would likely involve maps of dubious quality denoting territory and such.

That said, it does open a fun element when/if any of these small independently controlled organizations DO come head to head with the PCs... there could be opportunities for more direct cause and effect as you try to react to game events. Chances are my PCs will also be running groups not connected with their own interests at all.

There will probably be random power rankings assigned by 3d6 at the start, with a scoreboard. Rat piling the individual on top is definitely suggested and family fun for all.

Commitment will be minimal- probably get an e-mail Monday with 5 days to get me a response with what you do. Frequency probably won't be weekly for the meta aspects as in-game time tends to crawl along fairly slowly. Heavy engagement might increase frequency, I'm open to seeing how it goes.

Anyways, part of this will hinge on response. If I get one or two responses, I'll probably scrap the overall idea and see about more involved control of influential NPCs for those interested.

If interested, I suggest leaving a comment below or otherwise getting in touch at vilobion at gmail

Prohibition Mob: "Even if everyone else was deeply confused, I appreciated the Agency 17 appearance."

Precis - The crew from Agency 17 makes an appearance- and not just a cameo.

The Crew:

Sam: The diplomatic and sociopathic leader of the crew. Sam has been the driving force behind the group's actions since day one, and his feud with Three-Fingers Moran has been a consistent issue for the group.

Red: A 16-17 year old thug whose brother's work in the liftskirt industry got her into organized crime. Red is tenacious, has a fiery temper, and has a lot of maturity issues to work out.

Vinnie: Another thug in the 16-17 year old range, Vinnie is a skulk and thug. Raised on the streets from a young age, Vinnie enjoys gambling, slicing throats and good cigars.

Tony: Tony made sergeant in WWI and made sure that a BAR fell off a truck for his own personal use later. The triggerman of the team, Tony's found himself in the sights of an intrepid bombshell reporter- Rachel.

Isaac: A former cop who has turned into a fixer for various corrupt individuals. Isaac is scary perceptive and would make an ideal serial killer if he were inclined.

Supporting Cast:
Teddy: Sam's brother-in-law and the group's wheelman. Teddy enjoys loud explosions, fast cars, driving fast cars, and causing loud explosions.

Rachel: Possibly the best journalist in the city, Rachel immediately found herself smitten with Tony and is more than happy to dig up information for him. Rachel figures the book she'll be able to write in a decade will be a best seller.

Ben Kincaid: The leader of the Kincaid Outfit, Ben is the boss of the group the players are currently working under. Ben is a smooth operator who would probably be a better fit in an intelligence agency than running a criminal organization.

Senga: Owner of the bar the players use as their base of operations. Legitimate businessman.

SITREP:

Having been ambushed by Moran, the group thinks its time for some payback. They've assembled a team and are ready to take out whatever might be waiting for them back at their hotel.

DC:

Things at their hotel seemed normal, sans the illegally parked car with a single wheel up on the curb by the entrance. Vinnie decided to scout things out.

Due to darkness penalties and a failed perception roll, Vinnie turned a corner and bumped right into someone skulking around.

A firefight ensued. Vinnie managed to avoid getting shot, while for the first few seconds his knife attacks failed to land or penetrate the leather jacket the guy was wearing. Assailant #2 got gunned down by Red before he could get a shot off.

Tony gunned down the remaining gun after he turned and ran. The two guys had been in the process of wiring the car to explode- nobody noticed the cable running to the car parked out front until Red tripped over it in the dark.

The crew decided to grab their stuff and bail.

Sam left the group to canvas capital hill to try and locate where Moran's senator- Cedric O'brien- would be docking once they arrived in DC via Cedric's steamboat. 

Sam found Isaac receiving his final pay for a job he had just finished for Nathan Larson- the newest Senator from Vermont.

Isaac and Sam speak for a moment, and Sam immediately realizes he could use Isaac's talents, asking him for a meeting the next morning.

Sam was then floored when Larson called out to him by name and wanted to have a conversation...

Larson knows Kyle DiGlado, knows that Sam is working for him, and wants to know what brings Sam to DC. It turns out that Larson and Sam's goals align- Sam wants to take out Moran, Larson wants Cedric- his fellow Senator- taken out of the picture.

Moran and Cedric are arriving in DC in a few days and then throwing a big celebratory bash over Cedric's successful campaign.

Larson puts Sam in contact with his team, and makes it clear that Sam shouldn't investigate or dig into the games going on above his pay grade.

Larson's team consists of Virgil, Jack and Johnny Trang, who were the PCs in my previous campaign, Agency 17. The three refer to themselves as V, J and M, respectively, to stymie any attempts on Sam's part to track them down after the fact. Virgil and co spell out their plan (sniping), their willingness to help (if it doesn't endanger them), and wish Sam and the rest of the crew luck.

The session ends with Larson's secretary giving Red a love letter to deliver to Kyle DiGlado.

Next Time:

I have more planning ahead of me than I usually do. There's the boat, the party, the guests, the security prep for the boat, and more to mull over and prepare for. I'm sure things won't go as planned for anybody present, except maybe the Agency 17 guys who will get their man one way or another.

Behind the Curtain

So what's Larson's game, and how is it he's acquired a team from what was a TL8 time and place and now has them in TL6 1920s DC? I'm not telling. The core of the campaign will always be the mobsters trying to make it big- and with the exception of Sam's player, the Agency 17 guys showing up wasn't anything out of the ordinary. What I do in the background behind the curtain to tie my various campaigns together is a side offering for the players I have who stick with multiple campaigns to see the threads connecting them, and for the readers who keep up on my games here.

I'm sure it will eventually lead to a campaign more devoted to exploring the topic as a whole, but for now my guys want to bury Moran for good, and so that's my main focus.

Prohibition Mob: The Players go to DC, Get Backstabbed

Precis - Mistreating your contacts leads to them screwing you over.

The Crew:

Sam: The diplomatic and sociopathic leader of the crew. Sam has been the driving force behind the group's actions since day one, and his feud with Three-Fingers Moran has been a consistent issue for the group.

Red: A 16-17 year old thug whose brother's work in the liftskirt industry got her into organized crime. Red is tenacious, has a fiery temper, and has a lot of maturity issues to work out.

Vinnie: Another thug in the 16-17 year old range, Vinnie is a skulk and thug. Raised on the streets from a young age, Vinnie enjoys gambling, slicing throats and good cigars.

Tony: Tony made sergeant in WWI and made sure that a BAR fell off a truck for his own personal use later. The triggerman of the team, Tony's found himself in the sights of an intrepid bombshell reporter- Rachel.

Supporting Cast:
Teddy: Sam's brother-in-law and the group's wheelman. Teddy enjoys loud explosions, fast cars, driving fast cars, and causing loud explosions.

Rachel: Possibly the best journalist in the city, Rachel immediately found herself smitten with Tony and is more than happy to dig up information for him. Rachel figures the book she'll be able to write in a decade will be a best seller.

Ben Kincaid: The leader of the Kincaid Outfit, Ben is the boss of the group the players are currently working under. Ben is a smooth operator who would probably be a better fit in an intelligence agency than running a criminal organization.

Senga: Owner of the bar the players use as their base of operations. Legitimate businessman.

SITREP:

Three-Fingers Moran is believed to be on a steamer heading for DC. The players suspect he's with the US Senator from New York, and they're looking to learn both what Moran is doing talking to a senator and put the dog down for good.

It's roadtrip time.

DC:

The players drove down in a large van. Despite Teddy's crazy driving, there were no incidents. Nobody in the group except Teddy has any valuable area knowledge, and Teddy's knowledge is purely driving based.

Sam failed to spot the sticks of dynamite Teddy decided to smuggle 'just in case'.

Relying on streetwise, the group was just about to enter a seedy looking place that a few of them had pegged as an Italian speakeasy when two patrons were rudely shown the door.

One via window.

The first one out (via window) was Petey, the son of Bran, one of Red's contacts back in Boston. Bran is the patriarch of a small time crew of Irish thugs who hire out as guards for booze shipments. Red's relationship with Bran has been strained- what she sees as friendly banter and joking has come across as aggressive and racist.

Petey, hugely drunk and having just been concussed in the middle of a fight, decides it's a good time to hit on the cute chick he's just met. Red socks him in the face and Petey is introduced to unconsciousness for a minute.

Doyle, Petey's partner in crime, is more politely shown the door, although it's clear he was involved in whatever scrap got them thrown out in the first place.

The players eventually (after Petey wakes back up) learn that they know Petey's dad and they tell Doyle and Petey their mission- kill Moran. Petey and Doyle are both on board with this as Moran has been aggressively pushing Irish gangs in NYC to join up with him- or pay the price.

Doyle sets the group up in a hotel and promises to arrange a meeting with some sympathetic locals who also hate Moran's guts.

Scouting out DC the next morning, the PCs find it far less blatantly criminal than NYC. The presence of the federal government and the overwhelming Pinkerton presence in the area has squashed crime in the area- at least on the surface.

They meet up with Fat Tony, a money launderer and the guy bankrolling a group of 15 or so thugs. By this point the players have made multiple checks (empathy, body language, etc) to make sure Doyle and Petey aren't leading them into a trap.

Sadly, it's hard to read someone's body language when their face is mangled and they're coming off of a massive hangover and head trauma. Petey has contacted Moran via telegram and agreed to alert Moran's people.

A firefight ensues where both sides of the fight dig in and refuse to advance, knowing it means death. The garage the players are in is a decent defensive position- three entrances, no windows, brick construction. The attackers tried a few approaches:

• When the players refused to try and exit the van, they booby-trapped the back door with a trip wire and a grenade in a can.
• They rammed the front garage door with the player's van. Although breached, the attackers refused to try and insert themselves through the gap.
• A grenade thrown in through the back door (taken from the trip wire trap once they realized the players were aware it was there) was thrown back out by Teddy (5 second fuse time, the NPC didn't attempt to cook the grenade)

Ultimately, the players were able to take out a few guys with potshots.

The fight ended dramatically when the driver of the van found Teddy's dynamite in the back (his concealment wrecked when the back of the van got crunched into the garage door)- and botched a demolitions check at default while trying to insert the detonator cap.

The explosion turned Petey into paste. The players were far enough away from the blast that the concussion wave didn't do much damage- but shrapnel and fragmentation nailed Sam (4 points of damage to his arm) and Red (2 points to the torso).

The ambushers decided that now was a good time to leave, and they left the players to pick apart what had happened.

Rushing Fat Tony to get medical attention, they grilled Doyle and reached conclusions:

• Petey had accepted $1000 to lead the ambushers to the group. Between Bran's deteriorating friendship with Bran and Red deciding to punch him, Petey felt Red getting killed was well worth the money.
• Fat Tony and Doyle were supposed to die with the rest
• Moran knows the group is in DC

Sam decided enough was enough- he was going to take Fat Tony's thugs and strike back at Moran.

All said, the fighting was one of the least exciting bits I've experienced. Both sides were all too aware of the other group, and nobody wanted to play hero and get shot. It lead to a lot of taking aim at locations and shooting anybody who crossed lines of fire- on both sides.

My players ARE getting slightly more genre savvy, as they all suspected an ambush at various points or another. Sam's failed rolls definitely made the situation much worse, and at one point Sam's player keyed into the fact that I don't go into detail describing locations that aren't going to potentially harbor fights.

Next session should involve a bunch of Moran mooks getting ambushed trying to ambush the group at their hotel. So that should be exciting.

Prohibition Mob: A summary of events thus far

I run very plot heavy games. Doing summaries for games that have diverse casts of NPCs and lots of moving parts isn't easy to keep up with. Which is why I haven't for quite some time now.

Not to mention charting out all the groups at play along with their relationships is a complete pain in my ass too. I miss an old program called Imagination (or something close to that) that used to come on the OS9/OSX apple laptops I used in middleschool. It could do thought-webs really easily, with all sorts of handy organization options for making the chart look less like the chaotic mass I get whenever I do things by hand.

Anyways, time to begin. This summary covers about six months worth of play.

The player group started out as thugs working for the Barberini Family. Headed by Michael Barberini with Harold Barberini acting as Underboss, the Barberini family was known for being a fairly weak family in the grand scheme of things. Michael was a better diplomat than power player, and was probably better suited to being a consigliere.

The group started with four players:

• Sam Licari, a smooth talking wiseguy and career criminal. Sam sought refuge from the Barberinis to escape Three-Fingers Moran, who wants him very much dead.
• Red, a tomboy street thug. She has quite a soft spot for working girls, since her brother Leone was in charge of the books of the Barberini prostitution rings.
• Vinnie, a street thug. Wiry and stealthy, Vinnie has a gambling habit which he uses to gain information.
• Tony, a WWI veteran. He speaks softly and carries a M1918 BAR when the group wants to be armed for bear.

Jack Bennedetto, their capo, brought them together and started them out as fixers for the Barberini organization- raiding booze shipments, extorting local businesses, tossing the places of people who made the mistake of violating Barberini turf, the usual.

Things started to heat up once Three-fingers Moran caught wind that Sam was in NYC. The spat resulted in a few firefights, a few drive by shootings, and the 'accidental' fire that burned down Moran's prime 'entertainment' (drinking) establishment in the city.

The Consigliere of the Barberini, a creepy bastard by the name of Gustav (who they don't know is a former Cheka), hatched a plan to get rid of Moran. On his orders they Kidnapped a Broadway starlet and a Pinkerton Agent, then framed Moran for the murder of both. This landed Three-Fingers in jail.

About this time Sam met a gang contact in Cuba, who wanted to establish a trade route to deliver booze to NYC via plane. 

The group came to the attention of a prominent heist mastermind, who wanted to hit a local bank. Needing the funds to secure the trade route, the group decided to go take the job.

Lots of planning ensued- finding plans, testing security, attempting to hire prostitutes to distract the security response team, deciding that cutting phone lines was easier than hiring that many prostitutes, planning escape routes, and so on.

The heist master brought along some of his flunkies, one of whom ended up being Moran's niece. She shot Sam in the middle of the heist, before getting gunned down herself. Besides that complication, the team's preparation in delaying the security team meant only a cursory firefight with a few police responders who showed up first.

The cash quickly disappeared into the Barberini coffers. The crew was waiting for their payout when Jack Bennedetto and Michael Barberini were shot while eating donuts in a car and discussing the strategy of the Barberini family moving forward.

Michael Barberini died, replaced by his hotheaded brother, Harold. Jack ended up in a coma, his recovery in serious doubt.

The Barberini family quickly started to implode. Sensing blood in the water, rival gangs started to make moves. Harold, incapable of not starting hostilities with everyone around him, dug the group deeper into the muck.

The players decided enough was enough, and they ambushed Harold and his two most trusted lieutenants at a meeting. With a combination of grenades and quickly shooting anyone trying to escape the meeting location, they cut off the head of the Barberini organization.

Concurrently, in the city, another family, the Luchesse, had their leadership culled as well. Utilizing poison and paid assassins, Kincaid hostilely took over the Luchesse family, placing himself at the helm and renaming it the Kincaid outfit. The other powerful families of the city decided not to act, figuring that the Luchesse leadership had failed to protect themselves.

Kincaid offered the players a deal. Ditch the Barberini banner and form ranks with the Kincaid outfit. Sam would be made a capo, Tony elevated to Made Man, and their crew would get to keep more of the profits generated from their rackets than most other groups working for the outfit.

It took a great deal of effort on the players' part to convince the rest of the Barberini family to go with the change- but most did.

Moran escaped from prison. The Pinkerton Agency started putting pressure on the players, suspecting that the death of their agent hadn't been caused by Moran. Harold's widow, Marge, started wondering why her inheritance had disappeared.

Worst yet, Jack was killed by a bomb planted at the hospital. The group suspects Moran.

Most recently, the pressure coming from Marge resulted in a mob lawyer, Marco Santos, looking into the group. This ended with the arrest of Senga (the proprietor of their favorite bar/hideout), a warrant for Leone's arrest, and a raid that caused Senga's (the bar owned by Senga) to be shut down for violating Prohibition.

The group decided to try and intimidate Marco, a plan that failed spectacularly due to a crit success on a perception check and some tactical blunders by the group. Marco was onto the heat, and his buddy the Mayor of NYC had his back.

It took breaking into Santos' office and getting blackmail material to get him to back off. It was a Pyrrhic victory however, as the group had to let go of juicy blackmail material on the mayor himself.

Attention is now turning to Moran, who has been hiding out on a boat in NYC's harbor. A fight is sure to come soon.

Inescapable Logic

There will be times in your life where you are given a compliment that you will hold dear and cherish forever. For me, one of them was what one of my Agency 17 vets had to say while I was advertising for Prohibition Mobsters:

Mr. Insidious' games have lots of twisty plots, some great setpieces, and a certain inescapable logic to them. In the thick of things it's like "what the hell is going on, why is this happening", and then once you work things out it's like "oh, we did this, which led to the bad guys doing that, and then this happened and of course everything went to shit".

So let's talk about inescapable logic.

People tend to think with internally consistent logic. That is, that people don't act without reason. They might not understand or be able to communicate why they took an action, but people themselves are not random. Our brains do a great deal of work that we ourselves are not conscious of, much like background processes running on a computer.

This doesn't mean that people can't be wrong. An NPC might give a party terrible directions to a local landmark (and yet not lie to them) because he has the wrong information which he believes is accurate. Many GM's make a mistake of not attempting to play NPCs based on how much information that NPC should actually have.

I'll admit, it's fun to watch players try to deal with all-knowing illuminati types who have peeked behind the curtain, but generally most NPCs shouldn't know too much out of their sphere of influence.

Take security guards. Having dated one, and having had two family members and a few close friends work as one, I know the drill. It's mind-numbing boredom and tedium 95% of the time punctuated by crazy insanity and dealing with people being unreasonable. (Much like the army, actually, except with less firearms, explosions and mortar attacks.)

So if you're running an encounter where the party might encounter guards (largely talking in a modern context here), you should ask yourself:

• How well are these guys paid? Elite groups drawing top dollar because they have a reputation to maintain will be way more vigilant than a "I retire in four months" old timer getting $13/hr.
• To further establish morale and how much a guard might care about their job, how are the working conditions? Has it been boring and slow and the players are something interesting, or does the guard just want to go back to Candy Crush on their phone?
• Speaking of phones, boredom is one of the best penalties to PER skill checks ever, and you can sure as hell bet most NPCs (and let's be honest- PCs as well) don't have the Patience of Job perk.
• In addition to all of that, most people are very adverse to risk, particularly when the stakes involve death.

Logically, most security guards need a reason above and beyond the norm to ever willingly engage in combat with foes who they believe could reasonably bring lethal force to bear. Sure, you might have a hot-headed cowboy or two, or maybe an ex-vet at a post, but most security people are just regular Joes not even issued a gun. Faced with armed assailants, most are at best going to call 911 and GTFO of the area.

Never underestimate the power of 'Someone else's problem'.

Another good example of internal logic has to do with a failure my Prohibition Mobsters recently had.

A mob lawyer, Marco, has been putting pressure on the group after they drained the bank account of their recently-killed boss. Boss' wife is pissed that her inheritance is gone, Marco wants his cut of the money, so of course the group tried to intimidate him to get him to back down.

Due to some tactical blunders (splitting the party, not bringing the wheelman to shadow another car), bad luck (a crit PER roll by Marco while he was in the car of the Mayor of NYC), and good planning on the part of Marco (Most people don't get to become successful mob lawyers without some genre savviness), Marco and the Mayor are now aware that someone is out for Marco's life.

So, getting at Marco is going to be much more difficult in the future. His already decent paranoia is going to be on high alert, the Mayor has assigned him a police escort almost around the clock, and something tells me the players are going to get very annoyed by this problem. Unless they seriously escalate their level of planning and execution, the repercussions of this failure will continue to bite them in the ass.

A big part of gaming is consequences, with cause and effect being huge. My players haven't encountered much failure, with the examples of a few isolated fuck ups here and there. With smooth sailing generating a pretty fast rise through the ranks of their organization, I'm entirely fine making this failure sting.

I can't stress enough how much more consistent a game is when you get into the head of the NPCs you are controlling as a GM and attempt to base their actions off their perspective:

• What is the NPC's main goal?
• What's their current, immediate motivation?
• How is the NPC feeling?
• What external factors might be in play?  (A county clerked mobbed by the press after a scandal will be feeling overwhelmed and likely won't like being asked questions.)
• What does the NPC actually know?

Once you have those answers, it should be pretty clear how to proceed. Characters will typically act in line with their emotions and goals, and characters forced to put the two at odds will be undergoing stress. 

I should mention that establishing a precedent that NPCs aren't always completely right even when being completely honest makes hand-waving plot holes and sudden name-switch flubs MUCH easier for players to accept. Nothing like blaming a NPC for your brain fart when that one-off merchant becomes important later and 'Sergio the Spice Vendor' accidentally becomes 'Simon the Spice Vendor". 

Prohibition Mobsters: I reject your history and substitute my own

Disclaimer: Tentative campaign plans ahead. Also, if you are a player in Prohibition Mobsters, you need to close this tab and go read Dresden Files or something productive rather than spoiling yourself.

SERIOUSLY. IF YOU PLAY IN PROHIBITION MOB STOP READING.

It started with a hypothetical I threw out to the guys in our campaign's OOC chat. "How fucked would everything be if Germany had a nuclear preemptive strike in WW2?"

Germany back in the early 1940s was nowhere near nuclear technology, nowhere near having the dominance to successfully capture and hold territory, and all told, the hypothetical could never happen.

But it got me thinking, and that's a dangerous thing. Line up a series of events where the world is a much different place than the world we knew of the 1940s. What if FDR died of Polio in 1921, before he fully came into his political career? What if the US Communist Party had political success and didn't wither before the 1930s? What if Germany was much more intelligent regarding scientists, Russia and other facets of war? 

Line up the dominos through the 1920s and 1930s during the course campaign so that in 1940 WW2 breaks out and the United States is invaded by a foreign power. Organized crime was a large part of the various resistance movements during WW2, and it's not a far cry to think that my players would relish such a twist on the criminal genre- especially after two decades of in-game time passing from where they are currently.

Such an undertaking is monstrously huge. In addition to running the game week to week, there's:

• Identifying things to change about history
• Making sure the alternate history is internally consistent enough to not break suspension of disbelief
• Getting through two decades of in-game time, which at the current pace of in-game time per game session is just completely out of whack unless the campaign lasts a decade of IRL time.
• Determining how the social-political situation in NYC affects the resistance

The big bright side is that this idea will have a very long time to stew and ripen- or maybe turn rotten and be discarded.

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions for historical alterations and ideas are welcome in the comments below.

Prohibition Mobsters: Rachel Xercotti

Rachel Xercotti, Journalist

Rachel came about as the result of a critical success on a reaction roll I made on behalf of one of my players while they were at a party trying to sling cocaine to get close to a Broadway singer so they could kidnap her. So I decided that Tony now has a very determined and nosy admirer and love interest.

Rachel is built on 100% of Tony's points and appears on a 6 or less. I used Action 4 as well as many of the various Power-Up series for inspiration and ideas.

 Rachel was built using numerous skill packages from Action 4: Bon Vivant, Journalism, Detective Work, Femme Fatale, Social Engineering. These packages resulted in a significant overlap, especially with Sex Appeal which ended up ridiculously high (especially after tuning it to IQ instead of HT with a Perk).

Rachel's Top Capbilities:

• Getting people to divulge information: With Sex Appeal 18 (effective skill 24 with Very Beautiful Appearance), Acting and Fast-Talk 16, and Carousing 14, Rachel is a natural at getting information from people
• Rubbing Elbows with the Upper Crust: Connoisseur, Current Affairs, Diplomacy and Savoir-Faire (High Society) all at skill 13 work exceedingly well with her skills above to help her mingle with those that matter without stepping on figurative toes
• Technical Journalism: Rachel has a spattering of journalism technical skills in the 11-13 range that help her gain information when people aren't around to talk to.

Rachel's Weaknesses:

• Rachel is a liability in combat. She's not a bad shot with a gun but she's otherwise completely outmatched by most street thugs or criminals.
• No athleticism
• Almost no points in stealth-related skills, and only a paltry 11 in Shadowing. 

Projected Growth:

• Shoring up Rachel's capability to be a sneak- stakeouts, following people, probably lockpicking and some skills geared towards getting into physical places she doesn't belong
• Increasing the technical skills she has
• Perception increases would benefit a large number of her skills (not to mention IQ which would be a crazy increase across the board)

Prohibition Mobsters: Sessions 2 and 3

The players went back to Jack, explaining that Bruno was gone. After a long wait for Sam to get back from rousing Moran's crew into a useless search of the Hudson River for a booze shipment, Jack returned with their new crew member- a WWI vet with an appreciation for heavy weapons.

The hijacking of the booze shipment went more or less without a hitch. Thanks to a third player (still unidentified by the players) chasing down the shipment, the players really only had to clean up after the escort and chase vehicles were done shooting each other to shreds.

After securing the booze, the PCs had a week to stew.

Than Lester Montange, another capo within the Barberini family, had a job. One of the Barberini's drinking establishments/gambling parlors had been tossed by the O'Malley Family, an Irish outfit heavily involved in illicit gambling. Turns out, two Families, the O'Malleys and the Zambitos, have been slugging it out for a few months over who gets the bulk of gambling within NYC.

Some questions to their extended social circles reveals that the O'Malleys were told by Three-Finger Moran that the Barberini place was a Zambito establishment.

Lester tells the crew to hit the O'Malleys.

Despite a failed area knowledge check, the group locates an O'Malley bar, and case the place. It's being watched by three guys- one in a window across the street, and two in a vehicle parked in an alleyway.

Vinnie and Red head inside to get the watchman. Vinnie lockpicks the door, sneaking inside. The crappy floor gives him away, but Vinnie manages to slip around back the guy. Vinnie garrotes him.

The poor shmuck failed his ST roll by 5. Vinnie succeeded his ST+3 (due to using a garrote) check by 8, meaning the guy took 13 cut damage to the neck. I didn't bother making HT checks.

The second guy in the apartment that they didn't know about comes out about this time. Vinnie and Red pummel him down, breaking both of his hands in the process.

With the lookouts out of the way, the crew assembles in the overlook point to plan, when Moran's guys phone in. Sam manages to affect a shitty Irish accent, convincing them that he was posted. They tell him that they're leaving since it's obvious that the Barberinis didn't take the bait.

The PCs immediately prove that assessment wrong by sneaking Red and Sam inside the bar, then having Vinnie and Tony beat up the bouncers and enter with guns blazing. They empty out the bar and begins smashing everything in sight.

To top it off, they make off with a cargo truck with a small shipment of booze the O'Malleys were unloading in the back of the bar.

Overall take:

• One cargo truck
• Small shipment of booze
• Cash register
• One fairly shoddy shotgun

I Killed a PC in the First Session

Last Saturday I started a new campaign centered around Prohibition Mobsters trying to make it big in 1920's NYC. Here's how it went.

• Four PCs- Sam (Played by the same guy who played Virgil in Agency 17), Bruno, Roseanna ("Red"), and Vinnie
• 150pt total
• Red and Vinnie are both playing minors (16 or 17 years old)

The PCs are called into a speakeasy by their local Capo, Jack Bennedetto. Jack works for the Barberini family, and so do the PCs. Jack's learned that the Baker Gang, a smalltime outfit working out of Newark is sending a shipment of booze South around Manhattan to try and avoid having another shipment hijacked going through the heart on NYC.

This, of course, means the players should have an easy time hijacking the very same shipment.

The players pump Jack for details. The Bakers are politically insignificant. They only manufacture booze, they sell to other outfits who ultimately distribute the product. Most families buy from them only when shit hits the fan and their normal supply routes have been compromised.

Sam sets out to get in contact with his brother-in-law, Teddy, an excellent wheelman. He then does some digging, meeting a soldier of the Vespucci family. The Vespuccis have been keenly aware of the trouble that the Baker Gang is having- their last three shipments from them have all been hijacked.

Sam is not pleased to learn it seems to be his nemesis, Jack "Three Finger" Moran who is involved. Moran is Irish, territorial, and feisty. Sam sets up some smoke and mirrors, hoping to convince Moran's gang that the next Baker shipment is going by boat.

Meanwhile, the others decide to scope out Newark. Locating a diner owned as a front by a member of the local criminal elite, they manage to fast-talk their way into getting Bruno a job at a 'rubbing alcohol' plant.

Bruno attempts to so some reconnaissance  while Red and Vinnie are stationed outside, but Bruno is an amateur actor at best, and he arouses suspicion. He's confronted by some armed thugs in the parking lot outside, and is convinced to go back inside.

Bruno is questioned by the boss of the factory, but doesn't break under interrogation. They're convinced he's a cop.

Meanwhile, Vinnie tries to sneak into the factory, even getting into a supply closet via a window, but without any firearms, and outnumbered, he wisely stays out of sight.

Bruno eventually makes a move, attempting to get his armed guard in a headlock. The guard takes aim, just to get socked in the chest. Firing his shotgun twice at Bruno, the guard misses due to the bulk and shock penalties.

Bruno misses on his next attack as the guard dodges and retreats. The guard opens fire again, and Bruno fails his dodge, taking seven shotgun pellets. Bruno is hit in the torso, groin (twice), right arm (twice), the leg, and his hand, for a total of 26 damage, as well as a crippled arm and hand.

Bruno does make his HT checks, but the players taps out knowing that continuing the fight is pointless. More members of the factory are moving in, some drawing firearms.

The session ends with Bruno's body being loaded into the same truck the players think they have to hijack.

Important Lessons:

• Bruno didn't go for an all-out attack while trying to grapple the guard
• Retreating out of close combat to avoid bulk penalties is powerful
• Bruno never should have gone back inside the factory. Range penalties work in your favor when you're running away from people with guns.
• A lot of the PCs invested a great deal in melee brawling skills, a poor decision considering they're operating in the era of the Tommy Gun
• Acting at default, Fast-talk at 12 and Streetwise 11 aren't going to cut it if you're trying to infiltrate an enemy outfit.