''Gangster!'' is a
role-playing game
A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...
published by
Fantasy Games Unlimited
Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU) is a publishing house for tabletop and role-playing games. The company has no in-house design teams and relies on submitted material from outside talent.
History
Founded in the summer of 1975 in Jericho, New York b ...
in 1979.
Gameplay
''Gangster!'' is a cops-and-mobsters role-playing game system set in the period 1900 to the present.
Players can choose to be on the side of the law as police (city or federal), or they can roleplay a criminal, either as loner or as part of a syndicate. The combat covers many sorts of firearms.
The game rules include sections on crimes and corruption, gang wars, police methods, forensic medicine, FBI labs, and SWAT teams, with guidelines on the laws of the land, criminal law, conviction, and penalties.
As with most role-playing games, one player is the
game master
A gamemaster (GM; also known as game master, game manager, game moderator, referee, or storyteller) is a person who acts as an organizer, officiant for regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer role-playing game. They are m ...
, while the other players roleplay characters that can either be lawmakers or lawbreakers. To start a game, the players roll up their character's abilities using three six-sided dice. They also use the dice to determine the number of crime-busting or criminal skills the character has. Low dice rolls may leave a character with no skills.
Once the players have decided on their characters' roles, the game master runs the game in much the same way as other role-playing games.
The combat system in ''Gangster'' is unusually lethal compared to other roleplaying systems. Reviewer Kenneth Burke noted that a knife wound that have almost no effect on a character in ''
Gamma World
''Gamma World'' is a science fantasy role-playing game, originally designed by James M. Ward and Gary Jaquet, and first published by TSR in 1978. It borrowed heavily from Ward's earlier game, '' Metamorphosis Alpha''.
Setting
''Gamma World' ...
'' could be lethal in ''Gangster''.
Publication history
''Gangster!'' was designed by Nick Marinacci and Pete Petrone. A former New York police officer was consulted about the design.
It was published by
Fantasy Games Unlimited
Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU) is a publishing house for tabletop and role-playing games. The company has no in-house design teams and relies on submitted material from outside talent.
History
Founded in the summer of 1975 in Jericho, New York b ...
in 1979 as a
boxed set
A box set or (its original name) boxed set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box and offered for sale as a single unit.
Music
Artists and bands ...
with a 56-page rulebook, a "patrol guide" booklet describing the numerous laws that the characters must uphold (or break), a character record sheet, and combat tables.
Robert N. Charrette
Robert N. Charrette (born 1953) is an American graphic artist, game designer, sculptor and author. Charrette has authored more than a dozen novels. His gaming materials have received many Origins Awards. Charrette was inducted in the Origins Hall o ...
created 25 mm miniatures to accompany ''Gangster!''
[Report on Origins '79, ''Dragon Magazine'' #29, September 1979.]
Mirror of FGU website, Accessed December 17, 2008[Molten Magic in ''White Dwarf'' #14, August/September 1979]
Reception
Leonard H. Kanterman, M.D. reviewed ''Gangster!'' for ''
Different Worlds
''Different Worlds'' was an American role-playing games magazine published from 1979 to 1987.
Scope
''Different Worlds'' published support articles, scenarios, and variants for various role-playing games including ''Dungeons & Dragons'', '' Ru ...
'' magazine and stated that "should a Gamemaster find that his group has fallen into a rut, and castle walls and twisting caverns have become so familiar a setting that there is boring repetition rather than fresh adventure, he would be well-advised to 'check it out' with ''Gangster''."
In the March 1980 edition of ''
Dragon'', Kenneth Burke generally admired ''Gangster'', although he was disappointed that the game did not supply the three six-sided dice and the twenty-sided die required for play. Burke did not like the character generation system, which, he said, is "one of the few flaws of ''Gangster'' — characters without unusually high ability levels
reunable to qualify for any skills, the criminals in particular." However, he admired the combat system for its realistic lethality. "This attitude towards melee I find refreshing; role-playing games too often have rules that reduce the true effect of weapon hits, making combat the 'easy way out.' ''Gangster'' puts an end to this nonsense with one of the most realistic melee systems in existence." Burke highly recommended it, saying, "Of all the role-playing games in existence, ''Gangster'' is undoubtedly the most original. On a scale of one to ten, I rate ''Gangster'' a ten, and advise all to buy it.
Reviews
*''
Fantastic Science Fiction
''Fantastic'' was an American digest-size fantasy and science fiction magazine, published from 1952 to 1980. It was founded by the publishing company Ziff Davis as a fantasy companion to ''Amazing Stories''. Early sales were good, and the com ...
'' v27 n10
References
{{reflist
Fantasy Games Unlimited games
Historical role-playing games
Role-playing games introduced in 1979