Would you buy an AT game based on turn of the century(20th) gangs?

I'm talking New York. The Five Points, Bowery Boys, Dutch Schultz, Monk Eastman, young Al Capone, Lucky Luciano etc...

Back in the late 19th and early 20th century street gangs fought openly in the streets and often against or allied with several polital and law enforcement agencies. I'm thinking recruiting specialists, expansion, definable rackets, political influence.

The possibilities are expansive but my idea would be to have a definite lean on combat/killing as the main driving force behind the action. I’m not talking Blood Feud style but a little more involved in the specifics and scaling down to specific locations and individuals/organizations. I'm not sure how far something like this could fly but I've always been interested in the period as are many others as evidenced by the endless amounts of attention paid to crime in New York by the entertainment industry (and lack there of by law enforcement-or collusion whichever you prefer).

Oh, I'd also break the balance to ensure that the Irish always come out on top.

That's a great idea...as much as I hated GANGS OF NEW YORK, I love the concept and idea of taking that sort of conflict to a board game is a good one.

The book is a good source for material for the game, if you haven't read it. It's much more interesting (and more exaggerated) than the movie.

You gotta have a Butcher Bill piece in there somewhere though...even if he's not a historical figure.

And replace Family Business? Surely you jest...

But seriously, that is such an under-utilized time period. Unless someone could come up with better gangster rules for Bootleggers; that would be cool.

Gangs of New York went both ways for a lot of people. I like the sets and setting, really evoked the feel of some of the run down tenements of the time. It was well presented with some really nifty scenes in it. Of course a little too much focus on uninteresting character relationships and a complete glossing over of the different groups involved at the time. With the opportunity to tell this story with a decent budget much of the back-story was run straight through roughshod at the expense of the tired character driven nonsense.

How many people walked out of the theatre with a better understanding of the history and hardships of the setting? I suppose the formula to entertain in Hollywood rarely deviates when big bucks are thrown around. How can Decaprio be in a movie without a love interest?

The book is on my list as I really think there is a well of history that can be mined to make a good game. The reasons for and history of organized crime have changed over the last 150 years, as did the organizations themselves. The prime motivator being poverty and power, the two are much closer than they appear to be even today.

Hidden objectives could really drive something like this although I think a randomly generated map would be necessary. In order to not lose the setting you can merely decide which time period you want to play in and randomly generate some of the more important locations as building are razed and business' closed down and re-opened. Some things are forever static such as ports but enough variety in buildings could be adjusted to ensure variation in starting positions and victory conditions.

Butcher Bill types would be abundant. Eastman, Schultz, Little Caesar etc.. Both fictional and factual character types. Many stereotypes are available in addition to historical figures. The rackets are endless.

Sounds an interesting idea - battle obviously, bit of quasi-political or legal control, more than one secret objective (like Nexus Ops but limited in number) with differing outcomes, negotiation and faction building (and doublecrossing) which could tie in with certain secret objectives ..... so is Thaad going to start on it soon ?

Sounds awesome.

Another similar idea that would be awesome is a maffia crime family game that plays through several generations. So like it starts in the 1920's and ends in 2000 and basically during that time you have to make your family stronger with each new 'godfather' as modern america forms. Sort of like the godfather trillogy in boardgame format.

Southernman wrote:

Sounds an interesting idea - battle obviously, bit of quasi-political or legal control, more than one secret objective (like Nexus Ops but limited in number) with differing outcomes, negotiation and faction building (and doublecrossing) which could tie in with certain secret objectives ..... so is Thaad going to start on it soon ?

You could "skin" Nexus Ops into this game--control the Five Points (monolith). Instead of crystals and fungus swamps you would have card games and whorehouses. Magma hexes would still be magma, of course.

I prefer the term "Gentlemen's Establishment" myself.

WARRIORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

J/K

I would play a 1900's based gang game.

-M

I would buy it. There are certain genres that don't get enough attention from boardgame designers: gangsters, kung fu, cyberpunk, post-apocalypse, and superheroes.

The only good gangster game that I own is The Roaring Twenties, one of those Yaquinto album games that are a pain to store properly. It's a pickup -and-deliver game that rocks, with car chases, tommyguns, roadblocks, and secret hideouts.

One of these days, I hope to acquire a copy of that Avalon Hill game Gangsters. It looks like it was a major influence on Richard Garfield when he designed Jyhad.

There is a wealth of information on this topic that just needs to be tapped. The main question I have would be the balance between a tactical and strategic level of depth. This is something I'm thinking of tinkering with just for kicks. Maybe a kind of hybrid strategic level mixed with tactical level to sort out the actual violence.

I agree on on the underused themes. Cyberpunk has never really flourished as much as I hoped it would. It was a shame FASA had to go and make a buggy FPS version of Shadowrun when everyone wanted an rpg!

I would indeed buy such a game.