Honorable gangsters?

[Steve]

One of the campaign ideas I've been toying around with has been the notion of PCs as "honorable" gangsters. Take a little bit of "Goodfellas" and mix with Hong Kong films and the "Kill Bill" movies.

 

Since the PCs would be anti-hero sorts, the bad guys would need to be really villainous to contrast.

 

Has anyone ever tried a campaign like this? How did it work out?

[tkdguy]

Re: Honorable gangsters?

 

I tried something similar a few years ago with my martial arts/film noir campaign. The heroes weren't gangsters, although they were anti-heroes.

 

It didn't catch on, though. Maybe I'll resurrect it someday.

[Old Man]

Re: Honorable gangsters?

 

Easiest way I can see to make this work is to have the local authorities be even more corrupt and dishonorable than the PCs. Basically a Robin Hood campaign. In Mafia context, the PC family would be more honorable and honest than the competing crime families that happen to control the police and city officials.

[IndianaJoe3]

Re: Honorable gangsters?

 

One of the campaign ideas I've been toying around with has been the notion of PCs as "honorable" gangsters.

 

You may find this article on the Yakuza helpful.

[Alex Williamson]

Re: Honorable gangsters?

 

Robert B. Parker has written several "honorable" gangsters over the years - they even all get together in Potshot. The Sin City series by Frank Miller is also filled with honorable gangsters. Also, the movie Heat is an excellent resource for this style of campaign, as is The Italian Job, but to a lesser degree. All of these sources could provide you with some great ideas. The problem is getting your players to go along with your great idea. I tried a "criminals" campaign once and one player in particular made a mess of it, wanting to murder everyone he met. It all ended badly.

[Bolon]

Re: Honorable gangsters?

 

With honourable gangsters, you might want to make them mafia and your bad guys be terrorists or the meaner Columbian or other brutal gangs. The Italian, Irish and other original mafia from the 1920's have strong codes and have protected neighbourhoods and cities from other groups. These mafias were known during WWII to actually prevent espionage by foreign nationals due to their strong love of their host nation. This might be another way to go with these anti-heroes. I don't know how it might fly. There is also the idea that they might actually protect those who they get protection money from or whom they work as a second justice system for. Remember the scene where the merchant goes to the mafia boss for a favour or justice because someone has wronged his family or honour. The local bosses were almost magistrates but in a crueler fashion.

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Honorable gangsters?

 

Shadowrun - Organized Crime Campaign Setting.

 

Mind you Shadowrun`s setting plays to this type.

 

QM

[Vulcan]

Re: Honorable gangsters?

 

You can even have the honorable vs. dishonorable factions within the same criminal organization. The old guard, who still believes in keeping the faith with the family both up the ladder and down, vs. the young guns who want it all and want it NOW!

[Nothere]

Re: Honorable gangsters?

 

"Yeah we lie, cheat, steal, and kill. But we don't hurt women or childern. We also stay out of certain rackets like drugs. There are a few other dont's but those are the biggies."

 

::puts gun in your mouth::

 

"If you object to that just nod."

[Toadmaster]

Re: Honorable gangsters?

 

There is kind of a scale, with your kind of outside the law (most PI shows, White Collar), to criminals through technicality (The A-team), to moral criminals (Robin Hood, Dexter), all the way to criminals with little respect for life, but they still have their own code of a sense. Even Hannibal Lector and Tony Montana had lines you don't cross.

 

I think you just need to decide how criminal you want the campaign to be and make sure the players are on the same page. Without player buy in, you may have something like the old D&D Chaotic evil games most of us have heard stories of.