Tommy's Take on The Goon RPG

Got a chance to crack into the second book in Pinnacle's current double shot Kickstarter, The Goon. People say they sometimes like to hear my thoughts on these things, so here we are.

Tommy's Take on Bloodshadows Third Edition

Evverything old is new again, as classic games rise from the dead with a growing frequency (throw in retroclones, and there are increasingly few classic games that you can't get your hands on in some capacity now). Joining that list is Bloodshadows Third Edition, the latest release by Precis Intermedia, dispensing with both the d6 and Masterbook systems and instead powered by their GenreDiversion system.

Tommy's Take on Streets of Bedlam

Jason L Blair, of Little Fears fame, recently released his first Savage Setting: Streets of Bedlam, which intentionally shortens to SoB. I like Savage Worlds, I like Blair's work, and I backed this on Kickstarter.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: The PDF is 255 pages and currently available on RPGnow...still lacking a few finishing touches before it'll get sent to the printers, where it'll seemingly retail for $30. The book is in black and white, fittingly, and drawn by Shawn Gaston. It also has much saltier language than your average Savage Worlds book.

The book is divided into five chapters plus an introduction, and requires some version of Savage Worlds (though it was written for Deluxe, but there's not a lot of hard work moving from edition to edition).

The Introduction provides an overview to the feel of the setting, citing things like Sin City, Boondock Saints and Assault on Precinct 13, and Mr. Blair also said in a chat that emulation of movies like Payback and Four Brothers was certainly possible. Again, this chapter is just a broad overview of the inspirations and source material, as well as a brief breakdown of Bedlam, which is actually two cities (Bedford and Lamrose, the former being the money of the city, the latter being the wrecked out remnants of a blue collar city). The chapter serves as a nice, brisk introduction to what Streets of Bedlam is all about.

Chapter one dives into the city itself, a neo-noirish Gotham that is split in two distinct halves by the Artifice River. In Lamrose, the prostitutes rule Bricktown, the Lamrose side of the river is dotted with crack houses, we have casinos under various management, a Little Italy and a Chinatown. On the other side of the river, Bedford is where the rich and the righteous live, with fake swamps, theatres, cathedrals and a pair of pro ball teams (football and baseball). A handy list of local slang is provided, and it's not so long or dense as to become distracting. There are Italiant, Irish and Polish, and Triad mobs in town, and the cops are little protection. A handy quick-list of businesses and street names are provided, with shoutouts to authors like Elmore Leonard and Ed Brubaker.

Chapter 2 is character creation, which is standard Savage Worlds creation...with a little twist. For one thing, you start an Archetype, a pretty specific foundation for your character (with the option of a Citizen, who is essentially a blank slate). The Archetypes have required skills, as well as free Edges and Hindrances, and then you customize from there. I rather like the descriptions for this game, being three sentences: A physical description, a social one and a mental one. An example of an Archetype is a Badge, catch-all for the cops. This one gets extra Reputation for certain actions, but you also get to choose whether you are straight or dirty, with the former giving you an enemy for crossing the wrong person and the latter providing extra money...but meaning you're in the pocket of someone. Others include Boss (as in gang bosses), Valkyries (the now militant hookers), Drifters, Hitters (Hitmen) and even Marv-like monsters, each with their own customization point even before you buy your skills and Edges.

Chapter 3 gets into the rules changes, providing suggestions for Setting Rules and adding in new Skills, Edges and Hindrances. Some of the Skills are expected, like Interrogation, and others are interesting, but odd, like Eyes of G*d, which allows you to tell whether or not someone is a very bad guy. Edges include things like Street Cred and Sucker-Proof, which provide well explained bonuses, as well as one (Heart on Your Sleeve) that reads like it should be a Hindrance and a couple of Edges that are described, but either have no - or poorly explained - mechanical benefits (like Protected or Entourage). Hindrances include Infamous, Priors (you have a record) and Trigger Happy (where guns are your first solution). Rep is explained here, a stat similar to Charisma, which can fall under three spheres: Public, Underworld and Authority. Interrogation rules are present, as well as an interesting system for Investigations, using card draws to determine the crime, the clean-up and the escape, complete with an example. There's also a Dramatic Damage table, which is basically just flavor, and a system for Roles, which include things like Hero, Sidekick, Love Interest and Plot Device, and can change each session. Each role gains a couple of new effects it can spend bennies on (like Sidekicks pumping a hero's ego up). There's also a bit of a GM section here, pushing for you to jump into the middle of the action and keep it hot, before providing a selection of common story/mission/adventure types (like the ever famous Man on a Mission).

Chapter four is a huge listing of NPCs, made up primarly of Kickstarter backers, like intrepid reporter Shane Hensley, Underworld icon Gareth-Michael Skarka, and drug pusher Nathan Reed. The first 14 of these are tied directly to the archetypes to serve an iconic function. The rest of the Kickstarter backers are named, with mini bios, to fill out the city, with a nice selection of attribute arrays and skill sets provided to mix and match stock NPC stats on the fly.

Chapter 5 gets into the GMing proper, starting with an outline for neo-noir adventures for folks to follow. This leads into an interesting variation on the Plot Point Campaign, with the characters starting off at the scene of a murder, and allowing them to follow up on the clues and plot threads they choose, directing you to scenes in an almost Choose Your Own Adventure-like manner, rather than the more structured Plot Point Campaign set-up. In true Neo-Noir fashion, the whole thing takes many twists and turns and has the potential to end in a way that burns the characters even as they deal with the murderer. Interesting arrangement for the PPC, and not in a bad way. A handful of "Orphan Stories" follow, essentially overgrown plot seeds.

The PDF ends with a note from the author, a placeholder where the index will be, a quick reference sheet, an Episode tracker sheet, an Investigation sheet and a character sheet.

WHAT WORKS: The writing is very crisp without getting at all cute. Nothing is hard to read here. The art sets the scene incredibly well. I love the Archetypes set-up for character creation, especially since there's still so much room for flexibility, and the Plot Point Campaign structure is a welcome change of pace. The city is a wonderful mish-mash of Neo-Noir tropes, giving you everything you need to play around, providing landmarks without roadmaps so everything is where you need it to be.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Heart on Your Sleeve is either the worst Edge ever, or a misplaced Hindrance. Entourage and Protected could also use mechanical support. Bookmarks in a PDF are always great, and they don't exist here. I'm one of the few Kickstarter members who isn't a character in the city, because I'm not a fan of "vanity rewards". It takes me out of the setting seeing Shane Hensley or Gareth-Michael Skarka as NPCs in the setting, though I understand why vanity awards are present in KIckstarters.

CONCLUSION: I think Jason L. Blair has done a fantastic job of crafting a unique Savage Worlds experience while retaining the Fast, Furious, Fun feel the game exudes. Great new additions to the rules, a big sandbox to play around in and promises of more to come. Streets of Bedlam is the "over the top" cousin to Wellstone City, serving a similar niche in an ultraviolent and extreme manner. My biggest disappointment is that I didn't have the extra at the time to kick in for the print copy. Recommended if you love Sin City or crazy Mel Gibson revenge movies, and I love both.

My fellow blogger Darren G. Miller, who is present in the game as an NPC, offered up his thoughts over at Geekcentricity.

Comics You Should Read: 100 Bullets

I'm just going to be up front about this: 100 Bullets is probably my favorite series of all time. If I ever write something half as masterfully put together as 100 Bullets, I will die happy.

Said to be in development by Showtime as a TV series, 100 Bullets is available in 13 volumes and tells a self contained story (originally over 100 individual issues). I actually started reading it in trades just a couple of months before it ended, when issue 100 was solicited in Previews as being the final issue. I knew the basic concept: Agent Graves appears to people with a briefcase filled with a gun, 100 completely untraceable bullets, the identity of the person that had ruined Graves' target's life and irrefutable evidence of that. Then, he would leave it all in their hands.

A very interesting premise, to be sure, but we quickly find out that it's only the tip of the iceberg. Boasting an amazing cast of characters (Agent Graves, Mr. Shepard, Cole Burns, Lono, Wiley Times, Dizzy Cordova, Loop, Milo Garrett, Jack Daw, Megan Dietrich, Benito Medici, Mr. Branch...I could go on) and a plot just grows increasingly layered as it goes.

I'll do a quick breakdown, relatively spoiler free, of the thirteen volumes:

First Shot, Last Call: The beginning of the saga, with two stories told over five issues. While it feels very "episodic", the first bricks for the finale - 100 issues later - are laid in that very first issue. This series WILL take you off guard if you head into it not paying attention.

Split Second Chance: In this volume the supporting cast grows and you start realizing there's a lot more going on here than just a series of rotating stories. Cole Burns, Lono, Mr. Branch...and by the end it becomes apparent that even the first story was important.

Hang Up on the Hang Low: In volume 3 we get introduced to Curtis and Louis Hughes, and get a taste of the trickery Graves is capable of, as he's clearly playing a much larger game that it looks like from the beginning.

A Foregone Tomorrow: Wiley Times and Milo Garrett get properly introduced to the field in this volume, which also includes an intriguing story tying Graves' game to the JFK assassination.

The Counterfifth Detective: The fifth volume is the story of Milo Garrett and probably my favorite single volume of the book. Just a complete hardboiled gritty noir tale if there ever was one in 100 Bullets.

Six Feet Under The Gun: By this point, most of the players are on the field and we start getting shorter stories focusing on different characters. The battle lines are getting hazier here.

Samurai: This volume focuses on a pair of the cast, now in prison, forging an alliance...as well as Jack's trek across country, with a bizarre stop at a tiger farm.

The Hard Way: A close runner up for best in the series, kicking off with issue 50 (with lays out a lot of the relevant backstory as to just WHO the main characters are and why they are doing what they are doing, dating all the way back to the founding of this country) before launching into a Wiley Times centric tale in New Orleans that is pretty much heart breaking...and ends with the shocking removal of a major player.

Strychnine Lives: The tone of the story shifts here, in the first of the final five volumes. Graves is painted in an increasingly unflattering light and new partnerships are formed as the players try to figure out who is playing who.

Decayed: A colossal brawl between Jack and Lono, the final Minuteman being reactivated, and flashbacks to a young Agent Graves, where we start to really understand his motivation.

Once Upon A Crime: More flashbacks, another stunning death and the endgame begins.

Dirty: One major player starts to go rogue, and the final pieces are set for an epic conclusion in...

Wilt: I was nervous that the finale wouldn't live up to the promise...but MAN did it.

Brian Azzarello crafts a spell-binding tale over 100 issues with twists and turns and laughs and heartache. There are very few characters who appear for more than an issue and are one dimensional...this is a very noir tale, told in shades of grey.

Eduardo Risso's storytelling is a beautiful compliment to the story, conveying so much more - panel to panel - than what the dialogue alone does. For my money, possibly the best combination of art and writing I have ever seen.

Right before I got to the final volume, I reread the whole thing from the beginning...and I've reread it all the way through once, since. I got partway through ANOTHER re-read before I loaned the books to a friend. Thus far, there are only two other series' that I have re-read in anything resembling that manner - Preacher and The Walking Dead. My friend Ronald called it a "dirty, sexy book" and it really is...and one of the finest comic works I have ever read.

Tommy's Take on Wellstone City

This is another one of those "Been meaning to review for a while now" books...Wellstone City by Silver Gryphon Games. Maybe it's me, but Silver Gryphon seems to fly under the radar as a Savage Worlds licensee, and if there's one thing I like to do with this blog, it's shine the light on the stuff that's slipping by...which doesn't REALLY have an effect, as it IS The Most Unread Blog on the Internet. Ever.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Wellstone City is a modern noir Savage Setting, available from RPGnow in PDF format (78 pages) for $4.99 or softcover for $19.99 (and you can get a bundle which basically gives you the PDF for free while you're waiting for the book to show up).

The setting is Wellstone, a rough and tumble city of brutal violence and shady characters. If your thought process is that noir filtered through the Savage Worlds lens comes out a lot like Sin City, you're probably on the right path.

One thing that stands out right off is that, honestly, I tend to ignore the setting fiction, and I actually enjoyed it in this book, the author setting a nice tone.

Right off, Wellstone introduces some Setting Trappings: Everyone gets the Connections Edge, Rank requirements are removed for Edges, negative Charisma canbe used for Intimidation attempts and so on. While there is a new Hindrance or two, Wellstone City provides several new Edges, from Combat Edges like Combat Shooter (allowing characters to use even crossbows and rifles in melee combat) or Untouchable (meaning even Federal Agents keep their hands off).

They also add in more depth to the ammunition rules with Hollow Points, Mercury Filled Bullets, Tracking Bullets and much more. There are even Dragon Rounds which can turn a shotgun into a flamethrower!

Wellstone City itself is an island off the coast of Lousiana, divided into a number of boroughs like Little Italy, Little Haiti, The Spanish Quarter and The Battery (this would be the industrial area). The island itself has its history laid out, as well as each borough and their respective features, like Doc Murphy in Little Italy, who does the "under the radar" medical operations that folks go to when they can't afford to have hospitals asking questions about their injuries. A timeline is given from before 1560, when indians fought back and forth on the island, to the presence of European countries, to the effects of various American movements on the island.

Wellstone City is a battleground for a number of factions, such as The Black Dragons (a harrowing mixture of Triad and Yakuza), Blackhand Security (a private security firm waging war with organized crime), the police and government, a number of smaller gangs, and more...oh, and Freelancers (in theory, this is where the PCs fit in).

A slew of stock NPC stars are given, including a number of freelancers (all Wild Cards), generic mob bosses, a variety of gangsters and more. Startlingly complete in its number of variations.

The book also includes an adventure, Public Transit Assassins. It is designed to be a big "welcome to Wellstone City" for new players, although it can be used with characters who are new to Wellstone or are long-term residents. A number of options are given to kick the adventure off, designed to give the PCs an excuse to be in the same place at the same times as a mysterious phone call occurs. It leaves them with the opportunity to make a new ally or two, as well as an enemy or two.

The book does also feature an index.

WHAT WORKS: A great feel to the book, especially in the flavor text, which I really only tend to mention if I enjoy it quite a bit. The new Edges amp up the adrenaline a bit, combind with removing the rank requirements. To say nothing of a whole slew of stock NPCs for the GM to use.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: As settings go, this is real barebones, meaning that a novice GM might struggle wirh it a bit (or I may be the only guy who still reads "How to GM" sections). A couple of things make me question the game's focus...evoking Sin City, for instance, and then adding penalties for using bigger and badder guns.

CONCLUSION: Some nice rules options back up the modern noir feel, althoughI don't feel as though it's really aiming for "gritty" as some claim...and not that that's a bad thing. I think Savage Worlds is great for a Marv-like rampage, for instance. The ammo rules really cater to the folks that say Savage Worlds isn't crunchy enough, and the adventure does a nice job of getting the characters started in Wellstone City. A really good setting for an experienced Savage Worlds GM who is up on his noir, but someone new to noir or GM Savage Worlds might come up a bit cold. Also, last I checked, there was supposed to be an Interface Zero version of Wellstone City coming, and if that's still true, I can't see that not being great.

Tommy's Take on Sword Noir

Depending on just how much of a FATE game you consider Sword Noir to be, it may be the smallest FATE rulebook that I have read (by a mile).

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Sword Noir is a standalone fantasy RPG claiming inspirations from a number of sources, from FATE to Savage Worlds to the PDQ system. RPGNow has the PDF available for $4.99 or a POD softcover for $10.73...and you can download the system itself (the Sword's Edge system) for free.

Despite only being 74 pages (RPGnow says the print version is 104 pages, but this seems to be due to the dimensions of the book), the PDF has all the major bells and whistles, including bookmarks and clickable table of contents for easy navigation. Sword Noir is designed to emulate "hard-boiled fantasy", specifically citing works like the Lankhmar series, as well as Conan.

Qualities are ranked on a scale, from -6 to +8, in increments of two. Characters are divided up into Heroes (important named characters), Regulars (less important named characters) and Minions (nameless mooks, typically). Heroes have a number of Qualities, named by the players. For instance, Concept is a Quality (such as Wily Ranger). After Concept, you create a Background Quality, like Criminal on the Run. Then Faculty, essentially an important skill...in this case, we're going with Deadshot (linked to Agility) for bow use. Now you need a Flaw, like Hot Temper.

Every character has five Traits: Physique, Agility, Wit, Charisma and Will, with all of them starting off Average. Here, the player gets 6 ranks to spread out among the five traits OR to buy more Qualities, or to raise other Qualities (which start off Good (+2)).

Let's bump up Agility to Good (+2), as well as Wit and Will. Add a new Quality "Tracking His Prey" (linked to Wit) at Good for four Advances. With those two remaining advances, let's bump Agility and Will up to Great (+4).

Next the character gets assigned items, which includes anything reasonable, like bows, daggers, etc. Anything they need to fit the concept. Anything too special should be created with a Quality. Characters also need Pivots, which are important goals, such as "Bring My Former Partners Down". In play, you can also gain Weaknesses and Reputation (the latter of which can provide bonuses and penalties).

Fortune Points can be gained by generally attempting to be good and noble, and can allow for things like automatic successes.

The basic mechanic is rolling 2d10, adding them together, and adding any relevant Qualities. Rolling a natural 2 is a critical failure and a natural 20 is a critical success. Interestingly, a Critical Failure can allow you to attempt to increase the Quality or Trait applied to the roll as compensation for the failure, or you can also take a temporary Weakness to avoid the consequences of Failure. A Critical Success allows the character to gain a very limited, but permanent, Stunt tied to a relevant Quality.

Combat is pretty straightforward, comparing attack rolls with defense rolls, and if the attacker succeeds, the degree of success determines damage. If they get all the way up to a Legendary success, the defender gets a Doom, which means they either die, get a Weakness or lose a relevant Rank somewhere.

Similarly, each character can take three Damage ranks (each rank gives -2 to combat actions and -1 to non combat actions), at which point they fall unconscious. At four ranks, they gain a Doom as above.

The Magic system is interesting, as their is a penalty in place, but it is for SUCCESSFUL uses of magic and not failure. The more you successfully cast spells, the more it can make you insane over time, ultimately costing you your soul.

Wealth is abstracted into Lifestyle, which gives a baseline for your character's standard of living.

With mechanics out of the way, the author dives into the Sword Noir "setting" as it were, a flawed word of flawed heroes. The chapter hits on important bits like the corrupting influence of magic and the brutality of violence, both of which are supported by the mechanics, but also notes that the atmosphere is really a product of both GM and player buy-in to get that "life is cheap, crapsack world" feel, which is certainly true.

A section on Sword Noir adventures really only tackles the subject in the broadest sense, focusing more closely on bringing the group together and giving them a reason to stay together than anything. Personally, for a Noir feel, I would use the hook from the TV show Leverage for that first adventure: Benefactor hires them (or hires one of them to assemble the rest of them), and then royally screws them over, setting them up for a fall. From there, they can swear vengeance (at least as long as it takes to bring the benefactor down...bonus points if the screwing was so complete that they have nowhere safe to turn to outside of the team).

A sample city is also provided, complete with important residents like gang leaders, kingpins and even honest to goodness Good Cops.

Also included is an adventure in which an old acquaintance asks the PCs to find his lost love, who isn't what she seems...but with a uniquely fantasy twist.

The end of the book is a series of premade characters, a blank character sheet, a map of the city of Everthorn (the sample city mentioned above) and a character tracker for the GM to use.

WHAT WORKS: A very professional, yet low-key, presentation, especially for the price. The art and layout aren't fancy, but they both fit the feel of the product. The system is a nice little mish-mash of various systems, but thought has actually gone into how to make the pieces fit, rather than just jamming them together. I like the Critical Failure and Success bits, as well as the corrupting influence of magic.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: I wasn't a huge fan of the city or adventure, just personal preference I guess...although I did like the cops being "incorruptible" for a change. I would probably have preferred a more generalized approach to building fantasy noir adventures instead. The author has explained the reasoning behind the lack of nonhumans on the company website, but I still would have preferred a treatment of them. There were a couple of spots where the writing could have been tighter, and frankly, calling NPCs "NCs" (Narrative characters) just bugged the crap out of me.

CONCLUSION: Minor quibbles aside, I really liked what I read. The Qualities/Aspects stuff is well defined, I dig the take on magic, there is no abstract "stress" in place of damage, and there are some cool bits like gaining advancements off of critical failures. Still, a great game packed into a small package. With a "monster" hack, it might even be a prime candidate for a worthwhile Ravenloft replacement. Highly recommended if you wanna get dirty with your next fantasy game.

Tommy's Take on Mean Streets Expanded

Mean Streets Expanded is a single volume rolling the Mean streets RPG in with some supplementary material, to make a larger book, like Precis Intermedia did with Ghostories.

Powered by the genreDiversion system, which uses 2d6 for task resolution, Mean Streets is a "film noir" RPG, designed to emulate films like Gaslight, Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon in an RPG setting.

The PDF is $7.95 and, like most Precis Intermedia games, you can upgrade it to a printed version by paying the difference (in this case, $12). It is also compatible with the other genreDiversion games, most notably Ghostories, which includes a section specifically on combining Ghostories and Mean Streets.

INTRODUCTION

Pretty standard intro, serving as a primer on film noir, including six films to familiarize yourself with the film noir. Also, the six primary RPG concepts relevant to this game are listed as well (PC, NPC, Ability, Skill, Task and Difficulty).

Basic stuff...nothing ground breaking, but nothing bad.

CHARACTERS

Every character has five abilities: Fitness, Awareness, Creativity, Reasoning and Influence, ranking from 0 to 5. Skills are scaled from 1 to 8...(well, you can technically have a skill of 0, it just means you're unskilled).

Every character has a Role, which provides access to certain gimmicks and recommended skills. Roles are essentially what you do in life, such as Bank Robber, Private Detective, Gangster and Grifter. Role also determines your base Monthly Savings.

Health is measured on two tracks, ranked from 1-5: Fatigue and Injury. Fatigue makes you pass out, while Injury makes you die.

Abilities have a point buy method (12 points) and a random roll method, whichever you prefer, with an optional "heroic" method for more points. Characters get 30 points for skills, and any gimmicks dictated by their Role. You can get additional gimmicks at the cost of either one ability point or three skill points, or take detrimental gimmicks, which give an ability point or three skill points...(essentially, you can take positive and negative gimmicks at a one for one, since the points would balance out).

The skill list is pretty big, but manageable. Most of them are tied to an Ability, with Composure being the exception to the rule.

Gimmicks run through some pretty common stuff: There is an extensive list of Contacts categories, for instance, from High Society to Gangster to Hollywood to the Police. From there, you get into things like Acute Senses, Quick and Jack of All Trades, as well as interesting stuff like Criminally Insane, which lets you never fail Fear and Composure rolls.

Detrimental Gimmicks can be as straight forward as Clumsy and Gullible, or things like Dark Secret and Stooge, which puts you in debt to a gangster.

A two page chart summarizes everything for you.

THE ACTION

The basic mechanic entails adding a skill and an ability together, and trying to roll under that number with 2d6. The GM can assign a Difficulty, which is essentially the Margin of Success that the player needs to beat their Skill Total by when rolling. If the margin is 2, you need to roll under by 2 or more. If it's 4, then 4 or more. Snake eyes are automatic successes, double sixes are automatic failures. Optional rules exist for Calamities and Triumphs, which amount to critical successes and failures.

Other rules can modify attempts, such as taking a level of fatigue to reduce the required Difficulty.

Combat is handled under "Violence" tasks. Initiative is governed under "reaction", which is determined by rolling a die and adding fitness and awareness to it. Actions are declared from lowest to highest, and resolved (mostly) simultaneously. Ranged attacks go first, resolved in order. Melee attacks are resolved as contested rolls, with only the highest one winning in a given conflict. Different weapons have damage ratings, with some only doing Fatigue while others do Injury damage, and armor can negate that damage. The rules do cover common eventualities and conditions: Using off-hand weapons, called shots, hit locations, knockdowns, etc.

Chase rules are also provided, a series of contested tasks, opening and closing the Gap. If a roll fails, the person that failed the roll has to roll on the Chase Hazards chart, from potholes to traffic jams. There is also a Chase Activity chart, which determines the path and its effect on the chase.

The relevant rules and modifiers are also summarized at the end of this chapter.

EXPANDING THE GAME

These are optional rules you can use to tweak it around a bit, starting with Cliches. Cliches are cinematic abilities your characters can use, divided into categories and tied to the roles. Fighting Cliches include Bullets Unlimited (in which one firearm will never run out of bullets) and Heavenly Aim (allowing characters to ignore penalties and armor protection due to cover). Other Cliches include Master of Disguise (an uncanny knack for covering your identity with just a few moments of prep), Skeleton Key (letting you open any lock), Nothing But (a knack for forcing the truth out of people) and You Can't Do That (once per story, you can pull off an untrained task as if you had a skill rating of 6). Cliches can also be purchased the same way gimmicks are.

Character advancement rules are provided, as well as rules for quickly producing stats for extras, plus tweaks for reducing the number of dice rolls, or making it more heroic.

Drinking rules are also provided, as well as conversion rules for the Impresa and Masterbook systems that power other Precis Intermedia games, plus a diceless variant.

THE BIG CITY

This chapter provides overviews of three cities: New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles, all perfectly suitable film noir settings. Each city gets an overview, including a history. Relevant locations, mood of the cities and the like are also provided, like the presence of Al Capone in Chicago and the racial tensions present in New York. Chicago also provides three new roles that are relevant to the setting, while LA provides one of its own (Stuntman).

In addition, the short essay from Ghostories is present here as well, if you wish to combine the two for some horror noir.

Half a dozen "quick locales" are also given, with basic descriptions, for use when setting up your stories: night clubs, PI offices, police precinct houses and so on.

CRIME & PUNISHMENT

Given the genre, this is a very useful chapter on crime in the 1940s. It starts with the major layers of law enforcement, from the local police, to county sheriffs and state police to the feds. Major crimes are described, including a few common defenses. The structure of the courts system is also provided, as is an 11 step system for trials, running from discovery through sentencing.

VENDETTAS

This chapter flips the coin and focuses on the American branches of the mafia. It even breaks them down by city, including information on various cities (like Philadelphia) that did not get full treatment a couple of chapters ago. It is also worth noting that this chapter doesn't just treat the mafia as adversaries: Some story seeds are provided, placing the characters in the role of black hats, rather than cops or PIs.

CASABLANCA

Thanks to the movie by the same name, the name "Casablanca" is now almost synonymous with film noir. Appropriately, this chapter details the city of Casablanca, as well as the country of Morocco, as a setting for your Mean Streets game.

Three new roles are also provided: Freedom Fighter, Refugee and War Criminal, as well as three new, appropriate, connection gimmicks.

This chapter includes three pages of incidental characters, as well as a map of the city and a quick reference of both French and Arabic phrases.

THE ATTITUDE

This is the GM section, essentially.

It starts with a discussion of the history of film noir, as well as the basics of laying out the plot, beginning with the McGuffin and building from there. The roles of both men and women are discussed, which will vary pretty dramatically, if you stick closely to the source material.

Eleven stories are included, complete with important cast members, ideas on how to involve your PCs with each story, and a series of twists for each story that you can use.

Mists of the Past involves the wife of a Congressman being blackmailed about her shady past in the pornography industry.

Suitable for Framing involves a wounded soldier who is claiming to be framed for the murder of his wife.

Raiders of the Lost Art involves valuable French art that has been sent to the US to keep it out of the hands of Nazis and has now gone missing, setting off a chase by all of the interested parties.

Angels with Sticky Fingers has a nun on the run after a woman turns up dead in a convent.

Dial H for Hitman has one of the PCs targeted by an infamous hitman...who is so good that no one knows his face.

The Dog That Wouldn't Be Fixed involves a boxer who refused to take a fall after he finds out an orphanage was depending on his victory.

Guess Who's Coming To Harlem involves a racially charged love affair featuring a mobster's daughter.

Father of the Bride has a missing inventor and his dead mistress to deal with.

We, The Jury involves the trial of a major Mafia Don and his attempts to disrupt the jury.

The First Thing We Do... sees a law firm being picked off one by one.

On an Empty Chamber features a missing judge and a missing court reporter.

Copping a Plea sees a homeless man found with the body of a murdered girl.

The chapter ends with a listing of 40s goods and prices.

THE STORIES

These are three complete scenarios, designed to be ready to run.

A Tangled Web (based off of The Big Heat) is set in 1943 New York City, and begins with the investigation of a suicide that obviously has deeper layers.

Where Shadows Fall has a poor woman in dire need of help, and only the PCs can truly help her out, of course. It starts simple enough, with a missing bracelet, which is actually the key to inflicting grievous damage on the mob.

Secrets of Casablanca obviously takes the PCs overseas, to investigate the death of a reporter, and turns into a race against time to uncover the truth and bring the situation to the head.

REFERENCE

A series of charts, featuring all of the modifiers and such that are likely to come up in play, as well as a full page character sheet, and a page that has three smaller sheets on it, as you and your group prefers.

TEMPLATES

21 templates are provides, such as Adventerous Dilettante, Classic Femme Fatale, Arrogant G-Man, Mystery Man, Bitter Veteran, Paranoid Bank Robber and Overhyped Boxer. These are ready to go (minus names) to be used as PCs or NPCs, or just as inspiration.

Finally, Disposable Dice can be printed out and assembled, if you really don't have two six sided dice laying around.

THOUGHTS

My overall impression of Mean Streets suffers just a bit from following so closely on the heels of reading Ghostories, which kinda blew me away. It is definitely a case where, to me, Mean Streets doesn't really have anything to add to Ghostories, while Ghostories probably has quite a bit to add to Mean Streets.

That said, there is certainly plenty of material here to take your game and run with it, and I really like some of the included gimmicks, especially some of the Cultural Gimmicks. The chapters on Crime & Punishment and the mafia, especially, are tremendously useful and well placed, as is the source material on 1940s Chicago, New York City, LA and Morocco.

If you wanted to play it a little more "Sin City" and a little less "Casablanca", kicking in all of the Heroic options, plus Cliches, would get you pretty close.

If you have Ghostories, and you are looking at this for mining material, I can't give it a strong recommendation...if you want a film noir game, especially one that seems like it would scale up fairly well, I give it a bigger thumbs up.