Introduction
Well, I have a computer, forums, and can't do anything on my other NESes for a couple of days, and in the case of A House Divided, a couple of months. Therefore, I present unto the NESing community a new NES which will bring back the whole element of stories.
This NES does revolve around story writing, and if you aren't interested in doing that, well, you'd be playing this game with both arms tied behind your back. A good story revolves around the characters, for example, the Godfather would have been a horrible book and movies if it was a dry history of Mafia relations in the twentieth century. Each player will have a personal character, who can die, and if they do, well, you're out of the game. Now to some, it may be tempting to go psyco and try to kill everyone as quickly as possible. If you do this, your character die in some accidental but amusing fashion and you will not be allowed to return.
Well, I've told you what the NES is, but not what it is about. This NES is about the construction of a mafia or mob family in the early years of Prohibition, before the Depression and WW2 would change America. Each player begins as a single man or woman trying to make his or her way in the post-WW1 era, rather legally or illegally. From these humble origins players will construct a small group of individuals which could grow in size until they become a feared and respected Mob leader.
This NES emphasizes creativity, players have full reign within reason of the time period to use their money to any extent of the imagination. Rules are very flexible and prices will change depending on cities, what other businesses you have, and the economy. You can try any types of illegal or legal business in this time frame to make money, and I'd recommend watching old gangster movies to get ideas.
The character is the basis of this NES, your starting character for most purposes is you. Along these lines I have introduced an RPG element into NESing. All characters have individual stats which effect their performance in whatever tasks you give them in your orders. Success or failure in these tasks changes their skill levels, making them a more efficient gangster in one field or another.
You may notice the rules below, this is because the whole NES is incredibly fluid, and will change frequently. This NES is for stories, creativity, and most of all, a good time. Therefore, most of the things below are merely suggestions.
Finally, remember the great phrase which is the essence of the Mob in this time: "It's nothing personal, it's just business."
Story Background
The Great War is over, and times are good in America. Prohibition has begun to go into full spring, and people are looking for new and exciting ways to make money. You are an American in this time, and you've got bright futures ahead of you, filled with cash. The area is New York State.
Set Up
To set up a character, follow the below format. I must mention at least once or twice that a background is mandatory for starting a character, and this background should be at least a paragraph long. Remember, it's about the story. Also, you have 4 points to distribute into whatever fashion you'd like in the skills. See below for the complete listing of skills and what they do. Lastly, please only pick starting locations within New York State. Use wikipedia if you need assistance in picking out a good town. More than one person can start in the same place.
Character Name: Luis Grazzi
Starting City or Town: New York City (New York State locations only, use reference map below)
Financial: 1
Charisma: 2
Stealth: 1
Background: The background is MANDATORY. A paragraph at least must describe your character. The background determines starting funds, starting items, and your overall starting position. Please keep this in mind. The better the background, the better your start.
If you want to start the NES and not go through the above format there is one other option. You can play as a subordinate character in another player's organization who breaks away to do his own thing. However, once more you have to write a story about it and be completely aware that the other player is perfectly in character to hunt down and kill you if you cause too much trouble.
Statistics
It is completely up to the player what type of organization or family he has. Or how it's arranged. Statistics will be arranged on a player by player basis. Now, there are certain elements the main statistics will have and they are displayed below:
Organization Name
Funds: $$$
Leader: Character name
Legal Businesses:
Listed here (profit or loss here)
Illegal Businesses:
Listed Here (profit or loss here)
Item Stockpile: List of all types of weapons, items, or vehicle your combined family possesses
Bribes:
List of all individuals and their positions under your payroll
Muscle: # (expense for employment here)
Total Income: $$$
As stated before, this format may change based on that particular player's organization or own ideas. In some cases (let's say you're a career bank robber) you may have no businesses at all. If you want any specific format, let me know and I'll adjust it to whatever you'd like.
Funds
Unlike in other NESes of mine, the money you make can be stockpiled for as long as you'd like. You never know when you'd need the extra $20 for a rainy day. The money you make doesnt include individual food or rent or an assortment of other random expenses. You use these for all purchases. Prices on anything vary completely depending on where you are and what you're buying. Quite frankly, just pick a price that sounds right to you, and I'll generally approve it, as long as it isn't ridiculously low or high.
Businesses
Well, the limit is your imagination and the time period. No monorails for New York City and other weird things. I will only moderate your money making ideas if they make no sense or don't fit with the time period. This particularly applies to illegal business. If you have an illegal business, it is also always wise to cover it up with some sort of legal business; this is called a "front". I would recommend wikipediaing towns and cities in New York to figure out what kind of businesses you could run as a front.
Lastly, feel free to steal other people's ideas. In fact, in many cases I'd recommend it. Just be careful, if you're in the same city, they could kill you for such an offense.
Items
This statistic includes anything that could be vaguely useful to a mobster. Cars, trucks, boats, and all types of weapons fall under this catorgory. Just remember, if you're holding on to stolen property, someone may come and try to get it.
Bribes and Law Enforcement
Local police are charged with enforcing law and order. However, that can get dull and doesn't usually pay very well. Paying off local officers and community leaders could let you literally get away with murder.
However, if you don't make the right types of payoffs, your characters could find themselves spending their lives in prison for some time to come.
Muscle
These people aren't very bright. These are generic gangsters who make up the bulk of your organization. They collect protection money and do other minute details of a crime family. They are no where near as skilled as characters in collecting money or committing crimes, but if you're not opposing a character, they're not bad either. However, depending on where you are, they do have an employment cost, which will be taken out of your weekly income.
Characters
Characters are the heart of this NES, and they should be treated as such. You can have any amount of characters that you'd like. To get new characters in addition to the starting one, you must provide them with a story, just like your first character. Give them a background and a history and you'll have the newest member of your organization. Sample stats are as follows:
Name
Location
Skills listed here
Loyalty
Pay
Skills
Skills are the most important thing for a character in relation to game play. The skills a new character recieves are not determined by you directly, but by the story you write about them. The higher the skills of a character, the better they are at completing the tasks you assign them. Skills apply the most to what you'd think they'd apply too. Each skill refers to a different thing as listed below:
Small Arms: This refers to rifles and handgun accuracy and use. The higher the skill you have, the better a killer with smaller weapons you turn out to be.
Heavy Weapons: This refers to any weapons you may have that are military grade, like machine guns or explosives.
Charisma: This refers to how well your character displays himself through speech or presentation to others.
Stealth: This refers to how good you are at sneaking around town.
Technical Expertise: Safecracking and electronics are the keys of Technical Expertise and anything along those lines are addressed here.
Automotive: This refers to anything relating to the driving or repair of cars.
Technical Expertise: This refers to anything mechanical that is not a car.
Loyalty and Pay
Your characters have brains of their own. A lot of them require money and some have their own ambitions. If you fail frequently or tend to send people to their deaths, sometimes characters will get a little peeved. You may have to watch this. Pay is also determined by the relationship of each character, and in some cases you may not have to pay them at all.
Stories, Updates, and orders
Now, I don't want people to be intimidated by the need for stories, that's why they're only required for characters. You can write these backgrounds in any manner that you prefer. The more stories the better though, I intend on writing a couple of my own from the perspective of law enforcement. Please be able to accept criticism if you give any, no one is perfect.
Also, all updates will be written as newspaper articles for my own enjoyment. I hope to update once or twice a week, and each update covers a week's worth of time.
As in other NESes, please include the title of this NES or the abbreviation JB by your orders if you send via PM. I would encourage players to post orders here at first, as it is unlikely that many orders in the beginning will include betrayals. After all New York City alone is massive, there's no reason for conflict at first. Build up your organization, then we can have some fun gang wars. It's not always about war.
Well, I have a computer, forums, and can't do anything on my other NESes for a couple of days, and in the case of A House Divided, a couple of months. Therefore, I present unto the NESing community a new NES which will bring back the whole element of stories.
This NES does revolve around story writing, and if you aren't interested in doing that, well, you'd be playing this game with both arms tied behind your back. A good story revolves around the characters, for example, the Godfather would have been a horrible book and movies if it was a dry history of Mafia relations in the twentieth century. Each player will have a personal character, who can die, and if they do, well, you're out of the game. Now to some, it may be tempting to go psyco and try to kill everyone as quickly as possible. If you do this, your character die in some accidental but amusing fashion and you will not be allowed to return.
Well, I've told you what the NES is, but not what it is about. This NES is about the construction of a mafia or mob family in the early years of Prohibition, before the Depression and WW2 would change America. Each player begins as a single man or woman trying to make his or her way in the post-WW1 era, rather legally or illegally. From these humble origins players will construct a small group of individuals which could grow in size until they become a feared and respected Mob leader.
This NES emphasizes creativity, players have full reign within reason of the time period to use their money to any extent of the imagination. Rules are very flexible and prices will change depending on cities, what other businesses you have, and the economy. You can try any types of illegal or legal business in this time frame to make money, and I'd recommend watching old gangster movies to get ideas.
The character is the basis of this NES, your starting character for most purposes is you. Along these lines I have introduced an RPG element into NESing. All characters have individual stats which effect their performance in whatever tasks you give them in your orders. Success or failure in these tasks changes their skill levels, making them a more efficient gangster in one field or another.
You may notice the rules below, this is because the whole NES is incredibly fluid, and will change frequently. This NES is for stories, creativity, and most of all, a good time. Therefore, most of the things below are merely suggestions.
Finally, remember the great phrase which is the essence of the Mob in this time: "It's nothing personal, it's just business."
Story Background
The Great War is over, and times are good in America. Prohibition has begun to go into full spring, and people are looking for new and exciting ways to make money. You are an American in this time, and you've got bright futures ahead of you, filled with cash. The area is New York State.
Set Up
To set up a character, follow the below format. I must mention at least once or twice that a background is mandatory for starting a character, and this background should be at least a paragraph long. Remember, it's about the story. Also, you have 4 points to distribute into whatever fashion you'd like in the skills. See below for the complete listing of skills and what they do. Lastly, please only pick starting locations within New York State. Use wikipedia if you need assistance in picking out a good town. More than one person can start in the same place.
Character Name: Luis Grazzi
Starting City or Town: New York City (New York State locations only, use reference map below)
Financial: 1
Charisma: 2
Stealth: 1
Background: The background is MANDATORY. A paragraph at least must describe your character. The background determines starting funds, starting items, and your overall starting position. Please keep this in mind. The better the background, the better your start.
If you want to start the NES and not go through the above format there is one other option. You can play as a subordinate character in another player's organization who breaks away to do his own thing. However, once more you have to write a story about it and be completely aware that the other player is perfectly in character to hunt down and kill you if you cause too much trouble.
Statistics
It is completely up to the player what type of organization or family he has. Or how it's arranged. Statistics will be arranged on a player by player basis. Now, there are certain elements the main statistics will have and they are displayed below:
Organization Name
Funds: $$$
Leader: Character name
Legal Businesses:
Listed here (profit or loss here)
Illegal Businesses:
Listed Here (profit or loss here)
Item Stockpile: List of all types of weapons, items, or vehicle your combined family possesses
Bribes:
List of all individuals and their positions under your payroll
Muscle: # (expense for employment here)
Total Income: $$$
As stated before, this format may change based on that particular player's organization or own ideas. In some cases (let's say you're a career bank robber) you may have no businesses at all. If you want any specific format, let me know and I'll adjust it to whatever you'd like.
Funds
Unlike in other NESes of mine, the money you make can be stockpiled for as long as you'd like. You never know when you'd need the extra $20 for a rainy day. The money you make doesnt include individual food or rent or an assortment of other random expenses. You use these for all purchases. Prices on anything vary completely depending on where you are and what you're buying. Quite frankly, just pick a price that sounds right to you, and I'll generally approve it, as long as it isn't ridiculously low or high.
Businesses
Well, the limit is your imagination and the time period. No monorails for New York City and other weird things. I will only moderate your money making ideas if they make no sense or don't fit with the time period. This particularly applies to illegal business. If you have an illegal business, it is also always wise to cover it up with some sort of legal business; this is called a "front". I would recommend wikipediaing towns and cities in New York to figure out what kind of businesses you could run as a front.
Lastly, feel free to steal other people's ideas. In fact, in many cases I'd recommend it. Just be careful, if you're in the same city, they could kill you for such an offense.
Items
This statistic includes anything that could be vaguely useful to a mobster. Cars, trucks, boats, and all types of weapons fall under this catorgory. Just remember, if you're holding on to stolen property, someone may come and try to get it.
Bribes and Law Enforcement
Local police are charged with enforcing law and order. However, that can get dull and doesn't usually pay very well. Paying off local officers and community leaders could let you literally get away with murder.
However, if you don't make the right types of payoffs, your characters could find themselves spending their lives in prison for some time to come.
Muscle
These people aren't very bright. These are generic gangsters who make up the bulk of your organization. They collect protection money and do other minute details of a crime family. They are no where near as skilled as characters in collecting money or committing crimes, but if you're not opposing a character, they're not bad either. However, depending on where you are, they do have an employment cost, which will be taken out of your weekly income.
Characters
Characters are the heart of this NES, and they should be treated as such. You can have any amount of characters that you'd like. To get new characters in addition to the starting one, you must provide them with a story, just like your first character. Give them a background and a history and you'll have the newest member of your organization. Sample stats are as follows:
Name
Location
Skills listed here
Loyalty
Pay
Skills
Skills are the most important thing for a character in relation to game play. The skills a new character recieves are not determined by you directly, but by the story you write about them. The higher the skills of a character, the better they are at completing the tasks you assign them. Skills apply the most to what you'd think they'd apply too. Each skill refers to a different thing as listed below:
Small Arms: This refers to rifles and handgun accuracy and use. The higher the skill you have, the better a killer with smaller weapons you turn out to be.
Heavy Weapons: This refers to any weapons you may have that are military grade, like machine guns or explosives.
Charisma: This refers to how well your character displays himself through speech or presentation to others.
Stealth: This refers to how good you are at sneaking around town.
Technical Expertise: Safecracking and electronics are the keys of Technical Expertise and anything along those lines are addressed here.
Automotive: This refers to anything relating to the driving or repair of cars.
Technical Expertise: This refers to anything mechanical that is not a car.
Loyalty and Pay
Your characters have brains of their own. A lot of them require money and some have their own ambitions. If you fail frequently or tend to send people to their deaths, sometimes characters will get a little peeved. You may have to watch this. Pay is also determined by the relationship of each character, and in some cases you may not have to pay them at all.
Stories, Updates, and orders
Now, I don't want people to be intimidated by the need for stories, that's why they're only required for characters. You can write these backgrounds in any manner that you prefer. The more stories the better though, I intend on writing a couple of my own from the perspective of law enforcement. Please be able to accept criticism if you give any, no one is perfect.
Also, all updates will be written as newspaper articles for my own enjoyment. I hope to update once or twice a week, and each update covers a week's worth of time.
As in other NESes, please include the title of this NES or the abbreviation JB by your orders if you send via PM. I would encourage players to post orders here at first, as it is unlikely that many orders in the beginning will include betrayals. After all New York City alone is massive, there's no reason for conflict at first. Build up your organization, then we can have some fun gang wars. It's not always about war.
.
