designprinciples - Majordomus/system-design GitHub Wiki

Overarching Design Principles

Throughline

To re-create the tension and drama of classic mobster movies like Goodfellas and the Godfather, with their sense of mounting tension from initial conflict to climactic resolution. Players should feel uncertain about other characters' loyalties, participate in the power struggles within and between mafia families, and tread the fine line between cooperation and rivalry. The stories should typically be about the rise (and fall?) of an up-and-coming mobster.

Core Activity

Mobsters work to further their own and their family's economic interests through (mostly) illegal businesses, while dodging rival mobsters who try to out-maneuver them as well as police and federal agents who try to get them off the streets.

Typical activities include shaking down local businesses for protection money, running numbers games, illegal card and dice games, smuggling cigarettes, booze and/or drugs (depending on the campaign's timeframe), running prostitution, and destroying the assets of rival families. More subtle activities include organizing sit-downs between bosses, negotiating deals, making cops and judges turn a blind eye by bribing them, and more.