[The Business] Setting and Game Play

[Sledgeman]

For those of you who haven't been poking around the other thread about this game, "The Business" is an RPG I'm designing in hopes of someday selling it online as a .pdf file.  The setting itself has been played in another system, however an original mechanic is in the works.

This post is all about the game world, as well as the suggested method of designing adventures and running games.  It's included in a new thread, because it's just too darned big to fit into the "Mechanic" thread.  =-)

Adventure design is the crux of this thread...in order for the game to work, the suggested adventure design has to meet these goals:

1.  Adventures are easy to design
2.  Adventures encourage players to drive the game forward themselves
3.  Adventures are challenging...both for the players, and for the GM

The million dollar question:  Are these goals being met?
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The Setting

The game takes place in our own time, in our own world.  No supernatural or sci-fi elements, here.  It's a gritty, modern world, and the adventures themselves take place in a gritty, modern city.

You could play in any city, but for the purposes of this essay, we'll be referring to the fictional "Steel City."  It's a large metropolis full of high buildings and low morals.  The cops are overworked, the hospitals are overloaded, and the city itself is ripe for criminal enterprise.  That's where the players come in.

The Gang

Each "Gang" (which is Business-ese for "Adventuring Party") is made up of any combination of con-artists, car thieves, street pimps, drug dealers, burglars...the list goes on.  Why would such characters choose to join forces?  Because you don't operate in "Steel City" without the approval of the King of Organized Crime, Mickey O'Neil.

Mickey

Mickey is the patriarch of the O'Neil crime family, which has held an iron grip on organized crime in "Steel City" for decades.  Other Dons have come and gone, but Mickey has crushed them all.  Mickey doesn't like competition...so if you want to step up to the big time, you've got to go through him.

Getting the nod from Mickey isn't simple, though.  A shrewd businessman, Mickey doesn't make deals unless he's got something to gain.  For a modest monthly "Royalty," Mr. O'Neil will allow your Gang to operate in his city without interference.  He'll even provide you with a few contacts to help you get started.  All you have to do is follow the rules...

1.  Don't get caught
2.  Don't miss a payment

The Family

Mickey gives every Gang in his organization a list of the movers and shakers in "Steel City."  Most of them always have a few jobs they need done...and they'll pay top dollar for guys who can get it done right.  Mr. O'Neil also usually has a couple of errands to take care of, too...so there's no shortage of ways to make money.

Home, Sweet Home

If the characters choose, they can even take out a substantial loan from the O'Neil family to purchase all the things they'll need to begin their little criminal company.  This gives players a chance to root themselves in the world before going out on jobs...normally, whenever I play this game, I let the players take 15-30 minutes at the top to discuss where they want to live, what kind of equipment they want to have, if they want to hire a lawyer, what kind of car they drive, if they have a "Front" (like a bar or some other small business), etc.  This way, they're more involved with the game, and they don't feel "Empty-Handed" once the game gets rolling.

Adventure Design

So, after all the characters have been created, and the Gang has been introduced to Mr. O'Neil, they'll be turned loose on the city.  The characters are free to pursue their fortune however they want...however, they are given a list of five or so "Contacts" who usually have jobs for them to do.  If the players prefer to go their own way, that's cool, too...but I've found that most parties who've played this end up looking for those contacts sooner or later.

When the players ask a contact for a job, they might get something like this:

Joey, the manager of the Chop Shop says, "I've got a hot date with Jezebel tomorrow night, and I want to take her out in style.  Thing is, I'm getting backed up--I've got 5 cars to chop by the end of the night, and I can't afford to rent a limo legit.  However, I hear Senator Young is having dinner at Marco's Restaurant tonight...and I bet he'll be riding there in a limo.  If you can steal me that and get it back to me by the end of the night, I'll put the rest of these cars on hold long enough to make that limo untraceable.  I'll give you $1,000 bucks if you can do it.  Is it a deal?"

The GM's notes might include the appropriate information about the restaurant, where the limo's parked, etc...but it provides no specific solution to stealing the car without getting caught.  That's up to the players to come up with.

While the players plan out the job, the GM secretly shoots holes in their plan.  It's up to the players to make their crime as button-tight as possible, and it's up to the GM to look for ways to foul everything up.

The players, however, know that the GM is looking for ways that their plan could backfire (a meta-game trick, yes...but it works pretty effectively). So the planning stage usually involves a lot of heated discussion.  The players will often think of things that the GM hadn't even considered...which is one less thing that the GM had to plan out beforehand.

The result is that players are challenged to use their critical thinking and puzzle solving skills to plan the "Perfect Crime." Players feel like real contributors...using not only their character's talents, but their brains as well.  

Meanwhile the GM doesn't have to sit and mull over all the possible outcomes of all possible actions before the game starts.  In fact, I've run games where all I had was a list of potential jobs--and the players took it and ran.  It becomes much easier to design adventures on the fly.

-CHRIS M.

[MarktheAnimator]

Hello,
You may want to research the art of storytelling, so that you can help explain it to potential GMs.

The book, "How to Tell a Story - The Secrets of Writing Captivating Tales" by Peter Rubie and Gary Provost is a great book to learn basic storytelling.
I've found this book very useful.  After reading it, my games improved imensely.

There are also lots of books that concentrate on crime stories.  Writers Digest books has a good selection:

http://www.writersdigest.com/topics/fiction.asp

Just do a search for "Crime Stories."

You can also check out my website for ideas.  I'm currently writing my chapter on how to design and run games.  I'm posting some of my ideas on my site here:

http://www.fantasyimperium.com/story.html

The stuff online is a work in progress. :)

You may also want to consider giving your readers the opportunity to choose their own style for the setting.  Some people will want the gritty feel, while others may want a game set in the early 20th century.  You could detail lots of cool old cars and other elements in the game.  Conversely, you could just do your default setting, but include ideas for different types of settings.

Another thing is that you probably don't want to make it a RPG of the computer game, Grand Theft Auto... (or perhaps you do).

You may also want to check out the old supplement for D&D called, Thieve's Guild which was a game that was designed solely for thieves in a fantasy setting.  
I think it's out of print but you may be able to find it online.  
They had lots of cool ideas, such as the gang hiding out along a road and the GM would tell them who was passing by.  They had to decide if they were going to jump them.  Sometimes, they found a rich person, sometimes they robbed a plague wagon.... Their supplements are full of interesting ideas that you could probably adopt for a modern setting.

Anyway, I hope this gives you some cool ideas.

[Chris Lekas]

It may be looking mostly from the other side of things, but you can never go wrong by watching LOTS of Law & Order. (TNT now shos something like 5 episodes a night)

[Sledgeman]

Some good responses, here.  =-)  Certainly, it will be crucial in the final product to be able to clearly convey the suggested adventure design, as it seems to be such a crucial part of the game.  I think I might stick with including a couple of ideas about alternate settings, while focusing mainly on fleshing out the suggested game world, if only to keep my .pdf as digestible as possible.  After all, I'm thinking about a suggested retail price of Five Whole Bucks, so my book probably won't be a full-on, 200 pager anyway.

In response to the "Grand Theft Auto" comment, you're actually closer than you think.  While I certainly am not planning on using that particular license, there are certain elements of the game's structure which I think would work well in an RPG--namely, the idea of having a number of contacts, with a number of adventure seeds "Loaded" into each one.  It makes the game feel more nonlinear, and less railroaded.  If Greg Costikyan's Violence is "Grand Theft Auto If All You Do Is Kill People," then I suppose my game would be at the other end of the spectrum.