But I had a thought when I found myself singing the Butcher Pete song you hear in Fallout 3.  Wouldn't it be cool to play a game set in the 50s where the point was to hack up as many people as you can before getting caught? Lol.

So I was thinking one player is Butcher Pete.  The other player is the narrator / adjudicator (and the cops).  And the other players take the role of the victims. 

The gameplay concept might be that every kill you make hastens the inevitable: that the cops will catch up with you.  However, depending on who you kill and how stylishly you hack them up, and depending on how well you cover your tracks, you may get the opportunity to drag out your killing spree even longer.  Here's how it might work:
* The kill encounter (setup, execution, cleanup) plays out like a stunting system, which is to say that narrative awesomeness heavily influences Pete's or the victim's chance of success.
* Killing innocents is the easiest to pull off, but makes cops catch up to you very quickly and grants you the least bonuses for future encounters.
* Killing regular teenagers makes cops slower on the trail, as they all listen and dance to that satanic rock and roll.
* Killing greasers is very tough to pull off, but grants you big bonuses.  The cops tend to drag their asses on these cases.
* Killing cops is the toughest to pull off.  You’ll get big bonuses, but they’ll be on you again as soon as you turn around.

I’m not experienced at making these sorts of systems, so perhaps you guys can help me flesh out the concept a bit more.

Is there a purpose to Butcher Pete's rampage, other than for its own sake? I'm cool with either; that question is my attempt to help with your design idea.
It might be cool to devise a reason (publicly or secretly; serious or humorous) before play begins.

And have you played Kill Puppies for Satan? It's available at lumpley.com - - it's got Evil points, your character has stats like Cold and Fucked Up, and there's demons and black magic! It might be either a) something to play or b) something to play and then crib from for your design.

This sounds like it could make a fun card game. with one player as Pete and the others as the people of the town he's in. The players have to gather information to catch Pete one of the ways to do this is by putting contacts (other people of the town into play) while Butcher Pete goes about hacking and whacking and chopping that meat taking them out of play.

Well, what's the purpose of play here? It might be fun in some kind of sick, cathartic way to be the player of Butcher Pete, but what is in it for the victim's player? Is it a head-to-head competition? Is this a game to see who wins, player vs. player?

So what if the narrator played pete and the players can choose to play the cops and citizens.
I think the card game Idea is cool -- maybe there are so many important people in town. some greasers
some horn-rimmed glasses wearing stay at home mother - a business owner (maybe barber) -- the poodle shirt wearing cheerleader etc etc etc
(can you say game series -- expansions etc $$ ;)  always good)  anyway
player can pick or have to draw a card and play that character --they have to find "pete" and stop him

or going with your original Idea -- maybe players pick a player among them to play "pete" and the rest pick/draw a card
the game ends when pete is caught and the "victims" could just keep drawing cards when they die. of course if pete kills everyone
well I guess he wins.

just some ideas. Sounds pretty fun. but I see it more like a boardgame.
Like A board game that I might buy though.
Cool idea ar kayon
Way different from any of the other stuff I have read of yours.

-Brent

Weird, I'd taken it that butcher Pete was a sexoholic and 'cutting that meat' was an almost single entendre euphamism.

Anyway, why do you suddenly jump towards the idea of someone playing Pete as the only way of engaging this? The interesting thing was the song. You could as much play a band hearing about Pete's exploits, which are generated by random tables, and trying to put it into lyrics. Perhaps even have two bands trying to do so, and whatever competitive reflex organically comes out of that.

I believe there are two great games out there that already do kind of what you’re talking about. One for fantasy Orcs the role play game and Violence for modern settings. Where in both games it just a character creation system, and a combat systems. In both the many role of characters is to kill very thing that moves. Both are great games that are the ones I fall back on for a good old night of destruction.

Adam wrote:
Well, what's the purpose of play here? It might be fun in some kind of sick, cathartic way to be the player of Butcher Pete, but what is in it for the victim's player? Is it a head-to-head competition? Is this a game to see who wins, player vs. player?

Trollkin wrote:
I believe there are two great games out there that already do kind of what you’re talking about. One for fantasy Orcs the role play game and Violence for modern settings. Where in both games it just a character creation system, and a combat systems. In both the many role of characters is to kill very thing that moves. Both are great games that are the ones I fall back on for a good old night of destruction.

I'll second the nomination for Vincent Baker's kill puppies for satan. You play dumb-ass teenage Satanists who are too stupid and lowly to get Satan's proper attention. They go around doing terrible things to gain power, but their idea of terrible is pretty pitiful.

Also look at Paul Czege's Acts of Evil, which I'm told encourages sociopathic in-character behavior. ;)

Don't you mean "neutral evil" in-character behavior?

Read the first few lines and fell in love.

Kudos

Certified wrote:
This sounds like it could make a fun card game. with one player as Pete and the others as the people of the town he's in. The players have to gather information to catch Pete one of the ways to do this is by putting contacts (other people of the town into play) while Butcher Pete goes about hacking and whacking and chopping that meat taking them out of play.

Ar wrote:

Certified wrote:
This sounds like it could make a fun card game. with one player as Pete and the others as the people of the town he's in. The players have to gather information to catch Pete one of the ways to do this is by putting contacts (other people of the town into play) while Butcher Pete goes about hacking and whacking and chopping that meat taking them out of play.

When I read "card game", at first (and at second, third and fourth) my eyes glazed over.  But then I finally got over my reflexive instinct and actually read your post.  I have to admit: it's a damned good idea.