GangBusters RPG (TSR) Historical Gaming Discussion

[Silver Moon]

GangBusters was TRS's Role-Playing Advernture game (copyright 1980) with 1920's gangster related modules set in Lakefront City, Illinois (whose map looks amazingly like Chicago). Over on EBay I recently picked up the original boxed set of the rules and two modules (GB1: "Trouble Brewing" by Tom Moldvay and GB4 "The Vanishing Investigate" by Mark Acres). I already own around 20 miniatures for that time frame that I had picked up for Call of Cthulhu.

I was wondering if anybody else had played this RGP before and what they thought of it.

 

[Hussar]

Played it many, many years ago. Barely remember it. But, I do remember it fondly. IIRC, I always played a reporter.

Mechanics wise, I don't remember a single thing.

 

[Exquisite Dead Guy]

I couldn't keep a character alive in GB. I couldn't get out of the AD&D mentality, so I guess it's my own fault.

 

[WayneLigon]

Over on EBay I recently picked up the original boxed set of the rules and two modules

Apparently people still want it; I sold a new-in-the-box-unbroken-shrinkwrap Gangbusters last week on eBay to someone in IL. (I picked it up at a garage sale thinking it would make good eBay material, and it did). I never played it, myself.

 

[Umbran]

Ah, yes. I remember this one.

It's not a bad game, but it does suffer from "historical game syndrome", rather like Boot Hill did. The game has no fantastic elements whasoever, and characters never leave the power levels of normal humans in a normal world. So, many of the usual things that draw people to RPGs are not present.

If you aren't particularly interested in the flavor of the 1920s, and if your GM is not good at portraying that flavor, or at creating interesting normal human plots, this game will fail to hold your interest.

 

[DethStryke]

If you aren't particularly interested in the flavor of the 1920s, and if your GM is not good at portraying that flavor, or at creating interesting normal human plots, this game will fail to hold your interest.

Thems alot of "ifs".

I remember it from the ads in my Box Sets and Dragon Mag, back in the day, but never had a chance to play it.

 

[Umbran]

Thems alot of "ifs".

Yep. That's the basic problem with historical games. In fantasy and sci-fi, you've got other grips: technological or magical gizmoes, alien worlds and peoples, and abilities that make otherwise outlandish things easy. Your villains don't have to be particularly smart or logical, because they can have raw power to spackle over plot holes. And due to the fantastic elements, action becomes far more interesting.

 

[adwyn]

Mechanically I don't remember much - just enough to know that after a few sessions we kept the PC's and switched them over to a homebrewed system.

Background wise its an homage to old gangster movies and Sam Spade crime novels. When we were fifteen this was a new arena to explore, but apart from nostalgia you would probably be better off picking up D20 modern and doing some basic background research.

 

[The Shaman]

That's the basic problem with historical games.

A problem for you, perhaps, but not a problem with the genre.

In fantasy and sci-fi, you've got other grips: technological or magical gizmoes, alien worlds and peoples, and abilities that make otherwise outlandish things easy. Your villains don't have to be particularly smart or logical, because they can have raw power to spackle over plot holes.

For people who enjoy historical roleplaying games, the fact that "raw power" isn't as readily available is a feature, not a bug.

And due to the fantastic elements, action becomes far more interesting.

Or they become a crutch to escape creating interesting challenges for adventurers out of mundane elements.

I owned Gangbusters but never played it - I thought it had potential, but I didn't do anything with it for lack of time.

 

[Umbran]

A problem for you, perhaps, but not a problem with the genre.

It is a problem for the genre, insofar as they sell so poorly that they don't tend to stay in print. Compare the presence in the market of purely historical games to the straight fantasies, or to psuedo-historical games with fantastic elements included, and the problem becomes pretty evident.

Or they become a crutch to escape creating interesting challenges for adventurers out of mundane elements.

Yep. Historical games present a challenge for the GM. Creating good and believeable settings, adventures, and challenges with only mundane elements is just more difficult than doing so in heroic fantasy.

Take Gangbusters as an example - as Exquisite Dead Guy said, keeping characters alive wasn't easy. Gunfights were deadly, and that was entirely appropriate. The canonical bad guys for the game were Prohibition Era gangsters, and they had little qualm with using guns on difficult people. Repeatedly setting up plausible situations where the PCs would have a fighting chance to succeed was simply more difficult than designing a similar number of fantasy adventures.