So I was day dreaming in a waiting room at my wife's appointment this morning. I was thinking. What skills are essential for a 1920's gangster/prohibition agent/cop game? Should they be general? Specific? Suggestions of certain skills, or skill sets very much welcome. I have some ideas. But what say you, fair reader?

Off the top of my head: driving, shooting, brawling, melee weapons, investigation, forensics, law, medicine/first aid, carousing, intimidation, persuasion, stealth, B&E, streetwise, mechanics, demolitions, brewing.

Two-Fisted Tales has a G-Man archetype that might be a goid starting point.

Remind me to get out Gangbusters later and I'll tell you what they had.

Call of Cthulhu has a pretty good spread of skills for that era as it is set in that era. Remove the Mythos specific skills and you are good to go. Cthulhu LIVE and its pulp hero extension Shades of Grey have some more ideas.

I've seen at least one person running CoC as a straight up detective setting. Which speaks alot for the games versatility.

Recently I've been watching Boardwalk Empire which displays a wide variety of gangsters and their activities. Yes driving and brewing are good ones. Also: boating, engine repair/mechanics, business management (brothels, entertainment palaces, speakeasies, butcher shop, etc.), accounting, gambling, politics, law. Charisma based skills can be important if you want to attract gang members or run for political office (the main character in the show, Nucky Thompson, was big into politics and manipulating guys in suits. Another major character is a community leader of the Black section of the city.) One character, arguably the most dangerous man in the show, was a sniper during WWI (of course, then known only as The Great War.)

Remember there were no highways back then. Most roads were small, dirt ones connecting towns. Having a good head for maps and knowing routes and where gas stations are is important.

And don't forget back then your roots mattered. Having an Irish or Italian surname meant something to everyone. Being able to speak the old language was a sign of distinction to many.

If you're thinking about designing/redesigning a mechanic for Gangster RPG - I do think you should go general/specific split, as usual, putting in General skills such actions that can be more easily learned by practice and/or life itself, or just more common among gangsters (pistols, brawling, persuasion, streetwise, driving etc. etc.) and in specific - skills that'd mark the gangster's profession, such as brewing, special weapons, explosives, lockpicking etc. etc.)

For my mafia game I created an open Crime Skill and put something like 15 crime sub skills in it (Embezzle, Narcotic Trafficking, Theft, Counterfeiting, etc). That seemed to work for me.

Fists
Guns
Cars
Booze
Corruptness
Coolness

Spread 200 points among them, percentile roll under.  Game is ready to start.

Quote from: Matt;805809Remind me to get out Gangbusters later and I'll tell you what they had.

Amen. Gangbusters is an awesome game and is certainly a great place to start if you're looking for a gangster-era RPG.