Thursday, December 24, 2009

Gaming a Villainous Bank Robbery

For many moons now, I've had the idea floating in the back of my head to play criminals engaging in a down and dirty bank robbery. As of late, our gaming has been somewhat sporadic, and due to player flux, we've been playing a handful of short, random games instead of our Savage Worlds fantasy campaign. Perhaps the time is now right to put the villainous bank robbery game into action.

The question now is: What setting or existing content (if any) and system should I use?

My first thought is to use the system A Dirty World, which has some neat little mechanics to model Film Noir. I picked this game up at GenCon a couple years ago, and it's just been sitting on my bookshelf. As Greg Stolze, the author of the game, explains:

"Your ability to get things done fluctuates depending on your mood and circumstances. Instead of a series of temporary modifiers, everything is in play all the time. If you want to retain your purity and courage, you have to work for them. If your character undergoes experiences that are going to turn him into a rat bastard, he gets rat bastard abilities whether the player wants them or not. The result is a game where character is always critical, because explaining your character's reactions to events is what builds his ability to change events. His struggles and discoveries impact your character directly. Drama and mechanics fuse."

That sounds pretty cool. But I'm still left at a loss for how to structure a game focused on a bank robbery, and because I don't want to devote the time to build a one-shot from scratch, I'd love some great published materials (in any system) as at least a starting point.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

4 comments:

Kevin said...

The Mongoose Traveller "Scoundrel" supplement actually has some rules for running heists!

I'd argue that it's not terribly Traveller specific, but if it interested you, then some of the work is already done for you :-)

Michael S/Chgowiz said...

I have the old school Gangbusters game, which you are welcome to look through and see if anything there works for you. I've not had a chance to run these rules, so I couldn't answer it for you.

Supah said...

Kevin - I'll definitely have to check out the Traveller rules. I've been thinking about a heist for a long time.

Chgowiz - I may actually take you up on that offer when I'm back in Chicago. Hope to see you soon!

Michael S/Chgowiz said...

@Supah - awesome! Hopefully I can lure you to a Dark Ages game or two. :)