Dog Town The Ultimate Crime Experience

Written and produced by Dedicated To Louise Ridd Jonathan Ridd Your patience is appreciated

Split System Design AcknowledgementsJonathan and James Ridd I would like to credit the following people whose advice and Editing assistance has advanced this book Jonathan Ridd to publication.

Cover Mark Ricketts, Stuart Renton, JohnRobert Mansperger Tuckey and my familiy who have been very supportive. Photographs Kevin Walsh Special Thanks To Kevin Walsh for use of his Illustrations Marvelous images of New York Jeremy Mchugh Thom Scott at www.Forgotton-ny.comRobert Mansperger Gavin HargestJames Ridd Brad Mcdevitt Play TestersRob Taylor James Ridd, Martin Pecci

Visit Cold Blooded Games atwww.coldbloodedgames.comContact: coldblooded.games@ntlworld.com

Dog Town is copyright ©2002 - 2005 by Cold Blooded Games and Jonathan Ridd.Split System is copyright ©2002 - 2005. by Cold Blooded Games and Jonathan Ridd. All rights reserved.

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ContentsChapter One: Low Down 4 What Is Dog Town 7 Setting 9 The District 14 The Maps 16

Chapter Two: Creating A Criminal 30 Attributes 31 Criminal Types 44 Special Talents/Flaws/Vices 56 Criminal History 65 Skills And Abilities 76 Power And Respect 91

Chapter Three: Doin A Lil Somin 99 Split System 100 Types Of Actions 103 Behavior 107 Rackets 114 Pursuits 132 Gambling 139 Patrols/Rousts/Investigations 141 B & E 152

Chapter Four: Thug Life 155 Balls 157 Slots And Reaction Speed 160 Styles 165 Hit Chance 166 Specializations 170 Effectiveness 172 Tactics 173 Weapon And Injury Charts 176

Effects Of Injuries 199

Chapter Five: Shootouts 208 Draw Speed 210 Ranges And Difficulty 213 Weapon and Injury Charts 221

Bombs And Deadly Stuff 253

Chapter Six: Directors Chair 272 Running The Game 273 Game Play 275 Setting The Scene 280 Quickly Derived Attributes 282 Generic Skill Bases 283 Skills In Short 284 Fighting 101 286 Rap Sheets 287

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LowDown

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ForewordPopular culture is fascinated by crime, particularly true crime and it’s embodiment is the gangster. I believe the gangster holds a deep intrigue for us on two levels. Firstly the gangster epitomizes an alternative and somewhat attractive lifestyle of power, money and rulthless style. A swaggering mix of machismo, ambition and violence moving through an underworld of vice and corruption. We like to be tourists in that world to vicariously feel the glamour and gore through movies, books, computer games and now rpg’s. We are equally interested in the cops who pursue them, the brave and dedicated officers who surveille, infiltrate and gather the evidence to bring them to book. It is in essence the ultimate game, an extension of schoolyard fantasy made real, with swift and dire consequences for the wrong move.

In a fictional sense the gangster as an anti-hero is the ideal subject for book and film. His flawed character is identifiable, his actions both immoral and praiseworthy, his story sus-penseful. When you watch good gangster movies like “Scarface” and “Carlito’s Way”, you really don’t know how it will all end, because you are not watching a formulaic Hollywood block buster where the hero always triumphs. You suspect that it will all end tragically for the principal character that the closing credits will see him lying on the sidewalk in a pool of his own blood having been betrayed by his own greed and other’s treachery. Or perhaps he has done something noble for once, redeeming himself through an act of loyalty and self-sacrifice. And perhaps because of this you end up rooting for him anyway, against all the odds.

“Made it, Ma! Top of the world!”

Cody Jarrett from the classic gangster Movie White Heat goes out with a bang.

Dog Town is not a fantasy role playing game featuring supernatural beings, magic or futur-istic gadgetry. It is a realistic role playing game dealing with the adult themes of criminal and street sub cultures. It aims to be an authentic portrayal of urban life and criminality in 1970’s New York. To be true to the gangster/street genre and to do it justice I have included for the sake of accuracy in a large lexicon of slang, swear words and derogatory ethnic, gender and sexual orientation slang words from the time, as this is how the criminal element spoke. No film maker like Martin Scorcese or Spike Lee would dream of making an accurate period piece and glossing over some of its harsher and uglier historic facts, just because they are now not politically correct. “Guineas” and “Greaseballs” was how Italian gangsters were referred to by non Italian gangsters, and some black people called white people “Honkys or Peckerwoods“, also some men referred to women as “Broads“ or “Chicks“. These terms can be offensive, and some were meant to be to put down or provoke anger in the groups concerned. This game is largely about criminal conflict and these terms reflect the expres-sion of that conflict.

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I don’t condone, support or promote the use of this language in everyday life. But in a role-playing setting, which is in my view no different from any other creative or literary form. I think it is acceptable if those participating in the gaming session are comfortable with it. It can be used or not used and is by no means an essential element to playing the game. After all murder and mayhem which is at the core of most role playing games is deemed permissible when acted out within this context, and one could argue that ethically such sadistic and macabre indulgence in others make believe suffering is more morally wrong.This book is not an incitement to commit crime, real criminals are loathsome and largely pathetic individuals who ruin their own and other people’s lives through acts of senseless violence and greed driven stupidity. But this is just a game the same as Hitman or Grand Theft Auto are just games, and Reservoir Dogs is only a movie, so just enjoy them for what they are entertainment.

Historically, crime itself, particularly organized and violent crime was and is overwhelm-ingly committed by men and this book reflects that with about 90% of the criminals being male. That is not to say however that there weren’t female street gang members, cops, drug dealers, thieves and participating members of violent political groups, its just that they were a small minority in the scheme of things.Also organized crime groups like the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, Jamaican Posses and Mafia Families were and are made up of exclusively male membership. Any woman wanting to be apart of this world would have to do it from the outside as perhaps a freelance contract killer, or as the founder of her own biker gang. She would also need get through the macho bullshit put in her way by proving to be tougher, smarter and crazier than her male coun-terparts. This would be the female gangsters challenge of role-playing in Dog Town, to be the deadly exception to the rule.

The original intention with the game was to have everything in one book, Crime Pays, Nar-cotics, Code Of The Street and the Pennington Source Book. It soon became clear that this material which has already been written up would turn the book into a 500 page tome, and by general consensus in RPG land this is far too large a page count for a single PDF. So what you get is the core rules and a good idea of how to play the game. What’s to come is the full story in all its wonderful grimy detail so check out “DogTown: Crime Wave The Felon’s Handbook” for the flavor and “Pennington Streets” for the run down on who’s who and what is what.

The book is written in a street dialect so words like “yo”, “wit” and “jou” are not typos.

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Lowdown 7

“It’s a rotten game. But it’s the only game the man allows us to play. And that’s the stone cold truth.”

Eddie from the movie Superfly.

What Is Dog TownDog Town is homage to the whole gangster and street genre. Films such as “Scarface”, “SuperFly”, “Carlito’s Way”, “Goodfellas” “Shaft”, “Death Wish” and “Taxi Driver” in-spired this book. Later the computer titles “Kingpin” and “Grand Theft Auto 3” as well as biographies like “Murder Machine” and “Pimp” further nurtured a desire to create a gangster role playing game that would blend the four mediums together. Themes of treachery and greed leading to inevitable tragedy in this murky violent world are the meat and potatoes of the genre, as there has always been something grimly fascinat-ing and compelling about those who seek to put themselves outside the law and live life on a tightrope; this book recognizes this dark interest and seeks to indulge it.

What Is Role Playing For the uninitiated a role playing game is to use an analogy like a film in production with several optional and changeable plot lines being considered at any one time.One person assumes the role of a director creating scenes both planned, and set up on the spot in response to changing circum-stances, describing them to the actor and filling them with intrigue, drama and actions sequences. The player of the game would be the principal actor and plays a well devel-oped fully motivated character. His role is to navigate his way through the scenes using ad lib dialogue, initiative and his characters physical prowess.

If the film Scarface is used to illustrate this concept then the player in this instance would be Al Pacino portraying the main criminal tough Cuban exile and killer Tony Montana. Pacino is given complete freedom to create and play Montana as he wants to right down to each word he speaks. The film

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