31 Character Challenge Part 31: Gangbusters B/X

Prohibition. It's one of my favorite periods of American history to study.  When we lost our collective minds and instituted a massive attempt to legislate morality and created of our law-abiding citizens a nation of scofflaws.  Flappers, G-men, bootleggers, bathtub gin and speakeasies.  Chicago typewriters, hits, smuggler's row, "I would advise yas ta keep dialin', Oxmyx."

I first played TSR's Gangbusters in High School.  I loved so much about the game.  First of all, it allowed players to be on the other side of the law.  Sure, you could play cops and G-Men, both of which were a lot of fun.  And you could play private dicks and reporters, both also with tons of potential for adventure.  But holy crap you could play the gangsters.  You could manufacture, transport, and sell illegal hooch.  Run a speakeasy. Set up a numbers game.  Build a criminal empire.  And I loved every minute of it.

Recently, my friend Glen "Ol' Man Grognard" Hallstrom told me there was an OSR version of Gangbusters in the works.  I love games built on the OSR engine, so I was intrigued.  This led me to Mark Hunt's Gangbusters B/X.  This is a rework of the original Gangbusters RPG based around the 1981 Moldvay version of the D&D engine.  You know, the one we all played back in The Day.

So, let's throw on a fedora and grab a tommy gun, and make a character for this new old game.

Character Creation

Like many games based on the Old School Renaissance, we start by rolling 3d6 in order for Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma.

• Strength: 11
• Intelligence: 9
• Wisdom: 11
• Dexterity: 11
• Constitution: 8
• Charisma: 9

 Pretty average.  The option exists to swap two points of Strength, Wisdom, or Intelligence for 1 point elsewhere, but our stats are so low already...  Let's move on.

Our class is going to be Street Smart.  As a Street Smart character, this PC will have a bonus to striking from behind, and the Nimble Fingers, Move Silently, Hide, and Word on The Street skills. A d4 for Hit Dice, I roll a 1, and modify it by the -1 for low Constitution.  So... 1 measly Hit Point.  Now I'm thinking of a dozen Basic D&D characters I've played.  Gotta play it smart to stay alive.

We choose an alignment, the choices are Law Abiding, Neutrality, and Dishonest.  Since we're going to probably work as a gangster, we'll go with Dishonest.  We roll 3d6x10 for starting money, and end up with $130.  Random rolls say we speak French in addition to English, and our nickname is "Lucky."

For equipment, we'll buy some typical clothes (AC5), a hip flask, a revolver, a blackjack, and we'll keep the rest of the money ($65.50) for future uses.

The Character

Frank Leroux never used his given name, Francois.  The Boys thought it was "too French."  The day that G-man's bullet was stopped by a half inch wide strip of metal in a car door was when they forgot all about "Francois" and started calling him "Lucky."

Lucky wasn't strong, like the boss' enforcers.  He wasn't as smart as the idea men and the accountants.  But what he was, was Lucky.  He was sneaky, he could find things out. He had informants that could get him the word on the street.  And when it came to taking people out- sometimes you didn't need to be tough.

Today, Lucky spends his days at the boss' most profitable speak.  He listens, he finds things out, and he helps the boss in ways the other folks can't.

My Thoughts

Gangbusters B/X has a couple of advantages over the original.  The OSR engine means the mechanics of the game are automatically intuitive to many players.  It also means tons of material for other games using the engine can be borrowed and plugged straight in.  Want to do supernatural roaring 20s?  Borrow spells, undead, and ghosts from any number of products based on the early D&D engine.  I dig that quite a bit.  Want to do your own version of A Piece of The Action? Grab Starships & Spacemen 2nd Edition to roll up Koik and Spocko and Gangbusters for Oxmyx and Krako.

The only thing missing from Gangbusters B/X are the many subsystems in the original Gangbusters that I love so much.  So I asked the author about that- and it's coming in the Expert set, due out soon.  So Gangbusters B/X will mimic the original Basic and Expert Dungeons & Dragons by having two rulebooks, one basic, and one with more advanced information and rules.  I'm looking quite forward to the release.