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Author Topic: "We Only Kill Each Other" Rules Review  (Read 867 times)

Offline Typephase

  • Student
  • Posts: 12
"We Only Kill Each Other" Rules Review
« on: June 11, 2022, 06:10:13 PM »


“We Only Kill Each Other: Life and Death on the Mean Streets, 1920-1935” by P.R. Wilson (WOKEO) is a (extremely) skirmish ruleset put out by the illustrious “Virtual Armchair General.” It sets out to differentiate itself from the other Gangster rules by way of “realism”, less Dick Tracy and more “Once upon a time in America'', less “Untouchables” and more “Scarface” (the old one not Tony Montana). Now I can’t say how realistic the rules are, Iv never been on a mafia hit squad, but I can say that WOKEO is a gritty, chaotic, and flavorful set of gangster rules, that manage to add a decidedly “gangster rules'' that capture the feeling of the action out of a Scorsese movie.

SCALE
When I say extremely skirmish rules, I mean extremely skirmish, like, 2-4 figures a side skirmish. Now, this doesn’t mean that you have limited depth, quite the opposite, this small scale allows each figure to be defined out as a character, in almost a role playing game type detail. Each figure will have stats ranging from their physical characteristics to their moxie to their loyalty, to personality traits, drug/alcohol problems, tattoos, scars and more. This is all generated by a surprisingly complex character creation system, with tables for height and weight, ethnicity, traits, criminal record and equipment. This comes to my first complaint about WOKEO. Yes the small skirmish size allows an incredible depth of character per figure, depth I’d argue you NEED for a game about criminals and cops and their conflicts in order to capture the proper tone, but we need a way to streamline the character making process. The fact that there is no randomization schedule for main stats leaves me feeling more like a GM creating npcs for a RPG campaign than preparing for a wargame at times, and I feel like other games have solved this problem already. Maybe even a way to tie stats to the myriad of other character traits the game allows you to randomize, some that have rather limited effect on gameplay. That being said, there is a real magic in the moments where the complexity pays off like having one “cold blooded” hitman who can pull the trigger without his moxie test, making him reliable as a shooter, despite his gimp leg. The depth given to the characters adds a flavor to the game that, despite being pitched as less movie and more history, is very cinematic.

GAMEPLAY
Activation is card driven, you can order pre printed cards, or print them yourself. Each character is assigned a card and may do one action per draw. After all the cards are drawn a turn ends and the activation deck is reshuffled. Each turn is about 5-10 seconds in game time, and the random nature favors a more stealthy and planned out tactical style, because you want as much of an advantage as possible when you don't know who will activate next. This is a game of ambushes and reacting to spontaneous violence. Characters have 8 base stats: Pins (movement), Mitts (dexterity), Mug (looks), Moxie (courage), Brains, Brawn (strength and a measure of exhaustion), Loyalty, and Blood (health points). The base of gameplay is tests vs these stats using a d10 roll under system. Again, very much like an RPG. From my experience the main stats tested are Mitts (for shooting) Brawn (for fighting) and Moxie (to do almost anything that happens in a wargame). One stat, Mug, is never used, which brings me to my second major complaint about WOKEO: it sets it self up soooo much like a RPG, but this is a pure skirmish war game, there is no campaign system, it just presented as a way to play little criminal and cop vignettes. That's fine, but then why is there a stat like “Looks” or in depth tables to roll your character’s criminal history, ethnic gang affiliations, tattoos, scars, proclivities, lisps, etc when not all those things manifest ON THE TABLE. Sure they can add some flavor (and they do) but they SCREAM for an off table element to have them play a larger role in, a campaign system or a relationship system, or a way to track police heat or gang heat or something. Cop characters can roll all sorts of skills like wiretapping or underworld contact, but there is no way for these to be used in the game! I ended up building a system for myself to do this (that's the beauty of a tabletop hobby), and I know the creator has an idea for some way to link games in his head as a supplement, but I have to state the game feels a little incomplete in that regard without one.
Shooting is handled in a rather novel way, you can choose 3 types of shots, a single shot , emptying your weapon, or roll on the number of shots table. The number shots table represents a relatively untrained shooter's adrenaline filled impulse to just keep squeezing the trigger. There are skills that allow a shooter to pick more precise numbers of shots. After you decide the number of shots your character is taking, you roll on a “possible hits table” to tell you the amount of shots can possibly hit, and then you roll mitts to see which shots hit. Modifiers are added or subtracted based on factors like cover, movement, etc. This makes choosing how you want to shoot a tactical decision, do you want to take all of your shots, getting the higher possibility of landing more shots, but possibly be left with an empty weapon? Or do you only want to take one shot? Potentially doing less damage but ensuring you have bullets to spare on another target. It's another example of how this small scale of game allows tactical depth in the nuance it provides. But again, I have a complaint here. The Damage. For example, one of the pre-written scenarios includes a character with 16 blood points, and a shotgun at close range does 2 blood points of damage, a pump shotgun in this game holds 5 rounds, meaning you’d have to land all 5 shots RELOAD and then land 3 more shots to kill the character. For a game advertising itself as realistic, this seems off. Sure, included is a hit location chart that has instant kill effects on head or heart shots, but those are exceedingly rare. This, again, is easily house ruled away, by either increasing damage or substituting the failed blood tests after being damaged to being knocked “senseless” instead of just being “stunned” (as I do, and did in my AAR of the game to be linked below)  but this seemed like an oversight for guns to be so weak in a game touting its realism. Moxie tests are UBIQUITOUS, one is required to do anything resulting in putting the characters life on the line (which is almost everything you do in a wargame), critical hits allowing them skip moxie rolls in the future, and critical failures resulting in turning tail and running.
   Where this game really shines on the table is small scale, intimate, moments of violence. Watching a seemingly simple plan fall apart because of the actors own weaknesses, and playing out the chaos. Examples of great moments from my playing of the game: Bodyguards abandoning their charge when they see the hitmen coming, mad men repeatedly missing the brain test they needed to curb their “sadistic” trait so they end up beating the poor bank teller so long the cops have time to arrive. Hitmen being too doped up to get the drop on targets. Targets falling to identify a coming car full of enemies and turning their back to a drive by to unlock their car. These moments are straight out of the mafia tales, and they work best when you lean heavily on the mechanics. Don’t just play a shootout, make brain rolls to identify danger, give the attacker the chance to get the drop, or the defender the chance to react before the killers are in position. Don’t just place figures on opposite sides of the table, put them in positions these criminals would be in, bank robberies, moonshining, gambling in the casino, back alleys, barber shops, corner dice games. The more you lean in the more this becomes a tabletop gangster simulator and less of just rolling dice and knocking over figures.

THE BOOK
   The book is full color, soft cover, and busy. I say busy because every page is packed with images to set the mood, excerpts for era newspapers depicting gangland killings and characters, or amazingly staged scenes of beautiful terrain and painted minis. It makes you want to play the game. There is a lot in here substance wise as well, beyond the basic rule to get you playing, there is info on the 3 periods portrayed: Beer wars (Classic Prohibition) Dillinger Days (dustbowl bank robbers and kidnappers) and Mafia Wars (Depression era organized crime) as well as different character generation tables for each era. Rules for car chases, rules for police as a third party in the violence, rules for “square john” bystanders, random traffic, interrogations, bombs and more. Plenty to layer on when you want to get more complex. Again though, all this great background just BEGS for a system to connect games, to carry characters forward from game to game, for a reason to be shooting out one game, setting bombing a rival buisness the next, and getting raided by police the third. There is even a map of “Newcago”, an expy of exactly the two cities you’d expect, with block by block buildings and gangs that control turf and the various rackets. PLEASE Patrick, we need some mechanics to use all these amazing resources! To be fair, there is a pretty useful table to roll on for scenario ideas, and a great “Advice for Designing Scenarios'' section that explains how the tone of a game should be set, and a solid list of movies and books to draw inspiration from. Finally, the character sheets are great, and the check off style boxes for blood, brawn and ammo are great for reducing bookkeeping.

CONCLUSION
   WOKEO is a work of love, the author definitely has an affinity for the subject matter, and the info contained in the book is evidence of that, so much info that it almost feels like he starts threads he doesn't finish at time. The rules are complex at first, but snappy when you get a grasp of them, and they do a great job of capturing the chaos and grit of a gangland conflict. The small scale is realistic and allows a personality to come out of each figure in play. It has so much character and flavor it yearns for a campaign system to put the individual games into a greater context, and at times it seems more like a roleplaying game than a miniatures wargame. I say all of that to say this, if you have an intrest in the gangsters of the roaring twenties, the dust bowl desperados, and the great depression, this is a set of rules that will let you play out those scenarios with a gritty precision, but you have to be able to lean into the mechanics and theme, and flex a little bit of your roleplaying muscles to get the most out of the game. But if you do, it will provide a tabletop experience that no other gangster game will provide. (and I played all of them)

NOTE: The Virtual Armchair General also puts out “Mean Sets” interiors, and “Mean Streets” buildings, these are print out sheets to assemble with foam core and cardstock to build city streets and locals for your miniatures gangsters to shoot out in. These are not NEEDED for WOKEO but they were created for WOKEO. I have built some Mean Sets (you can see them being used in my AAR) and I can recommend them. They are easy to build and look great, though I find them a bit tedious to assemble. I also think they have a good value, for a relatively cheap price you can have a building interior that would cost FAR MORE to make by other means, such as resin or MDF. They are timeless enough to be used for eras other than the 20s/30s. I think terrain can make a wargame, and this is a great option for the terrain heavy urban setting needed for gangsters, regardless of the rules you choose to play gangsters in.

link to AAR: https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=136989.0

Offline redstarnyc

  • Student
  • Posts: 15
Re: "We Only Kill Each Other" Rules Review
« Reply #1 on: June 12, 2022, 10:09:18 PM »
Thanks for the great review and AAR.  I decided to buy these rules a result and am looking forward to getting some gangsters on the table.

Offline Typephase

  • Student
  • Posts: 12
Re: "We Only Kill Each Other" Rules Review
« Reply #2 on: June 13, 2022, 02:01:41 PM »
Thanks for the great review and AAR.  I decided to buy these rules a result and am looking forward to getting some gangsters on the table.

Great, I hope you enjoy it. My advice is make sure you read the scenario section of the book, it will help get you into the mindset of the game, which is a little different than most traditional wargames.

 

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