The Mob
OBJECT
To amass 10 gold bars (value $1,000,000) and become the supreme "Don of Dons".
OUTLINE
Each player controls a family: Don, Mama, Underboss, Consigliere, Capo, Hitman, Secretary and Novice (named members) and eight hoods (hired gangsters). Each gang member has a value, form the Don ($100,000) to the Novice ($20,000) to the hoods ($5,000 each).
Every round of play each player is dealt a hand of cards and gambles the lives of his family by placing them on the rackets for which he has cards. Family members still in play (controlling a racket) at the end of a round earn a player their marked value. If more than one piece occupies a racket, the player receives the combined total.
BUT - There are four cards for each racket in the pack. If another player plays a card for an occupied racket, he can wipe out the family members controlling it, replacing them with his own. And while hoods can be repurchased, named members are lost for good!
As in real life, mob money can be laundered and built up through legitimate businesses. Named members occupying these are safe - they cannot be hit. Legitimate businesses become an increasingly worthwhile investment as a player's store of gold bars increases.
GAME START
The game is intended for 5 or 6 players.
Each player chooses a family, and is assigned all the named members and hoods of one colour. The GM maintains a chart showing the status of each one (At base, In action, Dead, In Jail etc.), plus another chart representing the board locations showing which pieces are where. Blank charts appear at the end of the rules.
Each player starts with $100,000 and no gold bars.
Each player is dealt four cards. Note that for the very first deal only, the Legitimate Business and Protection cards are removed.
GAME END
The game ends when one player attains 10 gold bars. If more than one player achieves this on the same turn, the winner is the one with the most cash left over. If the game has a slow start, the GM may reduce the winning post to (say) 8 bars, but this obviously must be done early.
PLAY
Each hand consists of 2 postal turns. Each postal turn consists of two rounds. In each round, each player plays one card, these taking effect in the following order:
1) Legitimate Businesses
2) Rackets
3) Special Cards
If a card cannot be implemented, it is ignored.
In the text which follows, "named members" means the Mama, Hit Man etc., and "hoods" means the hired gangsters. "Pieces" is used where named members and/or hoods can be used.
1) Legitimate Businesses
These must be occupied by a single named member. The named member running the business is safe and cannot be hit, though he can be screwed for protection money. The value of the business depends on the number of gold bars the player possesses (at least 1 is required to start a business). Note that the member deployed must come from base - he cannot be moved from elsewhere on the board, and once deployed, must remain running the business for the rest of the hand.
1 bar $10,000
2 bars $15,000
3-4 bars $20,000
5-6 bars $25,000
7-8 bars $30,000
9 bars $40,000
2) Rackets
These are bent operations which are manned with family pieces. There are two locations for each type of racket, and four cards.
To take over a vacant racket, pieces of at least the specified value of the racket are played on it.
To take over an occupied racket, the player must deploy pieces which exceed the value already present. The enemy family's pieces are killed (named members permanently, hoods can be re-hired).
Note that the pieces deployed must come from base - they cannot be moved from elsewhere on the board.
When playing a racket card each player must state what he is deploying (e.g. Hit Man (30K) + 2 hoods, total 40K) plus either:
i) the specific location, e.g. Casino 2
or
ii) a call of "high" , "low" , "add" or "enemy".
Playing Low: The pieces will be placed on an empty racket if possible, or if both rackets are occupied, will attempt to displace the cheaper one (random if both equally well-manned).
Playing High: An attempt will be made to hit the racket containing the highest value (total) pieces. If not enough is deployed, the other location is hit.
Playing Add: If a player already has some pieces on a racket corresponding to his card, he may add to them instead. If, when the card is implemented, the player no longer has control of a racket for the card, an attempt will be made to play the same pieces as a Low or High (Low is assumed unless the player specifies otherwise).
Playing Enemy: A player specifies that he wishes to hit a particular rival in preference to others, if his mobsters occupy one or both of the rackets. He must also specify what action to take if the rival is not present (high or low), or if the rival owns both rackets (again high or low).
Racket cards are played in ascending order of the value deployed.
Example: Both Bank rackets are vacant, but on one round 3 players all play a Bank card, assigning pieces to the values of 20K, 30K and 40K.
The 20K is placed on a vacant racket.
The 30K is placed on the other vacant racket if playing low, or kills the 20K if playing high.
If the 30K is played low, the 40K will kill the 20K if playing low, or the 30K if playing high.
If the 30K is played high, the 40K will kill the 30K if playing high, or take the vacant square if playing low.
If two or more players specify the same amount, and the order of play does not affect the outcome, then no problem. If however, the order is important, the families make a temporary alliance and run the racket together. E.g. 2 players with 30K each would require 65K to displace. The alliance exists only for that racket, and is broken if one or both of the players plays another card for that racket as an "add", tipping the balance and causing the rival members to be eliminated. Where a player deploys two identical racket cards in the same postal turn, he should specify if the second will be used to break an alliance if it occurs (default is yes).
If the pieces deployed fail to take over a racket, they are returned to base.
The Don cannot occupy a racket along with another named member, though he may be accompanied by hoods.
The Mama may only be accompanied by one other named member (not the Don), plus hoods.
A racket scores income according to the pieces deployed, rather than its notional value. A racket reduced (by special cards) to below this notional (minimum) value cannot operate and generates no income. E.g. a jewellers racket ($30,000) with 8 hoods scores $40,000, but with 5 hoods scores nothing ($5,000 short).
3) Special Cards
There is only one of each card, except for the dreaded "Offer You Can't Refuse", of which there are two. The player of the card should supply some conditional orders to determine the victim. In the absence of instructions, the GM will use each card to its maximum potential (using random determination where this is equal for two or more victims).
The cards are resolved in the following order within a round:
1) Protection
This is played on a rival's legitimate business. The amount extorted depends on the number of gold bars owned by the victim (i.e. the value of the business). If the victim has insufficient cash, a gold bar is handed over (no change given!). The amounts are as follows:
1-2 bars $10,000
3-4 bars $15,000
5-6 bars $20,000
7-8 bars $25,000
9 bars $30,000
2) Barbers
One enemy piece running a racket is sent to the Barbers for a shave (for the rest of the hand). The piece scores no income, but cannot be hit.
3) Restaurant
All pieces running a particular racket are sent to the Restaurant for dinner (for the rest of the hand), vacating the racket. They generate no income, but cannot be hit.
4) Penthouse
The highest value named member currently on a racket is sent to the Penthouse to visit his Moll. This always is the highest, even if it belongs to the player playing the card. A choice only occurs if 2 or more pieces of equal value are present. The piece scores no income, but cannot be hit.
5) FBI
One piece (named member or hood) is arrested and chucked in the slammer (cell block 3). The piece scores no income, but cannot be hit.
6) Company Takeover
This bloodlessly takes control of a rival's racket. The rivals pieces are booted out (back to base) and may be re-used in the same hand. To take control, the amount deployed is equal to the rival's amount. If an equal amount cannot be deployed, the minimum amount in excess of the required figure is used. Note that if the Company takeover card is the first card in a turn, no pieces earmarked for action in round 2 can be used.
7) An Offer You Can't Refuse
This is the nastiest card of all. All the pieces running a single racket are machine-gunned to death leaving the racket unmanned.
At the end of each hand, players collect money from the bank according to family members occupying rackets and legitimate businesses. After receiving the money, players may buy back lost hoods at $5,000 dollars each, and buy gold bars at $100,000 each.
Also, All pieces are removed from the board for re-use, except for those in the prison block who move up one block (e.g. 3 to 2, 2 to 1, 1 to freedom). Family members killed are not replaced, as are hoods which are not repurchased (they are permanently out of the game).
POSTAL TURNS
For postal play, rounds are bunched together as follows:
Turn 1
- View outcome of previous hand, and receive money according to occupied rackets;
- Buy gold bars and replace hoods;
- Receive next hand, selecting first two cards (in sequence) with accompanying orders.
Turn 2
- View outcome of first two cards;
- Select next 2 cards (in sequence) with accompanying orders.
If no orders are supplied for buying hoods and gold bars, the following is the default. Always buy hoods back if possible, buy a gold bar when $30,000 or more would be left over.
Conditional orders for "Special" cards are completely free-format. For rackets, the choices are restricted as specified in the rules for rackets - i.e. the exact pieces to be played must be chosen (conditional orders for this both reduces the fun element and makes it harder to GM) and the action restricted to "high", "low", "add", or "enemy".
NOTES
The face to face game is for 3 to 6, and actually plays better with 4. For a 4-player game, 5 cards are used. This may be too slow for postal play as would mean 3 turns per hand.
THE MOB by Gibson Games 1994. Postal Rules by Richard Smith 1996.