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Empire of Sin - Brenda and John Romero's turn-based Mafia strategy

Jimmious

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Wow this looks great... and pretty complete? I thought they were far from being done but it seems to be in a good state already
 

Grotesque

±¼ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Divinity: Original Sin Divinity: Original Sin 2
these turn based RPGs are starting to be a dime a dozen.

same tropes, same mellow mechanics, same fluff, same shitty aesthetics etc.
 

Jimmious

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
these turn based RPGs are starting to be a dime a dozen.

same tropes, same mellow mechanics, same fluff, same shitty aesthetics etc.
Wait though, this has things that we haven't seen in a long time.
Mainly I mean the other factions actually also playing the game like the player is. For me that's the main appeal of this game
 

The_Mask

Just like Yves, I chase tales.
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Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
Wow this looks great... and pretty complete? I thought they were far from being done but it seems to be in a good state already
They were supposed to be done a couple of months back, actually, but they delayed their release citing polishing and some features they wanted to add. 1 feature you can see in their stream.
 

Neroon

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May 21, 2020
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these turn based RPGs are starting to be a dime a dozen.

same tropes, same mellow mechanics, same fluff, same shitty aesthetics etc.
I'm hoping it wont be much like an RPG at all, but more "XCOM - Bootleggers".
Strategic layer where you manage your business and personnel and tactical battles for shootouts.
 

Infinitron

I post news
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


https://www.pcgamer.com/i-conquered-empire-of-sins-chicago-as-al-capone/

I conquered Empire of Sin’s Chicago as Al Capone
Being a gangster is a tough business.

t’s not an easy job, working for a prohibition-era Chicago mob boss. Empire of Sin lets you recruit and nurture a gang drawn from a pool of 60 crooks, all eager to make a name for themselves—and a buck or two—in the criminal underworld, but I suspect they would have had second thoughts if they’d known what was in store for them when I slipped into the shoes of the infamous Al Capone.

Capone’s one of 14 playable mob bosses, some invented, some historical, and some even related to members of the team—like Elvira, a 70-year- old brothel owner based on John Romero’s great- grandmother. It’s a cast with a lot of big characters, and it features a level of diversity that you don’t usually see in prohibition- inspired fiction, though it’s one that’s actually more true to life.

"I do think it was a significant design challenge," says game director Brenda Romero, who also has a family connection to one of the bosses. "Like, hey, we would like to have a 70-year-old woman as a boss. You know what? Why the fuck not? And it’s especially important, as it’s a nod to John’s heritage. His grandmother and great-grandmother before that were the absolute matriarchs of the family. But that’s a challenge because this is a combat game and you’re pretty hardcore."

Despite her age, Elvira can handle herself pretty well, and she needs to, as bosses play a big role in gang warfare thanks to their unique abilities. She can use drugs to control minds, for instance, while Capone can spray a sizeable area with lead, suppressing and damaging anyone trying to move. Equally as impressive is his ability to keep sucking on that cigar even while he’s beating a man to death in the park with a crowbar. a bunch of gangsters ready to do my bidding. I had cash, I had booze, and the future was looking bright for Al Capone. Ten minutes later, two of my gangsters were riddled with bullets and in critical condition.

Though it’s a strategy game, Empire of Sin dips into RPG territory frequently. There are classes, talent trees, special traits, colour-coded loot, and plenty of missions and side quests. As my gang sauntered down the streets of Chicago, which can be pored over from the strategic world map view or explored close-up, we encountered a bloke with a missing wallet, and a few seconds later we were in combat with the thugs who’d pinched it.

A close quarters scrap in a filthy alley is not an elegant thing, especially when there are six people fighting and only one dumpster that can be used for cover. Everything is real-time with pause until combat begins, at which point it becomes turn-based and more evocative of XCOM. It’s all cover and hit percentages and praying to the fickle gods of RNG. This time, they were ambivalent, letting us get through it alive but with some bad injuries. I’d only just started, but half of my gang was going to be out of commission for a whole year.

The severity of the combat is a more recent addition. At the end of fights, gangsters used to immediately get all of their health back, but now they’re at risk even when they’re not in critical condition, as health takes a lot longer to regenerate. It pays to employ some doctors in your gang, then, and they’re just as capable in a scrap as any other goon on the mean streets.

“Originally, we wanted to reduce the amount of minding the player had to do with the crew,” principal combat designer Ian O’Neill explains. “But it also reduced the strategic choices that the player had to make after combat.” Med packs, doctors and a trip back to the safe house will get your gangsters back in tip-top shape, but the risk is heightened just enough so that the outcome of a battle isn’t as simple as winning or losing—you can definitely have pyrrhic victories.

Criminal past
So while the random diversions where you lend someone a hand or get into an impromptu fight seem inconsequential, they can still leave a mark. Maybe you’ll end up having to deal with the cops or, like me, lose some key members of your gang. Then there’s the more story-driven missions—stuff connected to specific bosses and characters. You could think of them like companion and personal quests to get involved in.

See, everyone’s got a story in Empire of Sin. Relationships and traits develop over time, but characters will still start out with backgrounds and features that suggest they had a life before they suddenly turned up for work one day. They might have lovers, enemies or a pocket full of grenades, and through their missions their past can sometimes catch up with them.

"It tells you a bit about their character, their history and motivations," says lead writer Katie Gardner. "For the historical bosses, we tried to use their actual history—what they did in real life. Like Daniel McKee Jackson had a real relationship with the mayor of Chicago, Bill Thompson, so we tried to use their relationship in his boss mission. And we always try to give choices as often as we can in these missions, so players have a lot of agency in how the mission goes."

Maria, one of the first gangsters you’ll probably meet, quickly embroiled me in her dramatic life. There was her partner, Bruno, whom I had to hunt down when he disappeared, only to find him in a drunken stupor in another alley, necessitating another fight with some nearby thugs. Then there was a mysterious man from her past who had wronged her. She wanted me to kill him, and he was even willing to accept his fate, though he promised he was a changed man. I could have opted for mercy, but my trusty crowbar was thirsty.

With two gangsters down, I needed to recruit more bodies to protect me from bullets, but I’d already spent a chunk of cash. If I wanted more, I was going to have to improve my rackets. Businesses can be upgraded for a fee, beefing up their security or making them produce more profitable. If they’re a bit on the quiet side, you can even do some marketing, spreading the word, on the low down, about your services. Then you can tailor them to the neighbourhoods they reside in, for example stocking the shelves of a speakeasy with high-end booze if it’s in a prosperous area. You’ve got to match tastes and wallets.
Bloody business
Chicago is split into up to ten different neighbourhoods, and each has a slightly different character. One might give a bonus to casinos operating in the area, while another might be quiet because its residents live in fear of mob violence. The character of a neighbourhood can also be influenced, letting mob bosses develop red light districts, boozy havens, or sow terror.

"If you start going on a killing spree, killing thugs, killing cops, executing people, that will actually depress the prosperity of a neighbourhood and lead to people staying at home," senior game designer Chris King tells me. "But you can then use it as a tactic to depress the prosperity of neighbourhoods where you don’t have a lot of rackets and actually depress the income of other gangs."

I had businesses going in two neighbourhoods, but my focus was on the Little Italy region, where I was competing with three other major gangs and several minor ones. There were still businesses I could swallow up if I wanted, but it was definitely starting to get a bit crowded. I’d been keeping the peace while trying to earn some more cash, even agreeing to an uneasy alliance with one of them, but I was itching to an uneasy alliance with one of them, but I was itching to get into a fight.


An opportunity arrived in the form of the Canadian Maple Association, a group of bootleggers who smuggle booze from across the border. They had a deal with my new ally, but it wasn’t working out. They wanted me to take their place on their latest delivery, and sabotage the distillery. I agreed, of course. I was able to walk right in and shamelessly poison the booze right in front of the workers. With the job done, my new friends promised lots of future work. My old friends however... well let’s say they were less than impressed.

Face off
Diplomacy between major gangs works in two ways. There’s the regular diplomacy options that you get when dealing with all types of gangs, letting you trade, discuss deals, beg for cash, and declare war, and then there are the face-to-face sit-downs. It’s an opportunity to bury hatchets, rile enemies up, or indulge in a new collaboration. Or you can just walk in and brazenly admit you sabotaged their distillery before telling your rival gang to go fuck themselves.

“What I love about this is that it gives the player the ability to have a degree of mastery over these characters if you get to know them,” explains Romero. “The way that the AI works, it is trying to think like they would think. If you’re a greedy son of a bitch, this is what you might do. If you’re pretty hardcore, you might do something else. And Daniel McKee Jackson was known for being incredibly disciplined and principled. So you can start thinking, well, if I were that way, how might I handle that situation?”

I was at war with my former ally. I hadn’t really prepared, so I quickly recruited some of that muscle I’d been meaning to hire. I found a burly bloke named Gibby—a demolitionist and the owner of the aforementioned pocketful of grenades. Once he arrived, I went straight for the throat. You can chip away at other gangs by taking over their businesses, but you can also head straight for their safe house and kill the boss, inheriting everything in one fell swoop. That’s risky, though, because bosses surround themselves with tougher gangsters and, thanks to their unique combat abilities, put up a better fight.

We stormed the hideout and, despite fewer numbers and a crappy starting location, we got to work clearing the building out very quickly, largely thanks to Gibby and his penchant for blowing stuff up. Unfortunately, the enemy boss had hired one of Gibby’s pals, and Gibby didn’t take it very well when his mate was blown sky high. It was really his fault, since it was his grenade, but he took it out on me. He quit the gang, right there and then, and walked straight out the door. He didn’t even give me two weeks’ notice.

Thankfully, we still managed to win the fight, immediately netting me lots of businesses, cash and loot, none of which Gibby would benefit from. He made a big mistake, but being a generous boss I’d eventually rehire him. I shared his love of big explosions and I missed him. Mechanically, however, we didn’t have any sort of relationship. While Empire of Sin’s gangsters are all part of a network of friendships and beefs, the bosses are above it all.

Keep it professional
"I think it’s just that, as you’re the mob boss, we don’t actually want to say you like this gangster, dislike this one and are in love with that gangster," says King.

"That’s more something you can decide, who you like and who you dislike, rather than have the game tell you these are your friends."

You’re the puppet master, pulling on everyone’s strings rather than getting tangled up in them. But only if that’s how you want to play it. You can still choose to favour specific members of your gang, giving them more responsibilities by making them the capo of one of your neighbourhoods, but you won’t be able to start taking them out on romantic excursions—not unless your grand idea of romance is a corpse-filled casino.

My betrayal paid off and I gained total control of the neighbourhood, which happens when you own the majority of its rackets. Conveniently, you don’t need to take over every single one of them and completely run the other gangs out of the area, you just need to be the top dog. I had a taste for it, however, so I started crushing all the minor gangs and strengthening my grip over the area. Before long I had two neighbourhoods largely under my control, as well as a few new enemies.

All this conquest was taking its toll on my employees. Gibby, newly returned to the fold, almost died in a speakeasy fight, the guy I’d hired to be our surgeon had become a bloodthirsty psychopath, and three of them got an STD all in the same day. Gangsters can get traits from combat, but they can also get them by just hanging out in brothels for too long. Some negative traits, like the STDs, can be cured, while others are just part of their history. Now, I’m not going to judge what anyone does when they’re off the clock, but brothel shenanigans while on the job crosses the line. I’d sent them to take over the place, not use its services. Then there was their loyalty to worry about. Members of your gang can even start working for your enemies, and you’ll have to rely on the rest of your crew to root out traitors.

Whack a mole
"There are no grey areas in gang life, now or 1920," says Romero. "When a gangster thinks that there might be a mole in your crew, you’re put in a situation where they all point the finger at somebody. They’re giving you their best guess, but they might be wrong. It could be that you decide ‘Yep, I agree with you guys and that’s the person’ and off somebody. If you’re wrong, there will be consequences to that. If you’re right, you stop the free flow of information from your group."

Thankfully, they were all still well enough and loyal enough to help me pinch another distillery—my patrons were getting thirsty—from another former ally whom I betrayed. I’m awful and nobody should trust me. You can attack a gang before you’re formally at war, so we just walked through the front door, got into a favourable position and then let loose. Even when you’re dealing with already hostile gangs or groups of unaffiliated thugs roving the streets, there are opportunities to get the drop on them and set your gangsters up in real-time before the turn-based combat kicks off.

What was unexpected was the invitation for a sit-down, rather than an immediate declaration of war. My fellow boss wanted to talk. Maybe I could have given him back the distillery and smoothed things over, but that didn’t seem like a very Al Capone thing to do. Instead I added insult to injury, goading him into all-out war. I had big plans for the rest of his rackets.

Those plans unfortunately never came to fruition, as my time was up. None of my employees actually died, so maybe I’m not such a bad boss after all. Running a gang is still a tricky business, though. It’s not challenging in the conventional sense, perhaps, though battles can turn bad pretty quickly, but there are a lot of things vying for your attention, and focusing too much on one can have a detrimental effect on other parts of your criminal empire. The variety on offer is also a massive hook, however, and it looks like Romero Games has managed to squeeze a huge amount of that into Empire of Sin.
 

The_Mask

Just like Yves, I chase tales.
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Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/empire-of-sin-dev-diary-4-economics-abc.1408498/

1.png

Empire of Sin casts you in the role of a gangster in Chicago during the era of prohibition. It may not come as a surprise to you to discover that the basis of the economic system is about the illegal production and sale of alcohol. This is done via rackets.

Rackets
There are four basic types of rackets in the game. Each Racket fills its own niche inside the economic system, and you can go for a balanced approach or focus on a single racket type.

1-the-rackets.jpg


Breweries
As the name implies, Breweries are the source of your illicit alcohol. Although styled as a Brewery, the building also covers the production of spirits through illicit stills and wine by ignoring the clear warnings displayed on grape juice concentrate by the socially responsible grape producers of America. These buildings produce alcohol every week and cost money. Essentially, breweries are dead weight and lose you money unless you can find an outlet for all this alcohol you are producing.

Brothels
The name implies that this racket is not in the primary business of selling alcohol. However, as part of the overall customer experience, alcohol will be served if you have any available. The supply of alcohol will simply allow the Brothel to make more money from its alcohol sales. These buildings provide a nice solid foundation to any criminal empire. If the so-called law enforcement starts targeting your Breweries, your Brothels will continue to supply that cash flow that will keep your empire going.

Speakeasies
Speakeasies are the classic prohibition racket that serve alcohol and make a healthy profit doing so. Unlike the brothel, it will not make any money unless it is supplied with alcohol, thus this racket is vulnerable to disruptions in alcohol supply.

Casinos
Make their money from gambling. Unlike the other racket types, their revenue is not stable and will fluctuate according to just how much lady luck smiles on people. A casino can also lose money if the house has a bad night. Supplying alcohol increases the sizes of the bets, meaning the Casino will earn more or lose more depending on the roll of the dice. In the long run, Casinos will make money and be nice earners for your criminal empire. On a week-to-week basis, they are unreliable, so you will want some buffer in your finances if you are going to rely on casinos for your revenue.
Setting up a Racket
There are three ways to set up a racket.

  • Purchase it: You can buy an available building and turn it into a racket at a cost.
  • Take it over from thugs: You can also take over a derelict racket from local thugs and convert it into a racket. This is cheaper than buying one as the previous owner left it derelict, and all you need to do is make it yours and pay a cost to de-thug the interior.
  • Take it over from another faction: You can take over a racket from another faction. If you keep it as the same racket, this is free (and by far the cheapest way to expand your empire!), but if you wish to change the racket type, then the takeover costs are identical to when you took it over from thugs.


2-racket-take-over.jpg


There are other options to damage, loot and shutdown rackets. I will leave someone else to describe these fun little extras for you. However, I just want to let you know they are there to answer the question, “But what happens if I beat up some thugs and don’t have enough money to convert it into a racket?”

Customers & Draw
To make money, rackets need paying customers. Each neighbourhood in Chicago has a customer pool, and if there are more spaces in rackets than there are paying customers available, then rackets will start competing for customers based on a value called Draw. Draw is simply an expression of how much people are willing to go to a place. It is a number, and when it comes to using it, we compare the draw of the racket to the average draw in the neighbourhood. Essentially, your speakeasy can be a rundown dive, but that is fine as long as everyone else’s rackets are even more rundown than yours.

Chicago is a small place (in the grand scheme of things), so customers will move from neighbourhood to neighbourhood in search of entertainment. Once they find a neighbourhood that will supply them, they will stay there until events transpire that will cause people to move on. As a player, you have a couple of tools at your disposal to help persuade people to go to your rackets in your neighbourhoods rather than other gangs. One option is when you win the battle, you can simply shut down the enemy racket. This will force the customers to look elsewhere for some entertainment. This also leads onto another value that is important, neighbourhood prosperity.

Prosperity in game terms is people’s willingness to go out and spend money in a neighbourhood. As this is the roaring twenties, Prosperity intrinsicity rises every month. Spending money on improving rackets increases Prosperity. On the other hand, the body count, the amount of people getting killed in a neighbourhood (and especially police), pushes it down. Prosperity modifies the maximum number of customers for each racket in the neighbourhood which effectively influences how much money the rackets make. There are other routes to influence how much money rackets make, for example we could have simply altered how much money people were willing to spend in rackets. However, the way we chose has a neat additional effect, customers will naturally move from low prosperity to high prosperity neighbourhoods and stay there. This has two additional consequences: long wars will inflict long-term harm on businesses in the neighbourhoods where the war is being fought. It gives you an incentive to exit a war if it is being fought in territory which you want to keep and also gives an additional way to attack the enemy. You do not need to take the racket. Just drive the customers away and inflict long term damage to the opponents.

3-customers.jpg


Spending and Alcohol
Rackets have a value called average spend, which is effectively how much money each customer is spending in the racket. The revenue per racket is the number of customers multiplied by the average spend. To facilitate the “build tall” strategy we give you the player a number of tools with which to improve this average spend value.

The first to upgrade the ambience of your rackets. Fix up the joint and people will open up their wallets. There is also a side benefit that if your racket is near one of the same type your ambience will also influence the draw of the racket. Again this is a relative thing, as long as your ambience is better than the nearby rackets you will get a draw bonus and vice versa.

4-spending-scaled.jpg


Then there is the straight forward supply of alcohol, your customers consume alcohol and supplying them with alcohol will ensure they keep spending. We touched on this in racket descriptions. What I will add here, however, is there is a maximum amount the customers will consume. Also, customers will stay in rackets even if there is no alcohol supplied. You can have speakeasies full of people desperate to spend money on alcohol who will wait months for the chance to do so. While this is unrealistic in the real world (unless the doors are locked from the outside), it’s not in Empire of Sin! More importantly, it does make it much easier to tell you things like how much alcohol you need on a weekly basis to run your empire. This in turn makes it easier for you, and the AI, to make strategic decisions on things like alcohol supply.

Then comes the quality of alcohol you supply. The basic rule of thumb is that the better grade of alcohol you supply, the more money you will make. There is one exception to this, and this is neighbourhood preferred alcohol. This is determined by the overall prosperity of the neighbourhood. The higher the prosperity level, the higher the grade of alcohol the neighbourhood prefers. So, all your garbage swill will find a home in the poorer neighbourhoods and be the drink of choice of the locals.

There are two alcohol supply strategies available to the player. The simple one is to aim to get the highest grade of alcohol possible, this will increase the income from your rackets and boost the profitability of your empire. The true min-max player, though, will seek to get just the right alcohol to each neighbourhood. It is more work, but I know some of you will have hours of fun perfecting the strategies to do it.

Alcohol Production and Supply
So your primary source of alcohol in the game are your breweries. Each brewery will produce a certain amount of alcohol. The alcohol is then available to the rackets for sale. (The moving of alcohol between a brewery and a racket is one of those things that looks so simple at first glance but as you dig into it gets more and more complicated. It is also something that is fairly simple at the start of the game where you may only have one or two breweries and most, if not all, of your rackets are in the same neighbourhood. Once your empire starts to expand and alcohol needs to be shuffled between multiple breweries across several neighbourhoods or from storage, it becomes a really quite complex problem. As a development team we chose to leave this problem alone and focus our time on things we felt would give more to the game.)

Each Brewery can only produce one grade of alcohol at a time. We wanted to make the alcohol optimization game challenging — you don’t just need enough production; you also need different sites to produce all the grades you want.

5-alcohol-production.jpg


Breweries cannot just produce any type of alcohol they want, they start being only able to produce the lowest grade of alcohol.You need to upgrade the breweries to unlock the higher grades of alcohol.

When it comes to deciding what sort of alcohol you want to supply you choose a preferred grade for that neighbourhood it will then seek to supply that grade. The rules for what happens when you don’t have the required stuff are complex and evolving so I will leave out for the moment, just take my word that they exist.

Synergies and Hotels
In order to make the choice of racket you set up a little more interesting, we added the idea of a synergy. Essentially, rackets in the same neighbourhood act in combination to boost the average spend in these rackets. At time of typing, these synergies were built around poker hands. For example 2 pairs or a full house. The more complex the synergy, the more the average spend gets increased.

To further boost your synergies, you can open a hotel in the neighbourhood. This is an entirely legitimate business and won’t make you any money but the friendly staff are always there to help guests who are seeking some entertainment. So, if some lonely businessperson was in town for a few nights and wanted to go some place for some… well, you get the idea. The hotel staff will be able to direct them to the right place, i.e. one owned by you. What hotels do is magnify the bonuses of your current synergies, and are limited to one per neighbourhood per faction. Hotels cannot be upgraded or attacked in the way your less-than-legitimate businesses can be, but should you no longer have a synergy in the neighbourhood, it will simply close.

6-synergies-bosses-and-neighbourhoods.jpg


Bosses & Neighbourhoods
Each boss has two bonuses that pertain to rackets. I am going to level with you here: we aimed to make them fun and interesting rather than punch them into a spreadsheet and try to balance them to the third decimal place. The other thing is that bonuses are designed to be very different to each other. So, you may find that some bosses are simply overpowered when combined with your play style. If so, we hope you enjoy it (as these may be nerfed later). These bonuses have a bearing on the economics of each gang, so are worth looking at when considering your economic decisions.

Each neighbourhood also has a number of effects that will impact on rackets. Some of these are fixed and are innate to the neighbourhood, but others can be earned during the game. For example, once you get enough Brothels in a neighbourhood, you can earn the title “Red Light District” and then all Brothels earn extra money. If some brothels in that neighbourhood were to suffer some unfortunate accidents that caused them to close, then the neighborhood would lose the title and another neighbourhood could pick it up.

Well, that’s it for the economy round up. I hope this gives you some insight into some of the fun choices you will have!

– Chris King, Senior Designer on Empire of Sin
 
Last edited by a moderator:

cyborgboy95

News Cyborg
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
Messages
2,735
Yep, I know which boss to choose for my first playthrough:



https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/604540/view/2762349656052905738

Boss Spotlight: Dean O'Banion

Good business is about making your own opportunity and acting quickly on it. At least, that’s what Dean O’ Banion thinks, when he spots a whiskey truck stopped at a red light and decides to rob it single handedly. He has the entire load sold twenty minutes later.


That’s the type of attitude befitting a man who grew up hard, on the streets of a place called “Little Hell”. As the name suggests it relies on stealing and debauchery as its daily economy. For a hell dweller though, Dean doesn’t see himself as a devil. In fact the front he presents to the public is the exact opposite. He’s at Mass every Sunday and one of his closest friends is the parish priest, Fr. Higgins.

He also runs a flower shop in the heart of Chicago. It’s the perfect front; who would suspect the friendly man in the florists would have a backroom set aside for shadier dealings? The flower shop is the top choice for most mob funerals, which means Dean can drum up business for one enterprise, by unleashing a little hell of his own through his other vocation. It’s win win. Running rackets with street gangs in his youth has really paid off. Dean has perfected the art of double ended enterprise, making money hand over bloody fist.

Dean is a natural talker. Perhaps it’s his Irish roots, but he can talk his way into the best parts of a deal before the other party even knows what they’re agreeing to. He’s got connections that run far and wide and even though Chicago’s North Side is his usual stomping ground, Dean has aspirations, as well as guts to go after a wider territory. He may have come from nothing, but that doesn’t mean he has to stay there, or be satisfied with the little bit of the city that's already under his heel. As any good business person knows, you’ve got to expand to survive, and Dean is prepared to supply more flowers to more funerals in order to tighten his grip around the entire city of Chicago.

Dean O’Banion Dictograph Conversation
Chicago Police Dept.
File: #01584

854ade39b20de07b6d1a5770db2f1f0e6c85b6b0.png


Status: Open investigation
Date of exchange: 02/16/1920
Date of transcript: 02/17/1920
Stenographer: G. Avery

The following transcript is a verbatim exchange between Dean O’ Banion and his second in command George Clarence “Bugs” Moran. The audio signal was captured via a dictograph planted by an undercover officer; in Schofield’s [Mr. O’ Banion’s flower shop], on 736 North State st., Chicago.

Storebell rings. Faint shuffling sounds. A man can be heard singing softly, then coughing.

Moran: ’Ey, Deano? Ya in here?

Muffled voice sounds in the distance.

Moran: Yeah, it’s me. [unintelligible mumbling]

Background noise and footsteps can be heard, growing louder. A man clears his throat.

O’Banion: Mornin’ Bugs.

Moran: Hey arch killer. Whaddaya doing back there?

O’Banion: Keep ya fuckin’ voice down! I’m open for business here.

Moran: Chrissakes, alright. Relax wouldya?

O’Banion: You gotta buzz on Bugs?

Moran: I stopped by our friend O’Sullivan’s on my way here. I got thirsty.

O’Banion: Uh-huh. It’s ten fuckin’ thirty in the mornin’.

Moran: Ah, I skipped breakfast.

O’Banion: Explains why ya so loose.

Moran: Ah Save ya ‘holier than thou’ shit for Higgins, c’mon!

O’Banion: ’Ey! Ain’t nothin’ wrong with tryin’ to follow the Lord’s word outside a church y’know.

Moran: [Lowering voice] Only when it suits ya.

O’Banion: Howzzat?

Shuffling sounds. Somebody sniffs.

O’Banion: Did ya tell him what I told ya to?

Moran: Every word.

O’Banion: Did ya…punctuate it like I asked?

Moran: Yup. I mean it took a little while…but he got the message, eventually.

O’Banion: You sure? He didn’t…fall asleep on ya did he?

Moran: Nah, he was singing his understandin’ when I got to leaving.

O’Banion: Good. Good! [Clap sound] Shouldn’t be any issues with payments then. Now, about later-

Storebell rings. Faint shuffling sounds. Footsteps heard entering.

O’Banion: Oh, hiya Frankie! What can I do ya for?

Frankie: [Breathless] Fella’s, ya gotta help me. It’s an emergency, I need somethin’ for the lady.

Moran: [Laughs] You in the doghouse again, Frankie?

Frankie: Like ya wouldn’t believe.

Moran: Let me guess, caught in ‘Dark Desires’ with ya pants down?

O’Banion: Better fuckin’ not be, else I won’t be servin’ ya! This ain’t no shop for brothel rats.

Frankie: Nah, Nah it ain’t like that, it’s fuckin’ Valentine’s day. I went and forgot it…again.

Sounds of laughter.

Moran: Oof. That’s gotta cause a stink.

Frankie: Second year runnin’. I swear to God, this fuckin’ holiday. One of these years it’s gonna get me shot!

O’Banion: So ya need flowers?

Frankie: Yeah, yeah. Gimme like what…a half dozen roses?

Sounds of Laughter.

Frankie: What? What’s so funny?

O’Banion: Lemme ask ya somethin’: How much do ya love ya lady?

Frankie: Huh? Whaddya mean?

Moran: It’s a simple fuckin’ question. Do ya love her or is she somethin’ that just uh…tags along?

Frankie: She’s the love of my life.

O’Banion: Alright. Well, half a dozen roses ain’t gonna cut it then.

Moran: Yeah, that’s what ya get for the tag along, when ya remember the fuckin’ day.

O’Banion: What you need is a far…grander gesture of your love.

Sounds of footsteps.

O’Banion: Might I suggest this fine bouquet here. Two dozen Darcey roses, arranged around a single Tibet rose at it’s centre.

Moran: That’s a beauty. Say Dean, does the vase come with that bouquet.

O’Banion: Indeed it does, Bugs. Wouldya look how fuckin’ white that Tibet is, huh?

Moran: Lemme tell ya Frankie; ya bring that home to the lady, she won’t just say she forgives ya, she’ll show ya how much she does.

Frankie: Jeez…I dunno fellas. Seems a little outta my price range.

O’Banion: Ah…Don’t worry about it.

Frankie: Huh?

O’Banion: Look, right before ya came in here, Bugs and I were talkin’ about some work we gotta do. I tell ya what, you go along with Bugs later and this bouquet is all yours...no charge.

Frankie: Really? What kinda work is it?

Moran: Call it manual labor. Some rearranging of furniture and basic, y'know uh…touch ups.

Faint shuffling sound.

O’Banion: There’ll be cash payment too, so ya can buy something extra for the lady to go with the bouquet.

Moran: Sounds good to me, Frankie. You get the lady a nice piece of jewelry, you won’t have to remember Valentine’s day ever again.

Frankie: Yeah. Alright, deal. I’ll do it.

O’Banion: Great! She’s gonna love this, Frankie.

Rustling sound and footsteps.

Moran: Hey, how’s ya brother?

Frankie: Peter? He’s good.

Moran: Ah, bring him too. Could always do with more muscle.

Rustling sound.

O’Banion: Here ya go.

Frankie: Alright, I’ll tell him. Hey, thanks Dean, ya really helped me out here.

O’Banion: No problem.

Footstep sounds, growing faint.

Moran: Ey, be home at 6:30. I’ll call ya.

Frankie: Sure thing, Bugs.

Moran: [Raising voice] And tell ya brother!

Storebell rings. Door closes.

Moran: Well, that was a freebie.

O’Banion: Nah, Bugs. That was God. I’m tellin’ ya, I don’t pray every day for nothin’.

Moran: Sure it was. Say, I’m starvin’. Ya wanna get somethin’ to eat?

O’Banion: Nah, I got orders to do here.

Moran: Alright. I'll be back later.

O’Banion: Sure, sure. God bless.

Footsteps sound, growing faint. Storebell rings, the door closes. Sighing. Footsteps sound, growing faint.

End Transcript



Father Higgins’ Religious Journal

Tuesday, February 10th 1920

Dear Lord our Father,

This morning’s confessions have left me troubled, young Dean O’ Banion came to me. His confessions grow darker by the week, I would swear it. I believe he thinks I do not know it is him, and thus lays all bare, but I’ve known that voice for so many years now, it is hard to misplace. Besides, he always catches himself about to curse and sure that’s a dead give away. I’ve never known a mouth as filthy as his.

He is in peril of finding grave danger for himself. He is carrying around a loaded shotgun with him everywhere. It seems he is getting more bold with each new sting he pulls off. ‘Business ventures’ he calls them. The latest ‘venture’ was holding a driver at gunpoint and stealing a truck filled with alcohol. I fear this is how he sources our wine for mass, but I dare not ask. Sometimes we’re better off not knowing these things. ‘Ask no questions tell no lies’, as Dean himself is fond of saying. Just last week he confessed to beating someone senseless in the back of his shop. Worse still, he showed no remorse. In fact, he chastised the man for bleeding on a rhododendron display he was working on.

There have been inklings to this carry on for as long as I have known him. Running with the “Little Hell gang”, shoplifting, mugging the people he’d spiked with a Mickey Finn. What hope had he really? Losing his mother at such a young age, and growing up in that hell Kilgubbin with his father and brother, surely had an effect on the boys' upbringing. He had no maternal influence to deter him from delinquency.

I did my best Lord, I hope you know. I still do. I groomed him, showed him your love and he was accepting of it. He sang your praises with that beautiful tenor voice in the church choir. Then I learned he used that voice to distract patrons in restaurants whilst his friends robbed the coatroom. Should it really be held against him if he used the gifts you bestowed unto him to further his way in the world? He was a poor boy Lord, it drove him into business, something he has a natural flair for. He and his friend Bugs Moran. They are a bad influence on each other, but they are as thick as thieves. Inseparable since their days of slugging for the city's newspapers.

In truth it is not his soul I worry for, more his safety. He is a sensitive boy underneath it all. His love of singing, his passion for flowers and he still repents, aware of his own misgivings. He’s in mass almost every Sunday, confessions a few times a week, and takes his penance seriously. I can’t help but wonder what kind of man he would be, were his mother still alive...

Ah! But I see Lord, taking her was your will, of course, and your will has made him the man he is today. He is the result of the hard city that shaped him, such an outcome has branded him a success in the world he dabbles in. Even the strongest of your flock, Lord, can be tempted by the devil’s vices. I should know, and for that I beg forgiveness. The point is that we are trying, daily, to be worthy of your love, Dean O’ Banion more than anyone. He is a good Catholic who I have well versed in your word. That is more than I could have hoped for I suppose.



Watch the Boss Spotlight on Dean O'Banion here:
 
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Bony Hands

Literate
Joined
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Messages
36
This game is looking good. Omerta: City of Gangsters was a disappointment because it just wasn't any good, but this seems to be much more polished and deeper.
 

Saduj

Arcane
Joined
Aug 26, 2012
Messages
2,547
The problem with Omerta was the strategy layer, which wasn't much fun. I thought the combat had potential.
 

cyborgboy95

News Cyborg
Joined
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https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/604540/view/2910969711787975854

Boss Spotlight: Elvira Duarte
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Elvira Duarte has achieved what few others in her profession have managed to do: live into old age and still remain an active member of a criminal empire. She’s not some periphery player either, leeching in the shadows of younger, bigger fish. She’s a ruthless, tenacious gang leader bent on claiming more stake in Chicago’s fortune than any of the pissants half her age.

A whole life lived before coming to Chicago, Duarte began her life in crime in her native Mexico. She had a natural flair for the business and an unforgiving attitude toward challengers to her regime. Working her way up the ranks, she became a gang leader before setting her sights on a better, more fruitful life for her and her sons in Chicago. She upped sticks and came to the windy city to start all over again. It didn’t take her long to get the lay of the land. Using her skill and experience, she muscled her way into the best of the city’s profits. Naturally, she made her way back to the position that fits her so well: gang leader of Los Luceros. Elvira came from nothing, twice, and carved a path to criminal royalty. Providing where she can, she guides her gang using her work ethic. She demands they be as resilient and bull-headed as her, instilling extreme loyalty and confidence among her followers.

At a glance, there are many who would depreciate Elvira to a frail old timer. This is their mistake, and one she plays to her advantage when the opportunity arises. This long in the game, Elvira is under no illusion as to what it takes to get what’s desired. She is neither phased nor deterred by the prospect of breaking bones, or ending lives to further her own end in this wild city. What some call callousness, she calls business. Jaded to the pleas and bargaining of condemned enemies, if she doesn’t get what she's looking for on first request, she doesn’t think twice about pulling the trigger. She has plenty of heavies to clean up the mess afterward.

Elvira has outlived countless other gang lords who have fancied themselves kingpins of the city through their schemes and ventures. The demise of each one has given her knowledge and experience of how not to do things. She can smell lies, betrayal, and ambitious ego under the best poker faces. There is no scam, backhanded deal, or mutiny she hasn’t heard of - or used herself in the past. She’s already four steps ahead of those considering the idea of attacking her domain.

After a lifetime of cunning and violence, backed up by a gang of stone hearted trigger fingers, it shouldn’t be long before she sees herself as sole ruler of Chicago.


The Letters
fc44499b05884c37ef3e50fe0fcf3523e00638a4.png


Raul, the adopted son of Elvira sent a letter to his relatives in Mexico to learn more about his mother and her roots. This is the translation of the response he received from his Tia Yoly.
Hello Mijito,

Raul, this is what I remember about my sister Elvira: she was a very proud woman, hard and strong. She was so rigid and tough; the only person I was ever afraid of. Elvira was a business woman and did not put up with any weakness from anyone. She raised her family during very hard times and had to do whatever she had to do to make ends meet.

Tough as she was, she always paid it forward. Elvira helped so many people throughout her time in Hermosillo. Everywhere she went around here, she was well known. Police, professionals and other locals would always say hello to her. She raised her family the only way she knew how to.

I don’t know when or how we came to get into the business we did, but we did. With the help of your Tios and I, she decided on brothels. They were combined with bars and restaurants. They were named ‘Waikiki’, the ‘B-21’, and the other one...I don’t remember the name.

Your Tios were all bartenders, and we all helped out. Elvira had a friend at one time who couldn’t take care of her child, and asked Elvira to raise him. That child was you, Raul, and she raised you as her own. As you know, Mama Elvira was very strict with her children. Josephina, your sister, rebelled when you were still a baby. She ran away to Los Angeles. The last I heard she became a nurse.

Elvira used to always help the poor and took in children. At one time she probably had around thirty. I always remember having new nephews and nieces to meet.

Once, she won a quarter of a million pesos in a lottery. After that, she had a little chapel built across the street from our family house. She opened a second-hand store in Hermosillo, and she would help many people get back on their feet. All in all, Elvira was an extraordinary, tough, hard working person in our life. She did what she had to do to support her family in tough, unapologetic times. She wouldn’t stand for weakness.

I loved her but was always afraid of her. After she got a hardening of her arteries in the back of her neck, she ate rattlesnake meat. She heard it was a good remedy. She would pay a man to collect some snakes, and she would blend the meat up and eat it. She claimed that it helped. I remember attending our business meetings, sitting across the table from her as she chewed on it. I do not know how she is managing now. I imagine there are fewer rattlesnakes in Chicago.

Her house is still here. Someday you must come to see it. I have her wedding picture if you want me to send it to you. I hope you guys are safe and well.

Take care of yourself mijito, love you.
Aunt Yoly.

P.S.: If you ever want to find out about Grandpa, who was a revolutionary soldier and fought with Pancho Villa, get in touch with Tio Donny. He knows all about it.


A translation of a letter written by Elvira when she left Mexico. The letter is addressed to the Madam of one of her operations.

Madam Maria,

I leave the houses under your control for now. You have proven yourself ready. I always told you - never be sentimental. Here is a case in point. My life in Mexico has reached a hiatus, and I have no time nor like for goodbyes. I have made my choice. It is time to bring our operation elsewhere. What I have achieved here is my greatest pride. Now I will expand across the border, to capitalise on the affluence of foreign soil. Chicago seems the right place to spread our influence.

In a way, I am back to my roots, which will be good for me. The easy life can become boring, I need the challenge. I need hard people who can make hard choices, adept to the values of real work. That is what our business runs on. For this reason, I’m leaving with no more than I require and a loaded pistol. Whatever is left in our house, the safe, my office, is yours to manage. Spend it, invest it, build upon our empire.

I once considered retiring to what my mama would call “a decent life,” but thought better of it. I have acquired too much knowledge over our years here to squander it on honest living. The old ways are best, and our business model will translate well in America. Real money is rooted in the thrill, desire and false hope of common people, not the work of respectable professions. Remember that, tailor the house toward it, and we will have an operation that spans two nations.

I am leaving swiftly, without warning, so we can avoid your teary farewell. Life is hard, and you need to harden to it. Now take what I taught you and continue the empire. I will do the same in Chicago, bring our business to people who know no better. They will have their eyes opened and their pockets emptied, and I will build another fortune with the help of my sons.

I do not worry for you - you have shown me time and again that I have no reason to - so, do not worry for me. Look after yourself. Until we meet again.

Vaya con Dios,
El.
 
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The_Mask

Just like Yves, I chase tales.
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Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
This is a... rather lengthy video, in which the tutorial for the game is displayed. Nothing too fancy, but if you're interested in the game, like me, here it is.

I found the Celtic cross behind Brenda VERY distracting.

Enjoy!

 

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