[RPG]: Mob Justice, reviewed by C.W.Richeson (2/2)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/13/13748.phtml

Christopher W. Richeson's Summary:

Be a part of the criminal underworld and try to hold on to what's yours while protecting the things you care about most.

Go to the full review for more information.

[Morat]

Hi Christopher,

First of all thanks for the review in the first place and getting round to it so quickly. I know you have quite a pile to get through most of the time.

I am dissapointed that 'Mob Justice' (MJ) scored low in your opinion and you think that it needs a second edition to resolve the problems you see. I would like to address the issues you have with the game and see if I can't persuade you to run a game or two:

Examples: The game lacks a full example of play and that is an error on my part. A lot of the time in games I find them to be a bit dull and long winded but I do recognise their use in explaining the game to the player. However I do think that I provided enough examples in the rules text to explain the principles of the game to a player. Could you tell me where I fell down in this regard? What needed more explanation? What wasn't explained at all?

Getting groups together: There is some advice in the back of the book, under the Boss' section, in getting different types of groups together, though I could maybe have provided more examples of what sort of characters work well together. I think at the time I had assumed that people picking up MJ would be familiar with films like 'Goodfellas','Heat' etc. As such they would know the kind of characters that work well in these films. Has anyone else encountered this problem with MJ?

Campaign Play: You are right here in that I should have talked more about the long term play for Mob Justice, maybe providing examples of the game over a month, 6 months and a year. However there is a lot to work with in the game in terms of Networks, Stature and Reputation which alone should provide for some GTA style campaigns. The characters should change and grow in power fairly rapidly if they are starting out at grunt level, and it may even be that they end up running a city or even a country as the game progresses. How do you think I should present campaign play for MJ as it is definitley a game that lends itself to the long term?

Layout: I personally really like the way MJ is put together and am a big fan of the art within. Could you give me some examples of what you had issue with in terms of editing, layout and art? I am really looking to learn on this front for future products so any advice you could give would be much appreciated.

I think that is all I have for now. Like I say I am dissapointed that you didn't take to the game immediately but I hope that you can give me some advice to take onto future products and that I can persuade you to delve into the 'Mob Justice' world.

All the best

Iain McAllister

[C.W.Richeson]

Heya, Iain! Sorry for the slow response.

I think the individual examples are ok, but that they don't paint a picture of the game as a whole. Unlike so many RPGs, <I>Mob Justice</I> is striving for a unique mechanic and different play experience. Because of this an example of play is particularly valuable. In particular, the way chips are exchanged over the course of a session and how they drive play could better be seen with such an example. The artwork is slightly pixelated to my eyes, otherwise that's a subjective evaluation.

The layout isn't bad, it's just simple and will serve most folk fine. The review certainly isn't based on typos and layout quality, either, for the record