Our story starts in New York City, in the year 1942. Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" has topped the charts for three months following its December release, repeated showings of "Casablanca" are practically painted onto the projection screens of cinemas, and "Fantasia" has solidified Mickey Mouse as America's favorite rodent. For the past year, Italian-Americans have been shipped back to their mother country with rifles and bayonets, where they are either killed or return home injured and scarred, facing the same discrimination as before their deployment. Now, more than ever, there is a cultural divide between Italians and Americans. Us and Them. The federal government protects Americans, but there is no such group to protect the dagos. There is only a group so secretive, it is known to Italians simply as "Our Thing" with a wink and nod. To the rest of the world, this organization is known by a much more black-and-white term: The Sicilian Mafia.
As you have pieced together, this is a mafia roleplay. Tommy guns, fedoras, the whole shebang. Though what a "Mafia Story" implies is only a group of tropes ripped from the Sopranos and Corleones, I'd like to immediately specify how original I'd like this to be, before I get even five sentences into this OOC synopsis, and that's very original. The unavoidable themes to make this a mafia story (Italian Crime Families, Intricate Murders, Codes of Honor, etc.) have been used many different times in many different stories. Because we'll be using them as well, as you read past this point, let's all collectively agree to not hit the groan-inducing tropes used in this genre: Nobody will be described as "Sleeping with the fishes", nobody will extort shopkeepers with a bat, and so help me God, nobody better get gunned down eating spaghetti. We have a huge amount of creative freedom with this not being a literal Godfather roleplay, so let's write like it.
Additionally, right off the bat, I'd also like to specify the kind of character that is not acceptable, because Mafia/Military/Zombie RPs usually get three or four of him. He's the lone wolf with dead (or otherwise disposed by distance/lack of plot importance) family, somewhere in his 20's to 30's, with combative experience from Prison/War/The Streets®, roguish good looks undercut by a facial scar, a signature (usually melee) weapon, and an easy to pronounce, deeply meaningful name. I get that we're all hobby writers and the easiest characters to write are strong, silent protagonists, but that gets boring. You get five scowling enforcers, everybody realizes their characters are all the same dude in a suit, people start dropping out, and it gets boring. Don't make a caricature, make a character. For an example of a tough, yet humanized, non-caricatural mobster, look no further than The Godfather's Luca Brasi -- Introduced as "The dumb strong guy" by way of reciting his lines like a yokel, we later find out that his low intelligence and loyalty to the Don stem from Vito finding and resuscitating him from a failed suicide-by-overdose after he killed his newborn son for being half-Irish. Just like that, Luca goes from caricature to character. The same humanizing elements should be found in yours. Capisce?
Aside from the emphasis on originality and character development, the last note I'd like to make here is the unnecessary RP structure I'm throwing in for little to no reason. You ready? Alright. The RP will center around two rival families (Or at least, two controlled by players out of several NPC families) and characters will be in either family. The ultimate goal of this RP is to defeat, take over, or otherwise destroy the opposing family. We will need a lot of characters for this, and since I have very high standards for admittance, I recommend everyone play a few characters and we randomly switch POVs ASOIAF style. The CS's will be short to make this bearable.
So, here's an interest check. I'll have concrete stuff within a week, just setting this out there to see if anyone's interested and to answer any questions. This is going in the Advanced and Nations interest checks because there's a decent amount of character vs. character scheming, firstly, and I'm also hedging my bets on having buds in the NRP section, so whatever. Now open for comments/questions/concerns/Mr Allen J hatemail!
