Vendetta: Rise of a Gangster -- Reinvented

It is the thing most often leaving Adamo wrestling with his conscience – the fact that you’re the kind of guy he would normally detest, but he just can’t help himself. He spends a lot of time questioning his own motives and judging himself too harshly. It can make the relationship a little… strained, at times, as it can make it difficult for you to act openly (even in his best interests, as you may see it) without risking all… “Is honesty always the best policy?” is the one question you often have to ask yourself when in a relationship with Adamo (or Donna, for that matter, as she has similarly firm views of right and wrong, good and evil).

It’s an awkward one. As with any background / backstory, there is a limit to what different people would find acceptable for their MC. In this instance, her chosen profession is a matter of circumstance and opportunity, not any real indication of “loose morals” (as such portraits would be viewed in those times). If we make our burlesque dancer’s backstory lean more towards the porn of that era than is strictly necessary, we risk alienating many of the players who would otherwise find this the most intriguing role to play.

Thanks. :slight_smile:

They share identical starting character Attributes (arguably the nine main ones) but do vary somewhat in other ways, such as different Mentality, Respect, Public Image, Appearance, cash or weapons – according to the actual background.

For example, the Burlesque Dancer is the best-dressed of all at the start (for obvious reasons), but has less spare cash at the beginning because she spends / has spent it on her Appearance… Her nine main Attributes are however identical to those of her male counterpart, the Political Bagman, so the difference in popularity is probably down to perception of / interest in the role itself rather than actual stats.

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True. It’s interesting to see how much people are influenced by stats, and how much by story (the only explanation for the large differences in popularity between corresponding backgrounds).

The Burlesque Dancer and the Black Widow seem to fall into the femme fatale trope, whereas their male counterparts are a yes-man for a corrupt politician and a thug, respectively. The College Graduate is the only character with an education, something that, despite there being no intelligence stat, many people find important. The Grifter, on the other hand, is presumably educated to the same degree as the other backgrounds. The female Street Gang Leader might not be garnering much interest because people have already played the male background, and therefore assume the female one won’t bring anything new.

The others are within a place or two of each other by popularity, either because their backstories are similar or have a similar amount of appeal, or because they were chosen primarily based on stats.

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So, everybody lies, though that is probably more the creed of my political bagman whereas my college kid has a more pragmatic relationship with the truth that will probably require feeding Adamo the truth and nothing but the truth but certainly not the whole truth. Mainly because college kid knows better than the others not to become too tangled in a web of deceit of his own making and he is (in my take on him) a master of “lying by omission” anyway.
I do hope we can be with Adamo till the very end and incidentally make that dream of his come true. My mc’s will just hide and evade what it really takes. Distracting him with negotiations with the union(s) may be one thing, while we sort out that other thing you hinted at.

At the start, I suspect that if we keep up with the job we may come to control the Republican party machinery and back in that era that would be something that would make you more powerful then the politicians themselves. Just gotta climb that greasy pole first. Back then it was practically impossible for any (would-be) politician to get elected without the support of their Party and its machinery. Compared to those days with the new and unlimited money pouring into American politics from all sides as well as the internet revolution and the demise of media “gatekeepers” the Democratic and Republican parties have become shells and shadows of their former selves. As the machinery used to be quite impressive.

Compared to the utter dominance of the Democratic machinery in the real New York city it seems that it has not gotten to that point in the fictional city of Vendetta and that even if the Republicans and their party machinery are the underdogs now they can still win. More importantly if the machinery has yet to be fully (re)build our political bagman potentially has the most lucrative and influential “side job” of all mc’s. Particularly if that background were to be elevated to primary.

No arguments, there the Black-hand background is the only male background I actively dislike, as opposed to the “meh” I feel with ex-cop and paroled convict.

For me it is the erudition, as well as the towering intellect of course. But the erudition in particular allows my college kid to have a vibe that no other role can match, not even the charismatic bagman.
College kid is the only one who can probably hand out verbal smackdowns in the style of fictional president Bartlett and I for one can’t wait to get the opportunity to do so to a prominent yet obnoxious temperance activist or something.

Not exactly the grifter is probably much more of an autodidact as she does share the towering intellect with the college boy. Her training may be less formal but when it comes down to it she is an even better actor then the college boy and an accomplished con-artist, so she can probably fake being a lot of things to a lot of people.

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I almost always agree with you lol. Yes, The horrible named Grifter (how bad it sounds lol. I am imaging a Griffon wearing a drift clothing…) is someone as intelligent as male only lacs of a focused formal education however, it is far more practical and more streetwise . For instance I could portrait a female looking more like a doctor than a doctor student etc…

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I don’t think it’s that horrible and it is period-appropriate, but “grifter” is not a word I think I ever heard in normal or even legal parlance with modern English-speaking people. Roaring 20’s female version of Neal Caffrey (of White Collar fame), or simply “con-artist” probably would have sounded more appealing to contemporary audiences, including me.

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I definitely prefer the subtler, more people-oriented backgrounds, of which the College Graduate is my favorite (the Bagman is probably 2nd or 3rd) and the Grifter the one I find most intriging. The combat focused backgrounds just don’t strike me as being viable in the long term. Sure, it’s good to be able to shoot your way out of your problems when you’re on your own, but it’s not worth shooting yourself in the foot later on when you have to run your own organization and settle disputes in a more civilized manner.

The term originated in the 19th century, so it would fit, although I believe it was primarily used to refer to men. It might be time for another poll, @Vendetta. :yum:

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The first time I heard the term ‘grifter’ was in an episode of the Simpsons so…I mean, it’s common enough to be in the Simpsons?

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Don’t really watch that show, sorry. Anyway TV is different then word on the street and I think I’ve never heard it actually being said by any English speaking person I know.
Then again I live in, or well near, okay not so near these days (but I still work there) Amsterdam, but we are pretty much a melting pot with some patches where the default language already is English.

A kindred spirit! :grin: Yeah I really keep hoping that this game is going to do well enough to warrant DLC and that the college kid will be in the first DLC, but that sadly seems dependent on the female counterpart doing well enough. :persevere: In any case I hope the first DLC will at least be a non-combat oriented one and not the horrible Black Hand guy, ugh!

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With any luck, people will want something dramatically different from the combat focused Soldier/Nurse background.

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The first time I heard it used was in the 1990 film The Grifters starring John Cusack, Annette Bening and Anjelica Houston. One of the interesting things I recall about that film is that each grifter had a different specialization, and that by working together they could effect even more complicated grifts than when working alone, assuming they can trust each other…

For me it’s not about a combat-focus, it’s about the RP value of having taken part in the fighting of WWI and how that fighting changes and hardens you. After shooting and killing countless men he doesn’t know to save Europe, he’s not going to find it particularly difficult to do the same to people who try to f with him in America. Mind you, having mad firearms skills doesn’t hurt, but my character has taken Teddy Roosevelt’s old adage to heart and firmly believes in speaking softly while carrying a very big stick.

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Yeah I hope the political bagman/collegue kid become one of the most popular so they give them the first DLC…and because is nice and all to shoot and bust some heads…but it’s even better when you have people to do it for you or through deceit ( I expect to have a Luca Brasi type in my crew for that things :face_with_monocle: )

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Probably why it wins out over other backgrounds with similar stats.

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I just can’t help to don’t get fun playing as a soldier. It was that way all my life since d&d to everything. Most soldier thing i enjoy was Mass effect (and is sort of a 007 more than soldier) and Sabres and Guns by our star @Cataphrak and anyone who follow that thread knows that first I suck as anything military related. And second, I don’t even play as a soldier due my character has zero idea what is doing.

Probably people here won’t believe with all role-playing evil and that but I am a passionate advocate of pacifism and anti war . So maybe is why I can’t enjoy being in a warfare or something like that.

However, I understand that is a very popular thematic and a great idea for a popular origin. Casuals 90% will play as soldier and a second like female burlesque. Why burlesque… All of you l could imagine what is casual app market demographic… and sex sells.

Thankfully here there is a wonderful variety of gender identity and access are equally. But sadly out of here market is like it is … even if it is changing.

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That’s a good analysis. Overall, it seems possible to divide most players into one of two camps – those who are primarily stats-focused, and those who just like the sound of playing a particular role. The happiest are probably those who fall somewhere in the middle, in that they like the sound of playing a particular role and are especially pleased to see that its main stats also suit their idea of how it should be played… :wink:

A deliberate design decision from the very beginning, as I see ‘intelligence’ as playing a significant part in various ways – perhaps especially in terms of the Leadership attribute. Mostly, however, I prefer that ‘intelligence’ be something determined by the player themselves, in the choices they make, rather than something imposed on the character they’re playing and thereby potentially forcing the player to be dumber than they feel themselves to be… if that makes sense. :smiley:

The aim, at least, is for every RO to be able both to survive to the end and for the two of you to live Happily Ever After. It will however be much tougher for some couples than others (reflected with a suitable Game Achievement, if successful!), as the new Mentality stat means it’s harder for you to hide who you really are from those who are especially close to you… Somewhere along the line, some ROs may be forced to reach some unhappy conclusions about the person they have fallen in love with, and each one will deal with that in their own way.

Suffice it to say, not all endings will be happy ones, but some can be.

Pretty much where we’d be headed with The Grifter in Vendetta – given the opportunity to actually head into ‘Primary’ story mode with this particular protagonist, that is. Our girl would start as leader of a small gang of con-artists, each with their own speciality, brought together by her to carry out an intricate ‘long con’. This is the main reason why I’m wedded to the term “Grifter” rather than any of the more modern suggestions being bandied about, since the ‘long con’ calls for a team of professionals working together and has only ever been the province of true grifters! It’s as much a status symbol as anything.

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@Vendetta

Will we meet any historical personages in the story?

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Mob NPC characters are based off historical people but are also different from them somewhat, so I suspect the trend will continue all the way through the entire game.

Although it would be cool to hire the Kennedy Patriarch to smuggle the booze for us or other things of that nature :wink:

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so we’ll have some sort of character like Lucky Luciano bullies us and telling us what we can and can not do :disappointed_relieved:

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There’s always taking the “Godfather route” :slight_smile: Honestly I’d probably end up doing this if I’m ever thrown into that situation.

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Kevin you survived the apocalypse in atheinia, incrediable

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I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to cause havoc and mayhem in Hell’s Kitchen before uppity Mafioso start telling us who or what we can and can’t maim, blow up and/or dismember.

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