[WIP] La Cosa Tua – Chapter One Demo

[Lisa_Fox]

Hello Everyone! I’m so pleased to announce the La Cosa Tua demo is now live!

An offer you can’t refuse. A family obligation. The chance of a lifetime. Call it whatever you will…you’re in the Mafia now.

You always imagined your return to Manhattan would be for some family obligation or another, and fate has proven you right because today you find yourself back home for your father’s funeral. A high-level member of the Cantrella Crime Family, your dad was gunned down on the streets of Hell’s Kitchen, his own turf, and left for dead.

The NYPD isn’t all that concerned with finding the motive behind your father’s murder, but unfortunately for you, Special Agent J. Day of the FBI is. And while you may not be at the top of the agent’s suspect list, you are a person of interest and will be watched.

There’s also Luca Bonaccorso to contend with. The underboss of the rival Bonaccorso Family, Luca was already making moves on your father’s assets before your plane even landed in New York. Your brother should be stepping in to stop Luca, but unfortunately, he’s in jail on some other, unrelated charge.

But none of this should matter, right? You were sent away to boarding schools, then college, to be kept as far away as possible from your father’s shady business dealings. You have nothing to do with the mob.

Until today.

The moment the funeral’s over, you are called to meet with Don Cantrella, your father’s boss, and the boss of the entire Cantrella Family.

The Don has decided that you will step into your father’s shoes and take over running Hell’s Kitchen on behalf of the Cantrellas. But, as with everything in the Mafia, there’s a catch. The Don is imposing an “inheritance tax” on you, a $100,000 honorarium that is due in one year’s time—with compounding interest. Once the debt is paid however, you do get a choice—join the Cantrellas as an active, earning member, or consider the money a buyout fee and walk away from mob life forever.

How you make your money is up to you. Will you build your father’s criminal empire back to what it once was? Or will you take his old operation legit, weeding out the loan sharking, gambling, and protection rackets bit by bit?

You could also help the FBI tear down the Mafia from the inside out. Or not. Or maybe you could play some dangerous cat-and-mouse games with a man who might have you whacked if you gain too much power.

Features

• Play as the male, female, or nonbinary child of a notorious Mafia captain
• Choose how to run your businesses, make money, pay the Don, and buy yourself a few nice things along the way
• Live it up in 1970’s NYC! The Vietnam War is over, New York is finally recovering from near economic collapse, and everyone who’s anyone is disco dancing at Studio 54. Put on your Halston original and show them all what you’re made of
• Romance the fully customizable FBI agent, or rival Mafia underboss, Luca Bonaccorso
• Charm, threaten, or outsmart anyone who might want to keep you from reaching your goals—whatever they may be
• Find out the truth behind your father’s murder
• Become a full-fledged member of the Cantrella Family or leave it all behind for the life of a law-abiding citizen

Romance Options

• Special Agent Jason (he/him)/Janelle (she/her) Day: the agent investigating your father’s murder. Agent Day would love to see the Mafia destroyed.
• Luca Bonaccorso: Underboss of the Bonaccorso Crime Family. He is smart, refined, handsome, and utterly ruthless.

Opportunities abound. What will your thing be?

Demos
CoGDemos: CoGDemos
Itch.it: La Cosa Tua by LisaFoxRomance
Patreon: Lisa Fox Romance | Patreon

[Zkrkhey92]

You may wanna change that from patreon access to a public one

[Random_Person]

Will choseing your fathers origin have any impact at all in the story other than a last name, like the PC being Jewish or Muslim if that’s their fathers origins and following those religions laws, or being able to speak another language no one else’s knows and can be use to pass secrets, or have extra connections, like having a westie father and have the Irish mob come to you to help take back Hell’s Kitchen, or having the Chinese gang for a Chinese father come to you to help cement their place in the city as a major faction

[TheTal]

some stuff to fix

so, this doesn’t sound like a last name, but a patronymic one. last modern name would be Shvarova. it’s like Petrova (last) - Petrovna (patronymic) or Ivanova (last) - Ivanovna (patronymic)
unless you decided to put her last name as an easter egg to the first wife of Vsevolod the Big Nest: in which case, it doesn’t work as well, cos it’s not a last name: not Ukrainian, not Belarusian, not Russian

i’ve never heard anyone say this ever. it looks like you wanted to put “for the love of God” or something similar (“for God’s sake”) but translator went literal, not contextual. “radi Boga” will be the best translation to put here.

i’m making a guess here but Svetlana Shvarova is Russian, no? if so, then correct transliteration is gonna be “solnyshko”

ah, the torture of trying to fit she/her pronoun with less-hurdles of he/him
he-she, his-her, him-her, his-hers. you need an extra pronoun variable for the agent

should be a variable, not pure text

wrong use of tense? should be present, not past: “I don’t want to see them?”

some personal nitpick after looking at the code: when picking they/them shouldn’t gender be “third gender” and not “nonbinary” as a time-appropriate term? it’s late seventies (at least, it’s not as bad as using fucking latinx of all atrocious words to describe latino when the story set in 1920s, i think it was in published Heart’s Choice)
edit: after thinking a bit about future chapters: i think the players who are gonna self-insert/roleplay as someone reluctant to go along with lardass don’s whims should have choice to autofail a check when context demands it. not my fault don decided to make a very brilliant decision of putting someone clueless in charge of mafia business. Capo is a very tasty fish, last i heard

[reniere]

@TheTal

not my fault don decided to make a very brilliant decision of putting someone clueless in charge of mafia business.

Ngl, on the path of reluctant mc no part of the plot makes sense to me rn. I just don’t understand what mafia boss man stands to gain from forcing someone like mc (who isn’t part of them, who doesn’t know how they operate, who has no desire to join them, has not proven their loyalty and can easily turn to FBI for help lol?) in such a position. Literally anybody else would’ve been a better choice?

As i was playing i just found myself.. so not invested in anything.
Not the father’s funeral who we apparently loved but why would we as the player care, we never saw what their relationship was like, we’ve no reason to shed tears. Hell we don’t even have enough time to mourn as 90% of the funeral we basically spend on a mafia 101 crash course for dummies.
Not the kitchen we get & its success/failure, and once again why would we care, it’s not like mc was ever part of the business, not like mc grew up knowing they’d inherit it and preparing for this moment. They have no connection to the place. They might as well just be some random job applicant for the manager position.

This whole thing would’ve worked so much better with an mc who was part of the mob already, who knew how things run, and there you introduce the same path of being reluctant and wanting to escape this life vs being totally loyal to the family. At least then it wouldn’t all feel so random and nonsensical.

[TheTal]

@reniere

I just don’t understand what mafia boss man stands to gain from forcing someone like mc

the only positive i can see for the don is that we are easy to control, i guess? even this breaks downs if you roleplay someone who is as stubborn as a mule stuffed up bull’s arsehole.

@reniere

As i was playing i just found myself.. so not invested in anything.
Not the father’s funeral who we apparently loved but why would we as the player care, we never saw what their relationship was like, we’ve no reason to shed tears. Hell we don’t even have enough time to mourn as 90% of the funeral we basically spend on a mafia 101 crash course for dummies.

pretty much same. very not-invested into anything. author can make player care for dad’s funeral by writing a bunch of short-one-page flashbacks (stuff them right after interrogation, perhaps) like age 8. next page: age 12. next page. age 15 to show how awesome dad is/was at being dad (or not great)

@reniere

This whole thing would’ve worked so much better with an mc who was part of the mob already, who knew how things run, and there you introduce the same path of being reluctant and wanting to escape this life vs being totally loyal to the family. At least then it wouldn’t all feel so random and nonsensical.

not sure about that. you could check out Life of a Mobster on.. Hosted(?). story is not great but at least it’s interactive. i’d say 60% of the story’s events are set in stone, the other 40% are conditional, very much depend on you actually choosing something. it def worth it’s money while steam spring sale is on

[GuyIncognito]

Great demo. The father of the MC should have different names with the different backgrounds. John only works for an Irish mobster