OK, while at the gaming club at Edinburgh University yesterday I was sitting chatting with Sandy and Steve. Amongst other things we talked a little about the Mob Justice system and Sandy said "Let's see it in play then", so we did.

It is quite easy to set up a sample skirmish for this game. I just had Steve and Sandy make up a brief outline of a character.

What's your name?
Age?
Background?
Normally you get 20 points of Skills, for this just pick 2 or 3 skills and split 6 points between them.
Write down a couple of Loyalties, and rank them from Ace (low) to King (high)
Write down a Code or two, again rank them from Ace (low) to King (high)

I have the characters they made up at home, and I'll type them up fully here later on.

Briefly we had Tommy, an extortionst for the mob in his fifties, and "Sanity" Jones, a hatchet man (literally) in his mid-thirties. They each had a loyalty to each other and worked as a team standing over speakeasies and small-time merchants.

The "modern-day Mobsters" hook is really strong (and it only has to be that short a description to get the players firing off ideas). Throw in that Prohibition never ended and we're all set.

So, a little note here about GMing Mob Justice. I feel that it strongly supports and, indeed, needs a very "traditional" GM. You know, someone who does the GM stuff: plays enemies, sets scenes, throws trouble into the mix, clarifies what has happened and judges the rules. So just let the players look after their characters and you do the GM stuff and you'll be fine. The neat thing is that the system will take care of who wins and loses, and paces the opposition and progress of the PCs.

So, I set the scene.

Rico has been stiffing the boss on payments and Tommy and Jones have been sent to get the $1000 he owes back. It's small time stuff, really, but Rico isn't going to want to pay all the same.

I describe the tea-room speakeasy, the ladies sitting around having coffees and teas, a distinct lack of men (who are no doubt guzzling booze elsewhere). Rico sees the PCs enter and leaves the till making for a back door. What are you doing?

Sandy says that Tommy goes straight for the till. He ignores Rico and I don't have any opposition to him looting the till. We reckon that it'll have a few (low) hundred in the till and Tommy, as he's used to this sort of thing, quickly sets about looting it.

Steve declares that he's going after Rico to send a message and get the rest of the cash. He opens the door and Rico has his two goons set about Jones with flick-knives. We have a conflict!

I throw in a story chip and draw 5 cards plus 2 for the Goons' Up Close and Personal skill. I discard down to Two Pair, which is not bad! My goal: To knife Jones up a bit.

Play moves over to Steve, who throws in a chip and pulls out his hatchets. He gets 5 cards plus 4 for his "Handy With a Hatchet" skill (Up Close and Personal?), we give him an extra card too, since he'd probably have picked Hatchet as a specialization to that. So 10 cards.

Sandy declares that Tommy is aiding Jones by watching his back and tossing the now emptied till at the Goons. Steve gets another card.

Steve discards down to 5 and seems happy with his hand. His goal: To chop up the two Goons and take them down.

Play moves back to me I throw in an extra chip. I say that they're going to mark Jones if they win, they slash their flick-knives back and forth. I'm discard the non-paired card and get an Ace. No full house though. Still, two pair, Ace kicker.

Steve throws in a chip and calls. He starts swinging!

Me: Two pair (6s and 7s I think), Ace kicker.
Steve: Flush of Hearts, King or Queen high.

Damn!

I think that's a win by 3 and he gets 3 damage off the top of the deck!

Steve gets narration and chops the Goons up a bit, leaving them lying there pretty badly hurt. They resolve to catch up with Rico later and get out of the speakeasy before the cops turn up. Rico has fled and we could move into a follow-up conflict or whatever, but we call it a scene at that.

I think it was pretty intuitive and went well.

We then did a short scene with Sandy fencing some hot stuff from a raid. It went much the same way, except I got a hand of crap and folded when Sandy raised. Sandy's narration was that he fenced the goods but made it look to the cops like it was someone else doing it. Throwing them off his scent and putting a tonne of heat on Rico.

So, a few questions which I can't answer myself as I'm at work and don't have the book to hand!

(1) Do Loyalties force you to act a certain way? I mean, do you make a check and you have to follow it? Or is it just that you can do whatever the hell you like, BUT if you break a Code or Loyalty then you get the fallout: a Tell, a change in the Loyalty or Code value and maybe Reputation/Stature damage?

(2) How many Story Chips does the GM get per scene? Can you talk a little bit about the economy of Story Chips? I assumed that the GM gets some for a scene or Act and that this paces the GMs adversity to the players.

(3) If someone folds and the opposition win then how many damage do we flip over? Say my Goons had folded and Steve had a hand of crap, would he have done them any damage?

Thanks!