[Classic] Gli Meccanichi di La Cosa Nostra, a setting I couldn't get out of my head

[Pope Uncommon the Dainty]

The idea struck me a while back and wouldn't get the eff out of my head until I wrote something up.
Check out https://luciferssubcreations.blogspo...osa-nosta.html for an intro to a game of Mafia mecha and secret magics in a slightly alternate history. What do y'all think of the idea?

[Dustin]

It's a lot of fun ideas. I think to pull it off, you would need a certain amount of anime-style handwaving around the practicalities of hiding illegal multi-ton vehicles from the authorities. That, or a degree of magical concealment which itself becomes a campaign feature.

It would be cool to see ideas for the specific campaign time setting, and what the PCs might be and do. An operating cell for a small but hungry family looking to go big? The beleaguered police trying to counter the magic mafia mechs?

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Dustin

I think to pull it off, you would need a certain amount of anime-style handwaving around the practicalities of hiding illegal multi-ton vehicles from the authorities. That, or a degree of magical concealment which itself becomes a campaign feature.

Yeah, that was the big take-away for me. Got to give them some kind of, "I touch my magic canoli and my 2-ton mech assembles around me in a scripted 80's visual sequence like Voltron" hand-wave and then you're rolling.

[Baldo]

Originally Posted by Pope Uncommon the Dainty

Gli Meccanichi di La Cosa Nostra...

Liked your setting, but the Italian words you're using *need* some editing:

"Gli Meccanichi di La Cosa Nostra" is wrong, "I Meccanici di Cosa Nostra" is real Italian.

The Genovese "Camorra" is correct but very unlikely. Mafia (from Sicily) and Camorra (from Campania) are *different* (and mutually hostile) criminal organizations.

The Genovese "Mano Negro" (Black Hand?) is wrong, use "Mano Nera" instead.

Just my two cents.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Perhaps a slightly different scale than you're thinking, but you might find some ideas in this (possibly somewhat NSFW due to Denver GURPS' tendency to talk like sailors) thread.

[ravenfish]

Originally Posted by Baldo

The Genovese "Camorra" is correct but very unlikely. Mafia (from Sicily) and Camorra (from Campania) are *different* (and mutually hostile) criminal organizations.

Surely that's all to the good, isn't it? Two hostile criminal groups, both with Mecha, makes for a campaign that almost writes itself.

[Pope Uncommon the Dainty]

Originally Posted by Baldo

Liked your setting, but the Italian words you're using *need* some editing:

"Gli Meccanichi di La Cosa Nostra" is wrong, "I Meccanici di Cosa Nostra" is real Italian.

Thank you! Sadly, by the time I came around, my family had Americanized too much for me to learn the language; I do wish I'd spent more time with my Nani to learn, though :-( I will still keep the "La", though (making it "I Meccanici di La Cosa Nostra"), just because of, like, branding. Even the Feds refer to the Mafia as LCN.

Originally Posted by Baldo

The Genovese "Camorra" is correct but very unlikely. Mafia (from Sicily) and Camorra (from Campania) are *different* (and mutually hostile) criminal organizations.

The Genovese "Mano Negro" (Black Hand?) is wrong, use "Mano Nera" instead.

The Camorra model is named in reference to the Brooklyn Camorra, who (from my very limited research) did fight a war with the American Mafia, but ended up getting absorbed into it after WW1.

And you're right about the Black Hand >.< Oops.

I do very much appreciate the corrections! Does anything else stick out to you as problematic or improvable?

[Baldo]

Originally Posted by Pope Uncommon the Dainty

I do very much appreciate the corrections! Does anything else stick out to you as problematic or improvable?

To say the truth, Italian lacks a word for "Mecha" (Italian "Meccanico" = English "Mechanic" ONLY), we mostly use the word "Robot" for any robot/mech controlled by people. However we also have lots of nicknames and jargon, I'm fairly sure your "Meccanici" could be used with Mechas for real.
Don't worry, you've done a good work.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

Perhaps a slightly different scale than you're thinking, but you might find some ideas in this (possibly somewhat NSFW due to Denver GURPS' tendency to talk like sailors) thread.

Hey, now. Just because a buncha uptight a**-hats might get their god-d***d noses outta f****n' joint because they're too p***y to appreciate creatively colorful forms of verbal self-expression is not our f****n' problem.

What?

:)

[Pope Uncommon the Dainty]

Originally Posted by Dustin

It's a lot of fun ideas. I think to pull it off, you would need a certain amount of anime-style handwaving around the practicalities of hiding illegal multi-ton vehicles from the authorities. That, or a degree of magical concealment which itself becomes a campaign feature.

Y'know, I hadn't actually even considered such a thing, to tell you the truth. Thank you! That might become a blogpost sometime soon....

Originally Posted by Dustin

An operating cell for a small but hungry family looking to go big?

This is more the kind of thing I was thinking of, yeah. Not really external enemies (though the coppers are always a concern; less so than in the real 21st-century, considering how hard the FBI's been hitting them for the last three decades, but still definitely a problem to work around) but internal difficulties (we're small and we wanna make it big), turmoil (Sopranos-style family drama), and enemies (Godfather-style shake-em-ups).

I'm thinking (and prolly should add to the anime influences in the future) that it's basically cinema about the Golden Age of the mid-20th century Mafia, only with giant robot-vehicles. Say hello to my little friend, indeed!

So, yeah, imagine Godfather, Goodfellas, Scarface, etc.

Perhaps magically, the first meccanico I decided to write up was the Colombo Tarantella, the arachniform medevac meccanico. In the process of looking into the Colombo family, I discovered that (as of last year) it has no boss! In other words, scrambling to either eliminate and cannibalize the family or take it over and strengthen one's position is basically art mirroring life!

The Tarantella, complete with a Mafiosa contending for the title of boss ~ one La Nonna con Tredici Machie ~ will be posting publicly on my blog in a few days (my patrons on Patreon see everything a week early)