Chris Mansfield (order #17184206)

BACK STREETS

c Johan Karlsson

2012

[email protected]

ISBN 978-91-980014-1-9

Chris Mansfield (order #17184206)

 Contents

1 What is Back Streets RPG? 4

1.1 The world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1.1 Reality (sort of) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1.2 Big city back streets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 The player characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2.1 Realistic? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2.2 Typical character types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Style of play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3.1 Light on rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3.2 Typical scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2 Rules 6
2.1 Player characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.1.1 Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.1.2 Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.1.3 Traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1.4 Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 Skill checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2.1 Basic rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2.2 Extreme rolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3 Combat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3.1 The turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3.2 Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3 A first scenario 10
3.1 Set-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.1.1 Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.1.2 Build-up scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.2 Showdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.2.1 Arena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.2.2 Opposing groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.2.3 Likely events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Chris Mansfield (order #17184206)

 Chapter 1

What is Back Streets RPG?

OK, so what is this game about then? The hidden reality

The setting is the real world, but the part of
1.1 The world the real world that is hidden away from most
people.
The setting of Back Streets RPG.
The night
1.1.1 Reality (sort of) The people of Back Streets RPG move in the
Back Streets RPG takes place in the real hidden parts of the city, and they do it at
world, but don’t worry too much about get- night.
ting at perfectly accurate.
1.2 The player characters
Use what you know
What are the player characters in Back
It is recommended to set the game in the city Streets RPG like?
where you live, but by all means, if you think
it is more fun to set it in New York or some-
thing, then go ahead. 1.2.1 Realistic?
How realistic are the player characters?
Use reality
Use satellite images and maps of the internet Start out very real
to anchor the game in reality. If there are At character creation, the characters should
known criminal organisations and such things be relatively realistic (without worrying too
in your city, you can also use that. much about the exact numbers).

1.1.2 Big city back streets Allow for heroes to develop

Back Streets RPG takes place in the dark and As the characters survive one adventure after
dirty parts of the city. another, they become more and more impres-

Chris Mansfield (order #17184206)

 1.3. Style of play

sive, and after some time they will be less re- Role-playing
alistic and more heroically tough and skilled.
This is a role-playing game. The perfect
player attitude is one that accepts the results
1.2.2 Typical character types of the rules without worrying too much about
realism, and instead focuses on role-playing
The players are free to play any type of char-
the result of the rules for maximum fun.
acter they want to, but there are some typical
character types in Back Streets RPG.
1.3.2 Typical scenarios
Both sides of the law There are of course many different types of
adventure to explore in Back Streets RPG,
One of the dominating features of Back
but there are some typical types of scenarios.
Streets RPG is crime. Therefore typical
player characters include both sides of the
Combat heavy
law: police detectives, mafia members and
such. With crimes and other things in the back
streets of the city comes violence. For many
Reporters and other snoopers types of characters, deadly combat situations
are everyday experiences. Many scenarios and
Back Streets RPG is to a large extent about adventures will have combat as a central ele-
secrets and hidden things. Therefore, other ment.
typical character types are reporters, private
investigators and other types who dig around Investigation heavy
trying to find things out.
For some types of player characters, the dom-
inating thing will be investigating mysteries,
1.3 Style of play trying to uncover secrets. Many scenarios and
adventures in Back Streets RPG will be about
What style of play is Back Streets RPG de- searching the back streets for clues.
signed for?

1.3.1 Light on rules

Back Streets RPG is light on rules. You
should be able to explain the system to a
player in a few minutes, and then not have
to refer to the rulebook again.

Realism
Back Streets RPG does not try to be super
realistic. The idea is to quickly understand
the system, accept the rules as the approx-
imations of reality that they are, and then
move on to have fun playing.

Chris Mansfield (order #17184206)

 Chapter 2

Rules

Here are the rules for Back Streets RPG. Combat attributes
There are two additional attributes.
HEALTH represents the characters ability
2.1 Player characters to handle injury and still function. At char-
This section describes rules for creating and acter creation, HEALTH=2*PHYSIQUE.
developing player characters. COMBAT-SENSE represents the charac-
ters experience of handling dangerous situ-
ations in the streets. At character creation
2.1.1 Attributes COMBAT-SENSE is zero, but it can increase
with experience, giving the experienced an
The first thing to do when creating a player edge in combat.
character is to determine a set of numerical
attributes for the character.
2.1.2 Skills

Basic attributes Skills represent areas where the character is

trained.
There are three basic attributes.
PHYSIQUE is the characters physical abil-
The skill set
ity, including strength, stamina, dexterity,
balance etc. Here are the basic skills. Additional skills can
SENSES is the characters ability to take easily be added.
in the surroundings through sight, sound etc, Each skill is associated with a basic at-
and react accordingly. tribute.
BRAINS is the characters mental ability, PHYSIQUE-SKILLS: Unarmed combat is
including memory, intelligence etc. close combat without weapons. Melee is close
Each basic attribute has a value, the mini- combat with weapons. Athletics includes
mum being 1, and the maximum being 3. things like jumping, climbing and sneaking.
Every player character has the value 1 in SENSES-SKILLS: Guns is attacking with
one basic attribute, the value 2 in one, and ranged weapons. Driving is driving for ex-
the value 3 in one, as chosen by the player. ample a car in tricky situations like chases.

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 2.2. Skill checks

Investigate involves examining for example a Table 2.1: Experience

room, looking for things not easily detected.
BRAINS-SKILLS: Medicine is the skill of d6 Effect
caring for the injured, speeding up healing. 1-3 You are learning the hard way.
Sciences represents book-learning in different Raise a skill by 1.
areas. Street knowledge represents knowledge 4-5 You have seen the tricks used in the
not learned from books, but from the streets, streets. Raise Combat-sense by 1.
including things like where to find a weapons- 6 The streets have made you tougher.
dealer. Raise Health by 1.

Starting levels
At character creation, select two skills that Role-playing
will start at level 1. The rest start at level 0.
The player should think of a reason why the
character improved in this way, linking the
2.1.3 Traits change to the session just played. The follow-
ing session, it is great if this change can be
Traits are special things about the character,
role-played.
not captured by attributes and skills.

Selection 2.2 Skill checks

At character creation, the player should se-
This is the basic mechanic of the Back Streets
lect one positive and one negative trait for
RPG Rules.
the character.

Examples 2.2.1 Basic rule

Anything can be a trait. The player The basic rule for a skill-check simply involves
suggests traits and the game master ap- rolling a die.
proves them. Examples of positive/negative
traits are contact/enemy, lawman/wanted, Die
rich/poor, bilingual/illiterate, etc.
Back Streets RPG uses standard six-sided
dice (d6). The basic skill check consists of
2.1.4 Experience rolling one d6.
The characters may not be impressive at the
start, but with experience they improve, tak- Total level
ing steps on their way to legends.
For success, the result of the d6-roll should
be less than or equal to the total level for the
The rules
task, which is typically the level of a relevant
At the end of each session, roll a six sided skill plus the level of the associated attribute.
die (a d6) for each character and consult the For example, for a character with Physique
Experience-table. 2 and Athletics 1, who is attempting a climb

Chris Mansfield (order #17184206)

 2. Rules

of standard difficulty, a d6-result of no more Each character that chose a ranged attack as
than 3 is a success. his action gets to perform the attack, even if
another ranged attack hurts or even kills him.
2.2.2 Extreme rolls They both fire at the same time. Surprise
attacks are another story. Suddenly pulling
Extreme rolls (rolling 1 or 6 on the d6) are out a gun and firing can mean that characters
special. that were not prepared do not get to take any
action the first round.
Rolling 1 There are a number of modifications that
If rolling 1, the task is always successful, even apply to ranged attacks. These modifications
if modifiers should really make the total level are added to the Guns-skill-level. The result
0 or less. can be any number, positive or negative.
RANGE: Point blank gives +2, Short +1,
Rolling 6 Medium 0, Long -1, Extreme -2.
SPEED: Aiming one turn and firing the
If rolling 6, the task always fails, even if the next gives +1, drawing and firing in the same
total level was 6 or greater. turn gives -1.
TARGET: Moving target or target behind
2.3 Combat partial cover gives -1.
SPECIAL ATTACK: Firing the same gun
This section contains the rules for combat and twice gives -1 to both attacks (-2 to both if
Health. firing at two targets). Using two guns gives
-1 to one (the main hand) and -2 to the other.
2.3.1 The turn
Combat is resolved in a series of turns. Each 3 Close combat
turn is composed of the following three steps. Close combat is the use of Melee and Unarmed
combat. The effects of close combat are slower
1 Combat-sense than ranged attacks. Close combat is resolved
after ranged attacks in each turn, so firing at
The turn starts with rolling a d6 for each
someone attacking you using close combat can
character and adding the characters Combat-
result in killing him before his attack hits you.
sense. The action that each character will
For two characters using close combat
perform this round is then announced in or-
against each other, it is resolved as follows.
der, lowest to highest. This gives characters
If both fail their skill-checks then both miss.
with high Combat-sense an edge, since they
If one succeeds and one fails, then the suc-
can often choose their actions based on the
cessful character hits and the other misses.
actions of others. They have been around.
If both succeed, then calculate the margin of
They can read the situation and see what’s
success of the skill-checks for each character.
coming and react to it.
For example: for a character attacking with a
knife and having Physique 2 and Melee 1 and
2 Ranged attacks
rolling 2 on the d6, the margin is 1. These
Next comes ranged attacks. Note that they margins are compared and the character with
all take place approximately at the same time. the greater margin hits his target, and the

Chris Mansfield (order #17184206)

 2.3. Combat

other character misses. If the margins are Table 2.3: Armor-rating

equal, then both character miss.
Close combat attacks against targets not Rating Armor
using close combat against the attacker only 1 No armor
require the attackers skill-check to be success- 2 Heavy clothing
ful for it to be a hit. 3 Light armor
4 Heavy armor
5 Extreme armor (think
2.3.2 Damage bomb-squad)

Attacks that hit may cause damage, as ex-

plained by the rules in this section.
Health
The resulting Damage-points penetrate the
Damage-dice armor and are temporarily subtracted from
Each attack or weapon has a number of the target’s Health to represent injury.
Damage-dice associated with it, see the Health=1 means that the character is inca-
Damage-dice-table. It the attach hits, then pacitated. He can still talk etc but he cannot
roll this many d6. fight.
Health less than 1 means that the character
is unconscious.
Table 2.2: Damage-dice Health less than -Physique means that the
character is dead.
number of d6 Typical weapon
Characters recover Health temporarily lost
1 Unarmed trough injury at a rate of 1 Health per
2 Club week. Successful Medicine-checks once per
3 Knife week double the recovery for that week.
4 Handgun If a character is still injured at the end of
5 Rifle a session and gets the experience-effect of in-
6 Shotgun creased Health, then he both raises his maxi-
mum Health (to more than 2*Physique) and
also he instantly heals one point temporarily
lost because of injury.

Armor-rating

Each target has an Armor-rating, see the

Armor-rating-table. To get the Damage-
points of the hit, count the number of
Damage-dice where the result of the roll was
greater than the Armor-rating (equal is not
enough). Note that Damage-die-rolls of 1
never result in damage, and rolls of 6 always
result in damage.

Chris Mansfield (order #17184206)

 Chapter 3

A first scenario

Here is a first scenario to get the feel of Back Investigators

Streets RPG.
It is also possible, but maybe less natural, for
the player characters to be some type of in-
vestigative characters, like reporters, who are
3.1 Set-up on the scene investigating the underground
power struggle.
Before the main scene there is some prepara-
tion. 3.1.2 Build-up scenes
Before the main action scene, there are some
3.1.1 Characters scenes building up to the big showdown scene.

It is possible for different types of charac- Start

ters to play parts in this scenario, but all the
player characters should probably be of simi- If the player characters are criminals, they
lar types. are given a mission from the crime-boss of
their organisation. They should attack a club
owned by a rival gang: killing, robbing and
Criminals burning as best they can.
If they are members of the police, they are
The scenario involves a battle that is a part sent to the club to investigate suspected links
of a war between two criminal gangs. Player to the owning crime gang. They know nothing
characters can be members of one of these of the coming attack by the other gang.
gangs. Investigator type characters can be made
interested in the club for the same reason that
the police is interested.
Police
Closing in
The police is also on the scene, and the player
characters can play the part of these police If the characters want to, before actually go-
officers. ing into the club one night, they can use a

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 3.2. Showdown

few days for different types of investigations. Attacking gang

Depending on how they play it, this could in-
The attacking gang either consists of the
volve some minor combat action.
player characters or a group similar in
strength to a group of characters. Stronger
3.2 Showdown than the defending gang in the club room, but
not stronger than the defending gang in the
The main scene takes place in the club at rest of the building.
night. The club is full. The attacking gang
is there. The police is there. It does not end Police
peacefully.
The police also either consists of the player
characters or a group similar in strength to a
3.2.1 Arena group of characters.
It all takes place in a large old building.
3.2.3 Likely events
The club This is probably approximately how things
The ground floor of the building is the club. happen.
It consists of a very large central room and
a few smaller rooms with different bars, and The police arrives
the kitchen area in the back. The police arrives to the club, where the party
is in full swing. The policemen are in civilian
The rest of the building clothes, trying to blend in. They are armed
but with weapons hidden.
The rest of the building is also owned by the
gang. Some of the members live here and dif-
The gang arrives
ferent types of criminal activity like prostitu-
tion and drug sales take place here. Next the attacking gang arrives. If this is the
player group, then of course they play this as
3.2.2 Opposing groups they want to. If not, then the gang bursts in
with drawn weapons.
The main groups in the fight that will likely
take place are the following. All hell breaks lose
Then the main battle action starts.
Defending gang
The attacking gang attempts to kill defend-
The gang owning the club will have members ing gang members, rob both bars and guests,
in the club at all times, but they will not and destroy the club. They try to act quickly
be armed. Upstairs in the building are both and get away alive.
weapons and more members however. This The defending gang sounds the alarm, try-
means that initially the defending gang is not ing to get reinforcements from upstairs as
so strong, but if a fight is not over quickly quickly as possible.
then they are very strong as reinforcements If the police consists of the player charac-
arrive. ters, they of course handle this as they see fit.

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 3. A first scenario

If not, then the policemen draw their weapons

and try to stop both gangs while trying to
protect the guests.
Try to use the fact that there are three
groups to increase the drama. Also try to let
the drama spread to include more than the
main hall.
If the player characters are investigators,
they must try to use the chaos to find what
they are after, without getting shot.

As the smoke settles

If the characters are defeated, then try to let
them live, now even more motivated to strike
back at their enemies.
If the characters are successful, then let
them be rewarded by their organisation.

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Chris Mansfield (order #17184206)

Chris Mansfield (order #17184206)