Gangsters (board game)

Gangsters is a board game about American organized crime syndicates of the 1920s, published by Avalon Hill in 1992. Two to four players each run a gang in Prohibition-era Chicago and race to build up money through extortion and other crimes, then spend it on buying properties, which become their Joints, and on bribing the police. On a turn a player may buy, improve or trade a Joint, bribe or move cops, move gang members, recruit new members, collect the money the gang has earned, and resolve shootouts. In the basic game a gang must include a Racketeer, a Vamp and a Thug, and its player wins by controlling all the properties of one colour, holding ten Joints, or accumulating ten thousand dollars. An optional rule lets a fifth player take the part of the corrupt Police Commissioner. Don Greenwood designed the game, with a board by Charles Kibler, and the box ships with five coloured dice and a squirt gun. Dragon magazine reviewed it favourably in 1993.