True Crime Legends

Playtime: 60 Minutes
Players: 3 – 5

Designers:

James Martin (III)
Categories: ,
Venues:

Description

True Crime Legends is a gangster themed card game for 3-5 players. It takes around an hour to play. Players will lead a syndicate competing to control the lucrative and dangerous markets of the underworld. Invest in assets, smuggle, bribe, murder, steal and hire legendary gangsters from a deck of the most iconic criminals of the past century, each with unique stats and abilities. Ruthlessly rise above your rivals to be crowned the boss of bosses.

(website)

Players start with one boss card, but there is a public marketplace that allows players to fill out a tableau (their syndicate) by draft-purchasing up to 3 extra *historical* gangsters, 4 assets (usually venues associated with crime) and 4 upgrades (eg drug boats, evidence, guns, armor).

The tableau allows each gangster to be lined up with an Asset and an Upgrade which increase the gangster’s abilities.
The players will take it in turn to activate each gangster, with various abilities including earning money, stealing money, attacking other gangsters, stealing other gangsters, destroying Assets/Upgrades and attempting a narcotics shipment. The success of these actions depends on a dice roll, but increasing the gangsters’ abilities increases their chance of success. If they do not succeed, a gangster they have targeted will usually have an ability that allows retaliation.

Some of the Assets (locations) give income at the end of each round, if they still have a gangster assigned to them.
At the end of four rounds, the player with the most money is the winner.

(NB this is based on the 2018 version of the game)