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"Style is everything: you don't have the gimmicks and high-tech toys of James Bond, but you do have a hot set of wheels, a big gun and a badge."

MetalMan's Review of "Mean Streets and Mean Villains" by Mark Baker

The Premise:
Mean Streets and Mean Villians ("Mean Streets" from this point onward) allows players to take a part in the flashy police and detective TV shows from the 70s and 80s where style was much more important than following the rules. Think you're cooler than Shaft? (daammmmmnnn right!) or more stylish than Sonny Crockett? Here's your chance to prove it.

What Ya Get:
Mean Streets is available as HTML, Microsoft Word, and Adobe Acrobat documents. As I prefer the Acrobat format (PDF), I'll be using it for the purpose of this review. You will need a copy of the Adobe Acrobat reader software installed on your computer or a similiar program capable of rendering PDF files to make use of it. Mean Streets and Mean Villains comes in at thirty-one pages. Your page count with other formats may vary.

Cost:
Nada. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Gratis. Free.

Appearance:
The appearance doesn't get high marks. Text is just laid out on the page with no illustrations. However, what Mean Streets and Mean Villains lacks in appearance, it more than makes up for it in material and style of presentation that just makes you want to grab the phone and invite some friends over for a game. I'll cover the points of why I'm excited over this game below...

>>> WARNING!: Long Review Follows - Consider Yourself Warned! <<<
The Game:
Don't let the unfortunate choice for title of the game put you off! Mean Streets and Mean Villains really delivers what I would say would be the closest thing to "cinematic" outside of Feng Shui. Plot isn't susposed to be coherent! Scenes abruptly break from one to another and plot is the thread that just allows unrelated and interconnected events to flow. All of the philosophy behind the pacing of the game as well as what you can expect from it is spelled out for you on the first page.

Character creation is all a point based system with varying amount of points depending on if you want to run a police or private investigator game. Characters are composed of four attributes: Toughness, Resourcefulness, Dress Sense, and Cool. Likewise, there are only eight skills: Disguise, Driving, Fast Talking, Fighting, Interrogation, Running, Shooting, and Stakeout. Both Attributes and Skills run on a range from one to six. You now purchase Advantages and Disadvantages to round out your character. You can gain a few more points by taking Mannerisms (such as "smokes cheap cigars") to give your character something that physically defines him other than his Attributes.

Task resolution is simple. You roll under your score in an attribute or skill on a d6. Ones are always a success and six is always a failure. Skills and/or Attributes can be combined if the player can give justification for doing it (such as Disguise and Fast Talk). Rolls can be modified if they're contested by applying the other side's level of success as a negative modifier on the other side's roll. It sounds simple but this is amazingly accurace given the genre being imitated. The addition of retrospective skill substitution is a great idea.. in other words, a player can retroactively try another skill when one of their other ones fail them although they do this at a penalty per time they try to do it. Think of it as quickly running out of options and you've almost got it.

Combat takes the genre conventions even further. The heroes never shoot first in a shootout and bullets never strike the heroes or the main villain NPCs. Bullets come close and force Cool checks from the participants. If your Cool goes to zero, you have to run or hide in some fashion. You can permanently loose Cool if you don't justify your hiding in a garbage can with some sufficiently cool or macho statement. Hand to hand fighting is handled much like gunplay above except you end up using Toughness instead of Cool. Handheld melee weapons such as knives give bonuses.

Chases on foot are done by measure of difference between the two sides Running skills. The difference is the base time that one will catch the other. This can be modified in various ways such as overturning garbage cans at someone chasing you, etc. Vehicular chases must always end in a crash and it is a contested action between your Driving skill and the quality of your vehicle against the other side. Vehicle chases may be modified just like foot chases by doing things like running red lights, crashing through fruit stands, etc.

Similiar treatment is given to interrogating suspects, investigation, disguises and fake identities, and surveillance and stakeouts. Without going into too much detail on them, they give the basic ideas of whats involved and how the GM can make these otherwise slow-moving events more dramatic or how to move them along quicker. Remember the idea is action and more action.

Scales of Justice is an interesting section for the GM that allows him to keep track of a character's reputation. Breaking the rules and doing illict things will move them up on the scale. Doing things "by the book" will move them lower. Extremely high scores is bad and can get your badge taken away or you tossed in jail. This is a way for the GM to reign in players who get out of hand by killing or beating up people for little reason. The game wraps up with an excellent section of GM advise as well as another for the players. Both work to put you in the mindset needed to play the game and, in the case of the GM, how to maintain the feel of the genre.

Overall Impression:
Mean Streets and Mean Villains is an excellent example of what can be achieved with a free RPG. Reading the rules doesn't have to be a chore and the descriptive examples used to illustrated the various rules give the game a great touch of atmosphere and helps you get into the mood to play. The mechanics are simple yet very adaptable to almost any situation that you can come up with and this helps keep the game flowing quickly. If I've even managed to intrigue you a little (because I can't cover everything in the game without the review getting even bigger!), you owe it to yourself to check this game out and see if you don't end up at least playing it once!

MetalMan signing off.

Mean Streets and Mean Villains
Mean Streets and Mean Villains Capsule Review by MetalMan on 15/05/01 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!) Who's the private dick who gets all the chicks?... SHAFT! Dammmnnnn right! Product: Mean Streets and Mean Villains Author: Mark Baker Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Free RPG Line: Cost: FREE Page count: 31 Year published: 1996 ISBN: SKU: Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by MetalMan on 15/05/01 Genre tags: Modern day	"Style is everything: you don't have the gimmicks and high-tech toys of James Bond, but you do have a hot set of wheels, a big gun and a badge." MetalMan's Review of "Mean Streets and Mean Villains" by Mark Baker The Premise: Mean Streets and Mean Villians ("Mean Streets" from this point onward) allows players to take a part in the flashy police and detective TV shows from the 70s and 80s where style was much more important than following the rules. Think you're cooler than Shaft? (daammmmmnnn right!) or more stylish than Sonny Crockett? Here's your chance to prove it. What Ya Get: Mean Streets is available as HTML, Microsoft Word, and Adobe Acrobat documents. As I prefer the Acrobat format (PDF), I'll be using it for the purpose of this review. You will need a copy of the Adobe Acrobat reader software installed on your computer or a similiar program capable of rendering PDF files to make use of it. Mean Streets and Mean Villains comes in at thirty-one pages. Your page count with other formats may vary. Cost: Nada. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Gratis. Free. Appearance: The appearance doesn't get high marks. Text is just laid out on the page with no illustrations. However, what Mean Streets and Mean Villains lacks in appearance, it more than makes up for it in material and style of presentation that just makes you want to grab the phone and invite some friends over for a game. I'll cover the points of why I'm excited over this game below... >>> WARNING!: Long Review Follows - Consider Yourself Warned! <<< The Game: Don't let the unfortunate choice for title of the game put you off! Mean Streets and Mean Villains really delivers what I would say would be the closest thing to "cinematic" outside of Feng Shui. Plot isn't susposed to be coherent! Scenes abruptly break from one to another and plot is the thread that just allows unrelated and interconnected events to flow. All of the philosophy behind the pacing of the game as well as what you can expect from it is spelled out for you on the first page. Character creation is all a point based system with varying amount of points depending on if you want to run a police or private investigator game. Characters are composed of four attributes: Toughness, Resourcefulness, Dress Sense, and Cool. Likewise, there are only eight skills: Disguise, Driving, Fast Talking, Fighting, Interrogation, Running, Shooting, and Stakeout. Both Attributes and Skills run on a range from one to six. You now purchase Advantages and Disadvantages to round out your character. You can gain a few more points by taking Mannerisms (such as "smokes cheap cigars") to give your character something that physically defines him other than his Attributes. Task resolution is simple. You roll under your score in an attribute or skill on a d6. Ones are always a success and six is always a failure. Skills and/or Attributes can be combined if the player can give justification for doing it (such as Disguise and Fast Talk). Rolls can be modified if they're contested by applying the other side's level of success as a negative modifier on the other side's roll. It sounds simple but this is amazingly accurace given the genre being imitated. The addition of retrospective skill substitution is a great idea.. in other words, a player can retroactively try another skill when one of their other ones fail them although they do this at a penalty per time they try to do it. Think of it as quickly running out of options and you've almost got it. Combat takes the genre conventions even further. The heroes never shoot first in a shootout and bullets never strike the heroes or the main villain NPCs. Bullets come close and force Cool checks from the participants. If your Cool goes to zero, you have to run or hide in some fashion. You can permanently loose Cool if you don't justify your hiding in a garbage can with some sufficiently cool or macho statement. Hand to hand fighting is handled much like gunplay above except you end up using Toughness instead of Cool. Handheld melee weapons such as knives give bonuses. Chases on foot are done by measure of difference between the two sides Running skills. The difference is the base time that one will catch the other. This can be modified in various ways such as overturning garbage cans at someone chasing you, etc. Vehicular chases must always end in a crash and it is a contested action between your Driving skill and the quality of your vehicle against the other side. Vehicle chases may be modified just like foot chases by doing things like running red lights, crashing through fruit stands, etc. Similiar treatment is given to interrogating suspects, investigation, disguises and fake identities, and surveillance and stakeouts. Without going into too much detail on them, they give the basic ideas of whats involved and how the GM can make these otherwise slow-moving events more dramatic or how to move them along quicker. Remember the idea is action and more action. Scales of Justice is an interesting section for the GM that allows him to keep track of a character's reputation. Breaking the rules and doing illict things will move them up on the scale. Doing things "by the book" will move them lower. Extremely high scores is bad and can get your badge taken away or you tossed in jail. This is a way for the GM to reign in players who get out of hand by killing or beating up people for little reason. The game wraps up with an excellent section of GM advise as well as another for the players. Both work to put you in the mindset needed to play the game and, in the case of the GM, how to maintain the feel of the genre. Overall Impression: Mean Streets and Mean Villains is an excellent example of what can be achieved with a free RPG. Reading the rules doesn't have to be a chore and the descriptive examples used to illustrated the various rules give the game a great touch of atmosphere and helps you get into the mood to play. The mechanics are simple yet very adaptable to almost any situation that you can come up with and this helps keep the game flowing quickly. If I've even managed to intrigue you a little (because I can't cover everything in the game without the review getting even bigger!), you owe it to yourself to check this game out and see if you don't end up at least playing it once! MetalMan signing off.