The Gun Moll

The idea of the gun moll is something most of us associate with black-and-white news clips, or old gangster movies. She's that girl who's sitting on the gangster's lap, usually dressed up for a night on the town. Or she's the one in the fur stole leaning against the back of the mafia don's chair, her smile as warm as her eyes are cold. But it turns out, the actual evolution of the gun moll is even older than the images we associate with her.

According to The American Heritage Dictionary, the term is actually a combination of older, more obsolete British slang terms. The word gun wasn't actually a reference to a weapon, but a slang word for a thief, or other professional criminal. And a moll was, to put it bluntly, a slang term for a prostitute, implying that she was the regular or preferred girl for someone to spend his ill gotten gains on.

While that original role was very passive, over time the idea of the gun moll has grown serious teeth. She grew into a kind of sidekick (a kitten with claws, ready to either help out in a business arrangement, or pull a tiny gun of her own and put a bullet into someone threatening her man), and then into something akin to a gangster's right hand. In some cases, the gun moll is just a female gangster, mixing sensuality with violence into a heady cocktail that's like a harder-hitting version of the femme fatale.

And if you want to bring this concept home in your game, there's a couple of ways to do it. First, though, this concept was inspired by a couple of Call of Cthulhu supplements I wrote a while back, so check those out if you also enjoy that game in addition to traditional fantasy RPGs. The audio drama tagged below also features an example of a gun moll character!

- 100 Gangsters, Gun Molls, And Goons

- 100 Shops, Stores, and Businesses To Find in Arkham

Making A Gun Moll in Your Fantasy Game

The key to making your gun moll is to ask what role she's going to fill, and what skill set she brings to the table. And, of course, whether she's got a gangster she's attached to as part of a dual character concept.

As an example, if you're running a Pathfinder game, then you might be able to use the Mysterious Stranger archetype for the Gunslinger to bring across a charismatic gang leader with a signature weapon. Whether you choose to make her a rough-and-tumble shooter and occasional cathouse worker along the lines of a legend like Calamity Jane, or you want to instead embody something more like a companion to a gentleman thief you'd find in higher society, this is a useful, relatively straightforward archetype.

Alternatively, rogue talents can give one gun training, and a single bullet placed at the right time, in the right place, can be devastating with all the dice of sneak attack behind it. This is especially true for a gun moll who focuses either on high initiative to catch their enemies flat-footed, or who keeps their weapon hidden on their person, ensuring that they always get the drop on someone when they draw it from a concealed holster, and pull the trigger.

While combat is likely going to become a necessity at some point (it's almost a foregone conclusion in most Pathfinder games, as well as more traditional DND games), a gun moll should have other skills to bring to the table as well. Traditionally a gun moll would be part of negotiations and diplomacy, as well as an intricate part of most plans (such as going in as bait to case a joint, or being "helpless" bait for an ambush), so the proper social skills can be very useful, indeed. Of course she might also be the one who disables security systems, letting in the rest of the gang for the heist, or to spring the leader when they get taken prisoner.

Lastly, it's important to ask if your gun moll is part of a pair, and what complementary abilities the two of you have.

As an example, if your gun moll is quick and diplomatic, is your other half a heavy-shouldered bruiser who's strong and intimidating (perhaps pairing together a rogue and a barbarian)? Or is he the brains of the operation who plans the heists, relying on his own pinpoint precision in combat, whereas she's more of the wild card who blasts away at problems (with him as a rogue, and her as a gunslinger)? Are they actually a romantic couple, or are they colleagues who simply complement each other's skills particularly well?

Designing your partner-in-crime is almost as much fun as designing the gun moll herself, so keep that in mind when you build one of these characters!

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That's all for this week's Unusual Character Concepts post!

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