The Bloody Mouth
The gangster story is a genre in the same way that horror is -- which is to say, although we associate it with a certain selection of tropes, it can be combined with any setting, any genre, and made to work. All you have to do is think through what crimes would benefit from organization in the setting of your choice, and extrapolate from there -- and then, since this is a horror column, jack up the viciousness.
Some examples:
Vampire: The PCs are ghouled members of a Mafia family. It's through them that the clan which ghouled them (traditionally, you'd go with the Giovanni, but nearly any clan can work) exerts its influence on organized crime in the city -- although if the PCs aren't very highly-placed, you probably want a boss or underboss to be ghouled as well (but the PCs needn't know that: in fact, you could have the PCs ghouled by the Ventrue, and the boss ghouled by the Giovanni, and the PCs gradually discover that their adventures are part of a Ventrue-Giovanni power struggle to conrol the family.) Who else in the family knows about the Kindred, and to what extent? What happens when a clan war and a mafia war break out at the same time -- over completely different things?
Modern-day, any system: Maybe the vice trade isn't the only thing the Mafia controls. Maybe it has its hands in magic, too. Modern-day organized crime and modern-day conceptions of magic and mysticism both originated in (roughly, don't fight me on this) the late nineteenth century. Maybe that's more than coincidence. To whom (or to what) do the Families make their sacrifices? What powers are they granted in return? And who are their real adversaries?
Superheroes: This strikes me as better suited to a Marvel game than a DC one; but of course you could use your own world, or a game-specific one as well. In a world defended by costumed crusaders, how has the Mafia adapted? Does it hire its own superpowered guns, or rely on bribery and camouflage? What would a superpowered hitman be like? If all the families have access to such -- what's it like when they go to the mattresses? Wouldn't Chicago be destroyed in the crossfire when both sides can toss buildings around and juggle plasma?
Wraith: Chicago and New York in the Twenties and Thirties were bloody places to be mobsters; the body count
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