Maybe this is obvious, but I had a thought about what a deal between two criminal organizations would go down like. Like a sale of some contraband for example.
Since both groups have no respect for the law, I think what allows these deals to happen functionally is a feeling of mutually assured destruction. Both groups come with enough firepower to ensure that the losses from a fight breaking out are greater than the potential gains of stealing the other party’s part of the deal.
The other way this could go down would be that the political damage between powerful criminal factions, and to your group’s reputation as a business partner creates enough pressure to keep the deal mostly on the level.
Either way it seems like a good thing to think about, as sort of a feeling to impress on the game about the kinds of situations these sorts of criminal organizations would get into.
Criminals organisations, in my mind, hightly specialise often in certain areas. In Breaking Bad, Daredevil, Boardwalk Empire, Peaky Blinders and others, there were often Producers of drugs, and those who actual move it/ sell it were another Organisation.
Bookkeepers for Bets, people who controll the horse races, drugmaker, Transporter, Killer, Thiefs, smugglers. They all serve a purpose. So i can imagine that organisations “outsource” tasks to specific groups. So that other take the risk if anything happens.
The Band of Thiefs in my game are allied with the Head of a florishing Brothel, Lady Arachne, who gives them regular jobs. At the sametime, Arachne partnered up with an iruvian Drug-Chemist, who run an Underground lab, using the prostitutes and the Tunnelcrawlers Guild (Sewer workers of the city) to distribute Black Lotus Dust. The Players are the Hitmen and Special forces of these 3 Crews. If the Situation gets out of hand, the balance could crumble.
Exactly, it’s that delicate balance that creates a tension that keeps every other part of the system in check, since clearly morals and laws are not.
That feeling of tension, if emphasized at the table, could improve a game I think.
Though, if you do a ‘deal’ in plain view, in the most public of places, surrounded by watch officers, noble mercenaries, and all manner of high-valutin NPCs – there is less likelihood of a bloodbath, but even more chance of being arrested.
Additionally there is the added factor of building trust and having allies. If you have a long standing relationship with a group then you deal fairly and openly because you want to protect that relationship. If you treat a nonthreatening weak group poorly you better make sure they don’t have friends or at least be willing to kill them too. If you make it known you’re a group of homicidal maniacs who will murder anyone at any businesses deal they enter then you should expect fewer customers willing to buy from you at any price.
I think another aspect of the criminal culture is underscored by even a tiny independent crew starting out with affiliations with other factions. Another way negotiations happen is when a deal is brokered by a third party both sides trust.
There is room for a powerful individual, especially a whisper, to put some mojo on both sides so a bad actor is supernaturally punished. There could be a loose organization of criminal arbitors. PCs could aspire to become one.
Foolproof? No. But if evidence of foul play on an arbitor’s part comes to light, they are out of the organization and a bounty put on their heads. Their peers are vested in the idea of rogue arbitors going away for good.
Andrew Shields
Hmm! The supernatural is not a major element of my games so I would not have thought of that! That sort of deal with the devil situation could make for some very cool situations though.
Chris Boyd Like in the newest Sherlock Holmes movies, sometimes superstition and the appearance of being supernatural is enough to intimidate. =)