Anyone got some ideas to share about taking over Turf, i.e. a fence, in terms of how it’s done. Sure I can see that taking out the controller of such a piece of a gang’s turf might cause the turf to change allegiance but that seems to me to be a little flat.
Anyone got some ideas to share about taking over Turf, i.e.
Anyone got some ideas to share about taking over Turf, i.e.
I use “buy favor for errands” as a major currency. If the Tiddles are currently controlling the Black Street gambling dens, then you go to their bosses, the Crows, and tell them you can make them more money running those dens. The Crows give you a chance to solve a problem the Tiddles didn’t, finding and evicting a rather troublesome gang of robbers from the neighborhood. You do that, management tells Tiddles their services will no longer be needed, you’ve got a shot at running Black Street.
Then there’s the “carrot and stick” method; you offer to buy something like the fence you mention, and offer a generous payout for it, with the understanding that if they don’t take the offer they will get severely beaten and maybe hollowed.
There’s the “compete for customers” method where you open a rival business and slash your prices, drawing away their customer base by taking a loss until they’re out of business–good against protected targets. Again, those with influence may be willing to provide support for coin and/or errands/favors.
There’s the renovation method, where you take some wreckage and ruin in the turf and rehabilitate it to a moneymaking enterprise, therefore swapping out a gang hangout for a proper moneymaker. This can be expensive, and it can also include evicting ghosts and other undesirables.
Thanks Andrew
Another way to make it gameable is to think of a turf’s “sources of stability” and “threats.” If you can come up with 1-3 of each, then that will be very informative.
Then you know that the hagfish arena is stable because it’s protected by the Crows, and because Lord Sanderson keeps his stable of hagfish there, and because they have a special license from the city.
AND you know that they struggle with competition from the Delring Pools up-and-comers, and they’ve recently been coping with a rash of water poisonings from some unknown perpetrator.
(You could even cut the hagfish arena up into 3 patches of turf; the wealthy box stands, tickets for the masses, and operations around the track.)
Now if you want in, you’ve got some ways forward. Do you find and defeat the poisoner, or ally with that unknown party but direct efforts more precisely to threaten Lord Sanderson’s stable? Then approach Lord Sanderson and offer to bring security that is lacking, in exchange for a good word in contracting gangs you control for security?
Or do you approach the licensing issue, sabotaging them on a day you’ve arranged for an inspection with a discreet bribe? And while they’re on probation, approaching the management and telling them you can assure a good inspection next time for a cut of the action?
With enough elements for players to see and work with, they have more room to make their own plans and choose their own way forward without GM influence. That’s better than offering one way forward.