SD.Net mafia game?

[Setzer]

Well, with Sirnoth, you'd see a lot of families like the Corleones, who have legitimate activities as well as illicit ones. There aren't too many straight up criminals.

[irishmick79]

Preferably I'd like to avoid going as far as giving each mobster a level. Shadowrun had a decent system for figuring a syndicates power if I remeber corectly. Baically it broke down crime into different categories such as smuggling, prostitution and so on, each with a rating of 1-10 on how good each syndicates operations were. Then each syndicate had a rating to indicate what their enforcement, cash flow, inteligence/counterinteligence, management and reputation was like. Something similiar might be of use here.

Interesting. Maybe we assign a number of points to players based on a similar post total/seniority system used in SD.Net world? Maybe that's how we assign revenue for resources. Basically, players collect points for deeds they conduct throughout the course of the game, and they can cash them in for money during a payout period. Maybe we establish one payout a month, or something like that. Players can then turn around and use that to buy resources to conduct their organizational activities, or they can chose to stockpile points and build up their reserves instead.

Basically, it looks like we will need to draw up a crude outline of a finance system to really make this interesting.

[Raj Ahten]

Preferably I'd like to avoid going as far as giving each mobster a level. Shadowrun had a decent system for figuring a syndicates power if I remeber corectly. Baically it broke down crime into different categories such as smuggling, prostitution and so on, each with a rating of 1-10 on how good each syndicates operations were. Then each syndicate had a rating to indicate what their enforcement, cash flow, inteligence/counterinteligence, management and reputation was like. Something similiar might be of use here.

Interesting. Maybe we assign a number of points to players based on a similar post total/seniority system used in SD.Net world? Maybe that's how we assign revenue for resources. Basically, players collect points for deeds they conduct throughout the course of the game, and they can cash them in for money during a payout period. Maybe we establish one payout a month, or something like that. Players can then turn around and use that to buy resources to conduct their organizational activities, or they can chose to stockpile points and build up their reserves instead.

Basically, it looks like we will need to draw up a crude outline of a finance system to really make this interesting.

Some sort of a crude system will probably be helpful, but since most of the people expressing interest seem to have limited time, we might just have to wing it and balance the factions in a very loose sense. For example, I may have a faction consisting of ex-commandos from a third world nation, but I don't have but a couple dozen of them and few connections to the local scene. Meanwhile someone else might have a large Brazilian style street gang with lots of members and connections, but little capital or training. Meanwhile a third person might have a money laundering outfit with almost no muscle but connections inside government. Besides suggesting rating the organizations based on their numbers, quality of talent, street connections, official connections, and type of crime they do, working that into a balanced system is more than I can do at the moment. Anyone else have any suggestions?

[The Romulan Republic]

I'm interested as long as I can take part in a way that does not require daily posts. I'm thinking some sort of assassin or group of assassins that mostly stays out of sight, popping up occasionally for a high profile hit before slinking back into the shadows. I'll admit I'm thinking of basing this off the Leuge of Shadows from Batman Begins, since I just watched it and its fresh on my mind.

[irishmick79]

Preferably I'd like to avoid going as far as giving each mobster a level. Shadowrun had a decent system for figuring a syndicates power if I remeber corectly. Baically it broke down crime into different categories such as smuggling, prostitution and so on, each with a rating of 1-10 on how good each syndicates operations were. Then each syndicate had a rating to indicate what their enforcement, cash flow, inteligence/counterinteligence, management and reputation was like. Something similiar might be of use here.

Interesting. Maybe we assign a number of points to players based on a similar post total/seniority system used in SD.Net world? Maybe that's how we assign revenue for resources. Basically, players collect points for deeds they conduct throughout the course of the game, and they can cash them in for money during a payout period. Maybe we establish one payout a month, or something like that. Players can then turn around and use that to buy resources to conduct their organizational activities, or they can chose to stockpile points and build up their reserves instead.

Basically, it looks like we will need to draw up a crude outline of a finance system to really make this interesting.

Some sort of a crude system will probably be helpful, but since most of the people expressing interest seem to have limited time, we might just have to wing it and balance the factions in a very loose sense. For example, I may have a faction consisting of ex-commandos from a third world nation, but I don't have but a couple dozen of them and few connections to the local scene. Meanwhile someone else might have a large Brazilian style street gang with lots of members and connections, but little capital or training. Meanwhile a third person might have a money laundering outfit with almost no muscle but connections inside government. Besides suggesting rating the organizations based on their numbers, quality of talent, street connections, official connections, and type of crime they do, working that into a balanced system is more than I can do at the moment. Anyone else have any suggestions?

Ok, so let's see if we can come up with some basic categories. We can break this down on a scale of 1-10, and players have 25-30 or so points to spend on the categories.

Manpower - brute strength of the organization.
reputation - this could encompass a lot of different aspects. Higher reputation grants the faction greater access to local and citywide business, more powerful political connections, and greater ability to recruit more skilled criminals.
cash/resources - representing the direct amount of capital which a faction can muster.
weapons - self-explanitory. Higher the rating, the greater amount of weaponry and the higher technical sophistication.
knowledge/skill - overall ability of faction. Higher ratings give a greater degree of insight into the goings-on, greater access to city intelligence, and greater ability to execute more complex criminal schemes.

Reputation scores could be further broken down by neighborhood, if you wanted to develop a street gang with a rabidly loyal following in one area, but a complete unknown in another district.

Specializations (like money laundering or assassinations) can be tied as subcategories into these basic categories, and this system could be expanded upon or narrowed down as we see fit, I would think.

[The Romulan Republic]

How would we handle income?

Certain illicite bussinesses should be more profitable than others, shouldn't they? So maybe your wealth is determined by what crimes your group speciallizes in? Of course that might have a negative effect by encouraging everyone to do the same thing.

[irishmick79]

How would we handle income?

Certain illicite bussinesses should be more profitable than others, shouldn't they? So maybe your wealth is determined by what crimes your group speciallizes in? Of course that might have a negative effect by encouraging everyone to do the same thing.

It might work to try and implement some sort of point system like I described earlier. The points would function roughly like experience points. Over the course of the game, you earn points for your actions, and every month or two you have a payout where you can trade those points in for cold hard cash, drugs or other illicit merchandise (if you're a smuggling organization), or use them to improve your ranking in one of the categories or develop an organizational specialty. If you want, you could just stockpile points and go on a spending binge later. I would also say that your skill in a particular area impacts how many points you gain for actions relating to that area. Mechanically I'm not sure of the best way to do that, but if you're a Drug Trafficking Organization you should get more points for doing your drug dealing business well.

We'd have to agree on what a point should roughly be worth. 1 point = a crate 50 pistols of various types with ammo, 2 points = a crate of a dozen AK-47s with ammo, 5 points = a stinger missile, or something like that. I would say that for merchandise, equipment and cash, if you're smuggling it or if it's clearly illegal than the cost automatically increases one point. I'm not sure.

[GuppyShark]

How would we handle income?

Certain illicite bussinesses should be more profitable than others, shouldn't they? So maybe your wealth is determined by what crimes your group speciallizes in? Of course that might have a negative effect by encouraging everyone to do the same thing.

I'd suggest competition would be a good way to balance that - the lucrative trades might end up with too many groups vying for control of them, reducing the profit said parties make. It's all about your market share.

[The Romulan Republic]

Not a bad idea. Keeps it simple, anyways.

Its kind of sad this idea died out. It might have been cool. Though if the Space STGOD idea ever gets going I'll likely be too busy for something like this anyway.