I've been running a campaign in Adventurer, Conqueror, King for a long time now and the characters are really coming to grips with the domain level play. I'm finding that the system for running a criminal syndicate isn't really doing what we want it to. In ACKS a player can form a thieves' guild and send individual members out on "hijinks." The player chooses from a list of hijinks then the NPC rolls the associated skill check. Success means money for the guild, failure means nothing happens and a critical failure leads to the thief or assassin being arrested. The size of the PC's guild is based on the guildmaster's ability to pay wages, the size of the town and the quality of the guild's hideout.
In practice hijinks seem to be nothing more than ATMs for the thief player and the party fund. Aside from critical failures leading to arrests, there's no worry about law enforcement. There's also very little interaction with other criminal groups. That last point has become a problem at my table because the thief character has a grudge against an assassins' guild and would like to use his flunkies to disrupt the guild's operations and drive them out of the city.
Bearing all this in mind I've been thinking about a system to controlling turf and running rackets.
In Ruffians and Rackets the first step is to divide the city into a number of districts, based on the size of the city. These districts will fall into different types such as slums, docks, market, noble, and so on. Different district types will allow particular rackets and have a certain outrage threshold or OT.
Rackets are ongoing criminal activities such as gambling, smuggling or a pickpocket ring. Rackets have an initial investment, required personnel, outrage generated and monthly income.
There are also hijinks, one-time criminal activities like heists and assassinations. Hijinks have most of the same features as rackets, but the payout is also one-time. Hijinks will require a roll to see if they succeed or fail, with failures leading to more outrage. Attempting to muscle in on an opposing guild's racket or murder some of their personnel would be hijinks.
I need a better word for personnel, but they come in five basic types.
Ruffians: 0-level jerks.
Footpads: Low-level (~1st) thieves.
Thugs: Low-level assassins.
Burglars: Mid-level (~4th) thieves
Murderers: Mid-level assassins.
When a district's outrage passes the OT then it provokes a response. Right now, I'm thinking it'll involve random charts that can lead to things like martial law, mass impressment, replacement of officials, vigilante gangs, and so on. There will be a bribery racket that reduces the outrage generated by your activities. I could also see how a city's laws could affect the OT of different districts, the outrage responses, available rackets (Prohibition unlocks the bootlegging and speakeasy rackets.)
I've got some more notes in a book at my apartment, so I'll be fleshing out some of the different rackets, hijinks and districts I've thought of already.
Ruffians and Rackets
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OgreBattle
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Is this a subsystem that only the thief player will interact with? i figure one o the reasons ACKS kept it relatively bare was to not spend too much time focused on one PC over another.
As for names for your minions, ACKS already gives a list of 'titles' different character classes have based on what level they're at.
As for names for your minions, ACKS already gives a list of 'titles' different character classes have based on what level they're at.
Last edited by OgreBattle on Tue Jul 28, 2015 4:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Yes, only PCs who are thieves (or interested in running thieves' guilds) will use this, but it only comes up once an in-game month. We generally have a flurry on downtime activity when the party returns to their home city, the casters want to make magic items and the warriors recruit mercenaries. I was also imagining that all hijinks can be replaced by going on an adventure, so if the party as a whole wanted to disrupt the Iron Ring's slave trading they could (and I would know how much revenue the Iron Ring would have lost.)
The names for the kinds of minions are more or less taken from ACKS, I was just having trouble thinking of a good name for thiefy minions in general.
I'm wondering if rackets should be automatically established if the requirements are met, or if a roll should be involved. I'm also wondering about the basis for the hijink and racket rolls. ACKS bases it on the relevant thief skill of the npc going on the hijink. I suppose I could have one npc designated as the leader who would make the roll. I'd like for PCs who are not members of thief classes to be able to start their own guilds if they so desire. For example, an evil cleric with their own cult of assassins.
The names for the kinds of minions are more or less taken from ACKS, I was just having trouble thinking of a good name for thiefy minions in general.
I'm wondering if rackets should be automatically established if the requirements are met, or if a roll should be involved. I'm also wondering about the basis for the hijink and racket rolls. ACKS bases it on the relevant thief skill of the npc going on the hijink. I suppose I could have one npc designated as the leader who would make the roll. I'd like for PCs who are not members of thief classes to be able to start their own guilds if they so desire. For example, an evil cleric with their own cult of assassins.