Imperium-wide Infamy

[Michael Schulz]

Organized Crime and the OTU--What's the deal?

OK, so although organized crime and the OTU seem kind of synoymous how does it work in your TU?

Is there anything like the tripartate division between Megacorps (mega-syndicates?), sector-wide Corporations, and planetary companies? If so what sorts of activities do you reckon each level of Criminal enterprise would engage in?

Myself, I'm thinking that Mega-Syndicates are a rare breed and, in many cases, are pretty tightly entertwined with the nobility and the megacorps.

In terms of criminal enterprises, I'm thinking that they would operate primarily as a sort of protection racket/services operation for smaller groups. They, for example, operate on a scale where they can find someone who ripped off a smaller operation. They also have the contacts with the Nobility and the Megacorps to help stave off a massive crackdown on operations that pay for their 'service.'

I also like to think that they would be involved in the Starport unions, steveadors, and what not. Nothing like the promise to avert numerous 'labor disputes' to keep the graft flowing...

What scale of criminal enterprises flourish in YTU and do you have a few rackets you feel would add quality color to a campaign?

 

[Gruffty]

"Infamy!"

"Infamy!"

"They've all got it infamy!"

<cough> Sorry. Just had to when I saw the word "infamy" in the title.

I'll shut up now.

 

[parmasson]

The lines are kinda blurry IMTU.

Example.
Dom Esat Ichmull is the ruler of a state on a balkanized world. His is also a big man in the local (subsector) mafia. Megacorporations like dealing with him because he has fewer regulations and official taxes. His banks don’t tend not to ask questions either. He gets paid in stock, I-Cr, goods, and people.
As a “legitimate” ruler he has power as he as an army and even a few ships and the right to hire mercs, as a mafia boss he has power too. The megacorps like him because he can get things done beyond his system.
As a noble or company on a “civilized” world you can deal with him because he is recognized authority. IMTU the Imperium is more concerned about stability and trade than anything else.
Kinda blurry . . .

 

[LordVince]

There IS no Mafia!
Just ask a Member.
Remember to wear your cement overshoes....

 

[Golan2072]

NOTE: MTU IS NOT THE OTU!

IMTU there are many Mafia and Yakuza families, with each controlling a star system (slow travel times stand in the way of centraliztion, especially if you're trying to stay undetected by the law); larger "extended families" simply have "relatives" in nearby systems.

Now, the Mob cannot compete with the Corporations in side or corruption; they are the jackals who feed off the remains of the bigger predators' feasts.

Big underworld wars are either over the control of a star systems ("families" like to monopolize their systems) or between the local Mob and the non-corrupt (and typically pro-Alliance) parts of the trade unions who want idependance from the corrupt Mob-controlled unions.

The Solar Triumvirate government usually turns a blind eye towards the Mob, both because it bribes the government quite well, and because it keeps the trade unions docile and away from the Alliance or, heven forbid, the Matriarchate.

 

[archhealer]

IMTU, most organized crime families or syndicates are fairly small, since the megacorps are so corrupt that no smaller organization could compete, and they don't like to let the little crooks get big ideas.

 

[Ran Targas]

There has always been organized crime IMTU but I never had much of a chance to organize it until about a year and a half ago.

From a thread way back in November 2004:

"Having done some research on the web, I've cobbled together a sort of shadow imperium that loosely controls most illegal activities in human space

- A strong history tracing back to Earth mobs like La Cosa Nostra, the Triads, the Yakuza, and the Red Mafia (the Vilani authorities claim organize crime did not exist in their space until contact with Terra)

- Consists of members of nearly every species but is dominated by humans and Vargr

- Structure is extremely fluid; no one boss knows of the detailed activities of others and gangs vary greatly in size and strength

- Culture is heavily influenced by romantic images of the cunning Vargr corsair and the honorable Aslan warrior (to the point that Vargr and Aslan words are used liberally as slang)

- Hiver (think Hutts) influence is strictly behind the scenes (as always) and often limited to fencing of goods, designing capers, laundering funds, and maintaining relations with other organizations

- Individual organizations sponsor piracy, smuggling, vice crimes, white slavery, murder for hire, extortion, narcotics dealing, and racketeering

- Bosses maintain influences in legitimate business such as shipping, construction, mining, investment banking, politics, and organized labor

- The organization as a whole maintains mutually beneficial relations with several Imperial intelligence organizations and numerous mega-corporations; but this doesn't protect the low level operatives from prosecution or worse"

 

[kafka47]

The OTU has always admitted that crime and graft were part of the machinery of the Imperium petty thieft and larceny were a part of almost every traveller adventure in the early days premised upon the D&D model kill and steal the loot. As Traveller matured this concept got shifted over the Smash & Grab. It was given a moral veneer but essentially players do the same things that most people would not do in everyday life.

The people who usually hire characters are not the most outstanding of citizens or at least their past always been involved in something shady. I kinda always imagined the Traveller frontier akin to Wild West, where even the most respectible members of the community had their origins in professions that were not their current ones or that of their parents.

In terms of Imperium-wide, syndicates, for sure these followed people into the time that we made our home among the Stars (I do believe the Vilani claim that none existed, as a small homogenious population, it is credible). However, the Long Night would have shattered most of the old Terran crime syndicates.

With the rise of the 3i would have created new ones in the different cultural regions of the Imperium which would have spread with the Imperium. Just as the Mafia was formed in response to the French occupation and then formed protection rackets amongst diaspora of Southern Italians who emmigrated and then became the force that it is today.

I have also fancied the Rimward territories prey to all sorts of Gypies and Nomadic wanderers. Naturally, they are the first who get blamed for crime but in reality most are just harmless tricksters and charlatans.

 

[Michael Schulz]

H'mm it would be fun to create a syndicate based around the culture and ethos of say the Darminians, or any other culture that nearly got smashed flat during the Pacification Campaigns. Just like the Scillians or early Triads that resisted foreign rulers (or so their legends say...)

Any other interesting syndicates out there?

 

[aramis]

Gypsies exist IMTU... wide, long webs of family, ancient ships still lovingly maintained... because they are HOME!

Just remember, though, non gypsies better watch out in dealing with the Rom... as there is no social protection for non-Rom in Rom cultures.

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

In MTU, The Hinterworlds host full-on crime Lords, ala Fu Manchu/Jabba the Hutt. Most Hi Pop worlds have severe gang problems. A lone Solomani-ruled world there is almost always run by a bad sort. Bad as in Criminal.

Likewise, the few Imperial Client States there are usually run by powerful but rotten Imperial Exile Nobles. The Hivers seem to be running a long term manipulation... with the end result human uniformity! They are presented as villains. The K'Kree seem to Pirate and Raid for sport...

Then there are the Player Characters...

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

There are crime lords in MTU, but who may be considered a crime lord on one world is a landed noble on another.

In a T4 campaign I ran almost a decade ago called the Erebus Nebula, the entire subsector was located above Core subsector and controlled by a criminal family that preyed on the worlds in the Core subsector. After seeing other, more powerful, interstellar states fall to the fledgling Third Imperium - the Seorti crime family decided to improve their small world holdings to the point where they could join the Third Imperium as a client state and not as a subject world. The entire campaign was based around them stalling the Third Imperium long enough to make as many improvements as they could before opening diplomatic relations. This included a great game where the player crime lord's daughter PC agreed to marry a NPC scout in return for him filing a false survey report (She said she was going to drop out of the game due to class load anyways, but this let her go out with a bang!).

 

[jatay3]

I imagine a crime-lord to run a fencing operation, or a crimp network at a starport. There would be a large number of them, sometimes several in one port. I don't imagine criminal megacorporations, because I don't want an exact mirror image of respectable life. However a few do have influence on several planets.

 

[jatay3]

One thing that might be mentioned is that organized crime has a tendancy to spawn in regions that are perennial war zones. Examples include the old Anglo-Scottish border, Sicily, and the Balkans.
This phenomenon is not mentioned specifically in canon but is strongly implied by the number of planets in Jewell, "battle subsector" that have gone to pot.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Cad Lad

Within the confines of our ATU we share on the Ursula Msn. website we have always maintained that organized crime does exist wherever mankind does, and yes, even amongst aliens of the Imperium and without (the Vargr Udapheg, or 'The Pack' comes to mind readily).

Our two largest across our 3rd Imperium:

VGB- Vilesanniiastall Gurshiddanaaki Beureaux- The Vilani crime syndicates or mafia. Known for their slow but methodical approach and brutality. Not known to move fast but are very conservative and deliberate, however once they have made a decision they are implacable. Widespread throughout Imperial space.

Yakuza- 'The Organization'of Terran origin, a modern revival of the old Terran Japanese crime organizations. With their own honor code and sense of history, they are a subculture in their own right. Very dynamic, they have spread from the Solomani Rim and are making inroads into the VGB territories, engendering bitter crime wars.

The usual Solomani-ethnic groupings have left their Mafias (Italian, Sicilian, Russian, etc), Unione Corse (Corsican-French), Tongs, & Triads (Asian ethnicity syndicates of non-Japanese origin) across the 'Verse.

We have not detailed out many of the Minor Humaniti, like the Darmine-regional syndicates of Ilelish-Zarushagar Sectors, nor the Suerrat-Syndicates of Ilelish-Verge Sectors, nor the High-tech Geonee-Crime syndicate of Massilia Sector.

We do however acknowledge that the VGB is the oldest, & most entrenched criminal system, and that even after Interstellar Wars, the Long Night, and the Rebellion & Virus into the New Era, the VGB goes on, just like any other traditional Vilani organization, as before.

On many worlds the VGB are indistinguishable from the legitimate government (typically an "Impersonal Bureacracy"), and thus wield considerable power.

By Contrast, the Yakuza in OTU, as a government form, take up either this, or a Civil Service Bureacracy styled one, being more adpative, merit-based, and dynamic than the VGB (one of its key advantages over their bitterest rivals).

Some even become small trade polities outside the Imperium (The Hinterworlds example above; several polities of the T20 Gateway region are either raider banded warlords, or criminally trading bent polities outright (slavers, raiders, Pirates; narcotics, High-tech item theft & slave laborer smuggling, etc).

So yes, organized crime exists.

It even has its own lingo:

http://www.travellerrpg.com/cgi-bin/Trav/CotI/Discuss/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=37;t=001036;p=3

Game On!

 

[Hemdian]

IMTU once criminal activity grows beyond a certain size it tends to attract too much official attention to be viable. Thus above the local level there is only loose affiliations. However, you might want to check out the following links:
</font>

• Wanted Posters</font>
• Camp Lazarus (Gypsies)</font>
• One-Eyed Jack ('Bank')</font>
• Edward Muntz (Fence)</font>

Regards PLST
"If you're going to have crime it might as well be organised crime."

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

The Syndicate

It took a while, but I wrote up an ad hoc supplement on Organized Crime in the Third Imperium. It is a zipped MsWord document file, and it can be found in the CotI File Library >> House Rules >> [CT] The Syndicate.

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=13226

Let me know what you think of it.

 

[su_liam]

IMTU once criminal activity grows beyond a certain size it tends to attract too much official attention to be viable. Thus above the local level there is only loose affiliations. However, you might want to check out the following links:
</font>

• Wanted Posters
  
  "If you're going to have crime it might as well be organised crime."

• 
  
  I like the wanted posters a lot. My dad, for some incomprehensible reason, used to take pictures of the television. I think it was just trying to get practice with the digital camera, cause he was actually a pretty good photographer.
  
  Anyway... So when I inherited his computer after he died there were all these pictures of unsavory looking folks on the tv screen. I went into photoshop to straighten out the perspective distortions, cropped out the tv itself and voila:
  grainy security photos of thugs. None of the people were recognizable, but judging from the generally thuggish appearance, I'd say they were taken during shows like NYPD Blue, Homicide or Law and Order.
  
  I'd do it myself, but I don't want to explain to my wife what I'm doing.

 

[Icosahedron]

Organized crime syndicates are something that I've not looked at in great detail, but on first inspection it seems to me that the largest sources of criminal income in the universe would be related to interstellar trade - either by trading illegally, or by 'taxing' the legal trade. It also seems to me that this is not something that could be done effectively by local 'Families', but would need star-spanning coordination from an organisation rivalling a megacorp.

It could be dabbled in by locals, of course; local smuggling rings or demands for rent when you land on this Monopoly square, but I just feel there is a gap in the market on the higher level, and gaps tend to be filled.

As I see it, every scam that can take place on-world can take place in-Imperium:
Evidence of wrongdoing can be held over a Sector Duke, Board Members of Megacorps and officials from the Ministry of XXX can be bought, whole planets and merchant lines can be offered 'protection'. Someone, somewhere will do it, and they will become THE Syndicate.

I'm not sure how C3 would operate at that scale - but the Authorities manage it.

 

[mbrinkhues]

Organised crime, see Imperial Nobility
(The Great Brockhaus, Solomanie Press, New Home Publications)


Jokes aside, organised crime will exists mostly on a small level. The long message-times will make any single-boss run sector-wide cartel impossible. I can see a boss holding up to a subsector with common interests forming a network of bosses over a sector with a meeting once per decade or so.

And the syndicates will shift their methods of earning money:

+ Protection money from ship-owners near a border (Ships get lost, cargo get damaged. You want to buy protection) instead of from shop-owners since it can be collected and delivered without dealing with local law. Works best with a network so you can provide revenge on non-payers and snitches

+ Smuggling of Alcohol/Playboy/Elvis records. There is always a restrictive dictatorship nearby that restricts something that is totally legal in the 3I and on the next world. Why smuggle weapons, nukes and drugs and face the danger of being wanted by the 3I when you could just smuggle legal stuff and only have to face planetary law (That you can skip by reaching the starport since the 3I won't extradict based on local laws). A crime-network can operate at better costs since it buys bulk and bribes bulk

+ Piracy. A crime network can be the legal Imperial (or Imperial client state) frontend for a pirat band. The Pirats operate out of a nearby client state and their loot is filtered back through the company. The company also does some intelligence gathering disguised as legal trade

+ Slavery. It may be illegal in the 3I but what about the outside? And illegal does not mean that it does not exist. I can very well see a small network of slavers and slave-smugglers delivering just what the customer orders

+ Assasins for hire. Remote monasty on a mountanious planet optional.

+ Brothels. Interstellar, mobile brothels as well as starport based ones. Operting in space and on the Imperial Ports will allow them to circumwent local laws (So Hetero-Sexual sex is illegal here. Who cares, we are 101 diameters away from the main world)

OTOH I don't think the interstellar Crime syndicates will dabbel in

+ Smuggling NBC weapons (Don Corleone, the INS Lion just jumped in system and the Captain demands to talk with you!)

+ Getting protection money from local (planet-bound) merchants

+ Interstellar Drug trade

+ Smuggling people over the border (Don Merle, remember the Zhodanie Refugees we smuggled in? Seems like Imperial Intelligence has some questions)




All IMHO/IMTU/Take what you want