Organized Crime Questing

[nakedonmyfoldin]

In my upcoming campaign, I plan to have the PCs either join one of the two rival Crime Organizations in my town, or to play "good guys" and try to wipe out the criminals altogether.

I was wondering if anyone had any cool thoughts for quests/tasks etc the players could accomplish during either of these paths. Or even just some ideas of inspiration I could use.

Edit: The campaign is still in the works, but the players will start at level 1 and work their way up from there. My setting thusfar is a small city on a delta and lots of corruption in trade and politics.

[Zero grim]

what level are the players, and what's the setting like if you have any ideas for that at the moment.

For inspiration the type of tasks my players seem to always find enjoyable is trying to infiltrate an organisation (dust of that disguise and forgery skill)

[BRC]

In my upcoming campaign, I plan to have the PCs either join one of the two rival Crime Organizations in my town, or to play "good guys" and try to wipe out the criminals altogether.

I was wondering if anyone had any cool thoughts for quests/tasks etc the players could accomplish during either of these paths. Or even just some ideas of inspiration I could use.

First you need a good concept for each Organization.

Group A is the old establishment, they've been around so long that they're basically part of the aristocracy. Every city guardsman, magistrate, and judge is either taking bribes from them or blackmailed by them. Meanwhile they collect a steady profit from low-risk operations like protection, smuggling, prostitution, ect. They're not good people, they'll have you killed without a second thought if you cross them, but under them things are fairly stable. They adhere to a strict code of honor. Imagine The Godfather basically.

Group B are the newcomers. Young hotheads. They are generally more sympathetic towards the commoners and see themselves as somthing of a robin-hood group, taking back the town from both Group A AND the corrupt government. However they are far more violent. They make their money from high-risk operations like robbery (especially stealing from Group A), they start fights with the City Guard, burn down the homes and businesses of people who get in their way, ect. Group B is far more ambitious and power hungry, and while it's members are not as skilled they are far more aggressive. Think about the archetypical street gang with delusions of heroism.

If group A wants somebody dead they send a skilled assassin who poisons their food. If group B wants somebody dead they send a gang of thugs to beat them to death.

As for missions.

Group A's missions would be subtle affairs. "Somebody stole a shipment of narcotics. Find who did it and punish them". "A local magistrate has been getting uppity, find somthing we can threaten him with", "Those Ruffians in Group B have been especially active in this one neighborhood, teach them some manners".

Group B's missions could be things like "Steal something from Group A", or "Take down the corrupt City Watch captain who is in Group A's pocket".

Hero Missions would take the form of disrupting a gang's operations, supporting honest city officials, and solving crimes.

[ArcturusV]

I had a similar quest arc a while ago. The first quest that the players had (They got suckered into the crime thing because they couldn't afford the 'tax' that the locals were charging travelers on the river, so they were stuck in town until they could figure out how to get a permit)... involved these 2nd level characters trying to intimidate some dwarven Importers/Exporters who didn't want to pay their tax to the locals.

... somehow, because I didn't explicitly tell them to go break a leg or something... the players cooked up some Scooby Doo style "Haunting" plan to try to make the dwarves leave town. And for some reason it involved one character "setting a fire.... as a distraction".

... The Scooby Doo thing mostly failed. But they burned down about 10% of the town, including the business they were trying to drive out of town.

Deciding the players were far too volatile for thuggish intimidation or more delicate work than that. The leader started using them as, well, assassins and arsonists. Totally ripped off Final Fantasy IV for the next part, gave the party (One of whom was a big Rage and Anger based character who was really into the idea of burning down cities for work...) a cursed ring that would explode when brought into a proximity to its intended target. Oddly no one caught on that I ripped off one of my favorite console RPGs for this. Delivered it to the Gnome in question. With a huge explosion and several fire elementals bursting out, burning it down.

Party got kinda split on the "Crime" plotline after that. Some tried to rescue the gnome, put out the fire, and swear not to work again for them... possibly due to how they almost blew up. Some loved it, wanted to keep going. Some wanted to take the crime syndicate down. But no one could really agree on how to run it as a party so they never progressed any further.

[nakedonmyfoldin]

I love the thought of having two criminal organizations who basically occupy the same niche, but have completely different ways of going about their business. Nice thoughts, thanks!

[SciChronic]

Taking heavy inspiration from Raymond Feist's Krondorian Theives Guild:
1. for the old organization, thieves cannot just steal from anyone, the "guild" must mark and approve of the theft, taking a portion of the loot. These targets are specially picked to ensure that members have minimum risk of being caught. The gold stolen was all gained through dubious means making it impossible for the victim to report the theft. This prevents word of the "Theives Guild" from spreading, as all that exists is rumous and hear-say.
2. the Guild has spies everywhere, from street urchins and beggars to corrupt bankers and merchants
3. One or both of the organizations is controlled by a person who few have actually met with in person. (secret both are controlled by the same person?)