Incorporating a Mafia-esque organization into a campaign

[Nettlekid]

In a newbie campaign I'm starting up soon, one of my players wanted to be connected to a mafia-like underground crime syndicate in his backstory. I really liked the idea and what he did with it, so I fleshed it out and incorporated it into my worldbuilding. Another player, upon reading that element of the world, wrote it into her backstory as more of a supplement than anything. So now this organization is becoming pretty closely tied into the PCs lives, and I want to do both it and them justice by incorporating it into the actual game.

I'm not entirely sure how to, though. Of course it could be a way to fence stolen items, buy things a bit cheaper, and maybe acquire info/hints to aid a quest if the PCs should be in good with them. What I'm worried of though is that the PCs are starting at level 3, and I plan to level them up pretty quickly but obviously not like a level a session. I statted out a few NPCs for this criminal group, and most of them are around levels 8-10, with the leader being a level 17 Divination expert. I would like to incorporate this guild, but I don't want to do so in any way that overshadows or otherwise renders the PCs obsolete, as though I was playing a whole team of DMPCs. That would suck. So any suggestions on how it can be interesting without being interesting only for me?

I feel as though this is a good chance to introduce a dialogue part of the game, since apart from "bounty hunter dude," "cryptic old man," and "BBEG in disguise" there aren't a lot of recurring characters to speak with (so far). But I sometimes get tongue-tied if I'm trying to improv characters without a plan, so I'd like to have some ideas on where the conversations could actually go. The main meat of the campaign is actually more or less vampire-hunter based, with some Legend of Zelda-style "collect each fragment of the *thing* to open the way to your goal" sidequests for variety of enemies.

ALSO, unrelated to anything but I've been stuck on this for a while: What motivation might a Yuan-Ti have for either trying to learn about vampires, or hunting down a missing duchess (who ran away after learning about vampires)?

[Crake]

In a newbie campaign I'm starting up soon, one of my players wanted to be connected to a mafia-like underground crime syndicate in his backstory. I really liked the idea and what he did with it, so I fleshed it out and incorporated it into my worldbuilding. Another player, upon reading that element of the world, wrote it into her backstory as more of a supplement than anything. So now this organization is becoming pretty closely tied into the PCs lives, and I want to do both it and them justice by incorporating it into the actual game.

I'm not entirely sure how to, though. Of course it could be a way to fence stolen items, buy things a bit cheaper, and maybe acquire info/hints to aid a quest if the PCs should be in good with them. What I'm worried of though is that the PCs are starting at level 3, and I plan to level them up pretty quickly but obviously not like a level a session. I statted out a few NPCs for this criminal group, and most of them are around levels 8-10, with the leader being a level 17 Divination expert. I would like to incorporate this guild, but I don't want to do so in any way that overshadows or otherwise renders the PCs obsolete, as though I was playing a whole team of DMPCs. That would suck. So any suggestions on how it can be interesting without being interesting only for me?

I feel as though this is a good chance to introduce a dialogue part of the game, since apart from "bounty hunter dude," "cryptic old man," and "BBEG in disguise" there aren't a lot of recurring characters to speak with (so far). But I sometimes get tongue-tied if I'm trying to improv characters without a plan, so I'd like to have some ideas on where the conversations could actually go. The main meat of the campaign is actually more or less vampire-hunter based, with some Legend of Zelda-style "collect each fragment of the *thing* to open the way to your goal" sidequests for variety of enemies.

ALSO, unrelated to anything but I've been stuck on this for a while: What motivation might a Yuan-Ti have for either trying to learn about vampires, or hunting down a missing duchess (who ran away after learning about vampires)?

I think your biggest problem is how high you've set all the NPCs. if you give this (http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/587/roleplaying-games/dd-calibrating-your-expectations-2) a bit of a read you'll realise that setting the bulk of an organization like that at level 8-10 is pretty over the top, and then having the leader be level 17, that's just way too high.

Reduce the bulk of the organization to level 1-3, and maybe make the head guy 10-15ish, You need to remember that, even by RAW standards (read the spell legend lore) level 11 is considered "Legendary" in the standard game world. What you have is an organization of almost legendary thugs, which really makes no sense.

[Nettlekid]

I think your biggest problem is how high you've set all the NPCs. if you give this (http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/587/roleplaying-games/dd-calibrating-your-expectations-2) a bit of a read you'll realise that setting the bulk of an organization like that at level 8-10 is pretty over the top, and then having the leader be level 17, that's just way too high.

Reduce the bulk of the organization to level 1-3, and maybe make the head guy 10-15ish, You need to remember that, even by RAW standards (read the spell legend lore) level 11 is considered "Legendary" in the standard game world. What you have is an organization of almost legendary thugs, which really makes no sense.

I had thought that, but I do want to make the entirety of the world scaled up in power. The BBEG himself is level 20 with a level 16 associate, the subBBEG is level 13, and the mid-bosses are all level 10. So it'll be a long time before the PCs actually have the capacity to go after any of them, which is good because it means I can have them encounter the bad guys early-ish, have some almost-clashes and personality development, which makes each proper battle more exciting. It's too boring for me as a DM, since I like random character building, to work with level 1-3s exclusively. I made ten little level 3 guys for a warrior tournament, and they're just too much of nothing to be interesting to me as NPCs.

EDIT: I guess to clarify, I'm hoping that by making several people high level, making powerful warriors and magic more accessible even to Commoners via NPCs if there should be a compelling enough reason, it means that even from an early level the PCs can be introduced to the more fantastic elements of D&D and know what they're aspiring to. They'll be seen as some of the strong ones when they get to level 11 or so and are now a match for those mid-bosses, and once they get to level 15 they'll be contenders for some of the greatest powers in the land, like the BBEG or the Mafia boss.

[Red Fel]

As a rule, once you're involved with the family, your relationship never really ends... It just gets "suspended" for awhile.

Want to introduce the syndicate into the storyline? Just get in touch with any PC who has a positive affiliation with the syndicate. Have a slimy-but-charming NPC drop by to visit, to remind them either (a) "The organization appreciates what you've done for it in the past; we'd like to offer you another opportunity for quick advancement," or (b) "The organization keeps copious ledgers, friend, and we've discovered that you never paid us back for that favor we did for you."

Either one immediately enmeshes the PCs in the world of the syndicate. In the case of the former, it's an offer you can't refuse - nobody rejects an offer from the organization and gets away with it. In the case of the latter, the same - but whereas the former means you're a compensated and respected (if expendable) consultant, the latter is more akin to indentured servitude.

So, introducing the organization is easy. The trick is keeping them relevant. In a game like D&D, unless this organization spans the continent, the PCs will quickly become too big for the syndicate to deal with; even a world-spanning criminal network won't be able to keep a thumb on top of the PCs once they hit the mid-teen levels, at which point they're more akin to physical gods.

So start from scratch. Think about several things:
- Who makes up the organization? Is it a network of low-life thugs? A selective organization of well-trained teams and individual specialists?
- What do they do? Do they run protection rackets? Orchestrate high-end heists? Exercise influence over major political figures? Do they operate locally, or have fingers in activity all over the kingdom?
- How do they do it? Are they a tightly organized hierarchy? A loose confederation of crooks, a la "Thieves' Guild"? A blood-in-blood-out invitation-only family affair? A cult?
- Why do they do it? Are they in it for money? Power? Do they do it to maintain a comfortable lifestyle? To disrupt the status quo? To limit the growth of non-syndicate crime, and thus create social order? Or do they do it to disguise some deeper, darker plot, such as the resurrection of an ancient evil?

Keep these ideas in mind. If you decide to keep the syndicate as a regional, small-time criminal network, think of it as a group of NPC contacts or rivals - depending on how the PCs treat them, they may be a useful source of information and supplies, or a recurring menace with a vendetta against the PCs. If, on the other hand, you want to make them more integral, it wouldn't be hard to - for example - make the kingpin of the organization some sort of vampire seeking to unleash a demonic plague that will cripple humanity while empowering his brethren, and using the (often unwitting) syndicate to advance his goals.

All that said, apart from BBEGs, ordinary NPC organizations generally shouldn't be that high-level. By the time your PCs reach their mid-teens, they're bordering on omnipotence (except for the party Monk), and most mortal organizations will be seeking to influence or use them, not to oppose them directly.

And as an aside: Yuan-Ti can do anything, but one thing they do outrageously well is cults. You can make a cult of anything. Off the top of my head, "The Cult of Ouroboros," symbolized by a serpent eating its own tail, believes in the eternal preservation of life through the sinister act of cannibalism. The highest-ranking members of the cult are Yuan-Ti Vampires, who represent the ultimate act of cannibalism. Boom, easy. Or, subvert the usual Yuan-Ti-as-villains trope, and make a tribe of Yuan-Ti vampire hunters, who see Yuan-Ti as a supreme race, and Vampires as intruders upon their supremacy. (More of a "You can't be the villain, we're the villain!" deal.)