Creating Encounters with Gangs and Criminal Organizations

[nakedonmyfoldin]

I'm wanting to add some grittiness to my city's underworld, so I'm thinking about including a pair of rival gangs that vie for control of the streets.

I want to keep the two gangs distinct, which is the reason for my post. How can I create two relevant gangs with differing aspirations that will still clash? I'll definitely include some black market and drug elements as well, but its still a fantasy setting.

Thanks in advance!

[Piedmon_Sama]

Distinctive dress/markers are a pretty classic means of gang identification. Maybe everybody in the gang wears a red sash around the waist as their "tell," or if they need to keep clandestine maybe they have a distinctive tattoo usually hidden by clothing.

Often (at least in crime fiction, whatever) different gangs sort themselves out by controlling different rackets, and conflict happens when one tries to move in on another's business. For example, maybe one gang controls prostitution in the city, while the other controls the amount of drugs hitting the streets. Things get tense when the second gang starts giving the first gang's prostitutes "free samples" of their drug as a way of creeping into the skin trade.

Also, consider making one or both gangs inhuman as a way of spicing it up. Wererats running the crime in a major city is a pretty classic example. Kenku (who often roost atop major buildings like cathedrals) would be another natural fit. Lurks might make excellent contract killers. Perhaps one of the bosses is a shapeshifting Phasm, near immortal in its natural protoplasmic state and trying out the life of a criminal from sheer boredom. Maybe the much-admired beautiful Elven ambassador is the one hooking the drug runners up with exotic, psychotropic Night Mushrooms from the Elven realm.

[Red Fel]

Obviously, have one gang dress in cool primary colors, and perform well-choreographed swing numbers. The other gang can dress in hot shades and pastels, and sing up-tempo pieces. Their battles would look less like gang wars, and more like an episode of Glee gone wrong.

More seriously, Piedmon makes a good point - it's entirely possible that these two gangs operate in two different circles, on two different rackets, and as such their conflicts would be minor clashes rather than major turf issues, up until one started bleeding into the other's game.

An alternative, and one which I enjoy, is the Old Guard versus the Young Turks. The Old Guard are pervasive and insidious, but civilized. They're the established status quo, having been in their racket for generations. Although they're crooked and dangerous, they're seen as almost a local mainstay; the bosses are well-known, and possibly even respected, in the community. Doing business with them is the cost of doing business in the neighborhood. Think movie-style mobsters, a la The Godfather.

The Young Turks, by contrast, are the new kid with a lot to prove. They're less established and have fewer resources, but they're energized and unpredictable. You could bring them in parading themselves as heroes to the common people, seeking to throw out the oppressive Old Guard. Or you could see them as violent, dangerous, and deranged, creating a chaos that undermines the stability promised by the Old Guard's protection racket. (Why should people pay protection, after all, if these new upstarts will come in and break things anyway?) For inspiration, just look at any movie about hoodlums shooting up streets.

The Old Guard want to snuff out the Young Turks in order to secure their hold on the area. The Young Turks want to wipe out the Old Guard in order to have free reign. Neither is a desirable outcome. Your PCs could see the Young Turks as dangerous, but nowhere near as invasively established as the Old Guard, and therefore easier to eliminate once the Old Guard is gone. Or they could see the Young Turks as unpredictable, and the Old Guard as corrupt but stable.

Keep in mind also that different styles of gang will have different sponsors. Corrupt politicians and diplomats can work with Old Guard types, who wear the veneer of civility and are impeccable hosts. Anarchists, radicals, and foreign powers love to sponsor Young Turks, whose presence causes chaos and destabilizes local government.

[Barstro]

In one of my favorite books, two different bosses worked for the same Organization, but one of them felt strong enough to try to spread his business into another person's territory and opened a casino in an otherwise vacant building.

No need for complex conflicting reasons to be in organized crime; they each are under the same Organization.
The turf war is kept at that particular street because that's the boundary between the two bosses.
The turf war doesn't spread anywhere else (without other intervention) because all those other bosses don't give a damn about what doesn't affect their particular territory.

If you really WANT them to look and dress differently, you can. But, there's no need to since they are all working for the same Organization. It's really just the Marketing Department trying to take over the Mail Room's break area.

[Honest Tiefling]

If it is a fantasy setting, are the drugs even illegal to begin with? Not all societies cared to police such, and usually blamed the users for the problems, not the dealers.

Religion might be an interesting way to distinguish the two. One could follow a LN/TN (Or even, albeit very poorly, a LG/NG) religion, and actually making genuine donations to it. One wants the gods on one's sides and just because one looks out for family does not mean one does not have faith or duty. The other one could follow a thieving religion (Or just plain BE the religion) and the two obviously are not seeing eye to eye.

One could have a moral code. Don't wreck the city, don't kill the dog, and use violence only when necessary. They obviously believe that violence becomes necessary quickly, but they are a lot less invested in scare tactics revolving around ruining the wallpaper in the victims' houses. They still need a threat of some sort, so maybe they have a bunch of corrupt politicians who will basically financially and politically ruin anyone who crosses this gang. The other one might be scarier, but most townsfolk don't want to cross either one.

[SkipSandwich]

A classic example of conflict arising from multiple groups trying to control the same racket comes from the classic movie Yojimbo by Akira Kurosawa (later remade as A Fistful of Dollars staring Clint Eastwood). Both excellent movies and I highly recommend watching them if want to run a "Rival Gangs" style adventure with the PC's as a outside 3rd party.

In Yojimbo, the split occurred when the boss of the town's existing gang passed over his loyal and competent 2nd in command in favor of having his son inherit the organization's lead. It could have been a clean break, with one side taking prostitution and the other taking the sake distillery, however, both sides also wanted to control the towns silk trade resulting a war between the two factions held in check only by the threat of mutually-assured destruction.

[BowStreetRunner]

Historically there were in fact medieval and even ancient criminal organizations. A variety of conditions were responsible for the appearance of such groups, and in places where more than one of these conditions was present there would likely have been more than one such organization appearing, each in response to different circumstances. I would just select different origin stories for each and then put them in the same vicinity where they would ultimately become competitors.

Feudal society often produced 'outlaw' families. Since family was everything during this period - far more than in modern times - conflicts between a member of an important family and the ruling lord could produce a feud that would last for generations. The law was often used by the ruling lord as a tool to persecute enemies and 'outlaws' were often just people who had crossed the lord. At times it was simply a matter of a particular family taking up crime because they could not manage any other way. Regardless of the cause, these groups had a natural affinity for successful criminal activity, as close-knit families are a group structure that have leadership, familiarity, common values, and other qualities that benefit such a gang.
Wherever outsiders were concentrated in a city, ethnic enclaves would often appear. Among these often persecuted minorities various gangs would appear for mutual support and protection. What began as a bid to stand up to persecution would often grow into criminal activities, often because the persecutors had the law on their side. This is how groups like the Mafia grew in power and influence in America, but such things happened even back in ancient times. Migrant workers, refugees fleeing from war, even conquered peoples who have become a minority in their own cities could produce such groups.
Some criminal activity was a source of entertainment for decadent members of the wealthy and powerful upper caste. There are a number of examples throughout history of some lord or lady who was running a criminal enterprise merely for a release from the boredom of courtly life. In some cases a younger noble with no hope of an inheritance would turn to crime as a means to support their lifestyle.
Of course, in a variety of societies criminal traditions had other origins. Ninja clans, secret orders of assassins, etc. were all present in various cultures as well.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

In my urban campaign there are five criminal gangs in the flying metropolis vying for control. I set it up so there is an unsteady equilibrium, so that the players have maximum control over how stuff happens. There is:

The Tailors- Egalitarian street gang, most widespread and spreading. Have a reputation for fleecing newcomers to the city; started off my robbing the party, but now the party is starting to carve out their own niche. All members wear a white rag tied around their arm as an identifier. They do, however, do a lot of good for the poor in their controlled areas.

The Rooks- The oldest gang, a loosely organized violently xenophobic gang of harpies (a playable race in this setting). They regularly stage raids on the other low-class districts, and very little is done to counterattack because of their unique district (arranged vertically), lack of available harpy guard to police it, and some protection from a harpy politician.

Ve and Lo Tongs- The smallest of the gangs, the tongs make up for it by being both somewhat legitimate (each were on some level formed to protect mana wights, another unique race), but they make up for it with viciousness when provoked, magical power (almost every member is a magic-user), and economic means (can operate magic item sweatshops). Definitely the most 'mysterious' of the gangs.

The Union- Also somewhat legitimate, the Union grew out of unions of guildsmen in the city. They have taken up the spot of organized crime, more highbrow than the others. The Union has been surreptitiously employing the party as a means to strike down some of the more recent and profitable Tailor endeavors, exploiting the party's desire for revenge and quick jobs.

And that's not even getting into the conspiracies and secret organizations in the city! Anyway, what you can take from this is that you can make each gang a distinct entity. Maybe one is a branch of organized crime that exists throughout the region, and the other is a racially motivated gang.