"The one thing that I regret in my life more than anythin' else, that my grammar is lousy... and I talk with a New York accent." – Lucky Luciano
Crime is ubiquitous in Philadelphia. It exists in city hall, and filters on down through all aspects of city life. While it's true that people are able to go about their lives in Philadelphia without ever being touched by crime, crime is nonetheless pervasive. Cars are broken into, some are stolen. Houses are burgled, pockets are picked. Muggings take place, drugs are available on most corners in the badlands, and you can find a bookie to make whatever lousy ill-advised wager you'd like unless it's on the Dallas Cowboys.
If you want to grease the palms of a recalcitrant building inspector? Crime. If you want to pay that traffic cop not to ticket you for the meter running out? Crime. Want your fix? Crime. The halls of power are paved with bribe money, and the coffers of local unions and non profits are siphoned off by embezzlement. Philadelphia is a giant bloody steak ripe for eating, and it never seems to run out of meat. Maggots roil and fire burns, but the slab of promised food remains.
Rules and System
Crime Status reflects your influence within your organization. It represents the number of thugs you can bring to a fight, the amount of credence fellow members will give to your beefs in other organizations, and how likely your schemes are to be supported by leadership and your subordinates. It represents your value to your higher ups, and how likely or unlikely they are to betray you for the sake of peace or advancement. It's both your credibility and your gravitas. High status means others want to please you, and probably want to replace you. Low status means others want to use you, and possibly mentor you in the organization.
There is honor among thieves, to a point. Especially within organized crime. But even with that said, the river is full of the bodies of those who were assured that it's only business.
Status 1: Street level thug, mob associate, book maker, 'dues paying' business owner
Status 2: Made men, soldiers, mob members, smuggler
Status 3: Capos, block captains, chemist
Status 4: Underbosses, gang leader, the consigliere
Status 5: The Boss
Joining the Sphere
Gaining status in Crime is a simple affair either in play or in character creation. Considerations should be given to the organization into which your status is relevant, what you did to earn your place, what you do to maintain it, and of course what your ambitions are for future growth.
It's important to remember that your status applies ONLY within the organization with which you're affiliated. It is possible for a member with status in one crime organization to also have status in an allied organization, though your status in the sub group may never exceed your status in your primary affiliation. This is true both at character creation and after you enter play.
If your crime status reflects membership in one of Philadelphia's estimated 169 local street gangs, feel free to pitch your set to Crime staff and discuss its reach, influence, and ambitions. Such gangs can be added to the wiki, and staff may link them here to add to the background of the crime sphere. Such gangs tend to rise and fall, ebb and flow, and die out with the reputations, lives, and liberties of their members only to be replaced by another.
There are no hard and fast requirements for acquiring Crime status, but the following stats are suggested for those wanting to keep and gain it.
Allies, Contacts, Resources, Safe Place, various Fighting Styles.
Theme and Society
Crime and Philadelphia are old bedfellows. There's crime in city hall, crime in the police department, crime in the unions, crime in the churches, crime in the media, crime in the hospitals; pretty much anywhere you look in Philadelphia, there's crime. After the powers that be are done picking the fat from the calf, the leavings trickle down to be scavenged by the numerous organized crime groups vying for dominance within the city and its surrounding area. The intricate network of regional alliances and national beefs see to it that Philadelphia and South Jersey have histories of being slow burning war zones. And that's not even taking into account the low level crime and street gangs which dominate the city's "badlands".
Street crime in the city tends to be opportunistic, demarcated by differing blocks and streets, and motivated entirely by old enmities, or access to the drug market. In Philadelphia's street gangs, where you are from matters far more than the color of your skin. Such concerns as race and nationality are, for the most part, the concern of Philadelphia's organized crime groups.
If you live in one of the major neighborhoods of North, West, or South Philly, odds are your block has a set. Maybe not a large one, maybe not one you've ever heard of or dealt with, but it's sure to be there.
Organized crime, on the other hands, has very formal boundaries and very formal alliances. Rivalries crop up from time to time, of course, but most of the rivalries these crime organizations undertake are with rivals outside of the region. New York, Camden, Trenton, and Baltimore send the fingers of their criminal organizations into Philadelphia, and Philadelphia sends their own out, likewise. With major regional airports, a major trade port, and enormous rail infrastructure, Philadelphia remains a major hub in the illegal drug trade. And what they don't ship in, they manufacture locally. Cooking meth and cutting fentanyl are typically left to the lower tier allies of the major families, with the old stand bys of embezzlement, racketeering, and keeping the books feeding the coffers of the upper echelons.
