Post by Xeno Khan on Dec 7, 2006 23:40:13 GMT -5
ORGANIZED CRIME
Wherever there’s illegal money to be made, you can guarantee that the organized-crime syndicates are on the scene and doing their best to take control of as much of the pie as they can muscle into. The syndicates that shadowrunners are likely to come in contact with include:
• Mafia: Everybody’s heard of the Mafia—you know, that collection of Italian guys in pinstriped suits and pinky rings? Actually, the Mafia’s come a long way in the last couple hundred years, and their influence is still strong all over North America and Europe. Organized into “families” and operating in every major UCAS city, the Mob is involved in just about every lucrative type of crime out there including shipping and smuggling, extortion, loan sharking, hijacking, and gambling.
• Yakuza: An old and honorable Japanese criminal organization, the Yakuza demands unswerving loyalty from its members and punishes transgressions harshly. Its members— almost always male, Japanese, and human—are usually identified by their extensive tattoos and sometimes by missing pinky fingers (one of the more minor ways they pay for failures). The Yak’s major areas of influence are prostitution, gambling, sokaiya (shaking down companies for credit and influence), drugs, and chips.
• Triads: The Chinese Triads don’t get a lot of press when compared with the Mafia and the Yaks, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a powerful force in their own right. Each Triad is its own organization, with none of the central control of the Mob and Yak groups. They take a far more enlightened stance toward women and metahumans, numbering many of both (as well as non-Chinese) among their ranks, and also featuring a number of adepts and magicians. Crime-wise, they specialize in extortion, protection, smuggling, gambling, illegal drugs, and BTLs.
• Vory: The Vory v Zakone, or “thieves who follow the code,” originated at the time of the Russian Revolution in 1917, but since then they’ve undergone many changes. Exported around the world by Russian expatriates, the Vory are organized into factions run by a single powerful leader (much like the Mafia). Though involved in smuggling and black market operations, the Vory’s most profitable enterprise is black-market information, or “data brokering.”
• Ghost Cartels: Though the traditional Central and South American narco-cartels suffered setbacks with the development of BTLs, thanks to biotechnology they have increased their crop sizes and profit margins and are getting back in the game with an assortment of traditional drugs and narcotics. Their biggest coup of late has been the development of bioengineered Awakened drugs—though they lack the full magical kick, they still carry enough mojo to take your mind on a ride—catered to exclusive clientele.
These are the big players, but the smaller ones deserve a brief mention as well. Ethnic-based organizations abound—the Pueblo Koshari, the Turkish or Kabul Maffiya, the Arabic Al-Akhirah, the Korean Seoulpa Rings/Jo-pok, the Scandinavian Vikings, and so on. There are also all sorts of specialty outfits, ranging from pirate crews and smuggler networks to assassin groups such as Chimera and the Smokers’ Club, and also including the untold number of hacker groups who specialize in Matrix crime.