LCN Roleplay Guide

[MickeyO]

Preface

Throughout this guide I’ll be using words like Liberty City but tying it with and drawing reference from real life mobsters, I do this to help players understand the correlation between the two. Although we’re portraying fictional families it is always important to note real world history when making a guide. I did extensive research on this topic, not only that I’ve several years of experience roleplaying LCN. 

 

Introduction

For the majority reading this guide they will know of the 1980s and the decline of the mob, through a series of indictments of well known mobsters like John Gotti, Samuel Gravano, Joseph Massimo,  mobsters started to fear the government and the decade long charges they were handing down more than their counterparts. The mob is a fraction of what it once was, but is it dead? No. The American mob (commonly known as La Cosa Nostra) is going through/has gone through an evolution. A change in the criminal process. This change has been made more evident  by the lack of headlines out of the criminal organization(s). 

 

Roleplaying a Mobster

For starters, not every mobster is a jack of all trades. Some don't even come from an illegal background before dipping their toes in the water. Anthony Staino, for example, an alleged captain in the Philadelphia Crime Family, got involved in organized crime back in the 1990's while going through a divorce and battling a drinking problem. Some were born to figures so deep in the mafia they were forced to go through the life. The origins of mobsters are vast. Not all of them come from New York City, either. There are crime families all over the state. Chicago, New England, Los Angeles (a defunct one, but still), Detroit, Cleveland - The options are there, you just have to choose one and go on with it. Each area has its own slang and catchphrases, so to say. Mobsters are often very different from one another but are unified due to one thing primarily - Money. A mobster won't spend 100% of his time in criminal activities, either. Absolutely not. These guys often have a life to take care of - Wives, legal businesses, cars, dogs. They are regular people, just like me and you. They go to baseball games, they hang out in bars, clubs, and casinos. They have a life outside of their criminal activities. I can't stress this enough. RPing just the criminal side of things is a huge miss on the development of a proper, deep character.

 

All Roads Lead To Liberty City

Organized Crime is not going away, Kristin Mace, Chief of Organized Crime and Gangs Section, said: “Forget the Russian Mafia, the Albanians, the Japanese Yakuza, or Chinese Triads: the Italian-American Mafia  still rules the roost of New York (Liberty City). I don’t think there is any other organized crime group that has surpassed it in influence in New York”. The mob with their ties to Sicily and many other overseas organizations has granted these gangsters the ability to traffic and import drugs into the United States, this is evident by many of the recent arrests from suspected/known mobsters. Beyond this, the mob retains their traditional brick and mortar through crime rackets, extortion, gambling, fraud, etc. The mob is embedded in sea ports, medicine, construction, and Wall Street. For every illegal operation the mob conducts, you can bet your ass they have a legal one to launder money and cover their tracks. When a ranking member of a crime family, such as a boss, goes to prison or dies they’re swiftly replaced; business as usual. New York has five presiding families, these families would rather work things out through meetings and conduct business with one another than go through full scale war. Does that mean hits don’t occur in the modern mob? No, hits happen, but less frequently than it was a few decades ago. 

 

Murder and Betrayal

The modern mob majority of the time will only “whack” individuals connected or associated with the mob, I have not found any source that indicates otherwise. Gone are the days of bodies found in trunks every week - the mob is much quieter now - the best way to get out of headlines is to kill less. Mob hits do occur, to rattle off a few examples, Michael Meldish, the leader of the Purple Gang is one such example. Lucchesse mobsters were said to have a part in his murder due to his inability to collect a debt. Louis Barbati, an associate of the Bonnano Crime Family was killed in his backyard in a suspected mob hit in 2015 with police describing it as a “mafia style” hit. You may think the mob as a broken and beaten dog that no longer has a truly evil side but it’s important to note that it still is a criminal organization, these organizations will protect their assets and won’t take disrespect too kindly. The mob tends to work things out through business and trading rather than shooting each other but deceit and betrayal still exist and occur.

 

Getting Connected

The mafia is a multicolored organization, throw out the window that they’re all racist white men. Am I saying they allow minorities in their ranks? No, but do they do business with minorities? Yes. It’s stupid in thought, in my opinion, to think they wouldn’t. New York is one of the most multicultural cities in the world, that is a given. That is to say getting connected with a mob in Liberty City won’t matter because you’re not Italian American. You can be black or hispanic. Will you get inducted officially into a family? No. But there have been non-italians who have been known to garner more respect than actual made men. James Burke is an easy example (as played by Robert De Niro in Goodfellas, Jimmy Conway). The best way to get connected with the mob is to look at the mob as a criminal's insurance policy. The mob provides independent criminals an outlet to make themselves more protected and stronger. The mob will typically recruit individuals who have had a family member in the mob in the past. LCN seeks people who have their own thing going. They see Joe Schmoe selling fake sneakers and he’s making a killing off the racket; they'll offer him a hand to grow his business, once they do that, Joe Schmoe is hooked and in bed with the mob now because he’s accepted their money. LCN is not an organization that recruits off of necessity, it’s a wants and needs business. If they see you as a success in the underworld, they’ll scoop you up; no one is going to hold your hand although. You’re expected to carve out your own fortune, the individual crime families simply give a person a powerful backing and access to connections.

 

Rackets

Not only have the families changed, but the way they handle things changed too. Several families, for instance, got in on the housing boom of 2002-2007 through corrupt construction companies and unions, court papers and sources say. Several companies were even involved in the rebuilding of the World Trade Center! The Gambino family stole credit card numbers via Internet porn sites, laundered gambling money through an energy drink company called American Blast, and took over a company that distributed bottled water — a far cry from the Prohibition days of bootlegging. All the families use the Web to enhance their multi-million dollar illegal gambling empires through offshore betting shell corporations. A small list of rackets are down below:

 

• Illegal Gambling

• Loan Sharking

• Pornography

• Prostittion (Usually goes in hand with pornography)

• Car theft and Chop Shops

• Bootleg clothing and Jewelry

• Drug Trafficking

• Small arms trafficking

• License and ID forgery

• Running a sportsbook

 

Made Men

Once you’re a made man you are in the big leagues; essentially untouchable - no one can fuck with you’se. Okay hold on, not so fast! - this is the glitz and glamour you were introduced to in the televisions and cinema. Once you become inducted your job just got helluva lot harder and you best believe you make every quota and kick up given to you. I read a fascinating article that detailed the life of a modern mafia, a made man struggling to pay their bills! This all ties into what I was saying: Getting Connected. No one is going to give you shit in the mob, you have got to go out and get it yourself. I know this sounds like I’m downgrading what it means to be made but it’s the honest truth about what it is. Being made does have it’s benefits although, within the actual criminal organization you have the respect of all your peers and associates, no one can talk to you anyhow and you can be put down for no show jobs, and other profitable rackets. The likelihood of you getting killed for something is drastically lower than an associate. Made men are soldiers, the primary breadwinner for a crime family, its lifeblood. It’s hard to get inducted as a made man, in the old days, you had to kill to reach that status; that’s no longer the case. Made men are pooled from great earners more than having to be violent.

 

Conclusion

Bottom line is I can go on for pages on the American mafia but I hope I gave a good basis of how to roleplay a mobster in New York. The Italian-American mafia are still here, they’ve just wisened up and kept quiet, and remember: All roads lead to Liberty City.

 

Credits: MickeyO, Slipky.

[Sorrano]

Good stuff.

[Vandal]

pimpin cause why not

[Conviction]

a bit short but the gist is in the guide