Here is a short version of these rules to get the basics.
This city is built on two major factors: how skilled you are, and how skilled your friends are. An important part of staying alive is having friends and allies, people who "have your back" and keep you breathing for another few days. Evil times make for strange alliances, and even if you wouldn't be friends with these people under other circumstances, necessity has brought you to the point where you need to trust them to watch your back... and they need to trust you to do the same.
Apart from some NPC groups, whether big ones like the Mordinos or the Assassins or small ones like the local gang of thugs, PCs can form coherent groups as well for their own goals.
A PC-formed group is known as a Gang. A Gang doesn't necessarily have to be like the Crypts and the Bloods, or the Sixers over on 3rd Street. A Gang is a general term for any sort of small-time organization, group, clique, clan, or coterie, and it doesn't necessarily mean that the Gang does anything that thug-based gangs do. A Gang could be a group of doctors who own and operate a private clinic; it could be a group of people who go to New Reno's library in pursuit of higher learning; or, it could be the run-of-the-mill group of people who terrorize passers-by and run a protection racket.
To be an official Gang, it must have at least three (3) PC members. At any point that the Gang doesn't have at least three 'registered' members, the Gang will no longer exist, based on the Gang rules. The PCs can certainly get together in-character and call themselves a gang, but it will not follow the Gang rules. To start a gang, contact any of the GMs.
Gangs can have any purpose and can do basically anything together. Three guys running a bar could be known as a Gang, and their entire purpose would be to efficiently run a bar. Being part of a Gang gives a few benefits.
Gang Funds
Gangs will have collective Funds available to them. Funds are collected through Gang RP, which is similar to Job RP. Gangs can do anything conceivable together that would earn money (protection racket, mugging, charging admission at parties, or a bake sale, if you can get anyone to actually want to eat iguana-flavored cupcakes). For every 100 paragraphs of RP, the Gang will earn $250, which will go into the Gang Funds. Additionally, you can and should roleplay with other Gang members, and for each additional Gang member (up to 3 additional members, so 4 total), the requirement will be reduced by 15, and the total will be calculated based on the total number of people. So, if 4 gang members do Gang RP, they each would have to roleplay 55 paragraphs, and the total amount added to the Gang Funds would be $1000. You can have more than 4 members roleplaying towards this, but there are no further reductions to the amount of RP required (so if you have 10 members roleplaying together towards this RP requirement, they could each RP 55 paragraphs and get $2500 towards the gang funds). Logs of this RP should be sent to NewRenoRPG@gmail.com.
Any member is also allowed to donate personal funds to the collective fund pool.
Gangs can allow members to have full access to the Gang funds, restricted access (in which only certain members can access the funds), or limited access (in which the members can only have access to some of the funds). This is at the decision of the Gang Leader, and it can be changed at the Gang Leader's decision later, as well.
It is possible that a character with access to the funds might take money from the funds against the will of other gang members. That is how people roll in New Reno. There is no limitation or penalty for this, although a character's fellow gang members might not be too pleased with the embezzlement.
Gang XP
Gangs, as they continue to survive as a coherent and stable entity, grow in skill as their members grow in skill, but they additionally grow in reputation. Maybe not respect, but people will have heard of you. For every event related to your gang in the city, your Gang will gain a variable amount of XP (similar to that of a quest). If the Sixers successfully set up a protection racket with three businessmen, the gang itself might earn 300 XP. This is based on the decision of the GM monitoring this RP. If there is no GM to monitor the RP, please send the logs to NewRenoRPG@gmail.com. If there are two or more gang members on a Quest, and in the quest they do something related to their gang (something more significant than mentioning their Gang's name once; for example, talking to a wounded NPC that you heal about the doctoral clinic Gang that you run would count, or carving the name of your gang in an opponen't chest and throwing his body into a room for intimidation purposes), this can count for Gang XP. RPing for Gang Funds, if it helps to promote the Gang's reputation, will also earn Gang XP.
Gang XP is simply a measure of how long the gang has been in existence and how much they have done. No special benefits are gained. For a general measure, compare this XP to the Experience Chart for players. A 1st level gang is fledgling and probably hasn't had to deal with a Gang War yet. A 15th level gang has been around for a long time, and you probably don't want to mess with them. Most people in the area have probably heard the Gang's name by that point, at least.
There comes a time when Gangs tend to get a little too big for their britches and they finally attract the attention from one of the Families. Overall, the Families are the ultimate power in the city and could wipe out all the small-time gangs if they had the desire to. They don't like their authority and their power to be challenged. If your gang gets to be too big and too well-known, it is almost inevitable that one of the Families (most likely the Family that controls the turf you're on or the areas near where your Gang stays) will intervene in one way or another. The Family might tell you to disband, nice and peacefully. They might demand a "service fee" for being active in their part of town. They might even make an offer for your gang to become a subsidiary of that Family... essentially making a blood bond (and blood bonds in New Reno refer to what'll happen if you break the bond)... it really depends on how influential your Gang is, how big it is, and what exactly your Gang does. Whatever the Family does, it has the manpower, the weaponry, and the influence to back up their offers, and any Gang foolish enough to piss off the Family probably won't be around much longer to keep their brotherhood together.
Turf
One of the qualifiers many gangs tend to posess is 'turf', an area or space in which the gang has exclusive or primary influence. In New Reno, almost all turf belongs to the Families, but the Families tolerate small-time gangs of thugs, who then 'claim' an area as theirs. Usually, this might be a particular city block or two, or a few particular bars in close proximity.
Turf is a fluid concept in this game. You do now "own" any turf, nor is is a stable element. What the Sixers "control" today, they neither fully control, nor will it be specifically what they "control" next week. The small-time gangs and the big-time Families are constantly pushing their bounds, expanding into new territory, and squabbling over one or two streets here and there.
There is no specific requirement of RP on control of turf in the game. This is not to say that there is no requirement. The more effort your gang puts into RP to "control" a turf, the more likely your gang will be to hold onto it. Do 10 paragraphs collectively a month for a city block? Likely, another gang will encroach on this area and very possibly try to run you out. Have 20 members RPing 200 paragraphs each a month for a city block length of a particular street? Your gang pretty much owns that street. It is loosely based on the amount of turf you are trying to hold, how many members you have, and how much effort there is to defend it. Logs of this RP can be sent to NewRenoRPG@gmail.com.
GMs may and will occasionally provide RP opportunities in which other gangs intrude on your turf, challenge your authority, vandalize the area, and otherwise challenge the solidity of the boundaries of your turf. This will count towards efforts to hold your territory.
What do you get out of controlling turf? Well, that's up to you. You might want respect, power, or influence over an area. You might want to keep the local people living there safe... or you might want to use them for a protection racket and keep out everyone else trying to horn in on the action. You might simply want an area that you know is more safe for you to go hang out in, to set up a place to live, because you know your Gang brothers and sisters are watching out for you, just like you watch out for them. Maintaining control of turf, though, will certainly get you noticed by the other local gangs and, eventually, one or more of the Families.
Any RP made towards defending gang turf can also count as Gang RP for funds if it involves making money in some way. It can also count for Gang XP.
Buildings
Sometimes, gangs just want a headquarters. There are special rules regarding establishing a headquarters, or any gang-owned building. To create a building, your gang needs to perform a certain amount of RP for each feature.
For one building, you must RP 100 paragraphs of roleplay in finding, fixing up, and establishing the building. For general defenses, such as security cameras, reinforced doors, and the like, an additional 50 paragraphs of RP are required. Specific defenses should be detailed and outlined, given to the GMs.
The required paragraphs are a collective total. One person can RP all the paragraphs, or it can be split up between gang members in any fashion wished. Once the RP is completed, submit it to NewRenoRPG@gmail.com, and the features will be added to your building.
Any influence on the buildings by other PCs or NPCs must have monitoring by the GM or members of the gang. You cannot have your character blow up another Gang's HQ and say it was successful simply because there was no GM or Gang members in the room to say otherwise. Keep in mind, just because another player is not signed in, it does not mean their character is not present in the game. If there is a GM present, you must have them monitor what you are attempting to do, and the GM very likely will require rolls for certain things attempted (breaking in through a door, etc.)
If there is no GM available, it is also acceptable to have multiple Gang members allow PCs to do things to their building, if an agreement can be made. For example, if someone wants to break into your Gang's headquarters, and there are a number of Gang members there who say "yes, that sounds reasonable", then the PC will be allowed to try. If the Gang members decide that something being done is unreasonable (a gun-toting thug with no break-in experience suddenly picking very complicated locks, for example), they have the right to disallow what is happening. Please do not abuse this veto power; if the PC is attempting something that you do not like, but that is reasonable and within the power of the PC to do and try, do not veto the attempt just because you do not like it. Keep an element of realism and reasonability to what happens. If there is no GM and no Gang members, you will have to wait to do anything to Gang holdings.
These rules also govern owning buildings for non-Gang members. If you wish to officially own a building for any purposes (doctor clinic, bar, private residence, etc.) and are not part of a Gang, it will follow these rules to be official. Otherwise, the building is entirely freeform, and thus can be affected as other freeform objects: other PCs and NPCs can vandalize, break into, and harm your apartment or building... as long as it is for roleplay reasons, of course. Godmoding and metagaming will never be tolerated.
Gang Wars
Sometimes, you just have to lay the smackdown. The Kings are encroaching on your territory, and you have to keep up appearances of a "take no shit" group of thugs. You want to go to war... you are going to start a gang war. Take it to the mattresses.
Gang wars have no special rules. You treat it as everyday roleplay. If your character, as a member of a gang, wants to attack a member of another gang, go ahead. You may roleplay it out in the main channel (#new_reno) as freeform, or if there is a GM present, everyone involved may ask the GM to run a dice-based fight with duel rules. A GM has every right to additionally insist that both/all players involved use dice, like always.
Any deaths in a gang war fight will remove lives from your sheet. Perma-death fights are allowed and likely not uncommon in gang war related fighting.
Keep in mind: if you attack a member of a Gang, you might just get retribution not only from that member later, but from the rest of the Gang as well. Gang wars are a bloody business and, lots of times, continue for a long time just because neither side wants to back down and both sides have personal vendettas.
Multiple Membership
Like real life, you are allowed by the rules to be members of multiple Gangs. After all, nothing is stopping you from signing on with the Sixers, and then being part of the Arcanists' book club on the weekends. You are restricted to being part of 5 Gangs, at max. Only one will appear on your character sheet, and for all administrative things for the second gang (Funds donation/withdrawal), you need to contact any of the GMs.
You are not allowed to have more than one of your own characters in the same gang without GM permission. To get GM permission, you must have a distinct, logical, and real in-character reason for your character to join and must demonstrate that it is for in-character reasons only, mainly through lengthy and quality RP. Having multiple characters in the same gang simply to bolster the roster, to share funds between your own characters, or to otherwise take advantage of the Gang rules is strictly forbidden and will have bad repercussions. If you do have multiple characters in the same gang, try to keep as much separation as possible for funds and equipment between the two characters.
This is not to say that some gangs will not be overly pleased if they find out you are part of multiple gangs, and may perform some culling of the herd.
Any Gang RP done will count towards one gang or the other, not both.
Secrecy
Despite any reputation a gang may gain, you can keep gangs more secret. Imagine a spy network that advertised themselves all around town; they would simply not be efficient.
When registering a Gang, you can keep the existence or roster of a Gang secret. Keep in mind, however, that to perform some Gang RP and Gang XP roleplay, your Gang's existence might be revealed. Efforts can be made to keep the existence of the Gang a secret as it does more and more in the city; speak with a GM about how to keep a Gang's existence secret.
NPC's
It would be illogical that a Gang specifically has to be PC's. "You can't join our Gang, your controller isn't a Player." However, it is just as unreasonable to assume that you can add a hundred NPC's to your gang without a requirement.
It is possible to bring NPCs into your gang. There is a specific RP requirement to do so, depending on the specific functions of the NPC. There will be a general 100 paragraph requirement to establish a level 1 NPC in your Gang, with modifications to this for different capabilities/levels. A street urchin with no appreciable skills may be only 75 paragraphs; a 3rd level bodyguard may be 200 paragraphs. The more RP you put in with the NPC after the NPC is established, as well, the higher level the NPC may become. The specific requirement is up to the GM's.
GM's retain the right to control an NPC at any time, and may modify an NPC at any time. The specific abilities of the NPC's will be kept and recorded by the GM's, and you should work out with them what they are capable of. Keep in mind, NPC's will not obey your every whim. They may be your character's employees, but they are not zealots.
These rules apply to those not in a gang as well (e.g., owning a bar and having an NPC bartender, or running a clinic with an NPC bodyguard and secretary). NPC's can be established normally without any requirements, but for them to have any real effect on the game (e.g., a bouncer for your bar that will actually keep PC's from trashing the place up), you must go through this means.
Organizations
At a certain point, small-time organizations might make a leap of power into something solid and unwavering. The Mordinos, the Wrights, the Bishops, the Assassins... at one point, they were all small groups trying to eke out a coherent existence. Over time, through sweat, tears, blood, and luck, they settled themselves deeply into New Reno to the point that they could not easily be ousted. This doesn't happen often in Reno, with the pressure from the Families to keep small-time gangs down.
Most groups want to be at this point, where they are notable enough, influential enough, and powerful enough to command respect, awe, and fear. And this can potentially happen for a PC Gang as well.
There might come a time where a Gang has established itself solidly in the city. The Gang survived, grew, flourished, and rooted itself in place to the point where mere threats and perhaps a small squad of Mordino gunmen wouldn't wipe them off the city's map completely. They have spent months or years working hard to build their reputation and prowess.
Some Gangs that get to this point might be given the opportunity and honor of becoming a Special Organization. A Special Organization is a group that has seated themselves in the city so solidly that, even if a few individual members are removed, the organization itself isn’t going anywhere for a long time, whether this be through alliances, political power struggles, having too many powerful members to kill off, having a completely secret "membership roster"... and almost certainly a combination of these.
A Special Organization would be groups similar to Cain's Assassin Guild. They would have some special rules that apply to them in addition to all the other perks. Cain’s Guild gets the assassination special rules and the no-identity special rules. Any Special Organization would get rules of their own, as well. This would be worked out with one or more GM’s when/if the time came to that, and the group could then either present ideas for what they would like, or the GM’s would decide on what would be appropriate. GM's retain every right to accept, reject, or modify any suggestions given by the players, and they have final say in what rules the organization has. A new Special Organization will get only one extra rule, and the longer they last, more rules that will be added, although this will be limited at 2 (perhaps 3 at most, for a special case). The only difference between one of these Special Organizations and Cain's Guild is that Cain's Guild is run by an NPC, and these would be run by PC's.
These special rules represent the sheer amount of specialized training that members have to go through to be part of the Special Organization. Cain’s assassins are highly trained in the art of assassination... hence the special assassination rules. And they also have established training and special procedures to make sure their identities are top-secret. A group of librarians might get a special Lore ability, in which they get an Int/Level/Luck check with a bonus to know any particular fact or piece of information, however obscure, and later, they might get automatic knowledge of a set number of languages.
Attaining the status of Special Organization will require a mind-boggling amount of effort on all PCs' parts in the group. It is a reverent position that no Gang should ever expect to get without incredible devotion and effort.
There are no set requirements to become a Special Organization. There is no RP paragraph minimum, nor a minimum number of members or a minimum amount of time that the Gang has to be in existence. However, this is not to say that there are no requirements. Every single member of the group is required to put in a lot of gang-devoted, quality roleplay. The Gang as a whole will show its collective, solid effort to roleplay, and any decisions to turn a Gang into a Special Organization would partially hinge on the impression of the quality and amount of this roleplay. If there is a single GM or player that has been in the game regularly for at least a few months who does not know about your Gang or has not seen a decent amount of RP in the main chat room and Quests related to your Gang, there is no chance your Gang will be a Special Organization any time soon.
Another requirement to become a Special Organization is stability, both internally and externally. The Gang must have a solid, stable 'roster'. There cannot be a frequent flux of the majority of the members, and there cannot be a new 'Gang Leader' every other week. Additions of members and culling the herd is allowed, but there needs to be a lasting core of members. If a group can't stay coherent, it will never achieve more status than a small-time organization. Additionally, the Gang must be stable within the city. It must be solidly entrenched in existence, to the point where a decently-sized squad of Mordino hit-men or a physical assault from a local gang of thugs would not wipe a majority of the members from the city, or where public defamity, ill rumors, and verbal attack will not dissolve the workings of the organization. The Gang must be a moderate to major player in the physical and political power game of the city. All in all, this Gang is here, and it is not going anywhere soon.
Basically, this means the entire Gang would have to be very dedicated to the game and to roleplaying as a Gang, and the Gang would have had to at least a few monumental things in the game to get to that point.
A Gang should never approach the GMs and ask to become a Special Organization. It is a privelege and an honor given by the GMs, like a medal is given to a soldier, and it should never be asked for.
Here are two examples of Gangs that work their way towards becoming Special Organizations.
The Sect
They are a small group of vigilantes that started out in the Northern part of the city. They weren’t even on the radar yet and just decided to get together and start taking some turf. They RP a lot to get enough money for a decently-sized warehouse as a base of operations, get some security on it. They start going into the surrounding neighborhoods and pushing around the local gangs... through good RP, they either disband a few gangs of thugs in the area or make alliances.
A few months go by, filled with RP, and this gang starts to grow in size... maybe 10 decent members, all stably within the group. One or two of the local gangs finally defect and join the Sect, bolstering the numbers. This continues, and the span of influence of the Sect spreads to 10 square city blocks.
The Bishops get wind of this now, later than they normally would due to a lot of good RP keeping the Sect’s movements and actions covert. They send a message to the Sect, essentially saying to disband and stop their activities or to come under the Bishop influence as a Bishop subsidiary.
The Sect agrees at first, but then starts waging sabotage wars on the Bishops' holdings. They strike a few warehouses, take some critical supplies, make trouble for the Bishops overall. The Bishops retaliate by inducting a few spies into the Sect's ranks. A month later, the Bishops launch a brutal assault on the HQ of the Sect. The Sect, however, puts up a good fight. They lose half their members, but kills off a lot of the heavier-armed, better-trained Bishop gunmen.
The Sect also makes a pact with the Wrights, now, and rebolster their ranks. After another month of tense feelings, the Bishops and Sect agree on a truce. The Sect will be allowed rights within a certain section of the city which is dangerously close to Bishop territory, and there is an agreement of nonviolence.
Another number of months are spent RPing establishing a new base of operations, making alliances with local gangs, setting up ties with the Bishops and Wrights. Now, if anyone attacks the Sect, they have a lot of Sect members to deal with, plus the Bishops, the Wrights, and a few autonomous but allied local gangs.
At this point, the Sects are well on their way of becoming a Special Organization. After a few more months of roleplaying for the gang, the offer could then be made by the GMs for the Sect to become a special organization, after which a special rule for the Organization could be formed based on the more specific details of the Sect. A number of months later, a second rule would likely be added.
The Arcanists
The Arcanists started off as simply a small group of people who like the idea of devoting their lives to information. They meet up at the library at first as a book club, reading a vast span of literature.
They soon realize that knowledge is power. They overhear things, because these are the people that no one thinks of as dangerous. They adopt a few more people, a few more friends into their covert group, keeping their ears open and their mouths shut to all but those in the know. And in places like the Desperado and Shark's Club, there is plenty to hear.
A few months of this pass by. They additionally roleplay getting onto the vaguely good sides of all three Families in the city, as well as the Shi and the hospital. Everyone likes them... why not? Most of these guys look like generally decent people, and they're quite endearing.
They soon make a number of friends whose business it is to know and tell for a price. They pick up the tid-bits of information here and there and piece them together, sifting the fact from rumor. They do favors, and they get favors. Within a few months, with a little more coherent organization, they have now become an information network within the city. Everyone likes them... these guys sell out information that they come across, in tactful, don't-make-obvious-enemies sorts of ways. The Arcanists are on the good side of every major political power in the city and have established a truce with the Assassins for a no-information-shared, no-hits performed policy.
Another few months, and this has blown into a full-time information network. All these members, maybe 8 in total, know more about the workings of the city than any of the Families. They know certain things that are dangerous to know, and they back up the information in secretly-kept files. They are useful allies, for the sake of information, and they are dangerous enemies. No one wants to piss them off, and no one has a reason to. Everyone wants information.
After a few more months of roleplaying solidifying political contacts with the Families and other organizations, and perhaps even establishing an alliance with the Brotherhood and the NCR, this group has entrenched itself in the city. They aren’t easily removed, just like Cain’s Guild isn’t easily removed. This would be a time to make it a Special Organization, and the rules applied to this Organization would focus around information-gathering and favors.
In all cases, without friends watching your back, you might just get a knife in it. Keep your friends close... and sometimes, keep your enemies closer.
