Advanced Class Suggestion - Crime Boss - Full template -

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Advanced Class Suggestion - Crime Boss - Full template -

Postby cheshirez on Thu Sep 01, 2016 10:03 am

As I was browsing through the site and pondering the things missing in TLI it occurred to me that Thieves have no advanced class to move towards with their thief class portion of their character. This is a first write draft of my ideas in a template form, as per the existing class descriptions of the website. I'm not entirely sure about the stats (and some of the races allowed). The exact mechanic rolls I am suggesting at this time, but I think they could be both functional and interesting to make the class unique in it's own way. Feel free to suggest changes, things you like/don't like, or otherwise comment how you see fit. However I would request that if there is a major issue or something that wouldn't work here explain why, that way if no one runs with the idea I can think it over and come up with something different. Forgive typos/editing btw... so here we are, wall of advanced class text. :)

Crime Boss:

The crime boss is most often a veteran rogue ; refined by years of streetwise, pick pocketing, and stealing. The crime boss has garnered notoriety, wealth, and followers due to their success at living life without regard to the law. The crime boss is shrewd, cunning, and most often mysterious as they deal in secrets as much as coin. The crime boss is notorious and as such, often appear as merchants and mercenaries. Favors, secrets, and back room deals are life's blood of the crime boss. They can provide these services to those in need at a certain price ; but ultimately the crime boss serves their own purposes above all others. They are often quick of wit, fleet of foot, glib of tongue, and have the courage (or reckless stupidity) to carry out long term criminal endeavors. They distinguish themselves from the rank and file street thief by both aptitude and scope of their actions. While a thief might rob, steal, swindle and extort a single person a crime boss enacts their criminal endeavors on a macro scale.

Character Creation

Allowable Races: Cat People, Drak Sen, Elves, Fae, Goblins, Halflings, Humans, Pixies and Nixies, Sithians, Wolven
Qualifying Classes: Thief, Bard, Ranger, Warrior
Class Type: Advanced Physical
Spell Spheres Allowed: Common, Racial
Armor: A, B, C (leather or mithril chain only, to exclude Vambraces and Greaves)
Weapons: A, B, C (only bows and crossbows from C)
Class Bonus Stats:
Str: 0 Int: 4 Agi: 3 Res: 2 Life: 1

Mindset:
The crime boss as their name implies shows little respect for adhering to the law and much respect for not being caught. While unscrupulous and untrustworthy they always have a small code of morals that they adhere. These morals may not be compatible with laws or religions but they are what allow the crime boss to attract underlings and other criminals to work with them for mutual gain. An example of such would be refusing to kill women or children, only robbing from the poor, or never going back on their oaths. While often equipped to deal with the rugged wilds, the crime boss is best at home in large populations where their criminal behavior blends in with the everday bustle of existence. Some rare crime bosses have known to be bandits or highway robbers, roaming between lands and ambushing merchants for their goods. The crime boss is often notorious and suspected of large amounts of illegal activity ; and in some cases has been caught for such before. Because of this they still show a healthy respect for the law in most public settings, as incarceration would make things more complicated in running their criminal enterprises. Crime bosses are often ranking members of the thieves guild or closely associated with them, or other more secretive criminal enterprises that serve a larger purpose. The existence of the crime boss is tolerated by the greater powers of Belariath due to the nature of the work ; smuggling, assassination, sabotage, theft, frame work, grifting, and the list goes on to the extent of human creativity. These services are often rendered for influential parties and sometimes even nobles that may not sully their reputation with breaking the law directly. Crime bosses have a specific dislike for paladins, guards, and other enforcers of law and order as they see these creatures as being naive as to how the world functions. Likewise they have a dislike for individuals that are uncontrollably disruptive to the flow of society (invading barbarians, goblin threats, unstable murderers) as they would directly interfere with their livelihood. This is best exmplified by the saying, "You can sheer a sheep many times but only skin it once." Crime lords wants the status quo to maintain or shift in their favor. They are most often motivated by wealth and power ; but some crime lords use their influence to quest for some greater goal. Most crime bosses are highly determined, invidiualistic personas that are self made. The ranks of this class are most often filled by thieves that ascend to the role of leadership, rangers that eschew their forest dwellings and take up city life, some unscrupulous bards, and warriors that no longer pursue a path of pure military might. Some crime bosses have a flair for the dramatic and insist on being addressed by special titles or psuedonyms.

Concept:
The crime boss is a rogue above rogues, a scheming and determined leader that has organized with less talented criminal individuals. The crime boss is often a capable fighter due to previous training ; favoring light weaponry and ranged attacks. Each crime boss is different but they all adhere to some sort of code of behavior that allows them to lead their underlings ; honor amongst thieves. Violating this code of behavior may result in drastic loss of influence, power, or followers. They mingle in all walks of city life slowly skimming, grafting, and plotting to further their goals. Because of their scale of influence crime bosses may become notorious and well known to the local population.

Advantage:

Crime Pays: Each time that the crime boss is taken the Crime Boss gains steal/pick pocket levels as the thief class advantage 'Light Fingers'. However these bonuses may only stack with existing thief bonuses to a limit of 5. (In example: Thiefx1/Crime Bossx1 would still be considered as two levels of thief for rolling purposes, while Ranger/Crime Bossx3 would be considered Thiefx3 for rolling purposes to a cap of x5 for any combination). In addition, Crime Boss gains access to the "Criminal Mastermind" ranked skill which they may use to perform work logs to be paid out as other work logs when roleplayed and logged appropriately on the forums. The "Criminal Mastermind" ranked skill is limited by the size of one's organization by the factor of two henchmen per point of Criminal Mastermind. For example, if the Crime Boss has six henchmen available they may worklog at Criminal Mastermind 3, but if they have only two henchmen they may only worklog at Criminal Mastermind 1. This is to reflect how smoothly the operation of the Crime Boss is operating. A Crime Boss without henchman is no longer a boss and may not develop wealth through criminal enterprises until they replenish their stock of henchmen over time.

Too Big to Fail: When a player initially takes the Crime Boss class they acquire five 'henchman'. Subsequent additions of the Crime Boss class add an additional two henchman to the existing total. to a max of thirteen. This group of NPCs acts as spies, agents, thieves, and enforcers for the Crime Boss' operations. Unless completely isolated from outside contact, the crime boss may operate their business from incarceration by any number of communication methods. As such they may continue to use the "Criminal Mastermind" skill if they are incarcerated as long as it is not complete solitary (IE 'the hole"). If apprehended or attacked on their local domain (their neighborhood/village/town/merchant road) they may sacrifice one henchman per assailant to make an escape (mechanics to be determined). Henchmen automatically replenish at the rate of one per month, on the first day of the month. In the case of incarceration the Crime Boss may sacrifice five henchmen at once to make an escape attempt(Mechanics to be determined). Henchmen are automatically lost during the escape attempt whether it succeeds or fails and will regenerate as per normal henchmen regeneration. When the heat is too heavy, the Crime Boss may interact with shops/stores/other characters through henchmen. A henchmen used to interact with other characters or establishments in this way are subject to normal arrest/capture/being killed without immediate reprisal as it would be considered the Crime Boss is too far away to assist/intervene. Henchmen have 10% of the combat stats of their Boss and may not initiate attacks against player characters, quest, or otherwise pariticpate in special events. Essentially they only defend themselves and retreat when threatened.

Disadvantage:

Notorious: The Crime Boss' activities are of such a scale and influence that is no longer possible to keep such behaviors completely secret. In the crime boss' area of operations it is considered common rumor that they are the ones behind much of the illegal activity in a specific area. This results in guards, law enforcement, and other ambassodors of order to highly suspect the Crime Boss. Crime boss characters are unable to ascend to the rank of noble or other official government positions, even as a double agent, they are simply too known to slip through unless they are using extremely powerful magic disguises. They also may not be in part of any law enforcing organization. A crime boss will refuse/avoid to work with such individuals as a matter of of their own reputation amongst other criminals. A crime boss may also have difficulty acquiring honest labor/jobs in many locations.

Honor Amongst Thieves: While a law breaker and unscrupulous ; the crime boss does have a code of behavior that they adhere and their henchmen follow them for this reason. Some crime bosses may be averse to killing civilians or innocents. Another crime boss may only rob from the rich to give away to the poor. Some crime bosses place profit above all else. A Crime Boss character should document their code in their character notes or background at creation. When a character violates their own Honor Code they immediately lose three henchmen. It is possible for this code to change over time as a result of rp or changes in the fundamental viewpoints of the character, but if they stop adhering to some sort of honor code they will lose all henchmen. Honor codes may be very elaborate or a few simple things that they will not do, regardless of the circumstances.

-Cheshire/Eleniel
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Re: Advanced Class Suggestion - Crime Boss - Full template

Postby miyuka on Fri Sep 02, 2016 3:03 am

nice write up not sure if this is something we'd be bringing in to the game, but hey, if SB says to go for it, then I'm in.

Crime Pays: There is no criminal mastermind ranked skill. Not sure how I feel about the whole worklog thing here as well as a class skill. Feels like it'd prolly fit in with a different system of the game.

Too big to fail: An interesting concept, though hard to really say without the mechanics. I also feel that it could lead to too much NPC related play in certain times. It also falls into the whole criminal master mind thing

Notorious: Really good RP disadv

Honor Amongst Thieves: Flows well, but still has the issue of possibly relying on the criminal master mind tanked skill thing

One thing to take note of is that there are no in combat adv/disadv for this class which is something we try to do for most of the classes (unless it's just not meant to be a combat class and even then they may still have some). Too big to fail seems to fit that with Advantage, but disadvantage wise there's nothing for it. A good rule of thumb is that the combat disadvantage and advantage have something to do with one another.
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Re: Advanced Class Suggestion - Crime Boss - Full template

Postby cheshirez on Fri Sep 02, 2016 4:55 am

Ah yeah, I really think the combat system has such a high mathematical variance combined with the no-level cap problem of this game, that it really seems daunting to even try to add combat advantages/disadvantages. But there's definitely room to move ideas around in this template! The Criminal Mastermind skill would be a normal ranked skill, kind of like this:


Criminal Mastermind: (Crime Boss)
Novice: Henchmen able to pick pocket, steal, and rob singular targets on a regular basis. (Requires 2 Henchmen)
Apprentice: Henchmen able to pick pocket, steal, rob, grift, and swindle multiple targets in a small area. (Requires 4 Henchmen)
Journeyman: Henchmen able to enact long term cons, forgeries, smuggling, extortion, and other more complicated crimes. (Requires 6 Henchmen)
Expert: Henchmen are able to enact any conceivable crime to exclude murder in a village/city wide area and are well informed of ongoing criminal activity. (8 Henchmen)
Master: Henchmen may conduct wide scale operations ; often in secret and undetected by lesser skilled law enforcement. (10 or more henchmen)

Basically the reason why I think a Crime ranked skill would be good is because the pick pocket/shop steal mehrial values predate the work log changes that allow people to make lots of mehrial. If criminal characters are taking massive risks to make 20-100 mhl it hardly feels worth it to roll (seems like a lot of thieves just skip shop stealing all together but I'm not privvy to how much shop stealing goes on actually, just my impression).

Some possible ideas that could be different then:
Change Crime Pays to a combat oriented ability, either individual, or henchmen related. Off the top ideas such as "Henchmen Mob" - Large amount of henchmen attack/swarm the enemy so the boss can escape. Or something like "Diabolical Choice" - presenting assailants with the option to save/stop X event or letting the boss escape. And as most games, there is room to look at a combat advantage related to initiative or other rogue type mechanics like being very hard to hit, causing dangerous wounds with a pin point strike (Like for example something that does life damage over a number of rounds), or even something like being able to catch projectiles and throw them back at an assailant! Just some initial thoughts..

Then if Crime Pays is redone, could grandfather in thief pickpocket/steal to this class in the same way that Mages keep their basic spells when they advance ; IE if you already have pick pocket you don't lose it when losing the thief class. It honestly seems grossly unfair that Mages keep the key component of their class (spells) when they advance but the unique component of thief is done away with if they advance.

So move Crime Pays to a combat skill, roll in all the henchmen rules into Too big to Fail and restrict the level of NPC interaction that a player can conduct, then make the Criminal Mastermind ranked skill as a normal ranked skill but available to Crime Boss only. This should open up space for a combat advantage, allow the class a unique mechanic, and allow them to work log on par with other 'civilian' employees as per freelancers, and thanks to the notorious disadvantage. :)

The Honor Amongst Thieves disadvantage could be reworked entirely to a combat disadvantage (not sure where to go with that yet) or it could be similar to the Duessa no kill rule, disconnect it from the henchmen and instead make violations of the honor code a big OOC nono that could lead to an enforced class change (Kind of like how Paladins have to adhere to their code of good or become.. not a Paladin). And the base stat template probably would need to be looked at with someone is nice and mathy with the implications thereof and how it would measure up to other classes, I just kind of winged that with the stat totals from other templates.

The driving idea behind the whole henchman mechanic is to create a conflict of interest game, or risk/reward for the crime boss. They can send out henchmen to interact/do stuff/or maybe get away, but doing so puts them at risk economically in the short term (Build up criminal empire/dismantled/rebuild) sort of RP cycle. I also thought it would be a good way to get the IG involved in a more meaningful manner than IG shows up and arrests you because they have god gear and stats, comms devices, mounts, and many of them are levelled to what I would call "the not going to catch up ever zone", considering. It gives them NPCs to go after, slowly weakning the crime boss while they track them down.. or maybe it's all part of a devious trap! :) This is modelled a bit after the comic theme where a villain is defeated but gets away, slowly rebuilds their henchmen and plan, and breaks out again with some new devious plot! It also gives IG a way to cripple/interact active Crime Bosses as they would be worklogging in a public setting (town etc.). Anyway that's my ideas, didn't know about the combat adv/disadv thing or I might have written it that way to begin with.
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Re: Advanced Class Suggestion - Crime Boss - Full template

Postby miyuka on Fri Sep 02, 2016 5:29 am

Spells and class adv/disadv/skills aren't the same. When you change from one class to another you lose and gain class related things. Spells are a different system. In fact, some spells have mechanics directly related to the amount of times the class is picked, so you can really lose out on certain spells. One has nothing to do with the other, Dev wise. It's why people cross class, so they don't lose certain aspects of the class that they normally would have lost.

as far as criminal mastermind is concerned, the problem is that you're basing a large part of this class write up on something that could potentially never exist so it's quite difficult to try and fathom a good part of this.

The ideas presented here are good ones, I just don't know if they really fit in with how SB wishes the game to be. And not all the IG have god gear and/or stats. The lowest members can be as low as level 5 for the recruits. Your ideas could use some more fleshing out, you def have a good template to work with.
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Re: Advanced Class Suggestion - Crime Boss - Full template

Postby CallieO on Sun Sep 25, 2016 10:19 am

I like the idea of an advanced class for Thieves, and hope to see the Crime Boss class approved. =D>
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