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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DrunkonDuty" data-source="post: 4525542" data-attributes="member: 54364">Hey everyone, thanks for the replies. Sorry to take so long getting back to this but was away sunning myself on a beach for the weekend. (And I left you folks to do all the hard thinking for me. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" />)  I like this, especially for a town that is run by a single, monolithic Thieves Guild. They keep the forms of government as a cover/distraction/sop/target. Also very handy if that town is part of a larger political organisation (ie: a kingdom.) Which I guess segues into all those of you who mentioned looking at the history of Chicago (and other similar places). I should have thought of Al Capone myself. D'oh. Good old Alphonse was the unofficial mayor of Chicago for a while there but could only ever be unofficial, thanks to the Feds. He needed to keep the forms of legitimate government and pretend to be a legitimate Italian businessman. Not that he pretended very hard at all. But the legal forms were all very well taken care of. This works very well for a thieves guild operating in an otherwise Good kingdom. A thief town would be a pocket of hidden (or at least plausibly deniable) corruption within the larger Good kingdom. With Detect Lie spells, plausible deniability would be essential. Hell, the thieves would even enjoy their rather open flaunting of the laws and government.   I like this too. Combined with what Rechan said about a guild operating as a corporation this is making all sorts of evil ideas dance in my little brain. Very cyberpunk ideas. A guild that looks for new and interesting ways to rip people off, er, I mean provide essential services for clients. (Just like a marketing department.) Pyramid scams, gaming, extortion, protection, prostitution and drugs all work so well in this sort of setting. And I do like the suggestion of corporate espionage.  Just thought of a VERY lawful guild, in which all these areas are broken up into different departments, each with its own rules and regs. Maybe even a complaints process. I can see it now, honest citizen Joe X goes into the guild to complain that he was robbed even though his payments are up to date.  'Nah mate, this is Protection. YOU pay US to protect YOU from THIRD PARTIES. What you're talking about is Extortion, where YOU pay US to protect YOU from US. Room 3b.'   Oh yeah! The rival gangs thing is working for me. ESPECIALLY with the ineffectual 'real' government' and ordinary folks caught in the middle. On a small scale you can have Yojimbo (or A Fistful of Dollars for that matter) on a larger scale a full-on roaring 20's style Chicago complete with government corruption, St Valentines Day Massacres and outbreaks of public outrage at same. Plenty of room here for PCs to work on any side: for a gang; for the Syndicate as special 'cleaners' to prevent/hide excessive breaches of the peace; for the government as a secret anti-gang police or to silence 'unofficial' criminals; as outside heroes determined to clean up the town; as outside crooks looking for a piece of the pie.  I've not heard this but I will definitely do some research. Actually... Just remembered a tale of how Crassus became the richest man in Rome. He used to head up the fire department. He would show up with his fire fighters and, if paid sufficiently, would put out the fire. But his preferred modus operandi was to offer to buy the building for a tiny fraction of its worth. Then, once he owned it, his boys would go fight the fire. And I'll bet dollars to donuts that more than a few fires would have been started by Crassus. Now that's what I call a really privatised public service. Once again thanks to everyone for the replies. Cheers,Glen</blockquote>

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