Okay here we go, I see a lot of people are attempting to roleplay an Italian mafia, but fail miserably. Therefore I will write this little guide up to ease them through their way and hopefully help out.
First off all, I'll go through the hierarchy of basically any crime family out there.
The Boss, yes Boss no one uses the term Godfather or Don anymore, it is outdated. The Boss runs the family, everything regarding it comes to him, he makes the calls on what happens to whom and finally he gets a nice fat envelope at the end of the week.
The Underboss, he is the right hand man of the Boss, he can make decisions about the family without the Boss knowing, if something happened to the Boss, he takes over until he is either recovered, out of jail and if he died the Underboss is named Boss.
Consigliere, I see a lot of confusion about this rank around the server, the Consigliere is an advisor, he can make decision about the family, but in no way does he overpower the Underboss.
Captain, he runs a crew of made guys and associates who pay him a cut of all their weekly income and then he passes a cut of that to the Boss himself. Captains do not make any calls inside the family besides their crew, they decide if an associate gets killed or not. They cannot sanction a hit on a made guy unless the Boss gave a green light.
Made guy, Soldier, he is an official member of the family, he took the oath or as it is called Omerta. The Law of Silence. After someone is made, he becomes untouchable from anyone inside the family, only the Boss can order his death no one else. They pay a weekly kick up to their Captains and collect from Associates who are under their wing.
Associate, he is a low-life of the family, he is known amongst some made men, but is still a no one. He goes on minor jobs pays a small cut from his weekly income as tribute, very expendable manpower or muscle, mistakes are rarely tolerated amongst Associates.
Now that you read all this, forget it that is absolutely wrong. The only place in the whole world that has more hypocrisy is the US Congress. The way the mob works nowadays is like this. Imagine a pot of boiling water and crabs cooking inside, now when a crab is about to reach the top and escape another crabs pulls it back down. That is ladies and gentlemen how the mafia works. You think being made is a good thing? Think again now your Captain sets a weekly fee you got to pay or as they call it a "nutt", if you do not manage to pay in time you get a nice interests added to the total fee or popularly called a "wig", now the nutt is so big each week that you barely make ends meet. You still think being made is awesome? Lets go further every single of your new "brothers" has a police informant that gets all the info about you and every other member. Yeah everyone is snitching on each other without even being arrested. Now about the so called 10 commandments of the mafia, those do not exist, it is all a bunch of rubbish. You can break as many rules as you like as long as your weekly envelope is fat enough. Why would a Boss have you killed about some 100 year old rules if he is getting 100 grand from you each week? Bad business, on the other hand if you don't supply the Boss' greedy pockets with cash you get forgot, 1 minor fuck up and you are out. Great life isn't it? Lets roll some more, I see a lot of people are roleplaying Sicilians here, what they do not know, a real Italian mobster would be mocked in modern day America, they are just not liked. Take all this into consideration when roleplaying, mobsters aren't gentlemen they are plain cutthroats and thieves, that would do anything to save their asses.
How the mafia operates will be shown below.
Truck high jacking, racketeering, murder for hire, narcotics trafficking, firearm trafficking, fraud, bookmaking, loan sharking.
Now I will go into detail for each and every one of these stated above just to clarify them.
Truck high jacking, it used to be the mobs biggest money income during the golden age, now it has taken a step back but is still happening. Mobs have people inside the trucking companies that tip them off about a good haul, an ambush that looks like someone had an accident is set, before you know the truck is gone and driver left on the street.
Racketeering, many of you do not know what this is, but it has been used by the mafia since the 1920's. There are to many rackets to mention them all, but here are a few examples. Protection racket, the mob offers "protection" to a business so they pay, if they refuse, damage is dealt to the building or even the owner himself. Fencing racket is also very common, stealing items of value and selling them back to the owner for a modest price. Numbers racket it's one of the most lucrative rackets there is, simply put, it is illegal gambling, secret poker games, a lottery, many more.
Murder for hire, I won't spend many words here it is self-explanatory.
Narcotics trafficking, the name says it all, however what most people do wrong here is the amount. The mob does not deal in 100's of kilos, they spread that around their ranks, everyone gets a piece of the pie. The larger the amount moved the more attention gained. Often mobsters hand out drugs to local street dealers for a cut.
Firearm trafficking, same as narcotics, however the mob does not do this on regular basis, they are not known for selling firearms. Most guns are used for personal use, rarely are they sold and in small amounts, 2-3 handguns.
Fraud, this is a large area to cover, I will only point out the crimes only tied to the mafia. Insurance fraud, this is often tied to arson, someone can't pay their debt? Burn their house down and take the money. There are several more, but not used as the one I mentioned.
Bookmaking, this is really simple it's a person or a group of people that take bets, this would be all fine if the betting itself wasn't illegal.
Loan sharking, the bank want give you a loan for a dream house? A loan shark or a shylock which ever you prefer is you way to money. The way a shy business operates, goes like this. You borrow someone money with an small weekly interest, for conversations sake here is an example. You borrow $40,000 at 1.5 points (1.5% interest) weekly. Now you will have to pay $600 every week to them before you even start paying of those $40,000.
