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nezumi
All in the Family
The Mafia and Corporations in the Sixth World



I finished reading McMafia (excellent book), and decided to apply what I learned to the Shadowrun lore, specifically how mafias fit in with the wider world (the SR books mostly describe how the mafias relate to each other).


What is a Mafia?
The word ‘mafia’ refers to a ‘transnational grouping of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for the purpose of generating profit’.

The line between megacorporation (a transnational grouping of highly centralized enterprises (corporations) run by people generally not found to be criminals, for the purpose of engaging in activity for the purpose of generating profit) and mafia can be a thin one, defined solely by the word of law, if that. Many people forget that Mitsuhama was originally created and owned by the Yakuza for money laundering. Meanwhile, the Yakuza offer a variety of legitimate services, from legal advice to insurance. Corporations recognize that profit is profit, whether it comes from black or white sources. A megacorporation won’t want a mafia directly under its umbrella (if only because mafias, not being registered corporations, can’t legally belong to anyone), but the opportunity to invest in, and outsource to a mafia allows them to exploit markets that otherwise would be unavailable to them. The relationship between mafias and corporations are ultimately symbiotic, but necessarily discrete.

Most ‘mafias’, as I am referring to them, have become a name brand, a franchise. There is no single ‘La Cosa Nostra’. There are dozens of families who each subscribe to the shared beliefs, culture, rules, oaths and alliances (generally) which define ‘La Cosa Nostra’, and a single council which helps to guide and arbitrate between the families. It is important to remember that I speak here in generalities, and what may apply to most families does not necessarily apply to all. However, should a family violate the code, culture, etc. of the mafia to which it belongs, it can be expected to be expelled, unable to represent that name (as we have seen with the Seoulpa Rings).

The name brand helps because it offers a united front and dependable allies. Families reinforce each other against external threats, offer a wide range of skills and contacts, and reinforce one another’s reputation. The larger organization allows it to negotiate deals with corporations and governments, as the pooled resources and representation are greater. The corporation benefits dealing at the higher level because it allows the families to take up more slack from one another and reduces competition (any grievances are addressed when the contract is made).

Mafia and Small Organizations
Each family answers to the core tenets and counsel of its mafia, and families have non-mafia gangs, businesses and individuals under their control. The downward relationship is strictly business. The family provides goods and services in exchange for goods and services. Common exchanges are reputation, protection, wholesale prices or resource access (on the mafia side) for local knowledge, local loyalties, and outsourcing of work which is otherwise expensive or high-risk.

Mafia and the Community
At the lowest level, the mafia requires the tolerance and support of its home community in order to be able to work effectively. In exchange, it provides services such as protection and business opportunities. Mafias may use excessive force to squash detractors, but overall they must keep their people happy. Mafias which are wholly parasitic are, in the long-run, at a competitive disadvantage to mafias who reinvest in their turf and human resources. Mafias regularly share intense emotional or familial bonds with the local community, and so both charity and substantial reinvestment of capital are very common. In fact, it is not unusual for a mafia to provide more services than the government, and for citizens to reciprocate with a strong sense of loyalty.

Mafia and Police Services
Police services are a point of contention, and only recently has any compromise been made. Lone Star’s goal is to keep the streets (including, to a lesser degree, the barrens) quiet, to keep illegal business out of sight, and to make a profit. Because of this, mafias are preferable than most other criminal enterprises. They provide protection in their realms of control, keep their business transactions discrete, and regularly give tip-offs in the form of cash, resources, information or goods to Lone Star and its officers. This quid-pro-quo keeps everyone happy. Lone Star recognizes that pursuing only high-visibility mafia activity is preferable to actually seeking out and prosecuting mafia members. The mafias recognize Lone Star as a necessary business expense.

Mafia and Corporations
Historically, mafias have engaged in four classic businesses:
1) The production or gathering of illegal goods (drugs or personal information)
2) The illegal transportation of licit or illicit goods illegally (drug-running, gun-running, non-taxed fuel or luxury goods)
3) The retailing of illegal goods (selling drugs, ‘selling’ kidnap victims)
4) Protection (either extortion or authentic security where legitimate sources have failed to provide. Protection can include armed protection against crime, insurance, goods reclamation and judicial services.)

The matrix has opened up a fifth category, relating to the capture, use or destruction of data.

When a corporation wishes to break into these markets, it usually finds it safer to do so through outsourcing to a mafia, rather than doing so directly (which requires additional infrastructure and assumption of legal risk and liability). Because of the rise of power of corporations, many businesses which used to be illegal (and under mafia control) no longer are so. This shift continues, pushing the most profitable mafia lines of business back. However, certain businesses continue to be strictly outlawed, and mafias have maintained their place as the most cost-effective avenue to exploit them.

Just as corporations invest in the illegal activities of shadowrunners and spies for profit, so they will invest in the mafia. These relationships are rarely public, and it is not always necessary for either party to know all the details of what it is being asked to do. For instance, Tiang Pharmaceutical’s use of Triad drug networks to distribute and test new combat drugs, or Ares passing on loads of flawed firearm cartridges so as to write off the loss to insurance both illustrate the concept. Usually though the motive is clear. A company produces a product it is unable to easily sell, the other exchanges excess inventory for profit. A company requires an individual agree to a particular deal, and the mafia coerces that individual.

Unless specified otherwise, all the mafias will engage in all these activities to one degree or another, and can be hired by a corporation or individual.

Investment between mafias and corporations are common. Mafias offer high-profit, high-risk opportunities, while corporations offer relatively secure commodities (whose value can be directly influenced by a mafiosa’s inside knowledge). Strong bonds between corporate and mafia personnel regularly result in a high-ranking individual shifting from one side to another, creating stronger loyalties and multiplying the ability of one organization fully utilizing the other. Rarely is an individual’s past public knowledge, as this could result in reputation damage to one or both parties.


There are five mafias well documented in the Shadowrun setting:

La Cosa Nostra
Who are they?
The original ‘mafia’, and the first organized crime group on the continent, La Cosa Nostra originally hails from Sicily, however its bloodline has long since been diluted by Polish, Irish, Jewish, Mexican and Afro-Carribean syndicates, with the actual families intermingling to greater or lesser degrees (making this the ‘European’ or ‘American’ mafia). All of them ultimately at least pay lip service to the organization as a whole, but competition between mafia families is common (and generally violent) as they jockey for position and power. They’re also called the Mafia (notice upper case). Mafia families are usually real families, related by blood, and it is difficult for non-family members (including metahumans) to enter the organization.

What Do They Offer?
La Cosa Nostra is well established in Seattle and offers all of the traditional businesses, in addition to a few legitimate outlets. They own a good deal of land and are well-invested in local businesses. Families tend to specialize in particular lines of business.

Who Are Their Allies?
La Cosa Nostra has a business relationship with Ares. Ares carries the legacy of the companies it bought up, and a cultural and racial predisposition. However, the relationship is not a strong one. Ares sells Ares products at wholesale prices to the Mafia, provides physical and legal protection to high-up Mafia members and assets, and provides cheap access to goods, controlled ingredients and production sites which give the Mafia a source for drugs and explosives. In exchange, the Mafia resells Ares products to difficult-to-reach markets, and sells goods Ares can’t sell under its own name (BTLs, untaxed goods, drugs, etc.) Ares and the Mafia offer each other physical protection, with Knight Errant services being offered at a discount to legitimate Mafia possessions, and the Mafia working through its families and gangs to protect Ares sites and shipments as they pass through the barrens (or other dangerous areas). Ultimately though, the ‘friendly’ relationship is predicated entirely on profit and limited alternatives. Should profits slack, neither has a problem with rescinding the benefits, or turning entirely.

As La Cosa Nostra is the dominant European/American mafia, it works closely with more smaller businesses and local gangs than other, predominantly Asian mafias. This edge is slipping with the introduction of more Eastern European mafias and a more inclusive policy by some Yakuza families.

Lone Star is a point of contention between the two. Ares wants crime to be rampant and outrageous, so Lone Star will lose its security contract to Knight Errant. The Mafia isn’t willing to shake the boat and risk their business. This leaves the Mafia on cordial but working terms with both in areas where LS operates. In areas where Knight Errant holds the local security contract, La Cosa Nostra holds a significant advantage over competing mafias.

La Cosa Nostra is effectively a council of shadow corps, and an affiliate to Ares.


The Yakuza

Who Are They?
The Yakuza originate from Japan. They traditionally drew on the underclasses (including a large number of Koreans) for their membership. This has not completely transitioned to 2060, as the Yakuza limit membership to human, male east or south-east Asians. Unlike most mafias, the Yakuza advertise their presence proudly. They have offices downtown with plaques that clearly indicate their organization, family and rank. Individuals wear distinctive suits and tattoos. They offer legitimate services, which they advertise for and operate under the Yakuza umbrella. Violence is a last resort between Yakuza families, but their strong code of loyalty means perceived slights against family can result in long and bloody vendettas.

What Do They Offer?
In most ways the Yakuza act like a conventional corporation, except they specialize in businesses where access to illegal methods gives them an advantage. For instance, a Yakuza real estate agent may call in Yakuza enforcers to actively harass a seller into lowering his price. Their protection services work outside the scant limitations even Lone Star has to comply with. They take distinct pride in caring for their neighborhoods, and ultimately the services they offer fill legitimate needs (even if done by using illegitimate force). For corporations and individuals, the Yakuza services include legal, real estate, protection, debt recovery, insurance, banking, gambling, prostitution and many more, in addition to the normal staple businesses.

Who Are Their Allies?
Yakuza share a strong bond with the other Japanese corps (Renraku, Mitsuhama, and Shiawise), and lateral personal connections between Yakuza officers and corporate employees are common. In fact, Mitsuhama was originally a Yakuza corporation. The Yakuza should be considered a part of the Japanese zaibatsu, offering preferential treatment to members of the other Japanese corps, and receiving the same in return (and Yakuza members regularly have retirement plans invested in other zaibatsu corporations). The Yakuza can expect to be hired by any of the Japanese corps when doing something illegally will be more cost effective than staying within the law. The Yakuza operate their drug trade, bunraku parlors and such independently from the corporations, but can expect assistance from any of the zaibatsu members when appropriate, such as transporting or acquiring particular legal or quasi-legal materials.

The Yakuza may be considered similar to A-level corporate members of the Japanese zaibatsu.

Seoulpa Rings
The Seoulpa Rings are a recent offshoot of the Yakuza, following the Yakuza purge of Korean members in the 2040s. They are almost exclusively Korean, with a strong Yakuza legacy. They’ve alienated the Yakuza families in their split, and with them the zaibatsu. The Seoulpa Rings barely qualify as mafias at all, being closer to cells and having no central organization. Their membership is limited to human Koreans.

What Do They Offer?
They have gone primarily into matrix-related and magic-related fields of crime, including the creation and selling of untaxed magical equipment, data gathering and reselling, matrix sabotage and data hostage crimes.

Who Are Their Allies?
The Seoulpa Rings have almost no allies, except among each other. They are rarely affiliated with corporations. These are the orphan start-ups of the Underworld.

Triads
Who Are They?
Originally formed in China to help the common man against oppression, the Triads never forgot their roots, and by 2060 continue to serve as loosely-knit group of gangs closely linked with the ‘common man’. Their ranks are almost exclusively made up of Chinese people, and segregation between different cultural groups within China is common. The Triads as a whole are poorly organized, and present themselves as a loose affiliation. They rarely have much representation outside of Chinese communities. There is a strong sense of nationalism among the Triads, and with them being so few in number, conflicts between Triad gangs are rare and short-lived.

What Do They Offer?
The Triads focus is on helping Chinese communities in all aspects. They may serve as liaisons between the general population and government entities, transporting goods and people, providing translation and relocation services, overseeing businesses, and other duties related to keeping people safe, happy and employed. They offer the classic mafia services, but will invest more hours and charge less. The Triads recognize they are still a small player, and so their survival strategy is to provide a better deal than their competitors can. They focus heavily on smuggling, human trafficking, counterfeiting, pornography and prostitution. Like the Yakuza and La Cosa Nostra, they try to limit civilian casualties, but when violence is warranted they oftentimes go over the top in order to prove their point.

Who Are Their Allies?
The Triads maintain a surprisingly strong relationship with the Chinese government itself, and make substantial donations to Chinese government officials. Chinese state officials and diplomats will rarely help law enforcement. The Triads also benefit from a strong relationship with Wuxing, selling illegal goods and taking on dangerous jobs such as assassinations and sabotage in exchange for help shipping goods. Their intense work with Chinese-Americans, a largely ignored immigrant demographic, has resulted in extremely strong bounds of loyalty in their home communities.

The Triads are similar in operation to a labor union or community assistance organization.

Vory
Who Are They?
The Vory are the least-documented mafia in Shadowrun, and have always defied proper definition as a single organization.

The Vory v Zakone (which translates to “thieves following a code”) originally formed of prisoners in Siberia incarcerated by the USSR. True Vory are now extinct and were never a proper mafia. With the fall of the USSR, the term Vory became almost wholly a brand name, with little meaning of its own. Ultimately, the Red and White Vory (as we call them) rose to the top, but there are still dozens of unaffiliated gangs and individuals claiming Vory membership. Strictly speaking, to be a member of the Vory, one must have been named one by another Vory and follow the ‘Thief’s Code’, but neither is reliably followed.

By its nature, the Vory organization is scattered. The two dominant halves, the Red Vory and White Vory, trade with each other, but share a strong distrust of one another. Both find the time to put pressure on smaller Vory gangs, either to crush ones which dishonor the Vory name, or to claim tithes by more successful brotherhoods. Individual Vorys occupy some high political places. Despite the Vory code specifically forbidding holding political office, one even made it to the Commission for Human Rights.

The make-up of Vory is mixed. Russians are joined by Chechen rebels, Georgian gangs, and UCAS jailbirds. Both the lowest prison scum and the wealthiest Muscovites may find membership desirable. The mafia is predominantly, but not strictly European. Their one requirement for full membership is prison time (although even that may be waived for the right price). The resulting demographic spans the gamut. In Seattle, the Vory are beginning at the bottom. Vory gangs in the UCAS draw on European immigrants and promising candidates found in prisons, with a few experienced guerrillas, assassins and smugglers thrown in to get things started. The White Vory has established a toe-hold, to ground its smuggling business, but most Vory representation in the UCAS is unaffiliated gangs or cells.

Conflicts between Vory gangs, despite their small number, are frequent and bloody, no-holds-barred, fed by nationalism, loyalties, racism, and fiery political opinions.

What Do They Offer?
The Vory in the UCAS are not a unified front. The services they offer vary as much as the gangs operating under the name. They have not had the time to suffer for their mistakes, so full-scale extortion and robbery of their own communities isn’t unheard of, even though the Vory code requires they uphold justice for civilians. The Vory have an inordinate number of revolutionaries and aggressively political members, owing to their inheritance of Polish, Chechen and Russian refugees and rebels, making theirs one of the most aggressive and least rational mafias. The leftovers of decades of Eastern European wars have given the Vory a strong grounding in military tactics, making them among the most effective (and well-priced) assassins and smugglers in the area, and their connections with post-Soviet bloc nations give them access to cheap military hardware.

Who Are Their Allies?
Established Vory brotherhoods oftentimes have personal connections with Yamatetsu (later Evo) and Saedder-Krupp. The Vory were invested heavily in Gazprom before it was enveloped by S-K, and those relationships remain. Both corporations have taken advantage of weak governance in eastern Europe to form strong business relationships with the dominant Vory brotherhoods (S-K predominantly with the White Vory in western Europe, Yamatetsu/Evo with the Red Vory in the Russian Republic). Vory members continue to be well established at all levels of governance and the corporate hierarchies, although this does not imply any genuine sense of loyalty towards street-level gangs.

Those Vory gangs outside of the Red or White brotherhoods, especially those in the UCAS, are unlikely to enjoy those relationships. This leaves them willing to make and break contacts as necessary (but also stuck doing low-level work). Oftentimes individual gangs may be bound to particular smuggling cartels or violent political groups.

Aztechnology
Who Are They?
Aztechnology is not a gang, but a megacorporation. However, Aztechnology was originally ORO, a corporation created by Colombian and Mexican drug cartels to invest in Latin American oil wealth and launder money. ORO grew exponentially, branching into every form of illegal wealth generation, and most forms of legal business, until it established the nation of Atzlan in 2022 and renamed itself Aztechnology. The rest, as they say, is history. Aztechnology still deserves mention among the other mafias, as it continues to engage in most every line of mafia business it originally had branched into. Unlike other corporate/mafia relationships, which maintain their public image by a careful segregation of the organizations and their duties, Aztechnology has solved the problem via a multi-trillion nuyen PR budget.

What Do They offer?
Aztechnology’s PR group has been very successful at their goals. The exact involvement of Aztechnology employees and resources in underworld business is unclear. It is known they have near complete control of the classic lines of mafia business within Aztlan itself, but it is uncertain what services offered among the UCAS underworld ultimately feed back to Aztechnology coffers. The realistic answer is a little of everything.

Who Are Their Allies?
Aztechnology is a megacorporation. What more needs to be said?



Synner667
Interesting reading.

Most of the above applies to big companies...
...And is why Corporations as people insist on wanting to believe in them to be just don't work.

Companies rely on people, and abusing those people isn't in the longterm interest of the company.
Orcus Blackweather
Depending on how gritty your world is, All of these things are basically interchangeable. The local chapter of Mitsuhama is heavily invested in the local Mafia, and vice versa. I suppose that there will be a dozen or so vice-presidents of Mitsuhama in a large city. Figure all 12 of these people will have influence outside of Mitsuhama allowing them to rise to their current level. It really is not terribly important whether that outside influence is a yakuza oyabun, a mafia don, or the governor of the state the city is in. Each of these contact has ties to other groups and corporations, making a mesh of crime and influence. So in the end, there are multiple links between each of the crime organizations in the city, making them inbred in the extreme.
Ancient History
No'bad. Cuts pretty close to some points in Vice and Corp Guide.
kzt
The issue people often miss is that the vast majority of people involved, at least in a classic Sicilian family, are NOT made men. For example, the Chicago Outfit was less than 100 made men IIRC. The vast majority of people that are identified with a family are hangers-on of one type or another involved in some sort of illegal business that a the family has decided to run. They get to pay their street tax to the family member who collects it, move away, or fall down the stairs a lot.
Starglyte
Very intersting. I just watched "Cocaine Cowboys", a video on how the drug trade revitalized Miami. Lot of the local growth, if not all, was due to the money that was brougth in by the drug smugglers. I want to use this in a game I was thinking of setting in Miami Beach.
The Jake
If megas are more inclined to rely on syndicates for shadow ops, what purpose does a fixer serve?

Or more specifically, just how common are fixers if a megacorp Johnson can just tap some capo on the shoulder and discuss business?

- J.
kzt
You get a lot of fixers named Vito......
The Jake
QUOTE (Starglyte @ Dec 17 2009, 04:17 AM) *
Very intersting. I just watched "Cocaine Cowboys", a video on how the drug trade revitalized Miami. Lot of the local growth, if not all, was due to the money that was brougth in by the drug smugglers. I want to use this in a game I was thinking of setting in Miami Beach.


Maybe this will come up in the new Vice book? smile.gif

- J.
nezumi
QUOTE (Orcus Blackweather @ Dec 16 2009, 06:31 PM) *
The local chapter of Mitsuhama is heavily invested in the local Mafia, and vice versa. I suppose that there will be a dozen or so vice-presidents of Mitsuhama in a large city.


I keep forgetting to copy a page from the book. It basically follows a number of companies owning stock in Gazprom. It's a classic Shadowrun setup. 11% of Gazprom is owned by Bermuda bank, which is part of Panama bank, which is a shell company owned by Vory gangaster Seva Mogilevich. Gazprom has a deal with ETG, a tiny corporation owned by three no-name people in Lithuania, selling Gazprom pipelines to ETG for a song, then paying to rent them back (paying the effectively non-existant Lithuanian income tax, with the majority of ETG's income goes through a secret bank account in Englad, presumably leading back to Mogilevich). It's a beautiful thing, really.


QUOTE (kzt @ Dec 16 2009, 10:51 PM) *
The issue people often miss is that the vast majority of people involved, at least in a classic Sicilian family, are NOT made men.


Indeed. The number I heard was for every 10 made men, you have 100 closely linked supporters (dealers, lackeys, lawyers, smugglers, etc.) who work directly under the family but aren't 'full members', and 1,000 low-loyalty supporters (stores paying protection money, community organizers, government officials on the payroll, etc.)


QUOTE (The Jake @ Dec 16 2009, 11:44 PM) *
If megas are more inclined to rely on syndicates for shadow ops, what purpose does a fixer serve?


Fixers are the local-level retailers. Like kzt said, they aren't made men, but they are usually supporters. Fixers likely get a large percentage of their equipment from, and pay a significant amount of money to, one or more syndicates. Fixers offer a service to mafias because they:
1) Provide local knowledge and can step into foreign loyalties
2) Assume risk for the high-risk retail job. If a fixer is caught, he falls alone without pulling the mafia down with him.
Blade
QUOTE (kzt @ Dec 17 2009, 04:51 AM) *
The issue people often miss is that the vast majority of people involved, at least in a classic Sicilian family, are NOT made men.


There are also a lot of people who work for the mafia without knowing it. They do things for someone, but they don't necessarily know this someone works for the Mafia.
Orcus Blackweather
Some people like to add a lot of color to each group in the shadows, where I tend to grey them all out. A matter of perspective
and gaming style.
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