In the world of Shadowrun lots of criminal organizations works for employment. different groups fighting each other and hiring out contractors, runners. The conflict between Mafia, Yakuza, Seolpa rings, Russian Mob, Triads, Amway salesmen etc makes for lots of work.

but would a city be better off if there was just a single overall crime lord? Soemoen who could ruthlessly control the different elements. It would mean less work for runners but would mean less violence in the streets and shadows and so make life overall easier, though the crimnial empire would be very powerful. Would it be better for a city? (like Jim Butchers Gentleman Johnny Marcone) A campgain to set it up ensure lots of action? Would the police aid such an event? Maybe not directly but to lay off the side they backed, interdict a little more heavily the side they didn't?

Sounds awesome to me, but then again I, too, like Butcher's Marcone character. The only thing I could see is that some one, somewhere, is going to be extremely determined to take a piece of that pie, but again, that could play out well, too. Some other crime unit coming in, going to upset the status quo, then everybody in the city (corps, mob, police/lone star) coming to the shadows to hire runners to run against the newcomers. Trying to maintain this sort of peaceful balance...

You forgot a crime group in there, the Police. In some towns/cities, they run the organized crime!

The major issue is that it's exceptionally difficult for one person to run everything in a city, so that means underlings. Good ones will want to move up the ladder, and will build their own empire, or make deals with folks from out of the city...

A single lord never rules for very long...

My gut feeling is the some of those elements would rather be ruthlessly controlling rather than ruthlessly controlled. If not, once that someone goes down, there's no on to take their place at all.

The kind of person who could fill those shoes wouldn't put up with anything less than being in them.

Then use more ruthlessness. You'd end up with someone like The Joker in charge.

Oh, and the fun that could be had then while the city BURNS!

you need to watch City of God. One man takes over all crime in the Rio barrens making everything better.

This is a great theme for SR campaign. Never mind the feasibility of one crime organization actually accomplishing this goal- the value is in forcing the players into that uncomfortable grey zone that is so fitting for SR. It basically puts them in a position where its really easy to rationalize the evil shit they are doing.

"Sure, if I blow up this dinner at mid-day a bunch of innocent women and children will die, but so will Jimmy the Fink, and with him out of the way the boss will be one step closer to taking charge. And then everything will be better... right?"

Slippery slope FTW.

It's kind of the question, 'wouldn't one autocrat be best for _____?', where the blank is city, region, people, nation, world.

"Pity we lost India."

Perhaps. But there's a reason even Dragons can't pull it off. As for a criminal lord, well, compare it to a president, or king, or prime minister, or whatever. Top ranking guy in their land right? But do they control everything? No it still has to get filtered through layers simply because of sheer size. While a top ranking guy may enjoy some specific or broad powers, they aren't all knowing, all seeing or all powerful.

Consequently the human element will always be a factor. As noted, some people below will always want to be the one on top, or subvert the system to their own needs/wants/whatever.

For one guy to be in charge of all crime, it would require him to have at very least, extensive secret knowledge of the true inner workings and organization of the various component crime organizations. Can you run the mafia if you don't know all the ins and outs? What about the russian mob? Or the Yaks, or the Triads or the...you get the idea.

Lets me think of Black Sun.

Plausibility of such a thing aside, such a figure might actually result in more work for shadowrunners. The Yaks, Vory, and Mafia still wouldn't like each other, so instead of the Yaks hitting a Vory establishment, they would hire runners to do so, for purposes of plausible deniability. Criminal organizations would be more like corporations - no more open hostility, but definitely a continuing cold war.

You'd need the "crime lord" to have agents in place in the other competing power structures, or at least very good technical intel. So you hire runners, the boss calls up and invites you to go on a deep sea fishing trip tonight.