Gangs

I've been mulling over "gang shit" for a while now, and I'm finally ready to put some of those thoughts down on paper.

Our current implementation of "gangs" is haphazard and wasn't really planned at all. We had some players who wanted to operate "as a gang", so we adapted the job system. We created a "job" for each gang (Ballas, Vagos, etc.) and created some ranks and whatnot so that gang members could have a shared sense of collective belonging. These gang jobs don't receive paychecks and aren't tied to any properties - basically the things that make jobs worth having. So, these current gangs are kind of fitting a square peg into a round hole for the sake of having "something".

In other words, the mechanics around gangs kinda suck right now. Let's talk about how I think things should work moving forward.

First, stop thinking about gangs as guilds. That's how we've been treating them, but that's the wrong comparison. Gangs will be our factions. In WoW terms, they are the Horde and Alliance. In New World terms, they are the Syndicate, Marauders, and Covenant. In other words, they are a large and ever-present group of people who share a common purpose which loosely holds them together - emphasis on "loose". Gangs are rife with infighting, power struggles, and disagreements. The bond that holds gang members together is only as strong as its people.

For that reason, there will not be a defined hierarchy within a gang. There will only be two "ranks": Member and OG. An OG has the power to bring other people into the gang, and members are everyone else. That is the only mechanical difference between the two. Everything else will be determined by power structures that players choose to put in place. As a gang member, who you follow or don't follow is up to you, and is subject to change based on your character's motivations. To join a gang, simply find an OG and convince them to let you join. To leave? Well, you don't leave. OGs will be the only "flagged" gang members who have automatic NPC relationships. In other words, locals will only "shoot on sight" at OGs of rival gangs. Thinking in terms of what makes sense, OGs are the only ones who should be easily recognizable regardless of where they are or what they're wearing.

There will be very little or no other organizational mechanics associated with gang membership. You will not be able to identify fellow gang members (or rivals) on sight unless they choose to identify themselves (i.e. by wearing a color). This also means that people may fairly easily masquerade by wearing another gang's colors. It has the potential to be exceedingly confusing and lead to a lot of misunderstanding and conflict, which is perfect for gang RP.

Gangs will control territory. Each zone on the map may or may not be controlled by a gang. When a gang controls a zone, its members can see the location of all stash houses and dealers within that zone. As we further develop property ownership mechanics, stash houses themselves will be player-owned properties. Property owners and managers will be able to access the cash that accumulates at those stash houses as people purchase drugs, both at that stash house but also from nearby NPC dealers.

Gangs maintain territory control by selling drugs in that zone. The more they sell over the course of a 24-hour period, the more control they maintain in that zone. Conversely, gangs can erode another gang's control over a zone by selling in their territory. This war for control will likely extend to other activities that rival gangs perform in each other's territories (i.e. killing rival members).

This collection of behaviors means that gangs will have a huge influence over the distribution of drugs throughout the map, but it won't completely close off drug distribution as a mechanic available to unaffiliated players. Gangs will still have to "put in work" if they want to exert control over both territory and people. We've also only talked about drug distribution. The relationship between gangs and drug production is a different topic for another time.