Crime 101: The Frame Up

Crime 101 is a series where I talk about the elements that go in to committing a certain crime. The idea here isn't to talk about the specific issues but rather the general points that you want to consider when putting one of these crimes into your story or game. Specifics can change by story, general points are fairly common. Today's Crime 101 is going to focus on the Frame Up.

Crime 101 - Opening a Mark

Today's Crime 101 post comes as a request from one of my housemates.

There are a lot of crimes out there that rely on using a person who isn't part of the crew. Extortion, by definition, needs a target to be exploited, but finding one of those is fairly easy. However, acts of theft and numerous other crimes are often reliant upon having an insider to help you out. This person's job is to look the other way when you need them to, and to not say anything to anyone. So, today, let's look at how you open up a mark.

Crime 101 - The Inside Man Part 2

On Tuesday we talked about The Inside Man as a key way for making a crime just that much easier or more effective. In specific we talked about opening an Inside Man and socializing them to be able to function as part of your crew. Today, we're going to look at the inside man, and how it may show up in your game. So, let's take a look at that.

Crime 101 - The Inside Man

The Inside Man is a particularly powerful piece to have on your side when planning any activity, let alone criminal activity. It gives you a viewpoint into the workings of the target, or enemy. It gives warning for the bad things being set up against you, and can give you the paths that need to be taken to avoid the pitfalls in your path. There isn't a crime I can think of that wouldn't benefit from an inside man to help pull it off. So, how do you go about getting one?

Crime 101 - Opportunists part 2

On Tuesday we, very briefly, went over the wonderful world of opportunists and how most people in the organized underworld don't like them. For those that missed it, let me save you some time. The underworld doesn't like opportunists because they can't be trusted. Today, we're going to look at how this concept can affect the games that you are running, or playing in.

Crime 101 - Opportunists

They say that opportunity will only knock once, and that if you miss it you have to hunt that sum#*@( down if you want to make anything of your life. Honestly, when you think about it, most people in your life will tell you to keep your eyes open for opportunity, and to not let it slip by. Grabbing onto opportunity is seen as the key to success in almost every aspect of life. So, why is someone who goes for every opportunity seen as a bad thing in criminal society? Let's take a look.

Crime 101 - The Five Man Crew Pt 2

On Tuesday we took a look at the five man crew, and I listed a few ways that it could be viewed as superior to other numbered crews. Even if Hollywood wants to show that 10+ person crews can work just fine (Ocean's 11, 12, 13), which can happen, generally for most large criminal operations you are starting to get a bit too bulky once you cross the magical number of 5. Today, let's look at how we can use the idea of the five man crew for your game.

Crime 101 - The Five Man Crew

This is kind of an aside from the actual crimes in progress, but I wanted to take a second to talk about ideal team size for criminal action. Now, everyone will have their own tastes for what is going on, what needs to be done, and how much they want to split the pay, but a number of people seem to think the number five is ideal (including several of my Sociology professors...which is just creepy). So, let's take a second to look at that today, and see why it may be.

Crime 101: Fences Part 4

Well, with no one having voted on Tuesday, this will likely be the last post on Fences for at least a little bit. Unless, of course, I can't think of anything better to do for next week. I do, after all, love me some fences. Anyhow, on Tuesday we talked about three main things: How to meet a fence, how much power fences have, and what fences provide. Today, lets look at ways to apply these three things into your game.

Crime 101 - Fences - Part 3

Last Tuesday and Thursday we began looking at Fences, and their place in the criminal underworld. At their most basic, a Fence is a person who buys stolen goods from a thief, generally with the intent of reselling them later on. This week, we're going to dig a bit more in depth into the world of fences, and cover some of the "how"s that were left lying around after last week's posts. If there are more questions, a third week may be dedicated to this element of the criminal underworld. Otherwise, after Thursday we will be moving on to another topic - as yet undetermined.

Crime 101: Fences Part 2

In Tuesday's post we talked about Fences, and while there is more to go over with these people, we have enough to start using them in our games already. Now, what we went over on Tuesday was just the basic, bare bones, of what a Fence provides - namely, a place for thieves to unload their stolen goods, and for others to buy them - but just with that, there is a lot to use. So, let's take a look at how you can use Fences in your game.

Crime 101 - Fences - Part 1

There are many stories out there about thieves. Honestly, thieves are probably one of the largest, and most diverse, group of criminals in the world, as well as being one of the oldest professions. As long as things exist, people will want them, and as long as we use some sort of commerce system to exchange goods, people will want to acquire things at discount rates. This accounts for the many varieties of theft that exist, everyone from a professional shop lifter, to cat burglars, to the guy who drives a truck load of cell phones to the wrong warehouse. However, no matter how the goods were stolen, they all tend to congregate in the same places. For thieves, that place begins with a Fence.

Crime 101 - Being the Broker

Well, it's thursday. That means that we take what we went over on Tuesday with Crime 101, and look at ways to apply it to your game, or your character. Luckily for me, when it comes to Men of Honor - or Brokers as they're also known - this is ridiculously easy, and yet offers a whole ton of options for how you apply it. So, let's take a look.

Crime 101 - Men of Honor

This may shock you, but sometimes criminals have disputes that need resolving. Yep, in that world of murderers, thieves, bandits, crooks, and con men, there is enough organization to also have dispute resolution as a "job" members of the underworld can do. These people are called brokers, at least by sociologists, due to the role they play in the social networks of criminals. They go by a number of other names with criminals, but the one I've seen most often is "Men of Honor". So, let's take a minute to look into what makes a man of honor.

Crime 101 - Revenge

Hot on the heels of Valentine's Day, how could I talk about anything other than revenge for this Crime 101. Now, I know that it isn't a crime in and of itself, but revenge is at the heart of some of the bigger and nastier crimes that we see on the news. More to the point, it is also one of the primary motivators for crimes that take place in movies and stories. In the remake of Ocean's 11, how does Danny get Reuben on board to finance the heist? Why, Revenge of course. So, let's talk about revenge...

Crime 101 - Follow The Money

This week on Crime 101 I'm not going to talk about a particular kind of crime. Instead I want to talk about one of the best ways to try and track, understand, stop, or at least figure out what is going on with professional crime. The answer is simple, hell, it is right up there in the topic, but why does it work? Read on, and we'll discuss it.

Crime 101 - Blackmail Part 2

On Tuesday we talked about Blackmail and how it works. Nothing particularly special, especially if you read the Extortion piece last Tuesday. Today, I want to talk about taking blackmail, and throwing it into your game. Whether you are a player, or a GM, you can do this, because blackmail is mostly about a method of approaching a problem, not necessarily the problem itself. So, let's go and discuss how blackmail can work in a game.

Crime 101 - Blackmail

Yep, it is Tuesday again, and that means a new installment of Crime 101. This week, partially due to time constraints, and partially due to the fact that it has been on my mind a lot, I want to look deeper into extortion. Specifically, I want to look into a type of extortion, how it works, and all that fun stuff. On Thursday, I'll go over what you need in your game for Blackmail to work. For now though, let's take a look at just what goes into Blackmail.

Crime 101 - Bribery

This is very likely going to be a small post. There isn't, after all, all that much to bribery, but with Tuesday's post having been about Extortion, I felt i should take the time to cover Bribery really quickly as well. So, with that in mind, lets take a look at one of the most straight forward crimes out there.

Crime 101 - Extortion

Man, this is becoming a series week for this blog, what with yesterday's Character Types entry, and tomorrow's Dramatic Situations. Today though, I want to return to what I'd like to be Tuesday's regular update of Crime 101. Today in specific I want to talk about one of the bigger crimes that can be committed. Not big because of how vicious, mean, or historical every instance of it is. Big because of how easy it is to lump so many crimes, or at least aspects there of, under this one umbrella. Yep, as the title says, today I want to talk about Extortion.