Crime Gangs and Gang Wars idea.

[Indoril]

As the name says, the idea here would be a series of quests based on gang wars. Please read and give ideas. Bear in mind that I have not yet played Oblivion. Also, this is not officialy a quest suggestion, although it may sound like it. I'm trying to get a bearing on the possibility of this in Oblivion, namely Hammerfell or Stirk.

1.) When two or more 'gangs', or what have you, occupy the same territory, we know that shit happens. The same problems can also happen when you have two such gangs or more in close proximity. I'll try to avoid real life examples in loo of what we saw in Morrowind. The Cammona Tong and Thieves guild exemplified the first fact: No two gangs can occupy the same space. The Great Dunmer Houses exemplified the Second fact: Put conflicting intrests in close proximity and heads will roll.
2.) Bearing this all in mind, the plot of these quests would follow the pattern of: Three or four crime syndicates have been constantly warring over the same territory for some time. Obviously, the first two or three would be local syndicates while the other would be the Thieves guild. In most if not all cases, the Thieves guild is not well liked by other factions, not neccesarrily because they are thieves, but because they are foreign. So, between the first two or three gangs, the rivalry is bitter, but even more so, they hate the thieves guild. Lets start with a basic plot idea then.

1. For lack of better names, we'll call the gangs the following: The Black Robes, the Gloves, the Knives, and the ever lovable thieves guild.

-The Black Robes are known for their handling of expensive illegal narcodics, and are primarily supported between aristocrats and the black markets. They also serve as thugs for the aformentioned aristocrats. There strength lies heavily in the fact that they have abundant wealth, well traned acrobats and thieves, and that they bribe like nobodies business. Unfortunately, they lack some level of organization.

-The Gloves are a syndicate of mostly poor thieves and criminals. They, like the thieves guild, pretty much take anybody under their wing. Their specialty seems to be pick pocketing and burglery. However, they want in on the drug trafficcing that the Black Robes control. Here is the first part of their hatred for eachother. The second is the poor vs. rich idea. There strength and weakness lies in the fact that they have the largest syndicate. They are less organized, but they also can just replace lost 'soldiers' with more beggars, cutthroats, and thugs. They also work in "cells," or seperate groups that loosely answer to the same leaders. They are hard to wipe out, but are severely disorganized in other words. There favored method is breaking and entering, murder, pick-pocketing, and other less refined forms of crime.

-The Knives are an older, further more organized and 'prestigious' syndicate, much like the Mafia. Working almost exclusively for high end nobles and politicians, not just aristocrats like the Black Robes, the Knives maintain a sense of dignity or pride in what they do and are therefore just plain cocky. They work and act pretty much the way a noble house would, where propriety is everything, much like the real life Mafia. They want the return of the drug traffic under their control. This causes their resentment with the Black Robes, who own it, and the Gloves who are competing for it. Likewise, they despise the other two for their "lowlieness". There strength, like the Black Robes, lies in their vast wealth. They are, by far, the most organized, and unfortunately beaurocratic, of the three. This means that they can be hurt easily by the loss of one semi-important member. They, however, are willing to adjust, as they often get rid of their own members. They prefer to use well trained enforcers, assassins, and acrobats, as well as nightblades. They are sometimes more frontal about things like hits because they can just pay the guards to ignore it (Much like how the Mafia would bribe the police). Since they are higher rank nobles, they are more intigrated into the actual government and are harder to hurt or prosecute as such.

-Lastly, we all know the Thieves guild, so no need for explenations. They are of couse at odds with the other three because they are a foreign entity, they are more versatile and well organized, they are harder to get rid of since they are supported in other provinces, and they are trying to get control of the drug trade.

That all said. The player, for this series of quests and side quests, would be allowed to be a member of one of the Three as well as a member of the Thieves guild. If they do choose the thieve's guild and one of the Three, they would of course have to choose sides.

The quest would start with the player choosing the faction they favor of the Three. The Black Robes would be the preffered for the classes such as Acrobat, Nightblade, Assassin, Thief, or other Stealth oriented classes. The quests they provide would require a level of stealth with little protection on their part from the law. The Gloves would be preffered by classes such as Rouges, Scouts, Barbarians, and other fighters, while stealth would still be a necessity. Their quests are more combat oriented or pick pocket oriented, and there would be again little protection from the law. Lastly would be the Knives. They would accept anything, but prefer Assassins and Enforcers. Their quests would be more complex, such as obtain info, kill certain people, and steal very specific items in hard places, however, they would provid a higher level of legal protection.

The Thieves guild would be the other factor. Being a member of the thieves guild and one of the other faction would imply that the player would have to double agent for one or the other. This forces a series of loyalty choices for the player, and creates for more complexly layered storyline.

The basic quests within this storyline or series of quests would focus on the Drug Trade, "Offing" members of other gangs or members of the Imperial Government and Legion who would be interfering, stealing items such as books and lists or evidence to rat on other gangs, and sowing and reaping info with the NPCs. In fact, there could even be dealings with the Fighters Guild, Mages Guild, and Dark Brotherhood, or even the Imperial Cult.

These are just ideas. Does anyone else have ideas to add to this, perhaps a solid storyline or other elements?

[Arondil Rethan]

So far as I had time to see this through, this seems like a good one. Would this also include open battle situations in the territories for example? That one of the quests would be attending to a full-state war, where the gangs meets

[Indoril]

I should think so. Likely the so-called Gloves and Black Robes would meet eachother in such a brazen sort of open war. The thieves guild and the older Knives would probably do things in smaller and less drastic steps. Further, maybe the Imperial Legion could get in on it and the Fighters guild as well.

Now bear in mind, the Fighters and thieves guilds would actually likely be allies in Hammerfell or elsewhere, where as Morrowind had them against eachother because their leader was a sell out to Hlaalu.

Any other thoughts?

[EdAptra]

As you are trying to relate the knives guild to the Mafia, i suggest that most of the high ranking members are all of the same race and family. For example the leader of the knives may be an orc who has 2 or 3 sons working as his seconds in command and who carryout the important jobs like asassianations etc. Further down the order there are friends of the family who might be employed as guards or even nobles who finace the orginization.

[Gez]

There's already one in-lore competitor to the Thieves Guild, it's the Wharf Rat. I think they'll be in Hammerfell, but not joinable to prevent questing headaches.

Of course, it's easy to add small gangs here and there, like the Black Bow Bandits or the Sirens Gang (two small, localized criminal organizations that are met in Oblivion's misc quests).

Then there's generic Bandits, Marauders, and Pirates.

[Anonymous]

This has all been merged into the HF themed Mafia-style Thieves Guild. Case closed.

[lb003g0676]

And the Orum gang, hahahah what a joke, i wanted there to be a quest about them!

[-Saddistic_Angel-]

It could still be suggested, if you took out a few of the Mafia elements. Though I do agree with the Leader having his possible sons/daughters working the lesser operations and helping. If you were to add it, and were able to join it, it would be a good idea for some sort of ID within the guild, say, a unique dagger that all of them carry? Just ideas.