Not sure if you can answer this Mr. D, but as an author you are gonna have WAY more ranks than anyone else I know.

I got my Mafia rulebook and am getting my head around things. My player has never seen more than 15 minutes of a single Sopranos episode, so I have a unique oppertunity to use a setting and characters that I am absolutely in love with. Very excited to get my GM hands around some North Jersey action!!! I want my player (assuming he lives) to be in Tony Sopranos inner-circle around the time when the series begins (1999), which means that I want to start my campaign out in the mid-to-late 70s.

Wow...someone needs to smack me up side the head and say, "I'm a pretty freakin' busy man, get to your point before I knock it right the $#*& out of that thick skull of yours..."

My question, I put a lot of my campaign stuff online for reference, as well as to allow 'play' to continue between face-to-face sessions.

What do I need to know about copyright stuff? Am I gonna get in trouble using "Soprano" and "Aprile" for something I am not selling? Can I use pictures? I just have NO idea how this works and if there is a chance that I may get a nasty letter sometime down the line and with all the crazy IP anecdotes I hear, I want to alter how I do things now before start pouring hours into it.

Thanks a bunch,
gh0st

btw - Game is awesome. I know you are already well beyond this print, but if you ever revisit, the only suggestion I would make...more space on, I don't even know how to put it..."How the Mob Works" I guess. Not complaining or anything, I just have had to do some anncilary research to come up with, "So...just a kid growing up on a street, how would he get into the mob." Or, "I get bumped to Capo, do I pass my jobs onto underlings and just get kickups, or do I continue to manage them?" or "I get made, do I keep hanging out with the lowlifes in my hood and doing jobs with them, or am I essentially an employee of my Capo and only do his bidding?" I know that it depends on a lot of situational and personal factors, but just more detail on the "under the hood" things. Other than this small nitpick, the game seems EXACTLY what I was hoping for. (even love the distinctions like Sicilian versus American, thought I was going to have to "Americanize" Mustache Petes, really impressed with the historical research and completeness)

Hey, no problem ghost. As long as you're not making any money on your campaign, I doubt anyone at HBO will care. If they sued you, what could they sue you for? You didn't make any money and the characters aren't real people so you can't libel fictional works. As long as you're not making money or claiming a copyright, I don't think you have a problem.

As far as family organization goes, it can vary from region to region, family to family. There are guys that are very hands on as they go up the ranks, all the way to boss. And there are guys that use intermediaries as soon as they reach the rank of "soldier". Even powerful family associates do it. The late 70's is a good time period. The Italian Mafia in New Jersey was still extremely powerful then. (Not to say they aren't now, but things have changed.)

Feel free to post any other questions.

Mr. D.

I believe fanfics usually put a little blub "Based on characters from Such-And-Such series," along with any creator/copyright/trademark info you can dig up. Add a little thingie about no intent to infringe on anyone's rights and your butt should be pretty well covered.

The most they could hit you with is a cease-and-desist, which just means you need to take it off whatever website you've put it on and not advertise that you're going to run adventures based on that material at conventions. Basically, they can't keep you from running it at small private gatherings no matter what they do, unless they want to pay someone to follow you around 24 hours a day.

Not that it's relevant to your situation, but the one company you don't want to mess with is Marvel. They have sent out cease-and-desist orders in the past!

My 2c worth on the in-game question...

If the scheme doesn't pay enough to increase your wealth on a semi-regular basis and there's no way to "grow" the scheme, you'll probably want to pass it to an underling or a buddy or a younger sibling. BTW, when figuring wealth, check Mr. D's advanced rules for wealth and schemes here on the boards. Comes in handy when that +2/week DVD bootleg scheme is barely paying your higher cost of living and not adding to your real Wealth!

As for how a guy gets "promoted" from Mook to Family Associate... basically, you hang around the same locations as the associates and low-level made guys, and the guys ask you to deliver love notes to their girl friends and such. Once you've proven reliable, you get more sensitive jobs, and eventually, you've got a regular job running numbers or delivering packages wrapped in plain brown paper. Then you're a level 1 Family Associate!

That was my gut feeling on the copyright stuff, but glad I have a little more to go on than that


Thanks as well for taking up my other questions. I have one more...let's assume the character is Vinnie, who grows up in Orange City, NJ. He meets Tony Soprano when he moves to North Orange in junior high. Tony is originally from Newark, and Vinnie and he become good friends, gets introduced to Johnny Boy, a capo, etc, etc. In addition, he is the cousin of the Apriles, another influencial family in the organization.

Vinnie hangs with his cousins, as well as becomes good friends with Tony in highschool. Seems like he just got his foot in the door. What I am hazy on...what about Vinnie's existing crew? He was never a brawler and always a leader and has a group of guys from Orange that are very loyal to him. I am assuming, this is how a new crew forms. Does Vinnie "abandon" his Orange City friends until he is made and has the authority to bring them into the fold? In highschool, when he starts running with Tony, does he start hanging out in Newark, or does Tony's social network grow to include Vinnie's associates? Is it unrealistic to have an associate/wiseguy that has a group of guys he controls? If Uncle Junior comes to Vinnie and asks him for a favor, would Vinnie be inclined to go to one of his 'non-connected' cronies, or does he have to suck up the crappy jobs until the family assigns him a crew? I know he can technically do what he wants, I am asking the 'typical' or 'normal protocol' I guess...Is what I am asking making any kind of sense at all?

As long as Angeleeeeeeeta brought up wealth, I do have another (less fun and icky rules, but we still need the rules at some point I suppose...) question...have you ever dicussed (in the book or here) the idea things like Vig or taste? I mean, these are percentages but the wealth system is all goofey...I know as a computer guy I should know the algebra termonology, is it 'logrithmic'?...and I am not sure how to do this. How do I say, "I'll write you action for 11 wealth on the Bengals, but the vig's gonna be three points" or "the bookie will let you know who the losers are, you collect from them, keep 30% for yourself and kick the rest up to Paulie".

Thanks a bunch!!!

Well, forming can crews can happen in a lot of ways:

1) Vinnie forms his crew of wiseguys and gets made. Although he runs with a crew of made guys, he also continues making money with his old pals. As openings are created in the family, Vinnie recruits his best guys. Some or all get brought in until finally Vinnie becomes a capo.

2) Vinnie forms his crew of wiseguys and gets made. He continues to use his old friends to make money, but he either doesn't want them to move up (making them equals) or there is no room in the family or they are not qualified either by blood or talent.

3) Vinnie gets made, but no longer has time for his old crew or the family doesn't want them in.

4) Vinnie gets made, but his new crew teaches him a lesson by exploiting his old crew as much as possible. It's a hard lesson, but a couple of the crew are savvy enough to turn the tables on the made guys or avoid getting screwed. Those guys either continue on their own or maybe get made because they earn the respect of the new crew.

5) Vinnie gets made and the family is so short-handed, he's allowed to run his crew of wiseguys. A capo supervises his schemes and watches over them until the crew is considered loyal enough to be made. Blood may not be a strict consideration as long as they candidates are Italian. Or, the crew is never made, but it almost doesn't matter since the family is so disperate at this point they continue to allow it to operate as a true extension of the family.

Or just about anything you can think of.

As far as the vig, just estimate. Divide the takes by shares. If the take is 15 wealth, two splitting the money is 14, three way split is 13, four way split is 12, etc. One share may be enough for the family or you may need one for everyone up the chain of command. Skimming is expected and to some extent tolerated.

Sez Mr. D.