Mob Quirks

Mob Quirks relate to secret skills and knowledge possessed by members of particular criminal gangs.

You should take a look at these quirks if your character is a member of the Dockyard Rats, the Family, Inmack's Boys or the Watchdogs.

The Dockyard Rats

You can't have a steam ship at game start. They are ridiculously expensive to build and maintain.

Star of the Docks (3)
The nature of your work for the Dockyard Rats makes you especially popular amongst the residents of the Docks (who are prone to hero-worship of the Rats anyway). Perhaps you're the one who sells them the black market cigars and fine wines, perhaps you're a particularly dashing pirate, or perhaps you're a well-known pub minstrel. However you've achieved this affection, the simple folk of the Docks will do a lot for you. They won't kill for you, or indeed do anything remotely dangerous, mind, but they will be willing to hide items or people for you, keep an eye out for particular individuals, and otherwise do you little favours. They lack any useful skills or resources, being mundane working class folk, but when they're standing in court, assuring the judge that yes, you were definitely having a drink in the Jolly Cabin-Boy at the when you allegedly shot that Inmack's Boys pickpocket in the face on the other side of town, you can't help but love them.

Blackmailable Client (1+)
Only members of Shoreleave House can take this quirk. You keep your eyes and ears open at Shoreleave House and soon enough you know who's got the bad debts, who's got the nasty drug habits, who asks the hookers for the most hilariously embarrassing services, that kind of thing. You know a particular individual - perhaps a powerful civil servant, a potent sorceress, a famous actor, someone with a reputation to lose - who you can blackmail with this information (they've gone and crossed the Rats, so the Rats aren't too concerned about keeping their secrets hidden). The individual in question can't be too important - no more than Rank 3 in whichever organisation they are a part of - because if you want to blackmail the big boys you need to earn the privilege in-game.

This person will do favours for you to keep their dirty secret hidden. But they won't do anything - push them too far, and they might decide that losing their reputation is the lesser of two evils, and refuse.

Here's how it works - please note that the system described below applies only to NPC blackmail victims who you have bought blackmail material on at game start by buying this quirk - if you find out a dirty secret about someone during the course of the game, the blackmail attempt should be roleplayed:

• You pay a certain number of points into Blackmailable Client - the more points you put in, the more destroyed your victim's life will be if you reveal their filthy, filthy secret. Your victim has earned an equivalent number of what we like to call "Blackmail Points"!

• If you ask your client to do something, and their Blackmail Point level goes down below 0, they'll refuse to do it and you will not be able to blackmail them again. But hey, at least their name will be dirt.

• It costs half a Blackmail Point to ask someone to do something which is of little risk to them. It costs 1 Blackmail Point to ask someone to do something which would put their job at risk if they were caught. It costs 2 Blackmail Points to ask someone to do something which would entail a jail sentence, and it costs 3 Blackmail Points to do something which could get them killed.

• Of course, blackmail isn't an exact science. Each time you ask someone to do something for you, we'll roll a six-sided dice: if we roll a 1, the action costs 1 Blackmail Point less than usual (to a minimum of 0 points). If we roll a 6, it costs 1 point more than usual.

• What the really clever blackmailers do when they ask their victims to do something dodgy for them is to try and get proof that the individual in question was responsible for it - this proof can then be used for (you guessed it) additional blackmail, since the victim now has even more to be ashamed of. If you ask your blackmail victim to do something which would damage their reputation in any way if they were caught doing it, and if you can get proof that they did it, then that action costs two less blackmail points than usual (again, to a minimum of zero).

You can buy multiple blackmailable clients if you wish.

Sky Pirate (5)
Only members of the Rope-Bound Brotherhood can take this quirk. You are an aerial pirate, and have your very own (stolen) flying taxi. It's as simple as that.

Well, it's not quite so simple. Getting the damn thing fixed is a pain - obviously, you can't go to the Grey Order. There are a few people who've learned Grey Engineering on the sly and are willing to help sky pirates, but it's a hassle to find them (it will cost you a turnsheet action to find one) - they refuse to work with more than one or two clients, because there was a nasty incident when a sky pirate got drunk and let slip the name of his mechanic in a pub and the mechanic got killed by the Grey Order a while back.

Friend of the Crocodiles (3)
Only members of Jude's Concern can take this quirk. You're one of the members of the Rats who is empowered to talk to the crocodiles; as an upshot, you are able to accompany them through the sewers between Horizon and the Trans-Wall Colonies, right under the nose of the government.

The Family

Kellor (1)
Either your surname is Kellor, or you are so closely related to them as to leave no mistake (and this is publicly known). Either way, you have an extra edge of respect within the Family, and will be treated as a favoured son/daughter wherever you go in the Slums. You will also generally be treated with more respect throughout the Lower City (except in the Docks, where the Rats have made the Kellor name unpopular). Note that you have to have this quirk before you can have Rank 4 or 5 in the Family.

Note that if, for some reason, you want to play a Kellor who is not a member of the Family, you can do so for free, but you also get none of the benefits listed above, and most mobsters inside and outside the Family will think of you as trash.

Blood Loyalty (1 point + merit cost)
The Kellor are extremely close family, and encourage similar loyalty among the families that work for them. This quirk adds one point to the cost of another people-related positive quirk; the NPCs concerned with that quirk are now directly related to your character and (more importantly) regard that connection as being of life-or-death importance. Under most circumstances short of magic, they cannot be made to betray you; they will also be more attendant than normal to your safety and interests. Please be sensible when applying this; an Unreliable Bodyguard, for example, is kind of failing to display any Blood Loyalty by definition. And definitely don't try anything along the lines of an Enemy who has Blood Loyalty to you. We will cut you.

Alternatively, you can buy this as an independent 1 point merit to have a relative who has no exceptional skills or influence, but is in some mildly useful job or position (please specify) and is looking out for your interests.

Inmack's Boys

Finding Stuff (3)
Inmack's Boys are renowned for their ability to go through a pile of apparently worthless junk and strip out anything of value. This is the skill that lets them do it. Any time you are in a situation that involves sorting out the needle in a haystack, you probably succeed. Alternatively, you can simply declare that you go into some area and poke around until you find something to grab your attention. You will always find something, although it is not guaranteed to be nice, useful, or harmless.

Byways (2)
The Boys know all the secret routes, sewer plans, and disused buildings that let one get quickly and quietly about Horizon. Each time you buy this quirk, you know the hidden byways around one district in the city. You can make quick getaways, lose pursuit, or hide yourself more easily in that district; you can also help others to do so.

The Watchdogs

Informants (2)
Sneaks and spies who can tell you whats going on in one specified district of the city. In game terms, this means that every turn you get one piece of information coming from this area. These are not as reliable as Spies and less widespread than Contacts and cannot always be coerced into giving you the information you want (you can always try leaning on them), but are far better than Unreliable Contacts.

Key to the Doghouse (3)
You must be Rank 2 or above to take this quirk. For some reason the Loyal Order has seen fit to give you some duties in the prison section of the Doghouse – maybe you take a shift in the main guard office or do the library book run for the inmates (you decide). Either way, you have a key to the front door, the employed guards know you by sight and no-one will give you a second glance if you’re walking around the prison section of the Doghouse for no apparent reason unless you’re doing something incredibly suspicious.