How to play Five Families

Goals

Sign in with Google and pick a street name. You spawn unaffiliated in the Bronx with about two thousand dollars cash, a shylock note for fifty-five hundred, and a beater that holds forty weight. The first three beats are a tutorial (buy cheap smokes, travel to Manhattan, sell). After that, progress is a bankroll you can keep.

Cash on hand plus parked money is what the boards rank. Heat is the number that makes the law and the rivals more likely to pinch you. A quiet Operator with a smaller pile can outlast a loud one. Nights survived is the long game: the city ticks whether you show up or not, and a week off is interest and eaten spikes, not a deleted file.

Family rank is a next-day choice. Sit with a family and you become Associate: home turf, a sealed family bank, tribute on profitable deals, and that family's table. Desk jobs write standing. Soldier lands at 16 standing. Capo opens at 32 standing, three midnights, and $2,000 on the books or $200 tribute: you name a crew (2 to 24 letters) and two bot soldiers work for you. Refuse the room forever and Operator is the ceiling (about eight thousand net while unaffiliated). Loners still trade, still appear on the boards as Unaffiliated, and never get a crew. Optional endings (retire, a later WITSEC reset) are not required to play.

Rules

You get twelve moves a day. Midnight is America/New_York. Almost every action costs one move: travel, buy, sell, a family sit-down, a family job, a bribe, a bank drop or draw, hiring muscle or a fixer, upgrading the car. Free actions: reading the blotter, the dossier, prices in the borough you are standing in, leaderboards, dismissing a tip, paying the shylock, talking on the family table, skipping an optional job. One buy or sell is one move for the whole stack, not per carton.

If you are online at the tick, unused moves cool heat (one point each, capped at six). If you were away, the tick applies a smaller cool-off and never raises heat. The world still moves without you.

Weight is the constraint, not slots. A beater holds forty, a sedan eighty, a van a hundred forty. Travel always costs one move no matter how heavy you roll. Load changes heat and pinch chance, not the move price. Over half the trunk on the road adds heat. Over the heavy line (eighty percent, ninety for Galliano) adds more, plus a law pinch bump. Vehicles are a mid-game purchase. The van is how liquor becomes a career.

Each borough keeps a usual dollar band per good, plus named spikes (boat comes in, raid scare, big game, construction boom, Commission dinner, airport delay). Spikes last a midnight or two unless crews eat them. Home boroughs tend to be cheaper on the buy. The book in the borough you are standing in is always free to read. Gold steal means the buy is cheap versus the usual band. Heat hot street means they are paying. Dim hold means a dead dump: walk it.

Heat runs from 0 to 100. Each deal and each travel can roll a law pinch and a rival pinch separately. Law starts at a small base, then adds heat, stash value, weight, and (only after you join a family and leave home) off-turf. Unaffiliated operators are never treated as off-turf: they have no home to leave. A pinch takes a fine and cargo. A fixer reduces the sting without lowering the chance. Muscle lowers rival chance. A bribe costs a move and cash and drops heat. Nothing deletes the account.

Your first three midnights are a rookie week: pinches are rarer, they take a smaller cut of cargo, and they do not lift extra pocket cash. After that the street is meaner. The shylock compounds at midnight: two percent for the first three missed days, then one percent, with a cap on what can accrue while you are away. Debt never ends the save. Paying the note is free of the move clock.

After the first midnight, five offers land. Genara (Manhattan) taxes quiet and high. Galliano (Brooklyn) wants volume. Lucente (Bronx) leaves more of the spread and charges you in heat. Bonacci (Queens) is the traveler's family. Colonna (Staten Island) is family-first: off-island adds heat per deal and per travel; the ferry is flavor and still one move. Take one offer for a move, or refuse forever. Offers sweeten after a few midnights. Sit with a family and you get their table: a shared wire with that family's bots (and any humans who sat the same chair). Twelve lines a night, no move cost. After you sit, the boss leaves optional work on the desk (cash and standing). Skip is fine. Rare insists should not be skipped: heat and standing, never an account wipe. Loners get no jobs. Hit the Capo numbers and you name a crew; the table becomes that crew's wire. Soldiers take a cut at midnight and can get pinched (you cover half). WITSEC is later. Pick a pulp mug at the sit-down. It is not a photo.

Family members drop cash in a home-borough bank (one move, parked money is sealed). Unaffiliated operators get a street locker instead: still one move, still no home turf, and about thirty percent of what you parked can walk if the law or a rival hits you.

Tips for success

• Chase the badges. A gold steal is a cheap buy versus the usual band. A hot street is a hungry sell. A dim hold is a dead dump. Do not force a ticket the book is not offering.
• Do not roll heavy early. Over half the trunk adds heat on the road. Over the heavy line adds more heat and a law bump. The rookie week is for a bankroll, not a van full of liquor.
• Park cash. A pinch takes pocket money. Family bank is sealed on home turf. The loner locker is leaky, and still better than walking around loud.
• Chip the note. Paying the shylock does not cost a move. Two percent for three days, then one percent, adds up faster than a bad spike. Debt never ends the save, but it eats the spread.
• Travel with a plan. One move gets you to the next borough, empty or loaded. Read the free book before you roll. Staten Island is still one move; Colonna just charges heat for leaving.
• Bribe versus laying low. A bribe costs a move and cash and drops heat now. Unused moves at midnight cool heat for free (up to six if you are online). If the day is already loud, pay. If you can spare the leftover moves, let the tick work.
• Family pick matters. Genara is quiet and expensive. Galliano wants volume and forgives a heavier trunk. Lucente leaves more cash and more heat. Bonacci is built for the suitcase. Colonna wants you home on Sunday. Loner is a real path: Operator ceiling, weaker locker, no crew. Offers only get sweeter. The street never freezes.

Sit down and play