Ladder
Ranks & the room
You top out as Boss of a crew inside a family. Family Boss is NPC Commission. Loners may refuse that ladder forever and still appear on the boards.
Affiliation is not character creation. You play a day on the street, the city ticks, and then five dossiers land. Taking one costs a move. Refusing forever is allowed. The loner path is not the full game — no crew, no Capo, no Commission sit-down, no family jobs, a weaker locker instead of a sealed home drop — but it is a path. Offers only get sweeter. The street never freezes.
Street
Default, unaffiliated
Trade. Weak street locker. No family jobs, no crew, no home turf.
Operator
About $8k net while unaffiliated
Loner ceiling. Board title only. Still no crew, jobs, or Capo.
Associate
Take a family offer
Home turf, family bank, jobs, tribute.
Soldier
Family only. 16 standing from desk jobs. Rank freeze blocks it.
The boards write Soldier. Lucente crews already run a thinner cut.
Capo
Family only. 32 standing, 3 midnights, and $2,000 cash-plus-parked or $200 tribute. Then you name the crew. A short sit-down vs a family bot (cash, standing, heat) can still say not yet.
Name a crew. Two bot soldiers work at midnight. You run the crew inside the family.
Underboss
Higher net plus ledger vs two rivals
Crew cap grows. Jobs can assign a soldier.
Crew Boss
Top player rank
Still made under an NPC Family Boss. Commission is not a player seat.
Five families, not palette swaps
Genara (manhattan) — Old-money Commission. Quiet, political, the room already made the decision. Tribute 12% of profitable deals plus Rare, large ($2k–$5k). Skip freezes rank 3 days. Deals generate −20% heat. Bribes cost −25%. Home turf: −4% law pinch.
Galliano (brooklyn) — Docks and construction. Heavier hands, heavier trunks, union envelopes. Tribute 8% of profitable deals plus Frequent, medium ($800–$2k). Skip = +8 heat. Deals generate +10% heat. Heavy threshold 90%. Muscle and van −20%.
Lucente (bronx) — Louder street crew. Collections on the corner. Everybody saw you. Tribute 6% of profitable deals plus Frequent, small ($400–$1.2k). Skip = +12 heat. Deals generate +25% heat. +5% law pinch on every deal.
Bonacci (queens) — Airport and import. Quieter, wider reach. The crate landed; don't lose it. Tribute 10% of profitable deals plus Occasional, medium ($1k–$2.5k). Skip = +8 heat. Deals generate −10% heat. Off-turf pinch +4% (not +8%). First travel ignores off-turf.
Colonna (staten island) — Insular, family-first, suburban drops. Sunday is not optional. Tribute 9% of profitable deals plus Weekly family envelope, modest but mandatory ($600–$1.5k). Off-island: +1 heat per deal and per travel. On SI: −15% heat from deals.
Crews, ledgers, endings
Crews unlock at Capo, family only. You name the crew (2 to 24 letters). Two bot soldiers work the street at midnight, take about 15% (12% in Lucente), and can get pinched. You cover half a soldier's fine. Pulp only: cash and an envelope, never gore. This sitting uses standing, nights, and the books to open the chair, plus a short sit-down score vs a bot. Full contested ledger fights (crew size, grease, a packed room) are the next knob. Loners never get a crew. Operator stays the unaffiliated ceiling.
WITSEC (later sitting): same Google account, new street name, empty pockets plus a stipend, debt wiped, Street again. Old identity stays on the boards as a ghost. Unlimited resets, fourteen-day cooldown. Retire: off the street, still on boards, can come back. Persistent boards list cash, rank, crew, heat, longest survivor — street name only. Unaffiliated players are listed with family = Unaffiliated.