So, this may have been something previously discussed in the past.  But there's a few things that could be modified to help make this game more enjoyable.  Especially since there's no maps and very limited ways to actually make money and truly collaborate as a crew/crime family/gang.

Illegal Rackets

Okay, so we have the "Extort a Business" thing.  Alright, that's fine.  I know we have the tax that a "Godfather" of a city can collect.  As a realist, I really cringe at some of these ranks though.  Others may like them, but I digress.

Drug Trafficking - For many of these drugs that people purchase, what if we actually had suppliers?  Initially, this could be various drug cartels, but what if we had a certain gang/crew obtain the capability to create drugs and sell them wholesale to people.  Cutting agents could be introduced to dilute the purity and spread out the earning capability for lower level dealers on the street.  For pricing, each city, depending on the distance they are from the manufacturing location (for Cocaine we could say Colombia as the starting point) would dictate how high it goes. 

Now let's go even further with this.  Stash houses are locations where drugs are stored.  What if you located a mob owned/independently operated stash house that managed to hold drugs.  There could be mask features that allow the player to anonymously rob or stick up the stash house - and if need be, kill the muscle (NPC Bodyguards) and steal the goods from the location.

 Loan Sharking - Others have said this in the past, but two methods for introducing loans to members.  Either through a contract where an individual signs a contract with another member to repay the loan under specific terms.  They agree to the repercussions that could happen (death, physical harm etc) if the loan isn't repaid.  A week or two MAY be acceptable, but that's of course depending who is lending the money to decide.

To go even further.  Say you're just starting out new to the game.  In order to obtain money, your Captain or sponsor can loan you $50,000 at 1 point a week.  You then loan that out at 4 points a week.  What does that mean?  the 1 point a week is $500 a week to be repaid as juice/interest money that's it.  The Bonanno Crime Family (irl) had a history of doing this in a most recent federal indictment.  In order to pay the point back, the associates at 4 points a week would receive $2,000 a week.  Split the juice with your boss and you keep the different of $1,500 in your pocket each week.

Extortion - There's several other ways this can be done aside from extorting a small "business owner".  Now, establishing a business district to extort from would be interesting for the game.  Typically, in the world of the Mafia - and this is a difference listed in this game where you have sponsors etc.  A made man - whether soldier, captain, consigliere, underboss or boss - all of them are considered equal amongst each other.  This means you don't touch them in anyway to do harm against them etc.  So a touch against them would be a death sentence.   HOWEVER.  Associates operating certain businesses could be fair game to be shaken down.  What does that mean?  If I operate a sportsbook and Made Man #1 wants to shake me down to get a cut of the profits, I pay a weekly protection fee to Made Man #2 because I'm "with" him/her or "on record" with him/her.  So this could be through other ways.  Imposing a street tax.  In the various New York, Chicago and Philadelphia mafia families (and probably else where) drug dealers, bookies, pimps, prostitutes, or any other criminal for the threat of violence, imprisonment or death unless a payment fee (single or reoccurring) is made.  There's also cyber extortion, but this isn't something we can really do in a game set in the 1930s.  Also, technically collecting loan shark money is also extortion, because you are collecting extortionate credit (according to the RICO laws).

Illegal Gambling - While there are games within the Mafia Returns website where people can draw tickets for a lottery and for various other bets.  Sports betting, craps games, casinos, policy numbers and all were hosted and invested in by the Mafia.  For a crew to host a game would be great to have more of a profit for the groups.  

Members can host a card game, have a bank for the game where the money has to be stored in a safehouse and is protected by muscle.  Much like a stash house.  If you weren't the original bank, you could buy into a lottery and have a betting shop that feeds into a larger lottery system, allowing you to receive a small cut of the proceeds.  This could include npcs buying tickets at various amounts or other players.

JackMezzo has done a fantastic job starting a horse racing betting ring.  His work is by far second to none and quite honestly, that type of work and contribution to a rather static and unchanging gray-scaled game should be appreciated.  There's other things to do than "Con a Poor Shlub".  I've started a bolita lottery which will be giving an 80/1 pay out on random numbers 1-100 generated daily.  Of course everyone can do this and set their own terms.  

Counterfeit Currency

The game could create various printers of quality levels INCLUDING  a trait added to the player.  Both traits could determine the outcome and quality of the currency.  This will feed into two things (1) the legitimate businesses section and (2) illegal section.  First the latter.

Illegal purchases of drugs, firearms etc. could be passed off as legal currency.  So if I wanted to rip off a drug dealer, I could buy 20 units of cocaine at a price of $20,000 (just an example).  There could be tools to detect counterfeit currency in the game that the player could have.  In doing so, the player or NPC ripped off could be left with fake money while the criminal player has a tangible object that they in turn sell for true money.  However, this could be difficult to pull off - but albeit possible.

Legitimate purchases. Feeding into purchasing supplies for a business and selling them legitimately.  Not sure on the value of the products, but it could all depend.  However, what we could do is add one additional thing to this.  PAWN SHOPS so say you purchase X amount of jewelry with counterfeit currency and sell the goods in a pawnshop for a payout.  Is the value as it was being sold for?  Probably not but why do you care?  You didn't pay for it :)  Want to rip off a car dealer?  Pay "fake" cash for a new car and drive right off the lot with it.

Forgery

Someone could create fake IDs for a price - same thing with the quality of those IDs, fake documents a bunch of things to make additional money.

Stolen Credit Cards/Checks

Pick pocketers, burglars etc can retrieve those items from residential homes and use them to make purchases for assets that aren't theirs.

Brothels/Prostitution

Kind of self explanatory.  Although this is controversial and probably not best or this place.  The thing is the profit in general would have to be pieced together better.

Hijacking

All of the truck loads that would come through JFK and Lufthansa Airport in NYC - i.e. Lufthansa Heist and the movie "Goodfellas".  Depending on a shipment you could have a risk for being caught and then what you receive from the shipment could be sold through pawnshops owned by NPCs or yourself.

Stolen Car Rings

Steal vehicles randomly placed by the game in each city.  Sell them at a legitimately owned chop shop, where the vehicles are broken down and sold for more parts or re-sold at a legitimate dealership.  

Territory

So I know a gang can control Brooklyn, Queens, the North Side, South Side etc.  But let's dig a little futher.  There are maps out there that can be delegated out to various Capos to run on behalf of the Boss.  What do I mean?  Look at the links below to the various and areas.  

New York City

Chicago

Boston

Philadelphia

Los Angeles

New Jersey

For New York City, by example, families often co-exist with each and are often chasing the same dollar.  So anyone who operates in New York would have a Capo who oversees area 10 of Brooklyn which would consist of Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Fort Hamilton or area 11 of Bensonhurst & Bath Beach.  In those cases, you could even have a power sh aring situation, where there are 50,000 residents or 10,0000 residents so to speak in each district.  That would be how many clients you could have for 1. a sports book, a casino, recruits available through npcs.  The list can go on.

Legitimate Businesses/Investments

For all of the money in this game, arming their "headquarters" into a military base basically, there's no tracking of the money.  So what exactly do the npc cops do?  Not much.  Realistically, we'd all be in prison for Tax Evasion since we sell heroin and cocaine to the highest bidder on a daily basis with nothing else to show for our income.  Dirty Money vs. Clean Money would be huge here.

So how do we clean our money?  

1. Go to the MafiaReturns casino and turn that illegal cash into legal money.

2. Open a legitimate business and clean it through - 

Restaurants

Bars

Night Clubs

Strip Clubs

These businesses could be upgraded more to include better accountants and employees that 1. generate more legitimate profit and 2. allow for more dirty money to be cleaned.  The same legitimate funding could allow for the purchase of homes, vehicles, clothing and guns for legitimate use of self defense.  Much more to be added here for this suggestion but these are a couple of ideas I have floating around.

Anyway, there's some things I think could help make this website better and I just wanted to throw it out there.  Thanks all for reading and have a great rest of your week.

i think you may be on to something here. 

ill give it a +1

+1

I don't like the money laundering idea and the territories stuff would be too complicated imo.

Territories - You already have districts of each city.  Say you had 1000 customers in each area - your business would be setup to attract customers.

I was actually about to suggest stolen cars, I played Omerta Barafranca some years ago, it was really neat to do and earn some decent change mainly when starting out (tried it recently and found MR was just a easier format to communicate and mingle, getting to know people compared to Omerta, felt very isolated with no family so stuck with MR as I really enjoyed the fact Families were notified you were doing jobs for them and caught their interest )

Stolen Car Rings

Steal vehicles randomly placed by the game in each city.  Sell them at a legitimately owned chop shop, where the vehicles are broken down and sold for more parts or re-sold at a legitimate dealership.  

So upon searching other games my husband and I use to play 10 some years ago, we both agreed starting out gets repetitive quickly, yes it's meant to be as it would be in real life Mafia back in that era, but for hard core gamers ( we were.. not so much anymore) having very selected options to level, gain XP in various aspects to mould you character accordingly, becomes tiresome and boring, hence why some people don't stick around.

Using the Stolen car option could fall under a Felony, having details such as it's current worth damaged etc to refurbished, this will assist in stealth and street smarts.

This will also assist in RPing if people actually see the cars way back when setting the era period correct.

JackMezzo has done a fantastic job starting a horse racing betting ring.  His work is by far second to none and quite honestly, that type of work and contribution to a rather static and unchanging gray-scaled game should be appreciated.  There's other things to do than "Con a Poor Shlub".  

agree to this statement 100%

Another idea I'd like to throw into this from my original post with my old character....

Give options for groups to form various faction types with rankings like:

Cosa Nostra (famiglia di Palermo, famiglia di New York)

'Ndrangheta (ndrina is the equivalent to a familiy)

Camorra (clan would be the basic organizational structure)

Sacra Corona Unita (clan would be the basic organizational structure)

Societa Foggiana (clan would be the basic organizational structure)

Russian Mafia (various brotherhoods)

Nigerian Mafia (i.e. Black Axe)

Haitian Gangs/OC (Zoe Pound etc)

Albanian Mafia

Colombian / Mexican Drug Cartels

Street Gangs

Motorcycle Clubs

Chinese Triads

Japanese Yakuza

These are all factions people can utitlize to form cohesive relationships and actually work together in various role play as opposed to City vs. City nonesense that this game is.  

I would be nice to spruce up the organized crimes option. I have always thought it was very basic. Thumbs up for me man, incredible.

Thanks so much!  I really appreciate that.

Additional Territory Information

Protection Racket 

Let's New York for an example.  You have Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan and Staten Island.  Each borough could have certain levels of businesses.  Each business would pay a specific amount of money per week in protection.   

Class A Business - Restaurants, Bars, Corner Stores - $1,000/week

Class B Business - Larger company like a small hotel, night clubs - $5,000/week

Class C Business - Shipping Company, Super Markets, Waste Management Company - $10,000/week.

Now for one business, is the profit very high?  Not really.  It all depends on what each business makes in some cases.  The goal however, is to allow for more money coming from different directions.  There could be 50 Class A Businesses, 25 class B's and 10 Class C Businesses in a district/borough or whatever you want to call it.

Street Tax

Much like Durdens.  Even though they don't exist, a better thing to gain XP would be to shake down various criminals operating in the territory.

- Bookies, Loan Sharks, Drug Dealers, Burlgars, Car Thieves - any type of independent criminal operating in your territory can be extorted to pay the local Mafia family.  

Much like businesses, each criminal could be classified - Class C Bookie - $10,000 a week - Mafia gets 25% , Class B Bookie - $25,000 a week, Class C Bookie - $100,000/week. 

Now with businesses and criminals - the Mafia has to carry out the collection.  So much like we have to bribe FBN agents for our Drug Fronts, you have to perform a collection or else, those rackets are freed up for someone else to claim.

Cigarette Smuggling

In the past, cigarettes were taxed in different states at a higher rate.  So mobsters would travel to North Carolina, buy cigarettes in bulk and sell them in New York City cheaper without paying the taxes.  The same could be done here.  Travel to Las Vegas, buy X cartons of cigarettes.  Return to Los Angeles and sell them.  The rates could change much like drugs.

Loan Sharking

Similar to the Street tax - Spawn people who are in DEBT.  They are degenerate gamblers.  You front them cash to pay.  Now, a certain class of the debtor could show how frequent they repay you.  Typically if you have a reliableL person who borrowed money - you can charge them 1% interest.  You collect thet payments each week.  If you just even collect the interest, the individual can still give you more of a profit over time.  For the sake of the game's fast time frame - collections can occur daily.

Legitimate Enterprises

Open your own restaurant - register a company and pay 50,000 to start a business whether it be a restaurant or bar.  That business "automatically" cleans $5,000/day along with the $10,000 it makes per day.  The benefit is purchasing properties.

Properties

Residential Property - Create levels of properties for gangsters to live in: Project Housing, Abandoned City House, Small City Row House, Row House, Single Family Home, Large Residence, Mansion, Estate.

Have realistic prices to purchase them.  Have the capability to add bodyguards to protect your residence.

Commercial Property - Renovate a building in your city and flip it OR rent it out to other gangsters who want to open a business.  They then pay monthly rent - you can also mix your dirty cash in.

Ranking Structure

I understand the nature of the game is to climb the ranks and there may be some incentive to give players some sort of accomplishment.  From my own experience, everything from Thug to Wiseguy really do nothing.  From an associate's level, it'd be interesting if we simply had classes of an associate - Lvl 1, Lvl 2, Lvl 3 - Associate.  These could come with the same features that are already in the game at those various levels.

Mafia Membership & Rules

When someone is proposed for membership, an individual proposes the name to the Boss, who then circulates that name to the other families in New York.  An associate in this period would be locked in as Proposed Member.  In that instance, he holds standing within the family because his/her name is then in circulation.  When the Mafia holds sitdowns, the made members or "friends of ours" are the individuals who coordinate the sit downs.  If the dispute is held over an associate, the associate attends and does not speak until he/she is asked to speak - IF they are asked to speak.  

If an associate is proposed, they can represent themselves at a sitdown because their family is proposing them for membership.  

Admission 

In the New York families after the Castellammarese War, the Mafia held a limit on how many members would be admitted.  The books wer closed for a specific period from the 1950s - 1970s.  The reason being, was each family had memberships way too high and they wanted to prevent a war of one over powering the other.  As a result you had the approximate memberships which have stood since then for each family in New York:

Gambino: 250

Genovese: 300

Bonanno: 150

Lucchese: 150

Colombo: 150

The only time membership was granted - and still is today, is if someone passes away.  That's why there are members from 30y.o. to 98 y.o.  The only exception of this rule of adding new members, would be to add 2 new members at Christmas time per family.  So given that we are now in the holidays, I would say it's very likely that the Mafia is conducting its own ceremonies while we are all out christmas shopping.

Other cities never had a limit - Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, New Orleans, Tampa, Detroit etc., mostly because their membership never came close to New York.  Chicago and Philadelphia both had a max membership of approximately 60 made members.  All others kept their membership VERY low.  

In New Orleans, according to FBI documents, it was rumored that there were only 5 made members - the Boss: Carlos Marcello, his brother and Underboss: Joseph Marcello and three (3) soldiers.  He then had a meeting at the La Stella restaurant with the New York families to 1. settle a dispute in leadership and 2. induct new blood into the family.  This information was actually exposed when Boss, Joseph Colombo informed his family of the New Orleans affairs.  

Colombo family capo, Gregory Scarpa Sr. then relayed this information to the FBI.

Getting back to the point, when people circulate the names, all bosses know who is getting made and pass it down to their people.

United States vs. Sicily

The single families in the United States were much larger than those of Sicily.  In many cases, the individual families in Sicily - also known as  "cosca" were much smaller in size.  In Corleone for instance, the membership never exceeded 35 men of honour, yet they were able to wage war against all of the Palermo families such as:

Palermo Centro, Passo di Rigano, Porta Nuova, Pagliarelli, Villagrazia, Altarella di Baida, Boccadifalco, Brancaccio, Tomasso Natale, Arenella, Acquasanta, Santa Maria di Gesu etc.

Those families simply went by a dozen or so people who were initiated in some cases - and others also had over 100.  But those were only one or two organizations.  There were also families where there were only 2 members.  While lower in number, they had the strength financially to support themselves - but that does not do much here since this game is clearly only about training a gun and wiping out an entire city (which by the way has not and will not ever happen).

In Sicily, the Mafia families oversee a district in Palermo - the names listed above are actual neighborhoods.  For instance, Santa Maria di Gesu is a mafia family name, but, it also means "Saint Mary of Jesus".  There's a near by family in a neighborhood of "Villagio Santa Rosalia" - and for those of you from New York City, may in fact know of the Santa Rosalia festival in New York.  That is held, much like the one in Palermo.  Santa Rosalia is the patron saint of Palermo.  

Switching Families

Unlike this game, where the members are stuck with their family based on a contract in some private discussion, Associates are free to switch families in what they call a "transfer".  This occurs for made members too, but often very rarely.

Example:

Sammy Gravano (former Gambino underboss) was original affiliated/on-record/associated with the Colombo family.  He had a personal issue with another person and was then switched over to the Gambino family, where he reported to a Capo by the name of Toddo Aurello.

Louis DiBono (aka Dee Bee) was a member of the DeCavalcante family in New Jersey and later transferred his membership to the Gambino family.

Nicola Gentile, one of the original members of the Mafia in the United States was actually a member of multiple families: Kansas City, Cleveland and Pittsburgh.  He even was briefly affiliated with the Gambino family in New York, when it was under the leadership of Salvatore D'Aquila, the then Boss of Bosses.

Initiation and Rules

When a member is welcomed into the family and initiated, the other families have approved of the membership.  The member takes the oath and are then formally recognized as a Made Member or as mentioned in Sicily, a Man of Honour.  I think a lot of players get this portion confused.

Being a made member is the highest honor they can give you.  That means, that if a Boss, Underboss, Capo or Soldier of another family tries to shake down an assocaite of ANOTHER family - let's say an Underboss.  If a Soldier of another family has that guy/girl under their protection.  The Underboss has to acknowledge it and have hands off.  Here's a few other things to note:

1. A member cannot openly admit membership to another member without a third party introduction.  In this case, if John, Michael and Frank are all members.  John and Michael don't know each other, but they both know Frank - then Frank does the introduction.  He would introduce them to each other as friends - i.e.

Frank: "John, this is Michael.  He's amico nostro (friend of ours) in the Gambino family"

Frank: "Michael, this is John.  He's amico nostro (friend of ours) in the Bonanno family"

Once the introduction is made, then the individuals can discuss the society.  It's supposed to be a secret society.  

2. They don't use the term MAFIA amongst each other.  The term Mafia was given  by the media and the people.  In Sicily and the United States, it is "Our Thing".  "La Cosa Nostra" is actually incorrect, it's simply "Cosa Nostra".  

3. All members are EQUAL from Boss, Underboss, Consigliere, Capo and Soldier.  By equal they cannot do any of the following: 1. Sleep with another member's wife.  2. Put their hands on another member - case in point, if a Don pick pockets a Made man - the Don is out of line and if they pick pocket another player, would technically be grounds for the Don to be murdered.  

3a. Godfather, Don, Boss are all the same thing - the ranks in the game are simply incorrect.  Will they change?  Probably not, but I have alternatives.

Consigliere is exclusive to each individual family - the administration.  If a Boss appoints the administration you'd have a RHM (Underboss) and LHM (Consigliere).  Do we know those duties?  Does the Consigliere truly act as an advisor and mediate disputes within the family?

In a federal testimony,  a member of the Mafia described the importance of the Consigliere as follows:

Vincent Cafaro, 1988 Senate Subcommittee Investigation on Organized crime:

Senator NUNN: Can you tell us what the consigliere does in the overall family?
Mr. CAFARO: Well, the consigliere, he's the powerhouse, he's the strength, because he takes care of all the beefs from the captains. In other words, a captain can't go to a boss or the underboss unless he goes to the consigliere.
Senator NUNN: So he's really the...
Mr. CAFARO: He's the strength, he's the powerhouse.
Senator NUNN: The operating officer, so to speak?
Mr. CAFARO: Oh, yes. He, whatever decision he gives, that's it. You don't go unless it's rare that you want to go further. What I mean by "further," you want to go to the underboss or the boss. But once the consigliere gives you his decision, that's it.
 

Additional feedback on the role: 

- Jimmy Fratianno quoting John Roselli, the Last Mafioso book 1980:

"Joe Batters is back in power, but he leaves the daily hassles of being boss to Joe Aiuppa. Jackie Cerone's the underboss and Batters acts as consigliere."

- Stefano Magaddino, FBI recording January 1965:

"The representative chooses the 'capodecina' he wants; he can remove the old ones whom he does not want; he can do what he wants; he can say what he wants. Then, the 'consigliere' is elected, from the 'borgata', but the boss has full powers to make the underboss he wants, whomever he wants. As I was saying, the 'capidecina' are all-important! I never took people who worked against me. I took people who worked for me. Now, if one fights, -- let me put it this way: I had to fight and never took a 'consigliere' because you must realize that with the 'consigliere' the point of departure is always this (sound of Magaddino banging on table). Don't forget. If a 'capodecina' is raised -- let's say Paolo is raised -- he may say: I don't care a damn. Heh! Wait a minute. Who is talking? Paolo, Paolo, the advisor! Then, you have two voices. (This is taken to mean that Magaddino objects to having a 'consigliere' as it tends to split the leadership.) That must not be; not if the representative is elected the way he should be elected. The 'capodecina', the underboss are -- that's my own choice! That's the way I learned it!"

"Therefore, the first thing I did was to push Carlo Gambino who was already the 'consigliere' of the 'borgata'...This was the principle - Carlo Gambino was made (boss) because he was 'consigliere.' He was pushed because he was familiar with everything; he knew the situation."''
 

Family Structure

Family/Cosca/Borgata - Term of the basic organizational unit of a Cosa Nostra group.  Family is described mostly in the United States.  Cosca is also used in Sicily along with Family.  Borgata is a bit older, but refers to their village.  The Mafia family's territory was the village they oversaw.  For instance, in Agrigento, Siculiana and Cattolica Erraclea were both seperate villages and had their own Boss.  Each one was its own Borgata.

Capo Famiglia/Boss/Rappresentante - Exists today in the game but as Godfather, Don and Boss in in name.  There's no such thing as a Don or Godfather in Cosa Nostra.  That's a media thing and a movie, nothing more nothing less.

Underboss/Sotto Capo - Surprisingly, this role isn't even listed in the membership which is ironic because you have a million Bosses and current metrics show like 35 Dons to 11 Made Men - so we have more people who are "bosses" demanding respect vs. actual soldiers - a top heavy organization.  Works in the boss' place.

Consigliere - previously discussed.

Capo Regime/Capo Decina/Captain: Typically in the U.S. they are referred to as Captains since they are americanized.  The role is translated to "Boss of Ten" - you can have ten soldiers reporting to you.  There is no limit on associates.

Made Man/Man of  Honour/Soldier: Membership level, conducts day to day business for the organization.

Higher Structures

In Sicily there ARE roles above that of a boss of a family/borgata/cosca.  I will go in order from lower to higher, and I will then provide you with maps to further explain in detail.

To start: Sicily is divided into provinces: Palermo, Trapani, Agrigento, Caltanisetta, Enna, Messina, Siracusa, Ragusa & Catania

Provinces_of_Sicily_map.png (990×757) (wikimedia.org)

Capo Mandamento: A mandamento in Sicily is a geographical area of land.  The mafia utilizes this to organize the Boss or Representative of that territory.  Commonly, there are three families in one Mandamento.  There are more as you will see in the map of Palermo below.  Currently, this game includes bosses of a "family" and then you have a city.  If you have so many bosses, maybe formalize it to where you have a Capo Mandamento of a city - or, there's a need for more cities.  Anyway, the Capo Mandamento coordinates the grouping of those families.  The bosses of the mandamento meet to discuss business and then elect a representative or rappresentante to then go to the PROVINCIAL commission.  There are many mandamentos in each province.

Capo Provincia: The boss of a province holds extremely high power and in many cases, the Capo Provincia of the province of Palermo in Sicily is the highest ranking and most influential member in Cosa Nostra.  The Capo Provincia of Trapani for example is Matteo Messina Denaro.  All of the Capo Provincias meet on what is termed the Cupola which is Sicily's highest commission.  The United States does not have this - as you can see you have multiple Mandamenti commissions and then a Provincial commission.  

Capo di tutti Capi: This once existed in the United States as well as in Sicily.  In the U.S., members that held this role were people like Giuseppe Morello, Salvatore D'Aquila, Giuseppe Masseria & Salvatore Maranzano.  After Maranzano's death, it was abolished completely, although individuals such as Carlo Gambino and Vito Genovese held a very large sway over the commission.  

In Sicily, people such as Salvatore 'Toto' Riina and Bernardo Provenzano held the role.  After their imprisonment, Salvatore LoPiccolo of the Tomasso Natale family staged a power play in an attempt to take this role in addition to allowing the losers of the Mafia war - the Inzerillo clan to return to their borgata of Passo di Rigano in Palermo.  His rival, Antoniono Rotolo and Rotolo's underboss, Gianni Nicchi, both agreed to fight back against LoPiccolo.  All of them are currently imprisoned, although LoPiccolo's son is now back out and running Tomasso Natale.

Map of Palermo's mafia landscape is below, according to the Direzione Investigative Antimafia (DIA):

mappa-mandamenti.jpg (1000×747) (addiopizzo.org)

palermo-1.jpg (981×892) (antimafiaduemila.com)

I honestly love these ideas as they definitely provide a much more diverse set of crimes. Associated with this there could also be different skills you have to learn. For example, stolen cars. You would get better at that with practice as a normal person would. an NPC/Player run business could also repair the cars adjusting their price/or act as a chop shop, where if we wanted for instance to have an NPC in another city, we might have to have a BG drive a repaired stolen car to transport drugs to another city while we are waiting to fly. This granted would take a lot more time but it would make it interesting as people would have to setup transportation networks. 

Thanks for the feedback. I posted these ideas because it gives much more reason to grow an empire rather than to setup somewhere in a city and have a circle of killings every month or so as this game has come to.  Like, the purpose of a commission is to quel mass wars where as these games seem to get worse and worse since people don't know what they are doing.