Corrupt Agents have been the easiest money in this city for years. They carry cash, they never fight back, and they never remember your face. In one week 1,646 of 2,197 pickpockets in the whole game went after an agent, and 1,629 of those worked. A 99% success rate against something that cannot answer is not a risk, it is a salary.

That is over. Pick an agent's pocket while the player who pays for it is standing in the same district, and one of his bodyguards may come looking for you.

It is switched off for everybody right now. Nobody's agents are protected until they go and tick the box themselves, so the city gets more dangerous gradually instead of overnight. If you keep agents, go to your bodyguard page and find the panel headed "Your BGs will protect".

How it works.At the moment of the PP, one bodyguard is drawn at random from the sponsor's entire payroll, trained or not, and four of their skills are asked four questions in order. Info: did anyone notice. Defense: do they bother getting up. Wack: does it land. Stealth: do you ever find out who. Rage is a wildcard pool that may rescue some of those four if they fail, so a bodyguard with nothing but rage is still worth being careful around.

That random draw is the part worth thinking about. Forty untrained bodies do not protect your CA. They mostly dilute your chances of sending somebody who can actually do the job.

Just like normal our traditional mugs, if it lands, he takes somewhere between 1% and 100% of the cash you are carrying. Not your bank, just what is in your coat. Half of it goes back to the agent you robbed and he keeps the rest. One time in ten he takes your gun as well. Two hours get added to your travel and pickpocket timers, and most people feel that more than the money.

It is not instant. The dice are thrown the moment you make your move, but he still has to find you, so expect him inside the minute. If you are in a cell when he comes looking he waits outside rather than waste the trip, and he will keep waiting up to 30 minutes. Getting arrested is a delay, not an escape.

If you keep agents, there are six switches for going easy on your own. Three circles: your crew, your home district, your home city. Each one can be set to ignore a thief completely, or to take it easy on them, which caps the take at 10%, leaves their gun alone and does not touch their timers at all. Family beats district beats city, so the narrowest circle you have actually set an instruction for is the one that decides. And robbing your own agent does nothing, so do not worry about tripping over your own muscle.

One more thing. A bodyguard who takes a wallet off somebody keeps his share, and he has started spending it. If he has money he will put himself up for training and pay for his own upkeep without being asked. Paying for training only buys him a place on the board, so somebody in your crew still has to do the work.

The full manual, with all the numbers, is here: How Corrupt Agents and bodyguards work

Shout if anything reads wrong or plays wrong.

So if being used, a random BG can obtain money and use that money to train itself? That means everyone in your family using this might be training significantly more of their BG's than they would of previously? 

If the $10,000 per skill point what was holding someone back from training their BG, then yes, this would provide the 10k needed for it to be put on the training board for another crewmate to train it on the attackers dime.