From a window overlooking Little Italy, Christian Gato is watching the streets of Manhattan from the office of his father, Sam. Through the cascading sheets of rain, the shimmering lights and figures below scuttled for cover. Blackened clouds were rolling in over New York, a far cry from the bright shores of his LA office, or the windy heights of Chicago. He drank from his glass and let the Irish whiskey cut through his throat, the sensation was well past the point of provoking a reaction from the old man.

He returned to his desk, settling the glass down on a carved wooden coaster, and picked up his pen once more.

Amici,

In the following hours I will be releasing plans for a new structure within Manhattan. Call it an experiment if you will, I however prefer to call it an opportunity. It will be utilizing a system which pulls away one that would see me authorize a captain to run the streets on my behalf. This "Auth" system is not my cup of tea. I would like to introduce you to The Favour System. The following will only apply to those operating in Manhattan. I am not imposing this way of thinking on anyone outside of my district.

The Favour System is a simple enough method of determining your chances of success in Manhattan. You as an individual or a crew can either be in or out of favour with the Godfather. Judgement will be passed by me, and only me, because that is the authority and right I hold as Godfather. I will be seeking advice, insight and opinions from my personal crew in the making of my decisions, however.

This means that there is no direct way to establish if you are in or out of favour, I can reveal however what attributes your favour is judged upon. To determine where you fall, I will be considering the following:

• Approach - How you hold yourself, present yourself, even the name chosen for you
• Participation - Determined by the quality of and frequency that you participate in public discussions and businesses
• Contribution - Financially driven, this will be the amount of money your operation or yourself will bring into my business
• Reputation - What I hear about you, or your operation. What we see on the streets and learn from the nature of your character

These four factors are reviewed against your individual performance, your performance compared against your peers (Both as Crew Leaders and Wise Guys) and the financial or reputational impact on myself and the district.

Any decisions that I have to make which impacts the status of my district will be made in consideration of how in or out of favour someone is.

For example; If you are killed by another member of New York, but had fallen out of favour, then there is going to be no one mourning your loss. If someone takes down another crew which was in favour, but yours was not, expect to be in deep shit.

This system will enforce smart, informed decisions that a person will have to consider their attention to the attributes above before taking action.

I look forward to working with future members of Manhattan. Please stand by for further announcements. 

Amore e rispetto,

Christian Gato

Mr Gato - So happy that you have a plan. I'm not sure how your plan works? could you explain a little more in depth sir?

Sorry to seem dense, I just don't understand it.

Ciao paisano,

Further announcements will be made shortly. I wanted to lay the groundwork for my approach to avoid an 'information overload' situation in a single speech.

I appreciate your interest though.

A refreshing idea and one I hope to see work out. It's great to see new things being tried out, especially given that usually when we see one group of leaders fall, the replacement leaders tend to pick up where the last lot left off so for once I'm glad that it's not the case and we've seen some wel thought up ideas come to the table.

I'm sure it will take people some time to adapt to this and it may cause a few upsets but I think it's a realistic approach to what we do and anything that encourages people to speak out more is welcome in my eyes.

Kudos for this Godfather Gato, I really do hope it works out for you.

green took the letter from the lad's hand and slipped him a few coins in exchange. It had taken him a little time to get his hands on the Gato family Godfather's missive - information like that didn't trickle down to street level all that quickly - but it had proven a worthwhile wait. It seemed that they were going to be doing things the right way in Manhattan. 

Godfather ChristianGato, its nice to see your presence out here, i know those of a skeptic mindset will appreciate you taking the time to come out and start to give us some more information on who this new world will be going to be shaped. Hopefully we can start to put the doubters to bed and move away from the notion that "nothing will change".  Even if it is the case i dont agree with the direction we're moving, its good to actually see the wheels turning. 

Moving onto the announcement at hand. I like it, whats not to like? its the base ideals of what every self respecting mobster should adopt. You know, its not ground breaking to come to expect such behaviors from the people who reside in your city. 

Awesome. I'm sure you'll have a line of suck ups at your door asap. 

I disagree, completely.  Like iv said earlier, these are qualities that people who want to excel in this world should have anyway. Its not a case of "sucking up the boss man" its a case of showing your worth, setting out your stall to say; "Look at me, look what i can bring to your organisation."     

Most crew leaders should adopt this philosophy anyway but i think the point of this ethos is that, these qualities have been lost over the many generations of mobsters that have walked this earth and we're so reliant on our kins name sake to actually achieve anything, that working hard for something you want has been lost in translation. The bold move here is actually heading out to the streets and setting the stall out. What this does is put Mr Gato under the microscope, to speak. Which is not a bad thing at all, such is the position that he holds. As a community we will be looking  at his next move and if, at all, he follows through with what he has proposed for his district. 

I do have questions about one part, only really to satisfy my curiosity; 

For example; If you are killed by another member of New York, but had fallen out of favour, then there is going to be no one mourning your loss. If someone takes down another crew which was in favour, but yours was not, expect to be in deep shit.

i Know you've said more info will be released, so ill not prod you too much, as im sure you will announce more as and when you see fit but this is a very interesting concept. does this make it like more of an open forum to shoot people? A sort of Free-for-all for those who dont do any of the above? 

All-in-all, a very positive move forward.  

insta pretty much echoed my thoughts as this was something I had wandered also.

I doubt it would be a free-for-all as I can't imagine it would be appealing for mobsters to join those families who are following this code if that was the case. I think the way it might be handled is if there's a dispute between two people and one is shot, then depending on if you're in favour or not will depend on if the hit is sanctioned.

Also bare in mind, nobody will know who is in favour. One guy may not have a strong presence but may tick all the other boxes well enough, whereas another may be very vocal but does very little other than that. So you can't size people up to see how in favour they are and whether or not you can shoot them as the only one who holds that knowledge is the Godfather and his family.

I also can't imagine you can shoot people for being less in favour than yourself too, instead I assume that if you've fucked up you'll fall out of favour and thus may be shot without consequence, or instead of blood for blood, it might be a monetary consequence in order to keep the right people happy.

I think what the Godfather means is that each and every situation depends upon your standing, which is how it should be. We have too long adhered to nonsensical 'pre-set' rules which aren't realistic or conducive to business - i.e. cities going to war over the death of gangsters and made guys catching bullets over the killing of nobodies. This is a welcome change and interpreted it as if you aren't well respected within the hierarchy, then nobody is going to be out to avenge you when your organisation is removed. Conversely, if you've got good standing, you can expect severe repercussions to follow. 

I, like FitzChivalry, doubt it will descend into an open forum for shooting people, because who would benefit from that and why would the Godfather allow it?

Ubu had been listening the progression of the conversation with a rare smile on his face. More often than not the muscles in his face were resting in what some called "resting asshole face", but he didn't let the comments bother him. Ubu didn't let much bother him. It allowed him to focus on what did matter to him. Quickly making his way to the front of the group that had gathered, he hoped to answer some of the questions that had been brought forth.

does this make it like more of an open forum to shoot people? A sort of Free-for-all for those who don't do any of the above?

"I'm going to split my answer here, somewhat. Is this new method going to likely see a change in a lot of manners regarding deaths in Manhattan? Absolutely, without a doubt..."

"As for a 'Free-for-all,' green had it correct in assuming 'I think what the Godfather means is that each and every situation depends upon your standing.'"

"Mr. Gato will be able to unveil some more of the plan sometime soon, please understand that there's an enormous amount of work that goes into his job - especially in the current circumstances."