Tag Archives: organizations

Organizations – Tristars

We were finally able to get another “Skills for Hire” gaming session, this time with 8! players last week. Which means I can post some of the content from that game without it being a spoiler for the players. If I post something here I didn’t give them in game, they can consider it something they learned from their investigations.

This week we’re going to look at another organzation, the Tristars, and organized crime group centered in Myha’s Beach on Pale in the Truane’s Str System.

Organization

The head of the organization is one Gornar Welnat, a yazirian. He owns Brekstoone Manor as well as several of the large resort hotels in Myha’ Beach. He is a well respected businessman in town and his connection the Tristars is guessed but not generally known.

The Tristars are divided into two different sub organizations. One is more white-collar and is concerned with political and business interests in the city. They have bought off local politicians, businessmen, and in some cases, police officers to help them further their business interests. Those that won’t cooperate are subject to other forms of persuasion, ranging from loss of business deals, stiffer competition, or even physical damage to property or persons.

Which is where the second half of the organization comes in. This branch of the Tristars is actually the larger segment and consists of beings willing to do the dirty work for the organization. It has members ranging from stilled tradesbeings to basic street thugs and the individuals that manage them.

Basic Tristar tattoo

All members of the organization have a tattoo that identifies them as members of the Tristars. In it’s simplest form, it consists of three open stars arranged in a triangle as seen at the right. This logo is the source of the organization’s name. The basic form is the version sported by all new recruits and the lowest echelons of the hierarchy. Some members wear the tattoo openly, while others have it more concealed. It is often found on wrists or shoulders.

As one moves up the ranks, the design gets more elaborate with second level members sporting divisions in the stars. And third level members sporting more divisions still.

Second level design

Third level design

Individual member might add color to the various designs but silver and gold colorations are reserved for upper echelon members in the more business and political oriented side of the business. It is rumored that Gornar has a gold version of the tattoo somewhere.

The various portions of the organization are fairly isolated. The street level teams know very little about the upper echelons. They might have a contact name or chronocom number but that may be the only contact that they have. Groups will know their superior and who they get “jobs” from but don’t know much about the organization beyond that.

At the third level in the hierarchy, members might know that the Tristars are operated out of Brekstoone Manor and probably suspect that Gornar is involved, but still may only have a single contact at the Manor itself if they have a contact there at all.

History

This is something that the player didn’t discover as it never came up but doesn’t affect the game in any way so I have no problem posting it now.

The Tristars started as just a low-level street gang in the city some thirty or forty years ago. They claimed a section of the older part of town as their own and exerted there dominance there. They remained a low level, minor organization until about twenty years ago.

By then Gornar had already built his first resort hotel and was constructing a second. Facing competition from some of the older, smaller hotels, as well as some other large hotel owners, he decided to employ some local muscle to “dampen the competition’s spirit” as he put it. His agents contacted the Tristars for some “jobs.” Pleased with the results, he came to rely on them more and more, always through intermediaries.

Over the next few years, with Gornar’s help and guidance, the Tristars began to grow and take over or take out other local gangs in the city until they were the largest group in town. While there are still other groups around, they don’t have the scope or support that the Tristars do. At the beginning of this growth, the early gang leaders tried to keep control of the growing organization but they were quickly disabused of that notion by Gornar’s agents. While there is still some resentment within the organization over the loss of control to “outsiders,” most realize that they would not be as successful or as safe as they are without that outside help.

Rivals

At the higher levels of operation, there aren’t really any major rivals to the Tristars in Myha’s Beach. They are the major player. While some businesses and organizations oppose them, they are individual operations or small alliances of individuals.

On the street level, there are still several other smaller gangs in town that operate and often oppose the Tristars when they can. These include, most notably, the Jade Vipers and Windsurfers. The former more active in the newer portions of town and the latter more active down by the shipyards.

None of these groups oppose the Tristars too hard, as they recognize that if the Tristars wanted to focus on them, the could eliminate them altogether. But they are not opposed to spiking the wheels of individual operations regularly to make things difficult. These rival groups could be recruited to assist anyone opposing the Tristars. If you can contact them.

General Knowledge

The Tristars are a known force in Myha’s Beach and even on the radar of people in Point True. That said, most of the inhabitants of Myha’s Beach know that the organization exists but little else. They mostly associate it with the street level gangs. Very few people know of Gornar’s connection to the operation.

If you asked a random citizen about the Tristars, they would probably know the name but little else. Or if they are more familiar with the organization, won’t say much as they are either part of the group and not sharing secrets, or have been intimidated or otherwise influence by the Tristars and don’t want to get into any more trouble.

Hangouts

The group has a couple of well-known hangouts around town where you can usually find members at almost any time of the day.

One is the Shining Star, a pub/restaurant just outside of the old town and a couple streets back from the beach. It’s a small restaurant, seating about 50 where members of the gang like to hang out and socialize.

Another is the Flaming Oar, a bar down by the shipyards. This is a larger establishment, with a capacity of about 150 beings, that lies just outside the territory claimed by the Windsurfers. There are often dust-ups between the two groups there.

Use in my Game

For my game, the Tristars are the major antagonist for the current adventure. The daughter of a senator was kidnapped while vacationing in Myha’s Beach in an attempt to influence his vote for an upcoming bill. The PCs have discovered the Tristars’ involvement in the kidnapping (they did the deed) and staged a raid on the Shining Stat to capture a third level member of the organization for information. They suspect that the Tristars are holding the daughter in Brekstoone Manor.

Final Thoughts

This is a basic outline of the organization. It is general so that you can adapt it as needed to your game. I’m sure if I run other adventures in Myha’s Beach, the Tristars will get fleshed out more.

I have a couple more posts coming related to this one. But they have to wait until the PCs finish their adventure. One will be a scenario write-up for the adventure and the other will be a more detailed description of Brekstoone Manor.

Share your thoughts and ideas about the Tristars in the comments below.

June RPG Blog Carnival – Organizations – Wrap-up

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It’s the end of the month and time for a wrap-up on this month’s RPG Blog Carnival.  Regular readers of my blog know that I normally do a “State of the Frontier” post on the last day of the month, that post will be up tomorrow.  Today we’re going to look at the various entries in this month’s blog carnival topic, Organizations.

I don’t know if the topic wasn’t very appealing, people were crazy busy, or if the blog carnival is losing steam but we did not have a lot of submissions this month.  I know I’m guilty of not doing an article every month as sometimes I’m strapped for time or just don’t have the inspiration to bend the often fantasy themed topics to sci-fi.  But I was hoping this month’s topic of organizations would be broad enough to appeal widely, I guess I was wrong.  That said the entries we did get were great.

First up was Building a Financial Landscape with Megacorps by Phil Forbes on the Stray RPG Thoughts blog. This entry discusses how to use Keith J. Davies’ Polyhedral Pantheons system to, instead of creating gods for a setting, create a series of mega-corps that are the main influencers in a setting.  Phil then goes on to apply the system to the local branches of the mega-corps and the local markets they are operating in.  This provides a rich framework of connections and competing interests for the players to interact with.  I found this one interesting as my preferred setting, Star Frontiers, already has a pantheon of canonical mega-corps controlling various interests throughout the setting.  I’m definitely going to take a look at this system for expanding these interactions.

Next up was an entry by Andrew Girdwood on the Geek Native blog.  He gave us a random secret society generator. You can never have enough random names on hand and this generator gives you an infinite supply.  You choose a general genre (Contemporary, Horror, Low or High Fantasy, or Sci-Fi) and then generate a name.  You can keep clicking to get new ones or until you find one that sparks your imagination.  The second one I got on his sci-fi generator was “The Eternal Planet Faction.”  I immediately thought of a tie-in with the True Yazira society that I posted as part of the kickoff of this month’s carnival.  In this case, it’s not part of the True Yazira Society, but a faction within the Family of One and the GODCo mega-corp that is trying to recreate their homeworld.  I might write that up in the future.  I’ll definitely use it at some point in my game.

Next was the entry by Gonz from Codex Anathema with their entry on the Silver Arrows, a loose, crime-prevention organization that might be part of the Church of the Silver Flame in their Ebberon campaign.  They even provide a variation on the Arcane Archer archetype to play a member of the Silver Arrows.

As host, I offered up two different organizations. The first as part of the kickoff post, was the True Yazira society, primarily a cultural organization striving to preserve the traditions of their homeworld but also opposing the practices of the group that has usurped authority (as the True Yaziria Society sees it) from the rightful rules of their species.  The second was the Investors, as shadowy, behind-the-scenes organization that works to influence governments and corporations to increase their own wealth and power.

That’s it for this month’s RPG Blog Carnival. I hope you found a nugget you could use in your game from this month’s posts or were inspired to generate some new organizations for your world even if you don’t blog or didn’t submit an entry.  For me this is just a springboard as I plan to present various organizations from my setting in future posts, not just part of the Blog Carnival.  I have several ideas lined up, I just need to find the time to write them down and get them posted.

Next month’s entry is still TBD but be sure to check out the RPG Blog Carnival’s home page on the Of Dice and Dragons blog to find links to past and future topics. And come back tomorrow for my regular “State of the Frontier” Post.

The Investors

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This is another new organization for the June RPG Blog Carnival which I’m hosting here on the Expanding Frontier.  I had  originally thought I was going to write about my vision of the Galactic Task Force, Incorporated, which I am using in my current game, but decided that I would rather go with something completely new instead of an already established mega-corp in the setting. So I decided to write about “The Investors” a secret society I created as part of my Detailed Frontier Timeline project.

The Investors

The Investors is a secret society composed of a number of the very, very wealthy citizens of the Frontier.  They work behind the scenes on nearly all the worlds of the Frontier.  Very few people outside the organization even know of its existence. Star Law has a slim file on the organization, and a few of the large mega-corps have some data, and a few planetary governments have some data, but beyond that, they are very obscure. 

The society does not have an official name, the members just refer to themselves as “investors.”

Aims and Goals

The aims and goals of the organization can be summarized by two words, money and power.  The organization exists to increase the wealth of its members and increase the power they have in influencing the operation of the Frontier economy. 

The members of the society, while sometimes at odd with one another, and always in competition with each other, use their already considerable assets to influence businesses and governments in ways that will increase their personal wealth and make it possible for them to exert greater influence in the future.

An example of this recently in my Detailed Frontier Timeline is their acquisition of the Groth Energy Corporation on Groth in the Fromeltar system, the major power supplier on that world.  First, they manipulated the finances of the company to force it into near bankruptcy.  They then bought out the previous owners, and finally tripled energy prices on the planet.  Since GE was the only power supplier to many portions of the planet, people either had to pay the new prices or go without power.  At the same time, they started trying to buy up all the smaller energy producers as well.  They were a little too rash, however, and many of the smaller energy providers banded together to form the Consolidated Nebula Energy Group to fight back.

As the society has grown, and due to its decentralized nature, sometimes the members find themselves working at cross purposes with other members.  When this is discovered, they meet to discuss the best way forward that provides the greatest benefit to all.  If there is ever a business conflict that seemed to be at a compete impasse and then suddenly resolved itself, sometimes in a completely unexpected manner, it may very well have been the investors behind the scenes making deals.

History

The society started at a country club on Triad in the Cassidine system, in 37 p.f.  There was a gala event and three of the Frontier’s richest beings, including the then CEO of Pan Galactic Corporation, were commiserating with one another about all the laws and restrictions their respective planetary governments were placing on them.  One of them joked that they should create an organization to invest in the right people to sway things in the direction they wanted.  The idea stuck with them and by the end of the night, the three had formed a rough outline of how they would operate.

Over the years, the original three members felt out others around the Frontier with similar feelings and desires and the number of investors grew.  While they are primarily a self-interested lot, not everything they do is necessarily bad.  Fed up with the depredations of the pirate Hatzk Naar, the organization worked to facilitate the organization of the First Common Muster. The sathar invasion in the Truane’s Star system a few years later was definitely bad for business and the organization was instrumental in the speed at which the Second Common Muster happened, which allowed the sathar to be quickly defeated.  And with the formation of the UPF, most of the new military contracts for the creation of Spacefleet and equipping Star Law went to businesses owned by members of the society.

Today, members of the society control, or at least exert strong influence over, nearly all the mega-corps and large planetary corporations.  They have tendrils into almost all the governments of the Frontier with some of the members serving in those governments. 

Membership

There are no more that a few dozen members of the society across the entire Frontier.  You must have a net worth of over a billion credits to even be considered for membership and there just are not that many billionaires out there.

No single person within the organization knows all the members, or even the true names of all the members as they only interact through holovid communications and use aliases in their interactions.  While a single member might know the true identity of a few other members, possibly the person who recruited them and those they may have recruited, the members are careful about not revealing their identities, even to other members of the society.

That said, due to the limited pool of possible recruits, it is sometimes possible to determine the identity of other members by the agendas that they support.  And a few members openly share their identity to other members.

The membership contains representatives from nearly every major industry in the Frontier. 

Recruitment is done slowly and carefully.  As members interact with the other elite, wealthy citizens, they keep an ear out for those that are discontent with restrictions they are facing or which are limiting their opportunities.  These contacts are nurtured and if they are deemed to have the right mindset and ethics, they are approached for membership, sometimes openly and sometimes indirectly.

Organization

There is no real hierarchy or formal organization to the society.  In theory all members are equal.  When conflicts arise or major decisions have to be made, they form committees consisting of the members affected by the activity to discuss and debate the issues and reach a decision. 

Occasionally, some endeavors are so large in scope, that it requires a meeting of the entire society.  These events are rare and are usually scheduled around major events on one of the core worlds that all the members would reasonably expect to travel for anyway.  Even these major meetings are held remotely so as to preserve the anonymity of the members that wish to do so.

Despite there being no formal organizations, there are definitely clicks and power blocks within the organization.  Most members are at least somewhat loyal to the member that recruited them and gave them access to the society.  Other power groups form along industry lines or other areas of common interest.  Some major decisions can take weeks to resolve as each group tries to influence things most favorably for themselves.

What do you think?

The society’s outline is fairly vague and nebulous.  That is intentional.  It is partially due to the fact that the society is still taking shape in my game and I haven’t decided exactly how and where I want to use it.  But it is also partially to allow others to shape and use it in their games as they wish.  This description paints broad strokes over the society’s operations and memberships but leaves the details for individual game masters to implement in ways specific to their campaign. 

Let me know your thoughts on the society and how you might use such an organization in your game.  And don’t forget to check out the other posts linked in the comments of the kickoff post of this month’s blog carnival to see what others are writing about on this month’s topic.