How does one be a crime lord/gang boss?

[Break]

I'm just getting back into the swing of things. Its been quite a while since I have written and I wanted to know how to transition ICly into a more worthwhile role as a crime lord rather than some hitman/thief. It fits my character and the direction he took during a edge of the empire campaign.
But role play here is quite different than that in a TTRPG.

Any advice is helpful!

 

[Asherah]

It might help if you had a niche? Like 'crime' is pretty general. Do you focus on drugs, extortion, information, smuggling, a little of the ol' ultra-violence... Then work out in your head HOW you got where you are. And make sure you don't make yourself too powerful. I've not read too many threads here so this is based on experience elsewhere but, when someone is the best or strongest or richest or most whatever, they tend to come off as a bit of a tool (no offence to any 'most' characters on here, I've just never seen it done well). This is true when you're talking about just one planet. Here we have a whole galaxy, so remember that while you're no small fry if you don't want to be, you're also not a shark. You're maybe a piranha.

More thoughts!
If you don't have PC minions immediately that's okay, but then you need to work out who your NPCs are, even if you don't submit them. Why do they follow you? How did you wind up being their boss? In my mind its always best to have a backstory where you proved yourself of earned it 'Lol I killed the old boss' is a bit overdone and also guarantees a good percentage of your new employees want to kill you.

 

[Goros the Hutt]

I was going to post some of what [member="Asherah"] did above. Definitely work your way up. Tying yourself to a company works quite well, as that regulates how powerful of an organization you run.

Two types of niche. That of what you will do, and what kind of crime boss you are. So Goros was arms dealing for the most part, with some smuggling etc.

I have alts that play minions for Goros, not required at all but that was his 'angle' as it were. His niche, was that he was the boss that rarely went into a thread.
Your niche might be the opposite, might be the 'face' of an organization that runs a thieves guild as it were. Picking both of these gives you some character depth from the get go.

All the best.

 

[Lysle of the Hydian Way]

I started from the very bottom. Got together 3 other writers and we just started out as a tiny gang in Nar Shaddaa operating out of "Frida's Spaceport Cantina." We called ourselves the Red Ravens. In time we gathered more to our gang and we grew, and kept growing until we were big enough to rival the Black Sun Syndicate that were the dominant galactic gang at the time. It seemed to naturally occur and there wasn't a specific point in time that Lysle went from a criminal leading a bunch of other criminals to a fully fledged crime lord. Before the sun set on the Red Ravens we were the biggest and meanest gang in the galaxy at the time, but we collapsed under our own weight. It was a fun run.

Starting at the top isn't always fun. It's the journey that counts. Lysle and the Ravens wouldn't have been 1/5th the fun it was if we had not started from nothing. The most memorable moments come from when the gang was just starting up.

As for deciding a niche for your crime lord.. it's not always necessary. Lysle was an underground shockboxer and smuggler, but the Ravens didn't just smuggle, we did it all. Slicing, spice dealing, illegal arms deals. You name it we probably did it.

If you need criminals to RP with, I have a plethora of old Raven characters bumming around.

 

[Eyros]

Do Crime.
Be Boss.

 

[Xi Rel]

Akt tough, brek a few noses, get a bunch of easyli-impresed/intimidated/awed losers to folow you, and your gold! Not even vorth the effort IMO.

...no, thats just a gang-boss. Any moron can be a boss of a street-gang, long as there surounded by even biger morons/cowards. I seen how that vorks in the old neigborhod I growed up. Vas a prety rough place, school/street kuazi-gangs galore, you know the kind that sprey grafiti all over the facades and akt tough, shaking-down other kids for lunch money. I never vanted to play that stupid game so I just beat the crap out of a few of them trying to shake me down, or strong-arm me in-to joining. After enogh times doing that, I vas leaved alone. And its been many years since I moved out of that neigborhood, so its all just a bad memory. Far as I know its not that bad animore, as it vas back in the 90's and early 00's vhen I vas there.

Now a crime-boss, especialy a sukcesful one... that takes real inteligence, cuning, and long-term planing. That wuld be something vorth building tovards, if I wer lacking in morals (and I'm not XD ). And mainly IMO, gang-bosses AKT tough. Crime bosses actualy ARE tough. I think its important to separate the two.

Any of that helps give you ideas for ur char?