If you have a tier 2 gang than you have approx 12 people in the gang. If you acquire a cohort, is the cohort included within the 12 people in the gang or is it another 12 people (so 24 total now)?
Is there a limit on how many cohorts can be in a gang?
Page 96 says, âlf your crew is Tier II, your gang quality is 2 and scale 2 (12 people).â
So, I would say the total of experts and cohorts would be 12 people. This does not include player characters which donât count in the total. Just NPCs.
I think there would be no limit of the number of experts and cohorts as long as the total number of NPCs is 12 or less.
If you acquire a cohort, this cohort will be either a gang, or an expert.
If itâs a gang, and you already had a gang, theen you now have two gangs, each of them is about 12 guys, if youâre Tier II.
If itâs an expert, itâs only one guy, who does not count in the 12 of your previous gang. Itâs separate. You acquired it, itâs added.
There is no real limit of the number of cohorts you can have. AFAIK, you can choose to spend all your crew upgrades on cohorts if you wish.
Thereâs an important distinction between the crew (or NPC faction) and itâs gangs. Gang-size is not a count of the total size of a crew or faction. Itâs the size of the gangs they can field.
For an NPC faction, the GM can decide to field as many gangs of that size as they think makes sense. Like the Bluecoats are Tier III, but thereâs not a mere 20 Bluecoats in their faction. Theyâre a city-wide faction; they can easily field gangs of 20 anywhere in the city, as the GM decides and to the limit of what makes fictional sense.
Itâs a similar idea for the playerâs crew. The size of the crew is the number of PCs (maybe including lost and incarcerated), plus expert cohorts, plus each gang cohort (size per Tier). So a four PC crew, with one expert and three gangs, could count roughly 20 at Tier 1, about 40 at Tier 2, and over 60 at Tier 3.
Thanks for the explanation. I have a better understanding now. However, it opens up more questions for me.
Is it true that the only costs for gaining and maintaining a cohort is the initial 2 crew upgrades? If true then I have a hard time squaring that fictionally. A four person tier II crew is going to command an elite Tier III gang of 20 murdering thugs? Fictionally, what is to stop those thugs from seeing the crew come back with an 8 coin score and shaking them down or killing them and taking over their lair? I understand there was an upfront cost to get the gang but no more maintenance costs after that?
Well, I would say that what you describe could perfectly happen⌠If the PCs push too hard, if theyâre too soft, if they donât succeed in their enterprise⌠Mutiny is a possibility of any hierarchy, and being the boss entails some risks⌠In the game, this could happen as consequences⌠probably the ticking of ssome clock âMutinyâ.
But for the everyday running of the gang, you have to admit that probably the members have been recruited and are personnally faithfull to one PC or the other. You can play those interpersonal relationships as much as you want.
Yep, intimidation, charm, cunning; whatever works.
You can hand wave the details if youâre not interested in seeing the messy details of leading a gang in play. Handwaving the gang leadership is cool because it gives the game room to focus on daring heists and whatever else.
If you are interested, then yeah whatever works, doesnât always work. And like the rest of the game, the GM can turn up the heat and problems with fiction-rich clocks, powerful motivated characters, and GM moves. So yeah, the two dots for a gang can be just the opening investment; keeping that gang from tearing you apart too sounds fun. Just know that adding clocks and personalities to make leading and keeping the gang more ârealisticâ will mean the game will focus more on loyalty and betrayal and have less room to focus on other things. Thatâs game design.
âIs it true that the only costs for gaining and maintaining a cohort is the initial 2 crew upgrades?â
Kinda. But remember every time you go up tier you also pay a chunk of money - some of that goes to your gangs to upgrade their weapons and armour.