Boss Rank Considerations

There are 31 Boss Ranks in Vendetta, determined by your current Boss Status rating. Certain Boss Ranks can be achieved only when the organization below you consists of x-number of player Bosses. The 31 Boss Ranks are as follows, with some important ranking notes. 1 Gang Boss level 1 - Organization has 7 Named Character slots. 2 Gang Boss level 2 3 Gang Boss level 3 4 Gang Boss level 4 5 Gang Boss level 5 - Need 1 Boss below you to rise in rank.

6 Mob Boss level 1 - Organization has 14 Named Character slots. 7 Mob Boss level 2 8 Mob Boss level 3 9 Mob Boss level 4 10 Mob Boss level 5 - Need 2 Bosses below you to rise in rank.

11 Ganglord level 1 - Organization has 20 Named Character slots. 12 Ganglord level 2 13 Ganglord level 3 14 Ganglord level 4 15 Ganglord level 5 - Need 4 Bosses below you to rise in rank.

16 Crimelord level 1 - Organization has 30 Named Character slots. 17 Crimelord level 2 18 Crimelord level 3 19 Crimelord level 4 20 Crimelord level 5 - Need 8 Bosses below you to rise in rank.

21 Kingpin level 1 - Organization has 40 Named Character slots. 22 Kingpin level 2 23 Kingpin level 3 24 Kingpin level 4 25 Kingpin level 5 - Need 14 Bosses below you to rise in rank.

26 Godfather level 1 - Organization has 47 Named Character slots. 27 Godfather level 2 28 Godfather level 3 29 Godfather level 4 30 Godfather level 5 - Need 24 Bosses below you to rise in rank.

31 Capo di tutti Capi - Organization has 54 Named Character slots.

With each new Boss Rank achieved, new game options become available to you. The 120+ available rackets in the game each have a minimum Boss rank requirement before this racket becomes available to you to set up, and many other advanced game features are dictated purely by current Boss Rank. Every five ranks there is a major rank change, indicated by a change in the actual name of the Boss Rank, e.g. 'Gang Boss' to 'Mob Boss'. Major Rank increases have a minimum Organization Size requirement, as indicated above for each applicable rank. This is literally the number of Player-Bosses below you in your Syndicate / Family who are paying tribute to you, or to another Boss ranked below you. When you achieve a new Major Rank, the size of your Personal Organization expands significantly, creating many new positions into which existing Named Characters can be promoted and new Named Characters recruited. A brand new game of Vendetta starts with just 72 players out of a possible 200. New players cannot join that game until existing players have risen high enough in rank to allow a new player to begin the game paying tribute to an existing Boss. Once a game has 200 players, rank promotions for existing players will begin to stall. This is where 'reasoning' (player diplomacy) comes into its own, as Syndicate and Family heads will need to negotiate mergers and suchlike to form larger organizations and allow higher rank promotions for more of their members. The alternative is to eliminate rival members from the game, allowing more new players to join. Your own current Boss Rank in comparison to that of other Bosses plays an important part in Vendetta in a variety of different ways, a summary of which follows:

Respect

This is the aspect of your 'Boss Status' which is affected by your actions rather than your wealth. You will lose Respect for directly attacking, without a vendetta, the organization of Bosses ranked more than six ranks below your own. Conversely, you will gain extra Respect for successful attacks against much more powerful Bosses. In both cases, the greater the difference in Boss Rank, the more extreme will be the loss or gain in Respect.

Boss Kills

Actually killing a rival Boss Character is considered an important achievement in Vendetta, earning you bonus Respect. Rival Boss Kills is also one of the few Boss Character ratings which is carried over from game to game, and is shown with your posts on forums (as a number of bullets beneath your Character portrait) and included on the Clan League Table. However, a Boss Kill is only credited if your rival's Boss Rank was no lower than six ranks below your own at the time of his demise. Killing a much lower-ranked Boss is no great achievement in Vendetta, so will not even be recorded.

Rival Activities

Any form of attacking, planning or investigation which targets a specific rival Boss (or any of his men, rackets or premises) will be modified by the difference in Boss Ranks. The higher his rank in comparison to your own, the harder it will be, while the lower his rank in comparison, the easier it will be. In the case of attempting to attack a rival, Boss Rank does not affect the actual combat itself (which is of course determined by the weapons and skills of the men involved, and the circumstances and type of attack), but it does affect the possibility of that combat even occurring in the manner you intend, or would prefer. For example, any Character can try to target and eliminate any other Character with a simple 'drive-by' order, but the chance of a lowly Gang Boss being able to actually locate a Godfather with this particular order is so small as to be virtually impossible. The reverse, however, would be simplicity in itself - a Godfather's gunmen would have no trouble at all in locating a Gang Boss.

Vendettas

The most dangerous thing in Vendetta is to give a much higher-ranked Boss cause for attacking you. The only thing which prevents a much higher-ranked Boss from obliterating you is the tremendous and permanent loss of Respect he would suffer in doing so. But he doesn't suffer any loss at all if he has a vendetta against you, and that could only happen if you personally cause it to happen. Similarly, giving cause for a much higher-ranked Boss to come gunning for you is bad for the morale and loyalty of your own men. In a worst-case scenario it is entirely possible for your own men to kill your Boss themselves rather than suffer the inevitable consequences of being on the receiving end of a bloody vendetta against you. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS There are also two other important considerations for which your Boss Rank is used in the game: 1. Underlings Rank: The underworld rank of each & every member of your Personal Organization is dictated purely by your own Boss Rank. The higher you rise in the underworld, the higher they will also rise in the eyes of rivals and Non-Player Characters (NPCs). 2. NPC Dealings: The way Non-Player Characters react to you and your men is dictated entirely by rank, in comparison to what they perceive their own status to be in society (in the case of civilians) or the underworld (in the case of NPC gangsters). For example, the Boss Speciality, 'Man of Respect' (see the page on Boss Specialities within this section), works by boosting the perceived underworld rank of you and your men in the eyes of NPCs, wherever applicable. In essence, NPCs will always perceive a 'Man of Respect' to be of a Boss Rank significantly higher than it actually is at that moment in time.