Boss Loans

Boss Loans Account

Every Character in your personal Organization (your own gang / crew) has a "Boss Loans Account". A positive value here indicates the amount of money he currently owes you, the Boss, while a negative value indicates how much you owe him.

The Boss Loans Account is in two parts (two separate values), one for 'dirty (illegal) money' and one for 'clean (legal) money'. The differences are important as using illegal money for legal, traceable purchases can be risky, especially for large transactions such as property purchases.

Boss Loans will prove to be an important part of the gang finances. Many transactions automatically affect a Character's 'Boss Loans Account', as it is this which is used to keep track of the value of goods transferred between gang members. Everything that a Character draws from gang assets - including cash, Guards, vehicles, weapons, property and rackets - will have a value which will be recorded as owed to the Boss. Likewise, his 'Boss Loans Account' will be credited with everything he hands back to the gang's assets. The gang's assets are controlled by the Boss, which is why all such transfers are made to and from the Boss. To break this down further, here are some examples:

1. Cash: A newly-hired Character will often need funds with which to set up new rackets, buy property, etc. This is loaned by the Boss. Similarly, many rackets are able to take additional investment in hard cash, thereby increasing future income, and this might also come from a Boss Loan if the operating Character is himself short of funds.

2. Guards, Vehicles & Weapons: Any Character may be ordered to hire new Guards or to buy new weapons & vehicles for the gang. He will use his own money for this (from his illegal 'Business Account' wad), meaning that you might have to loan him some in advance if he will be short. Immediately after these are purchased, however, they are transferred to the 'gang pool' from which any Character may draw assets, and his Boss Loans Account will be credited with their cost. If you loaned him the exact amount of money these would cost, the debt would be cancelled the instant that his purchases are transferred to the gang pool. If he used his own money, then on transfer to the pool the value would either be subtracted from any existing Boss Loan, or you would owe him money which you would need to cover with a later transfer.

Likewise, a Character drawing Guards, vehicles or weapons from the gang pool for his own use will pay for these by transferring their current value from his illegal 'Business Account' to the Boss. However, if he is short of funds, the full value will instead be added to his 'Boss Loans Account' for repayment at a later date, and no cash transfer will take place.

1. Property & Rackets: These are often the most valuable gang assets, and as such their value is also recorded. Any property or rackets transferred from the gang's assets (in this case the 'Inactive Rackets' screen, controlled by the Boss) to a gang member will have their current value shown as a Boss Loan if the Character concerned does not have sufficient funds to pay for them. Note that the value of a Racket will depreciate over time the longer it is on the 'Inactive' listing, i.e. not being operated by any Character. Eventually it will simply be valueless and will disappear from this listing, meaning that it would then have to be set up as a brand new Racket again. Brand new Rackets take longer to achieve their full income potential and minimum operating time requirement than do existing Rackets transferred from the 'Inactive' list.

Property and Legitimate Businesses are never 'Inactive'. Any transferred back to the gang's assets are given over to the ownership of the Boss himself, who will in future earn income from them until he transfers them to another Character. Note that transfers of property & legitimate Businesses always have their value paid or recorded as 'clean' money, never illegal, 'dirty' money.

Boss Loans Interest

Money owed by any gang member to the Boss, whether 'clean' money or 'dirty' money, accrues interest at the 'street rate' of 5% per week. In essence, your Boss Character runs an automatic, side-line 'loansharking' business within his personal organization, earning good interest on any money or gang assets yet to be repaid by any member.

By this means does the Vendetta game system force a Boss to play the part, meaning that every Character who works for you must develop his own income sources with the money & assets you loan him initially (or at any later stage), or that debt will simply grow & grow to the point where it is literally not payable and never will be. While you as a player might be willing to let one of your hired character's off the hook, in real life this simply wouldn't happen so the game system does not allow you to do so. Instead, as a Character's debt grows to the point where it is fast becoming impossible to repay, he will become increasingly worried about being Executed at any moment. Morale will fall and in his anxiety he will look for other ways out of his situation, which might well involve desertion, treachery or even rebellion. You the player might not Execute him, but you the Boss would - in real life.

For this reason it is essential that you guide each Character in your employ in the best possible, way to have him earning a good income in the quickest time possible, so that he can repay any Boss Loan debt he has from his own income sources. There is no other way any hired Character can repay his Boss Loan debt other than from the money his own operations & crimes are bringing in.

Repaying Boss Loans

Most Characters in your employ will not be stupid, they will know that the sooner they pay off any Boss Loan, the cheaper it will be. Most will pay off their Boss Loans in chunks each week, or as soon as they accumulate a reasonable sum in their 'Business Account' (for illegal money) or 'Bank Account' (for 'clean' money loans).

You also have the option of ordering any Character to transfer an amount of money from either account, which you will definitely need to do in the case of those too stupid to do it for themselves. However, for those transfers you personally order (up to the limit of what is owed to you) you have the option of insisting on payment in either 'clean' or 'dirty' money regardless of what form the outstanding loan is in. For this purpose bear in mind that 'clean' money has a 'value' of 50% more than 'dirty' money. Examples:

Example 1: The Character owes $6000 in 'dirty' money. You can order repayment as either $6000 from his illegal 'Business Account' or $4000 from his legal, clean 'Bank Account'. Either would repay the debt in full.

Example 2: The Character owes $6000 in 'clean' money. You can order repayment as either $6000 from his clean 'Bank Account' or $9000 from his illegal 'Business Account'. Again, either would repay the debt in full.

Similarly, if the Character concerned has funds in both accounts, you could order two transfers, one from each to the total owed.

Sly Laundering

In no case can you ever order a Character to transfer to you more money than he owes - Loans do not work in reverse. However, if for instance you as the Boss had sudden need of large amounts of 'clean' funds (say, with which to buy a large, legal business property), you could transfer any number of gang members wads of 'illegal' money from your own Business Account, creating instant 'Boss Loan' debts, then immediately after call in these loans in the form of 'clean' money from their legal 'Bank Account'. The reverse is also true. All such transfers are instantaneous, consuming no actual Time Points.

Bear in mind that exchanging 'dirty' cash for 'clean' cash is not on a 1 for 1 basis - every $1,500 'dirty' money is worth only $1,000 in 'clean' money.