Skeletons

A 'Skeleton' (in the cupboard) is the term used in the game to describe a hidden character weakness, something in his past or present which he would much prefer remained a secret from everyone. Any character might have one or more skeletons, though about a third of all characters in the game will have none. Learning one of a character's skeletons may be beneficial in a variety of ways, while your own trusted characters having hidden skeletons might prove dangerous to you in the long term. Unfortunately there is no guaranteed way of avoiding these dangers. That said, the Personnel Management Ability of the recruiting individual will work to some extent in your favour. When considering all the likely candidates for a new job within your Organization (ie. when you recruit a new Named Character), the recruiting individual will to some extent be able to disqualify those men who appear to have a high risk of personal Skeletons. The better his Personnel Management Ability, the more likely he is to hire someone with only a very well-hidden Skeleton, or perhaps even none at all. And if he can't easily detect it, few others will in future without themselves putting a great deal of time & effort into the task.

Discovering Skeletons

Skeletons are usually discovered through use of the multi-functional 'Investigate' Order. This can be quite a time-consuming task, involving as it does the need to trace past acquaintances of the target individual and question them accordingly, and to investigate crimes he may have committed or dealings he was involved in. Naturally there is a small risk involved of the target character hearing word of your investigation, especially if he happens to be a member of a rival underworld Syndicate or Family. In the latter case this might well prove fatal for the investigating individual. In some cases a Skeleton will be discovered only upon payment of a large sum of cash to someone who is willing to reveal the information for a price, should the 'Intimidation' Ability of the investigating individual not be sufficient to elicit the required information without such payment. Should a Skeleton be discovered this will be recorded as knowledge personal to the investigating individual, and to your Boss character (whom he of course gives the details to). The information is not added to the 'Knowledge Database' of your Syndicate / Family, nor is it made known to any other character within your personal Organization. There is however a task allowing any Character to give the details of a particular, known Skeleton to any other Character in the game. By this means do you share such information with higher-ranking player-Bosses, or sell it to Bosses in other Syndicates / Families.

Skeleton Weaknesses

Each Skeleton is rated in three areas of potential weakness; for 'Blackmail', for 'Intimidation', and for 'Hit Risk'. The rating in each might be None, Low, Medium, High or Very high. Any skeleton might be rated higher than 'None' in any or all three areas of weakness, with the rarest skeletons being rated 'Very High' in all three categories. Some Characters might have more than one Skeleton, in which case the effects are cumulative if more than one is known.

Generally speaking, 'Blackmail' & 'Intimidation' weaknesses will be found mainly for Civilian characters, while 'Hit Risk' Skeletons will be the most common weaknesses of Underworld Characters. However, it is possible for any character to possess skeletons of any or even all three weakness types.

Blackmail

The 'Blackmail' weakness pertains only to characters possessing reasonable wealth, being a literal indication of how much they might be squeezed for on a regular basis. Blackmail can be a great money-earner as it takes very little time to maintain the income flow (especially in comparison to operating rackets), but it might develop other complications over time.

Blackmail also negates the possibility of using this Skeleton to ever 'Intimidate' the character concerned. This extends throughout your entire Syndicate / Family, so you should be aware that blackmailing an important individual might cause problems for your Syndicate / Family in future. Never blackmail any Civilian NPC in the game without first having the permission of your superiors in the Family.

There is a maximum amount any blackmailed character can afford to pay each week. This will subsequently be split equally between all blackmailers. In some cases it will even be worth tracking down and eliminating rival blackmailers, to increase your own share of the weekly payment limit. There is an Order available for a Character in possession of Skeleton knowledge to investigate the target individual to try to discover who might be Blackmailing him, whether or not you are Blackmailing him yourself.

Intimidation

The 'Intimidation' weakness may be used only if you do not 'blackmail' the character concerned. Do not Blackmail someone if you ever hope to gain real influence over him in future. Many character Skeletons will have both 'Blackmail' and 'Intimidation' weaknesses of equal rating but you will only ever be able to use one of these with each character, so choose wisely.

The Intimidation weakness of a known Skeleton is used automatically when you attempt to gain Influence with the target character, making this both cheaper and easier. You can of course often gain influence with any non-controlled character without use of Skeleton knowledge, but it will prove very expensive to do so without this leverage. Characters with a 'Very High' Intimidation Skeleton would prove the cheapest of all to gain influence with, but any such weakness is better than none. Even a 'Low' Intimidation rating would save you a considerable amount of money, both in the large chunks required to gain influence and in the regular weekly payments required to maintain this level of influence.

Hit Risk

The 'Hit Risk' weakness is not connected in any way to either Blackmail or Intimidation. It's used mainly where the skeleton belongs to an underworld character, providing as it does a bonus when planning a hit or kidnapping of this character. Many underworld character Skeletons will have no Blackmail or Intimidation weaknesses, only one for Hit Risk.

Hit Risk skeletons generally pertain to some sort of fairly set routine in this character's life, such as visiting his mistress every Tuesday and Friday, or eating at Bruno's Grill every Saturday night. Almost everyone develops ordinary routines in some aspect of their life, but in the criminal underworld ordinary routine can be especially dangerous.

Additional Considerations

Note that it's possible for almost any character in the game to generate new, hidden skeleton Attributes due to events in the game itself. For instance, should one of your characters be sufficiently disenchanted to actually steal from the organization (by not paying the full Tribute due his immediate superior), then he will generate a new Skeleton with Blackmail & Intimidation weaknesses.

Your starting Boss character will never have any Skeletons but if he gets killed his replacement might have a hit risk weakness, although in this case it will be reduced when you take personal control of that character.