Topic #2 - Clan Ventures

Hey all and welcome to Topic #2. This topic is about Taldryan's "face" in the Universe outside of the DB realms. Throughout the history of Dark Jedi (ie movies and books), we've always hid behind some public image. Like Palpatine and his Senator/Chancellor guise. Some Jedi take over large corporations, we could do some good ol' fashioned space pirating, or even go on a few conquests of outer rim planets? Lot's of different things we could do and we're not really limited to any one thing.

This also ties into Kir's discussion group talk about how the DB/Clans earn their monies and take care of their troops, ships, fighters, etc.

Any ideas? Maybe one of our things is some big corporation we own/run out of some random planet. We'd need things like a name, the "what" we do/sell/whatever and all that crap. I'll open the floor for discussion seeing as this allows for more ideas than our last one.

This is just top-of-my-head thing here. We'd need something that really fits in with our image here in the DB itself. Or close to it anyway. I mean, it'd be silly if we're the strongest (or one of) the Clans in the DB, and we make our $$$ by selling well-knit sweaters and god-knows-what to old people in the rest of the galaxy. Sorta silly.

You mentioned pirates. Still nice, but except that as pirates themselves are quite a bit in the public eye, our whole Dark Jedi status/abilities could be compromised.

I'm thinking we have a front as Very Elite Assassins (notice the Important Caps? ), along with renting/selling arms. If anyone needs to take care of a large group of people or an entire government, they call on us to do the job. Since we'd charge so much, very few people would know about us. That makes sure that no one really knows we're Dark Jedi. If they just want some of our weapons, they either rent them or buy them. That way no matter how things end up, we end up filthy rich.

Also, it makes for great DJK Trials. Let's say that an Apprentice or w/e is given the task to perform an assassination/task in order to advance. Just a thought.


Or we could be selling well-knit sweaters to old people.

Woohoo, first reply!

I don't think it's unreasonable to say that Tal pretty well controls any business interests within its sphere of influence. I haven't checked the background story lately, but I'm sure we control at least one planet where we mine something - and naturally, we would own the mining company. If there are jungle planets where we can export wild fruit or exotic pets, we own the export company. If we wanted to be weapons manufacturers, or transport specialists, or whatever... we can do it. Naturally, it would also make the Clan Summit and whoever administrated it filthy rich.

... I volunteer to be an administrator.

EDIT: Dammit, Tarax DID beat me to it.

Ooh Tarax, good idea. It does make for an interesting DJK trial. It also then opens the door for us to have......ummm......brought about a regime change in a couple systems :shuriken: ...


And with those planets at our disposal mining and such become a real possibility!

Would it also be possible to take the weapons production one step further...we cold begin constructing ships. Military of course...because you'd have to have an excuse for chargin an exorbitant amount of money. And if its successful, we could end up with another starship or two...

just a thought.

PRT Odium :maul:

Not sure on the DBs policy with shipyards... I think their cost to maintain/supply means we only have the one for the Brotherhood or something. Those details still need hammering out.

And yes, Erinyes is right, we do have a system of resources for selling and stuff. Exports/Imports would be one of our "main" undertakings.

Good stuff keep it up!

Shipping...we ship...things.

James Bond has Universal Exports as his cover, also, seeing the vast expanses of space and the instability of everything in the Star Wars Galaxy, shipping could be quite a lucrative venture. Of course, its just a front to launder money, run guns and all the other fun things a group like Tal would be involved in.

I think it would be best if we started small and something not too attention getting like with the shipping fresh mentioned. The whole problem with being hired assassins is the fact that we would be so good that word would spread around about us soon enough and people may get suspicious. Remember, when Palpatine first started out everyone thought he was an ordinary senator from Naboo and he worked his way up. As for what we should ship, would we really want to do whole weapons? How many arms dealers are there? We wouldn't want to distinguish ourselves from anyone else. Perhaps we could do something like weapons parts since those would be more easily made and harder to trace, and yes I do realize that it would mean less money but it also means less risk of someone being able to recognize us as an arms dealer.

Thing is tho.. shipping companies are still too...I don't know, generic I guess. Besides, the whole thing with us being Dark Jedi like Palps is that we can 'influence' people to forget or not find out who we are or what we really do. They can search all they want, but they won't be able to find out.

ANd think of it this way... Black Sun had several Mercenary groups in its employ, yet a few of them were so elite/mysterious that people barely knew anything about them. Just that contact was made, money deposited, job accomplished. Then they moved on. The problem with Shipping Companies is that once you start moving around a large amount of cargo, or just small amounts of precious cargo, you still get found out. Especially if you rack up big monies.

Black Sun had several Mercenary groups in its employ


Their font business was also a shipping company.

I'm not opposed to hiring ourselves out as mercs, I actually like that idea, but even that will need a front unless we want to be completely open about it. Shipping operations are pretty mundane and generally don't attract a ton of attention unless they take huge contracts. That would also give us an excuse to have ships coming in and out of the system all the time without raising any alarms.

Freighters can also ship troops too...

Notice I said "all the other fun things a group like Tal would be involved in" running guns and hiring out mercs could be just one part of it. Hell, we could have part of it be a completely legitimate business. The fact is, we can make it anything we want, as long as its:

A) Plausible
B) Flexible to our needs
C) Not stupid (see A)

Also when/if we hire out we have the power to either mask our powers or just not use anything Jedi-related. The galaxy is a large place and most of the outer rim isn't well-known. Wearing regular combat equipment with blasters we wouldn't be found out by anyone. Or, like with Sidous and the Trade Federation - they knew he was a Sith Lord and had apprentices. As long as the people who pay us fear us we can do whatever we want

And...the merc business only get around to those who would actually have need of our services.

Nute, hired/dealt with Tyrannus, who hired Jango, who then hired Zam to kill Senator Amidala.
I really don't think that Nute had any idea of even how many steps were in that equation, let alone who made up those steps. And there's very little chance that Zam knew she was workin for anyone besides Jango...its a very info-tight business.

Although a totally legitimate business is not a bad idea also...it gives us a way to point out that we're "just a simple [clan] tryin to make [our] way in the universe."

PRT Odium :maul:

Ok, well, if we're going to go ahead with the 'company front'... here's an idea:

Like Zsnij (or whatever the dude's name was), we have dummy corporations that are owned by bigger dummy corporations that could be owned by our real corporation. Basically, several layers of 'front' companies. That gives us more room to move around in (different industries) as well a much easier chance to shut a company down quickly should things go wrong.

Good call, Tarax. Kinda like say...General Motors---->Chevrolet, Ford, etc...(except of course with different industries!) Okay...so...lets come up with the actual companies/industries.


Umm...Y'all are so much better with names so...how bout somethin with the weapons parts...a "mother company" could be the 'mother' of a bunch of parts companies...weapons, speeders, transports, etc.

Cool,
:maul:

I think this is a little TOO detailed, lets not get out of hand here

We should still definately go along the front company route, but keep it simple, we dont want to overcomplicate it and turn into some convoluted monstrosity. Plus, leaving some things ambiguous lets us fill in stuff later and could produce some interesting storylines to explore for ROs etc.

I'm gonna have to agree with Jive and the K.I.S.S stratagy on this one (Keep It Simple Stupid). At max I think we should set up 2 ventures outside of being bad ass dark jedi for right now and we can add more as Taldryan develops further. The two things that come to my mind that we could do are shipping and assassians.

With the assassians, I'm thinking that it'd work out better if we were the group that you called when you wanted someone eliminated quietly. We'd go in and make it look like it was an accident, or natural causes that killed the person, rather then a blaster/lightsaber/etc. This would be a great way to use our Force skills but we can also remain rather discrete about it (ie. not carrying lightsabers, no random use of TK to slam people into walls, that sort of stuff).

The assassian stuff is aimed more at the upper ranks, so we could use the lower ranked members to opperate the shipping business and eventually when they get to a high enough rank they can go out on assassination missions with a high ranking member, and eventually send them out on their own. It doesn't take high ranking Force ability to fly a freighter so that'd be perfect to break the new people in, RP wise, and get them used to fallowing orders, not be overt about being a jedi, etc.

I think this is a good place for us to start and later we can build off it it, if we feel it's needed.

Aye, sounds good.

I think that the DB as a whole has all the resources it needs. Thanks to mining rights, labour, trade route influence, etc. The catch is that they are shared out between the clans in differing ratios.

We'd be one nation in an Empire. Thanks to our resources we hold a strong position where the other clans can't survive without us but would still rather have us out of the picture and take our resources for themselves.

We of course sell surplus, and perhaps that would edge us over the other clans depending on how well our resources are doing outside the brotherhood, but our transactions are fair with the other clans because we need to keep them sweet for buying from them.

If the higher ups in the ranks do assassinations, and we want it to look like an accident we can just use our clan powers, since those are going to be added and assimilated into the DB whenever Rebirth happens. With the clan powers being the Elements, that would make the assassinations fairly easy for a skilled Dark Jedi.

Example: Douchebag #1 is cheating on his superstar boyfriend. The superstar finds out about the guy cheating and doesnt want to break up with him, because he'll go public with the information and ruin his the superstars carreer. So, the superstar contacts us and asks that we take Douchebag #1 out. So many options are available. We could
A. Whip up a storm and have a stray lightning bolt fry his ass.
B. Invite him on a boat ride, use Mind Trick to convince him to go and say his superstar lover is there. Tie him to the boat and whip up a Hurricane. No more boat.
C. Douchebag #1 is in his gayed out speeder, cause everyone knows a badass has all that plastic [Expletive Deleted] ducktaped to his vehicle, he drives by, someone lights a fire in his engine, probably use Mind Trick to convince the the building levels of Carbon Monoxide is good, His body doesn't get the needed Oxygen and he dies, or he just gets his ass burnt the [Expletive Deleted F-word] up in the speeder.
D. Douchebag #1 is enjoying the country side, looking at the mountains. He decides its a good idea to go hike, or we use Mind Trick to make him, up the mountain. Someone jostles a boulder lose, no more Douchebag, aside from the stain on the ground.

We could also uses Mind Trick to our advantage pretty easily.

Example: Say Douchebag #2 was stealing funds from Corporation Penis Enlargment email, the other membersof the board don't appreciate this. They get ahold of us, and we send someoneunsuspecting in to find him. He is, in a bit of irony, enlarging his little friend. The Dark Jedi usues Mind Trick to convince him the pain isn't actually pain, but pleasure. Douchebag #2 enlarges his little friend until he explodes. Causing him to die from internal trauma and massive bleeding.

Hell, we could use TK pretty easily too.

Example: Douchbag #3 is is beating one of Shads ho's. Shad doesn't like this. So Shad follows Douchebag #3, he sees the Douchebag get into his speeder. He uses TK to force the accelerator down, and to force him so stay in the speeder. Speeder hits something big, EMS uses Coke to clean the rest of Douchebag #3 of the road...

OR

Shad could just use TK to cause internal damage to Douchebag #3. Douchebag #3 never knows what hits him. Coroner Rick does an autopsy on Douchebag #3 and sees all kinds of internal bleeding from what Shadow did to him.

So many possibilities.

But these assassinations aren't going to happen all the time. We need a good legit buisness to get us credits in between kills. Also, we could do all sorts of illegal activities. Kinda like the mafia, have an assortment of ways to get money. Hell having some good Jedi Pilots smuggle [Expletive Deleted] in and sell it for ridiculous prices would be great.

Whole idea of Elemental clan powers gives us a more ways to make deaths look 'natural'.

Okay...true, we really should keep it simple, but isn't what everyones talkin about kind of a "front company" type-a-thing anyway?

Like Chaosrain, said...like the mafia...look like we're doin legit business so no one can use any legal means against us and....convince...those who disagree to, umm...change their minds...


So...yeah....
:maul:

I can't speak for anyone other then myself, but that's what I see as the general direction that we're going. However, I think that we need to keep the "public" side of Tal to two corperations max. If you look at the logistics then it makes quite a bit of sense to do it this way, at least to start. As of right now there are 68 members in Taldryan. We're the second smallest clan, member wise, behind Arcona. We simply don't have the manpower to operate 3 or 4 corperations.

Actual member count doesn't really factor in too much. Most of the business aspects would be handled by very loyal non-Force people with us getting reports from them. Afterall we have more important aspects like training and such, only a few clan members will deal with the corporate front on a regular basis. However, this does allow us to throw our members in for some fun adventures ala Darth Maul Shadow Hunter books where Maul has is target and is taken off the leash in places like Coruscant

Sooo... it's 2 front corporations, one or both of which are shipping-related, and one assassin-style venture with a total of three? or is it one front of shipping, and another assassins?

If we go for the previous, we could have it so that Dinaari heads one company, Ektrosis another, and the top dudes in the clan in general are the assassins.

I was only suggesting 2 companies: 1 shipping and 1 assassionation. I don't see the need for any more then that, but if someone else does I'd be willing to hear them out.

I think two front companies. It would provide extra resources, extra cover, and one can be Dinaari and the other Ektrosis (like Tarax said). I think both fronts should definitely be shipping, and there's not much debate about what the shadow company should be...assassination. My only thing is....what do we call the companies...all of them...

Do we go with Dinaari, Ektrosis, Etc.? Or should we create completely new and unrelated names...somethin like....

....Centauri Transgalactic Shipping Inc., or somethin like that? I dunno...you guys got any ideas?


:maul:

I was only suggesting 2 companies: 1 shipping and 1 assassionation.  I don't see the need for any more then that, but if someone else does I'd be willing to hear them out.



I was merely trying to recap/sum up what was being suggested. ;P With just two companies total, I think it'd be a good start. We can exploit both as far as we can/need to before establishing anything else, and it makes it easier to work with in the beginning now.

Okay, well, I still like the Two fronts, one Shadow :-p...Either way, we have to come up with a name for the front company(ies), so.... like I said...any ideas?

:maul:

The front companies have to be legit. You don't set up an outfit and let it be known that you deal in murder, its not good for business and it gives you away to those that would want to destroy you. You start a small company dealing with an obscure aspect of interstellar commerce and operate the killing part clandestinely. It should be something that the clan keeps a secret, even from other clans. It's another part of the game that is the DB.

"We have a small shipping and parts supply company."

"I heard you know people who can do special things."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Thats how a conversation should be between a Tal member in the know and someone looking for a connection. We need to keep it as low key as possible.

I agree with Freshjive, the fronts definetly have to be legit. I think we need to have two companies just so that other clans won't poke their noses in our affairs. As for the assassination side of it, I say we take a page from the mafia and do that from an inconspicuous location, like a restaurant, or some major commercial area.

Yeah, that's what I've been sayin...I think...Have the front companies be there totally legit but behind one of them lurks a darker side. Use our own company for cover...ya know?



:maul: