More Victorian Criminals- Swindlers

Continuing our look at criminals described by Henry Mayhew, here is another lawbreaker useful for adventures in Victoriana. 

“Swindlers”, defrauding those of whom they buy

While most thieves in Victorian London use dexterity and secrecy to steal, swindlers get their loot in the daylight with the help of their victims. Swindlers make promises of future payment for goods or services with the intention of never making payment. When their creditors try to collect their money, they discover the swindler has moved away.

The size of a swindle can range from single person leaving town without paying their rent, to an entire team of conmen ordering thousands of pounds worth of valuables from all over the city before closing shop and moving on. The more valuable the payoff the more respectable the swindlers have to appear to pull off the job. A woman with decent clothes can fool a few shopkeepers into delivering furniture bought with credit, but an office with business cards, courteous employees, and a recordof good business practice could snatch a big enough score to retire.

Often after their goods are delivered, swindlers send letters to their creditors with excuses of bank errors, family emergencies, or additional instructions of how to get their money. This tactic can delay their discovery for a few weeks, buying time to wrap up their shady deals and departure plans. When their creditors start to get suspicious they find nothing but empty offices, unfurnished houses, and nonexistent law firms.

Swindlers found guilty of obtaining goods by fraud could be given anything from a light sentence (a few months in prison and a shilling fine) or a harsher sentence (a couple years hard labor), depending on how much they tried to steal.

Colin Wooder (Gnome clerk with a criminal record)

Initiative: 4

Physical: 4

Mental: 6

Social: 7

Health: 6

Traits: Good with numbers+2, (Seemingly) mild mannered employee+3

Combat: Surrender and wait for a good opportunity to run

Bespectacled and meek, Colin appears a very unlikely suspect. His professional manner and acumen for business lead many shopkeepers to assume he is a simple assistant not a swindling master mind. The calluses on his hands suggest months of hard labor in the recent past.

Honeymooners

Newly married couples need all sorts of furniture, clothes, and house goods to set up a new home, which is why it makes such a perfect cover for swindlers. A giddy young bride calling on a furniture dealer will be met with well wishes, and a newly rented house empty of any furnishings raises no eyebrows.

Any items needed to make a home, such as drapery, fine clothes, jewelry, kitchenware, décor, linens, furniture, books, and livery can be easily fenced.

Long Firms

Swindlers looking for high investment and high payoff use a long firm. Long firms are temporary businesses set up to give swindlers a good credit history. The long firm exists for a few months, or even years, ordering goods and paying for them before the criminal activity starts. Anyone looking closely sees nothing but a new company with growing needs.  

When they collect enough business contacts and they can quickly store or ship their wares, the swindlers order massive amounts of valuable merchandise. They pack up and leave, ready to sell their wares (sometimes legitimately) in another town.

Many long firms pretend to be manufacturing brokers or importers/exporters as cover for their purchases.

Adventure ideas

A swindler got away with all the stock in a contact’s store. The contact will go bankrupt unless his merchandise is recovered before the crooks fence it.

A long firm wrapped up shop and skipped town, leaving a trail of creditors. A great deal of specialized digging equipment is among the items stolen. Are they for resale or are they part of the next step in a sister plan?

This next week I will be serving as an official in the Wesleyan Bible Bowl National Championship. Between the competition and travel time, I won't have time for a post next week. If you miss me next Friday, look at an older post from the blog and pretend it's new.

More Victorian Criminals-Pickpockets

Continuing our look at criminals described by Henry Mayhew, here is another lawbreaker useful for adventures in Victoriana.  

"Mobsmen, or those who plunder by manual dexterity”

Technique and subtlety are the essential allies of all thieves, but for those working in the daylight right under the noses of their victims, they are everything. Mobsmen (more commonly called pickpockets) steal valuables hidden on their owner, preferably without their victim’s knowledge of the crime.

Pickpockets rarely work alone, preferring to work in groups of two or three. Their accomplices minimize risk by providing distractions, watching for trouble, and adding muscle to a dangerous enterprise. As soon as a pocket is picked, the thief is in danger, but a handoff to one of his associates ensures that he is never caught with the goods on his person.

Many young children from uncaring homes become pickpockets out of necessity, learning by trial and error or by joining a gang of older delinquents. There are stories of thief schools where experienced thieves and fences teach pick-pocketing to their apprentices by hanging up a coat with bells sown into it. The students pass their examination when they can silently empty the coat’s pockets.

Although many pickpockets are vagrant children, some pickpockets excel at their trade, and are able to afford fine clothes and a comfortable lifestyle. Their respectable appearance opens new opportunities for them to practice their skill. Any man or woman could be a pickpocket.

The sentence of a pickpocket caught and brought to trial varies in length and severity depending on the value of the stolen items. A small theft could mean weeks or months in jail. A larger theft (more than a pound) could be years or transportation.

Joseph Bonner (Respectable looking Dogfolk pickpocket)

Initiative: 8

Physical: 5

Mental: 4

Social: 6

Health: 8

Traits: Well mannered +2, Dexterous fingers+3,

 Combat: Run away, Fists (3),

Young ladies walking in the street fall for Joseph’s friendly black and white speckled face. He specializes in stealing pocketbooks while engaging in friendly conversation. His eyes often unconsciously search new acquaintances for valuables.

Kinds of Pickpockets

In “London Labour and the London Poor”, Mayhew’s criminal taxonomy breaks Mobsmen into further categories:

Buzzers, who steal from a gentleman’s person, Wires, who steal from a ladies’ person, Prop nailers, who steal pins and brooches, and Thimble-Screwers, who break watches from the claps attached to a pocket.

Methods

Pick-pockets know hundreds of devious tricks to penetrate their target’s personal space without trouble, using misdirection, teamwork, and manual dexterity. To steal accessories from the front of a man’s suit (like a scarf or tie pin, or pocket handkerchief), a thief walks next to their target while wiping their nose or face with a cloth in their right hand. This movement covers the movement of the left as it reaches over and takes exposed valuables.

Stealing a pocket watch from a vest requires strong fingers. The thief approaches his target with his arms crossed so the hand closest to the watch is tucked under an elbow. Meanwhile an accomplice stands close to block the view of passersby. The thief pulls the watch out of the pocket with his obscured hand and works to bend the ring connecting the watch to the watch chain.  If he can break it, he pockets the watch and walks away.

In a cruder more thuggish style, a thief approaches his victim attracting his attention, as his accomplice sneak up behind. The accomplice pulls the victim’s coat down around his elbows trapping his arms, as another thief quickly searches his person from the side. All three flee as the victim recovers.

Adventure Ideas

An ambassadorial aid lost his watch to a pickpocket. A very important paper was folded up behind the watch face. Was it a simple snatch or did someone know exactly what to lift from his vest?

The underworld is full of gossip about a pickpocket who stole a pocketbook. On closer examination he found the pocket book was made of freshly cured skin and had blood magic tattoos all over it.

A tailor skilled in Sigil magic claims to have made a suite of clothes that will stymie even the most skilled mobsman. It needs a thorough test.

If player characters are the ones doing the pick-pocketing, this random chart may be helpful:
Pick-Pocketing Odds and Ends .pdf

More Victorian Criminals- Good Fences Make Good Crime Rings

Here is another examination of a criminal described in Henry Mayhews “London Labour and the London Poor”.

“Fences or receivers of stolen goods"

Thousands of thieves of every kind stole countless pounds worth of valuables every day in Victorian London, but that’s only half the job. Turning their ill gotten gains into a profit was risky, and complicated, and often not worth the effort. A thief had to know who wanted to buy what, how much it was worth, and keep it safe. For thieves without connections, buyers, and storage space, a reliable fence solves all their problems.

Fences (also called Duffers) buy stolen items directly from thieves. The thieves only got a fraction of their ware’s value, but they made a quick profit with minimal risk. Enterprising fences sometimes a built a community of thieves around themselves, training apprentice thieves (often children), loaning money, and setting up jobs. They knew more thieves meant more stolen items and more stolen items meant more money.

Sometimes when a particularly valuable or very specialized item was stolen, the victims of the theft were the best customers. The stolen item would be quietly ransomed back to its owners and the fence often made more money than he could selling to anyone else.

A store front was often the center of a fence’s operation.  The store provided security, storage and some precious legitimacy to illegal deals.  Their fronts varied from dolly shops selling nothing but stolen items, to respectable looking pawn shops licensed to buy silver and gold. No matter their appearances, fence shops often changed locations to stay ahead of the police. The best fences stayed hidden and worked behind the scenes arranging jobs and making money.

The receiving of stolen goods is a felony. Depending on the amount of stolen property and the number of offenses, fence could be sentenced to 1-6 months hard labor, to seven years transportation, to more than 10 years in prison for a truly prolific fence.

Ezekiel Lipley (Respectable halfling store owner with “connections”)

Initiative: 5

Physical: 4

Mental: 5

Social: 6

Health: 8

Traits: Knows everybody +3, Antiquarian +2

 Combat: Punch (2), Pistol (8)

From his clean pressed shirt, to his neatly trimmed sideburns, Ezekiel Lipley looks every inch a gentleman.  He’s better dressed and better fed than his neighbors, but he’s very popular on his street. No one will hear a word against him.

Paying Percentages

Fences bought their goods as cheaply as possible to maximize their profits. Unskilled or desperate thieves might be paid a fifth of their ware’s value, while regulars earned a fourth or even a third of the value. Some items had static prices because of their usefulness and selling value. For example, silk and satin generally sells for 1 shilling a yard.

Molybdomancy

Some fences kept a crucible in a back room hot and ready to melt down precious metals. Melted down metals were untraceable and unprosecutable. Really organized operations had agreements with refineries so they could handle any metals they bought from their illegal sources. Or is there a more mystical reason to keep a crucible warm?

Could they be practicing Molybdomancy, the ancient greek art of divination?  Molten metal is poured from a crucible into cold water, quickly cooling the metal. The shape of the cooled hardened metal indicates future events. A little knowledge of what’s to come would be very handy for a fence wanting to stay out of prison or make a lot of money.

Adventure Ideas

Business breeds paperwork. If a ledger full of illegal deals and illicit contacts goes missing in the rookery, neighborhood power struggles and cover-ups ensue.

Several local thieves have gone missing. They only have one connection: all were hired by the same fence to do a very risky job.

Here are a few posts that connect nicely with today’s topic. If you want to use a fence in a Victoriana Adventure the information on these posts might be helpful: 

Star-Glazers

Bluey-Hunters

Dolly Shops

Spells vs Skills- The Advantages Medicine has over Magic

One of the strongest themes in the world of Victoriana is the struggle between magic and science. The rules carry this idea into player character stats very skillfully, but sometimes having two ways of doing the same action can mean someone’s toes get stepped on. A PC based on being a practical physician with a high Medicine skill could find themselves outshone by a magician armed with a healing spell. The magician can cast all sorts of spells, and still heal as well as the doctor. The same can happen with the Invisibility spell and Hide and Sneak, the Repair spell and Ad-hoc Repair, and a number of other spell effects and skills.

If a player feels like their skills can’t compete with a spell, they need to be reminded that their skills aren’t just for actions, they can provide important information too. The Medicine skill wonderfully illustrates this idea. The Thaumatergical spells Heal and Cure nicely cover all the needs of a wounded character, but the Medicine skill can do that and much more:

Social Uses

As scholarly men with expert knowledge and a trained eye, doctors have a certain mystique. A successful Medicine check could add a die or two to Propriety for a Reputation Roll, or hide a lie in medical mumbo jumbo. A skilled physician will almost always be believed over a layman, but be careful. A doctor caught up in a scandal will be quickly infamous.

- The police may not look too carefully at the unconscious man being “helped” home as long as a doctor is present.

-A doctor on hand to the scene of an emergency will always be needed. If he minds his manners he could get quite a bit of information from witnesses, authorities, etc.

-The poor need charity, the rich desire discretion, but everyone needs a doctor sometime. 

Investigative Uses

The wealth of knowledge a trained doctor has at his disposal would be an asset to any group looking into a mystery.

Vocational ailment and diseases were a fact of life in the Victoriana age. A perception check and a Medicine check or just a Medicine check with variable difficulties could reveal a suspects job.

-The dwarf with the severe stomach pains could be suffering from poisoning caused by the arsenic used in the paint factory.

-The small blueish gray dots on the eldren’s hands are mostly likely from working with silver. The small shavings get stuck in the skin and dissolve into the connective tissues of the hand.

-The halfling with the inflammation on her hands may be a cleaning woman who uses lots of alkaloid chemicals.

-The calluses on that man’s fingers are from a hammer. He could be a blacksmith, a carpenter, or a shoemaker.

Human anatomy is an excellent source of clues. A perceptive doctor could also get useful information from a set of footprints, such as irregularity of gait, or subrace, discover the source of wounds using their shape and depth, or identify rare poisons. 

Tactical Uses

Identifying a weak spot greatly increases your ability in combat. A quick Medicine check of variable difficulty could show a weak point in an obstacles anatomy.

-The doorman’s left ear is stuffed with cotton. If he has an ear infection, a quick jab to his head could disorient him enough to get in.

-The thug throwing a chair at you has broken nose and can only breathe through one nostril. If you reset his nose for him, he might be grateful.

-The plump baron possessed by the ancient evil is moving carefully because of his gout. A quick stomp on his feet will disrupt the ritual for a round.

While certain spells can replicate some of a skill’s primary uses, the experience gained from learning the skill and the application of that knowledge remain untouched and viable.