Once a dwelling reaches a village-size population it will develop a crime rating. Your dwelling's crime rating determines the saturation and activity of the Criminal Underworld in your settlement. The lower your village's crime, the less overall crime it has and weaker the black market. The higher the Crime Rating the stronger the criminal presence in your village as well as a stronger black market.
There are a total of four Crime Rating levels listed below:
A Crime Rating of Level Zero means the absence of any real criminal presence. Petty thievery and the very rare occurrence of murder or rape may exist, but nothing preventable by any means. The dwelling is very safe at all times of the day and most likely has a very disciplined military presence. This is the Crime Rating for Towns and below. As such, the presence of a Criminal Underworld is unavailable.
A Crime Rating of Level One will be the development of small street gangs and the presence of muggers and otherwise more skilled thieves. This is the maximum Crime Rating a Village-sized settlement may have. A Level One Crime Rating gives the dwelling the basics of the Criminal Underworld such as a black market, a fence, and a location where missions may be posted, whether it be in the basement of a ruined home or a speakeasy. Your dwelling is still very safe during all hours of the day, though one might occasionally run into some trouble if seen lurking the worst parts of the village during dark hours. But even then, the crime encountered would be insignificant.
Level Two attracts a larger presence of crime such as professional thieves, larger street gangs, and even organized crime. This is the maximum Crime Rating a City-sized settlement may have. A Level Two Crime Rating gives the dwelling a more influential black market, a fence with greater funds, and perhaps even a more suitable building for business. For a price one may even be able to hire a group of hoodlums looking for work (D-class NPC). Your dwelling is still quite safe during daylight hours, though nighttime is where most criminal activity thrives leaving no part of your dwelling completely safe. Wandering a ghetto at night is certainly looking for trouble.
Level Three indicates a very large criminal presence, so much so it is a well-known issue in your dwelling and many civilians are cautious to wander around in public during daylight. Gangs are bold enough to fight in public during daytime and organized crime may have a strong presence in your dwelling's politics, if not control it by proxy entirely. This is the maximum Crime Rating a Metro-sized settlement may have, and the highest Crime Rating of them all. The greatest black market, fencers, and lifetime criminals consider your dwelling their home. Hiring some skilled thugs are easy with the right money (C-class NPC).
The presence of crime can always be controlled by ordering your dwelling's Shinobi to intervene. This can be registered as a PC mission for your Shinobi to take. Although the details of this mission is completely up to the person whom registers it, the end result will be removing ONE Crime Rating Level from the current number. This would mean it would take three missions for PCs to completely wipe a Metro from all criminal activity. Otherwise, simply using a Police Station and Prison can help control the growth of crime in your dwelling.
A dwelling's Crime Rating will naturally regenerate one level every three OOC months until it has reached its maximum value. At Metropolis dwelling however, this regeneration increases in frequency of every two OOC months instead of three. This can of course be suppressed by your order if you do not wish to have any criminal presence in your dwelling. Otherwise, you may even accelerate the growth of crime in your village by paying in 20,000 ryo for each level.
Back to top
Although crime is generally a negative influence on a dwelling, criminals do play their role in the grand scheme of all things regarding economy and Shinobi business. Aside from having access to unique items otherwise not commonly found on the market, having a designated district for criminals to thrive allows a dwelling to keep an eye on everything that would otherwise be done behind their backs. Human trafficking, assassination targets, organ trafficking, information in the criminal world, mercenary Shinobi, and otherwise a means to communicate with rogue Shinobi and big name criminal organizations. As such, Missing-Nin will naturally be attracted to the more saturated Underworld due to the value the black market may have making higher Crime Ratings a positive feature to have.
While criminal districts exist in large dwellings, all around the continent there are depots which serve as "drop offs" for criminals to claim mission rewards that have been carried out. These are optimal for assassinations and kidnappings, as carrying out such tasks within village borders will generally alert the Shinobi presence and give you more trouble than it's worth. These depots are initially hidden and their locations can be learned after having at least a Level One Crime Rating by having a trust rank of at least B-rank. PCs wishing to learn about these depots must visit an Underworld District to acquire knowledge or otherwise be told by someone knowledgeable of these locations. Each country, major and minor, will have at least six of these depots.
Home 
