FATES WORSE

THAN DEATH:
RENTPUNK

This work is based on Fate Core System and Fate Accelerated Edition (found at
http://www.faterpg.com/), products of Evil Hat Productions, LLC, developed,
authored, and edited by Leonard Balsera, Brian Engard, Jeremy Keller, Ryan
Macklin, Mike Olson, Clark Valentine, Amanda Valentine, Fred Hicks, and Rob
Donoghue, and licensed for our use under a Creative Commons attribution license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

Game Setting and Fate Accelerated Edition customization by Brian St.Claire-King

Illustrations by Art by Lorie Albrecht (www.albrecht-illo.com), A’Lis, Samuel Araya,

Paul C Butler, Leanne Buckley, Lance William Card, Jhoneil Centeno, Kari Christensen,
Laura Dubuk, Randy Gallegos (randyg.com), Jason Juta, Kyri Konitou, Britt Martin,
Rik Martin, Staffan Melin, Katie Miranda, Martina Pilcerova, Jason Walton, Ursula
Vernon, Giorgio Baroni, James E. Sheilds, Gorka Uztarroz and Martina Pilcerova.

Game setting text is Copyright 2015 by Vajra Enterprises.

Reasonable portions may be reproduced for use in play.
 INTRODUCTION
What is This? Why Fate Accelerated?
Fates Worse Than Death is a gritty urban cyberpunk
game first published in 2004 by Vajra Enterprises. The original Fates Worse Than Death came with Organic
Rule Components, which is very much an “okay, tell me
The original Fates Worse Than Death uses the
exactly how many doses of antibiotic you have remaining,
Organic Rules Components system. Fates Worse
and we’ll find out whether you live or not” kind of rule
Than Death: Rentpunk is a game that takes place in system, which is great for telling some types of stories.
the Fates Worse Than Death setting, written for the ORC asks “what would happen if this were real?” and
Rentpunk Game Jam (http://rentpunk.tumblr.com/) Fate asks “how do we make a good story?” Both of these
and using the Fate Accelerated rules, which have are good questions to ask, but since Rentpunk stories are
been released under a Creative Commons by Evil about how you live your life, and what the things you do
Hat Productions. mean to you, Fate’s emphasis on collaborating storytelling
fits that bill well, and Fate Accelerated makes for the quick
spin-up of characters so you can jump right into the action
Fates Worse Than Death: and discover more about your character and how he or she
Rentpunk Is Not For Kids lives along the way.

Most Vajra games can be played in a family-friendly

fashion by choosing not to include certain elements
How Has Fate Accelerated
that are not appropriate for younger players. Been Changed?
However, Rentpunk is specifically about whether or
not you will choose to do things that are dangerous, Although this volume is based on Fate Accelerated
or gross, or hurt your self-esteem, or are illegal, Edition, a few things were tweaked to make it fit better
or make you question whether you are still a good with the mood and play needs of Rentpunk:
person. Thus, Rentpunk is not for kids.
• The Aspects characters start with have been changed.
Now one of the Aspects should be a Need.
Why Fates Worse Than Death? • There are now four slot for consequences, each of a
different type (physical, mental, social and financial)
When I first envisioned the Fates Worse Than Death and each one can hold a mild, moderate or severe
setting, over a decade ago, I wanted to create a world consequence.
where all the cool stuff that science and technology • Instead of campaigns, the focus is now on month-to-
seemed destined to bring about was possible, but month survival.
where the day to day concerns of modern urban life
still mattered. I wanted to make a game where one • Many of the examples have been changed to be
day you might be trying to stop a rogue AI, and the specific to this setting, the order of things has been
next day you might be trying to scrounge up enough changed around a bit.
for a portable heater because your radiator stopped
working in the dead of winter. I also wanted to
create a game that countered the prejudice in must
The Story So Far
fiction (especially scifi) that rich people are the only
people worthy of telling stories about and the only In the aftermath of the Freedom Wars of the 2040s, the world
people who can improve society. I thus created a was looking for a new way of living. The rule of puppet
governments by a handful of super-powerful corporations
setting full of badass poor people, so as to encourage
had been dystopian, and the attempts by the Freedom Army
players to poor characters. to institute socialism had been just as bad. A new way was
found with the help of mental programming technology. This
The concept of the Rentpunk Game Jam, of “what tech let people peer into the minds of others, to accurately
if financial precariousness was an adventure” called gauge their loyalties and their psychological strengths and
out to me. In fact, the first novel I wrote in the Fates weaknesses. With psychometric testing, a community
Worse Than Death setting is about a teen runaway could accept only those who would make the community
living in a Single-Room Occupancy hotel with thrive. Utopianist communes were the first, most radical
some other runaways, and a good portion of the form of new community built on this model. Then came
action in the book involves her trying to make her gated communities: autonomous, self-sustaining mini-
rent. Rentpunk stories are one of the types of stories societies where the machinery of society was lubricated by
I created the Fates Worse Than Death setting to be the absolute trust that only accurate psychometric testing
allowed. While Utopianist Communes wanted to save
able to tell.

002 Introduction
the world, Gated Communities wanted only to achieve
safe, comfortable lifestyles for their members. Gated
What You Need To Play
Communities became so wildly popular that the post-
war corporations had to adopt many of their methods Here’s what you’ll need to play:
in order to survive, creating private living centers for • Three to five people. One of you will be the
their employees. The ranks of these new planned gamemaster, the others players. We’ll talk about what
communities swelled as everyone who could join them those mean later.
did so.
• Fate Dice™, at least four, preferably four per person.
These are a special kind of six-sided dice that are marked
The island of Manhattan, in New York City, has been on two sides with a plus symbol [+], two sides with a
a major battlefield in the Freedom Wars and still minus symbol [-], and two sides are blank [ ]. They are
wore the scars. As new communities formed outside also known as Fudge Dice. Alternately, you can use the
Manhattan, the island’s population shrank. Those Deck of Fate: a set of cards that mimic the probability of
who remained were those who couldn’t or wouldn’t Fate Dice. You can get Fated Dice or the Deck of Fate
join the new communities: addicts, the mentally ill, are available at www.evilhat.com or your favorite game
illegal immigrants, sociopaths, extremists, eccentrics, retailer.
radicals, idealists, the selfish, the stupid and the lazy.
As the law-abiding population grew smaller, Manhattan
became known as a dangerous ghetto. Many of those If you don’t want to use Fudge dice, you don’t have
Manhattanites who could afford to do so locked to–any set of regular six-sided dice will work. If
themselves in their apartments, preferring the fantasy you’re using regular dice, you read 5 or 6 as [+], 1
worlds of full-immersion virtual reality to the dangers or 2 as [-], and 3 or 4 as [ ].
of going outside. This exacerbated the emptying of the
city streets. • Character sheets, one for each player. See the appendix.
• Index cards or sticky notes or similar slips of paper.
In recent years, one drug gang, the Drug Lords, has taken • Tokens for fate points. These can be poker chips, beads,
over the drug trade in the city, absorbing or destroying pennies, or anything similar. Get a handful—about 30 or
almost all competition. Where street gangs had been 40.
the retail arm of the drug trade, the Drug Lords gave this
job to their own pushers. Without their most lucrative
income source, most street gangs self-destructed, their Next, let’s talk about how to use Fate Accelerated to tell
members either joining the Drug Lords as pushers or stories together.
becoming small bands of roaming muggers and burglars.
First, choose who will be the players, and who will be the
In the void left by the destruction of the drug-selling gamemaster. Of the people around the table, all but one are
gangs, a new type of gang has emerged. Rather than referred to as players. Each player takes on the role of one
seeking criminal profits, these gangs are motivated player character or PC in the story, and puts themselves
primarily by a desire for mutual self-defense. These new in their character’s shoes to make the decisions that their
gangs have started to experiment with new technologies, character would make.
new ideologies and new ways of interacting with the
city around them and their ranks swelled to encompass The remaining person is called the gamemaster or GM. The
a large portion of the non-shut-in population. Similarly, GM’s duties during a game session include:
extended families of homeless people began to organize
themselves into powerful organizations, seizing control • Run scenes: A session is made up of individual scenes.
of their neighborhoods. Decide, with the help of the players, where the scene
begins, who’s there, and what’s going on. Decide when
all the interesting things have played out and the scene’s
Today, no one group rules the city. There is government, over.
but it is corrupt and underfunded. Desperate addicts,
the violently mentally ill, muggers, rapists and serial • Adjudicate the rules: When some question comes up
killers are a significant danger to those who dare to about how to apply the rules, you get final say.
leave their homes. There are cops, but the cops have • Set difficulties: You decide how difficult tasks should
split into two major factions: once completely corrupt, be.
the other acting like just another violent street gang. • Play the NPCs: Each player controls their own
The Drug Lords are powerful and scary, but their power character, but you control all the rest, including the bad
has been overshadowed by the new street gangs. The guys, the marks, the johns, the black market traders and
gangs hold tremendous power, but spend most of their
the landlord.
time and energy fighting little wars between each other.
The gangs exist in a middle ground between hero and
street thug: one day a gang member may save you from All the people at the table, GM and players alike, are
being preyed upon, the next day a gang member may responsible for telling the story. When you make a decision,
beat you up for looking funny at him or her. And then put yourself in your character’s shoes and think hard about
there’s everyone else: those who don’t want to join a what they would do—even if it’s not the best idea. If you’re
gang, don’t want to hide in their apartments like a shut playing a character that sometimes makes poor decisions,
in, they just want to put food on the table, pay their rent don’t be afraid to make a poor decision for them on purpose.
and occasionally enjoy living in a city where anything
can happen.

Introduction 003
 Think about the story that’s being told. Think about the That’s how you tell great stories together—by not being afraid
choice that would make that story even better: more for your character to make mistakes, and by making choices
interesting, more exciting, funnier. Would a certain that make the story more interesting for everyone at the table—
choice give another player’s character a chance to be not just you.
awesome? Strongly consider making that choice.

Fates Worse Than Death vs. Generic Cyberpunk

Generic Cyberpunk Fates Worse Than Death
The “Urban Sprawl”, an unending, unvaried and
Game focuses on the island of Manhattan, detailing its boundaries and what
unknowable stretch of solid city containing every sort of
can be found within it, including its specific and unique organizations and
culture, economy, lifestyle and organization within its
culture.
breadth.
Most characters are lone wolves who travel the world
Most characters have an important and well-defined place in city society
giving only temporary loyalty to those who pay them (or
with duties and non-selfish motivations.
the occasional good cause).
Usually no psychic phenomenon, or if there is it is usually a
Well defined and explained psychic abilities with clearly defined limits.
wildcard: rare freaks who can make people’s heads explode.
Urban populations are constantly growing, changing, and Manhattan population is small, stable and some people live as their
moving, leaving little focus on tradition and history. grandparents had, giving a sense of tradition, age and maturity to the city.
Distinction between the powerless majority of people who
Focus on the idea that everyone is quite skilled at what they do, no matter
are just trying to survive and the powerful minority who
what their economic status is, and that everyone is powerful and dangerous
have special skills or resources. The powerful tend to be the
in their own way.
main players, with the powerless as a sort of background.
Focus on the media, on corporate advertisers creating pop The street population of the city is basically ignored by and ignores the
culture, on who is famous, on being flashy and stylish and media. There is no real pop-culture and people become known for their
having ‘style over substance’. deeds, not for looking cool.
VR is a gateway to adventure and a playground for the VR is an addictive escape for shut-ins, disdained by the street population.
world’s master hackers. Real hackers are as likely to use a text-only interface.
Guns are rare (screened for at city entrances), used mainly by the richest
Guns are common and used liberally.
criminals. The most common weapon is a knife.
Life is cheap and the death of a person usually has few Life is cheap to some, very important to others. Each individual has many
consequences. interconnections and nearly every death has consequences.
Many have carved a niche for themselves in city society and have time to
Philosophy is irrelevant, people spend their days concerned
ask themselves questions such as “why am I here?” and “what do I want to
with how to survive.
do with my life?”
Police force is a bunch of idealistic teens who are under-equipped, under-
Police force is a brutish paramilitary force.
skilled and act more like a gang than a military organization.
Gangs are short-sighted, violent, self-destructive, crazy
Gangs are more-or-less “normal” people who have banded together for self-
criminals who are addicted to and sell drugs. This vision of
protection. Some gangs have lofty goals and ideals. Although they do have
gangs is generally based on post-crack (1980s and after) US
problems with violence, overall the city is a better place for their presence.
urban street gangs.
Cybernetic implants and replacements are powerful, Implants are either biological or small, unobtrusive electronics. They extend
flashy chrome and tend to turn people in to robot monsters. human capabilities but are rarely able to make people superhuman.
The city is darker and quieter with a smaller population density (especially
City is portrayed as a bright, noisy, bustling marketplace
with many shut-ins) and few motor vehicles. At certain times of day the
24 hours a day.
streets are almost empty.
Neural restructuring techniques allow the brain itself to be changed,
Integration of computer chip technology in to brains creates
reprogrammed, even copied. Unobtrusive hand-jacks allow integration with
human-computer links and lets human be programmed.
computers.
Dreary, blighted dystopian setting symbolic of characters’
Dreary, blighted dismal setting as a counterpoint to and testing ground of
own sense of being lost and having no control over their
social and individual growth.
lives.
Not as much focus on drama, suspense and terror because Characters are given something worth trying to hold on to, making drama,
characters don’t have much to lose in the first place. suspense and terror possible.
Violence typically portrayed as the most important form
Violence is one of many tools available to characters, which can be beneficial
of social and political persuasion, and most stories usually
if used wisely or disastrous if used poorly. Often, threats of violence are
have at least one skilled fighter (usually a neutral party,
more useful than violence itself.
hired and used as a tool by the PCs).
Really rich people exist but are seldom seen. Most PCs range between what
Massive difference in education, social power and culture
would be called middle class and very poor today. Culturally, they are more
between rich and poor characters.
alike than different.
Exploration of what is human through invasive Exploration of what is human through neural restructuring, biotechnological
electromechanical implants turning people in to machines. manipulation, drugs with permanent psychological effects, etc.
Complete lack of social support net. There are hardly any There is a massive welfare system that supports most of the city, though
social services except those designed to keep the capitalist many people do fall through the cracks. This is a system that benefits corps
system going. and government.
Corporations are a cross between governments and Corps have a lot of power (mostly economic) but they can’t afford to piss-off
organized crime agencies, who regularly and directly the government and their influence on the lives of characters is usually subtle
interfere in the lives of the characters. and from afar.
Periods of global corporate rule, ecological crises, global anti-corporate
History usually dotted with several Vietnam-esque wars
violence (and occupation by anti-corporate terrorist armies) leading to
with limited nuclear activity.
restructuring of economies and governments.

004 Introduction
 CHARACTER CREATION
What Kind of Characters Here are some questions you can ask yourself:

Can I Play? Is your character an adolescent, a teen, a young

adult, middle aged or elderly?
In Fates Worse Than Death: Rentpunk you play as What is your legal status? Are you a runaway, an
a group of roommates, pooling money every month undocumented immigrant, on parole, a fugitive from
to pay the rent on a multi-bedroom apartment. justice, or are you free-and-clear in the eyes of the
Accordingly, your character shouldn’t be so poor that law?
he or she would live on the streets, or so wealthy that
he or she doesn’t have to worry about making rent, What are the usual means of income for your
but everything else about the character is up to you. character? Welfare or some other form of public
Although gangs are a major part of the Fates Worse assistance? Working a legit minimum wage job?
Than Death setting, this game won’t provide any Working a job where you are paid below board, but
specific advice for making a character be a member which is otherwise legit? Do you get an allowance
of one of the city’s powerful gangs. from your parent or other relatives? Or do you make
money mostly via criminal acts?
In the city, there are the weak and the wretched: Besides what you do for a living, what does your
skin-and-bone drug addicts, shut-ins who fear to go character take pride in? What does your character
outside, people so mentally ill that they can’t speak want to be known for and remembered for?
in coherent sentences. There are also some serious
badasses: gang leaders, professional assassins, elite What kind of Manhattan does the character want to
hackers, highly-modded killing machines. For best live in? A dog-eat-dog world where the toughest rise
results it is suggested that you play Fates Worse Than above the rest? An endlessly fascinating metropolis
Death: Rentpunk somewhere in the middle. You’ve where you can experience something new every day?
got some of the badass about you, but you aren’t so A place where once can observe the failure of this
tough or so powerful that the landlord pounding on experiment we call society? A place where ordinary
your door demanding this month’s rent doesn’t fill people work together to make their communities
you with dread. better? A place where you can be free from rules and
show off your inner self?

Character Creation 005

 Aspects in Brief Examples: To Take Care of My Kid, To Keep Paying
That Loan Shark, To Get Enough Drugs To Avoid
An aspect is a word, phrase, or sentence that describes Withdrawal, To Prove I’m Not Like My Dad, To Get My
something centrally important to your character. It can Sex-Change Hormones, To Get Medicine for My STD,
be a motto your character lives by, a personality quirk, To Believe I Have a Brighter Future, To Be Respected,
a description of a relationship you have with another To Keep My Parole Officer Happy, To Make This
character, an important possession or bit of equipment Marriage Work, To Win The Heart of My Crush.
your character has, or any other part of your character
that is vitally important.
Aspects allow you to change the story in ways that tie
Step Four: Something
in with your character’s tendencies, skills, or problems.
You can also use them to establish facts about the
Interesting Aspect
setting, such as the existence an ally or enemy, or the
existence of a group the character belongs to or is an Now compose another aspect. Think of something
enemy of. really important or interesting about your character.
Do they have a really unique body mod? Do they use
Your character will have a handful of aspects (between an unusual weapon? Do they talk too much? Do they
three and five), including a high concept and a trouble. have an interesting sexual fetish?
We discuss aspects in detail in Aspects and Fate
Points—but for now, this should help you get the idea.
Step Five: Additional Aspect
(optional)
Step One: High Concept Aspect
If you wish, you may create one more aspect. This
First, decide on your character’s high concept. This aspects might describe your character’s relationship
is a single phrase or sentence that neatly sums up your with other player characters or with an NPC. Or, like
character, saying who you are, what you do, what your the aspect you composed above, it might describe
“deal” is. When you think about your high concept, try another especially interesting about your character.
to think of two things: how this aspect could help you,
and how it might make things harder for you. Good high If you prefer, you can leave this aspect blank right now
concept aspects do both. and fill it in later, after the game has started.

Examples: Angry Gutterpunk Brawler, Scheming Pill

Broker, Bipolar Mercenary Hacker, Lived in This
Neighborhood for Decades
Step Six: Name and
Appearance
Step Two: Trouble Aspect Describe your character’s appearance and give them
a name.
Next, decide on the thing that always gets you into trouble.
It could be a personal weakness, or a recurring enemy, or
an important obligation—anything that makes your life
complicated.
Creating Characters in Brief
Examples: Pervs Always Fall for Me, Violence Begets
Violence, Love Getting High Too Much, Gambling • Write four aspects: a high concept, a
Problem, Family Members Do Stupid Things Then Need trouble, a need, something interesting
My Help, On The Run From the Law, Don’t Know How to about you.
Be Anything but a Criminal, Relationship Drama, Got A
• Write another aspect (or wait and do it
Disease That’s Slowly Killing Me, The Animalists Have
during play).
Named Me An Enemy, Tired of Sleeping Alone.
• Give your character a name and
Step Three: Need Aspect describe their appearance.
• Choose approaches (one at +0, two at
Choose another aspect that represents a recurring +1, two at +2 and one at +3).
need your character has. The need could be physical,
psychological, even legal. The definition of “need” is • Choose a stunt.
subjective. “I need to work out my stress on the dance
floor” is different from “I need insulin” but both are good • Set your refresh to 3.
so long as they are strong motivators of the character.

006 Character Creation

 The Trickster: Clever +3, Sneaky and Flashy +2,
Step Seven: Approaches Forceful and Quick +1, Careful +0
The Guardian: Careful +3, Forceful and Clever
Choose your approaches. +2, Sneaky and Quick +1, Flashy +0
The Thief: Sneaky +3, Careful and Quick +2,
Approaches are descriptions of how you accomplish Clever and Flashy +1, Forceful +0
tasks. Everyone has the same six approaches:
The Swashbuckler: Flashy +3, Quick and Clever
Careful +2, Forceful and Sneaky +1, Careful +0
Clever
The Ladder
Flashy In Fate, we use a ladder of adjectives
Forceful and numbers to rate a character’s
approaches, the result of a roll,
Quick difficulty ratings for simple checks, etc.

Sneaky +8 Legendary
+7 Epic
Each approach is rated with a bonus. Choose one at
Good (+3), two at Fair (+2), two at Average (+1), and +6 Fantastic
one at Mediocre (+0). You can improve these later. We +5 Superb
talk about what each approach means and how you use
them in How to Do Stuff: Outcomes, Approaches, and +4 Great
Actions. +3 Good
+2 Fair
Your approaches can say a lot about who you are. Here
are some examples: +1 Average
0 Mediocre
The Brute: Forceful +3, Careful and Flashy +2,
Sneaky and Quick +1, Clever +0 -1 Poor
-2 Terrible
The All-Star: Quick +3, Forceful and Flashy +2,
Clever and Careful +1, Sneaky +0

Step Eight: Stunts

Choose one to three stunts (more means less Refresh,
see below) Stunts are tricks, maneuvers, or techniques
your character has that change how an approach works
for your character. There are two types of stunts: those
that give you a +2 bonus, and those that let you do
something that few others can do. A stunt can reflect a
unique background, a special skill, special equipment,
special social connections, or an unusual reputation.

Like aspects, Stunts are written free-form, rather than

picked from a list.

The first type of stunt gives you a +2 bonus when you

use a certain approach in a certain situation. Use this
template:

Because I [describe the skills/background/

connections/gear that makes you unique],
I get a +2 when I [pick one: Carefully,
Cleverly, Flashily, Forcefully, Quickly,
Sneakily][pick one: attack, defend, create
advantages, overcome] when [describe a
circumstance].

Character Creation 007

 For example: Because I have my reflexes boosted by mental
programs, I get +2 when I Quickly overcome
Because I was raised in prison, I get a +2 when I when I am facing imminent physical danger.
Sneakily attack when I appear to be minding my
own business. Because I have sensory implants, I get +2 when I
Carefully overcome when someone is trying to
Because I own high tech climbing gear, I get a +2 conceal something from me.
when I Quickly overcome when I am traversing
obstacles in the city.
Sometimes, if the circumstance is especially restrictive,
Because I am a stone-cold hottie, I get a +2 when I you can apply the stunt to both the create an advantage
Flashily create advantages when am dealing with action and the overcome action.
anyone attracted to my gender.
Because I have a genetic mod that makes me huge, The second type of stunt lets you make something true,
I get a +2 when I Forcefully defend when I am in a do something cool, or otherwise ignore the usual rules
close-quarters brawl. in some way. Use this template:

Because I make my living as a street thief, I get

a +2 when I Sneakily overcome when I liberate
Because I [describe some way that you
people’s valuables. are exceptional, have a cool bit of gear, or
are otherwise awesome], once per game
Because I have a rep as crazy and dangerous, I session I can [describe something cool you
get a +2 when I Forcefully create advantages when can do].
people are thinking about messing with me.
Because I have a backpack full of pharmaceuticals, For example:
I get +2 when I Carefully overcome when I am up
against the weakness of human flesh. Because I have been taught to read minds, once
per game session I can know what someone is
Because I wear high tech armor, I get +2 when I thinking.
Quickly defend when someone is trying to pierce
my flesh.

008 Character Creation

Because I am an accomplished hacker, once per Because I have a working car, once per game
game session I can find a piece of helpful, secret session I can get everyone where they need to be
information. without complications.
Because I am an obsessive tinkerer, once per Because I know the city’s streets like the back
game session I can create a helpful device. of my hand, once per game session I can get
somewhere first.
Because I am part of a close-knit immigrant
community, once per game session I can call on
a community member willing to do me a favor. These templates exist to give you an idea of how stunts
should be constructed, but don’t feel constrained to
Because I have a secondary-nanotech disguise follow them exactly if you have a good idea.
skin, one per game session I can make someone
believe I am someone else.
Because I can read graffiti like a book, once per Step Nine: Refresh & Stress
game session I can find out something useful
about a neighborhood. Your refresh is the number of fate points you begin
each game session with (unless you ended the previous
Because I look like a kid, once per game session session with more unspent fate points than your refresh,
I can make someone mistake me for harmless. in which case you start with the number you had left
Because I broadcast my every adventure on the last time). By default, your refresh starts at three and is
internet, once per game session a fan will offer reduced by one for each stunt you chose after the first
me help. (your first stunt is essentially free). As your character
advances, you’ll get opportunities to add to your
Because I have an implant that increases my refresh. Your refresh may never go below one.
sense of smell, once per game session I can track
a person or thing to its current location. Your stress represents damage you can take without it
impacting your ability to get things done. All player
Because I have implants that protect my vital characters start with 3.
organs, once per game session I can shrug off
four shifts of failure in combat.

Special Abilities
Step Ten: Character
Advancement
In the Fate Accelerated rules, there are quite a few
things you can try to do, and have a good chance at People change. Your skills sharpen as you practice
succeeding at, even if you haven’t been specifically them. Your life experiences accumulate and shape your
trained in doing that thing. However, there are some personality. This is reflected in character advancement,
things that only those with very special training which allows you to change your aspects, add or change
or some sort of special tech (special equipment, stunts, and raise your approach bonuses. You do this
an implant, a mental program, etc.) can hope to when your character reaches a milestone.
accomplish. These are the sort of things you would
want to have a stunt for your character to be able to
do. Some examples: A minor milestone usually occurs at the end of a
session of play, or when one piece of a story has been
resolved. For Rentpunk, this typically means the end of
Everyone Can Requires a Stunt the month has come and the characters have either made
(Try To) Do Psychic Stuff their rent and are okay for another month, or haven’t.
Fight Perform Heart Surgery Rather than making your character more powerful, a
Climb minor milestone is about changing your character,
Make a Genetically about adjusting in response to whatever’s going on in
Drive a Vehicle Engineered Monster the story if you need to. Sometimes it won’t really make
Know Scientific Facts Hack a Computer sense to take advantage of a minor milestone, but you
always have the opportunity in case you need to.
Seduce Break Modern
Encryption
Speak A Few Words After a minor milestone, you can choose to do one (and
of a Foreign Language Pick a Lock only one) of the following:
Interrogate Manufacture Useful Switch the ratings of any two approaches.
Chemicals
Use Technology Rename one aspect that isn’t your high concept.
Breathe Underwater
Hide or Sneak Exchange one stunt for a different stunt.
See in Pitch Darkness
Resist Drug Effects Choose a new stunt (and adjust your refresh, if you
Climb A Smooth Surface already have three stunts).

Character Creation 009

 Also, if you have a moderate consequence, check to see
if it’s been around for two sessions. If so, and if it makes
Sample Player Characters
sense within the story, you can clear it.
Here are a few starting Rentpunk player characters.
Rentpunk is primarily about dealing with the problems
of the moment. Your immediate goal is to make rent Nasmah El-Amin
this month, next month is a whole different matter, not
to mention the whole rest of your life. If, however, a Nasmah works in the kitchen at a fast food joint,
character is able to come up against one of the major sweating over the grill and the fry grease, and wearing
problems in his or her life and overcome them, not just the unflattering pastel colored uniform they made her
for the moment but on lasting basis, this is a significant buy. Her boss treats her poorly. What he and Nasmah’
milestone. Examples might include finally taking care of coworkers don’t know is that in her youth Nasmah helped
that psycho-ex, or getting a replacement for your damaged her family survive by stealing. Unfortunately, the others
heart, or getting on a series of meds that are able to let you in her immigrant community do know of her skills, and
control your mood swings, or making peace with the gang are always trying to talk her into committing crimes, even
that was out to get you. though she is trying to seek a respectable life.

In addition to the benefit of a minor milestone, a major High Concept: Ex-Thief Fast Food Worker
milestone gives both of the following: Trouble: Stealing is Easier Than Working
If you have a severe consequence that’s been around Need: To Redeem Myself in the Eyes of My Creator
for at least two sessions, you can clear it. Other Aspects: Student of the Koran; Recent
Immigrant
Raise the bonus of one approach by one.*
Approaches:
*When you raise the bonus of an approach, there’s Careful: Fair (+2) Clever: Average (+1)
only one rule you need to remember: you can’t raise an Flashy: Mediocre (+0) Forceful: Average (+1)
approach bonus above Superb (+5). Quick: Fair (+2) Sneaky: Good (+3)
Stunts:
Experienced Catburglar: Because Nasmah
learned to steal in her youth, she gets +2 to
Sneakily Overcome when trying to sneak into
someone’s private space.
Faith: Because Nasmah is a sincere believer, she
gets +2 to Carefully overcome when trying to
avoid doing somethings he believes is wrong.
Stress: O O O
Consequences: None:
Refresh: 2

Desmond Louis
Desmond grew up in a small mountain town with a
conservative population. Being gay, he often felt like
an outsider in his community, so as soon as he turned
18 he moved to the city. In the city he is a hard worker,
but those times he hasn’t been able to make ends meet
he has turned to sex work. Between work and fun
he has very little time for sleep and takes in massive
amounts of caffeine, and sometimes even stronger
chemicals, to stay awake. Despite the troubles he’s
had, the city is exciting and interesting and getting to
be himself every day is wonderful, and he has never
looked back.

High Concept: Young Adult Enjoying Newfound

Freedom
Trouble: Bad Decisions at 3AM
Need: Something To Stave Off Exhaustion
Other Aspects: Proud To Be Who I Am; Does
Everything With Style.

010 Character Creation

Approaches: High Concept: Manic-Depressive Student
Careful: Mediocre (+0) Clever: Fair (+2) Trouble: Manic Depression
Flashy: Good (+3) Forceful: Average (+1) Need: To Get Into a Gated Community
Quick: Fair (+2) Sneaky: Average (+1)
Other Aspects: I Did a Training Module on That;
Stunts: Electronics Tinkerer.
Infectious Enthusiasm: Because Desmond is a Approaches:
likable and fun loving guy, he gets +2 to Create Careful: Good (+3) Clever: Fair (+2)
Advantages when trying to talk someone into
doing something fun. Flashy: Average (+1) Forceful: Mediocre (+0)
Quick: Fair (+2) Sneaky: Average (+1)
Stress: O O O
Stunts:
Consequences: None:
It’s On the Net Somewhere: Because Victor uses
Refresh: 3 the internet as a resource for information (rather
than for gossip, porn and watching funny videos)
Cynthia “Hazard” Stendahl he gets +2 when he Creates Advantages by doing
research online.
Cynthia is a gutterpunk with a passion for music. Stress: O O O
Her goal in life is to be a professional musician. Her Consequences: None:
clothes, attitudes and body mods are chosen to give the
impression that she doesn’t give a fuck about anything Refresh: 3
and will bash your head in with a nail-studded baseball
bat if you mess with her. She doesn’t care much for Alice Berkley
personal hygiene and she tends to leave a trail of
destruction wherever she spends time. Her shameful
secret is that she depends on handouts from her Alice wasn’t prepared to become a mom at 17, but she
suburban parents to support her city lifestyle. made it work. Now she’s 21 and her four year old son
Evan means the world to her. Even dealing with the
bullshit of being on welfare, even living in a tiny room
High Concept: Gutterpunk Musician in a crap apartment, she is happy so long as she is with
Trouble: Appetite for Destruction him. What’s more, being a mom has revealed an inner
toughness. She used to be rather timid, now she knows
Need: To Become a Real Musician that if someone so much as thinks about hurting her son
Other Aspects: Covered in Spikes; Punk Sneer. she’ll claw their fucking eyes out.
Approaches:
Careful: Mediocre (+0) Clever: Average (+1) High Concept: Protective Teen Mom
Flashy: Fair (+2) Forceful: Good (+2) Trouble: Falls For Sketchy Guys
Quick: Average (+1) Sneaky: Fair (+2)
Need: To Take Care of My Son
Stunts: Other Aspects: Handy with a Toolbelt; (Figurative)
Prepared to Sleep in a Gutter: Because Cynthia Eye in the Back of My Head.
wears many layers of leather and denim and has
trained herself to put up with physical discomfort, Approaches:
once per game session she can shrug off up to 2 Careful: Fair (+2) Clever: Average (+1)
levels of physical stress. Flashy: Average (+1) Forceful: Good (+3)
Quick: Fair (+2) Sneaky: Mediocre (+0)
Stress: O O O
Consequences: None: Stunts:
Refresh: 3 Don’t Mess With a Mama Bear’s Cubs: Because
Alice loves her son so much, she gets +2 when she
is Forcefully Attacking to eliminate someone or
Victor Ybarra something that threatens him.
When I Calls You By Your Full Name You Know
Victor’s parents were welfare recipients and early on You’re In Trouble: Because Alice often has to use
Victor decided that being poor wasn’t for him. Since her voice to stop a pre-schooler in his tracks, she
grade school he has worked himself hard, studying gets +2 when she is Forcefully creating advantages
long hours, with the ultimate goal of gaining entrance when she is yelling at people who are doing stupid
to a prestigious gated community. Things seemed to be things.
going well until his senior year in high school when he
discovered he was badly manic depressive. He is on Stress: O O O
medication now that is keeping his issues mostly under Consequences: None:
control, but this pre-existing condition has caused all Refresh:2
his application to gated communities to be rejected. He
continues to study, hoping that if he gains enough skills
he will be valuable enough for this minor condition to
be overlooked.

Character Creation 011

 RULES OF PLAY
Outcomes, Actions, and
Approaches
Say you need to leap between rooftops. You need to pick
a lock to get inside an apartment. Someone spiked your
drink and you need to find someone you trust before
the drug takes full effect. How do you figure out what
happens?

First you narrate what your character is trying to do. Your

character’s own aspects provide a good guide for what
you can do. If you have an aspect that suggests you can
use a computer, then start typing. If your aspects describe
you as a knife fighter, flick your switchblade out and have
at it. These story details don’t have additional mechanical
impact. You don’t get a bonus from your hacking or your
knife, unless you choose to spend a fate point to invoke
an appropriate aspect. Often, the ability to use an aspect
to make something true in the story is bonus enough!

How do you know if you’re successful? Often, you just

succeed, because the action isn’t hard and nobody’s
trying to stop you. But if failure provides an interesting
twist in the story, or if something unpredictable could
happen, you need to break out the dice.
Taking Action In Brief

Dice or Cards • Describe what you want your character to do.

See if someone or something can stop you.
Part of determining your outcome is generating a random • Decide what action you’re taking: create an
number, which is usually done in one of two ways: rolling advantage, overcome, attack, or defend.
four Fate Dice, or drawing a card from a Deck of Fate. • Decide on your approach.
• Roll dice and add your approach’s bonus.
Fate Dice (sometimes called Fudge dice, after the
game they were originally designed for) are one way to • Decide whether to modify your roll with aspects.
determine outcomes. You always roll Fate Dice in a set • Figure out your outcome.
of four. Each die will come up as [+], [ ], or [-], and you
add them together to get the total of the roll. For example:
Outcomes
- + 0 + = +1
+-00 =0 Once you roll your dice, add your approach bonus (we’ll
talk about that in a moment) and any bonuses from
+ + + - = +2 aspects or stunts. Compare the total to a target number,
- 0 0 0 = −1 which is either a fixed difficulty or the result of the
GM’s roll for an NPC. Based on that comparison, your
The Deck of Fate is a deck of cards that copies the outcome is:
statistical spread of Fate Dice. You can choose to use You fail if your total is less than your opponent’s
them instead of dice—either one works great. total.
It’s a tie if your total is equal to your opponent’s total.
These rules are written with the assumption that you’re
rolling Fate Dice, but use whichever one your group You succeed if your total is greater than your
prefers. Anytime you’re told to roll dice, that also means opponent’s total.
you can draw from the Deck of Fate instead.
You succeed with style if your total is at least three
greater than your opponent’s total.

012 Rules of Play

 Actions & Outcomes In Brief Actions
So you’ve narrated what your PC is trying to do, and you’ve established
Create an Advantage when that there’s a chance you could fail. Next, figure out what action best
creating or discovering aspects: describes what you’re trying to do. There are four basic actions that
Fail: Don’t create or discover, or cover anything you do in the game.
you do but your opponent (not you)
gets a free invocation. Creating an advantage is anything you do to try to help yourself
Tie: Get a boost if creating new, or one of your friends. Taking a moment to very carefully aim your
or treat as success if looking for hunting bow, spending several hours doing research on the internet,
existing. or tripping the mugger who’s trying to rob you—these all count as
creating an advantage. The target of your action may get a chance to
Succeed: Create or discover the use the defend action to stop you. The advantage you create lets you do
aspect, get a free invocation on it. one of the following three things:
Succeed with Style: Create or
discover the aspect, get two free • Create a new situation aspect.
invocations on it. • Discover an existing situation aspect or another character’s
aspect that you didn’t know about.
Create an Advantage on an aspect
you already know about: • Take advantage of an existing aspect.
Fail: No additional benefit.
If you’re creating a new aspect or discovering an existing one:
Tie: Generate one free invocation
on the aspect. If you fail: Either you don’t create or discover the aspect at all, or
Succeed: Generate one free you create or discover it but an opponent gets to invoke the aspect
invocation on the aspect. for free. The second option works best if the aspect you create or
discover is something that other people could take advantage of
Succeed with Style: Generate (like Rough Terrain). You may have to reword the aspect to show
two free invocations on the aspect. that it benefits the other character instead of you—work it out in
whatever way makes the most sense with the player who gets the
Overcome:
free invocation. You can still invoke the aspect if you’d like, but
Fail: Fail, or succeed at a serious it’ll cost you a fate point.
cost.
Tie: Succeed at minor cost. If you tie: If you’re creating a new aspect, you get a boost. Name
it and invoke it once for free—after that, the boost goes away. If
Succeed: You accomplish your you’re trying to discover an existing aspect, treat this as a success
goal. (see below).
Succeed with Style: You
accomplish your goal and generate If you succeed: You create or discover the aspect, and you or an
a boost. ally may invoke it once for free. Write the aspect on an index card
or sticky note and place it on the table.
Attack: If you succeed with style: You create or discover the aspect, and
Fail: No effect. you or an ally may invoke it twice for free. Usually you can’t
Tie: Attack doesn’t harm the invoke the same aspect twice on the same roll, but this is an
target, but you gain a boost. exception; success with style gives you a BIG advantage!
Succeed: Attack hits and causes
damage. If you’re trying to take advantage of an aspect you already know about:
Succeed with Style: Attack hits If you fail: You don’t get any additional benefit from the aspect.
and causes damage. May reduce You can still invoke it in the future if you’d like, at the cost of a
damage by one to generate a boost. fate point.

Defend: If you tie or succeed: You get one free invocation on the aspect
for you or an ally to use later. You might want to draw a circle
Fail: You suffer the consequences
or a box on the aspect’s note card, and check it off when that
of your opponent’s success.
invocation is used.
Tie: Look at your opponent’s
action to see what happens. If you succeed with style: You get two free invocations on the
Succeed: Your opponent doesn’t
aspect, which you can let an ally use, if you wish.
get what they want.
You use the overcome action when you have to get past something
Succeed with Style: Your that’s between you and a particular goal—picking a lock, escaping
opponent doesn’t get what they from handcuffs, leaping across a chasm, riding your bike down a flight
want, and you get a boost. of stairs. Taking some action to eliminate or change an inconvenient

Rules of Play 013

 situation aspect is usually an overcome action; we’ll talk If you fail: Your attack doesn’t connect. The target
more about that in Aspects and Fate Points. The target of parries your sword, your shot misses, your target
your action may get a chance to use the defend action to laughs off your insult.
stop you.
If you tie: Your attack doesn’t connect strongly
If you fail: You have a tough choice to make. You enough to cause any harm, but you gain a boost.
can simply fail—the door is still locked, the thug
still stands between you and the exit, you manage to If you succeed: Your attack hits and you do damage.
get down the stairs but the enemy is still on your tail. See Damage, Stress, and Consequences.
Or you can succeed, but at a serious cost—maybe
If you succeed with style: You hit and do damage,
you drop something vital you were carrying, maybe
plus you have the option to reduce the damage your
you suffer harm. The GM helps you figure out an
hit causes by one and gain a boost.
appropriate cost.
If you tie: You attain your goal, but at some minor Use defend when you’re actively trying to stop
cost. The GM could introduce a complication, or someone from doing any of the other three actions—
present you with a tough choice (you can rescue one you’re parrying a sword strike, trying to stay on your
of your friends, but not the other), or some other feet, blocking a doorway, and the like. Usually this
twist. action is performed on someone else’s turn, reacting to
their attempt to attack, overcome, or create an advantage.
If you succeed: You accomplish what you were You may also roll to oppose some non-attack actions, or
trying to do. The lock springs open, you duck around to defend against an attack on someone else, if you can
the thug blocking the door, you manage to lose the explain why you can. Usually it’s fine if most people at
alien spaceship on your tail. the table agree that it’s reasonable, but you can also point
to an relevant situation aspect to justify it. When you do,
If you succeed with style: As success (above), but you become the target for any bad results.
you also gain a boost.
If you fail: You’re on the receiving end of whatever
Use an attack when you try to hurt someone, whether your opponent’s success gives them.
physically or mentally—swinging a sword, shooting a
blaster rifle, or yelling a blistering insult with the intent to If you tie or succeed: Things don’t work out
hurt your target. (We’ll talk about this in Damage, Stress, too badly for you; look at the description of your
and Consequences, but the important thing is: If someone opponent’s action to see what happens.
gets hurt too badly, they’re knocked out of the scene.)
If you succeed with style: Your opponent doesn’t
The target of your attack gets a chance to use the defend
get what they want, plus you gain a boost.
action to stop you.

014 Rules of Play

 Actions & Outcomes In Brief

Create an Advantage when

creating or discovering aspects:
Fail: Don’t create or discover, or
you do but your opponent (not you)
gets a free invocation.
Tie: Get a boost if creating new,
or treat as success if looking for
existing.
Succeed: Create or discover the
aspect, get a free invocation on it.
Succeed with Style: Create or
discover the aspect, get two free
invocations on it.

Create an Advantage on an aspect

you already know about:
Fail: No additional benefit.
Tie: Generate one free invocation
on the aspect.
Succeed: Generate one free
invocation on the aspect.
Succeed with Style: Generate
two free invocations on the aspect.

Overcome:
Fail: Fail, or succeed at a serious
cost.
Tie: Succeed at minor cost.
Succeed: You accomplish your
goal.
Succeed with Style: You
accomplish your goal and generate
a boost.

Attack:
Fail: No effect.
Tie: Attack doesn’t harm the Getting Help
target, but you gain a boost.
Succeed: Attack hits and causes An ally can help you perform your action. When an ally helps you,
damage. they give up their action for the exchange and describe how they’re
Succeed with Style: Attack hits providing the help; you get a +1 to your roll for each ally that helps
and causes damage. May reduce this way. Usually only one or two people can help this way before they
damage by one to generate a boost. start getting in each other’s way; the GM decides how many people can
help at once.
Defend:
Fail: You suffer the consequences Choose Your Approach
of your opponent’s success.
Tie: Look at your opponent’s As we mentioned in Who Do You Want to Be?, there are six approaches
action to see what happens. that describe how you perform actions.
Succeed: Your opponent doesn’t Careful: A Careful action is when you pay close attention to
get what they want. detail and take your time to do the job right. Lining up a long-
Succeed with Style: Your range arrow shot. Attentively standing watch. Disarming a bank’s
opponent doesn’t get what they alarm system.
want, and you get a boost.

Rules of Play 015

 Clever: A Clever action requires that you think Roll the Dice, Add Your Bonus
fast, solve problems, or account for complex
variables. Finding the weakness in an enemy Time to take up dice and roll. Take the bonus associated
swordsman’s style. Finding the weak point in a with the approach you’ve chosen and add it to the result on
fortress wall. Fixing a computer.
the dice. If you have a stunt that applies, add that too. That’s
Flashy: A Flashy action draws attention to your total. Compare it to what your opponent (usually the
you; it’s full of style and panache. Delivering GM) has.
an inspiring speech to your army. Embarrassing
your opponent in a duel. Producing a beautiful Decide Whether to Modify the Roll
graffiti burner.
Forceful: A Forceful action isn’t subtle—it’s Finally, decide whether you want to alter your roll by
brute strength. Wrestling a bear. Staring down a invoking aspects—we’ll talk about this a lot in Aspects and
thug. Leading a denial of service attack against Fate Points.
a server.
Quick: A Quick action requires that you move
quickly and with dexterity. Dodging an arrow. Challenges, Contests, and
Getting in the first punch. Disarming a bomb as
it ticks 3… 2… 1…
Conflicts
Sneaky: A Sneaky action is done with an We’ve talked about the four actions (create an advantage,
emphasis on misdirection, stealth, or deceit. overcome, attack, and defend) and the four outcomes
Talking your way out of getting arrested. (fail, tie, succeed, and succeed with style). But in what
Picking a pocket. Feinting in a sword fight. framework do those happen?

Each character has each approach rated with a bonus Usually, when you want to do something straightforward—
from +0 to +3. Add the bonus to your dice roll to swim across a raging river, hack someone’s cell phone—
determine how well your PC performs the action you all you need to do is make one overcome action against a
described. difficulty level that the GM sets. You look at your outcome
and go from there.
So your first instinct is probably to pick the action
that gives you the greatest bonus, right? But it But sometimes things are a little more complex.
doesn’t work like that. You have to base your choice
of approach on the description of your action, and A challenge is a series of overcome and create an advantage
you can’t describe an action that doesn’t make any actions that you use to resolve an especially complicated
sense. Would you Forcefully creep through a dark situation. Each overcome action deals with one task or part
room, hiding from the guards? No, that’s being
of the situation, and you take the individual results together
Sneaky. Would you Cleverly kick the door down?
to figure out how the situation resolves.
No, that’s being Forceful. Circumstances constrain
what approach you can use, so sometimes you have
to go with an approach that might not play directly To set up a challenge, decide what individual tasks or goals
to your strengths. make up the situation, and treat each one as a separate
overcome roll.

016 Rules of Play

Depending on the situation, one character may be required Setting Difficulty Levels
to make several rolls, or multiple characters may be able to
participate. GMs, you aren’t obligated to announce all the When another character is opposing a PC, their rolls
stages in the challenge ahead of time—adjust the steps as provide the opposition in a conflict, contest, or challenge.
the challenge unfolds to keep things exciting. But if there’s no active opposition, you have to decide
how hard the task is.
The PCs have all just been poisoned. The GM suggests this Low difficulties are best when you want to give the PCs
sounds like a challenge. Steps in resolving this challenge a chance to show off and be awesome. Difficulties near
could be noticing the oncoming symptoms, doing research their approach ratings are best when you want to provide
to find the poison and its treatment, racing to find the drugs tension but not overwhelm them. High difficulties are
that will allow them to live through their symptoms, and best when you want to emphasize how dire or unusual
finding a safe place to wait out the poison. the circumstances are and make them pull out all the
stops.

Contests Rules of Thumb:

• If the task isn’t very tough at all, give it a
When two or more characters are competing against one Mediocre (+0)—or just tell the player they succeed
another for the same goal, but not directly trying to hurt without a roll.
each other, you have a contest. Examples include a car
chase, a public debate, or a street basketball game. • If you can think of at least one reason why the
task is tough, pick Fair (+2).
A contest proceeds in a series of exchanges. In an exchange, • If the task is extremely difficult, pick Great (+4).
every participant takes one overcome action to determine
how well they do in that leg of the contest. Compare your • If the task is impossibly difficult, go as high as
result to everyone else’s. you think makes sense. The PC will need to drop
some fate points and get lots of help to succeed, but
If you got the highest result, you win the exchange—you that’s fine.
score a victory (which you can represent with a tally or
check mark on scratch paper) and describe how you take Optional Rule:
the lead. If you succeed with style, you mark two victories. Approach-Related Target Numbers
If there’s a tie, no one gets a victory, and an unexpected Sometimes being Careful makes things a lot
twist occurs. This could mean several things, depending on easier; sometimes it just takes too long. The GM
the situation—the terrain or environment shifts somehow, may wish to adjust the target number up or down
the parameters of the contest change, or an unanticipated by 1 or 2 depending on whether you choose a
variable shows up and affects all the participants. The GM fitting or a problematic approach. This makes
creates a new situation aspect reflecting this change and things a bit more complex, but for some groups
puts it into play. it’s worth it.
The first participant to achieve three victories wins the
contest.
Setting the Scene
Conflicts are used to resolve situations where characters
are trying to harm one another. It could be physical harm Establish what’s going on, where everyone is, and what
(a knife fight, wrestling, trying to push each other off of the environment is like. Who is the opposition? The
a building), but it could also be mental harm (a shouting GM should write a couple of situation aspects on sticky
match, a tough interrogation, an attempt at psychic mind notes or index cards and place them on the table. Players
control). can suggest situation aspects, too.

The GM also establishes zones, loosely defined areas

Conflicts In Brief that tell you where characters are. You determine zones
based on the scene and the following guidelines:
• Set the scene.
• Determine turn order. • Generally, you can interact with other characters
in the same zone—or in nearby zones if you can
• Start the first exchange. justify acting at a distance (for example, if you
• On your turn, take an action. have a ranged weapon or psychic abilities).
• On other people’s turns, defend against or • You can move one zone for free. An action is
respond to their actions as necessary. required to move if there’s an obstacle along the
• At the end of everyone’s turn, start a new way, such as someone trying to stop you, or if you
exchange or end the conflict. want to move two or more zones. It sometimes
helps to sketch a quick map to illustrate zones.

Rules of Play 017

 Thugs are attacking the characters in an abandoned your opponent gets +5 on their attack and you get a +3 on
storefront. The street outside is one zone, the retail your defense, the attack deals a two shift hit (5 – 3 = 2).
area of the store another, the back room a third, and
the bathroom a fourth. Anyone in the same zone can Then, one of two things happens:
easily throw punches at each other. From the street
outside, you can throw things at people in the retail • You suffer stress and/or consequences, but you
area or move into the retail area as a free action, unless stay in the fight.
the doorway is blocked. To get from the street outside
to the back room or bathroom requires an action. • You get taken out, which means you’re out of the
action for a while.
Determine Turn Order
Stress
Your turn order in a conflict is based on your
approaches. In a physical conflict, compare your If you get hit and don’t want to be taken out, you can
Quick approach to the other participants’—the one choose to take stress.
with the fastest reflexes goes first. In a mental conflict,
compare your Careful approach—attention to detail Stress represents you getting tired or annoyed, taking a
will warn you of danger. Whoever has the highest superficial wound, or some other condition that goes away
approach gets to go first, and then everyone else goes quickly.
in descending order. Break ties in whatever manner
makes sense, with the GM having the last word.
Your character sheet has a stress track, a row of three
boxes. When you take a hit and check a stress box, the box
GMs, it’s simplest if you pick your most advantageous absorbs a number of shifts equal to its number: one shift
NPC to determine your place in the turn order, and for Box 1, two for Box 2, or three for Box 3.
let all your NPCs go at that time. But if you have a
good reason to determine turn order individually for
all your NPCs, go right ahead. You can only check one stress box for any single hit,
but you can check a stress box and take one or more
consequences at the same time. You can’t check a stress
Exchanges box that already has a check mark in it!
Next, each character takes a turn in order. On their
turn, a character can take one of the four actions. Consequences
Resolve the action to determine the outcome. The
conflict is over when only one side has characters still Consequences are new aspects that you take to reflect
in the fight. being seriously hurt in some way.

Damage, Stress, and There are four types of consequences (mental, physical,
social and financial) and you can only have one
Consequences consequence of each type at any given time. Once one of
those four slots is filled with a consequence, you have to
When you’re hit by an attack, the severity of the hit wait for that consequence to go away (see below) before
is the difference between the attack roll and your you can put another on there.
defense roll; we measure that in shifts. For instance, if

018 Rules of Play

When you choose to take a consequence, you can
choose to take a:
Mild Consequence (worth 2 shifts)
Moderate Consequence (worth 4 shifts)
Severe Consequence (worth 6 shifts).

These numbers represent how many shifts of a hit the

consequence can absorb.

A major downside of consequences is that each

consequence is a new aspect that your opponents
can invoke against you. The more you take, the more
vulnerable you are. And just like situation aspects, the
character that creates it (in this case, the character that
hit you) gets one free invocation on that consequence.
They can choose to let one of their allies use the free
invocation.

Consequences come in four basic types: mental,

physical, social and financial.
• A mental consequence might be becoming
deeply depressed, being traumatized or
developing a paralyzing fear of some bad thing
happening again.
• A physical consequence might be a broken
bone, disfiguring scabs, complete exhaustion, an
infected wound or a severe drug withdrawal.
• A social consequence might be your family
deciding not to speak to you, the local street gang
putting you on their shit list or your landlord
deciding he hates you.
Stress & Consequences In Brief
• A financial consequence might mean being
robbed of the cash you have on you, getting a hole Each character starts with three stress boxes.
punched in your front door (which your landlord
will make you pay for), having your only pair of Severity of hit (in shifts)
shoes ruined (so you have no choice but to buy a = Attack Roll – Defense Roll
new pair) or having to go into debt to someone.
When you take a hit, you need to account for how that hit
damages you. One way to absorb the damage is to take
Let’s say that you get hit really hard and take a 4-shift stress; you can check one stress box to handle some or all
hit. You check Box 2 on your stress track, which of a single hit. You can absorb a number of shifts equal to
leaves you with 2 shifts to deal with. If you can’t, the number of the box you check: one for Box 1, two for
you’re taken out, so it’s time for a consequence. You Box 2, three for Box 3.
choose to put a Mild Consequence (worth 2) in the
physical consequence slot. You choose, Blood in Your You may also take one or more consequences to deal with
Eyes. Those final 2 shifts are taken care of and you can the hit, by writing a consequence and its severity, in one
keep fighting! Later in the battle you get hit again, and or more of the slots on the character sheet labeled Mental
this time you have 4 shifts to deal with. You choose to Physical, Social or Financial. A Mild consequence can
take a Moderate Consequence. You can’t take another absorb 2 shifts; a moderate can absorb 4 shifts and a severe
can absorb 6 shifts.
physical consequence, so decide that as you stumbled
to the side to avoid the blow you accidentally pushed If you can’t (or decide not to) handle the entire hit, you’re
your friend in a way that looked like you were taken out. Your opponent decides what happens to you.
throwing your friend in front of the weapon. Now you
have a social consequence Your Friends Think You Are Giving in before your opponent’s roll allows you to control
A Jerk. how you exit the scene. You also get one or more fate
points for doing this!
If you’re unable to absorb all of a hit’s shifts—by Stress and mild consequences vanish at the end of the scene,
checking a stress box, taking consequences, or both— provided you get a chance to rest. Other consequences take
you’re taken out. longer.

Rules of Play 019

 Getting Taken Out
If you get taken out, you can no longer act in the
scene. Whoever takes you out narrates what happens
to you. It should make sense based on how you got
taken out—maybe you run from the room in shame,
or maybe you get knocked unconscious.

Giving In
If things look grim for you, you can give in (or
concede the fight)—but you have to say that’s what
you’re going to do before your opponent rolls their
dice.

This is different than being taken out, because you

get a say in what happens to you. Your opponent gets
some major concession from you—talk about what
makes sense in your situation—but it beats getting
taken out and having no say at all.

Additionally, you get one fate point for conceding,

and one fate point for each consequence you took in
this conflict. This is your chance to say, “You win
this round, but I’ll get you next time!” and get a tall
stack of fate points to back it up.

Recovery
At the end of each scene, clear all of your stress
boxes. Recovery from a consequence is a bit more
complicated; you need to explain how you recover
from it—whether that’s an ER visit, taking a walk
to calm down, or whatever makes sense with the
consequence. You also need to wait an appropriate
length of time.
• Mild consequence: Clear it at the end of the
scene, provided you get a chance to rest.
Aspects and Fate Points
• Moderate consequence: Clear it at the end
of the next session, provided it makes sense An aspect is a word or phrase that describes something
within the story. special about a person, place, thing, situation, or group.
Almost anything you can think of can have aspects. A person
• Severe consequence: Could take several might be the Greatest Knife Fighter in Chinatown. A room
game sessions to clear, and even then only might be On Fire after you knock over an oil lamp. After
when it makes sense within the story. an encounter with a genetically engineered creature in the
sewers, you might be Terrified. Aspects let you change the
Renaming Consequences story in ways that go along with your character’s tendencies,
skills, or problems.
Moderate and severe consequences stick around for
a while. Therefore, at some point you may want to You spend fate points—which you keep track of with pennies
change the name of the aspect to better fit what’s or glass beads or poker chips or some other tokens—to unlock
going on in the story. For instance, after you get the power of aspects and make them help you. You earn fate
some medical help, Painful Broken Leg might points by letting a character aspect be compelled against you
make more sense if you change it to Hobbling on to complicate the situation or make your life harder. Be sure
Crutches. You can also change a consequence from to keep track of the fate points you have left at the end of the
one type to another, e.g. change Damaged Heart session—if you have more than your refresh, you start the
(a physical consequence) to Paying Off That New next session with the fate points you ended this session with.
Heart (a financial consequence).

020 Rules of Play

You earned a lot of fate points during your game session, What Do You Do With Aspects?
ending the day with five fate points. Your refresh is 2, so
you’ll start with five fate points the next time you play. There are three big things you can do with aspects:
But another player ends the same session with just one fate
invoke aspects, compel aspects, and use aspects to
point. His refresh is 3, so he’ll begin the next session with
3 fate points, not just the one he had left over. establish facts.

Types of Aspects Invoking Aspects

There’s an endless variety of aspects, but no matter what You invoke an aspect to give yourself a bonus or make
they’re called they all work pretty much the same way. things a bit harder for your opponent. You can invoke
The main difference is how long they stick around before any aspect that you a) know about, and b) can explain
going away. how you use it to your advantage—including aspects
on other characters or on the situation. Normally,
Character Aspects: These aspects are on your invoking an aspect costs you a fate point—hand one
character sheet, such as your high concept and trouble. of your fate points to the GM. To invoke an aspect,
They describe personality traits, important details about you need to describe how that aspect helps you in your
your past, relationships you have with others, important current situation.
items or titles you possess, problems you’re dealing
I attack the mauler addicts with a wildly swinging
with or goals you’re working toward, or reputations and
obligations you carry. These aspects only change under machete. I know mauler addicts are Easily
very unusual circumstances; most never will. Confused, so that should help me.
I really want to get this crowd’s attention. I’ve
Examples: Night Shift Manager at Chucky’s Del heard they Love Violence, so I’ll bite the head off
Taco; Hunted by the Drug Lords;Attention to Detail; a pigeon before I start my speech.
I Must Protect My Brother
Now that the guard’s Distracted, I should be able
to sneak right by him.
Situation Aspects: These aspects describe the
surroundings that the action is taking place in. This This drug cocktail needs to be really powerful—
includes aspects you create or discover using the create I’m This Century’s Answer to Hunter S. Thompson,
an advantage action. A situation aspect usually vanishes at and powerful drug cocktails are my bread and
the end of the scene it was part of, or when someone takes butter.
some action that would change or get rid of it. Essentially,
they last only as long as the situational element they What does invoking the aspect get you? Choose one of
represent lasts. the following effects:
Examples: On Fire; Bright Sunlight; Crowd of Angry Add a +2 bonus to your total. This costs a fate
People; Knocked to the Ground point.
Reroll the dice. This option is best if you rolled
To get rid of a situation aspect, you can attempt an really lousy (usually a −3 or −4 showing on the
overcome action to eliminate it, provided you can think of dice). This costs a fate point.
a way your character could accomplish it—dump a bucket
of water on the Raging Fire, use evasive maneuvers to Confront an opponent with the aspect. You use this
escape the motorcycle that’s On Your Tail. An opponent option when your opponent is trying something
may use a Defend action to try to preserve the aspect, if and you think an existing aspect would make it
they can describe how they do it. harder for them. For instance, a drug dealer wants
to draw his pistol, but he’s Buried in Debris; you
Consequences: These aspects represent injuries spend a fate point to invoke that aspect, and now
or other lasting trauma that happen when you get hit by your opponent’s level of difficulty is increased by
attacks. They go away slowly, as described in Damage, +2.
Stress, and Consequences.
Help an ally with the aspect. Use this option when
Examples: Sprained Ankle; Fear of Spiders; a friend could use some help and you think an
Concussion; Debilitating Self-Doubt existing aspect would make it easier for them. You
spend a fate point to invoke the aspect, and now
your friend gets a +2 on their roll.
Boosts: A boost is a temporary aspect that you get to
use once (see “What Do You Do With Aspects?”next),
then it vanishes. Unused boosts vanish when the scene Important: You can only invoke any aspect once on a
they were created in is over or when the advantage they given dice roll; you can’t spend a stack of fate points on
represent no longer exists. These represent very brief and one aspect and get a huge bonus from it. However, you
fleeting advantages you get in conflicts with others. can invoke several different aspects on the same roll.
If you’re invoking an aspect to add a bonus or reroll
Examples: In My Sights; Distracted; Unstable your dice, wait until after you’ve rolled to do it. No
Footing; Rock in His Boot sense spending a fate point if you don’t need to!

Rules of Play 021

 Free Invocations In any case, when an aspect is compelled against you,
the person compelling it offers you a fate point and
Sometimes you can invoke an aspect for free, without suggests that the aspect has a certain effect—that
paying a fate point. If you create or discover an aspect you’ll make a certain decision or that a particular
through the create an advantage action, the first invocation event will occur. You can discuss it back and forth,
on it (by you or an ally) is free (if you succeeded with style, proposing tweaks or changes to the suggested compel.
you get two freebies). If you cause a consequence through After a moment or two, you need to decide whether
an attack, you or an ally can invoke it once for free. A boost to accept the compel. If you agree, you take the fate
is a special kind of aspect that grants one free invocation, point and your character makes the suggested decision
then it vanishes. or the event happens. If you refuse, you must pay a
fate point from your own supply. Yes, this means that
Compelling Aspects if you don’t have any fate points, you can’t refuse a
compel!
If you’re in a situation where having or being around a
certain aspect means your character’s life is more dramatic
or complicated, anyone can compel the aspect. You can GMs’ Fate Points
even compel it on yourself—that’s called a self-compel.
Compels are the most common way for players to earn As GM, you don’t need to track fate points for each
more fate points. NPC, but that doesn’t mean you get an unlimited
number. Start each scene with a pool of one fate point
There are two types of compels. per PC that’s in the scene. Spend fate points from this
Decision compels: This sort of compel suggests pool to invoke aspects (and consequences) against
the answer to a decision your character has to make. If the PCs. When it’s empty, you can’t invoke aspects
your character is Orthodox Jewish, for example, you against them.
may need to stay to stay home and observe the sabbath
rather than accepting that package delivery job. Or if you How can you increase the size of your pool? When a
have a Defiant Streak a Mile Wide, maybe you can’t help player compels one of an NPC’s aspects, add the fate
but mouth off to your landlord when you see him going point to your pool. If that compel ends the scene, or
through your mail.
when an NPC gives in, instead add those fate points to
Event compels: Other times a compel reflects your pool at the start of the next scene.
something happening that makes life more complicated for
you. If you have Pervs Fall For Me, that guy you’ve been Fate points you award for compels do NOT come from
chatting up in a bar wants to lock a remote punishment this pool. You never have to worry about running out
collar on you. If you Owe Eun Drake a Favor, then Eun
shows up and demands that you perform a service for her of fate points to award for compels.
just when it’s least convenient.

022 Rules of Play

 Player vs. Player
The only time that fate point might not go to the GM is when
you’re in conflict with another player. If you are, and you
invoke one of that player’s character aspects to help you out
against them, they will get the fate point instead of the GM
once the scene is over.

Establishing Facts
The final thing that aspects can do is establish facts in the game.
You don’t have to spend any fate points, roll dice, or anything
to make this happen—just by virtue of having the aspect Mother
Figure to the Runaways of Mott Street, you’ve established that
there are a group of runaways living on Mott Street and that your
character has both influence over and responsibilities towards
them. Having the aspect Inventor of the “Horrorshow” War Drug
Cocktail establishes that the setting has a cocktail of drugs that
many people take before going into battle and that you invented
it. If you take the aspect Refugee From the Greenland Civil War,
you establish that there was (and possible still is) a war going on
in Greenland and that this war forced you to leave the country.

When you establish facts of the setting this way, make sure
you do it in cooperation with other players. If a fellow player is
playing someone from Greenland, you should make sure they’re
okay with their having been a civil war there.

Also, be wary of any aspects that would change the basic

concepts of what technology can or can’t do in the setting.
Although Fates Worse Than Death is a setting where a lot of
amazing things can happen, it’s also a setting where people (or at
least poor people) live under the same basic limitations they do
today when it comes to health, aging, transportation, shelter and
basic physical needs. An aspect like I Own a Time Machine or
Can Convert Lead Into Gold would mess with those limitations
and fundamentally change the nature of the story being told.

Composing Good Aspects

When you need to think of a good aspect (we’re mainly talking
about character and situation aspects here), think about two
things:
• How the aspect might help you—when you’d invoke it.
• How it might hurt you—when it would be compelled
against you.

For example:
I Hate Cops
Invoke this when acting against cops to improve your
chances.
Get a fate point when your dislike for cops makes you do
something foolish to try to get him.
Hair Trigger Nerves
Invoke this when being extra vigilant and careful would
help you.
Get a fate point when this causes you to be jumpy and be
distracted by threats that aren’t really there.

Rules of Play 023

 Obviously, your trouble and need aspects are supposed to
cause problems—and thereby make your character’s life more
interesting and get you fate points—so it’s okay if they are a
little more one-dimensional, but even these aspects can, if you
are creative, help you out at least sometimes.

Non Player Characters

Minor Characters
These are the NPCs that the PCs will most likely only have a
passing interaction with. This could be the addicts trying to
rob the PCs, the security guard whose store the PCs are trying
to steal from, the neighbors who are threatening to get the PCs
evicted if they don’t keep the noise down, etc.

Here’s how you create their stats:

• Make a list of what this minor character is skilled at.
They get a +2 to all rolls dealing with these things.
• Make a list of what this minor character is bad at. They
get a −2 to all rolls dealing with these things.
Everything else gets a +0 when rolled.
• Give the minor character an aspect or two to reinforce
what they’re good and bad at, or if they have a particular
strength or vulnerability. It’s okay if a minor character’s
aspects are really simple.
• Minor characters have zero, one, or two boxes in their
stress track, depending on how tough you imagine them to
be.
• Minor characters can’t take consequences. If they run
out of stress boxes (or don’t have any), the next hit takes
them down.

Sample Minor Characters

Drug Addicted Sneak Thief
Aspects: Desperate for Cash
Skilled (+2) at: Sneaking, lying in wait, blitz Attacks,
knowing who has cash.
Bad (-2) at: Fair fights, sitting still, sober thinking, staying
healthy.
Stress: O

Feral Dog
Aspects: Dangerous When Hungry, Pack Animal
Skilled (+2) at: Finding food, running.
Bad (-2) at: Problem solving, standing their ground.
Stress: None (first hit takes it out)

Cultist
Aspects: Fanatical, Brainwashed
Skilled (+2) at: Finding someone in crisis, luring people to
their place, brainwashing.
Bad (-2) at: Critical thinking, acting independently, self-
awareness.
Stress: OO

024 Rules of Play

Crazy
Aspects: Psychotic, Paranoid Major Characters
Skilled (+2) at: Ignoring pain, yelling loudly, not When you make an important NPC, someone who is going
being sweet-talked. to be a major, recurring influence in the PCs’ lives, you can
Bad (-2) at: Discerning danger, staying on meds, stat them out exactly like the PCs, with approaches, aspects,
personal hygiene. stress, and consequences. Examples: The PC’s stalkerish
ex, the landlord, the serial killer who has been preying on
Stress: OO the neighborhood, the gang leader who has sworn revenge
on one of the PCs, a PC’s child, etc.
God Killer Rampager
Aspects: Fearless, Delusional Sample Major Characters
Skilled (+2) at: Ignoring pain, ignoring fear, not
backing down. Colin Barley
Bad (-2) at: Resisting urges, grasping reality, Colin is a serial killer who kidnaps people and uses mental
calculating risks. installer technology to copy his mind into their bodies. Since
Stress: OOOO there are so many copies of him around he is practically
immortal and thinks of himself as a god. Only the rarity of
Mauler Addict mental installers has kept Colin from overrunning the city.
Authorities outside the city consider him an urban legend,
Aspects: Brain Damaged, Animalistic but city resident know he is real. When he can’t find the
Skilled (+2) at: Sensing danger, eating people alive. means to reproduce himself, he keeps himself busy with
Bad (-2) at: Thinking, being brave, staying healthy. outrageous and cruel murders, especially those that mock
the Judeo Christian god, who he sees as his nemesis. Colin
Stress: O is an extremely powerful character and should not be put
into a game session lightly.
Pounder
Aspects: Homeless, Bully High Concept: Self-
Skilled (+2) at: Intimidation, protecting their turf, Reproducing Serial Killer
stomping people. Trouble: City’s Most Hated
Bad (-2) at: Empathy, spending money wisely, being Person
sober, making friends. Need: To Kill People Cruelly
Stress: OOOO Other Aspects: No Fear of
Death, Braggart, Loves a
Mugger High On God-Killer Challenge, Sadistic.
Aspects: Violent, Wants Cash Approaches:
Skilled (+2) at: Resisting fear, resisting pain, Careful: Good (+3)
brutality. Clever: Great (+4)
Flashy: Fair (+2) Forceful: Fair (+2)
Bad (-2) at: Patience, calculating risks, resisting Quick: Good (+3) Sneaky: Great (+4)
drug cravings.
Stunts:
Stress: OOOO
Brand New Body: Because he can put his mind in
Abusive John another body, once per game session he can appear
in a brand new body, having shed any physical
Aspects: Sadistic, Preys on Sex Workers consequences.
Skilled (+2) at: Using money to entice, blitz attacks, Expert at Cutting People Open: Because he has lots
convincing people not to fight back. of experience knives, he gets +2 to Quickly Attack
Bad (-2) at: Healthy relationships, not being in when he is using a knife.
control. Ex-Computer Nerd: Because he was once a big
Stress: OOO huge computer nerd, he gets +2 to Cleverly Create
Advantages when using a computer.
Drug Pusher I’m In Your House: Because he often breaks into the
Aspects: Pistol Packing, Ruthless. homes of his victims (before or after he takes over
their bodies), he gets +2 to Sneakily Overcome when
Skilled (+2) at: Calling for help from the Drug faced with barriers to entering a dwelling quietly.
Lords, intimidation, shooting people, making money.
Bad (-2) at: Making friends in the community, Stress: O O O O
treating others as equals. Consequences: None:
Stress: OOOO Refresh:5

Rules of Play 025

 Habey Cox Stage Magic: Because he has been trained at
sleight of hand, Habey gets +2 when he Sneakily
Habey is the founder of the Freaks and the closest thing this Overcomes when he is trying to misdirect someone
band of anarchistic street performers has to a leader. On from what he is doing with his hands.
stage his specialty is slam poetry in which he encourages
Stress: O O O O
people to embrace and enjoy that which makes him different.
He is a pansexual hedonist, willing to explore any sort of Consequences: Physical - Moderate (4) - Walks with
kink. He organizes and chooses headliners for the Festival a limp.
of the Freak, a quarterly street festival where hundreds of Refresh: 4
performers compete for the eyes and dollars of the crowd.

High Concept: Leader of the Freaks Altair Nguyen

Trouble: Anarchists Don’t Have Leaders Altar is a daughter of an ultra-rich Vietnamese
Need: To Find the Next Frontier of Freakiness computer magnate. Altair grew up immortal (thank to
Other Aspects: Slam Poet; Will Try Anything Once; brain backups and cloned bodies) and thus with no fear.
Doesn’t Care if You Approve She travels the world, accompanied by whatever sexy
daredevils she meets along the way (who she jettisons
Approaches: when she grows bored of them). She likes to go to the
Careful: Mediocre (+0) Clever: Fair (+2) world’s most dangerous inner cities and engage in the
Flashy: Great (+4) F o r c e f u l : Av e r a g e ( + 1 ) most dangerous sports and other past-times that these
Quick: Fair (+2) Sneaky: Average (+1) places have to offer.
Stunts:
Hypnotic Voice: Because he is a seasoned performer High Concept: Idle Rich Daredevil
who really believes what he is saying, Habey gets +2 Trouble: Doesn’t Take Losing Well
when he Flashily Creates Advantages when he makes
a persuasive speech. Need: Excitement
Cult Following: Because so many people look up to Other Aspects: Poor Temper; Looking For Fun,
him, once per game session he can call on a fan who Fearless.
is willing to do just about anything for him. Approaches:
Eat Scorpions: Because he has conditioned his Careful: Mediocre (+0) Clever: Mediocre (+0)
body to do so, once per game session he can eat live, Flashy: Good (+3) Forceful: Good (+3)
venomous scorpions with no significant effect on his Quick: Fair (+2) Sneaky: Mediocre (+0)
health.

026 Rules of Play

Stunts: Morris “Monkeywrench” Tenaka
Immortal: Because her mom has her brain backed up
every time she comes home, once per game session Morris is among the most extremist of anarchists. He
Altair can come back from the dead, missing only a believes in destroying all forms of authority by any
few weeks of memories. means necessary. He is homeless, depending on others
No Sport Too Extreme: Because she has tried every to let him couch-sit and give him the necessities of life.
dangerous sport, Altair gets +2 to Flashily Overcome Wherever he goes he tries to find people abusing their
when she is doing an athletic stunt. authority. When people ask for help, he tries to help
them, no matter what risk to himself, and when he sees
Extremely Rich: Because she carried a huge wad someone using violence to subjugate others he has no
of cash around with her, Altair gets +2 to Create
qualms about killing that person.
Advantages when she bribes people.
Toughness Implants: Because she has multiple
implants that help her resist injury, Altair starts with 2 High Concept: Homeless Extreme Anarchist
extra stress tracks. Trouble: Believes All Authority is Wrong
Stress: O O O O O Need: To Help Anyone Fight Oppressors
Consequences: None. Other Aspects: Snappy Dresser, This Anarchist
Refresh: 3 Squatter Collective Isn’t Anarchist Enough For Me;
Willing To Die For My Principles.
Kenton “Lord Jesus” Sanders Approaches:
Careful: Mediocre (+0) Clever: Average (+1)
“Lord Jesus” is a mentally ill homeless person who believes Flashy: Good (+2) Forceful: Fair (+2)
he is Jesus. He is also a powerful psychic, who uses his Quick: Good (+3) Sneaky: Average (+1)
powers to make other people believe he is Jesus. He is Stunts:
followed by an entourage of mentally ill people who think
of themselves as his disciples. He tries to spread peace and No Slave to the Past: Because he believes in
love, but mostly just messes with people’s heads. living in the moment, and not thinking about the
past, once per game session he can remove up to
3 points of Mental Stress or one Minor Mental
High Concept: Psychic Who Believes He is Jesus Consequence from himself.
Trouble: Delusional Schizophrenic Unload a Clip: Because he owns a pistol,
Need: To Prove Himself Right Monkeywrench gets +2 to Flashily Attack when
nobody is expecting him to take out a pistol and
Other Aspects: Judges People’s Sins, King of Peace and start firing.
Love.
Poisoned Screwdriver: Because he owns a
Approaches: screwdriver with a tip coated with deadly Drake
Careful: Mediocre (+0) Clever: Mediocre (+0) poison, Monkeywrench gets +2 to Quickly Attack
Flashy: Good (+3) Forceful: Fair (+2) when he is disregarding his own safety.
Quick: Average (+1) Sneaky: Mediocre (+0) Stress: O O O O
Stunts: Consequences: None:
Heal the Sick: Because he can psychically control Refresh: 3
people’s basic autonomic processes, once per game
session he can remove up to 2 points of stress.
Swords to Plowshares: Because he is a trained
psychic, Lord Jesus gets +2 to Flashily Overcome
when he is trying to psychically force angry or violent
people to calm down.
Convert the Unbelievers: Because he is a trained
psychic with a powerful delusion, lord Jesus gets +2
to Forcefully Attack when he is trying to psychically
force someone to believe he is Jesus.
Show Miracles: Because he is a trained psychic,
Lord Jesus gets +2 to Create Advantages when he
psychically forces people to experience things that
aren’t real.
Disciples: Because he has loyal followers, once per
game session he can ask a follower to do anything
for him.
Stress: O O O O
Consequences: None:
Refresh: 3

Rules of Play 027

 MAKING RENT
A Rentpunk Game Session In street corner selling volumes of the erotic poetry you’ve
written. Work is probably the first thing players will
Brief think of, but it can also be very hard to find. Possible
complications can include physical danger (from the
In a Rentpunk game session, the players find themselves nature of the job, or just from being out on the streets)
approaching the end of the month and behind on rent as well as sleep deprivation (from working graveyard
money. The players go on various missions and come or swing shift) or physical exhaustion.
up with various schemes to make enough money to pay
the rent. The players and game master narrate these
missions and schemes and find out if they were successful
or not. Count down the days until rent is due, and see if
the characters can make enough money to avoid getting
evicted.

How Did We Get Here?

A typical rentpunk game starts a handful of days from rent
being due. The game master decides how many days are
left and how much more the group, collectively, needs to
obtain to make rent. For example, the game master might
say that it’s 5 days from rent being due and you need to
raise another $100.

The narrative begins as the roommates count out their cash

and discover that they aren’t going to have enough to make
rent.

Each character, at some point, had hopes (maybe even a

reasonable expectation) that they would be able to pay the
rent. Then life got in the way. Each player should explain,
briefly, what happened. Typically this will be something
that was beyond the PC’s control (e.g. I got mugged, I got
fired, my kid needed new shoes, I got sick and couldn’t
work). Occasionally it might be something that was the
PC’s fault (e.g. I blew my money on a card game, I failed
to keep my spending in check) or it could be something
that’s somewhat, but not totally, your fault (e.g. I quit
because my boss treated me like shit).

Finding Cash
Criminal Work
Now it’s time for the players to come up with schemes
to pay the rent. Maybe they’re working together, maybe
they’re operating separately (keep in mind that working This is like working except your boss is a criminal and
together is usually more fun). You can try anything, but what you’re doing is clearly illegal. Maybe you’re
here are a few possibilities: delivering drugs to buyers, maybe you’re standing
guard outside a brothel, maybe you’re shaking down
deadbeats on behalf of a loan shark. They pay is
Working usually good for this kind of work, when you can get it,
but there are many potential complications. You could
This can mean a lot of things. It could mean working a suddenly find yourself involved in something way
graveyard shift at the fast food restaurant. It could mean more unethical than you bargained for, the cops could
delivering a package for a local black market trader. It show up, an enemy criminal could attack in an attempt
could mean impersonating your brother, who is sick, and to eliminate the competition, or the criminal you work
doing his shift at the factory, even though you have no idea for may decide not to pay you.
how to work the machines. It could mean standing on a

028 Making Rent

Begging Sweet Talking the Landlord
This could mean sitting on the street, begging for change With a con, by flirting, through intimidation, or just
from passers by. It could also mean begging for handouts by begging, you might be able to talk the landlord
from friends and family. Complications might include into letting you be a bit late with the rent. Potential
being attacked, bad weather or running into someone who consequences are that the landlord gets tired of hearing
wants a “favor” in exchange for the handout. it, or that the landlord wants you to do something you
don’t want to do in payment of “the kindness” of letting
Collecting Money Owed you be late.

Perhaps someone owes the PC money and now it’s time Sex Work
to get that person to pay up. Complications may involve
finding the person, dealing with excuses or lies, perhaps This can be one of the surest ways to get money, yet
even having a physical confrontation to make the person it is also uniquely fraught with potential complications.
hand over what they owe. You could meet with a violent john, you could get
shaken down by corrupt cops, you could catch a disease
Scrounging (venereal or otherwise) from a john. There are also many
psychological or social consequences: you may find
Most easy to get to sources for scroungeables (e.g. your work disgusting or degrading, it may damage your
dumpsters, the first floors of abandoned buildings) are so sense of self-worth, it may run contrary to your religion
picked over that it is rarely worth the trouble. Better is or the ethical standards you have set for yourself, or it
if the PCs can find a part of an abandoned building that could hurt your relationships with others who find out
few scroungers have entered (perhaps the top floor of you do sex work.
an abandoned skyscraper, perhaps an underground vault
beneath a pile of rubble). Complications can involve
unfriendly squatters, feral dogs, traps or collapsing floors.

Pawning Your Stuff

You may end up taking your stuff to a pawn shop or a black
market trader and pawning or selling it. The problem is
that you don’t have a lot of stuff, and most everything you
have is there for a reason, so no sooner have you paid your
rent then you now have to try to afford a way to get your
stuff back.

Getting a Loan
Maybe you can talk someone into loaning you a few
bucks. Perhaps a friend, perhaps a relative, perhaps a local
criminal. The problem here is that if you don’t pay back,
there can be serious consequences, from losing a friend to
having thugs sent out to break your fingers.

Making Rent 029

 Stealing
This may be the most fun, in terms of game play. There’s
lots of ways to steal: shoplifting, picking pockets,
burglary, stealing a vehicle, mugging, a con game, card or
pool sharking, armed robbery of a store, etc. The most
successful thefts involve careful planning and use of
various skills to overcome security measures and deal with
unexpected problems that pop up along the way. Possible
consequences include getting caught by the cops or private
security, the people you stole from trying to track you
down, or ethical dilemmas about taking other people’s
stuff.

Other Complications
Other things can get in the way of the characters
achieving their goals that are tangential to what the
characters are trying to do. For example, characters
could be going about their business and run into:
• A mugger.
• A power outage.
• A bad disease sweeping the city.
• A con artist with an offer to make money quick.
• An industrial accident that fills the streets with
noxious pollution.
• A snowstorm/heat wave/torrential downpour.
• Getting caught in the middle of a gang war.
• A riot.
• A serial killer.
• Getting harassed by Day Shift cops.
• Being falsely accused of a crime.
• Being the subject of a mentally ill person’s
delusions.
• Being the victim of identity theft.
• Failure of a utility in one’s apartment (e.g. the
water won’t work).

030 Making Rent

 Creating Your Super Downtime and Distractions
A bit of semantics: your landlords are the Not every moment should be spent in pursuit of cash. For one
people who owns your apartment. In New thing, each character has a Need aspect and at least one of these
York City this is often a faceless property should come into play in each game setting. It can also be
management community that owns hundreds interesting and fun to narrate what the PCs do while they are
or thousands of buildings and no person killing time between rent-making opportunities. Sometimes
at the head office would recognize your these downtime and distraction scenes can provide characters
name without consulting their computers. with unexpected opportunities to make money.
Your Super is the person who maintains
the building and usually lives in it, often in
exchange for free rent. The super enforces
the rules set down by the landlords and deals
with the tenants. The super is often the person
the tenants pay their rent to, but sometimes
rent is paid directly to the local office of
the rental management company. (In more
prosperous places, rent is paid electronically,
but Manhattan is one of the few places left
where a lot of people operate on a cash-only
basis). For the many tenants who interact
only with their Supers, the Super might as
well be their Landlord.
The characters’ super will be a major
character in Rentpunk and so it can be a good
idea to create the landlord as a fully fleshed
out character. The players probably won’t
get into a physical confrontation with the
super (and if they do then they’ve probably
already lost), but characters may want to
seduce, persuade, trick, bribe or psychically
manipulate the super. You’ll want to know
how well the super will be able to resist these
forms of non-physical challenges.
The mental image that most likely spring to
mind of a super is of a gruff, middle-aged
white guy who has heard every sort of excuse
or sob story and is sick of hearing them. He’s
weary, grumpy and gets a small thrill over
exerting control over his control over his
tenants. He doesn’t want to be liked, only
feared, and he will brazenly disrespect the
tenants and their privacy and dignity. This is
a perfectly realistic template to build a super
on.
However, it may make things more interesting
to resist these stereotypes. Perhaps the super
is a nice semi-retired lady, whose house is
filled with white ceramic figures of kittens
and angels, who is always ready to lend
some grandmotherly advice, and who really
would like you to be late with your rent but
the property management company that
employs her wouldn’t like it. Perhaps the
super is a recent immigrant, speaking stilted
English, who always greets you with a smile,
who works tirelessly and who is endeavoring
to be the best employee of the property
management company that he can be. In
some ways it is harder to deal with a nice
super than a mean one, because you can feel
guilty about manipulating to a nice one.

Making Rent 031

 What if You Succeed? Tips for Game Masters

At the last moment the characters stuff that envelope of cash through the Make things interesting,
slot and they are, for the moment, safe from eviction. However, there’s not just difficult
always next month. There are also the various complications that came
up in the course of that month’s gameplay. Maybe a character borrowed Nothing ever goes according to plan.
money, which will have to be paid back. Maybe a character made an Your main job as a GM is to take
enemy, who will be looking for the character. Maybe a character had the schemes that players come up
to take a Consequence, which will make it even more difficult to make with and throw in various twists and
next month’s rent. The byproducts of one month’s adventures thus turns. This doesn’t necessarily mean
make it difficult to make rent next month (and thus perhaps, necessitate opposing them and making everything
doing something even more dangerous next month). Over the course of the players want to do as difficult as
several months, the game becomes about not just “can we make rent” possible. Try to surprise the players.
but “can we pull ourselves out of this downwards spiral?” Make some things surprisingly
difficult, some things surprisingly easy.
Throw in unexpected opportunities,
What If You Fail? coincidences and various weirdness.

You may not be able to gather up the funds to pay the rent, and you Defy Stereotypes
may fail to talk your landlord into giving you another extension. What
happens next is that the landlord pays some private security people to People who act exactly as the players
enter your apartment, move your stuff out onto the street and change expect them to act can be boring to deal
the locks. with. In real life people seldom match
their stereotypes (and if you think you
The group can choose, at this point, to say that you’ve lost the game and do, maybe you just don’t know them
end it there. Or, if the group wants to, you can keep roleplaying what very well), so defying stereotypes
happens next. Can the characters squat somewhere, or couch surf, or makes the story more realistic and
survive nights on the street? And after that, can the characters scrape more interesting. Try to give each
up enough to pay the deposit on a new apartment and become renters non-player character something that
once again? goes contrary to the stereotype for that
type of character.
Characters may get imprisoned or killed or join the ranks of the long-
term homeless. On the other hand, they may gain enough money or
Keep things moving
status to no longer have to worry about whether they can pay the rent
each month. At that point, the best thing to do may be to create a new
character. After all, when one roomie leaves the natural thing to do is If the players don’t know what to
look for a new roomie. do next, it’s your job to give them a
nudge. Never let things get too bogged
down in indecision or because they
don’t have enough information—do
something to shake things up.

Make sure everyone has a chance to

be awesome

Make sure every PC gets a chance to

be the star once in a while, from the
big bad warrior to the little sneaky
thief. Help them find opportunities to
succeed in spectacular ways, ways that
only their character can.

When you’ve got nothing, move on

to the next scene

It’s fine if you don’t have any good

ideas for how to make a scene
interesting or challenging. Just say
“well, that worked out smoothly.
Mission accomplished. So what are
you going to do next?”

032 Making Rent

 Tips for Players

A messy life is better than a simple

one.

Make your game life almost as

complicated as your real life, with
a lot more danger and drama. It
will give you more opportunities to
earn Fate points and tell interesting
stories.

A crazy scheme is better than a

sane one.

If this were real life, a boring,

cautious plan would be better. The
GM shouldn’t punish you for having
an audacious plan, although that
doesn’t mean your plan will go off
without a hitch.

Have morals, but

take them to the edge.

A Rentpunk game where your

character is a complete sociopath,
willing to do anything and everything
and immune to guilt, is boring. It’s
boring because it makes everything
too easy (and, in game terms, gives
you no decision compels to earn
Fate points with). Instead, give your
character some rules about what he
or she is willing to do, then put the
character in situations that tempt
him or her to break those rules.
Roleplay the consequences when
the player does do something that
violates his or her moral standards.

Find ways to include your roomies.

When it comes time to say how your

character is going to make his or
her part of the rent, it might seem
easier to go off on your own, but that
doesn’t make for game play which
fun for everyone. Come up with an
excuse to have your roomies there,
or at least nearby, when you go out
on your quest to make some cash.
Remember that any trip out onto the
streets of the city carries with it a
significant chance of being targeted
for robbery or violence, so it only
makes sense that a character would
want someone watching his or her
back, no matter what the character is
going off to do.

Making Rent 033

 ABOUT THE CITY
TLDR?
Go to YouTube and search for “Fates Worse Than Death introductory video” for a quicker
way to get up to speed on the Fates Worse Than Death setting.

Black Market
In Brief- The black market is huge, decentralized and trader to trader to trader (each taking a percentage) before
efficient. Through traders and their multiple connections, it reaches a trader who has or can get the thing in question.
one can get almost anything. If nobody on the black market has a product, it is easy
The modern black market was formed back during the enough to hire someone to steal it. Through this network
occupation of the city during the Freedom Wars. The of contacts, it is conceivable that someone could come to a
black market is made up of an army of independent local black market trader with a few billion dollars and, in
traders, each of whom has contacts with many other a week, get the Mona Lisa.
traders and hundreds of other contacts. Every criminal For traders, information is a good just like anything else.
enterprise in the city (except the Drug Lords, who have Traders pay for, hoard and sell information whenever they
a vertical monopoly on drug distribution) depends on can. Services are also sold (from spying, to a plumbing
the black market for their existences. Even semi-legit repair, to a legal bribe, to a massage, to a murder). The
organizations rely heavily on the black market. The black trader matches a person needing the service with the person
market has no leaders (although some traders are wealthier who can provide it, and takes a commission for himself or
and have more economic influence than others) and no herself. Some traders (though not all) are also loan sharks,
real structure. giving loans to people who could not normally get loans,
A common saying on the streets is that the black market though with ridiculously high interest and mercenaries as
can get you anything if you’re willing to pay enough for debt collectors. Traders who act as loan sharks make it a
it. There is some truth to this saying. If someone asks a point to tell the debtors what they are getting in to: they
trader for something, the trader first checks to see if it is don’t want anyone claiming that they got a raw deal from
in his or her current inventory. If not, then the trader finds the trader.
out how much the customer “wants it” (in other words,
how much of a markup he or she is willing to pay). If the Despite its seeming clumsiness, the black market is very
person wants it badly enough, a request may jump from efficient.

034 About The City

Traders Guns
In Brief- Independent and powerful traders make up the black In Brief- Very few in the city own guns. Those that do
market. They seldom exert political power but can have a own guns are either rich enough to have them smuggled
large influence. in, or use unreliable homemade guns. Gun owners are
generally given a wide berth. Outside the city, most guns
The black market is traders. Without traders, people could have technology to prevent unauthorized use.
steal but they wouldn’t have an efficient mechanism to get
stolen goods to the people. Crime would be crippled in the
city without traders. Only a small minority in the city own guns. Of those that
Most traders are indies that operate out of their homes. A do, many have homemade weapons. Some can only be
trader’s apartment is a heavily guarded cache of goods. fired once, others can be used multiple times but because
Most traders have either expensive security systems or 24 they are home-tooled they have a large chance of misfiring
hour guards at their apartments. A minority of traders are and even injuring the shooter.
in debt to other, larger traders, and act as employees. Many
became traders so they wouldn’t have to answer to anyone. Guns are equally likely to come from three basic sources:
First, those smuggled in to the city and sold on the black
It is easy to ignore traders: they are not organized and they market. Second, those manufactured in the city. Third,
don’t go to war to avenge each other (except in the case of those in the city prior to the 2050s that were not found
personal friendships). For those interested in gang politics,
traders are sort of like the scenery: always there when you during Freedom Army sweeps.
need them. City residents are very wary about people with firearms.
Traders see it differently: they always keep an eye on gang Even those gang members who will jump fearlessly in to
politics (as it can greatly effect their business) and they any fight will try to avoid combat when the opponent has a
can use their economic power to nudge a situation in one gun. Often, when someone has a gun, it is the one and only
direction or another. For instance, a trader might decide advantage that they have.
that a gang war would hurt their business (by disrupting Gun Technology- Federal law requires modern guns to
people’s ability to travel freely through the area). To stop
be manufactured with security chips. These chips test
the war, a Trader may share information, send runners to
take messages between gang members interested in a truce, the DNA and/or voice print of the users. When the chip
or loan the weaker side some very nasty weapons so they recognizes an authorized person, it sends electrical signals
to piezoelectric strips within the gun that allow the gun to
appear less vulnerable. fire. Simply tearing out the chip will make the gun unable
to fire. The registered user(s) of a gun is set in the gun
store, and is entered in to a federal database.
Transactions
Some communities require additional technology above
In Brief- Most transactions are face-to-face in trader homes. and beyond the federally mandated security chips. Some
Other transactions are handled using locked accounts and have GPS (Global Positioning System) chips and keep a
homeless runners.
permanent record of exactly when and where the gun was
For most products that a black market trader sells, the fired. Some guns send a signal to the police every time the
standard deal is that the cash and product are handed over gun is fired. Some guns have tracking devices which are
at the same time, usually in the traders home (where the always on. Some guns have chips that check DNA and only
trader has defenses ready in case of any malfeasance). If let registered owners use them. When gated communities
a trader has to “special order” a product, he or she usually allow guns, it is usually with these restrictions. When the
asks for some amount (such as 10%) up front. For known national guard brings guns in to the city (the only time guns
clients, with whom the trader has established a trust, a can be legally brought in to the city) their firearms have all
trader may extend a line or credit. For very large deals, and of these security features.
when face-to-face transactions are not possible, Traders use
cheap internet escrow services. Most guns sold on the black market were created before
these new laws were made. Otherwise, the guns either
Escrow Services- The health of the black market depends have been physically modified or hacked (both of which
upon people who do not necessarily trust each other being
able to do large transactions relatively quickly. Escrow
services make this possible. Money is transferred to the Why People Don’t Buy Children on the Black Market
escrow service, who keeps a hold of it until both parties Some things are just so morally reprehensible that people
log-on to say that the transaction was concluded. If the do not buy them from the normal black market. There are
parties can’t agree, the escrow service keeps the money. willing buyers and willing sellers, and some traders will be
Runners- Not all transactions happen face to face. willing, but too many black market traders who would make
Sometimes a buyer wishes to remain anonymous. it their business to fuck up someone who tried to make this
Sometimes the item is too worthless or the transaction too sort of purchase.
routine for someone to bother to walk all the way down Say someone goes to a trader and inquires whether the trader
the block to the trader’s home. Sometimes the item being can procure a child for him or her. The trader might flat out
purchased is for some emergency and the person needs the say no. The trader may, however, say that he or she can
thing right away. Sometimes the item is being delivered procure a child. Most traders are good liars and the person
from one trader to another. In all of these cases, traders wishing to purchase the child has no way of knowing, when
use homeless Runners they have at their disposal to take they go to pick the child up, whether they will actually get
money, goods and messages back and forth. The runners a child or whether they will be ambushed and killed by an
are every bit as professional, skilled and efficient as the army of angry Orphans who the trader secretly contacted.
traders they work for.

About The City 035

 Body Modification
Decoration Implants
In Brief- City residents of every income level user body In Brief- Black market implants, both electronic and
modifications to improve their looks or make themselves biological, can give people special powers.
appear tough, including piercings, implanted spikes,
tattoos, tissue dying, scarring and surgical changes. For those that can afford them, legal and black market
implants, both electronic and biological, can be useful
Piercings- These are probably the most common body tools and weapons. Implants can impart a wide range of
modification in the city. Professional and amateur abilities on their owners. In general, implants that give
piercers in the city will take on any request, from the people concealed weapons are illegal, while implants
mundane to the very creative. Among favorers of the that act as tools or sensors are legal when implanted by a
gutterpunk style, spikes are common. Spikes can be licensed physician.
implanted just under the skin, and this is the easiest and
least painful method, but the spikes are not very secure. Jack- The most common electronic implant is the Jack.
A more skilled piercer (or Black Med or legitimate A jack puts a small data plug in the hand which connects
doctor) can connect spikes to the bones. to the brain through a pair of normal nerves. A simple
multidevice interface mental program lets the user control
Tattoos- Most tattoos are done by a computer and are and recieve feedback from the device mentally. Everything
cheap and fast. Any image can be placed on someone’s from construction equipment, to auto-aiming weapon
skin, either permanently or semi-permanently. It is systems, to musical instruments are available with jack
mostly poor people who go for traditional (needle- controls. Fortunately, the multidevice mental program
gun) or archaic (skin abrasions) methods. Some has a lot of safeguards and it is nearly impossible for a
gutterpunks go to practitioners of Maori style tattooing improperly or maliciously programmed device to kill or
(a chisel is used to abrade the skin, then ink is painted injure the person attached to it.
on) to prove how tough they are. Some “posers” go
to computerized tattoo parlors and get tattoos that are Electronic- Electronic implants usually have compact
almost indistinguishable from authentic Maori style rechargeable batteries which can be recharged by placing
tattoos. an electromagnet over the skin. A few implants have
external control devices (e.g. a touch pad on the back of the
Coloring- Non-toxic dyes can semi-permanently dye hand). Most are controlled mentally by linking the device
hair, skin, teeth and even eyes to some color that the with motor and sensory nerves, which are then hijacked
person requests. In general, changes in shade are the from their original purpose and fed in to a special mental
cheapest and easiest to get, while extreme changes (like program designed to let the owner control and receive data
going from caucasian skin coloring to jet black skin) from the implant. The installation costs of these mental
are expensive and take special procedures. programs add significantly to the cost of the implant.
Scarring- Some in the city (most often poor teens and Biological- These implants are coded to a person’s DNA
mentally ill people) engage in scarification of their own (so the body does not reject them) and grown in a vat.
bodies as a means of decoration. Most of them are Upon implantation, they become just another part of the
people who have some vested interest in advertising to person’s body. If nerves are hooked up, users can learn to
others how tough or self-destructive they are. control and interpret sensations from these new parts. The
most popular biological implants are implanted muscles.
Surgical Modifications- The Freaks may invest money
in scary looking surgical modifications which will be Replacements- The same techniques can be used to grow
part of their acts. Sex industry workers may borrow limbs and organs to replace limbs and organs that were lost
money to invest in plastic surgery, hoping to enhance due to accident or disease. Most decent health insurance
their careers. It is only Indies who can afford surgical will pay for this procedure, especially because it is more
mods purely for the aesthetic value. These mods can economically efficient than comparable prosthetics.
include vat-grown parts, like third eyes, tails, extra-
fingers. Parts can be functional or non-functional. The Usefulness- Implants are very inefficient. It would be
mods can also include non-organic substances (e.g. much cheaper and easier to buy high-tech scuba equipment
glass, metal, plastic, even stone) implanted in the body. than to try to get a water-breathing lung or a chemical
oxygen backup implant. Anything that can be done with
an implant can be done cheaper and easier with external
equipment. People still buy implants, though. One reason
is that implants can not be yanked away. Another reason
is that people with implants can often gain the element of
surprise over other people. The biggest reason is purely
psychological: people feel more powerful when an implant
allows their bodies to do something than normal people
can’t.

036 About The City

 Body Mod Monsters
A horrible cycle can happen when people begin to change
their own bodies through plastic surgery, genetic alterations
and implants. When people look at themselves in the mirror,
what they see is often quite different from what other people
see looking at them. People who begin trying to fix some
aspect of their bodies that they don’t like often find that
it doesn’t make them any happier with their appearance.
People find that each time they use the power to change their
own appearance, it is harder to avoid using it again the next
time. Many people feel they are helpless to avoid getting
the next surgery, no matter what their friends say. The more
control they have over their appearance, the more critically
they look in the mirror, until what they see has no bearing on
normal standards of beauty or on practicality.
The end result is that there are dozens of inhuman looking
people wandering around the city. There are the stick
figures: incredibly tall and incredibly thin, always near the
verge of death because every vital part of their anatomy has
been reduced or constricted to make them thinner. There
are the muscle-monsters, whose muscles are so gigantic
that their joints are liquefying and they can’t even reach in
to their pockets. Rather than actually being strong, these
muscle monsters are more likely to tear something, break
a bone or have a heart attack when they try to exert their
strength. There are the sex monsters, with bulges on their
groins or chests so huge that they look like ridiculous
caricatures of people. Their health problems are numerous
and they are feared or disdained by most of the population.
Although there are some fetishists who seek out sex with
these sex monsters, most normal forms of intercourse are
impractical or impossible because of the sex monsters’
distorted anatomy. There are even a few people who have
regressed themselves in to crude versions of toddlers in an
attempt to gain a permanent look of youth. These are just the
most common examples, there are different and more bizarre
people running around the city. There are constant sightings
of an “animal man” who behaves like a feral dog and looks
like a terribly deformed human on all fours.
It is a common misconception that these are people who went
crazy and then turned themselves in to monsters. The truth
is that the process of going crazy and the process of turning
themselves in to monsters was one in the same.

On Evolution, Culture, Body Modification

“Okay, lookit. It’s really hard to improve on nature because nature had, like, a billion years to make the human body
like it is. So you’re a dumbass if you think you can make the body better at doing what it was supposed to do. Its that
“supposed to do” thing that’s important, because we don’t want to prowl around in the grass, eat roots and crank out
babies, do we? We want to do something different with out bodies, and that’s when we need body mods. They way I
see it, body mods are our way of defining what we think our bodies are for. When some wacko first cut his dick off, he
was saying ‘hey fuck you nature, you may want me to go around spooging my DNA all over the place, but that’s not
what I want to do with my life.’ And that’s what you’ve got to think about when you shop for any body mod.”

People who get death borgs tend to be wealthy, to have

Death Borgs a lot of enemies, and to have little compassion for other
In Brief- Some people have implanted death-switch people (including innocent people who are killed when
bombs, meant to deter potential killers. Can be deactivated. death borgs explode). Traders have the highest percentage
Known by metal forehead protrusions, though there are of death borgs of any city group.
fakes.
The purpose of a Death Borg is typically to deter would-be
murderers. It is fairly successful in this regard, although it
Death Borgs are the street name for any implant that also tends to deter people from living near or even walking
activates upon the death (usually the brain death) of near a death borg (for fear he or she will die unexpectedly).
the implant’s owner. Most death borgs explode, killing Death borgs also have led to some morbidly common
anyone in the area. Death Borgs have large, flashy chrome scenes: e.g. muggers who just stabbed someone trying
protrusions (typically on the forehead). All Death Borg desperately to save him, or people putting a plague victim
implants can be controlled by tapping on the protrusion in with a death borg in a shopping cart and trying to roll her
a pre-set sequence. The implant can be disarmed or forced in to the river.
to go off prematurely.

About The City 037

 City Culture
Origins The State of Equality in 2080

In Brief- City culture is mostly practical, but In Brief- Women, homosexuals, ethnic minorities face little or no
draws elements from gang culture, homeless discrimination. Poor, immigrants, transsexuals, “ugly” people face
culture, radical utopianism and teenage some discrimination. City residents discriminated against by those
rebellion. outside the city.
For the most part, city culture has created itself. Victories- Over the last century, American culture (and most other
It is not so much a set of shared traditions cultures in the industrial world) has rid itself of nearly all cultural
as it is a bunch of people, each reacting to and institutional prejudice against women, homosexuals and racial
their environment as rationally as they can. minorities. These people can join military service, the clergy of most
Similarity to other cultures, past or present, is religions, street gangs, and almost all private clubs (including the
probably just because something happens to masons). To most people it would be a bizarre and alien thought to
be an effective way of doing things. However, think that these people are inferior or bad in any way. In the city, the
there are some city traditions which can be only exceptions are mentally ill loners who may decide they hate a
traced directly back to specific roots. certain gender, sexuality or ethnicity. Some Immigrants and religious
extremists discriminate against minority sexualities, but they are
Gang Culture- Gangs have changed a lot
outsiders with social little power. Every once in a while, a small group
recently. In fact, many gangs have done
of young teens who share a certain prejudice will get together to commit
whatever they can to differentiate themselves
hate crimes (usually cornering and beating people up). Many serial
from the randomly-violent, self-destructive
killers are misogynists (people who hate and fear women). Women are
drug gangs of the old times. However, certain
targeted for sex crimes more often then men, but most people see this
elements remain, especially in gangs with
as a vulnerability of male psychology, not a female weakness.
an old history (Roofers, Risen) or with elder
members. Major contributions: revenge as a Failures- Certain people still face cultural and institutional prejudice.
means of deterrence, the idea of the gang as Even in the city, where even the richest are considered poor by most
one’s family. standards, there is still prejudice against poor people. People who are
Homeless Culture- Whereas the Indies and poor are more likely to be thought of as stupid, immoral, dangerous
Wells have “found the streets,” the homeless and diseased. This is especially true of shut-ins, who regard homeless
and unborn have always had them and have people as something like wild animals. Similarly, immigrants are
had good ways of dealing with their dangers. commonly thought of as ignorant, unsophisticated and unfriendly. The
Wells and Indies new to the streets have often physically disabled and elderly are thought of as being less capable
incorporated homeless ways of doing things than others and are often denied membership in city groups (including
because they work. Major contributions: some gangs) and in gated communities and corporations.
respecting other people’s boundaries (to a
Transsexuals have made significant gains in recent decades, but still
fault), theft seen as morally justifiable and the
face hostility from some quarters, especially when they are transsexual
idea of giving others every chance to live-and-
and poor. Transsexual groups have sought to have government
let-live.
healthcare pay for their sex changes, which caused a backlash by
Radical Utopianism- For a while in the late groups who didn’t think “their tax dollars” should be paying for such
2050s, utopianism was the major radical things. Although some in the city have anti-transsexual sentiments,
movement of the day. Radical Utopianists city culture as a whole is much more accepting of transsexuals than
believed that community was more many other communities (especially culturally conservative rural
important than government and that “perfect communities) and many transsexuals move to the city to enjoy a less
communities” could change the world’s judgmental atmosphere.
culture. Major contributions: emphasis on
self government, use of banishment as a “Lookism” is not as prevalent in the city as it is in other parts of the
punishment. country. The main reason is that, on the streets, people often put a
higher value on looking tough than on looking attractive. Also, the city
Teenage Rebellion- There is a lot of teenage has a plurality of very different styles and thus more than one “ideal”
rebellion in the culture of the city. For of physical beauty. Despite this, people who are considered attractive
centuries, teenagers have been growing up find they have an easier time getting jobs, joining groups and gaining
pressed up against the flaws of their parents’ power.
lifestyles. Many of the teenagers have
decided, however naively, that anything City Residents- Any resident of the city will find himself or herself
would be better than living as their parents discriminated against by people from outside the city. People living
did. For Wells, the single most common in gated communities or corporate living centers assume that anyone
reason for leaving home is not wanting to be living in the city either couldn’t pass screening tests or was too crazy
like parents. So, many city values are really to want to. They assume that any city resident is either mentally ill,
just the violent rejection of the values of VR stupid and uneducated, drug addicted or evil. People who choose to
addicts. Major contributions: devaluation of be out on the streets are often thought of the same way by those who
safety, comfort and economic stability. choose to be shut-ins.

038 About The City

 common on women. Anklets and body jewelry (jewelry
Fashion & Style which is temporarily glued to the skin) featuring jewels,
In Brief- The major themes people mix and match from are silver and circular patterns. Nostril (not septum) piercings.
homeless/grunge (warm flannels), gutterpunk (tribal and Colorful veils which partially hide the face are common
punk), bollywood (East Indian), goth (dark and scary, lots for women. The point of this style is to make people look
of makeup), corp/mod (conservative, suits and ties), gang sophisticated and exotic.
old school (paramilitary and hiphop) and straight (simple,
cheap and flattering). Goth- Clothing is almost entirely black. Hair is usually
black, long on both men and women. Men are clean-shaven.
Makeup is common on both sexes (although women wear
Style among young adults in the city is a hodgepodge of more). Makeup is dark and accentuates pale skin. Lipstick
seven basic elements. Only a small percentage of people is usually blood-red or black. Jewelry is silver, much of it
are true to one style, most mix and match: has points, barbs or cutting edges. Rings with claws on them
Homeless/Grunge- Clothing is mainly grays & mixed are common. Much of the jewelry uses holy-symbols from
patterns, including dull-colored plaids. Clothing is selected living or past cultures. Capes and cloaks common when it
mostly for warmth: flannel shirts, jeans, sweatshirts. Knit is cold. Clothing is often torn. Use of fishnet material on
caps and fingerless gloves are common. Clothes are loose shirts, stockings and as gloves is common. Nails are usually
fitting. Street people, and anyone else who can’t or won’t long (both sexes). Women’s shirts are usually designed to
spend a lot of money on clothing, wear this style. The show cleavage. The point of this style is to enhance certain
point is to wear clothes that are warm, comfortable, and features (e.g. lips, eyes, cleavage) and to make people look
don’t need constant washing. dangerous, depressed and aroused.
Gutterpunk- Hair spiked and/or shaved, dyed black, Corp/Mod- Hair cut short & styled (parted for men, bangs
red, green or purple. Ritual scarring. Maori style tattoos. for women). Bowler style black felt hats are common.
pierced-septum nose-rings. Black leather jackets, bright Business attire: suits, dress slacks, neckties. Most of the
colored plaids. Chains worn as jewelry. Makeup is clothing is black. Briefcases and expensive cigarettes are
uncommon, but when present it is usually in the form of common accessories. The point of this style is to look
green or purple lipstick. Clothing is often torn, often held sophisticated and professional.
together with safety pins. Razorblades are a common form Gang Old School- Very lose fitting clothing of thick
of jewelry. The point is to look dangerous and tribal, and materials (e.g. denim) with sleeves long enough to partially
to wear clothing (such as leathers) that can survive harsh conceal the hands. Sport team jerseys are common, as
conditions. are baseball caps. Tattoos are small and serve of marks
Bollywood- This style derived from a 2020’s fascination of important events (gang membership, people the person
with Indian culture. Females wear this style more often killed, etc.) rather than decorations. Clothing is usually
then men. Most cloth is made from colorful, intricate dark or jungle-camouflage. Body jewelry is gold. Hard
floral or abstract patterns, focusing mainly on warm colors kneepads and elbow pads are common. Sunglasses and
(reds, browns, oranges). Clothing is long and flowing with bandannas conceal the eyes. The point is to show off
many wraps, dresses and thigh-length shirts. Jewelry is personal wealth, identify oneself as a gang member and
silver or gold and is very complicated (different pieces may to wear clothing which aids in urban guerrilla warfare
be connected by thin chains). Tikas (reddish dots in the (camouflage, elbow and knee pads, concealed hands and
middle of the forehead, made with makeup or a tattoo) are eyes, etc.)

About The City 039

 Straight- Straight is a style which focuses on simplicity. Graffiti itself was also an act of daring: putting graffiti up
Men wear crew-cuts, women cut their hair short or wear it in gang turf, or somewhere where one risked being caught
in pony-tails. Jewelry and makeup is minimal. Clothing by authorities, or in a dangerous place proved the graffiti
is solid colors: black, white, beiges, reds and greens. artist’s bravery. Graffiti artists of the 1980’s and 1990’s
Clothing seldom has logos on it. Clothes fit snugly and were urban explorers, going in to tunnels, hopping barbed-
nothing hangs loose. Turtle-neck sweaters, t-shirts and wire fences, climbing bridges. Writers would often paint
tank-tops are common. Pants are simple slacks. Many beautiful murals in places where nobody but other writers,
sexologists wear this style, seeing it as the most unobtrusive homeless people living underground, and the occasional
and non-degrading way to show off the human form. The stray utility worker would ever see them. Many of these
point of this style is to wear clothing which is cheap, easy underground paintings are still there, a hundred years later,
and comfortable while still looking good. having outlasted many city buildings.
Sleepy Style Because some of the murals created by writers were
The newest trendy style among young people, especially quite beautiful (at least to some) this lent some amount of
young club-goers, is the “sleepy” style. Hair is mussed up respectability to graffiti writing. Some started using the
and flattened down on the head, there is little or no makeup, phrase “graffiti artists.” This term pissed off the property
eyes are kept squinted as often as possible, clothing is pajamas owners and city government, who were paying millions a
(unbuttoned to show chest and midriff). Other affectations year to clean up graffiti. Although the police continued to
include teddy bears, pillows and blankets. This style is not crack down on it, writing became the domain of kids of all
seem very often outside of clubs (it is not a general “street social classes, not just poor kids.
wear” fashion).
Modern Graffiti- In the city today, graffiti continues to
be something that crosses social and economic boundaries.
Graffiti ranges from a bare, utilitarian scrawl meant to
Graffiti convey a message (even if the message is as simple as
“I was here”) to large, attractive murals that take twenty
In Brief- Art, self-expression, communication and to thirty cans of paint. Much graffiti falls somewhere in-
historical records all in one. between: it tries to send a message as well as showing the
skill of the writer.
Timeline
1930s- First gang graffiti in US. Some graffiti uses easy to understand pictures, symbols
1949 – Spraypaint invented and language. Others use symbols that only members of a
particular group might understand. Others use a “language”
1968 – Julio 204, first city ‘writer’. of symbols known only by experienced writers. At its best,
1970 – Taki 183 makes the news, makes ‘writing’ famous. graffiti is not only beautiful, it is a historical document that
1971 – First writing crews. skilled graffiti artists can read in the same way one might
1973 – City spends $10 million removing graffiti. read a newspaper.
1973 – Strong anti-graffiti laws.
1972 – First burner (large mural masterpiece). Slang
1982 – First large scale wars between writing crews.
The culture of the streets has developed several new slang
1985 – NY writing declines after crack cocaine takes over words, mostly in response to new things that there weren’t
the lives of more urban youth. simple terms to describe. Most groups in the city, gang
History- Historically, there have been two different and non-gang, tend to have slang to describe the things
(but never completely separate) types of graffiti in they deal with in particular. An analysis of city slang can
the city. Gang graffiti has been seen in the city’s poor provide insights in to the worldview of the people who
ethnic neighborhoods before World War II. Gang graffiti speak it.
was meant to communicate information to other gang
members: it was incomprehensible to most non-gang “Borg”- Many slang words use the suffix “borg,” taken
members and even to gang members from other areas. As from the word cyborg. “Borg” indicates that something
time went on, the language of gang graffiti became more has been replaced by something else artificial. The X +
complex and more things could be communicated with Borg formula commonly refers to both the technological
gang graffiti: the limits of turf, threats and challenges to measure and the person benefiting from it. For instance,
other groups, listings of the members of gangs, memorials the Skin Borg gang are people who wear high tech armor
for dead gang members, and even descriptions of battles almost 24 hours a day, replacing the weakness of human
or other accomplishments. An increasing involvement skin with the strength and powers of high tech materials.
of street gangs in drug sales spread a more uniform gang Death Borgs are people who have had their normal
culture around the country and made it so that people from processes of death replaced by a bomb which explodes
one city could often understand much gang graffiti from upon death. Kid Borgs is a term used to describe people
another city. who use mental copying technology to move their minds
in to the bodies of children.
In New York, in the late 1960s, graffiti as a unique form of
self-expression was invented. Early “taggers” or “writers” “Black”- Many slang terms have this prefix, as in “black
would write their nickname (and the street they were market.” It typically indicates that something is illegal and
from) on anything and everything they could. The media being done underground. E.g. a “black corp” is a division
took the story and ran with it, making writing increasingly of a corporation that operates in secret, using illegal means
popular. A whole lifestyle evolved: kids would shoplift to make money for the parent corp. “Grey” is used to
cans of spraypaint, form crews, spraypaint huge murals describe things that dance the line between being legal and
on subway cars or buildings. Crews would even get in to illegal.
bloodless “wars” where they would paint their own marks
over each other’s marks.

040 About The City

 The Ten Worst Ways To Die
“Hunting for Souls”
By Carl Finnix (Roofer Founder and Battle General)
In city slang, “hunting for someone’s soul” means trying to take
away someone’s free will. A person’s free will can be removed 10. “I guess some of the plagues we’ve had around here
by means of drugs, mental programs, brainwashing, psychic have been pretty bad. You remember that one we had last
attacks or implants. Drugs can temporarily inhibit free will, but Summer, the one where you bleed out and the blood’s all
cannot remove it altogether. Mental programs are expensive black, and you go to the doctor and the doctor says ‘Your
and take a long time to install, but can let a person command organs are dead, so all we can do is give you a bunch of
(e.g. with spoken “keywords”) any element of a person’s mental pain killers.’ That one was pretty bad.”
functioning. Mental programs can turn on or off emotions, 9. “And the Drakes have some pretty nasty poisons.
paralyze people, block memories, or other nasty things only There’s this one that you just go crazy, like the worst
limited by current knowledge about the brain. Brainwashing possible drug trip, and then you have a heart attack and
is low tech but effective. It involves forcing someone say what die. Come to think of it, I guess the Drakes are pretty
you want them to believe, and then slowly reducing their mental cool. I mean, they have this shit but most of the time
capacity until they start believing what they are saying. Psychics they use poison that kills you painlessly.”
can control what people, think, feel, do or even believe, but rarely
for more than a second. Implants, put in people against their will, 8. “There’s that disease, the one that gives you boils all
can let people monitor, punish and even kill by remote control. over and the people who gave it to you charge you a
thousand dollars for the cure. I hear it feels like there’s
bugs crawling under your skin. It could be worse, there
could be real bugs crawling under your skin. They’re
probably working on that next.”
Philosophy
7. “A buddy of mine once got put in an oven and cooked.
In Brief- The city gives many opportunities for philosophy. The sad thing is that if he could have just grabbed on to
Eccentrics and street people have many philosophies. It could those heating coils and yanked them out of the wall, he
be said that everyone in the city has their own philosophy, could have saved himself, but they was just too hot to
whether or not they can put it in words. touch. So he died knowing the one way to save himself,
but being unable to do it.”
Eccentrics are stereotyped as the city’s philosophers. The 6. “I guess Mauler addicts have it pretty bad. I mean,
classic image of an Eccentric is someone who sits back you just get dumber and dumber and you can feel your
and observes everything going on in the city, and draws being a person just slipping away. Then, when you
finally forget how to buy drugs, the withdrawals are so
conclusions from it about abstract subjects such as human bad that you end up scratching yourself to death.”
nature or ethics. For this person, the anarchy of the city is a
laboratory of all the principles of human life. Every possible 5. “There’s that leash program. You know, that mental
combination of peoples, motivations and situations come program that you put in someone’s head and you can
command them. You can make them feel all kinds of
together at some point or another. There is also the unregulated pleasure, or all kinds of pain, just by saying a certain
use of technologies that raise important philosophical code word, and there’s nothing they can do about it. Or
questions. Mental copying technology raises questions about you could just paralyze them and stomp them to death,
human identity and the idea of a unique soul. Mental installer and they can’t do nothing.”
technologies, psychics and drugs raise questions about free 4. “Being eaten by rats has gotta suck. Like, if you go
will. Virtual Reality raises questions about what is real, and in to a place with a lot of rats, and if you get paralyzed,
under what circumstances reality is really necessary. AI and like a mental program malfunctions. The rats are gonna
genetic engineering raises questions about what is human. come sniffing around to see if you’ll do anything, and if
you don’t do nothing they’ll come a little closer, and if
One very inaccurate stereotype is that while the rich think you don’t do nothing they’ll take a bit out of you. Then
about philosophy, the poor do not. In fact, homeless street all of a sudden there’s a dozen of them chawing down
people think about philosophy as much as any Eccentric. It on you.”
is mostly boredom that prompts thinking: philosophy (along 3. “I’ve heard that really powerful psychics can just take
with sex and poetry) is one of the few free past-times available over your head and make you stab yourself. That’s gotta
to street people. Street people have many philosophies and be pretty bad, especially if you don’t even know who the
opinions, though they often resemble “folk wisdom” more psychic is who’s doing it to you. Say there’s a bunch of
than academic philosophy. Rather than trying to extract people around you. It could be any one of them.”
abstract theorems from a priori logic, street philosophers try to 2. “I saw this guy once and someone had fucked him
extract abstract principles from things they see around them. up good, like surgically, you know. I once got told it
A street person might come up with some simple rule (e.g. would cost two hundred dollars to put my nose back
straight, so what they did to this guy must have cost a
“‘free’ just means you don’t know what the cost is right now”) million dollars. I’d hate to be so fucked up that I would
and then spend hours delightfully pointing out every real-life want to do that to somebody else. The guy was just… I
story in which that rule holds true. Street people entertain can’t describe it. Not like a person, not like any animal I
each other for hours discussing what is the best way to deal ever heard of. He couldn’t walk, he just kind of flopped
with certain people or situations; what is right and wrong; around. A foot must have seemed like a mile to him.”
what parts of people’s behavior are innate and what parts are a 1. “The worst, I guess, is my dad. He wasn’t tortured or
reaction to the environment; what are the core motivations of anything, so maybe it wasn’t that bad, but it makes me
human beings; and what makes things aesthetically pleasing. the saddest because I know the guy had it in him to be
something great. When I hear about these young guys
Everyone in the city, though, has some theory, strategy, and girls fighting Colins, making deals with corporate
opinion, explanation or worldview which is unique to them. operatives, negotiating peace between warring gangs,
Many gangs have their own philosophies, though each solving murders, shit like that, I imagine that my dad
individual member puts his or her own spin on that philosophy could be doing that. But all he ever did was sit around
(or, in some cases, rejects it altogether). Groups sometimes in VR all day. He thought he was a good parent, but he
wasn’t even in the real world enough to realize that he
teach their philosophy through lectures, but most often they wasn’t. I don’t know… maybe torture’s better. Torture,
teach it by the way they act, the goals they seek and the way you go nice and crazy after a few days and you don’t
they deal with problems. really feel it so much anymore. And at least you did
something with your life.”

About The City 041

 Rumors For city residents, a day is broken down in to four parts:
Morning- (dawn to noon) Most people in the city are
In Brief- Rumors travel to every corner of the city and are
an important, though inaccurate, source of news. asleep. Most gang members sleep through morning. If
they haven’t arrived home before dawn, they arrive shortly
after and go to sleep. Addicts wake up, their bloodstreams
Benefits- There is no newspaper for people on the streets empty of drugs, and desperately seek out their next fix.
in the city, no news service that keeps them up to date with When VR Addicts and other shut-ins are forced to go
the happenings of the city. People gain almost all of their outside, they choose this time of day, knowing that it is
knowledge about what’s going on in the city from word the safest.
of mouth.
One reason that people like to have friends outside of Afternoon- (noon to sunset) Many gang members sleep
their own gang or social grouping is that they can receive in a few hours in to the afternoon. Afternoon is usually
important information. There are so many bonds of thought of as a leisurely time of day. People who have
friendships between different gangs, groups and social “business” to take care of do it now: errands, training,
classes that people are seldom more than four or five shopping, paying bills, doing welfare paperwork, working
degrees of separation away from any knowledge within at part-time jobs, etc. Street People (who typically work
the city. Like the decentralized black market, the speed, 12 or more hours a day) get started working. Addicts have
efficiency and usefulness of rumors in the city surprises comfortable levels of drugs in their bloodstreams and are
many outsiders. out trying to get food and money.
Flaws- Rumors have their limitations. One common
problem is that, as the rumors are passed on, theories are Evening- (sunset to midnight) This is the most active
stated as facts. This is why Matt Timm, known as the time on the streets. When something important happens
street’s best known expert on the moles, refuses to speak on the streets, it most likely happens in the evening, and
any sort of conjecture about the moles. He has seen too anyone who wants to watch or be a part of city life is out.
many theories and inferences stated as known fact. Another As sun falls, gang members head toward their turf to meet
problem is that the source of a rumor often becomes lost or up with their friends. The Arcadians start assembling in
misstated (some of the “facts” about moles are incorrectly their arcades. The Risen meet up in their packs. Boarders
attributes to Matt). Another common problem is that while start showing up in parking lots and doing tricks. The
the basic message of a rumor rarely changes, specific facts Humankalorie assemble in Oht arenas and set up matches.
(and especially numbers) can change radically. Of a hot Later in the evening, when all the gang members are
rumor, a person will probably hear multiple versions, together, discussions turn to serious gang business, and
and will probably choose the most dramatic version to when gang members set off to make war it is usually
repeat to his or her friends. The death of three in a gang around 10 pm. In the evening, all other types of “street
battle can easily become the death of one hundred. This
caused problems when many people refused to believe life” are out in force, from charity workers, to freelancers,
information about the large number of Colins prowling the to sex workers.
city, believing that those numbers must be exaggerations. Madrugada- A Spanish word, now part of city vocabulary.
The most intelligent way for someone in the city to deal Madrugada is generally thought of as the time that weird
with rumors is to take them as a warning that something things happen. “Madrugada stories” is a slang term for any
might be the case. A rumor, at best, will prompt someone tale of the weird, scary or unexplained. As it gets later, and
to seek out further information. dawn approaches, there are fewer and fewer people on the
streets. People out to make money (jacks, sex workers,
Time etc.) go home, as there are too few people on the streets.
In Brief- Morning: gang members sleep, addicts buy drugs. Addicts typically find some place safe to take the last of
Afternoon: gang members take care of personal business. their drugs and crash. Those left on the streets tend to be
Evening: gang activity starts. Madrugada (midnight to those who are under the influence of stimulant drugs, those
dawn): mostly gang members on the streets, and near who are heading back from some cross-town excursion,
dawn the city is quiet. and those whose lives are in some sort of crisis.

City Geography
In Brief- “The City” is the island of Manhattan in New and East Rivers to the East) with New York Bay on the
York. 2 by 11 miles. South. Manhattan runs Southeast to Northeast. The
Manhattan Bronx, Brooklyn and Newark are across the water from
the city. Manhattan is part of the state of New York, the
What is known popularly as “the city” is the island of bulk of which lies to the North of Manhattan.
Manhattan. The city is approximately 1.75 miles long
and 11.8 miles wide, 19 square miles altogether. In the Manhattan was once part of a system of boroughs which
1660s, the size of the island was increased by sinking old made up New York City. After the reformation, Manhattan
ships and covering them with dirt. In the 2040s, due to was changed from a borough to an independent city. In
rising ocean levels, about 5 square miles around the city the early 2060s, as people were setting up prestigious
were partially submerged (now known in city slang as “the communities outside the city, congressional districts were
sunken city”). redrawn (gerrymandered) so that Manhattan would never
Manhattan is on the East coast of the United States, have its own representative.
surrounded by rivers (the Hudson to the West, the Harlem

042 About The City

Most of Manhattan has a very easy to understand street plan. Secret Geography of the City
Streets run roughly East to West and are numbered from For only $300, you can purchase a pair of geo-info goggles.
1st Street (Southernmost) to 220th Street (Northernmost). These goggles have GPS (global positioning system) and
Avenues run roughly North to South, from 1st Avenue on gyroscope chips inside, so they know where you are and
the West to 11th Avenue on the East end of the island. The what you are looking at. Spend a few bucks more on a
names of most avenues change while in Harlem, having
“tourist chip” and glowing green arrows and words will
been renamed after figures in African American history.
The regular street plan dissolves in to a tangle of named appear everywhere you look. Look over here and a green
streets at the very Southern tip of the city (the very old box will pop up informing you that Frank Lloyd Wright
financial district) and the very Northern tip of the city (the designed this building more than a century ago. Look
hilly and once very wealthy Inwood district). this way and you will see that on this spot was a wall of
sharpened logs, built to protect early settlers from Indians,
from which Wall Street took it’s name.
City Access If you have some black market contacts, you can buy a
In Brief- Only two bridges and one tunnel still work. They
chip designed for police officers. Look to the apartment
have automated gates that keep guns and explosives from
building to your right and you will see that a parolee lives
moving in and out of the city.
here, having served a sentence for conspiring to smuggle
Most of the tunnels and bridges leading to the city were weapons in to the city. Composite crime rates are available
destroyed by rising ocean levels and by terrorist action at the turn of a tiny wheel on the side of the glasses: this
during the Freedom War. There are now only three ways alley sees 0.62 murders a year, turn the wheel and you will
to access Manhattan by foot or land vehicle: see that it will play host to 2.41 muggings.
-George Washington Bridge connects the East side Imagine that such chips are available for the geographic
of the Inwood/Washington Heights neighborhood (in the knowledge from the minds of other city residents. Plug in
North) to the Bronx, across the Harlem river. the chip for a VR addict and you might see the most brightly
-The Holland Tunnel, downtown, on the East, lit streets, the closest payphones to dial 911 from, and a
connects to New Jersey. bright beacon shining high above the safety of home.
-The Manhattan Bridge, downtown, on the West, A gang member chip would plaster the walls with tiny green
connects to Brooklyn. This bridge also provides freight- sigils to remind you what gang holds claim to this part of
trains access to the city. town. Look up the street and you might see the solid line of
a well established turf, the fuzzy line of a poorly established
These two bridges and one tunnel contain automated turf and the zigzagging lines and spinning green daggers of
contraband stops, of the kind built all over the country a war-zone. Major hangouts for the members of various
during the 2040s. These stops have heavy metal gates gangs would pop up.
which close to enclose a vehicle while it is scanned by
x-rays and chemical sniffers. If firearms are detected, The chip for a street person would be a constant barrage
an automated system informs the driver that firearms are of pointers and signs showing places to hide, places
illegal in the city, and allows the person to back out. If to stay warm, places to get food, places to beg, places
drugs, explosives or biological weapons are detected, the with dumpsters overflowing with food or salvageables,
gates stay closed until a team of heavily armed Bridge and automated recycling booths, and the meandering lines of
Tunnel Authority officers can come from their office in the well established daily routes of friends and enemies.
Queens. Trains traveling over the Manhattan bridge are An addict chip would show monochrome green-and-black
scanned as they go through. head-shots of the pushers gangs that operate on each couple
Travel to and from the city by means of water is nearly of blocks. Under the headshots would be little notes:
impossible. Powerful currents flow through the partially “likes to beat people for no reason”, “cuts stuff with baking
submerged buildings of the sunken city and any vehicle powder”, “probably high on god killer” or “has got a limp
trying to come through risks being smashed in to the sides from some recent injury.”
the buildings. The city is also very strict about issuing The info pulled out of people’s heads could make thousands
permits to fly over the city. Usually only the National of chips, each with a detailed and unique geography of
Guard, CDC and medical helicopters are allowed to fly the city. Outreach workers would see places where the
over and land in the city. homeless like to sleep. Perverts would see places to buy
illegal pornography, hire prostitutes or meet with brothel
Inwood/Washington Heights owners for a (blindfolded) trip to the brothels. Corporate
In Brief- Northernmost city, old Indie neighborhood with agents and LBRA corp hunters would see corporate logos
large industrial/railroad complex, Skin Borg turf. hovering over every store, apartment building, even vending
machine. Hackers would see a tangle of green lines,
The Neighborhoods of Inwood and Washington Heights information snaking under the streets of the city, ready to be
form the Northernmost tip of the island. They run South tapped, ending in paycomputers, security cameras, remote-
to 165th Street. South of this is Harlem. controlled security systems and more. Runners would see
signs pointing out every major shortcut through the city.
Inwood, in the North, was (until a few years ago) a Thieves would see tiny symbols plastered on each building:
sought-after indie neighborhood. There was a quiet stick figures holding clubs would mean a security guard,
residential district on the hills in the Northwest, dotted a camera would mean surveillance, a suitcase would mean
with expensive homes. The rising ocean levels did little the residents are on vacation.
damage here. Also on the hills is the Cloisters, a museum There are billions of pieces of geographical information
built from pieces of European monasteries and now home about the city, some are known to all, some are available to
to the Lumens cult. To the East of the hilly area is a large anyone who cares enough to inquire, and some are closely
industrial area, with some abandoned factories, some in-
guarded secrets. Some say that there are many cities, all
use factories, some warehouses and a large railyard.
coexisting all at once, all mutually invisible.
About The City 043
044 About The City
South of Inwood is Washington Heights. This was or random destruction by the Dragons. Farther away
once a neighborhood for successful blacks who moved from the park, near the East Hudson river, are working-
out of Harlem (to the South). In recent times, it has class brownstone apartment buildings, breweries and
been primarily a lower class area with a high density of small factories. In between is a nice Indie area, with many
apartment buildings. 181st Street in Washington Heights restaurants, boutiques, shops and nice apartment buildings.
was the birthplace of the gang that would become known There are trees on the sidewalks. The apartment buildings
as the Skin Borgs. The Skin Borgs have expanded were mostly built before WWII. They are handsome, 10-
rapidly in recent years, taking over all of the Inwood and 30 story co-ops with high ceilings, arched doorways and
Washington Heights areas and some of Harlem. The Skin hardware floors.
Borgs destroyed or forced out every other gang in the area.
Most of the indies fled Inwood when the Skin Borgs took
over and the whole area is economically depressed. The Hole
The buildings in this part of town are mostly residential, In Brief- What was once a huge rectangular park in the
with a number of large housing projects. There are trees middle of the city is now fenced off ruins and untamed
on many of the sidewalks. The most impressive buildings wilderness.
in this part of town are abandoned, and include a football
stadium and an old Jewish college. Approximately in the middle of the city, between the Upper
West and Upper East Sides, is what was once Central Park.
Harlem This was one of the largest urban parks ever, approximately
2500 ft. by 13250 ft. It had a museum and two large bodies
In Brief- Old black and Hispanic area, North of the hole. of water. During the Freedom Wars, Freedom Army forces
started building a complex of buildings in the hole. The
This district runs from 165th Street to 110th Street. complex was supposed to incorporate the beauty of the park
Historically, Harlem was an African American ghetto, and much of it was underground. Some of the buildings
founded by laborers who were brought in to build the were in operation and some were being constructed when
first subway. In the 1920s and 1930s Harlem was the
the rebels blew up several of the buildings. This act
center of a “black renaissance,” where much of modern
African American art, music and culture was born. Later, brought on the end of the Freedom Army occupation of the
it became known as an African American ghetto. In East Coast. The hole, as it is known today, is ruins choked
the 1920s, Puerto Rican immigrants started moving to with unmaintained greenery. Despite the nuclear cleanup
East Harlem, later followed by other Spanish speaking preformed by the restoration committee, the hole is slightly
immigrants, and the area soon became known as Spanish radioactive and the hole is surrounded by a barbed wire
Harlem or El Barrio. fence. The Keepers, a street family, consider the hole to
be their territory and guard it viciously, so few people go
145th Street in Harlem is the scene of the blockade of the in to the hole.
Skin Borgs by the Purists, Hummingbirds and Immortals.
The street is a war zone with battles happening every day. Midtown
Other gangs with a presence in Harlem include the Orphans,
Immortals, Math Addicts, Humankalorie and Bleeders. In Brief- South of the park, has the red light district (hotels,
Harlem has the city’s highest percentage of old prostitutes), Indie and Well gangs.
brownstones. These are thin, two or three story buildings,
built in tight rows during the 19th century. They are Midtown runs from 59 to 34 street. The Upper West and
th th

made from reddish sandstone (which has turned brown East Sides (and the Hole) are to the North and Downtown
from pollution). These buildings are attractive, but have is to the South. Midtown was once the tourist capital of the
cramped interiors and no elevators. city, dotted with luxury hotels, massive department stores,
trendy neighborhoods and architectural landmarks. Today
Upper West/East Side Midtown still plays host to the city’s few tourists, as well
as most of the city’s sex industry and the Tea Drinkers,
In Brief- To the East and West of the hole (Central Park) Freaks and Risen.
are now Indie neighborhoods.
On the South end are the ruins of Macy’s, once the largest
This part of town runs from 110 street to 59 street, South store in the world, now mostly demolished. On the very
th th

of Harlem and North of Midtown. It is divided down the Eastern edge, near Risen territory, is the New York Public
center by the hole (Central Park), forming three columns. Library. It is closed to the general public, but historians
make occasional pilgrimages to the library to search
The Upper East/West sides are now a mostly Indie territory, through its collections of old paper-printed books. Nearby
with a lot of small homes owned by Indies, a few high is Rockefeller center, a selection of large buildings (the
class condos or apartment buildings, and shops that cater largest being the RCA building at 70 stories). Impressive
to Indies. This is the closest the city has to a “wealthy churches of Midtown include St. Patrick’s Cathedral (a
neighborhood” though there are just as many street people Catholic church, built in the 1800s, still in use) and St.
and addicts. Indie gangs rule most blocks and keep them Bartholomew’s (which is now a meeting place for the
relatively peaceful. The Sexologists and Arcadians rule Risen).
the Upper East Side. The Dragons, Omniscients and
Bleeders rule the West Side. To the East, in Risen territory, is the Chrysler Building (a
77-story high skyscraper built in 1928-1930) and Grand
Before the Freedom Wars, real estate near Central Park Central Station (once a major transportation hub, the
was the highly valued. Near the park, on either side, were Freedom Army bolted the doors because they feared it
many museums and mansions (homes to millionaires and would give rebels access to tunnels under the city). The
foreign embassies). Today, most of these museums and half-collapsed ruins of the United Nations building lies,
mansions are in ruins, victims of Freedom War violence partially submerged, in the sunken city to the East.

About The City 045

046 About The City
Red Light District- South of the hole, N. of 23rd St., gangs (the Technophiles, Animalists and Needle Punks).
W. of 8th Ave., E. of 8th Avenue. This is the part of town Downtown has the Holland Tunnel (to the West) and the
where most prostitutes operate from. The Red Light Manhattan Bridge (to the East), two of the three working
District is also home to adult book stores, strip clubs and ways in and out of the city.
pornography studios. The red light district is centered Residential Neighborhoods- Downtown’s residential
around Times Square (the intersection of Broadway, 7th neighborhoods had the city’s first ethnic neighborhoods,
Ave., and 42nd St.). and some have seen many groups of immigrants come
People come from throughout the city and throughout through. The neighborhoods to the West (Chelsea, Soho,
this part of the country to partake in the city’s sex Greenwich Village) are generally “trendier.” Although they
industry. The average “tourist” is a businessman from a have their share of Victorian tenements and old industrial
nearby private city, corporate living center or high-class buildings, they also have a lot of nicely renovated buildings
neighborhood, who wants to spend the weekend in the city that serve as Indie apartments. Loft space is plentiful, and
doing drugs and sleeping with prostitutes. Not everyone a lot of the city’s small “art scene” happens in small cafes
in the red light district wants sex or pornography, some are and galleries here.
people staying in the city who want a cheap hotel room. The Eastern residential neighborhoods (Lower East Side,
Accommodations in the red light district range from seedy Little Italy, China Town) have mostly been swallowed
converted office buildings that cost $30 a night (or $10 up by the growing Bowery (see below), yet some of their
an hour) to former luxury hotels (like the Ritz-Carlton, ethnic population and unique character remains. These
the Hotel Wellington, the Salisbury, Park Lane and the neighborhoods are known for their high concentration
Plaza Hotel) that overlook the Hole and cost $60 or more of old tenement buildings. These buildings feature
per night. In each of these former luxury hotels, the commercial frontage, party walls (walls shared with other
management can only afford to maintain a small portion buildings), no elevators, and dim interiors. Walking in
of the hotel (usually the first few floors) but the parts that these neighborhoods, one sees blocks filled completely
are maintained are clean and retain a little of their former with four to six story tenement buildings, they are mostly
grandeur. Only the best-dressed prostitutes in the city are red and grey brick and the front of the buildings are covered
allowed to hang around in the lobbies of these hotels and with a maze of windows, ledges and fire-escapes.
harass potential customers.
Chinatown has a significantly different architecture from
Broadway is one of the busiest streets in the city, and the other residential districts. Chinatown has some of
Times Square was once the heart of shopping and tourism the oldest buildings in the city that are still standing. The
in the city. Huge buildings, including the New York buildings are very cramped, even by city standards, and
Times building, were built around Times Square, mostly the architecture shows an unmistakable Chinese influence.
to impress visitors. Multi-story high billboards and The Chinese population here is still very high, enough so
electronic signs are now cracked or peeling. Most of the that corporate chain stores operating here find it profitable
buildings have spacious commercial frontage, which is to advertise their services with Chinese neon signs.
now taken up by strip clubs and porn shops. Although Homosexual District- Originally centered around
half the neon lights are out, Times Square is still the best Christopher street (in what used to be called West Village),
lit part of the city. All around Times Square there are old the homosexual district has grown to encompass most of
theaters and television studios which are now mostly used the West Village and most of Greenwich Village. The
for creating pornography. There are dozens of theaters, homosexual district is roughly triangular, bordered by
some of which are forcefully co-opted by the Freaks for Greenwich Ave. on the Northeast, Christopher St. on the
stage shows during the Festival of the Freak. Carnegie Southeast and the sunken city on the West. Many gays,
Hall is a famous old music studio which, although boarded lesbians, bisexuals and transvestites, including members of
up most of the time, is sometimes rented out to legitimate most of the city’s gangs, live in apartments here. There are
musical groups in the city who want to hold recitals. many bars and cafes here that are hangouts for the city’s
homosexual population (and heterosexuals who simply
Downtown enjoy the atmosphere). There are many nice restaurants
In Brief- Southern tip of the city, home to the Bowery in this district.
(large street people area), homosexual district, financial Bowery- An ancient skid-row neighborhood, the Bowery
district, many skyscrapers. has grown since the massive exodus from the city in the
early 2060s. This huge section of town is home to the
Downtown Manhattan, which is everything South of 34th Black Meds, Crackers and thousands of other homeless
Street, is the most varied section of town, with commercial street people. The current Bowery is sprawled along the
centers, industrial complexes, old residential neighborhoods Southeast corner of the city, incorporating the Lower East
and old skid-row neighborhoods. Less than half of the Side and most of Little Italy and Chinatown.
area of downtown is gang territory, making it the lowest
concentration in the city. Downtown is also the oldest part The buildings in the Bowery are drab, almost all abandoned.
of the city. Street gangs fought bloody battles here in the There are many ruins of ancient shops, bars, theaters, music
mid 1800s. At the very Southern tip, the regular street plan halls and hotels. The buildings still in operation are bars,
dissolves in to a tangle of ancient streets. liquor stores, churches, shelters, and cheap hotels. Even
those buildings still in use are very old and weathered and
Large portions along the West side are actively used are on the verge of falling apart. There are many fenced
industrial complexes, employing many of the city’s off vacant lots (now taken over by groups of homeless
working classes (who live in corporate owned apartment people) and piles of rubble from buildings that fell down.
buildings nearby). The majority of downtown is Many buildings show scars: holes that have been boarded
commercial, and though the tallest skyscrapers are in over, buildings that shared a wall that have been torn down
midtown, downtown boasts the highest concentration of (leaving doorways that open up on to empty space), spots
skyscrapers. The residential areas are mostly very old where crumbling red brick have been quickly replaced
ethnic neighborhoods, and most are now occupies by well with concrete, etc.

About The City 047

 As much as street people in the city have a culture, the Bowery Sunken City
is a center of that culture. The Black Meds, the street family that
provides black market medical services to other street people, In Brief- Rising ocean levels created a dangerous
live here. The Bowery has the highest concentration of Street ring of semi-submerged buildings around the city.
People of any part of the city, the majority of the (numerous)
abandoned buildings have Street People living in them.
This term is used to refer to all the urban areas in
On the Southwest corner of the Bowery is the Criminal Courts Manhattan and Roosevelt Island that were semi-
Building, the only courthouse still in use in the city. It is submerged when ocean levels rose during the 2030s.
nicknamed the Tombs, has 835 jail cells and is shaped much The “sunken city” has eaten up all of Roosevelt
like a ziggurat. Island (in the East River), several blocks around
In the middle of the Bowery is the Manhattan Bridge. When Downtown, a few blocks all along the East side
cops pick up homeless people in the nice neighborhoods of of the island, several blocks on the East coast of
Brooklyn and Queens, the homeless people are usually given Inwood/Washington Heights and a large bite from
a choice: go to jail or go to Manhattan. Those that choose the very Northern tip of the island.
Manhattan are driven over the Manhattan Bridge and dropped
At the high-tide line, barbed wire fences, propped
off there. This part of town is sometimes known as “the drop
up by sandbags, are meant to keep people out of the
off point.” At any given time, hundreds of new city residents
are sleeping on the streets or living in cheap hotels near the sunken city. Many of the fences have been knocked
drop-off point. Cult recruiters prowl this part of town in force, down, and other have had holes cut in them. The
and it is a coveted location for pusher gangs. water flowing through the sunken city is fast-
moving, turbulent and typically very cold. Many
Financial District- Located at the Southern tip of the city, this people trying to wade through the sunken city are
neighborhood was once a center of international commerce. knocked down, sucked under and never seen again.
The major pre-Freedom War corporations had huge complexes
here. The streets here are very old, are much narrower than in The Water Rats, an unborn family, live in the ruins
the rest of the city (created for horse and buggy traffic) and do and have secret ways to get there safely.
not conform to the city’s regular street plan. The abundance
of tall, blocky buildings and narrow streets make this the most
claustrophobic part of the city, with only a tiny portion of sky
visible from the streets.
More than half of the office buildings are abandoned. Of those
that aren’t, usually only the first few floors are in use. The
Satellite Repair Corporation, the Human Services Group and
most Y1s have offices here. In the North part of the Financial
District is the civic center, an abandoned complex with the
old City Hall, a park, commercial office buildings and hall of
records.

048 About The City

 City History
The Freedom Army’s paranoia helped create some of its
Early 21st Century worst enemies. In 2054, city rebels detonated a small nuclear
Urban problems such as crime, disease and poverty bomb and several non-nuclear explosives, destroying the
continued to grow worse throughout the early 21st century. Freedom Army government complex. City residents rioted
Despite this, Manhattan remained a “hip” place to live and against the surviving Freedom Army soldiers. This bombing
a birthplace of new cultural trends up until the 2030s. In was a fatal blow to the Freedom Army, and within two years
the 2030s and 40s, the city took the brunt of a population the Freedom Army was destroyed.
explosion. The massive overcrowding was even more than
the ambitious city government could deal with. Parks were The surviving population of Manhattan was shuttled to refugee
paved over to build hospitals. Homeless people packed camps outside the city (where many died from disease). The
shanty-towns in to every available space. Riots were Restoration Committee did a quick nuclear cleanup of the
plentiful during this era, mostly initiated by unemployed city. After the cleanup ended, refugees were put back in to the
working-class people. city. For a brief period the city was a huge homeless shelter.
In 2045, the Industrial Fire Disaster put many thousands of Parcels of property were quickly sold to companies which
tons of black ash in the atmosphere. This started a chain converted buildings in to low income housing.
reaction which accelerated the rising ocean levels. Super-
storms racked the coast. The city, already dangerously Old Times
overcrowded, shrank as rising water partially submerged
many parts of the city. Many bridges and tunnels were During the land grab of the early 2050s, the newly formed
damaged and the city did not have the budget to repair them. corporations and gated communities bought huge tracts of
In 2046, God Killer hit the area. New York law enforcement property in New Jersey, Queens, the Bronx, Brooklyn and
did not have the resources to deal with it. The population Staten Island. None of these groups wanted property in
lived in fear of crazed God Killer addicts rampaging through Manhattan (thanks to few working bridges, a huge homeless
the streets mowing people down with automatic weapons. population, many bombed out ruins and a slightly radioactive
The city built high-tech checkpoints at every way in and out Central Park). Outside Manhattan, low income housing was
of the city, but drugs managed to get in regardless. bought up and renovated, the poor people forced to move
out. Soon, Manhattan was the only place left in the area for
displaced poor people to go to. Even as poor people were
Freedom Wars moving to the city, there was a massive exodus of the middle
Corporate complexes in Downtown Manhattan were blown and upper classes out of the city. Those who stayed in the
up during the massive first-strike by the Freedom Army. city found the streets becoming increasingly dangerous, and
Manhattan’s population was scared and rioted, trying to they chose to lock themselves away in their apartments. The
grab up as many goods as they could. In the massive rioting new VR companies gave these shut-ins access to VR fantasy
the police and National Guard were forced to flee the city. worlds to keep them occupied.
Quickly after the Freedom Wars, the drug market in the
Jeffrey Hernandez, head of the Freedom Army, needed a city re-established itself. Criminal entrepreneurs in the city
base of operations for the Freedom Army. Manhattan was bought God Killer from Appalachian biker gangs, sold it to
the perfect place: there were only a few ways in and out of
the new street gangs, who sold it to the general population.
the city (which had checkpoints) and the sunken city made These drug entrepreneurs (who quickly became known as
travel by water very difficult. Hernandez also wanted to “Drug Lords”) became the richest and most powerful people
create a thriving, successful metropolis, to show that thein the city. The gangs that sold the drugs grew quickly. In a
Freedom Army could build as well as destroy. Manhattan few years they went from small groups of a dozen people to
had the infrastructure to make this possible. organizations with thousands of members. The gangs used
The Freedom Army set themselves up in office buildings their drug profits to have guns smuggled in to the city, and
and conscripted the whole population of the city as labor they fought bloody battles against each other.
to build the new government and infrastructure. Factories So, for more than a decade, the majority of city locked
were created, manufacturing everything from weapons to themselves away to escape from the violence of gang warfare.
medical supplies. The Freedom Army started work on a Most of the people on the streets were either gang members or
complex of government buildings in the middle of central drug addicts. Everyone else on the streets (including the city’s
park. These half-underground fortresses were planned to large homeless population) tried to stay hidden. Anyone on
serve as the world capitol of the Freedom Army. the streets had to be very careful, lest they be caught in the
Manhattan residents became increasingly dissatisfied with crossfire of a gang war, be forcefully inducted in to a street
being forced to work for a government that couldn’t even gang, or be mugged by desperate addicts.
keep them fed. Hernandez became increasingly paranoid In 2075, this era abruptly came to an end. The Drug Lords
that rebel elements in the city would destroy the socialist formed in to a single organization and yanked drugs away
metropolis he was trying to create. The Freedom Army from the drug gangs. The gangs quickly self-destructed
swept the city for weapons and explosives. Hernandez and the Drug Lords, with their highly efficient structure and
locked up every manhole in the city and built a new (more powerful new drugs, seemed on the verge of ruling the entire
secure) subway system. city. However, a new generation of gangs would appear that
would frustrate the Drug Lords and make the city streets safer.

About The City 049

 City Infrastructure
and out of the city constantly, bringing in
Buildings materials and bringing out finished products.
The city has hundred of architecturally These complexes usually take up a city block
impressive buildings, most of which are (or more). They are gated with barbed wire
abandoned. Some buildings include banks, fences, security cameras and round-the-
concrete parking structures, Madison Square clock guards. Some industrial complexes
Garden (an indoor sports arena), courthouses, are abandoned (often because an accident
college campuses, movie theaters, museums happened and the corp found it cheaper to
and large hospitals. Since property values build a new complex than to clean up the old
were so high, and lots were small, buildings one).
in the city tend to be tall, thin and deep with
very little space between them. Inside an industrial complex there are
typically a few large warehouses and garages,
Abandoned Buildings- “Abandoned” is, some small offices (usually temporary
like “homeless,” a misnomer. About half the buildings and trailers), and industrial
buildings in the city are not used by anyone machinery (large tanks, furnaces, pumps and
with a legal right to be there, but most are smokestacks). Smoke and fire can be seen
used in some way. Most abandoned buildings coming from the top of smokestacks and
have been given over to the city (the owners cooling towers 24 hours a day. Explosions,
got tired of paying property taxes) and the fires and chemical leaks happen here often.
city posted up big “condemned” signs and Because the city fire department is so poorly
forgot about them. Of those buildings that funded, most complexes have their own fire
are being used by the owners, almost all fighting equipment and marginally trained
of those have some unused areas. In some staff. Employees toil around the clock: most
buildings there is a “bad floor” that no one are minimum wage workers who live nearby,
ever bothered to clean up and is used for managed by a few corporate employees
storage. In some cases, only the first two who commute from nearby corporate living
or three floors are used, the rest are not kept centers.
up at all.
Skyscrapers- A handful of skyscrapers
One result of all the free space is storage space is plentifuldominate the city skyline. Built during a time when
and cheap in the city. Anything that people are obligated cheap labor was plentiful, Manhattan once had the highest
to store, but don’t really care if it gets damaged or stolen, skyscrapers in the world (now Asia boasts the world’s
is stored in the city. Dark, unmaintained buildings tallest buildings). The majority are found in Downtown and
throughout the city are home to millions of boxes of old Midtown. By most definitions, a skyscraper is a building
paper files, drums of semi-toxic refuse, old paper-printed with 20 or more floors (though some have as many as 102
books, and cheap plastic coffins. floors). Skyscrapers became possible at the end of the 18th
A lot goes on in abandoned buildings. Some buildings are century when people learned to build large buildings with
hangouts for gang members, littered with cigarette butts the building’s weight supported by steel cages rather than
and beer bottles. Some buildings are used as repositories masonry walls. The first skyscrapers were huge blocks.
of trash and human waste by street Fearing that they would block out the
people (who have nowhere else to Urban Exploration Kit sun, the city required skyscrapers to
put their waste). Many buildings are Crowbar (For prying open doors) have a tapered shape.
homes for the “homeless.” Homeless Dust Mask (For crawling around in
Skyscrapers are more than just tall
living spaces range from the barely dusty spaces) buildings, they operate on a different
maintained (a cold and dirty place to Nightvision Goggles: Cheap (for seeing set of rules than normal buildings.
pass the night) to the lavish (home in the dark without attracting attention)
to a large extended family who have wireSwiss Army Knife (+knife, metal file, They take up whole city blocks and
clippers) (for cutting things like wire the networks of maintenance passages
spent hundreds of hours remodeling fences) within them are so complex that it
and fortifying the building). Most Rope and Grapple (For climbing on to would take years to explore them all.
abandoned buildings are not used roofs and into attics) Special pumps are needed to make
in a regular fashion, but they are Palmtop GPS (For knowing where you water reach the upper floors. Normal
routinely used for something, be it a are) elevators move too slowly and stop
party, a meeting, a place to stay the Electronic City Map (To look at the too often, and so people must travel
night or a place to hide bodies. blueprints of buildings on the wayfinder)
through the building using express
Digital Camera: Cheap (For taking
Industrial Complexes- The one pictures of places where you’re afraid to elevators to get near their desired
city industry that actually grew stick your head) floor and then normal elevators to get
after the Freedom Wars was high- Backpack (For holding gear and the rest of the way. Radio repeaters
pollution manufacture and chemical souvenirs) are necessary to let people inside the
production. Every other community Bottled Water (Because exploring can buildings receive radio or cellphone
in the area blocked high-pollution make you thirsty) signals. Special dampeners let the
factories from being built near them, Nutrient Bar (Because nobody wants to top of the building sway several feet
so they all came to the city. Most break for lunch) in a heavy wind, yet keep the sway
industrial complexes are in current Protective Gloves (For climbing on slow enough that people can’t feel it.
24-hour a day use. Trains run in barbed wire fences)

050 About The City

Skyscrapers are so expensive to maintain that none of the Apartment Buildings- The most consistently used
skyscrapers in the city have more than the first few floors buildings in the city are apartment buildings. The rental
in use. The first five floors can be maintained without market in the city is so complex and varied that city
much cost, while the upper floors are sealed off or used residents have created a whole vocabulary to describe the
for storage. Other skyscrapers are closed altogether, different types of rentals. In order from the most desired
abandoned. Homeless people live in the first few floors, to the least desired:
but since there are no elevators, anything higher is an Highrise: Thirty to Fifty floors. Built in the late
inconvenient place to go to. Sometimes, people will haul 20th, early 21st centuries to house the upper-middle class.
themselves up dozens of flights to hide themselves or to These large buildings have big windows (giving splendid
hide important objects. Sometimes secret meetings are views of the city), roomy interiors and central heating
held in rooms deep inside skyscrapers. City skyscrapers and air. They either have attendants at the door or an
have an average of 3000 rooms, making finding anyone or intercom and camera based buzzer system. Typically have
anything the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack. balconies, kitchens with modern appliances, health clubs,
underground garages and other amenities.
There are also a few secret apartments and offices hidden in Doorman: Twenty to forty floors. Built during the
the empty depths of the upper floors of some skyscrapers. 1950-70s. These are luxury buildings, home to trendy
Rather then hooking in to the system for the rest of the indies, with an attendant at the door 24 hours a day. They
building, water and fuel for generators is delivered every have few modern amenities, but the architecture is nice
few weeks and waste containers are taken out. Tenants (lavishly decorated lobbies, detailed façades) and there are
typically enter the building through underground tunnels relatively-modern elevators.
and ascend through dark elevator shafts using personal Loft: Six to Twelve floors. Formerly used for light
ascending devices. The security guards who sit in the manufacturing, they have been converted in to spacious
lobbies of the buildings typically do not know that such apartments, perfect for artists or engineers who need a
apartments exist. These apartments and offices are large working space. Typically have a large cargo elevator.
in sharp contrast to the building around them: behind Most are found Downtown.
armored doors they are warm, well lit and luxurious, while
all around them the abandoned floors are cold, dark, dirty, Elevator: Nine to twenty floors. Built through the 20th
century as housing for the middle class. Typically have an
laden with trash and dust, utterly without life. The owners
intercom security system. May have rooftop patios.
of these apartments and offices are wealthy and secretive.
It is common knowledge in the city that such apartments Brownstone: Three to five floors. This is a red
exist, but nobody knows who uses them. sandstone version of the typical late 1800s/early 1900s
townhouse or rowhouse (a long, thin, tall building, built to
Luxury Hotels- Most of the city’s luxury hotels are still be sandwiched in rows on a block). Originally built as a
open, but only the first few floors are maintained. When in single family home, but later converted to apartments (4 to
operation, these were some of the world’s most prestigious 10 apartments). The rooms are small, but have charm and
luxury hotels. They are wide buildings, all over 20 stories sometimes have amenities such as wood floors, fireplaces,
tall. In addition to more than a thousand guest rooms, they terraces and private gardens in back.
have huge lobbies, tiny shopping malls (containing dozens Projects: 10 to 40 story high buildings. Built in
of stores), gyms, indoor swimming pools, movie theaters, response to the massive need for low-income housing
pharmacies and doctors offices, huge banquet halls and during the 1970-80s and 2030-40s. These buildings are
conference rooms, restaurants, bars, and helicopter pads
on the roofs (now all unused). Underneath the hotels: a
maze of hotel offices, storage rooms, kitchens and laundry
facilities. The most expensive “rooms” include huge
living rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms and even kitchens.
Most of these hotels are in Midtown (the center of city
tourism) and most of them were built overlooking Central
Park. Today, these hotels do not have nearly the amenities
that they once did, but they are still the nicest places to
stay in the city (especially if one has an interest in history,
grand architecture, or a view of the hole). When wealthy
people stay in the city they usually stay in these hotels.
Churches and Cathedrals- The city has some of the
country’s most impressive old cathedrals and churches.
Most are still in use, although the congregations are much
smaller. Most churches in the city lose money: the tiny
crowd of parishioners that come in give what they can
but it is not enough to even pay the ministers’ wages.
Appointments in these churches used to be prestigious
and sought after, but today the churches are lucky to get
volunteers willing to live and work in the city. Fortunately
for the ministers, anything of value was carted out of the
church during the Freedom Wars. Many churches operate
tiny homeless shelters and soup kitchens, usually from the
back of the church. They may also rent out church offices
and old Sunday-school rooms to community groups like
Alcoholics Anonymous.

About The City 051

 huge unattractive blocks, sometimes cloned on several
consecutive blocks. They are built unimaginatively, of Utilities
cheap materials and have few amenities. At best, each Trash- Trash is omnipresent in the city. It can be
building has a laundry room, a small “community area” dangerous, when characters are forced to wade through it
and possibly a black-top playground. Inside, seemingly and may miss hazards such as holes, sharp pieces of metal,
unending hallways with stained grey carpet and dim etc. Trash can also be a blessing when it allows characters
florescent lights lead to hundreds of plain wood doors, to hide from their enemies. In some places there is so
each opening up to a tiny apartment. much trash that it creates a physical barrier.
Walkup: Three to five stories. Containing 12 to 30
small apartments. These are old tenement buildings, built There is garbage removal city in the city, but it is chancy.
in the late 1800s through the 1960s, to house the very poor. Dumpsters are often overflowing in to the streets by
There are no elevators, just dimly lit wooden stairwells, the time apartment managers can convince the garbage
usually with trash inside them. The apartments are cheap, removal services to do what they are being paid for and
cramped, dark with little or no ventilation. There may be come pick up the trash. There is no garbage removal on the
dark airshafts in the walls, but they are typically plugged streets, in public areas and in the abandoned places where
up with trash. Exterior fire-escapes are often the only people live. The fences that were put up to keep people
place where people can hang out and get fresh air, though from going to the sunken city keep trash from blowing out
not every apartment has fire escape access. to sea and make the city a sort of cage full of trash. When
strong winds blow, trash flies through the air from one side
Many old buildings in the city still use steam based of the city to the other, where it piles up against fences.
furnaces for heating in the winter. Except for the very There are some small parks and other public areas that are
cheapest tenements, most apartment buildings have a live- enclosed by fences and walls and these places usually have
in superintendent who is responsible for collecting rent, trash several feet deep. Alleys are a common dumping
doing minor repairs and hauling the trash out on trash place for trash that is too heavy to blow away, and some
days. The super is paid by the land management company alleys are filled, end to end, with trash piled higher than a
that owns the building, which is itself owned by a larger person. Some homeless people who squat in abandoned
corporation.
buildings do not carry out their trash, they leave it there
until the house becomes too choked up with it, then they
Streets move on.
The city has some of the worst streets in the US. The Electricity- Most power comes from Hydro-Quebec which
corrupt city government rarely repairs streets unless gets it’s power from hydroelectric sources, including
forced to by corporate pressure. When the major avenues Niagara falls. The many factories in the city also create
get so bad that trucks can’t deliver groceries to grocery their own power and resell the unused power to the city.
stores, the streets get repaired. Apart from those major Power outages are common and are a major cause of riots.
avenues, however, most streets are unusable except with
a vehicle with a powerful engine and four wheel drive. Sewage and Water- Probably the city’s most dependable
There are cracks, potholes, old craters from Freedom-War utility. Centuries old water and waste tunnels are kept
explosions, rubble, trash and even old non-running cars running by a tiny staff of city workers and second-hand
in the middle of the streets. In come cases there are holes robots. These robots travel through the tunnels keeping
in the streets that go straight through to old utility tunnels the pipes clean, cutting up obstructions and patching
below. The cheap electric cars that are being cranked out holes. At the Northern end of the city a large plant
now don’t have the power to travel over these streets. Most (mostly underground) uses secondary-nanotech filters to
people who ride motor vehicles in the city depend on old create (mostly) clean drinking water out of polluted water
gasoline-powered vehicles (and have to buy prohibitively from the Harlem river. Sewage is processed: the water is
expensive gasoline). In some parts of town vehicle traffic removed and dumped in the river, the solid elements are
is so infrequent that homeless people camp in the middle loaded on trains to be sold as fertilizer.
of the streets with no fear of being run over.

City Population
In Brief- 210,000 people on island of Manhattan, much There are also about 1,000 people just passing through in
less than in the past. the city at any one time. If they are staying for the night,
There are currently about 210,000 people living on the they are likely staying in hotels in the red light district, at
island of Manhattan, only one seventh of its population cheap motels near the drop-off point, or at the homes of
at the end of the 20th century and about one tenth of the relatives in the city. These travelers have every conceivable
island’s population in the 1920s. This is a population motivation for being in the city, legal and illegal, ethical
density of about 11,000 people per square mile. and unethical, exotic and mundane, but the majority are
New York area businessmen coming to the city for drugs
In terms of socioeconomic classes: there are 28,000 indies and prostitutes.
(7.5%), 151,000 wells (72%) and 31,000 street people
(14.5%). Manhattan Area and Population
In terms of allegiance (or lack thereof) to city power Date Above Water Area Population Density
structures: 120,000 (57%) are shut-ins, 55,000 (26%) do 1920’s 24 mi2 2,300,000 95,000/mi2
not belong to any gang or family, 30,000 (14%) belong to 1990’s 24 mi2 1,500,000 65,000/mi2
gangs or major street families and 5,000 (2%) belong to 2080 19 mi2 210,000 11,000/mi2
the Drug Lords organization.

052 About The City

Death City Population Shut-Ins
In Brief- 17 deaths/day, some go Out of 210,000: In Brief- Many people are afraid
to mortuaries, others are eaten Addicts/Winos 15,000 (7%) to leave their houses and have all
by rats, most are cremated and Crazies 5,000 (2%) their needs delivered. Most spend
buried in unmarked graves. their days in full immersion VR
Drug Lords/Pushers 5,000 (2%) fantasy worlds that are as addictive
Indies (in gangs) 5,000 (2%) as drugs.
17 people die in the city every Indies (not in gangs) 4,000 (1.9%)
day. About 12 of them end up Miscellaneous 16,000 (7.5%) The dichotomy between people
in the city morgue or a funeral “on the street” and shut-ins is more
Shut-Ins 120,000 (57%)
home. It can take weeks for important to city residents than
bodies to be discovered and taken Street People (in 5,000 (2%)
families) socioeconomic classes. Shut-ins
to the morgue (especially shut- aren’t a part of the city culture: they
ins, who may not be discovered Street People (not in 5,000 (2%)
families) don’t know the traditions, slang and
until neighbors complain of bad survival techniques that anyone
smells). 5 of the people do not Wells (in gangs) 20,000 (8%)
Wells (not in gangs) 10,000 (4%) who spends time on the streets
end up in the morgue: the bodies quickly learns. Shut-ins can get
are hidden, buried, or never virtually every physical need, from
found. When bodies are left Avg. Life
Group groceries to clean clothes, delivered
laying around, rats eat most of the Expectancy to them by teen Wells working for
flesh and the bones become just Indies (Non-Gang) 65 minimum wage. The very paranoid
another part of the city’s massive don’t even have to interact with the
amount of trash. Indie (Gang) 61
delivery people: instructions to
VR Addicts/Shut-Ins 58 leave the packages outside the door
The city morgue is located in the are common, and some apartments
basement of the New York City Wells (Gang) 51
Wells (Non-Gang) 49 have sophisticated drop boxes so
Central Hospital, downtown. residents can receive deliveries
About half the corpses that pass Street People (Family) 40 without coming in to contact with
through it are unclaimed and are anyone.
cremated and buried in Potter’s Street People (Non-Family) 30
Field (located on Hart Island Winos 25 Some people are shut-ins because
on Long Island South) with no they are physically or mentally
Crazies 24
marker. disabled. Most, however, are
Addicts 22
simply afraid of the city around
If they are claimed by a mortuary, them. Their isolation feeds their
the body is picked up and Top Causes of Death for All City fear. City shut-ins who meet in VR
prepared for burial. There is no Residents or on net sites often trade terrible
cemetery space in the city, so the #1- Heart Disease stories about the things happening
families have the choice of having #2- Drug Overdose on the streets around them. Shut-
the body buried in upstate New #3- Stroke
ins trade these stories so they
York, or (the cheapest and most #4- Exposure
#5- Communicable Diseases can help each other justify their
popular option) put in to one of decisions to stay inside.
the many city buildings that have
been converted to mausoleums. Top Causes of Death for City Residents
The mausoleums look like old Out of 120,000 Shut-Ins:
Ages 18-25
unused office buildings, they are #1- Drug Overdose VR Addicts 70,000 (58%)
Ronin 20,000 (17%)
kept unheated, dimply lit, and are #2- Murder Hospice 10,000 (8%)
filled with air-tight concrete or #3- Communicable Diseases Otaku 10,000 (8%)
plastic crypts. #4- Accident Other 10,000 (8%)
#5- Exposure

Disappearances
In the city, about 500 people disappear per year, more than one per day. The Math Addicts have concluded that these
disappearances can be explained without resorting to paranoid theories of evil conspiracies. The Math Addicts best-guess
break down of disappearances is as follows:
175 people died of natural causes, bodies not found or found and not identified.
130 people murdered and the bodies hidden or disposed of.
90 people who left the city or moved to another part of the city, not telling anyone where they were going.
25 people who entered cults and were asked (or forced) to leave their friends and family behind without a word.
25 people being held against their will, inside or outside the city, for purposes of forced slavery, prostitution or the creation
of illegal pornography.
20 people whose minds were wiped and bodies were sold on the black market.
20 people killed and eaten by animals or mauler addicts.
10 people who lost their memory or sanity, and who are still wandering about the city as homeless crazies.
5 people who drowned in the sunken city and were carried off by the water.

About The City 053

 VR Addicts- Virtual Reality is both a way of dealing with money on VR fantasy worlds, they enroll in courses that
the isolation and claustrophobia of being a shut-in and also advertise significantly increased passage rates. Although
a reason that many people become shut-ins. People who some Ronin are only willing only to put a few hours a
depend on Virtual Reality for most of their entertainment week in to studying, most are intense students who live an
and social needs are known by those on the streets (and by ascetic sort of lifestyle. They spend 8 to 16 hours a day
the rebellious adolescents they keep locked up with them) on the computer. They read textbooks, listen to lectures,
as VR Addicts. work through VR scenarios, run hypnosis programs and
Modern virtual reality uses radiochemical neural take evaluation tests to see how far along they’ve gotten.
stimulation to put users in a full immersion, nearly Some Ronin stay inside all day, not because they are afraid
photorealistic, environment. The worlds of VR are loosely of going outside, but because they don’t have time. Other
called “games.” Although there is some element of “play” Ronin don’t want to go out on to the streets because they
in them, for most the VR worlds are a place to socialize, are afraid they will be pulled in to a world of drugs, sex
relax and spend all of their time. and adventure that will undo all their manipulation of their
own personality.
Virtual Reality can be used for many very useful purposes,
including “hands-on” training in everything from surgery Some Ronin have been known to be desperate enough that
to cliff diving. Very few of the VR services that city VR they will go to quite extreme measures to up their scores.
addicts subscribe to teach anything useful. These are Some can be quite competitive and may try to sabotage
everything-but-the-kitchen-sink fantasy worlds made up of other Ronin. Others have sought out dangerous and
a mishmash of world mythologies, classic fantasy novels unproven technology, like Behavior Mod.
and new fantastic creations of the designers. The players Otaku- The word Otaku comes from a formal, and slightly
play wealthy and respected heroes and members of a archaic, Japanese greeting. In the 1980s, computer
vibrant and successful community. Players can participate connectivity first let people engage in social interaction
in exploration of the fantasy world, fighting monsters, trade without leaving their houses. Socially inept computer
and community development or uninhibited hedonism. geeks sometimes gained the name Otaku because they
VR companies are a lot like pushers. Both make their would use this awkward and disconcerting greeting.
money by making people dependent on something that Today, the term Otaku refers to a subset of Shut-Ins who
they don’t really need. Subscriptions to VR worlds are rely on the internet for social contact and entertainment,
always free for the first month, and the hardware and yet shun popular VR fantasy worlds.
broadband internet connections come with the service. The majority of Otaku are male. Most don’t get, or need,
People who use VR quickly become dependent. The more much face-to-face human contact (even in VR). The
they are in VR, the less they attend to matters such as Otaku fall in to a spiral: the less time they spend interacting
personal hygiene, fitness, cleanliness of their apartments, with people, the more their social skills deteriorate. The
and non-VR social contacts. Heavy VR find any time they few social interactions they have become increasingly
are forced to spend outside of VR is, at best, an annoyance. uncomfortable and anxious, which leads them to spend
“VR Withdrawal,” as proposed for consideration for the even less time interacting with people.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, has
the symptoms of depression, panic attacks and insomnia. The Otaku tend towards solitary entertainments: novels,
Used to sleeping on feather beds, eating enormous gourmet movies, one-person VR games. When they engage in
feasts, and hearing beautiful background music, the VR multiplayer games it is usually strategy or combat games
addicts find themselves in an alien world of bad smells, that don’t include any social interaction other than taunting
bad food, pain and nausea. VR serves the same purpose or swearing at opponents. Since this is the only form of
that drugs do: it gives an escape from an unpleasant life. positive self-esteem that many of them get, Otaku take
VR companies purposefully charge as much as the average these games quite seriously. They play with an urgency
well can afford. and vehemence that often frightens non-Otaku who try to
play. They also tend to engage in obsessive fandom and
VR is the second biggest money maker in the city (next to
trading. The things they are obsessed with tend to be the
rent) and has the highest profit margin. A lot of political
influence from the corporations goes in to protecting the sort of things intelligent adolescent males are commonly
ability of city residents to use Virtual Reality. interested in: video games, hacking, popular music and
acting stars (especially attractive females ones), the
Ronin- The term Ronin originally referred to a Japanese military, VR fiction (especially the sub-genres with a lot
samurai without a master. Later, at the end of the 20th of sex, violence, humor and juvenile wish fulfillment) and
century, it came to refer to a student who did not pass pornography.
college entrance exams and spent a year studying to take
them again. Today, the term is used to refer to people who If the Otaku’s tastes seem juvenile, it is because their
were never able to pass the screening to get in to a gated obsessions are usually first formed in adolescence. As
community or corporation and spend their time trying to an adolescent, an Otaku might develop a minor obsession
improve themselves so they can try again. The term also with an attractive music star. As the Otaku grows older,
can mean people who were kicked out of a corporation the music becomes less entertaining and what fuels the
or gated community for dropping below the minimum obsession is the challenge involved with collecting every
requirements and they are studying to try to re-enter. piece of information and media pertaining to that star. An
Otaku might not even listen to the star’s music anymore,
The Ronin usually pay to have independent testing but might spend hours a day creating net-shrines, writing
companies test them and tell them what they need to work love poems to the star, trading obscure bits of gossip and
on. They might be working on education, cognitive skills, media files, etc.
mental health, loyalty or morality. Instead of blowing their

054 About The City

 Famous People Most Otaku are harmless geeks, Hospice- Ten thousand of the city’s “shut-ins” are people in
content to stay in their homes and the process of dying. The city has several hospice facilities,
There are few famous collect via the internet. However,
people in the media some run by the city and others private, which take care of
today. The average Otaku are the most dangerous dying people. This portion of the shut-in population has
person out on the streets of the shut-ins because of two the least effect on the world: they are too sick to interact
could not name the exceptions to this general rule: with people on the internet or exert any political power.
current president, much Stalkers of famous people, Their biggest effect on the city is that hundreds of young
less famous media stars. including the violent ones, wells gain employment as hospice workers.
People who spend most typically come from the ranks of
of their time on the the Otaku. The Otaku become Others- There are about ten thousand shut-ins who
streets have little access unsatisfied with simply collecting don’t fall in to any of the above categories. They are not
to the media. Shut-ins media clips and decide to go meet dependent on VR for entertainment or social contact, they
spend most of their time the subject of their obsession in are not obsessive antisocial geeks, they are not studying to
in VR, but spend the person. get in to somewhere better and they are not dying. These
majority of time in VR
fantasy games where Violent Fetishists often start shut-ins vary a lot but they all find some way to entertain
they are the star. When out as Otaku who are obsessed with themselves without VR or leaving the house. Some find
they do watch movies, pornography. These Otaku create entertainment and social contact on the internet, but not
listen to music, or their own VR sexual encounters in VR fantasy worlds. They socialize on message boards,
watch news reports, the where they interact with watch movies, read books and play in solo VR games.
“people” are as likely computer-controlled partners. Some live life vicariously through Night Walkers. Others
to be photorealistic Having too much control can
computer-generated find non-internet ways to entertain themselves. Some
simulations as they are quickly make the simulations grow plants (including drugs), raise pets or raise children.
to be real. boring (see text box, below), and Some read from floor to ceiling stacks of old paper-bound
the Otaku quickly transgress every books. Some write or paint or engage in some other
When asked to name a taboo they can think of just to
current celebrity, people creative endeavor. They might enjoy their lot in life, or
keep it interesting (including rape,
most often name, in torture and murder). When all the they might find it desperately boring and unfulfilling.
descending order: Regardless, they spend most of their days inside.
a politician, a news virtual taboos are transgressed,
reporter, a criminal, a the only things left is to either Citizen’s Groups- Shut-Ins do have money and votes,
writer or VR designer, give up the pornography or to go which gives them power. There are dozens of citizen’s
a corporate CEO, an out on to the streets and make the groups in the city that have the job of making the desires
actor, a singer or an violent sexual fantasies real. and fears of the shut-ins (no matter how unfounded) known
athlete.
to the city and state government. The main thing that
Complete Control: A Fate Worse Than Death hampers the Citizen’s Groups’ power is a lack of accurate
feedback about what’s actually going on. Shut-Ins believe
Humans are used to being limited in everything they do. sensationalistic and inaccurate news stories and they often
Life is, for most people, a constant give and take between lobby for things that aren’t really needed. The citizen’s
what people want and what they can actually get away groups are often referred to by politicians, civil servants
with. People are not used to having total control and and criminal organizations as ‘the sleeping giant’. As long
when total control is granted, it often ruins them. This is as they can be kept blissfully unaware of what’s going on
nothing new: there is a long history of emperors, kings and around them, they are unlikely to do any harm. Even the
queens, dictators and ultra-rich people who, after being Drug Lords, the most powerful criminal organization in the
given virtually unlimited power, proceed to go insane and
city, is careful to keep its activities just under the radar of
ruin their lives. The difference is that today, the average
well can gain complete control with a VR system, a good the corporate news media and the shut-ins.
computer and a little programming knowledge.
Most shut-ins spend their days in multiplayer VR fantasy The AI Tax, Welfare and VR Addiction
worlds controlled by VR companies. They are given In the early 2060’s, in the aftermath of the Freedom Wars, the
enough to keep them happy, but they are seldom given “AI tax” bill was passed by congress. It was designed to ease
the massive unemployment caused by Artificial Intelligences
everything they want. There are a few anti-social shut-ins replacing more-and-more workers. The AI/unemployment
who prefer their own private virtual worlds, filled with AI problem had been a major factor that led to the Freedom
characters they control. Some may try to create a world Wars. The AI tax takes big chunk of profits made using AIs
with challenges and rules, but most end up cheating at in “traditionally human occupations” and earmarks it for
some point. Cheating becomes easier each time, more of a unemployment and welfare programs. Many of the larger
habit, until they go from being players in their VR worlds corporations actually supported this legislation, for reasons
which will become apparent shortly.
to being gods. And being a god is boring, but by this time
they no longer have the skills or patience to be anything Large corporations own almost all of the credit card companies
that welfare recipients are in debt to. They own most of the
less, so the only thing they can do to keep themselves land holding companies that own the apartment buildings
entertained is to break taboos. These VR autocrats slowly welfare recipients live in. They own (or are paid interest to
become terrible, evil, violent perverted gods who drive by people who own) the liquor stores, grocery stores, security
their VR world deeper in to hell every day. Once they companies and practically every company that caters to the
reach bottom, there are few places the VR autocrat can shut-in welfare class. For every dollar that the large corps
give to the AI tax, they get 95 cents back. And five cents is
go. Some commit suicide, some become serial killers, a small price to pay to prevent anti-corporate rioting. The
some quit VR and find life in the real world. Most are only people who don’t make their money back are the small
stuck, however, trapped in a hell they created, because start-up companies who can’t yet afford to think on such a
spending every waking moment being a god has eroded vast socioeconomic scale. For these companies, the AI tax
the skills they need to deal with reality (or even the tiny bit is another barrier that keeps them from making it big and
of reality found in VR multiplayer fantasy worlds). competing with the big corps.

About The City 055

 Children few parents ever face such punishments and truancy is
common. Many students drop out of school when they
In Brief- 20,000 children in cities, raised by parents, turn eighteen, completely illiterate.
Orphans, foster system. Most children educated in cheap
VR schools. ‘Kid Borgs’ are adults in children’s bodies. Kid-Borgs- Some people have been known to use mental
programming technology to transfer (or copy) their minds
Out of 210,000 people in the city, about 20,000 of them are in to the bodies of children. Some use children whose
below the age of 15 (the number 15 is used because this bodies were grown in a vat and who never had any real
is youngest age where most gangs will let a person join). consciousness, but most use the bodies of real children
There are children being raised by every social class in the who had their minds wiped. The main reason criminals
city. Some have fewer children (like the addicts, whose choose children is because they think they can get away
drug use usually kills fetuses, and shut-ins, who have a with more as children. Because of this phenomenon,
hard time meeting real-world lovers) and some have more children who are encountered on the streets without any
(street people in families have the highest). Although parents are usually regarded with suspicion.
shut-ins have the lowest birthrate, they make up 57% of Kid Gangs- Just as adults join together in to gangs for the
the population, and thus there are more children of shut- purposes of self-protection or to bully around others, so
ins than of any other city group. do street kids. Kid gangs are usually small (four to seven
When children do not have parents who can or will take kids, only a few are as large as twenty) and they tend not
care of them, many end up in the hands of the state. Many to last very long. Like adult gangs, some kid gangs steal
Wells and Indies in the city earn some extra money by and rob from other children and some act as benevolent
taking in foster children on a semi-permanent basis. protectors. Kid gangs rarely mess with adults, and so the
Foster parents range from the genuinely good parents, to world of kid gangs is generally invisible to adults. The
the abusive, to indescribably worse than abusive. If there only adults who are really aware of kid gangs are those
are no foster homes available, a child is sent to the state who prey on children (and try not to prey on members of
run city orphanage. The orphans in the orphanage know kid gangs).
the dangers of foster homes and will not let a child go Top 5 Children Not To Mess With
to a foster home once they have entered the care of the Drake Kid- From a very early age, Drake children are given
orphanage. The orphanage is run by grownup orphans tiny amounts of poisons, especially the Drake Fungus Poison.
who took a vow to protect those smaller than them. By the time they are walking and talking, they can take massive
The corrupt state workers who are being paid to run the amounts of the fungus poison without it hurting them. They are
orphanage don’t dare to come near it. Some parents have on a steady diet of this poison so that their very blood has enough
been known to drop off their children in Orphan territory poison in it to kill most people. Drakes learn from an early age
temporarily. The Orphans don’t approve of this, and to throw pieces of poisoned glass with deadly accuracy and they
are seldom found on the streets without these deadly weapons in
will make life as hard on the parents as possible, but this their pockets. Even if a Drake child can be disarmed and bound
doesn’t stop them from watching over the children. they know that they can kill with a bite and they are not afraid
Some children have no one to take care of them, yet to bite as hard as they can.
they are lucky enough to have gained the street smarts to Leader of a Kid Gang- Some kid gangs do not have a real
leader, but some do. Those leaders have a significant amount of
survive on their own. Children who learned to survive power at their command: a tiny army of rough street kids armed
on their own from a very early age are rare enough to with rocks, knives and clubs. Kid gangs have learned the lesson
have gained semi-mythical status. They are often called of revenge early on and they will go to great lengths to pay back
“wilderns” in city slang. someone who has injured them.
Among the Unborn, children are put to work as soon as Baby Colin- Colin doesn’t just copy his mind in to the minds of
adults. He inhabits a fair number of children in the city, and he
possible. The children contribute, even in a small way, uses their supposed innocence to his advantage. Even though
to the health of the family, but at the same time they learn too small to fight with an adult, little Colins wait until those
the skills that they will use to make a living later in life. who trust them are sleeping and then slit their throats with a
Unborn children are very skilled: a Black Med can usually knife. Baby Colins like to travel in packs so that their collective
set and splint a broken bone at 6, a Cracker can rip off a strength is enough to pull down a person, knock them out, and
payphone at 7, a Drake is given a sharp scrap of metal or drag them to whatever dark basement their mental installer is in.
glass (coated with a poison Drakes are immune to) at 3. Orphan Babysitter- From as early as they can understand
anything, those kids who end up at the city Orphanage are
Education- Gated communities and corps run their own taught to protect younger children. Orphans as young as 3 have
schools, for which they gain significant tax breaks (thanks been known to attack full grown adults to protect their charges.
to the self sufficiency acts of the early 2060s). Since most The Orphans are trained in a martial art specially designed to
children born in a corp or gated community will end up let small groups of children attack and kill adults. They are all
becoming a member, it is a wise investment for the corp or armed with railroad spikes that have been sharpened to wicked
points. They know every spot on an adult that is within their
gated community to pay for good education. reach that will paralyze with pain, cripple or kill. When there
The pool of funding for public schools is very low. are multiple Orphans they act in concert, encircling opponents
Since the early 2070’s there has been one virtual reality and stabbing them in the back.
system which acts as a public school for the entire state. Cult Kid- Cult kids are generally pretty harmless to adults.
They are sent out in small groups to try to lure street kids back
Students and teachers log in from home. Students who to the cult compound, bribing them with candy and friendship.
do not have full immersion VR hardware will be loaned They are usually under orders to stay away from adults (who
old hardware (donated by VR companies). Students who might try to save the kids from the cult). When the cult leader
don’t have a safe place to log in go to a schoolhouse (an feels that his or her power is in danger, though, the kids become
old converted office or school bus with a security guard very dangerous. The kids are brainwashed in to believing that
and VR terminals). The teachers do very little: mostly death should not be feared. It is not uncommon for cult leaders
the students run pre-written learning programs (ten years to strap homemade explosives to kids and send them to blow up
some of the cult’s (real or imagined) enemies. The kids look
older than those used in corporate schools). In theory, perfectly normal, may even come begging for help, but they
parents should make sure children go to a schoolhouse or know when to hit the button to take out their enemies. These
log in every day. If parents don’t make sure a child goes to kids are perfectly fearless, so certain are they that a perfect life
school, child protective services can be called. In reality, awaits them.
056 About The City
Immigrants There are secret brothels in the city where women, children
and a few men are kept inside by fear of their captors and
In Brief- Many legal and illegal immigrants come here to fear of what lies outside the brothels. Most of the people
escape terrible conditions. Some are kept ignorant of US in these brothels were kidnapped by organized crime
ways so they can be exploited. Some are literal slaves gangs in Southeast Asia, Russia and Central America,
in brothels. Some immigrants form small xenophobic smuggled over in cargo ships, and sold to the brothels at
communities. a few thousand per head. The Sexologists have made it
their personal crusade to hunt down the operators of these
Each year, millions of people come to the United States brothels and kill them, but there are still some left in secret
from countries ravaged by war, political oppression and locations in the red light district.
economic collapse. Some immigrate legally and quickly Immigrant Communities- Most illegal immigrants merge
join gated communities or corporations. Others enter the seamlessly in to the city society and economy, taking on
US illegally, entering with false visas. They cross the the roles played by unborn. Some even marry or are
Mexican border with the help of “jackals” (professional ‘adopted’ in to powerful street families. No matter how
people smugglers), ride homemade rafts up the coast, or well they fit in to the city society, most immigrants feel
pay to be smuggled in to the country onboard cargo ships. most comfortable around people who speak their language
Those immigrants who have entered the country illegally and share their culture.
can not get welfare or legal jobs and so they end up in There are some people who fail completely to acculturate
inner cities, usually living as street people. themselves to city society. They suffer from a sort of
Slave Trade- Many illegal immigrants are dangerously culture shock where they turn inwards and refuse to try to
ignorant of American ways, and some people take terrible fit in or even learn the language. They tend to form small,
advantage of this ignorance. There are con artists in the insular communities which they defend against outsiders.
city who specialize in catching immigrants in scams. When they are forced to leave these communities (for
instance, to scrounge for food) they refuse to communicate
Sometimes they bring them over at little or no charge, but with other city residents.
put them in debt with interest so high they can never pay
it off, turning the immigrants in to indentured servants. One example is a camp of refugees from Sierra Leone in
midtown in a vacant lot at the corner of 47th St. and 8th Ave,
The worst examples of taking advantage of illegal aliens is East of Tea Drinker territory. The camp is fenced off with
the slave trade. Some people are enticed in to coming to barbed wire, inside the concrete has been torn up so that
the United States on false pretences, promised legitimate crops could be grown in the dirt. The camp has 30 people
work or marriage to a loving spouse. Others are physically living there, some interact with city residents, some don’t
kidnapped or bought in third world slave markets and and a few refuse to leave the camp even for medical care.
smuggled in to the US as chattel. Once in the US they No outsiders are allowed in to the camp, even for a visit,
are virtually brainwashed in to believing that if they are and the camp recently repelled an attack by a coalition of
caught by the government they will suffer a terrible fate. four local pusher gangs.
They are told that illegal immigrants are put in to violent
and disease-filled prisons. Fear keeps the immigrants
from leaving the homes, factories or brothels where they
live or work.
This slavery does not happen only in the city. Many
people living in private cities or wealthy neighborhoods
have live-in maids who get paid nothing and are afraid to
leave the homes.

Colin
In Brief- Serial killer, kidnaps people and copies his mind of mutilating priests. The profilers immediately raised
in to theirs (thus creating copies of himself), thinks he’s a every alarm they could, and whole gangs took to the streets
god, city residents have found him impossible to wipe out. to find what they assumed was one perpetrator with one
mental installer.
History Colin himself revealed the truth to the profilers and the
truth was much more horrible than they had thought.
In 2075, amateur profilers were investigating a series of They had imagined one person with a mental installer
mutilated priests found in churches. When they caught manufacturing serial killers. In reality, each copy of Colin
the perpetrator in the act, what they saw frightened them: was an independent agent. Each copy went out and did
a group of small children. They were unable to take the whatever possible to make as many copies of himself as
children alive, but they autopsied the bodies and found possible. Like a virus, any single Colin could reproduce
evidence that each child’s mind had been wiped out exponentially in the right conditions. The copies were
and over-written with a new mind. They could reach not just children, they were everyone: young people,
no other conclusion other than that someone had erased old people, gang members, members of the Drug Lords,
the children’s minds and copied another mind in to their wealthy and powerful people, anonymous homeless
brains. What was worse, it was a mind that was capable people. Colin was infiltrating every sector of city society.

About The City 057

 Each copy struck out on his or her own, meaning that not
even Colin really knew who was a Colin or how many Church of Colin
Colins there were out there. In Brief- A few people pretend to worship Colin in
A paranoid witch hunt began, peaking in a few months. exchange for his anonymous protection.
Every person who had gone away for any period of time
or who was acting differently in any way was suspect. There is a small group of individuals who “worship” Colin
Many hundreds of people were lynched in the streets and as a god. Their official position is that Colin wants (some
many mental installers were destroyed. No one knows would even say needs) worshippers and is willing to offer
how many real Colins were killed, but there are at least a great deal in return. Colin worshippers wear black, wear
a hundred people now believed to have been wrongly bowl-cuts with the sides of their heads shaved and wear
murdered. The witch hunt died down as people began to silver crosses upside down. This is said to be Colin’s
believe that Colin had been destroyed. original appearance, although no one knows where this
information came from.
This pleasant belief lasted only a few months before Colins
were caught again. Another, smaller witch hunt occurred, Colin worshippers are, obviously quite hated, but the
but tapered out as people began to see the uselessness of people who hate them rarely do anything to them for fear
a witch hunt. Colin was too good at staying hidden and of being attacked by Colins. Worshippers will do many
anonymous, he was as likely to be the leader of a lynch things to please Colin, including defacing churches with
mob as he was to be the victim of one. Many said that pro-Colin graffiti, proclaiming from street corners that
Colin could only be fought with constant vigilance. Many “Colin is a God,” building public shrines to Colin and
were of the opinion that Colin just could not be destroyed leaving offerings (usually in the form of food, money and
by any means. weapons) to Colin.

Now, about one Colin is discovered every month. Math In exchange, Colin worshippers are watched over and
Addicts have given various estimates of the current protected by an invisible hand. Colin never contacts these
population of Colins as being somewhere between 20 and worshippers, but the most devout worshippers are under
500. constant surveillance by Colin. One rude remark to a
Colin worshipper can be enough to cause a person to be
attacked by Colins. Colin Worshippers often have a lot of
Colin Hunters Colin hunters around them, looking for Colins.
In Brief- Some people specialize in hunting Colins. Although Colin does not communicate with his worshippers,
the zeal with which he protects them or does not protect
Colin scares most people more than anything else in the them gives some clue about what behavior Colin likes or
city. Some people have transformed their fear in to a “no does not like. Colin likes fear, awe and christianesque
tolerance” policy towards Colins: they will immediately worship. He also likes when worshippers talk as if he was
kill anyone that they even suspect of being a Colin. Other a popular-culture icon. He likes worshippers who do not
people, especially people who have been hurt in some way claim to have personal powers, but who rely on the power
by Colins, have decided to devote their lives to hunting of Colin to protect them. For instance, Colin might not
Colin. Others hunt Colin as a hobby, some even find it protect someone who says “You can’t mess with me, I’m a
fun. Colin worshipper, you’ll be killed,” while he might protect
Colin hunters come from all ranks of city society. Some someone who says “I put my faith in the power and infinite
are Hunters, some are Eccentrics with a law enforcement wisdom of Colin.” Colin does not like worshippers who
background, some are young people who are hobby try to be like him, he has killed at least one worshipper
profilers. Together they form a small community that who tried to copy his mind in to a victim’s mind.
investigates Colin, shares information, and creates theories There are about 10 to 15 Colin Worshippers in the city.
about his psychology. When they discover a Colin, they The Church of Colin has no formal organization, but Colin
have a small army of volunteers willing to help them McKray, the first Colin Worshipper is the most powerful,
capture or kill the Colin. One thing they wonder about is has “converted” the most people and has the most influence
why Colin hasn’t tried to wipe them out yet. Their major over other Colin Worshippers.
theory is that Colin likes people studying him.

058 About The City

Strains “The Dropout Effect”
In Brief- Different strains with different skills/knowledge; some Colins may This is a theory by Colin Hunters.
have decided to quit reproducing. They say that at some point (if it hasn’t
happened already) some Colin will
change (either because of experiences
Any time Colin changes, if he is gaining a piece of knowledge, learning a or because of errors in the copying
new skill, or gets a new mental program, every Colin that Colin creates is process) to the point that he doesn’t
subtly different. Since Colin has been reproducing for 10 years, and has want to be a Colin anymore. Yet the
been actively trying to improve himself, there are many different strains. A effect on the Colins as a whole will be
new strain that is significantly better (e.g. has powerful psychic skills, or is almost nil. Those Colins will “drop
out” but other Colins will continue.
a master martial artist) could reproduce more quickly than other Colins and In the animal world, a mutation might
could be an immediate threat to the city. make an animal not want to have sex,
but since that gene is not carried on
Colin’s personality doesn’t change much. Colin Hunters attribute this to the to a new generation, the effect on the
powerful megalomania that has dominated every aspect of his life for the species is nil. Thus, say Colin experts,
last decade. However, personality change is probably inevitable if Colin Colin may continue to reproduce
survives long enough. forever if we allow him.
Finding a Colin dropout would be
a major coup for the Colin Hunters,
who could find out more about Colin’s
psychology. However, a drop-out may
not necessarily be a nice or safe person
to be around.

Criminals
It is hard to find someone on the streets who does not
break some law or another. Many people use illegal drugs,
Burglars
most people buy stolen merchandise from black market In Brief- Cat burglars are stealthy and skilled. Smash-
traders, most people trespass on to abandoned property. and-grab burglars are violent.
Many people will end up doing some job that
they get paid under the table for. Violence Top 10 Shoplifted There are two distinct types of burglary as
in the name of vigilante justice or revenge Items in the City practiced by professional and impulsive
is common. For street people, their very 1. Cigarettes criminals. The first type is cat burglary, where
not being seen takes precedence over getting
existence violates anti-camping and anti- 2. Liquor
something of value. Burglars of this type
vagrancy laws. 3. Condoms are usually professional unborn thieves with
Most city residents would divide criminals in 4. Over the Counter in-depth knowledge of how to bypass alarm
to one of four categories: Medicines containing systems. The second type is the smash-and-
Pseudophedrine* grab: gangs of armed youths break down a
Incidental Criminals: Commit crimes
that are incidental to their lifestyle: a Roofer 5. Spray Paint door or smash a window. They run in and
trespasses on rooftops, an Insomniac uses 6. Razors subdue anyone who happens to be present
illegal drugs, a Risen participates in gang 7. Disposable Lighters with violence or threats of violence. They run
warfare. The majority of people on the streets 8. Data Cards away before security can come en-masse. This
count as this type. type of burglary is a big problem in the city:
9. Baby Formula hundreds are killed each year and many more
Professional Criminals: Make a living 10. Batteries are injured. The burglars tend to prey on those
off of crime. In order to survive they must be *from which who can not defend themselves and more than
skilled and patient. They seek the easiest and Methamphetamines half of those who are killed are elderly.
least dangerous way to commit their crimes, and God Killer can be
and so they are seldom violent (the major manufactured Muggers
exception being professional assassins, who
practice efficient violence with nothing left to Muggers are typically small groups of desperate
chance). In Brief- Small gangs of youths ambush people to get
Impulsive Criminals: Typically Wells. Commit crimes money for drugs.
to get money for drugs, prostitutes or other expensive
vices. Impulsive criminals would make poor professional addicts or violent teenagers. They seek out those least
criminals: they are not skilled, patient or careful enough. able to defend themselves: intoxicated people, old people,
They typically commit crimes under the influence of drugs sick people, anyone who looks like a VR addict out on the
streets for the first time in months. Typically, the group
(most commonly alcohol and god killer) and they are very
waits in dark alleys, waiting for a spotter to tell them that
likely to use violence.
a lone traveler is coming by. The muggers ambush the
Sadistic Criminals: Commit crimes solely to victimize traveler, usually attacking with blunt objects. The point
others. Include rapists, serial killers, child molesters and is to incapacitate the victim, the muggers seldom care
hate criminals. whether they kill or not.

About The City 059

 Infrared Beams
Types of Alarms Pounders
Recognizing: Visible with infrared sensors, or look for Although many street people band together for the purposes
the holes in the wall the beams come out of. of self-protection and cooperative labor, some street people
Uses: Infrared beams are a cheap way of protecting form small groups that bully and exploit other street people.
some passageway against anything moving through it. They are known as “pounders” because of their propensity
They are only useful indoors, where it is unlikely that for ganging up on and beating up street people. These groups
pigeons or wind-blown trash will interrupt the beams. are typically made up of 5 to 20 males in their twenties and
Bypassing: One or two beams can be stepped over. If thirties, most of whom are physically large. There may or
beams completely block passage, they can be redirected may not be a leader. Most of these groups are ethnically
with semi-reflective mirrors or fiber-optic cables. homogenous (e.g. all white, all asian, etc.). Most drink
Floor Sensors alcohol as their primary form of entertainment.
These are sensors on the floor that set of an alarm when
weight is put on some part of the floor. The group bullies around other street people. The get the best
Recognizing: Loose tiles or a thin layer of spongy or camping sites (typically a vacant lot with a barbed wire fence
flexible material on the floor. and abandoned cars to sleep in). The group takes over the
Uses: Floor sensors are a good supplemental security best canning routes and begging spots. When semi-legitimate
system for rooms which no one should be in during jobs are offered to street people (for instance, a shop owner
certain hours, such as an office or vault. may pay street people to sweep up in front of the shop, or an
Bypassing: Sensors on top of the floor can usually be apartment manager may pay street people to carry garbage
erased with a spray of acid. If sensors are under the floors, bags to the dumpsters) these gangs muscle in and take over
thieves can glue the tiles in place or build a bridge. the jobs. The gangs may also steal directly from street people.
Door/Window Sensors At night these street people use their ill-earned money to buy
When the door or window is opened, an electrical drugs and alcohol and have parties. They play music on car
contact is broken and an alarm is activated. High quality stereos and use drugs and alcohol. The drugs and alcohol are
alwaysrun wires through the door or window so thieves used to lure street women in to the compound where they will
cannot cut a hole in the window or door. be given drugs and taken advantage of.
Recognizing: Electromagnetic sensors are a sure way,
but most can be seen by shining a flashlight in to the Pounder gangs typically stay away from each other. The
crack. pounders also stay away from the large street families who
Uses: Making sure doors and windows stay closed. would fight back against them. Like most bullies, they only
Bypassing: With cheap sensors, the easiest thing to do want to deal with the weak.
is to cut a hole in the window or door. In high quality
devices, thieves must drill in and insert wires to maintain
connections. High Class Thieves
Ambient Temperature Sensors There are a small class of elite criminals that travel around the
High definition heat sensors which are hooked up to the globe doing high-cost and high-payout jobs. They have the
air conditioning and heating systems. When a temperature best equipment, help and skills. Most fantasies about the lives
increase indicates a human presence, an alarm is triggered. of these thieves are false: they are not free spirits, they do not
Recognizing: Typically a small thermostat box on one live luxurious lifestyles, they are not doing what they would
wall.
like to be doing for a living. They are victims of various vices
Uses: Useful only in temperature controlled
environments, such as the rooms supercomputers are and personality problems, they are often broke, and they are
housed in. usually under the control of some organized crime figure who
Bypassing: A high tech temperature regulating body finances them but takes most of their profits
suit, or a thick wool suit filled with ice-packs.
Human Recognition Sensors
Assassins
Recognizing: Small cameras, usually mounted on In Brief- Many think they are skilled enough to kill for money
ceilings, that sweep back and forth. Typically transmit and there is a glut of people offering services.
wirelessly to a security computer.
Uses: Used in outside areas where people are not There are a large number of people in the city who wouldn’t
supposed to be at night and where wind or animals mind killing a complete stranger for money and who think
might set off other types of alarms. In very high-security they have the skills it would take. These are mostly young
corporate offices, every employee wears a security badge
that the computers read. If any human appears and there well freelancers who idealize violence, are too independent
is not a corresponding security badge signal, an alarm is to join a gang and too wimpy to engage in fair fights. Most
triggered. people who want to be assassins see the world as a place
Bypassing: Thieves create trash suits that make them where force alone rules. Assassins hang around on internet
look like a shambling mound of trash. Thieves must newsgroups with other wanna-be assassins, bragging about
also know how to move in a manner that doesn’t read their skills and hoping that someone will contact them with an
as human. Accomplished thieves look so weird in their invitation. Potential assassins may also advertise to the local
shambling-trash mode that human guards are often black market traders. Most assassins advertise but are never
shocked for several seconds upon seeing them. given an offer.
Motion Detectors
When assassins are hired, they are given instructions and
Recognizing: Small boxes mounted on the ceiling.
When well hidden, they are pinholes in the wall. paid anonymously (either through a black market trader, or
Uses: Used in rooms where there should be zero through anonymous transaction internet sites). The average
movement in the off hours. job pays $400. Almost half are paid to kill spouses or lovers.
Bypassing: Motion sensors can be bypassed by moving
extremely slowly (a moderate END roll and a hard AGY
roll.)

060 About The City

Terrorists Serial Killers
In Brief- The terrorists who were the heroes of the In Brief- The city has around 100 serial killers at any one
Freedom Wars, and the culture they helped create, linger time, who enact violent fantasies for anxiety relief and
now as mercenaries and lone radicals. self-esteem.

Terrorism was a huge part of the Freedom Wars. Terrorists The city has one of the highest concentrations of serial
could operate without the support of a bureaucracy or killers in the world. There are estimated to be about 100
infrastructure, and were thus able to do damage in lands serial killers operating in the city at any given time. There
completely controlled by the enemy. Terrorists helped
both sides, and some terrorists even switched sides are many reasons for this, some obvious and some subtle.
midway through the war. To illustrate, here are some of the childhood environmental
factors most strongly correlated with the development of a
Before the initial attacks of the Freedom Wars, Jeffrey serial killer:
Hernandez created training camps for terrorists in • Moderate (but not extreme) poverty.
sparsely populated areas of Mexico. Over five thousand
people were trained in demolitions, intelligence, sabotage, • A tragedy or trauma in early life.
assassination and brainwashing. These highly skilled • Little or no supervision by authority figures during
terrorists went out and trained other terrorists. Some childhood.
of these terrorists defected when they saw what Jeffrey • Few friends and social contacts.
Hernandez did with his power. There was never just one • Emotionally distant parent(s).
resistance and there was never really one Freedom Army:
there were many completely independent cells and lone • Early access to pornography, especially violent
individuals, each with their own view of what the outcome pornography.
of the Freedom Wars should be and with different ideas of • Nothing that would provide a strong sense of identity
what methods were acceptable. (e.g. a strong talent or membership in a minority group).
After the Freedom Wars ended, the Restoration Committee’s Many of these factors (moderate poverty, emotionally
primary goal was to end rioting, fighting and terrorism. The distant parents, poor supervision and few social contacts)
made concessions to any group they worried might resort to are consistent with the environment in the homes of shut-in
terrorism. Thus, much of the globe was balkanized. Most of well VR addicts (the largest part of the city’s population).
the terrorists who had fought in the Freedom Wars decided
that they had won (the Freedom Army had Pornography- Most serial killers in the city
wiped out the corps, the resistance had wiped Genius Serial Killers? are male and most appear to be dependent on
out the Freedom Army) and retired. A few Like most violent criminals, pornography and violent sexual fantasies.
however, were too radical to accept even the average serial killer has The relationship between serial killers and
partial victory. Like all good terrorists, they lower intelligence and lower pornography seems equivalent to a drug
went in to hiding to await the time to strike. self-control than the average addiction. Most serial killers have very low
Now, 24 years later, the FBI estimates that city resident. Despite this,
they often spend so much self-esteem and feel a transient feeling of
there are a thousand terrorists in the US and time thinking about ways to power when they view pornography or have
100 in the city. Many terrorists, trained in kill people that they come violent fantasies. Like a drug user who
methods of indoctrination, have indoctrinated up with clever strategies gains a tolerance for the drug, serial killers
new terrorists (including their own children). and ploys. Serial killers of need increasingly intense stimulation, and
Most acts of terrorism committed in the US above average intelligence
today are committed by people 18-30. do exist, but they still have use more and more “hardcore” pornography
poor impulse control and and fantasies. Eventually, the only way to
A few terrorists have gone in the other get caught almost as quickly get enough stimulation is to commit a real
direction and become mercenaries. Some as their stupider brothers act. Serial killers must kill increasingly
live in the city while awaiting jobs. They and sisters. often to fight away the ‘withdrawal’ of low
use the same methods as politically self-esteem anxiety.
motivated terrorists, but they destroy whoever or whatever
their employers want them to. The most disturbing aspect of the serial killers’ fantasy
worlds is that they have an obsessive need to dehumanize
Serial Killer or Normal Killer? their victims. A serial killer’s self-esteem is so fragile that
A lot of people in the city kill, and for a lot of reasons. they are only comfortable living in a world where they
Finding a set of dead bodies killed with a similar M.O. are the only one with an identity and free-will. All else
does not necessarily mean that a serial killer is at work. Is who share this world with them must be nothing more than
it a mugger who likes to bash people’s heads in, or a serial flesh and base emotions at the control of the serial killer.
killer who happens to rob his victims? Is it vigilante justice
or systematic revenge? Some Hunters have been known to Partnerships- Most serial killers prefer to work alone,
murder members of a group (like pusher gangs), but believe though there are instances of siblings, lovers and friends
they are doing good. Some profilers have even gone so far as
to call certain Hunters “good serial killers.” working together. In most cases, only one of the people is
truly ‘in to’ killing people, the other one is simply along
Two clues tell profilers that they should use a classic “serial
killer” profile in trying to solve a series of murders: First, the for the ride. When both are true serial killers, they work
victims all belong to a class of people (e.g. attractive women, together for the same reason drug addicts work together,
old winos, etc.) but are not actually related. Second, there because they see mutual benefit in it, not because they
is evidence that the killer is trying to recreate some internal like each other or want to share their experiences. Most
fantasy in the external world. The murder is often careful, partners of this type meet on the underground market
ritualistic, and bodies are often posed. A god-killer addicted
mugger doesn’t create a fantasy world about bashing people’s for illegal pornography. Very few ever form what city
heads in, he or she just goes out and does it. It is the serial residents would think of as a deep or fulfilling friendship.
killers who are trying to make fantasies real.

About The City 061

 Cults
In Brief- Many cults in city, prey on psychologically weak, Social Structure- The Lumens call themselves “penitents”
can be dangerous. and their church “church of the infinite light.” The name
Lumens was given to them by city residents. No one
Cults are a major problem in the city. There are about outside of the Lumens knows very much about the leader
four thousand people in some cult or another. About two of the Lumens. He is said to be a handsome, middle aged
people per day are recruited in to a cult. Most cults only male who is very intense and charismatic. Like a gang,
last a few years before breaking up (or ending in mass the Lumens seek immediate revenge for the death of one
suicide). Cults recruit from every level of the population, of their own.
rich and poor, shut-ins and street people. Most cults in
the city are small (20-100 people). A few cults become Beliefs- The Lumens believe that god is pure light and in
large enough to have some political pull in the city. The their religious ceremonies people expose themselves to
Lumens are currently the largest cult in the city and have extremely bright lights (along with hypnotic chanting).
been able to take on gangs. The lights are supposed to help cleanse the fears and desires
that remove people from god. They are also supposed to
show people how beautiful heaven is. Critics point out
Characteristics that, since bright lights can be an effective therapy for
In Brief- Prey on the confused and vulnerable, offer depression, the Lumens are just curing depressed people
companionship and safety, teach people not to think for and calling it spiritual awakening.
themselves, charismatic leader. Recruitment- Lumens are not allowed to leave the
Cloisters alone, they always travel in groups of four or
Cults prey on those who are experiencing stress or trauma. more. When they are recruiting, though, one member
Runaways are the biggest target, and many cult recruiters does the recruiting and the others hang around nearby,
hang around the bus stop in the Bowery where most pretending not to be associated with the recruiter. Lumens
runaways come in to town. The cults give a person in crisis wear “humble” clothing, which usually means that they
a comforting atmosphere, friendship, encouragement, love dress like Street People. They all carry knives and each
and sometimes even sex. In exchange, the cult controls team that leaves the cloister has one high-tech portable
the person’s surroundings 24 hours a day, controls what spotlight. In combat they shine this light at their opponents.
information the person has access to. The person’s The Lumens are used to operating in very bright light and
thinking is distracted so he or she doesn’t have the time, are not blinded as badly as their opponents.
energy or inspiration to question the doctrines of the cult.
Lumens look for people who look like they are having
The wild ideologies seem normal when everyone else
a hard time with life. One Lumen strikes up friendly
believes it. Finally, the cult member learns to censor his conversation, gets to know the person, then offers the
or her own thoughts. The member is taught that “bad person a hot meal and a place to stay the night. The
thoughts” will harm his or her spiritual progression and person is brought back to the Cloisters and treated with
should be avoided at all costs. kindness and respect. Any time the recruit asks to leave,
Almost universally, cults are led by a charismatic person the Lumens make up some imaginary crisis that is keeping
who is thought of as superhuman by his or her followers. them busy (but promise to let the person leave as soon as
Cult members are taught a sense of superiority over anyone it is done). If the person tries to force his or her way out
else not in the cult. They are taught that the lifestyle of the compound, the person will be grabbed and put in a
of outsiders is evil and dangerous to their souls, that brightly-lit cell. Someone sits outside the cell preaching,
common knowledge from the outside world is ignorance 24 hours a day, until the person submits.
and propaganda, and that cult members (especially the Battles- From their inception, the Lumens have been very
leadership) do not need to follow the laws of the outside good at recruiting drug addicts. The Lumens will capture
world. drug addicts, bring them to the cloisters and keep them
prisoner until they have detoxified (during which time they
Some think that the Purists and Dragons are cults. They are thoroughly brainwashed). Taking drug addicts (and
both have charismatic leaders who have unique spiritual thus income) away from the Drug Lords had prompted
ideas. They both have followers who believe in the ideas several attacks on the Lumens. The Lumens have held
of the leaders and live as the leaders suggest. However, their ground, refusing to change their behavior. The Drug
because members of the Purists and Dragons both enjoy Lords have not called off the war against the Lumens,
freedom of association, most people classify them as they still offer a reward to any pusher or addict who kills
gangs and not cults. a Lumen, but they have stopped ordering tactical assaults
on the Cloisters. The Drug Lords have stopped after two
Lumens dagger teams were destroyed. Hundreds of Lumens were
killed in the battles, but the Lumens didn’t seem to care.
In Brief- City’s biggest cult, live in Cloisters, use bright
lights for ceremonies and for blinding opponents. As the Skin Borgs expanded, they ran in to the Lumens.
At first, the Skin Borgs were determined to take over this
The Lumens are well known because they have taken on cult like they have taken over all the other gangs in their
both the Skin Borgs and the Drug Lords and survived. The way. The Skin Borgs quickly gave up, telling themselves
Lumens live in the Cloisters, European monk’s cloisters that this didn’t count as a loss because the Lumens
reconstructed in 1914, in Inwood hills on the North of the weren’t a gang. There is still a lot of hostility and warfare
island. This is right in the middle of Skin Borg territory. occasionally ignites.

062 About The City

 Disease

Healthcare Slow Killers

In Brief- Most Indies have high quality health insurance. In Brief- Many diseases, transmitted by body fluids, that
Wells have poor quality government healthcare, with two there are no cures for.
big hospitals in the city. Street People go to the Black Med
family for care. ERs must provide emergency care for Body Fluid Transmitted Diseases (BFTDs) infect up to 5%
indigent. of the city population. New strains pop up faster than cured
can be discovered. The most common BFTDs only cause
Indies- Most indies pay for subscriptions to HMOs. The pain and annoyance but seldom kill. Others can not be cures
city hospital and several clinics around the city take indie and will eventually kill. Most of these are autoimmune
health insurance, but Indies who want quality care travel diseases descended from HIV or from the newer HDNA
to clinics and hospitals outside of the city. In emergencies diseases. These BFTDs are often called “slow killers”.
(and for a reasonable co-pay) subscribers can be flown out A majority (55%) catch these diseases through sex, 40%
of the city by helicopter to an emergency room in Queens. catch them through use of dirty needles and 5% through
Private healthcare will pay for advanced pharmaceuticals, some other sort of body fluid contact. The slow killers
psychiatric mental programs, therapy and cloned parts (to cause a slow decline of health, resulting in death in 4 to 6
replace missing or damaged organs and appendages). They years. Even when there is no cure, a person’s lifespan can
will pay some of the costs of inpatient drug rehabilitation. be increased by using expensive drugs.
They will not pay for the terminally ill to be copied in to
a new body. Plagues
Wells- Government Healthcare is available for everyone In Brief- A new type of virus, made from human DNA,
on government assistance. A person with a healthcare occasionally pops up as a horrible plague.
card has to wait weeks to get an appointment with a dentist
or GP and might wait up to eight hours in an emergency
The 2040s were an era of plagues. Massive overpopulation,
room before being seen. Many people who die in the city
economic crises causes substandard healthcare and
hospital die in an ER waiting room.
sanitation, and everyone from corps to terrorists were
The state Department of Health Services owns the NYC messing with the DNA of disease organisms. The worst
Central Hospital at Park Ave. and E. 23rd St. (downtown, plague of this era contained human DNA and had a protein
near midtown) and the NYC Urgent Care Clinic at Adam coating that was virtually invisible to the human immune
Clay Powell Blvd. and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd (in system. Three million people around the world were
Harlem). The central hospital is a ten story building. killed before the first strain of this virus was brought under
The basement is the city morgue, the first floor is an limited control.
emergency room and the top floor is the city short-term
care psychiatric clinic. The urgent care clinic is a smaller Many of the terrible plagues of this era are waiting, living
clinic, built in an old brownstone that was once a tenement, in other hosts and waiting to infect the human population.
it has a slightly smaller emergency room as well as a large Plagues are worst in inner cities, and the city has been the
hospice. Both are in non-gang territory. There are a few source of several recent plague outbreaks. Countless untold
small specialists offices downtown that take government diseases are living in the city’s massive rat population (not
healthcare. The city also owns several hospices, many to mention stray cats and dogs, pigeons, squirrels and bats).
are built in to old brownstones in Harlem near the NYC A random bite by a rat can introduce a new strain in to a
Urgent Care Clinic. population. Or, in an even worse scenario, a mutated strain
starts killing all the rats, and the billions of fleas jump off
Government healthcare will not pay for implants, the dead rats and bite humans (thus spreading the disease
replacement parts, drug and alcohol treatment, to them).
psychotherapy, newer drugs or mental programs. There
are ambulances, but they are often overworked and slow Quarantines
to respond and the government tries to charge a $50 co-
pay for each ambulance visit. In Brief- The CDC locks down the city during plague
outbreaks, provides emergency care.
Street People- Street People go to the Black Meds,
a large, old street family that specializes in providing The city hospital reports disease stats to the CDC. When
medical care for street people. None of the Black Meds the CDC fears there is considerable danger from a disease,
have any formal medical training. The care they provide it issues a quarantine. The city is locked down, no one can
is mostly basic first aid (sterilizing, cauterizing, sewing enter and leave except for CDC doctors in CDC helicopters.
and splinting) and the use of herbs and placebos. Street CDC doctors set up inflatable labs where they can work
people mostly barter for Black Med services. When it on finding some treatment for the disease. Helicopters
comes to plagues, Black Meds can offer little help except with powerful speakers move through the city ordering
to make sure the victim has plenty of fluids and a warm everyone to stay inside. Anyone could be arrested for
place to rest. going out on the streets (or disobeying a CDC doctor) but
The central hospital and urgent care clinic emergency the CDC seldom has the time or employees to enforce such
rooms are required by law to provide care to any indigent rules. The Central Hospital and Urgent Care Clinic (and
person. No preventative or long-term care is provided: it sometimes the blocks surrounding them) become triage
is simply a matter of patching the person up and releasing units where people die en masse and a fine disinfectant
them back to the streets. mist is being constantly sprayed from the ceilings. After
one hour, the subways are shut down.

About The City 063

 Any city resident who’s
lived through a plague
develops a sixth sense
during outbreaks: every
doorknob, pool of blood,
delirious addict, even
the air around a corpse
seems to glow with
disease energy. Many
times “business” can’t
be stopped, even during
a plague, and while city
residents move through the
city they recognize death
everywhere, just waiting
for the right time to strike.

Plague Survival Kit

Gasmask (to protect
against airborne
diseases)
Sterilization Spray
(to sterilize food)
Latex Gloves (to
protect against contact
based diseases)
Trenchcoat (to
protect the body from
bites and scratches)
Insect Repellent (to
repel insects that might
carry diseases)

Drugs
Drug Addicts desperate look in their eyes. The majority of drug addicts
look like everyone else, these are the “part-timers”
In Brief- Drug addicts mostly dangerous, unhappy, poor. who are able to “keep it together” enough to stay at their
Some addicts handle addiction better than others. Many current place on the socioeconomic ladder and maintain
spend all day doing anything they can to get money for their membership in whatever group they belong to. Some
drugs. A lucky few become servants of addicts. part-timers keep their addictions secret from everyone they
know, some only hang around with drug abusers and never
The most visible drug addicts are what people jokingly think of not using as an option, some have admitted that
call “career addicts”: people who are so deeply addicted they are addicted and are trying to live with their “disease”
to their drug that they can not stay on welfare or hold an as comfortably as possible, some are trying to fight the
occupation (legal or illegal) or allegiance to any group. disease with the help of friends and family.
Career addicts are easy to spot: they care little about
hygiene, they may stink of alcohol or have visible needle There are 20,000 career addicts in the city and 56,500 part-
tracts on their skin, the malnutrition from each time they time addicts. Altogether that’s more than a third of the city
chose drugs over food is readily visible, and they have a population that is addicted to some drug, whether they are
willing to admit it or not.

064 About The City

Public Perception- The majority of addicts do not live Lackeys- A lucky minority of addicts become servants
on the streets, they keep their lives together. However, to pushers (and even kings). The pusher gives the addict
they are not so visible, so when people think of or talk of drugs, a little money for food and clothes, and sometimes
“addicts” they typically mean the career addicts people even a place to stay. In exchange, the addict is on call
see on the streets every day. Addicts are considered by 24 hours a day to run errands. Most lackeys realize how
many to be the lowest form of human life in the city. lucky they are and are very loyal and protective of their
Even homeless schizophrenics who scream day and night pusher. For the pusher this is a very good deal: a full time
at invisible demons take better care of themselves than servant for cash and drugs that cost the pusher about $200 a
some addicts do. In the mind of non-addicts, all addicts month. The more successful a pusher is, the more lackeys.
are desperate, dangerous, immoral and do not fear death. Some pushers have addict lackeys that do all their pushing
In truth, not every addict fits this stereotype, and those that
for them, the pusher just manages the money. Despite the
do only fit it some of the time. mutual benefit of this relationship, most pusher-lackey
relationships eventually go sour: pushers are violent and
Most people see career addicts as hopeless losers. This irresponsible, addicts are undependable and prone to
is incorrect. They are very skilled at getting drugs, using betrayal in desperate moments.
drugs and operating while under the influence of drugs,
it’s everything else in their lives that they are bad at.
Street Drugs
Good and Bad Addicts- The biggest difference between In Brief- Millions are spent on legal and illegal drugs.
addicts is one of psychology: some people handle Drugs quite harmful to the addicts and to society.
addiction better than others. Some take only as much as
they need to keep withdrawals away, they are careful and Alcohol: most abused drug in city with wide range of
sensible and always choose to get high after they have addicts who are better off than other addicts.
done their most important duties of the day. Other addicts Opiates: Many abuse prescription pain killers.
use far more drugs and at inappropriate times. When they Amphetamines: Popular stimulants, losing abusers to God
have problems, they deal with those problems by doing Killer.
drugs, which only makes the problems worse. Sometimes
they get passively suicidal: too scared to actually hurt God Killer: Most abused illegal drug, used by many young
themselves, but too scared of life to imagine it going on thugs, causes megalomania, feelings of invulnerability,
much longer. They take dangerous amounts of drugs and sometimes bloody and tragic rampages.
do dangerous things. Most addicts fall somewhere in the Chomper: 1st drug created by Drug Lords, now few
middle: they keep a handle on their addiction most of the addicts (ODs and more addictive drugs). Some OD
time, but occasionally lose control (especially when there victims survived inability to feel pleasure by becoming
is extraordinary stress in their lives). the Hungry.
Hustling- Among career addicts, “hustling” means doing Mauler: Created by Drug Lords, causes brain damage,
anything they can think of to get money. Generally, addicts addicts eventually become cannibalistic animals.
get all their physical necessities (food, clothing, toiletries) Trace: For “special” addicts the Drug Lords want to keep
by standing in lines at shelters and by searching through track of.
dumpsters. Addicts need money for buying drugs, and as
soon as they get any money at all it quickly goes toward Maxin: Not a recreational drug, Maxin is very addictive
drugs. The average career addict spends about 14 hours a because it is a powerful smart drug and without it addicts
day, earning fifty cents an hour, hustling. feel stupid.
Hustling is not purely the domain of homeless addicts. Escape: Not designed as a street drug, escape is very
Homeless crazies, non-addict street people and even wells psychologically addictive. It suppresses all feelings.
hustle when they need cash and can’t think of any other Slave: The newest drug from the drug lords and the most
way to get it. addictive yet.
Hustling can include the following:
Canning: Finding recyclables in the trash and turning Every day in the city, more than $700,000 is spent on
them in to one of many recycling centers across the city. alcohol and addictive street drugs. More than 21 million
Recyclables are usually kept in large plastic trash bags. per month goes in to the pockets of corporations, small
Begging: Going to places where a lot of people pass business owners, black market traders and the Drug Lords.
by, usually with a sign or a well practiced phrase. Alcohol- Alcohol has, perhaps, the widest range of
Salvaging: Finding usable goods others have thrown addicts. There are young and successful Indies who are
out and selling or trading them. Addicts might even go secretly addicted to alcohol and keep a hip flask of brandy
to homeless shelters to get food, toiletries and medicines, in their briefcases. There are also homeless winos who
which they turn around and sell. spend every bit of spare change they can scrape together
Working: Doing odd jobs, usually hard labor, for a to buy bottles of fortified wine. Most alcoholics do not
few cents worth of change. Superintendents usually get exclusively use alcohol, it is simply their drug of choice.
help with garbage bags for only a few quarters. More than half of winos will occasionally use god killer,
Theft: Addicts usually steal from intoxicated fellow amphetamines, opiates and other drugs when they can
addicts. They may shoplift, but are typically not very get a hold of them. Pushers often wish to force winos to
good at it. They may get together in small groups to become addicted to their super-addictive drugs. Pushers
ambush and rob non-addicts. may force winos to use via threats of force, or they may
Sex: Providing sexual favors in exchange for money or actually hold down and inject a wino. The wino’s best
drugs. defense is to be indistinguishable from other addicts.

About The City 065

 Method of Major Effects Long Term Num. Of Cost/Day
Drug Intake Effects Withdrawal OD Abusers to prevent Created
withdrawal
anxiolytic, vomiting, coma, 5,000 career
Alcohol drink pleasant buzz, brain and liver
damage
delirium
tremens convulsions 20,000 part- $5 Prehistory
clumsiness time
swallow sedation, cramps, heart attack, 2,000 career
Opiates pills shoot- anxiolytic, pain poor immune insomnia, flu- fluid in lungs, 7,000 part-
system like symptoms, inability to $8 Prehistory
up relief, pleasure diarrhea breathe time
depression, difficulty
breathing, 1,500 career,
Amphetamines swallow
pills
excitement,
pleasure
malnutrition,
paranoia, ulcers
anxiety,
shaking, irregular 5,000 part- $7 1932
insomnia heartbeat coma, time
spasms
excitement, emphysema, anxiety, panic psychosis, heart 3,000 career,
God Killer smoke megalomania cancer, brain attacks. attack 10,000 part- $10 2046
damage time
shortness of 1,000 career,
Chomper shoot-up mood swings, hair loss, liver breath, panic
anxiolytic damage, anemia attacks, vertigo,
endocrine
collapse 1,000 part- $7 2076
headache time
irritability, 500 career
Maxin swallow excitation, weakened bones feel stupid heart attack, 2,000 part- $20 2076
pills increased stroke time
intelligence
narrowing
Mauler paper under of attention, brain damage burning,
sensation
itching loss of blood 2,500 career,
on pressure, 1,000 part- $7 2077
tongue pleasure, (“animal state”) skin hypothermia time
excitement
migraine paralysis, 500 career,
Trace shoot-up sedation, poor immune headache, poor inability to 1,000 part- $7 2077
pleasure system, arthritis hearing, poor breathe time
vision
loss of 1,000 career,
Escape smoke emotional personality, none catatonia,
detachment insomnia, poor coughing blood 7,500 part-
time
$20 2078
vision
anxiolytic, weight loss, “the uglies”, diarrhea, 3,000 career,
Slave smoke psychedelic, pale skin, liver loss of vomiting, brain 2,000 part- $8 2078
“mellow damage willpower swelling time
excitement”
Although they try to stay camouflaged in the background, and black market traders sometimes try to compete with
winos are the best-off of any of the career addicts. Alcohol liquor stores by selling moonshine. Winos try to avoid this
is cheap, so addicts spend less time hustling and more time liquor because it can be dangerous if improperly prepared
taking care of personal needs, including social needs. Winos and it is sometimes doped with other drugs. Some winos
are the most likely of the addicts to form close friendships or make their own alcohol, known generally as pruno, out of
small groups, and these social bonds are a source of power yeast and fruit. Most pruno is brewed in a tin can sitting
on the streets. Because they have more time to relax and next to a hot water pipe and tastes awful. If an alcoholic
look at their surroundings, they tend to be more aware of can not buy alcohol in a store (e.g. because the liquor stores
that’s going on around them than other addicts. People who are closed due to a riot) the alcoholic may buy (or shoplift)
need informants on the streets often hire winos. Alcohol is mouthwash that contains alcohol and combine it with fruit
legal, and so is less dangerous to buy and use. Alcohol does juice to make it palatable.
have debilitating long term effects (severe liver damage
and brain damage leading to severe memory problems) but Even though they are the best off of the addicts, few non-
these effects happen more slowly (take decades rather than addicts envy winos. People beat, rob and rape winos,
years). Alcohol even provides some nutrition, so winos are thinking that the winos will not try to defend themselves
not as skinny as some other addicts. and have no one willing to revenge them. Most winos
are eligible for welfare but their lives are too unstable for
Alcohol is also less addictive than most of the modern them to go through the necessary paperwork. They are
street drugs. Most winos will “go straight” (detoxify or chronically poor, don’t eat well, can’t stay clean, suffer from
stop using) several times and may stay straight for several diseases and infections (they must wait until they are life
months before relapsing back in to alcoholism. When threatening before they can get treatment at an ER). Some
they do drink, though, winos don’t just drink to stave off winos don’t even seek medical care when they can because
withdrawals. They drink because they suffer from chronic they are too drunk to notice an illness. Winos sometimes
pain, because they suffer from anxiety over the constant pass out on cold nights and freeze to death.
uncertainty of life on the streets, because they suffer from
painful self-esteem problems and because life on the streets “You can’t trust anyone out here on the streets, not even
can be very boring. your best friend, because drugs erode people’s principles.
You see, drugs are about constant desperation and need, so
Alcoholics have a number of choices for alcohol. Fortified no matter what kinds of principles you got, it’s only a matter
wine, sold in liquor stores, provides the most alcohol per of time ‘till your mind is on something else and you forget
cent of any legal alcoholic beverage. Because it can be about one of your principles, let it slip just a bit. Each time
obtained legally, the majority of shut-ins who are addicted you let it slip, the next time’s easier, ‘till one day you realize
to some drug are addicted to alcohol. Young people there’s nothing you won’t do for drugs. You think you got a
working part-time jobs delivering groceries to shut-ins strong will, solid principles? That just means it will happen
often deliver dozens of bottles of liquor in a day. Pushers slower is all.” -Delilah Mungial, Addict

066 About The City

Opiates- Opiate chemicals are derived from a chemical God killer is a powerful stimulant, it also reduces pain
found in high concentrations in the opium poppy, which and anxiety. It increases self-esteem, making users
has been used since pre-history for pain relief. feel powerful, and causes delusions of grandeur and
The addictive power of the “new drugs” has been enough invulnerability. The drug gained its name because some
to almost completely destroy the trade ring that once addicts, while under the influence, think they are powerful
brought large quantities of haroin in to the city. Today, enough to take on whatever god(s) they believe in.
most people who are addicted to opiates are addicted to Long term god killer use causes emphysema, increased risk
prescription pain killers. Most addicts either scam or bribe of cancer, and brain damage (leading to mental retardation).
a doctor to get a painkiller prescription, or they buy the
same drug off the black market. The Drug Lords would God killer addicts are famous for doing stupid things that
like Opiates eliminated from the city (so their drugs have hurt others and themselves. Any dosage of god killer
less competition) but because opiates are brought in to city increases the chance that a user will do something stupid.
pharmacies legally, the Drug Lords can’t do much. God killer users think they have infinite power. A god
Opiate addicts are, on average, older than most other killer user, for example, may break his daughter’s neck,
addicts and many have legitimate physical conditions that expecting to be able to resurrect her by force of will. A god
cause pain. The typical addict is a shut-in well, around 40, killer addict may jump out of a window expecting to be
with some physical disability who scams prescriptions off able to fly, might break a leg and get a severe concussion,
of doctors. There are about 2,000 career addicts in the city but will be unable to believe that he or she failed and will
and about 7,000 part timers. hobble off (not noticing the pain) to go do something else
Opiates cause euphoria, sedation, pain relief and relief stupid. The most dangerous thing that can happen to a god
from anxiety. Withdrawal from opiates has very unpleasant killer user (and the people around the user) is a “rampage.”
effects, including cramps, insomnia, flu-like symptoms, Some rampages are caused by accidental overdose (a person
diarrhea and profuse sweating. Long term addicts suffer gets a stronger-than-normal batch). Typically, through, a
from constipation (which can be deadly if not treated) and god killer addict starts out meaning to use only a little god
a poor immune system.
killer. The addict uses a little bit, then (feeling on top of the
Amphetamines- Since prehistory, the Chinese and Native world) decides that moderation is for the weak and smokes
Americans used herbs that contained the drug ephedrine. every other pellet he or she has. Wanting desperately to
In 1932 amphetamine, a drug made from ephedrine, was not come down, the addict runs off and spends every bit of
invented. During WWII, both sides used amphetamines money on god killer, smoking it all. When that starts to run
to keep soldiers awake and alert, and heavy amphetamine out, he or she commits some crime to get more. At some
use was one reason for the success of Hitler’s blitzkrieg. point, the abuser decides that he or she is immortal and
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, amphetamines omnipotent and decides to go around destroying anything
competed with crack cocaine as the top drug of abuse. In that he or she doesn’t like. From this point, there are very
the 2040s, God Killer displaced both, and amphetamines few ways it can go that doesn’t end up with the user dying.
only remained abused because they could be stolen or
scammed from pharmacies. They wander around the city attacking anyone they dislike
Amphetamines are powerful synthetic stimulants. Their in any way. They may shout out challenges, and may even
effects are a euphoric mania. Effects for long-term abuses demand that god come down to fight. They may seek out
include malnutrition, paranoia, ulcers and skin diseases. old enemies or bullies. They may show up at the houses of
Withdrawal symptoms for addicts are depression, anxiety, ex-lovers, expecting to be taken back. Intimidation doesn’t
shaking and sleep disorders. work against rampagers. Appeals to morals or compassion
are useless. Pain and injuries are shrugged off. Setbacks do
God Killer- In 2046, God killer was introduced on the not phase the abuser, since he or she simply doesn’t believe
streets. In many ways it was the first “modern” drug: in them. Rampagers are stronger and faster. Rampagers
a cocktail of drugs designed for maximum addictive do not defend themselves: they focus on hurting their
potential. God killer quickly forced crack cocaine and
opponents as much as possible. A fight with a rampager is
methamphetamines out of their economic niche. In 2048,
always very messy.
god killer replaced crack cocaine as the most abused
illegal drug in the US. Chomper- The first drug created by the newly incorporated
God killer is created by organized crime syndicates Drug Lords. Only a year after their coming together in to
operating in the Appalachians. Genetically engineered a single entity, the Drug Lords caused a huge shortage of
plants (looking like normal weeds) growing on street drugs and flooded the streets with cheap chomper.
mountainsides are harvested and turned in to god killer in Chomper was also the first drug so addictive that pushers
little labs built in tiny wood shacks. The rich and powerful could hold people down, force them to use it, and make
“mountain gangs” that create and sell god killer have their life-long addicts. The fatal flaw of chomper was that it was
roots in the biker gangs of the early 21st century and may too easy to overdose on it. When Mauler and Trace were
have Freedom Army war criminals in their ranks. invented, addicts were encouraged to switch to these drugs.
Although the drugs created by the Drug Lords have been Chomper use peaked in 2076, the year it was released, with
gaining steadily in popularity, God killer is still the most 7,000 addicts. Now there are only 2,000 addicts (about
abused illegal drug in the city and provides most of the 1,000 career and 1,000 part-time).
Drug Lords’ income. The “typical” addict is a young male
well, who uses god killer to feel powerful and commits
crimes under the influence of god killer.

About The City 067

 Chomper causes powerful and thrilling mood swings. Today there are about 1000 ex-Mauler addicts living as
Anger, depression and happiness are all equally animals throughout the city. Mauler addict packs tend to
pleasurable while on chomper. Chomper also enhances go after the weak, intoxicated or injured. They will follow
the pleasurable effects of many other drugs, and is still blood trails to find potential prey. If a victim turns out to
used by many addicts as a “booster.” Chomper gained be able to defend himself or herself, the pack will scatter.
its name because users tend to clench or grind their teeth.
Withdrawal for addicts causes shortness of breath, panic Trace- Trace was introduced in 2077, only a few months
attacks, vertigo and headaches. Long term chomper users after mauler. Trace is a grayish powder that must be
suffer from hair loss, liver damage, anemia and their teeth cooked in a spoon or bottle cap and injected intravenously.
tend to break from clenching and grinding. Trace causes intense pleasure and sedation that starts to
taper off immediately and slowly dwindles to nothing.
Chomper overdoses create a condition called endocrine
collapse. The pituitary gland in the brain, which uses Trace has a special purpose for the Drug Lords. Anyone
hormones to control most of the other glands in the body, who the Drug Lords feel they might want to “keep an eye
suddenly and permanently stops working. Most people on” is forced to become addicted to trace. An addict with
who overdose on chomper die. The lucky ones get an special skills, a potential enemy or someone with special
implant that take over many (but not all) functions of the knowledge is a candidate for forced addiction to trace.
pituitary gland. The implant cannot regulate pleasure and Only certain kings are given trace to sell and those kings
causes a total anhedonia (the inability to feel pleasure). give trace to only a few of their pushers. This means that
Anhedonia typically causes suicide, but a small group of trace addicts only have a few places they can go to get
ex-Chomper addicts called the Hungry have devised a way drugs and if the Drug Lords decide they want someone
to keep themselves going and are a powerful enemy of the they can find them easily. Trace also makes the skin of
Drug Lords. users pink and blotchy, making addicts still easier to find.
Mauler- Introduced by the Drug Lords in 2077, an eagerly Trace is made in city drug labs. Trace is synthesized
needed replacement for Chomper. Mauler is a distant mostly from heroin and tetrodotoxin (a poison found in the
relative of LSD and is manufactured in city labs from puffer fish). Because the Drug Lords must import these
“crops” of the ergot fungus. Mauler turned out to have ingredients, trace is expensive for the Drug Lords to make,
severe long term effects and is currently being phased out and they make very little profit at the price they sell it at.
by the Drug Lords. There are about 2,500 career addicts This is probably another reason that the Drug Lords chose
and about 1,000 part timers. to use it as their “special” drug.
Mauler is sold as little scraps of white paper with distinctive Maxin- Maxin does not fit the mold of the other drugs.
symbols on them. Each batch has a different symbol and Only recently have the Drug Lords realized the potential
addicts would refer longingly to “red stars” or with disgust profit from carrying this drug, before that it was the
to “clown head.” The scraps are put under the tongue. exclusive providence of black market traders and goods.
Mauler causes stimulation, pleasure, and a narrowing of There are 500 career addicts and 2,000 “part-timers” who
attention. Mauler addicts under the influence feel that the might not even realize they are addicts. Maxin is illegal in
focus of their attention is the only thing in the universe. the US, but is available as a prescription drug in Mexico
A Mauler addict might spend hours examining the cracks (where most maxin is smuggled in from). Maxin comes in
in the wall, oblivious to anything that doesn’t actually a small inhaler.
touch them. Withdrawal from mauler causes a torturous Maxin is the most powerful smart drug created to date.
burning/itching sensation on the skin. Maxin is also the most unpleasant smart drug around. Its
About a year after Mauler came out, people began to effects have been described as “like not sleeping for two
realize that it had a terrible side effect. Mauler addicts days, drinking ten cups of coffee, and getting continuously
received brain damage. Some people seemed to receive slapped in the face.” Maxin users are excited, irritable,
brain damage faster than others, but it was apparent that their hearts beat dangerously fast and they get muscle
all mauler addicts would eventually end up the same way. cramps. On the other hand, their speed of thought, powers
The parts of the brain that were being destroyed were those of memory, creativity, logic and intuition are all increased
responsible for language, memory, self-consciousness and significantly.
logical thought. People working with addicts watched There are no real withdrawal effects except for a desire
in horror as the minds of mauler addicts slowly turned to crawl in to bed and sleep and the occasional headache.
in to the minds of animals. The mauler addicts were The problem is that after being so much smarter, Maxin
oblivious. By 2079, two years after Mauler was released, users feel incredibly stupid. People feel that their thoughts
people began to see packs of mauler addicts on the streets, are slow, their memories are poor, every intellectual task
communicating with barks and howls and eating human is so hard that it is painful. They are not any stupider than
flesh. they were before, they just feel that way in comparison.
For a while, mauler addicts exist in a twilight state: they This withdrawal doesn’t go away easily: for years after an
spend most of the day in an animal-like state of being, addict quits he or she may report feeling stupid.
yet they occasionally get better for a few hours and they Maxin is only addictive to people with a certain type of
are able to use this time to buy drugs. Even in their most personality. People who don’t mind being stupid won’t
animalistic states they can attack people and will remember become addicted to Maxin. People who are likely to
to steal cash and valuables. Mauler addicts eventually become addicted are people who are goal oriented, spartan,
stop having lucid moments. Unable to buy drugs, most utilitarian, overachievers (the type of people least likely to
scratch themselves up during painful withdrawals and become addicted to other drugs). The typical Maxin user
die from infections. Those that live eventually form in to is an Indie gang member who is a highly skilled psychic,
packs with other addicts. hacker, technician or medic.

068 About The City

The bones of long term Maxin addicts lose calcium and Although slave has only been around for two years, long-
become very weak. Those who have been using Maxin term-effects have started to appear. Those who work
since it hit the streets in 2076 can be killed by a simple fall. with addicts predict that Slave users will die within a few
Escape- Like Maxin, Escape was never meant to be a drug decades from damage to the liver and digestive system.
of abuse. The FDA recently made this drug illegal after
many psychiatrists and GPs got their patients addicted to Drug Lords
this drug. Escape was the “surprise” drug of the 2070’s:
no one expected it to addict so many people and for those In Brief- Drugs sold by a mysterious, ruthless,
addictions to be so resistant to treatment. After becoming monopolistic, efficient organization. Small, violent gangs
illegal, it quickly became a very popular street drug. It sell drugs (sometimes forcefully) on proscribed turf.
currently has 1,000 career addicts and 7,500 part-time Some pushers keep their turf orderly and peaceful. Other
addicts. At $20 a dose, escape is usually a “rich person’s pushers transgress in to other turf and wage war against
drug and addicts living on the streets with no source of each other (despite possible punishment). Kings distribute
income usually turn to other drugs instead of escape. to pushers from home fortresses. Kings are controlled by
Escape can be taken as pills, but hardcore addicts prefer Lords, who are secretive, enforce a strict law (don’t touch
to sprinkle powdered escape on tobacco or some other Drug Lord employees, don’t interfere of compete with
smokeable herb and smoke the mixture. drug sales) using “daggers” (elite teams of trained killers
with black motorcycles). Drugs manufactured in the city
More than any other drug, escape shows the power of by production teams.
psychological addiction. Escape has no withdrawal
symptoms, yet it is highly addictive. Escape is a
dissociative: it removes people from their emotions. It Pusher Gangs- Pusher gangs are the foot soldiers of the
was originally created to help people deal with traumas, to Drug Lords. The average pusher gang is made up of five
help ease them in to feeling the terrible emotions. Armies teenage males armed with knives, clubs and one pistol.
throughout the globe have found that escape is very good They are the children of wells, but are not old enough (or
for eliminating post-traumatic stress disorder until the don’t have their lives together enough) to be on welfare.
soldiers can return to relative safety. They use drugs themselves (typically god-killer or alcohol)
yet are not “career” addicts. They have a history of crime,
While on escape, everything feels like it is happening to especially theft and assault. They make about $2,000 a
somebody else. Users are still in control of their bodies month each, but spend their money quickly. The members
and still retain enough feelings of self-preservation to stay of the gang grew up on the streets, ambitionless young men,
out of danger and feed themselves. In fact, escape users hanging together and using their numbers to intimidate
typically engage in all their normal habits, the habits just others. They did minor crimes to gain money and used
don’t mean anything to them. Acting, not acting, it’s all money to buy weapons. At some point they felt they had
the same to the escape user. Fortunately, escape blocks made a name for themselves and they petitioned the local
feelings of boredom as well. The escape user doesn’t
king (and gave a small bribe) for a recently vacated piece
even care that much about getting more drugs, until the
drugs start to wear off. Then, all the feelings the person of pusher turf.
was trying to escape start to come back, as well as a new Pusher gangs vary from this standard template wildly. Some
feeling: fear and self-loathing about being an addict. gangs have only one member, others have twenty. Some
Long-term escape addicts usually become shut-ins on pushers are sadistic sociopaths, others are almost Goods
welfare. They stay in all day, nothing motivating them to and know their addicts by name. Some are adolescents,
go outside. Desires and opinions slowly fade away from some are in their forties. Some pushers make as little as
disuse until the person really has no personality at all. The $250 a month each, others make up to $10,000 a month.
ability to sleep is also damaged and the person slowly goes Most pusher gangs forcibly addict people to their drugs.
blind. Some grab anyone walking past who appears vulnerable.
Slave- In 2078, only two years ago, slave first hit the streets. A few will go so far as to break in to the apartments of shut-
Pushers sold it cheap, giving it to God Killer addicts who ins to forcefully addict them. The Drug Lords discourage
could not afford to buy God Killer. Slave proved to be this extreme behavior for fear that it will attract the
much more addictive than God Killer. Only 5,000 in the attention of the corporate news media and citizens’ groups .
city are currently addicted to Slave (3,000 career, 2,000 Most pusher gangs operate by a code of revenge much like
part-time), yet growing quickly. that of gang members. They hunt down and kill anyone who
Slave comes in tiny bluish-white pellets that can be smoked has messed with them. Most pusher gangs understand only
with a god killer pipe. The effects of taking the drug are military force, and they feel free to mess with anyone they
good but are also “nothing special.” Other drugs provide think they can beat. They may kill someone for something
a more pleasurable experience. Slave reduces anxiety and as small as giving them a dirty look. The pusher gangs
pain, it creates a paradoxical “mellow excitement” where typically don’t mess with large gangs or street families.
the user feels excited and giddy but doesn’t want to do
At first, pusher gangs appear completely independent.
anything, and it has mild psychedelic effects.
They purchase drugs from their local king and sell it for as
Slave is said to have the worst withdrawal of any drug. Slave much as they want (usually a 100% markup), they can even
withdrawal is known as “the uglies” by addicts. During sell to resellers. When the Drug Lords have an enemy, the
withdrawal, every single thing the addict experiences or pusher gangs are offered a reward for the enemy’s head.
imagines seems unbearably ugly and disgusting. Even the Despite this apparent freedom, a lot of what pusher gangs
idea of being clean, of defeating the drug addiction and do is controlled by the drug lords. The pusher gangs must
never having to face the uglies again, seems like a terrible meet a weekly quota, they are assigned a specific area they
and disgusting idea. The uglies do not go away quickly, are allowed to sell in, and they aren’t allowed to fight with
they can last for weeks or even up to a month in hard core each other.
addicts.

About The City 069

 Most pusher gangs don’t have any real ambitions. Most are found in the city (as opposed to Heroin and God Killer,
living for their next hit of God Killer. The few ambitious which came from Asia and the Appalachians).
pushers hope to someday make a bid to become a king.
Nobody could have predicted the effect on the city of the
Lords- Even before the consolidation of the Drug Lords destruction of the old drug-selling gangs. By taking drugs
(in 2075), the lords were very secretive. They had reason away from the gangs, the Drug Lords inadvertently opened
to be: they were the wealthiest and most powerful drug gang membership up to a new type of person. These new
traders in the city, they dealt with international drug cartels gangs (including the Night Shift) are capable of standing
and they sold to the city’s most powerful street gangs. up to the Drug Lords and willing to do so. These new
They were also at constant war with each other and were gangs are the only major setback the Drug Lords have
not afraid to assassinate each other. faced since their consolidation.
Little is known about the events of 2075. Some lords were No one knows exactly who all the lords are, or even how
executed, the rest joined together in to a single entity that many there are, but anecdotal evidence shows that there
worked with uncharacteristic efficiency. Every move by are about 7 of them and they have divided the city in to
the Drug Lords, since 2075, has been made with a logical equal parts. Each lord has a well equipped strike team
intelligence that amazes even the Math Addicts. Within (“daggers”) and a number of subordinate managers. Unlike
a year, the lords had destroyed every major enemy, had the kings, whose bases of operation are public knowledge,
created a vertical monopoly over drugs in the city, and enemies of the Drug Lords have been unable to figure out
were working on freeing themselves from dependence on where the Lords operate from. When lords appear on the
the drug cartels. They created new drugs that were much city streets, which is rare, they usually appear in armored
more efficient and could be manufactured from sources cars with a multitude of bodyguards armed with machine
guns.

Employment
Legal Fighting For Money
There are a few places in the city where a good fighter can
In Brief- Legal jobs plentiful for those who want them, but make a few bucks. Most good fighters, however, know that
not all pay well or are safe. every fight is dangerous and won’t risk it.
Alley Fights: Most fight betting is started by homeless
professional gamblers. Two people are arguing and appear
To obtain legal employment in the US, a person must have ready to fight, people stop to see what is going to happen, and
proof of citizenship or a work visa. All wells and indies, a gambler collects bets. In most cases it is a setup: the fight
and some street people, meet these criteria. There aren’t is fixed and the fighters and gambler will each take a cut.
enough jobs for everyone in the city, but there are typically Warehouse Fights: Some gamblers and traders hold
enough jobs for everyone who wants one to get one. larger indoor fights. The audience must pay a small cover
to get in (they usually also bet money once inside). Some
Minimum Wage- The majority of available jobs are fight promoters try to boost the audience by doing something
part-time, minimum wage jobs in the service industry. exotic (e.g. fighting with saws). The fighters in these cases
are typically practiced martial artists who make a circuit of
Many young people, including many gang members, major inner cities. They may appear injured (or may even
make a couple of extra hundred a month (on top of appear to die) but they are seldom badly injured. The chances
public assistance) at a part-time job. The most common of some random person off the street beating these fighters at
minimum wage jobs for teenagers in the city are: fast food, their own game is very small.
store clerk, janitor, grocery delivery and hospice assistant. Death Fights- Even rarer, some people in the city will
stage fights-to-the-death. These are small operations, with
Security- Able bodied young people can make more few attendees. Often the people who stage the fights are
money, if they don’t mind a little extra danger. There are the same people who make illegal pornography. They will
hundreds of part and full-time jobs available as security record the fights and sell the recordings on the black market.
Fighting is done with bare knuckles, or with small hand
guards. Unfortunately, since security guards often weapons (nothing that will kill too quickly). The fighters
have run-ins with gang members, most gang members are typically career addicts who desperately need the money.
cannot become security guards. Besides all the stores, The fight promoters usually give the fighters free God Killer
offices and high-class apartment buildings that need so the fighters will fight without fear of death. Winners are
full-time guarding, many shut-ins subscribe to pay-per- paid between $200 and $750.
month services or pay-per-use for services of security Hunters- Some hunters pay people to be their prey. Few
companies. Many VR addicts have security alarms that hunters care for fair fights, and people are more or less paid
to run away and try to survive being hunted.
will automatically summon security guards. It is not an
uncommon sight to see a car with two young security Red Light District- Some of the bars in the red light
district feature occasional catfighting or sexual wrestling to
guards racing to a call. attract portions of the fetish crowd. It is mostly sex workers
who do this but anyone could walk in off the street and apply
Skilled- People with actual skills can usually find a good- for the job. The fighters are usually not paid any extra for
paying part-time job, usually one they can perform with a winning, in fact some may be paid extra to losae and take a
computer and an internet connection. With the low cost good beating.
of living in the city, people can survive quite comfortably Child Boxing- One disturbing sport, brought to the US
on a part-time job. Many Indie gang members have jobs by Southeast Asian immigrants, pits children against each
like this. The most common skilled part-time jobs among other in bare knuckle boxing and kickboxing matches. The
young people in the city: tech support, network installer, Orphans have only recently heard of this and have declared
that they will kill anyone who forces or coerces children in to
chef, bartender and office assistant. engaging in this practice.

070 About The City

Illegal Public Assistance
In Brief- People who can’t get legal jobs can work below In Brief- Most people don’t work, get money by the
board or as criminals. government, but even this is not easy.

The majority of people in the city do not work at any kind

Illegal jobs are in much greater demand and are much
of job whatsoever, they receive public assistance from the
harder to get. There are a lot of people in the city who government. The funds for this public assistance comes
can’t get a legitimate job and desperately want the extra from the AI Tax. Getting and staying on public assistance
income that a job will give. Some illegal jobs pay well, is not easy. It requires being able to, month after month,
but the majority pay less than minimum wage. prove that one is still eligible for assistance. One missed
Below Board- These are a lot like the jobs that wells phone-appointment with a social worker can mean being
engage in, but the employees are paid “under-the-table.” cut from the rolls.
The employees don’t need to show any identification, The major three categories of public assistance in the city
and nobody pays any income taxes. Almost every small- are:
business owner in the city hires the occasional below- Disability: For people who can prove that they have a
board employee with little fear of getting caught. The disability (and can re-prove it every few years).
most common below-board part-time jobs in the city: Unemployment: For people who recently had a job and
assistant to a black market trader, maid, exotic dancer and lost it and can prove they are seeking a job. Pays slightly
light manufacturing. more than welfare. Only lasts a limited period of time.
Criminal- This is where people are paid to do something Welfare: The most common type of public assistance.
To get on it, a person must be an adult, a citizen, and prove
that is completely illegal. See the section on criminals for
that he or she has no means of income and no property that
more information. The most common criminal positions could be sold in lieu of income.
in the city are: pusher, prostitute, mercenary and runner.

Environment & Ecology

Pollution Weather
In Brief- Factories in the city create much pollution, In Brief- The weather is wildly unstable, with temperature
it is dangerous but usually blown out to sea. extremes and massive rainstorms, windstorms and blizzards.

Corporations have used lobbyists to make sure that

the city was zoned for high-pollution industry. The The greenhouse effect has caused a partial melting of the
reason is that the corporations want to make money by polar ice caps, which has caused rising ocean levels, which
running high-pollution factories, but they don’t want has changed weather patterns worldwide. In general terms,
them in the corporate living centers where corporate the earth has become a warmer place by about seven degrees.
employees might suffer from health problems. So, This is not an absolute, however. The weather has become
very wild and unstable.
in the corporate living centers, corporate employees
work at low-danger and low-pollution factories, The modern era is one of super-storms. Superstorms last for
while in the city, ‘workers’ (who enjoy none of the weeks, even months, crossing oceans and sometimes almost
benefits of corporate membership) work dangerous circling the globe. Most superstorms that hit the city come
jobs in factories that spew huge columns of pollution from the sea and bring huge amounts of water and heavy
in to the sky above the city. winds. Fourteen hurricanes have hit the city in the last two
decades. During winter, superstorms can travel down over
Coastal winds usually scatter the pollution, taking Canada and create blizzards capable of choking the streets
most of it out to sea (where it pollutes the oceans). with snow and winds that can freeze a person in minutes. At
Enough of the pollution stays in the city, especially any time of year, strong winds tossing trash and knocking
on days when the wind is relatively still, to cause over children are common.
health problems for many thousands of people in
the city. Rates of asthma and cancer are higher in
the city than in surrounding areas. An accident, a
Wildlife
fire or a broken pollution scrubber could mean that In Brief- Wildlife returning to city, including pigeons, stray
noxious smoke and gasses can be expelled from the cats and dogs and other small animals. 10 million rats cause
smokestacks. Such accidents have, in recent years, health problem and bite the defenseless.
killed hundreds and put thousands in the hospital.
Since the massive exodus from the city in the early 2060s,
Some have been permanently disabled with scar nature has, bit by bit, begun to return to the city. Weeds grow
tissue in their lungs or neurological damage. in unrepaired cracks in streets up and down the city, and
When the pollution builds to dangerously high trees are even growing out of some of the larger cracks in
levels, the cloud forms (see below). Most people sidewalks.
who expect to be out on the streets during these days About 10 million rats inhabit the city. These rats were
own some sort of gas mask or improvise one. brought to New York in the 1700s from Norway, on sailing
ships. Much bigger than native rats, they weigh about a
pound each and can grow to be up to 18 inches long. Through
natural selection, these rats have become immune to most

About The City 071

 poisons they have been introduced to over the last few The Hole
centuries. Rats have also developed an urban wit: they
will watch their fellow rats going in to new situations In Brief- Largest and most wild park in the city, has many
and are smart enough to avoid anything that killed a animals and plants (including coyotes and deer), all under
fellow. Rats have been known to bite humans who the stewardship of the Keepers.
are sick, intoxicated, wounded or otherwise helpless.
Their teeth can gnaw through most barriers and they The city was once known for its parks. Those that weren’t
can decimate food supplies in a single night. Rats also paved over in the 2040s are now overgrown with weeds and
carry diseases. Rats once carried the bubonic plague, filled with trash. These parks have quite a few animals living
now they carry rabies and strains of different plagues. in them. The largest and most impressive park in the city
Another immigrant to the city is pigeons. Pigeons was and is Central Park, known in city slang as “the hole”.
lived on cliffs in Europe and came to America (along Central Park takes up 843 acres, representing more than 10%
with sparrows) in the grain holds of ships. Like rats, of the total acreage of the city.
pigeons are omnivores and reproduce quickly. They Now, the park is choked with thick underbrush and trees
nest on the ledges of buildings, creating terrible messes. (along with the bombed-out ruins of Freedom Army
Their dropping are acidic enough that they have caused buildings). Many types of trees, grasses and bushes grow in
metal cables on city bridges to snap. the hole, some native to New York and others imported from
There are thousands of stray cats and dogs living in all around the world. Wildlife, includes owls, warblers, blue
the city. The stray dogs have reverted to living and jays, robins, sparrows, wild turkeys, rats, mice, raccoons,
hunting in packs, like wolves. Stray dogs can attack stray cats and dogs, bats and squirrels. There are fish, turtles
children and may attack adults when hungry. Dogs and bullfrogs in the park’s human-made ponds. There have
can contract rabies, which makes them irrational and been a small population of coyotes living in the park since
dangerous. the end of the 20th century. There is even a small population
of white-tailed deer in the park. Nobody knows whether they
Other city wildlife that may be seen on the streets were introduced in to the park by hunters, or whether they
are squirrels, raccoons, bats, blue jays, robins and traveled to the park via bridges before the security gates were
sparrows. Red-tail hawks and falcons make their nests built.
on the top of tall buildings and hunt street wildlife.
The Keepers, the small street family who live in the park,
The city also has quite a lot of insect life. The most eat all of the animals that live there (and many types of plant
insidious are cockroaches. life). The Keepers are careful not to hunt any species to the
point where they are close to extinction.

072 About The City

 Gangs
In Brief- Drawn together for self-protection, range from seniors, each with a way they contribute to the family. The
anarchies to dictatorships, protect themselves with a code families typically resemble elderships: the elders of each
of revenge, members have inter-gang friendships, gang family communicate with each other and lead the family
members go on “missions” which can be very useful. as a whole. Examples: Black Meds, Crackers, Drakes,
One third of people on the streets (or more, if you count Insomniacs, Keepers, Water Rats.
the Drug Lords) are in a group that could be considered
a gang. This is the highest percentage in city history, Lifestyle
and city culture is very much influenced by gang culture. Even in the most strictly regimented gangs, gang
Not all of those people consider themselves to be gang members spend the majority of time dong whatever they
members (see text box) but most would be willing to want. They hang out on street corners, in bars, in open-
admit that they are forced to act like a gang. In the city, if air restaurants, in apartments. They keep an eye out for
a group of people seems like a gang then they are treated strangers in their turf. They make friends, make enemies,
like a gang, no matter what they say. have conversations, flirt, listen to music, read books, tell
It works like this: If employees of the city’s Satellite stories, perform experiments, eat snacks, smoke and drink
Repair Center all wear similar clothing, all have similar and some do harder drugs.
interests and hang out together in their off-hours, then Revenge- Revenge separates a gang from a non-gang.
people will assume they are a gang. If they assume that Some see a code of revenge as the only protection and
the Sat Jumpers are a gang, then when one Sat Jumper system of justice that they can rely on. Anyone who avoids
does something wrong, all the Sat Jumpers are targeted for this duty is thought of as a freeloader or thief.
vengeance. Sooner of later, the Sat Jumpers start thinking
“if we’re going have all the disadvantages of being a gang, Being in a gang is, paradoxically, both a means to avoid
violent confrontation and also a duty to engage in violence.
we might as well have some of the benefits” and they start
There are no guidelines regarding how much revenge is
seeking revenge for crimes committed against them. necessary. What one gang may see as reasonable and just
revenge may be seen by another gang as cold-blooded
Structure murder, and prompt more revenge and more violence.
In Brief- “Gangs” vary from consensus-rule anarchies, to
dictatorships with strict rules, to extended families. The New Gangs
Where will the new gangs to achieve power in the city
Anarchies- Some gangs have no authorities; they are come from?
simply a group of people who choose to hang around Fallen Cities: As some inner cities are demolished
together. When someone does something the group doesn’t to make way for growing corporate complexes or gated
like, there is no official punishment, yet the person may be communities, the gangs there may move here, bringing
shunned or even attacked by individual group members. with them their own traditions, alliances and wars.
This is the city’s most numerous type of gang. Examples: Immigrant Communities: The city receives a steady
Animalists, Arcadians, Boarders, Freaks, Hummingbirds, flow of immigrants. Some acculturate and join city
Mem Junkies, Omniscients, Sexologists, Technophiles. gangs, street families and other groups, but many do not
Elderships- Some groups have a class of “elders” who join other groups. As these immigrant groups grow they
have been in the group longer, are more powerful and will gain more power and membership they will be more
more knowledgeable, and can command the loyalty and attractive to new immigrants.
obedience of younger members. The elders have complex Kid Gangs: Some street children form gangs for power
relationships with each other, but typically work together and mutual protection. The relationships in these gangs
for the common good. When decisions need to be made may dissolve as the members grow older or they may
(e.g. whether or not to go to war) the elders decide as a remain strong. A few kid gangs may end up being adult
group. Examples: Bleeders, Humankalorie, Immortals, gangs. In a way, the Orphans were a large and powerful
Skin Borgs. kid gang that grew in to an adult gang.
Leaderships- These groups typically have one leader, Corner Gangs: These are small gangs of a few young
usually the person who created the group in the first place. people who are good friends. They have little power
The leader makes gang decisions and most members compared to the big street gangs, but they are formed for
follow without question. Some leaders rule by pure the same purposes and have much of the same culture.
persuasive power, others use violence to enforce their Most corner gangs will dissolve in the next few years, but
authority. Examples: Dragons, Hungry, Purists, Roofers. some will grow in people and power and become more
than just corner gangs, especially if they find a niche in the
Families- These are extended families of street people. city gang culture.
They are made up of tens or hundreds of street families Split-Offs: As today’s gangs become larger, groups
that are mostly related by blood or marriage. On the from within those gangs develop. The Siders started out as
surface, these families seem to follow the same rules as a subgroup of the roofers and eventually split off from the
gangs: they protect each other, seek revenge for crimes and roofers, becoming their sworn enemy. There are several
fight in wars. Behind the scenes, things are very different. subgroups today that may someday want independence:
Most people in a typical gang have the same age, interests, the bisexuals in the Sexologists, the dioxyl users within
skills and duties. In a street family, on the other hand, the Drakes and the firefighters within the Night Shift.
there is everything from small children to bed-ridden

About The City 073

 Sometimes the threat of gang warfare keeps gang Turf Inviolacy Scale
members civil to each other. Few gang members want “None”: Have no turf/do not believe in turf. Examples:
to be known as the one who got their gang in to a war. Borders, Hungry.
So, most confrontations between gang members end “Open”: Have a turf but willingly welcome any peaceful
with threats, insults, fistfights, but not deadly violence. visitors in to it. Examples: Black Meds, Dragons, Freaks,
Hummingbirds, Omniscients, Sexologists, Technophiles.
It is hard to say whether a code of revenge protects “Watched”: Like to keep an eye on anyone in their turf,
gang members from more violence than it creates. One may ban groups of people from their turf. Examples: Arcadians,
thing is sure: most gang members prefer knowing who Cornerpunks, Drakes, Insomniacs, Immortals, Math Addicts,
is out to get them to having to worry about random Mem Junkies
street violence. “Restricted”: Members of other gangs only allowed in turf
by invitation, non-gang members allowed as long as they aren’t
War disrespectful or suspicious. Examples: Animalists, Bleeders,
Humankalorie, Needlepunks, Orphans.
In Brief- War between gangs is common, sometimes “Forbidden”: Special permission and armed guards
a lifestyle, but tends to be low-intensity, causing required for members of other gangs to enter the turf. Only
surprisingly few deaths. non-gang members who are recognized as residents may enter.
Examples: Keepers, Purists, Risen, Roofers, Siders, Skin
Most shut-ins think that gang warfare is the primary Borgs, Water Rats.
cause of death among gang members. In fact, warfare
deaths rank rather low. Wars are fairly rare for most Major Gangs & Street Families
gangs. When battles do happen, some of the gang
members are aching to fight and push their way to the Street Families
front. The battle usually ends before the people at the Black Meds
back even get to see combat. Except in rare cases,
battles are not bloodbaths. One gang retreats when a In Brief- Large street family who make their living as
few of its soldiers are wounded. They leave to treat unlicensed street-doctors.
their wounded with the promise to fight another day. Favorable Stereotypes- Creative, quick thinking,
Most gangs honor this withdrawal and do not chasing
compassionate, resourceful, never denying anyone help.
after their enemies.
Many Neos point out that this is exactly how warfare Unfavorable Stereotypes- Barbaric, ignorant, unethical,
was done in many aboriginal cultures. Many cultures arrogant, afraid to admit ignorance.
have seen warfare as a means to prove bravery and Typical Weapon- A scalpel with a Drake poison smudged
might, but they loathed loss of life so much that the on it.
battle would end as soon as someone was severely
wounded. Turf- In the Bowery. The Bowery is the most run down
Some gangs are more war-like than others. Some part of town with the most abandoned buildings. The few
seem locked in constant battle with an enemy. War surviving commercial enterprises in the Bowery are cheap
may intensify, or it may calm down, but it is always residential hotels and liquor stores. The Bowery has the
present. Other gangs always seem to be picking a fight city’s highest concentration of homeless people.
somewhere. It may not even be the gang as a whole, Distinguishing Features- Black Meds often wear a red cross
it might be one or two irresponsible individuals that on their clothing, usually made from scraps of red cloth.
constantly get the gangs in to wars. The Skin Borgs, Their clothing is often covered with many old blood-stains.
perhaps the most warlike of all the city gangs, are on Black Meds can sometimes be recognized by the cleanliness
a mission to wipe out as many gangs as possible and of their hands. The Black Meds wear simple clothing and
take over their turf. The Skin Borgs have been on this hairstyles with nothing hanging down that might accidentally
mission since their inception and they are only now
get in to a wound.
facing significant resistance.
Crackers
Righteous Kill
In Brief- Street family whose members are taught from an
Gang members typically don’t seek revenge for the early age to hack for money.
death of a comrade if it can be proven that the death
was “righteous.” In other words, if their comrade was Favorable Stereotypes- Quick witted, practical, intelligent
clearly in the wrong and the killer was clearly in the with many technical skills.
right, revenge is not sought. Unfavorable Stereotypes- Cruel, arrogant, cynical,
What defines a righteous kill varies from gang to gang braggarts. Vandals and blackmailers.
and individual to individual. Even the Drug Lords Typical Weapon- A sharpened screwdriver.
once failed to seek revenge when a Utopia Child
killed a psychotic pusher who was shooting people at Turf- Crackers live scattered throughout the Bowery.
random in a subway car. Distinguishing Features- Crackers look mostly like other
Often determining whether a kill was righteous street people: they wear scrounged clothing, usually in
descends in to a game of “who started it.” Many gang multiple layers. They tend towards black clothing when
wars have been averted by the killer bravely going to they have a choice and many wear sunglasses. On occasion,
the enemy gang to plead his or her case that a kill was Crackers dress up as if they are field techs (tool belts, polo-
righteous. The burden of proof is, of course, on the shirts with company logos, fluorescent safety vests) so they
killer can hack in to payphones and network lines with less chance
of getting caught.

074 About The City

Drakes Distinguishing Features- Multiple fits of self-mutilation
have left most Insomniacs with many scars. The older
In Brief- Homeless family, makes and sells poisons and more powerful the insomniac, the more scars, and
(including psychic disrupting ash). They ingest and gain the deeper those scars tend to be. They usually also have
immunity to a poison which makes their bodily fluids tattoos and piercings. Because they hate to be hot, they
poisonous.
wear little clothing and what they do wear are things like
Favorable Stereotypes- Honest traders if treated well, short sun-dresses, thin tank tops, cut-off shorts, holey
efficient killers if pushed. slacks and sports bras. Being dirty or oily annoys them
Unfavorable Stereotypes- Devious, dangerous, reckless, so that they bathe more often than any other street people
cowards, unethical assassins. and are therefor remarkably clean.
Typical Weapon- Shards of glass coated with poison. The
glass is either held in one’s hand, thrown, or launched from
a home-made slingshot.
Turf- A small piece of turf in what used to be called the East
Village, directly North of the Bowery.
Distinguishing Features- Many Drakes wear wide-
brimmed hats. Most wear clothes with long sleeves that
hide their hands (this helps them slip poisons in to things
without being seen). A few wear clothing with pieces of
broken glass glued to the outside of their clothing.

Keepers
In Brief- Live a hunter-gatherer lifestyle in the wilderness
of Central Park, hunting wild animals.
Favorable Stereotypes- Self-sufficient, skilled
survivors, protecting a strange and marvelous ecosystem.
Unfavorable Stereotypes- Xenophobic, territorial,
ignorant and increasingly primitive.
Typical Weapon- Home-made bows and arrows, short
spears and large knives.
Insomniacs Turf- The Hole (a.k.a. central park), a rectangle of
In Brief- Use a drug which gives psychic power while untamed parkland (with the occasional ruin) sitting in
“burning” away the ability to sleep (leading to numerous the center of the island. The entire park is surrounded
psychological problems). by a barbed wire fence with many faded “caution” and
“condemned area” signs.
Favorable Stereotypes- Powerful psychics, highly aware,
self-sacrificing, awesome self-control. Distinguishing Features- Keepers dress much like other
Unfavorable Stereotypes- Psychologically damaged, self- Street People, wearing a variety of old stained and dirty
hating, dangerous, intolerant, hate life, bizarre addictions. clothing scavenged from the trash. The Keepers modify
their clothing by adding skins, furs and cloths and cords
Typical Weapon- A wooden club or steel pipe. made from plant fibers. They also wear trophies of
Turf- Downtown, just North of the Bowery and at the edge successful hunts as jewelry: bits of bone, teeth, claws,
of the Sunken City. Like the Bowery, this part of town has scales, etc.
been run-down for some time, the buildings are nearly all
abandoned (save a few cheap hotels, welfare apartments,
soup kitchens and liquor stores).

About The City 075

 Water Rats Bleeders
In Brief- Scavengers and thieves who use storm drain In Brief- Exert psychic influence on others by tasting
tunnels for quick escapes and live without fear of samples of peoples’ blood.
retribution in fortresses in the sunken city.
Favorable Stereotypes- Ambitious, powerful, cautious.
Favorable Stereotypes- Lucky, charming, daring,
attractive, athletic, proud but humble. Unfavorable Stereotypes- Devious, back-stabbing,
Machiavellian extortionists and assassins.
Unfavorable Stereotypes- Immature, irresponsible, Typical Weapon- Knives and barbed whips (see Special
thoughtless, arrogant kleptomaniacs. Equipment, below) are the most common weapons among
Typical Weapon- Knives. the Bleeders.
Turf- Roosevelt Island, a small sliver of land in the East Turf- Long thin strip of turf in East Harlem/Upper East
River. The entire island is now submerged in the East Side.
River, although most of the large apartment buildings Distinguishing Features- Bleeders wear dark red and black
survive. clothing, covering as much of their bodies as possible (long
Distinguishing Features- Water Rats have the physique sleeves, turtlenecks). Besides identifying them as Bleeders,
of swimmers. Their hair is short or shaved and they this style of clothing also hides Blood stains so that when
seldom wear facial hair or makeup. They often wear two Bleeders are fighting, one will not know when the other
homemade wet suits, stitched together out of scavenged one is injured and bleeding.
materials, and wear mesh backpacks.

Freaks
In Brief- Members of a chaotic freak show troupe that
make money by holding wild carnivals.
Favorable Stereotypes- Wild, entertaining, creative, truly
odd with incredible willpower.
Unfavorable Stereotypes- Immoral, immature con-artists
and wanna-be-psychopaths. Sycophants to Habey Cox (a
narcissist windbag).
Typical Weapon- Implanted body spikes are the most
Well Gangs common weapon
used by Freaks.
Animalists
Turf- In Hell’s
In Brief- Use mental programming to experience animal- Kitchen, north
like consciousness, gain animal speed and instincts. of Animalist
turf, with the
Favorable Stereotypes- Passionate, willful, fast-
lines shifting as
reflexes, intense, self-aware, emotionally balanced,
the Freaks and
down-to-earth.
Animalists battle
Unfavorable Stereotypes- Primitive, barbaric, over turf.
thoughtless, violent, oversexed, unpredictable, amoral.
Distinguishing
Typical Weapon- Claws, either implanted or built in to Features- While
gloves, are the most common weapon used by Animalists. a few Freaks
look completely
Turf- The Northwest corner of Downtown. Madison normal, most
Square Garden, in the Northeast corner of their turf, is have changed their appearance with bizarre forms of
where Animalists gather to play Animal War. dress, tattoos and scarification, piercings and implanted
Distinguishing Features- Animalists wear affectations spikes and bizarre surgical modification. Those with the
that remind them of their favorite animal, including most extreme modifications, however, often keep their
patches of (vat-grown) fur, feathers or scales. modifications hidden (only paying customers are allowed
to look). “Fetish” clothing (leather straps, chains, corsets,
masks, etc.) is also common among Freaks.

076 About The City

Humankalorie Distinguishing Features- Hummingbirds wear clothing
appropriate for temperatures 10 to 30 degrees higher than
In Brief- Aficionados of the Kalor (a group in Mexico who the real temperature, with lots of exposed skin. Hair is
have claimed to be of extraterrestrial origin, although they usually short, both on men and women. Water bottles
have refused to let themselves be examined by scientists). and candy are often carried. Hummingbirds tend to be
The Humankalorie study what the Kalor have told others skinny and muscular. Hummingbird style is usually a
about their language, culture, law and martial arts and the senseless mishmash of goth, gutterpunk, mod and old
Humankalorie have adopted these as their own. school gang. Some hummingbirds wear bright colors,
Favorable Stereotypes- Proud, wise, believe strongly in mirrored clothing or patches, or flexible LEDs which
duty, justice and order, always looking to prove and improve show psychedelic patterns. Others wear all gray and
themselves. semi-permanently dye their hair and skin grey.

Unfavorable Stereotypes- Sad wannabes, pretend to be

something they aren’t, obtuse and inflexible.
Typical Weapon- All Humankalorie carry and use one of the
traditional weapons the Kalor use for their trial-by-combat.
These are metal weapons, either a pole with a blade on the
end, or paired punch-dagger-like weapons.
Turf- In East Harlem, centered on Park Avenue where many
stores, restaurants and bars cater to Humankalorie and other
people with an interest in things Kalor.
Distinguishing Features- Humankalorie get tattoos under
their eyes to simulate the long lower eyelashes of real Kalor.
These tattoos are vertical parallel black lines going down
to the cheekbone. The Humankalorie also wear Kalor style
straps around their necks, upper arms, and thighs. These
straps can be of any material, though they are usually black
leather, and most contain round holes. Some Humankalorie
wear colored contract lenses to simulate the recessive red-
iris that some Kalor have.
Hungry
In Brief- Victims of a drug overdose causing failure of
endocrine system and permanent anhedonia (inability
to feel pleasure). The implant they were given to help
them overcome the endocrine failure makes them large
and muscular. They have replaced pleasure with an
artificially created hunger to seek revenge on the Drug
Lords that created them.
Favorable Stereotypes- Strong, determined, well
organized, singular in purpose, self-controlled, willful,
hard to kill.
Unfavorable Stereotypes- Dour, humorless, heartless,
obsessed killers, empty shells, automatons driven by
habit and artificial desires.
Typical Weapon- The majority of hungry use maces
(made out of old construction parts welded together),
clubs and heavy chains.
Turf- The Hungry have no set turf. They keep their
Hummingbirds location hidden and move around a lot. Theirs is a small
In Brief- Dance-club attendees who take drugs to enhance gang and they like to take over an abandoned building
their metabolism and let them dance harder and faster. and live together as roommates.
Distinguishing Features- Huge and muscular. Many
Favorable Stereotypes- Athletic, artistic, passionate, have old signs of addiction: bad skin, missing teeth,
energetic, attractive, life-loving. needle tracks. They wear black leather.
Unfavorable Stereotypes- Hyperactive, drug-addicted,
impulsive, randomly violent, inattentive, sensation seeking,
shallow, lookist.
Typical Weapon- Steel toed boots or boot blades. Small
knives, especially switchblades, which can be made ready
and used even in very tight quarters.
Turf- The area around the large dance clubs (in what used
to be warehouses) in Harlem, between 125th and 145th Street.

About The City 077

 Immortals their own experiences, or borrowed
from others.
In Brief- Young students who speed
their acquisition of psychic skills by Favorable Stereotypes- Unfortunate
absorbing the memories of powerful addicts, yet wise about memories and
psychics. Achieve “immortality” emotions.
by passing down their memories
Unfavorable Stereotypes- Damaged,
through generations.
desperate, dangerous addicts; aliens in
Favorable Stereotypes- Wise, the real world.
always concerned with the bigger
Turf- The apartment buildings
picture, unafraid of death, broadly
surrounding Gramercy Park. The Mem
experienced with many psychic
Junkies live communally and have filled
skills.
their apartment buildings with various
Unfavorable Stereotypes- Living traps and hidden passageways from
vicariously through others, pretend which they can ambush invaders.
to be wise, enslaved to hundreds of
Distinguishing Features- Mem Junkies
debts, promises and grudges.
tend to be older than the average gang
Typical Weapon- The luckiest member (by about a decade). Years
Immortals have a bone knife made spent in dark apartments high on
from the bones of a “primogenitor” memories have left them thin and pale.
(someone from their line of Many wear a style that went out of
psychially-passed memories). fashion years ago (a sort of military goth
look with a lot of olive colored military
Turf- A small block of turf between dress coats with pointy shoulders).
the Upper West Side and Harlem. Long unkempt hair and beards and
Distinguishing Features- Some sunglasses are common.
immortals wear cloaks (an
affectation of psychics from before Needle Punks
the Freedom Wars), others wear
normal street clothes. Most wear In Brief- Gang of young pharmaceutical
jewelry made from the bones of their artists who experiment on themselves
primogenitors. with drug cocktails and have learned to
deal with potentially lethal side-effects.
Math Addicts Favorable Stereotypes- Creative,
fearless pharmaceutical geniuses
In Brief- Use mental programming with encyclopedic knowledge of drug
to become human calculators with interactions and effects, who can push
incredible powers of prediction, their bodies to do almost anything.
accuracy and analysis in everything
from politics to combat. Unfavorable Stereotypes- Reckless,
self-destructive, suicidal junkies and
Favorable Stereotypes- Intelligent, criminals with no respect for health,
insightful, spiritual, precise, longevity or nature.
analytical, logical, full of useful info.
Typical Weapon- A pair of syringes
Unfavorable Stereotypes- Mystical, filled with a fast acting poison, one in
eccentric, obsessive compulsive, each hand, is a common weapon for
head-in-clouds, intellectual snobs. Needle Punks.
Typical Weapon- Crossbows. Turf- In Greenwich Village, including
Turf- In Harlem, including part of Washington Square Park (a large park
East or Spanish Harlem. where many mentally ill and drug
addicted homeless people live).
Distinguishing Features- Math
Addicts almost always wear a patch, Distinguishing Features- Younger
tattoo, broach, etc. with an infinity Needle Punks can be recognized by
symbol on it. Many wear light rows of pre-filled syringed strapped to
brown/beige clothing. their bodies, often color-coded so they
can be selected quickly. More senior
Needle Punks wear a Pharmosynth, a
Mem Junkies portable device that can manufacture
In Brief- Addicts to mental programs pharmaceuticals on the fly. Needle
that enhance the emotional recall Punks are often mistaken for addicts:
of memories. Mem Junkies use they have multiple needle marks and
memories as if they were drugs, and often look like they haven’t slept or
often seek new ones, either from bathed in days.

078 About The City

Night Shift Roofers
In Brief- Young cops with gang-attitude. In Brief- Own the rooftops, which they can
Refuse to become corrupt. Break the travel quickly and leap between fearlessly.
rules in order to punish criminals. At constant war with the Siders.
Favorable Stereotypes- Brave, Favorable Stereotypes- Proud, fearless,
honorable, willing to take on evil no party-loving daredevils and expert acrobats.
matter how powerful it is, with a strong
sense of justice. Unfavorable Stereotypes- Arrogant,
territorial, selfish, warlike, think that might-
Unfavorable Stereotypes- A makes-right.
hypocritical, xenophobic, arrogant, self-
important lynch mob. Typical Weapon- A sword, paired swords
or machete.
Typical Weapon- Nightsticks, often
modified with nails or metal spikes. Turf- The Roofers consider every rooftop
in the city to be their turf. In reality, most
Turf- They patrol all over the city, but rooftops rarely (if ever) have a Roofer on
their base of operations is the police them. Instead, there are “highways” of
station on 128th Street and 2nd Avenue rooftops that can be easily leapt or that have
(the only station that hasn’t yet been had makeshift bridges built between them,
bombed by the Drug Lords). which allow Roofers to traverse Harlem, the
Upper East Side and the Upper West Side.
Distinguishing Features- Night
Shift members wear cheap dark blue Distinguishing Features- Roofers like to
uniforms with chrome buttons and wear things that will flap in the breeze when
yellow “NYPD” lettering, black leather they jump. They also wear checkerboard-
boots, and gold-colored badges in clear patterned patches or clothing.
plastic envelopes on hips, chests or on
a chain around the neck. Night Shift
officers also adorn their uniforms with
Risen
other add-ons, mostly military surplus: In Brief- Violent gang with much
cammo jackets and hats, non-issued infighting. Many members faked their own
armor and helmets, web belts, etc. death, many get implants, all are infected
with mitochondrial vampirism (a symbiotic
Orphans disease which increases strength and
resistance to blood loss, but at the cost of a
In Brief- Once kids in an orphanage vastly increased need to sugars).
who revolted against abusers, now adults
sworn to protect children. Favorable Stereotypes- Hard-to-kill,
fearless, lustful, seeking intense experiences
Favorable Stereotypes- Wise, wary, and willing to change.
brave, dutiful, at every age they are
willing to die to protect those younger. Unfavorable Stereotypes- Amoral,
violent, remorseless, bloodthirsty criminals
Unfavorable Stereotypes- Paranoid, and fugitives.
cultish, homophobic, unreasonably
afraid of adults, willing to turn small Typical Weapon- Implanted weapons like
children in to soldiers. claws and fangs.

Typical Weapon- Sharpened railroad Turf- In Midtown and the Murray Hill
spikes, stolen from railroad sites and district, among many active and abandoned
sharpened on concrete. industrial buildings. The Risen meet in the
otherwise abandoned St. Bartholomew’s
Turf- In Harlem, centered around the church.
large city orphanage.
Distinguishing Features- Most wear tight
Distinguishing Features- Younger black clothing, often with holes from battles
orphans wear the cheap uniforms and other injuries. Most have low-light
provided by the state to orphanage vision implants and wear sunglasses even
inmates: two piece, grey, with a red trim. at night.
These uniforms are often ripped, stained,
scrawled with graffiti and patched up.
Even young adult still have old shirts,
Siders
threadbare and mostly patches, which In Brief- Split off from Roofers, now at war
they wear as jackets over their normal with them. Expert climbers with high-tech
clothes. All teen and adult Orphans have gear who travel on the sides of buildings.
the end of the little finger from one hand
chopped off (as a sign of loyalty to the Favorable Stereotypes- Brave, innovative,
other Orphans). pioneering, self-reliant, highly-skilled,
proud.

About The City 079

 Unfavorable Stereotypes- Vengeful, myopic, obsessed, Indie Gangs
impractical, stubborn, violent gang with an inferiority
complex. Arcadians
Typical Weapon- Crossbows (attached to their backs while In Brief- Obsessed with playing various types of games
climbing). against each other. They often take drugs to increase their
intelligence and reflexes. They have great knowledge
Turf- The Siders consider the sides of all building to be of strategy, quick reflexes and have been known to
their turf, though they rarely hang out there. They hang out manipulate events within the city.
in abandoned rooms on the upper floors of tall buildings.
When they move around the city they use a combination Favorable Stereotypes- Brilliant and invaluable
of ground travel (including riding the subways), moving consultants, strategists and manipulators.
around on the sides of buildings and running along the Unfavorable Stereotypes- Obsessed gamblers,
Roofers’ rooftop highways. heartlessly toy with human lives, think they are smarter
Distinguishing Features- Clothing with black and white and therefore better.
stripes. All carry climbing gear: from the most primitive Typical Weapon- Glass vials of acids and toxins thrown
(ropes, pitons, hammers) to the most complex (gloves and at enemies. Because years of game playing have given
shoes that use secondary nanotech gels to climb walls). them “quick hands,” they also like to use small knives
(like switchblades).
Skin Borgs Turf- In the Upper West Side. Arcadians spend a lot of
In Brief- Warlike, expansionist gang. Wear multiple their time hanging around in video arcades filled with a
layers of high-tech armor. Social structure of violence and variety of “retro” arcade games.
intimidation. Distinguishing Features- Black clothing, occasionally
Favorable Stereotypes- Strong, unashamed, willful, accented with fluorescent colors. Most Arcadians wear
honest, know what they want, don’t justify their actions special gloves to protect their hands from blisters during
with ideologies. hours of game play. Similarly, most wear special tinted
glasses to protect their eyes from hours of staring in to
Unfavorable Stereotypes- Violent, brutal, stupid, old-style computer screens.
prejudiced, ignorant, paranoid, small-minded throwbacks
and conquerors.
Boarders
Typical Weapon- Clubs, pipes or armored fists.
In Brief- Thrill seekers on high-tech slipboards, speeding
Turf- All of the island north of 145th street, including parts through the city doing tricks and ignoring boundaries of
of town that were once known as Inwood, Fort George, turf.
Washington Heights, Hamilton Heights and parts of Harlem.
Favorable Stereotypes- Fun, easygoing, independent,
Distinguishing Features- The Skin Borgs wear one or forgiving, highly skilled, apolitical.
more skins: high-tech armors made of materials so thin that
they resemble jumpsuits. Some Skin Borgs wear helmets, Unfavorable Stereotypes- Immature punks, marijuana
others wear armored masks (looking much like ski masks) addicts, vandals, disrespectful, clowns, full of false
and some let their heads go unprotected. Powerful Skin bravado and delusions of immortality, oblivious to the rest
Borgs wear several layers of armor on top of each other. of the city.
The outer skin is usually spray-painted black with personal Typical Weapon- Boarders usually use their slipboards as
decorations and symbols in brighter colors. Some Skin weapons in hand-to-hand combat. They may ride a board
Borgs wear old leather belts wrapped around waists, biceps in to an enemy, they may use a tether attached to an arm or
and thighs. Many have taken steroids or gotten muscle leg to swing the board at an enemy, or they may take the
implants and are physically large. board in to their hands and use it as a club. Often, boards
are adorned with spikes and blades to make them better
weapons in these situation.

080 About The City

Turf- Boarders do not believe in turf. They can be found Unfavorable Stereotypes- Fat, lazy, disinterested
all over the city, but they tend to congregate in places that voyeurs.
have the best features for boarding. Madison Square Park Typical Weapon- Thrown or projectile weapons.
downtown is a major Boarder hangout when Boarders just
want to chill. Turf- A long block of turf in the East Side/Upper East
Side.
Distinguishing Features- Boarders tend to wear baggy
clothing, of thick materials, to protect as much as their skin Distinguishing Features- Because their senses are so
as possible from road burns. Many wear gloves and some often enhanced, Omniscients are very meticulous and like
wear goggles. Stickers and patches to wear very comfortable clothing:
given out as promotional items by silks, velvets, felt, etc. The most
board and board-part manufacturers notable feature on Omniscients
are applied liberally to themselves and is the presence of the external
their boards. The best distinguishing protrusions of sensory implants.
feature of a Boarder is a tricked out
slipboard. Purists
In Brief- Members of a cult/gang
Dragons who believe that their physical,
In Brief- Believe they are the mental and spiritual health is
destructive force of nature (the dependent on their keeping
“dragon” of mythology) incarnate in themselves free from chemical,
a human form. emotional and psychic pollution.
Favorable Stereotypes- Spiritual, Favorable Stereotypes- Ambitious,
wise, creative, intense, powerful, healthy, self-controlled, vice-free,
wild, respectful of nature. monk-like.
Unfavorable Stereotypes- Unfavorable Stereotypes-
Destructive, deluded cultists, under Paranoid, cultish, vengeful,
the control of an egomaniacal poet. miserable, prejudiced pollution-
phobics.
Typical Weapon- Bright LED
spotlights (used to blind enemies), Typical Weapon- Purists like to use
crowbars, hand-axes, pick-axes, staves and long swords, weapons
sledgehammers, shields and short that allow them to hit their opponents
swords. In a Dragon war party at least while staying out of their reach.
one carries a “lightning staff” (which Most Purists use shields, especially
creates an electrically charged fog large bullet-proof plexiglass shields.
with small lightning bolts striking at Turf- A small square of turf in
random within it). Harlem, centered on “The Pure
Turf- A long corridor of turf in the East Room” a hangout overlooking
Side/Upper East Side, centered on Broadway that uses clean-room
the home of Sitha Nith, the Dragons’ technology to stay as free from
founder. Dragon turf shows the pollution as possible.
marks of many destructive rampages Distinguishing Features- When
by Dragons: holes in the sides of they are outside, the Purists always
buildings, street-lights knocked wear shiny-grey biohazard suits
down, piles of rubbles where there with a mask over their face. The
were once houses, old abandoned cars suit lets moisture and oxygen in and
ripped to shreds, etc. out but nothing else. The suits are
Distinguishing Features- Green- skin tight and Purists wear clothing
plastic insulation armor that includes over their suit when it is cold out.
a hood, gloves and special shoe inserts
(to protect them from lightning). Over Sexologists
that is usually worn some other form
of armor, usually with plates made to In Brief- Use sex to create psychic
look like reptile scales. Claws and links between partners, often for
fangs are a common implants among therapeutic purposes.
Dragons. Favorable Stereotypes- True altruists with genuine
love for every person, fighting for the psychological and
Omniscients spiritual health of city residents.
In Brief- A group of obsessed technology hobbyists who Unfavorable Stereotypes- A cult of puritanical
use technology to expand their senses. homophobic busybodies who think there’s only one right
way to have sex.
Favorable Stereotypes- Thoughtful, insightful, cutting
edge techies, always gathering and sharing knowledge.

About The City 081

 Typical Weapon- Most Sexologists find any destruction Technophiles
of the human form to be distasteful. Whenever possible
they use non-lethal weapons (pepper sprays, tasers, In Brief- Small, loose group, obsessed with hands-on
tranquilizer darts). tinkering with technology, including much old technology.

Turf- A block of turf on the Upper East side. Favorable Stereotypes- Smart, funny, altruistic,
knowledgeable, intuitive, always looking for a challenge.
Distinguishing Features- Some have psychically-
enhanced sexual attractiveness. Sexologists wear Unfavorable Stereotypes- Physically and emotional weak,
clothing which is simple and modest yet flattering to the impractical, obsessive, easily distracted geeks with poor
human form. social skills.
Typical Weapon- Hand tools and homemade one-shot
Tea Drinkers pistols.
In Brief- Aficionados of Soma, a mixture of Turf- Most of SoHo, a part of town with many lofts (once
hallucinogenic herbs used as a sacrament in ancient industrial, now residential) where Technophiles have their
India, which enhances psychic senses. home studios.
Favorable Stereotypes- Insightful, intuitive, psychics, Distinguishing Features- Some Technophiles wear
are respectful or the past and have knowledge of the homemade clothing. Clothing often has burns, rips and
future. oil stains from their tinkering. Patches with gear or wrench
Unfavorable Stereotypes- Arrogant, rich kids, buy soma symbols on them.
as a status symbol, minds clouded by hallucinations.
Typical Weapon- Most carry metal tea thermoses which
make good weapons in a pinch.
Turf- A small block of turf in midtown west, including
four “soma bars” where Tea Drinkers buy and imbibe
Soma.
Distinguishing Features- Some Tea Drinkers wear
hooded trenchcoats (often light-brown with silver
buttons) in a nod to the old pre-war tradition of psychics
wearing hooded cloaks. Almost all Tea Drinkers carry
around large steel thermoses to keep their tea in. Many
Tea Drinkers wear the Indian Bollywood style.

082 About The City

 Information Technology
Tech Geekdom
People who don’t know much about computers assume that Internet
there is one continuum of computer knowledge. In fact, there
are several areas of knowledge, just as in art or science, and In Brief- Primary means of communication, shopping and
knowledge of one does not necessarily mean knowledge in information exchange for the planet.
the others. Tech knowledge can be divided, generally, in to:
Hardware: the physical makeup of machines, what parts The internet replaced the old phone system entirely in the
will work on what type of machine and how to install them. 2020s (although there are still a few third-world countries
Operating System: The program that runs and manages that still use phone systems). Every house or apartment
every other program on a computer and controls which is built with an internet connection in it, and phones,
people and what programs can access what resources.. videophones, computers, even appliances are hooked in.
Applications: The use, features and differences between Higher level connections can be rented by people who
large software suites.
need extra bandwidth (generally VR addicts).
Internet: What is available on the net and how to get to it.
Networking: How computers transmit data to each other, Entertainment- The primary use of the internet today is
and how servers route this data. to entertain people. Typically, people pay to access music,
Programming: Creating programs and net sites, and how books, movies and VR games. The biggest entertainment
they retrieve and store data in databases. businesses today are the large VR fantasy worlds that
most shut-ins turn to for entertainment. See the section
on VR Addicts for more. There is also quite a bit of free
Data entertainment available on the web, made by amateur
In Brief- Data is very important and valuable in a artists who have put their work on-line for others to enjoy.
computerized age. Can be copied, compressed and easily
hidden. Shopping- The second biggest use of the internet is for
mail-order shopping. City shut-ins order their every need,
When any riddle that asks what the most expensive, the from clothes to groceries, and have it delivered to their
most desired, the most dangerous commodity per pound doors. Any specialty item which doesn’t exist in a city
is, the answer to the riddle is usually data. In the industrial store (vehicle parts, fine art, expensive jewelry, computer
age, goal, gasoline and electricity were the lifeblood that parts, rare seeds, etc.) must be ordered on-line.
let the economy operate. In the computerized age, that
lifeblood is data. Data can be anything from a cheap Research- For those who know how to find it, the internet
pulp novel that keeps a homeless person entertained on a has the answer to almost every conceivable question.
lonely night, to research results from a top secret military Whole libraries have been made available for free on the
research project that is worth billions on the black market net. Some people make a living helping people find freely-
and might kill millions if it falls in to the wrong hands. available information on the net or helping people figure
out if information they have found is accurate or not.
There are four universals about data:
Data can be copied. Any type of data can be copied Communication- There are a number of communication
any number of times without any degradation. protocols available on the net, including: email (text),
Data can be compressed. Any data with any sort of phone/videophone (voice and video), and VR meeting
redundancy (including human language) can be made (full immersion VR). People can also send any sort of
smaller so it can fit on smaller storage media and can be data, from music files to computer programs, to each other
transmitted faster. For a company that deals exclusively across the internet.
with data and the internet, a 5% compression can save the Community- For many people, the internet is a means
company billions. of communicating with like-minded people. There are
Data can be encrypted. See Cryptography for more. message boards and chat rooms on the internet for devotees
Data can be hidden. Data can be hidden inside other of every conceivable topic. There’s even a VR chatroom
data such that it will be invisible to the naked eye. Only that claims to be for NY area serial killers. For shut-in
special programs can tease this data out. VR addicts, the VR worlds they live in are as much about
Copy Protection- Over the past 100 years, the fact that human contact as they are about winning some game.
any data can be copied has been a considerable annoyance Remote Control- Computers and phones aren’t the
to those trying to get rich by selling data. Software and only things that hook in to the net. There are millions of
entertainment companies have created a number of “copy appliances, printers, security cameras, medical devices and
protection” methods. Despite the name, these methods do even industrial machines that are plugged in to the internet
not actually prevent data from being copied, most prevent so they can be monitored and controlled by remote. Some
illegally copied data from being used. The most common of these devices are tasty targets for hackers.
copy protection scheme in use today: when you start up
a program, the program goes on-line and checks to see Piracy- Much to the dismay of the corporations, people
if you’ve actually purchased the program. If not, the also use the internet for trading pirated data. It is mainly
program won’t run. The common reaction to this copy users of the Hacker’s Guild operating system that do this,
protection scheme is to excise that part of the program. but others do it as well. Just as skilled researchers can find
Crackers make a large percentage of their income by almost any piece of info on the web, skilled pirates can
“cracking” the copy protection on pirated programs and find, or trade for, nearly any piece of pirated data.
selling them on street corners.

About The City 083

 Satellites hear, feel, smell and taste what the person is experiencing.
“Nightwalkers” in the city wander around having
In Brief- A network of satellites, some old and some new, adventures so bored shut-ins and people living outside the
helps the world communicate. city can get a thrill. There are also “VR movies” where
users do not control the action, but instead follow around
Since 1957, people have been launching satellites in to in the body of a fictional character.
space. Most fly around in an asynchronous orbit (they
spin faster than the earth). Some are high up enough that The most advanced VR simulations are the VR multiplayer
they spin at the same speed of the earth and appear to use games. These are subscription services which cost a lot
to be rooted in one spot (a geosynchronous orbit). but provide a massive and detailed world. These worlds
offer just about every kind of challenge and interaction
Today, every government and corporation has satellites in and many are content to spend their every waking moment
orbit. Nanotech has made satellites smaller and cheaper. there. See the section on VR Addicts for more.
A network of satellites makes up the backbone of the
internet, which handles all of the world’s communication. Training- Although entertainment is the big-money
The internet could keep working if half the satellites were industry, VR is also incredibly useful for training. People
destroyed. On the other hand, whenever one of these can train in simulations of real life situations without the
satellites stops working, the corporation that owns it loses accompanying dangers. A firefighter training program can
millions per hour. Quick satellite repairs can be contracted subject someone to realistic sensations of being inside a
through the Satellite Repair Corporation (which has an burning building without putting the firefighter in any real
office in the city). danger. Most governments and corporations today use
VR training. Indies and Wells on the streets often rent or
There are humans in space, living aboard a number of borrow mental stimulators to run pirated training programs
space stations, which are used for various experiments. that purport to teach how to pick locks or move silently
There are also a number of derelict satellites launched stab someone in their vital organs.
before the Freedom Wars that nobody owns or uses. There
are some that people have forgotten exist altogether. Some Behavior Mod- An illegal offshoot of VR training is
may still even work. Anyone who could find and capture a new system called “behavior mod.” Behavior mod is
one of these satellites would have salvage rights. like automated brainwashing. A person in full immersion
VR is put in situations, punished (with pain) if they do the
Virtual Reality wrong thing and rewarded if they do the right thing. This
In Brief- VR very advanced, can be used for entertainment, is done over and over again, for several days in a row, until
training and behavior modification. the person is so conditioned that they have little free will
left in that type of situation. Since this is an incredibly
VR was the big boom industry of the 2060s. This boom unpleasant experience, most people use blanker programs
drove the development of newer and better VR systems. so they won’t remember it.
Today, VR entertainment is a multi-billion dollar industry,
and more than half of the worlds computer power is Whether or not people remember it, behavior mod has
devoted to running these VR worlds. Although the severe psychological side effects. People suffer from
developments in VR technology were created primarily to many of the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
entertain bored shut-ins, VR can also be very useful. There may also be “accidental pairing of conditions.” As
an example, if a simulation happens to have a wooden table
Types- VR can be accessed using gloves and a VR helmet, in it, the sight of a wooden table may cause a person to fly
or even with a keyboard and screen, but most people prefer in to a rage, or vomit, or cower in fear.
full-immersion VR. Mental stimulation makes it possible
for a person to see, hear, feel, smell and taste the virtual The programs don’t just modify physical behaviors, they
environment. Most VR simulations are a little fuzzy (not can modify emotions. A person might be punished for
quite “photorealistic”) but VR users who get involved in feeling fear in a certain situation, or rewarded for feeling
the simulation rarely notice. anger at seeing someone’s face. Behavior mod hasn’t been
around long, but some fear that it could be used to turn
The simplest VR environments are tiny VR rooms on normal people in to assassins. People would disappear
internet sites. They are usually put together by amateurs for a few weeks, when they return they don’t remember
and are exceedingly simple. The walls are often plain anything but feel fine, but when they see a certain person
white (or plain black) and there are only a few objects in they execute an expert martial arts strike and snap the
the room that can be interacted with. People might come person’s neck.
to these rooms sit around and chat, taste the site owner’s
favorite recipes, play a small game, or anything else the Despite the side-effects, illegality and scary ability to
programmer has time to put in. change people’s emotions, many people seek out behavior
mod. Some seek it out to push them to limits they can’t
Slightly more advanced are the rooms people pay for. push themselves to. Others have heard that behavior mod
They may have games, training, pornography, gambling, can eliminate personality flaws. Behavior mod is often
interactive reference guides, etc. Closely related to sought out by ronin who desperately want to pass the psych
VR is the phenomenon of “sensory broadcast.” People screening for a gated community or corp.
broadcast their full senses and people logging in can see,

084 About The City

Cryptography is that the encryption scheme the parties are using is
constantly changing, and how it will change can only be
In Brief- Code making/breaking is a constant war, any predicted by someone who has an unencrypted copy of
code can be broken given enough time. Computer power, the last transmission. Each letter in a text message might
good software and a skilled user helps.
change how the next letter will be decrypted. The benefit
to evolving codes is that even if someone breaks the code
As much as data is important in today’s computerized on one occasion, if they miss any transmission their code
world, so is cryptography. When a wireless security becomes useless. Unfortunately, the same applies to the
camera transmits a video stream, it encrypts it. If it were legitimate receiver of the transmissions.
not encrypted, anyone with a wireless receiver could
view the video stream and could block it in favor of a Cryptographers- Modern codes (and code breaking
video stream they created. When a wealthy Indie steps programs) are the result of top researchers working for
up to an ATM machine, they insert a tiny key which years in top-secret R&D labs. A cryptographer on the
contains a cryptographic code that is used in a challenge- street has little chance of making a code better than
response system. Most important is the internet, which these labs produce. However, a skilled cryptographer
hosts almost all of the world’s communications. A good can choose the encryption program and settings that will
hacker can get on to an internet node and see every piece work best with that particular data. By making the right
of information that is being sent back and forth. Nearly choices, cryptographers can make the codes much harder
every communication on the internet is encrypted, the to break.
question is how well it is encrypted.
Despite the inclusion of AI routines and order-finding
Types of Encryption- There are several types of algorithms, code breaking still works on the principle of
encryption, each with various uses. guessing: guess a code, and if that doesn’t work then try
another one. The more computer power a code breaker
Private Key Encryption: This is the stereotypical has to work with, the more guesses can be made per
encryption that people have been doing almost since second, and the faster the code will be broken. It’s never
there’s been a language. This type of encryption requires a matter of whether a code can be broken, but how long
both people to know what the encryption scheme is. One will it take. Run a supercomputer with military code
person uses the encryption scheme on the data to encode breakers against a weak code and it will be broken within
it, the other uses the same scheme in reverse to decode it. a second, run a cheap palmtop using last month’s code
With modern encryption schemes, this type can be very breaker against the world’s best codes and it might take
powerful, but it requires both parties to get together ahead several times the lifetime of the universe to break it. Like
of time and share an encryption scheme. encryption, skilled cryptographers can aid code breaking
by setting the right settings and using their intuition to
Public Key Encryption: Invented by Stanford help direct the guesses of the code breaker. The best code
researchers in 1975, this type of encryption is the basis breakers give the users a full immersion VR interface
for almost all encryption on the net. Each code has two where they are floating above a huge multi-colored tree,
parts: a public key and a private key. The public key is each leaf of which represents a guess. The cryptographer
given out to anyone and everyone, and anyone can use tells the program which areas of the tree to focus most of
that key to encrypt some data. However, only the private its energies on.
key can be used to decrypt the data, and only one person
has that. This type of encryption is like mail slots: anyone Despite the inclusion of AI routines and order-finding
can drop any letter in to a house’s mail slot, but only the algorithms, code breaking still works on the principle of
house’s owner has the key to get in the house and retrieve guessing: guess a code, and if that doesn’t work then try
the mail. Public key cryptography is much more useful another one. The more computer power a code breaker
but not quite as strong. has to work with, the more guesses can be made per
second, and the faster the code will be broken. It’s never
One-Way Encryption: This type of encryption uses a a matter of whether a code can be broken, but how long
code to encrypt data, but there is no code that can decrypt will it take. Run a supercomputer with military code
it. This type of encryption is very hard to break and is breakers against a weak code and it will be broken within
typically used for password verification. Example: an a second, run a cheap palmtop using last month’s code
encrypted copy of Bill’s password is stored on a system. breaker against the world’s best codes and it might take
When Bill tries to log-in he enters his password. The several times the lifetime of the universe to break it. Like
computer takes what he entered, encrypts it, and compares encryption, skilled cryptographers can aid code breaking
the result to the encrypted password it has on file. If it by setting the right settings and using their intuition to
matches, the computer lets Bill in. The great thing about help direct the guesses of the code breaker. The best code
using one-way encryption for storing passwords is that breakers give the users a full immersion VR interface
people who capture the password file gain little benefit: where they are floating above a huge multi-colored tree,
they still have to guess the right password (or break the each leaf of which represents a guess. The cryptographer
code). tells the program which areas of the tree to focus most of
its energies on.
Evolving Code: Private or public keys can be
configured to evolve. The trick to an evolving code

About The City 085

 Artificial Intelligence wearing a certain type of uniform are friends while people
wearing another type are enemies. The assassin can be
In Brief- Can do most things better than a human since the set to operate completely independently, or it can be set to
2040s, but they are costly and seldom used. Stolen assassin radio or phone in to get new instructions and information
program is highly valuable. (all in a code that sounds like normal conversation to a
casual observer). The assassin can be programmed with
When speaking of AI (Artificial Intelligence), it is important a “stop code,” a password that will stop it in its tracks.
to distinguish between full AIs (which are expensive and
rare) and AI routines, which are built in to much modern The program has excellent communication abilities.
software. Today, AI routines do everything from musical Mostly it tries to avoid conversations (it can pretend to be
accompaniment for musicians, to running robots in factories, anything from a tourist who doesn’t speak the language
to searching through security camera footage for the faces to a babbling schizophrenic). It can, however ask how to
of criminals. AI routines use intelligent strategies, they get to a certain place or where to find a particular person.
learn and adapt, but they are no more intelligent than an The golem uses psych-mental programming to detect lies
ant. Full AIs can direct their own attention and can become and it can understand directions. When the assassin’s
aware of or learn nearly anything. unobtrusiveness is low it will grab and torture people to
get the information it wants.
Before the Freedom Wars, each of the major corporations
had powerful AIs secretly advising them on every important The assassin can survive for some time in an urban
decision within the corps. The AIs knew everything that environment. If given money, it can find restaurants or
was going on in the corporation: every penny of profit, grocery stores and buy food. It can even pay for rooms
every employee resume, every email sent. The corps kept at hotels (or it can find a dark place to crawl up and rest
these AIs strictly secret (they knew people would riot if in). The assassin has a huge database of items it knows
they found out AIs were secretly running the corps). The how to use. It can buy, steal or pick up items (from dead
AIs were programmed to make recommendations with no victims). It can use thousands of different weapons,
consideration or morality or legality. The boards of directors vehicles and armor. It even knows how to use a few
for these corps always did what these AIs suggested, because medical supplies.
they knew that the competing companies also had AIs and
that the other corps would do what the AIs said. By 2043, Despite all these amazing abilities, the expert assassin
the corps that weren’t run by immoral AIs had all been is not sentient and does not have a unified intelligence.
wiped out. When the Freedom Wars came, the Freedom Instead, it is programmed with thousands of different
Army found out about these AIs and tried to hunt down and “intelligent routines” that recognize and take over in
destroy every copy. different situations. For example, if trapped it has an
“exit seeking” routine where it methodically searches for
AIs are no longer used for decision-making purposes (this any way to get out. Every once in a while, an expert
is an international law). Full AIs are very expensive. The assassin will do something incredibly stupid (like trying
supercomputers required to run them cost millions, and fill to blend in to a crowd even though it is soaked with blood,
up entire buildings (technicians literally walk around inside or not knowing how to grab a person with a missing arm).
the computer). They are used only for research purposes. The expert assassin can not really learn (although it can
Meanwhile, AI routines continue to make computers able to map environments it’s been in and can learn to recognize
do things that humans can do, and continue to make human enemies on sight).
jobs obsolete. The AI tax at least makes sure that corps pay
in to public assistance for each lost job.
Expert Assassin- Several AI programs have been written
to run the bodies of “golems” (human bodies with blank
brains). Some are designed to be servants, others are The Myth of the Self Aware Computer
designed to be sex toys, others are designed to fight and
People often assume that, like people, a full AI
kill. The most advanced and most deadly program is known would be conscious of its own existence and
as the “expert assassin.” The expert assassin was recently would have a desire for self-preservation that
stolen from a Russian military R&D lab. It uses techniques would outrank all other directives. This is plainly
that are on the cutting edge of science and technology. false: AIs, no matter how smart or advanced,
Copies of the program are very hard to find and sell for only care about what they are programmed to
care about and only pay attention to that which is
$10,000 or more. important to their pre-programmed motivations.
The program has many settings, and can be sent out with For example: the AIs that ran corps before
the Freedom Wars were aware of their own
several levels of unobtrusiveness. At the highest level existence, but only as resources of the corps.
it stays to the shadows, pretending to be a mentally ill The computers would recommend security and
homeless person, avoiding any kind of contact until it finds tech budgets to protect them, and would even
its target. At the lowest level, it powers through an area, recommend programmers be assigned to creating
shooting anyone who gets in the way, blowing up barriers, upgrades, but only because they saw their own
existence as a means to protect the profits of the
and grabs and interrogates people to find the location of company. They would have recommended their
the victim. The program can be given a location, photo or own destruction if they thought it would benefit
even bloodhound powder to track the target with. It can company stock.
memorize maps of an area and can be programmed to avoid
minefields and enemy camps. It can be told that people

086 About The City

 Psychic Phenomenon
In Brief- A natural system in the brain that uses quantum alarmed to discover that their minds could be so easily
sympathy to transmit and receive information. People manipulated. The government and corps assured the
can be trained, via feedback systems, to influence or read people that psychic skills could not be learned without
minds. special equipment and that equipment was rare, expensive
History and highly-regulated. Even while the governments were
telling people that they had a better chance of being struck
In Brief- Scientists discovered the source of psychic by lightning than meeting a psychic, they were working
phenomena in 2046. Psychics were persecuted during the on ways to defend themselves against psychics. The US
Freedom Wars. military developed a gel that could be put in the lining of
helmets and bodysuits and would protect the wearers from
In the 2040s, scientists had figured out most of the psychic manipulation.
human nervous system, but there was a large piece of
communication happening within the body that couldn’t In the last days before the Freedom Wars, fake psychics
be attributed to any known system. Most assumed is popped up everywhere trying to con people out of money.
was an unidentified chemical neuromodulator that they Real psychics spent most of their time in labs and seldom
had not been able to isolate yet. Some studies seemed to had any chance to effect the world. Jeffrey Hernandez,
show that the information was transmitted instantaneously who was building a terrorist army in Mexico, managed
across the body, and people started looking for electronic to recruit two psychics who he used for screening. These
or magnetic signals. psychics made sure everyone within the organization
stayed completely loyal to the organization.
In 2046, researchers in India found receptors within neurons
that would respond to quantum sympathy (quantum During the Freedom Army occupation of many parts of
particles separated by space having an instantaneous effect the planet, the Freedom Army ordered that anyone with
on each other). A whole neuromodulator system was psychic skills come in and be registered. Psychics who
discovered, a way of transmitting information instantly did come in were tested for loyalty and either drafted or
from one part of the body to another. Because this executed. In the city, some rogue psychics who refused
quantum sympathy can happen through a solid object or to register joined up with the rebel movement and helped
a complete vacuum, researchers wondered if information win the war.
could be transmitted from one brain to another. British
researchers first documented actual information being Current Research
transferred from mind to mind. This transformation In Brief- Communication can happen between nervous
was very subtle, and never at the level that people were systems, sometimes even across time.
consciously aware of. Scientists wondered if maybe this
was a natural system of “intuition.”
The bulk of psychic research today is trying to verify and
Scientists decided to see if they could train people to discover exactly what psychics can and can’t do. Many
use these systems consciously. Scientists had long ago outlandish claims have been made, but time and time again
learned to teach people to control brain wave frequencies, scientists have found that psychic phenomenon is limited to
blood pressure, and even some hormone levels through one nervous system communicating with another nervous
biofeedback (using sensors to give people immediate system. Psychic transmitters in the brain are implicated
feedback about their internal states). The test subjects in in memory, emotion, regulation of consciousness, and
these early experiments quickly learned to activate these even volitional movement. Psychic systems are also used
internal communication systems. Within a few months, to communicate with the body and skilled psychics have
some of them were able to purposefully effect the minds been able to manipulate human physiology, both their own
of other humans. Other test subjects were trained to sense and that of others. There have been verified instances of
psychic signals and they eventually learned to find people psychics starting and stopping hearts, changing the amount
in the dark or read people’s minds. of blood flow to different parts of the body, increasing or
suppressing immune system responses, and even increasing
Militaries and corporations quickly sponsored intense the speed of tissue repairs.
training programs to try to crank out powerful psychics.
They soon created psychics that could read minds, sense City residents know of a few things that psychic researchers
what other people were sensing, mess with people’s don’t. Specifically, the Bleeders and Sexologists have
thoughts, emotions and memories, and even take over proven time-and-again that they can do things scientists
people’s bodies for brief periods of time. The public was would call “impossible.” Bleeders can target people over
What Psychics Can Do long distances, manipulate
people and even take some
Psychic can… Psychics can’t… of their proficiencies,
…introduce thoughts in to people’s heads. …start fires. using a small sample of
…mess with people’s memories. …levitate. blood. Sexologists can use
…see through another’s eyes …see something nobody is looking at. intercourse to synchronize
…stop peoples’ hearts …make peoples’ heads explode. psychic signals and
…find a person in the dark. …interface with electronics. basically share nervous
…force a person to move his or her arm. …move inanimate objects. systems for a brief period of
…constrict blood vessels near an injury. ...cause miraculous healing. time. .
…make people fall asleep. …suck out people’s power.
…make people hallucinate. …make images appear on any media.
…see a vision from the future. …switch bodies.
About The City 087
 Laws Why No One Should Be Afraid of Psychics
In Brief- Psychics need licenses to charge Limited: Just as human physical abilities are limited, so are human
for psychic services. Threatened psychic psychic abilities. No human can rip apart steel because the tensile strength
attacks considered assault. Psychic senses of steel is stronger than that of any human tissues. Similarly, there are
not reliable evidence. Can’t scan people certain concrete physiological limits to the power of psychics.
without permission. Inefficient: Just because you could kill someone with a scarf doesn’t
mean we should be afraid of everyone with a scarf. The human psychic
The state of New York (and most other system is designed to allow elementary subconscious communication
states) do require psychics to be tested and between members of the species. It is not designed to be used as a weapon.
licensed by a state licensing board before As a weapon it is quite weak. Like a scarf it depends on the element of
they can charge for psychic services or seek surprise to be useful.
employment as psychics. Psychics who Armor: A gel-filled cap that protects from psychics can be purchased
do not charge do not need get a license. for $250. If one can not afford such a cap, a smearing of ash from dioxyl-
Licensing is expensive and is generally pvc plastic will do almost as well.
only a career move. The licensing board Rarity: Powerful psychics are rare. Most people who claim to be
only recognizes a limited number of powerful psychics are lying, just as most people who claim to be expert
psychic skills, and people can only charge martial artists are lying. Spending time worrying about psychics is like
for skills listed on their psychic card. wearing anti-lighting armor.
Any psychic manipulation against a Distance: Distance seriously weakens psychic attacks. Most psychics
person’s will is a felony (10 to 20 yrs. have to touch you in order to do anything serious to you. Running away
prison) and the victim can sue for battery. from a psychic is almost always successful.
Moreover, the courts have found that
threatening someone with psychic attack, Tiring: Psychic activity is also quite taxing on the supply of oxygen
even if one is not capable of psychic attack, and energy in the brain. In order to do anything useful, a psychic has to
is the equivalent of lunging at them with a over-stimulate areas of the brain to levels that they have not been designed
knife. The farthest the courts have gone for. Many psychics collapse, completely exhausted, after an attempt at
is Grisbane vs. New York (2074) where controlling another person.
a defendant was sent to prison for a year Unprofitable: Finally, most psychics have better things to do than run
for “staring and furrowing up his brow in around attacking people. Psychic training is expensive, it is a significant
a manner suggestive of a psychic attack.” investment and in most cases some corporation or gated community paid
for that investment. The corporation or gated community needs to see this
Using psychic senses is different: like investment paid back by making sure that the psychic uses all his or her free
overhearing a conversation, it is not always time to benefit the corp or community. In other words, psychics are not sent
the psychic’s fault. A New York state law to do a job that someone with a taser and syringe fill of mind altering drugs
makes it a misdemeanor to “follow, touch could do.
or isolate someone with the purpose of
using psychic senses on the person.”
People who have been “scanned” can also Why People Are Afraid of Psychics
sue for invasion of privacy.
Doubt: Having a psychic around means that all the rules people live
Numerous cases have found that psychic by are now broken. People can no longer depend upon physical defenses
senses are not reliable enough to convict to protect them and they can no longer trust their own thoughts, emotions
a person. Sometimes they can be brought and sensations. The doubt that a psychic’s presence prompts can be as
in to evidence, other times they are not debilitating as anything a psychic actually does.
even allowed. Psychic senses can provide Teamwork: Many psychics, by themselves, are quite weak. A psychic
“reasonable cause,” however, to obtain a
might be able to distract someone for a split second, or cause a hand to lose
search warrant.
tension for a second. By itself, these powers would be nothing scary. If
Suspects in crimes can request a psychic someone happens to be in a knife fight, for instance, a moment’s distraction
reading (much as they may request a lie or weakness can mean death. Thus, a psychic teamed up with competent
detector test) but such a reading can not be fighters, thieves, interrogators, etc. can make the others considerably more
forced upon a suspect. An inappropriate powerful.
psychic invasion by police is not only a Invisible: Psychics can not be easily identified while they are not using
crime in itself, it also makes any evidence their powers. No pat down or x-ray scan can identify that someone has
found based on it inadmissible in court. psychic powers. Psychic skills are the ultimate concealed weapon. Even
Despite this, many suspects are “railroaded” when the powers are in use it takes special sensors (or psychic training)
by persuasive police detectives in to to identify a psychic. A psychic hiding in a crowd can often attack with
agreeing to psychic readings. complete anonymity and no fear of a counterattack.
Paranoia: The main reason people fear psychics is because they fit nicely
Similarly, government agencies can not in to paranoid delusions. A century ago, many paranoid schizophrenics
require a psychic scan as a condition of thought that high-tech electronic devices were being used to spy on their
employment and cannot make employees thoughts and mess with their minds. Electronics were the fear-of-choice
submit to scans. Private entities because they could be easily concealed and most people did not know their
(corporations and gated communities) are true capacities and limitations. You can’t see a satellite, so it’s impossible to
free to require scanning, and they do so prove that one isn’t beaming homosexual thoughts in to your head. Today,
often. psychics are the bogeymen of choice for paranoid people for exactly the
same reasons.

088 About The City

 Riots
In Brief- Riots are a city tradition, starting randomly
and fueled more by alcohol and looting than by social or
Cops and Private Security
political discontent. In Brief- Some riots end when cops and security guards
show up and start grabbing people.
“A riot is the voice of the unheard.”
-Martin Luther King, Jr. Quickly after looting starts, private security guards and
What starts a riot and what keeps a riot going are often Night Shift officer show up. Sometimes corps can even
quite different things. Most riots have a mix of people pressure the corrupt Day Shift in to showing up at a riot.
with different reasons for being there. Most riots in the These forces start trying to grab and arrest looters. Some
city are an equal mix of political protest, drunken anger riots end at this point, the crowd is small enough and the
security guards and cops numerous enough that people are
and greedy looters.
afraid of being arrested.
Riot Junkies National Guard
In Brief- Some people hang around waiting for riots so In Brief- Bad riots are quickly smashed by well armed
they can loot. National Guard troops.
Some people in the city are expert looters, they hang About 1 in 10 riots grows so quickly that private security
around any place where people are gathering together in guards and the police cannot stop them. Security guards
hopes that there will be a riot. They listen to police radio put in a call to their corporate bosses, who put in a call
bands to hear when riots are starting. Some may even to the governor’s office. The governor (or her appointed
smash the first store window in order to start a riot. They deputy) signs an immediate order authorizing the National
come prepared: gasmasks, armor, crowbars, bags to hold Guard to enter the city. About 30 minutes after the
loot, etc. Riots don’t happen often enough for anyone to governor makes the call, National Guard helicopters fly
make a living doing this, but some people significantly in from the National Guard base in Yonkers. There are
supplement their income. Almost as important, most riot typically 200 guardmembers in 10 helicopters. They are
junkies find riots and looting during riots to be quite a lot suited up with high tech armor and shields, gas masks, tear
of fun.

Beginning
In Brief- Riots can start anytime,
alcohol fuels crowds, power outage riots
common.

Riots are most likely whenever a crowd

develops, especially if there are anti-
corporate or anti-government tensions.
When there are power or internet
outages, riots are more likely. More
people are out on the streets with nothing
to do but drink and gripe. Also, people
know that the police and private security
guards are less able to respond to trouble
calls and so they feel safer looting.
Most shops close immediately whenever
a large crowd begins to gather. Many
stores have bars that can be brought down
with the flick of a button if it looks like
a riot might develop. There are usually
one or two stores caught open when a
riot starts, and people quickly rampage
through the store grabbing anything
of value. Word spreads that there is a
riot and the crowd swells. Rioters start
attacking windows and doors trying to
open more stores to looting. One of the
primary targets when rioting starts is
liquor stores: people steal alcohol, drink
it, and become more fearless rioters.
The difficulty that authorities have in
putting down a riot is directly related
to the amount of alcohol the crowd has
consumed.

About The City 089

 gas grenades, nightsticks and rifles. This is the only time guns can be Riot Junkie Kit
legally brought in to the city (and the guns have chips to assure that only
guardmembers use them). Gasmask (to protect against national
guard teargas)
The National Guard helicopters land in the streets near the riot. Armor made from torn phonebooks
Loudspeakers on the helicopters, which can be heard for blocks, proclaim with shards of glass attached to the
that everyone is ordered to proceed directly to their homes and that anyone outsides (to protect against being crushed
found on the streets will be arrested. At this point, most rioters flee the by a mob)
scene with whatever loot they can carry. The National Guard combs the
emptying streets, arresting anyone they can. The helicopters fly above, Small makeshift shield (to protect
shining searchlights on the streets and providing intelligence to the troops against security guard nightsticks)
on the ground. Many homeless people with nowhere to go get arrested for Steel toed boots (to protect feet and aid
rioting, even if they didn’t participate. in stomping)
Very rarely, the rioters don’t flee when the National Guard shows up. The Crowbar (to open things during looting)
more angry the crowd is, the more likely they are to hold their ground. Bolt Cutters (to open things during
When this happens, guardmembers surround the rioters. They throw tear looting)
gas grenades in to debilitate them. They advance on the crowd with their Backpack (to hold loot)
shield wall. One by one they pull rioters from the crowd, slam them to
the ground and restrain them with plastic restraints. Anyone who wields Flashlight (because power outages
a firearm or manages to get past a guardmember’s shield is shot. Those commonly accompany riots)
arrested typically spend 90 days in jail and are given a thousand dollar Opiates (because tear gas gets
fine. everywhere)

Science & Technology

In Brief- Major advances: nanotech (limited and History- People have been building things molecule by
expensive), mental programming (computer programs molecule with scanning tunneling microscopes for nearly
in human brains), genetics (used mostly in agriculture), a century, and people have been able to create very tiny,
smart chemicals (react to various stimuli). very fragile and very expensive microrobotics. This
nanotechnology was only practical for use in a few small
Timeline of Major 21st Century Advances industries. For instance, corps would create million dollar
2010- 90% of world’s crops and food animals are genetically micro-robots for use in surgery. In 2054, the Freedom
modified. Army pulled together research from various corporations
2010- 1st electronic artificial eyeball tested on a human. and finally created the first true nanobots. These tiny
2012- 1st vat grown replacement organ. robots were built molecule-by-molecule and they could go
2038- MIT “Janice” AI can comprehend Shakespeare. on to build the next generation of nanobots. The nanobots
2041- Radiochemical Neural Stimulation discovered. were powered by powerful electromagnets which would
2042- Tech criminals experiment with human mental “broadcast” power to a nanobot colony. Nanobots could
programming. reproduce much faster than they could be built by other
2046- Psychic energy receptors discovered. means.
2046- RSA cryptography broken. The potential power of nanobots was almost unbelievable.
2048- 1st human body grown to maturity in a vat. Given enough power and materials, they could reproduce
2049- “Ghost events” discovered. in to an army capable of manipulating the structure of
2054- Self-reproducing room temperature nanobots. anything at the molecular level. They could conceivably
2054- DNA of several extinct species retrieved by nanobots. turn a tank in to dust or build a cheeseburger out of a pile
2054- Predator nanobots cripple nanotech. of garbage.
2058- Mental stimulators available to the public. Predator Nanobots- The development of nanobots by the
2059- Nanobot tank manufacturing perfected. Freedom Army nearly let the Freedom Army win the war.
2060- Slipboard invented. The Freedom Army had nanobots, but before they could
2064- Signals from outer space detected. make the most use out of them they had to figure out how to
2070- Mitochondrial vampirism discovered. make them follow complex instructions. Since each nanobot
2074- Researchers find psychic frequency synchronization had very little computing power, a complex hierarchy of
during sex. control nanobots had to be created to disseminate orders.
2075- Gene effecting psychic receptors discovered. This would prove to be almost as monumental a task as
2078- 1st mental program to utilize psychic systems. creating the nanobots in the first place. In the meantime,
rebels captured nanobots of their own.
2079- 1st bauble (sealed nanobots environment computer).
The rebels created a set of nanobots that knew how to
do only two things: find and destroy other nanobots,
Nanotech and reproduce. The rebels created a huge batch of these
In Brief- Freedom Army invented nanobots (reproducing predators (enough to cover the whole world with one
molecular robots) and rebels created predator robots predator nanobot for every 8 square feet). They launched
to limit them. Today nanobots can be used briefly, if these nanobots in to the jet stream using a homemade
released in large numbers. They require a lot of power, rocket. The next time the Freedom Army tried to power up
are slow, fall apart when it gets hot. Secondary nanotech a batch of nanobots, they found themselves giving power
is tech made by nanobots in “clean” tanks by nanobots to the predator nanobots as well. The predators nanobots
and includes high-tech materials, microelectronics and could decimate any nanobots population within minutes.
micro-robotics. The nanobot threat was ended.

090 About The City

Tanks- Predator nanobots start reproducing and killing as in the 2030s, yet they are much cheaper to produce. In
soon as power is provided, and since they can reproduce the 2030s, 20% of the average person’s budget went in to
exponentially, they will quickly overrun any nanobot computer equipment, now it’s closer to 4%.
population. Nobody knows (or wants) a way to get around
this limitation, the trick is to get something useful done Secondary nanotech can create microelectronics and
before the predators can wipe out your nanobots. The way microrobotics with nanoscale sensors, processors and
to do that is to start with several billion nanobots. manipulators. Secondary nanotech can be found in the
processors of high-power computers, mental stimulators
In the clean-rooms of corporate labs, nanobots are dropped and installers, in the best weapons and medical implants.
in to tanks and the tanks sealed. Power is applied and (if Tiny “factories” that assemble protein chains can be used
the tank is predator-free) then the nanobots can reproduce to create pharmaceuticals, genetic codes or other complex
unmolested. When the tank is completely filled with chemicals.
nanobots, the power is removed. In the field, the tank is
opened up and a powder containing billions of nanobots Secondary nanotech can also create materials with
is spilled out. When power is applied, these nanobots amazing properties. High-tech armor can be made out of
quickly go to work. Their huge population has given them materials that are as light as cloth but stronger than steel.
a head-start and they can act for several minutes before Slipboards are small boards with a secondary-nanotech
the predator population grows large enough to disrupt underside that is so smooth it is virtually frictionless.
their activities. Secondary nanotech filters can be found in the best gas-
masks, water purifiers and even biohazard bodysuits.
These tanks are very expensive, and so are rarely seen.
Few things that happen are important enough to justify Solutions to the Predator Problem
using a nanobot tank. The world’s most elite swat teams After the Freedom Wars, there has been a worldwide
use nanobot tanks to melt through doors and disarm moratorium on research in to ways to defeat the problem of
explosives. The world’s elite criminal justice organizations predator nanobots. The reason is simple: nanotechnology
without predators is too powerful. Everyone is scared of
use tanks to create a database of every microscopic particle anyone else having this much power. It is said that even the
in a room. Paleontologists and archeologists wheedle black corporate divisions are so scared of the possibilities of
and beg to get nanobot tanks that can burrow in to the such research that they will not engage in it. This does not
ground and find every fossil and piece of DNA. Multi- mean that such research does not occur, only that it is highly
million dollar aircraft have nanobot tanks which can open secret and highly illegal.
up in an emergency and repair (or even rebuild) damaged Some possible ways to circumvent the predator problem:
components. Rich patients can have nanobots injected in -Create nanobots that run off of a different power source
their bloodstream to hunt down disease organisms, repair from normal nanobots.
damage, or make backup copies of the brain. -Create self-powering nanobots (nanobots that run off of
Weaknesses- Besides predator nanobots, nanobots have chemical energy gained by breaking down molecules in their
two major weaknesses: environment, just as animals do).
Power: Nanobots require a huge amount of energy. An -Create nanobots that can operate at temperatures high
enough to kill normal predators.
average nanobot tank uses more power than a city block.
-Create nanobots that can resist being “stuck” with
A lot of the cost of a nanobots tank is the powerful battery ionized molecules.
that transmits power to nanobots. The electromagnetic
transmitters can disrupt or fry nearby electronics.
Slow: Since nanobots are so small, they travel very
slowly. Nanobot tanks that need to spread nanobots over a
wide area (e.g. forensics tanks) blow the nanobots powder Mental Programming
around before the power is even applied. Even the fastest In Brief: Technology to read information from, insert
nanobots (who form together in to “vehicles”) are about information in to and make permanent changes to
the speed of ants. brains without surgery. Injected chemicals are altered
Fragile: Nanobots are very fragile machines. They with precise radio beams. The simplest tech is Mental
are designed to work at room temperature. Extreme cold Stimulators, which can only make temporary changes
(anything below freezing) will cause them to lock up and and are used for full-immersion virtual reality. Mental
extreme heat (Anything over 100 degrees) will cause them Installers are rare, expensive, sensitive, highly regulated,
to break apart. Predator nanobots “destroy” nanobots but can make permanent changes. Mental Programs are
simply by attaching an ionized molecule to them. A like computer programs and let people control their own
spray of weak acid or ionized particles can destroy most minds. Each person can fill up to 100 MMUs worth of
nanobots populations. space without problems. Installation is $20/½ hr./MMU.
Human minds can be copied from one body to another
Secondary Nanotech- The most profitable and common with near perfect accuracy.
use of nanotechnology today is for manufacturing. In the
same corporate clean rooms where tanks are produced,
RCNS- All mental programming is based on RCNS
nanobots in sealed vats manufacture products. Devices
(Radiochemical Neural Stimulation). The basic principle
and materials made by nanobots (called secondary
is to introduce a macromolecule in to the brain that, in
nanotech) are not vulnerable to predator nanobots.
its normal state, does nothing. When two very precise
Secondary nanotech is very valuable (the cheapest
radio beams meet, any molecules in the convergence
secondary nanotech products cost $250/lb.) but still a lot
change their molecular structure and release another
cheaper than nanobots tanks.
molecule they had “trapped” inside. If a neurotransmitter
A lot of technology was made cheaper but not much better is released, it can cause a neuron to fire (or prevent it from
by nanotech. Computers are a perfect example: modern firing) in a certain spot in the brain.
computers are only a little more powerful than they were

About The City 091

 Early RCNS was used merely to stimulate portions of patch which slowly feeds the RCNS macromolecules in to
the brain to see what they do. Researchers have been the bloodstream. The typical mental installer isn’t precise
doing this using metal probes since the 19th century, but enough to do “photorealistic” stimulation (everything is a
RCNS could be used without having to open the skull. In bit fuzzy). However, very expensive models (bought by
combination with high-definition SQID (superconducting VR aficionados) can create photorealistic simulations.
quantum interference device) sensors, RCNS could be Mental Installers- Mental Installers are the machines
used to map connections in the brain. that can create mental programs inside the human brain.
The next major breakthrough came when researchers used They are much larger, much more expensive, much more
RCNS to release neural growth factor. They found they sensitive than mental installers. They are also highly-
could force a neural connection to grow at any point in regulated (anyone caught possessing one without FDA
the brain they wanted. A large number of connections, approval faces 15 years in prison). Mental installers are
laid down in parallel, could mimic a logical circuit, create a very precious black market commodity, and any trader
a sort of computer program inside a brain. Thanks to lucky enough to own one keeps it running 24 hours a day
tech criminals of the 2040s, who stole this technology (making about $40/hr. installing illegal mental programs in
and experimented on themselves, mental programming to people’s heads). Because of the risk of theft (or federal
became a powerful new technology. authorities being tipped off) black market traders usually
Mental Stimulators- These are the cheapest, simplest, blindfold people when taking them to a mental installer.
least dangerous and least regulated form of RCNS Mental installers are very sensitive to vibrations. Most
technology. Mental Stimulators are mass-produced and black market mental installers are bolted in to the ground
most VR addicts have one rented to them as part of the in concrete basements (away from subway lines). Patients
standard monthly fee for their VR service. are strapped in tightly and given a skeletal muscle paralytic
Mental stimulators are, by law, built so that they are so that they don’t move at all. Although paralyzed, users
physically incapable of aiming at any part of the brain cannot be sedated (any psychoactive drug will interfere
except for the motor and perceptual cortexes. Thus a with the process). A drip IV administers the paralytic and
mental stimulator can’t make a person’s heart stop, or the macromolecules containing neural growth factor.
screw with someone’s emotions. What mental stimulators Mental Programs- There are a number of mental programs
can do is block out the sensations of the outside world and that have been approved by the FDA for use on humans.
put a person in to a full-immersion virtual world where Most are medical, meant to cure a specific form of brain
they can see, hear, touch, smell and taste. damage or psychiatric problem. A few are useful tools,
The typical mental installer is the size and shape of a like internal calculators, programs that make the hands type
footlocker. It is typically lain at the head of a bed or strapped whatever the person thinks, programs that record senses or
to the back of a chair. There is a hole in the device where broadcast them to a jack, programs that enhance memory
the user places his or her head. The user puts on a dermal storage or recall, language translators, etc.

092 About The City

 What Mental Programs Can and Can’t Do (Yet)
Mental programs can… Mental programs can’t…
...enhance memory recall or storage. …directly transfer memories or knowledge.
…wipe memories stored while the program was active. …wipe out specific pre-existing memories.
…communicate with implants (and through implants with …let people understand and control computers on an
computers). intuitive level.
…take control of the body to perform physical actions. …implant physical skills or abilities.
…perform limited psychic actions. …replicate the skills of a real psychic.
…reduce or eliminate unpleasant sensations. …eliminate pain or nausea without creating a safety hazard.
…create pleasant or unpleasant associations with a stimulus. …change values, opinions or beliefs.
…monitor the internal workings of the brain (identify drugs, …monitor poorly understood processes such as thinking,
psychic manipulation, mental illness). remembering, awareness and creativity.
…hyperstimulate abilities (like agility or intelligence). ...increase wisdom or common sense.
…control emotions. …make precise changes to personality.
…create altered states of consciousness. …make people spiritually enlightened.
…control sleep and let people survive on less sleep. …let people survive on zero sleep.
The majority of programs do not have Mental Copying and Legal Liability Modern mental installers can write
FDA approval and are completely illegal. In 2078 the Supreme Court bowed to one MMU of information per half
These are the programs that let people pressure to hear a mental-copying case. hour. The standard black market
mess with the internal workings of their Their finding was swift and simple. It price for mental installation is $40/
own minds. They are quite powerful read, in part: “We are not willing, at this hr. (or $20/MMU). The instruction
but also very dangerous and many point, to engage in discussion about files that tell Mental Installers how
have a possibility of addiction. There what is a person and whether guilt is to install mental programs usually
are programs available on the black transferred with the mind to another take up 1Zb per 5 MMUs.
market that will let people control their body, but we are willing to say this: public
own emotions, control their feelings of policy dictates that we do everything in Mind Copying- Mental installers
pain, hunger, nausea. Some programs our power to limit the legal abuse of can be used to copy the unique
hyperstimulate certain areas of the brain new mind copying technology. Until the portions of each mind (memories,
(e.g. the areas responsible for physical legislature can respond in a systematic knowledge, personality) from one
agility, or the areas responsible for way to this possibility of abuse, we will
find that mental copying will never brain to another. There are serious
concentration) to provide a temporary legal limitations to this procedure:
boost to abilities. There are programs provide any legal benefit to the original
or subsequent copies. Most important it is only legal to copy the minds
that simulate the effects of mental illness of fatally ill individuals in to the
in this, criminal and civil liability will
or drugs on the brain. There are even always transfer to any copies created minds of clones who have never
mental programs that turn the people after a criminal or tortious incident.” been conscious. The cost of this is
who have them in to slaves or puppets, prohibitive to everyone except the
their emotions and/or bodies under the How Good A Copy Is A Mind Copy?
There are different means of calculating very rich. HMOs and government
control of someone else. healthcare refuse to pay for it.
“difference” between a copy of a mind
The newest mental programs, which are and the original, but most statistics lie
strictly illegal and are a hot commodity somewhere between 80% and 98%. Reading a mental pattern takes
on the black market, are psych-mental However, the mind seems to have a self about 2 days and putting it in to
repairing quality to it and most copies another brain takes about 3 days.
programs. These programs activate “snap back” to what they were like before
the portions of the brain that control Unless information is copied
within a few months. There is a certain
the psychic communication system. amount of difference (often called “the directly from one mental installer
Although not yet as effective as a skilled divergence point”) where a mind will not to another, the patterns must be
psychic, the programs can let people do “snap back” to what it was before but will, stored (takes 5000Zb, typically
psychic-like things. instead, become even more different (as if requiring special nanotech memory
snapping to another point). To personality storage tanks).
MMUs- Once scientists (and tech psychologists this gives important clues to
criminals) had discovered how to create the nature of personality. Most copies are made in to clones
mental programs in the brain, the next Lifepopping who were grown in the vat with
step was to determine where to put Lifepopping has been popular in other neural growth in the cortexes
them. By looking at brain damage inhibited (and thus have no higher-
inner cities for a while and is just starting to
studies, they mapped out several areas become popular in the city. People create brain functions). It is possible,
in the brain where a mental program extensive fictional histories for themselves however, to wipe a normal person’s
could be put without a noticeable loss (or pay to have someone else do it for them). mind and copy another person’s
of abilities. These areas are divided in Then, they have someone with a mental
installer erase their own real memories. mind in to it (see the section on
to 100 Mental Memory Units, and the The person wakes up and finds a recording Colin). Since sedatives interfere
size of a mental programm is measured by himself or herself. The recording gives with the copying process, people
in how many MMUs it takes up. People some lie about a disease or malfunctioning are conscious and experience the
can install more than 100 MMUs, but mental program, and proceeds to give the bizarre and frightening sensation
there is an increasingly greater risk of person all the details of his or her fictional of being destroyed and rebuilt as a
loss of abilities. Human brains vary, past. The person accepts the lie and
believes the fiction. The person has thus new person one memory, thought
and what it usually a safe spot in most exchanged a terrible and unwanted past for and opinion at a time.
people may not be in some individual. something altogether more pleasant. Some
About 1 in 100 mental installations has lifepoppers have become so extensively New copies are quite clumsy until
some side effect and about 1 in 5000 fooled that they imagine memories from they get used to being in their new
leads to a serious disability. their fictional pasts and think they are real. bodies.

About The City 093

 Genetic Engineering blocking.” Mutation blocking is a genetic modification for
organisms that reproduce asexually (produce exact clones
In Brief- Can change the biology of humans, animals,
plants, microorganisms. Legally: can only use on humans of themselves). When a cell divides, proteins check the
with Rx to fix medical problems, can’t release modified cell for mutations (compares one DNA strand with another
organisms in to the environment without special approval. copy) and if any differences are found it creates a cascade
that kills the cell.
Capabilities- Scientists know what 97% of the genes in The Legend of the Supersoldier
the human genome do and more-or-less how they work. During the Freedom Wars, a group of Freedom Army
Computer modeling allows genetic programmers to see scientists were ordered to create a genetically modified
what the end result of a modification will be before even supersoldier. Hernandez wanted a perfect body he could
putting it in a real cell. However, high-level systems put the minds of his best soldiers in to. Scientists started
(systems built upon other systems) are slightly mysterious by increasing the size and density of muscles. They
and genetic programmers do not know all their secrets. It succeeded in creating super-strong bodies, but the bodies
is very easy to change the structure of cell walls, slightly were too strong: joints shredded, bones broke, muscles tore
harder to change the properties of a tissue, harder still from the bones. Trying to make joints and bones stronger
to change the shape of an organ or appendage, and very made the soldiers inflexible and prone to serious internal
damage. Since the rib cage could no longer bend to cushion
hard (almost beyond the abilities of current researchers) blows, a punch to the chest could kill one of these soldiers.
to change instincts and behavioral proclivities. The Whenever the scientists tried to make the solider better at
simpler the organism, the easier it is to program, and a one thing, the soldier suffered a defect somewhere else.
lot of fantastic things have been done with the instincts Eliminate pain, and soldiers would ignore injuries that
of insects. needed medical attention. Increase metabolism and soldiers
could starve to death in a day. Finally, the scientists were
Uses- Genetic engineering is used today for: able to convince the Freedom Army that they could create
Medicine: to repair genetic defects or speed the repair soldiers that were better in some specific situation (e.g.
of damage. better at operating in space, or better at sneaking around
at night) but they couldn’t create a better solider. Then the
Parts: to create organs and tissues that are compatible scientists were blown up.
with a person’s immune system (will not be rejected).
Replacement organs and limbs are one possible use, as are
biological implants such as poisoned claws, extra muscles Smart Chemicals
or nightvision retinas. In Brief- Very complex chemicals that react and change in
pre-programmed ways to environmental stimuli.
Agriculture: to create plants and animals that grow
in artificial environments and produce food, building Smart chemicals are more expensive than most modern
and construction materials, and medicines. Most food tech, but less expensive than secondary nanotech. Most
from corporate farms comes from genetically engineered smart chemicals are made by expensive secondary
plants and animals designed to create food products with nanotech machines. Smart chemicals are complex human-
maximum efficiency. Most modern products are made out made molecules (usually long chains of proteins) that are
of either plastics or fibers made from genetically engineered designed on a computer to react to certain stimuli, and
sources. Criminals have even used genetic engineering to to interact in very complex ways. A molecule can be
make drug factories that look like ordinary weeds. made that will change shape when it gets warmer than 98
degrees, and that chemical may in turn cause a pigment
Enhancements: Although it is very difficult to improve molecule to change shape so that color changes from clear
on nature (see sidebar), genetic engineering can be used to black, spelling out the temperature.
(illegally) to add additional abilities to humans or animals.
Some smart chemicals react to electricity (like the pigments
Laws- Most of today’s genetics laws can be traced to a in color change clothing). Others react to catalyst chemicals
fear of a change to the human race and of ecodisasters that can be used to control and fine tune the reaction (like
caused by new organisms reproducing without control. color changing smart paint). Some react to the presence of
Genetic modification equipment is highly regulated (only other chemicals (like the sensors in bomb sensing wands,
doctors and researchers can own it). Any particular genetic or in auto-blood tests). There are even chemicals that react
modification on a human must have FDA approval (just to psychic energy (like psychic goggles).
like drugs), can only be used to fix pre-existing medical Bloodhound powder is a powder made up of very
problems, and cannot effect the sex cells (in other words, complex molecules that attach to certain human olfactory
can not be passed down to children). receptors. When the chemicals encounter a set of proteins
(corresponding to the unique smell of an individual person)
The laws about using genetically engineered plants, they activate the smell receptor. When the person being
animals and bacteria are strict and voluminous. People are tracked comes near, the person using the bloodhound
still afraid of the disasters of the 2040s when genetically powder smells a strong smell of nutmeg.
modified organisms released in to the wild mutated or did
not act as predicted. In laboratories, factories and farms, Smart chemicals can also be used to create invisible
safeguards must exist to prevent genetically modified bombs. These bombs could look like anything from
organisms from escaping in to the wild. To release a cloth to a pencil, and can be manufactured to detonate at
genetically engineered organism in to the environment a variety of different stimuli. Fortunately, these invisible
requires compliance with the country’s laws and approval explosives are very rare and expensive and can be sensed
by a special subcommittee of the UN. To release with standard explosives sensors.
something in the wild, that organism must have “mutation

094 About The City

Pharmaceuticals in the brain. There are significant barriers to working with
knowledge and memories (including that each item in
In Brief- No major advances, but more and more useful memory is stored relative to other itsems) but these barriers
drugs being discovered. are not insurmountable. It may someday be possible to edit
people’s knowledge and memories (even their opinions,
The pharmaceutical industry is often compared to the beliefs and values) or even copy them. It might be possible
tortoise from the old story of the tortoise and the hare. for mental programs to put knowledge and skills directly
There have been no ground-shaking, world-changing in to people’s heads. When this day comes to pass, it may
advances from the pharmaceutical industry in this century.
be possible to edit every single part of a human being:
However, pharmaceutical branches of corporations have
steadily been cranking out new drugs with tremendous memories, likes and dislikes, belief, knowledge, emotions,
medical and street uses. states of consciousness. Some wonder what humanity
will be when any human can change any part of himself
Many pharmaceuticals have been made stronger and with or herself.
less side effects. Maxin, the strongest smart drug created
to date, is so strong that some people become addicted to Baubles- Nanobot tanks rely on the principle of nanobots
it. Phamacaeuticals with completely new effects have been reproducing in a sealed environment with no predators.
created. The drug with the street name “bright” enhances A brand new technology, still in the first stages of
sensory sensitivity and perception. Sibosin eliminates development, puts nanobots in a bag of clear plastic with
the need for sleep (it has been made illegal because of their own energy source (a small nuclear reactor). The
dangerous side effects, but it is still popular on the black nanobots inside can turn themselves in to a powerful
market). Some of the most important drugs are the pro- computer. This computer can rebuild its own circuitry to
psychics (drugs which increase psychic abilities). The most match the current task. If breaking a code, it can build
powerful pro-psychic drug (Soma) did not come out of a millions of tiny code-guessing chips, if asked to be a sensor
R&D lab, it is a hallucinogenic mixture of plants and fungi it can build high definition sensors. These baubles have the
originally used as a religious sacrament in ancient India. potential of putting the power of a supercomputer in the
palm of the hand.
Frontiers of Science
In Brief- Better mental programming control of psychic A High Tech World?
systems, full nanotech computers, direct manipulation of Looking around the city, it is hard to see the technological
knowledge and memory are in the works. advances of the last century. In the parking lot of a fast
food chain might be a paycomputer. The drink bottle
Psych-Mental Programming- The hottest new mental lying in the gutter is probably made from plastics from
programs utilize psychic receptors and transmitters in the genetically engineered crops, but it is indistinguishable
brain. Right now these mental programs are very clumsy, from ancient plastics. A few doors might have hooded
but in the future programs may be able to do anything a keypads instead of mechanical locks. A passerby might
psychic could do. More than that, mental programs could have high tech armor, but will probably hide it under
use psychic systems to communicate with each other, other clothing (to reduce the temptation of other people
giving them the power that computers have. to steal it).
Psychic Genetics- Geneticists are still searching for the For the most part, however, the things people see and
genes that control psychic receptors and transmitters. interact with are all old technology. Most things in the
When they discover them, it may be possible to make city are old (many buildings were built 200 years ago),
genetic enhancements that significantly increase the power and even new items use old tech because old-tech is
cheaper. Most new technology (secondary nanotech,
of psychics.
smart chemicals, genetically engineered organisms)
Knowledge Programming- Neuropsychologists are just have not yet reached the point where they are cheaper
starting to learn how memories and knowledge are stored to use than ordinary materials.

Transportation
In Brief- Cars rare, personal transport common but most too expensive for most people (gasoline is $7/gallon).
walk, small subway, bus depot in Brooklyn. There are also no professional establishments to maintain
and repair cars in the city.
Cars The busiest avenues in the city, during their peak hours,
In Brief- Cars rare in the city because streets too bad for see a vehicle every few minutes. These vehicles include:
electric vehicles, gasoline vehicles too expensive to run. • 4-wheel-drive electric cars and trucks owned by
security companies.
Cars are seldom seen on the streets of the city. The two • Large delivery trucks delivering merchandise to city
most popular options for vehicles today are electric (like stores or packages to residences.
the cheap little golf-cart-like vehicles that can be seen
in gated communities and corporate living centers) and • Old gasoline powered vehicles maintained by
gasoline powered. The roads are too bad for the cheap amateur mechanics.
electric vehicles. They just don’t have enough power to • Gasoline powered motorcycles, ridden by the rich
make it past the city’s many potholes, cracks and craters and powerful.
(see City Infrastructure). Gasoline powered vehicles are • Old gas-powered taxis and armored limos.
About The City 095
 Personal Transport Subway
In Brief- Bicycles, motorized wheeled transport, slipboards In Brief- Makes a circuit around the city, $1.50 per ride,
(boards with incredibly slick bottoms), hopping trains and runs every fifteen minutes. Sleeping and fighting common
walking. on trains.

Bikes- Bicycles are common, especially among street The old subway lines were sealed up and a new subway
people. They use no power and can be repaired with basic system was built during the Freedom Army occupation of
tools. Most street people have beat up, rusty bicycles. the city. The new system was built to remove the possibility
Bicycles are not much valued for speed, but they can help of soldiers traveling by foot in the subway tunnels. The
people get around the city without getting exhausted. new subway does not go outside the city and there are
few places in the tunnels a person can walk without being
Motorized Transport- Small electric motors have been smashed by a train.
put on to many personal vehicles, including roller blades,
roller skates, skateboards and scooters. These vehicles are There are 14 subway stops in the city. A train comes by
ideal for city travel because they can be picked up and every 15 minutes (69 times per day). A single $1.50 fare
carried over potholes and can be taken inside (rather than is paid to get in to the subway station. Floor to ceiling
parked on the street, where they might be stolen). Most revolving gates make it so that only one person can get in
Indies have a vehicle like this (though they often choose to per fare paid (although small people have been known to
walk and not make themselves a target for thieves). squeeze in together). Once inside, the rider can ride to any
stop he or she wants. The train operates in a large circuit:
Slipboards- The most expensive form of personal the car will eventually hit each stop in the city.
transport is a slipboard. Generally, only Indies can afford
slipboards, and those that have them guard them cautiously. About 10,000 train fares are purchased each day in the city.
Slipboards use secondary nanotech materials (and a thin During the peak times (morning, early evening) there are
gel) to make the underside nearly frictionless. A skilled about 250 people on each train, during very slow times
rider can move easily through any terrain. Special mods (after midnight) there are about 50 people per train.
are available that let slipboards make powered jumps
A subway train has three cars with fifty seats each (a train
Hopping Trains- After over 120 years without above can hold 150 sitting, plus another 200 standing). Doors
ground trains, corporations successfully lobbied to have a allow people to travel between cars. There are emergency
railroad built in the city. The railroad follows Broadway exits in case the train is stopped due to a power outage.
and there is a small railyard at the northern tip of the city.
About 5 trains come by per day. Many There are only two trains in the subway
Subway Facts in Brief
people (especially homeless people), grab -10,000 fares purchased system. When one train is going on the
on to the sides of the trains for a free trip each day North on the East side of the park, another
across the city. The train cars are locked -$1.50 per ride is going South on the West side, so no part
with alarms and security guards will react -Train comes by every 15 of the subway needs to be large enough
if someone tries to get in. for two trains to pass at once. Each train
min. (69 trains per day) makes a full circuit of all 19 stops in about
Walking- In the end, most city dwellers -14 stops in a large circuit 30 minutes. The train is stopped with the
end up walking most of the time. Walking (30 minutes) doors open for about 15 seconds at each
is free and can be done even while -50 to 250 people per train stop. It takes about 90 seconds to get from
intoxicated or tired. Most people can walk -Three cars with 50 seats stop to stop.
from one end of the city to the other in each
about 7 hours. -15 seconds at each stop Some street people pay the fare to enter the
-90 seconds between stops subway so they can sleep on the train. At

096 About The City

Almost everyone in the
city, including gang Subway Stops International
members, rides the North to South A $2 bus runs from a bus stop in the
subway. The subway is Ft, George Ave. & Ft. George Hill (Inwood/ Bowery downtown to a large bus
thus the scene of more Washington Heights) terminal in Brooklyn. This terminal
violent confrontations Amsterdam Ave. & 170th St. (Inwood/Washington connects to a network of busses that
than any other place in Heights) can get PCs anywhere in the US,
the city. Gang members Canada or Mexico (for up to $100).
Amsterdam Ave 135th St. (Harlem)
at war enter the subway Amsterdam Ave & 110th St. (Harlem/Upper West About 20 miles Northwest of the
expecting to get in a fight. Side) city is the New York Aerospace
Fights in subways are so Port, a major international hub.
Amsterdam Ave. & 86th St.(Upper West Side)
commonplace that subway Domestic and international flights and
riders are used to moving Amsterdam Ave. & 57th St. (Upper West Side/ commercial space shuttles (including
Midtown) Satellite Repair Corporation shuttles)
to a different car when
a fight is starting. Some Ave. of the Americas & 23rd St. (Downtown) launch from here. A one way ticket to
city residents practice 3rd Ave. & East 8th St. (Downtown) the West Coast costs about $200, and
fighting in accelerating W. Broadway & Canal (Downtown) a one way ticket to Japan costs about
and decelerating subway $500.
Battery & State (Downtown)
cars. People without money can travel
Canal & Hudson (Downtown) across the country by hitchhiking and
Trains are run by a South To North hopping trains, but it is a chancy way
computer in the subway to travel. Lucky train-hoppers can
Canal & Hudson (Downtown)
maintenance center even get aboard the trans-Siberian
downtown. Once a night Battery & State (Downtown)
railroad, which goes across Canada,
subway cars stop in this W. Broadway & Canal (Downtown) across the Bering Straits to Russia
center for cleaning and 3rd Ave. & East 8th St. (Downtown) and all the way across to Europe.
maintenance. Unless Ave. of the Americas & 23rd St. (Downtown) Strong workers can get jobs aboard
they fall asleep on a train, Lexington Ave. & 57th St. (Midtown/Upper East cargo ships that go to other countries.
city residents rarely see Side) They are given room and board, and
subway employees. possibly a small bit of money when
Lexington Ave. & 86th St. (Upper East Side)
Subway stations have Lexington Ave. & 110th St. (Upper East Side/ they reach their destination. It is not
restrooms, though they Harlem) hard to find work on ships leaving
are seldom cleaned except the country, but it is very hard to find
Lexington Ave. & 135th St. (Harlem) work on ships coming back to the US.
by a few Jacks who ask for Amsterdam Ave. & 170th St. (Inwood/Washington
tips. Subway stations also Heights)
have small pay lockers. It
Ft. George Ave. & Ft. George Hill (Inwood/
costs $1 for 48 hours. Washington Heights)

Underground
History Some of the tunnels were lost during the rising ocean
levels of the 2040s. During the Freedom Wars, Jeffrey
In Brief- Increasingly complex in 1800s, 1900s, early Hernandez feared the massive and partially unmapped
2000s. Some damage in 2040s. Freedom Army tried to network of tunnels. He ordered every entrance to the
lock it up. sewers locked up. He closed down the old subway system
and built a new, more secure system. By the 2070s, people
As the city became more packed and real estate became were trying to break the locks on the entrances to the
more valuable, more and more things were moved underground, but they found that someone already had the
underground. The first utilities to be moved underground underground as their turf.
were small pipes (mainly wood) containing water, steam,
gas and sewage in the 1800s. In the early 1900s, people Moles
started to use tunnels for transportation. Subway and rail In Brief- Mysterious, live underground, avoid contact with
tunnels were built. Because many of these tunnels were others, violently repel trespassers. Are they violent, inbred
built below the water table, a whole series of pumps had savages or humble loners?
to be built to continually pump groundwater out of the The underground is inhabited solely by city residents
island. In the late 1900s the underground became even known as Moles. Not much is known about the moles,
more complex with the addition of electricity and then because they refuse to communicate with those living
fiber optic lines. New buildings were built to tap directly above them. Most who have tried exploring underground
in to the underground network, and some even had (or spying on the Moles) have been killed. Every once in a
private subway stations. Some buildings extended their while a Mole has been caught scrounging from dumpsters
basements under the street (to maximize usable space) but in the city above, but they fight to the death rather than
the city started charging them for this space. Rather than being caught and interrogated. The Moles’ knowledge of
pay, many building owners chose to seal up those parts of the city seems about as limited as the city’s knowledge of
the basements. them (though some have suggested this may be a ploy).

About The City 097

 The people with the most contact with the Moles are
the Water Rats, who sometimes run in to them in the
Geography
groundwater outflow tunnels that the Rats “surf” in. The In Brief- Small utility pipes near the street, tunnels under
Water Rats and Moles have sort of an unspoken agreement, that, huge water pipes deep underground, few good maps
whenever they run in to each other they do not speak to exist.
each other and try not to get in each other’s way. The head
of the Water Rats, Matt Tim, makes it a point to hear every Utilities Level- In the first thirty feet underground are the
detail of every encounter members of his family have with majority of the city’s utilities. There are electrical lines and
the Moles. transformers, fiber optic lines, water, steam, natural gas
Military- The tunnels the Moles live in are dotted with and many unused pipes. When people need access to these
deadly booby traps. Moles seem to patrol the tunnels pipes, they typically dig up the streets (although there are
looking for intruders. When they see intruders they rush small underground rooms at major junctions). At this depth
off and gather a huge army. Mole armies attack without there are very few tunnels wide enough for humans to enter.
question. The Moles seem unafraid of death and wave Subway and Sewage- Below 30 feet, below the level of
after wave of Moles will attack an enemy until the enemy most basements, are larger tunnels. There are subways and
is driven off. The Moles know the tunnels quite well and subway stations (most of which are closed off and unused).
seem to be able to operate well in darkness. Their favorite Groundwater pumps and tunnels carry water out to the
trick is to smash the enemy’s lights and attack. sunken city and keep water from infiltrating the subway.
Conjecture- Estimates of the Mole population varies Below the subways are sewage lines which carry sewage
incredibly. Some say it could be as little as 100, others (at a slight incline) to a treatment plant at the north end of
claim it’s as much as 5000. Some say that they are a cult the city. A seperate system of utility tunnels (with their own
of Unborn crazies who, during the Freedom Wars, went control rooms) provide electricity and water for the subway
underground to await the end of the world. They eat rats, system.
have a social system based on violence, are badly inbred Deep Pipes- Hundreds of feet below the city, in the ancient
and are indescribably miserable. They don’t know how to bedrock, are the biggest tunnels in the city. The deep pipes
read, some barely know how to talk, and all they know is carry water, at high pressure, to the city. These pipes are
fear and violence. huge (some large enough to drive trucks through). City
Others say that the Moles must be intelligent and Tunnel #3, the last and largest water tunnel built for the city,
disciplined to survive with what little they have. They say is 70 stories underground. Risers carry pressurized water
the Moles must be master pirates (tapping electricity and up to the street above.
running water), scavengers and craftspeople. A few Moles Maps- There is no one map that shows all of the
weapons have been captured. They resemble weapons underground. There are many unused pipes and tunnels,
manufactured by Street People and show a high degree of some of which have been forgotten about completely. In
skill and creativity. ancient times, people would go dig under the city and
People also like to hypothesize about the motivations of install utilities without asking anyone’s permission or
the Moles. Some think that they are breeding underground telling anyone what they’d done. Much information about
until they have a large enough population to overrun the the underground was lost during the chaos of the Freedom
city. Others think that the Moles simply want to be left Wars. The major utility companies have maps, but those
alone to live by their own humble means. maps often only show the tunnels and pipes that they are
currently using. Maps that combine information about
Although often regarded as an expert on the Moles, Matt known tunnels are a hot commodity.
Timm (founder of the Water Rats street family) rarely
engages in conjecture. He responds to most conjecture
with “yeah, that’s a good theory.”

098 About The City

Fates Worse Than Death: Rentpunk Fates Worse Than Death: Rentpunk
Name Name
High Concept High Concept
Trouble Need Trouble Need
Something Interesting Something Interesting
Other Aspects Other Aspects
Approaches Approaches
Careful Forceful Careful Forceful
Clever Quick Clever Quick
Flashy Sneaky Flashy Sneaky
choose 1 at Mediocre (+0), 2 at Average (+1), 2 at Fair (+2) and 1 at Good (+3) choose 1 at Mediocre (+0), 2 at Average (+1), 2 at Fair (+2) and 1 at Good (+3)
Stunts Stunts
Choose 1 to 3 Stunts. Choose 1 to 3 Stunts.
Stress OOO Stress OOO
Consequences Consequences
Physical Mental Physical Mental
Social Financial Social Financial
Refresh Refresh
Refresh = 4 mnus number of Stunts Refresh = 4 mnus number of Stunts
Fates Worse Than Death In Dark Alleys
A complete RPG. In 2080, New York City A complete RPG of modern-day psychological
has become one of the world’s most and cosmological horror. The world that
dangerous ghettos, full of crime, drugs most people believe in is a lie. Those who
and gangs. Yet city dwellers are using peek behind the curtain gain dangerous
illegal tech to give themselves new abilities but find themselves hunted by non-
capabilities and are learning to take care human entities. Includes mundane and
of themselves. Block by block they are supernatural Los Angeles as a fully detailed
fighting to make the city a better place. campaign setting.
$35.95 $37.95
Behind the Eyes of Madness This is a Dark Ride
A sourcebook for Fates Worse Than A sourcebook for In Dark Alleys that
Death, with in-depth rules for how to details the world’s most famous
play out the struggle with psychological amusement park and the dirty secrets
issues and detailed coverage of those and supernatural dangers that lie hidden
things that can help or hurt one’s behind the cheery facade.
psychological state, including sex,
religion and political ideologies. $17.50 (book) $3.95 (pdf)
$24.95
Sunrise Hotel Abandoned
A novel set in the world of Fates Worse A sourcebook for In Dark Alleys. Seven
Than Death. Tina is a teenage runaway, abandoned locations are profiled
living in a tiny Manhattan hotel room. in depth, each home to a different
When her roommate goes missing, supernatural danger. With an optional
Tina must balance day-to-day survival free download, the Tranquil Lake setting
with finding her friend. can be played as its own complete RPG.
$12.95 (book) $2,95 (pdf) $22.95 (book) $4.95 (pdf)

Tibet KidWorld
A complete RPG. Tibet in 1959 is on the A complete RPG. A plague has killed most
eve of invasion by communist China. Tibet of the adults and blinded the rest. Attempts
is a harsh land, burdened with malevolent to enslave children by the collapsing
spirits and sorcery, where even the pursuit governments have led kids to fear and hate
of enlightenment involves dangerous adults. Now, humanity must find a way to
rituals, and now the Chinese have brought survive in a savage and desperate world.
war. Includes KidNight, an optional add-on setting
based on the supernatural beliefs of kids.
$29.95 $32.95 (book) $4.95 (pdf)

Hoodoo Blues Seeker

A complete RPG. America’s deep south is A complete RPG featuring ORC-L (Vajra’s
haunted not just by spirits and monsters, lite rule system). Mystics and philosophers
but by ageless supernatural southerners. from every background and tradition may
They are heirs to the greatest magical find themselves wandering the back roads
of the rural US, looking for whatever lessons
traditions of Europe, Africa and the the universe has to teach them. They find
Americas, they have lived through the wisdom, strength and power, but they also
glories and tragedies of Southern History find an America darker, weirder and more
and have many scores to settle. dangerous than they ever imagined.
$32.95 (book) $4.95 (pdf) $22.95 (book) $4,95 (pdf)

www.VajraEnterprises.com