Dark City
Civil Society

Civil Society

From Dark City

Arts, Media & Society

Overview

New York City has been characterized as the cultural capital of the world. A hub of multiculturalism, the diverse ethnic influence can be seen in the art, music, stage performances, fashion and food of the great city. For more than a century the city has been a world renown destination for the arts. Home to cultural institutions, such as, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, The New York City Ballet, and of course Broadway.

The arts aren’t just confined to institutions, buskers pepper the city, and studios, galleries and fashion designers set up in the nooks and crannies they can afford to rent. It is a city of treasures to be discovered by those on the hunt for the ‘next great find’.

The Societies of New York City are many. From the High Society of the gala throwing, wealthy, elite and connected, to those that grow organically around the subcultures of underground music, fashion, art scenes. It is a city where you can find anything, if you know where to look.

Theme

New York City crosses the spectrum of arts, music, and society. It’s a place where you can find work from the old masters only a walk away from the latest Banksy piece. The city spans the highs, lows, and everything in between of fame. Those striving for it, those who found it, and those who lost it. Musicians who failed in their fifteen minutes play in the streets to make rent. Artists who were once up and coming, suddenly find the reviews declaring their work ‘derivative’ and missing the ‘promising spark’ that had originally brought them to the spotlight.

Dreams are fought for, found, crushed and sometimes, rarely, attained. Even knowing these truths people flock every year with their hopes raised, thinking they're going to have their big break. Talent isn’t enough, ambition can only carry you so far, and at the end of the day serendipity usually needs to intervene to get dreams realized. For a lucky few that serendipity might even take the form of a wealthy patron, willing to buy your success with money and connections, but nothing is for free, and even fame is usually fleeting.

Current Plots

The Missing Socialite

  • A rising starlet, Katrina Volusia, has suddenly and inexplicably become a recluse.

Joining the Sphere

Anyone can acquire Art, Media & Society Status either during character creation or while in play. Consider your particular place in the sphere: are you a rising artist? A political booster and fundraiser? A news anchor?

This is less about your personal gravitas, as that would be reflected in the Fame merit, though the two can easily go hand-in-hand. Status is about the reputation of your organization and the power and access your position within it grants you. Likewise, if you're interested in having reporters under your thumb, Allies would reflect this better than Status.

While there are no requirements for joining, the following stats are suggested:

  • Presence or Manipulation
  • Investigation, Expression, Subterfuge, Persuasion, or Politics.
  • Contacts, Allies, Fame

Samples of Arts, Media & Society Contacts and Allies include:

  • TV Producers
  • Concert Promoters
  • Reporters
  • Bartenders
  • Art Dealers
  • Street Performers
  • Bloggers / Influencers / Instamodels

Rules and System

Status in Arts, Media & Society is representative of your influence in the broad spectrum of endeavors of artistic and societal merit. Consider what your character has done to earn their Status, and how it plays a role in their larger story.

Status has several functions. First, it can apply to a Social roll with those over whom you have some sway. Second, it can grant you access to relevant resources or facilities. Third, it can be used to block a single instance of Mentor, Resources, Retainer, Contacts, or Allies once per chapter if it's of a lower dot rating than your Status, and makes sense. But consider the drawback: Status requires maintenance, and you're likely to be called on for favors, deeds, or tribute to keep your foothold.

  • Status 1: Status 1: Rising Prospective Talent, Notable Society Face about Town
  • Status 2: Gallery or Theater Owner, Standout Artist, Donor to the Arts
  • Status 3: Museum Curator, Producer, Major Fundraiser, Recognizable Socialite
  • Status 4: Philanthropist, Board of Directors of arts organization, Major Artist
  • Status 5: Social Icon, Nationally-Recognized Artist, Founded an Arts College


Buisness

Overview

New York is home to the headquarters of several billion dollar and Fortune 100 companies; countless others have a substantial regional presence in the five boroughs, and the area also boasts several prestigious business schools, including Columbia University and NYU.

The economy of New York City has diversified only a little in the past few decades, with shuffling emphasis between tourism, finance, trade, real estate, technology, and media. Some of the behemoths of the Big Apple include IBM, Deloitte, Pepsi, JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Verizon, and Pfizer, to name only a few.

And like any such hub, it has a dark underbelly where the ambitious, the cunning, and the unscrupulous can take advantage, with deep roots that sprawl outwards and upturn other parts of the city.


Theme and Society

New York's business sector covers the full spectrum from grunge to glamor, but no matter how high you climb the industrial ladder, you can never fully escape the grime. With Wall Street just there, collectively, trillions of dollars are flowing through New York on any given day, but don't think that it's all Fortune 100 companies. One out of every forty people in New York City owns a small business, and those small businesses collectively employ half the city.

But if you want to be successful in the City with a business, you have to have an appetite for hustle and at least a willingness to consider the unorthodox. Suffice to say, everyone owes everyone favors, and no one gets ahead without being reminded where they came from. Where will you fit into the spider's web?

Businesses Owned by PCs & NPCs

No logs found.

Joining the Sphere

Players may enter the Business either at character creation or through play, whether someone hedging their way into the Business sphere through gumption, hard work, dirty money, shady connections, or others. Gaining that first dot in play marks a transition in that it really ought to be the culmination of a story in its own right: you’re here now. You either own a business or have significant influence at one of size. And certainly players are encouraged to craft a character arc to that end, explaining how they came to hold influence over the city's economic ebb and flow.

Players should give thought as to what this means for their character’s future. Are they old money, keeping to the old traditions? New blood with a fire under the seat of their pants? What enterprises or movements might threaten the organization they represent, or their business interests? What city institutions do they favor with their patronage? What is their relationship with the local police, or the media? What are their ambitions, and what are their fears? How does your character fit into all of that?

There are no stat requirements to enter Business, although the following stats are encouraged:

  • Presence, Manipulation, Resolve
  • Socialize, Subterfuge, Politics, Persuasion, Academics
  • Resources, Allies, Contacts, Mentor, Staff, Safe Place

Sample Allies and Contacts in Business include, but certainly aren't limited to:

  • Secretary Pool
  • Middle Managers
  • Night Security
  • Guards
  • Mail Room Clerks
  • Delivery Drivers
  • Food Safety Inspectors

Plots

Someone is buying up all the warehouse and office space in Long Island City.


Rules and Systems

Status in Business represents your influence within the business industry at large in New York. Consider what your character has done to earn their Status, and how it plays a role in their larger story.

Status has several functions. First, it can apply to a Social roll with those over whom you have some sway. Second, it can grant you access to relevant resources or facilities. Third, it can be used to block a single instance of Mentor, Resources, Retainer, Contacts, or Allies once per chapter if it's of a lower dot rating than your Status, and makes sense. But consider the drawback: Status requires maintenance, and you're likely to be called on for favors, deeds, or tribute to keep your foothold.

  • Status 1: Manager of a local chain store, Owner of a small business
  • Status 2: Middle manager at a large enterprise, prominent local business owner
  • Status 3: Upper management at a large local company, Investor
  • Status 4: C-Suite Management, Venture Capitalist
  • Status 5: CEO of a Fortune 100 Company


Crime

Overview

The seedy underbelly of New York City teems with opportunity for a wide variety of criminals, ranging from the lowliest and most obvious misfits to the equally meticulous and unlikely of overlords. Although the glory days of organized crime are decades in the rearview mirror, the bold bravado and open-air nature of some of the the Big Apple's most notorious criminal organizations has not decayed one bit.

But it's not just the underworld that seethes with criminal enterprise; it's everywhere. In handshakes between the moneyed and the connected, behind closed doors at city halls. Where there are people in New York, you can bet that something criminal is happening, including but not limited to broad daylight muggings, narcotics and cash changing hands on the street corner, shipments of grey and black market weapons, bookies lousy with 'the best odds in town', thieves, scam artists, and would-be kingpins galore.

Theme and Society

Crime infiltrates every walk of life, but not every aspect of crime is violent in the City that Never Sleeps. Plenty of people are trying to get by anyway they can, even if it's on the wrong side of the law. Maybe they're selling knock off items, after all everyone wants the latest Guccii, or working under the table, but people do what they have to do to survive.

Of course not every act of crime is related to the struggle, the wealthy are just as guilty, with money laundering, tax evasion, illegal hiring practices, bribery and more.

....and then there is the criminal underbelly that you've come to expect from New York City. The movies, historians, books, and public trials have painted the picture of a city where the Italian mafia is still very active.

They aren't the only sources of violent crime in the city though, The Crips, Latin Kings, Nietas and many more have a strong presence in the city, and in Manhattan's Chinatown you can find Chinese gangs such as the Ghost Shadows and Flying Dragons.

Maybe you're over your head in criminal element, maybe the extent of it's presence is walking past stalls of knock off purses on your way to work, but there is no denying it's presence in the city.

Crime Entities

Mafia Families
Genovese

OVERVIEW
The Genovese Crime Family is one of "Five Families" that dominate organized crime in New York City. Originally known as the Luciano Crime Family, it was renamed after Vito Genovese in 1957. Unique in today's Mafia, the family has benefited greatly from members following "Omertà," a code of conduct emphasizing secrecy and non-cooperation with law enforcement and the justice system. While many mobsters from across the country have testified against their crime families since the 1980s, the Genovese family has had only ten members turn state's evidence in its history.

TERRITORY
West side of Manhattan waterfront and the Fulton Fish Market. Some areas of Brooklyn Piers.

AREAS OF INFLUENCE

  • Gambling
  • Loan Sharking
  • Labor Union Infiltration
  • Real Estate

NPCS

Bratva

OVERVIEW
A.K.A. the "brotherhood", is a small but powerful organization within New York City. Once considered very tightly knit, the world of enterprise and capitalization has caused an 'every man for himself' approach. While connections are in place, there is constant overturn of power through devastatingly violent means. Joining or associating with the Bratva means choosing your allegiances inside of it carefully.

TERRITORY
Brighton Beach and parts of Manhattan.

AREAS OF INFLUENCE

  • Money Laundering
  • Political Corruption
  • Fraud
  • Private Security

NPCS

Westies

OVERVIEW
Barely large enough to be considered a gang, there was a long period of time where the Irish numbers were next to nothing. Since 2001 those have begun to grow once more. The tightest knit of the Families, even if not the largest or most deadly, fucking with one is typically fucking with all of them. Bitter rivals of the Italians, many years ago they nearly wiped them out. Today, they keep their distance, happy to co-exist in separate spheres. A new generation has bred tolerance, though that's about as thin as the line goes.

TERRITORY
Bronx.

AREAS OF INFLUENCE

  • Drug Trafficking
  • Prostitution
  • Contract Killing
  • Gambling

NPCS

  • Oisín O'Rorke
  • Tess Coghlan - Tess Coughlin is a matriarchal figure head of the Westies. Most often referred to as "Mum" among those in the family, she's the heart, the conscience, the wisdom. Not much is done without her blessing.
Yakuza

OVERVIEW
Yakuza presence in New York seems to come and go. Or perhaps that's only for those who aren't clever enough to detect their members. Their criminal activities are clean and quiet, and they'll go to great lengths to keep it this way. The new generation of members have brought Street Racing under their umbrella, in turn linking law enforcement into their influences. Members range further in skill and connections than they currently do in Japanese heritage.

TERRITORY
East Brooklyn

AREAS OF INFLUENCE

  • Street Racing
  • Law Enforcement Corruption
  • Big Business


NPCS

Triads

OVERVIEW
The Triads are in the town since the 1800s and always shifting and adapting to what is needed to survive in the urban jungle. They had really sting periods from 1900 to 1930 and 1970 to 1990 where they also controlled Chinatown. The top dogs are the Sun Yee On and they rivals are the 14K

But due to focus on reducing crime and the raise of the Mexican cartels. They lost Chinatown and the control over Heroin.

Now they control Queens and their centum is Flushing. They rarely initiate people without any Chinese heritage might it just as small.

They have ties to the Flying Dragons and Tongs.

TERRITORY
Flushing, Queens


AREAS OF INFLUENCE

  • Loan Sharking
  • Prostitution
  • Contract Killing
  • Smuggling
  • Hong Kong Movies and Music Industries

NPCS

Gangs

Flying Dragons

OVERVIEW
The Chinese American street gang was formed in 1967 and have had a bloody raging turf war with the Ghost Shadows ever since. These nights they seem to have the upper hand but there is no end in sight. Their connections back to Hong Kong run deep and they are heavily associated with heroin and other drug trafficking. There are no members outside of Chinese ethnicity within the gang, though they will often work with others if in need of a certain skill set.

TERRITORY

  • China Town

AREAS OF INFLUENCE

  • Heroin Trafficking
  • Robberies
  • Hired Hits

NPCS

Joining the Sphere

Status in Crime is available at character creation as well as in play. At character creation, it is capped at 3. Your Status must reflect the criminal organization with which you have clout, and your benefits and social bonuses will only apply with and as a function of that organization.

You can have Status in multiple criminal organizations provided they are allies. If you'd like to add a criminal organization that is not already reflected on the wiki, talk to Staff.

While not necessarily required, it's strongly recommended that someone hoping to acquire or maintain Status in the Crime sphere possess some or all of the following qualities.

  • Wits, Manipulation, Resolve
  • Larceny, Brawl, Firearms, Streetwise, Subterfuge, Weaponry, Stealth
  • Allies, Contacts, Safe Place, Resources, Fighting Merits

Examples of Contacts and Allies in the Crime sphere:

  • Street Dealers
  • Forgers
  • Wheel-men
  • Pickpockets
  • Street Thugs
  • Escorts

Rules and Systems

Status in Crime represents your influence within a designated criminal outfit; it's your clout, it's how much pull you have, the resources and perks you have access to. Consider what your character has done to earn their Status, and how it plays a role in their larger story.

Status has several functions. First, it can apply to a Social roll with those over whom you have some sway. Second, it can grant you access to relevant resources or facilities. Third, it can be used to block a single instance of Mentor, Resources, Retainer, Contacts, or Allies once per chapter if it's of a lower dot rating than your Status, and makes sense. But consider the drawback: Status requires maintenance, and you're likely to be called on for favors, deeds, or tribute to keep your foothold.

  • Status 1: Bookie, complicit business owner, street thug, informant
  • Status 2: Made men, soldiers, mob members, smuggler
  • Status 3: Capos, block captains, crooked accountant
  • Status 4: Underbosses, gang leader, the consigliere
  • Status 5: The Boss


Plots

  • There's a new gambling den in Chinatown, the Red Library.

Education

Overview

New York City is home to the largest public school system in the United States, with 32 community schooling districts and over one million students enrolled across 1,500 schools. By law, any child between the age of 5 and 21 is entitled to a free public education. Despite years of chronic underfunding, its public education system is considered one of the very best in the country.

In 2017, New York also declared that any families or individuals making less than $125,000 per year would be qualified to attend any of the community or state (CUNY and SUNY) colleges tuition-free, adding to the already 594,000 college and university students that attend any of the City's 110 institutions of higher education.

Theme and Society

The struggle of the Education sector is one that's echoed elsewhere in New York: so many people, not enough resources. Despite the largest and arguably best-funded public school system in the country, it never seems to be enough. Blue politics create an on-paper favorable environment for investing in schools and the education of the public, but the reality is that it's a constant scrap for resources, and your average public school teacher in New York isn't much better off than they are elsewhere, except they probably have more students.

At the university level, the politics are cutthroat, and the economics are just as challenging, even when you don't factor in paying rent for classroom space in one of the most costly cities on the globe. With New York now footing the bill for thousands of adults to get a college education, less has to go further than it ever has.


Joining the Sphere

Any character can join the Education sphere at either character creation or in the course of play, either as a career choice or as someone pursuing a higher education for themselves. It’s possible that others might be stakeholders as well, based on their circumstance. If you’re unsure, speak with a Staff member.

Think about how your character interacts with their status, whether as a student, a teacher, a professor, or maybe a vested politician. What are their objectives in that realm, and what are their obstacles?

Joining the Education sphere may come with meeting certain requirements, albeit more thematic than strictly by the letter. Consider the following list:

  • Academics and either Expression or Persuasion
  • Skills or Specialties that reflect what your character teaches or studies

Sample Contacts and Allies within the Education sphere include:

  • Financial Aid Councilors
  • Omega Phi Alpha Sorority
  • Associate Professors
  • IT Majors
  • Student Registrar Office Staff
  • Young American Conservatives Student Organization


Rules and Systems

Status in Education represents your influence within the gears of the more than hundreds of education institutions, ranging from the comprehensive PS system to the ivory towers of New York's own Ivy League school. Consider what your character has done to earn their Status, and how it plays a role in their larger story.

Status has several functions. First, it can apply to a Social roll with those over whom you have some sway. Second, it can grant you access to relevant resources or facilities. Third, it can be used to block a single instance of Mentor, Resources, Retainer, Contacts, or Allies once per chapter if it's of a lower dot rating than your Status, and makes sense. But consider the drawback: Status requires maintenance, and you're likely to be called on for favors, deeds, or tribute to keep your foothold.

  • Status 1: Teacher at a public school, university student, campus employee, PTA President
  • Status 2: University teacher, associate professor, principal of a grade school
  • Status 3: School Board member, tenured professor
  • Status 4: Dean of a College, Superintendent of schools
  • Status 5: President of a University, Globally Renowned Professor, Schools Chancellor

Law & Government

Overview

New York City employs over 325,000 people to assist with the conducting of its civil affairs, of which over 36,000 are cops. Its annual budget for 2021 is $88.2 billion, that's billion with a b -- and it spends every red cent. With some of the highest costs in the world, the City doesn't get cut a lot of slack in its own resource and labor procurement, but with big spending comes big taxation, and frequently there's a lot of noise about exactly how all of that money is spent.

With the eyes of the world frequently leveled on New York, everything that it does comes under a magnifying glass, ranging from court decisions to adopted legislation to the frequent instances of police brutality. Whether it's the business sector, or education, medicine, transportation, finance, and more, there are very few things that the artifice of New York's expansive city government don't touch.

Theme and Society

<Law and Order sound dun-dun>

The apparatus of New York City is a monolith in its own right, and attempting to navigate to the top can take your entire life -- and you can still fail. You can still never even get started. Whether you're an ambitious politico or a beat cop, an attorney or one of the hundreds of thousands who work for the City, you know that for all your good intentions and hard work, you'll always be bound up in red tape. But that doesn't mean you still can't accomplish, or improve, but know that when you try, there's the weight of decades and trillions of dollars worth of "this is how we've always done it" pushing back against you.

Joining the Sphere

There are some limitations on who can enter the Law & Government sphere. With a strict profiling and background checking process, someone with a criminal or even checkered past would be unlikely to gain this status, and someone who had trouble holding down daylight hours (like, for instance, a Vampire) would struggle to rise in the sphere, as the majority of significant positions and opportunities for advancement are naturally during a traditional nine to five.

Beyond that, characters are open to join the sphere at chargen or in play.

There are no stat requirements to enter Law & Government, although the following stats are encouraged:

  • Intelligence, Wits, Resolve
  • Politics, Academics, Investigation
  • Resources, Allies, Contacts, Mentor, Staff, Safe Place

Sample Contacts and Allies in the Law & Government sphere might include:

  • Administrative Assistants
  • Lobbyists
  • Case Workers
  • Councilmen
  • Beat Cops
  • Desk Sergeants

Rules and Systems

Status in Law & Government represents your pull and influence in the legal and civic back-channels of New York. Consider what your character has done to earn their Status, and how it plays a role in their larger story.

Status has several functions. First, it can apply to a Social roll with those over whom you have some sway. Second, it can grant you access to relevant resources or facilities. Third, it can be used to block a single instance of Mentor, Resources, Retainer, Contacts, or Allies once per chapter if it's of a lower dot rating than your Status, and makes sense. But consider the drawback: Status requires maintenance, and you're likely to be called on for favors, deeds, or tribute to keep your foothold.

  • Status 1: Legal intern or civic activist, rookie or beat cop
  • Status 2: Attorney or employee working for the City, Detective
  • Status 3: Partner at a law firm, manager working for the City
  • Status 4: Significant Elected Official, Judge
  • Status 5: Mayor, Governor

Plots

  • Union negotiations with the City have hit a complete standstill.

Medicine

Overview

New York stands apart in its healthcare ecosystem in that it’s also home to nineteen medical schools and one of the country's largest concentration of medical and research facilities, including the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and The College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University.

As one of the most populous megacities in the world, New York has ample hospitals, research institutes, clinics and government offices, and is a powerful needle-mover in the growing biotechnology and medical research industry.

Theme and Society

Whether you're a paramedic or you sit on the Board at one of New York's 215 hospitals, you have, at the very least, a meaningful glimpse of the sheer size of the City's healthcare infrastructure. Whether it's getting residents enrolled in state-funded health insurance plans, administering emergency care, or a general practitioner conducting routine checkups, the demand for and the demand placed on the system is extensive. And like any other healthcare network in the country, it's also hobbled at the knees by corporate interests that skyrocket prices, and the persistent gremlin of extensive oversight on all the wrong areas, while critical sectors (like preventive care) go under-funded.

As with anything, it always comes down to a numbers game, and no matter how tightly you cling to your Hippocratic Oath, you might have to make some compromises elsewhere if you're going to stay the course.


Joining the Sphere

You can gain Medical status at character creation or play, but consider where you plan to begin and where you plan to end up. In a saturated region like New York, expediting a medical education is extremely unlikely, so consider that someone might be able to run the length from zero Status to Status 5 in the length of the chronicle is equally unlikely. Given the length of a medical education, if you don’t enter at least as a medical student, it may prove quite difficult to rise through the Status ranks.

If you plan to play in the sphere, though these are not requirements, consider the following:

  • Intelligence, Composure
  • Medicine, Science, Academics, Empathy, Persuasion
  • Specialty in a given medical field, such as (Trauma) or (Internal Medicine) or (First Aid).

Example Contacts and Allies in the Medical sphere might include:

  • Night Shift Nurses
  • Hospital Janitorial Staff
  • Medical Coders
  • Research Psychologists
  • First Year Residency Doctors
  • APRNs

Rules and Systems

Status has several functions. First, it can apply to a Social roll with those over whom you have some sway. Second, it can grant you access to relevant resources or facilities. Third, it can be used to block a single instance of Mentor, Resources, Retainer, Contacts, or Allies once per chapter if it's of a lower dot rating than your Status, and makes sense. But consider the drawback: Status requires maintenance, and you're expected to support your Status through patient care, and so on.

  • Status 1: Medical student, Nurse, Intern, PA
  • Status 2: Hospital Resident, General Practitioner
  • Status 3: Specialist Doctor, Medical Researcher, CMO
  • Status 4: Chief Physician or Chief of Surgery at a Hospital, Dean of a Medical School
  • Status 5: Health Care Executive, Chairman of a Hospital Board

Plots

Alphabet Interference

  • The federal government is throwing its weight around at the Medical Examiner's office.
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