Gangs in the Hood

[greentongue]

Why don't EPT games start with more street battles between gangs in the Foreign Quarter, with the players drawn into one side or the other?

They would be something besides typical dungeon crawls and level appropriate. They would quickly immerse players in the setting, as they found the "Authorities" unconcerned with "the foreign scum" killing each other but heavy handed when "Citizens" were threatened.

Opportunities to meet and gain a patron, as not all involved are "scum".

Anyway, just wondering why I never see this style of start for those "just off the boat"?
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[thorswulf]

Probably because the hostel owners don't want their establishments broken up? Hence calling the civic authorities? Maybe, I think it more likely that strange cults or splinter factions from the temples may try recruiting likely foreigners. During the civil wars this kind of scenario might work better.

[greentongue]

I see hostel owners as being a rather small minority in the Foreign Quarter. I see it more as a dense packed slum with a few reputable establishments like diamonds in a pig sty. Yes, trouble around these would be unwise but, the "locals" would know this and avoid provoking their private security forces.

They would be safe havens, if you had the status to enter their walled compounds. It today's terms, the 99% would surround them in brutal poverty.
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[thorswulf]

Heh, no wonder the gaurds dont want foeigners entering Kakalla Proper!

[thorswulf]

Heh, no wonder the gaurds dont want foeigners entering Jakalla proper!

[greentongue]

Nov 25, 2011 18:38:38 GMT -6 thorswulf said:

Heh, no wonder the gaurds dont want foeigners entering Kakalla Proper!

Yes, not only are they crude and uncivilized (redundant), they are scum of the earth. (In the eyes of the citizens.)
The goal of the players is to show that not ALL are, there are exceptions, them.
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[bert]

Well I sort of tried this with the 'These Mean Streets' scenario (Fight On! 4), and I had plans for introducing a new hostel, Vaghba's Little Mountain, run by a hard as nails Aridani N'luss and catering primarily for others of her people, (with a sideline in brokering mercenary and bodyguard contracts, and maybe armed robbery when times were tough).

I suspect most potentially criminal gangs would be thoroughly infiltrated by police informers, and no code of omerta would stand up to questioning by the psychic psychos from the Temples of Sarku and Chiteng. Ethnic groups like the Pakalans and races like the Pygmy Folk would be stomped on as soon as soon as three or more met in the street if the authorities had any say in the matter.

Gangs might exist for the purposes of settling disputes over squatter's rights to abandoned buildings and the more inhabitable bits of the upper levels of the Tsuru'um, other gangy type occupations such as controlling casual labour on the docks would probably be under the purview of legitimate clans.

Gangs might be seen as 'clans in the making', people of with some kind of common bond grouping together for mutual aid and to fight for their rights against competing groups, and hopefully eventually becoming officially recognised by the legitimate clans, or even adopted as a new lineage.

In short it's a lot more effort trying to make that set up work given what we know about Tsolyani culture, organised crime among the Nakome just doesn't fit and only just works for the likes of the Nighted Tower.

Anyway, scenario ideas that might work:

Vaghba tells all who come to her house that feuds are to be left in the mountains, here on foreign soil we are all just N'luss together. Ughbun doesn't like that, those bastards in the Seppoj clan killed his brother and one of 'em is in her house. He is accumulating a gang of Seppoj haters and scouting the upper level of the underworld for an access point to the Little Mountain and the loot the pregnant dog Vaghba and her whelps have made plying folk with N'luss spirits and rolling them in the back alleys will be a nice bonus. Are you in?

The Livyani Hama'oz gang regard the disused sewer under The Street of Fragrant Pines as their manor, but the last boatload of Pakalans fleeing the Ahoggya takeover of Keruna need someplace quiet to stay before the OAL start rounding them up for past acts of piracy. Captain f*guan might not have a ship no more, but he still has a gang of guys with sea-axes...

Pygmy Folk, doncha hate 'em? The little bastards have made so many tunnels under, through and around Golden God's Yard that half the tenement squatted by the Red Tooth clan collapsed the other day. I know they are Pijenani scum, but no one deserves to end that way. Digging out the ruins to reach the pygmy tunnels will also yield enough recycled masonry to set up a shanty down on the river shore, all we need is enough hands to give it a try.

[bert]

Oh yeah, another start idea which I intend to use if my CoC group get bored and can be inveigled into Tekumel is to have the players play themselves. I'd have the players make up a BRP'd version of themselves, so one guy might take Computer use 75%, that being his job, and Driving 25% as he can get from A to B but isn't a stunt driver, and so on. They are all out down the pub when something peculiar happens... next stop a punch up with a load of people who look like coplayers mimicking Apoclaypto and jabbering in what might be Hindi or Thai or something... and rescue by the Temple of Ksarul who really want to know what pallid specimens of sharetlkoi that drunken idiot Arjuan managed to summon this time (really must gag that idiot when he's drunk, spellcasting while under the influence is really bad form and incredibly dangerous).

[greentongue]

Nov 26, 2011 17:40:23 GMT -6 bert said:

In short it's a lot more effort trying to make that set up work given what we know about Tsolyani culture, organised crime among the Nakome just doesn't fit and only just works for the likes of the Nighted Tower.

This assumes "Old Hands at EPT". I prefer to assume that the players are "Just Off the Boat" and don't have years of expectations. Not only does this eliminate the "You're NOT doing it Right" but it makes it easier, for people willing the try EPT for the first time, to acclimate to the GAME.

Anyway, scenario ideas that might work:

I really like these ideas!
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[terje]

My friend Berra has made a couple of posts on our blog, Caverns Measureless to Man, about urban adventures and street gangs.

The articles are:
* Island of Alanu, concerning apartment houses as the buidling blocks of the city and street gangs as the sole upholders of what passes for law and order. Also PCs as members of street gangs, and urban adventures.
* Some Inspirations for Alanu City of Exiles, continues the discussion about street gangs.

This may not be entirely compatible with Tsolyani conditions, especially the question of the state and the sovereigns monopoly on violence. But as long as we stay within the foreigners quarters I can see how the Tsolyani would like to pit various fractions of the foreign scum against each other and would prefer that the inhabitants of the ghetto uphold their own order so that the imperial soldiers dont have to bother with petty fights over turf, drug deals, prostitution, stolen possesions, etc. The Tsolyani cities may be free of organised crime, but I think the foreigners quarter could be an entirely different thing.

[greentongue]

Please accept an Exalt for your efforts.
I feel an Adventure brewing!
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[thetekumelproject]

It's funny but I was thinking about "thieves guilds" or gangs or triads (or whatever) in Tekumeli cities today as well. What's that called? Convergence Theory? ;D

Anyway, I know that it is explicitly stated that there are no "guilds" as such - because of the strict laws etc. But at the same time it is acknowledged that 1) bandits and pirates exist, and 2) there are clans who make their living as tomb robbers. And other illegal activities are mentioned here and there in various of the books.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were clans that controlled parts of cities like the mob, or if not clans, then gangs or perhaps secret societies.