I’ve been working some on my Halloween one shot Call of Cthulhu game. Here is the initial background.
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The year is 2027, inner Baltimore, the state subsidized housing projects.
98% of the population has been chipped; a form of RFID chip subdermally implanted in the outer left wrist. It also contains the full name, social security number, medical history, address (most recent registered) and important medical history of the person implanted. Most people also have an encoded credit or debit card as well for ease of shopping. Many places no longer even accept cash. Chips can be read at a distance of 100 yards with the proper equipment although rumors of longer distance or mass scanning equipment abounds.
The American and affiliated military forces are permanently on deployment in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and Northern Lebanon. The military and its’ support services are the largest employer in the country. Because of this absence of military presence at home the government has hired several private security contracting companies as peace-keeping forces stateside. The largest of these is called Counterstrike and has thousands of hired ‘peacekeepers’. There is some dispute that the mandates of these companies are ‘unclear’ but it isn’t widely discussed.
There are thousands of vid channels available to the home consumer. Close inspection would show that most of these are run by four monolithic media empires and one smaller one that pick up the scraps and odds and ends. The internet is less tightly controlled but access providers routinely monitor the usage of their subscribers. Many of these providers are owned by the ‘big 4’ media companies. There are a few rogue sites and providers, just as there are pirate radio and television stations, these are usually quickly shut down.
Short range electrical cars are common. The key phrase being ‘short range’. Long distance travel is usually by rail as air travel has become prohibitively expensive. Passenger ship travel has come back as a means of getting from one continent to another as large nuke powered cargo/passenger ships have become the standard. A few large companies use helium blimps as a means of moving personnel but this is a rarity.
WW2 era style home gardens have become the norm. Even small apartments usually have a ‘hydroponics closet’ for growing limited amounts of fruit or vegetables. Getting produce from farms into large urban areas has become difficult due to the very high cost of fuel with only the largest of corporate owned farms able to transport long lasting types of produce to markets (onions, carrots, potatoes, etc.). More delicate fruits and vegetables are either grown in gardens or are just unavailable except canned or pickled. Meat is much the same with soy substitutes becoming increasingly common as time goes on. In rural areas it is more like it was in the past, with commonly available varieties of produce and foodstuffs.
Etromicin is the most prescribed drug in the country. Initially billed as a mild anti-depressant the drug has found itself in everything from birth control to flu medications. A lightweight version is available without prescription across the counter. Many, many people take it. Many more take it without knowing it.
STREET LEVEL KNOWLEDGE
It is common for people wanting to ‘get off the grid’ to remove their chips. Self removal usually leaves a scar. Not having a chip or proper identification papers is an arrest-worthy offense.
Etromicin has been rumored to cause severe hallucinations and psychotic behavior in some people. Especially returning soldiers from the mid-east..
‘Cleansing squads’ of mercenary security forces have been arresting, and ‘detaining’ people in government housing. The blocks are then destroyed and leveled.
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The open for the game…
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The players have all be living in the same government funded housing block for the last six years. Things have gone from bad to worse around the place. Gangs, and the military style security force response has made things very dangerous at times. The power outages can last for hours. In the darkness even more bad things happen. Vacant apartments are starting to become the norm as opposed to the rarity they were 20 years ago.
Is the gov hauling these people off? Detainment camps for illegals and incoming terrorists is a common sight on the vids.
Your building is cookie cutter standard for the housing units several states with big metropolitan areas started puking forth 15 years ago. Mostly cinderblock, crap pipes and wiring, and despair as a carpet on the floor. Still you all made it a home and community along with your ‘partner building’ across the small ‘greenway’ between the two monoliths. As the years progressed the buildings became covered with solar sheeting, rainwater collectors and topped with wind turbines.
The greenway rapidly became a spot of a few gardens, some watched by angry eyed Latino women with shotguns. Briefly pirate radio stations and websites have popped up, soon gone; much like the gangs and security forces. The people living in the buildings try to remain separate and aloof to these events and groups, with varying success.
Something darker is roaming though. Everyone knows it, the ganger spray paint has odd symbols. People don’t trade jarred goods the way the used to. Things just aren’t right. The Friday Night Drinking Club has decided to look into it.
Who is the Friday Night Drinking Club?
You all.
You are some of the various tenants of (X) building one of Government Unit 22b. You get together, drink some almost make you blind moonshine and play dominoes or cards in the apartments of one or another. Sometimes there is food. The Uniting Principles of the Friday Night Drinking Club (which is happening on more nights then Friday as things go to hell) are: A) you are single dudes, B) You are unhappy about how things are and C)You try, at least occasionally, to make things better around the place. Oh, and all of you are pretty decent at dominoes and various card games.
Where we start
Friday night. (x) has some fresh hooch off the potato still and a card game is happening. There is some discussion as to why there has been screams from Tony Sanchez’s in building 2 (he lives in the basement, with barred windows at ground level). Some discussion of why Stonewall security forces have set up checkpoints a few blocks away. And a hilarious talk about Radio Poe and the drunken poetry challenge.
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Just as an aside…I am very, very clever. I see how this all works out.
