Editing Paradise City:Introduction to Paradise City

=The City=

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In the year 2106, [http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Paradise_City:Main_Page Paradise City] is a sprawling Arizona metropolis lying in the heart of the Mojave desert.  Great wealth coexists with great poverty here and for most citizens, violence is simply a part of life.  The city was founded in the late 2030s, in order to ease the United States’ population pressure and today is one of the most populous cities in the country.

Government:   Paradise receives little support from the state and federal governments and is mostly autonomous.  The city is a democracy, although hardly anyone bothers to vote. 

Corporations:  Paradise is ultimately controlled by the corporations – money is power.  If the corporations do not control a section of the city, it is probably because that section is not worth owning.

Police:  Although state police are responsible for keeping the roads to Paradise open, the city has its own police force to handle crimes committed within the city limits.  CityPol is broken up into five semi-autonomous forces – Central CityPol, Eastside CityPol, Northside CityPol, Southside CityPol and Westside CityPol.

Technology:  Paradise City has a GURPS Tech Level of 9.

=Life in Paradise=

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There should be a fine sociological treatise here.  Instead, it is much quicker to say that Paradise City is firmly ripped-off from the cities of published RPGs of the "cyberpunk" genre - including, but not limited to, the Night City of R.Talsorian's [http://www.talsorian.com/cpindex.shtml Cyberpunk 2020], the Seattle of FASA's [http://shadowrun.com/ Shadowrun], and the One-And-Twenty of Steve Jackson Games' [http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/cyberworld/ GURPS Cyberworld].  So instead of telling you about the haves and have-nots, algae dinners and urban alienation, it would be more useful to focus on two areas where Paradise City differs signficantly from cities in the most popular "cyberpunk" rpgs - gun control and attitudes to cyberware.

=Weapons in Paradise=

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==What the Law Says==
Federal law states that a citizen may own and carry a weapon of LR 3, such as an auto pistol, provided that they register the weapon with the federal government, and pay a license fee equal to 10% of the cost of the weapon.  A citizen may carry the weapon concealed if they have a concealed weapons permit, which is free but requires government approval.  Weapons with an LR of 4 or above are not regulated.  Citizens have a legal duty not to carry a weapon onto private property if instructed not to by the owner.  The instruction can be as a simple as a sign by the door.  The government may issue permits to allow organizations to arm their members with weapons of LR 2, such as submachine guns.

==The Reality==

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In reality, what weapons you can carry varies enormously depending on what part of the city you are in, ranging from nothing at all to auto rifles.  Area descriptions under [http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Paradise_City:Urban_Geography Urban Geography] will describe the specific weapon culture in that area – read them carefully before entering an area, as it could mean the difference between life and death. As a rule of thumb, the more important, prosperous or privately-owned an area is, the tighter the restrictions are likely to be.  Corporate offices will have a “No Weapons” sign at every door and police in middleclass neighborhoods will arrest someone for having a visible weapon.  On the other hand, you can carry an auto-pistol on your hip in the seedier parts of the downtown commercial district - although even a very rough bar is likely to demand that handguns be left at the door.  Police in poor neighborhoods control weapons as strictly as they can.  Enforcement ranges from arresting anyone found to be carrying a weapon to taking no notice of anything short of a squad-support weapon.  Suffice to say that any neighborhood in which the police won’t stop you from walking down the street carrying a submachine gun has been effectively ceded to the gangs – who will have their own unique opinions about what kinds of weapons it is alright to carry into their territory.

==Registration and Licensing==
Very few people bother to register or license their guns, as the police rarely care if a weapon is registered or licensed.  A police officer can arrest you for not having a license, but unless you are in a particularly nice neighborhood, any officer who asks about your gun license is already looking for an excuse to bust you.  It is unlikely that an officer who is looking for an excuse to bust you won’t be able to find one (or invent one!).

==Concealed Weapons Permits==
The federal government will only issue permits to government security personnel, or to the security personnel of major corporations.  In practice, the police generally don’t care if you hide your weapon or not – they either care that you have it in the first place or they don’t.

==“Unregulated” Weapons==
In theory, weapons of LR 4 and above are not regulated.  In practice, like “regulated” weapons, enforcement ranges from complete lack of regulation to complete bans, depending on the weapons culture of the local area.

==Private Property==
The law allows owners to forbid some or all weapons from their private property.  Owners generally don’t want violence taking place on their property, so will tend to make the rules as strict as they can without driving away wanted customers.  All businesses are private property as is any land owned by a corporation, so many places have special restrictions.

==Corporate Security==
The government often uses its control over heavy weapons permits to make it legal for corporate security troops to carry weapons of LR 2, such as submachine-guns.

=Cyberware in Paradise=

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Corporate culture and street culture have different attitudes towards cyberware.

==Cyberware in Corporate Culture==

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In corporate culture, appearance is everything.  They don't care what you are made of, they care about how you look, and so owners of cyberwear are judged by the appearance of their cyberware rather than the quantity.  Corporate culture divides people into the following vague unofficial castes based on their use of non-natural looking cyberware.

Angels:  Angels are rich persons who modify their bodies in strange ways in order to be dazzling, artistic and cool.  Cyberware that would be considered grotesque and disgusting if it were a part of someone else is accepted and even admired in an angel.  Unnatural cyberware of a useful nature is considered to be very uncool, and unless it is unique and experimental, is liable to disqualify the owner from angel status.  Angels do not make appropriate PCs.

Pure-Strain Humans (Also “PSH”):  A “pure-strain human” is someone who has no non-natural looking cyberware.  Most of corporate middle-management and almost all of corporate upper-management is composed of pure-strain humans.  Pure-Strain Humans generally look favorably on cyberware per se, provided that it looks like a natural part of the body.  Attitudes to angels varies from raised-eyebrows to hero-worship.

Cyberpunks:  Anyone with non-natural cyberware who is not an angel is considered a “cyberpunk” – which means that almost everyone with non-natural cyberware falls into this category.  The word has connotations of criminality, viciousness and renouncement of humanity.  The word “cyberpunk” is officially considered offensive when applied to a colleague, but is in common use among pure-strain humans all the same. There are various castes of cyberpunk.

Androids:  Androids are corporate employees who have non-natural cyberware that is legitimately related to a respectable office job – such as chip slots, computer interfaces and cell-phone implants.  Androids are regarded by pure-strain humans with a mixture of revulsion and grudging admiration.  It is acknowledged that they can be excellent employees, but they are regarded as having given up a degree of their humanity, which makes them scary and icky.  Like the word “cyberpunk”, the word “android” is officially considered offensive when applied to a colleague, but is in common use among pure-strain humans all the same.  

Orc:  Orcs are uniformed military, police or security personnel with visible cyberware that is legitimately related to their job.  Orcs are frightening and disgusting, but are useful enough to be tolerated.  They are rarely assigned to patrol nice neighborhoods.  In fact, Orcs who cannot pass for prosthetics usually cannot walk around in good corporate neighborhoods out of uniform without being hassled by police.

Prosthetics:  Prosthetics are individuals with visible cybeware that can pass for medically necessary prosthetic replacements – such as bionic arms, legs and eyes.  Corporate culture regards them with revulsion, but will tolerate them if they are working in respectable jobs.  A prosthetic will rarely be promoted to a management position without becoming an android or pure-strain human first.  Anyone who clearly could afford to replace their non-natural parts with natural parts but does not is not considered a prosthetic but a freak.

Freaks:  Freaks are individuals with visible cyberware who cannot pass for an angel, an android, an orc or a prosthetic.  They will be treated as an outsider and suspected of being an anti-social criminal.  A freak whose non-natural cyberware is hidden when they are clothed is called a “coocoo”.  Coocoos are thought of as being particularly grotesque for the very fact that they can pass for good corporates.

Psychos:  Psychos are freaks with visible cyberware that looks like it was designed for combat.  Psychos will be suspected of being psychotic anti-social criminals.  They are seen as people who have traded in their humanity for the ability to kill.

==Cyberware in Street Culture==

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Street culture does not recognize the classes of corporate culture but has its own system for classifying people by cyberware.  The word “cyberpunk” is used for anyone who has cyberware and who is either a criminal or has no boss.  The word has connotations of dangerousness and a lack of respect for the law – which can be either a good or a bad thing depending on the company.  Anyone with visible cyberware will generally be thought to have traded in some of their humanity for an edge – the less human they look, the less human they will be assumed to be.  They will be suspected of being a criminal, unless the ware is obviously suited for a normal, legitimate, non-violent occupation.  Anyone with visible cyberware that would give them an edge in combat will be assumed to either fight for a living or fight for fun.  There is no general prejudice against individuals with natural looking cyberware, although anyone with known combat mods will obviously be frightening.

=The Black Market=

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The difficulty of finding and purchasing illegal items in an area will depend greatly on the particular item and area involved.  At its simplest, the process will require a successful roll against Streetwise to locate a seller, and then whatever rolls or role-playing the GM decides is appropriate for the situation.
Finding a Seller:  The GM will assign the area a Control Rating, depending on police tolerance of the desired items.  Items with a Legality Rating equal to or higher Control Rating should normally be obtainable without a roll.  Common items (including weapons of LR 1 or higher) with a Legality Rating lower than the Control Rating will have a penalty to the Streetwise roll equal to twice the difference between the Legality Rating and the Control Rating.  For example, if the Area Control Rating is 2 and the weapon’s Legality Rating is 1, the roll would be Streetwise -2.  There will frequently be much heavier penalties to the Streetwise roll – some things are hard to find and some neighborhoods are very hard to find things in.  For example, in some corporate neighborhoods, it is effectively impossible to obtain many illegal items (or obtaining them would be an adventure in itself).
Criminal transactions are always unpredictable affairs and the involvement of gangers in organized crime does not make them less so.  However, gangs rarely sell items with an LR lower than the CR -1.  If you are Downtown and suddenly want to purchase an assault rifle, a seller is less likely to be a ganger than to be a trusted member of an organized crime syndicate.


=URBAN GEOGRAPHY=

Paradise is officially divided into five boroughs, Central Borough, Eastside Borough, Northside Borough, Southside Borough, and Westside Borough.  Each borough has its own police division, which further divides the area into precincts.  Central Borough contains all of the most commercially important parts of Paradise, including most the central business district.  North Borough contains neighborhoods of rich corporates.  Eastside, Southside and Westside boroughs officially extend east, south and west of the CBD to the distant edges of the city.  In practice, police presence ranges from intense near the CBD to non-existent in some of the more far-flung and anarchic parts of the city.
To the average citizen, borough means little more than an excuse for a fight with a stranger.  Much more important is the unofficial designation “zone”.  There are four recognized “zones” – the Corpzone, the Projects, the Warzone and the Wastes.  
The Corpzone contains those parts of the city that are kept relatively well ordered by the corporations - including the mid-town and uptown sections of the central business district, the middle-class to upper-class neighborhoods, and the corporate slums.  The Projects consist in vast tracts of drab government-subsidized housing, populated by the particularly poor and desperate.  The Warzone contains those neighborhoods that are considered to be ruled by the gangs rather than by the police.  Gang rule (like police rule) is always a matter of degree, but as a rule of thumb, an area is considered part of the Warzone if the police won’t stop gangers from having gunfights in the middle of the street.  Naturally, there isn’t a lot of economic activity in a Warzone.  The Wastes is the open desert beyond the city.  Each Zone is further divided into areas or types of area, depending on the borough and distance from the heart of the city.  These areas are huge – most are the size of a 21st century city in their own right.  Each area has its own unique character and rules for survival, which may vary from neighborhood to neighborhood even within an area.  The Zones and their constituent areas are described below.  It is important to keep in mind that each area has a complex internal structure that is not touched on in their general description.  Residential areas in the Corpzone and Projects will have their own business districts, commercial areas, and workplaces, as well as anything else the government or corporation decides to build there.  Gangland areas have little in the way of internal structure – they are a chaotic and ever-changing patchwork of turfs.
There are two maglev rail systems for public transport in Paradise – the “highline” which operates high above street level and the “subway” which operates below street level.  The highline serves the central business district known as “the city”, as well as the prosperous neighborhoods of Eastgate, Westgate, and the entire Northside.  The subway also serves “the city” (the CBD at the heart of Paradise), as well as the residential areas known as “the jungles”, “the lockdowns” and “the projects”.  Passengers traveling between areas may have to pass through checkpoints where they are scanned for forbidden possessions.


'''OVERVIEW'''

'''1.  THE CORPZONE'''

'''1.1  Nirvana'''

'''1.2  The Burbs'''

Eastgate

Westgate

'''1.3  The City'''

Uptown

Midtown

Downtown

'''1.4  The Corporate Sanctuaries'''

'''1.4.1  The Lockdowns'''

Eastside Lockdowns: The Habitats

Southside Lockdowns: The Crypts

Westside Lockdowns:  West Hollywood

'''1.4.2  The Jungles'''

Eastside Jungles: The Asylum

Southside Jungles: The Southside Jungles

Westside Jungles: The Firepits

'''2.  THE PROJECTS'''

Eastside Projects: The City Dumps  

Southside Projects: The Towers

Westside Projects: Church Hill

'''3.  THE WARZONE'''

'''3.1  The Ganglands'''

Eastside Ganglands: The Eastside Playgrounds

Southside Ganglands: The Helltowns

Westside Ganglands: The Browns

'''3.2  Dead Neighboorhoods aka Deadlands'''

Eastside Deadlands: The Wonderlands

Southside Deadlands: The Arenas

Westside Deadlands: The Westside Nation

'''4.THE WASTES'''