Editing Paradise City:Urban Geography (section)

=THE WARZONE=

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The Warzone is a collection of scattered territories in the outer reaches of the city, usually on the edges of government projects.  An area is part of the warzone if police control is so low that the gangs are left in possession of everything but valuable corporate assets - there are extensive neighborhoods that the police will refuse to enter except in force.  Not many people live in the warzone compared to the better ordered parts of the city, although poor squatters unable to live even in government projects far outnumber the gangers.  Food is often scarce – few gangs distribute it, there isn’t much to trade for it, and raiding into the projects is a dangerous business.  The locals often eat rats, cats, and other urban animals – sometimes they even eat corpses.
Because of the lack of police presence and the presence of population, a gang who can conquer turf can sometimes establish a minor fiefdom for itself.  Gangers in the Warzone are often less destructive than gangers in other parts of the city since they know that no-one is going to replace anything they destroy.  However, given the ganger need to fight other gangers (or the police), the area is steadily falling apart.  Warzone neighborhoods that are sufficiently trashed will become Dead Neighborhoods.

In most gang neighborhoods, it is considered a challenge to the gang to openly carry a “good” weapon – the definition of “good” varying, but generally anything of LR 2 or below.  Gangs may or many not consider it an affront to even be in possession of a “good” weapon in their territory.  When considering Control Ratings to determine what items may be bought here, gang attitudes as well as police attitudes should be taken into account – a gang will usually not tolerate the selling of “good” weapons to non-gang-members in its territory.


==The Ganglands.==

Roughly speaking, an area is considered to be part of the Ganglands if the gangs have effective control of the streets, but the buildings haven’t been knocked down yet.  Much of the territory in the ganglands is actively contested by different gangs, but some of it has been held by the same gang for years.


===Eastside Ganglands:  ”The Eastside Playgrounds”.===

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In the Eastside Playgrounds, gangs gain honor by transforming their environment.  At the most basic level, this means writing your gang’s name or symbol on the walls, but it can include projects as ambitious as coating a skyscraper with the gang color, forcing “owned” citizens to be tattooed with the gang symbol, or constantly piping muzak into the street.  At the more extreme end, a few gangs go so far as to impose “themes” on their territory, declaring their turf to be part of downtown Tokyo, or Moon Colony One, or God’s kingdom on earth, or hell.  A lot of gangs make heavy use of drugs to help them complete the transformation, and drug use is often mandatory for people living in a gang’s territory.

Police:  Eastside CityPol carefully protects all important corporate assets in the area.  Other than that, they largely cede the streets to the gangers.  Officers are usually issued with a gyroc pistol and a submachinegun.  The police are relatively tolerant towards the carrying of weapons, even at the periphery of territory that they control.  However, unless it would be too dangerous to do so, they will usually arrest anyone they see with a military weapon (something of LR 1 or less) and see that the individual gets prison time.  They reason that anyone carrying a military weapon was probably planning to do the sort of harm that even they should care about.

Points of Interest:  Camp Inglewood is a paramilitary group that actively recruits new members.  Free food and sleeping accommodations are provided, but work is required in return.  Combat training and multi-faith religious services are offered but attendance is not required.  The group openly encourages its members to join the US military, especially the army, even though this reduces group numbers.  Drug and alcohol use is not tolerated and repeated offenses may result in execution.  Leaving the group is only permitted if the individual is joining a branch of the US military.  Camp Inglewood has occasionally been involved in mercenary work, though only for causes that it judged to be good.

===Southside Ganglands:  ”The Helltowns”.===

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Helltown street culture is notable for the fact that many gangs who gain control of turf conscript the local population into the gang.  The conscripts will be required to show some outward sign of gang membership – a color of shirt, a haircut, the scar of an elaborate gash on the forehead.  They will also often be provided with weapons, although not with “good” weapons.  Naturally, being a part of the gang means that they are expected to fight for it.  Conscripts are rarely enthusiastic about being a part of the gang, although there are whole neighborhoods full of exceptions.  Though go-gangs are particularly common in The Helltowns (due to the proximity of the southside government projects), conscripts are rarely allowed to ride – they would probably escape
The Helltown gangs are extremely concerned about marking and protecting their territory.  They are also very serious about keeping their members – retirement from the gang is forbidden and if a gang gives sanctuary to a runaway member of another gang, they have effectively declared war.

Police:  Eastside CityPol carefully protects the very few corporate assets left in the area.  Other than that, they largely cede the streets to the gangers.  Officers are usually issued with a gyroc pistol and a submachinegun.  The police are relatively tolerant towards the carrying of weapons, even at the periphery of territory that they control.  However, unless it would be too dangerous to do so, they will usually arrest anyone they see with a military weapon (something of LR 1 or less) and see that the individual gets prison time.  They reason that anyone carrying a military weapon was probably planning to do the sort of harm that even they should care about.

Points of Interest:  

“Babylon” is the name given to a block of ruined buildings that have been turned into multi-storied hydroponic farms by enterprising locals.  The Babylonians do not conscript and are selective about who they allow to join their well-fed “kingdom”.  They export food north to the better populated parts of the city and have deals with the McDonald’s corporation to supply them with produce.  As “gangs” go, the Babylonians are particularly prosperous, well-supplied and powerful.  Other gangs have often made attempts to take over their valuable assets by conquest, but so far without success.
          
“The Big Medina” is a vast market, covering blocks, that is considered to be neutral territory by the local gangs.  The streets are choked with stalls and customers and a lot of money changes hands here.  For many people, the Medina is their only source of food in this anarchic area, for others, it supplies more exotic items.  Nothing is considered “illegal goods” here.  The market is chaotic and crime is rife.  While violence is not allowed, it is common and there is no particular authority appointed to make sure that it doesn’t happen.  Inevitably, the mere fact that it is neutral territory means that rival gangers are likely to run into each other here.

===Westside Ganglands:  ”The Browns”===

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The Browns are teetering towards gaining Dead Neighborhood status.  They are populated and stable enough to be considered part of the Ganglands, and some gangs tenaciously hold on to territory and populace that has been theirs for years.  On the other hand, the area is badly suffering from the incursions of gangs who seek not turf, but mere destruction.  As a haven for marauders looking for trouble, the area is particularly dangerous to travel through.  The area always seems to be burning from several fires and fewer buildings seem to be standing every day.

Police:  There are almost no corporate assets in the area, although Westside Citypol does have a few strategic outposts.  The few officers stationed here are usually issued with a gyroc pistol and a submachinegun, although officers with heavier weapons are available as backup.  The police won’t take notice of any weapon short of a squad support weapon, or something else of LR 0 or below.

==Dead Neighboorhoods aka Deadlands.==


===Eastside Deadlands:  “The Wonderlands”.===

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The Wonderlands are famous as the zone with the highest per capita drug use in all of Paradise.  It is the place where people go to try to create their own private reality.  Newcomers to theWonderlands very rarely survive for long – the zone is for the mad and the mad are often dangerous.  The buildings are ruins, but local artists are highly prolific and the Wonderlands look more like demented dreamwords than parts of a modern city.  The area has a very low population.  There are a few relatively orderly areas, usually belonging to cults of various kinds.  These cults may or may not endorse drug use, or may have very specific rules about which drugs are to be endorsed and which are to be condemned.  The police rarely venture into the Wonderlands and only move in force.  Weapons control is virtually non-existent – the police are absent and the relatively few gangs don’t particularly care.  However, even in the Wonderlands, it is difficult to obtain squad-support weapons, or other such items of LR 0 or below.

===Southside Deadlands: “The Arenas”.===

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If people go to the Wonderlands to lose themselves in drugs, they go the Arenas to lose themselves in pure violence.  In most parts of the Arenas, simply being there is an invitation to be attacked by whatever strangers happen to be nearby.  Life tends to be short here, to say the least.  Naturally, the area is in ruins and has an extremely low population.  There are a few relatively orderly areas, usually devoted to particularly extreme variations on the idea of combat sport.
The police hate to enter the Arenas, as they are regarded as being particularly interesting opponents.  Weapons control is virtually non-existent.  However, even in the Arenas, it is difficult to obtain squad-support weapons, or other such items of LR 0 or below.

===Westside Deadlands: “The Westside Nation”===

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The Westside Nation is a confederation of urban survivalists, in which gangers are the warrior-aristocracy.  The area is mostly composed of neighborhoods that were flattened twenty years ago by police with emergency powers in a “war” between the Westside and the cops.  Most of the Westside concedes that the police won the war, but in the Nation, it is accepted that Nation won, on the grounds that the police eventually went away and the Westside Nation inherited the turf.  The war gave the locals a hatred for the police, and a loyalty to the Westside.  Wartime alliances had given the locals a sense of community, and a tradition of standing together against outside incursion.  In the aftermath, the locals managed to cooperate sufficiently to do some rebuilding.  The various old communities largely survived, even if conditions became harder and authority shifted from the police to the gangers.  The Westside Nation produces its own power and its own hydroponic food.  The population is not large, but is larger than any other area in the warzone.
Each gang has independent rule over its own territory, but each gang also sends representatives to a central ruling body – the “War Council”.  The War Council is vaguely democratic, although the weight of each representative’s vote is determined by a Byzantine and patchwork set of rules.  The strongest gangs ultimately rule – the council makes decisions about what should be done, but has no power to enforce its decisions.  If the gangers enforce the rule, it sticks – otherwise, it doesn’t.  Gang feuds are common and inevitably, hostilities sometimes break out.  The War Council has no authority to take an official side in these disputes, although they can praise and condemn particular acts. Despite the limitations on its authority, the War Council remains a very powerful body – gangers gain face for having the council on their side.

Weapons:  Weapons of LR 1 or above may be worn openly.  Weapons of LR 0 or below are forbidden to everyone except gangers with turf in the Nation.