Metropole City (Urban Mutant Future)

[MythAdvocate]

Hello all!

Its been awhile, but I have been pondering a new home/blog setting for Mutant Future. Like standard post-apocalypse settings, it all happens after our modern world goes kablooey. After which the remnants of mankind moves into huge mega-cities with the rest of the planet is a poisoned waste. A mega-city setting for Mutant Future is appealing to me on many levels, but I am still thinking it out. So here is what I have so-far:

Metropole City (Main Setting)
A future mega-city of over 100 million beings that includes the territories from Chicago and Toronto to Jersey City, New York and Boston. The old cities are remembered by zones named after them, as well regional sports teams and celebrities. Factory, aggro and assorted other zones are often jumbled with or near each other, all criss-crossed with roadways and public transit. The city is built over the top of older cities, rivers and lakes creating a lawless undercity that is home to all manner of creatures.
Robots are everywhere in Metropole City, maintaining the city itself, growing food, and otherwise running the place with android laborers. This is not seamless, with Pure Human overseers and administrators periodically overseeing things. However the vast majority of people have no idea where or how their food gets to them.

Androids: All types of androids can be found in Metropole City. From grunt-laborers, to more specialized jobs, androids are very important to the city. However useful they are, androids are considered expendable.

Pure Humans (citizens): The majority of Pure Humans in the mega cities live in huge apartment blocks (50,000+), though many citizens live a perpetually nomadic existence in mobile-homes or on the streets. Though smart and

Mutants (all types): Mutants are the downtrodden of Metropole, seen as filthy sub-humans. Only the most human-seeming mutant humans are allowed in the upper city. Mutant animals of the cute and cuddly kind might have a measure of acceptance, but only if deemed mostly harmless. I strongle suggest using Mutant Human Races (http://mutant-future.wikia.com/wiki/Mutant_Human_Races), particularly the Apeman, Canisoid, Homo Erectus, Medusoid or Pigmen.

Technology
Pretty much everyone in the city uses technology, but very few have more than a basic grasp of how it works. So things are not really much different from standard Mutant Future. Even the feudal trappings translate well into urban gang culture. The big difference is that guns, bullets and modern armor can be purchased, though really wild tech is still hard to get.

Player Characters/Adventures
I was thinking primarily on adventures amongst the lawless lower levels. Possibly part of a gang or another.

What do you think?

[seneschal]

Hmmm. If everything outside the city is a toxic waste dump, where do the androids grow food, what do they grow it in, and what exactly do they produce? A normal city needs lots of farmland to provide for its citizens, even with modern mechanized agriculture. Think of the daily squad of semi-trailers it takes to stock a single Walmart supercenter. If Metropole takes up half or one-third of North America, where are all the resources coming from to supply it?

A plot to tamper with or manipulate the city's food supply could be a campaign subplot. Maybe those faceless androids aren't so faceless and compliant, after all. Is there a rebel movement to strike back at the ungrateful masses they support? On the other hand, perhaps city politicians are playing games with the food supply for personal advantage, creating crises or spreading largess as needed to maintain their power.

Speaking of politicians, how is a city that size governed, organized, and maintained? It's all well and good to say that robots and androids do most of the cleaning, repairing, garbage pickup, etc. But who repairs, maintains, replaces, supervises, and pays for the robots and androids? Where are they made/stored/repaired? What sorts of jobs/careers does that create for the human citizenry and/or the mutant plebeians? Who polices and maintains order and public safety? What sort of social and political system is required to keep a city larger than many nations going? Is it a harsh autocracy? Or a complicated republic whose legislators may or may not actually represent its citizens?

Why sweat such mundane details? Because it is the gory details of such things that are going to generate conflict and plot hooks for your campaign. Despite what cyberpunk authors and Marxist economists would have you believe, not everyone in a megacity can be a drug dealer, gangster, con man, thief or pickpocket. In fact, the vast majority of folks won't be -- or the post-apocalyptic society would have collapsed the rest of the way and Metrople would be (even more of) a ruin inhabited only by robots whose batteries are running down. Somebody has to work for a living, take responsibility, have/raise/support offspring (even if they have two heads and six eyes).

Which brings us to campaign tone. Is Metropole barely limping along, spinning down into ultimate collapse? Or are things gradually getting better? I've never been a fan of "grimdark" settings, and history teaches us that even during the so-called Dark Ages progress was still being made, knowledge was being preserved and expanded, and despite the raiders and barbarians most people were trying to go on with their lives and create a better future for their kids. You've already told us who is making things worse. Who is a force for good, for making things better in the city? The PCs and your NPCs have already survived the "end of the world." What is it that gives them hope and energy to keep going day after day?

[Malcadon]

Sounds neat. A civilization that has gown so lazy and complacent do to how everything is provided for them, they forgot how things work, so they have been reduced to a child-like understanding of technology. If you throw in a robot rebellion and a kung-fu cyborg robot-fighter, you got the premise of the retro-sci-fi-styled Gold Key/Valiant Comic called Magnus Robot Fighter (a retro-sci-fi styled series, I highly recommend, as well as about anything by Gold Key Comics).

I have proposed some non-post-apocalyptic setting in the past, so it is good to see others doing the same.

Hmmm. If everything outside the city is a toxic waste dump, where do the androids grow food, what do they grow it in, and what exactly do they produce? A normal city needs lots of farmland to provide for its citizens, even with modern mechanized agriculture. Think of the daily squad of semi-trailers it takes to stock a single Walmart supercenter. If Metropole takes up half or one-third of North America, where are all the resources coming from to supply it?

Actually, you don't need lots of farmland for such a city, if the food is grown in high-tech facilities. Advancements in agricultural technology would the food to grow indoors, where conditions are optimized and regulated, and not subject to weather or the seasons. Such food can be grown in a small area, and with vary little resources and waste needed to cultivate. With meat and dairy, they can be grown through cloning -- you don't need to clone the whole animal; just the organs. A form of yeast called "shmoo" (yes, like the white little critter form Li'l Abner) could be made into all kinds of food, with the smell, taste, and texture of the food product it trying to emulate.

[MythAdvocate]

Excellent thought all. Thank you both for getting into this conversation.

I have to jet off to work, so here are a few quick thoughts:

Food Production
Meat products mostly use shmeat (in-vetro meat) grown is huge vats, and not at-all that different than replicant production. Algae farms are also widely used growing a number of modified breeds of blue-green algae. Real vegetables and (pre-war) animal meats are a delicacy, and expensive. The poor often keep animals such as dogs, cats (roof rabbit) rats, hemofowl and weirder critters.

Jobs, Crime Etc
A great many people in Metropole City do have jobs, though unemployment is an issue in many regions. Most who have jobs are happy to be working, and willing to put up with increasingly dehumanizing employers. It will have the feel of 1970s recession, economic stagnation with some serious resentment over the use of android labor. There will also be an energy crisis going on, with the power needs of the city being in jeopardy due to a number of factors.
Not everyone is a drug dealer no, but drugs are a real issue in the lower city. It will all depend on where you are of course. Some crime bosses do more to maintain the law than the cops.

The MPPD (The Metropole Police Department)
Overworked, underpaid and damn tough. These men, women, canisoids, cyborgs, pigmen and androids are soldiers on the mean streets of Metropole. Budget cuts, staffing issues and pressure from both above and below make this a tough job. Very much like 70's cop shows, with mutant powers, monsters and cyborgs.

[seneschal]

Very much like 70's cop shows, with mutant powers, monsters and cyborgs.

Muscle cars and a funky background beat. Gotta have 'em.

You might check out the setting Precinct '77 for Mini Six for inspiration at www.antipaladingames.com It's a free download.

[MythAdvocate]

As far as the government of Metropole City goes, I was thinking a strong-mayor form of mayor–council government. A mayor elected by voters, and a city-council as the legislative branch. The mayor has almost total administrative authority, with the power to appoint and dismiss department heads without council approval and little, or no public input. In this system, the strong-mayor prepares and administers the city budget, although that budget often must be approved by the council. Under the mayor is the office of the deputy mayor or city-manager, who supervises department heads, prepares the budget, and coordinates departments. It is often said that it is the city manager who really runs the city.

So a system with lots of administrative layers, rife with cronyism at every level. Bribes, corporate shills, and pork-belly spending is through the roof. This doesn't mean that there are no prosperous people or good areas of town (far from it). But the good neighborhoods are rarely aware of the downtrodden areas save as characters in their favorite televised dramas or reality game-shows (Running Man/Hunger Games esq).

Androids and Robots
There will be tension concerning androids taking jobs from the working man, with all of the griping, protests and petty crimes associated with a disgruntled workforce. There are also revolutionary-type groups of androids, cyborgs and some humans who vie for the freedom of androids and A.I.'s. Groups like the Cyborg Liberation Front, and the Cosmist Christ Brigade causing trouble. Most will be the kinds full of angry youth looking for a drum to beat, but some will be full-blown terrorists and/or cults.

Warming up to this setting now!

[artikid]

very cool so far, keep it up!

[1970]

I could imagine a family or group of acquaintances roaming the bad parts of the city in a RV trying to make ends meet while avoiding becoming victims of the criminal element in turn. If they get into trouble where do they go? If they make someone mad who can they go to for protection? Both of these could lead back into having the PCs running with a gang of some sort. Or maybe they're fiercely independent and go it alone. If the police are overworked and stretched thin there's a lot of adventure a group could have just meandering from point A to point wherever. Good sandbox play. No law means that all sorts of things are possible for both the PCs and their adversaries.

I'm kind of reminded of The Hills Have Eyes. Not the original, but the remake where the villains are radioactive mutants and not inbred cannibals.

[MythAdvocate]

I could imagine a family or group of acquaintances roaming the bad parts of the city in a RV trying to make ends meet while avoiding becoming victims of the criminal element in turn. If they get into trouble where do they go? If they make someone mad who can they go to for protection? Both of these could lead back into having the PCs running with a gang of some sort. Or maybe they're fiercely independent and go it alone. If the police are overworked and stretched thin there's a lot of adventure a group could have just meandering from point A to point wherever. Good sandbox play. No law means that all sorts of things are possible for both the PCs and their adversaries.

Excellent thoughts.

As it is a post-apocalyptic setting, large urban-ruins, industrial wasteland areas are a big part of the city. Urban blight, broken-down public transit routes, and squatter-zones are all numerous and nigh-impenetrable for the cops. Urban gypsies make a great deal of sense, and wouldn't be any different than travelling junk merchants and other nomads. Some might even travel the inactive subway tunnels in retro-fitted subway cars.

MPPD Campaign
A campaign surrounding the adventures of a police squad in Metropole City. As the police force often suffers budget cuts and staffing issues, cops in the worst regions usually have to improvise. Manhunts, dealing with informants, and otherwise getting into serious trouble dealing with the scum of the lower city. Beginning characters ore of Police Officer or Detective rank (roughly equal in rank).
MPPD players will all have Law Enforcement Powers and have Ballistic Nylon Armor (uniform), Club, Communicator, Stun Pistol, 12 power clips, and a Flashlight.
Races: Androids, Apemen, Cyborgs, Pure Humans, Canisoids, Pigmen.

[1970]

Once again playing off of the lack of police power in most areas, the PCs could be bounty hunters. They could potentially get into the areas that cops couldn't go and take down the criminals.

Another idea along the same lines would be to have cop PCs play undercover agents planted in dangerous places trying to set up some major bad guys for a fall.

You mentioned junk merchants. having a party of excavators searching through the ruins of a rusted and forgotten time would make a great dungeon crawl. There could also be genetic experiments trapped inside, a race of mutants previously unknown and, of course, treasure to sell on the open market. Conversely, you could have the PCs be hired by a rich person to discover items rumored to be here or there. Finally, of course, there are rival parties to take away the PCs' hard-earned relics.

The PCs could be runners, taking items or persons across the more dangerous areas to the safer ones. Kind of like a courier/taxi driver.

These ideas are geared toward the lawless wastes. What about adventures in the shiny new parts of the city? I'll give it some thought and post anything I think of later.