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Topics - Jace911

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RPGs / Red Markets Beta Campaign: Taking The End
« on: July 17, 2016, 09:00:00 PM »
Now that the preview packet has been released my friends and I from the Hooverville Crew (Minus one who is still at uni) are preparing to record a Bust-mode campaign of Red Markets set in our home town of Elk Grove! And I get to play for the first time because I'm not running it! :V

We sat down for enclave and character creation on Sunday and we've been tirelessly spamming our GM Tom with additional ideas over the week. Here's what we've come up with:

Name: The End

Location: A shopping mall perched on the stark border between the concrete and asphalt suburban maze of Elk Grove and the rolling green and brown farmlands of the Central Valley. In the real world this shopping mall sits abandoned and only half-built, but in the near future of Red Markets the city finally got the contracts to have it finished, furnished, and filled with consumer goods just before the Crash.

Defenses: A wall of semi trailers arrayed around the mall's parking lot and turned onto their sides, with plenty of scrap metal and wood to fill the gaps and cracks. A well-equipped and trained militia of Fencemen and women, many of whom are former EGPD officers, who keep the Wall clear of Casualties and patrol the surrounding land to discourage raiders. Good sight lines all around, especially to the south where there is almost nothing but empty fields. Speakers mounted on the outside of the Wall lure Casualties away from the gates to allow travelers to come and go.

History: During the twilight days of the Crash, when it became clear that the cities were lost to the Vectors and even the military was being overwhelmed, local and state authorities launched desperate evacuation efforts to save as many people as they could from the tidal wave of flesh eaters sprinting out of urban centers. One such effort was organized by the Elk Grove Police Department and surviving city council members, who directed survivors to gather at the Elk Grove Promenade Mall just off Highway 99. The mall was chosen as a staging area for evacuation because of its size and distance from Sacramento--it was quite literally the last major landmark between Elk Grove and Galt, miles to the south and rumored to have already fallen. The local government had been reassured by state authorities that a military convoy from Travis Air Force Base would arrive to escort them to a safe zone in the east, but as the days passed and no convoy was forthcoming the truth dawned on the huddled masses: they'd been abandoned. Their fears were confirmed when Gnat, the leader of the hackivist "Moths" who jumpstarted UbiqNet, revealed that the military was withdrawing to the east behind the Mississippi River. The refugees hiding in the mall knew they couldn't possibly reach the border before it was closed, so they chose to hunker down and try to weather the storm. Sometime later they were joined by a convoy of truckers hauling trailers full of additional refugees from Folsom; those trailers and many others lying abandoned on 99 would become the Wall that now surrounds and protects the enclave whose inhabitants have taken to calling their home "The End".

Top Exports:
1. Wine. The land immediately south of the mall is home to several wineries and vineyards, and when they began trading with other enclaves the people of The End quickly realized that booze--being in critically short supply--would fetch a high price. The equipment from the wineries was salvaged and moved to one of the wings of the mall, and sections of the land surrounding The End were enclosed in a chainlink fence to accommodate their own vineyard.
2. Knowledge. The Barnes & Nobles in the mall was unsurprisingly spared from looting as people were desperately stripping sporting goods stores and supermarkets bare during the Crash, and when it became clear that the Department of Education wasn't interested in reaching children who were all declared homo sacor the collection of nonfiction novels and textbooks became one of the most valuable sources of education in the area. For a nominal fee visitors can access a respectable collection of reference materials on how to grow crops and dig wells, or attend classes on first aid and other essential skills.
3. Trade. The End is ideally-located to serve as a trade hub between the farms and ranches to the south and the other enclaves to the north in Elk Grove, and they tax just about everything that moves through their open-air marketplace.

Top Imports:
1. Medicine/Expertise. Commercial pharmaceuticals expired years ago and the producers still making them are thousands of miles away on the other side of the Mississippi, so medicine and medical knowledge are at a premium in most enclaves. Some people grow select plants for herbal remedies, but those are a far cry from a bottle of painkillers or antidepressants.
2. Building Supplies. The Wall that surrounds the enclave is over a mile and a half long, the parking lots have been turned into shanty towns, and department stores weren't originally built to be used as apartment blocks. The End is always in need of building materials for renovations, expansions, and repairs for its many residents' homes.
3. Ammunition. It doesn't matter how militarized a police force is, after five years of fending off raider attacks and mobs of hungry Casualties, the officers of the EGPD are just as starved for bullets as everyone else; perhaps even more so due to the number and quality of the arms they need to feed.

Competition:
1. Hawk's Nest. The largest and most successful single enclave in the Elk Grove area is the former community college campus to the north. Its proximity to a number of major hospitals and popular nursing program meant that the survivors who holed up inside included quite a few trained medical personnel, and the Blue Line light rail station on campus still provides them access and trade with any number of enclaves in the Sacramento area and as far away as Folsom. While their library and school system puts The End's to shame, they rely on the crops traded by farmers in The End's marketplace and avoid competing with them if they can.

2. Jeffersons. Taking their name from the State of Jefferson movement, this combination cult/political movement believes that cities and other dense gatherings of humanity are simply repeating the mistakes of the Crash. A thousand citizens are a thousand potential Vectors, so to prevent another catastrophic outbreak mankind must disperse and scatter into smaller and smaller villages, tribes, and family units. While the Jeffersons aren't notably violent like raiders they often harass travelers and enclaves. More than one town has thrown a Jefferson crier outside the fence, and everyone has heard the stories of enclaves being sabotaged by radicals.

3. The Prosperous. In California, the raiders rob you with a smile and an eerily-sincere "God Bless". The followers of a local megachurch took their survival through the Crash as a sign that God was with them, and that was practically a blank check for them to do as they pleased. If they needed someone else's food, they took "tithe" from their neighbors--at gunpoint. If they needed "donations" or "volunteers" they helped themselves to those too. After a while enough people got together to burn their church to the ground, but all that did was "prove" to the Prosperous that they were the righteous persecuted minority, and they became a nomadic enclave traveling from tentpole revival to tentpole revival, collecting "donations" from anyone they come across.

4. The District. More than one of the many schools in Elk Grove sheltered large groups of students during the Crash, and over time these orphaned survivors formed their own near-tribal society. Because they survive by trading salvage collected from the Casualty-infested suburbs around their enclaves, the student body of the District celebrates and promotes personal combat prowess over all other traits by competing in regular fighting tournaments. Each school is led by a Principal who earned their position by proving themselves the strongest, and the District is ruled by a Super who proved themselves the strongest among the Principals in an annual Hunger Games-esque tournament in one of the many parks of Elk Grove.

5. Farmer's Guild. The isolation and self-reliance of the homesteaders outside of town saved their lives during the chaos of the Crash, but even they needed to band together from time to time to survive mutual threats like raiders and mobs of Casualties. They value their freedoms and privacy and will happily leave you alone if you give them the same courtesy, and The End is as far north as most of them like to travel for trade. Most of the Jeffersons are members of the Guild, though only a fraction of the Guild's members are Jeffersons.

Social Structure:
Originally the survivors in the mall were subject to and accepted the martial law imposed by the city council and EGPD, and as the years have passed this authority has morphed The End into a sort of benevolent but still feudal society. The original alderman who survived the Crash make decisions for the good of the enclave, which are enforced by the Fencemen. For the most part these decisions have been made with the will of the community in mind, but the fact remains that the alderman wield ultimate authority through the Fencemen. The majority of the enclave consists of poor "consumers" who work in the vineyard, a crowded and stressed middle class of "producers" who sell their wares in the marketplace and provide other services, and the landlords who own the vineyards and control a large share of the enclave's GDP.

Latents are allowed inside the enclave, but permanent residents can only stay in the shelter: a refurbished hotel on the very edge of the property, covered in graffiti and filth.

Neighborhoods:
Most of the consumers live in North Lot, West Lot, or South Lot: one of the three parking lot shanty towns inside the Wall. Each is a sea of tents, RVs, and corrugated metal shacks packed with people, much like the Free Parking ghettos of the Recession. Despite their small size each Lot has its own character and history like any neighborhood in America.

If you're a producer you probably live in one of the three big box department stores converted into cramped apartment buildings: Macy's, Sears, or Target. Office cubicles, sliding walls, curtains, and other makeshift dividers separate the open floors of these huge buildings into living units for the struggling middle class of The End.

The landlords, with all their riches, live almost as well as the average American family did before the Crash. They've been able to turn some of the smaller, nicer stores into private homes for themselves and their families where they can host modest parties to show off their success and wealth, earning the envy and ire of the lower classes.

The Century theater in the heart of the mall is now used as a town hall and center of government for the aldermen.

The food court is still home to hot dog stands and taco trucks, but as scarce as ingredients are nowadays these are now considered "pre-Crash" delicacies that only the landlords and producers can afford.

The small but once-lush courtyard is now a bustling hub of trade and commerce for the enclave. Merchants hock their wares, farmers offload their crops, and Takers buy gear before setting off on one job or another.

Important NPCs (WIP):
An Archivist who runs the library and school due to being the only actual teacher in the enclave. Because of this and the fact that nobody knows Dewey Decimal like he does, most people overlook how many times he has to  told not to lecture the children on the fleeting existence of man and the immortality offered through the written word.

The unofficial leader of the trucker convoy that helped build the Wall around the enclave, a down to earth woman with a strong following among the consumers. With one of the major swing voters among the alderman dying of cancer many have suggested she take his place, though she has avoided speaking about the subject to avoid seeming crass.

A harried Latent social worker who runs the shelter on the edge of town and also teaches (Very carefully) classes on first aid at the school for some extra bounty to keep the shelter going.

Our Taker crew is called "Blacklight", and consists of:

Rufio (Sara)
Weak Spot: Untouchable
Soft Spot: According to Need
Tough Spot: Immune
A former member of the "student body" of the District and the wild child of the crew, Rufio was originally a member of the Lost Boys Taker crew until she was "rescued" by Galavant at her father's behest. After being reunited with her alcoholic father in The End, and out of guilt for her part in Galavant turning Latent, she decided to join Blacklight and earn the money to buy their way to a better life.

Galavant (Brett)
Weak Spot: Disillusioned With The Law
Soft Spot: Justice Always Prevails
Tough Spot: Latent
In another life Galavant was a respected member of the EGPD, a Fenceman of The End, and an Immune. He is now none of those things after suffering an errant bite while on a rescue mission for a desperate father in The End and receiving an injection of Supressin from his fellow officers to "save" him. Now people cross the street when they see him coming and he is forced to live in the run-down Latent shelter on the edge of town while he eeks together enough Bounty to get himself and his uncle, another retired officer, to a safe zone.

Silver (Jason)
Weak Spot: For The Greater Good
Soft Spot: Don't Get Attached
Tough Spot: Steward
The traveler who calls herself Silver claims to be a Taker who hopped the Mississippi to find work so she could feed her family in a Free Parking ghetto, but in reality she is an agent for an unnamed corporation that wishes to plunder the Loss for its own gain. Her only dependents are her mission handler, known by the callsign "Black Friday", and her fellow Takers.

Gutshot (Derek)
Weak Spot: My Family Needs Me
Soft Spot: Children Are The Future
Tough Spot: Carbait
Hailing from a DHQS settlement on Terminal Island in LA, the rookie Taker named Gutshot snuck into the California Loss to make enough money so that he, his husband, and their adopted daughter could have themselves smuggled into slightly less repressive and authoritarian conditions in the Recession. Despite technically living in the Loss for five years, the safety and security of the DHQS-controlled Terminal Island means that he is woefully unprepared for life as a Taker but he's determined to give it a go for his family.

The prologue enclave generation episode and first job are up on Soundcloud, give us a listen! Sorry in advance for the wurbly audio quality, we're amateur recorders working with cheap/free equipment and software right now.

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I just stumbled across this gem after listening to the One-Shot cast play a demo AP run by the creator, and I'm absolutely devouring it. It's a fantasy role-playing game built from the ground up from a basis of North American native folklore and mythology rather than the usual European perspective; the end result is a setting that captures the classic feel of your standard western D&D power fantasy without falling into the usual cliches of knights and dragons, elves and dwarves, and wizards and necromancers.

What I think I like most about it is how it veers away from the usual epic fantasy standards where the heroes are heroic because they're good at fighting monsters--there are monsters that need fighting, but there's also a lot of emphasis on being in harmony with your surroundings and achieving understanding rather than simply brute forcing your way through a problem. The most illustrative example of this that I can think of is the episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender where Aang comes across a village being besieged by an angry spirit. Whereas your standard D&D party would start sharpening swords, Aang realizes that the spirit is upset because its forest was burned down, and he calms it by pointing out the acorns that will one day grow into trees and rebuild the forest. This is the sort of approach Ehdrigohr encourages its players to adopt to many situations.

Another aspect that piqued my interest was the emphasis placed on mental health and the dangers of depression; people who become overwhelmed with sorrow are actually in danger of wasting away into nothingness if they aren't cared for and looked after, and the current state of the world (Recovering from the latest of several periodic apocalypses brought about by kaiju/Great Old Ones/demons) is the result of one of the pantheon members accidentally staring into the abyss and discovering Sorrow as an emotional concept, which led to her corruption and fall when the other deities didn't know how to help her.

Aside from that it's just a pretty solid and interesting fantasy setting that draws inspiration from a number of native cultures from around the world. There aren't any "races" other than humans, but the humans are divided into diverse peoples with varying degrees of unifying/separate beliefs and traditions. My favorite are probably the Urali of the north, who are evocative of Inuit peoples--because the main setting monster ("Shivers") can only survive in the darkness, when the sun goes down for nearly a month in the arctic tundra Shivers come pouring down towards the plains and are only stopped by an army of Urali and volunteers from all over the world. Second for me would probably be the Beyduun, desert-dwellers who have eschewed the use of "Mysteries" (Magic) in favor of alchemy and contraptions and have built a clockwork empire in the southern wastelands.

On the mechanical front it's a FATE Core game with the usual tweaks and minor changes intended to fit the spirit of the game--combat is a bit more lethal, and the skill list is more granular (Weapons are divided into melee/ranged, which are again divided into weapon types, and there are more social skills). One thing that stands out as interesting to me is the aspect list: characters have a Core Aspect (Who their character is), a Culture Aspect (Which group of people they come from), and six Winter Aspects. In Ehdrigohr, night and other times and places of darkness belong to the Shivers--basically dark spirits leftover from the apocalypse who only exist to destroy man. During the day they shrivel and die in the sun, but at night they emerge to threaten travelers in the wilderness and prey on undefended villages and towns. During the Winter the days are shorter and the nights are longer, so surviving a Winter is a big deal and people's lives are measured as such. Because of this, the aspects reflecting your character's life story are all about significant Winters that they survived: childhood, adolescence, their first adventure, the first time their Mysteries (Magic) manifested, and their Nightmare: a dark moment from their past where they came face-to-face with the Shivers and were left physically or emotionally scarred by the experience.

My only real complaint with the game is that the cultures based off non-North American native traditions are a bit stereotypical--there's an evil empire of not-Aztecs who worship the Woes (Aforementioned kaiju/great old ones) and sacrifice slaves to them--but this is more or less balanced out by the rest of them. There are some editing and spelling errors here and there, but not enough to annoy me and I'm pretty sticky about that sort of thing. It's $10 on DriveThruRPG for the pdf, well worth the buy in my opinion, and you can get a starting adventure called "Red Dogs, Hungry Dreams" for five bucks as well. I sincerely hope more people buy it, because this is the kind of content I really want to see more of in the RPG industry rather than the tired old "primitive native" tropes.

Some more resources:

This American Indian Dungeons and Dragons lets you weave powerful stories--An article by a Native American tabletop gamer on Ehdrigohr's mythology and how it handles its native influences
One-Shot Ehdrigohr episodes

3
RPGs / Red Markets Playtest Campaign: Fear and Loathing in Hooverville
« on: September 24, 2015, 05:40:54 PM »
(Props to Tomsawyer for the title)

Instead of cluttering up the Inspiration thread with my group's campaign updates I figured I would post them here from now on. For those who haven't read that thread, here's the information on our enclave:

Quote
HOOVERVILLE

Five years after the Crash turned out the lights all across America, Nevada still shines in the darkness thanks to the ever-enduring Hoover Dam and the electricity it generates for any enclave in the region willing to pay...which is most of them. It is maintained and operated by technicians and engineers who realized the severity of the crisis facing America and brought their families into the Dam to try and weather the storm. Over time they were joined by a military diaspora and a small flood of refugee survivors, and together they formed the technocratic community of Hooverville.

Location
Hoover Dam. Duh.

Defenses
Hoover Dam. Duh.
The dam's architecture and placement make it a veritable fortress against both Casualties and raiders, especially when augmented with additional fortifications like scrap metal gates and watchtowers. These defenses are manned by a mixed group of soldiers and private security contractors who were abandoned by their chains of command in the Crash; they are led by Marshall Amanda Cho. Finally, the Dam's isolated location provides another barrier against attack due to the distance one must travel to reach it.

History
Hooverville's original occupants included the technicians who operated the Dam and kept her running, plus whatever surviving family they could bring with them. The next group to seek refuge in the monument was a mixed platoon of Army infantry and PMC contractors who had been left to die in the mass exodus east; these would become the enclave's defenders and law enforcement officers. And, over time, more survivors began to flock to the Dam when they heard by Ubiq and radio and word of mouth that there was shelter to be found. As conditions in the Loss continued to deteriorate and people realized rescue simply wasn't coming, they settled in and built Hooverville.

Top Exports
Electricity—Hoover Dam supplies electricity to just about anyone in Nevada or California who can pay and keep the cables maintained. This makes them a powerful economic force in the region despite their average population and isolated location.

Water—Nevada hasn't gotten any less dry and inhospitable since civilization collapsed. Fresh water is sold to anyone looking to keep their crops from drying up or their cattle from dying of dehydration.

Engineering Expertise—One of the engineers who fled to the Dam had the foresight to raid a manufacturing center on the way, bringing a number of 3D printers Hooverville now uses to make replacement parts and equipment. Although raw materials are in short supply, the ability to repair delicate equipment with machined parts instead of junking them more than pays for itself. On top of this, the techs and engineers are more than willing to sell their knowledge over Ubiq as consultants and designers.

Top Imports
Food—Space is at a premium in Hooverville, and although there are more than a few small hydroponic gardens set up on top of the wall they don't produce even a fraction of what the population needs to survive.

Scrap Metal—You can't build with raw materials, and quality scrap metal is one of the most cost-effective construction materials available in the carrion economy of the Loss.

Medicine—Although it means less government interference, being so far from the Recession also means less easy access to manufactured goods like modern medicine. Suppliers out in the Loss can make money hand over fist selling pharmaceuticals to enclaves, and with so many people packed into a relatively small space Hooverville can't afford to let its medicine cabinets go unstocked.

Competition
The House—A network of former gamblers, insider traders, and mafia members who have their fingers in enclaves throughout Nevada. They use their influence to game the economy, driving the prices for goods up or down, and employ teams of unwitting Takers for jobs that take advantage of their manipulations. The House is a money-making machine and isn't above endangering people to make a profit--they might arrange for an enclave's water supply to be contaminated, then charge them to send Takers to scout out a new well site. They operate in secret and jealously guard their investments--stumbling across a House operation is often the last mistake a curious Taker makes.

The 51st State—Some saw the Crash as the end of the world, but others saw it as the chance to uncover the truth. When the military pulled out of Nevada every redneck conspiracy nut in the Southwest headed straight for Area 51 to finally see the alien corpses and UFO wreckage and lizardmen cryo tubes at long last. When they arrived they found none of these things, surprising nobody but themselves. Consoling themselves by looting the hastily-abandoned site of weapons, ammunition, and military vehicles, the conspiracy theorists took to the road and over time became a nomadic band of desert raiders. The absence of any proof for their theories in Area 51 has only fueled their distrust of the government--they obviously cleaned up anything of value before pulling out and leaving their own citizens to die at the hands of their sinister experiments (Probably).

Mojave Nation—A loose confederacy of surviving Native American tribes in Nevada that congregated at Fort Mojave for mutual protection. Over time they established a system allowing for cooperation in trade and defense while retaining their independent governments and cultural identities, effectively becoming a small nation with member states. Due to their proximity to the Colorado River they are the largest producer of crops in Nevada, which makes them a strong trading partner with Hooverville to the north.

Shadow Hills—A megachurch in the Vegas suburbs converted into a fortress by a somewhat mild offshoot of the Meek. Although they believe that the Crash was God's Rapture and that the Blight was his way of calling man into Heaven, they are not as driven to enforce their beliefs on others and are content merely to live and let die. Although many enclaves find it distasteful to interact with them many do not have a choice, as they are the second-largest exporter of crops in Nevada behind the Mojave Nation.

Free Rangers—A traveling hodgepodge of truckers, ranchers, and highway patrol officers who raise the largest surviving herds of livestock in Nevada. They migrate from grazing spot to grazing spot in convoys of cattle-carrier big rigs and supercharged police cruisers to stay ahead of any roving herds or bandits, and they make regular stops at enclaves along the way to sell their juiciest animals.

Social Structure
On the surface Hooverville is a technocracy with flimsy pretensions of being a meritocracy, but peel back the layers and one will see that it is actually a cleverly-disguised aristocracy in the guise of a technocracy. In Hooverville decisions that affect the community are put to a vote, but not every vote is equal: the Engineers who maintain and operate the Dam which provides for them all have more say than the men and women of the Garrison, who have more say than the diverse population of skilled laborers and other non-technical Specialists who serve important roles in the community, who have even more say than the refugees living on top of the Dam and the Latents exiled outside the walls (Who have none).

In theory all one needs to graduate from Tourist to Specialist, Garrison, or even Engineer is to take and pass a test which gauges one’s useful knowledge and skills. This is much easier said than done in the post-Crash world, where education has yet to be re-established even in the Recession and many children haven’t seen a classroom or textbook in years. Further stacking the deck is the fact that the Engineers closely guard their knowledge, teaching only their children and family members so that they may preserve it, thus making it extremely difficult for anyone to actually climb the theoretical ladder to power.

This system, while somewhat stable, does result in more than a little social unrest. Protests and demonstrations on the archway are not uncommon, and a growing civil rights movement led by self-styled activist Neal Dalton is demanding that the Tourists be granted the right to vote. Despite Marshall Cho’s moderating influence Chief Engineer Greeley is pushing the Board towards increasingly authoritarian measures to contain and suppress these protests, and within the Garrison itself there is a small but vocal movement of anonymous guards calling themselves the Strike Breakers who demand the mass deportation of the Tourists and call for the Latent “gravediggers” outside the walls be driven away.

Neighborhoods
The Dammed—Latent ghetto/squatter's camp erected outside the enclave, moves from one end to the other by way of the Bypass, as they aren't permitted within the walls.
Tourist Trap—The tent city and shanty town decorating the top of the Dam, where the bulk of the non-military and engineering citizens live.
Barracks—Formerly the observation deck and museum, now converted into the military quarters.
Powerhouse—The seat of government and where the engineers and their families live.

VIPs
Chief Engineer Michael Greeley—A man ill-suited to leading a city-state, Greeley is slight in stature and spine. His courage is bolstered by his position on the Board, secured solely due to the fact that nobody knows the Dam like he does, as well as the control over the Garrison which it affords him. When Greeley is afraid he tends to lash out, or order others to lash out, and Greeley is afraid very often. He likes when things work the way they’re supposed to and everyone just does their job.

Marshall Amanda Cho—Cho was just two short weeks from turning in her papers and leaving the military life altogether when the Crash began and the whole damn world lost its mind. She kept 2nd Platoon together by sheer force of will when the Blackhawks abandoned them on the tarmac, and she managed to keep those trigger-happy White Forest goons from shooting anyone after they started tagging along. Greeley might outrank her, but she’ll be damned if she lets him use her soldiers like a switch on those poor people up on the archway. Even if some of them are asking for it.

Neal Dalton, "The Guide"—At first glance Dalton may seem like an earnest and charismatic civil rights figure in the making, but in reality he just loves the attention. He organizes rallies, delivers speeches, and rants against the oppressive tyranny of the Board of Engineers to anyone on the archway who will listen. Marshall Cho makes a point of having at least a squad of her men present at each event to keep things from getting out of control, but their presence only serves as a convenient hook on which Dalton can hang some of his nastiest Nazi allusions. Many people among the Tourists and even some of the Specialists are swept up by the quasi-religious fervor of Dalton's apparent convictions, convinced that the revolution is only a matter of time, but in truth Dalton has no plan for reform and is merely riding off the high of adulation.

Janet Quinn, host of 93.5 "The Spill"—Something of a black sheep among the Engineers, Janet Quinn is a communications technology major from LA who was granted admittance into Hooverville on the promise that she could establish communications with other survivors and even contact the government for evacuation. When the military pulled back east and Ubiq went online both of these contributions became redundant, but what kept her from being booted into the Specialists was her increasingly-popular talk news radio, "The Spill". In addition to covering local news and politics Quinn also provides a Daily Show-esque comical release for the Hooverville listeners, taking savage jabs at the Board and their decisions (All for a laugh, of course). Her "dissent" is tolerated by the Board because they feel that shutting her show down or demoting her to Specialist would anger far more people than it would placate.

Eric McLaughlin, owner/bartender of the "Hole in the Wall"—The Crash changed a lot of things, but at the end of the day honest working folks need a place where they can kick back with some shitty distilled booze and forget their problems for a few hours. That's the beginning, middle, and end of McLaughlin's sale pitch, and considering he owns the only bar for a few hundred miles around he doesn't need to work that hard at it. McLaughlin tries to stay out of politics, opening his bar to any Engineers or Garrison members who need a drink, but as a Tourist himself he empathizes with the frustrated masses and prays the Lord will soften the Board of Engineers' hearts to their plight.

Pharmacist Clarence Clayton, "CC"—Five years ago Clarence was a Berkeley hippie who dropped out of his chemistry degree to grow weed in Humboldt, but now with skilled doctors and sources of medicine thousands of miles to the east he is the closest thing Hooverville has to a medical supplier. On behalf of the Board of Engineers Clarence hires Takers to retrieve unspoiled medical and chemical supplies in the Loss that he can use to make various street drugs in lieu of FDA-approved medicinals. "CC" might claim to have gone straight, but there are plenty of rumors about how the Tourists have been getting their hands on that shitty weed proving to be popular up on the archway.

Romero, leader of the Gravediggers—Nobody gives the Latents a break, nor should they ever expect one; this is the advice Romero gives to newcomers. The de facto leader of Hooverville's small infected community is recognized as such for his relentless determination in keeping them together and alive outside the walls, where they work to keep the perimeter clear of Casualties in exchange for food and water from the enclave. The presence of so many potential Vectors is a hot button political issue in Hooverville, especially between the Board and the Strike Breakers, but Romero has kept tensions from boiling by keeping his people from approaching the walls and keeping them in line with a combination of fear and respect. Nobody knows who he was before the Crash, and to be frank not many want to know.

The Takers:

Quote
Casualty Clearing Crew (CCC)
Göts - A German-American mercenary and veteran Taker who lost his last team in a disastrous mission that saw most of them die horribly, took his one surviving friend's legs, and robbed him of a perfectly good arm. Having spent years in the Loss as a "Lifer" chasing money and thrills for the hell of it he has come to the conclusion that he needs to get out before his luck runs out again. He spent what Bounty he had to get himself and his dependents to Hooverville, get a new arm from the 3D printers, and get a couple of Takers together to found CCC.
Weak Spot - I've Had Enough
Soft Spot - Freedom to choose one's destiny
Tough Spot - Old Hand (+2 to Leadership, but already Cracked in Trauma)
Dependents
-Adam, disabled comrade
-Joey, younger brother
-Rachel, adopted daughter

Cabbie - A first-generation immigrant cab driver from San Diego who smuggled people over the border before the dead began to walk and the border moved a few thousand miles east. Now he's still a driver and still hopes to smuggle himself and his sister over the Quarantine Wall someday, but before that happens he's going to need a lot of cash to set them both up in the Recession. He's not going to be driving cabs for the rest of his life.
Weak Spot - Fuck the Police
Soft Spot - Hard work can get you anywhere
Tough Spot - Coyote (+2 Criminality, but already Cracked in Detachment)
Dependents
-Roxanne, sister

Plato - A former athlete and self-styled warrior-philosopher of the wasteland who would have celebrated the collapse of society's oppressive and constricting scaffholdings had they not resulted in the deaths of millions. For a time Plato traveled the Loss on his own, with nothing but his wits, his parkour, his bow and the Immune gene keeping him from joining all the poor souls taken before their time. He might have been content to continue that way until the end of time had he not encountered and adopted a little orphaned boy named Danny, who had survived the collapse of an enclave and the deaths of his entire family (Again).
Weak Spot - Prefers Freedom to Security
Soft Spot - Protect the Weak
Tough Spot - Immune Exile (Can't be infected, but will be hunted for medical experiments if his secret gets out)
Dependents
-Danny, lost little boy

Bloody Mary - A former citizen of the Mojave Nation who was exiled after being infected and turning Latent, since the Nation has a strict zero tolerance policy after members of their original Latent population turned Vector and nearly caused an outbreak. She traveled north to Hooverville and joined the Gravediggers to eek out a meager living, but when her grandmother--her only surviving family--also left the Nation to be with her granddaughter, Mary signed on with the CCC as a Taker to earn enough money to get the both of them out of the Loss. As a Latent she is prickly regarding discrimination or bigotry towards her condition, and she is always willing to give a bite victim the benefit of the doubt.
Weak Spot - Social Justice Zombie
Soft Spot - Anyone Can Be Saved
Tough Spot - Latent As Fuck (Can't be infected, but shunned and mistreated by others and will become a Vector upon death)Dependents:
-Nana, grandmother

And finally an endorsement by the Man himself:

That. Is. A. BRILLIANT. Idea. For. An. Enclave.

Kicking myself for not thinking of it  :'(

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