Core

[CivOasis]

Core:
A city like no other. Towering buildings stand along the tropical skyline, government forces are outfitted with the latest technologies. Emergency staff are the best trained on the planet. Researchers flock to the city in droves. International funding drives millions upon millions of people here, making it the second largest city on the globe.

Core:
A city gone dark for over twenty years. Fires burn. The last fading traces of modern technology are almost gone, leaving corroding buildings, collapsed bridges, and useless electronics and vehicles strewn across the street. Barricades upon barricades, lined with archaic defenses, bar anyone from traversing beyond the farmlands beyond the city. Political corruption is little problem, with no real government organization to be violated by it. Descendants of modern gangs, and organized crime like the Mafia, rule the city with iron fists. Modern weapons are few and far between, and almost none are in the hands of the ill-equipped and shrinking police force. The population is crashing, with the vast majority of the million odd, overcrowded people under the age of twenty. Food is rare enough that even the richest expect to go hungry for days at a time.

This is the world I know.

This is Core.

 

[CivOasis]

Core, the last known refuge of mankind, is dying. With the elders of the city being the last people to remember an era where fossil fuels powered the world, the younger generations are now growing up in a world without electricity. However, with so few people remembering the skills of a pre-industrialized world, the city has not been able to cope. Basic necessities are missing. Few people know how to farm or fish. Nobody knows how to repair the eroding city, nor can they leave it to gain materials to add on to it. Basic medical skills are lost, medicine is no longer produced, and people die in droves of disease or injury. Even basics, such as clothes, are lost, with very few people having anything that resembles clean or intact – usually, only politicians or the mafia are capable of affording and procuring such things, and not even all of them.

Some basics about Core that aren’t too obvious:

Spoiler :

The city is populated mostly with descendants of people who lived in the Americas or along the Pacific Rim, because of its geographic location (Panama. And, as such, most people can speak at least Spanish

Cultural influence, has, amongst other things, led to a new language in the city – the younger generation has a well-established tongue known as Bruíké, which is often ill-understood by their elders.

Almost 3/4 of the populous are under the age of 20, but it's rare to live past the age of 50.

There are no fossil fuels. Period. Other fuel sources, its lack of knowledge about how to build or repair things like solar cells and windmills that prevents them – Solar cells or batteries are occasionally found in working order, and are worth more than anything else but food. People have been known to kill to get ahold of working electronics.

Hello, and welcome to my first NES! This is based upon a variety of influences, most notably the Action Chats and a prior NES, which a fellow forumgoer fortunately directed me towards the thread for. This NES is mostly character RP, though updates will attempt to influence characters towards an underlying plot. You are, of course, free to ignore that plot, with no adverse affects.

Upon sign-up, the following is requested:

Spoiler :

A character

A brief physical description of the character, including age

Your character’s job (not necessarily legal, given how many gangs and mafias reside in Core)

A backstory for your character (Note that your character and his/her parents are required to have been born and lived there entire lives in Core, as per backstory. Grandparents can come from wherever).

Anything violating canon, reality, or rationale will be vetoed by the GM.

I will release official updates roughly daily (as time permits), detailing the events of the city, and anything else considered pertinent. When you see the first of these below the OP, it is safe to join.

However, within the day, I am hoping that you (meaning the players) create your own RP amongst each other. In the case of an event that players cannot resolve, or interaction with NPCs (which qualifies as the entire city, excluding PCs, and anything else beyond personal control), I will determine outcomes using a RNG system.

 

[CivOasis]

Character List:
Players:

Spoiler :

Andrew Anderson (Police Sergeant, Germanicu12)
Geoffrey McMillingham (Private Investagator, Radio Noer)
Vasiliy Lisov (Runner for the Russian Mafia, MythMonster2)
Lorenzo Valmont (Unassociated Hitman, Electric926)
Raimundo Bolívar Ybarra (Associated with the Colombian Mafia, but not employed. JoanK)
Kim Shaviv (6-year old, Erez87)
Nikolas Zabas (Salvage Diver, CelticFury)
Lindsey Funke (Potentially a prostitute, but mental instability renders this confusing. Seon)
Jan Sanislau (Rigs political elections. ShahJahanII)
Jose ??? (Child at an orphanage. Terrance888)
Joseph Van de Vooten (Schizophrenic assassin. Mickzter97)

NPCs:

Spoiler :

Viktor Vassiliev (Head of the Russian Mafia)
Severina Gomes (Head of the police force of Core)
Marco ??? (Unknown. Killed by Lorenzo Valmont)
Diana Lisov (Younger sister of Vasiliy)
Alexander Lisov (Younger brother of Vasiliy)
Kyle ??? (Child at the orphanage)
"Nana" (Woman who aided the children of the orphanage. Killed by ???)
Jakob ??? (Unknown, associated with Jose)
Silvester ??? (Unknown, associated with Jose)
Harris ??? (Unknown, associated with Jose)
Jean Sïmone (Descendant of the city's original inhabitants. Unknown status, dissapeared 7 years ago)
Giustino Alessandri (Head of the Italian Mafia)
Sergei Vassiliev (Youngest son of Viktor Vassiliev, and his bodyguard)
Pika Mikaere (Head of a Bruíké club known for betting on fights)

Updates:
Update 0: An Introduction to Core
Update 1: Better Left Forgotten

 

[CivOasis]

Update 0: An Introduction to Core:

The officer cautiously made his way to the edge of the harbor. Rumors were again circulating that ships, of all things, were circling the city. Absolutely ludicrous idea, of course. Nobody lives outside of Core. Hell, nobody can even leave Core. Last time a group had gathered out here, some Bruíké-speaking nuts had shot them down. Probably that cult, trying to sacrifice people again. The crazies tend to come out in droves, during the dry season, with so little food around.
As he cautiously stepped out into the open, the world went to pieces around him. A large, dark-skinned man whipped around from around the corner of the massive concrete barrier, and swung a heavy boot into his face. Three more stepped out as he went down, one of them holding a gun. A gun. Those things were absurdly rare. No more than 13,287 left, all on record, with the police scrambling to try and get them out of the hands of criminals. Judging from that, and the swearwords he heard as he went down, these men were part of the Russian mafia – no ordinary gang was organized or powerful enough to get ahold of a working gun.

A shot rang out, and the city went quiet.

Rifle #467 – for they all had been under government control, once upon a time – lay silently in the hands of Viktor Vassiliev, head of the Russian Mafia in Core. Handing it off to the man besides him, he reached down, and pulled something off of him.

Staring closely at the camera, he spoke into it, in heavily accented Portuguese.

“Well, Mrs. Gomes, I see someone scared you enough to bring out some batteries. Let me scare you a bit more: I know that’s the last trace of electronics the police of Core have. I’m flattered you wasted them on me.”

The tiny camera broke with a crunch, and the men walked off down the street, laughing as they went.

 

[JohannaK]

IN! Wait a sec, making the char

 

[SouthernKing]

Expressing interest.
Is this the pre thread or the actual game thread?

 

[TerrisH]

Interesting. Will look over it a bit more once I get home. But I'm likely in.

 

[JohannaK]

Oh, why, man? I'd make the authorities convert corpses into food! In times of need, desperate measures. Or, to quote Charlton Heston: "Soylent Green is made of people!"

 

[Seon]

Expressing interest here mate

 

[CivOasis]

Alright, so, this is both the game and sign-up thread.

If you see the first few of my posts shuffle around, don't worry. BirdJaguar is helping clean up my foolishness (I forgot a post detailing the actual city's layout. It's currently in a thread), so much thanks goes to him for that.

 

[Sonereal]

I'm in. Will make character later tonight.

 

[germanicus12]

Hope this is acceptable:

Character: Andrew Anderson

Physical Appearance: A strong bulky man, who can easily bench press 350 pounds. Andrew has arms like tree branches that belong to a mighty oak, or so if one is to believe his grandfather. Legs like trunks from the same tree. Andrew does not simply intimidate people, he causes them to shake and divert their eyes for fear of angering him somehow. He is 30 years of age.

Job: Sergeant in the Core Police Department.

Backstory: Andrew was born in Core, as were his parents and grandparents before him, in fact, his grandfather could proudly trace their ancestry back to the original founders of Core, an Englishmen working with Spain and helped Spanish settlers settle. But that is history and Andrew does not enjoy history so he simply ignores his Grandfather as he drones on about this fact. No Andrew is simply dedicated to his job and is determined to clean up Core and help recreate it as the beacon of the world as his parents and Grandparents remember it. So throughout his life he has dedicated himself to that role, building up his body and endurance and whenever he can, he practiced his marksmanship skills, usually with an old gun his grandfather hid away when Core fell apart.* And using department issued guns before they too disappeared in the chaos that he lives in now. He never married, due to his love for the job, but he does have a girl he frequents every now and then that may pass as a girlfriend or even fiance in the old Core.

*If this is not allowed I can edit it. I just included it as a way he learned how to fire a gun and became more efficient than most officers in Core.

 

[CivOasis]

It works just fine, especially since he's police.

 

[Northen Wolf]

lurker's comment: this is very interesting, even tho I won't play, I'll still be following.

 

[CivOasis]

Glad to hear it (assuming this actually gets enough players to start. I haven't got as many responses as I expected, by this point, but we'll see how that goes).

 

[Terrance888]

I'm assuming this is character roleplaying to start? You might want to put that up in the beginning, especially some people (coughcoughNESchatcoughcough) looked at this and wondered about the rules for taking over places and getting income, Mafia-NES style.

 

[CivOasis]

I'm assuming this is character roleplaying to start? You might want to put that up in the beginning, especially some people (coughcoughNESchatcoughcough) looked at this and wondered about the rules for taking over places and getting income, Mafia-NES style.

Ah, alright, good to know. Yeah, will be posted up with the rules.

 

[CivOasis]

The Basic Layout of Core (probably to be later replaced with an actual map of the city)

Spoiler :

Core is set out relatively simply. In the northeast of the city lies the harbor. It’s walled in until quite a ways out, where many ruined ships lay rusting and sinking in the mouth. Decrepit defense systems prevent anyone from leaving, despite the lack of walls.

In the downtown portion of the city is “Old Core”, the original part of the city. Lain out in a grid, the city roads go conveniently at right angles to each other, while a final, ring-shaped road forms the outer border of the city. Beyond that lies the First Wall, a massive concrete structure.

Past the wall lies a massive, run-down slum, built as additional refugees poured into the city. Whereas the interior of the city has fallen into disastrous disrepair, the generally low-lying buildings make this area more traversable, and so the majority of the populous lives in the squalid conditions in this region.

This slum ends at the Second Wall, a slightly smaller concrete structure, which remains guarded by the police force. The only people (legally) allowed past here are farmers, who work in the regions beyond, mostly comprised of swamplands. At the edge of this is the Third Wall, an ancient and decrepit fence guarded by more archaic defenses.

While the farmers often bury their dead in the soil beyond the Second Wall, other deaths in the city are mandated to be reported to the police, who then dispose of the bodies. While no one is entirely sure what happens to them, rumors indicate that they are stored in a massive network of tunnels running beneath the city.

 

[Radio Noer]

Interested, thinking of a character now...

EDIT:

Character: Geoffrey McMillingham

Physical Appearance: Geoffrey is the definition of average, he is about 5 feet, 10 inches tall. Has short-cropped blonde hair and is 19 years old. An inconspicuous man at best and invisible at worst.

Job: Private Investigator

Backstory: Geoffrey was born in Core, as were his parents, two seemingly highly respected citizens, yet Geoffrey could never understand what about their jobs caused them to go out in the dead of night and fear the police. His grandparents came from Chicago, a city that was told to be filled with glimmering skyscrapers and bustling with people. His grandparents moved to Core for the opportunities the city presented for job advancement and a new list of "clients". Now, unsure of his past, Geoffrey has become a Private Investigator to uncover what his parents and grandparents actually did for a living, even though he knows full well that the truth isn't always pretty.

Hope this is good, I can always edit it.

 

[mythmonster2]

Name: Vasiliy Lisov

Description: Lean and slender, Vasiliy has a gymnast's build. He stays in as good shape as he can, considering he often goes hungry at night. Built more for speed and agility than pure strength, he can both sprint and run long-distance fairly well. He is 18 years old.

Job: A part of the Russian Mafia for one year. Specifically, he delivers messages, packages, and anything else that needs delivering.

Backstory: His grandparents were late in entering the Core, and they barely survived in the slums. His parents scarcely rose above, but it was a living for Vasiliy and his siblings. Vasiliy grew up as a relatively average slum kid, although with a natural aptitude for traversing on the rooftops of the ramshackle houses. And then one day the Mafia took note of him. They offered him a way to earn money, to help out his family. Cautiously, he accepted the role. Thus far, he has managed to avoid any unwanted attention, either from rival gangs or the police and has brought home extra money to help his family. Time will tell if his fortune continues...