So I’m MCing the sprawl this coming Monday, and one of the inspirations I threw out there for my players was a Prohibition Inspired city-state of Chicago. For me that means corruption, the mob, and most importantly the smuggling of vices. So my question is should I use scarcities from Apocalypse World during character creation to define what the city state is banning? Or is there another mechanic to get across a theme of illegal resource control?
So I’m MCing the sprawl this coming Monday, and one of the inspirations I threw out there for my players was a…
So I’m MCing the sprawl this coming Monday, and one of the inspirations I threw out there for my players was a…
You could insert a private security force that works for a megacorp that has cornered the market in certain substances. ANY kind of competition is banned, eliminated, burned, and vaporized. Not necessarily in that order.
Enforced monopolies does seem like a fun setting component, and distinctive corporate.
Can always add a custom move too.
In your city do the mega-corp’s have extraterritorial power? If so, they can blankety ignore those laws. Either way, it is unlikely that sort of law would pass without being in the interest of the Megas. Money runs politics and the Megas have all the money. Booze substitute will be sold for as long as money can be raked in from its sale.
As part of the setting I am working with it has governments with strong regional interests, so likely prohibitive tariffs and embargoes abound. Given its centralized location as an interior port city the Republic of Chicago is a net importer of raw materials and a net exporter of manufactured goods. Labor unions might even be a powerful and corrupt force, that keep production costs high and thus local monopolies are enforced and prohibiting cheap goods. As a result foreign made goods (Memphis Textiles, Detroit automobiles…etc.) are smuggled and sold at black market prices in an attempt to undercut local rivals. John Deere Arsenal targeting smuggling runs by Ford Automotive… etc
An interesting idea in that regard is then to have each player make a local corp and a international corp battling for influence in the Independent Megapolises. Cementing or breaking monopolies might be a goal of missions. Could even call the campaign “Building Trust”
Corporations maximise profit and minimise expenses
Corporations deny responsibility and suppress dissent
Corporations exploit technology and humanity to the limits of both
Based on how corp’s operate, I can’t see them putting up with unions and prohibitive tariffs. These companies run the world. If Chicago gets uppity, they’ll make sure the head of whatever is causing the issue has an accident. After, they’ll have a candidate waiting with the Corp funding their candidacy and suppressing their opposition. Think of money like spice from dune. The spice must flow.
I can see Unions as a corporation in and of themselves. They just are in the business of selling a type of skilled professional, no different for handling a staffing agency or selling insurance. Prohibitive tariffs can protect a corporation as much as they can hurt another, so the real question is who is benefiting rather than who is being hurt. For between example Ford would support tariffs against Toyota. It creates tension between the corporations and uses local government as a theatre for wet work, kidnapping, bribes, lobbyists, and all types of legal and illegal pressures. Something that fits well for one of the most corrupt cities in the world
Unions are not on the same level with a megacorportion/Zaibatsu. The Megas are uncaring and exploitative, and thus they can work on an international level. While a union can be corrupted, at its core it is a protection for workers. The only way it survives contact with these monolithic machines if consumption is to become bent to its purpose. Wage slavery via union dues might be possible. Perhaps the Megas are the ones running the unions or controlling them via underhanded methods. Either way, they have to bend or be crushed.
As for tariffs: Yes, they could be used as an economic weapon against rivals. That said, most decent Megas have their fingers in every conceivable kind of pie. They all do everything. Thus on a high level they are likely to be shooting themselves in the foot to hurt their rivals. Plus, don’t forget that a megacorp doesn’t need to follow the law. They are in essence their own countries. They have private armies to secure their interests. They have their own criminals to do things they don’t want to be associated with. Imagine how little large companies today pay in taxes, then imagine the megacorportion sod the cyberpunk future. They don’t pay taxes. They don’t pay fines. They only rig elections until it becomes cheaper and more expedient to just shoot the candidates instead.
Elliott Canada I see what steven swezey is getting at, and I mostly agree. Though whether or not you make it that simple is up to you.
I guess the point is this: Since there is no mechanical way of handling it, the best way to handle it is by establishing it hard in your fiction. If your Corporations/Governing Bodies have banned something, you must have an answer to “why?” And that answer should probably never be “For the good of the general populus.” because that is not dystopian enough.
One answer, perhaps, much like in our real life government, making somthing illegal makes it more profitable. But if you have a different and/or better one, go with that! You’re the MC!
We discussed things during the setting discussion before corporations and that set up for the corporations to fit the setting themes.
Seeing as we got the Health Department (Control and Regulation is their business) and a front for the mafia in a water and waste company (pollution clean-up coming up as untouchable cover) I think we were successful.