More Street Wise
I fell down a rabbit hole thinking about system for Street Wise this week and ended up all over the place, so this week will (probably) be brief as I stream-of-consciousness further thoughts about the setting.
Currently, I want the game to take place in the modern day with no significant changes to history. This keeps most things recognizable while what isn’t is separated off into the, largely, hidden magical world. It’s a common trope, the normal folks not really seeing behind the magical curtain and it works well here. It also means that the dangers of the magical world are kept firmly as problems for the players.
I figure that the magical world is as stratified as the mundane world. Up at the top, you have the Old Families who have been building magical power over generations and have used that power to create strongholds in the Twilight. That toehold beyond the Aegis keeps them safe from the monsters that live in the Twilight and gives them a leg up because gathering mana and doing magic there is easy.
Down one level are the Firms, essentially corporate covens that run the business of the magical world. Many of them are run by the Old Families but some are new money. They are powerful mages that have banded together and, with luck and hard work, have built themselves a business empire. Are there a lot of Firms? I’m not sure. I figure there are a few who make potions or create magical items, maybe even some that specialize in growing or harvesting specialized ingredients the magic community needs. And there’s competition, of course, because everyone knows that monopolies are bad, in the long run.
And on that same level, I would think there are some larger criminal enterprises doing the unsavory business of society: necromancy, drugs, trafficking with dark powers. That kind of thing.
The middle class of the magical community are office workers for the Firms and Old Families. If they are lucky, they get to work management and keep everything running smoothly. If not, they end up working in the mana farms, stuck in cubicles all day doing nothing but gathering mana for the company. They probably get healthcare and a decent paycheck but it’s bound to be a dreary workplace.
Our laborers are working in factories and labs doing the menial work of the magical community and, hey, if they’re lucky they can move into one of the mana farms. At least, maybe, they won’t be stuck doing the menial or dangerous work forever.
So, that our society. The player’s characters are expected to be folks at the margins who can’t, or don’t want to, get stuck into the roles that society has laid out for them. But they’ve got to do something to earn a living. The question is: what?
I’ve got to figure that there are dangerous jobs that the Firms or Old Families need done that they don’t want to risk their people to do. Corporate espionage or monster hunting, maybe.
Those are typical adventure games answers and maybe that’s what’s needed. I think I’m going to worry at that some more and see if anything else occurs to me.