90s Noir: Pulp-Fiction style gritty crime drama (High Casual)

[Sho Buraiken]

Vanitas, 1976.

Intended to be the next Las Vegas, Vanitas was the poorly-executed dream of young playboy millionaire Francis Blake. Technically classified as a resort, this small collection of casinos, spas, and glamorous restaurants was met with initial success beyond Blake's expectations, and soon a small city of sorts sprang up around the resort. First came hotels, then condos, then apartment buildings, grocery stores... a community was born, which ended up being rather unfortunate for Blake. Instead of visiting and pouring money into the casinos, people were living there, investing their earnings and settling down.

Vanitas, now officially a city, became less and less profitable for Blake by the day. Due to his role in founding the city, Blake was given a seat on the city council and even served as mayor for a term, but his profiteering ambitions didn't mesh with the council's idea of planned expansion. Soon the resort was eclipsed in importance by office buildings, schools, and hospitals. The casinos began hemorrhaging money, and soon Blake's fortune was a comparatively paltry sum. At this point, well-known mob boss Don Cartigo stepped in and offered Blake a loan to keep the resort open for another year.

This was a very poor decision on Blake's part. The resort continued to do poorly, and Blake didn't make nearly enough to pay off Cartigo, especially with the added cost of his rather high interest rate on top of the interest loan. This had been Cartigo's plan all along; Blake sold the resort to Cartigo in the end, and to make up for his "debt", he became the Cartigo family's personal puppet on the city council.

A decade passes. Cartigo now has the city almost completely in his grasp. After paying off more than a few officials, the Cartigo family achieved a majority on the council, despite a rather straight-laced mayor. Cartigo also masterminded the rise of the wildly incompetent Stanley Trappe to the position of police commissioner. Under Trappe's leadership, little is done to crack down on Cartigo's operations, which include drug trafficking, firearms sales, and prostitution. However, some believe that Trappe isn't stupid as much as he is allied with Cartigo; any rackets of rival mob families are quickly and efficiently put down, but Cartigo's operations are never touched, oddly enough.

Vanitas quickly becomes one of the most dangerous places to live, but also one of the most profitable ones... provided you don't interfere with Cartigo's business. Due to the incompetence of law enforcement, the city also becomes a hotspot for private investigators; people and precious items often go missing, and with Trappe heading the police department, little headway is made in righting such wrongs, necessitating the hiring of outside help. These PIs are often given a lot more leniency (once again due to Trappe's lack of skill) than in other countries, often causing them to cross the line into bounty hunter and even vigilante territory.

This all changes in 1996, when Cartigo miraculously dies of natural causes, something very rare for a Mafia Don. The Cartigo operation splinters into many smaller factions under the incompetent leadership of Cartigo's son, Franco. The Cartigo's longstanding monopoly quickly falls apart and the rate of violent crime climbs uncontrollably as a result of factions scrambling for profitable territory. Trappe resigns from his position quickly after Cartigo's death, and is replaced by young hotshot Harold Jefferson, who seems to be above blackmail and is prepared to do "anything it takes" to eradicate the crime problem, something that truly strikes fear into the hearts of the many small factions that now inhabit Vanitas.

The streets aren't safe anymore, if they were ever safe to begin with. With crime on the rise but a newly motivated police force, who knows what could happen next in the black pearl of the United States, Vanitas?

~

In this RP, I hope to capture the feel of film noir in a more modern light, specifically in 1996. Private investigators, mafia, triads, tongs, dealers, hitmen, wetwork, etc. but with a definite 90s feel to it. Swap the trench coat, fedora and snub-nose for a leather jacket, baseball cap, and a trusty semiauto, you know? Expect Reservoir Dogs/Pulp Fiction style "gritty" crime, lots of cover-ups, corruption, assassination, gang wars, you name it, we got it.

There are a lot of options for characters - mobsters, gangsters, hitmen, PIs, police officers or even the average citizen could all play a role. The RP will be very free-form and character centric; the focus is on surviving, not dominating, so I would limit you to the lower ranks of whatever faction you'd be a part of. If an assassin character commits a murder, maybe a PI will be hired to track him down. If a dealer brings in a big shipment, maybe a cop will arrive on scene to make the arrest. Maybe two gangsters from different factions will be after the same racket and will have to duke it out. It's open to anything, really. I only provide the backdrop and the stimuli; the characters handle everything else.

Questions? Interest?

I'll get a CS up soon. Player-submitted factions are always nice too, so I'll get a form for that.

[The Xtreme One]

Sounds interesting, if this get's started you can count me in.

[Cambyses]

Very interested. In fact, I have a nifty little idea for a character mapped out. Tell me if this sketch is ok.


Dmitri Marchenko was 15 when the Soviet Union collapsed. In the ensuing chaos, he managed to scrape together enough money to buy plane tickets for himself, his mother, and younger sister by fencing toilet paper stolen from Red Cross aid stations. They arrived in New York City penniless, and quickly found capitalism could be just as cruel as communism. He and his other worked a combination of odd jobs which allowed them to get a miserable old tenament in the rapidly growing Russian side of town. There Dmitri learned how to play chess and the vietnamese card game 13, two strategy games which he took to very quickly.

Life there was a hard; when his mother heard one could make good money waitressing at casinos in Vanitas she gambled and moved her family down the coast. Unfortunately, the information was a decade out of date; the casinos weren't hiring and the restaurants couldn't afford to pay their employees much due to extensive racketeering. Dmitri, 17 years old when they moved, decided to put his chess and thirteen skills to good use. He would set up folding tables in the park with half a dozen boards and invite onlookers to play him; 5 bucks to play, 25 if you won. Dmitri didn't lose. He also started frequenting vietnamese bars and clubs to play 13, a betting card game which he won more then he lost. These hustles, combined with a part-time job dealing cards at a casino, provided enough money in conjunction with his mom's waitressing job for the family to get by, if only barely.

Dmitri is 20 now. He still lives with his family out of necessity. He isn't going to leave Mom and sis by themselves without a man in Vanitas. Crime has gotten even worse sense they moved in '94. But nobody dares go near their apartment, because Dmitri is running with the big boys. His talent for numbers and strategy, and his devious nature led him to start scamming medicaire, an easy and very lucrative gig which, although originally intended just to give him and his family health insurance, caught the attention of Antonio's crew, a gang of mobsters who dominate the neighborhood with ties to Cartigo's old outfit.

So he's a goon. Maybe not what he would have chosen for himself, but he's got friends in the business, money, a 20 year old's dream lifestyle, and he knows when he goes home his family won't be lying facedown on the carpet in a pool of blood, the paper-thin apartment walls punctuated with bullet holes...

[Byrd Man]

I'd be up for this, especially as some kind of police officer.

[Mr Odin]

I'd be interested in making a dirty cop character, higher level guy, something like a detective or special unit officer. Possibly in with the former mob family but I see the motive for his dirty practices being for a good reason, like the support and safekeeping of a family in a crime filled city. Sort of Vic Mackey ish from the Shield series but with my own flavor of spice for the character.

[Vulture]

Holy crap, I'm all about this. So incredibly excited, love crime stories.

[Mr Odin]

I'm going to work out a few hitches in my notes and then put a character together soon. I'll have a CS to you by the weekend at the latest, if there are any specifics you want to avoid let me know.

[Vulture]

If you're looking for factions, might I suggest a fictionalized version of the Dixie Mafia? They don't get used much in fiction, but I feel they have an interesting dynamic. Bunch of good ol' boys forming a vicious criminal syndicate. Think if Hank Hill was running the mob.

[Redneck Romeo]

Someone mention Rednecks?, Im down for some Good Ol'Boy Mafia stuff.

[Ghirardelli]

Interested in maybe a PI or Police Officer.