The Dirt Town Orphans
RP about a bunch of kids ganging up to survive in a messed up world!
The Dirt Town Landscape
[Intro]
[Premise]
The Dirt Town is a giant slum located in the city of Yire-Alba. It is almost as big as the rest of the city surface-wise and has twice as many people. Mired in filth and stench, it is a three dimensional jungle of wood, stone and metal, where new buildings are erected every day without any concern given to aesthetics, longevity, and safety. Fires are a common occurrence, just like diseases which often run rampant due to high population density. To top it all off, crime is also high, with robberies, beatings and murders happening every day in scores. Gangs rule the Dirt Town, staking their claims on as much territory as they can before they run up against another, equally powerful gang. Common people of the Dirt Town are often forced to ask gangs for protection, which makes the gangs the only form of law that this miserable place has.
The small pocket of respite and safety in this cauldron of crime and violence is an island located on the Mudstream, a river passing through the northern part of the Dirt Town. Fittingly named the Asylum Island, it was protected by an enigmatic man called the Old Man Fritz who, despite looking as old as his name suggested, possessed incredible power. In his shadow, the Asylum Island has prospered as a bastion of peace, with many skilled people flocking to it. Many surrounding gangs have also declared the island a neutral ground, and have used it to conduct intergang negotiations and trade.
But securing the island’s safety was not the only thing the Old Man Fritz did. Using the remnants of an ancient temple located in the centre of the island as a home, he gathered as many children left without parents as he could find. He sheltered them, fed them, educated them and gave them home. Seeing his kind work, many people on the island have also helped him raise the children, offering both their skills and money despite the Old Man never asking them for any of it. The people nicknamed the temple “the Dirt Town Orphanage” and the children “the Dirt Town Orphans”. Fritz liked the name so he also started using it.
However, the peaceful days of the Asylum Island are coming to an end. The Old Man Fritz has died and the Orphans and the people of the island are left without their benevolent guardian. The surrounding gangs, which were willing to respect the Asylum Island’s neutrality out of fear and respect for the Old Man’s power will now turn their covetous gazes towards it. After all, where the rest of the Dirt Town suffers struggle and battles every day, the Asylum Island has experienced years of unbroken peace. It has grown fat with wealth and lazy, and without Fritz it will be ripe for the taking. The first gang that manages to take it will be able to plunder its riches – which may be nothing special in the grand scheme of things but represents more money than most of the Dirt Towns residents can hope to see in their lifetime.
So where do you fit in all of this?
Well, you are one of the Orphans. The Old Man Fritz gave you and other children home and in return all he asked was for you to stick together. Which in itself is as much of a warning as it is a request, because there’s no way that a single child will survive in the Dirt Town alone. Even if you join other gangs their bosses will not care about your well being and will instead use you up and then toss you aside, if not outright kill you.
But even if you remain with the Orphanage, it will require cooperation and planning. You will have to work together with other Orphans to fight off any assailants on the island, or negotiate with surrounding gangs for protection or continued adherence to island’s neutrality. The direction of this story depends entirely on what you and other Orphans decide to do. You can turn the tables on the gangs and instead of getting plundered by them you can conquer them , or you and other Orphans can each go their own way and get scattered like leaves on the wind (but then this story will be rather short).
[World]
[Rules]
