Welcome to scenic Kansas City, Missouri! Home to the Chiefs, the Royals, an internationally renowned art museum, a vibrant nightlife, accredited universities, and the highest demand for crystal meth for any city its size.

Yeah, you read that right.

Coolio may have been referring to Los Angeles in the song, but Kansas City is certainly a gangster's paradise as well. Missouri's dubious honor of being "America's Meth Capital" has resulted in a violent street-level drug trade, the growing interest in urban renewal has led to bitter wars over real estate, and the after hours crowd always needs a little pharmaceutical help. Not to mention all the usual sort of crime that goes on in any large American city.

The major players all have their own rough territories. Cossacks MC, a one-percenter motorcycle gang, generally runs in the outskirts and surrounding rural area, particularly around the I-70 corridor. Inside the city, the low-income East Side is a warzone between the black Army Ants and Hispanic Los Conquistadores. Just over the border, in the historic Strawberry Hill district of Kansas City, Kansas, is the Croatians. And, of course, organized crime in KC comes in the classic flavor. The Cipriano family has long been one of the top operators for the Mafia. Let's make no bones about it, the Ciprianos merely tolerate the presence of other gangs.

So who's missing?

The Irish.

KC, as you should very well know, is home to nearly a quarter of a million Irish Americans. They used to be a major player- hell, back in the Thirties Tom Pendergast practically ran the town, even getting Harry Truman started. But somewhere along the way, they became respectable.

I told you that story so you could tell me this one.


FIDDLER'S GREEN

The working-class Northland suburbs are home mostly to decent blue-collar folks. Then again, there's a few scumbags among the lot. Among that population, most of the ones with real or imagined Irish ancestry like to frequent a pub by the name of Fiddler's Green. It's the kind of place with green neon lights, Guinness on tap and specials on Jameson, and the Pogues on the jukebox. It's also the kind of place your mother warned you to stay away from, with a basement poker game and meetups for under the table dealings.

Not that the staff and customers are criminal geniuses. They've got no end of petty offenses under their belt, but few if any have made any big scores. They don't lack in ambition, though. Not one little bit.

So it's not surprising that after a few too many drinks one night, someone has the bright idea to put KC's Irish Mob back together.


CHARACTER SHEETS

Name: Your character's name.
Age: Your character's age.
Gender: I think you get it by now.
Appearance: Either a photo or detailed description is acceptable. No anime or drawings, please.
Day Job: Sure, it's a criminal RP. But people need to do something to explain where their money is coming from. This might even lead to gameplay opportunities.
Bio: This doubles as a writing sample, so don't go halfway here. Just two or three paragraphs about your character, who they are, how they behave, where they come from.


RULES
1. The word of the GM (in this case, myself) is law. That said, please tell me if I'm being unfair.
2. Respect one another. Our characters may not always get along, but remember, it's just a game.
3. No flash posting. To clarify, do not post a response within ten minutes of another player's post.
4. I have no real opinion on post length or order, so long as it is a well written and well thought out post. This is paramount.
5. Finally, please enjoy yourselves.

I'm interested in this :) thinking of doing a member who is a barber

Always handy to know how to use a razor.

The idea of a barber actually came to me after watching the most recent Chicago PD episode. A barber's nephew built a gang hangout out of the guy's office, and a torture lair under the office floorboards

Name: Max Lowrey
Age: 33
Gender: Male

Day Job: Owner of the Red Rose night club.
Bio: Born in Boston from an american father and an irish mother, Max's parents moved to Kansas City when he was 5 years old. As a teenager he dreamed of becoming somebody and having lots of money, but he wasn't very sure as to what to do with his life when he grows up. After he finished high school and university Max started looking for a job. Somehow he ended up working for a mexican drug lord named Javier Gonzales. Max was one of Gonzales's dealers, meaning that he was selling Gonzales's drugs on the street and return back to him with the money. And in turn he would get his payment. Max continued doying this for the next 7 years. In time he earned Gonzales's respect and admiration, as Max worked hard to become the best of Gonzales's drug dealers. Of course this attracted the envy of others working for him, some even thinking about getting rid of Max. However Gonzales quickly put them in their place.

Deeply involved in the drug wars, Gonzales ended up beying assassinated. A power struggle ignited between Max and Gonzales's liutenenant. In the end, after about 8 months, the power struggle ended as Max took over everything that Gonzales had. His night club, the drug lab underneath it and moved from his ugly house from the East into Gonzales's condo. As for the liutenenant, Max killed him and made it look like he was assassinated by rival drug dealers. Now Max has everything he ever needed, power and money and he's sitting on a mountain of drugs. While the drug market in Kansas is dominated by meth, Max concentrates more on ecstasy, while at the same time producing meth too.
Despite his line of work, Max is generally a kind-hearted person that behaves well with others and has a soft spot for women. At the same time he can also be vengeful and hateful. If somebody pushes his buttons too much he will not hesitate and will let him have it. He also a rebel and hates authorities. He respects others but only if he sees that they deserve it. He is kind of a lonely person with very few friends and a social; life that sucks. Max is usually the kind of person that follows his heart and not his brain, if he is involved in something he prefers to not have a plan and make up as he goes along. He does that because he thinks that plans are never set in stone and can be screwed up any time. He is also the kind of person that is not afraid to tell it to your face.

Would anyone be interested in playing as brothers or as father and son?
If it's okay with Polyphemus that is.

Ashling Byrne
Female
25

Day Job: Barnes & Noble at Country Club Plaza
Bio: Aishling found herself - at a terribly young age - treating the sprawling grid of streets in Brooklyn as her own backyard. Her family had owned the building for generations, an anonymous 'row-house' in Sunset Park that fell back into the blur of equally similar apartments. She attempted to avoid the adult world that so many Byrne children too quickly found themselves thrust into, but was destined for it. It was the family business and they were expected to keep it going strong well after Mom and Pop were laid to rest. Ash would tell you she had a fairly sufficient childhood. She still daydreams to memories of feasting royally at Rico's taquería with the girls after school, when the days were longer; that was before she turned sixteen, and before it was realized Ash was already prepared to learn from the best.

The Byrne's were known notoriously within their circles as the impassioned, volatile, and 'ride-or-die' mantra toting family. Short fused, ready to fight, and quick to protect the ones they love. Ashling inherited degrees of her family's weaknesses in emotion but for the most part found better control of it than her siblings did.

They followed a loose set of moral codes devised by the boozing patriarch John, but if you talked to anyone who knew the family they'd tell you Deirdre was the brains. Now from their perspective they weren't necessarily wrong, but she didn't hear about everything they did. He kept the darker bits of his work out from under her nose and let her share in that illusion before the bladder cancer took her away. They were excellent at what they did, hell, they had to be. There were just some details they had to keep from her, things that would have destroyed her.

When Ash graduated from Sunset Park High she was enrolled in NYU by her father, and in turn peddled designer drugs to the rich and unsupervised. It turned out to be a very fruitful business for the both of them, and the more Ashling impressed her father, the more power she found herself surrounded by. At 21 she was a "college-gal" no more.

After a botched job the family closed down shop, stripped the row-house clean and attempted for a clean break. Some made it out of New York successfully and others were snatched up by the boys in blue, sure to let them know they'd refuse to help in the investigation even if they had known where "those bastards" fled to. The incarcerated Byrne children were damn full of piss and vinegar, and even marginally resentful to the ones lucky enough to get away, but in NO universe would they ever rat out family.

"That's some inhumane shit, bud, even if I did know I wouldn't fahkin tell you"

Ashling fled to Kansas City and moved into Quality Hill Towers on Jefferson. She locked down a job at Barnes & Noble, and quickly pushed herself into the social circles of the surrounding universities by posing as a student on campus long enough to make some connections. Once she had a solid friend base she "dropped out," picking up a few more hours at the book store and dedicating her remaining hours to becoming a player in Kansas City's drug scene, gravitating to the varying things college kids are looking for: ganja, E, and blow. Ash linked up with a dealer in her building and together with his supply and her networking they hope to run a size-able portion of the campus drug scene.

Name: Conor O'Connor
(Surname is not a typo, though i'm willing to change it if someone wants to be my son (or daughter or nephew or anything really...)).

Age: 45 (although he's quite fit for his age).
Gender: male
Appearance:

Day Job:
Pet shop owner. (The shop has a gun stash in the basement - more about that below)

Bio:
Being born and raised in KC, Conor knows the city like the back of his hand. His parents were never married and his mother didn't want to keep him so his father ended up raising him. His father, who owned a gun shop and was himself an excellent marksman, wasn't the best parent. Most days he would be at the shop until the sun was down and would spend the rest of the day at the pub. When he did come home early he would often beat Conor senseless for no justifiable reason. Conor was street smart from his days growing up alone and yet school was an entirely different animal. Upon entering school at the late age of 11, he failed almost every subject, even sports. Desperately wanting to see Conor succeed at something in life, for Conor's 13th birthday his father bought him a BB gun and taught him how to shoot. Conor revealed quite a talent for marksmanship and 6 years later, following his passion, he signed for the US army. He served as a sniper in the Gulf war yet after several months he had a mental breakdown and was sent back home. Upon returning home he turned his father's gun shop into a pet shop. Some of the old stock still remains in the shop's basement, but no one knows that except him.

If you're the kind of man who makes a little noise at his apartment once in a while, Conor is the kind of man you wouldn't want as your neighbour. He once sent a neighbour of his, who was a drummer, to a hospital after breaking a cymbal over his head. The thing the sets him off the most though, is disrespect. He wouldn't mind the occasional "slagging" (as he calls it) but if you cross the line or even hint at the slightest disrespect he'll go berserk on you. Upon being relieved from service he was told by the army nurse that his short temper was due to post-traumatic stress disorder to which he replied:

"Romantic dress disorder? Sis, ar'ya callin' me a puff?!"

He smokes a lot. He loves all his animals but none like his pet hamster, Collin, whom he treats like his son. He's a lone wolf but would step up for his friends when needed, provided they ask him nicely and make it worth his while of course. Anyone who knows Conor will tell you that although he's neither the nicest man you've met nor the brightest, he's certainly honorable and you could always trust his word. His unique character and sense of humour had earned him quite a reputation among the irish of the Northland neighbourhoods.

Max and Conor (that dude looks pretty old for 45) are both approved.

And I'd be totally fine with someone playing as his son.

Yeah, he does look old. I figured that's how he'd look like in 15 years or so, when the the Irish mob owns KC.

Ash looks good. Plaza hipster who deals party drugs is perfect.

Guess I need to do one myself.

Name: Kelly Sheehan
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Appearance:

Day Job: Bartender/ manager at Fiddler's Green

Bio: Kelly Sheehan is not a guy you would think of as a criminal. With his weedy frame and penchant for ties and cardigans he looks more like a coffeehouse hipster than anything. Indeed, he comes from a moderately wealthy family in Blue Springs, growing up in a home that never lacked for food, clothing, or the latest gadgets.

Not that he was happy. His father, a workaholic attorney, was never afraid to make his constant disappointment in Kelly known, occasionally with the back of his hand. His mother, a practicing psychologist who could solve anyone's problems but her own family's, flitted between various affairs and constantly ignored Kelly aside from writing him a check once in a while. Occasionally, at school, he took out his anger on others- rarely with physical violence, but more often by spreading rumors and malicious gossip. Kelly grew up angry, disaffected, and used to easy money- a dangerous combination.

When the time came, Kelly attended Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas. There he studied business administration. Finally out from under the thumb of his abusive father, Kelly still carried on much the same as before, except now he was "college poor". With only a limited stipend from his dad, Kelly was on the lookout for various ways to supplement himself. Cash won in poker and craps games on campus went a little ways. But the real jackpot came when Kelly discovered one of his professors sleeping with one of the students. The professor, seeking to keep Kelly quiet, offered him an interesting opportunity: a partnership. The professor, it turned out, had a few shares in a local pharmacy and often skimmed off a few items to sell. Oxycodone, caffeine tablets, various study drugs, the kind of things students might want. If Kelly kept quiet about the affair, he could have a share of the profits.

Kelly did him one better, becoming active as a dealer on campus. He was as persuasive as he was careful, increasing sales on campus and keeping an extra layer of anonymity between the buyers and the source. Both men prospered, eventually moving into anabolic steroids for the athletes on campus and even small quantities of morphine. While Kelly's bankbook looked good, his grades suffered and he had to put in an extra two years at college. He didn't care, the thrill of getting away with it all was intoxicating.

The elder Sheehan disagreed, finally just cutting off his son. No one was there when he walked at graduation.

The job market wasn't so great, and young men who took six years to get a business degree from a small Midwestern college were not exactly in high demand. He had been careful to avoid ostentatious spending, and had carefully saved most of his money. It was enough for him to live comfortably for a while. But Kelly thought he was too smart and too talented to just hang out in Pittsburg, Kansas, so he packed up and headed for KC, simply because he knew the town.

When no high-paying corporate jobs materialized, Kelly managed to humble himself enough to apply as a bartender at Fiddler's Green. The owner didn't even bother to look at his resume or ask more than a few perfunctory questions at his interview, and Kelly was quickly hired. To the owner (who shortly retired to Florida), Fiddler's Green was just another on a list of properties he owned. To Kelly, it was a massive opportunity. Getting the place running a little better with his business acumen, Kelly also took the liberty of starting an illegal poker game in the basement. For a small fee, he happily turned a blind eye to whatever shady dealings went on in the corner booths.

The money is trickling in, slow and steady. But Kelly would prefer a wave. And Kelly wants a good thrill.

We could be doing better, right?

This seems like so much fun, i can't see why we're not flooded with players...

I concur. love the name by the way, I have no idea what to do with myself now that TD is over :3

TD?

True Detective, I'm assuming that's where King got the name from.

he he, thanks slint youre right. Although I didn't really fall for TD, the combination "the yellow king" always gave the shivers. It IS a great name.
(on an entirely different note: where's my damn son already?! )

bump

I assumed it was in reference to The King in Yellow.

We'll see if we can pick up one or two more before we begin.