Building the Brickhouse, For DitG Players Options

[Eyeless Blond]

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Okay, so far this is all we have on the Brickhouse Boys:

Brickhouse Boys

"The Brickhouse Boys are named after the many brick tenement buildings in their area. Like the rest of the multitudes of gangs in Redmond they struggled to scratch out an existence through the various vices they could provide to the public in their turf. Preceding the big ‘Dust up’ the Brickhouse Boys had finally stumbled upon a decent moneymaking scheme. Instead of just stealing cars to joyride or crash up, they began to strip them for parts. Running a chop shop is more like regular work than some of them were used to but, the payoff in the end was good.

Before the demise of the Brickhouse Boys they could be seen wandering their turf in their signature Navy Pea-coat styled Jackets peddling their wares to the degenerate masses. While they had a stranglehold on the drugs and chips in the area, the sex business was harder to control. Many of the pimps just paid cursory protection money and the few freelance girls paid in sexual favors, often enough not willingly. The gangs pad was a constant party place at night with lots of women around. The pimps trying to keep the protection money as low as it could be sent over girls and, there is always a local girl looking for protection, love and acceptance as well as a way up in the world."


Since so many of us have new characters who came from the Brickhouse, it would be a good idea for us to come together and flesh out the details of the gang. Now, many of us who are having our characters come from the Brickhouse are vehicle-oriented, and so would naturally have worked in the chopshop. Important points, as I see them:

-Where is/was our beloved chopshop?
--Did it get destroyed? (Note: unless someone here has access to a Shop or Facility that they've paid for with chargen funds, this is likely to have happened.)
--If it did get destroyed, how come all us mechanics didn't blow up with it?
-Did we have possession of any other buildings?
--Did they get destroyed?
-How well did we know each other?
--Where are the rest of our gangers?
--How did they die?
-Other details
--What are our colors?
--What's with the jacket thing?

Anything I missed?

[Dantic]

Twiggs takes a look over the rubble and remains of what once was. "Blah, blah, all I hear is shithou...., um Hiya guys, how bout them Brickhouse Boys? Glad to have you around, too bad bout what happened, you guys dro... rule." (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotate.gif)

[Spike]

Actually, while I started with the assumption that the shop was burned out, according to the wiki (you have to search for it) the Asphalt kings drove a Dump Truck Tank through it can carried off everything valuable, per their primary MO. Sadly, I doubt there was more than one, but we can always add the fire to 'after they looted'.

I know Maus only did the mechanic stuff out of a love for the work, his work for the Gang was mostly as Muscle: Go here, beat this dude up and bring back the money type of stuff. He's got the skills but not the knack, making him only so-so. Of course, demolishing a car in a hurry was his speciality (chainsaw to remove body panels for the win, baby!)

I imagine that the garage/chop shop was a 'recent' addition to the gang, most of their turf would have been more residential/industrial, maybe even 'pre car' era stuff, those old brick buildings tend to last and there hasn't been a huge amount of renovation in Redmond in the setting.

IF you are a grease monkey, you probably know Maus pretty good, if you were more the beer guzzling frat boy type (which seems to have been the BB's primary purpose...) then not so good.

Maus lived in the shop more or less.

I'll get on the rest once I hop computers, I hate working on this one.

[Spike]

Ok, more generic stuff about the Brickhouse Boys (well, we know they were multiracial. We've got orks, dwarves and humans to say the least).

I got the distinct impression of the BB's as fratboy types. Nightly parties, lots of girls (working or otherwise) and thrill stealing rides.

Chop shopping for money was a late addition to the gangs repitoire, of which I can suppose Maus may have been a part of that move (being trained to work on cars in prison, and being willing and able to lift an engine block out of a car without any tools other than a chainsaw to cut away the frame.... literally chopping the car up for parts...). Three years may be a longish time for a low level streetgang in the setting, so he could be (ironically) an older member than others, thats not my call.

Their 'colors' would be more or less the signature peacoat. Maybe a brick red 'brick pattern', to go along with their names, but the coat is the uniform, its how you know you're dealing with the boys and some some other punk. I imagine tags would include stylized figures with distinctive coats, BB symbols and red brick patterns.

Since I imagine teir three gangs are pretty small, we probably knew each other reasonable well even if we didn't share grease monkey habits (to which I think all current BB players do...)

I've already gone over the existing knowledge of the Chop Shop's fate, but I don't think too many boys would have been in residence. It does seem to have been a surprise hit, some of them might have been hungover, laying about with girl(s), whatever, others would have been out on business for themselves or the gang (like Maus), and may or may not have been jumped. I still like to think they got burned out, though god only knows why fire has to be a part of it in my psychology, I just don't see them fighting to the last in a desperate stand doomed to fail... they didn't get the chance for that honor... which might explain why so many of us are wandering around (five now, I think?).

Given the party image, and the name, I imagine the Boys were, well, a boys club. Lots of girls as hanger's on, party girls, assosiates, certainly, but none as 'color' wearing 'Boys'. I also imagine they had at least a distillery somewhere, if for their own party needs if not for the money. Business was not their forte from all accounts.

As for life in the boys: easy going, lots of communal space, lots of emphasis on doing shit for the hell of it. Lots of gangs roam in packs, but the boys did almost to the point of exclusion... but only for fun. Business was the province of individuals, which is why it was so spotty. This guy would go score some cash and gash from the working girls to pay for the party that night, that one would take offense at some abusive pimp and send Maus out to break his arms, whatever. But you want to steal some cars and hijack a truck full of booze? Call up all the boys, we ride! Whooping it up and generally making a scene of it.

Not an organization where the boss goes and runs shit, has liuetenants and the like. The 'lead Boy' probably just gives a couple of speeches, points in a general direction then leans back with his babes to watch the show....

[Eyeless Blond]

Heh, Drip was definitely not part of the beer guzzling crowd wither, nor I think was Dozer (Sparky's character.) Maybe Rico was?

There's more background on the Bricks too. Check out Shade's Journal in particular. Rough timeline:

October 19th: Asphalt Kings start mowing down Brickhouse's chop shops.
October 31st/Nov 1st: Brickhouse Boys effectively gone; Trojan ran with the last of 'em against the Kings, doing a nice amount of damage to boot.

It is now late on the 1st, so there's plenty of leeway for how each of us can work our way into the story, especially given the vagueness of communication in the Barrens. Heck, maybe we were all running our own mini-Op at the same time, and just haven't regrouped in the right place?

[HeySparky]

That sounds like a great start. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Our small crew:

Maus - Brawn
Rico - Leader
Drip - Brains
Dozer - Brains/Brawn

Maus, our old timer, been the gang boss's pet skull thumper for a while?
Rico, maybe the newest? Possibly the guy that started pushing the gang towards more business? (Economics knowledge skill)
Drip, brought in by Dozer(?), got a pretty unmatched brain for technical stuff - put to work by Rico
Dozer, walking wrecking ball, can put it back together - handy when you're good at breaking things

Maybe our crew was out on a job when the AK raid went down? Or possibly we got wind somehow **coughDripcough** and either bugged out (and left everyone else to die) or raced back (too late to save things), now wandering in a small pack.

[Spike]

Seems like a possibility, though naturally 'where we were' depends quite a bit on what WR does to intro our characters

[HeySparky]

Maybe y'all should request to start together? Me too, but Dozer's incomplete. So, while I'd like to start with you guys, I won't hold you up.

So, I would put that out there before WR gets too far along.

[Eyeless Blond]

Don't know about a "job" per se; the gang war had been going on a month; the Brickhouse's part nearly two weeks. Probably not a time for biz to be conducted. Maybe a raid or scouting trip of our own on AK?

One thing about Brickhouse I seem to be getting from the source material is that they were fairly large--maybe larger than the Kings, who only have 21 guys of their own--but none of them were particularly well organized. More like a laid-back frat or club than a gang, with maybe a dozen "real" members and 40-50 guys who were just in it for the booze/money. They'd survive pretty much by inertia, rather than any hardcore gang activism. That sounds perfect for Drip; I don't think he'd have survived being "jumped in," no matter how easy they went on him; (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) in fact that's probably why he'd have sought the gang out in the first place. Sound like a plan, or did someone else read this differently?

Chopshops: we know that one was destroyed on October 19th, and the last one on the 31st. I think perhaps there ought only to have been the two; everything else was party halls and drug/BTL labs. I also think that neither chopshop ought to have been open more than a few months, maybe 6-8 at the most, but probably less, and part of the reason we got steamrolled so easily was because we didn't have nearly the Mad Max level of motor pool that the Kings have. I mean, they've got 21 members and 34 vehicles, not counting any actual drones they have! How crazy is that?

[HeySparky]

Maybe the Boys had some success and engulfed a smaller gang (the mechanics) and that marks the change from partying thugs to gearheads and partying thugs. So, about 6-8 months ago possibly...

...the Boys (Maus et al) kicked some garage/chopshop door to put The Fear ™ into the mechanics there (Rico, Dozer, Drip).

...Rico and his crew (a half-dozen, a dozen?) approach the Boys with an offer of alliance.

...something else?

[Spike]

Well, I've got Maus as a part time mechanic for almost his whole time with the boys (three years unless we find out they were younger than that...)...

Actually, with less than two vehicles per member the AK's aren't all that well off for a car gang. Between bikes and cars and speciality vehicles, I'd expect to see a minimum of 40-50 vehicles for a gang that big.

Of course, I'm not entirely certain what skills are used to hotwire a car in 2070 in the barrens... Maus can drive a little (DP 4 I think...), but I've got no idea if he's capable of actually BOOSTING a car, which was what the Boys did before they started chopping.

[Spike]

Also, I suggested Maus might have known Dozer when they were both in Prison. According to my internal timeline, Maus entered prison 7 years earlier, and left three years ago to join the Boys.

I put that into my Takes, but it's not set in stone, obviously.

[HeySparky]

Dozer's criminal SIN isn't from hard prison time, but from getting processed by the authorities for something he was never formally charged with - bureaucratic indifference on the part of the police, they didn't want to bother with all the paperwork. He got out almost immediately, but not without a handy-dandy shiny new SIN of his very own.

The reason I chose that angle is because I can't figure out why SINless would ever get released. And I sorta like it. Bored, corrupt cops. A criminal SIN, but no prison connections.

I liked your naming convention though, so I totally stole that. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Eyeless Blond]

Well, I've got Maus as a part time mechanic for almost his whole time with the boys (three years unless we find out they were younger than that...)...

Actually, with less than two vehicles per member the AK's aren't all that well off for a car gang. Between bikes and cars and speciality vehicles, I'd expect to see a minimum of 40-50 vehicles for a gang that big.

Well, I took the "Motor Pool" list to not include anything bike-sized or lighter, as motorcycles are mentioned heavily in all the writing, but none are on the list. Neither are drones lighter than Body 4, of which they no doubt have quite a number.

And I also note that we have ZERO cars in our group, so we have no business ragging on them. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) That's one problem I had with the startup rules; everyone else around us is flush with retrofitted cars, trucks, dumpsters, etc, and we've got nothing that can compete with that. This makes me very, very nervous; we're starting out, not at the bottom, but far, far below the bottom.

Of course, I'm not entirely certain what skills are used to hotwire a car in 2070 in the barrens... Maus can drive a little (DP 4 I think...), but I've got no idea if he's capable of actually BOOSTING a car, which was what the Boys did before they started chopping.

Oh, you had to bring that up, didn't you? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Dantic]

Of course, I'm not entirely certain what skills are used to hotwire a car in 2070 in the barrens... Maus can drive a little (DP 4 I think...), but I've got no idea if he's capable of actually BOOSTING a car, which was what the Boys did before they started chopping.

A vehicle, unadapted for rigger use would most likely be an extended mechanic test. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

[Spike]

Mechanics tests I can handle. Even with my crap logic I get 6DP to boost a car, which works fine. Of course, I imagine Maus does it by ripping the door completely off then ripping the lock right off the steering wheel, but that's sort of the direct approach.

Tougher cars call for the chainsaw... And no, I have no plans to use it as a weapon.... just in case Dozer thinks I'm cadging his turf... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[HeySparky]

Poor Dozer... third in the line of ganger PCs afflicted with my chainsaw obsession. No worries, Spike. Heh, I was worried that you'd think I was treading on your turf since you had Maus written up before I'd even settled on a name. I was relieved to see you hadn't put any points into it, though.

So, where are we on BG for the Boys?

[Eyeless Blond]

Well, so far I don't think we've just been talking around each other. Basic concepts ran:

A) Boys as frat/club/loose organization.
--Large membership (>50?), but few dedicated; lots of associates there for parties. Kept in business mostly through inertia; no one wanted to rock the boat by challenging them.
--No jumping in or other initiation rituals (tats, branding, etc); just show up, buy the booze once in awhile or otherwise contribute, and you're in.
--Chop shop started recently by a couple of interested "non-dedicated" members, drew a few more. Not well organized, didn't consider the consequences of treading on Kings' biz.

B) Boys as conquerors.
--Brickhouse as typical gang (a dozen or two, all with normal gang behaviors).
--Took over/merged with independent chop shop crew (including Drip and Dozer?), which kick-started their chopping biz.
--Normal rituals/etc, which were?/were not? applied to merged gang.

C) Other?

One thing we do know is that they were mostly into chips and drugs for a long time; the chop shop is a "fairly recent" addition to the gang, such that the Kings hadn't had time to respond to the Boys muscling in on their racket until mid-October. Other than that, either option would work.

How do you all vote? I like A), mostly because I can't see Drip surviving being jumped in by the Lost Boys, let alone a bunch of drugged-up gangers (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) , but I could easily change my mind.

[HeySparky]

I think we need to keep a low profile with the Brickhouse Boys, just to facilitate the approval process.

So, from that perspective, smaller is better. I think a blend of A and B.

The core of the Brickhouse Boys is a small group kept together by a single individual or a few core individuals who provide the minimum structure needed to keep the party going 24-7. Members aren't jumped in, neither are they required to show deep loyalties. But they also didn't get 'the coat' until the leader(s) said so. So there are a lot of hangers on that weren't 'in.'

A few questions I think we need to answer...

1. Who is Crowbar? (he's mentioned in the Journal as being killed on the 19th during the AK raid)
1a. If he's the(a) leader, where does he fit? (if he's at the chopshop and is part of that, it seems to point to him being part of the gang moving in that direction)
2. Were there other leaders?
3. When was the gang founded? Is it 20 years old? 10 years old? That seems like a long time for a partying gang to survive...
3a. Was the gang always the Brickhouse Boys?
3b. Were the original founders (that core of leadership) around for the gang's destruction?

I'm sure there're a zillion more, but that's a start.

[HeySparky]

*doublepost*

[Eyeless Blond]

You're absolutely right that the Boys can't have been that old. Maybe they grew out of the Crash?

Try this on for size: the Crash happens, and there are a lot of people like Trojan: students who were "slumming it" in the Barrens, throwing parties, doing drugs, paying for hookers, etc, suddenly becoming permanent residents of the brick tenements they were using to throw their raves in. Most of 'em were ganger wannabes, so some join existing gangs, and some create their own. Most of the newer ones are swallowed or destroyed fairly quickly (Trojan's all-dwarf Deep Hammers, for example).

The Brickhouse Boys survive, for three reasons. First, they hit on a formula that allowed them to survive, if not particularly thrive: the party machine. Second, they were more than a little delusional and disconnected from reality, especially their leader--let's give him a cool name, like Fat Charlie, a skinny Jamaican guy who talked, acted, and played the sax like a 1950s jazz musician. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Few bothered to screw with them for the same reason no one bothered with the Lost Boys: stickin' it in the crazy's a bad way to go. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Third, they managed to absorb a lot more of the wannabe gangs by having a very open admission policy, as proposed by Sparky. Though you don't "get the jacket," making you one of Charlie's brothers, until Fat Charlie says so, anyone is welcome to join the party, so long as you observe the two drink minimum and don't tag or deface the Brickhouses.

It's only very recently (say last few months) that Crowbar, one of Fat Charlie's jacketed brothers and a half-decent mechanic, hit on the idea of boosting cars. Since then, he'd managed to attract quite a bit of talent, opening up two more or less fully-equipped chop shops. Though fairly good at the biz itself, he failed to consider the fact that he was muscling in on the Asphalt Kings' market, which ultimately led to the AK's attack and the Brickhouse's subsequent, er, gang-raping by every other group around. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Spike]

I'm not sure if we want to go the route of changing up the leadership. That just adds grief to the process, but...

The origin works for me, at least within the logic of Shadowrun gangs. Gotta figure that during the 'party boy' phase, they survived more because it wasn't worth taking them out. They stole cars (don't need a gang to do that) for joyrides, they occasionally hustled pimps and sold whatever they could get their hands on.

In all likelihood, they didn't control anything at all but the brick tenaments themselves, and other 'rival' gangs operated more or less freely in BB turf up until they started getting their act together.

Once they started stealing cars with a purpose (chopping) and started organizing, no matter how half assed, they became a minor thorn in the sides of the people who had been otherwise ignoring them. If anything, the recent Kingsgate war sounds mostly like really rotten timing for the BB's. Another few months and maybe they'da been organized enough to fight back proper (or at least cut their teeth on more managable rumbles), a few months (a year maybe?) earlier and no one would have bothered. Figure if anything, a largish gang holed up in sturdy brick buildings has got to be a chore to roust. Once they move to garages and a larger street presence, however, you don't need to bother, just hit them where it hurts.

Put Crowbar in the position of organizer, not just 'boss' and then we know why he went down first, cut the head off and the Boys, while still large and somewhat eager for a fight had no plans, just poorly directed anger.

[Eyeless Blond]

Thing is, there was no leadership to start with. Crowbar is just a guy some drunken Brickhouser was mourning because he got his arm and leg ripped off by the Wartoad on Oct. 19th. I don't know where we got the idea he was a leader (actually I do; it's a mistake I made in a chat w/ Sparky on the subject, as I was running out the door); there's no mention of leadership for the Brickhouse. And it makes sense that the chop shops weren't run by the "leader," because it was so ineptly pulled off, compared to the gang's previous existence. I mean, what kind of idiot infringes on another gang's turf without even considering or preparing for the consequences?

[Spike]

A million idiots a day, around the world. Sometimes it works out fine, obviously this time it didn't.

Like I said, partly a victim of bad timing, what with all the larger (teir two?) gangs allying up on the other side (raider nation, UVN, so on). The Asphalt Kings were obviously able to free up a lot of energy for this rumble, essentially throwing everything they had into stomping the boys into the ground.

Now, without all those alliances, they'd have had to content themselves with raids and small skirmishes, which while 'painful' wouldn't have necessarily broken the back of the BB's. One of two things might have occured: The boys decide that moving up into 'business' isn't worth the hassel and returned to a bit player party house, with more and more members spinning off to real gangs, or close ranks, organize a bit more and learn to fight back. Assuming the later, after a few months of skirmish warfare the Boys might have been able to hold their own, possibly even started fielding 'war machines' of their own, out of necessity if nothing else.


Going back a step: Fat Charlie just doesn't fit to me. I'm not sure if its a bad reaction to the name, or the whole Jazz angle, or I just mentally latched on to Crowbar as the leader right off the bat, maybe all three.

[Eyeless Blond]

Aww, here I thought he made a perfect character for a party gang leader, kinda like how that Peter Pan kid made a perfect leader for the Lost Boys. Crowbar I see as making a better lieutenant, the ambitious upstart, either doing it to please the boss or because he wants to take over. Maybe this wasn't his first get rich quick idea; before that he was spearheading the "protection racket" thing, which is where he and Maus first met? He always struck me as sort of megalomaniacal, rather like a less over-the-top version of Glasco from Shortpacked; have you ever read that webcomic?

I chose Fat Charlie because I just finished reading Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, and the notion of a skinny guy being called "Fat Charlie" by everyone, just out of habit, really struck a chord with me.

Am I not being dark and serious and melodramatic enough? Do these guys have to be all tragic and downtrodden, even before the Kings crush them like little ants? I like my tragic figures to have hope and life before they get dumped on; it makes things more poignant.