Lagos, Campaign Setting - Feral Cities Options

[Jizmack]

Has anyone tried to run a campaign or adventure set in a feral city, specifically Lagos?
I'm looking for the major differences in game-play and character concepts, as oppose to the typical Seattle setting.

Thanks in advance for anyone's input...

[Megu]

Bumping for OP's sake, I'd like to hear about this as well. Always good to hear of games outside Seattle.

[underaneonhalo]

I've really been paying a lot of attention to Lagos since I found out about okada Drivers. I think I might get a group running just so I can steer them there.

In the spirit of Lagos running here is an actual PSA for okada drivers.

EDIT:
I forgot to mention, okada drivers are the most common form of taxi in Lagos.

[Warlordtheft]

I involuntarily dumped the PC's there after a botched run..

Some things to keep in mind:
Area boys: Armed with AK's and willing to use them (think of modern day Mogidishu but without the UN presence).
Foreigners stand out and are assumed to be wealthy and/or easy pickings
Law enfoprcement is non-existant, but don't kid yourselves. PC's start trying to throw their weight around they will be stomped.
Tanamous and Asmondo are a strong presence here.
Back Ground count is a bitch
Electronic currency is not the norm-local currency is, and Hawala's are almost mandatoory to do business here.

Bright side:heavy artillery is not illegal, telsma and magical should be cheap, and getting rid of bodies is a non issue.
Not so bright side:Every one else has heavy artillery, and life is cheap.

[sabs]

Think Darfur refugee camps. Except that life is not nearly as nice.

Racism is rampant.
It's Good to be White in the Corporate Enclaves.
It's BAD to be White anywhere else in Lagos.
It's Bad to be Metahuman unless you're in a Metahuman 'neighborhood'

Remember that 3/4s of the Population of Africa died to VITAS I and II. The people that are left are concentrated in the few cities.
There is an incredibly high death rate. So the people who are alive, are not chumps. They're hardier, stronger, more cunning, something that allowed them to survive into adulthood.

The Jungles of Africa are completely abandoned back to Mother Nature and her Bitchy Magical ways. Paranormal Critters are the norm. Hell, there's a Ghoul Kingdom out there somewhere.

I'm running a Lagos game where the player is a native. He just made his first 5000 Nuyen and he actually doesn't know how to spend it. Because he's never seen electronic money before. There aren't even any stores for him to go spend it.

As for Background count. What I did is set the Entire place to a solid 2, with the neighborhoods where they gave up and just bulldozered the dead and set fire to the entire place going up as high as 3. But, the locals, aren't necessarily screwed by it. They grew up here, their magical talents grew up here. Remember, Lagos has 20 million people in it. At even 1/2 a percent, you're talking 100,000 awakened people in Lagos.

[Semerkhet]

The first installment of Dawn of the Artifacts takes place primarily in Lagos. My players had a good time with the setting. They're a group of caucasian elves, so there was a fair amount of Concealment and Mask being used to get around a little less conspicuously. Also, because its Lagos the characters were able to go around looking obviously well-armed and armored, which makes for a bit less hassle from the random Area Boy squads.

They worked out a deal with their Street Doc in Seattle to take some medical supplies to sell in Lagos and split the profit. Ended up being a nice bonus added to the normal payout.

The arms market in Lagos is good for getting rare gear. I futzed around with weapon specs and brand names for about 15 minutes before the session and gave the team the opportunity to get their hands on some unique-seeming weapons. That was about the lowest ratio of prep-time to player-joy I've experienced as a GM in quite a while. It's the little things, donchaknow.

There were some good opportunities for role-playing hilarity with the various quirks of the city, but I'd imagine that would wear off after a few sessions if you actually set a whole campaign there. For my group's style Lagos is a place better visited than lived in.

[Jizmack]

Thanks guys,
I’ve been reading up on Lagos in the Feral Cities sourcebook.
Anyone have interesting adventures or ideas for an adventure regarding the “Flesh Trade”?

[Semerkhet]

Thanks guys,
I’ve been reading up on Lagos in the Feral Cities sourcebook.
Anyone have interesting adventures or ideas for an adventure regarding the “Flesh Trade”?

Let me just say that if you decide to involve the characters in that sordid business you need to make clear to them (via in-game events) that it is just too big a business for one team to take down or even make a solid dent in. Killing the smugglers and letting the prisoners loose isn't going to cut it. Most of the rescued will end up on another truck headed to Asamando or, if they're real lucky, in a Area Boys brothel in Lagos.

You could make an entire campaign arc consisting of:
1) Team rescues a few truckloads of hapless ghoul-food.
2) Team realizes that the people they've rescued are no better off and many are recaptured/sold.
3) Team starts to slowly work their way up the food chain. (pun intended)
4) Team follows the money and starts to take out bigger players in the flesh trade.
5) Team starts attracting serious heat from both ends of the flesh trade.
6) After great struggles the team takes out senior figures in the flesh trade and disrupts their operations...
7) ...for a few months, after which new scum float to the top of the pond and the flesh trade resumes as before.

It's a depressing theme, but you can get some dramatic mileage out of it.

[sabs]

in Lagos life is cheap.
Linux Cheap.

And Might makes Right is the Law of the Land.

[Jizmack]

Indeed; the limits of suffering and exploitation know no bounds in Lagos.
Perhaps, out of desperation or otherwise, the player characters are forced to partake in the Flesh Trade?
Any ideas there?

[Doc Chase]

the player characters are forced to partake in the Flesh Trade

They get waylaid and experience it from the bottom, or
they waylay someone else, and experience it from the middle, or
they're ghouls, or
they're feeding ghouls.

[sabs]

Maybe they start because they've been hired to make someone disappear. Maybe the first time they sell his body to an organlegger. The Guy mentions he knows a guy whole pay double.. if the goods are "Pre-Processing"

So the next time they have a job involving making someone disappear. They kidnap/deliver him to the contact. And the money is nice.. Not only do they get paid for making the guy disappear. But they got paid making the guy disappear. Double Dip!

Then maybe someone's leaning on them for money.... Fast, and the Flesh trade is the only place to get that kind of cash quick.

It's even more amusing if they think they're selling someone into prostitution/slavery. Only to find out that they sold them to be Prime Rib.

[Doc Chase]

Call it Long Pig and see what the players do.

[sabs]

What's also fun in Lagos campaigns is describing in great detail the food. Especially the lack of food.
People drinking polluted water. Devil Rat meat seen as a treat. Interupted Flour supplies. Most people eating a kind of flour porridge with very little vegetables or meat in it. The "eateries" being major places to meet and socialize. (This is of course in the Z-Zone areas)

The juxtaposition between the AAA Security Enclaves of the Rich Corporations and the stark destitution of the Z-Zones.. with basically nothing in between.

In Lagos, either you're a have or a have not. There is no.. kinda have a little.

[Jizmack]

This might sum up Logas best:

“When my unit has to operate in Lagos, none of my mercs are allowed out of our compound except as a full unit. The locals tend to avoid groups of very heavily armed mercs who travel together. For the ones that don’t avoid you, you have a decision—what costs more, bribes or bullet? If they’ve already talked to you, they’re not going to be intimidated no matter what, so you need to either pay up or put them down. Personally, I hate traveling there, since invariably you end up faced with kids armed with heavy weapons. If I don’t think a merc in my unit can handle shooting an eight-year old, I don’t let him come to Lagos.”
> Picador (Feral Cities, page 81)