Background Information for Miami Welcome to Miami, a city in turmoil. Years of political double-dealing, mob infighting and corporate war have brought this once affluent city to its knees. Those that know say that the Miami’s decline came with the Awakening. Within three years of the 2012 event, the Eastern Seaboard began to change. Hurricanes, storms and typhoons increased in regularity and their aftereffects were devastating. Huge tracts of coastline were washed away or submerged, homes were torn apart or swept to sea, contract fishermen had entire fleets lost season after season… it seemed that an Awakened Mother Nature was not pleased.
Florida and in particular, Miami were hit the hardest. The loss of coastline was devastating to an economy based almost entirely on tourism revenue. Miami tried to rebound by legalizing gambling and importing the idea of riverboat casinos, but when Hurricane Clementine hit in 2022 and destroyed the seven operating boats, killing over 200 people, the city dropped the idea and sunk the remaining boats.
It was not only Mother Nature that had it in for Miami, another cancer was growing from within: organized crime. In 2024, the Gambione family from New York saw the blood in the water. The elder Gambione moved his family down south, set to capitalize on Miami’s weaknesses. When they arrived they wasted no time in setting up shop. The Mafia institutions of vice: Prostitution, Extortion, Smuggling and Gambling were up and running within the first year and making money hand over fist by the third.
By 2035, you could see evidence of the family’s wealth everywhere you looked. The white mansions on the coast (once reputed to be owned by Cuban drug lords) were now the homes of members of the Gambione. Their yachts and toys littered the harbor, and you could see them on any given night, surrounded by women and drugs in Miami’s clubs. It was good times. It was even better times for a company called Gunderson Security. Gunderson was the de facto security outfit in the area, providing the security to those palatial homes on the water as well as to the myriad companies and shells operated under the watchful eye of Gambione Sr.
Everything suddenly changed in 2041 when Gambione Sr. died without an apparent heir. A nasty succession battle erupted, with those in charge rallying their troops to their cause and forcing others to choose sides. A few years and a lot of people dead later, the remaining eight captains of the Gambione family agreed to disagree, carving up Miami into sections and territories. The steady stream of income promised under Gambione Sr’s leadership dried up to barely a trickle. The income slowed even more when Gunderson severed the deal Gambione Sr. had forged. They wanted no part in the families’ internal squabbles and backed out, using their years’ of acquired black-mail material as leverage. With Gunderson Security effectively controlling the protection rackets in the area, and now no longer looking the other way on “family business” the captains began to move into the seedier areas of crime; joytoy stables, snuff parlors, underground fight clubs and kink bars.
Then in the early 2060’s a man by the name of Art Dankwalther stepped in and leveled the playing field. Good ole’ Art chose Gunderson Security as the first casualty in his eventual run against Novatech, the company that had spurned him and left him for dead. Gunderson never stood a chance against this kind of meticulous and fanatical onslaught. Within years, the company was reduced to brick and financial rubble. Gunderson had tried everything they could to stay afloat, even selling off their treasured blackmail materials (to whom, no one knows), but the damage was too extensive. By 2065, Gunderson Security was nothing more then a memory.
The fall of Gunderson gave the Gambione family a somewhat larger portion of the protection pie, but it lasted for only a moment. Within months of Gunderson crashing, Knight Errant stepped into Miami, contracted personally by the Governor to “clean up the city”. Knight Errant’s “knight in shining armor” image lasted for only about six months before the shine wore off and it began to rust in the humidity. It was soon discovered that the KE branch opened up in Miami was the last rung on the ladder for officers whose disciplinary records were written in red. The KE officers soon earned a reputation for profiling, brutality and power-mongering. The Gambione family captains soon found those that could be bribed and had them brought into their own respective territories. Those that could not be bribed were often pressured into leaving the force or wound up floating face down in the harbor.
For the last ten years, this is how Miami has existed… caught in a constant state of war and violence. No one knows how much longer things can go on as they do, how much longer until Miami simply falls apart. This is the Miami you know. This is your home.
…. Welcome to Miami.
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Please bear in mind that this was written with almost no canon knowledge or resources on Miami. If I get anything wrong, please let me know and I'd be happy to change it.
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More to come later.
The Bottle Neck:
The Bottle Neck is a seaman’s club. The places’ location is word of mouth exclusively and you have to have someone willing to vouch for you your first time in. The club is housed in an old warehouse out on the docks by the 60’s piers. The interior is done in sea-washed woods, fishing nets, buoys, etc. They definitely carry the “Old Man and the Sea” theme to the hilt here. The place is known for having the widest selection of imported and domestic beers in the CAS and for being the best place in the Miami ‘plex for finding work out on the open seas.
The place also operates as a waypoint for wanted men and women looking to get the hell out of Dodge and willing to catch a ride out on the next ship to do it.
Magoo & Charlie’s:
Magoo’s (as it’s known to the locals) is a small reggaeton bar in downtown Miami. The place dates back to the early 1960’s and has been going strong ever since. Its reputation has cooled a little since one time Gambione Captain Ramon Carrera bit the dust in a turf war he started on the premises a few years back. Thankfully, people have short memories and the club seems to be on an upswing.
The place is known as a chill place to do business with top-tech private rooms and hosting options for Matrix meets. It’s one of the more popular places to meet a Johnson in Miami. (Some people speculate that it’s because there’s something so perversely thrilling about a bunch of hardened criminal doing biz at a place called Magoo’s.)
People of Interest [ Spoiler ]
More to come later
Ricky “The Ram” Domingo:
Ricky “The Ram” Domingo lived most of his life as a street soldier within the Gambione family organization; then in 2063 Ricky surged. Already a troll, Ricky’s horns tripled in size, curling into themselves like his namesake Ram, he grew a thick shaggy white mane and his feet and legs changed into the legs of a ram, cloven feet and all. Ricky went through a period of what he calls “intense spiritual solitude” but what everyone else calls a “year of freaking out in his room”.
When Ricky emerged, he had undergone a strange personality transformation. No longer was he the idiot street soldier of his youth, now he was an enlightened and Awakened shaman, professing to follow the path of the Ram.
He spoke out against the violence of the streets and became something of a street preacher. He has developed a loyal following and preaches the message of peace and tranquility, though he has been known to fight viciously for what he believes in. No one’s sure where he comes and goes from but he can be found on the streets at almost any time day or night.
Those in the know can tell you that Ricky is an excellent contact for those in the need of foci materials and telesma, even in downtown Miami, he’s the one that can get you the bulb from a blue Agave cactus. He’s also a rich source of information on the Gambione family, having worked for them for years. He doesn’t often give information on the family though. It takes some kind of service to his flock to earn those juicy tidbits.
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