Grado de Indecisión

Dymond City is a struggling urban neighborhood in the dystopian present or near future. The Sleuths can be anyone who has reason to keep their heads down around the authorities—undocumented immigrants, vampires, members of ethnic minorities, mutants—choose your reason for your students being even more reluctant than the average teen to expect fair and just treatment from the authorities.

The goal? Survive. Beyond that, help make a difference in a place despite adult adversity. Get the dirt on a corrupt cop or politician or administrator and maybe make things better. It can be as small-scale as today’s news or as epic as any teen dystopia series.

Teens have to solve most of their own problems because there’s no one else to do it for them. Parents are often absent or ineffective, even more so than in a normal Bubblegumshoe game. Overworked, underpaid teachers fear the next round of budget cuts and layoffs. Locals see the police as the enemy, more occupying force than Andy Griffith, or even John Munch. Groups of kids from the same street or block band together into street gangs for mutual support and defense. These are not the Crips and the Bloods, or even the Jets and the Sharks, although kids may borrow their imagery to seem tougher than they are. These are local kids and young adults relying on each other for mutual protection.

Many gangs are involved in a series of rivalries and vendettas over perceived slights and encroachments on their territory. Most kids expect to be dead, or in jail, by the time they’re 30.

School is the one place the students are safe (mostly), but they have to get there and back, often across the territory of rival gangs. Jobs are scarce for adults, more so for teens—there’s pressure to get involved in crimes or grifts to get by, enjoy a few luxuries, or help the family with bills. Getting an education, a job, or skills that will get you out of here without a criminal record will be hard.

RULES CHANGES

Threshholds are very important in this setting. Each gang zealously guards its territory and takes exception to intruders, even those just walking to school or the store. When two rival groups come into contact in neutral territory—a local club, amusement park, or the high school dance—things can get explosive. Gangs presume a Sleuth is a member of whatever gang claims her street or block. If a Sleuth spends too much time hanging out with friends from rival neighborhoods, she may be challenged about where her loyalties truly lie.

Gangs are ruthlessly status-focused. You may want to use the Head-to-Head rules in the Kingsfield Academy drift (page 205) to track the Sleuths’ status in their gang. None of the Sleuths begin as Alphas in

this drift, though! Backing down to a rival gang on anything is a great way to become a Target.

Detailed combat rules or no, the Sleuths are in a dangerous

environment. Teens may get caught up in serious crime as lookouts or getaway drivers, not realizing how serious being a co-conspirator can be. Older gang members may not care who’s caught in the crossfire when they settle a dispute. Some may actively recruit teens or even young kids as lookouts or runners because police treat them less harshly. Police may react to a defiant attitude or sudden movement with deadly force.

This setting adapts the Heat mechanic from Night’s Black Agents.

Heat

Heat measures the tension between the gangs and the police response to it. Heat starts at 1—many of the people the Sleuths deal with are known to police, have criminal records for minor or major offenses, are on parole or probation for past crimes, are undocumented immigrants, or are fugitives from justice. Sleuths can, but need not, start with

their own legal problems—a juvenile arrest record or undocumented immigrant status. Heat increases when the Sleuths either generate tensions through their own actions, or don’t solve a problem in a timely or satisfactory manner, instead leaving the affected parties to solve it themselves in a messy way that generates tensions.

Any fight that results in serious injuries, use of a firearm (especially on or near school property), or some other crime-du-jour results in increased Heat. If a Hate has evidence of a Sleuth committing a crime (or can plausibly fake it), they can drop a dime on the Sleuths to the school or police and add +1 Heat. Only increase the Heat once per session—use the most significant event to determine by how much.

Once per session, one player rolls against the current Heat. She can spend from any justifiable General pool to affect the roll. The Sleuths can choose who rolls—it need not be the same person from session to session. If the Sleuth beats the Heat, then the Sleuths avoid additional police attention for this session. They can still take actions that increase the Heat or draw a police response—they just don’t get singled out for extra attention during this session. Failing the roll means the police (or

school authorities) take gratuitous swipes at the Sleuths, or at their Likes and Loves. This could range from a sudden locker search to a “friendly chat” with a detective in the vice principal’s office to a full-prone-out felony traffic stop or, in extreme cases, a no-knock search warrant on a Sleuth’s home. Heat should complicate the Sleuth’s activities, but should not derail their investigation. Heat also affects the minimum Difficulty for General tests involving the police, school authorities, and rival gangs—

nobody wants to deal with you when the cops might take an interest.

Sleuths can reduce Heat by:

Keeping things calm: This may involve solving disputes among rival students or gang members. Heat drops by -1 for 72 hours without incident, again by -1 for each week without incident, and again if a month goes by without incident. (Remember that minimum Heat is 1.)

Favorable publicity: Sometimes getting a reporter or social organization (ACLU, Innocence Project, local clergy, etc.) involved in ongoing tensions calms things for a while, at least on the surface. This involves bringing proof of wrongdoing to the do-gooders, and may involve throwdowns to get

squabbling rivals to cooperate with intermediaries or the press.

Getting the dirt: In a dystopian/noir setting, the cops themselves may have something to hide—corruption, brutality, racism, etc. Getting the dirt on a corrupt cop may get that officer suspended or fired, and the department itself distracted managing the scandal, taking the focus off the streets for a while. However, if the cops can trace the dirt back to the Sleuths, expect retribution later when public attention moves on to the next scandal.

Shifting blame: Providing the police with a plausible suspect for a high profile case—and letting them take credit for the bust—reduces tensions as police attention moves on to the next crime.