Zero-Sum City is a tabletop RPG that utilizes the Iron Core mechanic found at OpalBreeze Games (and send the homie some money).

City of Power

"Is it more childish and foolish to assume that there is a conspiracy, or that there is not?"

-- China Miéville, The City and the City

It is 2071, and the struggle for your City's soul continues, as the Powers that be and the People that live in the City struggle for primacy. 

The future is full of damaged progress. Humanity's slow-motion fusion with technology continues apace, with body modifications and neural implants plentiful, though not ubiquitous. But human progress has largely stalled or rolled back -- a massive gap between the haves and the have-nots. Favela-like slums dotting the City map, in the shadow of towering, glittering skyscrapers with their auto-drone patrols. 

The groups with money and influence prefer to keep things the way they are: Developers want to build. Law enforcement wants to control. And Politicians want to ascend. 

Devs, the Law, and Pols: the Powers that run things around here. City Hall is a country club, and your family doesn't have a membership. 

The same groups swapping power like trading cards, keeping budgets and policies tipping in their favor. Holding the best technology back for their own ends. Maintaining the City Firewall to keep information flowing the way they want it to. 

You are on your own. But you are not alone. 

The People, United...

The People are not going to take it lying down. 

Community groups, independent journalists, justice advocates, water protectors, labor unions. Every aspect of life in the City requires vigilance against the powerful interests vying for control. 

But even the most squeaky clean activist knows that, in order to weaken the grip of the Powers even a little bit, you're going to need people willing to get their hands dirty. People willing to commit to radical action and risk life and limb to weaken the grip entrenched interests have on your City.

If you're caught they're gonna call you a Radical in the news. So that's just what you are, now. 

But to take a bite out of Power, you're going to need a team. 

Team The Best Team

You and a few comrades are ready to take things to the next level. The anarchists that sabotage infrastructure built to oppress. The hacktivists that break into the City metaverse and into the wildlands beyond the Firewall. The organizers that take any social leverage they can get to bend those working for Power to their will. 

Whatever your tactics, your Crew is on the bleeding edge of society. Maybe your comrades signed up to fight the Power. Maybe they're mercs collecting a paycheck. Either way, your Crew is made up of the fringe, the outsiders that live out of sync with the City.

Yeah, they're weirdos -- but they're your weirdos. 

Whether your Crew favors stealth, politicking, organizing, or even violence, you are here to cause problems with a purpose. 

But you're just a small-timer in an ecosystem that resists change. For now. 

Everyone Is Connected

There is no such thing as win-win in the City. Someone always has to lose -- power, influence, money, like energy, none can be created or destroyed, only transferred. 

The only way anyone can make it out here is with relationships. Connections. The enemy of your enemy is not your friend, at least not yet, but they can be useful. 

You will have to navigate the competing interests of the Powers and the People to advance your own goals. You might have to do some dirt for a Dev to take down a corrupt Pol. You might have to choose between two community groups with needs that oppose one another. A career without compromise is often a short one. 

But relationships mean complications. That DA you did a favor for is making eyes at you. That councilmember you don't care for is asking you to find them a body mod clinic on the down-low. Is that Dev exec really trying to build housing for the People, or do they just say that to hide a secret project? 

Your connections can help you advance your causes, but helping one cause always means someone else will lose out. How you manage that is up to you. 

But every action has a reaction. When the music stops, someone's gonna be without a chair. Make sure it isn't you or the people you care about.

"Lean back, just relax, we tell 'em: Get up, get up, get up, and get something done!"

--P.o.S, "Half-Cocked Concepts" 

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