The Machine

There are many famous cities in the US but you would be hard pressed to name a city that doesn't have a twin or two. In a sense American cities have foundations of culture that are typically shared with other similar places. Some might consider Los Angeles special in some way, but realistically you would not be able to tell the difference between San Diego, Sacramento or Riverside by comparison to the city of Angels regardless where you stood. Most of these places are so large, from the perspective of geography they are effectively extensions of each other. The east coast is no different, New York might be toted as the business and cultural center of the America until you visit Washington D.C., Philadelphia or Jacksonville and realize its basically the same place.
There are however a few true bright stars in the US, places so unique, not only will you find no matching profile in the US, but no comparisons in the world. While Miami, New Orleans and San Francisco certainly come to mind, when it comes to America, Chicago has got to be one of the most prolific exceptions to American culture and lifestyle there is. From its architecture to its politics, from its food to its organized crime traditions, Chicago is America's great white elephant. A place so unique, that no matter what American stereotype you attempt to apply to it, it always either breaks expectations or becomes responsible for them.

Chicago Is Huge

It's common knowledge around the world that Chicago is a large city, but it is in fact the third largest city in the US second only to New York and Los Angeles with a population that exceeds 2.7 million citizens. Its extremely condensed, being only half the size of Los Angeles, yet thanks to very well thought out city planning the city runs like a well oiled machine. People live on top of one another, often when you watch movies about New York where they want to show off large crowds in a busy industrial city in motion, they film that footage in Chicago. Yet very little traffic actually exists, thanks to a very effective system of lights and block street road organization. It still takes approximately 2 hours to drive from one end of Chicago to the other, day or night as the city is more than 200 square miles (over 400 square kilometers). There are no roads anywhere in the city that wind to left or right, there are no round a-bouts or one way streets. In Chicago you are always going straight through blocks, always managed by street lights and all turns are a perfect 90 degree's. Chicago has some of the longest streets in the US, you can take Western Avenue for 40 kilometers from the center of the city all the way to the coast.
This is a city in which a person can disappear, with such a large area and population, countless suburban and urban neighborhoods, if you want to hide there are countless places to do so and because there are so many people always moving about everywhere, one practically becomes invisible in plain sight.

Chicago is Corrupt & Violent

There is a reason why the Chicagoland area is called "Crook Country" by those often trampled under the remnants of machine politics. To get just a taste of how blatant the corruption is, consider that citizens have to pay their parking tickets to the "The Department of Revenue", one of several "businesses" in the city that defy logic. Up until very recently patronage politics was just a part of daily life in Chicago. The people were the machine, they helped people they knew, got paid and made things work. Everyone got a cut of everything from everyone and this has simply been the norm in Chicago for decades. Cops who were discovered to be on the payroll of the Mafia where not fired, nore where charges levied, but they where likely to disappear none the less as it was discovered that they weren't sharing their cuts with their squad car partner. It was a far more grievous crime to cross the blue line, then to be corrupted by organized crime. Chicago has a list of politicians that have gone to jail one way or another a mile long. Three of its last four governors went to prison, the last one for attempting to sell the seat of the United States Senator. No where in the US or US history has anyone ever even attempted such a thing, yet in Chicago its largely believed and often proven that in the last 100 years not a single city official was actually elected by its citizens, most positions are either appointed by criminal organizations or are a part of a financial transaction. This is such a common knowledge and practice that in the last election for Mayor of Chicago only 9% of its citizens voted, the largest turn out in the last 3 decades.
To simply say Chicago is corrupt is the understatement of the century, everything people often believe about Las Vegas, that organized crime runs the city is and always has been far more true in the city of Chicago. It is without question and by an immeasurable margin the most corrupt city in the US.
This corruption of course creates more discrepancies in social classes then in any other place in the US. Racial tensions and injustice are severe, more then is clearly known, the result of which is that Chicago has an atrocious civil rights record. It is one of the most violent cities in America with an average murder rate of 1.5 murders per day, every day, 360 days a year however this number is reduced to less then 24 murders per year if you exclude minorities. It is also the most gang infested city in America with over 100,000 active gang members that fight for the streets of Chicago on a daily basis in what amounts to endless urban warfare. It is the only city in America where it is illegal to investigate a police officer shooting by a third party, police shootings are investigate by a Chicago based internal department that is believed to be the single most corrupt organization in government since the forming of the union. The result is that Chicago has the fewest convicted and disciplined police officers of any major city in the US while simultaneously having the highest rate of police related shootings. Almost all police shootings in Chicago are perpetrated against black men between the ages of 15 to 35 and it is the only place in the world where officers are trained to shoot to kill as part of their standard officer education. This is the city where Martin Luther King was assassinated by a white man for which his family was awarded 100 dollars in damages after the conclusion of the civil case, a move that made a very simple point. If your black, you don't matter. This brutal record in Chicago makes the city the most dangerous place in America to be black and no social movement, in particular the civil rights movement has had any impact on the city. For all intense and purpose from a legal stand point, the laws in Chicago are the same as they were in the 1950's.

Chicago is the capital of Illinois

Officially Springfield is the capital of the state, which is a fact few Chicagoans actually believe and fewer still are aware of. The major seats of power, both economic and political stem from Springfield which garners resentment by the Chicago elite to a point that the political players of Chicago intentionally sabotage all efforts by the state that do not reach out for approval in the Chicago political infrastructure. So stubborn and arrogant are the political arms of Chicago and equally so influential that before the governor of Illinois can take a piss he has to ask the mayor of Chicago for permission. Funds dedicated to Springfield today cannot be routed without the Chicago's mayors approval and so deep is the political system corrupted that the Chicago mayor is very regularly seen in congress advising the Illinois governor behind the scenes.
When the governor of Illinois attempted to alter this relationship he found himself brought up on charges for which he went to prison after a 12 minute closed door trial for which there are no official records today. In fact so complete is Chicago's corrupt political system that today if you do a google search to discover what exactly happened to this governor all of the major news outlets are blocked by a mysterious and inexplicable firewall. When a CNN reporter went to Chicago to peel the onion of this story he was found murdered in an ally the very next day.
Chicago may not officially be the states capital but don't doubt it for a second, nothing happens in Illinois without the Chicago majors approval. It is largely believed that from a stand point of political power, the mayor of Chicago is one of the single most influential figures in the US.

Chicago Dislikes Tourists

Chicagoans love tourists, but they don't like outsiders who think they can tell them what to do. This common thread burst to life at the 1968 city convention when riots and protests were created by "outsiders" and "rabble-rousers". Being a city of big thinkers and those who go out and grab their futures, Chicagoans consider anyone who tries to tell them how they are supposed to live as a threat. This common belief in rebellion has always been an underlying current in Chicago. The impetus to make your world better is a common belief in the popular culture of the town.
What this really amounts to is money and control. Tourists looking to buy a slice of Chicago style pizza and visit the windy cities sites are welcome, but social justice warriors looking to alter the status quo will find their visitors pass revoked in short order and the method used to prove that point are always less then cordial. When the civil rights movement organizes marches in Chicago for example, violence is inevitable. In fact there hasn't been an official protest or march in Chicago in the last 100 years that didn't end up in riots and violence usually perpetrated by mysterious men who inevitably offer up a scape goats for the media. From Marthin Luther King to Fred Hampton, the list of assassinations in Chicago of trouble makers who seek change is long and illustrious as it is infamous.

The City Underground

You cannot talk about Chicago without talking about the underbelly of the city. Whether we are talking about the seedy nightlife of endless underground nightclubs, unregistered gun ownership, or the actual world beneath the sewers. It is estimated that approximately 50,000 people call Chicago's sewers home and more than 250,000 people live in Chicago completely off the grid without identification or legal standing in the eyes of the government or the state. This number grows with each year and with it the endless undocumented world of ownership of the illegal. From guns to cars and everything in between Chicago is a place of black markets.
Every attempt to get control of the situation has been a miserable failure, in fact in all cases things have gotten progressively worse and it would seem doing nothing yields more results then doing something. When the Federal government stepped in and tried to pass gun control laws for example the amount of unregistered firearms in the Chicago sky rocketed to a point where its believed that there are more guns in Chicago then all other urban cities in the Union combined. Its believed that there are 9 guns for every 1 citizen in Chicago and making guns illegal in Chicago has given birth to one of the largest black firearm markets in the world. Caches of guns from Chicago have been found in the hands of Syrian rebels fighting wars thousands of miles away. In 2017 there was a bust in which 2,000 fully automatic AK-47 were confiscated believed to be one of the largest fire arm busts in US history, only 2 years after the gun laws where put in place.
So it goes for most attempts to get Chicago under control.

Chicago is a city of laws

It may seem strange to call a place like Chicago a city of laws, but the city is called "The Machine" for a reason. Everything revolves around money, but there is a packing order and a series of unspoken rules that govern the cities economics, obeyed and simultaneously self-managed by its denizens.
At the bottom of this politically driven unspoken legal system are the street gangs. They are the drug pushers, gun runners, prostitution rings and other black markets. A source of income that in a way is a kind of city tax that although illicit is far better managed then actual state taxes. A street gang however can't simply sell drugs and guns where they like in the city and their is strict oversight, supply chains and governance of such activities controlled by the local organized crime syndicates.
The organized crime syndicates ensure a healthy supply of illicit goods to those that appropriately cut them in and make it virtually impossible to operate for those that don't. These syndicates have the contacts and trafic necessary to bring the goods into the city, something they could never get away with were it not for them cutting in the local law enforcement agencies, the third layer of this particular circle of life.
The police take their cut to look the other way, but the relationship is far more sinister than that as they also act as the enforcers for the crime syndicates, while simultaneously having a social responsibility to the civilian sector. Namely the upper social classes who can tolerate the daily murders of local drug dealers and gangsters, but would not stand for crimes against one of their own. This tenuous relationship means the local law enforcement must keep its upper class citizens safe, while conducting the illicit business with the low class and as such keep the lower classes in check is a core function of the police.
Naturally the police and other law enforcement agencies could not be this corrupt without the local politicians support. In comes the Mayors office and their denizens who work within generally legal means to protect the lower tier business, for you guessed it, their cut of the action. In league with the crime syndicates and police, Chicago politicians have to keep up appearances, but their job is to legitimize the police while playing the part of the justice warrior. Now naturally such corrupt politicians eventually get caught and at this level, its quite evident how corrupt the political system is which leads to outsiders, real justice warriors trying to get a foot hold in the system through legal elections.
This bane to the political wheel house of Chicago is managed by the next tier in the corrupt infrastructure, corporate America. While they don't actually get a cut of the action trying to be good little capitalist, they do leverage their considerable economic clout in the city for local and state laws that favor their businesses. Tax breaks, bailouts, loose labor laws and stimulus packages are exchanged for support from these corporate infrastructures that turn money into votes and rigged elections. Corporate America ensures the right politicians win and the real justice warriors that might implement change lose.
You would think that this would be the end of it but the reality is that in order for Corporate America to function even on a local level like Chicago and get away with it, they must pay off the birdies above them and so corporate contribution to state and federal political entities is a must. The Illinois governor must keep the rest of America in the dark about what is really going on in Chicago and that takes a lot of money, the kind of money only corporate contributions could provide.
While the many laws that govern this extraordinarily complex and corrupt infrastructure at not actually written down, there is no question when one refers to the Chicago as "The Machine" it is this unspoken system to which they refer. This machine is so deeply rooted in Chicago and in the state of Illinoi that it has become the envy of criminals all over the world, yet despite efforts to replicate this cosy unspoken system of rules elsewhere, Chicago remains the only city in the US that has managed to pull it off. Even Las Vegas and New York mafias watch Chicago with envy.

The Social Elite

While Chicago is generally considered a poor city in a poor state, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Chicago is home to the wealthiest and most powerful men in America. Its social elite count their money in billions not millions and from their Ivory Towers, the rule not only Chicago and the state of Illinois but America as a whole.
Among Chicago's elite you will find Bill Gates, J.B. Pritzker and Ken Griffin who's combined wealth outmatches the vast majority of the NGP of countries around the world. These however are the elite class that lives in the public eye, there are far richer and more powerful men that hide in the shadows of Chicago, those that don't pay taxes or answer to board of directors. Names you have never heard of that have collective wealth that rival the richest men in the world.
Given the state of Chicago there can be no question as to why wealth and power is attracted to the city. Almost like a sort of cultural natural selection, the city of Chicago is a land that gives the wealthy the best chance of survival and evolution, if of course one follows its many unspoken laws.

The Gothic World of Darkness

While the mortal world is oblivious to the dark supernatural setting that lives in the shadows of the city, this ignorance does not mean it does not exist. What creatures lurk in the shadows, who are the puppeteers behind the scenes and what power struggles are endured by this invisible world is known only to the few that participate in this Jyhad on a nightly basis.
This world is open to discovery and as part of our little Chronicle you will enter into it blindly, which is why virtually nothing of this underbelly is mentioned (nor will it be at any point). Suffice to say however, though your character is ignorant to its dangers, as a player you should act with self preservation and eagerness to live. The things that go bump in the night are dangerous and this chronicle comes with both mortal and super natural dangers, which you should approach with equal respect and appropriate amount of fear.
I'm writing this chronicle with three things in mind. First, is that I want the story to emerge from interaction, not a pre-construction. As such, I go into with as little knowledge about what will happen as you are. I don't know which aspects of the world you will interact, which plot you will stumble across and who your enemies and friends are going to be. Chicago by night is a place, what you do here will be driven entirely by you.
The second thing is that I have built this game for veterans, meaning that I'm working under the assumption that everyone involved has acquired enough experience in role-playing games that I don't need to go through an introduction to role-playing. You guys know what your doing and I think everyone understands what is expected, so we will dive right in and let the chips fall where they may. That said I'm also not building into the game any pre-constructed conflicts either, their will be no prelude rewards or hierarchical goals built on player versus player conflict as was the case in our previous chronicle. The result may be the same, but if it is, it will be your doing without either my interference or encouragement.
Finally and perhaps most important, as you read this article I hope it's clear that the world is a dark place. This is still a game of gothic horror and politics, tragedy and the overstated human condition of this horror shit show will always be part of the agenda. However, my hope is that the pacing will be more grounded and less forced. I don't want to steer the game as much as I did in the last chronicle, I want it to be more organic and reality based. To that end, I will contain and regulate myself to ensure that I'm not one of the stars of the show and instead focus on setting the stage for your characters. It will however be up to you guys to find the motivations and moments to shine. There won't be any "quest givers" for you to meet, it's your world, your stage, your show.
That is not to say my influence will not be felt, though I will do this in the meta. I will make sure everyone always understands the reality from their character perspective, so hopefully there will be fewer "gotcha" moments for the players and any such moments will be regulated to the experiences through the characters. I'm aware that this sort of thing happened several times in our previous game where characters should have known better then the players driving them, so I will do my best to ensure you know what your character knows and are working on the same wave length. Beyond that however you are on your own.

State of the Game

At the moment the state of the game I can say is about 20% ready. It's not much, but I started the weekend at about 5%, so while there is quite a ways to go, things are coming together very quickly.
I think the best things right now is for everyone to work on their character concepts. I'm available for discussions at your leisure most evenings, just drop me a line when you want to talk.
For better record keeping please document your stories and provide me with some form of digital document for my records. Don't presume I will remember our conversations or facebook chats. These are fine for purposes of discussions and throwing around ideas, but it isn't real until you write it down and send it to me.
Also don't forget to talk to each other, make it as meta as you like, now is the time for real talks. Create connections and build bridges.
Let the games begin!