District is a setting that I have thought up and written quite some things about. It is set in de 25th century where humanity lives in mega cities that are run by corporations.
The Setting is barely “done”, I create while we role play. Sometimes I change a lot and sometimes it stays in a certain way, but I always listen to the others involved in the Role Play and sometimes use their ideas and suggestions in the setting.
So, what is District about?
As I wrote above, it is in the future with mega cities and Corporations have basically taken over the role of a government.
After the third world war humanity was broken, large parts of the world were not fit to live in anymore. Certain groups have retreated to the areas where they could sustain life. So after decades the Mega Cities where born and Corporations took over control over humanity.
The players can decide if they will follow the conform ways of the corporations or that they pursue their own lives with the risk that the corporations will try to keep them in check. A rebellious mind can “infect” others around, and that is a no go for the Corporations, they like it fine as it is.
Why is it called District?
Every city is divided into Districts, From 1 to 10 and every district also has a color designation. So the richest live in District 10 – Gold, While the poorest live in a District 1. Gold and Silver only apply to some Districts from level 8 to 10. People can work their selves up to a other District or those who lose income or power will go to a lower District. It sounds complicated but it is not. Here below a Map of the Mega City Berlin.
Under the mega cities is an other city and they call it the Underground, no surprises there. The Underground is the place where outcasts, criminals, unwanted, misfits and the poorer than District 1 People go to. Undergrounds basically have their own “Districts” but they are bigger and mostly or governed by someone who took power there or they are divided in small communities looking out for themselves. The Corporations normally leave the Underground alone because of the sheer amount of Mutants, Criminals and other scum that are residing there. Do keep in mind, even though it is named Underground or the poorest go there does not mean it is a hell hole. There is an own kind of community but not run by the Corporations. And here a example of Underground in Berlin.
Not Cyberpunk
To be clear, this is Cyberpunk without the punk, I think that the future if it would be Dystopian still would be ok and not overly gritty. In district several special groups exist; Magi (Magic Users), Mutants (Innate Abilities), Sidhe-Kin (Human Sidhe Hybrid), Alien Born (Human Alien Hybrid), The Exalted (Genetically Enhanced), The Corrupted (Failed Genetically Enhanced).
Every group has its own powers, but the meat on the bone is that everyone can be a Hacker, have Cybertech, a hustler. There are no restrictions except on your special group and even then it is still very open.
What happens in District?
Well whatever I (ok, ok, we) want to happen, it is extremely open. We decided what direction we wanted to go with the current campaign and we have some big stories going on involving Corporations and other big bad guys. So the players do things to keep their selves rich and actually help those in need, to an extend, the world of District is a very harsh world, everything is gray.
Aliens exist, Monsters exist, the Cthulhu Mythos exists (up to a certain extend and molded in our vision), other dimensions exist and so much more.
That is it in a nutshell, there is a lot more in the game but then I would be writing a complete book about it, which I almost have done already but ok.
By the way, the rules we use are Eden Studio Classic Unisystem. But I have house-ruled a lot and added even more to make it fitting to District its needs. We still roll the D10 and we use the outcome table, Attributes are mostly the same and Skills are almost the same.
If you are interested in knowing more or want to see the house-rules or add-ons please tell me below in the comments section.
Author: Federico
I am the creator of this blog and a dreamer that converts it’s dreams into games.