City of Angels Rewrite?

[Matt Wiser]

I'll echo TPJ's sentiments: I'm also a Californian, and would like to have seen more material about the Golden State.

[Olefin]

Love to see you write some things Matt about CA. I lived there for eight years and loved my time there.

[kalos72]

Thing about any information about CA that got me was...the conflicting data about San Diego.

How did they leave it standing but they took out Charleston?

[RN7]

City of Angels is one of the weakest T2K books. There is way too little information on Los Angeles and southern California, and information relating to the Mexican Army and the gangs of LA is just unbelievable.

For example the Mexican Army occupying Los Angeles is divided into four task forces: Green, Red, Orange and Yellow who are all equipped with Russian tanks, armour and light vehicles. What unit of the Mexican Army do they come from and why do they have no Mexican Army equipment?

The gangs of LA are a just unbelievable.

Brighton River Reavers (They like motorboats)
Resida Banditos (There from Resida)
Seal Beach Girls (There suspicous of men)
Sunset Beach Boys (They like getting sun tans and surfing)
The Flying Circus (They screach in a secret language; a falsetto London Cockney accent)
The Hollywooders (They do everything with style)
The L.A. Raiders
The Masked Riders (They wear masks and are mysterious)
The Rad Rats (Their scavengers)

All were missing is a gang from Beverly Hills made up of actors, rich kids and plastic surgeons. Where are all the ethnic gangs?

Does City of Angels need a rewrite? Hell yeah!

[Silent Six]

If one were going for a real Mad Max vibe, the Car Wars West Coast supplement would have been more helpful, it's over the top enough so that the gangs in City of Angels would fit in.

However, since this is Twilight 2000, it needs fewer easy caricatures, and more details. I felt that even for railstop kind of adventure, there wasn't enough depth. The reason that I like the modules isn't because they are a rails type of game, but because they are truly a sourcebook. Due to the location, there could be a lot more detail, but since the guiding thrust is resolution of the main plot point, there are a lot of cast in stone encounters.

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by Silent Six

I felt that even for railstop kind of adventure, there wasn't enough depth. The reason that I like the modules isn't because they are a rails type of game, but because they are truly a sourcebook. Due to the location, there could be a lot more detail, but since the guiding thrust is resolution of the main plot point, there are a lot of cast in stone encounters.

I agree. Perhaps the completely different format and content of City of Angels is due mainly to it not being a GDW product, but simply authorised by them? The general ideas are ok, but like you I feel there's no usable depth.
However, given the apparent lack of useful resources in the area (such as water), I'm happy to simply ignore it and focus on other regions with more roleplaying potential. If I really need some info then I'll probably refer to the book for a little cosmetic detail and work out the foundations later if necessary.

[Webstral]

I won't speak to City of Angels, since I know less about L.A. than many here. Being a Bay Area type now, I'm much more interested in what is happening here in 2000. I just don't know how much adventuring potential there is. The Oakland-Sacramento axis seems as firmly in the grip of Milgov as anyplace in the country is. The region possesses as much of what is required to survive and rebuild as anyplace in the US if one goes a bit further afield to include minerals from the Sierra Nevada and petroleum from Bakersfield and the Central Valley under Milgov control.

Offhand, the best adventure ideas I can come up with are the location of materials to support reconstruction. For instance, the hydroelectric plants along the rim of the Sierra Nevada would change the water situation and the power situation completely. Equipment and expertise would be worth their weight in something even more valuable than gold. I suppose strategic minerals for things like machine tools also would be extremely valuable. There would be marauders to be tracked down and local warlords to be overcome, but these things are not especially inspiring.

I suppose one could go a very different route than normal. Inside the Sixth US Army AO would be a number of players jockeying for control of what would be a local superpower once the recovery got underway. PCs might find themselves called upon to take sides or perform special missions. I'll have to think on this.

[Olefin]

"The gangs of LA are a just unbelievable.

Brighton River Reavers (They like motorboats)
Resida Banditos (There from Resida)
Seal Beach Girls (There suspicous of men)
Sunset Beach Boys (They like getting sun tans and surfing)
The Flying Circus (They screach in a secret language; a falsetto London Cockney accent)
The Hollywooders (They do everything with style)
The L.A. Raiders
The Masked Riders (They wear masks and are mysterious)
The Rad Rats (Their scavengers)"

I know - where are the obvious gangs - i.e. the Cripps and the Bloods, both of whom were very much in existence when the module was written? I do like the LA Raiders - if they are a gang of devoted LA Raiders fans especially - having been to their games and been in the stands they were already basically a marauder group (with apologies to any actual Raiders fans on the board)

[TrailerParkJawa]

Originally Posted by Webstral

I suppose one could go a very different route than normal. Inside the Sixth US Army AO would be a number of players jockeying for control of what would be a local superpower once the recovery got underway. PCs might find themselves called upon to take sides or perform special missions. I'll have to think on this.

In some of my pondering I have the remnants of 6th Army moving to Camp Parks and abandoning SF. Camp Parks overlooks 580 which is a route to Sacramento. It's far enough south to be out of the way of the Benicia strikes too.

Most forces are loyal to milgov in theory but as time goes by there is a growing consensus it's time to stop listening to the fools in Colorado and just rebuild CA.

There are some thoughts of mounting a recon of long beach to see if any oil industry equipment can be recovered to help the refineries in Bakersfield.