towns in the US.

became isolated pockets in the middle of an

ecological wasteland. Some fell to the ravages of marauding
nomad packs. Some were wiped out by the Wasting Plague. Still
others were destroyd as drought swept through their borders,
obliterating farms, homes and businesses. Of the thousands of
small, rural towns and cities throughout the US., almost 70%
have been abandoned or destroyed. As a statistical rule, it seems
that if a town had a population greater than 1 00,000, its chance
of surviving the collapse was about 35%, rising 1 OO? for every
additional 10,OOO people present
The result was the America of today a few large, densely packed
urban areas, surrounded by vast ecological wastelands, ghost
towns, Agricorp farmland and abandoned suburbs. This change
in the American landscape has created three distinct types of
urbanenvironments;OklCies, CorporateCiesandNewCi.
Old Cities are urban areas where the economic base was strong
enoughtoweathertheCollapse. An OldCityisalotlikealate20th
centurycity there'sa Mayor, Supervisors, a CiCouncil, a School
Board, and committeesfor most civic tasks. Some Old Cities are
more corrupt and degraded than others; New York, for example,
is a literal hellhole, rife with racial strife, interborough warfare and
a government so undermined by corruption that it is virtually
paralyzed. On the other hand, San Fransixo's civic leaders are
relatively untainted, well-organized (some would even say ruthless)
and handle their responsibilities with an efficiency to rival many
megacorps.
Most OldCitiesare pretty much like theywere in the20th century;
a mix of old and new buildings, factories and shopping centers.
Often, Old Ciies have more bumed-out tenements, ruined
apartment buildings and seedy businesses. But that's only a
generalization; some Old Ciies are kept scrupulously clean, while
others live up to the hellhole image of an American city as
popularized by the Euro-media.
Onevariationof an OldCityistheNeo-FeudalCiorWard.These
are citieswhere one powerful clique or old-boy network controls
most of what goes on in the city. In the old days, Chicago would
have been a perfect example of this; in 2020, urban areas like San
Diego (with its hereditary Mayorality, passed between the four
leading families) and Denver (with a ruling oligarchy chosen from
the most powerful local leaders), are examples of modem wards.
Corporate Cities are municipalities whose civil governments
came apart at the seams during the Collapse. One or more
powerful corporations moved in to fill the power vacuum,
providing police, fire and medical services in the interim. In some
cases, the corporations openly run the city; Detroit, for example,
is fully owned by itscorps. They collecttaxesfQrsrvicese, stablish
city ordinances, and contract police and fire departments as
needed. In othercases, a corporation controls the city indirectly,
financing certain favored political candidates, pushing its own
agendason crime control, zoning and taxation, and occasionally
using strongarm tactics where necessary.
Corporate Cities tend to be kept clean and crime-free in the inner
cityareas;the Corporateelitedoesn'tlike having tostepowrdead
bodies and trash on the way from the limo to the company
skyscraper. Where the corporations don't have a stake in an area,
they leave things pretty much alone. This can result in a bumedout
battlezone ora nice family neighborhood, depending on the
type of residents and their access to defensive firepower.
Where the Corporationsaren't able to control the entire city, they
sometimes resorttothe next bestthing, aZoned Corporate City.
The entire municipality is broken into heavily controlled areas,
often with checkpoints between them, and guards patrolling the
perimeters. Chicago is a good example of a Zoned City; each
neighborhood iszoned according tothe directivesoftheCorporate
Council, and the Combat Zone is actuallywalled-off from the rest
of the city.
New Cities are urban areas established during or after the
Collapse. There are a lot more New Cities than you might think,
encompassing large tract housing developments, arcologies, and
private estates. New Cities are very much a mix of Old and
Corporate. In some, the development agency or corporation
retains absolute control over all aspects of the government In
others, the occupants of the city hold stock in the development
corporation, and vote in new laws the same way they would a
board of directorr. Still others have been established as religious
or philosophical retreats.
New Citiesarecharacterized by modem buildings, urban planning
and well laid-out streets. But that isn't a guarantee of a safe,
pleasant environment. If the c.9 government is corrupt or its
economy unsound, wen a New City can rapidly become a ratinfested,
crime-ridden scum hole. Night City, for example, began
as a planned "model city," but when its visionary designer was
murdered by organized crime, it rapidly degenerated into an
urban nightmare known worldwide as one of the worst cities of
the early 2000's.
City L h Today
The road back from the Collapse has been a long one, filled with
famine, plague, violence and destruction. It hasn't been pretty.
But it is getting better.
It's Not All Burned Out Tenements
and Gepngs
No matter what the Euro-media tells you. Even Detroit (voted the
Most Dangerouscity of 201 9 by NET54'sYOU DECIDE! poll), has
a few nice areas.
Life in the urban areas depends a lot upon the type of city you're
in and where you're living in that city. Some cities, like Detroitand
Chicagoare urban fortresses; the neighborhoodsare broken into
walled "zones," and patrolled by heavily armed security forces.