City of Angels Rewrite?

[Silent Six]

Many years ago, I seem to recall that some of us thought about doing a re-write or new material, even. I can pitch in to some extent, even help set up a writing list. I'm better at editing and proofreading than coming up with a lot of creative work out of thin air, though.

With regard to the LA riots twenty years ago, I know there was a lot of concern for the Marines and the Guard going in to restore order. The last thing they wanted was to have to face off against rioters with heavy weapons. Particularly some of the National Guardsman who, I think it was revealed later, were only issued one bullet each to get them deployed sooner (I don't have a citation for this, so I can't confirm).

Doing some quick web searching...those riots were twenty years ago on 4/29. Time flies.

[rcaf_777]

I currently working some Adoc units made of former state guard and national guard troops

Los Angles Rangers - based in LA County

Los Angles City Guards - A unit formed to protect the city like the ORMO

[SongofWar]

Let me know if you guys need a hand. I always thought that area of the country had a lot more game potential than was realized in the City of Angels module.

[TrailerParkJawa]

As a Californian I'm always interested in any T2K works on my state. I didnt personally care for City of Angels too much. As mentioned already it felt sorta comic bookish.

Personally, I would rather see new material developed from scratch than a rewrite. LA is huge, even with the nukes there should be lots of salvage potential in the Southland.

One thing to keep in mind though is water. Without power the water distribution network in California comes to an end. No pumping of water over the Grapevine, or from other sources like Colorado river.

So LA is now essentially a very dry place as are many parts of California. And since there are surviving forces up near Sacramento or Stockton any water works there would be used locally.

Sorry for the musing, but I certainly would lend any ideas or proof reading to a California project.

[Olefin]

Thats a very valid point. LA, before the extensive water works were created, was a much smaller city that could only support a fraction of the population that was there in 1997.

Without that water many areas in LA, even if they were still habitable, would be a very hard place to live in. Much of it would rapidly revert to the semi-desert conditions that existed there prior.

[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]

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)

[James Langham]

"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)

It is possible that there was an attempt to avoid real gangs for the same reason that real people were avoided.

[Rainbow Six]

It is possible that there was an attempt to avoid real gangs for the same reason that real people were avoided.

I'm in the final stages of completing the marauder section of my Alternative SGUK and oddly enough have just changed the name of a group of football thugs from their real name to a fictional alternative as the more I thought about it the more it seemed like a better idea not to use the real name for several reasons (I must admit that one such reason was that I was concerned that using the real name might lead to people doing a google search for that name finding their way here, and they may not be the sort of people that we would want to attract).

So yeah, whilst I have been guilty of using real names myself, I think I can understand why it's not such a good idea.