The Solstice Syndicate
Levi Aislin Power is the leader of a group of people who are looking to push back against the social mores within Camp Hope. They are a group of misfits and outcasts. They offer an alternative social life to the Church of Hope. They offer a place where you can take risks and be different. They run a casino and grow marijuna. Neither is illegal in the camp, but both are frowned upon by both The Doctors and the Church of Hope.
The Solstice is an organized crime syndicate with its fingers in businesses across the city. Wealth is power. Built on the crushed dreams and broken bodies of citizens deeply indebted to the Solstice. The hierarchy of the syndiccate exists for the single purpose of funneling wealth to the top. This hierarchy has corruption in it at every level, and at any time your superiors might be passing instructions down from on high or just using you to pursue their own agendas of greed and ambition.
The Solistice Syndicate is dedicated to the quest for power. It sees the value in an organized, structured, law-abiding community, because it is adept at exploiting laws and structures for its own gain. It sees itself, in a perfect world, as the arbiter and enforcer of a social order that keeps everyone in their place and the Solstice in the highest place. They believe that adherence to hierarchy is the key to success, and they find great comfort in the rigid structure of their faction.
To boost their declining profits in a vacillating economy, the Solstice has begun offering protection services, promising to shield their “customers” from both physical harm and fiscal disaster. These operations amount to racketeering, bringing with them the underlying threat that those who refuse to pay for protection become targets of the Solstice’s thugs and enforcers.
The Town Watch is the greatest threat to the Solstice’s operations. In times past, the Solstice danced along the edges of the law and presented an appearance of legality, but the combination of an ever-expanding legal code and the faction’s move into racketeering and other explicitly illegal activities has made it vulnerable to Town Watch enforcement. The Town Watch routinely shuts down Solstice protection rackets and takes enforcers into custody.
So far, the syndicate’s most effective tactic has been to increase the layers of separation between the day-to-day criminal operations of the faction and the leadership, ensuring that no matter how many street-level thugs and syndicate memebers are apprehended to fill the general prison, the faction’s leadership remains intact. Contact between the leadership and lower-ranking members of the faction is increasingly rare.
Diplomacy
How people view members of the Syndicate largely depends on which factions they are associated with. Those who are members of the Town Watch or the Church of Hope will generally not like or trust those that are within the Syndicate. Those that are Others or Awakened are often drawn into the Syndicate because they are considered equal within the Syndicate. Within the general population, they are usually seen with a mixed impression. Most people like that the drugs that they provide and the alternative options for entertainment within the camp. But most people also don't like that they promote individulaism and promote the idea that Others and Awkaned are also human.
While most groups are marked as neutral in their association with the Syndicate, it is important to note that this is largely a reflection of people believing that they provide both a postive and a negative infleunce into the camp. People generally recognize that they are invloved with illegal activities which is generally viewed as problematic. But most people also recognize that they are providing the camp important services in entertainment which is something that can be rather hard to come by. Lastly, they are known for being able to aquire things from other camps that are often more difficult to come by.
Solstice Syndicate Characters
- Alignment: Usually lawful, often evil
- Suggested Races: Human, The Others, The Awakened and Automaton.
- Suggested Classes: Face, Infiltrator, Gunslinger, Sniper
- Suggested Archetypes: Anti-hero, Brawler, Cleaner, Sauve
- Suggested Ladders: Born Leader, Performer
Consider joinin the Syndicate if the following sentences ring true:
- You want to move through the corrupt underbelly of society and make respectable people squirm in your presence.
- You enjoy playing fearsome or decadent characters.
- You want to strive for wealth, lavish beauty, or both.
Joining The Solstice Syndicate
Background: The Solstice Syndicate
If your character was born and raised in Camp Hope, you can choose this background instead of those listed in the Ultra Modern Redux rule book.
The prospect of immense wealth is the promise of membership in the Solstice Syndicate. All of the faction’s endeavors channel wealth from society into the ranks of the Solstice — and concentrates the spoils at the top of the hierarchy. As a functionary in that system, your best hope is to claim as much as possible of the money that passes through your hands on its way up, so that you can work your way into a more prominent position. Regardless of your past and the wealth of your family, your initial status with the guild is near the bottom, until you have proven your value.
- Skill Proficiencies: Intimidation, Persausion
- Languages: Two of your choice
- Equipment: An Solstice insignia, a foot-long chain made of ten gold coins, a set of fine clothes, and 100 credits.
- You gain 1 renown in the Solistice Syndicate and are Rank 1.
Feature: Leverage
You can exert leverage over one or more individuals below you in the faction’s hierarchy and demand their help as needs warrant. For example, you can have a message carried across a neighborhood, procure a short ride without paying, or have others clean up a bloody mess you left in an alley. The DM decides if your demands are reasonable and if there are subordinates available to fulfill them. As your status in the guild improves, you gain influence over more people, including ones in greater positions of power.
Suggested Characteristics
Members of the Solstice Syndicate range from the decadent nobility at the top of the oligarchy to the debt-ridden wretches at the bottom. You fall somewhere between those extremes, so you might behave with the arrogance of the very rich or the humility of the impoverished.
Contacts
The Solstice Syndicate operates according to a strict hierarchy built on a network of connections among old, wealthy families. Your family might provide important contacts, while your family’s activities in crime, banking, or debt collection could tie you to members of other guilds.
Roll twice on the Solstice Contacts table (for an ally and a rival) and once on the Non-Solstice Contacts table.
Offering a Kind of Freedom
General Biases
These are the biases that members of this faction generally have.Positive Biases
1. They favor people who are openly different and defying the religious culture of Camp Hope. This bias will be triggered if a character has voiced antireligious views in public or people who are not conforming to the gender ideals. 2. They generally trust The Others and The Awakened. 3. They favor the rich and powerful.Negative Biases
1. They do not like nor trust anyone who is part of the Church of Hope. This bias will be triggered if a character is carrying any religious items, people who have voiced pro religious views in public, are seen in active worship or are seen spending time at the church. 2. They are generally distrusting of Humans. 3. They dislike the poor and weak.
People always have choice in life. We just offer one of them.-Levi Aislin Power
Do you think any of this matters? That you matter? How quaint. The universe owes you nothing and doesn't give a shit if you live or die. Whatever you get in this life is from making your own way and taking what you want. Money and power are all that matter in this life.-Levi Aislin Power
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