This thread will contain any notes directly related to the setting. To that end:

These Prices Are Insane!
New York City operates on a barter economy, with the value of merchandise essentially set by the Red Hand, which controls most of the goods in the city. The prices listed in this chapter are the normal values one might find outside the cordon. Use the listed prices during character creation, when running your own Necessary Evil campaign outside the cordon, or if using the items in your own supers game.

After character creation in Necessary Evil: Breakout, adjust all prices as described below. Characters in the game actually exchange goods rather than money, but the Game Master and players should track their goods in dollar values for easier conversion.

• One ration bar is worth $10. Ration bars are dropped throughout the city by the v’sori and fought over by whoever gets to them first.
• A gallon of (relatively) clean water is traded for $10. • Relatively nonperishable consumables such as canned or dried food, toothpaste, and toilet paper are worth 10 times their normal value.
• Gasoline sells for $50 per gallon.
• Consumables with short expiration dates such as fresh fruit, vegetables, or high-quality meat are worth 20× their usual value.
• Firearms and powered weapons sell for 50% of their normal value. Ammunition and battery packs sell for 10× cost, however.
• Hand weapons are worth their listed value.
• Tools are worth d6× cost because the owner knows the buyer must really need it or he wouldn’t be asking.
• Cars are worth almost nothing, but motorcyles go for 10× list price (see Mobility, page 17).
• Art, gems, jewelry, and other nonessential luxuries are bought only by the Red Hand at a 10:1 ratio. A $10,000 painting, for example, is worth $1,000.
• Paper money is worth 1/100th its face value and again, only the Red Hand buys it. A $100 bill is thus worth $1.

This message was last edited by the GM at 23:04, Fri 09 Sept 2022.

FOOD & WATER
Characters can’t start the game with perishable foodstuffs—those were eaten months ago.

V’sori flying drones drop ration bars throughout the city once a week. The bars are near-flavorless, brown blocks of proteins, vitamins, and other nutrients. A single bar weighs three ounces and provides everything a normal person needs for a day’s nutrition and calories.

Water is easy to find in ponds, cisterns, rain barrels, old toilet tanks and the like, but must be boiled or otherwise purified before it can be consumed. Don’t be picky.

The Hideout/Lair

You have secured a “lair” in the top floor of a seven-story building in Manhattan’s Bowery district. The building stands at the corner of 2nd Avenue and 3rd Street, and used to have an Indian grocery on the ground floor. That was long since looted, but the smell of cloves and incense is there forever.

The owner managed to put solid iron bars on the windows before he fled for parts unknown, so it’s reasonably secure.

The elevators don’t work, of course, but the stairs are clear up to the 7th floor. The villains have already installed an iron gate with chain and padlock there. Each occupant has a key, and the Toughness of the bars, chain, and padlock is 16. The brick walls they’re bolted to are only Toughness 14, however.

The group starts with whatever gear they’ve purchased plus two days’ worth of ration bars and reasonably clean water.

Cockroaches and rats are frequent visitors, but otherwise the building is relatively sound.




Floor Plan:

Who's Who in the Neighborhood
You have made a few other contacts in the neighborhood. Here’s who they are and what they know. More information can be found in the Game Master’s Rogues Gallery as well.

THE CONSORT
This former super villain was known as “The Consort of Crime.” She was a serious hacker who could find out anything on anyone. “If it’s out there, I’ll find it,” she used to say.

No one knows where the Consort has holed up, but most in the Red Hand or the Bowery know she can be reached via a mailbox on the ground floor of the building at 2nd and 2nd. A person puts their request for information in the box and walks away. The box is connected to some sort of pneumatic system and whisks the request away to the Consort’s lair.

If she can find what the person is looking for, her underlings deliver a price in goods within 12 hours. These are deposited in larger mail boxes scattered around the city (it’s different each time). Once payment is received, an underling delivers the sealed information within another 12 hours.

The Consort never asks for gasoline and seems to have access to the Internet, leading many to believe she has her own internal power source and a satellite, cable, or other line to the outside world.

GERVAISE
No one really likes this slimy, double-dealing polecat, but there’s no denying he has a knack for hearing the latest rumors and news. Just remember that Gervaise likely knows your secrets too.

SHIVER
Shiver was once the Golden Dragon, a feared martial artist who fought on both sides of the law. He was horribly beaten and burned in the war with the v’sori and now shakes uncontrollably—hence the new nickname. He doesn’t seem to take offense— and you’d know it if he did!

Shiver wanders the streets of the Bowery living off donations given to him by other scavs and gangers. Most honor the old master for his prior strength and the training he still manages to give on occasion.

If a hero or a villain wants to learn a few moves and shows the old master some kindness, they just might learn something.

TALIA
This gorgeous woman was a Wall Street exec before the war. Now she lives on the Bowery Street with her “Bowery Boys,” a gang of about a dozen men and women who serve and protect her. They keep the neighborhood relatively peaceful, fighting off Sykos and the worst of the other gangs who stray into the area.

If Talia and the Bowery Boys can’t defend the neighborhood, they’ve worked out a system of strongpoints, panic rooms, and hidden paths to get most of the residents out of harm’s way.

Most of the neighbors drop a small portion of their scavenged goods on her doorstep for her help.