Kids in Gangs

Question: What can you tell us about the new characters from the New York game?

Our youngest baby, Gangs of New York, has been affectionately nicknamed "worst game ever" by its players and "home of the stupidest decisions" by its Storytellers. It is consistently batshit insane, but also totally epically fun, so everything's working as intended.

Like Eastern Promises, the Gangs character roster rotates with each story, so several different characters have made appearances in the same continuity.

The first group consisted of James Keenan, Mabel Grey, Michael Chambers, Nic Mason, Rick Nolan and Valentina Radic, and they got their entrance into the problems of the divine when a high-society Manhattan New Year's Eve party was crashed by some human-sacrificin', dude-seducin' ancient Babylonian sirens. Michael, a high-class prostitute Scion of Ishtar who was being paid to attend the party as a celebrity's handsome escort (for the Broadway fans in the area, he was dating Anthony Rapp at the time), was the focal point of the problem, since he accidentally enhanced the summoning ritual that brought in the bad guys and turned out to have previously been sexually involved with their leader, to boot. Rick Nolan, a Scion of Mah and the New York male equivalent of Paris Hilton who was only at the party because Nic had called him and asked him to lend it his star-studded presence, ended up in the basement trying to defuse the situation along with Valentina Radic, Scion of Bastet and an international jewel thief and member of a secret crime syndicate, who had been lying low in New York to await contact from her fellow thieves after a major heist in Toronto. James Keenan, a Scion of Hades and hard-boiled New York private eye, followed Mabel Grey, Scion of Hecate and known peddler of Weird Shit at her magic shop, to the scene of the insanity thinking she was a demon, only to become immediate allies against the security forces that turned on them and then failed to contain the supernatural threat. Nic, a Scion of Enlil and the party's organizer and all-around golden boy of the celebrity party elite, took a look at the devastation left of his carefully-planned event and got drunk out of his mind.

In the process of everything, buildings were blown up, mysterious notes from parents were received, magical teddy bears broke James' knees and got Rick into a photogenically compromising position with Michael, Mabel and James became the best buddy-cop movie in history before he conceived a burning hatred against the New York police force that eventually led to his downfall, Valentina rode an elevator into the sky Willy-Wonka-style and Michael was declared an international terrorist. It was a wild ride.

The second group, currently still playing, consists of Michael, still in the game, and Adira Bazzi, Alan Parillo, Jake Devon, Simon Rockwell and Winona Nelson. Thanks to Michael's involvement in the debacle of the previous story, his terrorist affiliations have made him wanted by the police and Homeland Security, and in the process of trying to escape them he hijacked Alan's boat (leaving the Scion of Poseidon, a Canadian national on retirement vacation with his wife, suddenly implicated in his crimes), got Winona (a Scion of Nergal with a terrifying leper-like appearance and a distinctly unpleasant outlook on life) and her fellow hobos riddled with bullets during a police firefight, ruined Jake's career as a prizefighter on the underground boxing circuit (something his father Vahram is probably not too pleased about), accidentally got Simon, a Scion of Anubis and forensic scientist for the NYPD, on the wrong side of the law, and dragged Adira into magical combat before even figuring out her name. The rest of the characters refer to him as The Life-Ruiner.

So far, they've battled living statues and approximations of gods, fled from massive mobilization of army and national security forces, discovered mortals that can somehow pinpoint Scions and create magical Titanic energy rifts, gotten the local good witch of Central Park killed, created acid bombs from stolen car batteries, crashed several trains, struggled to even find the secret coded puzzles their parents want them to solve, let alone succeed at them, encouraged Poseidon to devastate the city with a tidal wave and moved into a homeless commune in the subway tunnels beneath New York City. They're in pretty bad shape and running scared, but ever hopeful about the situation getting better. After all, it almost has to, right?

We're totally loving this game, by the way. There have already been two character deaths and more would not surprise us, but it's action-packed and hilarious at every turn, and the players are a riot.

I suspect this question is here to drum up interest in Winona on the fiction poll; the next round of voting will probably also include Michael and Valentina as possible storytellers. Show them some love, and we'll write them a story!

EDIT: Hey, did you guys know we also have some awesome fanart of the Gangs of New York characters? In addition to all their awesome character portraits, done by Jon Niemeister, we also have these awesome scenes!

Nic and Rick get into a gentlemanly fight over the charms of a certain Babylonian siren! (Art by Theo Wolff!)


Mabel and James heroically set forth into the dangerous basements beneath the New Year's Eve party! (Art by Steph!)


Valentina bails out of an airborne elevator like a boss! (Art by Theo Wolff!)


In an unfinished sketch, Rick, Michael and an agitated Nic argue over strategy! (Art by Steph!)

Man, we have so much awesome fanart we should probably find somewhere on the site to put it all, eh?