An introduction to the world of Newsies & Bootblacks

Foreword

It’s some year between 1890 and 1910, somewhere south of New York and north of Virginia lies the state and city of New Paris. This very first line drafts the spirit of this article; New Paris City is not and will not ever be defined. It’s yours to develop, explore and live. I know there are many who prefer to have everything set up for them, and they are lucky because there are many excellent settings for them to choose.

I believe in the power of suggestion. Every work of fiction suggests: from Beowulf through Oliver Twist to the last bestseller, an author kindle the spark of imagination that resides in the readers. It is them who finish his work, ever new with each generation and person. A narrative game, such as this, should do exactly that. My role as author is merely to provide the essential materials the game master needs to, in turn, spark the story in the imaginations of gaming group who — pay attention — help him to create the adventure, to unfold the world and to build a better setting.

Who am I to fetter all that in words of stone?

A bit of history

New Paris began its life as a French settlement in the mouth of the River Onhattan. Isolated from other French possesions, too close to Virginia, it was promptly taken by the British, despite its magnificent defenses. Since then it has shared the fate of what it would become the United States of America.

New Paris was be spared the worst of the Civil War, with only a few skirmishes fought inside its borders, and since then it has grown rapidly, to rival the likes of Chicago or New York

A bit of technology

New Paris, as the rest of the nation, is experiencing a period of technological progress. Though, this come in different speeds: the wealthy take it faster, the poor slowler. The first automobiles run alongside mule-drawn carts and while a few mansions can sport the novelty of electric light bulbs, most people resort to petrol lights. Pocket watches exist as a luxury item while most people resort to the church bells or the townhall clock to keep track of time. Steamers have taken their place as ships of the line and transanlatic traders, but sails are still a common sight in every harbor.

The common people is fascinated and frightened by all this new techonology and the changes it’s bringing. Science seems have no limits; and who knows what some scientist could be doing somewhere: steam-mans?, flying machines?, ships that could reach the Moon?, Mars?, Jupiter?, the far stars? Can electricity bring back the death to life? Or is the world to die through the neglicence of some too enthusiastic doctor?

New Paris and its precints.

New Paris is divided into six rough areas as seen on the map: Royal Island, Inner Expanses, Western Gate, Outer Expanses, Concordia and the Decree Slums. Royal Island is a modernist dream: the place of the wealthy and the learned, filled with gaudy buildings, fashionable parks, libraries and museums. The seat of the New Paris Goverment is there, along with the main offices of the largest and more conservative corporations. A few newsboys are born into this place, the unfortunate children of a too trusting young maid and a bold young heir, or that’s what the prune ladies say.

In any case, the Inner Expanses is the natural birthplace of the independent young boy. This, previously affluent area, is now home to mansions turned into tenenment buildings by ever dividing its interior into smaller and smaller one-room home. Everything, from cooking to sleeping and washing must be done there.

Western Gate has risen to become the home of a new class of entrepeuners. The New Paris Stock Exchange is located there, along with the most important Newspapers and lawyers. Money is the blood of Western Gate and its heart is always pumping. There is not a day or hour in which you can not find someone working in a new business.

A sea of factories and warehouses, of smoke and rushed traffic, that’s the first impression a visitor gets from the Outer Expanses. And yet the new, and most important harbor of the city is there as there are more than a few rows of tall yet dirty and squalid appartment buildings. Many factory workers only walk as far as to their job, and back to their appartment, with little hope but saving so their children can have a chance. Many die long before.

Concordia lies south of the River Onhattan. Nice, ordered, clean, Concordia is much more mixed and varied than any of the other areas of the city. Concordians consider themselves tolerant, hard-working, lovers of innovation and change. Not all change is always welcomed, like the traditional small shops facing a tougher and tougher competition from the department stores. Shopping and small workshops aside, the other major income of Concordia is recreation, in which the New Paris beach plays a large role. Though limited to the Summer season, the beach and its promenade attracts crowds of vacationers of every station in life.

And then we have Decree, locked between the sea and and the New Paris dump. Once, they were the home of the wealthiest, until the Great Plague of New Paris changed all that. Abandoned in days, it took years for the homeless, the poor, the criminal and the desperate to slowly fill it. Years after years, New Paris forgot about Decree, refering to it as if a country beyond the sea . Soon, street fights turned into wars among gangs which has never ended. This is a den of poverty, sickness and crime. Violence is rampart and rumor has it, that some of their children, end up as slaves in some exotic corner of Earth. The newsboys, bootblacks and others who run from this place often keep their origins to themselves and make a point of not ever returning.

The Newsboy Lodge

New Paris may be rich, but that’s not the case of every of its inhabitants. Located poverty, bankruptucies, immigration and sickness has put many children to the streets, homeless and with no adult to care for them. They are just a minority of the majority of children who work, at least part time, in every trade. But these have no place to call home, nobody to guide them, and little earnings to rent even a squalid room in the Inner Expanses. It’s no wonder many of them ended dead or in reform schools.

The members of the New Paris Society for Children Aid, seeing the need, pooled their money to buy an old manor home, near the Newspaper houses, and set it to house the newsboys. The boys -and girls- can have for a small payment room and board, a place to play and hang out, consult with adult volunteers and, for a little extra, attend a night school.

It should be noted that, despite its, name, everybody younger than 16, with no criminal record is welcomed there.

A few random facts about New Paris

1. Halloween is not a big tradition in New Paris, but kids don’t seem to notice.
2. It is common to see children younger than 15 walking barefoot almost anywhere.
3. It is common to see people fully clothed to hat and coat walking on the sands of the beach.
4. Most people rise up at 5:00 AM.
5. In the Inner Expanses, Western Gate and the Outer Expanses, all children are welcomed in any public place to buy whatever they can pay.
6. Children of any age can be clients of a bank with little restrictions, no matter how small the deposit. Many newsboys, peddlers and bootblacks hold saving accounts.
7. The New Paris sewers is a world in itself, with secret passages and chambers and, some say, hidden treasures.
8. Rumor has it that… New Paris has a hoard of urban legends, a few of which are actually true.
9. New Paris is the home of the Utopian Party, a technophile movement which wants to change the world, though into what is still hotly debated.
10. The New Paris Elevated Train company has, in fact, a underground lines.
11. The New Paris beach does extend into the inner expanses, yet its waters are contaminated with the trash of the ships and only a few daredevil poor kids swim there.
12. Outside of Royal Island, Western Gate and Concordia, many streets are still unpaved, either because they never were or because the pavement has been literally stolen as building materials -like in the Inner Expanses.

Note

This introduction is to appear, once it’s edited, on the primer, and it’s only a glimpse of the information available in the main setting book.