Money and Employment in METROPOLIS
METROPOLIS has its own currency (Pictured left), which is based off of the Mark. This form of currency is recognized globally, and is accepted at most exchange houses. Officially, the METROPOLIS mark is the only currency accepted within the city limits.
where does METROPOLIS get all of its wealth? The majority is off of taxes that are levied against the corporations that reside within the city limits. These corporations accept the taxes in tradeoff for the city's very lenient labor laws. Another large source of income comes from tourism, with METROPOLIS being one of the top tourist attractions for those traveling abroad.
All police in the city are tightly controlled by the city masters. All police are highly trained as such they are feared by the general population. when dealing with locals police get an extra +1 on intimidate rolls. (for more information on crime, please refer to Crime and Punishment)
Another fringe employment opportunity is that of the fixer. As it is in all other cities, a fixers can get the goods for
their clients. Some deal in the popular drug Maohee, while others deal in corporate secrets. As one can surmise being a fixer is second only to the non-sanctioned media in terms of illegality.
With very few exceptions Fixers will conduct their business down in the lower
city. The workers in the underground city won't allow the suspicions and
scrutiny that would surely follow a fixer into their ranks, while those in the
upper city have September at Yoshiwara's to fulfill their many vices.
The media is owned and tightly controlled by
the city masters, news agencies are told where they can and can't go and what
stories they may or may not cover, with severe consequences for disobeying the rules. There are
however independent operators who try to get the real story out of METROPOLIS,
usually with very little success. For the stories that do manage to get out of the
city limits unfiltered, there is the Office of Damage Control for
METROPOLIS that can spin a story around to fit it's needs. Independent Medias
are the most dangerous roles to play within the city of Metropolis.
Pirate
Radio
Within Metropolis media circles you are either with the government, or
against it. If you are against it you are hunted down and removed from society, there
is no freedom of speech in the city. Despite this, Pirate Radio bands can be
found all over the radio waves. Most have limited resources and only have a
range of 1 mile, but within that mile there may be upwards of 300,000 potential
listeners. Pirate Radio Bands normally carry political or dissenting speech,
some carry news and information from outside the city, while others just play
music that isn’t available on the approved airwaves.
seeing as how METROPOLIS was written long before computers as we know them were even dreamed about (and 18 years before the first computer was built) netrunning presents a problem. Joh Fredersen controlled various aspects of his operations via his hand being upon a "blue metal plate". It would not be much of a stretch to say that was part of an electronic network. GMs it is your choice as to how you want to go about netrunning, personally I would say go as presented in the core rulebook, except use keyboards instead of direct neural interfaces.
The job nobody wants, but over 250,000 people have, is the worker. They acquire this job by either defaulting on debts that they owe to their corporation master, or they are sentenced to work there to pay off fines for minor crimes that they cannot pay. All workers are assigned a number, and given a blue jumpsuit. In most instances the worker's family is moved down to the worker city, since their possessions are auctioned off to cover some of the debt/fine. Workers are only allowed in either the worker city or the machine rooms were they work off their debt. The Workers families however are allowed into the lower city.