What is The Sprawl?

Official Whitepaper for The Sprawl (v.1.2). Subject to change.

You're fresh into the city. You wake up in some rotting motel off 8th. The sun is blasting through the curtains. Brand new day.

Across in the lobby, Hank the burly proprietor catches your eye.

"Hey kid, wanna earn some money?"

"Sure," you say.

"Here." He tosses keys. "Take my van. Go pick up a new bed from King of Zees." He shakes his head. "I don't know what these kids get up to. They're animals."

You head out front and get in the van. King of Zees pings on the GPS. It's a block south. You pull into the avenue. As you near the junction, a towtruck is t-boned by a speeding taxi. You pass a couple of smoking wrecks. In the lot of Cockeyes, a repair truck is fixing the busted lampposts.

At King of Zees you pick up the bed, then get back to the motel.

Hank seems satisfied. He gives you some CASH.

"Check out Garry's Cut'n'Shut across the street. He's got all the wheels you need." Hank looks me up and down. "That you can afford."

You walk out onto the street. You hear distant sirens. There's a couple of repair guys dressed in coveralls having a dance-off by the Doze Nuts sign. The big one is flossing. Suddenly a racer screams out of an alley and slides through the oncoming traffic. Its rear end wallops one of the dancers and ragdolls him into the third floor of a nearby building. The guy lands on the sidewalk in a heap. You frogger across the avenue toward Garry's, skipping between the cop cars giving chase.

Garry is hanging on his forecourt.

"Hey buddy, what are you looking for?"

"Uh.."

"Did you check the app?"

You pull up your cellphone. There's a new app called Jobby and it's blinking with notifications.

You check it out. "Looks like there's garbage stacking up around 4th and Woodwind. And the Bank is on fire."

"There ya go. Or y'know, that guy could use an ambulance." Garry is eyeballing the broken repair guy, who has started howling.

You decide to do the decent thing. "Okay, I'll take an ambulance."

"How much ya got?"

Garry takes it all and next you know, you have an ambulance. It's a downhill van. It was probably white once.

"Now go be a hero!" says Garry, counting the CASH.

As you get in the driver's seat, another ambulance slams round the corner and cuts in front of you. It's enormous and shiny, with red lightning bolts down the side and what looks like a gun turret. It picks up the broken repair guy and hurls off down the avenue, its siren wailing.

Garry laughs. "Man, that's so sprawl."