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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silveras" data-source="post: 2131515" data-attributes="member: 6271">A Neutral Evil Town: People here are hardened, mostly. They scrabble among themselves for small bits of profit, serving strong gangs that would as soon kill them as look at them. The authorities only help anyone if they see a way to make a profit themselves. They are countered, though, by informal gangs that have banded together under a few individual strong leaders; the gangs appreciate that the leader's plans keep them fed and out of the prison, even if that sometimes means violent confrontations with the Lord's forces. There are few institutions of government, mostly just enough of the basics to keep the place running. These institutions are corrupt, and the people who run them use them to wring what they can from the citizens. The citizens expect that, and either pay protection money to one or more gangs or pay the 'fees' demanded by the institutions for the same services. Citizens expect to do a fair bit for themselves, but they do also expect that the formal government will provide at least a minimum of services. They also expect that the gangs will provide some measure of services out of a need to avoid provoking *everyone*. Who gets served by whom depends on either the formal claims they can make on the authorities, or on personal relationships with this or that gang leader (and, of course, how much of a "return on the investment" can be expected). Most folks are trapped in between the formal authorities and the gangs, but a few play them off against each other. Very, very few people do anything without expectation of reward, and those inclined to do so often feel they need to mask this tendency in order not to be seen as weak targets by the others.</blockquote>

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