Welcome to Fear City, You Son of Bitch.

In 1975 the Council for Public Safety, a group consisting of public service unions (firefighters, police, and the like), put out a pamphlet titled "Welcome to Fear City." In large part it was in reaction to New York City Mayor Beame's plan to layoff nearly 11,000 police officers in an effort to stave off declaring bankruptcy for the city.

Source: islandersa1 flickr account

Source: islandersa1 flickr account

 

Source: islandersa1 flickr account

Source: islandersa1 flickr account

It's a great bit of propaganda as the damned thing plays into the image of big city crime, with its dangerous, criminal underbelly crawling out from the shadows to rob, murder, and rape the rest of us. While I don't condone using such fear-mongering tactics in the real world I would nonetheless love to use something like this in my role-playing games.

Hell, this is the sort of thing that I would love to be given as a player! Just imagine sitting down at the table and the Game Master hands you this little four page pamphlet. It's got this big, black skull on the front and welcomes you to "Fear City," or "The Detroit of Faerun," or any other of a thousand terrifying names you could come up with to let your players know that they're about to get right into the thick of things. 

It makes me all kinds of excited just thinking about it! In fact, I think I'm going to go work on one myself. What about you cats?