ORDINALCity 24
THE SEVEN HOUR WAR
Twenty years ago the Combine ended humanity’s resistance in seven hours. Earth’s governments surrendered, and the planet became a territory of the Universal Union.
The Union administers what is left from its Citadels. Its voice on Earth is the Administrator, and his broadcasts play in every street.
THE CITY
The survivors were gathered into cities and numbered. City 24 is one of them: grey, crowded, and never clear of smog. New arrivals come by train and are sent where the Union needs them.
District 2 is residential. Housing blocks, union workplaces, a plaza and the streets between them.
CITIZENS
A citizen carries an identity card, lives where housing assigns them, eats what the ration window gives, and keeps the curfew. Loyalty is recorded. Work is how it is earned.
THE UNIONS
The Civil Workers’ Union runs the cafés, the tailor and the newspaper. The Civil Industrial Union keeps the city working. The Civil Medical Union is its first aid. Membership is applied for at the employment clerk, and it is a privilege.
THE UNION CIVIL AUTHORITY
The city’s police. The Union does not recruit citizens; it consumes them. A citizen issued civil authority becomes a unit with a designation, and there is no way back.
Induction
The record carries on, but the name becomes a designation and the address is surrendered.
| BEFORE | AFTER | |
|---|---|---|
| NAME | Ekaterina Volkov | UCA.C24.RCT.ZONE.286 |
| CODE | 6219–VKE | The designation above |
| WEARS | A citizen’s clothes | The issued uniform |
| LIVES | Block 17, Unit 4 | The Citadel barracks |
| THE DAY | Ration cycle at 06:00, shift at 08:00 · 17-C | Nothing. A unit is not rationed, and every dispenser says so. |
| CARRIES | Citizen ID card | The Union tablet |
The character, its inventory and its history stay. To play a citizen again, create a new character.
The ladder
Lowest first. A unit acting by rank may act only on ranks below its own.
| CODE | RANK | MAY |
|---|---|---|
| RCT | Recruit | Read cards, log as seen, call backup |
| 05 | Unit | Cite, detain, release, mark for patrol |
| 04 | Unit | As 05 |
| 03 | Unit | As 05, and award loyalty |
| 02 | Unit | As 03 |
| 01 | Unit | As 03 |
| OfC | Officer | See the roster, declare codes, use the public address, issue warrants |
| RL | Rank leader | Issue authority, promote, demote, revoke and unmask; serve over every division |
| SeC | Sectorial commander | Everything a rank leader may. The top of the chain, in no division. |
Divisions
Every unit is assigned to ZONE at induction, and a recruit stays there. From 05 a unit may apply to another division on the tablet, and whoever runs that division decides.
Enforcement: patrol, checkpoints and the civil code.
Medical and hazmat. Draws medical supplies at the armoury.
Engineering and repair. Signs out manhacks, floor turrets and the APC.
Intelligence: interrogation and investigation.
CITY CODES
The city is always under one code. It is announced on the public address, and everyone is told when it changes.
| CODE | DECLARED BY | WHAT CHANGES |
|---|---|---|
| Socio-stable | OfC, RL, SeC | Ordinary reminders on the public address. |
| Civil unrest | OfC, RL, SeC | Unrest reminders and the warning bell. |
| Judgment waiver | RL, SeC | Judgment reminders and the siren. |
| Autonomous judgment | RL, SeC | As judgment waiver. |
| Lockdown | RL, SeC | Citywide or over one sector, with the siren. Ration collection and labour sign-on are suspended, and anyone outside a residential sector is in violation. No end is given. |
THE CIVIL CODE
A citation names one of 37 offences in four tiers, and each tier deducts a fixed number of loyalty points. Loyalty can fall below zero. A unit cannot write anything else, and a warning records the offence without its penalty.
| OFFENCE | WHAT IT COVERS |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 · 2 loyalty points deducted | |
| Curfew | Presence in a public sector during curfew. |
| Loitering | Remaining in a public place after being instructed to move on. |
| Face covering | Concealing the face in a public sector. |
| Mobility violation | Running, jumping, crawling or other non-standard movement. |
| Audio violation | Excessive volume, swearing or divisive commentary below a higher violation. |
| Minor malcompliance | Failure to obey a UCA unit's instruction. |
| Abuse of Union technology | Misusing Union equipment without damaging it, including false requests. |
| Minor assault | Causing injury to a citizen without incapacitating them. |
| Minor contraband | Non-Union food, drink or clothing, or workblock supplies held outside work. Each item is a separate violation. |
| Trash | Possession of non-Union supplies that are not otherwise contraband. All current items count as one violation. |
| Inaction | Failure to report a crime. |
| Failure to display | Failure to display the correct authorized loyalty identification. Deliberately false identification is major contraband. |
| Tier 2 · 6 loyalty points deducted | |
| Conspiracy | Aiding a crime in any way. |
| Assault | Causing an incapacitating injury to a citizen. |
| Minor assault of Union official | Unauthorized physical contact with a UCA unit, Overwatch soldier, administrator or other Union representative. |
| Disloyalty | Speaking against the Union or its representatives below a higher violation. |
| Malcompliance | Resisting enforcement of a Tier 1 violation. |
| Contraband | Unauthorized literature, drawings, medical items, communication devices, or blunt or stabbing weapons. Each item is a separate violation. |
| Public intoxication | Being publicly intoxicated. |
| Theft | Wrongful possession of another person's property. |
| Trespassing | Unauthorized presence in sewers, closed civilian structures or other restricted civilian sectors. |
| Civil work avoidance | Failure to report for assigned work without an acceptable excuse. |
| Tier 3 · 10 loyalty points deducted | |
| Murder | Contributing to a citizen's death. |
| Assault of Union official | Causing major harm to a Union representative. |
| Sociocide | Advocating rebellion against the Union. |
| Major malcompliance | Resisting enforcement of a Tier 2 violation. |
| Major contraband | Firearms, false identification, another person's identification or unauthorized Union cards. Each item is a separate violation. |
| Social disruption | Conduct that destabilizes the city and worsens its security status. |
| Intrusion | Unauthorized presence in the Nexus, Union catwalks or other Union structures. |
| Unauthorized reproductive activity | Engaging in reproductive activity without Union authorization. |
| Destruction of property | Disabling, breaking or destroying private, commercial or government property. |
| Tier 4 · 15 loyalty points deducted | |
| Capital malcompliance | Resisting enforcement of a Tier 3 violation, or repeated malcompliance demonstrating persistent refusal to comply. |
| Imperfection | A disability that prevents assigned Union work, including loss of a limb, blindness, muteness, disease or cognitive impairment. |
| Breach | A severe unauthorized entry beyond the scope of lesser trespassing or intrusion. |
| Death of Union official | Causing a Union representative's death. |
| Aggravated homicide | Citizen killings of sufficient severity to warrant a Tier 4 charge. |
| Blanket violation | An otherwise unlisted violation of sufficient severity for Tier 4. Command approval is required. |
A citizen is sentenced only at −15 loyalty points or lower. No tier, city code or order lowers that bar, and a sentence is played out, never automatic.
A fourth citation in seven in-world days moves the record to Overwatch review. A warrant opens in Overwatch’s name, and every camera reports the citizen as wanted from then on.
Detention
One ground and one hold, and only once the citizen is in handcuffs. A restart, a reconnect or a character switch ends neither the hold nor the cuffs.
- Loitering after a second warning
- Refused a scan
- Failure to produce documents
- Active warrant
- 30 min150 real seconds in daylight
- 2 h10 real minutes in daylight
- Until shift endAt most an hour
Your side of the record
Every scan, citation, warning, detention, search and loyalty award. Your civil file carries the latest.
A mark for patrol, and a warrant.
WHAT THE CAMERAS REPORT
Cameras and scanners report the most serious thing they see, and warn the citizen through their speaker.
- OutlandsA citizen outside the city.
- WarrantA face that matches an active warrant.
- Armed citizenA citizen holding a gun or a melee weapon.
- Marked citizenA face a unit marked for patrol.
- Restricted sectorNo citizen belongs there at any hour.
- Face coveredA respirator, gas mask or face wrap outside a residential block. A covered face cannot be identified, and it draws attention.
- Curfew violationOutside a residential block during curfew or a lockdown.
- Movement violationRunning or jumping outside a residential block.