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Old 03-23-2019, 09:18 AM   #1
Icelander
 
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Default [MH] Underground Fights in a Tourist Resort in the Caribbean?

[tl;dr] If someone was running illegal underground blood sport fights for rich and decadent tourists, where in the Caribbean would it be most suitable to hold them?

I don't know if the PCs in my Caribbean by Night campaign will survive their Dream Quest into the mind of the sorceress Girl With the Kaleidoscope Eyes or if they'll be Lost in Time and Space in their battle with the Monster at the End of the Dream. I am choosing to believe in their chances, however, at least to the point of preparing the next adventure.

An unnamed someone, of the naughty kind who tends to get unscheduled visits by adventurers to give them unsolicited career advice, is running bloody and violent fights at a snazzy resort in the Caribbean somewhere. The fights are unsanctioned and could never be sanctioned by any reasonable authorities, as they are violent in a way that MMA/UFC fights never are. Broken bones, crippling and death are all fairly common.

The audience consists of rich and decadent people with a distinct lack of respect for human rights or human life in general. Betting is heavy, but any theoretical profits do not justify the legal risks involved, not for someone rich enough to simply invest in legal sports with legal gambling. Less novelty appeal to decadent millionaires, perhaps, but greater volume means greater profits in the end. So, whoever is doing this is doing it for more than financial motives.

For a location, we need a tourist spot in the Caribbean. It has to have space for a large compound that includes a hotel, bars, night clubs and a range of businesses. Ideally, the local law is lenient about gambling and prostitution, with exotic dancing of the naked kind being legal.

Most of all, however, we need authorities and law enforcement who could plausibly be bribed into ignoring missing persons, reports of illegal fights and the odd murder. In addition to that, we need a local populace with a steady supply of people with martial art skills and the kind of desperate poverty that leads to signing up for a fight with a high chance of crippling or even death.

I expect that a boxing background might be expected in a lot of areas of the Caribbean, but it would be ideal if we could feature a wider range of martial art backgrounds in a plausible way.

Location-wise, as well as places I'd like to feature, Barbados or Trinidad and Tobago would be interesting. But I'm looking for any suggestions, as well as explanations of why they would be suitable.
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Old 03-23-2019, 11:00 AM   #2
johndallman
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Default Re: [MH] Underground Fights in a Tourist Resort in the Caribbean?

A private island seems like the obvious way to do this. The owner can control admission to the island and law enforcement. He'll probably be notionally subject to the law of a neighbouring country, but if he can maintain a good image, they won't try hard.
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Old 03-23-2019, 11:09 AM   #3
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Default Re: [MH] Underground Fights in a Tourist Resort in the Caribbean?

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A private island seems like the obvious way to do this. The owner can control admission to the island and law enforcement. He'll probably be notionally subject to the law of a neighbouring country, but if he can maintain a good image, they won't try hard.
Yep, that's something I was considering.

Still, that leaves picking a private island, including which nation they are theoretically subject to and from where all the resort staff are coming.

Also, where they get their fighters, which is probably from more than one neighboring country.
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Old 03-23-2019, 11:29 AM   #4
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Default Re: [MH] Underground Fights in a Tourist Resort in the Caribbean?

Or you could just take advantage of an unreasonably corrupt Caribbean government. Haiti and the Dominican Republic are supposed to be very corrupt, with a thriving underground white slavery trade that channels young women from Latin America to the USA (though both the authorities in Latin America, the source, and Florida, the gateway into the USA, are also quite corrupt). Heck, even the US territory of Puerto Rico has enough corruption, especially after the neglect following the devestation of Hurricane Maria, to easily allow such a thing.
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Old 03-23-2019, 11:49 AM   #5
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Default Re: [MH] Underground Fights in a Tourist Resort in the Caribbean?

So you're playing with two elements that are all over the Caribbean, but usually don't happen in the same places: criminal behavior and resorts. The criminal behavior is usually concentrated in places tourists will never go.

Trinidad doesn't have much of a resort industry: the vast majority of that is on Tobago, which has a much different feel. If you want a lawless area in Trinidad, I'd recommend Laventille, just east of Port of Spain. That won't feel like a resort, though Port of Spain does get visited on cruises.

If you want a private island, My mind goes to either the Bahamas or the Grenadines, and for what you want the Grenadines (part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines) is probably superior. I'd say that St. Vincent is more out of the way than most of the countries in the Caribbean, but they picked up an international airport in 2017, so that's changing. Before then you had to stop at other Caribbean islands first to get there, by boat or using a turboprop run by a local airline called LIAT that in my head stands for "Late In All Terminals". The Grenadines are pretty separate from st. Vincent, and I don't think the government is going to complain much if you rent an island and tell them your own private security will handle things, as long as you don't make the news. At which point they'll skip the police and call in the military .
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Old 03-23-2019, 08:11 PM   #6
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Default Re: [MH] Underground Fights in a Tourist Resort in the Caribbean?

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So you're playing with two elements that are all over the Caribbean, but usually don't happen in the same places: criminal behavior and resorts. The criminal behavior is usually concentrated in places tourists will never go.
Well, obviously no one wants street crime in the ritzy resort. Designer drugs, artisanal cocaine, high-end prostitution, but none of that low-rent retail sex, drugs and so forth. Strictly elegantly arranged personal service, all through the conscientous concierges.

I want a resort where cartel bosses, Russian oligarchs, British bankers and American tech billionaires might rub shoulders with each other, but where Kingston yardies or Dominican gang-bangers would never be admitted. Where even the security personnel wear expensive suits and only the cleaning staff and potential victims actually come from the local islands.

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Trinidad doesn't have much of a resort industry: the vast majority of that is on Tobago, which has a much different feel. If you want a lawless area in Trinidad, I'd recommend Laventille, just east of Port of Spain. That won't feel like a resort, though Port of Spain does get visited on cruises.
I'm definitely not thinking lawless area, more a private resort where the local police hesitate to make trouble without any actual evidence of truly serious crimes. Of course, agents of the managment will recruit sex workers, boxers and MMA fighters from any number of lawless urban areas within easy trafficking distance, but the resort itself should be somewhere ridiculously rich people can feel safe.

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If you want a private island, My mind goes to either the Bahamas or the Grenadines, and for what you want the Grenadines (part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines) is probably superior. I'd say that St. Vincent is more out of the way than most of the countries in the Caribbean, but they picked up an international airport in 2017, so that's changing. Before then you had to stop at other Caribbean islands first to get there, by boat or using a turboprop run by a local airline called LIAT that in my head stands for "Late In All Terminals". The Grenadines are pretty separate from st. Vincent,
I do very much want a private island, but it needs to be one with enough traffic and staff turnover so that no one is likely to notice a particularly rapid turnover of some personnel positions.

Ideally somewhere you can transport fighters to the island without going through unnecessary red tape and where not every resort worker necessarily pays taxes or appears on any paperwork.

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and I don't think the government is going to complain much if you rent an island and tell them your own private security will handle things, as long as you don't make the news. At which point they'll skip the police and call in the military .
Well, define what will make the news?

As long as no bodies are found at the resort, would rumours in the nearest urban areas of aspiring fighters trqvelling there for exhibitions and not returning home be problematic?

How many disappearances would it take?

Where in the Caribbean could you get a private resort with a reasonably free hand for your resort security, located near rich sources of fighters, girls and other staff, where it would take a long time indeed before rumours among people in poor neighbourhoods led to any effective response?
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Old 03-23-2019, 01:37 PM   #7
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Default Re: [MH] Underground Fights in a Tourist Resort in the Caribbean?

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Orh both the authorities in Latin America, the source, and Florida, the gateway into the USA, are also quite corrupt). .
Note that for the sort of "glitterati" corruption you want you need to focus on the "Miami Vice" areas in South Florida. In the rest of the state corruption involves real estate developers rather than drug smugglers and billionaires and is rather dull.

Also, there are at least some real cops in the area and you're probably more interested in places where there are virtually none. to the aforementioned Hait and Puerto Rico add Cuba. It has tourism from everywhere but the US and a wholly dubious if somewhat more organized government than some of its' neighbors.
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Old 03-23-2019, 02:33 PM   #8
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Default Re: [MH] Underground Fights in a Tourist Resort in the Caribbean?

As a criminal justice scholar, corruption in local, state, and federal law enforcement is regrettably common. Even though 90% of officers are reasonably honest, the other 10% are as crooked as corkscrews. Unfortunately, the honest cops protect the crooked cops because of the blue wall of silence and, even when they do report them, their superiors rarely investigate.

For example, in my own discussions with retired law enforcement, there was always someone known to them to have 'issues' that their fellow officers suspected were causing them to be compromised by criminal elements, but their superiors refused to investigate because they were a) equally compromised, b) wanted to avoid a scandal that would impact their chances of promotion, and/or c) worried about the safety of their families. In many cases, the corrupt individual was given rewards by criminal elements that were difficult to trace, such as a teenage prostitute every night or a few hundred in unmarked bills every week, so they would turn the other way when needed. When there finally was an investigation, the corrupt individual would usually end up being allowed to resign and would end up in a neighboring municipality, allowing themost to be useful to the same or allied criminal elements.

And this is US law enforcement we are talking about. When we go into the Caribbean, the corruption caused by wealthy tourists makes the issue even worse. Drugs, child prostitution, snuff porn, etc. are all available for people with money who know that they will never have to face consequences, just like those FL billionaires, and the local law enforcement know not to question the wealthy too closely if they do not want their children to end up being served up as victims to the next wealthy pervert. It is a cruel and corrupt world, and the heroes do not survive long outside of the comic books.
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Old 03-23-2019, 11:24 AM   #9
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Default Occultism Theories for a Supernatural Party Responsible?

If and when the PCs get involved in Bloodsport 2: Electric Boogaloo: Caribbean Edition, they'll be there checking out a series of clues to nefarious goings-on, most important of which will be some agents of their Patron (one J.R. Kessler, eccentric billionaire turned funder of supernatural troubleshooters and monster hunters) having gone missing there.

The PCs and their allies will be aware that the resort in question offers a wide range of decadent thrills, though the most obviously outré is the whole fighting pits to the death thing. On the other hand, if they search, they'll find that any kind of extravagance is available to the rich tourists there, including a wide variety of sexual thrills, any drugs imaginable and all sorts of less-than-legal shenanigans.

The PCs and their allies will most likely have theories on what kind of supernatural entity might be staging these fights. What kind of supernatural legendary creature might want humans fighting each other in a no-holds-barred cage match, while an audience of rich and decadent humans bets on it? Or, more generally, be into creating an isle of depraved morality and very expensive thrills?
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Old 03-23-2019, 11:48 AM   #10
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Default Re: Occultism Theories for a Supernatural Party Responsible?

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The PCs and their allies will most likely have theories on what kind of supernatural entity might be staging these fights. What kind of supernatural legendary creature might want humans fighting each other in a no-holds-barred cage match, while an audience of rich and decadent humans bets on it? Or, more generally, be into creating an isle of depraved morality and very expensive thrills?
This sounds expensive-tailor-made for a re-founded Hell-Fire Club who've discovered that some of their old Satanist rituals now work.

You have a "magic is returning" campaign, and the PCs wondering if they should try to stop that is a part of the genre.
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