World premise
A playable world seed with consequences.
Ole, 2000. The calendar says the modern era, but Dusty Old Place still runs on an old racist order: White authorities hold the checkpoints, the courts, the registry, and the coin, while Black and Asian residents are outnumbered and survive by carrying the right papers, knowing the right doors, and never drawing the wrong eye. Couples who love across the color line hide in bunkers and false rooms, trusting only the Concealed Families circle and listening for patrol boots on the stairs. Local administration is split into rival factions, so every favor, rumor, and marriage is a political calculation. The opening weeks begin in a courtly-adjacent city shaped by local power, patronage, and enforcement, where you start with little certainty and immediate social pressure: a pass expires, a patron makes a demand, and someone in the magistrate's office is deciding whether you are useful, disposable, or an example.
Your first day begins with a small, urgent decision: whether to risk a visible errand or send someone else in your place.
A member of the Concealed Families has missed two check-ins; either they are lying low, or the patrols have already made an example of them.
A clerk at the Registry is willing to sell a blank pass, but wants a favor that could entangle you in a merchant's debt.
The watch has begun searching carts near Market Street Checkpoint, and someone has promised to expose a bunker in exchange for their own freedom.