The Clowns Gang

Appearance: The typical Clown wears traditional gangland apparel, though typically accented with bright colors or clashing colors. They wear face make up and a few wear masks. Masks do remain relatively uncommon as most masks restrict peripheral vision and can affect ability to hear. The make up patterns used have meanings within the gang, and are tied to the gangmember's new persona.

Equipment: pistol or sawed off shotgun (poor quality) melee weapon such as a knife, switchblade, or straight razor, illegal pharmaceuticals such as nuke, jet, psycho, crystal dream, substance d, etc, reinforced jacket or ballistic vest.

In times of gang conflict, clowns have access to much heavier weapons such as automatic weapons, improvised explosives, and on occasion some military grade hardware.

Purpose: The Clowns are as much a hyperviolent family as they are a gang. The clowns exist to take care of their own in a world that won't take care of them. Most members come from broken family backgrounds, and many have undiagnosed mental illness. While they are ruthless and brutal to their own members, there is no other gang in (insert major city) that has the level of solidarity and cooperation exhibited by the Clowns.

Beyond family, the Clowns are heavily involved in the drug trade, and specialize in the worst of the worst sort of drugs. They start with methamphetamines and PCP and then move on to harder drugs. This combined with their penchant for violence and the carnival motif has generated much of the clown's feared reputation. In gang wars, clown fighters have taken mortal wounds but been so high on their narcotics that they continued fighting until collapsing. This intimidates the hell out of most other gangs, as the clowns often demonstrate this reckless disregard for all life

Crystal Dream: Crystal dream is a popular hallucinogen and downtime drug manufactured and distributed by the clowns. The drug is available in a blue powder form that is snorted, or a liquid solution that is injected or dropped into the eyes. Causes euphoria, visual hallucinations, and can magnify existing mental instabilities.

Nuke: Nuke is a synthetic form of cocaine that can been cooked up from common household and industrial chemicals. An orange fluid that can be cooked down into a crystalline form, nuke is either injected or smoked and causes a strong high with associated hypersexual activity, rage explosions, and paranoia. Nuke is commonly used by female clowns, and is given to hostages or abduction victims to keep them cool.

Substance D: one of the hardest drugs used by the Clowns, Substance D causes all sorts of hallucinations and violent mental disorders, with some users claiming that it gives them the ability to read minds, see sound, and so forth. Causes brain damage, permanent personality disorders, and death

Jet: Formerly a drug developed by the military for application as a combat drug. Jet accelerates the nervous system, and increases reflexes and dexterity. Clowns will use it in urban combat, making them incredibly fast using their knives and in close quarters combat. Jet users are twitchy and the gang refers to the drug as 'acting the fool'.

Psycho: the signature drug of the Clowns, Psycho was a military designed combat drug that was abandoned. Psycho, quite fitting to its name, causes increased aggression, lowers the pain threshold, and increases strength. Clowns under the influence of psycho (and often other drugs) are the sort who take horrific injuries in gangland fights and continue on unfazed by the sometimes lethal injuries. They are also known for the extreme sadism and violence demonstrated during said conflicts.

Agenda:

1. Look out for your brothers and sisters in the gang

2. Fuck the police

3. Make drugs, get money

4. Have fun

Leader:

The clowns have typically fluctuated depending on the current leader of the gang. Stronger bosses have pulled the clown family together, allowing them to make major gains in turf and influence, while weaker leaders have seen the gang wane in power and fear.

The current leader of the Clowns is a charismatic, chaos philosopher that the police have dubbed 'the Joker'. Almost nothing is known about the Joker before he appeared in the rank and file of the gang. He is suspected to be a mental patient, but there are some theories that he is a former member of the military, possibly with some influence as the Clowns have demonstrated the ability to put military equipment into combat in their gang wars. They also have demonstrated some known combat tactics and strategies that are known to have originated in the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Joker also is known to have provided general access to military combat drugs like jet and psycho, further lending support to the notion of his military background.

History

The first recognized leader of the Clowns was a man named Cesar who ran a small outfit downtown that was called the Piccadilly Circus. The Circus was a mixture of parking lot carnival, and halfway house. Cesar gave disturbed youths a place where they felt safe, and used make up to make their new faces so that they could hide from themselves. He was a crackerjack psychology flunkie and his techniques of burying mental illness, creating fake personas and indulging in recreational drug use typically made the illnesses worse. Cesar's boys entered crime to fund the Circus, and then to provide entertainment for themselves. In lighter days they were seen as hooligans but urban decay created harder meaner gangs in the territory around the circus.

Cesar eventually was killed by a rival gang, sparking the Clowns first gang war. A new leader, Jack, with strong ties to the criminal underground took Cesar's place and lead the battle against several other gangs. With guns and other favors, Jack's clowns decimated the rival gangs and established Piccadilly Circus as the stronghold of the Clowns and their territory.

Under Jack, the drug use among the clowns increased, as did their violent tendencies. As a former mafia man, Jack understood the value of violence as a deterrent, so when the clowns moved in and messed someone up, it was done in an as over the top manner as possible. This created a good deal of the original aura of fear around the clowns as it became known that anyone who crossed them or tried to mess with their affairs was going to be made a horrific example of. Arson, murder, and torture done for entertainment became popularized during this time.

A popular tactic among the Clown raids during this time was what they called having a Burner, or a Suicide Party. A club or other popular nightspot would be selected and during peak occupancy, the venue would be locked in by the clowns, and then set on fire. Clown gang members would typically start other mayhem to spread out first responders, and by the time fire and rescue arrived on the scene most of the fire would already be burned out. Suicide parties were eventually cracked down on by police and club owners after a string of such attacks left more than a 1000 people dead.

The Clowns videotaped and distributed videos from at least two suicide parties.


Mother Harley took over the Clowns after Jack's eventual demise. A former lover and protege of the criminal mastermind, Harley was a deeply and violently disturbed woman who went on to lead the clowns for several years,a further reinforced the gang's values for family first and foremost and other elements of gang and criminal life second. As the first insane leader of the clowns, her tenure as boss was marked by chaotic leadership, schizophrenia and several reigns of terror.

The Clowns grew rapidly in numbers under Harley, as her family values made the gang more open and safe to women. The gang remained violently misogynistic but women in the gang were seen as sisters, and touching your sister wasn't allowed unless sister wanted you to touch her. It became common for female clown members to not just cheer on their brothers during violence against women, but to participate in it themselves. This marked one of the darker turns in the already dark history of the gang, as several 'rape gangs' formed. These cells were almost completely female in membership and became known as some of the most terrifying enforcers in the Clowns gang as they were usually attractive women wearing the clowns make up brazenly sporting strap on dildos and other sexual apparatii. While most of their targets were female (the most notable being an investigative reporter attempting to infiltrate the gang) more than a few were men. Almost all of their victims were filmed, and the videos distributed.

Welcome to the Circus

The Clowns had established themselves as not just a gang, but as a terrorist organization. Piccadilly Circus has sinced turned into an urban wasteland, damaged by decades of Clown dominance. Many of the buildings are dilapidated and have since been condemned by the city. Power and water are haphazard at best, and the area looks like a third world country. This is covered by the fact that the entire area is covered in graffiti, not the shitty gangland sort, but brightly colored and very artistic in nature. Piccadilly Circus is almost a cultural enclave full of disturbed artists.

The Circus itself was a strip mall that has had the parking lot covered with tarps and makeshift enclosures. It functions as the motherhouse and mall for the gang. They have a barter system in effect where guns, drugs, and other goods are traded for what they want and need. Around the edge of the Circus/clown ghetto there is a ring of businesses that are based around feeding the clown's vices and taking their money in exchange. These businesses are known for having high security, armed guards, and metal shutters over all windows and doors. There are strip clubs, liquor stores, and a few medical clinics run by the city, as the neighborhoods around the Circus are among the poorest in the city.

The Clowns and the Police

Given the violence and firepower of the clowns, when the gang riots and gang wars break out, the police have a containment policy. Rather than attempting to move in and shut down the fighting, they form barricades across the roads that come out of the Circus, and just wait out the fighting. Previous attempts to quell the violence have ended poorly, as the police lack the fanatical zeal of the Clowns, and often are outgunned by the gang. The previous attempt to quell a gang war ended with dozens of cops dead, a police helicopter shot down, and the chief of police made to look like a jack booted thug and incompetent as well.

Membership

Criminals: many members of the clowns are just run of the mill thugs, criminals, murderers, and such who have found a place where they can indulge in their high risk high profit lifestyle. The criminals are the least involved in the family aspect of the gang, but are the wheels and gears that keep the gang functioning. The criminals bring in money, firearms, and other things that the gang needs and uses.

Mental Patients: the disturbed are drawn to the gang, seeking the twin values of family, and losing themselves behind the mask or the facepaint. These members are the most strongly aligned with the family, and are the hard core of the gang. While the criminals keep the enterprise running, the lunatics keep everyone afraid of the clowns. The mentally ill have the strongest gang personas and specializations.

Drug Dealers: most of the Clown's drugs are manufactured, and it is up to the bakers and cookers to keep making their recreational pharmaceuticals. This generates a large piece of the clown's revenue as some of their drugs are in high demand, such as Hollywood's taste for crystal dream, to the mundane demand for crystal meth. The candy makers (meth cookers) are known to sell their goods in other cities and states, providing a river of money into the gang.

Ex-Military: the military produces a large number of disturbed individuals. The poor state of their health and mental care lets many of them slip through the cracks. Once on the streets, its a short road to drug addiction, and then to the circus. They live in a continuous hell of violence in the Circus, but their skills make them valuable and dangerous additions to the gang. Many ex-military gravitate to positions of leadership, or become specialists within the gang.

Thugs and Gangbangers: some members of the Clowns would be in whatever gang was local because being in a gang is cool and thats what all of the others are doing. The gang has the money and the power, and those not in the gang either pay them tribute, or are their victims. The thugs are gangbangers do light drugs and dont participate in the money generating aspects of the gang, and other than entry level vandalism and so forth, they are nothing more than filler. Once in the gang, these are the members who are in over their heads between the lunatics, real criminals, and drug addled zealots.


Resources

Money: the clowns, despite living in third world hellholes have mountains of cash. The lunatics, and the ex-military, and anarchists don't have much use for spending their money on whips and bling. They like guns and gasoline and compared to chrome, whores and cocaine these things are cheap.

Drugs: the Clowns produce massive amounts of drugs. While they consume most of these drugs themselves, there is enough left over to provide the cash flow to float the gang.

Loyalty: the clowns are a family and family doesn't turn on family. The only thing that generates a larger demonstration is when a clown turns on his own. Clown rats are hunted down, and other their families are killed or otherwise abused.

Firearms: the Clowns have ready access to all sorts of firearms, ranging from the standard gang issue cheap pistols and shotguns to more troublesome SMGs, assault rifles, and homemade improvised explosives. Clown bombs are known for being as often cruel as lethal.

Plot Hooks

Mooks, Goons and Minions: The Clowns can be used a stock filler gang, having a specific look and theme, but otherwise functioning as any other gang, making and selling drugs. Reduce the intensity level of the Clowns to PG-13 and carry on.

Juggalos Everywhere: The Clowns are a local menace and are an increasing cultural phenomenon. Like other large gangs, the Clowns are branching out to other cities, and its up the police/law enforcement PCs to stop them.

Rescue Mission: the clowns have abducted a person of interest, and the PCs are hired to bring the person back as close to unharmed as possible.

Special Ops: the PCs are hired to pull off a special mission (burn down Piccadilly Circus, assassinate the Joker) that will require them to infiltrate the gang. They have to pull off the dangerous mission without being compromised. They can also encounter the members of the clown family and discover that the gang has been created not from within, but from without by society, and its treatment of the mentally ill and the real poor.

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