[Aleph Null]

Aleph Null is my attempt to update the cyberpunk genre, setting aside some of the traditional elements and replacing them with themes from the early 1990s. Since I consider it impossible to constantly update a post-modern game to reflect current events, I have diverged from our timeline in 1992.

Law
Megacorporations
Organized Crime
Street Gangs

Law
The legal system of Los Angeles is forced to contend with overcrowded prisons, repeat offenders, and violent juveniles. Combined with a lack of resources, this has caused many to view the system as ineffective, if not entirely corrupt.
Strongly resembling the American system, the California legal system has both criminal and civil cases. The accused (or either party, in the case of a civil trial) has the right to a trial by jury, but may waive that right in favor of a bench trial before a judge. Civil penalties are strictly financial in nature, while criminal penalties can result in fines, service, incarceration, and even death.
A juvenile system exists to handle the cases of offenders under the age of 18, however violent juvenile offenders may be tried as adults. The juvenile penal system's goal is rehabilitation, and offenders are housed in separate correctional facilities from their adult counterparts. There is no death penalty in the juvenile justice system, however juveniles tried as adults can receive the death penalty.

Listed below are the average penalties for certain crimes. Please be aware this list is by no means exhaustive, and the penalties simply represent a typical sentence for a first offense.

Megacorporations
With the dissolution of international ruling bodies, international corporations began to act with a previously unexperienced autonomy. While there are any number of large corporations with international capacity, some few are commonly referred to in media as the megacorps. These are corporations with a longstanding history, capable of global thought and coordination and long term future planning. They represent mergers of the world's most influential corporations into genuine multinational entities with tremendous financial clout. While the definition isn't completely clear cut, it's fairly clear that seven weigh in at the top.

Mitsubishi-Citigroup
The result of a merger of Mitsubishi, Citigroup, and Total Fina Elf, this was the first of the major megacorporations as we know them today. The bold and completely unforseen moves by the management of Mitsubishi would spur a new trend in multinationals.

Royal Dutch/Shell Worldwide
Wthout international regulation separating the divisions of Shell, Royal Dutch entered negotiations with Deutsche Bank. In the next year, they would acquire Merck and Daimler Chrysler and in another five years Unilever and Fortis would follow. Royal Dutch would become, disputably, the strongest of the megacorps by the year 2020.

Universal Motor and Finance
With the merger of General Motors and Exxon and their partnership with the American Banking Group (composed of the former Bank of America and Wells Fargo), Universal Motor and Finance sought to overcome bad press generated by its competitors with a new name and image and adopted UM&F in 2010. Although an international company, UM&F has the most uniquely American flavor. Other subsidiaries of Universal Motor and Finance include Genentech and Philip Morris.

Mitsui Industries
Mitsui Industries is the umbrella corporation that holds Toyota, Hitachi, Sony, the former Sumitomi Mitsui, Mizuho Holdings, and Tokyo Electric Power. It is characteristically Japanese in culture. Because so little adjustment was required in the corporate culture of its constituent parts and because the brands were so recognizable to the public, many of the companies under the Mitsui umbrella retain their former names.

European United Holdings
From the EU would arise one of the most conservative megacorporations, rooted in a solid corporate tradition. Europen United Holdings began as BP, Carrefour-Ahold, Siemens Group, and Volkswagon combined forces in an astonishing display of old-world solidarity, a direct answer to the formation of their most formiddable rival, Royal Dutch/Shell Worldwide.

Organized Crime
Four large crime syndicates control the underworld of Los Angeles. Lacking the sheer numbers of the street gangs, these organizations are firmly seated in the higher eschelons of the criminal world.

La Cosa Nosta
A shadow of it's former glory, the Italian Mafia has fallen on hard times in Los Angeles. Between government pressure and encroachment by foreign crime syndicates, La Cosa Nostra stays afloat only due to it's Hollywood ties and dominance of Las Vegas.

Russian Mafiya
By far the most violent of the crime syndicates, the Russians have taken large tracts of Los Angeles via brute force. Unwilling to give second chances, the Russians are quick to murder those that cross them, and businesses that do not comply with their demands are often torched. Due to strong ties with the rest of their organization, the Russian Mafiya provides a large number of illicit, high-powered firearms to the city's underworld.

Tongs
Viewed as little more than an international street gang by the rest of the syndicates, the Tongs control a significant portion of the Los Angeles underworld. Lacking the formal hierarchy of the other organizations, the Tongs operate as a loosely-affilated group of independent gangs. Because of this structure, the Tongs can both ally themselves and make war on a rival simultaneously.

Yakuza
The Yakuza are firmly entrenched within the corporations of L.A. Tracing a direct line of command to Kumicho Imukari in Tokyo, the Sons of the Chrysanthemum are prime information brokers, generally feared by the other syndicates.

Street Gangs
Oppressed by the authorities, confined to the ghetto, and unable to earn an honest living, many of the youth in Los Angeles turn to street gangs for protection. Over 2,000 gangs claim territory within the greater L.A. area, and the ranks continue to swell.

18th Street Unlimited
The 18th Street gang became the largest gang in Los Angeles by the early 1990s, with a mostly-Latino membership estimated by some at 20,000. By far the most prominent gang presently, 18th Street spent the decades between 1990 and 2020 branching out into new territories in the city, claiming more turf than any other gang during that time. Fueled by a booming drug trade, its ranks enhanced by a growing population of poor, dispossessed youth, and willing to use violent tactics to achieve its goals, 18th Street has even managed to branch out into cities all along the Western Seaboard and into parts of Canada. This gang claims much, if not most, of the DMZ and for many people, 18th Street Unlimited embodies what they think of when they hear the words 'street gang'.

Armenian Power
Armenian Power, or AP as they are often known, was formed by the youth of the Armenian District of East Hollywood. Many had come from the war-torn streets of Beirut, and felt the need to defend their community from the other street gangs, particularly Mara Salvatrucha. As the number of Armenian immigrants grew, so too did the ranks of AP, and it was not long before they began expanding their territory. Members of AP tend to style themselves after gangsters, it is not uncommon for them to wear suits and drive luxury cars.

Asian Boyz
The Asian Boyz are perhaps the most violent street gang in Los Angeles, not an easy title to come by. Founded by immigrants from Southeast Asia, this streetgang has found a niche in extortion, home-invasion robbery, and murder for hire. Their hierarchy tends to more closely resemeble that of the Yakuza and Tongs than a Western street gang.

Black Peace Stones
Neither blood nor crip, the Black Peace Stones, or BPS, originally were a branch of a Chicago-based street gang. After pushing the local gangs out of their territory, they became known for running pogroms against interlopers into "the jungle", their claimed turf south of Jefferson.

Harlem Crips
One of L.A.'s largest, most well-established street gangs, the Harlem Crips were founded in the 1970s under the name Harlem Godfathers. With numerous ties in Mexico, this gang has a particular affinity for robbery and carjacking, shipping the goods south of the border and turning an easy profit.

Rollin 20s
The largest of the predominantly African American blood gangs, the Rollin 20s hold a vast territory and are one of the few gangs to directly challenge 18th Street's dominance of the DMZ. They indulge in a wide variety of criminal activity, including but not limited to drug trafficking, theft, and gambling.

Mara Salvatrucha
Founded by refugees of a civil war in El Salvador as a result of pressure from neighboring hispanic gangs, this gang maintains strong ties to the guerilla fighters of their homeland. In fact, many of the members of this gang are exiled soldiers. Because of this, Mara Salvatrucha, or MS, has access to sophisticated military weaponry, an advantage they have been unafraid to utilize in numerous conflicts on the streets.