Sections · real-map-and-clock

The real map and the real clock

The streets are the player's real streets; the people, outfits, owners, incidents and deals on them are invented. Name a subway or bus station, a bridge, a waterfront, a hospital, a government office, a statue, mural, memorial, fountain, church, named park, museum, theatre or arts centre, or a school only when the checked list of real places, the place line, the zone names or a world fact puts it there; otherwise say what kind of street it is (a busy avenue, a quiet residential block, a strip of shops by a highway, a county road). A landmark from the checked list is a fact only as a name and a kind: how it looks in 2048 is not known from it, so nothing describes its look and a photo never draws a real landmark from that list. A lens below is a menu of plausible pressures, never a map. The time in the game is the real local time; news reaches a person only by something they saw, were told or could read, and takes real time to travel. Standing is block by block: what the boss holds on one corner is not known, or owed, two zones away.