WthC - Setting thoughts Masks

Current events have got me thinking on some of the setting 'appearance' for Welcome To The City. Since most games will be taking place in a densely populated urban environment and surrounding areas any sort of viral outbreak would be a bad thing indeed. Most likely they would have already experienced them a few times with the overall lack of cleanliness of the City. I mean it's a grim, dirty place with little to no oversight on pollution controls, waste dumping and about every other bad thing you can think about. So people will do what they can to try to give themselves even the slightest bit of protection.

Looking at areas where there is heavy viral outbreak one of those things would be facemasks that cover the nose and mouth. The poorest of folks would be using old shirt material, scarves and whatever else they can find. Eventually leading to those who can afford hard shelled units with full filtration. But where there is a desire for a product the capitalistic world that is the City will also step right in to sell you something.

Custom designs, logo's, various features you can have added, soft cloth type masks and one that are made of hard plastic. The sky is the limit when people are shelling out the cash for it. So there would be entire market for these.

But masks also hinder facial recognition software and that is a problem for those who like to squeeze as much control over the population as they can. To remedy this problem there would be various checkpoints when you move from one city section to another. They claim it is to 'neutralize' any harmful viral or bacterial deposits on the travelers. Basically they are led into a clean room in bathed in a UV light for a few seconds. They have to remove masks, gear and extra clothing during the process. During this they are of course scanned into the system visually and identified.

Then for those who may make their way to the upper corporate levels will be given masks to wear. Clear plastic with full filtration. They will not be allowed to wear anything that blocks the ability for cameras to see their face.

So masks will become an sort of identifying part of the setting. The basic blue CWD workers will be issued standard masks with their uniform but they are allowed to wear whatever they like as long as it's semi tasteful. Therefore a place on the character sheet for a description of the mask, or masks, they commonly wear may be a good idea.

As a GM this gives you an easy way to describe NPCs via 'funny hat characterization' with their masks. Along with a place for your players to spend their characters money at.