Spelleasy

The time – the roaring 20’s, the place – San Francisco.  A very different Bay Area than you or anyone else would be familiar with.  Sea serpents prowl the harbors alongside merchant vessels from China, India, and Atlantis.  Dwarven rum runners hire orc toughs to guard the trucks coming into S.F. from their clan enclaves in the Sierra Nevadas.  This is an Earth where magic is real and humans share the planet with elves, dwarfs, and all manners of supernatural creatures. 

Shortly after the turn of the century, the Great War happened, only on this Earth the combination of machine guns and airplanes with wizards, dragons, and demons resulted in untold devastation across all of Europe.  When all was finally quiet, some countries decided that magic was too dangerous and had to be regulated or outright banned.  In 1919 the United States Congress ratified the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the casting of spells, manufacture and use of magical artifacts, and the strict regulation of magical creatures, including citizens of Fae descent.

Of course, not everyone was happy with this new way of life.  Underground bars and social clubs, called spelleasies became the hangout of choice for those looking to obtain magical power, trade in artifacts, or simply because they had too much Fae blood in their ancestry.  Being illegal, it wasn’t long before these clubs attracted the attention of organized crime families.  Before anyone knew it, most spelleasies were being run by various mobs and lesser gangs.  San Francisco was a hotbed of such places, being far from the prying eyes of Washington and the Feds.  Soon, magical folk of all kinds flocked to the Bay Area, putting down roots and digging in against the yoke of government regulators, all the while trying not to become entangled in the criminal activities running rampant in the big cities.