My first contact with the Wild Cards anthology was the Marvel's Epic imprint four-issue miniseries from 1990. Actually, it was the ad for the miniseries and the anthology drawn by Mike Mignola. After reading the four issues, I was intrigued enough to want to read the books, but alas getting American paperback books to Brazil in those dark ages of the internet was not easy.

I had pretty much forgotten about that when, while perusing the bookshelf in a friend's beach house a couple of years later, I found the first book of the series. I read it and was hooked. At that time, I was a GURPS GM and so used the Wild Cards sourcebook to start a campaign set in Rio. My friends and I used the option of playing ourselves after being exposed to the virus. The game was short, but fun.

I never saw the Wild Cards version of Rio expanded in game supplements or even in the books (it has a small chapter in Aces Abroad). So this is what I'll do in this installment - give you some elements to set an adventure or maybe a campaign in Wild Cards Rio.

In the course of writing this installment, I realized I had too much material for just one column, so I broke the material into two sections. The first one, this installment, deals mainly with the history of the setting up to the 90s, because the last books I read were the Card Sharks trilogy. If I ever get to read the later books, I'll expand the timeline in a future column.

The second part will focus on characters -- aces, jokers and nats - as well as adventure seeds.

The first book in the series lists the Rio outbreak as happening in 1947, but Aces Abroad puts it in 1948. I went with the first one, because it seemed more official and it aligns perfectly with the story I created.

Just a heads up: I'll cheat a bit by using a few details from a previous installment: Postcardshumans from Brazil.

A tropical Wild Card Day

Like New York, Rio de Janeiro was the site of a Xenovirus Takis-A outbreak. Unlike in the Big Apple, the appearance of jokers and aces in Rio didn't happen in an ordinary day, it happened smack dab in the middle of carnaval: February 17th, 1947, one day before Fat Tuesday.

At first, the throngs of costumed street revelers, many under the influence of gigantic amounts of alcohol, didn't notice what was going on, but as people began exploding, melting or dying in other dramatic ways, they caught on really quick.

There was panic and violence well into the night. Many a joker saw their draw turn into a Black Queen as they died at the hands of scared and angry mobs. During the night, the riots were finally controlled by the authorities and a semblance of peace achieved. Even though the terror of that Monday didn't repeat itself in the following days, there was unrest for months.

One other thing changed in city after the virus outbreak: the statue of Christ atop Corcovado mountain. One morning, the population woke up to find an unknown ace had used his or her newfound ability to handle the figure a joker draw. The Redentor (Redeemer) became the Corcunda Maneta (Armless Hunchback), but not officially, of course.

Carnaval became forever associated with Xenovirus Takis-A. Though the official Wild Card day in Rio is February, 17th, the true 'celebration' of the date happens the day before Fat Tuesday, which became known as Segunda-Feira da Rainha Preta (Black Queen Monday).

The numbers

Rio de Janeiro wasn't as heavily populated as New York, but its population exceeded one million in 1947. Later studies done by the Brazilian Institute of Statistical Geography (IBGE), taking into consideration that only 5% of the population was susceptible to the virus, arrived at the following numbers:

Rio's population (1947): 1,519,010
Total infected: 7,595

• Latents: 2,278
• Actives: 5,317
• Black Queens: 4,785
• Jokers: 479
• Aces: 53

It is believed that up to 15% of the recently-transformed jokers may have died in the early days, victims of nat violence.

Early years

President Eurico Gaspar Dutra took advantage of the outbreak to strengthen Brazil's connections to the United States. He established a cooperation agreement with the American government to exchange information about the Wild Card virus and those infected by it.

Dutra also secured loans from the United States to help fund his SALTE (an acronym for health, food, transport and energy in Portuguese) plan. His own economic team - and the conservative bloc - were against the initiative, but the president used the outbreak as leverage against their opposition and pushed the plan through.

Part of the SALTE budget went to the creation of the Departamento de Atividades Paranormais (DAP, the Department of Paranormal Activities). The DAP collated information on known wild carders, like Prodígio, and tried to recruit any aces it could find. It also funded relief efforts for the victims, such as the creation of a dedicated clinic, although this was eventually discontinued. It was the DAP that started relocating the joker population to Santa Teresa, one of Rio's historical neighborhoods.

From the 50s to the 60s

The DAP became a powerful weapon during Getúlio Vargas' administration (1951-1956). Gregório Fortunato, Vargas' personal aide and bodyguard, recognized the agency's value and used his influence to increase the DAP's budget and personnel.

The Anjo Negro (Dark Angel), as Gregório was called, recruited a small cadre of aces that those in the know referred to as his 'coro' (choir), the secret shadow of Vargas' personal protection squad, the Guarda Negra (Black Guard). Gregório used his choir to assassinate Carlos Lacerda, the president's main political enemy.

The assassination threw the country into political turmoil. The military, especially the Air Force, tried to create a parallel investigation of the murder, but failed to gather enough momentum, since no officer had been hurt or killed by the assassin, who was never identified or located.

Even so, the popular outcry took its toll on Vargas. Gregório, realizing his plan might backfire, engineered a fake attempt at the president's life, again using his aces. It was real enough to land Vargas in the hospital for a week. The attempt swung popular opinion back in favor of the president, who finished his term and easily elected his successor, Juscelino Kubitscheck.

Vargas heavily influenced Kubitscheck's administration (1956-1961) and when the construction of the new capital, Brasília, reached a financial stalemate, the former president convinced (some suspect there was ace help in this) his successor to abandon the project and keep the capital in Rio.

Charges of corruption during Kubitscheck's term paved the way for Vargas' return to the role of president in 1961, keeping Kubitscheck's vice-president, João Goulart, a 'known communist', in the post. The military and the conservative bloc went ballistic. They wanted to oust Vargas from power, but knew his ace choir was a big obstacle.

Changing that scenario became Major Mário Guerra's job. Using intelligence-gathering techniques, well-placed bribes and subtle brute force, Guerra identified and approached the leader of the choir, the ace known as Açougueiro (Butcher), who was more than happy to turn coat in exchange for money and power.

In 1964, Açougueiro killed Vargas by blowing up an artery in his brain, which looked like a regular aneurism, and also finished off Gregório. The military prevented Goulart from becoming the new president and started a dictatorship that would last two decades.

The lead years

The military junta initially made several promises of keeping the democratic process intact, but that was soon forgotten. The repression only increased, with people who spoke against the regime being kidnapped and disappearing inside the many prisons.

The government violence resulted in the spawning of a counter-revolutionary movement that robbed banks, kidnapped foreign diplomats and attacked military installations. Both sides of the conflict employed aces.

The military junta had the Açougueiro, the rest of the choir and a few other aces it had recruited, such as Capitão-do-Mato (Slave Hunter). The rebels had a group of independent aces that joined the fight for freedom, like so many nats and jokers. First among the rebel aces was the pyrokinetic Molotov.

This conflict raged on for the better part of 15 years. By the end of the 70s, the rebels were almost crushed, but the Swarm invasion helped them. Although the junta used the aliens as an excuse to rally the population behind itself, the truth is that it had to apply most of its resources, including its aces, into containing the Swarm.

This left them open to a renewed surge of rebel activity. By the mid-80s, it was clear the military could not hold power anymore and an agreement was made to transition the country back into a democratic state. This was cemented in 1985 by the election of Tancredo Neves as president.

The New Republic

The new democratic phase of the country came just in time to receive the United Nations- and World Health Organization-sponsored fact-finding mission about the state of wild card affairs worldwide, which arrived in Rio by the end of 1986.

Brazil's redemocratization opened the door for a new 'wild card chic' period. No longer required to clearly state their political allegiance, more aces felt at ease to come into the limelight. And even those that worked for the government were introduced to the public as a team of heroes ready to defend the country against any threat, be it terrestrial or alien.

Even the jokers got a break. Though poverty and social exclusion among this groups was still widespread, as the world tour found out, a combination of fortuitous events years before allowed them a measure of participation in the city's life.

Saramandaia

In the 19th century, Santa Teresa was a rich neighborhood atop the city's hills. This changed during the early decades of the 20th century, when it became a low-income area. The relocation of jokers, after 1947, sealed Santa Teresa's fate as a poor, favela-ridden neighborhood.

Even though only a few hundred jokers were moved into the area, the former inhabitants of the neighborhood saw that as a warning sign and left the area in a massive exodus during the following years. Those that stayed were too poor to go anywhere else, but these still felt that, despite their economic and social situation, they were better than the deformed scum that was moving in.

The jokers found themselves at the strange place of being at the very bottom of society, below even those that were considered the icons of social exclusion. It didn't take long for the rest of the population to start calling Santa Teresa Curingolândia (Jokerland).

This lasted until 1976, when in an odd, but bold move, TV Globo, one of the country's major networks, decided to employ jokers in its magical realism soap opera, Saramandaia.This was the first time the big media shined a positive light on the jokers besides carnaval, the only chance they had of openly mingle - in a limited way -- with nats.

The importance of the event didn't escape Zé Pudim (Joe Pudding), an overly obese, brown-skinned and constantly sweating joker that smelled of cinnamon. Rumor had it Pudim belonged to one of Rio's elite families. He had been exiled to Curingolândia, all his needs taken care of, to protect his relatives' reputation - some stated his joker status was less important to his family than his skin color.

Being well read and considering the other jokers his real family, Pudim realized he could use the soap opera's popularity to improve conditions for his lot. He blackmailed his family into providing the funds he needed and invested heavily on publicity and renovation of the neighborhood. His goal was to change the name of Curingolândia to Saramandaia, bringing all the glamour associated with the latter to the former.

To that end, he built a bar and restaurant called Pavão Mysteriozo (Mysterious Peacock), named after the soap opera's theme song, and hired Cerli, a joker with a peacock's tail instead of hair (and peacock's feet) to run it. The place became a sensation among nats and aces and turned into the cornerstone of Pudim's pet project.

The joker also heavily bribed the police to keep the officers off Curingolândia's inhabitants and visitors. Pudim's gift of gab and money convinced police command to deputize a joker as a liaison between them and the community. Thus, Cabo Jumento (Corporal Jackass) became Rio's first joker police officer.

When the soap opera ended in 1977, some of the interest in the joker neighborhood decreased, but the seed planted by Pudim germinated and the area survived as a nightlife destination, with Saramandaia becoming its new name.

However, those living there knew that Saramandaia was only the outer part of the neighborhood, the one frequented by nats, with brightly-colored houses, craft shops, Pavão Mysteriozo and other bars.

Curingolândia was the inner part, the one in which squalid living conditions and unbridled poverty still reigned. A place where non-jokers - wisely -- feared to thread. Pudim's money wasn't enough to change the whole neighborhood, but he would have another shot at it 12 years later.

A Wild Card Carnaval

The Beija-Flor (hummingbird) samba school had been known in former carnavais for its luxurious floats and rows, designed by its art director, Joãosinho Trinta. His parades were so moving they were remembered and admired long after the show was over, even if Beija-Flor didn't win.

In 1989, Trinta, with the financial help of Zé Pudim, surprised the revelers by bringing the wild carders to the Sambódromo (Sambodrome) in a parade entitled Ases e Curingas numa Canastra Tropical (Aces and Jokers in a Tropical Canasta).

Aces and a large contingent of jokers took part in the parade, which not only displayed the glitter and glamour of the superpowered wild carders, but also the poverty in which most of the jokers lived. It even included a copy of the Armless Hunchback Christ, but the Catholic Church sued Beija-Flor and the replica, though appearing in the parade, was covered with black plastic.

The samba school didn't win the championship, coming in at second place, but the parade was so mind blowing many people considered Beija-Flor the righteous winner. That carnaval rekindled interest in jokers and Saramandaia.

Public officials took advantage of the publicity to promote improvements in the neighborhood. Thanks to Zé Pudim and other more socially-inclined jokers (and even an ace, Irmão Sombra [Brother Shadow]), these investments finally went further than Saramandaia, reaching the poor and disenfranchised inhabitants of Curingolândia.

The Curingolândia clinic received official funding again - the first time in decades. Cabo Jumento was made a real police officer and Saramandaia gained its first police precinct.

The last offspring of Beija-Flor's parade was the Cordão do Curingão (Big Joker's street block), a carnaval block (a street band, sort of a micro-samba school, specific to a neighborhood) that traditionally parades around Saramandaia on Black Queen Monday.

Some Wild Card slang & translations

Although Rio's population uses the imported, poker-related Wild Card slang developed in New York, it also came up with its own, based on buraco (hole), a form of canasta popular in Brazil. The first listing is the actual translation, followed by the contextual meaning.

Ás (pl. ases): ace (pl. aces).
Ás na manga: ace up the sleeve.
Bagaço: discard pile; unimportant wild carders, usually jokers or deuces.
Canastra: canasta; wild carder-involving mess or problem.
Canastra real: royal canasta; a BIG wild card mess.
Canastra suja: dirty canasta; a joker-related problem.
Carta do meio (da trinca): middle card in a three-card group; a wild card lover (usually derogatory).
Carta fora do baralho: a card out of the deck; someone who is not relevant anymore to a given situation.
Curingás: joker/ace.
Comprar um(a): to draw a(n) ace/joker/Black Queen
Comprar o morto:to draw the extra deck in a pot; to be killed by a wild carder.
Dois de paus: two of clubs; deuce.
Embaralhado: shuffled; to be mixed in wild card business, usually refers to nats who are always embroiled in wild card affairs.
Lavadeira: the same as carta do meio, more commonly refers to a woman.
Trunfo: trump; a powerful ace

I hope you liked it. Don't miss the second part next month and feel free to share any comments, suggestion and criticisms on the forum. If you ever run this, let me know too.