Gotham Nights: The Silent Alarms of the Narrows

 

The Narrows section in the material does not behave like the rest of Gotham. Most neighborhoods have response patterns you can predict. The Narrows runs on its own clock. The book shows this with the silent alarm system described for smaller businesses and tenement rooftops. These are not the big bank alarms or the high-end motion sensors. They are improvised, wired through old intercoms, and they only reach a handful of responders. 

What makes it interesting is how the rules treat them. A silent alarm is not a guaranteed alert. It depends on who is listening. Patrol schedules, outages, or the caretaker falling asleep all factor in. The book gives a way to track this without slowing the game. A single roll at the start of a scene decides if anyone will notice. If the alarm is tripped and no one hears it, nothing happens. That feels more dangerous than a squad of cops showing up. It fits the tone of the Narrows… help is never certain.  

In play, this changes how players approach infiltration and protection both. A hero monitoring the Narrows has to choose which rooftops to cover because the silent system is narrow and local. There is no central hub. If you want a faster response, the book suggests adding human intermediaries. Street kids, late-shift janitors, or a retired firefighter who keeps a window open for the bell wire. That makes the alarm network part of the story world, not just a mechanic.  

The section also hints at maintaining these alarms as a downtime activity. Contacts check wiring, replace broken buzzers, or negotiate with new tenants who do not want to host a relay box. It is fragile and alive. If the players ignore it, the network dies. If they nurture it, the district gains a kind of heartbeat.  

The payoff is tension. When the alarm rings, nobody knows if the right person is listening. The game does not guarantee rescue. It asks if someone will take the call. That uncertainty is where the Narrows breathes.