Antarctica 2070, The Frozen South Options

[Omer Joel]

I was thinking about GMing a few runs (a mini-campaign?) of SR4 set in Anarctica, especially dealing with near-coast underwater ops and arcologies; I have Target: Wastelands (well, not on hand right now, but I have it at home so I'll read through it in the weekend), but I was thinking about Antarctica going through extensive development in the 2060's. So has anyone run a game in set in Antarctica (in any version of SR)? Any good, real "runner haven" (does McMurdo - sp? - fullfills this role well?)? Any piracy along the coasts (the "wildcatters" iirc from T:WL come close, but anything heavier)? Any other inspiration and/or ideas?

[Grinder]

Abandoned polar research bases come to my mind as possible havens.

[The Jopp]

I would say that very few OLD polar research bases would still be readily available, unless they were built on solid ground. One thing one has to remember with things built on ice is that the ice move. Several older research bases have simply collapsed due to the ice shifting below it, or in the case of those that are dug-in inside the ice have collapsed.

Still, it’s not impossible for people to keep them intact with the help of a few engineers and a few elementals/spirits to keep the place in one piece.

[JRDobbs]

Much as it's only a mediocre novel, you might want to check out a copy of Kim Stanely Robinson's new book "Antarctica." It deals with a dark nearly cyber-punky future of the "way down under" as a corporate science park rented out to tourists (the McMurdo Hilton), mineral explorers, and international economic and diplomatic wheelers and dealers.

Some SR angles for Antarctica:

* Defending mineral resource extraction sites against eco-terrorists (or working for the eco-terrorists). By 2070 it is quite likely that there will be oil/gas rigs on the oceanic ice shelves and more temperate near-Antarctic waters.

* Telesma -- 24 hour sunlight/darkness, auroras, and penguin shamans make for all kinds of interesting biological and mineral telesma.

* Extractions -- Particularly in the deep field, top scientists can be a few hours from McMurdo by helo. Runners could easily overwhelm a research camp or station during a storm and be long gone before any help or resupply could arrive.

* McMurdo in general -- The base is currently sort of a dirty mining town of about 1000 (300 in winter) ruled by the competing influence of the National Science Foundation (NSF, which upholds the heroic vision of Antarctica as an international continent for science) and The Contractor (Currently Raytheon Polar Services--the private company which actually keeps the base running while attempting to make a profit, and which treats the facilities like a large corporate office park/research station/plant which just happens to be at the bottom of the world). During summer months, people are constantly coming and going at McMurdo (scientists, construction workers, facilities workers, etc.) meaning the "small town" nature of the base is sometimes diminished, which would allow new faces (e.g. shadowrunners in this case) to blend in. Best of all, from the runner point of view, you don't need a passport to enter Antarctica. To get back into any country, however, you do.

Currently, McMurdo is a very controlled area (there are certain places like the helo pad, radar towers, power plant, etc., where non-authorized personnel are forbidden and are actively denied access). Even for more open-access areas, including the land surrounding the base (including the road which connects McMurdo to Scott Base, the Kiwi installation over the hill), one still needs to register with a supervisor and/or the firehouse (S&R center) before leaving the base campus or even deviating from a normal work routine. In 2070, much of this access control is going to be done via commlink. I would expect McMurdo to be an exclusive Active Mode only area.

[Azralon]

[FrankTrollman]

I like to take Antarctica plotlines from Neon Genesis Evangelion and H.P. Lovecraft. But that's probably because I'm a bad person.

Antarctica is a continent that is underneath up to 2 kilometers of ice and snow. Target Wastelands heavily implies that a lot of power sites are at "ground level" and would thus require a glacier quake or a mining operation to reveal. Plenty of space for the Mountains of Madness or Adam.

Going deep into the ice astrally makes you die. Fill in your favorite color from out of space here. The Trench (lowest point on earth not covered by seawater) has a bunch of geometric shapes under the ice, which people call "the cities", and all of them are within walking distance of Mt. Kirkpatrick. S&K seems to think that there are relics or creatures from a bygone era on Mt. Kirkpatick itself. In reality, we've found some pretty impressive dinosaur skeletons on that mountain.

There are snow spirits that hate you and use storm a lot. Revlup operates super-max security pisons in Antarctica that jail super ninjas, and awakened criminals. Can you say "The Rock"?

-Frank

[JRDobbs]

[boskop-albatros]

:twirl: :twirl: hello this is bos-al

Well another continent that has alot of unanswered questions the shadowrun is Antarctica and there are at least two places in Antarctica that havnen't gotton any write-up so far so I will now give them to you

Mt. Erebus--OK OK this is a Active Volcano and it is the Second Largest standing pool of Lava on the Planet (Is Hawai'i the first?) If THERE is anywhere on the Antarctic Continent that a DRAGON can lair then this is the place-and if a dragon was to actually bother to live all the way down at the bottom of the world it would probably be a Great Form with something to hide or a reason to want to hide (The forms I'd expect to live in Mt. Erebus world be either be a Western Dragon or a Fethered Serpent [because of Mt. Errbus being close to South American because it is on the Antarctic Peninsula]

Lake Vostok-Well in Real Life from what I've heard all info in or out of the Lake Vostok area is controlled by the N.S.A.-YES THAT N.S.A.- Why is this so; becuase Lake Vostok is the one and only SubGlacial Lake!--it is out underneath the east antarctic ice cap and can be see from space as a "smooth spot" on the ice cap--A subglacial lake is pocket of Liquide Water that has formed under the ice--form the research on it Lake Vostok seems to be caused by a HOT SPOT on the Antarctic Land Mass itself--quite possibly like the African Rift Valley--The water of Lake Vostok has not benn exposed to the atmostphere it possibly as long as 20 Million years---- :eek: ------ :twirl: Very Interesting!!

[FlakJacket]

Can't say for Mt. Erebus but I know that Lake Vostok got some coverage in T:WL.

[ Spoiler ]

Russia still claimed the area but didn't have the resources to keep a presence so Yamatetsu moved in and took over in their name through some sort of joint project. Ares was very interested in the lake because it mirrored projected conditions on Europa or Titan, I forget which since I'm going from memory here, so they wanted to use the place as a testing ground for the remote drone probes they were going to be sending to them. Yamatetsu rebuffed them and kept the pace firmly for themselves- to what ends was left unsaid.

[Omer Joel]

Doesn't T:WL mention a magnetic anomaly under Lake Vostok?

[JRDobbs]

Lake Vostok is a buried lake (one of several) which exists beneath the East Antarctic ice sheet and is basically kept fed by the grinding of the ice on a bedrock substrate. This makes it similar to models of conditions on Europa, which predict a liquid layer beneath a thick ice cover (minus the ice sheet grinding).

There is much speculation about the biological potential of the buried Antarctic lakes--both in terms of terestrial and (by extension) extraterrestial biology (i.e., could Europa harbor life). If I were a megacorp, I would be interested in the industrial and weapons applications of extremeophile microbes.

IRL, Vostok station is run by the Russian governmnet. You can speculate as to its "true owners" all day long, but at the end of the day, it's just an interesting geo- and biological site--not a UFO landing pad, or whatever conspiracy theory buffs might like it to be.

[blakkie]

[JRDobbs]

The oil is all well beneath the ice (beneath the sea bed, really). With a drill site on top, I imagine all you'd need is a rather long, flexible tube for extraction. As the ice moves, you just feed out more piping. My geological specialty is not oil, though, so I bow to those with more experience and knowledge. Less ice-covered, but still "Antarctic" (i.e., not claimed by Argentina, etc.) waters could support drilling platforms similar to those used elsewhere in the world.

[Stormdrake]

Am having images of the movie "The Thing". Not a bad plot just replace accidently awakened evil space alien that got itself frozen with accidently awakened evil horror that got itself frozen. The so called "cities" would really lend themselves to a awakened nightmare scenario.

[blakkie]

[Valentinew]

[Stormdrake]

And were back to old horror movies, lol.

[Trax]

And were back to old horror movies, lol.

In an extremely hostile environment like Antartica, it's hard not to envision some kind of horror scenario, it's the perfect location for one. Arcologies under the sea, space bases, cruise liners, abandoned cities/towns/base in the middle of nowhere, islands, etc. where people are isolated from the rest of the world and help will either take hours, if not days to arrive due to various conditions.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned AvP yet. Heh.

[MJBurrage]

I would say that very few OLD polar research bases would still be readily available, unless they were built on solid ground. One thing one has to remember with things built on ice is that the ice move. Several older research bases have simply collapsed due to the ice shifting below it, or in the case of those that are dug-in inside the ice have collapsed.

Still, it's not impossible for people to keep them intact with the help of a few engineers and a few elementals/spirits to keep the place in one piece.

Given the condition of Discovery Hut & Scott's Hut, I would actually expect more modern bases to be even more perfectly preserved.