Local Guides/Sourcebooks., Your area, your way. Options

[Megu]

Found this while searching for a local group, it's really detailed all the down to historical landmarks and mafia families.

http://tampa-bay-shadows.googlegroups.com/...qocOGWUY90Yyf_g

Does look interesting, but is there more to this or just the intro?

[Radical-B]

Does look interesting, but is there more to this or just the intro?

That's all I could find.

[Megu]

Blade' homebrew Zouerate, Mauritania. In French, unfortunately, but with a little Google Translate and guesswork it's quite readable.

[hermit]

Actually I am working on a translation, whcih I will use to experiment a bit with pdf creators.

[suoq]

I'm aware of three very different sets of notes on Omaha as a setting.

My setting has Offutt AFB duties expanded because of CAS and NAN as well as a history of awakened research. (Lots of intelligence gathering, research, and deep bunkers filled with smart people.) There are some interesting retired military residing in Omaha, keeping to themselves. Western Nebraska has a lot of border smuggling as well as a large resistance group of people driven out of the Nan who want to return to their homes (they have the same view of Denver and Colorado that people who view themselves as Palestinians view Jerusalem and Israel). The border, as a result, is pretty messy, keeping Offutt busy. Lincoln is pretty much a refugee dump, filled with the people who quit fighting after the NAN won and the people who send others off to fight while hiding in a safe place. Boys Town has broken away from the Church and become a home for Metahumans not accepted by their families. Boys Town looks more like a concentration camp than anything else, partially as a result of years of people wanting to keep them in and partially as a result of years of defending themselves against the outside world. A metahuman growing up in Boys Town will have a very different view of the world. The rural areas still rural, although any abandoned Atlas sites are well defended (by whom and for what reason are questions best not asked).

LurkerOutThere has a completely different, but still very good setting. I'm not sure what he's made public.

David 'Lightfinger' West has an Omaha setting at http://members.cox.net/~lightfinger/sr/place.htm

[Synner667]

Good to see this resurrected.

[HugeC]

I wrote this up for my players in a game that went 2 sessions before we starting doing something else. There's not terrible much here, but perhaps it will be of use to someone. I didn't have access to any official cannon except an SR timeline when I wrote it, so if I have crossed something official folks have written, that's why.

Detroit in the 2070's

[ Spoiler ]

You wanna hear about Detroit, chummer? I can tell you, allright. I've been kicked around the D for near a century, but they never rattled my brains. I remember coming up here like it was yesterday, back in the nineteen seventies! Things sure have changed since then- whole world's gone crazy. But I guess if you young folk have got sense enough to listen to your elders and get some history, then maybe there's hope yet for this old town. Just keep those drinks comin', wouldn't want my throat to get dry while I spin my yarn.

The New Millenium
So the first thing to know is that Detroit used to be famous for the automobile. 'Round the turn of the 20th century they started buildin' 'em here, and back when I was a kid, seemed like Motown was what Detroit was always gonna be. But things went haywire just after the start of the 21st century, and the Big Three (I'm talkin' car companies now, not megacorps) found themselves going bankrupt. Back then I didn't pay much attention, but I remember something about banks not making loans, which stopped folks buying cars, which pretty much gummed up Motown's entire economy. See, the car companies being in trouble meant everyone was in trouble, 'cause just about everybody back then got their income from the car companies in one way or another. The guys on the line got laid off first, and then the engineers, and next the parts manufacturers couldn't sell their wares, and the roach-coach driver didn't have workers to sell sandwiches to, and even the joygirls couldn't make time no more. It was all pretty bleak for a while, but then Ares showed up and started buying corporations by the block, starting with GM (that's General Motors, biggest of the Big Three, in case ya don't know). Ares Financial started making low-interest loans to car buyers, and it didn't take ol' Lucius Aurelius long to turn GM right around and make it profitable again. Within a couple years, the economy started to recover, and Detroit seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief in 2010. 'Course if we had known then what was coming, we woulda started crying instead.

Of the original Big Three, only Ford made it out the other end of the credit crisis intact, as you may know since they are still around to this day. Chrysler and Nissan merged, and managed to struggle on, though they lost a lot of market share. Things seemed to be getting back to normal. Then in 2011, folks started having pointy-eared babies, which caused a bit of an uproar. Prophets predicted doom (when don't they?), but let's face it: elf and dwarf babies are cute, and nothing much to get upset about. VITAS, on the other hand, was scary as hell. All that pollution that had been pumping out of the factories and power plants over the century or so since the industrial revolution? Well, those who got hit by the virus became deadly allergic to it, and you could catch the virus from people who were infected. VITAS spread like a cheap slitch, and with it came riots, looting, and then martial law. By the time it had passed, a full quarter of the world's population was dead, and upwards of half the people died in some of the slums around here, where medical care was scarce and folks were packed in like sardines. Then came goblinization in 2021, and then another strain of VITAS, and more riots and martial law. Basically, the whole world went to hell for about 20 years, but in the background that whole time, Ares was quietly expanding.

Ares Macrotown
After the whole debacle with the credit crisis, the state and local government folks got the idea that having so much of the economy in one sector might not be such a good idea. Turns out Ares would help the guvvies with that. After Ares bought GM, its world headquarters was moved to the Renaissance Center right there downtown. Then they bought General Dynamics, and Bank of America, and even NASA, the old U.S. government space agency, and who knows how many little companies besides. Ares operations in Michigan were expanded, and an economic boom started in Detroit that brought a lot of folks back from the 'burbs to work in the city proper. Old slums that had been mucking up the city's image for decades were torn down, with shiny new neighborhoods built in their place for Ares employees to live in. When the orks and trolls all got herded up in Veteran's Park in Hamtramck, Lucius Aurelius paid for better shelters and food for those poor folks out of his own pocket. Then he bought the Tigers (who had been on a losing streak), tore down their shoddy old park and built the Macrodome in the space of a few months, and the next season, they pulled off a World Series win. The big computer crash of '29 caused more economic problems, but not for Ares; they just snapped up more businesses weakened by the sudden economic collapse and somehow made them more profitable. By 2030, seemed Ares and Lucuis Aurelius were everywhere you looked. Folks around here were positively in love with that man, and his budding megacorp. That good will was passed down to his son Leonard, who took over the business then. But Leonard's time at the helm of Ares was all too short.

Knight Rises
Damien Knight, that old corporate shark we love to hate, managed to sneak a majority share of Ares out from under the noses of the Aurelius family by using some kind of coordinated computer stock manipulation, dubbed the Nanosecond Buyout. Next thing you know, he's the CEO and Chairman of the Board. Unlike the Aureliuses, Knight wasn't much into philanthropy; profits and power seemed to be his motives. Over the next few years he started buying off members of the city council. Then he took advantage of a corruption scandal in the Detroit Police Department to have our boys in blue replaced by Knight Errant Security, an arrangement that remains to this day. Now most folks didn't mind all these things since the economy kept getting better and better with Knight around. Over time though, he started cutting back wages for the lower-end workers, and some neighborhoods began the slow descent into slumhood. K-E started getting lazy, and eventually places like Hamtramck and Inkster became the drekholes they are today.

My personal favorite stunt of Knight's was the Peoplemover II project, a mass transit initiative that would set up subway tunnels connecting the entire metro area. It was proposed in 2037 by one of Knight's flunkies on the Detroit city council, and ended up being funded by the state and pretty much all the municipalities in the sprawl. Guess who got the contract? Yep, Ares. They began digging tunnels starting in the old salt mines beneath the city, but by 2042, the project had to be scrapped when most of the tunnels were 'accidentally' flooded. The project's funding floundered, and eventually it was scrapped altogether, but not before Knight had swindled billions in taxpayer nuyen out of the various governments involved.

Windsor
Now something else happened in 2030 that's important, and that's the formation of the United Canadian and American states. Funny thing is, Canada always seemed just like another state in the old U.S. to me even before they were officially merged. Anyway, once the Act of Union was signed, Windsor was no longer in a foreign country, and travel and trade began to flourish across the two bridges since you didn't need a passport to cross anymore. Oh, I forgot to mention the East Span! It was the second bridge to Canada constructed in Detroit, built by none other than Ares Construction back in the teens. So, due to the way the local laws got grandfathered in (no comments about my age, thanks), prostitution was legal in Windsor, which sparked the development of a huge red-light district there. Now, just because it ain't legal doesn't stop the joytoys from prancing up and down 8-Mile, but for law-abiding salarymen, Windsor became a very popular hangout. The Detroit casinos opened satellite branches there, and Windsor grew much richer as a result of all the new "vice tourism".

Meanwhile, in Southfield...
Now something I haven't mentioned so far is that Ares wasn't the only megacorp building a power base in the area during the early 21st century. A consortium of Japanacorps that called itself the Japan Business Society of Southeast Michigan was buying up land in one of the nearby 'burbs. The corps that made up the JBSSM (megas like Fuchi, Mitsuhama, Renraku and Shiawase, as well as several smaller J-corps) eventually decided that paying taxes to the local government was a pain, so they just took the whole city over. It took some years to set it up, but they got their guys onto the city council, managed to buy the Civic Center from the town under false pretenses of charity, and finally in 2027, they had enough clout to just dissolve the city and turn it into the Southfield Extraterritorial Enclave, or SEE. All the private citizens living in the former city of Southfield that weren't in the direct employ of a JBSSM member corp were kicked out of their homes and given a token stipend for their troubles. Some folks tried to fight it with lawsuits, but even with thousands of plaintiffs, there wasn't much they could do against the combined legal might of the JBSSM. In addition to home thievery, they kicked out ALL metahumans, employee or no, along with anyone immediately related to a metahuman. Many of those folks ended up at refugee shelters in Hamtramck or on Belle Isle, and the J-corps earned a hefty helping of meta hatred for what they did.

Anyway, after they created the SEE, the four megas in the JBSSM started work on Renraku Arcology 2: Electric Boogaloo, better known to us locals as the SEE-Hive. Unlike in Seattle, this time it was a shared venture, with Fuchi, MCT, Shiawase and Renraku each owning a quarter of the arcology. They bulldozed a full square mile worth of residential zone (remember all those people they kicked out?) and began construction in 2043, and by 2052, it was done. It made the headlines worldwide, and slowed commuter traffic on the Lodge and Reuther freeways due to gawking at the monstrous thing. Anyway, much like its Seattle predecessor, the lower levels of the SEE-Hive (or Southfield Arcology by its official name) are a giant mall. As soon as it opened, there was a very popular boycott movement started by Mothers of Metahumans due to the poor treatment the JBSSM had given metas in years past. In order to avoid plunging profit margins, the JBSSM had to eat their hat, and in 2054 they rescinded the ban against metahumans entering the SEE. MoM in turn lifted the boycott, and the SEE-Hive mall started see quite a bit of business.

The Underworld
I guess that brings me to the seedy side of life in the D. We have all the usual organized crime syndicates at work in the area, including the yakuza (based in and around the SEE), the tongs, and the mob. They all do the usual things that crime syndicates do (drugs, prostitution, gun running, theft, racketeering, and so on), but with a bit of a twist. During the first big computer crash, some bright thug got the idea to start offering the mob's services as a kind of banking network. They would hand out markers (they called the chips 'zitti') in exchange for nuyen or other favors, and you could use the markers as cash at mafia-run establishments all throughout the city, for anything from groceries and medicinal drugs to weapons and black market cyberware. It wasn't too hard for them to do, since they already had guys who were pretty good at keeping the books straight. Though at that time it was only on a small scale, and only for as long as the Matrix was down (preventing easy electronic transactions with real cred), it turned them a tidy profit, and they kept it going even after things got back to normal. More recently, during Crash 2.0, the practice really took off all over the sprawl, and the mob became an almost legitimate organization, depended on by just about everyone in the lower class neighborhoods to do business in an efficient manner. That earned the mob a lot of cred with the common folk, and Knight Errant has an especially hard time pinning anything on mob bosses these days thanks to that. Seeing the success that it brought, the other syndicates have picked up a similar practice, making markers pretty handy things to have, even if they can only be used "in-network."

One more thing I should mention, while on the topic of organized crime, is Aztechnology. Little Aztlan is down by the Ambassador Bridge, and a gang called Los Jaguares has claimed it as their turf. Some say the gang's just a front for AZT, but whether or not that's true, those guys are some mean hombres. The thugs in charge of the mob and the yaks seem like civilized gentlemen compared to those cutthroats. Word has it they are into organ legging, human trafficking, and the most addictive drugs and BTLs you can find in the sprawl. If I were you, chummer, I'd steer clear of those guys, or at least stay off their bad side.

Awakened Detroit
The Awakened World is alive and humming in the D. We got ghouls slogging around in the sewers, vampires lurking in the shadows, mages and shamans practicing their craft all over the city, and even a few dragons that you can catch a glimpse of now and then. I think it was some time around 2050 when folks on the Belle Isle Ferry took the first pictures of a leviathan known as the Lake Erie Monster. Since then I hear TerraFirst has claimed that same dragon as an ally in the fight against pollution. We also had a dragon alight on the tippy-top of the Ren Cen back in '57. Folks took to calling that one Redwing, and it became something of a mascot for the hockey team, even though nobody has seen it since.

[Megu]

I haven't gone over the whole thing, but thank you Huge, I have been wanting to run a Detroit game for a while now.

[Radical-B]

I'm kind of lucky I stumbled upon this from google groups. Before the new 6th World Almanac I didn't even think Tampa would even be big enough to be recognized. Though neither really have as much freedom for missions as Seattle fluff, I'm still happy that I'm able to use my own county maps for runs.

http://www.mediafire.com/?y4tw7211d04pz1d

[Wordman]

The official SR sourcebooks are lacking in the areas that they cover [some surprisingly so], or provide only sketchy info...
...But many of you have filled in those gaps, making the world a richer, more interesting, more exciting place to explore and enjoy SR in.

Once upon a time, this was the point of of many of the location write ups in the Neoanarchists Guide to Everything Else. The locations chapter of the Collected NAGEE contains a number of "local guides", including my guide to my own home town, Pueblo, Colorado.

[Wakshaani]

I live outside Philly and grew up outside NYC and went to school in Brooklyn. If you want send the file to me to look through. Philly actually could be really cool. Include Camden NJ and you've got barrens. Go north of the city only a few miles and it gets very green very quick and for spirits there are all sorts of historical sites.

I've been trying to tie my horrible notes into an actual background guide for Philadelphia, the city that I choose to use as a basis for my game (When there is one, sigh) ... be thrilled to have someone that actually knows the place look it over.

Aside from that, native Tennessean here, so, I can hammer out all *kinds* of stuff for the CAS. Texas has Aztlan, Atlanta has the federal government, but TN is where all the good stuff happens. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Megu]

Once upon a time, this was the point of of many of the location write ups in the Neoanarchists Guide to Everything Else. The locations chapter of the Collected NAGEE contains a number of "local guides", including my guide to my own home town, Pueblo, Colorado.

I was going to say, the Pueblo and North Bay ones both jump out at me as really good. And Chambana's pretty cool but I kind of wonder what kind of effect the implosion of Chicago would have on it? It seems like post 1e that could be something to capitalize on.

[CanRay]

I've been thinking about doing one for my hometown for quite some time, but then I realize that I want to think about that place as little as possible.

...

Which, in another way, makes it the perfect place to have Shadowrun, doesn't it?

[Daddy's Litt...]

Neat! I had a website I was going to build called "Target: Hometown" to host this exact sort of writeup. I wasn't sure it would generate any interest. Guess I was wrong. I'll have to see if I can find my writeup of Hanover, PA.

Hanover might draw lots of shamans and spooky types drawn to near by Gettysburg. Snow fox and I have been talking about writing up Philly for a while now.

[wilver]

Shadows of Las Vegas

I wrote up the following as some background material for my players on Vegas in the Sixth World. Droplets of information about Vegas are scattered throughout some books, but I wanted to have a single document that had all of the key information up front. Additions/criticisms/comments appreciated.

Caveat: I am not a local, but am moderately familar with the area beyond the strip.

Text below...

[ Spoiler ]

Shadows of Las Vegas

by Lotus

Get it? Get it?

Anyone who’s been to Vegas knows that it’s so bright, everywhere, that there are no shadows. The same goes for our Shadows -- for a city more or less openly run by the Mob (or rather, three Mobs, more on that later), there’s no reasons for criminals to hide. That tells you most of what you need to know about Vegas. The following saying tells you the rest:

“To call Las Vegas ‘Sin City’ is an insult. Not to the City, but to Sin.”

Yes, yes, there’s gambling. There’s gambling everywhere -- the kind you find in the bright lights of the Core is just the meatspace version of the countless Matrix sites. But in Vegas you can gamble on *anything*. Your smoky OTB down the street is nothing compared to the intestine-inverting stench of the underground troll on dwarf death-matches that happen at derelict warehouses in North Las Vegas. Yes, yes, there’s prostitution, which is the fancy Anglo word for “whores”. It’s been legal here so long it’s blase -- but remember that Vegas gets regular visitors from all around the world, and everybody has a different itch that can be scratched for a price. Like blondes? Come on, too easy. Blonde teenage ork teens? A dozen geriatric troll men? A cockatrice? Anything for a price.

Which is the real reason people like you and me come to Vegas -- anything can be bought and sold for a price. The desert around Vegas is a prime stopover on smuggling routes between Las Angeles (and the rest of the California Free State) up through Ute to Denver, and from there to the rest of North America. Chips, drugs, guns, slaves, telesma -- you can always find something if you know the right people. Right now the commodity of choice? Water. The Ute’s a desert, folks.

A lot of people (who skipped history in high school) think Vegas is like Seattle or Denver -- an independent or UCAS enclave that was carved out after the Great Ghost Dance. It’s actually full on Ute territory, it’s just that the Indians knew that Vegas was never going to change and didn’t even try to eject the Anglos and take over. So, the Ute security force keeps a wide perimeter around the city, and basically allows it to keep rotting from within. Poisoned land, some of their shamans say -- best to let the infection run its course, then come back later and rebuild on the scab.

The real reason is much simpler -- money. Both legal and illegal business account for a majority of the Ute’s tax base. When you next buy your ticket to Vegas (or if you’re feeling adventurous, buying a permit to drive in), zoom in on the various extra fees that get slapped on it -- one of them will be for a temporary tourist visa that lets you stay in the country. Every time you slot your credstick to get another drink, sales tax makes its way back up to Provo, and odds are every roll of the loaded dice can put the last of your nuyen into the fur-lined pockets of the Comanche Mob.

Crime

So, let’s talk about crime. There’s the Mob, the Triclops, the three “I”s -- the Italians (Verontesse family), the Irish (Wynne family) and the Indians (Comanche tribe) -- who are the biggest players: they control the Strip and every activity, legitimate or otherwise, contained within. They work hard to keep their cash cow bright, clean, and tourist friendly -- any settling of vendettas must be done *quietly* or risk bringing down the wrath of both families (an excellent source of shadow work, by the way). I know some of you runners try to avoid mob runs, to avoid the risk of getting caught under the thumb of the local capo, but in Vegas, it is impossible to avoid their influence. Any bit of shadow biz involves the Mob in some way, so you might as well calm down and accept it.

The Yakuza are a solid, yet distant, second place when it comes to organized crime in Vegas, despite their best efforts to drive a wedge between the mob families. Other than the large casinos, the yaks dabble in everything, and it’s not too hard to find a discrete agent working any given block of the Strip.

Beyond that, it’s a smorgasbord of everyone else: the Triads (Chinese), Seoulpa Rings (Korean), and every type of gang and low-life you can imagine. Which reminds me...

Corps

The smarmy side of me is complaining that, in covering criminals, I have yet to cover the megacorps in Vegas. Har har har. More true than usual in Vegas, though -- the largest corps in terms of gross earnings and personnel run the casinos: The Flamingo Casino Group (owned by the Verontesse Mafia), the Wynne Conglomerate (Wynne family) and the Wind Speaker Corporation (owned by the Comanche Mob). None of them are multi-national (and are thus unranked by the Corporate Court), but since they only operate in Ute (Vegas and Reno), they can throw down with any other megacorp in town.

The only big boys (AAA ranked) in town with an auspicious presence are Aztechnology and Renraku. The Azzies are rumored to own the Luxor pyramid casino (along with rumors of blood sacrifices on the roof) and have their Ute HQ downtown (unique among the megas, who if they are allowed to do business in Ute, have it in Provo). Renraku performs a critical function in Vegas -- they are the primary supplier of gambling machine hardware and software. Yes, the mob runs the casinos, but they have to buy their machines from Renraku.

A summary of the rest of the Mega’s presence within Vegas:

Ares: Ford, Weapons World, Knight Errant (private security)
Fuchi: Virtual Meetings Inc. (telepresence), Fuchi Simsense Studios
Mitsuhama: Sakura Studios (simsense), Black Lotus (software)
Saeder-Krupp: BMW
Shiawase: Shiawase Atomics Southwest (nuclear power)

A summary of the rest of the worst, along with their ranking and primary area of business:

Buce Talent (unranked, entertainment) – who helps book of those acts? They do.
ESP Systems (A, simsense) – based in Chicago, solid presence in Vegas
Istus International (A, real estate) – an up and comer, recently constructed HQ in Vegas
Lone Star (AA, private security) – they’re not the “cops” though, more on that later
UNLV (unranked, education) – they incorporated back in the 20s as a for-profit university

The above is by no means complete – but if you’re hired for some local shadow biz, and it isn’t through the syndicates, it’s likely through one of them. If not, it’s likely through the…

Las Vegas City Government

Spend a day in Vegas and it’s easy to forget that you’re technically a temporary visitor to the Ute Nation – remember the Ute is basically defined by their anti-Anglo sentiment – but if you look closely at the logos on the Strip Panicbuttons, you’ll see the LVCG. Depending on your viewpoint, the LVCG is either the token gesture to Ute Nation membership or just another branch of the Comanche Mob. Either way, no one gets elected to a LVCG position without approval from Provo.

The only respectable aspect (IMHO) of the LVCG is that they resisted corporate takeover of their law enforcement (Lone Star and Knight Errant stand poised to take over, should something change), so the other sign of the LVCG you’ll see is the Metropolitan Police (MetroPol for short, MP for shorter, the latter also a dig at their somewhat militant response in some cases). The MetroPol do a good job at keeping law & order on the Strip (anything else would be bad business), in exchange for that the mobs let the MPs make a token bust to show to the public that the casinos are “clean”.

Beyond the Strip

That said, MetroPol really only cares about keeping clean the pieces of Vegas that bring in money. While technically having jurisdiction over the entire city, you’ll see Halley’s Comet before you see an MP on patrol north of the city. Highway Patrol is the roughest division, as they have to form the front-line troops keeping the rabble from encroaching in the city. When they do venture off the interstate, it is only in armored vehicles and full riot gear.

It’s not really as bad as you might think, it only seems that way compared to the sterile streets of the Strip only a few miles away. Some areas of interest:

Chinatown (Spring Mountain & Red Rock) – center of Triad activity (natch) in Vegas.

Koreatown (Spring Valley & Rainbow) -- center of Seoulpa Ring activity in Vegas. Also borders Chinatown, meaning that border is a Triad/Ring battleground.

Henderson – corp burb, has experienced huge expansion in the past five years. All shades of high class, so dress like you belong. Middle to high class residential.

North Las Vegas Barrens – ‘nuff said. Most of you probably live here, so I won’t say more.

Enterprise/Spring Valley/Summerlin – if not in the Barrens, that means you’re a moderately successful runner/mobster and live here. Middle to low class residential. Boring.

Paradise – Just east of The Strip and just north of the airport, this area is home to UNLV, some up and coming nightclubs, and a good chunk of the Vegas magical community. Home to the only Vegas Wiz-Kid gang.

Boulder City – a Ute city, gambling free, meaning this is the effective southern border of the Vegas sprawl. Ute military patrols out of here, so watch your step folks.

Ute Air Station (formerly UCAS Nellis Air Force Base) -- the effective northern border of the Vegas sprawl. Ute military patrols out of here too, though UAS duty isn’t the most sought after (most injun flyboys prefer the former Hill AF Base near Salt Lake), and as a result have a permanent bad attitude. And by “bad attitude”, we mean would rather geek you than talk to you, given any excuse.

Getting in and out…

…by Air:

99% of visitors to Vegas come through McCarren International Airport. Nominally owned by the Ute government, its day to day operations are governed by a consortium of local corps (the mob, the megas, etc.). Security is typical for a North American airport, which is lower than you might expect. There are a few other places to land a plane in Vegas – there is a private airport in Henderson that caters exclusively to corp traffic (really, anyone with enough money can use the facilities). There is a similarly sized airfield in North Las Vegas, though regular air traffic left it years ago as the area degraded into the hellhole it is today. However, you still find the occasional black market panzer or VSTOL sneaking in at night.

And, of course, there’s the UAS, which keeps a pretty tight radar net around the area (one thing they actually can do fairly well). You can sneak in some unscheduled chopper flights within the city without a flight plan (or a bogus one) – what is Vegas without some spontaneity? – but try to make a break to the Hoover Dam and you might end up as target practice for the UAS SAM batteries.

…by Sea:

Don’t be a drekhole. (still a desert, folks)

…by Land:

Since the rest of the Ute nation uniformly despises the people of Vegas, and Vegas is surrounded on all sides by Ute territory, road traffic is discouraged, to say the least. Few locals stop, but some drive through. You get a few more visitors that come from Cal Free through Ute, though they better be tribal or rich enough to bribe your way through. I-15 is the major thoroughfare in this regard – north to Provo, Salt Lake, and points beyond, south to Cal Free. Route 93 is the other road that cuts through the city, though not quite as active (who wants to go to Reno anyway?). The bulk of traffic heading in and out of the city are freight vehicles (and most unmanned and remotely controlled, which has led to some interesting encounters from bands of North Las Vegas ruffians); this includes the heavy rail lines running through town.

…Illegitimately:

Which is, honestly, probably what you were interested in in the first place, and, natch, is going to depend upon your resources and level of desperation.

What not to try – being a stowaway. Ute is paranoid about Anglos sneaking in and retaking over the territory, so they’ve wised up to neo-hobos breaking into open train cars or sneaking into the back of semi cabs. Companies must file manifests for every train and truck passing in and out of Vegas, listing content delivered, content picked up, delivery times, and so on. These are verified by layers of drone sensor systems, both fixed and mobile, at the city boundaries. And for every camera the Utes have on your cargo, there are two guns aimed in case something is up. If you want to smuggle something in by land, make a mob contact with the myriad of trucking companies they control.

What to try – use the airport. Seriously, the flimsiest of fake identities if usually enough to get you in and out of McCarren; Vegas makes it money through tourism, so as long as you’re not on the UCAS Ten Most Wanted List, expect an easy trip into Vegas (and if you are on the list, you’ll only get an extra pat-down). Somewhat harder to get out (people don’t spend money once they leave), but not that much harder.

Away from the strip and the highways, there is a small and tight-knit panzer community operating out of North Las Vegas, using the surrounding mountains as camouflage in and out. High risk, high reward, and high prices if you want to tag along. That is, if you can find someone willing to talk to you.

Finally, in a worst case-scenario, you can just walk in and out of Vegas – the Ute sensor net, while probably locating you, has bigger problems than a drunk Anglo wandering into the desert and dying of heat stroke. And there are enough hiding places within the mountains that you could make it to Cal Free undetected if you had enough water.

[Aku]

one interesting aspect of the philly area is Reading, Pa. current day it has one of the HIGHEST per capita crime rates in the country. It basically is a giant Motel 6 for drug runners between NYC and philly.

[Fatum]

I'm still writing about the Russo-Yakutian War somewhere in the middle of the 70ies; the work has grown to include the descriptions of both countries, and I have some ideas I think to be interesting; but it's all pretty sketchy right now.

[Wolfgar]

I wrote a short write-up of Sydney for the game I'm running, expanding on whats in Target: Awakened Lands and bringing it up to 2073. I'll post it here, but now that I'm 6 sessions into the game I think I'll rewrite it and repost it as a .pdf in a few days.

[ Spoiler ]

Well, now that I've had a chance to work on the setting a bit and make it my own, I figured I'd share it. Here's the text document I'll be sending out to my players to prep them form the campaign.

Running Down Under

Intro
Neighborhoods
Manastorms and You (File Not Found)
Corp Info

G’day, mates. Heard you boys and girls were interested in moving to Sydney, our little hell-hole down under. Let me be the first to welcome you. First things first, you’ll need to be up to date on some basic info if you’re gonna run for me. This document will provide for that, and I’ve asked a few friends to comment on it and keep it fresh. I don’t have to be just your fixer, I can be your friend too, as long as you stay alive and keep my budgets in the black.
I’ll start you off with some info on Sydney’s neighborhoods, but you should know this first—The following 5 companies make up the Sydney Metro Council advisory board- Knight Errant (Ares), Aztechnology, Baird Communications (Renraku), Tanamyre, and Wuxing. These 5 corps are the big boys in town. Saeder-Krupp also has a major facility in the harbor, on Goat Island. -Sparrow

Sydney Neighborhoods- The following six neighborhoods represent the urban landscape of Sydney, circa 2073. The vast majority of any runs will take place within these locations, and I have included the lifestyles prevalent in each region. If none of these locations appeals to you, let me know and I can help place you somewhere else. Sydney in 2073 is highly compartmentalized, with other regions like Chinatown, Lakemba (an Arab suburb) and the Italian-Australian neighborhood of Leichhardt. Info on these regions can be grabbed as needed.

City Center (also North Sydney)
Lifestyles- High, Luxury

The City Center is the heart of corporate and political life in Sydney. Blocks of skyscrapers and Australian landmarks (Town Hall, Museum of Sydney, Parliament House) run into the Republic Botanical Gardens and the Sydney Opera House. Knight Errant and Aztechnology have their regional headquarters in this area, and AA Corp Tanamyre has it’s top HQ here as well. Security is tight, with CCTV and Knight Errant patrols the norm.
Corporate and Government workers, as well as tourists, reach the City Center via the subway, driving in on the WD Freeway, the Cahill Expressway (Sydney’s last two major highways in good maintenance), or by Air Taxi. Most major buildings have at least one air-pad, and Air Taxis run to all the corporate neighborhoods. Living in the City Center means living in a Corp-controlled High Rise apartment.

Between a plethora of air-taxi services and the multitudes of private choppers and VTOL vehicles, Sydney’s skies are crowded indeed. Knight Errant has a well-funded air patrol division, and the city has had to implement rigid air traffic laws to match those on the ground. –Sky Skraper

Through ground traffic is light, Sydney’s roads are administered by the government and are somewhat the worse for wear. The ground level GridGuide is almost always malfunctioning, creating traffic jams for two or three hours at peak times. In some ‘hoods, the pot holes are big enough to live in, let alone wreck a car or bike. –Ped X

The City Center itself is closed to road traffic, and is instead serviced by light rail and trams. It’s expensive, but safe, and extends into other areas of the city as well. Armed guards on all trains; CCV surveillance; decent Matrix security. Better odds than driving, though. –Sky Skraper

The trains outside of the city center run infrequently between 11pm and 5am, and “protected service” is also discontinued then. No guards, and the trains are rigger controlled, making it a criminal paradise after hours. Don’t get on without heavy weaponry and a willingness to use it. –Sparrow

If you want to get around, buy a bike and drive fast enough to lose the KE traffic cops. It’s that simple. –Kirra

North Sydney lies across the harbor, reachable by the Harbor Tunnel now that the bridge is off-limits. While the high security lifestyle is the same as City Center, here Baird Corporation and Wuxing make their homes, and their influence keeps out the riff-raff.

The Rocks
Lifestyles- Middle, High

‘The Rocks’ as the area squeezed between the City Center and the harbor is known, is a handful of city blocks containing Sydney’s bohemian culture. Relatively clean and gang-free, this is where corporate youths move too to be rebellious and piss off their parents. The Rocks are dotted with coffee shops and ‘scene’ bars, as well as turn of the century brownstone apartments. Those seeking to blend in can do it here, as Sydney’s normal cultural biases break down in the Rocks, with all types of metahumans and cultural backgrounds to be found. Low-rise apartments and Townhouses are common. Oh, and you can find me here as well, at ‘The Fortune of War’ inn.

Giving out your contact info, Sparrow? You aren’t worried about these new runners turning you in?- Kirra

Nope, only worried about you, K. That’s why I gave the bouncer your photo. -Sparrow

King’s Cross
Lifestyles- Low, Middle

King’s Cross is where Sydney-siders come to play. Bars, nightclubs and restaurants provide for legitimate entertainment, and as fronts for illegal casinos and the city’s red light district. King’s Cross is the stronghold of the Capizzi crime family, a Mafia outfit with ties to the American and Sicilian ‘Costa Nostra.’ Running the traditional vices of gambling, girls and guns, they hold on while the Russian Vory and the ‘Green Gang’ Triad pick off other syndicates around Sydney. While you don’t need to know the Capizzis to have fun in King’s Cross, if you do know them, you’ll find it that much easier to get into that VIP room your target’s in. Low-rise apartments above booming nightclubs are the norm.

If you’re American, you may find it difficult to support the gun-loving habits you’re used too. You can’t walk into any corner store and pick up an AK here, let alone a hand gun. That being said, there’s a man named Jimmy Two Hands in King’s Cross, and he can hook you up with your beloved firearms. –Ped X.

Bondi Beach
Lifestyles- Middle, High, Luxury

When the manastorms aren’t keeping everyone inside, and when the holiday heat hits us in the southern hemisphere, we Sidney-siders flock to Bondi, baby! Bondi Beach is the most popular stretch of sand around Sidney harbor. Just inland from the beach lies the Bondi suburbs, a collection of houses and luxury condos, all mostly quiet neighborhoods. A number of Corp execs call this spot home, commuting via air taxis between here and the City Center.

You do not want to be caught out on the beach when the manastorms flare up. I’ve got a link somewhere around here to a vid of some tourists caught outside sunbathing. The storms hits and POOF! their skin starts to melt off. Now where’s that link… -h4xx

Thanks, h4xx, but I think they get the picture. -Sparrow

The Bridge
Lifestyles- Streets, Squatter

Just after the manastorms first wracked Sydney, the Metro Council decided to shut down the famous Sydney Harbor Bridge until it’s structural integrity could be re-evaluated. Then one night some of the city’s homeless, desperate and deprived of shelter after the storms, jumped the barricades and began squatting on the lower deck. By the time the Metro Council got around to clearing the bridge, the squatters were fully entrenched, and it set off a riot that blasted trhough downtown. That was twenty years ago. Since then the Bridge has been a pain and an eyesore for the powers that be in this city.
The bridge itself is now covered in shacks and shanties, some reaching all the way to the tom of the bridges arches, held on with ropes, welds and even duct tape. Below the bridge lies a small flotilla of house boats and barges tied to the support pylons, long rope ladders and pulleys connecting them to the village above. The whole place is considered a no-fly zone for Knight Errant, leaving a small black market to flourish amongst the slums.

This is the best location to get hot items in the city, IMHO, especially if you can’t deal with the Vory or the Capizzi Mob. -Kirra

Punch Bowl
Lifestyles- Streets, Squatter, Low

Once you get away from the City Center, the Sydney sprawl begins to spread out towards the west, one blasted neighborhood after another. But if you’re looking to simply blend into the background, then Punch Bowl fits the bill. Named for the fact that it sits in a depression of the landscape, Punch Bowl is considered by some to be the ‘Orcish Oz.’ While it’s true that Australia never had to face the same metahuman hate riots the rest of the world did, we Sydney-siders tend to quietly congregate around our “social and cultural equals” rather than march and riot. This leads to a dozen different culturally aligned neighborhoods in the sprawl. Punch Bowl is for Orcs and Trolls.
Aside from specialty big and tall shops, and a few troll-sized apartment houses, Punch Bowl is also home to the Punch Bowl race track, the last center for equestrian sports in the city. If you want to live here, you can probably score a quiet house on a side street, or slum it up on one of the sprawls abandoned freeways.


Manastorms and You- Surviving the Weather

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Hmm, seems something didn’t work right, this was supposed to be how-to to survive the worst manastorms. h4xx, you got anything? –Sparrow

Nope, I’m coming up blank. Looks like the file is totally corrupted. But I did find that link to that tourist vid from earlier. –h4xx

Answers still no, bud. Perhaps Elaine can shed some light for us. -Sparrow

With pleasure. While modern magical theory has yet to classify the manastorm phenomena, I can speak from personal experience that they are dangerous and unpredictable at best, and apocalyptic at worst. One particular storm cell has loomed near and above Sydney for almost fifty years now, since the first days of the awakening. It sweeps in for a few days a week, usually dealing minor environmental damage, and then leaves without notice or fanfare. But sometimes, it kills.

The effect of the manastorm can somewhat be compared to an out of control spell. Sometimes the storm will sweep down a side alley, turning all inhabitants to statues or melting the paint off the walls. Sometimes the storm manifests as an invisible mass of energy, knocking out wireless signals for kilometers around. The best form of protection is a magically warded and physically secure structure. I also encourage any magicians to prepare a Mana Barrier spell before setting out for a walk-about the city. It could save your life. -Elaine

The Corps do a good job of warding their key facilites and the homes of their management. Wuxing especially seems immune to the worst of what the manastorms throw at us. Average citizens and the sinless must either shell out for private ward, or pile into the Storm Watchers Guild’s various shelters around the city. Hey Elaine, aren’t you a Storm Watcher? –Sparrow

Oh, Sparrow, a gentlemen never asks, and a lady never tells. –Elaine.

Corp Info

Like I said before, we have 5 big players here in town. Back after the manastorms first hit, the state government picked up and left Sydney for Canberra, leaving the city to fend for itself. Some of the local politicians left behind formed the Metro Council, but it never got anything done until the Corps stepped in and formed the Sydney Corporate Advisory Board to support the Metro Council. Today, these 5 corporate officers have more political pull than any of the poor elected sods in office.
I’ll have more info about the Corp. make up in this city later, but this will get you started.

Knight Errant (Ares)- Knight Errant, or KE as it’s known on the streets, was the first major security company to set up shop in Australia, beating Lone Star here by about five years. They snagged the Sydney contract early, and now that they are on the advisory board, they won’t have to worry about any pesky contract negotiations for a while. Fully fifty percent of their resources are concentrated on the City Center and the skies above, leaving their patrols out into the sprawls erratic at best.

Aztechnology- Everyone’s favorite boogeyman, the Azzies manage most of the agri-supply and farming industries around the city, feeding us soy and shipping wool out to markets around the world.

Baird Communications (Renraku)- A once local company now owned by a Japancorp, Baird operates the majority of Sydney’s remaining light industry, producing consumer electronics and software packages for mass and niche markets. If you’re looking for reliable Matrix connections during the manastorms, look into what there guys are doing, because never go off line.

Tanamyre- Our own home grown megacorp, Tanamyre is a AA focused in mining and ore refinement. Rumor has it that Saeder-Krupp has been looking to snatch them up and expand their presence beyond tiny Goat Island.

That’s been a rumor now for thirty years, Sparrow. SK is to busy making boats out in Perth to bother with a company on the other side of the continent. –Sky Skraper

Wuxing- Finally, Wuxing rounds out our top five with it heavily warded tower across the harbor in North Sydney. To be honest, I don’t have much info on them, other than they’re involved in the profitable telsema taken from the outback. Elaine, anymore info?

Only that Wuxing has been quietly against the Storm Watchers Guild from day one. At least, that’s what my friend said. –Elaine



Well, there you have it. That should get you primed for your move out here. Let me know when you’ve settled in and are ready for a run. –Sparrow

[Sinboy666]

My friend's and I awhile back did a really cool run set in Detroit. I mean, it's basically Robot Cop in OCP won. I know a lot of people like to crap on the big D, but I've always loved my town and the people in it. It's been my thinking, that even though Ares controls the city, its been having a lot of trouble with the populace. I mean the wage slaves are fine with it, but there are plenty of people who don't want to be told where they have to live... um... like our current situation with Mayor Bing.
Our campaign had a lot to deal with working with the Detroit underground and various other factions to work against Ares and "liberate" the city. (Of course corporate rivals, Cross got involved a lot too). We also had some interesting encounters in Greek-town, which, if you've never been to D-town is the BEST place to get food at 3 in the morning.

Two bits of mostly fluff:

1) We said that after the combining of the U.C.A.S., Detroit pretty much swallowed Windsor into it.

2) University of Michigan (GO WOLVERINES!) was a big place for hermetic studies. But it is also WHACKED with magic... it happens on a campus that has a library designed by a mad man and boosts at least 3 suicides a semester.

[Daddy's Litt...]

one interesting aspect of the philly area is Reading, Pa. current day it has one of the HIGHEST per capita crime rates in the country. It basically is a giant Motel 6 for drug runners between NYC and philly.

Except for the fact it is not between NYC and Philly. It is north and west of Philly along rte 422 or further west along the PA turnpike. Overall more than hour from Philly proper. I do not know about a high crime rate. It is not a nice town but the areas around here like that are the towns of Pheonixville, just a little about Valley Forge on 422 or 29 and Camden NJ that seems to be doing its very best to become a Barrens environment intime for the appearance of the great dragons later this year. start collapsing early and avoid the rush.

[Aku]

Except for the fact it is not between NYC and Philly. It is north and west of Philly along rte 422 or further west along the PA turnpike. Overall more than hour from Philly proper. I do not know about a high crime rate. It is not a nice town but the areas around here like that are the towns of Pheonixville, just a little about Valley Forge on 422 or 29 and Camden NJ that seems to be doing its very best to become a Barrens environment intime for the appearance of the great dragons later this year. start collapsing early and avoid the rush.

I used to live in the area, and yea, all of the violence pretty much was drug related, and that was the stance that the PD had on it IIRC

[Snow_Fox]

I think DLN is pointing out that Reading isn't between NY and Philadelphia and is too far out to really be a part of the Philly crime scene. We don't need to go out to the farmers for crime, there's enough in the bad neighborhoods of the city and Camden alone. I'd say Reading is more likely to be the criminal element for the farm lands there. Go a little further west and you're into the amish areas around Lancaster.

[Aku]

Except, you're not thinking in terms of drug runners or smugglers. I-95 is going to be MUCH more patrolled by the PD/lonestar/whoever, IMO

[Daddy's Litt...]

But just to get to Reading from NYC either you are going down I-95 to the PA Turnpike and get off at Reading's entrance, or get off at Valley Forge and go up 422. Insterad of just shooting down to the Philly exit off of the PA turnpike. It is the straight run to philyl from NY. Even using back roads like 84 north of NYC to 309 or the north east extension of the PA turnpike mean monitored main high ways.

Reading is more likely a gateway to the west- Harrisburg and maybe a loop to DC is you can loop over to 15 south of Gettysburg but it is not a route from NYC to Philadelphia.

[HunterHerne]

I'm working on a little thing for my out of the way neighbourhood. Looks like it may be the only mention of a rural area, too. (damn these small towns...)