The Redmond Barrens, A very different setting Options

[Tyro]

The Redmond Barrens are a very interesting place. The deep barrens are classic feral city, but the outer are borderlands between super-rich Bellevue and Mogadishu West. I enforce a BC over the entire area - 1 in the outer areas, 2 for most of the rest, 3+ for the deepest, darkest Barrens core. The wireless Matrix is essentially nonexistant; the infrastructure simply isn't there.

I'm about to start running a game there, and I'd love help fleshing out the setting. Ideas? Keeping the Matrix and heavy magic out of it should make things much easier on my players, all but one of whom are new to the game.

[Edit:] Karmagen, Avail limit 8 with some exceptions in both directions, no born rich/trust fund/restricted gear/alphaware/etc. Resources limited to 150k. They don't leave because of personal story reasons - for example, one character is looking for his wife, who was forcibly extracted and is being forced to work in a corp black-budget research facility in the deep Barrens.

[Finis]

I would enforce certain stuff for character generation at least - lower the standard availability, no trust funds, no restricted gear, no Alphaware, drop the limit on resources from 50bp to 25ish. Depends on how 'street' you want your game. Limited access to Fake SINs and really enforcing zone security keeps them penned in and stops them from just leaving for greener pastures.

I would really take some time to establish how currency works. Most feral cities really more on barter than the electronic nuyen. You might even see paper money or chits (such as the Chicago Hours chits) used in trade. You'll aslo need to brush up on your Rad rules for Glow City and the like, and make sure your players are aware as well.

I've been thinking about starting a Chicago based game for a while, and the Fallout series plays heavily into the inspiration.

As for fleshing out, I tend to feel most feral games actually tend to be more player driven than the standard 'fixer calls you, sets you up with a meet, meet the Johnson, legwork, execution, get paid' variety. In a 'true' feral city type game I would imagine the characters as being slightly more desperate and hungry, so instead of waiting around for a call, they activaly seek out opportunities. Hitting a warehouse and looting it for a payoff, raiding truck convoys, organlegging, etc.

I would also suggest figuring out the layout too. give your players a gang territory map at the least, and flesh out some contacts for that gang. Who do they go to to sell/buy arms, drug/meds, paydata? Who is killing whom, who is allied with whom, etc. that kind of stuff. A good street level campaign can be just as political as anything (if not more?)

Anyway, that's where I would start.

[sunnyside]

I suggest working out the "locations" there.

Differen't books have touched on different spots, but the plastic jungles, glow city, touristville and the rats nest have some good flavor, and go some distance to explain why you can have all those people out there without them just starving to death.

I suggest spending a little time thinking of other ways the "ecology" out there might work. I feature really cheap simsense corps making nasty ugly stuff, and corps that want either really cheap manual labor or really cheap land where you don't get in so much trouble for horrible polution. Most such corps have defenses designed to resist large numbers of ill equiped individuals. Than you have a lot of smaller stuff managed by people who are just enough trouble, or friendly enough with the local gang, to get through the day. Really low end cottage industries and stores.

[Ascalaphus]

You might like these:

Awesome maps of Redmond

I've had them printed out on A3 size paper and laminated for longer use; cost me 5 euro or something. My players love them.

[Tyro]

Thanks much; keep it coming! Most or all of your suggestions are either things I already planned to implement or things I now intend to implement; all of you are spot-on. I'd forgotten about those Redmond maps; thanks, Ascalaphus! What books (incl. novels and previous-edition sourcebooks) have the best info on local areas in Redmond?

[sabs]

I can never get a straight answer on this

Is the Barrens a Z-Zone? Is it surrounded by a wall, with gates, and rail-mounted combat drones?

[Tyro]

I can never get a straight answer on this

Is the Barrens a Z-Zone? Is it surrounded by a wall, with gates, and rail-mounted combat drones?

Depends. The Redmond Barrens is a pretty large area; it actually includes parts of Kirkland, Woodinville, and several other cities, similar to how Shadowrun's "Seattle" is actually the greater Seattle metroplex and then some. the deep Barrens are comperable in danger to most of the CCZ, while the outer areas, while still dangerous, are less so. As for the wall, it exists on the border of Redmond and Bellevue. There are gates, but good luck getting a pass to go through - think Berlin Wall, only more so.

[The Shuhite]

I don't know what's out for SR4 but New Seattle for SR3 is excellent. An important point to keep in mind is even if there's little in the way of wireless matrix, the book goes out of its way to point out that there are many wired access points all over Redmond (a jab at Microsoft). This means you can't factor the matrix out completely. Unless the wires don't work for matrix 2.0, I don't know SR4 at all.

[kzt]

And satcoms work everywhere.

[Faraday]

I don't know what's out for SR4 but New Seattle for SR3 is excellent. An important point to keep in mind is even if there's little in the way of wireless matrix, the book goes out of its way to point out that there are many wired access points all over Redmond (a jab at Microsoft). This means you can't factor the matrix out completely. Unless the wires don't work for matrix 2.0, I don't know SR4 at all.

There's always the tried and true optical tap.