Miami 2063, what's up there? Options

[Grinder]

I'm planning to run a campaign in Miami (yeah! Pirates, Bacardi and sun :D ). So i wonder what's up with the city? I know that it had been covered a little bit at Cyberpirates and i guess at SoNA too. But besides that, is there anything i should know? Threats 2 mentionend the disappereance of Gunderson Corporation, so who's the new big honcho in town now?
If someone here living in Miami: it would be cool if you can give a brief overview of the city and maybe a webpage with a useful map of Miami. Thanks in advance :)

[The Question Man]

Hoi Chummer, I found a review of the ShadowBoxer Novel. It provides some details of Miami. Folow this link for more. http://www.magespace.net/revtext.html

Shadowboxer (novel)
by Nicholas Pollotta
Rating:


Spoiler Warning: This review contains spoilers for Shadowboxer.

I was very disappointed by this latest Shadowrun novel.

Where shall I start? Let's be positive about the whole thing and start with the things I liked, shall we? First of all, some of the characters were intriguing. I especially liked Delphia, the natty samurai with the unique weaponry. Thumbs, the street troll, was also an interesting character, though he had some flaws that were difficult to get past. The elven mage Emile was well done, and it would have been nice to see him (and his ferret familiar, Grand) more.

Another positive thing I can say about Shadowboxer was that the writing style was good. Pollotta is adept at engaging the reader and keeping the pages turning. Even with all the novel's problems, it was hard to put it down.

Now on to the negatives. There are many. In no particular order:

For one, I find it highly unsporting for the author to ignobly kill off what is ostensibly the novel's main character halfway through the story. Despite the fact that the back cover of the book claims that the story is about a dwarf named Two Bears, the bulk of the action takes place after Two Bears has been eliminated. He didn't even get a "good death." I felt a bit cheated by this development.

A second problem is characterisation. While some characters, such as Delphia, were reasonably consistent, others, like Thumbs, were not. The troll was presented at the beginning of the book as a street dweller, reduced to following a likely-looking prospect to look for jobs, but yet he showed remarkable savvy and experience when his services were engaged. Further, his cyberware seemed inconsistent with his situation. Where a street ganger obtained the money for wired reflexes, a reflex trigger, and cyberspurs was not explained: I would have liked more of Thumbs' background. We got more background on Two Bears, who was much less important.

A third, and perhaps the largest, problem in my opinion is one that is purely subjective. Pollotta seems quite enamored of the "world is a sinkhole" view of life. Characters were being killed faster than we could count, many of them in graphically messy ways. Almost no one was trustworthy, and a large percentage of the characters were depicted as either thorougly vile or at the very least dishonourable and without redeeming virtues.

Characters, notably a fellow named Wesley (later to become Attila), were introduced, played with a bit, and then forgotten about. One can assume from the narrative what befell him and his companion, but after following their exploits throughout much of the novel, it would have been nice to see their eventual fates. I'm still not certain why they were included in the first place.

A minor point, but the book could have done with a bit of editing. I counted a number of typos (such as "Tir Taingire") and outright misspellings (such as "Buddah"), the effect of which was jarring in a professionally-published novel.

Finally, the ending of Shadowboxer was extremely unsatisfying. Cheated--that was how I felt when I reached the end. The completion of the story was, in my mind, not an adequate reward for the events that occurred.

Perhaps I am old-fashioned, in that I prefer stories to have protagonists who prevail over odds, a worldview that's a bit more optimistic, and an ending that makes one feel like the effort of getting through the book was worth it. Shadowboxer provided none of these.

The only thing that saved Shadowboxer from our lowest rating is the writing style, some of the characterization, and the excellent background material about Miami and piracy.


Cheers

QM

[Grinder]

Reading the review.... thinking... shit, i know the novel! Guess i have to dig it out again :D

[BitBasher]

I read that review and though that all the plot complaints were done on purpose. You cant read a book about a dark and dystopian environment than bang it in reviews for being a dark and dystopian environment. I think books should be reviewed on the basis of whether or not the author achieved what he set out to create. Was it a good dystopian environment in the context of such things.

It really really aggrivates me to see reviews done in such a way that it ends up being negative not because it was bad, but because the reviewer read a book whose subject matter he didn't jive with and wishes he read a different book, not because the book was bad.

That's like reading Asimov and then saying it sucked because it was sci-fi or reading Clancy and complaining it had too much military detail.

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

Wasn't that the novel about the pirates with a nuke sub?

[Kagetenshi]

[Herald of Verjig...]

Yeah, and back covers need to be more carefully worded.

[FlakJacket]

I could be wrong, but didn't they decide to make Shadowboxer non-canon since it was a bit too out there in places? The three main books you want to look at for Miami are Cyberpirates, Threats 2 and the aforementioned novel Shadowboxer. Either way, here's what the timeline explorer has to say about the place.

[ Spoiler ]

2034 - In Miami, Florida, CAS, militia groups start attacking Hispanic and Caribbean-descended communities in an effort to “take back Miami”. To combat the violence the city government hires Atlantic Security to protect it. The state government of Florida, incapable of controlling the fighting, eventually decides to remove South Florida from its control. An “Orange Curtain” is established across West Palm Beach to the Florida Keys. Almost immediately the Caribbean League offers membership to South Florida. The government, knowing full well that it cannot survive as an independent state, accepts. (Cyberpirates)


2061 - In Miami, South Florida, Caribbean League, the Gunderson Corporation comes under financial attack by unknown parties. First, their TransSea subsidiary suffers a loss of the majority of its overseas clients. Then Wallid Materials, which has recently come under new ownership divests itself of all materials created by Montclair Industries, Gunderson's manufacturing divisions. Desperate for capital, TransSea division head Barbara Powers tries to make up for the losses by engaging in smuggling within the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. Their effort is a massive failure and within three weeks most of their ships are either seized by Hong Kong port authorities or sunk by rival smugglers. Gunderson Corporation starts divesting itself of many of its industries, including Montclair Industries, which is bought up by Global Oil, and TransSea, which is purchased by Wuxing, Inc. Gunderson is further reduced until it claims less than 30 percent of its original assets. As a result, violence in Miami, where Gunderson's subsidiary, Atlantic Security, provided security services, skyrockets. The violence soon spreads throughout South Florida. (Threats 2)

[KarmaInferno]

I just wonder what Crockett and Tubbs would be as runners in the Shadowrun world.

Hmm...


-karma

[Bigity]

Dead.

[mfb]

killing main characters is fine. killing what is presented as the main character halfway through the story in what amounts to a random encounter, breaking both the game rules and the laws of physics with a kew1 cyberbeltholster thing, and laying down a plotline that basically rambles from place to place with very little direction--that's not fine. shadowboxer was one of the worst books i've ever picked up. even the title is bad--who's boxing with what shadows?

[Grinder]

Äh, back to topic, please? Would be nice. :)
Noone ever played a campaign in Miami? Noone living around there actually? :(

[FlakJacket]

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

mfb's not an idiot. Just FYI.

I am having visions of AtSec, Gunderson, mercs trained by Dunkelzahn and cyber-sharks...

[FlakJacket]

Well he did ask. :) But I know he's a smart guy - he's one of the posters that I'll seriously read in threads. For the cybersharks, that's completely canon as per critters IIRC. If you can add it to guard dogs and the like, why not aquatic animals for water?

Atlantic Security and the whole Miami thing isn't too improbable if you consider things like Detroit and Ares, and that they were an AA company operating in a centralised/concentrated are. The mages trained by Dunk though I can't for the life of me remember. Those, under-sea domes, weird elven magic and pirates with nuclear subs and the like I will gladly call bullshit on. :)

[mfb]

!!

[FlakJacket]

Sorry, am I being a little dense and missing something blindingly obvious here- its been happening a lot today?

[mfb]

er, no. "!!" is an shadowland-ism that indicates a level of surprise. think of it like the little punctuation marks you see over guards' heads in Metal Gear Solid.

[FlakJacket]

Ah, enlightenment. :)

[Kagetenshi]

You have no chance to survive make your time

Ha ha ha ha !!

~J

[Necro Tech]

I think somebody set us up the bomb.

[mfb]

jeez, can't you people even speak engrish? it's "set up us".

[Kagetenshi]

For great justice.

~J

[Necro Tech]

Sorry, I get signal. Main screen turn on now.

[Grinder]

Just found some maps of Miami at http://www.vidaamericana.com/miami_guide/maps.html

How big is the port of Miami? Is it a busy one?