I've been reading this article in the paper about how the Chinese government has apparently built a massive bunker able to accomodate over two hundred thousand people for up to a fortnight under Shanghai on the quiet. It's also connected to the subway system and a number of residential and office buildings. That's one hell of a civil defence project.

Which got me thinking, how prevalent are underground locations in people's games? We already have the major canon places like the Ork Underground, the sub-levels of the Renraku Arcology or to a lesser extent Halferville down in San Francisco, but what else have people come up with? Secret underground corporate bases, old decommissioned US military complexes, modern day military facilities? And what other large underground places are there in the canon Shadowrun world that people can think of?

I have always thought that underground facilities would be very common in Shadowrun. As an after effect of the "Resource Rush" there would be literally tens of thousands of played-out mines around the world-extensive underground complexes ready made for Corps. and other groups to snap up and modify into secure facilities. And given how dangerous the world is, as well as the advantages to not only physical but also magical security that underground facilities provide, it would actually make since for underground facilities to multiply rather rapidly.

On the other hand, I don't know anything about mining, so anyone out there with a better handle on that end of things might be able to provide you with a more realistic appraisal of my view.

AFEN

A complex built completly underground provides a very good defense against magic scouting, so I think they're very common.

Another advantage to underground facilities is that they also provide excellent physical security as well.

In an office building, every window is a potential entry point. In an underground facility, the entrance, and the ventilation tunnels are potential entry points. There is no practical way to monitor every potential entry point on a building, but it would be quite simple to have cameras on every underground access point be monitered 24 hours a day.

A lot of the left over cold war bunkers and command facilities would be in NAN Territory, though it would be hard to say what their status is now (in use, demolished, sealed up). Big corps would likely build secure labs and facilities at least partly underground, possibly using depleted mines, natural formations, or starting new.

A few things to keep in mind when locating one of these underground lairs. Soil composition. In Seattle for example the high sand content of the soil makes building anything underground difficult (hence no subway IRL). Water Table: Good luck building an underground complex in New Orleans, a couple feet down and you've hit the water table. Not to say these would be impossible, just more difficult and expensive.

Mount Cheyenne or NORAD?

Cheyenne Mountain and NORAD now that you jog my memory. Was mentioned in the Denver boxed set.

Based out of the old USAF Academy in Colorado Springs I think.

Yep. The Air Force Academy.

Pueblo's great for this. There's all sorts of shit buried in the mountains.

Fallout shelters are located in every single major U.S. city. They're not hardened against nuclear strikes but they stand up to almost anything else.

Here in Fort Worth the fallout shelter is located two levels underground, for instance. Not a bunker, but for a shadowrunner it'll do.

When you say fallout shelter do you mean any public building ran by the municaplity that has the black and yellow radioactive signs?

Some buildings are also designated as fallout shelters like phones offices. But if America was invaded by an army comparable to ours I would not be hiding in a phone office, as they would probably be a prime target for bombing to cut communications, much like we do in other countries.

And howmany structures are hardened against nuclear strikes, I mean other then Greenbrier, Norad and our own nuclear silos? Does camp David have a hardened bunker?

IIRC yes, as does that congressional bunker in the Allegheny Mountains. And Mount Weather, Berryville, Va. and Raven Rock Mountain in Pennsylvania. Former Ft Devens in Ma is rumerd to have on as well, though thats a little more sketchy, being ON a fort and all.

Fallout shelters are a dime a dozen, my hometown has 5 just in the rotery area. They are used to store stuff in now for the places that rent the entries.

Mister President!
We cannot ALLOW a mine-shaft gap!

And then there's the Ork Underground in Seattle, which is an entire community underground.

The questions was, which other underground complexes are there, besides the already known (=mentioned in canon) ones?

Wasn't there something in some source book about underground moving walkways between busy office buildings? I've incorporated that into many of my office buildings, basically an underground sidewalk complex, to let people cross between buildings without worrying about rain or cars.

What with the light rail rebuild of the bus tunnel, you could arguably say that the Ork Underground now has it's own high-speed rail connection to Sea-Tac airport in your game, steve

Thinking about it, there are so many underground structures over here, so I probably can invent one every time I need to and get away with it .

Bomb shelters, underground factories and storage space, nazi bunkers from WW II.
Further west, old cavesystems from WW I.
Old Mineshafts from as far back as a few thousand years, to new ones.
Bunkers and underground storages from the time of the cold war, on both sides of the iron curtain.

(Just what I thought of right now).

Cellars from Monasteries or Breweries. Catacombs. Cisterns. Fuel tanks.

It's a fact, a lot of them still exist, only the entrances are sealed, so nobody gets hurt.

The gold and the tech was looted, mainly by americans and russians. Reemerging cults could be a good campaign. Some magical threat would be viable, too. Some stuff might have been useless in the fourties, but after the awakening the same stuff might be dangerous... I feel a cheesy campaign coming up .

Probably starting with detective work in Munich (finally, an excuse to buy the -german- Munich Sourcebook ), ending with a big hack&slay somewhere in an old nazi bunker in the Alps.

Did you buy Munich Noir?

Most of the nazi gold and tech may have been looted, but maybe not all. A good excuse for a little dungeoncrawl without the usual corp security stuff.

I personally like using sites like these for inspiration when designing my own underground areas, or "thought to be sealed off" entrances to corporate complexes.

http://www.actionsquad.org/

BlacKat

Well when you hire the lowest bidder...
And its my tax dollers at work... I love my state, its so disfunctional...

Three words: free. earth. elementals.

That reminds me of the end of Crimson Rivers 2 that takes place inside some of the tunnels and bunkers that formed the Maginot Line.

That's what the midwest needs: gigantic rows of dragon's teeth.

~J

Related movie: The Bunker (appropriately enough!)

In Chicago, there are several underground locations that would be interesting to explore:

First off, in the SR world, the Wind Transit Terminal is a gigantic bus depot, situated underground, on the north edge of the Core. I want to say it takes up twenty-five square blocks of land underground. Bug City mentions it being abandoned when the Containment Zone went up.

In real life Chicago, there is a series of tunnels originally built for freight rail and telephone wiring underneath the downtown Loop (now the Noose). Whether the fall of the Sears Tower would have damaged these things further, it's unknown (but probable). Chicago actually flooded in 1992 because of a rupture between the tunnels and the river. In addition to the subway tunnels just east of the tunnels, would make for some great anti-bug fighting.

Also in the Loop is a series of underground pedways, where pedestrians can walk from one place to another without going outside.

And of course, you can't forget Lower Wacker and Lower Lower Wacker Drive!

Granted, though, all (except the Wind Transit) are in the Loop, now a no-go zone for the most part, so their use is a bit more limited.

iI may be mistaken, but isnt there a large naval base close to Chicago? Im just wondering what sort of things they do there and would they have bunker facilities for that purpose?

Well, as the UCAS now has the Algonkian-Manitou Council on the north coast of Lake Superior, it's possible that the NSGL could be expanded due to its alredy high-built status.

Otherwise, Sault Ste. Marie on the tip of the Michigan Peninsula would be a good choice as well for a major Great Lakes naval base for the UCAS.

That's the sort of thing that usually just gets covered in the "It's the future, they have new technology." rationalization. Good enough for some; not for others.

Somewhere around here in the interlake region is a series of limestone caverns. Their location is kept a secret, and tourists are not allowed, so they don't interfere with the "scientific research" going on there.

There's also the Narcisse snake pits. Hardly an "underground complex," but a good jumping off point for extrapolating into some kind of hidden shamanic power site. http://www.greatcanadianlakes.com/manitoba...g/eco_page4.htm

Due to the nature of my former employment IRL I cannot comment about the military usuage of underground facillities, but I can comment about some other civilian spots I know of that Im sure the corps would have jumped on!

Most folks dont know this, but Detroit (Ares Macrotech's home town) sits on top of some pretty vast (and mostly depleted) salt mines. Last I heard there was talk about converting some of them over for HAZMAT storage, but I think that got nixed given that the largest freshwater supply in the world (the great lakes) is next door.

Florida (my newly adopted home) has extensive phosphate and sulfur mining activities just south of Tampa that would lend themselves to conversion. Most sit at the bottom of huge man-made craters too, which Im sure the corps would love as "Defensive Landscaping".

I also think it likely that an easy way to conceal and secure a facillty would be to find a depleted strip mine, build your facillity in the bottom, seal it up, then flood the mine with water to create a nice artificial lake. Hell, you could even use the newly created waterfront property as a nice 'perk' to corporate personell.

Remember that hiding in plain sight works best. A busy legitimate facillity is the best camoflage for somthing more nefarious. Plus it can provide a nice reason for all of those secure semi-trucks rolling in and out at all hours of the night.

Also, remember that most relastic and plausible Arcology designs have been primarily subterranean. The Japanses have dubbed these Geo-Fronts, and theres some pretty cool info to include diagrams availible out there (Google is thy ally).

I dont know specific locations, but Ive heard about some pretty massive natural caverns out in the middle of nowhere in Canada, and Im not even sure how well documented those are.