So if the response to any police chase or security problem is to run to the Redmond Barrens, then why isn't the Barrens completely walled off? Why doesn't it have every road leading to it manned by a set of high-altitude security drones armed with bombs that can blast every scurrying runner into nice pulpy chunks? It just seems odd that with that easy of an escape that the Star or any other security company wouldn't have some serious contingency plans.

How do you handle it in your game?

Not all of the vast area that makes up the Barrens is a Z-zone (in fact, most of it is D & E classified), and there isn't a hard border of 'It's a nice day; I'll go for a walk.' and 'Oh God, I'm Fragged!' - without such a border it's very hard to decide where to build the wall.

Besides that, there are people living there that need to get to work...

Yeah, that's right, those wage slaves sometimes have to slum in D neighborhoods and rent's cheap in the Barrens.

Lastly, who's going to pay for the wall? What do they get out of it?

1)Remember that a wall would have to be maintained too.

2)A lot of companies send trucks to get day workers in to the area.

3)If they block it off, then the scum can't get back in to the barrens, and so they would flow back in to the city again. That's the main problem. The barrens are a convenient dumping ground for the undesirables.

But what about contingency plans for crooks running for the Barrens? Yeah its a good spot to drop off those undesirables but what about the runners who just made a fool of the Star and are running for the Barrens? Would the Star's mage summon a spirit to manifest in front of the car and block the runners or would those high-altitude drones drop a Land Shark to stop them?

Well, most of the time, the runners haven't just made fools of the Star, but some corp security.

Besides, Star and corp security can and will chase runners into the barrens. They just don't like to do it, cause some of the residents don't play nice.

Once you get a procedure for handling runners running to the barrens, then they start planning on how to take out your obstacles.

Star mage goes to spot X to tell his spirit which vehicle in particular to stop, and get's ambushed by spirits and or mages.

Drone starts to home in on vehicle, get's taken out by a spirit or missle fired from inside the barrens.

well I don't think that the Star is going to waste a mage on guard duty. I would expect that they can barracade it off if they feel the need. The easiest way to stop an escaping vehicle is traffic.

I think that the problem depends on the feel you want in your game. I could see it run similar to Dark Angel or just as an off ramp that is not used much. I think that there was a movie about a group of football fans that rented a winibego type things and drive off the wrong way. Maybe do the barrens like that.

The corps wouldn't like too much official interest in the Barrens either. They have their 'toxic castles' in the Barrens so they can break the law with no-one in authority looking over their shoulders. They wouldn't like having trucks going in and out of the Barrens being logged.

The Barrens exist for the same reason shadowrunners exist, it's in the interest of the (Mega)corporations.

The 'runners haven't even officially made a fool of corporate security either. How could they, the run didn't officially take place; no corp is going to admit publicly that a 'run was successfully pulled against them, bad for shareprices. The head of the security detail might get disciplined (or geeked) depending on how badly they screwed up. The shadow boards may be full of it, but as far as Joe Wageslave is concerned, never happened chummer.

The only thing corps are concerned with is the bottom line; with the possible exception of Saeder-Krupp if you've somehow torqued off the wyrm badly enough. At some point pursuing the 'runners will cease to be cost effective, that's when the corp involved drops it.

That might be an interesting campaign-style idea...

Thanks to MisTEEEEERIOUS financial backing from somewhere, Lone Star launches an all-out war on the Barrens in response to the growing number of criminals who see the Barrens as their own personal safe-havens.

For what goal? To burn down the whole Barrens and kill everyone in there?
To see that most of the criminals will flee into other parts of the city?

I've written a kind of campaign setting based more or less on this idea.
I've never been able to play it, but the main idea was that Lone Star's contract with Seattle was nearing its end, and Knight Errant orchestrated (through some subtle manipulations) some kind of riot in the slums, which threatened the safer districts.

It ended up with a violent reaction from the Lone Star and the Metroplex Guard (and Knight Errant who kindly offered to help), especially against a self-proclaimed "free zone" some anarchist group had been setting up somewhere in Tacoma.

Umm, like, I think there is a wall...

The wording is a bit confusing (referring only to gated communities, or the whole Redmond/Bellevue border?), but check out Runner Havens from the beginning of the Bellevue section at the bottom of page 101, and tell me what you think. Be sure to read on into the post by Arete.
Like I said, very ambiguous, but seems to imply the existence of a wall....

As Adamu said there are mentions of walls here and there. I want to say one of the editions Seattle sourcebook talks about walls protecting many of the AAA zones.

In my games when you have neighborhoods more than one or two grades different next to each other the taxpayers in the richer one will have put up some kind of annoyance to easy travel in between. This can include walls (for example when you have AA and Z neighborhoods next to each other around the Redmond/Bellvue boarder), but can also include embankments, streets where the residents have paid LS or KE to always have someone stationed to harass people, or at a minimum some security cams and maybe a drone.

As for runners heading into the Barrens for safety you have a wild variety among GMs about how well they equip gangs. Some GMs figure they can't afford much for food, but six thousand nuyen anti vehicle missle systems grow on trees and they'll expend them at any drone that comes too close.

In my games I go pretty much with the sourcebooks in that only the bigger gangs have "heavy" weapons and then not too many, but actual syndicates have more. Of course the Corps and Lones star have some very dangerous toys too. But even the cheap land shark costs three thousand nuyen each and dropping one might well end up in the news along with pictures of torched babies (probably SINless but still bad PR).

Don't make the Star decide it's worth it.

By the way if your players insist on being idiots about that sort of thing and you are one of those GMs who doesn't like killing them all off remember the rule about permanently losing edge for cinimatic reasons the players get to live.

(Ooop looks like the land shark detonated early hurling your van into the lake instead of vaporizing you all. Just let me see those character sheets a minute).

The good runners never have to run to the Barrens to dodge Lonestar. They get in and out of a run with out ever encountering them.

You are correct adamu. I read that part and it is talking about the whole Redmond/Bellevue border. This makes sense since this is the home of many high lifestyle wage slaves and corp lackeys. Also look at the words. It says Lonestar partrols the border with razorwire ferroconcreate walls, and drones. It then ends the sentence. It goes onto the next idea now in the next sentence. It also specifically says "the gated communities themselves. So not only is the Bellevue/Redmond border walled and heavily guarded, the communities themselves are gated and secure. Unfortunately I doubt the security is like that on the border for Renton and Snohomish.

Though Renton has the huge Mafia influence as well as the Yakuza Sokaiya and the Vory are gaining ground through the Ukrainian populace. I think it is safe to say that between these syndicates the Renton populace have plenty of protection. Also remember that Humanis is in Renton and this is mainly a "humanfolk" district. So the PCs might run into some problems if they are "driving while meta". It also states that crime and violence spills in from Redmond. So it is pretty safe to say the border really isn't patrolled much, if at all here. Humanis does a lot to make sure "humanfolk" are protected here.

Snohomish on the otherhand would be the easiest way to access the Redmond Barrens. They have plenty of syndicate influence here too as well as corps that have crops growing here. Between corp security and the syndicates, I wouldn't think too much Redmond Barrens violence and crime spills into Snohomish. It only takes a few gangs being mowed down by corp security and paracritters on the farms before they realize not to come by again.

The above has been taken from Runner Havens paraphrased.

One last thing. If the runners are wanted badly enough by Lonestar then Lonestar will call in the necessary backup for a Z-zone area. Which is a standard force of a minimum of 3 citymasters (25 officers in full armor) with air support from armored helicopters. One tricked out rigger per vehicle with an extra one controlling drones. At least 5 mages and 1 combat decker(erhhmm hacker). 3 elite officers, one coordinating the mages, one in the air, and one with the troops on the ground. So not only do you have all those forces but 1 really insane mage, 1 really insane rigger, and 1 really insane special forces officer with a crippling knowledge of military tactics. In otherwords your really screwed. This also isn't to mention all the spirits those 3 mages and insanely powerful elite mage have on hand bound and summoned. The best thing to do in this situation if your the runners is to find a corner and cry yourself to your very imminent death.

The above has been taken from New Seattle, slightly paraphrased. If you want to know about rating D and E places I suggest you buy the book. It has been better than Runner Havens for me, though Runner Havens has still been useful.

Most drones arn't likely to be taken down by missiles. Think more along the lines of sniper rifles, possibly with explosive ammo.

Yeah, the Berlin Wall and the Great Wall of China seemed to do pretty well too. Not to mention the various other walls spanning through different histories and cultures. I have to agree with Kyoto Kid on this one. The high tech and advanced construction methods would make it even more plausible.

But the rampaging gangs with various degrees of armament make it less so. You'd have to almost double the construction budget just to allow for security for the construction crews.

Runner Havens clearly states the border at Bellevue is walled and heavily secured by Lonestar accompanied by drones. Bellevue communities would also have plenty of money to ensure this happens and most likely with the backing of various corps as well, since their property, I mean employees live here. Renton and Snohomish do not have walls or heavily guarded borders.

Rampaging gangs will also not go into certain death and do not usually collaborate together, if at all. This is even more true for smaller gangs that know they need to make their numbers count and keep as many as existing members alive as possible to not be wiped out by other gangs vying for their territory.

one quick route for the LS is to spread a bounty on the team.

there should be a lot of people in the z-zones that are willing to kill their own family for a food ration

Do you really think walls would stop runners anyway? I mean, they're pretty good at getting into and out of places. Many of them have knowledge skills like "smuggler routes" and "safehouses" and are very, very familiar with the Barrens, and get through walls routinely. It seems to me that a wall would be more likely to stop Lone Star than shadowrunners.

well, it's not like the Star doesn't have street connections. they just have one of their undercover agents/informers/whatever put out the bounty.

Or they could just hire another team through a fixer/Johnson.

Actually as a way to remind your players not to play stupid you might hire them to go into the barrens and take out another team hiding in the barrens that made the news by opening up with an assault rifle in a crowded street resulting in childrens grey matter going everywhere.