QUOTE (stevebugge @ Feb 19 2008, 09:39 PM)
Given those criteria I think Portland, as so many have suggested, would really be a great choice. It features a recently deposed oligarchic goverment of Immortal Elves trying to regain power, some sort of provisional goverment run by revolutionaries trying to establish power, very likely a ton of social movements looking to gain traction in the newly formed goverment, a somewhat hostile neighbor to the south.
A good Counterpoint to Portland would be London (I'd suggest Tenochtitlan or Tokyo but I beleive both were covered in Corporate Enclaves) though the DC Sprawl could be a good choice as well as a well established Capital where dirty dealings of the crooked politicians in their smoke filled back rooms require the services of discreet private contractors. You could make an argument that the break in at the Watergate was an early Political Run gone bad.
I would say that DC, sans the elves, exhibits most of the same characteristics. It is more immediately familiar to a global audience.
BTW, I wouldn't exactly call the break-in a run gone bad. For that to happen, the list of overall and long-term losers would have to include more people that the security guard who first noticed and called in signs of a break-in/disturbance.
He ended up well and screwed for being historically a minor American hero.
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For some of the secondary cities govered, I think at least one should be a part of the Grand Tour or some other place where the powerful society elites get together. I like Monaco for this application.
Oh, that. As opposed to a city like Brussels or Geneva where you get hot corp on nation on corp action?
The Grand Tour has always struck me as being particularly silly.
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It would be nice to round out the book with at least one city from each Continent and also touch a couple of the other themes. To this end I think that Manaus in Amazonia would be good, as South America seems to get very little coverage and it would give a chance to delve in to the possibility of state sponsored Eco-Terrorism.
Bogota was, last it really got mentioned, on the Aztlan/Amazonia border. That would make it kind of important for the eco stuff, the Ghost Cartels, and military/other espionage in general. Plus, Ehran has a place there.
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For mass social unrest and a chance to further develop a location breifly touched in Shadows of Asia, I like Seoul. Given the 6+ years since Shadows of Asia President-General Lee could have finally fallen off the thightrope he was walking between the Japanese and his own nationalists, with all sorts of messy consequences. A situation of a pro-Japan goverment doing it's best to try to hold down a massive nationalist uprising could be a good story line.
Manila is a constant bloody mess. No surprises, but there's plenty to work with already. Granted, Korea gets to involved Russia and various Chinese states much more readily. Plus Japan.
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Getting Africa worked in, especially as an espionage hotbed would certainly be a challenge, but given the huge corporate investment in Desert Wars not insurmountable as the Desert Wars participants would naturally want as much intel on each other as they could get, Tripoli seems like a likely candidate for this, though other North African cities could work well possibly Marakesh or Algiers
I'd like at least one African city that isn't based on Mad Max, though. There was a time when Mogadishu was a nice city. But the promise of intrigue is borne out of the
name: Ethiomalian Territories. It could be Havana in the 50s. Occupied. Pacified. Commodified. A refuge for south Asians fleeing Arabia. A boomtown. A gateway to Africa. A resort destination. A pirate haven. A port city. Neutral ground from Nairobi. But not.