Spun off of the Feral Cities Thread



My understanding of Cities of Intrigue is that it's going to focus somewhat on Political matters. Some places I'd love to see covered in this book are Federated DC & Richmond VA as a pair(UCAS - CAS), Vatican City(After the Templars Teaser in Threats 2), Portland Tir Tairngire (Uh yeah WTF happened to the Council of Princes anyway?), Montreal, and Tokyo.

I'm wholly enamored with Austin, Texas. Besides being right on the Azzie-CAS border, it has smuggling, the Rio Grande, Texans, and hispanic gangs. Not to mention the central location that can act as a stopover between the CAS and the Southwest.

Other cities I'd like to see:
Venice, Italy
Prague, Czech Republic
Alexandria, Egypt
Jerusalem
Casablanca, Morocco (just for fun)
Calcutta, India
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Jerusalem would be good, based on the material in Shadows of Asia it hasn't calmed down much.

Bruxelles, if the NEEC is still headquartered there.

Bucharest, ChiÅŸinău, ТирáÑ?поль, or Brăila
The lands of Bessarabia, Wallachia, Bukovina, Transnistria, and Transylvania are shrouded in darkness and obscurity right now. Did you know that Transnistria is a semi-independent nation inside of Moldova which prints its own currency and balances its budget by smuggling weapons, drugs, and human slaves? Most people pretend that kind of crap doesn't happen in Europe, but there really is a region out here which is actually run by Shadowrunners and Vory. Add on the fact that the majority of people who think about this region at all think of it as the homeland of vampires - which would create a natural exodus of vampires to the region every bit as large as the exodus of elves to the Tir nations and you have a recipe for a region dominated by those masters of intrigue: Eurotrash Vampires in Opera Capes. That's right, this place is ripe for a vampire takeover, which means that it should have happened some time ago in Shadowrun time - but they've never really talked about the region at all. Plus, it owns the mouth of the Blue Danube and stands at the line between Turkish and Russian lands on the banks of the Black Sea. And yet, the Romanians themselves consider themselves to be Italians, and not Slavs or Turks - which means that you've got all three major influence groups of Europe vying for control. And all in an economically prostrate land dominated by crime and ruled by iron fisted vampires. This is a country that I would be proud to drink expensive champaign with a European Nobleman while Neo-Soviets clashed with Islamic Jihadists in the streets outside.

I mean seriously, it's the home of Vlad the Impaler, and one of the breakaway republics released This in 2007, and they weren't even kidding. Also, Gagauzia is a separate Turkish semi-state in the same area. How awesome is that?

London
You can't even spell Intrigue without MI6.

Los Vegas
I think this one speaks for itself as well.

-Frank

I seriously hope you are submitting that, that is pretty darn cool. Add in it's proximity to some Earthdawn locations for metaplot and mix in a healthy dose of Ordo Maximus money backing and it's definitely a location that deserves a write up somewhere.

LONDON

This was a subtle message bought to you by Ophis.

...Portland, for sure. (Tiger Eyes as the writer, for sure).

...next choice: The Smoke (OK, Frank [& now Ophis] beat me to it)

...and since he submitted Bucharest & Transylvania, I'll put in a plug for Zagreba, Dubrovnik, Beograd, and Sarajevo. Heck about time we find out more on the Balkans.

I concur on Prague and Bruxelles.

....I'll also toss in Warsaw and Moscow for good measure.

Tokyo is already detailed in Corporate Enclaves though Kyoto (the city) might be interesting.

Portland, London and Jerusalem for sure.

I think that given the rising tensions between the UCAS and the Sioux nation a small blurb on Cheyenne might be cool. Maybe thats just me?

I agree on London and Portland but I'd also like to see some treatment of the Rhine-Ruhr-Plex.

It's bigger than Seattle, at least as dirty and it's the location of the corporate headquarters of the world's most powerfiul megacorp and as well as the nest of one of the eldest, strongest and scariest Great Dragons, yet it hasn't gotten any love outside of the wacky DiDS I+II. Let's see some love for the Ruhrpott!

I would like to see War Zones happen, which would focus in on Yangon (or Phnom Penh); Lagos (or Mogadishu); and Zagreb (or Belgrade).



Not going to happen. I am not going to write any more Shadowrun books, but I would love it if someone else wrote such a chapter, because it would be awesome.

-Frank

Out of curiosity, is that because of school (per your previous posts) or issues with the current freelance writing process?

...so is this a for real title? Though I thought that Croatia and Serbia held peace talks in the summer of 2063. Hard to imagine that the region would still be so war torn after 33 years unless someone still wanted it that way...

...and tonight on Balkan Wars, we will evaluate how effective the Thunderstuck Gauss rifle is in a live battlefield situation, but first this message from the fine folks at Rhurmettal AG...

Portland and New Orleans.

Quoted from the Feral Cities thread:



I'll explain if needed, but most should be pretty obvious on their faces or if you've read State of the Art and the last SR3 books.

This is the first draft of the above list.



Just getting an author to acknowledge that it is closer to modern-day Seoul and definitely the DMZ (complete with peace bridge) that it ever is to Berlin would be swell.

Mogadishu would be great as a city of intrigue, having become something more than the image people have of it from Blackhawk Down.

The primary is that I am at this very moment memorizing the nerves of the human body for a test on Friday. Taking the amount of time required to get a game mechanic right or do sufficient historical research to make Phnom Penh or Chişinău come alive just wouldn't be possible. There's more of course, and if Synner wants to talk about it, he can. But primarily the fact is that even if they wanted me to write a chapter I basically couldn't do it. There's only a few months out of the year that I'm not actively involved in medical study, and committee based freelance writing doesn't keep schedules well enough to fit into that window.

-Frank

The arcologies can be cities in themselves, can't they? I wouldn't mind seeing a chapter on the biggest, baddest arc there is, or even a source-book on several different arcologies. Maybe they could even include space stations (because as if any of us are going anywhere near the Z-O-G).

They'd be perfect for high level characters who are both tactically brilliant and suicidal. Pervasive surveillance and security in an enclosed extraterritorial space. But it would make sense for their to be a permanent fixture of Shadowrunners. Execs don't tend to limit their sabotage and datasteals to OTHER corporations, so it would make sense to have some-one in-house. Also outside forces would need jobs done too. Maybe some-one needs their LAV authorized to dock, so that this week's BTL shipment can be delivered to various edgy sararimans. Skills like Stealth and Etiquette (relevant corporate) would be vital, as well would good disguises, discreet cyber-ware (bioware preferred), and high rating fake SINs. And after a few runs, when you're discovered, you get to either have a mad bash and dash to get out, or go out in a blaze of glory.

I wholeheartedly endorse St. Louis. Seccession talk, the Missouri split, the smuggling routes, shooting eachother to jazz music, the St. Louis Mafia... what's not to love? I've always been astounded that Missouri and Kansas didn't get more love in the earlier source books considering they have such rich political histories.

Peoria, IL... today it's the theoretical archetype of the US. Might as well have a sourcebook for the cleavers.

The place is probably the source of the Shedim.

Baltimore. Of all the cities in the US, Baltimore, Detroit and Philly are far and away the three most cyberpunk, yet all three have been sorely neglected. However Baltimore has the benefit of being a HUGE smuggling port, spitting distance from the UCAS, a slightly longer spit from the CAS border, with ties to basically all the big underworld groups. Honestly, the fact that SR is based by default in SEATTLE of all cities has always bothered me a little. Wooh, starbucks, so cyberpunk! Give me a murder a night and one of the most abusive police forces in the country any day.

Looks like there are a lot of good candidates for cities. I was trying to find a link for the Submission Guidelines that used to be in the FAQ, but wasn't able too. Maybe Rob, Adam, or Synner would be good enough put in a link to them?

A couple more to add to the mix:
Riyadh, Mecca, and Medina and I'd suggest them as a group rather than individually
Cape Town South Africa
Beijing
Zanzibar Tanzania (though Arusha is much closer to Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar has a lot of colorful history and would still be a likely jumping off point for out of town runners going to work on the Kilimanjaro Mass Driver)

...nah, that would be Adams County WI. Lot's of old horrors & skeltons in closets there.

OK totally homer shameful plug time...M'waukee. (take the chipheads bowling...eh..)

We've so many weirdos here, you're probably not alone.

The Shadowrun Submission Guidelines are under the Catalyst Game Labs tab on the website (not the FAQ).

To further clarify, since there seems to be a little confusion as to the "theme" of the book: Cities of Intrigue will focus on sprawls that are flashpoints for political intrigue, social unrest, ideological clashes, espionage games, and/or are seats of government power.

(btw: Cape Town is already in Runner Havens)

I still vote Portland.

And I maintain that not covering New Orleans in one of the city books would be a huge disservice.

I think Portland fits all those criteria

i'll throw in Sydney . . hell, that continent only got worse with the awakening . . before there were about 80% dangerous species on that blasted desert in the ocean . . after it has to be something like 95% and i'd like to see how the people of sydney deal with that *g*

I second that, maybe by 2070 we'll actually have a second metro line.

I hardly think Sydney fits the criteria for Cities of Intrigue. Maybe Feral Cities ...

Any idea if they are coming out with a new York or Chicago?

i am intrigued by how they manage to keep that city alive on that continent, for me, that's good enough you spoil sport ._. *gg*
but yes, feral cities is probably better . . i wanted to say moscow, but then i checked and saw it had allready been wished for . .
and i can't think of any interesting cities for me to wish for somehow . . i think they are all kinda meh ._.

...given that criteria, Milwaukee would be on the short list.

Yeah, #12! Behind Oakland!

Baltimore is #1 in '07 baby, they should give us a crown or something...

New York is featured in Corporate Enclaves and Chicago will be one of the two main chapters of Feral Cities.

...but 2.5 times that of the above mentioned NYC & Chicago

...in addition to:

...an extremely high minority unemployment rate
...one of the highest school drop out rates
...a failing school system
...corrupt cops

...now add advance time six decades and change: two major information/economic crashes, several periods of civil unrest, throw in the Bug crisis in Chicago in the 50s, being a regional haven for organised crime (according to fluff), a lot of abandoned factories & warehouses. and having the largest port on the Great Lakes.

...could be an interesting place.

If it hadn't been covered in Corporate Enclaves I would have said that Nairobi was a must.

Renraku Arcology: Shutdown.


You'd think the word 'intrigue' in the title would give it away.

BTW, New Orleans. Try Awakened Haunts.

I'm also fascinated that no one noticed or mentioned my entry for 'Miami, CAS'


Nairobi for all your mass driver needs. Riyadh... Maybe. Mecca and Medina? No.

I tried to not overlap with cities already covered. I don't know how Neo-Tokyo got into the first draft. But it is a draft. I also have Quebec City and Bellingham. Dushanbe would be a good choice. Almost all of the freshwater to Central Asia (Turkestan) comes from Tajikistan. And that's already led to some pretty shady stuff going on there.

My ideal arrangement would be:

Washington, FDC
London

Smaller Boards

• Geneva
• Mogadishu
• Dushanbe
• Bogotá
• Boise
• Manila

I know these things don't get nailed down for quite a while yet but are we assuming the same format as Corporate Enclaves - two main cities and then five of six mini-writeups?

Thanks for the link & Theme Clarification

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Well, Corp Enclaves, Runner Havens, what can be inferred from the mention that Chicago will be one of the two main chapters of Feral Cities, and a general sense if not outright declaration in the feral cities thread and/or one of the upcoming book threads.

No Orkland.

ah, excellent, i've wanted to know what happened to Chi-town after the bug cleanup

OR here it is said outright:

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.



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.




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.



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.


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.

Atlanta might be a good choice. Whilst plenty of people have mentioned Washington/Federal District what's the UCAS really been up to lately? The CAS is actively involved in a low level brush war with Aztlan that could go hot fairly quickly, fighting piracy in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, running guns and supplies to rebellious Aztlan groups, plus playing around with the megacorporations what with their being a bit selective in granting extraterritoriality via the ERLA. Throw in not always great relation with the UCAS over Northern Virginia and an expansionist Pueblo that might get them nervous and you've got a fairly decent mix.

I'd agree Atlanta is a good choice as well.

...yeah, being the capitol of the CAS, I could see putting Atlanta on the list. And yes having lived there for a while, the Big Easy too.

However DC has also been done to death with the Dunkie for Prez arc of campaigns. Atlanata as someone suggested has been englected and the CAS is in the mix a bit more in the developing plots. Portland really does have a lot to be explained about how it got from where it was in Shadows of North America to how it is Described in 2070.


The Corp vs. Corp stuff gets old when you get a steady diet of it, besides Brussels or Geneva will probably get some ink in the new Corporate Book, silly or not the Grand Tour is different, it gets away from the whole "nothing personal just business" stuff in to the realm of personal intrigue.

When thinking about the concepts of this book keep in mind MICE (Money, Ideology, Coercion, Ego)



Bogata is a good choice for this theme too, quite possible that the planning & operational support would not be based in the Amazonian Capitol




The main attraction to Korea is that it's a major Asian State and has gotten comparatively little ink in previous products. The idea of it being the net domino to fall in the crumbling of Japan's empire is intriguing.




I like the sentiment but I don't think Mogadishu is a great choice for this one. If anything it's likely to be a hotbed of NIJ activity though it's probably stabilized a lot in ~2070. Zanzibar in a lot of ways is exactly what you're trying to shoehorn Mogadishu in to, and is proximate enough to the Kilimanjaro Mass Driver to have a Corp Angle as well. On the other hand I was leaning towards Desert Wars staging areas because Desert Wars really is only semi-developed as an Insitution (and apparently it's a major insitution in the Corp world) and it gives the Mercenary campaigns a bit more to play with in addition to offering something for the spies and traditional Runners

There are lots of great cities out there, and a lot of good cases to be made for them. Trying to fit those cities in to a larger plot is the tricky part, just trying to come up with some of these ideas gives me a greater appreciation for the work the Developers do when they write these books up. Seriously Rob is probably trying to juggle a coherent plot in to 6-12 books some of which are still 2 yeasr out of production.

Spoilsport, eh?

Don't get me wrong. I'd like to see Sydney covered again ... hell, I live here so of course I wouldn't mind at all. It's just not quite fitting for that particular book.

Thar she blows!

That's the book I was trying to think of. Thanks.