I dunno what are your feelings of Target UCAS. I thought it was about as bland as a Irish Chili cookoff. I've been working to rewrite a open book for Boston. So far I've got the entire city mapped off and maps of all the neighborhoods in Boston central. I'm also looking to put together different contacts for boston and what not to make the area more realistic. If anyone is interested message me. I've put together around 30 pages worth of material but I'm only around 30% done. Enough to game with but not to have a complete idea. Here some Ideas that I'm working on:

: Rebuilding and changing Barren zones - with migration and the economics migrant families are going to crowd in Boston. Areas of delapidated neighborhoods in south and north boston become self contained "free zones" devoid of law.

: Cambridge Anyone who's been to Cambridge knows it's refered to as "The peoples Republic". With the two strains of viruses Cambrige encorporates to a closed city. Movement into and out of the city is highly regulated and there's a fence/wall that surrounds the entire city. Now defunct "health check points" are the primary way in and out of Cambridge. Now instead of checking for just VITAS they run a criminal check. Guns are highly illegal and can block your port of entry. Non citizens get a "living" / "travel" permit that allows them to go in and out of the city but only after they're background is researched thouroughly. If you have a record then you'll be "watched". Additionally political correctness or the 2060 analogue isn't just a nicety it's the law. (IE see Demolition Man's Verbal Morality Act.)

: The Maze is no longer "the Maze". Due to eath quakes and other activity and the cost of maintining underground T, the T has moved above ground leaving behind a large network of tunnels through the city. Developers have turned parts in to quaint shopping networks while enterprising smugglers use the old tunnels for smuggling arms into Cambridge or Chelsea. (Chelsea is a industrial waste zone, there's a shanty town, Industry, and lots of "gentlemen clubs")

: Big Mamma is back with a vengence.

I have more specifics but if your interested post something and I'll answer any questions you have. Additionally I'm going to be releasing with the book maps I've created for places in Boston such as resturants and stuffer schacks. They're going to come in both 8"x11", 40"x28" (plotter size) I'm looking for Archetectual msp?, stencils for Visio 2000. If anyone wants to toss them my way I'd be interested.

You could work up a similar or competing group to Seattle's Orc Underground in the tunnel web.

And since we all know magic stuff is found underground, you could scatter artifacts, power sites drekcetera in there.

Interesting idea I never thought of that. Do you mind if I use it. I know you posted but I'd prefer to be extra polite. Ironically there is alot of "precidence" for that. Since Boston was founded 400 years ago alot of the "trash" an other objects were burried all over the North End, Charlestown and Downtown Boston. The big dig or "The single most expensive bit of Highway in the world" dug up lots of artifacts and stuff left by Indians and Settlers. Lots of interesting bits and what not. Actually also South Boston and Parts of Back Bay Boston are not really "natural". The area known as "Beacon Hill" was originally "a big hill". What they did was to get rid of the swamp land in South Boston and Back Bay they used a large chunk of the hill and dirt from other places and filled in Parts of South Boston and Backbay making it habitable. One of the big problems with digging back there is that the ground isn't real solid. Actually billions of dollars are going to go into renovating that area. With the big dig alot of the ground water was pumped out and many of the old buildings sit on old rail road like ties that form the foundations. With the sinking water levels those old ties are starting to slowly deterorate. Leaving for at the very least millions in foundation repairs. So with that in mind that's a great idea. So who knows what the burrowers will find. One thing with the underground I focused on was all of the negative sort of things that can live down in the tunnels. All sorts of nasty awakened creatures and the like. I've got a couple of "undead" style gangs that live down there. One being a pure vampire gang, another ar more loose "awakened undead" and other sentients and changlings.

I wouldn't have posted it if I wasn't going to allow you to run with it.

Some questions to think of:

What happened to Harvard(or whatever Ivy that is)?

How is the accent affected?

Any cool magical/ghost stories to work up?

Here's an idea- swarms of ghouls live in the tunnel net and eat anyone they can get their hands on. Heck, you could almost write off the whole city to "decay" and build a sort of underground community. Or contrast a shiny city and a sick underground.

Some other stuff

(Of Ancient History's site)
Ken Roper and Michael Eld After leaving Echo Mirage, these two co-founded Matrix Systems of Boston
and created the first true cyberdeck. They also stored a copy of the anti-virus on their system. Roper and Eld died under mysterious circumstances, and Richard Villiers used their cyberdeck to gain a toehold in Fuchi.

The novels "Technobabel", "Crossroads", & "The Burning Time" (All By Steve Kenson) All take place in or around Boston. You could use a lot of NPC's and Locations from them.

IIRC mention was made of the Otaku tribes, Ghoul's gathering bodies and the Underground were all mentioned in those books.

Also, Mass. is (in)famous for it's witches....
And of course Witch Hunters

I wouldn't have posted it if I wasn't going to allow you to run with it.

Some questions to think of:

What happened to Harvard(or whatever Ivy that is)?
>>> Harvard for the most part hasn't changed. Being the bastion of education the Duklezah foundation has a magical research center there. The safer it is for the kiddies the happier mom and dad will be about paying the tuition. I figure MIT&T and Harvard will not have changed a whole lot. I think as far as growth goes North Eastern Univeristy has the potential to grow as it is less prestigious. The neighborhoods surrounding MIT&T and Harvard are fairly expensive rental properties so expanding is going to be expensive. That's not to say they couldn't expand to remotely in other cities as well.
>>>>In respect to H.P. Lovecraft there's an area between Saugus and Lynn that's a giant flat land. Thinking from a developers point of view it would be cream as far a developments go. So Arkham is officially a township for the magically inclined.
How is the accent affected?
>>>>As far as the accent goes I don't think that's going to change. As far as MIT there may be some Asian or Indian added but I doubt it.
Salem
>>>>For Salem what I primarily did was think about how the city would react to the flocking of witches. NewEnglanders are far from "tolerant" of much of the new age stuff. Most of the folks who would flock to Salem as a haven for witches wouldn't nessacarily be greeted with open arms. Many of the families over there have lived there for generations making it there home. Some of the houses there date back a hundred to two hundred years. Those more conservative folks are not going to be sympathetic to new age wiccians especially if they have the power of magic. So I figured there would be a "awakened" area and a "mundane" area of the city. Similar to eithnic neighborhoods. Those two groups would be at each other polticially making for a heated exchange. So Arkham being close by would be a good haven for those magically inclined. Mikatonic University (it's not called that but the school lives.) I've primarily been taking some of Lovecraft's stuff and giving it an edge in the shadowrun world. With the opening of the rift and magical permutations all sorts of wacky stuff is starting to pop out. My campaign has sort of a Cthulu flare to it. I like the idea that with magic comes horror for those beings who can cross over into our world. Primarily I've focused on those who would want that sort of "tainted" magic: Burnt out mages and mundanes. I think those are the groups most "susceptible" to the evil magic. I've not put anything totally together and that's still a work in process.

Any cool magical/ghost stories to work up?
>>>>>>I've worked in some ghost stores. My first ghost story involves a gangster, a murder, and a whole slew of weird stuff. That's the first game that Iv'e started. Other "free spirits are around. One being a hearth spirit who runs an orphanage for street kids. There's also a big "citgo" sign that's refered to as the "Kenmore Square god". Well that god has awakened. It appears ussually as either a baseball player from the 50's (Ted Williams) or as a "Dick Tracy" type. The god likes wiskey and women and talks with a fourties dialect. Ramona is the hearth spirit and she's his eternal companion in a sense. She watches over the children and the "god" just sort of does his own thing. Although if a family or person has lived in the area and has some substantial history with the neighborhood he tends to help out from time to time. Primarily with Elderly and what not. There's a third free spirit or apparition that is involved in the present game. She's part of the adventure and is still under wraps. I like dark stories, so basically she was killed by a gangster part of the "Menio" syndicate for not aborting a mobsters child. So far that's all the players have figured out. More on her to come.

Ooooo... a copy of the Echo Mirage Anti-Virus... Does anyone else see a rouge AI in the works?

I'd edge away from that one...

AI's are so important to the metaplot that dropping a new one in could be like dropping in a new Great Dragon.

Note, I say could. I'm not really sure.

Witches: Witches kind of annoy me. I have nothing against them but true "witches" really don't exsist and Celtic Mythology is complex and very much conjecture. Witches would be a good thing to focus on though especially if they summon something really nasty ect.

Witch Hunters are an interesting idea. One thing I've been toying with is the Magic Registration act. If you think about it magic is powerfull. You can summon some really really nasty criters or cast some nasty spells with a power that is greater than any most firearms. So in kin to the "X-men"'s Mutant registration act I have political underpinnings going in the Mass State House as to wether mages and shamans and aspected folks should have to register. If they fail then they could be hunted down by witch hunters. That could be interesting.

Echo Mirage Virus
>>>I had an idea for a interesting new "cult". This might feed into that nicely. What would happen if you were able to create a stable AI? Basically you could look at it as a near perfect consciouness. Now thinking of how people might look at that you have something that is near perfect. What if people started a cult to worship the AI and it's perfection. Some similar to the borg. They all want to be part of this perfect intelligence so they have a cult where they worship, maintain, and in some way maybe are part of it. This could cause the AI to go insane or worse. Hell it could even be a part ot Deus? I dunno but I thought the idea of a rouge AI in the bowels of MIT&T would be neat. There beign worshiped ect. Just think of it, and open source silicon god. Think about the social implications if the source code could be compiled and released to the open public as "open source"? The second idea was with corporeal consciousness comes a flesh body. We live in it and die in it. A AI hasn't those restrictions it can leave it's Mainframe as long as it can run or transfer itself to another mainframe infecting that mainframe like a virus and spreading......

OTAKU that I'm sure about. I love the idea of children hackers. Possibly Otaku children live and are part of Haven maybe others are part the the MIT cult : The first church of the trancendental consciounes (msp?) I'll have too look into the Echo-Mirage team and flesh that out more. That's a great idea. That could be interesting. One story that I love from the first Matrix book was the story about Renny. I really dug it and I think it's one of my favorite SR stories. Dr. Haberstam is still alive and well and is getting close to perfecting his "version" of organic AI's. That's an area for a later campaign game. The idea that a child could be molested is horifying . The idea that a child could be carved up and put in tanks and turned into a semi living cyborg is gruesome and makes for some dark games.

>>> I need to flesh out the underground some more. I think the idea that swarms of "ghouls" have infested the underground would be interesting. One thing that I started to do was to have all the "comercial" and tourist tunnells areas have local municiple security and at night they lock down all the exterior entrances with big metal doors and gates to keep the denziens out. If a ghoul infestation were to occur that would be the perfect place. That could make for some fun. Mass infestations and what not are cool. Especially since there's a unlimited supply of food topside. What would happen if elderly old ladies were turned into ghouls after getting bitten at the Boston Comons one night while walking their small edible dogs. That could be interesting. ONe thing though I wonder if a player would really figure it out at first. Things like "false teeth" and walking sticks would be thrown aside.......Plus Boston has no shortage of Street people. Ironically what would happen if as a strategy that went horribly wrong street people were "infected" with a virus making them alergic to sunlight. Then to top it off it mutates back into Vitas. The ideas for and underground are limitless.

Oh yeah, Steve Kenson, I know the name. He wrote the original Target:UCAS Boston source material. I'll have to check out his books. I remember that. He's a freelance writer who lives up in NH I believe. I've chatted with him over email. He's a nice guy. He also worked on the Shadows of North America I believe. He's like a professional and stuff. I'm a hack getting ready for buisness grad school, he's like a real writer and stuff. I've never met him but he did have some good ideas I just didn't like all of his ideas. I think that Boston harbor is poisoned enough and doesn't need any additional poisoning and his approach to the barrens I thought was crude and didn't take into account the neighborhoods in Boston verywell. I want to give Boston that character that is has. Boston is a complex city with lots of subburbs. I want to focus on what makes it differnt and stand out. Originally I met the writer and worked with Richard Molpus who did the Dallas/Fort Worth book. I really liked his sland on the DFW he had really good ideas. Although he could use a girlfriend he was interesting. I'll check out Steve Kenson's books, they're probably pretty good. My vision of boston varies but only so that I hope to make it more interesting to play in. I've got tons of material. I should start posting it in the next few weeks or so for review. It's still very crude but it should make for an interesting look. ONe thing I want to do is extend Boston out towards the west down the Mass Pike into Watertown. I figure if the city needs to really extend it's down town. If it's going to be a economic center it needs to extend far beyond Backbay. I think the West would be the most logical since highways would be easier to build westward and extend rather than north and south. I turn part of south boston into a free zone by right of emminent domain. I figure with all the migrants from the western US Boston would be a area with lots of growth and jobs. Boston is also a political city as well. I think Watertown would be easier to buy and bulldoze than Dorchester and South Boston. Watertown has less history and is more of a bedroom community.

I would try keeping this somewhat close to canon. Remeber that a lot of the sourcebooks could be entirely lies. Heck, FASA said as much, and FanPro seems to be staying the course.

Maybe you can sell it, who knows?

The MBTA (well, the subway portion at least) is still alive and well, and as a matter of fact gets four mentions in the timeline, two for starting renovations and two for completing them. Thus, the subways aren't going to have vanished.
I'm more than willing to help out with stuff. The 128 belt 0\/\/|\|z0|25 j00!

~J

The subways would still be around at some level. I was thinking above ground. For Boston I think if it were to grow as massively as they make it out. Lots of companies are going to migrate from old Manhattan and NY to Boston. That's going to entail alot of new growth and a influx of people. I was thinking that for the most part trains would move above ground as new lines are added and needed. One of the big problems with Boston is that the old tunnels are okay new tunnels would be very expensive and may require lots of "money" since many areas of the city are not set on solid ground. That's been one of the big problems is that building stuff underground is very expensive. Most cities tend to go above ground save NY and a few others. I was thinking ideally a elevated track similar to something designed for DFW airport. The green line's big problem is that it has to deal with traffic and tends to be really slow. If you elevate the line up above the streets you get away with that. The only real issue would be that it's unattractive and noisy. Elevated lines snaking through the city would be cheaper to build and maintain than underground tunnels. Either way if they were to keep a chunk of the old line there still plenty of abandoned stations out there. Probably if new lines were to be built they would stretch out towards the outskirts of the city. Most of the lines in Boston that are underground only make up maybe 30% to 40% of the complete line. Possibly though new lines could be built cheaply with technology similar to what they used to build the "chunnel" between France and England. A machine that burrows and as it burrows it lays down cement and forms the tunnel. With enough investment that might make a cost effective underground tunnel. I'm not a civil engineer but maybe underground subways could be made more cost effective. Subways would be needed especially if the city were to grown and move towards the 95/128 belt. Maybe there would be a combination of new above ground and old below ground tunnels that make up the subway system. I wonder though with the big earth quake that devistated NY I wonder if the shock waves would have affected Boston? Even now though you can move around the old subway and new subway tunnels. I know of kids who go down there and explore.