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fatal2ty
I've been looking for an excuse to do something like this and kindalas's thread on Ottawa has given me some motivation for it, my ideas aren't nearly as fleshed out as his are, but heres what I'm considering so far, and if theres already canon material on Edmonton I havn't found it and would love to see it

I feel the population, being heavily invested in Oil and Farms would be more prone to a more steampunk feel and make heavy use of Geothermal energy due to the 8 months of winter, due to the political struggle between Edmonton and Anchorage, theres a blockade preventing laws from being passed and therefore, surrounding AA and AAA corporations feel no pressure to stop pouring heavy amounts of black smoke into the atmosphere from oil refineries, coal power plants, and plastics manufacturing(Dow Chemical currently has a plant north of Edmonton and I would assume it would still exist under the control of another corp) and this has resulted in 2 main seasons, Winter and Ashfall, winter is cold and stale preventing hard labor and people tend to stay indoors with their trids and only leave when they need to, Ashfall, which used to be summer is the heavily productive time of year where Oil rigs are in full swing, resulting in ash "snowing" all around giving the city a very dirty and glummy feel. The city is still a bustling metropolis of a million residents, but most of the upper-management, white-collar corporate types live in arcologies where they are sheltered from the unhealthy environment.

Gang presence is somewhat heavy, mainly eco-friendly in nature and anti-corporate, but in recent years anarchists have formed gangs and control a large portion of the downtown area, the odd biker gang exists on the outskirts of the city where access to long, sprawling highways is plenty.

even without AAA status, Athabaskan Oil seems to have the largest influence in Edmonton and controls a stunningly large percentage of Oil reserves throughout area and employs more than half the registered population, Ares has a presence around the city and as such, the local law enforcement is contracted out to Knight Errant.

The political structure is heavily influenced by tribal relations and is constantly in a stanglehold for power, thus preventing laws from being passed and the Grand Council argues of every issue that gets passed to them.

Edmonton is a model for how Corporate pull and political chaos can result in a city that is but a shadow of its former self
imperialus
I live in Calgary and overall it seems like a fairly good assessment. One thing I'd point out though is that the city does not shut down in the winter. The rigs are still going full swing, ect. This is mostly because Alberta is pretty dry. We usually only average a few feet of snow over a year but it does get very cold, hitting -50 C after windchill at least a few times a year. Due to an act of collective insanity this rarely even causes elementary schools to shut down nevermind businesses.

Let me give this a bit more thought and I'll see if I can't come up with a few more suggestions.
Backgammon
Wasn't Edmonton covered in SoNA? I forget. Anyway, keep in mind Edmonton is part of the NaN and thus pollution is a no-no. But I don't think the NaN would ignore that much resources - but they certainly won't be selling out like Tsimshian did (until they lost the war, anyway). Still plenty of agrocorps would have bases there, along with connexe services corps.
b1ffov3rfl0w
QUOTE (fatal2ty @ Mar 13 2008, 04:36 PM) *
Gang presence is somewhat heavy, mainly eco-friendly in nature


I'm picturing a David Suzuki posergang terrorizing the streets on plug-in electric motorcycles.
Synner667
I'd envisage pseudo-Tribal Indians..
fatal2ty
@imperialus

your right, it doesn't really shut down, but plants are not in full swing like they are in the summer because they don't want to strain the equipment enough that it might require extra maintainance. but I see your point and maybe the ash falling wouyld be more year round, just in winter there would be snow mixed in

@Backgammon
my thoughts on that are that, while there may be heavy limitations on pollution, they aren't easily enforcable and the constant banter over what to do over it prevents any action from being taken so the corps just do what they want anyway.
I have very few pre-4th edition books, so if Edmonton was covered I may have to scavange the bargain bins at the gaming stores for a copy

@Synner667 & b1ffov3rfl0w

The psuedo-indian gangs are more or less what i'm thinking of in terms of enviro-gangs, they've decided the government isn't going to enforce it so they take it upon themselves to infiltrate plants and shut them down resulting in losses for the companies.

[Edit: That should make more sense]
kindalas
With a large work force of oil riggers I would expect the Oil town of the future to be a haven for vice. Casinos, BTLs, prostitutes, gangs of every type and motivation.

I would have a rich person's part of the city be covered by a dome to keep the chocking pollution out of their lives

I would imagine that everyday wage slaves would frequently be required to wear gas masks when the travel outside with the poor scrounging for enough credits to afford a few credits of bottled air.

I would also make it so that the Oil and the profits from that oil be so huge that the normally environmentally friendly Athabaskans council looks the other way because of the tax revenues.

In fact add in a ton a heavy industry. Refineries, smelters, steel mills and manufacturing plants could all find their homes here feeding the nations demand for consumerism while allowing the rest of the territory to be environmentally friendly. It is perfectly hypocritical for SR.

If I remember my geography lessons correctly the wind in Alberta' goes predominantly west to east (I may be 100% directionally wrong) so I would ahve the rich live towards the west side of the city allowing the fresh clean winds to reach them first and the the poorer an poorer the further east you go.

imperialus
Another possibility might be to develop Edmonton in concert with her sister city Calgary and the coinpurse of them both, Fort MacMurry.

If I were to do this I'd actually put the HQ of Athabaskan oil in Calgary. Traditionally if you look at the two cities throughout their history Edmonton has always been the political capitol of the province and Calgary has been the business capitol. Calgary has the HQ of Talisman Energy, and the Canadian HQ of Shell Oil and Nexen among others. This is pretty common in Canada, you could just as easily compare Toronto and Ottawa, Vancouver and Victoria, or Montreal and Quebec City.

This means that Calgary could be used as a sort of 'poster city' for the Athabaskan Council. Clean, safe, green and ridiculously expensive. Calgary is also much different climate wise than Edmonton despite only being 300 km apart. Praticularly during winter. Calgary gets Chinooks, warm winds coming out of the rockies that will periodically warm the city up to 0 C even in mid January or February.

It would make for an interesting dynamic for runner teams too since they are effectively working in two different cities at once. All the power brokers live in Calgary while the actual work gets done in Edmonton.

At a further extreme end of the spectrum too you'd have Fort MacMurry. Even today the area around there looks like the surface of the moon since so much of it has be strip mined for the oilsands. Fort Mac would be dirty, dangerous, fucking cold, and filled with huge numbers of transient labourers. Gangs (mostly go gangs and the like) would run Fort Mac but it's where all the money comes from.
fatal2ty
the problem with that is that Calgary is a part of the Alquinkian-Manitoo Council and not the Athabaskan Council

I could see the dynamic still developing, but Highway 2 would become the longest 300km you could travel, biker gangs from Edmonton to Red Deer, border patrol just past Red Deer and I don't know much about Alquinkian-Manitoo, so that would be something I would have to look into before going into much detail in that area, though due to proximity from Edmonton, and their former relationship I think your description would probably be suitable. Though due to Territory differences, I would keep Athabaskan Oil in Edmonton.

It might actually be a nice setting for smuggling operations, I can envision some good story arcs in that area

World Map: http://rpg.divnull.com/sixthworld/
Edit: I'm kinda pissed that the map doesn't have Edmonton even on it though, but you should have an idea of where it is anyway
imperialus
Oh... That's odd... It's been a while since I looked at the map but I see you're right now.

That said though it would actually make more sense to redraw the borders somewhat. The way they are set up right now splits the territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Blackfoot Sisika, Blood and Piegan) in half. If you look at the nations involved during the various treaties It makes more sense (in my mind at least) for the Blackfoot to have thrown their lot in with the Athabaskans than the Algonquin. The Blackfoot Confederacy was more closely allied, both economically and culturally with the Cree than they were with the Chippewyan, and Assiniboine. Even the Blackfoot language iirc is a part of the Athabaskan language grouping, not Algonquin.
fatal2ty
true, I'd have to announce to my group that I'm changing some of the canon in order to set up a system like that, but your right, it, historically has been the relationship Edmonton and Calgary had and would make more sense. I wonder how hard it would be to get official canon changed at this magnitude, I think everyone planning to run in the NaN could benefit from seeing a stronger, more involving Athabaskan Council. Especially with the history of the area making so much sense.

As a lifelong Edmontonian, and with the "Battle of Alberta" being so prominent, I have to admit i'm a little uneasy promoting Calgary as the safer and cleaner of the 2 cities, but knowing how blue collar Edmonton is, and how White collar Calgary is, it makes too much sense to pick favorites. I like this, I think I'm going to plan my next campaign in Alberta, my runners will find it refreshing to go "home", and I'm already picturing a massive storyline arc involving Athabaskan oil and eco-terrorism. Biker gangs on Highway 2 won't make things easy for them, and the Atmophere is too wicked to pass up.

I think i'm gonna download some google maps and start rebuilding Alberta for the Shadowrun Universe
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