I am creating a run in which the team needs to kidnap a Corporate scientist. It seems like a simple enough run to create, but then I started thinking about the corporate enclaves/arcologies. How do you picture them? Are they gated communities in which you need an appointment or invite to get into? Once inside, would your PAN show that you are not an employee, or family member of one, and therefore be asked to leave or brought in for questioning?

So I guess what I’m asking is, what obstacles would a shadowrunner come up against in trying to get into a corporate town/enclave/arcology? And what do these places look like? I’m kind of picturing the Umbrella corporation arcology in Resident Evil. Am I off?

Any info, or in game experiences, will help.

The Hive is a good example of a really, really high security enclave/arcology (it not being self sufficient, for all I know, would be an enclave). However, only really freakish corps like Proteus AG or the topmost secure R&D facilities in hostile environments would be built like that. A Gated Community is a good idea, though. In case of the Arcology as a building, think a mix of gated community, Truman Tower and security as seems fit for the corp and tasks at hand. A Highrise farma rcology where mainly food is produced in more than 200 stories would propably not have the same kind of security than an Arcoblock designed to weather out the coming scourge.

Could be a wide range of options, depending on how high value the scientist is and how high the owning Corp think the risk of extraction is.

Even gated communities have a range of security levels, but they'll have varying degrees of passive and active surveillance on the perimeter, and "appropriate" levels of ID check for entrance permissions. Your decker might need to insert a false maintenance callout record into the enclave's janitorial systems so that the gate guards will let the team's van in. You might have to compromise the service company's information to have valid IDs. You might need to have covert weapons compartments in the truck. There could be any level of control of visiting service personnel, from none (if you can successfully impersonate a regular visitor), to RFID visitor tags to an actual warm body or team escorting you.

Alternatively you could go over the wire and need to defeat IR, laser and vibration sensors and dog and drone patrols, and the alarm on the scientist's house.

Or you could crash the place in an LAV and only be facing light defensive armaments. The pursuit would be rather hotter, though, on exfil.

Arcologies are a different kettle of fish, since they're mostly self-contained and you'd need to be able to provide "unusual" services to be needed inside. Their physical security is another grade up from a gated community.

If he doesn't live on site where he works, you could snatch him en commute.

If he has *any* extra-Corporate entanglements (likes to go clubbing, or butterfly collecting or to cruise the red light district looking for harlots to dismember), you could grab him there, a little removed from the corpsec umbrella.

In a lot of respects you should look at what you think your group can handle, combined whith what their *fixer* thinks they can handle.

Like Shiloh said, there's a wide range here.

On the low end, you have classic gated communities. Outsiders generally stand out, but are allowed in for particular services or appointments. I mean, you need a plumber, right? Pizza delivery?

You're going to have some higher security gated communities. If you've ever seen the US embassy compound overseas, or a domestic military base, it would be like that. You have most of your office buildings and residential buildings in one area. They have a commisary and all sorts of services, like plumbers, electricians, barbers, etc. You don't have to go off-site for much of everything. The wall is well guarded from intruders, and may use a DMZ nearby the fence, on one or both sides. If you don't have an ID, you're not getting in. If you're not actively escorted, you're not getting in.

It goes up from there. Some communities are going to put themselves in intentionally difficult to access spots, like built into a cliff, or out in the bay, to reduce the dangers of people breaking in. Moving stuff underground is also useful.

Then of course, you have arcologies.

Thank you guys! That was all beneficial. I think from this I can come up with a good layout of a corporate enclave/compound.

hmm, now im contemplating how to turn a high-rise into something of a vertical gated community

Fill the outer rooms of the lower two floors with concrete and rebar, apart from access routes. Make other rooms on those floors into admin and utility spaces. Put guards on the door and roof. If you want to be self-contained, turn floors into shopping areas and communal spaces. Make the roof a park, possibly with geodesic dome.

Keep in mind that many arcologies have areas open to public access.
If you want to employ such a design, build the gated community part on top of a large shopping mall, a club district, a theme park, beach resort, zoo or any combiation of those.
Or put it on top of the building, with commuter zeppelins, L-trains or somesuch as means of access.
If the arco is build into the sea, such areas could center around the waterline, with employee housing on top of them and aquaculture projects below the surface.
In any case, this visitor area could make a possible point of entry for the runners or they could at least wander this area to gather informations during legwork.

An arco is also likely to feature some of those areas in the employees only section to improve a feeling of community among the personell.


Furthermore, there will likely be levels used only for maintenance or production tasks.
Security on those could be a lot laxer or much, much tighter, depending on the sensitivity of those tasks (security for the arco's own fusion plant might easily exceed even that for the executive residential area, whereas the waste recycling compartment might not be controlled too severely).


If the layout of the arcology is particularly centered on agriculture, aquaculture or production of other tangible goods, it could even produce an overstock that is exported.
In such cases, the runners could try to infiltrate the structure by sneaking in on one of the delivery vans going to pick up a new load of nutrisoy.

Arcology is a set of architectural design principles aimed toward the design of enormous habitats (hyperstructures) of extremely high human population density. It advocates cities designed to maximize the interaction and accessibility associated with an urban environment; minimize the use of energy, raw materials and land, reducing waste and environmental pollution; and allow interaction with the surrounding natural environment.

For further reading and designs and images of arcologies, I can recommend Paulo Soleri's book Arcology: The City in the Image of Man. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press, 1969.

Where I live (St. Paul, MN, USA) we have a place called the Mall of America. It’s an over the top mall with several restaurants, hundreds of stores, a theme park with several rides, an aquarium, and I think, even a wedding chapel. So I guess in terms of Shadowrun, slap 10-20 floors on top of it for housing/offices, and maybe a few underneath for the top secret corporate research facilities and you got yourself a corporate enclave open to the public. You would just need to make the floors above, and below, the mall only accessible to the residents and/or workers.

I think I’m starting to picture the corporate enclave/arcology a lot better.

Does anyone remember the Arcology from Sim City 2000? Chrysalis has the technical definition down but in terms of simplicity for Shadowrun it helps to just think of a really large, completely self-sufficient and enclosed building inside a larger city. A city-in-a-city.

Here's a proposed design for one that would be anchored in Tokyo Bay. The former-Renraku Arcology/ACHE is basically a huge, 200+ story pyramid. I picture other arcologies as being of varying shapes, depending on the architect; usually domes, towers or pyramids or other interlocking shapes. References were made in Runner Havens and Corporate Enclaves to mini-arcos as an option to the traditional gated community. Though a gated community doesn't risk being possessed by an AI, locking you in, and murdering you! But you are more likely to be run over by a soccer mom in her SUV.

Pyramids are favoured because the steps give a good amount of space for plant growth if the habitat wants to try and be self-sufficient. They're also very stable...

a bit of digging turned up this:
http://hairball.bumba.net/~rwa2/school/enpm643/Arcology.html

complete with images from sim city 2000 and 3000.

btw, the books snow crash and diamond age could be of interest when it comes to gated communities

Yes! I loved the evil "Darco" arcologies that belched smoke! Thanks for the memories!

There was actually something on the discovery channel not too long ago about Super Skyscrapers that would basically be thier own enclosed city. People would work in office portions, live in housing portions, there would be a tram system as well as elevators, malls and stores, and open-air parks on large open sections in the middle. Every time I think of an Arc, that's what I picture, a huge self-contained city in a Skyscraper where none of the wageslaves ever have a reason to step outside the building.

Or the pyramid city project proposed in Japan. Search for city in a pyramid, you'll find it.

Pyramid city

Currently there are two projects which fall within the definition of arcology:


Arcosanti a project begun in 1970 in central Arizona and is built on 25 acres (0.1 km²) of a 4,060 acre (16 km²) land preserve, keeping its inhabitants near the natural countryside. The Arcosanti web site describes how an arcology functions in Arcosanti: "The built and the living interact as organs would in a highly evolved being. Many systems work together, with efficient circulation of people and resources, multi-use buildings, and solar orientation for lighting, heating and cooling."

Existing structures include a four-story visitors' center/cafe/ gift shop, the bronze-casting apse (half-dome) carefully situated to admit maximal winter sun and minimal summer sun, two large barrel vaults, a ring of apartment residences around an outdoor amphitheatre, a community swimming pool, and Soleri's suite. A two-bedroom "Sky Suite" occupies the highest point in the complex and is available for overnight guests.

In Arcosanti, apartments, businesses, production, technology, open space, studios, and educational and cultural events are all accessible, while privacy is paramount in the overall design. Greenhouses are planned to provide gardening space for public and private use, and act as solar collectors for winter heat.

The McMurdo Station of the United States Antarctic Program and other scientific research stations on the continent of Antarctica most closely approximate the popular conception of an arcology as a technologically-advanced, self-sufficient human community. Although by no means entirely self-sufficient (the U.S. Military Operation Deep Freeze resupply effort delivers 8 million gallons of fuel and 11 million pounds of supplies and equipment yearly) the base has a very insular character as a necessary shelter and protection from an extremely harsh environment, is geographically isolated from conventional support networks, and must avoid damage to the surrounding Antarctic ecosystem due to international treaty. It generates electricity with its own nuclear power plant, grows fruits and vegetables in a hydroponic green house, and provides a full range of living and entertainment amenities.

In addition, there is the Strip in Las Vegas where you can move from one Casino to another without ever having to walk out with the use of the tram system. Casinos are also self-containted having their own housing, shopping complexes, medical facilities, and legal gambling areas.

Co-op City's construction began in 1968 and was completed in 1971. Its 15,372 residential units, in 35 high rise buildings and seven clusters of townhouses, make it the largest single residential development in the United States. It sits on 320 acres (1.3 km²) but only 20% of the land was developed, leaving many green spaces. The apartment buildings, referred to by number, range from 24 floors to as high as 33. The 236 townhouses, referred to by their street-name cluster, are three stories high and have a separate garden apartment and upper duplex three-bedroom apartment.

This "city within a city" also has eight parking garages, three shopping centers, a 25 acre educational park (including a high school, two middle schools and three grade schools), power plant, a 4-story air conditioning generator and a firehouse. More than 40 offices within the development are rented by doctors, lawyers, and other professionals and there are at least 15 houses of worship. Spread throughout the community are six nursery schools and day care centers, four basketball courts and five baseball diamonds. The adjacent Bay Plaza Shopping Center has a 13 screen multi-plex movie theater, department stores, and a supermarket.


-Chrysalis

And the best part is that you can do a dry run using the umpteen abandoned gated communities in Redmond.

Plus it adds an extra level of contingencies and options to explore, since they will most likely be defended by measures that corpsec wouldn't consider because they are above it, or because they don't really know shit, or because one or two of those communities is ruled by a gang or a syndicate or even a runner crew with enough juice to make it harder to break into (and out of) than the real target.


Eh. It only links a couple of casinos--all but one of which aren't worth going to anyway.