So, as far as I can tell, there's no real description of the club in any of the books. The flavor text doesn't really say much other than the club has nine floors to match the nine levels of hell. But is the club underground, or do you take an elevator to the top and then walk down?

How do y'all handle the club in your games?

You haven't seen the illustration?

Additionally, there's a full page picture on page 36. I always assumed the main floor was ground level, with seven floors above and one below, but a strict reading would indicate that the club goes down down down . Runner Havens also says the ground floor is the top floor, and ads AR along with a Pito type system to reach the lower levels.

born to run or one of them in the trilogy i believe goes into a lot of detail of the layout and scenery.

Harmony Steel wrote a music piece named after Dante's. It comes up on a search for it on Blip.fm or can be found atharmony Steel- Alarin music

Dante's is patterned after the literary Inferno ('Hell') of Dante Aligheri's second book in the The Divine Comedy trilogy.

Vr description in unwired says that the node is sculpted after buddhist hell.

It is described in the Seattle Sourcebook, an old SR1 (1990) guidebook.

"Night Club/Fifth Ave & Madison Street/Dante Passini, Owner/No Racial Bias.
Designed to resemble the poet Dante's vision of Hell, this club is in a class by itself. Nine, huge glass dance floors pulsate with energy while four ramps spiral downward, eventually leading to the bottom level, a private room marked "Hell"."
The runner comment is:
"If you want to see and be seen in Seattle, this is the place to go. - Connie Connoisseur"

Here's a little more info for those without the book. It's close to the County Courthouse and the Seattle Library.

I think it's sad that a lot of you new to Shadowrun (anyone that didn't start playing before 1995 = new, sorry) do not have easy access to these books. I don't know if this book ever got updated, seems to be a damn shame because you are missing out on what was once a very living and rich world.

... Realy? I think I've missed that bit of data.
Anyway I think that in the Hong Kong section of Runner Haven it's stated that HK's Dante's is styled after the buddhist hell, with 9 layers instead of 7 (at least I think they were 9).

Personally, I'd be a little more irritated about being referred to as "new" because I haven't played Shadowrun for 14 years than not being able to find old books for the fluff.

The Hong Kong location of Dante's Inferno is modeled after the Buddhist version of Hell, both in physical space and the Matrix. There are three Dante's Infernos: one in Seattle, one in Hong Kong, and one in London.

Most of what y'all are posting, I already knew. I don't have much SR4 yet, so I didn't know about those references.

What I'd like to know is what exactly do they mean by styled after the nine levels of hell? How are the various levels represented?

And the whole above/below ground thing is funky.

My SR1 books are put away for right now. They are within reach, but scouring through them is logisically not viable right now.
And yes, I've been reading/playing since 1989, when the first book came out.

@BaiShen: The levels are patterned after the descriptions in Dante Aligheri's book, Inferno. You should be able to find an English translation in your local library. Each of the levels of Hell (in the book) are where different types of sinners (adulterers, theives, liars, false-witness bearers, ect.) are sent to be punished. I believe muderers were sent the the ninth level. The fallen angel, Lucifer/Satan, was said to be at the bottom, frozen in a lake of ice (some would say this is the 10th level of Hell). But then, it's been a few decades since reading Inferno, so my recall is a little shady.

Yep, that was a BS comment, sorry. Allow me to clarify. Back in the days there was a lot of color to the game. The runner chat was all over the place and usually hinted at situations that weren't covered by rules. Each sourcebook, no matter how technical, had a lot of story included. We knew Ricky Ratboy and Hatchetman. And I totally understand why it changed. They needed the space for more rules and "substance". Still, it was kind of sad.

And once again, sorry for sounding like an elitest prick.

Fair enough, ta.

The problem isn't finding descriptions from Dante's Inferno. The problem is figuring out what they would be like as club levels. I can get the original descriptions from Wikipedia.

It wouldn't be very impressive, I don't think. We're talking about decoration on the walls and AR devils flailing people, imagine it done in kitsch HR Giger, with people drinking River Styx Ale, etc. The dance floors are for dancing.