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TubaTech
I'll be running my first game this Friday.

We kind of wanted to keep the game to a local area, Austin (where we're all from). However, most all the material I've read is about Denver or Seattle.

Are there any campaigns specifically for Austin, or Corpus Christi?

Thanks - TubaTech
The Jake
QUOTE (TubaTech @ May 20 2009, 06:37 PM) *
I'll be running my first game this Friday.

We kind of wanted to keep the game to a local area, Austin (where we're all from). However, most all the material I've read is about Denver or Seattle.

Are there any campaigns specifically for Austin, or Corpus Christi?

Thanks - TubaTech


No. And speaking from experience it takes significant time/effort to design a town.

I recommend Seattle solely because it is so well detailed. I also like Hong Kong, Neo-Tokyo, Caracas and Tenochtitlan but that's a personal preference. I'd like to see more detailed writeups of Europe.

- J.
Chibu
Well, we've played in other cities. Not Austin though, sorry. The only relatively large chunk of work you really need to do before you start is to extrapolate the basic feel of the city as it is today, and add in some cyberpunk feel. Most specifically, you need to pick sections of the town and figure out the overall feel of it. It should be larger than it was before and a bit darker. Instead of rain, like in Seattle, you can make it overbearingly hot all the time (which is probably true anyway). Find a map and sharpie out some sectors and decide what they should be based on what they are now. make downtown larger, mostly office buildings, pick a sector for factories and the like, one for richer folk, and a sector or two of slums. Why are the slums slums? did anything specific happen to make them that way? What is it that attracts the rich folk to that area? Are there any sectors with unusually high (or low?) populations of metahumans, mages?

You probably don't need to get more detailed than that at first. But keep a map (on the computer maybe?) and mark down where everything visit is. Bars, corps, parks, shops, whatever. Somewhere else, start to write down the names of these places, with short descriptions. Do the same for NPCs that the characters meet, but also note their overall reputation or importance. With just that, after a few runs you'll start to have a pretty decent little world built up for yourself, and you can use it over and over and it will keep growing. And then, of cousrse, if you're in a sharing mood, you can copy all of that info (that hopefully you've been keeping track of electronically) and let it out for others to use as well. Though, feel free to read up on the other cities, and any of the fiction in the books so that you can try to get a good feel for the post-cyberpunk meets magic elements of the world.

Let me know if you do come up with anything, I'd love to read through it.
The Jake
I agree in principal, but the devil is in the details.

If you don't have a list of bars, restaurants, offices, etc, that PCs can visit, you have to often conjure them up on the fly or plan everything ages in advance.
Now this comes down to how much time you, as a GM, have.

Back in the day I would have loved creating my own city. That said, for as long as I can remember, I just used the original SR1 Seattle Sourcebook and built on that. Overtime we added new locations and places, always hovering around the Barrens, Downtown or the docks. The fact everything was so detailed made life easy.

Now, I'm a dad. I have a fulltime job and nowhere near the time I once had. Also, the books aren't as detailed. I've written up maybe a dozen locations off the top of my head and for the most part, my players keep it to these places. If I have to spend my time working on too many, it becomes really laborious. Also, making things up on the fly can be a real headache. A few locations, sure. But too many becomes very painful very quick.

We should start a locations thread, try to come up with venues/names/places to just drop into a city or campaign anywhere. GMs can then bookmark the thread and just mooch from it and add to it as they so desire...

- J.
the_dunner
As someone whose done it a few times. Updating a city properly to Shadowrun is a massive task.

It's also not always time well spent. If you're going to run a 10-12 session game and you're not planning on sharing the city with the rest of the world, then going full in and detailing every neighborhood is overkill. Honestly, if you plan on doing a short campaign like that, just pick a dozen locations that you'll be using regularly, and then introduce a new one or two in each session. The big things you'll need to decide first are what corps are critical, who runs the government and civil services, and what crime organizaitons you'll be dealing with. Then, you'll need to at least have names and personalities for the key NPCs in those areas.

OTOH, if you're planning on doing a several year campaign, it might be wiser to either go with one of the established cities (Runner Havens, Corporate Enclaves, Feral Cities, or The Rotten Apple.) I know it's not what you wanted to do, but you might otherwise hit burn out before the first game session.
The Jake
QUOTE (the_dunner @ May 21 2009, 03:29 AM) *
As someone whose done it a few times. Updating a city properly to Shadowrun is a massive task.

It's also not always time well spent. If you're going to run a 10-12 session game and you're not planning on sharing the city with the rest of the world, then going full in and detailing every neighborhood is overkill. Honestly, if you plan on doing a short campaign like that, just pick a dozen locations that you'll be using regularly, and then introduce a new one or two in each session. The big things you'll need to decide first are what corps are critical, who runs the government and civil services, and what crime organizaitons you'll be dealing with. Then, you'll need to at least have names and personalities for the key NPCs in those areas.

OTOH, if you're planning on doing a several year campaign, it might be wiser to either go with one of the established cities (Runner Havens, Corporate Enclaves, Feral Cities, or The Rotten Apple.) I know it's not what you wanted to do, but you might otherwise hit burn out before the first game session.


That's what I'm using.

My key locations my PCs use over and over:
- A cafe they regularly meet at in downtown (AAA security zone - great for neutral meets).
- A sauna/health spa (again, downtown - neutral meet, no weapons)
- Dragonfly Industries (shipping factory, PC's base - a front based in Everett which they've designed)
- Razor's Edge (shitty scum style bar based on the edge of the Barrens)
- Dante's Inferno (the original nightclub)
- Danny's (SR equivalent of Denny's).

For other Seattle locations, try here:
http://pl.shadowrun.wikia.com/wiki/Kategoria:Seattle

- J.
Ayeohx
I totally recommend starting in Seattle. If you want to create Texas 2072 still this will give you time to flesh it out. Besides, with all of the illegal crap runners do, its a good idea to hop cities occasionally. I'm sure you can find a good reason to move the campaign from Seattle to Texas when the time is right.

Wait a moment... who owns Texas in 2072?
Demonseed Elite
QUOTE (Ayeohx @ May 21 2009, 04:48 AM) *
Wait a moment... who owns Texas in 2072?


Part of Texas is in the CAS, part of it is in Aztlan.
Dreadlord
Austin would be a really kewl place to run, actually. It is a split city, with the border between Aztlan and the CAS running through the middle of it. Lots of smuggling, HUGE military presence on both sides of the border, and a fertile environment for national-level shadowruns, if that is what you wanted to do. I don't remember for sure, but I thought that in the Secrets of Power trilogy, they went through Austin in order to get into Aztlan...

I originally started my campaign in Seattle, and after I felt comfortable, I started preparing to run in Atlanta. So far, it has gone well, but I do have a little source material to go with (Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North Am, Shadows of North America, etc.).
If you really want to get a feel for the city, I recommend going through all the old source material for the CAS, Texas, and Aztlan. Here is what I could find in what I have:
Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North Am
Aztlan
Target: Smuggler Havens p.87
Shadows of North America
Sumo Neko
QUOTE (Dreadlord @ May 21 2009, 08:45 AM) *
Austin would be a really kewl place to run, actually. It is a split city, with the border between Aztlan and the CAS running through the middle of it. Lots of smuggling, HUGE military presence on both sides of the border, and a fertile environment for national-level shadowruns, if that is what you wanted to do. I don't remember for sure, but I thought that in the Secrets of Power trilogy, they went through Austin in order to get into Aztlan...

I originally started my campaign in Seattle, and after I felt comfortable, I started preparing to run in Atlanta. So far, it has gone well, but I do have a little source material to go with (Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North Am, Shadows of North America, etc.).
If you really want to get a feel for the city, I recommend going through all the old source material for the CAS, Texas, and Aztlan. Here is what I could find in what I have:
Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North Am
Aztlan
Target: Smuggler Havens p.87
Shadows of North America


If you want some good flavor for a Texas based game, pick up a copy of theses novels by Mel Odom. Lethal Interface & Stalker Analog. They are set more in the genre of Cyberpunk and not SR, but they are about a Cop in I think Houston or Austin. Very good books.

TubaTech
Good input guys. I'll have a friend of mine help me create some of this information because he is used to creating things like this in the D&D world.

I've already ordered a copy of Shadows of North America.

I'm also interested in learning more about the mafia based in Houston as well. The very first run: Parliament of Thieves hints about a Mafia Don in Houston.

I think the characters that we're making will fit in well down south. My character is a geeky summoner who is a part time professor and part time runner. So he could teach in College Station (Texas A&M) since they have a good magic school.

I would guess that our group would have more Lone Star encounters than anything else.

Thanks for the input!
Demonseed Elite
The Mafia presence in Houston has never been directly covered, I don't think. The Underworld Sourcebook does mention the Mafia in Dallas/Fort Worth, though, run by the Chavez family. The Chavez family were originally Mexican mafia who fled Mexico during the formation of Aztlan. The don, as of 2058, was Don Miguel "Caesar" Chavez, who really despises the Aztlan government and supports rebel groups in Aztlan. I'd be surprised if he's still in charge in 2072, though. It does say the following in this section: "Expect Mafia operations in Houston and points north to expand in the near future." And that was 14 years ago, game-time.
hobgoblin
QUOTE (Dreadlord @ May 21 2009, 03:45 PM) *
Austin would be a really kewl place to run, actually. It is a split city, with the border between Aztlan and the CAS running through the middle of it. Lots of smuggling, HUGE military presence on both sides of the border, and a fertile environment for national-level shadowruns, if that is what you wanted to do. I don't remember for sure, but I thought that in the Secrets of Power trilogy, they went through Austin in order to get into Aztlan...

heh, SR seems to love cold war berlin setups. take denver for instance...
Warlordtheft
I seem to recall (it might have been in an old 90s RPG mag) a write up of New Orleans. I'll have to check at home to get it the exact issue. I think I still have it lying around.
Chrysalis
There was a really good write-up on Texas from a year ago.

Does anyone have the link to the thread?

-Chrysalis
Demonseed Elite
QUOTE (Warlordtheft @ May 22 2009, 11:21 AM) *
I seem to recall (it might have been in an old 90s RPG mag) a write up of New Orleans. I'll have to check at home to get it the exact issue. I think I still have it lying around.


New Orleans has been detailed in a number of Shadowrun books. The largest and most detailed section on it is in Target: Smuggler Havens.
Chibu
So funny story. Our GM decided he wanted to run our new campaign in a city that didn't have much of anything written about it, and that was on the border of two countries. He's never been on Dumpshock, and there was no prompting from me on this decision. He decided to go with Austin, Texas, CAS.

So, assuming he doesn't completely hate the idea of me doing so (I'll be talking to him in an hour or so for details), I'll be making up some maps and writing up some details about Austin, Texas over the next week or so. I'd be more than happy to share anything that I do write up with you, though I'm sorry to say that it will all be from the point of view of the mid 2050's.

Anyway, I'll post back with more details later.
The Jake
I'm putting a lot of emphasis in Seattle at the moment because part of Ghost Cartels and partly because my players are heavily embroiled in the underworld. Infact, it seems their arms dealing business is becoming primary - and the shadowrunning is something they do on the side! Eventually, they will go all over the place with GC but I don't know how much time will they spend in any of them.

Apart from that I'm trying to work out what cities my runners would be likely to visit.

Boston I am a big fan of, so I plan on doing a bit more work on that city. One of my players is a former university researcher, a hermetic magician with a Ph.D and very keen on universities and magicial research. I can easily see him being interested in Boston with MIT&T, Harvard, Boston University, DIMR all within stones throw of each other. My runners have done the odd job in Boston already - but I can see it cropping up more.

The other big city I will almost definitely be detailing are New Orleans and Vladivostok. My players being in the arms dealing business will almost certainly head to these places and spend a lot of time in both.

There are plenty I'd love to use and more I'd love to writeup, but time constraints being what they are, the other places will most likely be kept to brief sojourns.

- J.
Daishi
One word of caution regarding using locations that the GM and players know very well: Make sure you're always on the same page regarding what has changed in the SR world. Having real world knowledge can create a lot of expectations and assumptions for the players about that location that aren't borne out in the Shadowrun version the GM creates. That communication gap can be very frustrating. GMs need to be very particular about highlighting what is different and clarifying assumptions that will creep into the game.
Jonnysan
Having some connection with Austin (graduating from UT) I'd be interested in anything anyone has constructed for the city in terms of Shadowrun.
Chibu
QUOTE (Daishi @ May 25 2009, 09:52 PM) *
One word of caution regarding using locations that the GM and players know very well: Make sure you're always on the same page regarding what has changed in the SR world. Having real world knowledge can create a lot of expectations and assumptions for the players about that location that aren't borne out in the Shadowrun version the GM creates. That communication gap can be very frustrating. GMs need to be very particular about highlighting what is different and clarifying assumptions that will creep into the game.

That's definitely true, which is one of the reasons that I'm going to be writing things down. This way, once I'm done everyone can read it and know what to expect. I'll be collaborating with my GM while making it so that anything specific he's looking for in the city will be there and there won't be much that goes wildly against what he was imagining. Basically, there are just too many cool places to run shadowrun out of, and while we all love Seattle, we think we're probably missing out on alot by keeping ourselves there all the time.

QUOTE (Jonnysan @ May 26 2009, 02:14 AM) *
Having some connection with Austin (graduating from UT) I'd be interested in anything anyone has constructed for the city in terms of Shadowrun.

Cool, the University of Texas will still be around. As of now I only have a vague feel for how this is going to be going. But, ideas are starting to come together in my head, and I'll probably start writing a bit, or at least start getting a sector map set up, after work today.

Luckily, my GM thinks that this is a great idea. I'll keep everyone posted as to how things are coming, and drop sections off here for input/criticism/you to use(or ignore).
Dr Funfrock
This thread has me intrigued. I just read up on the CAS again, and Austin sounds like a really awesome place to run in. A divided city, the south of the river held by Aztlan, the headquarters of Lone Star, a guerilla resistance movement, the constant threat of open warfare breaking out again (especially with Austin being the likely starting point for the rumored "liberation of San Antonio"). Throw in the local flavour, with the CDC and ERLA both heavily invested in hiring runners against the Corps (and the target of many runs themselves), and the major smuggling haven in New Orleans, which also a safe haven for government approved privateers, and you've got yourself a really cool environment for runners.
The Jake
I've just blown the dust of Target: Smuggler Havens and started reading.

Honestly... this book blows me away.

In another thread, I was ragging on a location book for having no locations and being utterly useless to me as a GM. Well, this book doesn't have any - but its so chock full of flavor, it is very clear and specific about the atmosphere, the interests in organised crime, that I have zero problems being able to envision it and describe it to my players. I'm working on detailing Vladivostok in earnest now. My only gripe is the lack of detail on the megacorporations present in these cities and their interests, but that's not the books real focus I guess - and thus forgivable.

I wish I could pin-point the differences between Smuggler Havens and Corporate Enclaves. The difference between the two in terms of use to me as a GM is massive. I guess its a reflection on the write-ups themselves. Too much fluff and not enough substance I guess.

I guess locations help at the end of the day but they definitely do not make or break these books.

- J.
Demonseed Elite
Jake, I'd love to hear more detail on the differences between the two books to you. Really.
The Jake
DE - You have mail!

I got all my location books here. Looking back over them, my personal favorites are Aztlan, Cyberpirates and Smuggler Havens (in no particular order). I realise Cyberpirates isn't a location book per se, but its close enough.

- J.
Demonseed Elite
For some reason, Smuggler Havens never really had much an impact on me. I do love Aztlan and Cyberpirates though.
Kronk2
I am sure the game is done by now, but there is a DMZ on each side of the Colorado, which extends about 7 blocks each side. which makes 6th street a duty free no mans land. wink.gif
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