I have been working on a rather massive article for the second issue of the Dumpshock Data Haven that introduces a new city called Ostopa, Kansas. It's a very detailed write-up of a city that's kind of a throwback to the 2050s in some ways. But more about that later. Let me get straight to the point now that I've already babbled a bit.

I consider myself pretty well versed in the Shadowrun setting. I've played it off and on since it was released in '89 (though, sadly, more "off" than "on", due to my iffy-ness about the 1e - 3e rules), so I have a good working knowledge of it. However, I'm not an expert. Not even close. Damn, I still haven't gotten to my point.

Here it is: I'll be using this thread to ask you guys and gals questions that will most assuredly arise while I'm writing the article. Bull has editors who can fix my flubs, but the perfectionist in me wants to minimize the setting-based mistakes before I even turn in the full draft.

Now that I've (finally) gotten to the point, I can babble a smidge more. I do so like to babble.

Anyway, I want this to be the best article it can be and I am beyond happy with how well my campaign city is converting to written form. I think Ostopa is a pretty unique place that offers a lot of fun gaming possibilities. I'm already up to 23 pages (in MS Word) and I'm still going. The damn thing has taken on a life of its own. Originally, it was going to be much smaller (17 pages) and appear in issue #1, but Bull asked me if I'd be willing to expand upon it and release it in issue #2 instead, focusing the issue on it. I'm flattered that he likes it so much.

Before I close up this post, I feel a bit obligated to give you a few nuggets of info about what you can expect from Ostopa. After all, it would be a little rude to ask you for assistance and then bale without dropping some details. So, without further ado, I'm posting the Ostopa map and the fisrt two (unedited) sections of the article.

Here's a link to the map: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2600/392037...821a0202d_b.jpg

A Nice Little Town Like Ours

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Art Pennington and I’m a retired ‘runner. That’s right, I used to run around in the middle of the night, selling my services to the highest bidder and looking like a bad ass while doing it. You see, I was a decker. Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Long before you kids had your wireless doo-dads, I was plugging in with my ‘jack and using my trusty scratch-built deck to hit the Matrix the old-fashion way: virtual reality. Those were the days.

>>> Fraggin’ old-timers! They’re always lamenting technological advances, just because they refuse to keep up with the times. Strikes me as kind of pathetic.
>> Hoagie Moses

>>> Cut him a break. If it wasn’t for guys like him paving the way, who knows where we would be right now.
>> Fartknocker

Even though I stopped running the shadows shortly before the second Matrix crash, I like to keep my eye on the scene and on the city as a whole. It gives an old man something to keep his mind occupied. Sure beats sitting around, waiting for senility to set in.

So, yeah, I stay in touch with the goings-on in Ostopa. And now that I have so much time on my hands, I figured I should put together a guide to the city for anyone looking to step into the shadows of Ostopa.

>>> If you believe Art, he’s still making his rounds to all the usual haunts for shadowrunners. I hate to say it, but that’s just not the case. He never goes anywhere. I met him once, a while after he retired. Nice guy and all, but he had “eccentric recluse� written all over him. From what I understand, he lives in the slummy Chesnutt Projects (not but five or six blocks from the Dingepool), holing up in his cluttered apartment. I doubt that he knows much about the happenings of Ostopa. So, reader beware.
>> Moxxie McCoy

>>> I can’t tell you how I know this, but believe me when I say that Pennington knows his stuff. Not only does he still use his antiquated gear to hit the Matrix, he also has a handful of faithful comrades who act as his eyes and ears. The man may be reclusive, but his word should be taken as the gospel.
>> Apache

>>> Ditto what Apache said. Pennington’s a legend in Ostopa. Stop being such a doubter, Moxxie. He’s one of the few shadowrunners known for being trustworthy and honest. He won’t steer ya wrong.
>> Grumble_Bunny

>>> I didn’t mean to come off like some kind of choob. I just tend to be a bit untrusting. It’s my nature.
>> Moxxie McCoy

Ostopa's Genesis

The history of Ostopa is actually just a tale of two cities (pun very much intended): Oswego and Chetopa, both located in southeast Kansas, UCAS.

Oswego was founded in 1867, though it existed as a Native American settlement called “White Hair’s Village� as early as the 1840s and was changed to “Little Town� after white settlers moved into the area in 1865. The town remained a rather ambitious little berg throughout the 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries. Sadly, by 2013, Oswego began a rapid decline, due to mismanagement of the city government. Jobs became more and more scarce and by 2020, the population had plummeted to just a little more than 800. Considering that it averaged roughly 2,000 in previous decades, this drop was incredibly drastic. The city was on its way to becoming a ghost town.

Eight miles south of Oswego stood a slightly smaller, less ambitious town called Chetopa. The city was founded in 1857 by Dr. George Lisle and was named after an Osage chief by the name of Chetopah. During the Civil War, the Union forces turned the entire town into a charred cinder so that the Confederates wouldn’t be able to take and hold it. Some have argued that the town should have been left dead and buried, but the enterprising souls rebuilt it. Chetopa grew in prosperity, peaking during the 1940s. From there, it was a gradual decline until reaching its lowest point by 2020, with a meager population of 430 (at its height, it boasted 2,500 citizens). The jobs dried up and the inhabitants largely scattered to the winds, leaving behind only those too stubborn to get the hell out of Dodge.

Now, let’s turn our attention to Seattle in 2011. That year marked the death of a very wealthy mogul named Marcus Cahill. Cahill had spent most of his 92 years acquiring small but profitable businesses and making them even more profitable. He never felt the need to delve into the corporate scene, preferring to remain low-key. Needless to say, this approach was successful for him, as he turned out to be one of the most loaded individuals in all of Seattle. No one could have expected it prior to his death though. He lived somewhat modestly and didn’t engage in the high society events that seemed to attract most others of his wealth.

When he passed away, his fortunes – including all his businesses -- were left to his only son, Maximillian. Being a very different sort of person, Max consolidated the largest bulk of the money and invested it in establishing his own corporation called (what else?) MaxCorp.

>>> Old Maximillian was made of pure ego from what I understand. I’m too young to remember much about him, but my mother used to curse his name all the time. She said he was quite fascinated with himself.
>> Mz.-Mannerz

>>> Oh yes, he was an egocentric bastard, that’s for sure. To his credit, he came down off his high horse later in life.
>> Koot

Max believed in making bold, risky moves in order to gain a foothold in the business world. And it almost paid off in Seattle, but he ruffled all the wrong feathers and found himself stymied by the AAA megacorps who didn’t exactly appreciate him trying to horn in on their action. It became clear to him that if he wanted to successfully rise to the top, he would have to do so elsewhere. His plan was to make some lucrative deals with other corporations that would enable him to purchase a massive chunk of land in an underdeveloped section of the UCAS and start developing it.

>>> I think Mr. Pennington was being euphemistic in his wording when he used the term “lucrative deals�. The truth is that Cahill blackmailed a lot of corporations, including some of the big dogs. Honestly, ol’ Max should be praised (in a backhanded way) for his ability to bilk people who are much more powerful than himself. He had it down to an art form.
>> Grumble_Bunny

This plan came to fruition in 2021, when MaxCorp snagged two small towns (that’s right, crew; we’re talking about Oswego and Chetopa), most of the land in between them and a mass of land east of Chetopa. Max heavily invested in forging a new city out of the shambles that these towns had become, offering inexpensive land to anyone willing to relocate to the area. The new city’s name was, naturally, Ostopa.

As with any city on the rise, other megacorporations flocked to Ostopa, hoping to cash in. Even three of the AAA corps have thrown their hats into the arena. It wouldn’t be surprising if more were to follow suit in the near future.

When Maximillian Cahill passed away in 2065, the company was left to his eldest daughter, Rachel. Within the year, she was found dead and was replaced by Maximillian’s eldest son, Mason.

>>> I remember all the hubbub when Rachel died. Mason’s other siblings (Veronica, Allison and Warner) spearheaded an investigation, claiming that they believed Mason murdered her. Nothing ever came of it, but they still hate his guts to this very day.
>> Moxxie McCoy

>>> The word in the shadows is that Mason’s brother and sisters are concocting a plan to wrest control of MaxCorp away from him. The info is sketchy at best, but if it’s true, Ostopa could get a lot more interesting in a big way… especially if the siblings are looking to hire shadowrunners to do their dirty work.
>> Night Gypsy

>>> Let’s just say that it ain’t just a rumor. I wish I could elaborate, but I can’t.
>> Kevin_Keystrokes

>>> Hey there, Night Gypsy! Aren’t you the foxy broad I met at the Dingepool a few months ago? How’s it hangin’? *snap snap*
>> Karl Hammer

>>> Get lost, Hammer.
>> Night Gypsy

Stupid Question #1
Does a corp have law enforcement powers only in the building it sets up shop in or does it also have them in a certain amount of the surrounding area?

I would think it extends to their property lines.



Well legally anyhow..

Yup - Corp territory/property = Corp rules, if they're AAA

Thanks for the prompt replies. Is it relatively common for AAA's to own a significant amount of land (i.e., more than just a building) in a city such as seattle? I don't currently own Seattle 2072, nor do I own any older books, so I'm a bit clueless on this.

Stupid Question #2
I want Ostopa to feel rather old school and anachronistic (similar to the way SR was in the 2050s). Until recent decades, the area was pretty backwooded and underdeveloped, so it simply hasn't quite caught up with the times (by and large). What would be some ways that I could achieve this without sacrificing plausibility within context of the Shadowrun setting?

Unless they have made deals. And they are more common than you might think. For example, here there is a deal that every Albuquerque cop who lives in a town outside of Albuquerque has the local PD/Sheriff to give them arrest powers in that town/County. The same is true for cops from other jurisdictions who live in town. And they do something similar for the Sheriff and PDs, so city police officers have formal arrest rights in the county and vice versa.

So if the AAA is willing to give something to the PD/Sheriff...

Yes. But unless it is enclosed, in use for some clearly defined purpose and posted it isn't extraterritorial iirc. So the AAA guys have to call the cops if something happens.

Do want to cripple wireless? Given the vagueness of how it works that would seem hard to do.

What would make it seem anachronistic?

No, I still want wireless to exist, but perhaps MaxCorp somehow controls it or exactly which areas of the city have access to it. I'm really not sure. As long as it's somehow limited or restricted, it will work for what I'm hoping for.



See, the deal is that I tend to run my games a bit "old tech". With my players, I don't have to explain why. They just accept that it's how I envision the SR universe. But now that I'm integrating it into the actual SR setting, I need to explain why things are more anachronistic.

Here are some ways that my vision is anachronistic:

1) I don't allow Technomancers (of course, I don't want to cut this out of the setting for the Ostopa article).
2) An emphasis on cyberware over bio/nanotech.
3) AR isn't quite as intrusive (not a ton of spam stuff popping up, f'rex).

I hope this helps a bit. The last one is the main one really. I prefer AR to be more in the background in Ostopa.

Being a resident of the area (Living in the sticks outside Fredonia, KS) I am glad that there is interest in the area by Bull and others. Thanks for realizing the midwest has potential.


I think the feeling you are wanting would be better felt with a simple premise.

Until the city built it, it really wasn't there in force.

Until the city was founded you were dealing with a very rural area suffering from a withering economy. Keep the old school feeling by showing the great contrast with what the area was (and will still be the father one goes from the city limits) to what it is becoming. There was no matrix, no city infrastructure, no old delapidated buildings or warehouses. In essence when it comes to the city everything is relatively new or it isn't here yet. Unlike Seattle or New York that have been around for a long time and have an older underbelly for the Shadows, Ostopa is a shining beacon of how a city is built from the ground up with new technology and the Shadows are just as deep. It's just that Ostopa lacks the century old dilapidated buildings found in any older city's Barrens. I think this is something that really needs to be emphasized. I would suggest looking at the growth of Las Vegas sans casinos. And maybe take a look at what Greensburg did when it rebuilt itself.

One thing that is prevelant in North eastern KS are the mega warehouse/ distibution centers that funnel goods to and from the entire region. May be somethin you incorporate into Ostopa seing how it is close to the CAS border.

I would emphasize how the suburbs are litterally developing out of the farmer's fields surrounding the city limits. One thing I always found people remarking on that was stationed in any of KS's military bases was how the major Kansas cities of today seem to not so much as slowly fade away at the borders but began to really transform quickly into rural farming communities. There are still some peices of the outskirts of Wichita's city limits that are farmed or ranched. There is one city limit sign for a major suburb of Kansas City that resides in a cattle pasture.

I really hope to see what you have come up with and if you need anyone that knows the area to help bounce ideas off of feel free to look me up.

On a side note How are you planning on integrating KC and Wichita into the Ostopa area. Surely there will be some some rivalry between to already established cities and the new upstart. How will the economics affect one another?

It's good to see someone else from my neck of the woods here at the Dumpshock.



Those are some intriguing ideas. I've already mentioned the soon-to-be suburbs in the text. I'm particularly fond of your idea about building up Ostopa as a shining beacon of modern city design. What a splendidly fun contrast that would be with the rustic area.



You can count on it. Thanks.



I've not gone into relations with other cities yet, though it does need to be dealt with. I definitely foresee issues arising with nearby cities.

Some comments, in order they pop in my head after reading -

* Multiple mentions of "AAA corps". What AAA? What subsidiary of a AAA? There'S no other way of saying this - this is lazy. "The Big Bad AAAs" is played out. Be specific. What AAAs are involved, what subsidiaries, and why? And why haven't they just tossed the low-worth hick into the garbage and taken over the show? I believe you should scale back and either deal with very specific, very limited subsidiaries of AA corps. Such a small side-show would not get any big fish involved.

* What is Ostopa's reason for being? What is the primary industry? Farmland? How is it making any money and why is it worth any attention?

* After answering above, what is the conflict that is bringing Shadowrunners in? Seriously. Farming does not require illegal black ops.

* Cyberware over bioware - this can be achieved by having one of the local corps be a big cyberware player. Since that's not very realistic (since the talent pool isn't there) you could have one of the local corps be a big second-hand reseller of cyberware. IT's so cheap and plentyful, bioware is left to the side.

I wasn't intentionally being lazy. I have been working very hard on researching for this project and have put in a lot of hours on it. That having been said, I see your point about maybe scaling back a bit and being more specific. However, I have to clarify that Cahill is far from being some inbred hick. He came from Seattle, not the area in which Ostopa would eventually exist.



This is dealt with in the article. Yes, the farmland plays into the equation, but that's not everything the Midwest has to offer. For example (as ravensoracle) mentioned, the general area has a lot of warehousing/distribution aspects. Plus, Kansas is massively impacted by aircraft construction/aerospace design (thanks to Cessna, Boeing, Learjet, and Beechcraft) and natural gas production. To a lesser degree, Kansas has a big stake in publishing, chemical products, machinery, auto parts and even apparel. The stereotype of Kansas makes it all sound like farming is the only game in town, which just isn't true.

Plus, Maximillian was something of a megalomaniac and fancied the notion of having his own city. He used Kansas resources to allow him to venture into other arenas as well.



See above. Plus, the other corps bring in even more industries.



Good idea. Many thanks.

One thought: How far is Ostopa from major landmarks like Ft. Riley, Ft. Leavenworth, major cities, etc?

If it's at all near any military bases, remember that Kansas is not on some nice fluffy border. No, as I recall, the border with the Sioux is one of the most heavily-militarized borders in North America. The border with the CAS is possibly more porous, but I doubt by much.

As such, all of these bases are likely to be operational, not "institutional", bases, hosting active-duty combat arms troops.

Ostopa is tucked away in the southeastern corner of Kansas (2-3 miles from the Oklahoma border and 20-some miles from the Missouri border). So, it's nowhere near the UCAS/Sioux border. It is, however, only a bit more than 40 miles from the UCAS/CAS border, as shown on this map:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source...ie=UTF8&z=7

Stupid Question(s) #3
How did the UCAS respond to the southern states seceding? Was there resistance to it? Any warfare of any kind? How are UCAS-CAS relations in 2072?

According to Frank's analysis, there are at least two different and mutually contradictory versions in canon. But it was violent. At least is isn't California, as I think that are not less than three different and mutually contradictory versions of that....

Oh, and look at this

This was most helpful. I appreciate the assistance, Kzt. This kind of stuff goes a long way toward helping make the Ostopa write-up more consistent with the SR Universe proper.

Stupid Question #4
This goes back to Backgammon's post (which was extremely useful to me). He mentioned that none of the AAA megas would have any interest in Ostopa. How do the rest of you feel about this? As it currently stands, only three of them have presence there. If this doesn't gel with the SR setting, then I'll yank them out.

If I were a AAA Megacorporation, the most appealing factor of Ostopa, Kansas would be its remotness. What a perfect location to set up a research labortatory or a facility with a secret project on exploring the various metaplanes.

A Tripe A or a AA megacorporation might also take an interest in developing the area or see the potential for the population to boom in the area. It would be an investment the corporation might explore in the long term. AA corporations might see Ostopa as a economically affordable area to construct a main facility.

What types of resources does Ostopa have to offer a big business? If the mayor or community board members had to make a presentation to the Damien Knight, what would they say to convince the Corporatate Mongol to develop in the area?

I would say that there would be a AAA and lower presence for one reason. LAND. Lots of open, undeveloped realitively flat land that can be purchased in large quanitities and easily built upon. With Ostopa starting up in a rural area you can buy properties for in the square miles size for a fraction of what you could find it elsewhere. Also I would add to the economic develpoment of the land by turning Ostopa into a transportation hub. Give the city a huge airport capable of handling lots of large cargo planes and zeppelins. Perhaps even adding in major roadways and a huge train railyard. With the ease of transportaion being a major factor in constructing the city I would say that Megacorps would flock to the area. They would have ease of transporting goods, access to large plots of land to build huge manufacturiing and storage facilities, plus the cities infrastructure being built to order. Imagine if the city could put in exactly the type of utilities and access that was needed without having to worry about what was there previously.

I would say the shadows would grow fast and be very competative as the area suffers a huge industrial boom. People of all economic would be flocking to the area becasue even the cheapest homes would be new. Corruption would be rampant as gov't and corp higher ups would be getting grafts from all over to ensure the best placement.

Your map of Ostopa isn't working BTW.

Very true all around. The population boom has been pretty large. In 2021, you were looking at a few thousand people in the area and by 2072, Ostopa boasted 156,201 people. That's a drastic increase (thanks largely to the fact that MaxCorp was practically giving land away to those willing to relocate to Ostopa). Getting in more or less on the ground floor of what could very well become a major metropolitan area is a lot of incentive, I would think.



I would play up the rapid growth, the moderness of the city (ignoring the more rundown areas like CheTown, Morland and South Ostopa), the natural resources, the regional advantages of industry resources (publishing, transportation, natural gasses, minerals, etc.). The area is actually quite multi-faceted. Mostly, though, I would pitch it as the city of tomorrow.

Ostopa does indeed have a sprawling airport and a railyard. And I adore your angle of "made-to-order" infrastructure. That would appeal to virtually any corp.

Weird. Try it now. I think I got it fixed.

Stupid Question #5
How exactly does the newsnet work? Are they Matrix-based? Does each city have its own or is it all a part of the same thing?

Actually, AA is sufficient (A = transnational, AA = transnational with extraterritoriality, AAA = transnational with extraterritoriality and a seat on the Corporate Court) - though only in countries recognizing the Business Recognition Accords or a similar local equivalent.

I would assume that Horizon (who owns NewsNet after the Crash 2.0 when it acquired Hisato-Turner) probably runs from one main Matrix based hub, with smaller (relatively speaking) "branch offices" in the major cities all over the world. Given that Horizon itself is a AAA that would include extraterritoriality, I would assume they would all be part of the same corporate framework rather than city-specific.

That being said, each metro area would have it's own "branch office" specific to that area. Think of it as each office is just an extension of the corporation, instead of our present day franchises, any building or land owned by Horizon in a city that might serve as a base point for NewsNet in that area, would be their property and not subject to UCAS (or any other goverment for that matter) laws. At least that's the way i imagine it.

Near-Kansas as a transportation hub would require some string pulling, so to speak. Chicago is currently and in SR's America's transportation hub. It's about smack in the middle of the Canada/USA and has air, sea and road links, plus warehouses and everything else you need. Chicago continues this function in SR (see Feral Cities).

Atlanta is currently another major hub. St. Louis used to be (I believe) Delta's hub.

Setting Ostopoa as a transportation hub could be credible. If, due to incentives, it's very cheap for a big player to set a transportation hub there rather than one of the established hubs, this would also create spillover from small corps leaching on and, thus create a small economical ecosystem. Ostopa's location is fairly central enough to be of value. And all you need is one big player for a small place like Ostopa to feel benefits from it, due to it's small size. Doesn't take much money to make this place happy.

Ostopa has large lots of land, but not an educated workforce (not saying everyone's a dumb hick, just they don't have a huge university-level educated workfroce like a major city). So that all that land can be useful for agricultural and manufacturing, really. Anything that doesn't require a specialized workforce.

Ooh, that brings an intteresting though. Following the made-to-order theme, Ostopa could have a HUGE Chipped workforce (see Unwired). An entire city with no skills of their own, puppets to their skillsofts, doing whatever the corps need done. That also ties in to the cyberwareheavy theme. You end up with a sort of Detroit and other rustbelt places, where the locals have no skills outside what the corps need of them, but the place has a huge surplus of cars and shit - in this case Cyberware from the cyberware assembly lines or reseller warehouses where many work.

Regarding Chicago, while the CZ didn't exactly shut down the entire city, it really got crippled by Bug City. A lot of corps moved their regional headquarters out (Officially, I think most went to Detroit or Milwaukee, IIRC). I know in my game, we ran that pre-CZ, Almost all of the Midwest's corporate interests were in Chicago, but when the Bugs hit, they spread out a lot more, with the corps setting up smaller scale HQ's in various cities (We used Cleveland, for some of the same reason Cynthia's thinking for Ostopa... It was a fairly dead area, and the city granted a lot of concessions and tax rihts and cheap land as incentives for the corps to build there).

Bull

I just wanted to let everyone know that the main Ostopa article is now finished and ready to be edited. It clocks in at 45 pages in MS Word.

Anyway, I wanted also to thank everyone for their responses in this thread. It helped me think about things that I likely would have missed otherwise. You've been most helpful and I feel that Ostopa is a much, much more realistic and dynamic city because of your input.

I was able to get a sneak peek and I have to applaud Cyntia on the amount of effort she put into this article. Even if you don't want to play in the midwest just the number of smaller corporations and interestng locales should make this an interesting read for many. Again great work Cynthia.

Thanks, Ravensoracle. I appreciate the kind words.