Yo, I'm planning a Chicago campaign for my PCs right now, and since I live in Madison, I thought the Madtown would be a great homebase for my team (who are not suicidal maniacs). However, after cruising through rulebooks and a large part of the forums, I didn't find a very complete history/setting for Madison in the crazy world of Shadowrun. So, being an enterprising person (read: very bored this morning), I cooked up my own!

Hopefully I haven't missed any glaring loopholes. Constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated! Flames will be fed to my non-existent cat.

Timeline

2010 – VITAS sweeps across the globe. Madison experiences a small epidemic, but it is quickly contained. Around 5% of the population is lost (as opposed to the average of 25% across the world).

2011 - The Awakening. Madison is mostly sheltered from the large scale effects of it, aside from the metahuman racial types. Magic provokes some mild outcries at first, but the populace settles down rather quickly.

2021 – Goblinization. Similar effects as Awakening.

2029 – Crash of ’29. Similar effects as the rest of the world.

2030 – USA remnants form UCAS with Canada. Madison is unaffected except for changing of addresses.

2021-39 – Members of Humanis Policlub begin to infiltrate Madison, seeing it as the liberal “nut to crack” within the conservative background of Wisconsin

2039 – Night of Hate. Humanis Policlub members terrorize downtown Madison, eventually culminating in the destruction of the capital, devastating most of downtown. (Due to the following events, this is widely rumored to be the work of shadowrunners.)

Saeder-Krupp offers the beleaguered Wisconsin government a deal to rebuild most of downtown in exchange for large amounts of corporate zoning. Ares makes a counteroffer, directly challenging Saeder-Krupp on legal grounds. The two megacorps have a minor legal skirmish before settling on a compromise: Ares receives the rights to the western half of Madison, while Saeder-Krupp receives the rights to the east side and most of the downtown area.

The Sears Tower is destroyed in Chicago. Madison receives an influx of Chicago residents. The precursors to the East Side Slums are built.

2055 – The CZ is made and the Cermak Blast is set off in Chicago. Many Chicago residents flee to Madison. The UCAS government constructs the “Chicago Refugee Relocation Center” (playfully renamed “District 9” by an unknown cyber-terrorist for a week), commonly known as the East Side Slums. Ares, under contract from the UCAS, constructs a large fort to the south of Madison.

2061 – The Wisconsin government, due to the costs of the ESS (heaped on them by the UCAS government), declares the UW-Madison a non-state institution as part of massive budget cuts. The UW, having major funding issues of its own, merges with MATC to form the Greater Madison Area University.

2062 – GMAU, despite being a successful merge, still suffers from funding issues. Saeder-Krupp and Ares both make offers to the university, in exchange for exclusive rights to patents and research developed by the university. The two corps eventually split GMAU down the middle, perfectly in half down to the last nuyen.

2064 – Matrix Crash 2.0. The Ares and Saeder-Krupp facilities are hit hard because of the crash. Their hold on Madison is incredibly weakened, and many of the records of their holdings are lost. During the crash, both facilities are also assaulted by eco-terrorists as well as other unknown forces. Both facilities repel the attacks successfully, but not at the cost of millions (if not billions) in personnel, equipment and other capital.

Renraku, still reeling from the Arcology incident, takes advantage of this opportunity and solidifies a hold on the West side. Aztechnology also seizes a piece of land in the southeast corner.

After everything is settled, GMAU is let go of its contracts with Ares and Saeder-Krupp after Dean James Richardson rises to power.

2065 – The Wireless Matrix is established in Madison.

2069 – GMAU, under the guidance of Dean Richardson, becomes the UCAS leader in agricultural, biomedical and chemical engineering, also one of MIT&T’s top competitors for magical theory and Matrix programming. A large influx of students rushes into the revived university.

2070 – Madison is propelled to metropolis status, expanding its borders to assimilate the surrounding towns. Dean Richardson is accused of fraud and blackmailing. The case is dropped as there was insufficient evidence.

2072 – Madison continues to grow and is now ranked one of the top places to live in the UCAS.