I find myself in a bit of a pickle writing Shadowrun adventures. I don't have a good handle on what Seattle looks like in 2073. Seattle seems to be the major "Free Port" on the West Coast, and so I think a boom over current population is justified. It will also have adjusted to a world of pervasive magic and incredible technology. I might not recognize Seattle 2073, or it might be sadly familiar.

What I'm curious about is how you all describe the city to your players. I'm not concerned about RAW or Canon, here, there are no wrong answers. What does *your* Seattle feel like?

For me there are three "Seattles", blending into each other. Sometimes with a hard border... sometimes going over gradually:

1. The perpetually in twilight city: Dark, windy... raining all night. You never see a smile on the people on the street. Everything is dull, grey. A feeling of dread permeates everything. Huge old buildings and much bigger, greyer new housing units mix up to hold the salary-slaves. This is the GOOD part of the town. The AR tries to look optimistic and colorful. Wants to do business with you... but it is designed by soulless machines (Or people in cubicles *g*) and is just wrong, and false.

2. The war zone: old buildings, sometimes fixed hundreds of times, shacks on the roofs. Graphities everywhere, tagging territory. You can see people lingering around, trying to not die from malnutrition or sickness. Gangers in small groups trying to pass their time, till they have to rush somehwere and kill or be killed. A few people have an AK on the back, or an sword at their side (or an HUGE hammer out of a rebar and some plasteel for some trolls). Sometimes you see a van which looks to nice for the area... or see an lonely dude in a black duster going down the street, moving carefully, smoothly... but somehow fast. You do NOT MESS with those (They are runners *g*) The AR says: DO NOT FUCK WITH US. GO THE FUCK AWAY.

3. The dark chrystal towers: Overlooking the city. Huge nice apartments or complex arcologies. Filled with beautiful people, intelligent people... EVIL people. Everything is designer: Designer wardrobe, designer residences, designer drugs and designer entertainment. You just know where you need to bribe someone with more money than the people in zone 1/2 make in a month and you can see and experience EVERYTHING: Murder, torture (on which side do you WANT to be?), sex, magic. The people are bored/boring here, but they all have secrets 60 floors down, you may not want to see.

Oh.. and then there is the club life and the wild... but you only go there to do a job or hang out for a day... to escape from everything.

Heck, most of any of my urban places tend to come out like slightly lesser types of Megacities ala Judge Dredd. I'm also still a fan of Bladerunner imagery, since that was during my formative youth, and then Bubblegum crisis which took from Bladerunner, during my later highschool and early college years.

Like Summerstorm I also envision Seattle as a place where worlds collide.

Shadowrunners in Seattle live in a dark, gritty, wet, violent, decaying world sandwiched between the vibrant natural beauty and serenity of the surrounding Native lands and the clean, luxurious, safe and modern world of corporate wageslavery. One is just a few kilometers away, the other just behind a veil of mirrored glass, but neither world is accessible if you don't have a SIN or look / act / feel like someone who should.

I picture most portions of Shadowrun Seattle being dirty, grimy, and quite seedy. Litter everywhere, the cracked concrete sidewalks and buildings literally dirty and worn, neon signs in various states of disrepair lining the streets everywhere. Graffiti, rusted chain-link fences, dented air vents and tubes barely clinging to the sides of buildings. And then, shiny holograms and AR displays, disheveled punks with crazy neon hairdos and leather jackets, glowing blue lights on cyberlimbs and drones, streets filled with sleek yet slightly damaged cars...

Alright, I'll stop babbling now.


And then, the places that aren't like that? Clean and perfect and shiny, all hi-tech and skyscraper-filled and oozing with money.

Having been there a couple of years ago on a great vacation first off the wonderful attitude of the people really breaks the distopian view, and the frakking hills really break the legs.

Some one shoudl do a "polotical" map of 2072-3 seattle Z-AAA zones ect.

Having lived there for a few years, I could say a lot about present day seattle. 2070 seattle can be however different you want it to be in your game.

I, personally, like to use things that I know IRL for my GMing and writing. Many of my characters are based on real people I know. Many of the locations my players see are based on places I've really been. Based on, but not the same as.

That's actually what's holding me back. I grew up something like 10 miles outside of Seattle, and so there is a lot of baggage. When I read that the MCT tower was in North Tukwila I spat Diet Pepsi on my monitor. That's about as far from downtown Seattle as I can imagine getting.

I still wrote up a sweet skyraker with four sub-towers for my team to run in, complete with dirigible...but my prior knowledge is a liability.

My version of 2073 Seattle usually looks like whatever I need it to at the time. Basic tone is a dark and dangerous city, but the specifics generally change as I need them to. I have never been to real world Seattle, so I can't actively compare my vision to that and I often need drastically different settings. One night, a cluttered street with neon signs and AR billboards literally suffocating the pedestrians, a blade-runner like city crowded with people going about their business, ignoring the darkness for fear of it swallowing them up if they get too close. Other nights I need to create an air of solitude and isolation. Empty roads and concrete lots between squat and simple buildings. Few, if any, streetlights barely illuminating the surrounding and empty darkness. Perhaps this is the place for a monumental showdown, with the towers and spires of inner Seattle in the distance, lighting up the horizon, but failing to light the battleground.

Or maybe I want it to look like Disney World, who knows?

It depends entirely on where, exactly, in Seattle you are. The downtown area is like one giant Times Square, with busy streets bounded on all sides with towering glass-fronted skyscrapers and massive neon signs casting their illumination upon the masses of humanity that churn below. There's a cop on every street corner, or near enough, and the skyline is broken up by the hard-to-miss Space Needle and the blocky, pyramidal shapes of the ACHE and the Aztechnology building. Wageslaves ride around the area in chaffeured company cars, stopping only to window-shop a bit before hopping back in their vehicles and doing their purchases online. The norms stride along purposefully, watching their corporate masters with envious eyes and studiously avoiding the dark alleys -- and the attendant black-jacketed, mohawked gangers who stand guard at their entrances.

Redmond and, to a lesser extent Puyallup, are the polar opposites. The only buildings over two stories are sagging to one side, looking like they're about to tip over. Everything's made out of wood or cheap brick, though you wouldn't know it from the accumulated years of dirt, grim, pollution, paint, and blood that coats every flat surface. Most buildings don't have glass in their window panes anymore; the ones that aren't boarded up or fitted with iron bars are the ones where you probably don't want to go anyway. The street lamps don't work anymore but you can still hear the scavengers -- human and animal -- moving around at the edge of your senses as they try to decide if you're a threat or a meal ticket. The gangers are more prevalent here, roaming around in packs looking for their next thrill or kill -- or both. Kids can be seen during the day, but always with a parent or older sibling nearby in case one of the various breeds of urban predator comes knocking; once the sun goes down, though, the destitute and hopeless retreat to the dubious safety of their squatter-homes, load the shotguns, and hope that they can make it through one more night.

I could go on waxing poetic if you want.