pretty simple question here can someone point me in a direction as to why Ares thinks Detroit needs a 26 foot tall wall around it? I've been contemplating running a game in detroit for a while now and 6th world almanac drops this bit on me. I've got a couple crazy ideas for it just wondering if I missed something in a book somewhere else.

Edited because I forgot what the hell I was talking about.

I think we should put a 26 foot wall around Detroit today, in 2010, IRL.

My theory? Chicago. Ares either doesn't want the fallout of Chicago spreading to their city. There was mention of Auburn Hills being walled off as a sort of Detroit Barrens, and the Ares arcology being walled as well as KE, but that's about all I can find. The Auburn Hills thing is from a Netbook but I can't find my copy of Target:UCAS to confirm.

I had written up a bunch of my own Detroit fluff in anticipation of starting a game next weekend. Is there a lot of stuff in 6WA about Detroit?

Not much at all. I figure the wall is Ares' way of saying 'This town is ours.'

A lot? no. There is about two paragraphs in the UCAS chapter though. The salient points:
- Ares headquarters.
- Wall is completed recently.
- Safest city in UCAS.
- Ares has little extra-territoriality in the city but does a LOT of public works.
- <2% Unemployment.

So it's the exact opposite of what it is today

Let me guess, and everyone owns their own whitepicket fence home?

I seem to remember some stuff in one of the books about other corps have offices in Detroit as well, but I can't seem to find it. Now I'm getting to a time crunch, since the new campaign starts this weekend (see you there, Huge^^) and I'm trying to find out if MCT has anything substantial there.

The only things I ever hear about coming out of Detroit are all Ares-related, so I'd assume small satellite offices and that's about all.

Is it now the safest city because they walled out all the "undesirables"?

But yeah, knowing how Detroit is today, I figure it needs a wall around it. But more in the "keep people in" rather than keep them out sort of way, lol.

It's a shame they never finished the dome project, though. Could make sneaking into the city fun.

This isn't new to the 6WA. It's part of the Detroit material from previous books (sorry - don't have my reference list with me to tell you exactly which books to hit). As I think someone else mentioned, the rumor was that they would eventually dome the whole thing.

And my PERSONAL theory on why they need it is that the "safest city in the world" stuff is a pile of crap. In reality, the "safe" zone is the space inside the Wall. Outside the wall there are SOME safe areas, but much of it doesn't live up to the hype.

And why wall and dome it? Why not? London tried (and failed) to do the same thing for a host of good reasons. Climate control. No snow. Pollution control. Less wear on infrastructure. If you play the "the world is an environmentally damaged place" the dome makes a lot of sense. Not to mention the complete control this gives Ares. The city becomes, effectively, a giant arcology, where Ares rules everything. Every aspect of life becomes theirs to control including total access control (land/sea/air).

I would presume at least one other corporation has substantial holdings in the city and many would likely have satelite or third party holdings. The corporate court takes a very dim view of certain anti-competitive practices so even in their back yard Ares couldn't shut the other corps completely out.

I liken it to The Stepford Wives. It seems all nice and safe, but that safety comes at a big price. And, you aren't safe from Ares.

It reminds me of Amsterdam. I was on a Eurotrp (not as fun as the movie, but still a great time) and we were in Amsterdam when some guy got arrested. When I say arrested, I mean: snatched off the streets in under a minute flat, the scene all back to 'normal' immediately afterwards, everyone going about as normal. It was sort of creepy. I guess I am used to the United States way of doing it: taking hours, putting up tape, standing around talking to everyone, etc.. But, it can be used for Detroit: everything is all well and good, until you step out of line, then you can be taken in the matter of seconds and just be gone. Where? Who knows.

The only other reference to the wall project I've seen is in Shadows of North America, and that was just a shadowtalk blurb suggesting it would be completed in '67, and mentioned a bio-fabric dome.