Hi everyone.
I'm currently running two SR3 games at the moment - one of them my "guardians" campaign, which is proceeding very slowly and intermittently at the moment due to pesky RL interfering with some of my players, and a "Pink Mohawk" drop in game, set in a diminished consequences version of Seattle.
For the Pink Mohawk game in particular, I've now got a raft of NPCs that the large stable of player characters interact with or have dealings with as targets for runs. I thought about posting descriptions of them here - but in a generic "this is the flavour of the NPC", rather than "here are my game stats" - mostly because with the former, it would be a lot more useful to any SR4/5 players (or other sci-fi RPGs) to use in their games, and it would also then not have stats that are inappropriate to higher / lower power level campaigns.
So - if I worked out a generic template to post in, to give a good overview of these NPCs - would it be something that other people would be interested in seeing? Would it be useful to others as emergency NPCs they could grab or base their own characters on for their own table? Would other people be happy to share their NPCs with the community in the same vein?
Oh, and likewise - I have Visio layouts for some bars / warehouses / factories etc - would be be interested in the same sort of thing for locations as for NPCs?
Full Version: NPC roster
I'd most certainly be interested. If it saves me GM time, I'm all for it.
Ok - how about something like this? Generic enough to be fitted to any campaign / version, but hopefully enough detail to spark imagination or spin off ideas, or to provide a good description for a team?
Street Name: The Puppet
General Location: Auburn district, Seattle
Specific Location: Back room, Dantes’ Bar, 3rd Avenue, Black Diamond (Lone Star:C), Auburn
Archetype: Fixer
Description: The Puppet is just that – seemingly a wooden puppet, styled after a ventriloquist’s dummy from the 19th century. He is always to be found in the back left room of Dantes bar, sitting next to a robed figure.
The room is approx. 5 by 7 meters in size, with the doorway in the south side of the room, about 3 meters along. Entering the room, there is a pair of long high back benches, of the type found in fast food restaurants – made of contoured plastic and with cheap vinyl padding. The puppet and the robed figure sit on the far, north, side, and the southern side is free for the characters to sit at. There’s room for 3-4 on the bench (depending on size and how cosy they are willing to get), and at least as many again standing behind the bench looking over the top – though dwarves will need a box to stand on. The right hand half of the room is an open area, in front of a wall dominated by several 2d screens, normally showing upwards of a dozen news channels in various different windows and configurations of ¼, ½ or whole screens. The room is lit by a number of small downlighters in the ceiling, in two rows – however, the 3 over the table have been removed, and replaced with 3 angled spotlights on the wall behind the puppet. These are angled down towards the table, and serve to backlight the Puppet and the robed figure – not bright enough to cause flare modifiers, but bright enough to cast a clear shadow and make direct observation difficult.
The puppet has rosy red cheeks, an obviously articulated mouth, chestnut brown swept over hair and brown freckles, and a set of clear blue glass eyes. He is dressed in a somewhat tatty brown suit of indeterminate age and style. When he “speaks” the mouth moves in roughly the same speed / cadence, though is obviously limited to up and down movements. The hands are carved from wood, and fully articulated, and capable of fine manipulation – certainly handing over cred-sticks and operating PDAs and commlinks seems to be no issue.
The robed figure sits on the right hand side of the puppet, with his left arm behind the puppet’s back. The robe is a deep jade green, made of rich fabric and looks fairly heavy – it’s fairly formless and baggy, and hides most of the underlying shape of the owner who is human sized in general proportions. The deep hood has some form of stiffening in it, and casts deep shadows over the owner’s face. Between this overlarge cowl and the backlighting from the spots, it makes the face and features of the robed figure impossible to determine.
When the dummy speaks, it is with a native Seattle accent, well-spoken and clearly articulate. The sound appears to come from the dummy’s mouth, and the mouth moves up and down in time with the spoken word. The eyes move and eyebrows wiggle to add emphasis to statements.
Role: In my campaign the Puppet has a network of spies and informants around the city that channel refugees, waifs and strays to him – those new to the city having arrived from somewhere else with a past they would rather forget. He recruits those interested into the shadows, working to establish a team of independent runners that he can broker out to Johnsons as needed. He also helps set them up with gear, forged IDs, information and contacts – all for a very modest fee. (One of my campaign requirements was “No Seattle natives” – everyone has fled their former life and arrived in the city fresh, and this acted as a good way to get the characters together – and also helped cover over any lack of game knowledge from my newer players as “oh, you didn’t know how that worked in the city / UCAS”)
Reputation: The puppet has worked hard to establish a rep as an honest broker. He will never knowingly allow a team or run to be set up, double crossed or hung out to dry, and goes to reasonable lengths to make sure that the Johnsons know this. On the other hand, he goes to equally great lengths to make sure his stable of lawbreakers keep their mouths shut about the jobs and do whatever is required to get the contract filled. He will spend considerable amounts of time, effort and resources to maintain his reputation, but has a reasonable contact with a variety of Johnsons who will pay his prices and value his work as a result.
Contacts: The puppet has the following contacts in my game that my players know about / I’ve defined – plus a whole bunch more. He is a fixer, after all…
Dantes’ bar
Underworld Contacts
Gang Contacts
Runners
Professionals
Street Name: The Puppet
General Location: Auburn district, Seattle
Specific Location: Back room, Dantes’ Bar, 3rd Avenue, Black Diamond (Lone Star:C), Auburn
Archetype: Fixer
Description: The Puppet is just that – seemingly a wooden puppet, styled after a ventriloquist’s dummy from the 19th century. He is always to be found in the back left room of Dantes bar, sitting next to a robed figure.
The room is approx. 5 by 7 meters in size, with the doorway in the south side of the room, about 3 meters along. Entering the room, there is a pair of long high back benches, of the type found in fast food restaurants – made of contoured plastic and with cheap vinyl padding. The puppet and the robed figure sit on the far, north, side, and the southern side is free for the characters to sit at. There’s room for 3-4 on the bench (depending on size and how cosy they are willing to get), and at least as many again standing behind the bench looking over the top – though dwarves will need a box to stand on. The right hand half of the room is an open area, in front of a wall dominated by several 2d screens, normally showing upwards of a dozen news channels in various different windows and configurations of ¼, ½ or whole screens. The room is lit by a number of small downlighters in the ceiling, in two rows – however, the 3 over the table have been removed, and replaced with 3 angled spotlights on the wall behind the puppet. These are angled down towards the table, and serve to backlight the Puppet and the robed figure – not bright enough to cause flare modifiers, but bright enough to cast a clear shadow and make direct observation difficult.
The puppet has rosy red cheeks, an obviously articulated mouth, chestnut brown swept over hair and brown freckles, and a set of clear blue glass eyes. He is dressed in a somewhat tatty brown suit of indeterminate age and style. When he “speaks” the mouth moves in roughly the same speed / cadence, though is obviously limited to up and down movements. The hands are carved from wood, and fully articulated, and capable of fine manipulation – certainly handing over cred-sticks and operating PDAs and commlinks seems to be no issue.
The robed figure sits on the right hand side of the puppet, with his left arm behind the puppet’s back. The robe is a deep jade green, made of rich fabric and looks fairly heavy – it’s fairly formless and baggy, and hides most of the underlying shape of the owner who is human sized in general proportions. The deep hood has some form of stiffening in it, and casts deep shadows over the owner’s face. Between this overlarge cowl and the backlighting from the spots, it makes the face and features of the robed figure impossible to determine.
When the dummy speaks, it is with a native Seattle accent, well-spoken and clearly articulate. The sound appears to come from the dummy’s mouth, and the mouth moves up and down in time with the spoken word. The eyes move and eyebrows wiggle to add emphasis to statements.
Role: In my campaign the Puppet has a network of spies and informants around the city that channel refugees, waifs and strays to him – those new to the city having arrived from somewhere else with a past they would rather forget. He recruits those interested into the shadows, working to establish a team of independent runners that he can broker out to Johnsons as needed. He also helps set them up with gear, forged IDs, information and contacts – all for a very modest fee. (One of my campaign requirements was “No Seattle natives” – everyone has fled their former life and arrived in the city fresh, and this acted as a good way to get the characters together – and also helped cover over any lack of game knowledge from my newer players as “oh, you didn’t know how that worked in the city / UCAS”)
Reputation: The puppet has worked hard to establish a rep as an honest broker. He will never knowingly allow a team or run to be set up, double crossed or hung out to dry, and goes to reasonable lengths to make sure that the Johnsons know this. On the other hand, he goes to equally great lengths to make sure his stable of lawbreakers keep their mouths shut about the jobs and do whatever is required to get the contract filled. He will spend considerable amounts of time, effort and resources to maintain his reputation, but has a reasonable contact with a variety of Johnsons who will pay his prices and value his work as a result.
Contacts: The puppet has the following contacts in my game that my players know about / I’ve defined – plus a whole bunch more. He is a fixer, after all…
Dantes’ bar
- Dantes, Human, Bartender, Former shadowrunner
- ‘Tiny’, Troll, Bouncer, One of his runners / enforcers
- Musashi, Elf, Bouncer, Another runner – specialising in stealth and assassination
- Jeff, Ork, Bouncer, Former pit-fighter
- Tweedle dee and Tweedle dum – Human, twins, provide decker support
Underworld Contacts
- Micky Two fingers, Human, Mafia Don, Looks after the Auburn district around the Fed-Boeing plant
- Origato, Yakuza lieutenant, runs the Maple Valley area north of Black Diamond
- Gi-Min, Seopla Ring boss, Kanaskat township, east of Black Diamond
- Kongo, Triad enforcer, Black Diamond
Gang Contacts
- Jovik, Captain of the Red Drakes, a local go-gang who often use Dantes as their watering hole
- Pieter, Quartermaster of the Green Berets armed citizen group, Black Diamond
- Tickimush, Gang member, Racing Panthers, Orc go-gang on route 169
Runners
- Nails, Troll Samurai, Part of Scav’s crew
- Harriet, Dwarf surgeon, ex-docwagon
- Butter, Human smuggler
Professionals
- Cheppie, Human, chop shop owner, Kent
- Ormus, Orc, Gunsmith and blade merchent
- Ricardo, Elf, Chemist and pharmaceutical products
This is honestly excellent, and it helps that I'm about to run a campaign with runners who are just getting together, and don't have a fixer. My idea was to have them play through Splintered State (the intro 5e adventure), and then give them a fixer based on the outcome of that. This works out excellently.
Ok, and here's the writeup for the bar... hopefully same deal:
Location Name: Dantes’ Bar
Location Type :Large Bar / Nightclub
Physical Location : 3rd Avenue, Black Diamond (Lone Star:C), Auburn
Operating Hours: 7 days a week, 24 hours a day
Map / Floorplanhttps://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12303385/Dantes.pdf
Notable NPCs: Dantes, The Puppet
Tagline: “Hello? No, we’re not THAT Dantes… the number you want is 555….”
Description:
Outside
Dantes Bar and Nightclub is located in a low security area of Auburn, right on the main strip. The building is approx. 30 X 50m in size, with the narrowest dimension onto the main highway. There is an area to one side of the club for parking, with room for a few dozen cars, and a bike stand at the front – late evening this tends to be full of choppers and street hogs, depending on which gang has stopped by. The building looks to be an old mini-mall with the internal walls mostly removed and cleared out – it’s a two story building, made of standard Plas-crete, probably about 30-40 years old. External security cameras are located on the corners of the building, and overlooking the entranceways front and rear. At the front of the building, to the right of the entrance is a roped off queueing area, normally watched over by one of the club bouncers who also does a quick check for weapons on guests.
Outside the bar, the Double doors open into a small entranceway, with doors off to the security room on one side, and the ticket office on the other. Next to the ticket office is the cloakroom / weapons check. A low grade weapons checker is built into the club entranceway, working in conjunction with the physical checks by the door staff.
Inside
Going through the second set of double doors brings you in to the north west corner of the club. Walking clockwise around the outer wall, as you head east there are 9 sets of round tables and 8 chairs, equally spaced all along the north wall. At the eastern end of the building, is the Puppets room. Next door to that is a second private room, used for meetings, as a holding area, or occasionally for the original purpose as a karaoke / party room. Working further along the east wall is the male and then female toilets, entrance to the staff corridor, then the kitchen. At the south eastern corner of the building, is the goods entrance and store room, with another door into the kitchens. The store room has a number of industrial style shelving units, holding the ingredients for the kitchens and the cases / crates of alcohol for the bar. Working further along the south wall, there is the managers office with a corner desk unit and computer, filing cabinets, and repeater screens for the security cameras. Next door is the staff break area with a couple of settees and long couches. About half way along the south wall now, the corridor goes through into the wash room with two large industrial dish washers for the glasses and cutlery / crockery. Finally, the corridor opens into the long bar, which continues along most of the rest of the south wall. At the south west corner of the building, there are steps up into the VIP area from the small bar return – people queuing for drinks here always get priority over the main bar. In the VIP area there are 6 tables with luxurious chairs in various patterns and semi isolated booths, including one set called the “lighthouse”, which projects out into the main dance area slightly, allowing the people to see, and be seen by the masses. A wider set of steps leads down from the VIP area into the main floor, and is normally the location of another bouncer.
Along the west wall, next to the VIP area is another toilet block, and then you’re back at the entranceway again.
The centre of the club is dominated by the large dance floor, sunk approximately 3 feet below the main club level. People leaning on the half height barrier surrounding the dance floor can easily watch over the crowd below. Spaced equally around the dance floor are 8 sets of steps leading back up to the main level. Over the dance floor is an extensive lighting, laser, smoke and speaker rig. This area is also home to a Force 8 air elemental, unknown to 95% of the guests of the club. It keeps an eye on astral security, watches out for unauthorised magic in the club, and delights in flying through the smoke clouds leaving patterns in its’ wake.
To the east of the dance floor, is the DJ booth, surrounded by 5 sets of booths with large couches facing each other.
The décor tends towards the industrial – lots of exposed pipework, grilles, metal and rugged fixtures and fastenings. Things are slightly more upmarket in the VIP area – the seats are considerably more comfortable and the tables better quality, but the decoration remains in the same vein.
Operating notes: The bar is open 24 X 7, in theory – at least the doors never really close. From about 8am, there is a concerted effort to clean the bar down – the house lights come up, the music is synth-pop at a manageable volume, and most of the bar is cleaned down, restocked and tidied up. A small but regular clientele are present, mostly for breakfast or morning coffee. During the morning, after the breakfast “rush”, it settles down to a trickle of visitors, often stopping in for a bite to eat and a sit down from bits of shopping in the main drag. The kitchen serves decent enough bar food, in authentic plastic trays sculpted to look like wicker – but is noted for giving good sized portions at a great price – something appreciated by the blue collar workers often found in the area. Lunchtime sees an upswell in customers and the bar does a good trade from the local shops, offices and facilities. This general stream of normal traffic helps mask the various visitors to the Puppet to make and broker deals or deliver small items of course. At around 2pm there is an upsurge in business, as the early shift from the Fed-Boeing plant kick out, and hit the bars on the way home for a “swift one and a bowl of fries”. This continues until 5pm or so, as they catch the end of various shifts, and the bar is to be found with a good mix of blue collar factory floor workers and office / retail staff.
At around 7pm the main lights start to dim, the daytime crowd trickles out, and the early drinkers start to arrive. At this time, the security staff start to show up, but mostly just let the regulars in. During this time, guest DJs who are just starting their careers tend to be given spots, so there is often an eclectic mix of sounds, of variable quality to be found. By 9pm, the evening is starting to settle down to the serious business of partying. By this time, the bouncers are on duty at the front, the cover charge is in operation for entry, the bar is fully staffed, and the kitchen is mostly on clean down, serving just the occasional bit of snack food and dinner for staff on break time. Depending on the night of the week, the music will vary between Industrial, Vapo-trance, Goth, Metal etc, with a different crowd and feel each night. The Red Drakes (a go gang) tend to come on Tuesday nights for the Heavy Metal sets, whilst the Racing Panthers make Thursday nights and the Or’zet trance their thing.
By 11pm, the club is in full swing, the temperature inside soars as several hundred people dance their cares away, the lasers are going full blast fit to trigger seizures (hope you’ve got flare compensation buddy) and the volume has risen to the point that conversation is difficult to almost impossible in the main area. This continues for several hours, until things start to wind down about 5-6am. The hardcore, despairing or those too drunk or hyped up keep going, desperate to avoid the return to the real world until about 7am, when the music starts to fade, the lights gradually come up and the tempo slows, ready to start another day. Security gently eject those who don’t get the message, or help get seated those who really need a strong black soy-caf before they can face the grey and rainy morning that awaits them outside. And thus beings another new day at Dantes…
Notable NPCs
Location Name: Dantes’ Bar
Location Type :Large Bar / Nightclub
Physical Location : 3rd Avenue, Black Diamond (Lone Star:C), Auburn
Operating Hours: 7 days a week, 24 hours a day
Map / Floorplanhttps://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12303385/Dantes.pdf
Notable NPCs: Dantes, The Puppet
Tagline: “Hello? No, we’re not THAT Dantes… the number you want is 555….”
Description:
Outside
Dantes Bar and Nightclub is located in a low security area of Auburn, right on the main strip. The building is approx. 30 X 50m in size, with the narrowest dimension onto the main highway. There is an area to one side of the club for parking, with room for a few dozen cars, and a bike stand at the front – late evening this tends to be full of choppers and street hogs, depending on which gang has stopped by. The building looks to be an old mini-mall with the internal walls mostly removed and cleared out – it’s a two story building, made of standard Plas-crete, probably about 30-40 years old. External security cameras are located on the corners of the building, and overlooking the entranceways front and rear. At the front of the building, to the right of the entrance is a roped off queueing area, normally watched over by one of the club bouncers who also does a quick check for weapons on guests.
Outside the bar, the Double doors open into a small entranceway, with doors off to the security room on one side, and the ticket office on the other. Next to the ticket office is the cloakroom / weapons check. A low grade weapons checker is built into the club entranceway, working in conjunction with the physical checks by the door staff.
Inside
Going through the second set of double doors brings you in to the north west corner of the club. Walking clockwise around the outer wall, as you head east there are 9 sets of round tables and 8 chairs, equally spaced all along the north wall. At the eastern end of the building, is the Puppets room. Next door to that is a second private room, used for meetings, as a holding area, or occasionally for the original purpose as a karaoke / party room. Working further along the east wall is the male and then female toilets, entrance to the staff corridor, then the kitchen. At the south eastern corner of the building, is the goods entrance and store room, with another door into the kitchens. The store room has a number of industrial style shelving units, holding the ingredients for the kitchens and the cases / crates of alcohol for the bar. Working further along the south wall, there is the managers office with a corner desk unit and computer, filing cabinets, and repeater screens for the security cameras. Next door is the staff break area with a couple of settees and long couches. About half way along the south wall now, the corridor goes through into the wash room with two large industrial dish washers for the glasses and cutlery / crockery. Finally, the corridor opens into the long bar, which continues along most of the rest of the south wall. At the south west corner of the building, there are steps up into the VIP area from the small bar return – people queuing for drinks here always get priority over the main bar. In the VIP area there are 6 tables with luxurious chairs in various patterns and semi isolated booths, including one set called the “lighthouse”, which projects out into the main dance area slightly, allowing the people to see, and be seen by the masses. A wider set of steps leads down from the VIP area into the main floor, and is normally the location of another bouncer.
Along the west wall, next to the VIP area is another toilet block, and then you’re back at the entranceway again.
The centre of the club is dominated by the large dance floor, sunk approximately 3 feet below the main club level. People leaning on the half height barrier surrounding the dance floor can easily watch over the crowd below. Spaced equally around the dance floor are 8 sets of steps leading back up to the main level. Over the dance floor is an extensive lighting, laser, smoke and speaker rig. This area is also home to a Force 8 air elemental, unknown to 95% of the guests of the club. It keeps an eye on astral security, watches out for unauthorised magic in the club, and delights in flying through the smoke clouds leaving patterns in its’ wake.
To the east of the dance floor, is the DJ booth, surrounded by 5 sets of booths with large couches facing each other.
The décor tends towards the industrial – lots of exposed pipework, grilles, metal and rugged fixtures and fastenings. Things are slightly more upmarket in the VIP area – the seats are considerably more comfortable and the tables better quality, but the decoration remains in the same vein.
Operating notes: The bar is open 24 X 7, in theory – at least the doors never really close. From about 8am, there is a concerted effort to clean the bar down – the house lights come up, the music is synth-pop at a manageable volume, and most of the bar is cleaned down, restocked and tidied up. A small but regular clientele are present, mostly for breakfast or morning coffee. During the morning, after the breakfast “rush”, it settles down to a trickle of visitors, often stopping in for a bite to eat and a sit down from bits of shopping in the main drag. The kitchen serves decent enough bar food, in authentic plastic trays sculpted to look like wicker – but is noted for giving good sized portions at a great price – something appreciated by the blue collar workers often found in the area. Lunchtime sees an upswell in customers and the bar does a good trade from the local shops, offices and facilities. This general stream of normal traffic helps mask the various visitors to the Puppet to make and broker deals or deliver small items of course. At around 2pm there is an upsurge in business, as the early shift from the Fed-Boeing plant kick out, and hit the bars on the way home for a “swift one and a bowl of fries”. This continues until 5pm or so, as they catch the end of various shifts, and the bar is to be found with a good mix of blue collar factory floor workers and office / retail staff.
At around 7pm the main lights start to dim, the daytime crowd trickles out, and the early drinkers start to arrive. At this time, the security staff start to show up, but mostly just let the regulars in. During this time, guest DJs who are just starting their careers tend to be given spots, so there is often an eclectic mix of sounds, of variable quality to be found. By 9pm, the evening is starting to settle down to the serious business of partying. By this time, the bouncers are on duty at the front, the cover charge is in operation for entry, the bar is fully staffed, and the kitchen is mostly on clean down, serving just the occasional bit of snack food and dinner for staff on break time. Depending on the night of the week, the music will vary between Industrial, Vapo-trance, Goth, Metal etc, with a different crowd and feel each night. The Red Drakes (a go gang) tend to come on Tuesday nights for the Heavy Metal sets, whilst the Racing Panthers make Thursday nights and the Or’zet trance their thing.
By 11pm, the club is in full swing, the temperature inside soars as several hundred people dance their cares away, the lasers are going full blast fit to trigger seizures (hope you’ve got flare compensation buddy) and the volume has risen to the point that conversation is difficult to almost impossible in the main area. This continues for several hours, until things start to wind down about 5-6am. The hardcore, despairing or those too drunk or hyped up keep going, desperate to avoid the return to the real world until about 7am, when the music starts to fade, the lights gradually come up and the tempo slows, ready to start another day. Security gently eject those who don’t get the message, or help get seated those who really need a strong black soy-caf before they can face the grey and rainy morning that awaits them outside. And thus beings another new day at Dantes…
Notable NPCs
- Dantes, Human, Bartender, Former shadowrunner
- The Puppet, Metahuman fixer with animated wooden dummy
- Tiny, Troll, Bouncer, One of his runners / enforcers
- Musashi, Elf, Bouncer, Another runner – specialising in stealth and assassination
- Jeff, Ork, Bouncer, Former pit-fighter
- Tweedle dee and Tweedle dum – Human, twins, provide decker support
- Two cooks, 3-4 bar staff, a cleaner, attendants who work in the ticket office and cloakroom, wait staff who serve the food, collect glasses and keep an eye on the guests, several more bouncers and security personnel.
Oops - double post of the bar. Removed
Sure, I would always like to see new ideas for locations / npcs.
Also interested in maps of any kind.
Did you create them yourself and if so, which tools did you use?
Also interested in maps of any kind.
Did you create them yourself and if so, which tools did you use?
QUOTE (Acenoid @ Feb 7 2016, 03:32 AM) 
Sure, I would always like to see new ideas for locations / npcs.
Also interested in maps of any kind.
Did you create them yourself and if so, which tools did you use?
Also interested in maps of any kind.
Did you create them yourself and if so, which tools did you use?
The map for Dantes I did in MS Visio. The map for Cheppies was in Powerpoint. Unfortunately, I lack artistic ability, so that's about my limit.
Location Name: Cheppies
Location Type :Vehicle Chopshop
Physical Location : 320th Street and 116th Avenue, Christopher, Renton (Lone Star: C) – just east of the little bulge in the Green River, at the bottom of the district
Operating Hours: Open 8-6, Monday-Saturday for the public. Extended hours for some of the staff working on vehicles
Map / Floorplan: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1zokvyl50estva9/cheppie.pdf?dl=0
Notable NPCs: Cheppie, Maurice
Tagline: “Listen my man, this vehicle is so hot it sizzles. But for 5 g’s, I can make this as cool as a block of ice, you dig?”
Description:
Cheppies is set at an intersection in a quiet residential area, not far from the Green River in Renton. The “main street” is 320th, and a number of shops spread out from this crossroads into the more residential areas. There is the usual rush of commuter traffic around peak times, but otherwise this is a reasonably quiet little backwater area, between the interstate and river. There are various fast food joints on the west side of the crossroads, each with a two story apartment/house on top, with entrances to the rear. The hardware store sells all manner of DIY products and basic supplies, and has an alleyway running around the north and east sides, with several large dumpsters. The drugstore has a flat roof that can be easily reached by the use of a rickety fire escape to the rear, and has a low parapet around the edge that offers reasonable concealment. A hair salon lies just to the east of the workshop, offering a variety of beauty treatments – another narrow alley to the side of this allows access to a small goods area at the back of the salon and the mini-mart, this area is normally filthy and full of rubbish.
Outside
The garage is a single story building, but as high as the neighbouring 2 story premises. The workshop area is built in the style of a warehouse, with lattice gantrywork supporting a gently sloping roof, giving plenty of headroom to raise vehicles and work on the undersides. The office next door is of a more traditional height, with a flat roof. The main courtyard area has a single gas pump, and is covered with a canopy with a height of 3.5m – commercial vehicles may have issues fitting in here. Externally the garage is run down, the brickwork stained and marked, with various bits of graffiti on show or inexpertly sprayed over. The roller shutter door to the warehouse squeaks and groans in use, and a number of the external lights flicker or have failed completely. Overall, the building looks tired and run down. It has a salon and beauty parlour on the east side, and a mini-mart on the south side. Both doors face north, and there is no exit to the rear of the building into the narrow alleyway at the back of the salon / mini-mart.
Inside
The main reception area is reached by a set of double wide doors, leading into a dated room – cracked lino, faded yellow walls, shelves half empty and with various boxes of spare parts arrayed haphazardly – air filters, gaskets, seals, spark plugs etc. There is an oversized leather couch which has seen much better days, leaking some foam at one end, for customers to sit on whilst they wait – though looking at the oil stains and grease on it, most would choose to stand. A counter runs half the length of the room, and has an old and low quality computer on it, and the odd sheaf of paperwork stuck together and covered in doodles.
A regular size door leads through into the workshop, secured by a very basic and low quality swipe card system. In the warehouse, there is exposed brick and plasterwork, bare pipes, the occasional strip of peeling and dangling wallpaper – the place looks more like it was abandoned years ago rather than used. There are two vehicle lifts, one next to the roller shutter door leading to 320th street, and the other behind that in the workshop. It will be obvious that the layout of the workshop sucks, and that to get a vehicle to the 2nd lift, you have to move the vehicle on the first lift out of the way. That’s ok though – the 2nd lift is clearly out of action – the hydraulic hoses on the lift mechanism look to have ruptured violently at some point in the past – the faint marks on the floor and the wall bear testament to the explosive spray of boiling hydraulic fluid escaping after the explosion.
A more careful examination of the warehouse will reveal some odd asymmetrical features that are somewhat puzzling and unusual. Those skilled with engineering or architecture may realise that the dimensions of the room are off, and that the roof gantry disappears through the wall to the east, rather than resting on it.
The entire east wall is fake – a reinforced plasterboard skim over a frame, and contains a concealed door. This leads to an unlit narrow passageway, full of mold, cobwebs and mildew, and a narrow and cramped staircase leading down. At the bottom of the steps, the passageway turns and opens up into a number of large chambers, and reveals a couple of large hydraulic rams, which appear to be in good working order. The entire area around lift number 2 drops down to basement level, allowing vehicles to be lowered down underground. There is open space to work on at least 5 standard size cars or vans down here, though again the layout requires careful planning on the owners part in terms of the order and placement, for getting them in and out. The basement area actually runs well outside the property line to the south, and covers most of the area under the mini-mart too. A number of rat holes can be found in the southern half of the basement.
Operating notes:
Cheppie has not long taken over the workshop – it was indeed abandoned for several years before, and is very run down and decrepit looking. In the time they have been here, they’ve been slowly fixing the place up and cleaning it – but in a very haphazard manner, leading to very patchy results. Legitimate trade is still low, as people adjust to having a local fuel stop again. Of note, the local bike gang tend to stay away from the workshop at the moment – leaving well alone for some reason. (In my campaign, they took an interest in the place when Cheppie and his crew moved in, and made the mistake of threatening them whilst some of the players were around - who then proceeded to make their lives difficult for the night, and threw around some lightning bolts to make their point. The bike gang is small enough they decided they don’t need this kind of trouble, and now actively avoid the crossroads area, which has helped trade somewhat and is leading to a bit of a comeback for the local shops)
Notable NPCs
Location Type :Vehicle Chopshop
Physical Location : 320th Street and 116th Avenue, Christopher, Renton (Lone Star: C) – just east of the little bulge in the Green River, at the bottom of the district
Operating Hours: Open 8-6, Monday-Saturday for the public. Extended hours for some of the staff working on vehicles
Map / Floorplan: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1zokvyl50estva9/cheppie.pdf?dl=0
Notable NPCs: Cheppie, Maurice
Tagline: “Listen my man, this vehicle is so hot it sizzles. But for 5 g’s, I can make this as cool as a block of ice, you dig?”
Description:
Cheppies is set at an intersection in a quiet residential area, not far from the Green River in Renton. The “main street” is 320th, and a number of shops spread out from this crossroads into the more residential areas. There is the usual rush of commuter traffic around peak times, but otherwise this is a reasonably quiet little backwater area, between the interstate and river. There are various fast food joints on the west side of the crossroads, each with a two story apartment/house on top, with entrances to the rear. The hardware store sells all manner of DIY products and basic supplies, and has an alleyway running around the north and east sides, with several large dumpsters. The drugstore has a flat roof that can be easily reached by the use of a rickety fire escape to the rear, and has a low parapet around the edge that offers reasonable concealment. A hair salon lies just to the east of the workshop, offering a variety of beauty treatments – another narrow alley to the side of this allows access to a small goods area at the back of the salon and the mini-mart, this area is normally filthy and full of rubbish.
Outside
The garage is a single story building, but as high as the neighbouring 2 story premises. The workshop area is built in the style of a warehouse, with lattice gantrywork supporting a gently sloping roof, giving plenty of headroom to raise vehicles and work on the undersides. The office next door is of a more traditional height, with a flat roof. The main courtyard area has a single gas pump, and is covered with a canopy with a height of 3.5m – commercial vehicles may have issues fitting in here. Externally the garage is run down, the brickwork stained and marked, with various bits of graffiti on show or inexpertly sprayed over. The roller shutter door to the warehouse squeaks and groans in use, and a number of the external lights flicker or have failed completely. Overall, the building looks tired and run down. It has a salon and beauty parlour on the east side, and a mini-mart on the south side. Both doors face north, and there is no exit to the rear of the building into the narrow alleyway at the back of the salon / mini-mart.
Inside
The main reception area is reached by a set of double wide doors, leading into a dated room – cracked lino, faded yellow walls, shelves half empty and with various boxes of spare parts arrayed haphazardly – air filters, gaskets, seals, spark plugs etc. There is an oversized leather couch which has seen much better days, leaking some foam at one end, for customers to sit on whilst they wait – though looking at the oil stains and grease on it, most would choose to stand. A counter runs half the length of the room, and has an old and low quality computer on it, and the odd sheaf of paperwork stuck together and covered in doodles.
A regular size door leads through into the workshop, secured by a very basic and low quality swipe card system. In the warehouse, there is exposed brick and plasterwork, bare pipes, the occasional strip of peeling and dangling wallpaper – the place looks more like it was abandoned years ago rather than used. There are two vehicle lifts, one next to the roller shutter door leading to 320th street, and the other behind that in the workshop. It will be obvious that the layout of the workshop sucks, and that to get a vehicle to the 2nd lift, you have to move the vehicle on the first lift out of the way. That’s ok though – the 2nd lift is clearly out of action – the hydraulic hoses on the lift mechanism look to have ruptured violently at some point in the past – the faint marks on the floor and the wall bear testament to the explosive spray of boiling hydraulic fluid escaping after the explosion.
A more careful examination of the warehouse will reveal some odd asymmetrical features that are somewhat puzzling and unusual. Those skilled with engineering or architecture may realise that the dimensions of the room are off, and that the roof gantry disappears through the wall to the east, rather than resting on it.
The entire east wall is fake – a reinforced plasterboard skim over a frame, and contains a concealed door. This leads to an unlit narrow passageway, full of mold, cobwebs and mildew, and a narrow and cramped staircase leading down. At the bottom of the steps, the passageway turns and opens up into a number of large chambers, and reveals a couple of large hydraulic rams, which appear to be in good working order. The entire area around lift number 2 drops down to basement level, allowing vehicles to be lowered down underground. There is open space to work on at least 5 standard size cars or vans down here, though again the layout requires careful planning on the owners part in terms of the order and placement, for getting them in and out. The basement area actually runs well outside the property line to the south, and covers most of the area under the mini-mart too. A number of rat holes can be found in the southern half of the basement.
Operating notes:
Cheppie has not long taken over the workshop – it was indeed abandoned for several years before, and is very run down and decrepit looking. In the time they have been here, they’ve been slowly fixing the place up and cleaning it – but in a very haphazard manner, leading to very patchy results. Legitimate trade is still low, as people adjust to having a local fuel stop again. Of note, the local bike gang tend to stay away from the workshop at the moment – leaving well alone for some reason. (In my campaign, they took an interest in the place when Cheppie and his crew moved in, and made the mistake of threatening them whilst some of the players were around - who then proceeded to make their lives difficult for the night, and threw around some lightning bolts to make their point. The bike gang is small enough they decided they don’t need this kind of trouble, and now actively avoid the crossroads area, which has helped trade somewhat and is leading to a bit of a comeback for the local shops)
Notable NPCs
- Cheppie, Human, Male, Chop Shop owner / mechanic – Cheppie owns the chopshop. He’s of Spanish decent, though he’s at least 4th generation Seattle by now – he’ll play on this if he thinks it will get him advantage either way though. He’s a vehicle enthusiast, and never happier than if he’s taking apart, or putting together some custom bit of kit. He seems to have a natural aptitude to vehicle engineering.
- Maurice, Human, Male, Vehicle engineer / racing fanatic – “Mo”, is Cheppies partner in crime, helping him out with the various conversions, chops, joins and other tasks around the workshop. He is a proper speed freak, and loves Combat bikes, races and any other sport involving many cylinders and extreme speed.
- “the crew” – half a dozen other engineers, spray artists, delivery drivers, and people with talents in acquiring and disposing of vehicles. About half of these are members of Cheppies extended family.
Street Name: Bookworm
Real Name: Arnold Phelps
General Location: Downtown, Seattle
Specific Location: Most often found in the Public Reading Room at Seattle University, in their main Downtown campus (Lone Star: A)
Archetype: Fixer
Description: Bookworm is an elderly gentleman, somewhere in his 60s. Black, with a shock of white wiry hair, he is of modest build but mentally very astute and has a commanding presence. His eyes are very dark brown, so dark they appear almost black, and he has a few tiny freckles under each eye – slightly discoloured patches of skin. A very neat goatee beard is always well trimmed, and the rest of his hair is equally well groomed. His clothing is dated – he seems to favour tweed jackets with elbow patches, knitted scarves in earth tones, and shirts that have a dated pattern and cut – like his fashion sense was frozen in the 20’s, and hasn’t shifted since. A pair of horn-rimmed spectacles are perched on his nose, and he often peers over the top of them whilst speaking to people. If he has to move, people can hear whirring and clunking noises – Arnold was the recipient of one of the first successful cyberlimbs (a leg, following a car accident) and it uses very old technology – still having servos, motors and a battery pack that needs to be charged. Like much in his life, he is happy with this old technology and refuses to change it.
He speaks softly, with a slight southern accent, and his words are always measured and spoken carefully. He seems to take a great deal of care with language, and not only enunciates clearly, but takes care not to be ambiguous – unless he’s discussing an illegal act, in which case he is very precise with his vagueness. When he is speaking, he will continue to talk until his point is made and he has finished his sentence, regardless of side conversations or questions asked, or any interruptions or physical activity unless it is most extreme. He refuses to cover points again, and will not repeat himself, and will tell anyone he is speaking to that they “should have listened the first time”, or “need to learn when to use their ears, and rest their mouth”. If the people he is dealing with miss vital information because of this, he will take steps to try and counter it for his employer, including hiring other teams if necessary, but will let the first team fail – “it’s the only way you young folk seem to learn”. He will of course dock the fee from any second team from the pay from the first.
Arnold is most often found in the public reading room in the library at Seattle U. He shuns the computer terminals that most others use, and heads to the specialist section where they still have some old print books and magazines, printed on real paper. He will spend hours poring over these, wearing thin white cotton gloves, and taking great care not to damage his reading material. He seems to have eclectic taste, reading all manner of publications. Arnold is a true bibliophile – he adores the printed word, literature, poetry, the composition of text. His side interests include fontography, poetry, sagas, medieval texts, and he has some skill with rebinding and restoration. He is well known to all the university staff, and generally very well regarded in literary circles.
Reputation : Bookworm has a rep for working with Japancorps – his approach to the form of the printed word, his careful command of language and respect for old traditions seems to sit well with them, and even though he is clearly not Asian, he has a good reputation with Johnsons from several of the megacorps and minor players from the Pacific Rim. As detailed above, he is well known for demanding respect and proper behaviour from those he deals with, and has no compunction about letting people fail to teach them a lesson, as long as it doesn’t endanger the job. Those who move in the right circles will also be aware of a reputation for philanthropy where it comes to institutions dedicated to language and literature.
Role: In my game I bought in Arnold as a contrast to the Puppet. A lot less forgiving of social gaffes and inattention than the Puppet. The team got their run via “Wiseguy”, a member of a team they’d helped out before, who warned them that Arnold needed to be listened to, and treated respectfully. During the meet, one of the team talked over him (or tried to) and I just carried on with his speech regardless. They tried to get the information again, but Arnold refused to cover it (fortunately it wasn’t that important) and they were given a lecture on manners, the importance of note taking, respect etc. None of that sank in of course, but they did at least learn to keep quiet whilst he was talking.
At the end of the run, after payment, one of the characters went and found an old printed book in a specialist shop, and presented it to Arnold as a gift. He was then able to successfully broker getting Arnolds help getting him enrolled at Seattle U in a graduate program, as a way of training and raising his skills with robot design.
Contacts:
The following contacts are easily discovered from a halfway decent attempt at research on Arnold. As with any other fixer, this is not an exhaustive list…
Seattle U
Corporate
Runners / Teams
Real Name: Arnold Phelps
General Location: Downtown, Seattle
Specific Location: Most often found in the Public Reading Room at Seattle University, in their main Downtown campus (Lone Star: A)
Archetype: Fixer
Description: Bookworm is an elderly gentleman, somewhere in his 60s. Black, with a shock of white wiry hair, he is of modest build but mentally very astute and has a commanding presence. His eyes are very dark brown, so dark they appear almost black, and he has a few tiny freckles under each eye – slightly discoloured patches of skin. A very neat goatee beard is always well trimmed, and the rest of his hair is equally well groomed. His clothing is dated – he seems to favour tweed jackets with elbow patches, knitted scarves in earth tones, and shirts that have a dated pattern and cut – like his fashion sense was frozen in the 20’s, and hasn’t shifted since. A pair of horn-rimmed spectacles are perched on his nose, and he often peers over the top of them whilst speaking to people. If he has to move, people can hear whirring and clunking noises – Arnold was the recipient of one of the first successful cyberlimbs (a leg, following a car accident) and it uses very old technology – still having servos, motors and a battery pack that needs to be charged. Like much in his life, he is happy with this old technology and refuses to change it.
He speaks softly, with a slight southern accent, and his words are always measured and spoken carefully. He seems to take a great deal of care with language, and not only enunciates clearly, but takes care not to be ambiguous – unless he’s discussing an illegal act, in which case he is very precise with his vagueness. When he is speaking, he will continue to talk until his point is made and he has finished his sentence, regardless of side conversations or questions asked, or any interruptions or physical activity unless it is most extreme. He refuses to cover points again, and will not repeat himself, and will tell anyone he is speaking to that they “should have listened the first time”, or “need to learn when to use their ears, and rest their mouth”. If the people he is dealing with miss vital information because of this, he will take steps to try and counter it for his employer, including hiring other teams if necessary, but will let the first team fail – “it’s the only way you young folk seem to learn”. He will of course dock the fee from any second team from the pay from the first.
Arnold is most often found in the public reading room in the library at Seattle U. He shuns the computer terminals that most others use, and heads to the specialist section where they still have some old print books and magazines, printed on real paper. He will spend hours poring over these, wearing thin white cotton gloves, and taking great care not to damage his reading material. He seems to have eclectic taste, reading all manner of publications. Arnold is a true bibliophile – he adores the printed word, literature, poetry, the composition of text. His side interests include fontography, poetry, sagas, medieval texts, and he has some skill with rebinding and restoration. He is well known to all the university staff, and generally very well regarded in literary circles.
Reputation : Bookworm has a rep for working with Japancorps – his approach to the form of the printed word, his careful command of language and respect for old traditions seems to sit well with them, and even though he is clearly not Asian, he has a good reputation with Johnsons from several of the megacorps and minor players from the Pacific Rim. As detailed above, he is well known for demanding respect and proper behaviour from those he deals with, and has no compunction about letting people fail to teach them a lesson, as long as it doesn’t endanger the job. Those who move in the right circles will also be aware of a reputation for philanthropy where it comes to institutions dedicated to language and literature.
Role: In my game I bought in Arnold as a contrast to the Puppet. A lot less forgiving of social gaffes and inattention than the Puppet. The team got their run via “Wiseguy”, a member of a team they’d helped out before, who warned them that Arnold needed to be listened to, and treated respectfully. During the meet, one of the team talked over him (or tried to) and I just carried on with his speech regardless. They tried to get the information again, but Arnold refused to cover it (fortunately it wasn’t that important) and they were given a lecture on manners, the importance of note taking, respect etc. None of that sank in of course, but they did at least learn to keep quiet whilst he was talking.
At the end of the run, after payment, one of the characters went and found an old printed book in a specialist shop, and presented it to Arnold as a gift. He was then able to successfully broker getting Arnolds help getting him enrolled at Seattle U in a graduate program, as a way of training and raising his skills with robot design.
Contacts:
The following contacts are easily discovered from a halfway decent attempt at research on Arnold. As with any other fixer, this is not an exhaustive list…
Seattle U
- Mary Cunningham, Human, Dean of English
- Linda Hargreaves, Elf, Bursar, Seattle U
- Thomas Rodrigues, Human, Professor of Medieval History
Corporate
- Tsuyoshi Tayama, Human, Renraku
- Tadasu Nishiwaki, Human, Shiawase
- Shinsui Kenmotsu, Yamatetsu
- Shingen Watanabe, HKB
- Mina, Saromi, Elf, Wuxing
- Nahoko Kentaro, Eastern Tiger Corporation
- Jude Richman, Monobe International
- Stevan Van Doort, Zeta-ImpChem
- Etsuko Shionoya,Tan Tien Incorporated
Runners / Teams
- Wiseguy, Elf, Face, member of the “Hammerheads”
- Tommy Wu, Human, Mage/Decker, member of “Scavs crew”
Location Name: Overspill Pond
Location Type : Sewage overspill area, Seattle Water and Power Co.
Physical Location : Green Valley Road Industrial Park, Auburn (Lone Star: D) – a few miles south of Black Diamond
Operating Hours: Not manned / operated. Factories in area tend to be 08:00-18:00 for operations.
Map / Floorplanhttps://www.dropbox.com/s/c9tt8lehprfiqj7/Overspill%20pond.pdf?dl=0 ://https://www.dropbox.com/s/c9tt8lehp...0pond.pdf?dl=0 ://https://www.dropbox.com/s/c9tt8lehp...0pond.pdf?dl=0
Notable NPCs: None
Tagline: “Is the water supposed to shimmer like that?”
Description:
Outside
The pond is nestled in the dead area behind a number of factories and industrial facilities on a large industrial park. The area is full of industry all considered polluting or hazardous, and there is a persistent layer of smog in the area from the numerous chimneys and smoke stacks.
Starting at the east side of the pond is “Frak-Max”, a drilling construction company. They have a few portacabins for their staff, with a single-story wall around their yard. Various towers, between 2 and 6 stories tall, are under construction at any one time, looking like giant children's climbing frames. They discharge various cleaning fluids and chemicals used to treat metalwork into the pond. To the north there is a 3 story factory owned by “Nutri-Pak”, making plastic food containers. They have a large-bore pipe that emerges from the 2nd story, and belches various dye-stained rinse water and emulsifiers into the pond. To the east is “Carl's Wreckers”, a junkyard that takes scrap cars and other vehicles and dismantles them to recover frag and various parts. They have no direct outflow, but the rain brings in various oils, petrol and diesel pollution and various heavy metal, battery and hydraulic fluids and other volatile compounds into the pond. They have a one story concrete wall between them and the pond, but this is topped by stacks of rusting car chassis, often 5-6 height. In the south-east corner is a United Petrochem facility that takes waste outflow from other businesses and extracts useful chemicals from them. Their building is 6 stories high to accommodate the fractional distillation towers, and there are a number of very thin, small-bore pipes emerging at various heights that occasionally shoot high temperature or pressure fluids with all manner of chemicals into the pond. To the south is a plastic moulding firm, with a 2 story building. They release various mould-release agents and cooling fluids into the pond. The south-west is a warehouse used to store volatile liquids of various types. They produce no waste technically – however, new owners have put the squeeze on margins and trimmed safety equipment from the budget, and as a result there have been several spills recently. It is their staff that have broken open the gates leading to the pond, so they can carry around some of the ruptured containers to dump in the pond. Finally, to the north of the warehouse, and south of the construction yard is the narrow access-way. This is barely wide enough for a car or small van – the walls are very tight, and the path is quite overgrown and muddy. It is obvious that the path is barely used, though there are lots of recent footprints if the area is examined closely by someone with relevant skills. There is a video camera overlooking the entrance, long broken, and the chain-link gate looks to have been smashed open with a fire axe or similar instrument.
The space in-between all the factories is about 35 X 28 meters, and the pond itself is 25 by 15 meters, and is quite deep – reaching 6 meters in most places. It is bordered by several metres of rough ground, covered in low foliage, with only a very faint path around the border – the whole area is treacherous and very difficult terrain, and may conceal loose areas of soil that will collapse and slide into the pond, or areas of quicksand-like mud. In the south-west corner are a fairly obvious set of tyre tracks from a car entering at high speed, cornering sharply and then hitting the small rise at the edge of the pond, before disappearing. It should be fairly obvious to anyone investigating that there should be a four wheeled vehicle of some description in the western half of the pond. In the south-east corner is a large concrete casting, leading down into the sewer system. A metal grille over this pipe is rusty and discoloured with age, and has several of the bars bent out of the way, giving enough room for a large meta-human to squeeze through and into the tunnel beyond. A retaining wall keeps most of the pond at bay, and only when new liquid is added from the factories or a rain storm will the level rise enough to enter the sewer pipe.
Inside
Inside the tunnel is a small outflow from the pond, running down the centre of the channel. The pipe has about a 5 degree downslope, is about 1 metre wide and 1.5m high at the most. The stained concrete shows that at times the pipe bottom would be entirely covered with the outflow, but generally there is only a small flow perhaps 30cm wide at the very bottom of the pipe. About 8m down the pipe, there is a chamber on the left hand side, approx. 2.5m cubed, with the entryway about 0.5m from the base of the passage. Originally this space held machinery that filtered and cleaned the water before it made its way into the general sewer (and various faded signs on the wall attest to the operating procedures for this) but it has been stolen and recycled sometime in the past. Now it forms a dry, mostly clean hiding place. The tunnel continues onwards and downwards for another 20m before it hits another large grille, this one intact, then drops down into the main sewer feed.
Operating notes:
This location is entirely passive – there are no operators or legitimate users to be found here. The area is long forgotten about, the records of the chemical filth pouring into the earth wiped by an enterprising decker. Now the companies get to dump whatever they want into the system, and save on disposal charges.
The pond is a toxic area, and attempting to summon Nature Spirits in the area should either fail, or be on very high modifiers. There are various growths and blooms in the area, mutated and warped by the chemical soup present, that may be of interest to Talismongers – though probably of more interest to Toxic Shamens. In the pond lives a mature spitting pike, approx. 4m long.
Game use
In my game, I had a pair of characters waiting in Dantes bar for their next mission, overhear two factory workers talking at the next table – one was telling the other that he’d caught his kid playing near the pond again and had to discipline him. All the time, the kid had been telling some wild story about the “men with the flying car and the magic spirit that let them walk on water, with the massive guns”. When the runners went to investigate, they found the barely live body of a shadowrunner down in the machinery space, along with a briefcase full of loot. He was guarded by a city spirit left by the runners Shaman friend, who’d gone to get help and medical supplies – his medkit (and the rest of the loot) being trapped in the submerged car. To add some interest, I had some para-spiders in the tunnel just outside the machinery room – the street sam in the team got bitten, and started to hallucinate quite wildly (which was very entertaining when he started to shoot at the figments of his twisted imagination with his Desert Eagle .50 in a concrete tube barely a meter wide. Deafness checks all round, and many ricochets.) I had some loot suitable for my campaign in the briefcase, which they recovered after defeating the spirit and geeking the casualty. After fighting off the spitting pike on the way out, they netted a reasonable profit, and forgot about the guys Shaman buddy. Man, is that going to bite them in the ass later...
Location Type : Sewage overspill area, Seattle Water and Power Co.
Physical Location : Green Valley Road Industrial Park, Auburn (Lone Star: D) – a few miles south of Black Diamond
Operating Hours: Not manned / operated. Factories in area tend to be 08:00-18:00 for operations.
Map / Floorplanhttps://www.dropbox.com/s/c9tt8lehprfiqj7/Overspill%20pond.pdf?dl=0 ://https://www.dropbox.com/s/c9tt8lehp...0pond.pdf?dl=0 ://https://www.dropbox.com/s/c9tt8lehp...0pond.pdf?dl=0
Notable NPCs: None
Tagline: “Is the water supposed to shimmer like that?”
Description:
Outside
The pond is nestled in the dead area behind a number of factories and industrial facilities on a large industrial park. The area is full of industry all considered polluting or hazardous, and there is a persistent layer of smog in the area from the numerous chimneys and smoke stacks.
Starting at the east side of the pond is “Frak-Max”, a drilling construction company. They have a few portacabins for their staff, with a single-story wall around their yard. Various towers, between 2 and 6 stories tall, are under construction at any one time, looking like giant children's climbing frames. They discharge various cleaning fluids and chemicals used to treat metalwork into the pond. To the north there is a 3 story factory owned by “Nutri-Pak”, making plastic food containers. They have a large-bore pipe that emerges from the 2nd story, and belches various dye-stained rinse water and emulsifiers into the pond. To the east is “Carl's Wreckers”, a junkyard that takes scrap cars and other vehicles and dismantles them to recover frag and various parts. They have no direct outflow, but the rain brings in various oils, petrol and diesel pollution and various heavy metal, battery and hydraulic fluids and other volatile compounds into the pond. They have a one story concrete wall between them and the pond, but this is topped by stacks of rusting car chassis, often 5-6 height. In the south-east corner is a United Petrochem facility that takes waste outflow from other businesses and extracts useful chemicals from them. Their building is 6 stories high to accommodate the fractional distillation towers, and there are a number of very thin, small-bore pipes emerging at various heights that occasionally shoot high temperature or pressure fluids with all manner of chemicals into the pond. To the south is a plastic moulding firm, with a 2 story building. They release various mould-release agents and cooling fluids into the pond. The south-west is a warehouse used to store volatile liquids of various types. They produce no waste technically – however, new owners have put the squeeze on margins and trimmed safety equipment from the budget, and as a result there have been several spills recently. It is their staff that have broken open the gates leading to the pond, so they can carry around some of the ruptured containers to dump in the pond. Finally, to the north of the warehouse, and south of the construction yard is the narrow access-way. This is barely wide enough for a car or small van – the walls are very tight, and the path is quite overgrown and muddy. It is obvious that the path is barely used, though there are lots of recent footprints if the area is examined closely by someone with relevant skills. There is a video camera overlooking the entrance, long broken, and the chain-link gate looks to have been smashed open with a fire axe or similar instrument.
The space in-between all the factories is about 35 X 28 meters, and the pond itself is 25 by 15 meters, and is quite deep – reaching 6 meters in most places. It is bordered by several metres of rough ground, covered in low foliage, with only a very faint path around the border – the whole area is treacherous and very difficult terrain, and may conceal loose areas of soil that will collapse and slide into the pond, or areas of quicksand-like mud. In the south-west corner are a fairly obvious set of tyre tracks from a car entering at high speed, cornering sharply and then hitting the small rise at the edge of the pond, before disappearing. It should be fairly obvious to anyone investigating that there should be a four wheeled vehicle of some description in the western half of the pond. In the south-east corner is a large concrete casting, leading down into the sewer system. A metal grille over this pipe is rusty and discoloured with age, and has several of the bars bent out of the way, giving enough room for a large meta-human to squeeze through and into the tunnel beyond. A retaining wall keeps most of the pond at bay, and only when new liquid is added from the factories or a rain storm will the level rise enough to enter the sewer pipe.
Inside
Inside the tunnel is a small outflow from the pond, running down the centre of the channel. The pipe has about a 5 degree downslope, is about 1 metre wide and 1.5m high at the most. The stained concrete shows that at times the pipe bottom would be entirely covered with the outflow, but generally there is only a small flow perhaps 30cm wide at the very bottom of the pipe. About 8m down the pipe, there is a chamber on the left hand side, approx. 2.5m cubed, with the entryway about 0.5m from the base of the passage. Originally this space held machinery that filtered and cleaned the water before it made its way into the general sewer (and various faded signs on the wall attest to the operating procedures for this) but it has been stolen and recycled sometime in the past. Now it forms a dry, mostly clean hiding place. The tunnel continues onwards and downwards for another 20m before it hits another large grille, this one intact, then drops down into the main sewer feed.
Operating notes:
This location is entirely passive – there are no operators or legitimate users to be found here. The area is long forgotten about, the records of the chemical filth pouring into the earth wiped by an enterprising decker. Now the companies get to dump whatever they want into the system, and save on disposal charges.
The pond is a toxic area, and attempting to summon Nature Spirits in the area should either fail, or be on very high modifiers. There are various growths and blooms in the area, mutated and warped by the chemical soup present, that may be of interest to Talismongers – though probably of more interest to Toxic Shamens. In the pond lives a mature spitting pike, approx. 4m long.
Game use
In my game, I had a pair of characters waiting in Dantes bar for their next mission, overhear two factory workers talking at the next table – one was telling the other that he’d caught his kid playing near the pond again and had to discipline him. All the time, the kid had been telling some wild story about the “men with the flying car and the magic spirit that let them walk on water, with the massive guns”. When the runners went to investigate, they found the barely live body of a shadowrunner down in the machinery space, along with a briefcase full of loot. He was guarded by a city spirit left by the runners Shaman friend, who’d gone to get help and medical supplies – his medkit (and the rest of the loot) being trapped in the submerged car. To add some interest, I had some para-spiders in the tunnel just outside the machinery room – the street sam in the team got bitten, and started to hallucinate quite wildly (which was very entertaining when he started to shoot at the figments of his twisted imagination with his Desert Eagle .50 in a concrete tube barely a meter wide. Deafness checks all round, and many ricochets.) I had some loot suitable for my campaign in the briefcase, which they recovered after defeating the spirit and geeking the casualty. After fighting off the spitting pike on the way out, they netted a reasonable profit, and forgot about the guys Shaman buddy. Man, is that going to bite them in the ass later...
Bah - had content ready to post today that I'd done during my lunch break - then the company gets hit with a zero day crypto virus, and I have to take the file-servers offline. Damm deckers!
So - instead here are the "templates" I've used - in case anyone else wants to share their locations or NPCs in the same format... - I can't see how to post BBcode in here without it just rendering it, so I did a quick search and replace in notepad - to turn it back, just do a search and replace of < with [ and > with ]
Locations:
<quote><b><size=3><color="#FF0000">Location Name</color></size></b>: XXX
<b><size=3><color="#FF0000">Location Type</color></size></b> :XXX
<b><size=3><color="#FF0000"> Physical Location</color></size></b> : XXX (Lone Star: XXX)
<b><size=3><color="#FF0000">Operating Hours</color></size></b>:
<b><size=3><color="#FF0000">Map / Floorplan</color></size></b><url="xxx</url>
<b><size=3><color="#FF0000">Notable NPCs</color></size></b>: xxx
<b><size=3><color="#FF0000">Tagline</color></size></b>: “xxx”
<b><size=3><color="#FF0000">Description</color></size></b>:
<b><size=2><color="#008000">Outside</color></size></b>
<b><size=2><color="#008000">Inside</color></size></b>
<b><size=2><color="#008000">Operating notes</color></size></b>: xxx
<b><size=3><color="#FF0000">Notable NPCs</color></size></b>
<list>
<*>1st npc
<*>2nd npc
</list>
</quote>
NPCs:
<quote>
<b><size=“3”><color=“#FF0000”>Street Name</color></size></b>:
<b><size=“3”><color=“#FF0000”>General Location</color></size></b>:
<b><size=“3”><color=“#FF0000”>Specific Location</color></size></b>:
<b><size=“3”><color=“#FF0000”>Archetype</color></size></b>:
<b><size=“3”><color=“#FF0000”>Description</color></size></b>:
<b><size=“3”><color=“#FF0000”>Role</color></size></b>:
<b><size=“3”><color=“#FF0000”>Reputation</color></size></b>:
<b><size=“3”><color=“#FF0000”>Contacts</color></size></b>:
<b><size=“2”><color=“#008000”>XXX</color></size></b>
<list>
<*>1
<*>2
<*>3
<*>4
</list>
</quote>
Last of all - I welcome feedback on any of the stuff posted - criticism, suggestions, questions or queries. But it's nice to get feedback on if this stuff is useful to folks, and worth doing - and it would be great to see some other people post their favourite NPC or location info to help inspire people!
So - instead here are the "templates" I've used - in case anyone else wants to share their locations or NPCs in the same format... - I can't see how to post BBcode in here without it just rendering it, so I did a quick search and replace in notepad - to turn it back, just do a search and replace of < with [ and > with ]
Locations:
<quote><b><size=3><color="#FF0000">Location Name</color></size></b>: XXX
<b><size=3><color="#FF0000">Location Type</color></size></b> :XXX
<b><size=3><color="#FF0000"> Physical Location</color></size></b> : XXX (Lone Star: XXX)
<b><size=3><color="#FF0000">Operating Hours</color></size></b>:
<b><size=3><color="#FF0000">Map / Floorplan</color></size></b><url="xxx</url>
<b><size=3><color="#FF0000">Notable NPCs</color></size></b>: xxx
<b><size=3><color="#FF0000">Tagline</color></size></b>: “xxx”
<b><size=3><color="#FF0000">Description</color></size></b>:
<b><size=2><color="#008000">Outside</color></size></b>
<b><size=2><color="#008000">Inside</color></size></b>
<b><size=2><color="#008000">Operating notes</color></size></b>: xxx
<b><size=3><color="#FF0000">Notable NPCs</color></size></b>
<list>
<*>1st npc
<*>2nd npc
</list>
</quote>
NPCs:
<quote>
<b><size=“3”><color=“#FF0000”>Street Name</color></size></b>:
<b><size=“3”><color=“#FF0000”>General Location</color></size></b>:
<b><size=“3”><color=“#FF0000”>Specific Location</color></size></b>:
<b><size=“3”><color=“#FF0000”>Archetype</color></size></b>:
<b><size=“3”><color=“#FF0000”>Description</color></size></b>:
<b><size=“3”><color=“#FF0000”>Role</color></size></b>:
<b><size=“3”><color=“#FF0000”>Reputation</color></size></b>:
<b><size=“3”><color=“#FF0000”>Contacts</color></size></b>:
<b><size=“2”><color=“#008000”>XXX</color></size></b>
<list>
<*>1
<*>2
<*>3
<*>4
</list>
</quote>
Last of all - I welcome feedback on any of the stuff posted - criticism, suggestions, questions or queries. But it's nice to get feedback on if this stuff is useful to folks, and worth doing - and it would be great to see some other people post their favourite NPC or location info to help inspire people!
Location Name: "Nailz: Beauty Salon"
Location Type :Health and Beauty Parlour, Ex-Shadowrunner Haunt
Physical Location : Rainier Avenue and 32nd Avenue, South East Downtown (Lone Star: A)
Operating Hours: Monday-Saturday 11am-7pm
Map / Floorplanhttps://www.dropbox.com/s/haxf0qxwypd9p0u/S...0salon.pdf?dl=0
Notable NPCs: Nails - Troll Street Sam
Tagline: “Beauty for everyone”
Description
Set in the basement of a 5 story building, this small beauty salon is easy to overlook. The building is quite old, and covered in decorative stonework, with a fairly grand looking stone stair up from the street to the glass and brass entranceway, set several feet above the level of the pavement. The main and higher floors hold a number of small legal firms, and see various high-class clients throughout the day. The basement is reached from a small wrought iron gate at one side of the property, which leads to a stone set of steps that turn sharply and descend half a flight down to the basement level. A set of double doors lead inside the property, underneath the stone steps that lead to the main entrance above. There are several windows in the front wall, to try and let in as much natural light as possible. The doors and windows have obvious security shutters on them, are all alarmed, and there is a discrete surveillance system covering the outside approach.
Inside
Inside the property, the walls are painted in pleasant earth tones, the furniture is well maintained and clean, though not new. On the left as you enter, there is a reception desk with a small, low power computer which holds the appointment system, with a display rack behind with various beauty products that can be purchased. A pair of large, troll sized, seats and an equally large table are next to the reception - this is where Nails normally carries out her treatments. Further to the rear wall there is a set of 3 stations on one large desk for "normal" sized guests. One of the seats is fitted with a booster for dwarf or other small metahumans. In the corner of the parlour is a storeroom, a toilet and wash basin, and a small staff break room with a water cooler, fridge, microwave etc. Finally at the front of the building, there is another troll sized seating area.
Operating notes: Nails gave up her life of running the shadows, and entered the world of legitimate business doing what she loves - fixing nails, polishing horns, and making people look amazing. She runs an open shop - she welcomes any client who can pay, and they all get treated the same. Initially business was slow, but she really is very good at her job, and word slowly spread and now her services are much in demand. She also has a habit of managing to get hold of some really esoteric items for use as decoration or beauty products, which give amazing results.
The surveillance system for the building is of low-average quality, but is functional. A very close look at the building will reveal that there is a very subtle and well hidden second system that runs to a hidden control box located in the back of the storeroom. Nails may be an ex-shadowrunner, but she's not taking any chances.
Notable NPCs
Suggested use
In my game Nails was used as a Johnson - she asked the team to hit a convoy coming into the 'plex to steal a chemical. The bad news was the chemical is one of the vital ingredients in C-12, and very highly restricted. She didn't want it for making C-12 of course - it also has the effect of adding a pearlescent sheen when applied to troll horns and nails, and she wanted to win that beauty pagent...
I used her again for the same team to "mind the shop". She was off to help out her old team, and had to leave the store - but had seen some strange types hanging around the area, so wanted some extra security. During the evening whilst she was away, I had a selection of random encounters (pushy salesmen for beauty products, religious recruiters, high-society WASP who had come for her treatment and not realised it was cancelled, child hiding from bullies) for the team to deal with, and ended up with a visit from the Yaks, looking to sell protection. The Team were on edge, trying to make sure that the place didn't get trashed, as they didn't want Nails and her team after them for damages. Otherwise, the salon could perhaps be used as a way to gain access to the offices above, circumventing their security procedures, or as a target for an extraction, a bugging mission, executive protection etc.
Location Type :Health and Beauty Parlour, Ex-Shadowrunner Haunt
Physical Location : Rainier Avenue and 32nd Avenue, South East Downtown (Lone Star: A)
Operating Hours: Monday-Saturday 11am-7pm
Map / Floorplanhttps://www.dropbox.com/s/haxf0qxwypd9p0u/S...0salon.pdf?dl=0
Notable NPCs: Nails - Troll Street Sam
Tagline: “Beauty for everyone”
Description
Set in the basement of a 5 story building, this small beauty salon is easy to overlook. The building is quite old, and covered in decorative stonework, with a fairly grand looking stone stair up from the street to the glass and brass entranceway, set several feet above the level of the pavement. The main and higher floors hold a number of small legal firms, and see various high-class clients throughout the day. The basement is reached from a small wrought iron gate at one side of the property, which leads to a stone set of steps that turn sharply and descend half a flight down to the basement level. A set of double doors lead inside the property, underneath the stone steps that lead to the main entrance above. There are several windows in the front wall, to try and let in as much natural light as possible. The doors and windows have obvious security shutters on them, are all alarmed, and there is a discrete surveillance system covering the outside approach.
Inside
Inside the property, the walls are painted in pleasant earth tones, the furniture is well maintained and clean, though not new. On the left as you enter, there is a reception desk with a small, low power computer which holds the appointment system, with a display rack behind with various beauty products that can be purchased. A pair of large, troll sized, seats and an equally large table are next to the reception - this is where Nails normally carries out her treatments. Further to the rear wall there is a set of 3 stations on one large desk for "normal" sized guests. One of the seats is fitted with a booster for dwarf or other small metahumans. In the corner of the parlour is a storeroom, a toilet and wash basin, and a small staff break room with a water cooler, fridge, microwave etc. Finally at the front of the building, there is another troll sized seating area.
Operating notes: Nails gave up her life of running the shadows, and entered the world of legitimate business doing what she loves - fixing nails, polishing horns, and making people look amazing. She runs an open shop - she welcomes any client who can pay, and they all get treated the same. Initially business was slow, but she really is very good at her job, and word slowly spread and now her services are much in demand. She also has a habit of managing to get hold of some really esoteric items for use as decoration or beauty products, which give amazing results.
The surveillance system for the building is of low-average quality, but is functional. A very close look at the building will reveal that there is a very subtle and well hidden second system that runs to a hidden control box located in the back of the storeroom. Nails may be an ex-shadowrunner, but she's not taking any chances.
Notable NPCs
- Nails - Female Troll, Street-Sam archetype. Cyberspurs and gyro-mount LMG when "doing business", selection of dikote nail files.
Suggested use
In my game Nails was used as a Johnson - she asked the team to hit a convoy coming into the 'plex to steal a chemical. The bad news was the chemical is one of the vital ingredients in C-12, and very highly restricted. She didn't want it for making C-12 of course - it also has the effect of adding a pearlescent sheen when applied to troll horns and nails, and she wanted to win that beauty pagent...
I used her again for the same team to "mind the shop". She was off to help out her old team, and had to leave the store - but had seen some strange types hanging around the area, so wanted some extra security. During the evening whilst she was away, I had a selection of random encounters (pushy salesmen for beauty products, religious recruiters, high-society WASP who had come for her treatment and not realised it was cancelled, child hiding from bullies) for the team to deal with, and ended up with a visit from the Yaks, looking to sell protection. The Team were on edge, trying to make sure that the place didn't get trashed, as they didn't want Nails and her team after them for damages. Otherwise, the salon could perhaps be used as a way to gain access to the offices above, circumventing their security procedures, or as a target for an extraction, a bugging mission, executive protection etc.
Something new - a little run ready to be fleshed out and used. As ever criticism / feedback is welcome - as are your NPCs, Locations, maps, runs etc!
Run name: The Delta Run
Concept: Players hired to carry goods from A to B
Design:
This run was used in my campaign to expose the player party to a whole host of NPCs of various power levels, that they could try to befriend or learn about, introduce a new fixer, and to showcase and explain a little about availability and street index, and where some of those costs might go.
I started off with the idea “this run has to be worth a whole heap of cash”… a quick flick through the book gave me the ideal starting point – “Move by wire 4”, from Man and Machine. Given my campaign setting of 2058 (SR3), this was bleeding edge tech, and would cost a fortune on the streets. In the back of my mind I worked on some shadowy prime runner, perhaps looking to spend his massive hoard of savings and get ready for those elite runs that make the news worldwide.
The following stat block is all SR3 based, and works on the mechanics of availability and street index from SR3. I have no idea how this holds up against SR4 or 5 –but I’m assuming that the gear and mechanics would change, but the concept probably remains the same and can be reworked with minimum effort.
Move By Wire (MBW) 4, Essence 7, 2 Million base price, Availability 20 / 45 days, Street index 3.5
First of all, factor in the street index – bumps the price up to 7 million, straight off the bat.
Change to Delta grade cyberware – X8 cost, X0.5 Essence, +9 availability
MBW4 (Delta), Essence 3.5, 56 Million Nuyen, Availability 29 / 45 days
Now factor in the rules for lowering availability by throwing cash at the problem
-11 Availability, + 17.6 Million, total cost = 73.6 Million
Now I had my fixer make a test to acquire the goods – no successes on the first roll, so I threw a karma reroll in, which generated a success. I added 10% to the cost to represent the fixers “effort” implied by the reroll.
Total cost for MBY4 (Delta), Essence 3.5, 80.96 Million Nuyen, 1 success on target no 18, 67 days to deliver.
Right! Now I knew that the fixer would have 2 months to make arrangements for delivery, and an idea of the “street value” of the goods – which would dictate the measures available.
Players introduction
The players started to catch wind in the shadows of a “big op”. Gangs were suddenly flush with petty cash all around them, and there was a strange sense of expectation in the city. Then they got a call from the Puppet, saying that another fixer was after some talent – it was a high paying job, but carried some significant risk of combat, were they interested? They of course said yes, with the lure of a 5 figure payout, and signed up – and were introduced to “Fat Frank”.
After a chat with him, they had a location for the meet, a time, and a strange request – they had to tell Frank what vehicle they would be driving. Exactly – make, model, colour, after market addons, decals – the works.
The Meet
The location was a large dry dock down on the Tacoma waterfront, with good access to local roads. The player team was the second team to turn up. Each team was directed to a separate area of the dock, where there was a little numbered flag, told to chill, as they’d be here for several hours, to go to comms blackout, and not to engage in any magical activity.
The team were the second team into the warehouse, and the teams arrived in a loose reverse order of seniority / rep – i.e. the best runners arrived last and had to spend the least time waiting around. This gave the players plenty of time to scope out the other teams, and learn something about them.
The teams present were:
After a bit of time, Fat Frank arrived, and laid out the mission.
The Job
Shortly, a sub would arrive with some cargo. Each of the teams was to load the numbered cargo that matched their flag, into their vehicle, start their engines and be ready to leave. Frank would give the signal, and each team was to proceed at speed to a set location. Each team would have its own location, somewhere around Seattle. They were to arrive at the location, follow the directions of the person waiting for them, who would then give them the final location for their cargo.
Behind the scenes
Shortly after the briefing, and a little more time for RP and story development, a converted ballistic missile sub hove into view and started to offload cargo. Shortly after this a frigate was seen on the horizon, closing fast, and air traffic started to pick up – there was obviously Corp sponsored military heat inbound!
Frank gave the signal, and the 8 teams burst out of the warehouse, in different directions, going flat out in their respective vehicles. The pursuing (Shiawase) forces only had enough vehicles / drones on scene to follow 4 of them, and immediately called for backup, and started to call in city resources under various guises.
I gave the players a bit of a freeway chase, let them work out how to get rid of the tail they picked up, and also described in passing how they kept seeing Lone Star units chasing gangs up and down side streets, or along the opposite carriageway – they picked up that Fat Frank, or his employer, were throwing massive amounts of cash out to all and sundry to create maximum confusion, competing demands on the time and resources, and generally making it easier to slip through the cracks of coverage. After some gun and magic play on the interstate, they arrived at their destination – an underpass under a residential tower. A badly disguised ganger “maintenance worker” pulled them over, and parked them in a row of identical vehicles. At this point the players pretty quickly realised why Frank wanted to know exactly what vehicle they were driving…
After a 30 second layover, where they received the real dropoff point for their cargo, 8 identical vehicles roared out of the far side of the underpass, and again split off in different directions. The two drones that had managed to make it into position were again forced to choose which two vehicles to follow / attack.
By now the situation was horribly complex for the pursuing force – the cargo craft had split into 64 possible vehicles, the time pressure was mounting for recovery of the items, the other corps were getting interested and launching teams, taking advantage of the situation. The death toll from the gang activity was rising, and shortly afterwards the Governor activated the Guard, to come and restore order – and protect the city from the frigate which was now using its cannon to assault the drydock.
The players were listening to radio reports, trying to keep a low profile, amidst ever increasing levels of violence and technology – and eventually made it to their drop off point, where they were met by a smuggler in a stealthed T-Bird. He took delivery of the package, and then headed off towards Salish-Sidhe lands, and the team made their way back home, narrowly making it before the curfew was enforced. They never found out what cargo they were carrying, if it was legit or a cover, or even just empty boxes. They did walk away with a nice big payout though, to help them buy some of the toys needed to help them advance from a gang/street level campaign to a more corporate focussed one. More importantly, they also made some contacts with other teams and fixers, who they have received several jobs from subsequently.
And now, whenever I quote them a price that’s 20 times higher than book value for a rare piece of gear, they go to ask why, and then get a look on their face as they think about the hassle that someone might have to take to get that thing to them, and then go check their credsticks to see if they can afford it.
Run name: The Delta Run
Concept: Players hired to carry goods from A to B
Design:
This run was used in my campaign to expose the player party to a whole host of NPCs of various power levels, that they could try to befriend or learn about, introduce a new fixer, and to showcase and explain a little about availability and street index, and where some of those costs might go.
I started off with the idea “this run has to be worth a whole heap of cash”… a quick flick through the book gave me the ideal starting point – “Move by wire 4”, from Man and Machine. Given my campaign setting of 2058 (SR3), this was bleeding edge tech, and would cost a fortune on the streets. In the back of my mind I worked on some shadowy prime runner, perhaps looking to spend his massive hoard of savings and get ready for those elite runs that make the news worldwide.
The following stat block is all SR3 based, and works on the mechanics of availability and street index from SR3. I have no idea how this holds up against SR4 or 5 –but I’m assuming that the gear and mechanics would change, but the concept probably remains the same and can be reworked with minimum effort.
Move By Wire (MBW) 4, Essence 7, 2 Million base price, Availability 20 / 45 days, Street index 3.5
First of all, factor in the street index – bumps the price up to 7 million, straight off the bat.
Change to Delta grade cyberware – X8 cost, X0.5 Essence, +9 availability
MBW4 (Delta), Essence 3.5, 56 Million Nuyen, Availability 29 / 45 days
Now factor in the rules for lowering availability by throwing cash at the problem
-11 Availability, + 17.6 Million, total cost = 73.6 Million
Now I had my fixer make a test to acquire the goods – no successes on the first roll, so I threw a karma reroll in, which generated a success. I added 10% to the cost to represent the fixers “effort” implied by the reroll.
Total cost for MBY4 (Delta), Essence 3.5, 80.96 Million Nuyen, 1 success on target no 18, 67 days to deliver.
Right! Now I knew that the fixer would have 2 months to make arrangements for delivery, and an idea of the “street value” of the goods – which would dictate the measures available.
Players introduction
The players started to catch wind in the shadows of a “big op”. Gangs were suddenly flush with petty cash all around them, and there was a strange sense of expectation in the city. Then they got a call from the Puppet, saying that another fixer was after some talent – it was a high paying job, but carried some significant risk of combat, were they interested? They of course said yes, with the lure of a 5 figure payout, and signed up – and were introduced to “Fat Frank”.
After a chat with him, they had a location for the meet, a time, and a strange request – they had to tell Frank what vehicle they would be driving. Exactly – make, model, colour, after market addons, decals – the works.
The Meet
The location was a large dry dock down on the Tacoma waterfront, with good access to local roads. The player team was the second team to turn up. Each team was directed to a separate area of the dock, where there was a little numbered flag, told to chill, as they’d be here for several hours, to go to comms blackout, and not to engage in any magical activity.
The team were the second team into the warehouse, and the teams arrived in a loose reverse order of seniority / rep – i.e. the best runners arrived last and had to spend the least time waiting around. This gave the players plenty of time to scope out the other teams, and learn something about them.
The teams present were:
- The Black Widows – a go gang looking to move up into the world of running, 6 chromed dwarves on motorbikes, still wearing their gang colours.
- The players – the Pink Mohawks, in a delivery van
- The Blackeyes – an all female elf team in an Ares Citymaster – Blackeye (Rigger), Grouch (Street Sam), Angel (Medic), Pixie (Shamen)
- The Dukes – Duke (M, Human, Sniper), Duchess (F, Human, Street Sam), Jester (F, Ork, Rigger), Riptide (M, Troll, Shamen), all in a Red Ranger hovercraft, arrived by sea
- Redlines – Redline (F, Dwarf, Rigger), Blackout (M, Orc, Decker), Thunder (M, Troll, Street Sam), Lightning (F, Troll, Mage), in a modified Osprey tilt-wing
- Scavs Crew – Scav (M, Ork, Street Sam), Nails (F, Troll, Street Sam), Tommy Wu (M, Human, Decker-Mage), Teppic (M, Human, Mage), Skidmark (M, Ork, Street Sam), Tex (M, Human, Adept), in a Landrover 2046
- The Hammerheads – Hammerhead (M, Human, Mage), Floss (M, Ork, Adept), Dental (F, Dwarf, Street Sam), Wiseguy (M, Elf, Face), Vortex (F, Ork, Rigger), in an Ares-Tr55-C
- The Vikings – Odin (M, Human, Face), Jarl (M, Ork, Decker), Hunstman (M, Troll, Mage), Helga (F, Dwarf, Rigger), Hilda (F, Troll, Shamen), Frost (M, Ork, Adept), all in a Rivermaster Patrol boat
After a bit of time, Fat Frank arrived, and laid out the mission.
The Job
Shortly, a sub would arrive with some cargo. Each of the teams was to load the numbered cargo that matched their flag, into their vehicle, start their engines and be ready to leave. Frank would give the signal, and each team was to proceed at speed to a set location. Each team would have its own location, somewhere around Seattle. They were to arrive at the location, follow the directions of the person waiting for them, who would then give them the final location for their cargo.
Behind the scenes
Shortly after the briefing, and a little more time for RP and story development, a converted ballistic missile sub hove into view and started to offload cargo. Shortly after this a frigate was seen on the horizon, closing fast, and air traffic started to pick up – there was obviously Corp sponsored military heat inbound!
Frank gave the signal, and the 8 teams burst out of the warehouse, in different directions, going flat out in their respective vehicles. The pursuing (Shiawase) forces only had enough vehicles / drones on scene to follow 4 of them, and immediately called for backup, and started to call in city resources under various guises.
I gave the players a bit of a freeway chase, let them work out how to get rid of the tail they picked up, and also described in passing how they kept seeing Lone Star units chasing gangs up and down side streets, or along the opposite carriageway – they picked up that Fat Frank, or his employer, were throwing massive amounts of cash out to all and sundry to create maximum confusion, competing demands on the time and resources, and generally making it easier to slip through the cracks of coverage. After some gun and magic play on the interstate, they arrived at their destination – an underpass under a residential tower. A badly disguised ganger “maintenance worker” pulled them over, and parked them in a row of identical vehicles. At this point the players pretty quickly realised why Frank wanted to know exactly what vehicle they were driving…
After a 30 second layover, where they received the real dropoff point for their cargo, 8 identical vehicles roared out of the far side of the underpass, and again split off in different directions. The two drones that had managed to make it into position were again forced to choose which two vehicles to follow / attack.
By now the situation was horribly complex for the pursuing force – the cargo craft had split into 64 possible vehicles, the time pressure was mounting for recovery of the items, the other corps were getting interested and launching teams, taking advantage of the situation. The death toll from the gang activity was rising, and shortly afterwards the Governor activated the Guard, to come and restore order – and protect the city from the frigate which was now using its cannon to assault the drydock.
The players were listening to radio reports, trying to keep a low profile, amidst ever increasing levels of violence and technology – and eventually made it to their drop off point, where they were met by a smuggler in a stealthed T-Bird. He took delivery of the package, and then headed off towards Salish-Sidhe lands, and the team made their way back home, narrowly making it before the curfew was enforced. They never found out what cargo they were carrying, if it was legit or a cover, or even just empty boxes. They did walk away with a nice big payout though, to help them buy some of the toys needed to help them advance from a gang/street level campaign to a more corporate focussed one. More importantly, they also made some contacts with other teams and fixers, who they have received several jobs from subsequently.
And now, whenever I quote them a price that’s 20 times higher than book value for a rare piece of gear, they go to ask why, and then get a look on their face as they think about the hassle that someone might have to take to get that thing to them, and then go check their credsticks to see if they can afford it.
Been busy with a new little project for my game. I got the pictures from the back of the Seattle sourcebook for the various areas of Seattle, and threw them into Powerpoint (I know, not the best tool - but it's really easy to work with, you can layer stuff very easily, and I could work on stuff during my lunchbreak)
I got the descriptions of the security zones for each area, and matched them to the areas on the map (notoriously hard to read in the printed copies), working with Google maps to get things lined up logically. Then I drew a border for each area - this is where it gets very subjective. I've tried to follow highways, interstates, rivers, lake edges, built up areas, fields or whatever was shown on the map, and then some good old guestimation... There was a certain amount of playing "Risk" - drawing up some interesting borders that will no doubt lead to interesting situations. On some of the maps, I've also added a new zone, as otherwise it lead to absolutely massive areas that seemed a little unrealistic in terms of neighbourhood sizes - these are marked in bold, with the names taken from current day maps - for example "Green River" to the east of Black Diamond in Auburn, and "Elk Plain" in the west of Puyallup
Next up was applying some colour, to a common key, for the security rating - from AAA all the way down to Z zone.
Last of all was adding some of the key information for the area - education, income, hospitals, organised crime, gangs etc
I've only done 4 of the zones so far - I have a PDF output of the powerpoint file uploaded to my share. The quality is not great, and I'll look at a better solution for the final version.
I think it makes the using the maps much "better" in terms of visualising the quality of the area the players are in, the security and the response times they are likely to encounter.
Interested if anyone has any feedback.
Map now finished - two posts down for the link
I got the descriptions of the security zones for each area, and matched them to the areas on the map (notoriously hard to read in the printed copies), working with Google maps to get things lined up logically. Then I drew a border for each area - this is where it gets very subjective. I've tried to follow highways, interstates, rivers, lake edges, built up areas, fields or whatever was shown on the map, and then some good old guestimation... There was a certain amount of playing "Risk" - drawing up some interesting borders that will no doubt lead to interesting situations. On some of the maps, I've also added a new zone, as otherwise it lead to absolutely massive areas that seemed a little unrealistic in terms of neighbourhood sizes - these are marked in bold, with the names taken from current day maps - for example "Green River" to the east of Black Diamond in Auburn, and "Elk Plain" in the west of Puyallup
Next up was applying some colour, to a common key, for the security rating - from AAA all the way down to Z zone.
Last of all was adding some of the key information for the area - education, income, hospitals, organised crime, gangs etc
I've only done 4 of the zones so far - I have a PDF output of the powerpoint file uploaded to my share. The quality is not great, and I'll look at a better solution for the final version.
I think it makes the using the maps much "better" in terms of visualising the quality of the area the players are in, the security and the response times they are likely to encounter.
Interested if anyone has any feedback.
Map now finished - two posts down for the link
There's also been Retired Runners and The Collected Paracritters Project before.
QUOTE (Kren Cooper @ Apr 18 2016, 08:00 PM)
The map of Seattle can be found here
It's an old thread, but I wanted to thank you for this download and your dedication. This is a great map of seattle. Printed out a map of seattle using fexes layout which is also great, but I think that the visible security zone areas are making it very handy and practical
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