I was just thinking back to the first campaign that I was involved in more than a decade ago and remembered fondly the little breakfast restaurant (real coffee, no soy substitutes) we made up in Seattle for our characters to meet at and be regulars of (although I don't recall if we named it). My character even had Cooking (Omelets) 5(9) because he hung out there so much.

What places from your prior campaigns do you look back fondly at and why?

Heck, if you are feeling assertive you can even write it up like in the Seattle Sourcebook so others can visit, and meet your characters perhaps.

We have quite a few, but one that sticks out to me was Griff's Burgers.

This was an old motorhome on blocks in the parking lot of an abandoned K-Mart in Redmond.

The guy who ran it sold soyburgers, fries and domestic swill on the cheap to the locals. He'd sell them out of a counter cut in to the side of the old thing.

Chairs were usually cheap lawn chairs or buckets in the parking lot, and tables were those big cable spools.

If it's rainy, one could get under the tarps he has strung up to the side of the motor home.

The place didn't have a phone, and jacked power from a nearby transformer. If the owner needed to make a call, he'd take some equipment over to the ripped open phone box across the lot.

The owner himself was a griffin shaman with a Sawed-off Remington 990 under the counter, so he didn't take any crap, and it didn't matter from who (Damn those totem attributes). It's open whenever the guy feels like it, as he also lives in the other end of the motor home, and did a little low end running a year or so back.

He has a deal with a couple of the gangs in the area: Don't cause trouble, and he wont randomly cast Wreck Vehicle at their bikes as they cruise by, plus there's specials involved depending on the gang and the day of the week. Often, one gang uses the other busting up Griff Burgers as a reason to attack the other one in "retribution."

Overall, this place was a dump, but it was a landmark the PC's could go to in the barrens, to get ahold of gang contacts, drop names, and plan, all the while having a decent soyburger and a brew.... not to mention a lungfull of that fresh Redmond air.

sounds like a nice cheery place.

I made one awhile ago to.

It was the Miracle Mile a magical based talismongers shop/ mage nightclub which was great for deals as it was a sort of neutral ground for the gangers and corps. as a place for deals and gossip. it was the place to go to meet wiz peeps and/or make off with various nefarious goods. It was about 3 stories with nova hot security / antieavesdropping spells which kept out unwanted astrals who hadnt paid the cover charge. private booths could be arranged with extra security or booths could be linked with commjunication spells so that people wouldnt have to see one another or be seen talking to each other.

cover was 75-100 for dancing on the floor

additional 500 for a secure booth reservation (per hour) plus cost of any needed spells.


note: spells wouldnt be noticed here as there are columns around and on the dance floor with mages on them cast illusion spells to excite the crowd. emo spells are especially in demand. there are any where from 12 to 24 mage artists on the platforms at all times.

the dance floor is reached via a cat walk made of black corrugated steel and suspended from a ceiling 35 ft. above the catwalk. Guests can jump down onto the dance floor (30ft below) by firemans poles or take the spiral stairs that are at the begining and end of the catwalk.

the rest of the building is made up of balconies overlooking the main dance floor which is about 200 ft. across. there are three balconies each with smaller dance floors with booths around them and bar areas stretching along the back walls

everything is matte black and splashed/ sprinkled with glow in the dark paints of green blue yellow orange red pink purple etc. and everything is blacklighted.

average crowd (4,000 on party nights)

it was very cool place to be and work. u could lose urself so fast in that crowd it was great for doing a fade.

cough cough

The one I remember most? Finnigans.

Finnigans was a place in a game I actually PC'ed in ran by a good friend. It was a little bar, that seemed, well, special. Special, because whenever we needed a place to meet, there it was. We were always the only patrons, the guy behind the bar was an Irish dwarf, and the booze was real.

Yes, think the shop in Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett. A magic teleporting bar. Kickass place. May use it my game...

My all-time favorite is the Tavern of Butt. It's a small Irish-style tavern run by a dwarf. The name comes from the deer mounted above the bar. Instead of the head, they have the derrierre mounted there instead. (All credit for said bar goes to BlackJack.)

Found on an SR MUSH:

Silhouettes, now destroyed. The main feature of it's decor was a statue of a giant, erect penis in vertical...Which regularly loosed water.

Yeah. It was disturbed. Not really my favorite. But I figured someone would find it interesting.

I never had a chance to use The Ancient, Forbidden, Cursed, Ruined Temple in my game, but I always wanted to inflict it on an apartment-hunting runner.

AH, if your players regularly hung out at the Black Mana Pool or the Rune Tree, then I think they deserve whatever you have got planned for them.

Damn Good Coffee, a cozy coffee spot in Downtown. all the names are slightly off-color. Creme Your Pants cinnamon rolls, F'ing Good Cappuccino, etcetera. Jill the college kid barrista, is never not there.

Hahaha, I remember RPing in Sils all the time on the MUX. Everyone went there because the head admin at the time hung out there with his PC.

Once he was gone, the other staff bombed the place.

Yeah, but the decor was...Wow.

It's been 8 years (holy shit!), but I will never forget it.

Penta, you want to avoid certain temples in India and Japan, should you ever happen to end up there. Trust me.

Running Dry. A pub run by ex-runners, for runners. The equivalent of the local "cop bar". Everyone knew it was a runner hangout, nobody cared. It was neutral turf where anyone could go for a quiet drink. There was never any trouble there, so even the Star left them alone.

And to this day I still remember the time a street gang tried to shake the place down. Nobody pulled a gun, they just laughed uproariously until the gangers slunk away in confusion.

I use Countess Bathori's Castle of Pain. It's a massive 6 level club(four above, two underground....sorta Inferno-ish), in London. Each floor plays a different kind of music(it's soundproofed), from the top floor's jukebox, to the main floor's goth rock to the first basement's black metal(basement 2 is a meeting place, VIP only). Bathori herself is a young but extremely skilled...but retired....decker, who used the money from varied dealings to completely get an identity change and open the place up. She's quite the looker, but has a level 3 buddy/bodyguard in the form of 'Necrodaemon', a Norwegian Giant albino adept. (He fits into the decor of the place quite well). Cover charge is about 50 nuyen just to get in, and it's not the cheapest place...but you can find runners about there, and the age limit is 18 so you can prolly get some good info as well if you poke in the right areas.


Then of course there are small places like 'The Rusty Spoon' (a diner who has an old waitress named Flo), which is more just a small dive who is rumored to pay off the health inspectors...stay away from anything real meat based and just drink the coffee or eat the greasy soyeggs. Flo won't say word one if she overhears something. She just doesn't care. Well, if you refuse to tip several times...

The ones actually used in my games...

Silence - I can really only describe this as a dedicated meeting-place. You can get food and drinks there, and it's all pretty high-quality, but the most important part of the place is it's privacy setup. The whole place is covered with Shadow and Silence spells, radio jamming, and wards. It's impossible to see or hear anything at a table from more than a couple feet away, and no recording equipment can broadcast out of it. I've never had anyone try to get in astrally. I think they assume it's impossible. Even if they did get in, all the spells have created a fairly uncomfortable background count.

"That club the elf always goes to" - Called this cause nobody can pronounce (or even remember, for that matter) the name. "The elf" in question is my Face character, Sahandrian. The place is basically a dance club with a decent bar. The walls and ceiling have ruthenium on them, and usually have video displays keyed to the music (Kind of like a giant Winamp visualization. Actually, exactly like a giant Winamp visualization.), and there's a balcony around the front and side walls, looking down onto the dance floor, for extra seating. The owner will let friends use a hidden room under the club for various forms of illegal work, usually meeting contacts, making deals, and decking.

I'm currently creating locales for my new game, hopefully to kick off in a few weeks:

The Slice of the Action: A pub/club kind of place ran by a big friendly Jamaican known as Black Magic for his ability to find anything anywhere. Primarily visited by runners, the place is just a normal pub, except for the basement meeting halls.

Spit on This: A scummy rockclub ran by a troll known only as Brunt, SoT offers few comforts but plenty of access to drunken idiots spilling secrets like their drinks.

Jaunty's Crock O' Gold: A sandwich bar in the city centre, Jaunty's is ran by an Irish Dwarf (what else?), and specilises in corper pleasing. A nice place to meet that Johnson who looks pretty fly for a corp guy.

The 8-Bit Theatre: A nightclub playing mainly remixes of old computer game themes ran by an Otaku tribe, with many a jackpoint. Actually a front for an Overwatch PLTG where they meet to exchange information on the Network and Ex Pacis.

The Light of the Silvery Moon: An Elven poetry club/coffee house. Need I say more.

Smiley: the Mob dosen't touch a Runner bar if they know what's good for them. They don't need more wars, especially where there are no (or are few) 'soft' targets to hit. Still, you might consider building it somewhere the mob dosen't want to touch, but the runners do.

Christ, anyone with an ounce of sense would never knock over anything runner owned. Any runner rich enough to own property is so far above the law it is untrue, and has more contacts than the Yellow Pages.

That's what I'm saying.

Remember, people's Level 3 Contacts will stick their asses out on the line for someone. That also means that if you geek the person, they will come afte you for geeking their bro.

Going along with the whole "Asaia is gonna take over" theme some of the SR books seem to present, my PC's use to hang out in a place called "The Tea Trader". It's an upscale tea-house in the business district of seattle. Koi ponds, really trying to play up the whole Asian thing. (Forcefully sterotypical). A front for triads. Owned by a very calculating man with more tatics headware than you can shake a stick at.

They might not know it's a runner bar until their first visit to collect protection. They may need to be "educated." Most bars are not worth fighting for, although if the Mafia/Yaks/etc let such a place slide, it doesn't make them look good.

Hmmm.... turf war run forming in head...

This is why I'm hesitant.

I created a floating sea haven named the Mother Outlaw. It was a nuclear class aircraft carrier that was run and controlled by smugglers. On it, I had a small city of traders, talisleggers, bookies, prostitutes, and about anything else a runner needing respite could want. There were living quarters for those who were ducking the law and access to the Matrix through satellite feed for deckers. It could always be found in international waters only or at a sea smugglers' haven port. It travelled with twin destroyer escorts and a couple of custom Akula class subs I made up. It had a lot of charm. All the players really liked it, I think.

Sounds good to me. Apartments?

How the hell could they afford to buy all of that?

If you can't afford to buy it, and you want it, what do you do.....


You steal it, of course.

Then again, I guess it could depend on how old the ships are or where they could've purchased them since a little while ago I did see an aircraft carrier for sale on the internet.

And knowing how crazy the world has been since the Awakening, I wouldn't be surprised if they were all found floating in the Bermuda Triangle with the crew missing.

The Hidden Island

The island does not exist on any mundane map. It is an alchera and the personal domain of a powerful free greatform nature spirit. The spirit often use its concealment and confusion powers to keep the island hidden from mundane eyes. It can also cause mana storms in the vicinty of the island. The location of the island constantly changes as the free spirit roams the Pacific Ocean.

The Blood n' Bone
This was an exclusive-Ork-&-Troll bar I had created for one of my first pieces of fan-fiction waaaaaaay back. It was based of the idea of a 'floating' bar, where they could set up basically anyplace they wanted to. It was also BYOB.

Reminds me of someone I used to know describing his favorite bar. Thursdays were Mug Nights. As long as it was mug shaped with a handle, it was pretty much accepted and filled for cheap (I believe some of them were just short of minikegs with handles). Transplant that to SR, where some Trolls' "mugs" would be kegs with handles welded onto the side.

The idea of a "Runner bar" doesn't sit well with me. Any place known to house armed criminals is bound to have more than a few snoops and informants floating around it at any given time, thus compromising its security for meeting and whatnot. Worse yet, it would probably be a target for a corp bombing or numerous 'Star raids.

It's like having a known "crack house" in an area. The cops watch who goes in, who comes out, and can nail just about everyone in it with some charge.

When I GM, a place known to be a "Runner Bar" would be lucky not to have a citymaster drive through it's front doors at least once during the entire campaign.

No, they don't want to do that.


Crack house denizens, for example, are unlikely to be heavily armed and skilled in the use of their arms.


Besides, if it's in the barrens, it's nothing they need to worry about.

I suppose it's a matter of Game Mastery styles. Cops in my games tend to be much more of a real threat to runners, because the runners aren't a bunch of cyber-monkey razorpunks or super-wiz mages.

I live by the rule that there is always someone bigger and badder, who has more money and people at their disposal. Runners, for all their skill, toys and tricks, are unfortunately on the low end of the food chain in the world, when dealing with corps, cops and corp cops who can blow you away at their whimsy because you don't technically exist without a SIN.

Worse yet would be if the place gets enough attention from a multinational corp, who buys the land it's on just to be able to level the place and everyone in it with Mil-Spec hardware because of its extraterritoriality.

Personally, I encourage the "more like regular people" route so I can avoid having to put the team up against heavily armored, magic twinked bad guys, and can save the big nasty cyber and such for the future, and make it a real reward if the runners make it to it.

I have played in games where the PC's tend to be able to run around with relative impunity, and it has been fun as well, though it's not my preference.

This reminds me of my first game with a new group:

GM: You're all sitting in your favorite bar, 'The Runner'...
Me: *Sound of head hitting table* We're all busted.

After that it got a lot better, but still...