Hey all, I just got my SR4 book shipped here overseas (FINALLY!) and started up a group here on base. As we started playing the day after Katrina hit, I decided we would play in New Orleans. And after the levee's had broke, I decided to have it re-built in the style of Venice's architecture.

Neo Orleans is a free city simply because the CAS and Aztlan can't get ahold of it. It's swarming with pirates, black market goods, and very little in the way of legitimate economy. The megacorps enjoy having a large population to draw upon for deniable assets and a testing pool for new cyberware and otehr goods. Runners love to have a haven on the coast and a place to go for all of your running needs. Not to mention a place where you can easily disappear for the right amount of money.

In RL, I hope that when they begin reconstruction, they take better engineering precautions to mitigate damage in the future. Now that they know just how vulnerable they are to Mother Nature, it's time to show some respect and play the game smarter.

Also, Geraldo is a Journalism adept.

I'm not sure it makes sense to have a pirate city on the Mississippi. Carpet-bombing the city into oblivion makes more sense, IMO.

~J

Well yeah, but that dosen't adress the Shadowrun aspect of it, though.

Megacorp owned; NO's value as a port (a lot of bulky stuff probably is still shipped by barge in SR times) would probably have at least a couple of mega's racing in to rebuild the port complex. The rest of the city? Dunno.

Kegentenshi, I think my sarcasm flew over your head.

What I was suggesting was carpet-bombing New Orleans today.

I support it. Let god sort them out.

Aaaah, I see.

~J

Well, we didn't carpet-bomb, but we did drop the 82nd Airborne in.

That's nearly as good.

The CAS supported 12,000 combat troops from the UCAS flying through their airspace?

Carpet bombing would porbably reduce the value of the harbor. one good hit on the levee and we're back to August 2005. The corps need the harbor. there is enough coast there for pirates and runners to hide. they would much rather prefer the corps go to the trouble of maintainnig the harbor.

MY GUESS is that N.O. in 2065 has more internal levees, so if one of the main ones break, they don't lose the entire city like they did in 2005. Of course this means more wall asnd more security checks.

If there are levees, that means they're losing the city.

~J

Some people are just outside my monkeysphere.

~J

Monkeysphere... *snort* hehehehe....

In addition to the 4,000 already there?

It's times like this that I wish we still had the Lounge around.

Anyway, as far as game terms go, I wanted NO to be a free city-state simply because Seattle and Denver are out in the middle of North America, and I think with all of the different countries around New Orleans in the game's setings, it makes for a spicier atmosphere. Carib League, Aztlan, CAS, Yucatan..........Enough viable plothooks that each side has their handlers in the city somewhere, looking for new talent/hardware. And then there is basically the Mafia who control the legitimate business (plus some non-legal ones) and pirates running a fair share of the black market.

Which North America is Seattle in the middle of, again? Certainly not this one.

~J