Shadowrun
Shadowrun General => The Secret History => Topic started by: KatoSaga on <04-26-12/0159:18>
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Has there ever been anything written about Pittsburgh? Or the Midwest in general?
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Pittsburg specifically, no don't think so. Midwest in general, not really. Detroit got a write-up in Target: UCAS for 3rd Ed, and there were a few characters in Prime Runners that were from Indiana and Ohio. I think that's about as close as I think you're gonna get for the moment.
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Feral Cities covers Chicagoland, which extends into Indiana and (I think) Wisconsin.
There is information scattered about describing St. Louis (SoNA, Sixth World Almanac) and running across the Midwest in the Target: Smuggler Havens land smuggling chapter (my favorite of them) including a reference to UW-Madison.
As for Pittsburgh, I don't think it's ever been mentioned. I know a yinzer who used to play SR, so I'll ask him, but I doubt it.
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Feral Cities covers Chicagoland, which extends into Indiana and (I think) Wisconsin.
*Faceplam* How the hell did I forget about that? Need more coffee.
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Pittsburg is considered the midwest? I chalked it up to being in the Northeast, myself. Huh.
At any rate, I use Philly as my Shadowrun campaign city, but I've never seen anyone dabble in Pittsburg. I think the run-down nature of it, and the perceived lack of a future, has hampered it. It was an old indutrial town, but Shadowrun's industrial side has moved on.
Heck, Lofwyr and MCT probably own the place.
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Hey, just remembered this, Pittsburg was also mentioned in Portfolio of a Dragon, the whole thing about those metal boxes being disposed of in the Bethlehem Steel furnaces. So there is still something going on there. But I see SK being big there, especially becasue of their heavy industrial projects.
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Oh hey yeah, the boxes.
Good catch!
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I think the original Harlequin had Jane Foster living in Columbia, Missouri with some info about it.
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It would be an interesting project to write up some of the cities of the 6th world that do not get mentioned a great deal. Like Pittsburg or Miami. Of course there is probably something on Miami somewhere.
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Miami got a little play in Cyberpirates, I believe.
Bull
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Yes it did.
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Teh CAS has to be grumbly about part of FLorida being lopped off and in the Carib League. I understand "We didn't want 'em!", but...
Meanwhile, in terms of cities that get little play, I'd love to write up Nashville (AKA the Vol Sprawl) at some stage.
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In the anthology, the short story "Dead Names" is set in Pittsburgh, and involves the Necronomicon. All I gotta say is, that had better not screw with the Steelers season. :)
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I've just put together something for Pueblo if anyone's interested (ping me if you are - it's a 50 page word document), and I'm in the porcess of writing up other notes that I've got cluttering my system. I think I might finish Phillidelphia next.......
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Meanwhile, in terms of cities that get little play, I'd love to write up Nashville (AKA the Vol Sprawl) at some stage.
I've written up bits and pieces of the Nashville sprawl here and there because my last gaming group wanted some place familiar to do their 'runs in. Mostly just sketchy outlines about which corps are in residence and turning a few diners and clubs we frequented into 'runner hangouts.
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Native son of the greenest state in teh land of the free, eh? Whereabouts?
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Thanks for the replies, everyone!
I'll have to get my hands on "Dead Names."
I'm running my first game soon, and I'm setting in Pittsburgh, because that's where my gaming group is.
I'm basically going to have Pittsburgh be a medical tech hotspot run by UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) Which already sprawls across most of Pennsylvania, and is one of the highest grossing medical institutions in the US, and is consistently ranked one of the top medical institutions in the world. Plus, they already have a private defense force, so they already look at bit cyberpunkish.
What are Universities like in the Sixth World? Do you go to Ares University if you're an Ares citizen? Or are Universities their own corps that accept students from other corps? Do they forcibly extract students?
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I've always understood that there are three types of different types of university - private, public and corporate.
Private institutions are exactly that - educational establishments that can award degrees in certain subjects. The best examples of these are the theological colleges, some church sponsored, some sponsored by individuals.
Public universities are the ones that most people think of - Oxford, Cambridge, John Hopkins, etc. Award a wide range of degrees, but many have specialisations in key subjects (e.g. languages, engineering, medecine, literature, etc), attracting students from any background who wish to excel within those fields and subfields.
Corporate universities are exactly the same as public universities, offering similar courses, but usually only open to the children of employees in good standing and possibly offering education to promising outsiders for a "return of service" (i.e. earn a bachelor's degree in biotechnology from the "University of Ares" for a ten year employment contract).
There are certain cross overs as well - it's well known that certain corporations and organisations sponsor entire departments of public universities. The corp gets to review the most promising students whilst the university gains extra funding. Win-win.
As for extractions, certainly - especially if a student has alrady signed a "golden handshake" with another organisation. Same with professors and researchers. They'll also try other dirty tricks - counter offers (better contract & facilities), blackmail, etc, etc.
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Johns Hopkins had its charter as a university forcibly revoked after they were discovered to be performing experiments on Haitians (Not that anyone would care if it was happening now, but that clearly pissed off someone in the Shadowrun U.S. government).
Anyway, this bears further exploration.
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Johns Hopkins had its charter as a university forcibly revoked after they were discovered to be performing experiments on Haitians (Not that anyone would care if it was happening now, but that clearly pissed off someone in the Shadowrun U.S. government).
Someone didn't pay their bribes. Or forgot to pay better than the competition.
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Someone didn't pay their bribes. Or forgot to pay better than the competition.
Obey the 11th Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Get Caught!
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I'd like to see a write up of Sioux Falls, SD. Looking at the maps, and the knowledge of RL South Dakota I have... Sioux Falls would be booming in the Sixth World. As much as any city booms. See, looking at the map, you have a direct line across South Dakota from Sioux Falls to Rapid City. It's all one interstate. And SF is UCAS, while Rapid is Sioux Nation. It would be one of the major smuggling pipelines for those that are smart enough to avoid Denver like the plague. I could show you ways to get from Sioux Falls to Rapid City without ever hitting a major highway or interstate. Plus, there are so many burnt out or abandoned farm houses and barns that setting up a hidden smuggler safehouse would be as easy as pointing a finger to a map. So, yeah, in the Sixth World, Sioux Falls is going to be very important, at least to smugglers, and anyone wanting to run against the Sioux.
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Major smuggling... Or a legit border town with trade going across both borders.
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Major smuggling... Or a legit border town with trade going across both borders.
Who says it can't be both? Bestw ay to smuggle stuff is in legal shipments. :)
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Major smuggling... Or a legit border town with trade going across both borders.
Who says it can't be both? Best way to smuggle stuff is in legal shipments. :)
My father was a truck driver, don't I know it.
The drivers don't even have to know about it, either, if the team loading/offloading is smart/good enough.
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Major smuggling... Or a legit border town with trade going across both borders.
Who says it can't be both? Best way to smuggle stuff is in legal shipments. :)
My father was a truck driver, don't I know it.
The drivers don't even have to know about it, either, if the team loading/offloading is smart/good enough.
It's best if the drivers DON'T know about it, so they don't do stupid stuff like rolling at 100 MPH to get there faster, or trying to lose heat when anywhere near law enforcement. If you don't have a reason to act suspicious, then you don't generally act suspicious. And acting suspicious is the fastest way to get nabbed. Seriously, people on those back highways KNOW what's going on when an out of state vehicle is rolling past at high speeds. And they like to call it in just to get some excitement going. They also don't know what a meth lab smells like, but they DO know that a farm shouldn't smell like that. So, in Sixth World, it's fun to not treat all the locals like idiots that don't know what those "big city visitors" are up to.
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Heck, most do know what a methlab smells like. After one lab fire, you never forget that scent. Country folks know all about a type of crime people in the Barrens don't, and vice versa.
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Heck, my hometown's method for fighting meth have spread around the US, since we were kind of a trailbreaker on the stuff.
And I'm in the middle of nowhere, Tenneessee.
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Heck, my hometown's method for fighting meth have spread around the US, since we were kind of a trailbreaker on the stuff.
Wait until you know there's only the Meth Cookers and other Ne'erdowells in the lab and shoot a flare into an open window?
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Heck, my hometown's method for fighting meth have spread around the US, since we were kind of a trailbreaker on the stuff.
Wait until you know there's only the Meth Cookers and other Ne'erdowells in the lab and shoot a flare into an open window?
Too much collateral damage. Huge boom, then chemical fire, toxic smoke...
Open windows, insert firehose, commence hilarity
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Excellent choice. Nonlethal, so it keeps the human rights people happy. Water reduces the risk of it blowing up (which meth labs have a tendency to do, even when left to their own devices), so that's the public safety people happy. And if you have cameras rolling, that's the Cops crowd happy.