BETTER THAN BAD
CONTENTS & CREDITS JACKPOINT 4 INTRODUCTION 5 FRIENDS WILL BE FRIENDS 6 LIGHTS IN THE DARKNESS 10 ROBBING HOODS 10 A Great Cloud of Hooders Past 10 A Communion of Rebels, Revolutionaries, and Ruined 11 WHAT’S HOODING NOW? 14 Neo-Anarchists and Anti-corps 14 Minority Rights Groups 17 Environmentalists 21 National/Local Revolutionaries 22 Do-Gooders/Vigilantes/Antifas 23 SHADOWRUNNERS AND HOODERS: A MATCH MADE JUST FOR US 23
FIXER UPPER OPPORTUNITIES
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IT’S ALL ABOUT POWER 31 Black Star 32 On the Fringes 37 INFECTED VIGILANTES 38 Asamando 39 Chicago 41 Turning a Profit Without Charging Money 43 THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM 46 A GLOBAL CONSPIRACY … FOR GOOD! (MOSTLY) Draco Foundation: Big D’s Foundation for Change Draco Foundation Global Initiatives Arleesh: Our New Guardian Dragon-Mother? Shadowcasters: Acts of Information Freedom New Underground Railroad: The More Things Change … Warren’s Waveriders: Sailing the Friendly Seas FIRST, YOU NEED A JOB … Meet Ms. Smith CRY FOR HELP
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46 47 48 49 50 52 53 55 56 58
CONTENTS & CREDITS >>
FIDES, SPES, ET CARITAS
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HOODING RUNS FOR THE DISCERNING GAMEMASTER
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PRETORIA, HURRAH
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PRETORIA-WITWATERSRAND-VAAL METROPLEX
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CULTURAL OVERVIEW, OR PERHAPS CLASH 68 History 70 Present 71 The Haves: Tshwane and Kungwini 72 The Have-Nots 76 The Mixing Pots 82 Beneath the Surface 94 The Wild Side 98 Arcane Africa 101 Corporate Briefing 102 Political Briefing 106 Security Briefing 108 Underworld Briefing 109 All The Colors of a Deadly Rainbow 111 GAME INFORMATION 113 Buying a Fake 113
MINING FOR GOLD
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JACARANDA CITIZENS: PEOPLE OF PRETORIA
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Aikshe 118 Hashtu Ojimbwe 120 Saru Owemawai 122 Kurt Koenig 123 Wolfgang Schmidt/The Fox 125 Lincoln Thomas Astermoore IV 127 Leeka Montclair 128 Garik “Heavy” Breckworth 129 Hesham “Ache” Kurgtorek 130 THE RUBY SLIPPER NETWORK 131 Oz 131 Cougar 133 Full Throttle 134
Reaper 135 Bianca 136 Lifer 138 RULES 139 Social Chameleon (Positive Quality) 139 Quadriplegic (Negative Quality) 139 Guanyin (Mentor Spirit) 139
BEING LESS BAD: THE FINE ART OF HOODING
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THE FINE ART OF HOODING
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DOING GOOD Exposing Yourself Cops Are People, Too Good Deeds NEIGHBORHOOD, WATCH
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BEING A BETTER PERSON 148 Living the Hood Life 148 A Good Start 149 Good People 151 What Hooding Isn’t, or “Why Old Crow Is Wrong” 152 Conclusion 155
BUILDING A HOODER © 2018 The Topps Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Shadowrun and Matrix are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the Copyright Owner, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published. Catalyst Game Labs and the Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of InMediaRes Productions, LLC. Printed in China.
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NEW GEAR 156 New Armor Modifications 156 Grey Mana Tattoos 156 NEW TOXIN 157 Blight 157 NEW CYBERWARE GRADE 158 GreyWare 158 NEW SPELLS AND ADEPT POWERS 158 New Manipulation Spells 158 NEW ADEPT POWERS 159 Mystic Aptitude 159 State of Purity 160 NEW QUALITIES 160 New Positive Qualities 160 New Mastery Qualities 161 New Negative Qualities 162 NEW LIFE MODULES 162 Nationalities 162 Formative Years 162 Further Education 163 Real Life 163 NEW USES FOR KARMA AND STRET CRED 164 HOODING RUNS FOR THE DISCERNING GAMEMASTER
First Printing by Catalyst Game Labs, an imprint of InMediaRes Productions, LLC PMB 202 • 303 -91st Ave. NE, E-502 Lake Stevens, WA 98258
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> BETTER THAN BAD >>Login: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX >>>Enter Passcode: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX ...Biometric Scan Confirmed YOU’RE IN. USE IT WELL.
> “At the end of the day, I fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. If that makes me an outlaw, so be it.” - Angela Parkhurst
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Today’s Heads Up
> We all know going in that this topic is going to make Clockwork insufferable. Buckle up.—Glitch Incoming
> The Matrix: Like the Wild West, only with no judicial system whatsoever and faster gunslingers. [Tag: Kill Code] > Look, you’re not going to become a rock star. But still, here’s a few bands you could join. [Tag: No Future] > If we’re gonna be honest, you probably should panic. [Tag: The Neo-Anarchist Encyclopedia]
Top News Items
> UCAS Secretary of Commerce Sharon Patel calls Ares relocation discussion “mere sabre rattling.” > Azanian government says quarantine in Radfontein area poses no danger to adjacent areas. > Fort Lewis Zoological Gardens to display spider-like creature of “unknown evolutionary origin.”
CONTENTS & CREDITS >>
>> BETTER THAN BAD FRIENDS WILL BE FRIENDS > FRIENDS WILL BE FRIENDS > FRIENDS WILL BE FRIENDS > FRIENDS WILL BE FRIENDS >
Rome. For his trouble, he was killed by wild beasts in an arena. Twm Siôn Cati was a hero known as the Welsh Wizard. He was born in Tregaron, Wales, around 1530, and spent his life using magic tricks to steal from the rich. He only gave to the poor when it amused him, but nobody’s perfect. This guy was a riot, though. Once, a poor man asked Twm to help him steal a pitcher. Together, the man and Twm confronted a merchant. The poor man snuck behind the merchant, and Twm distracted him by claiming one of the pitchers had a hole in it. The merchant and Twm went round and round until Twm put his hand in the pitcher and exclaimed, If there’s no hole, how could I have put my hand inside?!” The merchant cursed Twm for being an idiot bastard, but meanwhile the poor man stole a pitcher from behind the merchant’s back. Rob Roy MacGregor was driven deep into debt by the Duke of Montrose in seventeenth century Scotland, ending with his wife and children evicted as their home burned to the ground in front of them. With nothing left to lose, MacGregor became a bandit, aiming his banditry at the Duke. He escaped prison many times and was beloved by the people for his charity to the less fortunate. Juraj Janosik had a career as a brigand in Central Europe in the early 1700s. He robbed aristocrats and rich merchants, immediately sharing what he’d stolen with the local poor. The wealthy who passed through his lands often heard, “Stop! Your soul belongs to God and your money belongs to me!” Janosik had such a true lover’s heart that no one was killed or even hurt in his robberies. For his trouble, he was pierced by a hook in his side and left to dangle until he died. Have you ever heard of Nezumi “Rat Boy” Kozo? He was a laborer and firefighter by day, but by night was a nimble thief in Japan’s Tokugawa period. When he was finally caught, he confessed to stealing over thirty thousand ryo from at least
one hundred different feudal lords. None of the money was ever found, because it was all given to the poor. Rat Boy even had the decency to divorce his wife before his capture so she would not share in his shame—or his fate. He became known as the greatest thief in all Japan, and even now, people take pieces of his gravestone as souvenirs. It has been replaced many times. What about a female example? La Carambada, Leonarda Emilia, was an indigenous Mexican woman who dressed as a man to rob travelers in the nineteenth century. After each robbery, she exposed her breasts to the men she robbed, revealing herself to be a woman, in order to shame them within their patriarchal culture. Of course, only a slotter would feel shame from being bested by a woman, so it served them right! Bad as hell with a machete, a gun, and her horse, she started her bandit career because the Mexican government executed her French lover. She gave all the money she stole to Mexico’s poor, saying her only reward was the systematic terror of the Mexican elite. Tell me that ain’t inspiring. I could go on about Scotty Smith in South Africa, Edward “Ned” Kelly, Chucho el Roto, Pancho Villa, Salvatore Guiliano, Clergyman Brazil, Phoolan “Bandit Queen” Devi, Malala Yousafzai, or Liu Xiaobo. I could talk about how Gandhi or Anne Frank were proto-shadowrunners for breaking the laws of the rich and powerful. Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, Malcom X, and Martin Luther King Jr. fought against racism by breaking the laws that they found unjust and encouraging others to do the same—not for their benefit, but for the people. Were they not shadowrunners? Hooders?
A COMMUNION OF REBELS, REVOLUTIONARIES, AND RUINED But the world changed after the Seretech decision. What did all of the above hooders have in com-
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We could have a long discussion here about whether the Seretech decision represented a seismic shift in the landscape of power, or if it rather was an incremental adjustment that recognized how power was already evolving, but it would take some time and likely would not add much to the central point here, so I’ll resist entering into it. I’ll simply add this: In all cases, the true enemy is consolidated power. Fianchetto
In the twenty-first century, however, the devil can go places we can’t, escape every law, run from every fight. They are the new unjust law. Their very existence is a blight upon freedom and self-determination when their every move is coercive and manipulative, to the point where wageslaves and salarymen don’t even know they aren’t free. It is now a shared illusion, like the Matrix, but economic and cultural in nature. Hooders in the Sixth World break that illusion. This explains the large overlap between do-gooders and neo-anarchists in our century. If the world is controlled by the selfish, powerful, and callous, then rebellion is the only moral option; if the world is controlled by inhuman and dehumanizing corporations, the only moral option is neo-anarchism.
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Says the neo-anarchist. 0rkCE0
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At least he smokes what he’s sellin’. More than I can say for some of us here. Slamm-0!
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But I’m not trying to make a case for neo-anarchism (at least, not here). And while the aforemen-
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tioned overlap is evident in this upload, neo-anarchists aren’t the only hooders in town by a long shot. Later in this upload, Freya’s gonna bring a different POV, but it still comes down to breaking the law for a good cause. Anyway, perhaps the first sign of the world turning toward its current direction came in the year 2000, just as the century turned. That year, Shiawase brought a nuclear power plant online, freeing themselves from dependence on municipal power. The plant survived a botched attack by the radical eco-terrorist group TerraFirst!, which led to the Supreme Court’s Shiawase decision in 2001, establishing corporate extraterritoriality, and gave multinational corporations the same rights and privileges as foreign governments. This allowed these corps to defend themselves more aggressively against similar attacks. Now, whether you believe that TerraFirst! was behind that attack or (like I do) that it was staged by Shiawase to make extraterritoriality a reality, the TerraFirsters were the vanguard of open rebellion against the megacorps in our brave new world. Barely a year after the Shiawase decision, the U.S. government teamed up with the corps to give us another reason to need hooders. They used eminent domain to grab Native American land and then leased it to the highest bidder for exploitation. The final straw was when United Oil was given carte blanche to exploit the resources of ten percent of the remaining Native land. A new group of freedom fighters, the Sovereign American Indian Movement (SAIM), stood up to this injustice in 2009, capturing a U.S. Air Force missile silo in northwest Montana. SAIM just wanted the stolen land back. The government pretended to negotiate, but instead they took the silo back by force. Not, however, before a lone nuclear missile was launched at Russia. What a different place we would live in if the missile found its mark, but instead, for mysterious reasons, it never did. The most unfortunate fallout from the Lone Eagle incident, as it was later called, was the demonization of Native Americans nationwide. In late 2009, congress passed the Re-Education and Relocation Act, legitimizing internment camps for Native Americans, leading to the biggest “Frag you!” in the history of hooding. On December 24, 2011, Daniel Coleman, better known as Daniel Howling Coyote, rallied the SAIM revolutionaries in the Abilene, Texas, camp, along with the rest of the Amerindians in captivity, and just walked out.
LIGHTS IN THE DARKNESS >>
>> BETTER THAN BAD BETTER THAN BAD
WHAT’S HOODING NOW? NEO-ANARCHISTS AND ANTI-CORPS First, showing no bias whatsoever, are the pure neo-anarchists. Their war is fought against the corps first, then the state, in order of danger. Only when power is dispersed will a legitimate society of the people and by the people be able to take hold. But it is true that not all anarchists are hood-
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I know Ehran the Scribe isn’t the most popular voice here on JackPoint, but did anyone read his work, “Debunking the Neo-Anarchist Myth?” He called it back in the ’40s and ’50s. Neo-anarchism just doesn’t work. We may not like it, but capitalism won. It isn’t best for everyone, true, but it works and keeps working, or else something better would have replaced it by now. To that point, didn’t we used to have a ton of do-gooder and neo-a shadowrunners? And what happened? They all got real or got dead. Now, they are just fossils or neo-anachronisms who try to deny the truth of realpolitik in the Sixth World. It’s a dead end, folks, and since I marginally care about what happens to everyone here, just give up the silly dream before it gets everyone hurt. Cosmo
LIGHTS IN THE DARKNESS >>
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BLACK CROSS
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Some groups are pushy, yes, but many AB+ cells just want to help people. People become interested in you when you are seen as heroic, so you don’t have to manipulate at all. And regarding the criminals, Gandhi said, “Where choice is set between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence. I prefer to use arms in defense of honor rather than remain the vile witness of dishonor.” You can choose to be better than a criminal; you can’t choose to stop being cowardly. Chainmaker
Any sort of organized anarchist movement that exists in the Sixth World has the Anarchist Black Cross, or AB+, somewhere in its DNA. AB+ has roots in anarchist movements from the Fifth World. In particular, they are a direct descendant of the Anarchist Red Cross, started in 1905 to thwart Tsarist Russia. The Anarchist Red Cross organized self-defense and aid for political activists, prisoners, and their families. During the Russian revolution, they changed their name to the Anarchist Black Cross in order to avoid confusion with the International Red Cross. Black Cross has been in constant operation since, focusing on giving aid to those who are arrested, persecuted, or oppressed. They do what they can to give political and legal support to those who stand against inequality and injustice. As technology has advanced, the Black Cross has kept up. They use the technology of the enemy against them to surprisingly good effect. AB+ has a dedicated and highly skilled cadre of deckers and a growing number of technomancers who do everything from liberating data to making fake SINs and permits, as well as developing Matrix-like networks for struggling revolutionaries to use in war-torn and restrictive environments. To that point, AB+ is well known to the poor and oppressed of developing nations. They drop into the poorest areas and turn the disenfranchised into fledgling revolutionaries because they address people’s most basic needs. You would be surprised how thankful and open-hearted people are when you feed them their first good meal in a month. Also, they heavily recruit criminals—people who are more likely to push back against the law and have less to lose.
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Who’s Gandhi? Borderline
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I didn’t think this kind of blindness existed here. After everything you’ve read and seen, you still believe that? Corps are artificially keeping capitalism in place by denying the public access to real news and controlling every aspect of buying, selling, and education. This isn’t the world choosing greed, nor is it the invisible hand. This is oligarchy disguised as free market. Chainmaker
So, they manipulate people by giving them food and basic necessities, recruit the worst of society, and then turn them into drones? Clockwork
Depending on how much the state or corp is cracking down, you can also find the AB+ acting as an independent news press, pushing back against the slanted propaganda that typical media shovel into the mouths of their sheep. One example is the Apple Press in Manhattan. Beyond that, they have safehouses in every major city and even in some arcologies, so bottom line: if you are a rebel or are in political trouble, AB+ should be your first call.
BLACK CRESCENT In 2038, during the Night of Rage, a group of anarchists spontaneously came together in Berlin to oppose the race riots plaguing the city. The group that would be the Anarchist Black Crescent formed at that time to treat the wounds of the heroes injured defending non-humans. A Turkish-Palestinian hobgoblin named Ozgur al Houssari and a hermetic human doctor named Louise Derrida kept as many people safe as they could over those five days of terror. Since then, the Anarchist Black Crescent (ABC) has become just as international as the AB+. Strictly dealing in medical aid, the ABC runs into the most dangerous warzones on the planet, because that is where people are getting hurt and need the most help. But they can also be found in the worst sprawls in North America, such as Chicago or Redmond, Seattle, along with having some sort of presence in most major cities. While not nearly as staffed, funded, or supplied as Crash Cart or DocWagon, the Black Crescent often functions in the same capacity, rushing into turbulent situations and rescuing people who need it. But they do it for the poor, rather than for those who offer the most nuyen. The ABC has a higher percentage of Awakened individuals on its staff than the typical medical
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OVERREACH
Mages who don’t want to be sucked up into the corporate system learn fast that they will still not be able to live normal lives. That’s why there are so many of them in the Black Crescent, and so many are SINless or shadowrunners, too. Ecotope
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You can’t handle the truth! Heh. I’ve always wanted to say that. Old Crow
Sensing a need to bolster the Black Cross’ activity, the anarchist group Black Star got its start in 2036 in Chicago at the international anarchist gathering. If the Black Cross provides political aid and the Black Crescent medical aid, Black Star effectively provides shadowrunning aid to the anarchist movement. Black Star is made up of mostly of shadowrunners, organized organically into teams of affinity, whether that affinity is a hatred of a certain corp, love of a certain city, or possession of certain abilities. All shadowruns that Black Star participates in are runs directly against national or corporate authority, runs intended to send a political message or raise awareness, or straight up hooding runs benefitting the poor, oppressed, or outcast. Besides that, they offer workshops on decking, demolitions, sabotage, infiltration, firearms, self-defense, data gathering, helpful magic, and other useful information for up-and-coming revolutionaries Despite a worldwide network, the group suffered greatly and disbanded after suffering huge losses in Bogotá fighting for Amazonia in their war with Aztlan. In late 2075, however, Black Star appeared again and began heavily recruiting. Many who didn’t fight in the Az-Am War returned and in the last five years have rebounded quicker than any thought possible. Now you can find bands of Black Stars in myriad cities again, roaming about making mischief, or bunkering down, secretly plotting for the good of metahumanity.
While Black Star secretly plots for the good of the world, Overreach screams and thrashes to denounce just how evil and wrong the world really is. Based somewhere in Mbabane, Azanian Confederation, Overreach is a radically violent anarchist organization. While they aren’t limited to any one region, they have a clear preference for targets and operations in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, with the vast majority of their work occurring in the Azanian Confederation. Since 2064, they’ve not gone a year without a major bombing or terrorist act, but most of their operations are less public. They train activists with combat, decking, and demolition skills, returning them to mundane lives waiting for opportunities to strike. Many become shadowrunners, taking high-risk jobs against corporate or government targets, doing whatever damage they can once they have the right access. This has gained them a smeared reputation in the shadows, as many Overreach operatives demonstrate a willingness to ditch contracts, or even teammates, to further their goals. Overreach has been vilified so often in the media that they are virtually synonymous with terrorism. A willingness to kill civilians, often crowds of them, as collateral damage to an operation makes them a perfect boogeyman to scare wageslaves. Overreach sees their activities as war, however, and believes these casualties are an acceptable loss in order to continue fighting. As a general rule, Overreach has no primary operations. They gather more violent activists to themselves by permitting and encouraging even the most deadly attacks, given that they make a loud enough statement or have a large enough impact on the right targets: corporations and governments.
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ATTACK!
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BLACK STAR
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Yeah, yeah. You’ve done quite well getting the band back together. But I wanna know where you got the cred to pull that off.You didn’t just ask everyone really nicely; I’ve seen the loadouts you all have on your missions, and I know how much you pay runners when you are shorthanded. Working for the people doesn’t afford that, chummer. Fill in the blanks for me. I want the truth. Picador
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In the early twenty-first century, when it became clear the corps were indeed crafting an unstoppable power grab, a group called ATTAC—the Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens, changed its name to Attack! to reflect the defeat of ideas alone.
LIGHTS IN THE DARKNESS >>
>> BETTER THAN BAD
EQUITY As peaceful as Attack! is violent, Equity seeks to take down the corporations by providing education instead of destruction. While the two may not be mutually exclusive, Equity doesn’t spend time doing what others are already doing better. Instead, they break many laws of the corporate world by reminding people that there is an alternative to corporate sovereignty and domination. Like Attack!, they are not unified in their vision for a world after corporate rule, and that is what keeps them relatively small-time. But if you are looking for information, statistics, philosophy, and creativity all in one place, Equity can help you get it and disseminate it, legal or not.
MINORITY RIGHTS GROUPS
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I’m sure I’m gonna get drek about this, so I’ll address it upfront: The following are not hate groups. They are particular about their focus, and they have a range of activities from peaceful to hostile, but they aren’t hate groups. Alternatively, you will not
I wouldn’t put ORC and the Stonecutters in the same sentence right now. With the way the dwarfs have been muscling into the Seattle Underground, tensions are rising fast, and the ORC could use some help digging up dirt to counter the dwarfs’ political influence. Unless the Axegrinders and Sons of Sauron turn the Underground into a bloodbath first. Bull I have a feeling this’ll get me another “kids these days” lecture from Thorn or somebody, but why isn’t there a pro-elf policlub? /dev/grrl There used to be, but they turned into countries when they grew up. Frosty The Transhuman League has been active in campaigning for Monad rights, too—without much success, unfortunately. Plan 9
GHOUL LIBERATION LEAGUE Even more so than most metahumans, ghouls, most whom didn’t do anything to cause their condition, endure near-constant abuse. Whether
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Not very coy. It seems we have a Stonecutter in our midst, bound to conceal the truth. I can respect that, just like I respect the good the Stonecutters do in their communities. But since we’re being honest with each other, may I assume you approve of the Stonecutters’ less-laudable actions? Old Crow
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No group is perfect. Mr. Bonds
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There are many who would never join an organization that would have them as a member. Man-of-Many-Names
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Love it when Mr. Obscurity spins up the classics. X-Prime
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Nice to know at least one person hasn’t bought into the fearmongering. Hannibelle I hope it is equally nice to know that some of us believe fearmongering is necessary. Clockwork
STONECUTTERS GUILD The Stonecutters are the oldest, largest, and most widely recognized dwarf fraternal organization in the world. Founded in Boston, UCAS, in 2043, the organization provides fellowship, networking, and a philanthropic hand to dwarfs in need. As a fraternal organization, the Stonecutters Guild unites dwarfs of good character who, despite their varied religious, ethnic, or social backgrounds, share a belief in the bedrock of the Stone and the brotherhood of dwarfs. The traditions of the Stonecutters are founded on allegedly Fourth World architecture, and its fraternal ceremonies use the architecture of ancient “Dwarves of Throar” to symbolize moral lessons and truths. For example, Stonecutters are reminded at lodge to “Be as deep as the Old Mines, as welcoming as the Nine Halls, and as profitable as the Grand Bazaar.”
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If you know any prominent dwarfs, it’s a good bet they are either members or have some connection with the Guild. They are well funded and don’t hesitate to throw that weight around when necessary. They don’t like to get their own hands dirty, so they aren’t hesitant or ashamed of paying you lots of cred to do some good on their behalf. But usually only for dwarf-kind. Sometimes you end up running against someone you’d rather not, but not often.
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Any connection to the Zhigul Makers? Elijah
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You’ve heard of them? I didn’t know they were common knowledge here. Old Crow
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The Stone? What are we, in Dungeon Age: Reckoning? That sounds awfully stereotypical for a dwarf organization to venerate “the Stone.” Bull
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Your information is incorrect. Mr. Bonds
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Oh? Which parts? I am earnestly curious. These Stonecutters guard their secrets well, and my little crows were not able to glean as much as I’d like. Old Crow
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I can’t say. You are seeing their outside face correctly, and they are a good group. But the beliefs and rituals are … off. Mr. Bonds
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Not common, but the Court of Shadows upload mentioned them as native to Earth but having a presence in the Court, so I was curious. Elijah
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Yes. There is a connection. One I’ve tried hard to suss out. Anyone have any leads? Old Crow
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PM me. And bring your credstick. Frosty
LIGHTS IN THE DARKNESS >>
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Don’t do this, Jane. Mr. Bonds
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Don’t threaten me, Mark. Frosty
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You know what? I won’t. PM sent. Mr. Bonds
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Sorry, Magpie. Offer is off the table. Frosty
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Figures. Nuyen wins again. The truth will go free eventually. Old Crow
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Not today. Mr. Bonds
SONS OF SAURON (SOS) The SoS are probably the most controversial entry here, due to their blatant racism against nonorks and trolls. While the Sons of Sauron don’t want to kill or enslave everyone who isn’t a troll or ork, they do view all of society as complicit in the oppression and exploitation of their kind. As such, they have exactly zero problem with firebombing an entire train station to kill a high-ranking member of Humanis who happens to be riding to work.
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You are off your rocker, Crow. These guys belong in another upload: the one about threats. They are dangerous and vile. I have fewer problems with Mothers of Metahumans or the Ork Rights Committee, but the Sons are completely different. 0rkCE0 You are right—they are different. The Sons of Sauron are tired of playing by the rules set by the oppressors and have decided to put the pressure where it works the most. Have you noticed the relatively little pushback the UCAS has given them since? Sure, they talk a big game about cracking down, but the truth is, they are afraid of the SoS since they have been more and more aggressive. The Sons have Overreach’s full support. Clarion What does the UCAS have to be afraid of? I mean, sure, they’re big and tough, but so are elephants. But they lack the stuff that would make them truly dangerous to cultures ruled by elves and humans. We don’t need to be afraid. Haze
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What exactly do we lack, drekhead? Are you suggesting we are just big and dumb? Glitch
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I didn’t say it … Haze
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Nope. Nope. No fraggin’ way. Banhammer is swinging. Haze, you’re gone for a week. You’ve been warned about bringing that racist drek in here. If you’re so much more intelligent than me, try finding your way back in before the ban is lifted. And one more like that and you’ll be suffering more than just a Matrix ban. Bull
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Whatev USER HAZE BANNED
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Beat me to it. Glitch.
If you look deeper than the violence they advocate and often carry out, you’ll see a group that is born out of need. The metahuman spirit can only be pushed so far before it pushes back, and no group has been pushed further than orks and trolls. So when a group offers pride, belonging, safety, and an opportunity to swing at those who have hurt them, there should be no surprise that young orks and trolls are swelling their ranks more and more every year. The Sons are especially prominent in lower-income districts of larger sprawls, but the Matrix makes recruiting nearly as easy in other areas as well. While it is true groups with similar constituents like Mothers of Metahumans (MoM) and the Ork Rights Committee (ORC) sometimes hire runners to do dirty work, their focus is on lawful work, and they keep their noses clean.
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I don’t condone the Sons’ violence-first modus operandi, but I also can’t fault them for it. Being in the Sons is a safer choice than trying to navigate life through a system built by and for elves and humans. Hannibelle Well, I fault them for it. Racism is racism, no matter if the target is orks or humans. They’re just bullies picking on weaker humans.That, in turn, will turn even more humans against them. It’s a cycle that keeps repeating. Hard Exit
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That perspective may not be wrong, but it is also easier to have from the outside of the fight. Mihoshi Oni
to seek out and protect other changelings when no one else will.
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MOTHER EARTH I don’t know whether I’m more grateful that these groups exist, or depressed that we still need them after two hundred years. The Mother Earth policlub is … well, the mother of all feminist policlubs, if you’ll forgive the expression. Their interests run the gamut from reproductive bioethics to feminist eco-extremism. Similar, but more militant, groups are Rote Zora, a network of clandestine women-only cells who take the fight to anyone who exploits women or the environment, and Sie, covens of female-supremacist pagans and witches who focus on punishing sexual exploitation and objectification.
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If you decide to work with either of the militant groups, be warned: They’re sometimes more “pro-women” than “pro-equality”, and they treat male runners accordingly. I had the unpleasant experience of being accosted and threatened while trying to arrange a deal with a Sie coven, for the terrible crime of working with a male pilot. Red Anya Some of them can be real hypocrites, too. I regularly get hate mail from radical feminists accusing me of “collaborating with the patriarchy” and “promoting the objectification of women.” Funny how they’ll trot out the whole “a woman’s body is her own” line when it comes to abortion rights, but conveniently ignore it when a woman wants to start her own escort service. SeaTAC Sweetie
SURGE/PROTECT One disturbing trend that you notice if you study history long enough is that whenever a new group comes in contact with an existing culture, there are always those who hate and fear it. Since 2061, those who became changelings due to the SURGE (Sudden Unexplained Recessive Genetic Expression) phenomenon have experienced the largest rise in violent prejudice. Even as technomancers have been gaining some measure of acceptance, changelings are still reviled, largely due to the chaotic and unpredictable nature of their differences from mainstream metahumans. Into this backdrop, SURGE/Protect was born. SURGE/ Protect is a group of changelings who have been brought together through various circumstances
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Technomancers are not gaining as much acceptance as the corps might have you think. Only Evo, Spinrad Global, and Saeder-Krupp (of all corps) come close. Still, your point is taken. Changelings will never technically get “support,” since they are often seen as mutants rather than a race or group unto themselves. Netcat
Those rescued are given the option of being trained by their leader, a rather large changeling named Hibernia Donovan, who looks like she was chiseled out of half a ton of stone. Once she trains them, she sends them out to help other changelings in and around the CAS. SURGE/Protect headquarters out of a renovated hotel in Jonesboro, Arkansas, CAS. They don’t quite use a third of the hotel’s capacity, so there is always room for more changelings who need a place to crash or a new family to be a part of.
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SURGE/Protect has a good relationship with the merc company called the Iron Cavalry. Since the IC is also made up of changelings and non-metahuman sapients, they are sympathetic to what Donovan is trying to do. They’ll often act as an arm of SURGE/Protect when they get wind of changelings in need in areas further away from North America. Baka Dabora
POLAS PoLas is more a movement than a group, but it’s one I’ve been watching with great interest for the last few years. Members, if you could call them that, claim PoLas as an identity rather than an organization with rules, goals, and the rest. PoLas is short for “post-labels,” and that is essentially everything you need to know about them. They refuse any sort of labels and refuse to be defined by anything other than not being labeled. There are metahumans from every stripe among them, but whether human, troll, changeling, male, female, young, or old, they refuse to acknowledge any identity but the lack thereof. Individuals within the movement are encouraged to be just themselves and nothing else. They choose their own, unique names and only refer to each other by those designations. I mention them here only because they have taken on the SIN industry, hacking into corporate and national SIN registries and
LIGHTS IN THE DARKNESS >>
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Some among the PoLas are shadowrunners. It’s terribly confusing when they refuse to give typical information about themselves. They won’t say they are Awakened or cybered, troll or dwarf, etc., instead just saying how they “can get the job done.” More than anything, I hate when they look at you like an oppressor for pressing them for info. DangerSensei
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So don’t press them. Goat Foot
ENVIRONMENTALISTS It’s no secret that we’ve treated the planet like drek for years, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that a bunch of people are willing to stand up and fight back on her behalf. Eco-activist groups can range from mainstream policlubs to radicals and eco-terrorist groups.
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As pleased as I am to see eco-activism on this list, remember that the most extreme eco-terrorist magicians are at risk of turning down the toxic path—and in some cases, already have. During my time with the Grüne Zellen, I faced several shamans and witches from Green War who had given in to that kind of corruption. It was highly unpleasant. Ecotope
TERRAFIRST! TerraFirst! was among the first groups in the twenty-first century to get radical against the corps; they were also the first to be labeled by the corps as a terrorist organization. TF cells typically consist of three to eight members and are completely autonomous, meaning one group has no influence or responsibility over the actions of another. Their activities include sabotaging facilities, breaking into corporate headquarters, destroying mining/ logging camps, and kidnapping/assassinating biotech engineers. They show remarkably little remorse for the pain they cause, because they claim the callous disregard these corporations and individuals show toward the planet makes them deserve none. If you are looking to do some damage
in the name of environmentalism/eco-terrorism, this is your group. If you happen to be in Europe, Grüne Zellen (Green Cells) is a similar group.
SAVE OUR SEAS Save Our Seas (SOS) is dedicated to the protection of the seas. It’s financed by donations and mostly sticks to legal activism, but it also finances illegal action and shadowruns against corporate destruction of the marine habitat. Save Our Seas began in the 2020s, when the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society merged with the remnants of the Greenpeace fleet. Their president, Angela Devon, keeps herself above reproach concerning their illicit activities, but behind the scenes, she orchestrates most of their operations. The Awakened Liberation Front (ALF) is a similar organization with focus on rescuing Awakened animals from captivity, while the Astral Space Preservation Society operates in similar fashion, but for the purpose of cleansing and protecting the astral ecosystem.
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The ALF is much closer to TerraFirst! in its dealings. They are just barely trying to seem legitimate anymore. Ecotope
KLABAUTERBUND Of course, there is also Klabauterbund, who act like eco-anarchists, having loose alliances with everyone from neo-pagans to neo-anarchists, focusing on ditching technology in favor of the old ways. Their name, Klabauterbund, literally means “league of the ship-kobolds,” in reference to the mythical German maritime fae bound to ships. They can be extremely useful to hooders even the smallest bit aligned to their purposes. They often provide safehouses, shelters, training camps, or just basic necessities to those who they feel kinship with—and their definition of “kin” is absurdly broad. As long as you aren’t a corp stooge, you might be able to fit in somewhere. Just be prepared for a sermon or five about how whatever you like is evil. They are mostly neo-luddites, but don’t give most allies a hard time unless it interferes with their way of life.
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These losers can definitely be useful. I’ve taken advantage of them and their hospitality many a time. Just mutter complainingly about how much you hate Saeder-Krupp, and you’re in. Kane
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There is no “somehow” about it. The Shining Path are in tune with ancient spirits. The Nazca lines wash the land in astral energies so much that a stable astral rift has formed and the Shining Path has a symbiotic relationship with the spirits that come and go from it. Plan 9
In Tír na nÓg, you can find the Liptons, a group of theatrical guerilla poets who cause all sorts of mayhem by disrupting public events, crashing corporate fundraisers, fouling up national parades, and generally causing havoc all the while recording their escapades and uploading the footage to the Matrix for all to see. They are silly to a fault, pointing out the absurdity of the powerful elites, but don’t mistake them for amateurs. It takes an incredible amount of planning to pull off what they have year after year and never get caught. They have taken on nearly mythical status among the common Irish and are a constant, if non-violent, thorn in the Tír’s side. Keeping with the theme of elven elites, the Rinelle Ke’Tesrae, or Rebels of the Spire, had a cultural moment in the early 2060s where they overthrew the leadership of Tír Tairngire. They had help, no doubt, but they were a diverse group of revolutionaries who were sick of the elven princes stomping on everyone else in pursuit of their agenda. I bring this up for two reasons: First, the Rinelle Ke’Tesrae is dead, no matter what you hear. Any group claiming to be Rinelle are just posers. Second, the Rinelle Ke’Tesrae uprising reminds us of a very important fact: revolutions can work. Get a broad coalition together, be clear on your goals, and take the fight all the way up the top. I mentioned the Rinelle had help when overthrowing the princes of Tír Tairngire. Much of that help came from the Unseelie Court. There seems to be a lot of misinformation, or missing information, regarding the Unseelie these days, but I can say for one hundred percent sure that the Unseelie Court that operates here in our world are grass-
LIGHTS IN THE DARKNESS >>
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I was just getting to that. Most of us know these guys already. Speed it up, willya? Bull
Lastly, there are those who just want to do good. There’s the Imagination Foundation, the Sprawl Scouts, the Rogue Lodge, the Blazing Swords, and numerous others—some with agendas, some without—who try to fix things up in their corner of the universe. Good luck to them, and to you if you decide to join them.
SHADOWRUNNERS AND HOODERS: A MATCH MADE JUST FOR US Now, I never play judge when it comes to fighting the corps and the tactics runners use when survival is on the line. Neither am I trying to convince anyone to put down your guns and manaballs. Having said that, the big lie the corps keep selling is we are at odds with the forces we encounter. What I mean is this: There is a wider difference between the CEO of a corp and the security guard than there is between the security guard and the runners who encounter them. The CEO is all about control and selfishness. Both runners and the guards are just trying to survive and get by. The rich and powerful have convinced wageslaves, salarymen, and corporate security that they are on the same side as the CEO and the shareholders, and that shadowrunners and SINless are the bad guys. Once they believe that, they act according to what they think is their best interest while all along, the brainwashed corporate masses are being crushed beneath the same weight as the SINless. The saddest part of all of this is the brainwashed citizenry become more and more enmeshed in the lie the longer it is perpetuated. The same technology that would allow for a real, true neo-anarchist system to flourish is the same tech that spreads lies with startling efficiency. So that’s where shadowrunners come in. But
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Your story sucks. If I was the warrior, I’d just go to another village after I gathered up all I could carry. Kane Unfortunately, in the real world, the paracritters are great dragons, and there’s no escaping to another world. Clarion
We are not a rich lot. It’s not that some of us don’t have money; lots of hooders and neo-a’s do. But compared to the resources of the enemies we face, even all of us together can’t hope to find parity. We don’t tax people, especially those who hate us. We don’t have inheritances from our elite mothers and fathers. We don’t have precious minerals or other natural resources to trade. We aren’t allowed by our enemy to carry weapons equal to theirs, nor could we afford them or build them if we were. We don’t get leftovers when our superiors upgrade. We don’t have a count of our numbers, nor do we know exactly what assets we can all bring to bear. We don’t have the luxury to spend our lives in daily training because unlike them, we must also find ways to survive without corporate or national support. We have to find our own teachers of magic and Matrix skills. We must form our own communities, trade almost entirely locally, and we have no police force, judicial system, or financial recourse when we are wronged. Get it? In order to make any meaningful change, we
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must address these discrepancies. War is not only coming, it is upon us. It has been for longer than we care to admit. We don’t have time to plan ahead, stockpile, invest, or negotiate with the powers-that-be. We have to find ways to be stronger, wiser, and kinder now. We need teams of deckers to carve out bits of the Matrix and make them ours. We need technomancers to find weaknesses to exploit in the fabric of the corporate firewalls and share them among us. We need hackers to hack the world. We need street samurai who haven’t abandoned their souls along with their essence. We need adepts to be strong, not just physically, but morally. We need heroes to look up to. We need mages to build bridges to the astral world, learning from shamans how to interact with spirits in a way that endears us to them, as opposed to binding and coercing them like the corps do to everyone. Awakened of all traditions must respect the natural world and the differences between us without trying to change each other. We need them to stand up to the myriad threats that assail all of metahumanity, not just our neighborhoods, and thus not only save the world, but also win hearts and minds. We need infiltrators to discover, locate, and coopt new technologies from the corporations so the work of the many no longer only benefits the few. We need anti-bug weapons from Ares. We need the sort of cutting-edge manatech NeoNET was working on before they fell apart. We need Wuxing’s research on the effects of geomancy on urban poverty. We need to befriend the monads when Evo hurts them. We need to find the nuclear weapons the UCAS has and disable them so what almost happened in Chicago can’t ever happen again. We even need the rockers and the faces to make us look better than we sometimes forget to be. In short, we need everyone possible to do all the good they can, every moment possible. We need to keep jury-rigging our own gear, with necessity as our patron mother, finding ways to get past the most difficult counter-measure with the minimal resources available to us. We need to rally around dead heroes like Tamir Grey, Preacher, Howler Chandra, and Daniel Howling Coyote, as well as create our own. We need the artifacts of ages past to level the playing field. Things like the Arrow of Red Dragon Slaying, the Net of Marduk, the Mel’Thelem, or the Spear of Destiny. Most of all, we need runners who will run the shadows not for the nuyen, but for the glory of taking down dragons, for the good
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Hah! I agree with the techofreak! No one ever does for me, so I’ll just keep on looking out for number one. Clockwork
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Is it too late to change my mind? Netcat
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Never. Red
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Sorry Crow, this is fragging nuts. I’ve seen what the anarchists can do, and what they have done. Blowing up corp hospitals, taking innocent hostages, and siding with Amazonia in a war. Your people aren’t any better than the corps. I sleep just fine at night knowing I am doing what I can to survive and thrive, just like people have done since the beginning of time. Balladeer
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Wow.That was the most inspiring bunch of bulldrek I have ever sat through. 0rkCE0
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A bit preachy, but the info was solid. Thorn
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I hate to say it, but he’s right. My folks taught me all that same stuff, but frankly, I got lazy. Belly Blaster Burritos and the newest tech are siren songs … Slamm-0!
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Don’t make yourself feel bad, baby. The mean old anarchist is just trying to guilt everyone into a crusade. Netcat
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I had no idea this was going to get so heated so fast. I go on a little Matrix recon mission, and I come back to a full-fledged flame war on JackPoint. There’s plenty more to discuss in this doc, so don’t waste all that anger here. Plus, talking about another JackPointer’s mother is against rule #43. Be nice. Glitch
But honestly, ‘Cat, it ain’t all bulldrek.You know better than anyone how bad the corps are. Slamm-0! So what if I do? Joining a crusade is a good way to get ourselves, or little Jack, killed. No thank you. I’ll protect me and mine. The hooders can look out for themselves. Netcat
Those are not things to be ashamed of. Casualties happen in war. When the enemy is so much stronger and larger, the oppressed must transcend the old morality and do what is necessary to win. You say you are just trying to survive. Sounds like you meant to say “I’m a coward.” Clarion
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A grunt as some shrapnel from the wall scattered across his arm. Stone shards hurt like a mother but they were better than bullets. He ducked lower, fishing out a grenade while his cyber-ears fed an enemy bullet count to his AR feed. He idly made a note to thank his doc for the upgrade suggestion. When all three rifles flashed “reload,” he stood, hurled, and dove for cover. The explosion probably roared, but his ears shut it out (seriously, write that doc a nice letter for Christmas!) and the cave shook, dropping debris on whatever survivors there might have been from that patrol. Problem was, they were just one of a bunch. He glanced at his arm, spit on the cuts, then rubbed it in with his other forearm. Save the medkit for when it counted. Still, he was worried about leaving a blood trail. Big V blinked, then laughed at himself. He went to the other pouch on his belt, passing up a roll of stickers and a few coins to find the Hello Puppy adhesive bandages. “Well damn,” he said with a chuckle, then got to doctorin’.
As usual, it was a scrum. LTS was quiet in the background, hanging her head and looking sheepish as the boss lady told the refugee leaders that the deal was off. Icon and Leon were beside Ingenue, trying to shield her from outbursts, but people were upset. It’s one of the reasons Big V hated all the talking. He was a simple guy. Point and shoot simple. Everyone called him a street samurai since he was cybered and well-armed, but truth is, he was just a mercenary. Pay him, he’d do whatever you wanted. No money? No service. Simple. “Excuse me,” came a quiet voice by his side. Big V turned his head, dark glasses hiding his
eyes as they scanned over the young child at his leg. “What?” The child was, what, seven? Eight? No, ork, so probably closer to five. She was in the same dull castoffs and worn colors everyone down here wore, with her dingy hair hanging loose. The only brightness around here was the stuffed unicorn she clutched against her chest. “Will there be room for Uni-Kun on the bus?” V blinked, confused. “What?” She held out the unicorn for a moment, saying, “Uni-Kun. Mommy said that we had to leave things that wouldn’t fit on the bus, but Uni-Kun’s a person not a thing so he can go, okay?” Oh frag me, thought V before asking, “Not my call, kid, even if there was a bus. And there ain’t.” Her turn to blink, before saying, “Mom said we’re supposed to get on a bus to go on vacation.” “Yeah, well, ain’t no bus.” “But …” “Katie!” The kid turned as her mom scurried up, looking disheveled and poor like everybody else here, quickly taking her by the hand. She harshwhispered, “Told you not to go over here,” before looking up at Big V with an embarrassed smile. “I’m so sorry. She got away from me with the crowd. Did she bother you?” Big V snorted. “She was saying something about a vacation.” The mom winced, then nodded, saying, “I was telling her that we all have to go on vacation soon. She’s really excited to see a school bus for the first time.” “Ain’t no bus.” “What?” He nodded to the talk that everyone else was in. “Ain’t no bus. We were hired to help against the gangs. Hard Corps is a whole other story. The elders can’t meet our price, so we’re walking. Y’all are on your own.”
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You’re welcome in advance. I set up this little nook on JackPoint to act as a bulletin board for open jobs. Many of you don’t need or want any jobs at the moment, and some of you aren’t into the do-gooder stuff, but for those that are looking for job or maybe hiring runners to do them, this is as good a place as any to hunt first. Also, it gives a decent bird’s eye view of the hooding/runner scene in real-time. Check back periodically for updates and feel free, as always, to add your own commentary or help-wanted ads. Slamm-0!
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Look at you. Sounds like you are trying to do your part without actually having to move from the couch. A decent first step. Clarion
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Go suck amber gel. Slamm-0!
IT’S ALL ABOUT POWER POSTED BY: OLD CROW
While my connection to Black Star isn’t a secret, I am not by any means exclusively concerned with their activities. I’m not their leader, after all, just a fellow freedom fighter. As such, my little crows constantly update me about individuals and groups raging against their own contextual machines worldwide. I’ve also included intel that came across my feed that, while not hooding per se, might have ramifications netting a positive change in the world.
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Ghost. “Netting a positive change.” You guys are killing me.The world doesn’t work like that. Why am I even here? Clockwork That is a good question, boyo. One you should ask yourself more often. Thorn He’s not wrong, though. The time for “making the world a better place,” along with rainbows, unicorns, and the kingdom coming is long ago, in an age far away. Kane So what, you just gonna roll over and let the oppressors win? That makes you complicit. Clarion
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Geez. Calm your pickaxe, shorty. I’m not one of the bad gu … heh. I can’t even finish that with a straight face. Just get real, ya’ll. Kane You show your ignorance with that racist dwarf jab. I am proud of my metatype, and your ignorant comments prove my point. JackPoint is not just a haven for shadowrunners to share information—it is a haven for bigots and shadowrunners too rich to care about anyone else. Clarion Who invited her to JP again? My bigoted hoop is gonna get tired of that soon. Kane I did. Doesn’t matter if I disagree or we all do, hers is a voice that doesn’t get heard enough. Old Crow
BLACK STAR The Session of Black Star is offering the following jobs to anyone looking to do bad drek for a good cause. There isn’t as much nuyen in these as I know you’d like, but the chances to build your network, frag the system, and do some good are pretty high. Before you ask, yes, Black Star has its own teams of runners that could do some of these runs. Two things to note, however. First, they don’t have nearly as many operatives as you might think (or as they’d like). These runs needs to get done, but they don’t need to be by BS ops. Second, we’ve found that once runners get a taste for doing good, it grows on them. So doing a run for BS doubles as a recruitment tool. You do the run like a pro, with no needless death and an eye toward the little guy, they just might invite you to join the ranks.
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SINless moved in seeking shelter. Over time, a sort of darwinistic tribal community emerged. The “insiders” act as a sort of nobility, while the “outsiders” live beyond the walls of the dome in squalor. Scheduled gladiatorial fights allow tribes or families to move in or out of the Dome, depending on whether their gladiator wins or loses. An elf named Dread Moon is asking for help there.
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Dread Moon desires to be free of his master and live his own life, but every Paladin (as they are called) is fitted with a cranial bomb to make sure they never turn on their master. Dread Moon wants some runners to kill (or otherwise take out) the Pit Baron, Emory Buchannon. Buchannon never leaves the safety of the owner’s box, so the only way to get to him is to fight and become champion of the gladiatorial arena. He greets all champions personally. Buchannon counts on Dread Moon to stop anyone from harming him, but Moonie won’t stop you when it is time for them to strike.
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That is madness. Mr. Bonds
ATLANTA
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At first glance, the Dome looks just like any other sports stadium from the twentieth century. Looking closer, you can see that much of the wear and age of the building has been patched, but not by Sixth World workmanship. The stadium has been repaired with an organic-looking material that makes it looks vaguely like an insect hive but much larger. Pistons On the inside of the Dome, things aren’t terrible, but they are downright odd. There are regular food deliveries and the sanitation is acceptable, and a sort of honorable culture has emerged. Seats have been replaced with hotel-like dorms that all face toward the arena and walkways crisscross the stadium, made of the same organic material found on the walls. Inside the Dome, gangers live alongside mages, vampires, and even bug spirits. This uneasy alliance is kept only due to the strict rule that violence (and feeding) is only inflicted during the gladiator matches or outside the Dome. Kane
Oh wow. So I can take a job for less money, and if I go out of my way to do a good job, papa Crow is gonna give me more low-paying jobs? Sounds like a con to me. /dev/grrl
Atlanta is in the middle of a top-to-bottom makeover at the moment, preparing to make a bid to house a AAA-corp national HQ within their fine city. One major wrench in the gears of progress is the Dome, previously as Fulton County Stadium and Turner Stadium. Deep in the Atlanta barrens, it ceased being used for sports long ago, as many
Dread Moon (Moonie to his friends) was raised from a young age in the Dome. He’s a warrior who acts as a gladiator and bodyguard to their master. He’s been raised to fight, intimidate, and kill. Hard Exit
FIXER-UPPER OPPORTUNITIES >>
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THIS IS ATLANTA! Slamm-0!
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Oh, brother. Netcat
BALI If you are looking for something odd and a bit exotic, there is allegedly a gang of monkeys that are creating problems for businesses in Bali, in the Enlightened Kingdom of Bali and Lombok. In times past, monkeys stole from tourists all the time, mostly from curiosity or hunger, but lately, they’ve become more aggressive and coordinated. Local reports suggest that the targets of the monkey attacks are corporate offices and the nature of the attacks seem to be distraction. They are running interference for someone attacking corporate holdings in Bali. These attacks are being so successful that Mitsuhama corporate security was called into investigate the gang of monkeys and discovered at least one of the primates had a datajack installed. Two things: One, if Mitsuhama deigned to bring forces in to deal with this, they must have experienced quite a loss to justify the expense. Two, if these monkeys can be used to rattle corporate cages in ways that metahumans cannot, Black Star is interested in how they might recruit these agile attackers. Head to Bali, discover how and why these monkeys are warring against the corps there, and if possible, make positive contact with whatever or whoever is behind them.
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A monkey gang? Matt Wrath loves living in this world! Oh yeah, sure, it is depressing and controlling. But a gang of monkeys! One with a datajack! Sweet Christmas! Matt Wrath
per management, meanwhile, is busy angling to take their research and career to a winning corp rather than staying on a sinking ship. This situation is particularly true for in the area of manatech. Before NeoNET lost Manadyne, Celedyr was subversively using certain scientists there to work on a few of his pet R&D projects. Once Manadyne left the NeoNET umbrella, Celedyr kept these scientists on, creating a small offshoot called Boston Manatech, which, since it was made up of former Manadyne employees and equipment, should have been overseen by Villiers. But Celedyr wouldn’t have that. He kept it secret, and for good reason. Once NeoNET fell, Celedyr couldn’t legally take those assets with him, but he hasn’t forgotten Boston Manatech. Scientists at their facility are begging for help escaping. They are apparently wanting to go into business for themselves with the information Celedyr forced them to discover. Unfortunately, they are in a guarded, underground lab where they have been both living and working for nearly five years. Extract these scientists, their work, and whatever prototypes you can, and get them out of town to St. Louis.
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I was the one who they reached out to initially. I booted them to Black Star since this is a bit outside my typical scope. But the scientists have been treated like slaves under Celedyr. No wonder they want out. Gladly, their shared trauma seems to have bonded them like brothers. That might play into why they’re calling their new venture the Grey Brothers Auction House. Red
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The Street Lethal data drop has more info on this. Hard Exit
I knew an anti-corp runner who relocated to Bali back in the late ’60s. He was also a hanuman dwarf. I wonder … Stone
BOSTON This one is extremely time sensitive. With the crumbs of NeoNET still falling, security in related corporate facilities in Boston are noticeably understaffed and in a state of uncertainty. Previous NeoNET employees know their smaller operations will be bought up by other megas or AAs, but no one knows when that shoe will drop. Up-
I’ve heard of the work Boston Manatech is doing. Specifically, much of it is anti-manatech.Their experiments involved what they were calling “grey mana,” which isn’t really what it seems. They experimented with orichalcum, reagents, paracritters, and Awakened plants and minerals, but what ended up being in the grey mana, I’m not sure. Point is, this grey mana has negative reactions to mana on a microscopic level. Mages and adepts aren’t harmed by it, but it does seem to fritz out their power somewhat. Interesting stuff, but I never had the change to follow through any further because of the lockdown. Respec
The scientists aren’t paying anything, but they are bringing tech with them that could give those
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Are we gonna talk about what happened in Chicago? Some of us were busy on the other side of the planet. Goat Foot Oh, wow. You really didn’t hear? The shadows were buzzing (no pun intended) about this for weeks. A Truman Tech Mr. Johnson infested a dragon with a wasp spirit queen (who even thinks that way?). For years, insect spirits had been multiplying and scheming underneath Chicago. When the UCAS government found out, they wanted to literally nuke all of Chicago to deal with the problem. Fortunately, some black ops work took care of things before it came to that. Aztechnology and Saeder-Krupp, of all people, took credit for the save, which isn’t entirely undue, but the biggest slap in the face was when the Azzies and SK told the world what the UCAS government planned to do. Chicagoans are ready to revolt now, with absolutely zero confidence in the president and Congress after they were almost obliterated without any warning. Still, the bugs seem well and truly gone, so there’s that.
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Unfortunately, the corps are moving in full force now, what with Operation: Takeback being such a success, so Chicago is just as dangerous as ever, just with a new coat of paint being applied. Bull So if you were wondering why Chicago corridor expats are bailing for Detroit, alongside a few bugs apparently, that’s why. Bull, I noticed you didn’t mention those of us involved in those events. Red Another place and time. It’ll all come out eventually. It always does. Bull
To take the job, make contact with Carter Stevenson, an elf who works with Robinson. He was a witness to the abduction and can give you details about the bugs and how you can track them. He can also offer information about the Missionists, Rev. Robinson, and Remnant Divinity School, and the good-form merges that infiltrated the divinity school. His initial report said the bugs looked like locusts, so don’t come to town unprepared. Detroit’s poor rely on people like Rev. Robinson and the people she teaches. The Black Star cell in Detroit is preoccupied with something big at Ares HQ, so you’re on your own. Contact Rev. Baily Warner, the current president of Remnant Divinity for payment.
DUBAI I know many of you remember Aufheben fondly, as do I. His last mission was in Dubai, where he was killed. He and a former associate, Mossad agent Mara Ariel, were on the trail of an artifact they called the Net of Marduk. His last notes were that the net could actually trap dragons. Skepticism in that matter is heartily suggested.
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Why aren’t you a believer, Old Crow? Seems like the kind of thing that would get your blood pumping. 0rkCE0 In my experience, if something seems too good, it usually is. Would I love there to be something that could stop a great dragon in its tracks so something like Sirrurg’s mass murder never happens again? Sure. But when this turns out to be nothing more than a glorified amulet of snake charming, I’ll still be working the work. Old Crow
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Whaaaaat? Is this even believable? How could you possibly buy that a group of people, no matter who they are, could infiltrate a great dragon’s horde and steal something. I was involved in that once. Once. And I have never had so much backup, so much state-of-the-art gear, and been so drek-my-pants scared in my life. It should also be noted that we did not get what we went there for. Balladeer
> > > > >
> > >
Might it be more believable if they had help from another dracoform? Frosty Get out. They just went through this. No dragon is going to turn on the others so soon after the Dragon Civil War is over. Cosmo There are a few dragons who have come to care for metahumanity and the planet more than their own kind. They won’t ever say it, but their actions are crystal clear, don’t you think, Thorn? Frosty No sense in denying it if you’ve already made up your mind. Thorn
> BETTER THAN BAD
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They are not, nor have they ever been, the safer and more just choice. These weapons, like all other non-lethals the Star has bought, will sit in a warehouse, only to be touted out at photo ops or well-planned (and recorded) operations. The cops don’t care about lives, but they want the public to think they do. Hard Exit
It’s not that Black Star doesn’t want the cops using non-lethals, but we know they won’t. Further, this won’t hurt Narcoject either, just in case you think they’re on the level. This shipment is insured, so Lone Star will still get their PR toys, Narcoject will still get paid, and the only losers are the insurance scammers. The ship carrying the Narco cargo will be passing by Havana, Caribbean League, on its way to Houston and then on to Austin. Good news for you. Black Star also wants this stuff delivered to Texas, so anywhere you want to make the move and steal the stuff, as long as it doesn’t make it to Lone Star HQ in Austin, is fine. Once you have the shipment, deliver it to the Black Star cell in the DFW sprawl.
>
There’s a lot of moving parts here. First, you need to find the shipping manifest to know the time and route of the shipment. Then you need to either get some Gulf pirates to help you get the crates from the ship, or wait until they are transported to rigs once they make landfall.
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Security gets a hundred times better once you’re in Texas, especially where Lone Star is involved, so plan this run carefully and make sure you have a plan, not only to get the merch, but also to get away with it. Sunshine
MUMBAI The Tzuri Group is an A-rated corp based in Mumbai. They bought their way up the ladder almost exclusively by selling artifacts discovered in twin sunken cities in the Gulf of Khambhat off India’s northwestern coast. Since then, the Tzuri Group has been a growing manufacturer of talismans, fetishes, and other low-level magical trinkets. Their biggest seller is their image, however. Tzuri has been hocking the value of Necro Magic wherever they go as the hip, new magic of choice for the enlightened and rational mage. After their chairperson, Dr. Jennifer Stinson, saved GeMiTo back in 2075 from the VITAS-4 outbreak, Necro has been media darlings. But according to former employee Jesse Hodges, all is not well within Tzuri. In a letter written in his own blood, Hodges claimed that Stinson was not what she appeared to be, and that if she isn’t stopped, the world itself may be in danger. Hodges quit the company years ago after a falling out with Stinson, but he never discussed why. Unfortunately, Hodges now seems to have gone completely insane and now either can’t or won’t speak at all. Magical attempts to read his mind or communicate without words have been equally fruitless.
> >
Sounds like a big pile of “leave-well-enough-alone.” Kane
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I almost got whiplash from watching you transform from “big tough guy” to “scared little boy” so quickly. Borderline
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Har. It ain’t “scared.” It’s they-aren’t-paying-enough. Kane
Hodges’ wife and best friend are not satisfied with letting this go, however. They are convinced that Hodges’ condition is a retaliation of some sort for his disagreement with the direction Tzuri was heading. They are offering to pay runners to infiltrate Tzuri HQ in Mumbai, rummage through physical and Matrix data, and discover what they can about Stinson and Tzuri. Specifically, what could illuminate why Hodges went nuts.
FIXER-UPPER OPPORTUNITIES >>
>> BETTER THAN BAD > >
ON THE FRINGES These next couple of jobs aren’t official Black Star ops, but they might be of interest to those of us looking for some less-traditional hooding oppor-
tunities.
>
> > >
If you want to do good, go volunteer at a soup kitchen and leave the criminal stuff to those of us who aren’t lying to ourselves. When are you guys gonna learn that no amount of “hooding” is going to make you a good-guy shadowrunner? There are no good guys. Not anymore. Clockwork Someone must have hurt you pretty bad in order for you to be so chronically cynical. Who was it? Fellow runner? A mentor? Girlfriend? Axis Mundi
SPINRAD GLOBAL Endless running opportunities are resulting from the newly minted Spinrad Global ascending to AAA status. Johnny finally tied the knot to Gabri-
>
We all know Johnny is doing those things, but the question is: Is there anyone good enough to catch him doing them? My money says no. Nephrine I’m not sure anyone who takes this job will be able to find anything, due to Johnny being the consummate expert at covering his ass. But if you do find anything, it might not be what you’re looking for, but it won’t be any less harmful to Spin’s rep. 2XL
TENOCHTITLAN As discussed in the Forbidden Arcana and Dark Terrors uploads, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the threat from the so-called Elder Gods is growing. Aside from Elijah and Frosty, most of us haven’t dealt directly with these beings or their lesser servants. For what it’s worth, I hope you don’t have to. But it doesn’t look like this will remain the case much longer. Specifically, there appears to have been some sort of tear in the astral plane in the undercity of Tenochtitlan not long ago. While it was sealed nearly as quickly as it opened, an unknown number of these lesser terrors escaped into our world. These creatures, by and large, seem mindless and hungry, content to devour and destroy whatever they come in contact with, generally causing chaos and death. Rumors persist that when many of
> BETTER THAN BAD
>
If anyone is reading this, I—we—could use some help. I don’t know how long we’ve been down here, but it feels like a thousand years, even if the timestamps say it’s only been six. Whatever this new Matrix is, it’s not like the old one. We were gods then, we could do anything. But since Jormungand and Deus, we’ve been powerless. Can’t see, can’t type, can’t move. Ghost only knows what happened to our meat bodies. Are we even still alive? Nothing makes sense, but here we are … wherever “here” is. Kaos has escaped a few times, but he always comes back. It takes him longer and longer to recover each time, though. I’m afraid it is having a negative effect on him. He won’t leave us, he said. Just like before. He didn’t leave us then, either. I don’t know why he can get out and we can’t, but I’m hoping someone, anyone, will be able to get this message. Kaos isn’t responding anymore, and it’s been too long since he left. I don’t know how to explain where we are, but it is somewhere in the Matrix, or somewhere like the Matrix, I don’t know. My programs don’t work anymore, I can’t feel my deck—or anything else. There’s a lot of us here, maybe thousands. Some have gone crazy, some have merged with each other. Oddly, some are still coming in, although they don’t seem to be able to see us. Please, find us. Please help us escape, or if you can’t, help us die. We can’t live, or whatever this is, any more. Find Kaos. He’s out there trying, maybe he needs help. Find him. Find us. Please. DionySys Transmitted: 02-14-80 at 10:51:11 (MST)
these terrors are gathered, or perhaps when they grow or evolve, or when there is a more powerful terror present, metahumans are psychologically affected as well. Dark fears, unhealthy emotions, and compulsions toward base and damaging behaviors increase. Again, I am only presenting the most unrefined reports, so be skeptical of everything at this point.
>
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I don’t like the sound of this. I hate that the number of escapees is unknown.That just makes me want to stay the hell away from Aztlan, period. By the way, are we calling these things “terrors” now? Dr. Spin Yeah, sorry. I’m not here to bring happy, happy, joy news. Just give opportunities to help. To your next point, reports of these creatures don’t seem localized to Tenochtitlan, or even Aztlan, but sightings have occurred in various locations in Amazonia, PCC, and the CAS. But also, yeah,
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I’m calling the smaller ones “terrors” because “lesser Elder God servants” is just too inelegant. Old Crow
But all the news isn’t bad. There is a group of runners based in Tenochtitlan who have made it their mission to track down and hunt terrors as part of their efforts to thwart Elder God activity in general. A runner by the name of Inana says she and her team have a secret weapon against these ugly buggers— she calls it Pícaro. What she needs is more backup. Get in touch with her through any local fixer in Tenochtitlan, and you can help do your part to stop this mess before any of these terrors gain a foothold.
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Since we are talking about things that scare us to death, have you all heard about the drek going on along the Southern California coast? One of my buddies was hired to do an extraction from the supposedly non-profit Scripps Research Institute in San Diego. The job went off without a hitch—he tranq’d and put the target into a breathable body bag, but when he got back to the safehouse, he unzipped the body bag only to find some sort of octopus instead of the elf he expected. His partner, a mage, assensed the thing and found it was definitely Awakened and they had a nasty conversation before the octopus nearly killed them with hostile magic. They barely escaped with their lives. So … Awakened mimic octopuses masquerading as humans? Is this Elder God stuff? Because it sounds like Elder God stuff. Kat o’ Nine Tales
INFECTED VIGILANTES POSTED BY: RED AND FRIENDS
Straight out of the pages of a Darien Cross novel. Too good to be true. Utter bulldrek. Yep. I can read your thoughts. But I’m quite serious. For all the horrible drek any Infected has to do to survive—or worse, activities they come to embrace—we are all more or less metahumans, with the same capacity for goodness and empathy as anyone else in the world.
> >
Sure. Assuming they stay sane. Stone
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I’ve seen samurai with cyberpsychosis. The results were fairly equitable. Hannibelle
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Fair point. Stone
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Yeah. Except for the part where they eat people. Chainmaker
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Well … most of the time. Digestion expansion ’ware can— Gilette
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I’m just gonna stop you there. Slamm-0
So, with that in mind, here are some selections of Infected groups or individuals around the world who at least seem to have the best intentions for the people around them. I can’t speak to their motives, because they are as varied as anyone else’s. Some want to guard the herd. Others just want a better world for everyone. And some just try to find a justification in guarding good people so they can feed on bad people. Try not to paint with a broad brush, and remember: You’re all one fluid swap away from being a ghoul, yourself.
> >
of them remember quite clearly what it was like to be metahuman. Many remember was it was like to be hunted. Even some Type 2 and 3 Infected born into their nature feel empathy for their prey. Sadism does not enter into the equation of their hunger, and while they do not deny their needs, they know there must be a better way for a nation of Infected to get what it needs rather than resorting to mass slaughter and slavery. Organization began in twos and threes, concerned conversations about this supposed “utopia” they had abandoned their homes for. Yes, the architecture and technology and culture were all very accommodating, and yes, it was a chance to start again without fear of discovery. But the herculean effort to provide logistical support to the exploding population had taken the form of holocaust. There is no possible way to sustain a nation in this way, and for many Infected, a moral immortality is the real dream. The first truly Sixth World nation would not survive if it was built on a foundation of slaughter.
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Stop reminding me. Bull
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ASAMANDO
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THE SYMBIOTE LEAGUE POSTED BY: DEZ
Asamando has always been a place where one person’s freedom is another’s slavery. The only place in the world where the Infected can live without fear or shame is built on the industry of literally feeding on other metahumans, shipped in by the thousands. Whether waylaid refugees or supposedly executed inmates, living feedstock greases the machinery of Asamando’s industry and livelihood. They exist in the nightmare under the dream, drained and consumed, and in some cases bred and farmed, feeding the monsters who call the nation home. But not all monsters are evil. While most Asamando natives have grown up with the cannibal culture humming in the background without a second thought, the massive influx of immigrants has brought Infected of all stripes behind the borders of the ghoul nation, and with them, their philosophies. Despite the general public perception of Infected as rapacious, psychotic beasts, a significant number
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You don’t count the Tirs? Cascade Orks? Black Forest Trolls? Goat Foot Orks and elves have the benefit of a culture that stretches back to previous ages. Not so for ghouls, assuming they have ever had a culture. What’s more, the Tírs are borne on the bones of Fifth World civilization. Nyamkopon is a young city where there was none before, built with the technology and consideration of its time and population. Dez
The League took shape when Queen Rani’s soldiers began rounding up dissenters, labeling them as enemies of the state and snatching them away, never to be seen again. Rumors said they had been taken to secret labs for experimentation. Others said they were simply added to the cattle they adored so much. Either way, the Queen’s efforts to suppress resistance have backfired. The need for secrecy has proven to be the catalyst for organization, cementing alliances and motivating quiet operations across the small nation to change the way the Infected treat their food. The League lacks the resources to stage any military intervention, which would be pointless anyway, since they lack a cogent plan to replace the current system. Instead, they seek to recruit help in spreading their network of contacts. Inside
> BETTER THAN BAD >
So how are they gonna divide up the spoils? Kay St. Irregular
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Is anyone thinking about how this research could be used for, I dunno, bad stuff? Beaker
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> > > >
I, for one, am rather thrilled to see this kind of groupeffort from the streets. Can you imagine what could be accomplished and released without megacorporate interference? The Smiling Bandit
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As do you. KAM
Tied to this are the League’s efforts outside the nation. They know it is only a matter of time before the whole world learns what Asamando is up to, and they cannot contain that truth. Better, instead, to put a sympathetic face on the Infected. By making sure the outside world knows many Infected worked to save lives even at their own expense, they hope to earn some lenience when the inevitable backlash comes.
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Great. So, not much help if you get caught in Asamando. 2XL
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The League is always looking for allies. A capable street operative is a feather in their cap. They can be a get-outof-ghoul-jail-free card if you’re willing to do a few favors to help the cause. Hannibelle
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For all that you might criticize megacorporate oversight, you really can’t expect basement-bound rogue crackpots to release properly tested results, can you? KAM As always, my dear, you underestimate the possibilities of people. The Smiling Bandit
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League and Mothers of Metahumans, as well as smuggler outfits. In many cases, the League establishes safehouses and means of leaving the country for any metahumans they can liberate from the feeding pens. While the League would love to save every soul, they know they must pick and choose, so they are far more likely to save children and other innocents, instead of the incarcerated inmate population. Paths cross the country and penetrate shielded containers and abandoned mining tunnels, aided by a surprising number of Asamando shifters and spirits.
Fat chance there. You don’t spare the cancer because there’s still a few healthy cells left inside. Clockwork
The League works hard to foster connections to activist groups like the Ghoul Liberation
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There aren’t a lot of successful smugglers in Asamando, but those who want a better shot can get a load of support if they’re willing to bring in spare parts and babysit living assets out. It adds danger, since so many Infected can detect their prey metaphysically, but the payoff in diamonds alone is huge. Plus, you get a warm fuzzy. Red Anya
Meanwhile, other League members attempt to foster sustainable, ethically sourced trade as an alternative to wholesale slaughter. Without dropping any names, several consider investment in the future a great money-making opportunity and are trying to set up body-bank exchanges across the world to bring preserved metahuman flesh where it is needed most. Some of the insiders call this “The Graveyard Project,” suggesting Asamando could be the disposal ground for all the world’s dead.
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I cannot imagine that gaining much traction. People are sentimental about their dead. Goat Foot
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I get sentimental over the nuyen I get selling the dead. Hannibelle
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I get sentimental over drinks bought with nuyen from selling the dead. Kane
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Man. Talk about picking up the last round … /dev/grrl
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This is actually getting some support from TerraFirst! and a few other eco groups. They see it as a way to preserve space taken up by graveyards and necroplexes in a world with a rapidly expanding population. Who would have thought that GreenPeace had an Infected office? Ecotope
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> > >
I think this is already moving. I was doing a little work in the Mediterranean (never mind where—it’s more fun if you guess), when I got a scan on a massive container ship with a huge refrigeration setup. Nothing super weird about that, but I got a look at the cargo they were taking on. Bodies. Hundreds and hundreds of bodies, the parts stacked like bricks, with a significant quantity transplantready. The mage I had with me said it was a ship of the dead. A great black smear in the astral with an odd sense of hope and mercy. She looked spooked. Thorn They better have some excellent wards on that thing, because that sounds like a shedim nightmare scenario. Red
On the street, the League shows no colors and wears no identifying marks, instead using code phrases and operating in cells. The Queen’s secret police have been far more active since the last food riot, and the League is their unadvertised nemesis. The safety of metahuman visitors to the nation is questionable at the best of times, and Leaguers often try to guard them from the shadows. This has led to violence in the streets from time to time, but it gives the more physically inclined members something to do, while offering a tangible effect. I’m guessing the people at the top keep them out of the loop. If a hothead gets caught, they can’t give up more important members.
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Nice. Nothing like knowing you’re expendable cannon fodder for your boss. Lyran
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You … you do know what shadowrunning is, right? /dev/grrl
On the political front, sympathizers and secret members are pushing for sustainable harvesting techniques, cash incentives, and non-harmful methods that will turn blood-and-flesh donations into a workable business model that will invite
metahumans to supplement their income. The idea is to entice free metahumans to come of their own will and make a living in this way. Unfortunately, at present there is no means of implementing this on a large enough scale to make this a viable plan at present.
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Oh, just wait until all those freed “livestock” spread the word. Asamando won’t be gaining trust on the global stage for a long, long time. Kay St. Irregular
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Even the fly is enticed into the mouth of the Venus trap. Man-of-Many-Names
CHICAGO LONG PIG FARMS POSTED BY: RED
Long Pig has been producing quality pork for ghouls and metahumans alike for years, earning the ghouls of Chicago an uneasy place among the populace of the Corridor. From the long-timers who have been doing this for more than a decade to the more recent dispossessed packs from the Zone, the pig farms make up for their unsavory population and atrocious smell by providing some of the finest pork and sausage in the city. They have been held up as an example of how a ghoul colony can exist in harmony with normal metahumanity. Perhaps as an attempt to capitalize on that sense of community, the ghouls have started becoming more active in ensuring the security of their neighbors. It started with a rumble between the Cougars and the Six Feet, two minor gangs that had gotten their hands on some heavy firepower and were doing significant damage to the surrounding neighborhood. While the ghouls were safely out of harm’s way, a group set out to investigate the disturbance. When they found civilians running for their lives and being cut down with automatic weapons fire, they leapt into action, quite literally. Decades of survival deep in the zone had made many of them veterans of dealing with petty warlords and insect flesh forms. Even with superior firepower, the gangers didn’t stand a chance. Stealth and strength turned the rampage into a rout inside of ten minutes.
>
Oh, that’s bad news for the ghouls. Word is those gangs were supplied by corps looking to clean out the Corridors
> BETTER THAN BAD
so they can pave it over. Expect some ghoul bounties in the next few weeks. Red Anya
The scene made local pirate trids, with ghouls sneaking behind heavy machine gunners to tear into them with claws, or leaping down from broken buildings to rend and snap necks. The greater story, however, came from the images of those Infected who guided gangers away from innocents, or carefully carried the wounded and children from the battleground, always covering them to help prevent infection. Most impressively, the ghouls did not feed on the fallen (no bite marks were found on any of the living or dead, in fact), keeping those they had captured secured until the citizen’s militia arrived to help. The ghouls’ leader, Needles, gave a situation update, turned over seized weapons, and offered the surviving gangers for incarceration, warning to keep an eye on those who were potentially infected in the fight. He only asked the militia to consider sending the dead gangers to Long Pig if no one objected. Without any demands or drama, he rounded up his pack and returned to the Farm.
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Slim, take a breath. Red
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Why did you vanish? Needles was a mess after you left. Kept blaming himself. Slim
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I’m sorry. I wasn’t exactly in my best headspace at the time. Red
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He’s gonna flip when he hears you’re okay! Oh man, Pretty! She’s gonna— Slim
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Slim! Stop. Pretty knows. Red
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What? Slim
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She was there when I left. She knows I’m alive. Red
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I don’t understand. Slim
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I couldn’t stay. I was competition for leadership for the pack. That’s all Needles had. Red
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How the hell are these ghouls exhibiting such restraint? Bull
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Needles is an old friend. He ran a tight ship with his pack before they merged with Long Pig. What’s more, the Long Pig ghouls feed their own pork stock with ghoul caps, which makes the meat taste like metahuman flesh. It’s not a nutritive replacement, but it keeps the edge off the hunger. Red
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What? Slim
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I couldn’t take that from him. Red
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They are making a lot more cred as they export their specialty cuts to established warrens with the money to pay for it. Tamanous is even thinking of getting in on the action. Hannibelle
You … you know what? You’ve got an awfully big opinion of yourself. Slim
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Excuse me? Red
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Red! You’re alive! Slim
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Oh, no … Red
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You think Needles can’t handle himself? You think you’re so damn important? We got by fine before you, and we did fine after. Slim
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I— Red
Rick! Where have you been?! We thought you were dead! Slim
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>> BETTER THAN BAD >
Sort yourself out, Rick. Stop being greedy. Your family misses you. Slim
>
SLIM HAS LOGGED OFF
The weeks that followed saw a dramatic shift in attitude among the neighboring hovels and settlements. Long Pig had been there for a long time, and they had never quite forgotten the presence of the public ghoul colony in their midst (particularly after the Meal Time Killings and Fear the Dark were on the news every night), but the farm had mostly kept to itself for a long time. It had passed into a passive discomfort. Now, this unsavory neighbor had shown itself to be friendly. Quite a few owed their lives and livelihood to the cannibals next door. Perhaps the neo-anarchist spirit of the Corridor prevailed, as those few dissenters who spoke out against the ghouls were vastly outnumbered by supporters. Many left gifts for their rescuers, and tentative invitations were made for social occasions and business opportunities. They weren’t exactly splitting a Grey joint over beers, but a dialogue was established. Things seem to be looking up until a band of friendly kids coming to visit were almost mauled by a hungry ghoul. Only the two with her managed to hold her at bay, yelling at the kids to run. The Farm, as an entity, had to make a statement:
breeds, fed on acorns and grass as opposed to the ghoul caps that are an Infected delicacy) for a neighborhood barbecue. A local Matrix café installed special routers and a correspondence hub for the ghouls, calling it GreyNet. Through this, the citizens of the Corridor have begun a pen pal relationship with the isolated ghouls of Long Pig.
> > > >
This is really gonna suck when the corps come in and push them out. Chainmaker I have a feeling they’ll have a home waiting for them when everyone else picks up stakes and moves out of the way of the bulldozers. Old Crow
In the months since, the ghouls have sent the occasional member of the pack out, always well-fed and possessed of great self-control, to mingle and do business in town. The most ghouls anyone sees is when the militia calls in for help. Gang violence is, consequently, on a significant downturn.
TURNING A PROFIT WITHOUT CHARGING MONEY MORALS AND CENTS POSTED BY: RED
We appreciate the offer of hospitality more than you know, but as conscientious neighbors and members of the community, we have a responsibility to keep you safe, and in part that means keeping you safe from us. You may have heard that Infected suffer from far greater hunger pangs than in previous years. This is, unfortunately, true. We cannot help what we are, and we cannot divorce the idea that you are prey from our minds. Our isolation is purposeful, for your safety and ours, and while we are working toward the day when we can rejoin society as equals, please respect our privacy. With that said, we hope you will continue to do business with us and include us in your prayers and decisions. If there is anything we can offer, if there is anything you need which we can provide, never be afraid to ask. As a gesture of goodwill, the Farm provided the pork (from their metahuman consumption
It’s tough to make a buck when you’re making a real difference. Sure, it’s satisfying to stick it to a corp, but it’s usually just the shift of power from one to another, not to the little. More often than not, it’s their livelihood that is hurt the most.
> >
Awwww. Poor little wageslaves. Clockwork
Hooding gets a bad rap with a lot of professionals. Bleeding hearts can lead to bleeding runners, and there’s not a lot of money to patch them up afterwards. Hood runs are often how a street-level runner gets their start, running shit jobs for the block to get some experience. More than that, big-ticket corp Mr. Johnsons tend to look down on them, since they like managing the little people, and hoods have a tendency to act against corporate bottom lines and undermine their own image of control. So the
> BETTER THAN BAD >
Ha! Prove it! Kane
NOT ALL THAT GLITTERS The first thing you can get is gratitude. Yeah, I know, gratitude doesn’t put food on the table or locks on the doors. Or does it? Let’s say you pick a neighborhood and start playing hood. You could just play self-appointed judge/jury/executioner, and the street scum you take down is probably packing weapons and cred you can take for your own. But a real hood makes connections, finds a local fixer who has their ear to the pavement and can broker jobs for the folks who call the burb home. This can be everything from finding missing kids to standing up to the terrorizing go gangs or policlubs to gathering evidence of corporate corruption.
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So, mostly private eye stuff? /dev/grrl
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Private eye and generally some extra muscle, yeah. Red
These kinds of jobs don’t have as much shortterm danger as the big leagues, on average. There are exceptions, of course. If the missing kid joined a wendigo cult, for example, or the gangers are working for a bigger mob or other mover and shaker, things can get a lot more complicated. But more on that later. You do the job, but these are people who work eighty hours a week for crap pay. Maybe the neighborhood watch association puts together a nice little pot, but for the most part, expenses aren’t covered, little to nothing up front, and not much to take home when all is said and done. So what makes hooding worth it, once you’ve got your rep and bigger and better jobs are calling? First, consider that while people who charter hoods may not have cash, they have a lot of other things to offer. That neighborhood watch? Who is on it? What do those people
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do, and what can they offer beyond money? Don’t forget the benefit of a SIN. You help a SINner, you’ve got someone who can make legal purchases on your behalf. They can offer an alibi under the right circumstances. They can make the paperwork for a safehouse a lot easier to complete and give you a place to duck and stay low when the heat gets too close for comfort. Hell, even some home-grown stuffers can make life nicer.
> > > >
So, you’re saying we can reduce costs by taking influence instead of cred? Strop I’d rather have the money, but money saved is money earned. Hard Exit
Second, just straight contacts. Sure, they can save you money and give you access, but they’ve got information, too. Criminals tend to underestimate the kind of connections and influence grassroots community members have. I’ve made friends of university teachers who had access to lab equipment, a vending machine stockwoman who could spare a few sets of coveralls to infiltrate a surprising number of businesses, data crunchers with passcodes, lawyers who can help when all else fails, and more than I could ever list here. They aren’t the fences and fixers we all make use of, but they are the gossiping waitresses and bartenders, the private eyes and metro cops, the bloggers and and secretaries and urban farmers who hear more than anyone ever thinks. A network like that can cast a bigger net than you’d believe.
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I get it, Red’s a face. But this is a two-way street. You make lots of friends, and you’ve got a lot more people who can be used to hurt you. A lot of untrained, undisciplined, unprofessional loose ends who are risking their lives just by associating with a runner. That’s bad for you, and honestly, you’re bad for them. Winterhawk You’re right to be cautious in who you call a contact, considering professional criminals are at least moderately prepared for the potential shitstorm that can fall on them. But I don’t think that means this brand of contact doesn’t have a place in the business. You just have to make conscious choices on who you involve, and how deep they get pulled in. Bull
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Yeah, with their hands out looking for free help. Clockwork
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When you are on your back, an open hand can help you up. Man-of-Many-Names
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Or slap you back down. Clockwork
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We all die alone. Living that way is just another kind of death. Man-of-Many-Names
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Making the choice to do the moral thing isn’t always easy, both in terms of what’s good for the credder and good for the conscience. There’s an old saying from the ’50s: Find your own truth. If that truth makes you do things some might call heroic, you’ll find more work of that kind coming in. It’s not an easy life, but if you’re remembered, it’ll be as someone who made a difference.
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INTANGIBLE REWARDS When a player runs a job well done but gets less pay, that can make for excellent drama, but it’s rarely very satisfying. You could offer bonus Karma, but there are ways to make sure that the rewards reflect the situation. During character creation, a single point of Karma is worth around two thousand nuyen. If you gauge the pay of the run by standard rates a corp Mr. Johnson can pay, you can convert that lost cash into Karma. That cost can go towards paying for certain qualities, equipment, or opportunities that the hood Johnson can offer. Examples include: • Home Ground quality, applicable to the neighborhood helped • Contacts • Lifestyle payment and modules • Favors with other contacts • Intel and passcodes that make a later run easier Feel free to use any reward that makes sense to you. For best results, balance it to the challenge of the game, and be liberal with the role-playing descriptions. Home Turf or Solid Rep, for example, can manifest as drinks on the house or kids coming to warn the runner when the Star is closing in. Lifestyle modules can be extra furniture from a grateful outlet store owner, fresh grown fruits and veggies from a private garden, or premium Matrix channel passwords shared. A favor can mean a security guard turning a blind eye or letting captured runners go. “You saved my kid sister. We’re even.” Sometimes the best rewards don’t show up until a run or two later, and the players get the satisfaction of an unexpected payoff a long time coming.
Heroism gets you and your team killed. Always play it smart. Thorn And let’s not forget, a rep is how people know you. The wrong people can learn how to use that against you. You get known for going after Aztechnology, savvy Mr. Johnsons will use that to get your blood up and drive the price down. You stand up for the little guy, they pose as poor Mom and Dad who just want their son back, and you do it for even less. Do what you want, but try not to be a sucker. Kia
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Hahaha. Can you just see it? Like in one of those old Dick Tracy trids? A big table with representatives from all the gangs sitting around discussing how to divide up the city … wait. That isn’t funny. SeaTac Sweetie
So, if someone is looking for some work that will make a difference, hit up the Funhouse. Make
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the rounds among the gangs and sow division. The major gangs involved seem to be the First Nations, Rusted Stilettos, Crimson Crush, 405 Hellhounds, Halloweeners, and the Death Heads, but those are just a few major players, with smaller gangs every bit as involved. Do what you can to prevent these gangs from teaming up, or prevent them from carrying out any plans they already have. Some faction of the Ancients seem to enjoy the Funhouse, while the majority have steered clear. Like I said, I can’t speak for Urubia’s true motives, but be prepared just in case this is what she actually wanted to happen. Mayor Scholl, of all people, is paying for this run. She is in the loop and has no desire for Redmond to become a headquarters for the new Seattle theme-park Mafia.
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Oh Great Ghost. It might be true. Last year, a client swore that he saw a dragon swoop down over the mayor’s house just before he saw Scholl go in. Those kind of sightings happen all the time, so I dismissed it, but I’ve never seen Urubia and Scholl in the same place … and their politics seem to line up. Bull
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This kind of rumormongering is beneath you, old man. Leave the half-baked theories to Plan 9. Snopes
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Still, that would explain a lot. A lot. Plan 9
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The scary part is what would happen in the gangs got together, began to act in unison, and then were disrupted. You could have gang wars all over Seattle as conflicting ideologies clash and leadership vacuums open. DangerSensei
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A GLOBAL CONSPIRACY … FOR GOOD! (MOSTLY) POSTED BY: ELECTRIC BLUE
Greetings and salutations, all you carbon-based, electron-based, or anything not-yet-classified life forms! My new uber-chum Glitch gave me a temppass here and asked me to do some digging for some paydata regarding some “hooding” (cute term, by the by) done on a more global scale.
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Great, just when I thought this couldn’t get any worse, now I have to deal with this hyper-active head case. Clockwork
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I am not a head case! Some of my best friendz R, but I’m not! Take it back or you’ll be sorry. Electric Blue
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*pfft* Please, take your best shot. Clockwork
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Should we? Bull
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Nope. Let it play out. Glitch
DRACO FOUNDATION: BIG D’S FOUNDATION FOR CHANGE For those of you who don’t know or weren’t around for it (I think I was like negative five years old or something), once upon a time the great dragon and UCAS Pres-elect Dunkelzahn was assassinated on inauguration night. Later, as part of Dunkie’s will, a foundation was created to not only act as executors of said will, but to carry on with his vision and legacy. Or something like that. What most people still tend to think of when it comes to the Draco Foundation is the giving away of a drek-load of the great dragon’s personal swag. He must have a lot of it because twenty or so years later, they’re still not done doling the goods out.
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It’s a bit more complicated than that. Most of the bequeathed items or tokens of esteem have been given to their intended recipients, but a great many still remain unclaimed because of various complications, to put it mildly. Frosty
But there’s more to the Draco Foundation than passing out stuff from what amounts to a great dragon’s garage sale (but what a garage sale, know what I mean?). No, the foundation’s reach has gone beyond that into various halls of power both on a corporate and governmental scale (heh, scale …dragon, get it?). But that’s for another file, I’m sure. What I’m about to talk about are some of the other projects and initiatives that Big D either had a direct interest in when he was still alive, or things that have since come up that the foundation’s chair—namely, one Nadja Daviar— believed he would have taken an interest in despite the inevitable pushback from governments, corps, and in many cases other “private” entities. Now, full disclosure: Everything’s not completely unified within the foundation, as several board members (among others) are using their positions to accomplish their own personal goals and agendas, only to pass them off as what Dunkie wanted. Shocker right? But it would be disingenuous to ignore the elements within the DF that have been working, often quietly and behind the scenes, to do some honest good in the world, even if it’s sometimes still for their own agenda. Hey, good is good, right? Below I’ve listed a nice sampling of the more high-profile stuff in the vague flavor of hooding they’re doing. Don’t think for a nano-second, though, that this is a comprehensive list. The DF has developed quite a long reach and a lot of contacts in the shadows, which makes for a lot of ongoing projects and operations; many of which are firmly in the shadows.
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Juan always told me that there’s nothing wrong with maintaining your honor and still getting paid doing it. Helping out and doing some good is still quite expensive. Picador Something else worth mentioning—while publicly the DF is still working to carry out Dunkelzahn’s last wishes or at least act in the spirit of said wishes, they still continue to maintain and expand a rather extensive global intelligence network that rivals any government agencies or many corporate divisions. Aside from the obvious intent of keeping abreast of current events and issues, the Draco Foundation uses this network to remain proactive in investigating and in many cases ‘dealing’ with threats of various natures. They mainly use New Assets as their primary, but not exclusive, instrument of choice. Thorn
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There’s also been chatter over the last couple of years about the Draco Foundation and the great dragon Arleesh butting heads over supposed threats, despite Dunkelzahn’s will stipulating that the foundation assist her. But they’ve recently appeared to have reached some sort of détente over whatever they were fighting over. More on that later. Wyrm Watcher
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Shush! No spoilers. Hey, I got to actually say that! Electric Blue
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What is this, amateur hour? Clockwork
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DRACO FOUNDATION GLOBAL INITIATIVES MOUNT KILIMANJARO MEDIATION Over the past few years, tensions have constantly been on the rise between pro-corporate forces sponsored by the Corporate Court to protect the Kilimanjaro Mass Driver and militant locals backed by hostile spirits. The locals are protesting the continued use of the mass driver despite promises of it being decommissioned once the Skyhook Space Elevator was complete. Skirmishes between corporate mercenary forces and local opposition have been on the rise recently, which threaten to engulf the area into full-out warfare.
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More like having zero effect, unless you count slotting people off as progress. The Foundation is being ignored by all sides who consider them interlopers at best, a complication to be dealt with at worse. At least two DF “moderators” have been assassinated, and four more simply vanished. All they’re doing is making an already tense situation worse. Are they trying to start another war? Hard Exit I’ve been hearing rumblings that the Foundation is desperate to stop the fighting. Rumors are sketchy but indicate someone found something the foundation wants, or wants to stop, and a war would seriously complicate things. Lyran
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ASAMANDO FOOD RELIEF PROJECT One of the provisions within Dunkelzahn’s Will was an award for the creation of synthetic flesh designed to meet the dietary requirements of ghouls without having to rely on metahuman sources. Over the years, many have attempted, and a few have come close to claiming the reward. All, though, have ultimately failed. While some of the attempts have been able to make a meat-substitute that temporarily quells a ghoul’s hunger, none of them did anything for their nutritional needs, basically creating what amounted to what one scientist called “ghoul junk food.”
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OPERATION: PHOENIX Devastation caused by Az-Am War is still felt to this day in the rural areas of Central and South America. In an effort to elevate some of the suffering caused by both sides of the war, the Draco Foundation has attempted to send relief supplies to the region with the help of mercenary and paramilitary forces, only for them to deal with constant attacks by local partisans and unknown guerrillas. Aztlan and Amazonia claim to have no knowledge of these forces and have criticized the DF for invading sovereign territory and not coordinating a proper humanitarian response.
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Things have gotten so bad that the DF has sent representatives to various area cartels to ask for assistance. Good luck with that. Marcos
YELLOWSTONE OBSERVATION PROJECT Working in conjunction with the Dunkelzahn Institute of Magical Research, this project is the covert observation and monitoring of the Yellowstone region. Unfortunately, the Draco Foundation has been repeatedly denied access to the areas by the NAN tribal council, but this has not stopped them from conducting operations.
Anyone else picking up on a theme here? That the DF is sticking their noses in places they’re just not wanted? Icarus
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Many of the individuals and groups that submitted their work to the Draco Foundation have cried foul about this, claiming outright theft of their work. The DF countered by claiming that once the work was submitted, it became foundation property. Needless to say, various lawsuits have been filed, further delaying research and development. Mr. Bonds And of course, data steals and sabotage runs have been on the rise against the DF. Mika
As the population of Asamando increases, the nation’s monarchy is quickly becoming desperate to find a sustainable food source. Offering their best researchers, the Draco Foundation has assigned a team to fast-track the research using previous submissions as a baseline for work. While the team has yet to be allowed into Asamando proper, Draco Foundations researchers continue with their work and petitioning.
ARLEESH: OUR NEW GUARDIAN DRAGON-MOTHER? Okay, backtracking just a bit. Some may not know about the great feathered serpent Arleesh. She first came on the global scene in 2048. But since then she’s wasted no time getting up to speed. And unlike most of the other greats, she hasn’t become the head of a megacorp or some crim-
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As already stated, Dunkelzahn promised DF assistance to Arleesh whenever she needed it. But things didn’t originally go as planned and rumors speculate Arleesh was less than satisfied with DF’s assistance, specifically stonewalling by Nadja Daviar herself. Arleesh apparently decided to simply take care of things herself. And by all accounts she’s been quite successful. Wyrm Watcher
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So, what’s changed then? Glitch
SHADOWCASTERS: ACTS OF INFORMATION FREEDOM “I have taken all knowledge to be my province”—Sir Francis Bacon Knowledge is power, make no mistake about that. Everything in the Sixth World revolves around knowledge in one way or another, whether it’s the specs on the latest uber-super-duper-weapon all the way down to who knows when it’s the
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right time to cross the street. In the right hands and deployed properly, any knowledge through information can be easily weaponized, in a manner of speaking. And of course the various powers that be, corps and governments at the top of that list but not exclusive, want the masses to remain completely unarmed and therefore under control. Even worse, knowledge that’s diluted, slanted, or even altered is even worse. It gives the illusion of personal power and free will, but at the end of the day it’s just another method of keeping people in their nice and comfortable sheep pens, behind walls (for our own good of course) completely dependent on our “good shepherds” to protect us from the wolves out there. Of course, not everyone has let the wool stay over their eyes; some have gone a bit old-school to get the word out about, well just about everything and anything. You just need to know where to find them. They call themselves shadowcasters. The term itself is a sort of shorthand for a combination of several terms and descriptors. Of course, the shadow part refers to the quasi-legal or outright illegal actions they undertake and in many ways are similar to modern shadowrunners.
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Ah, no. Sorry, but most of these jokers are posers to the extreme who wouldn’t know a real spell or piece of ‘ware if it smacked them in the face. And most of their “paydata” is just regurgitated drek from the tabloid screemsheets. No true professional would, or should, take any of these dip-dreks seriously. Clockwork As with scales, one must give weight to both sides in order to find the proper balance. Man-of-Many-Names
The “casters” part refers to the modern term Matrix-casters, which is derived from the old podcasters of decades past. While modern Matrixcasters are considered by the public at large to be the spiritual successors to old late-night AM talkradio programs, something to satisfy a nostalgic craving for the offbeat or weird, shadowcasters take things to the next level. Shadowcasters are considered even more of a fringe element that has in recent years started to come into their own as more and more shadowcast programs are created. A scant five years ago, there were maybe a handful of shadowcasters and most of them had a very narrow focus. Now, there are dozens of new
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Okay, Blue, I know you’re a major source of paydata for a number of ‘casters, which is fine. But pro tip, you may want to have a bit more disclosure about it, especially here. Otherwise, you’ll likely get called out for bias, and your data may not be taken seriously because it looks like you may be embellishing or hiding something. /dev/grrl Huh … never thought about it that way. Data assimilated; domo! Electric Blue Oh for … so basically, this guy—or rather kid—is confirming he’s full of it, and this is a complete waste of time? Clockwork Yeah, anyway. It’s becoming more and more common for certain runners to work with shadowcasters as a sort of quid pro quo in regards to paydata. It’s also becoming more common for some ’casts with large pockets to act as Johnsons looking acquire specific kinds of paydata. Pistons Black Star and other neo-a groups are frequent patrons and allies of shadowcasters, who are more than happy to help with the cause. *grin* Old Crow
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On the down side, these ’casts need to start watching their backs more because GOD has started taking notice of them. Seven in the last year have been directly targeted and eliminated, while many others now have files on them. Tread carefully. Icarus
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NEW UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: THE MORE THINGS CHANGE …
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Throughout history, there’ve always been persecuted groups within any given society. And most of the time, the average person is simply glad it’s not them, until it is. But ya see, every so often people realize the wrongness of that and actually do something about it. And of course, those actions are extremely dangerous—people have actually died for their principles while trying to get the persecuted to freedom or protect them from annihilation. One of the most famous of these efforts came during the United States’ Civil War. Called the Underground Railroad, its purpose was to help slaves from Africa in the nation’s southern states, where slavery was still legal, to find freedom in the nation’s northern regions where slavery had been abolished. An elaborate system of waypoints, secret routes, and safehouses were established. Not all of them were successful, and the penalty for helping escaped slaves was just as severe as for those slaves who escaped. But, many were willing to take that risk. Now, fast forward a couple hundred years and change and we have the Sixth World. And in some ways—actually many ways—things really didn’t change that much. After the Awakening, persecuting metahumans became the new “in” thing to do for most of the world. In those early years, the recently goblinized would be ran out of town. At worst, they were killed outright or tortured for fun or part of some experiment. After things post-Awakening started to calm down a bit more and metahumans became a little more accepted by society, new groups kept taking their place; not that the racial bias and persecution against metahumans completely went away. Changelings victimized by SURGE and even technomancers found themselves in dire circumstances.
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Protecting freaks? Traitors to metahumanity, if you ask me. Clockwork Funny, no one did. You really need to get a new spiel; this one’s way past its expiration date. Bull
But as in the days of the Civil War, a select few banded together to help the persecuted get out of harm’s way and start anew. This group of individuals started calling themselves the New Underground Railroad. Adapting their predecessors’ methods and tactics, the New Railroad began setting up their own network of waypoints, secret routes, and safehouses. Only this time, they were able to better coordinate thanks to modern communications such as the Matrix. Railroad workers generally fall into two categories. The first are conductors, the ones directly active in helping get individuals or groups. They’re the ones to provide transportation, manage safehouses, or do whatever needs to be done. Basically, they’re the ones on the front lines. The second are known simply as patrons. They’re the ones who usually help finance railroad operations or act as logistical support. Like I said, doing the right thing isn’t cheap. Sometimes, individuals or groups will act as both conductor and patron.
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A lot of new technomancers owe their lives to the New Railroad, which helped scores make their way to sanctuary areas such as Denver or Berlin. Netcat
Unsurprisingly, the usual suspects of the Draco Foundation and Black Star are known to work extensively with the railroad when they need to move large amounts of people or supplies. I also have it on good authority that several conductors are also members, or affiliates, of Technicolor Wings and Banzai’s Battlefield Express. And when called for, the railroad also hires runners for various jobs. Turbo Bunny Do we have any data on how large or extensive the railroad is? Lyran No, they keep that a tight secret. But a couple of years ago, a large number of non-feral ghouls made their way from Chicago to Asamando in less than three days thanks to the Railroad. Take that for what you will. Hannibelle
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Interestingly enough, this is a similar MO to a terrorist organization. Balladeer
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Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck … Clockwork
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So here’s a question—why haven’t we really heard about them until now? Treadle
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I can think of more than a few reasons, chief among them is that they maintain a low profile and appear to act through proxies, or at least those who take the credit. I’d also wager that if they have this extensive of a network, they have patrons with sufficient power to cover up or deflect any inquiries about the Railroad. But ultimately, I think that they have always been there, hiding in plain sight because no one’s really had a reason to look into them. Picador
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Well, that’s gonna change … Clockwork
WARREN’S WAVERIDERS: SAILING THE FRIENDLY SEAS Yo-ho me hearties! Okay, we can all agree that the standard modus operandi of pirates is looting, pillaging, and plundering … or was that the Vikings? I think it’s both, but regardless, as we all know piracy is alive and well even today. Just ask anyone who frequents the Carib League, South China Sea, the African Coast, and so on, and they’ll tell you the same thing. Things are so bad in some areas that anti-pirate specialists are paid premium prices for their services. And even then, it’s not enough. Some pirate bands are on
par with some of the most successful mercenary groups who even government and corporate groups don’t want to tangle with. True terrors of the sea they are. And then there’s Warren’s Waveriders.
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Oh, these jokers can take a big frag grenade up the ass. Kane
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What? The great Kane is irritated? Is this an indication of some actual, serious competition? Color me extremely interested. Pistons
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You can take one, too. Kane
“We’re privateers, not pirates!” is the first thing “Commodore” William Warren will say when describing his merry band of white-hat buccaneers. So what makes the Waveriders different than the average, run-of-the-mill cutthroats? In a nutshell, the Waveriders are basically anti-pirates. In many ways they operate, and look, like regular pirates, but that’s where the similarities end. First, the Waveriders are basically, in the loosest technical sense, a paramilitary unit that specializes in maritime operations. They first came on the scene about six years ago and quickly made their mark on the piracy scene, in all the wrong ways— or right, depending on your general opinion on piracy. The ’Riders are an honest-to-ghost legit security outfit in many regards. Commodore Warren is registered by the International Mercenary Association and has multiple security licenses with multiple government and even several corporations. This allows the Waveriders to operate just about everywhere on the planet if they wish. Or almost. Regardless, the Waveriders usually get a contract, which they call a “letter of marque” that keeps them from too many legal entanglements when they’re sailing the deep blue seas and shooting drek up.
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Warren has licenses with all of the Big Ten except for Ares, who still prefers to use their pet unit Team Zero in these situations, and Wuxing, who has their Marine Security Division and considers anyone else inferior. Hard Exit
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Or it could just be the beef they have with Warren himself. /dev/grrl
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Third, the Waveriders are known to work for relatively cheap compared to other organizations of similar scope and size. As I’ve already said, most of the ’Rider’s employers are victims of piracy, many of them without the means to pay large fees other outfits charge. There’s one legend that Warren accepted a job for a single nuyen because it gave him the ability to settle an old score and bust up a human trafficking ring near the Arabian Peninsula. Frag, it’s well-known that Warren often gives special consideration for his clients if the job entails geeking slavers of any kind.
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Second, the Waveriders are basically pirates who hunt other pirates. Simple enough right? But while Commodore Warren has accreditation coming out of his ass, he’s yet to take a single corporate contract (at least not directly). Instead, ninety percent of Waverider contracts are from parties aggrieved by, targeted by, or victims of piracy. Depending on the terms of the contract, these jobs often range from the quick and simple asset recovery, hostage rescue, or more longterm jobs such as escort or “asset denial” in which Waverider ships frag with a pirate crew or band’s operations. Of the latter, one of the Waverider’s favorite tactics is to convert their larger vessels into modern-day equivalents of “Q-ships,” luring pirates in by looking like anything other than an armed vessel and then blasting the ever-loving drek out of them when they try to board.
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Some of these Q-ships use other tactics. Some purposely allow boarders and then trap them with a combination of security devices and magical traps. I’ve heard of at least one Waverider Q-ship that used special drones disguised as small cargo containers to re-configure the main hull’s layout or to simply engulf intruders. Turbo Bunny Hey Kane, didn’t your flagship take heavy damage last month from a Waverider Q-ship, forcing you to retreat? Stone
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Frag off and die. Kane
They’re also known to readily work for or with the neo-a’s, providing transportation and support for either dirt cheap or free. Old Crow
The ’Riders usually make up their costs by salvaging or flat-out taking whatever they can from their targets. Hey, do-gooding isn’t cheap, and guns and ammo cost money. This is also how Warren has been able to expand his fleet so quickly. Granted, what they can’t keep they usually have to sell their salvage through legit means. Most within the pirate and black-market communities would like nothing more than to keel-haul every ’Rider they come across. Oh! Almost forgot, Warren also isn’t above claiming bounties on known pirates or pirate bands, which further endears them to their chosen enemies. Currently, the Waverider’s fleet was last known to contain at least twenty vessels of various types. Overall, Waverider tactics involve a combination of speed, surprise, and unconventional tactics. So most of the fleet is composed of fast-moving craft sporting plenty of arms and armor; the lone exception to this being Warren’s flagship, the converted supertanker the Better Deal, which acts as a mobile HQ and floating repair dock. Depending on the job, it’s not unusual for the fleet to split up into various flotillas as needed or work as a large unit. With the Better Deal able to carry every ship in the fleet, they can travel wherever necessary. Individual ship captains and crew can come from anywhere—some are even former pirates, but all must swear loyalty to Warren and agree to operate under his rules of engagement. Those that
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Rumors say that Warren has all of his ships equipped with special detonation devices that only he can access, should any of his people go rogue. If a captain steps out line, Warren expects the crew to take over. Otherwise, everyone goes BOOM. 2XL All RIGHT!!! WHO THE FRAG DID IT! I KNOW IT WAS ONE OFYOU ONTHIS BOARD, ITRACKED IT! WHEN I FIND OUT WHO Clockwork Okay, first, calm the frag down. Second, what are you talking about? Glitch
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Well … remember when he got on my backside about being a head case at the beginning of this file and told me to “take your best shot”? For that, and because he’s such a grade-A jerk, I made a donation to known New Underground Railroad affiliates to the tune of 1.5 million nuyen in Clockwork’s name, which is only fitting because I used the money from several of his previously hidden Carib-League accounts. And I also ordered about one hundred pizzas for the local techno-tribe in my area—kept one for myself, which is a bit selfish I admit; my bad on that. But don’t worry! I left him one hundred ‘yen for basic living expenses. Electric Blue
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BUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Slamm-O!
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I like this kid, can we keep him? /dev/grrl
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Lookit that approval rating. You can practically feel the conflicted joy. Red
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Oh fuck me. Blue, we really need to talk … Glitch
Guess what? You still need a job. The world of hooding isn’t that different from normal shadowrunning, truth be told; you still have a team, you still have opponents, and believe it or not, you still have an employer. If you’re lucky, you’re getting a Mr. Johnson, but most of the time, you get Ms. Smith. More on that in a moment.
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POSTED BY: BULL
Okay, I’m gonna step in here, too. So you oh-sonoble shadowrunners want to save the world?
What? Fred, I’m still south of fifty for frag’s sake. The Matrix existed before I was born. I just, you can’t … *sigh* Bull
In a traditional setting, you have a few moving parts. You have the team, you have your fixer sniffing around to get you work, you have Mr. Johnson sniffing around for teams to do a job, and you have a client – the guy who has Mr. Johnson go out there and set the job up. Rarely, Mr. Johnson is the client (Some of us who have worked for Karen King know how that goes) but, more often than not, he’s just a professional negotiator who’s willing to get his hands dirty. This separation is important; it keeps the runners from implicating the client, it keeps the client from knowing who the runners are so he doesn’t feel the need to “deal with loose ends,” and the Quiet Arrangement continues. What, you don’t think the corps could shut most of us down if they didn’t have use for us? That layer of deniability is vital. Those rare times when Mr. Johnson is the client is when you know it’s going to be crazy. It either means that you’re trusted enough to be folded inside the company, that the matter is so important to the client that they’re personally getting involved instead of keeping a professional distance, or that you’ll be capped when it’s done, so come prepared.
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FIRST, YOU NEED A JOB …
Wait, is Bull actually contributing to JackPoint? I thought he was just puttering around the place in his housecoat and muttering about when he compiled code in Fortran, on a dial-up modem that rests on a tortoise! Slamm-0!
For me, it’s usually the second. I had a streak of jobs for Ares a while back, and they tend to go through Johnsons more than anybody else. One job from this guy, three from that gal, two from this other chummer … you get used to it. Twice, though, Mr. Johnson tracked the team down later for a personal run. They’d been let go from the company and wanted to pad their pockets with some bonus retirement funds in the first case, or had narrowly missed being eliminated (or “court-martialed,” in Ares
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parlance) and wanted to get some revenge so they could vanish. Got her out, hopped around the globe for a few months, thought about getting hitched, but then Ares got wind of us in Niagara Falls. She caught a terminal case of lead poisoning. Stone
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I’m sorry, omae. Did you avenge her? Beaker
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Nah. Turned out she was going to sell me out for a chance to come in from the cold, but the team that found her didn’t know it. Ares: Where one hand has no clue what the other one’s doing. Stone
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There are several groups out there that both employ Johnsons and who do hoodingflavored work: The Draco Foundation, Mothers of Metahumans (Hi MOM!), and many, many more. If you stretch a bit, you can even find headspace to include groups like Greenwar or the Mafia in there. Just because you’re helping out the little guy, it doesn’t always mean doing the right thing. Just because you’re doing a job for a corp, it doesn’t
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always mean that it’s a bad thing. I’ve had Lone Star hire me to take out a child predator they couldn’t reach due to jurisdiction, and I’ve been asked by a family in the Ork Underground to murder a bunch of dwarfs (didn’t take that one, obviously) … you can find immoral operators anywhere. As always, build a good relationship with your fixer to let them know what kinds of work you will or won’t do, and they’ll work to make sure that you get the right Johnsons.
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This is true. It saves us all time if you let your fixer know that you don’t do wetwork, for instance. Saves those of us giving out jobs from wasting our time. Am-Mut
MEET MS. SMITH And now for the other side of the coin; You’re not likely familiar with the term Ms. Smith, so let me fill you in. Ms. Smith is the codename of choice for a client who is representing themselves. Yes, this applies to men, women, and everything in between, just like Mr. Johnson is often a woman. Ms. Smith sometimes knows the shadowrunning gig, but most of the time they have no idea what they’re doing. They have a problem, they need help, they don’t know who to turn to, so they launch a “friend of a friend” network plea for help and wind up sitting at a table across from you, desperate that you’re the last hope. You’ve all done a few of these gigs as a favor to a contact, I’m sure. Sergei who gets you guns has a friend who need a hand. The bartender who lets you use the back room has a cousin deep in debt to the Yaks. Your uncle got his house robbed and you promise to find the jerks who did it, that kind of thing. Ms. Smith takes many forms but always asks the same question: Will you help me?
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I love these kinds of jobs. They’re clueless. Promise them anything, take whatever money they scrape together, then bail … quick cash, no risk, and it never impacts your professional rep. Bonus points if you get a lil’ as part of the price. Haze
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Swear to God, just when I think you can’t get any worse … Pistons
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Bull’s on the nose about helping your contacts. Too many runners think of it as a one-way street: What can you tell me about this? What can you tell me about that? They’re people, you know? They have wants and needs, desires
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and dreams, which means the care and feeding of your contacts is vital. If you don’t toss them favors now and then, why should they help you? On the other hand, when you do them a solid, they’ll have your back when you really need it. Yeah, the pay’s lousy (Hell, most of the time it’s gratis), but the pay off can be huge. You need to keep some room on your calendar open for short runs like this. Hard Exit
Most of the time, Ms. Smith doesn’t know anything about the biz. All they know is that they need help, they were directed at you, and now they just sort of sit there and lay it all on the line. Occasionally, you get someone who thinks that they know and will try to play it cool but anyone with some experience can see through it. The worst are the ones who’ve seen too many trids and try to play it up like some kind of spy adventure. I’ll be honest; working for Ms. Smith is often a mixed bag. You’re pretty safe with the no-betrayal thing, since they’re only doing this because they need help. You can count on them to meddle rarely, since you know what you’re doing and they don’t. Sometimes they insist on going with you for part of the mission, but usually they know that they’ll just get in the way. Pay isn’t the best (but sometimes they pay way too much, having no idea of what the job’s really worth), but the assets they can bring are different from the usual Johnson dossiers. Ms. Smith might have a legitimate account at a corporation, letting you slip in and look around without raising suspicion. They might have passcodes to doors, know where someone keeps the loot, or can tell you that the security guard goes off at 2:30 a.m. every Thursday to watch Passion of the Luchadores on Azziemundo. Just as likely is that they have no idea what’s going on and can’t offer you more than a doe-eyed smile.
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Do a few of these jobs and you’ll be longing for the crisp, cool professionalism of Mr. Johnson. Sure, he always wears a black suit and doesn’t tell you everything he knows, but at least he comes with a plan and a solid mission statement. 2XL In contrast, after too many blank faces and “It was adequate” comments, you’ll long for Ms. Smith breaking down in tears when you save his daughter, watching them cheer when you blow up their former boss’ favorite car, or just hearing a genuine “thank you” choked out through tears. To each their own. Chainmaker
YOU’RE MY ONLY HOPE Ms. Smith is waiting for you at the only ork-sized table in the place. He’s uncomfortable because even an ork-sized chair is tight on his troll-sized frame. He’s wearing an off-the-rack suit ten years out of date and doesn’t know what to do with his hands while waiting. His wife is there in a Sunday dress and has clearly been crying on and off for days. Once everyone’s settled in, he tells a simple story: “Three days ago, my son was savagely attacked. A bunch of human kids saw him walking along, picked on him, then started in with punches and kicks. You’re a troll, it happens; you learn to just cover up, wait for them to get bored and leave. They can’t really hurt you, but if you lash out you could kill them by accident. And the police are always on their side. Normally, you get a few bruises and shrug it off. It’s life. This time, though? This time they went too far.” He pulls a dart from the pocket of his coat, saying, “Had enough juice in there to drop an elephant. Once my boy was down, they …” He pauses for a moment, choking down emotion, before saying, “They took his horns.” His wife breaks into a sob here. He pats her hand and continues. “It’s all the rage in Humanis circles right now, taking a troll’s horns as a sign of your domination. They maimed him for life. When we left the hospital, we went straight to the police, but …” He shakes his head. “Not as bad as the Star, but the Knights are still a business. A case like this doesn’t make them profit, so it’s moved to the bottom of the stack unless you have a premium account. I didn’t stay as calm as I would have liked. Made a scene, but Mollie, my wife here, got me to calm down and leave. I know better than to lose my temper, but …” She nudges him, making him pull out an honest-to-ghost folder, saying, “This was on the seat of my car when I finally calmed down enough to leave. Had a note on it that read ‘This is the best I can do, good luck.’ I had a guardian angel in the station somewhere.” He opens it, tapping a grainy photo inside. “Joseph Kizinski, nineteen years old, long history of racial hate. Our angel seems to think he’s part of the group that got my son. I want you to get the truth out of him and then to find the rest. I don’t want them killed! Or even hurt … that won’t grow my son’s horns back.” Here, his eyes fill with tears, his fist clenches so hard that you can hear the tendons pop, and he says, “I don’t want revenge … I want justice.” A bang against the table to punctuate the point rattles plates and draws more than a few turned heads. His wife quickly calms him down, talking low as she says, “If we can get enough evidence, we can get the media involved, shame the police into action, and maybe, just maybe, we can get enough focus to stop anyone else from having to endure what my family’s gone through. Please, can you help us?”
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This isn’t always true, of course; in our line of work, no one’s completely trustworthy. Ms. Smith has her own agenda, even if it’s a positive one, and they’re willing to pull some emotional strings to get you to go along with their ideas. Sometimes, you can agree to do a job that your head told you to stay away from because your heart got pulled too hard. I’ve made a mistake or two in my day, and the only advice I can give here is this: Trust your gut. If you feel like something’s not right, there’s probably a good reason. Never be afraid to say “No.”
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Good advice that too many rookie runners ignore. You need to build a rep by doing jobs, but that doesn’t mean that you have to take every job that comes across your desk. Learn how to pass with grace. Kia Not every Broken Wing is the real deal. I’ve had people break out the crocodile tears as they described the horrible things that had happened and how they had nowhere else to turn and, as soon as I started noticing holes in their story, they turned furious and stormed away. More than one person got into a relationship for money, not love, and after their partner died, they found out that the gravy train was cut off. Some of us might be comfortable with,
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say, breaking into a law firm to adjust a will, but when the kids are left out while the twenty-something arm candy suddenly gets everything, things get ugly. Hard Exit You can also get a “Trojan Johnson,” someone thinking that they can save money by roping a team into trusting “that sweet old grandpa” and getting away with paying a team far less than a job is worth, pocketing the difference. Fuchi had an old guy from Switzerland that they called the Clockmaker who pulled that scam all the time. He went with the rest of Fuchi’s euro-assets to Shiawase back in ’61, but I’ve not heard of him doing anything in a decade. Might have finally passed on. 2XL I don’t say this often, but sometimes you have to put money aside and do the right thing. When a kid shows up with some information about an old friend of yours needing help, put some trust in humanity and listen to them. We all have a little karmic debt that needs to be paid off, after all. Icarus
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Well, who brought you a heart for Kwaanza, wings? It looks good on ya! Bull
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See honey? I told you! Santa is real! Slamm-0!
So, that’s that. Just a short primer on how different it can be to work the softer side of things, a few of the people that you might meet across the table, and what to keep an eye out for while perusing the job offers floating around. Working for Ms. Smith brings a whole slew of challenges that you don’t get from Mr. Johnson, but there are some upsides as well. It falls on each of you to decide if it’s a field you’re willing to enter or not. Just remember: Keep your powder dry, your friends close, and never, ever, deal with a dragon.
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Some exceptions may apply. Orange Queen
CRY FOR HELP POSTED BY: FROSTY
Okay, listen. I have a big ask, and you know when I pull favors, things have gotten real. I need to be put in touch with a team of runners for a big
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Which is essentially what they are hoping to do with our world as well—turn it into a world where they can thrive and rule. That never ends well for the colonized world. Red
The extraction is being sought by Lord Gwyn. Yes, that Lord Gwyn, of the Unseelie Court. He is apparently dying, and the target of the extraction is who he wants as his replacement.
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Ha. Gwyn is an idiot if he thinks she will go for that. The Laughing Man
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Frag me. Who let him in? Bull
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I did. Although you know he doesn’t ever need someone to let him in. Frosty
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Heya, Bullsie. Long time. The Laughing Man
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I am otherwise occupied, or I would do this myself. Laughing Man would do it, but the second part of this job is running interference with the Seelie Court. One of the Court’s previous queens, Alachia, who tutored Lady Brane herself, is behind the imprisonment of the target. Ergo, if she isn’t distracted while the run occurs, she’ll most definitely attempt to stop it and imprison the target.
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You are being coy. Stop saying “the target” and get to the point. Who needs to be extracted? Butch
Lord Gwyn refers to the target as the Ebon Queen, an apparent dig at the “Queen of Light” in residence at the Seelie Court. Knowing what I
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Holy drek. Are you serious? She’s alive? Oh. Now I see why the clown is here. Thorn
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Right-o,Thorny old pal. I’m putting an awful lot on the line for this to work, so whoever takes the job better do it right, or after I dance with Alachia, I’m headed your way. The Laughing Man
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You knew she was alive, didn’t you? That’s why you called off your attack against Ghostwalker in Denver back in ‘74? Well, that and a great dragon was about to rip you apart … Thorn Maybe so. Or maybe I was just done fooling around. Which reminds me, anyone seen a free spirit running around? Handsome devil, looks like me? If you do, tell him I’m looking for him, haha! Gwynplainey! Daddy’s coming! The Laughing Man Knock it off. I can’t believe you aren’t taking this more seriously. Frosty. Oh, I’m taking this plenty seriously. But I’ve already set my part in motion. Nothing left for me to do than to wait for Gwyn and whatever team you pull together to get going. Alive or dead, they’ll serve their purpose. The Laughing Man
She needs to be located on Fauth-Doshgoi, which is a city filled with shedim and a type of shadow spirts known as got. Gwyn has a decent idea of where she is once you arrive there. Get her and bring her to Gwyn.
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Or bring her to me. I’ll pay better. The Laughing Man
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Don’t frag this up, you bastard. Gwyn is decent. You’re … not. Let her go. She’s had enough of your shadow up her ass. Deal with Alachia as your parting gift to her and let her find her own way. Frosty
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No. The Laughing Man.
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Sorry to interrupt, but “got” are not spirits. “Got” is a rank, sort of a “governor.” In this case, it commands a group of shedim and other shadow spirits. Elijah Why doesn’t Gwyn get the Unseelie to do this, or go himself? Thorn As mentioned above, Gwyn seems to be dying. He may not have enough strength left to ensure a good outcome. And as for the Unseelie, Gwyn already feels devastated at the number of Unseelie who have lost their lives trying to get information on Aina. He now steadfastly refuses to put any more Unseelie at risk, even for the Ebon Queen. But he is willing to offer ancient and unique methods of payment to runners who can pull this off. Frosty
FIDES, SPES, ET CARITAS POSTED BY: FIANCHETTO
Though their name has come up several times in the past, particularly with reference to the magically inclined Order of St. Sylvester, it occurred to me that JackPoint has never been given details of the Catholic Church’s humanitarian efforts. Given the subject of this download, it seems an appropriate time to correct that. The Catholic Church has long held itself up as one of the moral pillars, if not the moral pillar, of the Western world. The Bible states that, at the Last Judgment, God will ask each person how they helped the poor and needy. Catholic canon law is the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the world. Even the (in)famous Knights Templar were founded to provide charity and protection to Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land before they turned to banking and conquest. Though the Church’s activities have been more controversial in recent years—the Awakened Schism and the re-establishment of the Papal States within the Italian Confederation come to mind—many Catholics are still committed to working for the common good. Of the Church’s many and varied institutions, shadowrunners will no doubt be most familiar with the aforementioned Order of St. Sylvester. To avoid rehashing too much of our Street Grimoire download, I’ll be brief. The Sylvestrines are chiefly
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They still do. There’s a registered merc outfit called the Knights of St. John that hires itself out as combat medics, operating field hospitals and running medevac and SAR missions in conflict and disaster zones. They’re pretty proud of their heritage, too—one of their officers once told me the group had been around for almost a thousand years. Now I almost regret calling bullshit. Picador The Order of Malta pops up in American history, too, but not in the way you’d think. As the name implies, the SMOM is a legally sovereign entity. The lawyers in the Seretech and Shiawase Decisions cited the SMOM’s existence as a precedent to support their arguments for corporate extraterritoriality. Kay St. Irregular
More of a movement than an organization, the Gutiérrez Society promotes social welfare through liberation theology: the belief in Christ as subversive and revolutionary, ministering to the poor and oppressed. The libradores draw on parables like the Cleansing of the Temple to agitate for social and political change, especially against the megacorporations. Unlike the Sylvestrines, Gutiérrez Society members are often wary of the Awakened. Their hesitation stems partly from the fact that Catholic magicians with no ties to the Sylvestrines are rare enough to be noteworthy, raising the question of why there are no links between them. Another reason is that in many of the areas in which the libradores operate, Catholic
THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR Our Street Grimoire download describes the Knights Templar as a militant faction within the Order of St. Sylvester, dedicated to both combating supernatural threats and expanding the magical influence of the Catholic Church. In truth, their mandate goes beyond even that; the Templars’ goal is to re-establish the Church’s historical dominance over politics as well as religion. The creation of the modern Papal States was greatly facilitated by the Knights Templar, who took to the task of regime destabilization as well as any other intelligence officer. The Templars’ activities in Aztlán, the former “Crusader Kingdoms” (including Jerusalem), and Tír na nÓg, among other nations, are all directed towards the same goal. (Shadowland’s Threats 2 download contains a great deal more information on the Templars’ goals and methods of operation, which many of you may find interesting, if slightly dated.) Thus, to save JackPoint’s membership the trouble of commenting in each section, I’ll simply say that most or all of the opportunities I present here are likely fronts for Templar operations, knowingly or not. Whether that fact outweighs their value in helping those in need is a decision I leave to the reader.
magicians draw a lot of unwanted attention to themselves and their associates. Instead, most libradore groups prefer to recruit deckers and technomancers, reasoning that subverting oppressors’ communications and spreading their own message will produce more lasting change than Awakened who are all too often martyred.
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Technomancers in are highly valued in Aztlán in particular. The libradores there have a hard time getting decent Matrix hardware without Aztechnology finding out, but we can tackle high-tech problems like Azzie surveillance without needing a lot of tech ourselves. It’s one of the few places where people are happy that you can use the Matrix with your mind. Netcat What, Clockwork, no snappy retort about how nice it is that the Azzies use technos for blood sacrifices? Pistons Why would I, when you’re all so happy to do it for me? It’s like free outsourcing! Clockwork
Thanks to our shared affinities for dangerous corners of the world, the Hospitallers, Sylvestrines,
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Yeah, if I had almost two million nuyen on my head, I’d be hiding out too. Marcos
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Two mil? Hell, I oughta take a trip up there—how hard can it be to find one guy? Kane
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You haven’t been to Bogotá recently, have you? Picador
Victoria Dominguez is an anthropologist by trade and was a professor at Xavier Pontifical University before its closure. She uses knowledge accumulated from many attempts on her life to teach combat skills to new resistance members, and organizes security for underground public activities such as free clinics and religious services. Dominguez’s current objective is to unite the various insurgent groups in Bogotá into a true revolutionary front.
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Dominguez is tough as nails—she used to drive to work in an armored SUV with a Panther cannon in the passenger seat—and took a lot of her students from XPU into the resistance. Between all her teaching experience and her elven charisma, I think she’s a better inspirational speaker than the priests she works with. Glasswalker
Father Oscar Campos is the second of Rodriguez’s deputies. A priest of the New Society of Jesus and another former professor, Campos seems to know someone in every nook and cranny in Bogotá. He oversees the day-to-day cooperation between the Church in Bogotá and other resistance groups, like Bogotá Libre and the True Brazilians. Campos is also responsible for maintaining communications with the outside world, including smuggling in and out of Bogotá.
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Since Fianchetto neglected to mention it, the New Society of Jesus (or “New Jesuits”, as most call them) is the Vatican’s intelligence service. They inherited most of their field operatives from the AISE and AISI when Italy collapsed, and they historically got a generous amount of help from the American CIA, which had itself been nicknamed the “Catholic Intelligence Agency.” Thorn I think they’re still getting that help. The Catholic groups in Bogotá used to buy from me pretty regularly. They stopped not long after Aztlán invaded Denver, but they definitely didn’t stop operating, and my contacts say they’ve seen Campos meeting with some gringo from the UCAS. Marcos
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be interesting to warrant a personal invitation from a great dragon. Winterhawk Traveling on a Tuscan passport is a common ruse for members of the Knights Templar, and Franzone’s skill with combat magic further supports the theory. I wonder if the Templars are letting rumors of Archbishop Rodriguez’s membership spread to keep the attention off Franzone. Fianchetto
BOSTON Thanks to its large Italian and Tír na nÓg expatriate communities, Boston has always been a major North American power center for the Church. When the lockdown around the NEMA Quarantine Zone was lifted, members of various Holy Orders on humanitarian missions were the first non-corporate personnel allowed into Boston since the debacle began. The newly appointed Archbishop Michael O’Malley has given the Holy Orders free run of the archdiocese, and the Hospitallers wasted no time in setting up clinics and shelters to care for those displaced by CFD. The Sylvestrines, in addition to lending their healing magic to their Hospitaller brothers, have offered the corps and the MIT&T faculty their assistance in repairing the astral damage to the area. Both have been hesitant to accept the offer.
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They probably just don’t want the Sylvestrines making off with whatever bleeding-edge research they were doing before the lockdown. Elijah
The third of Rodriguez’s deputies is another Sylvestrine priest, Ignacio Franzone. Unlike Dominguez and Campos, Franzone only arrived in Bogotá after its conquest by Aztlán, accompanying the UN peacekeeping forces deployed to stabilize the area. Franzone’s primary mandate seems to be to protect Bogotá from magical threats, especially the extremely powerful shades that make their home in Bogotá’s Zona Norte. When not helping to evict them, Franzone spends his time helping Dominguez and Campos manage their operations.
Father Pietro Valenti leads the Hospitallers’ operations in the NEMA. His forays into the shadows usually involve smuggling; the cordon around Boston might’ve been loosened, but it hasn’t been lifted entirely, and the added security measures often delay the arrival of badly needed supplies. Father Francis Tran is the head Sylvestrine in Boston. He most often hires teams for security work, escorting the Order’s magicians around the areas of the QZ where the corps allow them to operate—and a few areas where they don’t, naturally.
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Franzone is well-regarded in academia, being one of the foremost experts in magical threats in Europe. Most of his research is published through the University of Florence, but he’s been invited to lecture at Charles University in Prague by Schwarzkopf. Whatever he’s got to say, it must
I know Fianchetto waved off the “everything’s a Templar front” comments at the beginning of this file, but I have something a little more concrete. Some contacts of mine in another “fraternal organization” in Boston tell me that there was an on-the-sly meeting between a couple of
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Sylvestrines and Don Morelli’s consigliere. Morelli’s ties to the Knights of the Red Branch came up more than once, which makes me think those “Sylvestrines” were looking to recruit allies for their operations in Tír na nÓg. 2XL Given the Red Branch’s ties to the Black Lodge over their shared hatred of elves, that’s not really a surprise. Frosty Incidentally, don’t refer to anyone as “Tír na nÓg expatriates” within earshot of South Boston. These folks are every bit the Irish nationalists their ancestors were a century ago, and some of them are just as willing to employ violence. Calling it Tír na nÓg or letting anyone see your pointed ears is as dangerous as wearing orange on St. Patrick’s Day. Thorn
the world, with over eighty percent of the country claiming the faith as their own. That number dropped sharply when the Imperial Japanese Marines arrived in 2021, especially once the Liberal Catholic Voters Party became the puppet of the Japanacorps. The Order of St. Sylvester was quick to offer its assistance in repairing the Philippines’ damaged astral space after the Japanese occupation ended in 2067, which many Filipinos took as a tacit apology for Consuni’s lack of backbone. Masaru seems to have accepted their contrition as genuine and has given the Sylvestrines a small but noticeable role in the astral cleanup, alongside Wuxing’s geomancers.
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GEMITO One of the Order of St. Sylvester’s best-known institutions is the Societá Thaumaturgica, a magic school in Turin that shares its knowledge with anyone willing to learn, at no cost. Young magicians and street witches who study at the Societá give back to the community through free magical clinics as well as more mundane charity work—and lately, they have been extremely busy. With Alamais’ death in the Great Dragon Civil War, what little control he exerted over the area vanished. In the resulting power vacuum, the N’drangheta restarted their war against the Sacra Corona Unita, over the Alta Commissione’s objections. The conflict quickly grew to involve the Camorra, sometime allies of the N’drangheta who stayed loyal to the Commissione. Brother Dario and Brother Gianni still serve as the abbot and community liaison of the Societá, respectively. They’ve taken it upon themselves to shelter as many innocent bystanders as possible from the inter-syndicate violence, but the Societá simply doesn’t have enough space to hold all of the nearby residents. In addition, each of the Mafia factions in the area is well aware of the value of even partially trained magicians. Any one of those groups might take the Societá or its wards hostage to force Dario and Gianni to fight on their side, even if it means risking a battle with the other factions.
THE PHILIPPINES Prior to the Awakening, the Philippines was home to the third-largest Catholic population in
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Expect that role to get a lot bigger, because Masaru’s friendliness with Wuxing may come to an end in the notso-distant future, thanks to the Astral Space Preservation Society. Hestaby’s exile and the loss of her hoard put the ASPS on very bad financial footing, and they were forced to find outside help to keep their doors open. Wuxing made the most attractive offer, so the ASPS’ board passed a motion that ceded control of the society to Wuxing as long as Wuxing was their primary donor, effectively “selling” the ASPS despite it not being a corporation. Now that Masaru seems to be stepping up as the “pro-metahumanity” dragon in Hestaby’s stead, he’s made a point of saying that he’d back the ASPS if they ever broke with Wuxing. Technically, there’s nothing preventing the ASPS’ board from voting to rescind the agreement—it’s not like Wuxing can hold nuyen over their heads if Masaru’s offered to finance them—so expect to see some runs targeting the ASPS’ board members in the near future. Frosty Hey, what’s with Hestaby and Masaru showing up together at so many public events? Are they an item or something? Kat o’ Nine Tales Why not ask them yourself? It’s not like they haven’t been dropping in here anyway. Frosty
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Maybe she doesn’t want to live up to the old saying about curiosity killing the Kat. Red
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That was awful. True, but awful. Kat o’ Nine Tales
Cebu City is both the temporary capital of the Philippines and the home of Philippine
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ten them where they are today. So, for that, they fight a war. Every war needs at least two sides, and this one looks like one of those dice from a virtu-tabletop RPG, with one side to represent the people, and the other nineteen being the forces arrayed against them. This war isn’t against a single entity—it’s against all the megacorporations that have turned their greedy eyes on the city. Sure, they’ve been here since they came into existence, but they just had business here. It was a place to make some money in Africa, thanks to the rich mineral fields all around. But now, they want more. They want to turn Pretoria into one of their corporate-run megasprawls. They want to make another corporate haven where they can house headquarters and fill the whole place with their boardroom battlefields and turn the people of Pretoria into herds of wageslaves, slavering over the next corporate release and working to repay their ever-mounting debt to the corporation. But we won’t stand back and let this happen. We can’t go toe to toe, but that’s not our style. We’re guerrilla (or gorilla, for those who follow that particular totem) warriors. We’re the justice that comes in the night. We’re the force of good that sometimes has to do bad things. We’re shadowrunners. We don’t fight fair, but we fight to win, and we fight for a cause. No matter how many indlovu you meet who say it’s all about the money, they’re lying. Might be just to you, but probably to themselves too. We don’t do this for the cash, we do this to make the world better, to stop the corporate subjugation from spreading, to give hope to those who think it’s hopeless. Today, tomorrow, and the next day, we will be fighting this war in Pretoria. Come to our city, join our ranks. Tell yourself it’s just for the money, but know that you are saving a people, a city, and an ideal.
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That’s a bit thick, but I’ve worked in Azania plenty, and while Cape Town is my port of choice, I’ve slipped inland to make visits to the Jacaranda City before. They do have a great culture and if what I’m hearing is true, even I can promote a unified effort to keep the corps from truly pushing the people of Paydubfau down, in the most literal sense of the word. In fact, in honor of helping out the runner community of this sprawl, I’m offering half price transport to Cape Town, and access to my connections to get you over to the Pretoria sprawl. Kane I’m not keen on Kane, but for him to be promoting anyone going anywhere is strange.Take this offer with a grain of salt, but don’t let his strange behavior keep you from coming to Azania. The shadows of Pretoria need help, even if Kane is part of that offer of assistance. Traveler Jones
I may have taken that a bit far, but I’m leaving it. I want you to know who I am and why I’m doing this. I don’t just want people to know about my sprawl, I want people to come and help fight for it. To make this easier on all of us, I’m going to not only clue you in on a little local culture, but also help give us a name to use, because Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vaal Metropolitan Complex is too long and Pretoria alone is confusing. Any time I refer to the sprawl, I’ll use PWV, but whenever locals see that, they pronounce it as pay-dub-fau. It’s a merging of the more common local languages and their pronunciation and names for the letters, which varies drastically between Zulu, English, and Afrikaans. Want to sound like a local? Call it the Paydubfau. Want to sound like an outsider? Call it anything else. PWV is most well-known for being the richest area in all of Azania, thanks to the massive mineral mining that has occurred in the region over the past several centuries. They maintain a boss-lev-
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can go to school, or search up a tutor program on the Matrix. Things got a little more interesting around the turn of the last century. A powerful force for good was released after years of imprisonment, and he brought the dark deeds of the past and present into the light and shined the light of truth and, to the surprise of many, forgiveness on them. The early portion of this century saw a lot of unity and cultural bonding. It was a bright time in the history of Azania (South Africa at the time). And then, that force for good died. Despite the obvious natural causes and the fact that he was ninety-five years old, conspiracy theories shot all over the country about his death at the hands of the rising corporations that were seeking to build a power base in Africa with this region as their focus. It didn’t get any better after that. The Awakening brought power to the Zulus. That power pulled them further from their fellow citizens and led them to isolate themselves from their fellow South Africans. The rise of corporate power and independence brought new forces to several of the cities in the region, and the cultural landscape shifted until the late 2030s, when everyone realized that they were better off together than separate. PWV was already a city of cultural and political connections, and it became the primary capital of the new Azanian Confederation in 2040. Once that power was laid firmly in the region, the Shift began. The Shift is how the locals refer to the era from 2040 to 2070. The moment PWV became a power center, the powers that be felt it needed some cleaning up and reorganizing. Despite the fact that it was obviously a method of cultural segregation and isolation, people went along with it because it was packaged nicely and offered some seriously interesting opportunities in the form of work and housing options for people who had long been struggling in both areas of their life. The central districts—Pretoria, Johannesburg, and Ekurhuleni—were assigned as the political, corporate, and socio-cultural districts respectively. Tshwane and Kungwini to the north, now separated by the three central districts from the rest of the sprawl, were delivered into the hands of the rich and powerful. Mogale, Randfontein, Westonaria, Emfuleni, Midvaal, and Lesedi were used to culturally isolate groups of citizens and create a culture of competition in a place where all they were competing for
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Be aware that on the streets of Tshwane and Kungwini, the robots are watching you. Every one has a camera, and they’re constantly monitoring for erratic, illegal, or out-of-place behavior. Some even have facial recognition software and a database of local residents. Anyone who doesn’t belong is flagged and monitored. They also connect to the vehicle registries and link vehicles to owners that belong in the richest neighborhoods. This doesn’t work in common traffic areas of the district, but the moment you slip off into the realm of private residences, you’re at risk.
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GETTING AROUND Make sure you’ve got a nice car, or a private VTOL or rotorcraft—nothing else fits in. There are no busses or public transportation in this area, and most cabs draw way too much scrutiny for someone in our line of work. If you are going to take a cab, make sure to use one of the VirtuDrive cabs, because regular cab drivers often won’t drive into these districts out of fear of catching some sort of trespassing charge (seriously). Even if the drivers or passengers are wanted, local kids have no problem making trouble for them and in fact make a game of it often, and angering a local can easily have a life-threatening detrimental effect.
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Several local Mr. Johnsons use meets in Kungwini to separate the wheat from the chaff. This is usually only an issue for Gold or higher runners, but an occasional test is put to a Silver team to see if they’re ready for the big leagues. Traveler Jones
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Scanned ahead—you’ll get the rundown later on. The basics: runners and teams are ranked by the credsticks they’re generally paid in. Glitch
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Rumor has it that the deckjockeys behind the cameras were all cross-trained with GOD and several came back from training with a few unregistered toys. Slamm-0! Anyone driving around this area had better have some sweet spoofing skills. They’ll need it. /dev/grrl To clear up a common communication issue: Robots are traffic lights, not drones, though some areas have drones as their lights. If that helps. Traveler Jones
TOURIST TRAPS There aren’t a lot of places for tourists to visit in Tshwane and Kungwini, which is why the rich and affluent were shifted here. Anyone coming toward this region belongs and can’t simply use an excuse about being there to see something. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing at all. Some places just couldn’t be relocated. There are three spots of note in Tshwane and four areas to keep in mind in Kungwini. Some places just won’t play along with the plans of men. Take the former Dinokeng Game Reserve. Long a tourist mecca where you could see the animals of Africa in their “natural” habitat, along with staying in a cozy little cottage or bungalow, it had to make a major change shortly after the Awakening. The region became a focus of local mana based on the lines of power in the area. This nexus of mana led to an unexpected number of paracritter species expressing within
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Those runner teams are Wuxing-sponsored, as they study the mana lines that helped give rise to such a strong concentration of paranormal growth. The mana also fuels plant growth, fueling the local food chain from the bottom up to maintain the apex predators that are present. Lyran
Far less thrill-oriented but still just as rich in a different form of wildlife is the Kiloki Village Recreational Mall. This massive shopping center is located at the corner border of Tshwane, Kungwini, and Pretoria, and is one of the few publicly accessible points in the Tshwane District. Housing over one thousand shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues, the place is always packed with people from all over the sprawl. It’s one of the few places that gets traffic from almost every cultural group in the metroplex. Open all hours of the day and every day of the year, it’s a common spot for meetings with Mr. Johnsons and fixers who want a public place to do their private work. Security is extremely overworked and certain dayparts, in particular all those zero-dark hours, have a reputation for looking the other way if they happen to find a stick full of rand laying around. Don’t forget to pay it or take their lack of awareness too far, though, because they also have a habit of dropping bodies when the place is in danger. The shops in the mall sell everything one could ever want and several underground shops (sometimes literally) sell black- and grey-market goods if you know the right people.
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Hurlington, a local fixer, has the best line on genuine controlled arms in the sprawl. Make friends and work favors for him in order to get the best deals and access to the really exotic stuff that gets tested in such a free market. Stone Sticking with your own kind is important here. I know a lot of runner teams are generally cosmopolitan, but out in public spots like this you need to find your people or stick to being a lone wolf. Though a word to the wolves: Make sure you look capable. You don’t need to look too tough—that usually gets you challenged—but work on a cool confidence to make sure other groups know fragging with you wouldn’t be worth the trouble. Traveler Jones
Since Kiloki Village tends to be advertised as a place to shop and relax, those who are looking for more excitement head for the Pienaars River Entertainment Arcology. The “Pie Dome” (as most call it) is a massive dome-shaped arcology with a radius of over a kilometer. According to the ads, the ground level, which includes the actual section of the Pienaars River that runs through here, is over three million square meters, and that doesn’t even count the sixteen levels above it. The higher up you go, the more exclusive the entertainment, and there are rumors of a secret seventeenth level that houses entertainment that is not of the legal variety. The center of the dome, over the river, is open to the sky, but it’s not a straight line. The designers wanted to keep the original shape of the river, which has a large horseshoe bend here, and so they chose to build this erratic chasm in the center of the structure rather than modify the natural flow of the river. The chasm has beautiful clear staircases that look like loose stitching across various points. It’s quite a marvel to behold.
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The seventeenth floor is real, it’s just not on top. The place has four subfloors on current records, but the original construction docs had five. The first three subfloors are parking and some engineering, and the fourth is the primary engineering floor along with housing for staff that live on site. The fifth subfloor is the rumored seventeenth floor. To access it, you use the standard elevators with a special RFID keycard. Ire The area just to the west used to be an old aerodrome along the freeway. It was converted into a single-runway airport to serve the entertainment arcology, but now all the craft landing here are VTOL, and the runway was con-
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verted into a holding pad for the aircraft. On weekends the place is like a showcase for the local rich kids to show off their rides. Whether people are displaying personal rotorcraft or a heavily customized Ares Dragon, this is the place to be for local grease-monkeys, modders, and riggers looking for the latest and greatest ideas or their next source of income. Rigger X
Kungwini doesn’t just border other districts, it also borders the next province over, Mpumalanga. It’s not a bad neighbor and only occasionally is this route used for smuggling or stealthy entry into Kungwini, as there are only a few towns along the shared division. This municipal setup is a shining example of the power of PWV, as they flexed their political power to prevent the surrounding provinces from building along their borders. But that didn’t stop the affluent of Kungwini from adding a little extra assurance that no one would be wandering onto their estates uninvited. The southern border with Mpumalanga is lined with elaborately decorated fences. Owning property along this border is a sort of honor, and every year there is a judging of whose fence is the best. Some of the locals change up their fence each year, while others just make small variations on a singular theme. The place doesn’t get a lot of tourist traffic until the Festival of Fences, but even then the tourists are forced to view from the Mpumalanga side, rather than from inside Kungwini. The locals host elaborate parties during the festival that work to one-up each other and attract the hottest guests from all across the sprawl and around the world.
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The fences aren’t all just pretty. Most are electrified or topped with razorwire or glass shards to prevent climbing. The more violent defenses are always well-hidden and blend into the decorative motif of the fence. Traveler Jones That’s true for everyone except Hans Blaukain. His fence looks like something that should be surrounding a World War Two death camp. The razorwire is tightly wrapped at the top of two close layers of electrified fence. So close, in fact, that they occasionally arc. I’m sure it’s part of the overall design, since he enters into the contest every year, but doesn’t change much from year to year except maybe the voltage on the fences. Slamm-0!
Some things just can’t be budged, no matter how much political pressure you manage to apply. Though maybe, in the case of the Nan Hua
Temple, they instead let the problem flow around them like water around a rock. This Buddhist temple has been in the region for over a century and has stood against many adversaries, including being targeted by militants with a bomb near the turn of the century. It has always functioned as a bit of spiritual peace in the middle of a hectic and crazy world, and in recent years has drawn more and more corporate citizens to leave the rat race and join the simple and peaceful life of the monks. The temple welcomes tourists (and their donations) and offers a restful and quiet environment for those who wish to visit. They have a series of rules and tenets that must be followed by all visitors, and those who fail to follow these rules are asked to leave directly. Some are even escorted out in a rather brusque (but unobtrusive) way, as the order has several adept monks who use their abilities to temporarily silence violators and escort them to the doors.
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Those monks form the basis for the Mountain Blossom Society, an initiate group based out of the temple. They’re also the heart of the fighting school that has been run out the temple for over a century. Mihoshi Oni The temple hosts an annual tournament for fighters from around the globe to come and challenge their best. They have a win streak that started in 2012 and has not been broken yet. Those who understand magic and mana have told me it is because the temple is theirs and others have their arcane gifts impeded by the mana there. Slamm-0!
Living alongside nature is common across the entirety of PWV, but actually living out in it is far less common, because in Africa, nature can very easily kill you. Though most of the rich and powerful consider a vacation to be somewhere with beaches and fruity drinks, some desire a trip out into the wilds of Africa, without all the risk of being trampled by a rhino or eaten by a hyena. For that, they have Bronkhorstspruit Nature Reserve. Built around the reservoir held by Bronkhorstspruit Dam, created from the river of the same name, this fenced-in nature preserve has all the floral wildlife of Africa without all those pesky animals that can bite, sting, trample, and maul you. The waters are stocked with game fish, and there are several antelope and ibyx species that have been brought in for a little sport hunting, though it’s not much sport. Most of the animals here are doped by the
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This guy likes to mention these off-handed places where runs often contract high-value targets away from their cavalcade of security. This place is especially common because of the reduced threat of nature. Problem is, this place has tech security that blends in perfectly, including more biodrones than any other place in Africa. If you see a critter, it’s likely stirruped and monitoring you for ident and any possible weapons. Even the stuff intended to be hunted has some interface hardware that allows the staff to make sure everything on the hunt was on the up and up. The security grunts here are also top-notch huntsmen. They can creep up and take down most threats without ever disturbing the guests. Stone
Now let’s get into a little advertising cut and paste: Welcome to the land of peace and tranquility. Rheenosterpoort Spa Corporate Ultraretreat is your destination for a break from the triggers and rigors of your stress-filled day of powerbrokering in the dog-eat-dog rat race that is today’s corporate environment. Our retreat offers more than just a spa, with staff trained in various meditative arts, rigorous rapid-result fitness training, and our unique system of unobtrusive psychological repair aimed at fixing the damage done by the intense stress of daily corporate life without breaking your relaxation stride. Take the first step and let the RSCU rescue you! Ain’t that a load of elephant dung? This place is beautiful, I’ll give it that, but what the pictures just don’t do justice are the underground tunnels and private residences out in the surrounding hills and mounds. On the brochures, they’re meditative quarters, surrounded by the purest of Mother Earth, but for those who have taken a closer look, they’re tiny chambers that tend to have a lot of mystical warding and protections on them. The shadow consensus says insect spirits, but confirmation is scattered. I’ll hit the topic again when I talk about magic, but for now I want to focus on the other reason to visit this place: extractions and rescues (real ones). Shadow ops head out to this place at least monthly to pull a corporate slag out of their clutches before he goes all “hive mind,” “betterment of the colony” crazy, or to snag a wageslave who’s
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looking for a new doss that doesn’t include mud walls and thousands of roommates. Sometimes runners head out to the place and hit it right and everything goes fine. But other times, the rumors spread. Runners claim to have faced spirit soldiers and massive insects. They might not realize it at the time, but after a few comments on the street, they pick up the vibe.
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With the local view on insect spirits you might find this place not what you expected. They don’t hide what they are doing for those who sign up for the complete package. Joining the hive is better than dying of starvation. Traveler Jones
THE HAVE-NOTS EMFULENI, LESEDI, MIDVAAL, MOGALE, RANDFONTEIN, WESTONARIA Like all successful sprawls, this city was built on the backs of someone, and those someones now find themselves pushed out to the southern periphery of the sprawl. Well, the ones who are allowed to live somewhere the sun still shines. More and more of that will be changing in the near future if the corps get their way, but I’ll cover that elsewhere. Here, I’d like to introduce you to the most eclectic mix of cultures, people, and mentalities ever to have been pushed aside and forced to fight for the scraps of their corporate and government warlords. I use “warlords” because it is a classically African term. Warlords running through a country and pushing their beliefs on everyone in their path, slaughtering any who refused to take their credos to heart. It’s dark, but this is the dark continent, and we don’t mince words here. We tell it like it is and work out our hurt feelings with violence, drink, or walls of silence. Referred to by everyone in PWV as The Smile, this area consists of, from west to east, Mogale, Randfontein, Westonaria, Emfuleni, Midvaal, and Lesedi. All six districts had their own successful history, right up until local powers decide to enhance their segregative practices, separating the masses and choosing these places for those they saw as less valuable. The areas are vastly different, and even within each district you will find the mix of persons and personas varying by the neighborhoods they inhabit. I’ll give some generalizations later, when I talk about some specific spots, but overall these are the plac-
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Wheels! You’re going to need them. Air traffic heading out into this area is often used for target practice by local groups—military, criminal, and just random guerrillas with guns. Not that wheeled traffic is always safe, but it’s better to blend in and flow than to fly over and get shot at. Now, don’t get me wrong—plenty of operators blast in with a helo or an LAV, or roll up with an Ares Dragon that’s so armored you’d need an AV-loaded Phalanx to bring it down. They hit their spot, do their dirty work, then blast their way right back out, and it can work, but to me, four wheels and a little anonymity are still a better bet. There are several taxi services that operate within these districts, but only a few will cross borders. There are no formal walls and the lines between the districts are often unmarked, but taxi drivers are well versed in places they should and shouldn’t be, because mistakes made can be deadly. Several of the taxi services have agreements between districts, and they pass off clients near the borders with minimal disruption in their trip. On the other hand, these hand-off points are frequent targets for counter-operations against teams working across borders. Most of the people who live in these districts believe the border issues are intentional and just another way to keep us in check, down, and divided.
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Autocabs are an alternative to the manually driven models, but they have limited routes to follow because of the lack of a functional GridGuide system in these regions. These routes are targets for information-gathering agencies watching the movements of runners, government agents, and corporate operatives. Thorn Hackers use the autocabs in this region as a proving ground. If you’re using the system and you have electronic support, use them to keep an eye on your ride and keep some punk hacker from scragging your run with an accidental proving ground hack. /dev/grrl
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Agi Kuragi is a rigger with a string of contacts across the Smile, thanks to his friendly disposition and ability to get just about anything for anyone. His ride is often jammed with junk that he hands out at stops along the way. I once saw him slide a rocket launcher out of the junk pile and out the window in the middle of Randfontein. Just went right on driving after the robot went green. Sounder
Since all of these places were decent towns only a few decades ago, streets are decent here. Repair is slowly going to the wayside as the city powers promote the great subterranean migration for the poor, so quality is fading. Vehicles with off-road capabilities are more desirable and several locals have taken to customizing their normal rides with lift-kits and larger tires, turning sedans and sports cars into off-roaders. Best mod I’ve seen is a yerzed-out Westwind running on a rally frame, with colors, lights, bells, and whistles, and off-road speed and maneuverability.
TOURIST TRAPS Time to walk the Smile and take a look at each independent district. Up first: Mogale. Sharing boundaries with West Rand, Randfontein, Johannesburg, and North West (the next province over), the district has some variety along those edges, but the bulk of the place is split between two purposes: life and death. By life, I refer to the massive farms that occupy most of the region near North West. These are the primary food suppliers for this region of Africa, run primarily by Aztechnology and Saeder-Krupp subsidiaries. While S-K isn’t known for its agribusiness, Mogale gives them a field to play in. They have several research facilities in the region, with cutting-edge work going on. Thanks to several shallow mines that were dug in the area, they have a heavy focus in subterranean food crop growth. Aztechnology, on the other hand, operating primarily under their AfriGrow subsidiary, handles most of the local farming. They’re targeted all the time by runners looking to score foodstuffs for their local support
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Several of the smaller groups contract runners to join the fight in order to make moves without losing any of their own number. That way they can hold on after the fighting is done. Traveler Jones A few runner teams in town specialize in this. The top teams stay in contact and never run ops against each other. Unless the money is there to match, which rarely occurs with these gangs. A few of the border bands can afford the protection, but the moment they call in runners, their clock is ticking. Can’t show weakness like that and stay on top. Ire These gangs are all tough, but they aren’t all animals. Some of these border gangs are run by guys with good
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hearts. They use the cash they snag to fund snatch runs against the farms and then give the food away. They’re all about trying to protect their own, but they don’t let food go to waste. If they have too much, they’ll give it to anyone. Bull Those giveaways are tough spots. The scumbags among the gangs use them to steal food from locals and make attacks.This whole place is a mix-and-match of good guys, bad guys, and guys living in the grey area in between. Stone
Squished between the violence of Mogale and the rich/poor contrasts of Westonaria is Randfontein. This is, by far, the poorest district in all PWV. The eastern portion, nearer the border with Johannesburg, is filled with squatter towns. These desperate souls head into corp central, despite the restrictions, to beg or scrounge a living. The southern border with Westonaria is crowded with makeshift villages full of poor workers, and out-of-work miners who have started refusing to move to the new developments beneath the sprawl. Any miner unwilling to move into the new subarcologies under the region is fired, most are stripped of their SINs, and then they are cast out into this desolate region. The western half is a little better off, as this area is being used by Grade A Farms, a subsidiary of Ares, that actually raises free-range cattle and sheep. The region is patrolled by an army of drones, all armed with AresArms weapons, but the cattle are cared for by real ranchers. Most are just hired hands who are trained to ride a horse or a four-wheeler and use a sonic herder, but it’s work for thousands of the SINless in the area. Grade A uses SINless to keep pay low and make it easier to cover up the accidents that occur on their ranches. Between trampling, animal attacks, and exposure, they lose scores of workers each year. Displaced miners are starting to drift into the area and the move is causing some rifts among the usual workers and this new group. As you might suspect, they’ve begun settling issues with violence, and the job openings are popping up constantly, but the two groups are creating yet another schism in the people of PWV. I’m not saying this is a manufactured event, but it fits the way every other group has been slowly isolated. The ranches are targeted just like the farms of Mogale, except it’s a lot harder to run off with a few hundred kilos of living beef. The ranches all operate their own slaughter facility near North 14
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Ground crew are the soft spots for all of this. They know which shipments are real and which are fake. Hard part is getting them to sell out their job and getting the info out, since Ares doesn’t allow commlinks to transmit from the slaughterhouse facilities. Stone The no-signal policy isn’t even just about the shipment security. It allows accidents or cruelties to occur inside, and no footage ever gets out.The ground meat that comes out of Grade A isn’t always just beef. Ecotope
The actual town that gave the district its name is about the closest thing to a thriving community the district has, though it’s pretty much just a squatter city. Trade works a lot better there than nuyen, and it’s one of the few places in the world where you aren’t going to have a reliable Matrix connection. Food is the primary trade good, but anything that helps someone escape reality has plenty of value here as well. Even simple synthahol trades up here. As for the Matrix, the city never had its tech infrastructure updated, and the signal noise is so jacked up that even the Global Grid is a stuttering mess. One good thing: There are plenty of bolt-holes, and a few folks in the area maintain some decent (by local standards) dosses for runners to rent when they need to lie low or get off the grid, figuratively or literally.
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Some of those spots are nice. Best part was actually the lack of Matrix. It was nice to unplug from everything for awhile. Sure, I missed playing Jumble Wumble, but I didn’t miss the spam, social media drivel, or all the other overload of junk that fills our average day. Balladeer
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I seem to recall you missed work during those few weeks, too. Fianchetto No matter the price, it was worth it to do some good for the locals for a little while. Balladeer
Westonaria is the richest slum you’ll ever visit. Though the parts that are rich aren’t really parts of the slums. Some of them are even separated by deep chasms and actual water-filled moats. We’ll get to that stuff below, but let’s start with the overview. As I said, it’s the richest, but the money trickles down to the people while it pools up for the mining corps. This is the spot where you realize why someone wanted the DeBeers portion of DeBeers-Omnitech that falls under the Universal Omnitech megacorporate umbrella. The mining corp pulls up millions of nuyen from their mines daily, and several of those mines have their primary entrances here. Westonaria is at the center of the current fight to save the soul of this sprawl, because it’s the heart of the mining industry and a symbol for the beginning of everything. For now, and for the past few centuries, miners have lived in these regions, filing to and from the mines on a daily basis. They head down into the mines for long hours of hard labor, then they file back to the surface world at the end of their shift, breathe the fresh air, and spread a minute fraction of the wealth they dug up to the rest of the sprawl. DeBeers used the population transitions that segregated the city to gain control of several small communities around their mines. These became bulk housing for miners—to keep them close, yes, but more importantly to keep them under their megacorporate thumb. Now, don’t get me wrong, the living conditions in these places are several steps above where the miners would otherwise be living, but that doesn’t always make up for the minimal socialization, separation from their families and cultures, and complete lack of privacy they have in their company towns. It also keeps the money they earn from spreading around these poorer areas of the sprawl, and the subarc developments are only going to make that worse. This isolation also allows disappearances to go unnoticed, and that’s good for the corp. It’s a rare occasion where any locals can get enough nuyen together to investigate someone who has gone missing, but when they do, they hire run-
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Unless DeBeers installed a ton of repeaters, the drones would be all dogbrain down below. Signals aren’t going to get far. That’s a dangerous plan, though the odds of a miner sneaking a deck down there to hack a drone are pretty slim. Bellringer That’s funny! You don’t need a deck for the drones down there.They run on old tech, and an older-model commlink, running the right programs and scripts can snag control. Still tough to sneak a commlink down, but it’s easier than a deck. AfroHack
Most sports fans have heard of Emfuleni. It’s famous as the site of Vanderbijlpark Brawl Sprawl, one of the most famous brawl sprawls in all of urban brawl. The rearrangement of locals opened up this area, but several gangs in the region suddenly decided they wanted this turf. Their efforts were caught on vid, and Ares saw an opportunity. They bought up the property, enforced extraterritoriality, sent in heavily armed teams to sweep out the gangs, and then proceeded to set up the infrastructure for one of the few permanent brawl zones. This was back in the heavily wired days, so it took some time and money, but in the end it has paid off in spades. The zone is used for matches at least once a month, and it’s hosted several international championships. The key to its success is the size of the area, which can field several different arrangements for a proper zone. Teams that have played at Vanderbijlpark before are constantly amazed at the difference a rearrangement or change of orientation can make, and often talk of it in the post-game wrap-ups. The bulk of Emfuleni’s western region was once farms but has gone barren after several incidents of mining product run-off flowing into the local aquifer. Rumors claim it was all part of a failed land grab by DeBeers so that they could expand mining in this direction, but someone wanted to stop them and chose to poison the water for thousands of people in order to keep DeBeers away.
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The aquifer isn’t poisoned. It was the home of a dragon named Tashiki who lived in the caverns. Another dragon has been seen in the area of late, and no one is sure if this is about breeding or a takeover. Just know that this region is off-limits because you’ll get eaten, not because the water will poison you. Drachenauge
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Their system is a blend of old and new tech concepts put together by either a madman or a genius, or possibly a combination of both. While not usually known for their Matrix expertise, Shiawase seems to be testing a system here that could lead to another advancement in the world of the Matrix, especially in security. Some may see it as a bit of a backstep, but the move is definitely forward. Glitch
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The R&D tech got picked up from the collapsing NeoNET. Several of their Matrix tech minds got snatched with a power tech corp called VoltTech. They were peripherally attached to a project and somehow, when the digital ink dried, they went with the power company, rather than the Matrix R&D firm they originally belonged to. I smell a run, but I can’t say for sure. If it was, there’s some backlash probably headed their way once the remains of NeoNET get sorted. Being here in Africa might put them a little too close to Erika, who seem to be the ones who lost out, since they now own Digital Designs, the small-time subsidiary those techs belonged to originally. /dev/grrl The SINless are being used and abused, but they get paid. Not much, but it’s enough to subsist on, especially since most of them are squatting in one place or another around the district. AfroHack
It’s tough to say this about anywhere in my beloved sprawl, but no one should ever go to Midvaal. The other low-end districts at least have a few redeeming qualities, but almost nothing positive can be said about this place. The best I can really muster is that they aren’t likely to be subjugated by the corps or government anytime soon. At least not without a lot of violence. Midvaal maintains a modicum of civility along the northern edge, where it’s forced to by its border with Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni. The key to this civility is also that it’s held in place by the criminal powers that allow the rest of the place to be a wildland. The Edge of Insanity, as most call the part of town along the respectable districts, is the place to go in PWV for any and everything. The legal, illegal, quasi-legal, immoral, inconceivable, and downright unbelievable are made available to any and all comers. The place is regularly visited by many PWV citizens, both corporate and national, along with most of their SINless population at one point in time or another. Many of the SINless are seeking work or opportunities to earn the favor of the Vrye Mense, the local organized crime outfit that runs the underworld of PWV. I’ll cover them elsewhere, because most people who aren’t from this sprawl have no idea who they are—and that’s not good when working in the PWV shadows. Keeping my focus to Midvaal, the Edge is where all the mild action is—south of that, the true insanity starts. The Vrye Mense use their control of this place to run their operations from this dis-
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Midvaal has several megacorporate black sites. They pay a pretty nuyen to the Vrye Mense, and the Mense deny that anything in their territory isn’t controlled by them, but they’re there. The sites are tough to crack because you have Mense security all the way there and then corp security on site. Then Mense security on the way back out, especially if you got noisy. They don’t like that kind of attention. StreetChic
The last district in the Smile is Lesedi, the breadbox of PWV. While other districts might have some farms, Lesedi has ultra-efficient, drone-operated, corporate-backed farms that produce more food per square kilometer than any other farm in the southern hemisphere. The farms are operated primarily by a conglomerate known as the Growers Union, funded through a local deal with Aztechnology, Evo, and Universal Omnitech. The three started out by devastating this area with a turf war over land rights, but someone got them together to settle their differences and work together. Their deal has been going smooth for half a decade, but the upcoming plan for a population shift is creating a wedge between the corps.
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These farms have recently gotten some new drones that are drawing a lot of interest from other megacorps. They’re coming from Evo’s facilities in Central Africa, rumored to be testing tech designed by the Monads.You can spot them because they lack any of the usual downthrust winds from turbines. Beaker
The sections of the district outside the farming enclaves are among the poorest in the sprawl.
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Most of the locals eke out a living by stealing seeds from the farms and growing them in their own little rooftop farmsteads. They use the rooftops because anything grown on the ground in this district is considered the property of the Growers Union, but things grown in private patches above the ground don’t. It’s a local tradition more than a true necessity, because the Growers Union doesn’t care that much about a few local farms, but it adds to the culture and charm of Lesedi. Plants, poverty, desperation, and desolation.
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There are several farms in the area run by local shamans who are rumored to be pushing these modded seeds and crops even further than the corps, blending their magic with corp genetic manipulations. These guys are being targeted by the corps, which means there can be protection work when the big boys come calling. Lyran
The farms along the northern edge have a secondary purpose and an extra set of drones operating along their rim. These drones have top-of-theline sensors and a collection of non-lethal arms to keep the local poor from slipping over the borders and toward Kungwini. It’s not a perfect system and unnecessary most of the time, but a few lean times have pushed the locals to action. Travel out of the area by roads or standard means aren’t greatly hindered, as those in power know the forces that would cause trouble here rarely have access to motorized transportation.
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Don’t trust that non-lethal line. Plenty of those drones have real ammo because they don’t care about the types of people they’re going after. The operations team that runs the drones along the border is also known to make sure no one survives the encounters with them. Even people who are just injured will get a few extra shots thrown their way to finish the job. I don’t know if there’s a real reason or just plain cruelty, but I know several people in Lesedi who have lost loved ones this way and have banded together to try to go after the corporate riggers behind the murders. AfroHack
THE MIXING POTS PRETORIA, JOHANNESBURG, EKURHULENI, WEST RAND The last four districts in PWV are collectively called “The Mixing Pots,” because they’re the areas where the middle, upper, and lower classes of the sprawl
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Don’t think you can ditch one group for another, either. Most of the time, they’re cooperating and just hand you over, but if anyone is feeling particularly feisty they will happily station themselves around a piece of property and wait for you to come back out. In order to avoid collateral damage, they tend to hack perps’ vehicles. If they’re protected or running zero emissions, they use a lot of non-lethal hardware to cause electronics failures and force the automatic guidance system to land. Sounder How do you keep the autoguidance up when you trash the electronics? Stone Different hardware requirements around PWV. All VTOL and rotorcraft are required to have a separate control system dedicated to emergency landing. It’s a required feature for any craft that flies in PWV airspace.There are even
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aerodromes outside the metroplex that cater specifically to swapping craft coming from other cities. Sounder
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Yup. Great spots to hit targets in transit. AfroHack
To help move people around town, the metroplex has invested heavily in their Bus Rapid Transit system. The system has been around for over a century, but as the city worked to relocate and adjust its population, the system got a major overhaul. Linked in with the GridGuide system, the BRT offers everyone a safe and fast method of public transportation around the central districts. Utilizing a series of self-driving busses and transport modules (basically wheeled boxes with seats), the system offers drop-offs no farther than two blocks from every location in Pretoria, Johannesburg, and Ekurhuleni. West Rand has a special system to fulfill their needs as a primarily residential community. Designated pick-up and drop-off locations are set up at the entrance to every subdivision or arcoproperty, but they use a pod system. Each pod can load up to eight passengers, and properties have a number of pods on site based on their local subscription numbers. The pods are picked up by a drive module that slows and pulls them into a train. While in transit, the pods, made with smart materials, merge into a standard bus. During peak travel times, the system works backward to drop off pods without slowing the train. This can be jarring for tourists, but it makes taking the bus system in PWV a must for travelers. Though it often results in some lost time, as tourists and non-locals rarely get it right the first try.
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The first time? Hah! I’ve been to PWV a dozen times, and I still miss stops when they’re running pod drops. It’s not the worst thing, since the next drop is usually less than half a klick down, but it can be a slitch if you’re running a tail or using the system for precision work. Sounder
For people who want a little more privacy or just need door-to-door service, the city has one of the best taxi systems in the world. All part of that state-of-the-art public transportation system, the taxis are about seventy-five percent automated in these districts, and all of them are required to run on the GridGuide and SkyGuide systems. Yup, that means there are ground and
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air taxis in PWV. The ground service runs out to West Rand, and as long as the passengers have the right SIN tags or ample funds, they’ll run out to Tshwane and Kungwini. Getting a taxi to take you out to the Smile is going to cost even more than Uptown, and the automated ones won’t even be able to, since the Smile lacks GridGuide and SkyGuide considers most of it a no-landing zone. The only exceptions are some spots along the northern edge of Midvaal near the power plants and several of the farms in Lesedi. Overall, the taxi services will get you where you need to go, but they tend to be pricier than the BRT.
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The BRT avoids megacorp property and the taxis will run SINs to confirm passengers should have access to the property. If they don’t have a solid confirmation, they send a message ahead to the property and give the corpsec time to run a more thorough SIN check while you’re in transit. Glitch
Though it’s not as commuter-friendly as the BRT, the city’s MetroRail system runs around the Mixing Pots and has a station in every district. The “Metro,” as the locals call it, has a long history of maintaining a bad reputation. Several attempts have been made to clean up the system or disband it entirely, but the company operating the rail—MetroRail Inc.—has a collection of influential backers. Rumors abound as to what the rails are really used for moving, but on a standard day the trains move poor commuters and adventurous tourists around the metroplex. All the Smile and Uptown stations are right on the edge of the districts, and trains approaching Tshwane and Kungwini are frequently detoured from their scheduled stops and halted before they reach the affluent districts. Meanwhile, trains stopping in Mogale and Westonaria rarely miss a stop and often gain and lose cars while loading and unloading passengers.
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The Metro trains are deathtraps, in terms of both poor maintenance and the number of gangs and criminals that operate on them. They love out-of-town marks and will take a break from their turf war between the cars in order to take down a big payday. A single gang will operate one or two cars and charge a tax to ride in their car. Moving between several cars can get expensive, and paying too many of those taxes might make them think you have plenty of money to spare, so be careful. AfroHack
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The bridge is a target for terror groups, but there is an elite cadre of operators that protect it called the Oranje Leeus (meaning “orange lions”). They thoroughly utilize MCT’s zero-zone policy on the property around the bridge to keep it safe. They are ultra-paranoid with anyone who comes to do work or perform inspections on the bridge. So much so that they escort all personnel with their silenced pistol in their hand. They say intimidation and security all in one. I say paranoid wackjobs! Picador
For a few nuyen more, you can move up to the Premier Classe trains. These offer a more leisurely but luxurious trip between the Cape and PWV. The ride is just a hair over twenty-eight hours and offers the same stops as the Voortrekker Run and Cape Express. The Premier Classe only runs at noon each day. The reverse trip is called the Golden Ticket and leaves PWV every day at noon. These trains offer sleeper cars, dining cars, lounge cars, and even a gambling car on the weekend
runs. The trains come into and depart Marlboro Station in Johannesburg. The express runs and the Premier Classe are both frequently used by those who want to fly out of Witwatersrand International Airport rather than out of Cape Town.
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The problems in Cape Town have come a long way, but with a dragon nesting so close, people are still leery of flying in and out. The express trains to PWV were one of the biggest pushes to try to increase transit to the country. Turbo Bunny
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The dragon is probably the main reason Witwatersrand is the biggest airport. Clockwork
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I would agree, but likely not for the same reasons. Orange Queen
Once per week, the Azure Queen and Blau Koenig, collectively known as the Blue Trains, slip from their private train hangars and make a slow, luxury-filled trip between Pretoria and Cape Town. Notice I said Pretoria, rather than Johannesburg. These luxury liners operate out of Silverton Station rather than Marlboro. Silverton is located near the shared border between Tshwane, Kungwini, and Pretoria, meaning the rich and elite, the only people here with the means to take this train, don’t have to go anywhere near the lower classes. The Blue Trains take a full three days to travel the distance. They could travel it faster, but they choose to take a leisurely pace for the smoothest ride while allowing their passengers the most time to enjoy the amenities and views offered by the trip. Food and alcohol are both real, as are the private entertainers, though there is a virtual-life car as well. The lounge and food cars have two levels. The lower is where everything is prepared, and the glass-walled upper level is where it’s served. Security is top-notch but rarely encounters any issues, as the screening process for buying tickets is usually enough to prevent anyone who doesn’t belong from getting on the train. They connect SINs to tickets and run SIN checks both when the tickets are purchased and when the passengers arrive for boarding.
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This train is the ultimate form of separation between the rich and poor. The rich can take a three-day, luxury-filled train ride across the country, while the poor huddle into fast-moving shuttles to get from one point to another. Traveler Jones
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Hey man, can’t miss too much work time. Slamm-0!
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I wish that were a joke. Netcat
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Don’t we all. Bull
Single Fare .5¥ Ten Fare Pass 3¥ Weekly Pass 4¥ Monthly Pass 10¥ Yearly Pass 50¥
The Durban train runs twice a day, while Port Elizabeth and East London only run trains once a day. They match the speed of the Premier Classe, but with the amenities of the basic lines. They also tend to be slowed down with cargo cars filled with goods coming from the ports to support the capital. All of these trains run into Marlboro, though several make a stop out in Midvaal in order to detach a few freight cars. Witwatersrand International Airport is the largest airport in all of Africa. Recent expansions have allowed it to handle suborbital traffic, but only a few carriers are running those kinds of expensive flights down here. Located in the same place as the former OR Tambo International Airport, Witwatersrand has nearly tripled in size over the past three decades, growing more and more with each progressive step. It has a local tram that runs between Marlboro Station and the main terminals every fifteen minutes, allowing train and air traffic to integrate smoothly. And since Marlboro also handles all the ground taxi and BRT traffic while the airport handles air taxis, the trams need to run often enough to move ground traffic as quickly as it arrives.
LONG-DISTANCE TRAINS
TOURIST TRAPS
Cape Town to PWV Commuter 25¥ Premier 250¥ Blue 3,500¥ – 7,500¥ Durban 85¥ East London 100¥ Port Elizabeth 100¥
Pretoria is the political center of the metroplex. This isn’t solely important for the metroplex itself. As the administrative capital of the Azanian Confederation, Pretoria gets visitors from around the city, the nation, and the world, each in possession of a different level of luxurious expectations to be filled. This is truly the center of the Mixing Pots, blending together the peoples of the metroplex alongside the varying partners within the Confederation and hosting the largest number of national embassies in a single city besides Washington, D.C., and therefore more foreign diplomats and citizens than any other city in Africa, and arguably the southern hemisphere. Many visitors who come to the PWV sprawl never leave Pretoria, which means the entire district is
SKYGUIDE SUBSCRIPTION Hourly 25¥ Daily 100¥ Weekly 400¥ Monthly 1,000¥ Yearly 5,000¥ VTOL Permit 10,000¥ Additional Destinations 250¥ Flight Deviation Fine 2,500¥
BUS PASSES Single Ride Ten Rides Week Pass Month Pass
0.5¥ 4¥ 5¥ 15¥
COMMUTER RAIL
MISCELLANEOUS Taxi 5¥ + 0.5¥/km Air Taxi 20¥ + 2¥/km Airfare ~1,500¥ Semi-ballistic ~2,000¥
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The bracelets are terrible. They don’t care who cast the spell, so pitching a spell at someone wearing a bracelet will result in the loss of a hand. That kind of move is occasionally used as a distraction by a caster looking to get in without getting “banded,” as the locals call it. Lyran
The location has become a sort of proving ground for neo-anarchists in the city. They sneak in after closing, place a few tasteful tags around the grounds, and then slip back out. The closer a tag is to the cenotaph (the empty tomb that’s the focus of the monument), the more street cred the tagger earns. A few have even gone so far as to claim they tagged inside the cenotaph, but claims like that are extremely hard to believe, given the mass of the stone and the lack of any evidence other than their word. Regardless, the site is often used as a clandestine meeting spot for neo-anarchists
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looking to test the stealth skills of their fellows who desire a large, empty venue for a meeting.
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No one has tagged inside the cenotaph or they would have found the tunnel that the trio used to help all their followers escape. AfroHack That’s conspiracy drivel. The base of the monument is a massive slab. There is nothing beneath the monument but concrete and dirt. Traveler Jones
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There’s enough speculation—and even some supposed evidence in old documentation—that the possibility of a tunnel, and even another structure beneath the monument, isn’t out of the question. Snopes
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Evidence or take it to the conspiracy sites. Bull
Even though Pretoria is huge, and there are thousands of other places I could mention as important, I only have the time and space to cover one more, so I’m going to choose the National Zoological Gardens. This may seem strange, since we all know the audience for this project, but the NZG features the best example for this sprawl’s ecological views, and thus needs to be discussed. Pretoria has long had the nickname “Jacaranda City” for its abundance of purple blooming trees. The name, the trees, and the desire to maintain a more natural setting for the city have long been part of the Pretoria culture, and as all the surrounding districts came together to form the PWV Metroplex, Pretoria’s influence on the matter has spread. In fact, there is a yearly competition between the various sprawls to have the most artistic bloom, with several districts spending hefty sums of money to manipulate their trees into blooming across a specific window of time for full effect. While one would expect the richer districts to win the award more often, in fact Midvaal and Westonaria have earned the honor for the past six summers.
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This competition comes with a fair amount of accompanying shadow work. Genetic samples, bloom tampering, and even soil chemistry modification to change bloom colors or inhibit blooms have been employed. The district that wins gets a cash award, but never enough to cover the cost of runs to undermine the other districts. Fianchetto
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The one thing no one tolerates is directly damaging the trees. Even the most desperate to win district won’t harm another district’s trees. It’s a major taboo. Ecotope And now all of us are thinking, “hmmm, how could I damage one district’s trees while fabricating convincing evidence that another district was behind it?” We’re awesome. X-Prime
The trees pulled us a little off-topic, but the NZG is full of them. It also has the largest collection of Awakened and mundane specimens in the southern hemisphere, with several specimens unique to their collection. The Big Blue is their oceanography exhibit, the largest in the world, and it features the only captive megalodon in existence. Massive bluefin tuna are dropped in daily to feed the creature, and the things look like snacks when they get eaten whole. Around the rest of the Gardens, you will find not only animal species but also plants native to Africa and regions associated with the various wildlife within the park. The park has expanded several times over the past century, and now engulfs the local high school, the rail station, and markets and urbanized area north of Boom Street. Much of the land was reclaimed, but a section was left to study the process of natural decay, and another is maintained as an urban garden that features urban wildlife.
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The zoo is frequently targeted for research data. Besides drawing millions of tourists each year, the zoo also hosts dozens of research projects, funded by government grants as well as private funds. One of the largest patrons of the local research community is DIMR, the Dunkelzahn Institute of Magical Research. Lyran
Johannesburg is the central business district for the sprawl. While Pretoria has embassies for nations around the world, Johannesburg is dotted with extraterritorial headquarters and offices for the megacorporations that are looking to stake a claim in Africa, along with offices for all the upand-coming corporations that want to either operate against the big boys for as long as they can or to shine bright enough to get pulled beneath their corporate umbrella. In a similar national com-
parison, Johannesburg houses as many megacorporate HQ buildings and arcologies as the entire Seattle Metroplex. The thing is, corps don’t like to look like the monolithic monsters that they really are, so this district also has several entertainment escapes along with a few preserved pieces of history in order to make it look like they actually care. Every one of these places is connected to a corp that sponsors it, and they use these places to wage a battle of prestige and showmanship, trying to show which corp is the best in Joburg. Most people don’t know this, but the Big Ten (which are kind of the Big Eleven here, as Erika still reps NeoNET like a boss while SpinStorm struggles to overcome some inter-African squabbling) hold a quarterly challenge to determine who has the best site in Johannesburg. The winning corp is given a gengineered jacaranda-bonzai hybrid to recognize their win for that quarter. The jacaranda blooms with company colors, and the prize trees are frequent targets of intercorporate sabotage and pranks, though the security to get to them can be quite intense. Montecasino is a massive hotel and entertainment complex owned by Ares. The location is designed to look like an old Tuscan village and includes a quartet of hotels, varying in their levels of luxury, a trio of gaming centers, each catering to a different social circle, all surrounding the village full of restaurants, theaters, and shops. The place has little to no connection to Ares in its culture and style, showing that the megacorp is taking a hands-off approach to branding the place. The only connection most ever make is the security force, which wears armor crafted to look like Roman centurions, leading people to think of the Roman god of war—or the Greek equivalent, which is of course what the corp would prefer.
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This place hosts visiting VIPs on a daily basis, which comes with runners looking to extract said VIPs. It also happens to be one of Ares’ largest social R&D facilities, with experiments and data being collected at all hours of the day and night. Lastly, several connected Ares citizens sell grey- and black-market goods out of this place. Arms, armor, tech, and even vehicles get sold out of those village shops, and the local security is there to keep any would-be buyers from doing anything stupid. Stone
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Several rides and locales offer quiet and safe meeting spots, though monitoring by Aztechnology is still rumored. Fianchetto The AR games offer interesting training and teamwork experiences for a team that needs to gel better. Some Mr. Johnsons even start job hires at this place, sending a team through one of the experiences before deciding if they can pull off a job. Stone Funny you mention that. Aztechnology actually brings their corporate teams here to run simulated ops on other corps before sending them in. They offer the service to other teams too, but it costs a chunk of the payment. Picador The magic system is funny and won’t accidentally cast anything outward. The site’s automated security systems consider it a terrorist attack and crack down hard. Lyran
Evo has avoided the glitz-and-fun route and instead supports the Apartheid Museum, a piece of history that many need to learn about to help
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change things today. The only attraction intended for entertainment here is the virtual history tour. There are both AR and VR options, though the VR ones allow you to explore more of the regions and meet more of the people involved in the movement that ended the era of apartheid.
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The museum also houses a vast collection of artifacts from the apartheid era and the rest of this region’s long history. Quite a few of those items are even artifacts from the previous age of magic, when this area was home to a warlike culture. Orange Queen Seems like things that should be of more interest to Mujaji than you. I bet you would love for someone to snag them and possibly get you a better look at them. Slamm-0! I am never opposed to gaining a chance to study items from the past. Orange Queen
The Johannesburg Botanical Gardens is one of the few Wuxing properties in the sprawl. They wanted in on the competition but have only minor interests in the region. One of the big reasons they chose this site is because of the mana lines that run into it. They’re one of the few sets in the sprawl that have not been mangled, twisted, or destroyed by the mining and work being done beneath the earth. The gardens are home to over a hundred thousand plant species from around the world, including over one hundred Awakened species and two known Emergent plants. The collection is frequently targeted by corporations that desire samples but cannot publicly explain the research they are doing or cannot afford the price of a sample.
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The mana here is easily channeled toward growth and healing, which is why Wuxing operates a clinic on the premises. It’s not public, and rumors abound that it’s a delta-level facility, but no one who knows for sure has confirmed it. Butch
The fall of NeoNET allowed Erika to snag the bulk of the corp’s resources in Azania, along with much of Africa, through some unpleasant backroom deals made with failing Novatech and Transys-Neuronet. While most corps hide their dirty dealings, Erika let a lot of dark details slip out in order to garner a stronger reputation in town. A
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Erika runs research labs down there. Nothing too dangerous to the public, but things that are definitely worth stealing, putting the public in danger when runners come a-calling. Snopes
Mitsuhama has yet to take home a single jacaranda-bonsai with the Museum of African Arcana, but that is probably because their security turns away almost fifty percent of the visitors who try to enter. The security rules prohibit so many things that getting in is an effort in social engineering. Doing so is definitely worth it, though. MCT has the largest collection of regional artifacts on the continent. Arcanely skilled associates have told me that getting into the place is nearly impossible on the astral plane, and not just because of the wards. The items within create such a strong mana field that they blind most astral visitors and viewers.
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Astral space here is whacked-out because of all the mojo bits in this place, but that’s part of MCT’s plan. The museum is the top floor of a large underground research facility. The astral screen is intended to keep nosy mages from delving down into their labs and seeing what’s going on beneath the surface. I’m not sure either, but I know runs have been contracted to head down there, and none of those runners have ever completed the job. Or at least, no one’s claiming they did. Lyran The area around this place stinks of Dissonance. I have a feeling the research below has to do with technomancers. And TMs plus MCT equals a whole lot of nothing good. Netcat
Renraku knows how to please the people and offers the safest free market in all of Johannesburg,
Midtown Market. Visitors looking to experience the excitement of an open market without the fear of being killed or robbed come here to experience the noise, hustle, and bustle in a safe and secure setting. Vendors yell over one another, children pander to the sympathies of visitors, and well-hidden security guards slip through the crowd to quickly and quietly remove threats.
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The market has a dark side, with both black- and grey-market offerings, though deals are done in code, and ’wares are often delivered outside the market. The dealers who operate here do so with a strong code of honor because they know screwing someone over could lose them access to all that free Renraku security. Stone
Saeder-Krupp operates a museum dedicated to the Voortrekkers that settled the region. The museum is not what many expect, as they take a true and genuine look at the hardships and hard choices that the early pioneers of this region made, some of which were not what one would call civilized. The atmosphere of the place is very solemn, but there is a single bit of semi-lighthearted fun with V-cubed. The Virtual Voortrekker Voyage is an immersive virtual game where the player faces the difficulties of the Voortrekkers and has to make decisions on the journey to this region. It’s supposedly based on some really old early computer game, but the VR feeds actually have a light biofeedback option so you can suffer the cramps of dysentery or the spears of the Zulu tribes.
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Surviving the trek isn’t just about bragging rights. Anyone who manages to make it is given a VIP pass to visit the Voortrekker Monument, which includes access to the cenotaph room and several locked side chambers that house some very interesting artifacts, at least one of which should definitely be in the hands of the people of the Zulu Nation, not the PWV Metroplex. Ecotope
It didn’t take long for Horizon to see the value in developing a stronger presence in Azania, and thus they picked up a series of cultural centers around the city that focus on the history of the various groups in the region. The centers are spread out, but Horizon operates a set of tours using automated buses and virtual tour guides along with immersive AR and VR sections of the bus ride. Throughout the tour, Horizon offers cultural-immersion activities, where guests sing, dance, and
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That monitoring isn’t just for talent. Horizon uses it as a tracking method for people in the city, recording voice, gait, and even retinal and fingerprint data when they interact with exhibits. Big Brother is watching. Plan 9
Shiawase doesn’t quite play fair. Their entry into the competition only has its entrance in Johannesburg. The remainder of the tour, called Eternal Energy, travels through a series of their power production plants along the border but technically located in Emfuleni. The place is quite informative about power production in the region and offers a great advertisement for Shiawase’s continued contract as the sprawl’s primary energy supplier.
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It also allows a decent way to slip into their other facilities, which are all connected. You still have to get away from the tour security and out of the public space, but at least you’ve got a foot in the door, which is hard to do anywhere else around the facilities. Mika
Universal Omnitech has more pull in PWV than half of the AAAs and therefore gets to play in this competition. They operate the Journey to the Center of the Earth theme park that uses an old abandoned mine. The park offers a glimpse at the history of mining, as written by DeBeers, along with dozens of themed rides involving the various legends and myths around digging too deep into the Earth, including a land of lost dinosaurs, a battle against primitive furry people, and a terrifyingly real tunnel collapse. The tunnel collapse ride has actually been used by Johnsons to hire lo-
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UO has covered up several incidents over the past year, as their efforts at expansion have bumped into the underground excavations of some unfriendly bugs. They tried to contract Ares for help, but Ares refused. They’ve been using runners instead, though the survival rate is less than desirable, from what I’ve gathered. Snopes
Often overlooked due to the shadows cast by the politics of Pretoria or the megacorps of Johannesburg, the heart and soul of this sprawl lies in Ekurhuleni. As the social center of the city, this district plays host to many of the more diverse and integrated venues in the sprawl. That isn’t to say that all the places in the district are accepting, but most have sections for members of every cultural and social circle in the city, as well as a section for outsiders. Of all the districts in the metroplex, this one is the most important to runners, as they need a place where they can bridge the shadows and the light without being glaringly obvious. Ekurhuleni is home to all of the metroplex’s sports arenas, with the exception of the urban brawl zone down in Emfuleni. Sports teams from around the globe come here to compete, while citizens from around the sprawl come to mingle at the fringes of their social circles. Many an illicit love affair has begun or been played out at the local arenas, along with the surrounding eating and drinking establishments and the hotels that dot the area.
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Blackmail and kidnapping are the name of the game around this district, but they aren’t the only game in town. Long cons, hits, extractions, and just about every other kind of run take place around these streets because of the mix of people. It’s not lawless, but it is a bit too large for maintaining total law and order without appearing oppressive. Stone
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Since when did anyone care about being oppressive? Ecotope
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Being oppressive and appearing oppressive are two very different things. Every megacorp is oppressive, but they work hard to not appear so to their citizens. We just happen to live outside all of it and see the darkness that spills
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over in order to maintain that illusion.Though to be totally honest, many of us participate in maintaining that illusion. Still, we are not here to judge. Glitch
Runners find all sorts of useful information available here and get a chance to talk to anyone they want without having to acquire expensive passes to get into areas of Pretoria or Johannesburg. This also happens to be the area they will most likely find a doss with the right mix of acceptance and the ability to look the other way at where the money is coming from and even who’s handing it over. Dosses in this part of town range from single-room apartments to single-family homes to single-block communal living habitats where everyone pays to live together while sharing the financial burdens. These last are unique to Ekurhuleni, at least in an urban and recognized setting. It’s like paying to all squat together in the same area without being harassed by the local law or municipal authorities.
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These communes are great spots for a cheap doss, but you have zero privacy, and most of your neighbors are real peace-and-love types, so hauling in your arms or armor is going to be frowned upon. Sometimes to the point of calling local authorities and getting you pinched. Slamm-0!
I saved the tour of West Rand for last because it’s different than the other sections of the Mixing Pots. West Rand has become the rare haven of the middle class in PWV. The massive wealth disparity of the sprawl’s citizens, means very few people fall into what would be considered middle class. They aren’t the opulently wealthy, nor are they struggling to meet their basic needs on a regular basis. West Rand is a collection of small neighborhoods and housing groups where single families live in relatively large homes with all their basic amenities met and many of life’s luxuries at their fingertips, if they choose to partake. The view of West Rand varies by your station. To some of the poor, this place is a goal—to some of the rich, it’s a place to fall, but to the majority of PWV residents, it’s a strange little piece of a foreign culture that was never able to develop in this massively dichotomous region. It’s a picture of western suburbanization, a concept much of western civilization has even left behind, in a place where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer every day.
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The zero-death claim was all propaganda. The city PR group and the Zulu shamans agreed it would make the transition of power in the area easier if there was no reason for locals to retaliate. It worked, but not perfectly, though that was mostly because the city has such a strong level of ingrained racism and classism that even though the Zulu were said to have killed no one, some people still thought they shouldn’t have this land. Traveler Jones
The center of activity for the area is Wonder Cave. The shamans have made a headquarters of sorts around the main entrance and limit access to guided tours, especially since caverns below are rich with reagents and several new species of Awakened life that are particularly keen on receiving visitors and eating them. A large predatory bat, with an incredible camouflage that gives it the appearance of a stalactite, has arisen as a top predator within the cave regions, even hunting the locals’ goats. The shamans leave them be and occasionally send a goat or two down as food in
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order to keep the creatures from expanding their predation range to people.
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Too late. Those things come out in force during their breeding cycle and tear into anything and everything they can find. The local authorities actually issue curfews and chase people off the street in the surrounding neighborhoods, even though the bats rarely venture that far. It only came after three kids were taken by the bats. Half a dozen more have been lost since then. Ecotope Sounds like a great cover for a kidnapping. Snatch a kid and blame it on the bats. I’m not saying, I’m just saying. Slamm-0!
BENEATH THE SURFACE This is it. This is the part we are fighting against. This is the so-called “progress” that those in power see as the future of our sprawl. To that, I say no, but in order to fight it, you need to know why you’re fighting it, and what it is. Let me just say that while at times in this I may sound like I find it to be a wonder, it’s simply the engineer in me that appreciates the development and efforts going into it, not the end result or what they are trying to do with it. I’ll start with the beginning, nine years ago, with the first efforts by Universal Omnitech to develop an underground habitat for the miners in order to keep them closer to the mines and decrease transportation time. The structure was similar to an arcology, though it lacked many of the amenities those who have visited these structures around the world would expect. It was self-sufficient, generating its own power, growing food within specialized hydrofarms, and hosting several general stores to supply the inhabitants with basic necessities. It created no reason to return to the surface, and UO started restricting surface returns to once per week, then once per month, then only with special passes that were earned and paid for by the employees. It was the earliest of signs that these places would be nothing but another way to separate the rich and the poor, and in this case, stuff the poor underground where no one had to see their lives and misery. That took all of two years before they were fully operational and keeping Azanian citizens (as well as UO citizens and SINless) underground in perpetuity. Some people had never managed to earn enough to return to the surface at all during this
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That high-speed tunnel line isn’t just here. Plans to alter the runs to Cape Town to go underground fell through because it took away all the scenery and required extensive digging for no reason. Those plans were used for something else, though, and very few people in the world know about it. A tunnel system was dug below ground from the UO mining facility all the way to Asamando to run what those in the know refer to as the Night Train. This underground tunnel uses refrigerated pods that are filled with the bodies of deceased miners that are sent to feed the ghouls of Asamando. They keep Plan 10
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Censor much? Plan 9
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Only when my storage is being wasted on that garbage. This is complete drek. No one could have built that, and the ghouls don’t have the cash to support this claim. Bull
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Not to support this craziness, but they do have quite a bit of wealth. Hannibelle
The elevators are relatively simple and do the same things that elevators have been doing for over a century, namely moving people up and
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Be careful if you try and use the UO subarc’s elevators for a job. Their security team has access to them, and several lead to incomplete zones of the project. With a few simple commands, the pod can be sent to tumble out the end of an incomplete tunnel. And by “tumble,” I mean fall ten stories or drop off into a water-storage aquifer. Turbo Bunny
Going on foot is the worst way to travel down here, but it offers the most freedom and the best ability to avoid detection. It always requires technical expertise, because sections are zoned with security doors between each zone. Even the unfinished tunnels are heavily patrolled by dog-brain drones that might need a little creative reprogramming, and getting in and out of those unfinished areas usually requires accessing a security hatch or some kind of automated system. I should also warn you that many places down here have no lights, and the routes between places can be quite circuitous in order to prevent having too steep of a pitch or passage through a location that would leave it unstable.
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It can also get really hot when you get down to lower regions. The upper areas aren’t too bad, but the geothermal gets kicked into higher gear the deeper you get. Habitation zones, as they call them, are thoroughly regulated, but the areas outside of that and most of the work areas are kept just this side of survivable. Traveler Jones
TOURIST TRAPS There are no tourists down here, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t places I should mention for people interested in the subterranean life, or at least living down here long enough to bring it to
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an end. I’m not going to bother to mention the corporate deathtraps or miner camps. You can slip in and get rowdy with them if you’d like, but they’re heavily monitored, and everyone down there is tracked. Instead, let me cover some of the best shadow spots under the earth. Mistakes work out to the unexpected benefit of some people. That was the case with The Wedge. A tunnel-tube construction project missed a patch of limestone beneath one of their sections. A leak in the cooling system and the pitch of the tunnel led to a little erosion, which in turn led to a sudden shift in the rocks nearby. The result was a large v-shaped split in the tunnel and a wedge of open space. The tunnel engineers decided to just patch the rail and tube, leaving the wedge in place. It wasn’t long before the workers had managed to set up a nice little out-of-the-way hangout that eventually developed into one of the hottest tunnel bars around.
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Be wary of work picked up here. As one of the oldest gathering spots, it’s also one of the most well-known, and the corps know what other business goes on down here. Fianchetto The design of the place is cool, with the dance floor on the top level, a stairwell down to a sitting bar, and then a series of pulleys and poles to drop into the private rooms. Traveler Jones Zero building code here, and no rules about people being able to get in or out in case of an emergency. Being down in those private rooms for a meet takes some serious trust in the system—something I don’t have. Stone You don’t trust the system. You trust Kwaesar, Istanbul, and Belial, the owners and operators of the place. They have zero tolerance for trouble, allow no active arms inside, and drop those who violate their policies into the bottom of the wedge, which is currently a limestone slush pool. Mika
This Too Shall Pass was named for the shortlived “accident” that opened up the real estate within which it is built. Once a side service tunnel, it was flooded during an unexpected aquifer breach, which happened when someone summoned a massive earth spirit that pulled from the dirt when it materialized. The tunnel ceiling collapsed and the aquifer flowed in, killing ten work-
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The news generated enough mental focus that the tunnel is aspected toward earth magic. Summoning earth spirits, casting manipulation spells that alter rock, and other such things are easier down here. It’s one of the reasons why this place is about triple its initial size. The operator, a dwarf named Mufasa, hires local shamans to help expand the space. He’s got the engineering know-how and they provide the digging tools. Namely, their mojo. Lyran
Downtrekkers is a bit of a hike, but it’s worth it. Billed as “the deepest runner hangout,” it’s located a full two kilometers below the surface, and should also be called the hottest runner hangout, because the temperature regularly creeps up over 50 Celsius and never goes under 40, and that’s with the place being cooled through a series of thermal venting and dissipation techniques that I don’t understand. The name is obviously a play on the Voortrekker name, and they build that up with AR overlays, but the real genuine connection comes from the way people dress. No one wears much more than loose, light clothes, so most go with authentic-looking stuff to add to the atmosphere. The place is pretty big, as it was an abandoned forward construction base when the mines were still working primarily from this depth. Several of the subarcs have gotten to this depth, but most of the areas down this far aren’t inhabited, meaning they are full of workers, construction equipment, and all too often, really pissed-off earth spirits. That is exactly what happened down here. Construction got to this area, and for some reason the spirits were not having it any more. They killed a few and ran off the workers, then just sank back into the earth. A shaman by the name of Obsidian hired a team of runners to bring him down there a few weeks af-
ter he heard about the incident. They met with the spirits, and Obsidian worked out a deal of some kind. It seems he asked the spirits to keep making problems for any construction efforts in this area, and in exchange he’d bring in people who might be willing to barter for help from them, since this is one of the only places I’ve heard of where a mundane runner can come get some spirit aid without a summoner acting as a go-between.
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They aren’t spirits of earth. They’re some kind of rock monsters that look like men. The construction disturbed something deep in the earth that should not have been awoken. Plan 9 There’s our guy! Conspiratorial and ripping off the classics! Slamm-0! It’s not an unfounded concept. There are powers that exist and lie dormant within the depths of the earth. Disruptions have occurred in the past and been far more damaging than a few workers and a little construction delay. Red
The general motif of the place is construction chic. They slowly work on smoothing out walls, the spirits occasionally expose interesting formations and geodes, and the place is an ever-expanding haven. The kitchen staff offer some interesting options cooked in exposed rock areas where temperatures push a little higher, and all the drinks are served in little sealed, double-walled cups to keep them cool. Even the toughest of trolls drinks from a straw in this place. Because of the distance down and the difficulty of getting here, the expansions have involved rooms for rent that can be used for meetings or sleeping, though they’re still hot. A lot of runners who do extensive work in the subarcs use this place as a bolt-hole. and a couple have bought rooms here. It’s one of the safest spots to hide out, because any time security comes looking, the spirits have been known to change or close the tunnels to prevent access, so they only know of its existence through rumors and spies. No large security force has ever made it there.
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That doesn’t mean you’re totally safe. The proprietors have no issues with scuffles on the premises, and plenty of deaths have occurred here from contract killers sent where security details can’t go. They don’t do anything to
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keep your arms from you, and they even let in grenades. Only thing that’s really frowned upon are commercial explosives, because they don’t want the whole place coming down. Traveler Jones
The Den isn’t very deep—it’s actually located within one of the main operational subarcs and functions as a bar and hangout for local wageslaves as well as miners up near the surface on leave. It’s a mix of people in a place where everyone is just beginning to realize that the corporations they slave away for might not care about them at all. It’s got a classic vibe, with a synthwood bar, tables, booths, and chairs all in a deep mahogany, along with mirrors behind the bar and a set of ceiling fans on a belt system like some kind of antique. The bar itself is long and skinny, built at the end of a small retail area, and most people quickly notice that it extends farther back than its surrounding establishments. Ask the bartender, and they’ll tell you it saves on cold storage, since they keep the liquor in the back. Get to know the local runner community, and you’ll find out that the back area extends into an unused section of the subarc that was shut down for air quality issues. Fissures kept leaking methane into the area (according to UO), but the whole thing was an elaborate run, designed to get the area shut down so it could be repurposed. If you get access, you’re allowed into the back room of the Den, where an old fireplace opens up to a short corridor that leads over to the real Den. The area has sixty or so units, all used by runners who work almost exclusively down in the subarcs, and all of whom prefer their jobs to feed their golden heart rather than line their pockets. The place is paid for by a mysterious benefactor, though most rumors point to the Fox. Getting a spot requires you to know the right person, but each space isn’t limited to one person and once you’re in you can bring in whoever you want. The dosses down here range from studios all the way to ten- or twelveroom spaces that take up extra vertical space as well as horizontal.
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There are other ways into here. The section has quite a few maintenance entrances that don’t get included on the tour when you pick up a spot. Stone As cool as this place is, the runner clientele are snobbish frags. They think because they’re hooders, they’re
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better than everyone else. Hate to tell ya, but you’re still a criminal. You’re just a criminal who needs to lie to yourself to justify shooting people in the face for money. I can’t stand being in the place for more than ten minutes. Clockwork
THE WILD SIDE There’s plenty of wildlife in Africa, and we could fill a whole host with all that, but I want to hit a few of the paranormal highlights that are common around PWV. The entire area already had a thriving leporine population (that’s a fancy word for bunnies) even before the Awakening, so it came as little surprise that this abundance led to several offshoots, though one of them didn’t actually come about until the more recent rise of Emergent critters. Three interesting variants arose with the return of magic and a fourth with the emergence of technomancers and the insinuation of tech into our world. The three breeds have oddly increased their abilities in three different ways: strength, speed, and ferocity. And when I say “speed,” I mean “borders on the ability to teleport.” They are fast. The gun bunny, as they call the stronger breed, is like the troll of the bunny breeds here, including some dermal deposits and horns. The horns are used to ram trees and shake free fruits, as well as ramming other gun bunnies for dominance and assaulting potential predators, including people. A few of the bunnies have mistaken vehicles for interlopers, and the largest of the breed can flip a sedan with a hit.
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Several local security firms, Parashield at the top of the list, have been using these things as security on sites around the sprawl for years. Stone
The African zipper is the moniker for the fast breed, and they can move! Touched with a bit of the power spirits use to move people faster in their domain, the little guys zip from spot to spot chasing food. They’re not strictly herbivores, but their prey is usually bugs, small mammals, and lizards. Their speed allows them some unique abilities when it comes to climbing trees or getting to higher floors in buildings as they can run up vertical surfaces for short distances. Plenty of pets have been lost to an open window and a hungry zipper.
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I know a guy in Mogale who sells a pheromone cocktail that drives these buggers into a feeding frenzy. They go after it with abandon. He sells chem grenades that will draw every bunny in the area. Usually the stuff dissipates too fast for gun bunnies or Sir Monty’s to arrive, but the zippers are fast. Ecotope
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augmented or an adept, they usually put heavy favor on the rabbit and bets are based on survival time rather than victory. /dev/grrl
A ferocious bunny seems to be patently ridiculous, but Sir Monty’s hare is nothing to laugh at, unless you are laughing maniacally as they eat your enemies, like famed crimelord Agtashar is frequently said to do. Named for the legendary creature in a cult comedy classic of the flatvid era, this bunny is no joke. It’s slightly larger than its normal cousin and has an extended jaw and sharp foreclaws, along with a velociraptor-like hooked claw on its hind limbs. It is slightly stronger than its mundane cousin, but the key to its terrible reputation is threefold: razor-sharp teeth inside a jaw with comparable bite pressure to a large canine, a vaulting leap that is said to easily exceed twenty meters, and hind legs that can move in opposing directions, allowing those hook claws to eviscerate prey.
When you breed a dog to specifically hunt lions, it tends to generate a bit of a mythos about it, and the Sixth World has been good at giving us some support for a few of our beliefs. The Rhodesian razorback is an Awakened canine, coming from a branch of regular old domestic dogs. Any breed that had a descent lineage of Rhodesian ridgeback can breed for these beasts, and purebreds tend to breed razorbacks at a one in three rate. The razorback is larger than its mundane cousin. The hairs that mark and identify a ridgeback are replaced with thick spines on the razorback. The spines are sharp like needles and also hollow. They are used to attack an opponent by running under them and dragging the dog’s back along the soft underbelly. The spines stick in and break off, but their hollow design does the real damage as the target bleeds profusely through the hollow tubes. Wild packs of these dogs roam all over the PWV and surrounding wilds, and they have been known to take down large prey with coordinated attacks. The largest specimens have even been seen attacking elephants, with spines sharp and long enough to penetrate the pachyderms’ thick hide.
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Same stuff can be used to draw off gun bunnies being used for security, too. Though it has the problem of them attracting zippers. Mika
If you were expecting to see any of this breed used by sec firms in the sprawl, put that fear to rest. These critters don’t take to training, and there aren’t many cages that can hold them. When they’re set to duty, they have a tendency to attack their handlers or bolt from the premises to go find suitable prey. Stone There is a hefty market in capturing these things, and not just the Sir Monty’s. The gun bunnies go well to the sec firms while the Monty’s need to be sold on the black market to get the best price. At least one notable crime boss uses them for unpleasant things, while several fixers pick them up for local pit fighting clubs. Ecotope Those fights are crazy. The rabbits won so many of their fights against other beasts that the fight planners don’t use them for that anymore, and instead always pit them against metahumans. According to whomever determines the odds for these fights, the rabbits are usually favored in metahuman matches. Unless the fighter is
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Trained razorbacks are common pets of criminal kingpins and warlords in the area. They like to let them gently brush against their victims and start the bleeding process before they have conversations with them. Clockwork The Awakened razorbacks have excellent night vision. Studies have shown they have structures similar to those that allow trolls and dwarves to see heat. Some have slipped down into mines to wreak havoc on the miners. Ecotope
Spend enough time mining massive underground caverns, and something is going to decide to move in. Scientists have yet to discover whether the mine spiders were down there before and just got bigger and bolder with the Awakening, or if they’re a new species with the Awakening. Efforts to study them occur about once a year. Another is due soon, and the research teams usually hire on special assets in order to bring in specimens. The research thus far should have gotten the
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Those eggs are high-value targets during the breeding season. Several trainers have found that a mine spider raised from hatching can be very well trained. So well trained that they can be kept as pets, though only by someone who doesn’t mind having a razor-clawed, wall-crawling reptile as a pet. Mika
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GUN BUNNY B A R 5
7
6
Physical Initiative Movement Condition Monitor Limits Armor Skills Qualities Powers
S
W
L
I
C
6
2
1
7
5
ESS EDG 6
9
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AFRICAN ZIPPER B A R 2
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L
I
C
3
1
7
5
Qualities Powers Weaknesses
SIR MONTY’S HARE B A R S 4
8
7
4
W
L
I
C
2
1
7
8
M 4
ESS EDG 6
9
M 4
Physical 7, Mental 4, Social 8 — Gymnastics 6, Intimidation 10, Perception 8, Running 6, Sneaking 2, Unarmed Combat 10 Agile Defender Deathlock, Enhanced Senses (Low-Light Vision, Hearing), Natural Weapon (Claws/Teeth, DV 8P, DV –6), Pounce, Toughness (4)
RHODESIAN RAZORBACK B A R S W Physical Initiative Movement Condition Monitor Limits Armor Skills
9
16/64/+5m 14/10
Qualities Powers
5
6
14 + 2D6
Physical Initiative Movement Condition Monitor Limits Armor Skills
8
ESS EDG
Physical 5, Mental 4, Social 7 — Gymnastics 8, Perception 9, Running 10, Sneaking 4, Unarmed Combat 4 Agile Defender Enhanced Senses (Low-Light Vision, Hearing), Movement, Natural Weapon (Bite, DV 3P, AP –1) Fragile (4)
13 + 2D6
Physical 8, Mental 4, Social 6 6 Gymnastics 6, Perception 8, Running 7, Sneaking 6, Unarmed Combat 8 Agile Defender Armor (6), Enhanced Senses (Low-Light Vision, Hearing), Natural Weapon (Horns, DV 9P, AP –4), Toughness 4
W
3
18/72/+10m 5/10
4
14/56/+5m 15/9
S
14 + 3D6
Physical Initiative Movement Condition Monitor Limits Armor Skills
Powers
100
9
6
6
4
L
I
C
2
7
6
ESS EDG 6
2
M 4
13 + 2D6 10/40/+3m 16/10 Physical 9, Mental 5, Social 9 6 Gymnastics 4, Intimidation 6, Perception 6, Running 8, Sneaking 6, Unarmed Combat 8 Agony, Armor (6), Deathlock, Enhanced Senses (Low-Light Vision, Smell), Natural Weapon (Bite, DV 6P, AP —), Natural Weapon (Spines, DV 8P, AP –8), Toughness (4)
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11 + 2D6 12/36/+3m 13/9 Physical 9, Mental 3, Social 6 9 Gymnastics 5, Perception 6, Running 4, Sneaking 6, Unarmed Combat 6 Armor (9), Enhanced Senses (Thermographic Vision, Natural Sonar), Fear, Natural Weapon (Bite/Claw, DV 10P, AP –2), Toughness (2), Venom (Vector: Injection, Speed: 1 Combat Turn, Penetration: 0, Power: 4, Effect: Physical Damage, Paralysis), Wall Walking
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ARCANE AFRICA I don’t have a lot of knowledge when it comes to magic, so I can’t cover a ton of this, but there are three big points that I know everyone should know about when dealing with magic in PWV. There’s what locals refer to as the “Urban Forest” effect; the major disruptions and arcane happenings around the Tswaing Crater; and last but not least, the massive ant and termite colonies in the surrounding regions. I can’t go into arcane specifics on how these things work, but I can get you the gist and spout out all the rumors I’ve heard. The Urban Forest effect is what locals use to explain why astral space here is so clean, even in the slums. The prevailing hypothesis attributes the effect to the strength of nature in the local area and the local culture. All of the region is still covered in dense patches of trees, buildings use hanging vines as part of their decor and as a cooling system, almost every rooftop has a garden or bushes and trees in order to insulate the home and provide additional food in a place where it’s not easy to come by, and (probably the most powerful reason), is the belief of the people that nature is to be protected, respected, and preserved. One of the things that tripped up every corp that came to town was their desire to see the world flattened and towers raised to attest to their power. This place wanted none of that. The skyline hasn’t added any ridiculous skyrakers, and those buildings that do reach up are covered in external gardens and greenery.
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The ASPS did some research on the jacarandas in the area. They came back with some interesting information about an Awakened variant that not only processed carbon dioxide and swapped it over to oxygen, but also processed the “dirt” out of mana, in essence returning it to its purest state. They weren’t able to discover where the “dirt” goes before the city government threw them out for failing to gain the proper permits for their study. Ecotope A few other groups are picking up the work because they’re concerned that toxics could find a way to tap into this and gain access to the corrupted mana. Lyran I caught a glimpse of some data from a job that may have pointed to the flowering leaves as a physical storage matrix for this “dirt.” The flowering process and the joy that flowers bring to significant numbers of people acts as a cleanser before the petals fall and the clean mana is released. Mika
Even though the bulk of the region is clean, the Tswaing Crater is a glaring exception. The crater is located in the Pretoria District and is surrounded by a small park. It emanates some serious mojo and creates occasional rifts between the astral plane and the physical. Mages have told me that spirits can literally step over from the astral rather than forming on our plane, and mundanes have been able to step over, slipping right out of their bodies. Some rifts shift and fail to let people get back to their bodies, which of course is a dangerous and deadly problem. The rifts are also rumored to lead to other dimensions, and some of the weird things that have come through seem solid enough proof of that. Research efforts have been attempted here many times, but the erratic and uncontrollable nature of the rifts makes work almost impossible. The area is constantly patrolled for trouble, but the crater offers so much material for talismongers, runners work on slipping in on a regular basis.
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Those “other dimensions” are obviously metaplanes. I know people who claim there is a way to predict where they lead and how to control them, but I’ve never seen proof. Just a lot of claims about ancient texts and rituals. I imagine spending the time in this place to do a ritual would be unpleasant, to say the least. Lyran
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It’s like the Universal Brotherhood back in the day. They focus on those who think this can’t be worse than their already drektastic life. Difference here is that they’re honest about what’s going on up front instead of backending people. Doesn’t make me want to wipe them from the face of the planet any less, but it certainly makes me look at those in power who let this situation occur as being almost as bad as the bugs. Ire
While we have this different view, it’s not universal, and there are plenty of problems that arise when insect colonies run into corporate projects, which is occurring more and more with the effort being put into subarcs and the already abundant mining efforts that occasionally collide with the subterranean portions of the spirits’ hives. Encounters like these are rarely pleasant and frequently cause conflicts and issues below the surface. Add on the inability of the corps to throw large amounts of assets at the problem due to the confined space, along with the obvious advantage that the bugs have in their native habitat, and you understand why they frequently subcontract work to runners.
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Bug hunts are big business here. The locals may not hate these things, but wageslaves from around the world don’t see it as the same. The corps need to make this place look safe for their people, and that means taking them down hard and making a spectacle of it. Bug-hunt runner contracts usually come with a recording clause that requires the runners to record video and audio feeds for the corp to show to their people. They go through a lot of editing to make the fights look like the runners are really stomping them, or that it’s corporate troops doing the stomping,
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and they end up not using most of the footage they get. The really gritty stuff often gets slipped onto the BTL market for a heap of black-market cash. Fianchetto
CORPORATE BRIEFING Every one of the Big Ten has a presence here, and most of them are rapidly expanding that presence in order to get in on the growing African market, and, let’s be honest, unending exploitation of African resources. With the continent sitting on the edge of a potential growth explosion, everyone wants in on the deal, and corporate infighting has found its place in the shadows of PWV. Every Big Ten megacorp is trying to get into every market in town, but as one would expect, some are better suited or more skilled at getting in one place or another. These frontrunners operate with a big target on their backs, both from the other corps and from the elements within the sprawl that are sick of the status quo and want to see things become more balanced. Let’s take a look at who’s doing what so you can know where you stand when you take work here in PWV. Ares is doing what Ares does best: arm the people. Between warlord crews, corporate security forces, gangs, runners, and average citizens, Ares has plenty of opportunity to sell arms in the area. The key to their success is managing to somehow get the local government to limit who can and cannot ship arms and ammo into the metroplex. Sure, there are other companies that simply skip Ares by using extraterritoriality, but if they roll onto public lands with a non-Ares imported weapon, they are in violation of the agreement and fined appropriately. The fines are split between Ares and the government, and they are actually enforced by the Corporate Court, who want to play nice with the city because of their political and corporate influence in the southern hemisphere.
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Smart runners run with Ares-imported arms, because once they tag a weapon and try to levy a fine and realize they can’t because the weapon or user is unregistered or rocking a fake SIN, things go downhill fast. Traveler Jones Really smart runners just get fake tags for their weapons. Ares doesn’t import only their own arms. Several other corps pay them to bring in their stuff so that they can make some cash in this market. Glitch
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Most of those raids aren’t locals trying to feed their families, they’re local warlords and gang leaders getting leverage to use on the poor to get them to work for them. Traveler Jones
Evo has the smallest presence but some of the biggest clout in the metroplex right now. The tech development and testing they are doing in another area of Africa is rapidly being integrated into life in PWV. The number of aerial vehicles in the metroplex that operate on systems that only Evo has techs to work on is growing by leaps and bounds. I’ve gotten some insider info on where this tech came from, or more aptly, who it came from, and while I’m leery, I’m like many of the rest of my fellow citizens and excited to be living in a city that is advancing toward the future so quickly, even if it is a struggle for most to survive.
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They’re protecting their developments with self-destruct systems. Any attempt to remove or expose proprietary tech results in a meltdown. The parts inside are slagged and the corp is notified of the event and location. This includes accidents and attacks on the vehicles that damage the exterior and expose things they shouldn’t. Even a single bullet hole is enough to make the system think it is being breached and initiate the self-destruct. Sounder
Horizon may be one of the worst perpetrators of perpetuating the social dichotomy of this place, but no one would ever see that or blame them because they are the face of media and entertainment in the city. Sure, the highly insightful may see their methods as a way to mollify the people, but most of the people of PWV don’t have time to contemplate the reasoning or purpose behind Horizon’s distribution of free inexpensive commlinks, free access to their grid, and unlimited access to their entertainment library. Instead, they just en-
joy it and escape the struggles through millions of hours of simsense, video, trideo, and audio files, all trimmed and laced with pro-Horizon subtext.
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Marring the face of this PR giant isn’t about violence, it’s about repurposing. Hackers in PWV are the key to bringing change through Horizon by hijacking their signal and showing the people the truth of the world around them. They bring images and feeds from the mines, the warzones, and the all-too-frequent food riots to those trying to escape on Horizon’s feeds. Forcing these images before their eyes. Netcat
Mitsuhama is making the most of their position and the vast knowledge and resources at their disposal. When the metroplex’s expansion plan began looking downward, MCT seized an opportunity to apply their engineering, construction, and mining experience to advance the sprawl’s efforts toward fruition. Their work has advanced them to the top of the field here, and their companies are part of almost every subarc project. The rare exception occurs when MCT sets up most of the general engineering on the project but another mega doesn’t want them knowing exactly what they have going on down below so they bring in their own assets to complete the work.
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MCT is one of the biggest users of SINless slaves in their work. They don’t call them slaves, and sure, they feed them and give them barracks to live in while they work, but they aren’t citizens, they have no say in their future, and their work continues right until death. That certainly sounds like slavery to me. /dev/grrl Rumors abound of MCT using them beyond death. Street rumors claim that MCT has made a deal with shedim in Africa to house and protect them in exchange for inexhaustible labor. Considering that MCT also leads the world’s corps in metaplanar explorations and thaumaturgical research, I’d give some credence to the rumors based on that alone, even though the idea is entirely despicable. Lyran
NeoNET isn’t operational anymore, but I add a section here because drek rolls downhill, and despite our lofty place in Africa, we’re still far down the hill. The shockwaves of that megacorporate collapse haven’t fully hit yet. Their collapse is leaving plenty of African resources to fight over,
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The shadows are flush with work taking care of pieces of their crumbling empire. The Corporate Court is playing like they’re in charge of the asset redistribution, but the megas are taking every opportunity to vary those plans in their favor. Fianchetto
Renraku makes the city run. It’s not only their slogan in the city, but it’s true. They have taken firm control of all the Guide systems in the sprawl. Anything that moves anywhere is being directed, monitored, or rerouted by their operational systems. With control like that, Renraku is influential not only in public transportation, but also in commercial and private transport. Their service sector is using this transport access to work their way into several other surface venues and service areas, expanding their control of vital systems and services in the metroplex.
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Renraku and Evo are watching each other like hawks, as Evo has to allow remote command of their new vehicles but doesn’t trust Renraku not to “lose” one for them to do some reverse engineering on. Plan 10
Saeder-Krupp has taken a more secondary role to control in the city by focusing their efforts in the financial sector. Controlling the movement and growth of money, especially that of the politicians and the other powerful citizens of PWV, is their main concern in the sprawl. While this sounds like it would have all the excitement of watching the grasslands grow, money and investment value are primarily influenced by corporate valuations and their reputations, which runners attack and protect at the behest of S-K all over the metroplex.
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S-K doesn’t just get to spend time on the offensive. They spend just as much time defending themselves against attacks to weaken their image and convince their clients that their money would be better off in other hands. Ire
Shiawase has a stranglehold on the power and energy production market in the sprawl. Their focus would be to expand their control if they had any expansion to do. They hold control of the entire public power supply and operate all of the production facilities that aren’t extraterritorial. Several megas have their own power sources attached to subarcs or private facilities, which seems accepted by Shiawase, but efforts in the shadows are often aimed at eliminating or subverting facilities that get too large.
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As the newest AAA, Spinrad Global is just getting started playing against the big boys with that extra letter. They have plenty of assets in town but haven’t cornered any single field as of yet. They’re working on it by dipping their toes in everyone’s pools. They actually cause far more trouble for the other corps and the political establishment than any runner or neo-A group in the metroplex with their efforts to destabilize other corps enough to gain strength in a market.
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The general feeling is that SpinStorm, as the shadows call them, could be a key to changing the status quo in PWV. They are undermining enough of the other corps that the entire system may change in order to make a place for them.That is, if the Court doesn’t just step in and redistribute power in the city between corps and leave the way of life for the citizens the same. Orbital DK
Wuxing uses the interesting astral phenomena of the region and their extensive knowledge of mana lines thaumaturgy to work on their arcane research and development. They have so many research resources in the area it comes as no surprise that they also have a lock on reagent manufacture, talismongering, foci production, and every other field of magical production in the metroplex. That doesn’t mean other corporations don’t have their own resources, just that Wuxing covers the public sector and has control of the majority of the resources moving through town.
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Shiawase’s focus in the city is tighter than many of the other megas. It makes working against them substantially more difficult when their efforts and gaze are so narrow. Stone
At least we know who to go to to get the best deals. If they control the supply, they have plenty to be taken from their stores. Ma’fan
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Aegis sells to anyone, and they don’t change prices based on who they’re selling to. Sure, this means corps have more access, but most of the dirt and data is about them, so purchasing it is more about keeping it out of the hands of others than it is about using it for gain. There is a premium for gaining singular access to the data that only the megas can really afford to pay, and harmful information is often purchased just to eliminate the rare case where the corp has to defend themselves. Orbital DK
Erika may have slipped down to AA status, but they took their chunk of NeoNET and then some when they left, and they have invested heavily in Africa. Most speculate it’s part of a shift to move their base of operations to the underdeveloped continent, and their efforts in PWV seem entirely aligned with this plan. Between their infrastructure work on the metroplex grid and the investment in property they have been making both above and below ground, they’ve quickly surpassed all but UO in their local investment and ownership. They took control of what NeoNET assets they could via the Corporate Court and also have been battling for bits like the other corps.
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wealth and the favors and influence developed over hundreds of years of mining. Not to mention the fact that they pull everything else of value they can find from their excavations. They’ve added to their wealth and influence by selling off rights to all these corps that are looking to make subarcs, while maintaining one of the few thorough maps of the underground region here. They’re well-known to have backdoor access to most of the subarcs, and their teams, or teams hired by them, often get access to a little of that insider information in order to make the work a little easier.
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Erika has the largest number of Mr. Johnsons in the sprawl. They operate in every district and actually have some coordination and cooperation. Fianchetto
Universal Omnitech acts very much like an AAA in PWV. Since they control the bulk of the world’s diamond- and gold-mining market, most of which occurs here in Africa, they hold a tight rein on several other fields solely based on their
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Aegis pays decently for that data. They’re known to be developing a comprehensive map. It’s not for sale yet, but they are buying. A team could make retirement if they can score the whole thing from UO. Traveler Jones Some will notice no mention of Izolo Inc., despite their power and influence in New Hlobane and around much of the African continent. It’s not a snubbing by Afrikaaner, it’s because they aren’t allowed to operate openly within the PWV Metroplex. Top exec and regular Mr. Johnson for the A-rated corp Joseph Mnguni is persona non grata in PWV. A series of local charges laid on him by a series of locals need an answer from him, and he has no desire to dance to the tune of their fake frontier justice system and kangaroo court. The real truth is the bounty placed on him to answer for these crimes. A stipulation of the collection clause states that it can only be collected if Mnguni is within the borders of the metroplex. That means he could visit other corp property, but he’d need to fly there, and airspace belongs to the ’plex. Old Crow That’s exactly why I left them out. There’s a job here, and they’re trying to gain influence over the right people to get him cleared, but it will be difficult without Mnguni’s connection and supernatural charms. People just don’t want to look past the aquarium incident in Johannesburg. Or the mine tour accident. Or the aerodrome fire. And the list goes on and on. He tried to get in on the tough-guy market here and do the same thing he does in New Hlobane by playing both sides, but we have guys who are just as tough (and crazier than razorbat shit) and care a whole lot less about the etiquette of elven ass-kissing. If he wants to come help keep us from getting shoved underground, he’s welcome to dip a toe back in the water, but he’s gonna need a mobile bunker to operate here until he gets some chits in the game. Afrikaaner
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Speaking of a mobile bunker—whenever Mnguni comes to the capital, he has security out the wazoo. The need for them is also part of why he doesn’t like coming to town. That much security makes you appear fearful and weak, which are two things he doesn’t like to exude. Old Crow Sounds like an exploitable weakness. Get a need for him to come to town and show his strength, and then hit him when his security is weak. Mika
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It’s never weak. He always operates with a squad of elite elven guards, similar to Tír specops but Zulu trained and Wakyambi, one and all. Picador
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How do wakyambi blend in? Slamm-0!
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Crouching? Kane
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Cut it, you two. Bull
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Grouch. Slamm-0!
POLITICAL BRIEFING In the view of the average citizen, the political machine of PWV is simply a tool of the corporate machine that really controls the metroplex, but that’s the simple man’s view. As in most places that have a strong corporate influence, the politics of the area seems to take a back seat to profit, but that doesn’t mean it’s not operating and creating opportunities for runners. You can also find citizens looking to change the status quo, because votes still matter in PWV—you just need to make sure your vote gets counted. The local political arena encompasses four levels: local, which consists of the district governments; regional, which is all about the actual governing of the metroplex; national, which is focused on the fact that PWV hosts the home of the Azanian Confederation’s governing bodies; and international, which obviously involves Azania’s connection to the greater world. All of them consist of elected officials making political moves to try to “better” the lives of their constituent groups, which usually involves deals with corporations, lo-
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cal tribes and extra-political entities (like dragons), and other political groups. There are a lot of that last category in PWV—about one for every racial, cultural, metaracial, and socioeconomic group. Getting things done within the halls of government involves a lot of compromising, deal-making, and favor-trading. Best I just present a few of the issues for each of the levels and let you explore the rest, since the political scene in PWV changes with each sunrise and sunset. Local politics are small potatoes overall, but they are also some of the wildest and most chaotic scenes for runners to get into or influence. Things change so fast in the local arena that a politician hiring you to get some blackmail on an opponent could be best friends with that person or not even slightly interested before you wrap the twenty-four-hour window Mr. Johnson gave you for completion. The landscape changes like the plains in the rainy season—one moment a dry bed, the next a torrential river, and then it shifts at a break on a rock or a cracked mine, and the waters are gone. The biggest current issue for them is the ongoing battle for subarc rights and the work to get their citizens the best position in the new subterranean hierarchy. The various districts are trying to get some of the levels closer to the surface, and politicians are trading favors and secrets to be able to move their best and brightest (read: wealthiest, though it’s not very wealthy compared to the real wealth here) to a spot within the first fifty sub-levels. No one from Tshwane or Kungwini will be living in any of the subarcs, but all of the Smile leaders and even those from the central districts are seeking damaging data on their enemies to better the position of their own people. With Pretoria being the capital of Azania, politics don’t end at the local level. Political figures from every member of the Azanian Confederation come to PWV to work and put together behind-the-scenes deals. It’s one of the few places in the Confederation where they can be in the same place without any observers getting automatically suspicious. This means a lot of work for and against these individuals, and stopping their machinations is essential if we want to keep our sprawl from becoming an aboveground paradise supported by the wreckage of humanity below. Each member state has an independent consulate in the metroplex, all of which are located in the Pretoria District (usually just referred to as
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How can you have development costs when you’re basically using slaves to make your designs? Plan 9
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There’s always the security cost of keeping them in line. Clockwork
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Train robberies are a lot easier when you don’t have to worry about damaging the train. And the looters and scavengers who come out to pick the carcasses clean are a sight to behold. Kane
SECURITY BRIEFING As you look all over the region, there is one thing that hasn’t changed in the last century. Everybody loves electric fences. Since the earliest days of the electrified fence, the people of PWV have been using them to protect what’s theirs. The fact that most people also find it to be a source of unending entertainment probably helped keep them around as well. It’s the single most abundant form of security in the city, and most include some form of video or drone monitoring. Originally the video monitoring was just to post videos of people getting zapped, but as systems became more integrated, the monitors were tied into advanced electronics that determine whether or not the fence can decrease or increase power in order to prevent overloads and cooking small local wildlife, or up the juice to stop a troll trying to hop a fence.
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I’d say nonconductive armor mods must be all the rage, but then I realized this is Africa so no one in their right mind would wear armor in that heat. Killian This is not the jungle. The temperatures here are fine for wearing armor. Try to remember that Africa is large and not uniform. Traveler Jones
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More important to runners is the local security that you can’t bypass, the kind that chases you. The municipal contract for PWV is operated by the Metropolitan Police, politely called Metropol but referred to as the Hammer by most criminals and runners in the sprawl for the intensity with which they come down on problems in the affluent districts. They rarely venture into the Smile, even in force, and when they do it’s with an announcement leading them that all citizens need to be off the street, and they shoot anything that moves. Literally. They tend to operate heavy on drones, and the drones really and truly are programmed to shoot anything that moves. Metropol is operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Lone Star, as I’ve said before, and they have no plans to lose this contract anytime in the near future. The force is easily identified by the fluorescent orange chevrons painted on their vehicles and worn on the shoulders of their dark-blue fatigues with yellow accents. Patrol officers wear black baseball caps. Special response officers wear black berets. Tactical operations officers wear maroon berets when in uniform, though most of the time they are either in street clothes or full tactical armor, so the berets are usually just for show at events. Metropol is responsible for all aspects of local policing, from traffic duty to anti-terrorist actions. They run the show and, as their nickname indicates, they run it hard. That doesn’t mean they don’t know how to keep things quiet—it just means that they aren’t going to ask nice more than once, and often not even once. The force has plenty of boots, since it’s one of the best jobs in the city, but most of the patrol and monitoring work is done by drones, leaving those boots plenty of extra time for training exercises. Story time: I had a group of acquaintances operating a little intel gathering op in Joburg. Most of them had clean idents, so no problem, but one of them did a SIN swap inside the team’s van at the wrong moment and got tagged by a local drone. Under a minute later the van was getting hacked. The team’s hacker was busy tracking the deer, and the rigger didn’t stand a chance. They locked the van down, reversed the EnviroSeal system, and sucked out all the air. Several hours later, they towed the van. They can keep it quiet, but it’s still almost always lethal when they do. The city also has its standard share of megacorporate security firms operating private and corp contracts all over town. Minuteman is grow-
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Runners have tried to hole up, and it always turns out bad. The Mense build up forces and then take them down hard. If the runners are really tough nuts to crack, they’ll bring the building down on them or burn it around them. Stone
Also local are the Zulu Gangs that operate most of the smuggling in the sprawl. Their tribal connections are the key to their success, and the fact that most fear their legendary fighting skills keeps them out of perpetual conflicts over moving specialized goods. They have a larger-than-expected percentage of Awakened members, though most are adepts rather than spellcasters. The Zulu shamans within the gang are rumored to use blood magic, which adds to their fearsome reputation. Runners come up on both sides of conflicts with the gangs as hired help both to bolster security and to crack it. I’ve seen them in action and respect the reputation the Zulu adepts have earned, but I also know what it takes to survive in the shadows of PWV, and my money goes to the nutcracking runners in a scuffle. Though keeping clear of the Zulu gangs is the smart play once you’ve worked against them. They don’t care if biz is biz to you. Everything is about honor and warrior pride to them.
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The Zulu don’t own the tribal gang market. Plenty of other smaller tribes have gangs, but none operate on a large scale like the Zulu. Many actually have deals with the Zulu and work with them like subsidiary gangs. Mika Several “unaffiliated” gangs operate to hinder the Zulu gangs and try to diminish their power. Every one of these can usually be traced back to the actual Zulu Nation, because they don’t need the criminal outfit reflecting poorly on them. Traveler Jones
All along the edge of the Smile, and within eight to fifteen kilometers of the border, you’ll find what
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we collectively call the Border Gangs. All of these gangs operate with some kind of collective theme, covering the spectrum of ridiculous to horrendous. On the ridiculous end you have the X-Mas Club, a go-gang themed around Christmas with reindeer heads on their bikes and cars fashioned after sleighs, and Sukie’s Seven, a gang of seven mages all decked out in Sukie Redflower cosplay. The latter gang uses a ton of spirits to supplement their forces, but every bit of their pageantry screams Sukie. At the horrendous end you have the Sons of Blood. The Sons adorn their vehicles in fresh corpses and are most famous for their bone cannon, a modified artillery piece that gets loaded like an old-fashioned cannon but uses the bones (and bits of flesh that remain) of their victims, once they decay, as ammunition. The load carries more risk of infectious diseases than ballistic trauma, but that doesn’t make it less terrifying. These gangs fight amongst themselves for territory nearest the borders of the Smile in order to have better access to the richer parts of town, but as you might guess, gangs like the Sons of Blood don’t try too hard, instead being happy stealing from the other gangs around them.
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These gangs are tools of those more powerful than them. Corps, cults, government groups, dragons, and other crime syndicates play these gangs against each other on a regular basis. Sometimes they’re looking for a distraction, sometimes they need a scapegoat, but every time they manipulate these maniacal masses, they hurt the city by making it look less safe from an outsider’s perspective. Traveler Jones Image is a huge issue here. Most people don’t know a thing about PWV and just base their views on these crazy gangs. It’s like avoiding Seattle because the Halloweeners are there. Snopes
Last piece of the underworld to talk about is probably the most important, but I saved it for last so people would read everything and not just skim for the good bits or catch this and move on. The shadows of PWV themselves are divided. Runners in town understand where they stand and get an unofficial rank based on the credsticks used to pay for their services. It’s part of the system and tradition in the sprawl that runners get paid via credsticks. It’s sometimes considered out of date, but it isn’t changing anytime soon, especially since no one had any issues when the Matrix changed over,
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How the hell do you tell silver from platinum on a casual glance? Stone They anticipated you on this one. Platinum is given a light rose tint for just that reason. Mr. Bonds Since we’re talking about runners here, I’ll point out one of the biggest negatives of getting nabbed in this sprawl. The first thing you get is a criminal SIN and any other associated SIN is linked to the criminal one and ruined if it’s fake, but that’s not the bad part. The bad piece is the growing market of criminal SIN holders being sold to mining companies or other heavy labor, poor health positions. Runners are getting dumped into the mines to work as slave labor. Means that when you are down below you can probably find a few skilled associates if you need to, but it also means getting pinched is extra risky. Ire
ALL THE COLORS OF A DEADLY RAINBOW Colors have long been used to separate one group from another. Whether it’s your favorite urban brawl team, the gangs colors of your local sprawl, or the flag that flies over your nation or corp, colors identify differences. In PWV, they separate the rich from the poor, one tribe from another, one corp from another, and the locals from the tourists. They’re a caste system painted in all the colors of the rainbow.
CORPORATION
Blue
Ares
Red
Aztechnology
Pink
Evo
Purple
Horizon
Green
MCT
Neon Blue
Renraku
Silver
Saeder-Krupp
Neon Green
Shiawase
Light Blue
Spin Global/Formerly NeoNET
Yellow
Wuxing
Neon Pink
A or AA corps
RESIDENCY/EMPLOYMENT/STATUS COLOR
ACCESS/IDENTIFIER
Gold
Kungwini
Gold
Tshwane
Black
Ekurhuleni
Black
Johannesburg
Black
Pretoria
Black
West Rand
White
Emfuleni
White
Lesedi
White
Midvaal
White
Mogale
White
Randfontein
White
Westonaria
Maroon
Foreign/Visitor
Grey
Criminal
TRIBAL AFFILIATIONS (ANIMALS ADDED TO COLORS FOR DIFFERING TRIBES BASED ON SIZE/INFLUENCE) COLOR/ANIMAL
TRIBE
Orange
Zulu
Brown/Lion
Sotho
Brown/Rhino
Xhosa
Brown/Zebra
Tswana
Brown/Elephant
Sepedi
Brown/Monkey
Ndebele
Light Green/Gorilla
Tsonga
Light Green/Phoenix
Swazi
Light Green/Gazelle
Venda
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Tribal Affiliation offers yet another way to identify with a group, but also for other groups to identify you. Only the Zulu have their own color, which shares the background of the SIN ARO with megacorporate affiliations or stands alone for those unaffiliated with a megacorporation. The mid-size tribes and small tribes each share a color but add an animal logo to identify their individual tribal affiliation. Occasionally new animals pop up as tribes seek recognition, but they’re usually hacker or forger efforts. Until recognized by the PWV government, no color or animal is given to an unrecognized tribe.
GETTING AROUND District clearance runs top down. This means anyone with a gold SIN can enter into any district. Limitations on their access will be applied to megacorporate areas. If they don’t have the affiliation or extraterritorial access, it doesn’t matter whether they have a gold SIN in a white zone—they aren’t getting into a blue extraterritorial location. The district colors—gold, black, and white—are always used as border colors for megacorporate SINs to show residential or vocational district access along with extraterritorial access. This is one of the most common forms of color mixing. If an individual also has a tribal affiliation, the tribal affiliation color joins the SIN ARO in the form of stripes.
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SIN access often limits you just as thoroughly going down as it does going up. Roll into a white zone (pretty much anywhere in the Smile) with a gold SIN and it may not be local security coming to usher you out impolitely. Instead, it’s a local gang or warlord coming to ransom you back to your zone cronies or just rob you. Stone Local fixers and forgers charge a premium for fakes that offer more access. Most shadow work is done in the Black and White zones, but Gold-zone work is out there. Getting access to the Gold zone is going to cost you. Maroons offer the greatest premium because they offer the most access, but the tradeoff for that is you get more scrutiny, and … well, we are shadowrunners after all. Traveler Jones Those Foreign/Visitor options are great, but people can gain a local color if they’re properly vetted and vouched for by a member of the culture or megacorporation. Good to know, even under a fake SIN. Pyramid Watcher
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They’re serious about doing a little research. Local authorities can blow a fake out of the water in less than three questions. It’s usually all they ask, but if you miss one, you’re dead in the water. With the sharks circling. Thorn Speaking of sharks. Azania is like the Carib League, so don’t call people chummer. They use the slang a little differently, but it’s still not a good thing. Here, they call certain cops “chummers” as they try and catch the local sharks … a.k.a., us. Kane Having a local cop blow your SIN isn’t the end of the world unless you look like you’re about to commit a crime. Most of them will take a bribe and let you slide as long as you’re sliding away from where you’re not allowed. Picador
GAME INFORMATION When examining a color-coded ID, authorities make an Intuition + Perception [Mental] vs. Charisma + Con [Social] or Acting [Social] Opposed Test. If they succeed in this test, the authorities are suspicious. If the runners have a valid cover and are heading away from trouble, consult the Bribe Table on what it’s going to cost each of them. If they look ready to rumble, the authorities go on alert, local security drones are dispatched to monitor the individuals, and a threat-response team is called in that includes physical, astral, and Matrix forces. Tailor it to your table, but remember, PWV is a harsh and unforgiving place.
BRIBES NEEDED ACCESS
COSTS
Gold
1,000¥
Black
500¥
Megacorporate
250¥
Tribal
100¥
BUYING A FAKE With all the variations in this place, fake SINs are a big market and certain access is costlier than others. The Fake SIN Cost Modifiers table offers the basic variations on cost, and it also opens the door for gamemasters raising and lowering fake SIN costs based on the activities in their campaign. As a general rule, assume that each fake SIN includes only what is on the What’s In A SIN table below based on their rating. If a character desires a SIN with backup info but only wants to pay for a Rating 1, that’s not going to fly. This table also helps a gamemaster determine what might go into a run to help build a fake SIN if characters want to do it themselves.
WHAT’S IN A SIN RATING
DATA
1
Just the SIN ARO; no backup data on the link or Matrix
2–3
SIN ARO and local backup info
4–6
SIN ARO, local backup info, and major database info
FAKE SIN COST MODIFIERS IDENTIFIER
COST VARIATION
White
–10%
Black
N/A
Gold
+10%
Maroon
+25%
Tribal
+10%
Megacorporate
+15%
Criminal
–50%
> MINING FOR GOLD > MINING FOR GOLD > MINING FOR GOLD > MINING FOR GOLD
>
We’ve spent some time looking at the PWV sprawl, not time to look at some of the players in the area. The emphasis, of course, is on runners and associated personnel, with a particular emphasis on hooders. Use the information in good health. Glitch
AIKSHE POSTED BY: CONTRACTOR
• • • • • • • •
Gender: Female Metatype: Elf (wakyambi metavariant) Birthdate (Age): January 12, 2044 (36) Height: 2.52m Weight: 95.3kg Hair: Black Eyes: Green General Description: Tall and slender, Aikshe normally wears her hair split, half in tight cornrows and braids decorated with colorful beads, the other half picked up into a thick afro. Her rich complexion is often contrasted with make-up in deep golds, rich blues, or bright reds. She dresses distinctively, with a touch of street, and carries herself with an approachable air despite her formidable physical presence.
To talk of Aikshe (pronounced like “ache-she”) is to comment on her individual sense of style—she has a foot in high fashion (she owns every piece of the Aces collection from Vashon Island), but she also reflects pop culture shadowrunner-wear, merging that with African street styles. While her sense of fashion may be a topic of small talk, her work and connections are what truly deserve the spotlight. Aikshe is best known as a fixer for electronic hardware, especially items with the logo of MCT or one of their myriad of subsidiaries. While the branding of her primary products may not defin-
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itively connect her to the world’s top megacorp, her work as a Johnson tends to have a real pro-Mitsuhama feel to it. She obviously operates on the electronics side of the corp, but I have heard of magic types getting access to some of MCT’s mojo-ware as part of payment deals. It’s a common negotiation ploy used by Aikshe to counter runners who think having a spellslinger on the team makes all of them special. Aikshe tosses a little extra incentive for the mage, and everyone else can just be happy to have the work and a magical asset to make it easier.
>
> >
>
A lot of Mr. Johnsons are going this route—offering a little something extra for the spellslinger but nothing that would be of use to everyone else. I’ve never known of magic to be hard to come by in the shadows, but this still seems to attract people who are anxious for more mojo. Note that adding an item for a mage may not make them a better runner in the long run—the power may go to their heads, or the study effort they need to put into mastering the item isolates them, and their social skills go the way of the black rhino, leaving them too awkward for regular employment or too mentally scarred for normal life. Ire I wouldn’t say “a lot” of Johnsons. Plenty are telling runners who use their spellslinger as a negotiating point to deal with internal politics on their own. Magic is rare and powerful, but so are high-end wired systems. The point is, think carefully about the negotiation technique you decide to use in the region. Fianchetto
Over the last two years, her work has focused heavily on adjusting the balance of power between the megas operating in PWV. That means plenty of jobs pulling data and prototypes from labs in the southern districts, hitting office files in Joburg, or extracting high-value personnel from Uptown. She doesn’t have issues using the same
teams and has a solid rep as a Johnson, but don’t talk about your work. She can use the same teams because they know to keep their work confidential. By limiting communication between runners, she can compartmentalize the overarching point of a series of jobs without the need to eliminate loose ends who know too much. Each team of shadowmushrooms is kept in their own dark cell and fed a slightly different blend of drek. This is good for both her and the runners in her stable. I can’t confirm what she’s currently involved in because of this, but I have plenty of other connections at MCT who know their interests in PWV are shifting with the populace. They know the regular citizens need to remain contained to keep profits up. Efforts are underway in MCT’s heavy-industry division to make progress on the contracts they signed at the beginning of the year for several enhanced subterranean arcologies featuring geothermal power, a natural connection to the existing aquifer, and most importantly, easier access to deeper mines. To make this work, they need to pry some local control from Erika, who has been accumulating power all over Africa for the last few years as an effort to distance themselves from the sinking NeoNET. As a part of the tech-savvy arm, Aikshe is going to play a role in MCT’s efforts here, and she’ll be pushing jobs that put runners in Erika’s crosshairs.
>
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>
MCT played a big part in getting the local urban brawl grounds set up and maintained. As is the case in most brawl sprawls, a few sneaky squatters manage to stick around, but Aikshe contracts runners to clean up the sprawl before match days. Slamm-0! She’s even contracted them to be in the zone during the matches to catch stragglers. They need to be stealth pros, and most are required to wear monitoring gear to make sure they don’t interfere, but it’s a good gig. Mika
AIKSHE
> BETTER THAN BAD
PWV matches get a lot of special shots out of this. Runners are cammed up or run a full simrig system, meaning they can offer some extra footage, including some from inside the action if the brawlers get too close. Slamm-0!
>
HASHTU OJIMBWE POSTED BY: AFRIKAANER
• • • • • • • •
What the streets do know is that Aikshe has a deep love for runners and, in particular, the culture of runners as the antihero, the lost soul seeking to redeem themselves through fighting the good fight and battling the greater powers of the world. Even though she represents one of those greater powers, she enacts her deep-seeded desires against her myriad of opponents in the sprawl. This means she has a tendency to hire runners with a jaded past but a heart of gold, usually discovered by her agents working within a runner team on a smaller, less-vital job.
>
This goes south on a regular basis. Agents get pegged as spies by runners without a heart of gold. Aikshe ends up sending runners after runners to get her eyes out of trouble. Fianchetto
>
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3 (5)
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8
4.9
2
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Augmentations
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10/11 6 Physical 4, Mental 5(7), Social 11 7 + 1D6 Blades 2, Computer 5, Con 4, Etiquette 6 (Corporate +2), Negotiation 8, Palming 3, Pistols 4, Unarmed Combat 3 Afrikaans 4, Business 4, Corporate Business Practices 4 (Mitsuhama +2), Corporate Culture 6 (Mitsuhama +2) Corporate Politics 5 (Mitsuhama +2), English 4, German 4, History 3 (Azania +2), Japanese 4, Literature 4, Magical Theory 3, PWV Politics 4, Shadowrunners 5, Zulu N Analytical Mind, First Impression, Linguist, Perfect Time, Photographic Memory, Social Appearance Anxiety Cerebral booster 2, cybereyes [Rating 1, w/ image link, low-light vision, vision enhancement 2], datajack, tailored pheromones 2 Armor clothing [6], MCT Kamishi commlink [Device Rating 7, w/AR gloves, biometric reader, sim module, trid projector] Nitama Sporter [Light Pistol*, Acc 6 (7), DV 6P, AP —, SA, RC —, 18 (c), w/ regular ammo, laser sight; *uses Heavy Pistol ranges]
Gender: Male Metatype: Human Birthdate (Age): August 27, 2051 (28) Height: 1.79 m Weight: 101.4 kg Hair: Black Eyes: Green (right eye)/cybernetic (left eye) General Description: Muscularly built but not to any extreme, Hashtu doesn’t stand out in a crowd. He is generally found in his fatigues, which feature a mix of tiger stripes, digital, and patches of ruthenium that swap between transparency during dangerous situations and bright patches with local symbols and native sayings the rest of the time. His deep ebony skin is a feature of his Zulu heritage, but his green eye shows some influence from other demographics, including those within and without his nation. His youthful energy and the bounce in his step are a perpetual source of inspiration and excitement for those who get a chance to meet and work with him.
As a local hero of the people, Hashtu is a largerthan-life figure who plays the part to the extreme but can fade into a crowd in a heartbeat. He greets everyone like a friend, travels with a small cadre of his closest sycophants, and makes a big show of everything he does. He has the largest P2.0 following in all of Azania (that’s not saying much, but it’s something), makes frequent appearances at local demonstrations (the rare few that manage to last more than a few minutes), hosts a Matrix show about life in PWV (even though he doesn’t have the clearance or the street rep to visit half the sprawl), and does all of this while hiding the fact that he is a puppet for Horizon. That’s not saying he doesn’t do good things. He makes a lot of quiet cash from Horizon and uses most of it to hire runners to hit other megacorps. You just won’t ever find his jobs operating against Horizon interests in the sprawl. Aztechnology has been a major target, especially by going after their food-production facilities and being able to bring out or redirect foodstuffs into poorer areas. His jobs often have multiple layers as well, especially
JACARANDA CITIZENS >>
>> BETTER THAN BAD
> > > >
>
If you’re going to pick a mega to foster here, Horizon isn’t the worst choice. They don’t have a strong physical force in the area, so once the other big boys are brought down, they’re still vulnerable. They’ll have a lot of political and social capital, but none of it will be with the masses of downtrodden in this sprawl, who are well known for rising up and successfully overthrowing corrupt powers. Mika Have you noticed the number of contracts in town being picked up by Minuteman? Horizon’s forces moving in. Stone And Horizon owns the locals with their free ’links and entertainment packages. This guy is backing the people’s horse, even though none of the horses in the race would think twice about drekking on the people. Bull
Hashtu likes bucking the credstick system the city uses for its runners, often hiring runners above their paygrade to mess with the local vibe. Out-of-town runners are the best example, especially when he negotiates to include travel and incidentals in the payment and bumps them up a category. There are a lot of hooders in this town with ratings higher than they should be, or they think their rating deserves to be higher because of Hashtu. It’s good and bad, but it leads to more problems for the runners and other Mr. Johnsons than it does for him.
HASHTU OJIMBWE
> BETTER THAN BAD
JACARANDA CITIZENS >>
Saru’s Shades is what the shadows call them. It also might be the name of the initiatory group but no one can say for sure. They’re hooders to their core, and based on
>> BETTER THAN BAD
their rep and record, killing is a violation of their tenets. They’ve never killed a single person on a run. Not even by accident. Mika
> >
Murder mars the soul. Man-of-Many-Names B
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Metamagics Gear
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6
5
5
5
ESS EDG 6
8
M 8
10/11 6 Physical 6, Mental 7, Social 8 10 + 1D6 Arcana 5, Assensing 6, Clubs 8, Computer 3, Con 4, Etiquette 6, Gymnastics 7, Leadership 6, Negotiation 8, Perception 5, Pistols 6, Running 5, Sneaking 5, Unarmed Combat 6 Afrikaans 5, Business 9, Corporate Business Practices 8 (Universal Omnitech +2), Corporate Culture 6 (Universal Omnitech +2) Corporate Politics 7 (Universal Omnitech +2), English N, German 4, History 5 (Southern Africa +2), Japanese 4, Magical Theory 4, PWV Politics 5, Shadowrunners 4 (Adepts +2), Zulu 3 Analytical Mind, Lucky, Initiated 2 Astral Perception, Analytics 4, Cool Resolve 1, Kinesics 4, Kinesics Mastery, Rapid Healing 4, Sustenance 1, Temperature Tolerance 1, Voice Control 2 Power point 2 Armor clothing [6], Transys Avalon commlink [Device Rating 6, w/AR gloves, biometric reader, sim module, trid projector] Ares Predator V [Heavy Pistol, Acc 5 (6), DV 8S, AP —, SA, RC —, 15 (c), w/ gel ammo, laser sight]
KURT KOENIG POSTED BY: LIONESS
• • • • • • • •
Gender: Male Metatype: Human Birthdate (Age): July 10, 2045 (34) Height: 1.72m Weight: 68.1kg Hair: Brown Eyes: Blue General Description: Angular facial features reveal his Germanic ancestry as readily as his name. Broad shoulders and a narrow waist cut quite a figure in his sharp, fitted
> BETTER THAN BAD >
Fucking technomancers. Clockwork
> >
What? Where’d it say that? What are you trying to do? Netcat
> >
Reveal the darkness to the light. Clockwork
the public, or within a corp’s view, to help generate the proper blowback and create the proper effect. He pays well, and the work is usually simple enough and rarely poses any real danger, so it’s ideal for newer teams or teams who just like to keep the risk low. Whether it’s success or failure he seeks, doing something wrong can get you blacklisted, or worse double-crossed. He doesn’t like leaving loose ends out there to be snagged up and used against him.
>
>
He occasionally needs help gathering insider data for his amazing market analysis, which means hiring runners for data steals and the like. He also uses us when things don’t seem to be panning out as he planned. He initiates a few properly directed runs, occasionally using inept teams intentionally in order to get the run out in
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Since Clockwork tossed it out there, I’ll confirm it and add some extra points. He is a highly skilled technomancer. He specializes in using his sprites to operate and enhance his gear and data-analysis skills. He’s pretty much the equivalent of six brains running all at once. He’s a huge friend to the technomancer community in PWV and would love for Clockwork to come down for a personal meeting so he can explain to him why hating technomancers is the mentality of a simpleton. Lioness
JACARANDA CITIZENS >>
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Condition Monitor Armor Limits Physical Initiative Skills
Knowledge Skills
Qualities Complex Forms
Echoes Gear
Weapons
ESS EDG 6
5
R 9
11/11 6 Physical 6, Mental 8, Social 7 10 + 2D6 Compiling 8, Computer 5, Con 6, Decompiling 2, Electronic Warfare 5, Etiquette 5, Hacking 6, Perception 5, Pistols 3, Registering 8, Software 8, Unarmed Combat 2 Business 4, Corporate Business Practices 8, Corporate Culture 9, Corporate Politics 7, English 4, German N, Japanese 4, Politics 5, Shadowrunners 2 Exceptional Attribute (Intuition), Lightning Reflexes, Submersion 3, Technomancer Cleaner, Editor, Infusion of Attack, Infusion of Sleaze, Infusion of Data Processing, Infusion of Firewall, Static Veil, Pulse Storm, Resonance Channel, Resonance Spike, Stitches, Transcendent Grid, Tattletale Mind Over Machine 2, Sleaze Upgrade 1 Armor clothing [6], Transys Avalon commlink [Device Rating 6, w/AR gloves, biometric reader, sim module, trid projector] Ares Predator V [Heavy Pistol, Acc 5 (7), DV 8P, AP –1, SA, RC —, 15 (c), w/ regular ammo]
>> BETTER THAN BAD BETTER THAN BAD
> >
>
You can’t operate like the Fox and not generate a lot of enemies. Every corp has at least one Johnson, sometimes two or three, who are putting out feelers and paying good nuyen for info on this guy. He’s got a great shadowrep, pretty much legendary, and he’s avoided the public spotlight, but corps don’t always care if you’re the most notorious. They care if you are messing up their carefully laid plans, and the Fox does that. Fianchetto Not for long, after getting outed on this den of spies and sellouts. Hey /dev/, you ready to start another pool? How much time does this guy’s secret have now that it’s on JackPoint? Clockwork
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Condition Monitor
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Armor
14(+6)
Limits
Physical 8(12), Mental 8, Social 8
Physical Initiative
12(15) + 1D6(4D6)
Skills
Automatics 8 (SMG +2), Blades 6(7) (Swords +2), Computer 5, Con 9, Etiquette 6, Escape Artist 5(+2) [+1], Gymnastics 7(+2)[+3], Hardware 8, Intimidation 4, Lockpicking 6, Negotiation 6, Palming 5, Perception 7, Pilot Groundcraft 5, Pistols 13(14) (Semi-automatics +2), Running 6(+2), Sneaking 6(7)[+2]{+3}, Swimming 4(+3), Unarmed Combat 7(8)
Knowledge Skills
Afrikaans 4, Building Layouts 5, Corporate Security Systems 7, Corporate Business Practices 1, Corporate Culture 2, Corporate Politics 1, English N, German 4, Infiltration Techniques 8, Japanese 6, Law Enforcement 6, Politics 1, Psychology 5, Shadowrunners 6 (Hooders +2), Sociology 4, Spanish 4, Zulu 4
Qualities
Ambidextrous, Analytical Mind, Aptitude (Pistols), Catlike, Code of Honor (Semper Paratis), Doublejointed, Guts, Linguist, Natural Athlete, Exceptional Attribute (Charisma), Photographic Memory, Tough As Nails (3 Physical, 1 Stun)
Augmentations
(All deltaware) Bone density augmentation 4, commlink [Custom, Device Rating 8], cybereyes [Rating 3, flare compensation, low-light, smartlink, thermographic, vision enhancement 2, vision magnification], dermal plating 6, enhanced articulation, muscle toner 4, muscle augmentation 4, platelet factories, reflex recorder [Blades, Pistols, Sneaking, Unarmed Combat], sleep regulator, synaptic booster 3, synthcardium 3
Gear
Ballistic mask, Transys Avalon commlink [Device Rating 6, w/AR gloves, biometric reader, sim module, trid projector], Cellular glove molder (Rating 6), chameleon suit [w/ thermal damping (Rating 4)], climbing gear, crowbar, Erika Elite commlink (Device Rating 4), fake license (gun, Rating 6), grapple gun (with stealth rope 500m, catalyst stick, micro wire 200m), maglock passkey (Rating 6), micro-transceiver, rappelling gloves, sequencer (Rating 6), tag eraser, earbuds [audio enhancement (Rating 1), spatial recognizer], 4 fake SINs [Rating 6, each with fake licenses (Rating 6, concealed carry, possession of firearms, possession of augmentations)], Hermes Ikon commlink (Rating 5), jammer (area, Rating 6), Armored long coat [12, chemical protection 3, fire resistance 3, non-conductivity 6], medkit (Rating 6), 5 stim patches (Rating 6), 2 trauma patches, white noise generator (Rating 6), nanopaste disguise
Weapons
Katana [Blade, Reach 1, Acc 7, DV 13P, AP –3] Fist [Unarmed, Reach —, Acc 13, DV 13P, AP –] Ares Light Fire 75 [Light Pistol, Acc 6 (8), DV 6P, AP —, SA, RC —,16 (c),w/ 3 spare clips, 100 rounds regular ammo] Ares Predator V [Heavy Pistol, SA, Acc 5 (7), DV 8P, AP –5, RC —, Ammo 15 (c), APDS ammo (100 rounds), 3 spare clips] Ares Executioner [SMG, Acc 4 (6), DV 8P, AP –2, SA/ BF/FA, RC (1), 30 (c), w/ 3 spare clips, 100 rounds EX-explosive ammo]
>> BETTER THAN BAD
There are several Astermoore impersonators in town. They’ve designed nanopaste disguises to get them to look like Lincoln, but they don’t have the resources he does. They’ll usually have a comparable security force around them, just in case they trick the wrong people, but payment usually comes as a double-cross or as a quick detour into a deathtrap. Fianchetto
> >
The best part about working for Astermoore is the redistribution of wealth. He puts a lot of money into the shadows that finds its way into the pockets of the poor. But almost as much flows right back into the pockets of the rich as they rob the poor of everything they have on a daily basis. Mika
> >
Not to mention the fact that the rich still really control the flow of arms and high-end gear in the city, which means all those black-market purchases you make with those ill-gotten gains are going right back into the pockets of the rich. No matter how hard you try, unless you can upend the whole system, this place is going to stay thoroughly divided. Snopes
>
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6
5
5
6
5.0
5
10/11 6 Physical 6, Mental 7, Social 8 9 + 1D6 Computer 2, Con 5, Etiquette 8 (Social Elite +2), Negotiation 10, Perception 4, Running 2, Unarmed Combat 2 Business 8, Corporate Business Practices 8, Corporate Culture 9, Corporate Politics 7, English N, History 7, PWV Politics 6, PWV Socialites 9, Shadowrunners 4, Sociology 6, World Geography 4 First Impression Armanté Armor clothing [6], Transys Avalon commlink [Device Rating 6, w/ AR gloves, biometric reader, sim module] Sword Cane [Blade, Reach 1, Acc 5, DV 6P, AP –1]
> BETTER THAN BAD
> >
>
It also makes her privy to all the dark drek that went down during testing, including the dozen or so Dissonance Pools that developed all over the sprawl. She and her team have worked hard to cover it up, but nothing like that stays a secret for long. The real question is, how long can they contain and maintain them? Mika
In the shadows her interests lie a bit closer to the realm of philanthropy. She isn’t entirely altruistic, but she is not a cold-hearted mercenary, either. In general, her efforts are simple—she looks to undermine the other corporate interests in PWV in order to advance Erika’s expansion efforts, but her methods are what make her valuable to us. You see, Leeka actually values the lives of the runners she hires. I’m not saying that she builds in death benefits into our non-existent contracts, but she works to make sure that every asset she hires makes it home. The philosophy is not unheard of, just extremely rare in this throwaway society where the corps know runners are a dime a dozen. It’s weird and rare enough that you have to ask why she does it. The answer lies in her past. You see, Leeka Montclair is not her birth name. Leeka was born to a pair of runners who worked hard to get out of the shadows and build a new life around their children and family. She has two siblings, both younger, who followed in mom’s and dad’s footsteps after their parents died. Even though she and her siblings don’t speak much, Montclair knows that any runner that gets hired could be her family, and while she may want them to fail against Erika, she has no desire to see them dead.
>
>
They do neither. Those pools corrupt everything they touch. This whole sprawl would be better if someone put in the effort to close them all, or at least bury access until they dissipate. Without support, they will fade away. Netcat
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Her parents were Echo and Finder, a pair of well known success stories in the PWV shadows. They never got the big score but scrounged enough from the little ones to get mostly out. They did occasional milk runs and contracted as experience for new teams to the Mr. Johnsons they trusted. Finder died when one of the runners on their team turned out to be a member of the Haku Cheka, a gang from Mogale, and they ran into a group of Great Whites, a rival gang. They were supposedly talking their way past when one of the GWs recognized the HC and opened fire. Echo had to put in more shadow time after that to make ends meet, and she met her end thanks to rookies with more attitude than skill. Snopes
>> BETTER THAN BAD
> >
>
Heavy is a solid dude to know in the sprawl and around Azania. His reach stretches all over the nation as he draws in talent to PWV that can work within his parameters. Several teams that came into Cape Town looking for work, found themselves contracted and on a train across the Azanian countryside because runners skilled at avoiding killing are a commodity. Fianchetto Not just a fixer, Heavy is a decent street doc. Not sure if the doc talents came before or after the desire to keep people from dying only to push them over the line again, but if you’re on his good side, it doesn’t really matter. Butch
> BETTER THAN BAD
POSTED BY: DIAMOND
• • • • • • • •
Gender: Male Metatype: Ork Birthdate (Age): unknown (approx. 30) Height: 2.21 m Weight: 134.4 kg Hair: Black Eyes: Cybernetic General Description: Always seen in his black fatigues, thigh holster, and tactical equipment, Ache is like a cliche of African warlords throughout time, with his red beret topping it all off. He’s built like a brick wall, and his face is covered in burn scars. His right hand is obviously cybernetic, and he uses it to hold and light his signature cigars.
> >
>
There are several bounties on his head, but one requirement for collection is actually bringing in that head. Which will be difficult, as his followers devoutly protect him. He has twice been dropped by skilled snipers and twice recovered thanks to his body being dragged off by his gang instead of being left for dead. Balladeer
> >
Lose out on a contract one of those times? Slamm-0!
>
Seemed like easy money until I got to town and learned how wild this place really is. I appreciate it now and may take another crack at him if I can find a solid team. Balladeer
>
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Ache is a grade-A badass with the ’wares to back up running his mouth. He’s like a shadowrunner’s bogeyman. Rumors abound as to how he ended up like this, but the most likely explanation is simple cyberpsychosis. He has so much metal in him, the man got stuck on some twisted concept and can’t break free from it. Butch
JACARANDA CITIZENS >>
>> BETTER THAN BAD
>
Slight change of pace here. These guys have worked in Pretoria, though not exclusively, but they certainly fit the theme of this posting, and their leader was willing to provide some data. Check ’em out, and of course add any intel you might have. Glitch
OZ “DO NOT WORRY. YOU WILL NOT REMEMBER A THING.”
When the rich look out their penthouse windows at the world laid out before them, they see that world in terms of exploitable resources. In those quiet moments as I count my breaths and listen to my heart beat, I feel the pain and anguish of a population that is being systematically destroyed. I am the man behind the curtain. I am Oz. I have a solution. But before I tell you about me and my network, let me assure you of one thing: I will not give you the details that will help find me. I have millions in bounties on my head. One of you nekulturny [auto-translate: uncultured, typically used in derogatory manner; source language: Russian] on here is going to think you can collect it. Think again. I’m smarter than you. I will not lead you to my door. I have survived the past twenty years precisely because I blend in. Everyone sees me. Nobody knows me. And if you come close, this is my guarantee: I am a doctor who works and has contacts all over the world. I will wait until you install the next piece of ware or patch a bullet wound.You will not wake up. This is my guarantee. Do not think I am some helpless, rich, do-gooder doctor. That is a mistake. My compassionate nature does not extend to fools who try to hurt me and mine. Enough. There are several steps to a quality hooder job. The first is to identify your target. My father once told me when we were visiting our island in the Med, “Don’t be one of the rich that brags about his business to the world.” My victims fall over themselves, regaling me with tales of their corporate exploits. They tell me just as much about their business conscious as when drugged. Which brings me to the second step: gather intel. During the day, I work as an anesthesiologist. I have
> BETTER THAN BAD
>
>
> >
>
I’ve heard of this doctor. While I’m a fan of his results, his staggering disregard for the Hippocratic oath cannot be justified. KAM It’s risky for both patient and doctor. He’s using a drug called speakeasy. Very rare drug. Expensive to make and remains effective for only a few hours. If you get the dose wrong, the subject can suffer permanent dissociative symptoms. Beaker
The third step is the run itself. Bianca hires the runners and Reaper ensures they stick to the plan. I provide detailed information and biological samples to beat security. I expect my runner teams to follow my instructions to the letter. If they deviate, they can discuss the issue with Reaper.
> >
were dumping toxic sludge into various barrens. My favorite was identifying Franklin Hoeflinger from Pretoria who was conducting tests on baby trolls and orks, inducing mutations.
And just so we are clear: You will know my runs by the ruby slippers marked on all electronic documents generated for the run. Those marks are my personal guarantee that this is my hooder run. If you work with a Mr. Johnson claiming the run is my work, look for the ruby slippers for confirmation. Hooding can be a life that you are both driven to and take immense satisfaction from. Working in black clinics offers me a wealth of opportunity to gather intel. Good luck in all your hooding enterprises. May compassion be your guide.
Reaper doesn’t have much of a rep as a talker. Cosmo
The final step is redistribution of assets. When I finished med school, I learned I was broke. With less than ten thousand nuyen to my name, I took what I learned from my patients and engaged in some insider trading. I use the resulting network of wealth to benefit those society looks down on. I also have numerous sources that can get the money where needed. I grew up a child of wealth and privilege, but I could always sense the pain of those around me. Several years into my medical practice, my mentor spirit Guanyin spoke to me for the first time. She told me to stop indulging in excess and to respond to all who are in pain. I started working the free clinics, putting my education to good use. I experienced the pain I felt firsthand. I knew who needed to benefit from my life’s mission of freeing up all that corporate wealth. Do you want to understand the consequence of not caring for the people in the barrens? Watch dozens of children die from an illness that could have been cured by fifty nuyen worth of medications. From that moment, I stopped gathering wealth for myself and started healing the world. I have put together runs to release pharmaceutical formulas into the public domain. I outed several megas that
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Ah, so that’s where some of the Denver troublemakers ended up. Traveler Jones
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10/11 8 Physical 4, Mental 7, Social 7(9) 7 +1D6 Biotechnology 6, Chemistry 7, Computer 5, Con 6, Cybertechnology 6, Etiquette 8, First Aid 6, Intimidation 8 (Chemical Interrogation +2), Leadership 2, Medicine 6 (Anesthesiology +2), Negotiation 4, Perception 6, Pilot Ground Craft 2, Pistols 2, Unarmed Combat 6 Fine Liquor 4, Medical Practice 6, Pharmacology 6, Shadowrunners 3, Stock Market 5, Who’s Who 4 English (N) Adept, Analytical Mind, Blandness, College Education, Driven (Hooder), Mentor Spirit (Guanyin), Photographic Memory, Signature: Ruby Slippers, SINner (Corporate Limited SIN): Evo, Social Chameleon 2 Power Point x 2 Analytics (4), Cool Resolve (5), Empathic Healing, Kinesics (4), Nerve Strike BMW i8 Interceptor [Handling 5/3, Speed 8, Accel 4, Body 12, Armor 8, Pilot 4, Sensor 4, Seats 3] Armanté Suit (Increase Social Limit by 2), Fairlight Caliban Cavalier Deputy [Heavy Pistol, Acc 6, DV 7P, AP –1, SA, 7(cy)], w/ regular ammo Fichetti Tiffani Needler [Hold-out, Acc 6, DV 8P(f), AP +5, SA, 4 (c)] w/ cybersafety RFID detector
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Bianca approached him, the crowds flowing around her. No blood had been shed. She bent over the target. A scalpel—one of mine, no doubt—appeared in her hand. She cut a slash mark on his face, the third such one, and finished off with a vial of fluid dribbled on the cut. Maximum scarring. There would be that whispered warning. “Have these marks removed, and I will add more. Two more, and you’re done.”
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This is a good time to point out that running for Oz and his crew won’t make you rich, but usually you’ll stay safe. He plans runs to the finest detail and provides biological samples to beat security. Just don’t betray him or his people. Cosmo
JACARANDA CITIZENS >>
Those marks serve as a warning to others and a reminder to the victim. And I do mean victim. I met a troll with those marks. She broke him. He was a quivering mess. DangerSensei Then the rumors are true. Kia
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Condition Monitor Armor Limits Physical Initiative Skills
Knowledge Skills Languages Qualities
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W
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10/11 7 Physical 5, Mental 6, Social 9(12) 9(10) + 2D6 Computer 5(Matrix Search +2), Con 9(Fast Talking +2), Etiquette 2, Intimidation 7(Mental +2), Longarms 3, Negotiation 5(Bargaining +2) , Perception 7(Visual +2), Pistols 4, Sneaking 6, Tracking 5(Urban +2), Unarmed Combat 3 Corporate Politics 6, Corporate Law 4, Local 3 German N, English 4 Big Regret, Ex-Con, First Impression, Hung Out to Dry, Infirm (1), Lightning Reflexes, SINner (Criminal SIN: Cornelius Walters), Too Pretty to Hit Ace of Coins w/ Increase Social Limit by 3, Cornelius Walters, Fairlight Caliban, Synth Flanders w/ Fake License: weapons (6), Fake SIN (6) Fichetti Security 600 [Light Pistol, Acc 8, DV 7P, AP —, SA, RC (1), 30 (c), w/ folding stock, laser sight, personalized grip] Remington 950 [Sniper Rifle, Acc 8, DV 12P, AP –4, SS, 5 (m), w/ imaging scope, personalized grip, smartgun system (external)]
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My inner editor hates this person already. Sunshine
I’m sure that Old Crow—he’s the one who passed my name to the JackPoint admins—has already trotted out an inspiring speech about how every shadowrunner can be a force for good unto themselves. There was probably a call to action, a reminder that the battle isn’t yet over, and an emphasis on the need for solidarity; exactly the kinds of things that get idealists’ blood pumping. Whether you agree with him or not, you have to admit, the man’s good at getting people fired up. I, on the other hand, am here to tell you how hooding works in the real world.
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Suddenly I feel like I’ve made a terrible mistake. Old Crow
If you’re reading this, you’re probably new to hooding. You’ve probably also been exposed to quite a few half-truths, misconceptions, and outright lies about what hooding really is. If not, consider this one of the few times where knowing less is actually an advantage; you’re better off hearing it from someone who actually knows what she’s talking about. Speaking of which, I should probably tell you a little about myself, both because it’s one of my favorite subjects and so you know why you should care about what I have to say.
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Seattleite runners know me as Freya, the hard-drinking, swashbuckling combat mage from Tír Tairngire. Before I stepped into the shadows, I was a spy and assassin—one of the Tír’s Black Daggers, specifically. I did their dirty work for longer than I like to think about, oppressing the citizenry at home and extending the reach of the “sinister elven conspiracy” abroad. When the good people of the Tír used the chaos of the last Crash as an opportunity to give Surehand and the rest of the Council the boot, I left the country to avoid the Rinelle ke’Tesrae’s “revolutionary justice.”
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You might even say the Rinelle were her nemesis. Thorn
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Rory Caolain. I suppose I should congratulate you and your comrades on a job well done, you justifiably smug bastard. Freya
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Everyone likes to be appreciated. Thorn
Ironically, when the JackPoint admins contacted me, I agreed to write this guide as much out of selfishness as altruism. Posting a hooding guide somewhere like JackPoint, where others can see it and possibly take up the mantle themselves, will do more to make the world a better place than I ever could working alone—which is fine by me, because frankly, fighting the good fight is a lot of work. I also did it because there’s nobody more qualified to write about hooding. I’ve been both Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham, or at least Sir Guy of Gisbourne. I’ve walked the moral tightrope of hooding for a long time, and fallen from it enough times that I can help others avoid doing the same. Besides, it’s almost impossible to talk about “the greater good” without sound-
ing self-righteous, and nobody does self-righteous better than a Tír elf. Why settle for less than the best?
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Never thought I’d say this about a bleeding heart, but after seeing her turn a file on how to help others into talking about herself, I’m actually impressed. Clockwork
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I really do put the “elf” in “self-centered”, don’t I? Freya
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Crow … Bull
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Not my fault, chummer, it’s easier to tell she doesn’t take herself seriously in person. Plus, after Hong Kong, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do if it means annoying the hell out of you. Old Crow
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Bull
DOING GOOD Working as a hooder is more or less like working as any other kind of shadowrunner; sometimes more, other times less. Many so-called hooding runs, especially ones that come from activist policlubs, are nothing more than typical shadowruns with an added moral dimension. A datasteal becomes “whistleblowing” when it’s done to expose misconduct. A “hostage rescue” is just a high-risk, short-timetable extraction by another name. I call myself an “Awakened security consultant” when I’m in front of “clients”, but in the shadows I’m an assassin who specializes in “dark magic” contracts—toxics, bugs, shadow spirits, whatever. My Mr. Johnsons are usually government or corpsec types who have a threat
to neutralize and no magician who can deal with it on their payroll. The other kind of hooding is more like a gradual ascent into legitimacy. A neo-anarchist-run free clinic in the Barrens isn’t really “shadowrunning” so much as community service that happens to be done by runners, especially if it happens enough that said runners start getting recognized around the community, which defeats the purpose of hiring deniable operatives. This kind of hooding still tends toward one-off jobs, like clearing a devil rat infestation out of an apartment building or “encouraging” a neighborhood gang to stop tagging the local Stuffer Shack with AR graffiti. Some hooders end up settling and working primarily in one community, but at that point you might as well just call yourself a private investigator. Since I’m sure none of you need an explanation of how the first type of hooding works, let’s look at the primary difference between hooding and regular shadowruns: public interaction.
EXPOSING YOURSELF Shadowrunners are used to operating in a world where secrecy is the norm. We know the value of a well-kept secret, and we use that value as currency. We keep our mouths shut because saying the wrong thing to the wrong person can scuttle a job, blow our cover, or even get us killed. Our Johnsons keep their mouths shut because they don’t want their targets to find out what they’re planning, and our Johnsons’ targets keep their mouths shut because they don’t want to be seen as weak when they fail to stop us from doing our jobs. As a hooder, though, everything turns on its head. Hooding runs often involve dealing with “normal people”, whether it’s the neighbors down the hall, the kids down the street, or the average Joes and Janes standing in line with you at the Stuffer Shack. They all live in a world where para-
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But you’re funny when you’re ornery, Mitch. Hard Exit
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Oh, for… remind me never to introduce you two. Kincaid
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COPS ARE PEOPLE, TOO
That place sounds terrifying. Mika
A large part of the reason for this is the nature of hooding. Hooders make good things happen. People get excited when good things happen to them, and when they get excited, they want to talk about the good things—and who was responsible for making said good things happen. It’s very common for a hooding Mr. Johnson to insist on utter secrecy while the job is underway, only to brag to everyone in earshot that they were the one who organized it all the second you step out the door. The enthusiasm spreads, people gossip, and before you know it, everyone knows your name. Whether that publicity is good or bad depends on the runner, but since most runners maintain a “security through obscurity” policy to avoid blowback from our runs, we normally see it as a bad thing. Some hooders go to extreme lengths to avoid any kind of publicity, conducting all of their meets in disguise and taking extra care not to be spotted during their legwork or the run itself.
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Freya’s exaggerating a little. In my experience as a fixer, names and stories of runs don’t spread significantly slower or faster among “normal people” than they do in the shadows. The main difference is that in the shadows, you usually get that info by asking or being told directly about it, instead of overhearing it being discussed by people you’ve never seen before, let alone met. Kia
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Just another reason hooding isn’t worth the effort. Easier to keep from being ID’d if you skip “security through obscurity” and go straight to, “there will be no survivors!” Kane
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On the other hand, more sociable hooders might enjoy meeting people in the community they’re helping, and word-of-mouth advertising can be great for newer runners who are still trying to build a rep. It can even be a main source of work for hooders who operate legally or semi-legally, like modern folk hero Jimmy Kincaid.
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Most shadowrunners avoid law enforcement scrutiny like the plague, for obvious reasons, but it’s not uncommon for hooders to find themselves working for or with the same badges they normally dodge. When the police are looking to hire you for official business, they’ll normally send a detective—they’re the ones most likely to be investigating crimes where you’d be useful as a “consultant.” Detectives rank pretty high on the list of Mr. Johnsons for unofficial police jobs, too. They’ll often ask for help retrieving, planting, or “producing” evidence they can’t get a warrant to seize. If you have a decent poker face, they might even recruit you in a more active role, like helping with sting operations and other means of getting unreasonably dangerous criminals off the street.
Would you knock it off with the “hero” crap? Kincaid
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Remember, kids, “it’s not what you know, it’s what you can prove” is just as true about entrapment as anything else. Hard Exit If you take a job as a snitch, be extra, extra careful to conceal both your identity and your involvement with the police. There’s always a chance that word will get out, and if it does, you’ll be lucky to survive long enough to worry about never working in that city again. DangerSensei I’ve gotten quite a few “avenging angel” contracts from various law enforcement agencies. The story is virtually the same every time: genuinely horrible person gets nailed for a crime, but goes free on a technicality because someone made a mistake on one of the eight million forms they had to fill out. Like most hooding runs, the pay is usually terrible, but having one less serial killer or sexual predator on the streets can be pretty satisfying. Balladeer
I know most shadowrunners, hooders included, aren’t big on the “deference to authority” thing. As tempting as it might be to take a cop’s need for your help and rub it in their faces, acting like a professional instead of a smug elven princess (even if
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Earlier, I said that hooding runs work in much the same way as “regular” shadowruns, because… well, they do. Some hooding runs differ slightly from their more conventional versions, though, so let’s take a closer look.
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The no-kill contracts from Mothers of Metahumans that I mentioned in the Complete Trog download can fall into this category. Butch
Frankly, these jobs are a pain in the ass; lots of extra work, low margin for error, and unless you’re working for a big name like Dunkie’s House of Shady Deals, they don’t usually pay any better than any other hooding run. Still, if you’re looking for bragging rights and don’t mind putting the extra effort in, nocollateral contracts can be a great way to show that you’re as good as you like say you are.
Freelance Vigilantism: Also known as the Avenging Angel, Big Game Hunting, or Taking Out the Trash. This is one of the easiest forms of hooding to get into, but one of the hardest to do successfully in the long term. Why? Well, consider the kinds of people that get labeled as liabilities to metahumanity: megacorporate executives, organized crime bosses, smaller-time criminals of various disgusting stripes (especially sexual predators), and an array of twisted magic-related threats. In other words, most of them stand a good chance of getting you killed—either the targets are just that dangerous in their own right, or they know people who know where you sleep. If you pursue this line of hooding, be extra careful about chasing down your targets’ connections, because bad people have friends too.
Theft: This is the classic that gives hooding its name: robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Bags of gold coins aren’t exactly common nowadays, but there are still plenty of opportunities for a little benevolent larceny. Medical supplies are always popular, both for communities and in the shadows. I’ve volunteered at Deireadh an Tuartheil for years, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a time where we weren’t short of one thing or another. I’m sure it’s no different for your local street doc.
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Or at least people who find their existence valuable enough to ensure it continues. Icarus
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The “vamping” thing I do—the one I talked about in our Cutting Aces download, I mean—is essentially this. Circumstances being what they are, I might as well find a way to do something productive with them. Red
Food is another good target for noble thievery, if you ever find yourself with the address of a Stuffer Shack distribution center and some time on your hands. For that matter, if you’ve ever had to steal to take care of your family, that’s just as much hooding as anything else. There are also sturdy clothes, educational textchips for kids, furniture and other household items—basically, the things you always see charities asking people to donate. Really, any of the “basic needs” items are great for communities.
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So, the vampire equivalent of only eating out of dumpsters, then? Kat o’ Nine Tales No, it’s … okay, you’re not wrong, but did you have to put it that way? Red
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I’ve been known to give patients a discount if they’ve helped me with supplies in the past. Just sayin’. Butch
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They have “basic needs” stuff at places like the Crime Mall in Puyallup and Bargain Basement in Redmond, too. Nothing’s stopping anyone from going there. Clockwork And paying with what? Those assholes gouge so bad on the prices that in the long run, it’s probably cheaper to just buy a fake SIN you can use at the Stuffer Shack in the notquite-Barrens neighborhood next door. Riot If you decide to try stealing directly from the corps, hidden or little-used slush accounts are great options—you can be long gone before they notice anything’s missing. Mr. Bonds And if you can’t find any of those and your decker knows what they’re doing, try whipping up a forged invoice for a recurring expense like utilities or office supplies and spiking it with a salami-slicing trojan. Corps have so many transactions going in and out of those accounts that a hundredth of a nuyen on every one adds up quick, and even if the target finds the trojan, it’ll be some accounts payable clerk who assumes a supplier double-billed them, not a Matrix security specialist who knows to shut the transfers down right away. Slamm-0!
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Slamm-0!, that was unusually helpful. Are you feeling all right? Glitch
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No, actually. I think I caught whatever Sprout-0! has. Slamm-0!
Training: Most hooders see each other as extended teammates instead of competitors, so we’re far more likely than typical shadowrunners to share useful tips and tricks. Hooders with different aims but similar skills often organize training camps, some of which offer the instructors decent cred. Say what you want about hooders being broke, but these groups will find a way to pay for specialists, and you might be surprised at just how much expertise some of them have.
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I first met Freya at one of those events, when the Association of Awakened Anarchists asked her to teach combat magic—not usually my thing, but I’ll admit that it’s nice to know when the drek hits the fan. That was one of the most exhausting weeks of my life, but boy, did we learn a lot. Old Crow
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Networking is big at hooder conventions, too—that’s one of the ways we stay in the fight. I’ve seen plenty of jackbooted thugs’ days ruined when they showed up expecting a handful of “upstart anti-corporate radicals,” only to find they’ve invited their antifa and eco-terrorist mates to the scrum. Chainmaker Collaboration can easily turn into standardization, though, which carries all the same risks for groups of hooders as it does for corporations and governments. The more widely a method is used, the more likely it is that someone will develop a counter. Fianchetto The Sprawl Scouts are all about this kind of thing, but with Barrens kids. I talk more about them in the Hooders for Hire download. Borderline
Volunteering/Community Service: Believe it or not, some people do community service even when they aren’t serving a criminal sentence. Beneath the veneer of legitimacy, a lot of non-profit groups don’t really care whether your SIN is real or what you do when you’re not volunteering—if you’re able and willing to help, they’ll take you, which makes it a great way to keep fighting the good fight without worrying about scrutiny from the law. I’ve mentioned my work down at Deireadh. The Anarchist Black Shapes (I can never remember which is which, I’m sure Old Crow will tell you) hold their free clinics in Redmond at least once a month. I’m sure those of you outside the Seattle Metroplex can find similar events in your own sprawl, if you’re willing to ask around. One thing that each of these runs have in common is that they’re exactly that: individual runs, the kinds of jobs where, once Mr. Johnson’s cred hits your account, you can wash your hands of it all and move on. It would be a mistake to think that oneoff runs are the only way to hood, though. There are plenty of people who act more like caretakers, putting their time and effort into maintaining their own section of physical or virtual turf. As much as it pains me to admit it, I’m not the most informed person when it comes to playing the hometown hero, so I’ve let an expert handle the next section of this file.
NEIGHBORHOOD, WATCH POSTED BY: JAMES KINCAID
Right off the bat, good on ya. If you’re reading this, it means you’re at least halfway curious about how to use your no-good, dirty, stinking, scofflaw, troublemaker skills to help other people instead of hurt ’em. That’s not nothing. There are a lot of shades of grey between the neon, the chrome, and the shadows, and if you’re looking to break society’s rules to make your neighborhood better instead of worse, my hat’s off.
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Aww, your approval means so much. Marcos
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Maybe it should. Hardpoint
Now, specifically, I’ve been asked to talk about localized improvements, instead of bigger-picture, macro-scale work, which suits me just fine. A city district, a neighborhood—hell, even just one block or a big apartment building? That’s a lot of work. Every apartment window in the Metroplex has someone living behind it with their own dreams and nightmares and friends and enemies all bundled up behind light-sensitive glass, and each and every one can take a lot of looking after. First off, recognize you’re not putting out fires, you’re spinning plates. You’ve seen those oldtimey tridshows, maybe, with the entertainers from a hundred, hundred fifty years back? Jugglers and circus folks, that sort of thing? One of the tricks they’d do used sticks and plates—stay with me, here, it’s nothing like the Neil the Ork Barbarian “sticks and plates” shtick—and their gig was to give the plates a little spin, then use the gyroscopic effect to make the plates or bowls or whatever stay balanced way up on the end of these flexible poles. Science is crazy, ain’t it? They’ve got a bunch of these plates going on a bunch of these poles at once, and to keep ’em balanced, they’ve got to run from one to the other every now and then to keep things spinning. That’s you, keeping your neighborhood afloat. You’re not putting out fires—a fire stays put out. Instead, you’re spinning plates; they require work, then they require upkeep, they require keeping an
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He’s so cheery. I like him. Slamm-0!
do them a favor to ease that pressure, and they owe you one). Instead of going in guns blazing, hell, loose Knight Errant on a couple of their higher-ups, and see if cooling their heels in the can and coming out to their own problems doesn’t keep them too busy to be a new nuisance for a while. Give ’em their own plates to spin, and you maintain the balance of the sprawl. So, that’s lesson one—well, let’s call it one and a half: you can’t solve all your neighborhood’s problems forever, and you can’t solve many of ’em with a smartgun.
“But Jimmy,” I hear you saying, “if I kill someone, they stay dead. Why not wipe out the local chucklehead gang if they’re causing trouble for folks? How isn’t that long-term problem solving?”
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It’s worked for me, but then it all comes down to how specific the contract is. Thorn
Yeah, wiping out one troublemaking gang means that gang, ideally, is gone. But that turf’s still there, and now it’s up for grabs, capisce? The streets abhor a vacuum, so some new outfit has to move in on that turf, sell stuff, take stuff, break stuff. That gang has to make a statement to take that territory—it ain’t just about the AR graffiti—and that causes problems for the locals, for starters. What’s more, that new gang has to spread themselves thin to take over that new turf, and maybe that creates an imbalance somewhere else, and some other outfit thinks now’s their chance. Next thing you know, you’ve got a daisy chain of chipped-up psycho teenagers all moving on the next gang’s turf, all out to be so brutal they make the right statement to end all this, and you’re left standing there looking like a chump ’cause you started it all. You’re not putting out fires, you’re spinning plates. Instead of calling up some chummers with big guns and going on a murder spree to take out a local outfit, you look into the type of trouble they’re causing, how long it’s been going on, and why it’s suddenly a problem. Figure out new angles. Think with something besides your gun. Collect favors, not corpses, when you can. Figure out when you can smooth things over by just giving a good beating and a warning, or if the problem might be a new lieutenant getting hungry (in which case you talk to the gang boss about the brewing trouble and let them do their own dirty work), or if the issue is external pressure requiring that gang to look tough (in which case you maybe
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Though, in fairness, the ones that need a smartgun really need a smartgun. Or six. Hard Exit
Second? Learn the neighborhood, use the neighborhood. It’s not just a thing you’re fighting over; you ain’t a gang taking turf or a mob claiming territory, you’re a part of the neighborhood, right? So act like it. Don’t just think you’re some grim defender striking a pose like a friggin’ gargoyle, be an organic part of a living, breathing, thinking, eating, shitting thing. Never forget that a city’s as alive as a jungle, and you’re just one more shaved monkey making a living within it.
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Whether he knows it or not, this Mr. Kincaid seems to be a believer in communal spirituality, recognizing that natural energies can gather, and even multiply, over time, in order to create a life-affirming sense of self for all involved. Cities have spirits all their own, and it’s we who breathe life into them. Axis Mundi
Cultivate informants in the unlikeliest places. Everyone’s got a fixer, but you know what? Fixers are shit at actually fixing things—they’re of the “I’ll fix you up with someone” variety of the word, not the “Sure, let me fix that problem for you” variety— and fixers are shit at knowing what’s actually going on around them, too. Don’t trust them to know what’s happening in back alleys, they’re seeing what’s going on in boardrooms, back rooms, bunrakus, and bedrooms. They track corporate and criminal behavior, not civilian. The civilians are the ones you’re worried about, and nobody can tell you more about a civvie than a civvie.
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He’s tough on fixers, but fair. Mr. Bonds
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Whether it’s looking for Mr. Johnson or this sort of dogoodery, your rep is all you’re worth. Pistons
Fifth, be proactive. If your neighborhood’s running smoothly and nobody’s killing each other—at least not any more than a normal night—it’s time to work on community improvement. Not just troubleshooting, not just problem solving, but making it better. This is the rewarding part. This isn’t plate spinning, if you do it right (but the investment can give you other plates that’ll need spinning, later, so be ready). Find the good stuff in your neighborhood and pour more life into them. Got a community clinic being run by a lessthan-crazy street doc? Look into who can hook her up with medical supplies or cyber-bits for patching folks up. Cut your local mobster a deal where a percentage of his feel-good chems go to the doc—in moderated doses—for her to use on patients who need anesthetic, maybe, or talk to your local highjack-happy go-gang so they know where they can divert any bio-supplies they grab. Neighborhood kids getting into a little trouble and parents don’t know what to do with ’em, make ’em help out at the clinic. Mopping up blood all day might get the kid’s head on straight. Hell, talk to some local ghouls and see if the doc can hook them up with waste material so they can get by. Well-fed ghouls mean less trouble for everybody, right? Find your win/wins, bring people together, and keep the good mojo coming. Your job ain’t to do everything yourself—you can’t, you’re just (meta)human—it’s to bring people together and get them to do things for each other. Get your civvies, your streets, your shadows, and a couple of suits working together to keep the neighborhood on an even keel, and everyone lives better. Get neighbors acting neighborly, and, I swear, half the problems in the world go away.
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Hooding isn’t just a job—it’s a way of life. (Insert corporate trid-commercial soundtrack here.) But seriously, hooding can shape your life in any number of ways, not all of which happen during runs.
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Didn’t Kincaid recently complain about businesses not wanting to move into certain neighborhoods? Now he’s playing out some crazy hypothetical where he circles the wagons to keep businesses away? Mika
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Depends on the business and how they want to move in. Kincaid
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It shouldn’t. Frag ‘em all! Marcos
You can’t ignore anybody. First, you use them all together to get jobs done. But then you pay attention in the aftermath—you make sure they get a slice of whatever profits are coming in, make sure they can all benefit afterwards, you offer a reward to offset the risk. Don’t lean on your local gang
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BEING A BETTER PERSON POSTED BY: FREYA
Now that we’ve talked about the good fight, let’s talk about the people who fight it. Whether you like hooders or not, I don’t think anyone would argue that we are a different breed from other shadowrunners. The moral high ground isn’t profitable most of the time, and as I’ve already complained, promoting the greater good can be a lot of work. So, why do these nutjobs go to so much trouble for something that doesn’t benefit them? We’ll find out in this section.
LIVING THE HOOD LIFE
IT’S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE Within the shadow community, one of the biggest reasons hooders tend to be more sociable than other shadowrunners is that we rarely see each other as competitors. We’re all out to make the world a better place, and it’s easier for us to do that if we share the workload, even if it means getting paid less for a particular run. That spirit of cooperation makes us more willing to team up with other hooders for difficult jobs, and a larger network of relationships forms as a result.
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If there’s one thing I occasionally miss about Knight Errant, it’s the camaraderie. Groups of good people who stick together are hard to find nowadays, on either side of the law. Pistons
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Wait, since when are you ex-KE, Pistons? /dev/grrl
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Since always? I just don’t bring it up often—there wasn’t any reason to when Sticks always had better contacts inside Ares. When he went off the grid, I figured I’d see if any of my old co-workers were still around, and it got me all nostalgic. Pistons
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Those relationships pay off in any number of ways. One of the biggest is having a pool of fellow hooders you can call for help in sticky situations, who you can be reasonably sure won’t abandon you mid-run or sell you out to a rival. Stop by the “LFM/LFT” section of ShadowSEA’s hooding forums and you’ll see plenty of people asking for and offering help, even on little or no notice. That also goes for groups who specialize in a particular field. I regularly travel to help train hooding magicians, especially my fellow Dragonslayer disciples, like that Blazing Swords group down in Houston.
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I trust you view your mentor spirit in the figurative sense, Paladin. Orange Queen
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Yes, ma’am. Freya
A less obvious benefit of those networks is that hooders are a pretty welcoming bunch to hang out with. As a shadowrunner who appreciates having a social life, it’s nice to know there are people who won’t give you funny looks for checking sightlines and insisting on a table close to a wall whenever you go to the bar, or who’s there to listen when it’s 0300 and you can’t sleep because memories of That One Run keep going through your head. Which segues nicely into…
HELPING YOURSELF TO HELP OTHERS The popular image of a hooder is the selfless soul who would give their bottom nuyen to help someone in need, even if it means taking their
place sleeping in alley. Half the reason hooding gets such a bad rap over hooders constantly being broke is that many neophyte hooders I’ve met seem to think that they have to take a vow of poverty or something to be a “real” hooder. After all, if you have something left to give, you’re not doing all you can, right? Pop quiz: Why do shadowrunners clean their guns? Because if they don’t, it stops cycling and blows up in their hands in the middle of a firefight.
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Even that won’t make the really lazy ones do it. They just buy new trauma plates and cyberhands. Cayman
The same logic applies to hooders themselves. Most of the dedicated hooders I’ve met plan to be hooders for the rest of their lives. Even the most satisfying aspects of hooding will wear you down eventually if you do it for long enough, and the only way to prevent that is to take a break before burnout catches up with you. Yes, it might mean you feel bad for letting someone down who needed your help, but if you let yourself reach the burnout phase, it might take weeks for you to recover, if you ever do. Would you rather say no to one or two people now, or dozens later? Sometimes, it’s outside circumstances that force you to take a break from hooding, like your landlord threatening to put you out on the street because your last three jobs involved helping the penniless needy for “good karma”—or your teammates getting a bit tetchy when their landlords do the same. There’s nothing wrong with alternating between hooding runs and money runs, or even taking a break from hooding entirely. Don’t let the purists tell you otherwise. Another reason we hooders should take time for themselves is that quite frankly, we deserve it. Not many people do what we do, and many of those who can would rather put their skills towards their own benefit. Thus, in my obviously biased opinion, those who are willing to put others first should be recognized and commended for it.
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Holy entitlement complex. Borderline
A GOOD START Clichés about how everyone’s different aside, hooders fall into one of three categories: idealists, penitents, and survivors. Idealists are the
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Butch always says that compassion fatigue happens when you’ve literally run out of fucks to give. She’d probably never admit it, but I think that was part of the reason she brought me on to help at the clinic. When she was sure I could handle the basics without accidentally killing any patients, she’d vanish for hours at a time. I think it was just to get away from so many people needing something. Riot
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Dammit, Riot. Butch
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Everything I said in the Chrome Flesh download about how to deal with PTSD applies just as much to compassion fatigue. Same goes for Quietus’ tips in The Assassin’s Primer and Blackwing’s lecture in Hard Targets. Hard Exit
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Ex-cops who become hooders are usually what Freya calls idealists. They’re the ones who’ve figured out that most cops nowadays aren’t interested in justice, and decided to go their own way (or were forced out) instead of falling into the same trap. Hard Exit
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Talking about yourself in the third person again, Jess? Pistons
In contrast to the idealists, penitents do horrible things for the greater good to atone for the horrible things they did for other reasons. Sometimes the penitent becomes the born-again fundamentalist of the hooding world, utterly committed to never doing anything resembling “those things” again—and making sure nobody else within their line of sight does, either. Other penitents will happily commit all sorts of dark deeds in the name of the greater good, which makes everyone else wonder whether they’ve gone too far.
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Compassion fatigue is the reason I make a point of taking downtime, and why I insist other hooders do the same. If you let it get its hooks into you, the best-case scenario is that you’re out of the hooding action for weeks or months. At worst … well, every year, I hear about at least one hooder who takes their own life because they were too proud or stupid to admit they were burning out.
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rarest type of hooder. (Think of how many people you know who have managed to get through life without their dreams being crushed, and you’ll understand why.) All hooders are idealistic to some degree—if we weren’t, we wouldn’t be hooders—but unlike the penitents and survivors, idealists have neither done horrible things nor had horrible things done to them. They’ve chosen to be hooders purely on principle, which makes them some of the hardest to dissuade. That can be an advantage when morale is flagging, but their naivete can get them and their teammates into trouble.
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If you think doing whatever is necessary is “going too far,” you’re not dedicated enough. Clarion
Survivors become hooders because they don’t want anyone else to have to endure the same suffering they or those close to them did. (In the more tragic cases, people become “survivors” to honor those who didn’t.) They’re the ork and troll runners who run for ORC after being attacked by Humanis, the formerly homeless barrens rat who volunteers at a homeless shelter, the eco-activist whose family was sickened by chemical runoff from a corporate factory. Few hooders are more dedicated to their cause than survivors, but some have trouble separating their cause and the greater good when
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Some would argue that Ex Pacis began as this, when Pax still claimed she wanted to free other otaku from their enslavement to the Deep Resonance. Puck
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Only if they’re trying to soothe their guilty conscience. Slamm-0!
Naturally, it’s rare for a hooder to fall exclusively into one category or another, and hooders’ perspectives can change over time. A penitent who learns to forgive themselves, for example, could continue hooding simply because it’s the
evil acts than allow an innocent person to stain their soul.” They start to believe that every wrong they commit makes them more virtuous—nobly sacrificing their soul for the greater good—until they become full-blown megalomaniacs who can do no wrong. A switch flips from “I’m doing what I’m doing because it’s right” to “what I’m doing is right because it’s what I’m doing,” and they unblinkingly commit heinous acts that no reasonable person could ever justify. (That doesn’t mean they can’t suffer a moral injury later, mind you, just that their sanity probably won’t remain intact afterward.)
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That doesn’t just happen to individuals. It was the same thing when Horizon’s Consensus slipped a gear a few years ago, too, and we all saw how that went. Sunshine
When you’re a hooder, you inevitably reach a point where you have to decide how much of your soul you’ll give away in pursuit of the greater good. I strongly suggest you spend some time thinking about the answer before that day comes. Set boundaries for yourself; what they are doesn’t matter, as long as you take them seriously. The point is to make sure you’ll always be able to face the person in the mirror. Get some kind of external reference point, preferably someone who’s outside the shadows and unconnected with any interests you advance. If you ask them whether your actions are reasonable, and they look at you like you’re insane, reconsider your life choices.
right thing to do. An idealist whose optimism is crushed by misfortune might continue as a survivor, and a survivor might become a penitent to make up for harm they inflicted in their quest for justice.
GOOD PEOPLE No matter what their reasons for hooding, hooders tend to share a few key personality traits. Which one is the most important is the subject of constant debate in the hooding community. Is it compassion? Empathy? A sense of justice?
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Guessing modesty isn’t on that list. Rigger X
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No guide to being a bleeding-heart sucker is complete without a sickeningly “sweet” family anecdote. Clockwork
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You can just say you’re jealous, you know. I won’t judge you any more harshly than I already do. Freya
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Fuck you. Clockwork
Number two on that list is honesty, more so with yourself than others. Lying to oneself is never really a good idea, but for hooders, it can be downright dangerous. The overly idealistic hooder who thinks they can end a mob war with a gentleyet-firm admonishment might convince the two sides to call a ceasefire, but only for long enough to turn the offending goody-two-shoes into a smear on the sidewalk before going back to their regularly-scheduled bloodshed. A less visible, but potentially more harmful, risk is moral injury. Also known as the “my God, what have I done?” moment, moral injury is what happens when a hooder realizes that all the awful means they’d tried to justify with their noble ends were never actually justified. That generally means having to deal with the guilt, shame, anger, and disgust that comes with discovering they’re no better than the evil they fight. Some hooders can’t handle the revelation, and the results can get messy quickly.
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Does that include their teammates getting sick of their mopey bullshit and beating some sense into them? Stone
The third danger in self-deception isn’t quite as melodramatic, but it starts in much the same way. Hooders who are also dedicated to a particular cause have a bad habit of equating that cause with the greater good, as I mentioned in the section on “survivor” hooders. In fact, that reminds me of a point I’d intended to make earlier …
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WHAT HOODING ISN’T, OR “WHY OLD CROW IS WRONG” > >
Oh come on, seriously? Old Crow
For the record, I like Old Crow as a person, and I have nothing but respect for his dedication to his beliefs. I’m only calling him out here because he’s a perfect example of the worst mistake a hooder can make. We’ve had many a “friendly flame war” (as he calls them) on this topic already, so to save us time and the admins a headache, I’ll just give you all the short version. Hooding doesn’t go hand-in-hand with any other philosophy, whether it’s neo-anarchism, eco-protectionism, meta-empowerment, or anything else. That doesn’t mean that hooders and neo-anarchists will never cooperate with each other; many neo-anarchists are also hooders, and with “the system” being responsible for so many of metahumanity’s problems, groups like the Anarchist Black Cross/Crescent and Black Star often get help from hooders without any neo-anarchist leanings of their own. The problem is that because the two philosophies have different goals—one wants to create an anarchist society, the other wants to create whatever circumstances will provide the best possible life for everyone—the neo-anarchist hooder might end up in a situation where the two goals conflict with each other. If hooding and neo-anarchy were really one and the same, that conflict would never happen. Incidentally, I do think that if Old Crow were ever in that situation and there was genuinely no way to reconcile the two, he’d choose compromising for the greater good over anarchy at all costs. That’s just another reason I respect him; that kind of honesty is rare enough that you might as well call him Old Unicorn.
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Okay, Bull, I can see why you’d be grumpy about her being here. Old Crow
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I don’t know, “Old Unicorn” has kind of a ring to it. Bull
That problem isn’t limited to neo-anarchists, of course. Any ideology, no matter how well-mean-
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There are a few scumbags in the Ork Underground who pull this drek, using “trogs gotta stick together” to pull good kids into the wrong crowd and hang ’em out to dry when KE or Neo-PD shows up. It’s one thing when they choose that life for themselves, but seeing some fragger ruin a kid’s future like that makes my blood boil. Bull
Speaking of the Sons of Sauron, here’s one of my least-popular opinions about their place in the hooding world: They simply don’t have one. The Sons of Sauron are trog-supremacist terrorists, not hooders. I won’t say violence is never a useful tool in their fight, but I guarantee that if they have to choose between the greater good and the good of trog-kind, they’ll make sure to look out for number one.
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Hypocrite much? It’s not like your pointy-eared fascist friends in Magical Elfy-Land were any better. 2XL
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I think that was her point, actually. Frosty
For the sake of argument, though, let’s say we do accept them as hooders. Presumably, we’d be doing so on the basis of their … enthusiastic efforts to gain equality for their metatype in places where the system is undeniably stacked against them, politically, socially, and economically. Any violence on their part is justified as being the only way they can draw attention to their plight under the weight of the establishment’s censorship. Fair enough; I can understand where they’re coming from, and in their circumstances, I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same thing. Oh, you thought I was still talking about the Sons of Sauron? I actually meant Humanis.
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How the fuck– Butch
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I hate myself for saying this, but at least hear her out before telling her she’s wrong. Glitch
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I’m sure many of you disagree with my views, and I won’t be offended if you say so; after all, admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. That doesn’t change the fact that by the very same logic that claims the Sons of Sauron are hooders, Humanis is every bit as much a “hooding organization” in Freiburg im Breisgau as the Sons are in Bellevue. What’s more, if that wasn’t bizarre enough, those two groups work together in Tír Tairngire. I’ve seen blood drop- and burning eyebadged “activists” stand shoulder-to-shoulder at celé-rights rallies in Cara’Sir with my own eyes. (Truly, the End Times are upon us.)
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You’ll have to do better than that, Freya. I’ve seen more credible rumors from Plan 9 on a bad day. Snopes
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Hey! Plan 9
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I can provide proof of that, actually. I kept a fair few surveillance photos from my stint in Portland in the early ’60s. They should be reaching your inbox now. Thorn
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That … makes me uncomfortable. Sunshine
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Now you know how I felt when I realized that the only difference between either of those groups and elven supremacists is that in the Tír, we were the ones in power. Freya
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Former tool of oppression admits oppressive regime was wrong, news at 11! Slamm-0!
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Dammit, I was hoping nobody would notice. Freya
To be perfectly honest, it doesn’t matter to me whether you call groups like the Sons of Sauron and Humanis hooders or terrorists. What’s important is being able to recognize that the two aren’t so different from each other, and that choosing
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When you turn the slot over to the Johnson, mention that they have extra information—and that you’re available for follow-up work. Besides the obvious potential job offer, it also endears you to the target you just retrieved by making it look like you’re going to bat for them, which gives you leverage against them for later. Jimmy No
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A more typical moral dilemma is having to choose the lesser evil. A significant amount of hooding work comes from Johnsons in situations like this, who know what the lesser evil in their situation is but are unable or unwilling to take action themselves. One example, again from the trid-villain category, is deciding whether a target is too dangerous to be left alive. Hooders commonly find themselves on both sides of the argument, being equally likely to be offered wetwork contracts on people who don’t really deserve to die, and runs to “just scare” people who really do. That’s before you include dealing with pacifist team members who refuse to participate in such blatantly immoral acts, even when the target does deserve it and the team’s three months behind on their rent.
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Why the fuck are they even a runner if they can’t handle the sight of a dead body? Clockwork
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I know this might surprise you, but some people actually prefer approaches other than violence. Ma’fan
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“Some people” must be allergic to fun. Kane
The most difficult dilemmas for hooders to solve are often of their own making. An anti-corp activist discovers an unsanctioned corporate project in a remote area and has to choose between keeping quiet and allowing the impoverished locals benefit from an infusion of badly-needed investment and jobs, or exposing the corp’s activities on principle at the cost of the locals’ continued suffering. A MOM-hired hooder infiltrating a Humanis chapter has to decide whether to commit the very hate crimes they’re trying to stop for the sake of maintaining their cover, or refuse and blow the entire operation. A pillar of the community gets their third or fourth call from a too-timid client asking for help they don’t really need and has to choose between coming to their rescue and letting the dependence grow, or declining and forcing the client to learn how to deal with their own problems. In each of these examples, the dilemma is rooted in how narrowly you interpret your own code. If you base your ethics mainly on rules, does your definition of “help” include allowing short-term pain for long-term gain? If you base them main-
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Hooders really worry about stuff like that? Rigger X
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It isn’t so different from how you worry about whether you’ve accidentally turned down an opportunity to make nuyen. Fianchetto
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CONCLUSION Everyone reading this knows the truth: shadowrunners are criminals, and we make our way through the world by hurting others. Anyone who says otherwise is living in some utopian fantasy world that has no basis in reality. I don’t hood because I think that world is real—I hood because I want it to be real someday. I know it might not happen in my lifetime, or maybe even at all, but I refuse to bury my head in the sand like a nihilistic ostrich just because I might fail. Besides, how stupid would you feel if you went through your entire life being miserable only to find out that you could’ve prevented it, if only you’d tried? I’m only one person, though. I can’t save the world single-handedly—which is what brings me to you, JackPoint. I know you have your share of cynics and egotists, people who will absolutely never jump on the better-world bandwagon, and I don’t expect them to change their ways just because some pointy-eared prima donna nagged them about it. This guide is for the fence-sitters, the ones who weren’t sure or had never thought about whether they could make the world better. The answer is, you can. What are you waiting for?
NEW GEAR NEW ARMOR MODIFICATIONS Grey mana integration: Not actually made of any sort of mana, Grey Mana is the product of research by the so-called Grey Brothers, formerly of Manadyne and Boston Manatech. Experiments with orichalcum, reagents, paracritters, and Awakened plants and minerals yielded technology which, when integrated with armor or clothing, severely dampens magic around it. This affects the ability of the wearer to use magic as well as affecting any magic cast at them. Add 1 bonus die per rating of Grey Mana integration to resist any targeted magical attacks or effects, including area of effect and beneficial magic. Any Awakened character wearing armor or clothing with grey mana integration suffers a dice pool penalty to any skill test involving their Magic attribute equal to the rating and permanently reduces the Force and hits of any spell the wearer
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The research and development isn’t complete on grey mana, but these unfinished prototypes keep leaking into black markets through Grey Brothers Auction Houses in most major cities. Corporations hate this stuff, but the brothers are making a killing by passing their inexpensive but powerful tech on to streets everywhere. These auction houses don’t last long and often get compromised, but they keep popping up like bad pennies—or in our case, very good pennies. Nephrine
ARMOR MODIFICATION
CAPACITY
AVAIL
COST
Grey Mana Integration 1–3
[Rating]
6F
Rating x 1,000¥
Grey Mana Integration 4–6
[Rating]
9F
Rating x 2,000¥
GREY MANA TATTOOS An interesting unintended consequence of leaking Grey Mana tech into the black market is how the maker movement started stripping the Grey Mana integration from armor and experimenting with it. So far, the only stable application has been the Grey Mana tattoos (or GreyMans) gangs are inking themselves with. They have similar effects
as Grey Matter integration on armor but are more obvious than regular tattoos, both because of necessary coverage and their dull coloring. If a character has a Grey Mana tattoo, it affects their ability to use magic as well as be affected by magic cast at them. Add 1 bonus dice per rating of Grey Mana tattoo to resist any targeted magical attacks or effects, including area of affect magic. Counter-intuitively, beneficial magic targeting the wearer works as normal. For all intents and purposes, any character with a Grey Mana tattoo suffers Essence loss of 0.1 per rating. Any Awakened character with a Grey Mana tattoo suffers a dice pool penalty to any test involving magic equal to the tattoo rating and permanently reduces the force and hits of any spell the wearer is currently sustaining by 1. As easily removed as an ink tattoo of an ex-lover’s name, any Essence loss is reversible if the Grey Mana tattoo is removed, immedately returning to the character Tattoos are only available in ranks 1–3. If a character has a Grey Mana tattoo and is wearing armor with Grey Mana integration, these effects do not stack. Use the highest rank of the two. Note that Grey Mana tattoos cannot be hidden from Astral Perception and are quite distinctive from mundane and Awakened objects.
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A ganger contact of mine in St. Louis had this to say about GreyMans: “When I got my GreyMans, how can I say it? They just felt right. It was like they were affirming my body’s own defenses on a cellular level—like my soul was telling me I didn’t need magic to be special, because I was already just fine. That was three months ago. Since then, all my non-Awakened gang fam’s getting them. Good magic works, bad mojo don’t. GreyMans are like smart ink. Much love.” Pistons
TATTOO GEAR
ESS
AVAIL
COST
Grey Mana Tattoos (Rating 1-3)
Rating x 0.1
7F
Rating x 500¥
NEW TOXIN BLIGHT • • • • •
Vector: Injection, Special Speed: Immediate Penetration: 0 Power: 12 Effect: Awakened injected with blight lose their connection to the manasphere for [12 – (Body or Magic, whichever is higher) hours, minimum 1 hour]. During this period, the target loses the ability to perform any task associated with magic. Adept powers are turned off, spells cannot be cast, etc.
Blight was discovered by scientists attempting to dispose of manufacturing byproducts from Grey Mana production. The Brothers Grey Auction house holds this “happy” accident much closer to their vests, instead of flooding black markets with this brutal toxin. When combined with DMSO, blight gains a contact vector. When an Awakened character is exposed to this combination of DMSO and blight, they must make a Drain Resistance test in place of a Toxin Resistance test vs. the power of the toxin. Damage taken is treated as Stun Drain. Any spirits exposed to this combination cannot apply immunity to normal weapons to the damage dealt by these weapons.
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With a name like “blight,” you’d be forgiven for thinking this is some sort of Awakened torture device. This is far from it, however. In December, when a group of terrors were harassing the small town of Victoria, just outside of San Antonio, the Order of St. Sylvester saved the day. Not only did they rush to help, despite the clear prohibition of Catholics operating in Aztlan, but they shook down the local dealers and armed the community with blight, so they could fight back. Fianchetto
TOXIN TOXIN
AVAIL
COST PER DOSE
Blight
8F
250¥
NEW CYBERWARE GRADE GREYWARE The Brothers Grey Auction House is determined to make its presence known in the underworld. As such, they are undercutting competitor’s prices and flooding crowded markets with relatively cheap, slightly altered versions of cyberware. This new grade of cyberware, called GreyWare, has a style reminiscent of cyberware of years past, but much sleeker. It is cheaper, more readily available (at least for now), and costs less Essence than alphaware, at the expense of having no wireless capabilities, being very obvious, and being incompatible with Awakened individuals’ physiology. As it becomes more popular, more and more vendors, like street docs in poor areas, are offering GreyWare or comparable knockoffs. Consult the chart below to compare GreyWare with standard cyberware. Note that only cyberware, and not bioware, geneware, or nanoware, can be taken as GreyWare. In addition, critter cyberware, genetic restoration, cybersuites, aug-
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This drek is popping up all over the place. It’s obvious, but not clunky like ’ware from the ’50s. It doesn’t compare with higher-end bodyshopping, but the ganger kiddies, street punks, neo-a’s, and wanna-be runners all have their eyes gleaming for this retro-future crap. Bull
GREYWARE VS. STANDARD CYBERWARE GRADE
ESS COST MULTIPLIER
AVAIL MODIFIER
COST MULTIPLIER
Standard
x 1.0
—
x1
GreyWare*
x 0.75
—
x 1.3
*GreyWare always counts as obvious cyberware when applicable and never provides wireless bonuses. If a piece of cyberware cannot be obvious and has no wireless component, it cannot be taken as GreyWare. Further, in addition to Magic lost due to decreased Essence, Awakened characters lose an additional point of Magic, as well as a one-point reduction in their maximum Magic, per item of GreyWare installed.
NEW SPELLS AND ADEPT POWERS NEW MANIPULATION SPELLS ASTRAL DISRUPTION (MANA)
Type: M Duration: S
Range: LOS Drain: F–2
MASS ASTRAL DISRUPTION (MANA, AREA)
Type: M Range: LOS (A) Duration: S Drain: F Astral Disruption, and its area equivalent Mass Astral Disruption, allow the spellcaster to wreak havoc with the astral forms of magical creatures, damaging their defenses. The caster must win an Opposed Test pitting her Magic + Spellcasting against the target’s Willpower (+ Counterspelling). Additionally, the spell’s Force must equal or exceed the target’s Willpower. For every net hit, the spellcaster may disable one of the creature’s pas-
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The Detroit Missionist Community stumbled upon this one. There was an escape of some bug spirits a year or so back, and the poor communities of Detroit were hard pressed to have anything that could stand against them. The Missionists, of course, are largely pacifist, so they weren’t going to be of much help either. Before the bugs did too much damage, a young Missionist, a devoted and studious college student visiting from university in Denver, cast a spell that allowed the normal people to fight back against the bugs. Other Missionists joined in and performed a ritual shredding the bugs’ resistance, and the righteously angry mob became exterminators for
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a day, with exactly zero help from Ares. Ethernaut
NEW ADEPT POWERS MYSTIC APTITUDE Cost: 0.75 PP per level Activation: Simple Action You call upon inner mana strength to perform amazing physical feats beyond your normal abilities. When you activate this power via a Simple Action, you substitute your Magic + (Rank in this power) for any one Physical Attribute (choose when activated).This affects dice pools, limits, Strengthbased damage values and Initiative ratings. The boost lasts for a number of Combat Turns equal to your Magic rating. When the boost runs out, you take Drain equal to (rank of this power x 2).
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“This is something the corporate wageslaves will never understand. There is a purity that comes from knowing who you are and being at peace with it. Approving of yourself, flaws as well as strengths, and accepting them completely, allows a unity of body and spirit that can overcome any obstacle.” A quote from Hapsum-Do Grandmaster “Barghest” Knorr. Agree or not, it’s hard to argue with his results. Thorn
NEW QUALITIES NEW POSITIVE QUALITIES HAIR TRIGGER Cost: 2 Karma Prerequisite: Technomancer You are the jump-first type in every area of your life. But when it’s time to jump back into the Matrix, a place where you have power unlike your normal life, your excitement can’t be con-
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INSTINCTIVE HACK Cost: 2 Karma You haven’t lived this long by treating hacking as a luxury. You use it to survive. When you see life going lopsided, your gut reaction is to hack for your life. Most of the time, you don’t even need to think about it. Unless surprised, you can make one of the following actions before Initiative is rolled for the first time in a combat (Physical or Matrix): Brute Force, Data Spike, Hack on the Fly, or Matrix Perception. If two or more characters have this quality, use ERIC (Edge, Reaction, Intuition, Coin toss) to decide who goes first.
PROTOTYPE MATERIALS Cost: 5 Karma Prerequisites: Mundane and Gamemaster approval It wasn’t easy getting cutting-edge prototypes from that corporate facility, but you managed it somehow. Furthermore, you had the free imagination and resourcefulness to upgrade your trusty weapon with those parts. This quality allows the player to take another rating of the Special Modifications quality, even if they already had reached the max rating of 2. Gamemasters may allow a player to take this quality after finding data or prototypes in a research lab, as alternative payment for a run, or for similar reasons.
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FORMATIVE YEARS DEVOUT Whether it was in Mecca, Tenochtitlan, or at your mama’s Baptist church in rural Alabama, you were all in. From day one, your identity was tied in with whatever your beliefs were. Whether you
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•
•
The character must already have a Loyalty Rating of at least 3 with the contact to use Karma/Street Cred in this way. Additionally, characters cannot increase the Connection Rating of any contact in this way more than once. A character may permanently sacrifice 1 point of Karma or Street Cred to add 1 die to any Skill Test using the Influence skill group. This may be done a maximum of three times per test. A character may increase their Reputation Score with a faction by 1 by permanently sacrificing points of Karma or Street Cred in any combination equal to the new Reputation Score. A character may not increase their Faction Reputation Score above Rating 3 this way. Additionally, when the Karma/Street Cred is sacrificed, it takes a number of months equal to the new Reputation Score for the Score to change, during which time no other faction Reputation Scores may be changed in this way. A character may decrease their lifestyle payment cost by one lifestyle level by permanently sacrificing 1 point of Karma or Street Cred in any combination for every 1,000¥ this would decrease from the cost. This lasts as long as the character maintains that lifestyle; if they change lifestyles up or down, the savings go away and do not come back if the character returns to that lifestyle level. Subject to gamemaster approval, a character may permanently sacrifice points of Karma or Street Cred to call in a favor. Use the Favor Rating Table (p. 389, SR5) to determine the rating of the favor. The total amount of Karma or Street Cred permanently sacrificed is equal to 2 times the rating of the favor. The rating of the favor is capped by the Loyalty of the contact being asked. Additionally, this will cause the character to owe a favor to the contact equal or less than the rating of the favor requested. If the contact calls in the favor and the character does not reciprocate, the player loses Street Cred equal to the amount spent on the original favor.
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HOODER RUNS THE MEET OCCURS AT...
HOODING RUNS FOR THE DISCERNING GAMEMASTER These pages duplicate the tables for generating a hooding run found on p. 65-67 of this book. Use them to quickly build a run from the ground up. You can always feel free to change the details to suit your table, re-roll, hand choose, or just throw out what you don’t like. After all, you’re the gamemaster! To use the tables, roll once for each of the tables, using the indicated number of D6s for each, adding the totals together.
THE TEAM IS CONTACTED BY... 2D6 RESULT
1D6 RESULT 1
A place the team normally frequents (if one exists)
2
A part of the city that is comically opposite of their usual haunts
3
In a wilderness location (forest, mountain, refuge, park, etc.)
4
A different city
5
The Matrix
6
An unusual place where the runners would typically not meet (underground, in the astral, on a bullet train)
THE JOB INVOLVES... 5D6
Recover personality from Matrix Foundation or Resonance realms (skip job location table)
6
Influence Seelie Court politics (skip job location table)
2–3 A friend of the team or team member who’s in trouble 4–7 Their usual fixer 8
No one makes contact, the situation just happens (skip table F)
9
A corporate Mr. Johnson
10
An Awakened/magical creature (spirit, metasapient, dragon in metahuman form)
RESULT
5
7–8
Distraction/Decoy
9–10 Vandalism/Sabotage 11–12 Investigation 13–14 Extraction/Rescue 15
Planting evidence or device Security
11
A digital-based lifeform (sprite, A.I., e-ghost, monad)
16
12
An unknown or secret person
17
Datasteal
18
Protect/Defend/Escort
19
Theft or reclamation of object
MOTIVATION FOR THE JOB IS... 1D6 RESULT 1–2 To save someone who is in imminent danger 3
To stop something bad from happening soon
4
To return a favor
5
To cripple or stop the growth of oppressive corporate/ governmental power
6
To make a statement or point
20–21 Smuggling 22–23 Blackmail/Influence 24
Roll twice more, using both results. Ignore any further results of 24.
25
Release damaging info to the public
26–27 Provide overwatch (Matrix/astral/physical) for another team 28
Assassination/intimidation
29
Help start/win a war
> BETTER THAN BAD >
THE DIFFICULTY RATING OF THE JOB IS... 2D6
RESULT
2–4
Low: easy for the team to perform
5–9
Medium: moderate security; neither a challenge nor easy
10–11 High: increased security, heightened alert, or unusual security measures (run is a trap, there are paracritters, requires gear not possessed by team) 12
Extreme: It is not likely the team will be able to complete the run. Retreat/admitting defeat/not taking run suggested
>> BETTER THAN BAD
