Shadows of the FDC – Vory v Zakone
There are a lot of Russians and others from the former Soviet Bloc living in the DeeCee Sprawl, and here’s the best part, many of them have lived in the sprawl long enough to have made a significant contribution to the Old Army, with emphasis on Old Army. This created no short of resentment among a community that had previous made itself indispensable to the government and the defense field. The Vory didn’t have much of a presence beyond the Russian and Eastern European communities for a long time, and kept their operations fairly insular. The one exception was their decker crews who would carry out every kind of byzantine fraud and theft one could imagine. Naturally, they were very useful for money laundering, and it was rumored that they got a pass from the government for the business they did by doing contract work for the FBI and military.…
FDC – Harbor Corporate Development Zone (CDZ)
A project led by EVO to create a beachhead (Literally) for new corporate developments friendlier to those living on the fringes of the FDC. To that end they procured the former national harbor (Out of favor due to its proximity to the Barrens) and have begun building up the area back the shopping district it use to be. Most of the area is mid to low end venues given the expected clientele with lax security to match, but two buildings standout, The Tower of the CDZ Leisureplex (The Former MGM), and EVO’s CDZ HQ, Babylon Arkoplex which was built over the Gaylord Convention center and features multiple levels of amenities from the indoor parks on the ground floor, to restricted high end venues on the upper segments. The way it is being built up suggest it might become a full fledged arcology one day. The harbor itself is loosely restricted…
FDC – EVO Babylon Arkoplex (EVO CDZ HQ)
An ongoing project, the ornate glass tower keeps getting sections added on increasing its height and area contained. Within are indoor parks and restaurants accessible to the public and on higher floors, Gardens to match its namesake. The restricted upper floors feature multiple high end amenities while the restricted south end contains R&D.
FDC – Den of Sin (Yakuza Chong-Pak-Pa Complex)
The Den of Sin Club – With Old Ellicott City almost permanently flooded out, the Korean Yakuza (the Chong-Pak-Pa) took over the area to include the major warehouse nearby to create a tiny Venice-like community, occupying and refurbishing the upper floors of flooded buildings. The warehouse HQ, now called the Den of Sin has been transformed into a casino\club\brothel office (The nearby refurbished flood zone providing extra private rooms). The DC based Yakuza Branch, Mizugumo-rengo (Water-Spider League) also operate out of the upper office floors and it was their administration of the club that help to give its name. The main dance floors (1st & 2nd Floors) features several bars, multiple dancer platforms and swings, surrounded by AR screens. Music genre and dancer costumes depends on the evening’s theme, and the regular rotation pulls a diverse crowd. The basement (Floors -1 & -2) features traditional gambling facilities, but the main…
Curated Shadowrun timeline
Events Potentially Important to Characters. While trying to figure out my own character’s age based on events he had to be alive to experience (The Surge), and what events mentioned in the NPCs bio of my current campaign that shaped them (veteran, but of which army and war?), I began exploring the timeline of Shadowrun events to figure when things would have happened to the characters, what events they might personally consider important, and what events they might have lived personally lived through. Shadowrun year is supposed to be today +62 so we are in 2080 game year. SR history diverges most sharply from ours in 1999 with the Seretech decision. There is a lot of data of course, http://shadowrun.wikia.com/wiki/Shadowrun_timelineSo I tried to condense each year to one or two lines of famous events that might inform their character’s knowledge of the world, their hobbies and biases, and I figured…
Shadows of the FDC (Updated DC map for Shadowrun)
My own follow up on this older reddit thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Shadowrun/comments/3i80jf/dc_map_for_shadowrun/ My current campaign is set in the FDC so I did my best to take the two best DeeCee maps I could find and combine them to try and create a lore friendly master map. I offer it up for opinions on what might need to be adjusted to match lore, and the lore friendliness of the new items I added. Especially the Corporate Development Zone in the Harbor. Most of my PCs do some work for EVO but I had a hard time finding anything on EVO assets in the FDC, so I created my own. I could also use suggestions on Shadowrun punny names for the locations based on real locals, like the one I made for Madame Orkans. https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1f8bEH2fgGIB3jWVkiyVIMaBggylOXMOv&ll=38.799953803238715%2C-77.20012832769152&z=10 I recommend unselecting layers you don’t need as you as done with them. There is quite a…
Shadowrun Boggles – Personafixes and Bioware
I’m building a decker character whose uses a personafixes to be a better…person in general. Essentially he is a blank slate (from prolonged personafix use) and uses a custom personafix to just be a functional professional. As I was asking advice on what a decker character should have it was recommended bioware that boost initiative like cerebellum boosters. But that got me thinking how much of a brain does the personafix override or bypass. Like I can’t imagine that a normal person’s brain would remain intact if the personafix overwrote the neurons in the brain. I thought it bypassed the brain (with data filter cyberware? RAS override?) and used the BTL jack to allow the persona to use the body and act out it’s programming. But if that is true then a personafix personality might not be able to make use of any augmentations that restructure the neurons. That leaves…
Shadowrun Homebrew – Civilian Drones
The fluff seems to indicate that drones are an every day part of life but I don’t seem to see any specs or model information on drones that should probably exist. Like I was reading rigger 5.0 and got excited about the EVO Krokodil. At first I thought it was an inexpensive tank jetski (which I then made such a vehicle with an EVO Flacon with amphibious mode) and thought I might useful as a storage hauler for long trips behind the falcon, but it makes no mention any storage capacity (what is it for then? Just surveillance I guess?). So then I thought maybe their was some other drones for travelers, like automated tracked luggage (or scooter suitcases) or for fancy people, a walking armoire. I read elsewhere trailers aren’t mentioned anywhere either (Besides the airstream motorhome) but none of the drones are meant as cargo carries? No simple…
Shadows of the FDC – Yakuza Enriched
So I have been working on my map of FDC and got to work trying to figure the lay of the land for Yakuza Activity. Checking the available resources (Guide to North America, Underworld, Vice) I didn’t find much on the groups listed as being the Yakuza in FDC. So I came up with my own descriptions and territories based on the names and my imagination for the 7 groups of Yakuza said to operate of out DC. If you want the original descriptions check Underworld, but with the exception of a little for the Saidoh, Mizguma, and Sheonen, pretty much nothing was described and only one location (the Lantern Bar in Alexandria) was mentioned in Guide, but with no word who runs it. If you want to check the map you find it here (I recommend unselecting the layers you don’t need when you aren’t referencing them. There is…
Shadows of the FDC – Triads Enriched
My work continues on my Shadows of the FDC map and to get current campaign items to line up. To that effect I tried to establish where Triad might operate in the FDC. Most of the info on Triads seem to indicate that there is little to no presence in the FDC, probably due to lack of a Chinese metro center (IRL 2017 DC’s Chinatown has less than 300, again 3 x 100 Chinese left in it). So unless it says cannon elsewhere I’ll say the population resurged, maybe as refugees from the breakdown of a Unified China. With the Yakuza & Mafia mostly controlling the FDC underworld there was little room for the Triads to squeeze back in. So in cannon there are two Triads operating in North America: The 99 Blossoms is a Triad based in North America. The 99 Blossoms are a Triad that has a reputation…