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Actual London Gang Profiles

by Bryce J. Jones

Disclaimer: Take these, edit them, add stuff, delete whatever you want. These are not copyrighted at all and you can print them off, photocopy, etc. These are just for your benefit. :) (Sorry…I love parodies! :) )

Below are descriptions of the 8 gangs roaming the Smoke. I have not included the gangs in the orbitals. The gangs form a ring around the very center of london, where 6 gangs actually form the ring, and 2 others are in the west end and the estates. There are currently no gangs in the City, Temple, or Palaces. These gangs are go-go-go’s and this information becomes invalid after a couple of months, and these gangs are in no way comparable to big gangs like the Ancients of seattle.

  • Name: Name of the gang.
  • Number: Ranking. 1 means they are top dogs.
  • Race/Race: First is ethnicity. Second is metatype. Remember that an asian gang just happens to have lots of asians in it, and will not refuse membership to a caucasian/black. Metatype is a different story. :)
  • Love: What the gang likes
  • Hate: What the gang hates
  • Mobility: What the gang uses to get around (other than feet).
  • Colors: Prominant colors. Lower-echelon members do not follow the color code as strictly as the higher-echelon members.
  • Equipment: What the gang uses. Individuals vary quite a bit.

PLACEMENT

The gangs form a ring around the center of the Smoke. The Spiderboys and White Rats are meshed in the middle, in the West End (Shadowtown) and the Estates. The Brothers in Rhythm range from Westway to Southside. The Gold Crescent ranges from Southside to Lambeth (The Squeeze). The Hellhouhds range from Lambeth to the Docklands. The Knives range from Docklands to the East End (Ripper territory). The Red Watch range from the East End to the Village. The Rotorheads range from the Village to Westway. Gangs rival those that it touches; for instance, The Brothers in Rhythm are in direct contest with the Rotorheads (to the NE) and the Gold Crescent (To the SE). As of now, all gangs stay out of the corporate-controlled Dogs.

WHAT THE AUTHORITIES ARE DOING

Gangs often plan skirmishes, using the archais system of issuing challenges to a rival gang. Each will agree on a location for the battle, and both sides will arrive early for preparation. :) The local cops will pay 1000Y to anyone who can give information of an upcoming gang battle. The cops will then procede and geek all of the members, or take them in for questioning and geek them. The Plex Cops also pay 5000Y for a main hideout (100+ people of the gang near the area), and will send in heavy support to destroy the buildings and kill or capture the residents.

WHAT THE CORPS ARE DOING

Gangs stay out of the corps’ way. When interaction takes place, the reason is usually a sarariman for a corporation hiring the gangers to do a Shadowrun. Do to the aggressive nature of the gangers, these Ops are usually 1) Destroy or 2) Kill. Gangers have a tendency to geek those they extract, and will do wetwork for peanuts. They also use the guns-blazing method, which does not work very well except in the two above Ops.

WHAT THE SHADOWRUNNERS ARE DOING

Shadowrunners best avoid gang fights, for not only need they fear the gangs themselves, but the cops that follow. “You got a SIN, Chummer? Nope? Then you’re going with us”.

WHAT THE GOVERNMENT IS DOING

Government officials try to use these gangs to their advantage. Some instances include:

  1. Hiring a gang to trash an opponent’s speech or rally
  2. Hiring a gang to trash an opponent’s home
  3. Hiring a gang to geek an opponent
  4. Hiring a gang to spread bad rumors about an opponent
  5. Hiring a gang to kill a gang that an opponent has hired.

MEMBERSHIP

Since the mortality rates are so high in gangs, gangs have no drawn-out system for admitting new memberships. Usually the exchange is as simple as this:

“You wanna join the Red Watch? What guns do you got?”
(New Member flashes an Ares Predator)
“OK, get some Red and Blue clothing and meet with us here in an hour.”

Of course, this leads to lots of spying, so most gangs have designated some members as espionage and counter-espionage (Following the guy as he supposedly goes “home” after a gang meeting).

CENTRAL LONDON GANGS

BROTHERS IN RHYTHM

MS Rating: #8
Race/Race: Black or Asian / All are Humans
Love: Humans, Rap. Many times carry around music-playing equipment.
Hate: Elves. All Elves. No exceptions.
Mobility: Little Scooters. Pathetic.
Colors: Purple and Green pastel <Blegh!>
Equipment: Leather Jackets and Light Pistols.

* I used to just run over these guys, until now. I fraggin’ saw one of them leading his little part of the gang, fighting some ROTORHEADS in clear skies! Half of his group got killed, then he pulled out a detonator and every single one of the rotorheads’ drones and vehicles exploded. Unfortunatley, he was caught in the blast, and I took off running. It seems that these guys have big espionage units.
* AKA 47

* That raises a question…where do these guys get the explosives? Getting heat like that is tough here, and these go gangs are not well connected like us. (Most of us!)…I suspect some corporation conspiracy going on here…
* Razz

GOLD CRESCENT

MS Rating: #7
Race/Race: All / All
Love: Conflict, fistfights, melee
Hate: Guns and Cyberware
Mobility: Rollerblades. No drek!
Colors: Gold and Black. Most have the muslim-type patch on them.
Equipment: They from somewhere got these unique swords. Surprisingly, these I think are from Ares Macrotechnology, but are not sold on the market. They call ‘em Gold Crescent swords.

* Those swords are not only monofilament, but some have Dikote on them! It is a pity for these guys that they insist of ‘blades and no cyberware or guns, or they could be serious business.
* Rabid

* Yup. The distinctive gold Crescent Moon emblem on them instantly tells me to keep my distance and mow ‘em down before they get too close. But then, it would be easier to just drive away from them, but what Sammy would do a thing like that???
* AKA 47

HELLHOUNDS

MS Rating: #4
Race/Race: All / All but elves
Love: Fights
Hate: Everyone
Mobility: Heavy Bikes, like the Viking or Harley Scorpion.
Colors: Totally red. Reminds me of blood.
Equipment: SMGs or HPs, with lined coats or armored jackets. Big league stuff. Beware.

![](/gfx/comment.gif) Unfortunatley for these guys, they are so predictable. I just taunt them whenever I need to geek some of them, and lay some home-made FalconBombs (tm!) in the street. Even if they did seem them, they would probably drive over them so their buddies could make it through. My suggestion: Make them come to you on *your terms.
* Falcon

KNIVES

MS Rating: #6
Race/Race: All / Trolls
Love: All types of knives, sharp objects, and the like. Some have Forearm snap blades and a few even have the Cougar Fineblade.
Hate: All non-Trolls
Mobility: Harley Scorpions.
Colors: Black and Red (About 50/50 combo).
Equipment: Knives and leather.

* My suggestion is to stay out of their way, unless you are a troll. If you are a troll, my suggestion is still to stay out of their way. If you get what I am saying.
* AKA 47

![](/gfx/comment.gif) I swear I saw these guys crossing the Dogs to strike at the REd Watch in the East End. Red Watch just assumed that they would stay clear of the Aztechnology mages wanting target practice with their wiz-bang spells, but the Knives went through. The Red Watch did not see them coming. *Never walk the alleys of the Docklands at night. These guys will kill you for your shoelaces.
* Falcon

RED WATCH

MS Rating: #3
Race/Race: Caucasian (mostly) / Humans
Love: Ambushes
Hate: Rivals (Currently, the Knives and Rotorheads).
Mobility: Aurora Racing Bikes, and Yamaha Rapiers.
Colors: Red/Blue
Equipment: Sporting rifles, and the rare sniper rifle.

* The rare sniper rifle? Yup, they are rare. But even that does not make me feel safe. These guys are excellent shots. I even saw a guy with the Barret - must’ve taken down a merc somewhere.
* Razz

* Really? I know a merc that was employed by a corp - Mitsuhama I think. Of course, he knew too much, so instead of killing him with Corp assets, they hired the Red Watch to take him while he was going through the Village. AFAIK, he knew too much about some new virus that Mitsuhama just came up with - it infects a person, then moves to the kidneys, where it produces a cancerous-type growth. Then, Mitsuhama hit squads come and geek the person, remove the growths, which are then used injected into whoever - better than kamikaze. Seriously.
* Rabid

ROTORHEADS

MS Rating: #5
Race/Race: All / All but Orks and Trolls
Love: Vehicles and Drones
Hate: Art, Music, anything non-mechanical
Mobility: Various vehicles
Colors: Assorted, but all have a blue/black patch.
Equipment: Varies, but is always high-tech.

* Just a question: What is MS in MS rating? Is there an independent panel judging these guys? Siskel and Ebert regrown in vats and now bored with movies?
* Manta

* I would guess MesoStim, considering he put it all together. So the rating does not actually mean anything, though it does indicate the general pecking order of the gangs.
* Razz

SPIDERBOYS

MS Rating: #2
Race/Race: All / Humans and Elves only
Love: Buildings. “Bow down to the glass and ferrocrete!”
Hate: Mages.
Mobility: Foot (Mostly, through or across buildings).
Colors: Black, with red on the stomach (Reminiscent of a Black Widow)
Equipment: Climbing gear, rope, and pistols or SMGs

* I am sorry to say that one of our posters here just got geeked by an MTC squad. Be careful what you say, chummers. And, of course, the whole deal is over now (How I know this is not important) so most of you should not wake up to a bomb blast or hit squad.
* MesoStim

* These guys are scary. I have never heard any of them talk. Silent. Quick. Effective. It seems these guys are in direct contest to the White Rats…skirmishes in the West End are quite nasty. Neither these guys nor the white rats pay attention to the other 6…these are definitely in their own league.
* Manta

WHITE RATS

MS Rating: #1
Race/Race: All / All. But you have to be a rat, thasforsure. :)
Love: Sewers
Hate: The above ground
Mobility: On Foot, through their own constructed tunnels, or through the old sewers (which have little methane in them - they are cleaned out. The city was going to make another west end underplex system, but it got abandoned. These tunnels are deeper, at least 20 feet below the deep tube.)
Colors: White or gray. Very bland. Sometimes, their clothing turns green
Equipment: Sewer climbing equipment, and heavy SMGs.

* No doubt about it, these guys are top dogs (rats?). Just a question: Do these guys ever come in contact with the Orks that live down there? And why does not the security go down and blast their ratholes - they must have the original plans somewhere.
* Joker

* Joker, they do not come in contact with the orks because 1) the orks are not that far down and 2) the orks are not in the west end as much as in the south and east. Why do the authorities go down and lay down some Rat Traps? Because these rats have special digging divisions that constantly bore a new system of tunnels. More like ants than rats, if you ask me.
* Falcon

* Just to warn you guys: These guys are also good with explosives, and have access to just about every building’s basement. Be careful. Wakarimasu-ka?
* Razz

* So-ka.
* Manta

Using these in Seattle

Just change where they are, but use the same principle:

  • White Rats and Spiderboys are in Bellevue and Downtown.
  • Brothers in Rhythm are Downtown-Everett.
  • Gold Crescent are in snohomish.
  • Hellhounds are in Redmond (Kinda fitting??? :) )
  • Knives are in Auburn (Most gangs do not go in Renton).
  • Red Watch are in Puyallup and Tacoma.
  • Rotorheads are in Tacoma-Downtown.

Also, when using these in Seattle, make sure to separate them from the BIG gangs - the Ancients, etc. Or, alternatively, make those gangs smaller and these ones the predominant street forces.