Argh! Or How NOT to Promise the World

Yes, folks. I, once again, screwed up. I promised having something actually updated ‘soon’ for the Graveyard, then proceeded to get swamped in that ubiquitous ‘Real Life’ so bad, that I never got it completed…

…until now.

Yes, I finally sat down and wrote this article for the Graveyard about my favorite game setting for Shadowrun. Why now, you may ask? Well, because I have another article in my head and wanted to get this one finally out before putting the other one down on paper.

My Favorite Shadowrun Setting

My favorite Shadowrun setting is one that has been recently expanded by Year of the Comet. This region has all the tension between the various races, tension between the corporations, and tension between criminal factions that I desire in a campaign setting. The only thing missing is Native American participation, but that is actually only a couple of hours down the highway. So, everything is in place.

This area is the San Francisco Bay area.

Unlike the completely improbable situation of Denver being split up six ways from Sunday, San Francisco is split among logical lines. San Francisco itself is under control of the occupying Japanese military. When Year of the Comet exploded, the Japanese military commander refused to leave. This makes a lot of sense, and has happened in the real world before (Eastern Europe and Russia).

The radicals, opposition forces, and just plain haters of humanity ended up in Oakland and especially Berkeley. Again, unlike Denver’s ‘Let’s put Aztechnology in here’, Berkeley is the site of the initial protests against Vietnam. They have a history of rebelling against authority, right or wrong. Basing the main opposition to the Japanese army here is logical.

Silicon Valley is held by Ares, or in essence, the UCAS when one gets right down to it. Again, a very logical conclusion - the US, even if they could dump the rest of California in the ocean, wants Silicon Valley still. It is a little illogical about who survived and who did not, but we can skip over this. Unlike, say…who owns the Denver International Airport, and why.

The other areas of the Bay have other special qualities. Dwarves have their own underground area, not unlike the Orks in Seattle. In addition, the area is close to the fighting against Tir Tairngire near Redmond. It is close to the Ute Nation, which is based in Nevada, so Native American issues can be introduced—and not including the 1960s takeover of Alcatraz Island in the real world. Aztechnology, having invaded the very southern part of California, has spies in the area. Every corporation has sites there, and in the real world, the Chinese even have their embassy there. Triads and Mafia fight the Yakuza.

In essence, everything you can use in a campaign can be found in San Francisco. Seattle and Denver are both too isolated for their own good. Both are city-states, similar to the way Berlin was after World War II. Though there is intrigue in such settings, isolation creates improbable situations, and I like things more ‘realistic’ for my campaigns.