Plotting....
City of Shadows
My little pet project, it’s a concept I have had in my brain for ages. Basic premise was what appears to be a typical city but instead of the normal government we got something *else* calling the shots. Said something else has ranged from evil corporations, crime families, supernatural critters to all of the above and combinations of any and all of the above. Kinda clichéd true, but if setting and characters are done right and a good metaplot established it would be a hell of a ride for an RPG campaign.
But it never went further than my brain.
So there it sat for ages, till one fine day a pal of mine stated he wanted to start a Shadowrun game on mIRC and if I wanted to join it. I was slightly familiar with the campaign setting, it interested me so I said “Sure why not?”
One year and about 30 sourcebooks later I am a hopeless addict, and found the perfect ‘base’ for CoS.
Shadowrun has magic, high tech, a detailed metaplot, yet enough little plots for those who don’t wanna wrap their brains around said metaplot, corrupt governments, huge soulless mega-corporations. It’s D&D plus The Matrix with a smidge of WoD and then given several doses of Crack before being unleashed upon the world. Needless to say it was love at first sight.
So what is City of Shadows?
Well for starters it’s not a real city, it’s what’s left of a huge oil platform, in Shadowrun many corporations said to hell with the environment and started several mining operations in what were once protected areas. Off the coast of Alaska was one such location. Also bigger is better so this huge platform was built and used, as true with corps things change hands get lost get wrecked and get rebuilt. The original rig was abandoned and then ‘claimed’ by various smugglers who then kept building ontop of the original platform, other rigs and platforms were moved and attached to the main and before you know it you have a multilevel maze of iron, steel and concrete with parts actually being underwater, and the parts that are above the waterline get pummled with ice storms for months of the year. Charming isn’t it?
Lets add to the pot shall we? Lets add some of the best from the bottom of the barrel to the mix. Shadow Runners, career criminals that do everything from wet work, kidnapping, hacking and stealing to make a living, due to it’s remote location, less than ideal weather conditions and perfect location for a stop over, it’s become a haven for them. Smart runners and gangs started to make parts of the rig livable working connections between various ports and bringing in and moving out black market items for premium prices. Turf wars, squabbles erupt a perverted sence of law back from the days of the Wild West comes out of the mess.
Oh I ain’t done yet! One last item, something very powerful and very old has come to town and has done an efficient job of assuming shadowy control of the place, and it ain’t leaving any time soon, now this being needs one last little item to secure the power scales. Too bad there are others who want it too! And others want the big boss off the map to add to the mix. Mwhaha! And pity the poor players who have to sort this all out, whose working for whom, and whose in it for themselves, or revenge, solve the puzzles with the prize for success being able to live when it’s all over.
*rubs hands together*
Now to make the time to set it all up x_X
SW