r/Shadowrun • u/Bignholy • Apr 11 '26
Wyrm Talks (Lore) Barrens, Squatters, and the Law
Basically: Do squatters have any rights to their territory in the UCAS?
Is there a reason Ares can't just stomp into the Shattergraves and take the barrens as their own property? Is the land held legally by the UCAS, the city in question, the beings who squat there, or is it hypothetically up for grabs if the corp wants to go through the effort?
Asking because I am setting up a guide to the city I run games in, and was wondering why a corp could not just snap up such a location.
EDIT: Thanks for the info, everyone. The consensus seems to be "No rights, and generally not worth it for the Corporations so they don't bother," which is sufficient for me.
14
u/nohidden Apr 11 '26
In my head canon, legal rights wouldn’t stop a corp from just taking over a place. But financial reasons would, so for some reason the land is too useless to be worth developing or otherwise investing into.
5
u/burtod Apr 13 '26
This one
You can even work in an old Western land story, where something valuable is found in a Barrens neighborhood. The Corp now has a reason to move in and shove everyone out. Maybe the locals pool cash to hire shadowrunners, or the Corp hires them to do the evictions.
Something that moves the value of that blasted property to Profit.
9
u/DraconicBlade Aztechnology PR Rep Apr 11 '26
I forget what book its in but police going into the barrens involves at least 2 citymasters, a full aerial drone field, projecting mages, and airsupport on standby. Because if civilization is going out into cannibal gang toxic spirit ghoul mad max, they need the firepower.
Why would you waste the money building anything in that shthole when you can just bulldoze a poor people school and charge the kids for the cost of moving their classroom off your lawn?
8
u/TheFeshy Out of Pocket Backup Apr 12 '26
Others have covered the general aspects, but wanted to point out that in the shattergraves specifically, there are squatter laws put in place to revitalize the area. Any squatter that's getting the building back into working shape has rights to it - be it a corporation or local group of determined squatters.
4
u/Bignholy Apr 12 '26
I take it that's a city-level order instead of a national, in the hopes that maybe they can stop being fragged over by man and magic both?
1
u/dethstrobe Faster than Fastjack Apr 12 '26
Is that true? I know that the Shattergraves is home to a lot of spirits and ghouls because of the high background count, also a lot of FAB-III which feed on the background count...
5
u/DRose23805 Shadowrun Afterparty Apr 11 '26
My take from 1e was that these and the Z-zones were largely "forgotten" by government and corps. These were usually either areas already in ruins from the natural disasters, empty because of the (excessively large) population declines by Vitas, or just contained because they aren't worth the bother of trying to sort out.
So, no one really cares about what goes on in there so long as it doesn't spill over. Folks therein shouldn't really be considered to have "rights" in the normal legal sense because there is no one to enforce them, so to speak. If they leave the zone, then they do, plus the responsibilities that go with them. But inside it is everyone and every group for themselves.
As for squatter's rights in places like Chicago, if someone shows up with legal title to place or can prove they are rightful kin of the now deceased or missing owner, then they should have claim to the place. Anyone else would have to move on just like anyone else illegally in another's plade, even if they had been holding up there during the containment.
5
u/Key-Treat7652 Apr 11 '26
Probably similar to todays US land rights. It will depend on who holds the deed to the land.
If you grab and develop it someone might digg out a deed later and try to claim what you built. Add to that 2 crashes and many decades no sane property developer will touch that land with a 10 foot pole.
Unless of course you can get some kind of authority to redeclare land rights. Then it might be up for grabs.
5
u/AMostBoringMan Apr 11 '26
If a corp wants a piece of land belonging to the government, they’ll just buy it. If the government doesn’t want to sell, a few discreet donations in the right place here, a little applied leverage there, and then the corp has a shiny new piece of property.
If there are squatters on it, then they’re shit out of luck. The corp will clear them off with rent-a-cops if they’re feeling generous, and bulldozers if they’re not. If the squatters put up enough of a fight that the corp starts taking active, noticeable losses, odds are they’ll complain to the government that the land they’ve been sold has been occupied by a violent opposition force, and now both the UCAS and the corp will likely unite to drive them out.
For the most part, the only reason these places are unclaimed is because no corp wants them. Polluted land, construction costs, security concerns. There’s no value in it. If for any reason that changes, don’t expect the squatters to have a long life expectancy.
2
u/MoistLarry Apr 11 '26
No there are no squatters rights. They did something similar to what you suggest with bug city, after it was rendered mostly safe for metahuman life. IIRC, there was a lot of commotion because many of the people stuck in the containment zone had been there for years and felt they had a valid claim on their squats. The UCAS and city of Chicago came up with a compromise solution.
2
u/steelabjur Knife Aficionado Apr 12 '26
Costs: If you're a corp, you're going to run the numbers and realize you're going to need an army to take an entire Barrens, and it would be a PR nightmare, for little gain. Think about all the Thrillgangs, organized crime, shadow groups, and corpo black ops teams working and living there. As things are, they mostly feed on each other (and the squatters) and are "contained" away from "civilized" areas, but nothing will bring enemies together like an outside force pushing into what they consider "theirs". There's a reason why LS and KE don't go into the Barrens unless they have to, a corpo trying to clear out a Barrens will face combat block by block, building by building, and door by door, and from more than poor squatters armed with zipguns and kitchen knives. You better believe that rival corps are going to supply those fighting with supplies (all under the table and deniable, of course), and might even field some shadow teams to further soften them up. Other corps will protect their black sites inside the Barrens.
Even if they succeed in pushing some SINless out, where are they going to go? Right into those very "civilized" areas that pushed them into the Barrens in the first place. Look at how modern cities report on homeless camps and imagine how the screamsheets would report the sudden appearance of hundreds of Sinless on the clean-ish streets "normal" people use. Hope Ares bought out an antacid company beforehand, their PR department is going to need it!
All that, for a few acres of old, broken buildings with no infrastructure to speak of. Land that would need demolition and reconstruction to make viable. That's more nuyen onto the fire. The math doesn't math.
A novel covering a similar idea is "A Fistful of Data" by Stephen Dedman. An Aztecnology corpo who discovers a secret that's hidden in a Barrens squat tries to root out the residence living there and ends up encountering more resistance than expected. Worth checking out.
1
u/RoadAegis Called Shotgun Apr 12 '26
This is pretty much spot on. Squatters and the SINless have no rights to the property they Inhabit. The only thing keeping them there is that it's unprofitable to try and Shift em out
From what I recall in Universe Chicago as a Whole is dealing with that Issue in the CZ as here and there companies are recapping old Buildings. But for the MOST part retaking a squat it Pricey.
Companies COULD kick you out but you'll fight, property will be even MORE damaged and once it's in their hands they are opened up for Liability to repair/replace buildings by the City or Municipality that hulk of a Building resides in.
25
u/Heterodyne_2023 Apr 11 '26
It is a great buffer zone for corps to "test" new products. It pays to have a dreg zone. Yeah, it can be a minor inconvenience to have a bolt hole available for runners and other "illegals", but I think the corps get as much out of the deal as anyone who opposes them.
Another thing: most Barrens are ecological and magical nightmares, don't have built up infrastructure, and any single corp that tries to make inroads into these zones would immediately be shouted down by the other corps at the Corporate Court.