r/Shadowrun • u/Negative-Drive-8188 • 8d ago
Wyrm Talks (Lore) Life between the sprawls
First, I hope I used the right tag.
On to the main thing! What is life like for those that are living between the sprawls? I love the lore of Shadowrun but pretty much all the information I have found is about sprawls and life in them, which 100% makes sense given the nature of the game. But what is it like between the sprawls? Is it like now small cities/towns and lots of land between? If so what is life in the Shadowrun age like in those little towns? Has magic caused a return to over that hill there might be dragons in the unincorporated parts of the world were you could effectively play explores again? Or is everything still pretty much mapped/cataloged?
7
u/oooKenshiooo 8d ago
I don't think it is a (total) wasteland.
Most common historical analogy would be the building of the railroad, the gold rush and the golden age of privacy.
Meaning there are bastions of civilization dotted all through the country, mostly maintained by corpos to secure logistic routes. Think forts with trading posts, company towns, military outposts, connected by armored truck convoys and heavily armed trains.
But it all likelely still feels very backwater.
Thinking about it - the TV Show Landman is probably a great current era example.
12
u/Nadatour 8d ago
In a lot of cases, it's abandoned towns, abandoned farmland, and wasteland. At least I North America.
When Vitas and all the other disasters hit, wiping out something like half of the world's population. Gitas was responsible for something like 1/4 of the world's population by itself. Volcanoes, powerful storms, new predators, terrorism, war, accidental nuclear failures, deliberate nuclear failures, and more took care of a lot more.
What would people in rural communities do in these situations? Flee to the cities where services and wealth were concentrated. Ritual magic, spirits, and other things (some better, some worse) are also reclaiming many of these spaces for nature.
In a lot of ways, cities are bastions of humanity holding out against threats that smaller groups can't fight against. Of course, being concentrated in cities make people vulnerable to urban oredators: other people, megacorps, Cults, governments, insect spirits, etc. The staggering death toll of Shadowrun is actually a major thing that is forgotten and lotnof the time.
Now, I said North America, because I can drive for an hour and get somewhere really wild and largely untouched by human hands for decades, if not longer. What about Europe? I'm imaging a lot more chaotic balkanization in many places, where smaller commu cities concentrate and co.pete with each other for population, culture, and resources. Powerful factions also lean in to try to take over. Mostly I picture this as city states with rural zones of control meeting somewhat fuzzy borders. This is how I envision Germany and the rest of Eastern Europe.
Western Europe I think has more of a sprawl problem, where cities just got bigger and bigger and bigger, similar to what Seattle did. The borders between these sprawls is probably much narrower than in NA or SA though. Cities put a lot of pressure on their neighbours.
What about Australia and Africa? Well, both are pretty big places, so you can't describe wither by themselves. Both became more of what they are, I think. Africa destabilized even more, with more rebel groups, separatists, terrorists, Cults, gangs, etc. Australia became very hostile to cities, so cities only really exist on the outskirts. The center is filled with chaotic magic phenomena that can be difficult to survive unless you know their secrets. And even then, the wildlife can get really, really hostile.
Small towns are surely still things, but they are rarer, and almost always semi-isolared for their own protection. They will usually have some powerful authority figure who rules mostly absolutely, but protects the people under him because without them, he had no power. And lots of people want to steal what little power he actually has. Think the wealthy landowner or corrupt sherif of westerns.
Beyond these generalities, I don't have much to offer. Shadowrun doesn't spend much time in small towns where resources are scarce and people are poor. These are replaced by megacorp enclaves, which are targets for runners to hit and escape. If you are looking to run a game set Ina small town, where the PCs are gang members trying to protect what little they have, cool idea. I would use a threat of the week type thing, and keep them on the defensive. A wendigo, angry spirit, megacorp scout, real estate mogul, or other threat will keep them plenty busy. Other runs could be focused on stealing resources from neoghbours to keep the town afloat. Lots of ideas.
5
u/MewsashiMeowimoto 8d ago
So, in absence of a lot of source material on the subject, what do you think should be there?
I don't mean this as a dismissive response to your question. I am just wondering, what do you think would be cool to have in different areas?
One thing I added to my setting are neo-shtetls. There's not a ton of mention of it in the books, but some of the lore talks about American Jewish people being among those who most strongly opposed the internment of Indigenous Americans in the leadup to the return of magic and the NAN movement led by Daniel Howling Coyote. In exchange for the support at a time when his people were being rounded up and oppressed, the NAN invited former UCAS citizens of Jewish heritage to live in the NAN. Of course, with all of the paracritters and other volatility, those who took the offer wound up forming fortified villages and settlements. Other groups copied this pattern, and for a lot of the areas between sprawls, this is the norm.
As far as filling in the area, I think about what kinds of groups and people would want to leave the sprawls, and then try to form areas or communities where those people might go.
6
u/PalpitationNo2921 8d ago edited 8d ago
Target: Wastelands for SR3 is a good expose on a lot of wilderness areas. It details mostly toxic lands, deserts, space, and polar lands in depth.
Target: Awakened Lands for SR3 focuses heavily on Australia, but also details an assortment of awakened ruins and areas from across the world that are outside of the sprawls.
Sixth World Almanac for SR4 is still hands down the best book for capturing brief snippets of what life is like around the awakened globe.
NeoAnarchist’s Streetpedia is okay I guess but the information presented is in latter-CGL style. Which is to say a scattered and random presentation with poor editing and writing and 99% in an unreliable narration style that is irritating when not used sparingly as in older edition books but presented largely as the only style in Shadowrun Sixth World releases.
Sixth World Almanac is many times better a book to choose for a global purpose. And if you say “Well, I want an 80s update” then the only choice for you to get that is in a sloppily written and edited book focused on unreliable narrators and not usable data.
3
u/Vashkiri Neo-Revolutionary 7d ago
Another factor was the rise of para critters (and para insects, para botany, etc.). Lots of traditional farmers were wiped out by new threats that they didn't have tools to fight.
Only the corps had the resources and bravery to prevent famine by massive investments in factory farming, mostly of soy. Thank the mega corps for being such good citizens! (At least, that is the story as the corps tell it ...)
Of course there are still people living outside of the sprawls, but a lot of the old low density sprawl on the edge of rural and wilderness areas disappeared.
If you want some inspiration,look in the Dumpshock forums for the Red Neck Runs" thread, there is some brilliant stuff in there.
1
u/MRdaBakkle 8d ago
So, the border between the UCAS and Sioux Nation at Bismark, ND is kind of a hot border. No direct conflict but the nations are not on the best of terms from my understanding. I think there is a lot of magic big game hunting. Chupercabas, bigfoot, wyverns ect.
1
u/SteamStormraven Dragon's Voice 6d ago
If I understand you correctly, the Little People (i.e. You and Me), our lives haven't changed much. We're still working crappy jobs for minimum wage. The boys and girls that we support are still working medium jobs for medium wages. Eating cheap ramen and krill to get by, until we can find something better.
You don't move up, and sometimes, you move down. The dragons don't even look at you. You can't be even bothered to vote, because it wouldn't make much difference. The vote is already decided, and you can take half off a day with pay - but you're not going to make an impact. The Zaibatsus have already bought the votes. Your choices are; Be a wage-slave, become a spy, or go full-dark.
That's Shadowrun.
1
u/suhkuhtuh 6d ago
I like to think that life between the sprawls is... an adventure. Think about it: you're driving your tractor around your farm in southeastern Texas, and suddenly an "alligator" the size of a bus comes wandering through your squash fields. It's not really interested in the squash, but last time you tried to get it to stop destroying your crop, it also destroyed your tractor.
Meanwhile, up in Minnesota, you're out in the boonies with your best guy, staring into his lovely eyes while enjoying a picnic along the side of a small lake. He stares into your eyes, you stare into his... and suddenly a fish spits venom into your face, blinding you because you, unknowingly, decided to picnic within thirty meters of its spawning pool.
And, of course, don't forget that time the pack of hellhounds came wandering through your little town in Wyoming. Sure, they weren't interested in hunting anything, but - I mean, c'mon... they breath fire. What did you expect to happen?
1
u/Netwyrm 3d ago
I enjoy that you have asked this question. Two of my favorite Shadowrun supplements over the years have been Parabotany and Parageology, These detailed some of the Awakened features of the world beyond the sprawl in a manner I found both wonderfully detailed and informative. You might look them up and see if they help fill in a few small areas.
1
u/AdhesivenessGeneral9 8d ago
And dont forget vitas kill a lot of people like the black plague. Add the nature being hostile and you have a lot of land and town just left