Regions

The Sixth World is large, with lots of variety across its many landscapes, but one thing ties all this diversity together: It’s all screwed up. From the shadowrunning Mecca of Seattle to the horribly scarred wreckage of Bug City to the divided city of Berlin to the anything-goes wildness of Hong Kong to the eco-paradise with a dragon tyrant that is Metrópole, every place has something deeply wrong with it. Here is a look at some of the places where shadowrunners can get work while putting their lives on the line.

Seattle

The shadowrunning capital of the world. Why? Because everyone’s got a piece of it, no one controls all of it, and everyone wants more than they have. All of the AAA corps—and plenty AAs and As—have a presence there, and nations like Tír Tairngire, the Salish-Shidhe Council, UCAS, California Free State, and even Imperial Japan have an interest in the city.

No one wants open warfare—that keeps the money from flowing properly—but everyone wants to snatch something that’s not theirs. From the glitz of Downtown to the posh corp life of Bellevue to the wasted Barrens of Bellevue to the oddly tranquil farmlands of Snohomish, the sprawling city has it all. It also hosts dangerous assassins, vicious critters, psychotic gangers, and of course cutthroat executives, all ready and willing to make a runner earn every last nuyen.

Berlin

The divided city is divided again. “Alternative districts” in the east are the last remnants of the former anarchist leaders of the city, trying to find a way to regain influence. Corporations like Aztechnology, Renraku, Proteus, and of course Saeder-Krupp control sectors of the city, using the shadows to strike at each other and see who can edge out whom in the battle for the city’s future.

Hong Kong

The temple of money. Hong Kong has been a cash-generating machine for centuries, and it’s all the more lucrative in the Sixth World for its lack of national connections. Lost to China when the entire nation’s collapsed, Hong Kong soaks in corporate power and organized crime, but the lack of a national government also leaves room for a certain amount of chaos. Sometimes that can be nightmarish, as in the dark mysteries at the heart of the Kowloon Walled City, but other times it can be sheer opportunity for those cunning enough to seize it.

Metrópole

Metrópole, the massive sprawl running along more than one hundred kilometers of Amazonia’s coast, is a true rare bird in the Sixth World: a major city where the corporations take a back seat to the government. The great dragon Hualpa has designed the city of the future, with green architecture and innovative structures, but don’t mistake it for any sort of paradise. The dragon is in control, and dragons don’t keep control to help anyone more than they help themselves.

Bug City

Chicago used to be a decent town. I mean, corrupt and prone to greed and violence, but also full of wonders—architectural, culinary, and otherwise.

Then the bugs came.

Bug spirits are beings from another plane, driven by a hunger we don’t understand. They possess people, sometimes twisting and distorting their bodies into hideous forms. And they completely overran the heart of Chicago.

They were contained, sort of, but the solution involved distorting the mana of the city and dropping a nuke in its heart. The thriving city became a wasteland, a haven for gangers, scoundrels, ghouls, and whatever bugs managed to survive the disaster. Recent efforts have pointed to recovery, with the city even getting investment from the corps. But in Bug City, hope is just one more thing to be crushed.