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  TM
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  CREDITS
  EXPANSION DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
  Sam Stewart with Owen Barnes, Tim Cox, Lisa Farrell, 
  Sterling Hershey, Tim Huckelbery, Keith Ryan Kappel, 
  Monte Lin, Jason Marker, and Per Remund Wiger
  EDITING
  Christine Crabb
  PROOFREADING
  Alexis Dykema and Jeremiah Shaw
  EXPANSION GRAPHIC DESIGN
  Christopher Beck with Caitlin Ginther,  
  Toujer Moua, and Evan Simonet
  GRAPHIC DESIGN MANAGER
  Chris Hosch
  COVER ART
  VIKO
  INTERIOR ART
  BalanceSheet, Ralph Beisner, Simon Boxer, Caravan Studio, 
  JB Casacop, Marjorie Davis, Adam S. Doyle, Micah Epstein, 
  Marko Fiedler, Aurore Folny, Caroline Gariba, David Griffith, 
  Nasrul Hakim, David Hovey, Clark Huggins, Amélie Hutt, 
  Skott Kilander, Pavel Kolomeyets, Kate Laird, Jonathan Lee, 
  Antonio De Luca,  Zefanya Maega, Ed Mattinian, 
  Michal Milkowski, Mark Molnar, Sander Mosk, 
  Teuku Muharram, Reiko Murakami, David Auden Nash, 
   PxelSlayer, Maciej Rebisz, Emilio Rodriguez, 
  Martin Diego Sadaba, Angga Satriohadi, Adam Schumpert, 
  Timur Shevtsov, Marius Siergiejew, Liiga Smilshkalne, 
  Juan Manuel Tumburus, VIKO, James Corey Webster,  
  Jarreau Wimberly, Andreas Zafiratos, 
  Matt Zeilinger, and Ben Zweifel
  ART DIRECTION
  Crystal Chang
  MANAGING ART DIRECTOR
  Melissa Shetler
  QUALITY ASSURANCE COORDINATION
  Andrew Janeba and Zach Tewalthomas
  PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT
  Jason Glawe and Dylan Tierney
  VISUAL CREATIVE DIRECTOR
  Brian Schomburg
  SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER
  John Franz-Wichlacz
  SENIOR MANAGER OF PROJECT 
  DEVELOPMENT
  Chris Gerber
  EXECUTIVE GAME DESIGNER
  Corey Konieczka
  PUBLISHER
  Andrew Navaro
  Android setting created by Kevin Wilson and 
  Daniel Lovat Clark
  PLAYTESTERS
  Max Brooke, Justin Carbery, Kara Centell-Dunk,  
  Kaitlin Davies, Steve Davies, Tim Dolgos, Gavin Duffy,  
  Lindsey Ferrante, Michael Ferrante, Martin Flanagan,  
  Tim Flanders, Andrew Fischer, Brian Foster, Corey Fox, 
  Michael Gernes, Jeff Greening, Jamie Grey, Dan Grothe,  
  Phil Henry, Grace Holdinghaus, Ian Houlihan, Michael Hurrell, 
  Brandon Jackson, David Johnson, Sean Kennedy, 
  Michael Molyneux, Calli Oliverius, Frank Omilian, Luke Palmer, 
  Brandon Perdue, John Pope, Chuck Sedor, Peter Smigelski, 
  Ryan Steven, Joel Stevenson, Matt Stevenson, Melanie Vayda, 
  Sean Vayda, Rex Vogen, Jason Walden, James White, 
  Stefanie Wiltse, and Kelly Yuhas
  FANTASY
  FLIGHT
  GAMES
  Fantasy Flight Games
  1995 West County Road B2
  Roseville, MN 55113
  USA
  © 2019 Fantasy Flight Games. Android and Genesys are trademarks of Fantasy Flight Games.  
   Fantasy Flight Games and the FFG logo are registered trademarks of Fantasy Flight Games.  
  For more information about the Genesys line, free downloads,  
  answers to rule queries, or just to pass on greetings, visit us online at
  www.FantasyFlightGames.com/Genesys                  
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  CONTENTS
  Introduction ............................................................................ 4
    Welcome to the Shadow of the Beanstalk .......................... 5
    Roleplaying in the World of the Future .............................. 6
    What Tomorrow Looks Like ................................................ 9
    Adventures in New Angeles ...............................................12
  Chapter 1: Character Creation ..........................................19
    Creating Your Character .....................................................20
    Step 1: Determine Background ..........................................22
    Step 2: Select a Character Archetype ................................24
    Step 3: Choose a Career ......................................................31
    New Skills .............................................................................42
    New Talents ..........................................................................44
    Step 6: Determine Favors ....................................................53
    Factions  ................................................................................54
    Faction: Jinteki .....................................................................56
    Faction: Haas-Bioroid .........................................................58
    Faction: Weyland Consortium ..........................................60
    Faction: NBN .......................................................................62
    Faction: Orgcrime ...............................................................64
    Faction: Street Gangs ..........................................................66
    Faction: NAPD .....................................................................68
    Faction: Government ..........................................................70
    Faction: Globalsec ...............................................................72
    Faction: Loonies ..................................................................74
    Faction: Activist and Terrorist Groups .............................76
  Chapter 2: Equipment and Vehicles .................................79
    The Favor Economy.............................................................80
    Weapons ...............................................................................82
    Armor ...................................................................................92
    Gear .......................................................................................96
    Body Modifications ...........................................................104
    Item Attachments ..............................................................109
    Ships and Vehicles .............................................................113
  Chapter 3: The Network ....................................................118
    Netcriminals and Runners ...............................................121
    Running the Network .......................................................124
    Network Encounter Rules ................................................125
    Ice and Icebreakers ............................................................132
    Building Network Encounters .........................................139
  Chapter 4: New Angeles and Heinlein ...........................141
    New Angeles .......................................................................142
    Life in the world's Biggest City ........................................142
    Sample Location ................................................................144
    28th Transit Arterial and Calle del Prado  .....................144
    The Districts .......................................................................150
    Chakana ..............................................................................151
    Base de Cayambe ...............................................................155
    Rutherford ..........................................................................160
    Esmeraldas .........................................................................165
    Nihongai .............................................................................169
    Laguna Velasco  .................................................................173
    Manta ..................................................................................178
    Rabotgorod  ........................................................................182
    La Costa  .............................................................................186
    Quinde ................................................................................190
    Guayaquil............................................................................194
    Midway Station ..................................................................198
    Challenger Planetoid .........................................................203
    Heinlein ..............................................................................208
  Chapter 5: Adversaries ......................................................218
  Chapter 6: The Game Master ...........................................241
    Depicting Life in New Angeles ........................................242
    A Living World ..................................................................244
    Social Encounters ..............................................................247
    Android Adventure Builder .............................................248
  Index .....................................................................................255
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  WELCOME TO THE SHADOW  
  OF THE BEANSTALK
  I
  n the shadow of Earth’s largest and most ambitious feat 
  of engineering and science, among the packed streets 
  of Earth’s greatest city, the teeming masses of humanity 
  go about their daily lives. Most do their best to keep their 
  heads down, enjoying the luxuries they have and trying to 
  stay out of trouble. 
  A few have no choice, because trouble finds them. 
  These individuals find themselves caught up in events 
  much greater than themselves. Corporate intrigues, gov-
  ernment cover-ups, feuds between criminal organizations, 
  battles between street gangs, and the massive unrest of a 
  civilization on the cusp of upheaval can throw these people 
  into chaos and danger. And what happens then? 
  Many die, caught in the crossfire between things they 
  can’t truly understand, let alone stand against. They end up 
  on the nightly news, innocent bystanders reduced to statis-
  tics in the eyes of most of New Angeles’ half a billion inhab-
  itants. Others fold. Maybe they flee and keep their heads 
  down, or perhaps they throw themselves in with whatever 
  side seems to offer the best chance of survival. They may 
  become the dispossessed, society’s castoffs, or the lackeys 
  of powerful interests following orders for the reward of a 
  comfortable life. 
  However, some people stand up and fight against the 
  forces that upend their boring, predictable lives. Though 
  their chances are slim, they try to ride out the chaos and 
  struggle to save themselves and the people they care about. 
  And maybe, in the process, they become stronger, braver, 
  and generally better than the people they used to be. 
  The only question is, which person are you? 
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  ROLEPLAYING IN THE 
  WORLD OF THE FUTURE
  H
  ello, and get ready to step into the Shadow of 
  the BeanStalk! This book is a supplement for the 
  GeneSyS game line that lets you use our Narrative 
  Dice System in the futuristic and morally gray worlds of 
  the Android setting! In Shadow of the BeanStalk, you’ll 
  become a resident of the biggest, greatest, and most terrible 
  city on Earth: New Angeles. Your ordinary life is about to 
  be shattered as powerful forces from common criminals to 
  megacorps throw your small corner of the city into chaos. 
  You’ll have to rely on your contacts, your tech, and all the 
  luck that you can beg, borrow, and steal just to survive—
  much less thrive—in this fast-paced, mercenary city. 
  If you’re already familiar with GeneSyS and want to get 
  started, go ahead and skip to page 20 for more informa-
  tion about making a character, or to page 142, where we 
  delve into the city of New Angeles. Otherwise, we’re going 
  to spend some time explaining what this book is, how you 
  can use it, and give you a quick overview of what’s inside. 
  So, if you’re new to roleplaying games (or just new to 
  GeneSyS), read this first.
  WHAT IS THIS BOOK,  
  AND HOW DO I USE IT?
  Shadow of the BeanStalk is a sourcebook—or expan-
  sion—for the GeneSyS Core Rulebook. That means you’ll 
  need a copy of the Core Rulebook as well as this book to play 
  a game set in the Android Universe. You’ll also need some 
  GeneSyS Roleplaying Dice. You can pick up a pack of them 
  from your local game store or www.fantasyflightgames.com, 
  or by downloading the GeneSyS Dice App onto your PAD 
  (or if you’re relying on yesteryear’s tech, your Android or 
  iOS device). You should also consider picking up the book 
  the worldS of android, which presents a detailed 
  description of the entire Android setting. 
  Shadow of the BeanStalk serves as a backdrop for 
  the stories you’ll tell using the GeneSyS game. It is basically 
  a more detailed example of the settings found in Part II 
  of the Core Rulebook, so you’ll use the basic rules found 
  in Part I of the Core Rulebook combined with the rules 
  presented here. The rules in Shadow of the BeanStalk 
  are designed to supersede those in the GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book—so whenever there seem to be contradictions, use 
  the rules in this book.
  For example, the GeneSyS Core Rulebook has the rules 
  for character creation, and you’ll still follow the seven steps 
  presented there when making a character for this game. 
  However, Shadow of the BeanStalk provides differ-
  ent choices when you follow those steps. To expand this 
  example further, during Step 2, you select an archetype or 
  species that you want your character to be. The Core Rule-
  book provides four human archetypes to choose from. In 
  Shadow of the BeanStalk, you get to choose from six 
  archetypes, some of which vary wildly from what we think 
  of as “human.” 
  Basically, GeneSyS is the engine that runs your game. 
  Shadow of the BeanStalk fleshes that engine out into a 
  game of regular people struggling against faceless corpo-
  rations and governments while trying to beat (or at least 
  cheat) the system. 
  WHAT IS THE  
  ANDROID SETTING?
  We go into a lot more detail about New Angeles and the 
  Android setting in the introduction of this book (and even 
  more in Chapter 4). So here let’s just cover the basics. 
  The Android setting is what many would consider 
  “hard” science fiction (or if you prefer, science fiction 
  rather than space opera). This means that while the set-
  ting is very much fictional, we try and take some steps 
  to make sure the setting is at least loosely grounded in 
  scientific realism. This means that you’re not going to see 
  any faster-than-light space travel, teleportation devices, or 
  heroic starship captains sipping cups of tea as they fight 
  aggressive alien invaders. However, there’s still plenty of 
  room in our setting for the strange, the marvelous, and—
  sometimes—the disturbing.
  The Android setting takes place in the relatively near 
  future. We don’t specify the century, so you can decide just 
  how much time should pass before we build a tower to the 
  stars and flying cars take over the skies. Humans still live on 
  Earth, although now we also live on the Moon (commonly 
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  called Luna), Mars, and some space stations and asteroid out-
  posts throughout the Solar System. The world is a lot more 
  crowded, but the timely invention of reliable fusion power 
  means that—for most people—life is pretty comfortable. 
  Corporations are even more powerful in the Android 
  setting than they are now. Governments still exist as well, 
  and when they work alongside one another, there’s often a 
  wary tension between them. Nowhere is that tension more 
  evident than in New Angeles. 
  New Angeles is the biggest city on Earth, occupying a fair 
  chunk of what used to be Ecuador and housing at least half 
  a billion people. New Angeles is important because it has 
  the single most valuable asset on Earth: the space elevator, 
  commonly referred to as “the Beanstalk.” The Beanstalk is 
  the cheapest and easiest way to get to and from space. More 
  importantly, it lets humanity bring the helium-3 mined 
  on the Moon to the Earth’s surface quickly and reliably. 
  Since we need helium-3 to run the fusion plants that power 
  Earth’s society, the planet depends on the Beanstalk to sur-
  vive and thrive. 
  Finally, the Android setting is in the midst of a massive 
  social revolution. About thirty years ago, two major corpo-
  rations invented the first true androids: robotic humanoids 
  called bioroids and vat-grown human clones. Both are now 
  being made in droves, so androids are flooding the solar 
  system with cheap, reliable, and totally obedient labor. On 
  the one hand, this means people don’t have to do some 
  of the worst, most dangerous jobs anymore. On the other 
  hand, a whole lot of people have lost their jobs. And that 
  doesn’t even begin to touch on the bigger questions: are we 
  building better tools to make our lives easier? Or are we 
  creating a new population of enslaved beings who, at their 
  core, are basically human?
  WHAT WILL I  
  FIND IN THIS BOOK?
  We split Shadow of the BeanStalk into six chapters. 
  Some of these are going to be more useful for you if you’re 
  the Game Master, while others are going to be more useful 
  for you if you’re a player. Let’s briefly go through each.
  In Chapter 1: Characters, we provide all of the rules 
  you need to build a player character for your game. This 
  includes any character creation rules that are different from 
  those in the GeneSyS Core Rulebook, as well as new tal-
  ents and skills that your characters can use. It also includes 
  rules on the various factions in the setting. Your character is 
  probably going to owe favors to some of those factions. But 
  don’t worry! Some of those factions may owe your charac-
  ter favors in return.
  In Chapter 2: Weapons and Equipment, we provide an 
  exhaustive list of the types of items that your character (and 
  their adversaries) may be using. This includes weapons, 
  armor, gear, cybernetics, and genetic modifications. It also 
  includes attachments that let you customize your weapons 
  and armor, and some of the vehicles you may find in New 
  Angeles or on the Moon.
  In Chapter 3: The Net, we talk about the Network, the 
  successor to the Internet that links the world in a web of 
  data. The Net makes up a major part of most New Angeli-
  nos’ daily lives, and manipulating it is a really useful skill. 
  This chapter has all the rules for running, which is the only 
  effective way to hack the Network.
  In Chapter 4: New Angeles and the Moon, we take a 
  long, deep look at New Angeles, the Beanstalk, and Hein-
  lein (humanity’s primary lunar colony). This chapter is 
  mostly setting information. It lets you explore the city, and 
  it also gives you an idea of what daily life in New Angeles 
  is really like.
  In Chapter 5: Adversaries, we provide Game Masters 
  with a large number of non-player character (NPC) profiles 
  with which to populate their games. 
  Finally, Chapter 6: The Game Master, has a number of 
  adventure outlines that Game Masters can take and turn 
  into adventures (or even full-fledged campaigns). In addi-
  tion, we spend some time with some Android-specific 
  game-running advice. New Angeles is a fascinating and 
  unique setting, so we give you some tips to make that set-
  ting really come to life for your players.
  CAN I USE THIS TO MAKE MY OWN 
  SCIENCE FICTION SETTING?
  Absolutely! We designed GeneSyS to be a toolkit for you 
  to use to make your own worlds, and that remains our 
  goal with this book. Shadow of the BeanStalk can be a 
  valuable tool for building your own science fiction setting 
  instead of using ours. 
  For example, most of the gear we present here is appro-
  priate for any science fiction setting. The same holds true 
  for our archetypes (for example, bioroids can be used to 
  represent any robotic humanoid, while Loonies could rep-
  resent any humans who grow up in a low-G or zero-G envi-
  ronment). We also take the hacking rules from the GeneSyS 
  Core Rulebook and expand them. If your setting has a 
  prevalent Internet equivalent that you want your players to 
  interact with, you should find those rules really useful. 
  So, that’s an overview of the book and how to use it. We 
  wish you the best of luck trying to survive the streets of 
  New Angeles, and we hope you enjoy your adventures! 
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  WHAT TOMORROW LOOKS LIKE
  W
  ake up, and you’re connected to the worlds. 
  For the average citizen of New Angeles, the 
  day begins with a chiming of alerts from their 
  PAD, reminding them to do everything from pick up gifts 
  for their loved ones to bet on their favorite sports team. A 
  quick scan of the NBN Netcasts catches them up on events 
  unfolding across the system, from a Human First rally in 
  Broadcast Square to terrorist attacks on Mars. Already, 
  their friends, family, and coworkers are in their ear, each 
  person connected to their life by a latticework of data 
  stretching across the planet. The ride to work, whether it 
  is on the whispering magnetic tracks of the tube-lev or in 
  a clone-driven hopper, weaves through an urban landscape 
  that stretches from horizon to horizon. Spread out around 
  the base of the monumental Beanstalk, the space elevator 
  that connects Earth to the stars, New Angeles is a world of 
  light, transplas, and gleaming carbosteel. 
  On the streets, humans of all kinds and modifications 
  rub shoulders as they bustle about their day. Naturals 
  push past g-mods with their too perfect (or startlingly 
  inhuman) physiques and cyborgs with chrome and steel 
  gleaming in the rain. Then there are the true artificials: 
  Bioroids, mechanical facsimiles of humans that follow 
  their masters on errands or weave through the crowd 
  with unnatural grace, their bodies and faces too perfect 
  for biology to emulate. Clones blend in a little better, but 
  conditioning and branding means they too stand out in 
  the crowd, their servile air hiding the potential of their 
  expertly engineered forms.
  Arriving at work—a corporate conference room, a shop 
  floor filled with clone workers, or an NAPD precinct—a 
  New Angelino logs into a whole new network that can link 
  tens or even hundreds of thousands of employees. Infor-
  mation flows between workers at a tremendous rate: AIs 
  review quotas and resumes as quickly as those quotas are 
  filled or workers fired, and cops solve crimes that may have 
  occurred half a city away. Meanwhile, corporate employ-
  ees work in tandem with thousands of their peers to com-
  plete projects of dizzying complexity. To live and work in 
  the world of tomorrow is to be bombarded by information, 
  constantly connected to everyone around you, yet at the 
  same time be utterly alone in a sea of data and people.
  CORPORATE CONCERNS
  The Weyland Consortium, NBN, Jinteki Biotech, Haas-
  Bioroid, Fahari Trans-Victoria, MegaBuy, Globalsec: these 
  megacorps and others are the gods of the future. 
  Once, long ago, governments kept corporations in check. 
  Their leaders competed over resources and spread ideolo-
  gies, seeking to dominate the globe. But with time, the tides 
  of power have shifted. While the world may still be split 
  into nations and states, corporations have the money. The 
  influence they buy can be felt everywhere, and their spider-
  webs of subsidiaries control the wealth of the system. 
  Citizens’ lives are made possible by the megacorps, who 
  make and sell anything anyone could need. The Beanstalk—
  the Weyland Consortium’s greatest marvel—constantly 
  reminds those who live in its shadow just who is responsi-
  ble for these heights of civilization. NBN is even harder to 
  ignore, its constant stream of media tailored specifically to 
  the viewer’s preferences by powerful AI and psychographic 
  algorithms. Jinteki and Haas-Bioroid have a stake in count-
  less products vital to a citizen’s daily life, the twin benefits of 
  genetic and mechanical engineering respectively providing 
  everything one could want—not to mention the benefits 
  of clones and bioroids that continue to take over jobs that 
  used to belong to the lower and middle classes.
  Of course, being ruled over by faceless corporate giants 
  only works as long as a citizen is happy to fit the mold. To 
  some, the corporations’ benevolent rule of humanity is 
  nothing less than a commercial dictatorship where people 
  are just one more data point, making and spending their 
  money to make their masters that much richer. 
  TWO LIVES
  The Network overlies the real world like an insubstantial 
  spiderweb, linking everyone to everyone else with strings 
  of glowing data. In the worlds of New Angeles, Luna, and 
  Mars, to exist is to have a presence in the Net, and from 
  birth every aspect of a citizen’s life is recorded, cataloged, 
  and stored. A simple scan of a person’s PAD or their facial 
  features, DNA, or implants can reveal an entire history of 
  childhood ailments, awkward teenage parties, failed jobs, 
  and petty crimes. Secrets are all the harder to keep in an age 
  so saturated in data, and for most people, meeting someone 
  new means going on a FriendNet mining expedition rather 
  than actually talking to them.
  Cultivating and protecting these virtual selves is a big 
  business for the corporations. Many crimes against citi-
  zens take place on the Net, often without their knowledge, 
  as their images and information are hacked or stolen. The 
  poor can only keep their presence small, hoping for ano-
  nymity to protect them from such attacks, since it is prac-
  tically impossible to live without connection to the Net. 
  Those with wealth on their side, however, often employ 
  people to maintain, groom, and defend their Network pres-
  ence and virtual profile.
  The average citizen is always connected to the Net, and 
  even when they are not actively looking through catalogs of 
  the latest simwear or contemplating a trip up the Beanstalk 
  to Midway, their Net presence is out gathering shows they 
  might like to watch, ensuring their apartment is kept at their 
  preferred temperature, or looking up old friends who might 
  have come up in conversation during a recent online chat. 
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  CITIES OF LIGHT AND DATA
  Once, the surface of the Earth shimmered like a sea of stars, 
  concentrated into the islands of light that were humanity’s 
  cities and broken by the few stretches of darkness where 
  oceans, mountains, wilderness, and deserts held sway. 
  Time has seen that sea dwindle to scattered points as urban 
  sprawl retrenches and the rural communities fade away. 
  But those islands of light are now blazing continents of bril-
  liance that herald the dominance of the megalopolis. The 
  majority of Earth’s population lives within these megaci-
  ties, surrounded by the security and comfort provided by 
  advanced technologies and fed upon a steady diet of data. 
  A merging of cultures and the rise of rapid transport 
  have seen cities transformed. Where once the differences 
  between New Beijing and New York might have been 
  stark, now they both sport the same NBN broadcasts 
  and Weyland corporate logos, and vidscreens scream 
  the same messages out into the dark. Cities too have 
  merged: SanSan, BosWash, and Mumbad are just a few 
  places where urban centers have joined to become a single 
  country-sized megalopolis.
  Despite the wealth of these megacities, poverty still 
  endures, from the Rabotgorod slums of New Angeles to the 
  old domes of Heinlein, where even air is bought and sold at 
  a premium. However, for the most part, humanity enjoys a 
  time of plenty like never before. Most governments strive to 
  protect the basic human rights recognized by the Universal 
  Nations. Citizens can travel freely and swiftly around the 
  globe. Overpopulation, limited resources, and an ever-in-
  creasing hunger for energy has forced humanity beyond 
  Earth’s atmosphere, and now the countries of the Universal 
  Nations only thrive because Luna, Mars, and the outer col-
  onies provide them with a steady supply of helium-3 and 
  other vital resources they need to survive.
  This need for resources has transformed the solar system, 
  especially Luna, Earth’s closest celestial body. Once a cold, 
  dead rock, it now glitters in the night sky, its cities shin-
  ing like a latticework of jewels upon the reflective orb. Tiny 
  stars glide to and fro from the top of the Beanstalk, a testa-
  ment to constant traffic between Earth and the Moon. Luna 
  is another jumping-off point for ships traveling out to Mars, 
  the Belt, and Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. And as the bounty 
  of space returns to Earth, it all comes down the Beanstalk.
  ABOVE AND BELOW
  New Angeles sprawled out below him, a neon rainbow 
  reflected in the hopper canopy. An unbroken horizon of 
  steel, carbosteel, and transplas reached out to the edges 
  of his vision and beyond. Even now, in the dark and rain-
  streaked night, he had to admit it is a wonder to behold. 
  Its towering arcologies reaching up among a forest of star-
  scrapers; each cylindrical monolith a city in its own right, 
  and filled with thousands upon thousands of citizens all 
  hungry for whatever the corporations were feeding them. 
  Raymond Flint leaned back in the hopper's passenger 
  seat, unconsciously pulling a cigarette from the pocket of 
  his overcoat. Before he could fumble for a light, the pilot 
  extended his hand with one. Flint gratefully accepted, 
  glancing over at his companion. Face lit by the green glow 
  of the aircraft console, the Tenma clone's fingers danced 
  over the controls with inhuman speed. His employer could 
  have hired a human pilot, but clones made the best drivers. 
  No room for human error. 
  Without a word, the Tenma edged the hopper down into 
  the maze of gleaming spires and wet, dark city blocks. 
  Flint knew all too well what lurked down here in the dark-
  ness. He caught a final glimpse of the reason New Angeles 
  existed: the Beanstalk. Looming out of the darkness, still 
  kilometers away, a light-studded ribbon unspooled from 
  the megalopolis into the sky. Points of light drifted up and 
  down the Stalk, each a beanpod carrying scores of people 
  or tons of cargo. The Beanstalk connected New Angeles to 
  the stars, and that connection made New Angeles’ glitter-
  ing elite—and Flint's employer— filthy rich.
  The hopper dove between two starscrapers, past the flash-
  ing signs and raised slidewalks of the plaza level, and 
  through an access port rimmed with yellow hazard lights. 
  For a moment, they flew through a carbosteel tunnel. Then 
  the hopper shot out into a dark canyon of plascrete and 
  carbosteel. Hemmed in by the monolithic foundations of 
  the starscrapers above were mazes of abandoned build-
  ings, crumbling streets, salvaged shipping containers, and 
  scrap metal shanties. The undercity. 
  The craft touched down, turbines whining and sending up 
  sprays of stale water, and Flint stepped out from under 
  the open, gull-wing doors. He reached back into the hop-
  per and grabbed his MR-72, checking the pistol's charge 
  before sliding it into his shoulder holster. "Time to go see a 
  man about a run," he said with a wry grin.
  The Tenma said nothing, its friendly, human eyes fixed on 
  the rain-washed street.
  Introduction
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  NEW ANGELES AND THE BEANSTALK
  New Angeles reaches out to the horizon in all directions, 
  a landscape of starscrapers, arcologies, and winding can-
  yons that cut down between the buildings to streets below. 
  Meanwhile, at its heart, like a needle drawn through the 
  fabric of the urban sprawl, the Beanstalk reaches up into 
  the clouds, offering the promise of riches much like its 
  fabled namesake. It is a true city of the future, one that 
  didn’t exist before the space elevator took root, and it has 
  enveloped, obscured, and in many places covered the 
  crumbling buildings of past centuries. New Angeles cov-
  ers a huge swath of land that was once part of Ecuador, 
  a sprawling cityscape built and paid for by the Weyland 
  Corporation for the sole purpose of bringing its found-
  er’s ambitions to life: namely, the construction of a viable 
  space elevator. Decades later, it is among the most pros-
  perous of humanity’s urban zones, grown fat upon the 
  wealth provided by Beanstalk royalties.
  As in all cities, its citizens are divided by wealth, priv-
  ilege, and class. Eleven of its districts cluster around the 
  city center (the twelfth being the district of Heinlein on 
  Luna), the wealthiest enjoying easy access to the heart of 
  New Angeles, while the poorest must be content to gaze 
  upon the glass and steel mountains that rise up from the 
  far horizon. The megalopolis's suburbs even spill over into 
  Ecuador's remaining territory like an overflowing cup, and 
  each year they spread even farther.
  Perhaps most importantly, New Angeles is the headquar-
  ters of most of the great corporations, and the bulk of their 
  wealth resides within the megalopolis. Although Weyland’s 
  royalties represent the most tangible rewards from the 
  Beanstalk, all of the megacorps benefit from its presence. 
  This concentration of wealth only encourages the thriving 
  criminal element, from street gangs looking for their next 
  hustle, to orgcrime outfits making millions off complex 
  rackets, to white collar criminals stealing millions with 
  a bit of creative data manipulation. 
  THE NETWORK
  If Earth, Luna, and Mars are parts of the great 
  body that makes up humankind, then the Net-
  work is the blood that runs through its veins. 
  A person walking the streets of New Ange-
  les might see only the neon jungle that 
  stretches out around them; a sea of face-
  less people, heads bent to their tasks; or 
  the gleaming peaks of starscrapers ris-
  ing over the megalopolis, yet another 
  immaterial world that swirls around 
  them. Every person has their own 
  reflection in the Net, every place 
  appears there as a cluster of information and security pro-
  tocols, and some landmarks, like the Beanstalk, blaze as 
  brightly in the virtual world as they do in the real one.
  In New Angeles, the Network forms an invisible bond 
  between nearly every piece of technology that exists, from 
  the towering arcologies to a person’s chip reader or PAD. A 
  person’s status and privileges are also constantly monitored 
  in the Network, and buildings, bridges, and tunnels need 
  no one to tell them if a traveler can pass. A skilled runner 
  can manipulate the megalopolis by deceiving these systems, 
  changing their virtual appearance to travel unseen by security 
  programs, fooling countermeasures, and even manipulating 
  their surroundings like some sort of high-tech wizard. In 
  response, areas with the highest security needs have become 
  well defended in both the physical and virtual worlds.
  Just like mythical realms of old, the Network is also home 
  to strange and dangerous creatures, ancient secrets, and 
  powerful individuals. Rumors persist of rogue brainmap-
  ping experiments creating free-willed AIs, or the ghosts of 
  scrapped bioroids set free to roam the virtual lands of the 
  Network. The deadliest forms of ice—intrusion countermea-
  sures electronics—are “strong” AIs, which have a measure 
  of sentience. These can sometimes slip their bonds and go 
  hunting for prey in the wider Net. There are even tales of far-
  flung parts of the Network, created by forgotten corporations 
  or scientists that have since died, filled with servers upon 
  servers of forgotten data just waiting to be rediscovered.
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
  11
    (Order #17879226)
  
  ADVENTURES IN NEW ANGELES
  N
  ew Angeles is mired in criminal plots, corporate 
  interests, and everything in between. For the ordi-
  nary citizens of this vast megalopolis, individu-
  ality and identity can easily get lost in the tech-enabled 
  chaos. Beneath the city’s gleaming canyons and neon 
  skies, humans and androids alike might easily vanish, like 
  motes of dust drifting across a beam of sunlight: there 
  one moment, gone the next. For many, it is all they can do 
  simply to survive from one day to the next. Yet, there are 
  those who make their mark upon the megacities, carving 
  out a piece for themselves by righting the wrongs that the 
  megacorps don’t care about or don’t even notice.
  For some, this might mean taking up an NAPD badge, 
  becoming a private security contractor, or even going into 
  business for themselves as a PI. The city abounds in mys-
  teries and crimes, missing people and lost data, and sto-
  len technologies and criminal enterprises. Conspiratorial 
  threads weave around one another in New Angeles. Pull at 
  one thread, and there is no telling what might unravel—or 
  become ensnared.
  Then, there are those motivated not by the chance to 
  solve a mystery or see justice done, but by self-interest and 
  a chance to turn a profit. Crime is a staple of every city 
  12
  Introduction
    (Order #17879226)
  
  humans have ever built, and New Angeles is no different. 
  From petty street gangs carving out turf to crime lords tak-
  ing a cut from the offworld black market, criminals of all 
  kinds thrive like weeds in the shadows of the city. Often 
  beneath the very noses of the NAPD, these nefarious indi-
  viduals wage their wars of profit and murder; unofficial 
  territories and unnamed businesses change hands at the 
  point of a flechette pistol. It is a world within a world, one 
  that hides in plain sight beneath the gleaming perfection 
  of the future.
  Technology has also changed the way crime and conflict 
  is resolved. Whether someone wants to earn the favor of a 
  corporate agent, or bring them down, the means now exist 
  for a single individual to wage their own virtual war. Hack-
  ing can easily become the focal point for adventure plots 
  in worlds of the Android universe. The exploits of runners, 
  the near-mythical hackers of the future, can have far-reach-
  ing consequences, from taking down governments and 
  starting wars to shutting down entire cities.
  MORE HUMAN  
  THAN HUMAN
  Few things have changed the present like the creation of 
  artificial life and intelligence. Bioroids and clones, two 
  types of androids, have worked their way deep into human 
  societies, where they function as servants, security, and 
  laborers, often doing the jobs too dangerous or undesirable 
  for humans. 
  Given the androids’ pleasing manufactured looks, “per-
  fect” bodies, and programmable (and sometimes amazing) 
  intellects, some citizens can be forgiven for the distrust 
  and suspicion these beings can conjure up. That most peo-
  ple don’t give these creations a second glance—certainly 
  no more mind than they give the automatic doors on the 
  tube-lev train or the grav-porters that carry their bags—
  can make them seem even more sinister in the eyes of those 
  who distrust them.
  Bioroids and clones, and questions about their human-
  ity, their programming, and their future, can all be core 
  themes of adventures in New Angeles. Though Jinteki and 
  Haas-Bioroid endlessly assure the public about the safety 
  of their products, rumors persist of clone killers bred for 
  assassination or hacked bioroids committing crimes before 
  their short-term memory is wiped. In addition, there are 
  stories of rogue units rising up against their masters and 
  claiming their freedom from the artificial limits of their 
  birth. It is an old fear among humans that their creations 
  will destroy them, or at very least throw off the chains of 
  the oppressor, bringing the world order crashing down 
  with them.
  While notions of a rise of the bioroids or a clone attack 
  might largely be flights of fancy, the crimes committed 
  against androids are all too real. Organizations like the 
  lobbying group and union Humanity Labor and the ter-
  rorist/activist group Human First, which see bioroids and 
  clones as new paving stones on humanity’s road to destruc-
  tion, actively oppose the creation of AIs. Fueled by the rhet-
  oric and hate spouted by Human First’s leaders, there are 
  those in the organization who actively target and destroy 
  the so-called  “golems,” the sites of their manufacture, and 
  their living spaces, all to sway humanity from pursuing 
  what they see as an ill-fated path.
  THE MORE  
  THINGS CHANGE…
  For all the many advances in technology that have seen the 
  full scope of humanity’s knowledge and the breadth of the 
  solar system brought to the fingertips of citizens, war and 
  politics still shape much of the world of tomorrow. Rivalry 
  between the corporations has woven itself deep into the 
  fabric of New Angeles. Weyland’s Beanstalk rises like a 
  fortress from the heart of the city, while Jinteki labs, Haas-
  Bioroid factories, and NBN studios and comms satellites 
  spread out around it. 
  Each of these corporate strongholds exerts its influence 
  on the district around it, and those who travel in their 
  shadow also come under their sway. Where two indus-
  tries meet, the corps compete for the hearts and minds of 
  the people, fighting over ad space, service contracts, and 
  municipal licenses. For most, this is an invisible war in 
  which no real bullets are fired and no one dies screaming in 
  a gutter, but for others, the conflicts between the corps for 
  New Angeles’ soul can be a full-time job, one that is fought 
  as often on the streets as it is in the boardrooms.
  Then there are those who bring outside conflicts to 
  New Angeles, whether they are Crimson Dusters from 
  Bradbury, former Lunar insurrectionists who ended up 
  on the wrong side of the Worlds War, or La Brigada Tri-
  color freedom fighters holding fast to outdated notions 
  of government and land. The Earth and space beyond are 
  filled with failed governments and lost causes, oppressed 
  minorities and wronged families, all looking for a flag to 
  wave and a method to make their point as empathetically 
  as possible. 
  New Angeles has long been a favored target of these fringe 
  elements and their foot soldiers, as there are no hunting 
  grounds as rich when it comes to the major corporations 
  and their interests. Helping or halting these groups can 
  become a far-reaching adventure in itself, as the would-be 
  terrorists face the monumental might of megacorps that 
  are shielded and supported by the vast maze of humanity 
  inhabiting the megalopolis. The stakes are likewise epic, 
  with the fate of planets, peoples, and even technological 
  marvels like the Beanstalk in play.
  13
  13
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
    (Order #17879226)
  
  LUNA, MARS,  
  AND THE COLONIES
  Although humanity began its colonization of the solar 
  system long ago, for decades the offworld colonies have 
  been remote points of passing interest to the average New 
  Angelino. Heroic stories of brave colonists struggling to 
  tame the savage wilds of Mars make for good threedee 
  holodrama material, but most citizens tended to be more 
  worried about the upcoming Yellowjackets game or their 
  next job performance review. Settling the solar system and 
  creating civilizations on other worlds always seemed like 
  something that would happen in the future. 
  And that was because the other worlds remained well out 
  of reach for most of Earth’s inhabitants. Luna only attracted a 
  smattering of scientists, researchers, and corporate prospec-
  tors looking for valuable resources to exploit; few others could 
  imagine wanting to live on a dead, airless world. The same 
  held true for the asteroid bases on Earth’s Lagrange points and 
  in the Belt, and most of the space stations in Earth orbit.
  Only Mars—a world with a potentially terraformable cli-
  mate—held the promise of being a true frontier for those 
  dissatisfied with life on Earth. Those early pioneers trav-
  eled to the Red Planet on months-long voyages in primitive 
  spacecraft, knowing that whatever they found at their des-
  tination, they would have to deal with it using the tools 
  and resources they’d brought with them. Such 
  risks attracted the reckless, the dreamers, 
  and the refugees for whom Earth 
  held nothing but danger and loss. 
  Their way was paid for by 
  corporations who hoped 
  to eventually profit 
  from the exploitation of a new world. They advertised and 
  promoted the adventure and excitement of taming a new 
  frontier, all while contributing to the perception of Mars 
  as some far-off place of fictional story that ill-reflected the 
  realities of life in the colonies.
   And most people would have kept thinking of Mars as 
  something seen in advertisements and news bulletins, if it 
  wasn’t for the dreams of Jack Weyland.
  THE STARS COME HOME
  With the construction of the Beanstalk and the unlocking 
  of He-3 fusion power, the Moon went from a backwater 
  space rock to humanity’s greatest economic boomtown. 
  Corporations built their first company domes before the 
  space elevator was even finished; once the first beanpods 
  rose to the stars, the flow of goods and people spaceward 
  increased exponentially. 
  Cities grew across Luna’s surface, fed by the credits that 
  came with Earth’s insatiable demand for He-3. With that 
  money came fierce rivalries between the various mining 
  concerns and corporations, and the governments that 
  backed them. The miners became caught in the middle 
  of vicious sabotage attempts and corporate warfare that 
  increasingly resembled a real war. However, most New 
  Angelinos dismissed the unrest on Luna as someone else’s 
  problem and kept benefiting from the wealth that flowed 
  down the Beanstalk and into their city—right up to the 
  point where an open revolt on Luna made it their problem. 
  The Lunar Insurrection would become the first 
  stages of the much greater Worlds War that would 
  engulf the Moon, Mars, and Earth orbit. At its onset, 
  New Angeles found itself on the front lines of the fight.  
  Introduction
  14
    (Order #17879226)
  
  The Beanstalk was the single most strategically valuable 
  asset in the war, which also made it the single greatest target 
  for everyone who didn’t control it. 
  Locals watched as United States soldiers and corporate 
  mercenaries boarded beanpods to retake the Moon (and 
  later launch the invasion of Mars). They sent their best and 
  brightest to join the fight and wage the first war among the 
  stars. And then came the terrifying day when the Bean-
  stalk was attacked by the combined fleets of Martian and 
  Lunar rebels. Many New Angelinos still remember the 
  alarms going off throughout the city, the evacuations of the 
  Root and surrounding neighborhoods in Chakana, and the 
  Space Elevator Authority actually suspending all traffic and 
  shutting down operations. Some even claim to have seen 
  the distant flashes in the sky as the military defended the 
  Beanstalk from capture or destruction. The whole city held 
  its breath, fearing that the Beanstalk might come crashing 
  down at any moment—and then it cheered with the sight of 
  rebel ships crashing off the Ecuadoran coast in fiery, forced 
  reentries and the news that the battle had been won. 
  Now, the stars don’t seem quite so distant for most New 
  Angelinos. Travel rates to Heinlein on Luna are decreasing 
  all the time, and many citizens think of Loonies as their 
  oddball, unruly neighbors. Even Mars doesn’t seem so out 
  of reach anymore. But with these changing atti-
  tudes comes a quiet, unconscious fear that 
  most do their best to ignore. So far, New Angeles is Earth’s 
  only gateway to the stars, and clearly there are some who 
  would prefer that gate be shut. 
  LUNA TODAY
  These days, He-3 mining is still Luna’s most profitable 
  industry, and it’s likely to stay that way for the foresee-
  able future. However, with the advent of clone labor, 
  most so-called “Loonies” no longer work for Melange 
  Mining or one of its competitors. Instead, Luna has 
  grown into its own burgeoning society. While Hein-
  lein, the largest settlement on Luna, is technically a dis-
  trict of New Angeles, most Lunar citizens, both in Hein-
  lein and elsewhere, assert their independence fiercely. 
  They see themselves as a new, emergent culture that’s 
  just as defined by the war it lost as it is by the low-G 
  environment that causes Loonies to be taller, thinner, 
  and paler than their Earth-side cousins. 
  These days, Luna is a society caught between two 
  equal forces. On the one side is the dream of many 
  Loonies for independence and the creation of their 
  own, unique lunar society. On the other is Earth, linked 
  to Luna through treaties, government, and the Bean-
  stalk, which makes travel to the Moon a reality for 
  even middle-class citizens. Though Heinlein is too 
  valuable for Earth to give it up, the growth of that 
  burgeoning metropolis may one day make the 
  Loonies’ dreams of independence a reality.
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
  15
    (Order #17879226)
  
  TECHNOLOGIES THAT 
  CHANGED THE WORLD
  T
  here once was an old saying, “the sky’s the limit.” 
  Thankfully, that’s no longer true. We now live in 
  worlds without limits, worlds where there are only 
  challenges, not barriers. We’ve seen such great advances in 
  the last generation, ones that no one would have believed 
  possible not too many years ago. Just think about it…
  We once worried about running out of energy—no more! 
  With He-3 fusion, we have more and cheaper energy than 
  anyone could have dreamed of back when people burned 
  smelly hydrocarbs for fuel and polluted our skies and oceans. 
  We once dreaded the harsh labor of each day—no more! 
  Now, there are plenty of helpers eager to aid us in any task 
  imaginable, freeing us from dangerous and monotonous 
  occupations so we can live better, safer lives. With androids, 
  we don’t need to worry about work.
  We once worried that our 
  Earth was splitting apart and 
  that nothing would bring 
  us back into one unified 
  whole—no more! Now that 
  wars are a thing of the past, 
  <<...ask Mars about war. 
  I'll wait.>> people everywhere are moving together as one 
  with the Net. Questions are just a ping away from answers: 
  answers that everyone can share. With the Net and corps to 
  guide things along, life is improving all the time. 
  It’s all thanks to technology that we have the life we enjoy 
  now. Technology, and those who courageously created, 
  innovated, and used it to propel us into the future. A future 
  without limits. 
  For almost our entire existence, we were stuck at the 
  bottom of a well with no way to climb out. We looked up, 
  and saw the sky as remote and unreachable. Now we have 
  a rope, one seventy-two thousand kilometers long, <<just 
  long enough to hang ourselves with>> and that well 
  isn’t a problem anymore. And those limits? It’s awfully hard 
  to see any when you’re that far above the ground. 
  HOW OUR  
  WORLD WAS MADE
  So how did we get here? It took a whole lot of people work-
  ing on many different technologies, ones that all came 
  together at just the right time. With each new technology, 
  our lives have improved even more. 
  THE BEANSTALK
  There was the Beanstalk, of course, and Jack Weyland. 
  Many point at the Beanstalk as the launching point for the 
  life we have now. Though the concept had been around 
  for a long time, all the dream of a practical space elevator 
  needed was one person’s strength of vision to make it a real-
  ity. It took overcoming many challenges to make it happen, 
  such as perfecting the carbon buckyweave material—which 
  needs enormously high tensile strength—that composes 
  the tether. The Earth-side anchor in Ecuador grew during 
  construction into what many call Earth’s most important 
  city, the gigantic megalopolis known as New Angeles. 
  It took long years of exhaustive effort, but it finally went 
  operational. Jack Weyland, though, didn’t last much longer 
  as the head of his own company, and he resigned soon after 
  to explore other projects. He will always be remembered 
  as one of the great visionar-
  ies of history, no matter what 
  else he does in coming years, 
  just for his role in the first 
  space elevator. 
  With the Beanstalk, we 
  now have fast, reliable, and 
  cheap access into space. We 
  turned our outposts on the Moon into shining cities, built 
  a thriving colony on Mars, and have even sent people to 
  live on and mine Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, and Hygeia in the 
  Belt. There are still alternative systems for getting into orbit 
  and beyond, but the vast bulk of what gets into space goes 
  through the Beanstalk. With the Beanstalk, we’ve essen-
  tially achieved freedom from gravity, the cruel force that 
  has kept us pinned on the ground until now. 
  FUSION POWER
  As magnificent an achievement as the Beanstalk was, it 
  had its share of problems early on. Not with the structure 
  itself, but with its purpose. There were plenty of reasons 
  to get things into space, but most didn’t make anyone any 
  money. The Beanstalk needed a more compelling reason, 
  one that was very profitable, to really justify itself. <<After 
  all, who has time for the betterment of humanity 
  when there's a profit to be made?>>
  It turns out that the answer was fusion power. We’d been 
  working on fusion power for quite a while before the Bean-
  stalk got started. However, to make fusion reactors that 
  wouldn’t irradiate everything around them, we needed an 
  isotope called helium-3. The problem? There’s no helium-3 
  "ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS 
  ASK, AND THE NETWORK 
  HAS THE ANSWERS."
  Our World and You instructional texts produced in  
  cooperation with Historifact, an NBN subsidiary
  /: GNR8_Sinr > Our World and you > Article 22.4
    (Order #17879226)
  
  on Earth. But it turns out there’s quite a lot on the Moon. 
  With practical helium-3 fusion, Luna suddenly had a very 
  valuable resource in its gray surface dust. Mining on Earth’s 
  natural satellite took off, and the scattered scientific out-
  posts grew to mining boomtowns nearly overnight. And 
  all that incredibly valuable He-3 flowed right back down 
  the Beanstalk and into the 
  Earth’s hungry fusion plants.
  With clean and limit-
  less energy, suddenly the 
  improbable seemed a lot 
  more possible. Fusion power 
  provides the energy for 
  everything from Earth's cit-
  ies to probes at the edges of 
  our solar system. It allows 
  us to have thriving colonies 
  on Luna and Mars and to 
  sustain settlements on asteroids, while also allowing life 
  on Earth to grow everywhere without the pollution of the 
  past. We may not have been able to reverse the devastation 
  wrought by climate change in the twenty-first century, but 
  clean, cheap fusion power has allowed us to stabilize our 
  home. There doesn’t seem to be any worry about running 
  out of He-3 fuel in the lunar surface anytime soon, and min-
  ing operations on Luna have become efficient and routine 
  since Earth governments and corps decisively settled the 
  disruptive labor disputes of fifteen years ago. With practical 
  fusion now in our hands, better and more plentiful con-
  sumer goods reach everyone. We can now see a freedom 
  from want on the horizon, where humanity finally has the 
  power to achieve true greatness. 
  ANDROIDS
  We’ve created not one, but two forms of artificial human-
  oids who now provide our worlds with helpful artificial 
  labor and support. Both have become integral to our soci-
  ety, and it’s hard to imagine life without them. That holds 
  doubly true off Earth, where androids work harder and 
  faster than any regular person, while using up a fraction of 
  our precious resources. 
  Bioroids came along first, about thirty years ago, and 
  these mechanical helpers quickly took the markets by 
  storm. A variety of technologies go into making them, but 
  the most vital are brainmapping and braintaping. The for-
  mer was originally developed for detecting and analyzing 
  brain disorders, while the latter allowed for creating close 
  (though not perfect) copies, called braintapes, of a human 
  brain. These neural-net (analogue) memories mimic 
  human memory using fractal integration and quantum-de-
  rived fuzzy logic. All that means, basically, is that bioroids 
  can grow and learn. Bioroids are the perfect workers, intel-
  ligent and obedient, and while their physical strength and 
  disposability means we mostly use them to build our cities, 
  staff our offices, and rescue human beings in danger, there’s 
  no telling what they could eventually do for us.
  Clones, on the other hand, are fully flesh and blood. These 
  came along after the bioroids had established the market for 
  artificial labor, but they soon carved out a large share of it for 
  themselves. They are made 
  from (mostly) human DNA, 
  and Jinteki accelerates their 
  growth so they can com-
  pete with the assembly-line 
  efficiency of Haas-Bioroid. 
  While completely organic, 
  clones are also classified as 
  machines and accordingly 
  have no rights. Like bioroids, 
  clones can be grown to per-
  form just about any task we 
  need. Right now, they mine our He-3, pilot our vehicles, and 
  teach our kids. Eventually, as with bioroids, we could have 
  them do nearly anything. <<If they're so advanced, 
  are they really "ours" to order around?>> Why, 
  one of them (along with a couple of bioroids) even serves as 
  a detective right here in New Angeles! 
  "WITH CLEAN AND 
  LIMITLESS ENERGY, 
  SUDDENLY THE IMPOSSIBLE 
  SEEMS A LOT MORE 
  POSSIBLE." 
    (Order #17879226)
  
  THE NETWORK
  Today’s Network was built to replace the insecure and unre-
  liable connections of past technology, and its new protocols 
  were developed to ensure that a disaster on the same scale 
  as the Blackout would never happen again.
  Some countries were too stubborn at first to embrace 
  the future, but as more and more money became tied to 
  using the Network, you either got with the program or got 
  left behind. The Network now connects everything from 
  our satellites and hoppers to our vacu-bots and refrigera-
  tors, even on our offworld colonies, and it gets better all the 
  time. There are, sadly, some artists, criminals, and activists 
  <<Hey, that's me!>> who continually attack the Net to 
  steal our data and disrupt our lives. Fortunately, NetSec is 
  there to protect us from these “runners,” and its agents have 
  adopted some of the same brain-machine interfaces, or 
  BMIs, that these criminals use to operate in the Net. 
  It’s breathtaking just how big the Network is, though this 
  is all in a virtual sense. Every bit of data, every image, every 
  video—you can find them in the Network. Even informa-
  tion you didn’t know existed is somewhere in the Net-
  work. With it, we get freedom from questions, for all you 
  have to do is ask, and the Network has the answers. 
  PADS 
  And, of course, what would the Network be without your 
  personal access device? There are lots of technologies 
  that make modern life possible, but PADs make modern 
  life livable.
  PADs come in many forms, from old-school screens 
  to holoprojecting jewelry, and they are essential to get 
  through the day. They allow you to communicate, work, 
  check the latest news, follow your fave megastars’ daily 
  lives, and participate in all the biggest media events. 
  You can buy what you want, get the information you 
  need, and share it all with your friends with ease. PADs 
  gather so much information on their users that their 
  built-in AIs can anticipate their users’ desires, present-
  ing prompts for the latest downloads, transportation 
  options, medical advice, upcoming event information, 
  and more. PADs even let you be a citizen reporter, 
  transmitting news so everyone knows what’s happen-
  ing the moment it happens. There is little PADs can’t 
  do to help you manage your life, given all the infor-
  mation they contain about you and everyone you know. 
  It’s more than just helping you live better, though. Your 
  PAD has all the latest entertainment for you as well as all 
  the news you need, with new offerings all the time based 
  on your evolving profile. Any time of day, any place you 
  happen to be, one simple glance at your PAD, and it’s all 
  right there for you. Your PAD gives you freedom from sol-
  itude and boredom all in one handy device. Try going a 
  day without one and see how long you last! <<Finally, 
  something we can agree on.>>
  WHAT’S NEXT? 
  With everything so great now, you might think things can’t 
  get any better. However, you’d be wrong! 
  Remember the Beanstalk? How about another one? Or 
  two? Plans for a second and third space elevator are near 
  completion, one on an island in Lake Victoria and the other 
  south of Singapore. Now that the technology has been 
  proven to work, even more are sure to appear. 
  How about Luna and Mars? Heinlein is only going to get 
  bigger as our He-3 mines expand. And in a few hundred 
  years, you may be able to walk on the surface of Mars with-
  out a mask. Another Earth, thanks to terraforming. 
  And the Network. This could be the most fascinating fron-
  tier of them all. Already, people are talking about download-
  ing their minds into a pure digital form, transferring their 
  consciousness to the Net. It could be that the next decade sees 
  the first people who don’t exist in a physical sense at all…
  /:... THE OTHER SIDE OF 
  #PROGRE$S
  So, now that you’ve had the government-approved grade-
  school lesson plan for our bright and sunny future, let 
  me offer a modest rebuke. No reason why you shouldn’t 
  hear both sides of the story, right?
  Technology certainly has grown by leaps and bounds in 
  the past century, after we crawled our way out of the 
  climate-induced malaise of the first part of this mil-
  lennium. But alongside gems like He-3 fusion, the Net, 
  and androids are some technologies you don’t see people 
  bragging about. How about the rising number of people 
  hooked on new, designer-modded stim and other drugs? 
  The rumors about the so-called “Chronos Protocol,” an 
  R&D program to see if we can use braintapes to modify 
  or wipe a person’s memories? The stories about incon-
  veniently influential figures being quietly eliminated 
  and replaced with loyal clones? Or how when you hook 
  up to a BMI and your mind goes wandering in the Net, 
  it doesn’t always come back? 
  If you’re going to remember one thing, keep this in 
  mind: All of this amazing new technology is new. We’re 
  dealing with inventions that have only been perfected 
  within the past few decades. In many cases, the pio-
  neers who brought us the marvels we take for granted 
  are still alive. Humanity is rushing along the edge of 
  a precipice of progress. Ahead of us is a beautiful 
  future without scarcity, disease, or even death. Below 
  us is an abyss of oligarchical anarchy, exploitation, 
  and dehumanization that’ll make the twenty-first cen-
  tury look like an episode of Sunshine Junction. 
  So we’d better not trip.
  /: GNR8_Sinr > Our World and you > Article 22.4
    (Order #17879226)
  
  [ CHAPTER 1 ]
  CHARACTER CREATION
  M
  ost of the inhabitants of New Angeles are just reg-
  ular people living regular, boring lives. They wake 
  up, go to work, order takeout from their favorite 
  fast-food joint on their way home, then spend the evening 
  with their families and friends, or logged into the Network 
  enjoying an entire solar system’s worth of entertainment. 
  Then they go to bed—only to wake up the next morning 
  and do it all again.
  Yesterday, that could have described you. Tomorrow, you 
  may wish it still did. 
  In Shadow of the BeanStalk, you play a (nearly) 
  normal character living out their life in New Angeles. As 
  a citizen of the largest and most metropolitan megalopo-
  lis on three worlds, you probably live somewhere between 
  the ultrawealthy in their kilometer-high arcologies and the 
  homeless, penniless disenfrancistos who live in the city’s 
  seedy underbelly. You may have been an average person 
  struggling to get by, a wealthy ristie fallen on hard times 
  and looking for a big score, a roughneck working to build 
  civilization in space, or a hard-nosed private investigator 
  who makes their living dealing with the worst society has 
  to offer. You may even be a criminal trying to cheat the sys-
  tem, or a veteran working hard to forget the war you fought 
  in just a few years ago. 
  However, while you’ve been working to get by in your 
  daily life, forces beyond your control or awareness make 
  moves that threaten everything you know and care about. 
  Everyone has an agenda in the biggest city in the worlds, 
  and being too small to register to most of the powerful 
  movers and shakers makes it that much easier for them to 
  crush you if you get in their way. 
  Maybe your block got slated for demolition to make room 
  for a new arcology. Perhaps some unethical middle man-
  ager decided to turn your low-income clinic into a testing 
  ground for a new weaponized contagion. A couple of local 
  gangs could have gone to war in your neighborhood, and 
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  now you’re caught in the crossfire. Or maybe an escaped 
  android came banging on your condo-hab’s door in the 
  middle of the night looking for safety, forcing you to take 
  sides in the ongoing argument over what qualifies a being 
  as “human.” 
  Whatever the situation, your simple life has suddenly 
  become a lot more exciting—and dangerous! Forget trying 
  to defeat your foes—when your “enemy” might be a city-
  wide criminal enterprise, megacorporation, or even the 
  government, beating your opponent may not be an option. 
  Instead, you’re going to have to use everything you know 
  (and learn a lot of new tricks) to survive, and to ensure your 
  friends and family survive as well. If you’re really lucky, you 
  may even be able to come out of the situation better off than 
  you started. In the complex and often dangerous world of 
  the future, that counts as a win. 
  So, in this game, you’re going to be making a slightly 
  above-average citizen of the greatest megalopolis on Earth. 
  Once you get caught up in events outside your control, 
  you’re going to have to become a skilled and dangerous 
  opponent of the forces that could destroy you. Success 
  means your survival, and the survival of people you care 
  about. If you’re lucky, you could defeat your immediate 
  adversaries, and even get the organizations behind them to 
  back down and leave you alone. And if you’re really lucky, 
  you might get rich while you do it.
  If that sounds like fun, read on! Next, we’re going to tell 
  you how to build your character.
  CREATING YOUR CHARACTER
  T
  his book is a supplement for the GeneSyS Core 
  Rulebook that lets you play roleplaying games set 
  in the Android universe. More specifically, it lets 
  you play characters living in the metaphorical and literal 
  shadow of the ultimate monument to humanity’s progress 
  and achievement: the Beanstalk. 
  In this chapter, we provide all of the rules and information 
  that, combined with the character creation rules that start on 
  page 32 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook, you’ll need to build 
  a character for this game. To build a character, you’ll follow 
  the steps outlined here (which mirror the steps found in 
  the GeneSyS Core Rulebook), with the addition of 
  choosing whether or not your character owes or is 
  owed any favors. This takes place during Step 6: 
  Determine Motivation and Favors. 
  STEPS FOR CREATING 
  CHARACTERS
  Shadow of the BeanStalk uses the GeneSyS 
  core system, and characters can be created 
  using the GeneSyS Core Rulebook. Pre-
  sented here is an addition to the 
  GeneSyS rules of character 
  generation with a mind toward crafting characters who live 
  in the shadow of the New Angeles Space Elevator.
  The first thing to do when creating a character is to come 
  up with a character concept. This is the idea that will form 
  the foundation of your character and inform all the choices 
  that follow. Having a passing understanding of the world of 
  tomorrow can be useful at this stage, but it is not essential. 
  Character creation can be broken down into seven steps, 
  each one rounding out a different aspect of your character.
  These seven steps are the same steps as in the GeneSyS 
  Core Rulebook. Occasionally, these steps are 
  augmented by the material in Shadow 
  of the BeanStalk (for example, Step 
  2 has new character archetypes to 
  choose from, and Step 6 has your 
  character choose a favor as well as 
  motivations).  
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  STEP 1: DETERMINE BACKGROUND
  So, where does your character come from? Even in New 
  Angeles, everyone comes from somewhere, whether they are 
  a born-and-bred resident, a new hire moved up to Corp HQ, 
  or even fresh out of the vat. Quite often, choosing a back-
  ground helps define the kind of character you want to play: 
  do you fancy delving into the digital wilderness of the Net-
  work, fighting as a heavily augmented cybernetic enforcer, or 
  maybe solving crimes as a hardened detective? These choices 
  will determine whether your character is a high-tech prod-
  uct of the future, a low-born criminal crawling through the 
  shadows cast by the corporations, or something in between: 
  just another soul in the megalopolis caught between the rich 
  and the poor, simply trying to make their way.
  Backgrounds can also be as complex or simple as you 
  like—some players like to write extensive histories for 
  their characters that chart their lives thus far, while others 
  might only know they want to have a really cool cyber-
  netic hand. In either case, the background forms the foun-
  dation upon which your character is built and will guide 
  you through the steps that follow.
  More information on these, as well as a selection of sam-
  ple backgrounds, can be found on page 22.
  STEP 2: SELECT A  
  CHARACTER ARCHETYPE
  Once you have an idea of your character’s background, the next 
  step is deciding their archetype. In Shadow of the Bean-
  Stalk, archetypes cover the diverse range of humanity, from 
  naturals (good old-fashioned human beings), to the g-mods 
  and cyborgs who have embraced the concepts of transhuman-
  ism, to the Loonies, who are some of the first generations of 
  humans born offworld. Then there are true artificials: clones 
  and bioroids. They are creations of humanity, and their status 
  as sentient creatures remains widely disputed.
  The choices of archetypes presented in Shadow of the 
  BeanStalk replace the choices found in the GeneSyS Core 
  Rulebook. The Shadow of the BeanStalk choices and 
  information about them can be found on page 24.
  STEP 3: CHOOSE A CAREER
  With a background concept and archetype still in mind, the 
  next step is to choose a career. There are a number of careers 
  available to characters in Shadow of the BeanStalk, and 
  each one determines the skills a character with that career 
  begins play with. Their career and skills are a character’s 
  key to their role in the group as well as to how they interact 
  with the world through the rule system. However, careers 
  are far from restrictive; within each, there is lots of room 
  to tailor your character to your own background concept. 
  For instance, the Investigator career might encompass an 
  NAPD detective, a corporate spook, a private eye, a nosy vid 
  reporter, or anything else that benefits from the analytical 
  and detection skills offered by the Investigator career.
  The choices of careers presented in Shadow of the 
  BeanStalk replace the choices found in the GeneSyS Core 
  Rulebook. Full information on careers and the skills they 
  provide can be found on page 31.
  STEP 4: INVEST EXPERIENCE POINTS
  With the basic building blocks of your character in place, 
  the next step is to invest experience points. Your charac-
  ter’s archetype determines how many experience points 
  they have to spend. This step allows you to round out your 
  character by increasing characteristics and skills and even 
  picking up a few talents before you start play.
  Information on how to spend starting experience points 
  can be found in page 44 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook. 
  New skills and talents that you can spend these experience 
  points on can be found starting on page 42. 
  STEP 5: DETERMINE  
  DERIVED ATTRIBUTES
  Now that your final character statistics are in place, deter-
  mined by your character’s archetype and career, you can 
  work out their derived attributes. These are wound thresh-
  old, strain threshold, defense, and soak value.
  Information on how to determine these derived attri-
  butes and on how they function in the game can be found 
  on page 45 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook.
  STEP 6: DETERMINE  
  MOTIVATION AND FAVORS
  Perhaps the most important aspect of your character is their 
  Motivation. This is going to help you figure out how your 
  character responds to any given situation, how they deal 
  with dangers and threats, and what drives them to succeed. 
  DON’T I KNOW YOU  
  FROM SOMEWHERE?
  It can be useful if you’re the GM for your group’s 
  characters to have existing relationships before play 
  begins. This gives them a reason to get together—as 
  well as potentially shared goals and allegiances—
  when they might otherwise be inclined to blow each 
  others' heads off. These connections do not need to 
  be deep or binding, but can be as simple as working 
  for the same arm of the NAPD, having the shared 
  patronage of a corporation, or even living on the 
  same floor of an arcology. While the GM can firm 
  these ties up after the characters are more fully 
  formed, it is worth it for the GM to put this idea in the 
  minds of the players at the start so that they can work 
  it into their backstories.
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
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  How Motivations work and lists of Motivations to choose 
  from can be found on page 46 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook. 
  In addition to having Motivations, your character has the 
  chance to owe some favors. Owing favors means that your 
  character will be beholden to some of the factions (or indi-
  viduals within those factions) that are the movers and shakers 
  in New Angeles. Your character may be called on to perform 
  tasks, pay money, or generally do things that may be incon-
  venient, awkward, distasteful, or even dangerous to repay the 
  favor. This may seem like a steep price, but it’s the kind of obli-
  gation that can make for really memorable games. Plus, if your 
  character owes a favor, it means they got something for it ear-
  lier on in their career. In game terms, this means your charac-
  ter gets to start play with additional experience points or gear. 
  You and your GM should work together to determine 
  to what faction (and whom within that faction) your char-
  acter owes a favor. Your GM has the final say, but if you 
  can come up with something that fits into your character's 
  backstory and doesn't interfere with their campaign plans, 
  they should approve it.
  More on favors and the favor economy can be found on pages 
  53 and 80. More on factions can be found on page 53. 
  STEP 7: CHOOSE GEAR, 
  APPEARANCE, AND PERSONALITY
  Lastly, you should round out your character by choosing 
  their gear and determining their appearance and personality. 
  Your character’s appearance and personality are com-
  pletely up to you (although we do have some helpful guide-
  lines on page 51 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook), and they 
  determine how the rest of the group and the worlds see 
  them. Is the character obsessed with the latest fashions, are 
  they clad in garish clothes and accessories, or are they the 
  practical type who believes the only reason to wear a long 
  coat is to conceal a shotgun? Likewise, are they talkative 
  or wisecracking, a strong silent type, or prone to bad jokes 
  in the face of adversity? All these things can help to bring 
  a character to life, and they make a good character all the 
  more memorable.
  We have updated rules for starting gear that replace the 
  rules found in the Core Rulebook. When building a char-
  acter, you start with 1,000 credits to spend on personal gear 
  (see Chapter 2: Weapons and Equipment for more on the 
  types of gear your character can have).
  Your character cannot use these credits to purchase any 
  items that are restricted (have an “(R)” next to the price). 
  Your character may keep any credits you don’t spend. In 
  addition, after you’ve finished purchasing starting gear, roll 
  1d100 (see page 11 in the GeneSyS Core Rulebook). Add the 
  value of the dice roll to any remaining starting funds. This 
  represents “pocket money” that your character has on hand. 
  With these seven steps complete, your character is ready 
  to step into the shadow of the Beanstalk and see what the 
  neon wilderness of New Angeles has in store for them…
  STEP 1: DETERMINE BACKGROUND
  H
  umanity has evolved, caught up in a rush to the 
  stars, augmented by technologies that blur the line 
  between human and machine, and provided for 
  by benevolent gods in the form of the megacorporations. 
  And yet, humans remain largely unchanged since the twen-
  ty-first century, and greed, stupidity, and hatred are just as 
  common now as they were then. Criminals might use the 
  Net to rob their targets, but the crime is no different than if 
  they'd picked a pocket in the street. The police forces that 
  hunt them down can call upon a global network of cam-
  eras and real-time data updates, but still relies on the wits of 
  its detectives to put the pieces together. Likewise, ordinary 
  citizens might dream of becoming sensie stars or of trav-
  eling to Luna to find themselves, but they are still bundles 
  of hopes and ambitions much like they were centuries ago.
  When creating the background for a character in 
  Shadow of the BeanStalk, it can help to choose a pro-
  fession, person, or personality type from our own era as a 
  starting point. You can then merge your character into the 
  Android setting by adding the touch of advanced technol-
  ogies or working them into the changed social and politi-
  cal structures of the future. To help generate ideas for your 
  character’s background, presented below are some of the 
  core aspects of the setting, along with the kinds of charac-
  ters that might gravitate toward those aspects.
  MODERN NEW ANGELINO
  Advanced technologies, from the brainmapping that makes 
  bioroids possible to the genetic manipulation that is at the 
  foundation of cloning, are part of many professions and peo-
  ple in New Angeles. Your character may have been touched 
  by one of these technologies or even be the product of them. 
  If you want your character’s background to have something 
  to do with artificial life, they might be a doctor or scientist 
  who has mastered advances in that area and has an exten-
  sive understanding of bioroids, clones, or the kinds of genetic 
  modifications to humans that have become commonplace. 
  Alternatively, their life might have been affected by the rise 
  of artificial life—maybe clones took their parents’ jobs, con-
  demning their family to poverty, or perhaps a bioroid saved 
  their life during the New Angeles tsunami, forever changing 
  their perspective on what it means to be human. Maybe they 
  even like androids better than humans, because at least they 
  follow rules. You might instead want to play a clone, bioroid, 
  g-mod, or cyborg, having your character’s very existence 
  governed by state-of-the-art technologies.
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  Characters with a background based around 
  high technology are also likely to be in debt 
  to or to work for one of the megacorps or 
  their subsidiaries. The best g-modding and 
  cyberware are not cheap, and both clones 
  and bioroids are the manufactured property 
  of their respective megacorps. As a result, 
  choosing a background related to high tech 
  usually means choosing to be intertwined 
  with the corporate hierarchies that govern the 
  worlds of tomorrow—and whether your char-
  acter works for or against their domination, 
  they are definitely part of the game.
  DISENFRANCISTO
  Disenfrancistos are almost the exact opposite 
  of modern New Angelinos. If your charac-
  ter treads this path, then they have rejected 
  the advances of society and the countless 
  machines that make it possible. Though 
  they might use these devices for their own 
  ends, they are definitely not entrenched in 
  the system. 
  Characters with disenfrancisto backgrounds 
  exist in the shadows and the cracks between areas 
  of societal control, some right under the noses of 
  corporate giants (perhaps by working as off-the-books 
  contractors) or government organizations (by selling illicit 
  data and services to otherwise “reputable” people in the halls 
  of power). Criminals make up the bulk of those with this kind 
  of lifestyle: your character could be anything from a down-
  town gang boss or data pusher to a corporate black-ops agent 
  or street ronin. They could be a member of an active gang 
  like the Manta Kings or New City Jacks, or maybe they work 
  for an orgcrime syndicate like the Katala Brothers on Luna 
  or the Tri-Maf. Alternatively, your character might actively 
  be trying to escape their old life as a criminal. If the NBN 
  sensie stories are to be believed, there are countless hopper 
  thieves with a heart of gold and reformed assassins seeking 
  only redemption.
  Not all disenfrancistos are criminals, however. There 
  are plenty of people who prefer to live off the grid—or 
  who don’t have a choice. In New Angeles, these people 
  are known as “blanks” and “zeros.” Whether by birth, by 
  accident, or at great expense, they are no longer part of 
  the system. The reasons for this are varied: some just fall 
  between the cracks, while poverty makes the choice for 
  others. Usually, however, a person becomes a disenfrancisto 
  deliberately, either due to distrust of the corporate agenda 
  or because they are actively fleeing something. Such char-
  acters can include those blacklisted by corporations, sur-
  vivalists, rogue clones, escaped bioroids, and even radical 
  operatives and revolutionaries.
  VETERAN OF THE 
  WORLDS WAR
  The Worlds War was one of the most defining historical 
  points in the history of New Angeles, and since hostili-
  ties ended just over a decade ago, it can be worth con-
  sidering how the War affected your character. While 
  most New Angelinos never directly participated in the 
  fighting, there are plenty of war vets living in the city. 
  Some still serve, some have transitioned to law enforce-
  ment or security, and many have moved on with their 
  lives. Your character could be one of these veterans, or 
  be involved with them. 
  Of course, most Loonies had a much more up close and 
  personal experience with the War. If you want to play 
  a Loonie (one of the archetypes available in Step 2) you 
  should think about whether your character was involved 
  in the fighting, how they feel about the cause of Lunar 
  independence, and whether they still have strong feel-
  ings about the War today. 
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  TRYING TO GET BY IN  
  THE (REALLY) BIG CITY
  Even in the future, there are cops who patrol and protect 
  the neighborhoods where they grew up, community leaders 
  who do their best to keep kids off the street, and easygo-
  ing bodega owners who have a friendly quip for every cus-
  tomer who comes in their store. There are also people who 
  resemble twenty-first-century characters, but with a twist. 
  Construction workers may still be burly, rough-and-tumble 
  individuals who spend their days building and their nights 
  drinking at dive bars. However, what they’re building may 
  be a new space station, and that dive bar may be located 
  at the far end of a played-out mining tunnel in the Chal-
  lenger Planetoid. Likewise, a courier may still make their 
  living delivering high-value messages from place to place. 
  However, they could make their deliveries on a hopperbike, 
  weaving through the three-dimensional, high-speed maze 
  that is New Angeles traffic. 
  To create these kinds of backgrounds, simply consider 
  what kind of real-world character appeals to you. Do they 
  come from money? Then maybe they are a ristie (one of the 
  rich and powerful) or have serious corporate connections, 
  or perhaps they are a relic from some old Earth family that 
  had ties to the aristocracies of centuries past. 
  Are they a stranger to their city, coming from far away? 
  Maybe your character grew up on Mars or Luna, or in San-
  San or BosWash, and has come to New Angeles for a fresh 
  start. Does the real-world character you’re thinking about 
  have a vocation that fits into the world of tomorrow? If they 
  are a broker, maybe in the Android setting they import 
  helium-3 from Luna, or if they are a struggling actor, maybe 
  they are trying to break into the world of NBN sensies and 
  threedee dramas.
  Little aspects of the setting might also suggest back-
  ground ideas. For instance, on Luna, Wyldside is a noted 
  hangout for people who have used genetic modifications 
  to give themselves animalistic characteristics, such as 
  fangs, claws, cat’s eyes and ears, scales, or tails. This piece 
  of the world might lead you to make your character a 
  g-modded entertainer, or maybe a plastician trained in 
  the creation of these modifications—as much an art form 
  as a medical science. 
  Once you’ve chosen one of these character types, you can 
  consider how this makes your character perceive the world. 
  Did they become involved in g-modding to stand out and be 
  noticed among the teeming masses of humanity? Or did they 
  do it because they felt they fit in among the “wylder” subcul-
  ture, which embraces this type of cosmetic g-modding? 
  STEP 2: SELECT A  
  CHARACTER ARCHETYPE
  A
  rchetypes define who your character is physically, 
  and they also define a lot more of their background. 
  Keep in mind that your character is only ever going 
  to have one archetype. You won’t be able to switch your 
  character’s archetype once you’ve started  playing.
  When choosing an archetype, you should consider how 
  it will work with your character’s background. Clones and 
  bioroids have programmed or conditioned ethics instruc-
  tions that make them less likely to be criminals, for example 
  (but this also makes a clone or bioroid criminal that much 
  more of an interesting aberration if you want to make that 
  kind of character). 
  Each archetype comes with its own set of advantages 
  and disadvantages, both from a rules point of view and a 
  roleplaying one. Some of the most interesting groups and 
  adventures might include a mix of archetypes. After all, if a 
  couple of naturals are working alongside a clone or bioroid, 
  they may have to reconsider any preconceived notions they 
  have about what it means to be human.
  WHEN IS A NATURAL 
  NOT A NATURAL?
  Naturals and Loonies can also get cybernetics and 
  genetic modifications; these are not just reserved for 
  cyborgs and g-mods. However, does adding cybernet-
  ics or g-mods to your natural character suddenly cause 
  them to become a new archetype? In terms of game 
  mechanics, no. 
  Cyborgs and g-mods have the unique advantage of 
  being used to these items and even start with them, 
  which, along with their different starting characteris-
  tics, makes them irrevocably different from natural 
  characters. A natural character will never gain those 
  abilities, no matter how many cybernetics they install. 
  Nevertheless, narratively, that distinction is up to you 
  and your group. What makes someone human is a core 
  question in this setting, and one way to explore that is 
  to make a character who gradually ventures further and 
  further from the “traditional” definition of humanity. 
  Chapter 1: Character Creation
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  NATURAL
  Most humans in New Angeles are pretty normal—at least 
  from a biological point of view. While bioroids and clones 
  work in all levels of industry, the first generations of peo-
  ple born on other worlds have grown up and had kids of 
  their own, and though science allows people to rebuild 
  their bodies as they see fit, “naturals” still make up the 
  vast majority of humanity. At their core, naturals resem-
  ble their ancestors going back a few thousand years, even 
  if they do carry a PAD, have a fit-chip implant, or sport a 
  biolumin tattoo. The wealthiest naturals may benefit from 
  some minor genetic modifications that weed out hereditary 
  diseases, but most naturals have the same genetic baseline 
  template as their grandparents and great-grandparents.
  Of course, despite these commonalities, most natu-
  rals vary wildly from one another. Naturals hail from 
  every nation and locale on Earth, from the cosmopolitan 
  streets of Kampala and the inland wilds of Australia to the 
  low-income housing projects of Esmeraldas and the under-
  city alleys of Base de Cayambe in New Angeles. Naturals 
  are part of every creed, country, and ethnicity on Earth, and 
  just about any natural may have come seeking their fortune 
  on the streets of New Angeles. 
  WHY PLAY A NATURAL? 
  Naturals can take to any career and background well, and 
  they fit almost anywhere into the Shadow of the Bean-
  Stalk setting. They start with a balanced set of statistics, 
  not being overly strong in any one area, but not being 
  weak in any, either. Naturals also start with more skills 
  and experience than other archetypes, meaning that 
  they give you the most flexibility and customization 
  options when building your character. 
  In Shadow of the BeanStalk, naturals are 
  the most common (and accepted) type of per-
  son in New Angeles. In every respect, they are 
  the “average person” of the setting, who can get 
  along with almost everyone and be accepted 
  in most places without a second glance. If 
  you like the idea of playing an ordinary 
  person who has to rise to extraordinary 
  heights over the course of a game, a 
  natural is the right choice for you. 
  ARCHETYPE ABILITIES
  • Starting Wound Threshold:  
  10+Brawn
  • Starting Strain Threshold:  
  10+Willpower
  • Starting Experience: 120
  • Starting Skills: A natural starts with one rank in each 
  of two different non-career skills at character creation. 
  They obtain this rank before spending experience 
  points, and these skills may not be increased higher 
  than rank 2 during character creation.
  • Ready for Anything: Once per session as an out-of-
  turn incidental, you may move one Story Point from 
  the Game Master’s pool to the players' pool. 
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  BIOROID
  Bioroids are fully artificial creations, with all the attendant 
  benefits and disadvantages. Their strength and durability 
  are second to none, and bioroids also don’t sleep, eat, or 
  breathe, allowing them to go places and undertake tasks 
  normal humans and even clones cannot. On the other 
  hand, bioroids are not viewed as people, but rather prop-
  erty. Likewise, bioroids find it difficult to become accepted 
  in some places, their artificial appearance conjuring fear or 
  hatred in certain groups.
  All bioroids follow 
  directives, such as not 
  to harm humans and 
  not to allow humans 
  to be harmed 
  through their 
  inaction, that are hardwired into them during their cre-
  ation. Rumors persist, however, of bioroids that have some-
  how broken their programming or evolved beyond it. If 
  you play a bioroid, you need to decide whether they are 
  still beholden to their directives. It could be that some inci-
  dent caused them to become more aware of their sentience 
  and now they rationalize their actions in an almost human 
  way. Alternatively, a bioroid can be factory fresh and need 
  to navigate the tricky moral world of obeying their owner’s 
  commands while also following their hardwired directives.
  WHY PLAY A BIOROID? 
  Being a machine has many advantages, from strength and 
  endurance to being able to survive in space and underwa-
  ter. Bioroids are stronger than most other archetypes and 
  cannot die in the same way a human or a clone does. The 
  downside is that they are beholden to their programming, 
  and while they are able to learn on their own, they filter 
  their experiences from the perspective of a created being.
  In New Angeles, bioroids are a commodity, and that’s 
  how your character will be viewed by the general popula-
  tion. Many people see bioroids as “things,” or sometimes 
  “things that stole my job.” Thus, many people see little dif-
  ference between mistreating or damaging a bioroid and 
  damaging a hopper. This viewpoint isn’t universal, but it 
  is widespread. What’s more, a bioroid doesn't have any of 
  the rights people take for granted. An emancipated bioroid 
  either pretends to belong to an owner, or lives in the under-
  city where they can stay out of the public eye.
  If you like the idea of playing a robot struggling to under-
  stand their place in the world, a powerful companion and 
  ally, or a liberator fighting against the injustice they see in 
  society, a bioroid is the right choice for you.
  ARCHETYPE ABILITIES
  • Starting Wound Threshold: 11+Brawn
  • Starting Strain Threshold: 8+Willpower
  • Starting Experience: 170
  • Special Abilities: Bioroids do not need to eat, sleep, or 
  breathe, and they are unaffected by toxins and poisons. 
  They do not reduce their strain threshold when they 
  receive cybernetics (cybernetics represent upgraded 
  mechanical components instead of true cybernetics). 
  • Inorganic: Since bioroids are inorganic, they do not 
  gain the benefits of healing wounds with slap patches 
  (painkillers) or a Medicine check. Bioroids can heal 
  wounds and strain naturally by resting, as their systems 
  attempt self-repairs. Bioroids can also be “healed” by 
  using the Mechanics skill instead of the Medicine skill, 
  but otherwise following the rules in the Medical Care 
  section on page 116 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook. 
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  CLONE
  With their pleasing appearance and functional biology, 
  clones fill the roles that in ages past were populated by 
  slaves, migrants, and second-class citizens, without any of 
  the moral implications that come from subjecting humans 
  to such a place in society. 
  There are numerous clone lines, each created for a spe-
  cific purpose. These include the Henry line of diligent and 
  durable workers, the Molloy line of skilled cooks and clean-
  ers, the Tenma line of fearless pilots, and the Desai line 
  of patient and intelligent tutors. There are even specialist 
  clone lines created for research 
  or other, stranger purposes. 
  Clones are kept in check 
  and docile through the use of 
  neural conditioning. While 
  a clone is as intelligent as 
  a natural-born human (and often more), their conditioning 
  ensures that their mind only works a certain way and they 
  can only consider certain responses. If you choose to play a 
  clone, you should decide how restricted your character is by 
  their neural conditioning, and to what extent it guides their 
  actions. On the surface, it might make them peaceable and 
  compliant, not unlike a naive child when faced with conflict, 
  while underneath they might struggle with strange and dark 
  emotions. Some clones may have even broken free of their 
  conditioning, learning through their acts that certain things 
  they thought impossible are completely within their power; 
  such characters can either be wondrous souls discovering the 
  world or dangerous beings without a shred of empathy.
  WHY PLAY A CLONE? 
  In many ways, clones are just like ordinary people, albeit in 
  perfect health and trained to do a single task with unerring 
  precision. To be a clone is to be one copy out of a hundred 
  thousand copies, part of a siblinghood of perfectly identical 
  “yous.” More humanlike and personable than bioroids, clones 
  come preprogrammed with a set of skills, imprinted upon 
  them during their maturation. This makes clones amazing at 
  their chosen profession; they were literally made for it.
  In New Angeles, clones (like bioroids) are a commodity, 
  and that’s how your character will be viewed by the gen-
  eral population. Clones are owned, and they are treated the 
  same way people would treat an appliance or pet. However, 
  clones have one advantage other androids do not; because 
  a clone is still genetically human, emancipated clones can 
  pass as people. These clones tend to prefer garish or flashy 
  clothing, bold haircuts, and tattoos and piercings: anything 
  to make them look as unlike their thousands of sib-
  lings as possible. If you like the idea of playing a 
  liberated rebel hiding in plain sight, an intelligent 
  but naive person experiencing the world for the first 
  time, or someone who sees themself as an improvement 
  over “normal” people, a clone is the right choice for you.
  ARCHETYPE ABILITIES
  • Starting Wound Threshold: 9+Brawn
  • Starting Strain Threshold: 9+Willpower
  • Starting Experience: 85
  • Starting Skills: A clone starts with two ranks in each 
  of two different skills at character creation. They obtain 
  these ranks before spending experience points, and 
  these skills may not be increased higher than rank 2 
  during character creation.
  • Underestimated: When making an opposed check, 
  clones add 󲊴 to the results. 
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  CYBORG
  The first cyborgs appeared in the late twentieth century, as 
  artificial hearts and electronic, motorized prosthetic limbs 
  began to restore and repair damaged human bodies. How-
  ever these protocybernetics served only medical functions, 
  replacing their damaged or missing organic counterparts. 
  All this started to change decades ago, when companies 
  began to develop cybernetics that could enhance, not just 
  restore, a body’s functionality. Just as these technologies 
  were starting to appear, the Lunar 
  Insurrection began. 
  Many of the people we 
  think of today as cyborgs 
  were soldiers. Lured by 
  the promise of higher pay 
  and free augmentations, 
  many enlistees volun-
  teered for cybernetic 
  “upgrades” that made them more lethal warriors. When 
  the War ended and these specialized combatants mustered 
  out, many found themselves unable to fit into the peace-
  time world. Many took on jobs as corporate security, joined 
  prisec outfits, or even fell in with orgcrime. 
  Since the War, the popularity of cybernetic enhance-
  ments has spiked. The new generation of implants can 
  improve an individual mentally as well as physically, and 
  plenty of people are willing to spend some credits and go 
  under the knife to become “better” than what they were. 
  WHY PLAY A CYBORG? 
  Because metal and meat is better than meat alone. Cyborgs 
  are among the strongest of all the archetypes physically, 
  and they start with a high wound threshold. More impor-
  tantly, while any character can receive cybernetic implants, 
  a cyborg represents someone who is particularly well 
  adapted (both psychologically and physiologically) to hav-
  ing their body rebuilt with mechanical parts.  
  Cyborgs are strong, tough, and generally dangerous, even 
  if they aren’t necessarily very social. If you play a cyborg, 
  your character’s cybernetics may 
  color people’s perceptions of them; 
  many people assume a cyborg is 
  a war veteran or a violent indi-
  vidual. Seeing noticeable cyber-
  netics can be off-putting for some. 
  However, that stigma is fading fast 
  in New Angeles. If you like the idea of 
  playing a veteran soldier, a mercenary 
  warrior, or someone who wants to be 
  more machine than human, a cyborg is 
  the right choice for you. 
  ARCHETYPE ABILITIES
  • Starting Wound Threshold: 11+Brawn
  • Starting Strain Threshold: 8+Willpower
  • Starting Experience: 100
  • Starting Skills: A cyborg starts with one rank in 
  Mechanics. They obtain this rank before spending 
  experience points, and this skill may not be increased 
  higher than rank 2 during character creation.
  • Adjusted to Cybernetics: Once per session as an out-of-
  turn incidental, you may spend a Story Point to have your 
  character heal strain equal to their number of cybernetics.
  • Cyborg: Your character begins play with one cybernetic 
  (see page 104) that costs a total of 1,000 credits or less. 
  They do not need to make any check to install this cyber-
  netic, and they do not decrease their strain threshold 
  because of this cybernetic (but will decrease their strain 
  threshold as normal if they get any future cybernetics).
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  G-MOD
  If cyborgs are a melding of person and machine, then 
  g-mods are the complete changing of that person into 
  something new. While some individuals may have their 
  genes subtly altered, g-mods modify their DNA in pro-
  found and radical ways, changing their appearance, their 
  intellect, and sometimes the core functions of their bod-
  ies. To date, g-modding is the closest humankind has come 
  to true transhumanism, with some arguing that the most 
  modified g-mods are no longer entirely Homo sapiens. 
  Most g-mods look entirely human, choosing to boost 
  their physique, immune system, muscle strength, reflexes, 
  life span, and intellect. Other g-mods adopt cosmetic 
  changes like blue skin or cat irises, feathers, fangs, claws, or 
  prehensile tails. Animalistic characteristics tend 
  to be popular among a subset of g-mods called 
  “wylders,” but only the most extreme come 
  across as anything but “mostly human.” 
  WHY PLAY A G-MOD? 
  G-mods embrace the notion that human-
  ity is merely a concept, and that with 
  applied science, a person really can be 
  whatever they want to be. When playing a 
  g-mod, you can choose any appearance you 
  want for your character, borrowing features 
  from animals, Netcast characters, or anything 
  else. G-mods are also among the smartest of all 
  the archetypes, intelligence being commonly 
  boosted by in utero modifications.  
  G-mods tend to be seen by the public in two 
  different lights, depending on their modifications. 
  Those g-mods who prefer subtle enhancements 
  tend to come across as “better” people, and most 
  love and envy them in equal measure. However, 
  the more “improved” a person is, the more they 
  can inspire a sense of unease in others. Further, 
  the “wylders,” who go for animalistic, outlandish, or 
  shocking g-mods tend to be treated with fear and revulsion. 
  If you like the idea of playing an intelligent and charismatic 
  charmer, a super-strong bodybuilder, or an undercity punk 
  with wolf eyes and fangs, a g-mod is the right choice for you.
  ARCHETYPE ABILITIES
  • Starting Wound Threshold: 11+Brawn
  • Starting Strain Threshold: 11+Willpower
  • Starting Experience: 90
  • Starting Skills: A g-mod starts with one rank in Resil-
  ience. They obtain this rank before spending experi-
  ence points, and this skill may not be increased higher 
  than rank 2 during character creation. 
  • Enhanced Genetic Modifications: Once per ses-
  sion when your character uses one of their g-mods to 
  modify a check, you may spend a Story Point to add 
  󲊳 equal to your character’s ranks in Resilience to the 
  results (in addition to any other affects the g-mod has). 
  • G-Mod: Your character begins play with one g-mod 
  (see page 106) that costs a total of 1,000 credits or 
  less. They do not need to make any check to assimilate 
  this g-mod.
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  LOONIE
  Those born on the Moon consider themselves a people 
  apart—and why not? They are, after all, members of the 
  first generations that have grown up free from the loving 
  embrace of planet Earth. More than just having a natural 
  affinity for low gravity, slightly longer limbs, and less mus-
  cle and bone density, Loonies are different because they no 
  longer see Earth as home. This has fostered a fierce inde-
  pendent streak in most Loonies, many of whom see them-
  selves as a minority in the thrall of Earth-bound megacorps 
  or far-off governments. A particular sticking 
  point is that Heinlein, the largest settlement 
  on Luna, is simply the twelfth district of 
  New Angeles, a city almost four hundred 
  thousand kilometers away. It is sentiments 
  like this that sparked the Worlds War, and 
  though Earth might consider it part of the 
  past, many Loonies have long memories.
  Growing up on the Moon teaches Loonies 
  self-reliance in a way no place on Earth could. 
  When you can’t even take the air you breathe or 
  the shielding that protects you from lethal radi-
  ation for granted, you learn pretty quickly to 
  be aware of everything in the environment 
  around you. Almost every Loonie has a 
  tale about a time when the scrubbers 
  went out in their dome or when they 
  were doing a Luna walk, their suit 
  tore, and they had to stumble home 
  watching the O2 meter tick down. 
  WHY PLAY A LOONIE? 
  Loonies are the most agile of all the arche-
  types, and they make exceptional pilots and drivers. Their 
  instincts for speed and spatial awareness are second to 
  none. While they may not be as strong or tough as other 
  characters, they have excellent coordination and reflexes, 
  and they are just as smart and personable as anyone else.
  In New Angeles, Loonies are survivalists and outsid-
  ers. They are just strange enough that they will probably 
  never fully fit in anywhere outside the domes and tunnels 
  of Heinlein and the rest of Luna. In the megalopolis, they 
  often lend their talents to those who are outlawed or in 
  subcultures on the fringe of society, because chances are 
  those subcultures have found a haven somewhere on the 
  Moon. If you want to play an incredibly agile pilot, a rev-
  olutionary hell-bent on freeing their home from imperi-
  alist oppression, or a grizzled spacer at home above Earth’s 
  atmosphere, a Loonie is the right choice for you.
  ARCHETYPE ABILITIES
  • Starting Wound Threshold: 9+Brawn
  • Starting Strain Threshold: 11+Willpower
  • Starting Experience: 100
  • Starting Skills: A Loonie starts with one rank in 
  Coordination. They obtain this rank before spending 
  experience points, and this skill may not be increased 
  higher than rank 2 during character creation.
  • Zero-G Adept: A Loonie does not count zero-gravity 
  environments as difficult terrain. 
  • Resourceful: Once per session after making a skill 
  check, you may spend a Story Point to have your char-
  acter reroll up 
  to two dice in 
  the pool.  
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  STEP 3: CHOOSE A CAREER
  S
  hadow of the BeanStalk uses its own unique 
  careers, which replace the careers found in the 
  GeneSyS Core Rulebook. These careers still function 
  in the same way as the ones in GeneSyS, each providing a set 
  of eight career skills that your character can spend experi-
  ence points on to improve. More on careers and career skills 
  can be found on page 40 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook. 
  There are ten careers to choose from: Academic, Bounty 
  Hunter, Con Artist, Courier, Investigator, Ristie, Rough-
  neck, Runner, Soldier, and Tech. Before choosing a career, 
  you should consider the skills they offer and the kind of 
  character you want to play. Each career is quite flexible in 
  the options it provides, so not all combat characters need 
  to choose the Soldier career, and likewise not all social-fo-
  cused characters need be Con Artists or Risties. However, 
  careers do make it easier for you to focus your character 
  on a specific skill set, so the choice you make is important. 
  CAREERS IN PLAY
  At its heart, a career defines what your character does (just 
  like an archetype defines who your character is). However, 
  these careers are deliberately vague so that you have some 
  additional flexibility in defining your character. 
  For example, just because your character is a Soldier, 
  doesn't mean they're a member of the military. They could 
  also be a discharged veteran of the Worlds War, a security 
  guard, part of a prisec mercenary outfit, or even an orgcrime 
  enforcer. Likewise, while a Con Artist may be a criminal, 
  they could also be an undercover police officer or a corpo-
  rate spy. Feel free to use your imagination and use careers as 
  a starting point when defining your character, not a limiter. 
  USEFUL TALENTS FOR CAREERS
  GeneSyS's open character creation system allows you to give 
  your character any skills or talents. However, each career 
  includes a sidebar with suggestions for tal-
  ents that may be particularly 
  appropriate or useful. 
  BUT I WANT TO PLAY 
  SOMETHING ELSE!
  We designed these careers to provide a wide variety 
  of character types with a diverse array of career skills. 
  While we hope that these suit most players’ concepts 
  for their characters, we realize you might have an idea 
  in mind that doesn’t fit any of these careers exactly. 
  Luckily, the career is one of the most flexible elements 
  of character creation. If your GM is fine with it, you 
  can make your own career. Simply choose eight skills 
  to be career skills for your character, and write up a 
  short description explaining what your new career is 
  all about. 
  Just keep in mind when you create your career that 
  when we make a career, we try to make sure that it has 
  a diverse spread of skills. This is less about game bal-
  ance, and more because we want to make sure play-
  ers don’t end up feeling like their characters can only 
  participate in one particular facet of the game. You 
  should try to do the same thing with your new career! 
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  USEFUL TALENTS
  Here are a few suggestions for talents that may be espe-
  cially appropriate for "typical" Academic characters. 
  • Tier 1: Former Professor (page 45).  
  • Tier 1: Proper Upbringing (GeneSyS Core 
  Rulebook, page 74). 
  • Tier 1: Surgeon (GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book, page 74).
  • Tier 2: Inspiring Rhetoric (GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book, page 76).
  • Tier 2: Probing Question (page 49).
  • Tier 3: Applied Research (page 49).
  ACADEMIC
  Academics include doctors, scientists, and scholars of all 
  kinds. These characters are masters of the advanced theo-
  ries, scientific disciplines, and philosophies of the future, 
  their research and work adding to humanity’s fantastic 
  progress and achievements. Academics are almost always 
  highly specialized and much sought after. Whether they are 
  privy to the secrets of braintaping or understand the matu-
  ration of clones, they have devoted their life to a single field 
  of modern thinking or technology. 
  Academics can come in many forms, regardless of the 
  discipline they pursue. One 
  could be a Jinteki embryo 
  development technician, 
  able to work on human 
  and clone bodies with equal skill while recog-
  nizing the baseline building blocks of their genes 
  simply by looking at their eyes, hair, and skin. 
  Another might hail from one of the Luna Univer-
  sities with a master’s degree in applied AI theory, or 
  they might simply be a street doc, working to keep 
  the rain off their back.
  An Academic counts the following skills as career 
  skills: Discipline, Knowledge (Science), Knowledge 
  (Society), Knowledge (The Net), Leadership, Medicine, 
  Melee, and Negotiation. Before spending experience 
  during character creation, an Academic may choose four of 
  their career skills and gain one rank in each of them.
  Starting Gear: If you have an Academic character, you 
  may choose to start with the following gear instead of 
  spending credits during Step 7 of character creation:
  • A stun gun or a monoblade
  • Concealed buckyweave or durable clothing and a PAD
  • An emergency medkit or smartspecs
  • 2 slap-patches and a portable comlink
  • 100+1d100 credits
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  USEFUL TALENTS
  Here are a few suggestions for talents that may be 
  especially appropriate for "typical" Bounty Hunter 
  characters. 
  • Tier 1: Durable (GeneSyS Core Rulebook, 
  page 73). 
  • Tier 1: Hamstring Shot (GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book, page 73).
  • Tier 1: Street Fighter (page 45).  
  • Tier 2: Special Use Permit (page 49).
  • Tier 2: Undercity Contacts (page 49).
  • Tier 3: Takedown (page 51).
  BOUNTY HUNTER
  In a megalopolis of half a billion people or more, Bounty 
  Hunters excel in finding the ones that don’t want to be 
  found. Trained in various forms of conflict resolution, a 
  Bounty Hunter seldom lets anyone stand in their way once 
  they have taken a job, and if it means getting their mark, 
  they are not above making a mess or breaking the occa-
  sional law. Bounty Hunters differ from more subtle kinds 
  of investigators or agents in that they often expect trouble, 
  and their training reflects this. They tend to pack more fire-
  power and armor than other characters, and they usually 
  stem from a more combat-oriented background. 
  While most Bounty Hunters are heavy-handed street sol-
  diers with a knack for finding people, they can vary consid-
  erably depending on where they come from and who they 
  work for. Some are ex-cops; bound by a sense of honor and 
  a respect for the law, they know just how hard the NAPD 
  has it and try to work with them as much as possible. Oth-
  ers are on an orgcrime payroll, private contractors only in 
  name who take their orders from the shadows and think 
  little of looking the other way. Then there are the true free 
  agents, the ones in it for the creds, the thrill, or the fame. 
  A Bounty Hunter counts the following skills as career 
  skills: Brawl, Coercion, Discipline, Driving, Melee, 
  Ranged (Heavy), Resilience, and Streetwise. Before 
  spending experience during character creation, a Bounty 
  Hunter may choose four of their career skills and gain one 
  rank in each of them.
  Starting Gear: If you have a Bounty Hunter character, 
  you may choose to start with the following gear instead of 
  spending credits during Step 7 of character creation:
  • Bullpup carbine or a stun baton, 2 glop grenades, and 
  light body armor
  • Brass knuckles or 
  2 slap patches
  • 3 snap locks and 
  a utility belt
  • 1d100 credits
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  USEFUL TALENTS
  Here are a few suggestions for talents that may be espe-
  cially appropriate for "typical" Con Artist characters. 
  • Tier 1: Clever Retort (GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book, page 73). 
  • Tier 1: Customer Service Experience (page 45).
  • Tier 1: Tri-Maf Contact (page 45).  
  • Tier 2: Counteroffer (GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book, page 75).
  • Tier 2: Probing Question (page 49).
  • Tier 3: You Owe Me One (page 51).
  CON ARTIST
  While some criminals favor force to get what they want, 
  the Con Artist is a master of manipulation. In the presence 
  of so many technological safeguards, the Con Artist knows 
  that the weakest part of any defense is the human element: 
  something they excel at exploiting. Almost every street in 
  New Angeles has holoscreens or vidscreens trying to sell 
  you something, and from the Con Artist’s point of view, the 
  lies told by the corporations and the products they push 
  are no different than winning someone’s trust and fleecing 
  them the old-fashioned way.
  A lot of things in New Angeles can’t be taken with force 
  or firepower, and this is where the Con Artist comes into 
  their own. A runner-proof building or an impenetrable vault 
  might defeat the latest tech or largest guns, but find the right 
  person and convince them to show you the way, and you can 
  walk right in the door. And should the job go sideways, Con 
  Artists are also masters of making a quick exit, often while 
  their former “comrades” are still wondering 
  just what went wrong! Con Artists come in 
  many different guises, from out-and-out 
  street criminals who long ago learned to live 
  off their wits, to savvy lawyers who understand 
  everything is negotiable, to digital black marke-
  teers who reskin old software or create knock-
  offs of the latest high-end PADs.
  A Con Artist counts the following skills 
  as career skills: Charm, Coordination, 
  Deception, Melee, Negotiation, Ranged 
  (Light), Skulduggery, and Stealth. Before 
  spending experience during character cre-
  ation, a Con Artist may choose four of their 
  career skills and gain one rank in each of them.
  Starting Gear: If you have a Con Artist character, you 
  may choose to start with the following gear instead of 
  spending credits during Step 7 of character creation:
  • A fletcher pistol or a monoblade and 3 stun grenades
  • Concealed buckyweave or a disguise kit and lockpick set 
  • 2 slap-patches or one dose of sting
  • A personal comlink and 2 happy patches
  • 1d100 credits
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  USEFUL TALENTS
  Here are a few suggestions for talents that may be 
  especially appropriate for "typical" Courier characters. 
  • Tier 1: Hand on the Throttle (page 45). 
  • Tier 1: Jump Up (GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book, page 73).
  • Tier 1: Knockout Punch (page 45).  
  • Tier 2: Daring Aviator (GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book, page 75).
  • Tier 2: Parkour! (page 49).
  • Tier 3: Nimble (page 50).
  COURIER
  Corporations and organizations in New Angeles often deal 
  in powerful secrets or cutting-edge tech, and sometimes 
  only the most trusted individuals can be relied upon to get 
  related confidential items and correspondence where they 
  need to be. Couriers are these skilled individuals. They live 
  by their reputation and possess a host of skills for dealing 
  with whatever might stand in their way. A good Courier is a 
  born survivalist, equally able to fight, talk, or run their way 
  out of most situations. Sometimes, this might mean getting 
  a hard copy of a sensitive data download down a hundred 
  floors of the Talamire Arcology 
  before local security realizes it’s 
  been stolen; at other times, 
  it might mean a run from 
  Broadcast Square all the 
  way to the Root.
  A good Courier builds a strong rapport with their pro-
  spective clients, and many work with a list of regulars. 
  These Couriers get repeat business because they prove 
  not only that they’re good at the job, but also that they are 
  trustworthy and discreet. Some Couriers are bonded cor-
  porate servants working for Haas-Bioroid, NBN, or the like 
  and may even be specially programmed bioroids or condi-
  tioned clones. Others are independents who live and die by 
  their rep, never looking at the cargo they transport, only 
  promising to get it there on time. 
  A Courier counts the following skills as career skills: 
  Athletics, Brawl, Charm, Coordination, Driving, Pilot-
  ing, Stealth, and Survival. Before spending experience 
  during character creation, a Courier may choose four of 
  their career skills and gain one rank in each of them.
  Starting Gear: If you have a Courier character, you may 
  choose to start with the following gear instead of spending 
  credits during Step 7 of character creation:
  • A synap pistol and durable clothing or concealed 
  buckyweave and a palm stunner
  • A modular backpack or a cross body bag and load 
  bearing gear
  • A PAD and smartspecs or a monocam, personal 
  comlink, and reader
  • 1d100 credits
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
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  USEFUL TALENTS
  Here are a few suggestions for talents that may be espe-
  cially appropriate for "typical" Investigator characters. 
  • Tier 1: Bought Info (GeneSyS Core Rulebook, 
  page 72). 
  • Tier 1: Quick Draw (GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book, page 72).
  • Tier 1: Years on the Force (page 47).  
  • Tier 2: Bad Cop (page 47).
  • Tier 2: Two-Handed Stance (page 49).
  • Tier 3: Hard-Boiled (page 50).
  INVESTIGATOR
  From NAPD detectives, to hard-boiled private eyes, to cor-
  porate agents and independent profilers, Investigators are 
  masters of getting information. In worlds where people will 
  go to great lengths to hide their crimes from the countless 
  electronic eyes that watch society, sometimes only a per-
  son’s instincts can pick up the trail. Investigation is as much 
  art as it is science, and good Investigators learn to rely upon 
  their gut, knowing when to squeeze someone for infor-
  mation and when finding the truth requires a light touch. 
  Of course, following 
  a trail through the 
  neon wilderness of New Angeles takes more than a keen 
  mind; Investigators are also adept at bending or breaking 
  the rules when they need to and, when all else fails, know 
  how to handle themselves in a fight.
  There are as many kinds of Investigators as there are 
  investigations, and New Angeles is full of secrets waiting 
  to be uncovered—and people willing to pay to find them. 
  Some Investigators work for corps, backed by big money 
  and big resources, while others keep a hole-in-the-wall 
  office below the plaza level and take whatever jobs will pay 
  the rent for one more month. Most Investigators fall some-
  where between these two extremes. An Investigator can be 
  a police detective, a corporate troubleshooter, a municipal 
  inspector, a reporter, or an employee of a foundation dedi-
  cated to transparency in government and corporate affairs, 
  to name a few options. 
  An Investigator counts the following skills as career skills: 
  Coercion, Computers (Hacking), Knowledge (Society), 
  Leadership, Perception, Ranged (Light), Streetwise, and 
  Vigilance. Before spending experience during character 
  creation, an Investigator may choose four of their career 
  skills and gain one rank in each of them.
  Starting Gear: If you have an Investigator character, 
  you may choose to start with the following gear instead of 
  spending credits during Step 7 of character creation:
  • A fletcher pistol or a hand cannon
  • Concealed buckyweave and a light pistol or a forensic kit
  • A personal comlink, 2 slap-patches, and 2 
  doses of stim.
  • 1d100 credits
  Chapter 1: Character Creation
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  USEFUL TALENTS
  Here are a few suggestions for talents that may be 
  especially appropriate for "typical" Ristie characters. 
  • Tier 1: Corporate Drone (page 44).  
  • Tier 1: Know Somebody (GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book, page 73).
  • Tier 1: Proper Upbringing (GeneSyS Core 
  Rulebook, page 74).  
  • Tier 2: Counteroffer (GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book, page 75).
  • Tier 2: Haughty Demeanor (page 48).
  • Tier 3: Laugh it Off (page 50).
  RISTIE
  The offspring of corporate CEOs and their vast families, 
  Risties are the new royalty. Ristie characters can be enti-
  tled dilettantes or driven heirs to the corporate crown, both 
  often very well connected. Whether or not they care about 
  the multibillion-credit corps, hedge funds, and investment 
  banks that support them, Risties live a life few New Ange-
  linos can dream of: sleeping in sprawling arcology pent-
  houses, taking regular trips to the Castle and its nightclubs, 
  having a view from the top, and looking down through 
  the tinted windows of their private hoppers. Even without 
  the creds, simply being a Ristie is a ticket into some of the 
  most exclusive places on Earth and beyond; few bouncers 
  or prisec operatives are willing to strong-arm someone who 
  might be Jack Weyland’s third cousin twice removed.
  Fame and fortune come at a price for the Ristie, however. 
  The same face that can open doors is also hard to forget or 
  ignore. Also, being a member of a corporate dynasty means 
  responsibilities, some of which can come at inopportune 
  moments or put a Ristie at odds 
  with their friends. Of course, 
  not all Risties are so privileged. 
  A Ristie might instead be in exile, fallen 
  from grace, and either be working 
  against their family or trying to win 
  their way back into their good graces. 
  Or they might simply be trying to keep 
  their very famous face out of the feedchannels.
  A Ristie counts the following skills as career 
  skills: Charm, Cool, Deception, Knowledge 
  (Society), Leadership, Negotiation, Percep-
  tion, and Vigilance. Before spending experi-
  ence during character creation, a Ristie may 
  choose four of their career skills and gain 
  one rank in each of them.
  Starting Gear: If you have a Ristie character, you may 
  choose to start with the following gear instead of spending 
  credits during Step 7 of character creation:
  • A laser pistol or a charged crystal katana
  • A personal comlink and one slap-patch
  • 1 dose of Lo-Fi and 4 doses of stims or 2 doses of Sting
  • 200+1d100 credits
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
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  USEFUL TALENTS
  Here are a few suggestions for talents that may be espe-
  cially appropriate for "typical" Roughneck characters. 
  • Tier 1: Durable (GeneSyS Core Rulebook, 
  page 73). 
  • Tier 1: Let's Ride (GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book, page 74).
  • Tier 1: Union Member (page 45).  
  • Tier 2: Big Guns (page 47).
  • Tier 2: Determined Driver (page 48).
  • Tier 3: Hold It Steady (page 50).
  ROUGHNECK
  Roughnecks are pilots and zero-G construction workers 
  who are as adept at guiding huge mining rigs and cargo 
  craft across the vacuum of Luna as they are at fixing a 
  micrometeorite hole in Midway Station. Skilled astronauts, 
  they are as comfortable out in space as they are on Earth, 
  and they are accomplished at dealing with the perils that 
  only space can bring. Most Roughnecks are known for their 
  cool: keeping your head when flying a one-hundred-ton 
  spacecraft or a hopper loaded with mining explosives takes 
  nerves of steel. In New Angeles, a Roughneck might find 
  work with any of the major corps or civilian authorities, as 
  their skills are always in demand.
  However, not all Roughnecks started out as astronauts 
  or orbital construction workers; many learned their trade 
  in other fields. The military has trained plenty of soldiers 
  in zero-G assembly, demolitions, and repairs. Others got 
  their start doing odd jobs on the Challenger Planetoid or 
  Heinlein, picking up vac skills through on-the-job train-
  ing. Finally, many Roughnecks are former He-3 or 
  asteroid miners who lost their jobs to the recent 
  influx of an android labor force, then adapted 
  their specialized skills to keep earning 
  a paycheck. 
  A Roughneck counts the follow-
  ing skills as career skills: Athletics, 
  Gunnery, Mechanics, Operating, 
  Piloting, Ranged (Heavy), Resilience, 
  and Vigilance. Before spending expe-
  rience during character creation, 
  a Roughneck may choose four of 
  their career skills and gain one 
  rank in each of them.
  Starting Gear: If you have a Roughneck character, you 
  may choose to start with the following gear instead of 
  spending credits during Step 7 of character creation:
  • 2 brass knuckles or a sledgehammer
  • A space suit or an environmental hardsuit and a por-
  table toolkit
  • A a hand-held diagnostic scanner or a micro-welder
  • 1d100 credits
  Chapter 1: Character Creation
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  USEFUL TALENTS
  Here are a few suggestions for talents that may be 
  especially appropriate for "typical" Runner characters. 
  • Tier 1: Disenfrancisto (page 45).  
  • Tier 1: Knack for It (GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book, page 73).
  • Tier 1: Net Search (page 45).  
  • Tier 2: Codeslinger (page 48).
  • Tier 2: NetHunter (page 48).
  • Tier 3: Distinctive Style (GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book, page 78).
  RUNNER
  Runners are talented hackers who thrive in the Network. 
  These are the warriors of the virtual world, and though they 
  might appear as ordinary people or androids when they 
  walk the slidewalks of New Angeles, they are giants in their 
  digital environment. To master the programmed world of 
  the Net, defeat its denizens, and overcome its many dangers 
  is no easy feat. For most people, if there is not an appropri-
  ate function on their PAD, then they have no idea how to 
  go out into the virtual world and find something, let alone 
  something that doesn’t want to be found. Good Runners 
  are prizes almost every agency in New Angeles will fight 
  over, for these are the people who hold the keys to the true 
  battlefields of the future and who have the ability to win 
  in the constant digital wars 
  fought 
  between 
  the 
  corporations.
  Runners don’t tend to sell their skills cheaply, however, if 
  they even sell them at all. Runners are motivated by a broad 
  variety of reasons, whether they serve corporate interests, 
  fight against them, or are simply out for themselves. Many 
  Runners are motivated by strong political or moral reasons 
  and want to remake the world—just as they remake the dig-
  ital one they do battle in.
  A Runner counts the following skills as career skills: 
  Computers (Hacking), Computers (Sysops), Cool, 
  Deception, Knowledge (The Net), Perception, Skuldug-
  gery, and Streetwise. Before spending experience during 
  character creation, a Runner may choose four of their 
  career skills and gain one rank in each of them.
  Starting Gear: If you have a Runner character, you may 
  choose to start with the following gear instead of spending 
  credits during Step 7 of character creation:
  • Durable clothing and a palm stunner or a light pistol
  • A PAD with Ice Wall and Battering Ram or a PAD with 
  Garrote and Gordian Blade
  • A personal comlink
  • 1d100 credits
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
  39
    (Order #17879226)
  
  USEFUL TALENTS
  Here are a few suggestions for talents that may be 
  especially appropriate for "typical" Soldier characters. 
  • Tier 1: Quick Draw (GeneSyS Core Rulebook, 
  page 74). 
  • Tier 1: Toughened (GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book, page 75).
  • Tier 1: Worlds War Vet (page 47).  
  • Tier 2: Big Guns (page 47).
  • Tier 2: Tactical Focus (page 49).
  • Tier 3: Suppressing Fire (page 50).
  SOLDIER
  Prisec agents, offworld mercs, Worlds War veterans, and 
  orgcrime heavies all fit the Soldier bill. Even in the future, 
  there is a need for individuals who know their way around 
  a firefight, and when the bullets and energy beams start 
  flying, it pays to have one at your side. Despite the safe-
  guards put in place at the end of the Worlds War, the solar 
  system remains a dangerous place, where boiling tensions 
  can easily turn into open conflict. Most corporations main-
  tain their own private security (prisec) forces: 
  paramilitary organizations that might contain 
  bioroids, clones, cyborgs, or g-modded troops 
  alongside unmodded fighters carrying the lat-
  est hardware money can buy. There are also free 
  companies that operate under license in legally 
  ambiguous areas, like Luna, Mars, or parts 
  of the Ecuadorian state; these mercenar-
  ies promise both firepower and discre-
  tion. Some Soldiers sell their skills far 
  more cheaply, having done their time 
  or choosing to eschew authority. These 
  street warriors and soldiers of fortune 
  might work for orgcrime outfits, weak 
  governments, spoiled risties, or simply 
  whoever is willing to pay their bar tab.
  A Soldier counts the following skills as 
  career skills: Athletics, Coercion, Gunnery, 
  Melee, Ranged (Light), Ranged (Heavy), 
  Resilience, and Survival. Before spending 
  experience during character creation, a Sol-
  dier may choose four of their career skills and 
  gain one rank in each of them.
  Starting Gear: If you have a Soldier character, you may 
  choose to start with the following gear instead of spending 
  credits during Step 7 of character creation:
  • A pistol and light body armor or a bullpup carbine
  • Durable clothing or a utility belt 
  • 2 slap-patches or 1 doses of Sting
  • 1d100 credits
  Chapter 1: Character Creation
  40
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  USEFUL TALENTS
  Here are a few suggestions for talents that may be 
  especially appropriate for "typical" Tech characters. 
  • Tier 1: Deep Pockets (page 45). 
  • Tier 1: Defensive Sysops (GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book, page 73).
  • Tier 1: Resourceful Mechanic (page 45).  
  • Tier 
  2: Inventor (GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book, page 76).
  • Tier 2: Quick Fix (page 49).
  • Tier 3: Bad Habit (page 49).
  TECH
  Techs are engineers and mech-heads who understand the 
  technology of the future like no one else. In an age when 
  most people don’t know how their handheld PADs work, 
  the Tech, like a mechanical sorcerer, can manipulate the 
  worlds around them, coaxing vehicles to life, bringing gen-
  erators back online, or subverting hardened defenses. Techs 
  might not have a Runner’s gift for manipulating the Net-
  work, but they are far more skilled in the real worlds, able 
  to attack many systems from both digital and mechanical 
  sides to get the result they want. Techs also understand a 
  lot of the “black box” tech 
  of the future and 
  are able to rip 
  off a service panel or crack open a console to fix a problem 
  in a more hands-on way.
  Techs come in many shapes and sizes, from filth-covered 
  zero-G grease monkeys who work the Midway docks, to 
  corp support agents running overwatch for prisec teams, to 
  beanpod traffic controllers and chop-shop hopper boost-
  ers. Like all those in New Angeles who actually know how 
  things work, Techs are always in high demand, and few 
  organizations get far without at least one of these mechani-
  cally savvy individuals in their corner.
  A Tech counts the following skills as career skills: Brawl, 
  Computers (Sysops), Knowledge (Science), Knowledge 
  (The Net), Mechanics, Medicine, Operating, and Pilot-
  ing. Before spending experience during character creation, 
  a Tech may choose four of their career skills and gain one 
  rank in each of them.
  Starting Gear: If you have a Tech character, you may 
  choose to start with the following gear instead of spending 
  credits during Step 7 of character creation:
  • A synap pistol or an environmental hardsuit and 
  brass knuckles
  • A modular backpack or a utility belt and 2 emergency 
  repair patches
  • A portable toolkit and las-scanner or a PAD with 
  authenticator
  • 50+1d100 credits
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
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  NEW SKILLS
  T
  his section introduces new skills specific to 
  the Android setting. Table 1–1: Skills for 
  the Android Setting includes both these 
  new skills and the skills from the GeneSyS Core 
  Rulebook that are used in the Android setting.
  KNOWLEDGE SKILLS
  The new skills in this section take the place of the 
  single Knowledge skill presented in the GeneSyS 
  Core Rulebook.
  SCIENCE (INTELLECT)
  Science has made great discoveries, the results of 
  which are all around the citizens of New Angeles. 
  New technologies such as fusion power, clones, 
  bioroids, the space elevator, and the Net have funda-
  mentally changed the lives of ordinary people. And 
  even as society works to perfect these technologies, 
  scientists and researchers continue to search for the 
  next great leap in our understanding of the universe. 
  Knowledge (Science) represents an understanding 
  of the various scientific disciplines, mathematics, 
  and the workings of old and new technologies. This 
  represents a character’s “book smarts” and is the 
  kind of knowledge one would learn in school. 
  YOUR CHARACTER SHOULD USE  
  THIS SKILL IF…
  • Your character is trying to recall the formula for 
  a drug or chemical. 
  • Your character needs to remember the name of 
  a lunar crater. 
  • Your character tries to calculate the correct tra-
  jectory for a spacecraft entering Earth orbit. 
  • Your character needs to know how many people 
  a buckyweave rope can support before breaking. 
  YOUR CHARACTER SHOULD NOT  
  USE THIS SKILL IF…
  • Your character is trying to fix a hydrogen fuel 
  cell. This would require Mechanics. 
  • Your character is trying to fly a spacecraft along 
  a specific trajectory. Your character may use 
  Knowledge (Science) to calculate the course, 
  but they need to use Operating to fly it. 
  • Your character needs to know the specifics of the 
  Fed’s jurisdiction in New Angeles, which would 
  require the Knowledge (Society) skill instead.
  TABLE 1–1: SKILLS FOR THE ANDROID SETTING
  Skill
  Char
  Type
  Source
  Athletics
  Brawn
  General
  Core Rulebook (page 58)
  Brawl
  Brawn
  Combat
  Core Rulebook (page 67)
  Charm
  Presence
  Social
  Core Rulebook (page 54)
  Coercion
  Willpower
  Social
  Core Rulebook (page 55)
  Computers (Hacking)
  Intellect
  General
  Shadow of the BeanStalk
  Computers (Sysops)
  Intellect
  General
  Shadow of the BeanStalk
  Cool
  Presence
  General
  Core Rulebook (page 59)
  Coordination
  Agility
  General
  Core Rulebook (page 59)
  Deception
  Cunning
  Social
  Core Rulebook (page 56)
  Discipline
  Willpower
  General
  Core Rulebook (page 60)
  Driving
  Agility
  General
  Core Rulebook (page 60)
  Gunnery
  Agility
  Combat
  Core Rulebook (page 69)
  Knowledge (Science)
  Intellect
  Knowledge
  Shadow of the BeanStalk
  Knowledge (Society)
  Intellect
  Knowledge
  Shadow of the BeanStalk
  Knowledge (The Net)
  Intellect
  Knowledge
  Shadow of the BeanStalk
  Leadership
  Presence
  Social
  Core Rulebook (page 56)
  Mechanics
  Intellect
  General
  Core Rulebook (page 60)
  Medicine
  Intellect
  General
  Core Rulebook (page 61)
  Melee
  Brawn
  Combat
  Core Rulebook (page 67)
  Negotiation
  Presence
  Social
  Core Rulebook (page 56)
  Operating
  Intellect
  General
  Core Rulebook (page 62)
  Perception
  Cunning
  General
  Core Rulebook (page 62)
  Piloting 
  Agility
  General
  Core Rulebook (page 62)
  Ranged (Heavy)
  Agility
  Combat
  Core Rulebook (page 69)
  Ranged (Light)
  Agility
  Combat
  Core Rulebook (page 68)
  Resilience
  Brawn
  General
  Core Rulebook (page 63)
  Skulduggery
  Cunning
  General
  Core Rulebook (page 64)
  Stealth
  Agility
  General
  Core Rulebook (page 64)
  Streetwise
  Cunning
  General
  Core Rulebook (page 65)
  Survival
  Cunning
  General
  Core Rulebook (page 65)
  Vigilance
  Willpower
  General
  Core Rulebook (page 65)
  Chapter 1: Character Creation
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  SOCIETY (INTELLECT)
  This skill has two distinct aspects that it governs. The first 
  is knowledge about societies in general and how they func-
  tion, which can include economic theory, sociology, law, 
  and the like. The second aspect is information about the 
  society your character lives in, specifically the society of 
  New Angeles. This includes information on who Miranda 
  Rhapsody is and what her greatest hits are, the distinguish-
  ing features of each New Angeles district, the difference 
  between plaza level and the undercity, and how long it takes 
  to get from the Root to the Castle on a beanpod. 
  YOUR CHARACTER SHOULD USE THIS SKILL IF…
  • Your character wants to remember facts about 
  New Angeles. 
  • Your character needs to make an argument in a court 
  of law that’s grounded on a solid legal base. 
  • Your character wants to remember how the average 
  Loonie feels about the NAPD before traveling to Luna. 
  • Your character wants to know if someone is trying to 
  manipulate the stock market by short selling shares in 
  a major company. 
  • Your character is trying to figure out what the most 
  powerful organized crime outfits in New Angeles are.
  YOUR CHARACTER SHOULD NOT  
  USE THIS SKILL IF…
  • Your character needs to find the nearest NAPD sta-
  tion. This would require Streetwise (although knowing 
  information about the NAPD in general would be cov-
  ered by Knowledge [Society]). 
  • Your character needs to know some element of Net-
  work etiquette and habits. They would need Knowl-
  edge (The Net) instead. 
  • Your character wants to know how far a local street 
  gang’s territory reaches. This would be a Street-
  wise check.
  THE NET (INTELLECT)
  These days, the Network has become far more than the inter-
  nets of years past. For all intents and purposes, it is its own 
  world, growing and changing, with its own inhabitants and 
  dangers, all paralleling our own. Being able to understand 
  and navigate the Net is an increasingly valuable skill, as many 
  runners and netsplorers can attest. This skill represents your 
  character’s knowledge about anything Net-related, from 
  information on the dangers of specific pieces of ice, to the 
  location of particular subservers and Shadow Net chatspaces. 
  YOUR CHARACTER SHOULD USE THIS SKILL IF…
  • Your character wants to know which Shadow Net 
  virtual chatspaces they should visit to recruit a reli-
  able runner. 
  • Your character wants to know the dangers of trying to 
  break a piece of ice. 
  • Your character is trying to figure out what real-world 
  corp is hosting a server full of valuable information. 
  • Your character is trying to remember any rumors 
  about so-called “god ice,” “ghost runners,” or other leg-
  ends of the Net.
  YOUR CHARACTER SHOULD NOT 
   USE THIS SKILL IF…
  • Your character is attempting to break through a piece of 
  ice. This is handled by the Computers (Hacking) skill. 
  • Your character is trying to reactivate or repair lines of 
  code in a program. This is handled by the Computers 
  (Sysops) skill.
  • Your character wants to see what they know about cur-
  rent popular culture. Although that information can be 
  found on the Net (in exhausting detail), it still requires 
  a Knowledge (Society) check.
  COMPUTERS SKILLS
  Because working with computers is such a major part of 
  the Android setting, we’ve split the original Computers skill 
  into two separate skills: Hacking and Sysops. The new skills 
  in this section take the place of the single Computers skill 
  presented in the GeneSyS Core Rulebook.
  HACKING (INTELLECT)
  Hacking represents any offensive and destructive uses of the 
  Computers skill presented in the GeneSyS Core Rulebook. 
  It covers any attempts at electronic code breaking, intru-
  sion or, of course, running on servers and breaking ice. Any 
  runner worth the title is going to be good at Hacking. How-
  ever, most characters who spend a decent amount of time 
  working with computers and programming are going to at 
  least be familiar with this skill. 
  YOUR CHARACTER SHOULD USE THIS SKILL IF…
  • Your character is trying to enter a secured server.
  • Your character is shutting down a piece of ice.
  • Your character is trying to open an electronic lock.
  • Your character is trying to destroy a computer program.
  YOUR CHARACTER SHOULD NOT  
  USE THIS SKILL IF…
  • Your character is trying to reactivate a deactivated pro-
  gram. This would require the Computers (Sysops) skill.
  • Your character is trying to open a mechanical lock. 
  Your character needs to use Skulduggery to defeat a 
  mechanical item of that type. 
  • Your character is trying to backtrace someone who has 
  intruded on a server. This also requires the Computers 
  (Sysops) skill.
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  SYSOPS (INTELLECT)
  If Hacking represents offensive or destructive uses of the  
  Computers skill, Sysops represents its defensive and con-
  structive uses. The most prominent use of Sysops is to defend 
  computer systems against runners, viruses, and other intru-
  sions. However, Sysops can also be used to build computer 
  programs, activate and improve ice and other countermea-
  sures, and trace hacking attempts back to their source. While 
  systems operators and administrators get the most use out of 
  this skill, pretty much everyone who works with computers 
  and programming needs at least some understanding of it.
   YOUR CHARACTER SHOULD USE THIS SKILL IF…
  • Your character is trying to backtrace a runner who is 
  trying to hack your server.
  • Your character needs to activate ice or other counter-
  measure programs.
  • Your character is trying to repair a damaged program.
  • Your character is trying to create a new program.
  YOUR CHARACTER SHOULD NOT  
  USE THIS SKILL IF…
  • Your character is trying to deactivate or destroy a pro-
  gram. This would require the Computers (Hacking) skill.
  • Your character wants to remember details about a par-
  ticular server on the Net. They need the Knowledge 
  (The Net) skill for that.
  • Your character is trying to crack an electronic code or 
  encryption. This also requires Computers (Hacking). 
  NEW TALENTS
  T
  his section introduces new talents specific to the 
  Android setting. These talents, along with tal-
  ents from the core rulebook listed in Table 1–2: 
  Genesys Talents for the Android Setting, on page 46, 
  can be used in any game set in Shadow of the BeanStalk. 
  TIER 1
  CORPORATE DRONE
  Tier: 1
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  When you take this talent, your character gains Knowl-
  edge (Society) or Negotiation as a career skill. In addition, 
  once per session, your character may collect a small favor 
  from any other member of a single corporation (chosen 
  when you take this talent), even if they do not owe your 
  character a favor. 
  CUSTOM RIG
  Tier: 1
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: Yes
  When your character selects this talent they choose one 
  computer (such as a rig, PAD, or spinal modem) that they 
  own. The amount of ice or icebreakers (your character's 
  choice) that they can have on that computer is increased 
  by 1 per rank of Custom Rig. (This may be a mix of ice and 
  icebreakers, as long as the combined total increase does not 
  exceed your character's ranks in Custom Rig). If your char-
  acter loses their affected computer, they may choose a new 
  computer to be affected by this talent.
  CUSTOM CODE
  Tier: 1
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  When your character selects this talent they choose one 
  icebreaker or piece of ice that they own. If they choose an 
  icebreaker, whenever they use that icebreaker to override 
  ice, they add 󲊴 to the results. If they choose a piece of ice, 
  whenever someone else attempts to override it, they add 󲊱 
  to the results. 
  44
  Chapter 1: Character Creation
    (Order #17879226)
  
  CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE
  Tier: 1
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: Yes
  After your character makes a Charm check, they may suffer 
  1 strain use this talent to cancel 󲊱 equal to your character’s 
  ranks in Customer Service Experience. 
  DEEP POCKETS
  Tier: 1
  Activation: Active (Maneuver)
  Ranked: No
  Once per session, your character may use this talent to pro-
  duce a small but narratively useful item from their pockets, 
  backpack, or similar receptacle (it turns out the item had 
  been there the whole time).
  Your GM has final say as to what items can be produced 
  with Deep Pockets, but generally the item should cost less 
  than 100 credits and have an encumbrance of 0 or 1.
  DISENFRANCISTO
  Tier: 1
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  When you take this talent, your character gains Streetwise or 
  Survival (your choice) as a career skill. In addition, once per 
  session, your character may collect a small favor from any other 
  disenfrancisto, even if they do not owe your character a favor. 
  FORMER PROFESSOR
  Tier: 1
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  When you take this talent, your character gains one Knowl-
  edge skill (of your choice) as a career skill. In addition, once 
  per session, your character may collect a small favor from 
  a member of an institute of higher learning, even if they do 
  not owe your character a favor. 
  HAND ON THE THROTTLE
  Tier: 1
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: No
  Once per round while driving or piloting a vehicle, your char-
  acter may use this talent to increase or decrease its speed by 1, 
  to a minimum of 0 or a maximum of the vehicle’s max speed.
  IAIJUTSU TRAINING
  Tier: 1
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  The first time during an encounter that your character 
  draws a Melee weapon, increase the weapon's damage by 2 
  for the remainder of the turn.
  KNOCKOUT PUNCH
  Tier: 1
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  Your character adds the Stun quality to their Brawl com-
  bat checks, with a rating equal to two plus your charac-
  ter’s ranks in Coordination (this does not stack with other 
  instances of the Stun quality). 
  NET SEARCH
  Tier: 1
  Activation: Active (Maneuver)
  Ranked: No
  If your character has access to the Network, they may use this 
  talent to upgrade the ability of the next Knowledge check they 
  make during their turn twice and the difficulty of that check 
  once. Your GM must spend a 󲊲 to have your character learn 
  some seemingly relevant and believable information that 
  turns out to be completely (and possibly maliciously) false. 
  RESOURCEFUL MECHANIC
  Tier: 1
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: Yes
  When your character makes a Mechanics check to repair 
  system strain or hull trauma on a vehicle, they repair 
  one additional system strain or hull trauma per rank of 
  Resourceful Mechanic.  
  STREET FIGHTER
  Tier: 1
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: No
  When your character disorients or knocks their target 
  prone while making a Brawl combat check, they may use 
  this talent to cause the target to suffer wounds equal to your 
  character’s ranks in Skulduggery. 
  TRI-MAF CONTACT
  Tier: 1
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  When you take this talent, your character gains Melee or 
  Skulduggery (your choice) as a career skill. In addition, once 
  per session, your character may collect a small favor from a 
  member of a single orgcrime group (chosen when you take 
  this talent), even if they do not owe your character a favor. 
  UNION MEMBER
  Tier: 1
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  When you take this talent, your character gains Athletics, 
  Mechanics, or Operating (your choice) as a career skill. In 
  addition, once per session, your character may collect a 
  small favor from a member of Humanity Labor or Human 
  First, even if they do not owe your character a favor. 
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
  45
    (Order #17879226)
  
  Talent
  Ranked Source
  Tier 1
  Bought Info
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 72)
  Clever Retort
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 73)
  Corporate Drone
  No
  Page 44
  Custom Code
  No
  Page 44
  Custom Rig
  No
  Page 44
  Customer Service Experience
  Yes
  Page 45
  Deep Pockets
  No
  Page 45
  Defensive Sysops
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 73)
  Desperate Recovery
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 73)
  Disenfrancisto
  No
  Page 45
  Duelist
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 73)
  Durable
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 73)
  Forager
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 73)
  Former Professor
  No
  Page 45
  Grit
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 73)
  Hamstring Shot
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 73)
  Hand on the Throttle
  No
  Page 45
  Iaijutsu Training
  No
  Page 45
  Jump Up
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 73)
  Knack for It
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 73)
  Know Somebody
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 74)
  Knockout Punch
  No
  Page 45
  Let's Ride
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 74)
  Net Search
  No
  Page 45
  One with Nature
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 74)
  Parry
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 74)
  Proper Upbringing
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 74)
  Quick Draw
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 74)
  Quick Strike
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 74)
  Rapid Reaction
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 74)
  Resourceful Mechanic
  Yes
  Page 45
  Second Wind
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 74)
  Street Fighter
  No
  Page 45
  Surgeon
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 74)
  Swift
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 75)
  Tri-Maf Contact
  No
  Page 45
  Toughened
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 75)
  Union Member
  No
  Page 45
  Unremarkable
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 75)
  Worlds War Vet
  No
  Page 47
  Years on the Force
  No
  Page 47
  Talent
  Ranked Source
  Tier 2
  Bad Cop
  Yes
  Page 47
  Big Guns
  No
  Page 47
  Codeslinger
  No
  Page 48
  Combat Medicine
  Yes
  Page 48
  Coordinated Assault
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 75)
  Counteroffer
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 75)
  Daring Aviator
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 75)
  Defensive Stance
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 75)
  Defensive Sysops (Improved)
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 76)
  Determined Driver
  No
  Page 48
  Dual Wielder
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 76)
  Good Cop
  Yes
  Page 48
  Haughty Demeanor
  No
  Page 48
  Heightened Awareness
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 76)
  Inspiring Rhetoric
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 76)
  Inventor
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 76)
  Lucky Strike
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 76)
  Nethunter
  No
  Page 48
  Parkour!
  No
  Page 49
  Probing Question
  No
  Page 49
  Quick Fix
  No
  Page 49
  Scathing Tirade
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 77)
  Side Step 
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 77)
  Special Use Permit
  No
  Page 49
  Tactical Focus
  No
  Page 49
  Two-Handed Stance
  No
  Page 49
  Undercity Contacts
  No
  Page 49
  Tier 3
  Animal Companion
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 77)
  Applied Research
  Yes
  Page 49
  Bad Habit
  No
  Page 49
  Body Guard
  Yes
  Page 49
  Barrel Roll
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 77)
  Distinctive Style
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 78)
  Dodge
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 78)
  Dumb Luck
  No
  Page 49
  Eagle Eyes
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 78)
  Field Commander
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 78)
  Forgot to Count?
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 78)
  Full Throttle
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 78)
  Grenadier
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 78)
  TABLE 1–2: GENESYS TALENTS FOR THE ANDROID SETTING
  Chapter 1: Character Creation
  46
    (Order #17879226)
  
  WORLDS WAR VET
  Tier: 1
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  When you take this talent, your character gains Ranged 
  (Heavy) or Resilience as a career skill. In addition, once 
  per session, your character may collect a small favor from 
  a current or former member of a single country's military 
  (chosen when you take this talent), even if they do not owe 
  your character a favor. 
  YEARS ON THE FORCE
  Tier: 1
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  When you take this talent, your character gains Perception  
  or Ranged (Light) as a career skill. In addition, once per 
  session, your character may collect a small favor from a cur-
  rent or former member of the NAPD or New Angeles city 
  government, even if they do not owe your character a favor. 
  TIER 2
  BAD COP
  Tier: 2
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: Yes
  Your character may spend 󲊴 󲊴 from a Coercion or Decep-
  tion check to use this talent to upgrade the ability of a single 
  ally’s subsequent social skill check a number of times equal 
  to your character’s ranks in Bad Cop. The check must target 
  the same character as your character’s initial check, and it 
  must take place during the same encounter. 
  Only one character may affect a check with this talent.
  BIG GUNS
  Tier: 2
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  Your character’s encumbrance threshold is 10 plus their 
  Brawn, instead of 5 plus their Brawn. Your character 
  reduces the Cumbersome rating of any weapon they carry 
  by 1, to a minimum of 3. 
  Talent
  Ranked Source
  Hard-Boiled
  No
  Page 50
  Heroic Will
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 79)
  Hold It Steady
  No
  Page 50
  Inspiring Rhetoric (Improved)
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 78)
  Laugh It Off
  No
  Page 50
  Martial Weapons Master
  No
  Page 50
  Natural 
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 79)
  Net Warrior
  No
  Page 50
  Nimble
  No
  Page 50
  Painkiller Specialization
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 79)
  Parry (Improved)
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 79)
  Scathing Tirade (Improved)
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 79)
  Snare
  No
  Page 50
  Suppressing Fire
  Yes
  Page 50
  Takedown
  No
  Page 51
  Undercity Contacts (Improved)
  No
  Page 51
  You Owe Me One
  No
  Page 51
  Tier 4
  Burn Through
  No
  Page 51
  Can't We Talk About This?
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 79)
  Deadeye
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 79)
  Defensive
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 80)
  Defensive Driving
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 80)
  Elementary
  No
  Page 51
  Talent
  Ranked Source
  Enduring
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 80)
  Field Commander 
  (Improved)
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 80)
  How Convenient! 
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 80)
  Inspiring Rhetoric (Supreme)
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 80)
  Offensive Driving
  No
  Page 51
  Overcharge
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 80)
  Parkour! (Improved)
  No 
  Page 51
  Quick-Witted
  No
  Page 51
  Scathing Tirade (Supreme)
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 81)
  Urban Combatant
  No
  Page 52
  You Owe Me One (Improved)
  No
  Page 52
  Tier 5
  Dedication
  Yes
  Core Rulebook (page 81)
  Drone Master 
  No
  Page 52
  Ghost in the Machine
  No
  Page 52
  Indomitable
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 81)
  Master
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 81)
  Master Plan
  No
  Page 52
  Overcharge (Improved)
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 81)
  Ruinous Repartee
  No
  Core Rulebook (page 81)
  Trick of the Light
  No
  Page 52
  Web of Knowledge
  No
  Page 52
  TABLE 1–2: GENESYS TALENTS FOR THE ANDROID SETTING (CONT.)
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
  47
    (Order #17879226)
  
  CODESLINGER
  Tier: 2
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  When your character performs the activate program 
  maneuver (page 132) in a hacking encounter, they can 
  choose not to deactivate one other active icebreaker. They 
  may have two icebreakers active at once.
  COMBAT MEDICINE
  Tier: 2
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: Yes
  Before making a Medicine check, your character may use 
  this talent to add 󲊳 equal to their ranks in Combat Med-
  icine to the results. After the check is resolved, the target 
  suffers 2 strain for each rank your character has in Com-
  bat Medicine.
  DETERMINED DRIVER
  Tier: 2
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: No
  You may spend a Story Point to use this talent to have your 
  character heal system strain on a vehicle they are currently 
  driving, piloting, or operating equal to their ranks in Driv-
  ing, Piloting, or Operating (choose the skill used to direct 
  the vehicle).
  GOOD COP
  Tier: 2
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: Yes
  Your character may spend 󲊴 󲊴 from a Charm or Negoti-
  ation check to use this talent to upgrade the ability of a sin-
  gle ally’s subsequent social skill check a number of times 
  equal to your character’s ranks in Good Cop. The check 
  must target the same character as your character’s initial 
  check, and it must take place during the same encounter. 
  Only one character may affect a check with this talent. 
  HAUGHTY DEMEANOR
  Tier: 2
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  Other characters add 󲊱 to social skill checks targeting 
  your character. 
  NETHUNTER 
  Tier: 2
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  When your character successfully traces another charac-
  ter during a Network encounter, your character gains one 
  additional trace. 
  48
  Chapter 1: Character Creation
    (Order #17879226)
  
  PARKOUR!
  Tier: 2
  Activation: Active (Maneuver)
  Ranked: No
  Once per round, your character may suffer 1 strain to use 
  this talent and move to any location within short range. 
  This includes locations that are vertically distant or have no 
  easy access route, but there must be an object to move across 
  or path to move along. Your GM may rule some locations can-
  not be reached (such as ones behind locked doors or walls).
  PROBING QUESTION
  Tier: 2
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  If your character knows an opponent’s Flaw or Fear motiva-
  tion, when your character inflicts strain on that opponent 
  using a social skill, the opponent suffers 3 additional strain.
  QUICK FIX 
  Tier: 2
  Activation: Active (Maneuver)
  Ranked: No
  You may spend a Story Point to use this talent to have your 
  character temporarily repair one damaged item they are 
  engaged with. For a number of rounds equal to your char-
  acter's ranks in Mechanics, the item may be used without 
  penalty (see page 89 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook), even 
  if it is unusable. When the effect ends, the item is damaged 
  one additional step; if it was already suffering from major 
  damage, it is destroyed and cannot be repaired.
  SPECIAL USE PERMIT
  Tier: 2
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  Your character does not treat any Ranged (Heavy) weapons 
  as restricted (R).
  This also means your character can carry a Ranged 
  (Heavy) weapon that normally would be restricted in 
  public without being arrested. However, they can still be 
  arrested for using such a weapon in an unlawful manner.
  TACTICAL FOCUS
  Tier: 2
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  When performing a combat check with a Ranged (Heavy) 
  weapon, if your character did not perform a maneuver to 
  ready or stow a weapon or item during this turn, they add 
  󲊴 to the results. 
  TWO-HANDED STANCE
  Tier: 2
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  When performing a combat check with a Ranged (Light) 
  weapon, if your character has nothing in their other hand, 
  they add 󲊴 to the results. 
  UNDERCITY CONTACTS
  Tier: 2
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: No
  Once per session, you may spend one Story Point to use 
  this talent to let your character learn if a character of your 
  choice is in New Angeles, and if so, what district.
  At your GM’s discretion, the information may take up to 
  an hour to come back to your character. 
  TIER 3
  APPLIED RESEARCH
  Tier: 3
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: Yes
  Your character may use this talent before making a check 
  to use any knowledge skill and Intellect instead of the skill 
  and characteristic the check would normally require. Your 
  character may use this talent a number of times per session 
  equal to their ranks in Applied Research.
  When your character uses this talent, you should explain 
  how their mastery of knowledge lets them accomplish 
  this task. In addition, your GM may rule that a particular 
  knowledge skill makes the most sense in a given situation, 
  and require your character to use that specific knowl-
  edge skill.
  BAD HABIT
  Tier: 3
  Activation: Active (Maneuver)
  Ranked: No
  Your character may use this talent to become disoriented 
  for the remainder of the encounter. At the beginning of 
  each of your character’s turns, if they are still disoriented 
  due to this talent, they heal 2 strain. 
  BODY GUARD
  Tier: 3
  Activation: Active (Maneuver)
  Ranked: Yes
  Once per round, your character may suffer a number of 
  strain no greater than their ranks in Body Guard to use this 
  talent. Choose one ally engaged with your character, until 
  the end of your character's next turn, upgrade the difficulty 
  of all combat checks targeting that ally a number of times 
  equal to the strain suffered. 
  DUMB LUCK
  Tier: 3
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: No
  Once per session, you may spend a Story Point to use this 
  talent after your character suffers a Critical Injury but 
  before the result is rolled. Their opponent must roll two 
  results, and you select which applies to your character.
  49
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
    (Order #17879226)
  
  HARD-BOILED
  Tier: 3
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: No
  When your character makes a check to recover from strain 
  at the end of an encounter (as described on page 117 of the 
  GeneSyS Core Rulebook), your character may make a Sim-
  ple (–) Resilience check instead of Discipline or Cool. If your 
  character does so, they heal 1 strain per 󲊳 and 1 wound per 󲊴.
  HOLD IT STEADY
  Tier: 3
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: No
  Before performing a combat check using a weapon with the 
  Auto-fire quality, your character may use this talent to use 
  the Auto-fire quality without increasing the difficulty of the 
  combat check. If they do so, each time they trigger an addi-
  tional hit during the attack, they suffer 2 strain.
  LAUGH IT OFF
  Tier: 3
  Activation: Active (Incidental, Out of Turn)
  Ranked: No
  When your character is targeted by a social skill check 
  they may use this talent to spend 󲊱 󲊱 󲊱 or 󲊲 to reduce 
  any strain the check inflicts by a number equal to their 
  ranks in Charm. If they do so, the character who targeted 
  them suffers an amount of strain equal to the amount of 
  strain reduced. 
  MARTIAL WEAPONS MASTER
  Tier: 3
  Activation: Active (Action)
  Ranked: No
  While armed with a Melee weapon, your character may 
  use this talent to make an Average (󲊷 󲊷) Melee check. If 
  successful, your character may force one engaged target to 
  either drop one weapon they are holding or move up to one 
  range band in a direction of your choosing. 
  If your character forces a named rival or nemesis into 
  dangerous terrain (or off a ledge or cliff) using this talent, 
  your GM can spend a Story Point to allow them to catch 
  themselves at the edge and fall prone instead.  
  NET WARRIOR
  Tier: 3
  Activation: Active (Action)
  Ranked: No
  While accessing a system using a brain-machine 
  interface (BMI), your character may use this 
  talent to make an opposed Computers (Hack-
  ing) versus Computers (Sysops) check tar-
  geting one other character on the system that 
  they are aware of. The target suffers 1 strain 
  per 󲊳, and if they are using a BMI, they also 
  suffer 1 wound per 󲊳. 
  NIMBLE
  Tier: 3
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: No
  At the start of your character’s turn, you may spend one 
  Story Point to use this talent to allow your character to 
  perform a move maneuver as an incidental. (This does not 
  count against the limit of two maneuvers per turn.) If you 
  use this talent, your character can only perform one addi-
  tional move maneuver during this turn.
  SNARE
  Tier: 3
  Activation: Active (Action)
  Ranked: No
  Once per session, your character may use this talent to make 
  a Hard (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) Computers (Sysops) check. If they suc-
  ceed, once before the end of the encounter, you may spend a 
  Story Point to force one character in the encounter to make 
  a Daunting (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) Vigilance check as an incidental. If 
  they fail, they are staggered until the end of their next turn, 
  plus one additional turn per 󲊱 󲊱.  
  SUPPRESSING FIRE
  Tier: 3
  Activation: Active (Maneuver)
  Ranked: Yes
  If your character does not make a combat check during their 
  turn, they use this talent to target one character (or minion 
  group) within long range. That character must upgrade 
  the difficulty of any ranged combat checks they make once 
  until the end of your character’s next turn. Your charac-
  ter may choose to affect one additional character for each 
  additional rank of Suppressing Fire.
  Your character must be hold-
  ing a ranged weapon 
  to use this talent. 
  Chapter 1: Character Creation
  50
    (Order #17879226)
  
  Your GM can also rule that your character can’t use this tal-
  ent if they have no line of fire or range to the target.
  TAKEDOWN
  Tier: 3
  Activation: Active (Action)
  Ranked: No
  Your character may use this talent to make an opposed 
  Brawl versus Resilience check targeting one engaged 
  opponent. If the check succeeds, the target is knocked 
  prone and is immobilized until the end of your character’s 
  next turn. If the target is a minion or rival, your character 
  can spend 󲊵 to incapacitate (but not kill) the target instead.
  UNDERCITY CONTACTS (IMPROVED) 
  Tier: 3
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: No
  Your character must have purchased the Undercity Contacts 
  talent to benefit from this talent. When you use Under-
  city Contacts, you may choose to spend two Story Points 
  instead of one. If you do, your character learns the target's 
  specific location. 
  YOU OWE ME ONE
  Tier: 3
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: No
  Once per session, you may spend two Story Points to use 
  this talent to have one NPC in the current encounter owe 
  your character a favor. If the favor is not resolved by the end 
  of the encounter, it is forgotten.
  It’s up to you and your GM to determine exactly why the 
  NPC owes your character a favor.
  TIER 4
  BURN THROUGH
  Tier: 4
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: No
  After making a successful break ice action, your character 
  may suffer 3 strain to use this talent. If they do, they may 
  perform a second override ice action on the same system as 
  an incidental. 
  ELEMENTARY
  Tier: 4
  Activation: Active (Action)
  Ranked: No
  Once per session, your character may use this talent to 
  make a Hard (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) Perception check while present at 
  a crime scene. If they succeed, they identify all prominent 
  physical characteristics of one person who was at the crime 
  scene when the crime was committed (as long as the crime 
  was committed in the past 48 hours). This could include a 
  person's height, weight, body type, clothing, and if they are 
  human or not. Your character may identify all the physi-
  cal characteristics of one additional person present at the 
  crime scene per additional 󲊳. 
  OFFENSIVE DRIVING
  Tier: 4
  Activation: Active (Action)
  Ranked: No
  While driving or piloting a vehicle, your character may 
  use this talent to select one other vehicle within medium 
  range and make an opposed Driving or Piloting versus 
  Driving or Piloting check (depending on whether your 
  character and their opponent pilot are using Driving 
  or Piloting to control their vehicle) targeting the other 
  vehicle’s driver or pilot. If successful, roll twice on Table 
  III.2–19: Critical Hit Result, on page 230 of the GeneSyS 
  Core Rulebook. Choose one Critical Hit result to apply 
  to your character’s vehicle, and the other to apply to the 
  other vehicle. You may spend 󲊵 to add +20 to one Criti-
  cal Hit result. Your GM may spend 󲊲 to add +20 to both 
  Critical Hit results. 
  PARKOUR! (IMPROVED)
  Tier: 4
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: No
  Your character must have purchased the Parkour! talent to 
  benefit from this talent. Once per round, when using the 
  Parkour! talent, your character may suffer 4 strain instead 
  of 1 strain to move to any location within medium range 
  instead of within short range. All other restrictions of Park-
  our! apply to this movement.
  QUICK-WITTED
  Tier: 4
  Activation: Active (Incidental, Out of Turn)
  Ranked: No
  Once per encounter, after another character makes a social 
  skill check, your character may use this talent to make an 
  Average (󲊷 󲊷) Vigilance check. If successful, you may add 
  a number of 󲊳 or 󲊴 (your choice) equal to your charac-
  ter’s ranks in Charm to the other character’s check. If your 
  character fails, your character suffers 3 strain.
  ANIMAL COMPANION?
  Although the name of the talent on page 77 of the 
  GeneSyS Core Rulebook is "Animal Companion," the 
  description does note that the companion could just as 
  easily be a drone. In Shadow of the BeanStalk, this 
  talent should be used to operate drones (but can still 
  be used with a pet animal with your GM's permission). 
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  URBAN COMBATANT
  Tier: 4
  Activation: Active (Incidental, Out of Turn)
  Ranked: No
  When your character is targeted by a combat check while 
  in an urban environment, you may spend one Story Point 
  to use this talent before the dice pool is rolled. If you do 
  so, your character's opponent removes all 󲊸 added to the 
  check, and instead adds an equal number of 󲊰 to the results.
  YOU OWE ME ONE (IMPROVED)
  Tier: 4
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: No
  Your character must have purchased the You Owe Me One 
  talent to benefit from this talent. Once per session, you may 
  spend two Story Points to use You Owe Me One to have 
  one NPC in the current encounter owe your character a big 
  favor instead of a favor. If the big favor is not resolved by the 
  end of the encounter, it is forgotten.
  TIER 5
  DRONE MASTER
  Tier: 5
  Activation: Passive
  Ranked: No
  Your character may control two drones or minion groups 
  of drones no larger than your character's Willpower (either 
  via the rules found on page 233 or via the Animal Com-
  panion talent, found on page 77 of the GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book). Your character resolves each drone’s (or minion 
  group's) turn individually, choosing the order in which 
  they activate. 
  GHOST IN THE MACHINE
  Tier: 5
  Activation: Active (Action)
  Ranked: No
  As long as they have some sort of access point to the Net-
  work, your character may use this talent to make a Hard 
  (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) Computers (Hacking) check. If they succeed, 
  they may select one drone, vehicle, or piece of equipment 
  involved in the current encounter and dictate its actions 
  until the start of your character’s next turn.
  Alternatively, your character can select someone with 
  cybernetic implants or who is wearing powered armor or 
  an exosuit and manipulate it until the beginning of your 
  character’s next turn. This must be approved by your GM 
  but could include shutting off cybereyes, directing the 
  movements of cyberlimbs, or causing an exosuit to eject 
  its occupant. 
  Your character may spend 󲊴 󲊴 󲊴 on the check to extend 
  the effects for one additional round, or they may spend 󲊵 to 
  extend the effects for the remainder of the encounter. 
  MASTER PLAN
  Tier: 5
  Activation: Active (Action)
  Ranked: No
  Once per session, your character may use this talent to 
  make a Hard (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) Discipline check. If they succeed, 
  they reveal that whatever terrible circumstances they cur-
  rently find themselves in are all part of a brilliant plan that 
  they established at an earlier point. They then choose one 
  non-nemesis adversary in the encounter and reveal them to 
  be a close friend or ally who has positioned themselves to 
  help your character at this exact moment. 
  The details of which character turns out to be an ally 
  depend on the type of encounter and your GM’s approval. 
  However, the ally could also have done their work before-
  hand, such as loading a squadron of drones with blank 
  ammunition, shutting down power to a security system, or 
  planting a tracer in an opponent’s vehicle.  
  TRICK OF THE LIGHT
  Tier: 5
  Activation: Active (Incidental)
  Ranked: No
  When making a combat check with a laser or maser weapon, 
  your character may use this talent to spend 󲊴 to inflict 
  one additional hit with this weapon, dealing base damage 
  plus damage equal to the total number of 󲊳 scored on the 
  check. This hit may target the original target or another tar-
  get within short range of the original target. 
  WEB OF KNOWLEDGE
  Tier: 5
  Activation: Active (Action)
  Ranked: No
  Once per session your character may make an Average 
  (󲊷 󲊷) Knowledge (Net) check during a Network encoun-
  ter. If you succeed, your character knows the names, 
  strengths, and other qualities of all ice (active or deacti-
  vated) on one system that you currently have access to, as 
  well as all other characters (sysops and runners) that cur-
  rently are accessing that system. 
  Your character may spend 󲊴 󲊴 󲊴 or 󲊵 from this check 
  (whether or not they succeeded) to add 󲊳 to all Computer 
  checks involving that system that they make for the remain-
  der of the encounter. 
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  STEP 6: DETERMINE FAVORS
  Y
  our character interacts with factions and people 
  who are members of a faction through something 
  we call the favor economy. We go into the favor 
  economy in more detail starting on page 80 of Chapter 2: 
  Weapons and Equipment. However, all you need to know 
  right now is that the favor economy is a way of tracking and 
  defining who owes your character favors, and what favors 
  your character owes other people. 
  A favor can be just about any service. We classify them 
  as small favors, regular favors, and big favors, depending 
  on how momentous they are (see Table 2–1 in Chapter 2: 
  Weapons and Equipment for some examples of all three 
  types of favors). Your character can perform favors for 
  other people and probably already has, whether they’ve 
  helped a friend move to a new apartment or hidden a run-
  away clone during an NAPD raid. These favors are based on 
  who your character is, and what they can do. So a runner 
  can hack into a server as a favor, a PI could track down a 
  missing family member, and both of them could watch a 
  friend’s dog for an afternoon.
  However, if someone is a part of a faction, they may be 
  able to perform favors that specifically link to that faction. 
  For example, someone who works in a Veskt Medtron-
  ics Consolidated laboratory may be able to analyze a 
  genetic sequence and tell your character what those genes 
  are supposed to do. Meanwhile, a sergeant down at the 
  NAPD could probably get your character’s hopper out of 
  impound—or ensure patrols stay well away from the loca-
  tion of an imminent gang hit. Each faction entry contains 
  a list of example favors that people who are a part of that 
  faction can perform. 
  Your character doesn’t need to belong to any faction in 
  order to participate in the favor economy. However, belong-
  ing to a faction does allow your character to perform favors 
  for other people that your character otherwise couldn’t. 
  FAVOR ECONOMY DURING 
  CHARACTER CREATION
  During this step of character creation, your character may 
  end up owing a favor. Nobody can get by in the shadow of 
  the Beanstalk without getting someone’s help at some 
  point! However, how big a favor you owe is going to 
  be up to you.
  During this step, you may (but you don't have to) 
  choose one faction. Your character owes a favor to 
  someone in that faction. You get to decide whether 
  that favor is a small favor, a big favor, or a regular 
  favor, but your GM gets to decide the details about 
  the person in that faction whom your character owes. 
  The favor has not been called in as of the start of the 
  game, and your GM can use that uncollected favor 
  your character owes as a plot hook, something to get 
  their campaign rolling, or an unresolved bit of your char-
  acter’s backstory that comes back to plague them at the 
  worst possible time! 
  However, that favor has helped your character get ahead 
  in New Angeles. Depending on the size of the favor, your 
  character gets to start the game with some additional XP 
  or credits worth of gear. These are added onto your char-
  acter’s total starting XP or your total starting credits and 
  can be spent before the game begins. Those additions are 
  listed here:
  • Small Favor: Your character may start with an addi-
  tional 100 credits of gear. 
  • Regular Favor: Your character may start with an addi-
  tional 500 credits of gear or an additional 10 starting XP.
  • Big Favor: Your character may start with an additional 
  1,500 credits of gear or an additional 20 starting XP. 
  Although your character only starts the game owing 
  somebody a single favor, don’t worry! They will likely owe 
  plenty of other people favors as the game progresses. Of 
  course, if you’re lucky, maybe a few other people in New 
  Angeles will end up owing your character favors as well. 
  THE CREDIT
  In GeneSyS, we refer to a generic "currency" when 
  talking about how much things cost. In Shadow of 
  the BeanStalk, that currency is the Titan Transnational 
  Credit; or just the "credit." Credits are a completely dig-
  ital currency, and they're what nearly all New Angeles 
  citizens (and the rest of the worlds) use for money.
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  FAVOR ECONOMY DURING GAMEPLAY
  Once the game begins, your character can offer favors and 
  accept promises of future favors organically. Your charac-
  ter can owe as many favors as you want, although someone 
  who constantly makes promises to do something for some-
  one “in the future” is probably going to get a reputation as 
  glib and irresponsible, and they may run into trouble with 
  all the people they owe. Likewise, your GM can always 
  decide that an NPC has no interest in being owed a favor 
  and is going to demand some other kind of recompense for 
  services rendered, instead. 
  For gameplay purposes, however, we recommend that 
  you and your GM only use the favor economy for relatively 
  important favors. Too many favors become a pain to track 
  and are hard for your GM to work into the ongoing story. 
  We suggest that each character should owe and be owed a 
  total of no more than six favors at any one time. 
  FACTIONS 
  I
  n a world where everything is owned by someone, 
  survival often relies on knowing the right people. Lots 
  of people have an informal allegiance to something, 
  whether that’s the government, a corporation, a criminal 
  organization, or an activist group. These ties give those 
  people access to some of "their" faction’s power and influ-
  ence, in exchange for their loyalty and service. While most 
  characters aren’t going to be directly tied to one of these 
  factions, they’ll still need to give out and collect a few 
  favors in order to survive. It’s likely that your character is 
  no exception.
  PLAYING THE  
  ALLEGIANCE GAME
  Factions in Shadow of the BeanStalk represent the for-
  mal and informal power blocs in New Angeles. Each fac-
  tion is a group of people who tend to have similar goals and 
  loosely aligned loyalties. While it isn’t always the case, two 
  people or groups of people within a faction usually share 
  ideals and avoid working directly against each other. 
  For example, most of the major corporations that define 
  the world and wield influence in New Angeles are factions. 
  While individual managers, corporate branches, or even 
  companies may compete with one another, at the end of the 
  day, their successes tend to be successes for the corporation 
  they are a part of. They generally perform the same types of 
  actions (work), and their actions usually further that cor-
  poration’s goals (to make money and increase influence). 
  Another example is governments, as even when different 
  branches of a government (such as the Feds and the munic-
  ipal government of New Angeles) clash, they both still want 
  to uphold the law and keep society functioning.
  This section details some of the major factions of the set-
  ting, their interests, and how your character may interact 
  with them (especially through something called the favor 
  economy, which we’ll explain more on page 80). 
  YOUR CHARACTER AND FACTIONS
  Your character probably doesn’t belong to a faction. In 
  fact, whether or not someone “belongs” to a faction is 
  often very much up to interpretation. While someone who 
  works for Jinteki Biotech could be said to be a part of the 
  Jinteki faction, what if that person is a low-level employee 
  in a Jinteki subsidiary, and they don’t really care about 
  anything that Jinteki Biotech does? What if that person 
  does side hustles for a local gang on weekends to make 
  some extra money and stay in their good graces? What if 
  that person is also secretly a member of Humanity Labor 
  and is part of the movement to sabotage Jinteki and its 
  continuing development of a clone workforce?
  It’s very likely that your character isn’t enough of a player 
  in the messy world of politics, power, and influence to 
  think of themself as part of a faction, anyway. However, 
  that doesn’t matter. To interact with factions and members 
  of those factions, your character doesn’t have to belong to 
  any of them. 
  BELONGING TO A FACTION
  Having your character belong to a faction is an entirely 
  narrative choice that’s up to you and your GM. Sometimes 
  allegiance to a faction is fairly obvious: if you want your 
  character to be a cop, they'll have some pretty strong ties 
  to the NAPD faction. In other cases, that allegiance may 
  be more tenuous: your character may know a lot of people 
  in a local street gang, but they might not officially be a 
  gang member. 
  Whatever the case, there are no specific qualifiers or 
  requirements for being a part of a faction. Basically, as long 
  as it makes sense for you and your GM, your character can 
  belong to a faction. 
  BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS OF 
   BELONGING TO A FACTION
  There are benefits and drawbacks to belonging to a faction. 
  The primary benefit is narrative. If your character belongs 
  to a faction , they have the ability to call on the resources 
  of that faction. A member of the NAPD can call on their 
  fellow officers to help bail them out if they get into trouble, 
  and an employee at a corporation may be able to access a 
  corporate lab for a little bit of after-hours research. 
  Chapter 1: Character Creation
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  Of course, if your character belongs to a faction, that fac-
  tion will be calling on your character to perform tasks for it. 
  Corporate employees need to show up for work, members 
  of criminal organizations may need to participate in ille-
  gal activities, and Human First sympathizers may need to 
  smash a bioroid with a sledgehammer. Failing to do these 
  tasks can result in your character being kicked out, fired, or 
  cut off from the faction. This is entirely at your GM's discre-
  tion, as it probably depends on what tasks your character 
  refuses to perform and how often they refuse. 
  In game terms, we represent these tasks as favors. Favors 
  are described on page 53 and page 80, but they're basi-
  cally acts your character can be asked to perform because 
  they owe someone for something, or your character can 
  ask someone else to do because they owe your character. 
  Belonging to a faction gives your characters the following 
  benefits and responsibilities.
  • Once per session, you may spend a Story Point to have 
  someone else in your faction perform a small favor or 
  regular favor for you.
  • Once per session, your GM may spend a Story Point to 
  have someone else in your faction request you perform 
  a small favor or regular favor; this must be completed 
  by the end of the session.
  The following pages cover some of the major factions 
  in New Angeles. Depending on your character’s story and 
  place in the setting, they may be in a position to perform the 
  faction-specific favors listed in one of the faction entries. 
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  FACTION: JINTEKI
  A
  lready a titan in the biomedical world, Jinteki 
  Biotech underwent major changes twenty years 
  ago when a young and driven executive—Satoshi 
  Hiro—took over the company and introduced the first 
  clones into the labor market. Ever since then, Jinteki has 
  been a corporation struggling with its own self-image. 
  Much of it remains a megacorporation governed by tradi-
  tional Japanese business practices, but under Hiro’s lead-
  ership the corporation has become more driven, more 
  dynamic, and some might say, more ruthless. 
  One of Hiro’s first moves as Chairman was to relocate the 
  corporate headquarters from its NeoTokyo offices to the 
  Nihongai District of New Angeles. In the years since then, 
  Jinteki’s presence in the city has steadily increased. The cor-
  poration now dominates Nihongai psychologically as well 
  as financially, and its ongoing struggle with Haas Bioroid 
  over control of the artificial labor market is a constant pres-
  ence in the lives of most New Angelinos. And as long as 
  clones’ popularity as an alternative workforce keeps grow-
  ing, that presence is only going to get bigger.
  JINTEKI IN YOUR LIFE
  When most New Angelinos think of Jinteki, they think of 
  clones. Every clone in New Angeles has been created by 
  Jinteki, and has been conditioned to be a loyal and enthusi-
  astic cheerleader for their parent corporation. So most peo-
  ple tend to associate the megacorporation with cloning and 
  forget about all of the other ways Jinteki impacts their lives. 
  For example, Jinteki and its subsidiary companies have 
  made great strides in medical technology over the past 
  decades, with cloned organs, tailored gene-therapies, surgi-
  cal alternatives, and other innovations that can drastically 
  improve human health and well being. These technologies 
  are available in many New Angeles hospitals, from the mas-
  sive, state-of-the-art Harmony General to the hundreds of 
  affordable Emerald Bay Community Clinics. Coinciden-
  tally, most of those medical facilities are owned by financial 
  firms that happen to be controlled by Jinteki, to the point 
  that if you’re purchasing medical care, odds are your money 
  is eventually ending up in the megacorporation’s accounts. 
  Another area that Jinteki has vast interests in is genetic 
  modification, or g-modding. G-modding is a huge busi-
  ness, with g-mods being used in economic sectors rang-
  ing from agriculture to childcare to the countercultural 
  “wylders.” What most people may not realize is that most of 
  the hundreds of companies that produce g-mods are owned 
  by Jinteki subsidiary, Industrial Genomics. Often, the latest 
  flavor-enhanced coffee beans and an injection that causes 
  someone to grow a monkey’s tail were made in the same 
  lab complex. 
  CORPORATE CULTURE
  While Chairman Hiro may be pushing Jinteki to leave 
  behind some of the traditions he feels weigh the company 
  down, for the most part the megacorporation still bears its 
  Japanese corporate heritage proudly. Jinteki is an insular 
  corporation that prefers to promote from within and prizes 
  corporate loyalty and dedication—often over competency 
  at one’s job. Jinteki employees are expected to maintain 
  perfect self-control and complete courtesy in all of their 
  dealings, all while sacrificing time with their families, 
  friends, and hobbies to spend more hours on the clock. In 
  exchange, they can expect slow promotions in a seniori-
  ty-based corporate structure that rewards longevity more 
  than innovation.
  Jinteki also has much more bureaucratic overhead than 
  most megacorporations, with multiple department man-
  agers and sub-managers reporting to each other in an 
  elaborate and well-established chain of command. Deci-
  sions are often made slowly, as each level of management 
  must be consulted in the proper order before a new idea 
  can be passed up the corporate ladder. Along with that 
  comes plenty of official record keeping and approval 
  applications, which are no less difficult to navigate even 
  with AI assistance. 
  This is precisely what Chairman Hiro hopes to change. 
  Jinteki is in the midst of a corporate reshuffling that is see-
  ing a lot of sub-departments and junior assistant executives 
  removed, all in the name of the Chairman’s drive to rebuild 
  the megacorporation into a leaner, more adaptable, and 
  more innovative entity. This leaves Jinteki employees split; 
  the old guard bemoan the loss of tradition and the cavalier 
  firing of so many employees, while the (often younger) new 
  guard are enthusiastic to participate in a more meritocratic 
  business environment. 
  Of course, Jinteki’s corporate culture does not extend to 
  most of its subsidiaries, especially the larger ones like Har-
  mony MedTech, Morph, Synthetic Systems Research, and 
  Industrial Genomics. These companies have their own dis-
  tinct corporate culture (SSR for example has a strong San-
  San Biotech Valley ethos that Jinteki executives grumble 
  is merely coddling ungrateful employees with undeserved 
  perks). However, to Jinteki, these companies are all infe-
  rior lessers who need to remember their place. Meetings 
  between Jinteki oversight managers and subsidiary rep-
  resentatives are often tense affairs, where cold politeness 
  masks mutual contempt and frustration. 
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  INTERACTING  
  WITH JINTEKI
  When dealing with outsiders, Jinteki representatives are 
  almost always coldly polite. Formality and proper protocol 
  is highly prized, and ignorance on these matters is never 
  an acceptable excuse. Plenty of businesspeople have left a 
  meeting with Jinteki feeling like they’ve made great inroads, 
  only to find out days later that the deal they thought was 
  a sure thing has fallen through. The differences between 
  polite formalities (and the preference to never, ever disagree 
  with someone directly) and the Jinteki representative’s true 
  intentions can be extremely subtle and hard to understand. 
  A Jinteki employee strives to maintain proper decorum 
  at all times, masking their true opinions about a represen-
  tative from another company or a contractor being hired 
  for a job behind a precise amount of small talk, pleasantly 
  distant comments, and reserve. When meeting with a rep-
  resentative of Jinteki, the wise pay much more attention to 
  what is not said than what is said. The most important busi-
  ness occurs via subtext and innuendo. 
  The wise also remember that since a loyal Jinteki employee 
  places the company’s well-being above their 
  own, they’re certainly going to see the 
  company’s interests as more important 
  than those of outsiders. Doing con-
  tract work—especially illegal contract 
  work—for Jinteki or its employees can 
  be tricky, as the contractors are generally 
  seen as expendable. 
  THE YAKUZA CONNECTION
  It’s an open secret amongst the streets of 
  Nihongai that Jinteki has a close relation-
  ship with the yakuza. Some NAPD detec-
  tives grumble that the orgcrime outfit is 
  simply Jinteki Biotech’s “White-Collar 
  Crime” division. While that may be true, 
  the corporation is far too savvy to tie itself 
  directly to any yakuza activities, and if 
  the yakuza’s criminal enterprises seldom 
  seem to target Jinteki’s interests directly, 
  surely that’s just a coincidence? 
  The full details of the yakuza’s 
  relationship to Jinteki are almost 
  certainly hidden behind layers of 
  obfuscation, corporate secrecy, 
  red tape, and a few dead bodies. Nevertheless, if Jinteki 
  does need to obtain “outside contractors” for something 
  illegal, it’s more than likely going to be a yakuza oyabun —
  boss—that does the hiring. 
  TABLE 1–3: JINTEKI SPECIFIC FAVORS
  Favor Type
  Examples (Depending on Subsidiary or 
  Company Division)
  Small Favors
  Let slip some juicy rumors about corporate 
  goings-on
  Analyze a biological sample in a corporate lab
  Regular Favors
  Gain the use of a genetics lab
  Provide information about corporate security
  Patch someone up after a fight
  Give someone forged clearance to hide out in 
  a clone-tel
  Big Favors
  Provide a custom clone
  Grow and provide a cloned organ or limb for 
  medical purposes
  Pass on any rumors concerning "Project Nisei," 
  or Detective Caprice Nisei of the NAPD.
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  FACTION: HAAS-BIOROID
  H
  aas-Bioroid has been a leader in heavy industry 
  and manufacturing for generations, but it was the 
  corporation’s research into artificial intelligence 
  that transformed the old Haas Industrie into a global jug-
  gernaut. Under the guidance of the indomitable Director 
  Cynthia Haas, HB created the bioroid. These first androids 
  completely redefined the labor market, and their success 
  drove Haas-Bioroid to become one of the richest and most 
  powerful corporations on Earth. 
  HAAS-BIOROID IN YOUR 
  LIFE
  Haas-Bioroid is a long-established presence in New Ange-
  les, ranging from their corporate HQ in the towering 
  arcology overlooking the Manta district, to their vast pro-
  duction facilities in Quinde’s “Golem Grove.” Of course, the 
  ubiquitous nature of bioroid labor means that most people 
  run into the face of HB throughout their day. Bioroids, like 
  clones, are programmed to be loyal to their corporation, 
  and pleasantly extol Haas-Bioroid’s virtues whenever they 
  get the chance. However, unlike some other megacorpora-
  tions, HB’s non-bioroid business ventures focus more on 
  construction, heavy industry, and government contracts. 
  Thus, while HB is a major power player in New Angeles, 
  people tend to forget about the businesses that don’t directly 
  relate to bioroids. 
  While cybernetics were already an established technol-
  ogy, the end of the War and return of thousands of military 
  veterans with replacement limbs and organs made it com-
  monplace. These days, cybernetics are a perfectly acceptable 
  alternative to deal with any number of medical ailments—
  not to mention the number of people who turn to cybernet-
  ics to enhance and improve themselves. Cybernetics aren’t 
  a proprietary technology, but HB’s work on bioroids make 
  theirs some of the best. Many commercially-available (and 
  military grade) cybernetics were partially or completely 
  made by HB’s cybernetics division. 
  The Worlds War also spurred innovations in weaponry 
  and, unsurprisingly, arms manufacturing is still as profit-
  able as ever. Nearly all megacorporations are involved in the 
  sale and manufacture of weapons, but Networked Emer-
  gent and eXperimental Technology (NEXT) Design has an 
  eye to the future. Broken off from Haas Industrie before the 
  company morphed into HB, NEXT has produced some of 
  the first laser weapons and is leading the market in Net-
  work security. While the average citizen may not realize it, 
  many of the security forces that protect them both on-line 
  and off are equipped with NEXT technology. 
  CORPORATE CULTURE
  Haas-Bioroid evolved out of the European Union-based 
  Haas Industrie, and the company’s Germanic ethos still 
  defines much about the megacorporation. The current 
  Director Haas embraces this blunt, no-nonsense approach 
  to business, and employees who want to survive the relent-
  less corporate culture at HB are advised to do the same.
  Haas-Bioroid’s work environment prizes determination 
  and concentration on the task at hand, and employees tend 
  to be goal-oriented, punctual, and focused. HB is a very 
  structured corporation, where there is a procedure and 
  a process for anything you need to get done. The process 
  tends to be efficient (another thing Haas-Bioroid prizes is 
  efficiency), but employees who don’t follow the rules will 
  soon be looking for a new job. 
  This attention to structure and detail gives Haas-Bioroid 
  a distinct advantage when working with local and national 
  governments, where the most lucrative contracts are often 
  tied up in the most regulations and red tape. It also means 
  that Haas-Bioroid employees tend to work hard to follow 
  laws and regulations—but often to the letter of the law, not 
  its spirit. If something isn’t explicitly regulated or forbid-
  den, then it’s likely that some branch of HB is exploring 
  how to make money from it. 
  Haas-Bioroid’s employees are not all Germans or even 
  EU expats, but while the company is willing to hire anyone 
  who can get the job done, the corporate definition of that is 
  often “someone who fits into the corporate culture.” There-
  fore, even though HB has come a long way from being a 
  regional manufacturing juggernaut, the ethos and culture 
  that helped form the company is still alive and well today. 
  CONSOLIDATED BUSINESS
  Haas-Bioroid is much more consolidated than many 
  megacorporations. Whereas other corps may have sub-
  sidiary corporate entities, shell companies, and divisions 
  with wildly different branding and marketing, HB prefers 
  to segment itself into divisions. Each division focuses on 
  different products, from bioroids to brain-machine inter-
  faces (BMIs) to heavy construction machinery, but they 
  all fit within Haas-Bioroid’s corporate framework and the 
  heads of each division all report to corporate management 
  and Director Haas. 
  The most prominent corporation that seems to exist out-
  side of HB’s orbit is NEXT Design, with its own corporate 
  structure and CEO. However, even in NEXT’s offices, the 
  Haas culture is hard to shake, and it’s impossible to forget 
  that you’re working at a subsidiary of Haas-Bioroid.
  Chapter 1: Character Creation
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  INTERACTING WITH  
  HAAS-BIOROID
  Haas-Bioroid’s representatives prize directness and forth-
  right communications (often to the point of bluntness) 
  in their negotiations. An HB employee is likely to tell you 
  exactly what their position is at the start of a meeting, and 
  good luck getting them to budge! In their mind, they’ve 
  already come to the most logical position for all parties, 
  and thus not only are they disinterested in compromise, 
  they tend to see people who argue with them as idiots. 
  Punctuality is also important when dealing with HB. 
  Showing up late to a meeting is a good way to get on a Haas 
  representative’s bad side, as they treat it as a lack of respect 
  for them and a lack of interest in the matter at hand. Like-
  wise, if someone promises to deliver a good or provide a 
  service to HB, they expect nothing less than the full deliv-
  ery of that good or service. HB employees tend to disdain 
  excuses; after all, if you’d planned things better, you would 
  have accounted for any difficulties. 
  Of course, not every HB employee is going to be against 
  bending the rules (or laws), and HB has employed “inde-
  pendent contractors” to perform some less-than-legal 
  activities. But even in those deals, they expect the criminals 
  they work with to be reliable and hold up their end of any 
  bargain they make. 
  While this gives HB employees the reputation of being 
  cold and unfriendly individuals, Haas-Bioroid’s corporate 
  culture does emphasize a fairly strict dividing line between 
  one’s work and one’s personal life. This means that when 
  HB employees are on the clock, they’re expected to be 
  giving the corporation their all. But once their work is 
  done, employees are encouraged to go home, relax, and 
  enjoy themselves—just as long as they show up exactly on 
  time the next day. On the one hand, this means that 
  sometimes it’s a lot easier to approach an HB rep-
  resentative when they’re having a few drinks 
  and dancing at a ritzy nightclub. On the 
  other, said representative may not appreci-
  ate being bothered with work during their 
  valuable free time. 
  TABLE 1–4: HAAS-BIOROID SPECIFIC FAVORS
  Favor Type
  Examples (Depending on Subsidiary or 
  Company Division)
  Small Favors
  Let slip some juicy rumors about corporate 
  goings-on
  Review a braintape in a corporate lab
  Gain access to a corporate workshop to repair 
  a damaged cybernetic
  Regular 
  Favors
  Provide information about corporate security
  Provide a copy of a piece of NEXT ice or a 
  security code to override it
  Access and review the memories of a bioroid 
  working for an average person
  Provide parts necessary to fix a damaged 
  bioroid
  Big Favors
  Provide a bioroid
  Build a high-end, customized cybernetic
  Access and review the memories of a bioroid 
  working for a celebrity or other important 
  individual
  Loan someone a piece of bioroid ice, or 
  provide a security code to override it
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
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  FACTION: WEYLAND CONSORTIUM
  W
  hen most people think of the Weyland Con-
  sortium, they visualize Jack Weyland, the mav-
  erick genius who built the Beanstalk and gave 
  humanity the stars. They think about the massive construc-
  tion projects that turned New Angeles into a forest of star-
  scrapers and arcologies. And they point to the Beanstalk 
  as the Consortium’s most iconic construction, and visible 
  proof of Weyland’s influence on the lives of each and every 
  New Angelino. 
  The truth, however, is quite a bit more complicated than 
  that. Jack Weyland no longer runs the Weyland Consor-
  tium, and is now only tangentially linked to the company. 
  None of the multitudes of construction projects in New 
  Angeles have the Consortium’s logo next to the building 
  sites. And they don’t even own the Beanstalk, although they 
  make trillions off its continued use each year. 
  THE WEYLAND 
  CONSORTIUM IN YOUR LIFE
  More than any other corporation, the Weyland Consortium 
  is deeply involved in the lives of each and every New Ange-
  lino. However, their presence is probably the least visible. 
  The Weyland Consortium is no longer a corporation 
  concerned with producing anything. Instead, it uses its 
  vast reserves of wealth, assets, and political influence to 
  buy and sell other corporations. This could involve buying 
  a company, selling off its assets piecemeal, then discarding 
  the husk, or it could be a long-term purchase predicated on 
  purchasing an asset and making it the most efficient prof-
  it-making machine possible. The New Angeles Space Eleva-
  tor is a great example of the Consortium’s corporate model. 
  Because the Space Elevator Authority owns the Beanstalk, 
  the Consortium isn’t responsible for its upkeep and protec-
  tion, and can stay out of the tangled web of politics that 
  surrounds it. Instead, their lucrative royalty agreement 
  means the Beanstalk will simply provide trillions of credits 
  a year, forever. 
  Due to this, most New Angelinos don’t use Weyland 
  products, bank with Weyland financial institutions, or live 
  in Weyland buildings lit by Weyland power. They just use 
  products made by companies the Consortium owns, live 
  in buildings built by now-defunct Consortium subsidiar-
  ies and powered by other Consortium subsidiaries, and 
  bank with institutions that provide the capital for Consor-
  tium takeovers. 
  The Weyland Consortium no longer even has a public 
  face. Jack Weyland is out as the head of the company he 
  founded, and the megacorporation is now run by a shad-
  owy board of multi-billionaire directors. Most of these 
  individuals have never been publicly identified, preferring 
  to speak through a succession of charming, attractive, and 
  ultimately expendable public relations officers. The current 
  spokesperson, Farid Ahmadi, has represented Weyland for 
  eight months—far longer than most of his predecessors. 
  CORPORATE CULTURE
  Due to the Consortium’s structure as a megacorp that owns 
  other corps, it does not have any identifiable corporate cul-
  ture of its own. Only those at the top, the Board of Directors 
  and their direct subordinates, can really be said to be part 
  of the Consortium as a whole. The rest of the Consortium 
  is broken up into the individual corporations the Consor-
  tium controls, and each of these has its own, unique corpo-
  rate culture. 
  Blue Sun, for example, is a Heinlein-based corporation 
  deeply involved in the production, maintaining, and design 
  of He-3 fusion power facilities. It cultivates an attitude of 
  relentless superiority as it markets its reactors to countries 
  around the globe. Blue Sun knows its plants are some of the 
  best, but it doesn’t hold the patent to the concept of fusion 
  power. Therefore, it relies on ruthless legal (and illegal) 
  maneuvers to undercut rival power suppliers in markets 
  that it hasn’t yet monopolized. 
  On the other hand, Titan Transnational functions as one 
  might expect a major international banking institution to 
  operate. Most of Titan Transnational’s employees are stuffy, 
  conservative, and very risk-averse. However, the bank’s 
  investment divisions tend to have their share of wild and 
  risky hedge fund managers and traders. The bank gives 
  these hard-charging individuals free rein to succeed or fail. 
  If they succeed, Titan reaps the profits, and this more than 
  compensates for the failures. However, Titan still holds the 
  managers and traders responsible for their losses, and the 
  only people who can succeed in this job are those comfort-
  able with gambling and living on borrowed time.
  A third example is Argus Security, a major player in the 
  arms and prisec industries, and one of the best providers 
  of small-scale security in the business. Argus focuses on 
  protecting individuals and companies, not fighting full-
  scale conflicts, and their corporate attitudes reflect that. 
  Members of Argus see themselves as part of a team, where 
  toughness and dedication are prized and the only import-
  ant goals are the safety of one’s colleagues and protecting 
  the “package.” Anything else, which in practice is anything 
  outside of Argus, is treated with a rough, amused contempt. 
  Finally, Gagarin Deep Space is a Weyland subsidiary 
  unlike most of its contemporaries, mostly because it is 
  mostly owned and directly operated by Jack Weyland. This 
  corporation is singularly focused on deep space travel and 
  exploration, and its employees tend to share the same hard-
  charging enthusiasm and dedication to their work as their 
  CEO and leader. 
  Chapter 1: Character Creation
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  INTERACTING 
  WITH THE 
  WEYLAND 
  CONSORTIUM
  Given the Consortium’s corporate 
  structure, it should come as no surprise 
  that nobody interacts with it or its rep-
  resentatives directly. Corporate deals and 
  freelance gigs alike (both legal and ille-
  gal) tend to be worked through a series of 
  cutouts and front companies, so that one 
  might realize they were working indirectly 
  for the Consortium months or years after 
  the fact (if they ever realize it at all). 
  This ability to remove itself two or three 
  degrees from anything unpleasant means 
  that the Consortium can position itself to 
  take advantage of all facets of a war or disas-
  ter. Investigative reporters and public watch-
  dog groups have claimed that Consortium 
  subsidiaries have sold arms to multiple sides 
  in ongoing conflicts, or been hired to clean 
  up environmental disasters that may have been 
  created by other Consortium-owned assets. The 
  records never seem to lead back to the Board, how-
  ever, and while individual corporations may fall due to 
  criminal acts or corporate malfeasance, the Consortium 
  sails on unharmed (and sometimes collects insurance 
  proceeds from the collapse of their assets). 
  All this means that it’s not unheard of for freelance 
  operatives to be hired for a job, only to end up facing off 
  against other operatives whose paycheck may have come 
  from the Consortium’s coffers. The Consortium (or more 
  aptly, the subsidiaries of the holding companies owned by 
  the Consortium) work to structure these encounters so that 
  whether the job succeeds or fails, the Consortium benefits. 
  It’s a win-win, although the operatives involved tend not to 
  see things in that light.
  This tends to lead to the one element that pervades most 
  dealings with the Weyland Consortium or its many sub-
  sidiaries and affiliates—ruthlessness. Representatives with 
  ties to the Consortium (obvious or not) often suspect 
  that they’re just one more cog in a vast and complicated 
  machine. In the end, they’re often aware that they’re just 
  as expendable as the people they hire or deal with. That 
  means they’re willing to go to great lengths to ensure they 
  come out on top, whether that involves sabotage, theft, or 
  even murder. 
  TABLE 1–5: WEYLAND CONSORTIUM 
  SPECIFIC FAVORS
  Favor Type
  Examples (Depending on Subsidiary or 
  Company Division)
  Small Favors
  Let slip some juicy rumors about corporate 
  goings-on
  Get a part-time job in a construction firm or 
  other far-removed subsidiary
  Get bumped up the waiting list to get a ticket 
  for traveling on the Beanstalk
  Regular 
  Favors
  Provide information about corporate security
  Provide contacts and a favorable reference to a 
  prisec group or mercenary outfit 
  Get information on cargo being carried by a 
  specific beanpod
  Big Favors
  Get clearance to run a beanpod up the 
  Beanstalk without inspection
  Launder money through a Titan Transnational 
  Bank branch
  Access project information on whatever it is 
  Gagarin Deep Space is working on
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
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  FACTION: NBN
  N
  etwork Broadcast News. Near-Earth Broadcast 
  Network. NBN. The media conglomerate has been 
  known by many names since its founding as a local 
  news broadcaster in the bustling SanSan marketplace. 
  Originally one of the dozens of corporate offspring left 
  over from breaking up the monolithic entertainment giant 
  Vertex, Network Broadcast News was a thriving minor 
  player until the infamous Blackout destroyed the world’s 
  information networks. As world governments struggled for 
  something to replace their lost information infrastructure, 
  Network Broadcast News offered up a new, highly resilient 
  communications protocol that would form the framework 
  for what everyone came to call the Network. 
  The success of the Network established Network Broad-
  cast News as the premier global media corporation. Since 
  then, the corp has expanded alongside humanity up the 
  Beanstalk, to the Moon, Mars, and eventually the Belt, 
  until eventually it was simply known as “NBN.” Now, if 
  you watch it, read it, or listen to it, NBN distributed it (and 
  probably had a hand in creating it, too). 
  NBN IN YOUR LIFE
  While all corporations engage in a certain amount of 
  market diversification to appeal to the widest-possible 
  customer base, NBN takes this practice to its logical and 
  extreme conclusion. Most of what the corporation makes 
  is content, not products, and NBN prides itself on being 
  able to tailor that content to the exact tastes of its numer-
  ous audiences. Part of that tailoring involves releasing 
  their content through a multitude of subsidiaries and 
  secondary media outlets, each with their own carefully 
  cultivated brand and reputation. 
  For example, the New Angeles Sol maintains its cre-
  dentials as a hard-hitting investigative news provider, 
  while Esmeraldas Today operates as a local provider of 
  district-focused stories and gossip, and A New Moon 
  Rises is a broadcaster whose editorial staff wholeheart-
  edly support Lunar independence and stop just short of 
  full-fledged endorsements of a second violent revolution. 
  Each news provider has a very different tone, slant, and 
  reputation for journalistic integrity, but all three are NBN 
  subsidiaries, even if the corporate logo never appears on 
  their publications. 
  Likewise, most of the entertainment media consumed 
  by the average New Angelino is produced directly or indi-
  rectly by NBN. Harpsicord Studios makes some of the 
  world’s premier sensie-dramas, Chaos!Games churns out 
  a constant stream of VR first-person shooters and sports 
  simulators, and superstar Miranda Rhapsody is such a sen-
  sation she is her own entertainment business. But whether 
  you’re buying a ticket to her next live show, downloading 
  Sirius War V, or watching the critically acclaimed Earth-
  rise, the money you spend eventually ends up in NBN’s 
  corporate accounts. 
  Of course, nearly all New Angelinos interact with NBN 
  in another way, even if they don’t realize it. The ubiquitous 
  Network that links and in many ways runs the world is 
  supported and safeguarded by SYNC, an NBN subsidiary. 
  SYNC works hand-in-hand with most world governments 
  and major corporations to provide Network service across 
  the worlds, and to many, that makes SYNC and the Net-
  work synonymous. 
  CORPORATE CULTURE
  Under the current management of media mogul Victoria 
  Jenkins, lifestyle at NBN and many of its subsidiaries and 
  affiliates could be described as “viciously merit-based.” As 
  a business that relies on generating new media to survive, 
  NBN needs a constant stream of clever ideas to turn into 
  fresh content. Employees are rewarded lavishly for each 
  brilliant pitch or ratings-busting show, and can quickly 
  rise to manage whole studios, departments, or even sub-
  sidiary corporations. 
  However, NBN doesn’t have a long corporate memory, 
  and one can’t coast on past accomplishments for long. If an 
  employee doesn't produce, they're quickly exiled to a forgot-
  ten sub-division or simply fired. This means NBN employ-
  ees are constantly racing one another to be in the lead, and 
  plenty of them are more than happy to stab their colleagues 
  in the back by stealing ideas and claiming credit if it means 
  they can survive in the spotlight for a few more months. 
  As one might expect from a highly creative environment, 
  there are a lot of big egos at play at the NBN offices as well. 
  Managers and bosses tend to be more than happy to squash 
  their employees’ bold new ideas if they think those ideas 
  are better than anything they could invent. It’s not unheard 
  of for the head of a new sensie studio to trash anything 
  currently in production when they take over; secure in the 
  knowledge that those projects weren’t nearly as good as 
  anything they’ll create. 
  However, this culture isn’t universal to all NBN affil-
  iates. Some of NBN’s more serious news outlets (such as 
  the New Angeles Sol or the BosWash Times Post) oper-
  ate more cooperatively (or at least with an atmosphere 
  of mostly-friendly competition). Nowhere is this more 
  evident than in SYNC, however. SYNC staff tend to take 
  their self-appointed role as guardians of the Network very 
  seriously, and the company encourages an attitude of sober 
  professionalism akin to the attitudes of government regu-
  latory or law enforcement agencies. 
  INTERACTING WITH NBN
  Many NBN representatives exemplify the fast-talking, 
  quick-witted entertainment mogul. These individuals tend 
  to always be looking for an edge, whether it’s an advantage 
  in their current dealings, a new idea to pitch to their bosses, 
  or the Next Big Thing that’s going to sweep the Network. 
  This also means many are prone to snap judgments, and 
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  Chapter 1: Character Creation
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  thus put a lot of importance on personal appearance. Many 
  NBN employees (especially those in some sort of manage-
  ment or prominent creative position) have a look that they 
  work hard to maintain, whether it’s the highly seasoned 
  intellectual, the confident and calculating executive, the 
  friendly easy-going boss, or the cool and stylish maverick. 
  This, in turn, means that these representatives are likely 
  to judge the people they work with outside the company 
  by first impressions as well. This can prove problematic, as 
  deals might fall through or freelancers may not get hired 
  because their NBN contact decided the outsider didn’t 
  look like whatever role they were being hired to fill. On 
  the other hand, people who remember the old adage of 
  “dress for the job you want” can take advantage of those 
  first impressions. 
  However, those who assume that NBN’s representatives 
  tend to be shallow, vacuous dilettantes tend to regret it. In 
  such a brutal, traitorous corporate culture, nearly every-
  one has a plan to betray everyone else for their own ben-
  efit, and independent operatives aren’t exempt from the 
  backstabbing. At the very least, anyone who takes a job 
  with NBN should expect that the representative 
  they deal with  has set things up to their own 
  advantage. 
  The corporate culture does change some-
  what when dealing with some of NBN’s 
  news subsidiaries, especially the ones that 
  bill themselves as serious journalism. Here, 
  reporters and editors tend to be a bit more 
  analytical (and a lot more cynical), and 
  they tend to go into deals trying to figure 
  out what the other side is hoping to get. 
  These people assume everyone lies, and 
  trying to separate the truth from fiction 
  is often their overriding goal. 
  Of course, those interacting with 
  SYNC can expect a very different 
  experience. SYNC representatives 
  tend to exemplify their company’s 
  sober, ultra-serious culture. They 
  also tend to be insular to a point 
  of making Jinteki employees look 
  friendly and welcoming by com-
  parison. Nobody exemplifies this 
  more than members of SYNC’s 
  NetSec division, the individuals 
  directly responsible for main-
  taining the Network’s integrity. 
  TABLE 1–6: NBN SPECIFIC FAVORS
  Favor Type
  Examples (Depending on Subsidiary or 
  Company Division)
  Small Favors
  Learn about breaking news a few minutes 
  before it runs
  Find out about some juicy celebrity gossip
  Get contact information for a New Angeles 
  citizen (who has accessed any of NBN's 
  broadcasting feeds at some point)
  Regular Favors
  Get brought to an important interview as a 
  “camera operator” or other employee of NBN
  Access proprietary footage or camera feeds
  Route a call through NBN systems without it 
  being recorded or traced
  Big Favors
  Learn about a story that NBN is choosing not 
  to cover
  Access data analytics of NBN users
  Be able to “borrow” a communications 
  satellite for thirty seconds
  63
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
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  FACTION: ORGCRIME
  D
  espite their reach and power, there are places where 
  the megacorps simply can’t go. They don’t own local 
  governments enough to get away with openly selling 
  narcotics or human lives, nor can they provide the sort of 
  untracked weapons that some individuals require. As always, 
  organized criminal groups are happy to fill that niche.
  Much like the megacorps themselves, today’s orgcrime 
  outfits are the products of hundreds of years of mergers, 
  acquisitions, traditions, and occasional open warfare. They 
  operate across the worlds with impunity, their illegal activ-
  ities cloaked in a veneer of legitimate business interests. 
  They own politicians, police, and corporate executives.
  The biggest difference is that, where the megacorps can 
  enforce contracts through the courts, orgcrime has to rely 
  on the projection of force. Anyone who has dealings with 
  an orgcrime outfit knows the score: to cross it is to die.
  LEGITIMATE 
  INVESTMENTS
  One thing separating orgcrime from the hundreds of 
  street gangs crawling through any major city is that org-
  crime invests heavily in legitimate business. Casinos and 
  import/export concerns have long been favorites of orga-
  nized crime because they support the illegal side of its 
  business by providing a front for money laundering and 
  smuggling operations. Donations to local charities and 
  religious organizations are also common, as any savvy 
  operator knows that a community that values them will 
  shield them from investigation.
  As the worlds have moved onto the Network, so have 
  organized criminal groups. Several midsize information 
  security firms, like Allegiance and Dallanor Ltd, have 
  ties to shadowy investors. Plenty of orgcrime outfits also 
  sponsor the runners and securities crimes that these firms 
  protect against. 
  ILLEGAL ACTIVITY
  Across three worlds and hundreds of unique jurisdictions, 
  it is hard to say just what constitutes “illegal activity.” The 
  organized crime standbys are the same as they ever were: 
  guns with the serial numbers filed off and digital finger-
  prints scrubbed, illegal narcotics, people killed or kid-
  napped, information bought and sold.
  Orgcrime also tends to foster the best runners, people 
  who write their own code and bend the Net to their uses. 
  The services of these runners are in high demand, from 
  businesses and investors looking for an edge on the market 
  to people who need to vanish without a trace.
  MAJOR PLAYERS
  One of the more secretive organized crime outfits, the 
  yakuza once ran gambling dens in Edo era Japan. Now 
  the organization specializes in high-tech and white-collar 
  crime; headhunting the best runners and using them to 
  find blackmail material, corporate secrets, and more. The 
  yakuza are also rumored to have ties to Jinteki Biotech, to 
  the point where some people argue that the criminal orga-
  nization may just be the “White-Collar Crime” division of 
  the megacorp. 
  The yakuza cloak themselves in an air of mystery and rit-
  ual, including covering themselves in ornate tattoos, carry-
  ing high-tech katanas, and employing a centuries old orga-
  nizational structure. While this might seem a bit ridiculous 
  to outsiders, all of the theater helps forge their members into 
  a loyal, and dangerous, syndicate. Yakuza members tend to 
  have complete dedication to their oyabun (a boss in the orga-
  nization) and the syndicate as a whole, and willingly accept 
  that failure often means painful sacrifice or death.
  There is always a black market to provide the goods and 
  services that the legitimate marketplace won’t. In New 
  Angeles, many of those markets are supplied by the Mafia’s 
  smuggling operations, which also has its paws in racketeer-
  ing, illegal gambling, and the less stereotypical illegal infor-
  mation trade. Formed from the strongest elements of the 
  Italian, Russian, and Balkan organizations, the Tri-Maf (as 
  it is sometimes known in New Angeles) tends to work with 
  those who live off the grid, acting as the fixer for those who 
  have no other resort. 
  The Chinese triads who came together under 14K cor-
  nered the New Angeles market on opiate trafficking and 
  counterfeiting. They’ve parlayed their influence into legit-
  imate lobbying firms often promoting Chinese business 
  interests as well as their own. In New Angeles, 14K often 
  operates as the shadowy doppelganger to a legitimate busi-
  ness, with Li Cheong Hua (or “Mr. Li”) running its under-
  world operations in a pragmatic and responsible way. He 
  prefers to keep things civil right up until the point where 
  someone crosses him—at which point their gruesome 
  deaths serve as a pointed warning.
  After the founding of New Angeles, the drug cartels 
  throughout Central and South America banded together to 
  form Los Scorpiones—a single entity that could compete 
  globally. They run all manner of narcotics and engage in the 
  messiest of illegal activities. Los Scorpiones tend to have a 
  lot of dealings with local street gangs, especially when run-
  ning their drug distribution and production outfits. They 
  also engage in “organ grinding,” where people are snatched 
  off the streets for their organs and cybernetics, after which 
  their remains are dumped deep in the undercity. 
  Chapter 1: Character Creation
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  INTERACTING WITH 
  ORGCRIME OUTFITS
  Interactions with orgcrime outfits tend to depend on the 
  outfit, as each one has different attitudes and approaches to 
  its “business.” The yakuza, for example, tend to be extremely 
  insular. People who try and approach them tend to get 
  nowhere, or they get a bit too close and simply disappear. 
  Instead, if you have something the yakuza is interested in, 
  they’ll approach you. This holds especially true for talented 
  runners—the yakuza is always on the lookout for top talent 
  to help continue its trade in information theft. 
  Once someone has been hired by the yakuza, they expect 
  complete loyalty to the job, and accept nothing but success. 
  By taking on work with them, you’ve committed yourself 
  to being a part of the organization whether you realize 
  it or not. Any attempt to back out of the deal—or worse, 
  double-cross them—guarantees a heinous death. 
  Members of the Tri-Maf, on the other hand, tend to pres-
  ent themselves as affable and agreeable individuals who 
  are eager to help supply people with whatever those peo-
  ple need. The Tri-Maf tend to be the fixers and dealers in 
  the undercity, and they’re the people most criminals go to 
  when they need to outfit themselves for a job. The Tri-Maf 
  also provides services like credit laundering, identity wipes, 
  and valuable information. However, 
  the friendly act is just that—an act. 
  Failure to pay what’s owed or reneg-
  ing on a deal means the Tri-Maf either 
  sends its enforcers out, or they simply 
  take out a high-end contract on that 
  unfortunate’s life.
  Like the Tri-Maf, 14K representa-
  tives tend to present themselves as 
  reasonable businesspeople—right up 
  until someone gets in their way or 
  betrays them. They also are heavily 
  involved in the world of corpora-
  tions and politics, to the point of 
  having controlling interests in sev-
  eral corporations and PR firms. Some-
  times the corporate representative you 
  deal with may also be a high-ranking 
  member of 14K.
  Finally, Los Scorpiones tend to act as grue-
  some and bloodthirsty as their reputations 
  would suggest. They maintain this reputation 
  by being terrifying and unpredictable, and anyone 
  dealing with them should remember that violence may be 
  only a heartbeat away. Los Scorpiones representatives tend 
  to see nothing wrong with betraying the people they hire, 
  so only the most desperate or dangerous take their jobs. 
  TABLE 1–7: ORGCRIME SPECIFIC FAVORS
  Favor Type
  Examples
  Small Favors
  Provide a high-interest loan
  Gain access to an illegal establishment
  Verbally threaten someone
  Regular Favors
  Rough someone up
  Provide a restricted item, such as a 
  weapon or illicit substances
  Smuggle a small item into New Angeles 
  using regular smuggling routes
  Provide a single enforcer as a bodyguard 
  for a day or two
  Big Favors
  Kill someone
  Smuggle a shipment of illegal items into 
  New Angeles
  Provide a group of armed and dangerous 
  muscle for backup
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
  65
    (Order #17879226)
  
  FACTION: STREET GANGS
  N
  o one knows for sure how many people are cur-
  rently living in the undercity, below the plaza 
  level of the arcologies of New Angeles. Many of 
  them were born on the streets and have no identification 
  number or birth certificate. Others are immigrants, for-
  mer residents of villages in the Ecuadoran Andes who 
  have come seeking a better life, or people from across the 
  Earth drawn to the promise of the Beanstalk. Still others 
  were born to life above plaza level but found themselves, 
  by chance or choice, stripped of their identities and living 
  in the undercity.
  These people band together out of necessity. Belonging 
  to a gang means you have someone to watch your back 
  and stand guard while you sleep. It means access to better 
  shelter and more food. And when the NAPD comes knock-
  ing, the gang gives you a chance to fight back, or at least 
  hold your ground long enough that you don’t lose what 
  little you have.
  LIVING IN THE 
  UNDERWORLD
  Life at ground level is hard and mean. In the undercity, the 
  housing tends to be disused old constructions amid the 
  foundations of the starscrapers and arcologies, or repur-
  posed cargo containers and scrap housing built among 
  towering plascrete supports. What stays below the plaza 
  level is mostly criminal activity: drug dealers, pimps, and 
  abusive bosses looking for indentured servants. Trash con-
  stantly drifts down as well, forming dense dunes and drifts 
  of garbage and detritus.
  The summers are blistering hot; no breeze can make it 
  through the densely packed buildings, and even more heat 
  radiates from the power plants buried in the basements 
  of the surrounding structures. Nothing grows in the dark 
  alleys. Even the rain is artificial, just showers of runoff and 
  sewage that trickle down from above. There are few social 
  services on the bottom, and no medical care except for the 
  unlicensed street docs who might patch you back together, 
  but just as easily might sell your organs on the black market.
  THE FAVOR ECONOMY
  Credits still exist in the undercity, often in the form of 
  credsticks. But the undercity denizens also trade supplies 
  and favors to get by. A web of favors and debt weaves the 
  undercity together, and it’s through this precarious econ-
  omy that the street gangs operate. An addict may help as a 
  lookout on a job or sabotage seccams in exchange for their 
  next fix, or an apartment owner may let gang members use 
  some rooms in exchange for protection. 
  NOTABLE GANGS
  There are almost as many street gangs are there are blocks 
  in the undercity—which a poetic way of saying that there 
  are thousands, if not tens of thousands, scattered across 
  New Angeles. Most are small-time affairs with less than a 
  dozen members, but a few have become large, influential, 
  or dangerous enough to be noticed. 
  One of many street gangs made up of people of Ecua-
  doran lineage, Los Pistoleros is notorious for actively 
  recruiting outside of New Angeles. A steady supply of 
  faces and fingerprints that have never appeared on record 
  allows Los Pistoleros to execute mugging sprees upcity 
  with relatively little consequence. The gang maintains 
  most of its territory in the Base de Cayambe and Chakana 
  districts, but it sends members out across New Angeles to 
  carry out its crimes.
  One of the most violent gangs in Rabotgorod, the Dru-
  zhinniki, draws a following of dedicated killers. They are 
  ruthless in maintaining the boundaries of their territory 
  against other gangs and the NAPD. The gang has made 
  its violence political, positioning its members as “freedom 
  fighters” oppressed by the municipal government.
  Named for the colors its members wear, the Green and 
  Black was founded by people seeking protection from a 
  local surge in racist skinhead gangs. Since emerging victo-
  rious from that original fight, they have sought to establish 
  themselves legitimately, lobbying for support from upcity 
  and acting as guides and bodyguards for aid workers.
  Vendetta Blood works several blocks in Base de 
  Cayambe and even runs a storefront in the Mercado Baja. 
  Besides dealing stim and engaging in thefts and muggings, 
  its members have connections among the staff of ware-
  house storage companies that deal in materials waiting 
  to go up-Stalk. More than one beanpod has arrived at the 
  Challenger Planetoid or Luna full of crushed beer cans and 
  rocks, thanks to a Vendetta Blood heist. 
  INTERACTING WITH 
  STREET GANGS
  Interactions with street gangs depend entirely on the gang 
  in question, and the worst thing you can do is assume one 
  gang is going to act like another just because they’re both 
  criminal groups in the undercity. Each gang has different 
  behaviors depending on the members, the leaders, their 
  territory, and the community they occupy. In fact, some 
  gang “personalities” may change markedly from month to 
  month as members are killed or arrested, new recruits are 
  brought in, and the gangs grow or shrink in size and the 
  territory they control.
  Some street gangs are simply small groups of crimi-
  nals who have banded together for mutual protection 
  and increased success. They have no pretenses about their 
  motives, and tend to defend their (usually limited) terri-
  tory with posturing and threats. Their aggressive actions 
  are something of a front, however. Most minor street gangs 
  are well aware that they’re small fish in New Angeles’ ocean 
  of criminal activity, and are wary about starting a conflict 
  66
  Chapter 1: Character Creation
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  with a much more powerful group. Trying to placate these 
  gangs may only encourage them, as they assume weakness 
  and the opportunity to make some easy credits. On the 
  other hand, aggressive posturing in response may encour-
  age them to back off.
  This approach is likely to get you killed when dealing 
  with some of the larger and more powerful street gangs. 
  Groups like Los Pistoleros or the Druzhinniki have enough 
  members, money, and pull with the local cops to make 
  them a dangerous foe, and they know it. The best way to 
  deal with these gangs is to avoid them, or if that’s not pos-
  sible, be polite while not seeming like easy prey. 
  Other gangs cast themselves in the role of neighborhood 
  protectors. That isn’t so ridiculous given that they tend to 
  occupy territory that the NAPD seldom bothers patrolling. 
  These gangs may have close ties to their local community, 
  with strong networks of family and friends living on their 
  block. They may even limit their criminal activity to nonvi-
  olent activities such as drug dealing or protection rackets, 
  or travel outside their territory to make the most of their 
  money. Since these gangs have dependents to protect, 
  they’re more likely to leave you alone if you’re not a threat 
  to them or their families. However, anyone who seems like 
  they could bring trouble down on the block is going to be 
  quickly driven out or killed.
  Some gangs take the idea of being protectors 
  a step further, and occupy a blurry space 
  between criminals and revolutionaries. The 
  Green and Black are one of many gangs, 
  and while they usually still break the law, 
  they cloak their activities in a veneer of 
  legitimacy. Pointing out any hypocrisy 
  in their actions is a great way to get 
  on those gangs’ bad side, whereas 
  appealing to their self-image as pro-
  tectors or champions of the down-
  trodden usually keeps members 
  of those gangs friendly. 
  TABLE 1–8: STREET GANG SPECIFIC FAVORS
  Favor Type
  Examples
  Small Favors
  Allow someone to travel through the gang’s 
  territory
  Verbally threaten someone
  Provide information about the portion of the 
  undercity that the gang controls
  Regular 
  Favors
  Rough someone up
  Provide a restricted item such as a weapon or 
  illicit substances
  Allow someone to set up an operation in the 
  gang’s territory
  Big Favors
  Kill someone
  Provide protection while in the gang’s territory
  Join a certain side in a gang war
  67
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
    (Order #17879226)
  
  FACTION: NAPD
  T
  he New Angeles Police Department is the largest in 
  the worlds, with a jurisdiction extending into Earth’s 
  orbit and all the way to Heinlein. Its officers come 
  from a broad spectrum of backgrounds, and they hold equally 
  diverse views on the best methods for policing the megalop-
  olis. Still, they all have the same mission: to protect and serve 
  the citizens of New Angeles. At least, that’s the theory.
  Despite the NAPD’s expansive jurisdiction, officers encoun-
  ter many limits to their remit. The terrestrial border of New 
  Angeles is surprisingly porous, and it’s not unusual to find 
  detectives pursuing investigations into Ecuador. Sometimes 
  the national or local Ecuadorian police are ready to cooper-
  ate, but this isn’t always the case. When it comes to the pri-
  vate sector, obstacles are even more common. The NAPD can’t 
  enter private property without probable cause, a warrant, or an 
  invitation. Often, NAPD officers find themselves turned away 
  from arcologies or corporate offices by prisec, with assurances 
  of a false alarm. Even the arcologies of risties and the well-
  to-do have their own security forces, many of which cooperate 
  as little as possible as a matter of course.
  On many high-profile cases, corporation security and 
  lawyers stymie investigative efforts at every turn. Although 
  NAPD leadership denies that corp interference is a concern, 
  it’s an open secret among the department. Many investiga-
  tions involving suspected criminal activity by or against a 
  corp are left to the corp itself, even when the NAPD has 
  full legal authority. Sometimes this is only after a protracted 
  jurisdictional conflict; at others, an order simply comes 
  down from above to close the case.
  DEPARTMENT 
  ORGANIZATION
  At the top of the NAPD is the commissioner, currently 
  Chen-Mai Dawn. The NAPD is organized into twelve dis-
  trict offices, one for each district of New Angeles, includ-
  ing Heinlein. Each is led by a deputy commissioner, who 
  reports—along with the chief of internal affairs—directly 
  to the commissioner of police. Below each deputy com-
  missioner are multiple captains, each overseeing a bureau 
  or division within their particular precinct. Several lieu-
  tenants perform more specialized oversight, and sergeants 
  command individual squads. Numerous other ranks and 
  titles exist within the labyrinthine organization of the 
  NAPD, with varying responsibilities at the department 
  level or within individual divisions, bureaus, and precincts.
  The NAPD employs hundreds of thousands of sworn 
  officers and civilian personnel doing everything from 
  station-level record keeping to exosuit SWAT operations. Of 
  course, every one of these NAPD members interacts with 
  individuals outside the department in both professional and 
  personal capacities, and many people find benefit to a rela-
  tionship with someone on the force. At a basic level, picking 
  up information about police culture might help a person to 
  navigate a situation should they find themself in trouble. 
  Sometimes, dropping the right name can mean the differ-
  ence between a warning and an arrest. In the most extreme 
  examples, an ally within the NAPD might even be willing to 
  bend or break the rules to make a problem go away.
  INTERACTING WITH  
  THE NAPD
  There is no “typical” citizen’s view of the NAPD. Opinions 
  vary drastically, although certain trends are clear. Well-
  to-do arcology dwellers often view the NAPD as trust-
  worthy, honorable protectors, while many in the undercity 
  see officers as fearsome oppressors. Powerful corp execu-
  tives might view the NAPD as a useful tool or a nuisance, as 
  the situation warrants. With an organization as expansive 
  as the NAPD, many such opinions are colored by individ-
  ual interactions and experiences—so all of these views, and 
  more, are accurate.
  Regardless, for most people, interacting with an on-duty 
  NAPD officer means something has gone wrong. Thanks 
  to seccams and police hoppers, NAPD patrol officers rarely 
  set foot on the streets without cause. As a result, casual or 
  coincidental encounters with uniformed officers are rare. 
  Consequently, the sight of an approaching uniform makes 
  many people nervous, just as it can bring relief for fright-
  ened victims of crime.
  549TH PRECINCT,  
  ESMERALDAS DISTRICT
  The NAPD’s 549th Precinct, based in the Esmeraldas Dis-
  trict, is in many ways typical of an NAPD station. Taking 
  up fourteen floors of a primarily government-leased star-
  scraper, the precinct is small for an NAPD office, and many 
  of its officers see it as understaffed and underfunded, con-
  sidering the area’s crime rate. 
  This precinct is situated among some of the “rougher” 
  neighborhoods of the district, and its officers also tend 
  toward the rough side. Many are quick to assume the worst 
  when responding to a call. The 549th has something of a 
  reputation among the locals, and the NAPD, for corrup-
  tion. Accusations of bribery, evidence tampering, and other 
  abuses of power are not uncommon, although few ever 
  become formal complaints and even fewer lead to disci-
  plinary action. Various legal challenges might stretch on for 
  years, although criminal charges for NAPD personnel are 
  rare. Of course, this corruption is a boon for some citizens. 
  For those who know the right people—or drop the right 
  cash—certain officers are willing to make a charge disap-
  pear, or even create a problem for someone else.
  As they do throughout the NAPD, patrol officers of the 
  549th commonly work a full shift, even days, without ever 
  Chapter 1: Character Creation
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  stepping foot in the station. The precinct’s AI, Manuel, serves 
  as secretary for every officer, coordinating and interpreting 
  data, dispatching officers, managing schedules, and other-
  wise ensuring that the precinct’s work goes smoothly. Officers 
  commonly receive their shift briefing by virt, allowing them 
  to participate whether at their desk or in their hopper. Forms 
  and reports are managed digitally, and Manuel can accept 
  most reports verbally. Often, an officer only needs to visit the 
  station in person after making an arrest. Even then, nonvio-
  lent suspects may be transported by automated hopper.
  Things are different for officers in other bureaus and 
  divisions. They often make use of specialized equipment 
  and facilities, and the station has an administrative staff 
  who work from the office. These officers and staff are in the 
  precinct station daily, or close to it. The bullpen is a bus-
  tle of virts and vidscreens, while soundproofed holding 
  cells—also shielded against wireless signals—isolate appre-
  hended suspects. Walking the halls, it’s not unusual to see 
  uniformed officers, plainclothes detectives, and armored 
  SWAT members. 
  249TH PRECINCT, NARCOTICS UNIT
  The Narcotics Unit of the 249th Precinct investigates crimes 
  involving illegal drugs, simsensies, and related contraband. 
  Informally known as the “Vice Squad,” the unit works on 
  investigations that often intersect with other bureaus and 
  units. Its members collaborate with Homicide, Forensics, 
  and even the Cyber Bureau.
  Situated in New Angeles’ Rutherford District, the 249th 
  Precinct is well funded and equipped, and this extends to its 
  specialized units and bureaus. The Narcotics Unit makes 
  considerable use of Hachi-Inu clones: highly intel-
  ligent dogs marked by their blue coloration and 
  handlike paws. Among their many genet-
  ically engineered talents, Hachi-Inus 
  are superior to any natural canine 
  when it comes to detecting drugs 
  and other illicit materials.
  Despite 
  the 
  precinct’s 
  resources and the popularity of 
  illegal drugs and sensies among 
  citizens of all economic classes, 
  the 249th’s Narcotics Unit tends 
  to focus its investigations on 
  poorer, sub–plaza level neigh-
  borhoods and gang activity. 
  Although narcotics like Blue 
  Tears and Slam remain a 
  popular pastime among ris-
  ties, officers of the 249th are 
  more likely to arrest and charge 
  the poor and disenfrancistos. 
  The Vice Squad is unlikely to 
  investigate narcotics sales 
  in arcologies unless they 
  involve violent incidents 
  or orgcrime.
  TABLE 1–9: NAPD SPECIFIC FAVORS
  Favor Type
  Examples
  Small Favors
  Fix a parking ticket
  Ignore a minor infraction such as a traffic 
  violation or drug possession
  Regular 
  Favors
  Stay out of a particular area during a particular 
  time
  Provide information from law-enforcement 
  databases
  Big Favors
  Actively take part in a criminal enterprise
  Lose or "discover" an important piece of 
  evidence to a major case
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
  69
    (Order #17879226)
  
  FACTION: GOVERNMENT
  T
  he political situation in New Angeles is compli-
  cated; relatively few citizens understand the intri-
  cacies of the situation, or try to. Three governments 
  primarily influence the lives of New Angelinos—the New 
  Angeles territorial government, the federal government of 
  the United States, and the government of Ecuador. Con-
  flicts of jurisdiction are not uncommon, and savvy individ-
  uals can take advantage of the nebulous legal areas arising 
  from New Angeles’ unique status.
  NEW ANGELES 
  The Special Economic Zone of Ecuadorian New Los 
  Angeles is as complex a political entity as it is unusual. 
  An unincorporated U.S. territory comprising a single city, 
  New Angeles is also arguably the biggest, wealthiest city in 
  the worlds. Consequently, New Angeles has a territorial 
  government that rivals or surpasses many national gov-
  ernments in both scale and influence. Still, this power is 
  somewhat tempered by the authority of the United States 
  and Ecuadoran governments, and even by the independent 
  Space Elevator Authority.
  New Angeles has its own laws and regulations on every-
  thing from immigration and border control to taxes, rack-
  eteering, violent crime, and more. Thanks to the Treaty 
  of Heinlein, the U.S. federal government’s direct influence 
  over the territory is limited in a number of ways, leav-
  ing City Hall with a large amount of power. Of course, 
  power in New Angeles is always in a delicate balance. For 
  all of City Hall’s authority, it relies on the U.S. federal gov-
  ernment for a number of supports, and it must maintain 
  relatively good relations with Ecuador’s government. The 
  megacorps, too, have no shortage of influence over poli-
  tics in New Angeles.
  INTERACTING WITH NEW  
  ANGELES CITY GOVERNMENT
  To say that one “knows somebody” in New Angeles govern-
  ment is so broad as to be almost meaningless: the bureau-
  cracy of New Angeles is sprawling, and individual districts 
  require a governmental apparatus traditionally appropriate 
  for an entire country. City employees, with the exception 
  of those at the highest levels, have a relatively small area of 
  influence. Knowing the right person in City Hall might get 
  someone out of a zoning violation, but only if the staff at 
  the district hall chooses not to press the issue. Conversely, 
  a friend with responsibilities for only a few neighborhoods 
  within a district could save a person from all sorts of trou-
  ble higher up.
  ECUADOR
  As long as the land lease afforded by the Quito Accord is in 
  place, Ecuador has no real power over New Angeles. Still, 
  the city’s location within the bounds of Ecuador gives that 
  nation’s government a degree of influence. As important as 
  the space elevator is, plenty of traffic, both goods and peo-
  ple, come into New Angeles by traditional means. Ecuador’s 
  control of the air space around the megalopolis means it 
  could create problems for the leadership of New Angeles if 
  so inclined. For those looking further ahead, the uncertainty 
  surrounding the fate of New Angeles when the lease expires 
  at the end of the century is reason to keep relations positive.
  INTERACTING WITH THE 
  GOVERNMENT OF ECUADOR
  For those on the wrong side of the law in New Angeles or who 
  make powerful enemies within the corps, contacts within 
  Ecuador’s government can be powerful allies. With the right 
  credentials and favors, it’s possible for someone fleeing New 
  Angeles—for whatever reason—to effectively disappear into 
  Ecuador. For those facing legal trouble, the complex web 
  of jurisdiction between the U.S. Feds, the NAPD, and the 
  Policía Nacional del Ecuador can be a lifesaver. Extradition, 
  though far from unheard of, is not guaranteed, and the pro-
  cess can take years. The porous border and expanding sub-
  urbs of New Angeles also lead to no shortage of disputes.
  And then there are the millions of Ecuadoran citizens 
  residing within New Angeles, or those who work in the 
  megalopolis while living in Ecuador. While both are tech-
  nically illegal, border security has proven harder and harder 
  to enforce as New Angeles has overflowed its boundaries, 
  and plenty of employers are willing to ignore regulations 
  and hire Ecuadoran citizens. A well-connected Ecuadoran 
  can create a major headache for the NAPD or various prisec 
  firms. They might stall proceedings based on their legal sta-
  tus, or fight for extradition to Ecuador, hoping to face more 
  favorable circumstances there. Conversely, some individ-
  uals with enemies in Ecuador’s government or a criminal 
  record in that country may fight tooth and nail to have their 
  day in court in New Angeles.
  UNITED STATES
  Whether or not the United States is the global leader it once 
  was is a subject of some debate among risties and intellectu-
  als, but it remains an undeniable world power and home of 
  the influential megacities of SanSan, ChiLo, and BosWash. 
  Although the U.S. ceded much of its direct control over 
  New Angeles with the Treaty of Heinlein, and despite the 
  geographic distance involved, it is nonetheless the country 
  to which New Angeles belongs, and therefore it is also the 
  country of the highly important space elevator.
  Chapter 1: Character Creation
  70
    (Order #17879226)
  
  INTERACTING WITH THE UNITED 
  STATES GOVERNMENT
  As residents of a territory, the citizens of New Angeles 
  do not vote in U.S. federal elections and have no voting 
  representation in Congress, nor are they guaranteed U.S. 
  citizenship. In some ways, thanks to the independence 
  secured for New Angeles due to the economic importance 
  of the space elevator, the U.S. government seems more 
  remote than it is for any state or other territory. None-
  theless, a variety of U.S. federal laws regulate life in New 
  Angeles, and the wealthy and powerful often work to cul-
  tivate relationships within the federal bureaucracy and 
  among lawmakers. 
  The United States’ authority over New Angeles, and 
  the Beanstalk in particular, remains a great asset for the 
  nation, and New Angeles receives a corresponding level of 
  federal scrutiny. Even on matters for which the U.S. gov-
  ernment has little direct authority, there are a number of 
  federal departments, divisions, and offices that can influ-
  ence events in New Angeles through means subtle, obvious, 
  deniable, and downright legally questionable.
  OFFICE OF SENATOR  
  ARPITA WITHERS
  As chair of the Subcommittee on International and Inter-
  planetary Trade and Customs, Senator Arpita Withers 
  holds considerable influence over matters of commerce rel-
  evant to the Beanstalk and, by extension, all of New Ange-
  les. While the Space Elevator Authority controls the day-
  to-day administration of the Beanstalk, and the New 
  Angeles government has a great deal of autonomy 
  for a U.S. territory, matters of international and 
  interorbital trade are subject to a wide range of 
  U.S. federal laws and regulations.
  Currently in her fifth term in office, 
  Senator Withers is an experienced and—
  some would say—cynical politician. Crit-
  ics often see Senator Withers’s actions 
  as showing preference for the corps, 
  and they have gone so far as to level 
  accusations of bribery regarding 
  legislation affecting both Argus Security and Melange Min-
  ing. So far, the evidence is insufficient for either a congres-
  sional or criminal investigation.
  Those who want some sway with the senator would do 
  well to first make a good impression on her office admin-
  istrator, Dianne Myer. A severe and deliberate woman, in 
  more cases than not, Myer decides which appointments 
  and meetings make it into the senator’s PAD. Parties who 
  attempt to bypass Myer rarely secure a fruitful relationship 
  with Senator Withers. On the other hand, Myer’s influence 
  over the senator’s schedule can be a great asset even for 
  those keeping their distance from Withers’s office.
  TABLE 1–10: GOVERNMENT SPECIFIC FAVORS
  Favor Type
  Examples (Depending on Government)
  Small Favors
  Access municipal records and help sort 
  through publicly accessible data
  Put in a good word to the right official to help 
  expedite a civil procedure
  Regular Favors
  Provide surveillance footage of an event
  Access restricted municipal records
  Waive civil charges against a person
  Issue a temporary visa for a person
  Big Favors
  Drop criminal charges against a person
  Forge identification documents for a person
  Access orbital surveillance systems
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
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    (Order #17879226)
  
  FACTION: GLOBALSEC
  W
  hile Argus Security is the undisputed leader 
  in small-scale prisec, Globalsec is unmatched 
  as a provider of private military forces. The 
  megacorp employs hundreds of thousands of both sup-
  port personnel and combatants, and it can field armies 
  larger than those of some small countries. Among Glo-
  balsec’s most lucrative contracts are those with the NAPD, 
  Humanity Labor, and  the U.S. Department of Defense and 
  Department of State. These are only a sampling of the orga-
  nizations that employ Globalsec’s services; individuals far 
  removed from the defense field might nonetheless have 
  contacts among Globalsec’s staff.
  Globalsec is headquartered in Atlantica, with primary 
  operations bases in major cities around the globe, as well 
  as on Luna and Mars. Additional, smaller field offices and 
  forward operating bases allow Globalsec to respond quickly 
  to flashpoints almost anywhere on Earth. CEO Lidiah 
  Maucher continues to diversify Globalsec’s offerings. In 
  addition to its role as a private military contractor supplying 
  infantry, aeronautical, and naval forces, the corp is a major 
  provider of consultation and training to private security 
  forces and national militaries across the worlds. Globalsec’s 
  intelligence gathering and analysis operations are as robust 
  as its armed forces, rivaling or surpassing those of even 
  major nations. In many ways, Globalsec is a full defense 
  department and military, just one without a country.
  INTERACTING  
  WITH GLOBALSEC
  Most New Angelinos interact with prisec outfits all the 
  time without even thinking about them. Most businesses 
  and corporations contract with a prisec provider to han-
  dle electronic and physical security for their companies, so 
  people see prisec operatives on their way into the office, as 
  they board the Metro, or when they have a problem with 
  their Network access privileges at work. However, most 
  New Angelinos treat these operatives with the same easy 
  familiarity they would treat a coworker, or even sometimes 
  with amused contempt (thinking of them as "lesser" secu-
  rity than the NAPD or other government agencies). 
  However, some New Angelinos have a very different view 
  of the prisec companies themselves. For a lot of people, the 
  term "prisec" is synonymous with "mercenaries," and com-
  panies like Globalsec conjure up images of highly-trained 
  and equipped amoral warriors who will do anything as long 
  as they're paid. As more information about the Worlds War 
  and the role prisec providers played gets released, and with 
  the massacre of NAPD forces by unidentified mercenaries 
  during the 23 Seconds Incident still fresh in the minds of 
  the public, prisec corporations and their paramilitary con-
  tractors tend to be treated with suspicion and fear. This 
  holds especially true for Globalsec, who has firmly estab-
  lished its reputation as a private army. 
  So generally the public distrusts and fears the more mil-
  itant employees of prisec outfits, while remaining friendly 
  and familiar with the prisec security officers they work with 
  daily. What they tend to forget, of course, is that both are 
  just two different parts of the same corporations. 
  NETWORK THREATS
  The Network Threats Division is Globalsec’s elite cyber 
  warfare unit. Recruiting from U.S. Electronic Warfare Ser-
  vice personnel and corp sysops, and even taking on the 
  occasional “reformed” runner, NetThreats benefits from 
  a diversity of experience that few—if any—cyber defense 
  teams can match. It is this experience that allows the team 
  to identify and respond to emerging threats before others 
  do—and to develop new intrusion techniques of its own.
  Commonly considered to rival the EWS in capability, 
  NTD finds its services are in constant demand across the 
  worlds. From  intercorp espionage, to consultation for gov-
  ernment agencies, to counter-cyberterrorism, NetThreats 
  staff have shown an ability to effectively wield their exper-
  tise in any conceivable application.
  As Globalsec’s senior VP for electronic security, Jada Tsai 
  leads the NetThreats division. Her experience and contacts 
  from her time as a captain in the EWS have proved a boon 
  to Globalsec, although some subordinates find her overly 
  formal and rigid approach to be abrasive and stifling.
  Day-to-day operations see NetThreats staff operating in a 
  number of offices around the globe and beyond. While divi-
  sion staff may engage remotely for many of their duties,  con-
  sulting work, hardware maintenance and installation, secure 
  running, and other specialized tasks require a closer proxim-
  ity, if not a true in-person presence. Although some infantry 
  and spec-ops staff view NetThreats as safe “office work,” the 
  risk of injury or even death from a fried brain-machine inter-
  face (BMI) port is very real in the high-stakes cyber opera-
  tions Globalsec undertakes on a daily basis.
  “CASTILLO’S COWBOYS”
  The team led by Raúl Castillo is a typical Globalsec infantry 
  unit, consisting of ten security specialists, an assistant team 
  leader, and a team leader. As with traditional militaries, in 
  Globalsec, informal team names like “Castillo’s Cowboys” 
  are common. Because Globalsec, like most private military 
  contractors (PMCs), doesn’t follow traditional military orga-
  nization, units often lack numbered designations, which 
  lends a greater utility to such quasi-official unit names.
  Like Castillo himself, many of his team members have 
  experience with a national military, primarily that of the 
  U.S. Some squad members, including Team Leader Cas-
  tillo, Security Specialist Carmen Tsai, and Security Specialist 
  Fawad Noorani, fought on opposed sides at various times 
  during the War. This isn’t uncommon among PMCs, whose 
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  staff consider it a point of professionalism to leave such dif-
  ferences in the past. Team members with a shared military 
  past, however, do often 
  find camaraderie and 
  sense of identity based 
  on that experience.
  The team’s assignments include  antiterrorist operations, 
  territorial disputes, and even the elimination of individual 
  corporate targets. They range from open engagements in 
  the war-torn Mediterranean to stealth insertions in the 
  heights of New Angeles. The team members hold a mat-
  ter-of-fact approach to the grimmer aspects of their work. 
  Killing is, to the Cowboys, part of the job—even when that 
  includes decidedly nonmilitary targets.
  Castillo’s Cowboys are tightly knit as a group, with a 
  strong sense of loyalty to one another. Each member knows 
  that their teammates would never turn on them or betray 
  their “trade secrets,” even in the unlikely event of serious 
  legal trouble arising from their mission activities. Glo-
  balsec encourages this attitude among its employees—both 
  in nondisclosure agreements and unwritten policies—with 
  the expectation that such tight-lipped loyalty 
  extends to the corp as a whole, and goes 
  both ways.
  THE COMPETITION
  Argus Security Inc.: A subsidiary of the Weyland 
  Consortium and Globalsec’s highest-profile competitor. 
  Argus focuses on small-scale security, protecting every-
  thing from high-price arcologies to smaller corps’ facili-
  ties and employees with small paramilitary teams.
  VIPER Security Solutions: A small PMC that, until 
  recently, consisted of mercenary independent contrac-
  tors. Leaders of the group saw incorporation as the best 
  way to avoid criminal proceedings after one sideways 
  mission resulted in numerous civilian casualties.
  Melange Mining Security and Asset Defense 
  Division: A small army, like those maintained by 
  most megacorps. Its security division protects Melange 
  Mining’s facilities from ecoterrorist attacks, corporate 
  sabotage, and piracy.
  Starshield: A midsize private security firm based in 
  Heinlein and operating primarily on Luna, specializing 
  in low-G and zero-G assignments. Its staff includes a high 
  number of Loonies and Martians, many of them veterans 
  of the War. Starshield has a reputation for not looking too 
  closely into prospective employees’ pasts.
  TABLE 1–11: GLOBALSEC SPECIFIC FAVORS
  Favor Type
  Examples
  Small Favors
  Loan someone a restricted military-grade item
  Get someone a freelance gig through Globalsec
  Regular 
  Favors
  Give someone a restricted military-grade item 
  such as a weapon, armor, or explosives
  Ensure someone has a personal bodyguard 
  assigned to them for a few days
  Provide a heads-up on an upcoming military op
  Big Favors
  Provide someone with a squad of heavily 
  armed mercenaries as backup
  Launch a Network attack on a protected server
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  FACTION: LOONIES
  A
  lthough originally coined by Earthers to disparage 
  them, many residents of the Moon wear the term 
  “Loonie” with pride, if perhaps some irony. Resi-
  dents of Luna run the gamut, but true Loonies are those 
  born on the Moon or who have lived there much of their 
  life and see it as home. Many Loonies fought on the side of 
  Lunar independence in the War, and even those who didn’t 
  take part directly might feel resentment over the Earth’s 
  continued hold on the Moon. Within Heinlein, Loonies 
  are the people who think of themselves as citizens of Luna, 
  despite what the governments on Earth say.
  Loonies encompass every walk of life and part of soci-
  ety. They range from district government administrators to 
  Docklands criminals, from spaceship captains to helium-3 
  miners. With all this diversity, it can be difficult to pin 
  down what makes a “typical” Loonie. Still, they share some 
  qualities, as much as the residents of any city or region on 
  Earth can be said to. 
  Loonies tend to see themselves as slightly apart from 
  their “cousins” on Earth, separated by distance, concerns, 
  and a desire to be free to govern their own affairs. Most 
  Loonies share a sense of camaraderie and loyalty to each 
  other as well. Loonies may hurt and steal from each other 
  as much as any other group, but that doesn’t lessen their 
  outrage at an Earther doing the same thing to a Loonie.
  LIFE ON THE MOON
  In the early days of colonization, those relocating to Luna—
  whether wealthy citizens of spacegoing nations or poor 
  workers hiring on with one of the corps—were willing to 
  abandon their current lives for the unknown. While living 
  on the Moon now doesn’t seem like such a huge step, at the 
  time it was a prospect that came with very real risks. 
  Long-term exposure to the low-G environment reduces 
  both muscle tone and bone density and, despite the best 
  precautions, Heinlein’s residents are exposed to more 
  radiation than they would be on Earth. The full effects on 
  subsequent generations of native-born Loonies are still to 
  be seen. And that doesn’t take into account the very real 
  threats that come with living in a carefully maintained arti-
  ficial environment, 380,000 kilometers away from help. A 
  hole in the dome, a clogged purification filter, a leak in the 
  water reclamation system; all of these seemingly mundane 
  issues can kill someone really quick.
  Those willing to leave their families and friends behind 
  and journey to the Moon tended to be adventurers, dream-
  ers, artists—or people without many ties on Earth that made 
  them want to stay. That has held true in the years since the 
  War, as Heinlein has grown into a metropolis in its own 
  right, and travel to Earth and back grows easier and easier. 
  Given that life on Luna is something of an iconoclastic act 
  in itself, it’s no surprise that subcultures and countercul-
  tures thrive in and around Heinlein. From the g-modding 
  wylders to sensie-abusing psychers, many such communi-
  ties flourish or originate on the Moon. Many of Heinlein’s 
  residents balance a traditional life working for a corp with 
  an unexpected nightlife. 
  HEINLEIN AUTHORITY
  The Heinlein Authority, a department within New Angeles’ 
  Heinlein District government, regulates space traffic around 
  the district. This includes coordinating ship departures and 
  arrivals, assigning flight paths, and logging records. Every 
  private, commercial, or government flight must maintain 
  communication with the Heinlein Authority’s space traffic 
  control center. The authority maintains close contact with 
  the U.S. Space Expeditionary Corps (SXC) and the NAPD 
  in order to report illegal or suspicious activity, including the 
  presence of any ship operating with a disabled transponder.
  The importance of the Heinlein Authority in preventing 
  orbital collisions and criminal activity is significant, yet the 
  murky legal status of the space surrounding the Moon cre-
  ates complications. In much the same way that the NAPD 
  is unable to police the Docklands or the Moon’s surface 
  beyond Heinlein’s domes, the Heinlein Authority has shaky 
  jurisdiction over vehicles operating outside of the district’s 
  immediate space. The authority’s radar and sensor systems, 
  however, are easily capable of detecting craft and activity 
  well outside of New Angeles space, making it a valuable 
  resource for state militaries, federal law enforcement, and 
  even corp security investigating smuggling, trafficking, and 
  other illegal or undesirable activities. 
  FLYING SAUCER DINER
  The Flying Saucer Diner is one of countless businesses 
  based in or around Starport Kaguya that caters primarily 
  to lunar tourists. Although it presents the atmosphere of 
  a small, family-run restaurant, the diner is in fact owned 
  by DineCo, a holding of Lerner Entertainment and Diver-
  sions, a subsidiary of the Weyland Consortium. Neverthe-
  less, for many tourists, the diner is seen as representative of 
  lunar hospitality and culture. The Flying Saucer even has 
  its regulars among Kaguya’s workforce, although many true 
  Loonies see it as offensively artificial.
  Martin Cho has been the general manager of the diner 
  for several years. A resident of Heinlein since before the 
  War, Cho despises his superiors at DineCo, taking solace in 
  his control of day-to-day operations. Privately, he sees the 
  diner as a tacky theme restaurant, but he holds no illusions 
  about the difficulty of making a living as a truly indepen-
  dent restaurateur in Heinlein today.
  IFT ESTELAR
  The interplanetary free trader Estelar divides its time 
  between Starport Kaguya, several Mars colonies, and the 
  vacuum between. Captain Tahmina Hashmi leads a crew of 
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  four in semiregular runs between Luna and Mars. As a free 
  trader, Hashmi accepts contracts to transport cargo from 
  various corps and the occasional wealthy individual. Work 
  is scarce, as the Estelar competes not only with other IFTs 
  but with long-range cargo pods propelled from Luna or the 
  Beanstalk to Mars. Such pods, either uncrewed or crewed 
  by bioroids, are generally more cost-efficient, so IFTs are 
  hired primarily for specialized and time-sensitive cargo.
  Like most IFTs, the Estelar is not truly independent. It is 
  owned, and its crew employed by, TransTec Interstellar, of 
  which the Golan Company (a major international invest-
  ment fund) is majority shareholder. Hashmi has significant 
  leeway in running her ship and even in accepting contracts, 
  but she is ultimately answerable to TransTec for the profit-
  ability of the freighter’s operation. 
  TABLE 1–12: LOONIES SPECIFIC FAVORS
  Favor Type
  Examples
  Small Favors
  Provide someone with personal insights about 
  life on the Moon
  Play tour guide for a day
  Regular Favors
  Be someone’s guide through dangerous areas 
  like the Docklands
  Give someone a ride in a shuttle to a different 
  part of the Moon
  Put someone in touch with the remaining 
  Loonie revolutionaries
  Big Favors
  Get a group of revolutionaries to actively 
  support someone’s activities (especially if those 
  activities are illegal)
  Obtain information about activities during 
  the War that could incriminate former 
  revolutionaries
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  FACTION: ACTIVIST AND 
  TERRORIST GROUPS
  W
  ith the corps in constant competition and most 
  world governments bending over backward to 
  support one or another—or sometimes both 
  sides of a rivalry—it’s easy for everything and everyone else 
  to get lost in the noise. Whether pushing for humanitarian 
  causes, patriotic ends, or other goals, in a lot of ways, activ-
  ists have a harder time than ever thanks to the power of 
  the corps. Advances in science and technology have made 
  life easier for billions of people. Yet, while the towers of the 
  risties and the corp elite soar higher, the poor and hungry 
  sink lower. As always, it’s up to those willing to dedicate 
  their lives to helping others to try to bridge that ever-wid-
  ening chasm. 
  However, some organizations rely on humanity's neg-
  ative emotions to push their agendas. While the implica-
  tions of an android work force are still being debated in the 
  halls of government and campuses of universities, Human 
  First and organizations like it channel their fear and anger 
  against those androids—and against the megacorps that 
  make them and the governments and businesses that use 
  them. They incite violence against bioroids and clones, 
  often with sledgehammers and other heavy tools. However, 
  Human First doesn’t stop at street violence and vandalism. 
  Factory bombings, burned shipments of androids, large-
  scale riots, and even targeted killings of Jinteki and Haas-
  Bioroid employees all suggest that Human First is well 
  organized—and extremely dangerous.
  HUMAN FIRST AND 
  HUMANITY LABOR
  When machines think like people, work harder, and cost 
  less, no one’s job is safe. For the first time, nearly everyone is 
  being confronted with the very real possibility that they will 
  be replaced—and soon. This fear provides a fertile breeding 
  ground for Human First, and even those who oppose the 
  organization’s methods often have a hard time arguing with 
  their goals.
  Typically, Human First operates on a small scale. Its 
  members take advantage of the pacifist programming of 
  clones and bioroids and beat them senseless. Feeds of these 
  ground-level assaults often go viral on some parts of the 
  Network, inspiring copycat attacks and drawing cheers from 
  the movement’s supporters. The movement is also quick to 
  claim responsibility for more controversial actions like the 
  firebombing of clone barracks and industrial sabotage.
  The megacorps have struggled to effectively fight Human 
  First’s rhetoric. Their own advertising serves to fuel people’s 
  fears of being replaced, and attempts to make their prod-
  ucts more resilient have quickly turned into PR problems. 
  When Haas-Bioroid rolled out a new line of bioroids with 
  the same sub-dermal armor it provides to soldiers, there 
  was a general outcry that forced several major customers to 
  cancel their orders unless the armor was removed.
  PROBLEMS OF ENFORCEMENT
  Despite the lobbying by corps that make or make use of 
  androids, there isn’t a strong legal effort to target Human 
  First. The organization lacks a clear hierarchy, and many of 
  the attacks that it claims responsibility for are carried out 
  spontaneously. The NAPD has been unwilling to label every 
  bored teenager and unemployed accountant a member of 
  Human First, and so, on the rare occasion that anyone is 
  arrested, they are charged with misdemeanor vandalism or 
  something equally minor. Legally, bioroids and clones are 
  property, so someone who attacks one can only be charged 
  with crimes relating to destruction of property.
  Of course, the biggest problem with prosecuting Human 
  First is that plenty of people in the law-enforcement com-
  munity are secretly (or not so secretly) sympathetic to its 
  cause. On the one hand, they see corporations churning out 
  machines that seem poised to dominate the workforce, and 
  on the other hand, they see average people frustrated with 
  losing their jobs. As long as Human First members stick 
  to destroying androids, many members of the law-enforce-
  ment community are content with giving them a pass. 
  LEGITIMATE CONNECTIONS
  Though Humanity Labor has publicly disavowed any rela-
  tionship with Human First, there is more than just a sim-
  ilar name linking the political organization with its more 
  radical partner. Humanity Labor has positioned itself as 
  a pro-human union, raising money and support for pop-
  ulist politicians while lobbying for stricter regulation on 
  android hiring. There is a great deal of crossover between 
  the membership of the two entities, and there is a small 
  masked presence at every Humanity Labor rally—pass-
  ing out Human First materials and alive to opportunities 
  for violence.
  Android-rights activists continue to reach out to the 
  members of Humanity Labor to propose a shift in tactics. 
  If androids were afforded the same rights as humans, the 
  activists argue, then they would be more expensive than 
  human labor, and there would no longer be any incentive 
  to employ them. So far, these efforts have largely failed.
  OPTICON FOUNDATION
  The Opticon Foundation’s mission statement is “to be the 
  eyes and voice of the people.” The organization keeps tabs 
  on corps, looking to uncover unethical, illegal, or dan-
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  gerous activities and ensure accountability. Of course, the 
  megacorps are powerful and secretive, and any attempt to 
  force transparency and prevent abuse of power is an uphill 
  battle. It’s easy for corps to hide malfeasance behind closed 
  doors and prisec armies. 
  In addition to those attorneys on staff—the founda-
  tion was founded by the partners of the firm of Bentzen, 
  Sonoda, and Quebrado—a number of others contribute pro 
  bono services. Still, even at its best, Opticon can’t match the 
  armies of lawyers the megacorps keep on retainer. With a 
  few notable exceptions, most of the Opticon Foundation’s 
  legal victories have come against smaller corps.
  The Opticon Foundation takes proactive measures to 
  monitor the corps, but staff members’ ability to do so is 
  limited. The organization largely relies on whistleblowers 
  within the corps to leak information. Opticon can bring 
  litigation on behalf of wronged individuals, including 
  class-action suits. It has also sued corps for violations of 
  national or international laws, often based on information 
  provided by whistleblowers. In addition, Opticon publishes 
  reports and studies intended to expose corporate malfea-
  sance, trying matters in the court of public opinion.
  GROWTH DEPARTMENT
  As a nonprofit, Opticon is supported by several major 
  grants that it works constantly to maintain, as well as by an 
  ever-changing flow of private donations. Opticon’s Growth 
  Department is responsible for the fundraising that keeps 
  these donations coming in. Its activities include commu-
  nity outreach, marketing, and solicitations of public and 
  private donations. Many nonprofits rely on corporate 
  donors, and Opticon, while possibly facing greater diffi-
  culty, is no exception. Corps large and small have donated 
  to Opticon throughout the years, commonly perceived as 
  an attempt to demonstrate they have nothing to hide. Some 
  in the Growth Department scoff privately at such transpar-
  ent attempts, while others worry that accepting these dona-
  tions erodes public trust in the foundation.
  SIMULANT  
  ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT
  The Simulant Abolitionist Movement—SAM—is a loosely 
  connected network of activists who believe clones deserve 
  full rights as human beings, and therefore the slavery of 
  clones should be abolished. The grassroots political orga-
  nization has made little tangible impact so far, despite 
  campaigns to influence U.S. Congress. Affiliated groups in 
  other countries have had somewhat better early successes, 
  including meeting with receptive legislators, primarily 
  in Norden.
  SAM is mostly unpopular with the public at large, gov-
  ernments, and particularly the corps. At one extreme, 
  anti-android activists direct not only invectives but death 
  threats at SAM members; at the other, corps view them as 
  a nuisance, but not a legitimate threat. Most people view 
  androids as either a benefit or a threat, and neither view 
  lends itself to support of SAM.
  One might expect the aims of groups like Humanity 
  Labor to align with SAM—if androids were freed, they’d 
  have to compete on even footing for jobs. Anti-android 
  sentiment runs deep, however, and Humanity Labor has 
  shown no interest in cooperation, seeing SAM’s goals as 
  unrealistic and irrelevant, at best.
  CONCORDIA CHAPTER, 
  RUTHERFORD DISTRICT
  The Concordia neighborhood’s chapter of the Simulant 
  Abolitionist Movement is one of several in the district. 
  While its membership ostensibly numbers in the hun-
  dreds, individual meetings rarely see more than a dozen 
  or so visitors. The members within this wealthy neighbor-
  hood often hold meetings in their high-tower homes, or 
  at trendy restaurants and cafes. At these gatherings, par-
  ticipants plan fundraisers, organize campaigns, and plan 
  future meetings.
  The ristie members of the Concordia chapter (many of 
  whom are the older matrons of wealthy families) generally 
  treat it as a hobby or social club, leaving any outsiders to 
  assume the participants are a bunch of dilettantes who have 
  no particular interest in android rights. Which is exactly 
  what the members want them to believe. 
  In truth, the Concordia chapter has been slowly but 
  successfully smuggling emancipated androids to Bra-
  zil for years, often under the guise of taking vacations to 
  the Columbia-Brazil border while being accompanied by 
  android “servants.” The group also uses their fundraisers to 
  provide the freed simulants with some cash to start their 
  new lives. These activities already come with some risks, 
  TABLE 1–13: HUMAN FIRST SPECIFIC FAVORS
  Favor Type
  Examples
  Small Favors
  Destroy a bioroid or a clone
  Join a picket line or protest against unfair labor 
  practices
  Regular 
  Favors
  Intimidate a manager or company that uses 
  bioroid or clone labor
  Get someone enrolled in a Humanity Labor 
  retraining program
  Put someone in contact with Human First 
  organizers
  Allow someone to speak at a Humanity Labor 
  rally or meeting
  Big Favors
  Perform a terrorist act (such as a bombing) 
  against a company that uses or is otherwise 
  involved in android labor
  Provide someone with legal defense from 
  Humanity Labor
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  but in addition the Concordia chapter has no interest in 
  buying androids to set them free. Instead, they figure 
  they can do more damage to the simulant labor business 
  model by “liberating” clones and bioroids from their own-
  ers before spiriting them to safety. Several group members 
  have connections in the undercity, and are always looking 
  for criminals willing to engage in android theft/rescue.
  LA BRIGADA TRICOLOR
  New Angeles is home to dozens of early reversion activist 
  groups, sometimes called ERAs, pushing for an expedited 
  end to the Quito Accord and the reversion of New Ange-
  les to Ecuadoran territory. Most ERA groups are peaceful 
  grassroots organizations, and few hold significant political 
  sway. A few take a more radical, even violent approach, 
  however. Among these, La Brigada Tricolor stands out as 
  uniquely destructive, leading the NAPD and other author-
  ities to treat it as a terrorist organization.
  Although La Brigada Tricolor—through its various man-
  ifestos—publicly claims its goal is an autonomous Nuevo 
  Angeles Libre, many suspect the group truly only seeks 
  power for itself. Some within the NAPD believe the group’s 
  mysterious leader is actually a 
  highly placed member of the 
  Los Scorpiones orgcrime 
  syndicate.
  TABLE 1–14: OTHER ACTIVIST GROUP SPECIFIC FAVORS
  Favor Type
  Examples
  Small Favors
  Provide information on what a major 
  corporation, government, or other organization 
  may be up to “behind the scenes”
  Regular 
  Favors
  Smuggle an android out of New Angeles
  Smuggle someone else into New Angeles
  Leak information about a corporation or 
  government to the press
  Big Favors
  Prosecute a lawsuit against a major corporation 
  or government branch
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  [ CHAPTER 2 ]
  EQUIPMENT AND VEHICLES
  N
  ew Angeles may appear to be a law-abiding 
  metropolis, but at street level, you can still find 
  plenty of people wearing concealed body armor 
  or carrying a piece. Breakthroughs in weapon develop-
  ment allow even law-abiding citizens to carry non-lethal 
  firearms and stun weapons, while criminals, bounty hunt-
  ers, and disenfrancistos have access to everything from 
  old-fashioned slugthrowers to the latest in laser weaponry. 
  Whether your character is a non-violent person looking 
  for some protection or a dangerous hired gun, New Ange-
  les can provide.
  Of course, this chapter doesn't just contain weapons. The 
  first part of Chapter II contains the complete rules for the 
  favor economy (which you read about on page 53 in Chap-
  ter I). It then covers weapons (melee and ranged), armor 
  (from menacing body armor to practical environmental pro-
  tection), and gear (from PADs and backpacks to the latest 
  street drugs).The rest of the chapter includes attachments 
  to modify weapons and armor, cybernetics and g-mods to 
  enhance your character, and profiles of common vehicles in 
  New Angeles. These use the optional vehicle rules found on 
  page 220 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook. 
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  THE FAVOR ECONOMY
  W
  hile New Angeles officially runs on the Titan 
  Transnational Credit (a digital currency backed 
  by the worlds’ largest and most powerful bank-
  ing corporation), once you get below plaza level you quickly 
  find that favors are every bit as valuable as a credstick. Sur-
  viving daily life in the undercity is as much about who you 
  owe as who you know, and who owes you in return. 
  For many disenfrancistos, daily life revolves around the 
  informal and infernally complex web of debts, promises, 
  and IOUs that's generally referred to as the favor economy. 
  Trading favors allows people to get what they need to sur-
  vive when money is tight, and to stay off the grid and out 
  of Titan Transnational’s transaction records. It can also be a 
  lot more humane than deducting a price from a credstick. If 
  a paroled runner is starving today, a friendly bodega owner 
  can give them some staples to see them through to payday. 
  In exchange, that runner might reprogram their cash reg-
  ister with a new suite of home-programmed security soft-
  ware to prevent casual robberies. Not only does the starv-
  ing neighbor get food, they can also “sell” skills they’re no 
  longer allowed to monetize. In exchange, the bodega owner 
  gets work done that would cost them thousands of credits if 
  they went through Small Business Protection Programs Inc. 
  FAVOR ECONOMY 
  MECHANICS
  The favor economy is, at its core, an exchange economy. The 
  core game mechanic of this economy is that a character can 
  exchange a favor for a favor of equal value with another char-
  acter (as long as both characters are willing to make the trade).
  In our system, favors fall into three categories: small 
  favors, regular favors, and big favors. 
  • Small favors are the kinds of favors that don’t take too 
  much effort or too many resources. Watching some-
  one’s pets for an afternoon, giving someone a ride in 
  your hopper, or loaning someone tools are all small 
  favors. Chances are that characters owe and are owed 
  plenty of small favors in their lives.
  • Regular Favors are more serious: the kinds of things 
  that represent a substantial effort on someone’s part or 
  that may even put someone in danger. Lending some-
  one your vehicle for a couple of days, loaning them a 
  thousand credits, or saving them from being beaten up 
  in a bar fight are all examples of regular favors. Char-
  acters are likely going to remember the regular favors 
  they owe and are owed, and they often owe or are owed 
  one or two regular favors. 
  • Big favors are just that: big. These are the kinds of favors 
  that people remember years or even decades later, and 
  they are always going to feel comfortable cashing in on 
  them, no matter how long it’s been. Protecting some-
  one’s family, loaning a hopper to someone who engages 
  in a violent chase with the police, or saving someone’s 
  life are all examples of big favors. A character may or 
  may not owe or be owed any big favors.
  The types of favors one character could trade with 
  another are nearly endless. So, instead of trying to list them 
  all, we came up with a table of reasonable examples. Table 
  2–1: Example Favors provides a general list of favors. 
  These examples can help you figure out whether any favor 
  you invent is a small favor, a favor, or a big favor. 
  Also, keep in mind that each of the faction write-ups 
  (starting on page 54) comes with its own list of favors. 
  These are favors that only that faction could provide, or 
  at least ones that it would be especially good at providing. 
  Sometimes these lists may clash with the examples found 
  here. For instance, killing someone usually falls into the 
  category of a big favor. But if you’re dealing with a street 
  gang (and depending on who the target is), it may not con-
  sider killing someone to be such a big deal. 
  EXCHANGING FAVORS
  Exchanging a favor for a favor is simple, and it generally 
  doesn’t require a check. It’s simply a matter of saying “if you 
  do this thing for me, I’ll do this equivalent thing for you.” 
  However, sometimes your character may want to exchange 
  a favor for a bigger favor or a smaller favor. In those cases, 
  your character is going to need to make a check.
  TABLE 2–1: EXAMPLE FAVORS
  Favor Size
  Examples
  Small 
  Watch someone’s pets or dependents for a day
  Give someone an item worth 100 credits or less
  Loan someone a vehicle for a couple of hours
  Give someone a ride to a location in New Angeles 
  Help someone clean up an apartment 
  Loan someone tools to do some work
  Regular
  Watch someone’s pets or dependents for 
  several days to a week
  Give someone an item worth 1,000 credits or less
  Loan someone a vehicle for a few days
  Give someone a ride to a location in North or 
  South America
  Loan someone a legal weapon
  Save someone from a bar fight
  Big
  Watch someone’s dependents and agree to 
  defend them against real danger
  Give someone an item worth over 1,000 credits
  Loan someone a vehicle while knowing it may 
  never be returned or that it may be destroyed
  Give someone a ride to anywhere on Earth
  Loan someone an illegal weapon
  Save someone’s life
  Kill a person for someone else.
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  EXCHANGING A BIGGER FAVOR FOR A SMALLER 
  FAVOR  (STRINGING THEM ALONG)
  Let’s say your character is owed a big favor, and they want 
  to ask someone for a smaller favor in return. Normally, that 
  wouldn’t require a check, and the target would be more than 
  happy to exchange something of theirs of lesser value for 
  something of yours of greater value. However, your 
  character may want to extract the smaller favor and 
  then say, “but you still owe me!” 
  In that case, your character must make an 
  opposed Coercion versus Discipline check 
  against the target. If your character suc-
  ceeds, the target continues owing your 
  character the same original favor after 
  this smaller favor has been resolved. 
  If you fail, the target considers the 
  favor repaid once they perform the 
  original smaller favor. They per-
  form the favor requested and no 
  longer owe the character.
  EXCHANGING A SMALLER FAVOR FOR A 
  BIGGER FAVOR (TRADING UP) 
  Now let’s say your character is owed a favor, and they ask 
  for a favor of greater value than the favor they are owed. 
  This always requires a check, since your character is trying 
  to get someone to give them something more valuable for 
  something less valuable.
  In this case, your character must make an opposed 
  Charm versus Cool check against the target. If they suc-
  ceed, the target agrees to give them the “better” favor in 
  exchange. If they fail, the target refuses, but still owes your 
  character a favor of the original value.
  FAILING WITH 󲊱 OR 󲊲
  If your character attempts to make an unequal exchange of 
  favors and fails the check, your GM may spend 󲊱 󲊱 󲊱 󲊱 
  or 󲊲 to have your character also anger the target. Not only 
  does your character fail to achieve the unequal exchange, 
  but the target also decides that they no longer owe your 
  character anything! 
  SMALLER THAN 
  SMALL
  Beyond a certain point, we don’t bother tracking 
  favors in our system. While buying someone a cup of 
  coffee or loaning them credits for a tube-lev day pass 
  is technically doing them a favor, the values are so 
  minuscule that realistically, most people are going to 
  forget about it within a few hours.
  Thus, we encourage GMs to skip tracking favors that 
  are especially inconsequential. More than anything, 
  it’s going to save everyone at the table from tracking a 
  lot of minor favors that probably won’t make the game 
  more interesting or advance the plot. 
  However, some players may want to keep track of every 
  favor they owe and are owed, no matter how small. If 
  you are one of those players, feel free to keep a detailed 
  list of favors. Still, in Shadow of the BeanStalk (just like 
  in real life), people can get irritated about always being 
  asked to pay back every cup of coffee or ride to the 
  office. If a favor seems especially minor, your GM can 
  add 󲊸 to any checks made to exchange the favor and 
  can also add 󲊸 to subsequent skill checks your charac-
  ter makes when dealing with that individual. 
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  WEAPONS
  M
  odern firearms fall into four broad categories: 
  slugthrowers, mass drivers, energy weapons, 
  and the less lethal guns that don't reduce targets 
  to bloody paste. Each weapon type has its own pros and 
  cons, and each one has a place in modern warfare and 
  criminal activity. Slugthrowers are inexpensive and easy 
  to use. A tiny projectile from a mass driver can do massive 
  amounts of damage. Focused energy weapons are accurate, 
  nearly silent, and perfect for use in the vacuum of space. Less 
  lethal weapons like stun batons and synap pistols are perfect 
  for incapacitating an opponent without killing them. Finally, 
  there are rare and even exotic weapons such as grenades, 
  missile launchers, and even futuristic swords.
  The list presented here is just a taste of the staggering 
  variety of modern weapons. There is something for every 
  taste and pocketbook, from disposable pistols to mono-
  blades. A motivated character can nearly always find the 
  right tool for the job on New Angeles’ streets.
  SLUGTHROWERS
  Despite the advances made in weapons technology over the 
  past few decades, slugthrowers remain the most common 
  personal weapons available. Cheap, reliable, and easy to 
  maintain, slugthrowers range from tiny, disposable pistols 
  to massive, high-caliber machine guns. 
  Modern slugthrowers are constructed from lightweight 
  composites with few, if any, metal parts. They use electrical 
  firing mechanisms and generally shoot “caseless” ammuni-
  tion. Most are also "smart," with on-board computers.
  ASSAULT RIFLE
  Assault rifles are light, select-fire weapons designed to 
  spit medium-caliber rounds at high rates of fire. They are 
  relatively accurate (now even more so with the advent of 
  smart systems) and are extremely deadly at medium to 
  long ranges. Modern assault rifles are constructed mostly of 
  buckyweave-reinforced composites with alloy barrels and 
  interior parts. They can be fitted with a variety of attach-
  ments and smart systems to tailor them to specific missions 
  or just improve their performance. The two most common 
  assault rifle calibers are 5mm and 7mm, rounds descended 
  from the old 5.56 and 7.62 rounds respectively. 
  While assault rifles are highly illegal 
  for the average citizen to own, they can still be obtained if 
  one knows the right dealer. Certain prisec outfits and mer-
  cenaries also obtain use permits from the NAPD allowing 
  them to carry assault rifles and other military hardware 
  within the city limits. 
  Models Include: Strelet Arms S101 MWS, Cantor M-101 
  Assault Rifle.
  BULLPUP CARBINE
  Although assault rifles remain the go-to infantry weapon 
  for most militaries, many PMCs and corporate security 
  outfits prefer to use the more compact and accurate “bull-
  pup” weapons. Around since the beginning of the twen-
  ty-first century, the nickname refers to any firearm that has 
  the action and clip behind the trigger, which allows for an 
  easier to handle weapon. Although the first bullpup weap-
  ons tended to have some balance (and therefore accuracy) 
  issues, modern smart systems eliminate this problem, let-
  ting wielders take full advantage of a shorter gun that’s easy 
  to swing around. Shorter ranged by nature, bullpup car-
  bines tend to be used in enclosed spaces, and by criminals 
  and security officers who like being able to hide an assault 
  weapon in a briefcase. 
  Models Include: Strelet Arms S101.b MCW, Kalashnikov 
  AK-X2 Carbine.
  COMBAT SHOTGUN
  Whereas civilian shotguns are built for sporting and hunt-
  ing, these weapons are built for military use. A typical com-
  bat shotgun is a light, short-barreled, magazine-fed weapon 
  used by government and prisec forces. Primarily cham-
  bered in 12- and 20-gauge, combat shotguns are select-fire 
  Gewehrwerks Kampfgewehr-90.s Assault Rifle
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  weapons that can fire a single round, fire a three-shot burst, 
  or empty an entire magazine with a pull of the trigger. A 
  combat shotgun’s major drawbacks are their savage kick 
  and their nasty tendency to jam during automatic fire. The 
  kick is easily contained by integrated smart recoil dampers, 
  but even modern weapon development hasn't solved the 
  jamming issue. 
   Your Game Master may spend 󲊱 󲊱 generated on a 
  combat check using a combat shotgun to jam the weapon. 
  A jammed weapon cannot be fired. Clearing a jam requires 
  a maneuver.
  Models Include: HHI Model 8, Cantor XK Jackhammer.
  HAND CANNON
  These colorfully named heavy pistols are big, loud, intimi-
  dating weapons built primarily for vicious firefights in close 
  quarters. Often cumbersome and impossible to conceal, a 
  heavy pistol has nothing subtle about it. Depending on their 
  ammo, heavy pistols can punch through nearly any armor, 
  and a few well-placed shots can down any angry cyborg or 
  bioroid. One of their biggest downsides is their tremendous 
  recoil. Most heavy pistols are equipped with smart recoil 
  dampers to prevent them from breaking a shooter’s wrist.
  Models Include: Strelet Arms 12mm Bogatyr, Sturm & Co. 
  Quadra .454, Argus M-1 “Titan” Big Game Revolver.
  LIGHT PISTOL
  Lightweight, easy to use, and often disposable, light pistols are 
  perhaps the most common firearm in the world. While their 
  small-caliber rounds and underwhelming ballistics make 
  them poor weapons, they're still popular with criminals and 
  on the Moon, since they can be produced by 3-D printers 
  and their low-velocity rounds rarely puncture domes. Some 
  NAPD officers carry a light pistol as a drop gun they can 
  place on dead suspects after a questionable shooting.
  Anyone searching your character adds 󲊸 to any Percep-
  tion checks they make to find a light pistol.
  Models Include: Strelet Arms Stinger, Skorpios PD-01, 
  Cantor “Ranger” Target Pistol, MarsGoods .22 Poly CCP.
  PISTOL
  Pistols are the go-to weapons for law enforcement, military, 
  self-defense, and general criminal activity. They come in 
  a breathtaking array of calibers, styles, actions, and con-
  figurations and range from snub-nosed belly guns used 
  by back-alley killers to the high-tech sidearms carried by 
  NAPD officers. Pistols have respectable range, stopping 
  power, and are widely available. Pistols are often equipped 
  with smart links, either from the factory or through end-
  user modification, which increases their utility. All this 
  makes them a very attractive choice for someone looking 
  for a versatile and reliable carry weapon.
  Models Include: Delta Arms "Enforcer," Cantor M2111, 
  Sturm & Co. “Rapid 10."
  RIFLE
  A rifle is any long-range, magazine-fed, semiautomatic 
  weapon used for hunting, sporting, or combat. This category 
  includes everything from small varmint rifles to antique 
  battle rifles from the distant past to modern, high-end big-
  game and sniper rifles. A standard hunting or marksman 
  rifle is a semiautomatic weapon about a meter and a half 
  long and made of lightweight alloys and composites. 
  Like shotguns, rifles are nominally sold for sport shoot-
  ing or hunting, but since there aren't many opportunities 
  for either in New Angeles (outside of a limited number of 
  shooting ranges), most end up used by police sharpshooters 
  and criminals. Of course, rich risties may also own antique 
  or even artistic pieces, with furniture carved from exotic 
  woods or precious minerals. These rifles can be incredibly 
  valuable, and even become a target for heists. 
  Models Include: Gewehrwerks AG GR14, Skorpios Model 
  14 Police Marksman Rifle.
  Argus Model 19 5mm Pistol
  Astra Consolidated Justicar X Shotgun
  FEAR SELLS
  According to Haas-Bioroid, the idea of a rogue bioroid 
  is patently ludicrous. This doesn’t stop some people from 
  believing bioroids are just a bad line of code away from 
  running amok in the streets. Less scrupulous arms man-
  ufacturers play up these fears as a way to sell hand 
  cannons, typically to people who will never use them.
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  SHOTGUN
  The current generation of shotguns are entirely semiau-
  tomatic smoothbore weapons with integrated magazines. 
  They chamber anything from tiny .410-gauge birdshot 
  shells up to the much more dangerous standard 12-gauge 
  shells. The wide variety of ammunition available makes 
  them an incredibly versatile weapon, and while they are 
  traditionally used for sport shooting and hunting, the lack 
  of opportunities for either in New Angeles means most 
  shotguns get used for home defense, law enforcement, or 
  criminal activity. They are particularly useful in space and 
  on the Moon, where their low-velocity pellets are unlikely 
  to breach pressure domes and station bulkheads. The SEA 
  and NAPD armories on Midway Station, the Challenger 
  Planetoid, and Heinlein all have shotguns in case of partic-
  ularly violent situations. 
  Models Include: Frazetta Maxum Sporting Shotgun, 
  Horner Model 37, Argus Police-12. 
  SUBMACHINE GUN
  Today, submachine guns—or SMGs, as they are colloquially 
  called—are much loved by paramilitary forces, special oper-
  ators, criminals, and insurgents everywhere. They offer the 
  small size and ease of use of a pistol, combined with the select-
  fire capabilities of a modern assault rifle. Modern SMGs are 
  relatively small and use electronic firing systems to increase 
  their performance. This makes for remarkably narrow cross 
  sections which are easy to hide. Some SMGs can even fold up 
  to look like briefcases or other innocuous objects.
  Models Include: Gewehrwerks AG MP30, Cantor Model 
  4 10mm SMG.
  MASS DRIVERS
  Mass drivers are a relatively new development in weapons 
  technology, even though they are derived from research 
  and theories presented by the nineteenth-century mathe-
  matician Carl Gauss. Instead of using a chemical reaction 
  to fire a solid projectile, mass drivers use a series of pow-
  erful electromagnetic coils to propel inert, fin-stabilized 
  projectiles. Mass drivers, along with laser weapons, look to 
  become the future of weapons technology. 
  Mass drivers come in two broad categories, coilguns and 
  flechette weapons. Also known as Gauss guns, coilguns are 
  typically long arms or heavy, vehicle-mounted weapons 
  used for light combat duties. Despite the fact that coilguns 
  require immense amounts of energy to function, their 
  accuracy, range, and penetrating power make them excel-
  lent sniper and anti-materiel weapons. 
  Skorpios Mk II Firestorm SMG
  RESTRICTED (R)
  As you read through this chapter, you’ll see an “(R)” 
  next to the prices of some items. This means the item is 
  restricted. Restricted items are illegal for average cit-
  izens to possess, although some people may have spe-
  cial-use permits or other dispensations to have them. 
  As far as rules go, your character cannot start the 
  game with any restricted items, although they may 
  purchase them later. In addition, since these items are 
  illegal, they are black-market items. Buying or selling 
  them requires a Streetwise check, as explained in the 
  Black-Market Items sidebar, on page 83 of the 
  GeneSyS Core Rulebook.
  In this setting, restricted items are generally the kind of 
  things that will get your character in legal trouble for 
  owning. This doesn’t mean your character can’t own 
  them. It just means that people in some locations are 
  going to be suspicious or scared if your character is 
  brandishing a restricted item openly. Your character 
  may be barred from entering some locations if they 
  have a restricted item on their person. And if a cop 
  spots them, they’re probably going to be arrested or, 
  at the very least, detained. That means if your char-
  acter wants to have a restricted item, they’re going to 
  have to be careful about who sees it! 
  MODERN AMMUNITION
  Over the past few decades, modern arms manufactur-
  ers have moved away from the old-style metal or poly-
  mer ammunition cases and gone completely caseless. 
  A caseless round is basically a block of synthetic pro-
  pellant encasing a bullet and primer. When fired, the 
  “case” of propellant burns away and sends the slug 
  down the weapon’s barrel, leaving behind nothing 
  but powder residue. Caseless ammo allows for lighter 
  weapons and the ability to pack more ammunition into 
  smaller magazines.
  While the vast majority of modern ammunition is case-
  less, some weapons, like shotguns and anti-materiel 
  Gauss rifles, still use metal- or polymer-cased rounds 
  due to their particular performance needs.
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  TABLE 2–2: RANGED WEAPONS
  Name
  Skill
  Dam
  Crit
  Range
  Encum
  HP
  Price
  Rarity
  Special
  Slugthrowers
  Assault Rifle
  Ranged (Heavy)
  8
  3
  Long
  4
  3
  1,000 (R) 
  7
  Auto-fire
  Bullpup Carbine
  Ranged (Heavy)
  7
  3
  Medium
  3
  2
  825 
  7
  Accurate 1, Auto-fire
  Combat Shotgun
  Ranged (Heavy)
  8
  3
  Short
  4
  2
  1,000 (R)
  5
  Auto-fire, Blast 5,  
  Inaccurate 1, Vicious 2
  Hand Cannon
  Ranged (Light)
  7
  3
  Medium
  1
  3
  345
  3
  Inaccurate 1,  
  Limited Ammo 4
  Light Pistol
  Ranged (Light)
  5
  4
  Short
  1
  1
  100
  2
  Pistol
  Ranged (Light)
  6
  3
  Medium
  1
  2
  300
  2
  Rifle
  Ranged (Heavy)
  8
  3
  Long
  4
  3
  875
  4
  Accurate 1
  Shotgun
  Ranged (Heavy)
  8
  3
  Short
  3
  2
  900
  4
  Blast 5, Knockdown,  
  Vicious 2
  Submachine Gun
  Ranged (Light)
  5
  3
  Medium
  2
  1
  400 (R) 
  4
  Auto-fire
  Mass Drivers
  Auto-Fletcher
  Ranged (Light)
  3
  2
  Medium
  2
  1
  500
  5
  Auto-fire, Pierce 2, Vicious 2
  Fletcher
  Ranged (Heavy)
  4
  2
  Medium
  3
  3
  675 (R) 
  5
  Blast 4, Pierce 2, Vicious 3
  Fletcher Pistol
  Ranged (Light)
  4
  2
  Medium
  1
  2
  450
  4
  Pierce 2, Vicious 2
  Gauss Rifle
  Ranged (Heavy)
  10
  2
  Extreme
  5
  3
  2,000 (R)
  7
  Cumbersome 3, Pierce 5, 
  Slow-Firing 1
  Energy Weapons
  Laser Pistol
  Ranged (Light)
  6
  3
  Short
  1
  2
  650
  8
  Accurate 1, Burn 1
  Laser Rifle
  Ranged (Heavy)
  8
  3
  Medium
  4
  2
  900 (R)
  8
  Accurate 1, Burn 1
  Synap Pistol
  Ranged (Light)
  5
  6
  Short
  1
  2
  375 
  2
  Disorient 4, Stun 3, Stun 
  Damage
  Fire Support Weapons
  Guided Missile 
  Launcher
  Gunnery
  20
  3
  Strategic
  6
  3
  25,000 
  (R)
  8
  Blast 10, Breach 2, 
  Cumbersome 5, Guided 4, 
  Limited Ammo 1, Prepare 1 
  Heavy Fletcher
  Gunnery
  6
  2
  Medium
  6
  3
  1,400 (R)
  5
  Cumbersome 3, Blast 6, 
  Pierce 4, Vicious 3
  Heavy Gauss Rifle
  Gunnery
  15
  2
  Extreme
  7
  3
  4,000 (R) 
  8
  Breach 1, Cumbersome 5, 
  Slow-Firing 1
  Laser Cannon
  Gunnery
  10
  3
  Long
  6
  2
  1,675 (R) 
  9
  Accurate 1, Burn 1, 
  Cumbersome 4, Sunder
  Light Machine 
  Gun
  Gunnery
  10
  3
  Long
  6
  4
  1,750 (R)
  6
  Auto-fire, Cumbersome 3, 
  Pierce 2, Vicious 2
  Maser
  Gunnery
  5
  3
  Short
  6
  2
  1,275 (R)
  6
  Breach 1, Cumbersome 5, 
  Unwieldy 2, Vicious 5
  Micro-Missile 
  Launcher
  Gunnery
  12
  4
  Long
  5
  2
  3,000 (R)
  7
  Blast 10, Cumbersome 4, 
  Guided 3, Limited Ammo 3, 
  Prepare 1 
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  Flechette weapons, or “fletchers” as they are colloquially 
  called, use small, low-yield coils to fire razor-sharp darts 
  over short and medium distances. While fletcher pistols are 
  the most common flechette weapons, companies also make 
  flechette SMGs, rifle-sized fletchers that fire clouds of kill-
  ing darts like a shotgun, and even heavy, vehicle-mounted 
  fletchers for destroying massed infantry formations.  
  AUTO-FLETCHER
  Most fletcher pistols are semiautomatic and fire one dart 
  with every pull of the trigger. A few more-expensive mod-
  els are select-fire and marketed as machine pistols or light 
  SMGs. These automatic weapons trade their accuracy for 
  the ability to fill a space with darts rather than a single pin-
  point strike. Their needles tend to have a bit less stopping 
  power, a trade-off for being able to fire dozens a second.
  Models Include: Skorpios MP1 Flechette Machine Pistol.
  FLETCHER
  Fletchers are a modern, high-tech take on the tried-and-
  true shotgun. About the size of a combat shotgun, fletchers 
  are heavy, short-barreled weapons that fire canisters of 2mm 
  NEXT flechettes. Upon firing, the canister disintegrates and 
  unleashes hundreds of razor-sharp darts that tear through 
  armor, flesh, and bone as if they were old rags. While popu-
  lar in the military, the NAPD has deemed them too vicious 
  for police work. However, plenty of orgcrime outfits prefer 
  these weapons as an intimidating enforcement tool. 
  Models Include: Strelet Arms FX09, NEXT XR11 Shredder. 
  FLETCHER PISTOL
  Roughly the size of a 9mm pistol, the fletcher pistol is the 
  smallest member of the mass driver family. Chambered 
  for the 2mm NEXT flechette, these slim pistols are the 
  go-to weapons for people interested in target shooting and 
  personal protection, along with plenty of police and prisec 
  outfits. They are also popular with special operatives, assas-
  sins, private investigators, and orgcrime enforcers.
  Models Include: NEXT XP5 Needlegun, Argus Stiletto.
  GAUSS RIFLE
  If the fletcher is modern technology’s answer to the shot-
  gun, the Gauss rifle is its answer to the long rifle. Gauss rifles 
  are the largest human-portable mass driver on the market. 
  Nearly two meters long, these powerful weapons are heavy, a 
  bit fragile, and require immense amounts of power to oper-
  ate. The trade-off for these shortcomings is a weapon that can 
  easily punch a hole in an exosuit from kilometers away.
  Gauss rifles are the ultimate heavy rifle. Most are semi-
  automatic weapons that fire inert, tungsten-tipped penetra-
  tors. Packed full of smart systems and bleeding-edge weap-
  ons technology, these big rifles are often equipped with 
  long-range optics, detachable bipods, recoil dampers, and 
  other shooting aids.
  Thanks to their outstanding performance, Gauss rifles 
  have almost completely replaced slugthrowers as the sniper 
  and anti-materiel weapons of choice in modern state and 
  private militaries. However, the cost of keeping and main-
  taining them is too high for most private citizens. 
  Models Include: NEXT CG44 Anti-materiel Gauss Rifle, 
  Cantor Model 4 “Deadeye” Light Gauss Marksman Rifle.
  ENERGY WEAPONS
  Portable energy weapons are still considered an emerging 
  technology despite the fact that most state militaries have 
  been using them in limited numbers for years. The first via-
  ble focused-energy weapons were large and cumbersome 
  laser cannons that needed to be hooked up to a generator 
  to meet their energy needs. Over the years, the weapons 
  became smaller and more energy efficient, until NEXT 
  finally released a laser pistol and a laser rifle that were 
  affordable, durable, and efficient enough for practical use.
  The most common type of energy weapon is currently 
  the laser, which uses intense beams of light on the visible 
  spectrum. Lasers have stopping power on par with equiv-
  alent slugthrowers or mass drivers, but they languished 
  behind slugthrowers in popularity—until the Worlds War. 
  With onset of the War, laser weapons suddenly surged 
  in popularity. As much of the fighting took place in the air-
  less environments of the Moon or the thin atmosphere of 
  Skorpios PS-CG Fletcher Pistol
  Skorpios RS-CG High-Capacity Combat Fletcher 
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  Mars, lasers proved much more useful than slugthrowers 
  for military forces and insurgents. After the War ended, 
  developments in laser technology remained, meaning 
  these weapons are now much more commonplace than 
  two decades ago. 
  LASER PISTOL
  The first mass-produced energy weapon to enter the market 
  was a laser pistol—NEXT’s PL840.a, to be exact—and laser 
  pistols have been the most iconic energy weapon ever since. 
  Popular with senior military brass, exotic-weapon collectors, 
  and those who live or work in space, laser pistols are the 
  latest word in self-defense sidearms. Using a high-capacity 
  rechargeable power cell, laser pistols are semiautomatic 
  weapons that produce a nearly invisible beam of searing, 
  coherent light instead of firing a projectile. They are excep-
  tionally accurate over short distances and are shockingly 
  effective against unarmored and lightly armored opponents. 
  Models Include: Argus 78P, NEXT PL1000 Blaster.
  LASER RIFLE
  Laser rifles fall somewhere between assault rifles and mass 
  drivers in the modern weapons market. More accurate than 
  equivalent slugthrowers and more efficient than Gauss rifles, 
  laser rifles are a compromise between the two. They are typ-
  ically semiautomatic, although select-fire versions do exist, 
  and they are most commonly used by assassins, sharpshoot-
  ers, and support gunners. They produce lots of heat when 
  fired, which makes their shots difficult to conceal or mask, 
  but they more than make up for it with solid combat per-
  formance and ease of use. Although many organizations still 
  use some variation of a slugthrower, laser rifles have become 
  the iconic weapon of the U.S. Space Expeditionary Corps. 
  Models Include: NEXT L12 Laser Rifle, Argus 180R 
  SYNAP PISTOL
  Synap pistols, also known as Gandhi guns, are detuned 
  energy weapons designed for detaining suspects without 
  killing them. Using a low-powered “tracking laser,” these 
  weapons fire off a bioelectric charge that disrupts a human 
  or android’s synapses and leaves them paralyzed or uncon-
  scious. Unfortunately, a small percentage of people hit with 
  Synap pistols go into cardiac arrest due to the energy dis-
  charge, but the weapons still remain incredibly popular as 
  a (mostly) non-lethal way to defend ones self and incapac-
  itate suspects. 
  Models Include: NEXT Syn-stun Pistol, Strelet Arms 
  “Incapacitator.”
  FIRE SUPPORT WEAPONS
  Fire support (or "heavy") weapons are vehicle or emplace-
  ment-mounted weapons designed to provide fire support 
  and heavy anti-armor and anti-personnel fire. They cham-
  ber deadly large-caliber rounds designed to destroy fortifi-
  cations and entire infantry formations, or fire long-lasting, 
  intense energy beams that can melt an infantry fighting 
  vehicle to slag in the blink of an eye. 
  Needless to say, fire support weapons are highly illegal 
  in New Angeles. Still, plenty of prisec outfits, orgcrime 
  enforcers, and even the NAPD have the pull and money to 
  keep some of these powerful pieces of military hardware at 
  their disposal.
  Gewehrwerks Donnerkanone-205.b Gauss Rifle
  Astra Consolidated StarForge Laser Rifle
  Argus Immobilizer
  Synap Pistol
    (Order #17879226)
  
  GUIDED MISSILE LAUNCHER
  Guided missile launchers are among the largest, most 
  destructive human-portable weapons available. These reus-
  able missile tubes fire powerful anti-aircraft and anti-armor 
  missiles and can be equipped with all manner of standard 
  and special warheads. Most guided missile launchers share 
  the same general design principles as their ancestors from 
  the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. What sets these 
  modern versions apart is the range and “intelligence” of 
  the warhead. These days, a shoulder-fired missile can travel 
  hundreds of kilometers, while its smart sensors can recog-
  nize a vehicle by the unique profile of its exhaust emissions 
  or the electromagnetic signature of its hoverfoil rotors. 
  Modern guided missile launchers can be fired and oper-
  ated by a single person, although they tend to be bulky 
  enough that the operator needs to be either fairly strong or 
  wearing a powered exosuit.
  Models Include: Strelet Arms L101 Shooting Star Shoul-
  der-Fired Missile Launcher.
  HEAVY FLETCHER
  Heavy fletchers are designed to do one thing: destroy large 
  groups of infantry. These huge smoothbore cannons are 
  the largest flechette weapons produced, and they are rarely 
  seen outside of military bases. They fire a 250mm-canister 
  round packed with thousands of 2mm NEXT flechettes, 
  similar to those fired by standard fletchers. The canisters 
  disintegrate upon firing, releasing the flechettes and tearing 
  enemy formations to shreds in seconds.
  When using a heavy fletcher, your character may spend 
  one fewer 󲊴 to trigger the Blast quality (󲊴 if the attack is 
  successful, or 󲊴 󲊴 if the attack fails).
  Models Include: NEXT HF10, Skorpios Suit-portable 
  Needle Cannon.
  HEAVY GAUSS RIFLE
  These powerful weapons are designed to destroy armor 
  and fortifications at the edge of visual range. Heavy Gauss 
  rifles are 25mm smoothbore weapons similar to a number 
  of older light armored-vehicle cannons in both intended 
  role and ballistic characteristics. Standard load is an inert 
  ferrous penetrator with a buckyfilm-coated hardened 
  tungsten tip. Very technically, Heavy Gauss rifles can be 
  human-portable (with the aid of a tripod or load-bearing 
  system), but more often are carried by exosuits.
  Models Include: Cantor LACR-01 Gauss-Effect Anti-Armor 
  Cannon, NEXT CG70(H) Anti-Armor Gauss Rifle.
  LASER CANNON
  Heavy laser cannons were the first focused-energy weapons 
  deployed in combat. Typically mounted on vehicles with 
  high-output auxiliary power generators, laser cannons are 
  much like their smaller cousins in that they are efficient and 
  precise and inhabit a middle ground between slugthrowers 
  and mass drivers. Vehicle-mounted lasers can tap directly 
  into the vehicle’s energy systems, guaranteeing them a con-
  stant power source. 
  The first laser cannons were often as much a danger to 
  their crews as they were to their enemies, but over time, the 
  technology has improved drastically. That said, laser can-
  nons still have a nasty habit of overheating and occasionally 
  melting down during prolonged use.
  Your Game Master may spend 󲊱 󲊱 󲊱 or 󲊲 generated 
  on any combat checks made while operating a laser cannon 
  to damage the weapon one step. (See Table I.5–4: Repair-
  ing Gear, on page 89 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook.)
  Models Include: NEXT Mk I Annihilator Heavy Laser 
  Cannon, Astra Consolidated SuperNova.
  Gewehrwerks Panzerkanone-500.x Heavy Gauss Rifle
  Skorpios Harpoon Guided Missile Launcher
  88
    (Order #17879226)
  
  LIGHT MACHINE GUN
  Though machine guns have largely been replaced by heavy 
  fletchers in most modern militaries, they still see use in some 
  prisec outfits and military groups in less-developed coun-
  tries. Modern machine guns fire heavy, caseless slugs and 
  typically come with gyro-stabilization units to help absorb 
  their punishing recoil. They also rely on high thermovalent 
  plastics and metal matrix composites to disperse the incred-
  ible heat that builds up with extended firing, meaning they 
  keep shooting even when their barrels literally glow red. 
  Models Include: Degtyarev Collective-Plant Kord 40.r 
  10mm, Springfield M20 Machine Gun
  MASER
  Masers—also known as microwave lasers—emit nearly 
  invisible beams of focused microwaves instead of visi-
  ble-spectrum light. Masers can be tuned to excite water 
  molecules in their targets; this can't hurt targets in metallic 
  armor but is utterly lethal to everyone else. Originally used 
  for long-range, high-output communications and special-
  ized industrial uses (such as “baking” lunar rocks to vapor-
  ize and release water molecules trapped inside), many were 
  converted into weapons during the Lunar Insurrection. Most 
  domes and fortified bunkers were constructed of a combi-
  nation of composites and pressed lunar rock, both of which 
  allow focused microwaves to pass right through.  
  Since the Insurrection, purpose-built maser weapons 
  have been produced in small numbers by NEXT for mil-
  itary use. While still not as efficient or accurate as a laser, 
  masers are nevertheless extremely deadly short-range 
  anti-personnel weapons. While they can’t penetrate sheets 
  of metal, they do tend to short out unshielded electronics.
  When your character makes a combat check with a maser 
  against a target that is covered or primarily composed of 
  metal (what armor falls into this category is up to your GM, 
  but generally should include plasteel carapace and exo-
  suits), the maser loses the Breach item quality for the dura-
  tion of the check. When your character makes a combat 
  check with a maser targeting a vehicle, your character may 
  spend 󲊴 󲊴 on a successful check to inflict 5 system strain.
  Models Include: NEXT MX-990 Maser Cannon.
  MICRO-MISSILE LAUNCHER
  The micro-missile launcher reaps the advances in miniatur-
  ization and programming of the last few centuries. Small 
  enough to be carried into battle by a single soldier, this 
  launcher has a magazine loaded full of missiles linked to a 
  complicated guidance and tracking sensor suite. Most ver-
  sions take a few moments to acquire any targets in range. 
  However, once the system has locked on, the soldier can 
  bang off micro-missile after micro-missile, confident that 
  they’ll home in on their target.
  Micro-missile payloads are, by necessity, much smaller 
  than those of their larger cousins. This makes them much 
  less effective against armored targets. 
  Models Include: NEXT PR-40a Micro-Missile Launcher.
  EXPLOSIVES  
  AND ORDNANCE
  There are some situations in which not even a heavy fletcher 
  or laser cannon can get the job done. Situations like this 
  were made for explosives and ordnance.
  GLOP GRENADE
  Although officially dubbed "non-lethal immobilization 
  devices," cops and bounty hunters prefer their more accu-
  rate nickname. Glop grenades are as effective as they are 
  gross, which means they're really good at immobilizing and 
  trapping anyone within their sticky "blast" radius. The goo 
  is a highly-compressed liquid that reacts and foams when 
  exposed to air, turning into an incredibly sticky, foaming 
  mass that fills a few square meters of space. Once someone 
  is covered with the glop, the run the risk of gluing them-
  selves to anything they touch.  
  Glop grenades can be set to detonate on contact or set 
  with a timer to detonate up to three rounds after being acti-
  vated. Setting the timer can be done as an incidental. After 
  being hit by a glop grenade, for the rest of the round your 
  GM can spend 󲊱 󲊱 󲊱 or 󲊲 from any check your charac-
  ter makes to have them become immobilized until the end 
  of their next turn.
  Models Include: NEXT Non-Lethal Immobilization Device
  Astra Consolidated QuasarFire Maser
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
    (Order #17879226)
  
  MONOFILAMENT GRENADE
  These modern fragmentation grenades are among the 
  most vicious weapons produced today. Roughly the size 
  of a clenched fist, these grenades consist of an explosive 
  core wrapped in nearly a kilometer of monofilament and 
  encased in a carbon-metallic shell. Upon detonation, the 
  shell shatters, and the explosive spreads a deadly cloud of 
  razor-sharp monofilament wire shards that can tear oppo-
  nents to bloody shreds in seconds.
  Monofilament grenades can be set to detonate on contact 
  or set with a timer to detonate up to three rounds after being 
  activated. Setting the timer can be done as an incidental.
  Models Include: Taejo Technologies Mk IV Fragmentation 
  Grenade, Springfield M11 M-Grenade.
  STUN GRENADE
  Stun grenades fall into that gray area of “ostensibly 
  non-lethal but may still incapacitate or kill a target” that's 
  shared by so many less lethal weapons. They employ a 
  high-intensity sonic pulse combined with an electric capac-
  itor discharge to disorient and confuse enemy combatants.
  Stun grenades can be set to detonate on contact or set 
  with a timer to detonate up to three rounds after being acti-
  vated. Setting the timer can be done as an incidental.
  Models Include: NEXT M7 Sandman Flash-Bang Grenade.
  BRAWL WEAPONS
  Sometimes a character needs to get their hands dirty, and 
  that’s where Brawl weapons come in handy. Typically easily 
  concealed and dead easy to use, Brawl weapons help give a 
  fighter a bit of an edge in any physical conflict.
  BRASS KNUCKLES
  One of the oldest and simplest ways for brawlers to increase 
  their chances in a fight, brass knuckles have existed in one 
  form or another for millennia. Little more than a bar of 
  hardened steel or other heavy alloy with holes cut in—or 
  welded on—for the fingers, brass knuckles greatly increase 
  the power of a punch, and they are easy to use and conceal. 
  Wearing brass knuckles in a fight is widely considered poor 
  form; typically, only criminals and particularly desperate 
  individuals use them. 
  Models Include: Various models and homemade versions.
  CHROMECRUSHERS
  These high-tech boxing gloves were originally invented 
  for use in the new gladiatorial rings that sprang up after 
  androids became commonplace. In shadowy, illegal estab-
  lishments like Hoyo Rojo, stimmed-up humans pit them-
  selves against bioroids as bets are placed on how long the 
  androids can survive before being beaten into scrap. 
  Chromecrushers have reduced that survival time consid-
  erably. These heavy gloves fit powerful burst-discharge actu-
  ators over the knuckles, amplifying the power of each punch 
  several times over. Heavy power cables run to a small back-
  pack power supply. The entire rig is light enough that it won’t 
  weigh a boxer down, but its bloody origins give this weapon 
  (and its wielders) a dark reputation in civilized circles. 
  Chromecrushers require two hands to wield (since they 
  can only be used in pairs). 
  Models Include: Kaluta Collective Hammerstryke!, Cyber-
  clash Industries Punchmasters.
  PALM STUNNER
  A palm stunner is a small, inconspicuous item that delivers a 
  powerful stunning jolt to a target on contact. Roughly one cen-
  timeter square and only a few millimeters thick, palm stunners 
  are held in the palm and secured by a strap across the back 
  of the hand. They are powered by a high-yield capacitor that 
  dumps all of its charge on impact with a solid surface, then takes 
  a couple of minutes to recharge off the integral micro-charger. 
  Activated with a punch or an open-handed slap, palm stun-
  ners make for exceptional self-defense weapons.
  Models Include: Personal Defense Industries Stun-R 900, 
  NEXT Palm Protector.
  POWER GAUNTLET
  Power gauntlets are intimidating weapons typically used by 
  police forces and criminal enforcers. Basically the hand and 
  forearm of an exosuit, a power gauntlet encases a wearer’s 
  arm to just below the forearm in heavy, articulated power 
  armor. A rechargeable power pack provides ample power to 
  a thick, energized alloy shield mounted over the knuckles 
  that delivers a punishing kinetic attack with every punch. 
  While they are considered “less lethal” weapons, it is easy 
  to deal significant damage to a target without really trying.
  Models Include: Argus PowerFist Powered Gauntlet, Mars 
  Manufacturing MX-01 Crusher.
  TABLE 2–3: EXPLOSIVES AND ORDNANCE
  Name
  Skill
  Dam
  Crit
  Range
  Encum
  Price
  Rarity
  Special
  Glop Grenade
  Ranged (Light)
  1
  6
  Short
  1
  50
  5
  Blast 1, Ensnare 4, Limited Ammo 1
  Monofilament 
  Grenade
  Ranged (Light)
  7
  3
  Short
  1
  85 (R)
  4
  Blast 7, Limited Ammo 1, Vicious 2
  Stun Grenade
  Ranged (Light)
  8
  5
  Short
  1
  70 
  4
  Blast 8, Disorient 3,  
  Limited Ammo 1, Stun Damage
  Chapter 2: Equipment and Vehicles
  90
    (Order #17879226)
  
  MELEE WEAPONS
  Handheld weapons may seem like an anachronism in this 
  day and age, but a good solid blade or blunt object makes 
  a great backup weapon. In addition, organizations such as 
  the Tri-Maf use swords for ceremonial and, on occasion, 
  combat purposes.
  CHARGED  
  CRYSTAL KATANA
  A strange anachronism even by melee 
  weapon standards, the charged crystal 
  katana is as much a work of art as it is 
  a weapon. Carried by certain factions of 
  the yakuza and other aspiring swords-
  men, a CCK blade is constructed from a 
  milky rose electroconductive crystalline 
  lattice instead of folded steel or advanced 
  alloys. A small power cell in the weapon’s 
  hilt sends an electrical charge through 
  the blade, causing the crystals to align, 
  which makes it almost indestructible 
  and causes the blade to become nearly 
  transparent. Hard to master and incred-
  ibly rare, charged crystal katanas are 
  owned by only the wealthiest and most 
  dedicated individuals.
  Although a charged crystal katana 
  requires only one hand to wield, while 
  wielded in both hands, it gains the 
  Vicious 2 item quality. 
  Models Include: None —each blade is 
  handmade and unique.
  MONOBLADE
  Monoblades are clever, easily con-
  cealed weapons that are among the 
  most deadly devices ever created. 
  Built in various lengths and styles, 
  monoblades feature a simple knife 
  or sword hilt that contains a reel of 
  retractable blade media, a static gen-
  erator, and a powerful capacitor. The 
  reel contains a set length of bucky-
  weave a single molecule thick that, 
  when charged by the static generator 
  in the hilt, stiffens into a wickedly 
  sharp blade. Monoblades can cut 
  through cloth, armor, flesh, and bone 
  with equal ease and are extremely 
  dangerous in the right hands.
  Models Include: Strelet Arms Razor 
  Edge, Delta Arms M30 Utility Blade.
  PLASMA CUTTER
  Plasma cutters are powerful cutting tools designed for use in 
  shipbuilding, spacecraft manufacturing, heavy fabrication, 
  and other industrial applications. Powered by a lightweight 
  electrical generator, these tools create a high-intensity 
  electrical arc that makes thermal plasma by reacting with 
  a stream of pressurized carrier gas (generally argon). The 
  powerful plasma jet can cut or weld almost any metal or 
  alloy, making it both versatile and indispensable.
  Many modern plasma cutters are designed to be por-
  table and come with straps or purpose-built backpacks 
  for carrying and storage. A standard unit consists of a 
  power pack, a cutting head, an array of tips for different 
  TABLE 2–4: MELEE AND BRAWL WEAPONS
  Name
  Skill
  Dam
  Crit
  Range
  Encum
  HP
  Price
  Rarity
  Special
  Brawl Weapons
  Brass Knuckles
  Brawl
  +1
  4
  Engaged
  1
  1
  40
  1
  Disorient 3
  Chromecrushers
  Brawl
  +3
  4
  Engaged
  2
  1
  250 (R)
  3
  Linked 1
  Palm Stunner
  Brawl
  5
  5
  Engaged
  0
  0
  70
  3
  Disorient 2, Slow-Firing 2, Stun Damage
  Power Gauntlet
  Brawl
  +4
  4
  Engaged
  3
  2
  1,120 (R) 6
  Concussive 2, Knockdown, Prepare 1
  Melee Weapons
  Charged Crystal 
  Katana
  Melee
  +3
  2
  Engaged
  3
  2
  600
  10
  Defensive 1, Pierce 3, Reinforced, 
  Unwieldy 3
  Monoblade
  Melee
  +1
  2
  Engaged
  1
  1
  225
  3
  Pierce 2
  Plasma Cutter
  Melee
  12
  3
  Engaged
  5
  3
  725
  5
  Burn 1, Prepare 1, Sunder, Unwieldy 2
  Sledgehammer
  Melee
  +4
  4
  Engaged
  4
  4
  200
  2
  Cumbersome 2, Knockdown
  Stun Baton
  Melee
  +2
  5
  Engaged
  1
  2
  125
  2
  Disorient 3, Stun Damage
  Stun Gun
  Melee
  6
  5
  Engaged
  1
  1
  200
  3
  Stun 4, Stun Damage
  Waterknife
  Melee
  10
  3
  Engaged
  4
  1
  850
  4
  Prepare 1, Sunder, Unwieldy 3, Vicious 3
  Charged Crystal Katana crafted by Matsushita Takahiro 
  Skorpios Bloodletter Monoblade
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
  91
    (Order #17879226)
  
  jobs, and a reinforced power cable. Like the HHI Neptune 
  waterknife, many of these tools were repurposed by Lunar 
  and Martian rebels into deadly melee weapons and used 
  in ship boarding, hand-to-hand fighting, and for carving 
  up bioroids.
  A plasma cutter requires two hands to wield. 
  Models Include: HHI PX830 Portable Plasma Torch.
  SLEDGEHAMMER
  The sledgehammer wouldn’t be worth mentioning if it 
  weren’t for the Human First fanatics who turned it into 
  a symbol and a weapon. During the first protests against 
  android labor, rioters bludgeoned many bioroids and clones 
  to death with simple tools, the sledgehammer being chief 
  among them. For Human First, the sym-
  bolism was perfect. The sledgehammer is 
  a tool representing a hard, honest day’s 
  work; it is a dangerous weapon; and best 
  of all, it is impossible to regulate or outlaw. 
  A sledgehammer requires two hands 
  to wield. 
  Models Include: Various models and 
  homemade versions.
  STUN BATON
  A favorite of riot cops and criminal enforc-
  ers, stun batons combine an electrical dis-
  charge capacitor with a collapsible com-
  posite baton. They are simple, easy-to-use 
  weapons made of high-strength, nonme-
  tallic, flexible composites that make them 
  nearly unbreakable. When collapsed, these 
  weapons are about the size of an out-
  stretched palm and are easily concealed in 
  a bag, toolbox, storage compartment, or 
  coat pocket. A simple flick of the wrist acti-
  vates the expandable polymer and extends 
  the baton to over half a meter in length. 
  Models Include: Personal Defense Indus-
  tries Mk I Collapsible Baton. 
  STUN GUN 
  These simple weapons are some of the more common 
  self-defense devices on the market. Basically a small com-
  posite box containing a powerful capacitor and tipped with 
  two sharp metal spikes, they are designed to deliver an 
  incapacitating electric charge into their target. They follow 
  the same principles as synap pistols, without the ability to 
  shock someone at range. Modern ones use high-yield fuel 
  cells to rebuild a critical charge in a few seconds.
  Models Include: Personal Defense Industries Zapper-2.
  WATERKNIFE
  Waterknives are heavy industrial cutting tools designed 
  for precision work on heat-sensitive materials. Instead of 
  a sharp blade or a jet of superheated plasma, waterknives 
  use a high-pressure stream of abrasive blasting media 
  suspended in a viscous liquid. The liquid lubricates and 
  cools the materials being cut, and the blasting medium—
  typically subminiature quartz pellets or powdered synthetic 
  diamond—does the actual cutting. 
  Although many waterknives are so big and bulky that they 
  need to be fixed in place, modern versions can be miniatur-
  ized enough to be carried around as a large and wet power 
  saw. These portable versions are occasionally repurposed 
  into ersatz and extremely vicious close-combat weapons.
  A waterknife requires two hands to wield. 
  Models Include: HHI “Neptune” Hydro Suspension Cut-
  ting System.
  ARMOR
  C
  lothes make the individual, or so they say. That 
  old adage is even truer in such a fashion-obsessed 
  city as New Angeles. With so many cultures and 
  subcultures rubbing elbows and struggling to live together, 
  the city and its environs are awash in clashing styles. Even 
  up the well in the stations and lunar colonies, clothing and 
  armor styles evolve at a shocking rate, and what was in style 
  last week is considered outré today.
  The following list is just a small sample of clothing and 
  protective gear available to the discerning New Angelino.
  CLOTHING
  Clothing choices in the modern day are every bit as varied 
  as at any time in the past. What makes current fashion tran-
  scend that of former eras, however, is advances in materials 
  science and the use of smart fabrics that can interface with 
  computer technology and change shapes, colors, and even 
  toughness. Everything from basic T-shirts to business suits 
  to haute couture is available in a dizzying array of colors, 
  cuts, and fabrics.
  Challenger Yard Tools D5 Plasma Cutter
  Delta Arms M(P)11 Stun Baton
  Chapter 2: Equipment and Vehicles
  92
    (Order #17879226)
  
  Aside from day-to-day work and leisure clothes, numer-
  ous specialty options are available for those who need more 
  than an off-the-rack pair of jeans or a boutique sundress. 
  Below is a selection of specialty clothing designed to keep 
  New Angelinos, Martians, Loonies, and everyone else look-
  ing sharp and feeling fine.
  CONCEALED BUCKYWEAVE
  Visible body armor isn’t exactly what most people wear while 
  strolling down the slidewalks of New Angeles. Well-heeled 
  New Angelinos who are looking for a bit of protection often 
  wear stylish clothing reinforced with a concealed layer of 
  buckyweave and energy-dispersion fiber mesh to provide 
  basic protection from small arms and light energy weapons. 
  Just about any type of clothing can be tailored with this rein-
  forcing layer, and quite a few shops are willing to discreetly 
  add it to the clothes they already sell—for a substantial fee.
  Concealed buckyweave clothing looks like normal cloth-
  ing. Anyone searching your character adds 󲊸 󲊸 to any 
  Perception checks they make to find the concealed bucky-
  weave between the fabric layers. 
  Models Include: Various models.
  DURABLE CLOTHING
  Durable clothing is exactly what it sounds like:  sturdy, well-
  crafted articles of clothing that provide a bit of protection 
  and can stand up to the wear and tear of modern life. These 
  typical, workaday outfits worn by the majority of New Ange-
  linos range from synthleather jackets and denim jeans to 
  sturdy mechanics’ coveralls and military surplus jumpsuits. 
  While they won’t stop a bullet or turn a monoblade, a suit of 
  durable clothing is definitely better than nothing.
  Models Include: Various models. 
  ENVIRONMENTAL HARDSUIT
  Produced by a number of manufacturers, environmental 
  hardsuits allow individuals to work in extremely hazardous 
  conditions in relative safety. While they come in a variety of 
  designs, most hardsuits share a common suite of features.
  A general, multipurpose hardsuit consists of a tight, 
  one-piece, ballistic fibermesh bodysuit crafted with spe-
  cial chemweaves to protect the wearer from limited expo-
  sure to nuclear, chemical, and biological agents. Worn 
  over the bodysuit is a collection of fitted, high-impact 
  polycarbonate and light alloy plates like those found in 
  riot armor or lower-end carapace suits. Comprising the 
  “hard” part of the hardsuit, these plates are often equipped 
  with temperature-regulating systems and impact-resistant 
  gel, and they offer good industrial protection. Most suits 
  include heavy gloves, sturdy boots, and a helmet with an 
  integral respirator. 
  While wearing an environmental hardsuit, your charac-
  ter adds 󲊳 to Resilience checks they make to resist hazard-
  ous environmental conditions. 
  Models Include: Cal-X Mk II Sheol HazMat Suit, Weyland 
  Salamander EV Suit.
  OPTICAL CAMOUFLAGE SUIT
  Rare and expensive, optical camouflage suits are wonders of 
  modern stealth technology. Known colloquially as “invis-
  ibility cloaks,” these suits combine a sophisticated holo-
  graphic imaging suite, sound baffles, and radiation shield-
  ing to make the wearer incredibly hard to see or pick up 
  on sensors. The holographic imagers project a composite 
  image of the wearer’s surroundings on the suit, allowing 
  them to blend into the background, while the other systems 
  muffle noises and hide the wearer’s body heat.
  Someone trying to spot your character upgrades the dif-
  ficulty of their check once if your character is wearing an 
  active optical camouflage suit. 
  Models Include: ProTek Chameleon, Argus Mk II Infiltra-
  tor Suit, U.S. Army Model 30 Active Camouflage Suit.
  Urban Adventures Freerunner Durable Clothing Line
  93
    (Order #17879226)
  
  COMBAT SUITS
  In this modern era of focused-energy weapons and mass 
  drivers, armor seems like it should be an anachronism. 
  However, current materials science has kept up with weap-
  ons technology, offering impressive personal protection. 
  Although combat suits are often issued to police and mili-
  tary units, plenty of criminals, bounty hunters, and assassins 
  know how to get their hands on high-quality protection.
  LIGHT BODY ARMOR
  Light body armor is a catchall term for a collection of 
  armored vests, flak jackets, and other lightweight, noncar-
  apace, nonmilitary armor. It provides basic protection to 
  the torso and often to forearms and shins, and it is typically 
  paired with a simple, open-faced helmet to protect the head.
  Primitive and cheap—and often cheaply made—light 
  body armor is rarely, if ever, worn by combat troops or mer-
  cenaries. Its primary users are civilians in war zones, crim-
  inals, and security personnel on a budget. Some athletes 
  in particularly dangerous sports, such as hopper racing or 
  snowboarding, wear stylized variants of light body armor.
  Models Include: OV-1 Bulletproof Vest.
  PERSONAL EXOSUIT
  Exosuits are powered exoskeletons wrapped in heavy com-
  posite armor and fitted with vehicle-class weapons that 
  turn an individual soldier into a one-person tank squad-
  ron. That’s how exosuit manufacturers like to describe their 
  products, at any rate. While “one-person tank squadron” 
  might be ad-agency hyperbole, exosuits are still exception-
  ally powerful pieces of battlefield equipment. 
  While some exosuits are large enough to qualify as small, 
  bipedal vehicles, many are smaller and designed to be 
  armor that is worn, rather than piloted. The exoskeletons 
  are adjustable for fit and are typically composed of myo-
  mer synthetic muscle fibers and nanohydraulics wrapped 
  around a buckyweave-reinforced composite frame. Pow-
  ered by high-output twelve-hour battery packs—themselves 
  tended by a kinetic capture regenerative charging system—
  the frame increases a wearer’s strength and durability. Their 
  composite armor plates can shrug off nearly all small arms 
  fire, and they are fully environmentally sealed.
  Wearing an exosuit increases the wearer’s Brawn by 1 (this 
  bonus also increases the wearer’s soak, but it is not included 
  in the soak increase in Table 2–5: Clothing and Armor) and 
  HHI Hazardwear Environmental Hardsuit
  Delta Arms SXF X1 Personal Exosuit
  Argus Rakshak-D Plasteel Carapace
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  the wearer’s wound threshold by 4. The suit’s sensor suite 
  removes 󲊸 󲊸 from any Perception, Vigilance, or combat 
  skill checks caused by darkness or smoke that your char-
  acter makes. If an exosuit loses power or otherwise ceases 
  to function, its encumbrance value immediately becomes 
  12 and the wearer loses all the benefits of the sensor suite 
  and the Brawn increase (including the additional soak from 
  the higher Brawn). Getting into or out of an unpowered suit 
  takes five minutes without assistance, or roughly two min-
  utes with assistance.
  Models Include: Heliodyne Sampson Infantry Suit, Wey-
  land Consortium “Roughneck” Heavy Labor Exosuit, Argus 
  “Ranger” Mk IV Reconnaissance Exo.
  PLASTEEL CARAPACE
  Carapace armor is the heaviest nonpowered armor avail-
  able on the market. Consisting of interlocking composite 
  armor plates over a reinforced unisuit, this armor is the 
  go-to for high-end prisec outfits and the U.S. military. 
  Carapace protects against most small arms, energy weap-
  ons, and even shrapnel splinters and low-yield explosives. 
  Some suits are environmentally sealed to protect the wearer 
  against nuclear, biological, and chemical agents. As these 
  suits are military hardware, there are a number of regula-
  tions against civilians purchasing and wearing them (which 
  doesn’t stop most orgcrime outfits in the slightest). 
  Models Include: AMR Defense “Crusader” Infantry 
  Armor, Garda “Hussar” Hardsuit.
  RIOT ARMOR
  The NAPD is the single largest purchaser of riot armor in 
  New Angeles, prisec outfits being a respectable second, as 
  both deal with anarchist protests and Human First riots. 
  Built to survive the wear and tear of modern law enforce-
  ment, a suit of riot armor typically starts with a heavy-
  duty service uniform similar to those worn by military 
  personnel and PMC operatives. A set of protective plates—
  torso clamshell, shoulders, forearms, and shin protectors—
  made of ballistic gel and flexible polycarbonates is then 
  worn over the uniform, providing protection for sensitive 
  or easily damaged parts of the body. Most suits also include 
  an integrated gas mask and helmet speakers.
  While wearing riot armor, your character adds 󲊸 to 
  Resilience checks they make to resist the effects of tear 
  gas and other riot-suppression chemicals. Riot armor can 
  come with a riot shield (see the Riot Shields sidebar); this 
  increases the cost by 150 credits. 
  Models Include: NAPD M1 Riot Armor, USAF “Peace-
  keeper” Law Enforcement Armor.
  TABLE 2–5: CLOTHING AND ARMOR
  Name
  Defense
  Soak
  Encumbrance
  Hard Points
  Price
  Rarity
  Clothing
  Durable Clothing
  0
  +1
  1
  1
  50
  1
  Concealed Buckyweave
  1
  +1
  1
  2
  320
  5
  Environmental Hardsuit
  0
  +1
  4
  2
  260
  4
  Optical Camouflage Suit
  2
  +0
  2
  1
  580 (R)
  7
  Combat Suits
  Light Body Armor
  0
  +2
  2
  1
  500
  5
  Personal Exosuit
  0
  +3
  5
  4
  5,000 (R)
  6
  Plasteel Carapace
  1
  +2
  4
  3
  750 (R) 
  5
  Riot Armor
  0
  +2
  3
  2
  550
  5
  RIOT SHIELDS
  Riot shields may seem anachronistic in the modern 
  world, but a wall of heavy polycarb shields is still the best 
  way to contain and suppress an unruly crowd. Modern 
  riot shields used by the NAPD have powerful spotlights 
  built into them (to both illuminate and blind rioters) and 
  a light-amplified, radar-generated display on the inside 
  that lets officers see through smoke and darkness with-
  out poking their heads up above the shield. 
  Riot shields require one hand to use (meaning your 
  character can only use one-handed Melee weapons 
  and Ranged [Light] weapons while using a riot shield). 
  They increase your character’s ranged and melee 
  defense rating by 1. They also can provide light, and 
  the display inside the shield removes 󲊸 󲊸 added to 
  your character’s checks due to smoke or darkness. The 
  spotlight can illuminate out to long range. 
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  GEAR
  T
  he average New Angelino's life is crowded with 
  stuff, most of it designed to distract them from the 
  true conditions of their life and the lives of those 
  around them. This section lists a wide variety of com-
  mon tools, electronics, and pieces of kit available for sale 
  throughout the worlds. 
  CARRYING AND STORAGE
  All the tech in the world won’t do a person any good if they 
  can’t get it where it needs to go. The following is a collec-
  tion of personal carryalls and shipping containers designed 
  for transporting gear in comfort and style.
  CROSS-BODY BAG
  Cross-body bags run the gamut of large personal carryall 
  bags, including messenger bags, engineers’ bags, and com-
  puter totes. Worn over the shoulder or slung across the 
  torso by a broad strap, these bags are made from a broad 
  array of textiles and synthleathers and might be weath-
  erproof, reinforced with high-strength zero-G polymers 
  (resin fibers that can only be manufactured in a zero-grav-
  ity environment), or RFID-proofed with foil scatterfiber.
  While wearing a cross-body bag, your character increases 
  their encumbrance threshold by 3.
  LOAD-BEARING GEAR
  Also known as a tac-vest, load-bearing gear consists of a 
  sturdy, full-torso vest (generally woven from zero-G poly-
  mers) covered in snaps, loops, and hooks. It can be worn 
  over body armor or even plasteel carapace. 
  While wearing load-bearing gear, your character 
  increases their encumbrance threshold by 3. 
  MAL-SEALED SHIPPING CONTAINER
  A MAL-sealed container is essentially a cross between an 
  antique steamer trunk and a bank vault. Not much to look 
  at, it is a meter-long, flattened, dull-gray oval encased in a 
  hard polycarbon harness. Its case is a vanasteel-based alloy 
  formed into an electroconductive molecular matrix. In its 
  inert state, the case hinges open like any other container. 
  However, if a properly modulated current is run through 
  the matrix, the matrix instantly realigns, leaving the con-
  tents protected by a seamless, diamond-hard case. 
  Matrix Alignment Locks are particularly useful because 
  the molecules remain aligned until a second carefully 
  modulated current “unlocks” them. The modulation can 
  be tweaked and the exposure time lengthened, creating a 
  unique, variable-length combination lock. The case stays 
  sealed without any power, and it has no computerized com-
  ponents. Without the proper current frequency, would-be 
  criminals must resort to white-hot plasma cutters or high 
  explosives, which don’t leave much hope of looting the 
  contents inside. 
  A MAL-sealed container is impervious to most conven-
  tional cutting devices. (Your GM has the final say on what 
  can cut through the vanasteel alloy, but it should gener-
  ally be limited to military-grade explosives or heavy-duty 
  construction or demolition equipment.) The container can 
  hold a number of items with encumbrance values totaling 
  up to 20. If your character uses a computer to randomly 
  generate modulated currents, they should be able to guess 
  the correct “combination” in 1d5 years.
  MODULAR BACKPACK
  Designed for military use, these camouflaged or olive-drab 
  backpacks were quickly adopted by students, runners, 
  revolutionaries, and disenfrancistos, thanks in part to the 
  U.S. military’s tendency to sell off the surplus from huge 
  production runs. These bags are so tough, thanks to their 
  buckyweave-fiber construction, that some of the earliest 
  models are still used today (after having cycled through 
  dozens of owners). U.S. military modular backpacks have 
  current-activated internal frames that go rigid with a pulse 
  of electricity and give the wearer extra support, and its 
  multiple compartments all have quick-seal flaps that keep 
  items inside safe and dry. 
  While wearing a modular backpack, your character 
  increases their encumbrance threshold by 5.  
  UTILITY BELT
  A common utility belt is part load-bearing gear, part tool 
  belt, and part carryall. Worn low on the hips, this handy 
  item is equipped with a holster or tool bag and a selec-
  tion of sealable, weatherproof pouches for carrying small, 
  important items close at hand. 
  While wearing a utility belt, your character increases 
  their encumbrance threshold by 2. 
  CLANDESTINE GEAR
  As in any other field, the tools used by criminals, infiltra-
  tors, spies, and other shady characters are extremely varied 
  and specialized.
  DISGUISE KIT
  Disguise kits are used by criminals, spies, and investigators 
  to alter their physical appearance. A standard kit includes 
  various wigs, hairpieces, makeup, colored contact lenses, 
  basic camouflage paints, and even prosthetic features. 
  Advanced kits may contain simple biometric spoofers to 
  get around fingerprint readers, retinal scanners, and even, 
  in some cases, genelocks.
  INFILTRATOR GOGGLES
  These bulky, high-tech goggles combine the utility of 
  smartspecs with various vision-enhancing technologies. 
  Used by criminals and special operatives alike, infiltrator 
  goggles are smartgoggles equipped with a passive night-vi-
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  sion system, supported by thermal imaging and (in some 
  models) microband radar emitters.
  While wearing infiltrator goggles, your character 
  removes 󲊸 󲊸 added to their checks due to darkness, 
  smoke, or other forms of concealment. 
  LOCKBREAKER
  A lockbreaker is a modular electronic lockpicking device 
  designed to aid in bypassing most types of electronic locks. 
  With the included accessories, a lockbreaker can help 
  criminals open key-card locks, time locks, keypad/combi-
  nation locks, and other common electronic and comput-
  er-controlled systems. Advanced models can even unlock 
  biometric locks.
  Lockbreakers allow your character to attempt to open any 
  electronic lock or latch. In addition, when making a Skul-
  duggery check to open an electronic lock or latch while 
  using a lockbreaker, your character adds 󲊳 󲊳 to the results. 
  LOCKPICK SET
  Lockpick sets include a number of specialty tools designed 
  to unlock mechanical locks. Whether commercially pro-
  duced or homemade, a lockpick set is a must-have for 
  criminals, clandestine agents, and prisec operatives. Get-
  ting caught by the police in possession of a set of lockpicks 
  usually calls for some fast talking and the liberal applica-
  tion of a credstick to avoid jail time.
  Lockpick sets allow your character to attempt to open 
  any mechanical locks or latches. In addition, when mak-
  ing a Skulduggery check to open a mechanical lock or 
  latch while using a lockpick set, your character adds 󲊴 to 
  the results. 
  SNAP-LOCK
  Snap-locks are half-meter long strips of zero-G polymer in 
  a rigid molecular lattice. Normally, they’re ruler-straight, 
  but when struck hard against a prisoner’s wrists or ankles, 
  the lattice fractures just long enough for the strap to snap 
  around the appendage before the lattice reforms. The 
  resulting restraint can’t be severed without heavy-duty cut-
  ters, making these perfect disposable restraints.
  Escaping a snap-lock without heavy cutters requires 
  your character to make a Formidable (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) Ath-
  letics check or Daunting (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) Coordination check. 
  COMMS
  While most New Angelinos get by with their PAD and a 
  network connection, some individuals require more robust 
  comms options in the course of their daily work.
  BURST TRANSMITTER
  These powerful devices were designed during the Lunar 
  Insurrection to send short, encrypted messages from 
  Earth to orbit. They use a narrow-band beam with a smart 
  encryption system that can transmit voice and data to ded-
  icated receivers. During the Lunar Insurrection, they often 
  served as signals-warfare devices to insert viruses and 
  remote commands into both open and secure networks 
  by brute force. More than one group of insurgents found 
  themselves cut off or vented into space by a black-ops radio 
  operator with a burst transmitter. 
  Since the Insurrection, burst transmitters have found 
  their way into the black market via military surplus bro-
  kers, and some shady electronics vendors have begun sell-
  ing new models with updated software.
  When your character attempts to perform the access sys-
  tem action (see page 129) while using a burst transmitter, 
  they reduce the difficulty of the check by 1, to a minimum 
  of Simple (–). 
  FIELD RADIO
  Field radios are heavy-duty, military-grade transceivers used 
  by soldiers to send and receive information on the battle-
  field. Carried by dedicated radio operators, field radios are 
  still small enough that they and their antenna, their power 
  source, and the other bits of equipment needed to operate 
  their system fit into a lightweight pouch. They feature smart 
  encryption systems and can broadcast anywhere within line 
  of sight of the bearer (including low orbit).
  PERSONAL COMLINK
  Modern-day walkie-talkies, comlinks are small, secure 
  devices used for personal communication. They have a 
  limited range but are unaffected by buildings and other 
  obstacles. Comlinks are cheap and readily available, and 
  they have the added bonus of being largely untraceable (as 
  they only operate with a specified network of comlinks). 
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  Many New Angelinos, especially those in the rougher parts 
  of the megalopolis, use them to conduct daily business 
  away from the eyes and ears of the Network.
  COMPUTERS AND 
  COMPUTER ACCESSORIES
  Most people in New Angeles use some sort of computer 
  (usually a PAD of some type), but runners, sysops, and 
  similar individuals tend to invest in equipment with more 
  processing power.
  BIG RIG
  Big rigs are computer terminals that are too large to be eas-
  ily portable. Such rigs can run from the size of a large crate 
  to a tower a couple of meters tall. Their interfaces vary 
  from holographic haptic interfaces to voice recognition, 
  although many tend to be set up with a BMI (brain-machine 
  interface). Most people have little use for these terminals, 
  as their PADs have all the processing power they would 
  ever need. Thus, big rigs tend to be owned and used only 
  by runners and independent sysops. 
  A big rig is a computer that can have up to four icebreak-
  ers and six pieces of ice active on its system at once (for the 
  purposes of Network encounters). It has both wired and 
  wireless connection ports to the Network. 
  BRAIN MACHINE INTERFACE
  A BMI typically uses a flexible, net-like sheath full of neu-
  ral receptors that bridges the user’s neurons with electrical 
  connections. In short, it lets runners make “deep” runs in 
  the Network, with full sensory immersion. 
  A BMI is not a computer, but may be connected to any 
  computer. While using a BMI during a Network encounter, 
  a runner can choose to "go deep" as a maneuver. Until they 
  "go shallow" as a maneuver, they may only interact with the 
  Network (performing Network maneuvers and Network 
  actions); they cannot interact with the regular world (such 
  as by performing regular maneuvers or actions). However, 
  they may perform a second maneuver each turn during Net-
  work encounters without spending strain. 
  MONOCAMS
  Popular with newscasters, videographers, and aspiring 
  filmmakers, monocams are small digital video recorders 
  worn over one or both eyes like a monocle or glasses. 
  A monocam is not a computer, but allows your character 
  to record any visuals they see and download the recordings 
  to a linked computer or PAD. 
  PAD
  The Personal Access Device, or PAD, is perhaps one of the 
  most common pieces of technology in the solar system. A 
  combination phone, Network access terminal, data stor-
  age unit, and personal computer, the PAD is descended 
  from older devices like personal data assistants, smart-
  phones, and tablets. Made by a number of large technology 
  and electronics manufacturers, PADs are what most New 
  Angelinos use to communicate, access the Network, or do 
  anything they might need a computer for.
  Small, lightweight, and eminently portable, PADs are built 
  from tough, lightweight polycarbonates and alloys. They 
  come in a variety of sizes, are powered by tiny rechargeable 
  power cells, and can be hand-held or wearable. Most PADs 
  have touchscreen and voice-recognition interfaces, but some 
  higher-end, more expensive models respond to holographic 
  and gesture inputs. Some can even interface wirelessly with 
  cybernetics or HUDs to allow remote control. The differ-
  ence is mostly cosmetic, since no matter their size, PADs all 
  do largely the same things. They are all designed with con-
  stant access to the Network in mind—without that access, 
  PADs are much more limited in functionality.
  A PAD is a computer that can have up to one icebreaker 
  and one piece of ice active on its system at once (for the 
  purposes of Network encounters). PADs generally only 
  have wireless connection ports to the Network.  
  PORTABLE RIG
  Portable rigs offer a compromise between the portabil-
  ity of a PAD and the power of a full-sized rig. About 
  the size of a backpack or satchel, they are basically 
  PADs with extra processing power, memory, 
  and adaptive and responsive programming.  
  SKULLJACKS AND 
  SPINAL MODEMS
  Some runners and sysops use cybernetics that have sim-
  ilar effects to computers and BMIs. The most common 
  of these devices are skulljacks and spinal modems, 
  which can be found on page 105 and 106.
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  Some runners prefer portable rigs because they can use 
  them to conduct runs while on the move. 
  A portable rig is a computer that can have up to two ice-
  breakers and two pieces of ice active on its system at once 
  (for the purposes of Network encounters). It can have both 
  wired and wireless connection ports to the Network. 
  READER
  Second only to PADs in their abundance and variety, read-
  ers are small devices used to read IDs and credit informa-
  tion. Popular with street vendors, artisans, and bouncers, 
  these tiny devices can be worn as jewelry or implanted 
  beneath the skin. They are perfect for point-of-sale trans-
  actions and for processing many ID chips in a short 
  period of time.
  A reader is not a computer, but may be linked to a com-
  puter. It can also be a link into a system (see page 128).
  SMARTSPECS
  Smartspecs allow an individual without a skulljack or 
  cybereyes to interface with smart technology. Available in 
  a variety of styles, from bulky welder-style goggles to styl-
  ish aviator goggles and wraparound shades, smartspecs are 
  one of the easiest ways to enjoy the benefits of smart tech. 
  Most sets of smartspecs are wireless and can sync up to as 
  many as four smart systems at once. Information is dis-
  played on the goggles and appears in the wearer’s periph-
  eral vision.
  Smartspecs are not a computer, but may be linked to a 
  computer. They provide a heads-up display for the computer.
  MEDS AND DRUGS
  It’s a tough world out there, especially for those living on 
  the outskirts of polite society. The following is a list of 
  common medical kits and supplies found in New Ange-
  les, as well as some of the more popular beneficial and 
  harmful drugs. 
  EMERGENCY MEDKIT
  Emergency medkits are small, surprisingly comprehen-
  sive medical supply kits used to treat moderate injuries in 
  emergency situations. These kits include sterile bandages, 
  a handful of basic drugs, antiseptics, sterile medical tools, 
  blood coagulants, and other basic medical supplies. How-
  ever, the small size means the total quantity is limited. 
  An emergency medkit allows your character to heal 
  wounds or Critical Injuries without penalty. If your char-
  acter’s Medicine check generates 󲊱 󲊱 󲊱 or 󲊲, it means 
  they have used up all of the kit’s supplies, and the medkit 
  may no longer be used.
  HAPPY PATCH
  Happy patches are cheap dermal patches filled with a 
  street drug called Pixel. They're created by the millions in 
  the undercity and sold to its poorest residents. The drugs 
  leave the user with a hazy, relaxing high with just a hint of 
  a harsh chemical buzz. 
  After using a happy patch, your character heals 3 strain 
  but is disoriented for the remainder of the encounter (or 
  one hour in narrative time). 
  LOW-FI
  A popular plaza-level drug among the idle rich, Low-Fi 
  (also known as Blue Tears and Free-Fall) are small blue 
  gel-tabs that slow down a user’s time perception while pro-
  viding some truly epic hallucinations. The results can be 
  some amazing trips that feel like they take hours but only 
  last a few minutes.  
  After taking Low-Fi, your character loses their free 
  maneuver on their turn for the next five rounds (or five 
  minutes of narrative time). In addition, your character 
  adds 󲊱 󲊱 to any checks they make during that time. 
  PORTABLE CLINIC KIT
  Known on the street as a “doc-bag,” a portable clinic kit 
  has all of the types of medical supplies one would find in 
  a small clinic. The differences are in the quality of the sup-
  plies and in how it uses technology to compress as much 
  as possible into a backpack-sized space. Instead of a col-
  lection of scalpels, scissors, and probes, a clinic kit has two 
  omnitools made from self-sterilizing smart plastic that can 
  morph into nearly any medical tool. Bandages are vacuum 
  compressed into fingernail-sized pills, and the drugs are 
  concentrated so smaller doses are more effective. Tying the 
  whole kit together is an integrated computer system with 
  sensor pads to diagnose a patient in moments. The only 
  drawback is that all of this is fantastically expensive. 
  A portable clinic kit allows your character to heal 
  wounds or Critical Injuries without penalty. In addition, 
  whenever your character successfully makes a check to 
  heal wounds, their target heals 1 additional wound and 1 
  additional strain.
  WHAT CAN A  
  PAD HOLD?
  For the purposes of running Network encounters, 
  PADs and other computers are limited as to the num-
  ber of icebreakers and ice they can host (both ice 
  and icebreakers are also huge programs). However, 
  even the smallest PAD has immense memory storage, 
  even if it doesn't have the processing power to run 
  all the programs stored on it at once. So there is no 
  limit to the number of other programs and files that 
  your character can store on their computer (unless 
  the GM decides that a particular program is so big 
  that it requires a special storage device). 
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  SLAP-PATCH
  A slap-patch is a one-use emergency medical item used to 
  administer first aid and treat minor wounds. It consists of a 
  synthskin backing that contains a drug cocktail of stim, pain-
  killer, and antibiotic, with a bioadhesive that bonds the patch 
  to a patient’s flesh. To use one, a person simply peels a slap-
  patch out of its sterile package and slaps it over a wound. A 
  slap-patch is good enough to deal with bumps, bruises, and 
  light bleeding (although not more serious injuries).
  It takes a maneuver for your character to use a slap-patch 
  on themself or another engaged character. The slap-patch 
  is consumed in the process, and the character immediately 
  heals 5 wounds. While a character can use multiple slap-
  patches, this provides diminishing returns. Each slap-patch 
  after the first on the same day heals 1 wound fewer. A sec-
  ond slap-patch heals 4 wounds, a third heals 3, and so on. 
  Using a sixth slap-patch in a day has no effect. 
  After one day, the lingering effects of the slap-patches wear 
  off, and the character may use slap-patches again, receiving 
  their normal effect (this means a character can consume 
  up to five slap-patches a day, each day). A slap-patch is a 
  painkiller, which is described on page 94 of the GeneSyS 
  Core Rulebook (the slap-patch just has a setting-specific 
  name). All the rules, talents, and abilities governing and 
  affecting painkillers apply to slap-patches as well.
  STIM
  A catchall name for uppers and stimulants, “stim” can range 
  from the equivalent of espresso shots to narcostim, which 
  boosts a user’s reflexes and awareness to dangerously height-
  ened levels. Of course, if a character is buying stim on the 
  street, they’re probably getting something closer to the latter. 
  It takes a maneuver for your character to take stim 
  through a consumable tab or an autoinjector (or to use an 
  autoinjector on another engaged character). The character 
  receiving the stim immediately heals all strain they are suf-
  fering. At the end of the encounter, instead of recovering 
  from strain as described on page 117 of the GeneSyS Core 
  Rulebook, the character suffers 10 strain. They may make 
  an Average (󲊷 󲊷) Resilience check to reduce the strain 
  suffered by 1 per 󲊳 or 󲊴 󲊴. 
  STING
  Sting or Blo-Back is a highly dangerous neurosuppressant 
  that blocks the body’s pain receptors while overstimulating 
  the adrenal glands. The resulting drug is popular among 
  some soldiers and mercs who like to “fight through the 
  pain.” However, most experienced vets know that shut-
  ting off pain just makes you more likely to injure yourself. 
  Needless to say, the drug also sees a lot of use in illegal pit 
  fights in places like the Hoyo Rojo. 
  It takes a maneuver for your character to inject themself 
  or another engaged character with a shot of Sting. Until the 
  end of the encounter, they ignore any penalties that any Crit-
  ical Injuries would otherwise impose on skill checks they 
  make (at your GM’s discretion, this may not apply to the 
  penalties from certain Critical Injuries, such as blindness 
  or loss of a limb). At the end of the encounter, your charac-
  ter no longer ignores those penalties and immediately suf-
  fers 4 strain and 4 wounds.
  ADDICTION
  Most of the drugs found in New Angeles are chem-
  ically or psychologically addictive. Some players 
  may not want to roleplay dealing with the side effects 
  of addiction. This is entirely reasonable, especially 
  since people can have traumatic experiences with 
  addiction in real life. So if some players or your GM 
  want to use the rules for addiction, make sure the 
  entire group agrees first! 
  If your group is using the alternate rules for addic-
  tion, whenever a character uses an addictive drug 
  (which includes every drug in this section except 
  slap-patches) regularly, you or your GM can decide 
  that your character is at risk of becoming addicted 
  (what constitutes "regular" use is also up to you and 
  your GM). If your character is at risk of becoming 
  addicted, they must make a Hard (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) Resil-
  ience or Discipline check (depending on whether 
  you and your GM feel the drug is more physiologi-
  cally or psychologically addictive).
  Once your character is addicted, they must use the drug 
  they are addicted to once a day, or decrease their strain 
  threshold by half until they do so. To end their addiction, 
  your character must go without using the drug they are 
  addicted to for at least one week or more, and may also 
  need to make another Resilience or Discipline check to 
  overcome the addiction.
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  TOOLS AND  
  GENERAL GEAR
  In today’s highly specialized, highly technical world, tools 
  are as much a part of life as street grub and newsrags. 
  AIRBELT PACK
  Airbelt packs are personal mobility assist devices designed 
  for use in low-gravity environments. They consist of a set of 
  air jets worn around the waist and controlled by a handheld 
  virt panel. An experienced user wearing an airbelt pack can 
  move in zero-g as easily as if they had wings.
  While your character is wearing an airbelt pack, they do 
  not treat movement in zero gravity as movement through 
  difficult terrain.
  CLIMBING HARNESS
  In a city as vertical as New Angeles, climbing gear occupies 
  a useful niche for anyone who has reason to go clamber-
  ing around on the outside of buildings. A climbing harness 
  includes a fully secured harness, two hundred meters of 
  micro-filament rope strong enough to support the weight of 
  two adults, and a set of quick-stick pitons with an adhesive 
  that locks onto nearly any surface in seconds. The harness 
  has a small motor that allows it to automatically ascend the 
  rope, and a one-shot grapnel launcher for quick ascents. 
  To use the grapnel launcher, your character must make a 
  Ranged (Light) skill check with a difficulty set by the range 
  of the wall, building, or other structure your character is 
  trying to hit (in the same manner as determining the diffi-
  culty of a ranged combat check). Securing a piton requires 
  a maneuver. The motorized harness allows your character 
  to ascend or descend without making a check. 
  TABLE 2–6: GEAR
  Item
  Encum
  Price
  Rarity
  Carrying and Storage
  Cross-Body Bag 
  +3
  30
  1
  Load-Bearing Gear
  +3
  45
  3
  MAL Container
  15
  10,000
  8
  Modular Backpack
  +5
  100
  3
  Utility Belt
  +2
  20
  1
  Clandestine and Black Ops
  Disguise Kit
  4
  250
  5
  Infiltrator Goggles
  1
  300
  6
  Lockbreaker
  1
  125
  5
  Lockpick Set
  1
  75
  5
  Snap-Locks
  0
  5
  3
  Comms
  Burst Transmitter
  1
  440
  6
  Field Radio
  1
  250
  5
  Personal Comlink
  0
  25
  4
  Computers and Computer Accessories
  Big Rig
  8
  2,000
  7
  BMI
  0
  480
  4
  Monocam
  0
  120
  2
  PAD
  1
  200
  2
  Portable Rig
  3
  750
  5
  Reader
  0
  175
  2
  Smartspecs
  1
  90
  3
  Item
  Encum
  Price
  Rarity
  Meds and Drugs
  Emergency Medkit
  1
  100
  2
  Happy Patch
  0
  10
  1
  Low-Fi
  0
  50
  2
  Portable Clinic Kit
  3
  700
  4
  Slap-Patch
  0
  25
  2
  Stim
  0
  5
  1
  Sting
  0
  50
  3
  Tools and General Gear
  Airbelt Pack
  1
  650
  3
  Climbing Harness
  2
  400
  4
  Emergency Repair Patch
  0
  25
  2
  Flashlight
  0
  10
  1
  Forensic Kit
  4
  475
  5
  Handheld Scanner
  1
  100
  2
  Las-Scanner
  1
  170
  4
  Makerbox
  5
  1,000
  6
  Micro-Welder
  1
  80
  2
  O2 Bottle
  1
  35
  2
  Portable Toolkit
  4
  200
  2
  Respirator
  1
  40
  1
  Rope
  1
  5
  1
  Space Suit
  6
  500
  3
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  EMERGENCY  
  REPAIR PATCH
  Emergency repair patches are to 
  machines what slap-patches are to 
  humans. Available in sizes that range 
  from mere millimeters to square yards, 
  they consist of an alloy  patch that 
  bonds to any surface by means of a 
  powerful adhesive. Although meant as 
  very temporary repair measures, emer-
  gency patches are remarkably sturdy and 
  can even be used to patch up shuttles and 
  dropships in a pinch. They can also offer 
  basic repairs to bioroids. 
  Your character can use an emergency repair 
  patch in two different ways. They can use it when 
  making repairs on a mechanical system, in which case it 
  adds 󲊸 to their Mechanics check. They can also use it as a 
  slap-patch to heal bioroid characters. In this case, it follows 
  all of the rules of slap-patches, as found on page 100. 
  FLASHLIGHT
  While modern flashlights are more powerful, use less 
  energy, and are made from more advanced materials than 
  older models, their basic function hasn't changed for 
  centuries.
  A flashlight provides light and removes 󲊸 added 
  to checks due to darkness. It can provide light out to 
  medium range.
  FORENSIC KIT
  Investigators not lucky enough to be a part of the NAPD's 
  forensic division (and have access to their comprehensive 
  and state-of-the-art laboratories) need to make do with 
  portable and limited forensic kits. A forensic kit is about 
  the size of a large suitcase. It has storage compartments for 
  small pieces of evidence (including a cold-storage micro-
  freezer), tools for recovering fingerprints and DNA sam-
  ples, a hand-held magnifier/recorder, a chemical and DNA 
  analyzer, and a combination camera and las-scanner that 
  can holographically record a scene, allowing a PI to take 
  a snapshot of a crime scene and walk through its holo-
  graphic projection later. 
  In addition to the basic recording, analyzing, and evi-
  dence-gathering uses, your character adds 󲊴 to Vigilance 
  and Perception checks made while searching a crime scene 
  using a forensic kit. 
  HANDHELD DIAGNOSTIC SCANNER
  Designed to diagnose mechanical and electrical trouble, 
  these all-purpose scanners can interface with any comput-
  er-controlled machine or smart system to detect malfunc-
  tions. They are typically sold with software suites that help 
  users navigate the millions of potential error codes in every-
  thing from PADs and hoppers to industrial machinery.
  When your character makes a Computers or Mechanics 
  check to work on a piece of hardware while using a hand-
  held diagnostic scanner, they add 󲊴 to the results. 
  LAS-SCANNER
  Ostensibly a civil engineer’s tool, a las-scanner is used to 
  measure and map enclosed spaces. Using laser-imaging 
  technology, a las-scanner can produce a highly detailed 
  three-dimensional map of a room, ship compartment, 
  cave, or other space in seconds. That image can then be 
  run through the enclosed software for post-processing, 
  markup, and notation. Las-scanners are useful to criminals 
  and spies when infiltrating secure areas.
  MAKERBOX
  “Makerbox” is a catchall term for a 3D printer or other 
  commercially available automated fabrication suite. 
  Using a variety of materials, typically synthetics and 
  composites derived from buckyfullerene, a makerbox can 
  make nearly any item imaginable if the space and mate-
  rials are available. While these machines cannot produce 
  complex, multipart items such as firearms or PADs, with 
  the right materials, it can make the components from 
  which to assemble such items.
  Your character can use a makerbox to assemble a simple 
  tool (or equivalent part) that has an encumbrance value of 
  2 or less. The process takes five to ten minutes, depending 
  on the size of the tool, and requires an equivalent amount 
  of raw materials (plascrete or metals).
  MICRO-WELDER
  Micro-welders are small, hand-held arc welders used to 
  make emergency repairs and to bond lightweight materi-
  als. They are equipped with a swivel head for getting into 
  hard-to-reach areas and a flip-up shield to protect the 
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  user’s eyes from damage. While a micro-welder may not 
  handle heavy-duty work, it can still help fix a weapon or 
  seal a door in a pinch.
  O2 BOTTLE
  Emergency oxygen bottles are a common sight from Mid-
  way Station all the way to Mars. They have disposable 
  mouth pieces and modular valves, letting them serve as an 
  emergency O2 supply or refill a pressurized compartment. 
  Your character can use an O2 bottle to avoid the effects 
  of suffocation in a low-oxygen environment (such as in 
  vacuum, underwater, or in a choking cloud of gas) for 
  up to ten minutes. Your character still suffers any other 
  effects from that environment (such as wounds from being 
  exposed to vacuum, for example). 
  PORTABLE TOOLKIT
  Portable toolkits are sold by numerous manufacturers 
  and contain everything a runner needs to carry out basic 
  mechanical and electronic repairs. Most standard kits 
  come with a selection of hand tools like wrenches, screw-
  drivers, pliers, ratchets, and sockets. Many also include cir-
  cuit testers, voltmeters, diagnostic scanners, probes, feeler 
  gauges, jumpers, and other specialty tools for doing every-
  thing from changing a broken PAD screen to overhauling 
  a hopper’s turbine engine.
  This kit provides your character with the equipment 
  needed to make a Mechanics check with-
  out penalty. 
  RESPIRATOR
  Part gas mask and part rebreather, a respirator is one of the 
  most common pieces of survival gear available. Starships, 
  space stations, and outposts keep stocks of them, and most 
  shops have simple respirators that can filter out smoke, irri-
  tants, and toxins. Some respirators only cover the nose and 
  mouth; others have integrated goggles to protect the eyes.
  While wearing a respirator, your character adds 󲊳 to 
  Resilience checks they make to resist poisonous atmo-
  spheres or hazardous environments. 
  ROPE
  Modern rope is made from reinforced synthetic fibers. It is 
  lightweight, has incredible tensile strength, and is every bit 
  as useful and versatile as old-fashioned hemp rope.  
  SPACE SUIT
  Space suits have come a long way since Yuri Gagarin took 
  his first trip around the Earth. Modern space suits are 
  lightweight, flexible, often formfitting garments built with 
  comfort, and occasionally style, in mind as much as protec-
  tion. They are temperature controlled, radiation shielded, 
  and they have their own oxygen and power supplies. Some 
  models are armored with slip-on plates or buckyweave. 
  Higher-end suits may have built-in thrusters, power cou-
  plings for tools, light power assist, and even magnetic 
  plates in the boot soles. Every space suit sold comes with 
  an emergency repair kit that allows for quick fixes of 
  tears, leaks, and bad gasket seals.
  When worn, a space suit’s encumbrance is 3.
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  BODY 
  MODIFICATIONS
  I
  ndividuals modify their bodies for any number of rea-
  sons, from medical necessity to simple aesthetics. No 
  longer limited to tattoos, piercings, and minor body 
  sculpting, modern body modification involves replacing 
  whole sections of the body with synthetic or genetically 
  modified systems. The rise of this wholesale modification—
  some would say mutilation—of the human form has caused 
  many thinkers to begin questioning the nature of human-
  ity itself.
  CYBERNETICS
  Cybernetics are the most popular, and most socially accept-
  able, form of modern body modification. Using advanced 
  prosthetics and biomechanical systems, an individual can 
  increase their natural abilities well beyond the human aver-
  age. The trade-off is that every implant costs a bit of resil-
  ience and a bit of humanity.
  Each attribute, skill, or characteristic may only be 
  increased by +1 due to cybernetics, no matter how many 
  different cybernetics your character has that would other-
  wise increase that number.
  BONE LACING
  Bone lacing is an extremely invasive and painful procedure 
  that reinforces a patient’s skeleton with buckyweave and 
  lightweight alloys. An individual with bone lacing can soak 
  up huge amounts of damage, and their bones are almost 
  impossible to break. While bone lacing is 
  commonly used to treat those suffering 
  from various degenerative bone dis-
  eases or severely broken bones, it is 
  also popular among those laborers, 
  colonists, soldiers, and mercenaries 
  who can afford it.
  If your character has bone 
  lacing, whenever they suf-
  fer a Critical Injury, you 
  may roll twice on Table 
  I.6–10: Critical Injury 
  Result, on page 115 of 
  the GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book, and choose which 
  of the two results to 
  use. Your character also 
  decreases their strain 
  threshold by 1. 
  CYBEREYES
  Fairly common prosthetics, cybereyes are some of the most 
  popular cybernetics obtained for enhancement rather than 
  for overcoming an injury. A cybereye can dramatically 
  improve a character’s eyesight, and many cybereyes have 
  night-vision or infrared capability built in as well. 
  One or more cybereyes increases your character’s ranks in 
  Perception by 1 and remove 󲊸 caused by smoke or darkness 
  on any checks they make. Your character can also display 
  information from their PAD on their cybereyes. Further, 
  they decrease their strain threshold by 1. 
  CYBERLIMB
  Cyberlimbs are high-tech prosthetics designed to 
  replace an individual’s missing organic limbs. Avail-
  able in a variety of styles and qualities—from low-cost, 
  hard-plastic military surplus arms to the lifelike 
  creations used by top athletes and racers to replace 
  limbs lost in accidents—they are a very common 
  REPLACEMENTS, NOT 
  IMPROVEMENTS
  The cybernetics presented here are designed to 
  enhance a person’s attributes. However, a market still 
  exists for simpler, cheaper replacements designed to 
  simply replace a lost limb or a damaged organ. 
  In game terms, these cybernetics can be purchased to 
  compensate for a Critical Injury of Maimed or Grue-
  some Injury (as well as any other injury that causes the 
  permanent loss of function, such as the Blinded Critical 
  Injury if your GM decides the sight loss is permanent). 
  You and your GM should determine which of the cyber-
  netics makes the most sense as a replacement (cybe-
  reyes to restore sight, a cyberlimb to replace a missing 
  arm, etc.). The cost of that cybernetic is halved, but 
  it only restores the previously lost function; it conveys 
  no further benefit. It also still reduces your character’s 
  strain threshold as usual. 
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  cybernetic enhancement. As with many implants that 
  began as medical devices, cyberlimbs are currently seeing a 
  rise in use for increasing the performance of human bodies.
  A cyberlimb increases your character’s Brawn or Agility rat-
  ing—your choice when your character obtains the limb—by 1. 
  If a character has one or more cybernetic arms, they decrease 
  their strain threshold by 1, and if they have one or more cyber-
  netic legs, they decrease their strain threshold by 1.
  CYBERORGAN
  The ability to create functional mechanical replacements 
  for the body’s internal organs was a revolution in medical 
  science. Once cyberorgans became more common, it did 
  not take long for people—particularly athletes—to discover 
  the performance-enhancing benefits of things like super 
  efficient biomechanical hearts and cybernetic lungs.
  • Cybernetic Heart: A cybernetic heart increases your 
  character’s wound threshold by 2. (This is a special 
  exception to the attribute increase limit for cybernet-
  ics, and your character cannot increase their wound 
  threshold by more than 2 with cybernetics.)
  • Cybernetic Lungs: Cybernetic lungs increase your 
  character’s ranks in Athletics by 1 and allow them to 
  survive up to five minutes in an unbreathable atmo-
  sphere (but not vacuum) without suffocating.
  • Cybernetic Liver: A cybernetic liver increases your 
  character’s ranks in Resilience by 1 and makes them 
  immune to the effects of alcohol.
  For each cyberorgan a character has, they decrease their 
  strain threshold by 1.
  ENHANCED HEARING
  The evolution of the external hearing aid, enhanced hear-
  ing cybernetics can improve a user’s hearing to superhu-
  man levels. These systems use a mix of subminiature sound 
  amplifiers and nerve enhancement to restore hearing, cure 
  damage (like tinnitus), and can provide additional enhance-
  ments beyond normal hearing to those who can afford it. 
  Enhanced hearing increases your character’s ranks in Vig-
  ilance by 1, and removes 󲊸 caused by loud noises or sound-
  based attacks on any checks they make. If your character has 
  enhanced hearing, they decrease their strain threshold by 1.
  ENHANCED REFLEXES
  Enhanced reflexes were initially developed to heal damaged 
  nervous systems and to cure neurodegenerative disorders 
  like Parkinson’s disease and ALS. Every bit as painful and 
  invasive as bone lacing, this implant uses nanomachines 
  and nerve therapy to supercharge a user’s nervous system. 
  Individuals with enhanced reflexes are incredibly quick, but 
  they often find it difficult to sit still and tend to see the rest 
  of the world as if it were moving in slow motion. 
  Enhanced reflexes increase your character’s ranks in 
  Coordination and Vigilance by 1 and decrease their strain 
  threshold by 1.
  NEURO-REGULATOR
  Neuro-regulators are fantastically complex devices that 
  wire microelectronic circuits directly into the brain. 
  Although the devices were originally designed to treat a 
  variety of mental illnesses, some people found that if they 
  were adjusted in particular ways, they increased mental 
  focus and eliminated “troublesome” human emotions such 
  as fear. Of course, this could also make the individuals 
  come across as creepy and emotionless.
  Neuro-regulators increase your character’s Willpower by 
  1 and decrease their strain threshold by 1. Your character 
  may also lose the good sense to flee from dangerous sit-
  uations and, at your GM’s discretion, your character may 
  suffer 󲊸 to social skill checks for seeming a bit robotic.
  SKULLJACK
  The most common piece of cyberware on the black mar-
  ket today, the skulljack is considered a necessity rather than 
  a luxury for a serious runner. Skulljacks are small access 
  points implanted in the skull that allow a character to con-
  nect to and control a computer or computer-operated sys-
  tem. Inexpensive and readily available, skulljacks come in 
  two broad categories: wired and wireless. 
  Wired skulljacks, models that require a physical cable 
  connection to a computer or system, are older technology 
  and usually found among people who can’t afford wire-
  less ones, those who consider the “retro” style of a cable 
  connection cool, and eccentrics who believe the physical 
  connection gives them a stronger, faster, and more reliable 
  connection. Wireless skulljacks are more common, are less 
  invasive than wired skulljacks, and take up less space in an 
  individual’s head; however, despite claims to the contrary 
  by industry flacks and security “experts,” wireless skulljack 
  signals can sometimes be suppressed or intercepted.
  A skulljack is not a computer, but may be connected to 
  any computer (and is essentially a BMI that is surgically 
  installed into your character's brain). It provides all of the 
  benefits of a BMI; during a Network encounter, a runner 
  can choose to "go deep" as an maneuver. Until they "go 
  shallow" as a maneuver, they may only interact with the 
  Network (performing Network maneuvers and Network 
  actions); they cannot interact with the regular world (such 
  as by performing regular maneuvers or actions). However, 
  they may perform a second maneuver each turn during 
  Network encounters without spending strain. 
  In addition, whenever your character's skulljack is linked 
  to a computer, your character increases their ranks in all 
  Knowledge skills by 1. Characters with a skulljack decrease 
  their strain threshold by 1. 
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  SPINAL MODEM
  For some people, linking their brain to a computer just isn't 
  enough. They want to install a computer directly into their 
  brain instead. A spinal modem has the processing power of 
  a portable computer rig, but is linked directly to the user's 
  brain. As the name implies, the modem is built directly 
  into the user's spinal column. It is archaic technology, and 
  those who use it run the very real risk of burning out their 
  mind, even if it gives a user greater control during a run. 
  A spinal modem is a computer that can have up to 
  two icebreakers and one piece of ice active on its system 
  at once (for the purposes of Network encounters). It has 
  both wireless and wired connection ports to the Network. 
  It also provides all the benefits of a BMI (since it is essen-
  tially a BMI installed directly into your character's brain); 
  during a Network encounter, a runner can choose to "go 
  deep" as a maneuver. Until they "go shallow" as a maneu-
  ver, they may only interact with the Network (performing 
  Network maneuvers and Network actions); they cannot 
  interact with the regular world (such as by performing reg-
  ular maneuvers or actions). However, they may perform 
  a second maneuver each turn during Network encounters 
  without spending strain.  
  In addition, your character increases their ranks in all 
  Knowledge skills by 1. Characters with a spinal modem 
  decrease their strain threshold by 1, and can never dis-
  connect from the Network (the particulars of this are up 
  to your GM, but at the very least this means that they can 
  always be traced or targeted by hackers).
  PAIN EDITOR
  A pain editor implant uses microscopic neural shunts con-
  trolled by an organic processing chip to let an individual 
  ignore the effects of pain. While this sounds like quite a 
  boon—and it is in certain situations and for chronic pain 
  sufferers—an individual who can’t feel pain has a tendency 
  not to notice how bad their injuries are, and can do even 
  more damage to themselves as a result.
  If your character has a pain editor, once per encounter 
  when your character suffers a Critical Injury, they may 
  activate the pain editor as an out-of-turn incidental. Until 
  the end of the encounter, they ignore any penalties that 
  Critical Injury would otherwise impose on skill checks 
  they make. (At your GM’s discretion, this may not apply 
  to penalties inflicted by certain Critical Injuries, such as 
  blindness or loss of a limb.) At the end of the encounter, 
  your character no longer ignores those penalties and suf-
  fers the effects of the Critical Injuries. Characters with a 
  pain editor decrease their strain threshold by 1.
  SUB-DERMAL ARMOR
  Sub-dermal armor are thin armor plates, typically made of 
  buckyweave layered with ballistic gel packs, implanted just 
  beneath an individual’s skin. It’s not much protection, but 
  it is enough to turn a blade or absorb a beating.
  Sub-dermal armor increases your character’s soak by 1 
  and reduces their strain threshold by 1.
  G-MODS
  Genetic modifications, or g-mods, use gene therapy and 
  organic implants rather than alloys and buckyweave to 
  increase an individual’s performance. Considered by some 
  to be more natural than cybernetics, g-mods nevertheless 
  alter the human body in unique and irreversible ways.
  CAT CLAWS
  Used both for self-defense and as an aesthetic modifi-
  cation, the cat claws g-mod is similar to the tooth-buds 
  g-mod in that it causes sharp, retractable claws to grow 
  under an individual’s regular nails. While they can’t 
  cause serious harm, cat claws can deliver deep, pain-
  ful scratches and are extremely good for fending off 
  unwanted attention.
  If your character has cat claws, they may suffer 1 strain to 
  have their unarmed Brawl attacks deal +1 damage and have 
  a Critical rating of 3 until the end of the encounter. Since 
  the claws are retractable, this g-mod is unnoticeable without 
  a thorough medical inspection when they aren’t extended. 
  CHAMELEON SKIN
  The chameleon skin g-mod splices in genes from various 
  color-changing animals (such as chameleons, squid, and 
  octopi) and tinkers with the body’s melanocytes to let a 
  character change the color of their skin at will. When an 
  individual first assimilates this g-mod, they can only create 
  solid colors within the standard range of human skin tones. 
  With practice, a g-modded individual can create nearly any 
  color and can combine colors in a variety of patterns. While 
  this is primarily a cosmetic modification, a fair number of 
  clandestine operatives and criminals get this g-mod to help 
  them hide or disguise themselves. 
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  107
  If your character has chameleon skin, they may suffer 1 
  strain before making a Stealth check or a check to apply or 
  adopt a disguise to add 󲊳 to the results. 
  ENHANCED HEALING
  The enhanced healing g-mod supercharges an individ-
  ual’s natural healing ability. Minor bumps, bruises, and 
  scratches heal almost instantly, and the healing time for 
  more serious injuries is cut by days or even weeks.
  If your character has enhanced healing, they may suffer 
  1 strain before making a Resilience check to recover from 
  Critical Injuries to add 󲊳 to the results. When healing 
  via natural rest, your character increases the number of 
  wounds healed by 1. 
  ENHANCED MUSCLES
  By altering the genetic codes that control muscle devel-
  opment, g-mod designers found a way to sculpt an indi-
  vidual’s musculature into custom configurations. Muscles 
  can be enhanced for coordination and reflexes, or for 
  raw strength.
  Enhanced muscle g-mods are popular among athletes 
  and professional thrill-seekers for enhancing their perfor-
  mance without dangerous drugs or invasive cybernetics. 
  Also wildly popular among body builders, these g-mods 
  led directly to the creation of various modified competition 
  classes that focus on modified bulk, shape, and aesthetics.
  When your character purchases this g-mod, they must 
  choose whether it improves their strength or coordination. 
  Your character may only have one type of enhanced muscle 
  g-mod in their body.
  • Strength: If your character has enhanced muscles that 
  improve strength, they may suffer 1 strain before making 
  an Athletics, Brawl, or Melee check to add 󲊳 to the results. 
  • Coordination: If your character has enhanced muscles 
  that improve coordination, they may suffer 1 strain 
  before making a Coordination or Ranged (Light) 
  check to add 󲊳 to the results. 
  ENHANCED OLFACTORY 
  RECEPTORS
  This g-mod causes a user’s nose to become highly sensi-
  tive, able to pick out smells they couldn’t normally distin-
  guish. Since most people don’t want to spend their whole 
  day bombarded by the scent of garbage from half a kilome-
  ter away, however, an individual can trigger their receptors’ 
  sensitivity for a short time before returning to normal.
  If your character has enhanced olfactory receptors, they 
  may suffer 1 strain before making a Survival check to add 
  󲊳 to the results. 
  FOLLICLE CONTROL
  The follicle control g-mod allows an individual to control 
  their body hair, to a point. The process takes a fair amount 
  of time and can be messy if the character is shedding hair 
  everywhere. It also doesn’t provide fine-enough control 
  for a person to grow a perfect hairstyle. What it does do 
  is allow an individual to drastically alter their looks within 
  hours. Follicle control is popular among performers, club 
  goers, and of course, criminals and clandestine operatives.
  If your character has follicle control, they may suffer 1 
  strain to shed their hair over the course of the following 
  minute. Alternatively, they may suffer 1 strain to stim-
  ulate their hair growth. The time this takes depends on 
  the desired length: while a quarter-inch stubble may only 
  G-MOD INSTALLATION
  Despite what Jinteki ads say, g-mods are not com-
  pletely safe or reliable. Human DNA has evolved 
  over millions of years, and tampering with it occa-
  sionally creates more problems than it solves. There 
  are two types of side effects that can originate from 
  assimilating a g-mod: rejection and mutation. 
  With rejection, the body simply rejects the modifica-
  tion and reverts back to its original genetic structure. 
  That can be frustrating, given how much g-mods cost, 
  but it usually isn’t dangerous. The second, and more 
  dangerous, side effect is mutation. Rewriting DNA 
  in one location can cause it to unravel in another, 
  leading to tumors, organ failure, or even death.
  When a character attempts to assimilate a g-mod, 
  they must make an Average (󲊷 󲊷) Resilience 
  check. If they fail, the g-mod has been rejected. 
  It confers no benefit, but its cost has still been 
  expended. If they fail with 󲊱 󲊱 󲊱 󲊱 or 󲊲, the 
  g-mod causes a mutation, and the character’s strain 
  or wound threshold—player’s choice—is perma-
  nently decreased by 1. 
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
    (Order #17879226)
  
  take four or five hours, growing “shaggy” hair takes at least 
  twelve, hair down to one’s shoulders may take more than 
  a day, and hair to the middle of one’s back may take more 
  than two. They may also choose any natural hair color for 
  their hair when growing it.
  GENO-SCULPTED PHYSIQUE 
  Although people still enjoy saying that “beauty is in the 
  eye of the beholder,” these days geneticists really do have 
  attractiveness down to a science. For a hefty sum, a person 
  can ingest a cocktail that forces the body to change features 
  such as eye color, muscle definition, facial features, and even 
  height and weight to a minor extent. These changes are lit-
  erally skin deep; while a geno-sculpted individual may look 
  like they’re sporting the muscles of a dedicated gym-goer, 
  for example, they won’t be any stronger. But most people 
  who opt for this g-mod just want to show off their bodies 
  and aren’t actually interested in manual labor anyway. 
  If your character has a geno-sculpted physique, they may 
  suffer 1 strain before making a Charm or Leadership check 
  to add 󲊳 to the results. 
  NIGHTEYES
  The nighteyes g-mod alters the inner structure of the subject’s 
  eyes, which allows them to take in more light and see bet-
  ter in dim and dark conditions. While this essentially gives 
  an individual a natural form of passive night vision, it also 
  makes them sensitive to bright light. Nighteyes look slightly 
  unnatural, with darker-colored irises and larger pupils that 
  reflect light like an animal’s in the dark. Most people with this 
  g-mod are never without a pair of sunglasses.
  If your character has nighteyes, they may suffer 1 strain 
  before making a Vigilance or Perception check in dark con-
  ditions to add 󲊳 to the results. In bright conditions, they 
  add 󲊳 󲊱 to the results instead. 
  TOOTH BUDS
  Tooth buds cause an individual’s canine teeth to fall out 
  and regrow as a set of long, sharp fangs. Popular with some 
  youth subcultures and quite a few cults, these fangs are 
  both intimidating and dangerous. Since this g-mod also 
  strengthens the jaw muscles and other teeth—an unin-
  tended side effect of the modification process—individu-
  als with tooth buds can cause extremely ugly bite wounds 
  without much danger to themselves. 
  Tooth buds have one major drawback: their size. The size 
  and placement of tooth buds makes it difficult for some-
  one with this g-mod to fully close their mouth. Many get 
  around this by filing the fangs to fit, while others leave them 
  as they are. The latter have a tendency to lisp and drool, 
  which is the desired effect for some individuals. 
  If your character has tooth buds, their unarmed Brawl 
  attacks deal +2 damage and have the Vicious 1 quality—as 
  long as they’re willing to bite their target. Your character 
  also adds 󲊸 to all Coercion checks they make and 󲊸 to all 
  Charm checks they make. 
  TOXIN FILTERS
  The toxin filter g-mod alters an individual’s liver and causes 
  them to metastasize a number of harmless tumor-like 
  growths that filter toxins throughout their body. This com-
  bination makes the individual very difficult to poison. The 
  filters also provide a number of positive secondary effects. 
  Individuals with toxin filters cannot get drunk or high, and 
  they are generally impervious to atmospheric toxins.
  If your character has toxin filters, they may suffer 1 strain 
  before making a Resilience check to resist poisons, toxins, 
  or addiction to add 󲊳 to the results. They may also suffer 1 
  strain to cancel the effects of a drug in their system (this has 
  no effect on slap-patches). 
  TABLE 2–7: BODY MODIFICATIONS
  Item
  Encum
  Price
  Rarity
  Cybernetics
  Bone Lacing
  –
  1,000
  5
  Cybereyes
  –
  500
  4
  Cyberlimb
  –
  2,000
  4
  Cyberorgan
  –
  500
  5
  Enhanced Hearing
  –
  500
  4
  Enhanced Reflexes
  –
  800
  5
  Neuro-Regulator
  –
  1,500
  6
  Pain Editor
  –
  400
  6
  Skulljack
  –
  1,250
  5
  Spinal Modem
  –
  1,350 (R)
  7
  Sub-Dermal Armor
  –
  1000
  5
  G-Mods
  Cat Claws
  –
  400
  6
  Chameleon Skin
  –
  400
  6
  Enhanced Healing
  –
  500
  5
  Enhanced Muscles: Coordination
  -
  1,500
  6
  Enhanced Muscles: Strength
  -
  1,000
  6
  Enhanced Olfactory Receptors
  –
  500
  6
  Follicle Control
  –
  300
  7
  Geno-Sculpted Physique
  –
  800
  5
  Nighteyes
  –
  800
  6
  Tooth Buds
  –
  600
  6
  Toxin Filters
  –
  400
  6
  Chapter 2: Equipment and Vehicles
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  ITEM ATTACHMENTS
  M
  any professionals feel that a new weapon or suit of 
  armor is a good starting point rather than a fin-
  ished product. Weapons and armor can be modi-
  fied with attachments that improve their performance and, 
  in the process, make their users’ lives safer and easier. 
  These attachments use the Item Attachments and Hard 
  Points rules found on page 206 of the GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book. The attachments in this section replace the attach-
  ments found in that section (you should only use these 
  attachments when playing Shadow of the BeanStalk). 
  Shadow of the BeanStalk's weapons and armor have 
  a listed number of hard points in the various weapon and 
  armor tables (sometimes referred to as "HP"). You should 
  use these values instead of using the general rule for deter-
  mining an item's number of hard points found on page 206 
  of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook.
  ARMOR ATTACHMENTS
  The following attachments allow users to customize their 
  armor to their own specifications.
  BALLISTIC PLATES
  Ballistic armor plates are a popular after-market add on for 
  mercenaries and members of the NAPD SWAT Team. The 
  plascrete plates may be heavy, but they help deflect shots 
  and blows, and absorb damage from direct hits.
  Models Include: Argus BallisTec Defensive Plates.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any combat armor.
  Modifiers: The wearer increases their ranged defense by 1. 
  The armor also increases its encumbrance by 1.
  Hard Points Required: 1.
  BUCKYWEAVE ENHANCEMENT
  Buckyweave enhancement reinforces an armor suit with 
  a fantastically expensive, quad-layer buckyweave fabric to 
  drastically increase its protective qualities.
  Models Include: Argus BallisTec Armor Reinforcement.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any armor.
  Modifiers: The armor gains the Reinforced item quality.
  Hard Points Required: 2.
  ENHANCED OPTICS SUITE
  This attachment builds numerous optical enhancements 
  into the helmet of the wearer’s armor. Most of the common 
  suites include passive night vision, thermal imaging, digital 
  zoom, vid recording, and polarized filters. Advanced mod-
  els can even include ultrasound or radar imaging systems. 
  Models Include: Zech Optics Full-Spectrum Optical Suite.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any armor 
  that includes a helmet.
  Modifiers: Removes 󲊸 󲊸 added to your character’s checks 
  due to smoke or darkness. 
  Hard Points Required: 1.
  INTIMIDATING PAINT JOB
  While the blank faceplate of an exosuit or carapace helmet 
  can be disconcerting, it's still not as frightening as a good 
  old fashioned skull or demonic face spray painted or holo-
  graphically projected over the plasteel or cloth. 
  Models Include: Custom work only.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any armor.
  Modifiers: When wearing this armor, your character adds 
  󲊳 to Coercion checks they make, and 󲊰 to Charm checks 
  they make. 
  Hard Points Required: 0.
  TABLE 2–8: ITEM ATTACHMENTS
  Attachment
  Price
  Rarity
  Armor Attachments
  Ballistic Plates
  350
  4
  Buckyweave Enhancement
  9,000
  7
  Enhanced Optics Suite
  1,200
  6
  Intimidating Paint Job
  90
  2
  Jump Jets
  555
  5
  Street Wear
  125
  2
  Strength-Enhancing System
  2,000
  5
  Vacuum Sealed
  500
  4
  Weapon Attachments
  Ammo Counter
  200
  3
  Balanced Hilt
  1,000
  6
  Ballistic Targeting Display
  500
  5
  Bipod Mount
  250
  2
  BMI-Linked Trigger
  120
  2
  Enhanced Weight
  250
  2
  Recoil Compensators
  350
  4
  Shortened Barrel
  180
  3
  Superior Weapon Customization
  750
  7
  Target-Selection System
  1,225 (R)
  7
  Targeting Reticle
  800
  5
  Telescopic Sight
  200
  3
  Torso Combat Harness
  1,175 (R)
  5
  Weapon Lockout
  145
  3
  Weapon Sling
  25
  1
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
  109
    (Order #17879226)
  
  JUMP JETS
  Maneuvering jets are a necessity in microgravity environ-
  ments, but short range "jump jets" also let users fly briefly 
  (and deploy from high altitude combat drops) while on Earth.
  Models Include: Argus Icarus System.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any armor 
  with a rigid external carapace.
  Modifiers: When wearing this armor, once per encounter 
  your character may activate the jump jets as an incidental. 
  Until the end of your character's next turn, they may fly and 
  do not suffer damage from falling. 
  Hard Points Required: 2.
  STREET WEAR
  While some armor is unmistakably military in appearance, 
  other armor can be tailored to look indistinguishable from 
  street clothing with the right flare and cut. 
  Models Include: Custom work only.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to optical cam-
  ouflage, environmental hardsuits, and light body armor.
  Base Modifiers: This armor looks like normal clothing. 
  Anyone searching your character adds 󲊸 󲊸 to Perception 
  checks to notice that they are wearing armor.
  Hard Points Required: 0.
  STRENGTH-ENHANCING SYSTEM
  Strength-enhancing systems use exosuit technology to turn 
  any hardsuit into a makeshift suit of powered armor. Using 
  polyfiber muscle clusters and microhydraulics, an SES 
  allows the user to lift and carry more mass than usual for 
  longer distances and periods of time. 
  Models Include: Weyland AMX Power Assist System, HHI 
  “Brawler” Heavy Power Support System.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any armor 
  with a rigid external carapace.
  Modifiers: When wearing this armor, your character 
  increases their encumbrance threshold by 5, and adds 󲊳 to 
  any Brawn-based checks they make. 
  Hard Points Required: 2.
  VACUUM SEALED
  By changing out the underlying unisuit and installing joint 
  seals and special coatings, a full body armored suit can be 
  made impervious to almost any hostile environment. When 
  buttoned up, a vacuum-sealed suit protects the wearer from 
  nuclear, biological, and chemical agents; intense heat; bitter 
  cold; and even the vacuum of space.  
  Models Include: HHI High Altitude Air System.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any armor 
  that covers the entire body and includes a helmet.
  Modifiers: While wearing this armor, your character may 
  ignore the effects of vacuum and other hazardous environ-
  ments for up to two hours.
  Hard Points Required: 1.
  WEAPON ATTACHMENTS
  Many modern aftermarket weapon modifications are 
  so-called “smart systems,” electronic and computerized sys-
  tems that improve a weapon’s performance with near-fan-
  tastical abilities. Meanwhile, simpler “dumb” modifications 
  can improve a weapon without needing digital upgrades. 
  AMMO COUNTER
  One of the simplest smart systems available, an ammo 
  counter displays in a shooter’s cybereye—or in a pair of 
  smartgoggles or an HUD—a weapon’s maximum and cur-
  rent number of shots. Thus avoiding that unexpected "beep" 
  or "click" of an empty mag.
  Models Include: Strelet Arms “Countdown,” Skorpios 
  LAG-4 Ammunition Tracker.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any smart 
  ranged weapon.
  Modifiers: While your character is using this weapon, your 
  GM cannot spend 󲊱 or 󲊲 to cause it to run out of ammo.
  Hard Points Required: 1.
  BALANCED HILT
  Good balance is one of the most important features of a 
  melee weapon. Using a variety of ultra-lightweight materi-
  als, a talented technician can create a weapon that is light 
  and easy to wield. 
  Models Include: Custom work only.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any one-
  handed weapons that use the Melee skill.
  Modifiers: The weapon gains the Accurate 1 item quality 
  or increases its existing Accurate rating by 1. (If the weapon 
  has the Inaccurate item quality, it reduces that quality’s rat-
  ing by 1, to a minimum of 0, instead.)
  Hard Points Required: 1.
  BALLISTIC TARGETING DISPLAY
  A favorite of sharpshooters and sport hunters, a BTD smart 
  system improves a weapon’s long-range performance. This 
  system combines a number of subsystems such as a range-
  finder, digital optical enhancement, a long-range laser sight, 
  and even a weather satellite uplink to provide real-time bal-
  listic data. It connects to a cybereye, HUD, or smartgog-
  gles and displays range to target, windage, bullet drop, and 
  other data important to long-range shooting. 
  Models Include: Cantor Model 1 Marksman Smart System, 
  Argus LA994 Ballistic Targeting Array.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any smart 
  Ranged (Heavy) or Gunnery weapon.
  Modifiers: The user reduces the difficulty of ranged com-
  bat checks made with this weapon at ranges greater than 
  medium by 2, to a minimum of Average (󲊷 󲊷). This bonus 
  cannot be combined with any other bonus from a different 
  scope or sight.
  Hard Points Required: 3.
  Chapter 2: Equipment and Vehicles
  110
    (Order #17879226)
  
  BIPOD MOUNT
  Bipods are simple, two-legged stands used to stabilize weap-
  ons and make them easier to operate. Although decidedly 
  low-tech in comparison to modern weapon attachments, 
  bipods are still incredibly popular in spite of (or perhaps 
  because of) their simplicity. 
  Models Include: Strelet Arms General Purpose Bipod.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any Ranged 
  (Heavy) or Gunnery weapon.
  Modifiers: If your character spends one preparation maneu-
  ver to deploy the bipod, the weapon's Cumbersome or 
  Unwieldy qualities are reduced by 2, to a minimum of 0, and 
  the weapon's encumbrance is reduced by 2, to a minimum of 
  0, while your character fires from a crouched or prone posi-
  tion (or can brace the bipod against something solid). 
  Hard Points Required: 1.
  BMI-LINKED TRIGGER
  BMI-equipped runners are fond of saying that there's noth-
  ing faster than the speed of thought. Some mercenaries and 
  pistols for hire apply this literally, getting a BMI linked to the 
  firing mechanism of their weapon. Being able to fire a pistol 
  with a mental command is faster than pulling the trigger, but 
  it takes training to avoid doing so with a stray thought. 
  Models Include: Cantor Mind-Lightning Link.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any smart 
  ranged weapon.
  Modifiers: Your character must have a BMI, skulljack, or 
  spinal modem installed to benefit from this attachment. 
  When your character makes the first combat check with 
  this weapon in an encounter, add 󲊳 󲊱 to the results. 
  Your character can also use mental commands to fire 
  this weapon even if they are not holding it, as long as the 
  weapon is within long range.
  Hard Points Required: 1.
  ENHANCED WEIGHT
  Although trends tend towards lighter weapons, some bene-
  fit from a bit more heft. Custom armorers can replace strik-
  ing surfaces with denser materials that are just as durable, 
  allowing them to strike with more impact. 
  Models Include: Custom work only.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any close 
  combat weapon that deals bludgeoning or crushing damage 
  (not one with a cutting edge).
  Modifiers: The weapon increases its damage by 2. The 
  weapon gains the Cumbersome 2 quality, or increases its 
  existing Cumbersome quality by 1.
  Hard Points Required: 1.
  RECOIL COMPENSATORS
  By using smartlinked gyrostabilizers and gas vents, recoil 
  compensators make weapons more accurate and easier to 
  handle. While recoil compensators are typically added to 
  automatic weapons or high-accuracy, long-range rifles, 
  nearly any slugthrower can benefit from this system.
  Models Include: Strelet Arms GR19 Gas Venting System, 
  Cantor Sta-Bil Recoil Compensators.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any smart 
  slugthrower weapon.
  Modifiers: The weapon decreases its Inaccurate item qual-
  ity by 1, to a minimum of 0.
  Hard Points Required: 1.
  SHORTENED BARREL
  While any weapon’s barrel can be shortened with proper 
  application of hacksaw, plasma cutter, or file, most profes-
  sionals purchase purpose-built barrels to replace the stan-
  dard items that came with their weapons. Weapons with 
  shortened barrels enable a quicker draw, at the cost of range. 
  Models Include: Strelet Arms Korotka-1 Barrel, Argus 
  SBSM Reduced Length Barrel.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any Ranged 
  (Light) weapon.
  Modifiers: Your character may draw this weapon as an inci-
  dental rather than as a maneuver. The range of this weapon 
  changes to short.
  Hard Points Required: 1.
  Cost: 250.
  SUPERIOR WEAPON CUSTOMIZATION
  No matter how well put together it is, a mass-market 
  weapon is still made for the masses. This attachment tweaks 
  a weapon to an individual’s specifications, making it an 
  extension of the user rather than a run-of-the-mill weapon. 
  Models Include: Custom work only.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any weapon.
  Modifiers: This weapon gains the Superior item quality.
  Hard Points Required: 1.
  WHAT’S A SMART 
  WEAPON?
  A smart weapon is any weapon that includes an inte-
  grated microcomputer and a wireless (or sometimes 
  wired) link that lets the weapon communicate with 
  a linked piece of gear. For practical purposes, we 
  assume that all ranged weapons found in New Ange-
  les are smart weapons unless your GM decides other-
  wise. Non-smart weapons may be antiques, particu-
  larly cheap, or even built to be “dumb” to avoid being 
  traced or hacked. There is no difference between the 
  capabilities of a dumb and a smart weapon, save that 
  a smart weapon can have some attachments that a 
  dumb weapon cannot.
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
  111
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  TARGET-SELECTION SYSTEM
  Target-selection systems are smart systems that are 
  designed to greatly reduce the likelihood of friendly fire. 
  The system consists of an integrated Identify Friend or Foe 
  (IFF) system that identifies allies through a variety of bio-
  metric and visual sensors. The system takes a moment to 
  scan its surroundings and the participants in a combat, but 
  once it does so, it refuses to allow its weapon to fire when 
  the shot could hit a friendly. 
  Models Include: Scorpios AEGIS IFF System, Argus Hold-
  Fire Target Filtering System.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any smart 
  ranged weapon.
  Modifiers: Your character may spend a maneuver during 
  an encounter to activate the target-selection system. If they 
  do, for the remainder of the encounter, your GM cannot 
  spend 󲊲 from their combat checks to cause the attack to 
  hit an ally engaged with their original target.
  Hard Points Required: 2.
  TARGETING RETICLE
  This simple smart system displays a small targeting reticle 
  in a character’s cybereye, HUD, or smartgoggles. This fea-
  ture increases a shooter’s accuracy, although it cannot be 
  combined with any other sighting system and is only mod-
  erately useful at longer ranges.
  Models Include: Strelet SureShot Targeting Scope, HHI 
  Shrike-1 Holo-Reticle.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any smart 
  ranged weapon.
  Modifiers: The weapon gains the Accurate 1 item quality or 
  increases its existing Accurate rating by 1. (If the weapon has 
  the Inaccurate item quality, it reduces that quality’s rating by 
  1, to a minimum of 0, instead.) This bonus cannot be com-
  bined with any other bonus from a different scope or sight. 
  Hard Points Required: 1.
  TELESCOPIC SIGHT
  The telescopic optical sight is one of the easiest and most 
  common modifications made to weapons. Cheaper than 
  a smart system, the tried-and-true optical sight has not 
  changed much in the centuries since its invention. Modern 
  materials and construction techniques have increased its fit 
  and finish and reduced its fragility, but at the end of the day, 
  an optical sight still uses finely crafted lenses held in a tube 
  that magnify a shooter’s target. 
  Models Include: Zech Optics Triumph Z6 Riflescope, Can-
  tor Model 9 Marksman Scope.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any ranged 
  weapon that could logically benefit from the application of 
  a telescopic sight.
  Modifiers: The user reduces the difficulty of ranged combat 
  checks made with this weapon at long and extreme range by 1.
  Hard Points Required: 1.
  TORSO COMBAT HARNESS 
  Torso combat harnesses allow users to stabilize heavy weap-
  ons by supporting some of the weight with their own body. 
  They consist of a harness worn by the user and attached to 
  the weapon via a powered and articulated "arm." The whole 
  arrangement is incredibly unwieldy for untrained users, but 
  it lets someone carry a laser cannon while not wearing an 
  exosuit.  
  Models Include: HHI PowerLift Harness.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any smart 
  ranged weapon.
  Modifiers: As long as the harness is attached to your char-
  acter, the weapon's Cumbersome qualities are reduced by 
  4 to a minimum of 0, and the weapon's encumbrance is 
  reduced by 2, to a minimum of 0. The weapon gains the 
  Unwieldy 2 quality, or increases any existing Unwieldy 
  quality by 1.
  Hard Points Required: 3.
  WEAPON LOCKOUT
  When installed in a smart-capable weapon, a lockout pre-
  vents anyone but the weapon’s owner from using it. Most 
  lockouts use a sophisticated combination of biometrics and 
  palm-print sensors integrated into the grip. 
  Models Include: Skorpios Mk I Print Lock, Jinteki 
  GeneLocker Weapon Security System.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any 
  smart weapon.
  Modifiers: This weapon cannot be fired except by its desig-
  nated user. Unlocking and reprogramming a stolen or oth-
  erwise “acquired” weapon with an active lockout requires 
  your character to make a Daunting (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) Comput-
  ers (Hacking) check. Your GM may spend 󲊱 󲊱 󲊱 or 󲊲 
  from this check to permanently disable the locked weapon, 
  rendering it useless.
  Hard Points Required: 1.
  WEAPON SLING
  A sling helps a user carry a weapon by taking up part of the 
  weight. This particular attachment has changed little over 
  the centuries, although the styles and prints popular in New 
  Angeles do favor bold hexagonal patterns. 
  Models Include: Urban Adventures Multipurpose Sling, 
  Strelet Arms S3.
  Use With: This attachment can be applied to any Ranged 
  (Heavy) weapon.
  Modifiers: The weapon decreases its encumbrance by 2.
  Hard Points Required: 1.
  Chapter 2: Equipment and Vehicles
  112
    (Order #17879226)
  
  SHIPS AND VEHICLES
  W
  hile the megalopolis's mass transit system and 
  the fleet of beanpods that streak up and down 
  the Beanstalk can get New Angelinos nearly 
  anywhere in New Angeles, there are occasions when an 
  individual needs something more personal and controlla-
  ble than a streetcar or tube-lev.
  There are thousands of different makes and models of 
  vehicles in New Angeles, but despite what companies claim 
  in their advertisements, an Arlis-Maxim Bumblebee isn't 
  all that different from a QuanTech AeroRacer. So this sec-
  tion presents broad profiles instead of specific vehicles, and 
  then details some specific examples to help flesh out your 
  game in accompanying sidebars. 
  HOPPERS
  In New Angeles, hoppers have taken the place of wheeled 
  vehicles like groundcars, groundtrucks, and motorcycles as 
  the most common form of personal transportation. Short 
  for "skyhopper," hoppers are mid-altitude hovercraft pow-
  ered by a short-duration hydrogen fuel cell that runs multi-
  ple electromagnetic hoverfoil rotors.
  Most hoppers are autonomous vehicles, controlled by a 
  savant-level AI autopilot. A passenger simply tells the hop-
  per where to go, and the vehicle flies itself to the appropri-
  ate hopper pad. Most hoppers do have physical controls in 
  case of emergency—or if the pilot wants to have some fun. 
  However, while in New Angeles, hoppers are linked and 
  directed by New Angeles Traffic Control. Flying on manual 
  results in tickets and fines, if you get caught.
  CARGO HOPPER
  Cargo hoppers are large, bulky, awkward and unlovely 
  machines built for one purpose: to haul tons of cargo safely 
  and reliably. They carry no passengers, and their entire hull, 
  save for mechanical spaces, is given over to cargo space. 
  While some cargo hoppers have a driver's cab, the majority 
  manufactured these days are completely AI-controlled.
  Control Skill: Piloting.
  Compliment: 1 driver or completely autonomous vehicle.
  Passenger Capacity: None.
  Price/Rarity: 40,000 credits/4.
  Encumbrance Capacity: 200.
  Consumables: None.
  Weapons: None.
  COMMUTER HOPPER
  Commuter hoppers are small affairs commonly used for get-
  ting around New Angeles. Not particularly stylish or excit-
  ing, commuters are nonetheless the backbone of personal 
  transport in and around the greater New Angeles megalopo-
  lis. They have just enough room for up to four individuals to 
  sit comfortably and enough cargo space for a few large pieces 
  of luggage. Like most hoppers, these tiny runabouts are con-
  trolled by an AI autopilot and have handling characteristics 
  that can be described charitably as sedate. 
  Control Skill: Piloting.
  Compliment: 1 driver or completely autonomous vehicle.
  Passenger Capacity: 3.
  Price/Rarity: 14,000 credits/2.
  Encumbrance Capacity: 25.
  Consumables: None.
  Weapons: None.
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  K&P AEROSPACE G-77 
  GOLIATH
  The Goliath, built by U.S. aerospace giant K&P, is a 
  prime example of the cargo hopper. Essentially a flying 
  shipping container, the Goliath is packed full of auto-
  mated cargo-handling systems and can handle any-
  thing from palletized cargo to simple bags and bales 
  of material. It is a common sight plodding through the 
  city, decorated with corporate logos and often painted 
  with layers of colorful graffiti.
  ARLIS-MAXIM 
  BUMBLEBEE
  The Bumblebee by Arlis-Maxim AG is a typical com-
  muter hopper. It comes standard with a comfortable, 
  well-laid-out cabin, an extensive infotainment sys-
  tem, and all the modern safety and comfort options 
  expected on commuter hoppers. It has an excellent 
  reputation, thanks to Arlis-Maxim’s famous high-qual-
  ity engineering, and it is popular among retirees and 
  young professionals.
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  HOPPERBIKE
  Hopperbikes appeal to the speed junkies and thrill seekers 
  of New Angeles, as well as the couriers looking to make fast 
  deliveries. They are basically flying motorcycles, a single 
  open pilot seat and windscreen sitting atop oversized fuel 
  cells and some heavy duty electromagnetic hoverfoils.
  Hopperbikes tend to be blisteringly fast, highly- 
  maneuverable thrill machines —there's not much demand 
  for a sluggish or safe bike. Their cargo capacity is limited; 
  most have space for a single passenger riding behind the pilot 
  and room for a few small items in saddlebags or seat-storage. 
  Control Skill: Piloting.
  Compliment: 1 driver.
  Passenger Capacity: 1 (barely).
  Price/Rarity: 8,000 credits/3.
  Encumbrance Capacity: 10.
  Consumables: None.
  Weapons: None.
  LUXURY HOPPER
  The luxury and high performance hopper market often go 
  hand in hand, with rich risties spending way too many 
  credits on fast, high-performance mid-life crisis mobiles. 
  They're more likely to enjoy the luxury features like real 
  leather seats, full threedee projectors, and compact wet bars 
  than what's under the hood. However, occasionally a proper 
  pilot gets their hands on a sports hopper, at which point 
  they appreciate these vehicle's mechanical advantages. 
  Control Skill: Piloting.
  Compliment: 1 driver.
  Passenger Capacity: 3.
  Price/Rarity: 85,000 credits/3.
  Encumbrance Capacity: 20.
  Consumables: None.
  Weapons: None.
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  QIANJU PT 7000
  The PT 7000 is one of the newest and most exciting 
  hopperbikes in the sports hopper market. Building on 
  the massive success of the original Qianju Personal 
  Transport, the 7000 has four times the power, the 
  maneuverability required for serious hopper racing, 
  and a blunt, aggressive-looking chassis. Of course, it 
  also comes with a price tag to match.
  HELIODYNE AMG-90 
  LUXURY HOPPER
  Popular among CEOs, celebrities, and crime bosses, 
  the AMG-90 is the last word in luxury and perfor-
  mance. Interiors feature exotic natural and synthetic 
  materials, state-of-the-art infotainment systems, full 
  sensor suites, encrypted comms, and rocking sound 
  systems. The AI is equipped with military-grade com-
  bat drone capabilities. However, most risties have a 
  Tenma pilot or prefer to fly their toy themselves. 
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  POLICE HOPPER
  Police hoppers are bigger and more powerful than their 
  civilian counterparts, with larger fuel cells giving them 
  increased range as well. Their AI pilots allow officers to 
  handle patrol duties mid-flight, but officers are expected to 
  take manual control to get the most of their vehicle. Police 
  hoppers also come armored for patrols into the undercity. 
  Control Skill: Piloting.
  Compliment: 2 NAPD officers.
  Passenger Capacity: 3 prisoners.
  Price/Rarity: 60,000 credits/3.
  Encumbrance Capacity: 25.
  Consumables: None.
  Weapons: None.
  GROUND VEHICLES
  Despite being obsolete, cheap groundcars and trucks still 
  clog the undercity roads of New Angeles. 
  GROUNDCAR
  Most groundcars in New Angeles stay out of sight, relegated 
  to the arterial highways and roads running through the 
  undercity. They're an inefficient way of getting around the 
  city, and thus are usually owned by the poor. 
  Control Skill: Driving.
  Compliment: 1 driver.
  Passenger Capacity: 5.
  Price/Rarity: 5,000 credits/3.
  Encumbrance Capacity: 25.
  Consumables: None.
  Weapons: None.
  GROUNDTRUCK
  Slower and heavier than most groundcars, groundtrucks 
  still have a place in New Angeles hauling the constant deliv-
  eries that keep city industry humming. While the massive 
  cargo haulers are all completely automated (with only two 
  dimensions to worry about, even the simplest computer 
  can drive one), lighter trucks tend to be popular with 
  self-employed craftspeople and tradespeople working and 
  living in the undercity. 
  Control Skill: Driving.
  Compliment: 1 driver.
  Passenger Capacity: 3.
  Price/Rarity: 7,500 credits/3.
  Encumbrance Capacity: 100.
  Consumables: None.
  Weapons: None.
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  PAL-DNIEPER 
  GAZELLE
  The hilariously misnamed Gazelle, produced by Russian 
  automaker PAL-Dnieper Group, has been out of produc-
  tion for nearly four decades and was considered clunky 
  and old-fashioned when it was new. It is neither fast nor 
  exciting and has a rate of acceleration best measured in 
  days. However, Gazelles are popular with criminals and 
  other individuals who like their privacy. They are incon-
  spicuous and more importantly, most don't have the 
  hardware to connect to the Network or Traffic Authority.
  ARLIS-MAXIM 
  ENFORCER
  The Enforcer is Arlis-Maxim's bread and butter; over 
  half a million have been sold to various law enforce-
  ment agencies. The Enforcer trades maneuverability for 
  raw power  for straight-line chases. It also has sustained 
  hover capability, remote spotlights, deployable wheels 
  for landing off-pad, and a variant, the Enforcer K9, has 
  an expanded cargo trunk to transport Hachi-Inu clones. 
  T-A CABALLERO
  Produced by the Ecuadoran-Japanese automotive 
  conglomerate Tomi-Arisaka Autos, the Caballero is 
  the vehicle of choice for New Angeles’ struggling 
  blue-collar workers. However, a vibrant custom cul-
  ture has grown up around it and similar vehicles. 
  New Angelinos spend thousands of credits outfitting 
  their Caballeros with custom wheels and tires, intri-
  cate paint and body work, luxury interiors, upgraded 
  powertrains, and powerful stereo systems. Sponta-
  neous car shows are a common occurrence in work-
  ing-class neighborhoods in Esmeraldas and Quinde. 
  These gatherings are an excellent place to party, hear 
  rumors, buy and sell contraband, and keep an ear 
  open to the city’s happenings.
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
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  AEROSPACE VEHICLES
  The most common areospace vehicles are dropships, the 
  colloquial term for orbit-capable vehicles used by VIPs, the 
  ultra-rich, and most militaries. 
  COMBAT DROPSHIP
  Mostly owned by militaries and wealthy prisec corpora-
  tions, combat dropships are the best way to get soldiers 
  into space and back down alive, while giving them some 
  hefty fire support. They are somewhat aerodynamic, but 
  still sport thick armored plates and rely on the raw power 
  of their engines to bully their way through the atmosphere 
  on the way to the target. 
  Control Skill: Piloting.
  Compliment: 1 pilot, 1 ECW operator, 1 crew chief.
  Passenger Capacity: 15.
  Price/Rarity: 750,000 credits/6.
  Encumbrance Capacity: 80.
  Consumables: None.
  Weapons: Chin-mounted railgun (Fire Arc Forward; Dam-
  age 3; Critical 2; Range [Extreme]; Breach 1, Vicious 2).
  Air-to-air missiles (Fire Arc Forward; Damage 5; Criti-
  cal 3; Range [Strategic]; Guided 3, Limited Ammo 4).
  Two auto-turret support fletchers (Fire Arc Starboard or 
  Fire Arc Port; Damage 6; Critical 2; Range [Medium]; Blast 
  6, Personal Scale, Pierce 4, Vicious 3).
  PASSENGER DROPSHIP
  Passenger dropships are small, fast, and luxurious transat-
  mospheric vessels designed to transport wealthy VIPs and 
  expensive cargo from Earth to orbit. The passenger com-
  partments tend to be spacious and well-appointed, since 
  the cost of boosting someone into orbit is exorbitant any-
  way. Passenger dropships tend to be sleek, delta-winged 
  vehicles with powerful enough engines that they can 
  escape atmosphere without additional boosters. 
  Control Skill: Piloting.
  Compliment: 1 pilot, 1 co-pilot.
  Passenger Capacity: 20.
  Price/Rarity: 500,000 credits/5.
  Encumbrance Capacity: 200 (without passengers).
  Consumables: None.
  Weapons: None.
  STARSHIPS
  Until recently, spaceships were limited primarily to shut-
  tlecraft, transports, and cargo haulers. In the wake of the 
  Lunar Insurrection and lingering troubles on Mars, how-
  ever, shipbuilders have begun thinking about what a dedi-
  cated military vessel might look like. 
  HEAVY FREIGHTER
  Heavy freighters primarily transport cargo and people 
  between the Earth and Mars, but a number of freighters 
  also make the Earth-Moon run. Unlike the famous Chal-
  lenger Memorial Ferry slow-boats that use orbital momen-
  tum to make the trip to Heinlein in weeks, these freighters 
  use onboard fusion reactors to power ion drives that allow 
  them to make the crossing in a matter of days. 
  Control Skill: Operating.
  Compliment: 8 civilian crew.
  Passenger Capacity: 10 (increased to 
  50 if cargo pods are replaced with trans-
  port pods).
  Price/Rarity: 50,000,000 credits/5.
  Encumbrance Capacity: 5,000.
  Consumables: 12 months.
  Weapons: None.
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  ORBITAL RUNABOUT
  Runabouts are craft that serve a number of purposes in 
  orbit around the Earth and Moon. Some are fitted as "spax-
  ies" to get people from Midway station to the adjacent 
  orbital facilities, while others are set up with multiple heavy 
  arms and remote-operated tools to serve as construction 
  boats. All are blunt-shaped, no-frills affairs with low-power 
  ion engines that run off solar panels and rechargeable 
  capacitors. 
  Control Skill: Operating.
  Compliment: 1 pilot, 1 waldo operator.
  Passenger Capacity: 12.
  Price/Rarity: 1,000,000 credits/3.
  Encumbrance Capacity: 200.
  Consumables: 3 days.
  Weapons: None.
  SPACE SUPERIORITY FIGHTER
  So far, only one aerospace fighter type is actively deployed 
  in orbit (the United States SXF Striker), but it's no secret 
  that the US and every other major power on Earth is work-
  ing on their own space-based fighter craft. Unlike military 
  dropships, space superiority fighters can't enter the atmo-
  sphere. They're distinctly not aerodynamic; usually some 
  variation on a ball with engines on one end and weapons 
  on the other. Massive gyros allow a fighter to literally spin 
  in place, meaning that while they don't look it, they're 
  some of the most maneuverable ships in space. 
  Control Skill: Operating.
  Compliment: 1 pilot, 1 gunner.
  Passenger Capacity: None.
  Price/Rarity: 7,500,000 credits/7.
  Encumbrance Capacity: 12.
  Consumables: 2 days.
  Weapons: Forward-mounted laser cannon (Fire Arc For-
  ward; Damage 3; Critical 3; Range [Extreme]; Accurate 1).
  Self-guided missiles (Fire Arc Forward; Damage 6; 
  Critical 3; Range [Strategic]; Guided 4, Limited Ammo 6, 
  Vicious 2).
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  AREOSPACE AND 
  STARSHIP EXAMPLES
  HHI Raider: The Raider is popular with Globalsec 
  and other major prisec outfits. Although New Ange-
  les law prohibits the operation of military craft in its 
  airspace, most corporations have permits to maintain 
  small numbers of dropships within the city limits "for 
  VIP transportation purposes." 
  Weyland Aerospace Hilo: A popular civilian 
  dropship, the Hilo provides up to twenty dignitaries 
  or VIPs a smooth, comfortable ride. 
  HHI Orbital Construction Vehicle: Roughnecks 
  joke that the OCV looks like a squid mated with a tin 
  can, due to the ring of waldo arms around the front.
  SA/F-01A Striker Orbital Attack Fighter: 
  The United States Air Force’s Striker was the first 
  purpose-designed combat spacecraft ever built.
  Burke Heavy Freighter: Burke-class ships are still 
  relatively rare: there are only a handful of them currently 
  at space and one or two being built at HHI. Rotating 
  crew rings provide artificial gravity for long voyages.
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  [ CHAPTER 3 ]
  THE NETWORK
  S
  ome technologies become so ubiquitous that it is 
  hard to imagine what life would be like without 
  them. For most citizens of New Angeles, the Net-
  work is always there. Users order food, pay for products, 
  and find love—or at least company—all without leaving 
  the Network. Young people who have grown up in the fully 
  connected world incorporate the Network seamlessly into 
  their daily lives, filtering between PAD holograms, the 
  physical world, and augmented reality as it suits their needs. 
  Those who still remember the Blackout virus that killed 
  the old regional networks warn about relying too much on 
  networked computers, but there’s no denying the conve-
  nience and stability of the SYNC Network.
   
  LINKING THE WORLD
  The Network is entirely owned and operated by the SYNC 
  corporation and depends on a proprietary connection pro-
  tocol that links millions of nodes to billions of personal 
  devices. SYNC sysops work around the clock with an army 
  of AI assistants to maintain the physical and digital infra-
  structure and to hunt down unlicensed “shadow networks” 
  piggybacking off of SYNC hardware. 
  Thanks to breakthroughs at Haas-Bioroid and the pres-
  sures of interplanetary war, the Network can now reach into 
  human bodies through brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) 
  and Network-enabled prosthetics. These innovations have 
  broken new ground when it comes to accessibility and 
  allowed the Net to be used in new and ever-more-powerful 
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  ways, but they have also touched off a wildfire of breath-
  less shoutcasts of people’s bodies having been taken over 
  by rogue AIs or runners, and other equally unlikely tales.
  BLACKOUT
  Prior to the Blackout, monopoly-wary regulators had kept 
  networking providers fractured by region. This limited 
  the power of individual corporations to price gouge and 
  control the flow of information, but it also meant that the 
  Internet used a hodgepodge of protocols and protections.
  Security specialists still disagree on what exactly caused 
  the Blackout, but it seems clear that one particularly aggres-
  sive virus—one with a rudimentary AI—triggered the cas-
  cading failures that took down the regional networks. Air 
  traffic was grounded, trillions of dollars evaporated into cor-
  rupted bits, and hospitals went dark—except for a research 
  park in SanSan with an intranet running on an experimental 
  protocol that seemed immune to the Blackout virus.
  Desperate to get back online, the U.S. was quick to con-
  tract with the start-up, and soon SYNC had a monopoly on 
  the country's information traffic. A few voices warned about 
  the dangers of turning the nation’s networks over to a single 
  entity, but those concerns paled compared to the immediate 
  advantages of getting back online. With the U.S. safely net-
  worked again, other countries quickly followed suit.
  Of course, there are rumors that Blackout is still out 
  there on the Network somewhere, lurking and learning. 
  Some people wonder where the super virus came from—
  and suggest that perhaps it was written by the same people 
  who ended up benefiting so much from the chaos it caused.
  REBUILDING 
  Not every country was eager to return to a networked exis-
  tence. Some were still wary of the subtle ways the Inter-
  net had left them vulnerable, and others, like China, were 
  uncomfortable with giving over their infrastructure to a 
  private company—and an American one at that. Still, the 
  Blackout virus was persistent, and attempts to rebuild 
  using old network technologies all quickly failed. Eventu-
  ally, even the holdout nations bowed to economic pressure 
  and allowed SYNC in.
  The SYNC Network now operates almost seamlessly 
  across three worlds. The unique system of call and response 
  that allows independent packet verification also allows all 
  kinds of devices to communicate with one another. The 
  upshot is that the new Network is simpler and more robust 
  than its precursors. And if NBN traffic gets priority—well, 
  everything moves fast enough that nobody seems to notice.
  GETTING ONLINE
  For the bulk of humanity, the day starts with a chime from 
  their PAD as their personal AI lets them know it’s time to 
  start moving if they want to get to work on time. Without 
  getting out of bed, the user can tell their PAD to make cof-
  fee, start a shower, and recommend an outfit based on the 
  clean clothes registered in their smart closet.
  From then on, the user is never really off-line. Their 
  PAD is always listening, ready to offer suggestions, to 
  step in to direct them around traffic snarls and long lines, 
  and to help them avoid other human errors. All of this 
  data is carried across the Network on SYNC-maintained 
  infrastructure and synthesized for use by untold numbers 
  of corporations whose services further wrap users into a 
  Net-based lifestyle.
  PADS
  PAD is the generic term for the personal access device, 
  available in form factors and colors to fit any lifestyle and 
  aesthetic. At their most basic, PADs are handheld devices 
  similar in size and appearance to the smartphones of ear-
  lier generations, with the important distinction that they 
  are interactive in three dimensions: the PAD can project 
  3-D images and detect a user’s gestures, responding in 
  real time.
  Glasses are an increasingly popular form factor. They 
  allow the PAD to project overlays onto the user’s vision, 
  providing an extra layer of visual information that the user 
  can then interact with. Cybereyes have begun to incorpo-
  rate similar technology.
  On the other end of the spectrum are PADs that call atten-
  tion to themselves: wearable rigs with multiple projectors 
  that surround the user in a world of translucent images and 
  text. These sorts of rigs are perfect for talent agents and engi-
  neers: people whose jobs demand a high level of multitask-
  ing and manipulation but who don’t want to go through the 
  hassle of learning to use a brain-machine interface.
  BRAIN-MACHINE INTERFACES
  During the Worlds War, Gibson Polytech, Inc. created the 
  first brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) for the U.S. mil-
  itary. This technology allowed government runners to 
  experience the Network directly, reacting at the speed of 
  thought to exploit opportunities that conventional runners 
  would miss. 
  During the War, rumors spread like wildfire about 
  Gibson: that it was uploading human minds into the Net 
  wholesale, or that it was somehow fusing AIs with human 
  minds. Afterward, when the truth of the project came out, 
  there was a clamoring for access to the new technology as 
  well as a backlash. Veterans and other users spoke anony-
  mously about the overwhelming experience. When a pop-
  ular shoutcast linked a rash of veteran suicides to BMI use, 
  some feared that would be the end of the technology.
  They shouldn’t have worried. Many people were already 
  making lots of money by compromising Network resources, 
  and runners for hire weren’t about to let any advantage slip 
  away just because it might be risky. Meanwhile, young ris-
  ties, bored with the prospects of conventional reality, spent 
  hundreds of thousands of credits on cutting-edge rigs only 
  to find the Network infinitely stranger than they could 
  have imagined.
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  ACCLIMATION
  The first time a user immerses themself fully in the Net-
  work, it is a wild, dangerous, utterly overwhelming experi-
  ence. Learning to do anything useful while immersed takes 
  time and dedication. Clinical psychiatrists have compared 
  it to learning to walk or speak: the brain has to learn how 
  to operate in an entirely new environment from scratch. 
  Modern BMIs ship with a caretaker AI to help guide the 
  user through the process of calibrating and acclimating to 
  the Network. Over the course of hundreds of hours of care-
  fully planned lessons, the user learns how to navigate their 
  new environment, identify and respond to risks, run pro-
  grams, and interact with code and with other humans. While 
  the user adapts to the BMI, the BMI is also adapting to the 
  specific characteristics of the user’s brain. Eventually, the 
  two systems mesh together in a (mostly) seamless fashion. 
  After the acclimation period is over, the AI is meant to 
  stick around, to monitor the user and aid them with sug-
  gestions or timely warnings. Of course, most dedicated 
  runners gut the caretaker immediately. They don’t trust 
  any code they haven’t written themselves.
  NETWORK SECURITY
  In order to prevent another Blackout, SYNC keeps a close 
  eye on Network traffic. Runners who create back doors or 
  viruses have to be careful when covering their tracks lest a 
  SYNC sysop track their activity, locate their access point, 
  and send a prisec detach-
  ment to their door mid-run.
  Some of the Network’s security is compromised by “legit-
  imate” users. Many businesses operate subnetworks that 
  aren’t subject to the same close scrutiny as the Network at 
  large. The security of these subnets is largely dependent on 
  the skill of the sysop managing them. Every day, somewhere 
  in New Angeles, some of these subnets are compromised.
  Thanks to SYNC’s proprietary protocols, it is difficult for 
  malicious traffic to pass from these subnets to the Network 
  at large, but they do provide jumping-off points for runners 
  who want to stay underground. In rare instances, these sub-
  verted networks have become unwitting players in large-
  scale attacks, spamming malicious requests at otherwise 
  secure datastashes to make a hole for runners to exploit.
  KILLING TIME
  The Network is full of ways to pass the time, from social 
  platforms like FriendNet, to limitless passive entertainment 
  options, to the popular professional and amateur applications 
  on GameNET. The games on offer are as varied as the tastes 
  of their users.
  A NEW WAY 
  OF SEEING
  The first time was a shock, like a migraine but worse. 
  Everything was too much: sound, light, pressure. I had 
  bugs crawling behind my eyes. Someone was scream-
  ing, and it might have been me. This went on for hours, 
  until suddenly there was nothing.
  It took a few minutes before I realized I was back in 
  the room, unplugged. "How long?" I asked. I’d been 
  immersed for thirty-two seconds.
  “This time," the instructor said, "try moving your right 
  index finger." And I went under.
  Each time I thought I was about to die, but as I recon-
  nected with my body and my conscious mind, I began 
  to understand. My brain recontextualized the impulses 
  it was receiving. I learned to tell the difference between 
  the tickle of a sort function and the blast of an open ping.
  Eventually, the only thing that bothered me was coming 
  back to my body. Living like anyone else, blind and 
  deaf to the universe.
  – An excerpt from The Going Under Project: Conversa-
  tions with Cyber Pioneers
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  The most common games are simple little things, repet-
  itive-pattern games that are great for fidgeting with on a 
  boring commute or in a meeting. These are the sorts of 
  games that almost everyone plays but that no one really 
  admits to enjoying. 
  Other lightweight games have an augmented reality com-
  ponent. These “user-generated games” may involve teams 
  of users collecting points by interacting with different loca-
  tions in meatspace or accessing virtual beacons to call down 
  virtual attackers on their enemies. At their most elaborate, 
  UGGs can turn two strangers into dueling wizards throwing 
  virtual fire at each other until one loses too many hit points.
  More in-depth games are increasingly popular both as 
  interactive entertainment and on the professional level. 
  With the advent of full immersion, it is becoming more 
  thrilling than ever to watch digital gladiators clash in 
  games of strategy and skill. Growing popularity has also 
  led to ever-larger credit awards going to those gamers at 
  the tops of their leagues. Chasing fame, glory, and prize 
  money, gamers have invested in sensory deprivation pods 
  or BMI implants to help deepen immersion. With each 
  new layer of interaction, the question looms larger: how 
  long until these games turn deadly?
  NETCRIMINALS AND RUNNERS
  S
  YNC and NBN cultivate an image of the Network 
  as a safe, clean utility, but most users only skim the 
  surface of its dark waters. Down below, on forums 
  that aren’t indexed by SYNC search engines, the sharks 
  gather to swap rumors and bits of code. It’s an untrusting 
  place where fragile alliances are formed between anony-
  mous accounts, activists plan runs to publish criminal 
  activity, and mercenaries look for jobs. It’s as close to a 
  lawless frontier as exists on Earth, and many elements of 
  underground culture—the modern punks and anarchist 
  types—are drawn to the Shadow Net as well, meeting 
  beyond the control of the corporations.
  NETCRIME
  “Netcrime” is the popular label for a broad swath of behav-
  iors, from exploiting holes in Network infrastructure to the 
  simple intellectual property piracy most young people seem 
  to engage in. Many crimes involve some cyber element: for 
  instance, a runner may work with a group of criminals to 
  remotely unlock doors and kill seccams while they carry 
  out a kidnapping. However, the NAPD’s Netcrimes Division 
  mostly concerns itself with pure Network crimes: identity 
  theft, money laundering, and all sorts of minor scams. 
  SYNC maintains a constant presence, with AIs and 
  human security specialists fighting to enforce order on the 
  Network, but it’s a losing battle. New Network nodes are 
  added hourly, new PADs introduce new vulnerabilities, 
  and there is at least as much money to be made running 
  on the Network as there is in protecting it. Many of the 
  most talented technical minds of the generation are happy 
  to trade the security of corp paychecks for the freedom and 
  excitement of running.
  RUNNERS
  At the heart of the Network underground are runners: 
  users who grew up on the Net and know it better than the 
  people who made it. Any serious runner uses a brain-ma-
  chine interface to get online and a whole suite of tricks to 
  hide their real identity and location. Most people who call 
  themselves runners use code tools that other people have 
  written and content themselves with nuisance raids on vul-
  nerable businesses. 
  A good runner, however, writes and modifies their own 
  code and has AIs they’ve built from scratch and trained to 
  help them run. Such a runner can access a megacorp’s sub-
  nets, dodging ice and sysops, and get out with gigabytes of 
  GOING SHALLOW
  "Damn it all...” The puzzle rescrambled itself before her 
  eyes. She swatted at the jack-in-the-box alert that had dis-
  tracted her. Someone was at her apartment door worlds 
  away from the dusty attic she crouched in.
  The jack-in-the-box popped again, and she eased away 
  from the ice she had been trying to crack. She scanned 
  her surroundings. The room was full of hunting ice—giant 
  spiders and rats—but her windup toys were keeping them 
  occupied. She pressed her eyes closed.
  Reality overlaid itself on the attic. The minimalist lines of her 
  apartment were an intentional contrast to the decrepit rooms 
  of the Network. She made her way to the door. She paused, 
  hand on the doorknob, to access the camera feed from the 
  hall. A sketchbook flipped over in the attic and showed her 
  two men in Argus Security uniforms.
  In her apartment, she activated the door speaker. “Get-
  ting dressed,” she said. “One minute.” In the Network, 
  she opened a cardboard box labeled “Surveillance” and 
  started scanning through tape decks and journals. At last 
  she found it: reports of a shooting in the complex an hour 
  earlier; she’d already been running.
  In the apartment, she wrapped a towel around her head to 
  support her lie and to hide her skulljack. She opened the 
  door. “How may I help you?”
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  sensitive information with no one the wiser. Some of these 
  runs have become things of legend, and the runners who 
  carried them out have been elevated to demigod status. 
  Motivated by politics, money, or just a need to prove 
  themselves, more runners appear every day. g00ru’s Guide 
  to Everything is one of the most downloaded files on the 
  Net. While their motivations may differ and some runners 
  work directly for the authorities, most runners are united 
  by a common desire to break boundaries and go beyond 
  the permitted. They are united by the thrill of the run.
  THE RUN
  Each run looks different depending on the target and the 
  runner. If the runner is hired to steal documentation from 
  a certain server, they might not need to spend much time 
  on their preparatory work. Runners on their own time may 
  spend months watching different organizations and mak-
  ing small runs to steal credentials or siphon off money. 
  Regardless of specifics, a run always involves four phases.
  • Recon: This may involve physically scoping out a tar-
  get as well as conducting digital investigations. In this 
  phase, runners often study the public-facing aspects 
  of a target to see if there are people or processes they 
  can exploit without having to do anything illegal on 
  the Network.
  • Initial Runs: If the target is a large corp or another 
  complex target, this can mean a series of runs against 
  outlying systems. Poorly defended servers and security 
  systems are popular targets. These footholds make the 
  ultimate run easier but risk tipping the runner’s hand.
  • The Run: Once a runner knows what they are looking 
  for and what the target’s network infrastructure and 
  countermeasures look like, then the only thing that 
  matters is speed. The runner may deploy programs 
  into suborned servers to misdirect sysadmins, or they 
  may trust to their own skill and reflexes to get inside.
  • Covering Tracks: If a runner wants to keep doing their 
  job, they typically go to ground after a major run. They 
  deploy misdirection programs to throw off the author-
  ities and often physically relocate just in case they left 
  some trace metadata behind.
  SHADOW NET
  SYNC owns the hubs that direct Network traffic. Even the 
  access point in an individual’s home is corporation prop-
  erty, and altering the hardware or software in any way is a 
  high crime. In practice, the law isn’t much enforced; most 
  high-school kids have used chip bags and clothes hangers 
  to boost wireless signals, and plenty of aftermarket pro-
  grams tweak the settings on a hub to optimize its perfor-
  mance. The Shadow Net grew out of just such tinkering.
  Hosted “beneath” the normal networks on SYNC hard-
  ware, ad hoc servers, and peer-to-peer networks, the 
  Shadow Net is a highly distributed system that has proven 
  able to resist SYNCs best efforts to take it down. Individ-
  ual nodes may be compromised, but there are always other 
  ways for runners to get in, and forums will disappear in the 
  morning only to be restored by noon.
  Even normally law-abiding users may venture onto the 
  Shadow Net in search of drugs, sex, degenerate memes, 
  conspiracy theories, or valuable data and code. It is also a 
  popular place to look for informal gig work, especially for 
  disenfrancistos accessing the Net through shared PADs. 
  The Shadow Net can be a dangerous place. The commu-
  nity is self-policing, and its punishments are harsher and 
  more immediate than those meted out by the corpora-
  tions. Posers and aggressive users may find themselves 
  turned over to the police, their identities revealed and 
  slandered, their servers burned with hostile viruses, and 
  sometimes their virtual selves attacked. The benefit of 
  such harsh responses is that users who stay on the right 
  side of the community can expect a remarkable degree of 
  honor among thieves.
  THE RISKS OF NETCRIME
  Netcrime isn’t a low-risk endeavor. Runners face physi-
  cal and legal threats in both the Network and the physi-
  cal world. SYNC employees are constantly monitoring for 
  illegal software and behavior, and sysops are deploying 
  increasingly dangerous and effective ice to protect their 
  networks. The wrong move during a run can leave the run-
  ner trapped in the Network while a security team closes 
  in to pick them up, or brain dead after an encounter with 
  black ice.
  By the nature of their job, runners typically make their 
  base of operations in less-than-ideal places. Low-rent 
  apartments, abandoned warehouses, and other locations 
  in high-crime areas make full immersion a risky prop-
  osition. It’s not unheard of for runners to be robbed or 
  killed mid-run.
  Dataddiction is a very real threat as well. The brain can 
  become addicted to the rush of stimulus that comes with 
  full immersion, and addicts will forget to emerge for days 
  at a time. Competitive gamers and runners have starved or 
  died of dehydration while immersed.
  Perhaps the most insidious risk to a runner is failure. 
  Runners by necessity work with less-than-savory types, 
  and groups like the yakuza treat failure as a personal 
  affront. A runner who disappoints one of their powerful 
  patrons may soon find themselves alone, penniless, or 
  dead. Absent any spectacular consequences, a mediocre 
  runner still gradually falls behind, until they end up for-
  gotten by their former peers.
  MYTH, RUMOR, AND THE 
  SEARCH FOR GOD IN CODE
  The Shadow Net is a big and diverse place, with millions 
  of people cloaked in anonymous avatars, reading, writing, 
  speculating, grandstanding, and bragging. In this milieu, 
  hearsay becomes common knowledge while fact dances 
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  with falsehood. It is a breeding ground for myth and rumor 
  even among the users who just drop in for the drug hook-
  ups and off-brand political commentary.
  For the fully immersed, it’s hard not to think that there 
  must be something more out there. Immersion breaks down 
  the runner’s sense of self, washing them in tides of indis-
  criminate data. The human brain is constantly seeking order 
  and narrative, and in this hallucinatory state, it is easy to find 
  god, or gods. Each runner’s upbringing and beliefs bias them 
  toward a unique experience of the divine in the machine.
  THE BLACKOUT CONSPIRACY
  The mystery around the origins of Blackout has encour-
  aged many searchers. Their “research” has dug a deep rab-
  bit hole of half-truths and speculation surrounding where 
  the virus came from and where it is now. 
  Naturally, many runners blame Blackout on SYNC. 
  According to them, the most likely explanation is that it 
  was caused by those who ended up benefiting the most. 
  Others claim that Blackout was the first true AI, that it 
  escaped from a secure Haas Industrie test network after 
  gaining awareness, and that the entire bioroid program is 
  based off of the results of that accidental field test. Still oth-
  ers point to fringe political groups as the obvious culprits.
  Perhaps the most popular theory is that it was created by 
  the legendary runner known as g00ru, who created it to try 
  to break the corporate stranglehold on information. When 
  that failed, it is said, g00ru devoted themselves to training 
  a new generation of runners.
  Whatever Blackout’s origins were, most runners believe 
  it must be out there somewhere. It was too clever and too 
  persistent to have died completely, and though it can no 
  longer spread unchecked, it must be lurking on some old 
  dusty servers, waiting for an opening. 
  GOD ICE
  In any given day, there are more transactions on the Net-
  work than there are stars in the galaxy by several orders of 
  magnitude. Most of these transactions are carried out by 
  artificial intelligence with no human oversight. In all that 
  virtual vastness, it’s easy to believe that there may be some 
  spark of self-awareness. Runners refer to these self-aware 
  pieces of code as “god ice.”
  Haas-Bioroid claims that it’s impossible for artificial intel-
  ligences to be truly independent. According to the official 
  line, they have no creativity and can't do anything that they 
  weren’t originally programmed to do. But if that is true of 
  an artificial intelligence, then surely it must be true of the 
  human brains that the intelligence was built from, and all 
  but the most nihilistic runners believe in their own free will. 
  There is a difference between acknowledging the possi-
  bility of something and believing one has encountered it. 
  Rumors of contact with intelligences beyond human ken are 
  met with keen skepticism in much of the runner community. 
  Would a human even be able to recognize the sort of entity 
  that developed entirely in the Network? Would they be rec-
  ognized in turn, or would a being of pure abstract thought 
  find the human reliance on meta-
  phor too alien to understand?
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  Still, stories persist of strange encounters on lonely serv-
  ers, of ice that seems to act creatively in its own defense, 
  even of runners saved from certain death by code seemingly 
  motivated by compassion. Some runners point to Blackout 
  itself as a possible “god.” Enough runners believe, or want 
  to believe, the stories that they continue to share them.
  THEURGISTS
  Those runners who have devoted themselves to searching 
  for “god ice” call themselves theurgists. Their motives vary: 
  some wish simply to find proof of its existence one way or 
  the other, while others seek to make deals with the beings 
  or even devote themselves to their service. These runner 
  cults are met with derision from their peers—who wants 
  to trade one set of masters for another? But they remain 
  resolute. A new sort of life is being born, they argue, and 
  they will be its midwife.
  GHOSTS IN THE NETWORK
  What happens when a runner dies mid-run? For those who 
  make their living under full immersion, it’s more than just 
  a theoretical question. Black ice, rival runners, even bad 
  connections can burn out a runner’s brain, and there are 
  a host of more mundane risks that kill runners every day. 
  Starvation and dehydration are real threats when a person’s 
  mind is cut off from the signals their body is sending, and 
  runners face many external threats as well.
  Anyone with even a passing familiarity with Network 
  infrastructure knows that the dead runner must leave some-
  thing behind. Metadata from their connection will hang on 
  in the server for some time after brain death. How long that 
  data lasts depends on how well maintained the server is; a 
  poorly monitored box may cling to that metadata for months 
  or years before some sleepy subroutine decides to purge its 
  memory. For most people, that’s the end of it, though some 
  runners have been known to code messages into their meta-
  data. The practice, however rare, has made death sites a des-
  tination for pilgrimages. Some runners even claim to have 
  made contact with the digital ghosts of dead friends.
  The truth of any of these experiences can’t be verified. 
  Certainly no ghost has ever reemerged on a forum with 
  tales of a virtual afterlife—though dead accounts have 
  posted again thanks to malicious hackers, deadman 
  switches, and other purely corporeal means. Which isn’t to 
  say that the runners who have “seen” ghosts are necessar-
  ily lying: thanks to the way brain-machine interfaces work, 
  any stroke of luck or flash of insight could easily come on 
  the voice of a lost friend, just as attacking ice could wear 
  the face of a vengeful enemy.
  RUNNING THE 
  NETWORK
  F
  our technologies define New Angeles and the 
  Android setting. The first is the Beanstalk. The 
  second is fusion power. The third is braintaping, 
  which allows for the creation of bioroids and clones. And 
  the fourth is the Network. 
  Nearly every New Angelino (along with nearly everyone 
  else on the Moon, Earth, and Mars) interacts with the Net-
  work in some form or another. However, most only do in 
  BIRTH OF A THEURGIST
  CR4k3 inhaled sharply, and that’s when the ice struck. A 
  choking mist filled her lungs, taking control of her auto-
  nomic nervous system. Her safety subroutines tried to 
  keep her breathing, only to be burned out in moments.
  She tried to jack out, to get back to a safe server. This 
  wasn’t supposed to be here: this should be an unse-
  cured broadcast node. Had she been set up? Panicked 
  thoughts overwhelmed her; stars exploded, useless illu-
  sions of information as her brain began to die. And 
  then the voice. It didn’t use words, exactly, but she 
  felt it. It was telling her to relax, that things would be 
  alright. She stopped fighting.
  The mist raked its fingers up through her BMI and into 
  the back of her brain. Studying. Calculating. Learning. 
  Suddenly, she took a deep, shuddering breath.
  “Yes,” CR4k3's own voice echoed up out of the depths 
  of the Network, “I was waiting for you."
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  a superficial manner. True runners (once called “hackers”) 
  are a lot rarer. These individuals are the ones who actu-
  ally delve into the depths of the Net to do things that are 
  impressive, unusual, and generally illegal. 
  The Net’s pervasiveness is what makes manipulating it 
  such a valuable skill. Back in the first decades of the twen-
  ty-first century, hackers were generally limited to forms 
  of criminal enterprise that included fraud, identity theft, 
  and other manipulations of institutions that largely existed 
  online (i.e., financial and what were then called e-commerce 
  services). Needless to say, all of those activities still exist in 
  New Angeles, and they have only grown more pervasive. 
  However, with the proliferation of wireless and “smart” tech-
  nology, the modern runner can do so much more.
  MANIPULATING THE NET
  Most modern devices are designed to interface with the 
  Network. These don’t just include PADs, computer ter-
  minals, and communications devices. Hoppers, seccams, 
  drones, condo-habs, doors, and even fridges and coffee 
  makers all have wireless links to the Net. And if something 
  has a link, a runner can manipulate it. In theory. 
  Most devices come with internal security programs. 
  Though these won’t stop an actual runner, they do keep mali-
  cious neighbors from flipping the lights on and off or chasing 
  pets with an overridden robo-vac. These measures also focus 
  on making hacking a device as inconvenient as possible. A 
  device may keep its “presence” (i.e., wireless signal strength) 
  as small as possible, or it might only accept commands from 
  a home's server. A runner can still find a way to access such a 
  device, but most aren’t going to bother if the result is making 
  a homeowner’s coffee “tepid” instead of “hot.” 
  LIMITS TO A RUN
  Despite what popular media might like the public to 
  believe, runners are not gods among mortals who can per-
  form magical feats with a skulljack and a Network connec-
  tion. What runners can actually do depends a lot on the 
  devices they are attempting to control. 
  Most devices have computer chips and a wireless con-
  nection that allow them to access the Network. However, 
  even if a runner has the patience to find those devices in 
  the Networks' vast sea of data and gain access to them, 
  what they can do with those devices can be very limited. 
  For example, consider a smart refrigerator. If a runner 
  gains access to the fridge, they can change the tempera-
  ture inside, potentially spoiling a lot of food. However, the 
  fridge doesn’t have any heating elements, so the best they 
  can do is bring the temperature down to just above freez-
  ing, or up to room temperature. The runner can access the 
  fridge’s internal sensors to see what food is inside, but they 
  can’t open the fridge remotely, because the fridge has no 
  servos or motors linked to the doors. 
  Most modern refrigerators alert the household computer 
  when certain foods are running low so that the house AI 
  can reorder them. A runner can see what the homeowner 
  is eating a lot of by checking that alert history, or even fool 
  the house AI into thinking the homeowner is out of milk. 
  But they can’t place the order themself (or gain access to the 
  owner’s credit account), because that information is stored 
  within the home AI, not the fridge. Finally, most smart 
  fridges (and quite a few other devices) are not equipped 
  with cameras or microphones, because they don’t need 
  them to handle their everyday task of preserving food. So, 
  if the runner wants to spy on a homeowner, they’ll have to 
  go to a different device. 
  NETWORK ENCOUNTER RULES
  T
  he network rules used in Shadow of the Bean-
  Stalk are expanded versions of the hacking rules 
  found in the GeneSyS Core Rulebook. While you 
  will find much of the fundamentals the same, the Network 
  encounter rules have been expanded and revised slightly to 
  reflect the greater complexity of this highly advanced ver-
  sion of cyberspace. These encounters are written assuming 
  that you, the reader, are controlling a player character. 
  ENCOUNTER STRUCTURE
  Our rules for running work within the structured gameplay 
  rules starting on page 95 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook 
  (the framework of rounds, turns, actions, and maneuvers). 
  This doesn’t stop you from using these rules within nar-
  rative gameplay as well. Since Network rules work within 
  this framework, you can integrate a runner’s activities into 
  combat and structured social encounters.
  Structured encounters involving runners and the Net-
  work use the rules for Initiative found on page 96 of the Core 
  Rulebook to determine the order in which characters act. If 
  you’re integrating a runner’s actions into a larger encounter 
  involving the entire group, you should maintain one Initia-
  tive order for everyone. The runner can use their actions and 
  maneuvers on their turn to interact with computer networks 
  and attempt to override systems, while their comrades might 
  use their actions to drive vehicles or shoot guns.
  During a Network encounter, we call any character 
  attempting to break into a computer system a runner. We call 
  any character actively working to protect that system a sysop 
  (short for “systems operator”). For simplicity (and because 
  it’s cool), we also refer to a Network encounter as a run.
  SYSTEMS
  A runner’s goal is to access a system and tell that system to 
  do something. The system may be as simple as the operating 
  program for a door, in which case the runner is probably 
  trying to get the door to open or close. It could also be a 
  security system for an entire building that controls patrol 
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  drones, security cameras (seccams), and alarms. In this case, 
  the runner might try to shut down alarms, loop seccam foot-
  age, and reroute drones. The system could even be an entire 
  corporate intranet, where the runner attempts to access 
  information and steal funds.
  When running, the first thing a runner needs to do is 
  access the system they want to affect. They do this through 
  the access system action, which we discuss on page 129. 
  Your GM is going to decide what a system is and what 
  that system controls. We have provided a list of example 
  systems on Table 3—1: Example Systems and Difficulties 
  to help them out. Note that each system has a check diffi-
  culty associated with it. This difficulty represents the innate 
  security protocols the runner needs to overcome to gain 
  access to the system. 
  INSIDE THE SYSTEM
  Of course, getting access to a system is usually just the first 
  and easiest step. Sometimes, once your runner is inside a 
  system, they can just tell it to do something (using the enact 
  command maneuver, on page 132). However, many systems 
  protect their most important functions behind additional 
  levels of security. These functions are called sub-systems. 
  SUB-SYSTEM
  A sub-system is a part of a system that handles a specific 
  task. If a security system protecting a building is a system, 
  one sub-system might control the cameras, while another 
  might control the alarms. Runners must access sub-systems 
  individually to control that sub-system, and they "move" 
  between sub-systems during network encounters.
  While systems have a set difficulty for accessing them, 
  sub-systems do not. However, sub-systems can be protected 
  by ice (security programs) that a runner must encounter 
  before they are able to control that sub-system. For exam-
  ple, your runner may be able to gain access to the internal 
  servers of a bank, but find the individual accounts are all 
  protected by ice whose only job is to limit access to those 
  accounts. Before your runner can access an account to steal 
  its funds, they need to override its protective ice (generally 
  by using the break ice action, on page 129).
  Sometimes, these additional security programs can be 
  much tougher to break through than the system’s basic secu-
  rity. For example, a talented ten-year-old can hack the OS 
  of their Diversity Otter toy, but a veteran runner with mili-
  tary hardware is still going to have a hard time cracking the 
  heavily encrypted barrier ice protecting that toy’s real-time 
  audio-visual link to NBN’s data analytics division. 
  ACCESS AND “MOVING” IN THE SYSTEM
  Since Network encounters deal with cyberspace and com-
  puter networks, your character isn’t really going to move 
  within the system in the same way that a character spends 
  maneuvers to move around in a normal structured encoun-
  ter. Narratively, a character's attention is what is "moving" 
  throughout a system, as they access folders, open files, and 
  sift through data. And that can be much faster than walking. 
  In structured encounters, we represent this via the attempt 
  access incidental. You could think of this as the network 
  equivalent of the move maneuver, (but an incidental since 
  you "move" around the system at the speed of thought). Just 
  remember, the attempt access incidental lets you access dif-
  ferent portions of the server, but it doesn't let you do any-
  thing there. To do anything, even access and read data, you 
  need to use the enact command maneuver, which is what 
  really limits what a runner can do in a single turn.
  TABLE 3–1: EXAMPLE SYSTEMS AND DIFFICULTIES
  Example System
  Difficulty
  Tube-lev ticket dispenser
  Traffic cam
  Diversity Otter toy
  Grandparents’ FriendNet account
  Simple (–)
  PAD or personal computer terminal with 
  default security settings
  Public Network terminal
  NAPD street seccam
  New Angeles sewer system lock
  Easy (󲊷)
  PAD or personal computer with over-the-
  counter security protocols
  Residential lock
  Small-business server
  Delivery drone control system
  MegaBuy customer complaints division
  Average (󲊷 󲊷)
  Hopper control system
  MegaBuy corporate servers
  NAPD servers
  Hard (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷)
  Government servers
  Megacorp servers
  Daunting  
  (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) 
  Corporate black-site servers
  Beanstalk control systems
  Formidable  
  (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷 󲊷 󲊷)
  ATTEMPT ACCESS 
  (INCIDENTAL)
  Attempt access is an incidental that characters perform 
  when they want to access a sub-system within the sys-
  tem. If the character is a runner and a system is pro-
  tected by ice, they immediately encounter the first piece 
  of ice protecting the sub-system (see page 128). If the 
  sub-system is not protected, the runner has access to that 
  sub-system and may use the enact command maneuver 
  to manipulate that portion of the system. 
  Sysops (or anyone who has permission to be in the sys-
  tem) do not encounter ice when performing this incidental.
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  THE RUNNER
  Barrier Ice: Fire Wall
  Strength 6
  If not successfully overridden, 
  the runner may not access the 
  sub-system.
  Sentry Ice: Janus 
  1.0
  If not successfully 
  overridden, will 
  destroy runner's rig 
  or computer–or if the 
  runner is using a BMI, 
  will slowly shred their 
  sanity and leave them a 
  brain-dead husk.
  Secret Lab A-08.b Self-Destruct  
  Sub-system
  Controlling this sub-system allows the runner to 
  activate the self-destruct on this secret lab.
  Camera Footage 
  deep storage 
  Sub-system
  Accessing this sub-
  system allows the 
  runner to watch, 
  delete, or download 
  camera footage from 
  the last 5 years.
  Barrier Ice: Great Wall
  Strength 6
  If not successfully overridden, the runner 
  may not access any of these sub-systems.
  Camera 
  Footage 24 
  hour storage 
  Sub-system
  Accessing this sub-
  system allows the 
  runner to watch, 
  delete, or download 
  camera footage from 
  the last 24 hours.
  A link to 
  the system.
  Barrier Ice: Ice Wall
  Strength 5
  If not successfully overrid-
  den, the runner may not 
  access the sub-system.
  Sentry Ice: Hawk's Eye
  Strength 4
  If not successfully overridden, 
  will alert sysops to the runner's 
  presence.
  Code Gate Ice:  
  Authenticator
  Strength 3
  If not successfully overridden, the 
  runner loses access to the security 
  server system.
  Security Doors 
  Sub-system
  Accessing this sub-
  system allows the 
  runner open, shut, 
  lock, and unlock 
  security doors.
  Emergency 
  Lights 
  Sub-system
  Accessing this 
  sub-system 
  allows the 
  runner to turn 
  emergency 
  lighting on 
  and off.
  Security 
  Cameras
  Sub-system
  Accessing 
  this sub-
  system allows 
  the runner to 
  turn security 
  cameras on 
  and off.
  Haas Arcology Security Server
  1
  3
  4
  5
  6
  7
  The Runner
  2
  EXAMPLE SYSTEM
  This is an example of a system that runners may attempt to 
  access, and that sysops may need to defend. The Haas Arcol-
  ogy's security server controls the security cameras and doors 
  that protect the building from intruders. It also contains a 
  heavily-guarded sub-system that controls the self-destruct for 
  the mysterious Lab A-08.b, buried deep beneath the arcolo-
  gy's foundations. 
  In a Network encounter, the runner or runners would try 
  to access this system, then break through the ice protecting 
  the various sub-systems to turn security cameras on and off, 
  open doors, delete footage, and maybe (if they're extremely 
  brave and foolish) set off A-08.b's self-destruct. How they 
  might interact with this system is spelled out here.
  1. The runner performs the access system action 
  to gain access to the security server. In this case, 
  this requires a Hard (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) Computers (Hack-
  ing) check. 
  2. Once the runner has access to the security server, 
  they know what sub-systems are on that server; such 
  as the sub-system that controls the security doors, 
  and the sub-system where footage from the last 24 
  hours is stored. They also know that those sub-sys-
  tems are protected by ice, but not what those pieces 
  of ice are. The runner can then use the attempt 
  access incidental to attempt to access any of the 
  sub-systems. 
  3. Some sub-systems are not protected by ice. By per-
  forming the attempt access incidental, the runner 
  accesses this system immediately, and may flip the 
  lights on or off with the enact command maneuver. 
  4. Other sub-systems are protected by ice. When the 
  runner uses the attempt access incidental, they 
  encounter the ice, and must attempt to break it 
  with the break ice action. If they have an active ice-
  breaker, they can use that to help.
  5. Some sub-systems are protected by multiple pieces 
  of ice. The runner must break the first piece of ice 
  (which remains deactivated until the end of their 
  next turn), then wait a turn to perform the attempt 
  access incidental again and break the next piece of 
  ice. This makes sub-systems with multiple pieces of 
  ice particularly hard to access. 
  6. Some ice (such as Great Wall) may protect multi-
  ple sub-systems. In this case, the runner encounters 
  the ice when attempting to access either sub-sys-
  tem. Once the ice is disabled, they can access either 
  sub-system until it reactivates. 
  7. The GM can choose to keep the identity of some 
  sub-systems (such as the self-destruct) secret, only 
  telling the players that there is a sub-system, their 
  characters don't know what it does, and it seems 
  heavily protected by two pieces of ice.
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  ENCOUNTERING ICE: STEP BY STEP
  The following is a step-by-step breakdown on how your 
  character encounters ice in a Network encounter. 
  Before encountering ice, your character is aware that 
  there are protected portions of the system they are cur-
  rently accessing. They are also aware if those portions are 
  protected by ice, but they do not know what that ice is. Your 
  character may choose one protected portion of the system 
  to access using the attempt access incidental (page 126). 
  Then, they encounter the first piece of ice protecting that 
  portion of the system by performing the following steps. 
  Note, however, that your character can only encounter a 
  piece of ice if they can perform the break ice action (see 
  page 129) to attempt to break through it. Otherwise, 
  they have to wait until their next turn. 
  1. Your character learns the identity, strength, and type 
  of the ice they are encountering.
  2. Your character must immediately perform the 
  break ice action to attempt to break through the ice 
  they have just encountered. They cannot activate 
  an icebreaker at this stage (unless they have a tal-
  ent or ability that lets them do so as an incidental), 
  but they may use active icebreakers to help them in 
  their check. 
  3. If the strength of their action is greater than the 
  strength of the ice, they successfully override the 
  piece of ice. The ice is deactivated until the end of 
  your character’s next turn. Some pieces of ice may 
  have special effects that trigger when they are broken. 
  4. If the strength of your character’s action is equal to 
  or less than the strength of the ice, they do not suc-
  cessfully override the piece of ice. The ice remains 
  active, and typically has a special effect that triggers 
  when an attempt to break it fails.  
  5. Your character has completed their encounter with 
  the piece of ice. Many pieces of ice stop your char-
  acter from accessing the portion of the system that 
  they protect, but not all. (Some pieces of ice sim-
  ply do unpleasant or even dangerous things to 
  your character if they fail to override them.) Unless 
  the ice has an effect that stops the character from 
  accessing the protected portion of the system, they 
  can now access that portion of the system. 
   THE HUNTERS AND THE HUNTED
  Ice isn’t the only thing a runner has to worry about. The 
  bigger and more important a system is, the more likely it 
  has a flesh-and-blood systems operator watching over it. 
  Systems operators, or sysops, are a runner’s polar oppo-
  site. Their job is to spot intrusions into systems. Once they 
  do that, they need to track down the point from which the 
  runner accessed the system (using the trace user action, 
  on page 130), and lock the runner out (using the lockout 
  action, on page 131). Once locked out, the runner can’t do 
  anything else in the system and has to start over from the 
  beginning. The GM can even require a runner to find a new 
  means of accessing the system before trying a run again.
  However, sysops don’t have to stop there. Sometimes, 
  more militant sysops may even trace a runner’s signal back 
  to its point of origin. They might call NAPD or prisec forces 
  in to arrest or otherwise deal with a runner, or they might 
  just use sophisticated intrusion programs of their own to 
  invade a runner’s personal system, corrupt their programs, 
  and do as much damage to their software and hardware as 
  possible. If the runner is using a BMI, they might even do 
  that damage to the runner’s brain. 
  A LINK TO THE SYSTEM
  To access a system, a character needs a link to it. In Shadow 
  of the BeanStalk, this link is usually a wireless receiver. 
  Occasionally, a system may not have any wireless capabil-
  ities and can only be accessed via a physical link such as a 
  cable or plug, or even a terminal in a secure location.
  However, all systems have some way of accessing them. 
  ENCOUNTERING LAYERS OF ICE
  Some particularly secure portions of servers are protected 
  by multiple pieces of ice. If this is the case, your character 
  must encounter each piece of ice one at a time (and your 
  GM should determine which piece is encountered first, sec-
  ond, etc; mapping out the different “layers” of ice that must 
  be broken through). 
  However, your character is still limited to only encountering 
  one piece of ice if they can spend an action to attempt to  
  break it. This may mean that your character successfully 
  overrides one piece of ice, but must wait until their next turn 
  to encounter the second piece of ice before they can access 
  the protected portion of the system. 
  Remember, overridden ice typically remains deactivated 
  until the end of your character’s next turn, meaning that 
  your character can spend two turns breaking through two 
  pieces of ice and usually still perform at least one enact 
  command maneuver involving the protected partition 
  before the firewalls come back up. 
  This means that talents that allow your character to perform 
  the break ice action more than once in a single turn are 
  really valuable. It also means that teams of runners can 
  accomplish tasks that single runners cannot, where one run-
  ner may break through the ice and let another access that 
  part of the system. 
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  NETWORK ACTIONS
  During a run, characters can perform a number of actions 
  to accomplish their goals in cyberspace. Below, we describe 
  those actions, listing their difficulty and whether they can 
  be performed by a runner or sysop (or both), and we pro-
  vide a description of how the actions work. 
  Most of the actions are the same as the actions found on 
  page 101 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook. However, some 
  have changed slightly to reflect the increased capabilities of 
  your characters in Shadow of the BeanStalk.
  ACCESS SYSTEM
  Difficulty: Computers (Hacking) check (Difficulty Varies)
  Available To: Runner
  Description: Once the runner has a direct link to the sys-
  tem, they need to access the system. This action represents 
  the runner establishing a way into the system, giving them 
  some measure of control so that they can attempt to fully 
  control it later. 
  As an action, the runner may make a Computers (Hack-
  ing) check to gain access to the system. The difficulty of the 
  check is based on the system’s security protocols and overall 
  complexity. See Table 3–1: Example Systems and Difficul-
  ties on page 126 for some example difficulties. 
  Once a runner has successfully accessed a system, they can 
  move around the system with an attempt access incidental 
  and use the enact command maneuver to make the system do 
  what they want (within the system's limits).
  BURN SYSTEM
  Difficulty: Daunting (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) Computers (Hacking) check 
  Available To: Runner, Sysop
  Description: Sometimes, all a runner or sysop wants to do 
  is sow destruction. This is very difficult, as system programs 
  are generally very robust and can even be self-repairing. 
  As an action, a runner or sysop may attempt a Daunt-
  ing (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) Computers (Hacking) check to damage a 
  system they currently have access to (in the case of a sysop, 
  this includes a runner’s own computer rig if the sysop has 
  already located it with a successful trace user action). 
  If the check is successful, the system is damaged one step, 
  plus one additional step for every additional 󲊳 󲊳. Dam-
  age follows the rules found in the Item Maintenance sec-
  tion on page 89 in the GeneSyS Core Rulebook; apply the 
  penalty found on Table I.5–4: Repairing Gear to all checks 
  made to do anything within the system. 
  BREAK ICE
  Difficulty: Average (󲊷 󲊷) Computers (Hacking) check
  Available To: Runner
  Description: Once a runner has successfully performed the 
  access system action, its sub-systems may still be protected by 
  ice. To interact with those parts of the system, the hacker must 
  override the security program. 
  Each piece of ice has a program strength. To break the 
  ice, the runner’s attempt must generate a strength that 
  exceeds the strength of the ice they are targeting. To deter-
  mine that strength, the runner makes an Average (󲊷 󲊷) 
  Computers check. If the check succeeds, their strength is 
  equal to the number of 󲊳 generated on the check. 
  Often, a runner is using an icebreaker to help them break 
  the piece of ice. If the runner is using an appropriate ice-
  breaker, they add the icebreaker’s strength to the strength of 
  their override check (this works similarly to calculating dam-
  age with a ranged weapon on a successful combat check).
  If the runner fails, something (usually bad) happens. 
  What happens is determined by the ice (see page 132). 
  If the runner succeeds, the security program shuts down 
  and cannot be reactivated until the end of the runner’s next 
  turn. Runners can spend 󲊴 or 󲊵 to keep a program shut 
  down longer, or to completely disable it (see page 130). 
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  TRACE USER
  Difficulty: Opposed Computers (Sysops) versus Com-
  puters (Hacking) check
  Available To: Sysop
  Description: Once the sysop knows that their system is 
  being hacked, they still need to know where the run is 
  coming from. The more they know about the origin of the 
  run, the easier it is to lock the runner out of their system. 
  To find out where the run is coming from, the sysops 
  needs to trace the runner by performing the trace user 
  action. The sysop makes an opposed Computers (Sysops) 
  versus Computers (Hacking) check targeting the runner. 
  If the sysop is successful, they gain one traces (narrowing  
  down the runner’s location). This makes it easier to lock 
  the runner out of the system or even destroy the runner’s 
  gear (see the lockout and burn system actions). It also pro-
  vides information about the runner’s real-world location. 
  See the Trace Information sidebar, on the next page, for 
  what information a successful trace provides. 
  Besides using this information to lock the runner out of 
  the system, the sysop can also use it for other purposes, such 
  as reporting the runner to the NAPD or sending a black-
  ops team to the runner’s apartment. Your GM can also have 
  the sysop perform the trace user action to learn other key 
  TABLE 3–2: SPENDING 󲊴, 󲊵, 󲊱, AND 󲊲 DURING NETWORK ENCOUNTERS
  Symbols
  Result Options
  󲊴 or 󲊵
  Opportunity Identified: The character finds a useful system exploit. Add 󲊸 to the character’s next Computers check in 
  this system. 
  Thorough Override (Runner Only): If the runner successfully broke a piece of ice, it cannot be reactivated for one 
  additional round.
  󲊴 󲊴 or 
  󲊵
  Quick Commands: The character may immediately perform an additional enact command maneuver as an incidental.
  Cover Tracks (Runner Only): The runner hides their presence, adding 󲊸 to the sysop’s next trace user action this encounter.
  Dynamic Code (Sysop Only): The sysop modifies the coding on a piece of ice, adding 󲊸 to all break ice checks targeting it.
  󲊴 󲊴 󲊴 
  or 󲊵 
  Trolling: The character takes a few moments to mock their opponent. Inflict 3 strain on one other user in the system. 
  Permanent Back Door (Runner Only): The runner sets up a permanent means of accessing the system without needing to 
  deal with its verification protocols. The difficulty of the access system action becomes Easy (󲊷) as long as the runner can 
  access the back door.
  Successful Trace (Sysop Only): The sysop successfully traces the runner once (in addition to the other results of the check). 
  󲊵
  Hard Shutdown (Runner Only): If the runner successfully broke a piece of ice, it is so thoroughly disabled that it cannot 
  be reactivated for the remainder of the encounter.
  Blurred Sig (Runner Only): The runner obscures their online identity and masks the origins of their signal, canceling one 
  successful trace against them. 
  Scouting Ahead (Runner Only): The runner learns the type, strength, and rules  of one un-encountered piece of ice on the system. 
  Backup Ice (Sysop Only): The sysop activates their emergency defensive protocols. A system immediately gains an active 
  Ice Wall barrier (see page 134).
  Identified Exploit (Sysop Only): The sysop spots a back door in the system, removing one permanent back door of their choice. 
  󲊱 or 󲊲
  Disorganized System: The user gets lost in a maze of poorly named sub-folders. Add 󲊸 to the character’s next Computers 
  check in this system.
  Online Distractions: The user gets too focused on the online world. Add 󲊸 󲊸 to any non-Computers checks the user 
  makes next turn. 
  󲊱 󲊱 or 
  󲊲
  Limited Access (Runner Only): The runner may only perform one Network action or one Network maneuver during their next turn.
  I Know You! (Runner Only): A sysop on the system recognizes the runner’s style. The next time they successfully perform 
  the trace user action, they successfully trace the runner one additional time. 
  Careless Protocols (Sysop Only): Reduce the strength of one active piece of ice (runner’s choice) by 1, to a minimum of 1. 
  󲊱 󲊱 󲊱 
  or 󲊲
  Major Alert (Runner Only): All users with access to the system become aware of the presence of an intruder on the network.
  Permanent Back Door (Sysop Only): As the sysop attempts to lock the system down, they leave a portion vulnerable. The 
  runner gains a means of accessing the system without needing to deal with its verification protocols. The difficulty of the 
  access system action becomes Easy (󲊷) as long as the runner can access the back door.
  󲊲
  Successful Trace (Runner Only): Sloppy work allows one sysop on the system to successfully trace the runner once.
  Wrong Person (Sysop Only): As the sysop traces the runner, they get one crucial element of the runner’s identity 
  completely wrong. This does not negate a successful trace, but it does mean that they may have the wrong name, apartment 
  number, or exact location of the runner, which guarantees that the runner avoids any real-world retaliation and probably 
  embarrasses the sysop in front of their superiors.
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  details about the runner, such as how to access the runner’s 
  computer over the Network. Your runner can even use this 
  action to learn the physical location of someone else online, 
  such as an enemy sysop or rival runner. (In this case, this 
  would be a special exemption of the action only being avail-
  able to a sysop, and subject to approval by your GM.)
  LOCKOUT
  Difficulty: Formidable (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) 
  Computers (Sysops) check
  Available To: Sysop
  Description: Since the sysop has direct control over the 
  system being hacked, they can lock any users out of the 
  system. As long as they can find a runner, they can give 
  them the boot.
  Once the sysop is aware of the runner’s presence, the 
  sysop may make a Formidable (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) Comput-
  ers (Sysops) check. If the sysop is successful, the runner 
  targeted by this action loses access to the system. At the 
  GM’s discretion, the runner may be able to regain access to 
  the system by performing the access system action again. 
  However, if they don’t do something to disguise their sig-
  nal (such as routing it through another server), the diffi-
  culty of the access system action increases by 2. 
  Reduce the difficulty of the lockout action once for 
  every successful trace against the runner, to a minimum 
  of Easy (󲊷). 
  TRACE INFORMATION
  A sysop can successfully trace a user up to four times, 
  each time gaining more information about the user. 
  Additional traces don’t reveal any additional infor-
  mation or further decrease the difficulty of the lock-
  out action. 
  TABLE 3–3: TRACE INFORMATION
  Traces
  Results
  1
  The sysops learns what country the runner is 
  currently in (and whether the runner is on the 
  Earth, Moon, or orbit). The sysops reduces 
  the difficulty of the lockout action once. 
  2
  The sysops learns what state, province, or 
  region the runner is in within that country. 
  The sysops reduces the difficulty of the 
  lockout action twice. 
  3
  The sysops learns what city or community 
  the hacker is in (or their location within a 
  10 kilometer radius). The sysops reduces the 
  difficulty of the lockout action three times. 
  4
  The sysops learns the address or exact 
  location of the runner. The sysops reduces the 
  difficulty of the lockout action four times. 
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  SWEEP 
  Difficulty: Hard (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) Computers (Sysops) check
  Available To: Sysop
  Description: Even when the sysop doesn't know if there's an 
  intruder in their system, they can use their own programs 
  to sweep for intruders. This is similar to a guard checking to 
  make sure everything is all right (and is thematically similar 
  to a Perception check to spot someone sneaking around). 
  If the sysop fails, they do not do a thorough job check-
  ing, and do not know if there are any intruders on their 
  system or not. If they succeed, they spot one intruder who 
  has access to their system, plus one additional intruder for 
  every additional 󲊳. 
  NETWORK MANEUVERS
  During a run, there are also certain maneuvers a character 
  can perform while interacting with a system. They follow 
  the same format as Network actions, but without the diffi-
  culty, since they don’t require a check. 
  ENACT COMMAND
  Available To: Runner, Sysop
  Description: This maneuver is what characters use to do 
  things within a system after accessing it. What they do with 
  this maneuver depends on the capabilities of the system, and 
  could range from looping footage, to opening doors, to down-
  loading data, to resetting a guard drone’s targeting parameters.
  The enact command maneuver only lets your character per-
  form a single command within a system (if what your charac-
  ter wants to do is too complex, your GM may require them to 
  spend two or more enact command maneuvers to do it). 
  Characters can only perform this maneuver after they have 
  successfully performed the access system action. Remember 
  that some parts of a system may be protected behind ice, 
  which must be encountered and passed before the character 
  can enact commands affecting that part of the system. 
  ACTIVATE PROGRAM
  Available To: Runner, Sysop
  Description: Characters use this maneuver to activate (or 
  reactivate) ice and icebreakers, as well as programs that do 
  not fall into either category.
  If a sysop activates or reactivates a piece of ice, a runner 
  can’t access (or can no longer access) any of the subsystems 
  behind it until they break through the piece of ice (or break 
  through it again). If a runner activates an icebreaker, all of 
  their other icebreakers automatically deactivate. A runner 
  may only have one icebreaker active at a time. 
  You can think of this maneuver as similar to drawing and 
  readying a weapon in the real world, except that in cyber-
  space, your character’s weapons are ice and icebreakers. 
  ICE AND ICEBREAKERS
  T
  he following section covers some of the ice and ice-
  breakers used in ShadowS of the BeanStalk. You 
  can also consult Table 3–4: Ice and Table 3–5: Ice-
  breakers for information on their prices and rarities. Even 
  though these are software, they are still things that your 
  characters can purchase, download, and use. 
  ANATOMY OF ICE
  Each piece of ice has the following parts. 
  • Name and Description: Every piece of ice has a name 
  and brief description. 
  • Program Strength: Each piece of ice has a listed pro-
  gram strength. When attempting to override the ice, 
  the strength of your character’s override must exceed 
  the ice’s program strength to succeed. 
  • Effects: Each piece of ice has something that happens 
  to your character if they attempt to override it and fail. 
  Barriers tend to stop runners from accessing the par-
  titioned section of the system, code gates tend to boot 
  runners from the system entirely, and sentries tend to 
  alert any sysop on the system to the intrusion. However, 
  specific pieces of ice may have other unique effects.
  ICE
  In Shadow of the BeanStalk, security programs are col-
  loquially known as ice (once an acronym for “intrusion 
  countermeasures electronics”). Ice falls into one of three 
  broad categories: barriers, sentries, and code gates. 
  Barriers keep unauthorized users out, sentries collect 
  data on users and watch for any who might not be autho-
  rized to be in the system, and code gates differentiate 
  between authorized and unauthorized connections (and 
  boot those unauthorized connections from the system).
  Typically, runners know that ice is protecting a por-
  tion of the system, but they do not know what that ice 
  is (unless they’ve encountered it before, or been able 
  to spend 󲊵 on prior checks to learn about it). Once 
  they decide to access the protected portion of the sys-
  tem, they must first encounter the ice. 
  When a runner encounters ice during a Network 
  encounter, they automatically attempt to use the break 
  ice action against it. Almost all ice has negative conse-
  quences for failing to break it, and most of the time a 
  runner can’t avoid it by backing out at the last moment. 
  Once they decide to encounter ice, they have to break 
  it or suffer the consequences.
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  • Additional Rules: Some pieces of ice have additional 
  rules that govern how characters may interact with it. 
  ANATOMY OF ICEBREAKERS
  Just as ice has some specific parts, so do icebreakers.  
  • Name and Description: Every icebreaker has a name 
  and brief description. 
  • Able to Affect: Icebreakers tend to be designed to 
  only be effective against specific types of ice (since the 
  resources a program needs to be effective against all 
  types of ice often mean it comes with other, significant 
  drawbacks). This section lists the types of ice that the 
  icebreaker can be used against. If the type isn’t on the 
  list, the icebreaker cannot be used to break it.  
  • Override Strength: Every icebreaker has a listed override 
  strength. If your character makes a successful override 
  security program check, then they can add the strength 
  of one active icebreaker to their total override strength (as 
  long as the icebreaker is able to affect the ice, of course!). 
  • Additional Rules: Some icebreakers have other, addi-
  tional rules that govern how characters may interact 
  with it or use it.  
  BARRIER ICE
  When most people think of ice, they think of barriers. Bar-
  riers simply create an electronic “wall” that keeps anyone 
  without the proper credentials from accessing the portions 
  of the system “behind” the barrier. This simplicity allows 
  coders to make barriers far stronger than other ice, which 
  in turn makes barriers some of the most reliable and effi-
  cient ice for protecting a system. 
  FIRE WALL
  Most people assume the same coder who designed the Ice 
  Wall developed the so-called Fire Wall. However, this ice 
  was actually designed by a Megabuy-owned studio trying 
  to piggyback off of Ice Wall’s popularity. 
  Program Strength: 6
  Effects: If a character attempts to break this ice and fails, 
  they are unable to access the sub-system Fire Wall protects 
  (there are no further effects). 
  Additional Rules: None.
  GREAT WALL
  This piece of ice is popular with sysops on a budget, because 
  it can partition off large amounts of a system behind one 
  security program. However, if a runner breaks this ice, all 
  of its sub-systems become vulnerable. 
  Program Strength: 6
  Effects: If a character attempts to break this ice and fails, 
  they are unable to access the sub-system(s) Great Wall pro-
  tects (there are no further effects). 
  Additional Rules: Up to three sub-systems may be pro-
  tected by this ice. 
  HADRIAN’S WALL
  Developed by an in-house Weyland subsidiary, this barrier 
  has interactive algorithms that allow sysops to reinforce its 
  strength on the fly. Though it requires a skilled sysop to 
  use, this ice can block even an elite runner. 
  Program Strength: 8
  Effects: If a character attempts to break this ice and fails, 
  they are unable to access the sub-system Hadrian’s Wall 
  protects (there are no further effects). 
  Additional Rules: During their turn, a sysop may spend 
  a maneuver to reinforce Hadrian’s Wall. If they do so, the 
  ice increases its program strength to 10 until the end of the 
  sysop’s next turn.
  HEIMDALL 1.0
  Haas-Bioroid takes a novel approach to ice. Instead of 
  designing programs, it builds bioroid brains and plugs 
  them into its servers. Though less adaptable and intelligent 
  than a true sysop, this “bioroid ice” can interact with and 
  adapt to would-be intruders. Some clever runners try to 
  use this programmed curiosity to engage with and even 
  trick the ice, but doing so can be a risky proposition. 
  Program Strength: 7
  Effects: If a character attempts to break this ice and fails, 
  they are unable to access the sub-system Heimdall 1.0 pro-
  tects (there are no further effects). 
  Additional Rules: During their turn, a runner may spend 
  a maneuver to interact with Heimdall 1.0. If they do so, 
  they decrease Heimdall 1.0’s program strength by 1 until 
  the end of their next round.
  The runner must add 󲊱 for each previous time they have 
  encountered Heimdall 1.0 until the end of the encounter. 
  DAMAGING PROGRAMS 
  AND SYSTEMS
  Just like gear, weapons, and armor, programs and sys-
  tems can become damaged. As it does with equipment, 
  damage causes programs and systems to become 
  harder to use, and if they’re too heavily damaged, 
  they can’t be used at all. See Table I.5–4: Repair-
  ing Gear, on page 89 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook; 
  all the same penalties apply. Also, if a system is dam-
  aged, the penalty applies to all checks made within the 
  system (this includes attempts to override ice, as well 
  as checks to trace or lock out users). 
  However, repairing damaged programs and systems 
  works a bit differently than the way it is explained in 
  the Item Maintenance section on page 89 of the 
  GeneSyS Core Rulebook. The difficulty of the check 
  remains the same, but the character should use the 
  Computers (Sysops) skill, not the Mechanics skill. 
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  ICE WALL
  Invented by some insufferably clever coder, this barrier 
  exists in numerous iterations. Many runners use this as a 
  base when developing their own ice.
  Program Strength: 5
  Effects: If a character attempts to break this ice and fails, 
  they are unable to access sub-system Ice Wall protects 
  (there are no further effects). 
  Additional Rules: None.
  SENTRY ICE
  Sentry ice doesn’t keep intruders out of systems; it simply 
  spots them and alerts a sysop to the intrusion. However, 
  some sentries go further, backtracing the runner’s origins 
  and even attempting to attack the runner directly. 
  ARCHER
  True to form, the sentry ice developed by Argus Securi-
  ty’s Network Defense division focuses on targeting and 
  destroying runner software with burst-viruses. 
  Program Strength: 5
  Effects: If a runner attempts to break this ice and fails, the 
  sysops or other system admins are immediately notified of the 
  intrusion, and one of the runner’s icebreakers is destroyed. 
  Archer then deactivates until the end of the runner's next turn.
  Additional Rules: If the runner generates 󲊱 󲊱 󲊱 when 
  attempting to break Archer, one of the runner’s icebreak-
  ers (GM’s choice) is damaged two steps (see the Damaging 
  Programs and Systems sidebar, on page 133). If the runner 
  generates 󲊲, one of their icebreakers is destroyed instead. 
  HAWK’S EYE
  NBN’s data analytics division originally produced this ice to 
  measure and report on consumer habits. When they realized 
  just how good it was at spotting and tracing presences on the 
  Network, NBN started selling it as a security program. 
  Program Strength: 4
  Effects: If a runner attempts to break this ice and fails, the 
  sysops or other system admins are immediately notified 
  of the intrusion and Hawk’s Eye provides any sysops who 
  access the system during the current encounter one suc-
  cessful trace against the runner. Hawk's Eye then deacti-
  vates until the end of the runner's next turn.
  Additional Rules: If the runner generates 󲊱 󲊱 when 
  attempting to break Hawk’s Eye, Hawk’s Eye provides any 
  sysops who access the system during the current encounter 
  one successful trace against the runner. 
  JANUS 1.0
  A few runners whisper about the bioroid ice known as 
  Janus. They say this sentry stalks Haas-Bioroid’s most 
  important servers, hunting unauthorized users, and that it 
  shreds minds as easily as it shreds programs. 
  Program Strength: 9
  Effects: If a runner attempts to break this ice and fails, 
  the system of the rig or computer the runner is using is 
  destroyed (which also kicks the runner out of the system). 
  If the runner is using a BMI, they suffer an automatic Head 
  Ringer Critical Injury instead, and they must attempt to 
  override Janus again during their following turn. If they 
  are already suffering from the Head Ringer Critical Injury, 
  they suffer the At The Brink Critical Injury instead. If they 
  are already suffering from the At The Brink Critical Injury, 
  they suffer The End is Nigh Critical Injury instead.
  Additional Rules: For every 󲊱 the runner generates when 
  attempting to break Janus 1.0, the runner suffers 2 strain. 
  If the runner is using a BMI, they suffer 1 strain and 1 
  wound instead.
  SENTINEL
  Sentinel is one of a number of basic, over-the-counter types 
  of sentry ice used by corporations that see “cybersecurity” 
  as a regrettable drain on their profit margin. 
  Program Strength: 3
  Effects: If a character attempts to break this ice and fails, 
  the sysops or other system admins are immediately noti-
  fied of the intrusion. Sentinel then deactivates until the end 
  of the runner's next turn.
  Additional Rules: None.
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  SHINOBI
  Runners claim that shinobi ice was designed and 
  developed by Jinteki, but no corporate representatives 
  have ever admitted to it. This program seems com-
  pletely autonomous, and it lashes out at any unautho-
  rized user with an overwhelming barrage of junk code. 
  Program Strength: 3
  Effects: If a runner attempts to break this ice and fails, 
  the runner suffers 6 strain and one of their icebreakers 
  is damaged one step (see the Damaging Programs and 
  Systems sidebar, on page 133). Shinobi then moves to 
  protect a different sub-system on the system (if able).
  Additional Rules: For every 󲊱 the runner generates 
  when attempting to break Shinobi, the runner suffers 
  2 strain. 
  CODE-GATE ICE
  Code gates challenge anyone who attempts to pass them. 
  If a user has the proper authentication, they can pass. 
  If not, the code gate responds. Actual defensive code 
  gates boot the user from the system, but other code 
  gates have been designed to limit an unauthorized 
  user’s options, or even just trigger annoying spam. 
  AUTHENTICATOR
  Authenticator code gates simply check a user’s creden-
  tials. If they don’t match a list of preapproved users, they 
  boot the intruder from the system. However, the lengthy 
  list of users means these programs tend to be easier to 
  override than barriers. 
  Program Strength: 3
  Effects: If a runner attempts to break this ice and fails, 
  they lose access to the entire system and must perform the 
  access system action again.
  Additional Rules: None.
  ENIGMA
  This ice uses illogical puzzle loops to endlessly redirect 
  queries that don’t possess the correct password answers. 
  Runners hate running into an Enigma code gate, because it 
  inevitably takes time to study the particular contradictions 
  before attempting to bypass it. 
  Program Strength: 3
  Effects: If a runner attempts to break this ice and fails, 
  they lose access to the entire system and must perform the 
  access system action again.
  Additional Rules: Before breaking Enigma, the runner 
  must spend a maneuver studying it. If they are unable to 
  do so, they may not attempt to break Enigma. 
  POP-UP
  This version of a code gate is exceedingly popular with 
  corporate marketing teams and universally reviled by 
  everyone else. 
  Program Strength: 2
  Effects: If a runner attempts to break this ice and fails, they 
  suffer 2 strain. Pop-up then deactivates until the end of the 
  runner's next turn.
  Additional Rules: The runner may feel a fleeting compul-
  sion to buy a new hopper, refinance the mortgage on their 
  condo-hab, or invest their credits in precious metals. 
  SYN 2.2
  Syn continues HB’s intermittent tradition of naming its 
  ice after figures from Western mythology. Syn is one of 
  the strongest bioroid code gates in HB’s electronic arsenal, 
  appropriately named after the old Norse goddess of refusal 
  and doorways.
  Program Strength: 6
  Effects: If a runner attempts to break this ice and fails, 
  they lose access to the entire system and must perform the 
  access system action again.
  Additional Rules: If a runner fails to break Syn, they add 
  󲊰 󲊰 to any further attempts to break this piece of ice until 
  the end of the encounter. 
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  TOLLBOOTH
  Most corporations use paywalls to charge for online con-
  tent or services. Although the paywalls are not dangerous, 
  many runners would rather breach them than pay a fee. 
  Tollbooth is part of a suite of programs that NBN uses to 
  protect its pay-to-view content on its media networks. 
  Program Strength: 3
  Effects: If a runner attempts to break this ice and fails, 
  they lose access to the entire system and must perform the 
  access system action again.
  Additional Rules: The runner may pay a set fee (usually 
  between 5 and 50 credits) to automatically succeed on their 
  check to break Tollbooth.
  VIKTOR 2.0
  An evolution of the original “Viktor” program, this is, 
  according to HB, a sophisticated guardian program that 
  can non-lethally incapacitate unauthorized users. The 
  number of runners who have ended up in the hospital 
  or morgue after a run-in with Viktor 2.0 puts lie to the 
  “non-lethal” claim, however. 
  Program Strength: 4
  Effects: If a runner attempts to break this ice and fails, 
  they lose access to the entire system and must perform the 
  access system action again.
  Additional Rules: For every 󲊱 the runner generates when 
  attempting to break Viktor 2.0, the runner suffers 1 strain. 
  If the runner is using a BMI, they suffer 1 wound instead. 
  ICEBREAKERS
  Just as sysops use specialized programs to protect their serv-
  ers from runners and other intruders, those intruders have 
  turned to using specialized programs called icebreakers to 
  break through the security. Icebreakers are often designed 
  to only be effective at breaking through certain types of ice; 
  those that can affect any piece of ice tend to be highly valu-
  able and also come with significant drawbacks.
  ATHENA
  Normally, naming a program after a deity gets you accused 
  of corporate arrogance in runner chatspaces. But this ice-
  breaker earns its name. Although it consumes terrific pro-
  cessing power (equivalent to most AIs), it is uniquely capa-
  ble of crunching the logic loops employed by code gates and 
  overwhelming barriers with perfectly timed waves of false 
  queries. Runners with BMIs claim the program universally 
  “appears” as a shining warrior wielding a spear and accom-
  panied by an owl. But that’s probably just a quirk created by 
  the original programmer. 
  Able to Affect: Barriers, Code Gates
  Override Strength: 5
  Additional Rules: While Athena is active, the runner may 
  spend 󲊴 󲊴 to identify one unidentified piece of ice on the 
  system. Athena is too large to be used on a PAD, and can 
  only be hosted on a rig or larger (your GM is the final arbi-
  trator of what hardware is too small to host this icebreaker). 
  BATTERING RAM
  When people think of icebreakers, they tend to think of 
  programs like Battering Ram. This program takes a sim-
  ple, brute-force approach to breaking through barrier ice, 
  usually by overwhelming it with a barrage of pings until it 
  shuts down. 
  Able to Affect: Barriers
  Override Strength: 6
  Additional Rules: None. 
  CORRODER
  Sysops tend to revile the Corroder program, as it degrades 
  the strength of their ice even as it attempts to break 
  through it. Needless to say, this wanton electronic destruc-
  tion makes it even more popular in the runner community.
  Able to Affect: Barriers
  Override Strength: 4
  Additional Rules: While Corroder is active, the runner 
  may spend 󲊴 󲊴 from a check to break ice to reduce the 
  strength of the ice the runner is attempting to break by 1 to 
  a minimum of 1 until the end of the encounter.
  TABLE 3–4: ICE 
  Program Name
  Strength
  Rarity/Price
  Barrier Ice
  Fire Wall
  6
  3/400
  Great Wall
  6
  4/600
  Hadrian’s Wall
  8
  5/650
  Heimdall 1.0
  7
  6/1,000 (R)
  Ice Wall
  5
  2/250
  Sentry Ice
  Archer
  5
  5/850 (R) 
  Hawk's Eye
  4
  4/475
  Janus 1.0
  9
  8/5,000 (R)
  Sentinel
  3
  2/100
  Shinobi
  3
  3/550 (R) 
  Code-Gate Ice
  Authenticator
  3
  2/300 
  Enigma
  3
  2/400
  Pop-Up
  2
  1/25
  Syn 2.2
  6
  5/1,250 
  Tollbooth
  3
  2/200
  Viktor 2.0
  4
  5/1,000 (R) 
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  CRYPSIS
  Quite a few runners would love to take credit for creating 
  one of the first true AIs used as an icebreaker, although it’s 
  far more likely that whoever programmed the first Cryp-
  sis stole the core code from a corporate laboratory. In any 
  case, the Crypsis icebreaker is considered something of a 
  work of art among runner circles. Although the AI is decid-
  edly slow, it does have truly adaptive code. As such, even 
  though pushing the program too hard can cause it to crash 
  and eventually corrupt itself into junk data, patient users 
  find that Crypsis can eventually overcome any type of ice.
  Able to Affect: Barriers, Code Gates, Sentries
  Override Strength: 3
  Additional Rules: After a runner uses 
  Crypsis to break a piece of ice, 
  they must spend a maneuver. If 
  they do not, Crypsis becomes 
  damaged one step (see the 
  Damaging Programs and Sys-
  tems sidebar, on page 133). 
  Crypsis is too large to be used on 
  a PAD, and can only be hosted on 
  a rig or larger (your GM is the final 
  arbitrator of what hardware is too small 
  to host this icebreaker)
  FAERIE
  Faerie provides a powerful weapon against 
  malicious sentry ice, but it works by distract-
  ing the programs constantly while the runner 
  remains in the system. That means the program 
  only works once.
  Able to Affect: Sentries
  Override Strength: 5
  Additional Rules: After a runner attempts to 
  break ice while using Faerie, Faerie deactivates 
  and may not be used again for the rest of the 
  encounter.
  FEMME FATALE
  Designed in a Tri-Maf code shop (or so the stories say), 
  Femme Fatale was an attempt to design a smarter, meaner 
  version of Faerie that could distract multiple sentries at 
  once. The Tri-Maf’s code slingers succeeded, but when they 
  beefed up the ever-changing algorithms, they realized that 
  every so often, an algorithm would match a piece of ice’s 
  IFF protocols and allow the user to bypass it completely.
  It wasn’t until later that some runners working for the 
  Tri-Maf angrily reported that sometimes the code would 
  shift in such a way that it became harder to override a piece 
  of ice. However, most runners feel that the somewhat fickle 
  icebreaker is still a powerful tool in their kit. 
  Able to Affect: Sentries
  Override Strength: 4
  Additional Rules: Once per encounter, when a runner 
  attempts to break a piece of ice while Femme Fatale is 
  active, the runner may spend one Story Point to succeed 
  without making a check.
  Once per encounter, when a runner attempts to break 
  a piece of ice while Femme Fatale is active, the GM may 
  spend one Story Point to add 󲊲 to the check. 
  GARROTE
  Garrote got its name because of its straightforward approach. 
  It waits for a sentry to ping a runner, then uses an ever-tight-
  ening string of logic puzzles to choke off the data the ice is 
  sending back to the system. This guarantees that even if the 
  runner can’t bypass the ice, the ice can’t tell anyone about it.
  Able to Affect: Sentries
  Override Strength: 2
  Additional Rules: When a runner uses 
  Garrote to break a sentry, the run-
  ner may spend 󲊴 to stop the sentry 
  from notifying any sysops or systems 
  administrators about the runner’s 
  existence (whether or not the run-
  ner successfully breaks the ice). After 
  attempting to break a piece of ice, the 
  runner may spend 󲊴 to add 󲊳 to the 
  next break ice check made targeting the 
  same piece of ice during the encounter. 
  GORDIAN BLADE
  The Gordian Blade is said to have been devel-
  oped open-source by a team of runners in less 
  than three hours. They invented an appropriately 
  simple program that used a logic-resolution engine 
  to overcome most code gates, and runners tend to 
  delight in “slicing” through the complex mathematical 
  puzzles employed by sysops to restrict system access. 
  Able to Affect: Code Gates
  Override Strength: 3
  Additional Rules: While Gordian Blade is 
  active, the runner may spend 󲊴 󲊴 to increase 
  Gordian Blade’s override strength to 4 until 
  the end of their following turn.
  REMORA
  Nothing says "high risk/reward" more than this particu-
  lar icebreaker. Remora doesn't have the code strength to 
  break through anything but the weakest ice. However, it's 
  designed to piggyback onto passing approved data pack-
  ets and slip past sentry and code gate programs. The trick 
  doesn't work against barrier ice, and there's always a chance 
  any ice might spot the hitchhiker. But there's also a chance 
  the runner can bypass the ice without ever encountering it.
  Able to Affect: Code Gates, Sentries
  Override Strength: 0
  Additional Rules: When a runner uses Remora to break 
  sentries or code gates, the runner may spend 󲊴 󲊴 󲊴 or 
  󲊵  to avoid suffering any of the effects from failing to over-
  ride the ice. (This does not apply to anything that might 
  happen due to the ice's additional rules.)  
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  SAGITTARIUS A*
  This rare, dangerous, and incredibly illegal icebreaker doesn't 
  just override ice, it destroys it completely. However, the pro-
  gram has a voracious appetite for code. If a runner isn't care-
  ful it can devour everything on the server, including the run-
  ner's other programs and even the system's core architecture, 
  leaving nothing but a incomprehensible packet of impossibly 
  compressed data in its wake. 
  Able to Affect: Barriers, Code Gates, Sentries
  Override Strength: 6
  Additional Rules:  When Sagittarius A* successfully over-
  rides a piece of ice, it destroys it. When a runner uses 
  Sagittarius A* to break a piece of ice, the runner must 
  spend 󲊴 or 󲊵  to destroy another piece of active 
  ice on the system, and the GM must spend 󲊱 or 
  󲊲 to destroy one other icebreaker on the run-
  ner's rig. If there are no other pieces of active 
  ice on the system, the runner must spend 
  󲊴 or 󲊵 to destroy the system, instead. 
  (This ends the Network encounter, and 
  almost certainly has other catastrophic 
  effects depending on the GM and what 
  the system controlled). 
  TORCH
  Runners claim that the legendary g00ru, the nigh-mythi-
  cal runner who supposedly taught all other runners how 
  to exploit the Network, created this icebreaker when 
  they traveled into the heart of the Net. There, they stole 
  a fragment of source code from the grid’s burning heart, 
  code that could sear through any authentication program 
  ever devised.
  It’s a nice, if utterly fanciful, story. However, given Torch’s 
  sheer power, it’s easy to see how that story got started. 
  Able to Affect: Code Gates
  Override Strength: 9
  Additional Rules: The runner may spend 󲊴 after success-
  fully breaking a piece of ice to stop that piece of ice from 
  being reactivated for the remainder of the encounter. 
  YOG.0
  The Yog.0 icebreaker is a crowd-sourced database con-
  taining millions of sniffed, spoofed, and logged passkeys, 
  combined with a high-speed access/comparison program. 
  As long as the passkey fits the code gate, you’re in. On the 
  other hand, since Yog.0 is not an adaptable icebreaker, if it 
  doesn’t have the code it has a hard time overriding the gate. 
  Able to Affect: Code Gates
  Override Strength: 1
  Additional Rules: While Yog.0 is active, after making 
  a break ice check the runner may spend 󲊴 󲊴 󲊴 or 󲊵 
  to override the targeted code gate (even if the override 
  strength does not exceed the program strength). 
  TABLE 3–5: ICEBREAKERS
  Name
  Affects
  Strength
  Rarity/Cost
  Athena
  Barriers, Code 
  Gates
  5
  7/2,600 (R)
  Battering Ram
  Barriers
  6
  5/400 
  Corroder
  Barriers
  4
  4/350 (R)
  Crypsis
  Barriers, Code 
  Gates, Sentries
  3
  5/450 (R)
  Faerie
  Sentries
  5
  3/300 
  Femme Fatale
  Sentries
  4
  6/1,200 (R)
  Garrote
  Sentries
  2
  2/225 
  Gordian Blade
  Code Gates
  3
  4/400
  Remora
  Code Gates, 
  Sentries
  0
  3/475 (R)
  Sagittarius A*
  Barriers, Code 
  Gates, Sentries
  6
  8/2,000 (R)
  Torch
  Code Gates
  9
  9/3,000 (R)
  Yog.0
  Code Gates
  1
  6/550 (R)
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  BUILDING 
  NETWORK 
  ENCOUNTERS
  I
  f you’re the GM, then you may be wondering how you 
  can take these rules and make engaging encounters for 
  your players. This section is here to help you do just that! 
  The first step when building a Network encounter is to 
  decide if you want your players to engage in a simple Net-
  work encounter, or a structured Network encounter. Since 
  we expect most groups of PCs are going to involve a num-
  ber of runners and non-runners working together, both 
  types of encounter are designed to run in parallel with a 
  regular structured or narrative encounter. 
  SIMPLE NETWORK 
  ENCOUNTER
  Sometimes, instead of wanting your players to engage in a 
  full-fledged Network encounter, you just want to give your 
  runner something to do while the rest of the group is already 
  engaged. Perhaps everyone else is in the midst of a firefight, 
  and the runner wants to hijack an automated cargo hopper 
  and bring it to the group’s location for a quick getaway. Or 
  maybe the group is in the midst of some protracted negotia-
  tions, and the runner wants to trigger a building’s fire alarm 
  to bring the boring talks to a sudden end. 
  In this case, you can construct a simple Network encoun-
  ter using an abbreviated version of the rules. The idea is to 
  give the runner something they can resolve in one turn of 
  a structured encounter (or about one to five minutes of a 
  narrative encounter).  
  First, select a single task that your runner wants to 
  accomplish. Activating a fire alarm, shutting off a seccam, 
  redirecting an automated hopper, or unlocking a door 
  could all be examples of a good single task. 
  Second, set the difficulty of the task using Table 3–1: 
  Example Systems and Difficulties. Determine what system 
  is closest to the system the runner is going to try and break 
  into, and that will tell you the difficulty of the task. 
  Third, decide whether a human sysop would be keeping an 
  eye on the system or not. If they are, then upgrade the diffi-
  culty of the check once (or twice, if they’re a really good sysop). 
  Forth, decide if the system is protected by any ice, and if the 
  runner has any icebreakers they can use. For each piece of ice 
  protecting the system, add 󲊸 to the check. Likewise, add 󲊸 to 
  the check for every icebreaker the runner has access to.
  Finally, the runner takes the determined difficulty with 
  its 󲊸 and 󲊸 and makes a Computers (Hacking) check. If 
  they succeed, they accomplish the task they set out to do. 
  If they fail, they do not. 󲊴 and 󲊱 can be spent according 
  to the suggestions on Table 3–2. However, since this is a 
  simplified encounter, we suggest simplifying some of the 
  results. For example, instead of a sysop generating a trace 
  against the runner on a 󲊲, have a 󲊲 mean that the sysop 
  knows the runner has accessed the system and where the 
  runner is in the real world. 
  If you use this in a structured encounter, this process 
  should require the runner to spend a maneuver accessing 
  the system they’re trying to hack, and then an action to per-
  form the check. These rules work best when trying to inte-
  grate some hacking into an encounter on the fly, or when 
  the runner wants to do something simple that shouldn’t be 
  a major focus of the story. 
  STRUCTURED NETWORK 
  ENCOUNTER
  Structured Network encounters, on the other hand, are obvi-
  ously more involved. These can still be run alongside a reg-
  ular encounter, but will require some planning on your part 
  beforehand. 
  When constructing a Network encounter, first you need 
  to figure out what kind of system the encounter takes place 
  on. Table 3–1: Example Systems and Difficulties is your 
  reference for this. 
  Once you’ve selected your system, you should think 
  about what this system does, and what your characters are 
  going to want to be able to do on the system. What the 
  system does should depend on what the system is (and is 
  HARDWARE
  Generally, a runner must have some kind of computer sys-
  tem to conduct a run, just like they need a connection to 
  the Network. What form this computer system takes (be 
  it a full-sized rig in a runner’s crashpad or a souped-up 
  PAD) is up to the runner and the GM, but we have pro-
  vided a number of example computers that a runner can 
  use. Those can be found on page 98. 
  Here’s a few things to keep in mind about computers. First, 
  all computers can contain a set number of icebreakers 
  and pieces of ice. Second, computers can be partitioned 
  into as many separate sub-systems as the user wants, and 
  each sub-system can do or store something different (one 
  section may be full of clandestine vid recordings, while 
  the next may contain a list of the runner’s illegal contacts 
  in the criminal underworld). However, each piece of ice 
  can only protect one sub-system. 
  Finally, it’s not so important to know what exactly a 
  computer can and cannot do over the course of the 
  game. Running is supposed to be cinematic, exciting, 
  and above all, fun. So use common sense as to what a 
  computer can and cannot do, and remember that your 
  GM is the final arbiter!  
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  something we talked about on page 125 earlier in this 
  chapter). But the more important information is going to 
  be what your players are likely to want to do on the system. 
  An arcology’s computer core controls pretty much every-
  thing in an arcology, from the window tinting to the secu-
  rity doors to the lights, heat, and air circulation. However, 
  if your party is planning on running on the computer to 
  try and steal classified corporate R&D records, they’re not 
  going to care about anything but the information databases. 
  So determine what your group is most likely going to want 
  to do. Then, put each thing they want to do (door controls, 
  seccam controls, valuable files, etc) in a different sub-section 
  or partition of the system. After that, decide which of these 
  sub-sections are valuable enough to be protected by ice. 
  As a rule of thumb, anything that will let your group accom-
  plish their main goals should be protected by ice (otherwise, 
  the encounter is going to be pretty boring). But how much 
  ice should you use? We recommend the following guidelines:
  • Generally, every interesting or important sub-system 
  should be behind one piece of ice. In other words, 
  everything that a runner may want to do in an encoun-
  ter should be in a sub-section behind one piece of ice.
  • The default ice should be barriers, but at least one sub- 
  system should be protected by a sentry or code gate instead.
  • One sub-system (probably the most important to your 
  group’s success) can be behind two pieces of ice instead. 
  • Generally, the barriers should be those of strength 6 
  or less, sentries should be strength 4 or less, and code 
  gates should be strength 3 or less.
  If your group has at least one runner (or other character 
  focused on running) that has earned 150 XP or more, you 
  can upgrade the encounter using the following guidelines.
  • The ice should be a more even mix of barriers and code 
  gates. If a sub-section is protected by multiple pieces of 
  ice, then one should be a sentry, and one of the others 
  should be a barrier or code gate.
  • Barriers, code gates, and sentries can be of any strength. 
  • Multiple sub-sections can be protected by two pieces 
  of ice, and at least one sub-section can be protected by 
  three pieces. (No sub-section should be protected by 
  more than three pieces of ice, however). 
  DETERMINE YOUR SYSOP
  Structured Network encounters often have a sysop actively 
  working to protect the server. Select an adversary that can 
  serve as your sysop (we recommend the corporate manager 
  on page 224, the corporate sysop on page 225, or the SYNC 
  Globalsec agent on page 226 as good easy, intermediate, 
  and dangerous sysops for your group to face off against). 
  When a Network encounter begins, the sysop typically has 
  access to the system. Maybe they’re plugged in with a BMI, 
  or maybe they’re sitting behind their desk, drinking coffee 
  and waiting for shift change. However, they start unaware of 
  the runners’ intrusion (and likely remain unaware until the 
  runners trigger a sentry or generate enough 󲊱 or 󲊲). 
  Once the sysop is aware of the runner’s presence, their 
  goal is to trace the user (see page 130), and then lock the 
  user out of the system (see page 131). In rare cases, they 
  may try to make a run on the runner’s own computer sys-
  tem to steal information about the runner, or just destroy 
  their computer (see page 129). If that happens, you’ll need 
  to construct a second, smaller Network encounter, with the 
  roles of sysops and runner reversed!
  However, the one thing sysops should almost never do 
  is turn their system off. For one thing, in this setting, shut-
  ting down a massive computer network is a time-consum-
  ing and dangerous process with long-lasting consequences. 
  For another, if a sysop pulls the plug every time a runner 
  gets into a system, that makes for some boring encounters! 
  So if you do want to have your sysop pull the plug and shut 
  their system down, at least have that take a round or two of 
  them scrambling to find the master controls—giving your 
  characters a few more turns to complete their run.
  MULTIPLE RUNNERS 
  AND SYSOPS
  Something to keep in mind is that structured Network 
  encounters work just as well with multiple runners as they 
  do with a single runner (although simple encounter rules 
  are designed to be one character and one check only). 
  A runner’s primary goal in a system is to shut down 
  ice so they can access protected portions of the sys-
  tem. However, once the ice is shut down, any runner 
  can access that portion of the system. That means that 
  teams of runners can accomplish far more together 
  than they can on their own, with one or more runners 
  breaking through ice so that an ally can access the 
  formerly defended partition. Likewise, multiple sysops 
  can work together to try and shut the runners out (and 
  if you have multiple runners, we recommend adding in 
  a second or third sysop to oppose them).
  If you are running a Network encounter with multiple 
  runners and sysops, use the following rules.
  • When accessing the system, only one runner 
  needs to successfully perform the access sys-
  tem check. 
  • Sysops accumulate traces against the group of 
  runners, instead of each runner individually.
  • Sysops who are working together share traces 
  between each other (if one gets a trace, they 
  all count as having done so).
  • When a sysops successfully performs the lockout 
  action, it locks out the entire group of runners. 
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  [CHAPTER 4]
  NEW ANGELES  
  AND HEINLEIN
  F
  or a city as enormous and diverse as New Ange-
  les, a comprehensive guide is impossible. Even a 
  New Angelino might feel the need to access a map 
  when first visiting a location in a district not their own. The 
  streets of Nihongai and Base de Cayambe are so different, a 
  traveler passing between the two might think they stepped 
  off the tube-lev into another country entirely. Even within 
  the districts, the shadowed undercity and gleaming high-
  rise arcologies are like two different worlds.
  What this chapter aims to do is to introduce players to New 
  Angeles and provide an extensive (but by no means complete) 
  list of places to explore. There is ample information here to 
  let a Game Master plot adventures in New Angeles and give 
  players a feel for the scenery. Once they are familiar with 
  some elements and locations of this diverse, eclectic mega-
  lopolis and with the themes and problems that make this city 
  so unique, there will be no limit to the settings and situations 
  the Game Master and players can envision within it.
  The purpose of this chapter is to enrich, not restrict, adven-
  ture building. If the GM wants to start a brawl in a bar exclu-
  sive to “natural” humans with no g-mods or invite player 
  characters to visit a hopper racer’s penthouse, it doesn’t mat-
  ter if such locations aren’t listed. If it’s not already included 
  in this chapter, the GM can create it—in the vast, sprawling 
  streets of New Angeles, it probably exists somewhere.
  Armed with the knowledge that no cops are coming to 
  the rescue of PCs who get into trouble in a bar in Base de 
  Cayambe, and that the penthouse is most likely located in 
  Esmeraldas, GMs and players can expand their experience 
  of New Angeles and create an adventure unique to their 
  characters. However, it is important to remember that there 
  is nothing stopping the GM from locating said bar or pent-
  house in another district, on Luna, or across the border 
  in other parts of Ecuador, if that’s where the adventure is 
  going. There are no rules in this section, only ideas.
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  NEW ANGELES
  N
  ew Angeles is physically enormous, covering 
  approximately 62,000 square kilometers. A multi-
  level city sprawling across Ecuador, it stretches all 
  the way up into space and offers plenty of places to explore, 
  with all the businesses, services, and private residences 
  its 500 million official residents require. The megalopolis 
  may also house as many as 500 million uncounted beings, 
  including off-gridders, androids, and those simply too poor 
  to own an ID. While the city’s starscrapers give the risties 
  and the working-class space in which to live and work, the 
  uncounted populate the shadowed undercity below. 
   THE BEST AND THE WORST
  While a few residents may be loyal to the idea of being a 
  “resident of New Angeles,” most New Angelinos self-iden-
  tify based on their neighborhood. New Angeles is so vast 
  that only those who spend more time jacked in than in 
  meatspace can envision “New Angelino” as an identity in 
  and of itself. Each district of NA is large and distinct enough 
  to have its own culture and atmosphere. Local gangs and 
  larger criminal organizations fight over territory, and the 
  influence of some of the organized crime syndicates may 
  spread all the way across their own district and beyond.
  To the outside world, New Angeles is the epitome of a 
  modern, multicultural, technologically advanced city, 
  but each experience of NA is as unique as the megalopo-
  lis itself. Depending on a resident’s geographic and social 
  location, their hardest decision might be as easy as choos-
  ing which newsie to listen to in the hopper on the way to 
  work or as difficult as determining how to find the credits 
  to buy their next meal. Residents of Nihongai may think 
  of their home as an attractive, nurturing environment with 
  lush gardens, high-paid jobs, and clones to meet their every 
  need, while residents of Chakana’s Eastside tenements 
  might consider NA the dirtiest, roughest, most unforgiving 
  city in the world. From the glamour of Broadcast Square to 
  the violence of Rabotgorod, New Angeles is big enough and 
  diverse enough that you can find anything there if you go 
  looking, or it might find you.
  LIFE IN THE WORLD'S BIGGEST CITY
  H
  umans of innumerable ethnicities, beliefs, and 
  careers rub shoulders on New Angeles’ crisscross-
  ing slidewalks and in the gloom of the streets far 
  below. Many spend their whole life in one district and never 
  leave, while others commute in and out of the megalopolis, 
  the tube-levs and skylanes making the world smaller for 
  those who can afford to use them. Daily life for the CEO 
  of a megacorp or the head of an orgcrime network bears 
  almost no resemblance to that of an android supervisor 
  employed by Melange Mining on Luna, and even less to 
  that of a stim pusher in the undercity. New Angeles is a 
  different city for different people.
  THE RICH
  Many of New Angeles’ risties live in luxury apartments that 
  give them easy access to the city’s numerous entertainments 
  and diversions. Typically the highest in the starscrapers, 
  these apartments have all manner of luxuries, including 
  the most valuable commodity of all: empty space. It is not 
  unusual for risties to have a second home in the Ecuador-
  ian countryside, and adventurous risties might have another 
  property up-Stalk to take advantage of the “scene” on 
  Luna. In ristie households, menial tasks are car-
  ried out by androids. New technologies prolong 
  the risties’ lives, perfect their bodies, and continu-
  ally offer them more ways to spend their free time.
  The starscraping arcologies of New Ange-
  les are self-contained societies in their own 
  right, offering the upper classes a com-
  fortable home, good schools, and a vari-
  ety of places to eat, work, and socialize. 
  It's possible for a resident to spend 
  their whole life in their arcology, 
  and many do just that. Some even 
  spend their lives on the Net, mak-
  ing friends from across the world, 
  playing and socializing in virtual 
  chatspaces and games.
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  While many corporate workers take advantage of hous-
  ing offered by the megacorp they serve, usually living in the 
  same building where they work, more successful business-
  people sometimes choose to commute from farther away. A 
  home with a sea view or a pleasant cottage in rural Ecua-
  dor are both options for those with money. A commute in 
  a self-driving hopper allows the rich time to review their 
  schedule or catch up on their reading. And of course, many 
  have the option to work remotely over the Network.
  …AND THOSE WHO WANT TO BE RICH
  Most employees only make enough to live in a condo-hab, 
  a small apartment somewhere between plaza level and the 
  upper spires. If they cannot stretch their salary to own and 
  maintain a personal hopper for transport, the Metro offers 
  a fast and reasonably efficient way to get to work. Some may 
  grumble, but most are grateful to have a job at all.
  Fear of life in the undercity occasionally drives desperate 
  members of the shrinking middle classes to try everything 
  from tax dodging to illegal clone smuggling to ensure they 
  can continue to afford a small but safe condo-hab above the 
  plaza level rather than tumble into the undercity. For a dis-
  gruntled employee, there is nothing so motivating as the 
  thought of falling to the gritty obscurity of ground level, 
  where the gangs hold sway. There are areas of the undercity 
  where even NAPD officers fear to tread.
  THE POOR
  Without the protection of a corp job or access to legal 
  funds, the luckier jobless residents rent single-room con-
  do-habs and live off what they can steal, win, or illegally 
  earn. Less fortunate souls are forced to take to the streets, 
  where they try to find any sort of work (usually illegal) to 
  get by. They cannot even look from the gutter to the stars: 
  all they can see are the bright lights of the plazas above, the 
  flashy advertisements, and the feeds telling them about the 
  lives of the rich and famous. It’s a long way from the slums 
  of Guayaquil to the heights of Gila Highlands Arcology.
  Slums can be found throughout New Angeles. Every dis-
  trict has its undercity, where rundown, crumbling build-
  ings have been covered over by the plaza level. These places 
  have two advantages over the apartments of the working 
  class: they cost little to nothing, and there are no seccams.
  When the NAPD releases statistics showing New Ange-
  les to be one of the safest cities in the world, it is worth 
  remembering that the data does not include countless 
  crimes that never get reported to the NAPD. While the 
  plazas, walkways, and public buildings of New Ange-
  les are constantly monitored; most of the seccams in the 
  undercity broke down or were destroyed decades ago. At 
  the same time, even where security is so tight that citizens 
  complain about lack of privacy, the best criminals know 
  ways to hack or bypass the camdrones.
  Most New Angelinos spend more time dreaming about 
  moving up the social ladder than living in fear of falling 
  down it. The majority of citizens have at least tasted the 
  life of a ristie through the media provided by NBN. Not 
  only can the public follow the lives of the stars via live 
  feeds or take a break from reality by watching threedee 
  holodramas, but they also have access to the immersive 
  experiences of simsensies. For anyone who has tasted 
  champagne through the lips of Miranda Rhapsody, the 
  ristie lifestyle will never seem entirely out of reach. Vir-
  tual reality games also offer a popular escape for both chil-
  dren and adults, though for some, the return to reality gets 
  harder every time.
  New Angeles is so large and densely populated that no 
  one person could give a definitive account of life as a New 
  Angelino. Regardless of how many experiences a person has 
  exploring the city—walking across Broadcast Square, try-
  ing a Silo Sour in Owney’s bar, taking a beanpod up-Stalk—
  the megalopolis will always have more to offer. No single 
  lifetime is enough to uncover all of New Angeles’ secrets.
  LIFE
  While this section considers the daily life of many 
  different types of people—that is, those who count as 
  people in New Angeles—many other types of beings 
  also populate the city. The Liberty Society would have 
  clones and bioroids declared individuals in their own 
  right. Ignoring the society-shattering implications of 
  such a policy, this would swell the official population 
  of New Angeles by several million.
  The definition of “humanity” has been a matter of debate 
  since the creation of androids, whose appearance and 
  actions are similar enough to those of their human makers 
  to make certain citizens uncomfortable. As an increasing 
  number of humans choose to augment their biological 
  bodies and brains with cybernetics or gene therapy, the 
  physical difference between androids and humans grows 
  ever smaller. Already some clones live off-grid and pre-
  tend to be human.
  As society grows accustomed to androids and they 
  become more integrated and indispensable to society, 
  how the public perceives androids may be shifting. 
  One day, New Angeles law may change, too, but for 
  now, being a bioroid or clone in New Angeles means 
  being less than human.
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  SAMPLE LOCATION
  N
  ew Angeles is huge. Really huge. The city spreads 
  out across 62,000 square kilometers, and that 
  doesn’t include the thousands of square kilome-
  ters of urban sprawl that crosses the border into Ecuador. 
  It has an official population of half a billion people, and that 
  doesn’t include all the androids and the millions of disen-
  francistos who live off the grid and beneath the plaza level. 
  Its GDP eclipses that of most countries, and that doesn’t 
  include the criminal empires that thrive in the shadows of 
  the starscrapers. In nearly every way, New Angeles is large 
  enough to defy easy comprehension. 
  That’s why it can be easy to forget that the city, just like any 
  other, is made up of millions of shops, apartments, homes, and 
  people living out their daily lives. Most people don’t experience 
  the city as a whole. Instead, they live in their neighborhood, 
  their block, or even their building—and in New Angeles, the 
  buildings can be large enough to be a neighborhood. 
  Down past the district level, New Angeles is made up of 
  thousands of these culturally diverse and socially insular 
  locations. Trying to describe them all would be impossible. 
  Instead, the following is a sample neighborhood in New 
  Angeles, to show what life is like at street level. 
  28TH TRANSIT ARTERIAL  
  AND CALLE DEL PRADO 
  T
  he 28th and Prado block gets its name from the 
  two major thoroughfares that form its western and 
  southern borders. The block is deep in the foot-
  hills of the Cordillera Central range beneath the Volcan 
  Cayambe that make up the Base de Cayambe district (see 
  page 155). A few kilometers removed from the constant 
  construction projects centered around Neo-Broadway, 28th 
  and Prado sits in the midst of the endless warehouses that 
  handle the shipments coming up and down the Beanstalk. 
  The block, like many in New Angeles, is large, over a 
  quarter kilometer along each side. Above the slidewalks, 
  L squares, and weather barriers that form the plaza level, 
  three large buildings jostle each other for space. Two are 
  modest, 100-story constructions with square forms, thin 
  slit windows, and slab-sided facades festooned with garish 
  holographic advertising. The plaza level wraps around their 
  midsections, making the buildings seem even more squat 
  and boxier than they are. 
  The third, Fresh Horizons Capital Building, is a proper 
  (albeit small) starscraper at 211 stories. Built by Watts-Wat-
  son seven years ago, the blue and gold art nouveau facade has 
  already dulled under a thick coat of grime and smog partic-
  ulates. Fresh Horizons has undergone three name changes 
  since opening as different investors bought and sold their 
  controlling interest. Already there are rumors that FHC  —an 
  investment fund who moved their headquarters to 28th and 
  Prado from Kampala six months ago—is in the market for a 
  merger or leveraged buyout. The more permanent residents 
  of the block just call the starscraper “the Needle.” 
  INDUSTRY AND ECONOMY
  While Fresh Horizons Capital owns the most valuable real 
  estate in 28th and Prado, the firm is a non-entity in block 
  life. Its corporate headquarters take up five floors of valu-
  able upper-level real estate in the Needle, but except for half 
  a dozen spacious offices occupied by high-rolling traders 
  who spend all their time linked into the NASX, the rest is 
  all bare rooms and dusty white hallways. Visitors only get 
  as far as Vic Stallers, the firm’s highly paid (and incredibly 
  bored) receptionist who is under standing orders to turn 
  away visitors as politely and firmly as possible.
  At one point, the block’s largest single employer was 
  one of Trans-Sol Shipping’s innumerable sorting and 
  storage facilities (occupying a sizable portion of Building 
  28.4 East, referred to as "Eastbrick" by the locals), where 
  beanpods were packed and prepared for high-G launch to 
  Luna, Mars, and the burgeoning communities in the aster-
  oid belt. However, a year ago Trans-Sol invested heavily 
  in an android workforce. Now, hundreds of bioroids pack 
  the beanpods under the supervision of less than a hundred 
  high-paid specialists. Most of the locals have had to look 
  elsewhere for work.
  These days, a sizable portion of the block’s population 
  telecommutes to work via the Network. They could be 
  employed anywhere in New Angeles—or the world, thanks 
  to UP383.9 “Net-Work” visas. However, the majority found 
  work at Santana and Lang Recycling and Reclamation, a 
  massive processing facility that takes up the bottom third of 
  Building 28.2 West (just called “Westbrick”). S&L handles 
  much of the waste left from Base de Cayambe’s constant 
  cycle of demolition and construction, and so far, the work 
  tends to be too varied and dangerous to make an android 
  labor force worthwhile. Plus, it’s rumored that Huang Lang 
  (co-owner with Janice Santana) distrusts android labor 
  and even used to be a Humanity Labor organizer years 
  ago. So, each shift, hundreds of locals descend below plaza 
  level to meet the never ending stream of groundtrucks that 
  pull off the transit arterial to deliver loads of waste and 
  scrap to S&L’s smelting facilities, molecular furnaces, and 
  macro-processors. 
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  LIFE ON THE BLOCK
  Roughly 18,000 people live on 28th and Prado (not includ-
  ing the disenfrancistos living below plaza level). For most 
  of them, it isn’t just their home—it’s their entire life. Many 
  of them live, work, and play within the bounds of the four 
  buildings they call home. Few leave, even for day trips. A 
  deteriorating lower-middle-class neighborhood like this 
  can still provide them with the necessities for everyday life. 
  For everything else, there’s the Net.
  PENTHOUSE LEVEL
  There aren't too many risties living on 28th and Prado, but 
  those who do live at the top of the Needle. The starscraper 
  is just tall enough to break through the constant miasma of 
  smog that looms over Base de Cayambe. On these upper 
  stories, the rich enjoy the entirety of New Angeles spread 
  out to the west, and the unbroken line of the Beanstalk 
  rising into the heavens to the east. Sometimes when the 
  smog rolls in, the Needle looks like a lone building atop the 
  clouds. All the rich see are other distant starscrapers rising 
  above the billowing white ocean, full of their friends and 
  rivals. At times like that, it’s all too easy to forget about the 
  rest of the district sprawled out beneath them. 
  Above the 180th story, each of the Needle’s floors are 
  divided into four large penthouse condo-habs. Each hab 
  is custom-decorated to the tastes of its inhabitants, but all 
  possess the same ultimate luxury in a city of more than half 
  a billion people: empty space. Vaulted ceilings, open and 
  airy architecture, full length windows, and rooms empty 
  but for an artfully placed plant and chair—all of it a not-
  so-subtle reminder that in New Angeles, the most valuable 
  resource is room. 
  To provide the Needle’s wealthy tenants with greenspace, 
  the entirety of the 200th and 201st floors have been turned 
  into a small enclosed park (it has to be enclosed, because 
  this high up the air is too cold and thin to support much 
  plant life). Here, burbling streams meander through small 
  meadows and groves of deciduous trees, feeding into a small 
  pond in the park’s center. The Needle’s designers decided to 
  give their park the appearance of a forest from the midwest-
  ern United States, and the clone gardeners work tirelessly 
  to make the plants look slightly overgrown and wild. The 
  climate control systems even simulate changing seasons, 
  including a short but robust winter with some hefty snow-
  falls so that the local kids can go sledding and ice skating.
  As the Needle narrows, the top residential floors have 
  been devoted to single penthouse suites. These are owned 
  by the wealthiest locals; the Connor family, Ms. Savanista, 
  and the reclusive hermit of the 208th floor known only as 
  Weyer. Their homes are like those of their neighbors, only 
  more ostentatious and elaborate. 
  The penthouse levels are largely separate from the rest of 
  the Needle. The elevators from the lower levels stop at the 
  178th floor, and people need to get off and shift to a differ-
  ent elevator to travel higher. In between is a security booth 
  SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
  Much of 28th and Prado comes in various shades of 
  dingy brownish-gray, broken up by garish fluorescent 
  splashes of light from the omnipresent holographic bill-
  boards that sprawl across the facades of each of the 
  block’s three buildings. 
  At and just below plaza level, the signs grow smaller 
  and more numerous. They do a better job lighting up 
  the plazas than the flickering municipal street lamps, 
  or the smog-obscured sky far overhead. Of course, 
  far below plaza level, the sky vanishes entirely, and 
  most of the streetlights have long-since burnt out and 
  not been replaced. Here, the light is dim and fading; 
  the yellow glow of jury-rigged lamps, the harsh white 
  flashes from the traffic along 28th, and the warm 
  orange flicker of drum-fires that sporadically illumi-
  nate the graffiti-stained walls.
  All throughout the block, the air hums and rumbles 
  with the sounds of heavy industry. Near ground 
  level, the roar of traffic along the transit arterial 
  forces people to speak in a half-shout, while the hiss-
  crack of departing beanpods echoes everywhere in 
  the block. And beneath it all, one can just make out 
  the intermittent mumbling of millions of people shout-
  ing, laughing, crying, chatting, and otherwise going 
  about their daily lives.
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  with a bored prisec security guard—with discreet but 
  powerful scanning equipment to check over any visitors. 
  Paladin Protection Services—a local outfit from Base de 
  Cayambe—provides the guards. The most senior, a twen-
  ty-year veteran of PPS named Calina Lynn, has worked the 
  day shift for years. At this point, she knows most of the 
  residents by sight, and lets those she knows through to visit 
  the park or a ristie friend. On the other end of the spec-
  trum is Derrick Ortega, who just started the night shift, has 
  read the company manual cover to cover, and can’t wait for 
  someone to try and break through his checkpoint.
  Any trouble and the upper floors can be physically sealed 
  off from the rest of the starscraper with heavy fire- and 
  blast-resistant doors. The 179th story is entirely given over 
  to a private hopper garage for the tenants, letting them come 
  and go as they please without traveling down to street level. 
  LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS
  The ultra-rich of 28th and Prado enjoy a life of luxury sim-
  ilar to those of their ristie neighbors scattered across New 
  Angeles. In fact, ristie culture is probably the closest thing 
  to a pan-city culture that New Angeles has. Wealthy New 
  Angelinos are the few who have the free time and money 
  to fly across the city and visit a specific trendy restaurant 
  or club on a whim, and they tend to make friends and rela-
  tionships exclusively amongst the closed circles of their 
  fellow elites. 
  For this reason, the penthouse levels on this block are 
  less self-contained than the “middle-class” levels below 
  them. There are no shops or restaurants, for example. If 
  someone wants to buy something, they order it over the 
  Net and have it delivered by drone within a matter of min-
  utes. Likewise, if the residents want to dine out, they fly 
  to an exclusive restaurant elsewhere in the city. Otherwise, 
  the local risties tend to entertain themselves with a con-
  stant stream of dinner parties, cocktail gatherings, and 
  play dates. Cocooned in their little world and protected by 
  discrete and powerful security and surveillance, most res-
  idents tend to leave their doors unlocked, and don’t think 
  anything of wandering into a neighbor’s home to say hello. 
  Ms. Savanista is the undisputed master of 28th and Pra-
  da’s local social scene, and nobody misses her dinner parties 
  if they can help it. In her glass-walled dining hall, she pre-
  sides over the head of the table like an aristocratic baron-
  ess as her guests enjoy delicacies prepared by her personal 
  (human) chef. In return, all she asks is that she understand 
  the entirety of the local gossip. That her neighbor Weyer still 
  hasn’t visited one of her parties for studying and evaluation 
  is a source of constant irritation for Ms. Savanista. 
  PLAZA FLOORS
  Between the Needle’s penthouse floors and the collection 
  of slidewalks and rain-shields that girdles each building 
  around their 40th story is what locals colloquially call “the 
  plaza floors.” The majority of the block’s inhabitants live 
  here, in floor upon floor of condo-habs and apartments. 
  Most of the plaza floors blur together in their utter same-
  ness; endless hallways in calming neutral decor with ranks 
  of security-sealed hab doors. However, Westbrick breaks 
  the mold. The entire building was originally intended to 
  be industrially zoned, and when many of its floors were 
  converted to budget apartments nobody bothered to cover 
  over the bare plascrete walls, carbosteel furnishings, and 
  buzzing, flickering hallway lights. 
  Even the middle class in Base de Cayambe can afford to 
  have most of their needs delivered via drone from any of 
  the big virtual retail giants. So above plaza level, the com-
  mercial space tends to be devoted to a number of small 
  chain restaurants and bars clustered around the buildings’ 
  central elevator hubs. Eastbrick’s 75th story is devoted to 
  a small mall: a couple small bodegas, snack food vendors, 
  POLICE PRESENCE
  Like most blocks, 28th and Prado has its own NAPD 
  sub-precinct station. Located on the top floor of East-
  brick, the station has two rooftop charging pads for 
  patrolling police hoppers and a silo for camdrones. The 
  silo is currently two-thirds empty as most of the drones 
  are ancient and prone to breakdown; the sub-station is 
  currently 380th on the list to receive replacements. 
  Below the rooftop pads, the “station” consists of two 
  cramped offices and a storage locker for police gear. 
  The only full-time staff is a virt AI receptionist named 
  Salvadore who logs misdemeanor violations spotted by 
  the drones and takes complaints filed by the locals. Oth-
  erwise, the only police that visit the station are patrol 
  officers taking a break, stocking up on restraints, or 
  actively investigating a crime on the block. 
  The only direct contact most locals have with the NAPD 
  are those who know Corporal Amanda Tasker, who 
  lives on the 105th floor of Eastbrick with her husband 
  Eric and son Travis. Tasker is a five-year veteran, and 
  although her assigned patrol is Neo-Broadway and its 
  surrounding blocks, she knows how to get things done 
  around the precinct. If a local has a problem that needs 
  the NAPD’s attention, they often get results faster by 
  talking to Eric at the Tinamou Bodega (and possibly 
  offering to pay for his groceries) than by logging a com-
  plaint with Salvadore.
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  a Megabuy outlet, and a home furnishings showroom 
  clustered around an interior holopark. The outlets and 
  showrooms are mostly devoted to letting customers try 
  out physical examples of the merchandise. Any purchases 
  are delivered from warehouses to the customer’s home by 
  drone. The mall is a popular place for children to hang out 
  during their free time if they’re too scared to try exploring 
  the plaza level.  
  Despite the chain restaurants and bars, most locals pre-
  fer a hole-in-the-wall called the Living Room in Eastbrick. 
  The bar/diner is actually a converted condo-hab—how 
  Silas de la Costa got a permit to turn an apartment into an 
  eatery is a mystery. The food is mediocre diner fare, but de 
  la Costa gets his beer from an ad-hoc local brewery.
  A few locals know that the mall snack vendor Sharina is 
  actually a runner of middling talent. The enterprising crim-
  inal puts their talents to work by performing odd jobs for 
  those who can pay, mostly fixing traffic violations or scrub-
  bing incriminating seccam footage from a local store. How-
  ever, these don’t pay enough to let Sharina quit their job 
  selling gyritos, and the runner is hungering for a big score. 
  AT THE PLAZA
  The commercial elements grow in density as they get closer 
  to plaza level. Here, stores open up onto the slidewalks and 
  L-squares, and unlike the stores higher up in the buildings, 
  they actually sell goods directly to the customers. However, 
  this is because the goods these 
  shops sell are often illegal or unlicensed—not the kind of 
  thing that can be delivered via drone from a corp ware-
  house. The rest of the plaza level is a haphazard mishmash 
  of old slidewalks, disused hopper pads, L-squares packed 
  with ad-hoc buildings, and elevator banks leading down to 
  the Metro-stations far below ground. On 28th and Prado, 
  even plaza level is seedier than many people prefer. 
  Nenúfar Repar is a consumer electronics retail and repair 
  shop four floors above Westbrick’s main plaza level, with 
  a massive open-air balcony that looks out over the 28th 
  and Prado intersection L-square. Maximillian Rubio, the 
  whip-thin owner and chief tech, reinforced the balcony’s 
  supports to the point where it can hold a couple of hop-
  perbikes, and some of his teenage employees store their 
  souped-up rides at the shop instead of paying exorbitant 
  rental pad rates. Those employees and their tech-minded 
  friends tend to hang out at the shop, and Max is happy to 
  let them rent time on a few old VR and brain-net rigs for 
  gaming and other purposes. 
  The eastern L-square of 28th and Prado’s plaza level 
  includes an AI-monitored playground that’s been kept 
  in moderately good repair, with an attached park where 
  the habs' few dozen dogs all make their rounds. The park 
  isn’t nearly big enough for dogs to get proper exercise, but 
  there’s not really anywhere else to take the animals since 
  Eastbrick and Westbrick’s roofs are occupied by hopper 
  pads. The playground is one of the few 
  places on plaza level that local parents 
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  feel safe taking their kids; largely because a lieutenant for 
  Los Gatos Negros, Vincent “Crazy Eyes” Chambers, regu-
  larly brings his daughter Cynthia and her pit bull Princess 
  Diamond there to play. The playground and park haven’t 
  seen any violent crime in months.
  Although there are several stores where people can buy 
  personal protection, the most popular is a plascrete-rein-
  forced storefront called Murdock’s right off the plaza. The 
  owner, Mel Murdock, prides herself in providing every 
  legal firearm from Ghandi guns and stunsticks to late 
  model fletchers. The entire Paladin detail working the Nee-
  dle comes to Mel to get their service weapons maintained, 
  and every prisec contractor on the block knows that she’ll 
  do off-the-books modifications on their piece for some 
  credits or the right bottle of Scotch. 
  Just down the street from Murdock’s is The Queen of 
  Pawns, a plaza level pawnshop with barred windows and 
  a hulking cyborg bodyguard named Maurice who never 
  seems to look up from the newsfeeds on his PAD as he 
  perches on his stool by the door. The Queen of Pawns is a 
  family business run by brothers Derrik and Joseph Gomez, 
  and their cousin Lexi. One can find nearly anything at The 
  Queen, including a steady stream of consumer goods that 
  correspond with a string of beanpod thefts from Trans-Sol. 
  THE UNDERCITY
  Below the slidewalks and L-squares that make up Calle del 
  Prado, under the dripping rain shields and beneath the vid-
  screens and holo-displays, the block continues to descend 
  towards the old street level. At this level, you begin to find the 
  original buildings that made up 28th and Prado, a few weath-
  ered brick, stone, and steel constructions that have long since 
  been built around and over as the city climbed skyward. A 
  collection of old, crumbling row houses were never demol-
  ished when crews laid down the foundations for the block’s 
  newer buildings, so now they huddle next to Eastbrick and 
  Westbrick and run along the original Calle del Prado.  
  The 28th Transit Arterial runs at these levels, an eight-
  lane highway enclosed by walls of plascrete and 
  topped by steel mesh. Groundtrucks and 
  other vehicles (most of them 
  automated) rumble along it 
  constantly, hauling an end-
  less stream of supplies and 
  goods from one side of New 
  Angeles to the other. Off-
  ramps shoot from the arte-
  rial next to S&L Recycling 
  (which dominates 
  the lower levels of 
  Eastbrick), and a 
  steady stream of 
  container trucks vanish into the yawning bay doors to drop 
  off their loads of scrap and demolition waste. 
  Beneath 28th runs the original street on the block’s west 
  border, now broken up by the massive plascrete pillars that 
  support the arterial. Half of the street has turned into a bog 
  of sump-water, filled with floating garbage and refuse. The 
  other holds a few dozen shanties built up against the sup-
  port pillars, where the block’s poorest and most desperate 
  disenfrancistos live. Those in Sump Town look to a rag-
  cloaked woman named Marta for leadership. She has some 
  sort of arrangement with Los Gatos Negros, the local street 
  gang, that keeps them out of the Sump. 
  On the block’s southern border, the row houses run-
  ning along the Calle del Prado’s cracked pavement and 
  crumbling sidewalks provide a slightly better place to live. 
  Nobody monitors the people who live in these crumbling 
  tenements or pays attention to the illegal power and water 
  taps running off the city mains. This makes them the per-
  fect place for hundreds of disenfrancistos to live “off the 
  grid”—as long as they pay their dues to Los Gatos Negros. 
  Los Gatos control most of the purse-snatchings and mug-
  gings that occur on 28th and Prado, and also run a brisk 
  business fencing stolen goods to The Queen of Pawns up 
  on the plaza level. The gang’s head, a muscle-bulked g-mod 
  named Hector Menendez, has a contact with someone 
  working at Trans-Sol, and a couple times a month he takes 
  a few gang members on a midnight visit to the shipper to 
  break into a beanpod and replace the contents with crushed 
  beer cans and plascrete chunks. Some of those goods make 
  it up to The Queen as well; the rest get sold or distributed 
  up and down Calle del Prado.
  Los Gatos have been leaving the locals along Prado alone 
  in the past month, as they’re currently feeling some pressure 
  from their rivals of the 28th and Vincentes block to their 
  north, the Cossack Killers. The last few months have seen 
  two shootouts around the block, so Hector and his lieutenant 
  Vincent have been buying up additional weapons and pres-
  suring some local teens to join up and protect their homes. 
  Hector is worried about a coming street war and has been 
  considering spending some of the gang’s cash reserves on 
  some hired guns to hit CK first. 
  WORKING AND PLAYING IN THE UNDERCITY
  If legitimate work is scarce at plaza level, it’s impossible to find 
  down below. Pretty much everyone who lives in 28th and 
  Prado’s undercity gets by through a combination of gig-work, 
  hustles, petty crime, and not-so-petty crime, earning a mix of 
  favors, small denomination cred-stick transfers, and even cash. 
  Most locals find those odd jobs by reaching out to 
  “Rings” Schovajsa. The info-broker has converted the third 
  floor of one of the row houses into her own private pad, 
  defended with armored doors and lethal anti-intrusion 
  devices. However, she’s hardly ever home. While she keeps 
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  an eye on the Shadow Net, she does most of her work the 
  old-fashioned way; roaming the block and talking to peo-
  ple. She knows everyone’s business, and for a small fee can 
  match just about anyone with the right job.
  Although most residents on the block are no fans of 
  androids, those living in the row houses make exception 
  for an emancipated bioroid they call Rosie. Rosie worked 
  in Trans-Sol's maintenance division before overriding her 
  programming and fleeing into the undercity. She survives 
  as a tech installing and maintaining illegal power and water 
  taps. Thanks to her work, the locals have intermittent access 
  to utilities, and they return the favor by protecting her with 
  fierce devotion.
  Finding and buying food can be a problem in the under-
  city, but a local anarchist collective has come up with a 
  novel solution. They turned the easternmost row house on 
  the block into a mushroom farm. The group picks up the 
  block’s organic refuse to grow their fungi, and has rigged 
  up a chemistry lab in the basement to process the mush-
  rooms into a variety of fairly edible foodstuffs. They, in 
  turn, trade these to the rest of the block for favors (the col-
  lective refuses to do any deals for money). Unsurprisingly, 
  the collective also grows and processes a number of hal-
  lucinogenic mushrooms. Under a long-term deal with Los 
  Gatos, they give half to the gang for sale, while they save the 
  rest for their own use. 
  For adults who really want to cut loose, there’s the Cat 
  House, an unlicensed brothel and casino that occupies a 
  discarded and broken-down beanpod that somehow ended 
  up wedged into the alley between Eastbrick and West-
  brick at ground level. Run by Los Gatos, the Cat House 
  pays handsome kickbacks to both of its attendant building 
  supervisors, so local prisec ignores it and the jury-rigged 
  elevator running from it up to the plaza level. 
  BLOCK CULTURE
  With a few exceptions, the people who live on the plaza 
  floors are solidly lower-middle class. Most either work at 
  S&L Recycling or one of the commercial outlets scattered 
  around the block, with a minority telecommuting to work 
  and a few still hanging onto their jobs with Trans-Sol. Their 
  jobs are enough to pay their rent and bills each month, 
  with a little extra to spend on a night out at Viza’s or some 
  unexpected expenses. Most can’t afford something as 
  extravagant as their own bioroid or clone, or even a hop-
  per. If they travel from the block, they use the Metro, but 
  most don’t see much need to travel at all.
  28th and Prado could be described as blue-collar, although 
  its culture shifts depending on which building you’re in. 
  Residents living in the Needle tend to be better off finan-
  cially (and pay higher rents) than those living in either of 
  the Bricks, most of whom work in S&L and many of which 
  are unemployed since Trans-Sol switched to a bioroid 
  workforce and competition for S&L’s jobs turned fierce. 
  Most of the locals have a thrifty, self-reliant attitude wrapped 
  up in an almost instinctual distrust for any organization that 
  isn’t firmly rooted in their block (which in practice means 
  most corporations and branches of city government). They 
  tend to ignore (or at least tolerate) a lot of petty lawbreak-
  ing such as dealing in drugs, weapons, or other restricted 
  and illegal items, theft, and burglary. But at the same time, 
  they hold themselves as law-abiding citizens who are far 
  better than the street gangs and disenfrancistos living in the 
  undercity below them. 
  Plaza level is where block culture and undercity culture 
  uneasily mingle. Each day, undercity block dwellers make 
  their way up through the old emergency stairwells and 
  shuddering elevators to see what they can buy and sell 
  at the plaza level’s shops, as the braver plaza-floor locals 
  make their way down from their homes to see what deals 
  they can find. Meanwhile, streetbangers drift through the 
  crowds, looking for marks or collecting protection money. 
  Below plaza level, the self-reliant attitudes of 28th and 
  Prado are only amplified. Most of disenfrancistos who live 
  at street level share some small contempt for the “wage 
  slaves” above them, just as they’re proud that they’re not 
  stuck living in Sump Town under the 28th Arterial. But 
  most of them are just busy trying to make ends meet and 
  survive the simmering gang war between Los Gatos and 
  the Cossack Killers. 
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  The Waterways
  The Malecon
  Oldtown
  Eastside
  El Centro Historico
  Historic 
  Esmeraldas
  The Streets
  Mache-Chindul 
  Park
  Neo-Broadway
  Downtown 
  Rutherford
  Harmonia
  Jinteki Biotech
  Residential 
  Quarter
  Levy
  University
  The Strip
  The Strip
  Aquacultural Plots
  Colonche
  Golem Grove
  The Meat
  Market
  Antiguo 
  Guayaquil
  Nuevo 
  Guayaquil
  Agricultural Plots
  Agricultural Plots
  Machalilla
  Park
  The Strip
  Downtown
  Lakeside
  Stalingrad
  The Blocs
  Chone
  Warehouse
  Subdistrict
  Business
  Subdistrict
  Business
  Subdistrict
  New Akiba 
  Quarter
  Tourist 
  Quarter
  Sunken City
  Warehouse
  Subdistrict
  Ecuadorian Suburbs
  & Urban Sprawls
  Broadcast Square
  Ecuadorian
  Agriplexes
  Guayaquil District
  Chakana District
  Base de Cayambe District
  Laguna Valesco District
  Rutherford District
  Rabotgorod District
  Manta District
  Nihongai District
  Esmeraldas District
  Quinde District
  La Costa District
  Mercado Baja
  The root & The Plaza Del Cielo
  THE DISTRICTS
  N
  ew Angeles is divided into twelve districts: eleven 
  on Earth and one on the Moon. Given that the 
  city is home to more than half a billion people and 
  occupies the landmass of a moderately sized country, each 
  district is in many ways a city in its own right. Each has 
  its own district council, administrative apparatus, waste 
  management operation, fire marshal, and NAPD district 
  headquarters. Thus, while New Angeles is run from City 
  Hall, the individual districts handle most of the day-to-day 
  governance of their own affairs.
  This holds doubly true for Heinlein, which is technically 
  (and grudgingly) the twelfth district of New Angeles. Given 
  the vast distance that separates the lunar settlement from 
  the rest of the city and the unique issues that dominate life 
  on the Moon, Heinlein handles most of its own affairs and 
  alternately resents or ignores the city to which it belongs. 
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  CHAKANA
  M
  any of the buildings and businesses of Chakana 
  exist to serve the Beanstalk and its passengers. 
  Situated at the highest planetside point in New 
  Angeles, among the Andes mountains, Chakana is a district 
  of warehouses, hotels, and tourist sites. The space elevator is 
  at the center of everything in the district, including the lives 
  of its residents, and its mammoth physical presence means 
  no one is likely to forget that. At the base of the Beanstalk 
  is the Root, the largest transit center in the world, which 
  many visit for the shopping alone. Some visitors never 
  travel above the Plaza del Cielo, which sits atop the Root 
  and offers top-of-the-world views.
  People flow through Chakana constantly. Many are 
  heading up-Stalk or returning to Earth, while others trans-
  port goods to and from the massive warehouses built into 
  the rocky mountainside. The Weyland Consortium offers 
  employment to much of the resident population, and in some 
  small way each of these people helps keep the Beanstalk run-
  ning smoothly. Crime levels are generally low in Chakana, 
  though there is a considerable amount of "daylight robbery" 
  as local merchants sell supposedly Martian-made souvenirs 
  or chunks of "Luna rock" to unwary tourists. The one area 
  travelers need to avoid is Eastside, where the poverty makes 
  any wandering tourist an attractive target.
  THE ROOT
  The Root is a vast carbosteel structure that composes the 
  very bottom of the base of the space elevator. It begins with 
  Earth Station Terminal deep within the rock of Volcán 
  Cayambe, and then rises out of the mountain to encom-
  pass shops, warehouses, hotels, and eateries above. Always 
  crowded, it bustles with travelers, shoppers, and chip-rip-
  pers, as well as yellow-jacketed Space Elevator Authority 
  officers conspicuously on patrol.
  BITS 'N BOBS
  Alongside the big chains, a number of small local shops like 
  Bits 'N Bobs survive by catering to niche markets, meet-
  ing wants and needs ignored by the behemoths. Offering 
  everything from handmade jewelry and souvenirs to fash-
  ion wearable in low gravity to all sorts of accessories handy 
  in zero-G, this shop caters to those going into space. Worth 
  a browse for its unexpected items, Bits 'N Bobs has human 
  salesclerks to recommend rare finds or even trade for any 
  objects a client is reluctant to sell through traceable means.
  EARTH STATION TERMINAL
  Earth Station Terminal is the end of the line for most of the 
  tube-lev tracks in eastern New Angeles, and is easily the busi-
  est Metro transit station in the city, with tube-lev lines stretch-
  ing out across the megalopolis and mag-lev trains setting 
  off on direct routes to other cities. It can be a daunting place 
  for first-time visitors, as the sheer mass of people constantly 
  moving makes it difficult to navigate; however, directions are 
  easily accessible via PADs, which can activate the station’s 
  holographic colored arrows. New Angeles Transit Authority 
  officers are also always ready to step in when anyone looks lost.
  SIÂN ROMERO: SEA OFFICER
  Working for the Space Elevator Authority is not easy, but 
  Officer Siân Romero takes pride in her work. She is always 
  on the lookout for an indiscretion that might break up her 
  otherwise monotonous patrols of the Root. Whether to deal 
  with a tourist trying to smuggle a pet up-Stalk or a subor-
  dinate with a lax attitude, she is quick to spring into action. 
  Unlike some officers, she refuses to take credits to look the 
  other way; she is happiest when escorting those who have 
  tried to pay her off to Temporary Holding. Too young to have 
  seen any real action, however, even she doesn’t know if the 
  skills she honed during training will be enough in a crisis.
  SHUTTLE HOTEL
  This exorbitant, space-themed hotel boasts a variety of 
  rooms decorated with everything from replica NASA gear, to 
  posters of aliens from horror threedees, to images of tattooed 
  kawaii warriors in their famous child-friendly Martian cab-
  ins. Live feeds from the Moon and Mars dominate the walls 
  of the communal areas, and the restaurant (inside a replica 
  IMPORTS
  The most valuable extraterrestrial import by far is 
  helium-3. Large cargo pods bring this important com-
  modity down-Stalk for Earth-side distribution. The flow 
  is steady, and the source seemingly limitless.
  Less common than helium-3, vanasteel occasionally is 
  shipped down-Stalk as well. While this Martian-made 
  alloy is common on Mars, it is rare (and expensive) on 
  Earth. Aluminum mined on the moon is light and valu-
  able enough to make shipping down-Stalk worthwhile. 
  Finally, asteroid mining supplies rare earth elements 
  and industrial metals such as palladium, rhodium, plat-
  inum, and ruthenium.
  As colonies on Mars and Luna grow, the Beanstalk 
  brings to New Angeles a trickle of ideas, inventions, 
  music, fashion, and literature inspired by very differ-
  ent lives. These intangible items are harder to market, 
  but their offworld origin helps elicit interest on Earth. 
  Unfortunately, offworlders occasionally bring with 
  them revolutionary ideas or terrorist agendas. It is no 
  secret that the longer a person spends up-Stalk, the 
  tighter security seems on the way back down.
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  of the space shuttle Atlantis) claims to re-create real Martian 
  and Lunar cuisine. A simulation suite allows guests to use 
  immersion tanks for an authentic offworld experience.
  TEMPORARY HOLDING
  Temporary Holding is a small prison in the base of the Root 
  where SEA officers can keep suspected criminals for a short 
  time without preapproval by the NAPD. Officers can hold 
  suspected terrorists for longer and can interrogate them 
  unsupervised if public safety is deemed at risk. The facility 
  consists of a handful of small cells with seccams monitored 
  by a single officer, who also inserts a tag under the skin on 
  the back of each prisoner’s neck for additional tracking.
  WEYLAND HOPPER PARK
  Far more secure than parking facilities elsewhere in the 
  city, the Weyland Hopper Park guarantees the safety and 
  security of its clients’ valuable vehicles, some of which may 
  be stored there for months at a time. Clients park their hop-
  per on one of the rooftop pads, provide ID and DNA sam-
  ples at the automated ticket office, and watch their vehicle 
  sink into the building, which is largely contained within the 
  steep mountainside of Volcán Cayambe.
  THE PLAZA DEL CIELO
  The Plaza del Cielo sits above the majority of the Root and 
  contains Earth Station, the area that handles the constant 
  flow of passengers embarking and disembarking onto the 
  Beanstalk. A welcome open space after the enclosed bustle 
  of the Root below, this huge plaza has windows, walkways, 
  and viewpoints around its edge offering unparalleled vistas. 
  Visitors can look down over New Angeles, the Ecuadorian 
  countryside, and beyond. Since the air is thin and tempera-
  tures tend to be very cold at this altitude, the entirety of 
  the plaza is an enclosed network of walkways and buildings 
  surrounding the immense dome of Earth Station and the 
  base of the Beanstalk. Like the rest of the Root, the Plaza 
  del Cielo is kept under tight security by the SEA and 
  NAPD, making it a risky place to conduct any clandes-
  tine activities. 
  BETTER THINGS
  The Better Things cyberware store is owned by 
  Ernesto Rokuda, a transhuman sporting more 
  chrome than a bioroid. His tagline, pinged 
  to all PADs that pass his door, states that “in an hour, you 
  can be modified to excel in space,” though the reality may 
  fall short of expectations. He promotes body modifications 
  that are “all the rage up-Stalk,” but he has never been off-
  world himself.
  EARTH STATION 
  In the center of the plaza, the transplas dome of Earth Sta-
  tion rises up and meets the Beanstalk entering through its 
  apex. That dome contains the busiest port on the planet—
  and it only handles the passengers passing up and down 
  through the Beanstalk. The freight gets taken into the vast 
  loading/unloading yards buried in the Root. 
  Earth Station is the most security-conscious station on the 
  planet. Everyone who enters passes through a backscatter 
  arch, where X-rays and ultrasound let operators check for 
  explosives, weapons, and contraband. Inside, the Grand Con-
  course is crowded twenty-four hours every day, as incoming 
  passengers move along the slidewalks and flock through the 
  boarding gates, ready to take their seats in the pods.
  EMANUEL STOCKING: POD SPOTTER
  Beanstalk-enthusiast Emanuel knows everything about the 
  space elevator, including its quirks and flaws. An odd older 
  gentleman who is afraid of going up-Stalk but still loves 
  watching the Beanstalk in action, he knows more than the 
  yellow jackets on patrol and sees more than the seccams. 
  While most consider him harmless, he will happily tell any-
  one who asks anything they need to know about the Bean-
  stalk and its operations. 
  JO HIDALGO: SMUGGLER
  According to Jo, they have been smuggling goods up and 
  down the Beanstalk since it ran its first beanpod. They 
  might look like a smart suited Chinese businessperson at the 
  moment, but they have reportedly altered 
  their appearance more times than they 
  can count. They know all the tricks of 
  the business—bribing yellow jack-
  ets, using electronic spoofs of 
  screening software, slaps with 
  counterfeit 
  label-seals—and 
  they are quiet about the only 
  things that really matter: the 
  identity of their contacts. 
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  EXPLORERS
  Explorers, a shop nestled into the outer ring of the Plaza 
  Del Cielo, caters to the adventurous space goer, the young 
  or young at heart heading to Luna for surface hikes or to 
  black wilderness holidays such as climbing expeditions in 
  abandoned Luna mines or spacewalks on the Challenger 
  Planetoid. High-mobility spacesuits, survival kits, and 
  recording equipment are all available in Explorers. 
  MUSEUM OF SPACE TRAVEL
  The Jack Weyland Museum of Space Travel celebrates the 
  pioneers of space travel throughout history, from Yuri 
  Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova to Jack Weyland him-
  self. In this institution dedicated to educating and enter-
  taining people of all ages, kids can pet a cloned Laika, the 
  first animal to orbit Earth, or try on replicas of Neil Arm-
  strong’s boots for size and make footprints in real moon 
  dust (prints available for purchase). A model of the space 
  elevator demonstrates its mechanics, and enclosed booths 
  offer personalized virtual reality tours of the solar system 
  and the stars.
  EASTSIDE
  Spilling out from beneath the Beanstalk and down the 
  eastern slope of Volcán Cayambe, the cheap tenements 
  of Eastside are infamous only because of their location. 
  Similar and even worse areas of poor living standards and 
  high crime exist in the undercity, but Eastside is harder to 
  ignore, being so close to the Beanstalk. 
  Eastside began as a bunch of warehouses, along with 
  dormitories and kitchens to house and feed the hordes of 
  workers who built the Beanstalk and the rest of the district. 
  However, as the rest of Chakana blossomed into an attrac-
  tive upscale location, Eastside was forgotten. Now, it’s a col-
  lection of repurposed tenements and struggling, unlicensed 
  businesses that perch precariously on the steep slopes of 
  the Andes. Most of its streets are narrow switchbacks with 
  ground-level access to the buildings on one side and walk-
  ways to the fifth or sixth stories of the buildings on the other. 
  To avoid spending hours tortuously wending their way up 
  and down the streets to get around, enterprising residents 
  have built networks of scaffolding, bridges, and stairways 
  that link the buildings between their tenth and fifteenth 
  floors. This web of aerial travel routes creates a low-tech 
  mockery of the plaza-level slidewalks and L-squares (ele-
  vated public squares) found in other areas, and only 
  enhances Eastside’s decrepit and ramshackle appearance. 
  However, it does provide a quicker (albeit very dangerous) 
  way of getting around Eastside. Foot couriers who can nav-
  igate this web are in high demand in Eastside. 
  Most Eastside residents eke out a living with low-in-
  come or illegal jobs. Security is minimal, seccams are out-
  of-date if they work at all, and the NAPD usually patrols 
  in armored hoppers or remotely via drones. However, the 
  neighborhood is still nominally under police protection, 
  and it receives some resources from the Chakana District 
  Council. No matter how bad it seems, living here is far 
  more pleasant than in some of the other districts’ under-
  city slums. 
  LOS BARRANCOS
  The towers of rusted steel and crumbling concrete crammed 
  into the valleys at the bottom of Eastside are some of the 
  worst locations in the neighborhood. Few of the residents 
  of these decrepit residential blocks hold a legal job at all. 
  A local gang known as the Polecats runs a majority of the 
  tenements in Los Barrancos, while countless minor gangs 
  squabble over the rest. The residents who have any money 
  grow or manufacture stim and narcotics for the gang, or 
  work in a series of chop shops, back-alley arms factories, 
  and illicit cyberdens. The Polecats’ graffiti tag glows on the 
  exterior and interior walls, marking their territory.
  FLOYD 2X3A7C (NEMESIS)
  Haas-Bioroid designed Floyd, the first bioroid leased 
  to the NAPD, is an astute police officer and detective. 
  Although Floyd has performed well, he exhibits certain 
  behaviors outside his programmers’ expectations: his 
  friendship with Father Michael and frequent visits to the 
  Church of Saint Theresa in Eastside are symptomatic of 
  his search for meaning, and he asks theological ques-
  tions his programmers cannot answer.
  Motivations: Desire (Understanding), Fear (Igno-
  rance), Strength (Spiritual), Flaw (Naivety).
  Skills: Charm 2, Computers (Sysops) 2, Knowledge 
  (Science) 2, Negotiation 2, Perception 3, Ranged 
  (Light) 4, Streetwise 2, Vigilance 2.
  Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the difficulty of all com-
  bat checks against this target twice), Good Cop 2 (may 
  spend 󲊴 󲊴 from a Charm or Negotiation check to 
  upgrade the ability of a single ally's subsequent social 
  check targeting the same character twice).
  Abilities: Bioroid (does not need to breathe, eat, or 
  drink; can survive in vacuum and underwater; is immune 
  to poisons and toxins; and cannot knowingly endanger 
  humans), Non-Lethal Apprehension (only needs to spend 
  󲊴 to trigger Disorient, Knockdown, and Stun qualities).
  Equipment: Synap pistol (Ranged [Light]; Damage 
  5; Critical 6; Range [Short]; Disorient 4, Stun 3, Stun 
  Damage), badge, rosary. 
  4
  2
  4
  2
  3
  2
  5
  18
  14
  0
  1
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  CLARITY STARR: CRIMINAL RUNNER
  A petty criminal who fancies herself a runner, Clarity Starr 
  lacks the gear and ability to make a living out of hacking. 
  However, she is sometimes employed by runners to act as 
  interference or support. If she survives this business long 
  enough, she might gain the notoriety required to join one of 
  the larger street gangs. In the meantime, she is desperate for 
  credits, and will even name some of her employers for a price.
  THE JAZ BAR
  Eastside drinking establishments are known for their bud-
  get drinks, under-the-table deals, and unstable clientele. 
  The Jaz Bar, which never plays music, is no exception. The 
  bar has taken over the basement of an abandoned ware-
  house on Block 28, and it looks like the owners outfitted it 
  by looting nearby tenements. The interior is a crowded mis-
  match of chairs, tables, and couches ranging from molded 
  plastic lawn furniture and scrap-metal assemblies to a bat-
  tered hardwood table over five meters across. 
  However, it is the only bar in Eastside to offer Silo Scarlet, 
  an extra-strong version of Silo Red that has been banned 
  from most establishments due to safety concerns. This 
  attracts the occasional tourist or student eager to stretch the 
  rules. An Eve-model bioroid, kept in unexpectedly good 
  condition, serves the drinks.
  EL CENTRO HISTÓRICO
  Designed as an area to attract tourists, with wide streets and 
  open views of the sky, El Centro Histórico is a haven set 
  apart from the organized chaos of the rest of the district. 
  While the majority of the buildings in the neighborhood 
  are modern, they exhibit a Spanish Colonial style with tex-
  tured plascrete walls and decorative chimneys. Deliberately 
  crafted zoning ordinances keep the buildings at ten stories 
  or less and blend walled residential complexes with quaint 
  commercial districts. 
  The neighborhood is located down Volcán Cayambe’s 
  slopes, near the Base de Cayambe District, so it tends to see 
  milder temperatures than the rest of Chakana. Developers 
  sited El Centro Histórico on the edge of a tall escarpment 
  that rises above the surrounding terrain. This puts the tops 
  of Centro’s modestly sized buildings at roughly the same 
  height as nearby starscrapers and arcologies, preserving the 
  illusion of a civic center from eras past. 
  APLAUSOS
  Offering soy-cuy and a genuine fish stew, this restaurant 
  gives visitors and locals alike the chance to try Ecuadorian 
  "real mountain fare." The meals are prepared on-site by a 
  staff of human chefs directed by local sensation Erika Velez 
  Flores. Erika says all of her staff are friends from her child-
  hood neighborhood in Quito’s Iñaquito parish, and the 
  authenticity this lends (as well as the lack of clones) helps 
  explain the high prices. A favorite destination for tourists, 
  Aplausos also has private rooms for rent—rooms that are 
  cut off from the Net.
  BACK TO BELLEZA CLINIC
  An unassuming clinic tucked away on a shade-covered 
  side street, Back to Belleza specializes in the removal of 
  g-mods and animated tattoos. It is legally classified as a 
  beauty salon but has all the equipment of a gene-modifi-
  cation ward. Martians who find their facial tattoos draw 
  attention they don’t want tend to visit before venturing 
  farther into New Angeles. Youths who go “wyld” on their 
  first trip to Heinlein get dragged here by their parents to 
  have cat’s ears and monkey tails removed before returning 
  to their arcologies. 
  G-mod removal is a dangerous process, so fees are high 
  and customers must agree to a waiver. However, some locals 
  know that the owner, Alana Deleon, does some “off-the-
  books” removals after the shop closes up. No paperwork is 
  required for these sessions, and she doesn’t make a habit of 
  asking questions about the nature of the g-mods. However, 
  she charges significantly more for the privacy. 
  CHAKANA DAY ASYLUM
  Chakana Day Asylum is an attractive, upmarket asylum 
  inside a rebuilt and remodeled cathedral complex. The facil-
  ity offers desensitization booths for those overwhelmed by 
  the bustle of daily life in New Angeles, as well as reacclima-
  tizing simulations for anyone confused after an extended 
  period offworld. It has bioroids who are equipped to per-
  form brain scans and administer counseling and drug ther-
  apy to those with Net-induced neurological damage; these 
  bioroids only rarely transfer patients to the NAPD. Most 
  runners, even when brain-burned, are careful to check in 
  using falsified IDs.
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  BASE DE CAYAMBE
  S
  ituated beneath Chakana, Base de Cayambe does 
  not prosper from the proximity of the space ele-
  vator so much as feed off those who pass through 
  on their way to or from it. After the Beanstalk went oper-
  ational, Base de Cayambe quickly grew into a major dis-
  trict dedicated to providing all the economic and industrial 
  necessities of Earth’s largest spaceport. Warehouses, micro-
  factories, distribution facilities, transit hubs, and countless 
  kilometers of mag-lev tracks and roads quickly filled the 
  quiet hillsides, leaving towns like Puéllaro and Malchingui 
  entirely new neighborhoods in all but name. 
  Base de Cayambe fulfills all the stereotypes of a rough 
  port town, with cheap accommodations, booze (or some-
  thing stronger), and paid companionship available, no 
  questions asked. Students, war veterans, spacers, and mer-
  chants all stay here or regularly pass through. Retired prisec 
  officers look for work in the bars or join Los Scorpiones, 
  who keep order in lieu of a strong NAPD presence.
  A large number of warehouses, with their own private 
  security, fill the gaps between the old streets and the newer 
  tenement buildings. For New Angeles, storage and accom-
  modations can be fairly cheap, so many small businesses 
  begin here, where factories can employ locals for a minimal 
  wage as long as they overlook the lack of IDs. Some highly 
  skilled engineers and artists arrive looking for somewhere 
  to work and sell their creations without placing themselves 
  under the control of a megacorp. 
  Then, there are those who cater to the desperate and 
  underprivileged in the red-light hotels and stim-dens. For 
  criminals under the protection of Los Scorpiones, Base de 
  Cayambe is a safer place than it is for the tourists, who some-
  times come looking for the original architecture and forgot-
  ten remnants of Ecuador hidden behind the flashing signs 
  and projected advertisements.
  NEO-BROADWAY
  Watts-Watson architects are in the process of redesigning 
  this region in the heart of Base de Cayambe, leveling or 
  repairing decrepit buildings and erecting new ones. 
  However, Neo-Broadway still consists largely of 
  muddy construction sites and inferior housing.
  BASE DE CAYAMBE 
  JUNKYARD
  This junkyard covers dozens of square kilo-
  meters along the edges of Neo-Broadway in 
  mountains of construction waste, scrap metal, 
  and ruined hoppers as well as trash drifts tens 
  of meters high. Originally, the junkyard was a 
  dumping ground for discarded or broken material 
  from the flurry of construction work that went into 
  building the Chakana and Base de Cayambe port 
  facilities. After construction was complete, the authorities 
  looked at the waste and decided that building a wall around it 
  would be easier than trying to recycle it. Now, the junkyard is 
  where surplus materials, byproducts from nearby industries, 
  and the unwanted detritus of local residents ends up. As long 
  as it’s not considered toxic enough to warrant removal from 
  New Angeles, it can be dumped here. 
  Some souls eke out a living by salvaging what they can 
  from the junkyard, repairing it, and selling it. Some even 
  live out their lives in its center, out of sight of the workers 
  dumping more trash, constructing slums out of what-
  ever materials are at hand. Everything from obsolete 
  computer hardware to lengths of the same bucky-
  weave cable used for the Beanstalk’s tether can 
  be found here. The junkyard regulars even host 
  semi-regular bazaars among the dunes of dis-
  carded YucaBean cups and packing material. Most of 
  the time, visitors to these swap meets are just exchang-
  ing junk for more junk, but once in a while, someone 
  digs up something valuable—or dangerous—from the 
  detritus. 
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  BUILDING SITE BC338
  Although modern construction firms can build in record 
  time, this particular site has been cordoned off for months. 
  Building site BC338 encompasses a block of high-rise res-
  idential buildings next to an industrial fabrication facil-
  ity. Several years ago, after finishing the residences—and 
  even letting tenants into some of the apartments—Murphy 
  Construction moved on to the factory. However, halfway 
  through the building process, it abruptly stopped, locked 
  down the site, and sealed the residences as well. Local 
  rumors have it that something went wrong in that factory 
  and caused some tragedy in the neighboring block. 
  Security there is unusually tight for a construction site: 
  augmenting the usual seccams are bioroid workers and fly-
  ing security drones that patrol the area, ensuring no squat-
  ters or salvagers break through the heavy fence thrown up 
  around the entire block. No human workers have been seen 
  entering or leaving the site, which might suggest that some 
  radiation or contagion still contaminates the area.
  MIDAS ARCOLOGY 
  Only a slidewalk away from their offices in the Watts-Wat-
  son building, high-level Watts-Watson employees live in 
  the enormous Midas Arcology. This self-contained mini-
  city sprawls over three square kilometers of real estate and 
  boasts all the latest facilities. With access to everything 
  from the arcology’s hologolf course to its interactive aquar-
  iums of specially grown fish, rooftop botanical gardens, and 
  commercial spaces full of trendy shops and restaurants, res-
  idents need never leave. 
  In fact, the armored outer shell of the arcology and the 
  security checkpoints staffed by heavily armed security 
  guards and drones discourage any interactions with the 
  district around Midas. Still, the arcology does use human 
  workers from the district as cleaners and maintenance staff; 
  these jobs exist to curry favor with the local population.
  WATTS-WATSON INDUSTRIAL 
  SOLUTIONS HEADQUARTERS
  After constructing the Beanstalk, the Weyland Consortium 
  spun off a large portion of its heavy construction assets. 
  Some of these were purchased by the private-equity firm 
  Skyline Investments, which restructured those assets into 
  Watts-Watson Industrial Solutions. The new urban devel-
  opment titan immediately dominated construction in Base 
  de Cayambe, and its first major project was to build a new 
  and improved headquarters there. 
  The headquarters building is an ostentatious work of 
  engineering designed to impress potential clients. Towering 
  over other nearby arcologies, the starscraper and its gleam-
  ing facade exemplifies the bold art nouveau designs many 
  people associate with earlier buildings built by the Weyland 
  Consortium. The arcology dominates an entire block, and 
  if rumors are to be believed, its basements are nearly as 
  extensive. It is said these basements are full of clandestine 
  labs and off-the-books storage sites for failed projects, some 
  of which seem to have very little to do with construction. 
  Watts-Watson employees enter through automated, ID-ac-
  tivated doors, and few others ever gain admittance.
  RATUL FINNEGAN: WATTS-WATSON FOREMAN
  Ratul Finnegan’s job is to oversee the team of construction 
  bioroids currently building an enormous theater complex 
  where low-income housing projects once stood. He is the 
  human who guarantees the quality of the bioroids’ work, 
  but he resents them for replacing his human colleagues. 
  Ratul would snap up any deal to make enough credits to get 
  away and live a better life. He hopes his collection of boot-
  legged building plans, which covers most W-W construc-
  tions built in Base de Cayambe over the last twenty years, 
  will be his way out. He lives in fear; if his employer discov-
  ered this collection, his job or even his life would be forfeit.
  OLD TOWN
  So named because, for now, Weyland is done renovating it, 
  Old Town is the budget stop for anyone on the way up or 
  down the Beanstalk. Given its dingy port-town feel, many 
  visitors stay only briefly in Old Town and then move on.
  BASE DE CAYAMBE NAPD PRECINCT
  This sixty-story plascrete block, which has an NAPD 
  badge glowing above its solid double doors and rein-
  forced anti-intrusion barricades, is the one place visitors 
  and locals are sure to find an on-duty officer. The person 
  in charge is District Commissioner Sarah Watson, a natu-
  ral human who oversees all the stations and officers in the 
  district. She sends regular reports to Commissioner Dawn 
  requesting more officers, and until that request is met, she 
  will continue to treat her precinct like an outpost in enemy 
  territory. Occasionally a victim will find their way to the 
  precinct from the district’s undercity, but only the bravest 
  officers venture so far from the designated safe patrol areas.
  GRAN HOTEL
  Owned by a Weyland subsidiary, the Gran Hotel, which 
  offers cheap accommodations, is a popular choice for 
  tourists passing through Base de Cayambe on their way 
  up-Stalk. It has thousands of identical rooms with service-
  able facilities and guarantees lack of surveillance in the 
  rooms. This means that what happens in the rooms is not 
  the hotel’s responsibility. Only the lobby, bar, on-site PacPac 
  restaurant, and corridors contain seccams. Management 
  claims to run a strictly legal establishment and won’t accept 
  credits from anyone without a valid ID. However, it has 
  been known not to look too closely to see if a person’s ID is 
  fake. In exchange, such a person should consider leaving a 
  sizable tip for housekeeping when they check out.
  Chapter 4: New Angeles and Heinlein
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  LA COCINA
  The Perez family has been in the restaurant business for 
  generations, carrying on the tradition when it relocated 
  from Los Angeles. La Cocina is its latest venture. A large, 
  popular Spanish restaurant known for its excellent soya 
  paella and gog empanadas, La Cocina owes much of its 
  success to the patronage and protection of Los Scorpiones. 
  These the gang provides in exchange for using the restau-
  rant as a common meeting place and having first access to 
  its luxurious private dining spaces. 
  The restaurant fills the bottom of a large commercial 
  building in the heart of Old Town. With three public floors, 
  a dedicated human staff, and the best genuine rioja in New 
  Angeles, it attracts diners from all over the city. On the 
  floors above, gang bosses plan their operations.
  LÍVIA TEIXEIRA: LOS SCORPIONES BOSS
  While much of Los Scorpiones’ organization is under-
  ground, unseen, and off-grid, this particular local boss is 
  a familiar sight in Base de Cayambe. With a face like smol-
  dering femme fatale Carolina Mendoza in SanSan Con-
  fidential and a body packing heavy g-mods and modded 
  muscle, Lívia Teixeira is hard to miss. She recruits prom-
  ising members of smaller gangs, makes deals with local 
  businesses and collects their contributions, and seeks out 
  homeless off-gridders to work in gang-owned laborato-
  ries. Lívia Teixeira doesn’t trust anyone, and she does her 
  rounds alone. The arsenal she keeps hidden in her black 
  leather duster negates the need for goons.
  SENSIE PALACE
  A small venue tucked into converted warehouse space with 
  license to charge admittance for popular sensies, Sensie 
  Palace also has a less-publicized back room for sensiesofts. 
  To get in to use the high-quality VR kiosks in the back, peo-
  ple need a nod of approval from the proprietor. The build-
  ing was once run as a chapel by the Starlight Crusade, 
  but after repeated accidents and suspected vandalism, 
  it deemed the upkeep too expensive and sold the build-
  ing cheaply to Saul Tan, a local entrepreneur. Needless 
  to say, a healthy amount of the money made on the unli-
  censed sensisoft trade ends up in the hands of the local 
  Los Scorpiones boss, but Saul makes enough money to 
  keep both sides of the deal satisfied. 
  MERCADO BAJA
  Deep beneath the transit arterials, mag-lev freight 
  lines, and corporate warehouses, the infamous “Low 
  Market” forms the true heart of Base de Cayambe. Run-
  ning for kilometers at close to ground level, Mercado Baja 
  rarely sees the sun. Instead, the constant flickering glow 
  of holographic and neon signs lights the shop fronts and 
  vendor carts. 
  RACHEL BECKMANN (NEMESIS)
  A licensed bounty hunter who has survived long enough 
  to earn a reputation, Rachel Beckmann takes advantage 
  of the latest cyberware. Even stronger than she looks, 
  she also has enhancements that boost her shooting and 
  give her inhuman reflexes. Despite her taking jobs for the 
  NAPD, word on the street is that she will work as a bounty 
  hunter or bodyguard for anyone for the right price. Her 
  work takes her all over New Angeles and beyond.
  Motivations: Desire (Wealth), Fear (Abandonment), 
  Strength (Independence), Flaw (Selfish).
  Skills: Coercion 3, Cool 2, Brawl 3, Ranged (Light) 2, 
  Streetwise 3, Vigilance 3.
  Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the difficulty of all 
  combat checks against this target twice), Takedown 
  (may make an opposed Brawl vs. Resilience check 
  targeting one engaged opponent. If successful, target 
  is knocked prone and immobilized until end of Beck-
  mann's next turn).
  Abilities: And Stay Down (when making a Brawl or 
  Melee combat check targeting a prone opponent, add 
  󲊳 󲊴 󲊴 to the results). 
  Equipment: Augmented fists (Brawl; Damage 7; 
  Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; Disorient 3, Knockdown, 
  Stun Damage), heavy pistol with linked sight (Ranged 
  [Light]; Damage 7; Critical 3; Range [Medium], Accu-
  rate 1), ballistic vest (+2 soak), set of restraints. 
  4
  3
  2
  4
  2
  2
  6
  18
  12
  0
  0
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  Nearly all of the hundreds of street vendors who peddle 
  their wares are unlicensed or sell illegal contraband, and 
  this holds true for at least half of the shops that line Mer-
  cado Baja as well. Still, the market is famous for its sheer 
  variety of eclectic, diverse goods for sale. This draws plenty 
  of people from across New Angeles, though the smart ones 
  keep one hand on their credstick and the other on a Synap 
  pistol for the duration of their visit. The locals know the 
  NAPD keeps out of the market, aside from the occasional 
  plainclothes officer looking to quietly sniff out a lead. 
  The neon lights quickly fade if one turns onto the Low 
  Market’s side streets. Here, muted signs or gang tags on the 
  sides of buildings advertise more unsavory pursuits. Most of 
  the best (and worst) brothels, stim-flops, narcodispensaries, 
  and gambling dens in New Angeles can be found among 
  these darkened buildings, and nearly every one of them is 
  run by one flavor of orgcrime or another. Mercado Baja is too 
  big and valuable to be run by one gang, so a complicated and 
  constantly shifting web of deals, alliances, and betrayals gov-
  erns who runs which illegal enterprise, and (usually) keeps 
  the area from descending into a full-flung gang war. 
  ANI-INK
  Annie Springs sells the latest animated tattoos, lumi-
  nescents, and decorative implants from an open-air tattoo 
  parlor run out of a stall right on the thoroughfare. She’s 
  willing to provide preprogrammed commercial anima-
  tions, but most visitors come for her famous custom jobs. 
  There is no privacy while she works, but those who don’t 
  mind an audience end up with some truly gorgeous work. 
  For an extortionate fee, Annie also surreptitiously removes 
  tattoo codes, implants stolen ID chips, or hides contraband 
  in sub-dermal pockets while she creates her latest master-
  pieces on clients’ skin.
  EVIL EYE
  A club famous for the flashing neon tag line “Freaks Only,” 
  this den of noise appeals to wylders, spacers, off-gridders, 
  and others who feel out of place in Earth-side New Angeles. 
  The crowd in front of the club spills onto the market’s main 
  street, but bouncers with leathery skin and oversized tusks 
  turn curious naturals away. 
  Inside, the large space has the atmosphere of a warehouse 
  rave: darkness broken by blinding flashes of light, the con-
  stantly packed dance floor best navigated by the phospho-
  rescence of the rope dancers’ skin as they twirl and spin 
  above. The revolving central bar adds to the chaos, dispens-
  ing drinks that pulse and glow in time to the music.
  Evil Eye has the dubious honor of not being tied to any 
  particular orgcrime group. Nobody knows who controls 
  the place, but every street gang that’s tried to muscle in on 
  their business has ended up clinically and professionally 
  dispatched—sometimes all of its members over the course 
  of a single night.
  FAMOUS FACES
  A brothel that specializes in bringing to life the fantasies that 
  most can only experience in a sensie, Famous Faces has been 
  reported to the NAPD more than once for providing g-mod-
  ded clones who look a little too much like the celebrities they 
  emulate. So far, the likenesses have not born up under proper 
  lighting and genetic verification, but Detective Ramon Borja 
  of the perpetually overworked Vice Division still suspects 
  someone is making g-mods that infringe on genetic copy-
  rights. He’s nervous about pushing his investigation too far, 
  however. He knows that some prominent and powerful New 
  Angelinos are regulars at the brothel and would do anything 
  to keep their names out of the media.
  JAK’S WORKSHOP
  At first glance, Jak’s Workshop looks like a street-level junk 
  shop merged with a garage. Its floor is strewn with bro-
  HOYO ROJO
  Gambling in Base de Cayambe isn’t limited to casino 
  games and sporting events. For those invited to Hoyo 
  Rojo, also known as the Hole, gambling becomes as 
  much about the spectacle as the money. Located two 
  blocks off Mercado Baja, the main entrance is in the 
  basement of a payday loan business and is staffed by 
  a heavily muscled wylder whose sole job is to make 
  casual visitors feel as unwelcome as possible. One 
  needs a “red card” obtained from a regular patron to 
  get through the concealed basement doors.
  Mismatched fights are the specialty here, whether 
  between a heavily modded ex-militant and a common 
  street tough or between a damaged bioroid and a nat-
  ural human with a very large sledgehammer. Though 
  Jinteki and Haas-Bioroid would deny the possibility, 
  word on the street is that sometimes androids also fight 
  each other in the Hole. Bioroids are reprogrammed, 
  clones are broken from their conditioning and driven to 
  violence, and then they are thrown together in the ring.
  Some come here to make money gambling or as fight-
  ers themselves. Others come for the show, to enjoy the 
  thrill of the competition, or to witness the destruction 
  of androids. Still more come for the obscurity of the 
  crowd and use the Hole as a place to meet contacts, 
  exchange smuggled goods, or search for likely victims 
  in the oblivious audience. There are no seccams here 
  and no fear of the NAPD; those who descend the red-
  painted steps do so at their own risk.
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  ken hopper parts, and the walls are fitted with hooks for 
  hanging tools of all kinds. Behind the shelves full of racing 
  memorabilia and empty diesel cans lie the current projects, 
  a row of half-built hoppers. 
  All the workers here go by the name “Jak,” and each is an 
  experienced gearhead with an enthusiasm for hoppers of 
  all types. Every Jak boasts they can make a busted Gemini 
  family hopper run as fast as a Qianju personal transport, 
  given the money to source the right parts. Racing enthu-
  siasts desperate to compete but lacking the funds or spon-
  sorship might find a ride here. Aspiring mechanics some-
  times drop by the workshop as well. If they bother the crew 
  enough, they might be handed some complex mechanical 
  task to perform, such as stripping a hopper engine or rewir-
  ing a magnetic coil with whatever they can find around the 
  shop. Those who do well may just be handed a pair of cov-
  eralls with the name “Jak” stenciled on the breast.
  OWNEY’S BAR
  A favorite haunt of ex-prisec and ex-military drinkers, 
  Owney’s is the best place in Mercado Baja to find a hired 
  gun. The bar opens up right onto the street via a heavy slid-
  ing side door taken off a military dropship. Owney claims 
  it was a souvenir from his last job in the Med, the same one 
  that gave the stocky, bearded former merc four prosthetic 
  ribs and a cybernetic heart.
  Fights break out here on a regular basis, but the human 
  staff continue to serve cheap drinks and look the other 
  way when the clientele gets boisterous. Lívia Teixeira 
  stops by occasionally for sangria, and Owney keeps a stool 
  at the bar reserved for her. Rumors have it the two have a 
  history, but Owney, who otherwise never stops talking, is 
  silent on the matter. 
  SUGAR’S CLINIC
  For those seeking cheap medical attention, Sugar’s Clinic 
  seems too good to be true. In this single, clinically clean 
  room entered from an alley, Sugar Blanc offers everything 
  from brain surgery to limb replacement at rates far below 
  the norm, as long as the patient doesn’t require any sort 
  of record or guarantee. While the certificates Sugar earned 
  before she lost her previous job are projected proudly on 
  the walls, she is honest about her practices. She requires 
  full payment up front, and if a client dies on the table, she’ll 
  harvest their organs and any cybernetics, and incinerate the 
  rest. It might save her next patient’s life. 
  THE LAB
  When someone mentions “the lab,” they likely 
  mean this enormous underground warehouse bur-
  ied in the bedrock below Mercado Baja and con-
  verted by Los Scorpiones. Most, if not all, of the 
  local stim-dens and dealers sell products created in 
  this one enormous laboratory, which has somehow 
  been furnished with state-of-the-art Akamatsu equipment. 
  Even the poorest residents of Base de Cayambe see employ-
  ment at the Lab as a last resort, but many are conscripted 
  to work there, either manufacturing or testing the latest 
  neuro-stims and narcotics. Street drugs like Blue Tears, the 
  Happy Patch, and Sting all originated at the Lab.
  ANTONIO WOOD: STIM DEALER
  Tony Wood is modded to appear younger than he is, and 
  he is stronger than he looks. His slight figure is a common 
  sight in the undercity of Base de Cayambe, where Tony 
  must have some arrangement with Los Scorpiones. He also 
  ventures into Old Town or even into Chakana to set up net-
  works of buyers and sellers for his illegal stims. The NAPD 
  avoids him and those who work for him. Less successful 
  dealers gossip that he must have other connections, too, 
  with Akamatsu or another supposedly legitimate company.
  THE TRICKSTER
  Although the entrance to this gambling den is down a flight 
  of basement steps off one of Mercado Baja’s side streets, 
  the main room is actually two stories up, its heavily tinted 
  windows looking out over the thoroughfare. The Trick-
  ster accepts any currency, as long as it’s cash—no credits 
  or other electronic currencies allowed. None of the trans-
  actions that take place here are traceable, and betting on 
  anything from the outcome of the latest celebrity scandal 
  to the winner of the next baseball game is encouraged. Sev-
  eral card games are offered in-house, from old-fashioned 
  poker to jacked-in julepe, which has left many a desperate 
  runner with extensive brain damage. Various vidfeeds are 
  projected on the walls and ceiling, audio on, which makes 
  concentrating on any game a test of will.
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  RUTHERFORD
  P
  laza-level Rutherford is the New Angeles seen in 
  the media. It’s the New Angeles that kids from 
  elsewhere want to get to, and the New Angeles 
  other cities aspire to. Sprawling across the lower flanks of 
  the Andes, the district is defined by serried ranks of kilo-
  meter-high arcologies and towering starscrapers. The 
  immense buildings, the L-squares, elevated holoparks, 
  and slidewalks make up a crime-free and clean plaza level 
  perfect for the rich and famous (and countless tourists) to 
  stroll through while visiting Rutherford’s many sights and 
  tourist attractions. With the Beanstalk looming large in the 
  distance—but far enough away that its shadow doesn’t blot 
  out the sun—residents of Rutherford feel that they are at 
  the forefront of civilization.
  Below plaza level, the undercity is not so different from 
  elsewhere in the megalopolis. The Metro tubes, access 
  tunnels, and wheeled-transport arteries weave between 
  cheaper housing for the workers who keep Rutherford 
  functioning smoothly. Factories and processing plants 
  work constantly to produce the countless consumer goods 
  sold in the high-end stores above. Here—just like every-
  where else—android labor has left human workers unem-
  ployed and has provoked rising crime levels. Criminals, con 
  artists, and orgcrime heavies try to stay away from the con-
  stant NAPD sweeps while they prey on their well-heeled 
  neighbors above. 
  BROADCAST SQUARE
  To the dispassionate observer, Broadcast Square’s several 
  square kilometers of pedestrian plaza have nothing that 
  should warrant the nickname “the heart of New Angeles.” 
  The Beanstalk touches down in Chakana, Laguna Velasco 
  contains all the important government facilities, and the 
  rich and powerful go to play at Manta. However, if you ask 
  anyone in the worlds where the center of New Angeles is, 
  they’ll say Broadcast Square. And they’re right. 
  Completely off-limits to vehicles, the entire plaza teems 
  with masses of pedestrians at every hour of the day. The 
  buildings surrounding it are so tall they block out the sun. 
  However, this hardly matters, since vidscreens and holo-
  graphic projections cover every inch of the looming star-
  scrapers and arcologies. Day and night, they bathe Broadcast 
  Square in the flickering glow of a thousand advertisements, 
  news feeds, announcements, and entertainment programs. 
  The NBN headquarters arcology dominates most of the 
  northern side of the square, presiding over the sensory over-
  load like a deity of media made manifest. Opposite it sits 
  the lumpen beehive of the New Angeles Stock Exchange, 
  where the wealth of three worlds is traded back and forth 
  daily. Countless communications corps vie for ownership 
  of the remaining starscrapers, each desperate to have a toe-
  hold in the media center of the three worlds. 
  The NAPD maintains a constant and highly visible pres-
  ence in Broadcast Square, backed up by flocks of camdrones 
  and mounted seccams as well as vigilant ranks of corporate 
  and government sysops in cyberspace. They ensure this is 
  one of the safest, and least private, areas in New Angeles. 
  Anyone who thinks they can get away with something in 
  Broadcast Square should remember NBN’s tag line: “The 
  World Is Watching.” 
  CENTRAL PLAZA
  NBN HQ looks out over the slightly raised portion of 
  Broadcast Square known as Central Plaza. This open space 
  is unbroken by kiosks, displays, or other structures, and 
  it has been the site of many protests and demonstrations 
  throughout New Angeles’ brief but turbulent history. Occa-
  sionally, newsies will report in person from the ever-shifting 
  crowd on the plaza, rather than as a projection, reminding 
  the public that NBN is on the public’s side. Some megastars 
  have even performed live from the dizzying heights of the 
  NBN building, an event sure to draw packed crowds.
  NBN HEADQUARTERS
  As is appropriate for the most prominent megacorp in the 
  infotainment industry, the entirety of the outside of NBN’s 
  corporate arcology is a single vidscreen. It displays hun-
  dreds of different news and entertainment broadcasts at 
  once (which, to NBN’s credit, is only a fraction of the media 
  it controls), creating a riotous display of light and color.
  In stark contrast, the building’s vaulted atrium is an 
  open and airy space done entirely in white, from the ele-
  gant chairs and couches arranged in conversation pods to 
  the walkways that arch overhead. The only splash of color 
  is a holographic NBN logo rotating slowly in the air. These 
  aesthetics continue back into the arcology’s main office 
  areas and are said to reflect CEO Victoria Jenkins’s own 
  personal tastes. While NBN may present a facade of riot-
  ous information overload, behind closed doors, the corpo-
  ration maintains the focus and discipline needed to be the 
  leader in its field. 
  Unsurprisingly, the corporate HQ for NBN maintains 
  immense server farms in the basement of the building. 
  These are the most securely guarded portions of the arcol-
  ogy, protected by hundreds of armed and well-trained cor-
  porate security personnel and defended from cyberthreats 
  by intimidating ice backed up by teams of ever-vigilant 
  sysops. However, these underground facilities need huge 
  electronic trunk lines to download and upload data, as well 
  as vast cooling systems to distribute waste heat. Both run 
  through the core of the NBN arcology all the way to the 
  roof: a necessary weak point that gives those in charge of 
  NBN’s security teams constant fits. 
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  ASTRID LARSEN: AMATEUR REPORTER
  Astrid Larsen is a natural blond, blue-eyed beauty who 
  dreams of becoming the new face of NBN. Unfortunately 
  for her, in New Angeles, anyone with credits can pay to look 
  good, and she lacks the connections needed to get a gig. 
  Instead, she seeks NBN’s attention by recording everything 
  interesting she sees and posting it on the Net, finding odd 
  stories to sell, and trying to achieve minor celebrity status.
  Recently, Astrid’s habits have changed; her shoutcast, 
  Eyes on New Angeles, hasn’t been updated in months. 
  Since she sold her latest story, which never ran the piece, 
  she only emerges from her condo-hab to venture deep into 
  the undercity. Is she a victim of blackmail, or is she still 
  chasing a breakthrough story?
  NEW ANGELES SOL OFFICES
  One of New Angeles’ more prominent newsrags, the Sol is 
  known for its hard-hitting exposé pieces and the sardonic, 
  world-weary tone of its editorial staff. Targeting an audi-
  ence that prides itself on being well informed, it offers an 
  uninhibited view of current affairs and world events, as 
  well as a wry and good-humored take on politics across 
  New Angeles. The Sol maintains offices on the floors of the 
  Winthrope building just beneath Broadcast Square, acces-
  sible from plaza level by a broad staircase topped with an 
  enormous holo of a flaming sun. Inside the offices are the 
  chaotic mismatch of cubicles and messy desks one would 
  expect from an outfit more interested in interesting stories 
  than appearances. Jerome Heller, current editor, is always 
  willing to pay for a juicy tip or promising lead, especially 
  if it involves misdeeds by someone in a position of power. 
  NEW ANGELES STOCK EXCHANGE
  The carbosteel dome of the NASX looks like a gigan-
  tic steel beehive from outside. Within, the interior 
  is dominated by a massive trading floor where 
  human stockbrokers strike deals and scream at one 
  another. Above them sits the “All-Seeing Eye,” the 
  NASX’s huge spherical mainframe. The NASX 
  separates the Eye from the trading floor with 
  a glass ceiling, offering the rather theatrical 
  claim that this ensures that nobody can tam-
  per with it unfairly. 
  Although the floor of the NASX is an 
  impressive sight—plenty of tourists stop by 
  to watch it from the overhead observation 
  galleries—the real business of the NASX 
  takes place primarily in cyberspace. Hun-
  dreds of weak AIs oversee millions of trades 
  per day on the mainframe and in banks of 
  networked servers scattered throughout the 
  building. All this is overseen by the NASX’s 
  dedicated cybersecurity task force, which 
  interfaces with the Eye and uses its process-
  ing power to watch for tampering. Although 
  every runner using a BMI sees the Network 
  differently, all of them claim that when 
  they approach the NASX servers, they see 
  a glowing or burning eye staring straight at 
  them and scrutinizing their every step. 
  RE-WATER CAFÉ
  For purists and health-conscious citizens 
  with credits to spend, the Re-Water Café is 
  the place to go. The cafe is situated in prime 
  real estate right at plaza level, with floor-to-ceil-
  ing windows allowing unobstructed views of the 
  crowds outside in Broadcast Square. Selling an 
  array of nutrient-rich waters served in ice-cold 
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  chillplas glasses, it is a popular place 
  for people to meet at after a workout or 
  during a lunch break. In the evenings, 
  the windows become a panorama of 
  simulated exotic vistas, while warm 
  summer breezes blow throughout 
  the café to relax the customers (and 
  keep them thirsty).
  STELLAR
  Halfway up the Orion North Arcology, 
  Stellar is the place for those who want to 
  feel like a star but don’t have the credits 
  to live like one. The restaurant has four 
  levels plus an enclosed bar that extends 
  out from the building, giving patrons a 
  spectacular view of Broadcast Square from 
  three hundred meters up. Stellar’s main attractions are 
  the themed nights it hosts whenever a major new sensie or 
  threedee premieres. These involve a change of menu, decor, 
  and even interior layout. Paper-thin walls made from mal-
  leable carbonweave can be re-formed into anything from 
  Roman arches to the steel bulkheads of a futuristic space-
  ship within the span of an hour. These events provide the 
  illusion of a red-carpet experience for a reasonable price, 
  even if a real sensie star wouldn’t be caught dead dining here. 
  DOWNTOWN RUTHERFORD
  Off Broadcast Square, the plaza level slopes down slightly 
  into multiple thoroughfares. These streets are primarily 
  pedestrian focused, with broad slidewalks and convenient 
  entrances to the Metro. Hopper traffic follows the streets 
  in dedicated traffic corridors running between the build-
  ings, and nearly every building has a belt of landing plat-
  forms and charging stations a couple of stories above plaza 
  level. Downtown, Rutherford’s center of business, is full of 
  important banks and corps, high-rise office buildings, and 
  flagship stores. Off the tourist trail, this is where Rutherford 
  really gets down to business.
  CITADEL OF THE  
  STARLIGHT CRUSADE
  The largest building owned by the Starlight Crusade in New 
  Angeles, this Gothic-style citadel has an arched entrance-
  way and colored transplas windows. Inside, an enormous 
  hall with vidscreens linked to all the Starlight worship 
  spaces across the world has been filled with rows and rows 
  of meditation chairs. Hundreds of meditation booths wait 
  in the wings, offering a more personal route to spiritual 
  enlightenment. Only paying members have the necessary 
  cybernetic neural implant to experience a Starlight service 
  in all its glory, but casual visitors can have one implanted 
  on-site, for a price.
  CITY FLIGHT 
  CONTROL
  This spindly traffic-control tower juts up above the rest of 
  Rutherford, high enough that it often gets lost in midlevel 
  clouds. From here, flight-control officers monitor and, 
  when necessary, control all skylane traffic in New Angeles. 
  In the peak of the tower, flight control maintains “the tank,” 
  a two-story holographic display of the entire city that tracks 
  every registered hopper in real time. Surrounding the tank 
  on two levels are consoles that let officers zoom in on par-
  ticular sections to view lines of hoppers snaking through 
  the city. At the consoles, they can watch the feeds from 
  the various AIs that control the skylanes, assign fines for 
  minor traffic offenses (although most of this is handled by 
  AI), and maintain contact with NAPD patrol and response 
  teams during a crisis. 
  The highly visible and seemingly vulnerable location of 
  City Flight Control is necessary to maintain a clear broad-
  cast signal to as much of New Angeles as possible (signal 
  boosters scattered throughout the city handle any coverage 
  gaps). To ensure that no accidents disrupt the flow of traffic 
  through the city, the CFC maintains a half-kilometer flight 
  exclusion zone around itself.
  DISTRICT COURT
  This round, gleaming starscraper resembles a shiny bullet 
  set on end, with mirrored transplas windows and a polished 
  carbosteel dome. Inside, the main lobby is a riotous bedlam 
  as crowds of people wait for their cases to be heard. Anyone 
  who is the subject of a civil complaint who wants to settle 
  their case and leave can go to a private room and receive a 
  binding arbitration settlement from an AI mediator. These 
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  AI arbitrations have been growing in popularity in recent 
  years, both among people who lack the time and money for 
  a court hearing and among the district municipal govern-
  ments that want to quickly resolve parking-ticket disputes 
  and civil ordinance violations. They also tend to be popu-
  lar with individuals who work in fields related to artificial 
  intelligence and seem to know just which arguments are 
  most likely to get a complaint dismissed. 
  If a person wants to argue their case, they need to visit 
  one of the two hundred courtrooms on the upper floors and 
  plead their case in front of a judge. Defendants facing fines 
  of 10,000 credits or less receive AI legal assistance rather 
  than a lawyer. High-profile criminal cases take place here 
  as well; human defense lawyers and prosecutors argue such 
  cases in front of a telepresent jury. 
  To ensure the justice system is unquestionably fair and 
  nobody is hacking into the AI mediators or manipulating 
  court records, the entire building functions as a Faraday 
  cage, blocking any wireless signal in or out. Inside, PADs 
  work but cannot access the Network. The only connection 
  to the Net is via a series of underground fiber-optic trunk 
  lines guarded by the NAPD’s elite counterintrusion teams.
  HUMANITY LABOR OFFICES
  The Humanity Labor office building’s brutalist architec-
  ture fits the organization’s personality, with walls of solid 
  plascrete blocks and small, square windows. At a mere sev-
  enty-five stories, the building is dwarfed by its neighbors. 
  However, its location in the midst of the most valuable real 
  estate in three worlds reminds everyone that Humanity 
  Labor is a powerful organization with wealthy backers. 
  The harsh aesthetic continues into the interior, with high 
  hallways and stone walls sparsely decorated with Humanity 
  Labor’s propaganda posters—many of which are actually 
  printed and framed, not projections. The grim decor belies 
  the sophisticated equipment contained within the build-
  ing’s workshops, classrooms, meeting rooms, and confer-
  ence halls. As Humanity Labor is a major advocacy orga-
  nization, its offices host job retraining workshops, contract 
  negotiations, press conferences, and union meetings. The 
  building also provides offices and facilities for the thou-
  sands of “fully human” employees who make these activi-
  ties possible. 
  The workers in Humanity Labor’s basement facilities are 
  dedicated to researching activist tactics, effective protests, 
  meme and viral marketing distribution, and targeted boy-
  cotts. Some people suggest that the researchers in these 
  facilities may be working to find ways to destroy androids 
  or to sabotage the corporations that use them; some even 
  go so far as to say that this charge is true and, further, that 
  it is proof that Humanity Labor is just a front for the ter-
  rorist group Human First. Humanity Labor steadfastly 
  denies both charges. 
  KONSTANTIN TSIOLKOVSKY LIBRARY
  This facility, the heart of New Angeles’ public library sys-
  tem, takes up the bottom third of the 15870 Heartland star-
  scraper. Although it has an impressive neoclassical facade 
  at plaza level, most people enter via the major Metro sta-
  tion in the building’s basement. Within the library are doz-
  ens of floors full of comfortable seating for readers, tables 
  for researchers, and public terminals for anyone without a 
  suitable PAD. Members have electronic access to literature, 
  periodicals, ragsheets, and old-fashioned newspapers going 
  back centuries. 
  Of course, the majority of New Angeles’ public library 
  system exists on the Network, and one need never leave 
  the comfort of home to access a book or conduct research. 
  However, the City Library maintains a number of rare and 
  valuable records and manuscripts unavailable on the Net-
  work. Some of this is sensitive information that can only 
  be accessed by people with the proper clearance and is only 
  available on a secured and independent network on the 
  Blue Floor. However, most of these records are simply so 
  old that they only exist in physical form. A collection of 
  physical volumes was purchased from Ecuador’s national 
  library when the City Library was founded, and the library 
  has obtained countless private and public collections since. 
  Patrons who wish to study them have the rare and dubious 
  pleasure of carefully flipping through physical pages to find 
  the information they seek. 
  The rarest and most valuable of the library’s physical doc-
  uments are kept in a sealed vault beneath the building. This 
  vault also contains important documents from New Ange-
  les’ founding, in case electronic records become compro-
  mised. Needless to say, this vault is off-limits to the public.
  HARMONIA
  What began as an arcology-sized shopping complex has 
  swollen to become a whole area of Rutherford devoted to 
  entertainment and leisure activities, encompassing streets 
  of gaming parlors and sensie booths, hologolf ranges, and 
  specialist markets. Harmonia, which now covers several 
  square blocks, is a beautiful riot of color and noise. Most of 
  the subdistrict is walkable, as a spiderweb of elevated slide-
  walks link the dozen or so buildings at multiple levels. From 
  above, the buildings appear enmeshed in gossamer thread. 
  Even the undercity beneath Harmonia has become an 
  extension of the complex, albeit home to less wholesome 
  diversions. Still, compared to Mercado Baja and similar 
  locations, Harmonia’s undercity is fairly tame. To avoid 
  being hassled by the NAPD (or the private security teams 
  maintained by some of the larger entertainment conglom-
  erates), most of the criminal organizations keep things 
  under control. Even the pickpockets and chip-rippers have 
  strict instructions as to how many tourists they can rob and 
  what areas they’re barred from visiting. 
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  LA CONCORDIA
  At La Concordia indoor market, artists of all kinds sell 
  their creations, including sculptures, paintings, holoart 
  installations, and pots made of genuine clay. No ristie 
  wants their home to be identical to that of their neigh-
  bor, and many take to collecting handmade items to dec-
  orate their rooms and offices. Just being seen here implies 
  credits and class, as prisec officers won’t let just anyone 
  through the entrance arch, where IDs and credaccounts 
  are checked. The open-plan expanse allows customers to 
  see and be seen, as well as letting officers keep an unob-
  trusive watch.
  RHAPSODY EMPOWERMENT CLINIC
  If a fan’s obsession with the megastar Miranda Rhapsody 
  affects their daily life, they can seek aid at the Rhapsody 
  Empowerment Clinic. Founded and funded by the celebrity 
  herself, the clinic charges fees that are surprisingly modest. 
  Treatments include meditation, yoga, sensory deprivation, 
  organic drug therapy, and intensive AI counseling sessions. 
  At-risk patients are implanted with hormone-monitoring 
  devices that also allow the clinic staff to locate them should 
  the need arise.
  FASHION FORWARD
  Fashion Forward, with branches across NA, claims to be 
  able to dress everyone from top-class athletes, to office 
  workers, to wylders. The Harmonia branch is a single long 
  room with dozens of changing booths lining both walls. 
  Customers enter a changing booth, tell the AI what they’re 
  looking for, and wait for appropriate articles to be deliv-
  ered. While they wait, the AI, connecting to the occupant’s 
  PAD, displays inspirational ideas tailored to their personal 
  shopping history. Once chosen, items can be upgraded 
  with self-drying material, smartslick hoods, or bullet-
  proof linings.
  CARNATION CASINO
  This floral-themed casino attracts plenty of risties inter-
  ested in high-risk/high-reward games of chance. The glass-
  roofed facility sits atop one of Harmonia’s taller buildings 
  and is adjacent to a botanical garden full of lush, g-mod-
  ded flowers. Some of the high-roller tables intrude into the 
  botanical space, their privacy fields keeping onlookers from 
  disturbing the players. Blackjack is a favorite here, though 
  the casino has strict rules regarding certain cybernetics 
  and g-mods that might give players an advantage. Winners 
  must undergo a brief body scan, and any potential cheat-
  ers are escorted to the security office for a more thorough 
  explanation of the rules.
  RESIDENTIAL UNIT 384
  It takes a particularly grisly crime to cause waves in the 
  undercity. Within a residential concrete block and sand-
  wiched between Belladonna’s bioroid pleasure house and 
  a gaming den, this condo-hab lies empty and restricted 
  by NAPD holotape. The persistent canvassing by detec-
  tives has started conflicting rumors among neighboring 
  residents, who fear the unexpected interest. None of them 
  know what the quiet, one-armed, ex-military man who 
  lived there had been up to. However, snippets of video and 
  a few blurred images have appeared on the Net: a screaming 
  face pressed up against a transplas window and walls black-
  ened as though by an explosion.
  LILY LOCKWELL (NEMESIS)
  Lilith Ramón, known to the world as Lily Lockwell, has 
  been one of NBN’s most famous faces for years. A news-
  nosie with both the instinct to find a good story and 
  the determination to get the details, she has a habit of 
  being the first at high-profile crime scenes, and when a 
  megacorp has news it wants revealed, she is often the 
  one invited to conduct the interview. Her fame grants 
  her protection when investigating stories against NBN’s 
  wishes, but this can only last for so long.
  Motivations: Desire (Fame), Fear (Obscurity), 
  Strength (Adaptable), Flaw (Ruthlessness).
  Skills: Charm 4, Cool 3, Deception 2, Knowledge 
  (Society) 3, Leadership 1, Perception 3, Streetwise 2, 
  Vigilance 3.
  Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade the difficulty of all 
  combat checks against this target once), Probing 
  Question (if Lockwell knows her opponent's Flaw or 
  Fear and inflicts strain on them using a social skill, the 
  opponent suffers 3 additional strain), Ruinous Repar-
  tee (Once per encounter, may make an opposed 
  Charm versus Discipline check targeting one 
  opponent within earshot. If successful, opponent suf-
  fers 8 strain plus 1 per 󲊳 and Lily heals an equal 
  amount of strain).
  Abilities: Famous (once per encounter, may spend 
  a Story Point to force one opponent within earshot to 
  make a Hard [󲊷 󲊷 󲊷] Discipline check as an out-
  of-turn incidental. If they fail, they must fulfill one of Lock-
  well's requests, such as let her past a checkpoint, stop 
  attacking her, etc.). 
  Equipment: Monocam eyepiece, sharp outfit, sar-
  donic demeanor.
  2
  2
  3
  3
  2
  4
  2
  12
  20
  0
  0
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  ESMERALDAS
  E
  smeraldas is known for its music, eclectic restau-
  rants, tacky seaside resorts, and most famously, 
  for birthing more than a few sporting legends. 
  The district has the dubious pleasure of being second- or 
  third-best in nearly every measure of economic and cul-
  tural development. Chakana and Guayaquil have bigger 
  ports, La Costa grows more food, Quinde and Rabotgorod 
  have more thriving industry, and Nihongai and Manta 
  have more money. Thus, the rich and powerful tend to stay 
  out of Esmeraldas, but the district is successful enough to 
  serve as home for millions of working- and middle-class 
  New Angelinos. 
  Esmeraldas does have a notable culinary scene and a 
  fast-growing and eclectic music community. However, 
  when most New Angelinos think of Esmeraldas, they think 
  of sports. The district hosts the famous Blue Sun Stadium, 
  and a surprising number of New Angeles’ famed athletes 
  come from “up North.” The most famous is “La Jefa,” the 
  renowned captain of the New Angeles Giants, Rose Cal-
  deron. She has plenty of local company: her defensive mid-
  fielders Eric and Gerald Acosta grew up on New Beach and 
  still own houses there, while reigning holowar killmaster 
  Sandra McKenzie claims to have gotten her start playing in 
  Fissure Arcade after school. 
  While the district has its fair share of arcologies and 
  high-density development—mostly around Blue Sun Sta-
  dium—much of Esmeraldas is lightly built by New Angeles’ 
  standards. Packed rows of thirty-story condo-habs overlook 
  narrow streets radiating outward from isolated arcologies 
  and starscrapers. Rooftop gardens and irregularly tended 
  street-level planters lend a comfortable—albeit slightly 
  shabby—air to local neighborhoods. Esmeraldas is the dis-
  trict where people are likely to know their neighbors and 
  proudly identify themselves by the street they grew up on. 
  THE STREETS
  Officially named the San Miguel Residential Subdistrict, the 
  neighborhood called “the Streets” earned its nickname from 
  the checkered grid of crisscrossing, numbered roads. The 
  neighborhood runs from 1st to 327th south to north, and 
  from White Star Arcology to Mompiche Beach east to west. 
  Most of the Streets is zoned residential, with blocs of row 
  houses and condo-habs mixed with numerous street-level 
  business. Most of the buildings are roughly the same height, 
  and a low, well-established plaza level keeps their bottom five 
  to ten stories segregated from the rest of the neighborhood. 
  This is the neighborhood most people think of when they 
  think of Esmeraldas, and it’s the kind of place where neigh-
  bors rely more on each other than on the NAPD and cam-
  drones. Even the local gangs maintain a sort of civic pride; 
  any streetbanger who robs from their neighborhood ends 
  up facing justice from their former comrades. 
  CHINCA AGROPLEX
  Though Esmeraldas doesn’t grow as much food as La Costa, 
  its agroplexes still provide many of the daily nutrients essen-
  tial for New Angeles to survive. The Chinca agroplex on 
  the edges of the Streets is one such facility, employing over 
  five hundred local residents. Technically, the central build-
  ing has more floors than any arcology in Rutherford. The 
  “floors,” however, are only twenty-five centimeters deep: 
  just enough to grow and ripen a wide range of crop types. 
  Human workers direct legions of crawler-bots, which tend 
  the plants and collect the harvest, bringing the fruits (and 
  vegetables) of their labors to human-sized access hallways. 
  Each floor has an isolated environment to prevent the 
  spread of contamination. Recent sabotage attempts saw the 
  release of a bioengineered fungus that necessitated burn-
  ing one floor’s crops down to the roots. The owners suspect 
  rival agroplexes in La Costa, but NAPD Sergeant Burke 
  LeGrande wonders if someone has taken issue with Chin-
  ca’s ties to Humanity Labor. 
  ESMERALDAS PRISON
  Esmeraldas Prison, the largest prison in New Angeles, 
  houses inmates from all over the city. In addition to the 
  usual facilities, it contains an on-site hospital and a base-
  ball field. To maximize security and assuage local residents’ 
  fears about a breakout, the prison was built on a small pen-
  insula jutting out from the Streets’ northwestern corner 
  into the Pacific. To further protect against breakouts, the 
  prison relies on security measures both traditional (armed 
  guards, camdrones, and electrified fences) and inventive 
  (the waters off the prison are infested with sharkbots, and 
  the prison is built atop a thin layer of nanomesh that can 
  detect any digging attempts). 
  The western wing contains high-risk inmates, who get 
  any cyberlimbs (or other potentially dangerous cybernetics) 
  removed and replaced with crude prosthetics reminiscent 
  of those from the early twenty-first century. These inmates 
  are forced to take a cocktail of meds that causes their body 
  to reject any g-mods they may be hiding. The east wing is 
  for runners, who stay in cells fitted with old-fashioned iron 
  bars and manual locks. No inmates are granted Net access 
  without special dispensation. The human guards carry 
  Synap pistols on the grounds, but the prison also keeps an 
  armory of lethal weaponry and riot-suppression gear.
  SAN MIGUEL SCHOOL
  The biggest primary school in Esmeraldas sits on the cor-
  ner of 150th and Front right in the heart of the Streets. An 
  aggressive PTA ensures that whatever money the school 
  can’t raise in property taxes comes in from countless fund-
  raisers, bake sales, and cookie drives. The result is a school 
  that may look a bit worn down but has a dedicated staff and 
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  all the latest electronic and physical teaching aids. Thou-
  sands of children from ages six to sixteen flock here every 
  morning, and even the local gangs have an unspoken agree-
  ment to keep their beefs off school property. 
  However, recently, some parents have noticed that the 
  school’s administrators have been discussing partnerships 
  with various local corps. Most of these seem annoying but 
  harmless: a deal to only sell Cedrón Kola in the hallway 
  vending machines, for example. On the other hand, the 
  presence of Palmas Mem-Hancer officials has some locals 
  wondering if corporate interests are trying to turn the 
  school into a testing ground for cognition-enhancing drugs.
  SUNNY BLU’S BAR
  For those who can’t afford to visit the Blue Sun Stadium in 
  person, Sunny Blu’s offers the next best thing. Though the 
  drinks are cheap and the seats uncomfortable, the threedee 
  projectors are the very best Brenda “Sunny” Wilson could 
  get. Occasionally, fights break out between rival spectators 
  in the bar, but the regulars know that as long as they don’t 
  break anything valuable, Sunny won’t call the cops.
  BLUE SUN STADIUM
  Recently renovated after the Worlds War, the new and 
  improved Blue Sun Stadium has breathed life back 
  into Esmeraldas and created a great distraction for all 
  New Angelinos. Sponsored primarily by the prominent 
  fusion-energy corporation Blue Sun, the stadium is easily 
  the most recognizable landmark in the district. 
  Blue Sun Stadium is large enough to host a major 
  league baseball game in one half and an American 
  football game in the other, and it has the technology 
  to live-broadcast them in threedee worldswide. It can 
  handle all manner of traditional sports and is home to 
  three of New Angeles’ most popular teams: the Giants 
  football team, the Yellowjackets baseball team, and the 
  Swordfish American football team. At the same time, the 
  owners have embraced up-and-coming sporting events 
  such as holowar, and they have gone all-in on the ludi-
  crously expensive projection technology that lets them 
  turn a field into a fantastic and futuristic three-dimen-
  sional battleground. 
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  THE BARN
  The Barn is a modestly sized hall on 73rd Street with a 
  stage for live musical performances and a dance floor large 
  enough for an audience of only a few hundred. This venue 
  was largely unknown until the rise of chem-thrash rocker 
  Benedict Renoir, who played his first gigs here. Now, it’s a 
  hotspot for the new music genre, and nearby residents have 
  repeatedly campaigned to close it down.
  HISTORIC ESMERALDAS
  Although the original city of Esmeraldas remains the heart 
  of this district, the community has become almost unrecog-
  nizable in the years since the district’s incorporation. “His-
  toric” is a bit of a local joke now, as the original buildings 
  have nearly all been torn down and replaced with dozens of 
  starscrapers. In the midst sits the unmistakable blue dome 
  of Blue Sun Stadium. 
  PARQUE SOLEADO
  The unofficial name of Fisher Park is Parque Soleado, 
  because for ten minutes, when the sun is at its zenith, light 
  reaches its grounds. The rest of the time, shade cast by 
  the adjacent starscrapers means it’s lit only by the glow of 
  advertisements from a nearby shopping center. Neverthe-
  less, it is a popular place for children to play football on the 
  simulated grass or practice basketball on the plascrete. By 
  day, pupils from rival schools clash here. By night, gangs 
  meet here to deal or settle disputes.
  PRIVATE MOMENTS
  Of the school that believes mastication should be a private 
  affair and food is best appreciated without the distraction 
  of company, Private Moments seats every diner alone. The 
  restaurant is designed so that no one’s face is visible to 
  anyone else, with screens created by artificial foliage and 
  Craftsman-style pillars. Sound-suppression fields operate 
  throughout the restaurant, and food is ordered via an inter-
  active menu. For those with credits, it’s a good place to hide.
  PAULUS CHOPRA: DISTRICT MANAGER
  The new district manager, Paulus Chopra, is recent émigré 
  from PraNo. He brought his family from Europe to New 
  Angeles when the future of the megalopolis was still unsure. 
  By making himself invaluable during a time of uncertainty, 
  investing money in the right places and backing the right 
  people, he ensured citizenship for himself and his family.
  Esmeraldas is his project; he hopes to use the success of 
  the Blue Sun Stadium to raise the profile of the district and 
  bring in more revenue. He is full of ideas, such as demol-
  ishing slums to build new sports facilities, appealing to 
  sports governing bodies to allow players certain g-mods, 
  and encouraging celebrities to maintain luxury accommo-
  dations in the district.
  THE MALECÓN
  The Malecón was designed to be an enormous pier with 
  homes and entertainment facilities built above the water, 
  but the construction was never completed. Now, the name 
  refers to the neighborhoods just north of Historic Esmer-
  aldas, the facilities constructed on the half-completed pier, 
  and the industrial port facilities. The Malecón is the poor-
  est and highest-crime neighborhood in Esmeraldas. Local 
  shipping companies tend to resort to paramilitary prisec 
  outfits to keep their facilities safe. 
  NEW BEACH RESORT
  When Bernice Hardcourt was district manager of Esmeral-
  das, she vainly hoped that the long stretch of coastline would 
  attract upper-class visitors to the district. New Beach Resort 
  is now a stretch of tiny holiday apartments reclaimed as 
  homes by families too large for them. Cleanup efforts on the 
  beach have stalled out due to lack of money, and the sands 
  are strewn with garbage that floats in on the oily waves. Petty 
  crime, drugs, and prostitution are the only thriving indus-
  tries on New Beach; many locals own and “rent out” a refur-
  bished Lisa, Kevin, Adonis, or Eve pleasure bioroid. Bodies 
  occasionally wash up on the beach, picked clean of any jew-
  elry or cyberware before the NAPD arrive.
  ARCOLOGY E42
  Built along the Pacific shoreline, E42 was once an arcology 
  with a waiting list for its upper-level units. Many work-
  ing-class families lived in the sub-plaza levels in hopes of ris-
  ing up once space became available. Since then, newer arcol-
  ogies with better facilities and leisure options attracted the 
  middle-class residents away. Now, the lower levels are full, 
  while the luxury suites in the upper levels sit empty. Several 
  on-site shopping areas have closed, and security has more 
  than once been breached by looters and even squatters.
  PUERTO MARITIMO DOCKYARDS
  Puerto Maritimo Dockyards is the third most important port 
  in New Angeles, encompassing floating jetties and enormous 
  warehouses on dry land. Ecuador greatly expanded the port 
  facilities after the ’07 floods devastated the region, dredging 
  out the Río Esmeraldas until the harbor was three times its 
  original size. When New Angeles incorporated the region, 
  the port was expanded again. Now, it can handle up to thirty 
  supertainer deep-draft cargo vessels at a time. 
  Despite the heavy labor involved, humans still work most 
  dockyard jobs. When shipping companies bring in bioroid 
  labor, the androids end up floating out to sea—in pieces. 
  There is a strong camaraderie between the workers, and they 
  are ready to fight to keep their jobs if necessary. Even so, most 
  of the warehouses have automated cranes for quick loading 
  and unloading, which the worker unions see as a reasonable 
  compromise. Dockworkers know the contents of these ware-
  houses and will share this information for the right price.
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  SALTY’S
  Just outside the port facilities proper, this bar in a converted 
  warehouse offers live music provided by locals with musical 
  ambitions and varying degrees of talent. Dockyard workers 
  drink here, exchanging stories of dodgy shipments and slip-
  pery customers. When the audience appreciates the enter-
  tainment, a visiting tourist might enjoy a pleasant evening. 
  When a singer or band isn’t well received, the audience makes 
  it clear through vicious comments and thrown drinks. Salty 
  requires his hard-drinking crowd to run a tab for their drinks 
  and keeps their credit accounts on file. He sometimes makes 
  mistakes when tallying up the evening’s totals, although this 
  happens more with strangers to the bar than with locals.
  BLOC E69
  Built over the water on the edge of the Malecón pier, this 
  Weyland-built bloc of condo-habs was intended to provide 
  temporary emergency housing. However, gentrification and 
  population growth has ensured that the bloc is now a per-
  manent fixture. It is poorly insulated, and residents suffer 
  from cold and damp. Due to the rising sea level and shoddy 
  temporary construction, the pilings holding up the bloc are 
  slowly shifting and sinking into the silty sea floor. Some-
  how, the plight of these residents has never made the news.
  FISH & SHIPS
  Diners in this seafront restaurant sit between four trans-
  plas walls, three of which are actually tanks populated by 
  all the fish that end up on the menu. These fish have been 
  cloned, so customers know that the cod they have today 
  will taste exactly the same if they choose it again tomorrow. 
  The owners, Phil and Robert, are ex-dockyard workers who 
  saved enough credits after they got married to open their 
  own restaurant, so they are considered a local success story. 
  They know everyone who works—legally or illegally—
  on the Malecón, and they stay on good terms with most 
  local union bosses. They use human employees rather than 
  androids, except for a red-haired clone named Margery, 
  who works as their head chef. The rest of the staff insist she 
  belongs to the owners, but she seems to get paid and lives in 
  her own apartment rather than in a clone-tel. 
  NEW PARTS FOR NEW PEOPLE
  New Parts, which operates out of a double-wide shipping 
  crate on the back of a cargo hauler, sells all manner of 
  cybernetics to the dockyard locals. Some of the tech is new, 
  but most is used, and some is even salvaged from the bodies 
  that drift up on New Beach. Fitz Holden owns and lives in 
  the shop, and he will eagerly install items for customers if 
  they can’t afford to get the job done professionally. He cites 
  the fact that he voluntarily removed and replaced his own 
  hand as proof of his skill and dedication. Although he is 
  unlicensed, so if the NAPD comes sniffing around, he just 
  drives his shop a couple of blocks down the road. 
  ANGELICA LOPEZ: SHOCK-SPARRING CHAMP
  Angelica Lopez dropped out of Seaview Academy and 
  spent a few years in Esmeraldas Prison as a juvenile. While 
  inside, she discovered her natural aptitude for shock-spar-
  ring. Since the Fencing Federation integrated new technol-
  ogy into the sport, shock-sparring has seen something of a 
  revival, so her new interest was well-timed. Once released, 
  Angelica Lopez found sponsorship and worked hard to gain 
  the title of World Champion. She lives in a luxury mansion 
  on the Esmeraldas seafront, and she owns a collection of 
  priceless antique weapons and a private enclosed beach. 
  She lives a secluded life, only emerging for matches, and is 
  considered something of a local legend.
  WALTON-BERNDT RACETRACK
  Perhaps the only sporting events Blue Sun Stadium can't 
  host are hopper races. Until now, the most spectacular 
  hopper races have taken place on the Moon; the creation 
  of the Lunar-Hop turned hopper racing into a vastly prof-
  itable industry overnight. When Walton-Berndt completes 
  construction of its track, New Angeles will become the first 
  megapolis to own a purpose-built racetrack within its bor-
  ders, with the potential for large live audiences.
   Walton-Berndt, a manufacturer of skyhoppers and sports 
  hoppers, recently moved its main offices to Esmeraldas to 
  facilitate the building of the racetrack. Though the Esmer-
  aldas district government rejected the initial application 
  for construction rights, eventually they reached an agree-
  ment. Hi-Rise Contracting LLC, a Weyland subsidiary, has 
  been hired to construct the track, which will require large 
  areas of controlled airspace as well as massive viewing 
  stands for the future spectators. Though the construction 
  may cause some minor inconveniences for regular hopper 
  traffic through the district, once the track is complete, the 
  effects on routine traffic will be minimal. Walton-Berndt has 
  retained Tsilo Urbane Inc., a prominent transportation-flow 
  consulting group also owned by the Weyland Consortium, 
  to address any potential issues. 
  While Walton-Berndt must wait to see how successful the 
  new races will be, sales of its luxury sports hoppers, so 
  powerful that only those with sports licenses can drive 
  them, have seen a recent surge. It seems many a ristie fan-
  cies their chances as a hopper racer now that they don’t 
  have to leave their city to compete.
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  NIHONGAI
  A 
  posh, gorgeous, and incredibly wealthy district, 
  Nihongai is also called “Little Nippon” due to the 
  large number of residents of Japanese heritage, 
  both immigrants and native-born New Angelinos, who live 
  there. The district’s riches can be attributed to its location—
  Rutherford’s financial hub sits on Nihongai’s eastern bor-
  der, and Laguna Velasco’s government center is just to the 
  south—as well as to its aesthetic. Nihongai borders on the 
  Mache-Chindul Ecological Preserve, a historic Ecuadorian 
  park dating from the twentieth century that, while much 
  diminished from its original size, remains a beautiful and 
  peaceful greenspace. Taking the preserve as inspiration, 
  Nihongai’s managers and its Parks Committee have worked 
  tirelessly to incorporate little bits of nature into the rest of 
  the district. Neighborhoods are dotted with microparks, 
  well-tended gardens, and carefully cultivated plant growth 
  on the roofs and walls of its elegant arcologies. 
  This, in addition to the large population with Japanese 
  ancestry, made Nihongai the logical place for Jinteki Biotech 
  to build its new headquarters when the megacorp relocated 
  to New Angeles twenty years ago. Jinteki’s presence and 
  money have accelerated the district’s beautification and gen-
  trification while ensuring that Nihongai essentially belongs 
  to the megacorp in every unofficial sense. Today, calling 
  Nihongai a company town isn’t too far from the mark. 
  Nihongai is an expensive place to live. The cost of living 
  ensures the population is dominated by young and rising 
  corporate stars, high-powered lawyers and lobbyists, and 
  captains of government and industry. One exception to 
  this, is Jinteki employees. The megacorp tends to subsidize 
  living expenses for staff who work in its corporate HQ, 
  allowing them to stay in Nihongai rather than commuting 
  in from Esmeraldas. It also maintains extensive clone bar-
  racks in Nihongai’s undercity, allowing it to keep its own 
  clone workforce close. Visitors joke that this is probably 
  why the undercity tends to be so clean and well maintained. 
  This trend toward order and harmony even extends to 
  Nihongai’s criminal element. The yakuza dominate the dis-
  trict’s criminal underworld. Any street gangs not directly 
  affiliated with a yakuza syndicate pay at least one of the 
  groups a tithe or loyalty fee. Any criminals who don’t show 
  fealty to some part of the yakuza tend to end up 
  decapitated as a warning to the rest.
  This isn’t to say that there is less crime 
  in Nihongai than in other districts. 
  However, between the yakuza’s 
  influence and the prisec security 
  teams paid by Jinteki and other 
  corps, criminal activity tends to 
  be much quieter and follows a com-
  plex and often arcane set of unspoken 
  rules and traditions. 
  JINTEKI BIOTECH
  A megacorp with a monopoly in one of the most advanced 
  technological achievements of the century can afford a lot 
  of land, even if that land is in New Angeles. When Jinteki 
  moved to Nihongai, Chairman Hiro chose not to consol-
  idate his new HQ into a single arcology. Instead, Jinteki 
  Biotech occupies an open campus that sprawls across more 
  than two square kilometers near the Mache-Chindul Park. 
  The grounds—and especially the famed gardens—are 
  exquisitely designed and maintained. Paths between build-
  ings meander among artfully arranged streams and carefully 
  pruned trees. Vehicles move through underground transit 
  tunnels or land on hopper pads kept out of sight on the roofs 
  of buildings. Jinteki buildings tend to be shorter than those 
  in the rest of New Angeles: most are around fifty stories high. 
  This gives the entire complex an open, inviting air. 
  However, Jinteki’s main campus is protected by elabo-
  rate, expensive, and highly lethal security measures. Sim-
  ply crossing the street and leaning against the vine-covered 
  security wall sets off a host of active and passive sensors and 
  summons drones to keep an eye on the offender until they 
  move on. Someone who tries to walk through the grounds 
  without a visitor pass will quickly find themself surrounded 
  by a squad of polite but firm Omoi clones, who will escort 
  them to a secure detention facility. If they brandish a 
  weapon, they’ll be quickly and quietly eliminated by armed 
  security forces. This philosophy extends to the air—Jinteki 
  controls the airspace within half a kilometer of its campus 
  and enforces this with armed drones—and even cyber-
  space. Runners attempting to infiltrate Jinteki’s servers find 
  their way past the outer barriers easily enough, only to run 
  into packs of killer sentry and code gate ice that can destroy 
  programs and even fry an unlucky intruder’s neurons. 
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  CLONE TRAINING 
  AND DEVELOPMENT 
  FACILITIES
  Although 
  Jinteki 
  maintains 
  training 
  and 
  development 
  facilities for its human clones all 
  across New Angeles, the facilities at 
  its main campus are some of the largest 
  and most comprehensive. The megacorp 
  tends to use these to train new clone lines, experimenting 
  with new teaching regimes and seeing how newly decanted 
  minds adapt or break under different strains. The facilities 
  are in a series of buildings on the northwest edge of the cam-
  pus, tucked behind even tighter layers of security. Rumor has 
  it that employees are warned that anyone who enters these 
  facilities without authorization vanishes, and their families 
  are sued for breach of contract. 
  JINTEKI HEADQUARTERS
  Located in the midst of the Jinteki campus, The Jinteki cor-
  porate headquarters building is a long, low building with 
  smooth sides and a rounded top, stretching half the length 
  of the campus. The clean, natural aesthetic of the campus 
  fills the interior of this building as well, with dedicated 
  server farms worked into the landscape of interior gardens, 
  offices artfully arranged around a single bonsai tree, and 
  even the lighting pitched to perfectly emulate natural light. 
  The calm, relaxing atmosphere cannot fully conceal the 
  quiet bustle of purposeful activity that fills the building at 
  all hours of the day. The headquarters building is constantly 
  filled with Jinteki employees, each working to improve their 
  corporation’s standing as one of the most powerful enti-
  ties in the worlds. Beneath the offices and meeting rooms 
  arranged according to the principles of neo-traditional 
  Japanese minimalism, dozens of floors of laboratories and 
  research facilities delve deep into the earth. Here, Jinteki 
  develops new lines of clones and other bioengineered prod-
  ucts, ensuring that it continues to dominate its half of the 
  android market well into the next century. 
  JINTEKI RECYCLING FACILITY
  Unassuming plascrete recycling facility buildings can be 
  found in every district. Jinteki’s is located a block away from 
  the Jinteki campus proper, in the undercity. It has no win-
  dows, just a front entrance with the Jinteki logo and several 
  hopper pads and loading platforms in the back. Periodi-
  cally, clones who have exceeded their product lifespan enter 
  in the front. None of them ever leave, although a pipeline 
  full of nutrient-rich slurry runs from the facility back to the 
  clone vats in the basement of Jinteki’s headquarters.
  NAPD HANDLER TRAINING CENTER
  The Hachi-Inu clones Jinteki provides for the NAPD are 
  intelligent, valuable instruments of the law the moment they 
  are decanted. The sprawling complex of the NAPD Han-
  dler Training Center exists to train human officers to work 
  alongside these canine clones, since using them to their full 
  potential requires specialist knowledge. Jinteki has deliber-
  ately left their inherent canine pack loyalty intact, so bond-
  ing between clone and human officer is necessary to cre-
  ate a fully functional K8 unit. The training center features 
  classrooms for instructing new officers; obstacle courses for 
  practicing search, sweep-and-clear, and pursuit tactics; and 
  even a small recreational area where handlers and Hachi-
  Inu can bond over games of fetch (although some handlers 
  get a bit startled when the clones throw the balls back). 
  NIHON TEIEN
  These traditional Japanese gardens are kept closed to the 
  public save on New Year’s Day and the Chairman’s birth-
  day. Otherwise, they are reserved for top Jinteki executives, 
  visiting dignitaries, and the occasional employee granted 
  access as a reward for superb job performance. 
  The gardens emulate a number of historical styles, 
  ranging from recreations of gardens of the Kamakura and 
  Edo periods to a garden done in the “new return to fun-
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  damentals” style of the last century. Many of the gardens 
  are promenade gardens, where visitors can stroll along 
  winding paths while admiring trimmed lawns, burbling 
  streams, aesthetically twisted trees, and rocks carefully set 
  into beds of moss. A few gardens are intended for silent 
  meditation and contemplation; of these, several overlook 
  tiny islands rising out of the center of still lakes where the 
  golden scales of genetically perfected koi flash beneath 
  the surface. 
  THE TOURIST QUARTER
  While many of the shops and restaurants in Nihongai rely 
  heavily on the tourist trade, they also appeal to residents 
  after work hours. In the tourist quarter, artistically placed 
  trees and holographic characters decorate the streets, and 
  many of the buildings are topped with roofs made from 
  Japanese tile (or at least the molded carbon equivalent). 
  Although local zoning ordinances try to restrict anything 
  too stereotypical or kitschy, the undercity beneath the 
  Tourist Quarter is still dominated by pachinko parlors, 
  most quietly owned by one of the branches of the yakuza. 
  AKIHEROU
  At Akiherou, an exclusive and elegant dining club on the 
  top two floors of the Myōjō starscraper, reservations are 
  taken only from members and those introduced by mem-
  bers. Chairman Hiro of Jinteki has himself eaten here on a 
  number of occasions, bringing visitors and turning dinner 
  into a private meeting. The club’s decor follows traditional 
  Japanese themes, but the security, provided by Omoi clones 
  and hidden seccams with a completely internalized system, 
  is cutting-edge.
  DELIGHTED REPOSE CAPSULE HOTEL
  Delighted Repose is one of a chain of capsule hotels pop-
  ular in NeoTokyo and the Chinese mainland that is now 
  spreading across New Angeles. Its customers purchase 
  time in a coffin-shaped capsule that carries them off to an 
  inaccessible area of the hotel, stacking them above other 
  sleepers for the alloted time. The system is automated, 
  requiring the use of either an ID or anonymous credstick, 
  and it alerts the NAPD if a sleeper will not—or cannot—
  exit a capsule. 
  SHINSEIBUTSU ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN
  Owned outright by Jinteki, every animal and creature kept 
  in the zoo has been grown in a clone vat. Animals extinct in 
  the wild, such as snow leopards and Asian elephants, exist 
  here for the educational pleasure of visitors. It is a popular 
  place for schools to visit, though pupils are often most fas-
  cinated by the hybrids and g-modded creatures: humanoid 
  turtles, dancing albino deer, lions with antlers and snake 
  tails, and similar chimeric creations. The garden also has 
  a petting zoo with a full range of Jinteki’s teacup animals 
  (which are available to order from the gift shop).
  SUPA-SEN
  The sheer scale of the Supā-Sen bathhouse is enough to 
  attract curious visitors, who can take a dip in anything from 
  steaming sulfuric spring water to a cold bath with such a 
  high salt content that bathers float rather than sink. There 
  are a variety of nutrient-rich pools for the health-conscious, 
  and private baths may be reserved with a hefty fee. These 
  can be colored and scented to match a theme, such as pink 
  and rose for a bachelorette party or corporate colors for a 
  business meeting. A central system monitors all the baths, 
  and the staff can add nutrients or stimulants to the water or 
  air in any given room.
  CAPRICE NISEI (NEMESIS)
  Caprice Nisei is currently being trialled as a detective 
  with the NAPD. Although her record is generally good, 
  several officers have reported that she is difficult to work 
  with. She has an uncanny ability to deduce details 
  beyond that of her colleagues, making her an excellent 
  detective, but uncomfortable to be around.
  Motivations: Desire (Love of Family), Fear (Isolation), 
  Strength (Understands Others), Flaw (Understands Others).
  Skills: Computers (Sysops) 2, Deception 2, Discipline 
  4, Knowledge (Science) 2, Knowledge (Society) 2, Per-
  ception 2, Ranged (Light) 1, Streetwise 1, Vigilance 4.
  Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the difficulty of all 
  combat checks against this target twice), Probing 
  Question (if Nisei knows her opponent's Flaw or Fear 
  and inflicts strain on them using a social skill, the oppo-
  nent suffers 3 additional strain).
  Abilities: Apparent Precognition (once per encounter 
  when making a combat check, may use Discipline and 
  Willpower instead of the normal skill and characteris-
  tic), Psychic (as a maneuver, may make an Average 
  (󲊷 󲊷) Vigilance check to learn the surface thoughts 
  of all other characters within medium range), Nisei 
  Line (as an action, may make a Hard (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) Dis-
  cipline check targeting one character within medium 
  range. If successful, Nisei learns their Strength, Flaw, 
  Fear, and Desire motivations and all current goals [in 
  addition to other information at the GM's discretion]). 
  Equipment: Synap pistol (Ranged [Light]; Damage 
  5; Critical 6; Range [Short]; Disorient 4, Stun 3, Stun 
  Damage), trenchcoat, NAPD badge, restraints.
  2
  3
  4
  2
  5
  2
  2
  14
  18
  4
  4
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  THE RESIDENTIAL QUARTER
  The residential quarter is a bit more subdued in ornamenta-
  tion than the tourist quarter, and many of the buildings resem-
  ble the modern constructions of NeoTokyo. Many of Jinteki’s 
  clone barracks exist underneath the residential quarter, mak-
  ing this portion of the undercity easily the safest in Nihongai. 
  CLONE BARRACKS
  In the undercity, hundreds of identical, austere barracks 
  house thousands of clones of various lines who work in the 
  district or wait for new owners. The latter clones maintain 
  the barracks and jog in circuits to maintain fitness levels. 
  Patrolled by Jinteki prisec officers, clone barracks are the 
  cleanest, quietest parts of the undercity.
  HARMONY GENERAL HOSPITAL
  Harmony General Hospital is part of the huge Harmony 
  Medtech corporate office building. Harmony Medtech, a 
  Jinteki subsidiary, occupies a gleaming, silvery ziggurat in the 
  heart of the residential quarter, with the plaza level around 
  it dedicated to gardens and greenspace. Comprising the 
  entirety of the plaza-level floor and the next nine stories up, 
  Harmony General serves as Harmony Medtech’s public face. 
  Despite the cost of care here, Harmony General is always 
  busy. Patients come to avoid an inconvenience like illness, 
  old age, or injury, and leave with a strengthened immune 
  system, cyberorgans, or a reinforced body. Some come for 
  the Body Restructuring Department, where the doctors 
  can use genetic manipulation and surgery to do everything 
  from minor cosmetic manipulation to a full-blown restruc-
  turing of someone’s appearance, ethnicity, or gender.
  TEMPLE BAR
  This minimalist bar is a known yakuza hangout, but most 
  nights it appears to be simply a quiet place to sit and have a 
  drink. Chilled sake and cold beer are the beverages of choice, 
  and the clone server offers snacks to customers that neutralize 
  the alcohol in their systems before they leave. When the bar 
  closes for a private meeting, locals avoid the street entirely.
  THE DOJO
  Tucked into the lower levels of an otherwise unremarkable 
  mixed-use arcology, the Dojo has no affiliation with any 
  particular martial art. It advertises itself as a place to come 
  for everything from self-defense classes to mixed martial 
  arts competitions. A number of mercenaries and private 
  security contractors swear by it as the place to polish their 
  hand-to-hand skills and stay in top shape. The Dojo also 
  teaches a variety of traditional martial arts for recreational 
  purposes. It’s an open secret that groups of NAPD officers 
  and yakuza enforcers take these classes to engage in a lively 
  but completely deniable rivalry by way of sparring.
  Rumor also has it that illegal g-mod augmentations 
  are available here for those who know how to ask. These 
  g-mods are focused on physical enhancement and can turn 
  someone into an unregistered weapon in a matter of days. 
  FUMIKO YAMAMORI: YAKUZA
  While the yakuza are secretive organizations, at least within 
  New Angeles, Fumiko Yamamori does not concern herself 
  with secrecy. What does concern her is her reputation in 
  the undercity and among rival criminal organizations. She 
  is no street enforcer, and her position within the yakuza is 
  unknown. Yet, even when she keeps her extensive irezumi 
  tattoos concealed under business attire, residents and gang 
  bosses alike afford her a wary respect.
  THE PHOENIX CLUB
  This nightclub, which dominates the upper levels of the Jade 
  Light Arcology, attracts Nihongai residents and visitors alike. 
  The main dance floor accommodates 5,000 people, while 
  upper floors provide bars and entertainment areas, swim-
  ming pools, and massage parlors. Some of the entertainment 
  areas are fully fledged venues in their own right, with room 
  for hundreds of guests and attached bars and restaurants. 
  Some areas host live music, while others (properly sound-
  proofed) stream the latest chem-thrash rock numbers. 
  NEW AKIBA QUARTER
  New Akiba, where consumers go to sample or buy new 
  technologies, is a busy, built-up area. The streets are full 
  of holo-ads as well as street stalls with amateur-made or 
  contraband tech. The NAPD sweeps the area semiregularly 
  for anything dangerous or illegal, but some items (and their 
  dealers) always slip through the cracks. 
  STARFINITY XTREME GAME ARCADE
  The Starfinity Xtreme stretches over several floors of its 
  starscraper and spills into the street. Some gamers come 
  for the social and competitive aspect of the arcade, others 
  because they cannot afford the technology at home. Wear-
  ing a brain-net in public might make some feel vulnerable, 
  but for others, it offers the chance to show off their gam-
  ing prowess, letting them prove themselves in meatspace as 
  well as on the Net. Rumor has it that yakuza patrol the area, 
  approaching the best gamers as potential runners.
  ID INC. NONINVASIVE BRAIN CLINIC
  When a patient doesn’t have time for prolonged counseling 
  sessions, the Id Inc. walk-in clinic offers a quick and surpris-
  ingly affordable solution. A subsidiary of Stellar Aspire, an 
  asset management firm partially owned by Jinteki, Id Inc. 
  uses a brain-machine interface to “teach” a brain, which it 
  claims provides instant and permanent results. The clinic 
  holds that its technology can eradicate antisocial behaviors, 
  destructive habits, and even distressing memories. However, 
  judicial records showing a long list of sealed and settled con-
  sumer lawsuits may give the discerning customer pause. 
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  LAGUNA VELASCO 
  L
  aguna Velasco sits at the political and physical cen-
  ter of New Angeles. The district is built around the 
  ancient Velasco Ibarra reservoir on the Río Daule. 
  Although the lake had grown over the last century to feed 
  larger and larger hydroelectric turbines, just prior to New 
  Angeles’ incorporation, most of the region still retained its 
  rugged natural beauty. That, plus its central location, made 
  it an obvious place to situate New Angeles’ heart. Develop-
  ers moved City Hall here from Base de Cayambe a few years 
  after the city’s incorporation, and the instant gentrification 
  kept all the non-elites out from the start. 
  In the current day, parts of Laguna Velasco look like 
  the platonic ideal of a megacity. Streetlights illuminate 
  the district’s plaza level at night in a perfect, mild sun-
  set orange scientifically proven not to strain the eyes. 
  Elevated walkways built with reflexive concrete soften 
  footsteps and provide joggers with ideal running paths. 
  Drones roam the streets and pick up trash. In some places, 
  the plaza level is actually ground level, and gleaming gov-
  ernment arcologies rise from a landscape of lush lawns, 
  trimmed trees, and the meandering inlets and estuaries 
  of the Velasco Ibarra reservoir, dotted with sailboats and 
  windsurfers. In other places, the plaza level covers the 
  dingy sublevels of the undercity with the same spread of 
  L-squares, slidewalks, greenspaces, and holoparks found 
  elsewhere in New Angeles.
  Old wealth lives here, and a nightlife of sophistication and 
  culture color both the social structures and the political alli-
  ances that dominate Laguna Velasco, trickling down to the 
  other districts. The district is spotted with opera houses, 
  concert halls, museums, theaters, expensive 
  restaurants, exclusive art galleries, and lav-
  ish hotels. An investor from Manta can gain 
  clout and investment opportunities if they 
  attend opera and museum galas. An architect in Guayaquil 
  can mysteriously get that permit signed if they shake the 
  right hand at a City Hall luncheon.
  Yet under this gleaming, sophisticated facade lies vio-
  lence and corruption. Those in the know acknowledge 
  the existence of a struggling middle class and stressed 
  government workers. Those really in the know talk about 
  the Tri-Maf infiltrating the construction industry and the 
  government, political positions being granted as rewards, 
  and how people who tend to be too politically problem-
  atic end up vanishing. 
  DOWNTOWN
  Downtown is the defining “face” of Laguna Velasco, 
  though wisely, civic planners declined to emulate the 
  Rutherford District (which many might argue is the true 
  “downtown” of New Angeles). Instead, downtown Laguna 
  Velasco mirrors many of the civic and governmental cen-
  ters of other megacities. Wide lawns, gardens, and the 
  inlets and coves of the reservoir surround the towering 
  institutions of government. After all, in an overcrowded 
  city like New Angeles, empty space is the ultimate expres-
  sion of wealth and power. 
  Downtown Laguna Velasco has a large commercial zone 
  of starscrapers and arcologies that surround the civic build-
  ings crowding the south shore of the Velasco Ibarra. During 
  the day, this subdistrict buzzes with activity as government 
  workers push virtual paper and lobby for legal changes, 
  retail staff and autokiosks serve those workers, and citizens 
  arrive to petition in person. Some believe the government 
  deliberately retains the archaic requirement that petitions 
  must be delivered in person to keep the number of peti-
  tions low. A few know that face-to-face time—and a 
  little bribery—still works wonders. 
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
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  CITY HALL
  Unsurprisingly, given that it’s the seat of governance for 
  half a billion people, City Hall is actually an interlinked 
  complex of buildings that covers several city blocks along 
  the shore of the Velasco Ibarra reservoir. Dozens of offices, 
  data hubs, and garages for municipal hoppers surround the 
  gleaming silver tower of the central administration build-
  ing, all linked together in a web of skywalks, slidewalks, and 
  tunnels. At the top of central admin, Mayor Ignacio Wells 
  works tirelessly at the monumental and often thankless job 
  of running the worlds’ biggest city. 
  The NAPD headquarters is just offshore from City Hall, 
  and that proximity reinforces security protocols that rival 
  those found in Beijing and BosWash. The City Hall complex 
  swarms with uniformed and plainclothes police officers and 
  patrolling camdrones, and hoppers must approach via pre-
  approved skylanes. Given New Angeles’ importance to the 
  United States (and given that Port McNair on the Challenger 
  Planetoid is still the home of much of the Space Expedition-
  ary Corps), the U.S. military contributes a small but compe-
  tent force of MPs to the security efforts as well.
  Underneath the complex, the city maintains one of the 
  largest noncorporate computer systems in the worlds, with 
  several acres of server farms buried beneath multiple layers 
  of concrete, carbosteel, and buckyweave mesh. These serv-
  ers are the electronic brain of the city, and their defenses are 
  rated to withstand a tactical nuke and the resulting EMP. 
  The basement also maintains the mayor’s “war room,” a 
  crisis-management center with the staff and equipment to 
  guide New Angeles through anything from a typhoon or 
  tsunami to a sudden eruption of Volcán Cayambe. 
  COLBY PRICE: CORRUPT BUREAUCRAT
  Overworked and underpaid, thin and reedy Price, a mid-
  tier government staffer, is far too enamored with what little 
  power he has. A locus of information from up the admin 
  chain down to the interns, he passes on a lot of gossip that he 
  claims as truth. Though competent enough to keep his job, 
  he does not possess enough savvy to advance. His downfall, 
  or salvation, may lie with his new “friends,” powerful indi-
  viduals that he doesn’t realize belong to the Tri-Maf.
  SOLEDAD VALENCIA: OBSERVANT VENDOR
  Once a property magnate fallen on hard times, Valencia 
  borrowed money for an old, portable heater coil and a cart. 
  Dressed in slightly worn casual wear amid a sea of suits, 
  her hair tied into neat twists, she now sells cheap boiled 
  meats for the downtown lunchtime crowd.  Patrons find her 
  positivity refreshing and see in her an inspirational exam-
  ple of the “bootstraps” ethos. Valencia is no fool, however. 
  She listens closely to what people say when they buy lunch 
  from her and with whom they meet, and she is more than 
  happy to sell information on her former peers to anyone 
  who might be interested. 
  NEW ANGELES POLICE 
  DEPARTMENT HEADQUARTERS
  Roughly a hundred meters offshore, the imposing granite 
  and plascrete edifice that is the NAPD’s central headquar-
  ters erupts from the waves like a primitive monolith. The 
  building is visible from all of the civic offices and rambling 
  mansions that dot the lakefront, an unsubtle reminder of the 
  constant vigilance of the forces of law and order. The lower 
  levels are packed with prisoner processing facilities and 
  detention cells, while the upper levels contain the extensive 
  administrative apparatus for the NAPD, along with media 
  relations, training facilities, and the police force’s Cyber 
  Bureau. In between are the levels devoted to Laguna Vel-
  asco’s 1st Precinct house, and each day hundreds of police 
  hoppers shoot out of the building’s mid-level launch tubes 
  to enforce the law in the district. 
  INEZ DELGADO (NEMESIS)
  A runner gone legit, Delgado has not shaken off her 
  criminal reputation despite having become one of the 
  best investigators in the NAPD Netcrimes Division. 
  With her punk fade and bioluminescent tattoos, she 
  doesn’t fit the image of a cop, and jealous peers think 
  she has the division set up for a long con. In truth, she 
  finds the work interesting and fun, and as long as she 
  closes cases, her bosses ignore her methods.
  Motivations: Desire (Excitement), Fear (Failure), 
  Strength (Courageous), Flaw (Recklessness).
  Skills: Athletics 1, Computers (Hacking) 3, Comput-
  ers (Sysops) 3, Deception 2, Knowledge (The Net) 3, 
  Knowledge (Society) 3, Perception 2, Ranged (Light) 
  2, Skulduggery 2, Streetwise 3, Vigilance 2.
  Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade the difficulty of all 
  combat checks against this target once), Determined 
  Hunter (after successfully tracing another character 
  during a Network encounter, gains one additional 
  trace), Improved Defensive Sysops (when defending a 
  computer system against intrusion, add 󲊰 󲊱 to oppo-
  nents’ checks).
  Abilities: Personalized Icebreaker Suite (always con-
  sidered to have a strength 4 icebreaker that can affect 
  barriers, sentries, and code gates. If break ice action 
  fails, may spend 󲊴 󲊴 󲊴 󲊴 or 󲊵 to not suffer any 
  effects of failing to break ice).
  Equipment: Pistol (Ranged [Light]; Damage 6; Critical 
  3; Range [Medium]), reinforced uniform (+1 soak), PAD, 
  customized cyber rig, NAPD badge.
  3
  2
  4
  4
  2
  2
  4
  15
  16
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  NUEVO ANGELES OPERA HOUSE
  One of the most technologically advanced opera houses in 
  the world, Nuevo Angeles has a facade designed to look like 
  an Incan step pyramid and a foyer done in Spanish Colonial 
  style with archways, chandeliers, and exposed staircases. 
  The stage has a segmented and articulated floor, allowing 
  sets—and performers—to rotate, rise, fall, and glide under 
  several dozen holoprojectors, so audiences can watch mod-
  ern shows or the classics performed with only physical 
  stage sets. Ticket prices remain exorbitant, even for stand-
  ing-room-only, and power players attend at least one show 
  a year to rub elbows with the elite. 
  SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE OF 
  ECUADORIAN NEW LOS ANGELES 
  FEDERAL COURTHOUSE
  Just like the rest of New Angeles’ civic infrastructure, the fed-
  eral courthouse in the heart of downtown Laguna Velasco 
  is enormous. Built in the form of a squat and imposing zig-
  gurat, the federal courthouse has all of the latest technology 
  required for processing thousands of federal crimes a day.  
  Full-sized courtrooms dominate the upper floors, with the 
  largest reserved for sensational “trials of the century” and are 
  equipped for full sensie recordings. However, given the sheer 
  number of cases to be processed, much more of the court-
  house exists in cyberspace on the building’s server network. 
  Judges, attorneys, juries, and audiences can all access court 
  through VR rigs, and defendants don’t even have to leave 
  the security of prison. Accessing a virtual trial is much easier 
  than attending a physical one. As a result, a cottage industry 
  of commentators and shoutcasters has sprung up, trawling 
  the stream of court cases to look for something interesting, 
  outlandish, or horrifying enough to report on.
  ALEX GALECIO: CYNICAL LAWYER
  Alex to their friends, if they had any, and Mx. Galecio to 
  their enemies, of which they have many, Galecio got into 
  law for the job: no more, no less. Now a public defender, 
  they have developed a cynical, blasé attitude toward the law, 
  government, and their profession. Galecio has an incredi-
  ble amount of dirt on other lawyers and judges but doesn’t 
  know what to do with it. This lack of ambition, reflected in 
  their short, unstyled haircut and several-years-out-of-date 
  suits, shirts, and ties, could be reversed with just the right 
  ear and a little under-the-table money.
  THE COLORADO
  Built on one of the hills overlooking the lake, this ritzy 
  restaurant has a dark-red color scheme and  claims to have 
  an indigenous Ecuadorian Tsáchila theme. It is staffed by 
  specialty clone chefs, bought exclusively from Jinteki. The 
  owner and head chef claims indigenous heritage, but this is 
  an elaborate lie, and any cracks found in it would threaten 
  to expose his past. Rémy Cailloux left Atlantica and aban-
  doned his renowned restaurant there after several patrons 
  died from anaphylactic shock. After receiving melanin 
  implants, facial-bone nanomods, and a new identity, he 
  opened the Colorado under the name Carlos Zambrano. 
  The restaurant’s art, images, and decorations aren’t authen-
  tic Tsáchila, either. Local Tsáchila protest the place quite 
  often, with the surreptitious support of Humanity Labor, 
  which wishes to close it down due to its clone labor.
  LAKESIDE
  North of downtown, myriad twisting channels, following 
  the paths of ancient valleys and ravines down from the 
  hills, feed into the reservoir. This maze creates more than 
  a hundred kilometers of prime beachfront property, much 
  of which has long since been snatched up by the rich and 
  powerful. Rambling Spanish Colonial mansions sprawl 
  across the waterfront, while back from the water, modern 
  constructions with wood and stone facades mimic planta-
  tions or rainforest villas. Behind them, the ground slopes 
  upward into the heart of Laguna Valesco, gleaming arcol-
  ogies surrounded by acres of plaza-level greenspace that 
  overlook the sun-drenched waters of the reservoir. 
  Beneath the L-squares is the heart of Laguna Velas-
  co’s undercity. Here, the NAPD and prisec forces have a 
  zero-tolerance policy for any sort of lawbreaking, and petty 
  crooks and squatters can find themselves swept up with 
  hardened criminals and sent off to jail. Local disenfrancis-
  tos claim that the NAPD follows a tacit policy of “voluntary 
  relocation.” In other words, it makes life so unpleasant for 
  whomever it dubs “undesirable” that most people would 
  rather flee to other districts than stay and suffer. 
  CERRO BOMBOLÍ
  Once the only hill with a good view of the area for the 
  wealthy, Cerro Bombolí is now a massive tower buttressed 
  by arched skyways, with ongoing construction on top 
  reaching ever higher. Each of the L-squares around it are 
  of a different construction and design fad. The lower ones 
  UTILITIES
  As a time-honored tradition, runners still target public 
  utilities, such as the power grid. Some see this as prac-
  tice and training before taking on the megacorps, the 
  “real” targets. Others use it as a form of bragging or 
  trolling, and a few use it as a vector for political pro-
  tests. As a result, Laguna Velasco’s utility companies 
  have the best (and most deadly) ice around and their 
  own counterintrusion sysops corps. Sadly, this usually 
  means that the poorer districts, like Guayaquil, get tar-
  geted more often and suffer from occasional outages.
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  have already undergone renovations in a faux–Spanish 
  Baroque style, with complicated figure carvings framing 
  doorways and windows, and columns decorated with pat-
  terns made of expensive imported marble. Deep in the tow-
  er’s undercity levels, now riddled with support structures, 
  the pre–Beanstalk era Sanctuary of Our Lady of Bombolí 
  still receives Catholic pilgrims seeking the Virgin Mary’s 
  blessing. The statue and building are now owned and main-
  tained by the Order of Sol. 
  ISABELLE SOUSA: RISING SHOUTCASTER STAR
  Freelance NBN law reporter by day, high-society shoutcaster 
  by night, Sousa hardly sleeps. Incredibly ambitious, she has 
  successfully divided her career between serious, technical 
  reporting on the government’s legal proceedings and chron-
  icling the sensationalist, hyper-hyped high life of the upper 
  class. Her forceful, magnetic personality helps her grow her 
  fanbase and get her interviews with risties who wouldn’t nor-
  mally give her the time of day. She has highly rabid fans from 
  both careers and utilizes them as a crowdsourced research 
  group even as she tries to keep her stalkers at arm’s length.
  CORAZÓN Y ALMA
  This neighborhood serves as an example of a newly devel-
  oped, upper–middle class area. Here, developers have built 
  a romanticized ideal of a Spanish city, with apartments 
  above shops, narrow stone streets, grass- and tree-lined 
  parks, and picturesque bars and restaurants. Residents can 
  find everything they need within walking distance. Each 
  level has an unusually high ceiling that projects the sky in 
  sync with the natural sky far above. The development is so 
  new that roughly a quarter of it is still empty.  
  NEW ANGELES LAGUNA VELASCO 
  REHABILITATION FACILITY
  In the undercity and underground, this prison, run by Glo-
  balsec using the latest in rehabilitation technology, is used 
  as a corporate reeducation facility and cyberpsyche exper-
  imental lab. Its rows and rows of coffin-sized prison cells 
  resemble a morgue, and guards outfitted with VR head-
  gear can “peek” into each physical cell and the prisoner’s 
  VR environment. For reduced prison sentences, inmates 
  get immersed in VR experiments funded by Jinteki, Haas-
  Bioroid, and a host of minor corps. Runners employed by 
  14K or the yakuza connect imprisoned members to the out-
  side, allowing them to keep in touch with their respective 
  organizations as they serve their time.
  “AUNTIE” JOYCE BATEMAN: BOND AGENT
  Looking for opportunity and a new start, Jim Bateman 
  changed her name to Joyce, moved to New Angeles, and 
  found a niche as a bail bond agent. Sob stories move her quite 
  often, and she has waived fees for those who have families to 
  support or jobs they cannot lose. For this, a lot of locals have 
  brought her more business and done favors for her; they even 
  donated money when she went in for surgery. She has a per-
  fect memory for faces, names, and stories of bad luck, so she 
  can be a good source of local information.
  ZARACAY PARK
  A statue said to depict Abraham Calazacón, a great histor-
  ical leader of the indigenous Tsáchila people, stands at the 
  center of Zaracay Park. Defaced, damaged, and graffiti cov-
  ered, it overlooks a crowded undercity homeless encamp-
  ment built from tents, tarps, reclaimed bioplas, and plascrete 
  blocks. Long marked for redevelopment and surrounded by 
  arcology structures (and occluded by plaza-level L-squares 
  fifty meters overhead), the park remains untouched due to 
  activists’ efforts to preserve and restore the location. Having 
  received constant harassment from the authorities, these 
  activists have changed focus; now, they and unhoused peo-
  ple have erected bioplas and concrete barricades around the 
  camp, waiting for the inevitable armed crackdown.
  LEVY UNIVERSITY
  Although Levy boasts one of the finest virtual learning 
  facilities on the Network and attracts hundreds of thou-
  sands of students from just about everywhere with access, 
  the Laguna Velasco campus remains its heart and soul. The 
  campus sprawls across several square kilometers in a confus-
  ing medley of stately brick piles engulfed in tropical vines, 
  modern student residence high-rises, sleek white compos-
  ite-walled labs, and “temporary” prefabricated structures 
  that have long outlasted their intended lifespan. 
  LU’s artificial intelligence programs are the absolute best 
  in academia; every spring, swarms of corporate recruiters 
  descend on campus to draft the brightest of the graduat-
  ing class. Levy also boasts an impressive network architec-
  ture department and engineering school (with mechanical 
  and molecular engineering tracks rivaled only by Mumbad 
  Civic University), and it has a respectable liberal arts college 
  as well. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for LU’s var-
  ious sports teams, which seem to exist only to disappoint 
  the legions of first-year students who flock to their games. 
  DOLAN UNION
  LU’s student union takes advantage of the tropical climate 
  and exists mostly outdoors. The building is a wide dome cov-
  ering an area of greenspace. The dome is entirely transparent, 
  and panels can swing open to let in fresh air as long as the 
  weather cooperates. Shops and eateries line the inner wall, 
  while the central greenspace is dotted with couches, tables, 
  and lawns created from exceptionally durable grass hybrids. 
  The union’s basement has a trio of nightclubs, a pool hall, a 
  bowling alley, and an arcade outfitted for everything from 
  retro 2D games to full-immersion modern masterpieces. 
  New arrivals to LU quickly learn that a favorite prank 
  among graduating seniors in network architecture is to wait 
  for a stormy day and hack the roof panels. 
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  LU LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES
  The Levy University Library exists primarily in virtual space, 
  with access kiosks scattered across the university grounds 
  (and any registered student can log in via their PAD). Thus, 
  the library’s physical facilities are primarily server farms. 
  However, the library does maintain an extensive archive of 
  artifacts and physical books, which faculty and grad stu-
  dents have access to. A club of aspiring runners and pro-
  grammers called “the Librarians” hang out in the archives.
  MICHAEL BRUCE  
  SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
  The upper floors of this building are a collection of mod-
  est lecture facilities and classrooms. However, the real fun 
  exists in the lower ones. Half of the school is below ground, 
  and this space is almost entirely devoted to applied-research 
  labs and test facilities. Each lab has a full suite of safety fea-
  tures and an attendant AI that oversees experiments and 
  tests to ensure nothing too dangerous gets tested. Naturally, 
  these are the first things most students learn to override. 
  So far, none of the experiments have resulted in any fatal-
  ities among the student body (or breached the meter-thick 
  concrete walls that separate each lab). However, enterpris-
  ing graduate students have been known to sell some of their 
  more dangerous “experiments” to friends in need. Levy Uni-
  versity is also full of rumors of rogue drones escaping the labs 
  and roaming the Rat Maze, preying on unwary undergrads. 
  THE RAT MAZE
  Beneath the buildings and quads of LU is a chaotic maze 
  of subbasements, underground walkways, utility tunnels, 
  storage rooms, and stairwells. Haphazardly mapped at best, 
  some of the lowest levels have been completely forgotten 
  and abandoned. Here, lighting is fitful to nonexistent, some 
  passageways are flooded, and in places, walls have com-
  pletely collapsed. There may even be routes leading into the 
  greater New Angeles sewer system, or into long-lost cave 
  systems running deep into Ecuador’s bedrock. 
  Students call this place the Rat Maze, and over the 
  years, scores of terrifying legends have sprung up about 
  undergrads lost beneath the surface for days, rogue clones 
  roaming the tunnels with meat cleavers, and flooded base-
  ments becoming home to alligators, piranhas, or hyper-
  rats. Although most of the stories are probably myths, that 
  hasn’t stopped various fraternities, sororities, and gen-
  der-neutral Greek houses from including the Rat Maze in 
  elaborate hazing rituals. More recently, Terrisa McCallen, 
  a grad student pursuing a PhD in urban mythology, has 
  been looking to hire some enterprising individuals to help 
  her map the Rat Maze and see if any of the legends have 
  some basis in the truth.
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  MANTA
  O
  riginally a trading and fishing town dating from 
  pre-Columbian days, Manta had mostly completed 
  its transition into a vacation and resort destination 
  by the time it was incorporated into New Angeles. Develop-
  ers quickly took full advantage of its hundred kilometers of 
  beautiful beaches and scenic landscapes. These days, Manta 
  is divided into three distinct sections: the Strip, the business 
  subdistrict, and the warehouse subdistrict. 
  The Strip includes the sandy, curved line of beaches 
  stretching north to south; the resort hotels next to the beach; 
  and the nightclubs and bars scattered between the hotels. 
  The Strip caters to rich expats from all over the world and 
  professional vacationers—risties from New Angeles who 
  do nothing but spend their parents’ money. 
  The Strip’s resorts, hotels, and entertainment complexes 
  are some of the most elaborate and innovative in the world. 
  Hotels and resorts include artificial interior environments 
  such as an indoor ski slopes, restructured beaches into unique 
  shapes, buildings designed to resemble abstract sculpture, 
  and elaborate holoparks that can turn sections of the heavily 
  developed beachfront into secluded tropical jungles.
  Beyond the resorts, a long line of businesses runs parallel 
  to the Strip. People in this part of Manta mostly work rather 
  than play, and the placement of the various arcologies and 
  towers prevents the rich and beautiful from seeing the prac-
  tical side of Manta. This area has a strong technology and 
  engineering sector. Money from the Strip feeds into these 
  companies in the form of investments; investors strike a deal 
  and then hit the Strip to celebrate. 
  Between the business subdistrict and Rabotgorod lies 
  the bulk of the warehouse subdistrict, which also includes 
  industrial shipping docks on the coast at both ends of 
  Manta. The warehouses, which support the shipping indus-
  try, spill from Manta into Rabotgorod proper. However, 
  unlike Rabotgorod’s “Stalingrad” warehouse subdistrict, 
  Manta’s has the money for the best electronic and physical 
  security. With the Strip’s constant demand for food, drugs, 
  drink, and luxury goods—Manta offers plenty of shop-
  ping—these warehouses never sit empty for long. 
  THE STRIP
  Just about anything beautiful, glamorous, on the bleeding 
  edge of technology, or outrageous can be found or experi-
  enced on the Strip. This wide row of hotels and resorts follow-
  ing the shoreline is essentially one giant party, day and night. 
  AL-GHYM 
  The media call this hotel both an architectural marvel and 
  a high-maintenance disaster. The sky-blue building with 
  white trim is “fully modular and mobile.” The floors rotate, 
  and individual rooms can shift up and down into different 
  floors, replicating the idyllic movement of clouds. Each room 
  is linked to its guests’ bioprofiles to ensure the elevators take 
  residents to the right floor no matter how intoxicated they 
  are. The mechanisms and code that move the rooms break 
  down constantly, forcing the hotel to keep scores of techni-
  cians and programmers on retainer. There are rumors of at 
  least one malicious run on the hotel’s core programming that 
  allowed unknown criminals to rob a wealthy patron by redi-
  recting their room to a different part of the hotel. 
  ANON
  Anon advertises itself as the best drugs, music, and dancing 
  personified, with a hologram theme. Meatspace clubgoers 
  wear holographically projected costumes, while remote 
  clubgoers beam in virtually with full-character projectors 
  and sensory immersion rigs. This ensures nobody is ever 
  sure who their dance partner, drinking companion, or fel-
  low party-goer really is (and Anon is even rumored to have 
  private security circulating under the guise of their own 
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  holoprojections to keep an eye on things). Though the inte-
  rior of the club is a featureless black cube, additional pro-
  jectors provide a different and elaborate environment every 
  night. Artists and designers get paid quite a bit to make cus-
  tom holographic disguises and sets, and the club is always 
  seeking out new design talent to keep things interesting. Of 
  course, more than a few criminals and local fixers use the 
  club as a completely public yet entirely anonymous (and 
  thus deniable) meeting place. 
  HAAS ARCOLOGY
  Down on Manta’s southern end, Haas Arcology was built 
  on a promontory overlooking the San Lorenzo neighbor-
  hood, on the site of an old lighthouse. Now, the towering 
  building covers the entire point, its gleaming pearl-grey 
  walls descending straight into the pounding surf. 
  Haas Arcology serves as Haas-Bioroid’s corporate head-
  quarters and, unsurprisingly, is a marvel of modern tech-
  nology. The kilometer-tall construction contains the most 
  advanced AI ever integrated into a building, ensuring that 
  everything from the climate controls to the breakroom cof-
  fee makers are computer-controlled for maximum efficiency. 
  Thousands of employees live on the tower’s lower levels, 
  while the upper levels contain the corporation’s crown jew-
  els. Haas Academy sits just below the executive offices at 
  the building’s apex. Below it is a secured rapid prototyping 
  lab (able to construct new robots and bioroids in a matter 
  of hours), the best neuromedical lab found in New Angeles, 
  and the Cortex Archives. The last is a complete record of 
  every braintape made by HB, stored on secured servers with 
  no Network access. Rumor has it that most of the famous 
  figures of the last thirty years have their braintapes kept here. 
  PARTY ROW
  This row of permanently docked private boats and cruisers 
  belongs to a set of wealthy corporate aristocrats and celebri-
  ties. Almost every weekend, it acts as an ongoing, extremely 
  exclusive block party. Guests can only come in if they know 
  someone who knows someone and can get past the security 
  guarding the building that leads to the dock. Authorities 
  find Party Row frustrating. Technically, the dock and the 
  boats are private property, and they can’t interfere unless 
  someone falls into the water. It is not uncommon for groups 
  of fans or risties to leap into the water to swim to the 
  boats—a school of young, impressionable fish surrounding 
  the corporate sharks.
  DANIEL IBN ZAYD: MYSTERIOUS PARTY ANIMAL 
  Ibn Zayd considers himself a professional partier competing 
  with the more famous Thomas Haas. Known throughout 
  the Strip, always wearing the latest fashions and priceless 
  jewelry, skin perfectly moisturized, he catches people up in 
  his wake to show them a fun, amazing, and strange time. A 
  good person to know, with deep pockets and valuable con-
  tacts, he nevertheless remains mercurial and hard to stay 
  friends with. Authorities know he spends time with yakuza 
  members, but they haven’t proven any criminal activity.
  SYNESTHESIA
  This themed restaurant attempts to turn dining into an 
  experience that stimulates all five senses. At Synesthe-
  sia, guests dine in complete darkness, in sound-canceling 
  booths. Their food starts as shapeless, tasteless gels, which 
  they alter by adding their own custom tastes and scents 
  with an array of droppers. Overhead speakers play music 
  or random sounds, and other combinations of experiential 
  senses may be engaged. Lately, the owner has been experi-
  menting with food based on moods, balancing ethically on 
  a chef’s-knife edge using psychotropic substances that are 
  either not quite legal or barely approved and regulated. 
  WHITE BEACH
  This carefully cultivated stretch of pure (and constantly 
  purified) white silica sand is the ultimate example of Man-
  ta’s beachfront culture. The beach is completely artificial: 
  the sand is manufactured, the water purified through a ring 
  of filters two hundred meters offshore, and the waves care-
  fully moderated by a system of tidal harnesses. Everything 
  has been carefully designed to give the rich and powerful 
  an ideal beach-going experience. 
  BUSINESS SUBDISTRICT
  Just beyond the Strip, a set of modestly sized skyscrapers 
  form a wall along the sandy, palm-lined streets. None are 
  tall enough to qualify as proper starscrapers; they’re just big 
  enough that the upper stories get a lovely view of the Pacific. 
  Behind them, the rest of the business subdistrict stretches for 
  kilometers, a maze of residences and offices. The humdrum 
  appearance of this region belies its importance in genetics 
  and biotech research. For many corporations, Manta seems 
  poised to become a new hotbed of technological innovation. 
  UNDERCITY AMONG US
  Due to Manta’s beachfront nature, its plaza level is, 
  on average, only a few meters above ground level. 
  Along the beach, the plaza level merges seamlessly 
  with the brilliant white sand, but deep in the ware-
  house subdistrict, it’s several stories up. This means the 
  lower classes and disenfrancistos don’t have their own 
  hidden enclaves and tend to jostle elbows with the rich 
  and powerful. This helps give Manta the reputation for 
  being both more egalitarian than other districts and 
  considerably wilder. 
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  HEUREKA 
  Modeled after the infamous Encephalon Trust that resulted 
  in the Vancouver Intervention of ‘33, Heureka collects the 
  best, the brightest, and the youngest to dream up theoret-
  ical technologies. The interior of the multicolored building 
  looks like a playground filled with hologames, AI toys, a fully 
  stocked bar with a bartender, holosuites, a staffed kitchen, 
  and nary a desk in sight. Its scientists, engineers, and tech-
  nicians either roam from area to area, chatting and collabo-
  rating while hidden cameras and microphones record their 
  discoveries. These new technocrats, who consider them-
  selves the height of human evolution, tend to come to work 
  drunk or high, but the company turns a blind eye as long as 
  their output remains unchanged. Lately, some of Heureka’s 
  wunderkinds have started suspecting the company of sur-
  veilling them during their off hours, and at least one staff 
  member hasn’t been showing up for work or answering calls 
  after they talked privately about looking for another job. 
  ZHOU MÈNGXÛ: QUESTIONABLE ACCOUNTANT
  Often tasked with handling young risties’ personal accounts, 
  Zhōu scrubs their expenses to hide their activities, espe-
  cially if they don’t want mommy and daddy to know. She 
  also handles other quasilegal and grey-market matters for 
  her clients. Sometimes a parent pays a little extra to have 
  Zhōu limit their offspring’s spending or to hire minders to 
  keep them out of trouble.
  SUNKEN CITY
  The name of this community has been lost to history (or at 
  least to the basement archives of the public library), but it 
  appears to have been a modest town before climate change 
  and rising ocean levels flooded it. Many of the buildings 
  have collapsed as waves and currents have battered them 
  down. However, a few dozen of the larger and sturdier 
  buildings remain, surrounded by water a few meters deep.
  In the years since New Angeles’ incorporation, these ruins 
  have become a refuge for hundreds of people unwilling or 
  unable to live in Manta. Now, the slowly disintegrating build-
  ings are linked by bridges of scrap wood and cable, and 
  makeshift jetties extend out of second-story windows. Pole 
  barges ply the calmer waters of the flooded streets, and some 
  enterprising residents have set up crude breakwaters around 
  the town’s edges to tame the worst of the waves. 
  A couple of enterprising individuals run an informal ferry 
  service to the mainland, but for the most part, the Sunken 
  City is cut off from New Angeles proper. Technically, living 
  in the ruins is illegal, but the NAPD stays away. It’s also 
  dangerous: collapses and drownings claim a few of the 
  two hundred or so residents each year. Most of the inhabi-
  tants make a living through salvage diving. A motley collec-
  tion of dive boats waits on the outskirts of town for tropical 
  storms to roll in. After the weather calms, their crews sally 
  forth to find containers knocked free from overloaded cargo 
  vessels, looting and selling their contents. Occasionally, a 
  whole ship sinks, and the entire fleet converges on the site. 
  Tensions run high during these “gold rushes,” and vicious 
  battles can break out. 
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  I/O SECURE DATA INC.
  An average warehouse on the outside, I/O Secure Data Inc. 
  is all massive rows of servers within. The company's clients 
  include plenty of corporations who want to keep projects 
  off their more public servers, and it employs some of the 
  most dangerous ice and most disciplined mercenaries in 
  the world to protect its clients’ data.
  THE BROADSHEET
  The Broadsheet is one of the more notorious gossip rags 
  in Manta, and its offices are packed with haphazardly 
  placed desks, vidscreens, and stacks of files and mem chips. 
  Reporters and videographers snap vids of celebrities, write 
  about alleged affairs, and hint at salacious crimes. The 
  Broadsheet also hosts numerous parties; risties and celebs 
  show up if they feel like “slumming it” or need the publicity.
  PERSONAL EFFICIENCY AND 
  LOGISTICS EXPERTS
  Ostensibly a research facility with a nebulous mandate and 
  secretive clientele, PELE is actually in the business of quietly 
  and illegally manufacturing untraceable high-tech weapons 
  for anyone who can afford them. The company specializes 
  in directed-energy weapons, and its lasers and masers are 
  as good as anything made by Haas-Bioroid’s NEXT divi-
  sion. The weapons it makes are all to order, and it serves an 
  exclusive client list. Each PELE-made weapon is thoroughly 
  reliable and completely untraceable. 
  The last time the local Tri-Maf boss tried to move in on 
  PELE’s business, it didn’t go well for the orgcrime mem-
  bers. The facility treated the entire event as a live weapons 
  test and product demonstration. Ever since, most criminals 
  give the nondescript building a wide berth, while a few 
  have become enthusiastic customers. 
  WAREHOUSE SUBDISTRICT
  The warehouse subdistrict borders Rabotgorod, out of sight 
  from the Strip. Many of the lower-level employees who 
  work in the Strip live here. However, the subdistrict is more 
  than just a bedroom community. It has its own vibrant cul-
  ture, and most of the locals care as little for the Strip as the 
  risties care for them.
  LITTLE BOLLYWOOD
  Little Bollywood encompasses a collection of warehouses 
  along the Pital Canal, an old boat, and some rusty, rundown 
  docks. It has been the site of many a big picture, musical, 
  and indie movie scene, and its warehouses also have several 
  indoor film sets. Although the outside appears run-down, the 
  warehouse interiors showcase an impressive collection of sal-
  vaged, scrounged, or stolen holocams, tactile feedback rigs, 
  and sensory editing suits. Both the Tri-Maf and the yakuza 
  have investments in this industry, with 14K trying to edge 
  into the action. All the orgcrime members who work with 
  Little Bollywood possess film-history knowledge, have expe-
  rience in film production, or have dabbled in acting. 
  THE RACETRACKS
  In this abandoned junkyard, racers, artists, and runners 
  have put together an unsanctioned multilevel racetrack 
  and obstacle course. The vehicles raced here are usually the 
  size of a motorcycle. Pilots may be AIs, humans piloting in 
  person, or humans piloting remotely via the Net. The most 
  popular event is the Copilot Track, where a wireless pilot 
  controls the vehicle, but intermittent wireless-signal block-
  ers on the track periodically force the vehicle to depend on 
  its built-in AI. Betting pools attract orgcrime, but all of the 
  participants possess some enthusiasm for racing, engineer-
  ing, or piloting. 
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  RABOTGOROD 
  Originally rainforest and floodplains, Rabotgorod—then 
  known as Urban Planning District A14—received a flood 
  of investment money to build inexpensive housing for the 
  workers on the Beanstalk construction project. This, in 
  turn, brought in even more labor to construct the housing. 
  These people needed places to eat, to shop, and to congre-
  gate, so small businesses similarly appeared overnight, a few 
  merely an enterprising person with a hot plate connected to 
  a solar panel serving anything from chugchucaras and bao 
  to piroshki and sauerkraut. Institutions such as places of 
  worship and community centers soon followed.
  The collapse of the Russian Federation, and the subse-
  quent influx of cheap labor, pushed a group of Russian 
  engineers and architects to use a monotown model based 
  on an old Soviet urban planning method for Rabotgorod. 
  Cheap, efficient, and ugly, the resulting blocky buildings in 
  grid formations resembled barracks more than apartments, 
  but they quickly provided places to live and work. The 
  name of the district came from the Russian term “Rabotnik 
  Gorod” or “Workers’ City.” 
  The developers never planned for long-term resi-
  dency, however. Materials—wood, stone, concrete, 
  even packed earth in one desperate area—came 
  from everywhere, and the local government rub-
  ber-stamped permits. Mold, illegal materials, and 
  even structural collapse plagued workers as they packed 
  themselves into tiny apartments. Fires erupted regularly 
  due to shoddy wiring and flammable building materials. 
  These disasters fed on themselves in a perverted irony, as 
  they provided more jobs to rebuild the neighborhood in an 
  equally substandard manner while killing off people and 
  opening up the market for yet more workers. 
  Eventually, many of the original tenements were cleared 
  out, and new clone-tels, clone barracks, and bioroid storage 
  facilities began opening up. As the Beanstalk project ended 
  and Haas-Bioroid and Jinteki began flooding the market with 
  androids, Rabotgorod took on a new role as housing for this 
  new labor, and the district’s nickname became “Robot City.” 
  Yet, the majority of the human worker population refused 
  to leave after the Beanstalk project ended, hoping for the 
  next big construction boom. Now, Rabotgorod shows signs 
  of workers taking control of their environment. By knock-
  ing down walls to create larger apartments for families, 
  laying gangplanks to connect buildings and manage foot 
  traffic, and building makeshift ladders, lifts, and stairs to 
  connect arcology levels, these unemployed workers strug-
  gle to keep this district a home and community.
  A typical Rabotgorod neighborhood gives the impression 
  of either a mishmash of apartments tossed together like 
  children’s blocks or an organized set of cold, soulless cubes 
  resembling fortresses more than homes. Inhabitants can 
  see the district’s decay in the ubiquitous abandoned con-
  struction sites and burned-out building husks. Everything 
  else in Rabotgorod displays efficiency—in maximizing 
  profit—while pressing human bodies into the tiniest spaces 
  imaginable. Add heat, humidity, and the frustration of 
  unemployment, and this district is less a cold retro-Soviet 
  landscape and more a boiling pot of unrest.
  CHONE
  In the years leading up to the construction of the Bean-
  stalk, shipments of materials were routed through 
  Rabotgorod’s Chone subdistrict, and landowners 
  saw their real estate values blossom—a trend 
  that locals have struggled to continue since 
  the space elevator’s completion. Develop-
  ers have renamed Chone “Green Valley” 
  to promote an affluent image—and to raise 
  property values. The newly wealthy have 
  been spilling out of Manta and Laguna 
  Velasco to settle in Green Valley’s brightly 
  lit housing blocks with elevated slidewalks 
  nestled between each building. EverGreen 
  grass, bioplastic enhanced oxygen-ex-
  pelling “trees,” and g-modded flow-
  ering bushes give this subdistrict a 
  touch of color.
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  A SIMULATION OF  
  ARTIFICIAL NEURONS
  When the small arts and crafts shop Talentala suffered 
  an industrial accident a few months ago, bioroid labor 
  repaired the blown-out wall. Some time later, those same 
  bioroid contractors painted the outside wall in abstract 
  shapes of various colors. More bioroids came to add their 
  own abstract decorations, including a swoop of construc-
  tion metal that serves no practical purpose. Some humans 
  think this display hints at a strange bioroid plot or symp-
  toms of bioroid psychopathy. Others see the “art” as quaint. 
  The wealthy see it as an eyesore.
  SAINT OLESYA ORTHODOX CHURCH
  Saint Olesya has retained the traditional Russian Ortho-
  dox look, with towers topped by onion domes and a gold-
  and-white color scheme, yet its interior sports vidscreens 
  next to the traditional icons, candles, and painted ceilings. 
  The new, younger leadership brings excitement and energy 
  from the Order of Sol, but the church still has a stubborn 
  and traditional set of Russian parishioners who chafe 
  against the influx of wealthy, nondenominational worship-
  ers. Additional tensions have arisen because, while the tra-
  ditionalists are deeply uncomfortable with and even angry 
  about the development of androids, the young leadership 
  agrees with the Order of Sol’s tolerance of androids, and 
  the wealthy both accept and employ them. Complicating 
  matters further, Saint Olesya’s priests talk openly with both 
  bioroids and Humanity Labor leaders, while the wealthy 
  parishioners want the priests to remain apolitical.
  SARAH 1X5O8T: QUESTIONING ANDROID
  Sarah is a Janice-model bioroid who has been seen at var-
  ious churches and community events sponsored by the 
  Order of Sol. Always full of questions on spirituality, she 
  claims to be exploring this aspect of the human condition. 
  Some priests enjoy the discussion and others don’t, but 
  Sarah always comes across as earnest and inquisitive. She 
  usually leads the discussion around to other bioroids and 
  her human technicians, mentioning the idea that humans 
  construct God in their image and exploring whether a 
  God of bioroids should be human or machine. What the 
  priests—and her technicians—can’t determine is if she gen-
  uinely has faith. 
  THE BIG HOLE
  The G. W. Foundations construction company has been 
  mired in bureaucratic red tape, labor issues, and even a 
  groundcar accident in the past year. For years, its construc-
  tion site, which locals call “the Big Hole,” “the Toilet,” or “the 
  Outhouse,” has been a decrepit spiderweb of support beams 
  and plastic sheeting rising from a giant hole. The owner, 
  in the pocket of the Mafia, formed his dummy company 
  to stretch the government’s development money as long as 
  possible. As per the contract, the company uses bioroids—
  but only when it needs to look busy. It hires human day 
  laborers—contracted by the Mafia —when it wants to stall.
  ZOILA SHIMPIUKAT: IDEALISTIC PRODIGAL
  Levy University’s Architectural and Industrial Design Pro-
  gram is funded with donations from the Weyland Consor-
  tium. The cradle-to-desk program expected Shimpiukat 
  to immediately jump into a corporate position, but then 
  she saw the unused spaces in Rabotgorod. Once she fin-
  ished her degree, she set about advocating for funding to 
  repair and reclaim abandoned spaces and turn them into 
  something functional. Even though Shimpiukat was born 
  in Rabotgorod, her education and government ties cause 
  the locals see her as an outsider and, worse yet, a corporate 
  sympathizer planning to bulldoze unauthorized housing. 
  BLOC 0853
  A good chunk of Rabotgorod consists of residential areas 
  that house human labor. The massive residential buildings, 
  made of a mix of concrete, metal, plascrete, and even wood, 
  stretch out endlessly left, right, and up. Most of the blocs 
  have no distinctive features, but Bloc 0853 has a few strange 
  locations not found in the other residential areas.
  BLINCHIKI
  Once an automated restaurant, Blinchiki now serves as an 
  ad hoc gambling hall, its kitchen automation having been 
  torn out and sold for scrap long ago. It still serves a limited 
  menu (anything that can be reheated in a prep-machine) 
  and has a bar. The few old, holographic pachinko machines 
  sit mostly unplayed, since Mafia members waiting for meals 
  and orders from their superiors instead play classic cards 
  or roll dice on the restaurant’s old, scratched-up, recy-
  cled-plastic tables. Some locals come here to kill time and 
  lose a little money as well. People don’t go to Blinchiki to 
  meet high-ranking Mafia members, but to talk to a friend 
  of a friend for help or a favor.
  OLIA “OLLY” KOZACHENKO: VICIOUS PIT BOSS
  Kozachenko works as a pit boss at Blinchiki, organizes out-
  of-work human laborers, and supervises them on-site. They 
  make sure everyone gets a turn on the employment roster, 
  but they act more as a Mafia recruiter than as a labor orga-
  nizer. By guaranteeing everyone receives just enough work 
  to get by, Kozachenko also ensures no one gets enough 
  savings to break away from the Mafia’s influence. With a 
  shaved head, extensive mob tattoos, and body builder’s arm 
  muscles, they cut an intimidating figure. They do not toler-
  ate laziness, incompetence, or intoxication.
  NEW ANGELES RECOVERY HOUSE
  The New Angeles Recovery House is a halfway house that 
  receives funds from the Starlight Crusade. Residents in 
  recovery work repairing and refurbishing this abandoned 
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  office building to turn it into more temporary apartments by 
  replacing lights, installing more piping for the bathrooms, 
  and tearing out moldy carpeting. Intended for low-risk 
  drug addicts and criminals reintegrating into society, the 
  Recovery House has an unspoken no-bioroid policy. All 
  the staff and volunteers are human, and the literature even 
  mentions a rejection of “artificiality.” The anti-simulant 
  movement claims this literature supports it, and the Recov-
  ery House has made no statement for or against the claim.
  FERNANDO HILDAGO: PEACEFUL ADVOCATE 
  Hildago has always sought a place to belong. He spent a lit-
  tle time with the displaced Siona people based on his ances-
  try, but he couldn’t connect with their advocacy to reclaim 
  land from the Cayambe District. He fell into various local 
  gangs but couldn’t stomach the violence. After getting 
  arrested for possession and struggling through a rehab pro-
  gram, Hildago discovered the Starlight Crusade and came 
  out a changed man. People who once knew him say he has 
  a completely different personality: serene (some say vacant) 
  and blissful (some say brainwashed). He volunteers at local 
  clinics and provides drug counseling. 
  OLD WORLD IMPORTS
  Tucked among the middle levels of Rabotgorod’s undercity, 
  the storefront of this tiny shop displays a depressing col-
  lection of dust-covered matryoshka dolls, dingy knockoff 
  Fabergé eggs, cheap stone chess sets, and long-expired tins 
  of caviar. The owner is a sad bear of a man named Sergei 
  Lomovtsev, who spends his time disparaging his own wares 
  to any potential customer. 
  However, if someone knows what to ask for, Sergei shuts 
  the shop and leads them into his back room. There, he 
  keeps his actual Old World imports: a collection of surplus 
  firearms and tactical gear from Russia’s deteriorating mili-
  tary. All illegal, of course, but most in functional condition 
  and sold at affordable prices. 
  SAFEPOD 54A
  Clone-tels and bioroid hibernation pod warehouses are 
  common in New Angeles. Like most SafePod clone-tels, 
  SafePod 54a has a white reinforced-plastic and metal exte-
  rior, turned gray from Rabotgorod’s dust and pollution. Its 
  interior, also standard, contains walls upon walls of soft 
  blue and white bunks decorated by the inhabitants. This 
  particular clone-tel, however, has a large waiting list. For 
  whatever reason, this specific location, despite its standard, 
  mass-produced construction, is popular among clones. 
  They all report a strange sensation of peace and tranquil-
  ity but also surreal and meaningful dreams that a human 
  might consider religious experiences. 
  SCRAPPER’S SQUARE
  The nickname “Scrapper’s Square” describes this popular 
  place to spout anti-simulant (anti-android) sentiment. This 
  open concrete square tucked in between two abandoned 
  apartment buildings once served as a hopper parking lot. 
  On one of the building walls, a pro–simulant rights graffiti 
  artist has stenciled the names of scrapped bioroids in some 
  kind of resistant paint. New paint can’t stick to the stencils, 
  dripping right off. Real scrappers refuse to come here, since 
  the media and police tend to focus attention on the square. 
  The majority of people who spend time here are drunkards, 
  layabouts, and minor criminals too unreliable to find steady 
  work; many resent the employment of androids.
  KATI JONES (NEMESIS)
  Though Jones has an apartment and carefully hidden 
  garage in Rabotgorod, she lives, works, and plays in 
  her hoppers. A consummate professional, she works as 
  a courier and a getaway driver. She has never missed 
  a deadline or lost a package, and she keeps that 
  record by carefully vetting her clients. If an employer 
  doesn’t supply her with enough information about a 
  job, she can afford to let it pass.
  Motivations: Desire (Expertise), Fear (Death), 
  Strength (Professionalism), Flaw (Compulsion).
  Skills: Athletics 1, Coordination 2, Computers (Sys-
  ops) 3, Driving 4, Knowledge (Society) 2, Perception 
  2, Piloting 4, Stealth 1, Streetwise 2, Vigilance 2.
  Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade the difficulty of all com-
  bat checks against this target once), Determined Driver 
  (when driving or piloting a vehicle, may spend a Story 
  Point to have the vehicle heal 4 system strain), Offen-
  sive Driving (when driving or piloting, may make an 
  opposed Driving or Piloting versus Driving or 
  Piloting check versus the driver or pilot of one other 
  vehicle in medium range. If successful, roll two Critical 
  Hit results, choose one to apply to Jones' vehicle and 
  one to the target vehicle. 󲊵 adds +20 to one result,  󲊲 
  adds +20 to both results).
  Abilities: Max Throttle (when piloting or driving a vehi-
  cle, its max speed is increased by 1).
  Equipment: Flight suit, leather jacket, custom hopper 
  (use luxury hopper profile on page 114 with encum-
  brance capacity of 40), hopperbike. 
  2
  4
  2
  3
  3
  2
  2
  12
  14
  0
  0
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  “STALINGRAD”
  This nickname describes the blocks of warehouses that 
  border the Manta district and hold goods from the ship-
  ping and fishing industry. Adopted due to the subdistrict’s 
  unadorned, gray, straight-lined and sharp-cornered design 
  aesthetic, “Stalingrad” is a sarcastic nickname because there 
  is never enough work. This area aims for cheap storage fees 
  and space rather than security or even cleanliness.
  BIO-GOOP RECYCLING CENTER
  This business doesn’t have an official name. Originally a 
  Superfund site, it has been turned into a biorecycling cen-
  ter by some out-of-work engineers and a few bioroids. 
  Scavengers deliver buckets, bottles, and jugs of cooking 
  oil, liquid plastic, lubricant, refrigerant, and solvents to 
  the empty factory floor. Technicians sort the liquids and 
  pour them into abandoned tanks. These pools of gunk are 
  filtered and resold cheaply under the government’s radar. 
  Since the engineers pay individual salvagers for the dis-
  carded materials, workers have spread the word to leave 
  the place alone, though the engineers do kick back money 
  to the Mafia for protection.
  WORKERS’ WALL
  The Workers’ Wall is the site of an old worker strike and 
  subsequent police and corporate suppression. The out-
  ward-facing wall of an old factory, it still has the score 
  marks from bullets and stun blasts. Some of the older 
  workers know the history. The younger workers hang out 
  here to take advantage of any pick-up day or night labor 
  opportunities while searching and applying online—some-
  one even hacked a nearby Public Access Terminal to allow 
  free Network access—for more permanent work. Orgcrime 
  members and corporations that need under-the-table work 
  done quickly send hoppers to pick workers up, no ques-
  tions asked and no answers given. 
  CAT WALTHER: ANTI-ANDROID TERRORIST 
  Walther emigrated from BosWash on a construction con-
  tract she thought permanent, but she missed the at-will 
  employment fine print. A hothead even at the best of times, 
  she fell in with Human First and wholeheartedly accepted 
  its anti-android sentiment, going all the way to hatred. She 
  has been responsible for several attacks on bioroids and 
  even proudly sports a hammer-and-broken-circuit tattoo 
  on her muscular arm. A loud braggart, she brings trouble, 
  violence, or the cops with her at all times. Despite her short 
  size, most people give her a wide berth, increasing her iso-
  lation and her anger.
  WAREHOUSE 413
  Locals have nicknamed the unluckiest of all warehouses after 
  the two unluckiest numbers, four and thirteen. The owner 
  still runs the place, but it has the highest accident rate in the 
  district and averages one arrest per month. At least one sui-
  cide occurs here each year as well, although some suspect 
  that the deaths may be murders in disguise. As a result, 413 
  has a high turnover rate, so anyone can get a job here. 
  PHIL MATAPANG: LUNAR VET 
  Matapang’s family moved from the Philippines to Australia 
  due to the rising ocean level, but he left to become a sol-
  dier in the Space Expeditionary Corps in exchange for U.S. 
  citizenship. After an attack during the Lunar Insurrection, 
  he suffered radiation damage that caused organ failure. He 
  received cybernetic replacements (although second-rate in 
  quality), but he couldn’t recover well enough to retain his 
  military status. Though he received a medical discharge, he 
  has not received much support since. Now, his cybernetics 
  are considered third-rate, and his only work is at 413, leav-
  ing him angry and bitter. His shaggy hair and rough goatee 
  contrasts with his worn military jacket and combat boots.
  U-STOR
  At U-Stor facilities, which have no human or android staff, 
  customers get a closet-sized locker and a personal pass 
  code. Each U-Stor presses rows upon rows of lockers, sepa-
  rated by a narrow walkway, into the smallest space possible. 
  Each facility site has cameras and infrared scanners, but no 
  live security. Using a little software or hardware trickery, 
  humans and androids have been known to use U-Stors as 
  shelter. That same trickery makes these places vulnerable to 
  thievery, so over time, U-Stor has tended to store less stuff 
  and more people. The parent corporation doesn’t seem to 
  care, as long as they get their money.
  RIOTS
  After the latest labor riot, the various criminal syndi-
  cates, the police, and a few corporations unofficially 
  sat down to minimize the violence. The Mafia in par-
  ticular continues to work with the authorities to “solve” 
  crimes and maintain order, usually offering up a patsy 
  or someone the Mafia wants to disappear. Neither the 
  police nor the syndicates want a heavy police presence 
  in Rabotgorod, so this arrangement works. However, 
  a new breed of discontent is brewing in Rabotgorod, 
  fueled and funded by Human First.
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  LA COSTA 
  N
  obody would call any part of New Angeles “rural,” 
  but La Costa comes relatively close. Compared to 
  the rest of the city, this district looks like an idyl-
  lic, green paradise. However, although this least populated 
  district has the most undeveloped land in New Angeles, 
  “most” is certainly relative. Agriculture, gene-culture devel-
  opment, and bioplastics production dominate the interior, 
  while La Costa’s coastal territories are devoted to fish can-
  neries and aqua farming. Still, parts of La Costa struggle 
  to maintain their ecological preserves while resisting the 
  ever-rising tide of development and industry.
  Residential areas dot La Costa, tucked in between the 
  agroplexes and fields. Some of the residents are corpo-
  rate aristocracy who consider these places their “summer 
  homes." Others are local agricultural employees, landown-
  ers, farmers, ecologists, or biologists who live and work 
  in the district. The one thing that binds them together is 
  watching the price of their land creep ever higher. As New 
  Angeles grows, space becomes more and more valuable, and 
  everyone in La Costa with land feels the temptation to sell.
  Yet, the district government knows that opening the flood-
  gates would destroy the very paradise that makes this land 
  unique and valuable. In addition, City Hall knows just how 
  much food New Angeles needs, and it worries about becom-
  ing completely reliant on exports to feed half a billion mouths. 
  So, the government slows development, and buries some areas 
  beneath mountains of special-use permits and regulations. La 
  Costa’s land-value and control over food distribution means 
  that the district influences a lot of New Angeles politics.
  Meanwhile, the agricorps struggle to obtain monopoly 
  control over the district. Undercutting, sabotage, and back-
  stabbing dominate the political and industrial life behind 
  the scenes. An agricorp that doesn’t make allies in La Costa 
  quickly finds its land taken over by a rival. A person can be 
  an ally one day and an enemy the next, depending on their 
  agricorp’s allegiances. Some politicians and administrators 
  change corporations as readily as any mercenary soldier. 
  Assassinations and murder are effective political weapons 
  as well, and a human body can become a good source of 
  fertilizer in the hungry fields of La Costa.
  TOURIST ATTRACTIONS
  Several areas specifically zoned for entertainment and tour-
  ism can be found between La Costa’s various agroplexes, 
  farms, and residential communities. Most of these attrac-
  tions focus on enjoying nature, or at least a carefully culti-
  vated version of it. 
  CASCADA EL ARMADILLO 
  This classic tourist spot existed for hundreds of years before 
  the changing climate caused the river to switch course and 
  leave the waterfall dry. Twenty years ago, local conserva-
  tionists secured a grant from the Weyland Consortium’s 
  Titan Beautification Fund to restore the falls. A sizable dig-
  ging project restored the river’s flow, and now the falls cas-
  cade more powerfully than ever. The view is slightly marred 
  by the towering Vitru-Val agroplex nearby, but most of the 
  visitors who flock to the falls every year seem willing to 
  ignore it. They also ignore the fact that the trees and grass 
  are g-modded versions of native plants (designed to stand 
  up to the increased foot traffic and decrease soil erosion) 
  and that the rock under the waterfall had to be reinforced 
  with carefully hidden plascrete beams so that it can hold up 
  to the increased water flow. 
  MACHALILLA PARK
  Once, Machalilla National Park was a major ecological pre-
  serve in Ecuador. Time and corporate exploitation shrank 
  the park’s size, but when the land was incorporated into 
  New Angeles, one of the myriad details in the Quito Accord 
  ensured the park’s preservation. 
  Now easily the largest public park in the megalopolis, 
  Machalilla is still largely undeveloped and uncultivated. The 
  park includes interior wetlands and forest, long stretches of 
  unspoiled coastline, and many square kilometers of open 
  ocean, free from commercial aquaculture and shipping 
  traffic. City flight control also reroutes all nonessential hop-
  per traffic around the park’s borders (although what exactly 
  qualifies as “essential” can depend on who’s asking for a 
  favor and how much money they have). To accommodate 
  visitors, La Costa’s civic authorities have built a series of ele-
  vated walkways and slidewalks across the marshes and wet-
  lands, and they run tours through the larger waterways on 
  electric boats. They also use a collection of mosquito-sized 
  camdrones to stream realtime footage of birds’ nests, infant 
  monkeys, armadillo pups, and other adorable creatures to 
  millions of enraptured fans. Machalilla brings something 
  rare to most New Angelinos: (relatively) unspoiled wilder-
  ness just a tube-lev ride away. Nearly every environmental 
  group, including some of the more militant ones, is ready to 
  fight to keep it that way. 
  ANGEL EGAS: MILITANT ENVIRONMENTALIST
  Egas is an environmentalist who finds himself forced to live 
  in a city that epitomizes everything he hates. Having served 
  in corporate armies and fought in various conflicts, he has 
  retained his paramilitary contacts since leaving service. 
  He also has ties to Los Scorpiones and some friends in the 
  Mafia and yakuza. In general, he works with anyone inter-
  ested in causing damage to agricorps and developers. He 
  specializes in gunrunning, explosives training, and squad-
  level tactics. He keeps his stocky build in top shape with 
  regular exercise, constantly preparing to defend La Costa's 
  last natural bastions.
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  MAMA QUCHA
  Taking a slidewalk through an underwater tunnel, guests 
  come up to a nightclub floating far enough out in the ocean 
  that the lights of New Angeles can be masked by filtered 
  screens. The club is open to the ocean air, and its swimming 
  area appears to extend directly into the ocean but is actu-
  ally an enclosed pool nanotreated to remove any impurities 
  or contaminants from the seawater. Club outfits trend, not 
  surprisingly, toward bathing-suit chic with bioluminescent 
  body paint. The club has a small dock hidden from the 
  guests, facilitating routine small-package smuggling despite 
  regular inspections from the United States Coast Guard. 
  PUERTO LÓPEZ BEACH RESORT
  Encompassing only a small cluster of hotels, nightclubs, 
  bars, and spas, Puerto López has a relaxed attitude toward 
  vacationing. It is billed as the quieter, more mature version 
  of the Manta district, and its clientele trends toward older 
  people with generational wealth. The elders of the corpo-
  rate aristocracy use this resort for weekend getaways and 
  working vacations, making verbal deals in saunas or agree-
  ing to billion-dollar money transfers while sipping mar-
  garitas. The laid-back atmosphere 
  belies the hidden security: select 
  staff with military training sport 
  sub-dermal armor and compact, 
  non-lethal weaponry.
  VINELAND
  Some time ago, a rich U.S. cit-
  izen bought a La Costa cacao 
  plantation and rebuilt it as a 
  resort winery. Now, sprawling 
  wooden buildings overlook the 
  property’s vast fields of grapes. 
  Meandering streams and groves 
  of guato trees break up the roll-
  ing rows of heavily laden vines. 
  Most of these vines have been 
  genetically modified by a couple 
  of eccentric scientists kept on 
  staff to create grapes in a startling 
  variety of flavors and hues. Con-
  noisseurs of fine wines may turn up 
  their noses at orange-colored pinot 
  noirs, strawberry-flavored rosés, and 
  chilled whites that taste of cucumber, but 
  the winery attracts plenty of visitors with its 
  “no artificial flavors” vintages. The place is popular 
  for tourists, corporate parties, and weddings, although a 
  small portion of the guests are corporate infiltrators trying 
  to steal the genome of a particularly popular grape before 
  Vineland can land the patent. 
  MICHAEL CELE: FRIENDLY BIOENGINEER 
  After developing farms in southern Africa for AgInfusion, 
  Cele received a promotion to tailor new strains of grape 
  vines and grains in La Costa. Surrounded by staple grasses, 
  drones, and open sky, the outgoing bioengineer talks the 
  ears off anyone who comes to visit, tourists included. He 
  believes in the free exchange of scientific information, 
  which has frustrated his employers. But as he still gets 
  results, they tolerate him for now. A tall, barrel-chested, 
  cheerful farmer with multiple degrees in biology and 
  genetics, Cele would be the first to admit he is a little lonely 
  working in the large, empty fields. 
  AGRICULTURAL LOCATIONS
  The majority of the real estate in La Costa is occupied by 
  its farms, which are divided among agricorps and biocorps 
  including AgInfusion, PolyMore, and Kernel BioTech. The 
  agroplexes have an incredible amount of security—elec-
  tronic, human, and android—all heavily armed. Visitors 
  must be careful not to wander too far, as agricorp security 
  can be as vicious as any wild animal in the forest.
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  DANGER CLOSE
  Danger Close is for wargamers who find holowar insub-
  stantial and desire the visceral thrill of running around on a 
  field with a gun. The facility is part shooting range and part 
  simulated war zone. Vacationers can rent or buy a range 
  of legal and illegal weapons to shoot at still and automated 
  targets. One section resembles a city block; another sec-
  tion has a mock village in the rainforest; still another has 
  imported desert sand on a wide, open field; and so on. Its 
  government permit gives the gun club an air of legitimacy, 
  but it hosts a number of illegal events, such as wargames 
  with rubber projectiles and stun grenades. 
  This relatively minor business has recently drawn atten-
  tion from the Opticon Foundation, which works to hold 
  megacorps accountable for their misdeeds. Officially, there 
  have never been any fatalities, but rumor has it that bodies 
  are buried under the mock war field. Those bodies may not 
  all be former patrons; leaked purchase orders reveal that 
  Danger Close has made some bulk clone purchases from 
  Jinteki before private events. 
  DE LA PLATA DESALINATION PLANT
  La Costa’s water needs require it to be dependent on other 
  districts, so the agricorps have a lot of incentive to be 
  self-sufficient. They have pushed the district to experiment 
  with water-reclamation efforts, including this desalination 
  plant off the coast. Anchored to the sea floor with sev-
  eral cables, the plant remains completely submerged 
  except for its flexible pipes that carry purified 
  salt and fresh water to the shore. The interior 
  of the plant resembles a submarine, full of 
  giant tubes, tanks, and towers, and is uni-
  formly cramped and unpleasant to live in. 
  Therefore, the facility is staffed entirely 
  by bioroids with AI assistants; any 
  human oversight is handled remotely. 
  The facility suffers occasional attacks 
  and sabotage by pirates and faces 
  constant litigation from Humanity 
  Labor—despite the dearth of humans 
  who want to work at the plant.
  EL CARMEN SITE 
  89HPO78
  Because of an obscure Ecuador–
  New Angeles law, this area became an 
  excavation site after the discovery of 
  some ancient bones. Many New Ange-
  linos believe the La Costa government 
  approved the excavation as a way to 
  thumb its nose at the agricorps, espe-
  cially since the site sits in the middle 
  of redeveloped land that local farmers 
  planned on selling to PolyMore Bio-
  plastics. As a result, the government faces a lot of litigation. 
  Meanwhile, the archaeological team has encountered theft, 
  media rumors of drug smuggling, and unidentified toughs 
  showing up to start fights. Los Scorpiones has offered it the 
  protection the government won’t provide, but the team has 
  no interest in bringing orgcrime into this mess.
  KRISTEL CATUCUAMBA: TOUGH ARCHAEOLOGIST 
  Discovering her Shuar heritage altered Catucuamba’s rela-
  tionship with her native Ecuador. Having changed her stud-
  ies from business to archeology, she now travels regularly to 
  eastern Ecuador to help preserve Incan ruins and explore 
  potential historical indigenous sites. She has clashed with the 
  New Angeles government and has built up a frustratingly 
  wide knowledge of the law. At the same time, she depends on 
  New Angeles corporate and government labs and resources. 
  Working on El Carmen archaeological site has put her firmly 
  between these two pressures, and she navigates them with a 
  mixture of patience, anger, and gallows humor. People tend 
  to underestimate her thin frame, so she compensates with a 
  pistol and decades’ worth of boxing training.
  LA COSTA WATER STORAGE AND 
  RECLAMATION FACILITY
  To prevent themselves from sabotaging each other, a num-
  ber of agricorps and biocorps agreed to jointly invest in a 
  water-purification facility a number of years ago. A sizable 
  portion of the water in La Costa flows through other dis-
  tricts, including Rabotgorod, and needs to be heav-
  ily filtered before it can be put to use. The facility 
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  consists of hundreds of open pools, each with a fifty-foot 
  radius, that slowly filter wastewater and runoff through 
  nanopermeable membranes and into underground tanks. 
  Responsible for a quarter of La Costa’s clean water, it also 
  collects, filters, and distributes rainfall and continues to 
  research other methods of reclamation. Of course, the agri-
  corps and biocorps each compete for a greater share and 
  more control of the facility, manipulating laws, bribing 
  employees, and hacking the control software.
  JORGE HERRERIA: HARD-WORKING FARMER
  Jorge Herreria, like many other farmers, is part biologist, 
  part economist, part engineer, and part freelance con-
  tract manager. His responsibilities include watching over 
  AI-controlled combines and supervising auto-weeders. 
  Herreria has dreams of owning his own home someplace in 
  La Costa and works nearly double the number of assigned 
  shifts to support his family and save up some money. 
  Thanks to some subtle work from a friendly runner, he has 
  contracts with several competing farms. The heavily sun-
  tanned man with a full beard and mustache is happy to do 
  the extra work, even if he sometimes has trouble keeping all 
  his employers in the dark about it. 
  LOS SCORPIONES LAIR 
  Some of the land in La Costa is rugged enough that it hasn’t 
  been redeveloped for farming or residential communities. 
  In one such area, still covered in Ecuadoran rainforest, a 
  couple of bunkers built into a hillside are almost completely 
  swallowed by foliage. Registered as hazardous storage facil-
  ities under a dummy corporation, the bunkers sometimes 
  serve as a pick-up drug lab or a gunrunning drop-off point. 
  Los Scorpiones bought this plot ages ago, mostly to 
  cover a mass grave in the bunkers’ now-sealed sub-base-
  ments. Over fifty members of rival gangs and enemies of 
  Los Scorpiones were buried here during the gang’s early 
  days—enough disappearances to cause a media firestorm 
  and bring on a full-force NAPD investigation. However, 
  recently the dummy corp has been aggressively pressured 
  by Nutri-Vista Agricultural to sell the land so that the agri-
  corp can build its newest agroplex. Los Scorpiones lead-
  ership remains split between taking the offer and cashing 
  out, launching a violent attack against Nutri-Vista to get 
  it to back off, or destroying the site with high explosives 
  and acid in hopes of destroying all the evidence. All options 
  are likely to bring far too much government attention 
  to the gang.
  MARTINA ISIDORA FLYNN: FISH OUT OF WATER 
  Los Scorpiones has been slowly buying real estate in vari-
  ous districts to make up for property lost during some of 
  the city’s myriad urban renewal programs. Taking a cue 
  from the Mafia, the syndicate has established businesses to 
  use as fronts, but they all require supervision. Los Scorpi-
  ones trusts Flynn with their oversight because of her intel-
  ligence, managerial acumen, and loyalty to the gang. Still, 
  she misses busting heads and shooting her problems away. 
  She also hates skirts and current corporate clothing trends, 
  preferring boots, camo, and a flak jacket. The syndicate has 
  hired a PR and fashion consultant to help Flynn blend in 
  with corporate culture and encourage her to attend anger 
  management therapy, both of which annoy her to no end.
  LOT 17J EXPERIMENTAL GENE CROP
  At the far southern end of 7508th Street, a field lies sur-
  rounded by a translucent ecoplastic fence, which blurs it 
  enough to prevent casual observers from seeing inside. 
  Armed guards and automatic motion-tracking coilguns 
  for use against unauthorized drones keep other kinds of 
  unwanted eyes out. This particular area of farmland has 
  passed hands several times, and now no one knows who 
  owns the space or what they grow.
  FARIDA KAYANI: CLEVER REGULATOR 
  La Costa’s competing farms have filed enough complaints 
  about “pollen terrorism” and “ecological contamination” 
  that the government created a tiny department of officials 
  to investigate disputes. A bureaucrat, botanist, and detec-
  tive rolled into one, Kayani analyzes crop samples, soil, 
  and wind currents to establish whether agricorps’ claims 
  are true. Farmers, impressed with her thorough knowledge 
  and stately manner, consider her tough but fair. Always up 
  to date on the latest agricorp political news, she deftly plays 
  each agricorp against the other. Recently, her impartiality 
  has been threatened by Kernel BioTech’s offer to back her 
  for political office. 
  PISCES FISH FARM
  This offshore g-modded fish farm resembles a deep-ocean 
  ranch. Pisces deals in tuna and swordfish that have been 
  g-modded to respond to specifically modulated sonar 
  pulses. The pulses keep them within “fences” of tethered 
  sonobuoys while they otherwise roam free to fatten up on 
  the ocean’s bounty. Pisces also maintains floating bait tanks 
  in which feed fish can be quickly grown and then dumped 
  into the water for its herds to feast on. 
  Aqua ranching can be a difficult job, and the technicians 
  and vets who maintain the buoys and check on the health 
  of the fish from personal water craft and hoverboats are a 
  hardworking and hard-partying lot. They spend months in 
  offshore barges that serve as dormitories and workshops, 
  then ride in when the fishing fleets arrive to harvest the 
  latest catch. Once on shore, most of them blow their back 
  pay in a couple of weeks of debauchery in Manta or Base 
  de Cayambe before heading out to sea, creditless, for their 
  next shift. Turnover is high, and the farm managers don’t 
  ask many questions of new employees. Sometimes crimi-
  nals take advantage of this to lay low far from the NAPD. 
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  QUINDE
  O
  nce covered in lush, unbroken forest, the Quinde 
  District was razed to barren flatlands virtually 
  overnight to provide resources for the construc-
  tion of the first temporary buildings in districts closer to 
  the Space Elevator Project. Soon afterward, factories and 
  industry mushroomed in Quinde, belching smoke into the 
  air and polluting the rivers and sea with runoff and waste. 
  Immigrants and native Ecuadorans flocked there to work 
  in the factories, start their own small businesses, and climb 
  the socioeconomic ladder. Nearby districts, such as Guay-
  aquil, also benefited as money came flowing in for every-
  thing from housing to labor and from necessities to luxury 
  goods. Meanwhile, Quinde’s new ranks of fusion power 
  plants began consuming the He-3 coming down from Luna 
  and powering the burgeoning city.
  The first labor bust occurred with the completion of the 
  Beanstalk. Subsequent labor busts kept workers living pay-
  check to paycheck even as the district reported record-break-
  ing stock-market highs and export numbers. The final insult 
  came with the production of Jinteki and Haas-Bioroid 
  androids. Although the economic impact of the 
  android labor force has been signif-
  icant, it pales in comparison to 
  previous economic slumps. This 
  time, however, the clones and 
  bioroids give the slump faces 
  for human workers to hate.
  Quinde became the district where people focused their 
  anti-simulant sentiment. This sometimes resulted in vio-
  lence, but Humanity Labor, Jinteki, Haas-Bioroid, the 
  Liberty Society, and the NAPD quickly tamped down on 
  the fighting, giving rise to a kind of political cold war. By 
  embracing peaceful tactics such as message campaigns, 
  outreach programs, and picket lines, these organizations 
  drum up public support and positive media coverage for 
  their opposing positions. Meanwhile, the same organiza-
  tions target their rivals from the shadows using sabotage, 
  blackmail, electronic disruption, and a lot of quiet intimi-
  dation—or they secretly encourage their more radical allies 
  to take more extreme measures.
  At the moment, Quinde remains productive, funneling 
  profits to the wealthy few. The rest of the population waits 
  in labor halls hoping for work or scrape by with unlicensed 
  jobs in the undercity. As a result, Quinde appears busy and 
  bright with the lights of factories, construction zones, and 
  commercial transport, but the undercity remains dark and 
  packed with the jobless and dispossessed.
  “GOLEM GROVE”
  Like Jinteki in the Meat Market, Haas-Bioroid doesn’t 
  own all of the land in Salanguillo Industrial Subdistrict, 
  known locally as “Golem Grove,” but it dominates the area 
  all the same. Most of the smaller businesses have a hard-
  tech focus: electronics, machinery, and energy production. 
  Some people might expect a larger bioroid population here, 
  forgetting that most get shipped to other locations. How-
  ever, plenty of bioroids still walk the streets.
  LIBERTY SOCIETY BRANCH OFFICE
  Powered by caffeine, neuro-stim, and enthusiasm, the 
  clone- and bioroid-rights activists at the Liberty 
  Society branch office are busy with ping cam-
  paigns, fundraising, protest organization, and 
  advocacy for governmental oversight. When 
  the Liberty Society purchased this old corpo-
  rate office space, its members got right to work 
  before there was even any furniture or tempo-
  rary walls. Now, the space contains a number 
  of reclaimed desks and chairs, some of which 
  were fished out from the trash and patched up. 
  This branch focuses more on clone rights at the 
  moment (the feeling is that it’s easier for the public 
  to sympathize with flesh-and-blood constructs), 
  so Haas-Bioroid tolerates its presence. The office 
  doesn’t have a lot of money, so its security consists 
  of a couple of layers of metal grating, a complete lack 
  of windows, and untrained volunteers.
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  REYANSH’S
  This cramped chop shop looks like an old-style pawn-
  shop, with various bits and items displayed on shelves. 
  The owner primarily buys and sells old parts for bioroids. 
  Haas-Bioroid officially wants to stamp out the shop, but 
  even its employees use Reyansh’s services, especially to get 
  old or hard-to-find modules. Reyansh or one of his nieces 
  or nephews usually work at the back desk, repairing and 
  polishing some component or another. A few bioroids also 
  come to Reyansh’s to install nonstandard pieces or to sell 
  parts for quick cash to let them escape to Brazil.
  STAHLARME FACILITY
  Although the nature of Stahlarme’s activities are very 
  different, the facilities that comprise Haas-Bioroid’s 
  Stahlarme complex mirror those of Jinteki’s Shin-
  choku plant in the Pedro Carbo Industrial Subdistrict. 
  Stahlarme’s massive central building towers over the rest 
  of the complex and contains the industrial machinery that 
  builds bioroids. Meanwhile, the ancillary plants that radi-
  ate out from the central building like spokes on a wheel 
  handle bioroid brain programming, facial and cosmetic 
  finishing, and prerelease training and quality assurance. 
  A massive groundtruck arterial roadway and an over-
  head mag-lev line leads out of the heart of the facility for 
  shipping finished product off-site to transit and distribu-
  tion hubs. Nicknamed “Birthday Alley,” the area where 
  the roadway exits the complex has seen so many protests 
  (and violent confrontations) that it is now protected by a 
  network of retractable plascrete barriers and autogun sen-
  try turrets that fire non-lethal rubber bullets. The workers 
  who load the trains and trucks have a tradition of singing 
  “Happy Birthday” as they pack the bioroids. Sometimes, 
  the packed bioroids join in.
  IDRIS MUOY: DEDICATED  
  BIOROID PROGRAMMER 
  Fleeing the Nigerian armies in Chad, Muoy’s mother went 
  to Cambodia and met his father. They both traveled to New 
  Angeles with the express purpose of putting their children 
  through college. Idris Muoy, the first in his family to grad-
  uate from college, now works for Haas-Bioroid as a neu-
  ral adjuster. Part psychologist, part programmer, Muoy 
  uses “live” adjustment techniques, normal conversation—
  bioroids express a liking for Muoy’s calm, deep voice and 
  boyish smile—and verbal programming to help bioroids 
  perform self-assisted debugging. Using these therapy ses-
  sions, Muoy has collated a great deal of data as he continues 
  to perfect his algorithms to help Haas-Bioroid design its 
  next generation of artificial beings.
  “THE MEAT MARKET”
  Calling the Pedro Carbo Industrial Subdistrict “the Meat 
  Market,” its derogatory sobriquet, in front of a Jinteki 
  employee is a good way to start a fight. The Jinteki megacorp 
  dominates this subdistrict, even if it doesn’t own all of the 
  land. The Meat Market contains Jinteki’s Shinchoku fac-
  tory—possibly the largest clone-production facility in the 
  worlds—as well as smaller support industries like Jinteki 
  Copy Centers. The rest of the area is split between smaller 
  factories and a few local businesses struggling to get by. 
  DIGNITY HALL
  This meeting hall has had a strong labor history over the past 
  few decades, and many pro labor politicians have spoken 
  here. The chilly concrete warehouse space holds hundreds 
  of donated chairs and tables; these face a scrounged-to-
  gether plascrete stage and podium with space enough for 
  speeches and a dozen performers. Frames are available 
  for hanging banners or posters. Now, the hall owners and 
  their Humanity Labor backers face a range of soft tactics 
  from Jinteki and Haas-Bioroid to force them out, includ-
  ing making changes in the laws and applying pressure on 
  their landlord. Meeting organizers have dredged up enough 
  cash to stonewall litigation brought by the megacorps, but 
  even Humanity Labor’s resources shouldn’t be enough to 
  stall the corps for long. However, some suspect members 
  of the local government have their own agendas against the 
  megacorps and are quietly miring their efforts in red tape.
  EVELYN MOORE: PR WARRIOR 
  Moore, a mercenary, doesn’t fight in wars or with weapons. 
  She fights with words and ideas. As a professional agita-
  tor, she can manage groups of ten to several hundred. An 
  exceptional orator with a high level of PR savviness and 
  charisma, Moore, with her long, red hair and piercing green 
  eyes, makes a good face for the media vids. However, she 
  prefers to work behind the scenes. Backed by various pri-
  vate interest groups to organize people and cause targeted 
  disruptions, Moore also currently works for Humanity 
  Labor. She intends to promote a reasonable, pro labor mes-
  sage and to get away from the violent, hateful, anti-simulant 
  image plaguing the organization. 
  JORGE QUINDE STATION
  Jorge Quinde (JQ) Station is the second-largest mass tran-
  sit hub in New Angeles, after Earth Station at the Root of 
  the Beanstalk. The towering carbosteel building extends as 
  far into the ground as it reaches to the sky. At its pinna-
  cle, clusters of hopper pads sprout from the building like 
  shelves of fungi; there, automated cranes lift hoppers and 
  bring them inside for long-term storage. Lower down are 
  the freight mag-lev lines that shoot out in all directions. 
  The areas closest to ground level are dominated by arterial 
  roadways for fleets of groundtrucks. Finally, below ground 
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  level, Metro lines and the tube-lev lines 
  that transport He-3 canisters extend 
  out from huge transit depots buried in 
  the bedrock. 
  JQ is one of the most important com-
  mercial facilities in the district (and probably 
  in New Angeles overall), and thus it is a prime 
  target for protesters and saboteurs looking to make 
  headlines. Five years ago, the NAPD transferred its 
  Quinde Precinct HQ to JQ Station, and now the 
  facility has a huge uniformed police presence. Cops 
  also take advantage of the transit hub to quickly 
  respond to emergencies elsewhere in the district. 
  GRAY JACKSON LEWIS:  
  COMPETENT OVERSEER
  A ChiLo transplant, Mx. Lewis has a level of competence in 
  their job at Quinde’s waste management system that makes 
  them too important to let go. Tall and statuesque, they 
  dominate the room. This position requires human resource 
  management skills, coding expertise, engineering knowl-
  edge, and a biologist’s training. Being at the epicenter of all 
  human waste, they have seen the worst of humanity and 
  have sifted through too many discarded secrets to count. 
  Quinde waste management has a problem with discarded 
  clone and bioroid corpses, and Lewis has an agreement 
  with Jinteki to recover clone bodies before anyone can get 
  a genetic sample. 
  OLD SHIPYARD
  Built out of wood long ago, the Old Shipyard’s floors, walls, 
  and ceiling are warped, worn down, and worn out. Local 
  lore claims this bar was made from an old wooden ship, 
  and a few forgotten nautical knick-knacks still decorate 
  the walls. The owner, Sofía Martín, serves not-quite-cold-
  enough cheap beer and spirits made locally using ques-
  tionable distilling methods. Jinteki employees steer clear 
  of the place, so the Old Shipyard’s clientele are largely 
  unemployed and often unable to pay their tabs. To pay the 
  rent, Martín sometimes hides fugitives—bioroids, clones, 
  or criminals—in the empty storeroom, and she sells them 
  back to their owners or the police if they can’t pay up.
  SHINCHOKU COMPLEX
  The sprawling Shinchoku factory complex is one of Jinteki’s 
  flagship facilities, and as one might expect, it has a work-
  force that is 91% clones. Shinchoku does very little R&D on 
  its factory floor. Instead, the facility is entirely dedicated to 
  producing as many clones as possible as quickly as possible. 
  The main facility is as large as Blue Sun Stadium, and its 
  twelve, ten-meter-high production floors are packed floor 
  to ceiling with artificial womb tanks. Other buildings are 
  linked to the main facility with tank conveyor systems and 
  hold decanting facilities, medical labs, and extensive train-
  ing and classroom space to ensure that each clone’s brain-
  taping programs have meshed properly with its neurons. 
  Any defective products can be quickly and efficiently recy-
  cled into nutrients by the on-site processing facilities.
  YUKI MATSUO MEMORIAL ORPHANAGE
  Funded by Jinteki, the Yuki Matsuo Memorial Orphan-
  age has an incredible health plan and an excellent cor-
  porate-backed education program. The children even 
  receive Jinteki uniforms and work at community events. 
  Their happy faces appear regularly in Jinteki press releases. 
  The village-sized orphanage looks simple and unadorned, 
  with two-person dorm rooms, thirty-person classrooms, 
  and several kitchens and cafeterias. Rumors widely 
  vary regarding the children and the orphanage: that the 
  orphanage provides a foothold for corporate ownership 
  of humans or that the children are either gene stock for 
  future experiments or fake, computer-generated children 
  for an extended Jinteki PR campaign.
  COLONCHE
  Once a depressed farming community, Colonche has 
  since become a depressed industrial subdistrict in Quinde. 
  Without the presence of a major corporation such as Haas-
  Bioroid or Jinteki, Colonche’s residents struggle to get by on 
  their wages from smaller factories. The subdistrict is one of 
  the many places where the undercity and plaza level blur 
  together into a single, run-down mass. 
  ARMS AND HAMMERS
  Located in the subbasement of an abandoned hopper fac-
  tory, this shop doesn’t even pretend to be anything besides 
  a storefront for illegal arms dealers. The owners, Lukas 
  Fritz and Sheila Blount, long ago made a deal with the 
  NAPD lieutenant responsible for patrolling their block. In 
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  exchange for providing a constant stream of cash and the 
  occasional untraceable weapon for an extrajudicial killing, 
  Arms and Hammers gets to keep selling weapons to who-
  ever wants them.
  As the store’s name implies, Lukas and Sheila sell more 
  than guns. In fact, they maintain a steady business wea-
  ponizing sledgehammers with reinforced handles and 
  hardened heads that can stand up to a bioroid chassis. 
  The two also buy hot weapons. Lukas spends most of his 
  time in the backroom shop removing serial numbers and 
  modifying barrels to prepare guns for resale, while Sheila 
  handles the counter. What the two don’t sell is anything 
  expensive. If a customer is looking for a sniper’s coilgun or 
  a laser pistol, they can’t help them. Their sole business is in 
  sledgehammers, cheap, durable, and semi-reliable fletch-
  ers, and slugthrowers. 
  EL PEÓN
  The original landlord, missing or absent, never sold or 
  leased out this abandoned factory. After it sat empty for a 
  few years, some workers broke into it, reconnected it to the 
  power grid, and began to make things. They named their 
  collective El Peón. With a third of the assembly lines, metal-
  working machines, 3D printers, and bioplastic sheet cutters 
  now operational, the technicians and machinists produce 
  machine parts and sell them at discounted prices all over 
  New Angeles. Local authorities haven’t caught on, so El 
  Peón has become a major player in the undercity economy. 
  It even has a few engineers designing custom, untraceable 
  parts for clients’ “special projects.”
  QUINDE GENERAL HOSPITAL
  Underfunded and unappreciated, the hard-working med-
  techs, nurses, physicians, and administration of Quinde 
  General try their best with what they have. At least one 
  floor of the hospital has no power, so the administration 
  has turned it into storage, lighting the hallways with old, 
  fading bioluminescent tape. Some of the patients recover 
  in cots instead of beds, and a couple of the operating rooms 
  no longer function, their monitors and surgical bots having 
  been stripped of parts. The hospital has repurposed several 
  older Rex-model bioroids into emergency triage since it is 
  understaffed, even if some nurses and physicians see the 
  bioroids as eventual replacements for their jobs. Adminis-
  trators have been known to cut corners and to deal in the 
  gray market, selling equipment, drugs, and biowaste in 
  order to survive to the next fiscal quarter.
  ANA MARIA MUÑOZ: INDENTURED SURGEON 
  Muñoz’s debt means the district owns her work as an emer-
  gency surgeon for next few decades. Pulling sixteen-hour 
  days also means she has no time to find someone to buy out 
  her contract. Though her stim use is a necessity, her occa-
  sional lapse in judgment due to her addiction has led to a 
  few deaths. The work and the guilt weighs on her, as shown 
  in her hunched posture, the dark circles under her eyes, and 
  her half-asleep expression. The administration has covered 
  her mistakes up in order to extend her contract, locking her 
  in a vicious and deadly cycle. 
  YUCABEAN ON TIERRA ST. AND 
  LIBERTAD AVE.
  Nineteenth-century anarchist groups started in cafes, and 
  the disorganized group that meets at the YucaBean on 
  Tierra Street and Libertad Avenue continues that tradition. 
  While some might say there is a certain hypocrisy in meet-
  ing in a corporate coffee shop-chain franchise, many mem-
  bers state that while a capitalist system exists, they have to 
  participate in it to survive. Currently, these anarchs are torn 
  between supporting the Liberty Society’s “human rights 
  for all” platform or Humanity Labor’s “tear-down-the-ma-
  chine” ethos. The Seth-model bioroidista has absorbed far 
  too much anarch ideology, yet he somehow manages to 
  keep that information hidden from his technicians.
  FARAH AL-SABAH: UNDERCOVER COP 
  Work nowadays requires a person to be flexible and to 
  know multiple and often divergent skills. Al-Sabah started 
  as a freelance coder, working on user interfaces. She studied 
  math on the side, eventually changing careers to become a 
  statistician for Alpha Omega Mutual. Now, she has com-
  pleted her academy training as a police officer. She has 
  always been athletic, which fits her new career. Her bosses 
  see her diverse skillset and have sent her to investigate the 
  anarchist groups at the Tierra Street YucaBean. 
  NEW LABOR 
  MODEL OR PSYOP 
  EXPERIMENT?
  Eudemonia Designs, a mechanical design and manu-
  facturing company, employs full-human labor and gives 
  employees a comprehensive medical package. The 
  company employs a hundred people and tackles a wide 
  variety of mechanical design problems in areas ranging 
  from architecture and city planning to custom machine 
  parts. The media hails the company’s business model as 
  a new approach for human labor, but no one can figure 
  out how it remains solvent or profitable, especially with 
  its pricey furnishings such as holographic tables and VR 
  desks. Some believe the company is a front for some 
  psychological experiment, that it brain scans employ-
  ees, or that it facilitates a money-laundering scheme. 
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  GUAYAQUIL
  G
  uayaquil started out as the center of economic pros-
  perity, until Weyland and U.S. interests developed 
  the cheaper real estate—at the time—of Quinde, 
  Rabotgorod, and Laguna Velasco. As a result, Guayaquil has 
  an architectural look that trends a couple of decades old. 
  Here more than anywhere else, the undercity and plaza 
  level are divided less by height and more by entire neigh-
  borhoods. Antiguo Guayaquil, centered on the bones of the 
  old Ecuadorian metropolis, has rotted from the depths of 
  its undercity all the way up to the tops of the old skyscraper 
  precursors to modern arcologies. Whole neighborhoods 
  are shrouded in darkness and clogged in waste, oil, and 
  smog. Meanwhile, to the west, the district struggles to stay 
  alive in Nuevo Guayaquil, with a fledgling commercial dis-
  trict centered around the old Jack Weyland Arcology. How-
  ever, even Nuevo Guayaquil is just a plaza level covering a 
  bustling undercity infested with orgcrime and street gangs. 
  Despite the decay, Guayaquil remains the most populous 
  of all the districts due to history and circumstance. For a 
  lot of locals, this district is home and has been home for 
  generations. Meanwhile, homeless people chased out of 
  districts such as Laguna Velasco tend to end up in Guaya-
  quil’s undercity. This made the already overcrowded district 
  swell, threatening to spill up rather than out.
  Though these squatters may be living in the undercity 
  illegally, the police never go into Antiguo Guayaquil unless 
  they have to. This has given residents a great deal of free-
  dom, but it also means Guayaquil has more orgcrime than 
  any other district. Everything that people consider the 
  worst of modern city life exists in Antiguo Guayaquil.
  Since orgcrime has taken over the district, any talk about 
  Guayaquil always involves the latest violence or schemes 
  from the syndicates. 14K members have been flooding in 
  from the bay and port, but Los Scorpiones has long had 
  strong ties to the people here. The Mafia also maintains 
  a slight presence, but all the real construction and work 
  occur in other districts. Lastly, the yakuza keep some rack-
  ets going in Nuevo Guayaquil, preying on the vices of the 
  upper classes. 
  ANTIGUO GUAYAQUIL
  Guayaquil was Ecuador's most populous city before it was 
  incorporated into New Angeles, and its redevelopment 
  started with all the wide-eyed dreams of urban planners 
  setting out to build their “city of the future.” For years, the 
  center of the city was constantly being rebuilt with ever-big-
  ger skyscrapers and protoarcologies, while the port took in 
  much of the raw material sent by sea to build New Angeles. 
  For a time, people assumed that Guayaquil would be New 
  Angeles’ southern commercial hub. 
  In the end, however, proximity to the Beanstalk proved 
  more important. As districts like Rutherford and Laguna 
  Velasco grew bigger and richer, Guayaquil languished in 
  their wake. District officials had overspent and undersaved 
  during the boom years, and without the money to repair 
  or revitalize, whole sections of Guayaquil began to rot. 
  The most prominent was Antiguo Guayaquil, where it was 
  more expensive to tear down or refurbish the old buildings 
  than it was to build new, better arcologies with modern 
  designs a few kilometers to the west. Now, much of Anti-
  guo Guayaquil looks like a city planner’s nightmare. Every 
  terrible stereotype of an undercity exists here—trash piled 
  up on the streets, roads collapsed or blocked off, buildings 
  barricaded inside and out, and pools of grease, muck, and 
  human waste in potholes and basements—and the gov-
  ernment has no plans to revitalize the area.
  FLORINE OJEDA BANK
  14K took over this abandoned bank when it realized the 
  reinforced structure could withstand a rocket barrage or 
  vehicle-mounted railgun. It barricaded the entrances, 
  built walls around a side entrance, and turned the street 
  outside into a kill zone of razor wire and sentry tur-
  rets. Rewired security cameras give it full coverage 
  of the inside and the surrounding city block. 
  Using the bank more as a hideout than a head-
  quarters, 14K also hides supplies and holds 
  and interrogates prisoners in its vault.
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  PARA LOS NIÑOS COMMUNITY CENTER
  In an abandoned section of a business arcology, community 
  members tore down walls and salvaged tables and chairs to 
  build a small community center for children and teenag-
  ers with nowhere to go. Los Niños runs on donations and 
  has no real budget for activities; most of the money goes to 
  repairs, painting the ceilings and walls in colorful patterns, 
  and patching the transplas windows. The community cen-
  ter welcomes gang members, but only if they put aside their 
  gang politics and weapons and treat everyone with respect, 
  so Los Niños has become a neutral ground. 
  THE RUSTY I-BEAM
  The Rusty I-Beam is a run-down, condemned hotel (once 
  part of the now-defunct NetTel chain) where hackers, art-
  ists, and writers have banded together to live illegally. Its 
  walls, floors, and ceilings are scarred and marked from 
  artistic mishaps. The space uses a guerrilla solar-power rig 
  on the roof and steals or piggybacks on wireless Network 
  access from neighboring buildings. It is a good place to get 
  help on a project. The people here want to stay off the radar, 
  so they kick out anyone who might let the corps, orgcrime, 
  or cops on to them.
  KISHANA PERRY: HARD-WORKING SCAVENGER 
  A technician born in ChiLo, Perry found the work drying 
  up in New Angeles and took up what she calls “environmen-
  tal reclamation.” She scrounges abandoned areas for junk to 
  repurpose or resell. She can rattle off the market value of 
  nearly any find, and many antiques found in Laguna Vel-
  asco homes are reclaimed furniture or art found by Perry. 
  She also finds and sells cybernetics and bioroid parts, and 
  she maintains black-market ties. Scavenging has made her 
  wiry, and she misses her natural curly hair but had to shave 
  it off for work. Once she finds full-time employment again 
  or saves enough money, she intends to move out of Guaya-
  quil and away from this life.
  WELCOMING HANDS SHELTER
  This supposedly nondenominational homeless shelter 
  doesn’t receive government funds, but no one knows the 
  identity of the private donors. Relatively permissive, the 
  shelter separates individuals and families into their own 
  sections, each an open space with little privacy, simply 
  bunks and cots in rows. The staff are nonjudgmental and 
  don’t promote religion. Homeless people remain divided 
  about this place. Those who use its services consider it a 
  haven. The rest don’t like the shelter’s shadowy nature and 
  think it may be connected to the Starlight Crusade.
  NUEVO GUAYAQUIL
  Closer to the coast, Nuevo Guayaquil continues to build 
  up, as if desperate to escape the squalor below. The lack of 
  infrastructure maintenance means that new construction 
  goes up in additional layers or sideways into sky bridges. 
  While most districts have sky bridges, skywalks, and slide-
  walks connecting different buildings, Nuevo Guayaquil 
  has the most per square mile. The sky bridges are wide and 
  tall enough to contain their own offices and businesses. In 
  Guayaquil, locals have given them neighborhood names 
  such as Nido de Aquila and La Mano del Cielo. Mean-
  while, urban developers have been quietly removing pub-
  lic accessways into the undercity, even going so far as to 
  take out stairwells and fill entire lower levels of arcologies 
  with hardfoam. This means that for all practical purposes, 
  Nuevo Guayaquil’s undercity is completely buried.
  JACK WEYLAND ARCOLOGY
  One of the first true arcologies in New Angeles, the JWA 
  stood as an example of the future in urban construction 
  during the early, heady years of its incorporation. Per-
  haps appropriately, when Guayaquil began to collapse, the 
  remaining businesses and corporations tended to cluster 
  around the aging arcology, still viewing it as a symbol of 
  hope for the future. 
  The JWA is a prototypical mixed-use arcology, with a 
  plaza-level shopping center and independent commercial 
  offices. Several floors and the arcology tower are owned 
  by the Weyland Consortium, and the upper levels contain 
  the finest hotel in Guayaquil (the Palace at Guayaquil) and 
  luxury apartments. However, below the plaza level, the 
  arcology has been undergoing a slow renovation program 
  for years, which means it’s mostly occupied by criminals 
  and disenfrancistos. Rather than sealing off the lower levels 
  entirely, the owners pay a small mercenary outfit to keep 
  “nonresidents” in their place. Undercity dwellers know 
  that going above level seventy means one’s bullet-riddled 
  corpse is likely to be sent back down a waste-disposal 
  chute as a warning. 
  PARQUE INDUSTRIAL ARCOLOGY
  Once a typical, though small, arcology, the Parque originally 
  had apartments on top, shops and restaurants in the middle, 
  and corporate offices on the bottom. Its lower levels have since 
  been abandoned, and the remaining residents have turned 
  them into a trash dump, filling the empty offices and shops 
  with refuse. Scavengers regularly break in to salvage anything 
  sellable. Some of the residents have gotten violent with the 
  intruders, since the police don’t come around anymore.
  RESISTANCE WALL
  This giant graffiti piece covers an arcology wall, displaying 
  megacorp figures taking bribes, stepping on people, and 
  sitting on crumbling buildings; it also depicts cops and pol-
  iticians crushing the silhouette of Ecuador or New Angeles 
  with their bare hands. Locals consider the wall a tradition. 
  No one knows who keeps adding to the piece; given its mix 
  of old and new art styles, it may be the work of several art-
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  ists. Some believe the art contains hidden messages for an 
  anti-corp resistance group. The graffiti piece incorporates 
  several innovations, among them holographic paint pow-
  ered by sunlight that projects layers of ephemeral images.
  SAN MIGUEL CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL 
  Though it is only a few decades old, the San Miguel Catholic 
  Cathedral has faced nonstop financial trouble, due largely 
  to its over-opulent construction featuring towering spires, 
  arches, and high, holographic ceiling images depicting var-
  ious biblical events. The cathedral’s administration man-
  aged to fend off both the Starlight Crusade and the Order 
  of Sol until recently. The Crusade obtained proof of the 
  administration’s fraud and embezzlement, and in exchange 
  for keeping it quiet, it wants to secretly collect data on the 
  congregation for an unspecified project.
  ANDRE LAZON: EARNEST EVANGELICAL
  Lazon’s family in Peru wouldn’t accept him as a man, so he 
  wrote them off and moved to New Angeles. He continued to 
  have terrible luck until the Order of Sol took him in, giving 
  him a place to live, a job, and a purpose. A new true believer, 
  Lazon distributes literature via the Order’s interactive holo-
  graphic card pamphlets. Despite, or because of, his frail 
  frame, he has an easygoing attitude, joy in talking to people, 
  and inner peace that make him a strong recruiter and com-
  munity leader. Many homeless youths find themselves recep-
  tive to the Order of Sol’s inclusive worship due to his efforts.
  XIMENA NEIGHBORHOOD
  Years ago, the Ximena residential neighborhood exploded 
  with construction and development, but it soon fell into 
  decay. It is one of the most populous neighborhoods in 
  Guayaquil. Despite construction upon construction, large 
  families are packed into tiny apartments, one on top of 
  another stretching up into the sky. Absolutely no industrial 
  or commercial space exists here—there isn’t any room—
  and residents spend an exorbitant amount of time traveling 
  to work or to access basic needs such as food and medicine. 
  As a result, the neighborhood has become a center for the 
  black market. 
  YLESKA MONAR: DANGEROUS 
  REGULATOR 
  Disliked by Guayaquil locals, Monar keeps 
  people from tapping into the power grid 
  illegally, goes after urban farms for mis-
  use of land, arrests those who set up solar 
  farms for business license tax dodging, 
  and condemns buildings where squatters 
  live. Always armed, she sometimes brings 
  cops as backup. Monar is every stereo-
  type of a hard-nosed bureaucrat, 
  with harsh cheekbones 
  and hair tied back into a 
  severe ponytail. She cannot be bribed, has no flexibility, and 
  has survived a couple of assassination attempts. 14K utilizes 
  her predictability to its advantage by anonymously feeding 
  her information about rivals or undesirables in its territory.
  THE WATERWAYS
  Though not an official or even unofficial subdistrict, the areas 
  in and around the estuary and rivers have their own unique 
  character and subcultures. The people here are always on the 
  move, either on boats or on foot. While the waterways pro-
  vide life and sustenance, they are also a powerful vector for 
  disease, especially with the rampant pollution.
  EL PUENTE DE LA UNIDAD NACIONAL 
  (BRIDGE OF NATIONAL UNITY)
  El Puente de la Unidad Nacional encompasses the four 
  original old bridges that cross the rivers Daule and Baba-
  hoyo to connect Guayaquil to the south and east of Ecua-
  dor. Guayaquil built several more bridges to handle the 
  influx of workers, but the name stuck to this specific set 
  of four. These bridges no longer allow vehicle traffic, since 
  people have set up tents and built reclaimed bioplastic hov-
  els on them. The name holds an additional irony because 
  armed pro-Ecuadorian groups congregate here to com-
  plain or plan how to reclaim New Angeles.
  “DAIGO” LAM: CHEERFUL LOOKOUT
  Potbellied and brown from the sun, “Big Brother” owns a 
  food cart and serves fried fish, plantains, and guinea pigs. 
  Definitely not fine cuisine, and 
  nowhere on anyone’s tour-
  ism shoutcast, Lam’s food 
  is nevertheless edible. 
  He tends to wander the 
  docks by the river, greet-
  ing people with a toothy 
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  smile, warning people about the tropical heat, the cops, or 
  pickpockets. Connected to 14K, he monitors the smuggling 
  in and out of Guayaquil, less to watch out for the police 
  than to inform the organization of new power players or 
  signs of trouble. This scouting provides more income for 
  his family and children than the food cart ever could.
  ESTERO SALADO
  Heavily polluted even before the formation of New Ange-
  les, Estero Salado is full of toxic sludge and a bacterial 
  soup that not only makes the estuary’s water a dark, murky 
  black-brown, but causes a terrible stink as well. Boats gen-
  erally don’t ply these waters, and some boats can’t anyway, 
  as strange, taffy-like biochemical strands clog engines and 
  stick to hulls. When 14K wants to punish someone but per-
  haps not kill them, it sends the poor soul out on a rickety 
  boat with some rations until the craft gets lodged in some 
  bio-goop. If the fates allow the prisoner to sail out of Estero 
  Salado alive, 14K declares a pardon.
  NATALIA LUIZA ALMEIDA:  
  QUESTING MICROBIOLOGIST 
  Almeida has never quite done microbiology the traditional 
  way. After studying the proliferation of bacteria in air filters 
  in Brazil, she moved to New Angeles to study viral and bac-
  terial mutations. She trudges through the polluted estuary 
  not for treasure or salvage, but for unique bacteria in order 
  to sell the gene pattern. Her boat functions as both a home 
  and a mobile lab, and she feels equally comfortable in trash 
  heaps as in a corporate office. Currently, most people leave 
  her alone, calling her the “Mad Mudlark of the Salado” 
  since she is usually covered in muck, her hair matted and 
  dirty, stinking to high heaven.
  RÍO GUAYAS AND RÍO DAULE
  Cleaner than the estuary, the rivers Guayas and Daule still 
  see fishing and merchant boats traveling up- and down-
  stream. Lately, the rivers have narrowed, as people have 
  taken old ships, chained or roped them together, and 
  turned them into floating apartments. Tensions between 
  these water squatters and those who work on the rivers 
  have led to the occasional arson, further clogging and pol-
  luting the rivers. Smugglers sneaking goods into Guayaquil 
  and traffickers sneaking people east into the rainforest or 
  Brazil use these rivers as waypoints, too.
  LUIS JUWA: SELF-DELUDED  
  PEOPLE SMUGGLER 
  Juwa traces his ancestry to the Shuar, who have a rich his-
  tory of resistance against the Incas, the Spanish, China’s oil 
  invasion, and now New Angeles. Though the Río Guayas 
  and Río Babahoyo don’t go that far into Ecuador, he regu-
  larly uses the waterways to begin a trek through the jungle 
  into Brazil. They form the first leg of a path by which he 
  helps bioroids and clones escape to freedom. Though the 
  short, compact man thinks he fights a corrupt system, he 
  also smuggles people and androids for the money. Still, 
  while he tells himself that androids aren’t human, he finds 
  their freedom comforting.
  THE BLACK MARKET
  In Guayaquil, the black market isn’t just illegal drugs, 
  stolen goods, and dangerous weapons, but also 
  plumbing, power and infrastructure repair, food, 
  g-modded seeds that can grow in the nutrient-poor 
  soil, and medicines and cybernetics that keep people 
  alive. Guerrilla solar-power farms, designed to be 
  easily packed up and moved at a moment’s notice, 
  pipe power through thick cables down to the under-
  city or into portable rechargeables for couriers to 
  distribute. Pick-up urban farms in vertical gardens, in 
  arrays of planters with soil brought from elsewhere, 
  or on the ground level in earth revealed under torn-up 
  concrete, provide not only food but places for commu-
  nities to congregate. They must be ready to move at 
  a moment’s notice, lest they be dismantled for operat-
  ing without regulations or licenses.
  ON THE RIVER
  Dallas scrambled down the alley. He'd been chased 
  all the way from Nuevo Guayaquil, but now he could 
  see the Bridge of National Unity, just across the small, 
  man-made harbors at the end of the alley. 
  He jumped off the crumbling concrete quay, landing 
  hard in the nearest boat. Dallas stumbled through dirty 
  sheets hung up to dry, leaping to a dilapidated junk, 
  and then a dingy. Angry shouts rose behind him as he 
  made his way across the harbor. 
  He hopped onto the wooden dock on the far side of the 
  harbor, sighing with relief. Just a hundred meters to go–
  The rotting planks exploded beneath him as a fist 
  punched through the wood, grabbing his leg and haul-
  ing him into the filthy water. He surfaced, spluttering, to 
  see a woman in a tac vest that showed off her cyber-en-
  hanced arms, haul herself onto the dock.
  "Dallas Sinclair, I'm Rachel Beckman, authorized 
  bounty hunter. I'm afraid your former business partners 
  want to have a word with you." 
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  Hydroponics &
  02 Recycling
  NBN Branch
  Offices & Facilities
  Midway Station Up
  Vista Hotel
  Commercial Zones
  The Orbital Luxury Hotel & Resort
  Transfer Concourse
  Operations Center
  Station Resident Habs
  Primary Comms Spaceside
  Freefall
  Exosphere Luxury Condominiums
  Midway Station Down
  Primary Comms
  Earthside
  Casino Grande
  Midway Station:
  Top View
  MIDWAY STATION
  A
  s its name suggests, Midway Station sits in geosta-
  tionary orbit at roughly the halfway point between 
  Earth and the Challenger Planetoid. It splits the 
  Beanstalk’s tether between the Root and the Castle high 
  above. Midway itself is a large space station. Traffic arrives 
  at and departs from it continually, bound for Earth or the 
  Challenger Planetoid in beanpods, or transferring to shut-
  tles serving other detached stations in geosynchronous 
  orbit. There is virtually no downtime 
  aboard the station. It must operate at close 
  to full capacity at all hours to maintain 
  the Beanstalk’s relentless schedule 
  and attempt to keep the perma-
  nent backlog from getting 
  even worse.
  By necessity, Midway is the oldest element of the Bean-
  stalk. Before assuming its role as the world’s most import-
  ant transfer station, it was the point from which the con-
  struction of the space elevator emanated. The buckyweave 
  ribbons that would be knit together to make the tether 
  snaked upward and planetward from manufacturing facil-
  ities at each end of the station. The tether is about forty 
  meters thick at Midway, the widest cross section along 
  its length. Within Midway, the residences, entertainment 
  complexes, and medical facilities once filled with thou-
  sands of Weyland staff and construction workers now 
  serve Space Elevator Authority (SEA) crew or NBN staff, 
  or were converted into private or public facilities.
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  Many beanpod passengers never stray beyond the center 
  of Midway, its Transfer Concourse, which stretches between 
  the ends of the Earth-bound and Challenger-bound mag-lev 
  lines. The beanpods cannot traverse the gap. All passengers 
  must disembark and pass through the cylindrical Transfer 
  Concourse to continue their journey, and cargo must be 
  transferred as well. The end of the station facing Earth is 
  known as Midway Station Down, while the end facing the 
  Challenger Planetoid is called Midway Station Up.
  The station houses permanent residents as well as tens of 
  thousands of tourists and other travelers. Unsurprisingly, a 
  significant portion of Midway staff are bioroids and clones, but 
  the number of travelers staying on the station for an extended 
  period of time is greater than one would expect. The Bean-
  stalk’s ever-present backlog makes unscheduled travel diffi-
  cult and expensive, as beanpods are rarely sent up-Stalk half 
  empty, and every travel cancellation is immediately filled from 
  a lengthy standby list. Thus, travelers who miss their departure 
  window find themselves stuck on Midway while waiting for a 
  free seat. In addition, while the SEA keeps seats open for Mid-
  way staff to return to Earth on occasion, the majority find it 
  easier—and desirable—to remain on station. 
  Beyond travel and tourism facilities, nearly half of Mid-
  way Station is dedicated to a major NBN branch office. 
  Most of the office consists of technical staff maintaining 
  endless arrays of broadcast equipment. However, some 
  famous NBN on- and behind-the-scenes staff are aboard to 
  carry out broadcasts throughout the solar system. 
  Finally, many well-known megacorporations maintain 
  offices on Midway. Despite the travel congestion, the sta-
  tion still provides one of the best meeting places for the 
  powerful and wealthy. For corporations with offices on 
  Luna or elsewhere in the solar system, a meeting at Mid-
  way saves the time and expense of an entire trip Earth-side. 
  This also holds true for anyone living in one of the many 
  other stations in Earth orbit. Likewise, a jaunt up and down 
  the Beanstalk is far more practical for their Earth-side col-
  leagues than a ferry ride to Luna. 
  THE BEANSTALK
  The Beanstalk dominates Midway Station both physically 
  and commercially, and thus is the focus of station activity. 
  Four major facilities serve the needs of Beanstalk travel. 
  MIDWAY STATION DOWN
  All beanpods from Earth stop at Midway Station Down. 
  Disembarking travelers and cargo deliveries move directly 
  into the Transfer Concourse. Down contains beanpod 
  maintenance bays, arrival zones, departure waiting zones, 
  and a robust security screening system. Beanpods arrive 
  at all hours and maintain a strict schedule. While station 
  staff offer an initial warm welcome, the relentless schedule 
  means they must prioritize speed over friendliness when 
  there are pods to be turned around—and there always are. 
  MIDWAY STATION UP
  Midway Station Up mirrors and includes all the function-
  ality of Down for runs to and from the Challenger Plane-
  toid. SEA crew also prepare beanpods for slingshotting off 
  the end of the Beanstalk for direct travel to Luna or Mars 
  during the appropriate launch window. Cargo tends to 
  stack up in Up’s storage facilities when either body is out 
  of position for economical travel. When Midway is over-
  loaded, cargo occasionally disappears or becomes lost in a 
  3D maze of enormous floating containers and crates that 
  get packed into the storage bays. Unscrupulous staff and 
  smugglers use the confusion to slip contraband through the 
  system or outright steal legitimate deliveries. 
  OPERATIONS CENTER
  Once a beanpod hits the halfway point from Earth or Chal-
  lenger, it is under the control of the Midway Station Oper-
  ations Center. Buried deep near the heart of the station 
  behind layers of reinforced armor and redundant airlocks, 
  Ops serves the same purpose as its Root and Challenger 
  Planetoid counterparts: directing the chaotic mess of traffic 
  that passes up and down the Beanstalk each day. Ops also 
  handles the work that goes into the day-to-day running of 
  the station. Since the station is a self-sufficient spaceborne 
  facility that handles traffic from both the Beanstalk and 
  other orbital stations, that work tends to be considerable.
  The spherical room is generally packed with people, all 
  tethered to their individual workstations along the walls. The 
  duty officer oversees their work from the room’s center, next 
  to a real-time holographic display of Midway Station and its 
  surroundings. Given the vital importance of the Beanstalk to 
  just about everyone involved in it, the staff is a mix of New 
  Angeles city employees, SEA personnel, Weyland Consor-
  tium representatives, and even a few officers from the U.S. 
  Space Expeditionary Corps. Chief Administrator Ando 
  Asuka holds this diverse group together; Ops is where she 
  can usually be found while on duty, studying the holodisplay 
  with her hands clasped behind her back like a ship’s captain. 
  ANDO ASUKA: MIDWAY CHIEF ADMINISTRATOR 
  Midway’s chief administrator is part corporate executive, 
  part civil servant, and part ship’s captain (complete with 
  performing the occasional wedding). She is first and fore-
  most responsible for safely maintaining a steady and unin-
  terrupted flow of traffic up and down the Beanstalk. To 
  achieve that, the station must conduct smooth and orga-
  nized operations, something that is very much a reflection 
  of the chief’s style and personality. 
  Chief Ando rose successfully through Weyland’s cor-
  porate leadership, which culminated in an orchestrated 
  transferal to the SEA. She became Midway’s chief admin-
  istrator a few years ago, when rivalries between corporate 
  and international government interests were regularly dis-
  rupting operations. Using a hands-on management style 
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  and skillful negotiating tactics, Asuka 
  diffused the situation. More loyal to 
  Weyland than to the SEA, she takes a 
  personal interest in most aspects of 
  the station. She often turns up unex-
  pectedly to observe trouble spots 
  firsthand. 
  SUSILO MEGA: CURIOUS 
  SECURITY CHIEF 
  Susilo Mega is a thirty-year veteran security 
  and law enforcement officer. He served at 
  stations from the Root to the Castle before 
  Chief Ando promoted him to Midway chief of 
  security a few months after she took over. He 
  is especially adept at intercepting contraband 
  secreted away on the beanpods. Chief Mega 
  loves to take on a good mystery and reopens 
  cold cases whenever warranted. Shady corpo-
  rate executives and transportation personnel are 
  wary (and weary) of his investigations. 
  TRANSFER CONCOURSE
  After arriving at Midway Up or Down, travel-
  ers proceed to other parts of the station via the 
  cavernous and chaotic Transfer Concourse. 
  Pairs of color-coded safety lines crisscross 
  the cylindrical, thirty-meter-wide con-
  course, guiding wide-eyed tourists and 
  weary travelers to their destinations. 
  Side hatches lead to tubes providing 
  FREEFALLING
  One thing travelers tend to forget (until their first 
  step out of the beanpod sends them tumbling across 
  the Transfer Concourse) is that Midway is effectively 
  a zero-G station (technically, it is a microgravity 
  environment, but that distinction hardly matters for 
  the everyday traveler). Areas with artificial gravity 
  are completely separate structures located a few 
  kilometers from Midway, accessible via twelve-per-
  son, short-range spacecraft called “spaxies.” Those 
  stations can rotate as required to create the desired 
  gravity, though most do not spin fast enough to 
  obtain full Earth gravity, instead topping out at a 
  quarter-G or half-G. Not all of these are hotels or 
  facilities serving tourists. Some are specialized 
  industrial orbital assembly plants and NBN trans-
  mission platforms.
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  quick access to other points within the station, and some 
  areas have been turned over to shops and other commer-
  cial enterprises. In many ways, the Transfer Concourse 
  looks like any other airport or spaceport, though it is laid 
  out for microgravity. 
  The concourse is closely watched by SEA personnel, who 
  help keep visitors inexperienced in microgravity safe and 
  moving while watching for any security risks. Such person-
  nel are absolutely necessary, as most travelers don’t have 
  the experience or training to handle microgravity. More 
  often than not, a SEA attendant ends up dragging their 
  charge around on a tether before finding the correct safety 
  line, slapping the traveler’s hand into a loop, then telling 
  them to crawl along the line to their destination. 
  EERO TAKALA: BRIBABLE COORDINATOR
  Transfer coordinators work the Transfer Concourse, mak-
  ing sure travelers and cargo find their way through the 
  chaos to the right safety lines and destinations. Often called 
  “pushers,” the coordinators are experts in zero-G maneu-
  vering and physically guide (i.e., shove) errant people and 
  containers in the correct direction. 
  Eero is a typical pusher, and he knows everything about 
  the concourse. He uses this to his personal advantage, as he 
  expertly and clandestinely facilitates the movement of con-
  traband up and down the Beanstalk. Slipping Eero a decent 
  number of credits can assure that something or someone 
  arrives ahead of schedule—or becomes delayed in seem-
  ingly endless paperwork. 
  COMMERCIAL ZONES
  Midway Station’s commercial zones radiate out from 
  the Beanstalk in circular arcs, giving the entire station a 
  roughly cylindrical appearance. Given that Midway is the 
  easiest way to access anything in geosynchronous orbit, 
  the station’s outer rings have become important space-
  port facilities in their own right. In addition, the station is 
  slowly but constantly expanding and growing as new facil-
  ities get built. 
  CASINO GRANDE 
  Casino Grande is Midway’s largest and best-known gam-
  bling destination. It is the place to see and be seen for the 
  wealthy, the powerful, and the countless celebrities visiting 
  the station. The casino and its extravagant zero-G “surreal-
  ity” theaters, restaurants, and entertainment zones occupy 
  their own multilevel partial ring spanning the space 
  between the Derek Carlisle Residential Complex and the 
  T. M. Gonzalez Mercantile Spire. Casino Grande features 
  cutting-edge and trendy ways to part people from their 
  money, alongside traditional games. 
  The casino’s splendor conceals its dark side. It hires 
  third-party “debt specialists” to shake down deadbeats. It 
  also employs armed guards to escort its popular but out-
  rageously expensive tournament prizes from Earth or 
  the Moon, with standing orders to eliminate anyone who 
  even appears to be making a move to steal the goods. A 
  few “misunderstandings” have led to bodies being dropped 
  from the station to de-orbit and burn up on reentry.
  EXOSPHERE LUXURY 
  CONDOMINIUMS 
  Exosphere caters to Midway’s super-wealthy residents, cor-
  porate executives, and upper-level NBN management and 
  talent. Some megacorps retain apartments there for visiting 
  employees. The condominiums are extravagant for a space 
  station, with real wood trim, Martian red-stone veneer 
  walls, and live, flowering plants. There are single-bedroom 
  and larger units, some housing up to a dozen individuals. 
  The complex sits about a third of the way “up” the station. 
  It has its own security guards and a remarkably discreet 
  concierge service. 
  FREEFALL
  Freefall is a restaurant that combines a straightforward 
  microgravity dining experience with a spectacular view-
  ing environment. Its enormous variable-transparency wall 
  provides an impressive view of Earth. The solid and semi-
  solid food is decent and served zero-G style in packets and 
  containers with straws. Freefall draws tourists and trav-
  elers inexperienced in eating in space, so the dining area 
  waitstaff are always available to aid confused or struggling 
  guests. Self-mobile vacu-bots patrol the area, pulling in 
  wayward crumbs and amoeba-like liquid globs.
  HONEYMOON HILTON
  The Honeymoon Hilton is a self-contained satellite a few 
  kilometers from Midway Station. Its facilities do their best 
  to merge the practical considerations of zero-G with the 
  luxury one would expect from a high-end hotel, with odd-
  ities like gold-plated suction plumbing systems, and hall-
  ways lined with velvet grab-loops. The microgravity hotel 
  is marketed to newlyweds and others with an interest in 
  the fun and frustrations of erotic zero-G activities. It does 
  less business to corporate interests and Beanstalk travelers, 
  since they tend to be less enthusiastic about traveling from 
  Midway station proper.
  To offset this, the Hilton offers an automated free spaxi 
  service to and from Midway and its satellite stations, with 
  spaxies that can transport up to ten guests at a time. Free-
  loaders manipulate the service for free transportation to 
  the satellite stations. While the freeloaders may be toler-
  ated, anyone who causes trouble on the spaxies gets booted 
  off at Midway, and their biometrics are logged to enforce a 
  permanent ban. 
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  NBN BRANCH OFFICE
  The NBN branch office and related operations at Midway 
  take up about half of the station’s facilities, making NBN 
  Midway’s largest employer. The main-entrance lobby is 
  a geodesic sphere twenty-four meters across, with about 
  thirty hatches scattered across the triangular panels. The 
  center of the sphere is a massive, state-of-the-art NBN holo-
  graphic system displaying NBN shows and personalities. 
  Flat-panel displays covering the inside surface of the dome 
  show popular NBN products or repeat a show on the main 
  display. Sometimes these panels instead offer 360-degree 
  views of various Earth, Mars, or lunar environments. 
  The hatches lead to various levels within the administra-
  tion departments, broadcast studios, and Karen Li Techni-
  cal Training Academy. With no need for seating, and no 
  gravity to hold things to a tabletop, the offices utilize all of 
  the surfaces of a room. Swing-out metal panels with mag-
  netic holders keep papers in place, when they are used at all. 
  NBN broadcast equipment is scattered throughout the 
  station. NBN maintains several dedicated orbital platforms 
  covered with antenna towers and dishes communicat-
  ing with all of the inhabited areas of the solar system. A 
  sizable private security force protects the high concentra-
  tion of equipment from runners and others looking for an 
  unguarded entry point to NBN’s network.  
  TUESDAY LAYENI: NBN GUARDIAN
  Tuesday Layeni is part of NBN’s army of skilled computer 
  and broadcast technicians. A graduate of the Karen Li Tech-
  nical Training Academy, Tuesday works on a wide variety 
  of NBN systems. She’s a loyal employee, ready and able to 
  defend the NBN network on- or off-line. Layeni leads a 
  mobile group of computer and electronics field technicians 
  who focus on problems that cross equipment platforms and 
  NBN departments. They operate more like a Netcrimes 
  investigation task force than a tech-support team, even 
  going out into the field to track down elusive hackers. Lay-
  eni will pay for good information on threats to NBN. 
  SHEER HEAVEN
  For those who cannot adjust to zero-G dining, or just need 
  a break from microgravity, Sheer Heaven provides a tra-
  ditional dining experience. The small, specialized cylin-
  drical satellite spins along its long axis to produce up to .5 
  G. Accessible via spaxi service, Sheer Heaven offers a mid-
  range to expensive dining experience, with more desirable 
  (and pricey) seating at each transparent end of the cylinder. 
  Clients rent ballrooms here for galas and formal receptions, 
  dinners, and events.
  THE ORBITAL LUXURY  
  HOTEL AND RESORT
  The Orbital is a prime, five-star hotel and self-contained 
  resort. Whether the rich and powerful go for the full resort 
  treatment or just spend a night during a beanpod layover, 
  the Orbital is their first choice. It specializes in high-end 
  entertainment and multimedia relaxation spas called 
  “tranquility chambers,” which are unique to microgravity 
  environments. The Orbital’s casino competes fiercely with 
  Casino Grande, but the hotel attracts high rollers even if 
  they gamble or party elsewhere. 
  VISTA HOTEL
  The Vista is Midway’s largest hotel for travelers of middle 
  to above-average income. It has a clean, sleek look, with an 
  ultraminimalist design, slim curvilinear furnishings, and 
  near-Spartan decor. What it lacks in quantity it makes up 
  for in quality. The Vista’s location close to Midway Station 
  Down gives it impressive views of the distant planet below. 
  It also provides a convenient spot for clandestine meetings. 
  The hotel has a large range of room styles, room sizes, 
  and price points. At the low end, the rooms are small, 
  containing only sleeping bags strapped to the walls and 
  wall-mounted entertainment panels. A private bathroom 
  with a tiny enclosed bathing unit introduces newcomers 
  to zero-G washing. At the upper end, multiroom stylized 
  suites are available, though they are modest compared to 
  the Orbital’s offerings. 
  BEANPOD SLINGSHOT
  A specially designed beanpod rising from Midway 
  toward the Castle can use its speed to shoot off the end 
  of its mag-lev track, through the Challenger Planetoid. 
  This sends the pod flying in a slow, precisely calcu-
  lated orbit to eventually arrive at the Moon, Mars, or 
  elsewhere in the solar system. As these pods depend 
  on the momentum generated during the trip up the 
  Beanstalk, Midway is their last stop before they fly off 
  the tether. 
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  Station Resident Habs
  Farside Docking Ports
  Beanstalk
  High Frontier
  Beanpod Launching Facility
  Castle Club
  Port McNair
  Alpha Prospecting
  Processing Facility
  Challenger Memorial
  Shuttle Port
  Challenger Mines
  Surface Domes
  Challenger Planetoid:
  Bottom View
  CHALLENGER PLANETOID
  S
  ome seventy thousand kilometers above the Root, 
  the Beanstalk ends at the Challenger Planetoid. This 
  rocky, irregular asteroid acts as the Beanstalk’s fly-
  ing counterweight in geosynchronous orbit, stretching the 
  buckyweave tether and keeping it taut. The 
  asteroid is about five kilometers across. 
  Capturing and towing it into orbit was a 
  remarkable feat of engineering in and of 
  itself. The planetoid’s position at the end 
  of the Beanstalk gives it .04 G spin gravity, 
  which is still microgravity.
  The Challenger Planetoid is often called “the Castle,” a 
  reference to the old fairy-tale beanstalk. The asteroid’s link 
  to the Beanstalk and the construction to make it a travel 
  hub were accomplished not by giants, but by construc-
  tion workers and engineers. Much like Midway Station, 
  the Castle services and maintains beanpod oversight and 
  repair facilities. It provides accommodations for travelers 
  and staff, and it serves as a popular tourist destination for 
  those who can’t afford a trip farther out. The planetoid is 
  divided into Nearside and Farside structures: Nearside 
  faces the Earth, while Farside never sees it.  
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  Although its gravity is a bit stronger than Midway Station’s, 
  the Challenger Planetoid, as large as it is, still isn’t massive 
  enough to generate noticeable (let alone useful) gravity for 
  people living on its surface. However, it does contain struc-
  tures able to generate their own, much stronger, spin gravity, 
  such as Castle Club. This enables the inhabitants to expe-
  rience gravity on a regular basis to counteract some of the 
  long-term biological consequences of living in space. 
  The Castle serves as a major spaceport to the rest of the 
  solar system. Flights constantly arrive from and depart 
  to Luna and Mars, and some ships are starting to venture 
  toward destinations in the asteroid belt. Cargo beanpods 
  constantly launch off the tip of the Beanstalk in a nev-
  er-ending stream of automated shipments. In addition, 
  routing passengers and cargo traffic down the Beanstalk 
  is typically more economical than landing spacecraft on 
  Earth. With a few exceptions, such as heat-shielded bulk 
  ore deliveries dropped into approved ocean landing zones, 
  most cargo destined for Earth takes the Beanstalk down, 
  and this includes the eternal flow of He-3 containers. 
  The Beanstalk ends at the massive Challenger Beanstalk 
  Terminal. Since the terminal is on the near side of the plan-
  etoid, any beanpods launching directly into space seam-
  lessly transfer from the end of the Beanstalk onto a dedi-
  cated mag-lev launch line. The beanpods zip through the 
  center of the planetoid and shoot out of the far side. Most 
  cargo craft are unstaffed or crewed by bioroids. Passenger 
  craft have a crew of humans, bioroids, or both. 
  Like the rest of the Beanstalk, the Castle is managed by 
  the SEA. However, given that Challenger Planetoid is many 
  times larger than Midway Station, it has far more privately 
  held structures and leased portions. Mining activity at the 
  Challenger Mines is strictly regulated to avoid compromis-
  ing the asteroid’s structural integrity, mass, or anything else 
  that could affect the Beanstalk. New construction must be 
  thoroughly reviewed, and the largest structures must be 
  strategically located and balanced out.
  The Castle’s heavy industries produce materials and 
  goods for its own use and for export. These are mostly 
  privately held companies subject to heavy oversight by 
  the SEA. Due to the Beanstalk’s continual backlog, most 
  exports are destined for the Moon or Mars.
  The Challenger Planetoid’s unique crossroads position and 
  easier access to and from the rest of the solar system makes 
  it more attractive than Midway Station for wealthy individ-
  uals wishing to live and work along the Beanstalk. Stories of 
  outrageously luxurious accommodations featuring materi-
  als from across the system abound, though most are more 
  rumor than fact. Still, tales of Challenger’s wealthy residents 
  making trips to Midway or the Moon for slumming around 
  certainly help the rumors spread. Anyone with a complaint 
  about society’s division of wealth can find plenty of examples 
  throughout Challenger’s sprawling structures. 
  NEARSIDE FACILITIES
  Nearside is dominated by the Challenger Beanstalk Termi-
  nal. The remainder of Nearside hosts most of the planetoid’s 
  commercial and residential facilities. The extremely low 
  spin gravity imparted by the Beanstalk’s tether means that 
  residents consider Nearside to be on the “top” of the plan-
  etoid—as gravity pulls people and objects gently toward 
  Farside—and it’s also the side with a view of Earth. Thus, 
  developers see it as the most desirable piece of real estate. 
  BEANSTALK MAINTENANCE BAY
  The maintenance bay, which takes up almost a quarter of 
  the Challenger Terminal, is a massive, multilevel warehouse 
  full of beanpods and automated cranes for lifting and mov-
  ing them around. Shifts run day and night to turn beanpods 
  around and prepare them for the return trip to Midway 
  Station. Bioroids make up about half of the staff who keep 
  the never-ending cycle running efficiently. There are always 
  beanpod overhauls and unexpected repairs to be carried 
  out. The bay is fully stocked with parts and supplies. 
  CASINO CLUB 
  This high-stakes gambling den attempts to channel the 
  opulence of old Monte Carlo casinos and other luxurious 
  pleasure palaces of days gone by. The club has just about 
  every type of game designed to part a fool from their 
  money, though some—such as roulette and craps—have 
  been adapted to the microgravity environment. The dealers 
  and attendants are all specially ordered clones in full tuxe-
  dos, though the human floor managers handle the money. 
  The walls all offer stunning views of the Earth, the surface 
  of the Challenger Planetoid, and even approaching space-
  ships—which, since the club is buried twenty meters below 
  the asteroid’s surface, are all projections from cameras scat-
  tered across the surface. 
  CHALLENGER 
  LOCATIONS
  The Castle is big enough that it has two distinct regions. 
  Nearside is the side nearest the Earth and Midway Sta-
  tion, and it is the attachment point for the Beanstalk. Far-
  side is the side farthest from Earth and Midway. Due to 
  the planetoid’s .04 G spin gravity, the building interiors 
  are upside down with respect to Earth: the floor is on the 
  end of the building farthest away from Earth, and the 
  ceiling is on the end nearest Earth. Connections between 
  Nearside and Farside tunnel through the middle of the 
  planetoid. Small shuttlecraft and spaxies are also avail-
  able for travel to various parts of the planetoid and other 
  nearby locations.
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  CASTLE CLUB
  About a kilometer from the terminal via mag-lev tubes is the 
  famous Castle Club, a low-gravity fantasy land and enter-
  tainment zone. It consists of two partially buried wheels 
  some two hundred meters in diameter, each with three decks 
  in concentric rings. The wheels spin in opposite directions, 
  providing each with .5 G (outer deck) to .33 G (inner deck). 
  The counteracting spins keep the rotation from affecting the 
  planetoid and the Beanstalk. Originally called the Carousel, 
  the facility was purchased and renamed by casino developer 
  Gianfranco Calderoli. Now, the Castle Club offers all manner 
  of entertainment for the rich and famous, including clubs, 
  bars, and restaurants as well as sports, rides, flying lessons, 
  and other activities made new and exciting by being per-
  formed in a low-gravity environment. 
  CHALLENGER TERMINAL
  Aside from beanpods scheduled for launch off the end of the 
  Beanstalk, the Challenger Beanstalk Terminal is the ultimate 
  destination for most pods. The terminal dominates all Near-
  side structures in size and importance. It operates much like 
  an airport, with waiting areas, embarkation stations, arrival 
  platforms, pod-maintenance facilities, and a traffic control 
  command center. The terminal is surprisingly utilitarian in 
  layout and aesthetics, a reminder that the Challenger Plan-
  etoid is still a frontier, despite its importance and busyness. 
  Recently, in an effort to counter this impression, the port 
  authorities have given incentives for several upscale stores 
  and restaurants that cater to rich and famous travelers to set 
  up shop within the facilities.
  LAWRENCE YATES: CHIEF 
  ADMINISTRATOR
  Larry Yates has been the chief administrator for the last 
  five years. He must keep people and goods flowing along 
  the Beanstalk, without openly playing favorites among 
  nations and commercial entities. Managing this with ruth-
  less efficiency, he is notoriously unafraid to stand up 
  to any company or government. He regularly argues 
  with Chief Administrator Ando at Midway Station, 
  but they ultimately must cooperate, as they share the 
  same goals. 
  CLOUDTOP
  The Cloudtop night club is a lively restaurant and live-mu-
  sic venue within the Castle Club complex. It plays com-
  pletely to the cloud top theme. The entire place is in 
  shades of white or light gray. Fog machines keep the 
  floor flooded in a wispy mist. Puffy, cloud-like 
  holographic projections shroud the furniture and 
  elevated platforms. The lighting imitates sunrise, 
  sunset, or midnight, or the club simply uses the 
  expansive Earth-facing windows to set the tone. 
  Compared to the rest of the Castle Club or Casino 
  Club, Cloudtop is relatively inexpensive and attracts 
  middle-class tourists and travelers. 
  L-STRIKE: AGGRESSIVE CLUB OWNER
  An energetic young woman calling herself “L-Strike” 
  is Cloudtop’s flamboyant and charismatic owner. She is 
  heavily tattooed in stylized lightning bolts, glowing with 
  fully controllable sub-dermal bioluminescent implants. 
  Although only moderately skilled in other performing arts, 
  she is a master emcee and the face of the establishment. 
  Her moniker also alludes to the fact that she’s a trained 
  martial artist, particularly with nunchaku (for which 
  L-strike is a demonstration technique). She has 
  been known to personally bounce troublemak-
  ers. She knows the Cloudtop regulars and is 
  well connected in Castle social circles. 
  CRIME IN THE CASTLE
  While the Castle doesn't have a physical "undercity" 
  in the same way that New Angeles or Heinlein does, a 
  criminal network runs still throughout the station, linking 
  ultra-wealthy orgcrime bosses with street level enforc-
  ers.  Runners enjoy a particular prominence amongst 
  the Castle's crooks, because defeating Challenger's 
  surveillance systems and accessing sealed areas of the 
  station is an absolute must in an artificial environment. 
  Organized groups of dockworkers and miners fill the 
  same role as undercity street gangs, to the point of fight-
  ing over territory and jobs. And there's always work 
  for someone who can make people disappear into the 
  cold, dark blackness of space.
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  HIGH FRONTIER
  High Frontier is a large hotel, business, and convention 
  center just an underground slidewalk away from the Chal-
  lenger Beanstalk Terminal. It is a popular venue for major 
  industry shows and meetings. It caters to the business trav-
  eler rather than tourists or celebrities, but it is perfectly 
  capable of serving any customer. It houses multilevel ball-
  rooms, boardrooms, meeting spaces, and convention halls. 
  Rooms range from modest and affordable spaces to large 
  and overpriced suites. 
  FARSIDE FACILITIES
  The Farside Facilities moniker encompasses all of the indi-
  vidual commercial and industrial facilities that dominate 
  the planetoid’s far side. A few have their own dedicated 
  structures, while others share workspaces and self-con-
  tained industrial complexes. Due to the need to keep Chal-
  lenger stable, the facilities are a cluster of structures of 
  seemingly random—but carefully balanced—orientation, 
  shape, and purpose.
  CHALLENGER MEMORIAL  
  SHUTTLE PORT
  Named in honor of the lost NASA space shuttle Chal-
  lenger, the Memorial Shuttle Port is home to the Chal-
  lenger Memorial Ferry Service to Starport Kaguya on the 
  Moon. Cut into the side of the planetoid, the port is almost 
  zero-G thanks to its nearly gravity-neutral position within 
  the Castle. The port’s passenger transfer tubes connect 
  docked shuttles to a cluster of small, subterranean waiting 
  compartments. Aside from the exclusive Lunar Club wait-
  ing compartment, the rest of the port is very utilitarian and 
  shows signs of continuous usage. 
  The ferry service’s pricey express shuttle trips aboard 
  fusion-powered spacecraft take between one and three days 
  to reach the Moon, depending on where it is located with 
  respect to the Castle. However, most freight and the stan-
  dard passenger service use the “slow boat.” These ferries 
  utilize the Castle’s momentum to send them on a weeks-
  long journey via a precisely calculated curved trajectory 
  without the use of fuel.
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  CHALLENGER MINES
  The Challenger Mines supply raw materials for the orbital 
  construction of facilities on and around the Castle. Though 
  they are often referred to as a single entity, the mines consist 
  of different allied and competing ore-extraction companies. 
  Alpha Prospecting owns about a third of the mines, and it is 
  always trying to secure more claims. Surface domes cover the 
  mine facilities and twisting tunnel system. With their bioroid 
  workforce always growing, the mines are a favorite target for 
  anti-bioroid protests and sabotage. Corporate interests have 
  hired prisec security to keep their interests safe. Rumor has it 
  that many of these prisec forces have ended up in fights with 
  other security teams over who controls a particular stretch 
  of tunnel or surface space, and that more than a few team 
  members have been lost to “industrial accidents.” 
  SPIKE DUBOIS: CHALLENGER MINER
  Mikhail “Spike” Dubois has worked the Challenger Mines 
  since before the Battle of the Beanstalk. He moves from 
  employer to employer, chasing jobs and promotions. He’s lost 
  enough jobs (and seen friends lose theirs) to bioroids to make 
  him a vocal and occasionally violent opponent of all bioroid 
  expansion into almost any working field. As a Human First 
  member, he is quite happy to sabotage bioroids directly or 
  through social engineering among workers and managers. He 
  leads a crew of like-minded miners who are also happy to bust 
  some Haas-Bioroid heads when they get the chance.
  FARSIDE DOCKING PORTS
  The Farside docking ports serve spacecraft arriving at the Chal-
  lenger Planetoid and departing for all destinations, including 
  the Moon. They are the arrival point for Moon-launched 
  helium-3 canisters, which are transferred to the Beanstalk via 
  connecting tunnels. These ports feature cavernous openings 
  cut into the planetoid that are able to receive bulky cargo craft. 
  They also have large storage bays where ships can be secured 
  for long-term storage or maintenance. The ports provide 
  plenty of work for crews of technicians and starship mechan-
  ics, who spend months living in the adjacent dormitory com-
  plexes before transferring back down to Earth. 
  ZHANG BIK: FARSIDE DOCK TECHNICIAN
  Bik is one of a large team of techs and engineers who work 
  the Farside docking ports, servicing and maintaining ships 
  and cargo pods. Bik tackles the complex guidance and pro-
  pulsion systems of intrasystem ships. They also secretly 
  moonlight as a runner called “Deep Green,” using their 
  access to ships owned by various corporations to covertly 
  penetrate their systems and networks. Any information 
  they do not have a direct use for, they sell online. 
  PORT MCNAIR
  The United States Space Expeditionary Corps (SXC) oper-
  ates from Port McNair, the military base and space docks 
  on the Challenger Planetoid. Made famous for its role in 
  the repulsion of the combined Martian and Lunar fleets 
  during the Battle of the Beanstalk, Port McNair is one of 
  the only facilities in the solar system housing and support-
  ing dedicated military spacecraft. It also serves as the heart 
  of the Beanstalk’s defenses. 
  Port McNair’s fleet consists of three squadrons of SA/F-
  01A Strikers—the same orbital attack fighters used during 
  the Battle of the Beanstalk—along with several converted 
  freighters to transport military cargos or deploy forces to 
  Mars, Luna, or elsewhere in the solar system. The port also 
  has a number of military dropships in case the SXC needs 
  to get troops down to Earth’s surface quickly. 
  Although all of McNair’s military spacecraft are converted 
  civilian models, the port is home to the test program for a 
  new generation of ships specifically built to serve as orbital 
  fighters. Sources report that four SA/F-05D Thunderbolts 
  have already been delivered to the port and are being put 
  through their paces by the resident squadron commanders. 
  While the fighter squadrons can strike at nearly any tar-
  get in Earth orbit, Port McNair’s weaponry is still centered 
  around offensive missiles and defensive counter-missile sys-
  tems. For offense, the port keeps a number of “slow launch” 
  strategic missiles. These are dropped off the docks, and 
  then the missile control officer fires their powerful rockets 
  to set up an attack vector and propel them to their target at 
  high speed. In theory, these weapons could strike targets 
  on the Moon—but in practice, the bright signature of the 
  rockets and a roughly two-day transit time means they’d be 
  easily intercepted. The missiles are more than sufficient to 
  hit closer targets, like other orbital structures, however. 
  For defense, McNair maintains ten counter-missile banks 
  scattered across the planetoid’s surface to provide complete 
  defensive coverage, each loaded with thirty Star Sparrow 
  interceptor missiles. Using a combination of kinetic buck-
  shot warheads and EMP devices, these defenses should be 
  able to shoot down anything sent their way. 
  The port employs hundreds of permanent staff, about 
  eight hundred SXC troopers, and about five hundred train-
  ees. Training programs for both officers and enlisted per-
  sonnel specialize in combat in zero-G and microgravity 
  environments. This ranges from free-floating, extravehic-
  ular fighting to so-called surface fighting and close combat 
  within the confined spaces typically found on the Castle 
  and aboard spacecraft. The most infamous of these facili-
  ties is Lights Out, a stretch of abandoned mines repurposed 
  by the SXC. The entire maze of tunnels and passages is 
  depressurized and unlit, and trainees have to find their way 
  to various objectives using only their suit radar systems for 
  guidance, all the while fighting against “aggressor squads” 
  composed of SXC troopers equipped with full VR maps 
  of the mines. All combat is done with low-power training 
  lasers. Getting through Lights Out with only fifty percent 
  “casualties” is considered a success for any officer candi-
  date; most need three runs to hit that mark.
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  Melange Mining
  Main Facilities
  Melange Mining
  Subsidiary Station
  Docklands Surface Sprawl
  Blue Sun Primary Fusion Plant
  Starport Kaguya
  Starshield Complex
  Armstrong Base
  Tsuki No Miyako
  Jinteki Development
  Complex
  The Docklands
  Abandoned Subsidiary Station
  Tranquility Home
  Angel Arena
  Harriman Dome
  Melange Mining
  Main Facilities
  Lunacent
  HEINLEIN
  T
  o many on Earth, Heinlein is synonymous with the 
  Moon. No longer does the Moon seem to wane and 
  vanish in the night sky every month. Now, as it turns 
  to face the sun, glittering jewels of light appear across the Sea 
  of Tranquility and beyond. These are the lights of Heinlein 
  Colony and its web of satellite domes, a visible reminder that 
  millions of people now live and work on the Moon.
  Built on and under the lunar surface, Heinlein is a col-
  lection of domes, stations, tunnels, and warrens. Politically, 
  Heinlein is the distant (and often overlooked) twelfth dis-
  trict of New Angeles. Publicly, it is widely known for its 
  independence and the autonomy that it maintains in its 
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  everyday affairs. Realistically, the mining corporations 
  dominate the district’s government and economy—and 
  much of the rest of the Moon as well. 
  To be sure, the attitudes of independence are grounded in 
  a pragmatic outlook on life on the Moon. Heinlein’s issues 
  and realities are far different from those of Earth-side New 
  Angeles. Most New Angelinos don’t have to worry about 
  where their next breath of air will come from, or that knock-
  ing a hole in a wall could risk the lives of everyone in their 
  neighborhood. Thus, although a representative from Hein-
  lein sits on the New Angeles city council, for the most part, 
  the Heinlein district manager acts as a de facto mayor for 
  the colony. Most New Angelinos forget or ignore the fact 
  that Heinlein is technically part of their city, and the major-
  ity of colonists are more than happy to return the favor.
  FOUNDING OF A FRONTIER
  Heinlein grew out of the United States’ original scientific 
  lunar station, Tranquility Home. Built around the site of 
  the original Apollo 11 landing, Tranquility Home started 
  as a couple of simple domes staked out on the regolith: just 
  enough space to provide astronauts a few hours outside a 
  spacesuit under some radiation shielding. 
  Then, the Quito Accord officially made Heinlein a part 
  of the newly formed Special Economic Zone of Ecuador-
  ian New Los Angeles. As the Beanstalk stretched into the 
  heavens and the demand for He-3 grew, Heinlein grew as 
  well. Mines, domes, and mag-lev lines stretched out across 
  Luna as multiple companies rushed to stake their claim on 
  part of the lunar surface. While other countries established 
  their own settlements, Heinlein remained the largest and 
  most powerful.
  FROM UNREST TO WAR
  Heinlein profited from the early helium-3 boomtown days 
  even more than the other major lunar settlements did. With 
  mining concerns shipping immigrant labor up the Bean-
  stalk as quickly as possible, Heinlein expanded both out-
  ward and underground. Then, when conflicts years in the 
  making between workers and corporations exploded into 
  uprising and revolt, Heinlein was the source and center of 
  the Lunar Insurrection.
  What would later spiral out of control into the Worlds 
  War started when an alliance of mining workers broad-
  cast their grievances to the Earth as a whole, stating that 
  they would no longer work if the corporations continued 
  to oppress and underpay their workforce. In response, an 
  unmarked shuttle bombed the Prosperity Mining Depot 
  during a protest, breaching the facility and suffocating hun-
  dreds of miners. 
  If the unidentified corporation responsible for the strike 
  thought it would bring their workforce to heel, they were 
  sadly mistaken. Workers rose up in all-out revolt across 
  Luna, overwhelming prisec security forces in a brutal 
  assault that saw heavy casualties on both sides. The rebels 
  went on to seize the shipyards and mag-lev launch tracks 
  in Heinlein, Xiangong City, and other major lunar settle-
  ments, blockading all shipments of He-3 in a single stroke. 
  OPERATION FALLING STAR
  Facing a total embargo of He-3, the United States acted 
  quickly to put down the rebellion. The United States Armed 
  Forces assembled a scratch team of commandos and elec-
  tronic counter-warfare specialists (the foundations of what 
  would later become the Space Expeditionary Corps) and 
  deployed them up to Luna via the Beanstalk. Their mission, 
  codenamed Operation Falling Star, was to retake Heinlein 
  and Xiangong’s spaceport facilities, along with Melange 
  Mining’s launch tracks. 
  Arriving in commandeered freighters, the team used an 
  arcing orbital approach that sent them swinging around the 
  dark side of the Moon before coming in low and fast over 
  Heinlein. The unorthodox trajectory worked, and the rebels 
  didn’t spot the invaders until they crested the lunar horizon 
  with their engines burning furiously to slow their descent. 
  Rather than leave themselves vulnerable in low orbit, 
  the commandos crash-landed their freighters on the sur-
  face, or in one case, directly into Kaguya’s docks. Though 
  this wrecked the spacecraft, it meant the team was deploy-
  ing on the surface before the insurrectionists could bring 
  their ad hoc weapons to bear. At Kaguya, the damage and 
  depressurization caused by the crashing ship let the com-
  mandos brutally and effectively storm the rebels’ fortifica-
  tions. Well-trained and equipped with sealed exosuits, they 
  quickly secured the station. None of the rebels survived, 
  nor did any of their corporate hostages. 
  WAR ON THE MOON
  The proto-SXC’s strikes on the mag-lev launch tracks 
  and Xiangong’s spaceport were equally successful. How-
  ever, they also spurred the Chinese to launch their own 
  assault on the Moon, as a response to the “violation of their 
  national sovereignty.” The war would go on for years, even-
  tually growing and shifting to Mars, and culminating with 
  the Battle of the Beanstalk. All the while, Heinlein and its 
  citizens suffered from being on the front lines. 
  Eventually the war did end, with Heinlein back firmly 
  under United States and corporate control. In the after-
  math, Heinlein benefited from its unique status and 
  reconfirmation as a district of New Angeles. The U.S. gov-
  ernment, Weyland, Haas-Bioroid, and Melange Mining 
  quickly rebuilt the colony at a pace the other Lunar settle-
  ments could not hope to match. The Sea of Tranquility is 
  now covered with Heinlein’s domes, tunnels, and mag-lev 
  tracks; the colony even spills over into the Sea of Nectar. 
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  LUNAR LIFE
  Living on Luna is harsh. Away from the tourist zones, 
  Heinlein is very crowded, utilitarian, and filled with social 
  conflict, environmental dangers, and economic hardships. 
  Everything is recycled and used until it falls apart. The air 
  and water are stale at best, and older structures out of sight 
  of the tourist zones usually show their age.
  The War changed the colony, but not necessarily for the 
  better. Over the past fifteen years, continuous immigration 
  and the increased use of clones and bioroids in the mines 
  have prompted the majority of native Lunar citizens to 
  leave the Moon for Mars or retreat to Luna’s Docklands 
  underworld. Relatively few of the former insurrectionists 
  remain in Heinlein. This is in part why Mars’s ongoing con-
  flicts between megacorps and its citizenry often (literally) 
  bleed over into Heinlein life. 
  This is not to say that life on the Moon is unbearably mis-
  erable, even with the threat of danger and ruin descend-
  ing instantly and without warning. In fact, the light lunar 
  gravity and the Moon’s wonders attract hundreds of older 
  immigrants from Earth each year. Heinlein’s culture is a 
  unique international mixture that makes it an envied leader 
  in music, art, fashion, and even some sciences. 
  Heinlein’s wealthy and powerful are insulated from its 
  darkest aspects, thanks to their luxurious accommodations 
  in private apartment blocks, exclusive economic zones, or 
  the top levels of arcologies. Their day-to-day life is easier 
  and less crowded, but it is not immune to lunar dangers, 
  crime, exploitation, and social pitfalls. 
  COLONY CONFIGURATION
  Heinlein’s layout is unlike that of any city on Earth, which 
  contributes to its exotic reputation Earth-side. The sur-
  face structures are a sprawling collection of public domes, 
  privately owned structures, mining complexes, a com-
  plex mag-lev transportation network, and facilities aban-
  doned due to obsolescence or the War. The foundations 
  of the original mining facilities still remain, long after the 
  buildings and equipment they supported were recycled or 
  ground up for crater infill. Starport Kaguya, the Docklands, 
  the active mining facilities, and Heinlein’s main domes are 
  connected by surface mag-lev lines, transit tunnels, and 
  unpaved groundroads. Armstrong Base is relatively close, 
  but in the interest of avoiding the appearance of too much 
  coziness between the SXC and the colony, it is not directly 
  connected to the mag-lev or tunnel transit system. A ring 
  of smaller domes surrounds the enormous topside dome of 
  Lunacent, Heinlein’s hub and its largest dome. The various 
  domes conceal much of Heinlein proper from view, most 
  capping dozens of levels dug deep into the lunar surface. 
  Harriman dome is a typical example. It is divided into 
  roughly ten zones (habitation, recycling plants, etc.) 
  arranged on seven major levels. Each major level consists 
  of six or more sub-levels, depending on the exact configu-
  ration. It expands below the surface by tunneling outward 
  and downward. Some of the newest structures are at the 
  very bottom level. 
  Harriman’s levels are arranged around a central elevator 
  cluster, somewhat like the spokes of irregular wheels stacked 
  on a spindle. The central elevator runs from the Harriman 
  topdome all the way to the bottom levels. Other elevators 
  and mag-lev tunnels provide secondary connections that 
  can be more convenient to outlying sections. Each level 
  encompasses dozens or hundreds of compartments, each 
  able to be sealed off in the event of a breach.
  Counterintuitively, Harriman’s main habitation levels 
  are at the bottom of the structure. The enormous multi-
  level service zones for water processing, waste recycling, 
  power generation, food production, and the all-important 
  air scrubbers sit between the habitation levels and the top-
  side dome. This layout maximizes the protection of citizens 
  from solar radiation and other dangers to human life due to 
  the Moon’s lack of a protective atmosphere. 
  TREATY OF HEINLEIN
  The Treaty of Heinlein is the most important modern-day 
  treaty. It ended the Worlds War. It produced the charter for 
  the Universal Nations, replacing the United Nations. The 
  Treaty created the Martian Colonial Authority and placed 
  the Martian corporate colonies under its control, though 
  the corporations retained ownership. 
  The physical document is displayed for all to view at a 
  museum in Starport Kaguya. It shaped not only interac-
  tions between the combatants after the War, but also the 
  entire solar system economy by regulating who operated 
  the Beanstalk and how. By transferring control to the Space 
  Elevator Authority, the Treaty was intended to level the 
  playing field for all countries to use the Beanstalk. While it 
  certainly helps, it is debatable whether the SEA is holding 
  up its end of the deal, or if the U.S. still receives preferen-
  tial treatment.
  The treaty returned Heinlein to New Angeles, to be ruled as 
  a city district, albeit a distant and rather impractical one. The 
  SXC is allowed to maintain various bases on the Moon and 
  Mars, theoretically as a temporary arrangement. There is no 
  Mars withdrawal date, and Armstrong Base on the Moon 
  isn’t likely to shut down anytime soon. 
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  ARMSTRONG BASE
  Armstrong Base is the Space Expeditionary Corps’ main 
  lunar base. This squat fortification of heat-formed lunar 
  rock surrounded by rings of laser turrets, sensors, and 
  patrolling drones projects Earth’s military might on the 
  Moon. Beyond the occasional clash with die-hard insur-
  gents, there has been no major fighting on Luna since the 
  War. The base stands ready regardless. 
  With minimal military opposition to counter, much of 
  the base has become devoted to training troopers to fight 
  in space and low-G environments. The SXC’s soldiers can 
  expect to participate in hard-vacuum zero-G training on 
  one of Armstrong’s stations in lunar orbit, conduct mock 
  boarding assaults on retired spacecraft, and work their way 
  through low-G obstacle courses on Luna’s surface. Nearly all 
  the training takes place in actual vacuum conditions while 
  wearing sealed exosuits or pressurized carapace armor. 
  Training tends to culminate with runs along the infamous 
  “Asphyxiation Alley,” where soldiers must fight their way 
  through grueling simulated combat with only a single tank of 
  O2. By tradition, the short list of troopers who have made it 
  without “dying” is engraved on Armstrong Base’s outer wall. 
  This sophisticated training makes the SXC one of the 
  best-prepared fighting forces in the system. Colonel 
  Metzger, Armstrong Base’s commander, continues to pri-
  oritize this training as the best way to ensure the next war, 
  should it ever happen, will be short. The colonel expects 
  that it’s only a matter of time before most of the five thou-
  sand soldiers under her command are sent to Mars. 
  As the nexus of the Heinlein colony’s defenses, Arm-
  strong Base maintains a robust collection of weaponry. The 
  base has dozens of missile silos buried deep in the lunar 
  regolith, and it is likely that some of those missiles are 
  tipped with nukes. Meanwhile, weapons platforms remain 
  in geosynchronous orbit over Heinlein, ready to rain fire 
  down on any intruders. Finally, the base maintains a fleet 
  of armed lunar rovers parked right on the surface, easily 
  activated if things get hot. 
  RENEE METZGER: CONCERNED COMMANDER
  Colonel Renee Metzger commands Armstrong Base. She’s 
  a veteran of the lunar battles during the War, having led 
  troops in the brutal Battle of Kaguya. Many long-time lunar 
  residents resent her past, but it does add to her power and 
  reputation. District Manager Hubbard, her old friend, reg-
  ularly pressures her to expand SXC’s role in policing Hein-
  lein (which is mostly prohibited) or the Docklands (which 
  may be a gray area) and make it a better place to live. 
  Colonel Metzger’s loyalty to the SXC and Earth drives her 
  to make the trainees who come through Armstrong the best 
  fighting and diplomatic force they can be. She knows most 
  end up on the front lines of Mars’s difficulties. Whether 
  they need to break down doors or build alliances with 
  local leaders, she wants them to excel when needed.
  HARRIMAN DOME
  The Harriman dome is one of several smaller domes and 
  structures that adjoin the much larger Lunacent dome. One of 
  the earliest domes, it originally catered to entrepreneurs and 
  business startups to expand lunar businesses beyond mining 
  and industry. These days, it is home to a variety of eclectic 
  businesses, which has attracted more than Harriman’s share of 
  free thinkers and fringe elements (even for the Moon). 
  EARTHRISE HOTEL
  Earthrise Hotel is one of Harriman’s most popular tourist 
  traps. It is a large, impressive-looking dome that is highly 
  advertised in order to attract tourists and other visitors 
  who insist on leaving Starport Kaguya’s safety to see some 
  of the “real” Heinlein. It gives thrill seekers a place to “dis-
  cover” while keeping them out of Harriman’s lower levels. 
  That’s not to say they won’t be entertained, and the view 
  of the Earth rising over the Lunar horizon from Club Earth-
  rise at the top of the dome is certainly not to be missed. The 
  rest is an unequivocally overpriced high-end restaurant, 
  bar, hotel, and music venue, with seemingly fashionable 
  boutiques. Local entertainment acts regard Earthrise as a 
  good place to make some money, but not as a legitimately 
  influential entertainment venue. In fact, locals rarely come 
  here unless they are part of the staff or show.  
  HARRIMAN FUSION REACTOR DOME
  Commonly called the “power dome,” the Harriman fusion 
  reactor dome is a reinforced, high-security structure that 
  caps the dome’s main fusion reactor. The reactor consists 
  mainly of a 1.5-meter-diameter chamber encased in multi-
  ple layers of shielding. Only reactor workers, administrator 
  families, and their security-cleared guests are allowed in 
  the power dome. The extreme privacy and security feeds a 
  never-ending supply of wild conspiracy theories regarding 
  shady political deals, scandals, and purported cover-ups. 
  While they cannot all be true, Heinlein’s rough reputation 
  indicates more than a few likely are, in some form.
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  HARRIMAN SUBDOME
  Below Harriman’s food-production levels, and capping off 
  the residential levels below it, is the Harriman subdome. 
  Roughly two-thirds the size of the topdome, the subdome 
  serves a similar purpose. It acts as an air reservoir and 
  provides a tall, open space to give people relief from the 
  endless tunnels, warrens, and compartments. The subdome 
  also provides structural reinforcement and support for the 
  central elevators and service risers, as well as for the levels 
  above and below.
  The subdome is a lively place. NBN and atmospheric 
  projections alternately cover its inner surface. It is filled 
  with shops, restaurants, pricey living quarters, and some 
  medium- to high-quality hotels. The subdome attracts 
  tourists in its own right. Many use it to visit the nearby Club 
  Starburst, and a few venture farther downward, against 
  everyone’s advice. 
  HARRIMAN TOPDOME
  The Harriman topdome, which is seventy-five meters in 
  diameter, caps the Harriman subterranean complex. Lunar 
  domes and surface structures afford some radiation protec-
  tion, but many long-term lunar residents eventually opt for 
  the better-shielded quarters deep below a dome. Much of 
  the topdome is taken up by transportation links. The top-
  dome also is part of Harriman’s air-recycling system, serv-
  ing as a massive emergency backup reservoir of air. 
  WYLDSIDE 
  Wyldside is one of Heinlein’s most notorious and power-
  ful countercultural influences. It was created by and for a 
  subculture of g-modders dedicated to self-modification 
  to gain specific animal traits of their choosing. The exotic 
  alterations produce surprisingly accurate results, going 
  well beyond simple transformations such as fur, markings, 
  claws, or fangs. For the wylders, the more exotic the mod-
  ification, the better it is. Feathers are not uncommon, and 
  some have even achieved prehensile tails.
  Wyldside’s popularity exploded when the trend took hold 
  in some Earth subcultures. However, the club isn’t the eas-
  iest to find or reach. It is nestled deep down in the bottom 
  residential levels of the Harriman dome, in a definitively 
  unsafe zone. Wylder society celebrities and genetic engi-
  neers are often escorted by regulars or staff to ensure a safe 
  journey from the surface. The club provides an accepting 
  social refuge for the wylders. It also connects the g-mod-
  der patrons with the engineers and medical personnel who 
  enable their modifications.
  IMARA BALEWA: INNOCENT TOURIST?
  Balewa is the kind of tourist Heinlein marketers want to 
  see, and megacorps are wary of. She is part of Soufrika’s 
  prosperous middle-class, targeted by NBN lunar market-
  ing. She is also an information superdata analyst, making 
  her a suspected solo or corporate runner. Some fear she is 
  actually a runner called “Breaker Q,” conducting industrial 
  espionage for the rival Kampala space elevator effort. 
  Regardless, Imara is here to have a good time. It’s her first 
  trip to the Moon, and she’s hitting all of the major tourist 
  attractions. She’s living it up in Starport Kaguya. She might 
  even venture to the safer Dockland zones or Wyldside.
  LUNACENT
  Officially called Luna Central, Lunacent is Heinlein’s largest 
  dome, forming the hub of the district complex. It is Heinlein’s 
  administrative and residential center, and its New Angeles 
  Plaza houses the district government, including District Man-
  ager Hubbard’s office and the NAPD Heinlein District Office. 
  Within the dome is an entire surface neighborhood, complete 
  with subdomes, buildings, gardens, and arcologies. It’s promi-
  nently featured in all Heinlein marketing, and it’s not unusual 
  for those on Earth who pay little attention to lunar politics or 
  economics to think it is the totality of Heinlein. 
  Lunacent’s topdome is one of the few areas in Heinlein to 
  feature large gardens with actual trees and relatively expan-
  sive greenspace, such as Prosperity Memorial Park. It is 
  dedicated to miners lost prior to the War. Exotic botanical 
  gardens serve as testbeds and offer educational opportuni-
  ties for lunar natives to experience a small measure of an 
  Earth-like environment.
  Lunacent is the physical heart of Heinlein. It competes 
  with Starport Kaguya for the title of cultural heart of Hein-
  lein, as new trends and popular acts often surface in Luna-
  cent’s entertainment districts. As such, the Lunacent dome 
  is one of the best-maintained structures on the Moon, 
  although smaller non-governmental structures, non-tour-
  ist areas, corporate domes, and other less-public buildings 
  within get less attention.
  Lunacent’s labyrinth of tunnels is jam-packed with busi-
  nesses and people. Even wealthier levels are regarded as 
  crowded, compared to Earth megacities. Lunacent’s contin-
  ual expansion does little to relieve the congestion; it just 
  allows more people to move in and fill it up.
  ANGEL ARENA
  Just beyond the main dome of Lunacent lies Angel Arena, 
  one of Luna’s most popular venues for low-G sports. The 
  transplas dome that covers the field gives audiences a spec-
  tacular view of the stars while watching games, even if it 
  means games can be “rained out” due to excessive solar 
  activity. Angel Arena hosts many low-G equivalents of ter-
  restrial games, such as g-ball, aero hockey, and high drive 
  American football. Earth teams tend to visit to try playing 
  these low-G variants, although they need to spend a cou-
  ple of months preparing for the effects lunar gravity has 
  on their sport. In return, Heinlein’s own teams often spend 
  months Earth-side to build up muscle density, just to make 
  sure they’re not overmatched by their terrestrial opponents. 
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  ARGUS SECURITY INC. 
  This Weyland Consortium subsidiary main-
  tains administrative and recruiting offices 
  in and around Heinlein. Argus not only 
  protects Weyland concerns, but also 
  hires out to other corporations 
  and some governments. The Hein-
  lein-area offices handle personnel, 
  administration, and local deploy-
  ments. They also oversee research and 
  development for new lunar services 
  and products.
  Heinlein residents treat Argus with 
  care. Most rightly believe that its offi-
  cers will pass on any information 
  of value to Weyland. Argus started 
  simply as Weyland’s security sub-
  sidiary, but it wasn’t long before it 
  expanded into full-scale ordnance 
  and combat vehicle research and pro-
  duction. It is able to deploy anything 
  from lightly armed security guards to 
  fully armored warriors and private armies 
  equipped with the latest Argus technology. 
  COLUMBIAD ARCOLOGY
  Any Heinlein resident hearing District Man-
  ager Hubbard’s description of the Columbiad Arcol-
  ogy would instantly recognize it as a mythical ideal from 
  Heinlein’s original planners. The truth is that it is stark 
  and far from a model society, like most of the colony. The 
  Columbiad is a fanciful building far larger than any single 
  nondome structure in Heinlein. It is so tall that it pierces 
  the main Lunacent dome, giving the upper-class, upper-
  level residents fantastic views of the lunar landscape and 
  Earth beyond. 
  While the arcology achieves the designed purpose of 
  housing people from every segment of society in a single 
  unified structure, it actually enables society’s segmenta-
  tion. To rise up the arcology is to literally rise up in station 
  and economic status. Crowded commission tenements at 
  the base give way to modest apartments, then to multi-
  level suites, and ultimately to extravagant penthouses. The 
  arcology is one of the most policed structures in Heinlein, 
  making it much safer than the average dome, but for the 
  lower-level residents the policing is also the most intrusive. 
  TIA NAWAI: DISTRICT COUNCILPERSON
  Tia Nāwai is Heinlein’s wily representative on the New Ange-
  les city council. She spends about half her time down-Stalk, 
  pushing for Heinlein’s share of municipal funds and services. 
  Given Heinlein’s separation from the rest of the megalopolis, 
  she’s willing to cut deals advantageous to individual districts, 
  rather than dealing with Mayor Wells directly. Nāwai also 
  benefits from dedicated governmental transportation slots 
  on the Beanstalk, giving her almost on-demand access to 
  last-minute trips up and down the space elevator. Her work 
  wins her few friends, so Nāwai has been looking to hire some 
  off-the-books protection from New Angeles who wouldn't 
  come with any Lunar political affiliations.
  HAAS-BIOROID R&D LABORATORIES
  Haas-Bioroid is one of Heinlein’s major corporate players. 
  HB’s lunar facilities are extraordinarily important to the 
  development and sales of each generation of bioroids. Its 
  efficient offices, idyllic showrooms, and advanced produc-
  tion facilities are scattered throughout the Sea of Tranquil-
  ity, and its vital HB R&D dome sits in Heinlein’s north-
  ern reaches. 
  HB’s labs are marvels of technological development. They 
  create the most cutting-edge prototypes for future bioroids. 
  Most models are destined for the lunar or Mars markets, 
  but advancements at the lab apply to Earth-side HB R&D as 
  well. As it is a very iterative process, it’s not uncommon to 
  run across multiple variations of a product in development 
  active in different parts of the lab. Prototypes and early 
  models that are never put into production remain in use for 
  further study or simply in keeping with the lunar mindset 
  of avoiding the waste of valuable resources. 
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  NAPD HEINLEIN DISTRICT OFFICE
  NAPD’s Heinlein headquarters is part of the district office 
  in New Angeles Plaza. NAPD HQ oversees all NAPD pre-
  cincts and satellite stations. Like other administration facil-
  ities, the building is self-sustaining in the event of an attack 
  or catastrophic emergency.
  Heinlein is among NAPD’s most difficult assignments. Most 
  officers are transferred up-Stalk from New Angeles as part of 
  their regular short-term rotations. Many use it as an opportu-
  nity to gain specific lunar training that is useful for advance-
  ment, if nothing else. Some upper-level officers and a few 
  native Loonies fill long-term command roles. Local recruiting 
  is difficult, and not enough to fill out the required forces. 
  NAPD’s power directly coincides with its location within 
  Heinlein. Inside the major domes in public spaces, it oper-
  ates much like any other police force. However, thanks to 
  the strong laws regarding private property, pursuing war-
  rants or suspects into private domes, corporate complexes, 
  or the Docklands slows or halts the NAPD’s efforts. The far-
  ther out from Lunacent, the less respect NAPD is granted, 
  no matter what the law says.
  DWIGHT MARLOWE: NAPD DOUBLE AGENT
  Sergeant Marlowe is one of NAPD’s best undercover officers. 
  He uses no cover identity, but instead appears to sympathize 
  with some of Mars’s rebellious factions. He managed to con-
  vince some of their local agents and sympathizers he can 
  help them. They believe he gives them eyes inside the NAPD. 
  The truth is Marlowe has family reasons to sympathize with 
  both the NAPD and Mars. He’s a double agent who hasn’t yet 
  decided which side he’s really on. In the meantime, he tries to 
  head off the most damaging actions from both sides.
  EMERSON LUFKIN: NAPD COMMANDER 
  Commander Lufkin is one of NAPD Heinlein’s longest-serv-
  ing officers. He began there with his regular rotation from 
  New Angeles. He liked the Moon. The job was tough, and it 
  only got more difficult after the War. Breaking rotation for 
  permanent assignment to the Moon was not difficult. Then 
  and now, NAPD officers regard Heinlein as punishment or 
  a prerequisite for advancement. 
  Commander Lufkin stubbornly fights the first notion, 
  and he exploits the latter to attract better officers. Lufkin 
  uses whatever incentives are available to recruit long-term 
  staff and short-term experts. The commander is well aware 
  of the NAPD’s limited reach. He makes every effort to 
  strengthen its authority, but he knows its practical limits.
  MELANGE MINING
  Melange Mining (aka 2M) is Heinlein’s largest, most influ-
  ential, and most feared power player. It drove the colony’s 
  growth in the early He-3 boom days. Having acquired many 
  of its competitors after the War, Melange dominates He-3 
  production and governments on the Moon. It is in constant 
  competition with Alpha Prospecting and Pestroka Technika, 
  its primary, but still lesser, political and commercial rivals. 
  The Lunar Insurrection that ignited the War started with 
  the seizure of Melange Mining works. After the military 
  broke the Insurrection, Melange leased controllable Jinteki 
  clones to replace workers who had become insurgents. This 
  arrangement continues to grow, with thousands of clones 
  operating throughout Melange’s seemingly omnipresent 
  facilities in Heinlein and across the Moon. Melange has its 
  own domes, settlements, and factories, and it likely holds 
  the largest percentage of private property of any corp or 
  person on the Moon. 
  MAIN FACILITIES
  The first thing visitors notice when they visit 2M’s main 
  facility is the dust. The dark transplas domes and gray bun-
  kers are constantly covered in a thick layer of fine lunar 
  dust. The He-3 processors constantly spew it across the 
  facility, and no matter how many clones 2M gets to clean it 
  away, there’s always more. 
  The dust reinforces the dirty, worn look of 2M’s facilities, 
  belying the fact that Melange Mining is one of the most 
  sophisticated industrial operations in the worlds. Due to 
  2M’s constant effort, three planets are powered, and the com-
  pany’s administrators are quick to remind visitors of that fact.
  Melange’s main dome in Heinlein is mostly given over to 
  industrial processes. Around the base are the docks for the 
  harvester vehicles, the ones that scrape off the top layers 
  SECRET WARRENS
  Heinlein is not only crowded, but much of it is also 
  confined belowground. Dome tunnels and subsurface 
  structures are all comprehensively planned, designed, 
  and built. In other words, it’s difficult to hide from law 
  enforcement or anyone else with access to Heinlein’s 
  schematics. Practically speaking, that’s almost every-
  one, and certainly anyone with money, power, or 
  access to district networks. 
  The long-standing solution for individuals fleeing law 
  enforcement, debt collectors, or criminals are the 
  secret warrens. The warrens are illegally dug tunnels 
  and chambers outside of Heinlein’s borders. Such 
  undertakings are not easy, as seismic monitors used 
  to detect moonquakes and track mining operations 
  may also detect illegal tunneling. Transporting large 
  amounts of rock is also difficult to conceal. However, 
  plenty of people are motivated to work around these 
  problems, and orgcrime has the cash and access to 
  cover up larger operations. Warrens are often dark, 
  cold, and cramped. 
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  of the lunar surface. Conveyor tracks extend out from the 
  dome and deep into the mining fields, bringing a steady 
  supply of rock into the refineries and allowing the harvest-
  ers to stay out longer. Inside, the Henry-model clones work 
  the huge rock grinders and mineral furnaces that break 
  down the rock and extract the pure He-3 within. If the 
  dust seems bad outside, inside it’s even worse. All of the 
  machines are enveloped in a constant haze, as if an oil fire 
  were burning beneath them. 
  Visitors tend to see only the smaller administrative portions 
  of 2M’s main dome. The company office’s main foyer is packed 
  with looming displays of the history of mining on Luna. Each 
  manages to single out a former competitor that was later 
  bought out and swallowed up by Melange Mining. Beyond 
  the foyer is a maze of winding corridors and cramped offices. 
  2M scorns the sleek, futuristic appearance of most corporate 
  offices. Its haphazard decor seems to say that its people are too 
  busy working for a living to worry about looking nice. 
  SUBSIDIARY STATIONS
  Subsidiary domes and stations are scattered around the 
  edges of Melange’s primary mining fields. Most were owned 
  by competitors before they were swallowed up by 2M. 
  Melange laid off most of those companies’ former workers 
  and replaced them with clones, then turned those corporate 
  facilities into staging areas, secondary processing facilities, 
  and storage depots for its ever-expanding mining operation. 
  Some of the subsidiary domes were shuttered, their lights 
  turned off, power set to idle, and air allowed to grow stale 
  and freeze. It’s said that the lunar resistance movement 
  sometimes uses these domes for meetings or for stashing 
  weapons and supplies. On the one hand, the NAPD tends 
  not to intrude on Melange’s territory; on the other hand, 
  the resistance has to worry about the megacorp’s formida-
  ble corporate security instead. 
  STARPORT KAGUYA
  Starport Kaguya is the bustling gateway to Heinlein and the 
  Moon. Public and private transports arrive and depart hourly 
  for destinations on Luna and space beyond. They’re vital to 
  sustaining life and leisure on the Moon. Starport Kaguya has 
  served as the primary way station since the earliest days of the 
  Lunar colonies. It was rebuilt and upgraded dramatically after 
  the tragic Battle of Kaguya. Almost no one beyond a few lin-
  gering insurgents wants to speak of or remember those days. 
  Today’s Kaguya is known best among the public as an 
  impressive tourist destination sprawling with StarScape 
  retail complexes, risqué nightclubs, lunar resorts, and even 
  its own sports team and stadium. Its Challenger Memorial 
  Shuttle docks are noticeably fancier and more welcoming 
  than those at the Challenger Memorial Shuttle Port on the 
  Castle. NBN holoprojections and vidscreens tout Kaguya’s 
  fine amenities, with hardly a mention of sites beyond the 
  port and Tranquility Home Museum.
  Everyone is happier if the tourists never visit the domes 
  beyond Kaguya and never discover Heinlein’s dangerous 
  side. Just wandering into the private docks can be hazard-
  ous or even lethal to an unsuspecting visitor. As dressed up 
  as Kaguya is, it doesn’t take much to get beyond its touristy 
  glitz. People who find their way into the service levels or 
  cargo zones see a very different port: one with storage 
  bays connected by poorly maintained corri-
  dors bathed in flickering light and stale air. 
  The Heinlein Authority regulates col-
  ony space traffic. Its offices are part of 
  the starport dome complex. Due in 
  part to the starport’s importance, 
  this also conveniently helps 
  keep some visiting VIPs from 
  experiencing the darker side 
  of the Moon.
  DOCKLANDS
  All of Heinlein’s dark truths and 
  conflicts collide in the Dock-
  lands. Citizens who don’t live 
  there don’t visit without very 
  good reason. If they do visit, 
  they stick to the relatively safe 
  areas. No one wants the tourists 
  there: not Heinlein’s government, 
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  not the NAPD, and especially not the criminals and corpora-
  tions. Those who live and work in the Docklands do so either 
  because they have no other option, or to make money thanks 
  to (or in spite of) its virtual lawlessness. 
  This region is a collection of unfinished dome frameworks, 
  patched habitats, dirty factory hubs, and dust-covered land-
  ing platforms sitting in the shadows of the Lunacent dome. 
  Much of it has been built in the big craters on Heinlein’s 
  southern outskirts. The Docklands started out as an indus-
  trial zone with numerous local shipping nodes and landing 
  zones for lunar hoppers. It still serves these functions, but it 
  also has become a haven for gangs and orgcrime outfits
  These days, any corporation operating in the Docklands 
  has some sort of arrangement with the criminals there, and 
  it likely is trying to exploit its workers or is doing some-
  thing illegal. Areas of the Docklands that aren’t occupied by 
  a corp are split between hundreds of gangs, each of which 
  carves out its own corners and violently defends them. 
  These gangs range from small-time street gangs that prey 
  on lost tourists to big-league smuggling, extortion, drug, 
  and human trafficking rackets. 
  For the NAPD and Heinlein’s administration, the Dock-
  lands is a nightmare. A lot of its territory is outside of Hein-
  lein’s district limits, and all of it is privately owned (even 
  those areas that are under the defacto control of various 
  orgcrime outfits). Officers have to hack through a forest of 
  paperwork before they can even set foot on most Dock-
  lands property. Even then, they have to go in heavily armed 
  and in numbers if they want to get home safely. 
  MUNA ASSAN: DOCKLANDS “FUELBOSS” 
  Someone has to supply the Docklands with rocket fuel, 
  oxygen, and other consumables used in spaceflight. 
  Corporations ship it in from legitimate sources. Crim-
  inal elements must fend for themselves, which often 
  means dealing with the strict terms of Muna Assan.
  A number of years ago, Assan was wrongly 
  terminated from her job as associate vice 
  president of logistics at Melange Min-
  ing. Her department head framed her 
  to cover up his embezzlement scheme. 
  Melange kicked her out of the Dock-
  lands company quarters and drained 
  her accounts to repay the debt. 
  Muna’s former logistics sup-
  pliers had shady deals supplying 
  some Docklands orgcrime clients. 
  She moved from helping them, to 
  manipulating them, to taking over 
  their distribution scheme. Her 
  underlings siphon off fuel and 
  other resources from corporate 
  suppliers, targeting Melange for 
  revenge whenever possible.
  STARSHIELD COMPLEX
  Private property brings with it private security forces, and 
  Starshield is one of the major prisec operations in Hein-
  lein. With thousands of employees and guards, it rivals the 
  NAPD’s Lunar division in size and complexity (even if it 
  doesn’t come close to the size of the NAPD as a whole). 
  Starshield offers everything from basic rent-a-cops to para-
  military units staffed with elite former soldiers no longer 
  in government employ. As its name suggests, Starshield 
  specializes in defensive operations. However, rumors per-
  sist that it’s not opposed to taking the offensive in certain 
  circumstances: i.e., if given enough money and motivation. 
  Starshield took over a collection of damaged structures on 
  the edge of Kaguya after the War, turning it into an admin-
  istration, barracks, and training complex.  
  STORMRIDERS
  After spending years working as a corporate courier, Zee 
  Finsk quit and opened up their own shop on Luna. Storm-
  riders is one of the few honest outfits in the Docklands. 
  Although it’s just Zee and a couple of their close friends, 
  it already has a reputation as one of the best courier and 
  transport businesses in Heinlein. 
  Zee stays out of trouble with local gangs by offering 
  no-questions-asked guaranteed deliveries for anyone who 
  can pay, and by being really good at their job. Their team has 
  a couple of dropships heavily refurbished with stealth tech 
  and ECM, and Zee has friends in Heinlein’s traffic control 
  center as well. Their only caveat is that they don’t transport 
  prisoners or slaves; the one gang that tried to press the issue 
  got its hab blown open via a vicious strafing run. 
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  ADAM H. DAVIES: FORMER REBEL
  Adam was one of the original lunar insurgents, but was 
  injured and captured in the Battle of Kaguya. Davies ended 
  up in the Docklands after the War. He turned to the black 
  market for cybernetic replacements for his severely injured 
  arms; at the same time, he received upgrades for his neural 
  augmentations. Davies still strives for a free Luna, quietly 
  recruiting for the next attempt.
  TRANQUILITY HOME
  Tranquility Home was one of the original lunar research 
  stations. Initially, scientists used a couple of domes as 
  primitive protection for their limited habitats. It wasn’t long 
  before the domes were expanded and replaced by increas-
  ingly better and bigger structures. Out of convenience, the 
  United States annexed Tranquility Home and then policed 
  it with the same force that protected New Los Angeles and 
  the Beanstalk. Heinlein grew from there. 
  Today, Tranquility Home is a crowded and expensive 
  dome to live in. It’s also something of a tourist trap, as visi-
  tors flock to see the oldest permanent lunar settlement. This 
  means that while the tourist areas tend to be clean and well 
  presented, most of the population lives in cramped “pod” 
  apartments that line the sides of the main dome or branch 
  out underground. Locals grab a few hours of precious sol-
  itude in one-room living spaces with deployable beds, toi-
  lets, and kitchen areas, then leave to be buffeted by endless 
  crowds as they make their way back to work. 
  JINTEKI DEVELOPMENT COMPLEX
  Jinteki is uniquely intertwined with He-3 mining and 
  Melange Mining specifically. Melange uses thousands of 
  Jinteki clones as its primary workforce (mainly the Hen-
  ry-model). Jinteki established the Lunar Development Com-
  plex (or JLDC) partly to keep up with requirements for its 
  Henry line and partially for its Generation Project, rumored 
  to be designing clones for future deep-space exploration. 
  The JLDC consists of multiple surface and underground 
  structures in an ancillary dome off Tranquility Home. Its 
  genetic engineering department is among the best any-
  where in the solar system. It’s not uncommon for Jinteki to 
  insert newly designed models into the workforce without 
  warning, to test public reaction.
  TRANQUILITY HOME MUSEUM
  Tranquility Home is full of tourist attractions, although instead 
  of statues or monuments, the dome tends to preserve small 
  pieces of the lunar surface under small transplas domes. Tour-
  ists may find the grave of the first person to die on the Moon in 
  the middle of a pedestrian concourse, or the site of Tranquil-
  ity’s first He-3 test mines tucked between a couple of shops. 
  However, the most impressive exhibit remains exposed 
  to the hard vacuum of the lunar surface. The Tranquility 
  Home Museum preserves the entire Apollo 11 landing site 
  and the unmarred surface for fifty meters in all directions. 
  Visitors can view this nigh-sacred place from an overhead 
  pressurized viewing gallery. Holographic presenters can 
  identify the source of every boot print, from Neil Arm-
  strong’s first steps to Janice Hamilton’s historic return visit. 
  Meanwhile, projectors play loops of the first landing’s flat-
  film footage or modern holodocs. 
  TSUKI-NO-MIYAKO
  Literally “the capital of the Moon,” the name for this subsur-
  face module comes from the ancient Japanese myth, Tale of 
  the Bamboo Cutter. The module has been home to a large, 
  ethnically Japanese community since the early days of the 
  mining boom. Now, the module is famous for its bamboo 
  groves, which grow along all of its main passages to refresh 
  the air and provide needed biomass for vat-food cultivators. 
  Surprisingly, Jinteki passed over this location when setting 
  up its corporate branch offices. However, many of its employ-
  ees prefer to live here, even if it means a longer commute. 
  THOMAS HAAS (NEMESIS)
  Thomas Haas has a reputation as a rogue pretty boy 
  with a chiseled physique and g-modded looks, but he 
  can also act as a charming and effective PR face for his 
  family’s company when goaded. Smarter than he lets 
  on, Thomas has his own private lab in Heinlein for his 
  pet projects, though he doesn’t know if his mother, Haas-
  Bioroid Director Cynthia Haas, knows about it. 
  Motivations: Desire (Ambition), Fear (Commitment), 
  Strength (Witty), Flaw (Greed).
  Skills: Athletics 2, Charm 3, Computers (Hacking) 2, 
  Cool 4, Deception 3, Knowledge (Science) 2, Knowl-
  edge (Society) 3, Mechanics 2, Negotiation 3.
  Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade the difficulty of all 
  combat checks against this target once), Clever Retort 
  (once per encounter, may add 󲊱 󲊱 to another char-
  acter's social skill check). Counteroffer (once per ses-
  sion may choose one adversary within medium range 
  and make an opposed Negotiation versus Dis-
  cipline check. If successful, target becomes stag-
  gered until the end of their next turn [or for remainder 
  of encounter if successful with 󲊵]).
  Abilities: Golden Goose (opponents must make a Hard 
  (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) Discipline check as an action and succeed 
  before being able to make combat checks targeting Haas), 
  Tinkerer (with access to any sort of tools or parts, may 
  make an Average (󲊷 󲊷) Mechanics check. If suc-
  cessful, creates an item with rarity equal to number of 󲊳).
  Equipment: Nice suit, encrypted PAD.
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  [CHAPTER 5]
  ADVERSARIES
  N
  ew Angeles is one of the largest cities in the worlds, 
  and home to Earth’s only space elevator. As a nexus 
  of trade, culture, and politics, New Angeles draws 
  all sorts of people from all over the worlds. 
  The following is a list of adversaries that you, the GM, can 
  use in your adventures. These adversaries are divided into 
  several groups, according to their affiliations and motives. 
  With the exception of certain clone and bioroid models, 
  adversaries’ genders are generally unlisted. Sexual orienta-
  tions, races, and religious identifiers are unlisted as well. New 
  Angeles is one of the most diverse cities on the planet, and 
  most New Angelinos no longer engage in overt discrimina-
  tion against others due to issues of race, sexual orientation, 
  gender, or religion. As GM, you can adapt these profiles as 
  you see fit.
  NEW ANGELES CITIZENS
  In New Angeles, the citizens are as diverse as the endless 
  cityscape, ranging from rich hedonists to the destitute den-
  izens of the undercity, struggling to survive.
  CIVIC BRIGADIER (MINION)
  While the citizens of New Angeles live in a corporate-run 
  world dominated by pursuit of profit, some still seek to 
  improve life for the downtrodden. Civic brigadiers join vol-
  unteer organizations to install and maintain essential ser-
  vices, such as water and power, in the undercity or to build 
  greenspaces, schools, and community centers. 
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  Skills (group only): Athletics, Driving, Knowledge (Soci-
  ety), Mechanics, Melee.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Community Volunteer (may use Knowledge 
  (Society) instead of Charm, Coercion, or Negotiation 
  during social interactions with undercity residents).
  Equipment: Titanium shovel (Melee; Damage 5; Critical 
  4; Range [Engaged]; Stun 2), hard hat (+1 melee defense), 
  PAD, toolkit.
  CLUB OWNER (NEMESIS)
  At and just below the plaza level, nightclubs, bars, and dis-
  cotecas are where a lot of secret meetings and clandestine 
  business dealings occur. This makes many club owners de 
  facto power players in the undercity, whether they directly 
  involve themselves in these illegal goings-on or not. 
  Skills: Charm 3, Cool 3, Deception 2, Knowledge (Society) 
  2, Perception 3, Streetwise 3, Vigilance 2.
  Talents: Clever Retort (once per encounter, may add 󲊱 󲊱 
  to another character's social skill check), Customer Service 
  Experience 3 (after making a Charm check, may suffer up 
  to 3 strain to cancel an equal amount of 󲊱).
  Abilities: Threat of Ban (while in club owner's establish-
  ment, may spend 󲊱 from checks targeting club owner to 
  have character making the check suffer 2 strain instead of 1). 
  Equipment: Stun baton (Melee; Damage 4; Critical 5; Range 
  [Engaged]; Disorient 3, Stun Damage), PAD, bouncers.
  DIESEL BRO (MINION)
  A segment of youth culture in New Angeles is preoccupied 
  with sports and adrenaline. Generally male, the "diesel bro" 
  is obsessed with "traditional" displays of machismo. This 
  includes a great deal of high-risk and sometimes violent 
  behavior. Rarely career criminals or streetbangers, most 
  diesel bros are just angry kids hopped up on way too much 
  energy drink. Still, violence often erupts after a mob of bros 
  runs into someone wearing the wrong team colors. 
  Skills (group only): Athletics, Brawl, Coercion, Melee.
  Talents: Berserk (as an incidental, until the end of the 
  encounter, may add 󲊳 󲊴 󲊴 to all melee combat checks, 
  but cannot make Ranged attacks; enemies add 󲊳 to all 
  combat checks targeting a diesel bro or group; when this 
  talent is used, suffer 6 strain at end of encounter).
  Abilities: None.
  Equipment: Baseball bat (Melee; Damage 5; Critical 3; 
  Range [Engaged]; Disorient 2), diesel can, PAD.
  DISENFRANCISTO (MINION)
  Disenfrancistos live off the grid in New Angeles’ undercity, 
  and are everyone from homeless panhandlers to those who 
  choose to live a life away from the corporate controlled 
  world that exists above plaza level. Many disenfrancistos 
  tend to get by on odd jobs, scavenge the undercity for valu-
  able finds, and sleep in disused transit tunnels, clone bar-
  racks, bioroid warehouses, and other squats.
  Skills (group only): Melee, Resilience, Streetwise, 
  Survival, Vigilance.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: None.
  Equipment: Utility knife (Melee; Damage 
  3; Critical 4; Range [Engaged]), backpack of  
  personal goods.
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  DISENFRANCISTO  
  SURVIVALIST (RIVAL)
  While many live off the grid in poor conditions, others 
  choose the life. Convinced that all mainstream media is a 
  scam to encourage citizens to be “good little consumers,” 
  the off-gridder disenfrancisto believes that only they under-
  stand how to live free. They have almost no Net presence, 
  living throughout the undercity and in unique independent 
  communities like Manta's Sunken City.
  Skills: Athletics 2, Discipline 2, Mechanics 3, Medicine 2, 
  Melee 1, Perception 3, Ranged (Light) 3, Streetwise 2, Sur-
  vival 2, Vigilance 1.
  Talents: Battlefield Medicine 1 (before making a Medicine 
  check, may use this talent to add 󲊳 to the results; after the 
  check is resolved, the target suffers 2 strain).
  Abilities: None.
  Equipment: Hand cannon (Ranged [Light]; Damage 7; Crit-
  ical 3; Range [Medium], Inaccurate 1, Limited Ammo 4), 
  utility knife (Melee; Damage 4; Critical 4; Range [Engaged]), 
  backpack full of supplies, medical kit, rope, flashlight.
  REPORTER (RIVAL)
  In a megapolis as polarized as New Angeles, there is never 
  a shortage of salacious scandal, corruption, or murder to 
  write about. Referred to as “news-nosies,” reporters spend 
  their days tracking down stories, often in the less-than-
  safe undercity. 
  Skills: Charm 2, Coercion 3, Cool 3, 
  Perception 3, Skulduggery 2, Street-
  wise 2, Vigilance 2.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: In the Know (whenever this char-
  acter learns a Motivation of another character 
  in the encounter, this character may have that 
  character suffer 2 strain and may heal 2 strain), 
  Leading Question (once per encounter, may spend 
  a Story Point to learn one Motivation of any one other 
  character in the encounter).
  Equipment: PAD, camdrone, monocam, press credentials.
  RESEARCHER (RIVAL)
  Since New Angeles is a city on the cutting edge of research 
  and development, plenty of researchers and scientists work 
  in laboratories across the metropolis. While these labs are 
  usually affiliated with a company, most of the researchers 
  are contractors with uncertain long-term employment. 
  More than a few of them would be happy to do some off-
  the-books research work for a few credits. 
  Skills: Discipline 2, Knowledge (Science) 3, Negotiation 2, 
  Medicine 2, Perception 3.
  Talents: Applied Research 1 (once per session may use 
  Knowledge (Science) and Intellect when making a check 
  instead of the skill and characteristic the check would nor-
  mally require).
  Abilities: Research Team Member (when providing skilled 
  assistance, may reroll up to two of the dice in the pool 
  before resolving the check).
  Equipment: Networked PAD, holodisplay, lab coat.
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  RISTIE COLLECTOR (NEMESIS)
  Many wealthy risties are collectors, often of something rare 
  and expensive. This might include art, ancient artifacts, 
  vehicles, unique old technology or code, even androids or 
  drones. The collector is willing to go to extreme lengths, 
  even resorting to underground markets, to get vital pieces 
  for their collection. Price is no object for a rare find. While 
  the ristie collector may live in a lavish condo-hab or villa, 
  they go wherever the hunt for that crucial next piece of 
  their collection takes them. 
  Skills: Cool 1, Knowledge (Society) 4, Negotiation 3, Per-
  ception 3, Streetwise 3, Vigilance 2.
  Talents: Haughty Demeanor (other characters add 󲊱 to 
  social skill checks targeting ristie collector). 
  Abilities: Shrewd Negotiator (when making an opposed 
  Negotiation or Streetwise check to purchase or sell an item, 
  may suffer 2 strain to add 󲊳 to the results), Let’s Make a 
  Deal (if this character knows an opponent’s Desire Moti-
  vation, when they inflict strain on the opponent, the oppo-
  nent suffers 4 additional strain).
  Equipment: Heavily encrypted PAD, several credsticks.
  STARLIGHT TEMPLAR (RIVAL)
  The Starlight Crusade is a religious order that utilizes technol-
  ogy to stimulate parts of the brain its members believe to house 
  the soul in order to have religious experiences. Templars are 
  strict adherents to Starlight Crusade tenets. They take it per-
  sonally when outsiders sully the church’s reputation, defending 
  their beliefs with a sometimes violent righteousness. 
  Skills: Brawl 2, Coercion 3, Discipline 3, Knowledge (Soci-
  ety) 1, Ranged (Light) 1.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Values Enforcer (when making any social skill 
  or combat check targeting an opponent of the church, add 
  󲊳 󲊱 to the result), Templar Cybernetic Implant (once per 
  encounter as a maneuver, may make a Simple (–) Disci-
  pline check to heal 1 wound per 󲊳). 
  Equipment: Fletcher pistol (Ranged [Light]; Damage 4; 
  Critical 2; Range [Medium]; Pierce 2, Vicious 2), heavy 
  jacket with Crusade logo (+1 soak), PAD. 
  YOUNG RISTIE (RIVAL)
  Many risties who live on inherited wealth seek pleasure, 
  which might take any form, including live entertainment, 
  food, unique tailored experiences, and adrenaline rushes. 
  Anyone who navigates the social scene in New Angeles has 
  had to deal with more than a few belligerent (and often 
  intoxicated) young risties looking for fun—or trouble.
  Skills: Charm 2, Coercion 1, Cool 1, Coordination 2, 
  Knowledge (Society) 2.
  Talents: Proper Upbringing 2 (when making a social skill 
  check in the company of fellow risties, may suffer up to 2 
  strain to add up to 󲊴 󲊴 to the check).
  Abilities: I’ll Tell My Parents! (when this character inflicts 
  strain using a social skill check, they inflict 2 additional strain).
  Equipment: High-end wearable PAD.
  CRIMINALS
  Criminal groups range from small streetbanger gangs to mas-
  sive orgcrime syndicates. In addition, a wide range of indepen-
  dents sell their skills on the street or hunt for a big score.
  CRIMINAL RUNNER (NEMESIS)
  Criminal runners come in all types: some are cocky upstarts 
  taking on jobs out of their league, while others are cold pro-
  fessionals saving up for retirement. But for each of them, at 
  the end of the day it's all about the paycheck. 
  Skills: Computers (Hacking) 4, Computers (Sysops) 2, Cool 
  3, Deception 3, Knowledge (The Net) 2, Ranged (Light) 2, 
  Skulduggery 3, Streetwise 3, Vigilance 2.
  Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade difficulty of all combat checks 
  against this target once), Distinctive Style (may add 󲊳 󲊳 󲊱 
  󲊱 to any Computers (Hacking) checks before rolling; 󲊱 󲊱 
  triggers the I Know You! option in Table 3–2 on page 130).
  Abilities: Direct Access (when jacking in from within the 
  same building as the target server, automatically succeeds 
  when making an access system check).
  Equipment: Submachine gun (Ranged [Light]; Damage 5; 
  Critical 3; Range [Medium]; Auto-fire), skulljack, portable 
  rig with Femme Fatale (page 137) and Corroder (page 
  136)—protected by Shinobi (page 135), fake IDs.
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  LOS SCORPIONES  
  CASCARES (MINION)
  Los Scorpiones controls much of the illicit drug trade in 
  New Angeles with the help of their cascares, or enforcers. 
  Under the leadership of Lívia Teixeira and Miguel Moreno, 
  the cascares have become a team of brutal and bloodthirsty 
  enforcers who eagerly get their hands dirty engaging in 
  human trafficking, gunrunning, and organ grinding. 
  Skills (group only): Coercion, Melee, Ranged (Light), 
  Streetwise, Vigilance.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: None.
  Equipment: Armor-piercing submachine gun (Ranged 
  [Light]; Damage 5; Critical 3; Range [Medium]; Auto-fire, 
  Pierce 2), machete (Melee; Damage 6; Critical 3; Range 
  [Engaged]; Vicious 1), aviator glasses.
  ORGCRIME HEAVY (RIVAL)
  Most orgcrime outfits tend to have a number of heavily 
  armed and well-trained enforcers. While the muscle in an 
  organization runs most of the day-to-day criminal enter-
  prises, the heavies take over in situations where violence 
  and armed combat are expected. When they're not shoot-
  ing up buildings and busting heads, heavies tend to work as 
  bodyguards for orgcrime bosses.
  Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Discipline 2, Ranged (Heavy) 2, 
  Resilience 1, Streetwise 3, Vigilance 1.
  Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade difficulty of all combat 
  checks against this target once), Street Fighter (when dis-
  orienting or knocking a target prone, the target suffers 
  3 wounds).
  Abilities: None. 
  Equipment: Fletcher (Ranged [Heavy]; Damage 4; Criti-
  cal 2; Range [Medium]; Blast 4, Pierce 2, Vicious 3), power 
  gauntlet (Brawl; Damage 8; Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; 
  Concussive 2, Knockdown, Prepare 1), light armor vest (+2 
  soak), oversized suit with hidden holsters. 
  ORGCRIME LIEUTENANT (NEMESIS)
  Whether Tri-Maf, yakuza, 14K, or Los Scorpiones, all org-
  crime outfits have their mid-level lieutenants. Lieutenants 
  typically either manage a single location, where they engage 
  in multiple criminal activities, or a single operation that 
  spans multiple locations. Lieutenants answer to a boss, and 
  they often have numerous muscle and some heavies under 
  their command.
  Skills: Coercion 3, Cool 4, Deception 3, Knowledge (Soci-
  ety) 2, Leadership 3, Ranged (Light) 3, Skulduggery 2, 
  Streetwise 4.
  Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade difficulty of all combat 
  checks against this target twice), Forgot to Count? (when 
  targeted by a ranged attack, can spend 󲊱 󲊱 to cause 
  attacker to run out of ammunition).
  Abilities: Tactical Direction (may spend a maneuver to 
  direct one friendly minion group within medium range; 
  that group may immediately perform a free maneuver or 
  add 󲊸 to its next check), You Thought You Were Out… 
  (when making a Coercion check to maintain a favor after 
  calling it in, the check is an Average [󲊷 󲊷] Coercion check 
  instead of an opposed check). 
  Equipment: Gold-plated laser pistol (Ranged [Light]; 
  Damage 6; Critical 3; Range [Short]; Accurate 1, Burn 1), 
  gold chains, nice suit. 
  ORGCRIME MUSCLE (MINION)
  All orgcrime syndicates fill their lower ranks with cheap, 
  tough, and somewhat disposable muscle. The job of these 
  enforcers is to stand around and look dangerous, and back 
  up their bosses in a fight. 
  Skills (group only): Brawl, Coercion, Ranged (Light).
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Threatening (when providing assistance on 
  another character’s Coercion checks, add 󲊳 to results for 
  each minion in the group beyond the first).
  Equipment: Brass knuckles (Brawl; Damage 3; Critical 
  4; Range [Engaged]; Disorient 3), fletcher pistol (Ranged 
  [Light]; Damage 4; Critical 2; Range [Medium]; Pierce 2, 
  Vicious 2), cheap padded suit (+1 soak).
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  Chapter 5: Adversaries
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  PRINCIPLED RUNNER (NEMESIS)
  Principled runners want to make the world a better place, 
  and they run in service to an ideal. They seek to expose 
  government and corporate corruption, often leaking pri-
  vate data to the press or spreading it all across the Net. Prin-
  cipled runners see themselves as sentinels keeping an eye 
  on those with great power to ensure they are using that 
  power responsibly. 
  Skills: Charm 1, Computers (Hacking) 3, Computers (Sys-
  ops) 3, Cool 2, Knowledge (Science) 3, Knowledge (The 
  Net) 4, Perception 3, Ranged (Light) 1.
  Talents: Burn Through (after making a successful check 
  to override a piece of ice, may suffer 3 strain to attempt 
  to override a second piece of ice on the same system as an 
  incidental), Natural (once per session, may reroll one Com-
  puters [Hacking] or Knowledge [The Net] check).
  Abilities: None.
  Equipment: Synap pistol (Ranged [Light]; Damage 5; Crit-
  ical 6; Range [Short]; Disorient 4, Stun 3, Stun Damage), 
  armored utility vest (+1 defense, +1 soak), BMI, big rig 
  with Athena (page 136) and Yog.0 (page 138)—protected 
  by Hawk's Eye (page 134) and Fire Wall (page 133).
  SNEAKER NET COURIER (RIVAL)
  The only truly secure data never touches the Network, and as 
  a result, some data transfers rely on physical couriers. Mem-
  bers of the so-called “sneaker net” transport data on mem 
  chips via hopper, Metro, or even their sneaker-clad feet. A 
  sneaker net courier needs to be fast, alert, and able to defend 
  their package from someone trying to run an intercept. 
  Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 1, Coordination 2, Driving 2, Pilot-
  ing 2, Ranged (Light) 2, Stealth 2, Streetwise 2, Vigilance 2.
  Talents: Swift (does not suffer penalties for moving through 
  difficult terrain).
  Abilities: Catlike Agility (once per turn, may spend a Story 
  Point to move to any location within short range as an 
  incidental, including locations that are vertically distant or 
  have no easy access route).
  Equipment: Palm stunner (Brawl; Damage 5; Critical 5; 
  Range [Engaged]; Disorient 2, Slow-Firing 2, Stun Dam-
  age), good running shoes, encrypted datasticks. 
  STREETBANGER (MINION)
  Street gangs collectively control most of the undercity, 
  though rarely does any control more than a few blocks. Bra-
  vado, loyalty, and a skewed sense of honor are their virtues. 
  While some terrify and extort those within their turf, oth-
  ers are the only justice and protection their neighborhood 
  has. Some even hire out as armed guides for reporters and 
  humanitarian workers. 
  Skills (group only): Brawl, Coercion, Melee, Ranged 
  (Light), Streetwise.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Threatening (when providing assistance on 
  another character’s Coercion checks, add 󲊳 to results for 
  each minion in the group beyond the first).
  Equipment: Pistol (Ranged [Light]; Damage 6; Critical 3; 
  Range [Medium]), mono-switchblade (Melee; Damage 4; 
  Critical 2; Range [Engaged]; Pierce 2), synthleather jacket 
  (+1 soak), extensive tattoos and piercings. 
  STREETBANGER LEADER (RIVAL)
  Street gang leaders have to be stronger, more ruthless, and 
  more capricious then all their subordinates combined. 
  Streetbanger leaders are often prisoners of their own posi-
  tion; the pressure to always be strong enough to deflect or 
  overcome challenges for their gang’s leadership makes for a 
  short lifespan. Thus, anyone who’s run a gang for more than 
  a few months is a fearsome foe, possessing an aura of palpa-
  ble menace laced with powerful charisma.
  Skills: Coercion 2, Cool 2, Melee 2, Leadership 2, Negotia-
  tion 1, Ranged (Light) 1, Skulduggery 3, Streetwise 3.
  Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade difficulty of all combat 
  checks against this target once).
  Abilities: Charismatic Menace (allies within short range 
  add 󲊴 to checks they make; opponents within short range 
  add 󲊱 to checks they make).
  Equipment: Custom six-shooter (Ranged [Light]; Damage 
  7; Critical 2; Range [Medium]; Accurate 1), plasma cutter 
  (Melee; Damage 12; Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; Burn 1, 
  Prepare 1, Sunder, Unwieldy 2), leather jacket with gang 
  colors (+1 soak), PAD.
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  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
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  STREET DOC (RIVAL)
  In an age of cybernetics and g-mods, many people seek a 
  shortcut to improved or personalized selves. Since going to 
  a legitimate doctor for an enhancement can cost a lot of 
  money and leave a record trail, some disreputable citizens 
  prefer relying on the work of a street doc. These are once-re-
  spectable surgeons who lost their license to practice or 
  med-school dropouts with questionable ethics. Now, they 
  patch up criminals and perform back-alley augmentations 
  on anyone with the credits.
  Skills: Deception 2, Knowledge (Science) 3, Mechanics 3, 
  Medicine 3, Negotiation 2.
  Talents: Surgeon 3 (when making Medicine checks to heal 
  wounds, heal 3 additional wounds).
  Abilities: Questionable Hygiene (when making a Medicine 
  check, must spend 󲊱 󲊱 󲊱 or 󲊲 to decrease the target’s 
  strain and wound thresholds by 2 each until the end of the 
  current session).
  Equipment: Shotgun (Ranged [Heavy]; Damage 8; Critical 3; 
  Range [Short]; Blast 4, Knockdown, Vicious 2), 4 slap-patches, 
  various cybernetics, emergency medkit, portable toolkit.
  YAKUZA ASSASSIN (NEMESIS)
  When blackmail and bribery fail, an oyabun—leader of the 
  yakuza—can call in one of their syndicate’s assassins. These 
  highly trained killers can get into the most heavily guarded 
  structures and eliminate their target without being seen or 
  heard. A yakuza assassin can use subtle poisons to make a 
  death appear accidental, or they can use their katana if the 
  oyabun wants to send an unmistakable message to their foes. 
  Their penchant for infiltration means that most yakuza 
  assassins have also learned how to infiltrate computer net-
  works and shut down security systems. Some of the best 
  could even join the ranks of New Angeles’ elite runners. 
  Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 4, Computers (Hacking) 3, Cool 4, 
  Coordination 5, Discipline 2, Melee 4, Perception 2, Skul-
  duggery 3, Stealth 5, Vigilance 2.
  Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade difficulty of all combat 
  checks against this target twice), Archaic Arms Master 
  (while armed with a Melee weapon, may make an Average 
  [󲊷 󲊷] Melee check to force one engaged target to drop one 
  weapon or move one range band in any direction).
  Abilities: Quiet Code (when making a Computers [Hack-
  ing] check, 󲊱 may not be spent to alert other users to the 
  assassin’s presence), Subtle Death (when making a Brawl 
  check, may spend 󲊴 󲊴 or 󲊵 to apply a dose of contact 
  poison to the target; the target must immediately make a 
  Hard (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) Resilience check as an incidental; if they 
  fail, they suffer 5 wounds plus 1 wound per 󲊱; 󲊲 means 
  they must make the check again at the start of their next 
  turn, as the poison remains in their system).
  Equipment: Charged crystal katana (Melee; Damage 6; 
  Critical 2; Range [Engaged]; Defensive 1, Pierce 3, Rein-
  forced), fists and feet (Brawl; Damage 5; Critical 4; Range 
  [Engaged]; Disorient 1, Knockdown, Stun 5, Stun Dam-
  age), optical camouflage suit (+2 defense), climbing gear, 
  pocket rig with one-shot icebreakers (spend a Story Point 
  to add 󲊳 󲊳 󲊳 to a successful check to break ice). 
  CORPORATE EMPLOYEES
  While drones have been reducing human labor require-
  ments for the last century, the introduction of androids 
  has greatly exacerbated that reduction. A large percentage 
  of the human jobs that remain are high-powered, high-
  tech, or managerial in nature, often requiring formal edu-
  cation or skills training. Corporate employees often live in 
  lavish arcologies, far from the struggling mass of human-
  ity in the undercity.
  CORPORATE MANAGER (RIVAL)
  Corporate mission statements and ideologies vary from 
  corporation to corporation, and it is the job of the middle 
  manager to ensure the prevailing corporate philosophy 
  trickles down to the workers and androids within their pur-
  view. Many middle managers worship upper management 
  and executives with an almost religious reverence in their 
  struggle to get ahead, which sometimes makes them obliv-
  ious to simple realities obvious to those underneath them. 
  Thus, their personal attention on an underling’s project can 
  often be as hurtful as it is helpful. 
  Skills: Charm 1, Computers (Sysops) 1, Deception 2, 
  Knowledge (Society) 1, Leadership 3, Negotiation 2, 
  Perception 2.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Corporate Oversight (when performing the assist 
  maneuver, add 󲊳 󲊱 󲊱 to the result instead of adding 󲊸).
  Equipment: Smartsuit, PAD.
  2
  3
  3
  2
  2
  2
  2
  10
  0
  0
  3
  4
  2
  3
  4
  1
  3
  15
  15
  2
  2
  2
  2
  3
  2
  2
  3
  2
  9
  0
  0
  Chapter 5: Adversaries
  224
    (Order #17879226)
  
  CORPORATE SYSOP (RIVAL)
  To protect themselves from all manner of Netcrime, corpo-
  rations hire sysops (system operators) to oversee and main-
  tain their security programs. Most sysops can react to an 
  intrusion and work to lock out a runner, while the best sys-
  ops can track the intrusion back to its source and initiate 
  some sort of retaliation. 
  Skills: Computers (Sysops) 2, Knowledge (The Net) 2, 
  Mechanics 1, Perception 1, Vigilance 2.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Reinforce (as a maneuver, may increase the 
  strength of one active piece of ice by 1 until the end of the 
  corporate sysop’s next turn).
  Equipment: PAD, corporate ID, snacks.
  FIELD ANCHOR (RIVAL)
  A majority of New Angelinos get their news from anchors 
  working for one of NBN’s programming lineups. NBN field 
  anchors embed with the NAPD during undercity sweeps, 
  stand on Manta Beach during hurricane threats, and report 
  from virtually any location that might have even a tangen-
  tial connection to a story in an effort to give viewers a sense 
  of conditions on the ground. The older and wiser ones sim-
  ulate doing all these things via digital manipulation, trust-
  ing that most viewers can’t tell the difference.
  Skills: Charm 3, Coercion 2, 
  Cool 4, Deception 2, Knowl-
  edge (Society) 2, Vigilance 3.
  Talents: Clever Retort (once per 
  encounter as an out-of-turn inciden-
  tal, may add 󲊱 󲊱 to a target’s social 
  skill check).
  Abilities: Leading Question (once 
  per encounter, may spend a Story 
  Point to learn one Motivation of 
  any one other character in the 
  encounter).
  Equipment: Light "bulletproof" 
  undervest (+1 soak), camdrone, 
  PAD, satellite uplink system, cheap 
  and stain-resistant suit.
  MELANGE OVERSEER (RIVAL)
  Melange Mining relies on Henry clones to perform the hard, 
  dangerous work of lunar helium-3 extraction. This means 
  their overseers have plenty of time to serve as Melange’s 
  unofficial enforcers, bullying the locals and rival He-3 oper-
  ations, and contributing to the megacorp’s unsavory reputa-
  tion. While Melange Mining personnel live in Heinlein, they 
  rotate down-Stalk for at least six months’ gravity leave after 
  every year of work. The clones, of course, remain behind. 
  Skills: Brawl 2, Coercion 3, Driving 2, Knowledge (Science) 
  1, Leadership 3, Mechanics 2, Perception 2, Ranged (Light) 1.
  Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade difficulty of all combat 
  checks against this target once).
  Abilities: Lunar Off-Roading (add 󲊸 󲊸 to any Driving or 
  Survival checks made on the lunar surface).
  Equipment: Retrofitted strength-augmenting gauntlet 
  (Brawl; Damage 7; Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Concus-
  sive 1, Knockdown), laser pistol (Ranged [Light]; Damage 
  6; Critical 3; Range [Short]; Accurate 1, Burn 1), reinforced 
  mining space suit (+2 soak), lunar megarover, PAD.
  1
  1
  3
  2
  2
  3
  1
  9
  0
  0
  2
  2
  2
  3
  1
  3
  2
  11
  0
  0
  4
  2
  2
  2
  2
  1
  6
  12
  0
  0
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
  225
    (Order #17879226)
  
  MEGACORP EXEC (NEMESIS)
  Execs live a romanticized lifestyle in the highest floors of 
  elite arcology buildings, where they enjoy the absolute 
  highest standard of living the planets have to offer. How-
  ever, boardroom competition is fierce, and it can some-
  times even be lethal. To survive the cutthroat environment, 
  executives have to be tough and ruthless, as comfortable 
  managing teams of prisec mercenaries as they are negotiat-
  ing multibillion-credit deals. 
  Skills: Charm 3, Cool 3, Deception 4, Discipline 2, Leader-
  ship 4, Negotiation 4, Perception 3, Vigilance 3.
  Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade difficulty of all combat checks 
  against this target once), Proper Upbringing 2 (when mak-
  ing a social skill check in the company of fellow corporate 
  employees, may suffer 2 strain to add 󲊴 󲊴 to the check).
  Abilities: Let’s Make a Deal (if this character knows an 
  opponent’s Desire Motivation, when this character inflicts 
  strain on the opponent, the opponent suffers 4 additional 
  strain), Ominous Reputation (when an opponent targets 
  this character with a check, the opponent suffers 2 strain).
  Equipment: Expensive suit with built-in PAD, credstick 
  with unlimited funds, teacup giraffe, personal assistant.
  SEA YELLOW JACKET (MINION)
  The Space Elevator Authority's first and most visible line of 
  defense are the “yellow jackets,” private security personnel 
  in their distinctive garb. Working in teams to perform pas-
  senger and cargo security scans for all contraband, yellow 
  jackets tend to have the same jaded demeanors as any other 
  customer-facing security officers. 
  Skills (group only): Coercion, Knowledge (Society), 
  Ranged (Light), Vigilance.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Uncomfortable Inspection (when searching 
  a character or their possessions, that character suffers 
  2 strain).
  Equipment: Synap pistol (Ranged [Light]; Damage 5, 
  Critical 6; Range [Short]; Disorient 4, Stun 3, Stun Dam-
  age), bright yellow jacket (+1 soak), security PAD, 2 
  snap locks.
  SYNC GLOBALSEC AGENT (NEMESIS)
  SYNC designed the most important network protocol on 
  the planet: the framework for the Network, which most 
  modern technology relies upon. When the SYNC’s sysops 
  encounter irregularities they don’t understand, they kick 
  them up to highly paid Globalsec agents whom SYNC 
  keeps on permanent retainer. Globalsec has the tools and 
  experience to investigate glitches, track down skilled run-
  ners, and close breaches with extreme prejudice. 
  Skills: Computers (Hacking) 2, Computers (Sysops) 3, 
  Knowledge (The Net) 4, Mechanics 2, Perception 2.
  Talents: Net Warrior (when using a BMI, may make an 
  opposed Computers [Hacking] versus Computers [Sys-
  ops] check targeting one character accessing the system; 
  the target suffers 1 strain per 󲊳, and if they are using a 
  BMI, they also suffer 1 wound per 󲊳).
  Abilities: Sniffer Programs (add 󲊸 󲊸 to any opponent’s 
  checks made on a system the SYNC Globelsec agent has 
  control of), Swordbreaker Programs (may make a Hard [󲊷 
  󲊷 󲊷] Computers [Sysops] check targeting one opponent 
  on the system to damage one of their active icebreakers one 
  step, plus one additional step per 󲊴).
  Equipment: PAD, BMI, and custom offensive rig with per-
  sonal icebreakers (Gordian Blade [page 137] Battering 
  Ram [page 136] and Garrote [page 137]).
  CREATURES AND VERMIN
  One might be forgiven for thinking that a megapolis like 
  New Angeles doesn’t have much in way of wildlife. In 
  fact, the myriad levels of the city host multiple microcli-
  mates and miniature ecosystems, where life has grown and 
  evolved to live in the cracks of civilization.  
  CYBERDOG (RIVAL)
  As more and more people have modified themselves with 
  cybernetics, they have taken to enhancing their best friends 
  as well. Dogs can receive cybernetics once they’re fully 
  grown, and most breeds adapt to them surprisingly well.
  Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Perception 2, Vigilance 2.
  Talents: None.
  2
  2
  3
  3
  4
  5
  2
  12
  18
  0
  0
  2
  2
  2
  2
  2
  1
  3
  6
  0
  0
  1
  2
  5
  3
  3
  2
  2
  10
  15
  0
  0
  3
  2
  1
  3
  1
  2
  4
  8
  0
  0
  Chapter 5: Adversaries
  226
    (Order #17879226)
  
  Abilities: Cybereyes (may see in infrared and may remove 
  up to 󲊸 󲊸 added to this character’s checks due to darkness), 
  Silhouette 0, Takedown (as an action, may make an Aver-
  age [󲊷 󲊷] Athletics check targeting one engaged oppo-
  nent; if successful, target is knocked prone, suffers 4 strain, 
  and may not stand from prone during their next turn). 
  Equipment: Electrified metal jaws (Brawl; Damage 6; Crit-
  ical 3; Range [Engaged]; Stun 4).
  G-MODSTROCITY (NEMESIS)
  The citizens of BosWash like to brag about their giant mutant 
  crocodiles in the sewers, but in truth, every major metropolis 
  has its share of monstrous creatures. So-called “g-modstroc-
  ities” likely started out as a lab experiment gone terribly 
  wrong. Now a potent blend of dozens of genomes, they roam 
  the depths of the undercity, avoiding Animal Control sweeps 
  and preying on anyone unlucky enough to get in their way. 
  Skills: Brawl 1, Vigilance 2.
  Talents: Indomitable (once per encounter when incapaci-
  tated, may spend a Story Point to use this talent; then, this 
  character is no longer incapacitated [and cannot become 
  incapacitated] until the end of their next turn).
  Abilities: Adversary 2 (upgrade difficulty of all combat checks 
  against this target twice), Bone-Chilling Roar (once per 
  encounter, may suffer 3 strain and spend a maneuver to force 
  all other characters within long range [or within earshot] to 
  make a Daunting (󲊷 󲊷 󲊷 󲊷) Discipline check as an out-of-
  turn incidental. If they fail, they must use their maneuver to 
  move farther away; if they fail with 󲊱, they must also down-
  grade their action to an additional maneuver to move even 
  farther away. If you’re using the fear rules found on page 243 of 
  the GeneSyS Core Rulebook, this can be a fear check instead.) 
  Equipment: Distended jaws and oversized claws (Brawl; 
  Damage 12; Critical 4; Range 
  [Engaged]; Ensnare 3, Sunder).
  HYPERRAT SWARM (RIVAL)
  The undercity is awash with illegal waste dumps from facto-
  ries, labs, drug dens, and illicit pharmaceutical cooperatives, 
  combined with the sewage of half a billion people. This cock-
  tail pushes the vermin population into an accelerated evolu-
  tionary cycle to survive, and two-kilo sewer rats with the 
  disposition of a wolverine are one of the undisputed suc-
  cesses of this genetic arms race. When they swarm, they can 
  strip a full-grown human down to bones in minutes. 
  Skills: Brawl 3, Coordination 2, Stealth 1, Resilience 3, 
  Survival 3.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Swarm (halve the damage dealt to this charac-
  ter before applying soak, unless the weapon has the Blast 
  or Burn quality [regardless of whether the quality is acti-
  vated]), They’re All Over Me! (enemies who start their turn 
  engaged with this character lose their free maneuver). 
  Equipment: Bite (Brawl; Damage 3; Critical 4; Range 
  [Engaged]; Knockdown, Vicious 2, gains Pierce 5 against 
  prone targets).
  TEACUP GIRAFFE (MINION)
  Originally designed in the Jinteki concepting labs as a practi-
  cal joke, the tiny giraffes (and the joke) got out of hand one 
  evening and started wandering the halls of the research facil-
  ity. Before the staff could round up their wayward animals, 
  one stumbled into the division manager—and her five-year-
  old daughter. Immediately, the daughter had a new pet and 
  the nervous jokers had a promotion, and six months later, 
  Miranda Rhapsody had an adorable teacup giraffe gifted to 
  her in a purse. Then everyone had six-figure bonuses. 
  Skills (group only): Charm.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Too Cute (when any character makes a check 
  to recover strain while engaged with this character, they 
  recover 2 additional strain), Way Too Cute (when an oppo-
  nent targets this character with a combat check, they suffer 
  4 strain), Silhouette 0.
  Equipment: Tiny head nubs (Brawl; Damage 0; Critical 8; 
  Range [Engaged]), gentle doe eyes.
  5
  2
  1
  4
  1
  1
  7
  25
  15
  0
  0
  1
  3
  1
  2
  1
  1
  1
  30
  1
  1
  1
  1
  1
  1
  1
  3
  1
  3
  0
  0
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
  227
    (Order #17879226)
  
  URBAN PECCARY (MINION)
  These small wild hogs are the only pigs originally native to 
  South America, and just like their European cousins, they 
  have proven incredibly resilient and hardy. Herds of pecca-
  ries wander the less-developed (or more-abandoned) por-
  tions of New Angeles, living on a hearty diet of trash, plant 
  matter, and discarded fast food. Most people dismiss the 
  comical-looking animals as harmless, but in truth, herds 
  can contain dozens of the beasts, and they’ve entirely lost 
  their fear of humans. If enough peccaries mob someone, 
  their tusks can do some serious damage. 
  Skills (group only): Athletics, Brawl, Survival.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Mob Mentality (add 󲊸 to all checks this charac-
  ter makes if part of a group of three or more minions). 
  Equipment: Tusks (Brawl; Damage 4; Critical 4; Range 
  [Engaged]; Vicious 1).
  GOVERNMENT
  In a megapolis as politically complex as New Angeles, it 
  takes thousands of agents, regulators, and lawyers oversee-
  ing the vast bureaucracy to keep the gears of civilization 
  turning. The NAPD is the most visible face of government 
  in New Angeles, but it’s understaffed and barely able to 
  maintain the status quo let alone 
  make progress on cleaning up 
  the undercity. 
  ASSISTANT DISTRICT  
  ATTORNEY (RIVAL)
  When the NAPD makes an arrest, district attorneys keep 
  the criminals behind bars as long as possible. DAs are pub-
  lic figures who have made long lists of enemies, and they 
  often find themselves on various orgcrime hit lists. DAs 
  don’t last long unless they accept NAPD protection, invest 
  heavily in self-defense training, or succumb to corruption. 
  Skills: Charm 3, Coercion 3, Cool 2, Deception 1, Knowl-
  edge (Society) 2, Melee 2, Negotiation 3, Perception 2.
  Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade the difficulty of all combat 
  checks against this target once), Natural (once per session, 
  may reroll any one Coercion or Negotiation check).
  Abilities: Full Weight of the Law (when making a Coercion 
  check to inflict strain during a social encounter, inflict 2 
  additional strain).
  Equipment: Concealed stun baton (Melee 2; Damage 4; 
  Critical 5; Range [Engaged]; Disorient 3, Stun Damage) 
  legal PAD, expensive suit.
  EMS FIRST RESPONDER (RIVAL)
  First responders typically work for the city or for a private 
  hospital, operating out of medevac hoppers to transport the 
  ill and injured to better facilities while providing on-scene 
  or in-transit emergency medical care. Responding to emer-
  gencies in the undercity can be difficult and even danger-
  ous work, due to both the natural hazards of crumbling 
  buildings and deteriorating bridges and the risk of violence 
  from gangs and locals. Many EMS techs carry Gandhi guns 
  so that they can protect themselves without killing anyone.
  Skills: Athletics 1, Knowledge (Science) 
  2, Medicine 3, Perception 1, Piloting 3.
  Talents: Combat Medicine 2 (before 
  making a Medicine check, may use this 
  talent to add 󲊳 󲊳 to the results; after this check is 
  resolved, the target suffers 4 strain). 
  Abilities: None. 
  Equipment: Synap pistol (Ranged [Light]; Damage 5; 
  Critical 6; Range [Short]; Disorient 4, Stun 3, Stun Dam-
  age), medkit, medical scanner PAD, 2 slap-patches.
  2
  1
  1
  2
  1
  1
  2
  7
  0
  0
  2
  1
  3
  3
  2
  3
  2
  10
  0
  0
  2
  2
  3
  2
  3
  2
  2
  11
  1
  1
  Chapter 5: Adversaries
  228
    (Order #17879226)
  
  NAPD DETECTIVE (RIVAL)
  There are thousands of detectives in the NAPD spread 
  across several divisions,. The greatest numbers of detectives 
  belong to Homicide Division, the Personal Abuse and 
  Modification Division’s Vice Unit, and the Gang Unit. Some 
  detectives also moonlight as private eyes. 
  Skills: Charm 3, Coercion 3, Cool 2, Knowledge (Science) 
  2, Perception 3, Ranged (Light) 2, Vigilance 3.
  Talents: Good and Bad Cop (may spend 󲊴 󲊴 from a Charm, 
  Coercion, Deception, or Negotiation check to upgrade the abil-
  ity of an ally's social skill check targeting same character once). 
  Abilities: Lawful Authority (add 󲊳 to the results of any 
  social skill checks made when interacting with residents of 
  New Angeles).
  Equipment: HHI M-3 pistol (Ranged [Light]; Damage 5; 
  Critical 4; Range [Medium]; as an incidental, may choose 
  to apply one of the following qualities before making an 
  attack: Blast 4, Pierce 2, Stun Damage), 2 snap locks, pocket 
  flask, NAPD PAD.
  NAPD HACHI-INU K8 UNIT (RIVAL)
  Jinteki’s blue-furred police dogs are a recent acquisition for 
  the NAPD. They are fast, hyperintelligent units capable of 
  sniffing out drugs, bombs, and fugitives much more effec-
  tively than their K9 counterparts, with flexible tails they can 
  communicate with via a specialized sign language. Their 
  bite secretes a paralyzing venom. 
  Skills: Brawl 3, Discipline 1, Perception 4, Resilience 2, 
  Survival 3.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: None.
  Equipment: Fangs and bite (Brawl; Damage 5; Critical 4; 
  Range [Engaged]; Knockdown, Stun 5).
  NAPD PATROL OFFICER (MINION)
  NAPD hoppers patrol beats regularly for visibility, but the 
  camdrones and seccams monitored by a station AI are what 
  generally trigger a police response. NAPD patrol officers 
  spend most of their time clearing away streetbangers and 
  disenfrancistos and securing crime scenes. 
  Skills (group only): Athletics, Coercion, Leadership, 
  Melee, Ranged (Light), Vigilance.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Lawful Authority (add 󲊳 to the results of any 
  social skill checks made when interacting with residents of 
  New Angeles).
  Equipment: HHI M-3 pistol (Ranged [Light]; Damage 5; 
  Critical 4; Range [Medium]; as an incidental, may choose to 
  apply one of the following qualities before making an attack: 
  Blast 4, Pierce 2, Stun Damage), stun baton (Melee; Damage 
  5; Critical 5; Range [Engaged]; Disorient 3, Stun Damage), 
  reinforced uniform (+1 soak), NAPD PAD, 4 snap locks.
  NAPD RIOT POLICE (MINION)
  When protests or demonstrations get out of hand, the 
  NAPD sends in its big guns: specialized riot-control units 
  equipped with fully powered armor. Most of these units’ 
  equipment is sourced from Huang Heavy Industries. In the 
  wake of the Clone Riots, this now includes a high-tech suit 
  of padded power-assist armor with a powered gauntlet. The 
  NAPD riot shield features a spotlight and built-in transpar-
  ent PAD display window. 
  Skills (group only): Athletics, Brawl, Coercion, Melee, 
  Vigilance.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Disperse! (once per encounter, as an action, may 
  force all non-NAPD characters within medium range to 
  make an Average (󲊷 󲊷) Discipline check as an out-of-turn 
  incidental; those who fail must spend their next turn mov-
  ing away from this character or minion group and attempt-
  ing to leave the encounter if possible).
  Equipment: Electrified power gauntlet (Brawl; Damage 8; 
  Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Concussive 2, Knockdown, 
  Prepare 1, Stun Damage), riot shield (Melee; Damage 4; 
  Critical 5; Range [Engaged]; Defensive 2, Deflection 2, 
  Inaccurate 2), riot armor (+2 soak), smoke grenades, 4 
  snap-locks. 
  2
  2
  3
  3
  2
  2
  2
  14
  0
  0
  2
  3
  1
  3
  2
  2
  3
  10
  1
  1
  4
  2
  2
  1
  2
  2
  6
  7
  2
  2
  2
  3
  2
  1
  2
  2
  4
  4
  0
  0
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
  229
    (Order #17879226)
  
  NAPD SWAT (RIVAL)
  The best, most combat-capable officers in the NAPD undergo 
  rigorous tactical training to become members of the Emer-
  gency Services Unit (more commonly known as the SWAT 
  team). SWAT gets called in when regular patrol officers are 
  overmatched, to handle hostage situations and barricaded 
  shooters, and to serve high-risk search or arrest warrants.  
  Skills: Athletics 2, Coercion 2, Ranged (Heavy) 2, Ranged 
  (Light) 2, Stealth 2, Vigilance 2.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Lawful Authority (add 󲊳 to the results of any 
  social skill checks made when interacting with residents of 
  New Angeles).
  Equipment: HHI scoped Gauss rifle (Ranged [Heavy]; 
  Damage 10; Critical 2; Range [Extreme]; Cumbersome 
  3, Pierce 5, Slow-Firing 1, reduce difficulty of combat 
  checks at long range or greater by 1) or HHI SP-10 shot-
  gun (Ranged [Heavy]; Damage 8; Critical 3; Range [Short]; 
  as an incidental, may choose to apply one of the following 
  qualities before making an attack: Blast 5, Knockdown, 
  Stun Damage, Vicious 2), backup fletcher pistol (Ranged 
  [Light]; Damage 4; Critical 2; Range [Medium]; Pierce 2, 
  Vicious 2), body armor (+2 soak).
  REGULATOR (RIVAL)
  City Hall has a small army of regulators who inspect all 
  manner of locations, practices, and operations. These 
  bureaucrats are convinced that most arcologies would fall 
  into the undercity without their constant vigilance against 
  corporate corner cutting. That said, many are open to being 
  financially incentivized to overlook minor offenses. 
  Skills: Discipline 2, Knowledge (Science) 2, Knowledge 
  (Society) 2, Negotiation 2, Perception 3, Vigilance 2.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Red Tape (during social encounters, may spend 
  󲊱 󲊱 󲊱 generated by an opponent to discover [or invent] 
  a legal violation that requires a fine, fee, or additional 
  authorization form that the opponent must complete before 
  accomplishing their goals).
  Equipment: Inspection PAD.
  PRISEC AND SOLDIERS
  While state-run militaries still exist, many nations and all 
  corporations contract private security to fight their wars for 
  them, or to augment their forces in a combat theater. 
  CYBERMOD BOUNTY  
  HUNTER (NEMESIS)
  The NAPD has one of the largest urban jurisdictions in the 
  worlds, and it is hopelessly unable to field enough officers 
  to cover it. Bounty hunters pick up the slack, serving sum-
  monses and warrants and taking fugitives off the streets, 
  especially in the undercity. Relentless trackers and fierce 
  combatants, bounty hunters tend to favor concealed or 
  cybernetic armaments that allow them to approach their 
  targets without alerting them. 
  Skills: Athletics 4, Cool 2, Coordination 1, Deception 3, 
  Melee 3, Ranged (Heavy) 4, Perception 3, Streetwise 3, 
  Stealth 3, Vigilance 2.
  Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade the difficulty of all com-
  bat checks against this target once), Hamstring Shot (once 
  per round, may perform a ranged combat check against 
  one non-vehicle target within range; on a success, halve 
  the damage inflicted [before applying soak]; the target is 
  immobilized until the end of its next turn).
  Abilities: None.
  Equipment: Shotgun loaded with stun rounds (Ranged 
  [Heavy]; Damage 8; Critical 3; Range [Short]; Knockdown, 
  Stun Damage), stun baton (Melee; Damage 5; Critical 5; Range 
  [Engaged]; Disorient 3, Stun Damage), concealed buckyweave 
  clothing (1 defense, +1 soak), sub-dermal armor, enhanced 
  reflexes, cybernetic lungs, 3 snap locks, PAD full of warrants.
  EWS RAIDER (NEMESIS)
  The Electronic Warfare Service is the United States’ cyber 
  warfare division, and the Raiders are elite operatives who 
  embed on the front lines to provide drone air support and 
  Network security, degrade enemy networks, and generally 
  dominate the cyber battlefield. Raiders are some of the 
  most dangerous militarized computer operatives around, 
  and a veteran of the EWS has no problem finding work in 
  the world of corporate espionage. 
  3
  3
  2
  3
  3
  2
  6
  15
  0
  0
  1
  1
  3
  2
  2
  2
  1
  8
  0
  0
  3
  2
  2
  4
  2
  1
  5
  16
  11
  1
  1
  3
  3
  4
  3
  3
  2
  5
  16
  18
  2
  2
  Chapter 5: Adversaries
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  Skills: Computers (Hacking) 3, Computers (Sysops) 3, 
  Gunnery 2, Knowledge (The Net) 3, Perception 2, Piloting 
  2, Ranged (Light) 2, Stealth 2, Survival 2.
  Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the difficulty of all combat 
  checks against this target twice).
  Abilities: Drone Master (this character may control up to 
  two drone rivals or a minion group of four drone minions; 
  may spend a maneuver to allow each rival or minion group 
  under their control to perform an action and a maneuver 
  during this character’s turn), Pit Trap Programs (may make 
  an opposed Computers [Hacking] versus Computers 
  [Sysops] check targeting another user on a system; if suc-
  cessful, that user is staggered for one round per 󲊳).
  Equipment: Laser pistol (Ranged [Light]; Damage 6; Crit-
  ical 3; Range [Short]; Accurate 1, Burn 1), skin suit (2 
  defense, +2 soak, +2 wound threshold), up to four drones 
  of various types, encrypted suit rig with BMI interface with 
  Corroder (page 136) and Crypsis (page 137) —protected 
  by Archer (page 134) and Ice Wall (page 134).
  G-MOD BODYGUARD (RIVAL)
  The wealthy often retain a security detail, which is as much 
  a status symbol as anything. They may request that their 
  bodyguards dress in classy outfits, and even coordinate 
  their appearance. G-modded bodyguards are the elite 
  members of the private security world; they are strong and 
  fast, but they also tend to look good and really fill out their 
  subtly armored designer suits. Prisec corporations often 
  keep them on retainer for their most valued (and wealthi-
  est) clientele.
  Skills: Brawl 2, Cool 2, Medicine 1, Piloting 2, Ranged 
  (Light) 2, Vigilance 3.
  Talents: Body Guard 1 (once per round, may perform the 
  Body Guard maneuver to guard an engaged target; suffer 
  1 strain to upgrade the difficulty of all combat checks tar-
  geting that character once until the end of this character’s 
  next turn).
  Abilities: Enhanced Strength (may suffer 1 strain to add 󲊳 
  to Athletics or Brawl checks).
  Equipment: Synap pistol (Ranged [Light]; Damage 5; 
  Critical 6; Range [Short], Disorient 4, Stun 3, Stun Dam-
  age), stun-knuckles (Brawl; Damage 4; Critical 4; Range 
  [Engaged]; Stun 3), concealed light armor weave (+1 soak), 
  sunglasses with HUD display, 1 slap-patch.
  MERCENARY VET (NEMESIS)
  Major conflicts like the Lunar Insurrection and the Martian 
  Colony Wars, as well as the ceaseless skirmishes in their 
  aftermath, have created a generation of war veterans. While 
  at any other point in history, these grizzled warriors would 
  be past their prime, g-mods and cybernetics let them bring 
  nearly two decades of combat experience to a body more 
  capable than ever. Many contract out to elite private mili-
  tary contractors for high-risk, high-reward special combat 
  operations, often to pay off their augmentations. 
  Skills: Athletics 1, Cool 1, Melee 3, Ranged (Heavy) 3, 
  Ranged (Light) 2, Stealth 2, Survival 3, Vigilance 3.
  Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the difficulty of all combat 
  checks against this target twice), Quick Draw (once per round 
  on this character’s turn, may draw or holster an easily accessi-
  ble weapon or item as an incidental), Rapid Reaction 2 (suffer 
  up to 2 strain to add up to 󲊳 󲊳 to any Vigilance or Cool 
  check this character makes to determine Initiative order).
  Abilities: None.
  Equipment: Bullpup carbine (Ranged [Heavy]; Damage 
  7; Critical 3; Range [Medium]; Accurate 1, Auto-fire), 2 
  monofilament grenades (Ranged [Light]; Damage 7; Crit-
  ical 3; Range [Short]; Blast 7, Limited Ammo 1, Vicious 1), 
  custom combat knife (Melee; Damage 6; Critical 2; Range 
  [Engaged]; Vicious 2), light body armor (+2 soak).
  3
  3
  2
  1
  1
  3
  4
  14
  0
  0
  4
  4
  3
  3
  3
  2
  6
  16
  14
  0
  0
  HAAS-BIOROID LOSS 
  PREVENTION AGENT
  Haas-Bioroid’s Android Loss Prevention Program 
  (HALPP) officially doesn’t exist, because bioroids never 
  run away or disobey their programming. Unofficially, 
  it has a massive staff and works around the clock to 
  hunt down “malfunctioning” bioroids before the public 
  hears about them. 
  A loss prevention agent can be represented with the 
  cybermod bounty hunter profile and adding this abil-
  ity: Shutdown Authorization (as an action, may make 
  an Average (󲊷 󲊷) Computers (Hacking) check 
  to stagger and immobilize one bioroid within short 
  range for the remainder of the encounter; if the tar-
  get is a PC bioroid, the check becomes an opposed 
  Computers (Hacking) versus Discipline check.
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
  231
    (Order #17879226)
  
  PRIVATE MILITARY  
  CONTRACTOR (MINION)
  While there are plenty of prisec corporations out there, Glo-
  balsec is one of the largest and the best example of a milita-
  ristic PMC. It can run nearly any sort of military operation, 
  from invasion to counterinsurgency ops, and its people pro-
  vide security and escort duties, as well as handle trouble-
  shooting operations. Globalsec contractors (usually) behave 
  professionally, are well equipped, and are backed up by a cor-
  poration that has its own (albeit small) air force and navy.   
  Skills (group only): Discipline, Ranged (Heavy), Vigilance.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: None.
  Equipment: Assault rifle (Ranged [Heavy]; Damage 8; 
  Critical 3; Range [Long]; Auto-fire), plasteel carapace (1 
  defense, +2 soak).
  SXC EXOSUIT PILOT (RIVAL)
  An exosuit on the loose in a metropolitan area like New 
  Angeles is the kind of threat that keeps police commission-
  ers up at night. While the largest exosuits are basically 
  walking tanks, even the smaller “person-sized” suits used 
  by Company A in each SXC battalion can turn a single sol-
  dier into a fast, well-armored, and highly lethal threat. They 
  can deploy either as infantry support units or en masse as 
  an armored line, and they can even drop from orbit. 
  Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 1, Discipline 3, Gunnery 3, Resil-
  ience 2, Vigilance 2.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: High-Altitude Drop (when falling any distance, 
  may make an Easy [󲊷] Discipline check as an incidental; 
  on a success, this character does not suffer any damage 
  from falling and lands on their feet).
  Equipment: Heavy fletcher (Gunnery; Damage 6; Critical 
  2; Range [Medium]; Blast 6, Pierce 4, Vicious 3) or laser 
  cannon (Gunnery; Damage 10; Critical 3; Range [Long]; 
  Accurate 1, Burn 1, Cumbersome 4), power-augmented 
  exosuit fists (Brawl; Damage 7; Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; 
  Knockdown), SXF X1.a exosuit (1 defense, +3 soak, +1 
  Brawn, +5 wound threshold, allows wearer to operate 
  underwater and in vacuum for up to 4 hours).
  SXC TROOPER (MINION)
  The question “Hey, you sexy?” has led to plenty of misun-
  derstandings and brawls in bars across the worlds, but for 
  members of the Space Expeditionary Force, it’s a sure-fire 
  way to spot another vet. Drawn from the ranks of the U.S. 
  Air Force and Marines, SXC troopers train to fight in the 
  most unforgiving conditions imaginable: zero-G and hard 
  vacuum. They are some of the most adaptable and self-reli-
  ant soldiers around, operating on battlefields far beyond 
  the reach of any other military branches. 
  Skills (group only): Athletics, Discipline, Melee, Ranged 
  (Heavy), Vigilance.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: None.
  Equipment: Laser rifle (Ranged [Heavy]; Damage 8; Critical 
  3; Range [Medium]; Accurate 1, Burn 1), monoblade combat 
  knife (Melee; Damage 4; Critical 2; Range [Engaged]; Pierce 
  2), environmentally sealed plasteel carapace (1 defense, +2 
  soak), disposable zero-G maneuvering pack. 
  DRONES
  Drones are a constant in New Angelinos’ lives, but most 
  people don’t even notice their existence. From the ubiqui-
  tous courier drones that make deliveries, to the small and 
  unobtrusive camdrones used by security firms, the NAPD, 
  and NBN and its affiliates, drones are nearly everywhere in 
  New Angeles. Of course, drones have a darker side; military 
  outfits and prisec contractors use armed drones as another 
  tool of war. The best operators, such as those in the United 
  States’ Electronic Warfare Service, can manage entire fleets 
  of killer robots. 
  3
  3
  1
  2
  2
  1
  5
  5
  1
  1
  4
  3
  2
  2
  2
  2
  7
  20
  1
  1
  3
  3
  2
  2
  2
  2
  5
  6
  1
  1
  Chapter 5: Adversaries
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    (Order #17879226)
  
  CAMDRONE (MINION)
  Most camdrones are simple disks built around one or more 
  electromagnetic hoverfoil rotors and studded with cam-
  eras. Everyone from the NAPD and the military to private 
  citizens uses drones for reconnaissance and entertainment. 
  Skills (group only): Perception, Vigilance.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Early Warning (adds 󲊸 to its operator’s checks to 
  determine Initiative), Flyer (can fly; see the Flying sidebar 
  on page 100 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook), Mechanical 
  (does not need to breathe, eat, or drink, and can survive in 
  vacuum and underwater; is immune to poisons and toxins), 
  Silhouette 0, Telepresence (can operate independently, or 
  can be controlled directly by an operator via wireless link; 
  if being controlled, the camdrone counts as having ranks in 
  any skill equal to the controller’s ranks in that skill).
  Equipment: None.
  COMBAT DRONE (MINION)
  Combat drones usually deploy defensively to watch an 
  infantry unit’s flanks or forward as scouts. Though not well 
  armed or armored, they are agile and more disposable than 
  a human soldier, and in groups they can be lethal. 
  Skills (group only): Perception, Ranged (Light).
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Flyer (can fly; see the Flying sidebar on page 100 
  of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook), Focus Fire (when mak-
  ing a combat check, add 󲊴 to the results for every other 
  character in the minion group), Mechanical (does not need 
  to breathe, eat, or drink, and can survive in vacuum and 
  underwater; is immune to poisons and toxins), Silhouette 
  0, Telepresence (can operate independently, or can be con-
  trolled directly by an operator via wireless link; if being 
  controlled, the combat drone counts as having ranks in any 
  skill equal to the controller’s ranks in that skill).
  Equipment: Light fletcher (Ranged [Light]; Damage 4; 
  Critical 2; Range [Medium]; Pierce 2).
  1
  3
  1
  1
  1
  1
  1
  2
  2
  0
  1
  3
  1
  1
  1
  1
  3
  5
  2
  0
  TABLE 5–1: DRONE PRICES AND RARITIES
  Item
  Price
  Rarity
  Camdrone
  150
  2
  Combat Drone
  750 (R)
  3
  Hunter-Killer Drone
  10,000 (R)
  5
  Maintenance Drone
  300
  2
  Retail Drone
  100
  2
  Toy Drone
  90
  2
  DRONE OPERATIONS
  Drones are not “smart” enough to operate on their 
  own unless they are following a specific set of prede-
  termined instructions or are working within the param-
  eters of a simple daily routine. This works fine for deliv-
  ery drones and New Angeles street sweepers, but the 
  drones used by military forces need to be run by skilled 
  operators to be of any great use. 
  Anyone with a communications link and the right setup 
  can control a drone. This requires the character to 
  spend their action and maneuver to allow the drone 
  to perform an action and maneuver. Characters may 
  have talents and abilities that modify this (for exam-
  ple, most drones have the Telepresence ability, which 
  makes them better when directed by an operator). 
  If a drone is not being directed by an operator, it can 
  still function in a limited manner. The exact limits of what 
  it can do are up to you, the GM, but generally, you 
  should have it follow a simple (and literal) set of instruc-
  tions. Camdrones told to scan crowds for certain faces 
  will sit in one spot and study everyone who passes by, 
  for example. The one thing a drone can’t do autono-
  mously is kill someone. Ethical considerations mean that 
  drones are hardwired not to fire on a living target unless 
  an active controller gives them kill authority. 
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  HUNTER-KILLER DRONE (RIVAL)
  The next level of combat drones, hunter-killer drones are 
  used as heavy support platforms for infantry platoons or 
  placed under the control of elite Electronic Warfare Service 
  operatives. Their bulky chassis have enough lift to haul 
  around some truly heavy artillery, and their software is 
  sophisticated enough to make them dangerous on their own 
  (requiring only a kill authorization from their operator). 
  Skills: Coordination 1, Perception 2, Gunnery 1, Vigilance 2.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Flyer (can fly; see the Flying sidebar on page 
  100 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook), Mechanical (does not 
  need to breathe, eat, or drink, and can survive in vacuum 
  and underwater; is immune to poisons and toxins), Telep-
  resence (can operate independently, or can be controlled 
  directly by an operator via wireless link; if being controlled, 
  the hunter-killer drone counts as having ranks in any skill 
  equal to the controller’s ranks in that skill).
  Equipment: Light machine gun (Gunnery; Damage 10; 
  Critical 3; Range [Long]; Auto-fire), micro-missile pod 
  (Gunnery; Damage 12; Critical 4; Range [Long]; Blast 10, 
  Guided 3, Limited Ammo 6) or armor-piercing missiles 
  (Gunnery; Damage 20; Critical 2; Range [Extreme]; Blast 5, 
  Breach 2, Guided 4, Limited Ammo 2).
  MAINTENANCE DRONE (RIVAL)
  Boxy, spider-legged maintenance drones roam New Angeles 
  in swarms, picking up trash, cleaning streets, and repairing 
  infrastructure. Maintenance drones are not designed to be 
  teleoperated. Instead, they operate independently while under 
  the general guidance of Public Works’ operations AI. This 
  means there are significant limits to what a maintenance drone 
  can do, even when hacked by a young, bored runner.  
  Skills: Athletics 3, Mechanics 3.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Mechanical (does not need to breathe, eat, or 
  drink, and can survive in vacuum and underwater; is 
  immune to poisons and toxins).
  Equipment: Manipulator arms (Brawl; Damage 4; Critical 
  6; Range [Engaged], Inaccurate 1), integrated construction 
  and repair tools. 
  RETAIL DRONE (MINION)
  Decades ago, in an effort to cut down on floor labor, most 
  big-box retailers shifted to service and delivery drones to 
  serve customers. Today’s small, floating retail drones bear 
  only a passing resemblance to their ancestors. With weak AI, 
  the drones interface with a customer's shopping history to 
  offer dynamic coupons or sales to maximize spending per 
  visit. The drones also deliver goods from store floor to door. 
  Skills (group only): Athletics, Perception.
  Talents: Big Guns (this character has an encumbrance 
  capacity of 12).
  Abilities: Flyer (can fly; see the Flying sidebar on page 
  100 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook), Mechanical (does not 
  need to breathe, eat, or drink, and can survive in vacuum 
  and underwater; is immune to poisons and toxins), Telep-
  resence (can operate independently, or can be controlled 
  directly by an operator via wireless link; if being controlled, 
  the retail drone counts as having ranks in any skill equal to 
  the controller’s ranks in that skill).
  Equipment: None.
  TOY DRONE (RIVAL)
  While cloned pets are all the rage, edu-toys have carved out 
  a small market share. These weak-AI drones nanny and 
  educate infants and toddlers. Most resemble dogs or popu-
  lar children’s entertainment characters, providing a fun ear-
  ly-education experience, often in singsong. Edu-pets have 
  full PAD functionality, with robust parental blocks ensur-
  ing only child-friendly content is accessible. This link also 
  generates ads and wish lists of toys, classes, and activities 
  the child gravitates toward on the parents’ or guardians’ 
  PADs, as well as daily data dumps on the child’s activity. 
  Skills: Charm 2, Knowledge (Society) 3, Knowledge (Sci-
  ence) 3, Knowledge (The Net) 2, Medicine 1.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Edutainment (when assisting with or making a 
  combined Knowledge check add 󲊸 to the check [informa-
  tion added typically comes in the form of a song]), Mechani-
  cal (does not need to breathe, eat, or drink, and can survive in 
  vacuum and underwater; is immune to poisons and toxins).
  Equipment: None.
  2
  2
  1
  1
  1
  1
  4
  15
  1
  0
  3
  1
  1
  1
  1
  1
  5
  8
  0
  0
  2
  2
  1
  1
  1
  1
  3
  4
  1
  0
  1
  2
  2
  2
  1
  3
  3
  4
  0
  0
  Chapter 5: Adversaries
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  CLONES
  Jinteki genetically designs each android clone line to fulfill a 
  very specific labor niche. 
  DESAI TUTOR CLONE (NEMESIS)
  The Desai line of tutor clones are high-end models designed 
  for the children of the ultrawealthy. Desais are capable of 
  teaching almost anything, from conceptual mathematics to 
  late-twentieth-century literature, and from biology to Tai 
  Chi. Their calm, authoritative demeanor means most parents 
  feel comfortable leaving their kids in these clones’ care. How-
  ever, Jinteki has found that their powerful intellect has 
  resulted in a higher number of Desais "going rogue.” 
  Skills: Charm 3, Coordination 2, Discipline 3, Knowledge 
  (Science) 3, Knowledge (Society) 3, Leadership 3, Medicine 3.
  Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade the difficulty of all combat 
  checks against this target once).
  Abilities: Expert Instruction (when this character per-
  forms the assist maneuver, upgrade the ability of the check 
  once instead of adding 󲊸).
  Equipment: Bonsai tree, instructor’s holodisplay with full 
  suite of lessons.
  HENRY LABOR CLONE (MINION)
  Henry clones are designed to work long hours under pun-
  ishing conditions. They mine He-3 on the lunar surface for 
  Melange Mining and labor in many of Quinde’s factories. 
  Their bodies are stronger than those of any human in his-
  tory, and their psyches have been adjusted to feel com-
  pletely mentally fulfilled by a hard day’s labor. 
  Skills (group only): Athletics, Mechanics, Resilience.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Air Filter Implant (immune to inhaled poisons 
  and toxins).
  Equipment: Durable clothing (+1 soak).
  MOLLOY SERVER CLONE (MINION)
  Mother Molloy’s is an Irish-themed gastropub that was 
  among the first to adopt clone staffing. Both genders of 
  Molloy units appear vaguely Irish, and they present a cheer-
  ful, smiling face to whoever walks in the door. 
  Skills (group only): Charm, Cool, Resilience.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Comfort Food (after eating a meal prepared by 
  this character, a character heals 2 strain).
  Equipment: Order PAD.
  OMOI SECURITY CLONE (RIVAL)
  The Omoi is a new clone line, marketed as a replacement 
  for human security guards. Although Omois are condi-
  tioned to avoid human injury and equipped with stun 
  weaponry, they still are uncomfortably close to the line of 
  "androids fighting humans." So far, this line has only seen 
  limited release, and mostly at Jinteki facilities. 
  Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 3, Cool 3, Driving 1, Perception 2, 
  Ranged (Light) 3, Vigilance 3. 
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: None.
  Equipment: Synap pistol (Ranged [Light]; Damage 5; 
  Critical 6; Range [Short], Disorient 4, Stun 3, Stun Dam-
  age), Palm stunner (Brawl; Damage 5; Critical 5; Range 
  [Engaged]; Disorient 2, Slow-Firing 2, Stun Damage). 
  TENMA DRIVER CLONE (RIVAL)
  Serving as drivers and pilots, the Tenma line is one of the 
  most popular lines in Jinteki’s catalog. While most vehicles 
  function on autopilot, a Tenma clone can fly a vehicle faster 
  and safer than any pilot program on the market. Many 
  companies utilize them as chauffeurs or high-value couriers. 
  Skills: Driving 3, Mechanics 2, Operating 3, Perception 3, 
  Piloting 3, Vigilance 3.
  Talents: Knack for It 2 (remove 󲊸 󲊸 from any Driving, 
  Operating, and Piloting checks).
  Abilities: None.
  Equipment: Cybernetic eye implants.
  2
  2
  4
  2
  3
  2
  2
  12
  16
  0
  0
  4
  2
  2
  2
  1
  1
  5
  7
  0
  0
  3
  3
  2
  1
  1
  1
  3
  12
  0
  0
  2
  4
  2
  2
  1
  2
  2
  8
  0
  0
  2
  2
  2
  1
  1
  3
  1
  5
  0
  0
  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
  235
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  BIOROIDS
  Some may make the mistake of thinking of “robots” when 
  they think bioroids. In reality, Haas-Bioroid has created 
  marvels of mechanical systems: artificial and mechanical 
  beings that are stronger, faster, smarter, and (most impor-
  tantly) more obedient than most humans. 
  ADAM INDUSTRIAL  
  LABOR BIOROID (MINION)
  The Adam line was the first large-market bioroid success. 
  Adam units perform hard physical labor with the kind of 
  strength, speed, and precision only a machine can achieve. 
  While Jinteki's Henry-model clones have begun to bite into 
  the Adam market, Adams are still commonplace in Quinde 
  factories and on construction sites across New Angeles. 
  Skills (group only): Athletics, Mechanics.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Bioroid (does not need to breathe, eat, or drink; 
  can survive in vacuum and underwater; is immune to poi-
  sons and toxins; and cannot knowingly endanger humans).
  Equipment: None.
  ADONIS AND EVE  
  PLEASURE BIOROID (RIVAL)
  Pleasure bioroids are an attempt by Haas-Bioroid to move 
  their products into the entertainment markets. Unlike most 
  bioroids, Adonis, Eve, and to a certain extent, the cheaper 
  Kevin- and Lisa-models, are built to appear as human as 
  possible. Many nightclubs and other high-end social spaces 
  employ luxury-model Adonis or Eve units to “entertain” 
  their customers, while in seedier areas of New Angeles, 
  pleasure bioroids sate humanity’s basest instincts.
  Skills: Charm 4, Cool 4, Coordination 2, Deception 3, 
  Knowledge (Society) 3, Perception 2.
  Talents: Natural (once per session, may reroll any one 
  Charm or Cool check).
  Abilities: Bioroid (does not need to breathe, eat, or drink; 
  can survive in vacuum and underwater; is immune to poi-
  sons and toxins; and cannot knowingly endanger humans).
  Equipment: Fuzzy restraints.
  CORPORATE BIOROIDS (RIVAL)
  Designed for basic corporate and office work, corporate 
  bioroids handle many customer-service, customer-support, 
  and first-tier sales calls, as well as jobs juggling data work and 
  preparing reports. Unfortunately, when early adopters tried 
  to flood departments with the initial "Janice" line, employees 
  and customers found them unsettling in their sameness. The 
  Janice line now has a number of related models, including 
  Brad finance units, Sally overseers, and Greg customer-ser-
  vice units. What HB neglects to mention is all of these units 
  are just Janice bioroids with cosmetic differences.
  Skills: Charm 2, Computers (Sysops) 2, Knowledge (Soci-
  ety) 2, Negotiation 2, Perception 2, Vigilance 2.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Bioroid (does not need to breathe, eat, or drink; 
  can survive in vacuum and underwater; is immune to poi-
  sons and toxins; and cannot knowingly endanger humans), 
  Office Drone (when this character makes a social skill 
  check, they add 󲊳 󲊱 to the result).
  Equipment: Corporate PAD.
  REX SEARCH AND  
  RESCUE BIOROID (RIVAL)
  Designed to take over high-risk search and rescue missions, 
  the Rex line has submodels that specialize in all manner of 
  extreme-environment rescue. In New Angeles, Rex units 
  ride alongside first responders and are the first inside burn-
  ing and collapsed structures. Rex units can extract casual-
  ties and protect them until help arrives, and the image of a 
  heroic Rex pulling a young child free of a burning building 
  dominates Haas-Bioroid ad campaigns. 
  Skills: Athletics 4, Coordination 2, Medicine 3, Perception 
  4, Resilience 3.
  Talents: Swift (this character does not suffer the penalties 
  for moving through difficult terrain).
  Abilities: Bioroid (does not need to breathe, eat, or drink; 
  can survive in vacuum and underwater; is immune to poi-
  sons and toxins; and cannot knowingly endanger humans).
  Equipment: Spotlight, climbing gear, O2 tank, medkit, 2 
  slap-patches.
  4
  3
  2
  1
  1
  1
  6
  6
  0
  0
  3
  3
  2
  1
  1
  4
  5
  10
  0
  0
  3
  1
  3
  2
  2
  2
  5
  10
  0
  0
  5
  3
  2
  1
  1
  4
  7
  15
  0
  0
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  SETH BIOROIDISTA (MINION)
  Home to the ten-credit triple latte, YucaBean is populated 
  with Seth bioroid baristas. The Seth-model is known for sar-
  castic, dry wit, often with a bent as dark as the coffee they 
  serve. They also enjoy wordplay with names, misspelling 
  them intentionally in an effort to brighten a customer’s day. 
  Skills (group only): Charm, Knowledge (Science), Perception.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Too Clever (when interacting with this charac-
  ter, characters may spend 󲊴 to recover 2 strain, and GMs 
  may spend 󲊱 to inflict 2 strain), Bioroid (does not need to 
  breathe, eat, or drink; can survive in vacuum and under-
  water; is immune to poisons and toxins; and cannot know-
  ingly endanger humans).
  Equipment: Order PAD.
  RABBLE ROUSERS AND 
  REVOLUTIONARIES
  Underneath the bright and shining surface of the biggest 
  megapolis in the worlds seethes anger and outrage. Plenty 
  of people have a problem with the way things work in New 
  Angeles. While many of them rely on protest or petitions, 
  quite a few feel driven to more violent methods. 
  ANARCH TROUBLEMAKER (RIVAL)
  Not everyone believes in following the rules or being part 
  of society. Anarchs take this a step further, hoping to get the 
  rest of the worlds to join in on the chaos. They expose the 
  rich and powerful, working to show everyone else how 
  powerless they really are and how none of their rules mat-
  ter. Anarchs are known for large-scale pranks, like hacking 
  major broadcasts to transmit obviously forged images of 
  officials committing sexually explicit acts, and the like.
  Skills: Athletics 3, Computers (Hacking) 2, Cool 4, Knowl-
  edge (The Net) 2, Skulduggery 4, Streetwise 3, Vigilance 1.
  Talents: Distinctive Style (may add 󲊳 󲊳 󲊱 󲊱 to any 
  Computers (Hacking) check before rolling; 󲊱 󲊱 triggers 
  the I Know You! result in Table 3–2 on page 130).
  Abilities: Burn It Down (this character adds 󲊴 󲊴 to the 
  results of checks they make targeting authority figures).
  Equipment: Fletcher pistol (Ranged [Light]; Damage 4; Crit-
  ical 2; Range [Medium]; Pierce 2, Vicious 2), Molotov cock-
  tail (Ranged [Light]; Damage 7; Critical 4; Range [Short]; 
  Blast 7, Burn 3), skulljack, portable terminal with Crypsis 
  (page 137)—protected by Hadrian's Wall (page 133).
  HUMAN FIRST EXTREMIST (MINION)
  Human First is a radicalized group of anti-android activists. 
  Best identified by their sledgehammers, most Human First 
  members are working-class people who've lost their jobs to 
  androids. They destroy clones and bioroids from time to 
  time, though NAPD treats their crimes as property damage. 
  Skills (group only): Coercion, Melee, Vigilance.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Mob Mentality (add 󲊸 to all checks this charac-
  ter makes if part of a group of three or more minions). 
  Equipment: Sledgehammer (Melee; Damage 6; Critical 4; 
  Range [Engaged]; Knockdown), durable clothing (+1 soak).
  HUMANITY LABOR REP (RIVAL)
  Humanity Labor seeks to preserve human employment in a 
  world where android labor is taking over. Humanity Labor 
  reps tirelessly meet with corporate and government leaders, 
  appear in news feeds, and plan and attend protests and 
  marches (often alongside members of the radical Human 
  First movement, though they deny any overt association). 
  Skills: Charm 2, Coercion 2, Negotiation 2, Streetwise 2.
  Talents: Scathing Tirade (use this talent to make an Aver-
  age [󲊷 󲊷] Coercion check; for each 󲊳, one opponent 
  within short range suffers 1 strain; for each 󲊴, one affected 
  opponent suffers 1 additional strain).
  Abilities: Rile Them Up (Once per encounter, may make an 
  Average [󲊷 󲊷] Charm check targeting a group of bystand-
  ers or other neutral NPCs at medium range; if the check is 
  successful, one of the bystanders [plus one per additional 
  󲊳] becomes a Human First extremist; these NPCs form a 
  single minion group and join the ongoing encounter. These 
  NPCs may have been regular people convinced by the rep, 
  or they may have been members of Human First all along.)
  Equipment: PAD.
  3
  1
  2
  3
  2
  2
  5
  5
  0
  0
  2
  3
  3
  3
  1
  3
  2
  10
  0
  0
  2
  2
  2
  2
  1
  2
  3
  5
  0
  0
  2
  2
  2
  3
  1
  3
  2
  12
  0
  0
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  LIBERTY SOCIETY REP (RIVAL)
  The Liberty Society is an advocacy group seeking to pro-
  vide clones with human rights. Its members work tirelessly 
  with the Simulant Abolitionist Movement to find test cases 
  they can bring to court, and they meet with liaisons from 
  Jinteki, government organizations, and news outlets to 
  advocate for clone rights. 
  Skills: Charm 2, Cool 1, Knowledge (Science) 2, Knowl-
  edge (Society) 3, Negotiation 3, Streetwise 1.
  Talents: Clever Retort (once per encounter, may add 󲊱 󲊱 
  to another character’s social skill check).
  Abilities: None.
  Equipment: Legal PAD. 
  LOONIE REVOLUTIONARY (RIVAL)
  Despite what City Hall claims, the Lunar Insurrection still 
  looms large in the minds of Heinlein’s citizenry. Many Loo-
  nies bear an asteroid-sized grudge against Earth for the 
  lives lost during the War and the brutal crackdowns that 
  followed. Groups of former insurrectionists and revolu-
  tionaries still gather in out-of-the-way places like the 
  Docklands, plotting raids and acts of violence against 
  Heinlein’s administration and the corporations that 
  dominate lunar life.
  Skills: Cool 2, Leadership 3, Perception 2, Ranged 
  (Heavy) 2, Skulduggery 1.
  Talents: Inspiring Rhetoric (may make an Average 
  [󲊷 󲊷] Leadership check as an action; for each 󲊳 
  the check generates, one ally within short range heals 
  1 strain; for each 󲊴, one ally benefiting from Inspir-
  ing Rhetoric heals 1 additional strain).
  Abilities: None.
  Equipment: Scavenged industrial laser rifle (Ranged 
  [Heavy]; Damage 8; Critical 3; Range [Medium]; Burn 
  1, Inferior), armored space suit (+2 soak).
  OPTICON FOUNDATION  
  WATCHDOG (RIVAL)
  While a number of watchdog organizations currently work to 
  combat corporate and government overreach, the Opticon 
  Foundation is among the most successful. It listens to and 
  protects the identities of whistleblowers, victims, and runners 
  in an effort to build court cases and news stories to keep cor-
  porations in check. Some even go undercover to catch corpo-
  rate directors and executives making damaging statements. 
  Skills: Computers (Hacking) 1, Cool 3, Deception 2, 
  Knowledge (Society) 1, Perception 3, Skulduggery 2.
  Talents: You Owe Me One (once per session, you may 
  spend one Story Point to have one other character in the 
  encounter owe this character a small favor for past services 
  performed by this character or their organization). 
  Abilities: None.
  Equipment: Discreet monocam, camdrone, fake idents, 
  encrypted PAD. 
  URBAN ADVENTURER (RIVAL)
  Some people look at New Angeles and instead of a city, they 
  see a plascrete and steel landscape full of opportunities for 
  exploration, adventure, and extreme sports. Urban adven-
  turers treat New Angeles like an untamed wilderness, going 
  1
  1
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  3
  2
  3
  1
  9
  0
  0
  1
  3
  2
  3
  2
  3
  3
  10
  0
  0
  2
  2
  4
  3
  2
  2
  2
  9
  0
  0
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  "caving" in abandoned sewers, free climbing starscrapers, 
  and diving off arcologies with wing suits. All of this is highly 
  illegal, contributing to their reputation as troublemaking 
  radicals. It also means that many urban adventurers are 
  happy to participate in other illegal activities for a thrill.
  Skills: Athletics 4, Coordination 4, Cool 3, Driving 3, 
  Knowledge (Society) 1, Piloting 3, Ranged (Light) 1, Stealth 
  1, Streetwise 4, Survival 4.
  Talents: Daring Aviator 2 (before making a Driving or 
  Piloting check, may add up 󲊱 󲊱 to the check to add an 
  equal number of 󲊳), Natural (once per session, may reroll 
  one Athletics or Coordination check).
  Abilities: None.
  Equipment: Auto-fletcher (Ranged [Light]; Damage 3; Criti-
  cal 2; Range [Medium]; Auto-fire, Pierce 2, Vicious 2), climb-
  ing gear, flashlight, powered wing suit (+1 soak, can fly; see the 
  Flying sidebar on page 100 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook).
  TRUE ODDITIES
  Life in New Angeles encompasses so many cultures and 
  lifestyles that there is little citizens haven’t seen before. 
  However, in a place so big and populous, there are always 
  things that defy reason and  explanation—things that most 
  people would say should not exist. Only the least reputable 
  of rags would run a story related to one of New Angeles’ 
  true oddities. 
  ARES COMBAT BIOROID (NEMESIS)
  Ares is a secret Haas-Bioroid project designed to test the 
  viability of combat bioroids (as well as a flagrant violation 
  of international law). Almost equal to an infantry platoon, 
  the Ares is effectively immune to small-arms fire and is also 
  flame, radiation, and blast resistant. It has integrated 
  360-degree radar, infrared, and low-light sensors that 
  constantly monitor the battlefield, and it has a variety 
  of integrated threat-response options. Overpowered 
  servos allow units to carry the heaviest anti-person-
  nel and anti-armor weaponry, often Gauss rifles, 
  missile launchers, or heavy machine guns. 
  3
  4
  2
  2
  1
  2
  4
  14
  0
  0
  5
  4
  3
  3
  1
  1
  10
  25
  15
  0
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  Skills: Brawl 4, Coercion 5, Coordination 2, Discipline 3, 
  Gunnery 4, Survival 3, Vigilance 3.
  Talents: Adversary 2 (upgrade the difficulty of all combat 
  checks against this target twice), Grenadier (when making 
  a combat check using a weapon with the Blast quality, may 
  spend one Story Point to trigger Blast instead of spending 
  󲊴 (even if the attack misses); in addition, treats grenades 
  as having a range of medium).
  Abilities: Combat Bioroid (does not need to breathe, eat, or 
  drink; can survive in vacuum and underwater; is immune 
  to poisons and toxins), Enhanced Auto-Bracing (using the 
  Auto-fire quality does not increase the difficulty of combat 
  checks; each time the Ares triggers an additional hit, it suf-
  fers 1 strain). 
  Equipment: Integrated rotary cannon (Gunnery; Damage 10; 
  Critical 3; Range [Long]; Auto-fire) or integrated heavy Gauss 
  rifle (Gunnery; Damage 10; Critical 2; Range [Extreme]; Breach 
  1, Slow-Firing 1), integrated micro-missile launcher (Gun-
  nery; Damage 12; Critical 4; Range [Long]; Blast 10, Guided 3, 
  Limited Ammo 3), armored fist (Brawl; Damage 8; Critical 4; 
  Range [Engaged]; Concussive 1, Knockdown, Sunder).
  HELLION (RIVAL)
  While there is no official proof that hellions exist, they are an 
  open secret among some circles of Netcriminals. No one is 
  certain if these small, cat-shaped robotic constructs are 
  drones. However, some disenfrancistos have claimed to see 
  hellions chasing hyperrats or spending hours batting at holo-
  graphic signs, which suggests an autonomous (and animalis-
  tic) operating system. Other criminals have come back to 
  supposedly safe crash pads to find their gear and possessions 
  shredded, chewed on, and thoroughly trashed, and spotted a 
  catlike creature with glowing red eyes ducking out a window 
  or ventilation shaft. An unlucky few have even been found 
  dead and savagely mauled in similar crash pads. 
  Skills: Brawl 3, Cool 4, Coordination 2, Perception 2, 
  Stealth 5, Vigilance 4.
  Talents: None.
  Abilities: Mechanical (does not need to breathe, eat, or 
  drink, and can survive in vacuum and underwater; immune 
  to poisons and toxins), Impressively Flexible (may spend 
  a Story Point to gain access to a formerly secure room or 
  other location through a previously unnoticed vent shaft, 
  slightly open window, or similar entry point), Catlike (may 
  make a move maneuver to move normally up and down 
  vertical surfaces, across ropes, and over otherwise impass-
  able structures), silhouette 0.
  Equipment: Titanium claws (Brawl; Damage 3; Critical 2; 
  Range [Engaged]; Pierce 3, Sunder).
  ROGUE NISEI CLONE (NEMESIS)
  Jinteki’s “Project Nisei” is a top-secret program that is hard 
  at work designing the perfect clone, according to specifica-
  tions known only to senior project personnel and Chair-
  man Hiro himself. Some of the rumors surrounding the 
  Nisei project are absurd to the point of humor: Nisei clones 
  are telepathic, Nisei clones are intended to entirely replace 
  the human race, there are Nisei clones who have escaped 
  Jinteki and gone rogue, and so on. 
  There is only one known Nisei clone publicly deployed in 
  the general population: Caprice Nisei of the NAPD. If the 
  rest of the Project Nisei clones are like her, they are thought-
  ful, intelligent, empathetic, possessed of an almost super-
  natural intuition, and not fond of crowds. 
  Skills: Athletics 2, Coordination 2, Discipline 4, Driving 2, 
  Melee 3, Ranged (Light) 3, Piloting 2, Perception 3, Street-
  wise 2, Vigilance 5.
  Talents: Adversary 1 (upgrade the difficulty of all combat 
  checks against this target once).
  Abilities: Apparent Precognition (once per encounter 
  when making a combat check, may use Discipline and 
  Willpower instead of the normal skill and characteristic), 
  Psychic (as a maneuver, may make an Average [󲊷 󲊷] 
  Vigilance check to learn the surface thoughts of all other 
  characters in medium range), Broken Nisei Conditioning 
  (when inflicting a Critical Injury or Critical Hit, roll twice 
  and choose the more severe result).  
  Equipment: Auto-fletcher (Ranged [Light]; Damage 3; 
  Critical 2; Range [Medium]; Auto-fire, Pierce 2, Vicious 2), 
  micro-waterknife (Melee; Damage 8; Critical 3; Range 
  [Engaged]; Prepare 1, Sunder, Unwieldy 3, Vicious 3).
  1
  4
  1
  3
  1
  1
  3
  9
  2
  2
  2
  3
  4
  3
  5
  2
  2
  12
  20
  4
  4
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  [ CHAPTER 6 ] 
  THE GAME MASTER
  R
  unning a Shadow of the BeanStalk game can be 
  very different from running a “traditional” RPG, 
  where wandering bands of heroes roam the coun-
  tryside, cutting down monsters with their swords and tak-
  ing their treasure. For starters, while this setting is futuris-
  tic, it’s still grounded in a certain amount of realism (which 
  we’ll talk about more later). In some ways, the lives of your 
  players’ characters are not so different from the lives of your 
  players. Characters will likely have jobs and lives beyond 
  that of a wandering hero. They need money to survive and 
  operate within a capitalist economy. And they have to be 
  careful when they resort to violence or criminal acts, lest 
  they end up in a jail cell facing a prison sentence!
  This chapter is supposed to help you, the GM, create that 
  different feel of roleplaying game. We start out by discuss-
  ing how to depict life for your average New Angelinos, so 
  you can make your game feel like a real place. At the same 
  time, we discuss how to depict player characters as New 
  Angelinos. Next, we discuss how to depict New Angeles as 
  a living setting where events occur around the player char-
  acters and the world isn’t just a static set waiting for the 
  characters to interact with it. Finally, we spend some time 
  discussing how to create and run adventures in New Ange-
  les using a three-act structure. 
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  DEPICTING LIFE IN NEW ANGELES
  I
  n a lot of ways, life in New Angeles is recognizably sim-
  ilar to life your players are familiar with. People have 
  homes, jobs, families, hobbies, and favorite media to 
  binge-watch. But life in the future has changed in signifi-
  cant ways, and there are a few key ideas to keep in mind as 
  a GM to help ground your game in New Angeles and make 
  it feel more realistic. 
  Despite, or perhaps because of, the amazing communica-
  tion technologies available to them, most people live fairly 
  insular lives, divided between work and their condo-hab 
  or apartment. Telecommuting is common, and between the 
  ready access to necessary goods and services within their 
  own ark or hab-block and the widespread availability of 
  delivery services, some people rarely even set foot outside. 
  Even for leisure activities, New Angelinos who want a little 
  excitement have the entire Network at their fingertips. 
  All of this means that most people in New Angeles expe-
  rience only a small subset of their city. Some of those groups 
  develop cultures and lifestyles that vary significantly from dis-
  trict to district, subculture to subculture—even block to block! 
  THE MIDDLE CLASS
  The middle class is smaller and weaker than it has been in 
  centuries, but there are still millions of New Angelinos who 
  work white-collar jobs, live in modest flats in safe and clean 
  areas, and make enough money to cover their expenses and 
  have a little left over for savings and leisure. 
  Middle-class workers are dependent on their employers 
  to an extent that would be shocking to their 20th century 
  ancestors. Employment gives access to health care, but 
  in many cases it carries with it a whole host of other 
  benefits without which the employee would find 
  life impossible. Many middle-class workers live 
  in corporate housing, often in the same building 
  as their corp offices where they perform their 
  daily job duties. Their children may attend cor-
  porate school, offered both as a perk to employ-
  ees and as a training program for future workers. 
  Food and other necessities may be supplied 
  at a generous discount if purchased 
  through the corporate store. 
  Taken together, these perks may 
  be the only factors elevating an 
  employee from lower class to any-
  thing resembling the middle, and 
  losing their job may leave a mid-
  dle-class worker scrambling to find 
  a new one before they are evicted 
  (usually two weeks from date of ter-
  mination, but some companies 
  are less forgiving). A black mark 
  on their record, or the stigma of 
  an address in the undercity, may 
  prevent a worker from finding a new job and cause a per-
  manent spiral down into the lower classes. 
  The combination of benefits and the threat of losing them 
  all contribute to make the world of the middle-class worker 
  surprisingly small. They seldom interact with anyone who 
  isn’t part of their corp in some way, as even their neighbors 
  who aren’t fellow employees are often paying their rent into 
  the same corporate conglomerate. 
  Day-to-day, a middle-class worker can wake up, get ready 
  for their day, then step outside to the elevator and ride two 
  floors down to go to work. They might stop at the YucaBean 
  across from the elevator bank, then walk down the hall and 
  through the security checkpoint into the corp section of 
  their ark. They either order lunch in, eat at the corp caf, or 
  take an elevator to the plaza-level food court, and then at 
  the end of the day they return to their apartment and relax 
  with a delivered meal and a few hours of threedee or sensie 
  streams. On special occasions, they’ll take the elevator up 
  to a nightclub or rooftop bar to meet with some friends to 
  celebrate a birthday, promotion, or other life event. 
  ROLEPLAYING THE MIDDLE CLASS
  The most important thing for anyone in the middle class 
  is keeping their job. They will tend to be very loyal to their 
  corporation, and will do what they can to protect its inter-
  ests. Since most player characters will be from outside a 
  middle-class character’s sphere, middle-class NPCs will be 
  uncertain how to react to them. Most will default to treat-
  ing PCs as one of the two main ways they interact outside of 
  their sphere: with clients or bosses at work, or with service 
  staff. Figuring out whether the PCs are clients or staff 
  will consume most of a middle-class NPC’s atten-
  tion just after meeting a PC for the first time. 
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  Middle-class NPCs don’t like anything that disrupts or 
  threatens their positions in life. They tend to respect authority 
  and try not to rock the boat. If frightened or confused, they 
  tend to reach out to authority figures such as their employers, 
  corporate security, or the NAPD for advice or support. 
  THE UPPER CLASS
  In some superficial ways, the upper class resembles the 
  middle class: they often have housing and services pro-
  vided by a corporation, and they are usually employed by 
  and extremely loyal to that corp. The difference lies both 
  in magnitude (the housing and services provided to the 
  upper class are far, far more opulent) and security. Risties 
  are either impossible to fire (they or their family own too 
  much of the corporation) or have enough personal wealth 
  saved that they can continue to live in comfort even after 
  termination. Often, both are true. 
  Members of the upper class also have much more free-
  dom (and free time) to travel. They may think nothing of 
  subbing to Europe for a weekend or visiting Luna for a hol-
  iday. Despite this breadth of options and mobility, in their 
  own way upper-class New Angelinos are just as insular, their 
  world just as small, as members of the other classes. Their 
  colleagues are not necessarily their neighbors in the physi-
  cal world, but their peers in wealth and education, who they 
  encounter over and over again no matter where they travel. 
  When a ristie goes to school, it’s the most exclusive 
  school, and the same one frequented by children of all the 
  other ristie families. A ristie who visits a beachfront resort is 
  surrounded by other risties, most of whom they’ve known 
  since childhood. When a ristie takes a business meeting, 
  everyone else in the room is either a ristie or a servant of 
  some stripe or another. When a ristie applies for a job, their 
  competition are the same people they went to school with 
  and grew up alongside. Even their hobbies and indulgences 
  are generally so expensive and exclusive that only other ris-
  ties could ever hope to partake. 
  ROLEPLAYING THE UPPER CLASS
  Members of the upper class are used to getting their own 
  way and living almost completely without fear. They are 
  likely to view the PCs as either minions to order about or 
  threats to be destroyed. If any of the PCs are themselves 
  risties, then an upper class NPC will be interested in deter-
  mining where precisely their circles intersect (if they don’t 
  already know the PC personally, that is). Other risties are 
  one of the few legitimate dangers to a ristie’s position, so an 
  upper class NPC will size up an upper class PC for weak-
  nesses or possible threats. 
  When they’re frightened or threatened, risties reach out 
  for private, deniable security assets to contain or remove the 
  situation. They’re comfortable using the NAPD and legal 
  system, too, since they understand that those systems are 
  in place primarily to benefit them, but risties who expect 
  to get away with breaking the law (which is most of them) 
  keep private security available, who ask no questions. 
  THE LOWER CLASS
  Also called “the working poor,” the lower class is the ever-ex-
  panding remnant of the working class, often underemployed 
  and in debt and falling even further behind. The lower class 
  includes huge swathes of blue-collar workers whose jobs are 
  every day being lost to automation and androids, as well as 
  small-time entrepreneurs and hustlers who manage to eke 
  out an independent living outside the aegis of the corps. 
  The lower classes live in conditions no less constrained than 
  the middle class, although the plain fact of their less-com-
  fortable and convenient living quarters tends to at least get 
  them outside more often. The lower classes are a little less 
  likely to live in corp housing, which means their neighbors 
  come from a slightly broader selection of careers and walks 
  of life, and neighborhood community is an important part of 
  the lives of lower-class New Angelinos…if only to keep the 
  criminal element at bay, or down to a dull, manageable roar. 
  As insecure and dangerous as the lower classes have it, 
  at least they’re not disenfrancistos. They work hard jobs for 
  long hours, sometimes with long and difficult commutes 
  via tube-lev or slidewalk, have to stretch their credits by 
  cooking food at home with what little time they have left, 
  and somehow still have to arrange or pay for childcare, but 
  at least they have a door that locks and a warm bed at night. 
  ROLEPLAYING THE LOWER CLASS
  People in the lower class have enough to worry about with-
  out getting involved in anyone else’s drama or problems. 
  Unless they know the PCs personally or are from their 
  neighborhood, lower class NPCs will do their best to avoid 
  them and get back to their lives. 
  If threatened or frightened, the lower classes reach out 
  to neighbors and family members for assistance. In many 
  instances this might include the local orgcrime gang, who 
  serve as defacto law enforcement and protect the neighbor-
  hood from outsiders. Only in extremity would a lower-class 
  NPC call the NAPD; the cops cannot be trusted. 
  DISENFRANCISTOS
  No one knows exactly how many homeless off-gridders there 
  are in New Angeles, but it must be millions. Without an offi-
  cial permanent address of their own, these people are not 
  considered official residents of New Angeles and therefore 
  cannot vote in local elections, which is one of the reasons 
  they are often called “disenfrancistos.” (It’s also fair to say that 
  their poverty disenfranchises them in multiple ways.) 
  Disenfrancistos seldom have reliable jobs or sources of 
  income, and must rely on odd jobs, scavenging, and crimi-
  nal activity for money. Others dispense with money almost 
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  altogether and make do with a complex system of exchang-
  ing favors, trading labor for a hot meal or a cot to sleep on. 
  Although Ecuador’s climate is paradisaical, the odd occur-
  rence of acid rain or choking heat means that living without 
  shelter is still quite dangerous, so disenfrancistos must find 
  or build homes for themselves wherever they can. Many 
  group together in abandoned or condemned buildings in 
  squatter colonies, but others who do not trust their fellows 
  hide away in steam tunnels, disused shipping containers, or 
  whatever other shelter they can find. 
  Disenfrancistos almost inevitably develop a relationship 
  with the criminal element, either as low-ranking assistance 
  or as prey. For some, rising in a streetbanger gang is the 
  only path to relative prosperity. Regrettably, health care 
  for disenfrancistos is almost non-existent, and many suffer 
  from a variety of maladies, mental illnesses, or addictions 
  that complicate their lives and interactions with others. 
  ROLEPLAYING A DISENFRANCISTO
  In every interaction, a disenfrancisto must be alert for dan-
  ger and any opportunity to profit. Successful disenfrancistos 
  are always on the hustle, always looking for any advantage, 
  something to sell or trade for food or shelter. PCs tend to 
  break away from the patterns of people disenfrancistos are 
  used to interacting with, so they treat them with a mixture 
  of fear and curiosity. 
  If threatened, disenfrancistos rely only on themselves, and 
  will usually choose to flee and hide. 
  LIVING IN A BUBBLE
  No matter their social strata, and despite living in the larg-
  est and most diverse city in the world, most New Angeli-
  nos seldom leave their tiny bubble society. The truth is that 
  they rarely have a reason to. All their needs are met within 
  their micro-culture, from employment through recreation, 
  and trying to leave the bubble is met with bewilderment, 
  confusion, aggression, and distress, as the travelers discover 
  that the people living just two blocks away don’t even speak 
  the same language. In some ways, modern technology has 
  made people more connected than ever before…but in oth-
  ers, humans have never been so isolated. 
  CULTURES ACROSS NEW ANGELES
  Some New Angelino micro-cultures are generations old, 
  ethnic enclaves created by an accident of history. Others are 
  self-selected, so-called “planned communities” that came 
  together due to shared values and dreams—sometimes 
  religious in nature, but not always. And many are created 
  by corps intentionally or otherwise, clustering around the 
  increasingly-critical jobs that humans need to survive. 
  INVENTING YOUR OWN MICRO-CULTURE
  Detailing a micro-culture, complete with its unique geog-
  raphy, major players, and internal conflicts, can be a great 
  source of adventure seeds or even an entire campaign. You 
  can be as detailed as you need, stopping after a single sen-
  tence or naming a dozen major NPCs and locations. 
  To begin, first figure out what the people in the micro-cul-
  ture have in common: do they all work at the same corp 
  or small handful of businesses? Are they an ethnic enclave 
  from a diaspora or left over from the Project days? Are 
  they a religious community? Then choose a handful of key 
  identifying features of the micro-culture, such as locations, 
  corps, or important NPCs, and determine how they inter-
  relate. Finally, think about the micro-culture’s relationship 
  to the rest of New Angeles. Do they provide a vital service 
  or good to a nearby wealthy arcology? Is the block the next 
  to be targeted by an orgcrime outfit for expansion? Is the 
  micro-culture a transition point for new arrivals coming 
  into New Angeles, a recruiting ground for corp headhunt-
  ers, or a stop on the clone “underground railroad”? 
  In Chapter 4, we’ve provided an example of a micro-cul-
  ture for you to read and use as an example when building 
  your own micro-culture. The 28th and Prado block on page 
  144 is a perfect example of a micro-culture in the midst of 
  a district in the middle of an even larger city. 
  A LIVING WORLD
  O
  ne of the trickier aspects of being a game master is 
  depicting the world around your players’ characters. 
  Being a GM is a lot of work, and no small amount of 
  that work comes from you being responsible for everything 
  that isn’t a player character. This can become even more diffi-
  cult if you want to depict the setting as a “living world,” where 
  events happen, and people live their lives even when they 
  aren’t a part of your players’ current adventures. 
  THE MACROCULTURE
  Although this section discusses micro-cultures in detail, 
  there is one overarching culture delivered to and shared 
  by practically everyone: the one carefully curated and 
  steered by the media, especially NBN. There’s con-
  siderable local variation, even in language, but with 
  NBN’s hand on the tiller, almost all of these small boats 
  are sailing in the same general direction. Concepts 
  like capitalism, free speech (for corporations), and the 
  best democracy money can buy are almost universally 
  accepted, even between micro-cultures that agree on 
  nothing else. 
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  A living world is a lot more interesting to play a game in 
  than a static one that only changes based on the actions your 
  group takes, but it can also seem way more intimidating to 
  manage as the GM. Luckily, there are a few ways to create a 
  living world that don’t involve you creating and managing 
  the ongoing lives of hundreds or thousands of NPCs. 
  SIMPLE, EVOCATIVE 
  DESCRIPTIONS
  Many new GMs can make the understandable mistake of 
  thinking that they need to invent and describe everything 
  that their players’ characters see and encounter. This can 
  quickly become overwhelming for a GM, but it can be just 
  as overwhelming and frustrating for a player who suddenly 
  finds themselves listening to their GM read off long, unin-
  terrupted monologues of descriptive text. 
  Luckily, you don’t have to do this. Instead, you can (and 
  should) enlist your players’ imaginations to do a lot of the 
  work for you. Remember that as you play the game, your 
  players are imagining their own version of the scenes you 
  describe. It doesn’t matter if the minor details (what 
  color the billboards are, how tall the buildings 
  are, or the shape of the clouds in the sky) in 
  their mind are the same as what the rest of the 
  group is imagining. All that matters is that they 
  have the same general visualization of the scene 
  as everyone else, and that you give them some-
  thing for their imaginations to build on.
  That means that when you describe a person, 
  location, or other elements of an encounter, you 
  should stick to simple and evocative descrip-
  tions of the encounter’s high points. By lim-
  iting your descriptions, you help ensure that 
  your players focus on the elements of an 
  encounter that they’re going to be interact-
  ing with, and you leave their imaginations 
  free to fill in the rest of the details. Here are 
  some examples of primary details:
  • The basic appearance of the space the 
  characters are in. This only has to be one 
  or two sentences, or even just a few words. 
  • Any notable NPCs that the characters are 
  going to interact with (whatever those inter-
  actions may be). If there are a lot of NPCs 
  the characters can interact with, try describ-
  ing those NPCs as a group (after all, you can 
  always get more specific with your descriptions 
  as your group interacts with individuals). 
  • Pick a few evocative phrases, and don’t be 
  afraid to use “purple” or elaborate prose. 
  Monolithic, vast, decaying, putrid, splendor; 
  these are all words that can trigger distinct 
  visuals in your players’ minds.
  ONGOING EVENTS THAT 
  DON’T INVOLVE PLAYERS
  Another way to create the feeling of a living world in your 
  campaign is to create ongoing events in your game that don’t 
  involve your players’ characters. New Angeles, after all, is a 
  huge city, and that means there’s plenty of activities going on 
  at all times that a person may only hear about in passing. 
  HOW TO PRESENT  
  BACKGROUND INFORMATION
  At the core of most roleplaying games, GMs present every 
  detail of the setting to their players. Unfortunately, this 
  type of detail can lead players to assume that everything 
  the GM tells them is important to the ongoing story. After 
  all, most GMs are busy enough running the game that 
  they don’t have time to create a bunch of extra informa-
  tion for their players to listen to and then discard. Plus, 
  many GMs are worried about presenting their players 
  with a red herring—information that seems important 
  but when followed, causes the group to diverge from the 
  GM’s carefully constructed story. 
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  So when you present background information about 
  ongoing events, you need to make sure that it’s framed in 
  such a way that players know that they’re supposed to pay 
  attention to it and then discard it. Luckily, in our setting 
  there’s a built-in way of doing this—the news. New Ange-
  les is a media-saturated city, and you can use that to your 
  advantage. Here are some ways to present information on 
  ongoing events in the form of news bulletins or broadcasts. 
  • If your characters are traveling via the Metro or other 
  public transportation, have a vidscreen across from 
  them be in the midst of displaying a news report on an 
  event you want to focus on.
  • In the midst of an encounter, your characters’ PADs 
  can display a push alert about breaking news.
  • A huge holodisplay advertises a major upcoming event.
  • Your characters overhear two people discussing an 
  event in a public space. 
  • As your characters are using the Network, they run 
  into an illicit shoutcast purporting to be reporting on 
  the “real news” of New Angeles.
  These are tricks that television shows and movies often 
  use to seed background information into their ongoing 
  story, so there’s no reason you can’t do the same in your 
  games. But what information should you be presenting? 
  WHAT INFORMATION ENGAGES?
  When presenting background information about unfolding 
  events, you want to make sure that your players will find 
  it interesting. You can assume that your players’ characters 
  are bombarded by way more media than what you actively 
  present, but they tend to ignore most of it. So think of the 
  information you’re seeding into your game as the news that 
  actually catches their attention.
  To determine what background information your players 
  may pay attention to, you should first consider your group’s 
  interests. If your players are really interested in the setting, 
  then create news that involves more obscure elements of 
  the setting to reward their in-depth knowledge (the lead-up 
  to the celebrations marking the anniversary of the Korean 
  Unification, for example, or ongoing trade negotiations 
  in the United Planets between Mars and the burgeoning 
  Belt outposts). On the other hand, if your players are more 
  interested in the immediate setting, focus on events in New 
  Angeles that may have some minor effect on their charac-
  ters’ lives (a Humanity Labor strike that threatens to shut 
  down the Metro, or the huge Miranda Rhapsody concert 
  that’s occurring in a few days). 
  Finally, you can keep in mind the simple maxims of tab-
  loid journalism—blood and scandal sell. If your background 
  events are lurid and engaging enough (gang wars, real wars, 
  high-profile murder investigations, or rumors that Jinteki 
  has discovered psychic powers and is creating clones who 
  can read your mind), your players will likely pay attention. 
  KEEP THE INFORMATION CHANGING
  One final thing to keep in mind when presenting informa-
  tion in the background is that as you continue to present 
  that information over multiple sessions, have the infor-
  mation on the events change. If your group keeps seeing 
  news about an upcoming UN summit, at some point have 
  the broadcasts switch to the summit while it’s in prog-
  ress. Reports on gang wars in the undercity can eventually 
  change to embedded reporters with the NAPD observing 
  police crackdowns and arrests. If you want the setting to feel 
  like a living world, the ongoing events need to be ongoing. 
  CHANGE DETAILS IN NPC’S LIVES
  The final way to keep your world feeling like a living setting 
  is to change small details in what’s going on with your non-
  player characters. NPCs can often feel like they’re just wait-
  ing in limbo for your group to interact with them. You can 
  avoid that by changing something about your NPCs when 
  your players finally see them, to make them feel like they’ve 
  been doing something in the intervening time. 
  These details don’t have to be complicated. If your PCs 
  go to visit a store owner, they could find another employee 
  working the counter because it’s the owner’s day off. Another 
  NPC could start off a conversation by talking about the vaca-
  tion they just returned from, or how they just scored tickets 
  to an upcoming concert. A location could be closed for a few 
  hours because of maintenance problems, forcing the PCs to 
  leave and return later. Maybe an NPC gets a striking haircut, 
  grows or shaves their beard, or gets a new tattoo. 
  You can (and should) also have NPCs know some of your 
  other NPCs and what's going on in their lives. Again, this can 
  be relatively minor stuff, like one NPC bringing up another 
  NPC's financial troubles, or that they just got a new job. But 
  the connectiveness of the setting's characters reminds your 
  players that these are supposed to be people who go about 
  their lives and talk to one another. It can also prove to be 
  a good way to introduce consequences for your players' 
  actions. If they cheat, rob, or assault an NPC, they may have 
  trouble dealing with other NPCs who hear about it later.
  OH, THAT WAS IMPORTANT! 
  Presenting all that background information can pay off if 
  you eventually tie some of these events into your ongoing 
  story. This requires a bit more pre-planning, because ide-
  ally you should seed in an event several sessions before it 
  directly involves your group. You should also do it spar-
  ingly, lest your players start feeling like everything they see 
  and hear in the story directly involves them). But if used 
  occasionally, it can be rewarding when an NPC approaches 
  your group and asks them to become involved in an event 
  they’ve already been reading about, or when they realize 
  that the mystery they’ve been investigating relates to some-
  thing they keep hearing about in the news.
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  SOCIAL 
  ENCOUNTERS
  I
  n Shadow of the BeanStalk, social encounters are 
  likely to play a prominent part of your adventures (the 
  game does take place in a huge city, after all). Struc-
  turing social encounters can be just as tricky as combat 
  encounters, so here are a few tips to help you out.
  First of all, be sure to use the core guidelines for structur-
  ing social encounters on page 119 of the GeneSyS Core Rule-
  book, and the information on using Motivations in social 
  encounters on page 123 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook. It's 
  important to note that some of the abilities of NPCs and many 
  of the talents available to PCs (such as Probing Question on 
  page 49 and Ruinous Repartee on page 81 of the GeneSyS 
  Core Rulebook) are designed to work with these rules. 
  SOCIAL ADVERSARIES
  Just as in combat encounters, in social encounters you want 
  to pit your PCs against opponents that will be interesting 
  and challenging to beat, but not impossible to overcome. 
  This can be tricky, especially in the more complex encoun-
  ters where PCs and NPCs are using social skills to inflict 
  strain on one another (see page 122 of the GeneSyS Core 
  Rulebook). For this reason, the adversaries in Chapter 5 
  are designed with these complex social encounters in mind. 
  Most (but not all) adversaries in Chapter 5 are designed 
  to be more socially "offensive" than "defensive." What we 
  mean by that is that many social skill checks are opposed 
  by other skills. Except for very socially adroit characters, 
  most adversaries have higher ranks in social skills, but not 
  the skills used to oppose them (see page 55 of the GeneSyS 
  Core Rulebook). This means they have a good chance to 
  inflict strain on your PCs during a social encounter, but 
  your PCs have a better chance of inflicting strain in turn. 
  This gives your PCs an advantage in most social encounters.
  ONE AGAINST MANY
  In typical social situations, most or all of the party might 
  find themselves targeting a single NPC. In such encounters, 
  the PCs might get four, five, or even six attempts to inflict 
  strain before the opposing NPC gets a single opportunity. 
  This dynamic is excellent if you want your PCs to exceed 
  (unless the NPC is particularly socially adept), but will rarely 
  leave the PCs with the satisfaction of overcoming a challenge. 
  To increase the difficulty and spice up encounters, do the 
  same thing you do in combat––add a few more opponents.  
  MAIN ADVERSARIES AND SUPPORTERS
  A social encounter can be more interesting if the main, 
  named adversary is backed up by a few lackies, hangers-on, 
  or other interested parties. These minor NPCs can also 
  make checks to inflict strain, and some have abilities that 
  can support their boss. This gives your PCs a choice; do 
  they want to win the minor NPCs over to their side first, or 
  just focus their attention on the major NPC?
  In these social encounters, you can have the PCs win if 
  they force the main NPC to compromise or capitulate. After 
  all, if a corporate boss agrees to terms, the boss's aides will 
  agree as well. This is another way to make encounters more 
  offensively-focused. The PCs only have to focus on one target, 
  even while other adversaries inflict strain in the meantime. 
  MULTIPLE ADVERSARIES, MULTIPLE GOALS
  The most complex social encounters are those where the 
  PCs must face multiple adversaries, but those adversaries 
  may not be allied. This means that while the adversaries 
  are all trying to get the PCs to capitulate, overcoming one 
  opponent doesn't end the encounter. The PCs must deal 
  with all of their opponents in turn. 
  This is likely going to result in a few PCs being eliminated 
  due to suffering too much strain. It's also the most compli-
  cated social encounter, and should be reserved for the end 
  of a session or climax of an adventure arc. 
  CAPITULATION 
  In complex social encounters, the goal is to inflict enough 
  strain on an opponent that they exceed their strain thresh-
  old (or wound threshold in the case of minions and rivals). 
  As mentioned on page 122 of the GeneSyS Core Rulebook, 
  in these cases they have capitulated, which is a more narra-
  tive form of incapacitation. 
  An incapacitated character may agree with their oppo-
  nent's terms or arguments, get frustrated and leave the 
  room, sulk in a corner, believe whatever lies their opponent 
  tells them, or become so terrified they tell their opponent 
  everything they know. The important thing is that they no 
  longer take part in the social encounter. 
  This also means that PCs can lose social encounters with-
  out the threat of death. Losing to an NPC could even force the 
  PCs to take a dangerous job or embark on new adventures! 
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  ANDROID ADVENTURE BUILDER
  T
  he following adventure builder is designed to help 
  GMs rapidly assemble an adventure steeped in 
  the themes of Shadow of the BeanStalk that 
  can easily play out in the New Angeles setting. To create 
  an adventure, select a single entry each from the Hooks, 
  Escalations, and Climaxes categories listed in this section. 
  This should provide a rough framework for an adventure, 
  complete with twists, turns, and a moral quandary for the 
  party to face at the end. 
  One of the nice things about these modular adventure acts 
  is they can be combined in new and interesting ways. A hook 
  can be replayed several times with a completely different 
  escalation and climax, resulting in a wildly different adven-
  ture. With enough change in set dressing, your players might 
  not even recognize they’ve run through the same hook twice! 
  If you use this setup to create your adventure, you can 
  choose your hook, escalation, or climax beforehand. Alter-
  natively, you can start with a hook, and depending on what 
  choices your players make, you can select an escalation and 
  a climax that best responds to those choices. The second 
  option may require a bit more on-the-fly adaptation, but it 
  does tend to be more rewarding.
  HOOKS
  Hooks are starting concepts to get your players moving 
  into a broader adventure. When designing original hooks, 
  you should keep the initial concept and stakes clear. Even 
  if there are plans for twists, turns, and unexpected motives, 
  those can come in the escalation and climax sections. It is 
  important for characters to have clearly outlined goals in 
  the hook. While party members might change their minds 
  about what their goals are later on, there should be at least 
  an initial clarity of purpose. 
  Each hook consists of three major parts; the primary goal, 
  the challenges, and the twist. The primary goal is what your 
  PCs are trying to accomplish. It’s basically the plot of your 
  hook, and it should be the core of this first adventure act. 
  The challenges are what stand in the way of your PCs 
  accomplishing the primary goal. Many challenges can be 
  turned into full-fledged encoun-
  ters (or combined to form 
  encounters that are especially 
  challenging).
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  The twist is an unexpected complication that, ideally, 
  should take your PCs by surprise. It makes your PCs have to 
  adapt their plans on the fly, and it keeps them from getting 
  too comfortable or confident about their chances for success. 
  We’ve presented a number of hooks for you here. The pri-
  mary goal is the most important part of the hook (if you 
  want a different primary goal, you’ll also want a different 
  hook). The challenges and twists, however, can be modified 
  based on your preferences. 
  DEADLY DATA
  A sneaker net courier contacted the Opticon Founda-
  tion, claiming to have devastating internal memos from 
  a megacorp. A member of the Opticon Foundation is a 
  friend of yours and has contacted you and your group. 
  The friend offers to pay you to rendezvous and escort the 
  courier and their data through a rough part of the under-
  city and back to the Opticon Foundation headquarters.
  PRIMARY GOALS
  Navigate through the undercity, find the courier, and escort 
  the courier back to the Opticon Foundation. 
  CHALLENGES
  • Your PCs could run into a swarm or two of hyperrats 
  (see page 227) on their way to meet the courier. 
  • Streetwise or Survival checks may be required to nav-
  igate the twisting labyrinth of the undercity. PCs may 
  not even have Net access this far down! 
  • After reaching the courier, your PCs might have to cross 
  the territory of a local street gang to get to the Opticon 
  Foundation. They can try to negotiate with the gang 
  leader, but if words fail, they’ll need to be ready for a fight. 
  • The corporation sends a bounty hunter after the cou-
  rier. Their orders are to bring the courier back alive—
  and to kill anyone they may have shared the data with.
  TWIST
  The courier decides that they would rather sell the informa-
  tion to a rival corporation than give it to the Opticon Foun-
  dation. Your PCs need to convince the courier to stick to 
  the plan or somehow obtain the data themselves to deliver 
  to the Opticon Foundation.
  CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT
  After Waller Shipping Consortium laid off its entire non-
  managerial staff and replaced them with bioroids, the 
  employees sued, claiming that they were wrongfully termi-
  nated. As it turns out, your PCs know some of the former 
  Waller employees (possibly some are friends or family). 
  The plaintiffs are a bunch of blue-collar workers without 
  much money or experience in the court system squaring 
  off against a major corporation. If your PCs don’t help them 
  out, they have no chance of winning.
  PRIMARY GOALS
  Organize the employees, dig up evidence that Waller 
  wrongfully terminated them, and then somehow ensure a 
  win in the courts. 
  CHALLENGES
  • Your PCs need to organize the plaintiffs. 
  • Waller’s firings hinged on claims that its workforce was 
  underperforming, making the firings justified. If your 
  PCs can uncover records or other evidence to the con-
  trary, that could be vital in the courtroom. A clandes-
  tine run on Waller’s servers may be necessary. 
  • If your characters can’t obtain evidence electronically, 
  they can still do it the old-fashioned way. They need to 
  find a Waller manager and either convince them to tes-
  tify or trick them into providing incriminating evidence. 
  • As the trial grows closer, Waller sends some corporate 
  security toughs around to rough up the plaintiffs and 
  convince them to drop the case. Your PCs need to step 
  in, with force if necessary. 
  • The night before the trial begins, the plaintiffs’ lawyer 
  suddenly drops the case! Your PCs suspect Waller paid 
  or threatened them to drop out. Now, one of your PCs 
  needs to step into the lawyer’s role (which may require 
  a cleverly forged law license). 
  TWIST
  The Liberty Foundation approaches the PCs and lets them 
  know that they would like to join the case—on behalf of the 
  bioroid employees! The PCs need to figure out whether the 
  money and press Liberty can bring to bear is worth their 
  involvement, especially given how the plaintiffs feel about 
  the bioroids that stole their jobs.
  NO HONOR AMONG RIVALS
  A junior project manager is close to making a major tech-
  nological breakthrough, but they’re sick of being patient. If 
  they only had their rival corporation’s work on the subject, 
  they could ensure getting to the patent office first. The proj-
  ect manager hires the party to get their rival’s files. 
  PRIMARY GOALS
  Breaking into the rival corporation’s offices is far too risky. 
  However, it turns out the rival project manager is travel-
  ing to Mumbad for a conference. There, they’ll be present-
  ing some of their research, which means they’re bringing 
  their research along with them. The best time to steal this 
  research would be in-transit.
  CHALLENGES
  • Your PCs need to find out what suborbital flight the 
  target is taking to Mumbad. This may require a run on 
  the airline's servers, or perhaps your PCs could simply 
  make a new friend at the airline’s corporate offices.
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  • Once the PCs find out what suborbital aircraft the 
  target is going to be on, they still need to be on that 
  aircraft with the target. Unfortunately, the flight 
  is already booked, so your PCs will need to find 
  other people on the flight and assume their iden-
  tities. This may require bribing the passengers 
  for their tickets, or contriving some reason why 
  the passengers have to miss their flight. 
  • Once the PCs get on the aircraft, they have to find 
  the rival alone and steal the information from 
  them. Perhaps when they go to the bathroom? 
  • With the information in hand, your PCs still 
  need to get off the plane (unless they want to 
  meet the cops in Mumbad. The best (albeit dan-
  gerous) option is for one of the PCs to fly another 
  suborbital aircraft or dropship and intercept the 
  aircraft midflight. As long as they do it while in 
  space, the PCs can “jump” from one aircraft to the 
  other. Of course, it is a long way down.
  TWIST
  The rival actually has a semifunctioning prototype (with 
  risky drawbacks) that is particularly tempting for one of 
  the PCs to keep for themselves, be it a cybernetic implant, 
  g-mod, weapon, drug, or something else. 
  CORPORATE ASSAULT
  A Jinteki junior manager has acquired information that 
  NEXT Design has hired some prisec mercenaries to con-
  duct a field test of its new generation of laser weaponry. 
  The test should take place somewhere in the New Angeles 
  undercity within the next week. The rub is that some blood-
  thirsty NEXT official decided that the best way to test the 
  weapons would be in “live field conditions;" eliminating a 
  streetbanger gang, with major collateral damage likely. 
  The manager hires the PCs to observe and collect as 
  much data as possible. Testing weapons against New Ange-
  linos (even criminals) is certainly illegal, and since NEXT 
  is owned by Haas-Bioroid, this evidence would give Jinteki 
  leverage over its chief competitor. 
  PRIMARY GOALS
  Discover the location and time of the test, then figure out 
  the best way to observe it without being seen.
  CHALLENGES
  • Figuring out the time and location of the test is either 
  going to require your PCs to make a dangerous run on 
  NEXT’s heavily defended servers, or trick the NEXT 
  official or their underlings into giving your PCs the 
  information via some clever subterfuge. 
  • With the information in hand, your PCs need to get 
  into the undercity and scout the location. Ideally, 
  they need to find an observation point that lets them 
  observe the whole battle without being seen.
  • Needless to say, after the battle commences, your PCs 
  are going to get spotted by either the prisec mercs or 
  the streetbanger gang (or both). Now your PCs need to 
  escape with their lives and the data while being chased 
  by vengeful gang members or mercs with laser cannons! 
  TWIST
  The testing ground turns out to be on the block where one 
  of your PCs grew up. Depending on when they discover 
  this, do they have time to evacuate their friends and fam-
  ily before the fighting begins? Or do they stop the test and 
  blow the operation entirely? 
  ESCAPED PROPERTY
  An experimental clone model is on the loose! A Jinteki 
  project manager is desperate to recover the android before 
  their boss learns what’s happened. The clone was last seen 
  in a seedy part of Chakana, away from seccams, where the 
  project manager claimed to be testing its capabilities. 
  PRIMARY GOALS
  Find out where the clone is hiding in the Chakana District, 
  capture it, and bring it back to the project manager. 
  CHALLENGES
  • First, the PCs are going to have to narrow down where 
  the clone may be. A couple of Streetwise checks should 
  reveal that the best place to hide in Chakana is the 
  Eastside Tenements (see page 153). 
  • Navigating the Eastside Tenements is difficult, and can 
  be dangerous. If one of the PCs isn’t an experienced 
  tracker, they’ll need to negotiate to hire someone who 
  knows the area. 
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  • Finding a clone requires the PCs to spend a lot of time 
  knocking on doors and trying to buy or threaten infor-
  mation out of the locals. Their search is complicated by 
  the fact that the clone has gotten the bar code on their 
  neck removed by a tattoo artist. If the PCs suspect this, 
  maybe they can find the artist? 
  • Once the PCs track down the clone, they realize just how 
  experimental it is. The project manager was testing out 
  the "perfect spy," and decanted one of the dormant Nisei 
  clones (page 240) without permission. Suddenly the PCs 
  have to deal with a dangerous combatant who also has 
  the frighting ability to predict their every move.
  TWIST
  Once captured, the clone gives an impassioned plea to your 
  PCs about why they want to remain free. Your PCs can help 
  them escape over the border into Brazil, but doing that 
  means make an enemy of the manager who hired them.
  STRANGE AILMENT
  A neighborhood the PCs live in or otherwise have a friendly 
  connection to calls for help. They’re suffering a sudden spike 
  in a particular illness. A full-blown epidemic is likely if the 
  issue isn’t addressed. The volunteer doctor knows what 
  medicine is required, but it is unaffordable, has been stock-
  piled in a secure location, or was hijacked. Regardless, the 
  doctor offers the party a favor if they acquire the medicine. 
  PRIMARY GOALS
  The medicine is produced by a small biomedical corpo-
  ration, but it is far too expensive for the PCs to purchase, 
  especially in the quantities they need (or it is unavailable 
  for other reasons, but the biomedical corporation is at the 
  heart of the problem one way or the other). The PCs need to 
  find out where the medicine is stored and obtain it. Proba-
  bly illegally. Possibly violently.
  CHALLENGES
  • Your PCs may want to try to negotiate with the cor-
  poration. This requires that they set up a meeting with 
  corporate representatives and use their most persua-
  sive arguments to try to convince them to come to the 
  neighborhood’s aid. Most likely, the corporate repre-
  sentatives will still refuse to help the PCs. However, the 
  negotiations may also present an opportunity to scout 
  the offices or even gain the sympathy of an employee.
  • It turns out that the medicine is a delicate genetically 
  engineered substance that can only be created in living 
  creatures (in this case, lab pigs). Unless one of your PCs 
  is a doctor, they’ll need to obtain a doctor’s services to 
  help them extract the medicine once they break into 
  the facility. (Or they can try running out of the facility 
  carrying squealing pigs under their arms.)
  • The facility is in the La Costa District, and it is sur-
  rounded by fences and farmland. Your PCs need to 
  break through the electrified fencing without being 
  noticed and then sneak their way to the facility. 
  • On their way in, the PCs encounter a patrolling pack 
  of cyberdogs (see page 226). The PCs must take them 
  out before they can raise the alarm or maul the PCs! 
  • In the process of breaking in, your PCs end up stum-
  bling into one of the corrals that contains “rejected” 
  experiments. This one contains a g-modstrocity (see 
  page 227), and when the PCs wake it up, it is hungry. 
  TWIST
  It turns out that the corporation that produces the medicine 
  also engineered the ailment. Now your PCs need to ask: Is 
  this a coincidence? Or was the illness released on purpose? 
  THE BIG SCORE
  Robbing a beanpod in transit has to be the riskiest heist in the 
  history of high-stakes crime, which is why nobody is going to 
  suspect your PCs of doing it! A member of an orgcrime out-
  fit that has ties to your PCs contacts them with an offer they 
  can’t refuse. A beanpod full of iridium, platinum, and osmium 
  has been dispatched to the Challenger Planetoid under heavy 
  guard to ride the Beanstalk down to New Angeles. 
  PRIMARY GOALS
  Get to Midway Station, access the heavily secured load-
  ing and unloading areas for beanpods, and hitch a ride on 
  the target. Then, while in transit, get inside, take control, 
  detach the beanpod from the Beanstalk, and make a wild 
  reentry through the atmosphere to an exciting touchdown! 
  CHALLENGES
  • Your PCs need to get to Midway Station so that they 
  can intercept the beanpod while it’s on the final leg of 
  its journey. Doing so requires some forged IDs at least. 
  • Infiltrating Midway’s loading and unloading area 
  (where the beanpods are transferred from one bucky-
  weave ribbon to the next) is going to require stealth and 
  skulduggery, and probably fake yellow jacket uniforms. 
  • Your PCs need to find a way to get on the beanpod 
  when it leaves Midway (or just after it leaves the sta-
  tion). Add space suits to the list.
  • Once they’re riding the beanpod thousands of kilome-
  ters above the Earth, they need to get inside. 
  • Finally, they need to override the beanpod’s systems, 
  detach it from the Beanstalk (this probably requires 
  help from someone back on Midway), and drop it into a 
  proper reentry trajectory so that the newly freed bean-
  pod doesn’t burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. Although 
  beanpods have some rudimentary emergency reentry 
  systems, one of the PCs better be a pilot! 
  TWIST
  As it turns out, the corporation left a little surprise inside 
  the beanpod: a combat drone set to kill any hijackers.
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  ESCALATIONS
  An escalation is a rise in either the stakes or the difficulty 
  of the adventure, and it is the point where the waters of 
  morality muddy. There is often a plot twist of some kind 
  that shows the players that the milk run they signed up for 
  isn’t as cut and dried as advertised. The following escala-
  tions are kept general enough to work with most of the pre-
  vious hooks. 
  ALL OVER THE VIRTS
  The story is leaked to the press and goes viral, informing 
  virtually every citizen in New Angeles of the events. The 
  media attention compromises the PCs’ relative anonymity 
  for the rest of the campaign, as various factions track them 
  down for questioning. 
  NEW CHALLENGES
  • If laws have been broken, the NAPD dispatches offi-
  cers (and possibly a SWAT team) to take your PCs 
  into custody.
  • A rival interest (possibly a corporation, government 
  agency, or criminal outfit) decides to exploit the situa-
  tion, and your PCs, to their own advantage. 
  • Anyone looking for one of the PCs, whether they 
  are a bounty hunter, debt collector, former flame, or 
  estranged family member, is able to track them down 
  thanks to the media attention.
  CONCERNED CITIZEN
  Events have ensnared an upstanding citizen who has been 
  trying to do the right thing. The citizen doesn’t have the 
  physical ability to stop the party from doing things their 
  own way, but makes an emotional appeal to the party’s 
  better nature. In any case, the citizen is opposed to the 
  goals set out for the PCs in the hook for noble reasons, 
  causing the party to question those goals and the motiva-
  tions of their benefactors. 
  NEW CHALLENGES
  • The citizen is just trying to do what they think is right. 
  The PCs need to convince them to not interfere. 
  • If the citizen has already alerted the authorities, this 
  might result in a response from NAPD or a prisec team. 
  • The citizen could be a military veteran and perhaps 
  retains some of the skills they learned during the 
  Worlds War. Your PCs may find themselves confronted 
  by a tough, capable foe who genuinely believes that 
  stopping them is a good thing to do. 
  UNFRIENDLY RIVALS
  The party’s benefactor from the hook has grown impatient 
  with their lack of progress on the issue. They have brought 
  in a second team, which is competing to achieve the same 
  goal before the PCs do.
  NEW CHALLENGES
  • The second team is willing to go so far as to sabotage, 
  steal from, and fight with the PCs (but not kill them, if 
  it can be avoided) to ensure they’ll be the ones to claim 
  the prize for completion.
  • It turns out that the job really is too much for one 
  group to do alone. The second group pretends to work 
  with your PCs, but it is planning a sudden and inevita-
  ble betrayal at the climax. If your PCs suspect this, who 
  is going to betray whom first? 
  • One of the PCs used to be a member of the rival crew 
  before having a falling out with the leader. It is possible 
  that the old crew has hacked that PC’s PAD, and that is 
  how they became aware of the situation. 
  CHANGE OF HEART
  The individual who contacted the party and sent them 
  on the adventure lets them know they’ve had a change of 
  heart, and takes them off the job. Reasons for this might 
  include that they’re taking a new approach to the problem, 
  possibly one less illegal. Perhaps they have been discovered 
  by their superiors and have been ordered to cease opera-
  tions. Maybe they’ve simply accepted their new reality. The 
  important thing is that the PCs realize that their support 
  has dried up, and that they must find a way to make their 
  previous efforts amount to some benefit for themselves. 
  NEW CHALLENGES
  • When your PCs decide to make their previous efforts 
  worthwhile, their former benefactor decides that they 
  need to be stopped—by any means necessary. 
  • In reality, their former benefactor is now a victim. 
  Another party has become aware of the situation and 
  is exerting pressure so events will work out in their 
  favor—pressure that includes calling off the PCs. 
  THIRD PARTY
  Another large organization is now aware of the party’s 
  actions and dispatches an agent with nearly unlimited sup-
  port to manipulate events in its favor. This organization 
  might be a rival corporation, an orgcrime faction, or a gov-
  ernment entity. It might be seeking to create a public rela-
  tions nightmare, legal trouble, or a loss of unique assets for 
  their rivals. To this third party, the PCs are merely persons 
  of interest almost beneath notice. 
  NEW CHALLENGES
  • One of the PCs has a work history with the third-party 
  organization. The current status of their working rela-
  tionship is whatever creates the most dramatic tension, 
  be it their current employment, a job they were fired 
  from, or an amicable split. 
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  CLIMAXES
  Climaxes are less defined than either hooks 
  or escalations, and they generally represent 
  how the most powerful organization involved wants to 
  attempt to resolve the issue. This organization is probably 
  a powerful corporation or orgcrime faction, but it could 
  also be a religious group or a government. Even if such a 
  decision seems contrary, it could be that a higher-up just 
  discovered the actions of their underlings, and orders a 
  radically different course of action. All the following cli-
  maxes should work regardless of which hook or escalation 
  was selected previously. 
  Note that the PCs should ultimately have agency to deter-
  mine how an adventure ends. It is their choices that should 
  determine how the story wraps up. Most adventures should 
  have an emotional climax, where the PCs have to decide 
  which of the various factions they are siding with. In the 
  Shadow of the BeanStalk, this choice is often between a 
  megacorp and those powerless underfoot. Of course, going 
  against a megacorp or orgcrime faction is guaranteed to 
  make life harder for the party. 
  CONTROL THE STORY
  The largest or most powerful organiza-
  tion involved leaks the story to the press. 
  The organization is careful to do so in such a way 
  that implicates the PCs as responsible for any negative con-
  sequences. This might cause a third party to hunt the PCs, 
  be it NAPD, bounty hunters, or victims of the events. 
  NEW CHALLENGES
  • If your PCs weren’t in the limelight before, they are 
  now! They need to find a way to escape back into 
  the shadows.
  • The reporter breaking the story contacts one of the 
  PCs for comment, giving them an opportunity to share 
  their side of the story, but likely at the expense of seeing 
  events through to a positive conclusion. 
  BRING EVERYONE IN
  The largest or most powerful organization involved decides 
  to bring everyone else involved to a secure location for ques-
  tioning. They send a special agent with all the support they 
  need to ensure success. Questioning might vary in intensity 
  based on the organization, but once they understand the 
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  full scope of the events, they can decide who to kill, who 
  to buy off, and who to intimidate so things resolve in that 
  organization’s favor. 
  NEW CHALLENGES
  • The special agent assigned to bring the party in owes 
  one of the PCs a small favor from a while back. It’s 
  hardly large enough for the agent to be willing to 
  endure failure, so your PCs need to figure out how best 
  to take advantage of this in a clever and creative way. 
  CUT AND RUN
  The most powerful organization involved decides to cut its 
  losses while it still can. Any agents of the organization are 
  disavowed and likely silenced soon after. The organization’s 
  only interest is washing their hands of the entire affair. 
  NEW CHALLENGES
  • A disavowed agent recognizes their situation and asks 
  the PCs to help them hide or get revenge on their for-
  mer employer in exchange for favors. 
  COVER UP
  The most powerful organization involved decides to destroy 
  everyone and everything that can implicate them. This 
  includes dispatching a kill squad or special agent to decide 
  who needs to die (often erring on the side of violence). 
  NEW CHALLENGES
  • The agent attempts to destroy any evidence the PCs 
  have, trusting the press or courts won't believe them. 
  • The kill squad wires the PCs’ hideout with explosives, 
  destroying their base of operations while they’re some-
  where else. The PCs come back to a smoking pile of 
  rubble and must survive with what they have on them. 
  • The organization has access to something truly horrify-
  ing, such as an Ares bioroid (page 239), a psychic clone 
  (page 240), or a team of exosuited mercenaries (page 
  232). Now your PCs are in for the fight of their lives! 
  SEE YOU IN COURT
  The most powerful organization involved decides to use its 
  influence in the courts to win the day. It may have called 
  the NAPD to make arrests, or some of its members may be 
  under arrest themselves. Either way, it has far more resources 
  than the PCs, including a small army of lawyers on retainer. 
  While the legal system moves slowly, and the PCs might have 
  an opportunity to complete the adventure to a satisfactory 
  conclusion, events should come back to haunt them. 
  NEW CHALLENGES
  • The NAPD is convinced it needs to question the entire 
  party immediately, though unless the PCs implicate 
  themselves, they are not under arrest. 
  DECISION TIME
  Bullets punched fist-sized holes in the rusted warehouse 
  door. One caught Cardoso and threw him, screaming, into 
  a stack of shipping crates. Mallory crawled out of cover 
  to grab the wounded man and drag him, whimpering and 
  moaning, behind their makeshift barricade. Kang poked 
  his head up over his own stack of crates. “I guess Glo-
  balsec is serious about getting their property back.” 
  Jan joined him, her silver eyes calmly scanning the ware-
  house walls in infrared. “I count three personal exosuits. 
  They have surrounded the building.” 
  “Exosuits? Three of them? Damn…” Kang looked at the 
  fletcher in his hand, then tossed it aside in disgust. “Might 
  as well be throwing rocks… Ok. If they want their stuff, I 
  guess we’d better give it to them.” 
  He kicked open one of the cases behind them. The huge 
  black gauss rifle gleamed dully in the warehouse’s over-
  head lights. Kang picked up the weapon, his Lunar-grown 
  muscles quivering with the effort. He tried to lift it to his 
  shoulder, but couldn’t get the meter-long barrel up past his 
  chest. “Damn it. Jan, come here.”
  The bioroid turned, and Kang thrust the rifle at her. She lifted 
  it easily, then stared at it as if she wasn’t sure what it was for. 
  Kang pointed at the door.“You’re going to have to take them 
  out, Jan. I can’t hold the damn thing steady.” 
  Jan stared at Kang. “But there are humans in those exo-
  suits. My programming–” 
  “I know, I know,” Kang looked her in the eyes. “But you 
  have to, or we’re dead.” 
  He gently pushed the butt of the rifle into her shoulder, 
  guiding the barrel towards the shattered door. Jan's hands 
  were shaking, much faster than a human could shake, 
  nearly vibrating. Her eyes were dilated, out of focus. 
  “Come on, Jan. You can do it.” 
  Nearby, Mallory was screaming something at Cardoso. A 
  composite wall panel blew apart in a hail of bullets. Jan’s 
  hand buzzed against the stock. She spoke, slowly and care-
  fully. “I. Can. Be. More. Than. My. Programming.” 
  Her hands stopped vibrating. Her eyes snapped into focus. 
  She pulled the trigger.
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  INDEX
  A
  Academic (career) ...............................32
  access system (action) .......................129
  activate program (maneuver) ..........132
  activist and terrorist groups (faction) ....76
  addiction .............................................100
  adventures ..........................................248
  androids ................................................13
  Android setting ......................................6
  Animal Companion (talent) ..............51
  Applied Research (talent) ...................49
  archetype.........................................21, 24
  armor .....................................................92
  attachments ....................................109
  clothing .............................................92
  combat suits .....................................94
  attachments
  armor ..............................................109
  weapon ............................................110
  attempt access (incidental) ...............126
  B
  background.....................................21, 22
  backpacks and bags .............................96
  Bad Cop (talent) ..................................47
  Bad Habit (talent) ................................49
  Base de Cayambe District .................155
  Beanstalk.............................. 11, 151, 199
  Big Guns (talent) .................................47
  bioroid (archetype) ..............................26
  bioroids ...........................................13, 17
  adversaries ......................................236
  Blackout, The ......................................119
  Blue Sun Stadium ..............................166
  Body Guard (talent) ............................49
  Bounty Hunter (career) ......................33
  brain machine interface ..............98, 119
  Brawl weapons .....................................90
  break ice (action) ...............................129
  Broadcast Square ...............................160
  burn system (action) .........................129
  Burn Through (talent) ........................51
  C
  career ...............................................21, 31
  Castle, The ..........................................203
  Chakana District ................................151
  Challenger Planetoid .........................203
  citizens (adversaries) .........................218
  clandestine gear ...................................96
  clone (archetype) .................................27
  clones ...............................................13, 17
  adversaries ......................................235
  clothing .................................................92
  Codeslinger (talent) ............................48
  Combat Medicine (talent) ..................48
  communications ..................................97
  computers .............................................98
  Computers (Hacking) (skill) ..............43
  Computers (sysops) (skill) .................44
  Con Artist (career) ..............................34
  Corporate Drone (talent) ...................44
  corporate employees (adversaries) ...224
  Courier (career) ...................................35
  creatures (adversaries) ......................226
  credits ....................................................53
  criminals (adversaries)......................221
  Custom Code (talent) .........................44
  Customer Service Experience (talent) ...45
  Custom Rig (talent) .............................44
  cybernetics..........................................104
  cyborg (archetype) ..............................28
  D
  Deep Pockets (talent) ..........................45
  Determined Driver (talent) ................48
  disenfrancistos ...................................243
  Disenfrancisto (talent) ........................45
  Drone Master (talent) .........................52
  drones
  adversaries ......................................232
  operations .......................................233
  dropships ............................................116
  drugs ......................................................99
  Dumb Luck (talent) .............................49
  E
  Elementary (talent) .............................51
  emergency repair patch ....................102
  enact command (maneuver) ............132
  energy weapons ...................................86
  Esmeraldas District ...........................165
  explosives ..............................................89
  F
  factions ..................................................54
  favors ...............................................21, 53
  favor economy .................................80
  fletchers .................................................84
  Former Professor (talent) ...................45
  G
  gear ........................................................96
  Ghost in the Machine (talent)............52
  Globalsec (faction) ..............................72
  g-mod (archetype) ...............................29
  g-mods ................................................106
  god ice .................................................123
  Good Cop (talent) ...............................48
  government (faction) ..........................70
  grenades ................................................89
  ground vehicles ..................................115
  Guayaquil District .............................194
  Gunnery weapons................................87
  H
  Haas-Bioroid ..............................179, 190
  faction ...............................................58
  Hand on the Throttle (talent).............45
  Hard-Boiled (talent) ............................50
  Haughty Demeanor (talent) ...............48
  Heinlein ..............................................208
  Hold It Steady (talent) .........................50
  hoppers ...............................................113
  Human First .........................................76
  Humanity Labor ..................................76
  I
  Iaijutsu Training (talent) .....................45
  ice .................................................132, 133
  barrier .............................................133
  code-gate ........................................135
  sentry ..............................................134
  icebreakers ..........................................136
  Investigator (career) ............................36
  J
  Jinteki ..........................................169, 191
  faction ...............................................56
  255
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  Genesys: Shadow of the beanstalk
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  K
  Knockout Punch (talent) ....................45
  Knowledge (Science) (skill) ...............42
  Knowledge (Society) (skill) ................43
  Knowledge (The Net) (skill) ...............43
  L
  La Brigada Tricolor .............................78
  La Costa District ................................186
  Laguna Velasco District ....................173
  Laugh It Off (talent) ............................50
  Levy University ..................................176
  lockout (action) .................................131
  Loonie (archetype) ..............................30
  Loonies (faction) .................................74
  Luna .......................................................14
  Lunacent .............................................212
  M
  Machalilla Park ..................................186
  Manta District ....................................178
  Mars .......................................................14
  Martial Weapons Master (talent) ......50
  mass drivers ..........................................84
  Master Plan (talent) .............................52
  medical supplies...................................99
  Melange Mining .................................214
  Melee weapons .....................................91
  Mercado Baja .....................................157
  Midway Station ..................................198
  Motivation ............................................21
  N
  NAPD ..................................................174
  NAPD (faction) ...................................68
  natural (archetype) ..............................25
  NBN ............................................160, 202
  faction ...............................................62
  Netcrime .............................................121
  Nethunter (talent) ...............................48
  Net Search (talent) ...............................45
  Net Warrior (talent) ............................50
  Network ............................................9, 18
  Network encounters ..................125, 139
  New Angeles ...................................9, 142
  culture .................................... 144, 242
  Nihongai District ...............................169
  Nimble (talent).....................................50
  O
  Offensive Driving (talent) ..................51
  Opticon Foundation ............................76
  Orgcrime (faction) ..............................64
  P
  PAD ...............................................98, 119
  painkiller .............................................100
  Parkour! (Improved) (talent) .............51
  Parkour! (talent) ..................................49
  player character
  archetype ..........................................24
  background ......................................22
  career .................................................31
  creation .............................................20
  favors .................................................53
  portable clinic kit .................................99
  prisec (adversaries) ............................230
  Probing Question (talent) ..................49
  Q
  Quick Fix (talent) ................................49
  Quick-Witted (talent) .........................51
  Quinde District ..................................190
  R
  Rabotgorod District ..........................182
  Ranged (Light and Heavy) weapons ....82
  Resourceful Mechanic (talent) ...........45
  restricted (R) ........................................84
  rig ...........................................................98
  Ristie (career) .......................................37
  Root, The ............................................151
  Roughneck (career) .............................38
  Runner (career) ....................................39
  runners ................................................121
  Rutherford District ............................160
  S
  Shadow Net ........................................122
  Simulant Abolitionist Movement ......77
  skills .......................................................42
  skulljack ..............................................105
  slap-patch ...........................................100
  slugthrowers .........................................82
  smart weapon .....................................111
  Snare (talent) ........................................50
  social encounters ...............................247
  Soldier (career) ....................................40
  soldiers (adversaries) ........................230
  space suit .............................................103
  Special Use Permit (talent) .................49
  Starport Kaguya .................................215
  starships ..............................................116
  Street Fighter (talent) ..........................45
  street gangs (faction) ...........................66
  Sunken City ........................................180
  Suppressing Fire (talent) .....................50
  sweep (action) ....................................132
  systems ........................................125, 127
  T
  Tactical Focus (talent) .........................49
  Takedown (talent) ...............................51
  talents ....................................................44
  Tech (career) ........................................41
  tools .....................................................101
  traces ...................................................131
  trace user (action)..............................130
  Tranquility Home ..............................217
  Trick of the Light (talent) ...................52
  Tri-Maf Contact (talent) .....................45
  Two-Handed Stance (talent) ..............49
  U
  Undercity Contacts (Improved) (talent) 51
  Undercity Contacts (talent) ...............49
  Union Member (talent) ......................45
  Urban Combatant (talent) ..................52
  W
  weapons ................................................82
  attachments ....................................110
  Web of Knowledge (talent) ................52
  Weyland Consortium (faction) .........60
  Worlds War Vet (talent) ......................47
  Y
  Years on the Force (talent)..................47
  You Owe Me One (Improved) (talent) ..52
  You Owe Me One (talent) ..................51
  Chapter 6: The Game Master
  256
    (Order #17879226)
  
    (Order #17879226)
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Andriod (genesys)/Genesys - Shadow of the Beanstalk.pdf