Shadowrun

Shadowrun General => The Secret History => Topic started by: Zwischenzug on <09-17-14/0749:21>

Title: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: Zwischenzug on <09-17-14/0749:21>
Hey,

I'm working on background for a character out of the PCC, and I figured Las Vegas would be an interesting city to hail from. However, the only information I can find on Sin City are various mentions and a brief section in the Horizon adventures. 6th World Almanac didn't do much good either.

Anyone know where more information can be found on Las Vegas specifically and Nevada in general, if at all?
Title: Re: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: Critias on <09-17-14/1049:24>
Twilight Horizon's the book your after.
Title: Re: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: Zwischenzug on <09-17-14/1102:11>
Thanks, Critias.

Am I right in thinking that Las Vegas, Nevada became part of the Ute nation around 2018 after the Treaty of Denver, and then was folded into the PCC when they in turn absorbed the Ute Nation in 2067?

Playing a character who's just turned 50 in 2075 is proving more of a challenge than I thought in terms of coming up with a suitable background. If nothing else, though, it's giving me a chance to read up on some of the "older" history of the world, which is detailed at the very least, if a little scattered.
Title: Re: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: Namikaze on <09-17-14/1242:30>
I had a player who wanted to have an older character - a 60-something year old elf.  I had to explain to him that he'd have been one of the first elves ever born, and he'd be hounded by the media until someone put a boot to his skull.  Once I explained all of the historical events that he'd have to have survived, he decided to reduce his character's age substantially.  VITAS waves, HMHVV waves, Night of Rage, Renraku Arcology, and I'm not even scratching the surface.
Title: Re: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: Zwischenzug on <09-17-14/1411:55>
Yep. Lot of history to take in. But to be fair, that just gives me as a player a good reason for why my character would know a lot about those events.

I quickly discarded the idea of having grown up in Los Angeles simply because of all the stuff that's taken place there over the years.

Las Vegas seems like much more of a safe bet in that it's only gone through a couple of major historical events, and the transition from USA to Ute and Ute to PCC seem to be the biggest.

Everything else I feel like is something that can easily be explained away, or never be touched upon by the GM. Alternatively, having a (human, in my case) character who actually lived through some of the majors could provide some interesting roleplaying leads, essentially edjumacating the young'ins in the way of the land.

My biggest issue in terms of backstory was figuring out why anyone would have a Horizon corporate SIN; however, that was easily explained when reading Corporate Guide, seeing as how all subsidiaries AND direct Horizon employees qualify for corporate SIN status, somewhat of an oddity amongst the Big Ten.

Reviewing Twilight Horizon, I'm finding a lot of useful stuff here, so thanks again for that. Now to read up on Pueblo and Ute, and figure out why someone in Las Vegas would know the Wildcat martial art style without being a Sioux Wildcat themselves.
Title: Re: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: Sendaz on <09-17-14/1433:21>
Now to read up on Pueblo and Ute, and figure out why someone in Las Vegas would know the Wildcat martial art style without being a Sioux Wildcat themselves.
Couple possibilities:

1) Fanbois, someone who eats and breaths everything they can find on their idols, in this case the Wildcats.

2) Descendant.  Maybe someone in the family was one, the reason they are no longer in the Wildcats can be multiple: disgraced, married outside his people, undercover and formed ties, etc.....
Title: Re: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: Nath on <09-17-14/1505:07>
3) Worked in casino security or as a bodyguard, the company founder (or the person in charge of training camp) is a former Wild Cat who teach employees a number of techniques. I'd actually expect security in Las Vegas to be one of the typical career path for former Wild Cats.
Title: Re: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: Kincaid on <09-17-14/1545:16>
Whatever the Nevada Athletic Commission morphed into through all the power changes would, I'm sure, still be as corrupt and powerful in 2075 as it is in 2014.  This could have all sorts of possibilities, but it would also mean that Las Vegas remains someplace where it's pretty easy to find training in a variety of martial arts.
Title: Re: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: Wakshaani on <09-17-14/2145:22>
A tour in a NAN military might include exposure to WIldcat, or at least a watered-down version of it. Teh Sioux Sildcats rarely win at the big military competitions, with the thought being that they sandbag, send less-than-the-best, and so on, so that their real capabilities are still unknown. (Of course, it also might mean that, with their small population base, they can'tc ompete with teh larger nations!).

Regardless, the Siox often invite other NAN forces to tour with them and to share knowledge. Many a Salish-Sidhe soldier has picked up all KINDS of Sioux tricks, and S-S special forces always get yearlong tours with teh Sioux, so pick up even more.
Title: Re: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: Zwischenzug on <09-18-14/0657:14>
Great ideas everyone, much appreciated.


Critias,

Thanks again for the tip on Twilight Horizon; I'd read the three Horizon adventures but Twilight Horizon really sums up Las Vegas but good. In a way, it's a book much like how Feral Cities covers Chicago, but with even more detail. The short history lesson on important events makes it really easy to relate to what residents would have been aware of.

Cheers!
Title: Re: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: Wakshaani on <09-18-14/0830:47>
Twilight Horizon's my first Catalyst work too, so bonus points for buying that one. :D
Title: Re: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: Mirikon on <09-18-14/1013:34>
In addition to former Sioux military who have either retired or been discharged, and used their training to make some steady nuyen (much like how you no longer need to be Israeli military to learn Krav Maga), there's also a lot of real-world precedent for cross-training between allied nations. In the world of Shadowrun outside of the structure of joint military exercises within the NAN, there's also one place in particular that even those not from the NAN could fairly easily pick up training in Wildcat: Denver. Specifically, the fact that members of all representative nations are mixed in the current ZDF (well, we'll see what happens once the whole aftermath of Aztlan taking a chunk of the city under Ghostwalker's nose, but still) means that members of all the nations are in close contact with eachother. So some cross-training will occur, even if it is just to keep people from getting in each other's way.
Title: Re: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: Zwischenzug on <09-18-14/1157:52>
Hehe, no joke, Wakshaani; you wrote Twilight Horizon? If so, thank you! That right there is an excellent book well worth the price of entry.

Mirikon
That's partially what I ended up going for; service in the Ute Nation Security Force (man, that name took some digging through Native American Nations Part 1 to find, by the way) would likely either have exposed him to Wildcat personnel directly, or to someone who knew the martial art indirectly and taught it to the Ute personnel. Cross training exercise is the Sioux Nation is my excuse :)

http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=18082.0 for full details I ended up going with.
Title: Re: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: Wakshaani on <09-18-14/1314:40>
Sadly no, the adventure has a MUCH better writer than me. My part was the Skillsoft section at the end of things. Still, it's my first-ever published work, and while I'd like to correct it here or there, I'm proud of it.

All teh GOOD parts were by other peeps. :)
Title: Re: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: Zwischenzug on <09-18-14/1329:00>
Credit where credit is due :-)
Title: Re: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: Critias on <09-18-14/1547:12>
I've also got a soft spot for Twilight Horizon, even though all I contributed was some intro fic, because it was another book I got to sneak Jimmy Kincaid into.  ;)
Title: Re: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: Dangersaurus on <09-18-14/1942:02>
Twilight Horizon has been really useful in my game. PCs decided to take a left turn on the way to Albuquerque, and we've been on a Las Vegas/Denver sidetrip ever since. Even if you're not exactly matching the metaplot there are tons of great adventure seeds.
Title: Re: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: Crimsondude on <09-19-14/0034:06>
Good idea. Albuquerque is so hard to run in that it's profiled in War! and I wrote the only adventure set there (in Artifacts Unbound) for a Prime Runner-level team.
Title: Re: Las Vegas in the Sixth World
Post by: adamu on <09-19-14/1647:54>
Hey, way back in SR1 Nigel Findley did two volumes on the NAN lands. Dig those up and one of them features a big write-up on Las Vegas.