Germany Primper mk1

Shadowrun Germany Primer

>Hoy, chummer. It's been an exciting few years - Just when we all thought the shadows were starting to slow down, some drekhead with a bomb tries to nix a few execs with a WMD and now Berlin's one big happy family again. As if. Berlin's just been finally cut down company lines instead of anything else.

>The 21 districts are still pretty strongly separated into what used to be the Flux state and the Berlin proper states, but even more subdivisions exist now - What used to be the worst districts are now the "Alternate" districts, with lax security on their borders and supposed public works projects making them into tiny clones of Seattle's Barrens district. It's been successful with some closer to the third type of state, the Extraterritorial states that are most corp's wet dreams, but the further-away districts are still Anarcho-communes, just less official and with more occasional Corp carpet bombings.

>For the average Deutschlanders, life is a bit more safe. They can walk around city streets without being jumped quite as often. Like most free cities, though, folks are here to make nuyen - And it's a good season for it, that's for sure, chummer. The District system gives far more freedom for runners and crooks to run and hide after a 'run, as the extraterritorial between districts depends a *lot* on the district. You also don't need a passport to go from one district to another, either, just a good fake SiN or a hacker to deal with most of the automated tolls you'll be dealing with.

The 21 districts are as follows: First, the Alternative Districts. Alternative Districts is a fancy way of saying slums, and contain not only masses of the poor but also a general lawlessness that most in the shadows find comfortable. Gropiusstadt	is the best-known as being the worst slum under the alternative districts, a gang war zone. Stretches between S-Ks consolidated district Tempelhof via a high wall and Schönefeld via a cordon, but it also includes the St. Melitta Church, a massive cathedral that works as a stabilizing force in the zone. The other Alt districsts are Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Falkensee, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Koepenick,Lichtenberg,Marzahn-Hellersdorf, Oranienburg, and Pankow.

The Standard Districts are much like any city, and vary in looks and style from district to district. Some still have the stylistic ancient buildings from centuries ago, while others have been completely burned to the ground and re-built in a modern style. Center has the advantage of being literally in the center of Berlin, and is a massive sprawl that includes arcologies digging deep into the ground and spire heading straight up, almost nothing but corporate buildings leasing out the bottom three floors to other (controlled) nightclubs and other corporate retreats for their pleasure. On the other hand, Reinickendorf is a district still holding onto it's history. Before the Berlin unity it was an anarchist stronghold. A Spacious district with mostly shallow buildings and isolated residential blocks, parts of the district still has buildings from the French occupation. While the buildings and infrastructure were severely damaged, slow and held-back ongoing reconstruction efforts are regarded as subordinate to rewarding urgent renovation projects by it's aging community. It does include the massive Tegel World mall, a huge section that includes several smaller malls - the Beautiful Life Body Mall, the Playboy 53 Musikbar, the Assel Cellar Bar and the entire Night Walker venue. Potsdam Schoenefeld, Spandau, Strausberg-Fredersdorf, and Zehlendorf make up the rest of the Standard districts.

Now, the interesting parts. The Extraterritorial districts. Entire chunks of the city count as sovereign territory for the corps that run them, almost as an apology for having to make them step in and clean up the city - Or more likely a cost from a devil's bargain to kick out the Anarcho rule. There are four of them - Wholesale Siemensstadt, a massive mixed conglomerate of open-air markets and closed-door shopping malls that stretch across one another in a massive mixed sprawl of extraterritoriality. Anything and everything can be bought and sold in the Wholesale district, and I do mean everything. The Prenzlauer Berg is a massive S-K sprawl mostly consisting of a few corp offices and a large amount of residential districts, and if you believe that I've got some prime real estate in the SAX to sell you. Schönwalde	is an Aztech district in it's entirely. Screened and comprehensively surrounded by fences, a cleared border zone, and a drekload of sensors. Despite the security, Schonwalde is quickly becoming an abandoned district. Aztech has been slowly moving their consolidated citizens and auxiliary employees in (remaining even with the completion of all the resettlement projects, probably plenty of empty housing) and the tens of thousands of current residents out. Isolationist and secretive. The district includes the Spandau Forest, where the only observable construction (tent systems and other easily degradable installations, eg with modules or containers) has been being built. Critter experimentation and other research facilities are located mainly in Spandau, making the most of their current affectation - As for why, Aztech isn't talking about why they're putting their new assets entirely into making a deserted bunch of buildings and a forest service. The last two Extraterritorial districts are the Tegel and the Tempelhof districts, owned mostly by Ares and by Renraku.

Each of the 21 districts has a legal representative, and the council of 21 make up the majority of the governing body of Berlin proper - Of course, they're all firmly held in place by their corporate owners, but at least in theory they take care of the usual government drek and have a lot of pull in their own spaces. While ostensibly each district is considered an equal partner, for the most part the alternative districts are considered next to a null vote and the Extra districts are the ones to watch for anything new going on in city hall. However, actual administration of the city is held to the Berlin Verwaltungs AG, usually called the BERVAG, a privatized section of the government in charge of tourism, energy and water supply, health, and traffic monitoring in addition to the usual administrative duties. The privatized prison system also falls into their wheelhouse through a technically unaffiliated shell corp. BERVAG has different arms held by different Megacorps. It's major arms are the BeJuDe (Judiciary Services), the BVB (Public Transportation, their greatest success), and their tourism agency. Public Sanitation is taken care of by Shiawase Health and Wellfare, Traffic Monitoring is done by a contract from Mitsuhame, Water is taken care of by the local A-grade Proteus AG, Power is contracted out to the S-K owned Ruhr-Nuclear, and rumors say their food & health services is going to be contracted out soon.

The Underworld is still mostly made up of competing forces from the Italian and Russian Mafias , with some minor influence from the yaks and the Balkan mafia. Right now the Italian mafia lead by the elf Pyotr is on top, after a massive play pushing the russian mob back, but the Turkish mob - In similar form to the Grey Wolves of the past - has been steadily gaining ground and now hold a strong position in the trade of arms, high-tech devices and information. In addition, while the worst of the Anti-Metahuman and pro-Anarcho gangs have been wiped out or driven out of town, the gangs that are active '73 on the Spree belong to the orcish-Trollish "Horde" and "JihadB " while the local Chapters of various large international Operating MCs including "Roadgunner Brigade", the forbidden "Sons of Odin"and the Polish "Wrocławsky ulani"

On scenic and district level in the alternative districts (but also in some standard districts) you might encounter gangs like the " Cross Holzer", the neo-fascist would-be vigilantes of "Falk weir" and at the bottom of the food chain are the "teeth" the "Lynar Boyz" and the  rampage Kids clique "Defenders." These smaller gangs are as unmanageable in their bare numbers as they are insignificant in terms of their actual influence. The local smuggling gangs include the specialized waterway-smugglers "Spree rats ", the neo-pagan magic portal users of "Triglawer," the pseudo- or fun-anarchist matrix group of the "Hack Birds" and finally the "Nemes Siden" a spastic and outgoing group of Social Adepts with deep roots in Diskordianism.

Fun places to go in Berlin:

Bars & Restaurants:
Meld In - Bar
Tarantula - restaurant, meeting point for arms dealers
Wolf's Lair - An ultra right-wing hangout
Café Cezve - cafe and restaurant and information center in Cross Bazaar
Shopping:
Sweden Center - shopping arcade
Purple Star - Shopping center
Ödnur pyramid - Shopping center
Hotels
Pergamon Hotel - Great luxury hotel with affiliated museums