TEXT: The Rotten Apple: Manhattan Credits
  Writing
  Jean-Marc Comeau, John Dunn, Mark Edwards, Olivier 
  Gagnon, David Dashifen Kees, Adam Large, Stephen 
  McQuillan, Ando Muneno, Aaron Pavao, Ronnie Ridgeway, 
  Darci Stratton
  Cover Art
  Andy Coen
  Artists
  Andy Coen, Aaron Pavao, Patrick Sullivan
  Shadowrun Development
  Adam Jury, Jennifer Harding, Peter Taylor
  Shadowrun eBook Development
  John Dunn
  Shadowrun Missions Coordinators
  Stephen McQuillan, Aaron Pavao
  Proofreaders
  Chuck Burhanna, Joe Rooney, Wesley Street, Jeremy 
  Weyand, Michael Wich
  Copyright© 2009 WizKids Inc. All Rights Reserved. Shadowrun, 
  The Rotten Apple: Manhattan, Matrix, and WK Games are registered 
  trademarks and/or trademarks of WizKids, Inc. in the United States 
  and/or other countries. No part of this work may be reproduced, 
  stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any 
  means, without the prior permission in writing of the Copyright 
  Owner, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in 
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  The Rotten Apple: Manhattan
  
  2
  The Rotten Apple
  MANHATTAN HISTORY 
  5
  Times Past 
  5
  Life in the City 
  6
  MANHATTAN SeCuRITY 
  7
  Getting In and Around 
  10
  MANHATTAN NeIGHBORHOODS 
  11
  Inwood 
  11
  Washington Heights 
  12
  Newtown 
  12
  Riverside/east Riverside 
  13
  Freedom Tunnel  
  13
  Randall’s and Ward’s Islands 
  13
  Westside and upper eastside 
  13
  The Prometheus Spire 
  14
  MDC Building 
  14
  FDR Drive  
  14
  The Sea of Fools 
  14
  Central Park 
  14
  Belvedere Castle 
  15
  Obelisk 
  15
  Midtown  
  15
  Theater District 
  15
  Museum of Modern Art  
  16
  Grand Central 
  16
  Penn Station 
  16
  Some Assembly Required  
  16
  Zoé 
  16
  Lower Westside and eastside 
  16
  Eleemosynary Children’s Clinic 
  17
  Roosevelt Island 
  17
  Pizza Now 
  17
  Times Square  
  17
  Neon City 
  17
  Downtown 
  18
  The Empire State Building 
  18
  Bowling Green 
  18
  Waldorf-Astoria 
  19
  Stuyvesant 
  19
  Terminal 
  19
  Choke Points 
  19
  The Apple Press 
  19
  Firesale 
  19
  Southside  
  20
  The Marquee 
  20
  Corson Place Hotel 
  20
  The Village 
  20
  Washington Square Park / NYCU Campus  
  20
  The Cypress Tree 
  20
  The Pit 
  20
  Orchard Street 
  21
  C-Squat 
  21
  Soho 
  21
  Saints and SINners 
  21
  The Towers 
  22
  City Center 
  22
  East Coast Stock Exchange 
  22
  Frankfurt Bank Association 
  22
  Chinatown  
  22
  Lucky Star 99 
  23
  Battery City 
  23
  The Green Building 
  23
  Castle Clinton 
  23
  The underground 
  23
  Night Markets 
  23
  THe MANHATTAN DeVeLOPMeNT 
  CONSORTIuM 
  24
  Ares Macrotechnology 
  24
  Aztechnology 
  24
  Citigroup 
  25
  Horizon Corporation 
  26
  NeoNeT 
  26
  NYPD, Incorporated 
  27
  Prometheus engineering 
  28
  Renraku Computer Systems 
  29
  SAeDeR-KRuPP 
  29
  S-K North America 
  29
  S-K Prime 
  30
  Shiawase 
  30
  Sony Corporation 
  30
  Spinrad Industries 
  31
  Trans-Orbital 
  32
   . . . table of contents . . .    
  
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  favorite Rotten Apple. Find out what hap-
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  The Rotten Apple
  4
  Cúchulainn crouched in the darkness; the sound of a soprano’s aria seemed unending above him. 
  Over his ‘link, Tiny said, “15 seconds left.”
  With a crash of cymbals, the stage door dropped open above him. Light and smoke from the 
  stage briefly illuminated the area, as the singer dropped through the door.
  Before the door had time to close, Cúchulainn caught her and slapped two tranquilizer patches 
  onto the performer. She didn’t have time to realize she’d been caught, much less cry out. The door 
  finished closing, and the darkness returned.
  He could hear the muffled sounds of the audience erupting in applause, as he placed the un-
  conscious woman on his shoulder. Keying his commlink he turned towards the exit and said, “Target 
  acquired. What’s security doing?”
  “Nothing, yet,” was the immediate response. “You should have about 12 more seconds before 
  she’s due on stage to take her bow.” 
  Without responding, Cúchulainn hurried towards the door and the backstage exit from the 
  theater. He could hear the sounds of the orchestra beginning a vamp as actors progressed onto the 
  stage to take their bows. The sounds of applause were becoming more rhythmic. 
  “There are two guards outside the back entrance,” came over the commlink. 
  “I’m incoming, have Watts take them down now.”
  As he ran down an empty hallway—the stagehands and the actress’s assistant had already 
  been taken care of—towards a dim exit sign, Cúchulainn smelled ozone and heard the muffled sound 
  of electrical arcing. The music coming from the orchestra was starting to repeat again and the ap-
  plause was starting to falter.
  “They’re down. Alley’s clear. I just picked up a scramble signal for DocWagon, though,” came 
  over the commlink as he hit the panic bar on the door. 
  Waiting on the other side were two unconscious guards in Knight Errant uniforms, and Watts 
  in her riding leathers. “We’ve got incoming, let’s move,” she said as she turned and hurried down the 
  alley.
  At the entrance to the alley was a Bulldog Step Van emblazoned with the letters “WHRN.” 
  The back doors opened as they approached, and a troll gestured hurriedly for them to enter. Watts 
  climbed into the front passenger seat. Over their links, they heard Tiny say, “Get her in the Faraday 
  cage. We’ll take care of her signals later.”
  As he dumped the unconscious performer into the compartment and shut it, Tiny was already 
  driving the van cautiously away from the alley. Cúchulainn smiled at his teammates and said, “No 
  business like show business, huh?”
   . . . Manhattan . . .
  
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  Manhattan
  5
  MANHATTAN HISTORY
  Posted by:  Kay St. Irregular
  New York was once the most amazing city in the world. 
  While it’s only a shadow of its former glory, it’s still North 
  America’s premiere city—just ask any native. Home to the 
  East Coast Stock Exchange (ECSE), the Statue of Liberty, 
  and the earthbound headquarters of the Corporate Court, 
  Manhattan is the largest contiguous extraterritorial region 
  in the UCAS. 
  A few years ago, I spent some time working New York. 
  Manhattan, in particular, is a tricky place to work. However, 
  the opportunities are endless, the compensation excellent, 
  and the risks are at the right level to keep things interesting.
  TIMeS PAST
  In the aftermath of the Quake, it was simply a struggle to 
  survive. Just finding shelter was a chore. The buildings that sur-
  vived were deathtraps; some continued to fall as long as three 
  years after the Quake. Subway tunnels, sewer lines, ventilation, 
  wiring, and infrastructure tunnels were all weakened or de-
  stroyed.. The job became overwhelming and in the end, much 
  of the island was leveled and paved over rather than repaired.
  It took almost a decade of round-the-clock work for 
  the progress to be even noticeable. In the meantime, all but 
  the most stubborn and resilient New Yorkers chose to leave. 
  Commuting was impossible. Construction workers and 
  refugees lived in temporary shelters and unstable buildings 
  throughout reconstruction. The Manhattan you see from 
  behind the security fence today is an average of five meters 
  higher and covers over 16 square kilometers more than it did 
  pre-Quake.
  > A few buildings that the MDC wanted to keep were raised up 
  to the new level through the combined use of great-form spirits 
  and modern engineering. The only way to tell that the City was 
  lifted is by going to Central Park and a few other locations which 
  weren’t picked up. 
  > Axis Mundi
  > Don’t forget about the Underground. In the aftermath of recon-
  struction, some of Manhattan’s forgotten tunnels, pipes, streets, 
  and crumbled buildings remain buried under the modern surface 
  streets—places the wageslaves never venture. The Underground 
  would be much smaller if MDC had cleaned up rather than paving 
  over the City and forgetting that the City once had a past. Not 
  that I’m complaining, they have some of the best “rat on a stick” 
  to be found—and no border checkpoints.
  > 2XL
  Once things got back to a semblance of normalcy, resi-
  dents found something had changed, and not for the better. 
  It was as if NYC had suddenly been left behind. Industry 
  ground to a halt as did commerce and trade. World spanning 
  deals were struck, but they were cemented somewhere else. 
  The rich and powerful gathered, just not in NYC. The City 
  used to be the destination. But that all changed. It changed 
  not just with the City but also with the people.
  To begin, there were more than two hundred thousand 
  fewer people in the City and boroughs. Then Manhattan Inc. 
  instituted new rules which served to insulate the haves from 
  the have-nots. Outside of select neighborhoods filled with 
  surly refugees, the mass of humanity that typified NYC was 
  gone. But there was more to it.
  The haves who survived the Quake were afraid to come 
  to NYC. They were afraid of further earthquakes, ruined 
  buildings, scavengers, and other dangers. Telecommuting was 
  THe QuAKe AND THe MDC
  The historical New York City came to a 
  screeching halt on April 12, 2005. By most 
  official accounts, the Quake was only mod-
  erate. However, several eyewitness accounts 
  imply a stronger earthquake. Despite nu-
  merous warnings that such an earthquake 
  was possible, it took everyone by surprise. 
  Worse, most buildings weren’t earthquake 
  proof, virtually guaranteeing a higher death 
  toll. The numbers were staggering, two hun-
  dred thousand dead, a million more wounded 
  or dying, and billions of dollars in property 
  damage. Experts agreed that it could have 
  been far worse though.
  Those businesses and people who could—
  including the New York Stock Exchange 
  and the United Nations—fled the City. By all 
  rights, the US government (back then it was 
  still the USA) should have stepped in with 
  disaster relief. Unfortunately, several disas-
  trous foreign aid decisions and numerous 
  legal challenges had all but bankrupted the 
  nation. Enter the corporations and their re-
  construction plan.
  Several of the larger corps with offices 
  in Manhattan volunteered their own capital 
  to rebuild. In return, they asked for deregu-
  lation. Having little alternative, the govern-
  ment agreed. Lawmakers at the time be-
  lieved the measures were temporary and 
  would be revoked once things settled down. 
  But, as we all know, 2011 brought enough 
  changes to render the issue moot.
  Having extracted their pound of flesh, 
  the corporations, now under the aegis of 
  the Manhattan Development Consortium 
  (MDC) or Manhattan Inc., kept their prom-
  ises. Along the way, they lured the Corporate 
  Court into establishing their terrestrial head-
  quarters in the City, bought up all the land 
  on Manhattan, successfully disassociated it 
  from the rest of the boroughs, and kept the 
  name New York City.
  
  The Rotten Apple
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  6
  already the rule, and no one seemed eager for that to change. 
  Tourism dollars moved out of the City to neighboring New 
  Jersey as the curious came to gawk at the wreckage. Salarymen 
  began commuting to Boston and other, safer, cities.
  The return to business-as-usual took place gradually over 
  the course of forty-odd years. By the end of the reconstruc-
  tion, the City was a gleaming plasteel and ferrocrete monu-
  ment to business. But it would take Crash 2.0 and the return 
  of the ECSE to complete the transformation. The MDC 
  members actively foster an environment attractive to other 
  players, which has certainly helped draw in minor corps and 
  repopulated the local economy.
  > Monument to business?  More like monument to inhumanity.
  > Aufheben
  > Maybe so, but business-as-usual keeps me employed.
  > Stone
  By the 2050s, the City looked very close to its current 
  incarnation. However, it was still missing that distinctive, 
  winner-take-all attitude that had made its previous face so dis-
  tinctive. Part of that had to do with the ECSE. The Matrix 
  made dealing with the ECSE easy from anywhere on Earth. 
  However, losing it seemed to tarnish NYC’s reputation, at 
  least, from the resident’s perspective.
  The Crash 2.0 was devastating to NYC. Its lifeblood 
  was commerce and trade. Equipment failed and people died, 
  but in truth, it was far less destructive to the City than the 
  Quake had been. In the wake of the Crash there was little re-
  construction to be done and a surprising amount of business. 
  Boston, on the other hand, had been subjected to a City-wide 
  electromagnetic pulse and radioactive fallout. So, with a little 
  nudging by Manhattan Inc. (in particular the newly formed 
  NeoNET), the ECSE was willing to move to their current fa-
  cilities built on the ruins of the old NYSE.
  That simple act seemed to reinvigorate the City. With a 
  collective sigh of relief, NYC residents moved on to the busi-
  ness of business, secure in their corporate sponsored play-
  ground. And if corporate monoculture and social structure 
  supplanted the previous cultural diversity, well it seemed a 
  small price to pay. External enemies fell by the wayside and 
  corporate infighting returned with a vengeance. Business as 
  usual. So what is life like in the City?
  LIFe IN THe CITY
  Those of you who’ve been paying attention may have 
  noticed some changes over time. Not the least of which is 
  Manhattan Inc.’s membership changes through the years. 
  That, and several other important points will be discussed 
  later. However, in the interest of perspective, here’s what a 
  typical salaryman can expect working in the City.
  While most people will say that their lives are filled with 
  different activities every day, the truth is, most of life is rou-
  tines. It makes things predictable, and predictability reduces 
  stress. That, in turn, leads to increased productivity. Thus, all 
  corporations try to control the predictability of their employ-
  ees’ lives. That control requires leisure activities. 
  Sports such as football, baseball, urban brawl and a host 
  of others help unify employees as they bask in shared expe-
  rience. Sports teams are wholly owned by corporations who 
  carefully sculpt the image of both the team and players. 
  Nothing is left to chance; performances are carefully edited 
  for maximum effect.
   In addition, there are a seemingly never-ending series of 
  festivals, celebrations, events, etc. sponsored by the corpora-
  tions. Every spring Feed The World sponsored by Aztechnology 
  allows New Yorkers to sample foods from all over the world 
  while lending aid to the SINless. 
  > Aztechnology helping the SINless? Now I’ve seen everything.
  > Frosty
  > There’s help and then there’s help. The funds collected at this 
  event go to third-world nations far from prying eyes. The money 
  is often used to support rebels who just happen to be fighting 
  against Aztechnology competitors, or to unlicensed agents in the 
  employ of AZT.
  > Marcos
  On Union Day, Ares surrounds the island with fireworks 
  displays. The Works illuminates the City in a riot of colors. In 
  the heat of the summer, Horizon’s Stars in the Night brings the 
  year’s most popular entertainers to Central Park. During the 
  weeklong celebration people can see theater, comedy, music, 
  dance and many surprises.
  Beyond the specific festivals and events, the member 
  corporations of the Manhattan Development Consortium 
  still maintain the cultural revitalization efforts from their re-
  population in 2059. Their plan was to make the City feel, as 
  much as possible, like it did before the Quake. Walking the 
  MANHATTAN DeVeLOPMeNT 
  CONSORTIuM MeMORANDuM
  April 17, 2058
  RE: Repopulation and Cultural Development
  Each member corporation is respon-
  sible for the inclusion of no less than 500 
  and no more than 1,500 citizens to revital-
  ize tourism and restore the cultural heri-
  tage of Manhattan. These individuals are to 
  be tasked in hospitality and entertainment 
  industries, as well as, a small number of 
  “family-owned” establishments. Corporate 
  sponsors will be held accountable for wrong-
  doings of their staff-members.
  > I’m cutting it short, but over the next 10 pages, 
  the memo talks about percentages of profits etc. 
  that would be tasked towards this. The City was 
  staffed like a theme park to keep the wage-slaves 
  happy and drive corporate tourism. Corps send their 
  own people to “vacation” in their enclaves.
  > Sunshine
  
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  Manhattan
  7
  streets of Chinatown will give you the smells of incense and 
  noise of tightly packed narrow alleys. In the business districts, 
  sidewalk vendors sell food. All of these micro-enterprises are 
  corp-controlled and sponsored, so the money funnels back 
  into the consortium. The vendors all take corp-scrip and the 
  Price AROs automatically adjust to exchange rates so Jane 
  Wageslave from Horizon doesn’t worry about whether she is 
  paying more or less than Joe from Ares.
  The one thing that’s never changed is the air. The weath-
  er may vary from bitterly cold to miserably hot but the air is 
  always polluted. Seventy years into Manhattan Inc.’s tenure as 
  rulers of the City and they still have to seed the clouds every 
  night to try and get some of the crap out. The amount of waste 
  NYC produces is simply beyond the ability of the small cor-
  porations to remove, so it piles up until trash boats take it to a 
  spot about 30 km south of Point Lookout and dump it in the 
  ocean. Every once in a while an unexplained fire saves them a 
  trip, but it releases tons of pollutants into the air.
  > Just like in Seattle, the megas make the mess and they buy 
  smaller corps to clean it up. 
  > Sunshine
  > This is further proof that MDC is ignoring the consequences of 
  trying to save a few pennies. Most of that waste should be recy-
  cled. For the few things that cannot, there are far more appropri-
  ate ways to handle it than dumping it and hoping Mother Earth 
  won’t notice.
  > Axis Mundi
  MANHATTAN SeCuRITY
  As Manhattan was purchased lock, stock, and barrel 
  from the UCAS by the then-nascent MDC, Manhattan is not 
  UCAS jurisdiction. The entire island is, in effect, extraterri-
  torial. Of course, the MDC is not a single corporation, but a 
  conglomerate of many. Rather than have a patchwork of cor-
  porate jurisdictions based on who owns what neighborhood, 
  it was decided early on by the founding corps that the public 
  surface of the City would be a single jurisdiction using a uni-
  fied set of laws, policed by the MDC. Naturally, NYPD, Inc, a 
  founding member of the MDC, has held the policing contract 
  so far. The laws of the MDC are generally pretty similar to 
  what you’d expect in the UCAS, just with a greater emphasis 
  on control.
  Corporations that are extraterritorial continue to keep 
  that privilege in Manhattan, so extraterritorial private prop-
  erty may still be patrolled by private security forces that may 
  use lethal force, like anywhere else. However, as the MDC’s 
  laws are made by corporations for corporations, cooperation 
  between MDC security forces and private corporate security 
  forces is far greater than just about anywhere else. 
  > And that makes careless shadowrunners doubly screwed, as the 
  cooperation goes both ways. NYPD, Inc. has the power to deputize 
  any private security personnel to act on the MDC’s behalf to help 
  capture criminals for the City, while on the other hand NYPD, Inc. 
  will usually answer calls for help from private security and generally 
  won’t make a fuss about extraditing criminals to corporations that 
  lay claim to them.
  > Hard Exit
  > It can also really play in the favor of smart shadowrunners. 
  Nobody in Manhattan really cares about jailing shadowrunners. If 
  you get caught, you’re almost guaranteed to be able to cut a deal. 
  Shadowrunning is like a game in Manhattan, and you’re a reus-
  able pawn.
  > Stone
  > Data balkanization extends to security. Corporate security forces 
  may accidentally corrupt a file or edit security logs before coop-
  eratively handing them over to NYPD, Inc. Just because they play 
  nicely in the boardroom doesn’t mean that a corporation isn’t pre-
  pared to stab another in the back when necessary. Shadowrunners 
  who affiliate themselves with corporations can earn some of that 
  same protection.
  > DangerSensei
  > You’d know all about selling out to the Man, wouldn’t you?
  > Clockwork
  To understand Manhattan’s security system, you must 
  first understand Manhattan’s past. In the aftermath of the 
  WHO’S PLAYING WHAT 
  As one would expect, competition is alive and 
  well in the corporate enclave. And everyone in NYC—
  from the lowliest salaryman all the way to the very 
  top corp directors—knows how their favorite teams are 
  doing this year. By agreement, each MDC member can 
  own one (and only one) sports team. So who are they 
  you ask?
  New York Mets (Baseball, non-Augmented division) 
  owned by Renraku. 
  Manhattan Yankees (Baseball, Eastern Division, NAL) 
  owned by NYPD, Inc. 
  New York Nets (Basketball, UCAS East Conference, 
  NABA) owned by NeoNET 
  New York Marauders (Combat Biking, Eastern 
  Conference, WCCL) owned by Spinrad 
  Brooklyn Giants (Football, Eastern Division, Americas 
  Conference) owned by Horizon
  New York Jets (Football, Eastern Division, UCAS 
  Conference) owned by Citigroup
  Manhattan Islanders (Hockey, Atlantic Division, UCHL) 
  owned by Prometheus Engineering
  New York Rangers (Hockey, Atlantic Division, UCHL) 
  owned by Shiawase
  The Quake (Hurling, UCAS Division, NAHL) owned by 
  Sony 
  The Warriors (Court Ball, ACBL) owned by Aztechnology
  Lightning (Soccer, Eastern Division, WSL) owned by 
  Saeder-Krupp
  New York Slashers (Urban Brawl, North American 
  Urban Brawl League) owned by Ares
  Manhattan Kraak (Urban Brawl, North American Urban 
  Brawl League) owned by Transorbital
  
  The Rotten Apple
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  8
  Quake, Manhattan literally became a hellish warzone, as 
  warlords emerged to seize and control the flow of resources 
  amongst the survivors, fighting one another and killing with 
  impunity. The most brutal violence soon abated to a culture 
  of gang violence, scavenging and looting. When the then-
  nascent MDC really started to take control, the first order of 
  business was establishing the rule of law. 
  Many people lived in fear, but others embraced the anar-
  chy. Those who couldn’t tolerate the fear willingly embraced 
  all the bleeding edge, state of the art, Big Brother security sys-
  tems the MDC could put up. Others were forced to relocate 
  to the Underground, the Pit or Terminal. People made a con-
  scious decision to trade privacy for security. 
  > “He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.”
  > Picador
  > Easy to say now, but things were really bad back then. Nothing 
  different than happens everyday in the Barrens, but if you could 
  change it, wouldn’t you?
  > Axis Mundi
  Fast forward to post-Crash 2.0. Up until then, Manhattan 
  was regulated by a system of colored passes and checkpoints. 
  The system worked, but it required a lot of boots on the 
  ground to enforce and the verification process was long, clog-
  ging up commute time to and from the City. The rise of ubiq-
  uitous wireless gave the MDC the opportunity to upgrade 
  the system. Now each SIN is tied to access passes with AR 
  coloring to match the cards from before. The new system is a 
  mesh network of millions of sensor devices scattered all over 
  the City, constantly verifying the access level your commlink 
  broadcasts. Security access privileges now have a finer granu-
  larity, too. A visitor pass may allow you access to residential 
  neighborhoods, but not all neighborhoods. You may have 
  access to the area around the building you work, but not the 
  area five streets down. Manhattan is divided into thousands 
  of possible zones. Most Resident passes allow for widespread 
  access to encourage wage-slaves to walk the streets and see the 
  sights. Visitors and Restricted passes will layout a corridor of 
  access to allow attendance at certain functions and meetings 
  without unilateral access to the City.
  > When buying a fake ID, make sure it is tagged for White or Blue 
  Access. Red and Black access, visitor and restricted respectively, 
  won’t let you get everywhere you need to be. And remember if a 
  corp gives you a pass, they can shut it down whenever they want.
  > 2XL
  One thing that did not change though is the restriction 
  on vehicles. A lot of Manhattan’s workface commutes from 
  the Boroughs every day, but hardly any of them drive in. You 
  still need a Personal Vehicle Pass to drive on Manhattan, and 
  these are pretty much only given to Manhattan citizens (and 
  even then, not everyone). Everyone else makes due with an 
  Authorized Commuter Pass. Manhattan’s commute system 
  is highly efficient and controlled. On the Borough side of 
  the shore, workers cram into large train and bus station hubs, 
  watched over by intimidating heavily armed police guards who 
  monitor the security system for unauthorized accesses. The 
  trains and buses cross the bridges into Manhattan and then con-
  nect to the City’s own elevated monorail train, buses and taxis.
  The security mesh that covers the City is created from 
  thousand of wifi receivers, overhead flying drones, traffic 
  cameras, microphones, etc. It is easy enough to catch people 
  whose access level does not grant them access to the neighbor-
  hood they are in—after all, their PAN is broadcasting every-
  thing the system needs to know. It is a crime in Manhattan to 
  not broadcast a signal, such as having no commlink or leaving 
  it in hidden mode. Your PAN must always be publicly broad-
  casting your ID and Pass. Unauthorized access penalties may 
  MANHATTAN LeGAL exCePTIONS
  Manhattan Inc is all about control. The MDC 
  wants to know who you are, where you are and 
  what you’re doing. As such, the MDC enacted a 
  few laws to help them do that. Here are a few 
  notable laws shadowrunners should keep in mind 
  while in the Rotten Apple
  1.  Everyone is required, by law, to publicly broad-
  cast their Manhattan Pass, SIN and any and 
  all other permits. Failure to do so will result 
  in punishments ranging from imprisonment 
  (SINner or non-corp citizen) to severe beating 
  and expulsion (SINless).
  2. Trespassing is a serious crime in Manhattan. If 
  you’re caught somewhere you are not allowed 
  to be, as per the access level of your Manhattan 
  Pass, you face huge fines or jail time.
  3. A corporate-sponsored citizen can get a permit 
  for nearly any type of firearm or bladed weap-
  ons, including even a few fully automatic 
  weapons. Penalties for carrying weapons you 
  don’t have permits for are steep and include a 
  minimum 24 hour incarceration. If you’re car-
  rying fake permits (because, let’s face it, you 
  don’t qualify for a real one), make sure they are 
  up to par. Police scans are pretty thorough.
  4. The MDC runs several licensed and regulated 
  venues serving chemical drugs and chips (such 
  as CalHots). Even some hard drugs and some 
  BTLs are legal, but require additional permits. 
  All substance intake is monitored and reported 
  to parent corporations to guard against sub-
  stance abuse problems. Drug-use and posses-
  sion without a permit, outside of the licensed 
  venues, is illegal.
  5. Street prostitution is illegal. Escort services 
  and brothels are sponsored under cultural re-
  vitalization. These enterprises fall under in-
  dependent contractor regulations and require 
  licenses. As such, most prostitutes are wag-
  eslaves working for a corporation. 
  ShadowSea Search .
  
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  Manhattan
  9
  range from having to pay a simple fine to actual jail time. The 
  MDC takes trespassing of any kind VERY seriously. To catch 
  these trespassing villains, the MDC’s sensor mesh uses a bat-
  tery of advanced methods of triangulation, sampling and anal-
  ysis to detect non-broadcasting individuals.
  > Basically, 90% of the security budget is used to catch the 10% of 
  non-broadcasting trespassers. Yes, they really do hate you that much.
  > Glitch
  > Don’t forget about Manhattan’s MeFeed obsession. Everyone 
  records their lives, their neighbors’ lives, what they see out their 
  window, etc. Whatever you can record is fair game to put up on the 
  ‘Trix. So even if the City’s security apparatus is not recording your 
  every move, odds are someone is.
  > Axis Mundi
  > MeFeeds work both ways—they are the prime reason why 
  Manhattan police officers are so polite and play everything by the 
  book—at least until they find out you’re not a citizen. It’s a scandal 
  if the police treat citizens badly, but its tonight’s highest rated en-
  tertainment show if they brutalize trespassers.
  > Kat o’ Nine Tales
  The response for unauthorized access is first a warning. Your 
  commlink will display a big red flashing “Unauthorized Access” 
  warning. If you turn away, no harm done. If you fail to comply 
  after thirty seconds, first response will most likely be a flying 
  police drone. If that doesn’t work, you get intercepted by a police 
  patrol, and then, after that, whatever they can throw at you. 
  > If you get the Unauthorized Access message, sometimes it’s 
  worth turning off your commlink. You’ll get a few minutes grace 
  before the system triangulates on you and detects you are not 
  broadcasting, which is better than proceeding ahead with your 
  commlink on, which basically tells the authorities exactly where a 
  crime is being committed. Just whatever happens, make sure you 
  don’t get caught not broadcasting.
  > DangerSensei
  If you happen to not be broadcasting a signal and are 
  SINless as well, odds are you won’t get arrested. The cops will 
  just beat the tar out of you. Manhattan is a fascist police state. 
  The police take their task of keeping the riff-raff out very serious-
  ly and personally. These guys believe in what they are doing, and 
  they hate nothing more than troublemakers that do not belong 
  in the jewel of civilization that they consider Manhattan to be.
  > The MDC lives in fear of the Neo-Anarchists and their ilk—people 
  they can’t control. Neo-Anarchist is basically a catch-all term for un-
  desirables in Manhattan. If you get arrested and you hear the cops 
  mutter about Neo-A trash, I’d do my best to talk them down while 
  you still can. The MDC, and Manhattanites in general, turn a blind 
  eye to police violence towards anything labeled “Neo-Anarchist”.
  > Aufheben
  
  The Rotten Apple
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  10
  > Sometimes, the cops patrol the edges of The Pit and other Neo-A 
  havens, just looking to catch isolated trespassers. These poor slags 
  are left severely beaten or killed in alleys as a warning to the rest 
  of them.
  > Pistons
  Notable exceptions to Manhattan’s fine comb security 
  mesh are The Pit (aka the Lower East Side), Terminal, and 
  Penn Station. These areas are concentrated Neo-Anarchist 
  nests. The MDC gave up on trying to keep the sensor grid up. 
  Now, they just focus on containing it. The corps would love 
  to bulldoze The Pit and seize back control, but they know the 
  Neo-A cells are well armed and would put up a bloody fight. 
  Public opinion would undoubtedly turn against the MDC 
  and the cost of reclamation would be too high. So, for now, 
  things continue to simmer.
  It sounds bad, but really there are ways around the secu-
  rity, if you’re smart (and careful). The surveillance net is so 
  good the authorities are complacent, expecting it to be such 
  a deterrent to crime they adopt a reactive rather than proac-
  tive approach. As long as you look the part and don’t make 
  waves, no one will single you out. Corruption functions like 
  anywhere else: the right people can sometimes be paid (or 
  arm-twisted) to look the other way. 
  > Or be paid to generate you a decent fake ID. Many of the border 
  guards will happily add a visitor pass to your ID for a few hun-
  dred nuyen. O’Henry on the 6-4 shift at the Hudson is a great guy 
  to know. If you only need a temporary solution, it’ll get you into 
  Manhattan
  > 2XL
  The network also varies from neighborhood to neigh-
  borhood. The Towers, and City Center are the most secure, 
  where it’s impossible to turn around without having your 
  PAN scanned by six sensors. Downtown and Midtown are 
  slightly less intense, but hardly a picnic. When you get into 
  some of the more residential areas, and places where smaller 
  corps have offices rather than MDC members, things almost 
  become navigable.
  With the sprawl-wide wireless mesh, it’s hard to patrol 
  and secure the entire thing, so spoofing or hacking a single 
  node can go undetected—until you set off an alert, that is. 
  Matrix vandalism is a constant threat—not just from the Neo-
  Anarchists and other factions, but from AIs. With all that, 
  plus the AI and technomancer scares, few corporations are 
  willing to trust fully automated systems, meaning the “human 
  factor” remains the weakest link. 
  > This won’t stop the automated tracking and detection, but 
  sometimes it makes all the difference just having a scheduled 
  system hardware check moved up. People are easier to bribe than 
  machines…
  > Pistons
  GeTTING IN AND AROuND
  All in all, Manhattan’s security system was designed 
  on the principles that Manhattanites should be royalty on 
  their own island, that the external workforce is not to be 
  trusted, and that undesirables need to be made examples of. 
  Manhattan is a class-divided fascist system and a police state. 
  Manhattan citizens can easily move around by walking, auto-
  mated cab, or personal car should they be worthy of a vehicle 
  pass. They can leave and enter the City at will, but that right is 
  very rarely exercised. Corporate big-wigs also make extensive 
  use of building-to-building air-taxis. Out-of-town executives 
  flying in usually take helicopter rides from the airport to the 
  City as well. Visiting wageslaves lower down the totem pole 
  use chartered limousines or automated cabs. 
  For the workforce coming in from the Boroughs, move-
  ment is heavily controlled. It is basically just enough for them 
  to get up early in the morning, take the long commute to their 
  workplace, work hard for peanuts, and then take the long 
  commute back, go to bed, and start all over the next morning. 
  Your typical Borough wageslave will need to make her way to 
  one of Manhattan’s bridge’s or single remaining tunnel, where 
  she will line up to take an overcrowded express bus, or hop 
  into the train to make her way to Penn Station and then on-
  wards to her place of work. Once on Manhattan, travel is done 
  by train, bus, and automated cab. As most of Manhattan’s un-
  derground was never cleared, the trains are mostly all elevated 
  above ground, only dipping underground occasionally. Public 
  transit requires Commuter Pass access, while automated taxis 
  will scan your access privileges before agreeing to bring you to 
  any stated destination.
  Shadowrunners are a special breed. We need to get to 
  places where we very much shouldn’t be, and then we gener-
  ally don’t want it logged anywhere we’ve been there. After 
  reading the above security description, you may be wondering 
  where that leaves us. 
  Manhattan’s security system can be navigated and cir-
  cumvented just like any other system. The first obvious 
  trick for shadowrunners would be to acquire fake passes. 
  Unsurprisingly, there is a thriving market for fake passes that 
  can get you almost anywhere you need to go. Make sure you 
  find a trustworthy forger though—fake pass quality varies, 
  not to mention that the authorities set up many sting opera-
  tions to catch forgers and their clients.
  AeTHeRPeDIA WORDSeARCH
  Skimmer n. A smuggler specializing in 
  human transport, especially in New York, 
  but found across the Eastern Seaboard. 
  Derivation of term is uncertain, but com-
  monly associated with VTOL skimmer tech-
  nology and profit skimming. See also: Coyote, 
  Snakehead
  Aetherpedia. . . . 
  
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  Manhattan
  11
  Secondly, people smuggling is a huge industry in 
  Manhattan. Various organized crime outfits offer ways to get 
  people in and out of the City. The large Neo-Anarchists family 
  has perhaps the most options. Neo-A affiliated Skimmers 
  can carry you over from the Boroughs’ shores to the island 
  via small speedboats, submersibles, the old abandoned tun-
  nels, and even magic. Once on the island, nobody beats the 
  Neo-Anarchist cells in terms of movement. They are expert 
  at creating and maintaining sensor black-out routes, knock-
  ing down the MDC’s security sensors in back alleys for fun 
  and profit. It is, however, unpredictable just what route will 
  be available. The Neo-As are a disorganized lot, which is both 
  their strength and weakness. It is hard to get assurances ahead 
  of time from Neo-A contacts that you will, indeed, be able to 
  get exactly from point A to point B.
  > Almost every Skimmer that makes the crossing from one shore 
  to the other does so in a different way. I’d recommend a Coyote 
  Shaman by the name of Jack, who crosses people over using water 
  and wind spirits.
  > Axis Mundi
  The other syndicates also have their hand in the smug-
  gling pie, though the Mafia leads the pack. It’s an open secret 
  the Cosa Nostra owns many trucking lines, construction 
  outfits, and delivery services. All of these businesses are co-
  incidentally businesses that require Vehicle Passes to operate. 
  For the right price, it will be the Mafia’s pleasure to “deliver” 
  you from one place to another. Just don’t expect the ride to 
  be comfortable, and do expect a steep fee. Also note that the 
  crime syndicates are small potatoes compared to the might of 
  the MDC. If your situation turns political, don’t count on the 
  syndicates not to turn you in. The syndicates on Manhattan 
  are allowed to exist through the good graces of the MDC as 
  long as they keep their business discreet. They won’t risk the 
  wrath of the corporations for you.
  > I’ve been to NYC twice, once with the works—full pass and all—
  and flew into the sub-orbital station outside of the enclave and 
  took the maglev in. The second time, some Guidos packed my 
  cousin and I into the back of a truck. Each of us had our full height, 
  a meter wide for our shoulders and half a meter back to chest. Not 
  much space for a troll.
  > 2XL
  > That would have been plenty of space for me, I just don’t want to 
  think about the smell. 
  > Lyran
  Finally, 
  brave 
  runners 
  can 
  travel 
  through 
  the 
  Underground. After reconstruction began, the corps didn’t 
  always have the time or inclination to dig up all the old ruins. 
  They just paved over and built atop a large portion of the old 
  urban landscape. These regions integrated with the existing 
  warren of tunnels to effectively create a gigantic network of 
  passageways underneath the entirety of Manhattan. 
  Before you start salivating at the logistical implications 
  of this, consider the following. The Underground is as unsafe 
  as anything you can imagine. It’s a genuine maze of collapsed 
  or flooded tunnels, newly dug connections and structurally 
  unsafe passageways. It takes real experts, like the infamous 
  Rat Pack, to not get lost in the pitch black tunnels. Also, the 
  MDC knows about the Underground. They can’t police the 
  whole thing, but they do send heavily armed hunter-killer 
  hover drone packs down the widest, easiest to navigate tun-
  nels. These drones are programmed to believe the tunnels un-
  inhabited, so any life must be be a security risk to the City, 
  so therefore shoot first and ask questions never. Add to that 
  the gregarious mix of highly dangerous critters, spirits (some 
  toxic, others just hostile), armed and aggressive smuggler 
  gangs, secretive shadowrunners, and the Underground be-
  comes a travel option you think twice before using.
  > Remember, just because it was safe when you came in, doesn’t 
  mean it will be that way when you leave. I’ve had to dig out more 
  than one crew who thought they’d use inertial navigation rather 
  than pay a guide for a round trip. And seen more than one smuggler 
  booby-trap the paths for the same reason...
  > 2XL
  > As mentioned, the Rat Pack is your best bet for navigation down 
  there, but they charge the most and are picky about who they 
  guide. There are plenty of other guides, some who actually live 
  down there in the squatter communities. Just remember, you’re 
  putting your life in your guide’s hands. Make sure you can trust him.
  > Traveler Jones
  > There are numerous spirits who make their home in the 
  Underground. They are sometimes willing to escort or protect those 
  who request their help.
  > Axis Mundi
  MANHATTAN NeIGHBORHOODS
  Starting at the northern end of Manhattan, and work-
  ing southward, these are the primary neighborhoods of 
  Manhattan. Of course, there are sub-communities within 
  almost all of these neighborhoods, but this should give a solid 
  overview of what to expect.
  INWOOD
  Perched on the northern end of the City, Inwood clings 
  desperately to pre-Quake ideals. Single-family dwellings—tar-
  geted at executives who want to live in a utopian society that’s 
  never really existed—are distributed throughout the area. The 
  neighborhood is designed along an escapist model. With a 
  large number of hills and an intentional break from the grid 
  layout of streets, the region feels separated from the rest of 
  Manhattan. Neighbors acknowledge one another as they 
  walk along tree-lined boulevards and even gather at MDC-
  sponsored block parties. It’s faux suburban life at its finest.
  > That is, unless you count the recent spate of disappearances. A 
  few salarymen’s kids have gone missing. Most are coincidental but 
  a few bodies have shown up in Inwood Park.
  > Sunshine
  
  The Rotten Apple
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  12
  > Not according to NYPD, Inc. Inwood Park is as safe as it ever was, 
  there have been no bodies or anything else happening there in 
  years. Nothing to see here SINizen, just move along.
  > Cosmo
  The City spends lots of money keeping Inwood Park 
  green.  In a basin formed by the raising of the rest of the 
  neighborhood, it sits beneath the residential high rises sur-
  rounding the park. Inwood Park has a few caves that were os-
  tensibly homes to members of the Lenape tribe. These were 
  awfully small prior to ’61. Now, the caves have expanded with 
  a further settling caused by seismic shifts and a few excava-
  tions launched from the Underground to connect the warrens 
  to the surface inconspicuously.
  > The MDC chose not to raise the area between the park and the 
  river. This maintained the famous view of the Hudson Bridge from 
  the stands at the Inwood Ampitheater.
  > Sunshine
  WASHINGTON HeIGHTS
   
  The Heights is a City of contrasts. On the one 
  hand, it has Colombia University Hospital and the College 
  of Physicians and Surgeons, several beautiful parks and muse-
  ums. It also boasts the best natural view of the City. The ruins 
  of Fort Washington in Bennett Park stand on the highest 
  point on the island. 
  But trouble is brewing. Anti-corporate graffiti and minor 
  property destruction are on the upswing. At this point the 
  corporations and NYPD, Inc. are still able to clean up the 
  mess quickly. But it’s taking a toll. 
  > Looks like the Newtown anti-Corporate gangs 
  are moving uptown.
  > Aufheben
  NeWTOWN
  When the MDC re-built Manhattan, 
  Harlem was leveled and completely rebuilt 
  as Newtown. Everything reflected the corpo-
  rate-friendly community of the future. Some 
  of the old sites remained, like Columbia 
  University, The Apollo Theater, and Mount 
  Sinai Hospital, though the original build-
  ings were rebuilt by lifting the facings and 
  burying the lower levels.  However, while 
  appearances have been kept up, the façade 
  is starting to crack. The university’s enroll-
  ment is down. The Apollo closed recently 
  due to attendance drops. Mount Sinai 
  has marked an increase in random 
  assaults. The experts attribute it to 
  Neo-Anarchists.
  It all began a few years ago 
  when several of the corps co-
  sponsored the “Teen Out” pro-
  gram. Ostensibly it was designed to 
  allow older teen corp kids a few hours 
  of alone time. The idea was to give them a sense of responsi-
  bility and get them out doing corp-approved activities (under 
  the companies’ watchful eyes of course). Unfortunately Neo-
  Anarchist elements hiding out underneath the area started 
  infiltrating. Normal teen-age rebellion against authority soon 
  morphed into anti-corporate rebellion, and gangs soon fol-
  lowed. The corps quickly shut the whole thing down, but the 
  damage was already done. 
  Small groups resembling an odd mesh of thrill gangs and 
  hackers, these anti-corp gangs are populated by corp-kids. 
  With mommy and daddy in positions of power, punishment 
  is nowhere near as severe as would be expected in Denver 
  or other cities. Instead, there is tremendous social pressure 
  through corporate scholarships to get back on track which 
  leads the population to turn over quickly, with most members 
  staying in the gang less than six months.
  > Seems the good little corporate drones’ good little kids have 
  some not-so-good little habits, neh?
  > Baka Dabora
  MANHATTAN GeOGRAPHY
  A few centuries ago, Manhattan was a 
  hilly island overgrown with trees and wild-
  life, packed with streams, and lightly popu-
  lated by members of the Lenape tribes. 
  European colonization changed that. As “civ-
  ilization” arrived, the hills were largely flat-
  tened, the streams overbuilt, and the wild-
  life extinguished. While there are still a few 
  modest slopes, anyone who has spent time 
  in Seattle or San Francisco would consider 
  the City laughably flat.
  Some of the streams still exist, but 
  they’re underground now—a few are acces-
  sible from building basements, sewage or 
  subway tunnels, or the vast network of util-
  ity tunnels. The foliage is limited to public 
  parks and rooftop gardens. Urban scaven-
  gers and predators have supplanted the 
  native wildlife. 
  When the City was rebuilt, they stuck 
  to the original grid pattern. Twelve num-
  bered avenues run north-south, starting 
  with 1st Ave on the eastern side of the City 
  and ending with 12th on the western. 220 
  numbered streets run east west, beginning 
  with 1st St and ending with 220th St up in 
  Inwood. Of course, there are exceptions 
  to this—places where Manhattan’s shape 
  doesn’t match the grid, buildings that take 
  up multiple blocks, and streets that run at 
  angles and aren’t numbered. Nonetheless, 
  the system makes it easy to navigate.
  Aetherpedia. . . . 
  Inwood
  Newtown
  Washington
  Heights
  
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  Manhattan
  13
  > And they’d better be awfully careful if they don’t want their good 
  little asses shot off. The corpsec goons aren’t likely to take “normal 
  teenage rebellion” into account if they cross the line from nuisance 
  to threat.
  > Cosmo
  RIVeRSIDe/eAST RIVeRSIDe
  These two neighborhoods are primarily residential areas, 
  with some corporate structure overflow from Midtown. Many 
  middle-management salarymen live in East Riverside. So, 
  much of the available entertainment is appropriate to that 
  style of life. 
  Freedom Tunnel 
  In Riverside there’s the 
  Freedom Tunnel, originally 
  named for the graffiti artist 
  Chris 
  “Freedom” 
  Pape. 
  Some of his art still remains 
  in the train tunnel connect-
  ing to the Upper West Side 
  under Riverside Park, but much 
  of it has been painted over or enhanced by 
  the artists who have followed. The Tunnel 
  still operates, as it was remodeled for maglev trains. 
  > The anarchists currently occupy Freedom Tunnel, at least the 
  parts that weren’t remodeled for maglevs. It’s one of the prettier 
  places that the anarchists live, with taggers like “Da Vinci” Collins 
  whose AR mural “Man Creating AI” stylizing Michelangelo’s work is 
  seen by many travelers. 
  > Aufheben
  The old maintenance access points for servicing the 
  tunnel are still in place. The parts of the Underground which 
  connect to these shafts are controlled by an ork called Siedah 
  Legrange. She’s a squatter-turned-community-leader who col-
  lects tariffs from anyone who wants to pass through her tun-
  nels. There is an unsteady relationship with the Neo-A’s whom 
  Siedah views as wild cards. 
  Randall’s and Ward’s Islands
  Across the river from East Riverside is Randall’s Island, 
  the home of the City’s minimum and moderate-security pris-
  ons and Ward’s Island, the home of Horizon’s Rehabilitation/
  Psychiatric Center, which is connected to Randall’s Island by 
  landfill. The buildings on the islands were designed to be sterile 
  and depressing—all square blocks without any sense of style. 
  On Ward’s Island, Horizon is actively rebuilding to make the 
  buildings and landscaping more appealing to their “patients.” 
  > Ward’s Island is an astral nightmare. You have 200 years of oc-
  cupation by the insane, the reburial of thousands of bodies from 
  Madison Square Garden and Bryant Park, and to top it off, a dump-
  ing ground for trash. The background counts can vary, but it’s de-
  cidedly toxic and tends to draw nasty things like flies. Horizon says 
  they’re cleaning it up, but I don’t know how they’d ever manage it.
  > Axis Mundi
  The islands were included under the purview of the 
  MDC because they were part of the old Manhattan bor-
  ough, despite being connected to Queens by the Triborough 
  and Hell Gate bridges. NYPD, Inc. has contracted with the 
  UCAS and MDC to patrol each end of the area. 
  WeSTSIDe AND uPPeR eASTSIDe
  Both the Westside and Upper Eastside are primarily 
  residential, with a few business complexes spilling over from 
  Midtown. The Westside is primarily a home to salarymen, 
  with a variety of mid-range shopping options. It comprises 
  an area between 10th Avenue and the Hudson River and 
  MANHATTAN’S BeST KNOWN FACeS
  1. Christopher Arkins is the Press Secretary for 
  the Manhattan Development Consortium. All 
  of the MDC’s press releases, news conferenc-
  es, and public announcements flow through 
  the debonair elf. Mr. Arkins has held the post 
  for twenty years, through numerous changes 
  in the consortium membership. Even through 
  a number of crises, his approval rating has re-
  mained consistently high. 
  2. Denise Fairborn was appointed Safety 
  Director to Manhattan in the fall of 2067. As an 
  employee of NYPD, Inc., she came up through 
  the vice division and established a reputation 
  for cracking down on imported BTLs. Most re-
  cently, she’s persuaded the MDC to support a 
  crackdown on tempo within Manhattan. The 
  biggest complaint from her political oppo-
  nents is that she’s too obsessed with street 
  crime and too oblivious to all other forms.
  3. David Jacobs has been the commissioner 
  of the ECSE since the exchange returned to 
  Manhattan. The dwarf is best known for his 
  calm approach in responding to both posi-
  tive and negative shifts in the marketplace. 
  Recently, he initiated a taskforce to inves-
  tigate trading practices that are dependent 
  upon extremely fast transfers of large num-
  bers of shares. Since that time, a number of 
  sensationalist stories have begun to circulate 
  about Mr. Jacobs family life.
  4. Phenry is either an icon shared by several 
  skilled hackers or an artificial intelligence. 
  Either way, the icon has hacked its way into a 
  number of prominent AR feeds in Manhattan 
  to spread the Neo-Anarchist news to the 
  masses. The entity decries the constant sur-
  veillance, brutish security practices, intense air 
  pollution, and corporate greed that define life 
  in New York City.
  Aetherpedia. . . . 
  Riverside
  East
  Riverside
  
  The Rotten Apple
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  14
  from 52nd Street up to 96th. The Upper Eastside is less com-
  mercial and contains the most expensive pieces of residential 
  property in the City. 
  > Those brownstones overlooking the river require either a soul as 
  payment or a great job of hacking some deserving bastard.
  > Pistons
  The Prometheus Spire
  Built close to the DeWitt Clinton Park on the Westside, 
  Prometheus Engineering is housed in a 100-story twisted 
  tower that mimics the double helix of DNA. As the primary 
  headquarters for the growing corporation, the spire sees all of 
  the negotiations that Prometheus execs have with their mega-
  corporate clients. The third floor is devoted to an art gallery of 
  sorts showing their contributions to buildings throughout the 
  world. Some of the most advanced polymers yet discovered 
  were used in the creation of the tower and it has survived ter-
  rorist attacks with far less damage than seen in other buildings. 
  > They do quite a bit of R&D from the Spire, but so far I haven’t 
  found any employees that leave the Spire who 
  admit to working above the 40th floor. I’m 
  guessing that’s how they keep things tight 
  lipped—the lab rats can’t leave. 
  > Nephrine
  MDC Building
  The headquarters of the Manhattan 
  Development Consortium is built over 
  the area that once held Gracie Mansion 
  on the Upper Eastside. It’s too short to 
  be a skyraker, yet it still has a dominat-
  ing presence. The arc-shaped building 
  is divided into fourteen sections, with 
  thirteen towers atop a ten-story build-
  ing. The fourteenth section is the shared 
  lobby. While there is subway access nearby 
  as well as vehicle access from FDR Drive, secu-
  rity is top notch with active surveillance and burly 
  security guards.
  > The Mayor of New York used to live in Gracie Mansion. I think 
  someone misstated something and the MDC decided to make it 
  clear who was in charge. Now, the Mayor comes to the consortium 
  instead of the reverse.
  > Hard Exit
  > While there is a serious visible security presence, the area also 
  has some hidden deterrents including popup barricades, heavy 
  weapon mounts, and columns that hum menacingly.
  > Plan 9
  This building houses all of the City bureaucracy and the 
  off-line data stores maintain archives ranging back to before 
  the MDC took control of Manhattan. Planning commis-
  sions and the joint-corporate taskforces all meet in conference 
  rooms in the ninth and tenth floors of the shared column. The 
  other stories are set aside for the legions of clerical workers 
  needed to keep the MDC organized and disseminate infor-
  mation to consortium members.
  FDR Drive 
  From 79th to 90th Street, FDR drive runs underground 
  with a promenade under Schurz Park and the MDC building. 
  It has a great view of the river and was bicycle friendly even 
  before the ban on cars. 
  > The section under the park is weight and motion sensitive up to a 
  few kilograms, monitoring any possible threats to the MDC building 
  above. Don’t loiter here, or you’ll have a unit of NYPD, Inc.’s finest 
  incoming quickly. 
  > Mika
  The Sea of Fools
  Between 82nd and 83rd Street on the Upper Eastside, 
  this pub is the best place for viewing MeFeeds. Along with the 
  “over the door” 1.3m trid displaying the number one MeFeed 
  of the day, inside are 45 other trids giving patrons a selection 
  of popular MeFeeds while they consume drinks and pop feel-
  good Kong chips. There’s a Live Stage ARE Karaoke 
  booth for those who want to post new feeds after a 
  few beers and a Live Trid shot of people out-
  side tied to theme-music dependant on 
  how they walk past.
  CeNTRAL PARK
  Here is where anybody who is 
  anybody in New York lives. When the 
  City was being redesigned, the plan-
  ners set aside these two great strips on 
  both sides of the park for residential 
  buildings. The strips run from 86th 
  to 60th St and are a City-block wide. 
  Many of the penthouses are owned by 
  MDC member corporations for visit-
  ing executives to use or are used for private 
  gala events. The other lofts are for important 
  corporate employees for whom space is willingly sac-
  rificed for luxury. The views are tremendous and build on 
  the fact that the street level is raised above the park. NYPD, 
  Inc. maintains a specialized unit of “Mounted Community 
  Service Officers,” to patrol the area from horseback. Tourists 
  come to talk to them and take pictures. Though each officer is 
  technically allowed to make arrests, they generally travel un-
  armed and are part of the cultural revitalization program. 
  The Park is still 3.4 square kilometers of natural look-
  ing landscape maintained by Shiawase Corporation through 
  various contracts. Inside the park is Central Park Zoo, the 
  Shiawase Heritage Museum displaying villages that occupied 
  the land prior to Central Park, and several bodies of water. 
  It’s a great place to hang out, get married, and people watch. 
  However, NYPD, Inc. is in force around the park via their 
  many discrete drones that constantly check to make sure your 
  PAN is in active mode. The horse drawn carriages are the only 
  legal transportation within the park, charging only a small fee 
  Westside
  Central
  Park
  Upper
  Eastside
  
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  Manhattan
  15
  for a ride around the park. Bicycles and all forms of motorized 
  transportation are forbidden from the park. 
  > The carriages are great moving across the park instead of hoofing 
  it or driving all the way around. Of course, they’re also running an ID 
  check while you sit in them. Make sure your ID is up to date.
  > Pistons
  Belvedere Castle
  The castle rests upon Vista Rock, one of the highest eleva-
  tion points in the park. It was constructed in 1865 and houses 
  the NY Meteorological Observatory. It also has become a 
  magicians’ clubhouse for the Society of Hawks. They’ve done 
  some restoration of the castle and the Ramble (a woodland 
  walkthrough). While parts of the building are open to the 
  public, most of it is closed off and magically secured.
  Obelisk
  The 24-meter tall, 244-ton Obelisk, sometime’s known as 
  Cleopatra’s Needle, has stood in the park since 1879. It’s also an 
  astral phenomenon as its structure has influenced the magic 
  within twenty meters of it. People have seen deserts around 
  the obelisk as well as Egyptian speaking spirits. Its tone and 
  background count changes, apparently based upon astronom-
  ical phenomenon. 
  > There are obelisks that match this one in Paris and London. The 
  Apep Consortium has been attempting to purchase all three.
  > Elijah
  MIDTOWN 
  Midtown, along with “Uptown” (Upper East and West 
  Side) and Downtown, is one of the three major subdivisions 
  of Manhattan. It covers an area between 14th Street and 
  59th Street, from the Hudson River to the East River. These 
  12 square km make up the busiest commercial district in the 
  UCAS. Midtown is the bright and shiny glory of Manhattan 
  with magnificent pinnacles of glass and steel crowning 
  Central Park. 
  Theater District
  This section runs South from West 53rd Street to West 
  43rd. The Eastern boundary is formed by Sixth Avenue, and 
  Eighth Avenue to the West. First run theatres line Broadway—
  the famous “Great White Way,” so named for the theatre mar-
  quees’ dazzling nightly light and AR displays. Horizon has 
  gained ownership of several theatres and has been working 
  to incorporate some of their new media techniques into the 
  theater scene from emotive tracks for musicals to re-releases 
  of shows with live simsense feeds. Primarily hosted to cater 
  to the local population, the theatres work with their global 
  media partners to draw in guest actors and entice tourists.
  > If you haven’t seen it, Atzechnology and Horizon have been 
  throwing around comedies in the last few months. I’ve been told 
  if you look at them at a higher level, they are a subtle PR battle, 
  poking fun at each other.
  > Kat o’ Nine Tales
  
  The Rotten Apple
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  16
  Museum of Modern Art 
  Founded in 1929, the Museum of Modern Art between 
  53rd and 54th Street has been remodeled with a new capacity 
  of almost 60,000 square meters, encompassing the six-story 
  Rockefeller building. MoMA has a theater, a restaurant, 
  shops, and an atrium along with several floors of various art 
  works. Currently on display is Living Art—a traveling exhibit 
  of genetic artwork—located on the fifth floor.
  > The museum cycles through exhibits every few weeks. Upcoming 
  exhibits include Heavenly Visions, a study of astral photography, 
  and New Speak, an in depth look of semiotics on visual portrayal 
  of language. I’ve heard that Heavenly Visions includes everything 
  from macroscopic images of the solar system to so called “virgin 
  casters” manipulating mana for the first time. 
  > Axis Mundi
  Grand Central
  Grand Central is located on 42nd street at Park Avenue. 
  Built in 1913, the glass-and-steel Grand Central Terminal 
  was an engineering achievement rivaling the Eiffel Tower 
  and Glass Palace of the time. It was revitalized in 1998, and 
  expanded, as part of the rebuilding, with the 
  East Side project in 2015 (connecting 
  the Long Island Rail Road’s (LIRR) 
  Main and Port Washington lines 
  in Queens to a new terminal below 
  Grand Central). Grand Central is 
  a bustling hub with four levels 
  containing 75 tracks and 48 
  platforms. 
  Security is fairly tight 
  around the clock. IDs are checked 
  when moving between levels, exiting 
  and entering Grand Central, and at each 
  platform. Matrix Access for the trains is 
  through the rails and fed through M-42, the 
  secured power center for the rails as well as 
  the LTG for Midtown. In the evening after the 
  commuters have finished, there is a spike in unmanned 
  security as all of the basic goods and produce that the City 
  needs are brought in via rail. Aztechnology is the primary 
  importer, although corps that don’t utilize the Azzies distri-
  bution networks bring in their own trains.
  > M-42 used to be the power plant for all the electric trains since 
  WWII. Now, while the Power plants have been upgraded, it’s also 
  been refitted for the Matrix to house the components and primary 
  routing networks. Fiber optics connect M-42 to several corporate 
  skyrakers. And I’ve been pestered to say that M-42 is rumored to 
  have a UV Node at the core. 
  > Slamm-0!
  It has five posh restaurants and many other food and 
  shopping choices. With all the food and shopping available 
  in Grand Central, Prometheus Engineering has spent the last 
  10 years constructing two more floors below Grand Central, 
  developing the beginnings of Grand Central Arcology. They 
  hope to be able to supplant several of the nearby hotels for 
  tourists by providing accommodations in the heart of the 
  transit terminal.
  > That being said, there are many maintenance tunnels, forgotten 
  construction alcoves, and secret stairs around Grand. You only have 
  to worry about security if you move around the mainstream areas. 
  Personally, I get there via Airshaft 7 on 48th Street. A five-second 
  almost freefall, white-knuckling a roller board. Remember to check 
  the timetables.
  > Mika
  Penn Station
  Located on 8th Ave and 31st St, Penn Station is a major 
  rail station connecting DeeCee and Boston with maglev 
  trains. Like vehicle permits, the electric rail service has a spe-
  cial color-code separating it from the subway service. Penn 
  Station connects to Grand Central, which has a different 
  commuter pass for subway use. The only pedestrian access 
  from Penn Station to Terminal is on 8th Avenue. 
  > This is really only for non-white IDs. If you’re broadcasting a blue 
  work pass, you’ll have to have a white stripe to use the subway 
  system. 
  > Traveler Jones
  There are a large number of hotels 
  surrounding Penn Station targeting 
  tourists and short-term residents. 
  These hotels maintain a small fleet 
  of towncars and aircabs to pick up 
  and deliver guests to Grand Central 
  and Penn Stations in addition to 
  any of the corporate buildings in 
  Manhattan.
  Some Assembly Required 
  Located in Midtown on 5th 
  Street, it’s a unique do-it-yourself 
  fajita making restaurant. Its boldness 
  to allow people to make their own meals at a buffet table has 
  given it a solid customer base of middleclass clientele as well 
  as many of the law enforcement who work nearby.
  Zoé
  Zoé’s flagship store—since 2052—has been in Midtown 
  on the corner of 5th Ave and 57th Street. While the window 
  displays shows off the latest fashions, this store has a “retrovi-
  sions” AR collection, presenting almost 20 years of fashions 
  made by Zoé.
  LOWeR WeSTSIDe AND eASTSIDe
  The Lower Westside descends quickly from the splen-
  dor of Midtown and the Westside to the low income depths 
  against the walls of Terminal. It’s primarily a lower to poor 
  residential zone with a few middle class locations to the north. 
  This is the main area where the corporations that aren’t part of 
  the MDC house their low end personnel. Along the Hudson 
  River are port and cargo-handling facilities. It is believed that 
  Midtown
  Lower
  Westside
  Eastside
  Stuyvesant
  Times
  Square
  Downtown
  
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  Manhattan
  17
  the human supervision of these facilities allowed Manhattan 
  to avoid the massive property damage faced by other cities 
  when automated systems were knocked offline by Crash 2.0.
   
  > After getting their asses handed to them by the Cutters in the 
  Pit, the Blood Monkeys—a turf gang with ties to the dockworkers—
  have pulled back to the Lower Westside to lick their wounds and 
  reinforce their control. 
  > Aufheben
  The Eastside is nicknamed the Land of Lower Managers. 
  Economics dictate that this is about as far as a salaryman 
  can rise without doing something daring or illegal to push 
  through to the Upper East Side class of executives. 
  > It’s a fairly even mix of cultures—Security, Gangs, MeFeeds, 
  Commercial, and Residential. As an example, the drones still fly 
  about watching for PANs in passive mode, but places like FDR Drive 
  by the 63rd street ramp or around the 59th Street bridge depend 
  upon the human element to patrol.
  > Pistons
  eleemosynary Children’s Clinic
  Located in Hell’s Kitchen, a neighborhood roughly be-
  tween 42nd and 59th Street in the Lower Westside, this free 
  medical clinic takes care of children, regardless of their SIN 
  status. It also can house up to 30 orphans while the clinic 
  finds suitable parents for them. This is one of the locations 
  that Atzechnology sponsors during the Feed the World charity 
  drive, focusing attention on the homeless children.
  Roosevelt Island
  Now, more commonly known as Penitentiary Island, this 
  is where the City maintains moderate, maximum, and ultra-
  maximum security prisons near the Eastside. With weapon em-
  placements on the Queensboro bridge the island is surrounded 
  by tall fences, drones, and spirits. External security is managed 
  collectively by all three prisons, with internal security measures 
  changing based on prisoner needs and population levels.  
  > While technically secure, there are regular riots and escape at-
  tempts. The worst was during Crash 2.0. All three prisons rioted at 
  the same time allowing for a few escapes when security had their 
  hands full. Three escapees from ultra-max have the wageslaves 
  really worried: Robert Moriarty, Kat Kelner, and Rachel Shepherd.
  > Sticks
  Pizza Now
  Who doesn’t want a hot slice of Brooklyn style pizza 
  right now? Pizza Now is a great cheap place for a slice on the 
  Eastside. Nicholas, a fourth generation resident of Manhattan, 
  pedals around his pizza cart, selling pizza by the slice. While 
  most of it is soy, Nicholas insists that he has a secret source for 
  authentic tomato sauce. He’s also well tuned in to the Eastside 
  rumor mill. 
  TIMeS SQuARe 
  Times Square remains an icon of Manhattan and is one 
  of the more recognizable destinations on the City. The inter-
  section of 7th and Broadway creates an “X” shaped area sur-
  rounded by glitz and glitter as only Manhattan can provide. 
  Multi-story advertisements, physical and AR, surround you 
  with everything from the latest trends, to the latest news, to 
  the latest stock report out of the ECSE.
  > Times Square can be somewhat uncomfortable. Running in 
  hidden or passive mode may get you noticed, but leaving yourself 
  open means the spam gets obnoxious pretty quickly. 
  > Glitch
  > Strolling through Times Square can give you a really good idea 
  of how much the Man has on you. Too many ads for your favorite 
  foods or trailers for the flick you were gonna download tomorrow 
  night, and it might be time for a visit to your favorite forger.
  > Slamm-0!
  The Square is also the place to go if you’ve got some nuyen 
  itching to be spent. It’s a high class area filled with ritzy restau-
  rants and old-time theaters. Many of the buildings sport an art 
  deco AR theme allowing visitors to experience Manhattan in 
  its hey-day, or at least that’s what the tourist brochures say. The 
  City’s older theaters, many operational even back in the 20th 
  century, can be found on the side streets around the square. 
  While updated to provide AR feeds end emotive tracks carefully 
  calibrated to provide an audience with the appropriate queues 
  during a performance, a few—most notably the Shubert Theater 
  on 44th between 7th and 8th—have avoided too much mod-
  ernization and provide “a true theater connoisseur’s experience.” 
  Neon City
  Head south from Times Square and you’ll find yourself 
  in Neon City. Located in and representing the old red light 
  district of 42nd street, Neon City is where the elite go to sit 
  back, relax, and pretend they’re not elite. Filled with bars de-
  signed to give the appearance of shiftiness while still providing 
  the drink menu of an upper-class Midtown establishment, the 
  NC also provides any other “entertainment” that a corporate 
  citizen could want.  Within a six block radius, ten different 
  bars licensed to serve CalHots and other mind-benders can be 
  found. Generally companionship in the form of an escort ser-
  vice or full-service brothel and bunraku parlor can be found 
  next-door or across the street.
  > If you need a meet with someone too important to be seen with 
  “less desirables,” check out Our Lady of the Bottle. Tell Tasha that 
  I sent you but watch out for the Guvnah, a cockney free spirit who 
  provides security. 
  > Axis Mundi
  NYPD, Inc. patrols the area, but part of the draw—and 
  the financial success of Neon City—is the taste of antisocial 
  behavior to those that couldn’t afford to act that way any-
  where else. Unless you’re involved in something clearly illegal 
  and you’re doing it to someone important enough, they’ll turn 
  a blind eye. Doesn’t mean you can walk down the street with 
  your intentions just hanging out, even if some of the other em-
  ployees in the NC are paid to do just that.
  
  The Rotten Apple
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  18
  > Slamm-0 mentioned forgers; whether you need new papers or a 
  new digital permit to get you around the City, if you pay attention—
  and have the right cred—Neon City is a place to find one. 
  > Mika
  DOWNTOWN
  While other neighborhoods are occupied by 300-story 
  skyrakers, Downtown has kept its concrete charm. Midtown 
  may be the heart of Manhattan, but Downtown is its soul. 
  Downtown contains a mix of business and residential struc-
  tures with a peppering of MeFeed screens displaying today’s 
  popular home trids. Downtown starts at the Empire State 
  building and roughly includes everything below 14th Street. 
  Excluding neighborhoods like The Towers or Battery City, 
  downtown proper has its own unique charms.
  > It has a higher rent then Riverside or Battery City, but it’s due to 
  location. While there’s a decent law enforcement presence, gangs 
  still drift through—local gangs from the Pit or Ancients from the 
  Southside.
  > Pistons
  The empire State Building
  Completed in just over a year, back in 1931, the Empire 
  State Building is the only building over twenty stories to sur-
  vive the Quake undamaged. Long term forecasting of the lifes-
  pan of the building during its design phase has allowed ease 
  of upgrades to modern conveniences including fiber optics. It 
  is currently privately owned; with the lower fifty floors being 
  leased out to various corporations. Due to its historic sig-
  nificance, the Empire State Building was one of the buildings 
  which went through the expensive process of being lifted to 
  the new street level. 
  > The top thirty floors are secured very tightly including a power-
  ful ward that screams “Go Away!”  The most popular rumor of the 
  moment is that the mysterious private owner that no one knows 
  lives up there and doesn’t leave. Another rumor is that the Four 
  Hundred, a secret society of corporate elite, hold meetings up there 
  to decide what happens in the corporate world.
  > Plan 9
  Bowling Green
  A wedged shaped plaza, formed by the splitting of 
  Broadway into Whitehall and State Street, is the oldest public 
  park in Manhattan and has been the center of activity since 
  1635. Bowling Green features the sculpture Charging Bull as 
  well as a fountain and places to sit and chat. There are plenty 
  of licensed street vendors for food and goods.
  > The Bowling Green subway station is still abandoned after being 
  deemed unsafe and not worth the expense of repairing. Now ven-
  dors from the Underground scurry closer to the surface to trade 
  black and grey goods to the residents of downtown at Bowling 
  
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  Manhattan
  19
  smugglers are fast and efficient, so much so that most believe 
  that they are corp personnel following orders or moonlighting.
  The drug dealers keep the area around Penn Station under 
  control, with enough enforcers that the area could almost be 
  rated as a B. They want their customers coming back. With 
  the reduction of the Port Authority’s power, they have had 
  to rent out part of their facility to others to stay solvent. A 
  couple of street docs now have cyberclinics in the basement.
  The Neo-Anarchists have made it a point of taking out any 
  sensors that Manhattan Inc or NYPD, Inc. put up in Terminal. 
  While all of the infrastructure repairs were being done, NYPD, 
  Inc. inserted a large number of sensors in as many structures 
  (including the road beds, sidewalks and sewers) as they could. 
  The Neo-Anarchists were busy for a couple of months, but 
  they believe that they got all of the sensors.
  Choke Points
  These are set up at 42nd and 10th, 42nd and 7th, 38th 
  and 7th, and 34th and 7th. They don’t really care who goes 
  into Terminal, but proper ID and passes are required to reen-
  ter Manhattan.
  > They have two nasty surprises for those trying to bull their way 
  through. The first is a monowire fence that can spring up. The 
  second are RFID sprayers that mix regular, stealth, and security 
  RFIDs. A trip through the Underground is usually your best option.
  > Pistons
  The Apple Press
  The Apple Press is an independent news firm serving as a 
  front for the Neo-Anarchists. Beyond producing anti-author-
  itarian AROs and viral propaganda, it does a lively business 
  on the ground floor as a coffee and teahouse. If you need the 
  Anarchist Black Cross, this is the place to start looking. 
  Firesale
  A hacker hangout, the owner Demian has a strong bias 
  against technomancers. The dwarf stomps around squash-
  ing tales of self-enlightenment and selling warez under the 
  guise of a legitimate software retailer. Legal purchases can be 
  made above board, though he only deals in certified for shad-
  Terminal
  The
  Village
  Lower
  Eastside
  Southside
  SoHo
  Green. If it gets too hot with NYPD, Inc., they flee to the subway 
  tunnels like roaches.
  > Traveler Jones
  Waldorf-Astoria
  A 47-story, art deco, luxury hotel, the Waldorf is owned 
  by Citigroup. It contains three restaurants serving Amerindian, 
  Classic American, and Classic European dishes, and a beauty 
  parlor just off of the main lobby. Interestingly enough, there is 
  a more luxurious virtual ‘hotel within the hotel’ tied to a pri-
  vate platform below the hotel and maglev train.
  > If you’ve got the nuyen, this is the posh way to stay in Manhattan. 
  It used to be for President Roosevelt, complete with an elevator to 
  take his motorcar up from the platform to the street. 
  > Kat o’ Nine Tales
  STuYVeSANT
  This is an ultra-rich neighborhood, with security levels 
  to keep it that way. For the most part, the buildings are sin-
  gle-family residences, though most of us would call them 
  mansions. Little is as it appears at these residences. There are 
  shrubs, lawn ornaments, bricks in the walls, and even sparrows 
  that are armed drones. Enter at your own risk.
  > I ran across a statue of Zeus that “fired” lightning bolts at me. 
  The statue had an Ares Laser mounted in the fully articulated arm. 
  I didn’t stay around to see if it could move from its pedestal.
  > Stone
  TeRMINAL
  For the most part, Terminal is a place of desperation, 
  where those on the way down end up. It has the cheapest coffin 
  hotels in the City, the ones where you may wake up short a 
  few personal items—like organs—or not wake up at all.
  Terminal is where Manhattan comes when they want 
  cheap drugs and prostitutes willing to do anything. You can 
  use what you want, get into brawls, have fun with the street-
  walkers, and not have any of it show up on multiple MeFeeds.
  After Crash 2.0, the MDC made a few changes to the 
  place, with lots of NYPD, Inc. on hand to make sure that the 
  locals cooperated. They upgraded the chokepoints to reduce 
  the chance of go-gangs being able to barrel through them, 
  they reworked a few of the streets, and they did some neces-
  sary urban infrastructure maintenance.
  > They didn’t do all those infrastructure repairs for the ease or 
  comfort of the locals, but because the raw sewage stench that was 
  wafting out into better neighborhoods was starting to make the 
  beautiful people turn green.
  > Plan 9
  Smuggling, drugs and black market goods are flourishing 
  in Terminal. If it can be had, chances are that you can get it 
  here. Delivery outside of Terminal usually results in a signifi-
  cant markup.
  The rundown and decrepit docks in Terminal are the en-
  tryway for most of the illicit goods coming into Manhattan. The 
  
  The Rotten Apple
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  20
  owy purchases. There are rumors that Demian was an otaku 
  who faded before the others became technomancers, but he’s 
  threatened to shoot anyone who discusses that line of thought.
  SOuTHSIDe 
  Through most of Southside, the security and habitats are 
  similar to those of downtown. It’s a mix of smaller corps, resi-
  dences, and commercial construction. However, the northern 
  end, where it abuts Terminal, gets quite a bit seedier. The se-
  curity network is frequently off-line and thrill gangs tend to 
  spontaneously form and collapse in the area.
  The Marquee
  The Marquee is a century old nightclub off of 10th Street. 
  Fashion is strictly enforced at the club—only those who are 
  wearing up to date clothing are allowed inside. The Marquee 
  is for salarymen who seek the Downtown feel, without the 
  extra travel. 
  Corson Place Hotel
  The Corson Place Hotel is a bit seedy, but it’s close 
  enough to The Towers that it still manages a steady business 
  in private corporate meetings. It’s especially popular for meet-
  ings that need to be kept off the books, for any number of rea-
  sons. The staff practices discretion largely by being completely 
  oblivious to the world around them.
  THe VILLAGe
  The Village is like an aging rocker who should have 
  stopped wearing his synthleather pants twenty years ago: it’s 
  clinging sadly to the wrong part of its past. Over a hundred 
  years ago, this neighborhood was the home to starving artists 
  and other bohemians. Now, it’s largely populated by corpo-
  rate-sponsored and approved hippies and free-spirits (not the 
  mojo kind) who run kitschy stores. These storefronts give the 
  illusion of art and bohemia to wageslaves without the dogma. 
  Washington Square Park / NYCu Campus 
  Still the spiritual heart of the Village with its historical 
  arch and weekend bazaars, this open-air rectangle looks less 
  like a park and more like a cave with each passing decade 
  thanks to the ever-growing buildings surrounding it—most 
  owned by NYCU. New York City University is a huge re-
  search university with centuries-old ties to the City. They keep 
  a near-Alexandrian academic library covering a multitude of 
  subjects ranging from medicine to art history to corporate law, 
  both hard copy and on a firewalled Matrix nexus. Manhattan 
  residents can apply for day passes which grant limited access.
  > By limited, they mean a fifth or so. That’s plenty for Citizen Joe, 
  but this place is vast. Consider making at least one of your fake IDS 
  a student at NYCU. This way you get full access to the college of 
  your choosing for the duration of your stay.
  > Pistons
  NYCU does not have an isolated campus, but more 
  than half of the buildings in a five-block radius from the arch 
  belong to them: dorms, classrooms, offices, research laborato-
  ries covering everything from nanotech to chemistry, a teach-
  ing hospital, and, of course, the library. The university survives 
  on grants and tuition which is generally paid by corporate 
  scholarships. Corporate recruiters draw promising students 
  out of high schools and after a few years of college, offer them 
  permanent positions in their corporations. There is a gentle-
  man’s agreement between the corporations to not poach each 
  other’s candidates from NYCU—an agreement which simply 
  pushes the corporations to act more circuitously.
  The Cypress Tree
  On Mercer, between 3rd St and Bleeker is one of the 
  best-kept secrets in The Village. The Cypress Tree restaurant 
  has the sole claim of being family-owned for almost 150 years 
  thanks to a forward-thinking cousin petitioning to be allowed 
  to resume control of the restaurant during the revitalization 
  project. Restaurant by day, bar and club by night, they’ve sur-
  vived by adapting with integrity. They boast the latest in AR 
  and security, while maintaining a relaxed appearance with real 
  brick and wood throughout. All the tables are antique shale, 
  and bowls of chalk encourage customers to doodle or diagram 
  to their heart’s content.
  > The booths have privacy generators you can turn on for a small 
  fee. I’ve found this a great place to meet contacts and make plans, 
  though you might not want to trust it for a first meet with a 
  Johnson. 
  > Glitch
  THe PIT
  The Lower Eastside is an area roughly south of East 
  Houston Street and west of the East River. The borders of 
  the Pit are more dependent upon where NYPD, Inc. stops 
  enforcing. Since the Quake, it’s been filled with roving gangs, 
  giving it the nickname of “The Pit.”  Unable to focus on the 
  eradication and gentrification of the area immediately, MDC 
  took a containment approach. They locked down the area and 
  control people leaving the zone. If it weren’t for Crash 2.0, 
  programs of systematic destruction and redevelopment would 
  have been implemented. The timeline was moved from com-
  pletion in 2075 to completion by 2085.
  Today, however, the Lower East Side is working towards 
  cleaning up its image without MDC involvement. Non-
  Corporate groups such as Urban Assistance and Lower East 
  Heritage have been cleaning up abandoned buildings and re-
  storing historical ones such as St. Theresa’s and the Eldridge 
  Synagogue. These groups have lobbied for control of the 
  Lower East Side with mild MDC oversight if they are capable 
  of cleaning it up on their own. So far the MDC hasn’t made 
  any promises, but seems satisfied to take the social improve-
  ments without spending a dime.
  The Pit lacks the constant security oversight present in 
  almost all of Manhattan. It’s not a safe place to live or work, 
  but, because of concerted effort to improve the area, it moved 
  from a “Post-apocalyptic” war zone to a “Bring your own law”, 
  frontier zone.
  
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  Manhattan
  21
  > The Lower East Heritage group has some family ties to give 
  them extra protection while in the Pit, but the serious push here 
  has been with the Cutters. Originally, you had turf gangs such as 
  the Blood Monkeys, Axemen, Duelists, Merlyn’s Pride, The Sisters 
  Sinister, Night-Spawn, and the psychotic thrill-kill Billyboys. Now, 
  in the Cutter’s terms, there’s been a hostile takeover, restructuring, 
  and some downsizing. 
  > 2XL
  > Not everyone is happy with this, especially the anarchists. Not 
  only do they have to deal with MDC, now they have to deal with a 
  gang who thinks like a corporation. 
  > Aufheben
  Orchard Street
  Considered the heart of the Pit, Orchard Street runs 
  the length of the Lower East Side, and is the place to shop. 
  Every week, sections of the street are turned into a bazaar. 
  Several restaurants create outdoor venues serving ethnic 
  food and drinks.
  > The gang battles kept many people off the street, leaving the ven-
  dors selling only weapons and armor. Now, there’s more out there—
  clothes, salvage, and pirated trids. I can start at Division, where I pick 
  up some dinner and a cool shirt. By the time I reach East Houston, I’ll 
  have a new pistol in one hand and a chilled beer in the other.
  > Traveler Jones
  C-Squat
  The Urban Assistance group purchased eleven aban-
  doned buildings from MDC for a nod and a handshake, in-
  cluding the building now named C-Squat, and then used local 
  labor to renovate them. C-Squat is still a squat house, but it 
  includes a skate park in the basement and regularly has tech-
  no-punk concerts. With the renovations, the UA has been 
  able to draw squatters who had snuck in during the Crash and 
  hidden in high rises into a safe area where the squatters won’t 
  be abused by NYPD, Inc. In exchange for a safe place to live, 
  the squatters serve as untrained labor and help clear out build-
  ings and roadways to help renovation.
  > And of course hiding behind UA is the Cutters. They could be set-
  ting up a new eastern headquarters, but the real question is what 
  kind of deal they are making with the Consortium.
  > Plan 9
  > It looks pretty obvious; MDC is getting an eyesore cleaned up 
  without paying for it. When the job is done, MDC can roll in, kick out 
  the SINless who don’t belong in the City and march lockstep for-
  ward pushing any resistance right off the island and into the river. 
  If the Cutters thought they’d win, they were mistaken.
  > Red Anya
  > Is that how you’d do it back in Moscow?
  > Pistons
  SOHO
  SoHo stands for “South of Houston,” but the cultural 
  line is not that sharp. The further south you go, the more 
  authentic culture you get: art galleries, arcane shops of sub-
  stance, and old men playing chess. Here is where you meet 
  the real “smart people” of the City, intermixed with the fakers 
  hired to play the role.
  Saints and SINners
  This shop is located near the corner of Spring and Wooster. 
  At first glance it’s a curio shop, filled with small treasures from 
  the world’s religions targeted mostly at tourists. Look with the 
  right set of eyes; however, and you’ll see talismans and fetishes 
  for sale at reasonable prices, enchanted and ready for attuning. 
  What the owner will never tell you is that everything in the 
  store is developed by MCT and sold in Pentagram Publishing 
  on Broadway for fifteen percent less.  MCT utilizes the shop as 
  a feeder for their cultural investment quota and marks up their 
  products to cover the additional overhead.
  > The model of having a small family-owned store that actually be-
  longs to a mega is part and parcel of their cultural revitalization. 
  Create the illusion of culture without sacrificing the bottom line.
  > Kay St. Irregular
  NeW YORK HARBOR ISLANDS
  Three smaller islands in New York Harbor 
  fall under the purview of the MDC.
  Liberty Island and ellis Island
  Home to the Statue of Liberty, Horizon 
  acquired the property rights to both Liberty 
  and Ellis Islands from Citigroup in a deft bit of 
  real estate dealing last year. The islands are 
  currently closed to the public, though they are 
  expected to re-open as Virtual World Liberty 
  Park in the spring of 2073. Both islands are 
  being re-worked into an amusement park 
  with a theme of the American Revolutionary 
  War. A high-speed train running under the 
  harbor will connect the two islands.
  Governors Island
  Ares holds extraterritorial rights to all 
  of Governors Island. The island is extremely 
  well secured, and used for riot training and 
  non-lethal weapons testing. The majority of 
  the units stationed there are Knight Errant 
  employees engaged in retraining—a fact that 
  keeps NYPD, Inc. perpetually concerned. It is 
  rumored that Ares also contracts out use of 
  their training facilities to a number of merce-
  nary units for urban combat exercises. Though 
  the MDC has no control over what happens on 
  the island, due to Ares’ extraterritoriality, they 
  do keep an eye on it through satellites and 
  surveillance drones to ensure that the actions 
  do not pose a threat to Manhattan’s security.
  Aetherpedia. . . . 
  
  The Rotten Apple
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  22
  THe TOWeRS
  The three, 250-story tall onyx towers once called “Fuchi-
  Town” dominate the skyline of Lower Manhattan. Fitting, 
  given that the Corporate Court has made it their terrestrial 
  headquarters. Externally, the renovated towers appear to be 
  as pristine and manufactured as the rest of Manhattan. A 
  closer look, however, reveals The Towers to be the most secure 
  square quarter-mile in the world. 
  The Towers had been in a state of disrepair following 
  the gutting of Fuchi Industrial Electronics in 2060. Trapped 
  in legal limbo for years, Fuchi-Town became a crumbling tes-
  tament to the fall of Fuchi and the bitterness created by the 
  circumstances surrounding the collapse. Former Fuchi execs 
  working for Renraku and Shiawese used their pull with the 
  MDC to prevent Novatech from gaining full ownership of 
  The Towers. With the ownership of The Towers in limbo, 
  none of the corps involved were willing to invest in its upkeep. 
  The Towers became a white-collar slum, home to only the 
  most expendable of wageslaves. 
  That all changed after Crash 2.0, when an ascendant 
  NeoNET turned to the only force in the world capable of 
  breaking the stalemate over The Towers. By shrewd politick-
  ing, NeoNET convinced the Corporate Court to take control 
  of The Towers and its associated assets. This gave the Court 
  an earthbound home from which it could directly monitor 
  the activities of the Big 10. The Corporate Court’s decision 
  to move into the complex was instrumental in persuading the 
  East Coast Stock Exchange to return to City Center. Today it 
  is home to a growing army of Corporate Court workers, from 
  accountants to security specialists. 
  > NeoNET scored big on this move. They lost physical ownership 
  of the The Towers, but they gained one of the largest contracts in 
  Matrix history; building the wireless infrastructure for the Corporate 
  Court’s dirtside home. Kicking Fuchi old guard in the teeth was only 
  an added bonus.
  > Mr. Bonds 
  CITY CeNTeR
  The collection of drab civic buildings that makes up City 
  Center lives in the shadow of The Towers. This is true in more 
  ways than the MDC would like to admit. City Hall and the 
  headquarters of NYPD, Inc. are here, along with the civil and 
  criminal courts. The rebuilt and modernized East Coast Stock 
  Exchange resides here and its unique Neo-Deco Revival archi-
  tecture makes it a popular stop for City tours. 
  > The Towers, MDC’s City Center, and the ECSE all share portions 
  of a common Matrix corridor. I’ve noticed Renraku white hats 
  poking around lately, looking for weaknesses in NeoNET’s Matrix 
  architecture. 
  > Netcat
  east Coast Stock exchange
  Following the events in Boston, the ECSE returned to 
  Manhattan and retook its place on the site of the old NYSE 
  building. The return of the ECSE was a major coup for the 
  MDC as a way of affirming that Manhattan is in fact the 
  economic 
  power-
  house of the UCAS. 
  David Jacobs has 
  been the commis-
  sioner of the ECSE 
  since the exchange re-
  turned to Manhattan. 
  He has been trying to put 
  a stop to future nanosecond 
  buyouts and take control out of the computerized machina-
  tions to quell public fears of AI interference. 
  Frankfurt Bank Association
  One of the oldest financial agencies, the Frankfurt Bank 
  Association (FBA) has a local office near the ECSE. Like sev-
  eral other financial institutions, they followed the ECSE and 
  took the wealth and prestige that their bank promises to a city 
  with them. Beyond their investments and ability to trade di-
  rectly within the exchange, the FBA offers banking services to 
  corporations lacking their own internal structures. While the 
  megacorporations don’t need the FBA, all of them meet with 
  Janik Stueller when he requests. Janik, the regional vice-presi-
  dent, keeps very difficult hours as he needs to be available for 
  his home office in Frankfurt and still see important investors 
  in Manhattan.
  CHINATOWN 
  Chinatown has endured for over two hundred years, vir-
  tually unchanged save for some vertical expansion in the last 
  five years. Residents have worked tirelessly to prevent corpo-
  rate intrusion and made deals with Spinrad Industries to con-
  trol “revitalization”. The glossy coat of PR paint the MDC has 
  slathered on the rest of the City is evident only at ground level. 
  It is an excellent metaphor for the two faces of Chinatown. 
  Its public face is disarming—chintzy, overpriced knockoffs 
  peddled out of claustrophobic storefronts to tourists paying 
  for the authentic bartering experience. “Traditional” festivals 
  are celebrated regularly and loudly for the benefit of visitors.
  Chinatown’s true face, however, can be found in a vibrant 
  gray market run out of traditional apothecaries and seen in 
  deals conducted over Mah Jong and imported cigarettes. It is 
  this face that runners are typically interested in, particularly 
  those looking for unusual telesma or to conduct business with 
  the Triads. Navigating Chinatown’s winding warren of side-
  streets and sub-basements can be confusing, possibly danger-
  ous, for the uninitiated; but rewarding to those respectful 
  enough to inculcate themselves with Chinatown’s tradition 
  minded denizens. 
  > Chinatown is home to one of my favorite exotic foods markets. 
  Staggering selection if you know what to talk to.
  > Hannibelle 
  > The MDC legalized gambling in their territories quickly making 
  Chinatown the Macau of the East Coast. High roller red passes are a 
  common sight in upscale casinos and parlors. 
  > Traveler Jones
  The
  Towers
  Chinatown
  City
  Center
  Battery
  City
  
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  Manhattan
  23
  Lucky Star 99
  A combination teahouse and ethnic market, Lucky Star 99 
  is a great place to find all sorts of imports—not just edible ones. 
  The Large Circle Triad runs the place. If you need to make con-
  tact with them, this is where to start. Just keep in mind that they 
  also handle security for the establishment—there are always at 
  least a few enforcers sipping tea and watching the clientele. 
  BATTeRY CITY
  Battery City is primarily a residential community with 
  large multi-story apartments for fixed income and lower-
  middle class tenants and a small park. Battery City is a half 
  a square kilometer area located at the southern most tip of 
  Manhattan built with landfill centuries ago. From Battery 
  City to the southwest is a great view of the Statue of Liberty, 
  Ellis Island, and Governor Island.
  > It isn’t the nicest place in the world, but at least it isn’t the Pit. Its 
  home to the poor or low-income wageslaves that for some, sacrificed 
  luxury for security clearance. From Battery City, you can get some 
  great surveillance of Governors Island/Port Authority complex. 
  > Pistons
  This area is commonly used by the megacorporations to 
  house their cultural and blue-collar workers. With the variety 
  of talents and cultures crammed into such a small place, you 
  would expect rivalries to form quickly. Instead, the area has 
  grown close and many of the apartment buildings have their 
  own scheduled festivals independent from the corp-spon-
  sored events across the island.
  The Green Building
  The Green Building is basically a fifteen story green 
  house. It was planned to make several of them to feed the 
  world, but the Crash and Quake destroyed the company who 
  would have made them. Each floor is a 60 square meter garden 
  with fiber optic lighting and either hydroponic or lightweight 
  soil for several crops.
  > It was abandoned by the corporation, but snatched up by the 
  nearby tenants. It’s been restored as a community farm, but since 
  it’s nice, the local gangs have been trying to muscle in on the real 
  foodstuff. If you’re into a non-soy reward, there’s security work 
  available at the Green Building.
  > Axis Mundi
  > A little explanation would go a long way on that.
  > Haze
  Castle Clinton
  Originally known as West Battery, to defend New York 
  against the British forces, Castle Clinton has been retired from 
  military use and designated a historical monument. It’s been an 
  aquarium, emigrant landing depot, opera house, and garden. 
  Currently, it’s a public building with no one specific use. 
  > Castle Clinton is a great place to meet, as you can see anyone 
  coming up on the Castle both from land and sea. Unfortunately, 
  you have abandoned tunnels connecting Battery Park to Bowling 
  Green. Your meet could be interrupted as smugglers come up from 
  the Bay.
  > 2XL
  THe uNDeRGROuND
  No tour of Manhattan would be complete without men-
  tioning the Underground. A maze of tunnels, flooded subway 
  lines and the remnants of buildings from the Quake form the 
  Underground and shelter a community of squatters. The Rat 
  Pack, a small initiation group, are believed to be the control-
  ling influence below the streets. Despite the direct control 
  that MDC espouses the group as having, the Rat Pack is one 
  of several outfits that have staked out their own piece of land, 
  helping only where it’s needed. 
  NYPD, Inc. and several of the corporate security teams 
  make regular forays into the Underground to setup security 
  systems to track the squatters and laser tripwires to alert the 
  City if the squatters are coming topside. These security mea-
  sures are torn down almost as fast as they go up. Beyond the 
  active countermeasures, the squatter community runs mar-
  kets and bazaars where you can buy “rat on a stick” and other 
  delicacies or black market goods. These bazaars have formed 
  a tight knit community which spreads news about raids and 
  warns residents if people are looking for them.
  > Just because everyone sounds like a big happy community, don’t 
  be fooled. Small communities and strong men will settle on junc-
  tion points and charge tolls to move through their “territory.”
  > 2XL
  The community survives by smuggling items and people 
  in and out of Manhattan. Depending on how much you are 
  willing to pay, the trips vary from speedboats across the bay 
  and swimming through flooded tunnels to riding in the back 
  of a garbage truck across the bridge. The connections between 
  the Underground and the surface are closely watched and the 
  squatters look out for their own. If you are running hard from 
  NYPD, Inc. and drop into the Underground, be prepared to 
  be pushed back onto the surface if the cops are too close.
  Night Markets
  Night markets are conducted by guerilla street vendors 
  and coordinated via commlink and word of mouth. When the 
  signal is passed, these vendors rush to the surface into a desig-
  nated alley and assemble their stalls in seconds. Vendors hawk 
  all manner of wares and services, from traditional snack foods 
  to commlinks with forged pass upgrades. Lookouts are posted 
  at key intersections and use simple coded comm sequences to 
  alert vendors if the police are en route. Once alerted, the stalls 
  are broken down in seconds and the vendors simply fade into 
  the night. 
  > The Night Markets are often visited by the teenage children of 
  wageslaves. NYPD, Inc. cracks down on the markets whenever they 
  are found, but the kids get off with a slap on the wrist. Now NYPD, 
  Inc. is trying to infiltrate the Underground to find out how the 
  Markets are coordinated.
  > DangerSensei
  
  The Rotten Apple
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  24
  THe MANHATTAN DeVeLOPMeNT 
  CONSORTIuM
  The MDC was founded to coordinate construction, share 
  governance, and maintain extraterritoriality of Manhattan 
  between the leading corporations of the City. These corpora-
  tions attempt to maintain complete control over very nearly 
  every activity in Manhattan. While the membership does 
  change, the following are believed to be the current members.
  AReS MACROTeCHNOLOGY
  Ares maintains their Manhattan presence largely to stay 
  well informed of the activities at the earthbound Corporate 
  Court headquarters. Rather than coordinating through their 
  global divisions, the megacorp has an independent division, 
  Ares Manhattan, for this purpose. Housed in Midtown at 
  the spire-like Condatis Tower, Ares Manhattan oversees busi-
  ness with MDC and New York City as a whole. Its director, 
  Dominique Vittoria, is an energetic and shrewd business-
  woman who works closely with MDC and City leadership.
  > If by “works closely” you mean “coldly manipulates,” then you’ve 
  got it. Vittoria wants everything, and she’s willing to use negotia-
  tion, threats, violence, intrigue, or anything else that occurs to her 
  to get it.
  > Axis Mundi
  Ares Manhattan is 
  the major supplier for 
  the City’s transportation 
  infrastructure. Some 65% 
  of the vehicles you can see 
  on the streets of greater 
  New York were manufac-
  tured by an Ares subsid-
  iary. In Manhattan, that 
  number rises to nearly 
  80%. Ares also handles 
  the subways, trains, and 
  other public transportation for all of the counties. 
  The corp is also the source of most of the security 
  equipment in the region and almost all of it in the City of 
  Manhattan proper. Even other MDC member corporations 
  find it cheaper to buy from Ares than to import their own 
  armaments and ordinance. NYPD, Inc. is unequivocally Ares 
  Manhattan’s best customer. 
  > Vittoria wants to put NYPD, Inc. out of business. She believes 
  that Knight Errant should be running security in Manhattan, rather 
  than just the Condatis Tower. She’s willing to sacrifice anyone and 
  anything to make that happen.
  > Axis Mundi
  > That’s two comments on Vittoria in the same section. Have you 
  got something against Ares Manhattan? Most people that work 
  with the division and Vittoria find her reasonable and willing to ne-
  gotiate arrangements that are satisfactory to both sides. Rumors 
  that she is a successful psychopath are, at best, unsubstantiated.
  > Snopes
  Ares Global Entertainment (AGE) uses Manhattan as 
  their North American headquarters and controls the top five 
  floors of the so called “subsidiary tower.” AresSpace maintains 
  their own three levels with scientists and lawyers rubbing 
  shoulders as they coordinate satellite launches and attempt 
  to write a new system of laws for interplanetary research and 
  property. Several of the services subsidiaries divide up the 
  other twenty floors. These range from Victory Sportswear and 
  Info-Santé administrative clusters to the harbor management 
  division of Ares Aquatics.
  Ares and its subdivisions is a prominent part of the 
  Manhattan community. It is the number one supporter of fine 
  arts and education programs throughout the City. It sponsors 
  clean-up drives and neighborhood watch organizations in a 
  number of neighborhoods, as well as soup kitchens and free 
  clinics to those who live in Terminal and other less fortunate 
  areas. It runs a work release program for inmates of NYPD, 
  Inc.’s Roosevelt Island prisons.
  AZTeCHNOLOGY
  Most Manhattanites 
  don’t know how much 
  they owe the Big A for the 
  look of their City. After 
  the Quake, Aztechnology 
  poured 
  reconstruction 
  capital into the City, but 
  they also snagged an over-
  all architectural contract. 
  Aztechnology 
  did 
  for 
  Manhattan what they did 
  for Technotitlan—it gave the City a unified look based on its 
  glory days. That’s why so many of Manhattan’s buildings are 
  Modernist and Futurist in design, recalling to the City’s glory 
  days of the 1920s. A new construction boom, spurred by the 
  return of the ECSE to Manhattan, has continued to involve 
  Aztechnology into the design of the City. The new generation 
  of builders seems to care less about Manhattan’s unified look, 
  and more about hiring pricy Aztechnology design consultants 
  for every project. However, Aztechnology is not one to shy 
  away from “reminding” developers about the importance of 
  New York’s look.
  Aside for that bit of history, Aztechnology is heavily in-
  vested in the City. The megacorporation dominates the City’s 
  lucrative retail business. From massive multi-story arko-malls 
  to small ultra-expensive designer boutiques, Aztechnology 
  controls the entire vertical. They harvest the materials needed 
  for fabrication, make the goods, from cheap consumer elec-
  tronics to trendsetting designer clothing, advertise the prod-
  ucts with highly effective marketing campaigns and distrib-
  ute them in their stores, all under an astounding number of 
  brands and names. 
  The Big A uses New York as a launching pad for many 
  of its new products. Marketing is, on one hand, cleverly de-
  signed to cater to the ego of New Yorkers by making them feel 
  like trendsetters, and on the other hand, the rest of the UCAS 
  
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  Manhattan
  25
  is fed the idea that any product adopted by New Yorkers is a 
  product worth consuming.
  > Genetique, the Azzie biosculptor, offers exclusive access to the 
  City for new products thirty days before being released publicly. 
  Several of the corporate managers use these services to make sure 
  that they have the latest and greatest rejuvenation.
  > Kat o’Nine Tales
  Aztechnology’s Manhattan offices are staffed by the best 
  employees from the East Coast. It is seen as a privilege to be 
  promoted to Manhattan. And indeed, Aztechnology offers 
  its workers the best private schools for their children, the 
  best housing units, the best nightlife passes, etc. Of course, 
  Aztechnology has passed mastery of creating wage slaves. 
  Most employees soon discover their “temporary’ assignment 
  to New York becomes a permanent one once they realize the 
  Manhattan lifestyle they have become addicted to has also in-
  dentured them to the corporation.
  Aztechnology takes advantage of every aspect of the New 
  York work force. They staff their cutting edge biotech labora-
  tories will highly educated personnel and fill their sweat shop 
  assembly plants in Jersey with desperate locals. Aztechnology 
  is a huge part of the Rotten Apple’s everyday life, and in turn 
  products designed and manufactured here find themselves in 
  stores all over the East Coast. The New York area is the hub 
  of Aztechnology’s East Coast production, with goods being 
  shipped out by land, sea, and air to the rest of the region.
  > Aztechnology long ago ran the math on the profitability of end-
  less SINless quasi-slave labor versus maintenance-heavy mecha-
  nized assembly plants. Go out to Jersey and see what I mean. 
  Makes those concentration camps from last century look like 
  garden parties.
  > Sunshine
  > The Azzies have learned how to make the astral space, tainted by 
  despair and loss, work for them. 
  > Axis Mundi
  The megacorp handles its MDC relationships with ex-
  traordinary care. Its representatives are known to talk circles 
  around proposals and commitments for hours. But this is a 
  tactic, not indecision. Aztechnology plays like someone with 
  all the time in the world, tiring opponents until they make 
  mistakes, and then they pounce in for the kill, having made 
  secret backroom deals with other members in the meantime. 
  More than one “sure bet” proposal submitted by a member 
  was utterly crushed at the last minute during voting by 
  Aztechnology backroom politics, leaving the  submitting cor-
  poration clueless as to what the fuck just happened.
  > This is exactly what happened with Horizon’s bid to integrate the 
  MeFeeds with their P2.0 network. Horizon is still trying to figure 
  out what happened.
  > Dr. Spin
  CITIGROuP
  At the turn of the century, Citigroup was the world’s larg-
  est bank and it was based in Manhattan. When the Quake hit, 
  it nearly brought the financial giant down with it. As its in-
  surance divisions and subsidiaries went bankrupt one after the 
  other, a chain reaction grew that nearly took down the entire 
  corporation. However, at that time, Citi made a major gamble 
  that paid off. They leveraged their overseas assets and poured 
  money into Manhattan, funding much of the reconstruction. 
  This decision was not made unanimously by the board—in-
  ternal strife and splintering wracked the corporation from 
  the inside. Fortunately, Leon Dexter, Citigroup’s strong and 
  visionary CEO of the time, held everything together.
  > Strife exists to this day within the board. It may seem like a bril-
  liant and successful move now, but Dexter’s plan came at the cost 
  of many shareholders’ dissent and board member’s alienation. 
  Factions within the corporation still disagree with the direction Citi 
  is taking and actively try to steer it elsewhere
  > Mr. Bonds
  For years, Citi was a shade 
  of its former glory, but the 
  corporation’s fortunes rose as 
  Manhattan’s own did. Today, 
  Citi is climbing its way back to 
  the top. It is currently North-
  America’s largest bank, with 
  the rest of its international 
  subsidiaries not far behind. 
  Following the momentum it 
  built buying up Manhattan 
  real-estate, the corporation 
  continued to buy land and 
  property everywhere it could. 
  Citigroup now owns more real estate, in New York and in the 
  rest of the world than any other corporation. It dominates 
  the personal banking business in the UCAS. Chances are, if 
  you live in New York, your banking needs are handled by a 
  Citigroup subsidiary. 
  Citigroup also serves the banking needs of other corpo-
  rations. The investments they poured into New York corpo-
  rations trying to rebuild themselves after the Quake reaped 
  massive profits for Citi, which it continued to invest in other 
  corporations. Citigroup specializes in financing promising 
  start-ups and medium sized companies looking to make the 
  jump to an A rating. Citigroup thus owns stock in many cor-
  porations in all sectors of activity. Perhaps more so than any 
  other corporation with the possible exception of SK Prime, 
  Citigroup employs a veritable army of shadowrunners, spies 
  and troubleshooters to maintain control of the growth of 
  their investments.
  > Let’s not forget about Citi Private Banking, the division that ex-
  clusively handles extremely rich bastards’ personal wealth. Citi 
  Private Banking is very secretive, but it has a reputation for making 
  
  The Rotten Apple
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  26
  the rich more rich. And in the shadows, it has a reputation for an 
  insatiable appetite for shadowrunners. Citi’s clients, oh-so-sur-
  prisingly, do not like to play by the rules when it comes to knowing 
  where to invest.
  > Mr. Bonds
  Like other global banking firms such as the Frankfurt 
  Bank Association, Citigroup globally maintains offices near 
  each of the major exchanges. Several of their subsidiaries are 
  insurance and brokerage firms, rebuilt from the bankrupted 
  husks of the post-Quake era. These brokerage firms buy and 
  trade stocks amongst themselves allowing a shell-game to be 
  played with investments and capital. Beyond money launder-
  ing, Citigroup is also capable of influence peddling by creating 
  and breaking voting blocks within small corporations.
  Citigroup also has a nasty reputation as unapologetic 
  short-sellers. In this day and age of shadowrunners, short-
  sellers often come under the scrutiny of the authorities, but so 
  far Citi investors have never been indicted of anything. This 
  has fueled rumors that Citi has ECSE regulators in its pock-
  ets, but it seems that Citi has few real friends there. Citigroup 
  behaves as if it is superior to the Stock Exchange—this is very 
  dangerous and is building towards a serious confrontation.
  These days, fat from the fruits of the growing returns on 
  their investments, Citigroup has begun aggressive acquisi-
  tions, poaching vulnerable subsidiaries of megacorporations 
  and even of other MDC members. The acquisitions have so far 
  been brilliantly conducted, prompting rumors that Citi is em-
  ploying powerful AIs to discover (or even engineer) weaknesses 
  and perform microsecond buyouts of companies. Whether or 
  not those rumors are true, Citigroup’s aggressive rise in power 
  has not gone unnoticed by the other members of the MDC.
  > These microsecond buyouts and the confrontational approach 
  that Citigroup has taken with the ECSE may be one of the sparks 
  behind Commissioner Jacobs’ new regulations.
  > Mr. Bonds
  HORIZON CORPORATION
  The megacorporate 
  world’s newest face is 
  also the newest member 
  of the MDC. One of 
  Horizon America’s larg-
  est complexes in the UCAS can be found in Midtown, where 
  they provide the funding for all sorts of creative endeavors: 
  from professional street performers to artist’s way adepts. It’s 
  even rumored that they’ve cozied up to an AI born out of an 
  event scheduling system for Times Square that fancies itself a 
  writer of musical theater. If the rumors prove true, next sum-
  mer’s The Sojourner Affair may be the first Broadway show to 
  be written by an AI.
  > They’re more than rumors. She calls herself Prima Donna, though 
  I can’t speak to her artistic capabilities—I think she evolved from 
  a sim editing suite. You can find her in Times Square, if you know 
  what node to look for.
  > Netcat
  It’s undeniable that the NYC MeFeeds provided the in-
  spiration for Horizon’s Persona 2.0 network. MeFeeds are less 
  popular in Manhattan than P2.0 is in L.A., but Horizon none-
  the-less quickly realized the data potential of the networks. 
  Their systems work night and day to analyze and identify 
  emerging trends among Manhattan’s populace learning where 
  we eat, sleep, work, and play. The atmosphere of Manhattan, 
  Inc. means that this data is often provided to other members 
  of the MDC through legitimate bureaucratic channels, but, 
  sometimes, that takes a little too long and this data is often a 
  target for rival shadowruns.
  > Horizon’s Matrix programming subsidiary, Singularity, has put to-
  gether some top-notch voice recognition systems allowing Horizon 
  to listen for keywords and phrases being spoken throughout 
  Manhattan. Watch what you say if you have a feed or if you’re chat-
  ting with someone who might.
  > Slamm-0!
  Aztechnology has been resisting Horizon’s efforts to muscle 
  in on businesses in Manhattan, importing their conflict from 
  southern California. Though the Azzies couldn’t keep them 
  out of the MDC, they’ve been able to defend against Horizon’s 
  attempts to become the premier entertainment and pharma-
  ceutical provider in NYC. It’s rumored that Aztechnology was 
  the vote that kept the MeFeeds a separate network from P2.0, 
  something Horizon was desperately seeking. 
  The tension between these two giants of the corporate 
  world has been providing a near limitless supply of shadow op-
  portunities. While Aztechnology is playing defense, Horizon 
  has been aggressively targeting Aztechnology businesses and 
  entertainment venues—including advertisements for the 
  same—in an effort to win a PR campaign aimed at smearing 
  Aztechnology and convincing the average person that the 
  Aztech brand is weaker than their own. 
  NeONeT
  Manhattan has NeoNET 
  to thank for their wireless 
  Matrix infrastructure. When 
  the Jormungand turned the 
  entire New York Matrix into 
  hot slag, they wasted no 
  time turning a digital waste-
  land into a pet project. With 
  Villiers’ reputation, NeoNET 
  met little resistance when 
  they began to expand their Wireless Matrix Initiative into 
  the area to rebuild the City’s online presence. To this day, 
  NeoNET still enjoys a positive reputation among locals, a fact 
  they haven’t been shy about using to their advantage.
  > I think some of the local Neo-A’s would beg to differ on this. They 
  largely viewed NeoNET’s Matrix development as using a citywide 
  crisis in order to spread an even more pervasive and corrupting cor-
  porate influence on the denizens of New York. 
  > Cosmo
  
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  Manhattan
  27
  NeoNET has also become successful as a Matrix Service 
  Provider. They have a near monopoly on MSP market share 
  in the area, much of it created by buying up smaller providers 
  after they have built up a customer base and then consolidat-
  ing their users into their Synergy Matrix Services subsidiary. A 
  recent estimate of NeoNET’s market share puts them around 
  85 percent with the vast majority of that owned by Synergy. 
  The rest is divided among lesser known front companies. 
  NeoNET leaves the remaining 15 percent as a bone for the 
  dogs to fight over, leaving the other corps and independents in 
  a bloody digital turf war.
  > Word around the online campfire is that Renraku has been doing 
  a marvelous job of getting more of that last fifteen percent than 
  NeoNET is comfortable with. It wouldn’t surprise me if some well-
  paying hacker jobs start hitting the streets soon as a result of 
  these tensions.
  > Cosmo 
  Beyond their role as MSP, NeoNET has offices for their 
  subsidiaries in Manhattan and markets customized cybersuites 
  to “the most competitive corporate environment on earth.” 
  Transys Neuronet and Erika Systems are both working in 
  the wings, along with KorSys Operations. Though the major 
  stockholders all agree that control of the MSP is important to 
  their position in Manhattan, all three of them carry on their 
  shadow war along the East Coast and throughout the City.
  > Despite the belief that KorSys is nothing but a pet project of 
  Celedyr to shield his Knights of Rage, there isn’t any hard proof 
  that the dragon is involved. KorSys deals with mesh design and has 
  nothing to do with R&D.
  > Dr. Spin
  > C’mon doc, when was the last time a dragon took the straight 
  and narrow path?
  > Frosty
  NYPD, INCORPORATeD
  While the letters in this corporation’s name are not of-
  ficially an abbreviation, NYPD, Inc. still values the reputation 
  of the organization from which it was born when the New 
  York City Police Department was privatized in 2050. The 
  corp now provides security and law enforcement services to 
  Manhattan and parts of New York and Jersey City, supple-
  menting Lone Star forces in those areas.
  > NYPD, Inc. is surprisingly easy to work with. Usually, shared ju-
  risdiction is just asking for a power struggle between security ser-
  vice providers, but most of the time the boys in black are polite and 
  evenhanded.
  > Hard Exit
  
  The Rotten Apple
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  28
  The company is unique 
  among the MDC corpora-
  tions in that it has no physi-
  cal central headquarters. 
  The company is housed in 
  over a hundred different 
  buildings around Manhattan 
  and New York City. Its main 
  headquarters is entirely in the 
  Matrix, in a node sculpted as a 
  grand building in the shape of an 
  NYPD, Inc. badge logo. Most of the 
  administrative personnel telecommute.
  NYPD, Inc. employees maintain 
  a friendly and outgoing demeanor. The company’s mission 
  statement includes the phrase, “enforce the laws, keep the 
  peace, reduce fear, and create a safe environment.” Employees, 
  all along the chain of command, work to keep themselves 
  worthy of the title, New York’s Finest.
  > This is only true if you’re a salaryman, a wage slave, or have 
  plenty of money. Remember the incident at Terminal Gate 17? Or 
  the “arrest” of Shanta Geoly? Or the Midtown Tunnel Massacre? 
  No? Do a quick Matrix search, but I bet you’ll only find references to 
  open investigations. Dig deeper, and you’ll find NYPD, Inc. enforcing 
  laws, keeping peace, reducing fear, and creating a safe environment 
  for the privileged. Busting the heads of everybody else—that’s the 
  NYPD, Inc. the rest of us know.
  > Slamm-0!
  > Slamm-0!, that’s because “everybody else” is trespassing. NYPD, 
  Inc. isn’t there to support UCAS laws, they uphold the MDC laws 
  because everything is extraterritorial. It ain’t right, it just is.
  > Sticks
  NYPD, Inc. has only recently begun to branch out from 
  New York City. Aside from its Jersey City contracts, it has 
  begun to provide security services to areas of London, Hong 
  Kong, Neo-Tokyo, Dubai, and Cape Town. Its recent hiring 
  campaign is probably tied to rumors of subcontracts from 
  Knight Errant.
  PROMeTHeuS eNGINeeRING
  Manhattan’s 
  Westside 
  is the home of the double-
  helix global headquarters for 
  Prometheus Engineering. With 
  a primary focus on material 
  engineering, the corporation 
  has subcontracted on nearly 
  every large-scale project in 
  Manhattan. The buildings may 
  be covered with AAA logos 
  and branding, but the advanced 
  polymers and materials used 
  to create each of them is the 
  product of Prometheus engi-
  neers. Due to their lack of public branding, the corporation 
  has been working hard over the last decade to become a house-
  hold name throughout the UCAS. The primary development 
  which they have self-branded is the nascent arcology beneath 
  Grand Central.
  > Grand Central is on one of the shearing lines for seismic activity. 
  Prometheus is the best suited to develop materials to handle those 
  stresses, but God help them if they screw up.
  > Plan 9
  Prometheus saw a huge number of gains as they contract-
  ed the reconstruction and development of half of Manhattan. 
  They are constantly building and redesigning existing structures 
  to outdo last year’s marvel. Whether it’s height and ingenuity 
  or functional design and energy conservation, their skyrak-
  ers continue to impress and amaze. In the last four years, they 
  have also built several new towers in the Boroughs. With those 
  towers being better and nicer than ones inside Manhattan, 
  Prometheus was hired to renovate and redesign key buildings 
  in the City. Each new project heralds innovative techniques 
  and has caused the company to come up with new materials.
  > Prometheus isn’t working alone. There have been a dozen or more 
  special trips to work with the Genesis Consortium. The SouthAms 
  have been developing biotech materials and Prometheus has 
  worked side by side to develop stronger and faster ways to “grow” 
  houses and towers.
  > Marcos
  Beyond their materials studies, Prometheus has expand-
  ed their small line of drones to include several micro-drones. 
  They have made several recent advances in the cybernetics and 
  telemechanics fields. Several virologists and microbiologists 
  have joined the research think-tank to support their cross-
  discipline approach to new technologies. Within the shad-
  ows, the laboratories inside their corporate headquarters have 
  been targeted for numerous extractions. The structure of the 
  building lends itself well towards layered security, with the 
  outer ring serving as administrative offices and the core being 
  research labs.
  > Last year, Prometheus contracted several matrix jobs to collect 
  e-ghosts and developing AIs. With their continued research into 
  smart nanites, it’s not that far of a leap for them to investigate 
  programs which have developed self-awareness.
  > Netcat
  > Beyond AIs, there is current research into nanite behavioral pro-
  cesses. Nanites lack the processing power to respond with human 
  intelligence, but learning appears feasible.
  > Plan 9
  Corporate analysts currently project Prometheus 
  Engineering as one of the most stable members of the MDC 
  outside of the AAAs. Since taking a seat on the council, the 
  smaller corporation has routinely been part of the majority-
  voting bloc, siding with their contractual partners. Their ten-
  dency to side with the hand that feeds them is not an inviola-
  ble rule, and the smaller corporation has held the line against 
  Ares and Saeder-Krupp in the past. 
  P
  r
  o
  m
  e
  t
  h
  e
  u
  s
  Engineering
  
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  Manhattan
  29
  ReNRAKu COMPuTeR SYSTeMS
  Recently, Renraku has been swim-
  ming in nuyen from providing 
  Matrix security solutions for 
  New York area businesses and 
  even some lower-ranked cor-
  porations operating within 
  Manhattan. Following some 
  meticulous “talent acquisi-
  tion,” their software R&D de-
  partments have been working 
  overtime developing smarter IC, 
  “hack-proof ” firewalls, and security 
  protocols guaranteed to keep out undesired online intrud-
  ers. They’ve made promises to help their customers take back 
  Manhattan’s Matrix grid and protect it from the online van-
  dals and saboteurs who brought it down back in ’64.
  > Yeah, I’ve seen the AR spam ads promoting their latest lines of 
  software. They play up heavily on last year’s technomancer scare, 
  showing dramatizations of technos sleazing their way into your 
  home terminal, emptying your bank account, and erasing your SIN. 
  It’s quite an odious ad campaign, but from a marketing perspec-
  tive, quite effective. Makes you wonder if the products can deliver 
  what the hype promises.
  > Dr. Spin
  > I’ve heard that some of the aforementioned “talent acquisition” 
  includes technomancers—and that the technos are not willing em-
  ployees. I wouldn’t be surprised if things did get a little nastier—
  Renraku may be holding them on a short leash, but eventually the 
  corp will get bit. Hopefully sooner than later.
  > Netcat
  Renraku has also made no secret of the fact that they’ve 
  begun enlisting the aid of metasapient AIs for security and re-
  search purposes. Rumor has it that one in particular, named 
  Xerxes, is obsessively working on state of the art Matrix utili-
  ties for use by their in-house security teams. The sheer effec-
  tiveness of these programs has caused Renraku’s Matrix securi-
  ty market share in Manhattan to nearly double in the past six 
  months, though the numbers are now beginning to stabilize.
  > I think I took a hit online from a program created by this little 
  monster. The security hacker I bumped into was a novice, but his 
  utility hit like a bullet train. I got dumped before I was barely even 
  in.
  > Slamm-0!
  > SOTA’s a bitch, ain’t it?
  > FastJack
  Japanacorps are known for holding grudges, and Renraku 
  has never fully forgotten about NeoNET’s Matrix takeover of 
  the Corporate Court buildings in The Towers. Former Fuchi 
  execs still working in Renraku continue to use their positions 
  to harass NeoNET at every turn. Actions range from hostile 
  buyouts of NeoNET’s struggling subsidiaries to organizing 
  blocs of countervotes at MDC sessions. Beyond the grudge, 
  several of the Manhattan execs are pushing for the City to 
  become the North American operational headquarters. Their 
  successes against NeoNET have pushed the fight to the bor-
  oughs and even other sprawls. The aggressive operations have 
  been risky but successful.
  > They have learned to never stand begging for that which you 
  have the power to earn.
  > Picador
  Like the other megas in Manhattan, Renraku can’t afford 
  to only be one thing. Beyond their Matrix games, Renraku 
  is one of the leading suppliers of consumer electronics and 
  household drones. They also lease and maintain all of the 
  Sanitation Department drones that keep the streets clean.
  SAeDeR-KRuPP
  It shouldn’t be sur-
  prising that the largest 
  company on Earth has 
  quite a bit of business 
  in and around NYC. So 
  much in fact, it’s almost 
  easier to describe what 
  they aren’t involved in. 
  However, there are really two S-K’s at work in NYC, S-K 
  North America and S-K Prime.
  S-K North America
  Given their most lucrative businesses in NYC, it’s easy to 
  say that S-K is the foundation upon which the City is built. 
  To begin, Krupp Manufacturing provided and maintained 
  the heavy machinery which rebuilt the City. A function they 
  continue to serve today. AZT may have designed the City, but 
  Krupp put it together. 
  > S-K frequently sends maintenance and repair crews into various 
  buildings around the City. Keeping an eye out for opportune mo-
  ments can frequently give you an opening you might otherwise 
  have missed.
  > Mika
  > That is if the armed S-K crews don’t take offence to your rude 
  interruption.
  > Ma’Fan
  The raw materials which are so resistant to corrosion from 
  pollution were provided by Krupp Specialist Engineering. 
  Moreover, while NeoNET supplied the software and knowl-
  edge for the wireless Matrix, it was Orbital Dynamics who 
  provided the communications towers and orbital satellites 
  that make it all possible. 
  > I know a few execs who might argue their relative importance.
  > Mr. Bonds
  S-K North America also houses studios for the American 
  Broadcasting Service, an S-K media subsidiary, and corporate 
  
  The Rotten Apple
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  30
  offices for Saedder-Krupp’s finance departments. The mega-
  corp’s internal banking system carefully watches the market 
  and has nearly a hundred analysts and brokers in the ECSE, 
  both physically and virtually, manipulating the market to 
  their best interest.
  S-K Prime
  In the heart of the City, right across the street from the 
  Towers, is an unassuming little 10-story building that’s home 
  to S-K Prime. Like the rest of the division, this location deals 
  with problems. However, Manhattan S-K Prime deals with 
  problems in the Corporate Court. The Manhattan office 
  houses over a thousand lawyers and lobbyists, and a virtual 
  army of support staff. Their sole goal is to deal with the chal-
  lenges, rulings, and other legal minutiae which have the po-
  tential to affect Saeder-Krupp’s bottom line.
  > I call bullshit.
  > Kane
  > Not so much bullshit as a careful choice of words. For example, 
  that “army of support staff” contains some of the best fixers, 
  Johnsons and black-ops strike teams on the East Coast. Their goal 
  is to deal with that “minutiae” either by hiring outside help, or 
  when it’s more expedient to make the problem just go away, send-
  ing in the big guns. If you’re hired by S-K in NYC, chances are your 
  Johnson works here.
  > Kay St. Irregular
  > If she doesn’t, watch out for a double-cross.
  > Fianchetto
  SHIAWASe
  Shiawase’s most public 
  project in Manhattan is their 
  maintenance 
  contract 
  for 
  Central Park. Frankly, their 
  Envirotech division has done 
  a hell of a job of making sure 
  that the plants keep grow-
  ing and that Central Park 
  remains “safe.” Of course, 
  that’s also given them a monopoly on anything affiliated with 
  it. Signs bear the Shiawase logo, all of the vendors carry only 
  Shiawase produced souvenirs and foodstuffs, and even the 
  street entertainers pay Shiawase for a license. In spite of this 
  omnipresent monopoly, Manhattanites still enjoy Central 
  Park. That means Shiawase gets some fantastic marketing out 
  of the contract.
  > Shiawase Envirotech took on a number of other City contracts in 
  order to get that one. They also handle all of Manhattan’s waste 
  management, recycling, and air quality management. Of the three, 
  air quality’s their biggest problem. Their filtration system must be 
  doing something; it just doesn’t seem that air cleaning is one of 
  its designed functions. The waste management contract, though, 
  means that Shiawase trucks can drive throughout the City at all 
  hours virtually unchallenged.
  > Cosmo
  Shiawase Biotech operates several biotech clinics 
  in Manhattan. The most prominent of these is Shiawase 
  Bellevue Hospital in Stuyvesant. Their psychiatric depart-
  ment is the primary North American testing center for 
  Shiawase’s latest developments in psychotropic program-
  ming. Most of the patients being treated there are for typical 
  stress disorders and addictions, but a few of the psychiatrists 
  do contract and research work for NYPD, Inc.’s facilities on 
  Randall’s Island. Most of their other facilities are focused on 
  biosculpts, implants for corporate success, and sports medi-
  cine. In spite of that, while DocWagon handles Manhattan’s 
  emergency response, their patients universally go to hospitals 
  operated by Shiawase.
  Vector Matrix Services inherited most of Fuchi’s now 
  obsolete wired Matrix infrastructure way back when Fuchi 
  collapsed. Though VMS is now involved in providing Matrix 
  security for many smaller corps within Manhattan, they also 
  own thousands of miles of dark cable that remain strung 
  throughout Manhattan’s infrastructure. Some bits of this are 
  used by the Neo-A’s, some bits are still in use as backup sys-
  tems, but most of it remains in place deteriorating. 
  > Given a properly equipped microdrone, these cables are the per-
  fect way for smuggling data out of a “secure” facility without need-
  ing to use any wireless signals.
  > Glitch
  Arboritech, a fully owned subsidiary of Shiawase, holds 
  a contract from the MDC to develop new solutions to clean 
  up the pollution. They’ve been working on developing plants 
  which purge the harmful chemicals from the air and break-
  down the complex pollutants. Some of these plants have 
  been spread throughout Central Park and the Boroughs of 
  Brooklyn and Queens to measure the success of the process. 
  Aboritech shares their offices with a consultant team from 
  Shiawase Energy, based in Washington DC. The energy com-
  pany is negotiating to take over management of the City’s 
  power and utilities infrastructure, though the current contract 
  does not expire until 2075.
  SONY CORPORATION
  Sony Corporation 
  behaves in the UCAS 
  the same as it behaves 
  back in Japan: a stable 
  baseline with all-or-nothing ventures. For Americans, Sony is 
  synonymous with consumer electronics products, along with 
  games and entertainment. That is the stable baseline men-
  tioned above. Sony uses advertising campaigns that ensure its 
  products are always in view of the consumers. From ads tele-
  vised on Sony ruthenium polymer screens and animated AR 
  popups to their hovering fleet of advertisement drone blimps, 
  the Sony brand is never far from the consumer’s mind.
  Sony Corporation has matched Neo-Tokyo’s growing 
  success here in the New York market in regards to one-meta-
  human-vehicles, but where Sony has innovated in NYC is the 
  growing success of its line of Humanoid Walker Household 
  
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  Manhattan
  31
  Drones, marketed under the name of Sony Personal Butler. 
  Sony Corporation America has been able to push the bound-
  aries of Sony’s trademark RSSComps near-AI software, as it 
  does not face the same market restrictions in regards to AI 
  fear as Neo-Tokyo. These Personal Butlers are very popu-
  lar with Manhattan’s and other cities’ overworked corporate 
  climbers, as the clever personality software allows the anthro-
  forms to act as surrogate friends and companions, as well as 
  helpers who never complain. 
  > Sad.
  > Dr. Spin
  > The research being done into AI programs, which are much closer 
  to real AI than in Japan, are risky for Sony’s image. The corp’s posi-
  tion has been to purposefully avoid true AI research. Sony doesn’t 
  need its brat American division to screw that up for them. I expect 
  to see a contingent of Japanese envoys come “talk” to the American 
  leadership soon.
  > Kia
  Otherwise, Sony’s consumer electronics crowd stores 
  throughout the UCAS and the brand is seen as both depend-
  able and above-average by consumers, while their entertain-
  ment offerings generally enjoy high ratings. Sony Music talent 
  scouts are known to be able to pick out the next big pop star, 
  though they generally overlook and lose smaller, edgier bands 
  to companies like Horizon or Ares. Sony can rarely match its 
  Triple A rivals’ budget, but it makes up lost ground in nim-
  bleness. Executives, be it for new electronic products or new 
  movies, are encouraged to act quickly and decisively, resulting 
  in short time-to-market development cycles – as well as the 
  occasional product dud.
  Sony has been on the MDC’s board for some time, though 
  not without hiccups. The corporation is often bold in its politi-
  cal maneuvering, and that has cost it dearly a few times, though 
  it has also paid off handsomely on some occasions. The con-
  sumer electronics market is a crowded field, and Sony must 
  constantly work to maintain its share. The corporation has 
  built an extensive network of shadow resources, allowing it to 
  often resort to extracting competitor’s talents and stealing or 
  sabotaging rival projects. Many within the boardroom feel the 
  direction the corporation is taking is dangerous and is leading 
  to a no-confidence vote from the MDC, but so far this internal 
  division has not resulted in a change in direction.
  SPINRAD INDuSTRIeS
  SpIn’s best known for their cut-
  ting edge augmentations and their 
  flamboyant owner, Johnny Spinrad. 
  There are Spin Shops present through-
  out all five boroughs of New York. 
  These cater primarily in high-end 
  cyber, especially the Spin-X line of suites that are designed for 
  extreme lifestyles. Of course, they’re also willing to custom 
  design suites for clients—at boutique pricing.
  > At Spin Shops, you get what you pay for. They do offer a lot of 
  ‘ware that’s little more than flash—it’s what keeps them in busi-
  ness. However, if you pay for custom integration and tip your bio-
  mechanical engineer, you can get world-class work. Many of their 
  managers are also willing to turn a blind eye on matters of permits 
  and legality.
  > Butch
  > The Large Circle League Triad provides many of their less legal 
  components. It’s a business relationship—the triad smuggles the 
  equipment into Manhattan and SpIn pays for it through installation 
  surgeries for triad members. 
  > Ma’fan
  Johnny is rarely in New York, these days. In spite of that, 
  he still stays in the public eye. In addition to his regular ap-
  pearances in the tabloids, Johnny remains the poster child 
  for the corp’s advertising campaigns—even though most of 
  that work has been contracted out to Charisma Associates. 
  With the success of the Soroyama line and a few other cyber-
  suites, Spinrad has seen the influx of capital that he needed 
  to revitalize his corporation. SpIn’s advertising campaign has 
  been focusing heavily on the North American market with 
  Manhattan serving as the beachhead to dive full bore into the 
  UCAS and elsewhere. 
  Building on the charisma of its founder, Spinrad 
  Industries sells machismo, sex, and success in a tightly woven 
  package.  Through custom tailored products and strategic al-
  liances, SpIn produces and markets cyber and bioware meet-
  ing the exact specifications and needs of their clients. The 
  wageslaves have been buying the illusion of being part of the 
  Grand Tour up as fast as it can be produced. That illusion plus 
  the proven success in Manhattan is creating a demand along 
  the East Coast and throughout the UCAS.
  Spinrad Industries maintains a cyberware testing and 
  design facility on Staten Island, where the majority of their 
  employees are extractees from other research facilities based 
  in Manhattan. This is tolerated, primarily, because SpIn makes 
  a point of providing a “Yes” vote on almost every issue that 
  comes up with the MDC. They’ve also developed close con-
  tractual relationships with Ares, Horizon, NYPD, Inc., and 
  Prometheus, which have helped to secure their place in the 
  MDC. While they aren’t exactly stable, the corp has done a 
  masterful job of balancing the politics involved to hold onto 
  the seat through several challenges.
  > SpIn no longer maintains their constant harassment policy to-
  wards S-K. It remains uncertain whether this is a ruse or a long-
  term change in their business practices.
  > Cosmo
  
  The Rotten Apple
  Manhattan. . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  32
  TRANS-ORBITAL
  Trans-Orbital has long 
  been a fixture on the MDC 
  board. While its claim to 
  fame in Manhattan is the 
  aerospace technology that 
  permits the City to seed 
  the clouds for that famous 
  nightly rain, the corpora-
  tion has many more inter-
  ests in and around Manhattan. During the Matrix 2.0 wireless 
  upgrading of the City, Trans-Orbital managed to corner nu-
  merous contracts for satellite uplink connectivity integration 
  from many of the corporate towers of the City.
  > Satellite uplinks cause real lag on your connection, but if you can 
  stand the performance hit, hacking through a sat can ensure you 
  don’t jack out just to find a corp hit team at your doorstep.
  > Glitch
  > New York’s enterprising hackers maintain numerous backdoors to 
  corporate sat uplinks. A lot of these corps maintain uplinks just-
  in-case, and don’t really pay attention to who uses them. Just re-
  member, don’t plan a hack into Trans-Orbital systems using Trans-
  Orbital satellites, kids. 
  > Slamm-0!
  The corporation has made a killing servicing and up-
  grading government and corporate satellite fleets, especially 
  since the scare with an AI taking over a military satellite. 
  Organizations are scrambling to upgrade the firmware of their 
  satellites to strengthen them against AI invaders. Rumors 
  are Trans-Orbital has forged alliances with some big corpo-
  rations of the likes of Renraku and NeoNET to develop AI-
  specific countermeasures. In any case, they have snagged some 
  very lucrative contracts from intelligence organizations away 
  from AresSpace. Not enough to hurt the bigger corporation, 
  but enough to get a few warning shadow ops aimed at Trans-
  Orbital assets.
  Megacorporations aren’t the only ones that Trans-Orbital 
  is selling to. As the space race takes off, dozens of A and AA 
  corps are trying to get their feet wedged in the door. With 
  many of these corporations in New York, the Manhattan sales 
  team has mobilized in force to make business to business the 
  primary profit center. Sales managers and account executives 
  have been busy selling satellites, air space, and finding new 
  partners who haven’t yet launched a million nuyen of silicon 
  and steel into space.
  Trans-Orbital maintains its headquarters in the City as 
  well as a smattering of other buildings, mostly used to moni-
  tor its impressive fleet of satellites. The corporation also does 
  a lot of its research here in Manhattan, in an ominous look-
  ing jet black building in Washington Heights. While security 
  around R&D facilities is always tight, it is said that measures 
  in that building go well above what would normally be ex-
  pected, fuelling many rumors about secret projects ranging 
  from black ops spy sat monitoring to extra-terrestrial intelli-
  gence communication programs.
  > “Extra-terrestrial intelligence communication program”? You 
  gotta be kidding me.
  > Snopes
  > Some of the rumors are pretty out-there, but the security is real. 
  > DangerSensei
  Trans-Orbital maintains its Manhattan Development 
  Consortium seat the same way it maintains its business—by 
  acting as a partner and facilitator to other, larger, corpora-
  tions. Trans-Orbital has had a very useful seat on the MDC 
  for many years, and they plan to keep it that way. Their repre-
  sentatives are quick to attach themselves and back proposals 
  from members in favors and even quicker to abandon sinking 
  ships. Their mercenary attitude and double-dealing always 
  angers someone, but shrewdly, they always seem to be aligned 
  with the faction-of-the-day that calls the shots. That Trans-
  Orbital has never had a vote of no-confidence brought up 
  against it in all its years of being on the MDC is a testament to 
  their political savvy.
  TRANS
  ORBITAL
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Shadowrun [multi]/Manhattan.pdf