Redmond

Oh boy. Take a deep deep breath omae. Smell that? It’s desperation. It’s violence. It’s crime and hard life and gang wars. It’s Redmond, chummer. Welcome to the Barrens. The nicest place you’ll find here is Touristville, where corp brats can pretend to live in the streets for a night and be seen as a tough for their friends. But it’s still as I mention above got a government, and that government still fights to try and improve this hellhole. We’re gonna talk about the crime scene, and I’ll even avoid the joke of “Crime? Yes” that comes to mind for Redmond

If you’ve never lived in Redmond, you don’t know Redmond. Wageslaves on day trips or rich thrill-seekers on weekend benders can never know what it’s like here. Neither can runners who happen to have a safehouse here just to lay low for a while. Yeah, they see the same drek. They smell the same filth. The difference is, they get to leave. For those of us born into it and don’t know anything else, it’s not that easy to escape.

But sooner or later, every shadowrunner finds themselves in Redmond, where Seattle dreams come to die. Nothing thrives here. It’s infertile. Unproductive. Toxic. That’s why they call ’em Barrens. Once upon a time, Redmond was shiny. It was Seattle’s new tech district, full of innovators and their money. But now, Redmond is like a perverse dreamcatcher, capturing and distilling the nightmares of the entire Seattle sprawl. After the tech crash of ’29, Redmond lost everything. Eighty percent of its industry tanked overnight, along with its government. Everyone with means bolted. With no authorities to stop them, those who were left behind turned to rioting, looting, and every other form of lawlessness. Metahuman nature, chummers. The abandoned businesses and homes were irresistible to the addicted, destitute, and criminal from all over the sprawl, so while the rest of Seattle was getting cleaned up, Redmond was collecting society’s detritus.

Even the “safe” areas of Redmond are more socially diseased than the worst parts of Seattle proper. Redmond is broken up into fiefdoms, separated by wastelands of decaying technology. Tribes of gangs, acting like warlords, each control their own slice of hell. What used to be high-density areas became the most sought-after real estate. The corp buildings and assets that remain are fortified with strong walls and heavy artillery. Most of the time, mercs or local gangers play security. Utilities like water, trash, sewage, and electricity don’t function; anyone with those luxuries has jury-rigged their place to get them.

> The Matrix used to be nearly impossible to access in Redmond, but the new Matrix infrastructure has improved things a bit. Describing it as “spotty” is still generous, though.
> Slamm-0!

> You said it. The astral in the Barrens is fragged up pretty bad, too. Unless you have been raised there, slinging spells feels like swimming in jelly.
> Lyran

Astonishingly, Redmond has a government. Sonya Scholl is the mayor of Redmond. She’s usually fighting with the corps here, but she’s managed to choose her battles wisely. And she’s won some (it helps that the corps don’t care enough about Redmond to put their full heart into the fight). Unfortunately, no amount of winning can make any real difference here.

> Sounds downbeat, but it’s accurate. If the Barrens gets anything—a new business that’s making money, a runner that made a big score—the first thought is to get out. In Redmond, success is defined by leaving.
> Haze

> Nothing gold can stay.
> Man-of-Many-Names

Hope is the rarest thing in Redmond, and that’s good, because hope gets you killed. Makes you think about tomorrow. Distracts you from surviving right now. And that’s all that’s left in the Barrens—survival.

Type

District

Location under

Seattle Metroplex

Included Locations

• Bargain Basement
• Camp Faith
• Camp Hope
• Crusher 495
• Downfall
• Glow City
• Seattle Metroplex Reformatory
• Shiawase Atomics Nuclear Plant
• Squatters’ Mall
• Stoker’s Coffin Motel
• The Body Mall
• The Court of the Crimson Queen
• The Jackal’s Lantern
• The Plastic Jungles
• The Rat's Nest
• The Skeleton
• The Verge
• Touristville