Greetings

[dread...@gmail.com]

So, for now, I've uploaded my file on Tampa. Hopefully Paul will get
some of his up as well, and we can use this as a central place to
store all files.

[Serio...@gmail.com]

Indeed. I'll start uploading stuff later this week. Spent the weekend
camping, and I am exhausted after battling a bottle of Jack Daniels
single handedly. Luckily I kept a stiff upper lip, and downed it like
a man!

[dennis.st...@gmail.com]

I just wanted to let everyone know that I made it here safely and in
one piece. I don't know if I'll be posting a whole hell of a lot,
since I really don't see the appeal of a Tampa location book (yet.)

[Cazmonster]

w00t!

Deevness!!

[Jeff Hauze]

 

It's the same appeal as any location information, basically. Except I think Tampa fucking rocks. ;)

 

Mostly, it's incredibly different from other settings (especially Seattle).

 

On to some of the details I'd like to discuss.

 

The difference in the underworld in Tampa provides a lot of the changes that really interest me in the locale. One, you've got a city that has a great deal of influence from one particular syndicate. This same syndicate takes on a bit more of a historical style than seen in most of the canon SR material. With the break up of the US, the shattering of national lines and economies, and just the general fucked over nature of North America...the underworld in North America has to see some major changes. The idea of a combined cross-national syndicate (as seen with the Mafia through much of the 20th century, up until about 1970/1980) has to come crashing down, and that has a big effect on how the Guidos play out in a given locale. The Commission isn't going anywhere, obviously. But the idea of alliances spanning the whole nation, jet-setting mobsters working on rackets in multiple cities, and nigh-impenetrable secret organizations quickly starts to fall apart in the 2070's. You have prisons and law enforcement handled by an extraterritorial corp that can remove the gloves and operate outside the law if necessary. You've got an extremely high level of surveillance in general society, and a global and instantly accessible information network. So, this is going to focus the Mob into loosely allied factions that are focused primarily on each individual city/region. This begins to take you back to the kind of setup the American Mafia faced prior to the rise of Luciano and his cohorts. Only this time, you don't have the rise of Prohibition to provide a quick upsurge of power for the Guidos.

 

How does this relate to Tampa? Look at Santo Trafficante (Sr, but particularly Jr). He's one of the mobsters that best exemplifies what Luciano's changes brought to the Mob. He organized rackets that spanned the nation and the Carribean. Along with folks like Meyer Lansky, Don Marcello of New Orleans, and Luciano; he worked heavily on making the French Connection and Golden Triangle narcotic trade easily accessible to North America. This group led a huge drive to bring money and rackets to Cuba and other Carribean nations, while also creating narcotic and gambling rackets that spanned much of the US (the birth of Las Vegas, the rise of the near statewide bolita rackets in many of the Southern states, the numbers and policy groups of New York/Boston/Philly/Jersey, etc.) But with the changes in SR, Tampa finds itself in a unique situation. This isn't the Tampa when Trafficante was at the height of his power. This isn't the Tampa that birthed a Mafia Don who may very well have been involved in the death of the US version of King Arthur and Camelot. This is the Tampa that is facing up to massive problems, and has been beat down. This city has held an entrenched Mob group that has been battered steadily lower over the intervening decades. So instead, you're looking at a city that is wide open for the rise of another Trafficante. You get to play around in a setting which may be facing the birth of a new leader in the underworld, the kind of leader that will lead to recreating the level of power seen in the "ancient" past. To me, that's part of the excitement and potential found in Tampa.

 

Now, start to toss in the influence of the South American cartels ("ghost" cartels my ass...) and the potential only increases. Tampa lends itself to the style of SR that I think a lot of this group prefers. Leave the Day-Glo mohawk punk rockers over in Seattle. Freaks are going to be freaks in this region of the world. You have a city that doesn't have the stigma of being the home of shadowrunner culture. None of the silly "Shadowrun" reality shows, "professional" criminals who couldn't even spell pro let alone professional, and a strong mix of organized crime that actually reflects the reality of OC in North American and not some kind of gamer geek pipe dream. Okay, so I'm biased. But I think I got some of the points across. Feel free to poke holes if you like.

[SeriousPaul]

Now add in that VITAS, and general mayhem has to have shifted the demographics, and we see a Tampa that is young, Hispanic and likely ork. Add in that Tampa sits on the edge of three separate international boundaries, and on the Gulf of Mexico-where an unofficial Naval war is almost certainly raging between the two regional powers-The CAS and Aztlan. Add in significant infrastructure investment in this area, and a close proximity to the equator which means space launch traffic is shipped through right next to stuffers, and other freight and we have an exciting city.

Add a dash of mysticism-Voodoo, the Bermuda Triangle (In some non suck ass fashion), and mix it with some Corporate controlled mojo and we start to see fireworks in every direction, at every level.

[Jeff Hauze]

This may be the area where our settings differ a bit, Paul. I'm not sure that I'm pushing the ork population surge quite as much as you are. Agreed heavily on the young and Hispanic angle though. Tampa is going to see a pretty major upswing in the black and Hispanic (particularly Cuban and Latin American) ethnic groups in the next few decades. The CAS/Aztlan war is something that will definitely be there, but I'll probably be focusing on it less.

 

This does raise some really interesting points though. Much of South Florida (and Tampa in particular, especially according to SoNA) has become a retirement/vacation spot for rich white Northerners. A number of those folks also end up becoming permanent residents. So if they start dying off in droves during VITAS, the two Matrix crashes, and all the rest of the chaos...I wonder if you've got a power structure in politics and the underworld that is largely a very young crowd. That's a big change of pace from how things exist in most cities currently.

 

[SeriousPaul]

On 7/30/07, Jeff Hauze <dread...@gmail.com> wrote:

This may be the area where our settings differ a bit, Paul. I'm not sure that I'm pushing the ork population surge quite as much as you are.

No worries. We each have our own agendas, and really this isn't a sticking point  for what we have planned or need from each other.

 The CAS/Aztlan war is something that will definitely be there, but I'll probably be focusing on it less.

I picture it as Berlin in the 50's and 60's,  a simmering Cold War that isn't as nice as the one we grew up in. Everyone has a reason to be in Tampa, not everyone has incentive to play nice.

This does raise some really interesting points though. Much of South Florida (and Tampa in particular, especially according to SoNA) has become a retirement/vacation spot for rich white Northerners.

I suspect the demographics for who is rich these days has to have shifted. I mean the death toll in sixth world is pretty staggering.

A number of those folks also end up becoming permanent residents. So if they start dying off in droves during VITAS, the two Matrix crashes, and all the rest of the chaos...I wonder if you've got a power structure in politics and the underworld that is largely a very young crowd. That's a big change of pace from how things exist in most cities currently.

I think it should be a change of pace, and in some points it could be fun to illustrate the differences between "Old" Tampa and "New" Tampa.