Welcome to Night City #8 – The Mainland
Morning, choombas! Or whatever time it is when you read/listen to this. I’m J Gray. I’m line manager for Cyberpunk RED over at R. Talsorian Games. And I’m writing a series of blog posts offering a preview of Night City 2045, our upcoming sourcebook for Cyberpunk RED. This is the eighth such blog post and the topic is a short tour of the Mainland and Southside and the associated districts. This runs on the same format as last week’s post (where we covered the Island and Northside) and offers bullet point information for each district, along with two randomly rolled locations. If you want the full score, you’ll need to buy the book when it releases.
Stick around to the end for a new art reveal!
Mainland
New Westbrook
City Manager: Belkis Abera. A classic “street corner to office corner” success story. Or so her official biography would have you believe.
Population: Most New Westbrook residents lost their legal identity due to the DataKrash or were born here without one. The fraction of the population with a System Identity Number tend to be corpzoners.
Security Provider: NCPD. Quick to put down riots (and large public gatherings in general). Spraying down the SINless with rubber bullets is a favorite pastime.
Recent History: Thirty-seven people died during the clean-up action to prep the ground for Megabuilding H6’s construction. Network 54 didn’t cover it, but indie Medias did.
Random Location #1: (22) ValueMart Village: A former big box store, cut up into cube rooms on the inside, with a tent city in the parking lot. They probably shouldn’t be running CHOOH2 generators inside, but they are.
Random Location #2: (11) Lincoln Lot: Used as a meeting place for day workers – willing bodies hoping someone with a truck and a job will come by and hire them for a few eb.
Charter Hill
City Manager: Symon Featherstonehaugh. A spreadsheet addict in suit and glasses, devoted to whoever last contributed to his “retirement fun.”
Population: The residents of Charter Hill dream of the day they can pay someone to pack up a moving truck and move into the Executive Zone. So close, yet so far away.
Security Provider: Militech. Common people rely on NCPD. The corpzoners of Charter Hill are a cut above … but not so far above that they can afford Lazarus.
Recent History: The Inquisitors have infested the district, recruiting teens who are rebelling against their “any implant to get ahead” parents by rejecting cyberware.
Random Location #1: (10) The Flow Megachurch. Prosperity gospel laser-targeted at low level Execs desperate to climb the corporate ladder and fill the cavernous void in their souls.
Random Location #2: (7) The Columbarium. In-ground burial is now illegal in Night City, so the Council built a collection of structures to inter the cremains of the dead. The Tombstone Preservers camp out nearby.
Executive Zone
City Manager: Doctor Karen Davies. Regional Director of Pol-Bud. Her rival, Doctor Heather Stein of Biotechnica, is seeking to sabotage Karen’s reign.
Population: Not just rich. The richest. This is the 1% of the 1% of Night City. Some servants sleep here, but they aren’t really residents.
Security Provider: Lazarus. Highly trained in security, threat assessment, and discretion.
Recent History: Rumor is the anti-Heather Stein faction of the HOA has hired Netrunners to hack the NET Architectures governing the care of the district’s RealgrassTM lawns.
Random Location #1: (Not on Map) Substations. There are substations for electricity, water, sewer, garbage collection, and CitiNet. Lazarus guards the substations but this is the closest thing to a gap in the Zone’s armor that exists.
Random Location #2: (9) Oasis (Exec Zone). Not at all like the Oasis you’d shop in elsewhere. It does sell Kibble and SCOP (the servants need to eat something!) but the majority of goods are luxury. Including fresh-cut flowers.
Heywood Docks
City Manager: Andrea Lee. Sister-in-law of Lynn Skiv aka the mafia boss-of-bosses.
Population: Most of the dock workers reside elsewhere. A few do live in the district, but not many.
Security Provider: SK Securities. Guards in crisp, clean blue uniforms pulled from the ranks of Night City’s criminal population.
Recent History: Last month a ship blew up while leaving the Docks. No one has claimed responsibility, but most suspect this was a warning message from the Thelas. They don’t like the city running a rival cargo loading/unloading destination.
Random Location #1: (1) The Cylinders. Everyone knows cargo containers can be converted into housing. Apparently, the same applies to old tanker trucks. The persistent cough of residents is probably a coincidence.
Random Location #2: (2) Decker, Tanaka & Rogers. Pre-4CW, the largest shipping concern in the world. Now, making a comeback.
North Heywood
City Manager: Barry “Big Deal” Delvecchio. The handshake of a politician and the charm of an XBD dealer. Barry knows how to keep his sponsors happy.
Population: The working stiffs of Night City. Low-grade corporate drones, junior Techs, and laborers working in the Docks and the Industrial Zone.
Security Provider: 6th Street. Their patrols often come with a side of “donation requests.”
Recent History: In the past year, there’s been a rise in gang attacks, mostly from the Inquisitors and Toecutters. 6th Street used the rise in violent crime as an excuse to push for a security contract.
Random Location #1: (2) AmeriCar Distribution Center. The neocorp’s Pacifica Confederation distribution center. Brand new and given every possible “incentive” by Big Deal Delvecchio. Heavily guarded.
Random Location #2: (12) Neon Hollow Strip. An ever-shifting mix of smoky clubs, back-alley casinos, and sex shops. Edgework Escapes, a virtuality arcade, is a mainstay.
Heywood Industrial Zone
City Manager: Theodore Walker. He came to the district to open an office supply factory, but failed. Somehow, he ended up City Manager instead.
Population: A few cargo container communities offer space for assembly line workers, Techs on short-term contract, and eccentric creative types who dig the industrial vibe.
Security Provider: NCPD. Thwarting a crime against an Industrial Zone corporate facility is a good way for beat cops to “graduate” to a better paying private job.
Recent History: Honestly, given the number of corporations present, it is a wonder the Industrial Zone hasn’t broken out into the 5th and 6th Corporate Wars. So far, the owners here think peace is more profitable than war.
Random Location #1: (19) Ziggurat Warehouses. Old buildings, surprisingly poorly guarded considering they hold the materials used to build and repair the backbone of Night City’s digital infrastructure.
Random Location #2: (1) Aldecaldo Depot. A place where Execs can do business with the Aldecaldos, saving them a trip to the camp one district over. There’s always a nomad rep here who can speak “corporate.”
Santo Domingo
City Manager: Theresa Valentino. Charismatic and utterly ruthless. Backed by El Norte Cartel. She won the election with a simple message: “A Santo Domingo for all people .. not just the nomads.”
Population: Nomads in the camp. The remaining residents are hard-working, resourceful, and practical. The majority flavor their Streetslang with more Spanish than English.
Security Provider: Aldecaldo Peacekeepers. Though Theresa won the election, the security contract currently remains with the nomad security force.
Recent History: Listen to members of the Cartel talk. They seem less and less interested in what their bosses in Central America want and more and more interested in what Theresa Valentino wants. Some locals have taken to calling the “Valentino’s Fists.”
Random Location #1: (5c) Caitlin Market. A stall near the Aldecaldo Camp entrance selling groceries and guns.
Random Location #2: (18) SovOil Paint Factory. Built in the early days of Night City’s reconstruction. Locals hang out nearby to suck the fumes and grab a high.
Southside
Pacifica Playground
City Manager: Elliot Kane. He spends a lot of time shaking hands and kissing butts, but all the gladhanding won’t do him any good if he can’t keep the lights on.
Population: Most people in Pacifica owe their livelihoods to Playland by the Sea, Tanson Group, the Jodes, or one of the various brothels, casinos, or businesses supporting the local tourist trade.
Security Provider: Militech. Local business owners haven’t been happy with collateral damage from the ongoing cold war between the Voodoo Boys and the Piranhas.
Recent History: Playland by the Sea reopened in 2036. Tanson moved into the district in 2040. The Jodes set up camp on the south edge of the district in 2041.
Random Location #1: (9) Pacifica Arcology Ruins. Technically south of the district, not in it. Used to be a full arcology. Now, it is nothing but ruins. Sometimes scavvers go in. They never come out.
Random Location #2: (16) Smile Another Day. An unaffiliated store selling Playland by the Sea merch and memorabilia. The park hates the place, so the owner has hired budget Militech (aka 6th Street) for security.
Rancho Coronado
City Manager: No one. It had one, in 2037: Sister Shelly Simpson of Digital Divinity Incorporated. Her compound blew up. No one’s bought the chair since.
Population: It doesn’t matter where you come from. Once you’re in Rancho Coronado, you’re stuck in the muck with the rest of the population.
Security Provider: NCPD. In theory. They’ll respond to calls on the New Pacific Highway or the Playland Overpass but little else. MAX-TAC has been contracted to protect the power lines.
Recent History: For a place in constant chaos, Rancho Coronado is surprisingly static. Gangs scrap with gangs. Criminal organizations run sweatshops. People live. People die.
Random Location #1: (3) Bread and Roses. Used to be a mini-golf course. Now, Dirty Hippies central. Desperate souls line up at the gates, hoping for work growing, drying, and packing. There’s more applicants than work, so the Hippies use gunfire to scare off job seekers.
Random Location #2: (5) The Culms. For whatever reason, mutated bamboo grows here at lightning speeds. The Weng Fang Tong runs work crews here 24/7, cutting the bamboo for sale to construction companies. Slow cutters are tethered over trimmed stalks … by the next day, bamboo has grown up through their bodies. The screams motivate the other workers.
Join us again next week for the remainder of our tour! For now, here’s the art we promised.
Want to know when Night City 2045 is coming, and other news from us at R. Tal? Sign up here!
