Cyberpunk route map

 I'm really enjoying minimalism in my RPG prep and creation currently. I'm finding that a few sentences or bullet points, when condensed down to the necessary and evocative, are much more useful than long paragraphs of exposition. While jotting down ideas for quick and dirty sandboxes, I hit upon the idea of a cyberpunk route map to maybe use with Electric Bastionland at some point. Some late night feverish writing, and an hour or so of filling out additional locations, here it is.

All it needs are some random tables somewhat inspired by this post, but that'll be at a later point.

MONORAIL

• Quick and free, loops around most of the borough centre.
• Rises above the roads and lower buildings, offering great views when it isn’t raining.
• The transport police do spot checks, and they are ruthless. CHA save or they stop your train and search for criminals or contraband.

HIGHWAY

•  Leads to many places, but everyone and their dog uses it. Pretty much solid traffic at any time of the day.
• Its slow, real slow. Get ready to sit in your car and crawl through traffic for a few hours to get anywhere. There are footways below the highway, though they’re either crammed with people or unsafe.
• Drive by shootings and firefights happen often, slowing down traffic even more as well as causing massive damage.

The Bar

• Location of the Six Shooter, the only place of interest or importance in the area. A large bar and nightclub, all the local gangers and fixers go there.
• Toby is the head of the Six Shooter, an influential fixer in their own right and hard as iron. They keep a sleugh of mercs to keep the place somewhat safe, and always have work for those willing to get their hands dirty.
• Because of the popularity of the place to gangers and the like, there are frequent night markets set up in the nearby area. To get in, you need to know the time, the place, and the password.  Fixers often know the details, but don’t give them to any old goon.

Black Pipes

• Territory of the Blood Wheels, the area is dotted with vehicle chop shops. Word is that the best Blood Wheel techies can turn a beat-up family car into a war worthy steed in no time. They don’t work for outsiders though, not unless their boss owes them a favour.
• The Blood Wheels are fiercely territorial, and don’t appreciate others staying on their turf for long. Visitors are often trailed by Blood Wheel vehicles, with the occasional revving or flash of a weapon to encourage people to move along.
• From here the Blood Wheels launch raids and hits onto the Highway and beyond. If there’s a shooting on the Highway, the Blood Wheels are probably involved to some degree.

Borough Centre

• Corpo part of town. Corporate skyscrapers block out the sky, and military grade walls protect gated communities for the rich and indentured.
• There are shops for anything and everything, but they don’t serve any street rat that stumbles in. To get anything done in the Centre, you need to look the part.
• None of the major corporations have offices here, but several smaller and more local ones have their headquarters here. The transport police also have their main station here.

IR Street

• Every surface of IR Street is dripping with neon. Many locals wear sunglasses even at night to give some relief from the constant glare.
• IR Street is the little sibling to the Centre, the one who fell onto drug and violence perhaps. The shops offer may things, some less than legal, but prices fluctuate massively and mostly always cost more than normal. Pawn shops buy pretty much anything, making the Street a bazaar for all sorts of stuff mercs find on jobs.
• The Lampies control IR Street, owning many of the higher end clubs, brothels, and shops. Their armed guards are a common sight. Jennies’ Warriors are the other big gang, who run a night club known to be a refuge for victims of abuse and unfair circumstances. The only thing bigger than Jennies’ heart is the gun she constantly keeps on her.

Merc’s End

• An abandoned mall  now used for all sorts of things. Homeless folk like in parts, while gangs run covert operations in back rooms and corporations do underhand dealings away from the eyes of the Centre.
•  The place earned its name as it is a battleground, and many a merc and ganger has lost their life in the shattered halls. Trauma Team only goes there to pick up its highest paying customers, and even then, they always send heavily armed back-up.
• Though it is extremely dangerous, the End is an ideal place to hide out and lay low. Many leave stashes or secretive net hacking hardware squirreled away in some back room, and most are not found.  The illusive “Beggar King” is said to help those who wish to disappear, though many believe he’s only an urban legend.

The Pillars

• Deserted construction sites left to rot and fall apart. The area got its name from the numerous pillars and iron beams left behind on the construction sites.
• Being a relatively flat and open area, there are numerous dragster races held here. Other races dart between the pillars, occasionally leaving several of the racers smashed apart or flipped over.
• The place is often used by smugglers and dealers to exchange goods, especially those coming into or leaving the city.

Green View

• Vast parks and green spaces give some relief from the city. In the deepest parts of the park the drone of the city almost disappears.
• To make the parks seem more real, artificial birds and insects fly around and help maintain the parks. Artificial rabbits and foxes used to live here, but they were too aggressive with tunnel digging and caused several footpaths to collapse, resulting in their deactivation.
• Several areas are off-limits. Officially they are the secluded spots for those who can afford the quiet, but rumours are abound of experimental plant and animal life being tested in those areas.

Convergence

• Several large roads come to meet here, funnelling down into a single main route into the borough centre. A tangle of roads and crossings fills the skyline.
• Huge rubbish processing plants are in this area of the borough, manned by legions of drones and machines. On rainy days the smog clings to the air, making it dark even in the middle of the day.
• Peddlers of all sorts ply the crawling highway, trying to sell knick-knacks to bored drivers.

Halls of Steel

• Vast factories churning out equipment for the corporations and transport police. The area is entirely ran by a local corporation who keep the area heavily guarded.
• At night, corporate marked trains send loads of equipment into the borough centre. Normally traffic is halted to allow the fortress wagons to pass.
• There is a vast underground network of tunnels under the Halls. There before the construction of the factories, many use these rat ways to get into and out of the factories under the corporation’s nose. There are rumours of an underground bazaar in the deepest tunnels where stolen goods are fenced and taken to the surface.

Great Minds

• An area were many corporations had research facilities. Originally surrounded by well kept gardens and promenades, its glory days are fading as the open spaces are covered with taller brutish buildings.
• A secret war goes on between the research facilities, with everyone attempting to hack into and steal the secrets of each other. Anyone caught gets barely a slap on the wrist and a firm telling off, everyone knowing it won’t stop anything.
• Of late, a facility owned by a corporation working on bioengineering went into lockdown. While many of the staff have been evacuated, they are forbidden from saying anything to the public or media, and the facility remains on lockdown. Several have already made their way in, but no one returns, only increasing the legends of the place.

The Burning Streets

• Bright red and yellow graffiti shows visitors the locations of shops and meeting points of the Burning Hand, a group united in their love for creativity and freedom of expression. Many artists and activists are part of this group as well as corporate runaways.
• Nothing is standard issue in the Burning Streets. Everything is home made or modified to some degree. It is the best place to find a custom weapon or piece of gear, as long as you don’t mind having to come here everything you need it repaired or ammunition.
• The Burning Hand tolerates other gangs and welcomes all to come with holstered weapons and open hands. As such it is used as a neutral meeting ground for many groups, who know better than to mess with the Burning Hand’s custom weapons and cybernetics.

Entombed Paradise

• Not its original name, this area is full of gated communities and hab-blocks built in an effort by the borough to build better living quarters for the population. After one of the structures collapsed in a tragic accident and months of failures and neglect, the project was abandoned and the buildings sold off. Now many still live there, but conditions are no better than some of the combat zones.
• Despite the lack of the supervising eye of the borough council, work still crawls on. Gangs and banded community members continue working to make better of their situation, even starting up rooftop farms. An artisan industry supplying everyday items to the locals flourishes in the shadowed streets. Several powerful families and clans hold sway over the area, and outsiders must deal with them directly if they want to get anything done or answer to them should they break their rules.
• The locals here have a fierce independence and distain for corporations. All offers of help from the corporations is refused, and those who attempt heavy handed operations in the area are often ousted with threats or relentless harassment and gunfire.

Caged Witches

• Hidden in the back alleys of a typical part of town is the territory of the Caged Witches. Esoteric drug runners, they make a wide variety of narcotics, underground medicinal products, and outlandish cybernetics they claim gives neigh-supernatural powers.
• While most are doubtful of their supernatural powers, the Caged Witches are fierce opponents. Their custom cybernetics allow them to see, react, and move quicker than most, turning them into lightning face killers. They also love camo-weave cloaks and clothing, allowing them to “disappear” at will.
• The gang is currently in the middle of a schism, with two different leaders each wanting to take the gang in a different direction. The matriarch Oksana pushes for expansion and domination to heal the gang’s perceived slow decline and rot of late, while Lizeta, a ripperdoc and cybernetics tinkerer, encourages balance and consolidation on what they have rather than what they could have.