Kellerman Group

Lore & Background

In the Shadowrun setting, the corporate hierarchy is brutally stratified. The top-tier megacorps control global supply chains, military hardware, and even political institutions. Below them sits a vast middle layer of regional and sector-specific corporations that fill the gaps the giants ignore or find unprofitable. The Kellerman Group occupies this middle stratum: large enough to maintain its own security detail, Matrix infrastructure, and legal team, but small enough that a well-organized runner crew can still represent a genuine threat to its operations.

Mid-tier corps in the Shadowrun universe typically survive through specialization—focusing on a particular technology, a regional market, or a service contract that the top seven consider below their threshold. They hire runners for the same reasons the big corps do: deniability, speed, and the ability to operate in the gray zones where corporate lawyers cannot follow. Kellerman Group's operations would reflect this pattern, relying on a network of fixers, freelance operatives, and contracted security to protect its interests in a world where a single successful breach can erase a decade of R&D investment.

The relationship between mid-tier corps and the top seven is one of wary interdependence. Kellerman Group would likely supply components, services, or regional distribution to larger powers while simultaneously protecting its own proprietary technology from corporate espionage. In the Shadowrun world, no corporation is truly safe; the Matrix is porous, and the street is always listening.

In Their Own Story

The rain on the Kellerman Group parking structure came down in sheets, turning the sodium lights into smeared halos. Voss checked the charge on his deck one more time, the blue glow reflecting off the scar tissue along his jaw. Three floors up, in a lab that smelled of ozone and synthetic growth medium, a prototype sat in a cryo-cradle—worth more than the city block it occupied. The fixer had called it a 'simple retrieval.' Simple. In the Shadowrun world, that word was a joke told by people who'd never been shot at by corporate security drones. Voss keyed his comms. 'Crew's in position. Give me the window.' A pause. Then: 'Ninety seconds. After that, their ICE wakes up and you're all dead.' He smiled. Ninety seconds was enough. It had to be.

Reader's Guide

The Kellerman Group operates as a mid-tier corporation within the Shadowrun corporate hierarchy. Its goals center on protecting proprietary technology, maintaining regional market contracts, and surviving in the shadow of top-seven megacorps that could crush it in a single legal or military action. Ideologically, like most corps in the setting, it views runners as expendable tools—useful, deniable, and ultimately disposable.

Leadership and key operatives at this tier are typically corporate executives, head of security directors, and contracted fixers who broker jobs through the street. Rather than a single iconic face, the corp's power is distributed across departments: R&D, security, Matrix operations, and legal. A runner team might deal with any of these nodes depending on the contract.

Territory and resources for a mid-tier corp are regional rather than global. Think a handful of facilities, a regional distribution network, and a Matrix presence that is robust but not impenetrable. Resources include proprietary technology, contracted security forces, and the financial backing to hire top-tier runners for high-risk jobs.

Relationships with other corps are transactional and tense. Kellerman Group would both supply and compete with larger powers, making it a target for corporate espionage from rivals and a potential employer for runners who need a contract without the scrutiny of a top-seven corp.

Threats to a runner team include: corporate security teams with military-grade gear, aggressive ICE and daemon defenses on their Matrix nodes, legal entanglements if caught, and the ever-present risk that the corp will deny all knowledge of the job the moment it becomes inconvenient. Always check the contract's kill clause.

Did You Know?

• In the Shadowrun setting, mid-tier corporations like the Kellerman Group are the most common employers of runner crews, as top-seven megacorps often prefer their own internal security for high-profile operations.
• The Shadowrun corporate hierarchy is deliberately stratified, with a small number of global powers at the top and a vast middle layer of regional and sector-specific corps filling the gaps below them.
• Corps in the Shadowrun universe routinely hire runners specifically for their deniability—operatives who can be deployed in the gray zones where corporate legal teams cannot follow.
• The Matrix, the global cybernetic network in Shadowrun, is a primary battlefield for corporate espionage, making ICE (Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics) and daemon defenses a constant concern for any crew targeting a