Atlanta

Lore & Background

In the Shadowrun timeline, Atlanta rose to prominence after the Awakening, becoming a center for cutting-edge technology and megacorporate influence. Its skyline is a mix of restored antebellum architecture and gleaming corporate towers, with the infamous 'Atlanta Sprawl' extending into the surrounding countryside. The city is a key location for the Atlantean Foundation and other powerful groups, often serving as a staging ground for operations involving deep matrix runs and magical research. The city's underworld is a tangled web of organized crime, from the Mafia to the Yakuza, all vying for control of its lucrative black markets and data havens. Shadowrunners find Atlanta a place of both opportunity and peril, with jobs ranging from corporate espionage to extraction runs. The presence of the Georgia Institute of Technology and other research facilities adds a layer of academic intrigue to the city's shadowy dealings. Atlanta's unique blend of old-world charm and cyberpunk grit makes it a distinctive setting in the Sixth World. Its status as a major transportation hub, with the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport serving as a gateway to the rest of the continent, ensures that it remains a crossroads for shadowrunners, corporate agents, and magical beings alike.

In Their Own Story

The rain fell in sheets, washing the neon glow of the Buckhead arcologies into the gutters. Kestrel, a decker with a chip on her shoulder, huddled in a forgotten data haven, a converted sewer line beneath the city. Her target: a locked file in the Renraku Atlanta node. The pay was good, but the job was suicide. She jacked in, the world dissolving into a cascade of code and ICE. The matrix here was a twisted version of the city above, with data constructs shaped like dogwood trees and security programs that hissed like cottonmouths. She found the file, a ghost of a whisper in the static, and pulled it free. As she jacked out, a message flickered across her commlink: 'Nice work, chummer. Now get out before the Lone Star choppers find you.' The rain seemed to laugh as she vanished into the night.

Reader's Guide

Atlanta is a sprawling urban jungle where the corporate elite rule from their fortified towers while the rest of the population scrapes by in the shadows. The city is divided into distinct districts, from the gleaming financial centers of Midtown to the decaying industrial zones of the Southside. Shadowrunners operate in a world of back-alley deals and high-stakes data heists, often working for or against the megacorps that control the city's economy. Key locations include the Atlanta Sprawl, a vast urban area that blends into the surrounding countryside, and the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, a critical transit point for smuggling and corporate travel. Runners should also know the underground tunnels beneath the old MARTA lines, where rogue deckers trade in black ICE and stolen credsticks. The city's heat and humidity are as oppressive as its corporate security, and a smart runner always keeps a coolant jacket and a backup SIN handy.

Did You Know?

• Atlanta is a major center for the Atlantean Foundation, a group dedicated to uncovering the secrets of the Fourth World.
• The city's matrix is known for its unique 'dogwood tree' data constructs, a nod to the region's flora.
• Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is one of the busiest transportation hubs in the UCAS, often used for corporate and shadowrunner transit.
• The city's underground is a hotbed of conflict between the Mafia, Yakuza, and other criminal syndicates.