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CONTENTS & CREDITS
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credits ......................................................................................5
SNAFU .........................................................................................6
Detroit rupture ............................................................10
Welcome To The War Room ...................................15
Motor City SitRep: The Bare-Bones Basics ............15
Just the Facts … So Far ..........................................16
How Did We Get Here? .......................................... 17
Hello From The Front Lines of Hell ........................19
Opening Salvos ...................................................... 19
Welcome To The Resistance! ................................ 23
This Just In: Motor City Mayhem! ......................... 25
Story 001: First Day ...............................................25
Story 002: A View From Behind Armor Plating ...25
Story 003: Road Rage!...........................................26
Story 004: No Second Chances Here ...................26
Story 005: Others Hunt in the Shadows ...............27
Detroit Standoff .................................................... 27
Intelligence Briefing ..............................................28
Battle Lines Redrawn.............................................29
Current Tactical SitRep ......................................... 30
This Just In: Battles of Detroit! .............................34
Story 006: Small Victories ................................... 34
Story 007: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished .......35
Story 008: Ares Vs. Bugs: Round Two ..................35
Story 009: Battle at Ares Tower ...........................36
Story 010: To the Victors ... ...................................37
ghost army .....................................................................38
Wherever You Go, There You Aren’t ......................40
blackout .............................................................................46
Panic On the Potomac ..........................................47
Back From the Dead .............................................50
UCAS Responses .................................................... 51
UCAS Drops a Nuke (Metaphorically) ...................51
Cities Going Dark! ................................................. 53
Tales From the Black............................................. 56
The Janitor .............................................................56
Nicodaemus ...........................................................57
JayRicky ..................................................................58
August ....................................................................59
Still Frames in the Action ...................................... 61
Voices in the Darkness ...........................................61
Defende Nos in Proelio ......................................... 72
Major Threats ....................................................... 72
Shadow Spirits .......................................................72
Bad Vibes ................................................................73
Shedim ...................................................................74
Toxic Magic .............................................................75
Less-Major-But-Still-Bad Threats ......................... 75
Blood Magic ............................................................75
The Infected ...........................................................76
Insect Spirits ..........................................................76
Lights Out ..........................................................................78
ucrash .....................................................................................82
Something is Rotten in DeeCee ............................. 82
President Declares State of Emergency, seeks election delay ...............................................82
Breaking News: Québec Invades the UCAS ......... 84
UCAS Forces Repel Québécois Attack ...................85
Ottawa Liberated from Québécois Occupation ... 86
Colloton Agrees to Armistice with Québec ...........87
BREAKING NEWS: NAN Forces Attack Five UCAS States ....................................................87
Independent Reporters Accuse Senator Kittering of Collusion with Ares ..............87
BREAKING: Sioux Advance Halted by UCAS Military ................................................... 88
Sen. Kittering Found Dead After FBI Opens Investigation .............................. 88
FBI Breaks “Radical Terrorist Ring” in Ottawa .... 89
U.N. Mobilizes Relief Force, Says “It Will Take Time” for UCAS to Receive Aid ........ 89
Kentucky State Government Secedes from UCAS, Joins CAS ............................. 90
The Christmas Truce: JTFS allowed to leave Seattle ................................91
Seattle Declares Independence from UCAS .........91
St. Louis Declares Independence from UCAS .......92
Colloton Signs Bill to Re-affirm BRA .....................92
LIVE: Vice President Martin Speaks Out for Canadian Autonomy .................................92
February and Beyond ........................................... 93
Corporate Court Aid Arrives in Baltimore ............93
Power Restored in Philadelphia ........................... 94
Despain Elected President ................................... 94
Big Changes ..........................................................94
Seattle ................................................................... 94
St. Louis ..................................................................97
A Look Back East ..................................................102
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Twilight .................................................................105
Detroit now ...................................................................108
Bloody, But Not Broken ...................................... 108
Detroit Motor City: Vital Statistics ......................109
What Once Was: Old Detroit Shadows .................110
Turning Point: War In the Streets .........................111
When The Fighting Stopped ................................. 113
Standoff at Ares Tower .........................................113
Fallen Knight(s) .................................................... 114
Ares to Detroit: Later, Suckers! ........................... 116
Fifty-One Days of Chaos .......................................118
Power Vacuum ..................................................... 118
Welcome To Motor City! ....................................... 121
A City Reborn ........................................................121
Everything Destroyed Is New(ish) Again .............121
Motor City Power Players ....................................124
Lay of The Land and Places of Interest ................127
The Platinum Zone ............................................... 127
Motor City’s New Scar ......................................... 128
Vendor’s Row/ 8-Mile Road .................................130
Bloomfield Biodrone Nature Reserve .................130
Detroit Down Below ............................................. 131
Dead and Gone In Motor City ...............................131
Cannibal Labyrinth ...............................................131
Earn Your Skin ...................................................... 133
When The World Came Crashing Down ..............134
Bloody Boomtown ............................................... 135
Project Pyro .........................................................137
Echoes of an Alien Past .......................................142
Career Opportunities ..........................................143
Started In My Garage ... .......................................143
Renegade Tech .....................................................145
Riggers’ Paradise! ................................................145
There’s Something Happening Here ... ...............146
atlanta now ................................................................ 148
Atlanta at a Glance.............................................. 148
Corps, Cops, and Crime ....................................... 149
Corps .....................................................................149
Other Corporate Players ......................................150
Law Enforcement ................................................. 151
Crime ...................................................................152
Places of Interest .................................................152
Purgatory Central ................................................ 152
The Atlanta Zoo ................................................... 152
The Dome ............................................................. 153
Weird Stuff ...........................................................153
Ares: Corporation In Transition .......................... 154
Southern Hospitality ............................................154
Arthur Vogel: The Boss ... For Now ..................... 155
The Board of Directors ........................................156
The Boss to Be? ....................................................157
Clayton Wilson ..................................................... 157
Daniel Truman...................................................... 157
Mitsuko Shiawase-Yamana .................................. 157
Michael Bishop ..................................................... 157
Karen King ............................................................158
Daniel Chen ..........................................................158
Carol Huntington .................................................158
Business Opportunities .......................................158
Ares Space ........................................................... 159
General Motors ....................................................160
Ares Global Entertainment ..................................160
Knight Errant Security .........................................160
Ares Consumer Products ..................................... 161
Info Santé ............................................................ 161
The Eagle is Looking ............................................161
as the dust settles ............................................. 162
Not So Blighted Blighty ........................................162
Fall of the NDM ....................................................163
Cleaning the Tarnished ........................................163
Hope and Desolation ...........................................163
Enter the New Sheriff ..........................................164
The Dragon in the Room......................................165
Bug-outs and Blackouts .......................................165
The Natives are Restless ..................................... 166
Catching Up ..........................................................166
Trouble Grows on Trees ....................................... 167
Off the Rails ..........................................................168
Eastward Ho! ........................................................169
What’s Next? ........................................................169
La Mort de la République.................................... 169
Post-Blackout Roundup .......................................172
Game Information .................................................... 176
Insect Spirits ........................................................176
New Critter Power ............................................... 176
CONTENTS & CREDITS //
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CREDITSProject Development: RJ Thomas
Writing: Scott Bieniek, Brooke Chang, Kevin Czarnecki, Francis Jose, Clifton Lambert, O.C. Presley, Scott Schletz, RJ Thomas, Thomas Willoughby
Editing: Jason M. Hardy, RJ Thomas
Cover Art: Benjamin Giletti
Illustrations: Bruno Balixa, Tyler Clark, Kim Van Deun, Nate Furman, Andre Garcia, Benjamin Giletti, David Hovey, Jack Hoyle, Gareth Keenan, Ian King, Katerina Ladon, Sarah Lindstrom, Alyssa Menold, Marco Pennachietti, Derek Poole, Jeff Porter, Júlio Cesar Oliveira Rocha, and Takashi Tan.
Design & Production: Matt “MT Royalty” Heerdt
Art Direction: Brent Evans, James Mosingo
Shadowrun Line Developer: Jason M. Hardy
Proofing: Chuck Burhanna, Bruce Ford, Mason Hart, J. Keith Henry, Trevor Lange, James O’Laughlin, Aric Wieder
Special Thanks to: Jacob Daniel Friesel (Platinum is ALL YOUR FAULT!)
Additional thanks for research and playtesting: Rebekah Clayton, Audrey Collins, Jon Cordes, Emily Vair Gegenberg, Robert Hale, Carl Hawley, Rebecca Ringelberg, Alex Rocha, Kyle Rodebaugh, Barb Newman, Jaspaul Sandhu, Ed Walerius, Brian Watcher, and Anthony “Tony” Zitman
© 2019 The Topps Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Shadowrun and Matrix are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. No part of this work may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the Copyright Owner, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.
Catalyst Game Labs and the Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of InMediaRes Productions, LLC.
First Printing by Catalyst Game Labs, an imprint of InMediaRes Productions, LLC
7108 S Pheasant Ridge DrSpokane, WA 99224
FIND US ONLINE:Shadowrun questions: [email protected] Shadowrun website: shadowruntabletop.com
Catalyst Game Labs: catalystgamelabs.comCatalyst/Shadowrun orders: store.catalystgamelabs.com
IntroductionIn the Sixth World, civilization is a disguise, and
a thin one at that. The corps have constructed the veneer of an orderly world because it helps money flow where they want it to go, but the society they built teeters, with a loose foundation and shoddy workmanship on every level. Any light push can topple the whole thing and unleash the chaos it attempts to contain.
The UCAS is about to get a giant shove.Shadowrunners, of course, know all about cha-
os. It’s their normal operating environment. Of all the people in the Sixth World, they’re the most pre-pared to survive chaos when it erupts—and may-be make some cash or even do some good in the process.
Cutting Black details the events of about eight months in the UCAS, starting in July 2080 and ending in March 2081. The chapters take on an immersive style, helping players see events as they unfold while providing some of the context to help
them understand what is happening. These chap-ters provide all sorts of story areas where shadow-runners can be involved, with specific examples of what runners could do in each phase of the book (an upcoming campaign book, 30 Nights, will pro-vide more specifics, focusing on events from the Blackout chapter of this book). Gamemasters can pick a particular part of the events detailed here to be the focus of a campaign, or they can put players through the whole wringer, moving them from city to city and letting them experience the full breadth of crises the book presents.
The book is also a critical tool for anyone—players, gamemasters, or otherwise—who loves the Sixth World setting and wants to see how it will be changed by this latest series of events. There’s a wild ride ahead, and the plots detailed here will have ramifications in the Sixth World for years. So strap in, get ready, and try to survive the Cutting Black!
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SNAFUby RJ Thomas
SECTOR ALPHA-TANGO 12DETROIT, MICHIGAN, UCASJULY 30, 20800341 LOCAL TIME
“Contact left, contact left!”“No, contact right, right!”“Oh, God, they’re everywhere!”
Corporal Dan Travis of Ares Macrotechnology’s Fif-teenth Mechanized Security Company ignored the sounds and smoke of combat around him as he lined up his shot with his M-22 HMG; smartgun targeting data filled his vision. Depressing the trigger, the ultra-heavy machine gun bucked hard in his hands, as Travis drilled a wasp spirit with .50 caliber high-explosive rounds. The dead bug slammed into Travis’ APC, splattering gore against the open turret—and Travis’ face.
Cursing, Travis cleared bug guts from his goggles, but that was the least of his worries. His cybereyes identi-fied scores of roach, ant, and other bugs types advanc-ing toward his position along the streets or on the sides of buildings in a grotesque, chittering wave. Some bugs had already engaged Ares troops, slaughtering all they
encountered. Travis and other APC gunners replied with murderous suppression fire, reducing scores of bugs to bloody bits to protect infantry squads forward of the APC line. But for every bug dropped, six more seemed to replace them.
It didn’t take a tactical genius to realize the 15th was less than sixty seconds from being overrun.
“Top!” Travis bellowed into his mic as his M-22 ran dry.
“I see them. Lieutenant says stand by…” replied the ever-calm First Sergeant Tessa McAvoy from inside the APC as she took command of the APC’s forward-mount-ed MGs, giving Travis a chance to reload.
“Stand by? Are you fragging kidding me?! I knew that hoop-nozzle was going to get us geeked!” Travis mut-tered, his M-22’s barrel glowing cherry red as he quickly replaced the ammo belt. “Expect only light, sporadic en-emy contact, he said … you’ll be a reserve for the main force, he said … my ass!” Travis said to himself as he pulled the M-22’s charging handle and resumed firing.
EIGHT HOURS EARLIER …
“The operation is codenamed Latvian Gambit. Our ultimate objective here is nothing less than the complete end to the bug threat.”
Corporal Travis leaned forward in his seat, eyes on Captain Evan Dartmouth, CO of the 15th MSC. Up until
CUTTING BLACK // SNAFU
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