Tournament judges may select a particular "Sprawl" or city for the games to take place in. This doesn't have to be the same city that the tournament is in, of course -- and players who live in cities not listed are encouraged to create their own sprawl listing. These rules can be used to balance out particular deck types that are too common in a certain area, or just add an interesting twist to gameplay.

Boston: Home of the new Eastern Seaboard Stock Exchange (ESSEX), Boston is the high-finance capitol of the Awakened World. Players here gain 6¥ during each Payday phase, rather than 4, and draw up to eight cards, rather than seven. All Upkeep costs in Boston are increased by one -- livin' high has its price.

CalFree: Land of shifting desert and illusory magic, a player in the California Free State may choose up to ten cards to set aside at the beginning of the tournament. Between rounds, he or she may shuffle those cards back into the regular deck and randomly select ten others to be removed. (Because it begins as one larger-than-normal deck, the player may still only have four of each card, and one of each Unique card, as usual.)

Chicago: What would you expect except BIG FRAGGING BUGS? Roll D6 whenever *any* Challenge on *any* Objective is revealed. On a 4+. that Challenge is treated as a 8/8 Roach Spirit (Awakened Challenge). The Roaches may be sleazed if the original sleaze requirements of the Challenge are met, and combat with Roaches does not trigger the alarm. Note that the D6 roll is made each time the Challenge is revealed (sometimes a Maglock is just a Maglock).

Denver Data Haven: Denver is the information capital of the Western World, and former hosting site of the Shadowland Matrix data-node. If you want to catch the scoop on anybody -- from Aztech's chief research scientists to the Senator of Seattle to your next door neighbor with the pink poodle, you can find it out in Denver. Before the game begins, each player may inspect his or her opponents' Objective pile. If the tournament allows sideboards, players may swap cards to or from the sideboard before the game begins.

Mojave Desert: A wasteland incapable of supporting life, the Mojave Desert remains one of the most difficult spot for smugglers and cyberpirates to struggle through. Any cards removed from the game are instead removed from the tournament. If a player's deck is reduced below the minimum required for the tournament (typically sixty cards and six Objectives), the player is eliminated from the tournament.

Quebec: Isolationist and segmentarian, the Quebecois have naturally outlawed any foreign language/foreign edition cards from play. At the beginning of each round of the tourney, the Quebecois choose a different expansion set to ban -- during round one, it may be Underworld; on round two, Underworld cards would be allowed again and Corp War cards forbidden.

Seattle: Seattle is, of course, the Main Street of the Shadowrun universe; it's got the longest history and boasts the biggest names. Reputation doesn't mean much in Seattle; it's what you actually go out and do that makes a difference. Instead of playing to a set amount of Reputation, tournaments in Seattle count the number of Objectives scored -- they could be Milk Runs or Impossible Missions, so long as they're scored. (This happens to also eliminate Fuchi decks -- but when anyone can siphon off a few Nuyen from the Great Star of Cyberspace, what big deal is that?)

Got an idea?
If you'd like to see an idea posted for your area, send an email to Matb. I'm looking for interesting rules to use for the Confederate States of America, Aztlan, El Infierno (Los Angeles) and other areas around the globe.

The Lawyer Chant:

Shadowrun is a Registered Trademark of FASA Corporation. Original Shadowrun material © 1994 by FASA Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Used with tacit permission. Any use of FASA Corporation's copyrighted material or trademarks in this file should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks.

This page was last updated in the 20thcentury.

All opinions expressed herein are my mom's.