10 Hooks and Rumours for Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0.’s Night City

This list has ten hooks and rumours that can be heard in or about the Upper Marina district of Night City. Whether or not they are true is up to the GameMaster. They can be used as background colour or as potential adventure hooks.

1. Big Blue Foods in the Upper Marina manufactures a lot of the standard foods that make up typical Night City provender. There are constantly rumours about just what goes into some of their dishes, but these are the sort of rumours that have been around for years. As yet, no-one has got any proof to justify the derogatory name of “Soylent Blue Foods”.
2. C. Donut Express Co, based in the Upper Marina, trans-ships and receives goods over long distances, and also collects and delivers goods locally, swapping goods over at their depot. The trucks are dangerous to try to jack, as for long distances they have convoys with outriders, and it’s rumoured that not every type of good that the company ships around is entirely legal. Or remotely legal.
3. Harbormaster Mahan Jones is both a cop and a government official, and tolerates no corruption by corporations or the Mob withing the Harbor Police. Both organised crime and the companies are less than happy about this, especially as control of the Harbor Police would make smuggling goods through easier. It’s rumoured that at least some have decided that individual cops cannot be safely bribed as long as Jones is around, and are planning to remove the problem at its head.
4. Medicross Preservation in the Upper Marina collects a goodly number of the city’s unnamed and unidentified corpses, which are then dissected for donor parts. It’s rumoured that not every corpse that goes through the doors is unnamed and unidentified; some say that the Mob or the corps occasionally use Medicross to make an inconvenient body – which may have been breathing – “disappear” with no-one the wiser.
5. Mustang Arms Co in the Upper Marina is essentially a giant warehouse full of shoulder arms as well as pistols and cyberlimb replacements. It’s rumoured that so many weapons pass through the facility that the company can’t manage to keep track of them all. Which results in a certain percentage going missing, and turning up in the hands of those who really shouldn’t be getting them.
6. Night City Today! is based in the Upper Marina, the city’s most popular screamsheet that focuses more on sensationalism and distribution than it does on journalism. Though it’s rumoured that the screamsheet has recently been receiving threats, as it appears they accidentally stumbled across a genuine piece of investigative journalism.
7. SensuTours in the Upper Marina was recently hit by a firebomb attack, though it appears this did surprisingly little damage to the business. The assumption is that a customer finally got sick and tired of the places inefficiency and decided to teach them a lesson. If so, it looks as if the lesson wasn’t firm enough to stick.
8. Servospiff is a supplier of security-coded work fashions and they are able to keep the registered designs out of the hands of would-be buyers who lack authorisation, thanks to their security precautions. It’s rumoured that the company’s precautions can sometimes be final, as those who attempt to acquire designs they have no right to may find that this is the last thing they do.
9. The American Bar in the Upper Marina caters to a variety of mercenary types as well as toughs and labourers from the waterfront. Both the NCPD and the CIA keep an eye on the bar, even though it’s licensed, but there are rumours that the CIA has lost a few people who have been watching the place recently. Though the NCPD apparently haven’t. This might suggest something is going on of interest to the CIA, but isn’t of a type of illegality to get the NCPD involved.
10. The Night City headquarters of the Department of Motor Vehicles is in the Upper Marina, and is not the most popular of places. Though the building has good security, there have been a number of attacks against it recently. These haven’t been more than the throwing of futile Molotov cocktails or cans of paint, and have had no great effect. The attacks do seem to be coordinated, though, and it’s possible whoever is behind them will start stepping up their game.

Want some general cyberpunk rumours? Check out 100 Cyber City Rumours.

D10: Night City Rumours – Upper Marina is unofficial content provided under the Homebrew Content Policy of R. Talsorian Games and is not approved or endorsed by RTG. This content references materials that are the property of R. Talsorian Games and its licensees.