Site Map
The CyberWolfe's Den
Places
People
The Law
Public Transport
Personal Vehicles
Rule Mods
Character Generation
Toys
Points of Interest
Page Map
Note to the reader: As this project progresses, I will be changing the format to more resemble the Night City Sourcebook. For now though, I have yet to decide on how small an area I will go into depth on and will just post things as they come. UPDATE: I have narrowed it down a bit, and have started mapping things out. The above link will take you to the Maps page, where things get a little more visual. Some of the maps will have location descriptions on them, and I will post more as I write them. As I put maps up, I will make a notation on these descriptions as to which map they appear on.
-Open again after several years of reconstruction, the mall now has five levels of shopping, a skating rink, twelve screen cinema, a medical facility, three towers for business offices, and five residential levels housing up to 5000 permanent residents.
-CHINATOWN- Map
-Established in the late 1800’s after the Chinese railroad workers settled in Portland, this section of downtown has long been the city’s center for Asian culture. It’s not the safest place after dark, but since the Chinese dominate the local black market, edgerunners must often chance the streets to acquire the most popular trends in illegal weapons, explosives, cyberware, electronics and drugs. Not to mention a truly authentic Peking Duck.
-COURTHOUSE PLAZA and DOWNTOWN BUS MALL- Map
-Located between 5th and 6th street, the Downtown bus mall is a great place to do most of your accessory shopping. Numerous antique, clothing, music and other shops line these two streets, which are the major transfer sites for the public transport system, including the MAX Light-Rail. The prices in the shops are reasonable, the selection is great, and it is close to all of Portland’s government buildings, including the courthouse and city library, which very nearly takes up an entire city block in itself.
Across the street from the courthouse is the Plaza, home to many street kids and local juviegangs. If you’re broke, it’s a good place to panhandle. If you need information, chances are you can find a lead here, if you pay the price. Just don’t try to sleep here if you plan to wake up with your clothes still on.
-THE SATURDAY MARKET-
-Usually located under the steel bridge, the Saturday Market is one of Portland’s oldest traditions that occaisionally changes it's address. This is a large outdoor bazaar that specializes in hand-crafted goods, but you can find just about anything from tie-died armor-T’s to tattoo artists here. The address changes due to the number of grey-market enterprises that flourish here. The cops think of it as "keeping the criminals where you can find 'em", and don't sweat it too much. Untill things get out of hand, at which point they'll bring down a paddy wagon and round up the worst of the bunch.
-POWELL’S BOOKS-
-The largest bookstore in the Pacific Northwest, Powell’s covers an entire city block, raises three stories aboveground, and contains a café and twenty cyberterminals for on-line research. There are also two satellite stores in the area, one for technical manuals, and another devoted to religious materials. If Powell’s doesn’t carry it, you don’t need it.
-THE PHILLIPINO RESTARAUNT- Map
-Not the most original of names, but this place is not trying to attract business of the regular type. Portland's finest don't have any evidence yet, but word on the street is that this place is actually the headquarters of the Phillipino Syndicate. If you aren't Philipino, don't even bother going in, they will make you wait forever for service. And if you do actually wait around long enough to get served, I wouldn't eat whatever they bring you without a full chemical analysis. Located on the bottom floor of the Lovejoy Apartments West building, next door to JJ's.
-Primarily a local’s bar, the "Snob Hill" has recently changed owners and now offers live music on Friday and Saturday nights, usually featuring local bands. The Bridgetown Rats will be playing here fairly often, since the drummer is the owner’s son. Good food and drink at a reasonable price. Cover charge on the weekend is 5eb.
-THE TOWER THEATRE-
-One of the city’s historic landmarks, this theatre was originally built in 1918, and has burned down and been rebuilt twice since then. After the invention of simsense, the Tower switched to a retro/classic theme, and now plays mostly cult films such as A Clockwork Orange and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which plays every other Friday at midnight.
-CAFÉ OMEGA- Map
-A small coffeehouse in Downtown, the café serves the truly nocturnal crowd. They are open from 8pm to 5am daily, serving miscellaneous coffee drinks and light snacks. A Goth’s dream shop, the Omega is always a good place to meet strange people and catch the occaisional band or play.
-COBBLESTONE CAFÉ- Map
-No longer a true café, the cobblestone purchased a liquor license a few years back due to lagging business. They still serve great coffee and good food, but now they supplement the menu with alcohol between the hours of 6pm and 2am.
-THE SATYRACON- Map
-Located at 3rd and Couch, the Satyracon lurks just on the edge of Chinatown and the industrial district in the northwest. A definite chromer bar, the Satyracon is a good place to go if you’re looking to get into a fight or a mosh pit. Not much business goes down here- the patrons are too busy getting wasted to count more than 10eb at a time.
-THE MERIDIAN- Map
-Dance club for the upwardly mobile. Young corporate executives and wannabes for the most part, your average edger wouldn’t be caught dead here unless he was hiding from someone. Overpriced and overdecorated.
-STARK STREET- Map
-Portland’s own Tenderloin, NW Stark Street has always been the city’s center for alternative lifestyles. Tattoo and body piercing parlors mix it up with gay/lesbian bars, strip clubs, and drag stages. The party never stops, it just slows down a bit between dawn and dusk. Some of the city’s best makeup and disguise artists can be found here.
-JEREMIAH’S ELECTRONICS CAFÉ-
-A favorite of many of Portland’s techies and netrunners, the Electronic Café is a cyberbar located at NE Burnside and Grand. The consoles are fast, the beer is good, and they serve five different brews of coffee, not to mention their large stock of Jolt Cola. Nice place if you like stilted conversation and techno music. Rumors tell of a room in the back where illegal cyberwear can be bought and installed.
-AFTER MIDNIGHT-
-A night owl’s haven, the After Midnight is a serious drinker’s place to relax and meet friends. The management checks weapons at the door and doesn’t take any shit from anybody. Neither does Joey the bouncer, for that matter. He’s big enough to give an Alpha ‘borg a run for his money in a wrestling match. A good place to find solos between jobs.
-JJ's-
-A lovely little rathole, JJ's is one of the scummiest gay strip clubs in town, but it is rumored to be a front for the Phillipino Syndicate and a good place to score black market goods of a lethal variety. Make sure you bring lots of singles, they won't talk to you until you've stuffed a couple down a g-string or two. Located on the bottom floor of the Lovejoy Apartments West.
-Not the nicest place to live, but...ok, the place is a dump without compare, but it's a place to hole up if ya need it, and nobody asks any questions. Two buildings on the corner of N.W.Lovejoy and 17th St.. On the bottom floor of the West building, you will find two businesses: The Phillipino Restaraunt and a gay strip club called JJ's.
-COLEFAX TOWERS- Map
-An older building, the Colefax's stonework is still fashionable and located on the bus mall downtown. The lower three floors are leased out as retail space, with the fourth through tenth floors dedicated to professional offices, mainly lawyers who wish to be close to the courthouse. The eleventh through twentieth floors are residential apartments, with the top floor being a single penthouse. Security is good, and handled in-house. Gaurds carry medium handguns and wear light armor, relying on prevention more than firefights.
-HILTON HOTEL-
-Still standing after all these years, the Hilton still yearns to be the trendsetter in the Portland skyline. A solid four-star hotel with exceptional room service (for a price), a gourmet restaraunt and a convention hall. Security is excellent, considering they hire out from Arasaka. Rooms range from 100EB a night for a simple room to 1000EB a night for a suite.
-A veteran of the Pan-Am conflict, Peter Jackson came home from the war to run his dad’s hardware store. He wasn’t making a whole lot of money, though, so he called up some of his old army buddies and now he sells guns out the back door. You’d better bring a lot of money and have good references. Pete is not what you’d call a trusting guy.
-BRIDGETOWN ELELCTRONICS SUPPLY-
-Like Powell’s books, if BES doesn’t carry what you need, then it doesn’t exist, in which case there are several techies in back who could probably make it for you. Prices are competitive and reasonable, although custom orders vary wildly depending on how illegal they are. Don’t even think about shoplifting from these guys- the thieves of Portland tell horror stories about the security system in this place over the campfire at night.
-AGE OF AQUARIUS-
-Located in the "nob hill" district in the northwest, the Age of Aquarius is a new-age/occult bookstore run by a lady that calls herself Gypsy. An accomplished fortune-teller and palmist, she also deals in information, especially if it is occult-based. You’d almost think she grew up with every vamp or were’ in Portland. On the corner of NW 23rd and Kearney.
-PACIFIC AUDITORIUM-
-Built only three years ago, this auditorium has become the place to see a concert. Bands, orchestras, operas, plays and even the Mayor’s ball are all here. You can’t beat the acoustics anywhere within 200 miles. There is enough seating for 30,000 people, and the balcony seats offer built-in smartgoggles with an option for changing views to any of 20 different cameras positioned around the auditorium. All seats come with a datajack into the Auditorium’s computer system, which offers several different services such as upcoming event info, ticket prices and availability, and real-time translation of any foreign language events.
-A special note on Portland, water and the great art of coffee-
Oregon is wet.
No matter how many droughts come and go, the fact remains that Oregon is in an excellent climate to recieve rain, and lots of it. So, you learn to keep an umbrella in the car and you waterproof your shoes, that's about all you can do.
Except make coffee with all that water.
And Portlanders have developed that simple task to an art form similar to that of the Chinese Tea Ceremony. To put it bluntly, if you were to pull a squandron of B-52 bombers out of their mothballs and carpet bomb the city, nearly every single bomb would damage a coffee shop. They are everywhere. Everybody drinks coffee. The local 7-11 has a grinding machine with cappucino setting and three different varieties of Columbian roast. There is no avoiding it. And there are more varieties of coffee shop than there are coffee, ranging from your basic greasy spoon through the retro-beatnik shops with poetry night and a moldering set of bongoes in the corner, up to your trendiest java emporium with live entertainment.
So if you're wondering why I have listed so few of this great city's favorite establishments, suffice to say that it would be a Herculean task to just list their names and addresses, let alone review each one.
Besides, that means I'd have to visit them all, and I can barely close my eyes as it is with the few I've already been to.
-Excerpted from Jack Killian's "Northwest Traveller", June 2019.-