A Player Group Headquarters (PGHQ) is a custom zone that a playergroup can have added to the game world. This zone belongs to the group ICly, and is a place where you can establish an in-game presence as an organization. It starts small, then grows as your group grows in power and reputation.
PGHQs are designed to be areas that support your group’s roleplay. A decking-centered group might lean towards a basement flat packed with high-end servers with cables snaking across the floor, while a more mercenary group might set themselves up in an out-of-the-way location with meeting rooms, armories, shooting ranges, etc. We do, however, ask that these locations be kept in-theme and scaled to match your group’s investment– generally speaking, the cooler your HQ, the more your group will have to spend to build it.
HQ rooms are numbered R00 through R99. Items are I00 through I99. Mobs (NPCs) are M00-M99, etc. Your HQ tier (see below) will limit the maximum number of each of these you can have.
(100,000 nuyen plus 50 syspoints)
All HQs start at Tier 0, which means the HQ has just been founded.
At this tier, the thematic style of the HQ is expected to be a hole in the wall sort of place– your group has found an area to squat in and maybe patched it up a bit. You will be able to freely build anything in the list below. Beyond this tier, every room, door, mob, item, and flag will have an associated cost.
Examples of Tier 0 HQs: A floor of an abandoned building, a shipping container, a derelict boat, the end of an old dock, the entrance of an unused mineshaft or cave, a vacant shop, etc.
Example thematic elements: Boarded-up windows, creaky stairs, rusty hinges, dust and disrepair.
All Tier 0 HQs come with all of the following:
Other than astral wards on apartment doors, no add-ons or alterations are available at this tier. You’re not obligated to use all of these things in your design, but they’re included for free, so it’s recommended to make the most of your allowance here.
Note that all player apartments use an unbreakable door from your allotment, but receive a ward and pickproof for free.
(500,000 nuyen and 100 syspoints)
Raising a PGHQ to this level expands the acceptable theme for your HQ and also unlocks the ability to purchase extra rooms/items/etc (detailed below). Tier 1 is the last of the tiers that can be obtained without roleplaying. The upper limits of what you're allowed to build are risen but now you have purchase each room, door, etc.
Thematically, going from Tier 0 to Tier 1 means you’ve gotten settled in and made the place livable. It’s no paradise, and the furniture you have isn’t glitzy or glamorous, but it’s comfortable enough.
At Tier 1, you may purchase up to:
See the section Expanding the HQ for details on purchasing these items.
(2,500,000 nuyen and 500 syspoints)
At Tier 2, the HQ has become too noticeable for the neighborhood to look the other way. Your group is required to participate in a staff run where you make arrangements or otherwise convince the local authorities (the Star, local gangs, the building owner, etc) to let you keep your squat. This will likely involve doing them favors or otherwise ingratiating yourselves with them.
The general theme of Tier 2 is that you’ve made your squat into a proper hideout now, complete with knocking down some walls and adding others where you please. It’s furnished, it’s comfortable, and it’s got a lot of the amenities you might expect from an office building or other active place of business– although of course, it’s still not open to the public, unless you purchase the Public Front add-on.
Raising your HQ to Tier 2 adds the following features:
You may now have mobs other than your keymaster, with a number of unique mobs capped at your headcount (not counting the keymaster).
You may now have shops other than your keymaster. Remember that each shop requires its own dedicated mob, and there can only be one shop per room. These shops must be behind locked doors and not accessible to the public until you obtain the Public Front add-on (described later in this document).
With the above in mind, you may purchase the following additional items:
See the section Expanding the HQ for details on purchasing these items.
(15,000,000 nuyen and 1000 syspoints)
To achieve Tier 3, further RP is required, generally centered around establishing your group as an actual force to be reckoned with in the larger community of the shadows. You’ll need a good explanation for why megacorps and other targets are not cracking down on you– do you have a protector? Some kompromat? A sweetheart deal? Whatever the case, it takes significant and sustained roleplay to be approved for a Tier 3 HQ. Note that this adds extra staff burden, which is reflected in the cost of this tier.
The general theme of Tier 3 is that you’ve established your group as a proper shadowrunning business or outfit that occupies the majority of your building / area / etc. While you can’t exactly leave your front doors unlocked for any random passersby to snoop (unless you’ve purchased the Public Front add-on, see below), you can still enjoy the extra space, improved finishes, and upgraded features available with this top-tier HQ. You’ve also gotten enough soundproofing installed to have noisy things such as gun ranges, cells with screaming (non-player) prisoners, and other such niceties, and you’ve worked out deals with local suppliers to get resources in on the down-low.
Your maximums increase by the following:
See the section Expanding the HQ for details on purchasing these items.
NOTE: Each HQ has a HARD CAP of 100 total items, which includes keys, furniture, custom items, etc. You will have to design your HQ to have no more than 100 total items, which means if you want to reach your full complement of 50 custom items, you may need to sacrifice a few pieces of furniture or consolidate some doors to the same keys, etc.
(100,000 nuyen, 25 syspoints)
The Matrix Access add-on is purchasable starting at Tier 1 and represents your group obtaining illegal access to the Matrix, likely by tapping someone else’s line. This add-on allows you to add a single jackpoint to a public space connected to your HQ. At Tier 1 this would be your garage area if it's an openly accessible spot like a parking lot. At Tier 2 you could put it in your local business, bar, etc.
NOTE: This jackpoint is for RP purposes. It will be I/O speed 1, making it unsuitable for paydata downloads to prevent abuse.
(500,000 nuyen, 100 syspoints)
The Matrix Presence add-on is purchasable starting at Tier 2 and represents your group setting up the hardware to host Matrix nodes. Some RP will be required here. This add-on allows you to add up to 10 Matrix nodes to your HQ (included in this add-on’s cost), with the caveat that these nodes are for socialization only: They will not have ICs or paydata.
These nodes will be linked to the proximally-nearest LTG, and will be publicly accessible to anyone who can discover them, although you may choose whether or not they have an obvious entrance from the LTG.
(1,000,000 nuyen, 250 syspoints)
The Public Front add-on is purchasable starting at Tier 2 and represents your group putting significant time and resources into obtaining the necessary licenses and authorizations to open up a legitimate business (whether it’s legitimate in the eyes of the corps, or only in the eyes of the neighborhood Yakuza gang, is entirely up to you). This means you can run a bar, club, theater, restaurant, gambling parlor, or anything else you please with it.
The Public Front add-on requires a significant amount of RP. Your group will work with staff to build up a storyline about how you get the necessary permissions and how that all plays out.
Once you get it, you unlock the following perks:
As a public area, any Public Front space (aka anything that people can walk in off the street and access) is subject to increased scrutiny / quality control from builders. Please be patient with us while we work with you to ensure it meets quality standards. This may require revisions to your existing room descriptions etc.
(10,000,000 nuyen, 500 syspoints)
The Neighborhood Influence add-on is purchasable starting at Tier 2. It is a reflection of the time and resources your group has put into showing your presence and power over a specific neighborhood. It requires a significant amount of roleplay that shows your group has done something to either ingratiate themselves with or gain power over the neighborhood populace.
This will allow you to build outside of your HQ, creating a further neighborhood or addition that has your people, thugs, or signs of your organization there to show that this is your “turf.”
This is specifically designed to let you create things like streets, alleys, paths, parks, and other public-access outdoor things. It could also conceivably be used to create an apartment building with non-rentable apartments inhabited by NPCs. It does NOT allow you to build a nightclub, bar, corp, office, etc outside of your HQ– anything built under the aegis of Neighborhood Influence must be public space, accessible to all, and owned by NPCs who are not under the direct control of your HQ.
The Neighborhood Front add-on is expensive because it includes ~50 public rooms (your HQ is hard capped to 100 rooms, so you may not be able to use a few public rooms depending on how large your existing HQ is). As a public area, this area is subject to increased scrutiny / quality control from builders, so please be patient with us while we work with you to ensure it meets quality standards.
Only the Basic Tier (tier 0) comes with things included. For all other tiers, you may purchase things up to the maximum.
The standard door costs 1 syspoint. It can be upgraded in the following mutually-compatible ways:
Rooms cost 10 syspoints each, and can be upgraded with the following flags for an additional 1 syspoint each:
You can also change the following fields (1 sysp per changed field):
Additionally, rooms can be upgraded with the following “premium” options:
You must provide the room name and room description for each room you request. You may optionally also provide a night description that is automatically swapped out during the game day. For example, this is the entrance to the Junkyard: —
Room name: Just Inside the Gates Room Desc: Claustrophobic towers of crushed cars and metal debris choke the pathway here, leaving barely enough room to squeeze a vehicle through. A deep crimson sedan has slid partially off one of the piles and hangs precariously overhead. Night Desc (Optional): The darkness is pervasive here, the few lights that filter in from the street casting deep pools of shadow throughout the Junkyard. The vague bulk of a car that's slid from its pile hangs overhead, an ominous dark patch in the night sky above.
Provided your tier allows for it, you may purchase mobs (NPCs) for your HQ for 15 syspoints each. These mobs can be set to either wander around or stand still, at your discretion. They will refuse to leave your HQ. Required Fields You must provide the name, room description, and look description of all mobs. For example, this is a clubber from Dante's:
Name: A hip clubber wannabe Room description: A clubber wannabe, trying to be hip, stands in line here. Look description: He is wearing the latest trendy threads, and has the latest trendy haircut, and is trying way too hard to look cool.
Each mob may be upgraded in one of the following mutually-exclusive “packaged” ways for a cost of 5 syspoints:
If you choose not to do any of the above mob upgrades to them, they can instead be modified with the following flags for 1 syspoint each:
Mobs cannot be equipped, and will not have nuyen rewards etc if killed. They're there to be flavor, not farmable content.
Note that all of the aggressive options above DO NOT DISCRIMINATE BASED ON PG AFFILIATION! You have been warned.
You can add furniture for 1 syspoint each. This is fully customized furniture exclusive to your HQ.
Custom items cost 5 syspoints each. These items are deliberately not best-in-slot, and do not include cyberware, bioware, etc; the purpose of these items is to be roleplaying props such as furniture, specialty food, and other unique ways to rep your group.
You can add message boards to your space for an additional 5 syspoints each, with a limit of one message board per room. These function like the Shadowlands terminals, and may either be hooked into existing non-private message boards, or may be their own message boards. These boards don’t discriminate on PG affiliation, so keep them locked up if they’re private! (Adding an existing public board like Shadowlands only costs 5 sysp, making a new one is an additional 5).
As with rooms and mobs, you must provide the descriptions for the object. Here is an Ares Predator II's:
Item name: an Ares Predator II Room description: An Ares Predator II has been dropped here. Look description: A more reliable version of the original Predator.
When you first request a PGHQ, you'll send in a map of the area you want to have made, with individual rooms, doors, items, mobs, etc called out for the builder to implement. This doesn't have to be fancy, and can even be just a text file with reference numbers for where things go; it just has to be readable and usable. Bonus points if it’s a spreadsheet though.
Once staff has reviewed your design and worked with you to make any necessary changes, costs will be added up, and you'll be asked to pay them before the HQ is built. The costs are expected to come from the PGHQ's bank.
The final step is to attach the HQ to the game world. You'll need to work closely with staff to determine where it connects and what that looks like. Please use common sense when requesting locations– unless you've RP'd with staff to get authorization from building owners etc, you're not likely to get approval for PGHQs that attach to existing restaurants, corps, etc.
The standard HQ will have one attachment to the world (i.e. a single two-way exit linking R00 to another room). More exits are available at staff discretion.
Please use a pastebin/google docs/image hosting site for the files. We do not accept downloading files. We also do not accept PDFs, documents with macros, etc.
You may edit descriptions, move flags around, etc at a cost of 2 sysp per edited thing (plus additional if the request is especially onerous, like remapping the whole HQ). Note that each edit request requires a builder to go in and change things by hand, so please bundle your edits together and submit them as one batch request rather than many small requests over time.
Anything not listed above is not purchasable.
This specifically means power sites, Hellhound bus linkups, special code, etc.
If you think something should be included that isn't, you can post in the #suggestions Discord channel to request it.