The MallPlexes are either mini-arcologies or mega-shopping

malls; no one's sure exactlywhich. Most began life as heavily

secured urban shopping malls around large, corporateowned
chain stores. Later, a business office tower would be
added, followed by residential condos and apartments. By
theearly2000's, Mallplexeswere established in most American
cities: Through the Collapse, they remained heavily patrolled
citadels of capitalism, impervious to gang warfare, food riots
and urban decay.
The stabilityof the Mallplexeswasn'twithout a cost, however.
As more and more corporations used the Mallplexes as urban
fortresses, that paramilitary mentality began to govern their
construction. Mallplex walls became impervious to anything
short of an ICBM strike; sophisticated sensors and Apex
automated weapons systems swept the surrounding streets.
Mallplex cops became feared throughout urban America as
the most draconian policeforcessince the Nazi sturmtruppen.
Inside the Mallplexes, crowded living conditions reduced the
average condominium apartment (or conapt) to a single
12'xlO' room with attached bathroom facilities, built-in
furniture, and white walls. For extra, you can even rent a
window conapt with a real 3'xS window!
Mallplexes are home to the majority of the struggling middle
class of the 21 st century. Low level managers from the megacorps,
service technicians in semi-skilled jobs, secretaries and
clericals, salespeople from the mall and surrounding business;
these are a typical cross section of Mallplexers (as they're
derisively tagged on the Street). Packed two to five people
deep intosmall, antisepticstudioapartments, Mallplexersare
the faceless hordes of the urban jungle.
Night City's Mallplex was officially established in 201 0 as the
New Harbor Shopping Redevelopment and Residential Complex;
most citydwellerssimply call it the New Harbor Mallplex. Built
on the ruins of a previous shopping center destroyed in the
1990's, itishometoroughlyten thousandinhabitants, aswell
as service workers and salespeople. The Mallplex
is huge; it contains hundreds of conapts, stores,
City. At the lowest end of the scale, you work in the Mallplex
itself, moving boxes, selling vids to Beaver brats, or flipping
soya burgers in the Food Court.
What youeat Reprocessedsoyformedt o looklike restaurant
food. Low grade pre-pack the stuff in yellow packages that
say "FOOD" on the front. During a bad week, kibble. You
knew someone who ate fresh once. He still talks about it
What you do for fun: Watch the vid. Hit the arcades, play
afewgames, jack into the latest Slade McCallahan braindance.
Hang out at the Mall. Join a juviegang and raise a little hell.
What you buy and where you get it The Mall. It's cheap.
BEAVERS
A derogatory Streetslang word derived from Leaveit to Beaver
(an old 20th century vidshow). Beavers are the suburbanites
of the 2020 decade. Made up of low-level corporate managers,
mid-level Executives and high-level techs, "Beavs" live in
Corporate-owned and controlled housing developments on
the outskirts of the urban area. Corporate-controlled is the
watchword here; minicams mounted on every light pole
continuously monitor the perfectly manicured greenbelts
and hundredsof identical single-family homes, while Corporate
Police vehicles patrol the miles of wide, landscaped streets. If
you're an Edgerunner, you'd be smart to stay clear of
Beaverville; the Corporate Police will usually run you out of
town after dark. If you're Streetscum, you'd better not show
your face around here at all; they're constantly building in
Beaverville and the landfill always hasspace for another body.
Around the Night City area are several Beavervilles; home to
the thousands of drones who man the keyboards of the
Corporate Center. Given picturesque names like WestWind
Estates (In Pacifica), The Oaks (Northoak), Apple Corporate
Valley (Hepvood ), Del Coronado Harbor (Rancho Coronado)
and Executive Estates (Westbrook), they are all connected to
the Corporate Center by various private maglev lines. These
sretactiroenast,i ointsa ol wconm firpele dxeps,a rstmcheonotl sa, ndb rao apdrivcatset As a
Ma/@/exay ou eatlowgradeprp-
"FOOD" on the h n t During a bad week,
police force. Most of the residential and
governmentofficesareonth eupperfloors; a pass
card is required to enter any area except the two
ground levels (which are open to the public at &k ms<wneone &e
large). Access to Mallplex pass cards is tightly
controlled; a lost or stolen card carries a 1,000eb
p&: & stuffin YdbWp7CkageS ahat Ury
-* He -71 falks about k
replacement fine; second offenses will result in
automatic eviction from the Mallplex.
If You're a Mallplexer-
Where you work If you're lucky, in a clerical job in the
Corporate Center. If you're not so lucky, in any one of a
million boring sales, service or clerical jobs throughout the
lines enter the City through the lower level of the Night City
Transit Center. To enter a Beaverville train requires a special
pass card which is keyed to each Corporate development;
ridersmust passthroughan entrygateconstantlyscanned by
security monitors. All of the Night City Area Beavervilles are
within twenty minutes of the City.

Life in Beaverville isn’t unpleasant. It’s very clean, quiet, and

a great place to raise a family. Maybe the neat, orderly
procession of shopping center, housing tract, shopping
center and park bothers the Edgerunners, but to a Beaver, it’s
a lot better than living in the Mallplex. The homes are
relatively comfortable (if a little small), inexpensive (the low
rent is automatically deducted from your salary), and easy to
keep up (corporate maintenance services are available at a
nominal fee). There aresome class divisions; Executive homes
are clustered in one area and have rents strategically set to be
outside of a Manager‘ssalary. Most upper management lives
outside of the Corporate Development, but the Developments
are open to all races, creeds and colors. just as long as they
work for the Corporation, that is.
Zone, clustered in decaying, half destroyed tenements. Those
are the lucky ones; the unlucky ones are crammed into
6’x3’x3’ “coffins”- ubiquitous sleeping cubes erected as
mass storage modules for the millions of homeless littering
21 st century America. The really unlucky are living right on
the street, in packing crates, under overpasses, and in
dumpsters.
Not all the Streetscum are victims; a lot of them are the
victimizers. The Combat Zone is the home of the worst
gangs: mondo cybered-up boosters, screaming dorphers,
crazies, culties, killers, hate groups- you name it. The
chromers and posers stay uptown with the Edgerunners,
Corpzoners and Movers. Down in the Combat Zone, the
gangs play for keeps.
Security? Dream on. The City police don‘t even
make patrols down here in the Combat Zone.
The Corporate Law rounds up the worst of the
scum and dumps it down here with suggestions
like “Don‘t let us catch you uptown again,
Men things get too bad...the Cops
send a few ops squads in to ‘‘dean

things up“. ...

the boosters fight back,
and the hole thing disintegrates into a
free-for-all t em~ e swt ith the bodies
scumbag.” There are a few places where the-City
or the ruling corporations have mounted
minicams up on high steel poles, but the
piled man-high.
If You‘re a Beaver-
Where you work In the Corporate Center as a midlevel
manager, or at one of the Corporation’s subsidiaries around
the City. You have a desk, a terminal, and maybe even an
office. You‘re sort of like a Mover with a family and a lot less
social life.
What you eat: Middle of the road pre-pack. Sometimes you
blow out the family budget and buy some real meat steaksfor
you and the spouse and hamburgers for the kids. You don’t
have to worry about eating kibble; the Corporation makes
sure of that by providing supplementary food coupons for
employees.
What you do for fun: Picnics in the greenbelts and parks
around your housing tract. Watching the video with the
family. Softball games.
What you buy andwhere you getit: At the local, corporateowned
mini-mall in your suburb. Sometimes you pick up
something nice for the family at the New Harbor Mallplex. You
once went to Grandmi// to buy the spouse a new outfit for a
Company dinner.
STREETSCUM
They call themselves Streetscum; the urban poor who can’t
make the rent on a Mallplex conapt. Most live in the Combat
scavengers usually tear them down and sell the
cameras, pole and all, for salvage. The minicams
hidden on the sides of buildings are sometimes
missed, but hey, no one’s watching the monitors anyway,
right?
In the worst cities, ten foot high concrete walls divide the
Combat Zone from the rest of the city. Heavily armed
checkpoints straddle the few streets in and out, while AV-4
patrols sweep overhead pinning the inhabitants in the glare
of arc-spots. When things get too bad in the Zone, the Corps
send a few ops squads in to ”clean things up“. Or maybe the
boosters fight back, and the whole thing disintegrates into a
free-for-all terrorfest with the bodies piled man-high.
You know the drill here in the Combat Zone. Stay low. Take
no risks. Survive as long as you can. One day, you’re going to
get your hands on the power; the cyber and weapons you
need to take back the Street. One day, the Streetscum will rise
and conquer the City. You plan to be there.
If You’re Streetscum-
Where you work Work?
What you eat: Kibble. Canned soy. Rats.
What you do for fun: Drink Smashm. Do cheap drugs. Get
together with your choombas and do the megaviolent thing
on the losers in the tenement down the Street.
What you buy and where you get it: You steal it