Noir is a landlocked city with an underground network of caverns and reservoir. It is located on a moon colony of the planet Traveller, and is part of the Unity Protocol.

Noir is a heavily urbanized and industrialized city-colony-moon of Traveller. Noir actually began as an experiment into deregulation by the Unity Protocol, and was a city from the get-go. The planetoid itself took a little bit of time to terraform, but was found to have most of the ingredients for a sustainable planetoid already present. Like the other moons, artificial gravity generators help level out the gravity to be within normal tolerances of 1G.

Noir was found to have many natural caverns and water reservoirs beneath its surface, so it was an ideal candidate to turn that into infrastructure and a foundation for a populous territory. The planetoid's rotation is such that sunlight never ends up directly above the city at noon, instead going through a period of “Sunrise, twilight, sunset, nighttime”. The city-moon has very little natural or native wildlife beyond pests and strays that escaped and bred too much. Noir is eighty years old.

Records and information about Noir and its citizens are kept at City Hall.

For a city with a people as divided as Noir's, there is a surprising variety of life. Just about any intelligent lifeform will come to Noir, hoping to make a fortune or a quick buck.

The most common crimes in Noir are just about anything you can think of, and possibly infractions there aren't even laws for yet.

The following player character and non-player characters are natives of Noir:

• Counsellors, Politicians and Elected Officials - Noir has few politicians that brave the fray since Kandin took office. Most officials are “suggested” by him and end up in the post. Their PR is great.
  • Kandin Ta Jalokia - The elected governor/mayor for the past 15 years. He's an Oddbody man with black hair no discernible augmentations or improvements, but he runs his city with an iron fist. Kandin is a veteran of the EAD¹⁾, but doesn't tout the fact - instead running his platform of a native-born Noir resident trying to make his city better. Needless to say, he wins every election under suspicious circumstances, likely due to his many crime connections throughout the city. In a word, he is the key to keeping the city's various factions under control and not in open warfare. The Units may not enjoy Kandin's presence or style, but they do not want him gone, as the projected outcomes of a power vacuum be much worse than status quo. The best outcome to them is a peaceful succession - no matter how it takes shape in Noir.
  • Yedije Jals - This glyph mage comes from a long line of talented Hagblood casters, and is Kandin's right hand and frequent fling. She's responsible for making sure all the gears in the city keep turning so the lord governor/mayor can focus on the big picture of things.
  • Wyaan Drexler - This politician is trying desperately, and failing spectacularly at cleaning up Noir. He can be counted on to always do the right thing - which ironically makes him easy to goad and manipulate. He will not accept a bribe or 'dirty money', and it ends up biting him in the ass since he keeps burning bridges he cannot. He keeps a place within Noir's sham of a government primarily for Kandlin's amusement - if nothing else, the guy's got conviction.
  • Walter Gearshift - The Greaseheart man in charge of the city's police. He's a mage with a penchant for heavy-handed actions and even greasier palms. But, his magical talents make him formidable in his own right, and Kingsbury is all the “safer” for it. Rumor has it he is a cannibal, but nobody that's asked the question has ever stayed around to prove it.
• Businesspeople
  • Hyun Il-hwa, “Mr. Turtle” - The owner of the recreational cruise line, Shell Entertainment. This man just oozes the essence of a weasel, but he maintains a respectable business servicing thousands of cashed up holiday makers every day.
  • Erik Van Krupp - Owner and inheritor of Gruppen Tanhauss, Erik Van Krupp was a Maidenhand, but a chronic health condition has progressed into him becoming a mostly cybernetic machine intelligence to remain in control of his company and aware of his surroundings. With his imperfect form and limited mobility, the vultures of his business competitors are circling around Erik's business, and he leaves the management of his company and its arms to the likes of his CFO Ilsa Mout-Battenberg, and his board of directors.
  • Yewon Gamble - The flamboyant Mindeye in charge of Gamble's Runners, he made his initial fortune lucking out on a job for a gang going south while he was delivering a suitcase of money. He has since built his courier group and one of Noir's free newspapers, the Gambler Gazette, which covers Noir's happenings and crime/hotzone forecasts.
• Celebrities
  • Jirou Harridan - This dark-haired man is a Noir native, born and raised on the streets. He came back to the city after a successful career in the EAD²⁾ and regularly runs charity events while working out of Shinka Studios.
  • Lass Bunnington/Eros Cristaldi~ - A Balance expat from Lynval, this bunny-eared porn star owns and operates the Bouquet Club. She had a medical degree (revoked), is a civil engineer, and dabbles in slave trading on her sundays.
  • Jillian MacNamara - A supermodel who poses for a lot of racy magazines and lends her likeliness to pin up artists. She is most often chosen to be an image of the Greaseheart Goddess Velocian, Lady of Acceleration. Before her supermodelling career, she was a street racer turned professional and still practices her driving skills, regularly finding or making races across the tracks and roads of Traveller's colonies.
• Groups - In Noir, as it is a wretched hive of scum and villainy, a lot of social groups have formed and taken root in the city.
  • The Ordinant Hand - Possibly the largest gang in the city, the Ordinant Hand maintains control over Gala Walk. It is primarily comprised of blood and honorary Maidenhands, blending both Sukeban and bōsōzoku aesthetics. Their motto is, “Blood first, fashion second.”
  • The Codebreaker Clan - A group of cyber-warriors taking up residence in and around the Switchboard. They run most of the black market technology trade in the city. They prefer letting their devices do the work for them, and more often than not businesses owned or “protected” by them will have combat drones about. They prefer excessively close fitting leather outfits.
  • The Suits - Not technically a singular group, the Suits is the catchall name given to corporate sting squads operating in Noir by the locals. They're always well armed and brutal in their tactics.
  • Gamble's Runners - The Runners are the biggest courier service in Noir. They have a strict code of honor when dealing with their goods, and never ask questions. People tend not to mess with them, because hitting one runner invites the wrath of the rest of the organization, which is a war nobody wants to have since every Runner is a walking firefight. Otherwise, very individualistic. Runners get automatic notifications on their comm devices as request for pickup and then go for it.
  • Sweepers - The Noir equivalent of Sargasso's Brushers. This coalition of home-grown bounty hunters and militiafolk attempt to bring down the law where the cops dare not tread. There is a rivalry on message boards between them and the Brushers.
  • Die Gotthammers - A splinter of defectors from Tanhauss, putting their advanced technology towards noble goals, and fucking up anyone with the same tech who gets in their way. They park in the Hothouse.
  • Les Hospitalliers - Led by an ex-EAD member, the Hospitallier, these good-samaritan street medics offer free emergency care on the streets to anybody who needs it, regardless of affiliation.
  • Talon Striders - A formerly up-and-coming gang, the Striders were a Solemn based gang that through some lucky breaks had managed to secure a large area in Solemn and had a huge power base and were in the process of brokering a 3 way truce between themselves, the Ordinant Hand, and the Codebreaker Clan. But, since being blamed for the PA 269 bombings of Noir, the gang is largely broken and only a few holdouts remain.
• Other
  • The Hand - A hitman who works for no particular organisation, instead lending their services to the mobs and gangs of Noir - for steep prices. Nobody has lived to see The Hand in the flesh or get a mark on their identity, as they make their dealings and transactions through numerous catspaws and sock puppets, and never works digitally. The mere mention of The Hand in hushed voices sends shivers up the spines of common thugs, and even makes bound-in-blood made men think twice.

Given Noir's propensity to use and abuse every inch of real-estate with industrial or technological development, much of the bizarre phenomena revolves around these things.

• Shutterspectres - Weird Things that live beyond mortal perception quite literally - all documented cases of a Shutterspectre involve cameras or recording devices of some kind. While manifestations are merely uncommon, very little evidence exists beyond testimony from those being haunted. Shutterspectres tend to stalk individuals through various devices (Though it is believed that the devices simply show where the spectre actually is) and generally make a non-interactive nuisance of themselves. There have been some documented cases of people being stalked into madness or even death, but investigation leads to the cause being stress, not any magical or psionic effect in play. Shutterspectres tend to take the form of skeletal entities with a shadowed covering mimicking flesh or fur or scale or what-have-you
• Industrial Sourcia -
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Noir's economy is primarily fuelled by its refinement and manufacturing industry, followed by their cultural exports of fashion and entertainment. As Noir does not have many natural resources of its own, all resources have to come from off-planet - which help strengthen trade ties to the other moons. In particular, much of the raw material needed for Noir's industry comes from Sargasso, a fellow colony with close ties. In return for resources, Noir provides its sister colony with goods and services at low prices.

The following occupations are synonymous with Noir's residents.

Noir lacks a bus system, instead relying on two separate rail systems - a hanging rail magrail for the wealthy types in the upper floors and a pneumatic subway system for their preferred method of mass transit.

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For GMs	Each neighbourhood and their locations can serve as plot hooks for adventures and other roleplaying. Let these prompts be your starting points, and diversify from there.

The crème de la crème, Kingsbury is where all the well-to-do live and work, and is where the governor-mayor resides. No district is nicer than Kingsbury, and no gang will step foot in this hallowed ground. Mainly because the last gang that did ended up as examples to the rest.

• Emperor's Castle - The governmental center of Noir. At the top of this behemoth skyscraper, a penthouse suite for the governor to look down on his city. Otherwise, every major municipal government office is located in this one building. It even has its own private security force, to both deal with internal and external threats.
• Early Bird Corporate Park - This collection of skyscrapers compose most of downtown⁴⁾ Noir, and is where many corporate interests make their home. Glass, sealed bridges connect the various buildings together for easy access and most have a variety of amenities (food courts, housing, etc) to keep the employees within the confines rather than letting them risk the streets.
• Tanhauss 'Furcht-Turmschloss' Tower - Gruppen Tanhauss's corporate headquarters, and joint medical pavilion for the best healthcare in the city for those with money, and the most experimental healthcare in the city for those without money.

Gala Walk is the theatre and fashion district of Noir. If one can survive the others, this is the most second-most well kept area in the city, heavily patrolled and monitored by the Ordinant Hand. Needless to say, it is the place to see and be seen by other well-to-do individuals.

• The Ruby Palace - Both an immense opera house and headquarters of the Ordinant Hand, this fanciful building is everything a very, very expensive opera house should be. Opulent, regal, decadent even. Regular concerts ranging from musicals, operas, ballets, tragedies, and classical comedies keep the place flush with cash and acting talent.
• The Satin Market - This is a mall, if a mall were nothing but high-end shopping. Nothing but the finest goods can be found at the Satin market, aided by the healthy underground market.
• Ulyn Red Memorial Spaceport - This spaceport, named for the former mayor of Noir, is the only legal location to enter and exit the city from outer space, from both passengers and cargo. This falls at the northern edge of the city itself, and at the edge of controlled territory by any gang or larger group - thus, there is a truce over this port so that everybody gets what they need.
• Shinka Studios - The primary purveyor of fictional televised and VR entertainment in Noir.

This district is the most war torn and scarred, ironically earning its name. The place has a gang for every building, a king in every tiny castle trying to carve out turf in this large expanse of densely populated blocks.

• Liet Dahn - The Rolaan neighbourhood of Noir, this is where most of the Rolaan live in Noir. Located in a renovated space beneath the district, many of the saurian creatures try to make their humble living while keeping the gangs above at bay.
• Sleep-Tite Complexes - The Sleep-Tites were a housing initiative several mayors back to provide safe haven housing to the residents of Solemn. These massive concrete buildings are all-in-one schooling, housing, dining, and recreational blocks. Unfortunately, this made them very susceptible to gang control when the initiative fell through just after finishing the construction. Now, these end up as village and keep rather than a bulwark against the criminal hordes.
• Bliss Bulwark - A kluge of construction, the Bliss Bulwark was once a major project intended to replace a literal wall blocking off Solemn and Kingsbury (to separate the destitute section of Noir off) and add many luxury businesses along the strip. But, the project lost funding, was bought out, constructed over, embezzled funds, abandoned, bought out, ad infinitum until the entire locale is a stretch of varying but unfinished work. Ambitious developers try taking on the project anew every year to try and make Kingsbury even greater before cutting their losses
  • The Bouquet Club - A brothel operating next to a key access between the two districts, the Bouquet Club has a distinctly floral theme and caters to the two classes of clientele they get, admirably. The higher class portion of the club has literal beds of roses, cultivated through some genius research.

Less violent than Solemn, but not as “safe” as Gala Walk, Chelton is where middle-income folks tend to live. It's far more of an normal city zone, with high rises and neon-laden streets abound.

• The Dancefloor - The most popular nightclub-come-district in the city, the Dance Floor is the liveliest bit of fun available in Chelton. There's a main concert hall for the dancers, private entertainment lounges, and even a fight pit or two.
• Switchboard - Switchboard is the tech hotspot of Noir, home of the local Noir Nightly News (NNN) among other broadcasters, cybercafes, memory dens, and shops. If one needs a hot piece of tech, this is the place to find it.
• Hanging Garden Hotel - This solarium hotel is the greenest place in Noir. It also happens to serve as an agreed-upon neutral ground for all the city's gangs, and if anybody violates the sacred truce, not only do they have every other gang to deal with, but also the Garden's druids as well.

The industrial district of Noir, where many products are refined from raw resources and materials are brought in. Worker's rights and protections - even for robots - are an optional suggestion; The reason? More cash for the decision makers, who must have prodigious quantity of mind given the time it takes for them to come to 'decisions'.

• The Box Tops - The largest concentration of warehouses in Noir. A great place to store goods, fight ne'er-do-wells, and have dramatic standoffs. It's also an area with fluctuating levels of security, from building to building.
• Fell Complex - A derelict fish oil refinery with a history of hauntings. Rumor has it a serial murderer roamed while it was still in use and forced it to shut down for good. These days, anybody that tries to refurbish the facility suffers horrible, horrible accidents. Even the demolition crews can't get near it.
• Tohr Factory - The primary production facility for Tohr products that aren't the TEC. As they do not trust the locals with the TECnology, those are constructed on a satellite station.

Listen to lots of Power Glove, Perturbator, Mega Drive, and Lazerhawk while in Noir. On top of that, rewatch Blade Runner, and readi some of Shadowrun's printed setting material. Get it? Got it? Good!