So I have been working on my map of FDC and got to work trying to figure the lay of the land for Yakuza Activity. Checking the available resources (Guide to North America, Underworld, Vice) I didn’t find much on the groups listed as being the Yakuza in FDC. So I came up with my own descriptions and territories based on the names and my imagination for the 7 groups of Yakuza said to operate of out DC. If you want the original descriptions check Underworld, but with the exception of a little for the Saidoh, Mizguma, and Sheonen, pretty much nothing was described and only one location (the Lantern Bar in Alexandria) was mentioned in Guide, but with no word who runs it.
If you want to check the map you find it here (I recommend unselecting the layers you don’t need when you aren’t referencing them. There is quite a bit of confusing overlap with everything checked):
Expanded FDC Yakuza Descriptions:
The whole DeeCee area is under the Yamaguchi-Rengo (and subsequently the Yamaguchi-Gumi, part of the Watada-Rengo Alliance Based in Japan). While many Yakuza might point to the purge of the Koreans from Seattle in 2043, who then created the competing Seoulpa Rings, as a good enough reason to continue the hard line tradition of Japanese only in the Yakuza, many on the East Coast had a different take Deciding they had to be more progressive, many adopted the “New Way” and the Watada-Rengo, while mostly “Old Way” hardliners, have seen the benefits of more relaxed positions for the Yamaguchi-Rengo in DeeCee, especially as they don’t want to lose their one foothold on the East coast to the Shotozomi-Rengo, who split from the Watada-Rengo, and now control the West and North-East coast but still remain mostly Old-Way conservatives save for few women and metahumans employed for jobs “beneath” the men. The Watada-Rengo give the Yamaguchi-Rengo a free hand to maintain their power in North America, and some within consider it a good PR move to further reconciliation with those discontent with the Shotozomi leadership and hope one day unite the whole of the American syndicates. For now the Yamaguchi-Rengo and their 7 organizations remain the Watada’s only lynchpin in North America.
The 7:
1. Saidoh-Gumi (The Silks) – Yak higher Ups for the Area. Handle UCAS Yak disputes and pass down info from Yamaguchi-gumi higher ups. HQ in the Evermay Estate whose gardens have been modernized with Japanese sensibilities. They have Consultant offices in DC (Donburi Consulting) near the Japanese UCAS Foundation. They focus mostly on Sokaiya (Corporate Extortion) and exclusive “true” bunraku parlors that cater to elite power player tastes. Their direct nawabari (“Roped Area”, territory) is the downtown to west side of DC proper (West End, Georgetown) trading land area for power position, though being the higher ups for the area technically makes the whole FDC fall under their purview.
Creation Notes: Traditional Yakuza with discrete and competent soldiers and lots of political pull.
2. Matsui-Gumi (The Roadsters) – The most “Classic” Yakuza of the Rengo, and by classic I mean a weird mix of every pre-century exploitation film on Yakuza. Big hair, disco suits, flashy cars from modded muscle cars to later Japanese Ricer models. They focus mostly on street racing and betting, smuggling, and cheap mobile prostitution. They are headquartered out of a mall in Centreville and their nawabari is a large donut around the major roads in the southwest of the FDC and into North Virginia (66E to 286S to 95S to 234N back to 66). They don’t rule the roads (Ares & Fedpol would have issues with that) but getting anywhere in the zone fast is what gives them power. Also makes them damn fast pizza deliverers if you are willing to tip very well. Their business (“The Rising Dough” chain) actually makes surprisingly good old fashioned round pizza (In addition to the typical square corpo soycrust), but it is its side function as a drug delivery and money laundering service that makes it shine. The recent addition of “Special Order” Dough Girls (Delivery girl escorts) to the menu have also expanded their mobile prostitution services, and started a rivalry with competing delivery chains.
Creation Notes: Leisure suit wearing, bouffant sporting, ricer driving drifters. No original description in the books so I originally meant for them to be the low level generic foot soldiers Yakuza anyone fought when they fought “Yakuza” but the second I wrote “classic”, this image came to mind.
3. Fudo-Rengo (The Immovable League) – Distinguished by the number of large meta-humans in their employ, they remain very Japanese in their higher ranks, but are more willing than most other yak groups to accept Ork & Troll members (though still preferably Japanese) especially for the Meta-Human Sumo leagues they shadow sponsor. Very big on sport and fight gambling, their facilities mostly feature every type of unarmored combat fights (Sumo, MMA, Animal fights, Jello wrestling, etc) and the availability of Ring Girls for private engagements. To this end their lower ranks are actually starting to accept non-Japanese, provided they are excellent athletes and willing to essentially convert to Japanese traditions. The large following of Japanese animes among the students of Howard near their HQ, means they are the highest percentage of recruits willing to make the turn, and some of the higher ups worry what strange mix the league will become over time. Their nawabari is Shaw to NE DC (Shaw, NE, Takoma, Silver Spring)
Creation Notes: Immovable huh…Sumo Wrestlers! Yakuza often involved in the sport so I thought the other way around would be fun. They tend to portray the sport as athletic so I thought sport related vices would their forte.
4. The Sessho-Gumi (The Demon Spawn) – Distinguished by the acceptance of magic users and shape-shifters in their mix as well as Oni they love to keep gussied up to scare people. Results in their top enforcers being Magic Fox Assassins. While still not very accepting of Non-Japanese, prevalence of Kitsune members means more openness to Female leadership. Said to be in possession of the actual Sessho-Seki (Kitsune haunted Japanese stone said to kill any who touches it) and have created several variations of it as weapons to include one ridiculous incident with a stone simply labeled “Pick me up” that took out a whole squad of patrols. They mostly focus on traditional prostitution, gambling, and river smuggling. Their nawabari is Alexandria and the Mount Vernon Neighborhoods, and they are the local connection to the Oni-Do (Goblin way) ninja clans should such specialists need to be brought in.
Creation Notes: Shinto mages with kitsune and oni warriors. Again no description in the books, so had no idea until I looked up sessho and found it was also the name of haunted rock. So they became the one yakuza group who would take the magically inclined.
5. Chong-Pak-Pa (The K-Yak) – The oft pointed to answer to the questions raised of the Seolpa Rings, they are Yakuza, but they are Korean, but they are Yakuza. The Chong swear fealty to the Yamguchi to be called Yakuza, but have decided they shall remain proudly Korean and adhere to only the most basic tenets of the Yakuza, the 3 three major principles of the Code of Honor: Jingi, Giri and Ninjo. All three fit perfectly well with Korean notions, meaning they stick to acting civilized and proper (Jingi) and don’t harm innocents, remember their duties and obligations to the Oyabun, and favors owed (Giri), and sympathy for the common man (Ninjo) and they take offense of justice in their nawabari seriously. They also follow the tradition of Irezumi (Family Markings), but being typically less conservative of dress (More open collars, etc) and more conservative of tattoos, they reduce the area of a “full” tattoo to side of the chest with a deep v spacing keeping the tattooed space to their sides, lower center back and upper hips with led tats if the pattern extends further down the thighs or shoulders. This means the males can wear v-necks or tank tops and the females deep v dresses or one piece swimsuits without broadcasting allegiances. They also follow the tradition of Yabitsume (Finger Cutting) as that follows for Yakuza higher ups, but they are more likely to replace the lost digit with modular prosthetics allowing them to hide this in public, but sport a chromed version for Yakuza Events. They also don’t exclusively recruit Koreans, they mostly do, but they want to avoid the issue the old Yakuza had and so will allow non-koreans to join, provided they learn “What it means to be Korean”. This can be a hard thing to quantify but involves learning the language, the food, and several cultural concepts, something that seems to happen with mixed Korean couples anyway which is where they get most of their outside recruits. This audacity to drop the Japanese portion offends many other more conservative Yakuza groups, but their success within the Yakuza shows their advantage. In the DC area they have successful carved out a large crescent of a nawabari stretching from Springfield through Annandale to Vienna, through Reston over the river and around to Ellicott City. And since their operations are very good at being legitimate businesses in their own right they have fewer troubles with law enforcement than the others such as the Matsui-Gumi, or especially the Shonen-Gireina. They also seem to employ of the best cosmetic and cyberdocs in the area, specializing in just good looking cyberware.
Creation Notes: Koreans, hard working and proud and will not be erased culturally by the Japanese, but fast to integrate as part of other cultures while maintaining cultural identity. Very business and media focused with secondaries in biotech.
6. Mizugumo-Rengo (The Water-Spider League) – The odd couple league. The entire group seems a mix of the classic Straight Man/Slacker work relationship. Clean cut and stoic corporate ninjas working side by side introverted technical geniuses, at least when it comes to illegal information gathering. To avoid a schism the group works in assigned partners (One from each group to create Agent/Decker Combos) and then teams (For good natured competition). They also unite over dedication to the craft (Ninjutsu Kata Practice, Matrix duels, Shinto rituals) and traditional Japanese leisure activities (Fine eating, Bathing, etc) to actually get the two groups together in the real regularly. Otherwise they would remain only connected as a Decker Riding the sensorium of the ninja, an intimate connection to be sure (Especially depending on the cyberware the ninja has) but it is good to physically connect (or the deckers might never leave their cubes, like some tenants in their HQ). Their fascination with the possibilities of the matrix (Sensorium riding, matrix hosts, cyberware enhancements) does mean they are more flexible with recruits of non-Japanese and meta-humans provided they can get with the yak culture (Honor transcends the Flesh) and means they have an excellent working relationship with the Chong-Pak-Pa (Korean Yakuza) as the two groups bond over they shared love of the Matrix and Matrix culture, and have several joint ventures together. Also while not their main stay the Miz are big with Personafix performers, and more accepting of women in their ranks. This is due to the fit of an augmented performer with a full sim-recording suite making an excellent miz agent with decker support and rumors that the Oyaban and his second (A razorgirl) made just such a team. Their nawabari starts north of Fort Meade and down to encompass Laurel, but their joint project with the Chong (The Den of Sin) is in Ellicott City and they have an “Embassy” or secondary HQ next to the Chong HQ in Annandale.
Creation Notes: Decker/Street Sam team up organization. Mentioned to be good deckers, and corporate espionage focused, but nothing else. A bunch of good Japanese deckers brings to mind stories of japanese living in internet cafes while corporate espionage brought more suave spy types to mind. Every good field agent in Shadowrun needs a decker in their ear so I thought that would make for an interesting group. I realized it had been done with Case (Decker) and Molly (Razorgirl) in Neuromancer so there was the prime example.
7. Shonen-Gireina (The Pretty Boys) – The traditional “Bad” Yakuza. Violent, racist, misogynistic, superstitious, greedy, and dishonorable. Some feel they are little better lowly street punks and could barely be called Yakuza, but they do uphold the tenant of obedience to their oyuban and thus are accepted as Yakuza. To them Yakuza means power and money, they forget the other tenants or the tradition of choice (That others should choose to interact with them of their own will). Most come fresh off the Jet and are short tempered with anyone not a Japanese Male, but are happy to run others as cannon fodder. The run the gamut of vice crimes but usually from the seedy low end, keeping their “employees” on short leashes and often operate out of defunct storage facilities they can secure. Their style is new money gangsters. Obnoxiously loud, but often ill-tailored suits with gold medallions, fancy vehicles with several aftermarket “upgrades” that are actually low end repairs, basically stuff that would have been expensive but it fell off a truck into their hands. All of to hide the low class of persons they typically are, but it comes out in their crassness and short tempers anyway. Yakuza may have traditionally recruited from the lowest in society, but it was in an effort to raise them up. The Pretty Boys just slapped on suits and gave them bats and pistols and called it a day. To be Japanese was enough, nevermind what that was supposed to mean or the civilized behavior that was supposed to go with it. Unfortunately for the local underworld they have grown in power (or at least disruptive influence) since their arrival in the 2060s and now claim a sizable nawabari from Mt. Rainer down and around the Anacostia Barrens, where they have ongoing gang wars, but often strike all over the FDC in attempts for quick scores. It surprising how easy it is to build a cannon fodder army with the promise of cheap drugs and warm available women. So long as they stay out the other group’s way (And out the more profitable businesses) the Saidoh seem content to let them spread fear of the yakuza to other gangs. This are the most common “Yakuza” the average resident or low-end criminal will encounter as they are so brazen in their actions, but also the ones least concerning to have tangled with as they are mostly on their own with regards to support from the other groups (“they brought it on themselves”), and are so disorganized it’s hard to become a wanted enemy of the whole group, at least if you take out the local cell you are dealing with. And even if you do, that is not necessarily an impediment from dealing with the other groups, as they are aware of The Pretty Boys shortcomings in professional dealings and will often judge you on your own merits.
Creation Notes: Japanese racist punks. Described as newcomers with violent tendencies (rabid animals) and backed by pro Japanese policlubs. The most fleshed out description they had. First imagined them as japanese rocker punks, but rereading the description they fit the unhinged, undereducated gangster archetype better and more fitting for generic Yakuza bad guys for when GMs just want some Yakuza to fight in the FDC but without major underworld criminal implications.
Comments or further sources of information?
UPDATE: Yakuza Nawabari (Along with other cannon underworld territories) added to my FDC Map.
