[Freya]

Me and a friend decided on doing a shadowrun campaign recently(with me as GM). The metaplot decided on for the campaign involves the Scandinavian Union, Trans Polar Aleut, Tir Na Nog, wars and Ares Macrotechnology(if it fits the campaign) with the runs involving aspects of the aforementioned or touching upon it in some fashion. So I have some related questions.

Is there any lore on the scandinavian union and its member countries? The wiki entry I found was incredibly sparse and didn't really tell me much and I couldn't really find anything in what few sourcebooks I have.

Does Trans Polar Aleut and Tir Na Nog have any military alliances going on of any sort?

Who might be likely to interfere in some fashion in a war between Scandinavia and TPA or in a war between Scandinavia and TNN? Be it selling arms or offering any form of military assistance.

Would Ares accept a contract to develop a War AI?

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

Lore on the Scandinavian Countries:  Indeed very sparse.   It's a pristine GM's Preserve!  Some of the older sources discussing the mysterious Nightwraith bombings that closed out the first Eurowars implied it could have been the Scandinavians' Air Forces.   Later sources pretty much peg the UK, but it's still never been canonically confirmed who did it.

TPA is barely allied with the rest of the NAN, much less Tir na nOg.  And Tir na nOg isn't allied with anybody.  Highly, fiercely, militantly isolationist.

So you're setting up a war between Scandinavians and the TPA.  Who'd interfere?  I'm guessing you're familiar with that part of the world, specifically the indigenous Lapplanders.  They'd potentially be quite sympathetic to the TPA and vice versa.  Of course Russia has a famous and bloody history of intervention in Finland; they might see a war in Scandinavia as an opportunity to make up for lost lands in Siberia.  I'm really not seeing why Tir na nOg would care in the least.

I'm not sure what reasons there will be for your war, or how the TPA is even going to prosecute one without having an army worth mentioning.  Potentially the UK could ally with the TPA in exchange for mineral rights in the Arctic.  More likely however would be a Megacorp backing the TPA in exchange for the same.  Of course this being Shadowrun, the Megas would be behind any war anyway- by bankrolling it or by profiting by it through inaction.  Think of MCT's attempt to turn Tsimshian into a Client state.  They could be doing the exact same thing again with the TPA, after having learned their lessons on how not to take over a country the first go thru.

While MCT actually makes a lot of sense as the corp ally for the TPA, Scandinavia is less clear.  Almost assuredly Saeder-Krupp would be the most sensible megacorp choosing to back the Scandinavians in a TPA-Scandinavia war.  Knowing what the pretexts are for your war would make it easier to suggest megacorp backers/allies/puppetmasters.

[Lorebane24]

I think this would be a ripe situation for Ares.  They might back one side, or they might play them both.  In the latter case, they'd be unlikely to commit armed personnel to the war efforts, because then you'd have Ares forces fighting Ares forces.  What they would offer is bulk arms shipments, training, and consultants.  If it turns out to be particularly profitable, I could see them intentionally making minor tactical errors that will see the two sides both making minor victories, but that will stretch out a war as long possible.

As far as actually developing an AI?  My understanding is that ever since the SCIRE incident, that is some of the blackest research you can find - no corp wants to create the next Deus, so the trend seems to be reporposes or training "found" AIs.  Of course, the megas are really good at assuming they can handle shit, so the creation of a new AI approaching the power of of the old three could be a fantastic behind-the-scenes plot.  Programming really isn't their strong suit, though, so maybe the party could be hired to run some extractions against Renraku?

[Crimsondude]

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Me and a friend decided on doing a shadowrun campaign recently(with me as GM). The metaplot decided on for the campaign involves the Scandinavian Union, Trans Polar Aleut, Tir Na Nog, wars and Ares Macrotechnology(if it fits the campaign) with the runs involving aspects of the aforementioned or touching upon it in some fashion. So I have some related questions.

Is there any lore on the scandinavian union and its member countries? The wiki entry I found was incredibly sparse and didn't really tell me much and I couldn't really find anything in what few sourcebooks I have.

Does Trans Polar Aleut and Tir Na Nog have any military alliances going on of any sort?

Who might be likely to interfere in some fashion in a war between Scandinavia and TPA or in a war between Scandinavia and TNN? Be it selling arms or offering any form of military assistance.

Would Ares accept a contract to develop a War AI?

Is this about Greenland and/or Iceland? Because it feels like it's about Greenland and/or Iceland.

There's information about the Scandinavian Union in Shadows of Europe. It's from 2063, but there hasn't been a whole lot of changes since then except that Erika became part of NeoNET.

Tír na nÓg was applying for membership in the NEEC in the early 2070s, and it's not clear whether it's become a full member since. However, if it does, then it would presumably be included in the Euroforce joint/independent NEEC military forces (basically NATO without the U.S. or Canada). Therefore, the NEEC would be likely to get involved either in support of TNN or because it is in its own interests. The ScanUnion is definitely a member of the NEEC and Euroforce. Euroforce also uses a lot of mercenaries.

There's more about these organizations in Shadows of Europe.

Ares probably has some warfighting AI working for it. There was one military AI that emerged and was identified in Unwired or Running Wild as working for Ares. So I guess it depends on what kind and size of war AI you are looking for.

The NAN is already interfering in the Thule issue on both sides because some of the southern states wants to exploit TPA and its resources – specifically its legal claim over the entire North Pole and almost all of the Arctic Ocean.

[Freya]

Some background on the metaplot as it stands: The idea is that one of the monarchs of Scandinavia has been crowned as High Queen of the Union and performed a soft coup d'etat(the democratic constitutional monarchies and the finnish republican mechanisms remains in place, but have been put in a position where they are either on the monarchs side or lack the political power and allies to do anything, allowing the monarch to essentially act like an Absolute Monarch in all but name). All the while fanning nationalistic sentiments about taking back rightful scandinavian lands with TPA being the primary target. Then Tir Na Nog next(long story short, the norse used to own parts of ireland during the viking age) once TPA has been thoroughly dealt with. The reasons for the war is thus old claims, resources(greenland has a lot of thorium including arctic access) and 'freeing' Iceland from TPA. In addition if the sixth world almanac map is correct then TPA somehow invaded Norway and took Svalbard from it. So there would be a huge resentment to play off of given the basic idea. The scandinavian military is also meant to have been preparing for this for a while at this point.

The UK isn't a target due it and Scandinavia both being in the NEEC. A war with Russia itself wouldn't be unlikely as Russia took parts of Finland during WW2 and thus their sentiments in regards to that under that climate would not be friendly on either side.

Its the Scandinavian Union that would be contracting for a War AI. At the start of the intro, it doesn't have its full capacity unlocked and the intro run is about it after someone hires a bunch of shadowrunners to 'free' the merchandise. As for its abilities, with its full functionalities operative, it would be sort of like SkyNet in that it'd control warmachines and be capable of performing electronical warfare(hacking, sabotage, etc). The actual reason for the Scandinavian government establishing the contract is something that'll be found out later in the plot(partially because I don't have all the details thought out and just a general idea of the line of events).

TNN is also meant to have had its efforts to join sabotaged and suffering from compromised circumstances in effort to weaken them ahead of time. Or at least thats the current idea.

Anyway thats the more extended explanation of the rough ideas for the metaplot thats meant to form the background for the campaign.

Also yes I do know quite a lot about Scandinavia as I'm scandinavian myself and live here.

[Beta]

For what it is worth, in The Complete Trog there is a small bit on orc / troll status and communities in the SU.

[Freya]

For what it is worth, in The Complete Trog there is a small bit on orc / troll status and communities in the SU.

The troll thing makes sense. I'd imagine there ought to be a significant elf population as well considering elves are a norse mythological creature(In real life that is) and belief in them remained significant here for many many centuries long after our region was christianized.

[Marcus]

If your going to have a nice little war across the arctic, basically I think you may have chosen a rather difficult set of dance partners.   But for the sake or argument lets say they all some how discovered something fairly wildly powerful inside circle that was valuable enough to draw all three nations into war, you would need a reason to keep other players out of it.  I think it would be easier to pick a set of corporate player and have them stage a war with the Command and control elements setup in each of those nations. Say Ares vs Evo vs Saeder-Krupp, or something similar.

Now as to War AI, i doubt Ares would try to build one. It's not really their bag, but if an AI(s) showed up and wanted to make a matrix-born equivalent of a Firewatch team I'm sure that is something they would be very interested in developing, and for good measure it could well provoke other Corps to start developing their own version of such a unit, and the Arctic would be about the prefect place to test out such a unit in real world terms, deployed very quickly, very inhospitable to humans, and nearly totally free of witnesses.

War could go on up there for a long time before anyone had clue it was actually happening.

[Freya]

Ah no. TNN isn't drawn into the war. At least not at the start unless the players end up doing something that provokes it(a run revealing interesting information for example). TPA will be invaded when Scandinavia presses its historical claims on Greenland and Iceland(exact timeframe is undecided, but Iceland would fall quickly and so would eastern Greenland). TNN holds some lands the norse once held and I can imagine some cultural reasons for having disdain for TNN as well(in terms of resources, Greenland like Norway, has large Thorium deposits and likely other things hidden as well, but the main reason is taking back what Scandinavia views at rightfully its and gaining control over the arctic is a bonus).

I figured I'd let the players have some input on how it goes after it begins depending on what runs they opt to take and for whom.

Not entirely sure what a Firewatch team is in the context of Shadowrun granted. Though I could see corps that get involved decide to use the conflict to test new weapons and the likes.

[Lorebane24]

Firewatch is Ares' elite special forces branch.  Knight Errant are the cops the send into cities, and the Black Knights (I think) are like urban SWAT teams, but Firewatch is straight up military - chromed to the gills with top-notch training and the best weapons that have ever been manufactured by the metahuman hands.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

Basically, the Ares equivalent to Renraku's Red Samurai.

[Freya]

Ah I see. Sounds pretty interesting. I'll have to look them up later.

[Crimsondude]

A foreign power, especially a foreign European power, trying to reclaim Iceland and Greenland is going to attract a response from the rest of the NAN – whether TPA wants it or not – and that means a fight with a pretty good combined-arms infantry in the Sioux (plus Wildcats special forces) and one of the biggest and most advanced air forces in the world (PCC). PCC is also wealthy enough to buy the best mercenaries money can buy. More importantly, though, is that the TPA has held onto those islands for as long as it has because the NAN might be willing to use Great Ghost Dance magic against the Scandinavians or anyone else who tries to attack them.

There's also the matter of outside agitators besides the Scandinavians's and TPA's respective NEEC and NAN allies. Quebec and the UCAS would both take interest in how far the NAN can be pushed, and if it can be, then why shouldn't they do the pushing. More importantly with regards to the UCAS is that it has been increasing the size of its military and has, relatively speaking, more proven experience and success than most nations's militaries in confronting threats like strange magic. It's used this to leverage itself into becoming the biggest player in the UN Armed Forces, in which case this would be an excellent excuse for the UCAS and the megacorps to insert themselves via peacekeeping operation into the conflict and to occupy Iceland themselves.

[Marcus]

That is basically the issue, if TPA begins losing territory on that scale there really isn't a good reason for the NAN not get involved, and every reason for them to expand the conflict. Now their ability to project power could be sharply curtailed depending on UCAS Response. But i don't really see that as stunningly likely. 

Thus I think the safer option is to spin the story line strictly in corp terms, it scales the down the conflict increase Shadow runners ability to effect the out come, and opens up the AI thing being meaningful in the smaller scale.

[Mirikon]

Agreed. Limited scale conflicts are best. Once you move into the kinds of things that get entire nations to move, you've moved past Shadowrunner level, and more into WH40K level.