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Some lore questions

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Freya

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« Reply #30 on: <04-02-18/0614:20> »
Almost sounds like you're recreating the Kalmar Union of 1397-1523.

I have a question though. Why would Maersk or for that matter the queen be antagonistic to each other?  Seems to me that they would instead be natural allies in the effort to limit the power and influence of the "foreign" megacorps just like you see with the Japan corps and UCAS/Ares.
I was inspired by real historical events. The Kalmar Union is one of them yes. Comes with being something of a history geek I suppose. :)

They aren't hostile by 2078 because Maersk has been dealt with by that point either through alliances, subversions, subjugations or other means. I'm leaving it open for now exactly how it went.

EDIT: Come to think of it, are there any details on the Black Tide?
« Last Edit: <04-03-18/0941:41> by Freya »

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #31 on: <04-03-18/1705:00> »
EDIT: Come to think of it, are there any details on the Black Tide?

There's the wiki entry.  As it's the same source as I've been pulling Scandinavian Union info from, it's right here and handy :D

The context is this event basically was part of the chaos that was the awakening.  VITAS is killing people, babies are being born freaks (UGE), and even nature itself is going bonzo.  Volcanoes and earthquakes wrack France and Ibera, and the Black Tide swamps northwest Europe.  "Millions displaced and thousands died."  The tidewaters left toxic messes that wrecked things for years and years to come.  In Norway's case, the disaster and subsequent cleanup is surely the start of the process that brings the country from being "once prosperous" to ultimately "poor, bleak, and dreary" in the 2070s.

All in all, the Black Tide is given two sentences of description in the original source.  My summary ended up being longer than the raw text.
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Freya

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« Reply #32 on: <04-03-18/1758:49> »
EDIT: Come to think of it, are there any details on the Black Tide?

There's the wiki entry.  As it's the same source as I've been pulling Scandinavian Union info from, it's right here and handy :D

The context is this event basically was part of the chaos that was the awakening.  VITAS is killing people, babies are being born freaks (UGE), and even nature itself is going bonzo.  Volcanoes and earthquakes wrack France and Ibera, and the Black Tide swamps northwest Europe.  "Millions displaced and thousands died."  The tidewaters left toxic messes that wrecked things for years and years to come.  In Norway's case, the disaster and subsequent cleanup is surely the start of the process that brings the country from being "once prosperous" to ultimately "poor, bleak, and dreary" in the 2070s.

All in all, the Black Tide is given two sentences of description in the original source.  My summary ended up being longer than the raw text.
I sat down and wrote a timeline for things. Had it so the oil fund ends up being used to rebuild everything, then later is used to help rebuild the SU in general for security reasons while some corps exploited the weakened position, making the influx of cash into the fund less than it used to be. That said... How did Denmark survive the Black Tide? The way the wiki put it made it sound like Denmark ought to be gone. It has no mountain protection like Norway does.

I made use of the VITAS plague as well. It was handy. :)
« Last Edit: <04-03-18/1805:50> by Freya »

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #33 on: <04-03-18/1809:48> »
EDIT: Come to think of it, are there any details on the Black Tide?

There's the wiki entry.  As it's the same source as I've been pulling Scandinavian Union info from, it's right here and handy :D

The context is this event basically was part of the chaos that was the awakening.  VITAS is killing people, babies are being born freaks (UGE), and even nature itself is going bonzo.  Volcanoes and earthquakes wrack France and Ibera, and the Black Tide swamps northwest Europe.  "Millions displaced and thousands died."  The tidewaters left toxic messes that wrecked things for years and years to come.  In Norway's case, the disaster and subsequent cleanup is surely the start of the process that brings the country from being "once prosperous" to ultimately "poor, bleak, and dreary" in the 2070s.

All in all, the Black Tide is given two sentences of description in the original source.  My summary ended up being longer than the raw text.
I sat down and wrote a timeline for things. Had it so the oil fund ends up being used to rebuild everything, then later is used to help rebuild the SU in general for security reasons while some corps exploited the weakened position, making the influx of cash into the fund less than it used to be. That said... How did Denmark survive the Black Tide? The way the wiki put it made it sound like Denmark ought to be gone. It has no mountain protection like Norway does.

According to the writeup on Denmark:

VITAS killed off 20% of its population.
Then the Black Tide hit: All of Jutland was swamped in toxic waste.  Its surviving population relocated to Zealand, where tensions remain due to overpopulation to the current day.  Only the interior island of Funen remains more or less the same as real-world Denmark.

The Crash of '29 pretty much finished off the Danish welfare state, as well as pretty much all governmental welfare programs around the world for that matter.  Keep in mind that in many (if not most) cases, public records don't go back before 2029.

Throw in the Eurowars of the 2030s, and after that pretty much Denmark is ready to surrender sovereignty to megacorps and the Scandinavian Union.
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Freya

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« Reply #34 on: <04-03-18/1813:43> »
EDIT: Come to think of it, are there any details on the Black Tide?

There's the wiki entry.  As it's the same source as I've been pulling Scandinavian Union info from, it's right here and handy :D

The context is this event basically was part of the chaos that was the awakening.  VITAS is killing people, babies are being born freaks (UGE), and even nature itself is going bonzo.  Volcanoes and earthquakes wrack France and Ibera, and the Black Tide swamps northwest Europe.  "Millions displaced and thousands died."  The tidewaters left toxic messes that wrecked things for years and years to come.  In Norway's case, the disaster and subsequent cleanup is surely the start of the process that brings the country from being "once prosperous" to ultimately "poor, bleak, and dreary" in the 2070s.

All in all, the Black Tide is given two sentences of description in the original source.  My summary ended up being longer than the raw text.
I sat down and wrote a timeline for things. Had it so the oil fund ends up being used to rebuild everything, then later is used to help rebuild the SU in general for security reasons while some corps exploited the weakened position, making the influx of cash into the fund less than it used to be. That said... How did Denmark survive the Black Tide? The way the wiki put it made it sound like Denmark ought to be gone. It has no mountain protection like Norway does.

According to the writeup on Denmark:

VITAS killed off 20% of its population.
Then the Black Tide hit: All of Jutland was swamped in toxic waste.  Its surviving population relocated to Zealand, where tensions remain due to overpopulation to the current day.  Only the interior island of Funen remains more or less the same as real-world Denmark.

The Crash of '29 pretty much finished off the Danish welfare state, as well as pretty much all governmental welfare programs around the world for that matter.  Keep in mind that in many (if not most) cases, public records don't go back before 2029.

Throw in the Eurowars of the 2030s, and after that pretty much Denmark is ready to surrender sovereignty to megacorps and the Scandinavian Union.
Fits in with me writing that their royal family died in an 'accident', ending up putting all the thrones in one place.

Writing up and being relatively free to make it more interesting and suited for the campaign is rather enjoyable.

Beta

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« Reply #35 on: <04-08-18/1009:34> »
A lot of the geography and alt-history of Shadowrun do show its roots as being written mostly by guys from the northern part of the USA, some years before the web became a thing.  Do remember that most American schools don't teach a lot of world history or geography.

So the first reaction of people from many places in the world is "what?  That makes no sense because X, Y, Z, reasons.". (Believe me, even in Canada there is lots that makes us wonder, and we were right across the border).

But ultimately I find the most fun approach to these issues is to accept them as writen, then determine for your campaign what _really_ happened, and why, and let players discover some of it in play.

You can come up with your own reasons.  For me with resopect to Iceland, they chose to join the TPA despite having no cultural affinity.   Why?
- the aura borealis often came with intense, disruptive,  mana storms that also tended to cause strange spirit phenomenon.    The shamans of the TPA seemed to have ways to deal with it, which Iceland needed.
- in the resource rush, the seas were heavily overfished, with other European fleets disregarding Iceland's normal fishing zones.  This created intense anti-European feelings in many Icelanders, and a need to find new places to fish.  The TPA was willing to offer up some of the deep sea zones that its people did not normally reach.
- Being part of even a weak state offered some sense of protection when the world was going to hell.
- iceland new that with the most advanced infrastructure of the TPA that it wold become the defacto banking centre and so forth.

So a marriage of convenience was formed.  Whether it was popular with everyone was doubtful,  but enough voted for it, in some way, on one day, that it happened (kind of like Brexit in reverse)

Freya

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« Reply #36 on: <04-08-18/1351:02> »
Yeah as much nonsense as shadowrun has in a lot of parts, in this and other cases like it I tend to err on the side of simply making use of it to get something good out of it. So I've sat down, hammered out and wrote a timeline for the Scandinavian Union, drew up some political borders on googles My Maps(mostly because I needed something I could actually edit unlike a pdf) and jotted down some nationstate stats(using essentially a wiki'ish format) for the Union to have something to work off of while taking into account the historical tidbits, cultural tidbits and various other things(such as for instance making over half the population are elves given elves are from norse myths, playing a rather huge role which includes surviving the christianization of the north and if a country like ireland with zero connection to elves can have so many, then logically scandinavia would be drowning in the buggers).

I recall reading someone once claiming TPA turned Iceland into a protectorate because they owed them money or something. I've no idea where they had that from, but I'll keep my eyes and ears open for anything. Whatever the reasons might've been, it would be excellent fuel for a demagogue seeking to turn the icelanders against their occupiers with the right phrasing.

The map I'm using for the campaign: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QafSg7WgvbJkLrdfiV9CWisU_f4I3D6Q&usp=sharing