Shadowrun

Shadowrun General => The Secret History => Topic started by: mcv on <06-05-19/0337:53>

Title: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: mcv on <06-05-19/0337:53>
What big corporate plots were going on between 2070 and 2075? I'm mostly interested in the Seattle area, but global plots can have local effects, and it's certainly fine if it connects to other places in North America. Any books I should check out for more details?

I believe there's something up with Ares and bugs, right? I know practically nothing about it. Is that already taking place before 2075, or is that later?

The whole CFD thing is mostly after 2075, and I'm aware of the Boston Lockdown and problems with NeoNET and Evo, but when did this start? Did Storm Front kick it off? It plays some role in Splintered State which I intend to run at some point in the future, and I think it'd be cool if my players have already come across a few other vague hints related to this.

Of course this is the period and location of the Ork Underground and Brackhaven plots (and I'm basing the start of my campaign around the season 4 missions), but are there are corporations involved in that? I know some corporations really want to keep Brackhaven around, while others oppose him. Can someone give me a rundown on that?

Aztechnology is of course involved in the war in South America. Would that have any impact in North America?

Any other corporate plots I should be aware of? What are Mitsuhama, Shiawasa, S-K and the others up to at this time?

This question comes inspired by reading Blood in the Boardroom, about the breakup of Fuchi and tons of other corporate shenanigans, and I would love to run that, but it's too far in the past, so I'm looking for inspiration to do something similar in the 2072-2075 period.

Edit: I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking when I wrote this. When I want to know more about corporations in this time period, obviously I should buy Corporate Guide and Corporate Intrigue rather than Bloody Business and Market Panic. I bet there's plenty of plots and intrigue there.
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Beta on <06-05-19/0730:25>
FWIW, 2076 Olympics were in Seattle.  I don't know if any books covered it but there were bound to be low level corp shenanigans going on, between building facilities and recruiting top athletes.
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: FastJack on <06-05-19/0849:27>
Below are all the books as they were published in-universe from 2070 through 2075. In particular, take note of the Artifacts Unbound, The Clutch of Dragons, Conspiracy Theories, Corporate Guide, Corporate Intrigue, Spy Games, Storm Front, The Twilight Horizon, Vice, and War!.

BookIn-Universe Date
Gun H(e)aven 3December 19, 2075
CoyotesNovember 30, 2075
*The Assassin's PrimerNovember 11, 2075
Parazoology 2August 3, 2075
10 MercsJune 15, 2075
*Rigger 4April 1, 2075
Euro War AntiquesFebruary 20, 2075
Storm FrontJanuary 18, 2075
The Way of the SamuraiJanuary 12, 2075
Sim Dreams & NightmaresDecember 27, 2074
Montreal 2074December 13, 2074
ParageologyNovember 23, 2074
Dirty TricksNovember 2, 2074
The Land of PromiseSeptember 11, 2074
MilSpecTech 2July 27, 2074
The Clutch of DragonsJuly 20, 2074
Magical SocietiesMay 28, 2074
Gun H(e)aven 2May 10, 2074
Hazard PayApril 28, 2074
*Street Legends: Home EditionApril 1, 2074
ParabotanyMarch 21, 2074
The Twilight HorizonMarch 6, 2074
Used Car LotFebruary 28, 2074
SafehousesFebruary 28, 2074
Jet SetFebruary 7, 2074
Street Legends SupplementalDecember 21, 2073
State of the Art: 2073December 14, 2073
Corporate IntrigueDecember 13, 2073
Conspiracy TheoriesOctober 26, 2073
Artifacts UnboundSeptember 2, 2073
Street LegendsAugust 14, 2073
Deadly WavesJuly 23, 2073
Runner's Black BookJuly 23, 2073
Gun H(e)avenJune 15, 2073
Spy GamesMay 19, 2073
AttitudeMarch 21, 2073
MilSpecTechFebruary 20, 2073
War!February 6, 2073
*Sixth World AlmanacNovember 10, 2072
The Rotten Apple: ManhattanOctober 4, 2072
Unfriendly SkiesSeptember 19, 2072
The Way of the AdeptAugust 30, 2072
This Old DroneJuly 30, 2072
Running WildJuly 3, 2072
10 JackpointersMarch 5, 2072
ViceFebruary 28, 2072
*Corporate GuideJanuary 1, 2072
*Seattle 2072January 1, 2072
Ghost CartelsNovember 27, 2071
Feral CitiesOctober 13, 2071
Runner's CompanionJuly 15, 2071
UnwiredMay 9, 2071
ArsenalApril 20, 2071
Corporate EnclavesFebruary 17, 2071
*10 GangsJanuary 1, 2071
AugmentationAugust 20, 2070
EmergenceAugust 7, 2070
Street MagicApril 11, 2070
Runner HavensFebruary 3, 2070
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: mcv on <06-05-19/0917:50>
Below are all the books as they were published in-universe from 2070 through 2075. In particular, take note of the Artifacts Unbound, The Clutch of Dragons, Conspiracy Theories, Corporate Guide, Corporate Intrigue, Spy Games, Storm Front, The Twilight Horizon, Vice, and War!.
Thanks! But Clutch of Dragons? I have that one, and I don't remember there being much about corporate plots or corporations, except for the ones related to Lofwyr and Aztlan.

I would imagine Corporate Guide and Corporate Intrigue to be the primary books about to corporate plot lines. I know Catalyst has a tendency to spread these plots thinly through many books, but I'm not going to buy all of these. Which ones, apart from Corporate Guide/Intrigue, would be the most relevant? Is there a place where I can find a rundown of which of these books deal with which aspects of the metaplot?
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Wakshaani on <06-05-19/1230:32>
Hoo boy, there is a lot to unpack there. That's, like, 8 years of stuff.

But I'll try to do some small cuts here.

ARES
There have been a few plotlines spiraling around here. The first is the massive infighting between the assorted powers in Ares, with Nadja Daviar, Damien Knight, Auerelias (I can never spell that one!) and Arthur Vogel all having an agenda and wanting to pull the corp in one direction or another. They've been hiring Shadowrunners against one another for nearly a decade now, undercutting one another, moving pieces around, dropping stock values here to buy up things in their personal profile, and so on … this is made more complicated by all four having assorted powers behind them that have THEIR own agendas and use the big four as proxies to get it.

Second is the bug problem. No one knows how badly the infiltration is (yet) but the paranoia from it has been *massive* and accusing one person or another of being a bug has been a way to remove rivals. The paranoia's kept workers from working together, shattered comraderie, and in general turned the corporation from a well-oiled machine with a great spirit de corps to a giant pile of individuals who won't trust anyone else. The actual damage that the bugs have inflicted has been pretty minor but fear of more has been devastating.

Thirdly is the ongoing rift with the UCAS, the #1 customer for Ares. President Colloton has had issues with Ares since back when she was 'just' a general and carried that with her. Over her terms in office, she's tried to do battle with the Pentagon (who are pretty much all paid for by Ares) and cut contracts for other suppliers, but the inertia inside the DOD is massive and it's been a huge battle for her. That Ares has a powerful political arm and PR machine hasn't helped.

Lastly is Ares losing market share all over. Once *the* dominant space corp, S-K and Evo have swooped in and snagged gobs of contracts, the Space Elevator's up and running, as is the Kilimanjaro Mass Driver, giving people far more lift options than before. Arms manufacturers have stepped up in the wake of Ares' Excaliber debacle and grabbed market share, with Aztechnology reaping the lion's share of that. The struggle with UCAS has hurt sales and other corps have moved in as well. With so much PR being tied up in damage control, the media side hasn't been able to really promote new products and, in general, they've had a financial slide across the board.

(I'll do these one at a time, Ithink. Make life easier.)
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Wakshaani on <06-05-19/1242:46>
Aztechnology got *hammered* on the food side thanks to picking a fight with Sirrurg the Destroyer. A Great Dragon who just doesn't play well with others, Sirrurg slaughtered an entre city, made frequent raids against the nation, then upped his game even more by going after NatVat, the subsidiary that made over three quarters of Aztechnology's food products, and razing it to the ground (and destroying much of Puerto Rico in the process) … as this happened, a blight struck the corn crop and even stored corn was found to be infected and dissolving. Amassive famine broke out, leaving the nation of Aztlan to import food at high prices, money that did NOT go to Aztechnology, who found a prime sector of their business suddenly invalid as they had no food to sell. it took several years to recover from this state and they still haven't replaced NatVat (it was a total loss) so while the nation of Aztlan is eating again, Aztechnology's food production is around half of what it was … the facilities that are still open (like the grain fields in Canada) are being pushed to the brink of destruction to try and keep up.

The war with Amazonia ended with modest gains and they've been doing lots of research into the plant life in their new territory to see if there's anything that they can use.

The war with Sirrurg ended in a big (if costly!) win, with footage of their military forces battling a Great Dragon being a huge hit. Now being able to market themselves as 'Dragonslayers', the Aztechnology weapons side has been doing huge business, giving everyone a proven alternative to Ares weaponry. Sure, lots of these weapons are just knock-offs with "Ares" sanded off and "Aztechnolgy" painted on, but, that marketing edge is just enormous in the wake of a Great Dragon having gone Godzilla for a while.

The corp as a whole has been focused on making money for a while and the Smoking Mirror/Blood Magic side of things looks to be an afterthought these days. The leader of that movement (Darke) is gone and the Blood Gestalt went away at the same time … while there are certainly still practitioners of the dark arts inside the corp, the general view is that the goal for them now is to make money, not do evil for evil's sake, where before they'd lose money to advance the Darke agenda.

They're certainly still working on more anti-dragon options, both in technology and in magic, and are known to be the big foe of Ghostwalker. It remains to be seen if they'll try to take down a second Great or not.

Politically, the nation of Aztlan gave a big chunk of land to the Pueblo Corporate Council, turning them from warm enemies to lukewarm allies, cutting off the best ally the CAS had in a potential war with Aztlan. Sirrurg, who attacked all three nations, agitated the region something awful but the shift in loyalty seems to have prevented war from opening up … so far. The CAS might be behind the ships that keep vanishing from both Aztechnology, and Aztlan, fleets, but there's no proof of this.
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Cappa101 on <06-05-19/1247:25>
ARES
There have been a few plotlines spiraling around here. The first is the massive infighting between the assorted powers in Ares, with Nadja Daviar, Damien Knight, Auerelias (I can never spell that one!) and Arthur Vogel all having an agenda and wanting to pull the corp in one direction or another.

(I'll do these one at a time, Ithink. Make life easier.)

Arthur Vogel is dead! Damien Knight confirmed it after an explosion. How convenient for Damien Knight. Arthur Vogel's body was never recovered but oh well, Mr. Knight already said he was dead so case closed! No need to look any further, I don't see how Chekov's gun could go off here!


Thirdly is the ongoing rift with the UCAS, the #1 customer for Ares. President Colloton has had issues with Ares since back when she was 'just' a general and carried that with her. Over her terms in office, she's tried to do battle with the Pentagon (who are pretty much all paid for by Ares) and cut contracts for other suppliers, but the inertia inside the DOD is massive and it's been a huge battle for her. That Ares has a powerful political arm and PR machine hasn't helped.

(I'll do these one at a time, Ithink. Make life easier.)

Im hoping to see the rise of the UCAS as a real power with their recent legal victory over NeoNet and their evermore egragious attempts to strongarm themselves out of ARES sphere of influence. I am aware it is unlikely, but I still would be happy to see the rerise of the UCAS.
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Wakshaani on <06-05-19/1254:46>
EVO

The new Naga CEO is still settling into the job. Where she's going with it, no one knows yet.

The Monad situation wound up giving Evo a bunch of new tech. How much of it is ultimately usable is unknown, but it's been going through the corp in chunks as they try to figure out what they can do with it and if they can make it without Monad aid.

The loss of the Mars base was a big hit but the overall growth in Evo's space industry due to Ares faltering has made them at least break even.

Evo's role in the Monad situation seems, to most people, to be that they accepted them as part of Evo's overall "We accept you" culture, which earned them some more loyalty from "those who are different" even if it scared off some anti-technologists who, honestly, weren't going to be backing Evo anyway.

Evo's corporate court justice had been ruling oddly for a while, and it was revealed that she'd been replaced by a virtual copy. Her replacement is fully flesh-and-blood but court watchers have noted that they've still made some unusual rulings. Nothing that would hurt Evo, of course, but in support of a few areas that would help rivals. Since there's been no move to replace them (again), they figure that Evo's new CEO has some kind of agenda that makes sense to a Naga if not Metahumans and they're just waiting to see what unfolds.
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Wakshaani on <06-05-19/1302:23>
HORIZON

They've been largely quiet the past few years … the Blood Rain incident in Las Vegas, and "the Great Technomancer Betrayal" did a number on them and backing the losing horse in the Az-Am war didn't help.  Rumors abound about other Sceret Projects that they've been up to but details of tehse are sketchy at best and from unreliable sources.

There's been a lot of work between Horizon and Ares of late, with Horizon moving in to handle PR duties while Ares does internal damage control. This teamwork was largely done by Truman (Of Truman Technologies and Truman Distrubution Network fame), a rabidly anti-bug recluse who used to live in Chicago before it became Bug City. There are those who think it shows a disloyalty to Ares and would love to get rid of him, while others think he's the only person thinking of the greater corporation while the Big Four play tug of war. Is he a potential #5 in the game? Regardless, Horizon's work for Ares has been going well and the two look to do more teaming up in the future.

Horizon's biggest 'get' has been in, of all things, agribusiness. With Aztechnology's collapse, Horizon's underground farm complexes have taken off and they're now the #1 agricultural producer in North America and are quickly threatening the bigger food producers, like Renraku and Shiawase. The Japancorps seem to be making some early moves to head this off at the pass having grown quite fond of the huge profits that the famine gave them.

Overall, Horizon's been resting for most of the decade, settling in to the AAA life and having to generate more physical, instead of virtual, assets. They're bound to explode into action again at some point... or maybe they have been and no one's seen what they're up to...
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Wakshaani on <06-05-19/1314:00>
MCT

Mitsuhama's been riding high on the hog, having taken over the position of largest Megacorporateion in the world from Saeder-Krupp. This is largely due to their having a massive investment in the current Matrix and how it's spread to every corner of the globe as *the* most important thing, ever. They've made a lot of sacrifices to get here … and now they have to defend that position.

The company's founder recently died (said to be of natural causes) on the Zuric Orbital station. This means that his shares of the corporation have gone to the Corporate COuncil itself, to be sold off or redistributed as they see fit. The main shareholders of the corp, all of him were said to have great respect and personal loyalty to him (and, if you believe the rumors, were Yakuza lords) have sold off their stock upon his death as well, floating roughly half of MCT stock on the general market while it's never had a higher price. Where these shares wind up is anyone's guess.

Korin Yamana had been moving to buy a significant number of them, moving to make himself the largest shareholder and, possibly, angling to be the new CEO (Retirement has not got well for him) … he went to the Kingdom of Hawa'ai to celebrate... and his yacht was eaten by a megaldon. As of this time, no survivors have been found, nor his body. The legal battle for his fortune looks to be a long, and very bloody, one. Assuming that he's actually dead of course.

MCT has otherwise been chugging along, focused on traditional areas, like the Matrix, heavy machinery, and resource extraction, as well as media and magic. They're the one Japancorp that didn't get a big boon from the food shortage a few years back. They *have* made large inroads into Africa, along with Renraku, where they've been enjoying poor regulation and ample resources to feed  the ravenous corporate maw. They've also been a major player in the retaking, and rebuilding, of Chicago.

The Japanacorps have been working together under a new spirit of cooperation outside the island, but within Japan proper, the fighting between them and Shiawase has been gathering strength. It remains to be seen how long before this rivalry tears the unified front apart or if the greater spirit will overcome the fracture.
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Wakshaani on <06-05-19/1316:28>
NEONET

Dead.

Transys Neuronet, and Erika-Nokia, are active as AA-rated corps themselves, but NeoNET is as dead as dead can be. Richard Villers' golden ticket is in the hands of Johnny Spinrad for the next decade while Villers is banned from being in control of a corp, leaving ol' Richard free to do … something. Nobody knows what he'll be up to but the COmeback King should never be counted out as long as he's breathing.

Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Wakshaani on <06-05-19/1343:41>
Have to hit thedayjob shortly. I'll have to finish this up when I get back. Anyone else wants to jump in while I'm out, of course, feel free!
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: RiggerBob on <06-05-19/1413:35>
Speaking of Johnny... Has there been an official SpinGlobal logo anywhere in the recent books that i missed?
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Beta on <06-05-19/1709:51>
Just a quick note that Wakshaani's awesome summaries above are coming up the current date, not cutting off at 2075.  (I feel like they should get copied into the current metaplots thread, maybe?)
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: mcv on <06-05-19/1754:19>
Wow, that's some amazing summaries. But yeah, much of it sounds post-2075 to me, though there's also some stuff that's probably still relevant to the 2070-2075 era. In particular the famine caused by Sirrurg.

I honestly had no idea about Ares. I'm vaguely familiar with Knight and Vogel, but there's a lot more going on. With that kind of internal rivalry, it sounds like they might end up going the way of Fuchi. What are the best books with more info about this?

How exactly did MCT surpass S-K as the largest megacorp? Just the Matrix stuff? Because I thought that was mostly NeoNET territory. I'm obviously not surprised that NeoNET has been overtaken, but if I'm not mistaken, the CFD shit didn't hit the fan until after 2075, so in the 70-75 period, NeoNET would still be king, right? (Didn't NeoNET cut up some technomancers, by the way? Or was that Horizon?)

What is "the Monad situation"? I don't think I've heard of that before.

I'm also interested in Aztechnology's shift away from blood magic. I know them primarily as deeply evil blood magic users with possible horror ties that has a positive public face because they provide all the food and other stuff most people actually need.
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Michael Chandra on <06-06-19/0029:35>
Monad is CFD people afterwards suffices as very rough summary. Many have gone into space now. All I know.
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Wakshaani on <06-06-19/0031:03>
Just a quick note that Wakshaani's awesome summaries above are coming up the current date, not cutting off at 2075.  (I feel like they should get copied into the current metaplots thread, maybe?)

Some of it is, yeah. I confess that I have some trouble pinning down exact dates when tossing out a bunch of stuff at once. My mouth gets ahead of me. :(
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Wakshaani on <06-06-19/0115:46>
RENRAKU

Playing refree between MCT and Shiawase in general, reminding them (And the AA-rated Japanacorps) that there's more money to be made by sticking together than by breaking apart. This has lead to them both getting magical aid from Shiawase, in exchange for helping them with some computer tech, and being in MCT's wake, snapping up contracts all over Chicago. Renraku further steps up as the 'ambassador' between the Japanacorps and the other corps, and, indeed, is often calle don as a neutral voice when other corps are having issues … Ares and Aztechnology (hypothetical example) having a row? Renraku will serve as a place for the eventual peace conference, making sure that everyone's comfortable and nobody being betrayed.

Beyond this, their own agenda is, in general, “Stay quiet, make money.” They're very good at blending in to local culture, slowly inserting themselves into the general functions of government and society, then being almost impossible to dislodge.

The big events in the era were the suicide of their CEO and replacement by Nakamura's hand-picked guy, the allowance of religion into their facilities, the elevation of Inazo Aneki to being a “Corporate Kami”, and taking over the Kilamanjaro Mass Driver (buying out the other corps for a fraction of the cost) once the Space Elevator came on line.

Renraku, as the third-largest food-producing corp, made ALL THE MONEY during the famine and, at the same time, traded that money in large part to MCT in return for several advantages … one was the purchase of the Confederate Broadcast Network (CBN) but what looked like a bum deal that turned out to be huge was buying GridGuide (tm) or, rather, getting the rights to use it and operate it while MCT technically still owned it. Taking ove rthis operation, when combined with their near-monopoly on SINs, has given them unprecedented levels of data, which grew even greater as they rolled out HarborGuide ™ and SkyGuide ™, for controlling ships and flying drones, respectively. There's been an absolute explosion in drone usage since 2070 and Renraku knows where they all are at all times.

Oh, and the expansion of their Skillwries Broadcast Network has also been a hit, going head to head with Horizon's own version.
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Wakshaani on <06-06-19/0116:17>
S-K
They've been doing stuff. Most of it's in German books which I can't read, so … somebody else will have to handle that one.



SHIAWASE
Teh family drama continues! Korin Yamana was running the show and his “Yamana Method”, combining what he learned of American business practices picked up from Richard Villers (when they were in Fuchi together) with advanced Japanese methods made Shiawase a lean, mean, corporate machine... but cut out the old hands, geriatric retirees who were given seats of honor and respect (and who drew significant salaries) while not adding anything to the bottom line. Cutting these old hands go did NOT go over well and started a pushback against his run.

And then there's Empress Hitomi. As Chairman of the Board, she allowed the Yamana Method to go through over the cries of much of the board and, further, some lobbied against her position as being unsuited for one of her married station. If anyone in the corp did something bad it would, by extension, land on her head. Further, lots of the old guard weren't comfortable with a woman in charge and wanted her out, so several forces aligned during her second pregnancy to get her to step down from her seat. She still owns stock and has an unofficial advisory capacity (That is to say, she sends someone to vote her stock for her, but they don't ever say that they speak with her full authority) … Yamana windsup being forced out as well, several Shiawase family members die, there's a giant reshuffling, until it all finally works out.

Shiawase is generally steady in this time period, taking over as world's largest food producer when Aztechnolgy breaks, raking in gobs of cash in the process. They also found out that the current Leonization method (Leonization Type II) had a hidden cost... it didn't impact your Essence but devoured your mind. They decalred it DOA and stopped its use, which lead to everyone else stopping it as well, and returned to the old Type I method … which is owned by Ares. D'oh.

Shiawase rumbles with Horizon a bit, primarily in an attempt to score the indoor farms (Wind River) before they come online but fail to pull it off. They're otherwise at the forefront of the new Yamato Damashii movement of Japancorp unity and are very much the definitive pro-Japan corporation. Quite a lot goes on with the assorted soap opera players in the upper eschelons of the corp, however, a continuous family squabble on every level.


Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Wakshaani on <06-06-19/0116:39>
WUXING
Largely quiet. They have a small alliance with Evo and Aztechnology to counteract the power of the Japancorp bloc, but Aztechnology betrayed them during Crash 2.0 and the trust levels aren't as high as they shoul dbe. They've poked at Shiawase the most, since they wear the JAPAN!!! badge so proudly, but they don't really cross over with any of the Japanacorps major areas of power, like computer tech, media, resource extraction, agribusiness, genetics, or drones. As such, they don't really clash that much so much as cut eyes at one another and make snarky comments at cocktail parties.

There's a LOT of cultural stuff that rolls out of Wuxing, however, as the Quints get older, first going through their tween years (and setting trends galore),  then growing into full-blown teenagers, generating a whole new level of fan following. In the process, their father succumbs to old age and possibly senility and steps aside, leaving California-born-and-raised Sharon Wu in command a sthe new CEO near the end of the decade. Sharon quickly starts moving the corporation into a much more aggressive form.

The corp as a whole focuses on banking and shipping, but there's a constant expansion in the magical side thanks to Dunklezahn's gift to them as well as the Coins of Luck. They wind up entering into a major deal with the Shao-Lin Temple to produce weapon and Qi foci, some of which wind up in some very interesting hands (such as many rebels looking to fight against the remnants of Darke in Aztlan … in particular, several bands of Catholic luchadors turn out, fighting against cape-wearing vampires)

Oh, and Wuxing starts making some inroads into North America, making a deal with Wal-Mart (thus the “Kong Wal-Mart” signs seen in some places) to sell more Wuxing consumer products.
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Wakshaani on <06-06-19/0131:43>
Wow, that's some amazing summaries. But yeah, much of it sounds post-2075 to me, though there's also some stuff that's probably still relevant to the 2070-2075 era. In particular the famine caused by Sirrurg.

I honestly had no idea about Ares. I'm vaguely familiar with Knight and Vogel, but there's a lot more going on. With that kind of internal rivalry, it sounds like they might end up going the way of Fuchi. What are the best books with more info about this?

How exactly did MCT surpass S-K as the largest megacorp? Just the Matrix stuff? Because I thought that was mostly NeoNET territory. I'm obviously not surprised that NeoNET has been overtaken, but if I'm not mistaken, the CFD shit didn't hit the fan until after 2075, so in the 70-75 period, NeoNET would still be king, right? (Didn't NeoNET cut up some technomancers, by the way? Or was that Horizon?)

What is "the Monad situation"? I don't think I've heard of that before.

I'm also interested in Aztechnology's shift away from blood magic. I know them primarily as deeply evil blood magic users with possible horror ties that has a positive public face because they provide all the food and other stuff most people actually need.

Teh famine's a big one, yeah. Food prices go crazy, real food vanishes from many tables at middle lifestyle or lower, soy gets big again, and there are several crackdowns in cities as the agricorps start going after urban farms … they don't want the competition and this give sthem an excuse. Quite a few people start raising small herb gardens in windowsills or raising chickes on rooftop coops, only to have police bust in and have a corporate lawyer impound the stuff. It's a VERY rough couple of years for Aztechnology until Sirrurg goes down. (If you want to see the whole thing start, take a look at Dirty Tricks for the lowdown.)

Info on Ares is scattered all over, but the 4th edition Corporate Guide will give you a large chunk of it, with market Panic the update several years later. It gets real ugly in there.

MCT was going up, along with NeoNET, but the Monads hurt NeoNET more, and then Boston blew everything to smithereens. Until then, tho, S-K stays on top (So, yeah, that's a few years after the 70-75 period you were asking about) … and, yes, MCT cut up quite a few Technomancers when no one knew what they were. Horizon took a bunch in, but wound up betraying them, so they turned against them, HARD. Shiawase's since taken the Technomancers in again, with Empress Hitomi herself making a decree about a school in Japan and how she was giving them her personal protection … and ain't nobody wants to go against her word, so it looks like they'll be safe there for a time.

Monads are … tricky. Short form? A bunch of Ais were rounded up and tortured, but manage dto escape via infecting some nanobots that were being made in the same facility. They gradually got installed into people, rebuilt their bodies, then took ove rtheir brains, erasing the original owners and making a new home for themselves in the meat world. This new race of former-digitals called themselves Monads and wound up taking over Evo's base on Mars, then buying a spacecarft from Evo and most gathered up and flew off to Mars, to be with their own kind. Some remain on Earth, but no one knows how many they are. They're tied in with Boston. Boston … was bad.

As for Axtechnology? The blood magic seems to have been mostly at the behest of one person, Mr. Darke, aka Oscuro, and his Blood Mage Gestalt (Around a dozen blood mages who were linked to one another with tubes, which pumped blood from each of them through the next one in line, being in essence a giant organism with massive magical power)  he died around 2060, around the same time as President Dunklezahn, and the breaking of the bridge from the Deep Astral and Earth that was being made by some rather terrible astral entities. With his death, the rathe rterrible subordinates he had were either fragged by their corporation mates or went into hiding, leaving a path clear for more traditional, “We're here to make money” sorts to move in. Indeed, as they've since been at the forefront of the “Defend Metahumanity from dragons” movement, they're being seen by some runners as, believe it or not, the GOOD guys! 
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Michael Chandra on <06-06-19/0159:26>
Of course this is the period and location of the Ork Underground and Brackhaven plots (and I'm basing the start of my campaign around the season 4 missions), but are there are corporations involved in that? I know some corporations really want to keep Brackhaven around, while others oppose him. Can someone give me a rundown on that?
At this point, I don't know how well-involved companies are with Brackhaven, because the dirty evidence on him is only revealed in 2075. He only got pushed out by 2078.

The new Matrix is end 2074, apparently the failure of Aztech crops is 2074 as well, and the Dragon War ended in 2074 with the banishment of Hestaby, after in 2073 she was busy attacking S-K. The timeline might help a bit: https://shadowrun.fandom.com/wiki/Shadowrun_timeline
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: DeathStrobe on <06-06-19/0210:04>
Which book has luchador vampire hunters? That sounds so amazing! I need to know more.

Another thing I can recall that are also fun meta plot fact, but may never come up ever again, MCT has dissonant technomancer brain-in-a-jar cyborgs that somehow didn't loose their resonance (probably has something to do with that dissonant part) even though they ain't got no essence or body. They were talked about in Lockdown, but I don't think they ever came back in any capacity.

Also, the wiki's page on CFD (https://shadowrun.fandom.com/wiki/Cognitive_Fragmentation_Disorder) has a relatively complete view of the CFD meta plot. There were even a few things in SR4 that hinted at it, like in Corporate Intrigue with Miles Lanier (Head of Corporate Security in NeoNET) hiring runners to hit Transys Neuronet (which just so happens to be the T in NeoNET). Also Hazard Pay was starting to show bad things happening on Mars. And Fastjack left security holes in Jackpoint which cause Horizon to get access to Jackpoint, which is possible a sign of his AI personality actually being the one to leave holes in Jackpoint.
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Wakshaani on <06-06-19/0222:49>
Of course this is the period and location of the Ork Underground and Brackhaven plots (and I'm basing the start of my campaign around the season 4 missions), but are there are corporations involved in that? I know some corporations really want to keep Brackhaven around, while others oppose him. Can someone give me a rundown on that?
At this point, I don't know how well-involved companies are with Brackhaven, because the dirty evidence on him is only revealed in 2075. He only got pushed out by 2078.

The new Matrix is end 2074, apparently the failure of Aztech crops is 2074 as well, and the Dragon War ended in 2074 with the banishment of Hestaby, after in 2073 she was busy attacking S-K. The timeline might help a bit: https://shadowrun.fandom.com/wiki/Shadowrun_timeline

Oh man, that timeline is great.

And would have save me ALL THE TYPING.

Harumph.

:D
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Wakshaani on <06-06-19/0226:29>
Which book has luchador vampire hunters? That sounds so amazing! I need to know more.

That's a good question! I honestly don't remember. *probably* Forbidden Arcana, but I'm not 100% sure on that one.
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Michael Chandra on <06-06-19/0229:38>
Of course this is the period and location of the Ork Underground and Brackhaven plots (and I'm basing the start of my campaign around the season 4 missions), but are there are corporations involved in that? I know some corporations really want to keep Brackhaven around, while others oppose him. Can someone give me a rundown on that?
At this point, I don't know how well-involved companies are with Brackhaven, because the dirty evidence on him is only revealed in 2075. He only got pushed out by 2078.

The new Matrix is end 2074, apparently the failure of Aztech crops is 2074 as well, and the Dragon War ended in 2074 with the banishment of Hestaby, after in 2073 she was busy attacking S-K. The timeline might help a bit: https://shadowrun.fandom.com/wiki/Shadowrun_timeline

Oh man, that timeline is great.

And would have save me ALL THE TYPING.

Harumph.

:D
It's only events, so nothing that goes deeply into a lot of things, but eh. ;D
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Wakshaani on <06-06-19/0258:55>
It's only events, so nothing that goes deeply into a lot of things, but eh. ;D

Yeah, but I have the memory of a mayfly.

(Well, it's actually photographic, but I usually forget to load film. SUPER annoying.)
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: mcv on <06-06-19/0536:56>
S-K
They've been doing stuff. Most of it's in German books which I can't read, so … somebody else will have to handle that one.
Does S-K not have a global impact anymore? Or does Pegasus have the exclusive rights to develop them, leading to them getting ignored in the CGL products?

Also, is there anything S-K did wrong that lead them to finally lose their top spot as the largest megacorp?



Quote
SHIAWASE
...
They also found out that the current Leonization method (Leonization Type II) had a hidden cost... it didn't impact your Essence but devoured your mind. They decalred it DOA and stopped its use, which lead to everyone else stopping it as well, and returned to the old Type I method … which is owned by Ares. D'oh.
I got the impression from Storm Front that Leonization treatment was somehow related to CFD. Is it? Or was that a red herring?
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: mcv on <06-06-19/0605:25>
Teh famine's a big one, yeah. Food prices go crazy, real food vanishes from many tables at middle lifestyle or lower, soy gets big again, and there are several crackdowns in cities as the agricorps start going after urban farms … they don't want the competition and this give sthem an excuse. Quite a few people start raising small herb gardens in windowsills or raising chickes on rooftop coops, only to have police bust in and have a corporate lawyer impound the stuff. It's a VERY rough couple of years for Aztechnology until Sirrurg goes down. (If you want to see the whole thing start, take a look at Dirty Tricks for the lowdown.)
I am definitely getting Dirty Tricks, also because it seems to be related to the Backhaven plot that SRM4 is partially about.

I'm surprised that police would crack down on urban farms in the middle of a famine, though. That can't be good for your popularity.

Quote
Monads are … tricky. Short form? A bunch of Ais were rounded up and tortured, but manage dto escape via infecting some nanobots that were being made in the same facility. They gradually got installed into people, rebuilt their bodies, then took ove rtheir brains, erasing the original owners and making a new home for themselves in the meat world. This new race of former-digitals called themselves Monads and wound up taking over Evo's base on Mars, then buying a spacecarft from Evo and most gathered up and flew off to Mars, to be with their own kind. Some remain on Earth, but no one knows how many they are. They're tied in with Boston. Boston … was bad.
I know about Boston primarily from the Shadowrun Chronicles computer game, thouh I think they were called headcases there. I guess monads are when their personality has stabilised in its new personality? Storm Front had a scene with some people suddenly talking with completely different personalities, which sounds like something I'd like to use. (Maybe after first confronting my players with Shedim, just to throw them off.)

Quote
As for Axtechnology? The blood magic seems to have been mostly at the behest of one person, Mr. Darke, aka Oscuro, and his Blood Mage Gestalt (Around a dozen blood mages who were linked to one another with tubes, which pumped blood from each of them through the next one in line, being in essence a giant organism with massive magical power)  he died around 2060, around the same time as President Dunklezahn, and the breaking of the bridge from the Deep Astral and Earth that was being made by some rather terrible astral entities. With his death, the rathe rterrible subordinates he had were either fragged by their corporation mates or went into hiding, leaving a path clear for more traditional, “We're here to make money” sorts to move in. Indeed, as they've since been at the forefront of the “Defend Metahumanity from dragons” movement, they're being seen by some runners as, believe it or not, the GOOD guys!
On the one hand I kinda liked Aztechnology as the deeply into evil blood magic company, on the other hand, presenting them as good guys is really going to screw with people's heads. (I've got a player who has all the 2nd edition stuff.) But maybe it's most important that all megacorps have both a good and a bad side. And a bunch of grey ones.
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Michael Chandra on <06-06-19/0924:25>
Headcase is a slur, Monad is how they call themselves.
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Ixal on <06-06-19/1420:04>
Wow, that's some amazing summaries. But yeah, much of it sounds post-2075 to me, though there's also some stuff that's probably still relevant to the 2070-2075 era. In particular the famine caused by Sirrurg.

I honestly had no idea about Ares. I'm vaguely familiar with Knight and Vogel, but there's a lot more going on. With that kind of internal rivalry, it sounds like they might end up going the way of Fuchi. What are the best books with more info about this?

How exactly did MCT surpass S-K as the largest megacorp? Just the Matrix stuff? Because I thought that was mostly NeoNET territory. I'm obviously not surprised that NeoNET has been overtaken, but if I'm not mistaken, the CFD shit didn't hit the fan until after 2075, so in the 70-75 period, NeoNET would still be king, right? (Didn't NeoNET cut up some technomancers, by the way? Or was that Horizon?)

What is "the Monad situation"? I don't think I've heard of that before.

I'm also interested in Aztechnology's shift away from blood magic. I know them primarily as deeply evil blood magic users with possible horror ties that has a positive public face because they provide all the food and other stuff most people actually need.

Cutting up Technos is mostly MCT territory, but many corps did that. You might be remembering the Las Vegas Massacre Horizon did when there was a large group of Technos was protesting against Horizon because they didn't came through with the promises they made and the Consensus somehow thought it is a good idea to start shooting.

MCT overtook SK mostly because the latter was distracted with the Dragon Civil war, sunk a lot of cash into fighting it and also suffered a lot from the anti dragon sentiment Aztechnology created.
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Dasher on <08-05-21/1456:43>
Teh famine's a big one, yeah. Food prices go crazy, real food vanishes from many tables at middle lifestyle or lower, soy gets big again, and there are several crackdowns in cities as the agricorps start going after urban farms … they don't want the competition and this give them an excuse. Quite a few people start raising small herb gardens in windowsills or raising chickes on rooftop coops, only to have police bust in and have a corporate lawyer impound the stuff. It's a VERY rough couple of years for Aztechnology until Sirrurg goes down. (If you want to see the whole thing start, take a look at Dirty Tricks for the lowdown.)
I am definitely getting Dirty Tricks, also because it seems to be related to the Backhaven plot that SRM4 is partially about.

I'm surprised that police would crack down on urban farms in the middle of a famine, though. That can't be good for your popularity.
I am a fairly avid reader of the sourcebooks, not the fiction, but I do not recall anything about famines.  Citation needed?

Yes, while some of the food corps might want to crack down on urban farming and it may have been criminalized, most corporate police are not going to enforce those laws unless it directly benefits them.  Sure, they raid a gang holdout, they will tack on illegal chicken raising or if they need an excuse to search a place "suspected urban farm".  But the negative publicity combined with the fact that oppressed (or even just regular folk) will fight to keep their food would make it a . . . non-cost effective exercise for Lone Star/KE/other police forces to follow.  And non-corpo Police would probably say "Screw off, I'm not enforcing that" to the corpos.
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Reaver on <08-05-21/1540:01>
Teh famine's a big one, yeah. Food prices go crazy, real food vanishes from many tables at middle lifestyle or lower, soy gets big again, and there are several crackdowns in cities as the agricorps start going after urban farms … they don't want the competition and this give them an excuse. Quite a few people start raising small herb gardens in windowsills or raising chickes on rooftop coops, only to have police bust in and have a corporate lawyer impound the stuff. It's a VERY rough couple of years for Aztechnology until Sirrurg goes down. (If you want to see the whole thing start, take a look at Dirty Tricks for the lowdown.)
I am definitely getting Dirty Tricks, also because it seems to be related to the Backhaven plot that SRM4 is partially about.

I'm surprised that police would crack down on urban farms in the middle of a famine, though. That can't be good for your popularity.
I am a fairly avid reader of the sourcebooks, not the fiction, but I do not recall anything about famines.  Citation needed?

Yes, while some of the food corps might want to crack down on urban farming and it may have been criminalized, most corporate police are not going to enforce those laws unless it directly benefits them.  Sure, they raid a gang holdout, they will tack on illegal chicken raising or if they need an excuse to search a place "suspected urban farm".  But the negative publicity combined with the fact that oppressed (or even just regular folk) will fight to keep their food would make it a . . . non-cost effective exercise for Lone Star/KE/other police forces to follow.  And non-corpo Police would probably say "Screw off, I'm not enforcing that" to the corpos.

The famine that is being talked about only happened in Aztlan, and was directly tied to their war with Amazonia. This is all covered in thr WAR! sourcebook. And some of it requires reading between the lines..... (the AZT soycafe manager and the exchange he has with Corporate HQ is a prime example).

And yea, the AZT police really did crack down on home gardens: Simply because it was fucking with Aztech's bottom line. And THIS is because there is nit distinction between Aztechnology and Aztlan government....


Think China, and you have Aztech/Aztlan  but reversed. (China's government must own 50% of any business set up in China. In Aztlan, Aztechnology owns all the businesses, as well as the government. This was one of the reasons for the first Corporate war, and formation of the Corporate Court. Details of this can be found in the Atlan sourcebook, and several other 2e books.
Title: Re: 2070-2075 corporate plots?
Post by: Wakshaani on <08-06-21/1142:07>
Teh famine's a big one, yeah. Food prices go crazy, real food vanishes from many tables at middle lifestyle or lower, soy gets big again, and there are several crackdowns in cities as the agricorps start going after urban farms … they don't want the competition and this give them an excuse. Quite a few people start raising small herb gardens in windowsills or raising chickes on rooftop coops, only to have police bust in and have a corporate lawyer impound the stuff. It's a VERY rough couple of years for Aztechnology until Sirrurg goes down. (If you want to see the whole thing start, take a look at Dirty Tricks for the lowdown.)
I am definitely getting Dirty Tricks, also because it seems to be related to the Backhaven plot that SRM4 is partially about.

I'm surprised that police would crack down on urban farms in the middle of a famine, though. That can't be good for your popularity.
I am a fairly avid reader of the sourcebooks, not the fiction, but I do not recall anything about famines.  Citation needed?

Yes, while some of the food corps might want to crack down on urban farming and it may have been criminalized, most corporate police are not going to enforce those laws unless it directly benefits them.  Sure, they raid a gang holdout, they will tack on illegal chicken raising or if they need an excuse to search a place "suspected urban farm".  But the negative publicity combined with the fact that oppressed (or even just regular folk) will fight to keep their food would make it a . . . non-cost effective exercise for Lone Star/KE/other police forces to follow.  And non-corpo Police would probably say "Screw off, I'm not enforcing that" to the corpos.

It kicks off in Dirty Tricks, when Sirrurg flattens Borriqua (Puerto Rico) during a massive hurricane that parked itself over the island for a full 24 hours, with Sirrurg unleashing his dragon and spirit allies against the general populace while he, himself, completely eradicates NatVat.

A few days after that, the Atlacoya blight strikes Aztlan, ripping across the land at staggering speed, wiping out the year's corn crop and further rotting stored corn across the land, resulting in a huge famine striking the nation. They wound up having to import food from other countries and corps, which really grated teeth when they had to buy food from Horizon, who they'd been butting heads with in the Az-Am war, and resulted in a world-wide boost in food prices as some people went into panic buying mode... the profits from that helped several corps invest not long after.

It follows in the next three or four sourcebooks from there for that year, but by the next year, the nation's recovering from it. NatVat remains a non-entity, and with it gone Aztechnology's food production is badly hurt, but they're working on new alternatives since then.