Shadowrun
Shadowrun General => The Secret History => Topic started by: raben-aas on <08-02-12/0434:00>
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Some of you may have been following the ongoing development of Shadowrun Returns and more importantly Shadowrun Online. Some may even have visited The Shadowrun Universe, or even support the Kickstarter project for Shadowrun Online (that actually needs some more love, as there are just 12 days left in the project and the mark isn't quite in reach yet – see news about gameplay and concept here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1964352341/shadowrun-online/posts).
One of the many amazing features of the online game (that will NOT have pay-to-win features, which is GREAT) will be that the plots of the online game will cross over into published material, and vice versa. This will be the first time that a "multi-platform-gaming-experience" of these proportions is being made.
So, what do you think about that? Are you looking forward to becoming a part (or fatality) of the Dragon War in the browser game? Are you expecting to see your online character being published in some kind of in-game news format? Do you plan to play online? Do you think that the plot impacts from one platform to the other are a good or a bad thing?
Personally I am quite excited – even amazed: In the beginning of SRO, I was "just" expecting a decent Jagged-Alliance-like game in Shadowrun skin. But the enthusiasm and devotion of the developers are going FAR beyond that, apparently (helloo, LEGWORK?, and helloo, meeting other Shadowrunners online socially (like in Second Life, only with SRO graphics and I imagine without being able to furnish ones appartmemt ;) ("I'll have the Rat + Cockroaches Special" Item)?)
One of the best features IMO will be the distinct split between "normal" gamers and SR enthusiasts (aka "us"), as there will be a Campaign Server ... anyway, what do you think and expect?
BTW: Questions directly relating to the game are best posted here: http://www.cliffhanger-productions.com/scripts/forum/index.php?topic=242.0
(http://files.spieletipps.de/picture_img/03/cc/d9/03ccd9_501656e142271.jpg)
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Oh, as usual I almost forgot the initial thought of the thread:
In Shadowrun Online, one of the TOP10 megacorporations will go down. Permanently.
And as a result of the collective works of all players – AND of course resulting in all kinds of havoc, change and runs in the tabletop game as well :)
http://www.shadowrun.com/forums/topic/which-mega-do-you-think-will-go-down
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Ares. They have all sorts of stuff going on now, most of it bad. Replaced by Lone Star / Horizon combo. (Ok, long shot, but if it does happen, I guessed it first :) )
Fully support this project (as much as a can possibly support anything actually).
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Ares seems realistic, I agree. They are split up and Knight made some very bad decisions about certain bugs. My other tip would be Renraku (for off-game reasons). They were one of the main bad guys in the old editions, but they aren't used that much nowadays. They are THE "oldschool" 80's japanese cyberpunk corp (they are even based in Chiba...), but are also the most faceless of all the AAAs (imho).
Aztech is also a candidate, they did stretch their luck a bit much and made themselves vulnerable.
The others:
Evo: No real danger here. They are also the transhuman corp, a space corp and big in the nanite technology. These three things are the future.
Horizon: Seems stable, although they aren't that diversified. They could fall, but I don't think it's likely.
MCT: They are big in every business there is and the #3 AAA overall. I can't see what could bring them down.
NeoNET: The corp is the second biggest in the world, so economically they are very stable. On the other hand, they are split up internally, although not as bad as Ares. They could get in trouble if Villiers and Celedyr would go Fuchi style and duke it out, but they are both highly competent power players and I don't think they would risk that. For what?
SK: No.
Shiawase: They already survived their troubled years. Now that the family feud is fought they seem quite stable. The damage was done but they survived (they lost a bit though, they are #8 now and I remember them being better then that older editions).
Wuxing: Dunno, don't see any trouble. But...who knows what might happen if they lose their coins of luck? I remember a Disney story with Uncle Scrooge. He lost his number one dime in that one and his corporate empire began to crumble shortly after because he had so much bad luck in all his trades.
EDIT: found it, it's "The Duck Who Never Was", just for reference ;)
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Another thing just came to my mind: If an AAA looses his status, another corp will get promoted. So will Monobe finally get their seat at the corporate court? Ingame - certainly. But from a players perspective, the corp is not really interesting enough to qualify for such an important place in the setting.
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What about PCC? They could be interesting. First NAN corporation, first NAN nation (not counting Aztlan...) and first nation-state to get back into the game.
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Another thing just came to my mind: If an AAA looses his status, another corp will get promoted. So will Monobe finally get their seat at the corporate court? Ingame - certainly. But from a players perspective, the corp is not really interesting enough to qualify for such an important place in the setting.
Not a given. No one replaced CatCo, for example. It was a few years before Wuxing and Horizon made it up, and people are still shocked that Horizon got in. Gary Cline either has a LOT of dirt on people or he's an AMAZINGLY good speaker. Now, for us, since we see them there as soon as CatCo went down, but it was, what, five years in universe? More? Before they were promoted.
Seven corps that founded the court have primacy and can't be removed, but the rest? They're transitory, allowed to play the game only at the discretion of the 'real' seven Megas. They are:
Ares Industries, formerly of the Auerialles Family (Whose name I can never spell) and controlled by Damien Knight.
ORO, which is part of Aztechnology
BMW, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saeder-Krupp
JRJ International, owned by Richard Villers personally and 'loaned' to NeoNET.
Keruba International, which was bought out by Renraku. (Renraku still makes guns under that name.)
Mitsuhama Computer Technologies
Shiawase
Horizon, Wuxing, and Evo are all 'Junior Members' of the court and, ultimately, are espendable. Removing one of the Core Seven is ... difficult. I would assume that if you dug deep enough, you might found an out (Such as al 13 Justices have to agree, INCLUDING their own), but otherwise, whoo buddy. Not gonna go down easy.
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Oh, it isn't that difficult to find a way to get one of the original megas off the court. There's two very simple ways:
1) Amend the court charter to remove one of them from the list of 'always on' members.
2) Omega Order, and don't stop until they're completely gone.
See? Two simple ways. Of course, actually pulling off either of those things is the tricky part.
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Not a given. No one replaced CatCo, for example. It was a few years before Wuxing and Horizon made it up, and people are still shocked that Horizon got in. Gary Cline either has a LOT of dirt on people or he's an AMAZINGLY good speaker. Now, for us, since we see them there as soon as CatCo went down, but it was, what, five years in universe? More? Before they were promoted.
Wuxing joined the Corporate Court on 15 August 2060, when judge Li Feng was elected to replace David Hague of Fuchi Industrial Electronics (died in an aircrash). Cross Applied Technologies joined on 15 April 2060, when Yves Aquillon was elected to replace Navroz Chandaria of Renraku Computer Systems (died in terrorist bombing).
Cross Applied Technologies still had AAA rating at the time of System Failure in november 2064. The seat of Cross judge was somehow "vacated" for Horizon to claim it in 2065 (see Shadowrun 4th edition, page 34, and Shadowrun 20th Anniversary edition, pages 30 and 34). The book never mentioned if Cross judge died or was forced into retirement, or if it happened to be the year his term was scheduled to end anyway.
Seven corps that founded the court have primacy and can't be removed, but the rest? They're transitory, allowed to play the game only at the discretion of the 'real' seven Megas. They are:
Ares Industries, formerly of the Auerialles Family (Whose name I can never spell) and controlled by Damien Knight.
ORO, which is part of Aztechnology
BMW, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saeder-Krupp
JRJ International, owned by Richard Villers personally and 'loaned' to NeoNET.
Keruba International, which was bought out by Renraku. (Renraku still makes guns under that name.)
Mitsuhama Computer Technologies
Shiawase
Horizon, Wuxing, and Evo are all 'Junior Members' of the court and, ultimately, are espendable. Removing one of the Core Seven is ... difficult. I would assume that if you dug deep enough, you might found an out (Such as al 13 Justices have to agree, INCLUDING their own), but otherwise, whoo buddy. Not gonna go down easy.
Being represented on the Corporate Court and Zurich-Orbital Gemeinshaft Bank board gives these corps an edge over competition, but it doesn't make them invulnerable. It's business. A vote and preferred rate from Z-OG can't do anything for you when your market shares shrink and your cashflow runs dry.
Of course, all ten of them got prime megacorporate status because they were large and stable corporations, who could be entrusted with the rate of the world trade currency, economic negotiations with governments, space assets, private armies, nuclear weapons... Driving out of business a sizable number of their divisions and subsidiaries is a near impossible task. But it won't be easier to down Evo than Shiawase (ranked respectively #7 and #8 according to Corporate Guide).
At least, the founding members of the Corporate Court will always retain something to sell: a seat on the Court and a Z-OG share. The founders could be willing to pay a high price to prevent a new corporation from entering the court. The newcomers even more so, to guarantee their place on the Court, but just as well as any of other megacorporations. While Shadowrun often makes it like whoever wants to buy does (Ares and Cross, I'm looking at you), the seller gets to pick the offer he wants. The buyer may even offer the management of the failing corporation high-ranking positions within their ranks, with corporate immunity, a nice flat and a security details. But except probably Lofwyr, I doubt a lot of the AAA leaders would try to rebuild a new corporation when too much damages have been done, instead of simply selling.
Ares Industries may remain on the Corporate Court forever, but there would be quite a change between Ares Industries as a subsidiary of Ares Macrotechnology automotive, aerospace, defense, security and media group, with Damien Knight as President/CEO, and Ares Industries as a subsidiary of, say, Universal Omnitech biotechnology, chemicals and mining group, with Damien Knight as honorary vice-president for Northeast American operations (it's just an example, so you get the idea).
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Sometimes I wish we went back to before the Corporate Court retcon of Corporate Shadowfiles where the very idea of a global corporate council was suggested to be terrifying to the (presumably neo-anarchist) narrators of the Seattle Sourcebook and there weren't any tiers to extraterritoriality that have to accomodate such things as all of the AA corps presented as competitors to S-K or whatever in the Germany and London sourcebooks.
I mean, I like the idea of the Corporate Court a lot. However, because it basically institutes a global, neo-feudal hegemony then all of the inter and intracorporate politics begin to be virtually indistinguishable from fantasy genre fiction like Game of Thrones (Fun series. Books are slow as fuck though, and I hate fantasy anyway). And we already have plenty of that with the dragons.
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London Sourcebook got out in 1991, and Deutschland in der Schatten in 1992 (though translated in English as Germany Sourcebook only in 1994). So both predates Corporate Shadowfiles in 1993, which first established Saeder-Krupp as a powerhouse (as far as I remember, prior to Shadowfiles, S-K and Lofwyr were mentionned but nothing was said about their status as No. 1).
The point is nonetheless accurate regarding later releases, for better or worse. In first edition books like Neo-anarchist Guide to North America and Native American Nations, you can't hardly find one corp active in two different countries or even two sprawls (Yokogawa-Honeywell ? Cord Mutual ? Truman Technologies ?). By the time we were putting out Shadows of Europe and Shadows of Asia, we were beancounting the number of AA megacorporations that was deemed "acceptable" to respect the established canon (I particularly remember when we realized Sony Corporation, who had I think one mention as a corporation, should probably be in as it was all over the place in.. the equipment lists).
Though my opinion would rather be on the other side of the fence, in that, you know, I like the idea of Great dragons a lot, but all of the inter and intradraconic politics begin to be virtually indistinguishable from political thriller genre fiction. And we already have plenty of that with the megacorporations, and states.
;)