I was just wondering if anyone else out there has a list of 'bad guy' corporations they like to use for their games. My personal favorites are Zeta-Imp Chemical and Aztechnology. Zeta-Imp is the classic 'heartless corp' driven entirely by profit motive, while the Azzies have that weird cult vibe going for them.

Mitsuhama.

Whenever I picture a game based on the Terminator, I always picture them somehow being involved. That said, I like the original 8 the best, but do like some additions to the big boys.

Yakashima Technologies.

Aztechnology... *looks over his shoulder to make sure his hispanic girlfriend isn't in the room* Because Mexicans are evil. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) But seriously, most, if not all, of their board of directors has to be Horror marked. And remember, they make most of the food. Plus, yeah, cult crazies, Darke, mass human sacrifice, originally a drug cartel, still a drug cartel, corrupted, toxics, blood magic...

Most of the Corps have thier own evil aspects, but I think Aztechnology is the only one that does it all.

Aztechnology, your one-stop evil shop.

Transoceanic Mining is my favorite boogeyman. It's a nice little natural resource exploration and exploitation company, who just happens to discretely be owned by Saeder-Krupp.

heh. 'one stop evil shop'. I like it! they're the wal-mart of evil.

Ares. They inherited that nice, evil "What's good for General Motors is good for the country" vibe (the version without the vice versa, natch), perform experiments with bug spirits, were formerly in tight with one of the most schemingly nefarious Great Dragons, astrally razed a semi-inhabited city, control the brutal thugs at Knight Errant, and generally perpetrate a host of other hideousnesses.

Yamatetsu with their board under the heavy influence of an alien intelligence also make a good bad guy.

~J

*Bows* Thank you, thank you, no applause, just throw money. I've got more of them folks, and I'll be here all week. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

Mitsuhama is our current Favorite Bad-Guy Corporation... they seem to be at the Core of every problem that we have been facing for the last year or so...

Keep the Faith

Horizon. Not for what they've done, but for what they're going to do.

Evo because everyone see them as "good guys".

And in my Hamburg campaign, I'm trying to have SK as "The Corporation". The one that's everywhere and dominates everything. It doesn't mean it's a "bad guy" corporation, but it's the one the (neo)anarchists, (neo)neonazis, anti-corps, anti-NEEC and every other fringe cultures/movements are fighting against.

I varies regionally, but I'm partial to Universal Omnitech.
[✓] Partnered with criminal enterprise, Aztechnology.
[✓] Genetic/bioweapons research could kill everyone.
[✓] Has a name that suggests Total World Domination.
[✓] Headquartered in sinister Vancouver, BC, birthplace of evil.

This. I get a icky feeling when reading about Horizon in the rule/source books.

However for things already done and general image Aztechnology must be the most evil corp out there imo.

And I think that's a big mistake.

First of all, as far as things done go, they've just done some blood magic which as far as we know isn't inherently "evil". It's just disliked by dragons. The Native Americans did use it to for their dance and people aren't saying that the NAO are pure evil.
Meanwhile, Ares sell weapons to Africa and raise Insect Spirits, Mitsuhama has ties with the Yakuza, and the list could go on. No megacorp is good and I'm not sure that what Aztechnology does is worse than what other do. Sure, the whole Oscuro thing might have been a bigger threat (and even then, how can we be so sure about it?), but I don't think it's fair to blame a whole corporation for the actions of one employee.

Secondly, as far as the image goes, before Horizon appeared from nearly nowhere, Aztechnology was supposed to be the corp with the best PR department. Even in the Shadows where some people know about the blood magic, I'm not sure that everyone would accept it.
I think the devs did much better with Horizon, as I still see or hear some people saying that "they are good guys compared to the other corps" and I think that Aztechnology should have been handled the same way.

But Aztechnology is blatantly expansionist in a war-like way. They straight up jack whole nations.
Also, the Aztecs, (and the mexican cartels whose resources Aztechnology is founded on,) are some blood-thirsty guys.

Have a gander at their founding chapter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Zetas

I like your description. I'm sometimes quite amused when some players fall for their "Red, White and Blue, Inc." shtick.

Myself, I'd go with Mitsuhama as a "faceless evil" corporation. Ruthlessly efficient japanacorp with Yakuza connections, what's not to like? Of course, that might be influenced by my fondness of Rising Sun as inspiration for SR corporate intrigue.

Saeder-Krupp should be up there, too. At least, I'd qualify "bring Europe under the rule of a darwinist great dragon" as an evil objective. But I don't really like the concept of SK with Lofwyr as the omniscient, micromanaging dragon in charge. I prefer megacorps which have some internal conflict, too.

Maybe it's not canon, but I've always seen Saeder-Krupp as being rife with infighting as employees stab each other in the back to keep Lofwyr's attention focused on something other than their own performance.

No big surprise, I say the Azzies. Mostly because they are the most open about their evilness. They hold the most gruesome to-the-death pit fighting rings (Sangre y Acero), the are the most open about their use of blood magic, and the only reason they are still a major corp is because, essentially, they have all of Mexico working for them (and if they don't, the Azzies kill them.) Pretty much the definition of "The corporation" running a dictatorship.

Other big bads from my list include Evo (anyone else worried about all that genetic experimentation they are doing?) and I'm also not a fan of MCT after the events of Emergence.

I feel it's a coinflip between S-K and Shiawase. The reason for nominating S-K is that Lofwyr is a serious Magnificent Bastard.

Shiawase is in there because the higher levels are insane with massive family feuding and intriques, which all filters down to interdepartment conflict and oppurtunities for super happy funtimes when the unexpected cavalry for the OpFor turns out to be another Shiawase team.

A Shadowtalker said "if any Corp ever achieves the ability to control our minds - Shiawase will." Roll around Unwired, and we have a chapter on SIM Brainwashing. Shiawase has clearly had this for longer, and taken it to greater heights, than any other Corp. You don't know if you've been caught by the MIFD. You can't ever know.

As far as evil goes, Aztechnology is by far the worst. The whole Horrors thing pretty much takes the cake, as they're actively involved in working to destroy everything that you hold dear. Saeder-Krupp is a good bad guy too, but they're more of an extension of Lofwyr. And Saeder Krupp (and by extension, Lofwyr) don't scare me as much as Aztechnology because although Lofwyr's best interests frequently don't coincide with ours, at least I know Lofwyr is acting in his best interests. And Lofwyr's best interests almost certainly don't include human sacrifice and opening gates for the Horrors to invade our world.

All the corporations offer fertile ground to tread upon but some of my favorites

Ares: I see Damien Knight and by extension Ares and especially Knight Errant as modern day crusaders. He believes whole heartedly he is going to save the world from the bugs, and if need be the horrors if they come knocking in his lifetime. Unfortunately the necessities of that mission means Ares look at the big picture allows them to internally justify many many things that are otherwise reprehensible.

Aztechnology - Even if the Azzies are no longer actively trying to bring back the world they are still hevily invested in blood magic and anything else that allows them to stay on top. This plus their reputation for absolutely ruthlessly persuing people that hurt them make them very dangerous opponents for shadowrunners. I make sure that my runners know, if they work against the Azzies and get sloppy the Azzies may very well track them down.

No love for Renraku?

Back in the days there were 3 corps I used: Renraku, Fuchi and Ares.

Ares was the one that everyone wanted to work for since they are a UCAS company and easier to relate to (white guys working for a white company) & Renraku was always had that strict japanese control going with a very corrupt feel. No one wanted to work for Renraku because they expected a doublecross since Renraku loved tying up any lose ends to a job, in other words, killing the PCs who did the job. Not only was Ares more likely to keep you around for future work if you were good but they had some of the best weapons that you could negotiate into your contracts.

Now days?

I'm not using corporations much. Sticking to small time work. Now that I'm older I realize that these corporations are so large that they probably all work the same at the shadowrunners level. Being how compartmentalized corporations are and such.

I am currently playing a Chinese Orc Technomancer (is that 3 strikes?). We are doing the emergence storyline. Mitsuhama is the ultimate bogeyman. They are known to oppress metahumans, known to discriminate against non-Japanese, and they are actively hunting technomancers for weird experiments. No need to look any farther for an enemy. Besides everyone knows that all of those blood magic stories are just hate mongering by Aztechnology's enemies.

There you go again Orcus, Spouting that Ork Hype...

Keep the Faith

Short answer, all of them equally, I like to spread the hate around. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/silly.gif)

I mean, Big A is perhaps the most vindiction of the corps.

Ares has the entire working with the Bugs thing going for them.

Horizon well let's just say that if they aren't run by some hidden uber AI running on the disembodied brains of technomancers I'm going to be very disappointed.

ect... ect... ect...