Is it a 4e source? I ran most of mine through a text search and got nothing. Maybe you're remembering the 3e Seattle book?

And no, not posting from work this time. I gotta earn my tax money back sometimes.

SR does have at least one Dwarf-syndicate, as I recall.

In a 4e source? Could you give a bit of a hint on who they are and where to find them?

Not sure how much they've been talked about in 4e. This is going back aways - the Stonecutter's Guild.

Any chance you'd be willing to throw some love out for the Red Hot Nukes updated to 2072?

Don't ask me mate, I don't write for the game any more.

I wouldn't really qualify the Stonecutters Guild (as depicted in Loose Alliances) as a syndicate since they're not really criminals... more of a shady special interest group with connections in a number of institutions and power players.

That's like 9/10s of the thing, as far as I'm concerned. They might not pimp out the beardlettes, but that doesn't mean their hands aren't dirty.

Ok this is reaching back abit but the DTG or Dwarven Technologists Guild from Kage. IIRC A sort of secretive hign tech think tank that contracted out to the highest bidder. (Been awhile since I read them over, have to dig out the issue later.)

Pretty sad how hard you have to look to find anything that's dwarf-specific. Elves, orks, and even trolls all get their due, and we have plenty of human-based organizations (although very few - perhaps none - where that's presented as a positive thing). So why are the dwarfs the bastards of the SR setting?

That's OK with me. I don't make a distinction between official and unofficial for my fluff - whether i like it or not, I don't pay for any of it.

Are you including the Dwarf-led Grand Duchy in the AGS, or that Julian Strouthers (the first Dwarf born in Seattle) managed to be Governor of Seattle for quite a bit? The rumors of the Immortal Dwarf? Bisexual dwarf pornsimstar Agyar Trollkiller? Okay, I made that one up, but if I ever do write for SR again, he's in there.

That's still pretty small stuff. The trolls easily can boast as much coverage (also a nation in the AGS), and orks and elves get far more. Hell, even ghouls get more facetime than dwarfs.

That is the fundamental problem with race specific nations/gangs/groups whatever. YOu cna't write them without them being cocks and the elven groups being amazing and the orc groups being the barbarians and the dwarven groups building shit and speaking with vague Scottish accents.

It might be stereotyping, but dwarves have always had trouble fitting into high society.

Even for this place, that was dreadful. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I'm sorry, it was pretty low.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

*pulls his beard and stamps his foot* I'm down here.

The entry into the GC-chapter is shit - I mean, a 16-year-old girl posts her homework for school and adult, professional criminals who shoot people in the face for money are really discussing it? Dude... I never liked the whole Pistons/dev/grrl/Netcat-gang from the start on and this part of Vice strengthens that.

It's not total shit. It's jarring, it's disconcerting...But if you accept the conceit that people at all grow up in the shadows, it makes some sense. Barely.

More than once as a high schooler and during my undergrad years in college, I'd stumble upon places where those who actually had connections to international affairs were commenting. Eventually, after months and sometimes a year+ of establishing my credibility as an interested and clueful amateur, I'd indulge my curiosity and ask for research help...Or just start asking hard questions. (I will never forget when I essentially asked 'WTF is wrong with African militaries that they keep using rape as a tool of warfare?' The responses began with a lot of, well, squirming from those who'd been in the region, but then got very interesting.)

Would I ever post my homework? No...Because I'd get pummeled in the politest of ways and told to do my own goddamn work. Even rough drafts I'd get told to edit myself. (Research? Everybody sometimes needs a pointer separating wheat from chaff, and critically, I gave as much as I got, or tried to.)

In this case, dev/grrl has, however jarringly, been established as a member of the community that underpins (sort of) Jackpoint. I could see her asking questions related to schoolwork. I could see her trading hacking help for research help.

But yes, teenage schoolwork being taken seriously for commentary is a bit of a stretch.

Don't push it. Patrick has a short temper.

Thanks! I'll make sure not to underestimate him.

Gangs
Gangs are hard to write, but so much fun.

The problem is that there are no clear-cut lines dividing a gang and a syndicate. Level of organization maybe, size and strength maybe...but those are just indicators. When a "second-tier gang" can have 6,000 members, or a Matrix gang can operate all over the planet, its hard to say that they're not on the same playing field as the Mafia.

Riser of all the JackPointers is a solid choice to voice this chapter since he was in a gang (10 Jackpointers for all the speculation).

The YMCA sidebar is a nice touch. When you're reading page after page of text, it's nice to break up the flow a little, throw a few different formats at your hungry, tired eyeballs. It also allows the writer to bring in a fresh perspective, to state something outright or to hint at it for anyone willing to read between the lines. Some chapters and writers do this more than others, and those that do have their own styles and preferences. The YMCA bit is classy.

I disagree with the Patina of Legitimacy. That doesn't mean it's wrong, I just don't see the Mafia as having extensive corporate or political influence. Maybe the thing that sets it apart from most gangs is that it has any corporate or political influence, I dunno, but when I think of the Mafia I think street. That's where they make their money, that's where they make themselves known. The difference is in size and scope, the ability to plan longer-term than your gang on the street and the means to see that plan to fruition. Not many gangs in LA are going to have the resources or vision to fly down to Colombia and try to set up a steady line of BADs, for example.

Green Lucifer y'all might remember from the classic SR adventure Elven Fire. He's a prick and I wish a dragon would flame him and piss on the ashes.

That reminds me, one thing not stressed a lot here is that gangsters go to prison, and prisons tend to be very gang-heavy.

That exchange about Rosa Azul at the end is a reference to Ghost Cartels. "We make sweet hate to each other."

Y'know, I tried with the Merlyns. I really fucking did. I wanted to raise them up to stop being a teenage wiz-kid gang after twenty-some years. But the Order of Merlyn, it did not take in the collective Shadowrun imagination. (And the Merlyns in New Yawk, from 10 Gangs? No relation. Which is just bizarre.)

The problem with gangs is that there are so many, and we never let them die. Because real-life gangs do that, they collapse. Cops bust 'em, rival gang kills 'em, the gang members grow up and move on, the leader gets stabbed by the nineteen year-old screwing his baby mama and *poof* no more gang! Not in SR. This is like The Warriors except when the last gang member dies, some kid comes along and puts on their blood-stained vest then bloodies his knuckles again.

Please sir, can we have some more?