Ork Underground, So? Where are the alligators? Options

[IridiosDZ]

Ok, basically I missed the politics surround the move to make the Underground a legitimate district of the 'plex. I have one question about these events, Were there any Megacorporate backers of the move? If so, who and if known why? What would be the best source of info?

[Critias]

The push for the OU to go legit, via Proposition 23, came about largely in some recent (well, semi-recent) Missions stuff. Bull can tell ya all about!

[Wakshaani]

Ok, basically I missed the politics surround the move to make the Underground a legitimate district of the 'plex. I have one question about these events, Were there any Megacorporate backers of the move? If so, who and if known why? What would be the best source of info?

Storm Front will have more detail on this, but I can tell you that one corporation is *thrilled* to have the Underground going legit.

And it isn't who you'd think. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Pepsi Jedi]

Ok, basically I missed the politics surround the move to make the Underground a legitimate district of the 'plex. I have one question about these events, Were there any Megacorporate backers of the move? If so, who and if known why? What would be the best source of info?

They go into the 'wrap up' in pretty good detail in Dirty Tricks. I know that doesn't directly answer your question, but there was alot goin' on.

[Umidori]

So what does this mean for the Underground? Will it still be a (relatively) safe place for freaks to live off the grid?

When I statted up my T'skrang changeling, I kinda banked on him being able to live down there between runs, typically only coming topside for jobs. When the UO goes "legit", will it still cater to the freaks and undesireables who are too weird to live openly topside? Or will they have to find new homes elsewhere?

~Umi

[Pepsi Jedi]

Well there's a few factors.
1) They already had 'tours' and stuff through there. It's not like Bogata or anything down there.
2) What it means for the city, is that as an official district, they have to extend the same sort of stuff to the Underground as they do to other parts of the city. First and formost... police presence.
3) It's still going to cater to the freaks and undesirables.

So it's it's own neighborhood now and they are supposed to be extending patrols of the police down there and 'cleaning it up'. That being said, in Dirty Tricks it was flat out stated that while this was a huge fight and movement, that it seemed to be a huge fight and movement for people that... by and large didn't care for it.

So while they might put a gloss of shine on the edges and what not for those straights going to take the tours and such, it'll likely be a very thin wash painted over the reality.

In reality the dude in charge is a humanis member and would firebomb them in a heart beat if he could get away with it. So, anything the city DOES do, will be reluctant and just PR for the media. The reality will be that life wont' change all that much for the Underground. Other than the cops have a reason to be there ---if they want to be--- now... and might actually use it to beat down the people that live there more.

I wouldn't expect it to become a shining beacon of subterranean living or anything.

[CanRay]

Considering how cash strapped Seattle is already, and how they've been able to get away with even further infrastructure items by glossing over it with AR... Yeah, the Ork Underground is about to become another Barrens at worst, and Low-Income Housing at best.

Also, the vote was very, very close. You can bet recounts galore are being demanded.

[Pepsi Jedi]

Dirty Tricks said something to the effect that the first recount was demanded and came up the same way.

But yeah, I'm pretty sure the Orc Underground thing is setup for something being kicked off in SR5

[Ixal]

Knight Errant seems to be in a pretty bad spot.
They are required to police the Underground. And while technically they could police it the same way as they police the Barrens they would loose a lot of reputation when simply quitting without even trying. And that means a massive increase in manpower and equipment.

But hey, when Ares goes through with one of its suspected "PR stunts" from the hidden stories (Set up an artificial bug hive and then burn in down live on camera) they now have found the perfect place for it.

[KarmaInferno]

Underground? More like FUNderground, amirite?



-k

[Wakshaani]

Considering how cash strapped Seattle is already, and how they've been able to get away with even further infrastructure items by glossing over it with AR... Yeah, the Ork Underground is about to become another Barrens at worst, and Low-Income Housing at best.

Also, the vote was very, very close. You can bet recounts galore are being demanded.

Barrens at worst?

Oh my dear CanRay, I assure you that it can get much, much worse than that.

MWU-hahahahaa...

Ahem.

As for KE, their lawyers are probably poking at the city, with accountants on both side yelling about "Trust the Heart of the Legal Briefs!" to get the win on their side. KE wants to be paid more to go patrol a new part of teh city, while the city wants KE to do the extra work for free, saying that they police "The city" and not per district. KE counters that the OU wasn't part of the city when it was signed, so, it can't be grandfathered in ... and the bean counters on either side are teeth-gnashing to see where it winds up.

[CanRay]

True, Bracky could just order a drekload of Instacrete and fill the OU up.

[Pepsi Jedi]

True, Bracky could just order a drekload of Instacrete and fill the OU up.

That's been mentioned more than once. Well sealing it off and pumping in nerve gas or something. Thing is, now with it being an official district, he can't just 'legally' fill it up. Any more than he could just knock down all the skyrakers in down town and pave over them. Which is part of the "problem". The people in the OU now have rights.

Not that, such things would really stop "Bracky".

To be honest, I'm amazed noone in universe has funded a hit on that douchebag yet.

[tasti man LH]

^I have a feeling that people have tried.

Considering nothing has been said, I presume all of those runs were...unsuccessful.

[Pepsi Jedi]

Do, or Do not.... there is no Try.

[Wakshaani]

That's been mentioned more than once. Well sealing it off and pumping in nerve gas or something. Thing is, now with it being an official district, he can't just 'legally' fill it up. Any more than he could just knock down all the skyrakers in down town and pave over them. Which is part of the "problem". The people in the OU now have rights.

Not that, such things would really stop "Bracky".

To be honest, I'm amazed noone in universe has funded a hit on that douchebag yet.

...

Now I need to go dig out my Super Tuesday module, to see when the hit attempts *started*.

When you're Kenneth Brackhaven, you don't worry every time some professional Elven hitman clambers up to a rooftop with a rifle.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3429/3840116...939ee20d7_b.jpg

You just call it Tuesday.

[Falconer]

Wait a sec... so it is now official? Thought it was up in the air yet with the missions.

Oh well, with Bull in charge of missions and his obvious sympathies guess I shouldn't be surprised.

I still vote to pump in the nerve gas and save the city some dosh!


This message brought to you by your less gritty, more cushy, my little pony shadowrun'ism where competely non-sensical actions like orc rights make the supposed RP penalties of choosing orc even less relevant. I sincerely hope they pump the cost to be an orc up 15 points in SR5 (troll-lite) to reflect this.

[Pepsi Jedi]

Wait a sec... so it is now official? Thought it was up in the air yet with the missions.

Oh well, with Bull in charge of missions and his obvious sympathies guess I shouldn't be surprised.

I still vote to pump in the nerve gas and save the city some dosh!


This message brought to you by your less gritty, more cushy, my little pony shadowrun'ism where competely non-sensical actions like orc rights make the supposed RP penalties of choosing orc even less relevant. I sincerely hope they pump the cost to be an orc up 15 points in SR5 (troll-lite) to reflect this.

Yeah the "Dirty Tricks" book, which seems to be largely glossed over because it has the rather deceptive label of being a "Book on politics" Has a rather large chapter that wraps up the storyline.

I don't buy the missions, my group likes to play their own and... well.. not putting too fine a point on it, I collect RPGs so my slacker friends cheep out and --I-- am the one that has to foot the bill for the books... so yeah. So I don't really know what happened in the missions but the wrap up chapter in Dirty Tricks is really cool on how it plays out and such.

The book is pretty nice over all with some jems in there. They came out with the book on Election day, and tried to tie it in with the election feaver we had going now. I think... .sadly... this shot them in the foot, as by that point we all were fed up with the politics for months and months and months and most of us just wanted the elections OVER WITH ALREADY!! Even if the guy we voted for lost. Ugg. It was horrible.

So a book on politics at that point, while seemingly a natural tie in, was looked at like acid on the eyeballs.

I got it a few months later. (( to be honest I'd recoiled from it during the election period and only picked it up later when I remembered there was a hole in my collection.)) It's a good book.

[Bull]

Wait a sec... so it is now official? Thought it was up in the air yet with the missions.

Oh well, with Bull in charge of missions and his obvious sympathies guess I shouldn't be surprised.

I still vote to pump in the nerve gas and save the city some dosh!


This message brought to you by your less gritty, more cushy, my little pony shadowrun'ism where competely non-sensical actions like orc rights make the supposed RP penalties of choosing orc even less relevant. I sincerely hope they pump the cost to be an orc up 15 points in SR5 (troll-lite) to reflect this.

The vote was determined by a combination of how the adventures submitted were completed and on-site voting done at Gen Con. It was surprisingly close.

And 2 things... I know you're being snarky, which hey, thanks for that. I appreciate it! But still:

1) I didn't have any hand in tallying the votes. Those were done by Jason and others at CGL. So I had no sway on the actual vote.

2) Personally, I think becoming a district was a terrible thing for the OU. Of course, they were screwed either way. There was no "good" outcome from this. "yes" just ended up being the vote that hurt Brackhaven the most (and causes taxes to jump even more), but it also hurts runners and the many, many, MANY SINless that call it home.

Bull

[Falconer]

Conspiracy theories Bull... Conspiracy theories!

We'll just have to fake a photo from some crackpot with an old polaroid of you stuffing the ballot box when no one was looking (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) .

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http:/...BQ&dur=5638

[CanRay]

IIRC, while I was running Shadowrun: Missions: Burn (the one I wrote), a number of people changed their vote... I think I did too good a job describing a scene or two.

[KarmaInferno]

The vote was determined by a combination of how the adventures submitted were completed and on-site voting done at Gen Con. It was surprisingly close.

And 2 things... I know you're being snarky, which hey, thanks for that. I appreciate it! But still:

1) I didn't have any hand in tallying the votes. Those were done by Jason and others at CGL. So I had no sway on the actual vote.

2) Personally, I think becoming a district was a terrible thing for the OU. Of course, they were screwed either way. There was no "good" outcome from this. "yes" just ended up being the vote that hurt Brackhaven the most (and causes taxes to jump even more), but it also hurts runners and the many, many, MANY SINless that call it home.

Bull

I, for one, made sure all my votes pro-Underground were signed "Kenneth Brackhaven"

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)



-k

[Wakshaani]

Be careful what you (vote) for, 'cause you just might get it...

[Ixal]

Be careful what you (vote) for, 'cause you just might get it...

Don't worry. When it goes like the last(?) thing we could vote on it will blow up within hours.

[Pepsi Jedi]

Dirty Tricks did a good job of pointing out that after the start, that this big battle FOR the Orc Underground, wasn't really done 'BY' them... or ...really 'for them'... but more ... 'To them' by people that by and large didn't even live there.