Corporate Enclaves - Discussion, What's your take on the book? Options Track this topic Email this topic Print this topic Download this topic Subscribe to this forum Display Modes Switch to: Outline Standard Switch to: Linear+

[Fuchs]

What's your opinion on Corporate Enclaves? I haven't gone through the whole book yet, but the P2.0 stuff in Los Angeles seemed a bit over the top to me, "reality trid meets youtube and facebook"-shadowrunning. I run a rather "action-movie" based campaign, but even there I can't see how this "show running" might fit in.

[Homme-qui-rigole]

Yeah, that's what happens when writers lacks of imagination.

[Kyoto Kid]

...haven't got it yet but I always thought that LA was pretty superficial anyway. Catch a Lakers game on the telly, sometimes it seems more like your watching the "red carpet" report at the Academy Awards than a basketball match.

(...maybe there was another writers strike :grinbig: )

[Synner]

The type of high-profile, "live coverage" PitoRunning as described in the Los Angeles chapter of Corporate Enclaves isn't for everyone, nor is it meant to be.

Runners that opt for this route create "stage personas" (with Altskin, nanopaste, or traditional desguises) for the camera and must take extra precautions, have screened pay-per-view subscribers, or a combination of both. Live feeds are potentially more dangerous and risky but get higher audiences, alternatively the team's rigger/hacker/media expert can tape, edit, and publish to his Pito account at a later date. On the plus side - and as long as their employers remain anonymous - they stand to make a bundle on the broadcasts on top of what they make for the run itself.

Regarding P2.0 itself, it is the logical extension and amalgam of social networking, web-publishing, self-broadcasting, and reality TV in a wireless world - though in this case its very nature makes it an insidious tool of the megacorporation that developed it (after all that Centrality rating is as important as the others).

[Malicant]

Pito as lack of imagination? Nice. I'd say those who lack the imagination that this is not meant as something everyone and his dog uses has a lack of... imagination.

Nice idea btw. Totally fits with LAs rich-and-better-than-you attitude :)

[Fuchs]

I am not talking about having my group go the P2.0 route - I am talking about the whole "show running" concept as part of the campaign world (referred to in the news, and such). It just seems to run counter to the "black ops" style. Laundering the money made would also be costly, or so I assume, and even with stage personas, tracking runners seems easier as well. LoneStar would probably have a field day with such evidence delivered by the criminals themselves, and often their locations as well.

The main point I ponder is: If LA-based Runners can do that, why do corps and the public act differently in other locations? Money talks, fads spread.

I am currently leaning more toward the reality TV or combat sports/cop TV angle for the live/almost live feeds, and some market for recordings of runs, heavily edited, but live coverage of actual illegal shadowruns seems a tad too much for my campaign. Essentially the same concepts, just a bit toned down.

(Of course, some might now say I am not playing Shadowrun anymore, for changing such stuff.)

[Dashifen]

[Fuchs]

Hard to get a new city contract if the citizens watch daily how criminals run around scott-free, especially with competitiors (Knight Errant etc.) willing to use such "evidence of ineptness" to get the contract themselves.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

[Demonseed Elite]

Yeah, running for the media isn't new to Corp Enclaves. Like Rotbart mentions, it goes back to Shadowbeat in 1st edition.

[Kyoto Kid]

...ahhh but it's ratings...baby, ratings...

And we all know advertisers love good ratings - P2.0, Brought to you by the friendly folks at Knight Errant...

...damn, beginning to sound like Mojo-- (whooops wrong gaming universe). :grinbig:

[JBlades]

I wonder how many people who read that section know what "pito" means in azzie slang? :rotfl:

[Synner]

[Jhaiisiin]

A former GM of mine decided that this might be a good idea. Having shadowruns filmed and people not only able to watch them, but take/place bets on who will die when, by what method, or if they'll succeed/fail, etc. He had it very well thought out. I'm finding this amusing that someone else had a similar idea and actually put it into print.

[martindv]

[imperialus]

I think a game set in LA might be fun.

Overall I think the book is pretty good. I skipped ahead and read the Tokyo section first so I'm still reading the last bit of the LA stuff but Tokyo was nicely fleshed out and provides a pretty unique city to run in. As for the P2.0 stuff I think it's neat. Sure you're broadcasting your escapades over teh intraweb but really as long as you arn't running against Horizon or the PCC I doubt anyone would care all that much.

I mean sure it's crazy and over the top but why does that mean a group that tries it is having badwrongfun. It's a cool way to make the city different.

[Kyoto Kid]

[Whipstitch]

Pito and similar services have a place in the game, even if many shadowrunners have reason not to use such things themselves. If nothing else, things like P2.0 can be both a great tool and a real liability for Face characters. If I ever get around to GMing again, the concept is already putting visions of bringing pesky voyeurs and muckrakers who use pito as a way to gain fame as shock journalists back to shadowrun again.

[Kyoto Kid]

...hmmm, return of the cybersnoop?

[MaxHunter]

everybody, remember the "black or chrome" thread and the conversation there. For some people in some games it might be really neat to "go pito"
For others, well, they might want to avoid it and keep the "silent but deadly" black ops style, but the existence of that network doesn't affect them really.

I liked the idea even If I do not think any of my players would use it in their games. The only bad thing here is that I still haven't got the book.

Cheers,

Max

[JBlades]

Lol, I'll take that as a "no", not a lot of Spanish speakers here, huh?

[Fortune]

[Synner]

Actually, whistle is closer to the right track... think the instrument not the act (don't mind me, seriously bad pun there).

[JBlades]

Whistle is literally correct, the usage is closer to "skin flute" or "meat muscle of love" or even "hammer of prison sex"... A common phrase to hear on the street is "Chupo me pito" literally "Chew my whistle".

Now re-read the section and you'll get what those of us from the LA area (who pretty much all learn some Spanish growing up) are laughing about when we read things like "Pito is really big with celebrities, they're all on it" or "Your pito rating determines whether you can get into the biggest clubs". ;)

I think the writer just played the world's biggest dick joke since the Little Donny Foundation. That wouldn't have been you, would it, Peter? :grinbig:

[Synner]

Nah, I'm just the editor that let it through - though there's a blatant reference to the slang meaning in the LA text.