Shadowrun Burbclaves, Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong? Options

[SpasticTeapot]

Things I have noticed:

1. Megacorporations have extraterritoriality. As such, on their own property, they have absolute law.

2. If they were to build a tower block and declare it elf-free, it would henceforth be elf-free. Racism, sexism, equal-opportunity, and even age of consent laws are now moot. Whatever government surrounds the property could declare war, but this would be messy and difficult.

3. Whether owned by small companies or separate but wholly owned subsidiaries of megacorporations, entire neighborhoods could run on truly off-the-wall codes of law. You might have no-magic zones, no metahuman zones, you name it. Furthermore, so long as an activity takes place on corporate territory, it's not actually illegal.

Did I read this right?

[Synner667]

This is the current situation with shopping centres, etc - privately owned territory owned by private companies that could impose whatever rules they want.

They don't officially impose such rules because it's bad for business.

[BlueMax]

I can't wait to read all the answers here.

The tipping point in how I feel about a game relates to how close it holds to the above.

[BlueMax]

They don't officially impose such rules because it's bad for business.

I think your missing some words.

"get caught" before impose moves to imposing.

And that is assuming it really is bad for business.

[Synner667]

Anything that limits your customers is bad for business.

Officially having a policy, which means you tell people it's your policy, limits your customer base and/or creates bad feelings in your customers reducing the number of customers.


Many companies unofficially limit their customers, expensive shops or private clubs [for example], but they make up the loses from the customers they do have.

[BlueMax]

Anything that limits your customers is bad for business.

Officially having a policy, which means you tell people it's your policy, limits your customer base and/or creates bad feelings in your customers reducing the number of customers.


Many companies unofficially limit their customers, expensive shops or private clubs [for example], but they make up the loses from the customers they do have.

Right. The second section is what spells it out. If people are willing to do more, spend more or give more because of a restriction, its profitable.

"They don't let Barrens Scum like me into places. We ain't got the aura or the clothes. But most importantly, we ruin the atmosphere. Guess it has something to do with the dangerously sharp points on our ears."

[Angier]

There is an official example for megacorp imposed rules: the ban on bloodsports (hosted by Aztechnology) by nearly anyone outside Aztlan.

[Glyph]

Corporate extraterritoriality is restricted to certain enclaves and areas. Not every single corporate-owned piece of property is extraterritorial. The Aztechnology pyramid? Yeah. The stuffer shack? No.

[nezumi]

Indeed, 1) extraterroriality is limited to megacorps and 2) it does not extend to every piece of property. Megacorps CAN have discrimination-based laws, and likely do in certain areas (although they would be more circuitous, things like income requirements, which are only checked on metahumans). Generally however, discrimination doesn't require law, but requires only practice. Renraku we know hires very few metas, even if they don't have a policy on it specifically. It's a simple cultural value they hold. The advantage of extraterritoriality here is they can't be prosecuted for discrimination, even though it does exist and is institutionalized.

I'm sure there are extraterritorial living compounds, like Mr. Lee's, but they likely limit residents based on rank and occupation within the organization, so things like racial segregation are enforced by the hiring practices, not by laws. Since visitation is controlled in these places, an ork wandering around the middle-manager's residential facility will stand out and quickly be arrested.

[Wesley Street]

Something that I don't think has ever been mentioned outside of Corporate Shadowfiles is that a territory is only extra-territorial if those who govern the surrounding area agree that it is. So a megacorp, technically, can't just plop down a building and say nya-nya can't touch me.

[Sumo Neko]

Something that I don't think has ever been mentioned outside of Corporate Shadowfiles is that a territory is only extra-territorial if those who govern the surrounding area agree that it is. So a megacorp, technically, can't just plop down a building and say nya-nya can't touch me.

The local government negotiates with the Mega Corp, and depending on what perks each side gets one may be Extra-Territoriality for the Mega-Corp. In Atlanta 2070 they rarely give anyone that right especially Japanese mega-corps. The information on Atlanta can be found in 1) Neo-Anarchist Guide to North America and Shadows of North America.

[Wesley Street]

Not quite. Atlanta is home to Hisato-Turner and the Marietta neighborhood has Tokyo-style high rise complexes for Japanese megacorp workers (NAGNA, pg. 40-44). And according to SoNA the ERLA tends to be more suspicious of Aztechnology than Japancorps. (pg. 65) Plus, it's mentioned if the ERLA pulls the real estate thing on megacorps too many times it comes back to bite them.