Corporate Guide and three classics released!, Blood in the Boardroom, Corporate Security, and ShadowTech also out Options

[Abstruse]

He's been alive since the days he was called Mountain Shadow. And that was the best plan he could come up with?
Really?

Check out the link on TVTropes for "It Makes Sense in Context".

It's really complicated, but basically...

[ Spoiler ]

Dunkelzahn killed himself in a Blood Magic ritual to empower an artifact known as the Dragonheart (yes, the one given to Ryan Mercury (an adept and one of Big D's personal shadowrunners) in his will) because there was no other way to get enough magic into the artifact to activate it besides killing himself. Aztechnology/Aztlan blood mages were performing a massive blood ritual to bring the Horrors to the world early, but Mercury showed up and -- because of the massive magic being thrown around -- morphed into a drake long before SURGE. A MASSIVE free spirit created by the death of Big D possessed a cyberzombie and was trapped inside by the rituals holding the cyberzombie together. The free-spirit-stuck-in-a-cyberzombie then used the Dragonheart to suck up the negative astral energy the blood mages were building to bring the Horrors over. Everyone goes home and romances are rekindled and lives settle back into normalcy. Epilogue - the cyberzombie is still on the metaplane, sucking up little mana spikes that might let the Horrors come over early. While there, the free spirit realizes that he's the astral ghost of Dunkelzahn.

Okay, maybe it still doesn't make sense. But go read the books and it will.

[Bull]

Blah. It is getting really annoying to read the same crap in publications over and over again. Remember that someone said "oh, just wait for Corp Guide for dirt on Horizon"? I think it was you. Whaere's the dirt? They cooperate with weird Transhumanists who want to mind merge people? Yeah. Not very scary. Not very dirty. And buried under 20 pages wasted to thumb, again, how Horizon is just made of win.

And mind you, Horizon DOES make Google look like the empire of evil.

Wasn't me, I didn't know what would and wouldn't be in Corp Guide (STill don't, really, I never had the chance to do more than skim one or two chapters when they were in the draft stage).

Bull

[Abstruse]

It is pretty hard to hush up a nuclear explosion and all these military actions involving the bug stampout. If anything, people talk, and apart from the Trid there is the Matrix, where information flows a lot more freely. It'S not the 70s anymore where TV was the only source of medial entertainment, you know. Also, their competitive nature means the corps rarely agree on hushing something up. Ares sure didn't, as the Bug crisis allowed it to shine AND thumb out lingering opposition, as the UB was advocating subtly anti-Mega propaganda.

Pages when I am done with Corp Guide.

The Carmack Blast and the infestation of Chicago as well as bugs in general aren't the part that was covered up (though the Carmack Blast WAS covered up for a long time, as well as what was going on inside the CZ as getting info in and out was insanely difficult). It was the Universal Brotherhood being a tool of the bugs that got whitewashed. The reason for this being hushed up was the pure numbers of members from he upper echelons of both governments and corporations who were members. No one wanted to admit that the former Managing Director of Marketing was in cahoots with insect spirits. He just "retired suddenly due to health concerns" to that same nice farm your parents said your old dog went to. It was an embarrassment that the UB was able to infiltrate everything so quickly, so EVERYONE wanted the connection with the bugs covered up. At least that's my take on it.

[Dr.Rockso]

He's been alive since the days he was called Mountain Shadow. And that was the best plan he could come up with?
Really?

I wouldn't quote me on this, but if I understand correctly:

[ Spoiler ]

Apparently hes now a free spirit merged with some cyberzombie stuck holding the proverbial line in the astral. Like I said, haven't really read any of this. I'd ask AncientHistory for more details. Dude has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of 6th world history. I think there was a recent discussion involving Dunkie, you should search it up for more reliable/complete info

EDIT: Epic ninja my Abstruse. Read his explanation, mine seems absolutely vulgar in comparison (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[hermit]

Wasn't me, I didn't know what would and wouldn't be in Corp Guide (STill don't, really, I never had the chance to do more than skim one or two chapters when they were in the draft stage).

Then I misremembered and apologise.

[Abstruse]

EDIT: Epic ninja my Abstruse. Read his explanation, mine seems absolutely vulgar in comparison (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

I have three major obsessions in my life...Red Dwarf, The Dresden Files novels by Jim Butcher, and of course Shadowrun and its metaplot. I've got a 4/5 complete library of all the Shadowrun novels and sourcebooks from every edition (mostly missing duplicates and boring stuff...only reason I want the first edition Rigger Black Book is for all the drawings, and why bother with the 2nd edition version?) and I still read them even when I'm not playing games. It's been a while since I've picked it all up, but I still remember most of the major plot twists, and I'm damn good at explaining away continuity problems (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

I, of course, have nothing on Master AH, but I'd like to think I'll do in a pinch if he's not around (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Catadmin]

Aye.

Jason H.

<@sniff> And I really thought the dragons being ET with a grudge was a good idea... <@sniff>

@=)

[Bull]

Then I misremembered and apologise.

No sweat.

I think that if CGL's Shadowrun schedule was a bit more... Reliable... This wouldn't be as big a problem. Jason noted that there are some Horizon centered adventures in the pipelie, and they'll probably end up exploring Horizon a bit more. I'm not really sure though. We should be a lot closer to them than we are. RIght now, stuff seems stretched out, but keep in mind that it's barely been 2 years "in game" so far. It took at least that long for Bug City and Renraku Shutdown to shake out and shake down (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

(The slowness and erratic-ness of the production schedule is one area I really wish we could manage to get things smoothed out on... Oi. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) )

Bull

[Abstruse]

(The slowness and erratic-ness of the production schedule is one area I really wish we could manage to get things smoothed out on... Oi. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) )

On the plus side, there've been so many delays that the old rule of "Shadowrun is 61 years in our future" is almost true again...

[Bull]

On the plus side, there've been so many delays that the old rule of "Shadowrun is 61 years in our future" is almost true again...

Heh, there is that... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Furluge]

that's not getting into non-metagaming where even the most benevolent of real-life corporations (Google and Whole Foods for instance) both have a lot of questionable activities going on.

What in the world is Google doing that's so questionable? I haven't seen much of anything negative about them.

Not sure what makes Whole Foods particularly benevolent though. I mean they're just cashing on people who've bought into the whole organic foods craze. Nothing really special, that I've heard, about them.

(In favor of no aliens for shadowrun.) Aye.

Jason H.

Yeah aliens probably wouldn't be in flavor. Not that I don't think they couldn't be done well, they just don't need to be.
Though in Btech, yeah, after Dark Age is overwith it totally needs an alien invasion. 400 years of constant warfare? Yeah, they're overdue for an alien invasion. ;p

[Abstruse]

What in the world is Google doing that's so questionable? I haven't seen much of anything negative about them.

Not sure what makes Whole Foods particularly benevolent though. I mean they're just cashing on people who've bought into the whole organic foods craze. Nothing really special, that I've heard, about them.

I don't have the link on hand and I don't feel like looking it up at the moment, but Cracked has a list of the ways Google is more evil than you think or something like that. Basically, MASSIVE data miners. They have more info on you than the CIA has about Al Qaeda operatives.

And maybe it's because I live in Austin where Whole Foods is headquartered, but they're consistently in the top 10 of best employers to work for, the pay scale of all employees is set to that of the lowest paid employee (so that even the CEO can never get paid more than 20 times what the guy stocking the shelves, mopping the floors, and collecting the buggies does or something like that). But yeah, they get a lot of good press, but of course there's more going on.

[Saint Sithney]

I'm like Bull in that I like my games to be classic cyberpunk. Corps are evil, life is a dirty affair, and violence is observed with cynicism, not shock.

Because the idea of a truly beneficent corporation doesn't fit well into my game, I just run it so that Horizon is a brainwashing Big Brother type corp. They're the type of people whom you'd rather not even know you exist, because, if they think you're potentially useful, they'll scoop you and put you through the wringer. Even though Corp Guide's Horizon section doesn't say this, it doesn't mean that it's necessarily antithetical to how I run things, nor does it mean that the whole section is useless to me (well, I haven't got it yet, so maybe it does.)

But the point of what I'm trying to say is that you're free to disregard anything in any of these books so long as you can make your game work.
Does the lack of real dirt on one of the top 10 mean that the Guide is less useful than it could have been? I can't deny the answer is yes.
Still, I can't imagine that it leaves us off somehow worse than before. It's just disappointing to waste ink.

[Bull]

Yeah aliens probably wouldn't be in flavor. Not that I don't think they couldn't be done well, they just don't need to be.
Though in Btech, yeah, after Dark Age is overwith it totally needs an alien invasion. 400 years of constant warfare? Yeah, they're overdue for an alien invasion. ;p

Nahh...

They need Dragons to wake up and magic to return. THe start of the 8th age, baby! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Heh.

Yeah, Herb's never gonna let me write for Battletech at this rate...

[Mesh]

I don't have the link on hand and I don't feel like looking it up at the moment, but Cracked has a list of the ways Google is more evil than you think or something like that. Basically, MASSIVE data miners. They have more info on you than the CIA has about Al Qaeda operatives.

That Google collects data is not evil. It's what they do with it that determines that.

Mesh

[Grinder]

Dragons can assume pure spirit form. Ghostwalker did it. They can also come back. Actually, this ishow a Dragon becomes a Great.

Can you give a reference for this?

[hermit]

What in the world is Google doing that's so questionable? I haven't seen much of anything negative about them.

They post your personal information where everyone can read it, force you into a social network if you have a googlemail address, and sell any data they mine from you to the highest bidder. Also, they support the censorship and persecution of dissidents for rather unappetizing regimes (Burma's, Iran's ...).

Now, if they were just another marketing firm, nothing out of the ordniary really. But since thexy claim to be better than everyone ... it is a big deal. Because they et far higher standards for themselves. I fail to see why Horizon would not fall prey to the same mechanism.

The morally worst IT firm right now, by far, though, would be Apple.

Yeah aliens probably wouldn't be in flavor. Not that I don't think they couldn't be done well, they just don't need to be.
Though in Btech, yeah, after Dark Age is overwith it totally needs an alien invasion. 400 years of constant warfare? Yeah, they're overdue for an alien invasion. ;p

Aliens would just clutter the setting. SR has all these awakened things. What do we need cheesy Aliens that are neither necessary nor fit with the setting?

As for BTech ... I really like the idea of a scifi universe where there are not humanoids with wrinkly noses or big ears on every second planet. No aliens at all. We *are alone*. It makes things that much more bleak.

They have more info on you than the CIA has about Al Qaeda operatives.

That would not necessarily be a lot, though.

Can you give a reference for this?

The last Kenson book of the Roc cycle (Time in Flames?) had GW the spirit form (in the end; Talon escapes ansd stirs up Shedum and soemthing else that looks like a pale Dunkelzahn). Dragons (of ED) details how dragons routinely become a purely astral form while transforming (hatchling -> wyvern; wyvern -> lesser; lesser -> great), hidden in a cocoon. The part about Luung was either in ED'S Dragons or DotSW, I don't precisely remember.

Also, the Immortal Elves can transfer their entire form onto the Planes too - planeswalking metamagic, which was a high-circle metamagic in ED, if I remember correctly. So, it is very possible that Dunkie, eventually, gets rid of Burnout's body and returns. As something else, maybe. My money still is on a Nidorcyl-like monster.

[Nath]

THE MEGACORPORATE SHUFFLE

- I found the tone to border on the insufferable at first. I first thought this was because the content itself was not really interesting to me. But it got better a few pages later, and then goes up and down, ranging from over vulgarization to dead-cold theory (when asking how many AAA would be the good number geopolitically wise).

- For a long time, it seemed like SR megacorporations only had a CEO and a bunch of individual shareholders. It worth reminding the board of administrators has some power within a corp. I think it would deserve a longer explanation, to explain for instance that even if Damien Knight owns 30% of Ares and has proxy rights, he only has one vote on the board, and need allies or puppets there.
The comments on how incestuous boards are would be true... nowadays. SR megacorporations are really different from the RL companies we know. It's not a problem when the CEO of a banking corp can sit on the board of a pharmaceutical company. But it doesn't work when both corps have a banking and a pharmaceutical subsidiaries that compete. Fuchi head of security sitting on Renraku board was a big issue. This may still work with AA and A corporations that do not have overlapping interests. Also, corporate outsiders are typically institutional shareholders (banks, pension funds and the likes) pick. AAA megacorporations have very few of those. Individual shareholders rather vote for themselves and their relatives.
Still, that's the kind of board I gave to Esprit in SoE (plus the aristocratic angle). I would also have a Pacific Rim Bank representative sitting on the board of most japanacorps. But I don't think it would work as a general rule, when the corporations most people are thinking about are the AAA.

- Explaining the difference between a private and a public corporations without any reference to the concept of "stock market" is a bit off.
Saying "Public corporations [...] can be owned by just about anyone who has the nuyen and willingness to buy stock in it" is a misleading short cut (I'll probably have the opportunity to ramble on that when reviewing the Ares chapter), though the "How to get bigger" box reminds that it takes a willing seller somewhere. Those are just easier to find on a stock market. As a side note, the concept of treasury stock is not very useful without getting deeper into how stock and market works. I'm not sure the lesson on inflation is useful at all, since it's not even factored in the much shorter explanation on debt.

- I can only concur with the idea that stability is the main requirement for AA status. I have been saying the same thing for some time. But I would also add that the megacorporate system works both way : sure, the AAA can pressure the smaller corps to submit themselves to the Corporate Court authority, but they also need them. The Corporate Court is only relevant as long as enough players accept its rules. That's why the seven founders had to grant AAA rating to newcomers at some point.

- The Shiawase Decision gets only a passing shot. But it would sure be hard to write a detailed and realistic explanation on how the US Supreme Court got to enact corporate extraterritoriality with this case.

- Infrastructures are important, but I would have put an emphasis on what may be called the industry "entrance fee". For instance, you needed a garage and a dozen of mechanics to start an automotive company at the beginning of the XXth Century. Nowadays, you'd need hundreds of engineers and fully automated factories to seriously compete. "Entrance fee" is what make impossible to jumpstart a microchip business to compete with Intel and AMD.

- "War can be used as the ultimate hostile takeover" is a change of paradigm. Corporate Download had "don't go at war" as one of the Corporate Court three golden rules.

- The megacorps joint strike against Aztlan/Aztechnology codenamed Reciprocity took place in 2048, not 2044. In my opinion, materials from Aztlan and Corporate Download don't leave room for a debate about it being the result of an Omega Order. There could be as much debate about Art Dankwalther killing being an Omega Order. The Corporate Court is a business court. Physical persons can't get AA status, they are legally out of its scope. So, at least, I wouldn't say "most people would agree".

- Eight out of thirteen CC justices were already there in 2062 (compare to the four justices from Corporate Shadowfiles in 2054 who remained in 2062). Well, maybe the period following the Crash required some stability... And as far as I remember, none of the previous books ever referred to a "chief justice" position (Corporate Download only stated Priault, not Hino, was "the default head of the court").

- The CCMA/GOD comment on Interpol is hilarious. So much more since Ghost Cartels just featured gun-totting Interpol agents invading Bogota along with Aztechnology military troops.

- The Right Hand example makes no sense to me. Why would the small corp heads would care about erasing the IC ? Knight Errant bought them, giving their new boss an uber IC would rather look like a good idea.

[Ancient History]

Yeaaaah. This was the draft I made all those horrible comments about weeks ago. Did not sit well with me at all.

[Abstruse]

About glossing over the Shiawase Decision...I can see that since it's the biggest thing in the SR timeline that happened on a date that's already passed. Unless they want to retcon it to a later date, it's going to break suspension of disbelief royally. Then again, they're going to have bigger problems in 2011 when no dragons come bursting out of Mt. Fuji...

As to not going into full detail...frankly, I liked it when Corporate Shadowfiles went into a lot of that sort of thing, but that was back when the shadowtalk sections took over a lot more and felt like real discussions rather than someone tacking a virtual post-it in the margin. The sad thing is that, even though I worked for a massive investment company for two years, I still learned more about economics and corporate management from Shadowfiles than I have from anywhere else. Probably also explains why I have no investments...

[Grinder]

Yeaaaah. This was the draft I made all those horrible comments about weeks ago. Did not sit well with me at all.

Did any of cour comments make it into the finished chapter?

[Ancient History]

I kinda doubt it. I mean, I wasn't specific in my lambasting in the general interest of not spoiling things. I did want to check a couple of weird rips I saw in the first draft.

[JM Hardy]

There's a new post up at the Shadowrun4.com blog with a little Aztechnology preview.

Jason H.

[Ancient History]

I have to admit, reading the new versions of The Megacorporate Shuffle, Mitsuhama, and Manadyne & Mangadyne is...bizarre. I'm not seeing any of the straight rips from the original draft of TMS that had me spitting blood, but there are some weird...parallels. Like the intro fiction of Mitsuhama just happening to cover the exact same subject as mine...and using the exact same corporate slogan that I came up with ("The Future is Mitsuhama")...and the major divisions? I mean, c'mon Jason, I was the one that came up the MCT transition in the first place, y'all didn't even change the names there. Show me Mitsuhama Latin America in any previous sourcebook. At least for Manadyne you let the author write their own.

The apparent confusion over Taiga Mitsuhama's age is just bizarre. As is sending him up the gravity well. At least you had the good sense to change the CC justices - although in your rush to fix things, you got sloppy and left Priault off the Court in the Saeder-Krupp chapter.

[Abstruse]

There's a new post up at the Shadowrun4.com blog with a little Aztechnology preview.

Jason H.

Just wanted you to know my copy of Acrobat Reader (the most recent version as of late March) is erroring out on the font HFVNOS+AlexaStd which is preventing me from reading anything but the shadowtalks, the main text is just a bunch of dots.

Also, why is the fiction intro italicized the wrong way? It may be all the vodka I've had this evening, but it's making me dizzy trying to read.