alt.WAR, Fixing War's problems by writing a new book Options

[hermit]

Hi.

Somewhere in the angry, angry thread on the recently released clusterfuck sourcebook War, someone suggested we just write our own book about war, much improved. I say: let's.

Project Outline
This project is to cover War in Shadowrun, as well as the War between Amazonia and Aztlan.

For the first, it will offer a rundown on how military in SR works, what the status of corporate and governmental military forces is, how they operate, and detail a couple of military units from around the world, both corporate and governmental (and probably some religious or independent). Also, it should detail a couple of mercenary firms and give an insight on what life as part of a giant army for hire is like, and tactics for shadowrun troops - use of drones, magic, and matrix warfare ought to be detailed here (including an insight on the current powers in those fields). Maybe also a primer on how to fight in different theaters, what to take to Russia and what to take to Amazonia, or something. This should comprise roughly a third of the book.

The second part is to contain Info on the war, it's beginning and proceeding, complete with maps, diagrams, descriptions of participating units and armies on individual, unit and global level, warzones and maybe fiction outlining how the waqr feels for someone on every side of the conflict. This should be a bit shorter than the general part, but still offer enough information to make sense of this war.

Maybe a third part, detailing other war zones, also is a good idea. Random ideas would be: Israel/Arabia, Russia/Yakut (both have been laid out as wars waiting to happen before), Southeast Asia (Nagas, French, locals ...), Desert Wars and RadWars, and ... well, suggestions of course are welcome.

And finally, gear. Here I would like to revise the stuff from War and add other stuff that feels missing, like actual Aztechnology-produced small arms (they're supposed to be the world's second-largest producer of small arms, but there are no actual Aztech named guns anywhere, what the fuck).

Those are, of course, only suggestions, and neither do I claim to be the king of this project. I'm open to any suggestions and help.

Any takers?

[sabs]

I'm tired of not finding this so I'm editing this post and putting this in it.


For War and Profit: The Search for El Dorado

0) Shadowland login screen. This is one of the touches that will make this document feel like an SR4 publication.

1) Introduction The Real Story Of The War (written up as a a classic in-game Shadowland writeup, maybe with some references to War!, but nothing contradicting it)
- An introduction to the war as we see it, and a short out-of-world writeup what this adds to War!, why it makes sense to own both War! And this and what our mission writing this is.

[meat 2 to 4: an overview of the entire Am/Az conflict as an Argus document that got leaked onto the shadow boards. They got hired to give a comprehensive overview of the war (probably by UCAS or CAS) - that'll let us give an objective view on everything without having to rely on making 'runners to tell the stories]

2) God’s Eye Perspective: An overview of the conflict
2.1 Aztlan: The only thing better than power is more power
2.2 Amazonia: Over our cold, dead bodies
2.3 UCAS/Ares: The enemy of my enemy still is my enemy (but seeing them kill each other is priceless)
2.4 Saeder-Krupp: War is business. More war is more business.
- Horizon: Food for the World, and pleased love us!
- Colombian freedom fighters: Viva Colombia!

3) The Front Lines! (What happened in the war, and who did what where. All the stuff we miss. This is where a timeline goes!)
3.1) Timeline of the war
3.2) Maracaibo (urban warfare in all it’s gory glory)
3.3) Caracas (If this isn’t the biggest mess in South America, it’ll do till the real biggest mess arrives)
3.4) Bogota (venture point, occupied city, dense atmosphere, but no massive battles)

4) Military Organizations involved
4.1) AZT - War on 5,000 Nuyen a soldier or less
4.2) AMZ - Magical guerillas
4.3) UCAS/CAS - High Tech, Low Numbers
4.4) Ares/S&K - Who do you think /makes/ the High tech toys
4.5) Mercs - A range of Merc units. From those barely better than a shadowrun team, to highly trained, highly equiped special forces mercs.

5) Modern Warfare 2073 (meat: a document compiled by the CAS armed forces for CAS Marine officer trainees at [whereever their Marines academy is].)
5.1) Different Strategies for different people (an introductionary essay on different types of armies in the 6th world and what that means)
5.1.1 The 6 Million Nuyen Soldier (High Tech, Low Numbers: Examples UCAS, CAS, Ares, SK, MCT; essay by one of these or maybe an analyst of another corp)
5.1.2 Do you want to live forever? (Quantity over quality. Examples: AZT, Russia; an essay by a former Russian or Aztlaner soldier)
5.1.3 The new ways of War (magic-heavy armies. examples: AMZ, TT, Yakut. An essay on fighting those from the perspective of a CalFree soldier?)
5.1.4 Down and dirty (Asymmetrical Warfare. Examples: African Armies, Terrorists and Insurgents. An essay by a veteran of the Polish freedom fighters)
5.1.5: Oh My God Is That A Dragon? An essay on what combat does look like when your air force faces Wyverns and Dragons. Probably an in-game
5.2 The Matrix on the Battlefield
5.2.1: The combat hacker. What does Hacking for the military look like and how does it differ from hacking for corps?
5.2.2 Digital Frontlines: What is fought in the Matrix in War and why. Securing commsats, encryption/decryption, infiltration/guarding of tacnets, recon, disinformation. How do Hackers work in the Combat Zone The HQ Hacker, the OpCom haker, the descendants of the comms guy, Rigger platoons and Cyberwar Brigades
5.2.3 The Resonant Side Of War: Combat Technomancers, AI and Sprites versus Tactical Hackers and Agents. Also an essay on The Military fighting AI and Sprites, possibly written up as a report from UN forces fighting to take back Geneva.
5.3 Magic on the battlefield (an Intro by a hardened Merc about Magic on the Battlefield and how it changed everything, a brief outline of magic in wars from the Ghost dance War to the Euro Wars to the Az/Yuc-War.)
5.3.1 to 5.3.3 Three essays on magic on the battlefield, each in-character: one by a member of the Tir Tairngire armed forces (magical combined troops), one by a Yakut shapeshifter (magical guerilla) and one by an UCAS combat mage (Magic in a technicised army). Each with it’s own flavor and varied use of magic)

6) Faces of War: Sample Units (meat: a collection of documents accumulated by the Ares' Inteligence Services, formerly part of the Seraphin network, who want to study how these militaries work to know more about their competitors, and as a for-sale guide for 'military counselors'.)
Aztlan Brigada de Fusileros Paracaidistas (Aztlan’s parachutist regiment)
La Legion Étrangère, 1er Régiment étranger de cavalerie, 1er REC (mobile light armored cavalry)
The King’s Own Royal Gurkha Rifles (formerly Royal Gurkha Rifles, British Gurkha regiment)
Henan People’s Liberation Army 19th Infantry Division (organised much like a Chinese PLA regiment from the Korean war)
MET 2000 Einsatzgruppe 3 (A heavily cybered combined arms troop)
The units should feature fully statted example NPCs as well as unit organization and rank charts.

7) Gear and coolshit (meat: an exposé by the Lagos Arms Fair, written for prospective customers; downloaded is the English version, but there could be others in all kinds of languages mentioned somehow)
- Revisions of the gear in War!.

8) Game Info Errata’d rules from War! That are not totally batshit.

9) Shadowland Open Forum. An open forum where we can have our talkers go nuts. good, old-fashioned shadowtalk, rumors, discussions drifung. We can dump anything that does not fit anywhere else here.


Issue 1: Az/Am The Search for Eldorado / Rumble in the Jungle ?
Issue 2: Land War in Asia (SE Asia, China)
Issue 3: Desert Wars, Rad Wars, Gamer, Survivor! The WWE (World Warfare Entertainment) Monday night RAW!
Issue 4: In the Navy, You can Sail the 7 Seas! Naval Warfare and Piracy. WaterWorld! PPG/Japan trade war
Issue 5: You say Jihad, I say Crusade (Frank's scenario, could also involve Israel and Venice),
Issue 6: Russia/Yakut/Baikal

Though I think depending on interest 3 and 4 can be switched. Depending on writer interest, cool ideas.. etc.

[hermit]

Or RadWars. Yes, that needs to go in too. Edited the Outline.

In a first hotfix, a kind soul on the official German boards provided these. Just found them by accident in the one thread there I still follow (those boards are hardly better than the CGL boards).

basic map (small)
basic map (large)
terrain map
sattelite image map

Many thanks, Loki!

[Brazilian_Shinob...]

While not native of the rain forest, I'm a native of the country (and travelled to Manaus and Belém once and spent one week each). I would glady help with any cultural question about Brazil Amazonia.

[Nath]

actual Aztechnology-produced small arms (they're supposed to be the world's second-largest producer of small arms, but there are no actual Aztech named guns anywhere, what the fuck).

Hint: i'm pretty sure Mikhail Kalashnikov has not produced all the AK-97 and AK-98 in use.

[Antumbra]

Well, there are several posters who are involved with the military in some capacity, so they'd be good for getting reliable consideration of such diverse topics as:

• Logistics In A Mana-Saturated Battlefield
• Tactical Implications of Metaplanar Transit
• Astral Overwatch
• The Role Of The Variable Payload Semiautonomous Microgrenade Launch Harness
• Wooden Staircases - Bane Of Powered Armour
• Grenade Drone Swarms
• Everything Is Hackable - Why We Use Laser Comm Drones And Drag Wires
• Cyborgs, Possession and Mutant Bears
• The Last Argument Of Kings Is The First Of The Victor
• Nanofabrication - New and Terrifying

All of which should be addressed, to different degrees.

An entire section should probably lightly cover warfare in its forms, detached from any specific scenario, because it's useful knowledge that players will be interested in. Commentary can cover how magic and tech can radically alter what the "unimaginative three-star" is saying in ways he hasn't already considered and add to the "Shadowrunners are just better" vibe.

EDIT: Thinking about it, I'm probably overcomplicating things and doubling the pagecount.

So, hermit, your suggested structure is:

War In Our Time (Introduction)
Those Who Fight And How They Do It
AzAm '73
War Zones
Guns, Spells and High Explosives.

I'd split the first in two for the sake of clarity and have Maps - a section entirely full of maps, detailed borders for all the War Zones, Sites of Interest and random buildings. Though Maps would be one of the harder parts to do.

Oh, and here are some random weapon/gear section suggestions:

Monofilament Harpoon Grenade - a cluster of microharpoon launchers which spool monofilament wire behind them, creating an impassible and invisible spiderweb in closed spaces and draping over any poor soul to be caught in the radius. Destroying the grenade is the first step to bypassing the obstacle, heat works as well. Why is this possible when monowire costs so much? Either because of Nanofabrication or because it uses Microwire.

Grenade Drones - cheap nonwireless hover/crawl drones that swarm through an area taking everything apart. Given the size of them and a healthy military budget, you could have racks of them as standard issue.

Military Armour Gear: a half dozen weapons and launchers intended for the sortof-powered military armour.

[Grinder]

Which War Zones should be covered? hermit opted for Paris, and Abschalten and his buddy would provide their Caracas-write-up from their forum game, right? Any others?

[Grinder]

Check this out: (and yes, written by Frank Trollman)
http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...19&start=19

With any luck the power armor will make it through the testing process and military grade ECM will be handled in Unwired. What I think would be more likely to be made and be good would be something along the lines of:

Conflict Zones

The cities of 2073 are dangerous places, but in the disputed lands your life may not be worth the bullet it takes to end it. Tribalism, corporate nationalism, magical power and rival ideologies have torn the world assunder, and that means one thing... profit.

With the world coming apart at the seams it seems there is no shortage of people willing to pay good nuyen for a gilette or a mage who's willing to fight their fights for them.

You're in the Army Now

This is a section that details the rigors of being in a company of soldiers. Logistics, missions from the perspective of the "Chain of Command" rather than from Johnsons, that sort of thing.

Strangling the Peacock
"That many heads on bamboo poles usually means 'keep out'."

This is a section that highlights the Southeast Asia Conflict Zone. Some space for Apocalypse Now references, and a bunch of stuff about how you shouldn't go to Trollish Myanmar. Pull in a freelancer who is at all familiar with the Indochinese Peninsula rather than someone who has seen Platoon twenty times.

You say Crusade, I say Jihad.
"Whatever you wish for, I shall grant the Turk across the valley twice as much."
"I want to be blind in one eye."

This is a section detailing the Balkan Conflict Zone. Discussions about the Ottoman Empire and the Soviet Court, as well as the perplexing maze of ethnic and religious hatred amongst the residents. Grab a freelancer who knows what the difference is between a Herzegovinian and a Macedonian for this section.

This is Africa
"An AK is a weapon so simple that a child could use it. And they do."

This section talks about Africa. In depth preferably. You can go nuts here, because most of the countries haven't ever been described. Talk about the resource caravans, ghoul nationalism, harvesting blood diamonds for unscrupulous enchanting.

Ghosts and Jaguars
"¿Si yo le disparo, cuidará cualquiera?"

A good place to put some reprints from SoLA. A section talking about the three-way free for all between Ghost Cartels, Amazonia, and Aztlan in Columbia. Most of the writing for this sectio is already done, it just needs to be editted for modernity.

Fighting for Market Share
"But if you buy this version, I won't shoot you in the face."

A take on good old fashion corp war. Probably focus in on the Cola Wars. Get some place information about Oceania. Grab a freelancer who at least knows that the Japanese Imperial Military Corporate Attachments speak Bahasa Jepang in Borneo.

---

You know, setting book. I honestly don't need rules for nightwraith fighterbombers because I'm not going to be pilotting them in a street fight. It makes a better setting book than it makes "Arsenal 2: Electric Boogaloo."

-Frank

[hermit]

Firstly, welcome aboard to everyone who came while I was asleep. This might actually fly! All help is greatly appreciated.

Brazilian Shinobi, your help would be greatly appreciated. Especially about Amazonian cities and culture - something that's completly alien to me.

Okay, slight confusion: Paris is not a war zone, I just fanslated the SR France writeup of it. My bad. Paris could be a part of alt.Spygames though (zero hope left for these books). That, or Paris and Caracas are compiled seperatly (if worked out well enough). With some advertising on RPG sites and forums, we might even get enough attention that people will download our stuff.

My basic idea for the writeup of the war covered (the main focus should be on two settings, tops, with some five more covered in an 'other wars' section) would be to borrow structure and some events from the much, much more dynamic CP2020 Firestorm campaign - which had a decent coverage of it's conflicts, gave timeline and maps, and yet offered a lot of free space.

I'd like to keep as close to canon as possible, save for War, which I'd totally ignore.

Suggested settings:

-> Amazonia/Aztlan (North of Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia). Despite the horrible things that War! did to this war, it has huge potential in my opinion, in an Avatar Navii vs. Colonial Marines style. Just no Gaea to come to the Amazonians' rescue.
-> Israel vs. Arabia (Middle East). Unsure here, but we'd sure not be short on writers knowing the location and culture (and what a war there is like). The setup would be the Caliph dying, some nutcase ursuping and lashing out on Israel, pitting a highly reinforced, technicised and modern force against masses of suicide attackers and guys with AKs. A third faction coming from Israel's drone control master program becoming an AI and manipulating both parties for it's own ends optional.
-> Russia vs. Yakutia vs. the Baikal rebels (Central siberia, Baikal region, and beyond). Russia has been a setting set to explode since ... well, at least since Shadows of Asia, but I'd go farther back to Target: Wastelands. There also are some decent, if slightly gay, novels in German about the russian military that basically say it has not changed at all. Plus, I recently watched Admiral, and a friend's been reading Gaunt's Ghosts back to back and talking to me about it rather much (female friend, you see), so I'm a bit in the mood for a russian army writeup.
-> Southeast Asia (Nagaland vs. anyone vs. anyone else). A nice setting in theory, but nothing I really know much about. Possibly doubling the Amazonian experience though, but I always wanted to do somewthing with Nagaland.
-> A trade war between Japan and the Japanacorps and Wuxing, Evo and the PCC. This would cover the entire Pacific (and be a little too shamelessly inspired by Firestorm maybe, but what the hell, it's a fun and different setting and actually needs these shipfighting rules. Applies only if we intend to actually keep them).

Those are, off the top of my hat, some wild ideas. All open to discussion. More wild ideas heartily welcome.

Hint: i'm pretty sure Mikhail Kalashnikov has not produced all the AK-97 and AK-98 in use.

That's different IMO. Aztlan is supposed to be BIG on arms export. What DO they export? Is their main product battle tanks and helicopters? Can you be 'big in the arms trade' by selling only the luxury items few potential custiomers can afford? I don't think you can compare Mikhail Kalashnikow to Aztech anyway (and remember, while produced by numerous manufacturers and Afghan village smiths, the gun always is known as Kalashnikiov, even in it's various versions and iterations).

So, hermit, your suggested structure is:

War In Our Time (Introduction)
Those Who Fight And How They Do It
AzAm '73
War Zones
Guns, Spells and High Explosives.

I'd split the first in two for the sake of clarity and have Maps - a section entirely full of maps, detailed borders for all the War Zones, Sites of Interest and random buildings. Though Maps would be one of the harder parts to do.

Sounds good. AzAm '73 might become more than one writeup (depending on what out target pagecount is, though). I Like it otherwise.

An entire section should probably lightly cover warfare in its forms, detached from any specific scenario, because it's useful knowledge that players will be interested in. Commentary can cover how magic and tech can radically alter what the "unimaginative three-star" is saying in ways he hasn't already considered and add to the "Shadowrunners are just better" vibe.

Sounds good. I'd especially like an old-fashioned text where a runner who did some merc work writes about just HOW much better runners are than grunts and is commented to pieces by hardass marcs who point out his fallacies and misunderstandings. Typical old style shadowrun style, offering different view points in-game and leaving it for the reader to descide which side he believes, if any. This would definitly need someone in the know though, if you ask me.

Anyway, wild ideas here. Any comments?

Edit: Frank has some nice ideas. Could someone point megu here? He's been running in the SE Asia setting, maybe he's familiar enough for a writeup. Of course, frank's ideas have a much larger scope than mine or anyone else's so far.

Edit 2: Posted a project thread in the Gaming Den.

[sabs]

I think the "hot zones" should be:

Desert Wars
Rad Wars
Israel/Middle East (maybe.. what does that look like these days. I don't remember what the current state of that is, but it could be some very good story hooks.)
Lagos? It was supposed to be a Merc hot-zone/war zone. So what are they fighting over, what kind of resources are being thrown around.

Caracas definitely sounds like it could be interesting.

Where /are/ the hot spots where Mercs would get a job, instead of Shadowrunners.

Paris doesn't really seem like it make sense.. The EuroWars are done and over with.

[hermit]

Paris is a prime setting for alt.Spy Games though. What with the Megas versus insolent Government, elf and NEEC influence, the nobility, the church and all the other guys. It is certainly not where alt.War should go.

[Neurosis]

This seems like something I would like to get in on while it is still relatively on the ground floor. Even if I never wind up finding the time to contribute, I think it's better to sign up now and add nothing than to sign up after this is one hundred pages long and try to make a contribution. I am willing to take a stab at writing anything assigned to me, but of course the crunch is what I want to get my grubby hands on the most. Also um, English is my first language (no offense Hermit) and I've worked as a professional proofreader, so, there's that that I can help with.

War In Our Time (Introduction)
Those Who Fight And How They Do It
AzAm '73
War Zones
Guns, Spells and High Explosives.

I think this is a good structure. As far as the AzAm '73 section goes I think we need maps (already have a good start on those) and also a timeline, with descriptions of the major battles, when and where they occur. This is the major connective tissue we need here, as opposed to unrelated essays, a super-in-depth Bogota setting book, and Fields of Fire 4E being just sort of haphazardly glued together. I think it would be good to expand this structure into an outline (a la the TOC of any published SR book) and to look at how much is "broken" in the published WAR! sourcebook in each of these individual sections. In other words, is that our MO, fixing what is broken (removing unnecessary things, adding missing things, correcting mistakes) or is this more of a "Start From Scratch" kind of endeavor?

[hermit]

Ah, so you can proofread and polish. Awesome.

I'm not quite sure yet, but it looks like a mix. Expanding War's scope, if you will, into something more like it originally was supposed to be. Lots of stuff was cut entirely, stuff that the setting has sorely been missing.

Also, there should be rules fixes, and ideally a staged arttribute system of some kind to get away from MEGA DAMAGE that is even more screwed up.

Oh, and a hotspot where all these statted warships actually make sense. Ever read the Firestorm campaign of CP2020's?

[Neurosis]

No, I don't have any familiarity with cyberpunk.

Like I said I'm glad to write anything that's assigned. I've been an enormous Shadowrun fan for around fifteen years, and hopefully I've acted as a sponge to absorb all the fluff that's been printed in that time. I'm also a game designer so I'd be happy to start rooting around in the numbers/balance side of thing as well. But yeah...who is on board so far and what is being done? Let's get organized.

I think having this project have separate headquarters here and on TGD might be kind of detrimental.

[hermit]

No, I don't have any familiarity with cyberpunk.

It's a corp war setting. I like the presentation, and it has a section about a trade war in the Pacific that could be a useful source of ideas for a war 'hotspot' that would make these warships make sense: a PCC/Japanocorp trade war.

I think having this project have separate headquarters here and on TGD might be kind of detrimental.

I know. Hence I'd like to set up a permanent base, possibly it'S own forum. I'll have some time on my hands tomorrow, and see what I can sort out.

[Neurosis]

Well, if you want to set it up on neutral ground (neither Dumpshock or TGD), I have a forum that can host it. I know there's a 98% chance or more that this offer is unneeded, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to put it out there.

Also I will stop speed posting now. : )

[hermit]

Thanks. I might take that offer up. ^_^

[Grinder]

I think the "hot zones" should be:

Desert Wars
Rad Wars
Israel/Middle East (maybe.. what does that look like these days. I don't remember what the current state of that is, but it could be some very good story hooks.)
Lagos? It was supposed to be a Merc hot-zone/war zone. So what are they fighting over, what kind of resources are being thrown around.

Caracas definitely sounds like it could be interesting.

Where /are/ the hot spots where Mercs would get a job, instead of Shadowrunners.

Paris doesn't really seem like it make sense.. The EuroWars are done and over with.

Lagos is covered in Feral Cities, isn't it? Would be a waste of time and effort to re-write it, since the write-up is not that bad.
Lisbon would be nice, as a prime spot for merc companies - or did that change?

[hermit]

Lisbon has never been covered again. Lisbon and a civil war somewhere in the Maghreb could be nice. Put Meridional and Lusiada to some use.

[Nath]

actual Aztechnology-produced small arms (they're supposed to be the world's second-largest producer of small arms, but there are no actual Aztech named guns anywhere, what the fuck).

Hint: i'm pretty sure Mikhail Kalashnikov has not produced all the AK-97 and AK-98 in use.

That's different IMO. Aztlan is supposed to be BIG on arms export. What DO they export? Is their main product battle tanks and helicopters? Can you be 'big in the arms trade' by selling only the luxury items few potential custiomers can afford? I don't think you can compare Mikhail Kalashnikow to Aztech anyway (and remember, while produced by numerous manufacturers and Afghan village smiths, the gun always is known as Kalashnikiov, even in it's various versions and iterations).

What I meant is that the AK-47 may be the most widespread weapon in the world, really few people do care if it really is an IzhMash AK-47 from Russia, or a Chinese Type 56, a Zastava M64 from Yugoslavia, an ASH-82 from Albania, or any other variants (for instance, a lot of Kalashnikov used by criminal outfits in Western Europe are Albanian ASH-82 actually). Aztechnoloy may be the largest producer of "Kalashnikov" in the world, you're still going to call it an AK.

Then, IRL, the biggest companies in the defense industry are BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raython, EADS, ... I could go even further down the line, none of those companies is producing firearms, save General Dynamics M134 and new XM312 miniguns (BAE used to own Heckler & Koch, but they sold it several years before reaching to top spot). Aircrafts, missiles, radars and naval vessels sales make the top of the list. Armored ground vehicles are lagging behind. Firearms only comes at the very bottom of the list, and even there generic ammunitions manufacturers weight nearly as much as the famous brands.

In this regard, Aztechnology sells the Aguilar attack helicopter, the HS-950 Skytrain military transport aircraft, the Striker missile launcher and the Cuanmitztli MBT. Also, in the previous editions, the good old EFA air fighter involved Aztechnology subsidiary Dassault.

[Blade]

I guess it'd be a good idea to make sure CGL won't just send a C&D to you, since you're talking about releasing a free e-book in direct competition with War!

I'm not really into mercenary/war settings so I probably won't help you on this project, but I hope you'll be able to get it done.

[hermit]

A prelim announcement: I'll set up a Forum for this project somewhere. This thread, as well as the Dumpshock thread, will be maintained for ideas, but discussion will be moved there. It'S just easier to keep everything organised that way. I'll post when I have the forum ready and would be happy if anyone would have webspace for offer.

[Grinder]

You could shoot Redjack an email and ask if he would open up a sub-board here at dumpshock. Would be very convenient.

[Arclight]

Lagos is covered in Feral Cities, isn't it? Would be a waste of time and effort to re-write it, since the write-up is not that bad.
Lisbon would be nice, as a prime spot for merc companies - or did that change?

IMHO, you should choose the locations through "what is it the mercs can do there" rather than asking "what location is cool and was briefly mentioned in a sourcebook".

IMO, mercs should make use of a mothership-like vehicle to operate from (humping it to the mission area is time-consuming and I'd hate to see something like "random travel encounter"-tables in a Shadowrun book). This means either a boat or ship, a wing aircraft or t-bird, a wheeled or tracked land vehicle. So you have:

- riverine operations: performing missions with heavily armed speedboats from a ship or seaside forward operating base either in a big river delta or mangroove jungle or in a flooded city
- airmobile operations: performing high-speed missions with infiltration by armed helicopters (maybe in tandem with real attack helicopters) or t-bird. Like "Blackhawk down" and stuff. Or HALO infiltration (with a working rules system this time, please)
- land operations: performing long-duration missions with highly mobile wheeled vehicles in rural areas, or vicious urban warfare with tanks in a war-torn city

These would be my three mayor fields of mercenary work. You can play multi-missions evenings or multi-evenings missions as you like it, and you have a theme for each location that gives a distinctive look.

You'd tailor unit descriptions according to each location, like SEALs for riverine ops, and give a good oversight on military unit organization for fireteams, squads, platoons and companies. Gear also according to locations (rebreather systems for riverine ops, assault ladders for land ops, and so on). Oh, and kitlists with more details than "flak jacket, survival kit, rifle with 4 clips of ammo" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[sabs]

And I wouldn't do a big Lagos write up. I would more do..

African HotSpots for Mercenaries.
Supposedly Lagos is a big Mercenary hub, and yet we're never told /why/