MilSpecTech, What do you guys think? Options

[otakusensei]

I apologize for making Corporate Guide and MilSpecTech agree with each other re: Esprit. I also apologize for letting the hook presented in Shadows of Europe, where Esprit's chairman had possible Aztechnology connections, play out in the intervening 10 in-game years.

Jason H.

Good to see you're still trolling, Jason. And kudos on the metaplot work. A good hand on that sort of thing is important to the setting of Shadowrun.

More important would be making sure the products are compelling and the mechanics are accurate and proofed. Basically it's like you got the floor mats right, but otherwise you're driving a beat up Civic and calling it a Corvette. But I'm glad to see that you're making an effort on something people thought was out of your reach.

[CanRay]

To be fair (What? Us?), we do have the bar set rather high.

...

OK, that's me being nice for the year. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[hermit]

Well, if War! had been of the quality of MilSpecTech, it wouldn't have sucked quite as badly as it did (it would even have been it's money's worth probably, though this makes a lot of guesses on things like maps and the absence of retarded plots). It also seems to have been written by someone who knows what English words are supposed to look like, even complicated ones such as 'carnivorous' and 'cells'.

In case that is too subtle too, I think MilSpec Tech is a decent pdf. With the $ as lowly rated as it is, it's even a decent deal.

[CanRay]

Autocorrect is your friend.

[hermit]

That's what I wondered, too.

[CanRay]

It's also your worst enemy if it keeps correcting slang. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Or you chose the wrong word with the list of options, of course. And it does nothing for grammar, which I've always sucked at, despite calling myself a writer.

'Course, I usually add "Hack" to that statement, so...

[James McMurray]

I apologize for making Corporate Guide and MilSpecTech agree with each other re: Esprit. I also apologize for letting the hook presented in Shadows of Europe, where Esprit's chairman had possible Aztechnology connections, play out in the intervening 10 in-game years.

Jason H.

You, sir, should be ashamed! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Fatum]

It's also your worst enemy if it keeps correcting slang. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Or you chose the wrong word with the list of options, of course. And it does nothing for grammar, which I've always sucked at, despite calling myself a writer.

That's what proofreading is for.
Oh wait, we're talking CGL here.

[CanRay]

That's what proofreading is for.
Oh wait, we're talking CGL here.

This is also me we're talking about here. I've had stuff up for years that hasn't seen an editor's pen.

Of course, that changes with my latest piece of work... Which is giving me conniption fits, BTW.

[Fatum]

This is also me we're talking about here. I've had stuff up for years that hasn't seen an editor's pen.

Of course, that changes with my latest piece of work... Which is giving me conniption fits, BTW.

Yeah, one of my fellow IRC players is a beginner editor, and I asked for his help.
Sometimes I wish I didn't :3

[Nath]

I apologize for making Corporate Guide and MilSpecTech agree with each other re: Esprit. I also apologize for letting the hook presented in Shadows of Europe, where Esprit's chairman had possible Aztechnology connections, play out in the intervening 10 in-game years.

Esprit Industries was one of the three French megacorporations. It regularly played a role in the French settings, in French additional content for Runner Havens and Corporate Enclaves, in French-German joint sourcebook SOX and in the French campaign Mauvais Présage. I heavily used Esprit Industries in my games for the past ten years. I should mention I am the one who imagined this Esprit/Aztechnology connection back in 1999 (along with a much stronger Esprit/Saeder-Krupp, should I add), before I joined the EuroSB team that would ultimately publish Shadows of Europe.

I think I can say I find regrettable that such change get 27 signs, not even a single sentence. Corporate Guide on page 69 (in the same chapter) actually says Aztechnology subsidiary compete with Esprit. I can't say if the author of the Lone Star section, page 202, was aware of the change when he put Esprit as the ninth biggest security provider in the world.

I have no need for a stronger word than "regrettable". Am I mad at this ? No. The very nature of a multiple-authors universe asks you to respect the work of others, no matter how good or bad it objectively can be (here, I'll allow myself to snipe at a number of past and present authors, involved in official content as well fan-made material, and add that respect start by reading and reading again what the other made before you).
So I scraped everything I had in mind involving Esprit Industries, and returned to work. I started just a few weeks ago a campaign (set in 2072) that will follow events leading to Esprit takeover by Aztechnology. I am not going to let my pet corp going away in 27 signs.

[hermit]

I should mention I am the one who imagined this Esprit/Aztechnology connection back in 1999 (along with a much stronger Esprit/Saeder-Krupp, should I add), before I joined the EuroSB team that would ultimately publish Shadows of Europe.

Were you involved with SR France? IIRC, the Aztech/ESPRIT connection is mentioned there, too.

[Nath]

Were you involved with SR France? IIRC, the Aztech/ESPRIT connection is mentioned there, too.

No, I wasn't. France, page 52 and 53, suggests Esprit Industries would be under the influence of either Saeder-Krupp or Ares Macrotechnology, with a user comment guessing Damien Knight may own some shares.

A few years later, Jon Szeto (IIRC) in Rigger 3, page 19, made GIAT Industries a subsidiary of Saeder-Krupp. In France, GIAT was the original company upon which Esprit was built. So, we went with the S-K connection in Shadows of Europe (which, among other things, helped making Lofwyr control of Europe a bit more subtle than just everything being a subsidiary of S-K).

[hermit]

Ah, Ares. Thanks.

[Bull]

I remember not that long ago when it was a basic assumption that every company had ties somewhere to one of the megacorps, whether it was overt (like them outright owning the company) or covert (owned through a bunch of shell corporations, possibly witha misdirect somewhere in there pointing toward some other megacorp owning it).

10 Companies own 99.9% of the world was a Shadowrun basic premise. Should still be.

[CanRay]

I can grok that.

[sabs]

But does it always have to be Aztechnology (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[CanRay]

No.

But they're the ones that have a tendency of getting caught by Shadowrunners.

The rest are better at subtle. Aztechnology is just sloppier than the rest due to arrogance. They do OWN a expansionist country after all.

Again, remember, all the stuff we're reading is NOT public knowledge, and would be rejected by the masses without extensive evidence! The other Megas (Well, maybe not Horizon) would be more accepted as having "Dirty Practices" going on than AZT.

Behold, the power of cheese... Er, I mean, PR.

[Adarael]

Here's the question I always like asking players: When was the last time you heard of Shiawase doing anything scummy? Does that mean they don't do scummy things? So why haven't you ever heard of them being bastards?

Because IMO, Shiawase is the slowest and steadiest of the AAA megacorps doing terrible shit.

[CanRay]

They're masters of misdirection and the art of "Thou Shalt Not Get Caught".

Edit: You know, that's another possibility... Some of the stuff that Aztechnology is getting blamed for in the Shadows might be misdirection. The Corporate Court knows the Bad Stuff AZT is up to, and it makes them the perfect fall-guy to point the Shadow Community at.

It makes sense in a twisted way that Corporators think in.

[hermit]

I thought that would be Horizon, but then again, they are the corp who actually does NOT DO SCUMMY THINGS. Canonically.

Besides, the 10 Megas own everything vanished with the first european books, and smacks of a very ... distasteful ... world view. I don't like it. The world shouldn't really be that simple. Just like not every setting should be made into a McCorpcity.

[Adarael]

Eh, Horizon's so new that I can forgive not knowing shit about them. Shiawase's existed since 2nd edition - maybe even 1st, I don't recall - and I've never seen word one about anything underhanded they've ever done.

[Whipstitch]

It was the Shiawase Decision that first established extraterritoriality, actually, so timeline wise they're the first mega. Slow and steady definitely describes them well, since they're the game's stereotypical zaibatsu down to the core. Lots of in-fighting, but they'll still close ranks and turn on you in a heartbeat if your gaijin ass tries stirring up trouble for them.

[hermit]

No, theey really DO mean well. The main idea for the Horizon runs was to have them fuck up badly anyway. Pity these runs now seem to have been changed into running a Horizon-sponsored Aztech smear campaign where a public who watches LETHAL COMBT WITH WEAOPONS OF WAR as the next saturday night special is outraged about Aztech shooting tribals.

Because the fun really stops if they're indigenous tribals. Everyone loves indigenous tribals. Especially in the UCAS.

[Brazilian_Shinob...]

No, theey really DO mean well. The main idea for the Horizon runs was to have them fuck up badly anyway. Pity these runs now seem to have been changed into running a Horizon-sponsored Aztech smear campaign where a public who watches LETHAL COMBT WITH WEAOPONS OF WAR as the next saturday night special is outraged about Aztech shooting tribals.

Because the fun really stops if they're indigenous tribals. Everyone loves indigenous tribals. Especially in the UCAS.

Considering UCAS exists because of shooting indigenous tribals in the first place and they retaliated by blowing up mountains, I can see UCAS supporting Yucatan or at least try to make Aztlan stop the fight before they decide to do an Improved Ghost Dance that blows up half the continent...