A Grand Master Plan....For sixth world domination!, An idea that's so insane its just might work! Options

[DarthSunshine]

Hey ya chummers!

My friends and I play an epic Shadowrun campaign we’ve been running for a good four years now. Since the very start my character has had an extremely ambitious (and insane) plan for gaining ultimate power. *evil laugh*

First off I’d like to start by describing how our game works. Instead of a run by run basis, our game is an epic character ambition driven game. We mostly do high level runs on the side(when we’re not facing assassins, main plot foes etc) to fund our intense ambitions. The three players all have some very grandiose goals such as founding a worldwide ninja clan(our adept), running a major underground mecha fighting league (our hacker), and founding and leading a powerful AAA corporation (out mage that’s me). The GM wants us to succeed in these goals although he’s not handing it on a silver platter for us that’s for certain. We’ve gone a very long way and are getting closer and closer to our goals after four years of campaigning. We still have a long way to go however.

Now for my master plan. Currently after 4 years of hard work I am finishing setting up a public Mech fighting tournament (Ultimate MECH Fighting League!) in Egypt in direct competition with Desert Wars that is designed to propel me into single my A rating. I am currently preparing to apply to the Corporate Court on Zurich-Orbital to get my A rating. My company is recorded much like an NPC with a rating for it’s different working parts. Now I also have a growing secret cult that answers to my mentor spirit and I. This among other things gives my company an edge rating aswell. They are also sorta my trump card and I have already used them to subvert my rivals. At this stage that main goal is to defend my precious assets while growing my corp and advancing my public position by gobbling up smaller corps in my path. All the while I will be using my cult to advance my position within the shadows. I intend to take advantage of the (mostly unused) outer space frontier; I even plan to build a space elevator in Kenya and/or a space habitat at the (still abandoned?)L5 eventually. This is all so I can hopefully get my AA status.

Once AA status is attained (and perhaps well before) is where the really tricky stuff begins. My goal at this stage is to use the power at my disposal to secretly manipulate the sixth world into a global conflict involving both the megacorps and the nations of the world (à la Chancellor Palaptine, Otto von Bismarck, Vito Corleone etc). Yes it’s long shot I know, but that’s the game we’re playing. The idea is to push the megacorps I wanna weaken (Aztechnology and maybe Ares and Wuxing) into opposing power blocs and set them loose against each other World War III style. While this is all happening my corp will continue to advance its position by staying on the sidelines and working in places the other corps don’t bother with (also staying good with media giants like Horizon to keep my PR immaculate!). One of my crazier plans involving sparking the entire war itself by deorbiting the Zurich-Orbital (or Ares-Orbital if ZO proves indispensable) station over a populated area (Gulf of Mexico or Western Europe) and implicating another corp(s) in the disaste (Again Aztechnology probably, I really hate them).

There is a singular purpose to all this violence. I intend to fatally weaken one or more of the megacorps so that when that corp dies out I become ascendant. So far the only way I can see to become a AAA corp is to kill another AAA corp. Naturally the great dragons will probably catch wind of some or all of my plan and will interfere, which will probably mean the end. So that’s where the most ambitious and most deranged portion of my plan comes in.

On May 11th, 2078 there will be a total eclipse of the sun by the moon visible from the city of New Orleans (Coincidentally N.O. is my character’s hometown). My plan is to (SOMEHOW)) lure two(or more) powerful great dragons (Aztlan is gonna be the target here probably) into the city while it is in the middle of a chaotic battle. The plan is to (SOMEHOW) trick or convince the two wyrms into fighting each other, or at least have a very heated argument. During this titanic clash I will use the umbra(shadow) of the moon cast over the city as a gigantic ritual magic circle (FMA:B anyone?) to bind the soul of the weakened dragon(s) to either myself or something else that is able to contain it (my mentor spirit?). Hell I’d just be happy to instead kill one of them out right since it seems that it’s virtually impossible to do it by any normal means in Shadowrun otherwise. If I can pull that kind of crazy stunt off I doubt anything else could possibly stand in the way of me getting my AAA rating (or anything else for that matter) Crazy? Yes. Impossible? Maybe. Worth a try? Absolutely.

Now for the TL;DR version for those who wanna skip my wall of text
Step 1. Build a successful A rating corp (about %85 done) out of Ultimate Mecha Fighting
Step 2. Grow in power and shoot for AA rating, building and developing outer space assets.
Step 3. Manipulate world powers and incite WW III (or rather Corporate War I)
Step 4. (SOMEHOW) Trick/Convince great dragons into fighting over war torn/ruined New Orleans
Step 5. Use solar eclipse to bind great dragon’s soul / assassinate great dragon
Step 6 ? ? ? ?
Step 7 MEGAAA PROFIT!!

Now I’m sure you some of you wanna tell me it can’t be done, and I understand that. It’s a batshit insane plan that would never work in the real world much less the world of Shadowrun. But our campaign is less about the realistic assumptions and more about the epic story our characters make. Feel free to tell me it can’t be done, but what I really wanna hear is some creative suggestions for my plan here. Especially the parts with the big holes in the plan.

For instance: How do I trick two or more great wyrms to forgo a 10,000 year old code of common decency and duke it out over the ruined Big Easy, And who do I choose? (someone else has suggested Ghostwalker to fight Aztlan)
(That one is probably the biggest doosey IMO.)
What are the best way for me to quickly ascend to AA and then AAA by developing outer space or other methods?
Also what shall be my method of inciting the Megacorps/Nations to make war on each other?
And hey if all fails, then I still have a pretty fun piece of fiction to write about. Also I know that because of the fluid nature of rpg games much of this plan is subject to change (and much of it already has) depending on whether I(or others!) win/fail rolls. The timeline wil definitly chang, for instance I may try and shoot for two seperate conflicts (Asia to destroy Wuxing and the Americas to destroy Azzies) and gain AAA before the final battle with the dragons.

Any constructive feedback is much appreciated! Crazy Ideas are welcome as well! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Ryu]

You have a five-year-plan involving high-circle ED magic, and unique magic at that. Once you are able to pull that off, dragons should be of little concern to you.

You can manipulate world powers at step 3.

I think you should concentrate on step 1-2, especially with step 1 not completed after 4 years (85% is great progress on that front anyway). Enough epic to be had from controlling a not-insignificant part of the worlds outer space assets (as in "you have any").

[Umidori]

You wanna kill dragons?

Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

~Umi

[DarthSunshine]

You have a five-year-plan involving high-circle ED magic, and unique magic at that. Once you are able to pull that off, dragons should be of little concern to you.

You can manipulate world powers at step 3.

I think you should concentrate on step 1-2, especially with step 1 not completed after 4 years (85% is great progress on that front anyway). Enough epic to be had from controlling a not-insignificant part of the worlds outer space assets (as in "you have any").

It is currently June of 2072 in our game. On the 12th of September I will travel to the Central Siberia Plateau in Yakut to view the solar eclipse there. I will use that opportunity to test out or develop the spell formula that I plan to use for the dragon soul spell. One plan another forum suggested is to deorbit a station (ZO?) over the Gulf of Mexico and cause a giant tsunami that decimates New Orleans. I will then move in and buy out the ruined city so I can restore * cough* occult realign *cough* the city. That will prepare it for the final showdown.

Step 1 has been a long time coming and I'm still not completely in the door just yet, but my company has been a established fact for a few months of game time now but the UMF. So far I haven't glitched on any of my monthly checks for various things like R&D and finances. What I really wanna do is impress bigwigs like Damien Knight or Lowfyr so I can potentially count them among allies as I begin to gain power. I'm going to be using a well oiled propaganda machine to begin convicing the world the we might just be better off with out Wuxing or even more importantly Aztechnology (a bit tricky b/c Azzies are loved by many). Maybe convince Horizon to help me in that field.

Step 2 I really wanna devote to two things: Space, and the Sahara. I'm a huge Space nerd so I have a couple of very grand innovative ideas that I am pretty sure the other corps haven't thought of yet. Building a space elevator in either Indonesia (Sumatran Alliance) or Kenya will bring me HUGE advantage over conventional Aerospace giants (S-K and Ares). How ever lowering the cost of space travel by a factor of 100 will most certainly earn me the enmity of said giants. One problem is that space elevators are very vulnerable to sabotage. If say some shadowrunners can cut the cable at the right place then the whole thing comes crashing down leaving a trail of destruction along the equator and PR disaster for me.

You wanna kill dragons?

Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

~Umi

My two big space projects will be the space elevator mentioned before (Project Olympus) and a big happy O'Neil Cylinder aka. Island Three (Project Elysium) at the Earth-Moon Lagrange 5 point (Is it still abandoned since crash 2.0? I read that in Target: Wastelands.)

I plan to have Elysium (somewhat secretly) armed to the teeth to the point where it's defenses are atleast as formidible (if not more) than Zurich-Orbital. If worse comes to worse I can possibly hold the entire planet hostage with the threat of kinetic bombardment if things get out of hand. Lets hope it doesn't come to that.

One other thing I hope to develop is some large floating Aerostat colonys on Venus. 50km above the surface of Venus at the cloud tops is probably one of the most human friendly places in the solar system. And since Mars is already being worked on by Evo I figure I might try thinking outside of the box on planetary colonization and visit a place most people don't think to go.

[Shortstraw]

You wanna kill dragons?

Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

~Umi

Nukes are unreliable now so you have to drop large amounts of tungsten from orbit (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Umidori]

Fine, orbital mass drivers.

Similar effect, less nuclear fallout. Just need a proper power supply and highly ferrous asteroids, or barring that, artificial payloads made from terrestrial mass brought up by the elevator. And instead of blowing up tech that makes it work, you get to reuse the weapons platform to launch more worthless rocks.

Space trebuchets, essentially.

~Umi

[DarthSunshine]

Fine, orbital mass drivers.

Similar effect, less nuclear fallout. Just need a proper power supply and highly ferrous asteroids, or barring that, artificial payloads made from terrestrial mass brought up by the elevator. And instead of blowing up tech that makes it work, you get to reuse the weapons platform to launch more worthless rocks.

Space trebuchets, essentailly.

~Umi

Or high density collapsed matter, or just a big rod of tungsten (a Rod from God as they say).
A simple space rock however would be a pretty good idea. I could change the orbital path of a nearby comet or asteroid, have it swing behind the sun to make it harder to detect, and aim it at a city/base/dragon I really don't like. It May be harder to trace back to me especially if no one notices the rock until after it's emerged from behind the sun.


Also I forgot to mention what my plans are associated with Sahara. I'm going to build several desert Arcologies in North Africa with the explicit goal of "Greening the Sahara". This big philanthropic gesture will surely give me a huge PR boost.

[Sir_Psycho]

You could stand to make relationships in Amazonia. It sounds like you could get support you need there, and use the biotech/Arcology assets of the Genesis Consortium to help you with space development and greening the Sahara. You're a mage, too, so Hualpa and the rest of the Amazonian awakened could benefit your giant ritual, and with your assistance they might be able to finally crush Aztlan, especially if you can goad the CAS/NAN/TT into attacking from the north.

Consider that killing a Great Dragon will most likely trigger another Rite of Succession, so if you've managed to make and keep any draconic allies, you could potentially help them win and get the spoils.

And most importantly, keep your full game plan close to your chest, the other corps will try and destroy and subvert you and your corp, but if ZO finds out about your duplicity, they could call an Omega order and you're done. Also, if any dragon allies find out you're basically trying to blood sacrifice two great dragons, they are not going to be happy.

How much money do you have to spend, anyway?

[DarthSunshine]

You could stand to make relationships in Amazonia. It sounds like you could get support you need there, and use the biotech/Arcology assets of the Genesis Consortium to help you with space development and greening the Sahara. You're a mage, too, so Hualpa and the rest of the Amazonian awakened could benefit your giant ritual, and with your assistance they might be able to finally crush Aztlan, especially if you can goad the CAS/NAN/TT into attacking from the north.

I have considered that actually. Ever since War came out I've been thinking about taking advantage of the Bogota conflict. What I might do is sit back and wait for Aztlan to win and force an uneven peace with Amazonia, that way in the years to come I can take advantage of the the lingering resentment that will no doubt continue to simmer. (like the Treaty of Versailles did with Wiemar Germany)

Consider that killing a Great Dragon will most likely trigger another Rite of Succession, so if you've managed to make and keep any draconic allies, you could potentially help them win and get the spoils.

That's the idea! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Screw up the status quo the same way the Crash 2.0 did.

And most importantly, keep your full game plan close to your chest, the other corps will try and destroy and subvert you and your corp, but if ZO finds out about your duplicity, they could call an Omega order and you're done. Also, if any dragon allies find out you're basically trying to blood sacrifice two great dragons, they are not going to be happy.

From the very beginning I have planned to convincingly play both sides of the board à la Chancellor Palpatine without letting anyone know what my true motives are. Since I don't even have my A rating just yet I haven't even begun to put my Master Plan fully into motion yet. Not even own my cult knows a fraction of what I'm planning. Only my mentor spirit knows my heart's desire right now and she's keeping it to herself. When the time comes however I will do my very utmost to keep the grand strategy as compartmentalized as possible, and hopefully keep the biggest secrets to myself only.

How much money do you have to spend, anyway?

We kinda stopped keeping track of the money that several investors are putting in once it started going into the multi millions. (I'm gonna need a concrete number by the time I go to the Corporate Court) Now we just do a monthly roll to see if I am loosing money, making money, or breaking even. Ultimate Mech Fighting has about 2 months to go however before I can start turning a real profit just yet.

My character personally still has about 1.2 million nuyen left over from several high level runs we've done recently, and a successful bank robbery we pulled off a LONG time ago at the very beginning of the game (our first run no less). You can bet the GM was little concerned when we basically started the game with way more money than shadowrunners should ever get to start with. But that's the money that we have used to fuel our individual ambitions and it has worked out pretty well so far.

[Umidori]

It's a pity you're not an adept. This is the perfect power for your sorts of schemes.

Memory Displacement (Digital Grimoire, p. 18)

Cost: 0.25 Points

An adept with Memory Displacement is capable of removing a specifically chosen group of memory from her brain for a predetermined length of time. Memory Displacement requires the user to concentrate for a Complex Action to activate. During this time, the character has no way to recollect the memories in question. As a consequence, the memories cannot be recovered through Interrogation, Intimidation, or mental manipulation spells. No amount of questioning will reveal that the character ever possessed these memories. Once the predetermined amount of time has passed, the adept’s memories return to normal.

Best part? It has no in-built limits. You can forget as much as you want for as long as you want.

~Umi

[Neko Asakami]

The only thing I can see that the others haven't pointed out is the fact that they're already working on a space elevator in Panama. Hazard Pay goes into a ton of detail about it (one of the things I'm REALLY not happy about; I think they're massively impractical and overly dangerous), but the basic version is that it's something the Megas are all working on together to make taking over space easier and cheaper. Dunno if that's gonna be something you sabotage or if that's just gonna be something you ignore for your campaign. Though, really, a space elevator is something that would run in the trillions of nuyen, so if you get one of those together on your own (without any of the other Megas taking it out because it competes with their shared interests), you're already a AAA. Honestly, you won't need worry about colonizing everything since you'd already be stupid rich. And Angel Station (the one at the L-5 LaGrange) is still abandoned, but has been stripped of anything useful by scavengers and by Novatech before they turned it over to Evo in 2063. You'd have to buy it from Evo and then worry about having to re-equip the base. Oh, and there's that whole "lack of a manasphere" issue since you're a mage. Might wanna be careful with that.

Other than that? Your plan is awesome and I wish you the best of luck!

[Lindt]

Single A rating is incredibly easy to get IIRC. All it requires is to be multinational. AA is much much harder.

[Stahlseele]

I had somethng like this planned for the SR3 to SR4 conversion time . .
Basically, subvert MicroDeck, use the Parias skill to hack into the megacorps, buy stock in weapons, have him manipulate it so the megacorps buy stock in weapons too . .
Then leak the information that they are buying weapons to each other. Fake an attack on every one and leave evidence for one of the others having been the attacker . .
Sell my stock in weapons for a hefty profit and run to somewhere where i will be far away from the hopefully ensuing all out corporate war which in the end just comes back to microdeck.
Global destruction, all the megacorps get weakened something fierce, if they live through it at all. Invest capital from the weapons stock sellout into some corp that does rebuilding stuff.
call it a work nicely done when i make it into AA territory with that corporation . .
World Dominance is HIGHLY overrated. You have way too much responsibility all of a sudden and waayy too many enemies too for several reasons . . top tier middle field player that looks usefull to have as an aide to everybody for clean up duty is much more effective in the long run . . You get to live and spend your riches too!

[ShadowDragon8685]

This plan is pretty much insane. However, the most insane plans sometimes work the best.

If you're gonna pull it off, especially once you get to the 'be a AAA' stage, what you're going to want is the ability to make the rest of the Corporate Court absolutely unwilling to call an Omega on you. The way to do that lies in the 1950s, and it's called Mutually Assured Destruction: make sure all of them know (though not they can prove) that if they call an Omega on you, the end result will be unprofitably - and most likely outright destruction - for all parties involved.

Nukes, of course, are unreliable, so you're going to have to go with alternatives. Simple kinetic bombardment sufficient to make the Earth into a barren wasteland shouldn't be a hard capability for you to come up with, especially with your emphasis on space technologies, but, as in all things corporate, you should diversify as well; gray goo, Von Neumann nanomachines are another good one. Antimatter would be good as well (nukes don't work; said nothin' about matter/antimatter annihiliation.) On the magical end of the spectrum, you might think about rigging things so that when things fail to go your way, you could, on a few moments' notice, tear open a hole for Horrors to come swarming through, or cause the whole world to become a Bug zone.

Another idea might be to build a massive space station that shares its orbit with everybody's favorite stuff, and rig the mother with O Em Gee scuttling charges, so when you blow it, that entire orbital band will be so full of debris that everything will get torn to pieces.

Honestly, though, I think you might be overthinking this.

Goal: AAA status.

Alternative solution: Enact a takeover of an existing AAA Megacorp.

You might find that far simpler and easier to pull off than bootstrapping from no rating whatsoever all the way to AAA. But then, it probably wouldn't be as much fun, so... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Darksong]

I, for one, love this plan. It reminds me of our nearly 20-year-long Planescape game where the various characters have by this point become political power-houses among the factions.

Regarding getting two dragons to go toe-to-toe, I'd tend to lean toward the sorts of highly ritualized conflicts that seem to be part of dragon (and immortal elf if you go for that flavor in your game) culture. Maybe you could even team up with a slightly-less-great dragon who is in a position similar to your own (wants to get the attention of the big guys and take his/her place at the grown-up table). I hear that dealing with a dragon is somewhat ill-advised, but sometimes you've gotta break the rules to win big.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Regarding getting two dragons to go toe-to-toe, I'd tend to lean toward the sorts of highly ritualized conflicts that seem to be part of dragon (and immortal elf if you go for that flavor in your game) culture. Maybe you could even team up with a slightly-less-great dragon who is in a position similar to your own (wants to get the attention of the big guys and take his/her place at the grown-up table). I hear that dealing with a dragon is somewhat ill-advised, but sometimes you've gotta break the rules to win big.

Hell, it worked for Damian Knight!



Anyway, if you wanna get rid of a Great, off one of the ones that nobody likes: Sirrug, or the Sea Dragon.

Nobody much will miss either of them.

[Umidori]

Pfft, that's the easy way out. You need to kill a beloved dragon so that when you get away with it, it's even more epic.

Develop time travel. Use either magic or tech or both, whatever works. Then go back in time and kill Dunkelzahn. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/devil.gif)

~Umi

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Pfft, that's the easy way out. You need to kill a beloved dragon so that when you get away with it, it's even more epic.

Develop time travel. Use either magic or tech or both, whatever works. Then go back in time and kill Dunkelzahn. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/devil.gif)

~Umi

Been there, done that... was pretty anti-climactic. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[ShadowDragon8685]

Been there, done that... was pretty anti-climactic. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Stable time loops always turn out that way, don't they?

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Stable time loops always turn out that way, don't they?

Yeah, I guess they do. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[DarthSunshine]

The only thing I can see that the others haven't pointed out is the fact that they're already working on a space elevator in Panama. Hazard Pay goes into a ton of detail about it (one of the things I'm REALLY not happy about; I think they're massively impractical and overly dangerous), but the basic version is that it's something the Megas are all working on together to make taking over space easier and cheaper. Dunno if that's gonna be something you sabotage or if that's just gonna be something you ignore for your campaign. Though, really, a space elevator is something that would run in the trillions of nuyen, so if you get one of those together on your own (without any of the other Megas taking it out because it competes with their shared interests), you're already a AAA. Honestly, you won't need worry about colonizing everything since you'd already be stupid rich. And Angel Station (the one at the L-5 LaGrange) is still abandoned, but has been stripped of anything useful by scavengers and by Novatech before they turned it over to Evo in 2063. You'd have to buy it from Evo and then worry about having to re-equip the base. Oh, and there's that whole "lack of a manasphere" issue since you're a mage. Might wanna be careful with that.

Other than that? Your plan is awesome and I wish you the best of luck!

That's kinda disheartening. I will have to see what the GM says on the subject of Angel station and the Panama elevator (terrible place to build one BTW not within 1 degree of the equator which makes the whole prospect pretty much impossible).

I am indeed concerned about the lack of a manasphere but (if lifeforce = mana as I suspect) if I build an Island 3 habitat with 300,000+ inhabitants and a working biosphere I may be able to supplant that at least partially.

Single A rating is incredibly easy to get IIRC. All it requires is to be multinational. AA is much much harder.

I'm nearing single A at the moment. Within a few months time (perhaps July or August 2072) I will be ready to present my case to the Corporate Court with my already formidable legal team.

This plan is pretty much insane. However, the most insane plans sometimes work the best.

If you're gonna pull it off, especially once you get to the 'be a AAA' stage, what you're going to want is the ability to make the rest of the Corporate Court absolutely unwilling to call an Omega on you. The way to do that lies in the 1950s, and it's called Mutually Assured Destruction: make sure all of them know (though not they can prove) that if they call an Omega on you, the end result will be unprofitably - and most likely outright destruction - for all parties involved.

Nukes, of course, are unreliable, so you're going to have to go with alternatives. Simple kinetic bombardment sufficient to make the Earth into a barren wasteland shouldn't be a hard capability for you to come up with, especially with your emphasis on space technologies, but, as in all things corporate, you should diversify as well; gray goo, Von Neumann nanomachines are another good one. Antimatter would be good as well (nukes don't work; said nothin' about matter/antimatter annihiliation.) On the magical end of the spectrum, you might think about rigging things so that when things fail to go your way, you could, on a few moments' notice, tear open a hole for Horrors to come swarming through, or cause the whole world to become a Bug zone.

Another idea might be to build a massive space station that shares its orbit with everybody's favorite stuff, and rig the mother with O Em Gee scuttling charges, so when you blow it, that entire orbital band will be so full of debris that everything will get torn to pieces.

You just pretty much outlined my original plan from the beginning of our campaign before I made plans for a big Corporate War and Dragon Battle etc. Build a huge space habitat at L5, collect the best and the brightest of metahumanity to inhabit it (spaceborne master race?), and make it the most fortified and heavily armed fortress ever witnessed by man. From that high tower I was essentially going to hold the planet hostage to force the corporate court to accede to my demands with threat of kinetic bombardment. Extraterrestrial colonies on Mercury (antimatter processing) and Venus(diabolical genetics research (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif) ) would add some extra flavor.

I kinda abandoned the whole "hold the world hostage with space guns" idea as a bit too high profile and grandoise and instead decided to use a more Earth based idea of secretly inciting a big war/dragon fight. However the idea of staving off the inevitable Omega order with the threat of kinetic bombardment is a excellent strategy.

Honestly, though, I think you might be overthinking this.

Goal: AAA status.

Alternative solution: Enact a takeover of an existing AAA Megacorp.

You might find that far simpler and easier to pull off than bootstrapping from no rating whatsoever all the way to AAA. But then, it probably wouldn't be as much fun, so... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Good point. I am after all a shadowrunner first and foremost so there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to conduct a shadow war with a weaker AAA. Another forum actually suggest Wuxing as a potential weak target for just such a thing. That of course would require me to totally rework my plans and figure out the most effeciant ways take down a AAA just from the shadows as it were. I still would intend to spark a global conflict and take down Aztlan in the process. I have a vendetta against Aztechnology that I intend to make good on.
Gaining AAA that way would certainly make it easier for me to build space infrastructural,provoke violent wars, and kill dragons.

So chummers, how do I take down/over Wuxing from the shadows?

I, for one, love this plan. It reminds me of our nearly 20-year-long Planescape game where the various characters have by this point become political power-houses among the factions.

Thanks! I really love this plan too (and the GM does too which may be a good thing or a bad thing) even if it might not work out in the end!

Regarding getting two dragons to go toe-to-toe, I'd tend to lean toward the sorts of highly ritualized conflicts that seem to be part of dragon (and immortal elf if you go for that flavor in your game) culture. Maybe you could even team up with a slightly-less-great dragon who is in a position similar to your own (wants to get the attention of the big guys and take his/her place at the grown-up table). I hear that dealing with a dragon is somewhat ill-advised, but sometimes you've gotta break the rules to win big.

Good idea. I figure if I buy up a ruined New Orleans for *occult realignment*i mean repairs then I could offer the place up as a meeting ground for the dragons I want involved. Appealing to a lesser great Dragon is kinda what I had in mind but like you said, dealing with dragons is usually ill advised. Again my main target for destruction should be Aztlan as my character hates him with a fury. Also I could always go to the top and ally myself with Lowfyr, he's pretty keen on eliminating rivals as I understand it.

Speaking of immortal elves, Harlequin has been our on again off again ally of the group ever since we helped him infiltrate Crater Lake in Tir Tairngire two years ago. I actually managed to get myself caught up in a whole mess of political turmoil (its what I wanted anyways at first) and even had to publicly testify to the Star Chamber against Larry Zincan! I'm not sure Harlequin will be too keen on my plans much less assist me. I could promise my full support in dealing with the Horrors though.

Stable time loops always turn out that way, don't they?

OT- I actually managed to maneuver a successful stable time loop at the end of a short three month Transhuman Space game I ran last year. The players were pretty impressed, and it wasn't anti climatic at all (in fact quite the opposite).


Thanks everyone for all this excellent feedback! I will definitely be putting some of these idea into my Master Plan.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Good point. I am after all a shadowrunner first and foremost so there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to conduct a shadow war with a weaker AAA. Another forum actually suggest Wuxing as a potential weak target for just such a thing. That of course would require me to totally rework my plans and figure out the most effeciant ways take down a AAA just from the shadows as it were. I still would intend to spark a global conflict and take down Aztlan in the process. I have a vendetta against Aztechnology that I intend to make good on.
Gaining AAA that way would certainly make it easier for me to build space infrastructural,provoke violent wars, and kill dragons.

So chummers, how do I take down/over Wuxing from the shadows?

It's simpler than that, mate. Just arrange to become the sole beneficiary of the head honcho(s) of a AAA, then cack 'em. Instant takeover.

[Shortstraw]

bind the soul of the weakened dragon(s) to either myself or something else that is able to contain it

Why don't you just bind Yuichotol much easier than killing a great dragon.

[DarthSunshine]

It's simpler than that, mate. Just arrange to become the sole beneficiary of the head honcho(s) of a AAA, then cack 'em. Instant takeover.

I'll have to give that some thought. I have a hard time believing it would be as simple as 'edit myself into the CEO's Will". But I have seen crazier things happening in a tabletop. I guess it would all depend on the rolls in the end, it always does.

Why don't you just bind Yuichotol much easier than killing a great dragon.

nah we killed a big feathered serpent a while back anyways. Although I bet Yuichotol would be many times more powerful than the one we killed. I'm going to be using a rare astronomical event (the eclipse) to facilitate this whole ritual so I want the intended target to be the most powerful thing I can possibly find, ergo a Great Dragon. Besides it's supposed to be nearly impossible to kill one (by normal means anyways) so I want to prove that theory wrong. If a mere mortal(albeit Elf) took down a Great Dragon what else could they be capable of?

[ShadowDragon8685]

I'll have to give that some thought. I have a hard time believing it would be as simple as 'edit myself into the CEO's Will". But I have seen crazier things happening in a tabletop. I guess it would all depend on the rolls in the end, it always does.

Talking them into editing it themselves works, too.