DocWagon Alternatives Options

[FlakJacket]

What other alternative companies have been mentioned that offer the same kind of services as DocWagon? I know that there was Crashcart but they got taken over by Yamatetsu after the whole 2XS thing and dropped out of sight. Are Crashcart still an active company, have their been any mentions of them in places like Man & Machine or Corporate Download? And are there any other companies lurking about that I can't remember? Thanks. :)

[Kanada Ten]

CrashCart is around in SoNA. Active in some NAN states. Let me load up NMAth's corp list and...

[Black Isis]

MediCarro, in Aztlan, is presumably still around -- however, it's really just a DocWagon-run Aztech-owned company (and as far as I know, it's Aztlan only).

[Kanada Ten]

These look promising:

? Kyuusei Medical SoNA-120 ?
? Lifescape, Ares Macrotechnology CDL ?

Lifestar Health Services Incorporated, Crashcart Medical Services T:AL-43

MediCarro, Aztechnology CDL

? MediVac NAGNA ?

? Nunoo Health, Phoenix Biotechnologies CP ?

? Reactive Meditech, Cross Biomedical BITB-65 ?

? Shiawase Health and Welfare, Shiawase CDL ?

And Nath, Parashield is owned by Mitsuhama according to YotC.

[kevyn668]

But you still have to have a SIN (I think) and more importantly your blood and tissue samples will be in a frezzer somewhere with your name on 'em...

Maybe I'm just paranoid but I don't trust that action. Plus, on runs in the past we've hit Doc Wagon to get those very things. If PCs can do it, you can be damn sure NPCs can too.

[FlakJacket]

Oh, this wasn't really for shadowrunners. Was thinking about Hong Kong as a location and considering random things. Like since its gone from a Japanacorp dominated town to a PPG one, what sort of changes might have happened. Like Shiawase Health and Welfare getting edged out by Yamatetsu's Crashcart, PacRim Communications getting the city's matrix grid maintenance contract etc. All because they're PPG members and are usurping Japanese owned/copntrolled companies.

It's like Corporate Download says about their keeping business, and cash, internal. Suppose you're a PPG member and want to open a HK office: The PPG uses its influence to make sure you get planning permission, you take out a loan from the Malaysian Independence Bank to build the place, hire Red Wheel Engineering to do the construction with it, get Yamatetsu's to do the security- since that division moved to Hong Kong IIRC and insure the place through Fidelity Mutual Insurance Corporation- one of Wuxing's insurance companies. :)

[tisoz]

[kevyn668]

I always thought thats how it worked. SIN-wise, why would any company cover you if they didn't have a (currently) social security number, permenant residence, nearest blood relation, etc.

They could always clone a new part of you from the leftovers of when you were brought in but it seems like from a corp stand point they'd want that stuff on file.

Dot the "I's" and cross the "T's" as it were.

[Necro Tech]

Last time I checked you don't need a SIN to join Doc Wagon. You contract is prepaid after all. I have to agree though that Doc Wagon wouldn't keep tissue samples for liability reasons alone. After all, why do they need them? They will have your medical profile of course but if they are gonna regrow a limb or something they will have you right there to ask and take tisue samples from. And get payment up front.

[Plastic Rat]

I beleive they needed DNA samples in case they needed to clone body parts or organs for you. But then again, I could be thinking of CP 2020...

I would really like to offer my runners a few viable alternatives to DW, maybe guys who run a grayer area of the line. A company that's a little more shadowy and doesn't mind at all catering to Shadowrunners. After all, they've got the big cred.

Offer them something where they don't want ID, DNA, ritual samples or astral scans and they're willing to pick you up anytime anyplace, regardless of who's shooting at you. (And maybe a provisio that you're within X meters from the open air, no digging through Bug Hives or breaking into LoneStar to get your sorry ass out.)

[CircuitBoyBlue]

In my games I always run DocWagon as sort of shady, at least at the lower levels. They handle the contracts for everyone, but they're usually experienced enough to "just know" when they're going to need to respond to a runner group, and don't ask too many questions. Mostly, I just don't like having the team get screwed over in the ways that getting shot will bring on, at least not in EVERY session (everybody has their bad ruts, plus my group plays people who have no idea how to properly run the shadows). I haven't had to bring it up in my current game too much because one of the characters is a pretty good doctor, and a few weeks ago one of the players mentioned something about wanting to cut into the market by starting up a DocWagon competitor. I have always liked the idea of there being more than one company doing that (though after I read 2XS, I kinda had the impression CrashCart wasn't going to be very active anymore), but when the player brought this up, I figured the story possibilities from that were better if there weren't any competitors. So now I guess the guys are going to have a hospital trying to off them....

[shadd4d]

There was also something called Careline, but that maybe a 1st ed reference.

In Germany there's BoNMA, but I can't remember what that stands for. The new DiDSII introduced a firm called Blue Angels. I have a copy of the old Germany Sourcebook (in German). There's a color page for BoNMA which has a picture of a doctor with a syringe. The ad goes "Hey, Chummer. Do you visist your doctor around the corner just because he's cheap and keeps his mouth shut. Well, we can too. BoNMA."

Don

[Birdy]

[shadd4d]

Vielen Dank.

Don't have that book at work at the moment.

Don

[Nath]

[Orient]

REO MeatWagon
"No doctors, save money!"


(sorry)

[Plastic Rat]

[MYST1C]

[shadd4d]

Ah Crap! :eek: That's in DidSII, ain't it? I don't remember seeing that in DidSI resting next to me at the moment.

Don

[hobgoblin]

the reason for docwagon needing tissue samples is that growing a limb takes time. i think it was stated (cant find the reference now) that only after about a month or so into the contract the limbs and organs will be available for implant...

edit:
bingo found it, page 128, section about pieces and parts...
there it is stated that a platinum card will give you access to a donor counterpart (sounds like a body without brain and spinal colom in place) 3 months into the program that they can take apart for fast replacement.

allso, i came to think that when they have a lab sample they can take that out of the freezer the moment the parametic states that you have bullet or stab wounds to some vital parts and start the prosess without needing to wait for you to hit a slab in the docwagon hospital. less risk of failure that way...

[Nath]

[Bigity]

I'm pretty sure that in Corp Download it mentions Crashcart is starting to come back after the 2XS scandle. I'm just not sure if they meant worldwide or specifically in the Seattle area.

[Nath]

Globally, Corporate Download isn't written from Seattle perspective. It states that Crashcart did not really expand for years, in comparison to its jumpstarting against DocWagon and before Yamatetsu bought it out. So Crashcart was failing from a corporate point of view, with a bad financial position. Now according to the CDL with ten more branches opened worldwide, it is present everywhere Yamatetsu is (probably meaning only Yamatetsu big name, not every subsidiaries the megacorp can own). Looking at Shadows of North America, there are only a few area for which it gives a Crashcart coverage: Anchorage, the Algonkian-Manitou Council, San Francisco Bay and Toronto, and I guess you can add Seattle.

BTW SoNA also indicates Nightingale offers DocWagon-type service in New York and Boston. For the record it's a Novatech subsidiary.

[MYST1C]