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> Universe changes, What did you change in your SR universe
Birdy
post Aug 4 2005, 05:01 PM
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Okay, I am not looking for "alternate Universe" ideas but more for single changes that are major enough to make a difference and minor enough not to invalidate the printed material. I'd like them "one change per post", like the Example:

1) No exterritoriality and proxy votes
[Based on: Cyberpunk, Bubblegum Crisis, Dark Conspiracy, Falkenbergs Legion]

As stated before, even the AAA Corporations are not "beyond the law". The police can still search their installations, arrest Damien Knight, put Lucien Cross in front of a court and punish Lofwyr for murder.

At least in theory. In reality the financial power of the big companies can buy enough judges, police chiefs and politicians to make them reasonably immune to prosecution. Not totally so there are some jobs, a corp does not want to be linked to. That are the kind of jobs, you use Shadowrunners for.

A citizen will still identify with "The company" first, use company money, life in company towns etc. Existence is far closer coupled to having a job [And thereby a SIN] so "company SIN" or "Taxpayer SIN" is the term used for "Working persons SIN" as opposed to "Social SIN" or "Citizen SIN", the one you get when you life on welfare.

Proxy votes allow you to buy an other persons vote for a certain amount of money and vote in his place, again giving more power to the corporations. Typical payment is housing/feeding/drugging in a "Project", slightly better than the State-run slum next door.


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mmu1
post Aug 4 2005, 05:25 PM
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I'm really not a big fan of the whole SR metaplot, truth be told, so I have no clue how badly running SR my way would screw things up (and I tend to play rather then GM) but...

1. Great Dragons are not gods. They're amazingly powerful - for a single being - but a 6th world equivalent of an army division (which presumably isn't naive to the existence and use of magic) will rip one to shreds without trying too hard.

2. Immortal elves were wiped out long ago by a unique awakened venereal disease.
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Sharaloth
post Aug 4 2005, 05:41 PM
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Hmm, Changes to the SR world.

1) Dragon colouration: I didn't know what colours the GD's should be, so when 4 of them appeared in my campaign, I just used how I always imagined them. Lofwyr = deep red; Celedyr = reflective white (not the pale blue of Dunkelzahn and Ghostwalker); Hestaby = Black; Ryumyo = Gold.

2) The entire reason for the cycles of magic, as well as how magic works on the metaplanar level. This one's a big one, and is actually intrinsic to the campaign, I might post the full explanation later.

3) New York. Actually, I didn't change this one outright, per se. But the players from a previous campaign DID set off a nuclear device under Union Square in late 2059, blowing a big crater in the city. My current campaign (with different players) takes off after the old campaign and uses Manhattan and the thing the nuke was supposed to destroy as major driving plot points.
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Nyxll
post Aug 4 2005, 06:02 PM
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1. World is in bad shape, weather is extreme, the air is quite dirty and the radiation levels are extremely high. You have to head out with a mask and suit.

Mutations: Many people are hunchbacked and warped. People that live inside arcologies and domes are usually fine, but small cities and raiders struggle with the effects. (you can localize this to a state or small country.)


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Velocity
post Aug 4 2005, 06:08 PM
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1) Deus squelched its ego and decided to be patient, building more subtle, long-term plans instead of taking over the arcology outright.

2) The Fuchi/Renraku corp war, with Miles Lanier doing his little dance. In my campaign, the four million shares weren't left to Lanier in Dunkie's will, they were sold to him by conniving Renraku execs. The PCs were heavily involved.

3) Haven't decided yet if the Horrors exist.
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Fygg Nuuton
post Aug 4 2005, 08:20 PM
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in the current campaign, i made up a company named umbrella. no zombies or nothing, i just like the ominous name. plus, this way i can have a run and not have the players be all like "oh, its ok, i read it in a source book"
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nezumi
post Aug 4 2005, 08:55 PM
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1) Horrors exist and they're secretly laughing at Dunkie.

2) The concept of dates haven't been invented yet. I run whatever I want whenever I please. (Alright, dates have been invented, but I change specific ones at my whim.)

3) Wireless technologies exist and have prospered (although not as much as SR4), the command line has avoided extinction. The mystery of the five ounce cell phone has been unlocked, and not all phones weigh two pounds.

4) No one has figured out how to use pretty pictures that communicate as much as the written word. Hence, when people talk, they generally have at least a vague idea how to spell the words they're using (or can at least read it). r/w skill equals the language skill.
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Cray74
post Aug 5 2005, 01:13 PM
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QUOTE (Birdy)
Okay, I am not looking for "alternate Universe" ideas but more for single changes that are major enough to make a difference and minor enough not to invalidate the printed material. I'd like them "one change per post", like the Example:

1) No exterritoriality and proxy votes
[Based on: Cyberpunk, Bubblegum Crisis, Dark Conspiracy, Falkenbergs Legion]

Gee, that's almost an alternate universe there, or at least an alternate history (depending on your semantics).

But I've gone the same route. I've got an alternate history where megacorps never get sovereign status and there's no balkanization of power groups. I call the setting, "Superpowers, Corporate Whores."

The world is divided into (not necessarily hostile) major power blocs like the EU, USA, China, and MERCOSUR. Megacorps lobby and bribe the superpowers into doing their bidding (more or less). With the huge free trade zones of the super power nations, megacorps can turn a much better profit and operate more efficiently than in Shadowrun and are thus happy to maintain the status quo - it costs less to control a few nations than many small ones.

Shadowrunners are extremely critical as deniable assets because megacorps executives can be arrested for murder, bribery, etc. if they're caught directly ordering such dirty deeds.

Quite a few long-lived non-human personalities (e.g., the Great Dragons) are unchanged, as is technology, gear, rules, etc., but the political map and history are different. Historical changes compared to canon Shadowrun...well, the history of "Superpowers, Corporate Whores" starts with real world history up to about 2005AD. As a couple of examples of the differences, the Shiawase and Seretech Decisions have been missed (no corporate extra-territoriality or militaries) and North American governments are on better terms with Native Americans (so the Great Ghost Dance won't occur).
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Nikoli
post Aug 5 2005, 02:22 PM
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Wow, that sounds like a workable cyberpunk political atmosphere.
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Cynic project
post Aug 5 2005, 03:49 PM
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California.

San Jose is the seat of what most people of corp power.

San Fran is largely a ghost town compared to what it is now. Having about 70% of the usable building "legally"used.

LA LA Land is the land of broken dreams. The billion airs live within miles of the SINless. No one cares, and the streets are patrolled either things more related to armies that cop or left to rot.

Sac town is well scary in it's own right.

The tir took some land up north, no one cares, Aztlan didn't get San Diego. San Diego is an armed camp, with most of the US pacific fleet and Cali's armed forces there.
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Sahandrian
post Aug 5 2005, 04:40 PM
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The main difference in my world is SURGE. First, it was only accelerated by the comet, not caused by it. Anyone who experienced high mana levels (living near a manaline, toxic site, or focus of ongoing emotion) through development and childhood could express SURGE traits, either at birth or later on. Second, SURGE'd parents can pass on some of their traits to their children, and their children will also be more likely to express other traits. Either way, spontaneous SURGE in adulthood only appeared during the comet.
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nezumi
post Aug 5 2005, 05:01 PM
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Now that I think about it, I change a lot depending on the particular campaign. In some cases, space travel has gotten much farther and there are even lunar bases (not 'colonies', but bases). Sometimes the Soviety bloc is still around. Sometimes there's more magic, sometimes less. I'm not too tight-fisted when it comes to canon stuff, so if I want something to happen, I don't mind letting it be so.
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arcady
post Aug 5 2005, 05:20 PM
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QUOTE (Cynic project @ Aug 5 2005, 08:49 AM)
San Fran is largely a ghost town compared to what it is now. Having about 70% of the usable building "legally"used.

Just to note - it's was at about 98% in the late 1990s.

San Francisco is only 7 miles by 7 miles in size. Everything goes up, but only in downtown. There are a lot of places where you just can't build that high, and it is impossible to build down due to the ocean and the fact that the city is basically a rock.

In the 30% of the northen half of the city that is on landfill - dig down more than 3 feet and water floods in, and often you will find things buried in the late 1800s - like ships - used to make that landfill.

In the late 90s, there was only a 2% vacany rate. As the dot-com boom went off, this got worse. The mayor began plans to raze all the low rent housing in areas like SOMA and put in offices, and then halfway through construction of those the dot-com crash happened. As a result, housing is now still at around 2% vacancy but office space is plentiful but in areas blighted by recently returned prostitution, drugs, and so on.

The future of that is easily predictable - even if these neighborhoods recover perfectly (which is likely) geography will always result in in a vacany rate that is extremely low.

The city today has only about 750,000 people, growin by upwards of a million more during business hours.

Unless what you meant was that 70% of the land is 'no longer habitable' due to some disaster / plot event. However, it reads the other way around - as if you were saying it is 70% occupied, which is lower than today. Even at 70% occupied though, the geography would still make it seem crowded.



-------------------


Been a while since I ran Shadowrun, but if I did I would probably also toss out extra-territoriality in favor of just a strong WTO. I'd also lower the power of Japan in favor of its neighbors.

I would also get rid of the whole 'employee for life' thing that was inspired by Japan of the 1980s. Instead I'd look more to the notion of Corporations have no loyalty to their workers and workers have no loyalty to the corps - like we've seen developing in the real world over the last generation.

Why worry about losing one valuable scientist when you can replace her with 30 Indians (India people, not natives) or Mexicans for half the price?

Bunch of idiots want to extract the guy in mid-level marketing? Let em - you've got 35 more in reserve with a temp agency.

Runners got your CEO? -shrug- they're a dime a dozen from the top business schools anyway. Anybody else ever notice how often CEOs move around in today's real world, despite trade secrets? Sooner or later those fools who keep outsourcing us in the working classes are gonna find out how easily they can get outsourced...
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Cynic project
post Aug 5 2005, 05:59 PM
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I know about san fran.I was refering to that 305 of the useablebuildign weren't used. Not 70%. 30% of a city being unused will cause major heads to turn.
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arcady
post Aug 5 2005, 07:01 PM
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Yes it would.

You've got then owned and unused? Or deserted from blight / other factors?
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Cynic project
post Aug 5 2005, 08:25 PM
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I tis mainly do the fact that that the land is owned by a very few people. Most the city is owned by 4 parties, and they set the rent to high that they gain mroe money by keeping the rent so damned high. Less money spent on upkeep and such. San Fran is place for rich people.
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arcady
post Aug 5 2005, 09:01 PM
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That wouldn't work actually - upkeep on the unused land would outstrip any benifits you could gain on the used land. That much property left open would blight the property around it - even if it was maintained. If you have 30% vacancy, regardless of the reasons, you will drive the region into social and economic blight. High vacancy is very bad for an investment. Present Day San Francisco is only upwardly mobile because of its density. The same is true of Manhattan, Seoul, and Tokyo - high vacancy in any of these regions for any reason would ruin their value.
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Birdy
post Aug 6 2005, 04:13 PM
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Arcady: Interesting on the personel idea but that kills not only a major part of SR but also of Cyberpunk

Cray74: That basically sums up, what I was trying to say

Nezumi: I am really looking for single ideas, not complete universes. I.e your altered space travel ideas would be interesting

Sahandrian: Staggered SURGE, hmmmm

Cynic: Sorry, I'd have to read up on the FreeCal stuff to comment on your changes.

========================

Another change:

Dragons do exists but they are far more an enigma to humans than in-game. There are rumors of "Great dragons" and such but no definit and final data.

The same goes for the PR-Dragons. Sure, a BILD/SUN/NationalInquirer style journalist named "Holly Brigton" claimed to have made interviews with a "Great Dragon" but it could never be verified indipendently. A lot of persons claim S-K is run by a dragon named Lofwyr. There is a Mr. Lofwyr but wether he is a dragon...

"President" Dunkelzahn claimed to be a Dragon and he sure was a high-initate Mage but beyond this, nothing was ever proven. And some people claim Mrs. Daviar can be linked to an "enhanced excotic dancer" in Vegas.

As of other Dragons, there are claims that they are controlled by someone, changing their Voices to their Handlers.


Birdy
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SL James
post Aug 6 2005, 10:56 PM
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"Mrs."?

Aren't there enough rumors out there already?
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Panzergeist
post Aug 7 2005, 05:35 AM
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In my shadowrun games, I have a larger penis. Beyond that, you would have to ask Grendel.
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Bandwidthoracle
post Aug 7 2005, 06:57 AM
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1) Absolutly no horrors

2) No immortal elves

3) No links to Earthdawn

4) Magic is scary/hated by the ignorant masses of the world (with exceptions like NAN and azetlan)
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DuckEggBlue Omeg...
post Aug 7 2005, 07:44 AM
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Adelaide, the only Australian Capital NOT covered in T:AL, and the surrounding land is the centre of aqau/agriculture and mil-spec factories for the region, resulting in a combination of high security and nothing worth stealing from a runners perspective. Basically I was coming up with something that would explain why it wasn't already covered.

The combination of some of the largest tracks of land in Australia unaffacted by mana storms with the relatively clean waters of the southern ocean mean a large quantity of the worlds best fresh produce comes out of the area. The agriculture and aqauculture is mostly controlled by the formally named 'National Foods Ltd', which was bought by local interests from San Miguel Corp whilst trying to raise money to fend off a hostile take over. The new owners changed the name, realising low public opinion about corps, to that of one of the more family freindly sounding subsiduaries, Farmers Union. The other major corporate presence is The Submarine Corporation, Australia's largest producer of military hardware.
Aside from remaining Military Factories, Residential areas (about 85% of which is corporate enclaves) and a small military base, the majority of land is used for farming and seafood processing. Most of the suburban areas of 50 years ago have been demolished and replaced with farms, not dissimilar to the 'market gardens' that occupied the area a hundred years ago. Adelaide has also managed to maintain it's title of 'the City of Churches', being the home of numerous religious orders.
Adelaide is a very clean city, full of corp citizens and military, that is plentiful in resources that are rare in this country (water and fresh food) and stockpiles of military hardware awaiting delivery. But with almost no research facilities, or targets that would be of interest to runners, and the high amount of security that accompanies the almost purely corp and military presence, and the need to safe gaurd the plentiful resources from hostile forces,
Adelaide is a nice place to live, but I wouldn't want to run there.
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Demonseed Elite
post Aug 7 2005, 12:27 PM
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Hmm, trying to recall all the universe tweaks I've tended to make in my own games.

1) Otaku are not playable by players. They remain spooky and strange antagonists for the player characters.

2) The California Free State is a shaky national government propped up by a messy international nation-building effort. Think Iraq, but with the Tir, Aztlan, UCAS, and NAN all pretending to try to build a stable government there while making sure their pawns get into power. Saito used his station as the Protectorate Warlord to negotiate himself into the position of Secretary-General of Defense for the CFS and remains the de facto mayor of San Francisco.

3) Dunkelzahn did not sacrifice himself (oh, and a few Secret Service agents) in an overdramatic act involving cyberzombies and Ryan Mercury. Someone killed him. The mystery is still not solved, but the Scott Commission in DeeCee still has some very influential backers and is certainly not above hiring runners.

4) SURGE never occurred on a large-scale. It does sometimes happen in extreme concentrations of mana (like the Ganges River--see Shadows of Asia).
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Birdy
post Aug 7 2005, 06:33 PM
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QUOTE (SL James)
"Mrs."?

Aren't there enough rumors out there already?

Over here in germany the "Fräulein"(Miss) has dropped so much out of use (basically restricted to 40+ year old virgins) that I automatically wrote Mrs. Daviar, should be Miss

Birdy
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Bandwidthoracle
post Aug 7 2005, 07:32 PM
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QUOTE (Demonseed Elite)
3) Dunkelzahn did not sacrifice himself (oh, and a few Secret Service agents) in an overdramatic act involving cyberzombies and Ryan Mercury. Someone killed him. The mystery is still not solved, but the Scott Commission in DeeCee still has some very influential backers and is certainly not above hiring runners.

I forgot, that's a good one. Dunky is the 6th world JFK, not the messiah
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