Hey folks,

I noticed on DriveThruRPG that Corporate Guide is up as a PDF along with three other new PDF's from older products.

Regards,


Ed

Neat.

Wow, Jason actually meant *now* when he said it in the chat transcript. The whole LLC mess nonwithstanding, at least Catalyst seems intent to get product out. Well, good for us, I guess. Being insomniac again (bloody heat), I will just read it up some and give some kind of prelim report.

Going to look for whether what everyone said had to happen happens, I go straight for Horizon, hoping to see some dirt on them, finally, and the authors laying off their Sue worship of the damned thing. Here're my impressions:

Okay, so I am reading this chapter in order, but wasn't corp guide where we were supposed to see Horizon's darker side? So far, the 'highlight' was the 'do no evil' motto of it's matrix security. So Horizon is like the Lawful/Good brother of Google! Like Google, only it actually is not evil because it lives in a world where everything bends over backwards for it to shine! This stinks, sorry. Same crap as the LA book. Also, all this geeky early 2000s internet lingo is getting on my nerves.

Blah blah, Horizon is just better than everyone. They even offer (gasp) tailored matrix environments! Because those haven't been around since 2050! Also, they made it through the crash by pure luck, and it's leaders are all some sort of supermage social adept and best in everything! Did I download some sort of netbook written by a 12 year old?

Oh wow, Horizon SE Asia is actually not winning the game yet. Because they are too much of a paragon for good for evil Asians to accept. Urgh.

Oh, Horizon revolutionises the market with download on demand SimSense stuff. It's not like this was in 1989's Germany Sourcebook already. Another nonsensical 'revolution' because the authors fail their research, and because Horizon is supposed to be better than everyone just because. Oh boy. And yeee-haw, they also get Ares' Media stuff. Because hey, Ares is unable to defend itself. Because everyone's PR departments were somehow evaporated in the Crash but Horizon's. Jeez. This is worse than many netbooks I have read.

As for the boo-scary big secret: Oh, look, it's the Zabotnikists from SoE and Loose Alliances, the less dangerous version of Deus. Boo scary. And just when it might get interesting? The chapter ends. So we are left with page upon page of Mary Sue worship. AGAIN. Sigh.

This chapter definitly doesn't deliver.

In slightly related review news, Amalgamated has been put into the 'rising powers' chapter, and the entire chapter talks about how the place is falling apart because it cannot live in opposition to Horizon's oure cheesy Mary Sue awesomeness. What the fuck.

Looking forward to compare Ancient's drafts and the stuff that made it into the book. But that will be after I sleep. It might work now. Good night.

As some eagle-eyed spotters have already noticed, Corporate Guide has been released, along with three classics--Blood in the Boardroom, Corporate Security, and ShadowTech. As the Shadowrun4. com blog post will tell you, you can get Corporate Guide PDFs through the Battleshop or DrivethruRPG.com. The Battleshop also has book pre-orders and combo book/PDF pre-orders.

I'm especially happy about the book pre-orders. I find PDF game materials very useful, but I've got a ton of sympathy for those who love to have a product to hold in their hands. We're taking pre-orders because the book has already been sent to the printers; I don't have a street date yet, but it should not take too long, and you will of course know it shortly after I do.

Enjoy the books!

Jason H.

Man, you guys are fast. Sorry to not have official confirmation up sooner--needed to make sure all the listings were right. Anyway, I've got a post here with full details. Or you can just go to the blog.

Jason H.

<shakes_head> I knew you were going to keep the tatenokai, but somehow I hoped reason would ultimately prevail.

Even you need to sleep or do other stuff. I learend of it because DriveThru sent me an email just as I was checking mine up for the night, since I follow all SR products there. Just bought it then.

No JackPoint Login? That's how I organize my PDF's - by the date of the posts - in SR4 that's the JackPoint Login.

-M&P

Does the PDF of ShadowTech include all the errata? As one of the last books from the First Edition era, it comes from a time when listings of changes between printings weren't commonly disseminated online. I recall from seeing my friend's copy of a later printing, that Tactical Computers received a major overhaul. And I imagine that the damage code for cyanide did too, as in my first printing, they had forgotten to set the Variable Staging portion of the code to "2" to ensure forward compatability with Second Edition, which was in the writing pipeline, but not yet announced at the time of ShadowTech's release. (And they were so careful about it everywhere else in the book too. It's why the First Edition to Second Edition conversion guide in the back of the Second Edition core rules listed "No Changes" for ShadowTech.)

Out of curiosity, why'd you want them out (I haven't read that far yet).

-M&P

That's a good question. I'll check.

Jason H.

That's gonna require a spoiler.

Glad to hear about the book pre-order set up. Understandably, with the current situation, product needs to go out. But I've really started to swing around to the minority mindset that the PDFs shouldn't go for sale until at least a street date for the book is had. But that's a topic for another thread. I won't be checking this out for a while yet, since I'm still undecided on what my future is as a CGL customer. Though that may change if TRO3085 drops soon.

If TRO 3085 comes out, in physical form, I will be a happy man.

It's a tough question--there's merits to waiting, merits to selling now. If people want to wait, that's fine. I hope to have street date in the near future.

Jason H.

Hrm...

All I can say is that after reading the Horizon chapter there had better be some real nasty UB style clusterfuck on a AAA scale waiting around the corner with Gary Cline getting ready to distribute some mind control virus through the Matrix or somesuch.

Ah well, at least there are 10 megacorps... I can still have Renraku or the old standby Azzies sitting on the sidelines ready to be royal bastards.

Failing that Buttercup could be a Horror. Evo's "We love everyone" crap is kinda annoying too.

Lets not forget the "dys" in Dystopia

Is this only going to be AAA or is it going to include some AA as previously talked about?

Heh. Hey now, why can't Evo or Horizon actually be a "Lawful Good" megacorp?

Heh, ok, I could't even type that with a straight face.

Just remember, Ares was the "Good Guy" corp for a long time. Then we found out they were experimenting on captured bug spirits, to use them for their own ends. You don't get to be a megacorp without playing a t leasta little dirty and having a few skeletons in your closet. Horizon is all about spin control, the media, and public perception. What you see is what they want you to see.

But I will say this... I've been the old man on the porch yelling at the kids and telling them about how "back in my day, we had to Shadowrun uphill... Both ways!" in freelancer discussions, trying to remind people that new and shiny isn't necessarily better, and that SHadowrun has got to stay true to it's roots.

Bull

Heh...dude, were you around for Universal Brotherhood? Anytime any big entity in Shadowrun seems too good to be true, I wait for the Cthulhuian nightmare fodder to start pouring out of the woodwork.

I think it's easy enough to surmise that's the influence of having a new person in the layout duties seat. Who's listed in the credits page for that job?

Actually... I thought it was cool that Ares was experimenting on the bugs, using animals as hosts. Instead of simply viewing the bugs as a foe, they finally got around to using them as shock troops/etc.

And what makes Shadowrun interesting for me is that the paradigms keep changing. There's no such thing as a "good" megacorp? Well... let's see if the new book turns that assumption on its head.

Hum HORizon... remember me of something, that start with HOR too...

And everyone love them and they are very nice and are deeply into simsense and crowdcontrol ? Definitive potential for maximum mayhem

Is anyone around here planning to make the preorder for the print version?

Just curious...

-CJ

I might order the combo, if my Runner's Companion ever arrives.

Grexul

Sorry, I'm with the other guys on this one. The more bright and shiny and perfect and benevolent something seems in the SR universe, the more I keep expecting Cthulhuian nightmare fodder to pop out. Having a "good guy" AAA or even AA is useless to me as a GM because it's just not an interesting story...that's not getting into non-metagaming where even the most benevolent of real-life corporations (Google and Whole Foods for instance) both have a lot of questionable activities going on.

Just please, for the love of all things holy, NO ALIENS!

Damn. There goes my "Shadows of Mars" idea...

Bull

Yes. Were you?

Sorry, but I also remember how it was hinted something bad was behind the brotherhood - and it was done differently than here. It did not involve that level of author worship - the UB was not better than everyone. And the hints were dropped right from the start, what with the short story in Into The Shadows, Euphoria, and then later other novels, like 2XS.


Right. Corp guide will clarify this? No, wait ... well, maybe the Horizon-themed adventures will! For sure!

Don't see that happen here anymore, since the bad about Horizon seems to be they cooperate with the Zabotnikists - ormaybe are somewhat being undermined by them, so at the very worst, they are a more moderate form of Renraku. I was actually hoping for ... something, but was sorely disappointed; especially since the 'Horizon is better than everyone' vibe is as annoying as ever.


Not me; I'll wait for the Pegasus translation. Because hardcovers are that much more sexy.

More on Corp Guide later today. I really hope the other chapters are better.

Wait wait wait...Horizon, right? I'm still brushing up on my 4e stuff, but didn't Horizon buy up Global Industries around 2061 or so? You know, the company from Dreamchipper who was basically creating serial killers as an experiment in completely rewriting the personalities of people via BTLs and skillwires? That doesn't sound too warm and fuzzy to me...I swear I remember reading somewhere Roxanna Wunter (the Johnson from that adventure) was a upper level exec with Horizon just before the Crash...

Nah, but someone could make her a little more erratic. She's a playerspirit after all. She likes her game interesting.


Never, ever, to that extent. They were the good guy more in the way the Imperium is the good guy in 40K - because everyone is worse, not vbecause their Corp Creed is "do no evil". Ares always had a dark side. It was half WayneCorp, half OCP, and increasingly became OCP in later releases, what with the Detroit Wall, the New Detroit project and it's increasingly important Unethical Research And Development department.

Ares used to be a 'good guy', yes, but it never, ever had "do no evil" as a corp creed.


Blah. It is getting really annoying to read the same crap in publications over and over again. Remember that someone said "oh, just wait for Corp Guide for dirt on Horizon"? I think it was you. Whaere's the dirt? They cooperate with weird Transhumanists who want to mind merge people? Yeah. Not very scary. Not very dirty. And buried under 20 pages wasted to thumb, again, how Horizon is just made of win.

And mind you, Horizon DOES make Google look like the empire of evil.


AAs get some coverage too, though not to the extent that would have been necessary. I'd really have liked to know whether Telestrian is still around or whether it also has been absorbed into Horizon by the power of Author Appeal. Or more than two Eurocorps. Whatever happened to Lusiada, Meridional, ESUS, Esprit, and Sol Media?



Seconded, Thirded, and Fourthed. And please no Anti Grav Tech and Force Field Shields and other retro 50s SciFi stuff.


Global stopped being unethical after Dreamchipper in the early 50s, and went on to become a company that broduces decent skillwires and crap cyberware They were involved in some ruckus with some cyberware related drug in one of the later books, but nothing outside business as usual in SR really.

Final, very unrelated note: Nice touch that the Forum informs you if you mess up formating.

You know, they're just going to keep saying Horizon is good until everyone gets sick of the conspiracy theories.


THEN they'll pull back the curtain.

So stop complaining so we can get our evil-Horizon run already.

Hey, when are we going to get Rigger 3? I'm dying here!

Continuing my review of Corp Guide from here.

Chapter 1: The Corporate Shuffle

The necessary intro on what a corp does. OOkay, so this is the what, fourth book that does this? And the second time this is a primer for young runners. Well, the younguns apparently have bad google-fu, so we get another 'sttreet guide to X for dummies', but that is not necessarily a bad format (also, the annotated Nanosecond Promer could not be done for reasons beyond the authors' control, and not be rewritten either, though it would have been cooler, so I'll cut the guys some slack there. For an article written, edited and proofed in some months, this is not bad.

Ah, but even here, we are not spared Horizon'S awesomeness. Any example of rumors, information or stock option stuff affecting a corp positively is Horizon. Is this done on purpose? If so, please tone it down a little. Take a look at how the real-life hacker and security expert community views Favcebook and Google before writing such fanwank that sounds like you have Zuckerberg on your writing team. Thanks.

Also, let's quote Kay St. Irregular on something that has been bothering me for a long time:

This is in gross contradicition to one of the basic premises the entire idea of integrating AI as PC and accepted sapient entitites is based on. It basically renders the entire Emergence storyline nil, because much of it depended on Renraku having succeeded in covering Deus up (unbelievable with such an epic failure anyway). So maybe it would be nice to now get a final ruling on how much exactly is known about the Arc debacle?

Other than that, solid, though not exciting, intro stuff. I will miss some of the easter eggs Ancient would have dropped, but I respect the work the author(s) put into this piece. It is good by itself, small issues and weirdness nonwithstanding.

For the record, I believe Jason was the author of that section - and this was the section I gave my very harsh, ill-timed, and unwarranted lambasting of some weeks ago.

Sorry hermit, but this has little to do with "Horizon-worship." We needed to establish that one of the reasons Horizon made the splash it made was that its unblemished and people-friendly image are part of a positive feedback loop and a market buy-in strateguy to fuel and soldiify its rise to AAA status. The fact that it has managed its own brand so successfully in a market with so much gloves off competition is a tribute to how well it spins and manipulates its audience.


Sorry but there is no outright contradiction in that quote. Please note that no mention is made of a reveal as to what actually caused the shutdown, no mention of rogue super-AIs on the loose, no mention of human experimentation, etc.

What Renraku attempted to deny was the scale of the crisis and downplayed the danger it represented. But no amount of spin could cover up the scope of the disaster (when it went on for over a year and less than 10% of the people trapped inside came out alive) and the fact that ultimately its showcase arcology that had taken billions of nuyen of the corporate budget and decades to finish had gone haywire, locked down, and turned its security systems against those trapped inside. The shutdown and its obvious consequences (as opposed to the true cause of the shutdown) where what damaged Renraku's image. Trying to deny that would be a waste of time. However, covering up the role of a specific rogue AI with a God-complex that was created and nurtured by the corp who ran the arcology and instead blaming it on the arcology's systems, the Banded Otaku, and whatever else was convenient is perfectly tenable - after all, how is anyone going to provide damning evidence of Deus' existence?

The powers-that-be, the shadows, the UCAS government and military, and a few others know the truth, but what came out to the public Joe Hologram it was all chalked up to the "arcology systems" going nuts maybe with a little aid from those freaky Banded otaku kids.

The Corporate Court would know too, I think, and most Megacorps. I wonder why no one used that to nuke the "AI are our friends" move.

I love the way Horizon's hints of brainwashing are done. They seem far more evil, even with all the humanitarian idiocy they're always shown to be into.

BBB, Corporate Shadowfiles, Corporate Download, Corporate Enclaves (at the back of the book this time)...yep, this would be about the sixth time they redid the Megacorps 101 thing.

In response to what you said above, though...the quote you gave says that it eventually got out about the cluster at the Arcology...but not necessarily that Deus was behind it. Then there's situations like Universal Brotherhood and CrashCart with the bugs. It's common knowledge in the shadows both were neck-deep with the bugs, but the man on the street things UB was brought down on tax charges while CrashCart covered everything up wonderfully when they were bought out by....Shaiwase? Or Universal Omnitech? I can't remember. Either way, there's a difference between what's known in the shadows and what's known by people who count -- wageslaves with a SIN.

For me, when I hear squeaky-clean public image corp, first thing that comes to my mind is "BUGS!!" When that squeaky-clean ubergood corp makes AAA, my brain starts screaming "HORRORS!!!!11" When this goes on for five years of published material, I start thinking about awakening Great Old Ones and THEM being afraid of what's behind Horizon...

And like I said, at least one of Horizon's subsidiaries has a history of creating brainwashed cybermonster zombie serial killers (plural) that goes back two friggin' decades.

maybe someone will be paying a visit to the pacific ocean to do a spot of deep sea fishing sooner then later.

And my Dragon Colony of Venus...

@=)

I'm playing a Hacker who used to be a corporate hacker for Horizon, and got burned and is now on the run.
To me Horizon is a combination of DollHouse+The Matrix. They are in the business of providing Entertainment. They are in the forefront of extra-addictive BTL. They have an entire wageslave environments that are very similar to SimCity. Deeper Dungeons 76.

I had this idea from 'The Game" but imagine if Horizon ran basically undergroudn MMO's where instead of controlling drones, or VR. You controlled hotsimed, riggercontrolled, skillwired metahumans. Who don't have access to their own PAN.

Shooter games, hack and slash, SimCity. All with real people, from the privacy of your own home.

One other thing I don't get about Horizon. With the popularity of all the various death sports in the the 6W how can the entertainment corp manage to hold any kind of market share without having an entire division the size of Time Warner devoted to finding creative ways for street scum to die on the trid?

To the days before Horizon, yes. And they stopped it before they bought Global up.

I find the whole setup of Horizon as such a nice corp unfeasible, though. If anything, because such a squeaky clean image comes at a great price - transgressions where people would just shrug and mumble about corp scum, business as usual stuff within SR's universe, would have disasterous consequences for Horizon especially because they are perceived to be better and set higher standards for themselves than MCT, Renraku or Saeder-Krupp may. Never expect the public to judge you fairly. And always expect your own hubris to blow into your face (ask Google or Facebook).

And, where Abstruse does have a point, there have to be many hidden time bombs within the corps Horizon gobbled up, PR wise. I also find it hard to believe a corp can consolidate such a rapid growth and still have everything live up to extremly high standards (ask Toyota).


Source? Because Target:UCAS says differently.


Yamatetsu, whom they always belonged to (they were never bought up by anyone). The hive there was dealt with and the whole thing hushed up and then blamed on the UB when the shit hit the fan in 56.


I see your point, but I feel it is being way overdone. Everyone loves Horizon and Horizon always wins, and if not, they do it because they are better than their customers. That is not showing how their spin is working well, that is going overboard with it. Way overboard.


Yes; IIRC they blamed it on terrorists, a claim that held for maybe a week. Later, the Colloton Strike Force moved in ands people were evacuated. Then there were movies, and CBC even used the maze as a backdrop for a survival themed Trid show (see SOTA 2063).

And even if they hushed up an actual AI was involved and blamed Otaku instead, that flys in the face of everyone accepting Technomancers as their friends because Horizon says so. Would you believe the Taleban are there to help you because Disney says so?


And I'll throw in with Fuchs: Given there is the New Revolution, they back Collooton, and that Ares, the NR and the UCAS government themselves have a vested interest in weakening Renraku, why did this remain a secret? Too many people know. And if there is anything Americans are really bad at, it is keeping a secret.


Four words: Hisato-Turner Broadcasting and Disney.

Anyway. Next post will be another review.

Fithed. All in favor or permanently banning extra terrestrials from shadowrun say "aye."

Aye.

Jason H.

Do you have a page number? I just dug out Target: UCAS and gave it a skim, but I couldn't find any reference to Universal Brotherhood. Also, the only mainstream document in the entire Chicago file was from the University of Chicago student paper and about how the Ares engineered virus was attacking everything magical, not just the bugs. Not saying it's not there, but I couldn't find it.

Once again, though, the average man on the street probably doesn't realize that Shadowland or Jackpoint exists or if they do, everything they know about it is from trids and sims starring Karl Kombatmage. The average shadowrunner is going to be more informed on the goings on behind the scenes than your average joe, who gets all his news from Horizon, NBS, etc. And even on Shadowland/Jackpoint, not everyone believes what we know is going on with metagame knowledge. Take Snopes, for example. And there was at least one other major skeptic who naysayed every conspiracy theory, even the ones that were true. All over the place in Threats as I recall.

Remember, just because every Shadowrun player and his/her brother knows what really happened to Dunkelzahn, not a single person in the Shadowrun world does aside from a cyberzombie and free spirit stuck together on some far-off metaplane only (as far as I know) one living person in the regular world has been to.

Wait
What did happen to Dunkelzahn? I always assumed he was Ghost Walker.

Whole thing was covered in the Secrets of Power Trilogy, i think. (haven't read it myself, this is just what I've gleaned from reading the boards and the wiki)

He's been alive since the days he was called Mountain Shadow. And that was the best plan he could come up with?
Really?

AYE!

Okay, Chapter 2: Corporate Life.

Starts out well. We get a former corpbrat talk about corp life, the so far underdeveloped Jackpointer /dev/grrl. Nice to get to know the brat a bit better. Slamm-O and Netcat were getting too much spotlight IMO.

Develops well, too. She highlights the reason to become a much-derided wage slave, and spares us with needless anarchist pseudo revolutionary babble. Really sounds like someone living in such a bubble.Best work in the book so far.

Some very nice thoughts on Augmnetations, especially those introduced with SR4. "Sure, Mr. Smith, you're free to quit, but see, part of your DNA is corporate property, so we have to get it back ..." Especially with designer babies. This gives me some nice ideas for one of my maximum immorality runs. One peeve: warez is hacked software, isn't it? Bit irritating to see this. I kind of miss the time where SR made up it's own wacko lingo instead of using that of 5 years ago.

I liked the corp punishments differing by region and culture. Ties in well with DLN's posts about Japanacorp culture, too, the tao scene with the table at the club that seats only nine.

The reproductive section is fun too. Mages are the new sports stars. Fun. Also, EVO endorses paedophilia. Also, wimpwombs. Someone has been reading Dune a lot, it seems?

Corp childhood and growing up in the corp shell are very nicely detailed, and the dating section also is nice. I especially like the arranged marriages vibe for the upper echelons, which reinforces the neofeudal nature of 'postcapitalist' corp culture. This has never been done to that extent before, and was due, if you ask me. Also, an explanation for the Skillwire dilemma! Serious thought seems to have gone into this. Even the Horizon noise is pretty muted here. Wow.

Overall, I liked this chapter a lot. Best I read yet.

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


Dragons can assume pure spirit form. Ghostwalker did it. They can also come back. Actually, this ishow a Dragon becomes a Great. And since there are rumpors Lu(u)ng is researching another mutation for something post-Great ... who knows as fwhat kind of creature Dunkelzahn will return (my money is on something like Nidorcyl).


It is pretty hard to hush up a nuclear explosion and all these military actions involving the bug stampout. If anything, people talk, and apart from the Trid there is the Matrix, where information flows a lot more freely. It'S not the 70s anymore where TV was the only source of medial entertainment, you know. Also, their competitive nature means the corps rarely agree on hushing something up. Ares sure didn't, as the Bug crisis allowed it to shine AND thumb out lingering opposition, as the UB was advocating subtly anti-Mega propaganda.

Pages when I am done with Corp Guide.