Under the rapier entry in Arsenal it mentions the Grand Tour of European nobility and I was wondering what this is.

I'm not certain what it is in Shadowrun, but traditionally: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Tour

Basically, noble (and rich non-noble) young men in Europe (mostly England, though also some Scots, north Germans, and Scandinavians) took a long tour of Europe after they finished school but before assuming any adult duties, during the period of about the mid-Renaissance to the spread of railroads (at which point traipsing around Europe was no longer expensive, and thus not worth doing). Traditionally, one went to Italy through France, then returned through Germany, hitting certain landmarks. The idea was to see some of the great antiquities and such in person.

I don't think that's it. It speaks of it more like a specific event.

Arsenal pg 14, rapier entry:

"The rapier is a slender, sharp pointed blade, often including an elaborate hilt and handguard. Since classic fencing has become a high society prestige sport due to the so-called Grand Tour of the European nobility and corporate elite, these light and elegant weapons are quite popular with higher-level corp managers and can become deadly in the hands of a skilled fencer."

Actually, Minchandre is right, although of course the SR version is amped up a bit.

The Grand Tour is a chance for the nobles to travel to various European locales (I know Monaco is a central site), hobnob with one another, and solidify plans to return power to the various aristocracies. Since the EuroWars the aristos have worked various plans to gain notability and prestige to take control. Although focused on the nobles, the Grand Tour is often visited by the rich, famous, and influential. There's a summer Tour and a winter Tour, but I don't recall the dates and locales off-hand.

@Nerdynick: The Grand Tour dates back to SR 3rd edition and the Shadows of Europe sourcebook in particular. You might also want to check the Lofwyr chapter in Dragons of the sixth world.

There is also a cold war era military plan called the "Grand Tour" which consisted of bomber flights nuking command and control nodes along with major cities in an effort to decapitate the Soviet government.

How ever that is unlike to involve nobility or fencing.

Basically, yeah. It's designed so that the rich & famous & well-bred (all European; I haven't seen any mention of NorthAm or Asian folks showing up that I can recall) can smile for the cameras and figure out they want to stab in the back next. Old stand-bys of the tour include Spanish industrialist Johnny Spinrad and the former head of S-K Prime Rolf Bremen. Because of the exclusive nature and general snobbery of the old-blood nobility, it is notoriously unfriendly to metas of most types, though I'm sure the I'm-prettier-than-you genetic configuration of elves would make them quite popular on the Tour.

Well, not more than once anyway.

Johnny Spinrad has ties to Dubai, Italy, Switzerland, Monaco and Portugal, but not Spain, as far as I know.

Where the index for those pages...

I suppose this is because European nobles wear rapiers in many of the restored nobility-friendly cities like Venice, Riga or Paris (or Saxony), because unlike guns, those are legal there.


That and the fact that European nobility is decidedly elf heavy, what with the irish Danaan, the french Rohan, Germany's Pomorya, or the brit Gwynned elf nobles, the spanish Algarve guys ... it's pretty hard to be very anti-elf (openly at least), because those elves also sit on most major magical sites in Europe. You don'T want to publically piss off people who can call the Hunt upon you.

The German trolls and Dwarfs, though, are rather unlikely to get an invitation.

...bugger, and here I thought it was about SR finally going into space.

PM Tzeeench about that. Or ScepticInc.

I could have sworn Spinrad Industries was based in Spain, but then again, I've been wrong before -- but the point still stands: Johnny is a fixture of the Tour, n'est-ce pas?

The grand tour is the big traveling otur as discribed. The idea was that young men would get a degree of culture and travel while still being relatively safe. As it progressed they also included certain strong spirited women though it wass more common for the women to stay in their home cities and watch the men as they rotated through.

I believe, but don't know for certain, that there may have been elements of timing that reflected you social status, the idea that you would hit a town wioth your social equals. I think it really disappeared in the 1950's as jet setting made travel easier.

It woulkd make snese for European and AAA corp brats to revive this - think of RL Paris Hilton in among the social set.

Yugh. Do I have to?

well it's the perfect example of the pond scum doing this-too much money and not enough common sense. The chances for a run ewither protecting or raiding them or keeping them safe as they go slumming abounds if a GM wanted to experiment with travel and maybe somewhere like Vienna or Venice.