Here's a thread for those of us who like playing "what-if"?

I'm running a game set in 2053... and time will pass. I'm hoping for a full 10 years, game time. Now, I've got a few players who have played since 1st Ed, so are pretty familiar with the canon history. So I'm throwing a few curve balls to them, so they don't necessarily know what to expect (Guess you shouldn't have sold short on Fuchi, huh...).

I've already come up with a few ideas on how to play with:

Bug City
The Arc shutdown (this one is gonna be fun! And scary!)
The Election of '60

And I'm actually very happy with some of those ideas. (Insert Evil Gm Chuckle).

But The Corp War /Fuchi Implosion is still a little up in the air - and I've got some time to play with it yet....But here's the point - I'm not to happy with my current ideas on how to modify the timeline.

Option 1 - Fuchi implodes, but for different reasons.
Option 2 - _Somebody_ implodes, but not Fuchi - this will change the list of AAAs, no doubt. Possible Corps with internal tension:
Ares - Knight vs Aurelius
Yamatesu - Meta-freindly vs traditional Japanese.
Shiawase - Family tensions go out of control.
Renraku - The combination of the Arc and Dunkie's Will proves too much.

I'm looking for thoughts, feelings, ideas, jokes... Anything to spark new ideas.

Wow, I have not ventured into major changes like that. I have changed many little things though. For instance, I have updated a few things locally to represent changes that were made shortly after the creation of the SR timeline.

In my game, the Kingdome was blown up by Tom Lykis (Blow me up Tom!) and since replaced with Safeco Field and Seahawk Stadium. Stuffershacks and the like are replaced with their real counterparts, 7-11 and AM/PM. I have changed all the alterenative names of stores, radio stations, tv stations, etc., the ones that were changed for copyright purposes, back to the real names. The Renraku arcology I have moved a little to the SW of its canon postion to better represent the drastic elevation changes of Seattle, among other reasons. I have also slightly altered the "gang" element to include the 90's Rap, R&B/Hip Hop vibe. So, there are the 80's style chain wielding Mad Max types and the 90's "homie" types. (That last addition really sparked my players interest. It seems most of my friends have no love for that genre.)

None of these alterations would effect the timeline much, but I wanted to create a world that was fun and familiar for my players considering we all live here and they have expectations about how things "are" in Seattle.

This may not help you in your quest, but I wanted to provide you with another perspective on alterations to the timeline. =)

<shrugs> You could play that Fuchi never imploded, but Villiers split off Novatech and Cross/Wuxing both made it up to the AAA's. That would give you the Big 11.

I don't think Novatech would have enough juice to survive without Fuchi's explosion. I mean, they would get about the same amount of stuff (but maybe a little less), but the competition on the AAA bracket would be even worse.

Actually, I didn't think Fuchi would long survive without Villiers - What made Fuchi a AAA in the first place was Villiers' matrix assets and of course JRJ International.

Hmm, one thing I _hadn't_ thought of... Since this would be after I'd modified several other things... perhaps the last thing they'd expect would be for it to go off like canon?

Oh, add one more possible implosion: Aztechnology - since nobody even knows who's on the board in the first place... It has the complicating side effect of what happens to Aztlan, though. (And the CAS would jump big time on a perceived weakness - Although the NAN and UCAS might want something to say about that too...)

for something completely off-the-wall, you could write it so that when Fuchi went down, one of the other megas got ahold of JRJ, thus gaining twice as many seats on the corp court. S-K would be a good choice.

an unrelated option, make Seattle a free city.

Seattle, free? Do you think Seattle could be self-sufficient? Not to mention the question of protecting itself. It would be interesting to see some ideas on that...

it'd be a precarious balance, definitely. the nearing collapse of the TT would probably instigate an all-out war over the city--wouldn't that be fun!

Interesting idea - I think the United Corporate Council would have something to say about it. That's a lot of potential power to keep seattle from becoming somebody's
new aquisition.

(Seriously, I think Seattle has about as much chance of going Free City as Gibraltar has of going back to Spain. Too strategic as the only UCAS western port. Look what happened when the Arc went down. Troops galor.)

Mfb, that's an interesting idea (JRJ getting snapped up elsewhere)- I'll have mull it over a bit... Would have big effects.

JRJ by 2060 is a paper holding company only, with little in the way of direct assets with the exception of one mega-huge asset: A permanent corporate court seat. I wonder....

If Villiers goofed or made noises about it being available for auction... Hoo Boy. Having that thing floating around loose could cause a corp war by itself.

Bears thinking about.