AA. It's recognized by the UN as a nation of it's own, IIRC.

Oh yea I'm familiar with the quote, I just suspect it's straight hyperbole.

They wouldn't need corporate extraterritoriality, the Vatican already has status as a nation, there is no reason that they couldn't claim embassy status for their churches.

Disney?

First they don't make the top 100 on CNN Money's Global 500 list (which ranks by Revenue) Ranking by assets is a bit harder to find but be assured Disney scores poorly there as well.

If you need a good example of what would be a AA corp take a look at Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, or British Petroleum. Or if you go to number 144 you'll find AP Moeller Maersk who actually was listed as a regional AA in Shadows of Europe.

Disney has corporate extraterritoriality, they can use eminent domain to expand their park. If they keep the same number of places at least then by 2070s they will be multi-national. Probably just an A, but still a good example in RL.

Those are just big companies, they don't largely have extraterritoriality.

double post delete

Yeah, for current-world Megas, you can't go wrong with Wal-Mart, which has an income today comperable to Megas as of the first Corporate guide. (One listed assets of 300 billion Nuyen, while Wal-Mart two years ago did $330 billion, for instance), the big oil companies (BP, Exxon, etc), General Electric, JP Morgan, Procter and Gamble, and so on.

For some real dirty players, take a gander at the food companies, which, even today, continue the Bannana Republic tradition of hiring mercenaries to overthrough nations to get better contracts. The Sudan, for instance, produces 80% of the Gum Arabic (AKA Gum Acacia) which is used in soft drinks, such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Each has corporate influence with different fighting forces there. For historical stuff that provides some interesting reading, take a gander at things like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic

Follw a few links, do some reading, and marvel at how Shadowrun corps are often *nicer* than historical ones.

Just don't read about Columbus' second voyage to America. It's kinda brutal.

GE is a former mega, they used to make EVERYthing, now they just make alot of things. As far as Columbus being brutal, real life is brutal in most places. Its amazing how many people think the rule of law is the norm. My personal favorite is the east Asia piracy where it is basically government officials as the pirates, making legal or other recourse or protection very difficult.

The oil companies do have extraterritorial status, just not in places where most people on this board are likely to notice it, unless you happen to live near an oil field in say Nigeria.

Disney is a pretty big media and entertainment company, and their theme parks certainly have a lot of aspects that look extraterritorial but make no mistake the city of Orlando, the surrounding county, and the state of Florida can and do regulate Disneyworld and promote it because it helps their tax base.

Hudson's Bay Company. It's history is downright nasty, yet today most people only think of it for being a department store, and owner of the Canadian discount department store. Despite not being owned by Canadians any longer.

There was apparently a period where it was PRC government patrol craft that were the biggest pirates.

Did they get shiny Letters of Marquis too?

Honestly, folks, life is Drek in most places of the Earth. Most of us are the lucky few.

lol! everyone is the smartest person in class?

The reason I'm in my tear stained corner? The times I've mentioned I've been hit. In the head. A lot.

Yeah, smartest in the class, alright. And it really smarted, too! (Actually, I was average due to my scores being all over the place. Something about being too nervous, anxious, and frightened to concentrate properly. Oh, and being hyperactive.).

Well, most of 'us' (I guess CR is talking about the dumpshock crowd) does not equal most of the world population

All of us belong to the few dumpshock posters in the world

To get back on topic, even though I still didn´t have time to describe the RCC in my game world in full, just short comment on the anti-UGE statement.

Ever since SoE, I considered the RCC's infiltration by the Black Lodge (striktly anti elven) to be the cause. Either the Pope was part of the Lodge, or BL-conspirators fed false (or selectively limited) information to him. BL investation could also be the reason, why Tir na nÓg had to get rid of them!

About female priests: I think I read about that in some sorcebook, but I can honestly not remember which (my best guess would be SoE or MitS, but maybe it das SSG or some other books lifestyle part). In any case, in my SR, there will be female priests, but very few in the upper church hirarchy (maybe a small handfull of bishops, but no arch bishops or cardinals).

I know, but it was funnier to read it as is and without the implicit information.

I'm not clear on the nitty-gritty, but the ordination to bishop is a special step. Arch-bishops, cardinals, etc. are basically just 'promotions' within that set. If the rules permit female bishops, they permit female popes. If you don't want female popes, don't permit female bishops. You can have female priests without female bishops though, although the difference is less than the gap between a deacon and a priest.



They've certainly lost a lot of followers. However, consider:
1) They have a head start. They already believed in magic, and collected magical artifacts.
2) They play a very long game. They won't be sidelined by poor quarterly profits or a change in CEOs.
3) They have goals that are lateral to the current power structures, which takes them out of the zero-sum game the corporations compete in.
4) They're already well-distributed and can command a degree of loyalty among customers that the corporations WISH they could get.
5) They offer a service which will be in great demand in 2012-2070.
6) They have a number of pre-existing long-term investments. Yes, a lot of those would have disappeared in the crash, but a lot would have skyrocketed. Owning land and politicians is always a good bet.
7) They've got a LOT of cards, and they keep them close to their chest.
8) They're interesting! They're different from the corps and governments we normally see, and that makes them great for plots. Use them!

Especially this, only Immortal Elves and Great Dragons play longer.

They're #226: Walt Disney Company

Yep #226 is not in the top 100

I've always thought Mitsubishi is the closest thing we have to a mega corp IRL (at least in terms of structure, range of industries and overall SR feel).

And haven't we had this conversation before?

Every three months.

Maybe one of the pre-S-K corps would be Siemens? They've already bought their own banking license because dealing with the regular banks wasn't satisfying...

According to Germany Sourcebook (pages 28 and 62) and Corporate Download (page 87), Siemens was part of the Eurotronics consortium, and later become a Fuchi affiliate (without leaving the consortium). Saeder-Krup acquired Siemens-Nixdorf only "after Fushi's fall." So Saeder-Krupp rose to the top without Siemens.

Ah, so I was part-right: seed of an AAA, just not S-K (not every German company is Wyrm-food...)

I figured this question could go here instead of starting a new thread:
The Prejudiced quality in RC has two categories of targets:
- Common target group (ie. women, metahumans)
- Specific target group 5 BP (ie. artists, gays, lawyers)
In which of those groups would you put adherents of all Abrahamic religions combined (including sects based mostly on those) in 207x Seattle?

Tangential but is there information anywhere about the other Abrahamic religions? I know there's tangents of Islam I've picked up on but I must be missing Judaism somewhere?

Common target group. Muslims, catholics, jews, calvinists, anglicans, mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.
Pretty much the only Monotheistic religions there are, they are all based around Abraham.

Sure it spans a lot of religions, but how common are those religions in 2070? Even Protestant Christianity seems to have taken quite a nosedive in the UCAS, and based on above definition of "Common" the threshold for a common group seems to be somewhere around 40-50% of the population.

People's religion is not really that apparent from casual conversation. 50% or so might be plausible in the UCAS and CAS, but how would the character tell? Unless religious and political affiliation is something that people commonly put on their commlink profiles in your campaign (which is certainly also plausible). Sounds like a negative quality that could really hurt the character, though. Dealing with people is a big part of shadowrunning, and the character's interactions with a random cross-selection of them will be impaired.

Unless you consider most people became atheists, I would say there would stll be large numbers of them anywhere you could already find them these days (exception being, of course, Aztlan).
Sure, not everyone will have a big cross around its neck or any such thing that might CLEARLY label them as abrahamic monotheists, but there could be as Glyph mentioned.

I've played a character that was very devout and it led to a giant argument with my GM (Husband). Our game came to a point where we directly interacted with her religious affiliation and needless to say staying in character was a large detriment to her. I tend to ROLE play more than ROLL play and character integrity is important to me, so I wasn't wavering on how she would react to the situation. I don't know that I'd declare a religion again though after that experience.

So here is a thought. Would Vatican City have a spirit similier to the Denver spirit prior to it being split into five parts? Such a spirit if it existed, in such a concentraited area of worship, could be an extremely powerful ancestor or guardian spirit in the guise of an Arch Angel

It certainly would have a pretty potent aspected background count based on the explanation of background counts in street magic (Centuries of intense religious worship). I'd say the presence or non-presence of free spirits of man is up to your game needs at this point as I don't ever recall any setting material for the Vatican being published.

Gives the trinity a whole new meaning... The father (ancestor), the son (guardian), and the holy ghost (guidance) all working together.