I noticed when setting up my current campaign, full of corporate espionage and all as I like to do when I GM, that there is next to no information on Fairlight Incorporated. Infact they only seem to really have three products; the Caliban, Paladin, and Excalibur. It was mentioned in Dragonfall that "Fairlight will never do mid range products" so it can be reasonably inferred that they only do top dollar high end products. So how have they remained so uninvolved in the shadows? Why hasn't a company like Novatech (The "leader in high end tech") or anyone else competing in upper end Decks/Commlinks stepped in to try to get a piece of their pie?

Would it be unreasonable to touch on that directly in a story? Maybe nobody messes with Fairlight because their cyber security is just that good, or maybe they avoid them because they really only do just those two products so why bother? I'm almost tempted to see if I can build my campaign off of this.

I think it's a great idea.

I don't know anything in the canon that describes Fairlight. The best I can offer is an I-already-knew-that line from 3rd Edition's Matrix:


I think it's a blank slate. Make it yours!

According to Nath's Corporate Index, in 2065 there's Fairlight Incorporated, that belongs to Renraku America and Fairlight Industries, that used to be owned by Fuchi and then Novatech or Trans-Latvia Enterprises. (most recent sources seems to be System Failure, p. 34)
Not sure if this has changed since 2065.

According to the blurb on the Fairlight Paladin in Data Trails (p63), Fairlight is a division of NeoNet.

So Fairlight is either currently owned by Renraku but used to be owned by Fuchi then Novatech or a subsidiary/division of Novatech. Essentially, it's a mess.

And that's -perfect-. The more confusing it's ownership is the more baffling it's place in the industry. I love it.

Now send the players on a datasteal for Novatech. If the players look at the data they are stealing, they find out the Johnson is trying to find out if they still own Fairlight. Just for the look on their faces when the Johnson explains after the run "Look, we just lose track of these things sometimes."

This is a great opener if I've ever heard one

The actual reference ought to be quoted as enlightening:
So the "Fairlight" products were actually Renraku. That kinda contradicts Matrix which lists Fairlight Incorporated was one (independent) minor player. Unless Fairlight Incorporated is the company who Fairlight Industries sold the product line and naming rights to, which was thought to be independant but was actually discovered (on Shadowland at least) to be owned by Renraku between Matrix and System Failure.

That is brilliant and I'm gonna steal that.

Ditto! The challenge for me is going to be keeping a straight face until the reveal.

I'd expect years and years of Corporate Court procedures to come from this. In terms of convolutedness and licensing and rights problems, it's almost like the rights to the Shadowrun brand.

Already retooled this campaign a bit to fit around how this thread has gone. The introductory run is now not just their first job of the boat, but a test run by Novatech to verify their usefulness. After that, the sort of humorous run discussed earlier, on if they even still own Fairlight.

A few runs imbetween and we will set the scene for a very confusing legality heavy sue happy campaign on what is really going on behind Fairlight, which will of course require some assumptions by me.

Been thinking about the penultimate run of this campaign, and i'm considering the idea of Fairlight dabbling in Control Consoles. Tech steals or attempts to dig in to research is a very common theme in Shadowrun, and towards the end I am thinking the runners are hired to find out what Fairlight's current angle is, their next big product. And I came up with a top of the line Control Console.

The thing I am having trouble coming up with is what would set this console apart? Fairlight, again "Doesn't do mid line" so it has to be just as good, if not better than the Triox Ubermensch. Sure would help if the rigger book was out. Also i'd need a name for the project, what would Fairlight name a control console? They seem to like their Arthorian legend names.

You could go with Fairlight Llamrei RCC. It's the name of King Arthur's horse.

Fairlight Comhstádais - the Fairlight Round Table, for keeping up with the awkward naming of Triox' Ubermensch.

Alright so i've started setting this campaign up, probably going to be running it in about three weeks. However I was wondering if anyone else would be interested? I might turn this in to a little fan module if everybody likes the idea of getting in to the weird, confusing, stock trading world of Fairlight Co. and their plans to become the monopoly for highest grade tech.

I'm always interested in fan modules. Especially economical shadowruns, which is quite underrepresented in official writing (but hey, another book about wetwork, because wetjobs are the best).