http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/176342...src=slider_view

Lots more to read than usual, so it might take a few days for discussion to start rolling.

I have a quick question beforehand: Does Market Panic have crunchy stuff and gear?

Didn't see any gear on first pass through.
Denver (Serrated Edge) released today too.

Just got it and doing some quick scanning.

There is no gear or crunchy rule stuff here that I can see.

What it DOES have is a rundown on the corporate life, the big 10 as well as the CC.

From following a corporate drone through their daily grind (sort of) to a who's who within the various megas along with juicy tidbits like what's really bugging Damien Knight.

We get to see the CC in action along with things like the Corporate Audits. And no, doesn't look like Harley got a seat as a CC Justice. Maybe next Edition.

So if you thought they would have a new line of heavy armoured limos or discreet Form fitting bodyguard power armor, this is not the book for that.

If you want to get caught up on current events and some not so public events, or just want some ideas for runs, then this may be right for you


Should I be nervous that the description of the Denver adventure starts with "SCALPEL OF HATE" ?
Please tell me this isn't War 2.0 about to kick off by having it turn up as an element migrating from adventure to adventure.

Nope. 100% crunch-free, so those of you still using 4th can follow the timeline without having to change anything.

That´s good to hear, I´ll have a look then

Thanks guys. Actually I appreciate the book is crunch free. It's always bothering to go through over a dozen book to find all crunch options.

Also the older corp books didnt have crunch either (except for the Ford Smartcar, I think).

Just did a quick skim, and far as I can tell, it has nothing to do with that.

Thanks Bull

Still going through Market Panic right now, and it's great reading, might get this later.

Read the intro, Ares and Aztech sections, good stuff so far. I'm halfway through Evo. I liked the intro in particular.

Question: Are there Infos on "Running for Ares/..." or "Running against Ares/..." or General Security Philosophies of the different Megacorps?

Things an GM can use to flesh out the differences between the Megocorps other than the Logos on the Walls.

Yes and No.

They all approach it to some degree, how it is written out varies by corp.

A couple of the Corps like the Azzies and Ares has a clear section for doing Runs FOR or AGAINST them with about a half page devoted to each side of the coin.

The other corp chapters approach them differently. SK has it all lumped into one. Shiawase doesn't specifically spell it out, but it does present a lot of potential plot hooks you can build runs on.

Do not expect to see bullet point lists clearly listing specific plot hooks, it's just in the fluff, but there is plenty there to pick and choose from as you read about the corp goals, upcoming releases, who has crossed them or they plan to cross, and more.
Likewise you won't see them giving any specific ratings on their people, so how you stat that Jaguar Guard is left to your own discretion.

The Chapters do give each corp their own flavour and recounting of its history along with recent events, so yeah a GM can get a pretty good feel for them so they are more than just changing the logo on the office window.

Is it truly set in the Shadowrun 2070s or is it our 2016 with name changed and some cyber and magic sprinkled on top?

Not sure what you are meaning.
The SR universe pretty much started its divergence back in the 80s, from Mondale getting the presidency to all the events in the Awakening so the timeline & tech in SR is quite a bit different than what we have in the here and now.

Which does create some tense points when arguing about tech like nanobots and the cloud since SR went one route with it and some of it is still relevant/realistic while some bits have proven to work in other ways in reality vs how SR presents it.

How relevant would the fluff be to a 2050 campaign? I do like the focus on fluff and corporate, might be sorely lacking in the runner-centric books.

It does develop on from Corporate Dossier and takes into account published adventures, such as the Horizon trilogy. Better than average research, and during my skim I didn't notice any massive screwups like with Rigger 5's bizarre reliting of products.


Not at all, being set nearly 30 years in the in-game future. Get yourself a PDF or hardcopy (secondhand, check ebay and amazon) of Corporate Shadowfiles then, the old 2050s Corp book. Shadowrun 2050 also has a lot of information on the 2050s corporate scene, as does the Shadowrun Returns: Hong Kong sourcebook.

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A bit of a pity you made Sumitomo a part of MCT (though that does explain it's size). I like Sumitomo. For one, it has a history, something all Shadowrun Japanocorps conspicuously lack (by "history" I mean "it was founded at the same time as the Virginia Cominion"). Plus, their Logo is so quintessentially Japanese design. I wish MCT and Renraku had such a Logo.

I was mostly saying this in light of what there was in Attitude, where many things about the daily life could be lifted from a book about today's life, replacing "Internet" with "the Matrix" and adding some additional stuff about magic and cyber on top.

So I'd like to know stuff like:
- Are wage-slaves described as 2016 employees, or are they actual wage-slaves?
- Are corps seen as Apple/Google/Exxon/General Electrics or as they correctly described as "all these together and much more"?
etc.

Ah that is a fair question.

The book starts off on a chapter following a wageslave through his day, with the reporter for a local Paper following him around taking in the wage slave life and all it entails.

It is actually well done and there are sideboxes capitalizing on certain aspects, like what drones may be expected to dress like and what corp group bonding activities they can get stuck with along with Metahuman Job rights.
And it's not just their life, but how a Runner may make use of it like what kind of incentives you may need to turn a drone so he passes you some intel or leaves a certain door unlocked at the right time.
They even list the top 10 BTL chips drones use as an escape from their dreary life along with the growing danger it presents.
It does a fair job on really giving you a feel for being under constant surveillance, corp peer pressure, internal politics, unwinding with your colleagues afterwards and even a twist ending.

As for the corps, they go into the origins of the corps and their current attitudes and acquisitions along with current troubles and issues for the future.
You also have to remember these are Triple As.
So you can not just go oh "Ares = Guns like Exxon = Oil" because the Corps are so much more multi-faceted that that and they go into that here.
Ares for example is also big into space research.
Now whether this is just a means to put bigger guns into space or not is another question or maybe they just want a bug-free getaway, but it is a branching none the less.
Yes they have their main shticks, the areas they excel in, but the constant drive for the almighty nuyen means they ALL have their fingers in ALOT of pies and they regularly step on each other's toes.
Which in the end means more work for us.


If I have one complaint it is the fallout from the Boston Lockdown is still coming down and still a lot of questions remain so when this does it may be a big game changer for the corp left holding the bag.

But I can see why they did this as this will be having impacts for years down the road and we did need a current update on the big 10.

Just keep in mind Boston and the Corp Audit as well as the New SIN system they keep hinting at can still throw everyone a curveball, which will probably be the basis for a number of forthcoming adventures/missions.

Running Review (writing as I go)

Opening Fiction: Well written, great grasp on the Gibson spirit that's always been at Shadowrun's core, but deeply flawed when it comes to the background. I like the atmosphere, the way the main character "awakens" into a runner, and the brief but impactful description of the daily madness of corporate life (Brazil comes to mind). But it is at many times ill-fit with the Shadowrun background. When is this story supposed to take place? Apparently before 2060, because Fuchi buys up a company. Still, the protagonist goes into the Matrix with his commlink. Also, the UCAS never was engaged, militarily in Guatemala, not least becasue Guatemala stopped existing in the 2020s. While I appreciate the generic trope of "the Mesoamerican war" in Cyberpunk fiction, this is not the place, I'm afraid.

In constructive criticsm, Yucatán ould offer a good alternative for Guatremala. Same shit, but canon conforming. similarly, NeoNET instead of Fuchi America (same company, different name). With a legycy system like Shadowrun, it's such little touches that make all the difference.

Much later according to the Aztlan SB.

It depends on the story told (as I haven't read it). As far as the canon went, no foreign countries (or megacorporations) officially sent troops to fight during the civil war in Yucatan. But Amazonia, NAN, Tir Tairngire and CAS may have provided covert support.

Also, in Corporate Guide, by 2072, Neonet was still using "Fuchi" as a brandname for Fuchi Orbital and Fuchi Consumer Electronics, while Renraku still maintained Fuchi Corporate Services.

The S-K chapter should feel different, as it shows, that Lofwyr organize his corp more like a country (specifically like the old Roman Empire), instead of an ordinary corp. So his corp often just do stuff for their own 'population' and not for the open market.

Yeesh, it was that late? Thanks for the catch. (Damn ...)


Or mercenaries, or troops "on holiday", like all those Russian "volunteers" in Ukraine and Syria.


I thought so too at first, but into the next chapter, Fuchi was repeatedly identified as the AAA that had bought Great American Products (a company based in Singapore, yay for the Bridge Trilogy reference).

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Running Review (cont'd)

A Day in the Life of Karl Denisovic
There's a lot of good to be said about this. This vision of corporate life doesn't feel like 2010-with-elves like Attitude did. It does feel appropriately oppressive and does take into account many important things - corporate culture, constant surveillance, corporate sousveillance and how the corp structures their employees lives. Many brand name-drops and procuring oddities like the karmic Feng Shui style chairs give a good feel of a place where everything s corporate-owned and -branded. And I really like the way the SimSense addiction was worked in without being obnoxiously "Just Say No!". It's stuff we can see happening in the near future, but not today. Exactly how it should be done. I really like the sidebars with top 10 movie and SimSense/BTL downloads (despite mixing up BTL and SimSense again, see below).

And for the most part, he gets the Shadowrun feel right (if not the facts, and honestly, there are not enough mages to waste them in administering a random marketing department, even if his boss only has a flicker of talent). He even gets the mount doom impression of the Rainier right - better than most Shadowrun writings, actually. Seems like he's actually been to Seattle (he also appropriately covers geography. But where is there a Gainesville to be a slum in Seattle? Is this supposed to be part of New Puyallup?).

However. And here we go. Karl works for Fuchi. In 2077. Great research here, Chris Lites (*slowclap*). Or rather, great job getting the new guy up to speed, Jason (*slowclap*). Fuchi, in 2077. Because fuck continuity, the minimum viable product is what counts.

I'm not saying the writing is bad. It is good. It is just not very close to Shadowrun canon. For instance, the major networks all belong to one or another megacorporation - so why should the Ares anchorman on an Ares network's Ares sponsorship be some kind of shock to anyone, let alone a veteran runner like Sounder? And a shadowrun AI isn't what the author thinks it is - that would be an Agent. A Shadowrun AI is a spooky gjhost of the Matrix, not every software system that uses AI principles. Plus, AI prefer to be called Digital Intelligences . Again, in Netrunner or Neuromancer (Angie Mitchell's house comes to mind), this would be perfectly fine, but not in shadowrun. that's the catch about writing for a world with such a legacy. And that's where the publisher ought to give new guys a hand - or have a fluff bible of some kind, or a Wiki maybe.

Bottle imp? More CP2020 lingo? that should also be Agent, or maybe Fetch. S&K? Commonly written SK. It is Saeder-Krupp and not Saeder and Krupp. The Fuchi HQ is where, Singapore? Such things matter. And by "related to VITAS", you mean related to AIPS? Because VITAS is a virus-induced toxic shock plague which is not at all related to hero syndrome.

Also, BTL and SimSense are not the same. I cannot blame Chris here, though; it seems half the writers by now don't understand that.

By and large a good writeup, but one that would have really profited from fact-cghecking, the existence of a fluff bible for new authors, and proofreading (once it's Awakening: 1948, then "there be dragon out there" ... such things happen; this is why there are proof readers. Ah, classic CGL. Good to great writing, diminished by lack of interest in a quality product.

Keep it rolling, Hermit. Feedback's vital, both the good and bad. (And, yes, the idea of a setting Bible's a good one. There are some parts, but nota whole. Jotting that down.) The good gets mentioned less, but I legitimately appreciate it all.

(Not my chapter, mind you, but it still matters.)

They don't have to be "spooky ghosts", but every single AI in Shadowrun is a spontaneous emergence event. You don't just have for axple a run-of-the-mill justice AI like in CP2020, an AI which happens to be a judge would be a major special snowflake.

While mostly in German, I have fairly detailed corporate lists myself. I'd even translate them (send me a PM with an email, and I'll email a translated sample).

Also, I am not trying to understate the good - I liked Chris' stuff, just feel it would have massively benefitted from more help offered to get him into the nitty-gritty of SR canon, and some editorial polishing. I [i]like[i] CP2020 and Gibson references, it's what I myself try to inject into my games as often as I can get away with it. And for the sake of every new SR writer I'd really, really hope there'll be a setting bible or wiki (the wiki probably is a better medium, since it can be expanded, accessed and shared more easily). Because it must be extremely intimidating for a writer to have to try and work with such a long-standing setting - mistakes like the ones I noted above are are unavoidable if there is no guide for the new guys.

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

Rolling Review (cont'd):

Courting Disaster
A chapter about the Corp Court, headed by a one-page short about a spy girl injecting dubious memos into the CC system. Not badly written, but it should be said I liked the style Chris Lite wrote his chapter in better. This chapter, thoughm is well-researched. It goes into the history of the court (didn't look up the dates, but the outline reads correct), the Veracruz settlement (though it's referred to as the Aztechnology Crisis here), and an outline of the SR4 Matrix and why it went wireless mesh that actually is among the best and most concise summaries I have read to date. Then comes a summary of the de la Mar metaplot, which also is well written and concise, and a reminder what the Dickens Project/Justice Hino plot as all about. This is accompanied with a bizarre image of a female justice in what looks like a future US supreme court justice robe being led away from what looks like of of the smaller courtrooms of the US Supreme Court by armored police officers while Harlequin the Supreme Court judge laughs at her between holographic judges. While this does tell a story, it is one that's never adressed anywhere, it seems, and thus this artwork that, by itself, is great, in it's specificness seems very oddly placed.

What follows is laying out more metaplot - how the CC started the Megacorp Audit to scramble the Big 10, how they were understandably unimpressed by the callous treatment of Justice Hino, and how MCT came to take over Mitsubishi Motors because of that Audit. All neat and clean and, as far as I could tell, with no significant continuity errors. This is followed up by a portrayal of CC justices and a picture of Zurich-Orbital. Interestingly, Saeder-Krupp's Grand Inquisitor (and corp fashion icon) now apparently is a CC justice, which kind of makes me wonder if SK's CFS problems have just gone away or if this is some other spiel of Lofwyr's. A description of the CC's infrastructure rounds out this chapter.

This is decent and solid writing. It lacks the gibson references and style of the previous chapter, but also avoids it's weak points. Whoever wrote this either is a long-standing SR fan or did decent research. Not much to criticise really.

Standard issue for CGL books, then. Details the line producer or editors should have caught, but probably missed because the team lost most of the people who were really conversant with the lore.

After you've read it, I would like to hear your comments and feedback to my S-K chapter.

Some thoughts upon finishing the book:

- It would have benefited from a few gear write ups. Not because fluff books can't stand on their own, but because some of the write ups mention specific gear. In fact, the Ares section is built around the failure of the Ares Excalibur, and I don't think we've seen its stats yet. That's kinda like saying that the Ares Predator is the main shadowrunning sidearm, then hiding it in a supplement no one bought.

- A more unified format would have been handy. For example, Ares and Aztechnology have write ups for Running for/against Ares/Aztechnology, but most of the others didn't, even though that would be helpful.

- The book ends abruptly. One minute, you're reading up on Wuxing, then you turn the page and it's over. It wasn't in the middle of a paragraph, but there was no "conclusion" to the Wuxing section, or for the book overall. Sloppy.

- I'd have liked a quick "Everybody else" section. You know, quick, ten paragraph write ups of AAs of import. Universal Omnitech, Lone Star, DocWagon, etc. Some of them are mentioned, but in another corp's chapter and always in the context of how they relate to a specific AAA.

Otherwise though, a solid book.

I believe the stats for the Excalibur were in the 4th edtion book War. If I recall there was some dissatisfaction with the rules/stats for battle rifles.

I meant in 5e. Especially since most of the fallout seemed to happen in 2075 onwards.

There was a double-A section, but the book was running too long as it is, so that part was clipped off and will be used in a Future Product ™. Unfortunately, that means that the wrap-up feel is kind of missing, resulting in that sudden fin! that you mentioned.

A book featuring the top double A rated corps might be useful with one of them about to rise to triple A status while one of the big ten about to lose it's triple a status.

That would, indeed, be an excellent idea. I can say no more than that.

They should include this event in a set of Missions Adventures with the one covering the fall from AAA to AA being called 'Kissing Your A Goodbye'

The fall of a AAA is (was?) tied to the Shadowrun Chronicles game, as is Lockdown. I'm not entirely certain what's happening in regards to Chronicles these days, but I think that's one reason those plots are moving so slow.

wouldn't it make sense to still write a conclusion for each section? i mean, if you change the project, then change it properly... still means sloppy editing and production values. obviously can't blame the writers if the rug is yanked out from under their feet at the last moment, but if you're writing a chapter on wuxing, shouldn't you write a conclusion to that chapter as well?

So I take it the SR line is still missing an editor?

I remember Marzhin over on the other site mentioned the ending on the current SR chronicle chapter 1 had rumblings, but no end result effects on the corps yet.

Think that was supposed to be followed up in later sections to be released down the road, but I do not recall hearing anything to date adding to this.

Running Review (cont'd)

Ares
It started out so well. I felt really postive about this book. But then came this chapter. And it stalled me for more than a week in its awfulness.

I don't know precisely, but I suppose this is the same writer who wrote the Ares blurb in stormfront. Same style, same shit. His insistence on doubling down on his nonsense would be fascinating, were it not also incredibly stupid and self-righteous.

Rather than clear up the ridiculousness of the Ares Excalibur situation with a bit of rationalization, the author doubles down on the stupid by insisting both that Ares really would run a worldwide ad campaign for a product that is illegal to own in the first place (who are these ads supposed to advertise to?) and that this niche-within-a-tiny-niche-product failing epically would really cause a loss of consumer confidence that would make people smash their Apple iCom, set their GMC on fire, never fly American again and make their bosses cut ties with Hard Corps immediately because having no security apparently is better than having a security provider who also produced a broken niche-within-a-niche product. Ludicrous.

But it gets worse.

Here's the paragraph that stopped me cold for the past eight days: Bold text mine, italics the author's.

No matter, I couldn't read past it. It's really difficult to find (polite and coherent) words in face of this monument to White American entitlement. Any further discussion of this awful bundle of clauses and exploration of the many ways of its wrongness would grossly violate board netiquette.

I'm done with this chapter. There's no possible way the rest of the chapter could redeem pure shit of such amazing density. I'll see if the rest of the book can, but it's an uphill battle from here.

Edit/Add-on: The into fiction. I assumed this always is by the same author, but in case it is not: I found it mediocre. It seemed quite detached from the chapter (or maybe I didn't reach the super orks in space part), but I couldn't really make out what was happening there, and anyway, it wasn't very Ares specific. Besides, why go stabby-stab someone in space? Just damage their module's heat radiation and seal them off for a couple of hours, and they're cooked. Space - it doesn't work like you think it works! But that's a gripe I have with nearly all scifi, so it can hardly be blamed on the author when Heinlein and the Honorverse guy also failed hard at it.

Try read S-K instead. I'm interested what you think of it.

Trying to do this sequentially. But I will get to SK eventually, promise.

DISCLAIMER: The Introfiction is not written by me and the English might not be perfect, but I hope sufficient for a German writing in English a German character who writes in English.

i think the intent of the author was to imply that the reason the guy was drunk was a more interesting story than the fact that the guy was drunk and did things that drunk people sometimes do, even though the consequences of that decision were major.

or, to extend the metaphor into the rest of the chapter, the author is saying the reason ares apparently went all-in on the excalibur is more important than the fact that ares went all-in on the excalibur, even though the consequences of that decision were major.

of course, whether the author actually delivered on that or not is not something i'm equipped to say. i don't have the book, haven't read the rest of the chapter apart from that little section you quoted, and your description of the chapter so far has me a bit doubtful to say the least.

but, as far as i can tell, that's what the author is saying. he's not implying that the drunk rich guy is in any way less accountable for the crash. he's simply stating that there is more to the story, and that the "more to the story" (in the author's opinion at least) is more interesting and important than the part everyone is focusing on.

which could arguably be true if, for example, this was a reflection of ares' ongoing relationship with insect spirits. (not that i've heard any evidence that it has anything to do with the invae, but if it does, well... bug spirits having taken full control of ares would indeed be a bigger story than ares falling to pieces over some stupid gun).

This is what I got from that point. "Rich guy has the sads. Rich guy gets drunk. Rich guy kills other person due to drunkenness. The really important story: Rich guy has the sads!" While he may be accountable or not, the important fact is a rich guy was sad (dead non-rich people are, of course, not really newsworthy). If you can't see how absurdly, incredibly wrong that is, well, I can't help you then and I shouldn't discuss this here anyway.

But one final note: the "rich guy has the sads" example doesn't work as an analogy for the relationship between Ares and bugs and the absurdity of the Excalibur situation (apparently, the author tries to blame the absurdity of the ad campaign on the bugs, but that doesn't explain the even more aburd reaction of the genral public worldwide - are the also all bug infiltrators?). Something Cold War or maybe John Birch-esque (depending on how far out there the author is) might work there. I don't really see how the rich guy has the sads example does. It just sits there in its awfulness with no real function for the Ares chapter.

This is a common mantra in journalism. And while I do love writing background stories that delve into the reasons behind events, I think it's probably not the right thing to do when you're writing a Shadowrun sourcebook.

Knowing the reasons for an event may be useful to anticipate what will happen next (that's why it's considered virtuous in journalism). But there's nothing to anticipate in SR because what will happen next does not have to be a logical follow-up. Authors who want to surprise their audience (a lot do) basically have two ways of doing it: unveiling a secret or bringing up an unexpected event. The former require to hide the reasons and motivations of a major player (and possibly even the involvement or the very existence of that player). The latter make the all of those information and any anticipation irrelevant. In both cases, there really are no anticipation to be made. What happens is whatever the line developer and the authors decide. It may be deeply rooted in background, just as it may just follow rules of cool or anything to get rid of a NPC or corporation that particular author dislike.
Thoroughly exploring reasons behind events could be useful for the gamemasters to imagine what could happen next, if the authors were to let plots hanging. Which there are not going to do when it comes to a AAA corporation, or a great dragon, or Seattle,... (heck, lately you can't even toy with some AA any longer without canon interference). Because SR is run by metaplots.

Then, any space devoted to reasons is mostly lost because the GM won't be be able to use for any other purposes. By design, shadowrunners should not be privy to the reasons behind the ongoing events. M. Johnson is not going to tell them why he pay them and they are not going to care (or even be able to learn) about why the opposition will be opposing. You may have players interested in learning about reasons and an adventure designed in a way that allow them to learn about it, and it can be great. An author spending wordcount on reasons without supporting hint with such designed adventure is taking a cheap shot and leaving all the burden to the GM. Which means most of them will never get any use of that background. And the authors or GM who would try to make that wordcount useful face a daunting task because it's extremely hard to write such adventure that do not suck with clumsy, ham-fisted, revelations that break action pace with a long GM monologue.

So I'd say "do not dwell on reasons" is the kind of writing guideline you can ignore only once you have fully understood why it was so important to abide by it before.

no, the fact that he is sad is not the interesting the part. *why* he was sad *could* be more interesting.

for example, suppose we set this story of a rich guy getting drunk and crashing a car, say, 4 months before the global financial crisis, and the *reason* he is drunk is that he is an executive at one of the banks and has put the information together to realize what is about to happen. now, i don't care that he's sad about the fact that his company's idiotic decisions are probably going to result in him losing his job (due to the bank going bankrupt), and his rich lifestyle is about to go down the toilet. but the reason for his drinking binge (ie, the fact that the whole word economy is about to get kicked square in the balls) is much bigger news than the rich guy getting drunk and crashing the car.

do i give a rat's ass that the rich guy is sad? no i do not. i really don't care that he was sad. i think it is very unfortunate also that his drunkeness caused the deaths of other people. but in terms of total impact, it is a hell of a lot more significant that he was drunk because the world economy was about to get royally screwed over than it was that his drunkeness caused him to crash a car, however tragic the outcome of him crashing the car. not because his drunkeness or sadness was important, but because the world economy crashing is important to pretty much everyone in the world. perhaps not more important than the car crash to everyone (certainly, i expect the families of those killed in the crash would be more upset about the car crashing than the global economy crashing). but broadly, more significant to far more people.

(in contrast, if the reason for his drunkeness is that he just found out his wife was cheating on him, i'd go right on back to not caring about the reason why he's drunk, and yes the fact that his drunkeness caused the deaths of other people is much more significant than the reason for his drunkeness in that case).

now, this begs the question: did the author actually deliver on the promise? i don't know. i don't have the book. i have no idea whatsoever if the author delivered on the promise that the story behind why ares is crashing and burning is much more relevant than the fact that ares is crashing and burning (which would cause a lot of ripple effects of substantial significance themselves). i could imagine a scenario where that is the case, though not a particularly plausible one... for example, if the bigger story was that competing invae hives had taken over a substantial portion of the world's population and essentially declared war on the hive(s) allied with ares by boycotting ares products (which would presumably include revealing that ares has been allied with invae hives as part of the story also), that would be a much bigger story than the fact that ares is crashing and burning. now, i sincerely hope that isn't the story, because it is a terrible story that just doesn't sound plausible at all. i just give it as an example of something where you would say "who cares that ares is losing money, have you heard about <insert more significant story here>" if you were an NPC in the shadowrun setting.

Or maybe, you know, just ignore it. Ares has enough problems with the bugs, why the need to continue the stupid "a triple-A had a bungled product release and nearly went broke because of it" storyline?

My response to the Ares write up was more or less “Eh, one of those bits of setting that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me – I’ll ignore most of this and come up with my own version.”

I kind of assume that the poor writer was saddled with “Ares made a bad assault rifle, and somehow this has resulted in the entire AAA conglomerate being in trouble.” And just couldn’t make a silk purse out of this particular sow’s ear.

I even imagine a number of emails going back and forth to effect of
“Do I have to use this Ares Alpha thing?”
“Yes.”
“Can I give details on how bugs are disrupting the company?”
“No, we are saving that for something later.”
“Can I at least kill off some executives, have CFD having an impact, major new internal power struggles … basically give anything else concrete on why they are screwing up so badly?”
“No, it has been declared that the only concrete issue is the Ares Alpha. You need to tie all of their problems on that.”
“But that just doesn’t make sense!”
“Do you want this contract or not?”
“I don’t know, could I do NeoNet instead?”
“No, it is this or nothing.”
“OK, fine, I’ll do the section and blame it all on the Alpha. Just don’t be surprised if the boards point out how illogical this is.”
“Don’t worry about the boards – we don’t. And remember, because of your NDA, you can't provide this background either.”

Actually its the bugs who keep bringing up the Excalibur subject so as to divert attention from themselves.

Joe in Sales: You know Johnson down in Accounting? Well he just sprouted some mandibles and wings!! You better look into that!

Security Guard Frank: Nevermind that, did you hear the latest snafu in the Excalibur project?

Joe: No, what?!?

Frank spins a web-like tale of drama and woe, utterly captivating Joe who forgets about Johnson in short order.