Situation: the characters in the game I am starting are about to be trapped in the Chicago CZ when the wall goes up, in 2055. At that time, they are all law-abiding folks. After a year or two in the CZ... that might change.

One of them is currently a network admin for a local corp. Question is: which corp?

I can invent a corporation off the top of my head, no problem. However, maybe there's more plot material that can be wrung out of this.

So: can any of you think of a corp (A, AA, AAA-subsidiary, whichever) that was healthy in 2055, but underwent a major change of some sort before 2058? What sort of change was it? What books (I have pretty much the entire 3rd/4th edition collection, with a smattering of 1st and 2nd) are these events described in?

(Don't bother mentioning the Universal Brotherhood. I already thought about it and discarded the idea.)

Thanks in advance!

Microdeck.
if you can find it, read up on William H. Gates the 2nd or 3rd in Prime Runners ^^
Or Proteus, German Corporation that was into Arcologies and other such things.

Doc Wagon might not be a bad idea. Business is booming for a little while, and then they just get the hell out of dodge.

DocWagon would be an excellent idea, except two of the other characters are DocWagon employees (HTR team people).

There are other medical facilities. He could just be working for the local hospital, or even something like the network admin for the police force. Was Lone Star in charge of Chicago? Whoever was would make an excellent place, since if the wall goes up and the police can't handle it the network admin might just find himself w/o a job.

It's in Chi town. Truman Technologies might be a good corp to be involved in.

BuMoNa probably a bit over the top?
especially with 2 of the group working for their adversary?

I second that choice. It's a huge media / sim studio that could offer up a whole slew of good ideas for you. I know there is an older source book that had some good info on them and pre bug Chicago as well if you can find it, just can't remember which one right now ...

That's what I was going to suggest. Perfect company for your needs.

- J.

Found that source book. Good luck finding one (maybe PDF on drivethrurpg.com ?) It's called Neo-anarchist's guide to North America. They have a decent write up of Chicago pre Bug City. Truman even had some paramilitary security forces if you want to tie another character in with a similar background. Other corps that may foot the bill might be IBM, UCAS Steel and Manufacturing, and Fast Flesh Enterprises (they do Livestock and Slaughtering, sometimes rumored to be quite unethically). Most of the business in Chicago was centered around Sim Sense technology and moving agro goods.

I've actually got a copy of NAGNA... somewhere. Still packed from the last move.

I'm seriously considering either Truman Technologies or one of the simsense production companies who work with TT (Bug City mentions a couple). TT has the added bonus of being able to bring in some of the people from 'Burning Bright'.

Now if only I could find Burning Bright to re-read it...

Hiya there Cunning Rat

OK, you've already got Truman Technologies listed there. Thats a great start for a AA-Rated technical-orientated corporation. Especially as TT iwa the founder of ASIST and Chicgo has become the "Hollywood" of the Simsense scene and main centre of production. Also, because of the influence that TT brought to the city, it practically owns it. Lots of fingers in local government and law enforcement (Eagle security if I'm not mistaken which might actually be a wholly owned subsdiary of TT). In fact, TT has a lock on its hometown equivalent to Federated Boeing has on Seattle.

Then there's the other benefits of TT involvement, especially if you're going to run Bug City. (Hey, I'm gearing up towards the same for my current crop of players). The novel Burning Bright has plenty of good information about certain NPCs and offers plenty of tie-ins - the major hook being about the CEO's missing son. Bug City of course expands on this. To get the pre-BBB (Big Bug Breakout) scoop then as already mentioned, the Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North America has a decent chapter on Chicago (incidently where I've dredged up my memories of TT from). Another novel worth checking out is Changeling by Chris Kubasik as that is set wholly in Chicago circa 2052-3ish. Some good street detail and a nice bit on the Shattergraves in particular.

Finally, if TT doesn't seem good enough, then how about Fuchi Inustrial Technologies? Yup, surprised that no-one's mentioned that one seeing as it was the AAA megacorp that split apart in the Corp War of the late 2050's to emerge as Novatech. Now, seeing as they had an intense rivalry with Truman Technologies (who felt that Fuchi had ripped off their ASIST research) they're a good alternative. Not too prominent in the city compared to TT, but they have a corp-facility there and you can bet their staff'd be hassled somewhat chronic by TT-owned resident agencies etc. However, they are a megacorp, and have the resources to boot. Don't really have to worry about too much contingency inaccuracies either as the Chi-town facilities will effectively be cut off and then the corp stripped apart from the inside out before the situation really clears up.

Well, nobody mentionned Fuchi because he's looking for a A or AA corp, not a AAA.

Aha. Missed the "-subsidiary" bit after AAA there. My oopsie! However, technically because of Fuchi's restricted operational status in Chicago (IE: TT is all over them) it could theoretically be classed as "subsidiary-level" n'est pas?

I would actually be OK with a Fuchi sub-subsidiary or a company that Fuchi owns through layers and layers of shell companies. The primary criteria I am looking for (which I wasn't clear on in the original post, I'm afraid) are:

• Does not have enough information or pull in the city to get their employees out. That rules out Eagle Security and Knight Errant, I am afraid: as far as I can see, they pretty much knew what was coming down the pike. Yeah, Anne Ravenheart is still in the city, but if I remember Burning Bright correctly, she stayed to detonate the Cermak nuke.
• Will not take an employee back if he "comes back from the dead"/escapes the Zone. The obvious way to do that would be if the corp doesn't exist anymore, or has undergone an ownership change, which is why a Fuchi subsidiary would be a good option. No other ways come to mind right off the bat -- anyone have any evil ideas?
• Provides plenty of plot fodder.

What if when things were starting to get bad when he was working for Eagle Security, or Knight Errant his network gets hacked and some important documents are extracted. He is not fired, but soon after that Eagle Security or Knight Errant decide to pull out of the area and leave him there. It makes for an interesting story too.

Adversary? Last time I checked both corps had mutual cooperation contracts to take care of clients of the respective other as DocWagon doesn't operate in Germany and BuMoNA doesn't operate outside of Germany.

The only actual competitor (meaning active in the same country/city) of DocWagon that I remember would be CrashCart (Evo subsidiary).

oh, okay, i guess i got BuMoNa and CrashCart mixed up ^^#

As an alternative, there's always Caterpillar-Daihatsu. I know they're headquartered in Peoria, but their alleged ties to Humanis could make for some interesting sessions.

Mark

Thank you all who responded: I got a ton of wonderful ideas reading your posts.

The player changed his concept slightly when it came to actual chargen, which narrowed down the field of possible contenders greatly. I gave him a list of corps and said "pick one".