Yeah! Shadowrun has way too many corporate-controlled democracies. I'd love to run my team through a real, thorough, police state fascist dictatorship! Or maybe something Saddam-Iraq-esque? Where everyone is supressed equally harsh ...

That'd make government contacts useful, finally.

I like the idea of such a setting. Would be something that really hasn't been there in Shadowrun before (even Japan has become a democracy with YotC ...).

There's those NAN-police-state over there, tmsishian (or however it's written), but it's also corp-control. A good old dictatorship with no real corp backing would be nice. Speaking of the ags: no backing of SK for such thing, please. I hate the idea that the golden worm controls a new-born dictatorship. He may be powerful in europe/ags, but hopefully not powerful enough for that. Or gets his own little kingdom/SK-run free city and shuts up.

I would venture that many southeast asian 3rd world nations, especially with the Warzone and all, would fit the description of an independant dictatorship.
On the other hand, I think Tir Tairngire was very close to a fascist state (TNO too, for that matter), as was Aztlan. But they've all been tweaked to allow more flexibility (the kind of flexibility that allows GM to actually use the setting and send the PCs there...).

An all-opressive dictatorship like the one in "1984" would be too strict and not allow any funny games, i agree. But something like a third world police state can be a good playground for runners & mercs.

Tsimshian (sp) is MCT's puppet, and the Tirs are close to being fascist, but too ... weird ... to have a true fascist state feel (you know, torch marches, parades, brown/black shirt thugs terroristing the neighbourhoods, people being dragged from the street to be interned in reeducation camps, militarism on the extreme - was that in the Tirs? I admit it's been a while since I read the TT book ...). Aztlan was pure evil, but also too weird for that feel (and too corp controlled, too). Those three states were something unique - two realms of fantasy elves gone mad, and one land that was, well, founded on the prinicple of "do evil, and do plenty of it, no matter what" (make no mistake, I like the Azzies!).

Yes, in the SE Asian war zone, there may be some good old-fashined dictatorships. There should be, at least (remnants of Burma's commie dictatorship, a state run by these wacko militiamen commanded by two divine infants, Vietnam ...). It's stil that to this day, there has been a certain lack in this form of govenment.

As for a possible change in the AGL ... maybe Germany can pull it's act together and found a third republic. But since the people of Germany elect anarchists (!!!) for government, I doupt they have so much common sense.

Saito's got his little fascist regime too. Though it's more of a modern day mass-media fascism.

Ah right, forgot about him. He's propably closest to what I thought of (but not quite it yet; would he conquer California, then we'd have the setting I thought of).

I think civil unrest may rise in the ags, just think of the briefly mentioned "work for social aid"-chapter at brennpunkt:adl. The anarchists at the government may have a short height, but will likely disappear. Like today's NPD at some parliaments - at least i think they will be disappear from there in some years. Back to sr: when the reality hits the anarchists they will lose ground and crediblity and the voters will look for other opportunities. Think of the third reich: the nsdap started out as a small party and iirc never had the majority of voters backing them but managed to come in power. Why not let history repeat itself?

In Shadows of asia will there be any more info on otaku and matrix? Also, will there be any new info in system failure about otaku.

Why should Shadows Of Asia contain infos about otaku? The basic rules for them are in the matrix book. And what happens to them in the near future will likely be hidden in system failure & critical error.

Been said above, it's closest, but I'd imagine a whole nation like that, not some rogue general's dominion (there're far crazier little fiefdoms than Saito's in real life; research General Butt Naked in Liberia!).

Want to unify Germany?

Have Lofwyr buy it.

That would be too boring.

You seem to be an agent of the dragons. That's not very helpful, no.

Maybe a new movement rises in ags, brings some chemical and biological weapons into its hands and outright kills Lofwyr. That would be a blast of a setting/canon change.

What does the AGS have to do with Asia or Latin America, or more specifically SoA/SoLA?

Nothing. This is a tad off topic right now.

In a globalized world like the 6th: a lot.

But i have to agree with hermit: this is offtopic.

Well, we just may get Rory Blackhand here. He is a fan of the Germany SB, and started an argument about that in one of the Israel threads. But maybe we should just ask a mod to split the topic then.

Good idea. Better start reading the israel thread.

Ah, I wasn't that agressive, was I?

Here? Or at the Israel-thread?

In the israel thread.

Thought so.

I don't think so. The whole discussion became out of order, with a lot of misunderstandings. As i said there: calm down and take a deep breath. Maybe smile while writing.

Yeah, possibly.

I guess I should have been more reasonable.

Sometimes it's hard to understand a posting in the way it was meant to be. That's the flaw of this form of communication.

Does anyone have a idea when the next book will be released?

Loose Alliances is at the printers, so expect it in the next few weeks. SoA shouldn't follow too long after that.