Full Version: Saito
| QUOTE |
| CalFree finally saw the last of Saito, |
That's all it says. Anyone know more?
My guess what happened to him:
[ Spoiler ]
Killed by Drop Bears? 
I'm suffering from a serious drop-bear-trauma... 
But a fitting end for this son-of-an-ogre. Of course the pointy tips of my characters spurs would have been much more fitting.
But a fitting end for this son-of-an-ogre. Of course the pointy tips of my characters spurs would have been much more fitting.
Drop Bear-trauma? Pah.
I think I just discovered my newest SR weapon: a Super Squirt loaded with Drop Bear pheromones. 
Another one converted, yeah.
I am and always will be a Loyal Servant™ of The Drop Bear Army. 
Loose Alliances sheads some light on this in the UN chapter, IIRC. They don't talk about the resolution, but basically, the kid emperor finally got Japan under control enough to out leverage Saito's supporters, which would make it but a matter of time before his attempt at empire crumbled.
System Failure helps things along too.
All I can find in System Failure about Saito is that MCT pulled out of Tsimisham and moved into SanFran to help him. Nothing about him leaving.
My first time using Dial-up in years, and I forget how to post. /shame
| QUOTE (Toshiaki) |
| I am and always will be a Loyal Servant™ of The Drop Bear Army. |
Excellent.
Blah, i'm sure they'll explain something.
I have my secret wild conclusions drawn as to Saito's true identity.
I have my secret wild conclusions drawn as to Saito's true identity.
His true identity? Always viewed him as a racist japanese general who's backed by some japanocorps.
And what about the People's Metahuman Army (IIRC) - the anti-Saito Metahuman resistance movement? Having them in power would be interesting, creating the first (or is it?) Ork nation in the world (or Ork-Troll-Dwarf)...
My pet theory is that they've used the confusion of Crash 2.0 to overthrow him and establish the Orkish Republic of California (O.R.C
). A little shift in Sixth World power balance would be interesting, to say the least.
My pet theory is that they've used the confusion of Crash 2.0 to overthrow him and establish the Orkish Republic of California (O.R.C
). A little shift in Sixth World power balance would be interesting, to say the least.
| QUOTE (Omer Joel) |
| And what about the People's Metahuman Army (IIRC) - the anti-Saito Metahuman resistance movement? Having them in power would be interesting, creating the first (or is it?) Ork nation in the world (or Ork-Troll-Dwarf)... My pet theory is that they've used the confusion of Crash 2.0 to overthrow him and establish the Orkish Republic of California (O.R.C ). A little shift in Sixth World power balance would be interesting, to say the least. |
Nah, there were too many other groups involved for just one to rule the roost without a gigantic multi-sided civil war. My guess is that everyone went back to Calfree, giving what was a slightly bumpy but abnormally smooth transition. Of course in the wake of Saito's racist tendencies San Fran immediately backlashed and went back to its roots as the most racially, sexually, and every other -ally liberal city in the former US.
In fact I have a neat idea. In order to bring people back into the city, which was practically emptied when all the Japs were kicked out, the new mayor/governor/whatever decided to give tax incentives and unprecedented legal equality (legal SINs for all, regardless of background! All you need is an oath of loyalty and you're in!) to anyone in a "racial minority." Thus the entire city becomes a Mecca for weird metavariants, the only city in the world where humans make up less than 20% of the total population.
Meanwhile the MPA and all the other millitant forces allied against Saito suddenly find themselves fighting a two-front war instead of a four-front one. And of the two fronts that are left, Tir Tarngire is no longer the wholly unified monolith it once was, and the PCC is having a hard time crossing the desert to reinforce LA. I smell bigtime expansion in Calfree's near future. This would be especially true if, say, during late August/early September the Santa Ana winds pick up bigtime and a few "accidental" fires should besiege LA and San Diego, making them ripe for the plucking...
Doesn't that sound like a cool idea? All we have to do is ignore that completely idiotic, assinine earthquake idea the devs stole from that God-awful Escape From LA movie.
And for all those who don't think that a massive firestorm is a plausible backdrop for a Calfree->PCC->Aztalan war, consider this: in the last three weeks, nearly half a million acres of grassland in the LA and San Diego areas have burned. I doubt that even made nationwide news, though, because it happens damn near every year and we're used to it.
See, most of Southern California, particularly the areas around LA and San Diego is arrid grassland. SoCal has basically two seasons: the Rest of the Year and a 1-2 month Fire Season where nature has dictated that the whole countryside is supposed to burn down and grow back from the ashes. The main reason LA doesn't lose thousands of homes to the flames every year is because the people around here got smart a ways back and are relatively good about clearing the brush out of their yards, which gives the fire crews room to work.
But say, for instance, that another nation, unfamiliar with SoCal's oddities, moved in and took over. Let's call them Pueblo, hypothetically. Let's also suppose that due to the general cooling trend we've been experiencing for the past 150 years SoCal has a series of unexpectedly mild Fire Seasons, such that Pueblo decides, over native objections, to cut the firefighter's budgets to 1/4 or less what it was. Say people have been "encouraged" to relocate from their houses, and trash, debris, and brush crowd the streets and the areas that used to be firebreaks. Now imagine 50 MPH Santa Ana winds, dropping the humidity near zero for three weeks. Also imagine a few "deniable assets" hired to be fire crews in reverse.
BAM! In less than two days six million acres go up in smoke. Half the city's underfunded, underpaid, aging firemen "go on strike," being encouraged through various channels to do so. The ash and soot linger in the LA basin, forcing pollution to such levels that the sun is half-blocked (happenned during the Malibu fires a few years back; damn but that was freaky.) After a suitable period Calfree "relief workers" saunter down the I-5 and Highway 101 and sweep all the way down to the old Mexico border. Pueblo can't do much about it because Palm Desert and Death Valley prevent anyone from traveling through that route, and the only other way (the mountains) is a choke point waiting to happen.
We'd call this series of adventures "Firestorm", put it in an adventure book or sourcebook of some kind, and involve runner plot hooks evey step of the way. Doesn't that sound neat?
All these ideas are free. Unfortunately Canon's decision was that LA has become an island. LA is a basin, surrounded by hills; it has about as much chance of becoming an island because of an earthquake as New Orleans does of becoming a mountain because of another hurricane.
See, most of Southern California, particularly the areas around LA and San Diego is arrid grassland. SoCal has basically two seasons: the Rest of the Year and a 1-2 month Fire Season where nature has dictated that the whole countryside is supposed to burn down and grow back from the ashes. The main reason LA doesn't lose thousands of homes to the flames every year is because the people around here got smart a ways back and are relatively good about clearing the brush out of their yards, which gives the fire crews room to work.
But say, for instance, that another nation, unfamiliar with SoCal's oddities, moved in and took over. Let's call them Pueblo, hypothetically. Let's also suppose that due to the general cooling trend we've been experiencing for the past 150 years SoCal has a series of unexpectedly mild Fire Seasons, such that Pueblo decides, over native objections, to cut the firefighter's budgets to 1/4 or less what it was. Say people have been "encouraged" to relocate from their houses, and trash, debris, and brush crowd the streets and the areas that used to be firebreaks. Now imagine 50 MPH Santa Ana winds, dropping the humidity near zero for three weeks. Also imagine a few "deniable assets" hired to be fire crews in reverse.
BAM! In less than two days six million acres go up in smoke. Half the city's underfunded, underpaid, aging firemen "go on strike," being encouraged through various channels to do so. The ash and soot linger in the LA basin, forcing pollution to such levels that the sun is half-blocked (happenned during the Malibu fires a few years back; damn but that was freaky.) After a suitable period Calfree "relief workers" saunter down the I-5 and Highway 101 and sweep all the way down to the old Mexico border. Pueblo can't do much about it because Palm Desert and Death Valley prevent anyone from traveling through that route, and the only other way (the mountains) is a choke point waiting to happen.
We'd call this series of adventures "Firestorm", put it in an adventure book or sourcebook of some kind, and involve runner plot hooks evey step of the way. Doesn't that sound neat?
All these ideas are free. Unfortunately Canon's decision was that LA has become an island. LA is a basin, surrounded by hills; it has about as much chance of becoming an island because of an earthquake as New Orleans does of becoming a mountain because of another hurricane.
heh
Yeah, 'cause there are never massive wildfires and forest fires in Pueblo on an annual basis.
I remember at least two occassions where there were fires in Arizona so large and bad that they were causing health problems in other states within the last five years.
Yeah, 'cause there are never massive wildfires and forest fires in Pueblo on an annual basis.
I remember at least two occassions where there were fires in Arizona so large and bad that they were causing health problems in other states within the last five years.
| QUOTE (SL James @ Oct 8 2005, 09:24 AM) |
| heh Yeah, 'cause there are never massive wildfires and forest fires in Pueblo on an annual basis. I remember at least two occassions where there were fires in Arizona so large and bad that they were causing health problems in other states. |
I think you're forgetting the most important thing here, and that's that bureaucrats are stupid.
It's still better than the "LA becomes an island" plot though
Compared to that, yes.
Compared to that, however, having the entire city attacked by Mole Men is better.
Compared to that, however, having the entire city attacked by Mole Men is better.
And most of the important (in terms of run ideas) stuff still holds true. Hire a team to set fires all around LA; hire a team to break a few firefighter's legs, interfere with their ability to respond, persuade them to strike, hire the firefighters away, etc. From there they get caught between the city's workers and the "relief workers" from Calfree, etc etc. That would be an interesting run, don't you think?
Yes, quite so.
BTW, just because Saito's gone doesn't really mean much. System Failure intimiated that MCT didn't so much abandon Tsimshian completely as they made a strategic decision to consolidate control over Cal Free before Saito disappeared, and to fill the vacuum once he's gone.
BTW, just because Saito's gone doesn't really mean much. System Failure intimiated that MCT didn't so much abandon Tsimshian completely as they made a strategic decision to consolidate control over Cal Free before Saito disappeared, and to fill the vacuum once he's gone.
I hope not. The whole "Japanese people rape SF" plot was stupid when it was a megalomaniacal idiot in charge; a corp trying to own a city like that makes even less sense. If they want to take over a city, fine; why take over one that's got four active and thriving resistance movements already organized against you?
They're masochists?
Because to draw out fully would be to fail. And the Japanese do NOT fail. Failure is worse than Death.
| QUOTE (Eyeless Blond) |
| Nah, there were too many other groups involved for just one to rule the roost without a gigantic multi-sided civil war. My guess is that everyone went back to Calfree, giving what was a slightly bumpy but abnormally smooth transition. Of course in the wake of Saito's racist tendencies San Fran immediately backlashed and went back to its roots as the most racially, sexually, and every other -ally liberal city in the former US. |
Ofcourse, the idea of a coalition of anti-Saito groups (MPA and others) overthrowing him and establishing a radical Ork state right in the butt of the Tir in the mids of "interventionist" invasions from the PCC and Aztlan has its own appeal. Just going back to a pre-Jap calfree (which never was, they've invited the Japs almost in the beginning) would be less interesting than creating a change in the North American political map. Now, ORC (the organization), MOM and other "Orksploitation" (sp?) groups might try to do the same in the UCAS - or, for a more McCarthy flavor, the UCAS asdministration will suspect them of planning to do so, even if they had no such intentions themselves.
I smell a lot of player motivations, a lot of potential political runs, and, more than everything, powerful men and women offering a lot of nuyen
to runners for such political runs.
I suspect we're saying basically the same thing here really. I also like the idea of SF becoming extremely meta-friendly, but I don't think it should be limited to just orks, or even just orks and trolls. I kinda want to see SF made into city of freaks (kinda like it is today ), letting in everyone of non-human blood, just as a cultural backlash against Saito.
But it wouldn't just be the MPA doing it, and the MPA wouldn't alone rule the roost there, simply because they weren't even the biggest or highest profile group. That would go to the People's University, part of the October 25th Alliance. That group I could see going in after Saito got his jackboots shoved up his @$$ and creating a real city out of SF. If anything the MPA would take their millitant views on to the next crusade against freedom, namely Tir Tarngire who still has a stranglehold over a large part of northern Calfree.
And yes, the emergence of a city of misfits, especially one where Humanis had dug itself in so deep just a scant few years before, would create plenty of room for runs right there. Then you've got the Triads attempting to move themselves in over the Yaks, Horizon and the other corps trying to oust the Japanicorps, etc etc... fun times.
), letting in everyone of non-human blood, just as a cultural backlash against Saito. But it wouldn't just be the MPA doing it, and the MPA wouldn't alone rule the roost there, simply because they weren't even the biggest or highest profile group. That would go to the People's University, part of the October 25th Alliance. That group I could see going in after Saito got his jackboots shoved up his @$$ and creating a real city out of SF. If anything the MPA would take their millitant views on to the next crusade against freedom, namely Tir Tarngire who still has a stranglehold over a large part of northern Calfree.
And yes, the emergence of a city of misfits, especially one where Humanis had dug itself in so deep just a scant few years before, would create plenty of room for runs right there. Then you've got the Triads attempting to move themselves in over the Yaks, Horizon and the other corps trying to oust the Japanicorps, etc etc... fun times.
| QUOTE (Eyeless Blond) |
| But it wouldn't just be the MPA doing it, and the MPA wouldn't alone rule the roost there, simply because they weren't even the biggest or highest profile group. That would go to the People's University, part of the October 25th Alliance. That group I could see going in after Saito got his jackboots shoved up his @$$ and creating a real city out of SF. If anything the MPA would take their millitant views on to the next crusade against freedom, namely Tir Tarngire who still has a stranglehold over a large part of northern Calfree. |
That's exactly what I meat by a "Coalition"
A radical city of misfits sticking like a thore thumb right in the @$$ of the Tir, with a not-so-corp-friendly government and various counter-culture elements becomming its "mainstream" culture. The exact recepie for alot of political intrigue, if you ask me )
Which is why I said we're basically saying the same thing.
Oh, and MCT would probably be interested in California for the same reasons everyone else is: it's a literal beachhead into North America for their Asian interests, and it is full of natural resources to ra... expl... utilize.
| QUOTE (SL James) |
| Oh, and MCT would probably be interested in California for the same reasons everyone else is: it's a literal beachhead into North America for their Asian interests, and it is full of natural resources to ra... expl... utilize. |
you mean develope?
Yeah... Develop. That's it.
| QUOTE (Eyeless Blond @ Oct 8 2005, 11:14 AM) |
| And for all those who don't think that a massive firestorm is a plausible backdrop for a Calfree->PCC->Aztalan war, consider this: in the last three weeks, nearly half a million acres of grassland in the LA and San Diego areas have burned. I doubt that even made nationwide news, though, because it happens damn near every year and we're used to it........All these ideas are free. Unfortunately Canon's decision was that LA has become an island. LA is a basin, surrounded by hills; it has about as much chance of becoming an island because of an earthquake as New Orleans does of becoming a mountain because of another hurricane. |
Dude! This idea is freaking awesome! If I were you, I'd submit this idea as a new adventure book to FanPro (with the qualification that the LA-as-island blurp in SR4 is really just in erroneous bit of rumor that an aging Fastjack mistook as fact, of course). 
| QUOTE (NightmareX) |
| Dude! This idea is freaking awesome! If I were you, I'd submit this idea as a new adventure book to FanPro (with the qualification that the LA-as-island blurp in SR4 is really just in erroneous bit of rumor that an aging Fastjack mistook as fact, of course). |
Oh I so wish. It'll never work though, at least not with me as the writer; I have my moments, but mostly I wouldn't be able to write verbosely or well enough to get a book through. If any of the freelancers or devs who frequent these forums want to steal these ideas or are interested in anything else I have squirreled away in my brain they're welcome to it, for free even. Just put me in an Acknowledgements footnote or something and I'll be happy.
I'm thinking of CalFree as the site for my next campaign (taking a break from Seattle and Jerusalem); aside from the old CalFree book (duh), SR4 and Year/Wake of the Comet, what books are relevant to the area, to Saito (who's dead by 2070 but the scars caused by him aren't healed yet), to the MPA, to the People's University and to the October 25th Alliance?
Threats 2 contains an article about Saito.
| QUOTE (Halabis) |
| All I can find in System Failure about Saito is that MCT pulled out of Tsimisham and moved into SanFran to help him. Nothing about him leaving. |
Hmmm... If MCT were helping him, how come they "consolidated their power in SF" according to SR4 - didn't the new (Ares- and probably Yamatetsu/Evo-friendly; extremely anti-Saito) government do anything about them, or did Yakashima (his main corporate backers) take all the blame?
Honestly, despite all the people who came to oust Saito, what really happened is that after MCT consolidated their assets in San-fran, they no longer had any need for Saito. Since he was bad PR, they cut him loose.
| QUOTE (SR4 @ 42) |
| In any case, they’ve established quite a presence in CalFree over the last few years, taking a lead role in the control of San Francisco following the fall of rogue General Saito. |
Ofcourse, there will always those who'll remember MCT's support of Saito
So I guess that Yakashima, Shaiwase (sp?) and the former-Fuchi parts of Novatech/NeoNet would take the greatest blame and would be hit hardest by post-Liberation "popular actions" by the MPA/Oct25Alliance - to the joy of Ares and Yamatetsu/Evo (who's meta-friendly image would help much to gain inroads into SF's Provisional Government). MCT would just hold tight and survive, maybe even buying resources extra-cheap when some of their competitors wil be kicked back to Japan.
And, ofcourse, the Triads are going to take alot of territory from the Yaks, especially considering the Yakuza support of Saito and the good relations between the Triads and the resistance movements (who are now in power).
And last but not least, don't forget the possibility that some of Saito's goons haven't been killed or driven away yet - they'd probably be still lurking underground, assisting the (now highly illegal) Humanis/Alamos2K/Human Nation terrorists, or go north and join the Humanis "night raiders" in the Northern Crescent.
All in all, a perfect place for a Shadowrun campaign.
And, ofcourse, the Triads are going to take alot of territory from the Yaks, especially considering the Yakuza support of Saito and the good relations between the Triads and the resistance movements (who are now in power).
And last but not least, don't forget the possibility that some of Saito's goons haven't been killed or driven away yet - they'd probably be still lurking underground, assisting the (now highly illegal) Humanis/Alamos2K/Human Nation terrorists, or go north and join the Humanis "night raiders" in the Northern Crescent.
All in all, a perfect place for a Shadowrun campaign
.
| QUOTE (SL James) | ||
|
Seems quite strange, especially if you re-read SR3 info about Saito and how strong were the "ties" between him and MCT (read: leash held by the corp). They're mentioned in almost every place that mentions Saito. I think they had to pull one hell of a media spin to get rid of that reputation, now that it was open season for Ares and that the MPA/Oct25Alliance forces were top dog. Probably had to arrest and hand over "traitors" (read: scapegoats) who "have subverted to the corp into a betrayal in both the Emperor and the 'fine people of California'". Even though, they aren't going to be popular - but they came out on top of the situation as they've taken over alot of resources from Japanacorps who had to run with the tail between their legs from the MPA/Oct25Alliance revolutionary forces.
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