Shadowrun Pub
Shadowrun RPG => The Corporations => Topic started by: Ruski on June 10, 2005, 09:17:12 AM
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So, anyone ran into any new 'tricks of the trade' for getting into corperate compounds?
getting out of corperate compounds?
any tricks for corperate compounds to stop us from what we do best?
runs that went well? (and what you did to make it work)
runs that didn't go well? (and what THEY did to make your plains fail)
any thoughts?
-RuskiFace the PIrate
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For those out-of-the way compounds, especially in male-dominated corps, it always pays to send in a van full of hookers, with a card from a superior that's on vacation.
Extra-territoriality breeds some interesting situations, like corporate morgues. Some sustained illusion spells of Shedim Zombies is sure to distract any of the magical defenses of a compound, not to mention make the mundanes pee their pants. However, lately, many morgues ward their environs.
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normally for insurance reasons.
-RuskIFace the Pirate
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The whole "Army of Waking Darkness" thing also comes to mind...
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and to stop thoes dirty bodystealing shadowrunners from hawking the wares from their last corperate raid to organleggers.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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Tamanous is your friend!
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as long as you got some meat you don't want.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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So, did FanPro ever elaborate on who runs Tamanous?
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not that i'm aware of. what have you heard?
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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The whole "Army of Waking Darkness" thing also comes to mind...
Heh.
"This is my BOOMSTICK!"
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not that i'm aware of. what have you heard?
-RuskiFace the Pirate
If I'm not mistaken, that might get touched on in "Loose Alliances". Of course, I've been out of the SR bizz for a while now, so I may very well be mistaken.
Mike
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Still waiting for some newness from my local geek shop.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
picked up 'little black book', some good info in there.
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Lots of extra contacts n' drek?
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The Little Black Book came out just as I was getting out of SR to get into Warhammer 2nd Edition, but I was able to look at the contact lists. They're pretty wiz. I wish I had had these when I was heavily running my game, it would have come in handy.
Gabriel
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Yea. if you have runners that 'burn' through a lot of contacts, it's a very usefull thing to have.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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Well, you know my gripe about the lack of statistics printed for SR concerning NPC's. Hell, you even have a copy of my NPC index. So you can see just how much I enjoyed having a new list of "normal" NPC's.
Gabriel
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I have one stock NPC, modified for race.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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So waht, every encounter with an NPC in your game is just "that guy." The same 5 guys populate your entire world? The only OTHER people in the world are the PC's??? Damn, that must be a wierd game...
Gabriel
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well, diffrent personailities, but when they try to talk the guy pushing the shoping cart into helping them steal a car, or they decide to haggle with the store clerk to get the nerps that isn't suppose to be on the shelves yet... i have a generic 'average guy' stats that i fall back onto.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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my dm has a tendecy to pull a new npc out of thin air whipping it on the spot doesnt worry about stats
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Sounds familiar.
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Well, it CAN be done. any GM worth their weight in salt can do it. however, stats; while not necessary for every NPC, do ocasionally need more solid numbers behind them... say, when the PC's decide to beat them up. or pick them up and hold them ransome. or enlist their aid to help fight their nobil cause.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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Oh yeah, I've been there. That's why I have my index. If the PC's start making it neccessary for the NPC to have stats, he gets them. But yes, there are times when a personality is all you need for the interaction, and that can best be done as-lib.
Gabriel
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so, what are the personalities you use the most? anything cool you wouldn't mind me stealing?
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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Well, those are made up on the spot and then filled in with stats at a later date, but as I recall, you already HAVE all of my NPC files. You greedy bastard you! >:( No more cookies for Ruski!
Gabriel
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oh yea... hehehe
i forgot about that.
-RuskiFace the Greedy cookie pirate
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Hrm... You do remember that the Critters source has stats for "Average" metahumans. Note: that the "average" troll has an Intelligence of 1, which is really really sad... one of my players played an illusionist and trolls were his favorite targets.
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not a very bright player was he
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Well, if it's good for the goose...
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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Hrm? No, he was a very good player. A troll with 1 intelligence isn't gonna know which of the three quickened mirror image spells is the real one because even at force 2, a troll with 3 intelligence can't beat 4 successes, ya see?
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ah but dosent exceptional sucsess negate that say for example by a fluke of the dice they roled for the troll 3 sucesses that exceeded the target number by will say 8
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Not officially it doesn't. Of course, depending on the GM and the game at the moment, something like that could be easily allowed.
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but even if its alloud, the very definition is 'a fluke of the dice'... what is the probibility of that happening? vs. what is the probibility that the troll will tear your arms off and beat you with them if it figures out what image is real? now, if you have a troll-magi, then you have other problems, but there are other methods for getting arround that.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
i don't know about you, but if i had to plan on my enemy getting a 1 in a 100 chance of reconising me spell off, i wouldn't really worry about it. i'd probibly even save my spell pool to resist the drain of casting the low force spell, because the chances are, it's going to work fine.
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Yeah, but we've all been there when someon "yatzeed" a roll and got something like 6 6's at once. Hell, that actually happened on the very first game I ran.
Gabriel
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well, it does happen, for the NPC's and corp guards, as well as the runners.
it's what makes shadowrunning exciting.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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I don't think you understand:
Dumb troll + force 1 pain illusion equals a troll that rolls with +6 for a pain target number modifier. The troll cannot simply "ignore" the pain because his mind is too dull to realize that the pain isn't real. I could make an illusion spell that makes the target feel like he's on fire along with some full sensory details like smoke and burning flesh, and as far as the troll knows, he'd better put out the fire. Of course, it helps to actually cast a damaging spell once and a while too!
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Se,, that's where I think SR really drops the ball: rating 1 attributes. I mean, by all rights, a rating 1 intelligence whould make you retarded. So following that logic, why would a retarded troll be on a running team anyway???? And don't say "because he's retarded" or "because the rest of the team is retarded too." RUSKI! ;)
Gabriel
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Hey, it's hard to find good help thease days.
and asside from the archtypical retarded troll, and anemic decker; thease people bring their own 'advantages' into the group.
1) dumb trolls work for cheap.
2) they can lift heavy things.
3) they think 'taking one for the team' is a good thing.
so what if they suck aghinst magical attacks, and wouldn't be able to talk their way through a fast-food line, they can pick up a car and throw it, and sometimes, that's usefull too.
same thing with the decker with a strength and body of '1'. he spends most of his time sitting in a chair, if you have to give him a gun, you have more problems than 'he's no good in a firefight' to deal with.
everyone has things they are good at, and things they suck at. it's the beauty of the system, so; you have your own mage protect your troll from magical attacks while he goes in and pummels their street-sam who didn't have the foresite to bring a GP-HMG into the frey. meanwhile the rigger drives, and the decker hacks.
if you have a perfectly rounded decker-mage-adept-ninja-troll-rigger... i have one word for you:
Munchkin.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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Ummm... Ruski, have you ever seen anyone with skillwires?
Let's see: DIMAP 6 Customized Implanted Rifles 12 chip with rating 6 skillwires (Implant option makes the chip half the effect on the ASIST limit on the wires) plus an implanted chipjack w/ rating 3 expert driver= 13 dice + 6 combat pool + 3 task pool = one kick ass sniper!
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What is the essence loss on that?? And doesn't using skillwires elliminate a combat pool?? The inflexability of the program precludes improvisation, thus the combat pool is illiminated.
Gabriel
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The DIMAP option on the chip allows the user to use 6 combat pool dice.
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a rating 1 int doesnt nessarly mean retarded they my just be undereducated and as to trying to figure out wich is woch just grab a long pole and sweep thru all of them
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The DIMAP option on the chip allows the user to use 6 combat pool dice.
Ok. I'm not very familiar with that piece of tech.
And Mercy, I have to disagree with you on this. 1 is as low as you can get on this scale. There is no 0 to this, therefore 1 has to be at the very bottom of the mental ladder. We are talking below Gump level here. Genius level would be something like 8 or 9, which a human can get to if he tries REALLY hard, but is extremely rare none the less.
Gabriel
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3 is average, and the average human on the planet isn't too bright.
2 would be clueless, operating with 33% more stupidity in their life than the 'average' human.
1 would be really retarded. operating 66% below the average consumer, and 33% worse than even the 'clueless' on the planet.
4 is slightly above average. i'd imagine that most skilled mechanics and artists fall into this catagory.
5 is really smart. you would probibly be the smartest guy in the class if this was your stat. you may know some smarter people, but it's argueable who is really smarter, because there are diffrent 'types' of smart, and you probibly apply your intelegence better to whatever aspects of your life are most prevelant.
6 you are twice as smart as the average human. you can do two things at once, without any extra concentration on your part. you probibly don't need the math-co-processor, as you can figure out 7 to the 17th power, in about 30 seconds while standing in line at starbucks.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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Pretty much what I was thinking, but without all the big numbers. ;)
Gabriel
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well, i find i can understand it better if i put words to the numbers.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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but how many brain cells i take to grab a long pipe and swing it in a arc
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Well taht's the thing isn't it? You can swing the pipe and kill someone, but you can NEVER make a descision for the group or really participate in any other way than "moble killing machine troll guy" on a run. Personally, I think the 1-6 system is a crock. The one thing I have always loved about D&D is the 3-18 system of statistics. It allowed for a much finer gradation for all stats. You were able to say things like "My barbarian with a 17 strenght is stronger than your Ranger with a 16 strength, but not by much." Whereas in Shadowrun you can't really say "My mage with the 6 Intelligence is only slightly more intelligent than your rigger with a 5." That really doesn't work since the gulf between those numbers is, by the sytem's very nature, quite wide. The difference is roughly 33%. That's a huge statistical chunk in a situation like this.
Gabriel
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In that case, read up on
Rulemaster ... er ... Rolemaster.
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Notable, but my Red Mage Technique of Twinkery shows that a rating 2 intelligence Troll is also much easier to raise with a Rating 10 Expendable (Increase Intelligence) Focus than somone with rating 6 intelligence, no?
All I have to do is throw 6 sorcery, 6 spell pool, and 10 focus dice against a target number of 2:
11 07 05 04 04 04 03 03 03 03 03 02 02 02 02 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 #D:22 TN:2 HR:11 S:15
Wow, 15 successes! So let's see here, that's an increase of 7 intelligence provided a Force 7 increase intelligence spell. On a mage with 6 intelligence, that roll would have only increased their INT by 1 point. So the troll ends up with 9 INT and the mage with 7, fancy that, eh?
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But won't that rating 10 focus only allow as many successes as the rating of the spell? Of course, that's still a hell of a mental boost. I guess it's easier to work with a blank slate.
Gabriel
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that's like having major league hitters from a profesional baseball team take turns swinging a bat at a T-ball event.
you are attacking with your best attack, at the area they are weakest.
let's talk about that same mage trying to get over the background count asociated with a cyberzombie to pull off an attack.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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Ok, set up a situation: what is he trying to cast, and who/what is the zombie?
Gabriel
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let's go as extreme for the cyber-zombie as he went extreme for the mage.
level 10 focus... let's say a cyberzombie with -10 essence.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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Foci only have one limit in that they are a risk of Magic Loss through Focus Addiction, but since the focus is only force 10 and disposable, that's really not a problem (the limit is Magic x2) The expendable focus is solely for the 4,900 square centimeter tattoo that will be quickened with the spell, as well. *evil grin* Also, expendable foci only require a bonding ritual and no karma.
Now, for the cyberzombie, the magician would simply have to cast enough magic around said cyberzombie and then turn them into a walking Power Site.
You could do the same by Quickening a rating 6 Astral Haze spell and spending 12 karma and then aspect that background count into a Power Site.
The basic rule of magic in the Sixth world is that if something affects something in one direction it also affects it in both reflection and opposition. That is to say, that a negative background count can become a good one and vice versa.
I've heard of corporations doing some nasty research in regards to mana warps and karma hazing...
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Ah, our consumer dollars at work.
Gabriel
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well, they should be doing something cool with it anyways.
however, if your mage is expending karma, our zombie should get to spend it as well.
and 12 karma goes a long way for buying sucesses or falures (resisting dammage, or buying extra sucesses with his minigun.)
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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Nothing settles an argument like a minigun. :gabe:
Gabriel
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that's what I'm saying.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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personaly if i was the mage screw trying to hit the cyberzombie instead if was trying to distroy it go for the area around it more afective dropping a building on it or cuase the ground to cave in under it because the difficultly would be less being as you dont have to deal with its -10 essance
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Damn straight, Mercy. Tossing a firebal at the propane tank the thing is standing by would be a hell of a lot easier than throwing it at the zombie.
Gabriel
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Yea, but that's assuming it's standing next to a propane tank. dispite what hollywood has taught us, they aren't always arround.
and also take into consideration, we are talking like we are assuming that the mage is going to go first... practicly every cyber-zombie out there has a set of wires, making them quite a bit faster than the mage they are fighting... if I was the mage, i'd be working on defence first, because robocop is going to go a couple of times before they even get to think about what to do.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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Robocop NEVER went first. That guy was slower than Kid_Vid's come-backs. However, that having been said, I think you may have a point. Of course, summoning a big-mojo spirit or on-call elemental would be damn helpfull too. Always remember the lesson Pokemon has taught us: Let others fight your battle sfor you.
Gabriel
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well, yea. I'm assuming that the street-sam is the 'someone else' fighting this battle.
if it was me, i'd say:
"Hey, I'll Rushambo you for it. I go first!"
then, one swift kick to the groin later, i'd say.
"Here, I quit; you can have your stupid arrowhead. I didn't want it anyways."
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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You want to kick a cyberzombie in the groin? Ruski, there's a reason you should stay behind a deck for runs like this. ;)
Gabriel
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I got steel-toe.
and perhaps he'll just feel bad for me at that point?
LOL
-RuskiFace the Pirate
(and come to think of it, they don't let me do much when guns start going off...)
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It's probably better that you stay in the safety of your own home for those kind of runs. Or better yet, go to Starbucks and jack in from there. Nice and public.
Gabriel
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Hmm... starbucks... they'd probibly want me to buy a cup of coffee, and my cut from the run couldn't cover that I don't think...
-RuskiFace teh Pirate
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LOL, you know, I never thought of Starbucks actually pandering REAL coffee in 2063. I wish you would have said that a few years ago when I was running the decker in my group. He never jacked in anywhere else.
Gabriel
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well, it would have given him a good reason to keep shadowrunning...
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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Ain't it the truth. Damn, just being able to walk in there would probably require a credit check. Real coffee in a coffee shop in Shadowrun... Nah, that's just TOO unrealistic.
Gabriel
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and the security you have to get through to get a job there? it's almost like trying to get yourself a job as CEO of an AAA corp.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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I never said take the zombies recation just how to deal with it
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well, in dealing with it, you'll have to take into account it's reaction.
we took the troll's ultra-slow reaction into acount.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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No, YOU have slow comebacks!!!
hahahaha... I just saw that (a month later) and felt like commenting.
-kv
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hmmm... perhaps wired reflexes don't help your sense of humor at all?
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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Depends on where you're getting the coffee at. I bet you can get good coffee in the Middle East... Provided you aren't Awakened...
It's hard to drink coffee when you have a mob of poopy-handed Shiites chasing you with rocks, AKs and RPGs...
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That's a good point. You could probably get some good drek in Columbia too, provided you have the nuyen for it. OF course that begs the question: what other items taht we consider common would be rare/expensive/luxeries in SR?? Personally, I have to say real tobasso cigarettes and anything with real beef in it.
Gabriel
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I remember reading that 'real' food (read: non-soy based) was more of a luxurious thing. Could probably make a ton of cred hijacking a shipment of beef and selling it on the black market.
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Yup. Time to go into the cowboy cow-thief buisness!
-RuskiFace the PIrate
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Well, let's take a look at comparative pricing:
0 Street Lifestyle: , you have to find your own food or eat out of a dumpster
100 Squatter: You eat nutrisoy with some flavors, mostly junk food or "bulk soy" or mycoprotein flavored with droppers.
1,000 Low: This is the basic foodstuffs, microwaved nutrisoy or mycoprotein with prepared flavors loaded with artificial flavors.
5,000 Middle: You actually eat real food on occasion, however, real still means that it's loaded with preservatives and lots of faux filler. Fast food comes in here with "real" burgers and those half artificial french fries.
10,000 High: You eat real food every day, fresh fruit, vegetables, real meat, etcetera.
100.000 Luxury: Delicacies and gourmet eating all the time, basically.
So, that is to say that a natural food meal costs 10x the amount that a snackfood out of a vending machine (basically) and 5x that of a TV dinner or Soyburger.
By comparison, that's not much different than today, where you spend a buck on a bag of chips, 5 bucks for a value meal. and 10 dollars to cook your own dinner or get a meal at a relatively nice "sit-down" restaurant.
Granted, there is still a lot more soy and mycoprotein filler involved. But real food isn't terribly rare.
Notably kiddies, mycoprotein is an artificially engineered fungus that can be grown in vats. Guess which company owns the subsidiary that invented/produces the most of it?
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Aztechnology has most of the soy-stuffers supplyed in stuffer-shacks in their pocket.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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Yep yep, but what is the name of the subsidiary so that circle gets the square?
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It's piped through so many shell corperations, you'd have to be a decker on the inside to follow it all. However, You dont' have to be a decker to read 'made in azland' on the bag of chips.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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You know, you might really be able to make a good living as a black market grocier. Of course, you would have to think of a wiz street name that combine your bad-hoop runner image with that of someone who really knows food.
Gabriel
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How about these?
General Merchandise
Salad Shooter
Check-Out
Clean-Up (on Aisle Four)
Stockboy
Miss Manager (for the ladies)
Clerk Merc
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LOL, Clerk-Merc!!!
Gabriel
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I ran a story once that ended up with a Fuchi VP owing mega favors. But Fuchi hit the skids in the lit did it not? Does anyone have the lowdown on their 3rd/4th edition status?
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I thought they mostly got absorbed by Renracu, Shiawase, and Novatech?
(and I looked over the Crash 2.0 book, and apparently Novatech is the one having corp troubles... damn that stupid Art Dankwalther storyline)
-kv
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Yeah, Fuchi is no more in 3 & 4. All three of the original board members took their balls and went home. Novatech was formed and got slithslapped by Dankwalther for a while. That forced Novatech to go public, which lead in no small part to the second matrix crash. Of course, Artie got taken out with a Thor Shot that was authorized by the Corporate Court during the crash. So, he got what was coming to him.
Gabriel
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Fuchi was a break-up waiting to happen. Once they started fighting eachother instead of fighting for survival, the rest of the megacorporate sharks swallowed them up.
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Couldn't agree more. Makes you wonder if anyone was instigating all of the bad blood doesn't it???
Gabriel
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Well, I know the Villers managed to shark his way onto the board, and the other two never actually forgave him for it- the instant they took thier shares to other companies, those companies got the same hate-on for Villier that they had.
-kv
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Don't hate the player, hate the game?
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Don't be naieve.
Any woman telling the truth will admit that they hate the players, game be damned.
Corporations are like women, only not so good at forgetting or forgiving.
-kv
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And now I will duck, before one of the ladies of the pub come out of the shadows and snipe you.
Gabriel
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What? I'll take the hit, because I earned it... but it's the truth.
Women hate players. Corporations are worse than women when it comes to holding grudges and forgiving. Women are not good at either, corporations are worse.
-kv
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You know, everyone hate "playas" even the "playas" themselves. Why do you think they are always so loud about it??
Gabriel
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Nothing better to do, I guess?
Corporations really aren't like players, because they don't think about pride or honor. It's all about the almighty nuyen.
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So, they're like evil people who sell AmWay?
-kv
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NO, Kid_Vid. They ARE Amway. :o
Gabriel
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I don't know, I think the whole 'Don't hate the Player, hate the Game' routine is actually a cover.
ever notice how wall-street does terrible things? almost constantly? Destroying jobs to increase the profitability, investment on margins, the destructive movement of short term capitol... who's accountable for that?
Is it the evil companies? who tells the evil companies what to do? the CEOs? who tells them what to do? Money? where does that mysterious money come from? Investors? ahh... getting closer...
so who are the investors? get rich quick scam artists who want to borrow 1,000Y and turn it into 2,000Y without any effort on their part... but are we aloud to hate them? No! THEY aren't the ones destroying the economy, it's the faceless corperations! Hate the Game! it's the Game that put you out of work and moved your job to a sweat shop in south africa!
but really... the game is made up of players.
I think it's okay to hate the players.
because if there were no players, there would be no game.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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Seconded.
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Can I second a second????
Gabriel
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Moebius'd!
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What? I'll take the hit, because I earned it... but it's the truth.
Women hate players. Corporations are worse than women when it comes to holding grudges and forgiving. Women are not good at either, corporations are worse.
-kv
Not true. I don't hold grudges. I'll stab they guy right off, and if he survives all is forgiven. Corporations on the other hand - well the ages old Fuchi deal included two minor VPs who were also each others ex's and one went to a Renraku rogue to help take down the other. Didn't work and she wound up dead, but hey....
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I presume you speak of Samantha Villiers?
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I think that catagorizing runners or individuals in something so broad that in encompases a little more than half the population of the planet, and every race and species imaginable; is probibly a little broad...
it would be more likely accurate to state that there are a number of women who are currently holding grudges aghinst you, and that there are fewer men in that same catagory.
-RuskiFace the Pirate
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I presume you speak of Samantha Villiers?
Nope. Entirely different rutless bitch. We always went whole cloth, never used the novels. Is that where she's documented ? or is she in the supplements?
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Yeah, Samantha Villiers is the ex-wife of the Richard Villiers, the owner of Novatech. She's in the Blood in the Boardroom source and a couple of others. Corporate Download, etc.
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Never trust a woman who is also a corporate executive. WAY too scary. But she was probably good in the bedroom...
Gabriel
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Might've been, don't know if she's been in any of the new canon though.
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My partner said she was but then he'd been a long, long time in the desert. A sheep would probably have rated golden with him ;)
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Hooray for syphilis!
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LOL!!!!!! Bam!!! Instant Karma!!!
Gabriel
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I'll have to post a write up of this stuff....