Shadowrun Occultist quest 1: Redd Right Hand

>>870303
>Do morning exercises (get character statistics)

>>870303
>Check your Persona 2.1™ page (learn about your crew and contacts)
To better set up our character's stats by knowing what angles our other crewmembers already cover.

>>870303
>Check persona

Welcome to Shadowrun Occultist Quest!

>What is Shadowrun?

Shadowrun is an RPG series set in the world of 2072, 60 years after "The Awakening", the return of magic, spirits, and fantasy races into the world. Metahumanity now lives in a world of advanced technology and magic, where megacorporations are above the laws of nations and one-third of all humanity have no legal rights. Crime and corruption run amok, and mercenary operatives known as "shadowrunners" ply their services to both the criminal underworld, and to the very corporations that officially fight against them.

>How are success and failure determined?

A number of d6's are rolled equal to the relevant attribute+the relevant skill. 5's and 6's are successes, and the dice are rolled against a target threshold (1 for something trivial; 6 for a highly difficult /intricate task. 10 for something next-to-impossible). Each 6 rolled results in one additional die being rolled in the pool. Results are as follows:

Target number of successes is met: the action is a success.

Target number of successes is not met: the action is a failure.

Target number of successes is met, but more 1's are rolled than any other number in the pool: a "glitch" occurs: a minor outside complication arises that prevents success.

Target number of successes is not met and more 1's are rolled than any other number: critical glitch. Your actions fail in a way that is potentially disastrous for your long-term goals or your health.

You will have 2 points of Edge each "session" that you can spend to tip the scales in your favor. When requesting an action, you may specify that you want to spend a point of Edge to add "luck" or "effort" to a roll. "Luck" will add five dice to the roll's pool (great for situations where Redd is forced to work out of his depth). "Effort" will re-roll all failed dice on a roll if it does not meet the threshold, glitches, or critically glitches (the point will be refunded if none of these happen). This is good when you are playing to Redd's strengths, but want to make sure you don't botch something.

Good luck, and remember the fundamentals of shadowrunning:

>Shoot straight!

>Conserve ammo!

>Never make a deal with a dragon!

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>>870378
>Never make a deal with a dragon!
Too late, though. We're working with a corp runner team.

>>870420
Two out of three isn't bad. Also, 10 minutes left to vote.

>>870303
>Watch some trideo news (Catch up with current events/learn about the world)

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>>870344
>>870366
You take your AR contacts out of their box and put them in, then take out your commlink and navigate to your Persona 2.1™ page. From there, you start checking up on the status of your crew and contacts.

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>>870490
Your crew:

>Rhun "Hela'R Dryw" map Gaelwynn
A short, toned, and angry Welshwoman who serves as your crew's close-combat expert and recon gal. Has enough chrome and bioware in her body that she could probably tank a fall from the 10th floor of a skyraker into an acid vat. Against all odds, holds a Master's degree in Welsh History. Likes: Parkour, sex, narcotics, alcohol, swordfighting, Welsh autonomy from the UK, Lofwyr (The CEO of Saeder-Krupp), Saeder-Krupp. Dislikes: The English, the Irish, the Scottish, Tir Elves, "wankers", people who don't like Lofwyr or Saeder-Krupp. Last status update: "Had a gr8 nite out w/ the ladz yesterday! 8 pints of beer and three doses of Bliss: new record! #SoHungover #Bliss #FreeWales."

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>>870498
>Rex Stirling
A Chicago native and former cleaner for Saeder-Krupp, now demoted to shadowrunning due to a series of unwise decisions that started with a decision to do a hit-and-run on the leader of a major street gang. A veteran of the Sinai Shadow Operations of 2065. Consummate professional (apart from the hit-and-run) and a hard, hard man. Likes: clean runs, gray suits, the Chicago Shatterers Urban Brawl team, and "Sweetness", his Gauss rifle. Dislikes: Messy runs, being double-crossed, "wizard bullshit", you. Has a sparse social media presence.

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>>870500

>Sudo Morphus/"N0b0dy"
The crew's decker. Used to just be an IT nerd, until S-K got leverage on him for redirecting spam-mail from one of their subsidiaries back to said subsidiary's servers. You have the closest relationship to him our of anyone on the team. Suffers from Sudden Unexplained Resurgent Genetic Expression (SURGE), which gives him oily, bright-green scales instead of skin, along with a tail. Mildly depressed. His current update is an announcement about his faction in the popular MMO "Galactic Conquest" controlling 15% of the galaxy.

>>870515
>his faction in the popular MMO "Galactic Conquest" controlling 15% of the galaxy.
We're a former academic, and need some hobbies. Maybe an MMO is just what we need.

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>>870515
>Tizona Cortez

An ex-pirate technically-nun, Tizona Cortez is your group's mage. She channels the power of God to smite your enemies and bring down the heretic government of Aztlan (formerly Mexico). Lives apart from the rest of the crew, in a convent in Charlotte. Her most recent post was about Sunday service times at Our Lady of Perpetual Virtue.

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>>870542
>"Barbie"
Not a part of your crew, but a close associate. A total ditz when it comes to anything but fashion, smoothies, and calculating the thousands of variables needed to make the perfect sniper shot. Over 40 confirmed kills. Color-coordinates her duffel bags with her outfit. Suprisingly nice for a professional sniper. Does her work to help out her large family. Most recent post: "This kale-rhubarb-pinapple smoothie may totes be my best combo yet! #Goals #selfie #smoothies

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>>870564
>Andrea Bianchi

Your fixer. A capo in La Cosa Nostra, Usually contacts your group at Our Place, the local mob-controlled restaurant. Sensitive about his name. Specializes in enforcement and collection.

>>870571
You close your Persona window and mentally check "Make sure none of your crew died while I was out" off your list. What do you do next?

>Do morning exercises

>Watch some trideo news

>Do gear maintenance

>Go bother your crew

>>870575
>Do morning exercises

>>870575
>>Do gear maintenance

>>870575
>>Do morning exercises

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>>870593
>>870579
You find that morning calisthenics help warm you up for a day of illegal activity.

Physically, you aren't out of shape, but you're far from the tower of body power that is Rhun, or the dead-eye marksman that is Rex.

>Body 3

>Strength 3

>Agility 3

>Reaction 3

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>>870710
Mentally, its another story. You have a mind like a steel trap and are skilled user of others. Anything less would have had you implode in the high-stress worlds of academia and megacorporate management. Your only mental weakness is that your gut instinct is merely good, and not stellar.

>Logic 6

>Willpower 6

>Intuition 4

>Charisma 6

>>870720
You are extremely competent in a wide variety of fields: when it comes to your commlink, you easily qualify as a "power-user". You hold professional levels of knowledge in the fields of history, religion, magical theory, ancient languages, philosophy, and business administration, and are almost as competent when it comes to biology (parazoology and parabotany included). You know enough alchemy and chemistry to cook up some "chemical enhancers" without a whole lot of danger to yourself and others, and have a grab-bag of other talents. You also have the spark of magic, albeit weakly: enough to make you be able to make magical compounds and items, but not enough to actually CAST magic.
>Magic 3
>Computer 7
>Academic Knowledge: History 7
>Academic Knowledge: England 1
>Artisan 1
>Leadership 2
>Interest Knowledge: Conspiracy Theories 2
>Language: English (native speaker)
>Language: Mandarin 2
>Language: Japanese 2
>Chemistry 4
>Etiquette 7
>Software 3
>Academic Knowledge: Magical Theory 6
>Academic Knowledge: Biology 5
>Language: Spanish 2
>Academic Knowledge: Ancient Languages 7
>Academic Knowledge: Philosophy 6
>Academic Knowledge: Religion 7
>Instruction 2
>Professional Knowledge: Wondertainment Industries 3
>Con 1
>Negotiation 2
>Professional Knowledge: Business Administration 6
>Enchanting Skill Group 1
>Arcana 2
>Assensing 2
>Blades 1
>First Aid 1
>Survival 1
>Professional Knowledge: Small-Group Tactics 2
>Street Knowledge: Magical Theory 1
>Academic Knowledge: Literature 3
>Alchemy 3
>Pistol 1
>Pilot: Ground Vehicle 2
>Sneaking 3

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>>870780
Unfortunately, having a bomb go off in an enclosed space does things to your face. You were lucky enough to avoid being blown up, but the ensuing conflagration damaged your face and eyes. They were mostly repaired, but you're still scary-looking and your vision's a touch blurry.

>Modifier: Scarred: -1 on non-Intimidation Charisma tests, +1 on Intimidation tests.

>Modifier: blurry vision: -1 on Perception tests and Firearms tests on shooting someone more than 10 meters away.

>>870796
Your exercises done, you pour yourself a glass of synth-orange juice and plot the next step of your morning routine:

>Watch some trid-news

>Clean gear

>Go upstairs and bother the crew

>>870805
>>Clean gear

>>870805
>Clean gear

>>870575
>Morning Exercises.

>>870805
>Watch news

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>>870855
Already got you, family.

>>870816
>>870825
You start checking our your gear to make sure that it didn't get damaged or sold off overnight.

First, your basic gear:
1 Fake Social Identification Number (SIN) (rating 4): "Vinny Russo", a half-Italian meat salesman.
1 Erika Elite™ Commlink, with a sim module and subvocal mic attachment.
1 knife
1 armor vest
1 micro-transceiver
1 tag eraser
1 mapsoft program (Seven Arcs region)
1 Gold credstick (holds up to 100,000 nuyen)
1 Contact set (rating 3) with AR image link, low-light vision, and flare compensation.
1 set of earbuds (rating 3) with sound link and sound compensation.
1 camera (rating 1) with vision magnification.
1 set of metal restraints.
1 backpack, rated for up to 50 pounds.
1 flashlight with normal and low-light settings
1 set of climbing gear
1 set of diving gear
1 gas mask
1 respirator (rating 4)
1 survival kit
50 meters of rope
1 medkit (rating 3)

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>>870932
Next, your weapons arsenal:

1 Ares Viper Slivergun (15-round clip burst-fire heavy pistol with built-in sound supression. Fires a penetrating flechette.) with a concealable holster, a spare clip, and 170 pistol rounds.

1 Walther Palm Pistol (2-shot double-barreled holt-out pistol) with a concealable holster and 10 rounds of ammo

2 Parashield dart pistols (dart-firing pistols with 5-round clips) with 10 darts loaded with Narcojet tranq-dart toxins.

2 standard knives

2 combat knives

2 survival knives

1 club

1 extendable baton

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>>870932
>"Vinny Russo"

Oh boy,we're completely squishy.

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>>870979
You have a number of outfits for day-to-day work, but when it comes to runs, you really have one option: your three sets of Actioneer armored business clothes, each equipped with electrochromatic modification to make them look as slick, formal, or wild as you want. You also have a bugout bag ready, with a fallback (if obviously fake) SIN ("Torque Malorque"), a knife, a Streetline Special (6-shot clip holdout pistol) with a spare clip and 30 rounds, a knife, a set of metal restraints, a shitty backup commlink, and two doses of the wakefulness-inducing drug Long Haul and a 1000-nuyen disposable credstick, all in a duffel bag.

Finally, you have your Mercury Comet™ SUV (as driven by the star of Slade the Sniper! Fridays on channel 34!) and 6,800 nuyen of disposable income.

After making sure everything is still where you left it, you debate between watching some trid, or going upstairs for a proper breakfast.

>Catch some trid-news
>Go upstairs and bother the crew.

>>871062
>>Catch some trid-news

>>871062
>>Go upstairs and bother the crew.

>>871062
>Catch some trid-news

>>871062
>>Catch some trid-news

>>871079
This.

Bother the crew

>>871062
>Catch some trid-news

>>871062
>Catch some trid-news

So, should we be saving up for some vat-grown eye replacements?
Do we want to keep the disfigurements, or pay to get some surgery and repairs done?

It looks like we fill the role of a face in this team, sort of.

Sorry for the delay, was out eating.

>>871458
>>871312
>>871082
>>871074
>>871085

The crew can go hang themselves for now, time to watch the news.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnXLUaOSCsM

You lazily flick on the trid and shift the feed over to channel 0095: the local news station, owned by Ares Entertainment™.

"Welcome to 95 Action News! I'm your host, Clinton Meadows!"

"And I'm Elena Borja. Our first story today: the CAS general election."

"Thanks, Elena. With less than a month to election day, the field has narrowed to three candidates. James Diaz, candidate of the Human Dignity party, currently holds a narrow lead over Libertarian nominee Lakeisha De La Cruz, with Herbert Sandoval of the Greens struggling to keep in third place."

"Mr. Diaz's lead comes as a surprise to many Americans, given the accusations leveled against the Human Dignity party of having ties to radical anti-metahuman groups such as Humanis Front and Alamo 10k. Mr. Diaz has denied these charges, insisting that 'the platform of the Human Dignity party has no anti-metahuman sentiment, and is concerned primarily with fair play and the social and economic welfare of the CAS'".

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>>871699
"Our next story: the Richmond grid was down for three hours yesterday after it was attacked by the Apex virus, leaving millions without Matrix access during a high-traffic period."

"This attack is the fourth time this year that a major matrix grid has had to be shut down due to this virus. The Grid Overwatch Division has ensured the public that this outbreak is being handled professionally, and that, while they are investigating any possible links with terrorist groups, citizens should not panic."

"But, with all these major attacks, and countless minor ones, we here at Channel Ninty-Five have to ask you: is YOUR commlink next? We've brought on three local cybersecurity experts to discuss."

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>>871699
>general election
Hey, are we old enough to have voted or lived through the Dunkelzahn administration?

Come to think of it, is our SIN registered as a CAS voter?
While Lofwyr probably doesn't particularly like representative republics, he does recognize their ability to keep the masses thinking they have a say while he controls the representatives from the shadows.

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>>871834
Dunkelzhan's administration (all ten hours of it) was as president of the UCAS (United Canadian and American State) which is made up of New England and parts of Eastern Canada, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Midwest. Charlotte, NC, and the rest of the Seven Arcs are part of the CAS (Confederated States of America), which is made up of the rest of the Mid-Atlantic and the South (with the exception of South Texas, which is part of Aztlan, and the tip of Florida up to Miami, which is part of the Caribbean League. Redd is native to London originally, and his REAL SIN is a Wondertainment Industries Corporate SIN.

>>871775
The news quickly devolves into a four-way shouting match between the hosts and the three "security experts". Mentally cursing yourself for wasting time on infotainment trash, you leave your combo home/drug lab set up in the corner of your team's base and head up the stairs to the actual house.

You emerge from the stairwell hidden in a former Butler's pantry into the kitchen (neglected save for Rhun's beer bottles and the well-used microwave). You can hear someone stirring about in the family room, just around the corner. Muffled explosion noises indicate that someone is using the upstairs trideo for something (virtually) violent.

You hear the typical mixture of groaning and cursing in Welsh that indicate that Rhun has regained consciousness in the living room. Rex is probably holed up in the home theater room, watching war documentaries on an old school 2D screen.

>Go to living room
>Go to family room
>Go to home theater
>Call another contact (specify which)
>Write-in

(Home floor plan is pic related)

>>871921
>Go to butler's pantry

and after that

>Go to home theater

>>871921
>Go to living room

>>871921
>Redd is native to London originally, and his REAL SIN is a Wondertainment Industries Corporate SIN.
Ah, I thought he was a UCAS native, otherwise his London accent will probably stand out.
I take it that Wondertainment Industries is a AA, if it has extraterritoriality?

>>871921
>Write-in
Go to the kitchen, see if there are ingredients to make a hangover cure. From what Rhun posted last night, she's going to need it.

>>871940
>Go to butler's pantry
We just came out of the butler's pantry. That's where the stairs to our place are located; why would we go there?

>>871945
>I thought he was a UCAS native, otherwise his London accent will probably stand out.
Redd speaks naturally with a British Received Pronunciation accent (his family had mad nuyen growing up), but can suppress it for when he needs to sound American.

And yes, Wondertainment Industries is a AA corporation that specializes in the production of children's toys, family entertainment products, soft drinks, snacks, and family programming, all brought to you with that classic Wondertainment Whimsy™!

>>871945
I second this.

>>872002
Traditionally English, then?
It's a wonder that Rhun doesn't hate us.
Or is it that she tolerates us because we're the only other academic on the team that she can hold a curse-laden conversation with?

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>>872170
Basically this.

>>871945
>>872017
>Action: attempt to prepare hangover cure SUCCESS (9 successes; mental limit 8)

You quickly mix some egg yolks, some filtered water, and one of Sudo's caffeine pills together in a blender, then mix in just a TOUCH of your personal hangover cure: mild nootropics. Even if it doesn't cure her hangover, micro-dosing her like this might bring her IQ up to a level where she realizes her hedonic lifestyle is suicide in slow motion!

>Hangover Cure added to inventory

>Go to living room
>Go to family room
>Go to home theater
>Call another contact (specify which)
>Write-in

>>872393
>>Go to living room
She's the reason we made the cure in the first place.

>>872393
>Go to living room

>>872393
>Go to living room

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>>872446
>>872460
>>872512

With your hangover cure/mad science experiment in hand, you head to the living room, where you find Rhun laying under a blanket on the couch, her face covered with scratch and bite marks, pressing buttons at random on the home climate remote to try and tint the windows. She jerks her head around at the sound of your footsteps, then winces.

"Who'sere? Oh, Redd. Its you.

Well, I had a good bit of fun last night! Drugs, booze, a good shag, all that great stuff. Wish me 'ead didn't feel like it was about to pop, though. So wha's up?"

(choose one or more than one)
>Offer her the hangover cure
>Ask for details about her night
>Ask her why her face is cut up
>Reprimand her for her Bacchanals
>Write-in

>>872635
>>Offer her the hangover cure
>>Ask her why her face is cut up

>>872635
>Offer her the hangover cure
>Reprimand her for her Bacchanals
>Ask her why her face is cut up

>>872635
>Offer her the hangover cure
>Ask her why her face is cut up

>>872701
>>872673
>>872665
"Dear god, Rhun, what happened to your face? Who assaulted you?" A brief wave of panic rushes through your body: "Is this position compromised?"

"Nah, 'less you think private Jennifer Levanhus is going to drop the dime on us." She waves a hand in the general direction of her room. "Let me tell you, she 'interrogated' me GOOD last night. Don't worry, we took turns. Most of these scars are probably from the orc I threw out a window to get a shot with the police cutie.

Now, if you want to chill, that's cool, but I'd kind of prefer if you just hand me whatever's in your hand and let me sleep off last night's impulsive decisions."

>Ask for details about her night
>Reprimand her for her Bacchanals
>Go to home theater
>Go to family room
>Go to Rhun's room
>Call another contact
>Write-in

>>872968
>Reprimand her for her Bacchanals
>Tint the windows

>>872968
>Write-in
Ugh, fine. Hand her the hangover cure and go to the kitchen to whip up another one for the cop.

I'm assuming Lone Star since they're big in the CAS, and it's always useful to have an in with the local cops.

>>873019
>>873013
(tyring to combine all three for the sake of brevity)

"Fine. If you want to kill yourself with booze and drugs, I suppose I can't stop you. Just try to sober up before our next job."

You hand her the hangover cures, take the remote from her, and tint the windows.

>Action: Prepare another hangover cure SUCCESS

You whip up another anti-hangover smoothie and start taking it towards Rhun's room.

You hear the sounds of rustling paper and groaning from behind the door. It occurs to you that, even if this officer isn't going to sell your crew up the river to Lone Star, you aren't quite comfortable with letting her see your face.

>Leave the smoothie outside the door, then do something/go somewhere else.
>Take it in.
>Write-in.

>873331
With a super awesome disguise. Like a pantyhose on your face.

>>873331
>Leave the smoothie outside the door, then do something/go somewhere else.
We should catch up on the latest published journals to keep our knowledge up to date.
Or go to the family room to see the latest games.

>>873331
>Write in
(In Spanish falsetto) "Housekeeping!"
>Then leave smoothie

>>873376
>>873381
>>873388
Three options. This means: voting round 2

>Deliver smoothie wearing disguise
>Leave smoothie and go to family room
>Deliver smoothing using spanish falsetto

>>873514
>Leave smoothie and go to family room

>>873514
>Disguise+Spanish Falsetto

>>873514
>Deliver smoothing using spanish falsetto

>>873514
>>Leave smoothie and go to family room

>>873539
>>873558
>>873562
>>873582
Alright, the people have spoken...

>Action: Disguise yourself SUCCESS (1 success)

You look around the house for something to disguise yourself with, and find only a bandanna. Well, it will have to do.

>Action: Impersonate spanish maid FAILURE (1 success out of 3 needed)

"eh... Room... service?" You try in an obvious englishman-trying-to-sound-like-a-spaniard voice while knocking on the door. You hear footsteps coming towards the door, before stopping just on the other side. The voice on the other side barks out, curtly, "Who the frag are you?!"

>Cut and run
>Fake it until you make it
>Explain yourself
>Write-in

>>873715
Fake it until you make it,baby

>>873715
We have mad social stats.
>Fake it

>>873715
>Fake it until you make it
Hijinks

>>873715
>Write-in
"Eh, a housemate. Got an anti-hangover shake. If you're in any shape like her, you need it."

>>873715
>>Fake it until you make it

"Just thought I'd get you something for that hangover that Rhun is no doubt responsible for."

I wish we had a sharpie for a mustache disguise under our bandana.
DOUBLE DISGUISE!

Captcha was waffles, which I bet would be hella good for breakfast.

>>873715
Are you running a pink mohawk or black trenchcoat Shadowrun campaign here?

I don't want a conflict of expectations to ruin what could be a fun quest.

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>>873773
Mix of the two. Rhun and Tizona are pretty pink mohawk, Rex is pretty black trenchcoat, Sudo is a normie, and Redd TENDS to be black trenchcoat... apart from his love of psychedelic drug experimentation (he's a big believer in the whole "mind expansion" thing: one of the crimes that S-K has him pinned to the wall for is the mass manufacture of DMT and DMT-derivatives for recreational use, as well as "intoxication of multiple animals"). Overall, a moderate level of shenanigans is expected (especially since Lofwyr basically had to put the team in the time-out quarter recently for accidentally starting a massive gang war in the Asheville area)

>>873722
>>873740
>>873745
>>873759
A short, auburn-haired girl with hangover eyes opens the door and gives your "casualwear" (a tracksuit with a bandanna around the face) a once-over. "Who are you supposed to be, exactly?"

>Action: Con the cop SUCCESS

"Eh, I am Senora Rhun's MAID. Si, her MAID", you say in your best Spanish accent, while furiously mugging at the cop through the bandanna."

She stares at you blankly. "You're lucky I'm too hungover to give a shit about whatever bet you lost to be doing this. Give me that." Without saying a word or asking questions, she grabs the shake and sharply closes the door in your face.

Relieved that you avoided things ending with a taser getting familiar with your genitalia, you head back towards the heart of the house.

>Go to family room
>Go to home theater
>Call another contact (specify)
>Write-in

>>873878
>Go to family room

>>873878
>Go to family room

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>>873958
>>874065
You head over to the family room, anxious to talk to your intellectual peer in the house.

You find Sudo seated in front of the fortress of screens and towers that qualify as his "gaming setup", locked in a cold-sim daze. On-screen, his avatar, an alien in a red mechsuit, guns down squadrons of robotic skeletons in a series of hit-and-run attacks. His scaly hide occasionally twitches a bit.

>Watch him play

>Talk to him while he's playing

>Get him to pull out and talk IRL

>>874147
Write-ins are also valid.

>>874147
Check what game he's playing, and see if we have our own account, or if it's Free-to-play trash.
Talk to him through instant messaging or in-game chat if it's available.

Don't be an ass and interrupt his game-time.

>>874147
>>874181
Seconding this

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>>874205
>>874181

>Action: Matrix Search SUCCESS
You switch on your AR contacts and check up on Sudo's GamersUnite™ account.

It looks like the game he's playing is the top-played sci-fi MMO on the market: Galactic Conquest.

"In a galaxy ablaze in war, only YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS can bring stability to the galaxy! Will you build a grand empire to stretch across the heavens, or will you tear it all down and feast on the ruin? Unprecedented levels of customization! A mix of player-generated and living-world content! Multi-level and multi-genre gameplay! 10/10, says Singularity News!"

So goes the macho sales pitch. User reviews seem to indicate that the game is highly engaging, with various "modes" covering the RTS, FPS, Action RPG, and Grand Strategy genres.

The game has a 250-nuyen-a-month subscription, although there is a "free-to-raid" option.

>Sell out the subscription fee and buy into the game
>Take the "Free-to-raid" option
>Chat with Sudo through IM
>Write-in

>>874381
>Chat with Sudo through IM

>>874484
You pull up an IM window and shoot off a quick "Just got up and took care of the kids. How are you doing?" to Sudo.

"Not bad. My Sect just pulled a major victory out of a mistake I made. I love this community.

Maybe you should give this game a try, you know? The strategy and diplomacy layers are pretty engaging, and seem right up your ally!"

>Chat about the game
>Chat about potential side-jobs
>Chat about Sudo's condition
>Go to Home Theater
>Call a contact
>Write-in

And with those options, I'm going to have to grab some sleep. Quest will resume after wakefulness (probably around 10:30-11 EST)

>>874617
>Chat about the game

>>874617
>>Chat about the game

>>874617
>Chat about the game

I mean, the game SOUNDS good, but I'm wary that it might be pay-to-win.

>>874617
>Chat about the game

>>874617
>Chat about the game

File: naval warfare.jpg (1MB, 1600x780px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1600x780px

>>875279
>>875280
>>875303
>>875380
>>875443
>>875455
(Sorry for the late start, laptop crashed)

"That DOES sound intriguing, but I don't want to play it if the hard work I put into getting good can be negated by someone waving a credstick at the designers."

"Nah, man, its not like that at all. Listen up-"

Galactic Conquest is built around conflict between various player-generated factions, which compete over resources in the form of valuable planets and star systems in-game. These factions belong to various in-game "races", and all factions belonging to the same race are nominally aligned (although infighting is common). Factions are led by high-skill players who have "ranked up" through the game's system.

Most players are ground or sergeant-level soldiers, who engage the enemy in planetary conflicts. These conflicts progress through several stages:

>ORBITAL STRIKE

First, the invading side sends in orbital drop forces to establish a beachhead surface-side, which will allow the invaders to start bringing in armor assets.

>BATTLEFRONT

Both sides clash in a series of point-capture, king-of-the-hill, or straight kill-based conflicts, in order to accumulate "invasion points" (for the invaders) or "repulsion points" (for the defenders). If the defenders gain sufficient repulsion points, they can turn the invasion around and launch attacks on the enemy beachheads to drive the invaders off-planet. If the invaders accumulate enough Invasion Points, they can progress the invasion to the next phase:

>SEIGE

The invaders begin to lay siege to the strongholds of the enemy, seeking to break through their defenses. If successful, the war for the planet progresses to:

>Urban Warfare

The invaders confront the enemy in their own city, claiming the enemy's cities for their faction and capturing the planet.

At any point, either side may carry out Special Ops, deploying a small, elite force of senior players to strike behind the normal lines of battle to carry out recon or sabotage operations.

Naval battles are another key part of Galactic Conquest: each warship in-game is controlled by a player or a clever NPC Agent that takes its orders from a player. Warships clash with each other to open up travel routes or to clear the way for a planetary invasion. Boarding Actions, which often arise during naval battles, give the more ground-level players the opportunity to turn naval battles by carrying out sabotage attacks on enemy vessels and potentially even capturing them.

A small minority of players for each faction are in charge of Domain Management: dealing with domestic issues for their faction and ensuring that the engine of conquest remains fueled.

Warships, armies, etc. have to be funded by in-game domestic policies, including trade, mining, etc. This makes the quality of planets a vital consideration in invasions. Each faction also has unique considerations in terms of what kind of planets are appealing to them.

>>875524
(Options in second post because long)

>Ask more about the mechanics (write-in what)
>Ask about the game's races and factions
>Talk about something else (write-in)
>End conversation and go to home theater
>End conversation and call another contact
>General write-in

>>875528
>>Ask about the game's races and factions

>>875528
>Ask about Factions
See if there's one that fits us, or if Sudo can get us an in with his Sect

>>875561
Second

>suddenly it's a space empire quest

>>875567
>Quest-in-a-quest
>xibit.jpg

>>875556
>>875561
>>875566
The races are as follows:

>The Hegemony
A vast imperial confederation of lords, with bulky, Utilitarian aesthetics. They're the race that gets most of the screentime in the adverts. Their military utilizes human-wave tactics supported by heavy armor battalions and orbital bombardments. Individual factions in the Hegemony represent the personal domains of various Lords. Most Hegemony players are pretty normie.

>The Technocrats
A group of metahumans who devoted themselves to technological progress over everything else, the Technocracy is now a lifeless cyber-state that "converts" the populations of planets under its thrall into armies of androids. Its military have the most advanced technology of any faction (most powerful guns/armor), but are usually at a numerical disadvantage and are slow as fuck, relying on a vulnerable teleporter network for rapid deployment in large battlefields. Individual faction in the Technocracy are different "Iterations" of their Strategic Intelligence.

>Raiders
Breakaway space pirates and criminals that live on the fringes of the galaxy, they are highly disorganized, with non-standardized gear and ships. They find occupying planets difficult, but are hard to dislodge from a planet and accumulate power merely from carrying out successful attacks on other factions. On average, Raiders are great in close-range, but their gear is usually shitty versions of another race's gear. Due to them being the free-to-play faction, Raider players are seen as scrubs of the highest caliber. Raider factions tend to be groups of casual players forming a Raider "clan". Usually no more than an annoyance to non-Raider factions, but surprisingly dangerous when multiple clans band together.

>Wujin Kingdom
A hodge-podge of various Eastern stereotypes, the Wujin utilize a vast arsenal of specialist soldiers that excel in one particular role, but crash and burn when used incorrectly. Overall, their tactics rely on speed and an understanding of metagame tactics in Galactic Conquest. Their high-skill entry barrier means that most Wujin players are HARDCORE players. Individual factions are "Provinces" of the Kingdom.

>The Strigoi
Hideous, life-sucking monsters, the Strigoi are often described by the fanbase as "Raiders if they weren't shit". Lethally fast and masters of ambush and psychological warfare, the Strigoi utilize bio-chemical warfare and bio-engineered monsters to aid in their raids. They struggle in head-on engagements and prolonged warfare, but gain in-game power by the number of slaves they capture to feed their literal bloodlust. Their heavy HMHVV and S&M influences mark them as the "edgelord's race". Individual factions are various "Bloodlines" in Strigoi culture.

>The Hive
A swarm of monstrous beasts with a hive intelligence, the Hive floods the enemy with a vast swarm of monsters to overwhelm the enemy. Quantity over quality is the (1/2)

>>875609
(2/2) name of the game with Hive warfare. Hive-conquered planets are contaminated for a while after being captured, weakening them for other factions and compensating for the Hive's difficulty in holding off invasions. "Strains" of Hive DNA make up the factions. Most Hive players are viewed as pricks, due to the simple flood tactics involved in their warfare.

>The Eastern Rim Confederacy

A religious alliance of multiple species, the Eastern Rim has a diversity of soldiers and gears, as well as slick-ass mechs. Strong in long-range firefights, but crumble at closer range. Most Eastern Rim players are viewed as cautious wusses as a result. Individual sects within the Eastern Rim's faith system form the player factions. Sudo's faction, the Red Lotus Sect, are part of the Eastern Rim Confederacy.

>Ask for more details about a particular faction
>Talk about game mechanics
>Choose a race/faction and make an account
>Talk about something else (write-in)
>End conversation and call another contact
>End conversation and go to home theater
>General write-in

>>875640
>Talk about something else (write-in)
Is there any way to make use of these people for our main business?

>>875609
I think we should become king of the Raiders or just go see someone else

>>875640
Let's talk about those side-jobs from earlier

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>>875663
>>875686
You quickly cut off Sudo as he begins to launch into a lecture about the "Path of Harmony", the Eastern Rim's religion.

"As fascinating as all of this is... is there any way we can make money off of this?"

"Uh, yeah? There's a reason I bounce my signal through 2 proxy grids before logging on. High-level play in this thing can get INTENSE. Players choking down Long Haul and Psyche for game-a-thons, playing double or triple agent for different factions, taking out hits on other players... actually, I think that last one's just an urban legend, but I think I can find an angle we can play. I'll check up on you about that later."

Sudo cuts off your IM line. On his setup, several chat-screens blossom as he starts fishing for information.

>Go to home theater
>Go to living room
>Go back downstairs
>Talk to "Barbie" on Persona
>Call your fixer
>Write-in

>>875707
>Go to home theater

>>875707
>>Talk to "Barbie" on Persona

>>875707
>>Go to home theater

>>875707
>Talk to "Barbie" on Persona

>>875711
>>875720
>>875730
>>875772
Okay, gonna need a tiebreaker:
>Go to home theater
or
>Talk to "Barbie" on Persona

First post decides.

>>875784
>Home Theatre
Let's meet the last member of our group

>>875801
>>875730
>>875711
You head over to the windowless nook of the home theatre with some trepidation.

The interior is wreathed in shadows and the scent of bourbon. Footage of rolling desert hills and small villages roll across the scream as your professional team member nurses a glass. he barely even looks around as you come in.

"Five clicks out of the Wadi Maghareh. Islamic extremists had holed up inside of this shithole hamlet... can't even remember what it was called, now. Damnedest thing. Still, it was me, Peg, Rusty, and "Propane", our demo expert. We'd been sent in to capture the group's sufi and bring him back to the blacksite for 'interrogation'. We'd managed to get within 50 meters of the building they were using as their base when a damn jinn materialized out of nowhere and started raising the alarm. Rusty managed to cap it with the anti-spook rounds, but by then it was too late. Their boss came out of the place screaming about how we were agents of the Great Satan, how we were all going to get spikes up our assholes in Hell for opposing him, all that shit. I had a clear shot on him, but..."

He turns around and looks at you in the eye. Its clear he's a bit drunk.

"...Fucker had this little, this little eight-year-old girl, and he had his fucking handgun pressed so hard into her temple that I could see blood dripping out of it. A damn eight-year old!"

At this last proclamation, he gestures with his glass of bourbon, spilling some onto the carpet.

>Are you okay, Rex?
>.. And? What happened?
>I don't have time for you being morose, Rex.
>Write-in

>>875843
>>I don't have time for you being morose, Rex.

>>875843
>Are you okay, Rex?

>>875843
>>.. And? What happened?

>>875889
This.

>>875843

That's probably when everything went to shit I suppose

>>875843
>.. And? What happened?
I suppose it went to shit.

>>875966
>>876034
>>875889
"... The whole situation was FUBAR. If I took the shot, there was a chance the last thing the bastard did was ventilate the brains of an eight-year-old girl, and then I'd have that blood on my hands AND DC on my ass for unnecessary casualties. If I DIDN'T take the shot, the bastard's pals would start hunting us, and then we'd end up dead. Plus, there was always the chance that the terrorist fuckwad would just plug the girl out of panic, anyways. I didn't see a way that this was going to end without every member of the squad being court-martialed, hostage, or dead. And then Propane peeled off the nearest wall and dropped his camo.

Now, Propane was never the most stable guy. I blame all the time he spent holed up in his little bomb tent, inhaling all those fumes. The combat drugs they were all giving us weren't helping things either. But here Propane was, dropping his suit's camo in the middle of an op, and what did he have under his suit?"

Rex laughs-a short, barking noise.
"A bomb vest! Propane had just sewn some C-12 into a spare vest and put it on before we went on the op! So there he is, yelling in his dumbshit Missouri accent about how 'Y'all raghead motherfuckers better drop all your pea-shooters before I give all of y'all the old allah akbar treatment!', and the bastards are staring at him like he had two heads and three dicks. In retrospect, it was pretty funny.

Anyways, the boss took his pistol off of the girl for a second, and that gave me the opening I needed. I dropped that SOB like a rice sack. Never saw it coming. Afterwards, Propane brought his camo back up and went prone, and it all went off. Bullets flying everywhere, grenades going off, and Peg slipping up on the sufi and giving him some narcojet to keep him asleep until we finished the extraction.

We had gotten vertical and almost reached the extract roof- I mean, I could SEE our VTOL cominb in!- when Propane got shot. Must have been the luckiest camel-herder in the world, because even today I can't figure out where he got the angle for the shot he made. Clean through the shoulder, fucked his right arm beyond all recognition.

I kept telling him, I kept telling him that he was fine, that we could get him a chrome arm, mount a rocket launcher in it or something, but he just looked at me. I wish he hadn't.

...Never be able to forget what he said to me. 'There ain't enough of me that can be saved. There ain't enough of any of us to be saved. I'm gonna die here and now, on my terms, 'stead of rotting in some vets home.'

...And then he just took his detonator in his hand, jumped off the roof, and..."

>It was his time, Rex.
>He was nuts. Wouldn't have survived long anyways.
>It wasn't your fault.
>Write-In.

>>876398
Sorry for the slow reply, just drove back from Thanksgiving.

>>876398
>It wasn't your fault. Tough shit to carry with you, for certain, but i suppose i'd rather die on my own terms than waste away in some home. Not any time soon, mind you, but goin' out with your boots on is honorable in my book.

I'll drink one for him with you later.

>>876398
>Write-In.
"You saved the kid, right? I think that's enough to save there. That, and they were still coming after you, right? Would the VTOL have been able to make it in without an RPG going up its ass?"

Because this is Shadowrun; maybe that insurgent that took out Propane's shoulder was an adept.
Can you imagine the merry hell a phys-ad could do to a VTOL trying to come in for a hot extraction if he's got some RPG's?

>>876398
>>It wasn't your fault.

>>876427
This.

>>876435

seconding

>>876435
This

File: good vibes1.jpg (81KB, 500x333px) Image search: [Google]

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>>876435
>>876457
>>876479
>Action: talk down Rex SUCCESS

You cautiously place a hand on Rex's shoulder. "You managed to save the girl, Rex. That shows that there was enough to save. In addition: they were still gunning for you. For all you know, that VTOL could have been plucked out of the air by the same insurgent that took out 'Propane''s arm. He might have been an adept, and not just lucky."

Rex closes his eyes and inhales deeply.

"... You know, I hadn't thought of that. Nine years, and I hadn't thought of that."

Rex picks himself up and nods briefly at you.

"Sorry you had to see that. Trip down memory lane ended up going into a dark alley. Knew there was a reason we kept you around.

Give me a few minutes to pull myself together and take some Sober Time, and I'll be ready for duty."

He turns off the old-fashioned flatvid projector and briskly strides out.

You feel like you've done something worthwhile

>1 "Good Vibes" point gained

>Check out what Rex was watching
>Go back to family room
>Go back to living room
>Go to (Rex, Sudo, Rhun)'s bedroom
>Chat with "Barbie" on Persona
>Call fixer
>Write-in

>>876573
>Call fixer

>>876573
>Write-in
Check out the Philosophy, Occult, and Magical Theory boards on Jackpoint.
We gotta stay on top of rumors and the latest publications in our fields of study.

>>876587
Okay,changing to this. Then
>Call fixer

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>>876587
>>876595
>Connecting Jackpoint VPN...
>...Matrix Access ID spoofed
>...Encryption Keys generated
>...Connecting to Onion routers
>Login: Crypsica
>Password: D0n0TC411upwh@ucantputd0wn
>Password confirmed. Connected to <ERROR: UNKOWN ADDRESS>

You browse over to the three boards you most frequently post on: /ph/, /o/, and /mt/, and start tossing terms into the search engine. You quickly pull up a selection of threads:

On /ph/:
>Monadology and the Self
>Theory about Personafixes
>Ethics on digital wildlife?

On /o/:
>Crazy cryptid sighting off NC coast!
>Cursed Ouija board for sale NOT A HOAX
>Can a deck get possessed?

On /mt/:
>Relationship between Matrix and Astral space
> Do spells work on Mars?
>Significance of Christian Therugic practice and relationship between holy sites and background counts

>Read a thread (which one/ones?)
>Mark threads for later reading, then call fixer
>Write-in

>ethics on digital wildlife

not a vote and meta question but...
Is the Apex virus related to the AI from Berlin?
>>871775

Anyway, suppose it would be business before fun so let's mark
>Significance of Christian Therugic practice and relationship between holy sites and background counts
>Can a deck get possessed
and maybe
>Monadology and the Self

and call the Fixer

>>876750
>Read a thread
>Ethics on digital wildlife?
>Can a deck get possessed?
>Relationship between Matrix and Astral space
>Significance of Christian Therugic practice and relationship between holy sites and background counts
Considering we've got a nun mage on our team, I think this is very important.

>>876790
Kind of. Will definitely cover that later on.

>>876816
[paranoia regarding jacking into matrix intensifies]

>>876790
>>876806
Okay, tiebreaker time again.
>Read all threads here >>876806 THEN call fixer?
>Mark all threads for later reading and call fixer now?

Voting closes @ 8.

>>876960
Mark for later call fixer

>>876960
>Read all threads here >>876806 THEN call fixer

>>876960
>>Read all threads here >>876806 THEN call fixer?

>>877014
>>877022
You decide to take some time browsing Jackpoint before calling Andrea.

Nergal: I've been thinking, /ph/. Ever since Emergence has become a thing, and protosapients and technocritters have started being covered in the news: do we have a responsibility to these strange new creatures? Plenty of people consider metahumanity as having a responsibility to maintaining the ecosystems of our planet, but does this apply to VIRTUAL ecosystems as well? Should we start creating wildlife conservation servers? Your thoughts?

Astarte: Put down the bong, dude. Protosaps can be contained by just giving them a big bunch of code to munch on, but technocritters can get all over local grids and frag them-and anyone using them- to hell. I think we should have open season on the little freaks.

Bobby Tables: Hey, I used my deck about a week ago to do some antibranding shit on a local Stuffer Shack that's supposedly haunted. I thought the guys who were telling me that were yanking my chain, but ever since then my deck's been acting weird: opening windows at random, overheating at odd times, stuff like that. Is it possible that its now possessed?

Set: 2spoopy4me

Nexus-6: /dk/ crossposter here. What's your setup?

Bobby Tables: Its a RadioShack PCD-500 with the biofeedback filter option.

Fawksy: weak bait SAGE

Siraph: hownew.ru

Nexus-6: ...Its a RadioShack. What the frag did you expect from it? Just consider yourself lucky it hasn't crashed on you while you're in hotsim. Dumpshock like you wouldn't believe.

Bobby Tables: Screw you guys, I needed something cheap!

>>877280
Very nice xkcd reference.

Fake ID: Ever since the Matrix 3.0 started being a thing, there have been really fucky things going on with the Matrix. LOTS of fucky things. To the point where I feel confident in declaring that the Matrix has become its own planar realm: a technological Astral plane.

The parallels are obvious:

Technomancers=Mages

Technocritters=Awakened animals

Complex Forms=Spells

Sprites=Bound Spirits

Protosapients=Free Spirits

Hosts=Metaplanes

The Foundation=the Deep Metaplanes

My question is: what technology used to exist to make the Astral plane?

Y Draig Goch: Fake ID, this is the third time I've had to remind you of this: REGARDLESS OF THE PARALLELS, all discussion of Emerged matters is to be restricted to /o/ or /dk/. This board is for the discussion of MAGICAL THEORY only. You're getting a 3-day ban from this board until you can stop posting this every day.

*This thread has been pruned or deleted*

Psycho Gibson: I don't know how many of you guy's have been following the formal publications on the relationship between background counts and holy sites, but it looks like the Centrella Paradox has finally been solved! The reason why Ftr. Centrella's readings didn't match up with the IMC's readings on his local church's status as a mana well is because there is a form of SELECTIVE background count that makes magic stronger- or weaker- based on TRADITION-SPECIFIC CONDITIONALS. So, in addition to natural forces, all you mages out there are going to have to keep track of specific forces related to your tradition :(

Deviant Saint: ... Maybe this will convince the rest of my crew to actually get baptized. I was TELLING them that their heathenry was messing with my mojo.

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>>877514
>>877383
>>877280
>>877272

Your daily dose of browsing complete, you decide to ring up your fixer.

"Ciao, amico mio. I hope the 'meat business' is doing well. I might be interested in placing an order myself. You should come down to Our place and talk about it sometime. Now, what is it that you want to talk to me about?"

>I want a job
>I need a favor
>I'm interested in buying some illicit merchandise
>Remind me how La Cosa Nostra works in the Seven Arcs?
>Sorry, wrong number.

Well,if we want shady stuff,we shouldn't do it over the phone. Just ask her if she wants to buy something,and if yes,say we'll swing by soon.

>>877624
>Her

Andrea is a male name in Italy.

>>877601
>I want a job
"I was wondering if you needed anything delivered. After all, there must be a couple of stops to be made today or tomorrow. I could stop by to discuss some more details if you need me too."

>>877682
I'll second this if we do it in a goofy Italian-american accent.

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>>877682
>>877822

>Action: affect Italian accent GLITCHED
"I waza wondering if-a you need anything-a delivered. I got-a some real spicy meat-a-balls ready for you!" You say in a painfully cringe-worthy Italian accent.

"... I think that would be excellent. Bring your delivery van to Our Place around lunchtime. See you soon."


Our place is the kind of business that screams "mob front". Retro decor, expensive mirrors, muscular trolls in ill-fitting suits flanking each side of the door, the whole nine yards. Andrea is sitting in the corner booth, wearing a salmon-colored silk shirt, a gold watch, mirrorshades, and a snarl.

"The hell was that shit over the phone? I get you're supposed to be one of us, but that was just insulting!

...I suppose you're lucky the Welsh did that clean hit on that mick rat, so I'll let it slide for now. So, what do you want?"

>Work
>A Favor
>Answers
>Write-in

>>877822
No more fake accents., I regret proposing the first one already
not really

>>877870
>Work

>>877870
>Work
"The shit on the phone was because we had someone loitering outside and I wasn't sure who it was."

>>877902
Supporting this. However,we can also use the cop as an excuse.

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>>877890
>>877902
>>877924
>Action: cover up for your horrible accent SUCCESS

"Well, if you want the Lone Star private I saw nearby to know that I was going to meet my capo, the next time I'll just shout 'MOB BUSINESS' before I go out the door. Now, shall we get down to business?"

Your fixer looks mildly peeved at your response.

"You've made your point, ya limy prick. Now: do you want to help the Family, or not?"

He places a pocket projector on the table, which quickly throws up an image of a sleek-looking credstick.

"This credstick belongs to a snail-eating piece--of-shit named Vadim Dube. He's a Quebecois director whose come down to the Seven Arcs to film a little movie about drag racing. He's been hiring Family muscle to help "convince" City Hall to give him the proper permits on the cheap. He was SUPPOSED to pay us 300,000 nuyen for this little service. He hasn't. I'm sure I don't have to tell you what needs to be done?"

>No, capo
>I could use some details
>You want your 300,000 nuyen
>You want us to "convince" him
>You want us to whack him
>Where's he holed up?
>Write-in

>>878194
>Where's he holed up?

>>878194
>I could use some details
Primarily relating to how badly he can be treated, where he is, and if you want any specific things done beyond what you've just said.

>>878194
>You want your 300,000 nuyen

>>878252
Details are good

>>878226
>>878252
>>878417

"I think we have a few questions" you respond.

Rex goes first. "Where's the mark? I need to know how heavy we need to fire."

"He's hiding out somewhere in Chapel Hill. Tiny arc. Old college town. You guys'll probably like it: you can actually see the sky from street level there. Beyond that, you'll have to track him down."

Rhun speaks up next. "Can we kill him? Ar at least flog 'is arse raw an' bleedin'?" You can see her bouncing up and down in her seat gently.

"Don't ice the guy. He's connected with CATech. Ex-AAA. Not guys you want to make enemies out of. Hurt him, but leave him in good enough shape to film his little racing pic."

Sudo suddenly interjects: "You know, I could just try and remotely access his account and launder the money. Then, you know, we wouldn't have to risk getting shot." As far as you can read his scaly face, he looks a bit nervous.

Andrea gives him a look over his mirrorshades. "Bit too far gone for that, Scales. We don't want the guy dead, but we DO want to send him a message that the Family is not to be cheated."

You nod. "Now that that's out of the way... let's talk payment."

"You get 30,000 nuyen. 10% of what the guy owes. Sound fair?"

>Yes (take the offer)
>No (Try to negotiate upwards)

>>878437
>Yes (take the offer)

>>878437
>Yes (take the offer)

>>878437
>No (Try to negotiate upwards)
We'll take 30,000 as the base pay, but if the guy's got corpsec from an ex-AAA or a supplemental security contract from Lonestar, an additional 5%.

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>>878537
>>878450
>>878446

>Action: Negotiate Hazard Pay SUCCESS WITH EFFORT

"We'll be glad to take that if the gentleman has riff-raff for security, but if we hit hard defenses, we'll want hazard pay."

"I'll make a note. Have fun in Chapel Hill."

We'll be closing out there for tonight. I'll probably be back here around 4 PM tomorrow. Feel free to use this time to float ideas and plans for tracking down the debtor.

>>878681
Redd and Sudo can try tracking him down by checking food delivery records from the area's restaurants.
Look for a sudden spike in orders going to a specific address.
Combination of high quality stuff for our target, and cheap stuff for the security detail.

Rex and Rhun can check over CATech's security protocols and insignia.

We'll need to figure out what security this guy has as much as finding him.

So QM, are we now in black trenchcoat territory?

>>878727
Definitely. Chapel Hill is home to the University of North Carolina: one of the few state schools that has kept up with the private ones in terms of prestige. The area around UNC itself is definitely an A-zone territory (so you can expect city security on your ass within 10 minutes of that alarm going off), and uses Eagle Security for their local boys (so expect Texans with itchy trigger-fingers on campus). The town itself is pretty solidly B-zone (18 minute average response time) with MAYBE one tiny C-Zone (35 minute average response time).

Outside of campus, the arc's pretty sleepy (you know, for an arc), but that means that, if your group makes too much noise, you're likely to stir up a hornet's nest across the Seven Arcs area.

Oh, and a fair bit of warning: due to Saeder-Krupp's massive investment in NASCAR in Charlotte, there are a SIGNIFICANT amount of go-gangs operating on the highways between the Arcs and (to a lesser extent) in the sprawls around them. Have fun!

>>878834
>The area around UNC itself is definitely an A-zone territory (so you can expect city security on your ass within 10 minutes of that alarm going off), and uses Eagle Security for their local boys (so expect Texans with itchy trigger-fingers on campus). The town itself is pretty solidly B-zone (18 minute average response time) with MAYBE one tiny C-Zone (35 minute average response time).
In other words, no shenanigans, because we're out of the tutorial phase. Stow your pink mohawks for later.

>due to Saeder-Krupp's massive investment in NASCAR in Charlotte, there are a SIGNIFICANT amount of go-gangs operating
Do NOT mess with our corporate overlord's revenue stream. We can't kill them, because they bring money into Lofwyr's coffers, but we're expendable and our previous shenanigans got us on the boss' shitlist and put in the timeout corner.

>>878850
And please PLEASE! no more accents.

>>878727
If this guy's making a film he's probably need a lot of equipament, ask for Sudo to check delivery companies logs for big houls of filming stuff

We should get narcojet and shock rounds as well as gel bullets and DMSO.
We really shouldn't kill anyone here and shots from squirt guns and air guns are a lot quieter than regular guns.

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Your crew returns from Our Place and begins laying down the groundwork for the run.

You know that you're going to have to utilize your team's unique skills and knowledge-sets in order to bring this bum director in. Time to plan:

(Indicate which options you want to pursue, or write in your own):

>Track food deliveries
>Track film equipment shipments
>Do background research on CATech
>Buy equipment on the black market
>Write-in

>>880395
>Track food deliveries
>Do background research on CATech
>Write-in
Do some research on this director: likes, dislikes, how he operates and directs, his personality.
Also look for photos of him and try to identify what his personal security looks like; cross-reference with Lone Star, Eagle Security, and CATech corpsec.

>>880395
>Track film equipment shipments
to narrow down the search locations, then cross-reference those with the info from when you
>Track food deliveries

In the meanwhile do some back ground research on CATech, see why they have interest in this guy.

>>880427
this sounds good

>>880395
Can we check the films social media presence and see if they have any photos of during production/the set

>>880446
Actually, wouldn't the guy be using equipment his studio already has, instead of buying it?
Or are you thinking he's renting his equipment?
But come on, if he's doing the latter, he's not hiding very well, is he?

>>880577
Oh, that might produce some results if any of his staff aren't careful about what gets leaked.
Though I still think nabbing him when he's asleep is better than doing it during filming.

>>880588
>Oh, that might produce some results if any of his staff aren't careful about what gets leaked.

I think actors are vain enough that we can get some info, also absolutely don't grab him on set, follow him until he is alone. Time for a stake out

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>>880427
>>880446
>>880546
>>880577
>>880581
>>880588
>>880630
(Sorry for the delay, I was having dinner)

Now that we have some leads, which team-mates should research what?


>____ should track food deliveries
>____ should do background research on CATech
>____ should track film equipment shipments
>____ should check the film's social media presence

Available party members:

Redd
Rex
Rhun
Sudo
Tizona

>>880935
Redd on food delivery
Sudo on CATech
Rex and Tizona on social media
Rhun on equipment

>>880935
Sudo on food delivery
Rex on CATech
Redd to track the equipment
Barbie and Rhun on social media

Sudo on social media
Rex in Equipment
Rhun and Tizona on food
Redd on CATech

>>881334
>>881220
>>881105

Taking votes between these three.

>>881220
I vote this

>>881380
Voting for >>881220

>>881334
This.

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>>881390
>>881426
You stand in front of the trid-projector as you lay out the opening moves of your run:

"Alright, team, let's start hunting this debtor down so we can get this over with and go back to our lives.

Sudo, I'll need you to start digging up food order aggregate data. Look for an address that has a mix of high-quality food for the director, and a bunch of takeout rubbish for the security."

"For an entire arc?! That's easily TERABYTES of data!"

"And I have the utmost faith that you can sort through it efficiently."

You pivot from God's prank on the herpetological community to your ex-veteran/

"Rex, I'll need everything need everything you know about CATech. insignias, security protocols, what their CEO eats for breakfast-everything. I know you have contacts on the intelligence community. Use them."

"I'll call Rusty up."

"Good. Now, Rhun: I will need you to talk to your ~bestie~ 'Barbie' and go stalk the Persona account of Vadim Dube. Find out what he likes, what people are working on the script, and what this whole CATech angle is all about. These people are celebrities: one of them is going to slip up".

"Ach, come on! I was going to write a piece on hamlet life in Carmarthen during the Black Plague!"

"And once we are done here, I'll make sure its sent to a reputable publisher. I'll be covering the equipment-shipping angle."

A quick Matrix search later, and you find a likely company to start your search at: Wuxing Worldwide Shipping, which has a local headquarters in the Greensboro arc!

>HACK THEM
>Pose as the recipient of a package, try to bluff your way to the data you want
>Try and get the data in-person
>Write-in

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>881648
>HACK THEM

>>881648
>Pose as the recipient of a package, try to bluff your way to the data you want

>>881648
Wuxing? Are you fucking kidding me? They're a AAA megacorp, one of the Big Ten.

>Write-in
Read up on Wuxing corporate culture first, use our business management skills and knowledge to put together a persona and manager profile that will mesh right with Wuxing corp culture.
First do this, before we try to get the information we need.

>>881648
>>Pose as the recipient of a package, try to bluff your way to the data you want

Lets do a German accent this time.

>>881661
Anon, you should know that Wuxing is a AAA megacorp with a seat on the Corporate Council, and founding member of the Pacific Prosperity Group, and they started off as a shipping and import/export business.
That means that they've got a cultural stake in making sure that any shipping business associated with them is not messed with. I think we should be a little more cautious when dealing with a business that has the name of a AAA megacorp right on the front.

>>881687
This isn't Pink Mohawk time, this is Black Trenchcoat.

>>881698
I did not know that. I retract everything I have ever said in this thread.

>>881706
http://shadowrun.wikia.com/wiki/Wuxing,_Inc.

>Major Subsidiary
>Wuxing Worldwide Shipping

We're in Black Trenchcoat mode right now.
Take advantage of our character's business management background to at least know of the Big Ten.
Evo, Renraku, Are, Mitsuhama, Saeder-Krupp, Wuxing, Shiawase, Horizon, and NeoNET.

>>881766
A quick sidenote: would this thread like/benefit from a summary of the Big Ten before we continue, for the sake of participants who may be less familiar with the Shadowrun universe?

>>881836
It may, but I don't know if it would help players who don't pay attention or those who intentionally try to commit Pink Mohawk shenanigans in a Black Trenchcoat campaign.

>>881836
Yes please

>>881836
Please, I have never done Shadowrun before.

>>881836
You might also need to talk about extraterritoriality and SINs, and the importance of corporate culture.

>>881849
>>881870
>>881874
>>881889

Alright, then. So:

>WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TO SURVIVE IN THE SIXTH WORLD

>SINs

The System Identification Number is a 12-digit alphanumeric code that serves, basically, as a "personhood license". You want to purchase something? That goes on your SIN. Rent or buy property? Goes on your SIN. Get a firearm license? Goes on your SIN. Given that most security companies have access to SIN data, this means that you can be tracked, bagged, and tagged REAL EASY if you use your real SIN a lot. This is why having at least one fake SIN (for property rental) and buying as much suspicious gear as possible on the black market (where SINs aren't used) is important for Shadowrunners: otherwise, they tend to get Lone Star kicking down the door faster than you can say "unlawful use of force".

Redd has one real SIN (Frederick Smith, 38, White, Male, Human, Brown hair, Blue eyes, English, former Head of R&D at Wondertainment Sodas, a subsidy of Wondertainment Industries, currently unemployed), a passable fake one (Vincent Russo, 38, White, Male, Human, Brown hair, Blue eyes, Italian-American, salesman for A Cut Above Artisinal Meats), and an obviously fake one useful only for buying things in the shadiest of areas (Torque Malorque, 24, Black, Male, Black hair, Green Eyes, Ork, American, Hip-Hop Artist)

>Extraterritoriality

The Shiawase Decision of 2001 established the legal concept of extraterritoriality: that sufficiently wealthy corporations, in essence, could self-govern on their own property. Off-property, corporations have to at least give lip service to the law. In their own property, the only laws are the ones they make up. This has led to many unpleasant and awful business practices to emerge, but the primary danger to shadowrunners is that a corp with extraterritoriality will have security teams packing devastating weapons, with permission to shoot to kill. Even if you end up getting captured, the corps have every right to put you in a CORPORATE lockup, which, as one might imagine, make normal prison look like a paid vacation.

>>881836
I think it would be a great refresher course even for those who do know about it.

>>881971
>Corp culture

Due to so many corporations being considered, in essence, nations unto themselves (to the point where Corporate SINs are a thing), brand loyalty and corporate culture are a huge deal to most corporate employees (or, as shadowrunners call them, 'wage-slaves'). Corporate citizens often spend their entire lives isolated from any sort of meaningful interaction with a culture outside of their corp (often living in vast, self-contained live-work-play environments called 'arcologies'). To boil it down: you know that weird chant that Wal-Mart employees do at the start of every morning shift? Imagine if your LIFE was defined by things like that. Corporations often have their own lingo, traditions, and mindsets that mark a person as being from a particular "corporate culture": Ares, for example, uses military lingo in everyday speech, and is known for running itself almost as much as an army as a corporation.

>>882005
Oh, don't forget the ubiquitous nature of RFID's and the wireless Matrix that we're in after the Second Crash. There's a camera on every street corner with RFID sniffers and facial recognition to match you up with your SIN.

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>>882027
Thanks, omae. Hell, you should practically be the one giving this talk!

>>882005

Now, let's get onto the Big Ten themselves, the biggest, most wealthy, and most influential businesses under the sun.

#10: The Horizon Group
Slogan: "We Know What You Think."

Summary: A private corporation originally founded to revive the dying dregs of Hollywood, the baby brother of the Big Ten is the media kingpin of the modern world. Uniquely, Horizon's internal policies are governed, not by its board of directors, but by "The Consensus", a complex predictive logarithm based on feedback from every level of the Horizon Corporate Environment.

Corporate Culture: Very laid-back about most traditional business formalities, Horizon corporate culture primarily revolves around the various internal social-media systems that are used both to form the Consensus AND as a way to select talent for promotion.

Important Divisions:

Charisma Associates (PR)
The Horizon Project (Social Outreach and Charitable Efforts)
Horizon Transglobal (Areospace)
Pathfinder Multimedia (Media Conglomerate)
Singularity (Software and Matrix Development)

Shadow Rumor: "Horizon has a special-forces group dedicated to meme warfare. I'm not fucking with you, man! They're all a bunch of master infiltrators who subtly manipulate society and "eliminate" memes that are deemed "dangerous" through social controls. Why haven't you heard of them before? Because they're that good."

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>>882092
#9: Ares Macrotechnology
Slogan: "Making the World a Safer Place"

Summary: American as apple pie, Ares is the force that put Detroit back on the map. The largest manufacturer of firearms in North America, the Ares brand (recent catastrophes involving overhyped and underperforming battle rifles notwithstanding) is associated with security, stability, and trustworthiness by freedom-loving exercisers of the Second Amendment everywhere.

Corporate Culture:Hard Work, Family, and Security are the pillars of Ares corporate culture. "Hard Work" means that promotions are so brutally hard to come by that the average Ares employee is probably addicted to SOME kind of work-performance enhancing drug to get an edge on their co-workers. "Family" means that company loyalty trumps all: Ares wageslaves are infamous tough nuts to crack. "Security" means that there are patrols everywhere and that you're going to get hit with full force the second you go loud.

Important Divisions:

Ares Arms
Ares Consumer Products
Ares Heavy Industries
Ares Entertainment
AresSpace (formerly NASA)
Knight-Errant Security (if Lone Star are the cops, these guys are MPs. Famous for their "shoot-first-so-we-don't-have-to-ask-later attitude)

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>>882152
#8: NeoNET
Corporate Slogan: "Tomorrow Runs on NeoNET"

Summary: A Frankenstein conglomerate of the Matrix kingpin Novatech (formerly Fuchi, formerly JRJ International), the telecomm giant Erika, and the cutting-edge augmentation firm of Transys-Neuronet, NeoNET used to be the second most-powerful corporation in the world. These days, its starting to fall apart at the seams.

Corporate Culture: While each corporation within NeoNET has its own culture, there is no overarching "NeoNET culture": This is probably a contributing factor to its collapse.

Important Divisions:

Fuchi Industrial Electronics (electronics)
JRJ International (Financing)
Manadyne (Magical Products and Services)
Magnadyne (Magical Research and Development)
Novatech (Matrix Design and Services)
Transys-Erika (Augmentation and Telecommunications)

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>>882205
#7: The Evo Corporation
Corporate Slogan: "Evo is Acceptance"

Summary: a daring corporation working on the cutting edge of bio-and-nano-technology, Evo is the dominant market force when it comes to "radical self-improvement".

Corporate Culture: Evo's corporate culture is about radical acceptance and evolution: acceptance of all forms of intelligent life, and the evolution of the metahuman into the transhuman. As a result, they have the most eclectic employees of the Big Ten.

Important Divisions:

Evo Financial
Evo Services
Evo Media
Evo Consumer Goods
Evo Industries

>>882205
Two things to note about NeoNET: their CEO is a man who fought on the financial scene against dragons and AI's, and won. Two, one of the companies that formed it, Transistor Neuronet, is world famous as being the only one to successfully implant a data jack into a dragon.

Also, these guys are the ones who rebuilt most of the Matrix wireless infrastructure after Crash 2.0; expect hidden backdoors and security coming out of nowhere to hunt you down if you piss them off.

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>>882235
#6: Wuxing, Inc.
Slogan: "We're Behind Everything You Do"

Summary: the sole Chinese corporation in the Big Ten and the mastermind behind the Pacific Prosperity Group, Wuxing maintains its dominance through a virtual monopoly on shipping in South Asia, skilled financial wizardry, and domination of the magical goods sector.

Corporate Culture: Wuxing corporate culture is strict, traditionalist, and very Chinese. Superstitions (often very valid ones) run amok in every aspect of the company's business. The most obvious example of this is the fact that every Wuxing office building is laid out according to the principles of Feng Shui to ensure maximum workflow.

Major Divisions:

Red Wheel Engineering (Heavy Industry/Energy/Resources)
Eastern Electronics (Matrix)
Wuxing Entertainment
Wuxing Finance
ESSY Motors (Automotive/Vehicles/Drones)
Wuxing Arcane
Wuxing Medical
Wuxing Services

>>882248
>Transistor Neuronet
Dammit, I meant Transys-Neuronet.

Anyway, I'll keep these comments to additional things that a lurker of Jackpoint and shadowrunner would have picked up from Jackpoint poster discussions from the sourcebooks, and not any of the actual reveals.

>>882235
Evo, formerly Yamatetsu, a AAA that tried to be progress before it got shot down by the other Japancorps, literally in the case of their Chairman of the Board.
They're famous for moving their HQ from Tokyo to Vladivostok, having an orc for a Chairman, and a spirit on their Board of Directors.

Their reputation in the shadows is actually kind of clean, much to the annoyance of shadowrunners.
Pro's: they pay, they generally don't double-cross, and they're actually serious about metahuman rights, because holy shit they've got the most diverse workforce in the world, including AI's, metahumans, free spirits, and nonhuman sapients. They even have AI and naga in management positions.

Cons: they actually expect runners to minimize collateral damage and not involve innocents, keep the killing to a minimum, and essentially act like good-guys even while expecting results and on a budget.

>>882269
Wuxing is nominally allied with Evo as they're both members of the Pacific Prosperity Group.
There's been some troubles though, with Wuxing's buyout of Malaysian Independent Bank essentially giving Wuxing control over loans given out to other members of the PPG, and Evo's fight with Shiawase which Wuxing doesn't support.

Because of their huge investments in magic, expect there to be a lot of magical defenses and wards.

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>>882278
(Many thanks to this anon for aiding me in this summary. He speaks the chip truth here.)
>>882269
#5: The Shiawase Zaibatsu
Slogan: "Advancing Life"

The great-granddaddy of all megacorps, Shiawase is notable for, despite its size, clinging to many of the traditions of the old-school Japanese "zaibatsu", or clan-controlled conglomerate. Power is mostly consolidated in the hands of the Shiawase family and its distant relatives. The company itself is known as a biotech giant to rival Evo, while also holding stakes in a number of other fields.

Corporate Culture:PAINFULLY old-school Japanese. Runners are expected to provide contact info on actual, paper-and-ink business cards, and may be hired to settle feuds that have their roots in a cup of spilled Sake 20 years ago. Ancestor worship and veneration of the Emperor are commonplace, and Shinto traditions are taken gravely serious.

Major Divisions:
Shiawase Biofood
Shiawase Biotech
Shiawase Energy
Shiawase Envirotech
Shiawase Financial
Shiawase Logistics
Shiawase Manufacturing
Shiawase Mediatech
Shiawase Market Information and Forcasting Department
Shiawase Omnicare
Shiawase Security

>>882318
>Ancestor worship and veneration of the Emperor are commonplace, and Shinto traditions are taken gravely serious.
Okay, so the Empress of Japan, Empress Hitomi, is a member of the Shiawase family, and is on their Board of Directors.
Also on the board is the Shinto Advisory Board, a council of Shinto shamans and priests who hold a number of shares of the company because of the previous President's will bequeathing shares to "the Spirit of Shiawase".

The Shiawase MFID, Market Information and Forecasting Department, has a long-standing reputation in the shadows as being one of the best intel agencies on average. When you suddenly see your prototype being paraded around by your competitor, and you KNOW it's still sitting in your lab, it's the MIFD who were behind it.

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>>882318
#4: Aztechnology
Slogan: "The Way to a Better Tomorrow"

Summary: To the public, Aztechnology is the friendly consumer public conglomerate that brings them such wonderful brands as Stuffer Shack©, the one-stop shop for anything you need! (At 3 AM. After coming off of a wicked Cram buzz.) To Shadowrunners, Aztechnology is known as a bunch of psychopaths with great PR and a willingness to unleash the full, awful fury of Aztec Blood Magic™ against runners who cross them.

Corporate Culture: Enslavement. Degradation. Ritual sacrifice. Taco Tuesdays. These are but some of the horrors that await beneath the surface of a given Aztechnology office building. Most of the lowest levels of wageslaves working for Aztech know nothing about the Az's true face, but once you get past them, you're dealing with people more monstrous than any feral ghoul or hellhound.

Important Divisions: Too many to count.

>>882359
Aztechnology. What needs to be said?
Shadowrunners fall into one of three camps when it comes to the Azzies: you're either in for life, you let it get personal and take runs at a discount to hit back at these blood magic monsters, or you stay the fuck away because these guys make even the Great Dragons nervous.

And we're serious about the blood magic and sacrifices. They brought ALL of that old Aztec culture back.
Their athletic teams experience a lot of turnover because the losers get sacrificed and the winners get ritually sacrificed.

Aztlan, what was once Mexico, is supposed to be a sovereign nation, but everyone in the shadows knows that it's really Aztechnology calling the shots.
They touched off a war in the Yucatan between toxic spirits (want to kill everything) and nature spirits (want to kill everyone), and are waiting to see which side wins before rolling in.

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>>882359
#3: Renraku Computing Systems
Slogan: "How May We Serve You?"

Summary: Once the baby of the Japanacorps, Renraku has risen to its lofty position through a policy of level-headed action, unwavering Bushido honor, and a willingness to exploit loopholes in said Bushido honor that make them the largest employers of shadowrunners of all the Big Ten. Curiously, their original CEO is still officially in charge: his "divine ancestor spirit" supposedly calls the shots, with the company president acting as the "interpreter".

Corporate Culture: Where Shiawase draw on the traditions of Japanese nobility, Renraku draw on Samurai tradition. Even-measuredness, stability, conservatism, and self-mastery lie at the heart of Renraku philosophy. The "samurai culture" of Renraku also means that, when you hit their higher-security facilities, you're going to be facing angry guards in kabuto helms who are as likely to try and challenge you to single combat as just try and plug you. Just pray they aren't wearing red armor, or your life expectancy is going to be measured in heartbeats unless you are HARD.

Important Divisions: Too many to count.

>>882381
Additional info because of our Magical Theory background.

http://shadowrun.wikia.com/wiki/Blood_magic

Blood magic uses blood, sacrifices, and lifeforce to power spells and rituals. It's easily corrupted to evil, and is illegal in most places.
It also gives access to special spirits, known as blood spirits.
Blood magic starts off as a powerful form of magic, and is easily made even more powerful the more blood and lifeforce you sacrifice, making it an ideal form of magic for people willing to kill a lot of innocent people.

Also, as someone with a formal background in magical theory, we should know that sympathetic magic can be used to track people down.
With us, it's not just about not leaving fingerprints, blood, and hair at a crime scene; anything we "owned" can be used to create a magical link to us. So be very careful.

Finally, Aztechnology does not skimp on magical defenses. As soon as you step past the outer layer of defenses meant to be seen by the unsuspecting public, the blood and death begins. They will have watchers and blood spirit guards all over the place.

>>882407
Renraku experienced a bit of a fall from grace, what with their Arcology fiasco.

https://youtu.be/iwqN3Ur-wP0

They built a huge arcology in Seattle, that was to be their crowning jewel, with a proto-AI as the control system.
The arcology went dark, trapping thousands of people inside, and the UCAS military was brought in to siege the arcology.
The AI inside, went rampant, called itself Deus, and brainwashed/re-engineered the people it captured to become loyal minions.

Deus was also behind Crash 2.0, and if you listen to the other technomancers on Jackpoint, members of his cult survived and are still out there.

>Just pray they aren't wearing red armor
The Renraku Red Samurai are considered the standard by which all other corpsec are judged, and they're ranked as being the equals of Tir Ghosts (Tir Taingire elven specops), Sioux Wildcats (Native American specops), UCAS MARSOC, and other elite fighting units.
What they lack in subterfuge and subtlety, they make up in pure combat prowess and advanced hardware.

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>>882407
#2: Saeder-Krupp Heavy Industries
Slogan: "One Step Ahead"

Summary: S-K, formerly the most powerful corporation in the world, is the undisputed personal domain of Lofwyr, one of the Great Dragons whose life-spans are measured in eons. His talons touch everything on the Earth and beyond, and it is an open secret that Lofwyr would style himself as the benevolent dictator of humanity through economic conquest.

Corporate Culture: S-K-ites are carefully selected, each one the cream of the cream, and they, and their children, are cared for by their benevolent leader from cradle to grave. Their culture of professionalism, efficiency, and poise has led to the attitude of the "S-K Swagger" (otherwise known as "being a dickhead"). MOST stories about incompetence being punished by serving as an amuse-bouche for the CEO are urban legend.

Important Divisions: Too many to count.

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>>882430
#1: Mitsuhama Computer Technologies
Slogan: "The Future is Mitsuhama"

Summary: Once a struggling construction company facing bankruptcy at the turn of the 21st century, Mitsuhama has climbed from the depths of poverty to become the greatest financial force in the modern world. Every single market has an MCT-brand product in play, but the fields of computing, robotics, and entertainment are their greatest strengths.

Corporate Culture: While the classic Japanacorp honor culture is in full swing in MCT (with seppuku being a common response to major stock drops), most shadowrunners care about one solitary aspect of MCT culture: the Zero Zone. No information leaks out of the Zero Zone. No one without clearance enters the Zero Zone without tripping an alarm. No one trips an alarm in a Zero Zone and lives to tell about it. Attacking a Zero Zone is the definition of a suicide run.

Important Divisions: too many to count.

>>882430
Saeder-Krupp. My boss is a Great Dragon, your argument is invalid.

It's an open secret in the shadows that an S-K Johnson will go by the name of "Brackhaus".
Of course, other megacorp Johnsons know this, and might use it to try to throw you off.

And again, S-K is run by a dragon. Taking S-K runs means you're working for a dragon, and taking runs against them means running against a dragon.
Get half your money upfront because there's no guarantee you'll survive to spend the rest of it.

>>882444
MCT is heavily in with the Yakuza, and they're known to launder money for the yaks, while the yaks provide expendable muscle and test subjects.

MCT also has a bad reputation among the Native American Nations because of their resource exploitation and criminal enterprises.

As a construction company originally, they have a bad reputation among eco-friendly groups. This is bad when nature can literally fight back, and in their homeland of Japan, the divine God-Emperor is telling you to knock that shit off because he's getting complaints from the nature kami.

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Okay, that will do it until tomorrow, around 4 (because I am a mere mortal in a world without Long Haul, and need to sleep). A few final notes for tonight:

-First, thanks to based anon 5OH77GNc for helping me cover important fluff stuff.
- Second: take time to plan and vote on how Redd is going to get the shipping data from the Wuxing facility- if he's going to get it at all.
-Third: if any anons have questions about the world of Shadowrun, or the party, ask away and I or (if he feels like it) based anon will answer your questions as best as we are able.

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Other groups:
>Corporate Court
Headquartered in the Zurich-Orbital space station, the 13 members of the Corporate Court hold supreme arbitration authority among the Big Ten AAA-megacorps.
They are supposed to be the arbitrators between the corporations and nations.

>Zurich-Orbital Gemeinschaftsbank
Known as Z-OG, the bank is the premier bank of the world, controlling the value of the nuyen. Controlled by the Corporate Court and the Big Ten, only the suicidal would try to breach this bank's security.

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>Corporate Court Matrix Authority, Grid Overwatch Division
Crash 2.0 proved that the Matrix needed to be defended from threats to it, as the global economy and modern civilization depended on it, and the Corporate Court decided that someone would have to bring order to the virtual Frontier. That someone would be the Corporate Court Matrix Authority, and the G-Men of the Grid Overwatch Division would carry out its mandates.

The CCMA put together the protocols and regulations of the new wireless Matrix 2.0.

G-Men of GOD are some of the best hackers and former deckers in the world, drawn from the ranks of the Big 10, given top-of-the-line equipment to investigate Matrix crime across national and corporate lines.
Of course, there's still some holdovers of loyalty to their original megacorp for some, and the megas themselves don't always like to provide full access/cooperation to the G-Men, which might be able to buy some runners a bit of time.

>Artificial Resource Management
A branch of the CCMA created in 2070 to keep tabs on AI's.

>RFID tags
Remember that wireless Matrix we were talking about?
Well, this is where RFID chips come in.
They're cheap, they're plentiful, and they're small.
They have an adhesive backing so they can be easily attached, and they can do everything from chirping their location back home to a security rigger every couple of minutes so that Knight Errant Firewatch busts through your door, to painting a giant augmented reality bulls-eye on your back so that everyone can see that you're a target.

Not to mention since they can be microscopic and be puffed out with a blast of air to stick on to someone committing a crime, that ubiquitous security cameras come with RFID scanners.

You can use an Eraser to wipe the programming from an RFID tag, but you have to remember to look for a tag first.

That was a great read, thanks guys.(looking in the wiki everytime I hear or read something new is quite the hassle)

>>882525
The Corporate Court is SUPPOSED to serve as a check and balance on megacorporate power, but, because the judges of the Corporate Court are appointed by the Big Ten, their de facto purpose is to be a stick that the Big Ten use to beat anyone they don't like, including each other, occasionally. They also work with the Z-OG to decide the financial rating of a corp, so every A-rated corp wanting to get that second A (and the extraterritorial privileges that come with it) has to do a certain level of bootlicking in order to gain their coveted position.

>>882902
Oh, I almost forgot:
There are certain types of crimes and technologies that are so detrimental to the status quo and the operation of the global economy, that if the CCMA or the Corporate Court get a whiff of it, they will come down on you like the fist of an angry God, complete with orbital bombardment by the Thor Shot orbital weapon platforms.
One was development of technology that would allow tapping of fiber optic cables without accessing a junction box. With the wireless matrix, this may not be as much of a threat.
But the other is the development of Crash-type computer viruses that could collapse the Matrix, or even a part of it.
The last time someone tried it, the CC put out an Omega Order on the company: every AAA megacorp put aside their differences, pooled their militaries together, and crushed the offender under a megacorp hydraulic press. The Board of Directors were captured and executed, the entire company dismantled, and the proverbial earth was salted.

So, we need a plan.

Learning Wuxing Corp culture could help. Unfortunately, we only know Mandarin, and since Wuxing started in Hong Kong, they likely prefer Cantonese.
Also if their culture is as open to bribery as Chinese culture was is an important thing to find out.

Since we're trying to get information about shipping of equipment, we need a way to narrow the search somehow. Searching by date is obvious, and then sorting by location.

>>883446
>Knowledge: Corporate Cultures roll SUCCESS

Wuxing's corporate dealings with Shadowrunners is defined by a pragmatic and detached attitude. Provided that you pay appropriate "courtesy fees", most information about shipping manifests are readily available. If the information ISN'T available, it means one of two things:
1. The shipment is something of major concern to Wuxing (in which case you are probably a POI to Wuxing's regional branch just for asking about it).
2. Someone else is paying Wuxing more than you're offering to keep it quiet, but not enough for them to simply wipe it from their records (in which case you'll have to dig DEEP into your credstick). Wuxing will also expect you to offer some OTHER kind of deal with them in addition to the "courtesy fees": both to create a legitimate reason for the meeting, AND because Wuxing doesn't want to develop a reputation as information brokers.

Updated Options:

>HACK THEM
>Try to bluff your way to the data you want
>Infiltrate and swipe the data from their servers
>Set up a trade
>Write-in

Could also maybe check their company for registered vehicles, and see if there is any sign of them around town.

>>883553
You mean the studio's registered vehicles? Potentially we could, but that would mean hacking into the GridGuide street system to catch the vehicles' license plates/RFID tags, or maybe get an Agent program that will trawl through social media for pictures and mentions of the vehicles.

Both are a bit beyond power user, unless we shell out the money for a bunch of hacking programs.

>>883545
We should figure out what kind of trade we can do.
Services is a bit insulting, since they don't know us and it is of questionable value.
Maybe if we had something that needed to be shipped.
>Perhaps a shipment of meat from our warehouses to a client.
Our fake SIN is of a meat salesman. We offer a shipping job, from an imaginary warehouse to a nonexistent client. The Wuxing manager gets a cut from the "contract", separate from the "convenience fee" that he would have to share with his boss, and it lets him pad his month's sales numbers.

>>883545
>Set up a trade
Using the offer of a shipping job from >>883641
My big concern is price.
How much could we safely pay before it eats into our profits on this run?
¥30,000 split 6 ways is ¥5,000 per person, so we'd better make sure that we don't pay more than ¥1,000.

>>883684
"Barbie" doesn't have a share unless you use her ACTUAL "services". She has a somewhat one-sided "BFFs" relationship with Rhun.

>>883545
>Try to bluff your way to the data you want

>>883611
Sudo has a level 3 Agent ("The Northwestern Trawler": it was coded by an Atlantan with a love of nautical shit, so it has a Gloucester Fisherman as its icon) that he mostly uses to sort through archives on runs. Just to give you useful data to work on.

>>883744
Oh, well then, let's use the Agent instead!
Why pay for paydata, or risk pissing off a AAA megacorp, when we can get it done for free.

Use Sudo's agent to trawl through social media and photos of the Arcs for studio vehicles to try to figure out where this guy is filming. From there, we can work out a way to trail him back to his hideout.

This is what the Wuxing data would have given us anyway, the area that he's filming in, since I doubt he'd want big trucks constantly coming and going to his hideout.

>>883756
Do we have a consensus on this in-thread?

>>883796
Not yet, apparently.

>>883545
>Set up a trade
let's play it safe

>>883873
If you want to play it safe we found a method that's free and doesn't involve Wuxing at all here >>883756

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>>883905
>>883756
You are about to send a message to Sudo asking if you can borrow the agent when your decker shouts "I've got something!" down the stairs. You quickly receive a list of 12 different street addresses. "This is all I've got. BTW, I caught some guy using the UNC grid to try and backtrace me. Local signal from that area. I think he was spooked when I acknowledged him, because he logged out right afterwards."

>Thank you. That's all for now.
>I need you to hunt that decker down
>I need you and your agent to hunt down filming vans
>Write-in

>>884156
>I need you and your agent to hunt down filming vans
>Write-In
Let's use HorizonMaps to check out the 12 locations, just so we can eliminate obvious no-go's. Then we can do some legwork to case the locations once we hear back from Rex.

>>884156
Actually, wait.
Change >>884335
to
>I need you to hunt that decker down
Don't necessarily do anything, just find out who he is, and see if he'll lead us to our target, or it's just someone who saw Sudo and got spooked.
>Write-in: let me use your agent to hunt down filming vans

>>884156
>I need you and your agent to hunt down filming vans

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>>884335
>>884471
>>884580

"Sudo, find that decker. If they're corpsec-or, gods forbid, counter-runners- we will need to start damage control immediately. I will also need to borrow your agent for a while: I am trying to track down the filming site this director is using, and the agent would be most useful."

The only response you receive is a message containing a 24-hour access key to the agent's command protocols.

>Action: track down filming vans SUCCESS
After about a half-hour of searching, the trawler returns with the cross-referenced data on film vans in Chapel Hill. Vans registered to Cross Applied Media have been appearing around the University area until a few days ago, but have been spotted near Interstate 40 most recently. The film is apparently an action trid called "Hellriders VII: Making the Grade". You vaguely remember trailers for previous installments: the films are some kind of explosion porn about shadowrunners with really fast cars. Every run they go on seems to involve them using their fast cars to cause hundreds of millions of nuyen of property damage.

>Check up with Rex about CATech
>Check up with Rhun and "Barbie" about social media
>Stock up on equipment
>Call Andrea for a favor
>Write-in

>>884626
>Check up with Rex about CATech

>>884626
>Write-in
Good, now have the Trawler cross-reference all vehicles that show up at the film locations to find ones that always show up.
That will be the vehicles used by the staff to arrive on the set, as well as those used by the director and his security detail. Once we figure out the vehicles that the director and his security are using, we can trace them back to their hideout.

>>884633
>>884665
Voting between these two.

>>884626
>Check up with Rex about CATech

>>884818
>>884633

With a flick of the wrist, you switch lines.

"Rex, status report."

"Got a briefing about CATech all ready for the team, Redd. Round them up and I'll get right on the ball."

>Excellent.
>In a minute, Rex, I need to handle something else (write-in)
>Give it to me now, the team will go over it later

>>884935
>Excellent.

>>884935
>>Excellent.

>>884964
>>884966
You send a quick message to the group, and, in a few minutes, you, Sudo, Barbie, and Tizona (via telepresence) are in the home theater.

You notice that Rhun is conspicuously absent.

>Call Rhun's commlink
>Search the house
>Ask the rest of the team if they have seen Rhun.
>Write-in

>>885037
>Call Rhun's commlink

>>885037
>Ask the rest of the team if they have seen Rhun.
>Write-in
Check Rhun's status, and send a message to Rhun's commlink. Trust her to be working on the job and don't blow her cover.
We'll record the briefing for her to go over later.

>>885037
>>Ask Barbie about Ruhn.
>>Call Rhun's commlink

Maybe asking the dyke tank to browse the SuperInternet with valley girl sniper was a bad idea.

>>885068
>>885065
>>885063

"Barbie, dear, have you seen Rhun recently?" you ask the blonde, who is currently sitting in a kind of contented daze, staring blankly at one of the tan walls of the theater.

"Yeah! She, like, totes had to go... to school or something? I spent, like, LITERALLY FOREVER trying to get her to wear something more cute, but she kept telling me the "sexy teacher" look was, like, totally in? Ohmygosh and wefoundoutthatDamienLeBlanc'sinthisnewmoviehe'ssostylishandsexyEEEEEEEEE!!!-"

"SLOW DOWN, BARBIE." you spurt out, before Barbie's squeeing could reach eardrum-rupturing frequencies.

"Sorry!! I just got excited about Damien LeBlanc! He used to be, like, SO BIG in simsense (not that I watch that kind of stuff), but then, he, like, totally turned out to be a Cram addict? And then he went to rehab? And now he's trying to re-launch himself as a tridstar? I mean, like he was SO BIG, he had his own perfume and EVERYTHI-"

"That is all FASCINATING, but did Rhun say where she was going?"

"I thought she was going to, but she told me she was going to 'me and sea', or something like that, and I didn't get it. Is it a club? Like... a school club?"

Frustrated, you call Rhun's commlink, but it goes to voicemail after ringing a few times. A remote check of her vitals from her cybertech shows that everything's normal- or, at least, as normal as it gets with Rhun's freakish genetics.

>Try and sort out what the hell Barbie is talking about.
>Call Rhun again
>Shoot Rhun a message and get on with the presentation.

>>885147
>Try and sort out what the hell Barbie is talking about.

if that fails

>Shoot Rhun a message and get on with the presentation.

>>885168
Seconding this. Next time we have a group study session, don't set up Barbie to study with Rhun.

Set her up with Rex instead, shit's gonna be hilarious.

>>885147
>Shoot Rhun a message and get on with the presentation.
MENC? Or MNC?

>>885221
Pardon?

>>885211
And once again we see the player who didn't pay attention to the GM's expectations.

>>885226
Trying to figure out what 'me and sea' refers to.
An acronym is the most likely, though it could be something garbled through Rhun's Welsh accent.

>>885232
Ah. And no.

>>885168
>>885221
Due to a pseudo-tie:

>Shoot Rhun a message and get on with the presentation
>Try and sort out what the hell Barbie is talking about

>>885261
Figure out where the hell our Welsh is, this could be important

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>>885273
>Action: figure out what the hell Barbie is talking about GLITCHED

"Me-and-sea... Mi-an-cee... Mianci... sounds Italian. And a 'sexy teacher' look? Is she?.. But she wouldn't... would she?"

You turn quickly to Sudo.

"Sudo, trace Rhun's commlink. I need to know if she's sleeping with someone in the Mafia."

Sudo nods while fighting to keep a straight face, and then bursts out laughing.

"She's on a job, man! I decided I didn't have the time to chase down that kid who tried to trace me, so I told Rhun to do it. She's heading to UNC right now."

"That's it! 'me and sea'! I, like, told you! There's NO WAY that Runny would have a boyfriend in the mafia! They're, like, gross and hairy!"

You mentally curse yourself for not making that connection yourself.

"MOVING ON. Rex, you have a briefing?" you say, desperately trying to steer the conversation away from your faux pas.

"Indeed I do."

Rex clicks on his commlink, causing the projector to turn on and throw a corporate logo onto the screen.

"Cross Applied Technologies. The story of this corporation is a story about how you can do everything right in an op and still get ass-fucked by Lady Luck's strap-on.

It all starts with Lucien Cross. Major player at Aztech's spy club Acquisition Technologies who SOMEHOW gets in on the ever-mysterious Damien Knight's Nanosecond Buyout. He helps Knight take the world economy for the ride of a lifetime that ends with Knight in charge of Ares (and a lot of people bankrupt, but that's beside the point), and in exchange, he gets first pickings of the scraps. Cross tells the Azzies to suck his balls and quits his job to join Knight in the whole 'Young Turk' scene.

A year later, in 2034, Cross merges several of the tech companies Knight gave him together and makes Cross Matrix Technologies. As a final 'fuck you' to his old employers, he buys out Aquisition Technologies old building in Montreal to use as CMT's new HQ.

For the next ten years, CMTech goes from nonentity to a household name in North America when it comes to tech. How did this happen? Three ways:
First, Cross seemed to have virtually unlimited nuyen to play with. Great Dragon-grade nuyen. Those of you more inclined to conspiracy theories will have made the connection at this point, but I'll say it: Cross was on Dunkelzhan's payroll, maybe as thanks for the Nanosecond Buyout. Unfortunately, we have nothing solid about this.

Second, Quebec's general attitude towards foreign goods- that is, to charge out the ass for them- meant that CMT had a virtual monopoly on Quebec's tech sector. This gave them a reliable stream of income that protected them from MCT or Fuchi just fucking destroying them and incorporating the shattered pieces, like so many other would-be tech giants.

The third reason was the Seraphim. These guys were Mr. Cross's pet spies, and they were good. Like, 'make the MIFD jealous' levels of good."
Rex pauses for a sip of water.

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>>885410
"With THREE differnt aces in the hole, Cross was unstoppable. Not even Cross biting the hand which fed him by stealing the original bioware company, Bioleve, out from under Ares slowed CMT down.

2044. CMT reincorporates itself as Cross APPLIED Technologies, better known as CATech or CATCo. Cross spends nine more years growing his CAT and- despite Knight's best efforts-succeeding, before, finally, he decides that its time to go extraterritorial.

Knight didn't like this, and he made this clear by taking a hit out on Cross the same week the form was sent in. When this didn't work, Knight sent another hitman to Cross as a birthday present. And a Christmas present. And at a family reunion. And at an art show. My point is, Knight wanted Cross deader than dubstep.

Then, the Big D puts a call in to Knight, and the hits stop. Check the phone records if you don't buy it.

Instead, Knight decides that if he can't kill Cross, he'll kill the CAT. For over five years, CAT and Ares hammer away at each other-financially, of course- to no effect. Knight couldn't get an in-road into Montreal, thanks to Quebec's trade laws and the Seraphs, so CAT was safe. On the other hand, nothing CAT could do could ever actually hurt Ares's bottom line, so Knight was safe.

Then, in 2059, Leo Aurelius, the son of Ares's founder (who got completely sodomized by the Nanosecond Buyout) puts a big ol' shiv in the back of Knight by selling his shares to that hippy dwarf lawyer Vogel and jumping ship to CAT: taking a number of highly-placed execs and valuable subsidiaries with him.

Less than a year later, CATCo goes AAA and puts one of its boys on the Corporate Court. Knight is foaming at the mouth at this point, but what can he do? Cross is un-fucking-touchable at this point. For the next four years, CATCo goes up, and up, and up, until it sits at #2 on the board, right behind"-you see his eyes mist over-"Our great and generous benefactors, Saeder-Krupp.

Then Deus rapes the Matrix, and Cross dies in a plane crash. Cross's impossible luck had finally presented its bill."

Rex clears his throat and wipes the tears out of his eyes.

>>885483
"CATCo's luck vanishes the second Cross's plane goes up in a fireball. Ares snaps up their biotech and firearms subsidiaries in less than a day, Cross Matrix Technologies takes a small loan that results in them having to fold in less than a month (I suspect due to Knight playing one of his fucking fifth-dimensional chess games that he's so good at), Yamatetsu leeches their biomedical talent away, Horizon snags their multimedia wing- even the Seraphs suddenly go to shit.

Less than a year later, CATCo is booted down to single A, where its been ever since.

Now, what does this mean for us? It means that CATCo is hungry. It tasted life at the top, and it wants it back HARD. The fact that they've re-opened their shuttered entertainment wing is a sure sign of that. This is going to be the NEW CATCo Entertainment's first major motion picture, so they have a LOT riding on this. This isn't going to be a milk run. I'd expect Lone Star hirelings, as well as maybe some local talent: gangs,other runners, what have you. We might also end up facing what's left of Seraph. These guys aren't the same outfit that gave MIFD a run for their money, but that doesn't mean we should underestimate them.

The one thing we CAN rely on is that they aren't going to be using Knight-Errant. Those wounds are fresh, and they run DEEP. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if their in-house boys aren't allowed to use any Ares guns at all!

In conclusion: I think its time we call Andrea about that hazard payment."

Rex steps down and turns off the projector with a satisfied air.

>Excellent presentation, Rex
>Did you really have to say all of that?
>Get Andrea on the line
>Try and call Rhun again
>Contact the black market and get new equipment
>Write-in

>>885522
>>Excellent presentation, Rex
>>Get Andrea on the line
>>Try and call Rhun again

Rex has the best story times.

>>885522
>Excellent presentation, Rex
>Try and call Rhun again
>Get Andrea on the line
Now, Andrea DID warn us that an ex-AAA was bankrolling this director, and that's why he didn't want the guy dead. Of course, he didn't say anything about the security being this tough.

I think the hazard pay rate is going to have to go up a little.
Maybe ask Andrea if he's sure that he wants to send a physical message instead of a political one.

Hear me out here:
The problem with this job is that Andrea wanted people to know that the Mafia is bankrolling this run. That the director was targeted because he didn't pay. That's fine, except that CATCo would then know who to go after. And as Rex said, they're in an unforgiving mood right now.

CATCo wants to get back on the top, and they want to cut costs where they can.
That's fine, and understandable. But there's a line between cutting costs, and shortchanging/backstabbing your deniable assets.
If it gets out that CATCo would rather withhold payment after services have been rendered, what would the shadowrunner community think? What would their currently hired runners think, if they were told that CATCo won't pay them after their runs?

It all comes down to what is most cost-effective to get what they want, and not dealing with extra costs afterwards.

>>885593
I mean, if Andrea is still sure about this, that's fine. He's the Johnson for this run, so what he wants is what we'll try to deliver, and we should make that clear.
But just warn him upfront that now that we know how bad this could be, we definitely want that hazard pay.

>>885544
>>885593
"Excellent presentation, Rex. I am glad we are significantly more well-informed."

"Well, sir, as they say: knowing is half the battle. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to do maintenance on Sweetness."

"Well, I certainly wouldn't want to get in the way of that."

As the rest of the team file out of the home-theater-turned-briefing-room (save for Barbie, who slowly walks over to the projector and stares at it like it was the Dead Sea Scrolls), you attempt to raise Rhun's commlink again.

She picks up on the fourth ring. You notice she looks distinctly flush, and her hair is down.

"Feck off, Redd! I'm not having you blow this for me on account of you trying to babysit meh all the time!"

>Blow what?
>Have you tracked down that decker?
>I love you too, Rhun
>Write-in

>>885627
>Write-in
"Fine. Just be careful, we're likely going up against pros here. Ping us if something feels off."