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Seems like the gig economy thing should be easy enough to write into the extant SIN/SINless or corporate citizenship class divide framework. Show enough promise while we abuse you in our temp program, and maybe one day you too can be part of the corporate family! Maybe salt it with some unpaid internship or student loan bullshit. Corps give "free" school and day care to the wage slaves as long as the kiddo stays productive, if they screw up or (gasp) seek employment elsewhere, the acceleration and liquidated damages clauses kick in. Or, kiddo turns to shadowrunning for cash because dad got demoted and now his meds aren't covered under the company platinum plan anymore, etc. Even if there aren't any real labor laws, there's still gonna be stratification of treatment and a (partly false, partly true) promise of advancement and an easier life. The panopticon in SR still has room to get more horrifying on the basis of current events. I haven't tracked much of the recent stuff, but I don't recall any emphasis on gamification, for example. "I just wanted to check in, Al, is everything OK? Your MetrixTM social media score has been sliding for several weeks now. We do all have an obligation to keep this a supportive and vibrant community, you know." Imagine being expected to comment on your coworkers social media and to update your own with sanitized content, or getting dinged for not posting product reviews of those company store products you bought. Building in something like the Chinese government's social credit scoring thing on steroids and having that work like a credit rating does now would make sense as a setting update. If something like that was already in there, it wasn't prominent enough to stick with me. Of course, the elephant in the room is that the setting currently isn't much of a critique of modern capitalism. As written now, it's more like the rapacious corps are bad because the people running them or their corporate culture dictate that they are bad, and that's that. e: This may just be my 2E roots talking, but SR corps often seem to be written as pretty institutionally competent. That seems like an artifact of 80s/90s fiction. I can't really think of anything in the setting that would touch on the trauma of the global financial crisis from a decade ago. There's stuff you can point to in the setting history, but the big events are all supernatural or body snatchers. I don't think we've seen metaplot where there's a big global problem that is just a bunch of corps being short sighted and mundanely stupid on a grand scale. SR should be able to comment on the existential dread that comes from realizing that lots of the people running the world are fuckin' dumb. e2: OK, I do have an example in the timeline - the collapse of the Tir Tairngire economy and resulting political upheaval was a good development. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about, although the Tir is very readily distinguishable from the corps. eviltastic fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Nov 14, 2020 |
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Nov 14, 2020 00:37
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| # ? Jun 3, 2024 16:35 |
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They need to have James Booth win the next election.
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Nov 14, 2020 01:45
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eviltastic posted:e: This may just be my 2E roots talking, but SR corps often seem to be written as pretty institutionally competent. That seems like an artifact of 80s/90s fiction. I can't really think of anything in the setting that would touch on the trauma of the global financial crisis from a decade ago. There's stuff you can point to in the setting history, but the big events are all supernatural or body snatchers. I don't think we've seen metaplot where there's a big global problem that is just a bunch of corps being short sighted and mundanely stupid on a grand scale. SR should be able to comment on the existential dread that comes from realizing that lots of the people running the world are fuckin' dumb. I think this is one of those things you get when your source of corporate mythology is the 80's Japan-corp (and lesser-extent 80's German-corp), that the reason America is suddenly in industrial crisis is that these other countries/companies have discovered how to just be better than America at things, and that a large root of the crisis is cultural. Now I think people more correctly identify the crisis as upstream of culture or nationality. That's a thing that always puts my teeth a bit on edge when I see Shadowrun homebrews and stuff- people who just make corps like "The european corp" and "The South American corp"...it's like, what are you trying to describe here, buddy?
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Nov 14, 2020 05:11
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Session last night had a few scenes I really enjoyed -Most of our sessions had the conceit of starting off from the same dive bar in New Orleans, and I wanted to switch it up a bit. Also I've been wanting to expand on Shadowrunner culture and "the scene". So their fixer took them to a "Shadowrunner prom" run by the local mob. It was a Matrix meeting, set up in a virtual VIP lounge at the Superdome, and on the field was a recreation of the 2010 Super Bowl game where the Saints last won a SB. The idea of "prom" is it's a chance for runners who do a lot of work with the mob to meet each other- a lot of them are independent operators so if someone needs a partner w/ certain skills or a team, they can maybe have some connections to call on. Also, it's not uncommon for the mob to let certain regular client Johnsons to pop in and get a sense of the talent pool The players were all overly cautious, but it gave me a chance to introduce some NPCs, a way to add in new PCs if someone dies on a run, and also we got to talk about The Who, who did the halftime show at the 2010 super bowl. Led to a solid 3 references to Pete Townsend's book that never came out about child pornography. -As they started doing legwork for their mission, which involves them taking on a mid-level mob boss, they ended up at a bar/club with an underground BTL trade. I haven't read up on the latest and greatest of BTL fiction, so had a really good time making it up on the fly. We all had a fun time making up street names for BTLs, like "found my lost wallet" and "binge-watched a new HBO prestige drama" and "coming up with business ideas while on novacoke". One of the players decided to try one out called "Tha good ol dayz", and spent the group had to kill an hour hanging around the bar while the player started on what will probably become a minor addiction for them. Fidel Cuckstro fucked around with this message at 07:28 on Nov 14, 2020 |
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Nov 14, 2020 06:37
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poo poo, don't get hooked on BTLs. That's a steep slope with a steeper drop at the end.
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Nov 14, 2020 06:52
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wiegieman posted:poo poo, don't get hooked on BTLs. That's a steep slope with a steeper drop at the end. Seems pretty safe! And good vibes too!!!
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Nov 14, 2020 07:26
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Wait until he starts using the sort of BTLs that let you still walk around and do things during them, so he doesn't have to go cold when on a run.
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Nov 14, 2020 08:31
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When it comes to updating Shadowrun to meet modern anxieties, in my runs I really play up how much the people/dragons/jesters/whatevers who have seen previous ages of magic are freaking the gently caress out over how things are going down this time. How drastically humanity is changing magic with the current exploitation of magic as well as advancing technology maps really well on to anxieties about climate change and the ecological collapse we're hurtling towards.
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Nov 14, 2020 14:51
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"found my lost wallet" is a pretty great concept for a BTL
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Nov 14, 2020 15:57
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Haven't posted in a bit, but thought I could contribute a fun dragon story. To change it up, the crew was pirates in the Carib. They start in Jamaica, and get a deal from a German man (Lofwry). Most of the players are newbies, and agree to it. The job: go to Haiti, get someone out of a hot spot. The promised payment: "30k, plus whatever else is in the safehouse in Haiti." They end up in Haiti, hiding the troll in a trunk, and things go sideways. Like, really sideways: the safehouse is empty except the exfil, and Voudon magicians end up chasing them through the favelas. Luckily the troll starts tearing down walls, and a few well-timed hand grenades give them a clean out to the rigger's hovercraft. They even manage rob some coke dealer house they happen across on the way! They get back to Jamaica, and, understandably, explain they didn't get paid. The German, apologetic, offers them a line on an easy shipment: a Renraku boat full of cell-phones. Easy money, right? He's got the entire travel plans, from the Panama canal to their final destination in Florida. So the group loads up, intercepts the boat, hops on board, and a gunfight ensues. The first few mooks give up easy, but them some heavies (including a mage who isn't loving around) come out of the woodwork and nearly kill half the crew. Things go to poo poo pretty fast, but the crew comes out victorious (honestly very lucky). As they try to sort out what is going on, two of the crew head downstairs to check the engine room. There's a nuclear warhead. In the engine room. Meanwhile, the decker hears jet-scrambling info on airwaves, and reports it: Renraku is coming, and hot. The two come back up and tell the rest of the party it's empty. They find the phones, grab them, and bail, leaving the boat floating. There's more than enough evidence to tie them up, but the two who went below are just hoping that Renraku will let the phones slide. They get back to Jamaica, the dragon pays them for the phones. Then he asks about the nuke. Reasonably, they tell him to gently caress right off. The actual quote was: "You hired us to steal some phones. We stole the phones. Right?" On the way out, the dragon offered the mage 150k to give him three favors, no questions asked. The mage, a newbie runner, agreed. Then the crew decides they're better off hanging out with the mob and eco-terrorists they know in Florida, and leave Jamaica. Don't make deals with dragons.
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Nov 18, 2020 06:49
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bird food bathtub posted:When it comes to updating Shadowrun to meet modern anxieties, in my runs I really play up how much the people/dragons/jesters/whatevers who have seen previous ages of magic are freaking the gently caress out over how things are going down this time. That's kind of the thing, though. Humanity's not changing magic. They're just speeding up the oncoming more dangerous part of the cycle that all the long-lived creatures have already seen, before they've had time to build up the defenses necessary to survive it. That's the whole point of Dunkelzahn blowing himself up to try and put off the Horrors from making an early appearance due to all the blood magic being thrown around.
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Nov 18, 2020 07:23
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I mean, that's kind of splitting hairs, isn't it? Mankind isn't changing magic/the climate, they're just speeding up the natural process with blood magic/carbon emissions.
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Nov 18, 2020 08:05
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Well yeah, but in this case it's just an inconvenience to the Immortal Elves and Dragons who use humanity for proxy warfare. They've seen this before, and will again.
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Nov 18, 2020 10:06
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the last time they holed up in dungeons, some of which failed, or did blood magic poo poo but now peeps have bombs and heavy drilling equipment and the horrors can use peeps stuff, so thats why dunkelzahns logic according to the canon fiction books (which are dog poo poo btw, christ) is that we gotta fight this time
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Nov 18, 2020 10:08
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Liquid Communism posted:. That's the whole point of Dunkelzahn blowing himself up to try and put off the Horrors from making an early appearance due to all the blood magic being thrown around. Where is this expanded on?
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Nov 18, 2020 10:12
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official fiction books. dragon heart saga. stranger souls, clockwork asylum, beyond the pale. i am extremely not kidding about the books having poo poo writing
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Nov 18, 2020 10:13
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bob dobbs is dead posted:i am extremely not kidding about the books having poo poo writing give us a taste
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Nov 18, 2020 12:09
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bob dobbs is dead posted:official fiction books. dragon heart saga. stranger souls, clockwork asylum, beyond the pale. i am extremely not kidding about the books having poo poo writing I made the writer of that trilogy mad on the old Shadowrun mailing list for calling Ryan Mercury one of the worst protagonists I'd ever seen. And he is. He's a super special kind of physical adept (DRAKE), really handsome, has a hot elf girlfriend (Nadia... whatever her name is, the former VP), is so good he can make Damien Knight sweat with two lines of dialogue and not once in a whole trilogy feels like he's in any kind of peril because he's just so uber.
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Nov 18, 2020 14:11
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Burning Bright was a fun book. It's pulpy as hell, but a fun read.
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Nov 18, 2020 15:23
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Finster Dexter posted:Burning Bright was a fun book. It's pulpy as hell, but a fun read. That, and the novels by Nigel Findley, were miles ahead of most of the Shadowrun novels. There's like 40 books in that line and really you could narrow the worthwhile ones down to ten at most. (Though I admit having a soft spot for the one which has the Immortal Elf Leonardo. Black Madonna, I think it was.)
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Nov 19, 2020 01:03
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Finster Dexter posted:Burning Bright was a fun book. It's pulpy as hell, but a fun read. And since I was buying up all Shadowrun stuff at the time anyway it was a fun lead in to the Bug City book. Findley's stuff still has a lot of charm.
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Nov 19, 2020 01:31
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Everything Counts posted:That, and the novels by Nigel Findley, were miles ahead of most of the Shadowrun novels. There's like 40 books in that line and really you could narrow the worthwhile ones down to ten at most. (Though I admit having a soft spot for the one which has the Immortal Elf Leonardo. Black Madonna, I think it was.) That was a weird loving book. I remember when Da Vinci Code got big I was like "this seems... familiar"
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Nov 19, 2020 02:14
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Having 98% of the splat books before 4th kinda makes me sad as the narrative was always ambiguous enough to allow plot hooks and the like.  SR in general now
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Nov 19, 2020 04:59
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Everything Counts posted:(Though I admit having a soft spot for the one which has the Immortal Elf Leonardo. Black Madonna, I think it was.) Also, The DaVinci Code was a straightforward ripoff of Black Madonna without the elves and Blackberry Cat.
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Nov 19, 2020 09:05
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Weren't there German-only novels about one of the immortal elves? The one who was Harlequin's friend and wound up on Dunkelzahn''s board after he died thanks to his will?
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Nov 19, 2020 15:02
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I was just thinking about how in both Dragonfall and Hong Kong (can't remember if this is true of Returns) your character/team basically rely on public transit for the majority of the game. There's something pretty un-shadowrun-y about finding parking.
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Nov 19, 2020 16:36
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Fidel Cuckstro posted:I was just thinking about how in both Dragonfall and Hong Kong (can't remember if this is true of Returns) your character/team basically rely on public transit for the majority of the game. As you might expect from an escapist fantasy game, shadowrun has much better public transit than real life.
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Nov 19, 2020 16:55
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hong kong has exactly as good public transit as the game not so much the western setting games
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Nov 19, 2020 17:07
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I would be willing to accept global plague and climate catastrophe and megacorporation rule if it meant I got good public transit.
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Nov 19, 2020 18:59
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Wrr posted:I would be willing to accept global plague and climate catastrophe and megacorporation rule if it meant I got good public transit. Ironically good public transit would have made one of those less terrible, too.
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Nov 19, 2020 19:08
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I was thinking about all the times I've assumed I should get some sort of vehicle for a character and that even all the cool options (motorcycle, muscle car) become much more lame when you imagine them being used outside of a chase or important mission. Taking my Yamaha Rapier to get groceries.
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Nov 19, 2020 19:20
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I think it's pretty rare for a runner to get food that isn't from a stuffer shack or takeout from some hole in the wall noodle joint within walking distance of their hideout, so that isn't an issue
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Nov 19, 2020 19:30
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There's a reason why all those things are abstracted away in the form of a single pile of cash called “lifestyle”. No need to give the logistics of grocery shopping any thought since the only time such a scene is being played out, the whole place is about to erupt in gunfire and exploding cereal packages anyway.
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Nov 19, 2020 19:39
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And if you're in a lifestyle bracket high enough to get proper groceries, you can probably afford to get shadowrun doordash equivalent services rather than ride your murdermobile to the Neo-Whole Foods
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Nov 19, 2020 19:47
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Like, why even live a high adrenaline lifestyle of corporate espionage, theft, and murder if you have to buy cabbage by yourself in your off hours
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Nov 19, 2020 19:48
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Mr. Lobe posted:Like, why even live a high adrenaline lifestyle of corporate espionage, theft, and murder if you have to buy cabbage by yourself in your off hours BTL munchies are part of the high-adrenaline lifestyle, obviously. 
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Nov 19, 2020 19:54
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laws are for poor peeps, you can prolly get btls delivered if youre rich
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Nov 19, 2020 19:57
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Going to eat nothing but the worst processed fast food garbage I can and then do a run to afford a new vat-grown stomach or whatever
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Nov 19, 2020 19:58
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Wrr posted:Going to eat nothing but the worst processed fast food garbage I can and then do a run to afford a new vat-grown stomach or whatever it's vat grown to be highly efficient at digesting the worst processed fast food garbage it's all a vicious circle, when you think about it
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Nov 19, 2020 20:00
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| # ? Jun 3, 2024 16:35 |
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It's called vertical integration. Sign up for the bonus program and your stomach will be delivered with patented AztechLining™ that can extract an extra 15% of nutrients specially encapsulated in the Stuffer Shack bio-recyclable packages — and you're doing the planet a favour. Enter now! Tippis fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Nov 19, 2020 |
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Nov 19, 2020 20:03
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