Shadowrun
Shadowrun General => The Secret History => Topic started by: Mirikon on <03-01-12/0612:10>
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Renraku has been far too quiet, far too long. They didn't/don't have a major role to play in the TM scare, tempo, the Az-Am conflict, the dragon conflict, the Artifact chase, or any of the big events that are going on. Frankly, that makes me very nervous.
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They've been very beat up in the PR and Business markets ever since the Arcology "incident". And, they've been behind the curve on SOTA for some time now as well.
But I agree, when you back them into a corner, that's when they become dangerous.
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I don't think Renraku is quite in a corner yet, but i do agree they've been quiet for a long time. Their beating in the business markets isn't all for the same reasons - sure, Seattlites snark them for the Arcology frag-up but the home market - Japan - sees things differently.
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Yeah, but even in the motherland, they see the Arcology as a screw-up of near-Biblical proportions. Personally, I'm surprised more heads weren't made to roll over that fiasco.
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I'm waiting to find out that Renraku has perfected some kind of A.I. Hunting agent or task forcr, because Emergence must have scared them shitless. Or maybe they know something everyone else doesn't, possibly about Pulsar, and are biding their time til they can use that info to get back to the top.
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They are due for something big soon. I think they are going to dethrone Ares as the "gun guys". The corp blurb in CI suggests they are up to something, haven't finished reading the book yet however.
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Yeah, but even in the motherland, they see the Arcology as a screw-up of near-Biblical proportions. Personally, I'm surprised more heads weren't made to roll over that fiasco.
Didn't Sherman Huang lose his position because of that, in part?
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Not really. As I recall, his arrest was due more to his insider trading during the Novatech IPO.
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Oh, yeah, that's right.
So basically, it's back to 'wait and watch'.
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A classic writer issue. Renraku was driven in a corner as the "Seattle arcology megacorp" from 1998 to 2005. When Brightlight, Deus, Megaera and Sherman Huang were out, and the arcology seized by the local government, there would obviously be a void.
MCT and Neonet were given the AI interest precisely to stop it from a being Renraku exclusive domain. The "Japanese megacorp" angle always has been overcrowded, with MCT (Yakuza megacorp), Shiawase (Shinto megacorp), Evo (East European-Japanese melting-pot) and even smaller players Monobe (random Japanese megacorp #1) and Yakashima (random Japanese megacorp #2).
Renraku would have to be reinvented. But freelancers already have their hands full (or more precisely, made their hands full) with Horizon as a whole, Aztechnology war, Ares and Neonet internal feuds, artifacts... Renraku currently lies in the same "take and use as you wish" hole where Federated-Boeing, MCT, Shiawase or Cross have been serving their time.
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Cross is just straight up gone, Nath. The big man himself died in the Crash, and in the aftermath it was divvied up and torn apart (mostly by Ares).
As for Renraku, I was rereading their chapter in Corporate Guide, and some questions rose up:
How does Netcat know that Aneki is dead, beyond all doubt?
When are we going to see what Huang's people have been working on, considering that they appear to be delving heavily into the tech Deus came up with in the Arcology?
What is "The Learning Project" looking for?
Who in the NAN is stockpiling Terracotta Armaments weapons?
What are project FarSight's goals?
Just how close is Genecraft to isolating the Awakened gene?
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Cross is just straight up gone, Nath. The big man himself died in the Crash, and in the aftermath it was divvied up and torn apart (mostly by Ares).
I know. That's the other way of leaving the Pit of Oblivion : a freelancer decides that corp is lame and needs some room for a new one on the Corporate Court and in the books (Horizon in Cross' case). To the dismay of the gamemaster who did use said corp in their game.
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MCT isn't in a limbo, they are still doing the whole brain in a jar connected to the matrix stuff with new twists. Also making hack-cyborgs. I wonder how long it will take for it all to blow up in their faces. Honestly MCT scares me the most of all the corporations.
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MCT and AZT are tied in that respect for me, Angelone.
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Renraku has a lot of subsidiaries... actually it was founded on being a holding company. The black eye of the Seattle Arcology is actually a pretty local phenomenon. They simply moved offices to NYC for the North America division.
Even in Seattle, Renraku had other facilities. It is listed as having factories in Bellevue and Auburn. In Auburn, there is Renraku Biocomp which eventually takes over Algona Community Hospital. I ran with the Bellevue facility close to Overlake Medical. It had the local gas powered vehicle facility (Renraku Executive Vehicles) which produced the Renraku Honor and Paramed vehicles, both of which used the same powertrain. It also had a major distributor of Festival Foods and training facility for Armada Personnel. There was also banking and architectural facilities as well as programming farms. In Algona, I had a second facility (corporate park) with electric vehicles, chips, and consumer products. It was also very close to Renraku Biocomp. I had that whole area under the protection of Najime Security and all the citizens were chipped creating a very Big Brother/Stepford Wives sort of feeling. The whole town was like stepping back into the 1950's with polite children and such. The Algona/Pacific area was a model town (like Disney's Celebration near Orlando FL) which was going to be used for the Arcology.
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Renraku is still alive and well in Seattle. You just won't see it's name anywhere. The whole "Saving Face" thing, the "Renraku" sub-corporations were sold to "Other Companies" which are wholly owned by Renraku but don't have "Renraku" in the name.
So the Renraku Gas Bar and Eatery is now a Huskies, which is owned by Renraku.
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MCT isn't in a limbo, they are still doing the whole brain in a jar connected to the matrix stuff with new twists. Also making hack-cyborgs.
I wasn't giving ongoing examples, hence the tense (unless my English is getting rusty...). MCT came under the spotlight only in 2007 with Emergence. That's 18 years after it was first introduced in SR1 and Seattle Sourcebook in 1989, and 8 years after Halberstam and his brain and jar experiments were said to have joined the corp in Corporate Download in 1999. MCT played no significant role in Blood in the Boardroom, Mob War, Year of the Comet or System Failure events. It was put as the power behind the throne of general Saito as an aftermath of System Failure, but this was never developed in 4th edition (and Emergence closely followed anyway). A few people may remember MCT was backing the Tsimshian against the Salish-Shidhe. There was also one big plot involved Ares, MCT and Pueblo in Man & Machine that went completely overlooked (though there still are some interesting dots to connect between Pueblo, Arthur Vogel and AresSpace in that regards).
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MCT is famed for their Zero Zone policy. That means that nothing gets in, and if it does, nothing gets out. Most of the supplements are written from the perspective of a person in the setting rather than as an omniscient observer. So, the ZZ policy of MCT necessarily means very little info in the supplements.
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I just found it an odd example, MCT gets more "face time" than others of the big 10. S-K and Shiawise come to mind, what have those two really been doing? Shiawise is connected to the Japanese Emperor and both are kinda interested in artifacts. Other than that really nothing from either. Also what is Wuxing up to? Besides getting seemingly overridden by Aztech in the PPG?
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Note that I did include Shiawase as one of the corporation that was in limbo for some time, in the early year of Shadowrun. It played a small role at the end of Blood in the Boardroom as Korin Yamana joined the corp, and started getting a real role with the new Emperor plot in Year of the Comet, followed by Shadows of Asia and Corporate Enclaves.
Wuxing has a much shorter story, having been introduced later. It played a big role in Blood in the Boardroom quickly after as it established the PPG and then in Year of the Comet, with the Orichaculm Rush. It did serve some time after, until Corporate Intrigue came out I'd say.
Compare that to Ares Macrotechnology, Aztechnology, Yamatetsu/Evo, Fuchi/Novatech/Neonet, or Renraku during the "arcology era". They got coverage in plenty of sourcebooks and adventures (and even novels) on a regular basis.
Saeder-Krupp is a different beast because it is treated as a tool of Lofwyr. What Saeder-Krupp does as business is pretty much a non-issue. But when Lofwyr is feuding with Alamais, S-K is involved. When Lofwyr takes part in a Draconic Rite over Dunkelzahn bequests, S-K is involved. When Lofwyr manipulates European powers, S-K is involved. When Lofwyr wants an artifact, S-K is involved. And so on.
Anyway my point was, quite a few corporations spend years in limbo. They've not always been there, they won't always stay there. Now is Renraku's turn.
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Wuxing and Evo need more love, too.
Honestly, there's a lot of face time being given to AZT and Horizon, with a good amount going to Ares (As benefits it's status as "The Place Where We Buy Our Bang-Bangs!"), but the rest need more love indeed.
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Does Yamatetsu/Evo even have any facilities in Seattle?
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Does Yamatetsu/Evo even have any facilities in Seattle?
Yamatetsu/Evo subsidiary Crashcart (a competitor of DocWagon) has its world headquarters in Seattle. Yamatetsu also plays a big role in Nigle Findley's 2XS, set in Seattle.
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Got an address?
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A simple "Plan 9" theory with Renraku working to find the Awakened gene, they could be working on cultured Awakened bioware. As I understand bio and cyberware frag the Awakened by screwing over the mana balance of their bodies, so if a cultured bioware grown from an activated Awakened biosample was implanted there might be no Essence loss.
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A simple "Plan 9" theory with Renraku working to find the Awakened gene, they could be working on cultured Awakened bioware. As I understand bio and cyberware frag the Awakened by screwing over the mana balance of their bodies, so if a cultured bioware grown from an activated Awakened biosample was implanted there might be no Essence loss.
That sounds more like an MCT program. There was some research in that vain going on at Overlake Medical Center which I believe sparked some MCT interest. Renraku Biotech was focusing on internal organs. Nobody is going to get rich focusing on 1% of the population (the awakened). More likely, they've got Nanoware going strong.
That being said, I had Renraku charting everyone in Algona/Pacific and offered a 'Family Health Center' which looked for metahuman genes and potentially terminated those pregnancies. Meanwhile they were mapping the genome more precisely. Given a very large pool of test subjects (Armada Personnel), Renraku could use selective breeding to purify a line of awakened people, preferably human. This may have been going on to develop Otaku or even the Technomancers.
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A simple "Plan 9" theory with Renraku working to find the Awakened gene, they could be working on cultured Awakened bioware. As I understand bio and cyberware frag the Awakened by screwing over the mana balance of their bodies, so if a cultured bioware grown from an activated Awakened biosample was implanted there might be no Essence loss.
That sounds more like an MCT program. There was some research in that vain going on at Overlake Medical Center which I believe sparked some MCT interest. Renraku Biotech was focusing on internal organs. Nobody is going to get rich focusing on 1% of the population (the awakened). More likely, they've got Nanoware going strong.
That being said, I had Renraku charting everyone in Algona/Pacific and offered a 'Family Health Center' which looked for metahuman genes and potentially terminated those pregnancies. Meanwhile they were mapping the genome more precisely. Given a very large pool of test subjects (Armada Personnel), Renraku could use selective breeding to purify a line of awakened people, preferably human. This may have been going on to develop Otaku or even the Technomancers.
Okay I can go with that, but there is also the possibility that they may be looking for a way to Awaken mundanes. As far as I know everyone carries the genes to be "Awakened" they just need to be activated, right? So if Renraku can find that way they could develop a gene therapy that could do the job and with that ability the just might be able to create "designer Awakened". "Want to be an Adept use this therapy, Technomancer this one", etc... And in doing that open up whole new markets, and just think of the fragging over they could give another Mega. Imagine trying to fend off a 100+, 200+ person strong magical assault on a project site. Sounds nasty don't it. ???
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Ghost Dance, Vampires, Ghouls, Shadim, Toxics, Bugs, Tempo... Awakening people is going to be a hard sell. Sell to the masses. They want to be nice clean, easy to hire humans with no biases against them.
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True but this is a nefarious Mega (Mwahahaha, dun dun duuunnnn). They could do it to their own people and put in a Micotoxin implant to insure loyalty. Nothing keeps the wageslaves in line like the chance that their boss could turn their brains into a nasty viscous sludge that would then drip from all their cranial orifices. Ick, that thought just made me a little sick. :P
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Sounds a lot like tonics from BioShock. Plus, take into account the way that people tend to trust things that have Latin names and are endorsed by a kind and professional-looking older man in a white lab coat. I tell people about my condition IRL, people say vampire and look at me weird. I say I have porphyria, and suddenly it's all very respectable. You sell something based on the concept that it is safe, tested, and quality-approved. Considering the cyberpunk nature of Shadowrun, selling something under the false pretense that it's safe is one of the hallmarks of megacorporate tactics, as they answer to no one but their shareholders, and technology and ambition often outrun safety or morality by a longshot. IIRC, Ares has a habit of dropping their prototype weapons on the street, whether for gangs, as payment for runners, or whatever, to get free field testing from time to time. No reason to think other treatments wouldn't get the same. How many old folks on the streets with a glitched-out cybereye or arm possibly got there because that wiz piece of gear turned out to be a glitched out prototype?
As far as the corps go, I've always figured Renraku has been mostly out of the spotlight...
From a Writer's perspective) because they were the primary metaplot focus for so long. Gotta turn away and look at other things now, before coming back around. After all, Bug Spirits were all the rage back when, but they got a long break. Now they get to come back, bit by bit. :)
From a Player's perspective) They've taken a LOT of hits, and it pays for them to stay out of the spotlight. They lost their founder and a lot of their best minds with the Arcology. Remember, Aniki built the Arc with the dream of self-contained corpo-utopian living in mind. He was a ruthless businessman, but he did have a dream of (by his standards) helping to build a better future. The AEP was only one part of that. He ultimately committed seppuku (in a digital sense) out of shame for all that his dream had been corrupted into being. Japanese megacorps that have a founder or chair of such personal charisma tend to put a lot of stock, pride and face into that leader. They take cues for their own identity from them. Aneki's shame was personal, and most potent of them all, but every Renraku sarariman felt the sting of shame for the failure of the Arcology. It wasn't just a financial hit: it was an ideological disaster. They lost their masterpiece and their father all at once. The people who would have been best-placed to lead from there were dead, or they decided to play things more conservatively. Renraku has the majority of the telecom holdings in Japan (a MAJOR data hub), not to mention assets across the globe. Right now they know it's still too soon to stick their heads out in a bid to be number one, because to many still equate Renraku with Crash 2.0 and the Arc. It's in their best interests to play it quiet and work on their basics. Build their portfolio. Fund R&D. Keep their eyes open, ears to the grindstone, walk softly, and wait for the opportune moment.
As for Shiawase, I've never really seen them as a major player when it comes to the metaplots. Political infighting has always stymied them, time and again. Marriages and inheritances, Imperial relations and Fuchi stock all serve to consistently strain them from within. I'm one of the people who remains shocked they've never gone Fuchi and just split into a bunch of others.
MCT has always struck me as the monolith Japanacorp (their corporate logo certainly supports this), and the one you hear about the least. They are the most... well, stereotypical of a Cyberpunk Zaibatsu. Yakuza connections. Computer tech. Heavy Industry. Traditionalists. The thing that makes them SR-unique is Unit 13, Pentacle Publishing and their other magical pursuits (like their examination of the Elemental Scrolls in the 60s). It might be nice to see them really chase something magical down, other than artifacts. Possibly do some greater investigation of the kaern found under LA- oh, I mean the Deep Lacuna. ;)
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As for Shiawase, I've never really seen them as a major player when it comes to the metaplots. Political infighting has always stymied them, time and again. Marriages and inheritances, Imperial relations and Fuchi stock all serve to consistently strain them from within. I'm one of the people who remains shocked they've never gone Fuchi and just split into a bunch of others.
They all bear the Shiawase family name. They can't walk away from that, considering how conservative Japanese business is. This is not America, where self-made men (Damien Knight, Richard Villiers...) are lauded at. The fact that infighting is justified as their only option is precisely what makes Shiawase different from the other megacorporations.
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As for Shiawase, I've never really seen them as a major player when it comes to the metaplots. Political infighting has always stymied them, time and again. Marriages and inheritances, Imperial relations and Fuchi stock all serve to consistently strain them from within. I'm one of the people who remains shocked they've never gone Fuchi and just split into a bunch of others.
They all bear the Shiawase family name. They can't walk away from that, considering how conservative Japanese business is. This is not America, where self-made men (Damien Knight, Richard Villiers...) are lauded at. The fact that infighting is justified as their only option is precisely what makes Shiawase different from the other megacorporations.
An excellent point, but it has been pointed out repeatedly that each of them has considered just assassinating their rivals or breaking the corp apart into their own fiefdoms. Self-preservation and traditionalism seem to be the only glue holding it together, which is reason enough to state why they rarely have energy left over to enact many metaplot effects. Most of the runs I've seen them involved in are either in-house jobs or hits against energy rivals like Gaiatronics.
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Renraku hasn't been idle. They've just been flying under the radar. For instance, they run the SIN registry not only for their corporate empire, but for over ONE HUNDRED sovereign nations around the world! They are, in essence, the premier data brokers in the world. Information is power, and Renraku controls a lot of it. This goes beyond spin, like you see with Aztechnology and Horizon. With so much of the raw data on Renraku systems, if they wanted to, Renraku could change the actual facts, and no one would know.
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Just to make it clear, some people (including myself) have been talking about Renraku importance story-wise, others about its importance background-wise.
Renraku Computer Systems still is one of the ten largest megacorporations in the world. It still employs millions of people and makes billions of nuyen in computers, ships, weapons, services, and toilet seats. By 2073, The Economist and The Wall Street Journal probably mention Renraku as often as any other of the Big Ten. There still are a bunch of ideas to use Renraku in games (otherwise, the person who wrote the Renraku chapter in Corporate Guide wouldn't have done his job). What there was not, however, is a big role for Renraku to play in the technomancers crisis, the tempo traffic, the War in Colombia, the Denver Treaty negotiations, and the artifacts hunt (it does appear in two adventures from Corporate Intrigue, but it could be easily replaced with any other corporations).
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I think that's just the point: they are trying to remain in the background as best they can. Marshall strength and create opportunities. I suspect the next time we see Renraku take center stage, it will be well on their terms, and what they bring will prove they were anything but idle.
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Or something will have gone horribly, horribly wrong. Again.
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Or something will have gone horribly, horribly wrong. Again.
And things have gone right... When?
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Define "right" in this context, Ray. It will really help me to come up with an answer for you.
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Define "right" in this context, Ray. It will really help me to come up with an answer for you.
The opposite of horribly wrong?
Or at least where someone doesn't go, "Oh god, oh god, we're going to die."? :P
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So more like a Tuesday and not a Thursday?
Also are Cham and Cliber dead? I seem to remember them dying.
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How's that old quote go? "Plot is a result of complications," I think.