Shadowrun 4E: House of the Rising Son

[Eanwulf]

4. The Red Ninja
Posted by: Ma'fan
There is no shortage of pajama-clad assassins whirling through Japan, but the vast majority of them are just posers in costume. There is a lot of evidence, however, pointing to Renraku operating a ninja force of their own (though the term “ninja” is used here in a very loose sense). Their training bears the hallmarks of Ryoichi Musashi's Koga school of ninjitsu, but the Koga school isn't on the payroll.

> Not officially, but Renraku has been paying a handful of Koga chunin a retainer over the past fifteen years. The three men are listed as cultural advisors, but it's clear they are responsible for putting together the Renraku program. Renraku's Red Ninja are social chameleons composed of ex-soldiers, spies, and even several kunoichi, or female ninja, trained in infiltration. The group works undercover infiltrating rival corporations and other organizations. They are called in when work requires a gentle touch, as opposed to the heavy hand of the Red Samurai.
> Mihoshi Oni

> One of my crew insists the Red Ninja have penetrated the Shotozumi-gumi and some of the smaller groups it controls. I don't know if it's true, but he's connected enough to know.
> Riser

> There are elements within the Kenran-kai who have ninja training. I don't think they are Red Ninja, but one might have trained them.
> Jimmy No

> I've tangled with these guys, and they are definitely classically trained. Their style is indicative of the Koga school, but that group denies any relationship with Shotozumi-gumi or Renraku. Somebody is lying, but why?
> Mika

[Eanwulf]

3. Intra-corporate Politics
Posted by: Kia
As runners, the closest you'll get to corporate leadership is the middle manager fighting his way up the corporate ladder. He's also the person most likely to get you killed. In the Renraku culture, you are judged by your achievements and your public image. The ideal faceless sarariman is someone who doesn't cause trouble yet does all the right things to get ahead. That can only happen with a great deal of image reconstruction, or sometimes image deconstruction. Shadowrunners working for Renraku are likely to find themselves in the middle of corporate infighting as sararimen try to show their superiors that they are the most worthy for promotion.

> If there's one rule in Renraku, it's that production prevails. The company will overlook your transgressions, so long as they're nothing that could cause the company to lose face.
> Sunshine

> Renraku is full of hotshot middle managers looking to make a name. I've worked for a handful and they do not share well. Masaki Masuda, who once hired me to deliver a crate of weapons to a black-market dealer, is a prime example of this attitude in Germany. Only after the job was done did I realize the real job was to deliver weapons that could be traced back to one of his co-workers.
> Red Anya

> I can give you a litany of Renraku Johnsons looking for runners to scrub their image or scuff up someone else's. The difference with Seattle-area Johnsons is that so many of them look like shit from the Arcology affair that the only way they can get clean is to reinvent themselves as owners/directors of one of Renraku's many shell companies in the area. The real scrub work is erasing the connection between Renraku and the shell company.
> Cosmo

[Eanwulf]

2. Red Samurai
Posted by: DangerSensei
Everyone knows about the Red Samurai. The armored warriors are the corporate equivalent of the British Royal Guard in stature. Unlike their counterparts, these ubiquitous elite military operatives are trained to deal with shadowrunners. The group is as much symbol as security measure, with each officer trained to look the part. They take extreme pride in their gosuku, or samurai armor. Putting on the uniform is seen as a lifetime commitment, identical to the vow that samurai of old pledged to their masters. They are required to take the keppan or blood seal upon entry to the order. Likewise, all members of the order carry the traditional katana and are trained in the classic sword arts of iado and kendo, as well as aikido to teach them how to fight if disarmed. Elite Red Samurai, the ones you hear about on the trid, take the vow one step further. They go through the complicated process of folding their own blade and having it blessed in a Shinto shrine.

> Yes, and they must draw blood if they draw their blade. This sounds like a bunch of anime crap to me. These guys are paid security. Mall cops with fancy armor.
> Baka Dabora

> Red Samurai guards take their vow very seriously. The position is seen as being prestigious in the company, above that of the average sarariman. Each member is viewed as samurai, and they are expected to uphold the tradition of the samurai to the letter, especially at the higher ranks. Red Samurai are the most highly visible symbol of Renraku, so if one of them screws up the whole company loses face. Members have been removed for excessive drinking or drug use, and yes, even for refusing to draw blood after their blade was drawn. The samurai of old believed in the mysticism of the blade. If a katana is returned to the sheath without drawing blood it is considered a dishonor to the blade and thus to the samurai who bears it.
> Snopes

While local directors and upper-level managers are allowed to request services from the Red Samurai, only the corporate CEO and board can give them orders. The Red Samurai function essentially as their own corporate sub-division, albeit one whose only product is service provided to other corporate subdivisions. They are supposed to cooperate with local management whenever possible, but in the end they are only truly accountable to those at the top of the Renraku pyramid, and they often act in full awareness of that fact.

The elite Red Samurai can be distinguished by the kozane or scales on the gusoku. Standard Renraku security officers have red kozane, but the top soldiers have black edges around the individual kozane. Of course, this ceremonial gear is dual purpose. Red Samurai armor is bullet resistant, HUD equipped, and flexible enough to allow them to chase you down.

Red Samurai operate in squads of five. The group members have overlapping skillsets, so if one goes down, another can take care of their part of any given mission. The exception to this is spellslingers—there's at least one in every squad, but usually that's all there is.

> Against these guys, geeking the mage first moves from good advice to being absolutely essential. You don't want to deal with their physical skills while also trying to defend against magic.
> Mihoshi Oni

Elite Red Samurai are rare, so you aren't likely to encounter them unless you're infiltrating a sensitive location. Standard Renraku security consists of a handful of well-dressed guards and a whole lot of automated features.

[Eanwulf]

1. The Seattle Agenda
Posted by: Mika
When Renraku shut down their Seattle Arcology, the company was forced to relocate a lot of personnel. The leadership was transferred to their new divisional headquarters on Manhattan Island, but that skyraker didn't have the capacity to hold all of the operations that went on in the Arcology. So anyone whose job description didn't fit with that New York state of mind was shipped out to satellite facilities across the UCAS and NAN territories. At first we all thought that meant Seattle was past tense for Renraku, but it turns out the corporate presence didn't vanish entirely. Renraku has been quietly backing Kenneth Brackhaven for years, hoping those yen would yield a windfall of Seattle-based contracts. But with Renraku's name meaning mud in Seattle, the corporation has found another way to win its way back into Seattle. Buy the ground under everyone's feet. Following the Brackhaven model, the company has been using a series of shell companies to purchase real estate throughout Bellevue, Tacoma, and parts of the Outremer. Some of the dozens of sales were made between Brackhaven Investments and Renraku for far less than what the land is worth. No word yet on what Director Sasaki plans to do with all that real estate.

> Renraku's real estate effort cuts across national boundaries, giving them significant land interests in NAN territories. That puts them up against the Horizon-backed Pueblo Corporate Council. I get the feeling that whatever is going on is larger than just repairing their public image in Seattle.
> Mr. Bonds

> This has the feel of a high-stakes game of chess. Want to guess who the pawns are?
> Turbo Bunny

> Renraku is also making inroads with organized crime elements in the Seattle area. The Yaks have been getting a little extra financial help to deal with the war they are facing, which was expected. All of the corps have an interest in making sure their favored Gumi survives. What caught me off guard is the Koshari. That group is all over the place calashing with street gangs. Every bullet they fire comes from a gun built by Renraku.
> Riser

[Eanwulf]

Alright then, time to move on to game discussion.

Since there are no true "good guys" or "bad guys" in the cyberpunk setting. I open the floor to you all and ask.

Which side do you wish to play for?

The honor bound samurai of Renraku Corporation as they try to "rise from the ashes" of economical/financial setback(s) - partaking in whatever missions they deem necessary to do so.

Or...

The other guys. Most likely a newly formed secret cabal known as the Order of the Open Palm. Set with their own agendas to both "hinder and redirect" the corporate conglomerate of Renraku to their own designs the Order of the Open Palm tries its best to inflict its values upon the single-minded MegaCorp.

Consider this the first ball we get rolling as our campaign unfolds. And know that yes, it is possible to play a former Renraku turned Cabal as well. Our starting adventure can easily handle this.

I open the floor to you now...

[Vardaen]

This thread is more appropriate to the Game Interest, or Workshop Area. I'm moving it to Workshop for now.

[Muskrat]

My character concept works better with the first option--someone trying to be a good guy in a world he knows isn't good and which he doesn't believe ever will be. He sees megacorp domination as a necessary evil, since he believes the alternative is the world sliding into total chaos. (He has more or less the opposite of my own beliefs, which is why I think it would be interesting to play him.)

[Eanwulf]

About to go to the Dr.'s to have him whittle my leg some more. No real reason to move this thread TBH as Random Chatter says:

This forum is for general, random chatter. Feel free to discuss pretty much anything here. Any game being run is also on topic.

It is equally as disposable/overwrite-able as the next thread given time, etc.

Anyways. I was working on some ideas from work to throw out there and would love some input. Conceptual images as you would, for what I saw the game revolving around. I'll post those as time permits.

[Eanwulf]

Excerpt from Samurai Sensibility

Renraku is a zaibatsu that is owned by a cabal of families, none of whom own more than ten percent of the organization. Many of the familiar faces, however, have passed on over the last decade, and a new generation leads the company now. They are a reflection of a world that has moved forward. While their tactics and politics drastically differ from those who came before, this new crop of leaders still strives to represent the purest elements of the samurai code. Honor and respect remain staples of the corporate culture, as is knowing history.

> So long as you're not a metahuman. There are no metahumans past the rank of junior executive assistant anywhere in the corporation. Meanwhile Evo Corp has an ork and a free spirit running the company. Renraku calls what they are doing “holding on to the old ways.” In plain terms it's racial purity, and it comes from Yakuza principles as opposed to the Bushido code. Ideals like that still have a home, especially in places like Guayaquil where the great metahuman melting pot that is Amazonia is only a short jog away.
> Mihoshi Oni

The samurai corporate culture filters upwards to the highest levels of the corporation. When Harry Nakada took his own life, the move was met with so much support that his son, Botan, and daughter, Junko, received immediate promotions within their respective divisions. This culture is also held responsible for Renraku's stunning lack of progress in the field of magic. Save for recent acquisitions by the Australasia division and certain elements within the security force, Renraku doesn't have a magical research arm to speak of.

> Renraku has never fully embraced the Awakening. Some even believe that magical aptitude is linked to goblinization, and if you have magical abilities your children have a higher likelihood of sprouting tusks. Others feel that magic is a passing fad with little long-term benefits. They cite Ehran's cycle of worlds theory to suggest that magic will fade in time while technology will endure.
> Goat Foot

I thought about a game in which one of the new faces was trying to desensitize its masses against the metahuman limitations it has faced over the past 50 years as well as its avoidance in the fields of using magic. The corporation as a whole seems to look down upon these things with must distrust and disdain. So why not try to have someone open the doors to a new possibility or two - i.e. something akin to lifting the bans of racial segregation of our own U.S. American timeline.

[Eanwulf]

Excerpt from Corporate Divisions - Renraku Asia

Along with regaining their footing as a world leader in information technology, Renraku researchers have been breaking new ground in social research. Through subsidiaries such as Shin Chou Kyogo, Renraku historians have been transcribing ancient texts from villages all over Asia in an effort to create a compete record of human history in what they are calling “The Learning Project.” While the corporation's efforts have been seen by some as a gimmick to generate a larger consumer base, Renraku has been supplying these underdeveloped, and sometimes feral, towns free access to their virtual academies in exchange for their historical records. Presently the project is limited to Asia and South America, but negotiations are underway in several African nations as well as in Australia and parts of the UCAS.

> Renraku's Network Academy software is a sore point for Horizon, which launched its own virtual academy only to see their product outshined by Renraku's release a month later. Since then the two have been squaring off in a PR battle that's sure to spill into the shadows.
> Sunshine

> A runner I know asked me along on a surveillance gig in Middle of Nowhere, Yakut. The terrain was so harsh that it took us two weeks to get to the site by snowmobile. After the first week my hands and feet were nearly frostbitten. Worse than that, network signals were hard to find. There was no civilization—no Matrix access—for days on end. We finally stumbled upon the facility, and the signal from that place lit up our commlinks like it was New Year's Day. They even had a dedicated satellite uplink to connect them to the rest of the world. There wasn't much we could find in their system without being detected, but two things were clear This was a Renraku facility, and the satlink was feeding a massive amount of data into a server running a very complex search query using algorithms I can't crack. It's obvious they're looking for something, but what is anyone's guess.
> Red Anya

The division's director of research, Tadahiro Mori, was acquired from Yokugawa in late 2070. While he adjusted to his new surroundings, the division relied heavily on Botan Nakada of Renraku China and Zaini Ong of Renraku Malaysia to hold research operations together. Nakada and Ong are considered stars of the corporation. Ong was considered to be a front-runner for the Directorship before the Eto appointment. Most experts agree that Ong lost out because the conservative board was unwilling to put a female in charge of their crown jewel division.

> Director of Research Tadahiro Mori was a contemporary of Dr. Sherman Huang, though of the two Mori is considered the conservative. Mori was actually allowed to defect to Yokugawa nearly two decades ago because he wouldn't push the boundaries of the science. When Huang became public enemy number one, Mori's more conservative approach started to look attractive. That's led to some speculation that Mori was a Renraku plant all along.
> Clockwork

> Mori's extraction back to Renraku was messy. Red Ninja managed to save his three children, but his wife and grandmother were killed. Mori was devastated by the loss, and has since vowed revenge on the Yokugawa Corporation.
> Mika

> There's plenty of stories going around about Renraku botching extractions. It's a strategy based on old Yakuza protection tactics. A family member gets killed and the extractee realizes that he can't go back. Even better, they hold their former employer responsible for the death and work that much harder for their new employer.
> Mihoshi Oni

Reading this, I could easily see our overall campaign theme being that of trying to aide former corporate president Harry Nakada's son Botan Nakada. Perhaps he or even his sister Junko has goblinzed "late" in life. As such, he wishes to reduce the ramifications of such an event from removing them from their position(s) of power. Utilizing his current rank and status, he has gathered what information he can through the Learning Project to locate some enigmatic and important figure of note that was also a metahuman. In turn, he would form a personally funded sect of other pro-meta sympathizers within the corporation to try to use the knowledge to their benefit. End goal being that of removing the brunt of his corporations anti-meta way of thinking.

My initial thoughts were a secret cabal known as the Order of the Open Palm. The Open Palm being a more laid back and accepting way of lifestyle. Funding themselves through whatever means are necessary and available, Botan Nokada and his small band of supporters would try to utilize meta and pro-meta runners to further his goal.

Enter party members.

Make any sense? Thoughts? Input?

Overall, I see this as a conflict similar to when the Emperor of Japan decided to Modernize his country and in turn fire all of the Shoguns. End result was a bloody feud of gunpowder-wielding soldiers vs. devout samurai. This time, it would be high-tech purists vs. meta-human/magic opposition.

Gaining fame and furthering the Renraku name by meta-human employees would serve as one means of achieving said goal. Utilizing the knowledge they have acquired to help ferret out corrupt opposition and assist pro-active sympathizers also said means.

Once more, thoughts? Input? I'm just generalizing here...

Oh yeah, the bold faced parts about Director of Research Tadahiro Mori sprung from an idea for one of our initial adventures. Securing the sympathies of the head of the Renraku Asia department to go ahead and start cycling funds into Operation Open Palm. Payback for the murder of his loved ones, etc.