alt.War: Turning Anger into productiveness

[Username17]

That reminds me of a bit on the Daily Show following the revelation that Libya had hired mercenaries from Ivory Coast to fire upon protesting civilians. John Stewart's reply: "Where do you find people like that? ActualMonster.com?"

-Username17

[RiotGearEpsilon]

I was tempted to make a reference to Monster.com but the pun didn't occur to me.

[Lokathor]

Frank, your weapons lists are cool and all, but you don't seem to have any Melee weapons; don't forget those.

EDIT: Also, a revised formula for how combat spells deal damage, and how programs deal damage, if appropriate.

[RiotGearEpsilon]

Plus cyberguns! I gotta have my Spur.

[Username17]

Other Countries
“When you are fighting a man, it is not unusual to forget that there are still other men.”
Posted by: Orb Spider

As the war escalates, it is important to remember that Southeast Asia is a region and that there are other countries in it. Here is a short primer on what they are and what you can expect from them. Full descriptions of these countries are elsewhere.

Yunnan
“We will be shooting you and looting you in approximately ten minutes. Feliciations.”

Yunnan's ecology is quite diverse, having numerous natural wonders and tens of thousands of species of plant, many of which are found nowhere else. Unique animals are also in abundance, with talking monkeys and mosquitoes so large that people serve them three to a plate. In many ways it is the garden of the former Chinese empire. And since the awakening, it has become a thoroughly dangerous and scary place. Ground level travel through the mountains was always difficult, with mountains jutting three kilometers up from river valleys several times between destinations; but with the increased danger of monstrous overgrowth travel is simply not advised. Most of the rails and expressways have been torn to shreds by rampaging foliage. Such as the country is held together at all, it is through the air.

The regional isolation of the pockets of civilization has resulted in the rise of local opium warlords who find that producing narcotics fills their coffers better than allowing the locals to grow foodstuffs. The great proliferation of airstrips and the tremendous need for smuggling has led to Yunnanese warlords have invested in an impressively modern fleet of vectored thrust aircraft. And this in turn has opened up a brand new opportunity: air piracy. Air pirates down foreign aircraft in order to steal cargo and machine components from the wreckage, but mostly they exact electronic tolls on planes that they intercept, whether those planes are in Yunnan airspace or not.

Chin
“Dignity cannot be taken, though it can be lost.”

Chin is an underdeveloped nation between Myanmar, United Bengal, and Assam. In recent history, Chin was a province within Myanmar, but gained its independence as Myanmar fell apart. Chin society is clan based and the government is basically feudal. Clans have associated totems and shamans who are mentored by a totem other than their family's may be adopted into a different clan. As a landlocked nation with no particular natural resources, little population, and no great cultural contributions, Chin is usually overlooked even by other countries in the region.

Quality of life measures in Chin are fairly low, but the people in Chin mostly just want to be left alone. Years of grinding poverty and exploitation at the hands of various Burmese juntas has left the Chin clans with low expectations and isolationist tendencies. Strangers are not welcome in Chin and most agencies don't bother looking for people there. The clan leaders understand how weak they are and will make virtually any deal to maintain Chin's independence. They would sell their own children to United Bengal for security guarantees, and rumor has that they actually have.

Karen
“Since the new neighbors moved in next door, there are more people between us and the neighbors on the other side.”

The Karen nation basically exists because Myanmar, Shan, and Siam are really bad neighbors to have. So all three nations have put up with the Karen getting their own country at the triple border because it's just easier that way. The Karen people are ethnically and culturally distinct from the Burmese and Tai people who live all around them, and their lands just aren't high priority for annexation by the stronger powers (except Myanmar, which has a recent historical claim on Karen but which is currently too prostrate to do much about it).

Karen society is very magic-oriented. They have this thing they do where they literally tie spirits together to make bigger spirits and they attempt to do something analogous to create economic and political systems. People are tied together with actual string to create larger subunits of people that are then treated as individuals. It's kind of like a combination between corporatization and plural marriage. These “knots” then act not unlike mini-corps or communes. I'm not an anthropologist or a magician and don't pretend to understand how it works, but then neither do their neighbors.

Shan
“Warlords can help you win a war, but they cannot help you win a peace.”

Shan is kind of an extension of the chaos of Yunnan, in that the jungles are a hellscape full of monsters and opium warlords run everything. It's different in that there is no real air power to bypass the situation, and narcotics are mostly smuggled overland at a shocking cost in life. It's also different in that the warlords here are seen to be legitimate by the local populace. Shan has a history of feudal rulership, and the warlords are mostly the descendants of local nobility. Despite the oppressive and chaotic feudal government, Shan people are mostly angry at Myanmar for having oppressed the Shan people for generations in history recent enough to make raw wounds.

Shan warlords can pretty much make their own foreign policy, and they do. Nominally there is a democratically elected council, but not all the people even vote for it, and it's pretty much a joke. There is also some talk of having a “high chief” or “emperor” in the form of a warlord who nominally speaks for the entire country. That plan hasn't really gotten off the ground, but it hasn't stopped various Shan warlords from going to war with each other.

Pattani
“Yo ho ho and a bottle of tea.”

Pattani is a small country between Siam and Malaysia that is filled with Malay people who follow Islam. After it seceded from Siam (Thailand at the time), they petitioned for entrance into the Malaysian Federation, and felt confident that they would get in. What with being Malaysians and Muslims. However, the Malaysian Federation told them to fuck off, because the people of Pattani are poor, uneducated, religiously extreme, and prone to crime. That state of affairs hasn't really changed much in the intervening years. Pattani is still underdeveloped, still full of religious fundamentalists and pirates. And Malaysia still wants them to go away. But that is not going to happen, because they are actually connected by land.

Pattani mostly exports piracy. And not the good kind where people copy Siamese moodchips. Pattani is one of the go-to ports for Malaccan pirates, and the local religious leaders basically endorse piracy as a way of bringing fire to the infidel. It's seriously cramping Malaysia's style, and they may end up having to do something about them after all.

• Meanwhile, Siam has the Kra Canal by which their shipping can bypass the Straights of Malacca altogether. Loose talk among the pirates indicates that there are plans to attack the canal itself in the near future.
• Monkeywrencher

Malaysia
“None of us is as ineffective as all of us.”

Malaysia is near and dear to our hearts, because that is where our servers physically are. Most of the people are Malay and most of the people are Islamic, but there is a strong Buddhist and Han community as well. Malaysia never got bit by the jihad bug that dominates discourse in The Caliphate, and is part of a cultural continuity with the Canton Confederation and Java. Concessions to Islamic banking rules exist, but are pretty minor and the country is so secular and hands-off that they allow our board to operate. There are religious police, but they basically can't do anything. In the old days they used to be forbidden from enforcing rules on non-Muslims, but since shortly after the Awakening those rules have been tightened so that the burden is on the religious police to prove you are Muslim before they are even allowed to question you. That's right, in Malaysia you literally have to register with the chaperons before they are allowed to take your beer away. I suggest not doing that.

Malaysia's government exists in a state of perpetual paralysis, because the different kingdoms that form the federation have veto powers over most acts of parliament. The results are that taxes stay low, the government doesn't nose into your business, and most services are provided by corporate contractors or local authorities. Corporate presence in Malaysia is huge, and the people are relatively well-off in aggregate. Most of the wealth is in Kuala Lumpur, but with so many poverty stricken nations to compare themselves with, even the rural poor of Malaysia are mostly pretty content with the situation.

Hainan
“Who stands the highest, sees the farthest.”

Hainan is a series of islands in the South China Sea. Exactly which islands are part of Hainan is a source of continual dispute between them and Vietnam (and to a lesser extent, the Canton Confederation). Fortunately, most of those islands are uninhabited and are being contested primarily for rights to undersea minerals. The vast majority of people in Hainan live in the big island which is itself called Hainan. Most of the Hainanese are Lingao people, and they have their own politically important dragon named Bai Zhenzhu. But mostly they have a space launch facility and a dominating corporate presence by Shibata Heavy Industries.

Hainan also lets corporations and other interested agencies set up secret bases and listening arrays on its islands for practically nothing as long as they agree those islands are still technically part of Hainan. There are a surprisingly large number of secret labs, black prisons, and observation posts set up on Hainan's lesser known islands.

• A number of those listening posts and secret labs and stuff aren't really leased to anyone at all – Hainan maintains a huge intelligence network in the South China Sea, and a lot of the island leasing deals are just there to set up plausible deniability for their spying.
• ToyBox

Guangxi
“If we let you fight our neighbors, will you stop fighting us?”

Guangxi is the host to the southern front of the Five Kingdoms War. Sichuan and Canton forces regularly clash within its territory. Bandits prey upon supply caravans on a regular basis, and many of those “bandits” were wearing military uniforms from one of the neighboring powers until just before they attacked. Most people in Guangxi self identify as Zhuang, making them Tai, but there is generally high public support for reunifying into China amongst the population.

The local government has been pretty much incapable of maintaining order or providing security services for most of its existence, but has recently hired the Vietnamese Army to operate as security contractors. That sort of thing may not have not have worked out for San Francisco, but it seems to be doing relatively well in Guangxi. At this point, Southern Guangxi (including the coast) is mostly clearly distinguishable from a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The Yunnanese border and the Northern warzone cannot make that claim however.

• This is pretty similar to how Vietnam got Laos into their sphere of influence a hundred years ago. If the Chinese don't reunify, expect to see Guangxi as a Vietnamese colony in ten years.
• Hound Dog

[RiotGearEpsilon]

Just to make sure I understand the current combat mechanics:

1. I roll to hit, with all appropriate modifiers.
2. The other guy rolls to defend, with appropriate modifiers.
3. If I get more hits than the other guy, I hit. I do a base damage of (my hits)-(his hits)+(base damage of my weapon)+(ammo modifiers or whatever).
4. The other guy rolls armor, which is Body+Unhardened Armor, with automatic hits equal to hardened armor. This pool is reduced by my armor penetration. Armor penetration subtracts from hardened armor before unhardened armor.
5. If I attacked with a physical attack, and my base damage was less than the other guys (unhardened armor)+(hardened armor), it does stun damage instead of physical damage.
6. If (base damage)-(rolled armor hits) is more than 0, he suffers {1:1,2:3,3:6,4:10,etc} damage of the appropriate type.

Correcto?

[Username17]

Just to make sure I understand the current combat mechanics:

1. I roll to hit, with all appropriate modifiers.
2. The other guy rolls to defend, with appropriate modifiers.
3. If I get more hits than the other guy, I hit. I do a base damage of (my hits)-(his hits)+(base damage of my weapon)+(ammo modifiers or whatever).
4. The other guy rolls armor, which is Body+Unhardened Armor, with automatic hits equal to hardened armor. This is reduced by my unhardened armor. Armor penetration subtracts from hardened armor before unhardened armor.
5. If I attacked with a physical attack, and my base damage was less than the other guys (unhardened armor)+(hardened armor), it does stun damage instead of physical damage.
6. If (base damage)-(rolled armor hits) is more than 0, he suffers {1:1,2:3,3:6,4:10,etc} damage of the appropriate type.

Correcto?

Bolded part: WTF? Did you mean "Armor Penetration"?

-Username17

[Lokathor]

Yeah Riot, except your pronouns are all messed up. But the steps are mostly correct.

[RiotGearEpsilon]

Did you mean "Armor Penetration"?

I totally did. durr

[RiotGearEpsilon]

I'm transcribing gear data to this spreadsheet for easy review. It's sortable by column, so it'll help to review for bugs/glitches.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key ... y=CPmhzrgN

[Username17]

The International Community
“What will the neighbors think?”
Posted by: Chun The Unavoidable

Wars do not exist in isolation. They exist in the world. And the world is full of very big fish who have vested interests that are interwoven and opposed at every level. So just as you can't put banana-flavored-cheese logs on the market without influencing the invisible hand of the market all over the world, you can't throw a war without influencing stability everywhere in the world. These sorts of interaction cascades are what make World Wars happen, and these days there are a number of international agencies whose entire purpose is to provide pushback to keep that shit from happening. So to rally understand the war, you got to look at what those international groups are going to do about it (or not do about it, as the case may be).

The United Nations
“Destroy the world? That's horrible! That's where I keep all my stuff!”

The United Nations is an organization that dates back to the end of World War II, where it was essentially a retake on the idea of the League of Nations that had been created at the end of World War I. And while various people might tell you the tale of some very high minded goals, the truth is that it was set up to prevent wars from breaking out between major powers. And for nearly a hundred years it actually succeeded. While there were proxy wars in Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq, and of course Vietnam, the major powers did not go to war with each other.

But as the major powers fell apart and several mid-level powers rose to the position of major world power, that system became inadequate. The UN was set up to keep the United States and its allies from going to war with the Soviet Union and its allies, but it was never set up to keep India from going to war with China or Pakistan. And when all of those countries became nuclear powers, that was woefully insufficient. Still, the UN limped along in the early part of the 20th century for decades before the Euro Wars forced it to undergo an overhaul.

The biggest thing to understand about the UN is that votes in the General Assembly mean fuck all. They make “non-binding resolutions” which is bureaucratese for “empty posturing”. The important part is the Security Council. Their votes actually send troops or enforce sanctions. Back in the 40s, the Security Council was simply all the winners of World War II (plus France), but in the 2040s that was simply incompatible with geopolitical reality. None of the winners of World War II really existed except the United Kingdom, and the United Kingdom had been elevated to the Security Council when it was “The British Empire” and included everything from Vijayanagar to Myanmar. Back when the Security Council was a tiny club, they had a rule that any member of the Council could veto any resolution, but with the wider field that became paralyzing (if you thought it was hard to get the old USA and USSR to agree on anything, you were right, but you still haven't seen trying to get Aztlan, Amazonia, Vijayanagar, and Japan to agree on something). So in the new Security Council, there need to be two vetoes to scuttle a blue helmet troop deployment.

• Amazonia – The self appointed defenders of the Earth and all tribal peoples who aren't Nahuatl, Amazonia ships arms and advisors to Nag Kampuchea and the Montagnard Confederation. They fiercely condemn Siam, Cambodia, and Vietnam, and attempt to pass resolutions against them on a regular basis.
• Arabian Caliphate – The Caliphate is an explicitly religious undertaking and the country really only supports other countries which are on the Sharia train. Even countries having a lot of Muslims in them does not seem to be enough to get Caliphate support. As such, Arabia is backing Pattani.Yes, the tiny pirate enclave that has no chance. They are the ones that the Caliph says need UN support.
• Aztlan – Aztlan has a notorious human rights abuse record among people who think that the death penalty constitutes a human rights abuse (like for instance: most countries in Europe). Their stance is normally one of “live and let live” where they support the rights of any country to do whatever they want for or to their own people. That magnanimous position doesn't extend to Amazonia of course, or to any country perceived to be in Amazonia's sphere of influence. So while Aztlan supports letting the people of Myanmar and Shan work things out for themselves, they speak stridently about the need to curb the power and aggression of Nag Kampuchea and the Montagnard Confederation.
• CAS – The CAS has a long standing association with the Montagnards. The Dega Alliance had their unwavering support and before that they supported Champa and Greater Hmong. The truth is that the Confederates really don't know or care what happens in Southeast Asia, but they have a small but vocal Montagnard minority. Expect the CAS to veto absolutely anything that would go against the Montagnards and to be largely disinterested in anything else.
• France – Cambodia has a deep economic relationship with ESPRIT, and ESPRIT Industries is a major player in France. Besides, the Queen of Cambodia is a former French citizen. France may individually be one of the weakest nations in the Security Council, but it is considered to speak for “Europe”, so its voice is actually pretty loud. You can expect France to speak on behalf of Cambodia and to pull strings if necessary to keep Cambodia from going down.
• Japan – The Imperial State usually does whatever is good for the megacorps that nominally owe fealty to it. But in the case of Southeast Asia, that is really unclear. Mitsuhama, Renraku, and Shiawase all have different (often competing) interests in the region, and the Emperor's representatives in the UN have been even more cagey and exaggeratedly polite than usual.
• Pakistan – By far the weakest member of the Security Council, Pakistan retains its membership simply because they've proven that they are willing to lose a nuclear exchange and continue fighting. The fact that they have nukes and are basically unphased by the MAD plans of others has left them a diplomatic voice way outside their actual relative power level. But so far, they don't seem to even really care what happens in the Southeast Asian conflict. That might change if Dev on the street in Pakistan figures out that the Naga are Hindus or that Cambodia has an oppressed Islamic minority. But for now the average Pakistani couldn't give less of a fuck and the military government is dangling different distractions to stay in power.
• Russia – The Russians backed the Vietnamese before and they'll back them again the future. Their relationship has been mutually beneficial even though they no longer have particularly similar economic philosophies. Still: you can expect Russia to continue supplying Vietnam and denouncing the Montagnard Confederation.
• UCAS – The UCAS has only Seattle left of its Pacific ports. Samoa, Hawaii, Micronesia, and Vanuatu have all declared complete independence from it. And as a result, the only interest the UCAS has left in the region is that of limiting the power of Japan and trying to make sure China doesn't reform. As long as no empires seem to be expanding in the region, the UCAS can be counted on to not give a damn.
• Vijayanagar – By far the most powerful voice in the Indian Union, the mostly Tamil state of Vijayanagar paradoxically considers itself the defender of the Hindu faith and also a hyper-modern secular socialist republic. They are paradoxically in favor of Cambodia (for having the cleanest elections in the region) and Nag Kampuchea (for being a Hindu theocracy). Their foreign policy is fairly schizophrenic on this issue, and the country could easily be persuaded to support either side.

But remember that while there are ten members of the Security Council, there are several other countries that have so much power that they are almost members and easily could become members in the near future. The most glaring example of course is Korea, which probably should be a member, but is being frozen out by a rare consensus of Russia and Japan. Then there is the United Kingdom, who totally were members until an isolationist government took them out. They haven't collapses or anything, and it is unclear what would happen if the technocrat party formally requested their seat back. The Islamic world is torn about the inclusion of the Ottomans – they are very powerful, but they are also flat opposed to The Caliphate on many issues. Europe may be made of mostly micro states, but as a whole it is very powerful, and most insiders agree that it is underrepresented with only a single vote for France. But where to put that extra vote is a matter of substantial contention – decent arguments can and have been made for putting it in Italy, Spain, United Netherlands, or even the Scandinavian Union. None of the segments of China are big enough to warrant a vote on their own, but the totality almost certainly deserves representation, which a lot of observers think should go to the Canton Confederation. And finally, while Vietnam used to be perpetually frozen out of the UN by China and the USA, neither of those countries even exist, and not a few people wonder why Vietnam isn't a security council member. Its induction could change the whole stance of the UN towards the region.

The Corporate Court
“We call it the bottom line because it is the bottom line.”

The Corporate Court prints the international currency and is managed by and for those companies that “make” the most of it. Neoclassicist and neomercantilist economists constantly harp on the fundamental absurdity of profit-making entities running their own fiat currency, but the spiraling inflation the naysayers keep threatening us with hasn't happened in the last forty years and it seems likely that it won't any time soon. The Nuyen exists to distribute goods and services and to keep score. The corporations within the Nuyen system compete to be the biggest and have the most power and impact, and the Nuyen that they take in is their means of determining who the biggest actually is.

Once a Nuyen hits your personal account, it's “money” in that you can freely exchange it for goods and services all over the world. But within the inner circles of the Corporate Court it's merely a monad of macroeconomic measurement. The Court puts Nuyen into the system and takes it out again in order to maintain price stability in a world of generally but erratically growing outputs and trade. Which means that on the whole they put more money into the system than they take out. And they put money into the system simply by deciding to do so. Ares Macrotechnology would shoot your mom in the face for the price of the bullet plus one Nuyen, but the Corporate Court wouldn't bend over to pick a billion Nuyen off the ground. They literally just think the stuff into existence.

But for all their veneer of being disinterested bureaucrats, the Court does have a political agenda. They want economic stability, they want as many things to be monetized as possible, and they speak for the ten corporations that have enough shares to have permanent seats on the Court itself. The CC can and has issued Omega orders on people, countries, or corporations that upset the apple cart in any way. But remember: at the end of the day, no matter how complex their formulas or, or how well thought-out their systems are, the CC does act in accordance with the dictates of the votes of the corporations on the council. And those corporations have actual metahuman representatives with actual metahuman faults. So far the CC hasn't allowed the Nuyen to collapse by taking shortsighted actions or pursuing petty feuds, but that doesn't mean they won't in the future.

Still, to the first approximation, you can figure that the Corporate Court will follow the will of the member corporations, and that the Big Ten will each follow the money. So you can pretty accurately guess what the Court will do by figuring out where the interests of those corps lie.

• Ares – Ares sells big things. And whenever they can, they sell big expensive things that explode. Ares supports war as long as people have money to buy new weapons, and then they support peace until people are sufficiently rebuilt that they no longer need to buy factory parts. So Ares can be expected to support war for Siam and peace for Myanmar.
• Aztechnology – Aztechnology mostly sells pull-tab burritos, music players, and other consumer items in the region and they don't really sell their weapons to anyone but Vietnam. As such, they are unsurprisingly opposed to countries other than Vietnam fighting, and have been advocating peaceful resolutions to the ongoing disagreements.
• EVO – EVO has strong economic ties to Vietnam and supports them fairly unreservedly. Furthermore, they are taking a really substantial amount of methane out of Myanmar's gas fields, and paying almost nothing for it. They are deeply opposed to Myanmar getting their shit together, but also work to keep war from spreading too far into Myanmaran territory.
• Horizon – As the primary licenser of Siamese and Javanese language trid, Horizon stands to benefit a lot from the outbreak of war. For now, they are pretty much acting as cheerleaders for whatever side does something dramatic. Wars make ratings, but they don't make ratings forever. As soon as the global attention span wanders from the region, Horizon will probably want their customers to stop getting shot.
• MCT – Also known as “The Yak Corp” because of their initial creation as a Yakuza money-laundering scheme, Mitsuhama is still balls deep in crime money. MCT has tremendous monetary investments in the sketchier parts of Siam and Myanmar. They pretty much vote for any policy which puts the region to as little scrutiny as possible, but if their investments were physically threatened, that might change.
• NeoNET – NeoNET has produced much of the backbone that makes Matrix 2.0 work except in Southeast Asia, where most of that work was done by ShinSiam. NeoNET has repeatedly insinuated that ShinSiam's work is either similar enough to their own to constitute infringement or dissimilar enough to fail to meet standards. If NeoNET can get something to stick to ShinSiam, expect them to stick it to them good.
• Renraku – Renraku has an incestuous relationship with ShinSiam, buying and selling both optical chips and complete computers from and to ShinSiam. For now, their position has been an apparently principled anti-piracy and anti-banditry stance. No real expectation that will change.
• Saeder-Krupp – S-K was in negotiations for years to build the Kra Canal, only to get bid sniped by Shiawase. S-K is major corporation, but it is also run by a vengeful head case, and it is probable that they are looking for an excuse to punish Siam somehow. Furthermore, S-K views ESPRIT (correctly) as a major competitor and side-thorn, so it's likely that they are looking to do bad things to Cambodia. Thus, S-K's stance of supporting Nag Kampuchea makes perfect sense without resorting to wacky theories that Lofwyr had a soft spot for Vasuki.
• Shiawase – Shiawase is a major partner of Siam, having built the Kra Canal. Furthermore, they are a major producer of electric power, having a premier position with geostationary power satellites over the region. This puts them in direct competition with the nation of Laos, meaning that they are likely to want the civil war to drag on as long as possible there. But beyond that, they are a key producer of infrastructure that has in fact already been built, meaning that for the time being their bottom line is going to be benefited in the near future by the war doing more damage.
• Wuxing – Wuxing uses a large number of goods produced in Siam, Cambodia, and Vietnam to perform value-added manufacturing in factories in the Canton Confederation. At least for now, Wuxing wants the war to be over and done with as quickly as possible and to damage as little as possible. If they can find new vendors, that position may change.

ASEAN
“What's good for us is good for you, considering that you are 'us'.”

ASEAN stands for “Association of SouthEast Asian Nations”. It's a regional country club for countries that is not unlike the European, Indian, or African Union. And like those other entities, it has the nominal ability to levy and deploy troops but generally doesn't actually get to do that because the member states don't get along very much and have distinct foreign policies and moral frameworks. Nonetheless, there is speculation that ASEAN might actually get its dick wet in the Nag Kampuchean War of Succession because Nag Kampuchea is not actually a member.

Most of what ASEAN does is act as a neutral ground for Vietnam and Siam to yell at each other and debate economic and security concerns. They also run sports championships like the SEA Games and the regional Go championships. And they provide marketing and advocacy to make the Southeast Asian Region seem attractive to foreign investors and tourists. And these are all valuable services that provide a return very much higher than the cost of running the agency is for the member states. But regardless, back when Vasuki was alive, he (they?) dismissed it as “a human institution” and refused to join. The Montagnard Confederation followed suit. And this has left some people wondering whether ASEAN should continue to exist. With the coming of the war, some feel that it is time for ASEAN to kick some ass lest it fade away.

[Username17]

Still working on the big chart of armed forces:

Oceania
Organization	Personnel	Mechanization	Magic	Air	Naval	Space	Matrix	Modernization	Overall
Australia	C	B	E	B	B	C	C	C	C
Bali	E	D	C	E	E	E	E	D	F
Dayak Council	B	D	C	D	D	F	F	D	T
Javan Republic	C	D	D	D	C	E	D	C	D
Kingdom of Hawaii	F	C	C	D	C	A	C	C	E
Lemuria	E	A	D	A	A	E	C	A	D
Micronesian Federation	F	E	E	E	E	D	D	E	F
New Zealand	E	B	E	C	B	B	C	B	E
Papua	E	D	E	E	E	E	D	C	F
Philippines	C	D	E	C	D	E	E	D	E
Sumatran Alliance	B	D	E	D	B	E	E	C	C
Tasmania	F	B	E	D	D	C	C	C	F
Timor	F	E	C	F	D	D	D	B	F

-Username17

[Username17]

Flags for Alt.War:

Cambodia


Chin


Guangxi


Hainan


Karen


Laos


Malaysia


Montagnard Confederation


Nag Kampuchea


Pattani


Shan


Vietnam


Yunnan

[RiotGearEpsilon]

Dude you are this relentless unstoppable force aaaaa

[Username17]

So I forgot to upload Siam and Myanmar's flags.

Myanmar


Siam


And I've started doing the maps. Here's the map of aggression/expansion along the Siamese/Cambodian/Nag Kampuchean/Montagnard borders. Known military camps of sufficient strength are marked with the flags of the country.



I hope that's explicable.

-Username17

[RiotGearEpsilon]

Holy shit I completely misunderstood how the geography was laid out. I'm glad you've got this map. o_o

[Username17]

I should include a more general map that is at a higher POV and includes all the cities mentioned except Kuala Lumpur. Like this:



I think I'll make a map zooming in on the Southern, Northern, and Western reaches as well. Chin, Malaysia, Pattani, Yunnan, and Guangxi aren't even on that map.

-Username17

[Lokathor]

A friend of mine was working on a draft of image for a shadowrun trio similar to the covers of previous editions, and then I colored it in a little hastily. I thought folks might want to see it:



Obviously it'll look a lot better once he actually scans it and once the colors are applied a little more carefully and such. Also, he'd never heard of shadowrun before, or seen any other shadowrun artwork except some examples I showed him, which I think adds a little to the coolness a bit. Anyways, he could probably do some other pictures for the PDF.

[Diogo Salazar]

So, it's my first post here, and I was working on this project on Dumpshock (focusing mostly on the Azt-Am conflict), since everyone stoped posting and sending feedbacks, I'm sending the links of what I've written here.

The new ways of war

Shadow talkers

Maracaibo

Amazonian Military

The documents are free to look. If you want to give any feedback or commentary, either do it here or send me your e-mail so I can add you to the list of users authorized.

Of the three documents, Maracaibo and Amazonian Military are the ones that I think were the best written. I'm still stuck on The new ways of war document and don't know how to move it forward.

That's all, I guess.

[Username17]

The New Ways of War section does not appear to load.

-Username17

[Diogo Salazar]

Fixed the link.

[Username17]

Do you know what is going on with the Dumpshock people?

They moved everything to a secret folder that I couldn't read and then I heard nothing.

The Nag Kampuchean war of succession is nearly done. The doc file is clocking in at about 55 thousand words right now. Gotta do a couple more essay pieces, finish up the weapon lists, and do the vehicles. And then it's pretty much a go.

-Username17

[Diogo Salazar]

We asked the moderators for a sub-forum so we could organize all the threads in one single place. I didn't know unregistered people could not see this sub-forum until a few days ago when someone mentioned it could not see the sub-forum unless he was logged in.

[RiotGearEpsilon]

Yeah, if you skip back a few pages you see that they promised to fix that and then apparently nothing happened. :/

[Username17]

Spirits
“Who you gonna call?”

Spirits have some numbers that are unfortunate. Below are the new Spirit listings. But first, we need to adjust some of the numbers that are in those writeups.

Spirit Skill Ratings are now equal to half their Force, rounded down. This brings Spirit dicepools into line with what other characters have. Secondly, Spirit now have metahuman numbers in their mental attributes. Spirits below have an “X” in each mental attribute. For unbound spirits, X is equal to 2. For bound spirits, X is 3. For Queen spirits, X is 5. Ally spirits use the mental attributes of their conjurer. And Good Merge inhabitation spirits use the mental attributes of the host (the spirit uses whichever is higher in the case of a Good Merge Ally spirit). As always, the minimums are 1, so if a spirit has a negative modifier to an attribute equal or greater than their Force, that attribute is still 1. All spirits have a Magic and Essence equal to their Force.

All spirits have the Astral Form power while they are completely Astral. All spirits have the Sapience Power. Spirits have the Materialization power if they are summoned by conjurers of a Materialization Tradition; Possession if they come from a Possession Tradition, and Inhabitation if they come from an Inhabitation Tradition. Spirits are naturally Astral, and use their regular Physical stats while on the Astral plane. While materialized, or possessing or inhabiting a physical body, spirits get Immunity to Normal Weapons, which provides Hardened Armor equal to the spirit's Magic Attribute (not double their magic attribute).

Air Spirits

S	A	R	C	L	I	W
F-2	F+3	F+3	X	X	X	X

• Skills:Assensing, Astral Combat, Flight, Natural Ranged Weapon, Perception, Unarmed Combat
  Powers: Accident, Concealment, Confusion, Engulf (Air), Flight (75), Movement, Search
  Optional Powers: Elemental Attack, Energy Aura, Fear, Guard, Noxious Breath, Psychokinesis

Beast Spirits

S	A	R	C	L	I	W
F+2	F+1	F+1	X	X-1	X+1	X

• Skills:Assensing, Astral Combat, Perception, Unarmed Combat
  Powers: Animal Control, Enhanced Senses (Hearing, Low-Light Vision, Smell), Fear, Movement
  Optional Powers: Concealment, Confusion, Guard, Natural Weapon (DV = F), Noxious Breath, Search, Venom

Earth Spirits

S	A	R	C	L	I	W
F+4	F-2	F-1	X	X	X	X

• Skills:Assensing, Astral Combat, Natural Ranged Weapon, Perception, Unarmed Combat
  Powers: Binding, Concealment, Guard, Movement, Search
  Optional Powers: Accident, Confusion, Engulf (Earth), Elemental Attack, Fear

Fire Spirits

S	A	R	C	L	I	W
F	F+2	F+2	X	X	X	X

• Skills:Assensing, Astral Combat, Flight, Natural Ranged Weapon, Perception, Unarmed Combat
  Powers: Accident, Confusion, Elemental Attack, Energy Aura, Engulf, Flight (40)
  Optional Powers: Fear, Guard, Noxious Breath, Search

Guardian Spirits

S	A	R	C	L	I	W
F+1	F+2	F+3	X	X	X	X

• Skills:Assensing, Astral Combat, Close Combat, Natural Ranged Weapon, Perception
  Powers: Accident, Fear, Guard, Movement
  Optional Powers: Animal Control, Concealment, Elemental Attack, Natural Weapon (DV = F), Psychokinesis, Skill (A Guardian Spirit may be given an additional Combat skill instead of an optional power)

Guidance Spirits

S	A	R	C	L	I	W
F+1	F-1	F+1	X	X	X	X

• Skills:Assensing, Astral Combat, Counterspelling, Perception, Ritual Spellcasting, Unarmed Combat
  Powers: Confusion, Divining, Guard, Magical Guard, Search, Shadow Cloak
  Optional Powers: Engulf (guidance), Enhanced Senses (Hearing, Vision, or Smell), Fear, Influence,

Spirits of Man

S	A	R	C	L	I	W
F	F	F	X	X	X	X

• Skills:Assensing, Astral Combat, Perception, Spellcasting, Unarmed Combat
  Powers: Accident, Concealment, Confusion, Enhanced Senses (Low-Light Vision, Thermographic Visio), Guard, Influence, Search
  Optional Powers:Fear, Innate Spell (any one spell known by conjurer), Movement, Psychokinesis

Plant Spirits

S	A	R	C	L	I	W
F+3	F-1	F+2	X-1	X	X	X+1

• Skills:Assensing, Astral Combat, Counterspelling, Perception, Unarmed Combat
  Powers: Concealment, Engulf (plant), Fear, Guard, Magical Guard, Silence
  Optional Powers: Accident, Confusion, Movement, Noxious Breath, Search

Task Spirits

S	A	R	C	L	I	W
F	F	F	X-1	X+1	X+1	X-1

• Skills:Artisan, Assensing, Astral Combat, Perception, Unarmed Combat
  Powers: Accident, Binding, Movement, Search
  Optional Powers: Concealment, Enhanced Senses (Hearing, Vision, or Smell), Influence, Psychokinesis, Skill (a task spirit may be given an additional Technical or Physical skill instead of an optional power)

Water Spirits

S	A	R	C	L	I	W
F+1	F	F+1	X	X	X	X

• Skills:Assensing, Astral Combat, Perception, Unarmed Combat
  Powers: Concealment, Confusion, Engulf (water), Movement, Search
  Optional Powers: Accident, Binding, Elemental Attack, Energy Aura, Guard, Weather Control

Watcher Spirits

S	A	R	C	L	I	W
1	1	1	1	1	1	1

• Skills:Assensing, Astral Combat
  Powers:Astral Form, Search

Drain of course has to be calculated differently for conjuration. Here is the new formula:

• Summoning: ½ Force (round down) + Number of Hits.
  Binding: ½ Force (round down) + ½ Number of Hits (round down)
  Banishing: Number of Hits

In all cases, the “Number of Hits” refers to the number of hits rolled by the spirit in resisting the Conjuration attempt.