Shadowrun: Extraterritoriality

[Joose]

What is extraterritoriality, other than a really had to spell word?

The idea is actually pretty simple, its the implications that make things complicated. In Shadowrun, when a corporation gets recognised as a multinational corporation by the Corporate Court, it gets granted extraterritorial status. Its basically the same deal as embassies: any location that is owned by a corporation is treated like a separate country from the surrounding area. So, for example, a Renraku office in the middle of Seattle is Renraku territory, not UCAS. UCAS laws don't apply there, Renraku ones do. Corporations and governments need to get permission to enter those sites, and doing so without permission is treated just like marching into another country without permission.

Simple right?

Where it gets complicated is what that means to Shadowrunners. I'll list of a few common examples of how this affects you, as well as a couple of ways you can use it to your advantage. This isn't going to be an exhaustive list though, so use your imagination and it can get you out of all sorts of jams.

DocWagon: DocWagon is a corporation, so docwagon clinics are extraterritorial. This means that once on them, you are reasonably safe from any corps that might have put you there. However, they do have extradition agreements with most of the big boys. If Ares has evidence to suggest you are responsible for crimes committed on Ares property, they can get you extradited from the clinic. This takes time though, depending on how fast the bureaucracy goes, so you can often slip out before they get you, especially if you grease the appropriate wheels. The other thing to watch as far as DocWagon goes: they will not follow you on to another corps property to extract you, no matter what level of contract you have, unless it has been pre-approved by the corp in question.

Hacking: Just like in the real world, national borders cause all manner of interesting legal issues when it comes to hacking. Especially when, due to corporate extraterritoriality, you can go through dozens of those borders without leaving Seattle. Basically, as in meat space, corporate security cant follow you through matrix space into another corporations node. Not legally, anyway. So, for example, if you routed your connection through an Ares node before hitting Renraku, Rens security spiders would have to get through Ares to get to you. This either leaves them with a lot of red tape, or they have to hack Ares, something they are not going to do lightly. Of course, to do this you would have to hack your way through the Ares node too...

Getting shot at: Out and about in the city, you are subject to regular UCAS law. This means that if you get caught doing something naughty, your punishment will be appropriate. The Star is only going to kill you to death if you start shooting the place up. Most of the time you will be subdued and arrested, because that's what the law says should happen. Not so on corporate ground. Corporations have their own laws, and they are all about protecting their interests. Of course, different corps take different approaches: DocWagon tends to be quite reasonable, and similar to normal UCAS law. Ares is a bit of a middle ground, they will happily shoot you if they think they need to, but wont go mad. Aztechnology will go mad, shooting you to all kinds of death, and maybe plucking your still beating heart out of your felled body to appease some ancient and evil spirit.

Running away: So, you've just hit an Ares installation, and now their security team is chasing you through the streets of Seattle (most megas have standing agreements with LoneStar to allow them to do this, and can even get backup from the Star if you make enough of a mess). How do you get away? Well, how about nipping through some other corporations land? Yeah, they will be annoyed that you are trespassing, but probably not as annoyed as the Ares goons chasing you, and Ares wont be able to follow you without sparking off a major incident.

When you consider that most big installations are in some way owned by a multinational corp, and that most of the interesting places in Seattle are big installations, you can see what a horrible patchwork of territories the sprawl is. Think about it, and use it to your advantage.

[Dog Pants]

Very interesting stuff Joose. The workings of Shadowrun are quite complicated, and so having little abridged versions of the important stuff is useful. It also gives us a better insight into the world, and that's very important because Shadowrun is pretty confusing. Also, particularly in my case, this is stuff that Al would know well, so it's good character knnowledge.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Very interesting stuff Joose. The workings of Shadowrun are quite complicated, and so having little abridged versions of the important stuff is useful. It also gives us a better insight into the world, and that's very important because Shadowrun is pretty confusing. Also, particularly in my case, this is stuff that Al would know well, so it's good character knnowledge.

Possibly worth crossposting this stuff to the wiki, or as an article?

[HereComesPete]

If no-one else has by the time I'm in then I'll put it all in the wiki.

Snippets like this do help flesh out the world of sr. If anyone wants flavour stuff I'll happily produce synopses of seattle districts or major gangs or even paranormal critters etc. I've barely scraped the surface of all the story stuff and I love reading it to get a feel for characters and runs.

[Joose]

Possibly worth crossposting this stuff to the wiki, or as an article?

not a bad idea, I may do that. I've got some thoughts on some other stuff I want to do, like little intros to the main corps and stuff. Any one got any other requests?

[HereComesPete]

Joosifus. If you let me know what you're going to cover I'll keep you posted so we don't overlap.

[The Shutting Downs]

a rundown of the Major Corps would possibly help.

[Dog Pants]

Any useful gen of a similar sort would be welcome. This has been an interesting little snippet, and it's sometimes hard to put stuff in perspective straight out of the book. I can similarly explain anything from SLA if there're bits people are fuzzy on.

[buzzmong]

For some reason, I liken Joose's entire point to be very similar to Mirrors Edge.

The runners can jump from roof to roof via various means, and the pursuing Police/Security simply cannot compete or follow for the most part, simply just set up traps.

Not quite a metaphor but something akin to one.

[Joose]

Sort of. The difference is that in mirrors edge it's a physical barrier, rather than a legal one, but the end result is pretty similar.

I should also point out that if you piss off a Corp enough and they will break laws to get to you, quite happily!