"Scumbag Syndicate"

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

The Syndicate is weird. The very structure of it has changed, from a coalition of companies, criminals, and para-military organizations, to just a regular criminal network.

I don't really like this. But I also don't want to once again have a major aspect of the lore rebooted for the opinions of the lore team or a single member in it, even the loremaster.

How do you, the players, want to see the Syndicate? I really prefer the older version, where it's a powerful syndicate (kek) of all these companies and criminals forming a sort of mafia/para-military. It should encompass all of our game modes, and be a overhanging shadow for antagonists with an anti-NT bent. We already have player-driven criminal enterprises, and the Syndicate, if it continues, will just be another one and with little relevance.

Edited April 9, 2015 by Marlon Phoenix

[Susan]

The Syndicate should be about more than just 'lel anti-NT', they should dislike them about the same as other large competitors and not just have a boner for one company. It makes them seem narrow-minded and ignorant and unrealistic.

The name 'The Syndicate' is also awful and cliche and please ugh kill me ugh. I'd prefer them to be entirely unnamed or have their cells autonomous with their own names. Also less centralization, less 'one big' conglomeration.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

What's wrong with being narrow minded and ignorant and unrealistic? We have these sort of things IRL all the time. At the risk of grossly misusing modern tragedies, I'd point to the Syndicate being the same as every terrorist group ever. They have grievances, they cannot voice their grievances or see any legal productive way to address them, so they radicalize and go to the extreme.

And "Syndicate" isn't cliché imo, that means it's overused to the point of having zero originality to it. And I mean, it in a single word explains what the organization is: It is a Syndicate.

It's also the main SS13 bad guy, and an important part of the game culture. I'm leery to change it; the question is the role we want them to play, not their name.

[Susan]

Yes, those are attributed to zealous groups in real life - religious or otherwise - who aren't exactly known for being logical. Terrorists who only target America because Allah Snackbar or whatever, yes, they are narrowminded, but that is a result of their formation - a religious one. Long story short, I am saying ecoterrorists and religious terrorists and whoever that do these things due to personal beliefs are more predisposed to ignorant narrow-minded behavior because of their origin.

Now, the mafia - organized crime - on the other hand is not the same. They deal in a wide variety of illegal goods and have a wide variety of enemies. The entire concept of billions and billions of people from many different walks of life with many different ideals (not one ideal like in, say, Al-Qaeda or ISIS) all getting along super good and making enough profit to sustain themselves over the hate of one company is unbelievable.

It's ridiculous. Have the Syndicate be a misnomer (like how many Americans call any Middle-Eastern terrorist group Al-Qaeda or ISIS because lel) for a wide variety of autonomous cells with their own interests who do fight each other as much as they fight the law, with less focus on NanoTrasen and more on either corporations in general or a broad array of criminal interests for a more dynamic, realistic criminal coalition.

[Skull132]

As I've explained in the past.

To me, the Syndicate does not represent a singular entity, a singular goal, a singular organization. Not even a singular group of organizations. As far as my reckoning goes, the Syndicate has effectively become equal to the press using the word "Terrorist" (Hi NSA, i c u thar) in the current media. It's a buzzword, a blanket statement used to describe any actually organized force that has clashed with major political or economic entities.

The Syndicate is like a hive: it's the criminal underground. It has its own factions, its own politics, its own goals. They shouldn't be gunning for one thing in unison, but instead draw a mismatched web of interests and goals. This could very well mean that certain factions of the Syndicate will clash with each other. Some factions would get along better than other. Some factions would have more resources, some less. Some would be sponsored by local politicians, others by corporations, a third set scrounges and manages on their own.

They don't hate NT, at least, not all of them. Some do, some factions and groups can very easily be set on trying to destroy the corporation. Others simply clash with it or steer clear.

I dunno, that's my ideal of the organization in question.

[ZipZero]

I've always thought of it as an organization that originally started to oppose NanoTrasen, but eventually devolved into what Skull is describing. So there may be some groups within the Syndicate that work against NT, some who are just interested in making money illegally, and some who do other things entirely. They would be different enough that the term "Syndicate" is essentially meaningless at this point.

[canon35]

Way I see it, they're like the Vox populai. They started out peaceful, but due to no results they eventually turned. Those were the original syndicates.

Now, new groups of terrorists, bounty hunters, raiders, are popping up using the same name. Some of them work for other corps to bring down NT (Nuke mercs), some are there to do their own goal for a group (Traitors), and some are there because they're crazies, in a place among other crazies where they feel accepted.

[Guest]

ICN is not representative of the entire Syndicate, if that's what you're worried about.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

ICN is not representative of the entire Syndicate, if that's what you're worried about.

 

It's one of the player-made criminal organizations that exist, which undermine the Syndicate's whole porpoise in the creative antagonistic sense; I don't want the Syndicate to be just 'another' criminal network.

(I don't mean anything negative by it undermining the Syndicate; I really enjoy players making their organizations, it just makes the Syndies redundant)

[Guest]

ICN is a chair organization of the syndicate. It's one of the many relevant organizations that draw in people who don't care about politics, and have criminal records and skills that wouldn't get them legitimate jobs in the real world.

So they turn to crime.

I've also considered drafting other Syndicate organizations that are just pieces of the puzzle. Pirate clans, slavers, political agitators, fanatical cultists, and so on.

Really, when people refer to the "Syndicate", they just mean the bad guys in society.

Not sure why we're all too concerned about this, anyway. The Syndicate is whatever you can plausibly imagine.

[Guest]

I agree with Skull and I'll just add:

They should simply be the 'go to' for everything very much illegal, like the devil of a political and criminal universe, who people go sign a contract with for noble or evil reasons. The devil always has it's own ideas, sometimes they backfire, sometimes they work in ways even it couldn't imagine. Either way, you can never point your finger at the devil and say it's its fault, or simply destroy it.