Organization Characteristics

a FUZION plugin for Corporations and Organizations

By The Nevereverend Slaine Fullerton, 2001

dark_times@hotmail.com

http://eros.thanatos.tripod.com

I'm writing this to present a means of quantifying a corporation or organization in much the same way as one would an NPC. While we cannot use Combat, Move, Mental, and Physical groups as measures for such institutions, I've presented five characteristics that will serve as a framework for measuring the capabilities and activities. These characteristics are in addition to such things as the organization's Name and Location, and does not present a code for exactly what an organization does or what products it may traffic in. These things are still very much left for a GM to flesh out, and these characteristics are intend to aid the GM in doing that.

The five Organization Characteristics are rated on an ascending scale ranging from 1 through 10. These characteristics are as follows:

Size: The measure of how large the organization is, in terms of employees, offices, number of physical locations, and the like. A Corporation with a size of 1 may well be run from somebody's house, employing only a husband and wife team. A Corporation with a size of 5 or 6 could be a large, national company that employs a multitude of people in several branch office around the country. Correspondingly higher Size scores would represent Multinational corporations and perhaps larger (such as corporations that span not just nations, but planets and star systems).

Resources: This is the measure of the physical capital and material goods accessible to an organization. A high resources would indicate that a company may have several dozen corporate jets, surgical hospitals at their major facilities, and the capacity to buy pretty much what or whomever they wants to. A company with a resource score of 1 might find some difficulty in fitting a new stapler into the budget.

Influence: This is the measure of how influential this organization is in the world at large. Can this organization exert enough clout politically or socially to get what it wants without resorting to direct measures? A good example of high influence organizations would be any of the companies in the American Tobacco industry during the bulk of the 20^th Century. A company with a high enough influence can do anything from making people "disappear", to having charges dropped against an employee, to controlling the decisions of court cases, or even governing legislation. People tend to go out of their way not to piss off High Influence organizations.

Security: This is both a measure of how well an organization guards their secrets, and how well they protect their physical interests. In a Cyberpunk and dark-scifi setting, this also gauges how large a military/security force an organization has. A low security company tends to lock their doors... sometimes. A high security company encrypts all of their files and memos, posts heavily armed guards at every facility, has a form of identity verification every 100 feet, and may well have its own standing army [ahem... security force].

Tenacity: This is the measure of how driven an organization is in the pursuit of its goals. A high Tenacity score depicts a driven, perhaps ruthless (depending on the nature of the organization itself) organization that works along its set agendas with single minded fervor and efficiency. A low Tenacity score shows an organization that is less driven towards its goals, and could perhaps indicate some unwillingness to use certain means to attain its desired ends. For example, FOX threatening lawsuits against persons with web pages that have unauthorized sound bytes of The Simpsons indicates some moderate level of Tenacity. An organization with a low Tenacity, but a high Influence or Security may be unwilling to use its influence or direct force to attain its goals; however, even with a Tenacity of 1, and organization will eventually push back if pushed far enough. A high Tenacity organization may very well see the loss of human lives as acceptable losses in the pursuit of their goals; the notion that the end justifies the means very much applies.

Using these in game play:

The organizational characteristics may be used as more than a book keeping measure if so desired. When using the Membership Perk, one multiplies the Membership Level [ML] by a set multiple (determined by the GM's notion of the organizations impact on game play) to determine Option Point [OP] cost. These Organization Characteristics can furnish a means of determining what this multiple is. There are several ways this can be done. I will only mention two here. The first treats all five characteristics as having an equal impact, and the second holds that some characteristics can have a more direct impact on game play than others.

In the first method, each characteristic is treated as having an equal impact. So taking the sum of all five, we have a range of 5-50. As most FUZION games top out at a x4 multiple, in increments of ½ , we'll keep that as a guideline... Take the total of all five characteristics, and divide by 5. This is the number of ½ increments in the multiple. If this sounds complex, a table will better explain.

Granted we exceed the x4 commonly found in most FUZION products, but its not particularly likely that an organization will have all 9's and 10's. If being a purist is more important, than divide by 6 instead of 5, and round down.

In the second method, some characteristics are considered to be most important for impact on game play, and are solely used to determine a ML multiple. In the case of my Terran Dusk campaign, I use Influence and Resources. Adding these characteristics yields a sum ranging from 2-20. In this care, I ignore the ½ step increments, and simply derive multiples in whole numbers. Take the sum, and divide by 5, rounding up. Thus:

this works out well for you x4 purists. To use an x5 top end, just divide by 4 instead of by 5.

These are just two methods, and there are many other ways you can derive a multiple.

There are a few other things to keep in mind. The organizational characteristics can give a good idea what a player character who has ML's in an organization can do. For example, it is unlikely that a company with a Resources of 2 would be able to give its employee his own penthouse apartment. However, for a company with a Resources of 9, such a thing is a negligible expense. In the similar way, these Characteristics should serve as a measure of what an organization is likely to have. PC's are unlikely to encounter a cadre of Full 'Borgs working security for the local Art Supply Store... (that is, unless that itself is part of the mystery to be solved), and it pretty darned odd if the PC's can wander into Microsoft Corporation's front gate and not see a security guard or five.

Being a member of an organization is a Perk. Why? Because "membership has its privileges". If a PC wants something from their parent organization, and the organization decides the PC is worth helping (that's a whole other issue of persuasion, and not relevant to this...), then the GM can assign a Difficulty Value [DV] as per FUZION's standard rules. Add the relevant Organization Characteristic to 3D6, and if the result is equal to or higher than the DV, then the organization has come through for the PC. Certain modifiers may apply as well. This will generally be an issue with Resources and Influence.

In the case of Influence, a list of modifiers may read as follows (of course, there would be others...):

An example: Bob the Plumber has just been arrested for unlawfully tampering with a sewage line. He's a member is good standing with the Local Plumber's Union, and asks if they have any clout to have the charges dropped. The Plumbers Local agrees to help him, if they can. The Union has an Influence of 4, but is rather Tenacious (7) in its efforts; they also have a local office in the area. The GM decides that its not unreasonable for the charges to be dropped (e.g. it has no real bearing on the game itself if Bob is in jail), and assigns a DV of 15. So, the Plumber's Local takes its Influence of 4, and adds +2 for the Tenacity of the Union (don't piss off a plumber), and adds plus one more, for the local office, giving a total of 7. This is added to a 3D6 roll (in this case, a 10), for a total of 17. The Union pulls through for Bob, the charges are dropped, and Bob is never late with his union dues again.

In the same way, Oswald, a corporate exec, may need an additional $50000 expense account for his next business trip. His company is somewhat well off (Resources of 6), but has recently been going through some turbulent times regarding the budget, and may not be able to spare the money for Oswald's purposes. The GM assigns a DV of 18. Rolling 3D6 (in this case, a 7) and adding the Resource Rating of 6, gives a total of 13. Guess Oswald is going to have to try and get by with creative financing on his own budget, or he'll have to pull a few more favors. Modifiers may apply to Resource checks, especially in those cases where a PC was very persuasive to a key person, or has high-muckity muck contacts that might help him. Even in these cases, a maximum of +3 or +4 should apply to situations where a roll is required.

In cases where such things are part of the story line, as a GM I'd recommend not bothering with rolls. These random elements are best in cases where the direct story impact is negligible. In the case of Bob, had the GM needed him to be in Jail, then the roll for the Union should never have been made, or the difficulty should have been much higher, etc., to disallow his release. In the same way, if the GM really thinks the PC's will need the Powered Armor the corp character is trying to requisition, then of course, any Resource roll is irrelevant. The PC's standard interactions should be sufficient.

Final Notes:

It is important to keep in mind that these characteristics and situations are for organizations as a whole, and not for PC's directly. A Resource roll is made, for example, if the organization even needs to see if it can spare the corporate Jet, or the fifty grand. In general, I'd just recommend using the organization characteristics as general guidelines, and not using rolls at all, excepting those cases where it may enhance game play, or the GM is ambivalent about the circumstances. These characteristics are NEVER anything to be added to a PC's roll. Once again, with this plugin Corporations and other Institutions become analogous to NPC's... the proverbial corporate entity.

Also, while I often focus on modern, or science fiction setting in this plugin, it can be used with fantasy settings as well with little adaptation. Full 'Borgs become warriors in Field Plate, corporate executives become Clerics or Magistrates, etc. This tries to treat organizations as generic; a non-profit organization is as much characterized by these traits as a corporation or the cult of an insane dragon.