What would be the skills to obtain sovereignty?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Alonsua

No, the perk actually stands for an equivalent of "Expert Skill" in that specific meme, turning the owner into the world´s leading expert on it (+5 to Memetics skill rolls concerning the specific meme). The leaders of the new emerging state need to save twenty points for diplomatic immunity.

A perk that gives you +5 seems hugely over the top. Normal perks are worth +1 to +2.

I'd also note that Memetics in current GURPS is an Expert skill that can substitute for such skills as Psychology, Sociology, or Anthropology in understanding people's reactions to memes; but it's an Expert Skill and doesn't grant the ability to perform practical tasks such as propaganda. At most it could be a complementary skill. If you want bonuses, you need to buy Memetics Talent, which is something like 10 points/level. Reducing cost from 50 points for +5 to 1 point is very far beyond reason.

What would you do about it? Would you declare war on the United States?

If the corporation depends on the armed forces of the United States to fight for it, I don't think it's really sovereign; it's just a normal large American corporation. For it to be genuinely sovereign in a meaningful sense, it needs to have its own territory and its own ability to fight for that territory.

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by Alonsua

As the title says, the set of complementary and main skills that would be an indispensable requirement for a corporation to reach the status of extraterritoriality and subject of international law is sought.

Accounting, Acting, Administration, Anthropology, Area Knowledge (all specialties), Body Language, Carousing, Connoisseur (all specialties), Current Affairs (all specialties), Diplomacy, Economics, Expert Skill (let's be safe and say all specialties), Finance, Gambling, Games (all specialties), Heraldry (all specialties), Intelligence Analysis, Interrogation, Intimidation, Law (all specialties), Leadership, Linguistics, Lip Reading, Literature, Makeup, Mathematics (all specialties), Merchant, Observation, Panhandling, Philosophy (all specialties), Politics (all specialties), Professional Skill (all specialties), Propaganda, Psychology (all specialties), Public Speaking (all specialties), Research, Savoir-Faire (all specialties), Sex Appeal (all specialties), Streetwise, Teaching, and Writing. There are probably a few more I missed.

And lots of GM handwaving.

The concept of a corporation achieving sovereignty should be the campaign, or it should just be handwaved in the past. As Bill has stated, this shouldn't be reduced to just a few rolls. This should be role-played out and discussed and explained how this happened, without using mechanics that were never intended for use on this scale.

Again, since this has never happened in the real world, we have no way of knowing what would be or wouldn't be realistic. It's "better" to just handwave it saying "it was a perfect storm of political environments to allow MarySueCorp to take over the United States government and administrate the country as a corporation." Many cyberpunk players wouldn't even bat an eye at that explanation.

The best way for a megacorp to take over a major country, like the US, is piece-by-piece, over decades, perhaps centuries. And it really helps if the country is actually falling apart, not just looking like it.

The best thing would have been to have this megacorp start in the great depression by helping out continuously, and being a major reason for the US to come out of it. This allows them to land some of their officers some cushy political appointments which continues on to this day. So, it becomes common place, through the intervening years, to see officers from this company to run for office in various states and political levels, eventually allowing them to capture the presidency.

But, it's not something they can just walk out and buy.

Putting this much thought in how it happened is taking time away from figuring out what your players could be doing in the campaign.

[Alonsua]

Originally Posted by whswhs

A perk that gives you +5 seems hugely over the top. Normal perks are worth +1 to +2.

Cof, cof, Hyper-Specialization.

Originally Posted by whswhs

At most it could be a complementary skill.

That´s what it is, and the "Hyper-Specialization" perk only switches in once the meme has already been created and used succesfully at least once, so it is virtually useless unless you recycle the meme, in which case you would have a penalty (-3) that would reduce the bonus to +2.

Originally Posted by whswhs

For it to be genuinely sovereign in a meaningful sense, it needs to have its own territory and its own ability to fight for that territory.

It has an army equivalent in size to that of the United Kingdom, but having the support of the United States army is an invaluable aid.

[Alonsua]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

The best way for a megacorp to take over a major country, like the US, is piece-by-piece, over decades, perhaps centuries. And it really helps if the country is actually falling apart, not just looking like it. The best thing would have been to have this megacorp start in the great depression by helping out continuously, and being a major reason for the US to come out of it.

This bullet is already shot, although it does not take place in the United States, but in Europe (and failed miserably).

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by Alonsua

This bullet is already shot, although it does not take place in the United States.

And that means what, exactly?

I would do something more like this (Yeah, I'm lazy, I'm using Mark Skarr):

Started in 1911 to capitalize on the First World War, Skarr Industries started small, making vehicle and weapon components used by larger manufacturers. As demand grew, so did the company, eventually branching out into creating their own weapons and war machines to protect their steadily-growing flotilla of merchant ships.

When the war ended, their production lines turned toward peaceful, consumer items. Always looking to improve their production lines, innovation was rewarded, allowing them to have one of the most efficient supply-to-market logistic chains in existence.

When the Great Depression hit, Skarr Industries tightened its belt, and converted many of their luxury device lines back to low-profit consumer goods and proceeded to hire more staff to staff those lines. Every time the Government requested they make a change, they did, in good faith. They kept their lines barely profitable, but kept their employees fed and housed. Many members of their board of directors were given government appointments in Washington as rewards for their service during the Depression.

Being so willing to do what was necessary for the public good, the US Government awarded them numerous contracts through the Second World War, allowing the company to balloon and move into other countries. Their improved production lines were a large part of allied victory. They shared their techniques and technology with other manufacturers to allow the country to become the behemoth of manufacturing it was after the war.

It was not a surprise when they were asked to help facilitate Los Alamos Labs and the creation of the atomic bombs. They were instrumental in the creation of the weapons and the end of the Second World War. Several of the company’s Vice Presidents were appointed to the President’s cabinet both during and after the war.

With offices in nearly every allied country on the planet, they developed telecommunications and shared this technology with the world. Rebranding themselves Skarr Tecknologies in the early 1950s, they expanded into all of the newly discovered fields. By the 1960s they were the only, major player in the computer industry, and still had a large presence in medicine and telecommunications.

During the Civil Rights movement, Skarr Tecknologies shocked the world by appointing several people of color to their boards of directors in numerous sectors and converting the company to a true meritocracy. While this cost them some popularity in the short term, their long term game played out, putting them ahead of the curve when the laws changed.

During the 1970s it became common to see politicians at every level who had cut their teeth in the Skarr Tecknologies board room. Many Americans found it inconceivable to vote for someone who hadn’t worked for Skarr Tecknologies as the company had become such an American foundation. Numerous Skarr Tecknologies Lawyers found themselves with Supreme Court appointments.

As the microcomputer market surged in the 1980s and beyond, Skarr Tecknologies was there, always with the best and brightest. Many people remember their first home computer, the SKT1000, fondly. While other brands always existed, they never took much of a market share.

Many people have had their lives saved by Skarr Tecknologies medicine or medical devices.

In 2015, Mark Skarr, President of Skarr Tecknologies, stepped down, appointing his Senior Vice President Kari Fentest to govern the company in his stead. He threw his hat into the ring for President running on a moderate ticket stating “The company I came from has been a part of this country for over one-hundred years always serving the people. Now, I’m going to try to bring this country back to serve its people.”

In 2016, Mark Skarr became the 45th President of the United States of America.

[Alonsua]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

And that means what, exactly?

It means that something like that is already in the narrative, but instead of happening in the United States, it happens in Asia and Europe (USSR among others), and is basically summed up in a critique of globalization. I quite like all the text you have written, but in this case what is sought is to highlight the devastating effects that can be derived from individualism, and for this it is essential that the corporation emerge towards the eighties.

Basically both corporations, the globalizer and the secessionist, are intimately linked.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Alonsua

This bullet is already shot, although it does not take place in the United States, but in Europe (and failed miserably).

What "bullet" are you thinking of? If "fascism," that's a misunderstanding; fascism used the slogan "the corporate state," but that had nothing to do with American-style corporations. In Italy, a "corporation" was an association of businesses and labor organizations within a single industry, set up by the state; it was not a single business enterprise (what in French would be a société anonyme or in Spanish a sociedad anónima). And economically, fascism was based on what Germans called a Zwangswirtschaft (economy of compulsion), that is, a system of control of business enterprises by the state, not the other way around.

[Alonsua]

Originally Posted by whswhs

What "bullet" are you thinking of? If "fascism," that's a misunderstanding; fascism used the slogan "the corporate state," but that had nothing to do with American-style corporations. In Italy, a "corporation" was an association of businesses and labor organizations within a single industry, set up by the state; it was not a single business enterprise (what in French would be a société anonyme or in Spanish a sociedad anónima). And economically, fascism was based on what Germans called a Zwangswirtschaft (economy of compulsion), that is, a system of control of business enterprises by the state, not the other way around.

¿Hablas español?

The story is much more convoluted than what you propose, but the best thing is to stick to the main subject of the thread, if not, the risk that the thread gets blocked increases considerably. But basically it is that and you got it right, it opposes one vision to the other.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Alonsua

¿Hablas español?

Un poquito. But I have studied the etymology of English words, and also comparative political terminology.

The story is much more convoluted than what you propose, but the best thing is to stick to the main subject of the thread, if not, the risk that the thread gets blocked increases considerably. But basically it is that and you got it right, it opposes one vision to the other.

I do not know what the "two visions" are that you are pointing to. Nor am I clear on what is mean by your reference to globalization a few comments back.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Alonsua

It has an army equivalent in size to that of the United Kingdom, but having the support of the United States army is an invaluable aid.

As in, the U.S. army is far more powerful and could either provide it with force exceeding its own capabilities, or overwhelm it.