Unified Corporate Profile

[Chaos]

I´ve had an idea about how we could format data about corporations in a way that makes it easier to compare them with each other.

I´m think about a A123456-7 format, like the UWP.

First Digit: Presence

A - All over Charted Space (or: Imperium-wide)
B - In a multi-sector region (or: domain-wide)
C - At least one sector
D - At least one quadrant
E - At least one subsector
F - Multi-system
X - No interstellar presence

Second Digit: Quality

The quality of the goods or services the corporation provides. Runs from 1 to 15/F, with market average defined as 8; digit 0 is reserved for known frauds or scams.

Things like customer service or the availability of tech support also figure into this digit.

Third Digit: Quantity

How much the corporation produces, or how much of its services it provides. Runs from 1 to 15/F, with average in its field of endeavour defined as 8; digit 0 is reserved for being out of business or being barred from selling their goods or providing their services.

Fourth Digit: Price

The price level of what the corporation offers. Runs from 1 to 15/F, with market average defined as 8; digit 0 is reserved for charities or non-profits.

Fifth Digit: Diversification

This describes how many fields of business the corporation is active - as a relative value, not as a count of business fields. Runs from 1 to 15/F, with a 15 denoting that the corporation has its fingers in literally everything. The digit 0 is reserved for letterbox companies and the like.

Sixth Digit: Influence

The political and social influence a corporation wields within the area it is present in. A corporation that completely owns one world but is present nowhere else would score higher than a megacorp that has some influence at the Imperial court. Runs from 0 to 15/F.

Seventh Digit: Reputation

How do people in the area the corporation is present in think of it? Runs from 1 to 15/F, with a completely neutral reputation defined as 8; the digit 0 is reserved for corporations that are banned or illegal in the area they are present in.

Eighth Digit: Tech Level

Denotes the Tech Level (determined normally) at which the corporation provides goods and services.

 

[Border Reiver]

BITS includes a Universal Corporate Profile in 101 Corporations (a most excellent resource, like all the BITS 101 supplements).

If Andy Lilly is up for it, I'll summarize it here but I recommend getting a copy.

 

[su_liam]

Nice idea.
A few mods I can think of:
Presence

• G - System-wide
• H - Planet-wide
• K - Regional
• X - Only one location(Perhaps like an independent broker operating out of a rundown office in Startown)

In terms of generation, I suspect megacorps(Presence A or B) would be handmade, but other, lesser corps could be rolled up. I won't discuss numbers yet, but dependencies and such.

Presence: Any level from C-X can be rolled up. No dependencies.

Quality: Random. Perhaps a weak sensitivity to presence(increasing).

Price: Dependent on quality(increasing).

Quantity: This will depend on Quality(increasing), Price(decreasing) and Presence(increasing)

Diversification: Random with a small sensitivity to Presence(increasing).

Influence: Random. Influenced positively by Presence and perhaps Diversification.

Reputation: Influenced positively by quality and to a weaker extent by Quantity. Influenced by Price. If Quality is extremely high Reputaion could be increased by a high Price("The Premier Producers of Widgets in the Quadrant: If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it.") Otherwise Reputation is slightly reduced by a high price.

Tech Level: Either based on the home planet tech level. Otherwise, strongly influenced by Presence at the higher levels. A very local Presence doesn't imply low tech, but a very broad Presence definitely implies fairly high tech.


Another thought is to separate Presence into two attributes: Scope and... Frequency(?). For instance a corp with a Scope of D and a Frequency of 15 might be omnipresent in the Five Subsectors region, but unknown elsewhere.
A company with a scope of A and a Frequency of 6 might be encountered occasionally anywhere in the Imperium, but unheard of on many planets.
"LSP Type 9 impeller? Yeah, I've heard of LSP, but you aren't going to find one of those 'round here. Now I can get you a General Technologies 401 that I might be able to fit you with."

 

[Chaos]

Nice idea.
A few mods I can think of:
Presence

• G - System-wide
• H - Planet-wide
• K - Regional
• X - Only one location(Perhaps like an independent broker operating out of a rundown office in Startown)

In terms of generation, I suspect megacorps(Presence A or B) would be handmade, but other, lesser corps could be rolled up. I won't discuss numbers yet, but dependencies and such.

Presence: Any level from C-X can be rolled up. No dependencies.

Quality: Random. Perhaps a weak sensitivity to presence(increasing).

Price: Dependent on quality(increasing).

Quantity: This will depend on Quality(increasing), Price(decreasing) and Presence(increasing)

Diversification: Random with a small sensitivity to Presence(increasing).

Influence: Random. Influenced positively by Presence and perhaps Diversification.

Reputation: Influenced positively by quality and to a weaker extent by Quantity. Influenced by Price. If Quality is extremely high Reputaion could be increased by a high Price("The Premier Producers of Widgets in the Quadrant: If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it.") Otherwise Reputation is slightly reduced by a high price.

Tech Level: Either based on the home planet tech level. Otherwise, strongly influenced by Presence at the higher levels. A very local Presence doesn't imply low tech, but a very broad Presence definitely implies fairly high tech.


Another thought is to separate Presence into two attributes: Scope and... Frequency(?). For instance a corp with a Scope of D and a Frequency of 15 might be omnipresent in the Five Subsectors region, but unknown elsewhere.
A company with a scope of A and a Frequency of 6 might be encountered occasionally anywhere in the Imperium, but unheard of on many planets.
"LSP Type 9 impeller? Yeah, I've heard of LSP, but you aren't going to find one of those 'round here. Now I can get you a General Technologies 401 that I might be able to fit you with."

Those are good suggestions; thank you.

As for TL, a corporation does not necessarily produce goods at the TL they can achieve, but at the TL their customers can sustain. You can, for example, have a corporation with a TL15 heaquarters operate a TL15 factory that churns out TL10 weapons and ammo for sale to third-rate militaries and second-rate mercenary outfits; that corporation would rate as TL10.

Your Frequency attribute is mostly included in Quantity... the products of a corporation with low Quantity are difficult to find.

I have to admit I had not thought of rolling up corporations randomly. It´s probably a good thought, and I have few ideas here, too. The GM could roll up some additional traits, which the public does NOT know, which also influence the UCP - traits such as Business Ethics, Greed, Competence, Lawfulness, and so on.

 

[hunter]

I recommend A = Megacorporation. That's about the only thing Imperium-wide.



Hunter

 

[veltyen]

Since it is mentioned in multiple categories already you might want a seperate indicator for the balance between goods and services.

0 = Only wholesale manufacture (building stuff for other people to sell only - also includes "pure" mining concerns)
...
8 = Balanced between goods and services (complete lifecycle companies)
...
F = Service only (Expertise/Consultancy)

 

[Elv]

BITS includes a Universal Corporate Profile in 101 Corporations (a most excellent resource, like all the BITS 101 supplements).

If Andy Lilly is up for it, I'll summarize it here but I recommend getting a copy.

I'm sure he won't mind (provided we don't give out all the details). As the main author of 101 Corps, I'd say everyone should get two copies anyway...

There are 19 sections on the UCP form, but that includes stuff that isn't part of the UCP itself:

1. Date of Preparation

Legal Information
2. Name
3. Headquarters
4. Allegiance

Corporate Scope
5. Number of Employees (as exponent pop digit)
6. Range
7. Revenue (as exponent based on %GRP)
8. Risk

External Relations
9. Influence
10. Public Image

11. Nature

12. Industrial Classification

Corporate Style
13. R&D
14. Tradition
15. Centralisation
16. Unity

Employee Relations
17. Paranoia
18. Employee Relations

19. Notes

Hope that's whet your appetite...

John

 

[Icosahedron]

A (or even the) UCP was devised by our very own Roboject. I have his version somewhere.

 

[Elv]

A (or even the) UCP was devised by our very own Roboject. I have his version somewhere.

Yes, and he was involved in the rework for 101 Corps. Rob also contributed five of the corporations.

I'll be away from the net for 10 days, but I'll check in on this discussion when I get back...

John