Shadowrun

[Gonk]

Cyberpunk+dungeons and dragons races in a world where all is fucked, corporations run/ruin the government, but a shadowy cabal of mercenary criminals make things a bit better by killing people and hacking computers.

The player avatar pictures are some of the least complimentary in game history, most of which look like IT consultants with horns or pointy ears.

There is a heinous bit of race shittery in the the description of trolls as "Trolls are the largest metahuman race. Heavy prejudice against them has led people to assume trolls have lowered intelligence but in reality, there is no proof to this. Trolls have pointed ears, intimidating teeth or tusks and many have horn like growths that other metahumans do not manifest.
All trolls have a +1 to body and +1 to strength. Maximum intelligence: 6"

All this aside, the dystopian vibe of the thing, chatting to team mates between missions, and soundtrack make it a guilty pleasure - more so with Dragonfall, one of the more fucksake named of the series. There's some fantastic writing in the helping out the crew later in the game - proper RPG let's drop everything and check this backstory out oh fuck it's grim.

Something about playing as someone staring down a conspiracy-heavy world and having the agency to do something about it, however underhanded, while trying to get on with unstable arses in the same position is inherently satisfying. Your mileage may vary.

Anyone else given this one a shot?

[samadriel]

In both SR and Dragonfall I played decker elves with rifle specialties on the side, but I think I should really be going for more of a straight street samurai profile, 'cos the games are seriously combat-focused, and decking barely features (actually, it does feature in skill tests quite a bit, but there really aren't many Matrix runs, and you don't get enough AP to do anything unencumbered).  I enjoyed Dragonfall at first, but I stopped playing it a few months back because I was stuck on the final fight of a story mission, and it kind of temporarily put me off videogames -- I decided to go and take in media that don't actively try and stop you from experiencing them, like books and movies.  I have Shadowrun Hong Kong, but I haven't played it yet -- I feel like I should finish Dragonfall first.  Fat chance.

[Zetetic]

Hong Kong is generally a better work, from what I remember. My memory being terrible, storywise I can only remember a few fragments (and most of that being about a character's story).

I too am 'stuck' on the final fight of Dragonfall - but as far as I'm concerned, I'm happy with my ending being losing that fight. Can't think of many other narrative games where it felt like the game-over outcome was an appropriate and sort-of satisfying one.



I greatly enjoy the pulp-iness of the setting, to the point of having read some of the tie-in novels. I can't pretend any of these were at all... edifying.

[Mister Six]

Only played the one set in Berlin (Dragonfall?) although I have the HK one sitting around waiting to be played. Great atmosphere and mechanics, but it seemed more like a turn-based strategy combat thing with a bit of character stuff between missions than a proper RPG - too linear and segmented, something that would have had "Tactics" appended to its name if it had come out in the 90s.

Still, I don't regret playing it (human decker with little robot pals, if anyone's wondering), although the lack of character epilogues seemed cheap and made the ending very underwhelming.

EDIT: I got a character editor program to help me through the bits I was stuck on, I think. Zero guilt, zero regrets - I'm not playing the game to not play the game...

[samadriel]

Zero guilt, zero regrets - I'm not playing the game to not play the game...

Exactly. I'll have to look up the cheaty stuff and give it another go.

[Mister Six]

I think it's called a character trainer or character editor. I'm away from my laptop for a week otherwise I'd see if I still have it. I think you need a different program for each game, although they're all free.

[Zetetic]

it seemed more like a turn-based strategy combat thing with a bit of character stuff between missions than a proper RPG - too linear and segmented

Again, from what I remember, Hong Kong improves on this (just as Dragonfall did on Returns).

I sort of wish they'd found a better model to make use of the engine/tools/assets - they'd built a neat system for certain kinds of stories in the Shadowrun settings, and as a group (if it was the same group?) they seemed to be getting better at writing those stories and playing to the strengths of that toolset.

I'd have happily kept buying (and indeed pre-ordering/KickStarting/funding) new stories for £10-£20 - they wouldn't have to be at the scale of Hong Kong either.

Having said that, I've never brought myself to play any of the 'amateur campaigns on the workshop. And perhaps I'm underestimating the lack of versatility of the toolset (and the setting, really). I should look for some reviews...

[Mister Six]

Did the devs close down, or just decide to stop doing SR?

[Zetetic]

Moved on from Shadowrun.

Did something very different with Necropolis (which wasn't terribly well-received) and now BattleTech (in the BattleTech setting, but which mostly people have heard of via MechWarrior).

I believe BattleTech is basically tactics with touches of RPG, which is interesting given your comments. I've no interest in the setting, so I've never played it.

[Mister Six]

Me neither. Boo!

Ah well, there's always that Cyberpunk game coming out. No elves or hellhounds in that, though.

[Zetetic]

And I don't think it'll exactly feel like you can tell that people put something of themselves into it, which I think you could with Harebrained's Shadowrun games.