Shadowrun Shadowrun Returns - Dead Man's Switch Original Campaign

[Tavar]

I finished this recently and really liked it even though it is very bare bones. The game has a really cool film noir vibe with very good writing and great player agency. I also really liked that you have to hire other runners for each mission which nicely underlines that you're a career criminal with only temporary allies. Sadly, the combat is just okay and becomes quite tedious in the end game. All in all I rate .

 

[Falksi]

I finished this recently and really liked it even though it is very bare bones. The game has a really cool film noir vibe with very good writing and great player agency. I also really liked that you have to hire other runners for each mission which nicely underlines that you're a career criminal with only temporary allies. Sadly, the combat is just okay and becomes quite tedious in the end game. All in all I rate .

The best way to think of Returns is as an appetizer for Dragonfall.

To be honest I think it's a perfect first-game. Had they acted like tons of other fuckwitted companies and bit off more than they could chew, it would have been shit. In fact I'd say any new game company looking to make a new franchize should look to Returns as a great example of how keeping things bare bones and simple can often be the best way to start out.

 

[Tavar]

I finished this recently and really liked it even though it is very bare bones. The game has a really cool film noir vibe with very good writing and great player agency. I also really liked that you have to hire other runners for each mission which nicely underlines that you're a career criminal with only temporary allies. Sadly, the combat is just okay and becomes quite tedious in the end game. All in all I rate .

The best way to think of Returns is as an appetizer for Dragonfall.

To be honest I think it's a perfect first-game. Had they acted like tons of other fuckwitted companies and bit off more than they could chew, it would have been shit. In fact I'd say any new game company looking to make a new franchize should look to Returns as a great example of how keeping things bare bones and simple can often be the best way to start out.

I agree and I would go further and claim that most of today's game could benefit from a reduced scope. It seems to me that many developers are terrified of their gaming being "too short" (whatever that means) or "not complex enough" and therefore pad it with a lot of uncessary stuff. If the core mechanics are sharp, then the game is good and adding more stuff just distracts you from the main point of the game.

 

[PanickedTushkano]

I did recently replay Returns, simply because there was something about the first five, six hours that I liked surprisingly much in terms of writing, characters and atmosphere. After that the story oddly abandons much of what I liked about it early on. The small scale, character-driven moments and such. Nothing that the early game builds up is really used for the rest of the story and the game is also just a bit short for that kind of epic story.

 

[Falksi]

I finished this recently and really liked it even though it is very bare bones. The game has a really cool film noir vibe with very good writing and great player agency. I also really liked that you have to hire other runners for each mission which nicely underlines that you're a career criminal with only temporary allies. Sadly, the combat is just okay and becomes quite tedious in the end game. All in all I rate .

The best way to think of Returns is as an appetizer for Dragonfall.

To be honest I think it's a perfect first-game. Had they acted like tons of other fuckwitted companies and bit off more than they could chew, it would have been shit. In fact I'd say any new game company looking to make a new franchize should look to Returns as a great example of how keeping things bare bones and simple can often be the best way to start out.

I agree and I would go further and claim that most of today's game could benefit from a reduced scope. It seems to me that many developers are terrified of their gaming being "too short" (whatever that means) or "not complex enough" and therefore pad it with a lot of uncessary stuff. If the core mechanics are sharp, then the game is good and adding more stuff just distracts you from the main point of the game.

Exactly.

It's a reflection of their base-stupidity that they don't recognize most first games are essentially trial games to see what works and what doesn't.

Doesn't mean they can't make a good one, but you can see how getting over-ambitious turns potential great games into wasted potential. Serpent in The Staglands a great example of a game which should have aimed to be far smaller, tighter and exciting. The intro is unforgettable, the rest of the game very forgettable. I'd have sooner had a 15-20 hour intro-level experience than what they ended up releasing.

This rank bloated-open-world craving which mainstream morons are largely responsible for has a lot to answer for.

 

[Lacrymas]

So, I just finishing either my third or fourth (I honestly don't remember how many times I've played this) and most likely final playthrough of this thing. I don't have much to say about the combat that hasn't already been said. It's a tad on the easy side and damage is king once again, but that's not surprising in a turn-based game. What I want to talk about in some length, however, is the story. While there is some cyber in this cyberpunk story, there isn't much punk, especially the second half of the game. Shadowrun as a setting seems to have this inner tension in general. Theoretically, it's all about shadowrunners, street kids, junkies, oppressed marginalized rejects, and all sorts of vagabonds that try to live an authentic life in a theoretically dystopian capitalist nightmare that commodifies souls and homogenizes the spirit into an expendable and replaceable cog in the corporate machine, but somehow all main characters are part of the corpocracy or immensely powerful by birth? The dragons that are CEOs of companies, James Telestrian, all the immortal elves (Harlequin as the most famous one), the megacorporations themselves, etc. Sure, there are a bunch of shadowrunner characters from novels, but I had to extensively google to find names while all the others I listed are a click away in the Shadowrun wiki.

This bizarre trend is continued in Dead Man's Switch in which the main conflict (insect spirits) is resolved only by using technology developed by Telestrian Industries following instructions of a dragon. All of this is revealed to you by a shadowy cabal of rich and powerful individuals like James Telestrian, Lofwyr, and Harlequin. What exactly are you trying to tell me, game? Why is this in a cyberpunk story? There is a surprising lack of radical politics throughout the whole game in general. The police is absent, there is no exploration of BTL addiction and its causes, there is no exploration of the type of people that would join the Universal Brotherhood and their reasons, there is no exploration of the mentally ill people in the psychiatric hospital. The Emerald City Ripper is simply crazy. You having a very well-equipped and well-stocked HQ goes against the whole "underdog" thing cyberpunk stories usually are about. Sam's drunkenness and feelings of emptiness subtly suggest living an authentic life in spite of the capitalist crushing of souls doesn't seem to work out, so Jessica going all trigger happy and insect-crazy is either not very meaningful or actively goes against the spirit of the setting. She went crazy because Sam chose the shadowrunner life and only rich lizards like Lynne Telestrian managed to give her some kind of meaning in her life. But the contradictions don't stop there, oh no.

You know how using implants lowers your essence score subtly suggesting you become less spiritual or emotional (in the case of Glory)? This idea of changing your body making you somehow less human doesn't sit right with me. What about people with disabilities that need those prosthetics? What about deckers that need the jack to do shadowrunning? A wageslave with no implants is more human and soulful than a shadowrunner fighting against the system? This is actively anti-punk and pro-conservative ideals of bodily purity. There are a bunch of other things I can go on about in the setting, for example how megacorporations becoming something akin to nations doesn't make much sense, but eh it doesn't matter much to Dead Man's Switch. I'll leave my write-up up to here for now because I have to go to bed, but I'll see if a discussion forms and continue on from there.

 

[Vincente]

...megacorporations becoming something akin to nations....

Just like our timeline.

 

[Ninjerk]

There's a lot here, and I'm not playing this game again any time soon to check your instincts vis-a-vis BTL subplot, Universal Brotherhood, etc., but there's one part of your post that especially stands out....

You know how using implants lowers your essence score subtly suggesting you become less spiritual or emotional (in the case of Glory)? This idea of changing your body making you somehow less human doesn't sit right with me.

Uh, welcome to cyberpunk. You must be new here.

What about people with disabilities that need those prosthetics?

What about them? Have you tried to ask any of them how their disabilities bring the differences between them and the general mass of people into stark contrast? The humiliation when people pander to them? If they lack the basic functionality to move about or engage in tasks that most people take for granted? Anyways, these types of questions are best addressed on one's own after their first experience with cyberpunk.

What about deckers that need the jack to do shadowrunning?

Yes, they get a piece of technology installed into their body in order to do a job. How much of the body that you were born with can you replace for functional, economic reasons before you start to wonder where the technology ends and you begin?

A wageslave with no implants is more human and soulful than a shadowrunner fighting against the system?

Well, shadowrunners don't fight against the system--they actively engage in assassination, corporate espionage, etc. at great risk to their lives. But that aside, IDK what the original rationale is behind essence because I never played the tabletop game. Do all humans and metahumans start with the same amount of essence? Is a certain amount of it intrinsic to life? Are there special rules for player characters because they are who the story is meant to be about? If everyone starts at the same place, you might have a point.

This is actively anti-punk and pro-conservative ideals of bodily purity. There are a bunch of other things I can go on about in the setting, for example how megacorporations becoming something akin to nations doesn't make much sense, but eh it doesn't matter much to Dead Man's Switch. I'll leave my write-up up to here for now because I have to go to bed, but I'll see if a discussion forms and continue on from there.

Putting aside DMS again because I think a lot has been said about it and most of it isn't original, I read in an interview that the term "cyberpunk" was first used as a marketing gimmick because punk was becoming a rather popular subculture at the time it was coined (by an author of a short story IIRC, but I could easily be wrong). Compare to the marketing bullshit around the term "RPG"--don't necessarily believe what you read on the box. Whether or not stories, characters, etc. exactly conform to or uphold punk ethics is orthogonal, really. When you see "cyberpunk," expect that you will see thugs, hoodlums, drugs, hackers, corporations, etc.

 

[plem]

You know how using implants lowers your essence score subtly suggesting you become less spiritual or emotional (in the case of Glory)? This idea of changing your body making you somehow less human doesn't sit right with me. What about people with disabilities that need those prosthetics? What about deckers that need the jack to do shadowrunning? A wageslave with no implants is more human and soulful than a shadowrunner fighting against the system? This is actively anti-punk and pro-conservative ideals of bodily purity. There are a bunch of other things I can go on about in the setting, for example how megacorporations becoming something akin to nations doesn't make much sense, but eh it doesn't matter much to Dead Man's Switch. I'll leave my write-up up to here for now because I have to go to bed, but I'll see if a discussion forms and continue on from there.

you have to remember this isn't just a sci-fi setting but also a fantasy setting, where supernatural elements are demonstrably real. there's ghosts and wraiths and stuff so presumably people have souls, and presumably they're somehow tied to their bodies and it'd made sense that substituting their body parts for machinery would mess with their spirituality. this is just the metaphysics of the fictional world we're in and not necessarily about political ideals. also, it's not a moral deficit to not be a mage, so it's not like "essence" correlates with being a good person. glory is an exteme example as she purposefully sought to wreck her soul.

and yeah, shadowrunners are essentially fighting for themselves at the margins of the system, but not necessarily against it. the Dragonfall characters might be said to be fighting against the system since they're anarchists, but ultimately they're interested in securing their immediate community and not in changing the world or anything so grandiose.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Theoretically, it's all about shadowrunners, street kids, junkies, oppressed marginalized rejects, and all sorts of vagabonds that try to live an authentic life in a theoretically dystopian capitalist nightmare that commodifies

Whose theory is this?

The police is absent,

Where is the government to authorize a police?

there is no exploration of BTL addiction and its causes

Its drugs, there will be addicts.

there is no exploration of the type of people that would join the Universal Brotherhood and their reasons

Same reason anyone joins a fucking cult.

there is no exploration of the mentally ill people in the psychiatric hospital

What's to explore, they're nuts.

You having a very well-equipped and well-stocked HQ

"You" (referring to the player) don't have squat and have to pay for your gear.

subtly suggest living an authentic life in spite of the capitalist crushing of souls doesn't seem to work out

Nigga what.

She went crazy because Sam chose the shadowrunner life

Imagine having to cover for a sibling who keeps crashing and burning and imagine having to save him with an organ transplant from the your beloved mother which he drinks away to oblivion anyway. Absent any other positive influence that can drive a woman nuts.

You know how using implants lowers your essence score subtly suggesting you become less spiritual or emotional (in the case of Glory)? This idea of changing your body making you somehow less human doesn't sit right with me. What about people with disabilities that need those prosthetics? What about deckers that need the jack to do shadowrunning?

The more machine you have in yourself the less human you are. Even cyberpunk has this notion so what are you griping about. Advanced medical procedures also exist.

A wageslave with no implants is more human and soulful than a shadowrunner fighting against the system?

First, that depends on the implants the runner has and second, living outside the system does not mean you are in opposition to it.

but somehow all main characters are part of the corpocracy or immensely powerful by birth?

What main characters? Your dude is a bum with experience.

This bizarre trend is continued in Dead Man's Switch in which the main conflict (insect spirits) is resolved only by using technology developed by Telestrian Industries following instructions of a dragon. All of this is revealed to you by a shadowy cabal of rich and powerful individuals like James Telestrian, Lofwyr, and Harlequin. What exactly are you trying to tell me, game?

That roadside punks don't have a chance in hell against the insect spirits from outer space.

 

[Mauman]

I'm going to be honest here. Your "review" is "pretty fucking dumb".

It reads like the kind of diarrhea one might find on Resetera.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Lacrymas being Lacrymas.

Spoiler

 

[Lacrymas]

What I want to know is where the cyberpunk in this cyberpunk story is. To me, it reads like capitalist propaganda. The anti-establishment/streetwise and authentic shadowrunners have no hope against the menace (whether that is emotional like Jessica/Sam or threats like insect spirits), so the megacorporations and CEOs are here to save the day! What? The addicts are addicted, the crazies are crazy, the cultists are cult-like, etc. This is what I mean by a lack of radical politics. You know how cyberpsychosis in the setting Cyberpunk is like runaway slave madness? People who are forced to augment their bodies for work only to have a mental breakdown and have the police hunt them down and execute them? This is what the essence theory in Shadowrun will eventually lead to. The police being absent in any of the things in Dead Man's Switch is a glaring omission.

 

[Ismaul]

I did recently replay Returns, simply because there was something about the first five, six hours that I liked surprisingly much in terms of writing, characters and atmosphere. After that the story oddly abandons much of what I liked about it early on. The small scale, character-driven moments and such. Nothing that the early game builds up is really used for the rest of the story and the game is also just a bit short for that kind of epic story.

Yeah, that was the best part of all three Shadowrun games combined. Sadly they went epic in the second part of the game, and abandoned the noir sensibilities for the next two games.

 

[Ninjerk]

What I want to know is where the cyberpunk in this cyberpunk story is. To me, it reads like capitalist propaganda. The anti-establishment/streetwise and authentic shadowrunners have no hope against the menace (whether that is emotional like Jessica/Sam or threats like insect spirits), so the megacorporations and CEOs are here to save the day! What? The addicts are addicted, the crazies are crazy, the cultists are cult-like, etc. This is what I mean by a lack of radical politics. You know how cyberpsychosis in the setting Cyberpunk is like runaway slave madness? People who are forced to augment their bodies for work only to have a mental breakdown and have the police hunt them down and execute them? This is what the essence theory in Shadowrun will eventually lead to. The police being absent in any of the things in Dead Man's Switch is a glaring omission.

I suspect if you laid out your view of what cyberpunk is that I would probably disagree with it or find it too limiting. You do, however, seem to have a thesis statement of sorts about cyberpunk. Maybe explore that creatively and see how your theories test against your own construction of them.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

What I want to know is where the cyberpunk in this cyberpunk story is. To me, it reads like capitalist propaganda. The anti-establishment/streetwise and authentic shadowrunners have no hope against the menace (whether that is emotional like Jessica/Sam or threats like insect spirits), so the megacorporations and CEOs are here to save the day! What? The addicts are addicted, the crazies are crazy, the cultists are cult-like, etc. This is what I mean by a lack of radical politics.

Retarded take. It's cyberpunk, not some anarchist power fantasy. The whole point is that the dystopia is there to say and shadowrunners just try to wrestle some freedom for themselves within it, but that's it. No great revolution or what have you to be had, just getting one's own wiggle room at the periphery of a shitty system (ergo the 'punk' low living as an outcast). So megacorporations 'saving the day' is justified because they care about maintaining their property in good shape and not having their cities overran by bugs (or even worse eldritch horrors, see the deeper lore about dragons - many of them at the top of the corporate food chain - ultimately being a necessary evil for the protection of the world).

You know how cyberpsychosis in the setting Cyberpunk is like runaway slave madness? People who are forced to augment their bodies for work only to have a mental breakdown and have the police hunt them down and execute them? This is what the essence theory in Shadowrun will eventually lead to.

Unlike Pondsmith's Cyberpunk setting, losing too much essence in Shadowrun turns you into a detached sociopath (see Racter as an extreme case since most people die by that point due to the in-universe metaphysical implications of it) and not a raving psychopath.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

To me, it reads like capitalist propaganda.

What doesn't, just for the record.

The anti-establishment/streetwise and authentic shadowrunners have no hope against the menace (whether that is emotional like Jessica/Sam or threats like insect spirits),

Please show me the last know instance of a random punk pulling a complete and total victory against an otherworldly hivemind immune to conventional warfare.

The police being absent in any of the things in Dead Man's Switch is a glaring omission.

I ask you again, where is the government to authorize the police to function.


Man even the commie HongKong thinks your take is retarded.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Man even the commie HongKong thinks your take is retarded.

I am a reasonable fellow.

 

[Lacrymas]

I'm fine with the story in general, it's very weirdly paced and goes coconuts in the second half, but what I don't understand is why a cyberpunk setting is telling me these things. Especially since the beginning of this story is about lovable rascals helping each other out and not what it goes for in the end. I have to go outside (*gasp*) now and fulfill my wageslave duties for a couple of hours, but I'll get back to you later with more hot takes right out of the oven. RE: The police - Lone Star is the police, so the police is physically there, they just aren't as involved as they should be.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

The police - Lone Star is the police, so the police is physically there, they just aren't as involved as they should be.

They're a police. They are not the police.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Man even the commie HongKong thinks your take is retarded.

I am a reasonable fellow.

And I'm the duke of Oxford

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Man even the commie HongKong thinks your take is retarded.

I am a reasonable fellow.

And I'm the duke of Oxford

How very prestigious, my good sir.

 

[Darth Canoli]

What I want to know is where the cyberpunk in this cyberpunk story is. To me, it reads like capitalist propaganda. The anti-establishment/streetwise and authentic shadowrunners have no hope against the menace (whether that is emotional like Jessica/Sam or threats like insect spirits), so the megacorporations and CEOs are here to save the day! What? The addicts are addicted, the crazies are crazy, the cultists are cult-like, etc. This is what I mean by a lack of radical politics. You know how cyberpsychosis in the setting Cyberpunk is like runaway slave madness? People who are forced to augment their bodies for work only to have a mental breakdown and have the police hunt them down and execute them? This is what the essence theory in Shadowrun will eventually lead to. The police being absent in any of the things in Dead Man's Switch is a glaring omission.

In Shadowrun, Dragons are the supreme beings and they are at the head of Mega-corporations.
So, it's all natural they're getting involved if a cataclysmic event is going to happen.

As far as I know, Lonestar's only concern is to keep the peace on the streets and protect Megacorps interests.
So mostly, Lonestarl is there to keep Shadowrunners in check.

I'm not one to defend Harebrained's shit but it seems, if nothing else, they got the settings somewhat right, at least.

About capitalism, it's a sci-fi dystopian settings where Private conglomerates are so powerful they're the real powers, have their own heavily armed security and even armies and what's left of governments depend on them when they're not directly subject to them.

 

[Roguey]

I don't understand is why a cyberpunk setting is telling me these things.

The afterward also explains why the second half of SR goes Epic: Weisman wanted to do some continuity house-cleaning (that most people don't give a damn about) regarding some book and established lore. Superhero comic writers often fall into the same trap.

"Muh canon!" - Jordan Weisman

Eh, you know what, I'll just post the entire thing here.

Y'know you come across as someone who's not really familiar with Shadowrun and want it to be something it's not. This was all there to begin with.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

the codex learns that most "lol so quirky" tabletops are actually pretty shit and it's a small miracle they managed to get a decent cRPG adaptation that is in fact nothing like the tabletop at all