Game News Shadowrun: Hong Kong Kickstarter Update #35: Release on August 20th

[Excidium II]

Dragonfall's story was p. dumb but not near as dumb as the second half of DMS. I've already said it before but HBS writers seem completely unable to keep things lowkey.

 

[SwiftCrack]

Yeah, the HBS stories reek of grandeur.

 

[Bigg Boss]

The writing was better in Dragonfall. No doubt about that. Partly due to a more involved dialog system. I still loved the hell out of the keyword mechanic though. They are completely different games as you said. I just prefer the atmosphere of the original. As I said, it is probably due to nostalgia, being one of the first RPG's I ever played. The music from the SNES version is permanently running in my mind when I think of the series.

I think Shadowrun Returns would have been better if they left it a little more open ended as in Dragonfall. It somewhat encouraged more than one playthrough. Armitage making an appearance is worth the price alone despite my complaints.

 

[almondblight]

They are completely different games as you said. I just prefer the atmosphere of the original.

Yeah, the SNES version nailed the atmosphere and did a nice job of giving you the feeling that you were wandering around the Shadowrun world. Things like having random chats with the people walking around on the street, taking the train between neighborhoods, going into different bars and hiring Shadowrunners from there, seeing musical performances in nightclubs, dodging cars as you ran across the street, wandering into a graveyard where ghouls attack you and coming across an injured shaman in a crypt, using the vidphones to call different numbers, etc. It was lacking in a number of ways, but did a great job at really making you feel like you lived in that world.

A HBS Shadowrun game with the atmosphere/quasi-open nature of the SNES game would be great, though my guess is that one of the big limitations is the engine (at least in terms of giving it that living, open city feel).

 

[Excidium II]

I also prefer the old gritty style over the modern cyberpunk look and feel of SRR.

 

[ArchAngel]

Dragonfall's story was p. dumb but not near as dumb as the second half of DMS. I've already said it before but HBS writers seem completely unable to keep things lowkey.

Why is lowkey better?

 

[Rake]

Dragonfall's story was p. dumb but not near as dumb as the second half of DMS. I've already said it before but HBS writers seem completely unable to keep things lowkey.

Why is lowkey better?

I won't say it's better per se, simply different. But in case you didn't notice, RPGs in general suffer for a lack of lowkey, with all the games going for the grandiose, epic, world changing vibe. That becomes tiresome. And HBS continue in this vein, while their setting is perfectly suited for a lowkey approach.
Just for the sake of variety, we seriously need RPGs to use the lowkey approaach more

 

[Spectacle]

Dragonfall's story was p. dumb but not near as dumb as the second half of DMS. I've already said it before but HBS writers seem completely unable to keep things lowkey.

Why is lowkey better?

It's where the "punk" in "cyberpunk" fits in. Punks are not usually involved in earth shattering events.

 

[DeepOcean]

Dragonfall's story was p. dumb but not near as dumb as the second half of DMS. I've already said it before but HBS writers seem completely unable to keep things lowkey.

Why is lowkey better?

It's the saving the planet hyperinflation effect. After saving the planet a few times, saving the planet start feeling as trivial stuff. You start wondering why the fuck the world didn't end already, you know... with an average of one world ending event per week, the probability is pretty high.

 

[SwiftCrack]

The thing is, Deadman's Switch started out lowkey. That was possibly it's most gripping feature for me.

 

[ArchAngel]

Both shadowrun games have you save the city, not the world. I don't have a problem with that.

 

[Zetor]

Telepath Tactics is the only RPG with a decent low-key story in recent memory, fwiw.

The problem with SR in general is that even though it has a lot of potential for adventures / stories that don't involve saving the world, the heavy focus on having metaplot elements (immortal elves, earthdawn crossovers, bug spirits, dragons and shit) in the background of EVERYTHING tends to cause even the most mundane campaign to end up on a space station trying to prevent an evil mantis spirit from Thor'ing the world, or stopping Winternight v2.0 from bringing Ragnarök at major_ley_line_01. Source: my previous Shadowrun GMs, with an amazing sample size of 2.

 

[SwiftCrack]

The Jacked-Up (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=165093762&searchtext=) campaign is the perfect example of lowkey in SRR imo. Or at least when I played it and it only had about two hours of gametime.

 

[Roguey]

Both shadowrun games have you save the city, not the world. I don't have a problem with that.

Each has larger repercussions. The insects want to consume everything, the dragons protect the world from even greater threats.

 

[Ninjerk]

Why is lowkey better?

It isn't, but world-saving is dramatically over-represented. The problem with world-saving is that it smothers other, still-important facets of human experience--facets that we live with more often than not because to the average person the world is not in a constant state of being on the brink of disaster.

Both shadowrun games have you save the city, not the world. I don't have a problem with that.

IIRC, in DMS, the bugs were trying to open a dimensional portal to basically burn everything in ours.

 

[hoverdog]

Telepath Tactics is the only RPG with a decent low-key story in recent memory, fwiw.

Drakensang: The River of Time too.

 

[ArchAngel]

Both shadowrun games have you save the city, not the world. I don't have a problem with that.

Each has larger repercussions. The insects want to consume everything, the dragons protect the world from even greater threats.

If you fail the bugs eat the city but they would be stopped as they are in cannon. And with the dragons, only one of the endings (and added in DC version) lets you end the world and you don't even know it. So it is just still saving a city storyline.

And as Zetor said, the setting allows for bigger problems to surface and as players get more powerful they eventually can face those. And Dragonfall DC has plenty of missions which are low key, only like last two missions are the big ones once you level up and the regular missions are no longer the problem.

The setting is basically mid high magic in modern world. Do you expect high level D&D adventurers to not face demons, angels and get involved with demi gods because these settings are very similar?

 

[Excidium II]

Yes. Fucking shove all that EPIC crap up the asshole of whoever likes it. Metaplots kill settings.

They should make a more personal story, with why you got into shadowrunning in the first place being the main driving point of it.

The setting is basically mid high magic in modern world

No, it's cyberpunk with fantasy. The first part being basically lost to the writers.

 

[Lord Andre]

The kill all dragons, cthullu takes over in DC version, reminded me of opening the box in Bloodlines, as in it's a trap ending but not totally telegraphed. Pretty nice.

I agree about the low key stuff though, first half of Deadman's Switch had a lovely noir detective story vibe that I hadn't encountered in a very long time. Reminded me a bit of Grim Fandango.

Am I the only one pleasantly surprised that HBS are keeping their deadline/release date and generally acting very professional as opposed to the usual kickstarter developers who overpromise and underdeliver ?

 

[Ninjerk]

Fucking hurtling at terminal velocity into dumbfuck territory here

 

[Excidium II]

Am I the only one pleasantly surprised that HBS are keeping their deadline/release date and generally acting very professional as opposed to the usual kickstarter developers who overpromise and underdeliver ?

Well, they don't really have much ambition to begin with. SRR shoots very low in general.

 

[Lord Andre]

Am I the only one pleasantly surprised that HBS are keeping their deadline/release date and generally acting very professional as opposed to the usual kickstarter developers who overpromise and underdeliver ?

Well, they don't really have much ambition to begin with. SRR shoots very low in general.

Looking forward to Bethesda's AMBITIOUS revival of the series, 10 years from now as open world game in glorious gamebyro "totally not gamebyro" engine.

 

[Roguey]

If you fail the bugs eat the city but they would be stopped as they are in cannon. And with the dragons, only one of the endings (and added in DC version) lets you end the world and you don't even know it. So it is just still saving a city storyline.

And as Zetor said, the setting allows for bigger problems to surface and as players get more powerful they eventually can face those. And Dragonfall DC has plenty of missions which are low key, only like last two missions are the big ones once you level up and the regular missions are no longer the problem.

The setting is basically mid high magic in modern world. Do you expect high level D&D adventurers to not face demons, angels and get involved with demi gods because these settings are very similar?

It's Not Shadowrun though. I read The Universal Brotherhood - Missing Blood, which DMS was based off of, and in the end, you only destroy a single chapter, you don't take out the entire organization with the aid of high-rollers like Harlequin, German Dragon Guy, and Rich Elf Guy. That's the difference. Shadowrunners win battles, not wars.

 

[Zarniwoop]

When you pledge to Kickstarters, they email you about updates. If you're not getting them then something is wrong.

Yes... something wrong like having pledged through the codex like a sucker.

Yep, like I did. Fancy tag = yes, any acknowledgement of my pledge whatsoever = lolnope.

 

[Infinitron]

When you pledge to Kickstarters, they email you about updates. If you're not getting them then something is wrong.

Yes... something wrong like having pledged through the codex like a sucker.

Yep, like I did. Fancy tag = yes, any acknowledgement of my pledge whatsoever = lolnope.

Look, everybody knows what's going to happen. At some point shortly before release, they'll start handing out keys to the regular backers. You won't get them. Then Angthoron will mail Mitch Gitelman, and eventually, maybe a little later than you would have preferred, you'll get them. End of story.