How could anyone not like Deadmans Switch it has Maria Mecurial! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

"Deadman's Handle" oh god, that conjures images which are so wrong.

Don't crank the Dead Man's Handle!


Anyway... Personally, I was very disappointed in the oldschoolness of SRR and SRR:Dragonfall. But I knew I was getting into it, and for what they were - a trip down a memory lane I'd never really traversed before - they weren't bad.

Honestly, I'd like an SRR game set in about 2071.



I was, however, very disappointed with the utter lack of weapon modifications, the cyberware "slots" as well as Essence costs, the lack of sandbox gameplay (SRR Dragonfall's hub gameplay wasn't too bad, but it still wasn't sandboxing the way the Genesis game was,) and the inability to save anywhere. I was also furious with the fucking skill requirements to equip weapons! That kind of MMO bullshit has no place in Shadowrun. If you get your hands on an Ares Predator, then by gum you should be able to use an Ares Predator, even if you're at best a weekend warrior.

It really felt like they gussied up a tablet game, and... Well, that's basically what they did. They really needed to not do that. The kitchy graphics I have no problem with whatsoever, but they really need to add sandbox stuff and complexity to the weapons, armor, and remove the requirements-to-equip-stuff.

Going to disagree with you completely there. The 2070's setting has absolutely nothing to recommend it for this sort of game. Watch_Dogs already did something similar.

On the other hand, Watch-Underscore-Dogs was a terrible game for other reasons.

I like the writing in SRR, but I admit that a first person experience would bring even better immersion in the Shadowrun world (but would probably cost a lot more to make).

Yeah, first-person games that look good (at least Deus Ex HR good) are A-Level stuff. Far more than a tiny indie outfit like HBS can afford to invest.

Yep, my biggest fear was they were going to go too DX:HR or Shadowrun 2071 on me, I WANTED that glorious 80's flair. Dead Man's Switch was good, if short and Dragonfall (especially the director's cut) was great. I'm sure the next one will be excellent as well.

For those wanting the Genesis feel, and haven't tried it yet, get the UGC "Shadowrun Unlimited". Its got those same, sandboxy, repeatable runs to gear up for the next part bits going for it, and is really well done IMO.

The last time I looked into Shadowrun Unlimited, it had a number of flaws which ill-reccomended it.

For example, they shamelessly reused several maps from the Dead Man's Switch campaign. This, in and of itself, would not have been intolerable, had it been the case that those reused locations maps were, in fact, the same actual locations featured in Dead Man's Switch, featuring the same characters, but they were not. This I found to be jarring.

Furthermore, the repeatable runs were very limited in nature. Still, that was quite some time ago, as I recall, have things improved since then?

The Kickstarter is up. And it's apparently already a Kickstarter Staff Pick.

I have it on good authority the team is pretty kick ass.

Holy shit, there's a Hong Kong tabletop conversion sourcebook in the backer rewards. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Is it true? Can SR:R really give me everything I love -and- better pen and paper sourcebooks than CGL?

Not to mention that Mike Mulvihill is becoming a traveling GM again!

Also, for those of you who were concerned up-thread, they've dropped tablet support for SR:HK in order to make the graphics and interface better for PC.

There's a list of .pdf old sourcebooks they're giving away as rewards, too :

Corporate Shadowfiles by Nigel D. Findley
Fields of Fire by Tom Dowd
Neo-Anarchists: The Guide to North America edited by Tom Dowd
Neo-Anarchists : Guide to Real Life by Nigel D. Findley
Native American Nations Volume 1 by Nigel D. Findley
Native American Nations Volume 2 by Nigel D. Findley
Seattle Sourcebook by Boy F. Petersen Jr.
Shadowbeat by Paul R. Hume
Shadowrun 2050 by Catalyst Game Labs
Tir Nanog by Carl Sargent and Mark Gascione
Tir Tairngire by Nigel D. Findley
The Universal Brotherhood by Nigel D. Findley

Pretty damn fine selection there.

i don't like the tracks for characters . .
also, i was a bit disappointed in SRR, so i probably won't be backering this, maybe buy it when it's done, if it's done.
i applaud the drop of tablet support to make the game better on computer though.

and that mike reward was available for SRR too if i remember correctly.

Already funded, so it will be done (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

well.. that was quick..

Yeah, a total surprise. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

I played Unlimited back in November for the first time. It's worth noting that there was a long time between me playing deadman's switch and unlimited, so I probably wouldn't have noticed a recycled map. I would have noticed recycled characters, however.

So far, there's about three levels of repeatable runs, and some other types that are repeatable, but based on a progressing storyline (there's one line where you have to guard a hippie elf chick as she tries to prevent loggers from...well, logging. It was pretty entertaining all around, and eventually developed into the UCAS military telling you to bugger off, and getting the option to...well, I won't spoil it any further). I was playing a decker, so maybe I had more variety open to me, but I definitely liked the option of being able to deck into the systems of run targets ahead of time to do things like disable cameras, turrets, find the address of an exec who has a high-level magpass, etc etc.





Not surprised. SR:R was one of the first high-profile Kickstarter projects, and it was a huge success. They'd got a lot of cred amongst that community.



For what it's worth, the Deadman's Switch campaign left me a little underwhelmed. Not terribly so, but it felt like it could have been a little better, and certainly less linear. Then Dragonfall came out, and I felt the storytelling and structure of the content was much, much improved. If you haven't tried Dragonfall, you should look into it. If the new game is as much of an improvement on Dragonfall as Dragonfall did on Deadman's Switch, I have high hopes.

I am one of the higher level backers of SRR, i only did not get my backers package because they were not smart enough to make their god damned packages german customs compliant . . i gave up on that and technically should have demanded a refund after it had been ack across the pond to the americas for the 2nd time, but i decided to simply not bother with that general level of incompetence anymore.
The story telling and setting and style of SRR were exactly what i wanted. and dragonfall corrected many things that DMS simply did completely wrong . . . But it's still a disappointment from a technical point of view.
The cover system is a joke. NO STEALTH(NO SNEAKING? NOT LOCK PICKING?)? NO LOOTING BODIES? THE FRAG? Everybody can have magic. And be a Decker. And a Rigger. The Adept stuff is so far away from correct that it does not even start to make it's way back from the other side yet . . Implants in slots instead of simply costing essence and money, no upgrades either because the story is simply too short to warrant it as well . .
Spirits and Drones and Magic and Matrix in general were pretty damn lacking as well. No Astral Space . . if that game had been just HALF as good as wasteland 2 turned out to be(who actually managed to get my founders package to me as well through german customs by the way), i'd probably be kicking in with above 250$ already for Hong Kong . . .

I think a lot of that was that Deadman's Switch was put together at the same time as the engine. With Dragonfall, they were just tweaking their existing engine and had a better idea of just what it could do, so could concentrate more on the storytelling.

Okay, so I downloaded Dragonfall. In DMS, there just wasn't a lot of use for deckers, riggers and adepts were totally niche. Any archetypes to avoid with Dragonfall, or do the same rules apply?

Deckers are way useful in Dragonfall. I made a combat decker on my first playthrough, and owned face. Hand to hand adepts need a little love, but weapon adepts do good.

@nezumi:
FWIW I used a Decker Pistolier on my first time through DMS and did quite well. I haven't played Dragonfall Director's Cut yet but my original Dragonfall playthrough was done on a melee/throwing Sam. TBH I actually missed my decker quite a bit. Also as far as usefulness goes, Riggers and Adepts seem to have gotten a bit of a boost between DMS And Dragonfall, though I'll have to actually sit down and play through the Director's cut to see if that still holds true. As far as non-hirelings go, the game gives you a buffer mage/shaman, a Decker/rigger, a Melee Sam/combat medic, and a longarms specialist so you can figure what you want from there.

One of the hardest things was keeping most of that out so they could finish on time, Jordan admitted to a room full of people at pax prime a few years ago that if it wasn't for his staff the game would have died due to his constant feature creep. They had a very limited budget and he kept wanting to do more than what was reasonable with that budget

i still maintain my right to be surprised and disappointed at todays game makers not being able to do something interplay did 20 years ago basically . .
take a look at fallout tactics. do an 80% copy of that game. adapt to shadowrun. done. perfect. next. but noo . .

Fallout Tactics was pretty swell.
A pity it was a bad Fallout. Still, I suppose even there you'll find things that eventually have to change.
... Can I do a happy dance now that the next one's financed?

Just something to note: the Shadowrun: Hong Kong team is about 1/5th the size of Fallout 1, with (adjusted for inflation) about 1/4th the budget. Plus there's engine limitations to consider.