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bman in 2288 posted:I'm slowly learning that asking about lore from this setting is a lot of horrible, and I desire more. Because, if I'm going to be honest, nothing quite captures my attention like "we can perform horrific crimes against humanity, but no one stops us". And detailed lore. Detailed lore is like my crack-cocaine. Oh man, Shadowrun would probably kill you from an overdose or something. As an RPG it has over 25 years of accrued metaplot and backstory and that's ignoring all the tie-in novels and stuff. Like the time that people elected a dragon President of the United States (by Shadowrun fan phone-in voting, no less!) or the time a megacorporation detonated a tactical nuclear warhead in the middle of downtown Chicago following an apocalyptic outbreak of insect spirits (Chicago, or "Bug City," is to this day in the timeline a feral, apocalyptic hellhole walled in by governments and corporations alike, trapping hundreds of thousands of people inside in a No Man's Land situation).
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Jul 27, 2014 07:39
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Let's all take a moment to remember Dunkelzahn. First Dragon President, First Non-Human President, Tallest President, Widest President, Heaviest President, Shortest Serving President (10 minutes and change). Dude's will is literally dozens of plot threads spread out across the world and it's loving great.
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Jul 27, 2014 07:51
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CirclMastr posted:I would really love to do this, but the sheer scale of the building would make it an absurdly huge number of maps. That's the thing: The Arcology is a dungeon complex. You don't need to map the whole thing, just whatever your adventure calls for. And the Arcology is so terribly, unimaginably hosed up across all 100 floors that you could run almost any adventure in a remarkable array of different environments.
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Jul 27, 2014 07:59
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Mr. Maltose posted:Dude's will is literally dozens of plot threads spread out across the world and it's loving great. "I Dunkelzahn... ...being of sound mind and body, do hereby declare this to be my last Will and Testament.
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Jul 27, 2014 08:12
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I love how much setting changing poo poo is in there along with a bunch of seemingly arbitrary and petty bequests. Seemingly because, well, it's Dunkelzahn's Will. Art Dankwalther used the repayment of one gold coin with interest to semi-accidently DESTROY THE INTERNET, and was taken out by an orbital kinetic bombardment after he kept dicking around after Crash 2.0. Those Tokens Of Esteem are actual physical bennies given to contest winners, they're one share of a AAA Megacorp.
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Jul 27, 2014 08:24
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Kai Tave posted:or the time a megacorporation detonated a tactical nuclear warhead in the middle of downtown Chicago following an apocalyptic outbreak of insect spirits (Chicago, or "Bug City," is to this day in the timeline a feral, apocalyptic hellhole walled in by governments and corporations alike, trapping hundreds of thousands of people inside in a No Man's Land situation). So basically, it just combined itself with Detroit. Gotcha.
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Jul 27, 2014 08:33
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To be fair, between letting the insect spirits go free and nuking the place, the latter was probably the nicer option.  I actually vaguely remember reading an old SR novel set in Chicago. I thought it was the coolest poo poo ever, but I also was like 15 at the time. I wish I could remember the title. E: Keksen fucked around with this message at 11:11 on Jul 27, 2014 |
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Jul 27, 2014 10:58
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Kai Tave posted:"I Dunkelzahn... The idea of an ancient all powerful dragon loving Jiffy-Pop is too good.
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Jul 27, 2014 12:22
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I like this one:quote:For a period of ten days beginning on 14 February 2057, Lars J. Matthews will cease to possess any legal status. He will be stripped of all evidence of legal existence, including SIN, credsticks, DocWagon contract, bank accounts and so on. To the individual or group who ends Lars J. Matthews’ physical existence during those ten days, I leave all of Matthews’ assets and 1 million nuyen for a job well done. If Mr. Matthews survives and can prove his identity, his legal status and all possessions will be restored to him. Haven’t you heard? Never deal with a dragon, Lars.  :I'm dead but you know what, gently caress you anyway guy. You're not an anything for ten days because I said so.
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Jul 27, 2014 13:34
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Wow. Shadowrun sounds so loving awesome. Why have I never played it?quote:After much research and hundreds of bags of burned Nuke-and-Pop, I leave 20 million nuyen to the holder of the patent for the twentieth-century process that produced popcorn capable of being popped over an open flame (this dragon’s method of choice). I believe it was called Speedy Pop, or Quick Pop, or something similar. The patent holder must use this money to renew the patent and resume production.  e: Is Shadowrun Returns a good video game? I got it during the last steam sale because it was stupid cheap but haven't actually installed it yet. Fenrir fucked around with this message at 14:06 on Jul 27, 2014 |
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Jul 27, 2014 13:55
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Croccers posted:
If I recall, the suspicion on that one was that it was an elaborate plot to help the guy disappear. There's just so much to love in this thing: The Best Dragon posted:I offer ownership of the First Key of Power to the government of either Tir Tairngire or Tír na nÓg, whichever nation first publicly discloses the complete personal histories of all of its high government officials. This disclosure must be supervised by the Draco Foundation in accordance with my instructions. Speratemel rel timaan perest? Hellon Sperethiel.
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Jul 27, 2014 14:06
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Fenrir posted:e: Is Shadowrun Returns a good video game? I got it during the last steam sale because it was stupid cheap but haven't actually installed it yet. It can be pretty fun, as long as you know what you're doing with Karma distribution. There's also DLC with a new campaign from this past February that's apparently worth checking into, too.
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Jul 27, 2014 15:13
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Dead Man's Switch is perfectly adequate. I'd say the main problem is that the antagonists just aren't very interesting (there are also a bunch of minor issues that are addressed in the DLC, but that wouldn't have been much of an issue in a better game). Dragonfall is really good. There are also a few acceptable user made mods. Check out the thread for reviews.
Xander77 fucked around with this message at 15:42 on Jul 27, 2014 |
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Jul 27, 2014 15:38
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Shadowrun Returns is one of the best singleplayer RPGs I have played in recent memory and the DLC is even better. The stories of both even tie in nicely with some of the general Shadowrun lore mentioned in this thread.
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Jul 27, 2014 15:50
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Honestly I'm glad this LP got so much discussion/interest in the series going, just because Shadowrun has so much to talk about (that's not in this game either). I really enjoy the setting/game world. The last few didn't really get much traction by comparison.
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Jul 27, 2014 15:56
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Fenrir posted:Wow. Shadowrun sounds so loving awesome. Why have I never played it? Shadowrun Returns is a good game. Shadowrun the actual pen and paper game is not very good, which is probably why even if you are a tabletop player you haven't really gotten to play it.
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Jul 27, 2014 16:04
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Fenrir posted:Wow. Shadowrun sounds so loving awesome. Why have I never played it? Because the TT system is kind of a huge mess and I'd never run it. I'd maybe take the setting and run it in something else. E: gently caress, beaten.
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Jul 27, 2014 16:05
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Let us look at the latest fifth edition. Rules as written you can, probably without much in the way of spending cash or karma, accelerate a motorcycle to relativistic speeds.
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Jul 27, 2014 16:10
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I consider the Shadowrun TTRPG a fun game with fantastic lore, but not terribly well balanced, though the latest edition seems to smooth out many (not all) of the kinks.
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Jul 27, 2014 16:33
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The great thing about Shadowrun is that you don't have to play Shadowrun the system to use the lore! Play a better built game with it, the continuity cops of the Fun Police won't kick your door down.
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Jul 27, 2014 16:44
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Shadowrun goes too far into having specific rules for everything you might even think of doing.
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Jul 27, 2014 16:45
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It just seems wrong to play a Shadowrun game in a system that doesn't support 86,000 different choices for weaponry, each with slightly different stats. It's the ultimate gear porn system and I hope they never change that at least.
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Jul 27, 2014 16:48
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The big secret of Shadowrun is that 85,900 of those 86,000 options are absolute poo poo compared to the 100 good ones. It's a gunporn game with bad gunporn because math is hard guys.
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Jul 27, 2014 16:49
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Captain Walker posted:It's the ultimate gear porn system and I hope they never change that at least. One acronym: GURPS
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Jul 27, 2014 17:28
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Yeah, the thing about Shadowrun the tabletop game is that the rules and general design philosophy behind them are also stuck in a late 80's/early 90's mindset and have just been slightly iterated upon for five editions. It's playable, but it's also kind of a huge pain in the rear end and you're likely to encounter tons of little stuff that's dumb in a not-so-cool way (also the latest edition is very poorly proofread/edited). The setting and fluff are really pretty fun though. It's the eternal paradox of Shadowrun. In many ways it's a natural fit for video games because A). video games are better at handling lots of fiddly details if that's your thing and B). video game designers are often better at the game design side of things than their tabletop RPG equivalents.
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Jul 27, 2014 18:31
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I read the Shadowrun rules after playing through Dragonfall (it is a good campaign module) and it was a disaster. The exhaustive skill and feat lists would do AD&D proud, except there are separate skill and feat lists for real life, the matrix, and magic. Combine that with the roleplaying challenge of the GM having to potentially run the astral plane, the matrix, and meatspace simultaneously with not much player interaction between those minigames and it sounded like a nightmare. Moving the Matrix 2.0 to all-wireless and universal enhanced-reality interface that anyone can see and use was a good idea but they didn't take it far enough.
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Jul 27, 2014 18:50
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I haven't played Shadowrun in a while, and that makes me sad.  On the other hand, Dragonfall was great. I don't really care for the combat system, but the writing is fun and the fuckery you can accomplish with high level Charisma/Decking is amazing. I haven't had a chance to try out the user generated modules, though.
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Jul 27, 2014 20:06
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Rockopolis posted:On the other hand, Dragonfall was great. I don't really care for the combat system, but the writing is fun and the fuckery you can accomplish with high level Charisma/Decking is amazing. I miss Hobo Decker with a Shotgun and wish they'd make another DLC.
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Jul 28, 2014 17:20
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If you like the background but hate the rules then just throw FATE at it. It should be an obvious fit.
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Jul 28, 2014 18:29
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Heresiarch posted:If you like the background but hate the rules then just throw FATE at it. It should be an obvious fit. turn left thread noooooooooooo
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Jul 29, 2014 01:48
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Heresiarch posted:If you like the background but hate the rules then just throw FATE at it. It should be an obvious fit. I was just about to post this. The only thing saving Shadowrun from being the platonic ideal of 80's/90's TTRPGs is the existence of SLA Industries, Synnibarr, and RIFTS. More plainly, Shadowrun's narrative is schizophrenic and its mechanical systems are a goddamn mess. I still love it, like I love every FASA product for its audacity and the
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Jul 29, 2014 02:17
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Chokes McGee posted:turn left thread noooooooooooo Eh, "what elfgame should I run another elfgame in" is a bit beyond the scope of an LP thread (unless it's, like, an LP thread about tabletop RPGs or something) but the actual suggestion isn't especially onerous given the alternative is "actually play Shadowrun using Shadowrun's rules." Or you could just get Dead Man's Switch/Dragonfall and play those, that works too.
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Jul 29, 2014 04:00
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Keksen posted:To be fair, between letting the insect spirits go free and nuking the place, the latter was probably the nicer option. It was indeed Burning Bright, and I have a copy of it sitting around somewhere in the stacks. It was easily my favorite of that era of novel tie-ins, and I was always vaguely disappointed that there wasn't a follow-up novel to finish the hanging plot threads. It was a bit of a shame that none of the other novels used the same sort of interplay and interaction with magic that BB did, especially with spirits.
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Jul 30, 2014 05:38
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Gentleman Owl posted:It was indeed Burning Bright, and I have a copy of it sitting around somewhere in the stacks. It was easily my favorite of that era of novel tie-ins, and I was always vaguely disappointed that there wasn't a follow-up novel to finish the hanging plot threads. It was a bit of a shame that none of the other novels used the same sort of interplay and interaction with magic that BB did, especially with spirits. With the book being a tie-in to an established RPG universe, I actually appreciate it leaving some plot threads unresolved. It basically created more problems for the game world than it solved, and players of Shadowrun could build on that for their campaigns. Makes the setting more interesting. That said, I also would have liked more books like it. I only read one or two other Shadowrun novels and they just weren't as good.
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Aug 1, 2014 19:14
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Update Nine: Twilight Jokes Are Forbidden.  : "Is it wierd that I'm a little excited about this?" : "For anyone else, sure. I'd be worried if you WEREN'T excited.": "Seriously though, this is way better than ghoul hunting." : "Or lovely hitman hunting.": "There's such a thing as too much of a good thing. You're planning to head to the Jagged Nails like I suggested, right?": "Not yet, I need a nap." I figured I'd show it, but I've been raising Jake's stats every once in a while when I sneak in heals between screenshots. Jake's gotten pretty tanky by now, which is always a good thing. For the most part, magic isn't quite as important. I tend to use Jake as a mid-battle healer if a runner is dangerously close to dying. Otherwise they can wait for the carnage to die down so Kitsune can do her thing. Jake also gets some cooler spells later, but we can slack on the magic level for now.  I want to know if this guy had to roll over all the mook corpses to make enough room for him to duck under the bushes. He probably should have taken the hint.  : "Last time I was in here, there were as many customers as there were bartenders." : "Heh heh." : "What, are you just going to hang out here with Glutman?": "Sup": "I was kind of supposed to be on stage all night, I don't imagine Darrin and Cecil will have anything nice to say about me jumping ship mid-performance.": "You know, I didn't actually think about that. Hopefully they don't recognize me as the guy who stole their show.": "Just pop in, see what they know about Dark Blade, and come back out.": "Alright, back in a few.": "...": "...": "...": "...So uh, you like Legend of Zelda?" I just wanted to throw this in, I never tried asking him about Kitsune before. It seems he might not be as excited about Kitsune's singing as everyone else  . If you didn't have Kitsune to talk to, you can get the Vampires key word by asking him about Dark Blade. But you also still need to get the Dark Blade keyword from Kitsune, so what the hell are you even doing?  Our other bartender friend has some better information, apparently some vampire got all poo poo off because of some blinking lights. You'd think if you were sensitive to blinking lights, a dance club would be the last place you'd hang out at.   : "We just got a new lighting rig. Makes the place look much nicer. The old ones are around here somewhere." Back over to the other bar.   Now we've got the strobes! We can use these to piss off any vampires we find. : "OK but bring it back when you're finished.": "I'll be honest, you're never seeing these again." : "How about the Wastelands? You don't work there after all.": "Yeah, no thanks. Last time I was there, this wierdo wouldn't leave me alone. Went by... Jack boy or something.": "Was that the one with the sunglasses? Or the one I shot?": "I'm assuming, and hoping, the latter." New runner time! Wastelands actually has the most runners per club, while all the others have two (Jagged Nails has three if you count Kitsune), Wastelands has four. We already met Anders and Jetboy, so let's see who else is around.  : "You're instantly hired."Norbert is just plain great. He packs an Uzi, has 60 health and a mesh jacket, and hangs around for a ridiculous amount of time. If you keep him healed up, he can stick around long enough for you to forget that runners leave the party.  As a result, he's a bit pricey, although still a fairly good price for end-game runners. Also this line is why Norbert is one of my favourites.   We can even manage to negotiate Norbet's price down a bit. 1500 bills are more than enough to roll in.   : "And then he says 'I guess this is a WHERE-house'" : "I don't get it.": "Like, instead of 'Ware', it's 'Where'.": "Like as in Werewolf?": "What? No, that's loving stupid. That's not even a joke. Who would laugh at that?": "I'm so using that with Kitsune when we go back to the docks." The next new runner is this fellow, who's... staring at a wall?  Interestingly, he has a Troll's portrait, but an Orc's sprite. I guess having a troll runner would probably break things.  Didn't Hamfist say something like this too? Why is everyone so defensive about their intelligence? While Hamfist had some skills in computer, Frogtongue here is just a straight up bruiser. Maybe he's just upset about living the orcs = dumb muscle stereotype. Frogtongue has 70 health and an assault rifle, as well as a bulletproof vest. With Kitsune as a mage and Jake as cyber-magic-shotgun-Jesus, this rounds out Team Pain pretty well.   Frogtongue is a bit cheaper than Norbert, but not as versatile. Or jovial  : "Alright, so just to get you up to speed, I died and woke up in a morgue, got stuffed in the caryards by my old boss, killed literally everyone in there including the king, activated a bomb in my head, destroyed a street gang, DEACTIVATED a bomb in my head, met and hired a woman with a tail, killed an octopus disguised as my abusive ex-girlfriend, shot up a magic dude in the sewers and unleashed a jester spirit on the world. Now I'm on a mission to interrogate a bunch of vampires using disco lights to find out the name of the spirit." : "Har! Sounds like an awesome night!": "I know, right?" : "Sorry, I zoned out around when you got the bomb in your head. Is that still an issue?": "Nope": "Cool. Let's roll." So NOW what? This is sort of an infamous sticking point. If you're lucky enough to have Kitsune in the party, she points you towards the Dark Blade, if not, you have to specifically seek her out. Dog might say a bit, but I don't think he mentions the Dark Blade at all. Even if he does, he sure as gently caress won't direct you to the Jagged Nails. Even WITH Kitsune's direction, we have the strobes, but where can we go now? If we try to assail the Dark Blade right now, we're stymied by a locked gate anyway, and no amount of shotguns, uzis, or assault rifles can get through that. We need to find someone who would know about evil, magical creatures...  : "I feel like I'm forgetting something."By the way, there's some dummied out dialogue that implies that Norbert and the owner of the nearby gun store (Who's name is Vivyan apparently) are buddies. The dialogue is still in the game, but the keyword Norbert isn't actually obtainable.  : "Hello!" : "Hello again child. You kind of bought out my entire stock last time, I don't have anything to sell.": "That's cool, actually I was wondering if you knew anything about the Dark Blade." : "How are your magical learnings coming along?": "The doggie told me to kill a dude in the sewer.": "The spirits work in mysterious ways."She sadly doesn't know anything about our friend Jester Spirit.  Still, she was able to point us in the right direction to find the Dark Blade. She's the only one who will give us this phone number.One problem, there's no phones in Old Town.  Some of the clever among you may have noticed that we could have avoided this entire side trip due to some stuff I did earlier specifically to avoid this side trip. This is what the Dark Blade manor looks like from outside, there's nothing specifically indicating that this is the DB house, but the gargoyles make it a bit obvious.  And here's that one screen where you see the 'graveyard'  There's nothing ON this screen, and you'll only ever see it before now if you take a wrong turn. By the way, ever since we got that password from the Rust Stilettos, we can totally siege Drake tower. The enemies in there are leveled for way later though, it can be dangerous, but profitable. For the sake of the narrative I'm probably going to keep out until we're supposed to be there.So here's the deal, we need a phone so we can call up the Dark Blade. We have a phone in our apartment, sure, but that's all the way back on Tenth street. Where is a closer phone?  : "I just want to use the phone": "And I just want to get out of Seattle. Pay up." Oops! We totally could have just called the Talisman shop instead of taking the subway! With an added bonus, we could have also hung up and immediately called the Dark Blade. Either way, we accomplished the same thing, we just took longer.  I want to imagine Jake is thinking of the phrase "DBlade" in the same tone as "Dbag"  : "drat, I should have saved that 'Why so blue' comment." : "What can I help you with?"So here's another sticking point. If we ask Johan here about the Jester Spirit, he tells us we have the wrong number. He also says this about any topic he doesn't care about, so it might be that he straight up doesn't know about it. Johan's just a bit player, we want someone with some clout. But how do we get them to come out? : "Jake pulls out his Magic Fetish" Now THAT got his attention! : "Jake feels a strange pulling sensation." : "--lways a point where everyone gets so mad that everyone else gets mad and starts killing each other. Then goblins show up.": "You'd be surprised how far a good dining room can take you. The new version even let's you see the gruesome stuff they carve on the wall! Yar har!": "I still prefer the ascii graphics, honestly, even after the Matrix enabling update.": "Hey, I agreed to give a potentially evil artefact to a being of immense power in exchange for the Jester Spirit's name.": "Isn't it Laughlyn?": "Yeah, but no one's said it in bold yet." : "Also Laughlyn is NOT a better name than Kitsune.": "You're more in a position to smack me in the face with magic, so I agree." Johan opened the gates, so we can go right in.  I think you're contractually obligated to have dead spooky trees in your yard when you're a vampire. Vampires have a tough union.  : "drat, this place is HUGE.": "Man, I'm in the wrong profession.": "Ahem." : "Oh hey, we just talked over the phone.": "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave the premises.": "I hear that line every time I'm in a fancy place like this.": "Dude, we talked on a video phone like two minutes ago, about the Magic Fetish, remember?" : "Yeah suddenly now you remember what's up.": "A vampire named Vladimir. How stereotypical do you think we're going to get?"  : "Oh god it's like a Saturday morning cartoon!": "Ha ha! You could say this place sucks!": "Your puns are driving me batty!": "That joke bites.": "I'mma torch this place to the ground! Har!": "Batty, oh man I liked that one.": "You're a terrible influence." : "You come here on business? I'd be happy to have you for dinner!": "Hee hee. As much as I'm loving this poo poo, I came here about this Magic Fetish.": "An amulet inscribed with a bat? You have my interest. What do you ask for such a prize?": "I need to know the name of the Jester Spirit." : "Alright cool, let me ju--" : "Ooh a computer, I'll give you the fetish in a sec.": "Hey, get away fro--" : "Pff, you guys are using the same cheap-poo poo Control System Glutman was using? I think he only used it because it was free." Welcome to Vlad's computer network! He might have tons of money, but he didn't invest a cent into network security. I'm legitimately embarrassed for the dude.  loving look at this, one single IC was in the way, and it went down in a single attack. All the other IC was away from the network nodes.  Same thing up here, what the hell is this poo poo Vlad?! Pay your loving network admin! I feel disgusted for having spent time in this garbage network. I'm tempted to kick his rear end solely for his lack of giving a poo poo about his network. I raided three nodes and only saw two IC. That's two thirds of an IC per node.  We got a single data file. The other two nodes were full of trash data that we immediately discarded. I'm going to punch this guy square in the bat-balls.  Sensing the impending crotch carnage, Vlad makes a break for it. : "Oh god oh god oh god" : "What?! Is that a thing that vampires can DO?": "I feel like it's bullshit, but I don't know enough about vampires to argue.": "Hyar! I can go through walls!": "You can?": "Aye! Give me twenty minutes and an axe!": "Maybe we should just go the long way.": "Give me twenty seconds and some explosives!" Apparently Johan got the message that Vlad's no longer our friend, so he decides to attack us.  He's not a clever man.  In this room we start seeing new enemies. Cruel Man and Street Samurai. Cruel Man is just a beefed up mage, and Street Samurai is a cheap knock off of Anders. If you haven't been keeping up with your levels, the street samurai can ruin your day.  When I was recording this, I missed the HUGE OBVIOUS GIANT KEY ON THE BOOKSHELF somehow. I'm probably the least qualified person to actually be doing this LP.  : "Hey that guy dropped something extra with his money." Free mesh jacket!  We can actually sell the jacket we're wearing, but the shop keeper tells you to piss off if you try to sell him this one, saying it's evil or some poo poo. Stat-wise they're identical. I also gave Kitsune the leather jacket we had lying around, since she doesn't have the strength to wear a mesh one. The only magic users with strength above one is Jangadance and Dances with Clams.  The room we were in before magically filled with mooks. Nothing special.  : "Who DESIGNED this place?!": "Now this was the kind of dining room I was talking about, lass.": "I think I see what you mean." Inside the kitchen, a cruel man and a samurai are just kind of hanging out. Raiding the fridge for snacks will not be tolerated.  You probably don't want a vampire's snacks anyway.  Yeah you probably don't want any snacks from a kitchen with a crypt gate in it. So here's the deal. The ghouls down here are BAD-rear end. They have a ton of health, do a ton of damage, and your runners will insist on fighting every single one like idiots. The best thing to do is to just bolt.  : "Blarhar! Bones and dust! Bones and dust!": "Come ON Norbert, we've got poo poo to do." In this room, there are four 'boss' ghouls. They can throw their head at you and kill your runners really fast. Once again, run right past them. The pittance of karma you get isn't worth paying a runner again.  Yeah, Vlad, I'm not so sure you're a good guy. Vlad is effectively invincible, since vampires are badasses. What do we do?  : "Let's get this party started, Motherfucker!": "Any way you want it, that's the way you need it!" That 1 is from Vlad socking me in the jaw, not from the strobes. The ghouls did more damage than he does.  Vampire! We blinded him, but NOW what? : "You know, if Vlad is THAT stereotypical of a vampire..." : "...You just happened to be carrying a stake?": "Hey, the way my night's been going, I NEED to stay prepared." Let's make with the stabbin'!  : "I'll tell you anything! Anything! Just keep that stake away from me!": "I need that name!": "That's it?! I was going to tell you the name if you gave me the amulet!": "Then you shouldn't have ran! Tell me the name of the Jester Spirit!" : "There! How hard was that! You shouldn't have ran, then I would have given you the amulet.": "You shouldn't have jacked into my computer without my permission!": "Hey that's right, I never did read that e-mail.": "Er, wait, hold on" : "...": "...": "Vlad you're seriously pissing me off."One apparently wasn't enough, so let's try again. Stabby stabby!  : "This room is full of skeletons! Cut the bullshit and tell me the name of the Jester Spirit!" : "There, finally. Christ.": "I told you what you wanted, now go away!": "Alright fine. We'll get out of your hair.": "Wait, really?": "Haha nope!"  The third stab kills him. There's a fail safe here where as long as you don't know the right keywords, Vlad won't die properly, so you can't accidentally kill him without getting the Laughlyn keyword. This game has lots of ways to keep you from loving yourself. Also if you're wondering, you CAN give Vlad the magic fetish. It doesn't effect you in any way, but he gives you the name Nirwanda, meaning you'll get all the way to Bremerton only to say Nirwanda, and Jester Spirit will kick sand in your face and laugh. You HAVE to shank him with the stake, so you might as well keep your crap. Plus it's funnier to watch him run away in terror after looking up his browser history. Decking, apparently, counts as a hostile action.  And here's our stats to cap this update off. Next time, we're off to Bremerton! Apparently!
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Aug 3, 2014 00:44
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I remember this section of the game being an utter, utter pain in the rear end the first time I played it. Danaru isn't kidding about those ghouls being tough, they'll kick your rear end if you aren't properly kitted out. So hey, let's talk about vampires in Shadowrun. Like a lot of things, the SNES game takes some abundant creative liberties with the source material (for example orks and trolls in Shadowrun aren't actually green, but I guess they needed some way to make sure the sprites popped). In the tabletop setting vampires are the result of humans becoming infected with the Human-Metahuman Vampiric Virus (HMHVV) which is a pretty clear AIDS analogue. It's an Awakened disease, i.e. it's literally a magical virus, and when it infects someone they, well, become a vampire. Vampires are basically what you'd expect with some caveats. The big one obviously is they need to feed on blood, but it can't just be bagged blood from a Red Cross or something...vampirism is a semi-magical affliction which means that there's a semi-magical component to feeding. In other words vampires feed on Essence by way of drinking someone's blood. This means that vampires have no easy way out, they have to feed on other living victims and every time they do it brings that person closer to death since Essence doesn't regenerate. Beyond the obvious blood drinking thing they do burn up in the daylight and they have astonishing regenerative abilities that basically means you can empty a magazine into them and they'll be up and walking a few moments later, but damage dealt by wooden weapons bypasses that...so you can stake them in the heart if you want but just shanking them with a bit of wood does the same. I believe they also get some enhanced physical capabilities as well. No recoiling from crosses or inability to enter houses uninvited though. Also no running through walls or seizures from strobe lights but whatever. It's actually a variant of the same virus that's responsible for creating ghouls, which aren't zombies so much as people who (again) get stuck with a raw deal, in this case severe uglification and significantly impaired eyesight in exchange for enhanced senses (including astral perception), regeneration, and a need to consume Essence via eating human flesh. A number of ghouls can't handle the trauma of the change and "go feral" but a not insignificant number of them retain their faculties and frequently band together to try and make the best of a bad situation. Efforts by various ghoul communities and sympathetic advocates working towards greater understanding and acceptance of ghoulhood as a condition and ghouls as people in need of help is a constant ongoing background detail and Dunkelzahn's will has an as-yet unclaimed reward for the first company to successfully develop an effective artificial human flesh substitute suitable for ghoul consumption.
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Aug 3, 2014 01:54
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Other magical genotypes have different reaction to the Most Awkward AIDS Metaphor (tm) too! Including Sasquatches. Who are totally a thing in Shadowrun. Basically you get different mythic monsters depending on the type of dude/tte is infected and what strain of HMHVV is doing the effecting. Most of them exist for your 'runner to shoot without too much thinking because They're Too Far Gone!
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Aug 3, 2014 02:02
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So was the mansion your only stop at the Dark Blade hideout, or were you saving the full tour for later?
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Aug 3, 2014 02:21
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Nidoking posted:So was the mansion your only stop at the Dark Blade hideout, or were you saving the full tour for later? We'll hit up the last room on our way out
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Aug 3, 2014 02:28
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On the other hand, ghouls also exist to run Tamanous, the loving terrifying organlegging and used cyberware outfit. If you're dealing with them, you're probably a seriously bad dude. Or thrifty. You can actually play as the Infected, but it's kind of a pain, since you're basically a walking biohazard. Most of the special metatype options were kinda hard to use. Man, I still remember grinding off those ghouls. If you're here by yourself (or if you don't give a poo poo about your teammates), you stand behind one of those coffins and tape down the shoot button; they get stuck on the coffin trying to get at you. I think 4th edition let you buy artisanal wooden bullets to hunt vampire. I know you could buy silver bullets for werewolves.
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Aug 3, 2014 02:38
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