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 Alternate Titles; When A Baldur's Gate And An XCOM Love Each Other Very Much... Let's Play Shadowrun Dragonfall DX Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall - Director's Cut ~ Electric Boogaloo Let's get Whacked out of our Fraggin' Minds and Play Shadowrun Dragonfall DX In March of 2012, a little company called Harebrained Schemes launched a kickstarter for Shadowrun Returns, which aimed to give the classic tabletop game a modern video game engine. Of the $400k USD they asked for, they managed to pull in nearly 5 times the asking price. In July of 2013, Shadowrun Returns was released on PC. The game blended a campaign designed by veterans of the P&P Shadowrun, a striking visual style, and gameplay not unlike that of the resurrection of another beloved property, X-Com: Enemy Unknown. From what I heard, it was okay. I haven't actually played it myself. That's not why we're here though. A lot of backers were a little underwhelmed with the game, many with complaints about the linear nature of the game, the short length, and the flawed balance. However, HBS was already hard at work on one of bigger stretch goals for the Kickstarer, an expansion pack/new campaignDragonfall, which launched early the next year and (unless my facts aren't straight) was free of charge for backers of a certain amount. Dragonfall was so well received that on September 18, 2014, HBS released an updated, standalone version of the expansion with added content, a refined engine, and an improved HUD. HBS was also amazingly generous, because they gave the Director's Cut away for free to anyone who owned the DLC version prior to the DX release. Even before the added content, Dragonfall was a larger campaign than the base game of Returns, both in size and scope, and the storytelling was a dramatic step up, being compared regularly to Baldur's Gate II. What's the backstory of the world of Shadowrun? The devs put a primer document on their website, so I'll just link it here if you want to thumb through it; http://harebrained-schemes.com/shadowrun/primer/ Long story short version: In what was the future at the time of the game's inception, something big happened, magic is real, some humans mutated into fantasy races, dragons are the new CEOs. Why LP this if you haven't played Returns? I'll level with you, hypothetical person. Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut is probably my favorite game of 2014, which speaks volumes to me since it's against some MAJORLY stiff competition in that field. Every decision feels like it has weight, not because of monetary reward or some 'morality' bar filling up on the side whenever you're nice or mean, but because the good and the bad in the world is so ambiguous that you never know what impact it's going to have on you and your companions. Speaking of, the characters are wonderful. Dragonfall manages to flesh out even the side characters to enough of a degree that even the drug dealers and the weapon vendors are worth caring about. It's like playing a good book, and I feel like that's the biggest compliment I can give. I'm almost afraid to go back and try the old campaign (which, by the by, is backwards compatible with the new engine if you jump through a few hoops to import it), but I mostly just want to share this experience with anyone who's on the fence. Spoiler Policy? Don't you loving dare. Or, if you must, keep them tagged, but don't spoil anything that you don't absolutely need to. I'm fine with hints at new characters that might pop up in the story, but I don't want to hear anything about those who might stop popping up. Theorize if you want if you're new to the experience, but there are enough twists and turns that I really don't want anything too major given away, so if you've played before please keep a lid on it. So what's the rest of the plan? Basically, you, dear reader, are going to decide on a lot of decisions. I'll prompt the thread with a vote whenever a big decision comes up, and I'll tally up the votes and decide based on which option has the most votes! You know, the way voting works! Before update one, the first decision you get to make is what kind of Runner we are, how are stats are allocated, etc. Chapter List; Chapter 1: The Harfeld Manor Job Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Chapter 2: Kreuzbasar 1 Part 1 Part 2 Bible Ian Black fucked around with this message at 05:30 on Mar 26, 2015 |
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Mar 12, 2015 20:38
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THE CAST SO FAR Gretel von Sauerkraut - The de facto leader of the team! And now she's  Glory - Field Medic. Glory's decked out with a bunch of vintage biotech enhancements, including metallic claws that rend armor. Distant emotionally, but brutal in combat.  Dietrich - Shaman. Tattoo aficionado. Functioning alcoholic. His talisman is the Dragonslayer, which guides his actions in exchange for granting him magical prowess. Loyal, honorable, trustworthy.  Eiger -  Paul Amsel - The Fixer. He'll find you jobs, information, and whatever you need. Also like a father figure, so he's taking the whole Monika thing really hard.  Dante - If you have a dog, please hug them right now for Dante.  Absinthe - Probably gets her name because she'll knock you on your rear end if you look at her wrong. Not deliberately, mind you, she just has that effect on people.  Aljernon Half-Dream - ~Magic Maaaaaaaan~  Dr. Xabier Ezkibel - Doctorate in medical science with a Bachelor's in smug rear end in a top hat face.  Zaak Flash - Sleazy drug dealer. Possible descendant of Colonel Sanders.  Gunari Metbach - Arms dealer. Don't know enough about him to say much right now.  ??? - Simmy. Chooses to live in The Sound of Music for god knows what reason. Real name unknown.  Monika -  ??? - Security captain at whatever's going on at Harfeld Manor. All we know about this ork is his horrible face. Additional information: Races Human - Baseline race from which all the others mutated from after The Event. You, dear reader, are more than likely biologically a human so you should kind of understand the logistics here. Have extra points of Karma as a starting bonus. Elf - The closest mutation from old humans. They are generally graced with better figures and more charisma, which is reflected in their higher threshold for Quickness and Charisma. Have an extra point in Charisma as a starting bonus. Dwarf - The fantasy kind, not the 'name for dimunuitive people that society is slowly moving away from' kind. Their high bulk makes them very resilient, with a higher threshold for Body, Strength and Willpower than humans. Have an extra point in Willpower as a starting bonus. Ork - Big, burly, and verile, orks are now second only to humans for the highest population of all metahuman species in the Shadowrun universe. Adorned with pointed ears and tusks, orks have a substantially higher threshold for Body and Strength, but marginally lower caps on Charisma and Intelligence. Have an extra point in Body as a starting bonus. Troll - Enormous beings that are often discriminated against and stereotyped because of their race. Trolls are the only metahumans with horns, in case you have trouble telling them and orks apart (you dirty racist), and have tremendous potential Body and Strength, but take a hit in every other stat bar Willpower. Have an extra point in Body and Strength as a starting bonus. Archetypes Street Samurai - Soldier type that specialize in hybridizing melee and ranged weapons, including throwing weapons. High bulk and evasion are common traits among sammies that allow them to get up close and stay alive against the hail of bullets while doing so. Benefit greatly from getting chromed up. Scale with Body, Strength and/or Quickness. Mage - Exactly what it says on the tin. Magic users, good as area damagers or in support roles. Keep in mind, however, that just because magic is the center of their power doesn't mean that firearms are off the table. Scale with Willpower. Decker - Crucial member of any team. The Shadowrun version of hackers, Deckers are essential for getting through locks, security systems, or even just digging up data to make a little extra scratch on the side. Don't leave home without one. Scale with Intelligence. Shaman - Magic users that, unlike mages, primarily use trickery while their summoned minions fight for them. Each Shaman takes on a Totem as a spirit guide that grants them strength and grants them unique magics. Scale with Charisma. Rigger - Mechanics specialists who fight alongside drone companions that can provide cover fire or fit into vents that runners can't squeeze into themselves. Drones come in many shapes and sizes, so you have a lot of options to work with. Scale with Intelligence. Adept - Born from hybridizing body and spirit. Adepts use magic to enhance their physical prowess and melee ability. Probably the only class that can get away without using weapons, though I'd still not recommend it. Scale with Body, Strength and Willpower. Bible Ian Black fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Mar 26, 2015 |
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Mar 12, 2015 20:38
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Yes! So glad this is up! I say we should have an Elf Rigger, Rigger is a cool class and I don't care what race it is.
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Mar 12, 2015 20:44
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Kennisiou posted:Yes! So glad this is up! I say we should have an Elf Rigger, Rigger is a cool class and I don't care what race it is. Seconding this vote.
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Mar 12, 2015 20:58
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I love this game. I bought it on a whim during the Christmas sale, knowing nothing about it, and it turned out to be one of the best games of the year. Anyway, let's go for an Orc Adept.
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Mar 12, 2015 21:01
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Played both games as a custom character that ended up slinging tons of guns, lots of fun. Never played an adept, so I'm up for seeing that. Either Orc or Troll.
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Mar 12, 2015 21:08
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I'm with you on this being my top game of 2014. Throwing my vote in for male dwarf mage!
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Mar 12, 2015 21:12
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I played Vanilla Shadowrun Returns first and its solid and I enjoyed it, but Dragonfall is just such a massive improvement in everyway. I loved everything about it, even the combat, which I usually dislike in WRPGs. Seriously anyone who hasn't played it just the buy the game right now, its only $15, which is a goddamn steal. To vote for the MC, I'll go with what I picked for my playthrough, Dwarven Mage. I really suggest going with Mage regardless because it fills a niche that none of the other party members do and all the party members deserve their chance to shine. Mage is also a really good class.
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Mar 12, 2015 21:31
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Adept don't care which race
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Mar 12, 2015 21:37
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Ork adept!
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Mar 12, 2015 22:14
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Ork Adept!
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Mar 13, 2015 00:56
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I usually go with Human custom Street Sam/backup Decker based around shotguns because Boomsticks are great in Shadowrun. I say Dwarf Adept simply because It's something of the opposite of the above. Dwarf because someone's gotta offset Eiger's tallness.
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Mar 13, 2015 01:02
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Ork Street Samurai. Don't fix what isn't broken.
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Mar 13, 2015 01:55
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berryjon posted:Ork Adept! I like this, thirding Ork Adept
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Mar 13, 2015 03:28
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Orc adept, if only because I've never bothered playing one. There's so many decker/rigger checks that it feels like that's what they really, really wanted you to play. 
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Mar 13, 2015 03:55
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Troll Adept Riggers have always seemed too fiddly for me.
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Mar 13, 2015 03:56
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Fleve posted:Orc You spell it OrK. With a K.
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Mar 13, 2015 04:29
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Troll Adept for maximum trolling.
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Mar 13, 2015 05:29
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Slaan posted:Troll Adept for maximum trolling. Ork Adept, or Street Samurai One is Gambit and the other is Colossus but either way we get 
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Mar 13, 2015 05:58
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Elf decker, for maximum min-maxing 
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Mar 13, 2015 06:04
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Elf Mage, for maximum 
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Mar 13, 2015 11:38
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Elf Mage gets my vote.
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Mar 13, 2015 12:09
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Dwarf Adept Punch everything.
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Mar 13, 2015 12:14
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For the longest time I thought Eiger was an ork. Well, I don't know what to choose to be honest, I only ever played either mages or deckers.
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Mar 13, 2015 14:02
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Ork Adept sounds cool.
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Mar 13, 2015 14:06
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Dwarf rigger because I love idea of a fat man mobilizing an army of small robots to do his bidding.
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Mar 13, 2015 14:59
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Alright, Adept is a shoe-in for the class choice, having more votes than all the other classes combined, but Ork has a slight enough lead that I'm going to give people a few more hours to vote on our race before I come to a decision.
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Mar 13, 2015 16:43
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Make them a dwarf, they'll enchant their arms for the ultimate groin punches.
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Mar 13, 2015 16:47
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I bought SRR for $1.50 during the last Steam sale, and I enjoyed it, but everything I hear is that Dragonfall is better. Probably gonna get it once it goes on sale again, which will probably be sooner rather than later now that Shadowrun: Hong Kong is being developed. Since Adept is already locked it, I'm gonna go Elf.
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Mar 13, 2015 16:48
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Troll. You can do some very silly things with the amount of strength and movement Troll Adepts can stack (although sadly not the old P&P trick of doing more damage with guns by throwing them than firing them).
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Mar 13, 2015 17:08
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Of course you do more damage by throwing them. Why do you think they have pointy bits like bayonets and spikes attached, and the weight is much more than a bullet, so more blunt trauma as well. 
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Mar 13, 2015 17:15
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gently caress minmax, be a Troll Decker! In all seriousness though, Dragonfall is a great game. It has the feel of an old Bioware game in writing and style that I like.
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Mar 13, 2015 17:26
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Well most encounters are within punching distance so yeah pistolwhipping and throwing is just as good tactical advice as spraying (if you're using anything automatic)
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Mar 13, 2015 18:50
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I already know my choice of class already lost, but I'm going to vote for elf street samurai anyway, because being an elf and dumping everything into "gently caress it up with an assault rifle" is awesome. The elf part should count anyway. Oh, and an important thing to note here if we're going to start hybridizing things, for those who don't know, is that cyberware fucks up your magic, so the short version is "the more metal you have, the worse you are at magic."
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Mar 13, 2015 20:45
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Well, the votes are in, and Ork Adept is our winner, with Adept in a landslide and Ork winning by a much closer margin, with a lead of 1 vote over Elf and 2 over Dwarf! Now, we have a variety of game-provided profiles to choose from. Keep in mind that as a magic user we will not be decking ourselves out in too much bioware if we can help it, so keep that in mind when selecting a profile image. Leave your vote in the form of Sex #, and that will be our player character's appearance (click the thumbnail to get a closer look at large portraits).  Incidentally, we also have a few stat assignments we can make. We have 8 Karma points at our disposal, which are basically our skill points. Each level of a skill takes an equal number of Karma to that level. For instance, if we wanted to upgrade our Body to Level 7, we would be left with 1 Karma. Our upgrade options are as follows (barring some of the less useful options for our class). A hyphen (-) indicates that a skill is a subskill of the primary stat (displayed in bold text) it is listed under, and two consecutive hyphens (--) are a subskill of the former subskill. We cannot exceed a cost of (8) karma in total: Body (7) Quickness (3) -Dodge (2) Strength (5) -Close Combat (3) --Melee Weapons (1) --Unarmed (1) -Throwing Weapons Intelligence (3) Willpower (6) -Chi Casting [this is basically adept augmentation spells] (3) Charisma (2) e: oh you can suggest a name too. I don't have many good ones in mind. E2: SPECIFIC MILESTONE PERKS FOR SKILLS WE CAN ACHIEVE WITH THESE POINTS; Steak Eater posted:Close Combat 3 - Additional Weapon Slot E3: MechaCrash posted:And now for a Hey guys, read this because it's really important and I realize I didn't explain this well at all. Bible Ian Black fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Mar 13, 2015 |
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Mar 13, 2015 20:54
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Steak Eater posted:
MALE #10 named Terry. Chi Casting +1 Intelligence +1 Charisma +1
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Mar 13, 2015 21:13
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I'm fond of the down&out street pirate Male 2 or the supersuave Male 16. Supersuave is more important in Shadowrun though. Statwise, Adepts are kinda hard to build for, needing all sorts of things. But in general they can go down two paths: The melee-mix-it-up or the ranged caster. Being that we're an Ork, I'm assuming In Your Face mode. As such here's what I'd bump up with our starting pool: Dodge to (3), 5 Karma left Melee Weapons to (2), 3 Karma left. I forget if we get our first talky-talk option at 3 Charisma or 4 Charisma. No opinions on name.
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Mar 13, 2015 21:27
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I'm not going to get into the stats but as far as portraits go Female #6 is the way to go. I love this game and Harebrained Schemes did a great job bringing a proper game to the Shadowrun Universe. I'm pretty excited about the Hong Kong sequel coming up.
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Mar 13, 2015 21:33
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Female 19 sorta makes me think of a PI from film noir without the hat, so she gets my vote. Dunno about the stat stuff or name, though if the one with the eyepatch wins I vote for working on his CQC skills.
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Mar 13, 2015 21:34
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Female 16, and for karmic allocation, Chi Casting and Melee Weapons. And now for a  moment: a skill can't be higher than its governing stat, and a specialization can't be higher than its general skill. So we can't raise Melee Weapons past 3 until we raise Close Combat, and we can't raise Close Combat past 5 until we raise our Strength. I forget the Ork stat caps, but we won't be hitting those for a while yet, so who cares? Also there are more skills than were listed here, but they were left off because we won't be able to raise them a useful amount, especially not without completely boning the things we're supposed to be good at doing.
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Mar 13, 2015 21:44
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