The Dragons are political powerhouses, entrepreneurs, they pretty much got their fingers in everything.
Oh, so they're... not actual dragons? I know absolutely nothing about Shadowrun lore, I've only played DMS.
Oh. They're actual dragons.
They just stopped being medieval and started hoarding treasure the modern way, with the Power of Capitalism.
And when you're a hyperintelligent magical powerhouse with eons of experience and a personality that ranges between highly-functioning sociopath and controlling with sociopathic tendencies... Well, you tend to be pretty good at the whole "running a company" schtick.
P.S: And they're shapeshifters. So yeah, if they want to get their fingers in something they can. Even if their natural shape has talons.
Shapeshifting Dragons who are rich? That sounds preposterous. Is there internal logic in the game world for something so silly to exist? I always interpreted Shadowrun as being pretty grounded and noir-esque.
The Dragons are political powerhouses, entrepreneurs, they pretty much got their fingers in everything.
Oh, so they're... not actual dragons? I know absolutely nothing about Shadowrun lore, I've only played DMS.
Oh. They're actual dragons.
They just stopped being medieval and started hoarding treasure the modern way, with the Power of Capitalism.
And when you're a hyperintelligent magical powerhouse with eons of experience and a personality that ranges between highly-functioning sociopath and controlling with sociopathic tendencies... Well, you tend to be pretty good at the whole "running a company" schtick.
P.S: And they're shapeshifters. So yeah, if they want to get their fingers in something they can. Even if their natural shape has talons.
Shapeshifting Dragons who are rich? That sounds preposterous. Is there internal logic in the game world for something so silly to exist? I always interpreted Shadowrun as being pretty grounded and noir-esque.
Shadowrun's a full fantasy universe (elves, dwarves, spirits, monsters from beyond the veil and dragons). It's only grounded in the sense that the fantasy spilled out in the modern world when magic came back, so you've also got future tech, corporations and hacker culture.
The Dragons are political powerhouses, entrepreneurs, they pretty much got their fingers in everything.
Oh, so they're... not actual dragons? I know absolutely nothing about Shadowrun lore, I've only played DMS.
Oh. They're actual dragons.
They just stopped being medieval and started hoarding treasure the modern way, with the Power of Capitalism.
And when you're a hyperintelligent magical powerhouse with eons of experience and a personality that ranges between highly-functioning sociopath and controlling with sociopathic tendencies... Well, you tend to be pretty good at the whole "running a company" schtick.
P.S: And they're shapeshifters. So yeah, if they want to get their fingers in something they can. Even if their natural shape has talons.
Shapeshifting Dragons who are rich? That sounds preposterous. Is there internal logic in the game world for something so silly to exist? I always interpreted Shadowrun as being pretty grounded and noir-esque.
No, no - I'm cool with the cyberware and the hackings and the elves and the dwarves and the people using swords in a gunfight and there being this entire underground culture of people who do dirty deeds for megacorps ...
Yeah, Shadowrun's hook is that sometime in 2011 the world experienced an event called the Awakening. Rough timeline here, but basically stuff previously thought fantastical - elves, dwarves, spirits, magic, and yes, dragons - was revealed to be quite real, and indeed these things had made previous appearances (and disappearances) throughout history. Over time the traditional power blocs broke up and allowed various nonstate actors to fill the vacuum, which is where the cyberpunk stuff kicks in. Guns, spells, monsters, and cyberspace; that's Shadowrun in a nutshell.
Regarding dragons, there's a reason the series overtly cautions against dealing with them. Apart from being individually powerful, they're also extremely intelligent and have adapted well to the modern era. Through shapeshifting, intermediaries, or even outright force, many run and personally micromanage large corporations or other interests, often setting up labyrinthine schemes against each other. You pretty much need an army to take one head-on - a fact that's part of Dragonfall's backstory - and that's if you can even get to them through their own armies and intelligence networks.
Ultimately they're just one part of the maze of competing interests in the world of Shadowrun, although easily one of the larger parts. In any case, both the tabletop and video games usually drop players in the spaces between all this madness, where they try to stay alive long enough to make money and/or find out which of their contacts set them up this time.
The Dragons are political powerhouses, entrepreneurs, they pretty much got their fingers in everything.
Oh, so they're... not actual dragons? I know absolutely nothing about Shadowrun lore, I've only played DMS.
Oh. They're actual dragons.
They just stopped being medieval and started hoarding treasure the modern way, with the Power of Capitalism.
And when you're a hyperintelligent magical powerhouse with eons of experience and a personality that ranges between highly-functioning sociopath and controlling with sociopathic tendencies... Well, you tend to be pretty good at the whole "running a company" schtick.
P.S: And they're shapeshifters. So yeah, if they want to get their fingers in something they can. Even if their natural shape has talons.
Shapeshifting Dragons who are rich? That sounds preposterous. Is there internal logic in the game world for something so silly to exist? I always interpreted Shadowrun as being pretty grounded and noir-esque.
The Dragons are political powerhouses, entrepreneurs, they pretty much got their fingers in everything.
Oh, so they're... not actual dragons? I know absolutely nothing about Shadowrun lore, I've only played DMS.
Oh. They're actual dragons.
They just stopped being medieval and started hoarding treasure the modern way, with the Power of Capitalism.
And when you're a hyperintelligent magical powerhouse with eons of experience and a personality that ranges between highly-functioning sociopath and controlling with sociopathic tendencies... Well, you tend to be pretty good at the whole "running a company" schtick.
P.S: And they're shapeshifters. So yeah, if they want to get their fingers in something they can. Even if their natural shape has talons.
Shapeshifting Dragons who are rich? That sounds preposterous. Is there internal logic in the game world for something so silly to exist? I always interpreted Shadowrun as being pretty grounded and noir-esque.
dude it is a fantasy setting
like, I don't even get this. do you walk by the science fiction rack at the bookstore and go PFFT ALIENS and make a jack-off motion with one hand?
now somewhat uncharacteristically for the fantasy genre, a lot of which is naked escapism, Shadowrun is a hybrid setting and has a focus on class warfare and other real-world issues that stories with elves and dragons often prefer to sidestep
but wizards and zombies and magic swords are still part of the DNA of the setting. now, those things may have interesting twists (the "zombies" are not inherently mindless and are more like plague victims) but you're still going to be assembling a party crew and going into the dungeon skyscraper and disarming spike traps security systems
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
Hey, so I backed this game back in the day and haven't played since I played the initial release. Do I get this director's cut dealie? Kickstarter sent me an email saying it should automatically appear in my steam library, but it hasn't. I have the original game in my steam library, but not dragonfall.
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
I'll just leave this here
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
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Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
Bet he didn't do a lot of baby kissing with that face.
Hey, so I backed this game back in the day and haven't played since I played the initial release. Do I get this director's cut dealie? Kickstarter sent me an email saying it should automatically appear in my steam library, but it hasn't. I have the original game in my steam library, but not dragonfall.
Uh, search the Steam store for Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut. If the page shows the "Play" button, click it and download it.
That is what I had to do. It doesn't get automatically added to your library (which caused me to panic for a minute earlier today :P ).
edit- Oh and a "Vote Dunkelzahn" poster appears in game too. In fact he is wearing just the most epic suit and tie on it. While still in dragon form of course. It is the greatest, but I can't find a good pic of it.
Axen on
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
Before he ran for president, Dunkelzahn was a bona fide media whore, with a television show and such. Dragons have adapted well to the modern era, but Dunkelzahn was the Hugh Hefner of dragons.
AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
Eiger is not a fan of KNIGHT-KINGS OF LIIIIIIGHTNINGHOOOLD it would seem.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
Well, don't mean to double post, but this is an odd, uh, bug.
So I am playing as Eiger now.
We were in combat and my main was 1 turn away from dying. That same turn we finished off the last of the enemies, but before I could do anything a conversation started at the same moment my main keeled over for good.
After the conversation, Eiger was the character I was controlling. My main is nowhere to be seen. In fact even the character screen is all Eiger included the Stats screen and Cyberware screens.
I am uncertain if I actually want this fixed. :P
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
Eiger annoys the hell out of me. If she's so hardcore military why is she behaving like a brat all the time? Her dialogue is painful.
Honestly, I started out annoyed by Eiger, but after you push her back a bit and show some spine she becomes significantly less irritating. There is a story behind the way she is as well, but I'll avoid spoiling that, in case you haven't played through the game before.
Eiger annoys the hell out of me. If she's so hardcore military why is she behaving like a brat all the time? Her dialogue is painful.
Eiger was, hands down, my favorite NPC in the original game by a scale of a few thousand kilometers. And she's not behaving like a brat. She's behaving like a Soldier that wants her CO to show that they're a leader, that they have a backbone, and that they can operate under pressure.
She really does have the best personality of the group, especially if you gain her trust. It goes hand in hand with her also being the best combatant in the group. And the best character design.
But I'm also somewhat biased by being a military member and seeing a former military character in a video game actually act with a military mindset. This happens far, far less than you would think.
I'm getting a lot mileage out of Glory's new AP-draining hand razor attack. It makes it much easier sending her out into a melee when you know you can just shut down a threat for a while.
Eiger annoys the hell out of me. If she's so hardcore military why is she behaving like a brat all the time? Her dialogue is painful.
Eiger was, hands down, my favorite NPC in the original game by a scale of a few thousand kilometers. And she's not behaving like a brat. She's behaving like a Soldier that wants her CO to show that they're a leader, that they have a backbone, and that they can operate under pressure.
She really does have the best personality of the group, especially if you gain her trust. It goes hand in hand with her also being the best combatant in the group. And the best character design.
But I'm also somewhat biased by being a military member and seeing a former military character in a video game actually act with a military mindset. This happens far, far less than you would think.
I'm very very early so it was just an initial impression. I'm sure everything becomes better as it goes on. Including my incredulity at Shapeshifting Dragon businessmen.
Eiger annoys the hell out of me. If she's so hardcore military why is she behaving like a brat all the time? Her dialogue is painful.
Eiger was, hands down, my favorite NPC in the original game by a scale of a few thousand kilometers. And she's not behaving like a brat. She's behaving like a Soldier that wants her CO to show that they're a leader, that they have a backbone, and that they can operate under pressure.
She really does have the best personality of the group, especially if you gain her trust. It goes hand in hand with her also being the best combatant in the group. And the best character design.
But I'm also somewhat biased by being a military member and seeing a former military character in a video game actually act with a military mindset. This happens far, far less than you would think.
I would have forgiven her prickliness if she hadn't insisted on having her hissy fits right in the middle of combat missions. Get your people out safe, then you can start debating who should be the leader.
I don't quite remember the details of it, but I recall her admitting to very nearly murdering you at the start of the game, over something that was completely not your fault. Combined with her murderous history and the contempt she shows for her friends dying wish it painted a rather poor picture.
I'm not saying she is terrible, her actions were somewhat justifiable. I respected her, but I certainly never liked her.
Eiger might be a killing machine, but doesn't come close to the sort of damage my mage can dish out. She wasn't as intimidating as she might've thought.
Eiger might be a killing machine, but doesn't come close to the sort of damage my mage can dish out. She wasn't as intimidating as she might've thought.
I think we were neck to neck for most of the game, but I did enjoy playing a mage. There is nothing quite like throwing a critical lightning ball into a group of enemies and watching them all go unconscious with half their life already gone.
Has anyone tried playing as an unarmed adept? It was a build I tried in Dead Man's Switch, with some very questionable results. I hear adepts have been significantly rebuilt, but I'm not sure how they measure up to other classes.
Unarmed adept should be fine. There's also fist weapons.
I played a Melee Adept w/ Cyberware and ended up feeling like Raiden from MGS: Revengance by endgame. I was basically a god of death, who would run across the entire battlefield at high speed, and was nearly untouchable.
So I just did the sewer run and then the Lodge trial run back to back. Geez, things have turned dark fast compared to the original.
Sewer run went as expected until the end when I decided to make a new deal between the ghouls and the cyberdoc. That did not go as well as I had hoped and the ghouls were pretty sad about being treated as monsters just there to do his dirtywork. That actually made me, the freaking player, sad. Then the Lodge trial run. Holy drek. Everything that could go wrong on that run went wrong and then that ending reveal with poor, innocent Jana being set up as the mass murderer.
I am seriously considering replaying those 2 runs just to see if I can change things for the better.
Eiger might be a killing machine, but doesn't come close to the sort of damage my mage can dish out. She wasn't as intimidating as she might've thought.
I think we were neck to neck for most of the game, but I did enjoy playing a mage. There is nothing quite like throwing a critical lightning ball into a group of enemies and watching them all go unconscious with half their life already gone.
Has anyone tried playing as an unarmed adept? It was a build I tried in Dead Man's Switch, with some very questionable results. I hear adepts have been significantly rebuilt, but I'm not sure how they measure up to other classes.
Adepts are fine, but they suffer from "too many skills required"
Basically
Every character needs body
Every character likes quickness and dodge
Melee Characters need Strength, Melee Combat, and Unarmed/Armed skills (3 skills)
Ranged characters need Quicknes, ranged combat, and specific weapon skills(3 skills)
Adepts need Str, MC, Unarmed/Armed, Willpower, Chi-casting(5 skills)
Ranged and Melee Characters can sometimes drop points in unarmed/armed because its only crit chance (which is nice but 1 point of strength = 1 point of damage = 10% crit if your base damage is 10)
Mages need 2 skills(Willpower/Spellcasting) but should definitely dip Chi for Magic Resist 1(since they will be in the open standing on Ley Lines)
Shamans need 2/3 skills(Charisma, spirit summoning, conjuring)
My suggesting if going Adept is to look at the Adept skills you really want and then only get those. Going deep in the three for Adept looks really good(armor! Pain resistance! Quick Strike! Full cover vs spells everywhere!) but kinda sucks because you need 5,6,7 willpower and 5,6,7 chi over the 2 mobility spell, which is 36 Karma (or 3,4,5,6,7 over the damage and mage cover spells, which is 50 Karma!) and then focus on Maxing your strength, putting points into melee combat only if you want the bonus to-hit or bonus crit from the speciality skills, and putting points into Chi only for what you really want.
You would end up with a 150 karma build something like
You would do 11+4+3 = 18 damage/hit (up to 24 damage/hit with active on). You would have 90 HP, and AoE. You would crit a decent amount of the time since in melee everyone is always exposed. (But so are you for the most part)
Ironically its ranged characters and mages who almost get the most out of chi-casting. Since counterstrike is ridiculous if you have high dodge and are exposed with a firearm (basically everyone shoots at you, so you shoot back at everyone) or your basic mana bolt
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
So I just did the sewer run and then the Lodge trial run back to back. Geez, things have turned dark fast compared to the original.
Sewer run went as expected until the end when I decided to make a new deal between the ghouls and the cyberdoc. That did not go as well as I had hoped and the ghouls were pretty sad about being treated as monsters just there to do his dirtywork. That actually made me, the freaking player, sad. Then the Lodge trial run. Holy drek. Everything that could go wrong on that run went wrong and then that ending reveal with poor, innocent Jana being set up as the mass murderer.
I am seriously considering replaying those 2 runs just to see if I can change things for the better.
In regards to the Trial Run,
I don't really think you can change things for the better. The mission and the members were specifically chosen and set up in such a way to maximize the chance of everything going tits up because the Lodge wanted to see how you'd handle a worst case scenario.
I was sad about Jana, but Luca's reaction to finding out that James had survived the entire mission (and James' reaction upon learning he wasn't supposed to) was great.
As to the sewer run,
Yeah you can have a fairly "good" outcome. Well, at least a return to the status quo which the ghouls seem fine with.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
Personally I think it's melee oriented street samurai that get the most out of chi adept. Put 4 points into Chi adept. You now have magic resistance 1, Stride and chi focus.
You can still get as much cyberware as you want (as you're not going to actually cast any spells. You're in it for the passives), but you've just upped your speed by 2 (giving you more range on move+attack as well as normal move), upped your protection against enemy magic (both since you always count as being in light cover as well as the standard resistance gained from willpower 4) and you've gained a melee attack that vastly outperforms your normal melee combat moves.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Eiger annoys the hell out of me. If she's so hardcore military why is she behaving like a brat all the time? Her dialogue is painful.
Eiger was, hands down, my favorite NPC in the original game by a scale of a few thousand kilometers. And she's not behaving like a brat. She's behaving like a Soldier that wants her CO to show that they're a leader, that they have a backbone, and that they can operate under pressure.
She really does have the best personality of the group, especially if you gain her trust. It goes hand in hand with her also being the best combatant in the group. And the best character design.
But I'm also somewhat biased by being a military member and seeing a former military character in a video game actually act with a military mindset. This happens far, far less than you would think.
I'm very very early so it was just an initial impression. I'm sure everything becomes better as it goes on. Including my incredulity at Shapeshifting Dragon businessmen.
Would it help your suspension of disbelief if I told you that the Shapeshifting Dragon businessmen are Named Entities? Meeting one would be like meeting Bill Gates or Paul McCartney... they are legendary, one-of-a-kind folks who are universally known throughout the whole world. There are also dragons and there are Great Dragons, and the dragons who are CEOs tend to be Great Dragons. Lofwyr is the most prominent one (CEO of Saeder-Krupp, the only AAA megacorp that is run by a dragon), but Celedyr runs parts of NeoNET (which is a conglomerate that is made up of the remnants of Novatech and Transys Neuronet, and Celedyr owns part of Transys Neuronet). They also tend to stay in Dragon form for most meetings and have a "speaker" for them to deal with humans in general. These "speakers" usually become superstars in their own right.
Lofwyr in particular tends to send a particular person (NOT his "speaker", but an intermediary) called Hans Brackhaus, although the joke in the shadows is that if you run into Hans Brackhaus as your Johnson, you are most assuredly NOT running for Saeder-Krupp because the name is used by so many other corps to make you THINK you are running for Saeder-Krupp. In most Shadowruns, he will appear as cleanup for Lofwyr's interests rather than hiring you for a job.
As for other dragons, Ghostwalker claims the entire city of Denver (a Free City that is split among the UCAS, CAS, and some Native American nations) as his domain, but doesn't run a megacorp. Most of the dragons (great or otherwise) spend more of their time bickering among themselves to bother with humanity's trappings. Some dragons see themselves as stewards for humanity and try to defend/warn humanity against larger threats (or have positioned themselves to LOOK like this), like Hestaby and Masaru (the youngest Great Dragon, who attained Great Dragon status in the Sixth World rather than the Fourth), while others just think of humanity as a light snack. Some dragons like Perianwyr just really love to hang out with humanity... Perianwyr owns a nightclub in Denver and LOVES music more than anything else, so he sponsors up-and-coming bands and maintains a massive hoard of collectible music.
With all the shit that has happened in the Shadowrun universe, sometimes a dragon is the LEAST of your problems. But one of the truisms that appears on the front cover of Shadowrun is "Never Deal with a Dragon". This goes along with "Geek the mage first" and "Waste Trolls, not Ammo" and "It's not a Shadowrun until your Johnson screws you over twice."
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It was very much a "Let us never speak of this again" kind of run.
Shapeshifting Dragons who are rich? That sounds preposterous. Is there internal logic in the game world for something so silly to exist? I always interpreted Shadowrun as being pretty grounded and noir-esque.
Shadowrun's a full fantasy universe (elves, dwarves, spirits, monsters from beyond the veil and dragons). It's only grounded in the sense that the fantasy spilled out in the modern world when magic came back, so you've also got future tech, corporations and hacker culture.
No, no - I'm cool with the cyberware and the hackings and the elves and the dwarves and the people using swords in a gunfight and there being this entire underground culture of people who do dirty deeds for megacorps ...
But dragons who have money? That's silly.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Regarding dragons, there's a reason the series overtly cautions against dealing with them. Apart from being individually powerful, they're also extremely intelligent and have adapted well to the modern era. Through shapeshifting, intermediaries, or even outright force, many run and personally micromanage large corporations or other interests, often setting up labyrinthine schemes against each other. You pretty much need an army to take one head-on - a fact that's part of Dragonfall's backstory - and that's if you can even get to them through their own armies and intelligence networks.
Ultimately they're just one part of the maze of competing interests in the world of Shadowrun, although easily one of the larger parts. In any case, both the tabletop and video games usually drop players in the spaces between all this madness, where they try to stay alive long enough to make money and/or find out which of their contacts set them up this time.
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
Bubby, you're gonna be that guy aren't you.
Or one who gets a datajack.
Bwah? Isn't the stereotypical "dragon" a big magical lizard sitting on top of a pile of gold?
Just in the Shadowrun world that gold happens to be well invested instead of piled up in a cave somewhere.
dude it is a fantasy setting
like, I don't even get this. do you walk by the science fiction rack at the bookstore and go PFFT ALIENS and make a jack-off motion with one hand?
now somewhat uncharacteristically for the fantasy genre, a lot of which is naked escapism, Shadowrun is a hybrid setting and has a focus on class warfare and other real-world issues that stories with elves and dragons often prefer to sidestep
but wizards and zombies and magic swords are still part of the DNA of the setting. now, those things may have interesting twists (the "zombies" are not inherently mindless and are more like plague victims) but you're still going to be assembling a party crew and going into the dungeon skyscraper and disarming spike traps security systems
when I tried that and it worked I clapped and barked like a seal
That term would have been amazingly entertaining.
Uh, search the Steam store for Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut. If the page shows the "Play" button, click it and download it.
That is what I had to do. It doesn't get automatically added to your library (which caused me to panic for a minute earlier today :P ).
edit- Oh and a "Vote Dunkelzahn" poster appears in game too. In fact he is wearing just the most epic suit and tie on it. While still in dragon form of course. It is the greatest, but I can't find a good pic of it.
Eiger is not a fan of KNIGHT-KINGS OF LIIIIIIGHTNINGHOOOLD it would seem.
So I am playing as Eiger now.
We were in combat and my main was 1 turn away from dying. That same turn we finished off the last of the enemies, but before I could do anything a conversation started at the same moment my main keeled over for good.
After the conversation, Eiger was the character I was controlling. My main is nowhere to be seen. In fact even the character screen is all Eiger included the Stats screen and Cyberware screens.
I am uncertain if I actually want this fixed. :P
Honestly, I started out annoyed by Eiger, but after you push her back a bit and show some spine she becomes significantly less irritating. There is a story behind the way she is as well, but I'll avoid spoiling that, in case you haven't played through the game before.
I should've seen that peasant uprising coming, but I didn't.
Eiger was, hands down, my favorite NPC in the original game by a scale of a few thousand kilometers. And she's not behaving like a brat. She's behaving like a Soldier that wants her CO to show that they're a leader, that they have a backbone, and that they can operate under pressure.
She really does have the best personality of the group, especially if you gain her trust. It goes hand in hand with her also being the best combatant in the group. And the best character design.
But I'm also somewhat biased by being a military member and seeing a former military character in a video game actually act with a military mindset. This happens far, far less than you would think.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
I'm very very early so it was just an initial impression. I'm sure everything becomes better as it goes on. Including my incredulity at Shapeshifting Dragon businessmen.
I would have forgiven her prickliness if she hadn't insisted on having her hissy fits right in the middle of combat missions. Get your people out safe, then you can start debating who should be the leader.
I'm not saying she is terrible, her actions were somewhat justifiable. I respected her, but I certainly never liked her.
I think we were neck to neck for most of the game, but I did enjoy playing a mage. There is nothing quite like throwing a critical lightning ball into a group of enemies and watching them all go unconscious with half their life already gone.
Has anyone tried playing as an unarmed adept? It was a build I tried in Dead Man's Switch, with some very questionable results. I hear adepts have been significantly rebuilt, but I'm not sure how they measure up to other classes.
I played a Melee Adept w/ Cyberware and ended up feeling like Raiden from MGS: Revengance by endgame. I was basically a god of death, who would run across the entire battlefield at high speed, and was nearly untouchable.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
I am seriously considering replaying those 2 runs just to see if I can change things for the better.
Adepts are fine, but they suffer from "too many skills required"
Basically
Every character needs body
Every character likes quickness and dodge
Melee Characters need Strength, Melee Combat, and Unarmed/Armed skills (3 skills)
Ranged characters need Quicknes, ranged combat, and specific weapon skills(3 skills)
Adepts need Str, MC, Unarmed/Armed, Willpower, Chi-casting(5 skills)
Ranged and Melee Characters can sometimes drop points in unarmed/armed because its only crit chance (which is nice but 1 point of strength = 1 point of damage = 10% crit if your base damage is 10)
Mages need 2 skills(Willpower/Spellcasting) but should definitely dip Chi for Magic Resist 1(since they will be in the open standing on Ley Lines)
Shamans need 2/3 skills(Charisma, spirit summoning, conjuring)
My suggesting if going Adept is to look at the Adept skills you really want and then only get those. Going deep in the three for Adept looks really good(armor! Pain resistance! Quick Strike! Full cover vs spells everywhere!) but kinda sucks because you need 5,6,7 willpower and 5,6,7 chi over the 2 mobility spell, which is 36 Karma (or 3,4,5,6,7 over the damage and mage cover spells, which is 50 Karma!) and then focus on Maxing your strength, putting points into melee combat only if you want the bonus to-hit or bonus crit from the speciality skills, and putting points into Chi only for what you really want.
You would end up with a 150 karma build something like
Willpower: 2
Chi-Casting: 2
Body: 8
Strength: 11
Melee Combat: 8
Unarmed Combat: 4
You would do 11+4+3 = 18 damage/hit (up to 24 damage/hit with active on). You would have 90 HP, and AoE. You would crit a decent amount of the time since in melee everyone is always exposed. (But so are you for the most part)
Ironically its ranged characters and mages who almost get the most out of chi-casting. Since counterstrike is ridiculous if you have high dodge and are exposed with a firearm (basically everyone shoots at you, so you shoot back at everyone) or your basic mana bolt
In regards to the Trial Run,
I was sad about Jana, but Luca's reaction to finding out that James had survived the entire mission (and James' reaction upon learning he wasn't supposed to) was great.
As to the sewer run,
You can still get as much cyberware as you want (as you're not going to actually cast any spells. You're in it for the passives), but you've just upped your speed by 2 (giving you more range on move+attack as well as normal move), upped your protection against enemy magic (both since you always count as being in light cover as well as the standard resistance gained from willpower 4) and you've gained a melee attack that vastly outperforms your normal melee combat moves.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Lofwyr in particular tends to send a particular person (NOT his "speaker", but an intermediary) called Hans Brackhaus, although the joke in the shadows is that if you run into Hans Brackhaus as your Johnson, you are most assuredly NOT running for Saeder-Krupp because the name is used by so many other corps to make you THINK you are running for Saeder-Krupp. In most Shadowruns, he will appear as cleanup for Lofwyr's interests rather than hiring you for a job.
As for other dragons, Ghostwalker claims the entire city of Denver (a Free City that is split among the UCAS, CAS, and some Native American nations) as his domain, but doesn't run a megacorp. Most of the dragons (great or otherwise) spend more of their time bickering among themselves to bother with humanity's trappings. Some dragons see themselves as stewards for humanity and try to defend/warn humanity against larger threats (or have positioned themselves to LOOK like this), like Hestaby and Masaru (the youngest Great Dragon, who attained Great Dragon status in the Sixth World rather than the Fourth), while others just think of humanity as a light snack. Some dragons like Perianwyr just really love to hang out with humanity... Perianwyr owns a nightclub in Denver and LOVES music more than anything else, so he sponsors up-and-coming bands and maintains a massive hoard of collectible music.
With all the shit that has happened in the Shadowrun universe, sometimes a dragon is the LEAST of your problems.