Aaa it's so nice to see other Shadowrun fans on here 🥺 I just recently returned to Tumblr and now my blog is turning into a shadowrun art blog. You seem like you know a lot about the Shadowrun games! I've never played them before actually! I've only played the Tabletop (and still am!) so I guess my question is, is it's worth getting into now? I've had Shadowrun HK in my steam library forever now admittedly. Is there a certain order I should play?
I’m basically the inverse of you— the games were my introduction and now I’m trying to plunge into the 5e books 👀 I bought a corebook and two additional ones and I’m slowly carving through it and I’m very excited :]
Oh absolutely the games are worth it— I’ve only played Dragonfall and Hong Kong and not Returns, so I can’t speak for Returns, but the writing on the other two have made them rank among my top favorite games. I think Hong Kong is my favorite of the two, but just barely, because both are very good.
It’s always going to be difficult to emulate a ttrpg experience, since games will lack the complete freedom of choice you get in person, but both games give you lots of choices both in missions, the main story (with multiple endings), your parties, and even your backstory. It gives you plenty of role play moments that both effect the story and moments that don’t, but give you input and personality anyway.
Missions never felt overtly linear to me— there’s lots of options based on who in the party you bring and your own stats, and combat is fun and has enjoyable strategy, but also avoidable on some missions.
I was always excited to come back from a mission because there would be new Shadownet BBS posts and new dialogue with the NPCs back at the hub, and all of it is rich in character and lore (especially Hong Kong, but Dragonfall is good for it too).
They just feel very rich in story and character and it’s a blast both to play and replay. I loved it enough to get a soundtrack on vinyl akabdksjsns
Hong Kong is a great one to start with— there can be some jank in any of the games sometimes around combat balance, but honestly it’s more of a nuisance than anything. HK has my favorite setting and incredible character interactions and stories, and I definitely recommend talking to everyone and always checking Shadownet after each outting.
I feel like Dragonfall is a bit shorter, and it came before HK, so HK ironed out a few more of the kinks in gameplay, but both are very darn good and I’d happily recommend them both :] they’re also pretty replayable IMO, which is a nice bonus!
I intend to go back and play Returns bc I’m hungry for more content, and it’s set in Seattle, but from what I’ve seen there isn’t a set party that you stick with, and it’s the first in the series of games, so it’s a bit different play wise, but I’ll get to it eventually aksbdjsjsj