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SIGSEGV posted:/\/\ As in the real world, depends on the flavor of prick. Ares Macrotechnology's CEO seems to be a genuinely decent sort, and taking active measures against various existential threats to the world at large. Sure, self-interest is involved; the only thing better than being able to sell a gun that kills the ravening flesh-eating monstrosities is being able to sell nutritional supplements that stop you from becoming a ravening flesh-eating monstrosity. Regardless, the Ares #brand is very much about Protecting You From The Umbrella Corporations Of The World, coughcoughaztechnologycough. This is a good thing, as Ares also provides the last word in megacorporate security. Every major population center in the Sixth World has a satellite with a battery of Rods-from-God on it and an ARES logo. 99% of the metahuman population is one sentence and five minutes from being killed by Damien Knight, in an attack against which there is no possible defense. So, uh. Good? UCAS government, what's left of it, tends to not be complete jackoffs. The Vatican is also surprisingly okay; they're one of the ridiculously big names in the magical world, because 1. between all the poo poo they've looted and all the poo poo they've collected by more legitimate means over the years, they're sitting on a hoard of magical artifacts that makes dragons envious 2. they got a head start into researching magical theory courtesy of discovering holy poo poo, some of these rituals actually invoke things. Mostly the exorcism ones. You want someone to chitchat with spirits, you should probably look elsewhere, you want someone to chuck thunderbolts at your enemies, any megacorporate wage-mage will do you, but when you absolutely have to shut some magical bullshit down, you send in the Order of Saint Sylvester, packing bell, book, and candle.
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May 11, 2017 17:12
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Ze Pollack posted:The Vatican is also surprisingly okay; they're one of the ridiculously big names in the magical world, because 1. between all the poo poo they've looted and all the poo poo they've collected by more legitimate means over the years, they're sitting on a hoard of magical artifacts that makes dragons envious 2. they got a head start into researching magical theory courtesy of discovering holy poo poo, some of these rituals actually invoke things. Mostly the exorcism ones. You want someone to chitchat with spirits, you should probably look elsewhere, you want someone to chuck thunderbolts at your enemies, any megacorporate wage-mage will do you, but when you absolutely have to shut some magical bullshit down, you send in the Order of Saint Sylvester, packing bell, book, and candle. That's cool. I know basically nothing of Shadowrun besides what's shown on the games and assumed that with all the magical bullshit organised religions had mostly disappeared.
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May 11, 2017 17:19
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TheMcD posted:Dunkelzahn was pretty cool, I think. I suppose a Great Dragon counts as a faction. He was the president of basically the remains of the USA, so yeah I'd say he counts as a faction. Fat Samurai posted:That's cool. I know basically nothing of Shadowrun besides what's shown on the games and assumed that with all the magical bullshit organised religions had mostly disappeared. Well, Satan is actually a real, active entity it turns out. So that validates a whole bunch of religious organizations, at least in their own eyes.
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May 11, 2017 18:23
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Fat Samurai posted:That's cool. I know basically nothing of Shadowrun besides what's shown on the games and assumed that with all the magical bullshit organised religions had mostly disappeared. As befits an alternate history line invented in the early 90s, the entire middle east gets handwaved into "uh, a dragon happened, also islam is not happy about any new developments" and nothing happens there, at all, ever. Because the game was fairly big in Europe, though, they had to establish a certain degree of 'so, what the gently caress were the catholics up to when all his went down." Answer: they started off being firmly "yup this is all satan bullshit" and reversed stance real hard in 2024, not before they had a few schisms about it. The French church said "well you can gently caress off" at saying metahumans didn't have souls (not least because some fairly high-ranking french clergy went metahuman), and the German/Portuguese ones said "well you can gently caress off" at the statement that nah, jk, they do. Also the Irish government and the Mexican government making Catholicism illegal kinda was a kick in their rear end.
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May 11, 2017 18:29
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Shoeless posted:He was the president of basically the remains of the USA, so yeah I'd say he counts as a faction. Not quite. The Adversary totem exists, sure, but Satan he ain't, any more than the Skyfather totem is God. The Adversary is young, aggressive, sexy as all hell, and willing to do capital-A-anything to bring down the throne. He is the breaking of boundaries, the will to reduce the corrupt authority and all its pointless laws to ash. He is Rebellion, pure and simple. Adversary shamans make pretty good shadowrunners! But, well, shamanism is a two way street. And as totems bend their shamans, so can shamans bend totems. And when you bend the power of the Adversary to forge a throne rather than to bring one down, you are calling on something dark and terrible. Something toxic. Something that pretty much everything in the spirit world can agree needs to be put down and put down hard. Dragonfall has some Good Missions, I mention apropos of nothing.
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May 11, 2017 18:40
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Someday I wanna see some middle eastern cyberpunk. I mean Dubai is basically already an insane cyberpunk dystopia already.
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May 11, 2017 18:41
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Night10194 posted:Someday I wanna see some middle eastern cyberpunk. I have only ever read one thing along those lines, and it was set in Africa. The Eye, the Ear, and the Arm is so Shadowrun it hurts. It is also so young adult literature it hurts, but in my defense I was thirteen at the time.
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May 11, 2017 18:44
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Ze Pollack posted:I have only ever read one thing along those lines, and it was set in Africa. The Eye, the Ear, and the Arm is so Shadowrun it hurts. It is also so young adult literature it hurts, but in my defense I was thirteen at the time. Hey, I read that back in the day. I've kinda gotten to like Shadowrun's setting from the games and stories I've heard, but good god is that a rules set I won't touch with a ten foot pole as a DM.
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May 11, 2017 18:45
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Night10194 posted:Hey, I read that back in the day.
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May 11, 2017 19:25
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Yeah, Shadowrun lore outside of the few established hubs is really, really weak. When a character in Hong Kong mentioned the 'Alliance for Allah' - a supposed amalgamation of states in the Middle East, if you haven't deduced that - I cringed. Also, the same character later speaks about having worked 'out of an ice cave near Novosibersk' [sic] in the past... Novosibirsk, a city of 1.4 million people in 2017, lies on the West Siberian Plain, an area so hilariously flat and swampy that you probably would have to construct your own 'ice cave' above sea level if you really wanted one that badly. Don't get me wrong - I sort of like the Shadowrun setting as an idea. But it does show its inward-focussed American origins very clearly.
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May 11, 2017 19:44
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PMush Perfect posted:Still haven't tried SR Anarchy, but it's supposed to be much better? It still has a lot of min-max-y balance issues, but at least Body and Strength are one stat now, what with Shadowrun finally catching up to the entire rest of the industry.
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May 11, 2017 19:45
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Ze Pollack posted:Not quite. That's not the impression I've ever gotten from the various material I'm encountered with him in it, but I'm by no means a Shadowrun lore expert. Interesting to see another person's views on the matter.
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May 11, 2017 20:30
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Shoeless posted:That's not the impression I've ever gotten from the various material I'm encountered with him in it, but I'm by no means a Shadowrun lore expert. Interesting to see another person's views on the matter. No way to be cute about this one: cross-referencing the primary source with that nice guy down by the magic shop will fill you in on the details your primary source is missing. It's one of the very nice details of these games- they're willing to let characters' totally understandable foundational assumptions be dead wrong and letting their mistakes stand.
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May 11, 2017 20:54
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Gimmick Account posted:Yeah, Shadowrun lore outside of the few established hubs is really, really weak. When a character in Hong Kong mentioned the 'Alliance for Allah' - a supposed amalgamation of states in the Middle East, if you haven't deduced that - I cringed. Also, the same character later speaks about having worked 'out of an ice cave near Novosibersk' [sic] in the past... Novosibirsk, a city of 1.4 million people in 2017, lies on the West Siberian Plain, an area so hilariously flat and swampy that you probably would have to construct your own 'ice cave' above sea level if you really wanted one that badly. I assume a big part of the reason for setting a campaign in Berlin was that Shadowrun, and cyberpunk in general, was actually really popular in Germany in the late 80's early 90's. So much so that the company that originally licensed the books to translate and sell in Germany then struck a deal with FASA to write their own official German sourcebooks which were canon. There is Way more material in the setting about Berlin, than there is about the Confederation of American States (which is exactly what it sounds like).
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May 11, 2017 23:57
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Part 10 - Painting the Penthouse .jpg)  We emerge into a small hallway towards the back of the penthouse. Had we taken the elevator we could've chatted with Tranq (one of Stevie's thugs) about the hellhounds and whatnot, but with this approach we're in combat mode from the word go. Of course, we weren't gunning for a diplomatic victory anyway.  Sounds like our goal is just behind this wall.  Tranq is the first person we come across here as well.  Murphy attempts to infiltrate the enemy ranks disguised as a Roomba, but the man doesn't fall for it. Maybe it was the guns that tipped him off.  "oh my god did you just kill that person" "nah don't worry man i just shot a tranq"  The path to where the voice came from is blocked by Stevie's infamous hellhounds and the remains of their past meals. Can you imagine the smell in this place?  These things are actually pretty dangerous as they have the ability to spit area damage fireballs and will happily do so even through the bars. Fortunately, we've come prepared and toss them something else to satisfy their hunger with.  If you tell a hellhound that they're a good boy, will it feel happy or offended? These are the questions that keep me up at night. With the chtonian creatures pacified, we very carefully proceed into the cage and open the door on the other side.  Within we find two women. One of them looks like the victim of torture and the other has a shotgun, so it doesn't take long to figure out which one to open fire on.  Murphy shows off to his canine buddies.  Ouch. I think we're gonna be facial scar buddies.  Are you alright?.jpg) No time to talk.[Coyote kneels and picks up the fallen guard's shotgun.] It's time to finish this.At least she's got the right attitude. Coyote joins the party, and our mission now is to wipe out everyone on the floor while keeping her and Paco alive.   Stat-wise she's almost identical to Paco (+1 ST & -1 QU compared to him) minus his bizarre Charisma, but her skills leave something to be desired. Of course an extra body is always an extra body, and she does have 2 armor which makes her slightly tougher than her boyfriend.  The shotgun she picked up is the same one used by Sam in the initial flashback fight. It's actually slightly weaker than the lowest-tier Street Sweeper, but it does have twice the ammo capacity.  Heading back to the previous room and passing through the doorway to the southwest leads us to the big man himself, alongside a couple more gang members. Either the soundproofing here is extraordinary or people getting shot really is an everyday occurrence, but either way they've remained oblivious to our presence until now.   I know who you are. You're the guy I'm gonna kill.Hell yeah.  I didn't know it was possible to channel pure anger to power up shotgun shells until now. Those are some scary eyes.  Stevie rushes to grab an assault rifle from the closet while the not-yet-blasted-to-hell gang member boosts his accuracy. Of course this leaves him in a rather precarious position in the middle of the room next to a pair of killerbots. Meanwhile a dwarf who must've finally heard the commotion rushes in from the hallway.  Hello World attempts to show off its concussion grenade capabilities, but whiffs a 90% shot on Stevie. The newcomer finds himself stunned by such blatant disregard of probabilities.  You should always geek the mage first, but Thistle here has to settle for second place. Also I kind of love how hilariously excessive the amount of blood flying from hits is in these games. The hit sound is also very satisfying, though you'll just have to take my word on that one.  Murphy lands a couple of solid shots on Stevie, but Coyote has no such luck. Since we've now switched to Normal due to Very Hard being bugged, everyone's hit rates are overall quite high, even at low skill levels - this was a miss at 75% hit chance.  He returns the favor with a grenade of the ordinary kind but really, at this point the fight is practically over. In case you were wondering where Amazon is while all of this is happening, she hasn't moved an inch since we found Coyote because she has no AP to move with. Plus there are fewer bullets flying around back there. Drones - all the joys of murdering with none of the risks!  It seems only fair to let Coyote finish him off.  Good riddance.  Paco runs out of ammo trying to take out the last person still standing, so he opts to lightly bop him on the head instead. .jpg)  Yeah, you're welcome. Right now, I'm the lady who's saving your rear end. I can see that. And... I appreciate it. Coyote, we need to get you back to the Union. Mrs. Kubota has that med-lab in the basement...Right, the standard issue medical laboratory you can find in every half-decent drinking hole.  Delilah? I thought you said you'd never do another deal with that man. Look... Paco... I needed an excuse to come back here and settle some debts. Figured... figured I might as well get paid for it.[Her voice is strong still, but her body's beginning to shake.] Look lady, we're not gonna have you bleed out after all this trouble as we're a little short on leads without you. We have the option to hightail it out of here right now, but maybe we could get a cut from the gem job... Paco, help her back to the Union. I'll find those gems for you, then meet you there.[Coyote looks as though she's about to argue... but says nothing.] Come on Coyote... let's go.And go they do, leaving us alone with a couple of happy hellhounds, a pair of locked doors and our ever-faithful drone friends. Speaking of locked doors...   This'll probably do the trick. First we check out the door to the north, opposite of the hellhound cage.  It turns out to be a storage room. Rummaging through it, we eventually end up with about a hundred nuyen and an Advanced Medkit, but no gems.  Can't complain about free stuff.  Time for door number 2!  Uh  No! Bad dog! Sit!  Down!   Bah, now we've gone and bled all over our stylish shirt. These things had better be worth it.  Time to leave this place behind for good, and no reason to take the stairs this time. Hopefully we'll manage to get some actual answers about what exactly went down the night Sam died, next time. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 16:46 on May 12, 2017 |
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May 12, 2017 16:02
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rip, steve jackson shame that after the tabletop games market collapsed you turned to a life of cybercrime
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May 12, 2017 16:17
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Finding that hellhound guarding the gems as a weak fledgling mage on Very Hard was not fun, let me tell you. I was entirely gambling on like four ~50% hit rate attacks all hitting, and somehow they actually did.
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May 12, 2017 16:19
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TheMcD posted:Finding that hellhound guarding the gems as a weak fledgling mage on Very Hard was not fun, let me tell you. I was entirely gambling on like four ~50% hit rate attacks all hitting, and somehow they actually did. The worst thing about that stupid dog was the fact that it ran to the worst possible spot as far as taking good screenshots is concerned. I wasn't about to to give it the satisfaction of reloading my game because of it, though.
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May 12, 2017 17:47
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You got me to pull this game back out. I've finished it as a rifleman and a mage, but I'd never tried drones. They're good, but it feels wrong to not be killing stuff myself.
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May 13, 2017 02:25
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V. Illych L. posted:the flux-state They're still a bunch of pricks, but they're not-systematic I guess.
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May 13, 2017 02:43
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Hellhounds strike me as the sort of creature who like to be told they are a good boy by the kind of person who has a treat for a good boy.
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May 13, 2017 02:52
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Glazius posted:Hellhounds strike me as the sort of creature who like to be told they are a good boy by the kind of person who has a treat for a good boy. They are literally just awakened dogs. They behave like dogs, and like the same things that dogs do. They are very good boys (and girls).
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May 13, 2017 03:32
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I dont know posted:They are literally just awakened dogs. They behave like dogs, and like the same things that dogs do. Then my dog secretly wants to breath fire. Which is, now that I think of it, definitely possible. Sometimes she just sits, looking at me....
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May 13, 2017 04:14
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BurningStone posted:Then my dog secretly wants to breath fire. Which is, now that I think of it, definitely possible. Sometimes she just sits, looking at me.... She is trying to will her metagenes, dormant since the last age of magic, to suddenly express. I would stock up on fresh zebra to keep her sweet if I was you. I remember in middle school having a book of premade campaigns that were all themed around paranormal animals. As part of one of the scenarios, the pc team breaks into a lab that specialized in selective breeding, that is patrolled by a pair of particularly powerful hell hounds, one the the companies bigger successes. Depending on how things shake out, it is possible for the team to stumble on the hellhound's personal area before running into the animals themselves. The area consisted two flame retardant dog beds and alot of badly burned chew toys, If the PC's steal any of their toys, the hellhounds go ballistic when they catch them. I dont know fucked around with this message at 04:56 on May 13, 2017 |
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May 13, 2017 04:46
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I dont know posted:She is trying to will her metagenes, dormant since the last age of magic, to suddenly express. I would stock up on fresh zebra to keep her sweet if I was you. Shouldn't the pcs be able to throw the toys to get the dogs to fetch?
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May 13, 2017 05:59
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Pfft guard dogs are so lame. Guard hell hounds are a lot better but still not quite on the level as a wared up guard grizzly bear. There are rules for them in pen and paper, and yes you can buy one.BurningStone posted:You got me to pull this game back out. I've finished it as a rifleman and a mage, but I'd never tried drones. They're good, but it feels wrong to not be killing stuff myself. 
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May 13, 2017 09:37
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Sorry, this isn't an update yet as I've been a tad busy and fell ill on top of that, I'm just here to mention that a collection of all three Shadowrun games is 80% off over at Humble store. Can get them separately too.
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May 15, 2017 07:47
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Dragonfall in particular is something I feel like everyone should play (I was a little less smitten with Hong Kong, mainly just because I adored the hub of Berlin and Hong Kong seemed a step down. Although the decking in Hong Kong took a huge step towards what could be something special)
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May 15, 2017 08:19
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I generally enjoy Hong Kong, but man is there a shitload of  in it. Every NPC and party member has fuckloads to say, so after you clear a mission and head back to the hub you get about a dozen different people vomiting words on you.Don't get me wrong, they're interesting and well written words, but there's just so MUCH of it.
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May 15, 2017 08:43
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DeathChicken posted:Dragonfall in particular is something I feel like everyone should play (I was a little less smitten with Hong Kong, mainly just because I adored the hub of Berlin and Hong Kong seemed a step down. Although the decking in Hong Kong took a huge step towards what could be something special) I think a part of why Hong Kong felt like a step down might be in the presentation. In Berlin, you were calling the shots. Anything good, that was a victory, and any poo poo that went down, that was on your head. Poking around felt natural, because it was your job to keep your people safe, happy, and contributing. Hong Kong, you were just the local mob boss's kneebreaker, and even that was more or less a (theoretically) temporary gig. Yeah, sure, you might poke your nose into things, but it wasn't your job, and if the people selling you poo poo had drama, well, that's too bad, but everybody's got problems. Yours was having to sit through three screens of text before spending your meager allocation of funds on some kevlar and a baseball bat. Even when the text was the same quality, the presentation made it easier to get engaged with Berlin.
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May 15, 2017 09:20
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If you put a gun to my head and ordered me to pick the better one I'd probably say Dragonfall primarily due to its stronger main plot, but they're very close to each other for me. Everyone interested in Shadowrun oughta play both, regardless.
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May 15, 2017 09:31
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I had to force myself to keep playing Hong Kong, rather than just going back and playing Dragonfall again (or trying out the... Workshop.)
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May 15, 2017 10:43
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This thread plus mentions of Neuromancer made me go finish Dragonfall, and drat that was a fun game. siding with Vauclair and stabbing your team in the back to kill the world, was a  moment. RIP Metahumanity
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May 15, 2017 11:00
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I couldn't go back to Dragonfall after experiencing the wonders of teammates who are actually... competent. The very idea of looking at Buzz fills me with fear and loathing.
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May 15, 2017 12:13
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I think his name was Butz or something, but yes. Is0bel is a million times better and cooler than he ever was.
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May 15, 2017 12:27
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Xander77 posted:I couldn't go back to Dragonfall after experiencing the wonders of teammates who are actually... competent. The very idea of looking at Buzz fills me with fear and loathing. 
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May 15, 2017 12:39
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Poil posted:I think his name was Butz or something, but yes. Is0bel is a million times better and cooler than he ever was. Turns out all you need to make a Decker useful is to give her a grenade launcher.
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May 15, 2017 13:22
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PMush Perfect posted:I won't hear such slander about Glory the murder-nado. Seriously, did that guy try to make her use pistols or something? Regardless, she has an ability to just give herself more ap at no cost. That alone makes her super good. The remaining two do their jobs pretty all right too.
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May 15, 2017 13:31
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PMush Perfect posted:I won't hear such slander about Glory the murder-nado. The difference for me is that Hong Kong has an entire party of Glorys. Both in terms of being good at their jobs mechanically, and the quality of their stories and writing. I was less impressed by the other party members in Dragonfall, compared to Glory and Hong Kong. Shoeless fucked around with this message at 19:09 on May 15, 2017 |
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May 15, 2017 18:43
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Dietrich was damned solid too. Eiger and Butz were kinda weak though, yeah--especially when compared to a literal psycho with a murderbot.
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