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Another SRHK veteran here. I'd forgotten or missed a lot of the details, so while the plot highlights and some of the character arcs are fresh in my mind it feels like I'm seeing a bunch of stuff for the first time.
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Apr 25, 2021 16:40
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| # ? May 28, 2024 07:43 |
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I know where Hong Kong is
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Apr 25, 2021 16:41
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I played Dragonfall, but not Returns or Hong Kong.
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Apr 25, 2021 16:57
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So: 1. Actual killing was swift and professional. Target apparently taken by surprise. 2. Target's possessions were looted and the areas around them are clean. So the murderer presumably stepped over the corpse and went into the back room, then... 3. Body subsequently flayed and specifically used to paint blood on the walls. No interest in keeping the skin, so the aim may have been the blood. (3a - Racter thinks the target may be an experienced serial killer) 4. The victim was into overclocked and dangerous simulation hardware. It's early in the game so we don't know how sceptical to be (pace the Sherlock Holmes threads, where you could rely on the conventions of old mystery novels). For example someone else might have done the looting. I do imagine the game's designers are smart enough that they would have mentioned any creature or organisation in the wider lore that kills like this. So my immediate thought is some poor sap has been playing Jack The Ripper Simulator 12000 and lost their grip on reality, or perhaps someone is hijacking handy puppets via simulation systems.
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Apr 25, 2021 17:13
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My favorite bit of the update is that you ask them if anyone has a motive to kill them and they proceed to say no and then immediately list a giant wall of people who actually would want to kill them but the wampoans have such a superiority complex they couldn't possibly believe it. The nonchalant dropping of how this would be complete overkill if it was someone they cheated is an admission they cheat people all the time (so it could be drat near anyone in the underworld) and then they later talk about how they're safe because they routinely chase off the Corp run police(so it could be drat near anyone in the corporate world). Put those two together and the list of potential killers is.... literally everyone.
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Apr 25, 2021 17:31
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Steam tells me that I've played Hong Kong at some point but I remember almost nothing about it (not the game's fault, my memory of those years is just that bad).
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Apr 25, 2021 17:51
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FoolyCharged posted:My favorite bit of the update is that you ask them if anyone has a motive to kill them and they proceed to say no and then immediately list a giant wall of people who actually would want to kill them but the wampoans have such a superiority complex they couldn't possibly believe it. The Whampoans are like if Blitz was a small society instead of one guy. I've finished the main campaign three times, and the bonus missions twice, and I didn't realize the above until I read that.
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Apr 25, 2021 18:32
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Servetus posted:The Whampoans are like if Blitz was a small society instead of one guy. No, Blitz has (an extremely short list of) people who he will actually listen to when they tell him he's being an idiot.
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Apr 25, 2021 19:05
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Never played, might in the future. Enjoying the LP regardless.
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Apr 25, 2021 20:39
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...but Kowloon Bay is an above-ground station  
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Apr 25, 2021 21:12
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Maybe it's an underpass to the station.
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Apr 25, 2021 22:32
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Gun Jam posted:I'm curious - how many people here played the game, and how many didn't? Got about this far before, one or two more updates and I'll be into unexplored territory. Also I was playing with director's commentary, which spoiled me a little bit on this plotline, but I was expecting that. Speaking of, Kanfy do you intend to show that off at any point?
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Apr 25, 2021 23:25
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Manic_Misanthrope posted:Maybe it's an underpass to the station. Or maybe they just moved the station underground in the intervening decades? I think HK doesn’t have a station map like Dragonfall did with the U-bahn.
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Apr 26, 2021 00:48
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Stroth posted:No, Blitz has (an extremely short list of) people who he will actually listen to when they tell him he's being an idiot. I... think literally the only person he'll listen to is the player character. So I suppose it's technically a list in the sense that there could be more or fewer people on it, but you're being generous there.
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Apr 26, 2021 02:04
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GhostStalker posted:Or maybe they just moved the station underground in the intervening decades? I think HK doesn’t have a station map like Dragonfall did with the U-bahn. Not moved underground, but built over. The concrete just keeps going up and up, forever.
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Apr 26, 2021 02:06
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Deep Dish Fuckfest posted:I... think literally the only person he'll listen to is the player character. So I suppose it's technically a list in the sense that there could be more or fewer people on it, but you're being generous there. Hey, it's not like he'd ignore his lover and put her in mortal peril or anything... Oh wait, I totally made him do that.
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Apr 26, 2021 02:16
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wiegieman posted:Not moved underground, but built over. The concrete just keeps going up and up, forever. 
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Apr 26, 2021 02:16
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Dareon posted:Got about this far before, one or two more updates and I'll be into unexplored territory. Also I was playing with director's commentary, which spoiled me a little bit on this plotline, but I was expecting that. I might bring up stuff from the commentary here and there but I'm not planning on going through it in detail, as you said it's very spoilery and it's kind of annoying to present since it lacks subtitles anyway.
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Apr 26, 2021 07:44
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One non-spoilery thing the dev commentary tracks point out that I didn't notice until I heard them: Strangler Bao wears board shorts. Big, beefy, chromed-up enforcer of a triad and he looks like an extra in a surfer trid. (To answer directly: yeah I've played the game but I'm trying to avoid spoilers at all costs.) KataraniSword fucked around with this message at 11:08 on Apr 26, 2021 |
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Apr 26, 2021 11:05
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wiegieman posted:Not moved underground, but built over. The concrete just keeps going up and up, forever.
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Apr 26, 2021 11:08
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Ibblebibble posted:I got it during a sale but never got around to it and probably won't have the time for it any time soon. Thus, me reading this LP. 
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Apr 26, 2021 14:30
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I played Dragonfsll and Hong Kong once I read the first LP here and just skipped the first game. I think it was a good decision but I don’t remember anything except that I did this mission almost as the last one of the game, for whatever reason it didn’t seem interesting so I kept putting it off
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Apr 26, 2021 15:42
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wiegieman posted:This run illustrates something I really like about SRHK, which is that all of your runners contribute something. They're not just along for the ride with the PC, they're solving the mystery too. Honestly at this point Taz hasn't contributed anything at all to the inestigation, other than the essential role of nodding along wisely to the infomation provided by her more competent compatriots.
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Apr 26, 2021 16:55
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Taz used Astral perception, which no one else could do because we didn't bring Gobbet. Some of Racter and Duncan's insights can be gain with Biotech skill.
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Apr 26, 2021 17:18
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Feels like this was a Hit, not revenge or a serial killer. - Elder (Elders?) was killed from stealth, quickly, silently and without pain. Professional - Astral perception didn't feel any anger from the perpetrator - Elder's valuables were looted. - The other elders didn't seem to be into BTLs - The scene is reminiscent of a serial killer's work, but lacks details that would truly make it so. The killer probably is just treating this as a job, doesn't hate the elder and that is why he kills them beforehand, as to not make them suffer. Then desecrates the corpses and "decorates". Looting the safe is just augmenting the paycheck and is something basically every Shadowrunner (including us) does. Anyway, to summarize my theory: Seems to me that this was an ordered hit, with the intent to spread terror, carried out by a Shadowrunner or similar. Kill the elders, and tear them apart to scare the population and make them leave? The Whampoans are squatters, so someone owns the land and wants them out?
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Apr 26, 2021 19:29
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argosaxelcaos posted:The Whampoans are squatters, so someone owns the land and wants them out? Dig deeper. It's 2150 (or whatever), nobody gives a poo poo about land rights any more, that's not where any kind of real money is in. Plus the killer doesn't just True Crime his way through the Whampoa one spine at a time - he's murdering Elders exclusively. What do Elders got ? (smartassery aside, my grandpa always told me to "always invest in land, they don't make any more of it"... but it's really not the case in the world of SR is it ?)
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Apr 26, 2021 19:39
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Kobal2 posted:Plus the killer doesn't just True Crime his way through the Whampoa one spine at a time - he's murdering Elders exclusively. What do Elders got ? The land probably is still valuable, but aside from that the Elders got the keys to the HK equivalent of the dark net? But if taking control of the dark net is the goal, why the corpse desecration? Wouldn't just killing the elders and taking their poo poo suffice?I still think spreading terror is a factor in these killings, but I can't see why, unless the goal is to have the low-level Whampoans freak out and run
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Apr 26, 2021 20:36
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Ibblebibble posted:I got it during a sale but never got around to it and probably won't have the time for it any time soon. Thus, me reading this LP. Sums me up too, though I contributed to the first Kickstarter. Think I burned out on that first game so I skipped the next two, which appears to have been an error. argosaxelcaos posted:
So, being ignorant of the plot as mentioned above, I can speculate based on our earlier discussion about background and the like that the terror might indeed be the point. If you're trying to make Kowloon a toxic environment, spreading terror is one way to "pollute" things astrally. Taking out the Elders is a way to be scarier (you can go after the most powerful people, no one is safe, etc.) and also screw up their ability to respond to you. It's interesting the killer did some very pragmatic things like robbing the Elder though; almost makes me wonder if we're dealing with a runner or similar professional rather than a pure nutcase (not that this sort of thing is typical of sane runners either, mind you) or if you've got one person doing the killing and looting and another doing the body desecration. Or, if it's not about ruining the area with terror, it could also be some sort of secret cyber implant or something they're trying to get and that's why they're cutting up the Elders to look for it (the "skin them without any ceremony or care" thing could be the hosed up equivalent of slashing a mattress open to look for money inside).
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Apr 26, 2021 20:58
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On the magical angle, are there shaman totems that would demand something like this?
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Apr 26, 2021 21:01
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Cythereal posted:On the magical angle, are there shaman totems that would demand something like this? Iirc all the totems have toxic aspects when followed by a toxic mage.
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Apr 26, 2021 21:06
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I remember the identity of the killer(s) but nothing about the motives or methods.
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Apr 26, 2021 21:21
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Cythereal posted:On the magical angle, are there shaman totems that would demand something like this? As a general rule, anything that has to do with magic is far far more affected by living creatures and emotions than anything else. It's part of why interfacing magic and technology is still something that's extremely uncommon and difficult to do at the most basic level even with megacorp budgets. Inanimate things are just dull, flat and gray in the astral. A toxic mage or shaman or a blood mage or any of those less-than-pleasant people would not kill quickly and cleanly, then "work on their art", so to speak. They want the full range of emotion that powers their magic. For the record I've played this game, but all of this is common lore information. I can just shut up too, if people feel like I'm spoiling things.
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Apr 26, 2021 22:22
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Deep Dish Fuckfest posted:As a general rule, anything that has to do with magic is far far more affected by living creatures and emotions than anything else. It's part of why interfacing magic and technology is still something that's extremely uncommon and difficult to do at the most basic level even with megacorp budgets. Inanimate things are just dull, flat and gray in the astral. A toxic mage or shaman or a blood mage or any of those less-than-pleasant people would not kill quickly and cleanly, then "work on their art", so to speak. They want the full range of emotion that powers their magic. True, but on the other hand maybe their target is the emotions of everyone else in the area. Attacking the leadership in their homes, one by one, taking them out gruesomely, very effectively communicates "Your leaders are not safe from me. Your leaders cannot protect you from me. I rule this area now" and if they manage to spread sufficient terror with those killings they could shift the background of the entire area in their favour -- meaning that any spells /they/ cast will be boosted, and any spells anyone else cast will be penalized.
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Apr 27, 2021 00:00
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Rogue AI Goddess posted:I remember the identity of the killer(s) but nothing about the motives or methods. Kobal2 posted:Dig deeper. It's 2150 (or whatever), nobody gives a poo poo about land rights any more, that's not where any kind of real money is in. Plus the killer doesn't just True Crime his way through the Whampoa one spine at a time - he's murdering Elders exclusively. What do Elders got ? You’re off by just about a century, it’s still the early 2050s in this game, since Dunkelzhan has yet to become UCAS president. Land is still valuable to corporate interests in Shadowrun, provided that it’s cost effective for them to secure it. Seeing as how HK is already a Free Enterprise Zone full of corporate enclaves where they can claim extraterritoriality, looking to move in on another slum doesn’t really make sense. HK Island itself is the more valuable real estate, Kowloon is always more of the neglected part, though parts of the New Territories even more so. Western Kowloon (especially the top of the peninsula facing Victoria Harbour (the Tsim Tsa Tsui district of Yau Tsim Mong on the map especially, that’s where the HK Walk of (Movie) Stars and the HK Space Museum is IRL, plus any number of high end boutiques and hotels and the Star Ferry Terminal) is more valuable than the eastern part, though I guess the area around Whampoa Gardens is nice enough nowadays. Then again, as I said before, corporate interests would much rather build up rather than out, the more ostentatious (and conducive to the local feng shui, especially here in HK), the better. And yeah, land reclamation from the ocean and arcology construction means that land isn’t too much of a big deal, if you have the nuyen (but what else is new?).
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Apr 27, 2021 00:18
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At this point into it, I was basically narrowing it down to a professional hit (a calm "Job well done" attitude isn't really what you'd get from a crime of passion, including a serial murderer; a toxic mage/shaman would also leave a different astral impression) with the whole body mutilation being either for some kind of magic ritual purposes, simple terror and/or an effort to throw off investigation. Also the murderer took the money and everything that can be liquidated quick and easy, again potentially to muddy the tracks.Gun Jam posted:I'm curious - how many people here played the game, and how many didn't? I did, and I won't spoiler anything. I'll just note what I remember that I thought at the respective point during my first playthrough. Loxbourne posted:4. The victim was into overclocked and dangerous simulation hardware. BTL chips are functionally an electronic drug. You can basically treat this as the victim running his own little drug lab, and his stack of finished product got lifted alongside the cash. FoolyCharged posted:My favorite bit of the update is that you ask them if anyone has a motive to kill them and they proceed to say no and then immediately list a giant wall of people who actually would want to kill them but the wampoans have such a superiority complex they couldn't possibly believe it. I think it's less of a superiority complex and more that they think they're plain not enough of a nuisance that people would start trying to assassinate their leadership. They're a bunch of bootleggers, black marketeers and low-tier tech support for other criminals. Nothing that you'd expect to warrant targetting them for outright professional hitjobs. And they can potentially screw you over a bit out of spite if you mess with them, just as further deterrence to that kind of thing.
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Apr 27, 2021 02:53
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Magni posted:BTL chips are functionally an electronic drug. You can basically treat this as the victim running his own little drug lab, and his stack of finished product got lifted alongside the cash. In particular, the HBS games seem to equate an addiction to Better Than Life simsense/BTLs to something like meth, both in the longstanding health effects and the unpredictable nature of the addicts. Remember Simmy in Dragonfall, or the cafe we liberated Coyote's brother from in Dead Man's Switch? Yeah. I assume a rig cooking up BTLs would be a lot less likely to explode than a meth lab, though.
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Apr 27, 2021 03:14
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KataraniSword posted:I assume a rig cooking up BTLs would be a lot less likely to explode than a meth lab, though. Given the stories I hear about the heat problems with bitcoin mining computers this may not be true.
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Apr 27, 2021 03:23
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Can't have novahot decking skills without a novahot rig, chummer.
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Apr 27, 2021 03:25
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Servetus posted:Given the stories I hear about the heat problems with bitcoin mining computers this may not be true. Burning down is different from exploding.
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Apr 27, 2021 03:35
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KataraniSword posted:In particular, the HBS games seem to equate an addiction to Better Than Life simsense/BTLs to something like meth, both in the longstanding health effects and the unpredictable nature of the addicts. Remember Simmy in Dragonfall, or the cafe we liberated Coyote's brother from in Dead Man's Switch? Yeah. Also, HK is known for a variety of cheap, mass produced BTLs colloquially known as Kong Chips. There are also CalHots, which are BTLs tuned up to incredibly powerful stimuli, produced in CalFree.
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Apr 27, 2021 04:02
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