Shadowrun: Hong Kong Update #17, $820,164 and Counting

The latest update for the Shadowrun: Hong Kong Kickstarter campaign is notable for announcing a new $65 reward tier and also including a write-up from designer Tyler Carpenter. I personally find this quote from Carpenter on how to ensure runs are memorable and interesting particularly promising:

So what makes awesome and memorable runs? Obviously, great storytelling and consequences for your actions are what made Dragonfall so special, and Andrew has that well in hand. Thinking about how to help differentiate our gameplay, I went and thought back to every great moment I’ve had while running or playing Shadowrun and one of the things that stood out for me is that great runs are never just about gunplay.

Great runs are all about thinking laterally. You don’t have to go in guns blazing – in fact, it’s usually a sign something’s gone wrong if you do. I’m making sure every mission I work on has multiple avenues to success – changing the battlefield, if you will, so that you can stack the deck to your advantage – if you’ve done your legwork.

I’m also working on runs where combat is fundamentally different than just eliminating the opposition: locking down rooms to keep the guards out, avoiding the guards by triggering alarms in other areas of the map so they’re drawn away, and hitting the enemy so fast they don’t have a chance to trigger an alarm. It doesn’t have to be a massive firefight… unless that’s how you *want* to roll. The game won’t stop you if that’s what you’re after.