Part 1: The Dead Man's Call

Part 01 - The Dead Man's Call


For the sake of getting things moving, we're going to leave the character creation to the next post. For this initial bit our hero will be the mysterious bald Street Samurai known only by his nickname, "L-P".




oh shit wait that's not the right game goddamnit sorry im new to this



Here we go. As the game has fairly simple graphics and no cutscenes, it tends to paint its pictures using text descriptions with loading screens such as this serving as summaries. It's just like the old days! In-game descriptive text will usually be in [square brackets].

Also a couple of notes here right off the bat - As tends to be the case in Shadowrun, our protagonist is a Shadowrunner, one of many freelance operatives that get contacted and paid to do all kinds of shady jobs for corporations and other entities who don't want to get involved directly. Nobody really likes them, but everybody in power needs them. Fixers are people who act as intermediaries between Shadowrunners and their potential employers.

"SIN" is short for System Identification Number and is basically all of one's personal information, history, legal papers etc. in one convenient and easily trackable package. Not having one basically makes you an outlaw, a "SINless", someone with no legal rights. This obviously makes life in society somewhat tricky, but being outside the system also means that one isn't subject to its constant surveillance.

Nuyen (New yen, get it?) is the currency. Anime won as we all knew it eventually would and Japan became kind of a big deal in the Shadowrun continuity. As a result, theirs is the primary monetary unit of international trade which is used practically everywhere. You'll also notice some Japanese words amongst the dialogue here and there.

Finally, best get used to the fragging slang as you'll be seeing a drekload of it, chummer.







Too real, game, too real. Sorry about the small text, I do a better job with cropping in the later updates.

To start things off, there are a few things we can take a look at in our hero's crummy yet surprisingly spacious apartment.





Who keeps a broken computer on their desk for 3 whole years? Maybe we're not getting paid because we're the laziest Shadowrunner in the business.

There's also a notebook with a list of contacts and a calendar on the table. Let's take a look at the list first.



[The list goes on. All either dead ends or just plain dead.]

Great. As for the calendar...



Fantastic. Never has a life of crime felt so thrilling.

But just then, we get a call!



New objectives and other similar messages such as picked up items appear in the top-left corner.

We walk over to the vidphone (in case it wasn't yet clear, this isn't a world of smartphones) and pick it up.



Dialogue is a big part of the game, and the words you choose can sometimes make a major impact when it comes to resolving things. I'll mention any noteworthy choices that I'm aware of, but otherwise I'll just be picking whatever sounds the most natural or entertaining. Oh, and I'll switch to italics for my own commentary whenever dialogue is happening to avoid confusion.

Anyway, Sam Watts was one of the runners mentioned on the contacts list.

Where've you been, Sam? I haven't heard from you in months.



Oh, okay.

No wait hold on, what was that?

When you're an unsavory character like myself, you tend to associate with other unsavory characters who often partake in unsavory business... like you, for example. So why am I dead? Who knows. Probably my fault.

I wonder where you are right now. I bet you hit a big payday and you're living high on the hog somewhere. Some of us are born winners and some of us are... me.

Hey, you remember that Renraku run when things went to hell and we lost Dowd? Or that makeshift saloon on the docks afterward? I really had your back that night, didn't I?

In a world where megacorps dominate practically all aspects of life, Renraku is amongst the biggest. They're based in Japan and specialize in computer technology.

[Dowd. That's a name you haven't heard in a long time...]

Flashback!



Ah, the middle of some rainy docks with no roof or walls, just the place to go for a drink after a hard day. Or did they put up this makeshift bar complete with shelves, bar stools and even a lit-up sign while waiting? In that case these people were in the wrong business.

A couple of new faces here, let's talk to the orc ork lady first.



Nice shamanic tattoos. You know you're playing Shadowrun when something like "urban shaman" is a completely ordinary combination of words. Also, at the time of this game, Fuchi is another dominant Japanese megacorp who specialize in computer research and particularly Matrix (cyberspace) tech. Fuchi eventually got dissolved, in this case figuratively which is not a given, for reasons unrelated to this story.

Ready to bolt?

Neg - not yet. Let's give the Fixer another five minutes.


Before we chat with the other fellow, we look around the docks a bit. It's a fairly large area with not much to see, but we do find a Basic Medkit lying around in one of the crates. Lootable stuff is marked by a small pick-up icon, as opposed to the magnifying glass which indicates things you look at.



This is as good a time as any to take a look at our inventory screen. We could also view our equipped cyberware here, had we any installed.



Medkits are your basic healing item and unlike magical healing, they always heal for a flat amount. Putting points into Biotech increases their effectiveness.




We're also holding a good ol'-fashioned frag grenade which does exactly what you'd expect, as well as a Trauma Kit which can bring back a downed character in battle, although with a short delay. Characters can die for good if not brought back in time.





Last but not least we have the classic leather jacket, and we're packing some decent firepower in the form of both a pistol and a shotgun. Pistols are a little lacking in stopping power but come with the largest variety of skills, whereas shotguns are close-combat destroyers which need to be reloaded often and are inaccurate at longer ranges but can also hit multiple characters (including friendlies) if fired from far enough.

But enough wasting time, our other friend's looking a little antsy so let's go see what's up.




Unlike with Sangoma, the paint on this guy is just kinda lame. Incidentally, both of them were listed as "dead" in the contacts list from earlier. Guess tattoos alone don't protect against bullets.

[He shakes his head.] I hate this fragging city, L-P! It's wet and the rain feels like acid and I want out of here.

Seems like in his case the personality matches the tattoo quality.

Shut your screamer about the rain. We lost a man tonight.

So ka, sorry... I'm just really ready to go home. Portland's way more my speed.

TL note: So(u) ka is Japanese and means roughly "Is that so", but here it tends to be used as an equivalent of "I understand".

I don't know, L-P.

[Sam is a good guy and can hold his own in a fight but he's been hitting the bottle pretty good lately. Never on a run - so far - but he needs watching.]

[He shakes his head.] That run went sideways nine ways to Sunday. Now the Fixer is late.

What do you think we should do?

I dunno. I'm not the brains of this operation but I'm thinking we slot and run. The money's just not worth... what happened to Dowd.

Cut the drek, Sam. We both know why Dowd went down and it wasn't the Fixer or some other paranoid chip-dream of yours.

[Sam smiles a toothy smile.] I've been waiting for this all night. New Larry has something he wants to say, dont'cha Larry? Go ahead, spill it.

Uh oh, internal tension.

You were sloppy.

[He laughs.] Sloppy? You think *I* was sloppy? You've been twitchy all day, son. Look at your hands - they're shaking.

You been drinking, Sam?

On a run? No. Not a drop. Not today, not ever.



Oh boy.

Also note Sam's healthier-looking complexion here compared to his portrait from earlier (later?). A nice little touch.

[New Larry checks his watch. Licks his lips. Looks over your shoulder at the darkness. He's looking for someone and it's not the Fixer.]

Okay, I can see where this is going. You chummers are damaged. I'm out.

How much did they pay you to sell us out, Larry?

[He stops and a smile slowly appears on his face.] Honestly? It didn't take much. Just enough to get me back to Portland and set up with a cush corp job. I'm out of this racket.



Five minutes in and we've already experienced our first betrayal, firmly establishing the recurring pattern of people in Shadowrun being a bunch of assholes.

[New Larry relaxes and throws you a drek-eating grin.]

Looks like my new Renraku friends are finally here. They're gonna take that hard drive off your corpse... buddy.

We should choose our friends more carefully, L-P.

Buy you a drink after this?




Next time: Lots of people get shot, but only one gets sent to the morgue.

But first, let's make a proper character.