Turn Director



Shadowrun Hong Kong gives players the ability to "unholster" their character's weapon and enter turn-mode under the condition that the PC's team is hostile to a visible actor's team, but that actor is not yet aware of the PC or is not hostile in return.

This feature is both helpful and frustrating. Enemy line of sight and awareness radius are finicky features, making it difficult for players to know when they can skirt past an enemy (especially a patrolling or moving enemy ), and when they can't. The requirement of line of sight to a hostile makes it impossible to ambush unseen enemies behind a door, even if the player knows they are there.

Unholster Anytime
Giving players the ability to move in and out of turn-mode as they please can have some benefits. It can add tension to every door opening, it can allow players to select drones to move thru vents without triggers or deckers to hack a terminal, it can allow PCs to be moved into hiding spots to avoid a guard patrol. And it also gives the player a sense of control. Naturally, special care must be given to scenes that allow the player this control, but implementing the mechanic is relatively simple.

In a hidden part or corner of your map, add a small 4x4 camera region with lighting set to black. Add black walls or solid invisible blocks, and a floor tile used in your scene (to save memory). Add to actors to the region: 1) One on any team that team Shadowrunner is hostile towards. 2) The other a camera or invisible actor on team Shadowrunner (but not player controlled), that is set to "AI ignores this actor: true". Put a black fill cover over the box, and voila. The player can enter and exit turn-mode at anytime, while those two actors are alive. If you want to disable that feature later in the scene, you can kill the hostile actor. Enabling later can be done thru spawning, warping, placing/removing a wall between them, and so on.

Behind the Door
But what if you don't want to give the players that much control, or it just doesn't fit the tone and feel of your scene, but you still want them to have the option to ambush enemies behind a door? Adding a camera to the room that the PCs can gain access to before hitting the door can reward clever/through players, but you can also use an invisible actor on team Shadowrunner. Perhaps an inspect interaction outside the door allows the PCs to hear the enemies inside the room. Warp or spawn the actor in the room when the interaction takes place.

You could simply enable turn mode at this point, but that ensures a hostile encounter. Perhaps if the PCs play it cool and walk in the room without guns drawn, there's a chance the baddies will back down without shooting the hostage...

Controlling Awareness thru Team Affiliation
Dressed as janitors, the PCs are making their way through a corp facility. They've past the polite friendly face of the corp and are wandering the maze-like halls. Everyone the pass is a guard, or a scientist escorted by guards. They're hopelessly lost, and the guards have started grumbling when they wander past a second time. Around a corner, they spot a guard they've past before, her gun drawn, but standing calmly idle in the bright hallway. Can they fast-talk past, or is it time to draw their guns?

One way to handle this type of situation, as a mod maker, is too have all the guards on a neutral team. Usually civilian works just fine. The player doesn't get to ambush since the chose the deception path, they have to stick with it. Then, when they fail the fast-talk, switch the guards to a hostile time, usually default LoneStar works just fine.

But there's another way, and it's a way that makes it seem dangerous when they pass even idle guards, cigarettes in hand, who still have the aura of red even as they only pop a dialogue bubble when the PCs walk by. "Must be some new diversity hires." Har-har. That kind of guard might decide to kill the PCs *even* believing they were company wage slaves.

The simplest way to add menace to idle guards and NPCs and keep players on their toes is to create a new team, one neutral to Shadowrunners and yet team Shadowrunner is hostile towards. Then, you can switch their team as you would before, but with one additional trigger to switch their team on damage.

This trigger will allow Team Shadowrunner to finish acting on their ambush turn, and then the hostile team will take their action. (There is the issue of Team Shadowrunner spending a turn shooting and missing for an entire round not setting off alarms, but if that happens often in your scene, there are other triggers that can cover the situation.)

Category : Shadowrun Editor