by: Jimmy Webb

June 27, 2007

ShadowRun is basically a large game of rock, paper, and scissors. Nothing is almighty. Everything has a weakness you can exploit. Your enemy using smoke to get away from your barrage of bullets unscathed? Use gust to damage him while smoked. He'll learn quickly his old habits won't work. Guys keep physically assaulting you with wired reflexes http://www.xe360.cand the katana? Gust them back and keep their blade at a distance whilst you pepper his face with bullets. (is this an acceptable sentence substitute for you?)Does a team tend to have an impenetrable stranglehold over an area? Use Enhanced Vision to see through the walls to where they are and then Teleport through the walls above, below, and beside them. Get a jump on them from an area where they aren't as dense. Or, just wait outside, and try to pick off stragglers one at a time. The amount of things you can do with these techs and magic are astounding. Your mind is the only thing keeping you from dominating an opponent.

In addition to the depths the tech and magic provide, it goes even farther. There are four different races that each have their own special traits. Each race works better with different builds.

Elves- Fastest of the races, elves run like bats out of hell. They slow down to a snail's pace when carrying heavy weapons (such as the sniper rifle, or rocket launcher), and have the lowest amount of health out of any race. They have the second most essence, and regenerate essence faster than all of the other races. Elves also have the innate ability to regenerate health, making them great escape artists very good for hit and run attacks.

Humans- Trolls are the only race slower than humans, but humans also have the second highest health of all of the races. They don't slow down as much from heavy weapons, like elves. Humans don't take any tech penalty, either. When you equip a tech, it nullifies a certain number of your essence pips. Such tech makes those pips useless so you can't teleport, or use any other kind of magic. Where equipping enhanced vision would nullify three pips on an elf, it won't take any of the human's away. Humans also get $500 extra starting money.

Dwarves- Faster than humans, slower than elves. Dwarves are one of the more interesting races in ShadowRun. They have more health than elves, but less than humans. They have the most pips of essence out of all the races, but they regenerate it at a snail's pace. The upside to this is that you can absorb essence from things around you; trees, people, strangle. Virtually anything magical. Dwarves are incredibly useful against trolls, as well. I'll touch on that more shortly.

Trolls- The final race, trolls are the slowest, yet strongest race of the lot. But, that's not all. When a troll takes damage, his skin hardens and drains his essence, so the troll takes less damage. Why are dwarves so useful against trolls? Because if trolls have no essence, their skin won't harden to prevent damage. Trolls, being the strongest race, don't slow down when they are holding weapons. They move the same speed with the pistol as they do with the rocket launcher.

My glider brings all the boys to the yard...