Shadowrun: Enter Hong Kong!

It’s time for a new city edition of Shadowrun, Sixth World! Years ago, we thought it would be fun to have reprints of the core rulebook take us on a tour of some of the core shadowrunning hotspots in the Sixth World. Seattle and Berlin had their time in the spotlight, but now it’s time to take a look at Hong Kong!

So why Hong Kong? One of the features all of the selected cities have is that they are not dominated by any one force or faction. There’s plenty of wealth and power to be had, but the fact that it’s not concentrated in a few hands means the balance of power is always shifting. That’s a great atmosphere for shadowrunners to be in, as factions are regularly trying to lash out at each other and use runners as weapons. It also provides opportunities for runners who are after more than just a paycheck. When there are lots of powers in a city, runners can look for ways to set them against each other—and if they’re really clever, get them to take each other down a peg and maybe advance the cause of the little guy a bit.

But that’s the general picture. What specifically do you get from the Hong Kong city edition? As always, the pagination of the core rulebook remains the same, so this is fully compatible with the full line of Shadowrun, Sixth World books. There’s a new cover, this time an excellent wraparound slice of life by the incredible Echo Chernik. Make sure you take some time so soak in all the details she put in! Then the new stuff comes in, 18 pages of Hong-Kong-specific info. After some short fiction to help you get a feel for the territory, an overview of the city shows how this collection of islands manages to function as a (somewhat) cohesive whole.

Then we have character qualities, game elements that help people show some of the ways Hong Kong puts its mark on its residents. Some of these are geographically specific, like Harbor Rat giving a bonus to people working in Victoria Harbor, while others work with the atmosphere of the city, like Properly Aligned making a character’ sensitivity to qi translate into better responsiveness to mana ebbs and flows.

Following the qualities are some characters you can drop into your game to give a local feel. This includes Pinky Feng, who hacks the world from inside Kowloon’s Walled City, and Madame Ye, a glamorous troll who pushed her way into the top ranks of the Triads.

There are eight characters in all, which raises the question: What are all these people up to in Hong Kong? The plot hooks have the answers! There are eight of them, based on the location and character information from the previous sections, sending runners in Hong Kong on pulse-pounding jobs.

Finally, there’s specialized gear growing out of the conflicts on the streets. The ballistic tent is there for people who don’t have a permanent shelter to go to but still want the re-assurance sleeping behind bulletproof walls, while DragonThread can make remarkable fabric that not only offers substantial defense protection but also shifts colors as the temperature changes.

These are just a few samples of the Hong Kong details in this section. We hope the range of characters, qualities, gear, and plot hooks at exciting flare to your games!