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Dumpshock Forums _ Shadowrun _ Character Making Session

Posted by: RedKnightSpecial Aug 18 2003, 01:41 AM

I sm starting a game soon, and I am going to GM Shadowrun. None of the other players have ever played SR before, thay hadn't even heard of it, besides seeing the SR Duels figures. After I explained it to them, they begged me to run it, so we had a character-making session Friday. It was a hoot!

We have.....
A japanese phys-ad ninja. A Real Ultimate Power type. Black PJ's and all. Except his prefered MA is Judo, 'cause that's what his player knows.

A super-pretty elven "Social Assasin" with 6 one-shot pistols that he pulls and drops, pulls and drops. I talked him out of the Soul Caliber chainsword thingy. I couldn't convice him that a small multi-shot weapon was more acceptable for an assasin, so I let it be.

A street Samurai with a one shot-missile laincher in each of his Cyberarms. loaded with white phosphorous, of course. I had to make rules for these guys, but the player is REALLY excited. He also carries an autocannon and lacks any other offensive skills whatsoever.

I had to bend alot of rules to let this motley group function, be they were genuinly having such a good time that I let them run with it. The characters are over the top, but not overpowered.

I think the first adventure will be a Resident Evil style slash-fest. These guys will dig it. After a few sessions, I will let them remake their guys and start over. I bet it will be fun, or at least funny.

Posted by: TinkerGnome Aug 18 2003, 02:58 AM

Out of curiosity, what is the age and experience level of these players? Depending on how you run the game, these characters can be a lot of fun for a while, but (depending on the players) they'll probably move on to characters with more depth fairly quickly.

Posted by: Lilt Aug 18 2003, 10:49 AM

LOL. The re-making of characters after a bit sounds like a good idea. Make-sure you actually introduce the characters to the weak points so that they do decide that a change is good, no need to rub it in too much though.

Posted by: DigitalMage Aug 19 2003, 08:53 AM

QUOTE (Lilt)

Make-sure you actually introduce the characters to the weak points so that they do decide that a change is good, no need to rub it in too much though.

Yeah, if your players are enjoying it let them run with it. Even if it isn't your sort of game let them play out their gunbunny fantasies but try and also show them what else is out there.

If a GM comes down too hard on what some would term "munchkins" they can turn them off the game completely (or off the GM!) rather than turn them onto less combat oriented games.

I remember back in 1st Ed when I was GMing and pretty much every character had Wired Reflexes 2, even the deckers, as we thought that was what was needed to survive (and under the old initiative rules it was truer to some degree). I even had one player mount a Panther Assault Canon on a mechanical arm on a BMW Blitzen (I did ask for a Crash test each time he fired it though!).

And remember, despite all the talk about "a good shadowrunner should never have to draw their gun", this is a game to be enjoyed, and one aspect that players enjoy is combat (otherwise why the hell is there so much cyber, gear and skills devoted to combat?).

I always try and plan a few action scenes in my games (though not necessarily all combat related, some are car chases etc). Just think - would a Bond film be quite so exciting if Bond never got into a fight or a chase?

Anyway, enough ranting

Posted by: RedKnightSpecial Aug 19 2003, 12:38 PM

My thoughts exactly. They are young guys, but they are all pretty good roleplayers. This is their first time mixing fantasy with guns, so I figure I will let them get it out of their systems. Their first adventure will be a huge splatterfest. I expect they will want to start over in a few weeks when they get the hang of the system.

I am looking forward to it, myself. None of that pesky roleplaying for a few sessions!

Posted by: Rain Aug 19 2003, 04:49 PM

Verra wise, grasshoppah. I have played in two groups that were new to SR when we started playing the game. Both of them were pretty much all brawn and no brains for the first few sessions, but that changed quickly. Letting the new guys get it out of their system is a great idea. Let them have fun, kill people, break their stuff, and blow shit up. Once they've gotten a feel for how the game system and the world of 2064 work, they'll want to change their characters around some without any prompting from you.