Need GM Help, Too Much Variety A Bad Thing? Options

[SamVDW]

My first Shadowrun campaign in 4th Edition ended a few months ago. The group was very combat-heavy and had little versitility, but they were able to muscle their way through adventures and everyone had a good time.

The second campaign just started a few weeks ago and we have a Street Samurai, Rigger, Technomancer, and Shaman in the group. The Street Samurai wants to solve things with brute force. The Rigger tends to want to survey the area and sneak around. The Shaman is often laying in the back of a car zooming around astral space. And the Technomancer sometimes won't even leave the house on parts of missions (because he doesn't want to die), he just runs through the Matrix doing stuff.

There is almost no group cohesion. As a GM, I could use suggestions on how to keep the group together, and still let them all shine in their respective elements.

[Mistwalker]

Could we get a bit of background on how the shadowrun group formed?

How about the players? experienced or newbies?

[SamVDW]

Two very experienced players, two moderately experienced players. I'm a fairly experienced GM, but I've never run into this kind of issue before in any game I've GM'ed. It's almost like the character classes encourage them to not play together. For example, why would the Technomancer leave the house to help the team if he can hack into the facility from home and assist them remotely?

[Serbitar]

This versatality is Shadowrun. Try to make the session where only one player is involved short. Switch back to other players often. Make runs which can only be solved when all the aspects of the team work together.

[Mistwalker]

As for the technomancer, well, there is something called Wi-Fi wallpaper or paint, that blocks wireless transmission. So, your technomancer will have to actually go into the building to be able to do anything to help out on the fun.
He can also use sprites to control drones.

As for the Shaman, zooming around in astral space is nice and all, but there are a few very real dangers when doing that. One, your body may not be there when you get back, then you are on a very tight timeline to find it or die. If your body has only been taken by concerned passerbys, he may be ok. If it has been taken by ghouls, he may be missing some parts. If the body has been taken by a shedim, there is a fair chance that he will die. That hasn't even touched on normal spirits wandering around, wards, wizzer gang out for some fun in astral, etc...

You should point some of these dangers out to your players.

You may also want to sit down with them, to explain that they are stronger as a team than singletons. That team work will keep them alive.

[fistandantilus4....]

It also sounds like they are playing more to their archtype than to their character. This may clear up on it's own, or may need some more encouragement. You could try more roleplaying options, like leg work, or runs where less heavy handed approaches are called for, and some RP between the action. This'll build their idea of their character, and hopefully give them a better sense of being a team.

[Zen Shooter01]

You're overlooking the whole point about Technomancers - their bodies don't much matter. The TM can be telepresent with the team, and that's plenty good enough. He talks to them through his commlink.

The rigger can do the same thing.

The shaman can manifest to communicate, so it doesn't matter that he's astral. He's a little trickier, though, because he can't use a commlink while he's like that.

[DireRadiant]

How do the telepresent rigger and TM know what the manifesting shaman is saying/doing?

[eidolon]

Just wanted to back up what fistandantilus was saying. I think what you've got is a bunch of players that are caught up in their "roles", rather than their...um...roles. :) (Roles as "rigger", "mage", etc., vs. roles as members of the team that have one goal to accomplish.)

Try to introduce a few roleplaying opportunities that have nothing to do with their abilities. Stuff like NPC interaction, contact relationships, even low-level "jobs" that just don't require any of their skill sets per se.

[Blade]

What eidolon said.
Give some depth to the character. Make them more than just roles or archetypes.

One way to get a nice group cohesion is to force them to live together for some days (they may get trapped somewhere, or forced to hide together someplace) or to get a member of the group caught in the problems of another member (for example the street sam owes something to the yaks, the yaks saw that the street sam deals with the TM and decided to beat up the TM as a warning for the street sam)

[Wakshaani]

The best way to get the Technomancer there is teh same way that you wound up getting Deckers in there ... the Node is cut off from teh Matrix and you have to BE there to jack in.

"Hey Jake, can you get those cameras?"

"Nope. They're hardwired someplace."

"Well, you're about useless."

"Sorry!"

Astral Scouting is fine, but leaves teh Magician out of teh loop as well, since he can'tr eally cast spells to help his compadres during the run, proper. He'll need to be in the flesh for that. (And, again, basic use of wards goes far, here.)

"Sorry guys, I can't scout the building ... it's warded. I push through, the alarms go off."

Wards are cheap and handy. :)

As fro teh Rigger, well, someone *does* need to keep the engine running, but, as long as he has a Drone or two to go with the team, he's at least still handy. A scout, a combat drone, and maybe something on overwatch, plus the van, should keep him busy.

As for teh guns-blazing routine, well, sometimes you DO have to go that way, but, otherwise, the Sam will learn fast that if no one else is there in teh meat to back his play, going in solo is suicide. He'll have to sneak.

Lastly, feel free to have a security Hacker ping teh Technomancer's feed sometime, run a Tracer, then dispatch a Lone Star team to catch him. He'll soon see that "Safe at home" isn't all that safe. Even a pair of normal Star Officers can rough teh average Technomancer up something awful. Worse on a Hacker, since they can break his Deck and make him cry. :)

[Ankle Biter]