From Player to GM - Tips Needed Options

[Briggan]

Hi Folks

I'm a long time Shadowrun fan & player. I'm up to date with all the current publications and am pretty heads up on all the rules. However for the nine years I've enjoyed Shadowrun I have been a player; never really getting the chance to GM but always wanting to. There have been a couple of occassions where I have run scenario's that people have enjoyed but I stuggle to progress them to the campaign stage.

At the moment I have finally got a player base of four individuals. All but one of them have never played Shadowrun and know nothing of the setting, the one guy knows the setting on the surface and has played one of my scenario's but is still essentially a beginner. One of the newbies wants to play a hacker and the guy who knows a little is going to be a street samurai, as for the others they are unsure; neither are interested in magic. Now although I have a player base I am struggling to design run's/a campaign around such a small group of runners because the games I have played in have always revolved around a much larger group (6 to 7 players) and have therefore always covered Physical/Matrix/Magic. As such my experiance of missions have always encompassed threats/challanges in all areas. I feel this is not going to be entirely possible with my current group. Not only that but the games I've played in have always contained people who know a fair bit about the settings and as such I have never needed to approach it blindly.

I need some tips on:

A> Running for a group made up of purely beginners
B> Running for such a small team
C> Designing missions that suit the setting but also avoid areas my players have no help in (e.g. Astral/Magical defences with no Mage)
D> Keeping to the setting yet allowing them to get the most out of the game.

Any help would be much appreciated as I want to finally run a Shadowrun game and make it as rewarding as possible in the hope that they will wish to continue playing in future.

Cheers