[X] My Assistant

[Lionhearted]

I actually have no idea why i already had a Dumpshock profile :D
however that turned out to be a good thing as it will save me some trouble.

Anyway, my issue is this, I want to GM Shadowrun 4th and both me and my players have really limited experience of shadowrun, Mostly when we play it tend to be the "Mayhem deluxe killing spree" style of play, with rather immature elements, which mostly results from no direct directives or motivations in the group.

So first of all, how do I manage a such vast project as a shadowrun campaign?

How to structure a "Tutorial" to make the players more familiar with shadowrun?

How to structure the group? (most of the time it will end up in homo.. eh metahomocide, if they dont got a good reason to trust eachother)

how to motivate the players? that is, how to make them intrested in actual running instead of just sitting round doing nothing.

how to structure runs?

how to introduce runs to the group?

how to introduce some sense of continuity to the game (Sparing us from the monster of the day dilemma)?

how to build the mood of the game, introducing the flavour of megacorps, corrupt organisations, street gangs, Mr johnsons, Conspiracies, well get the gig, the shadowrun mood simply enough ^^

Luckily i have some feel of shadowrun (more than my players) from playing SR3 with another group, but it still seem like an over my head project, so please.. give me some experienced advices.

I plan on running a rather lowpowered campaign having the players be newly debunked wageslaves with an offer they cannot refuse. giving a more living feel, hindering people to begin with the no-personality-cyberstuffed-streetsam or the Mystical-yet-cliché-mage thanks in advance

/Sam

[toturi]

The default campaign level assumes that the runners are experienced runners.

You can lower the campaign level but be warned that even experienced GMs can get the mix wrong. My advice is to try out the default level complete with the no-personality-cyberstuffed-streetsam or the Mystical-yet-cliché-mage first, get some experience running SR4 at that level, then run a game you want.

[DireRadiant]

Shadowrun is whatever you make of it. There is no One True Shadowrun.

The objective is to have fun!

The absolute top number one thing is that the GM and players are all on the same page as to whatever your groups version of fun is.

So step one, talk to players and find out what they expect, and tell them what you expect. Discuss.

Oh, and don't forget to use the search function, one tip is to look for posts more then 30 days old. I have vague memories of this topic coming up and there are lots of discussions to read.

[Lionhearted]

[toturi]

What was too much for the players to handle? Combat? Magic? Hacking? The game world?

You might want to run the classic first intro - Food Fight to get familiarised with the combat mechanics.

[Lionhearted]

[Whipstitch]

Eh, as a player I always preferred the minimal personality street samurai cliche that I built and tailored myself to an imposed minimal personality wageslave cliche that I quietly resent; if you want everyone to end up with characters they really want to play and enjoy collaboration is the key more than anything. Low powered may very well might be the right path for your group, but it's rarely the quick fix that people hope it will be.

Also, you should be careful with starting things off with offers that can't be refused. They're great for getting things moving early on and providing some initial motivation, but wageslave PCs that are only running the shadows to avoid punishment likely aren't going to stay motivated for long without some railroading or suddenly developing a taste for getting shot at. It can work out fine, of course, but it's something to be mindful of.

[Lionhearted]

Well as an offer they cant refuse.. its more like an old adversary contacts them "well, I got a lil' job for ya, Let's say its for old friendships sake, i dont want you to end up the the sprawls ya know.. now here's the deal" that kind of deal, really the only choice they got is total poverty or a job of questionable nature

[DireRadiant]

[Lionhearted]

Man you're right.. Ocean's 11 is a good way to explain the basics of shadowrun gameplay ^^
Our communication is bad at best..

[Lionhearted]

Okey, so this is my basic idea (im thinking on the fly right now but thats how I work)

The players all worked for a major corp, prolly an A-rated one.. as some finacial drawback (or so they were told) struck the corp they are fired, and as they were part of an Corporate beneficial program they're left with nothing (that is they had a pretty good living before but as the Corp took care of mostly of their needs, including quarters and vehicles, they got nothing left except maybe a com and some spare nuyens) in this time of need they rented a squat apartment together, and finds out that a former wageslave has a really hardtime getting a new job.
when things look as grimmest they're contacted by an old colleague, That offers them a fair sum of nuyen in exchange for some services of questionable nature, he also gives them contact with a guy that can fix unSIN'ed Credsticks and some other stuff they might need to finish this task, thus their first run begins
I plan to let this Colleague act as their Mr J for their first mission, maybe there is a deeper underlying reason.. perhaps he is just acting as a intermediate for the corp who wanted unseen yet dependable hands to do some dirtywork for them, maybe he got his own motives, either way.. once you go into the shadow.. the way back is really dark

[Ed_209a]

100% behind what DireRadiant had to say. No matter how masterful your plot and world crafting is, if the players aren't having fun, you are a bad GM.

If all of you are new to SR, I would take things in small, manageable bites. Start with the stock setting, so you won't have to convert & rebalance.

Arbitrarily rule out magic and the crunchy bits of the matrix (for now). This lets you not have to mess with mages and hackers (for now).

When all of you are used to using skills, and combat, start bringing in magic and the matrix.

[Lionhearted]

The players tend to like my campaigns, and most of the troubles we have in the group is from disorganisation.. in lack of better things to do they resort to PvP, raids, and in some cases rape, unmotivated murder of civilians, drug addictions and such

[Ed_209a]

[DireRadiant]

For good introductions that allow you to concentrate on managing the game, and not worrying so much about the story and content, try SR 4 Missions . They are relatively straightforward, and usually have both the subtle and unsubtle bits. They are designed to be introductory yet fun.

I recommend Happenstance for it's excellent range of options. Starts with a bar fight, but the main goal involves stealthily following and investigating an illegal cargo run.

[Lionhearted]

Yeah, A mixed group is a good start, i however dont want any overspecialized characters, maybe one of the guards has a knack for electronics.. or the face spent long hours playing simsense fps's..

Thanks for the Tip DireRadiant, i will take a peek..

[klinktastic]

Actually, if you want to listen to a group actually go through a run, check out this guy's site. He puts up the audio version of his games.

This is Shadowrun

[Ravor]

Personally I've always enjoyed the "a life in a day" type campaigns where the plot hooks were mostly generated by the players themselves, and in the Sixth World, "PvP" is perfectly fitting in the setting, after all the characters are very bad men/women who shoot people in the fact for money.


However with that said, personally I'd start small, let the Runners come up with whatever background they want, but have a common contact (I've always given out a couple of free campaign contacts to everyone.) call them together as a team for a job that is somewhat personal, perhaps some or most of them are new to the city the campaign is set in so it isn't a stretch when they don't necessarily know the score.

[Lionhearted]

PvP is not an option.. There is players that get very upset over that kind of things, that is just why i need to structure things up

[Moon-Hawk]

[Kyoto Kid]

[Lionhearted]

[Ed_209a]

[DireRadiant]

[Lionhearted]

Totally agree Ed, however if you players arent aware of different type of playing, you cannot know whether they like it or not, thats why you must keep trying new things.. and personally I feel that its time for the people to get more thinking into the game (They tend to appriecate problem solving but most often get caught up in hacking and slashing they way through the world)