NOOB DM advice Options

[Kane]

Ok Ive been scanning the boards for a bit now.

I have a glaring question why the hate on the adventure On the Run?

More importantly how can I make it not suck??

[Panzergeist]

Ok Ive been scanning the boards for a bit now.

I have a glaring question why the hate on the adventure On the Run?

More importantly how can I make it not suck??

As a player, I can't help you. I hear I'm going to be playing that adventure soon, so I hope it doesn't suck. I can tell you that the term is Gamemaster; Dungeon Master is a D&D term.

But seriously, please tell me it doesn't suck.

[Beetle]

Ok Ive been scanning the boards for a bit now.

I have a glaring question why the hate on the adventure On the Run?

More importantly how can I make it not suck??

It's just not up to snuff of the old adventure books. However I ran it for my group and they had a pretty fun time. Improvise where necessary and make sure everyone has something to do, particularly when the hacker inevitably goes into crazy data search/legwork mode.

[kzt]

The main criticism I remember is that a "professional" team misses out on much of the adventure and the goodies.

[TheOOB]

If I remember correctally, (I don't have access to the adventure at the moment), On the run encourages the runners to betray the Johnson, something which a professional team would never do unless the Johnson was making a serious lie or betrayed them first(biting the hand that feeds you is really bad buissness). While there is nothing wrong with that sort of run to exist, the run is marketed as an entry level run, when it will just teach the players bad habits.

[Sir_Psycho]

I'd heartily suggest Cold Blood by our own Knasser as a starting adventure. It's straightforward, and one of the best things about Knasser's work is that he's very level-headed and helpful when it comes to RAW matrix rules.

You can find it here: http://pavao.org/shadowrun/adventures/

(Obviously, pass it on to your GM without reading it)

[Wesley Street]

I have a glaring question why the hate on the adventure On the Run? More importantly how can I make it not suck??

You've discovered one of the many Shadowrun player schisms. "Elite Professional Covert Ops Bad-Asses Who Eat Gunpowder and Poop Bullets" vs. "Having Fun in the Sixth World". It's a disciplined, military mentality vs. playing, y'know, a game where you can be as crazy as you want.

The most common complaint I've seen is that if the players decide to return the disc the game is over at the half-way point. It does acknowledge this in the text. However, the module encourages the GM to have the PCs actually check the disc to make sure they've got the right one. If they do check it, it should spur them on to the remaining half of the adventure.

The second most common complaint is that the disc is made up of two parts but the second part is completely un-hackable. According to the author the second part of the disc was being saved for a future Shadowrun module but seeing as how Catalyst has moved away from canned adventures I doubt that module will ever see the light of day.

I ran it over a year ago and I actually had no problems with it. I had to urge my players to check the disc but they took the rest of the adventure in stride. It wasn't an amazing module by any stretch but it's nowhere near as bad as the most vocal posters claim it is. It's a good module to run if you're a first-time GM as it gives you all the tools you need along with page reference numbers. I thought it was fun and that's all that matters to me.

[Kane]

Thanks folks for the advice and suggestions

Yes I prefer DM eventhough its a "D&D" term. It is because I love to torture my players.

[Malachi]

I've run the adventure 3 times. I wouldn't call it "awesome" but it's not "horrible" either. The easiest way to bridge the "problem" where players want to return the disk is to simply have their Johnson request that they verify the disk's integrity. I had the J offer a bonus for this as well, just to give the players and extra nudge. It's a much better adventure for a first-time GM than it is for first-time players, for sure. At least they don't have to fight a cyberzombie like in First Run.

[Sir_Psycho]

Not to mention the Cyberzombie Red Samurai support. Twice. Not to mention I don't see how the hell you would get out of the parking garage without a vehicle, and even then, if it's not an armoured vehicle, I don't see you escaping. That said, I've never played with a rigger, and I've never played one myself, so it annoys me that it's almost a pre-requisite.

I've got to say though, that First Run mission had something to it I really liked. Maybe it was the illustration of Novatech/Renraku hostilities, and a good contextualisation to the corporate landscape. Although the end does have a bit of a mary-sue NPC duo, it's sort of cool to show some real players.