How do you plan your session?, Newbie GM needs help.. Options

[Kagetenshi]

I was reading through some of my GM's posts here (he never spent a lot of time here, but what time he spent produced some gems) and found this thread which might be helpful.

Or you could just search for user Taran's posts.

~J

[Jericho Alar]

I usually set out my runs in one of two ways, it was either an events web - (a series of 'set piece' scenes, including description of location/time, major players present, etc.) or as a static large location. the former tended to work better for 'dynamic' missions - ones where you were tracking someone down, or on the run, or trying to untangle a large plot. etc, the latter worked well for installation in-place missions like structural hits, or snatch and grabs, etc.

in both cases the security is based on what I consider logical and not what I think would best thwart my players (save that for zero-zones). In the event that players approached a scene or facility in a manner I hadn't previously anticipated generally I would try to consider on the fly what would make sense. (i.e. most large facilities *would* have sewer access; they may not always have cameras and only the most paranoid would actually have guards on the manholes, etc.)

For actual adversaries I tend to go with a hyper-minimalist approach. in sr3 this meant they were frequently a bod score, a dex or str score (whichever they needed for their weapon of choice), a wil score (for magic resistance), a combat pool, an init roll and 10 boxes of damage. in sr4 this typically just a pair of dice pools (combat and non-combat checks, resp.) and a body, reaction, Wil and Init score. (and usually 10 boxes of damage.. although you could adjust up or down now that they're variable.)

goons are almost *always* 8 dice combat, 6 dice non-combat, 3 bod, 3 rea, 3 wil, and init 6/2passes. (my goons tend to shoot up or have minor amounts of cyber). a real punk would be 6/5, 3,3,2 6/1. metahumans get their metahuman bonuses but in the case of *my* goons that kind of works out to elves being 8/8, 3,3,3 7/2 and trolls/orks being 8/6, 8,3,2 6/2 with dwarves having good will but otherwise regular stats etc.) If its a magician it gets a magic score and 2-5 spells depending on how much I'm expecting them to stay on scene.

more significant oppo. gets custom stat lines. a 'rival' running team gets full stats/partial skills/partial cyber/limited contacts but otherwise I don't pay attention to legal build restrictions.

[Platinum]

I work out a quick idea. Use a random run generator script that I wrote for the Omnihedron a few years ago, if I cannot drum up ideas.

Then use a random NPC generator script to generate the cast. Often I will hit random 20 or so times till I get a mix of what I want.

Then I make or grab some maps and let the players have at it. I do the minimum because my players will NEVER EVER do what I expect them too.

Oh and yes, I fudge dice all the time to make things spicy.

[Degausser]

Here is what I do. Come up with an idea for a run (Say . . . Group breaks into an Ares facility to steal some data.) Then come up with a few twists in the mission. Something plausable, but unforseeable. It doesn't HAVE to be the Johnson double-crossing you (and I wouldn't recommend doing that too often) but plenty of other things you can do. Maybe the data is hashed by an AI, and the runners need to convince it to 'un-hash' it. Maybe the data isn't on the mainframe, but is stored on hardcopy, or on someone's de-activated comlink, or on a chip. Maybe security has gotten wind of the run and they have sent people to stop them.

Then, think of two or three solutions per problem, and come up with rules for it. Mage wants to astrally project in? Maybe there are watcher spirits, or mages on duty, or the area is encased in a magic barrier. There is a lvl 4 maglock on the door, talking your way past security requires X successes.

Try to cover the major ways something can be done, Magic, Matrix, and Meatbody (those are the main three ways to do stuff in Shadowrun.) Then, if a player throws a curve, it's ususally covered by the general rules. So if the Mage just banishes the Watcher spirits, Poof, the mage who summoned them notices, and wakes up and gives a call to the office.