How should I start? Options

[CorvusVlos]

Whenever I choose to DM something, I end up getting into this quagmire of confusion on how to start an adventure. I'll be the first to admit, Cliches make me about as angry as can be. I hate starting people off in a bar. I don't mind taverns/bars as a place where people end up, but starting there feels uncreative...

So here's my problem. I'm running a game in Austin, CAS. It's going to be based around a Corp war between Renraku and AzTech, where, more than likely, the players will side with Renraku (As the local AzTech branch is incredibly, and unabashedly evil. To the point of human trafficking to grow more organs for their organlegging). My issue is, none of the characters have their backstories to the point where they know each other... How can I get them corralled into one place to start the "tutorial" mission? (Two are new Shadowrun players, one has never played 4e.).

[DireRadiant]

Three possible approaches

J hires them to meet at location X for job offer, runners meet there. J says , "Hi I've brough the three of you together to be my angels..."

Each player is a professional runner, ask the players how the PC normally finds or gets a job offer. If one says he checks the shadowrun matrix job search board, then go "Cool, you do a search, and you find a good match, here's where you meet the J. It appears the J has the aprpopriate vouching from a contact you trust." Have the players each do this, and they all meet together. Throw your players at the problem and have them solve it.

Do a single session Food Fight scenario that is throwaway one shot never to be used or count towards the campaign. Have the PCs do stuff and learn, then do one of the above scenarios.

[CorvusVlos]

Three possible approaches

J hires them to meet at location X for job offer, runners meet there. J says , "Hi I've brough the three of you together to be my angels..."

Each player is a professional runner, ask the players how the PC normally finds or gets a job offer. If one says he checks the shadowrun matrix job search board, then go "Cool, you do a search, and you find a good match, here's where you meet the J. It appears the J has the aprpopriate vouching from a contact you trust." Have the players each do this, and they all meet together. Throw your players at the problem and have them solve it.

Do a single session Food Fight scenario that is throwaway one shot never to be used or count towards the campaign. Have the PCs do stuff and learn, then do one of the above scenarios.

I really dig the first idea. I'm going to use that! Thanks!

[Abstruse]

The "Mr. J calls you all together for the meet" is as cliched in Shadowrun to me as the tavern is for D&D or Prince's dinner party is for V:TM. However, those are cliches because they're a good way to get characters with different backgrounds together all at once.

There are other methods, though. Here's a few of my favorites:

- Make each character have a contact in common. That contact calls them up saying they need help. Similar to the Mr. J call, but slightly different.

- If any PCs know each other, have them start out getting the job and figuring out who they need to hire, then getting recommended the other players one at a time. I call this one the Ocean's 11.

- Have the players come in independently through the course of the adventure. First the meet where the Johnson gives them the job and possible provides them with a corporate hacker/shooter/mage (one of the other PCs), then when they get on the job a ganger jumps into a fight to defend his turf and decides to join the group (another PC) and so on and so forth. The downside to this one is that some of the players will have to sit out some of the first adventure. The upside is that you can send them to the store for munchies/beers while they wait.

- Make everyone put a link to two other characters in their background, thus creating a web of characters who all know each other, even if it's friend-of-a-friend. The hacker made fake IDs for the sniper in college, the sniper served with the heavy weapons guy in the Yucatan, the heavy weapons guy's sister used to date the face, the face worked with the mage back when they were both on the corporate payroll, the mage regularly hires the hacker for research or to buy old computer gear from...something like that.

[EuroShadow]

Well, on similar note as DireRadiant, I asked each player at the start of the game, which contact would he trust to get him job, so each of PC gets call/message/visit from his fixer mentioning that specific fixer is making team for future works and references and if they want to be part of it. Then they meet (not neccessary in a bar, let it me abandoned warehouse... the fixers have thrown together a liitle seed money and bough visit from retiring runner (then i read them this: http://www.shadowrun4.com/missions/background_razors.shtml) and they are set to go (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[MikeKozar]

Hmmm...Angels.

Terry Pratchett's (rather brilliant) Going Postal begins with the last hours of a man named Albert Spangler, convicted of multiple counts of fraud etc. and sentenced to hang for it. When we first meet Albert, he is furiously digging at a loose brick in his prison cell with the stubby remains of a stolen spoon. He breaks through the last of the crumbling mortar and pulls the brick out, to reveal a freshly-mortared brick blocking his escape, and a shiny new spoon. His guards cheer for him, congratulating him on his efforts, and explain that the Patrician believes strongly in the value of the hope of escape. Not so much the possibility of escape, as that would be counterproductive, but the hope...

Albert is escorted to the gallows, and asked if he has any last words. He replies that he does not, because he really wasn't expecting to die. This is considered high comedy. The bag is lowered, the lever pulled, and the rope snaps tight...

He awakens in the office of the city's designated Tyrant, the Patrician Vetinari. It is explained to him that although Albert Spangler was hung before witnesses, justice being served, there still remains the matter of what to do with Moist von Lipwig - Albert's real name. Vetinari has plans for the city, he explains, and he is convinced that Moist is the man to complete them...or die trying. Of course, Vetinari is a firm believer in freedom of choice, and tells Moist if he is not interested, he is free to leave out the door behind him and no more would be said on the matter ("Moist filed that under Highly Suspicious.")

The alternative: Vetinari asks Moist what he knows about angels. He goes on to explain that he knows two interesting things about angels. The first is that sometimes, an angel will appear and take a man back to where it all started to go wrong, and give him a chance to do it right this time. Vetinari suggests that Moist think of him...as an angel. He wants Moist to take a job on behalf of the government, a job no sane man would want unless his life depended on it. Moist picks up a pencil and makes a big show of dropping it through the doorway and listening a long time for it to hit the ground. Vetinari explains that the ultimate form of freedom is the freedom to accept the consequences of your actions. Moist asks him what the second thing he knows about angels is, and Vetinari smiles.

"You only ever get one."

[yukami]

I have a love of non-standard (or maybe just "non-boring) storytelling tropes when it comes to roleplaying games... remember, just because the STORY of the run starts just before the call from your Fixer, doesn't mean the GAME has to...

Try starting the session in the MIDDLE of the run, maybe even in the middle of combat - I once started a D&D game with the words, "everybody roll a reflex save" - and recap the parts of the run that happened beforehand after they clean up the mess of their firefight. It takes a little more storytelling skill, and you gotta be willing to GM-slap any player who complains that "they wouldn't do that" (just point out that, they MUST have, because here's where they've all ended up), but the non-conventionality can definitely add a bit of flair, especially for veteran players.

It's not technically railroading, because you aren't forcing the PCs to make any specific choices, anymore than the whole rest of the history of your campaign's universe can be considered railroading. It also avoids the IMO tediousness that can often dominate the first couple hours of any SR adventure, haggling over payment with Mr. J, dead-end groundwork for the run, and things like that.

Other fun hooks include: the PCs are being blackmailed and one of them discovers the identities of the other victims of the blackmailer and gets them together to deal with the problem; an unfortunate hostage situation; coming to blindfolded, gagged, and tied to a chair/stuffed in a car trunk/anywhere else you'd be after unwittingly being dosed with Laes; the PCs just flubbed up a run BAD, and they have to figure out how to deal with it...

Options for creative GMs are countless, and if you keep your game world dynamic, it often makes it more fun and more believable - I am a firm believer that characters shouldn't be nascent blank slates the moment you tally your 400th BP, and that a good story has to have a lot of boring/irrelevant stuff happen before it starts to get exciting.

anyway, just my 02. sometimes, i start with a phone call, too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Saint Sithney]

New players really need a "screen test run" to see how the game works and how their characters fit into the game.


Devise a few random loosely-connected scenarios and then jump from one to the other. Play each scenario to the strength of each of the different characters and use them as an opportunity to introduce the character and their archetype properly.

Then, when you've finished, talk with the players, finalize the characters and, if the scenarios went well, then the players can use that loose narrative to decide exactly how they know each other.

[CorvusVlos]

I have a love of non-standard (or maybe just "non-boring) storytelling tropes when it comes to roleplaying games... remember, just because the STORY of the run starts just before the call from your Fixer, doesn't mean the GAME has to...

Try starting the session in the MIDDLE of the run, maybe even in the middle of combat - I once started a D&D game with the words, "everybody roll a reflex save" - and recap the parts of the run that happened beforehand after they clean up the mess of their firefight. It takes a little more storytelling skill, and you gotta be willing to GM-slap any player who complains that "they wouldn't do that" (just point out that, they MUST have, because here's where they've all ended up), but the non-conventionality can definitely add a bit of flair, especially for veteran players.

It's not technically railroading, because you aren't forcing the PCs to make any specific choices, anymore than the whole rest of the history of your campaign's universe can be considered railroading. It also avoids the IMO tediousness that can often dominate the first couple hours of any SR adventure, haggling over payment with Mr. J, dead-end groundwork for the run, and things like that.

Other fun hooks include: the PCs are being blackmailed and one of them discovers the identities of the other victims of the blackmailer and gets them together to deal with the problem; an unfortunate hostage situation; coming to blindfolded, gagged, and tied to a chair/stuffed in a car trunk/anywhere else you'd be after unwittingly being dosed with Laes; the PCs just flubbed up a run BAD, and they have to figure out how to deal with it...

Options for creative GMs are countless, and if you keep your game world dynamic, it often makes it more fun and more believable - I am a firm believer that characters shouldn't be nascent blank slates the moment you tally your 400th BP, and that a good story has to have a lot of boring/irrelevant stuff happen before it starts to get exciting.

anyway, just my 02. sometimes, i start with a phone call, too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I did the other post earlier for the first game and it ended up perfectly, and everyone loved it. One die hard D&D player said she'd stick to Shadowrun.
I'm going to try starting them in Combat this time. I've got a good way to tie it into the story, too, as they all headed back to a diner at the end of the last run.