Good source for adventures ideas?, Surprise! You're GM! Options

[theDregs]

OK, so I am GMing 4th ed SR in 5 days. I only just got the 4th ed. book a week ago, and I don't own any others.

It's not all bad. I have played the hell out of previous editions and I have a good grounding in the setting. I was wondering if there is a good spot to read some others' adventures so I could get some ideas. The missions forums doesn't seem to be exactly what I'm looking for, but I'm going to check it out anyway.

Also, what 4th edition books do you guys consider indispensable?

[Halinn]

Also, what 4th edition books do you guys consider indispensable?

None beyond the core book are indispensable. Depending on your focus, Street Magic, Augmentation, Arsenal, Unwired and possibly Runner's Companion can add a lot to the game.

You may want to consider looking into setting books as well, if you're going to be GMing. Sixth World Almanac is the general one, and then there's stuff like Seattle 2072, Feral Cities (main focus Chicago and Lagos), Corporate Enclaves (mainly LA and Neo-Tokyo) or Runner Havens (Hong Kong and Seattle - Seattle 2072 is newer if you're running that),

[Karoline]

OK, so I am GMing 4th ed SR in 5 days. I only just got the 4th ed. book a week ago, and I don't own any others.

It's not all bad. I have played the hell out of previous editions and I have a good grounding in the setting. I was wondering if there is a good spot to read some others' adventures so I could get some ideas. The missions forums doesn't seem to be exactly what I'm looking for, but I'm going to check it out anyway.

Also, what 4th edition books do you guys consider indispensable?

Check out the Welcome to the Shadows board, that's the one that has all the various adventures and such.

As for indispensable books... well, I rarely make a character without at least flipping through augmentation, arsenal, and runner's companion. The first is common even with non-mundane characters, the second is useful for all characters, and the last is great for all the qualities if nothing else.

Unwired I only really use for TMs, Running Wild alas sees very use. Street magic sees good use for adepts and some use for normal mages.

[theDregs]

None beyond the core book are indispensable. Depending on your focus, Street Magic, Augmentation, Arsenal, Unwired and possibly Runner's Companion can add a lot to the game.

You may want to consider looking into setting books as well, if you're going to be GMing. Sixth World Almanac is the general one, and then there's stuff like Seattle 2072, Feral Cities (main focus Chicago and Lagos), Corporate Enclaves (mainly LA and Neo-Tokyo) or Runner Havens (Hong Kong and Seattle - Seattle 2072 is newer if you're running that),

I do have some older books....Bug City (lol), Aztlan, Underworld, Fields of Fire, Wastelands, and Wake of the Comet, awakened Lands.

Probably mostly useless (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[Karoline]

Bug City has changed, Comet was a while ago. The others likely have decent info in them though. Aztlan might be slightly dated, as might some of the others, but I'd bet they still have plenty of good stuff. I don't really know for sure though, don't have any of those.

[Eugene]

If you're looking for adventures, you can...
(a) check out the Denver Missions via shadowrun4.com; they're free.
(b) There's a website HERE that has 501 adventure ideas to get your mind working.
© or try Blackjack's other stuff HERE. Sure it's for an earlier edition, but the ideas are still good.
(d) the Data Haven has a lot of good write-ups for adventures, even if they're Actual Plays and don't include stats.
(e) DataFortress 2020 is for the old Cyberpunk game, but there's a lot of material there.
(f) RPG.net has good Actual Plays filled with adventure ideas; I'd recommend anything by Lost Demiurge or Shadowpavement.

As for books, I find that 90% of my time is spent with three books - Core, Arsenal, and a setting book (currently both Runner Havens for HK and Seattle 2072).

[capt.pantsless]

It's not all bad. I have played the hell out of previous editions and I have a good grounding in the setting. I was wondering if there is a good spot to read some others' adventures so I could get some ideas.

A little googling reveals the following:

A couple of well-written fleshed-out adventures. I've run 'Cold Blood' for my group and had a grand old time. I even wrote-up a number of follow-up adventures:
http://pavao.org/shadowrun/adventures/

These are a bit more of a crapshoot, but it's worth it to see other takes on SR adventures:
http://www.rpgarchive.com/index.php?page=adv&sysid=25


Also very awesome:

The Big List of RPG Plots:
http://www.io.com/~sjohn/plots.htm
Short one-sentence plots that you can mix-and-match for some inspiration.

Also, what 4th edition books do you guys consider indispensable?

Nothing but the Core rulebook in indispensable, but I'd recommend getting any book that a PC uses heavily, just so you can be familiar with the new rules and capabilities.

[Ghremdal]

I would recommend Knasser's short adventure (Cold Blood) for your first run. No or minimal adjustments needed, it is very well thought out.

I've used the introductory adventure from the quick start rules (food fight) to show the players the rules. From there it built up into a major altercation between the Triads and the Shadowrunners, which the players seem to be winning handily.

[deek]

I recommend the Denver missions. I didn't run them all, but I read through most of them and there were a couple there that I really liked and ran for my group. I had to do some tweaking and I didn't end up keeping them all in Denver. I've done that with the older missions adventures as well and just rewrote the stats I needed for 4th edition.