Dealing with failure, GM advice, no motivationals ;) Options

[Yerameyahu]

Nothing wrong with railroading. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

But, there's no reason you can't just roll off in a totally different direction. Hopefully, you're not a plan-ahead GM, or you planned for them to fail at various points.

[Ryu]

*Pouts* Someday I'll be a player...

I did it, and so can you... playing is great. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

Today our dice srewed us. We lost important assets (a bunch of drones and a weapon), and made a tactical retreat. Next session we´ll try a different way.

[Method]

I usually have some sort of backup-run prepared just in case the runners don't do the initially offered run. Something straightforward and simple, like hijack a semi-truck, or blow-up a bridge. Something that you could play-through in 2 hours, or stretch to 3+ depending on how much time the aborted run took.

Hopefully your players don't realize that the quick and easy job always comes after they refuse the complicated job thats offered first. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[capt.pantsless]

Hopefully your players don't realize that the quick and easy job always comes after they refuse the complicated job thats offered first. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Same here. I only bust-out the backup run if the PC's already went through the pain of losing street-cred, losing the cash offered for the initial run, patched themselves up from the various wounds suffered, and gone through a few months of lifestyle costs while they wait for another job to come around. Most players I've met would want to try again after a botched run, but sometimes you just can't try again.

The quick and simple part is more aimed at 'quick and simple GM preparation' and not so much in terms of player execution. Having a backup plan just allows the group to avoid losing a night of gaming

[CanRay]

Hopefully your players don't realize that the quick and easy job always comes after they refuse the complicated job thats offered first. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

The "Quick and Easy" jobs are the ones that get most people killed.

[Sengir]

Sorry for not commenting on your replies, have been a bit busy over the WE...

One thing I should probably have made clear is that I was talking about situations were going gung ho is nothing but suicide, hence infiltration fail = mission fail. So letting the whole situation slide into a prolonged gun battle more or less leads to the same dilemma as before: I've designed a compound with loads of security, and then handwave it because I don't want to cut the mission short.


Then again, the idea to just cut the mission short is not bad...why not just do a miraculous escape, and then play a one-shot or Magic?

[Yerameyahu]

I still think screwing up, barely escaping, hiding, etc. is just as much part of the game. A GM should wing it, if he didn't backup-plan for failure. This isn't the same as a backup *run*; the run is blown, now it's survival. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[James McMurray]

If the situation is such that there is only one result for failure (gunfire leading to certain death) and there is a die roll involved in succeeded then the GM should either rethink his run or be prepared to figure out what happens when the team starts burning edge to survive. Preferably the former.

[Yerameyahu]

Well, 'his run'. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Presumably, the players planned the run.

[Sengir]

If the situation is such that there is only one result for failure (gunfire leading to certain death) and there is a die roll involved in succeeded then the GM should either rethink his run

Duh, what do you think I'm doing here? And it's not like the concept of Z-zones is something unique I made up...

[Belvidere]

If the characters know they're going into a zone where if they get caught, they're dead. And they get caught, one simple things happens. They die. It happens, we don't run the shadows because it's a safe job. We run the shadows because it's what we know. And it's what we're good at. There is no having an "off day" when your life relies on being ready. When the drek hits the fan, you best be ready roll out and dive for cover.

But as a GM, not wanting to kill PCs and they burn edge to survive in a situation like that, there is all kinds of fun that can be done. Prison is a great setting for SR. How are they going to make it? Maybe the guard run an illegal Urban Brawl league and their team just got geeked last matcha nd they need a new one. Make a good enough show and you might just get to see the shadows again. Maybe only part of the team gets caught, are the rest loyal enough to try and spring their chummers? Or maybe only one or two get caught, and they show up on the scene a few months later and they can't remember a thing about the run, and they're got deatails on a big job for a big comeback.

As people have said before, failure need not be the end of the story. (Though sometimes the street sammy going out in a blaze of glory is the way it has to go.) But usually failure is just the beginning of a much better story.

Learning from past mistakes while GMing shadowrun, the absolutely most important thing I've learned to do.

Adapt to Everything.

[CanRay]

The first casualty is always The Plan.

[Xahn Borealis]

The DUI Con is perfect. Splash a little vodka around the car, a few open beers when the impact happens, and make sure that when you run away, it's not in a straight line.

Sounds like a good plan, but it would need some practice...

[Sengir]

The first casualty is always The Plan.

More precisely, the first casualty is the GM's plan, the players' plan dies shortly afterwards (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[CanRay]

More precisely, the first casualty is the GM's plan, the players' plan dies shortly afterwards (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

The GM's Plan and the Player's Plan have a Murder-Suicide Pact. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Xahn Borealis]

And cortex bombs to make sure.

[CanRay]

OK, back with dealing with failure... Do you take a rolled up newspaper to a Wolf Shapechanger that messed up?

Or just made a mess on the safehouse carpet?

[Doc Chase]

OK, back with dealing with failure... Do you take a rolled up newspaper to a Wolf Shapechanger that messed up?

Or just made a mess on the safehouse carpet?

Get your armored Troll to rub his face in it.

[CanRay]

Get your armored Troll to rub his face in it.

That's a better idea.

Oh, and never, ever take a spray bottle of water to a Tiger Shapechanger. Ever.

[Doc Chase]

That's a better idea.

Oh, and never, ever take a spray bottle of water to a Tiger Shapechanger. Ever.

DMSO/Slab mixture, IMO. He only thinks it's water.

[CanRay]

Right, because drugging a Tiger Shapechanger is SO much better than just teasing him/her. When they wake up...

[Doc Chase]

Right, because drugging a Tiger Shapechanger is SO much better than just teasing him/her. When they wake up...

...You brandish the bottle again and tell them no You make the armored Troll brandish the bottle again and tell them no.

[Whipstitch]

Tigers like water.

[CanRay]

Tigers like water.

I highly doubt they'd like a spray bottle of it in the face for "Misbehaving". (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

On the flip side, at least it isn't like the Shapechanger Schools the Canadian part of the UCAS had going where they'd take switches bound in silver and whip the "Humanity" into the animals.

...

Hey, where did I hear about that kind of thing happening in Canada before?

[Whipstitch]

Maybe if you get them in the eyeball or something. I've seen tigers play with sprinklers before. Believe me, they like water.