Writing Shadowrun stories, Any tips? Options

[HMHVV Hunter]

I've been considering writing a series of shorts about my vampire hunter adept, Helios, entitled "The Helios Chronicles." This would be the first serious creative writing I've done in years.

Any fiction writers here have any pointers for writing, or tips for writing Shadowrun stories specifically?

[kevyn668]

While spell check is your friend, it often helps to have another set of meat eyes proof your work.

Good luck! :)

[Mercer]

It shouldn't suck. Actually, I've found writing novels is not hard, you just look at what everyone else has done before you and do something different.

I'm reluctant to give advice on writing, since I am unlikely to take advice on writing; my expertise on the matter is beyond reproach while at the same time completely groundless. I write mainly to amuse myself, and if other people like it that is a great boon. If they don't, well, they deserve to be turned inside out and fired out of a cannon into a field of razorblades and rocksalt.

Nowhere is this more true (for me) than writing short stories about my Shadowrun characters. Typically, I am reluctant to tell people what a nerd I am, much less subject them to written proof. But since I do that daily here on these boards, there really doesn't seem to be anything stopping me right now.

Short stories have always been a way for me to explore my character outside of the confines of the shadowrun, so I hardly ever write about shadowrunning. I write about the things that generally don't come up in the games, or dwell on things that at the table get passed over relatively quickly. These are typically first person monologues, though they will occasionally drift into more conventional, story driven things (depending on what I'm interested in). Sometimes this is character background stuff, and sometimes its wherever the character is on any given day.

I usually start out with a background that I do when I make the character. Five pages on average, this will include the most significant chain of events that led the character to pc status, with a little flavor text added in about who he is and his general philosophy. From there, as I play the character, I will typically tack on here and there 2 to 10 page anecdotes (for lack of a better term) that flesh out specific experiences from the background or go off into things not covered. Sometimes these take the form of After Action Reports, and sometimes they are things from Deep Background.

At some point in all this, the 2-10 page anecdotes shift into a longer, more conventional short story form with a beginning, middle and end; though I wouldn't go as far to say I ever feel bound to any sort of conventional form since this is basically journal writing. I'll usually do one main rewrite when I transfer them from longhand to word file, though I edit constantly, writing in margins and chainging small things every time I glance at it. Hopefully, after six months or so, I'll have something I can read without cringing.

My two main projects were for two characters. One was a 60 pager about an ork street sam going home to the tribal lands for the holidays, and the other was a lot longer. For most characters, I don't go beyond the first two stages (background, and tack-ons).

[Kagetenshi]

My most important piece of advice: don't get too caught up in the details. Let the Shadowrun be implicit, not explicit. Your character can have a pistol, they don't need a Predator (even if it is a Predator, you don't always have to say it, at least not at first). They don't need an Ares Alpha, they can have a SOTA Ares assault rifle with an underbarrel grenade launcher. Unless the Mage is the main character, they don't need to cast Powerbolt, they can just make things fall apart with their powers. So on and so forth.

[Kagetenshi]

Also: be minimalist when it comes to gear descriptions unless it's important for some other reason. Always think: do we really need to know that something is a medium machine gun, or could we get away with knowing that it is a machine gun? When you've got a shotgun with a drum, do you really need to say that it is a 50-round drum or could you just say "drum"? Does something have to be a sporting rifle or could it just be a rifle? Does something need to be a sniper rifle or could it just be a high-powered rifle? Does your streetsam need Wired Reflexes by name or could he just be wired? Does the Rigger's vehicle need to have Drive-By-Wire or could it just have advanced control mechanisms or somesuch? Minimize the detail on the unimportant, maximize on the important.

Make your character believable. If they're going to go and kill wageslaves for a living, don't have them go home to a nice normal family where everyone loves one another. Not every main character has to be the best at something, or for that matter even be above average in something.

Don't break the major rules of the setting, but don't be bothered by the details too much either. So the rules don't let you make called shots to specific parts of metahumans. Why let that bother your writing? On the other hand, the rules don't allow for effective breaking of good broadcast/drone encryption, so don't have someone go around cracking this stuff in seconds unless you've got a really good reason.

More as I think of them.

~J

[Cynic project]

The thing I would say that makes or breaks most stories,is the characters. You need to have him go threw things that make him look like a (meta)human. You know details about how it would be nice if he was at home in a nice hot shower,and not in the middle of down town in the pouring rain.

As noted shadowrun doesn't really have four colored heros. So your main character shouldn't be prefect,but he should have traits you can at least empathies with. He is a vampire hunter,well that is a good and noble thing, but maybe even if he started out as a pure and true hero,he should have had some bumps along the way. Friendships lost,maybe not caring who he hurts. It doesn't have to be blunt about those things, but as the saying goes,"If you look to long into the void,the void will look back into you".

[Kagetenshi]

[Black Isis]

I'd have to say my biggest problem with any sort of roleplaying game fanfic (or even published novels) is the problem of obvious Mary Sues or invincible ubercharacters. Yes, I'm sure your character is really great, but it's not very interesting to the reader to read 20 pages of your character beating the crap out of everything in sight effortlessly and being an ultimate badass.

[HMHVV Hunter]

In most of the SR novels I've read, at least one member of the team dies, and the hero usually is pretty beat up after facing the main villain. I'd hardly call them "invincible ubercharacters."

[Mercer]

I've always preferred the translation, "Beware he who fights with monsters, lest thereby become a monster. For as you gaze into the Abyss, the Abyss gazes also into you and says 'Hi'." It's a little friendlier version of the Abyss.

Parroting above advice, I'd stay away from game terms, because it reinforces that this is about characters in a game and not people. I would not, for instance, write:

"Helios smited the abomination with a powerbolt!" Or, for that matter, "Helios smited the abomination with a Force 6 Powerbolt (plus an expendable fetish and threw all his spell pool into the roll, trusting his increased Willpower spell in the sustaining focus to save him from the drain)!" That would be an example of what not to do.

I once read a D&D novel (I'm not proud) that had the spell names in italics. "Firggit felt a little better after the cleric cast a cure light wounds upon him." Might have been Pool of Radiance. Man, that blew.

[Fortune]

You might want to cruise by the Shadowrun Writers' Forum. There are quite a few people well-versed in exactly the type of things you are looking for. :)

[Black Isis]

[HMHVV Hunter]

[kevyn668]

No offense, but Blade is probably a little different than your Helios. And he still gets slapped around a fair amount.

The vamps in Blade's world seem weaker than the SR variety. Most of the SR vampires are mages in addition to having the physical prowess of your average street sam.

However, if Helios sliced and diced a bunch of (non-vampire) minions that would be believable. Not that my opion counts for much but killing the main vamp should be the big finale. In addition to non-HMHVV invected types; Goblins, Loup Garou, and Dzoo No Qua might make good fodder.

Also remember you're asking a group people that have a very broad definition of the term "munchkin." Not that I'm saying your boy is one, but if he goes around kicking the shit out everything without breaking a sweat he might be percieved that way.

As long as your story doesn't have a scene in it reminicent of the "Burly Brawl" it should be fine. :)

And agian, Good Luck!

(kevyn's disclaimer: you can and should disreguard any and all of my posts if your needs be.)

[Ed Simons]

Three important things about characters, summarized from this site:
http://web.archive.org/web/20030402000528/...om/devchar.html

1) Characters should have something you like about them.
2) Characters should have something you dislike about them.

(Both apply to protagonists and major antagonists.)

3) What does your character want?

And my addition:

4) Make your character work to get what they want.

[HMHVV Hunter]

[Ed Simons]

[Ol' Scratch]

The problem with the netwanker term "Mary Sue" is that it can be applied to just about any heroic character and, in many cases, just the lead character in a work of fiction. Just off the top of my head, Conan, Captain Kirk, James Bond, Luke Skywalker, Remo Williams, and just about every iconic superhero (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Wolverine, etc.) qualify as "Mary Sues" in that they're all ubercharacters who have stories and plots revolving around them, are the central focus of just about every story they're in, they eventually defeat any antagonist they come across, and they almost always come out ahead in the end no matter the situation. Before that term started floating around, many of those characters were better described as "epic characters."

In essence, "Mary Sue" is a thinly-veiled insult that netnerds throw around regarding a major character in a story they don't particularly like. Especially if it's a genre that the particular netnerd has preconceived notions about, firmly believing that everyone should suck (you know, like in Shadowrun). In reality it applies to precious few characters and stories.

Now if you write a story in which [your character of choice] waltzes in and single-handedly, I dunno, defeats Harlequinn in a swordfight, has Nadja Daviar fall in love with him, has Lowfyr offer up complete control of Saeder-Krupp to his infinite wisdom, and, finally, has Fastjack admit that he's the best decker in the world after engaging the aging coder in cybercombat using nothing but a datajack and a Pocket Secretary he personally souped-up... that would be an example of a Mary Sue character and story.

[kevyn668]

Sounds like "munchkin" to me. ;)

[Ol' Scratch]

That would be the character if he were transfered to a game.

[kevyn668]

Ahhh, so "munchkin" is a RP char while "Mary Sue" is the fiction char. Got itl.

[Ol' Scratch]

Sorta. "Mary Sues" are almost always munchkins if converted to an RPG, but it's not always the other way around.

Ryan Mercury is a good example of a Shadowrun "Mary Sue." He has Nadja Daviar as his girlfriend, was the personal confidant of Dunkelzahn, is one of the Draco Foundation'ss most valuable asset, and all that other crap.

[kevyn668]

[Fix-it]

I suggest you read some really horrible books. so that way you know what NOT to do.

I believe they used to have a contest to see who could write the worst fantasy story, but I think they stopped after the same story won 3 years in a row.

I'm sure someone can post a link. I lost it last time my drive fritzed.

[Sandoval Smith]

I'm going to have to disagree with your examples of what some people might consider a Mary-Sue (or Stu) Doc. Your kind of off base with your first set, but then right on with your third paragraph.

A character isn't a Mary- Sue just because they're the focus of the story, and have great powers. It's when they have great powers(optional), all the right people like them (usually), they're always right, etc tha you have them cross the line. In fan fiction, they walk into existing universes like Star Trek, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and the story immediately stops to revolve around them. They trained under that _other_ Jedi Master who somehow hid from the empire, and so that they are just as strong a Jedi as whatever Skywalker you want to name. Or somehow everyone listens to them like they had the authority and experince of a starship Captain, and are almost never wrong. Or they are Harry's long lost twin, the one who is actually supposed to slay Voldemort.

A frequent trait of Mary-Sues is that they are also thinly disguised avatars of the author. They get to sleep with the author's favorite character, maybe even look and act just like the author in really bad stories.

Basically, how to keep your character from falling into this catagory is to keep them reasonable. If their are going to attack Aztech and bring it down, then they'd better have the backstory to put them in a position to make it possible, and not just be a runner with a grudge, who happens to have a few connections. Likewise, he never should have know Dunkelzahn well enough that they had tea on Wednesdays, and Lofwyr should not shudder in fear when he hears the character's name.