Hey,

I'm starting a SR 4 campaign for my group.
What all do I need if I'm planning on playing in Seattle?
I figured so far:
Tons of pre-made PCs
Locations (Are there rules for locations yet?)
Hosts/severs
Hooks/runs
Magical groups

Am I missing anything?

Dice. Loads and loads of Dice.

Good techno/industrial sountrakc helps too. I use a lot of KMFDM, Junkie XL, Mad Capsule Markets, stuff like that.

Prep your campaign NPC's, but have some other generic types ready too. My players always laugh when I bust out the folder blatantly labeled "COPS" that contains everyhting from beat cops through to SWAT teams.
Having a DocWagon team pre-set up is also handy.

I used to run my sessions from hand written notes, then a laptop. Now I write it out, then put it into Powerpoint and print the presentation out. THat way I have nice easy to read sequential slides that I can scribble notes on as needed.

Oh, and its handy to have a couple props around for demonstrating a hard-to-explain combat manuever. I keep an unloaded air-soft pistol and a training knife (blunt plastic, you can get them from Strider knives for $20) handy for this purpose.

Dont be afraid to use real world locations as the basis for sites in the game. When Im out traveling and I see a spot that looks tactically interesting or complex, I shoot a bunch of digital photos of it from different angles and sketch a map. Its one thing to show players a top-down map, its another thing to accompany that with a doctored (I make it more gritty and swap real corporate logos with SR ones) photograph of the location in addition to the map. It makes it more real in their heads, and it'll show some of those critical little details we tend to leave out as GM's.

Another good thing is to be organized. As gamers we tend to dwell in our own little swamps of paperwork and books, but this can really keep a game moving.

Office depot sells these clear plastic accordion-file folders that work great for keeping a campaign together. I also have about a half dozen folders full of NPC's of various flavors. This comes in handy for when you need some quick cops or a disposable street gang.

Also, I take notes regarding what happened when, complete with in-game times and dates. I know that sounds a little anal-retentive, but its payed off on several occaisions. One time I had a player getting grilled by the cops about where he was on a certain evening, and the player didn't recognize the date so I had him make an easy intelligence check. Upon realizing that he had been involved in a large shootout with a local Yakuza outfit that evening, the player looked a little freaked, so I had him make a willpower check to see if his character showed it.

Your going to love this one, and all those companies that make the nice pricey figurines are going to hate me for it, but buy a bag of army men. These things are great for indicating positions and facings. I blew $20 on these things, and now have a prone, kneeling, and standing figurine for every player and NPC I could ask for. You can also use a little spray paint of plastic dye to color your PC's differently to simplify whos who.

Nice idea with the army men.

I'll second his statemnet on notes. A player in my games kindly takes notes as we go. It's so useful it's hard to game with out her.

And, if all else fails, read the Drop Bear thread for ideas of hilarious things you can do to your players.

I was able to get off to a pretty fun (albeit slight shaky) start with only the main rules an the sample characters. I ran "First Run," the old 3rd edition intro adventure, modified on the fly. I think the enemies were actually a little too tough, as I ran them, but the nuyen was a little too high. Everyone lived, so it worked out.

If you're on a budget, like me, and don't like slaving hours on your computer putting together resources, you can start with only the main book and a brick of d6s. Havin said that, I recommend Runner Havens (or for that matter, any of the 3rd edition setting stuff) for setting info and run ideas. If you have a little trouble grasping the Matrix rules (I had a LOT of trouble), then search this forum for some good info.

Otherwise, even if it's a little messy, you'll probably have a blast anyway, like I did.

Dread Polack

If the army men thing works for you, the next step down the line (if you're into minis) is something along the lines of digging up some old Shadowrun minis, or converting some WarHammer 40k or similar minis to suit your purposes. I use random terrain bits (including books, flipped-over yogurt cups, the lines on my carpet...) and a tape measure to handle combat these days, and it helps out a lot.

Page 99, Runner Havens for the ShadowSea entry

You know, now that I think about it I have a small collection of maps and associated photos that would make a nice resource for anybody who wants it. I'll see about getting that put together in the near future and throwing it up on the web. I guess its about time I start using that domain I registered!

Little bit of a threadjack here:

Bandwidth, I see in your profile, you say you are in Pueblo? Is that correct?

I ask this because I just moved to Colorado Springs, courtesy of the USMC, and I am really looking for a SR group to join or establish. If you are in Pueblo, or Denver, and you have room in your group, I'd certainly be interested. Send me a PM, or email, or whatever, and let me know.

Dave