Okay, so I have a group of new runners about ready to go. As I'm plotting their demise...er.. I mean their first few runs, a question came to my mind.

When you first get a new group of runners (the characters or the players) what kind of runs do you have them do? B&E? Extraction? Wetwork?

My group is going to be 1 or 2 people have played, but most of them have never played before. Any sudgestions? Or just fun stories.

Get a package from a pickup point to a dropoff point without being followed. The tail is interested in the final location, not the package itself.

Different groups take to it differently, but I've yet to see a group fail to have fun with it when run properly. It also gives a certain amount of insight into the players' approaches.

~J

For my first shot as GMing, I'm planing on a simple B&E with a little twist, break into the building steal the package but at the same time instail a deviced designed to get the buildings wireless signal past the walls.

Personally, I'd suggest something that can be done in one night, preferabbly with some legwork, and some NPC contacts. Tracking somethign down usually helps for that, because it's easy to incorporate a combat in to that as well.

My fav was the corp guy that hires the team to find his missing daughter , but is very unhelpful. He does it because he works for shiawase, but is caucasian. they're big on family, so when she goes missing, they help. The truth though is that he killed her because she was performing for online pron and he didn't want her to endanger his job. Leg work, possibel combat at the simsense studio where she performed (gamg or mob controlled of course). Possible matrix work, and a backstabbing Johnosn.

Another option is to do a bodyguarding jig, where the players need to protect someone from someone else who's trying to capture, maim, or kill them. It'll ease them into the habit of thinking like shadowrunners and give you an opportunity to show them the kind of tactics real criminals would employ to get a job done.

First runs should always include heavily armed and armored three-armed cyberzombies. Always.
B&E a secure facility, grab some paydata, and get chased by the cyberzombie on the way out.

Shadowrun Missions can be a good source for a run or three.

I've got a simple B&E run which shows many aspects of the universe and allow the players to take many different courses of action.

It's described here

right, for that first go, B&E to steal something. That way they do a little leg work for some details and then have some stealth skills and if stuff goes south, combat without heavy work.

as a variation, hit a cargo on the road, a hijack requires leg work to find the target and will have more combat.

This is a subject I've thought a lot about. I finally wrote up a newbie run which I feel is the perfect campaign setting for new players.

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...l=mullet+police

I'm sure that after you check it out you'll drop everything, emit a high pitched squealing noise, and run it right away for your players.

I've noticed that the general mode of though is: "What do I show the players?" Is there a "What can the players show me?" approach? Something really open ended? I've never tried it myself, but I wonder if anyone has. It might help GM's to know what sort of campaign to create for their new players.

Well, that's what my approach tries to get at. YMMV.

~J

True. What about some way for them to choose what sort of work they wanna do? Maybe the first "run" can be a night of meeting and greeting with contacts, finding out what jobs are available, seeing which ones they show interest in. Then throw a couple of "incidental" action encounters to keep it interesting.

One I like to throw in occasionally is to have another more professional team hire the pcs for a distraction run.

Pcs hit a site or act suspiciously in the wrong place and it pulls the heat away from the other teams real target.

Lots of potential for combat, chases, stealth, yadda...

...I usually like to use the aforementioned bodyguard scenario. I also try to tailor it to the theme of the upcoming campaign arc I am running if the group of players will be the ones participating in it. This way the characters become familiar with the setting and possibly some of the personalities involved.

I have also used an extraction now & then (the last of which actually finished the character backstory of one of my new NPCs).

it depends on how new the newbies are, if they are just new to SR, they get dropped in the pot wherever the rest of the team sits, the team usually protects them unless the players are extremely annoying, then the team tends to try to let the situations kill them. On the other hand, if they're totally new to gaming they get dropped into the group and usually get run through food fight.

The problem I've encountered is that inexperienced role-players, especially those that haven't read up on the background, tend to conclude that the whole game is variations on the first run. Intro is a bodyguarding job? They might think Shadowrunning is bodyguarding. Intro is a job against the Yakuza? They think that Shadowrunning is about fighting the Yakuza, and so on.

The world is just so damn big. How do you show them that Shadowrunners can be mercs, street thugs, scientists, primitive tribals, bodyguards, b and e experts, assassins, explorers, conspiracy theorists, orks, pacifists, religious fanatics, mafioso, and on and on and on... in one game?

Food Fight is the best first mission ever, because in my experience it often results in a TPK. I always crack up when you read the text advising the GM that the team may lose if they're "outgunned" or something because that actually happens a lot.

I mean, what the hell. The scenario bends over backwards to make the PCs not carry very much weaponry but then it sics a full team of gangers with submachineguns on the team. And when you're dealing with people who have played other RPGs like D&D where characters soak attacks all the time with their hitpoints you just know that they'll be really shocked when they suddenly have to resist 9S damage twice because they just ate two bursts. It's like if your players aren't avid Rainbow Six or America's Army players who are all about cover, concealment, and strenuous efforts not to get hit at all in the first place, they are guaranteed to be blown away in a couple of combat turns.

I've never thought about it this way before, but I suppose that Food Fight *could* be good if the GM were experienced and there were a couple of newbies mixed in with an experienced group. The experienced people could not get blown away right away and show the newbies how to act. The newbies might take a burst or something if they make a mistake but since there'd be experienced people to cover them or draw fire it's less likely they'd be blown away by a double burst after standing out in the open and mismanaging combat pool while trying to operate a light pistol.

I ran it as an intro for a marine buddy while we were in B school one guy running on a slightly modified initial buy in rule allowing his sammy to run at 5D6 initiative and he cut through everyone of them with no problem

I've *never* seen anyone have an easy time of it. I guess your example just proves that the Marines are superior in every way, even when it comes to winning in RPGs.

I dunno. I recall not having too much difficulty wiping the floor with the gangers when I first went through it. I played a mage and my friend was running a gun bunny.

This makes me feel weird. Why is it that nobody seems to have had difficulty with Food Fight besides for myself and the people I've gamed with?

I see two possibilities:

1.) I, and everyone who games with me, has an IQ of 70.

2.) Maybe most GMs play it with kid gloves as it is an introductory adventure and they don't play the gangers in the most efficient way possible.

Well, they are gangers. I always viewed that scenario as an object lesson in "tactics > firepower" (oversimplified, of course).

~J

Before I ran my first SR game, I created five twinked-out PCs and ran them through Food Fight, just to get a feel for the combat rules. I was expecting an easy fight, since the characters were heavily optimized and the gangers were, you know, gangers.

My munchkin creations got slaughtered. The problem was, the gangers come in with weapons out, and can carry lower-concealability gear than the runners can (so it was katanas versus knives, shotguns versus heavy pistols, et cetera). Also, the characters didn't attack right away, in the hopes that they could slip out without committing multiple murders in front of the security cameras. When that plan inevitably failed the gangers were too spread out to stunball effectively and they had a big edge in the Surprise test.

On my second run-through, I had my imaginary PCs hit the gangers as soon as they showed up, then just book it before the Star arrived (shoot the camera, stunball, IPE the survivors, run!). That worked well and the gangers dealt practically no damage before being mowed down.

So, I figure that Food Fight can be either really easy or really hard, depending on how aggressive the players are. If they try to get out without a fight they'll just make themselves vulnerable, like how a nameless security guard can deal 20 boxes of stun to an experienced and well-optimized rigger, if the circumstances are right.

I'm not sure I agree with that. It's certainly weighted towards aggressiveness, but that can be a role-playing decision, and I'm not sure it's accidental that it's encouraged.

~J

This might be a bit 'old skool', but...

The team is at their homes (whatever they may be; they are close to one another) after a nice score, and they start to get the munchies. The larders are empty, so the crew, who are already tooled up to rock and roll, decide to not rock and just roll on down the Stuffer Shack and get something to eat, like normal, intelligent people.

It's a lazy sunday morning (VERY early) at the 'Stuffer, a young kid out way past curfew is playing a fighting game where his choice of Shadowrunner gets to beat up various corpsec, there's a ditzy blonde D-cup elf behind the counter, and a guy getting a Frostee (the successor to Icee) from the DIY machine. The crew tells the DM what they're looking for for dinner - make sure they understand that the Stuffer Shack is like a small convienance store - no deli counter, but lots of premade edibles you can nuke'n'eat in the store, lots of cup o soup and microwavable burgers, or they can get stuff to take home and cook up.

While the team is off getting their food, have them roll perception (audio) tests: A heavy, windowless van screeches up in front of the store, a load of Halloweener-wannabe-type painted crazies unload with various street weapons - melee weapons range from baseball bats and pipes and knives to swords and chainsaws, guns range from pathetic pistols to Ares Predators and Mossburg shotguns, no significant cyber, one shaman or mage - and bust into the store, clearly intent on causing mayhem. They start to terrorize the place, the clerk tries to go for the silent alarm, and one of them threatens to scalp and/or rape her (he's not sure yet)...

Enter the heavily-armed and dangerous professionals. Do they just hack the back door and slip away, take advantage of the mayhem to steal the fully-loaded supply truck on the dock, or cause some counter-mayhem and look like urban heros?




Man, that's a good opener for newbies. I wonder why nobody's thought of it before.

In what way is that scenario not Food Fight?

Didn't Food Fight have a deli counter?

~J

I (A wired dual pistol wielding covert ops specialist elf) had to deliver a package from A Downtown bar to a safe deposit box in Redmond. Not having any vehicle I chucked it in a backpack and caught the tube. While walking through Redmond I was attacked by three gangers with a knife, a club, and a light pistol.

The funny thing is, I totally freaked out and thought my character (who I spent time creating) was going to be paper-shredded.

My rating 3 wired reflexes kicked in and I capped the light pistoleer and one of the melee boys with my Ares Predator and shock-glove KO'd the club wielder.

Of course my GM laughed at me for thinking I was in a perilous situation.

The run basically familiarized me with the concept of a shadowrun, and the combat system.

What edition was this?

I'd agree with Kag.

There is tons of soft cover in the place and lots of chaos. The gangers aren't especially skilled or equiped, and don't have good communication between them. They're unprofessional and should make stupid mistakes. Their goal is to simply get in and get out fast.

Every time I've seen it run, only the few from the door come in with weapons drawn. There are people around the shop already, so stunballing them all isn't an option. However I've never run it with a mage, so it wasn't an option to begin with. Heavy pistols should be enough to take them out with some forethought, even if they're already spread out.

I've played it maybe a dozen times. I've seen two deaths and two failures. One was just unlucky rolling. The other was when a shapeshifter shifted form and attacked the shotgun wielding door guy. Even a body of 8 against a 10S blast with no armor is pretty devastating. One of the failures was my first PC, the sample decker with a light pistol and no appreciable skill. I've also seen it beaten with only two PCs (an adept and a gun-bunny).

I'd say shooting as soon as they walk through the door is the worst thing to do because not everyone has revealed himself as a ganger yet and they're most prepared for resistance at that point.

We did Shadowrun Missions for our first foray into SR4 with new characters.

The run after that was to "extract" a prize poodle being held by some kidnapping gangers. There had been no rela combat in the first mission, and this one let us stretch our muscles with the SR4 combat rules.

I wouldn't exactly say they do that either, but I've never played the gangers as doing things like coordinating their attacks or dividing their attention tactically. They work as individuals with some neutrals and some enemies, as opposed to a team with friendlies and some enemies.

~J

For the record: My own experiance with Food Fight.

I liked it.

My own brush with Food Fight wasn't very pretty, I mistook some chick that was already in the Stuffer Shack as an innocent bystander to protect and she repayed me with a full burst in the back at Point Blank. Needless to say, my character set an all time record for shortest life span, one combat round. (In my defense the GM failed to mention that the bag she had was a fricking duffle-bag, I still stand by my story that he led me to believe it was more of a fanny-pack.) *winks*