Okay, so here's the situation. I'm an experienced GM, familiar with multiple systems, running a Shadowrun one-shot game for a group of players that have played nearly everything under the sun.

But I've never played Shadowrun, nor have any of my players.

I've owned SR4 since shortly after it came out, as well as a number of the source books. I am pretty sure I understand the rules and am running a canned mission (Food Fight 4.0 leading into one of the adventures in the Contacts and Adventures book, not 100% sure on which one yet) and am giving the players pre-made characters to make things go as smoothly as possible. My players have no idea about the setting of Shadowrun, beyond "It's kinda like Blade Runner with magic and fantasy races." While that's actually a pretty apt description, what are some things that you would suggest to bring the setting more to life? The fluff and background info are a bit tough to stuff into a few soundbytes and it's not like I can just pass around my book and make them all read it. Well, I could, but that'd take FOREVER. Does anyone have a Cliff's Notes for New Shadowrun players?

Also, what are some common pitfalls, mistakes, etc that I should watch for as a SR GM? I've got PLENTY of dice; two bricks of 36D6 and 20 or so larger "GM" dice should be enough, I hope. Other than that, all I can think of is standard GM stuff: notes, backup notes, a few pre-gen NPCs, and all the tables handy and my SR4 book with all the relevant stuff bookmarked. Anything you guys wanna toss my way would be helpful.

Thanks,

Neko

This advise may not be too helpful, if you only intend to run a one-shot and already own the base SR4-book, but if money's not the issue, the updated 'Anniversary Edition' of the corebook (nicknamed SR4a) leads into each chapter with a short story that captured the mood of the SR-world really well. And it's updated and looked over to make the rules easier to swallow (especially the matrix-rules), as well as correcting numerous small errors.
But it would still be another book just for a short interlude...

A few pointers
- If 36 dice aren't enough for one of your players to roll all of his dicepool, then his dicepool is too large. It's possible to reach that high by creatively stacking modifiers and optimising the core build, but the system isn't really designed for that. 20 dice should be about the largest you'll regularly encounter.
- Make the general theme of the game clear. People around here refer to the ends of the spectrum as 'Pink Mohawk' and 'Black Trenchcoat' (highly technical terms, I assure you). Basically, consider if you want the game to run more like an action movie or more like the movie 'Sneakers', ie: Shoot-outs on the streets, people running around in milspec-armor battling it out or a group of proffessional thieves trying not to stir up any trouble, because 'The Man' can always bring more guns to bear than you.
- Make sure people think about the ramnifications about living in a fully interconnected world. If they walk around with their PDAs and iPhones 24/7, then they may have an idea of how society as a whole behaves in SRs 2070.
- Make sure people understand that corporations are the power and states are basically puppets (big corporations even get extraterritoriality and diplomatic immunity) and that the corps of SR are multinational monoliths the size of which our world hasn't even heard of. ENRON has nothing on Ares Macrotechnology.

I wouldn't worry about it yet. If it's your first game, just play. Focus on mechanics, game play, and fun and then, if the game continues from there, start to add in little bits of the world. That doesn't mean you don't have the Star come after them if they're caught, but just that you don't have to explain the Star before the game -- if they come up, then you worry about it. I drag 4-6 new players through Shadowrun almost yearly since I work at a Unviersity and tend to have only 9 month campaigns during the school year. I've found things go much smoother if I add information about the world and it's history throughout the campaign rather than trying to bring everyone up to speed from the start.

If you really want some common ground, ask them to read the history portions of the book. For those that want a little more depth, the Sprawl Survival Guide (SR3) has some great world/fluff information in it. I've loaned that to interested players before and they've always liked it.

• Combat will take approximately 4 to 6 times as long as you expect it to in the beginning. Budget accordingly
• Don't forget the 6 - Force threshold on a perception test for noticing magic; making it clear that magic, while powerful, isn't always very subtle without planning is important to help balance out mages.
• In my opinion, avoid a single matrix specialist (i.e., a dedicated hacker or technomancer) and, instead, try to make sure that all players have some computer capabilities. Make it clear that basic computer use is even more common in 60 years than it is now. You can have one player that actually hacks, but they can all run data search and computer tests. And, with a few extra programs, they might be able to back-up the hacker or technomancer as well.
• Try the book's rules first without too many (or any) house rules. Find the parts of the game that don't work for you and your group and tweak those. Don't just change something because we like discussing minutia here on the DSF.

That's what I can think of off the top of my head.

If I have anything to add regarding atmosphere, it would be this: There is a lot of weird crap in the Shadowrun world, and technology makes it all possible. In some alternate universe, humanity is building bases on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and children get to go to Mars for their field trips. But in the Shadowrun we know and love, technology has instead taken a different turn, and given us near-endless opportunities for self-expression. That's one thing that has always added an attitude of amusing chaos to the games I've played, and something that our GM does very well. So go ahead and have fun making up crazy-looking people and equally crazy restaurants/bars/matrix nodes for your characters to visit. Anything you may have thought of in the past, however outrageous, is probably fair game.

A trivial issue indeed, but hopefully it will aid slightly in the creative aspect. The previous posters all had some excellent suggestions.

Agree with points Dashifen made.

Play have fun, don't get hung up on rules. Make a call when you have too (keep notes and look up contentious rules between games).
Take some downtime to go over the books regardless of how well you know them. I'm always finding rules or gear that I I know I've read over but either had forgotten or needed and couldn't find when I went looking for it. (SR4A core books index will be worth it's weight in gold.)

I would also say stick to just the main book and I agree with the no house rules. Even if you don't like a rule play with it for awhile and ask to make sure your playing with it correctly before altering it. I to say buy SR4A. I would have the players pick from the pregens and hand out 40BP to add to them, they could optionally also be allowed to strip the race off the template to gain more BP for customization. This way they can find out what things they may want before going through the whole building process.

I agree with the previous posters. Have fun and don't get hung up on the rules.

My first SR4 session I ran (about 3 years ago) was dreadful. I read the book cover to cover several times and had created multiple characters just to get a better feel. My first session was painfully slow because I was constantly looking up rules. I had all the general concepts down, but I kept wanting to try and find the exact rule...

Just go with it and keep the action moving. If you have to make a call, just note it and look it up between sessions and the next time it comes up, you'll be good. Also, if you know some things may come up in your next session, read up on it ahead of time. After 3 years of playing, last week was the first time vehicle chase combat came up. I read through the couple pages of rules multiple times, but when we played, I still messed some stuff up. We just rolled with it and I think next time it happens, we'll all be good!

Oh, and don't worry about background, too much. There's a ton of it. I'm also one that just brings in pieces of it as we play. Eventually, after playing for years, everyone will be familiar with the background. At first, its not necessary to play and have fun!

Thanks! Lots of good stuff here, and apparently it's pretty unanimous that I get myself a copy of 4A if I intend to actually GM for a while. I think I can do that.

Now, I have a couple of more detailed questions. My group consists of a Human sniper (gonna adjust the Weapons Specialist in SR4), an Elf hacker (replaced the race on the Orc hacker pre-gen), an elf samurai, and a dwarf demolitionist. I'm stumped on the demolitionist. Besides a few of the knowledge skills (architecture, engineering, chemistry) I have no idea what to do. Suggestions?

And regarding the 6-Force rule for detecting magic: Is that for anyone or just people experienced with Magic? And what information would it give you?

I'm gonna try and run my game somewhere between the two extremes, leaning towards more paranoid (sort of "Is the Guy with the Trenchcoat packing a Predator or Rolexes?"); allowing them to set the tone mostly for themselves by playing to the group's collective inexperience. The problem I have is that I'm not exactly sure how to handle the conundrum of data trails. For a longer running campaign I'd just handwave and say it's been taken care of (unless it was vital to the mission, of course), but I wanna actually play up the pervasiveness of the surveillance for this first bit. Any good suggestions on how to bring it up and make it seem important without dragging down the game?

The combat seemed pretty streamlined to me, compared to a system like D20. When you say that combat will take longer at first, is it just the getting used to the system or is there something I'm missing?

Last question. Since the group has no magicians, they're going to be missing out on one of the most important thing in SR, in my opinion. I plan on tossing in at least one NPC mage to make their night a bit harder. Given the group makeup, what spells do you suggest I give him to show off, but not really challenge, this group?

Neko

Don't worry about it The player will come up with some way to blow something up. Trust me! If you want to tailor something to him. Destroying a building or damaging a bridge are common demo themes. I did one run during which the team had to destroy a truck while it was in transit between Seattle and Portland, and that involved some careful planting of explosives. There's also the specialization for Demolitions of Improvised Explosives, so you could suggest the player pay for that and then spend his time rigging bullets to open locked doors MacGuyver style, too.



More info is on p. 179 at the top of the first column in SR4a. Not sure where it is in earlier printings. It reads:





Take a hard look at what they do and what data might be available to them. Then, have an NPC track them down in a way at an inappropriate time. Make it a character not bent on their destruction but for the purpose of sending a "If I could find you, they can too!" sort of message. Maybe it's even a goon for their employer. Imagine this: they meet Mr. Johnson for whatever job they're doing. He has a taller than average, emaciated ork standing behnd his left shoulder with an obvious datajack over his Adam's apple reminiscent of a Tracheotomy. Mr. J gives them the job while the ork appears to get more and more bored. He's not actually doing anything yet, but let them get as paranoid as you want. Then, later, have the ork track them down at the behest of Mr. J if they're not being careful enough. If they still don't get the picture, have a cop clue into their actions.

It also depends on how quickly they do the job. If they're done with what they're doing in 2 days, it might not be enough time for the authorities to track them down unless they're blatantly obvious about what it is that they're up to.



Getting used to the system, mostly. Especially since almost any action has at least two rolls (attack and defense rolls; spellcasting has the original test followed by target's resistance and mage's drain resistance; hacking can be as complex as you want it to be, etc.) it can take a lot of time to complete a turn. Force everyone to learn what they need to make combat faster. I encourage my players to roll their dice in advance and just tell me hits when I get to them, but you have to trust 'em to make that viable. Also, you, as the GM, should always buy hits at the 4:1 ratio. That saves so much time.



Avoid the direct combat spells. Those can be killer (literally) without counterspelling to mitigate their danger. Illusions are always fun. Have the mage make a doppleganger of one of their team with Double Image or a wall over an alley to hide behind with Trid Phantasm. Manipulations can be good, too, but the mental ones can piss off a player who doesn't like being forced to perform actions at the whim of an NPC. Especially actions like "Shoot your teammate" which can make the game Not Fun.