As part of an effort to bring two (possibly more) gaming societies in Edinburgh (Scotland) together, it has been proposed that we try and get some cross-society games going. One suggestion was to run regular (weekly, if possible) Shadowrun Missions games in both of the societies, hopefully adding regular cross-society events at conventions and similar. I'd just like to check that my understanding of Shadowrun Missions is OK.

I'm assuming that what we are doing counts as 'home gaming' rather than an event, and I was just thinking that the documentation on this topic was somewhat sparse. It strikes me that, although the Missions stuff is generally designed for convention play, it should work fairly well for weekly play also.

I have to admit that I've never played in a Missions game, and don't know of many people who have done so. I am, however, and experienced Shadowrun GM, having run several 3rd edition games and a few 4th edition games (including some at the UK's Gaming Nationals, which were co-hosted by my society and a few others, including one of the societies we're hoping to boost relations with through this exercise).

Does anyone have any advice for someone in my situation? Has anyone tried doing this before? Can someone tell me exactly what paperwork will need to be done for home play? Is it basically the same, except that I don't need to email the coordinator to request the scenarios?

You can download the scenarios and run them how you like.

Only if you want the players to use there Missions characters and rewards in other Missions events run by other GMs is it important to fill out the paperwork.

In your case, if you run a mission at one group, then give the players the paperwork, then they can go play in another mission with the other group, and with a different GM even, and have the same character and a consistent set of rewards and advancement.

The main thing the players end with is a sheet detailing the outcome and rewards for each mission, possibly some contacts, and calendar to track time for between Mission things like recovery time.

A missions player will end up with
- Character Sheet
- Calendar
- One Mission result sheet per mission they have been on
- Contacts sheets(One of the fun things with missions, little blurb sheet describing your contact. I think some players just like to collect these.)

Obviously it's really cool to gice feedback, and the Dunner will likely ask for Missions results and feedback on the missions play to be sent in so we can improve the Missions experience.

On the other hand, you can always just take the Missions and use them as a basis for building a campaign or starter, or one shots for your own needs.

Either way your feedback is always nice to hear.

Thanks for your quick response. Right now, I think the idea is to start with running everything by the book with full paperwork. That way, we can always stop running things by the book if we find the framework too rigid for how the players and GMs want to do things.

Talking about the 'framework', I'm a bit confused about this bit on the Missions site:

The calendar is really there to help you track what the character does in the "minimum one week downtime" between missions, which is there to account for downtime and lifestyle costs.

And for runners with time-intensive needs (enchanters, programmers, etc.). I know that some of those rules may not be in the current ruleset, but the calendar was originally implemented under the third edition rules, and that's when you had all the non-sammie character types who all had time requirements for their little side ventures.