An odd thing happened during our group's last get together. There was about 1/2 party kill, a few fights, and NO INITIATIVE ROLL! My character almost died, until I complained that events seem to skip ahead and leave me stranded (the last I knew from last week, I was on the second IP of my Combat Turn.) This week, events seemed to skip ahead around me, without giving me a chance to act.

Oh, one of the PC deaths was a suicide, kind of intentional even. I have not played with this group long enough to know if that is what gets the player off, but this was a new PC, and supposedly his 3rd in about 4 sessions. It was his method of suicide that nearly took me with him. Somehow... 4 or 5 other characters managed to teleport ( well they were there one instant and out of harms way when the explosions went off) to safety.

Another bout of combat occurred when a PC declared he was going to make an unprovoked attack on the guy who was paying us, of course, it also happened to be before the guy managed to pay us. Again, no roll for initiative or even surprise. Even after another PC attacked this clown.

Apparently, to mimic the fog of combat and PCs not really knowing everything that is happening, as long as the players just keep shouting what their characters are doing, there is no roll for intiative. I decided to test this theory and declared an attack, result - death. Tried it again on the clown who tried to nonchalontly leave the scene, result - still no surprise or initiative roll, but the clown apparently decided to cheat and use 2 points of Edge (when he had minutes before declared the use of his last point of Edge - go figure) to avoid anything happening to him. I got in the spirit of this cheating too, and decided the spirit I asked to Influence him would spend Edge to succeed. (I really did not need to, since we were not rolling initiative, the spirit would have kept trying to carry out the service of using the Influence power, but then it would have been too obviuos the player was cheating by constantly invoking Edge.) At last the spirit succeeded in Influncing the maniac clown to enter the nearest Lone Star precinct and open fire on the inhabitants. Not really a PC death, but pretty much making the character unplayeble if it survives, but with the nice side effect of letting the maniac cause all the mayhem he wants to until the PC dies.

And that's why GMs need to really be on top of the rules and administer the game in a systematic manner. Otherwise it essentially becomes some weird exercise in collaborative postmodern poetry.

Run, don't walk, to another group.

I think I would have commited suicide too. Any excuse to get out.

Shadowrun, but without all the usual rules, teleporting people, oh wait, I got it!

You walked in on a LARP of the Shadowrun PC/Xbox game!

If that's what works for that group, I'm glad they enjoy playing. It sounds like it really does not work for you... I'd act accordingly, and find a different group.

If you tell a joke in a forest and no one laughs, was it really a joke?

I know my mundie family doesn't get my sense of humor, but I actually hoped someone on DS would.

I got it. It just wasn't all that funny. Sorry.

Yeah, this group just sounds terrible. Sever.

It looks like the collective wisdom of Dumpshock was correct. I should have ran as far and as fast from that group as possible.

Update: Initiative rolled a total of two times, by a total of 3 people (2*1, 1*1), one unconscious PC, one PC with 9P and 6S, one PC with 5P, one PC (the hot girl in the group from the way everyone drools) who was lightly wounded but healed, one PC with 7P. This is the most damage any group I've been in has taken, and we all got to roll initiative and probably several times. Oh yes, a F6 spirit just popped. Now you see it, now it's gone.

I called BS on the spirit as it was mine. I was unconscious and into Physical overflow the very next roll (I took 5 boxes of stun summoning, so it's not like the spirit was something I just got for free.) I asked how the spirit got killed, did it suicide itself on the ward?

"No. It was sustaining powers and a spell so it only had 2 dice to roll."



I say BS. The spirit needed to get popped for our plan to fail, so he handwaved it away.

You could GM your group, as your current GM is has the negative quality incompency: GMing.

I have volunteered to do so, but everyone but me and another guy are friends, so they want to play together. I think the majority of them also work together. And they are all new to SR except supposedly the GM, but he is new to SR4.

Last week, with the new GM, they actually asked me if I would leave after more new people showed up claiming this as their only free night to play. I pointed out that just because I could play at other times didn't matter if there was no game to play. Maybe they are giving me a hint?

I'd have left!

Supposedly to keep the group from getting too big. They asked a guy that had no character (PC kill the previous session) to leave, and he reluctantly did. He was one of the people that said they could game another day.

Oddly enough though, this last session, they were helping some guy that I have never seen before make a character, evidently to play in this same game. There were 2 player absences, but it isn't likely they are quitting.

I think I'll see about getting another game going this Saturday. Now that the one guy was forced out, maybe he'll be more committed to another game and there was a couple other tentative players. Bad part is I'd wind up GMing instead of playing, but maybe the way I question some GM fiat actions, that is for the best.

I take it you don't have a huge number of potential Shadowrun groups to choose from in your area..?

Yeah, many a group has been pulled from the ashes of another group. Depending on how many people are getting kicked out/asked to leave/fed up and so on, I'd pick another night and start another group. Maybe start a revolving GM setup with you running the first few sessions and the other players running something when they feel ready. Shadowrun in particular works well with that sort of episodic cycle.

Tonight, 5 of the people who wanted to play so badly failed to make it to the game. One showed up, said it wasn't fun anymore and left, another called that it wasn't worth the gas money to drive in, a third called while we were waiting, and the otheer 2 just blew us off.

Still, 3 PCs and a GM, but the GM decided he didn't want to run it for just us. He did try to explain how stupid my PC acted. It sounded like a C.L.U.E. File where the GM leaves out some pertinent information and wonders how the players could be so stupid.

Example of BS - Lone Star and LS HTR arrive at the scene within 2 initiative passes. Yes, passes. Magical security routine that was supposedly observable, but for some reason we failed to notice. Astral Stealth apparently only works for NPCs.

I had a similar situation a few years ago. I ended up walking out on a group I had gamed with for years, because a few new people were disruptive and I was the only one who had a problem with it.

I had a big RPG dry spell (glad I had MMORPGS), but I am now in two MUCH better games.

If someone asks you to leave their steaming pile of um, stuff, for any or no reason, it might not be so bad an idea to take them up on it.

Nothing is worth putting up with a game that frustrates you.