I am planning on introducing 4 people who have never roleplayed before to shadowrun and I was just wondering how other people on Dumpshock would do it. So what I want to know is how would your first session go.

Would you pregen characters, have a character creation session before hand or squeeze chargen into the night?

How would you introduce the Matrix and Magic, two defining aspects of Shadowrun?

Would you hand your players any sort of background material beforehand?

How do you think the night would play out?

I believe there is the background blurb from the third edition book at www.shadowrun4.com (official SR site), all legal and above board. You could print this out then fill them in on the last few years if you're going for fourth ed setting.

Pregen characters, no magic, low-level matrix use.

Chargen should happen a few sessions later, except for those who request permission earlier. Don´t make them focus on rules, make them focus on the style. You need their imagination going.

And best of luck for your endeavour. I´m going to introduce the GF of one of my best friends into our long-time group tomorrow, I know its hard to consider newbie needs.

As a pre-game thing, you might want to let them read that "Born to Run" novel. It kind of introduces some of the game concepts in a quick easy to read fashion.

I would have a little character gen session with each of the players to kind of help them along, but also give them the option of personalizing the archetypes to use. I mean, they do have pretty pictures to help them visualize it and everything.

I would have a little group session with the bunch of them to familiarize them with the basic ideas and mechanics of SR roleplaying. "This is what I mean when I say that has a damage of 5P"

Good luck, have fun, and thanks for introducing newbies to our world.

When I go to conventions, I make sure to pack a bunch of (hardcopy) cheat sheets, so new players can spend less energy on learning the system and more on how the SR4 world works.

Buy 'em a Chessex brick for Christmas.

Seriously though, don't introduce them to the rules.

With total RPG virgins...and I can't remember the last time I had one at the table...the thing to do is handle the rules for them. Let them think about the narrative, what their character is doing as opposed to what they're doing.

Tell them, "You're character can kill people just by looking at them, with a spell called mana bolt. You're being attacked by gang members who want to kill you for your vehicle."

"Can I kill them with mana bolt?"

"Sure. Pick up a number of dice equal to..."

Or,

"Your character is very good at convincing people by talking to them. You need to get to one of the island buildings in the ruins of LA. You don't have a boat, but these NPCs do."

"Can I convince them to rent us the boat?"

"Maybe. What's your CHA plus Negotiation?"

As they play, they'll learn more and more of the rules. But put their attention on the story first.

I disagree, Zen, I mean if that's what they want sure, but we started a virgin at our table that way almost a year ago, and now she just won't learn the rules. She expects us to do everything but book-keep her health loss for her and she just doesn't enjoy the game as much as we do. It makes the session more complex and runs alot slower, but make sure they understand why and how they are rolling what they are rolling. That being said, Food Fight 4.0 is a decent short little intro to SR, especially if you tweak it a bit.

I also consider it good GM form to kill off a character in like the first 5 sessions- usually towards the end- to drive home how dangerous the world is. I mean, not arbitrarily, just don't pull punches and put them in a situation where without some really good tactics someone is taking a bullet to the eye. Drives home the importance of tactical thinking AND the danger level of the world rather nicely, I've noticed.

Chris

EDIT: That said, Char Gen session beforehand, write up a little blurb on the rules that might be special or exceptions that pertain to the character each person is playing and let them have them and then run something small like Food Fight 4.0 or just a general talking, sneaking, shooting section with not to much else because the first time they go into combat it will take FOREVER.

I run a "simulation" type Food Fight game for my new players as in the PCs play a AR game that simulates a shadowrun, a game within a game so to speak. This introduces the Matrix story aspect and the concept of AR, that you can play games on the Matrix and virtual objects can seem as real as or more real than the real thing. Because this is a trial run type thing, the players aren't going to be attached to their virtual PCs as much and I will not need to bend the rules to accomodate, the lethality of the system can be showcased without getting a TPK for real. Once they have played the "Food Fight", they can either create a PC or modify a pre-gen.

Personally I think I'd start them off on a one-shot using pre-gen Wageslaves as characters, really play up the fact that life in 2070 is nothing like life in 2007, they have virtually no rights, ect...

Kill at least one character in some sort of senseless violence, maybe the 10 year-old pimp gets offended and shoots one of the PCs in the face when he doesn't want to sleep with his 6 year-old sister.

Take them to a bar that is openly playing to-the-death blood-sports on the Trid, explain to the Players that this is completely normal to their characters and in fact is probably one of the reasons they started coming to this bar in the first place.

Show them what Lonestar can and does do to the "little people" that get caught up in one of their drag-nets, just because you are a SINner doesn't mean they won't use "agressive interagation" that would make people in 2007 faint.

Then end it all with a bang, show them what it feels like to be on the wrong side of a Shadowrun gone bad, or to be at ground zero of a Hive outbreak, the Arc Shutdown, or even the corp deciding that the characters know too much to be allowed to live.

That's a hell of an interesting idea, Toturi...

There are some issues that are specific to new role-players, and some issues that are specific to new players of Shadowrun. Taking the first lot first, I'd add the following thoughts to what people have already said:

Get people used to the idea of role-playing. If the group is entirely new, then you alone are the person who is going to break down the inhibition against acting. I recommend (a) playing up the amount of characterisation you do with NPCs - different voices, modes of speech, vivid descriptions - show them how they should role-play by doing it yourself. (b) recommend, or insist, that they talk in character when communicating with any other character whether PC or NPC. Don't allow them to say "Sean - send your character over to give mine cover." Make them say "Thor, get your troll-sized arse over here before I get shot to shit!" © Encourage them to think what their character would do by specifically reminding them their character is someone else and by rewarding role-playing with karma. A bonus karma point for the best role-player or exceptional role-playing can be good in this regard, as can refreshing a point of edge for good character dialogue, etc. Remember that new players will probably not be used to suddenly playing the role of someone else and are relying on you to say it's okay and show it's fun.

Secondly, make sure the players understand the role of the GM. Explain that your job is to run the rest of the world and that you're not against their characters, but that the opposition you have created may still be dangerous. It's really important to establish that you are neutral. Make it clear that they have control over their own characters but the rest of the world is your responsibility. They can only change it through their characters.

Thirdly, make sure that they know they are not playing against each other. This is normally picked up instantly by people, but occasionally a player just doesn't get it and in an entirely new group can make the others uncertain.

Fourthly, make sure you know what your players actually want. It's no good expecting them to be greedy mercenaries if the idea is distasteful to them. The issue that I have had with Shadowrun is that my new players found the idea of shooting people horrible. Not surprising really - they'd all just arrived from the real world and hadn't the long history of dungeon-crawling that makes mass murder seem normal. I had to make my Shadowrun game lean toward heroism. Still dystopian, but the opposition was suitably stocked with evil scientists, demonic spirits, etc., and low on kidnapping happy workers for enforced recruitment by rival corps. Try and get a feel for what your players would enjoy.

As regards the specifics of Shadowrun, I'd make sure of a few things. Firstly, that you establish the power level that you want to play at. I strongly recommend you keep a tight rein on Attributes and Skills of 6. Remember that the average human ability is 2 and 0 in a skill means the normal level of ability someone has. Someone with Pilot Ground Vehicles of 1 is actually a better than average driver. Try to make the opposition dangerous through their tactics and preparation rather than piling on numbers. The best way to stop power-gaming is to never let it get started. Pre-gen characters will be a big help in establishing the desired power-level. I also have a useful houserule (and I almost never make houserules), which is that everyone starts with their minimum racial Edge (2 for humans, 1 for the rest) and acquires additional points automatically at set levels of karma (10, 20, 40, 80, 160). This really makes the game more realistic and enforces lots of thought on the part of the players. It's like the way karma pool worked in previous editions and I find it has an extremely positive effect on the game.

Secondly, because Shadowrun is such a different world to ours, you owe it to the players to illustrate this as much as you can to begin with. Everything from little things like most cars having an auto-pilot ("pick me up from the restaurant at 9:00"), to the fact that someone with cyberware can leap a 23' (7m) gap between rooftops. The best way to get these things across is to have other characters and NPCs use such abilities and technology. That way the players will soon get the hang of the world and start making use of such details themselves.

I recommend pre-gen characters to begin with because you save time and let them get a taste of the game, you can be sure that everyone is on the desired power-level and - importantly - you can ensure that everyone has some role-playing pointers for what their character is like. However, if you have the time and everyone seems to enjoy it, don't deprive them of the fun of creating their own characters.

Hope this helps,

-K.

Definately good ideas here. I have some of my own; but it just goes to show that we all have different ideas.

One, im not a big fan on showing the new players 'just how deadly' the game can be right off the bat. Ive seen instances of this where it can turn away new players quickly. Let them know how the world is, give some suggestions...but i say, let them tell what kind of game they want. I would ask them, ''so, do you guys want to play a really, really unforgiving, deadly game, where your new characters might die? Or do you want a more forgiving game? Or would you like something in between?'' I'd spell it out for them, and let them decide. If they are undecided, id go with a middle ground game...i can always tune it up or down depending on what they like. The point of introducing new players is not to kill them. Its to show them fun. Shadowrun is a deadly world; but they give rules for more and less lethal play for a reason.

Two, id leave them at 400 BP starting. I would like the new folks to be able to feel like competent runners. Id explain all of the above; how a 0 is general untrained, a 1 means youre actually ok at something, a 3 is the professional rating, 4-5 is getting quite up there, and a 6 is something very special. If someone wants a 6, id let them take it. Id just make sure they know what that means. I recall our first GM introducing us to Shadowrun. Now, weve roleplayed before, but we were new to Shadowrun, we only knew some basics of the game story wise. Nothing of the rules. He let us go crazy. We were playing 2e, we kept the normal priorities, but he let us avoid availability, and even pointed some good things out to us (he told our sniper yes, this Barett Model Sniper Rifle is a very good thing.) That might cause heart attacks to some of the low powered GMs, but we had a blast. He wanted us to feel special, and that was cool. He figured we'd always get the chance to play everything from gangers to bigwigs anyway, if we liked the game.

Three, id tell them to play what they wanted...but be aware some things are more complex than others. If someone really, really liked the idea of Hackers, i wouldnt tell them not to play one, but that they might want to do a little reading, and that of course id help them out. I believe in opening up as many options as possible; not shutting them down. I can understand someone wanting to keep it simpler and limiting them to gangers or the like, but i found that even new players can learn something if they really want to.

Basically, id leave it up to the players. Id ask them a bunch of things, and use that as a stepping stone to what they want. Id also encourage the old 20 questions for them to flesh out their characters. Id encourage them to come up with new Knowledge skills to give some more personality. Id let them know that they dont have to play any 'class', but can mix and match things to how they like. And id also explain to them to try to get into their characters; as said, call each other by character name at the table, get to know each other, talk in character. A basic ''meeting zone'' would be awesome for that, i would use something like that, before sending them on a nice, basic run(Food Fight, On the Run, or creating something simple, like the classic kitty cat run. As in, going to get some person's prize cat away from a corp who wants to clone it or something.)

I think those things would work. Im a GM that is real big on giving players freedom.

Somethings I have used successfully in my own experience:

Do pregen, but let the players give you some sort of idea of what they might want to play before hand. This allows you to tailor the character's sheet for the player, and then, leave some unspent points in the skills and attributes areas, and give them a point pool for contacts. Leave them some unspent Nuyen, as well for the important primary weapon, and armour(to me, these are part of the character style. If a player would much prefer a Colt Manhunter to an Predator IV, why make the decision for them?)

Start them off on a couple minor runs. I like the Courier Runs for this, with a run in with a go-gang for the spice. Make these initial runs all with the same Johnson. Let them get to know the J. Let them think they can trust him/her....slowly work their levels of runs up in difficulty, as well. Make the Johnson a straight shooter on these, giving them all the information they need. I like to make the betrayal by the Johnson occur at about run 7...but you might want to make it later, so the pain of the knife in the back is more unexpected.

Make sure the players know that the world is not pretty, safe, and that your job is to make sure they have fun, but also to reinforce the world around them. Remind them that their own grandmother would sell them out for the right price. In fact, in one game I ran in 2E, a PC's grandmother did JUST that...(for Tir Citizenship!)

Oh..and if you know how to find it(unfortunately, I have to use the Way Back Machine), finding The C.L.U.E. Files and making the players read through it all...so they have other peoples REALLY dumb mistakes to show them what NOT to do is always good...(Heck..those are required reading for all my players in any game!)

More importantly, make the GM read them, as most of the C.L.U.E. files are actually the result of idiotic gamemastering.

True, but there are a few gems in there. Also I believe Knasser has something similar on his site.