Hello, I'm new to Shadowrun as a whole, and have some questions. I have my hard-copy of the core rules in the mail, and I'm borowing a friend's copy for reference until it arrives. I'm going to be running of game pretty soon, so I thought I'd ask some questions while I set up my campaign arc, and familiarize myself with the rules.

1) One player in my game wants to run some sort of support character. He's used to playing the Cleric in D&D, so I thought a mage with Heal spells would be useful. What other spells or traits should he look into (or rather, me, since I'll probably do the bulk of PC gen).

2) I have a player with a learning disability, and reading and math are kind of tough for him. Since he doesn't really want to use one of the pre-genned characters in the core book, what kind of build would be good to direct him towards, with a minimum of work? He'll probably play soem sort of bulky combat-tank, but I want to make sure character creation and play are as smooth and problem free as I can make it for him.

3) This last one is completely setting related. I've noticed talk of Dubai being a modern equivilent of a cyberpunk city. Is there anything in the setting regarding Dubai? It sounds like an interesting place to hold a 'Run, instead of just Seattle.

Thanks for any help, in advance.

I'll take a swing at the first two.

The heal spells would work fine but you can add so much more to a mage in SR. A few spells to aid information gathering would be a good idea. Counterspelling and summoning/banishing would be pretty good choices for a support mage as well. Another angle you could take is the ambulance driver rigger: wheelman with an M.D. A GMC Bulldog with a medical shop built into the back and a medkit when hes out and about on foot would work quite well. Add a couple of drones and some solid technical skills to round him out.

Your standard hit-stuff troll is pretty fun to play and not terribly complicated. You also didn't say which other books you have access to but the troll-tank can be done quite easily with just the toys in the core book. All he would need is a good handle on the combat mechanics and some self-restraint.

Oh, and welcome to Dumpshock.

If he wants to play a support character you might want to think about a hacker. They are primarily a support character and/or a battlefield control character.


Troll Tank.


I don't think anything has been done with Dubai. Seattle, LA, Neo-Tokyo, and Hong-Kong are the only ones that have had anything done with them in 4e iirc.

Reepneep did a good summery of your first two questions.

As for the third. Corporate Enclaves (available in PDF from Battlecorps here.) has a writeup on Dubai. It's only about two and a half or three pages long though but it gives a pretty good feel of the city.

If you don't want to deal with the massive amounts of stuff that's been published about Seattle but still want a city with good support I might suggest Hong Kong, Neo Tokyo, Los Angeles or Denver. The first three are available in 4th ed sourcebooks (Runner Havens for Hong Kong and Corp Enclaves for Tokyo or LA) and Denver is the setting for Catalysts Missions series. A batch of free (linked?) adventures available from Shadowrun4.com.

I might recommend Hong Kong personally if you want something 'different' while still maintaining a culture that encourages runners. It has a crazy melting pot like culture just like Seattle and plenty of lawless areas of the city that are easy to get lost in but the faces are different. LA and Tokyo both have some weird cultural things that make running difficult for one reason or another.

Dubai, actually, is in Corporate Enclaves. It's not a full write-up, but there is enough there to use.

See, thats what I get for never actually reading the whole thing. I really should one of these days.

The short city summaries at the end of both Runner Havens and Corporate Enclaves are fun, and worth reading.

IIRC you've got Dubai, Manhattan, Technoctitlan, and I think Nairobi in Corporate Enclaves, while Runner Havens has Denver, Caracas, Cape Town and Europort.

I'm running my group through the SR Missions in Denver, which is working out pretty well, although all the border crossings make life complicated.

Thanks for the responses! I appreciate the help, especially with the support character info. Any general hints at actually running this game for the first time?

Check out this site for some "cheat sheets". http://www.pavao.org/shadowrun/index.html Others out there if do google search as well.

Read and reread your rule mechanics, read again after each game to find those things that got ya hung up.

And most important have fun, don't let the game lose its pace, just make a judgment call if ya need to and make a note to clarify before next session.

Bookmarks help too, have few for combat,magic,hacking etc. so can quickly flip to sections when needed. (most of the time I'm using note cards that can serve double duty. I always keep list of matrix actions (PG 219 BBB) and the rules below to keep hacking speedy. Can do the same for any other sections that bog ya down during game play.

HACKING



1. COUNTERFEITING A KEY

a. Hardware + Logic / Extended test ( 10, 1 day)

2. BREAKING IN

a. Hacking on the fly ( Hacking + Exploit ) Extended test, 1 initiative pass, Firewall

b. For more then personel account info, ie security access target +3 and +6 for Admin access

c. Each time you hack in target gets to Analyze + Firewall (stealth) Extended test, 1 initiative pass

d. If detected alert is triggered ( pg, 222)

3. PROBING THE TARGET

a. Extended Hacking + Exploit / Threshold = System + firewall
( 1 hour if done in VR, 1 day if done in AR)

b. Security access increases target number by +3 and +6 for Admin access

c. Each time you hack targets to Analyze + Firewall ( one check target of your full stealth rateing,
once your in )

Easy to just keep notes like these on something like note cards for quick reference leaveing you free to keep your world alive and descriptive without bogging down in long rule look up times.