There is a broad range of archetypes in Shadowrun, but six "main" ones.

Now, with the size of the group, there is bound to be a lack of said "role" or archetype in the group.

Unlike some other RPGs, no single archetype is of primary essence; it is more than feasible to have an all-Hacker group that goes into cyberspace.

But for a group that is expected to handle a broad range of missions, this can be a problem.

For a two person group, what two archetypes would cover as many important roles as possible? By roles, I mean things like "Matrix," "Social," "Magic," and "Combat."

What about for a three person group? Four person?

The reason that I ask is that the second group that I have is comprised of a Technomancer, a Hacker, and a Street Samurai. None of them can use "Magic" or enter the Astral Plane, and I wanted to know how much of an effect that this would have on the game.

For a two-person group, a pair of mages can cover all the bases, although not as effectivly as dedicated specialists (obviously).

A Shaman can perform well with Combat & Social.

A Hermetic can perform well with Combat & Technical.

Both can have support spells to cover general areas. Doing this, however, they will be weaker overall due to the point split (except maybe the Shaman, due to Empathy software...)

A rigger build as spider can handle matrix and combat, plus all kinds of information gathering with drones.

A cha-based spellcaster can handle magic and social, and usually quite a bit of combat (by spirit proxy).

For the third slot I´d call upon a Jack-of-all-Trades augmented runner. Flexibility is key.



That said, I do not strictly enforce that my group covers all areas. The matrix has to be covered, and the groups combat ability should be somewhere on the same page. Fights that are boring for the combat specialists and dangerous as hell for the others are to be avoided. A lack of magic happens often (the mage player is working rather endless hours for the German police), but that is no issue at all. The GM just has to lower the oppositions force/magic rating.

Well, I would say it does not matter at all, since there are NPCs.

Of course, it is nice if a group can cope with nearly everything on their own, but people who assist them are good as well. For example all this matrix stuff (I personally hate it) is done in my group from a technomancer the group rescued once.

And even without a mage in group you can play, though you as a GM should not be throwing spirits and highly magically warded things at the players. To my mind it depends more on what you and your group want to play.

I fill missing areas with NPCs if needed. But I go with the assumption that if no one wants to play a hacker, that hacking is not considerd that much fun for anyone, so I also see no reason to put such a part in the spotlight.

Tailor the runs to the group.
Sting them occasionaly to highlight their weak points so they seek help or another work around. Generaly this adds to realism but done to often impacts on the fun element. As has been said NPC's are useful but the PC team, if you want to have them to work alone, would have runs targeted to their skills.

Realistically, a team that lack abilities in some aspects will be given jobs where it doesn't matter. And if the players decided to ignore these roles or to focus on another role, it's because they're looking for a specific play style, so I see no problem with that solution.

Of course, as with all runs, everything doesn't necessarily go according to plan, so they might get in trouble from time to time.

Ive been running in a net campaign for a while and the most players we've had at any given point is three. We've also run a few games with two and unless the run is tailored to the characters it gets very difficult.

The most useful archetype in our games has been the sammy/infiltrator. You need someone who can handle multiple opponents by himself if the run goes south and you need someone who can perform his tasks without being seen. The next most useful would be a mage. Whether geared for combat, summoning or whatever, mages have the flexibility thats absolutely needed with small team sizes. Even if its just lightning bolts, astral scouting and knowledge arcana, a mage is very helpful.

After that, it gets kinda fuzzy. A hacker who can pull duty as drone rigger would also be quite useful, but not strictly necessary as they can be handled as contacts without much trouble. Any face abilities can easily be taken up by a mage with a little forethought. Between a decent charisma, decent Social skill group and a couple of mind manipulation spells, he can fill the role with no problems.

The key with these games is to design characters specifically for use in these small games, and that means flexibility. You're not going to see dicepools much above 12 in these games even with 400bp characters, but they will be at least competent in a much wider variety of situations. It also really helps if you get the players ahead beforehand and hash out who is going to do what as a group (who wants to play the cleric?).

I'd suggest that having fewer players is a good way to discourage hyperspecialists. If you have 6 players then the guy who wants to focus on combat, can do that to the hilt, and simply rely on the fact that he is unlikely to be put in a situation where his weaknesses will be exposed. Fewer players encourages lower power, more well rounded characters. This even works for magic, although usually a player is not content to be 'only a bit magical', as if they're going to blow their BPs on the magic rating they want to be able to make damned good use of it.

If you have an entirely mundane party it saves you a lot of headaches as a GM. No coming up with the moods and desires of random passersby 'cos the mage decided they must be important and wants to assense them; no need to employ two or three full time mages at a small subsidiary to prevent the mage stunballing all the guards into a coma, and so on. As the GM decides on the background it's not hard to keep mages to a minimum, and only bring them out for epic battles.

My personal experience is that the game ran a lot smoother with fewer players, and they had to be more inventive to get around the challenges I set, which was a lot more fun than simply having them roll initiative so the gun bunny could blast every NPC within range into chunky salsa.

Most bizarre double post ever. Please disregard.

Thats very true. An additional factor is that those players who can only do one thing are bored to death if that ability is not called upon. Combat specialists are the worst, many builds almost ensure that there will be heavy combat.

It's not the size, but how well you use it!

It's the GM's responsibility to tailor the runs to what the PC want to do and are capable of achieving.

Going strictly on RAW for matrix stuff, I'd suggest the following:

2-man: Sammy and Mage. Make sure to spend a bit of BPs on the social and matrix end of things to cover all bases.

3-man: Sammy, Mage and Hacker/Rigger. This time, just make sure one of them has some social skills to round out the group. It would also be wise to ensure the Hacker/Rigger has some combat relevance.

4-man: Sammy, Mage, Hacker/Rigger and Social Adept. Here, you have each of the four bases covered that you mentioned. They can completely specialize in their area of expertise. Also, when you have 4 people, you can easily go without one and make it up with the appropriate skills. I mean, you could drop the Hacker/Rigger for a second mage, sammy or adept, just make sure someone has the appropriate programs and a decent commlink to do some hacking.

While the mage is not required for all groups, just having the ability to scout astrally and occaisionally counterspell is very nice. Even if you are just using a point of magic and cyber the hell out of the rest of the character, I think it would be nice to have that element added to any team.

I would go so far as to say the only thing a group "needs" is Counterspelling. Everything else can be ad-libbed and jury-rigged at least to the point of "we can pull this off so long as it's not the primary obstacle." A hacker contact can do matrix legwork, and a hacker-in-a-box can handle nearly anything you come across (once again: handle, not dominate). Get your CS from a Cha-based caster, and 10 BP gets you a nice DP for fast-talking. A drone or two with IWKs and autosofts can cut people to ribbons for you with no strings attached. Hire a getaway driver if you think you'll need one.

I think that covers everything. Killing things, breaking into things, talking to things, and getting away from things.

A samurai with skillwires, a top commlink and magic resistance 4 would be a possibility for the one-man squad.
Also a combat mage with said skillwires, the commlink and some reflex booster.

If you have extra people double the a) samurai b) the mage; c) a team with two hackers could do wonderful things....

Just be sure that nobody lacks essential skillsets, like some combat mettle, infliltration or etiquette.


Cheers!!

Max

Skillwires? I think move by wire would be a better long term chocis but as i don't have Argumentation near by it don't know is you could take that at a meaningful level to start with.

Only rating 1 mbw is available at chargen, and that comes with a skillwire rating of only 2. Nice add on, but not enough for reliance on actionsofts.

Ah ok then still mbw is they way to go with that build.

Can't you just have the Skillwires removed when you collect enough cash to replace it with MbW? IIRC, the essence gets recycled (it doesn't recover for magical purposes, but you can fill in the hole with new cyber/bioware without further penalty).

Yep you can I meant by "the way to go" the ultimate aim would be delta MBW. Only 1750,00,000

I'm forced to ask: Why is MbW considered so godly? Synaptic Boosters 3 and Skillwires 5 cost only 1.5 and 1.0 essence (from the separate cyber an bio pools, thus one will be at half price), versus Move by Wire 3 costing a whopping 5 essence for the same benefit. The combo system costs 250k, while the MbW is only 175k, putting MbW solidly in the "cyberware is cheaper in nuyen but costs more essence" category with the rest of its kin. How did MbW come to be called the best endgame piece for this purpose, when the Synaptics + Skillwires is clearly a superior "endgame" option?

MbW adds extra dice to dodge tests equal to it's rating (or something similar to that) in addition to functioning as skillwires and wired reflexes. It's essence cost is also equal to wired while giving these extra benefits.

That's kind of what I like about Shadowrun; you can have a combat-focused group with no brains and still get runs that are fun; no need for a "Cleric/Healing Battery;" just get a mob doctor if you need someone to heal!