Shadowrun can be played and mastered in many ways. But especially for new players and game masters it sometimes seem to be difficult to find their own "way of play". Many discussions in different forums has produced many different views and possibilites to play this game. But they are scattered over dozens of different websites, threads, pages, documents etc and often new players ask the same questions again and again.
To make it short: does anyone have interest in writing down some articles / opinions / essays to explain different aspects of playing or mastering Shadowrun (not RPGs in general) to give new (and old) players and game masters an idea, on how different SR can be played and mastered? These articles will be gathered in one central PDF and will be put online. Each topic should be (at least in theory
) approached by different authors who have different, even conflicting, opinions to show the vast spectrum on how to play SR "correctly". Each of these articles will be 1-3 pages and combied with the other articles concering one specific topic.Since it is currently a project by german players and gamemasters I am afraid that english speaking players will find this idea not very interesting. But perhaps some of the german speaking lurkers here on dumpshock have an interest.
Possible topics could be (just a small selection, your ideas are appreciated):
1) Are mages too powerful? If yes, how could they be regulated
2) How can you combine high karma / nuyen characters with low karma / nuyen characters in the same campaign
3) The cops: from donut eating gardists over cyberenhanced detectives to elite SWAT killers, how do cops function for your game?
4) The fragmentation of law: how to explain the survival of the runners in the world of surveillance?
5) How should a group be formed, what skills, equipment
6) Yesterday Tokyo, now Seattle, tomorrow Metropole: What is neccessary for an international campaign?
7) Splatter & Gore: how "evil" are you? What about rape and torture in the hand of the players?
How to balance karma vs nuyen9) 2200 karma: long campaigns, infinitive amount of karma and nyuen, how to challenge and motivate the veteran characters
10) The role playing challenge: how to integrate your albinoghuldrakesurgechangelingAIgnometroll.
11) "Honey, Mr Johson is on Line 6": different ways to start a run without a phone call.
12) Realism, complexity, difficulty and gameplay: how to balance and how to combine them? detailed should your game be?
13) "Give me 100k and my security system is impenetrable": how to design "believable" and "beatable" security systems.
14) Tips and tricks for new players: "Yes, you should have a fake SIN. And someone should be able a maglock. And someone owning a van is not a liability".
etc
And of course, if you have a specific topic not found on the list ... well, the more the better.
The current discussion forum would be " www.sr-nexus.de " with its subforum "How to SR". Perhaps someone has some interest in participating. I would be happy.
http://www.sr-nexus.de/bb/how-to-sr-f42.html
Perhaps, for later, an "international" edition is an idea, but for now I am stuck with my mother language.
But of course, if there is a vast amount of interest in an english edition ... well, anything is possible in the sixth world.SYL