Hello!
Ok, I am about ready to run my first full SR4. I have already used cut-down versions of the rules including an Eathdawn-style fantasy only version for getting to grips with the magic rules then a modern version for testing firearms and social skills etc. So now me and the fellas (And occasionaly my Fiancé) are going to be getting up to 2071!

The Group (All experienced gamers of dozens of systems):

Human technomancer
Really damaged kid, locked online during the Crash 2.0 and then locked in a mental institute by Mitsuhama until liberated by the other PC's (all backstory). Has problems with the "Real" world and spends about 15 hours per day online in full VR. As a result he has Bod 2 and Str 1. Suffering from Aips he is twitchy and absent in RL.

Elf
Effectively a cyber-gunslinger. Born to very high up parents in Tir Tangrir he survived a hit on his family home but was badly mangled. His parents survived uninjured but his Sister was never found (Lost Loved One). He was almost killed in the bomb that destroyed his house and his folks had him fixed up with TONS of alpha-ware: Eyes, ears, commlink, Lacing and a couple of Bio-bits. His folks hid him away, fearing further reprisals and when he was healed they shipped him off to Seattle and set him up with a place to live (Trust Fund) that "somehow" tracks any ID he is using. He has no idea what happened after the bombing, that his parents are alive or anything, he is totally cut off as his treatment was undertaken in a secret lab somewhere in the Tir.
His genuine Tir SIN has been suspended and he has flashbacks to the night his life was ruined (Flashbacks). He is uncommonly good with his two smartlinked Predators (Ambidex, Pistols 6 and Spec) and he is ultimately severely damaged goods.


Patrick (Name TBC) is a Human Hermetic Mage.
Total sociopath, (Uncouth) that threatens to hurt people if they try to touch him. Is hooked on some drug that grants his strange visions (Even for a mage), where he is getting glimpses of the metaplanes and he is incredibly driven towards initiating. He is born to a rich family who's money has dissapeared (along with the family). Otherwise he is a bit blank ATM.


Haruki Nguyo (Mr White) - Oni
The Oni full of Bioware that wears a white suit all the time that, along with his white dreadlocks, makes him look like a giant smurf (Distinctive Style). He is a part-time bouncer with Yakuza connections. Highly westernised; he avoids all contact with Japan as there is something there (Evil Twin) that scares him. He is loaded with Bio as he hates the idea of anything marring his skin (Bit of a weirdo). He is a mountain of muscle with not much sense that is there when things get messy.



My question to you fine people: Anything not covered? They have a decent array of contacts, all are well sorted with fake SINs and Licenses etc and the Technomancer even has a contact in the form of a Data-haven Admin.

I am throwing us all into it whole-hog with a few ideas in mind for the progression of play. I am either going to get them involved in the (Still)emerging technomancer phenomenon, maybe with some mad AI's in there, dealing with a toxic anti-history group or even some bug spirits.
That said, the group is notoriously unpredictable and always a good challenge. Anything I should look out for?

Again: Anything not covered?


Thanks for your time.

An Oni has red skin pigment so I just don't see that he would be called Mr. White.

There is also no details about your campaign, or really the characters. The characters themselves seem kind of 2D but that might be because of the short description. There is also no actual character sheet to comment on or how you think you want to handle the campaign. What kind of plot hooks do you want to use? How will things unfold story wise in your mind? Where do you want things to go? Are the runners going to get betrayed? Is there going to be something involving the flaws that the characters picked out? How is the Evil twin going to show up in the story? How will affect the characters?

Do you want something risky? Are you thinking short term campaign or long term campaign? Do you want the characters to live through anything or are you going to be very heavy handed with your players?

Give me some depth and it becomes easy to give helpful pointers and suggestions, but there is really nothing to go on with what was just put up right now.

I think what slightly irks me is I don't see how the characters can come together. How do they all meet? How do they become a team? Is it going to start off with them all knowing each other or will the beginning of the game be their first run as a party?

Personally one of the most important things I think of when I think of a Shadowrun character is how and why did each and every single character enter the shadows and become a shadowrunner? Why is it that with all their skills did they slip through the cracks in society and decide to break the law. This question helps define the characters motives and can help sculpt the party into what it is. Not everyones goals might jive the same way, but it makes things more interesting and can be exploited by a GM to create in game tension or hard decisions.

You have:
- a Human matrix-only technomancer
- an Elf Street-Sam with individual twist
- a sociopath (in a bad way) mage
- a Muscle-Man Oni

Things that are missing:
- Your team is very weak in the social area. An uncouth combat mage with issues, a VR-person... I hope your combatants have a few social skills, but it won´t really cover for the other half of the team.
- Positive team interaction. The mage is out, the TM divides time between sleeping and surfing the web, the Oni and Elf have different cultural backgrounds.

Things I would do:
- base the TM on heavy AR-usage.
- move the Elf´s backstory to Japan
- remove Uncouth from the mage, and establish that overly aggressive behaviour will have consequences
- stress the street-social part of the bouncer character

Well the Oni (Mr White because he always wears a white suit) is definately the face of the party with straight 3's in the socal skill group and a few in intimidation. I realised the group is a bit thin on social stuff and they will probably suffer for it.

I am initially wanting a short campaign; establishing the rules and setting until everyone is comfortable with it then hooking them into a wider campaign.

The Oni and the Elf are bound together through mutual rejection; the elf has no idea why he is in seattle or what happened to his old life and the Oni never had much of a life as his parents hated him and his brother because they look like demons.
I am going to be quite tough with the characters and unless it seems that something is going to TPK them I am unlikely to fluff anything for them. I'm hoping for quite a lot of social commentary and to make the world as gritty as possible, although I am not going to be too strict with scanning SINs unless they are doing major purchases etc.

The initial 3 (Oni, Elf and Mage) met at a bar near to the Elf's place where the Oni works and the Mage buys his drugs. They were hired by the bars owner who realised their potential over the wageslave masses. The Barman has further contacts inside a couple of corps and a Johnson belonging to Wuxing spread the word that they were looking for someone new and expendable to extract a mental patient from a secure Mitsuhama research hospital.
Long story short: they went, they did well and extracted a young man (The technomancer - "Tubbs613") who was almost catatonic with sedation. When they reached the rendezvous point the Mitties attacked their Wuxing contact - they had been tipped off. No one knows how.

So then the characters had only half their cash and a new nutter to look after. They set Tubbs up with a place to crash and he turned out to be extremely useful keeping heat off their backs. While he isn't very social, he is very VERY good at whatever he does.


Now they have been contacted by the Barkeeper again with the requirement that they bring their "hacker chummer."

He is going to put them in touch with a Johnson from SK(Not that they will know that.) who wants them to retrieve a new piece of tech from NeoNET that has "Interesting implications" for interspecies augmentation as well as whatever digital information they can get their hands on from a facility on the outskirts of the city.

They will be tested on all 3 fronts (Physical, astral and Matrix) but I want it to be a pretty straight forward run that will get them solidly into the shadows as ATM they are teetering on the precipice and will be fully thrust into the darkness.


So to start, a simple run that will get everyone into the world.

I do plan on them working for SK for many runs and getting deeper into it until they are sent to get something from Dunkelzahns will for Lofwyr.


Any Ideas?

If you plan on sending something from Dunkelzahn's will you must understand that in the worlds setting Dunkelzahn has already had his will read and everything sent out to everyone. I believe he sent Lofwyr a chess piece.

The story seems a bit thin for how the party meets. I understand you want to make your game gritty, but the TMs story just doesn't really jive with the rest of the party. Also when it comes to an uncouth mage, and two street sams I don't see why they would look after the TM especially after all the heat they took trying to extract him mixed with the backgrounds they each have. What if the TM is just addicted to the internet w/o some back story of getting reamed. Maybe try for something more mysterious, like he might not even remember what happened to him, but all of the sudden the Matrix opened up to him like a flower and shared all of its secretes with him so the power itself became an addiction. Being in AR might give the character a rush now that won't top even the most powerful of street drugs. It can still be his refuge from the real world, since his is better and he can create whatever he wants.

Since the team is so fractured just have them running in the shadows with each other for a while, it will probably give you less friction in the long run. I would still also give them each a reason why they are runners.

Also if you are planning on doing a short campaign what is it going to be about? As you have a technomancer in the party may I suggest that you take a really long hard look at the matrix rules, and maybe also read Franks alternate matrix rules? It depends on your play style but Frank's rules might suit you better, or it might not. It is worth looking into though.

Don't have the Johnson tell them what he/she intends to take or what it could be used for. Have the Johnson just tell them to grab some tech from Neonet and give them a description of what it looks like. Have the party find out what it is for during the run. It makes things more interesting and fits better with how most Johnsons will approach the team.

I would say about three missions of hand holding would be a good idea. You might want to consider heavily railroading the players and tell them so. Let them learn how security is handled, how magic works, the matrix, combat, and the setting of the world and how everything behaves. This will allow things to be a lot easier, but if they are new to the rules don't expect them to get it after a single run. When I was new to the Shadowrun world it took me about 4 sessions to finally "get it" and that was after halfway botching every single run that was given to us (since we were all new to the game save the GM.)

What I've read so far sounds pretty good to me. The thing to remember if you're still new to 4th Edition is what I call the "challenge factor". Players will get away with whatever you are willing to let them get away with. If they become a bit too crazed and trigger happy, give them a beat down (you don't even have to kill them, just spank them good.) On the other hand, if we as GM's get a little overpowered, we can turn even our most rational, careful, and well role played characters into Swiss cheese by thinking that every security guard get's an Assault Rifle w/ APDS, Smart Gun links, and Muscle Replacement 4. I'm being over dramatic (or am I?), but just pay attention to the mood of your players. If they look extremely frustrated, the challenges may be too high for them. Start dropping those rating 4 firewalls to rating 3's, start using Force 3 Spirits instead of 5's, etc. On the other hand, if they are putting you to sleep by wiping out everything you throw at them and their first instinct is to kidnap/threaten/kill every NPC for critical info, you might want to consider beefing up. In the end, you know you are doing right by your players if they keep showing up to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

I think the characters and background you got is solid enough. Social skills and getaway drivers are the biggest challenges I see. I say don't change anything, background wise.

But if I were a GM and wanted to really hit them, those are the two areas I'd probably hit them.

- J.

Thanks, guys.
There are none of them with a clue about driving or anything like that, though I believe the TM has a piloting complex form.

Anything else?

Thanks, guys.
There are none of them with a clue about driving or anything like that, though I believe the TM has a piloting complex form.

Anything else?

I think that you have a pretty eclectic group there. That could be pretty fun trying to keep them together. I see some friction developing between the TM and the others as the start to feel a little used. Start small and feel them out for the first few sessions. I would not go the big D's will though, kinda played out, I would maybe try out a few of the Missions or home grown stuff and go from there.

Well I am going with the published adventure "On the Run" first, just to get into the swing of things and see how things progress.

Has anyone tried this module? If so, how did it go?

I ran a group through it that had very little Shadowrun knowledge. Went very well, although I had built up the paranoia level a little to high, so they missed out on the whole end becuase they did not want to pursue the the next step for fear of bring the thunder down on them. I would caution about that, but other wise I think it is a good start regardless of what some may say.

Ok, the first session went really well.
They completed the first couple of sections without a problem, most sensible and morally conscious performance.
Then, on the way away from a data grab they are spotted by a drone that is being piloted by a rigger in full sim. I gave the fellas (all new-ish to the shadows) a broad set of options including blowing it up, hacking it or just trying to run away.

The TM decided to go full VR and fight the hacker.

That was when I realised I had no idea what was going on.

I have been over all the matrix rules over and over etc, but when it came down to it, it all kinda went pear. so I decided to wing it.

I had mr TM do a onthefly hack into the node that was the drone.
Then he engaged in CyberCombat with the rigger along with his crack sprite which had the Cybercombat skill (So I think it can attack a user with rating x2 pool)

After the rigger was KO, am I right that he is disconnected from the matrix? Does that mean his commlink is fried or that this Avatar is just disrupted?

So I had the TM make another hacking check along with spoof and then I let him inhabit the drone.

I had no idea what the basic firewall for the drone should be so I just kinda guessed, these are things I can't remember ever reading.

So I am treating the drone as his own now.

Help please, I'm so confused (The fact that I am shattered and completely sleep deprived atm probably doesn't help.)

Welcome to the SR4 matrix.

I would look up the rules on hot sim. The rigger would have taken dumpshock (which won't actually KO him,) but that is about it. The pilot/agent on the drone could have also responded to the attack if the rigger set it up that way (which most riggers probably would.) However since a good TM just wins the matrix why bother... the rigger might just see the sprite, realize that he is up against a TM, bug out, and flip the kill switch to blow up his own drone to at least hurt the TM, or just disconnect all incoming wireless signals the minute he bugged out... at least if I was using my rigger that is totally what he would do.

If you might want to consider alternate matrix rules I would suggest searching for Franks alternate matrix rules. It is another option to try out and can be slightly tweaked to suit most peoples needs.

I am running On The Run now.

At first reading I thought it looked great. Having read it several times, marked appropriate sections in highlighter, etc, I thought I was ready. I wasn't.

Here's a few thigns I found that you'll have to contend with. I recommend having answers to all these before you start. I had some of these ready but certainly not all:

1) It is not made clear how the runners find out about Nabo or what Nabo is doing. As the GM, you have to make sure they know to use their contacts and that their contacts tell them a famous rocker called Nabo got the call about the disk. He's one of the potential buyers.
2) It's not immediately obvious that player's would think to try his commlink. My PCs wanted to chat to him... over the barrel of a gun if necessary.
3) Once they get the disk, there's no strong incentive to try and decrypt it. They aren't given a reason to and neither does the Johnson request it.
4) If your PCs are halfway competent and trustworthy, they will want to turn in the disk at the first opportunity to the Johnson. If thats the case, nothing short of significant railroading will force the meet at the graveyard (which is a shame because its a bloody climactic/cinematic scene the way it plays out).

- J.

Yeah, my guys are getting along well with it. They are just leaving the concert - they did an artful job of it: got spectacular contact roles and found out about Jager's coke problem, then bribed him into giving them some All-Access RFID wristbands. in, out, no problem.

The problems I am having is with the matrix.
Rigging and hacking jumped-in drones etc is so confusing
I am really stuck

Since the matrix is built of whatever you really want. A rigger can have all different kinds of networks. They can have false chips filled with data bombs while their other node is hidden and on a closed system, they can have open or closed drone networks, some can be hackable some can't. Not all riggers jump into their drones (in fact the way the rules work it is generally a bad idea to have your drone network work this way.) Hot sim is generally bad because of the dumpshock you can take which can only be resisted by the biofeedback filter. Many riggers will use a very powerful vehicle that they will risk jumping into hot sim (generally while in the vehicle) so they can have the safety of not being wailed on by a hacker or a TM.

For instance my character was a rigger general who at times ran his network as an open network when he was pretty sure he wasn't going to go up against a TM or hacker (like fighting feral ghouls, or killing spirits.) Other times he used a closed network that was semi autonomous, with a built in friend or foe detector, an an IR sensor where he would beam a wide beam extremely fast dash dot system from his smartlink to select commands from a very long list. The only way you could sink up with the system was to take the riggers smartlinked gun (kill or capture) and figure out what it was used for. The third option that he would use is an open network with a built in hardwired chip command to do various options the minute the drone network is compromised. Also the rest of the party would be given three of the hardwired patterns IR sink patterns.
- Reset friend or foe that was pre set and hardwired into the drone and close off the network
- Land or stop and shut down for a re-install of the origional OS
- Delete all programming and data from the drone and self destruct (if possible.)

Each drone had two rating 6 chips that he would build (which made them pricey but not too pricey.) The first chip which filtered all of it's data would have three rating 6 ice hitting every single incoming transmission with rating 6 blackhammer (or the program that would cause stun I forgot what it was called) as the rigger would only jump into his vehicle. All of his drones would have smartlinked weapons and look like the drones were meant to be jumped into (as it ran an open network with a smartlinked gun.) It would generally catch most hackers off guard... permanently.... if not the drone could just be reset and give potential dumpshock if there was a TM or hacker that was trying to hijack the drone.

*edit* after a while our group got really tired of the matrix and pretty much phased it out of our games, because of the fact that there is not enough ground rules, and since successes are capped at program rating it just leads to excessive scrip kiddying.

Isn't there a sort of study guide for the Matrix lying around here somewhere?

Shameless plug.

Not at all, or at least not for me. I'm talking about Ryu's An Introduction to Matrix Rules, for which I was lazy about finding a link, at least until you forced my hand by potentially crediting me with someone else's work. =i)

My cheat sheets are only cheat sheets, not a guide. The [REDACTED] I can't exactly plug here, although I'll send you a copy if you like. =i)

Ok folks.

The first run is over. They got the disk and returned straight to Mr Johnson, got their payday etc, all good.
After that they hacked the bodies of the guys who were also after the disk apart and sold the Ware and bodies.


I didn't expect that.

No GM ever does when it comes up.

I got hit with that for the first time in approx. 20 years of roleplaying two weeks ago. Apparently, the look on my face was priceless.

- J.

I only just saw. Good work, Tiger Eyes! Prod that lazy bastard!

In cases of selling body parts, apply Notoriety and make sure their only friends are in Tamanous...

What? Its not like the dead can take it with them!

Tanamous?

Scumbag organleggers, often ghouls. The book that comes with the SR4 GM screen has this to say:

---
The Tamanous member is part of one of the most secretive and shadowy networks to ply its trade in the sprawl. You probably don’t know what they do, and you certainly would prefer to keep it that way, though they can prove quite useful. They rarely know who their employers are or what their aims might be—all they know is that bringing in the bodies, dead or alive, provides them with a comfortable living. Never mind about those pesky morals—a Tamanous member does not have them. Be careful if you befriend one, because while they might leave you alone, their partners aren’t bound by the same strictures.
Tamanous members prefer to keep their affiliations secret, masquerading as parts-procurers for black clinics, parameds, and so on. They won’t turn down gear, nuyen, or information about local police or hospital activity, and may be able to provide information about the same. If they can get information about potential sources for parts without tipping their hand, they will be quite generous. However, as the low member on the totem pole, they will not be privy to the organization’s deepest secrets.
---

IMO, desecrating the dead is a great way to make enemies. If they start to store entire bodies for sale, rather than hacking them up, don't forget that the bodies could well be possessed by a shedim to make trouble.

If you want more detail on Tamanous, the SR3 book Loose Alliances has a load of it.

"Dead is dead... parts is parts... dead guys is parts..."
- Streetdoc, CP2020 Core Rule Book

Yeah, most of the party have a problem with morals.
the bodies have been fenced by one of the characters contacts.

I am a bit stuck on where to go from here, I want to get them into a proper run etc, but they are a weird bunch of buggers...

I make my players make Medicine Tests to extract the cyber/bio/whatever-ware without damaging or destroying it. Just a thought.

My PCs have a contact that has simply explained that he represents a private group with interests in biomedical and cybertech and apart from a willingness to purchase firearms in bulk, he has said that he's happy to obtain bodies off the PCs, no questions asked.

I'm surprised my PCs didn't think to make enquiries as to who he worked for. I've just started to assume my PCs are really amoral bastards and will sell their own mothers to Tamanous if the price was right (which makes a pleasant change of pace from the goody-goody two shoes they play in D&D).

Oh well. I'll let you all know after I finish Ghost Cartels...

- J.