See, I've never had to think about this before, because in DND, it was "...alright roll initiative, it's battle time" and since you were far away, and everyone had like 100 hp it didn't really matter. In Shadowrun the difference between life and death could be if you go first or not. So I need some clarification.


1) If somebody pulls out a gun or has one out already, how do you deal with the situation if you are, let's say, trying to say wait no don't shoot. If you just roll initiative, then everyone just starts shooting.

2) How do you deal with "hold-up" situations, where somebody has a gun and you don't, but he isn't shooting yet?

2) Let's say two parties are guaranteed to start shooting at each other, at what point should you roll initiative if they are around the corner? As soon as the first person sees the other one?

1) No initiative until someone actually shoots. Then roll init, if the defender wins, he gets a chance to get to cover. If he loses he gets shot (roll the attack).

2) See above, defender gets his actions of whatever, #1 just assumes that the defender wants to not get shot vs. shooting back.

3) (#2 again?) When contact happens. Unless one side knows the other is there, in which case roll initiative, the first moves should put one side in view of the other, should use their surprise actions.

1. You roll initiative as soon as the guy with the gun says he wants to shoot. If the target has higher initiative he'll presumably try to run, dodge, or fire first. The guy shouting, "No, wait!" can't react in time unless he wins initiative. This simulates being able to

2. You don't roll initiative until the gunman decides to shoot or the target decides to do something, like rush the gunman. Once someone is taking an action, you roll and whoever wins goes first. This gives the target a chance to charge, offensively or reactively, and the gunman a chance to shoot preemptively.

3. You roll when there's contact. If both groups expect each other, neither one is surprised. If one expects and the other doesn't, you roll when there's contact and the ready group gets surprise actions.

For the first and second examples, I'm not entirely satisfied. Pulling a trigger is a lot faster than charging someone, and it's rather hard to shout, "Don't!" before someone shoots. I don't know how to fix the problems, though. In multi-participant combat you can't really give or take dice.

That's an old problem, especially when dealing with inter-party conflict. Best use the surprise rules (pg#155 SR4) but also try not rolling initiative until after somebody makes an aggressive action. So if two groups of gunbunnies are facing off but nobody has fired or drawn yet keep the action narrative until one side or the other tries for a gun, then get responses from everyone based on the narrative action, then roll initiative and resolve the actions in order- don't let the players significantly change their actions after they've seen what their move order is. I mean let them drop their attack for a full defense but don't let them change their quick-draw and fire pistol action to a pull out grenade and throw it action. This way they lose the god-like perception of the battlefield, and that uncertainty can encourage them to play it cool rather than just star shooting in every encounter.

We've all run into this problem even in DnD

While not terribly realistic, I always ask for intent (and know the intent of my villains.) A successful Judge Intention check (in the BBB) can let PCs know what NPCs are thinking.

Scenario 1) Dude shouts "Don't come any closer, I'll shoot! I will!" and pulls a gun. Any but the most THICK PCs will realize that he isn't going to shoot at that moment, and they can talk some. No need to roll initiative.

Scenario 2) You are leaving a Renraku building, and you see a group of people hustling through the trees with assault rifles drawn. As soon as they are in clear view they ready their weapons and take aim. This is a clear combat situation, roll initiative.

Now, sometimes it won't be so clear cut, but, if in doubt, roll initiative. More than once, I've had a group roll initiative, and do nothing, each holding their action, and eventually falling out of initiative.

That is a good point. Nothing stops the PC's or NPC's from talking during combat. You can even tell the PCs that the NPCs are taking a defencive position but not firing the first shot. That can be a queue to the PCs that they can talk their way out of this fight if they want to. Usually though once your roll initiative the PCs go into combat mode and any non-combat solutions are thrown out the window.