Hello all. This is my first post, but I've lurked for a while now. I finally got a group together and a decent idea for a Shadowrun campaign in mind, so, before I start it, I figure this is the place to ask.

Any advice for a starting out Shadowrun GM? I'm using 4e rules (laugh if you like, I find them easy), and I've bought a few older pdfs around here and there, so I've got a pretty okay selection of resources at hand, just no time to read it all.

Game is set in Seattle, and the first run is going to involve the upcoming election, and Brackhaven's connections to Humanis. I ran a one-shot at a mini convention about this, and I'm gonna run with the idea.

Any pitfalls I should worry about? Any tricks to make my life easier?

My group is: Elf Eagle Shaman Sniper, Dwarf Wiccan Med-Mage, Troll Physical Adept, Troll Street Samurai, Elf Technomancer, Human Mechanic, Human Weapons Specialist, Ork Mystic Adept. A couple players haven't finished yet. I have a very large group, and they seem quite skewed towards the flash and the bang, so, I worry, could this be an issue?

To be honest I can't see anything else but flash and bang with such a large group, is that what you'll be happy running? You'll have to keep the pace up, keep things moving, rather than slowing down to handle roleplaying. It seems like such a big group will be bested suited to all-inclusive combat, so everyone gets a fair turn.

The only two things that will be a problem there is probably for the Technomancer and Mechanic, but they could have rolls to play. The other is initiative passes. Likely the Samurai will have the most IPs, unless of course the med-mage, eagle shaman or mystic adept make use of the improved reflexes spell. However, it's of diminishing use without sustaining Foci.

As for the Mechanic? What does he do other than fix equipment? Does he have drones? They will allow him to have a combat roll, and you can dish out the punishment for the drones and he can happily fix them up inbetween runs. The technomancer perhaps can hide out and try some full VR combat hacking. With a threaded Stealth and/or threaded Exploit as well as Sprites using the Assist Operation power, he'll be able to crack enemy commlinks very quickly, perhaps enough to disable the most deadly enemy combatant's big weapon, or maybe a drone/vehicle that is causing a lot of trouble and not going down.

No laughing here. I prefer 4E myself.


Good hook for a run. One thing I would play up is the amount of media attention the election is getting. If the PC's don't want to star in the evening news they'll want to keep it low key.


Keep things simple and relatively small to start with. Only introduce a few NPC's as major recurring characters and think steriotypes that will stick in your players heads.

One trick I picked up for relatively minor NPC's, or even the PC's contacts is to get a bunch of index cards and write a name, a streetname, followed by a brief description.

For example you could have:
Conner Jameson (Iceman)
Has a long narrow goatee.

When a PC says they are going to call their Lonestar beatcop contact just flip over the next card in the stack. Write "Joe's Beatcop Contact" beside the name and fill out other details (metatype cyberware ect.) as they come up in play. It saves you from coming up with dumb names (or naming everyone Joe) and IME adds a lot of immersion to the game.



Wow... Big group. Don't worry too much about the playstyle. Most GM's around here tend to play up the 'realism' factor and encourage campaigns where everything is 'serious business'. Somehow we forget that we're pretending to be futuristic elves with mechanical bits attached to our bodies...

Pink Mowhawk is an equally valid playstyle, and finding out where your group fits on the spectrum is something only you can figure out. As long as everyone's having fun, who cares if the PC's just blew away a half dozen Lone Star officers, there's no need to hunt them down and teach them a 'lesson' if it kills everyones fun. I'd try talking to them first, explain the two different playstyles and see what they're most interested in.

I'm used to keeping the pace up with this group. We've been gaming together for a few years now, so I'm sorta used to it.

The Mechanic isn't just a mechanic. He's actually a pretty neat character idea. He's almost a Luddite, in that he hates everything being wireless and computerized, so he's removed that from all of his equipment, and focuses on nearly bare-bones vehicles. He knows how to repair and maintain the newer stuff, and does it for money, but for himself, nothing but old fashioned is good enough.

He's a bit of a weapons specialist, focusing on Shotguns specifically, but a fan of almost anything that goes "Bang-Bang!"

It won't affect your game in any possible way but I've started with 4th ed and when I try to look at past editions I find them too complicated for my taste.




Ah yes Kenny Boy, is it going to be a one shot run or something bigger? Just like any target the run can be a minor thing, a single run that is part of a greater struggle (of wich the team might execute a single run or more), or a full adventures arc in wich the team get involved into something big and/or nasty. There's alot of potential for cospiracies where Humanis is involved, just think their connections with the Human Nation, Alamos 20K and other extremist hate groups; your runners could end up doing anything from uncovering minor things such as a network of bigots that blocks advancement of metas to the better work positions or puts up bourocratic barriers to prevent them from using some of their constitutional rights, to some shadier aspects such as criminal activities of unofficialy associated group that target meta/surged/awakened/emerged/whatever, to downright nasty stuff such as metahuman experimentation/attempts to enforce eugenetic practics/plotting genocides.
Remember that Humanis exists because it keeps it hands "clean" and covering its connections with the groups that do the dirty work, they won't pose much of a threat in direct confrontation (which they'll try to avoid unless they have overwelming advantages over their target), but has connections with people in many parts of society, they might call in one of their members that is an officer of the metroplex guard (at which point it is the goverment that the team is dealing with), or maybe call in a clandestine group trained by the Humanis Brigate in Chicago (their version of shadowrunners/company man), or they might call in their media and spin the team actions to call for laws that makes the life harder for the lower class (mostly for metas).
You've got alot of freedom here, just chose what you want ahead of time.




The TM covers the hacking, doesn't him/her? That leaves out the rigging for the mechanic, so that he/she has something to do beside repairing stuff; what I'm worried about is that it seems that there's alot of overlapping, some is good but too much risks to bring some players to just feel outclassed by others.

I won't be laughing at you SR4 is my favorite too !
8 Players ? Thats a Big Group
Maybe one of your Players can assist you with GMing so you can have a Multi User Run ?
(2 Teams ,different or contrary Goals,or a Race for the same Goal ? )

with multi-User-Dance
Medicineman

I'd suggest the player think long and hard about how to make the most of that character. He will be behind the curve on a lot of things unless he's built with some very specific goals in mind. Figure out a way to get his abilities up, maybe he relies on his edge, maybe drugs, maybe even cyberware to a degree. If you rely on stats and skills alone you're going to run into attribute maximums or dump a ton of BP's into maxing out attributes and spreading the focus of your skills.

I can see a distaste for wireless, but stuff like Cyberware and a lot of day to day computer integration has been around for a long time, even a Luddite would be used to it. With a bit of cyberware you could turn him into a perfectly serviceable Street Sam for something to do when the flash and bang is going down. Wired Reflexes, Dermal Plating, Muscle Enhancements and all sorts of other goodies have been around since well before 2050, probably longer than the PC's been alive, and would go a long way towards making him hold his own in a fight.

Of course this is all conjecture since I haven't seen the stats. I'm just mentioning some problems I've run into when running with similar concepts, unawaked and light on tech.

Sort of off topic but that actually, that gives me a cool idea for a runner... He'd be more of a general tinkerer than a mechanic but picture a Street Sam who has a thing for 'vintage' ware. He only ever buys 'used', maybe even create a separate category for 'antique' but if he makes a cyberware BR roll he can tinker around with them and bring them on par with normal gear essence wise.

He loves the look of raw chrome. He has a classic brushed steel cyberarm, an old Fuchi prototype, a piece of high end SOTA equipment, back in 2055. Cybereyes that were made back when every piece of ware was individually made by people who actually gave a damn. (his words)

He's actually looking for a rare Renraku cybertorso. It's not *that* old, only 6 years, but it was a crazy deltaware prototype that was developed in the Arc just before it got locked down. A stash was found by one of the early runner teams that busted into the madhouse but only a few dozen made it out. There are rumors that there are still a few floating around the market.

Hrm... I'm going to have to play around with the character generator here.

SR4 is awesome and I am also a new GM, but I only have one question.

You keep saying Trench coat or Pink Mohawk style, wtf is that?

At the most simple level, Trench Coat games focus on stealth and subtlety as primary tools of the trade. Pink Mohawk would be explosives and violence as the standard methodology. Both are valid game types, but result in totally different missions and expectations.

think Mad Max vs. Jason Bourne.

Is it terribly wrong that I'm going for a Pink Mohawk wearing a Trenchcoat and Mirrorshades approach?

Subtlety and stealth for investigations, Explosions and action movie style, uh, action for the, um... action... scenes. God. Lets play the "Overuse the word action" game huh?

Shadowrun is both and many more things. Why else are there stats for dragons, attack helicopters, jets, missiles, explosives, zombies, alien insectoid bodysnatchers, cyborg brain jarheads in humanoid battle-drones and more. Why would a bunch of invisible operatives need rules for hacking some-one up with a huge scottish claymore?

If everyone is having fun, shooting a wetwork target right in the face with an explosive crossbow bolt and diving out of the plane with a hang-glider is perfectly acceptable.

Sounds awesome! Pink Mohawk actually refers to the street style. It usually takes place on the street level. Gangers and shadowrunner wannabes. But the cool thing about Shadowrun is that it's open to all possibilities. Play it however you want.

Eight players is a big group for SR, but it sounds like you have more like ten? It also sounds like you have a very combat focused group. You should certainly make time for some roleplaying fun, if people enjoy it. This can be lots of fun if people kinda divide up and go on by themselves. If they're not familiar with the setting, it may be a while before they can do that on their own, though.

As for combat, it takes a long time in SR. You're going to have to stay on your toes. We've been playing with seven or eight players lately, and we're wracking our brains trying to come up with ways to keep things moving. The GM has a list of characters, and when we roll nish, he writes their numbers down. That way he doesn't have to ask who goes next, he can just tell someone when it's his turn. Also, we don't stand for hesitation. You may lose your action. Things like that. We'l be starting a new campaign in a couple of months, and we're probably going with two GMs. One to regulate the action and describe what's happening, and the other to play the opposition.

I'm starting a 4th edition game myself and these have really helped me and the other gamers get a better grasp of the rules. Props to the cheatsheet designer.
http://pavao.org/shadowrun/cheatsheets/
Print these suckers out for whomever appropriate. Even in my small group (3 runners) I think the first game is going to drag a bit due to rules.

Good luck!!! You're a braver GM than I!

Quickstart Rules for all the players.