Hello everyone. I am starting a new game, replete with all new players. Realizing the learning curve on some of the other games has taken months for a few (book-averse) players, I want to sum it all up in a little, first-game handout.

The information will be essentially along the lines of "You are a Shadowrunner, you steal kill maim whatever for blah blah blah. It is 206x and the shit has hit the fan so many times blah blah blah blah dragons blah magic blah bug spirits blah blah JAPAN! blah blah UCAS! blah blah megacorporations."

I'm wondering what would be the crucial information you'd give to your (my) players in a situation like this. Just throw it out, I don't mind if I mentioned it in my terribly inaccurate depiction of the form. Thank you all, especially you verbose ones who go on for a paragraph or so on something.

*readies copy, paste, keys*

Edit: Just remembered where I've heard "Shadowrun FAQ" before. The SR-webpage. Can't edit titles either. Blah.

To be honest, I wouldn't. I'd tell them to read 'and so it came to pass'. And then explain about doing people's dirty work.

If its a throwaway game for people who usually play something else, that's different. In those cases I can see why it might be more useful. Check through the list of movies they've seen - bladerunner, robocop, hardwired, etc, and then describe what's the same, what's different. Cover magic, spells, spirits, metahumanity breifly as part of mentioning the awakening, so that that's connected up and explained right from the start. If anyone wants to know more you can field those questions as they arise. Cover extraterratoriality, and the fragmentation of the UCAS, even as breifly as 'native american uprising with magical support resulted in various new nation states where the USA, mexico and Canada used to be' or something. The history is important otherwise the world is difficult to accept. Then cover cyberware (including rigging) and the matrix in terms of what they are and generally what they can do (such as 'implanted technology can make you faster or stronger, or directly interact with machines such as computers and vehicles, depending on the implant. even more advanced technology allows for improved Vat grown organic upgrades called bioware.').

hth.