I'm new to Shadowrun. I've heard of the game for years, but I've never bumped into anyone that played. I was at Origins, paused in front of the Shadowrun booth, listened to one of the people tell me about the 20th anniversary edition of the book, and decided on a whim to pick it up and check it out.

I am very impressed.

The rules are very well written, the book is well layed out, the index is amazing. The online resources are quite complete, including over a dozen cheat sheets and multiple character generators.

Thing is, the game is incredibly complex. I mean, extremely, mind-bogglingly difficult to process all at once. Everything is explained well, with small examples showing how each little bit works, but there's nothing that pulls everything together. As a brand new player, even one with 10 yeas of experience with other systems, there's way too much to try and process. I've had the book a week and I still don't understand how most of the stuff works. All the information is there, and the mechanics clearly work well with each other - something that many other systems struggle with - but I don't know how to put it all together.

I know that the best way to learn is to play, but doing that requires an experienced group, which is something I don't have. If I do play Shadowrun soon, I will probably be running it, at least at first.

So I'm looking for macro examples. Maybe "scenes" is a better word. Multiple-page "mini-stories" that show a variety of things happening. Bounty Hunter kicks in the door of Gunslinger Adept's apartment, they shoot each other, take cover, one tries and maybe takes falling damage. Vehicle Expert tries to mow down Occult Investigator or Combat Mage, showing vehicle combat, spellcasting, and high explosives. Hacker breaks into a server to copy and delete a file, only to encounter a Technomancer. Three or Four sample characters get recruited by Mr. Johnson to break into a lab and steal something; they hit up their contacts, sneak in, get the goods, then screw up and die.

Do such things exist? Not just as fiction chapter separators, but with mechanics and rules notes and page references?

There's just so much information to try and process that I don't even know where to begin. They would be very helpful.

I'd start here.

I would suggest Malachi´s threads:
Three-Day Monty
Extraction Reaction


As for easily accessible rules, check out Aarons cheat sheets.

And for the Matrix:
http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?act=...=26&t=31909

Oh, good one mate. I cracked up -laughing- for a good minute there.

To explain - it all LOOKS good, but once you start to peel back the finish, there's a lot of annoyances to be had.

Welcome to dumpshock! Glad you liked the game. Hope you realize that Anniversary edition is NOT fourth edition - catalyst changed a bunch of tiny little things like scatter, bows, and mystic adepts in it, and 'forgot' to put a lot of changes in the 4A changelog file.
Or publish some errata.
and have a different 4a PDF and printed rulebook. (I found an ultrasound issue between the two -just- the other day)

Just sayin, its a wonderful system, tons of detail to it, great fun - just be prepared to gnash your teeth and go AUGH every once in a while. As for actually playing it - I'm pretty sure both dumpshock and rpg.net have Play-by-post sections, if that's your thing.

A friend of mine put this thread together a while back for 4th edition:

The matrix explained:
http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...explained\

It's pretty comprehensive. Also, not to toot my own horn, I've got melee combat examples in my signature; I've got a series of fights between characters, with fluff text and the dice rolls hidden in spoilers on the page.

-DrZaius

Thank you all very much; I already knew about the quick-play rules and cheatsheets, but the "Run" chronicles and Friday Night Fights were very helpful. The two Run chronicles were particularly nice; with two very different missions and a large group of players, it covered quite a lot. Multiple objectives, meets with an iconic Mr jonhson, social and clubing, hacking, astral, beasts, combat, infiltration, explosives and grenades, vehicle combat, and solid use of contacts. Very nice. Given the shear size and depth of the system, I'm sure there are a couple things that weren't given attention, but it's far more than I was hoping to find, and incredibly helpful.

One negative comment: Udoshi, laughing at a comment made by a brand new player and then insulting the rules system is a very effective way to reduce the size of the Player Base. I have no idea how true your comments are, but I do know that they were neither helpful nor relevant, at least not at this early stage.

Anyway, I suppose the next stop would be to try and find play-by-post or "Run" chronicle for additional "large" examples. Where would I go to find more "pit fighting" style examples, or other similar "short burst" single event examples?

Don't let the detractors getcha down - it's the internet. We're all assholes.

Could probably bug Zaius to do some more Friday Night Fights, there was a tournament in the works at one point. Beyond that, just hit up some of the Play by Post threads - anything over a few pages has got a ton of interaction.

FNF has been put on Hiatus briefly while I get some work done. When looking at the PbP games, make sure to check out the OOC threads as well; that's generally where the dice rolls are.

-DrZaius