Hey all,
I am new to Shadowrun 4th universe. I would like to start running some games for my friends. I do have the core book and am currently reading through it. I am still pretty new to GMing all together and wanted to know if there exists some cheat sheets for test rolls and rules. Also if there are any tips anyone could hep me with that I can use while GMing. Ex: things to watch out for or good ways to route the players if need be.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I am looking around and finding pre-made runs to get ideas and help me craft stories so I am trying to get a good start on things.

Thanks,
Erick J.

Welcome to Dumpshock
Aaron Pavoa resources, cheat sheets etc.
Quickstart Rules Free + Food Fight
Free Denver Missions Downloads

Otherwise, read up here, everyone will tell you everything they think is wrong.

Wow, there's so much. Good luck, for one thing.

If you're new to GMing as well, just remember that it's okay to screw up, to be honest with your group, and the point is having fun.

Wow, thanks a lot an in .pdf form too!

As someone just getting his feet wet with SR, from my own research, I would recommend these to new GMs:

A shadowrun podcast with a few intro to SR episodes:

http://hiddengrid.com/blog/

On the run adventure, the adventure itself is supposedly not very good, but it has a lot of good advice for new GMs:

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info...d=3642&it=1

Good luck

Official Shadowrun, Fourth Edition FAQ - sometimes can be useful.

And a little friendly advice: watch the magic and wireless Matrix. They are really cool, but also more powerful than you probably expect.

Good luck!

One other important question, are your players also new to Shadowrun? I know in my own expierence, I've run SR3 and SR2 as well as a number of other games, but had never run SR4. I am fortunate that two of my players (Bull and Caine_Haizen, yes, those two) are expierenced SR players, so I could lean on them for rules stuff while I learned, and just ran the stuff. Now I realize that not all expierenced players might help a new GM and take advantage of them, but it doesn't always happen.

I only have one who has experienced SR before, his knowledge on the rules may be a bit rusty though and not sure how long it as been.

I Chose Shadowrun because we already have a D&D 4th game DM'd by someone else. I wanted to run something other then D&D and not fantasy.

I will probably be saving a lot of the cheat sheets and character creation sheets in .pdf format for a few of us have iPads and load up our sheets and pdf books on them to have it all in one place. I am hoping to use this availability of rules and sheets help us through. But I will probably be back here a few times or more for help questions.

I wonder if any online games are being run that I could sit in?

Who the heck is Aaron Pavoa?

Ha! You made a funny!

Wait, what?

You been saving that up for 8½ years?

Truly, his lurking skills are legend.

No, it didn't carry over my posts through the...many new boards that DS has gone through.

Aaron Pavao's cheat sheets were converted to Javascript by bofh and can be found in:
http://www.jackpoint.net/sheets/index.html

[Oops! Answered later.]

I suggest really looking over these forums, they have given me some really good ideas and answers to questions. A good resource.

I thought this was a good little thread Making things Easier

Particularly
Tips on First Run
Keeping games Fresh
were good too.

Lots of good advice on the forums.
Lots of rules 'debates' and lots on how different styles affect your game

For Example How black trench coat do you want your game?

Thanks for all the help! There is a lot to take in especially being new to the whole game and system. I am trying to wrap my head around all the tests and what my players may do to throw curve balls at me.

I guess I should go down the the geek store and see if they have the denver missions in stock.

Is the runners companion something that the players should need to use as reference or is it optional?

Useful, but optional. Once they get more up to speed I'd introduce it as possibilities for character/lifestyle tweaking.

Does it also include rules and such, like a Players Hand Book for D&D?

Everything includes rules. They're better off with the core book, the companion has character customization and lifestyle customization rules. If they really want to part out their hideouts, let you know the kind of area and the kind of things they do there, then it's keen. If they're just looking for how to play and the basics, the core's gonna do the job.

Newbie player myself, only been at it a month.

Here is a thread detailing useful sources, including my library of useful threads.

Definately check out PACKS and the Detailed Examples of Play.

Also for a good reference I never see much people point out: watch Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex. It runs a lot like shadowrun, except lack of magic. Even their wireless communication is a lot like SR4.

Did you start from scratch with your group or did you start playing with people who were already familiar with SR?

Boy am I glad to have those back. The links in the Community Projects thread were all 404d.

The checklist style makes everything so much easier to keep track of.

I have a whole PDF book now. I need to get a binder and print for others.

My advice on little things to make your game a bit better:
1. Have a list of random NPC names on hand, about 20-40. (I grab mine at random from a phone book.) When the PCs start talking to somebody, grab a name from the list.
2. Write down everything, particularly the stuff you make up as you go along. 12 months later, the players are going to ask you about "Bodan Ganazowitz" and you won't remember a darn thing about him.
3. Ask the players to know the rules relevant to their character. The mage should look up the spell descriptions for you, and know what their spirits do. The hackers should look up the rules for exploit when they want to do it. You should be familiar with the rules as well, but you have a lot to worry about - let the players take some of the load.
4. Read up on spirits and their powers. Seriously, they can bite you as they give the team a lot of options. They can unravel plots and encounters pretty quickly.
5. Be very careful about allowing exceptions to the character build rules. Don't let them get more than one skill at 6, or too many positive/negative qualities.
6. Be careful about approving qualities: anything that makes your life too complicated, don't allow. Enemies, dream pacts and things like that create more work for you at the table.
7. Do not be afraid to "wing it" when it comes to rules. Skill+Attribute +/- a modifier for 1-4 hits. You may get it wrong, but speed is, nine times out of ten, more important than getting the rule citation perfect.
8. Do not be afraid to wing it when it comes to storylines either.
9. Never, ever, ever expect a pre-written adventure to work. It will go off the rails completely, no matter what you do.
10. Do not force the players to do things, just to keep the adventure on track.
11. Be willing to ask the players for a "5 minute break so I can figure out what the heck is going to happen next."

What would be a good limit number to the qualities for beginners?

It isn't as much about a set number as the added complexity.

Stuff like Catlike and Exceptional Attribute, it just gets noted as a bonus somewhere, that's no problem.

But a guy with Gremlins, Combat Paralysis, First Impression, Flashback and Hawkeye introduces a lot of conditions and mechanics you and the player have to keep an eye out for.

And some qualities can be really disruptive, some just by their nature, others because they require experienced players. A Vindictive player can really derail everything if he doesn't know what he's doing.

That would make sense. I need to come up with a list of qualities I need to ban until I get more experience as a GM then. I am guessing some of the ones you posted are main offenders?

The default limit for qualities (positive and negative, separately) is 35 build points. I believe the suggestion is to keep that limit in place.

For building characters, keep two things in mind: the system (character creation and play mechanics) rewards specialization, because there are many, many choices and relatively few build points; it also punishes over-specialization, with limits and cost-increases for the high-end options.

if you can stand using an excel spreadsheet, this is excellent; it's maintained by the forum community here, over in community projects. Myself and most of my players have found it to be very helpful, though one person hates spreadsheets, so your mileage may vary.

It depends on the player and you. Some guys are really good roleplayers and can handle that. Others are really good at rules and can juggle lots of exception and remember modifiers. Others aren't honest enough to keep an eye out for some disadvantage that I'm also going to forget.

I steer clear of things players can't handle, I've banned some disruptive/abused stuff (Restricted Gear, Incompetent, Amnesia, In Debt, Enemy, Judas), and I refuse to deal with anything that makes the players too weird or easily identifiable or unable to function. Distinctive Style, SURGE with beaks, Uncouth, stuff like that I'm normally not going to allow. I have enough to do with working out how NPCs behave to factor in them seeing strange stuff, and the mirrorshades and trenchcoat style I like works poorly with it.

I could give a list of qualities to avoid, but since there are so many qualities scattered around the various source books, it's be easier to give what types of ones I would recommend avoiding:
1. Anything that requires you to make another NPC. Enemy, dependent, amnesia (the 25 BP one), etc.
2. Anything that forces to players to do something, such as Vindictive, Judas, Berserker, Flashbacks, Combat Monster, etc. These can easily derail a session, and some players take waaaay to much joy in using them as an excuse to be dorks. I'd include Computer Illiterate and Illiterate in this category as well.
3. Anything that complicates the rules. Gremlins is a bear for that, as it changes how glitches work, and it's all too easy to forget about it (or "forget" about it) during play.

There's no real need to give the players a list of banned ones - just tell them your concerns, and ask them to get your okay to take any qualities. I've learned the hard way to be careful about quality-monkeys: somebody with 35 points in positive qualities and 35 points in negative qualities is going to cause problems. They can be administrative pains, disruptive to game play, or just plain out of whack. And no matter how much they plead, stick to the 35 point limit.

Ultimately, human nature being what it is, a lot of players "forget" about their negative qualities. If you aren't on the ball, the players will just use those qualities to get free build points. As a GM, you have an obligation to the rules (and the players that didn't take negative qualities) to enforce negative qualities. Negative qualities should cause them problems, but some negative qualities are so disruptive (Vindictive, Combat Monster) that they can completely screw up the whole game and get everybody killed. Plus, players can get resentful every time their negative quality comes up.

One thing I've had a player try is to stack a bunch of negative qualities into one entity in his background - like a dependent that is also a major contact that is part of their day job that also is their dark secret. This is a bad idea - you can't use the negative quality other than as a lethal hammer that will eliminate the character.

You know, it is really funny, that. Vindictive could work. It could be a really interesting character. Movies and books are full of colorful, vindictive characters. But it always has to be the dorks who pick it. Sigh.

Keep in mind that any quality, used by a power gamer, can be a disruptive-to-the-game quality. Ban not just based on what people on the forums say, but based on your experience with your gaming group. You'll know who tends to take what out of context. And it's easier to control your group when you make your house rules according to your groups' behavioral patterns.

Runner Smurfs post at the top of the page should be in the GM guidance section in SR4A. I do most of the things he listed. The ones I don't do, I'm going to start doing.