Hey Dumpshock,

I'm running the first session in a new shadowrun game this Sunday. It's a smaller group than I'm used to running with only three players and I'm running it street level using the tech-noir alternate character creation rules. The group consists of two humans and a dwarf. The humans are a female, cat burglar, with a penchant for hooding, while the other is a Jason Statham type transporter, albeit with a less fancy car, he specializes in unpreparedness, focussing on taking enemies weapons from them rather than carrying his own (through martial arts). The Dwarf is a chip-head, adept with a focus in combat, but otherwise basically well rounded (computer, perception, influence, etc.).

I plan to run them through a fairly basic extraction run of my own design. It's located in a warehouse in the barrens and the primary opposition is a turf gang so the group shouldn't have too much trouble considering their lack of astral and matrix support. (I plan to seriously downplay the presence of magic in this game considering none of the characters currently have access to the astral).

The bonus hinges on the gang leader believing that the target is being extracted against his will and that the extraction is not for pleasant reasons. (This is because the individual is currently being held by the gang leader and the gang leader wants him to suffer, believing that the target will suffer at the hands of the runners may convince him against too serious of pursuit.)

I plan at some point to put some sort of chase sequence in so the transporter has a chance to shine, not sure what to do with the other two, the thief could have a chance to do something sneaky I'm sure; but what of the adept, combat may occur but I prefer not to present it as the only option to my players. I may use the adepts chip dealer as a source of information if the gang includes any chip users but this still doesn't feel like giving the player a chance to shine.

After the first session I should have their 3x3 character profiles (three goals, three beliefs, three sentence back-story [minimum]) and it will be easier to tailor adventures to their characters (or so i hope).

So I guess this is my very roundabout way of saying...How do you give an individual player a chance to shine?

Also general tips for running games (first and otherwise) appreciated. I know the meet section of the run pretty well, and I think I can plan out the location for the actual run, but how do I engage the players during the legwork section (especially considering the lack of matrix, drone or astral support). In addition, planning security layouts isn't my strong suit, what is the most effective/efficient way of doing this?

From the sound of it the dwarf is the best at people interaction (influence and perception skills) - add soem exotic contacts and the language chips to deal with them and voila, he's got a niche to fill - the face.

This means that the legwork phase will have each character doing his own sort of recon (physical for the burglar, remote for the driver, social for the dwarf) without steeping on the other's toes. Of course if there's no fight he won't have the chance to display that facet of his skills, but don't owrry, they'll be occasions for that.

Note : with SR4's martrux, being a chiphead also means he's never more than one dowload away from having the weiird skill that's need. Parachuting. Bomb disposal. Accounting. Golf. Cooking. Knitting. whatever you need, he can get it.

There is no set formula for that. What I do is find a moment in game that interest's them, and run with it. So for example, maybe the female cat burglar is the only person who can reasonably sneak up on the roof of the warehouse and deactivate the whatever, or plant the whatever. Maybe the dwarf get's a nice action movie fight scene...etc....I know you were likely hoping for something better than play it by ear, but it really is better that way.

Some of this will depend upon personal GM style and focus of GM abilities but I much prefer a somewhat open run that has many many possible solutions and then let the players pick the one that they like the best. This means that they can push for the approaches that they find the most fun. The big thing is that you not have only one or two real options about how to solve the problem. Later, once you know what they enjoy and what they are capable of then you can give them missions with fewer options where those options are what they find fun.

Thanks for the initial responses.

I recognize that I will likely have to wing much of the session, such is the nature or shadowrun, however I would like to be prepared as I can be so that when I have to improvise it is a moment of creativity as opposed to yet another cliche as my pool of ideas is quickly drained dry by endless improvisation (or at least this is my fear).

As an additional question on the topic of preparing...How many complication/sub-plots do you (dumpshock) generally find it best to plan ahead of time? assuming a conservative time/effort budget.

I do a massive amount of prep work. I write all of the details that the players can't directly control down ahead of time:

• The Weather, lunar and environmental conditions. Generally speaking the PC's can't control this. I detail a week prior, the time period of the game, and a week after. Edit This helps you determine baseline modifiers. So you can look at the visibility tables, or the condition modifiers chart and add or subtract dice appropriately.
• I establish ahead of time what goals the Employer wants accomplished, and any limitations they may choose to try and impose. (Kill this guy, but not publicly.)
• I establish the target zone-physical plant (Buildings, security measures, important terrain features, often I'll map a few blocks in every direction); security personnel (How many, what sort of things they'll do in certain situations-run and hide if shot at; call the fire department in case of a fire; etc...); nonessential personnel that may be encountered-a driver with a gambling debt, a secretary with a drinking problem, etc...; other teams or units operating in the area (Or gangs or creatures.)
• I detail the payment, and any thing that may be subbed for hard cash. (Maybe Mr. Johnson has an in with the local gun shop and can pay twice in weapons or ammo)

After that I open that sandbox up for the PC's to interact with. There is no single way to get to the objective.

Im with Paul on this one with one caveat: "Any great, awesome plan really never survives first contact with the ene... erm players ". Have a really good idea of how to react appropriately, if you have any doubts about where to begin, start here. Figure out how much YOU as a gm know the setting and the feel of SR and also how well familiar both the PCS and the players themselves are with that background and plan accordingly.

Dont go writing screamsheets the players may never see if their characters dont look at news/blogs etc or if they would miss obvious references such as "MCT opens new human rehabilitation center for the Electronically Inclined" (which should equal in their heads and yours: "MCT has a new reprocessing center for technos and techno friends".

I would do as paul suggested and basically flock out what opposition/allies are likely to be around, have a decent few maps of interesting places for the players and then put some totally unrelated fluff in because I can't tell you how many times players will look around at the options and pick the door that didnt exist. Guide them, but dont railroad.

Legwork is probably your best bet to get the shining that you want, Adept goes to a bar to chat up employees etc, maybe gets in a barfight etc, then the dwarf has to cover their tracks so they dont pop up on the radar when they do the job etc.

Thanks again for all the advice, I'll actually have an opportunity to put some of it into practice now that my session has been cancelled 2 hours before it was supposed to start because two of my players can't come...

(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

It happens. That's why flexible is good. Besides being suggestive of naughty activities, which is a good play on words right? It also means that no matter what direction they end up rolling down you can make it work.

I've found snagging some maps from Google Maps can help flesh things out, and by locking down what's int he area it helps you as the GM. "Okay here's the bus stop. And here's where the traffic drones are. And this is a cheap bar and grill. That? it's a three story apartment complex..." None of it revolves around making decisions for the players, but rather focuses how you react to those decisions.