Fast Food Fight.

This run is supposed to hook people into the shadowrun world and give them an idea of how the game feels to play and, for the most part, it does a good job of that.
My problem with it is how the group is railroaded into a single approach. All the smart options (EG stake the place out, go in and observe their target, try to trick or con information out of him) have been thought of and are designed to fail. As a result, it may leave new players with a very brute-force oriented opinion of the game.

I understand that combat is a big part of shadowrun but let's be honest, many groups play in a way that means that a combat indicates that something has gone wrong. This is one of the great strengths of shadowrun, as the system allows for multiple approaches to the same obstacles. Even more so in 5.0, with more social skills to choose from making the Face have to invest all the more heavily.

I understand that some runs will end in a fight, but I don't think that shooting down new players attempts to think outside of the violence box by railroading them is going to encourage more people to pick up the game.

Thoughts?

Maybe in four to six years when SR6 comes out, they'll bother to provide two starter runs - one Pink Mohawk, one Black Trenchcoat.

In the meantime, you can either modify FFF, or even just run something else. *shrug*

~Umi

I think you're reading a little too much into it. It's meant to be a quick, brutal, sampler. A way for people to wade in and see what their characters can handle, to get a grip on the system, and to sling some dice and feel badass. I'd wager that far more characters can do that through combat than solely through social skill usage (even just looking at archetypes and common characters posted to assorted forums), so that's what the writer defaulted to.

Folks can grab an archetype character that looks badass, get a feel for their combat skills, and go to town. It's not like the original Food Fight was exactly heavy on deep, meaningful, character interaction and social skill usage, either.

I dunno about you, Critias, but I have fond memories of rolling Negotion to get the clerk to accept an expired 2 for 1 coupon for soy dogs, rolling Intimidation against the vending machine to get it to drop my Vanilla Mint Kola-Blaster, and striking up an extended roleplay sequence of using my Leadership skill to coach the team Street Sam into successfully winning that plushy Dunkelzahn that I wanted from the Claw Game machine.

~Umi

This is what I live for.

Why do all James Bond movies start with an action sequence? It's all about the hook. I've run a lot of convention games and without fail the new players want action, even in role-play heavy scenarios. As players get a better handle on the systems they start to care more about social skills and the black trenchcoat.

Very true... and then they get a distinct fear of Racoon Spirits.

Generally people judge a game based on how easy combat is, and how cool they can be in it.

After the combat stuff starts to wear thin... they head along down the path to darker and darker trench coats.

In either case FFF is not exactly what I'd call a typical Shadowrun. With 5e I'd try converting some of the more classical adventures over or pick up Sprawl Wilds and run some of that for a better taste.

Shudder. The Raccons, they're everywere.

I think something that we often overlook as experienced gamers is the idea that quickstart adventures aren't really written for people like us (IMO). They're for people who might've heard of Shadowrun once or twice, or who read one of the old novels twenty years ago, or who started dating a gamer and wanted to learn to play as a way to spend time with them. They're for people who aren't familiar with the dice system, or the people who actually learn something from the "what is a roleplaying game?" section in the core books that we all completely ignore.

For us, yeah, something like FFF will seem overly simplistic. We might worry that it gives the wrong impression to new players or GMs and makes them think that the system is limited somehow, because all they see is one facet of it. Honestly, the times I've taken players through QSRs, the reaction I usually get is "I'm so busy trying to figure out how to read my sheet and how the dice system works that I'm fine just doing one thing". (I can't even imagine what it would be like to be in a group of non-gamers trying RPGs for the first time, and end up being nominated as the GM.) After a while, though, the core mechanics of the game become clear - combat's really good at getting people used to those - and eventually, the new players can go, "okay, what else can I do with this system?". At that point, they know enough about Shadowrun to be able to figure things out for themselves instead of looking at a rulebook and seeing gibberish.

tl;dr Sure, narrow focus and railroading suck for experienced players. For new players, though, having too many options might be overwhelming and discouraging. FFF is meant for people who don't know really know "RPGs" or "Shadowrun" (as opposed to people who know RPGs and Shadowrun, but not SR5) to have a chance to get their feet wet, and from what I'm seeing, it does a good job of that.

</soapbox>

The kind of options the OP is talking about are only there if a player comes up with, so there's nothing to be overwhelmed by.
Narrow base focus isn't bad, but railroading is never good.

A competent GM can retool something like Food Fight to be more complex if he likes. There's plenty of room to expand the legwork segment, room to add other locations or complications (what if the police are monitoring the mob guys, etc).

See, that's what I mean. "A competent GM" can do a lot of things differently with something like FFF, sure. A competent GM who's familiar with SR4(A) probably doesn't even need FFF as an adventure, they can just adapt or write another one that they like more to fit SR5 rules. My point is that intro adventures like FFF aren't intended for competent GMs and competent players, they're intended for RPG noobs who (to put it bluntly) don't know their asses from a hole in the ground when it comes to gaming in general and/or Shadowrun in particular.

I get it, by our standards FFF isn't that great an adventure because it's too simplistic and doesn't offer us enough freedom - but complexity is only a good thing when people are prepared to handle it. Adding university-level terminology into a children's book might make it "better" for you, but it's going to be confusing as hell for the four-year-old that tries to read it. Sometimes, people who are faced with too many options will get frustrated and quit, and I think that's what the writers were trying to avoid with the intro adventures. Besides, it's not like people can't buy/download other modules and see that there's more to the game than combat.

The idea behind a QuickStart isn't to provide a strong storytelling experience with multiple twists and turns and a great mystery that blah blah blah.

The entire point is to provide something that showcases how the system works and teaches the rules to new players. Period. Since Shadowrun has always been very heavy on combat rules, Food Fight has always been a combat showcase. It's a shootout in a convenience store FFS. Exactly how much depth do you want?!

I will note, though, that every time they try to mess with the concept of "the runners are in a Stuffer Shack when a street gang robs the place", the adventure suffers. I remember the SR4 version had like five friggin' plotlines in it. JUST STOP. You're in a store. Gang tries to rob store. They act like obnoxious asses in ways meant specifically to piss you off so you draw on them. There's the adventure.

For new players since the 2e days I've added on to Food Fight. Basically they are hired to run drugs for a chemist down on his luck (which has had some extra bonuses content added since Breaking Bad, before he was very two dimensional) over to the manager of a stuffer shack. The gang (which changes from time to time to) knows theres someone dealing on their turf and heard its out of that stuffer shack. Embellish where you wish

[edit] We start with the PCs right out side of the stuffer shack with the drugs in the evening, maybe a cop car out front getting some donuts or whatever random thing I throw in. Then cut to flashbacks of the meet from time to time with the chemist. Everyone involved is green, the chemist, the manager, the players and they are all about to enter the shadowy streets of shadowrun.