Ok so i have played and loved shadow run but i have never GM'ed a game and would like to give it a shot. but i don't know where to start i have an idea of a run but thats it! any advice would be great as it would be good to give our GM a chance to play, as he hasent for a long time!

thanks

torz x

Decide what Char-gen system you like as a gm.
What will be the easiest for you to double-check?
Decide how many flaws and edges you will allow, how many unbalanced points, how will you adjudicate the flaws like hunted or day job?
decide what books will be available to draw material from, what ware is strictly off limits, what gear, what spells, what powers. Certain things can break a game purely by accident.

Have a good idea where you plan to take the game long run. If the players want a lot of combat and action, don't penalize them unnecesarily by only offering quiet jobs. But, don't let them skate out on heat they deserve, you kill a cop, expect someone to look into it, even if they aren't corp.

Manage the expectation of risk vs. reward, find out if the players want lots of cash or lots of karma, be wary of awarding both. A good guideline for story awards is to look at the bottom line of the greater good. If the run only served to better the Corp and in the end screwed the little guy, more cash, less Karma. However if they helped the little guy, even inadvertently, then more Karma, less cash. The option of lots of cash, with the option to "buy" karma is also there.

For my own input I'd start with having some books-at least the Third edition main book. Familiarize yourself with it-you need to be able to find the rules you may have to use, even if you don't know them by heart.

Next I'd make the decision about what sort of game am I playing here? A standard Shadowrun game? Special Forces? Law Enforcemnet? Gangs? Musical? Pick your style, and then let the players know that they need to generate characters that fit this-it will save you a huge head ache.

I'd attempt to generate characters as a group. Have a session just for that. Get everyone around and make characters, and that way you can quietly supervise things, and guide them. Encourage them to kick around ideas and talk about what they are doing. This really works well for us.

Every thing else comes through practice. Don't be afraid to stop things and say "Hey I messed up, lets rewind to this point and fix it." Sometimes that can really solve a bad problem

Have a nice long talk with the crew who you will be GMing for. Find out what kind of runs they like, what style of game they want (cinematic, gritty film noir style, slogging through the jungles, dungeon crawl, etc) and then plan a run based on their desires and interests.

Do a lot of practice encounters before you actually run a game for them. I have 1 friend come over and we do matrix stuff to get a feel for the dice rolls and descriptions. Then we will do magic stuff to get used to the rules, then vehicle combat, etc...

Knowing the rules and consistently applying them is your best preparation. GMing takes a lot of work and practice to make it look easy, so don't get frustrated if the pace of your game is a little slow at first.

Also, it helps if you have access to certain productivity software, like excel. I have made some cheat sheet for keeping track of deckers and combat for some of my PBP games and it helps considerably to know at a glance what operations are available to the character.

Have several plans of action. Your players are going to do something stupid, crazy, or completly unexpected. Be ready to alter the game you had planned out if someone decides to slap Mr Johnson or ram a Lone Star car.

Is this a one shot game or a longer campaign?

Also, if you tell them that one avenue of action is almost certain and unerring death, 9/10 times that is the exact path they take.

Try to give a lot of descriptions of everything. Then toss in something totally unreleated to what it looks like they are suppost to be doing. If they are casing a place out have a guy sitting in his truck flashing his lights or some lady take their picture on a cell phone. Or if they are checking stuff out astrally have the pissed off guy that can't work the computer be a shifter. Or when they jump a fence have them hear a police car siren start up a few blocks away, not for them (but they don't know that).

I'd suggest limiting things as much as possible: gear, edges/flaws, optional rules, etc. Do this for at least the first couple of runs while you get used to the other side of the screen. Then when things are more comfortable you can either let people redesign characters (keeping the dsame general feel), slowly introduce other things, or justrestart from scratch.

Get Wordman's sheets. The reference tables, NPC sheets, etc. are all invaluable tools to help keep track of the world around the PCs.