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Gambitt
Ive played in a regular gaming group of friends, the 6 of us playing once a week, every week for over 10 years (we meet ot our house and generally drink beer, eat takeaways and have a good time). Now my question is, what are the main types of groups that play.
What i mean is ive seen people who play at gaming groups and have a large turnover of players at roleplaying clubs, ive seen mention of 50-100 people playing on shadowland, and ive heard of gen con games.
Could someone tell me a little about the generic types of groups that exist and a little about how they work?
The main reason for this is that i see a lot of different views on shadowrun threads, and often they seem to be based on what type/style of gaming group they usually play in.
Krazy
My first group numbered about fifteen with eight regular players, and we met every few days (we all lived in the same dorm) I took over GMing that group after a few months, so the former GM could play some. we ran linked plot lines with two groups of characters. He ran denver, and i ran seattle. That game was very ambitious but all of the characters were very mortal.
The group I'm about to start has three players possibly a fourth and we have no idea how we will meet up. we all work odd schedules.
I was always under the impression (however misguided it may be) that most groups were in the two to four PC range. How big is the average? (I'm guessing that not too many people run enough PCs to bother with squads, COC and a talent list to figure out who to send where. )
DocMortand
My group's been together nearly a year now, with massive turnover at the start. I've got a good core of 3-4, with the occasional 1-2 that come and go. We meet every week, too.
hermit
My current group has 15 members, six of which actually play regularily. There's some turnover - being scientists, every one of us will eventually spend some time abroad or even vanish to smewhere else for a job - but there also is a hard core who are almost always present. Then there're 'rim' players - who participate when they have the chance, are in town or can arrange with work.

Still, we only play irregularily, sometimes on two following weekends, sometimes with gaps as long as two months. We have set up a web site to cooordinate meetings, whcih is the most convenient way, as all of us have access to the internet.

We have three regular GMs, me included, and play characters in all three campaigns, which also take place on the same timeline - this is due to the fact that all of us like to play sometime, and noone wants to force anyone to GM all the time. The three plots aren't mingling though, and only the respective GM has an oversight about their plots.

Before that group, I was in two others: one from high school (guys from my year's courses, mainly - the group blew often, but hey, gamers were hard to come by back then). The group had 4 players and a GM max and played once a week at least. After that, I was in one of these high-turnover game shop community groups, whcih was totally different, kind of fun, but also killed any chance of character advancement and coherent NPC development because every session was GMed by soemone else.

I have a character whom I played trhough all three groups, btw, though she has been tuned down twice, after entering each new group. Meh. At least, that's a decent way to simulate SOTA advancement. nyahnyah.gif
Jrayjoker
I am currently on hiatus with newborn twins, but up until that point I had a group of 7 (myself included) that met between 1-3 times a month, usually on Saturday nights/Sunday afternoons. We have been roleplaying together since college 15 years ago with some ebb and flow due to grad school and travel abroad.
Crimsondude 2.0
QUOTE (Gambitt)
ive seen mention of 50-100 people playing on shadowland ...

Introduction to Shadowland

The size of SL fluctuates. At its peak there were several hundred SR players on Shadowland. Now, less so.

It is, as has been said elsewhere, the most technologically advanced interactive fiction sitee on the Internet. It is based around a Java client and a play-by-post system. It has it's own internal diceroller, mail system, and a chat room.

To quote the new and improved Newbie's Guide,
QUOTE
Shadowland ("SL") is a site for many things. It was originally created as a forum for role-playing in the Shadowrun RPG world. What exists today is a Java interface for a multifaceted online role-playing universe for the Shadowrun RPG... Each gaming system has its own tree structure separate from the other in which users can role-play through a text-based play-by-post system within a nested structure of user-created folders and pages where the action occurs. These are called "sites."

There is separate Main site which applies to everyone. This site is completely Out Of Character ("OOC"), and serves as a forum for Superusers to communicate with users via the Administration folder, and for users to create their own personal interactive web pages in the Users Folder amongst many other folders and purposes. In the spirit of the original purpose of Shadowland, the Shadowrun RPG site is called "Shadowland" ...


If you want to play a PC, you play a PC. Create a name and have at it. If you want to make another, you can do that, too. If you want to GM a run, a location, a campaign, or any myriad number of downtime events, then you can do that as well by creating objects, recruiting players, rolling dice if necessary, and posting comments onto the site.

And because there have been hundreds of users, and because it's not anyone's world to define as they like, that is why SL and SL users are typically canon purists. To do otherwise would be counterproductive to being open and accessible to anyone who wants to use SL.
Mortax
My group has a core of about four people that play. We have close to a dozen that have been in and out through the last few years. We have been playing for the last 4 years, and have myself and Chibu who do most of the GMing. Everyine else has GMed, and they sometimes take a turn.
Gambitt
Ahhh i see now crimsondude, that explains a lot, including the sticking directly to Canon posts etc. that ive seen. Thx for the info on that one.
Critias
Why not link to the newer/better/cooler one, CD?
Crimsondude 2.0
Well, I can link them to the better, cooler Newbie's Guide. The better, cooler, 21st century FAQ is still under construction though.

Here's an excerpt of the above-linked Newbie's Guide: The Top Ten Shadowland Etiquette Rules.
QUOTE
# General Chat is OOC only.
# Shadowland is an almost entirely text-based medium. Proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation are expected. Take the time to read through a post and ensure that your comment appears clearly worded and properly written.
# The object creation window has a Preview button which can be used to preview how your comment will appear, including how your HTML tags will appear when you post. Use the Preview button. You are not under any time pressures. Take a few seconds to make sure that your posts are formatted correctly, written well, and that your HTML tags are all closed when applicable.
# Read the page you are posting to before you leave a comment in order to get an appreciation of the events you or your PC are walking into so that you don't get sniped by someone in the middle of a firefight. It also helps when you are entering certain locations which maintain certain formal or informal codes of conduct, dress codes, etc.
# Don't charge into IC pages with posts which are out of place or interrupt an ongoing series of interactions. Because Shadowland is a play-by-post website it can, and often does, take days for two PCs to have an IC conversation. Read the page and absorb the context before you post any action which may interrupt the flow of IC role-playing.
# If you are in a role-playing area (Shadowland, Hunting Ground, Planescape), use the OOC pages if they exist. Do not post OOC comments in IC pages. Page owners tend to frown on them as they unnecessarily clutter up a page and break up the flow of IC role-playing. If there is no OOC page, ask the owner via mail message or on Main. There may be a reason why none exists.
# If you don't know something, ask someone. Do not assume anything if you can't help it, because you shouldn't have to assume. If your question is about role-playing on a page or in a folder, use the OOC page or contact the owner via their Main user page or by sending a mail message. If you have a technical support question, there are appropriate pages in the Administration folder in Main.
# If you ask someone for advice, you should generally take their advice. If a Superuser or one of the above listed "Helpful Veterans" gives you advice, then it should be followed as they have been through your experience as a newbie and have worked through them. Ignoring advice is generally considered to be rude.
# Do not engage in inflammatory, provocative, or unnecessarily abusive behavior. Shadowland's Superusers are not moderators, and they do not censor the users of Shadowland because it is expected that a user is more mature than that. However, the lack of content moderation also means that you may be subject to abusive, inflammatory, or unnecssarily provocative comments by other users. The community does not generally tolerate that behavior, and users who engage in that activity are ignored because we are above petty fighting and flame wars.
# If you create a folder or webpage on one of the role-playing sites, you assume all Game Master responsibilities for that site. If you create a bar, for example, then you are expected to role-play the bouncers (if applicable), the bartender, and oversee any dice rolls which occur on your site (and which may require you to create an OOC page for the purpose). As a page owner, it is well advised that you enable comment editing on all of your pages.
fistandantilus4.0
Our group consista of 3-7 players, usually meeting once a week, occasionally more.
We switch off between 2 main GM's with the occasional "guest star" GM to switch things up a bit (although it occasionally causes issues with rewards at the end). Each player has 3-5 characters to switch out as well. We usually have about 3 different plot loines different characters are following.
Crimson Jack
I run two games, all with the same players. We have 4-5 players any time we play. We're all 27-32 years old, which makes for a bit more strategic play and storytelling IMO. We've all been friends for as long as Shadowrun's been around and we've all played since SR1.

I run a "supers" game which is composed of everyone's veteran (read: prime runner caliber) characters. This game feels very anime most of the time, through no fault of my own. The power level is ridiculously high, but all of the players seem to enjoy it immensely.

My favorite game to run however, is the street level campaign (which I run more often). Its a more back-to-basics type of game and the players are having a hard time adjusting to it.

Currently, we play once every 2-3 weeks. But, that will change this summer when I move a bit closer to the rest of my group.
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