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Supercilious
I am starting a new campaign, in it I will have five runners. (Shaman, Face, Troll Gunbunny, Elven Infiltrator, and a Dwarven Decker). The face and the Troll Gunbunny both have some experience, understand the rules, and have played in several campaigns (Mine and others). The Elven Infiltrator and the Dwarven Decker both have played in a single campaign of mine, which lasted about four months, and I never did anything too rules heavy (But they understand how the ropleplaying and planning aspect of a run work, they just only ever had two shootouts). The shaman has never played, and has no experience.

I am thinking about phasing them into the new campaign in three parts. I will run a single seperate run for the Face/Gunbunny, then Face/Gunbunny/Infiltrator/Decker, and then for the third run I will put them all together. (The idea being that each run requires additional talent until the team is established). Writing these runs is no issue, what I am worried about is inter-team division and players perhaps feeling left out, as the Shaman will not have any "established" connection to the other players when he comes in.

Is there a better way to give everyone some more experience before the "real" runs? I want everyone to have time to "rethink" how to play their characters before I put them in true danger.
weblife
I'd have to strongly advice against leaving the shaman out. He's the "newbie" and he will learn much more, if he's part of the team from the beginning.

Also, social relations form quickly. If hes not present, then he will be the outsider, or fringe member, until the group gets a new member.

If anything, take the newbie and one or two others on the intro run, then add the rest.

Being new both socially and gamewise is tough for anyone. Don't hang him out to begin with.
Aku
i would agree with web if anything, do the reverse, starting with the shamen infil and decker, then add the other two, as the johnson feels that they could benifit from some more experienced members
wargear
I allways encourage the players to come up with interrelationships of their own. Your shaman may be an old schoolyard chummer of the Face. When the Face gets handed a run, he looks up his old chummer to provide magical support.

Having the newbie and one of the experienced players having a connection gives the newbie someone he can look to for guidance in how to fit into the setting, someone to provide social cues for his character. It also means that the Face player has something to do when there are no meets or negotiations in sight...assisting the newbie with learning the magic system.
Edward
Make the newbie read exactly what spirits can do, it was 4 months before myself and 2 other players realised we had not been approaching the potential of our spirits because we where seeing them as nothing but scouts and combatants.

As to prior knowledge of one another, non is really needed in SR, working with somebody new because the job demands there special talents is normal, all it takes is a trusted fixer to say “this guy should do OK” of cause you should make it clear that although they may be trustworthy, you don’t know that and wachfullnes is good RP.

Edward
Supercilious
Okay, so my new plan is to go Shamn, Face, Infiltrator for one run, then grab the Decker and the Troll. The reason I had him out was that no one in the group wanted to get "stuck" with the noob. I already had him read the entire magic section, and then explain to me how astral combat worked; He seems to have an okay grasp of it.
SpasticTeapot
Send 'em all out on Supermarket Shuffle, or whatever they re-named that run. It's pretty simple, and the abundance of relatively low-willpower opponents (read: manabolt fodder) make it a good environment for a mage. There's also the minor advantage of spirits; even a force-2 spirit's Accident power can cause some pretty serious problems if you're standing under a Slurpee machine. See below:
GM: The big guy with the shotgun points it in your direction. You just dented a TV, and he looks mad.
Shaman: Accident with my City Spirit.
GM: The big guy is suddenly buried under fifty gallons of hyper-sugary semi-frozen pink slush. He's freezing, wet, and his gun is too clogged with sprinkles to actually work.

See my point?
Supercilious
Hehe, the story requires that there be atleast two seperate groups to begin with, however. How should I divvy the team so I can have two starting groups but the Mage still ends up feeling important and learning a bit about magic in a "trial by fire" environment?
Crimson Jack
I'll throw in my two nuyen on this one. Keep the team together from the get-go. The shammie should be able to pick up on all kinds of things by doing so. Plus, the team will get a feel for one another, each other's abilities, and perhaps start gelling earlier than the first big run.

I'd still give them a few cakewalks just to get their feet wet, but keep 'em all together. Giving everyone the opportunity to get an idea who their characters are and earn equivalent amounts of karma should help in preventing competitiong (the bad kind) amongst one another.
Supercilious
Alright, perhaps the merits of a wellbonded team do indeed overwhelm the story in this case (Just a bit of re-writing, oh well).
Angelone
You could still have two seperate crews and run the Food Fight scenerio. Just have both crews in the Stuffer Shack when it gets hit. Later, when they actually have to run together they'll remember each other from the earlier incident and hopefully click better as a team, than just a bunch of random runners who got thrown togther.
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