Well I'm making a newbie handout this week to be used in the Shadowrun game I'm getting ready to run. Here's what I'm thinking should go in there so far, any thoughts? I'm passing it out Thursday.


Flavor:
>History of the 6th World
>A Blurb on all the major Mega's
>A Blurb on all the major SR Archetypes (Riggers, Deckers, Adepts, etc.)
>Some sort of "Newbie Runners Guide" put together by the charitable folks at Shadowland (I'd especially like ideas on this)



Game Info:
>Explanation of the Shadowrun Rules system (very basic, don't wanna confuse too many folks yet)
>The Priority Character Creation System to keep the Mainbook Bottleneck down
>List of skills
>Equipment Packages for the major archetypes and general Runner EQ packs
>List of the more common piece's of cyberware and their effects
>List of the supplements we'll be working out of (and supplements that the players can stay the heck away from!)


Well that's about it. Did I miss anything? Do you have suggestions for the specific categories?

-7.62

How about a story so they get the gritty feeling.

Plus ca change is a good one.

And a big single page that says, "killing a person doesn't get you exp"

Make them watch Ronin, Heat, Collateral, Léon, Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai, The Day of the Jackal (the 1973 original), The Score, The Good Thief, Blade Runner, Strange Days (Angela Bassett is the street sam I always want at my back), Cidade de Deus, etc. ...

I would only include the setting, concept, and storylines of the game first. Lets the players decide whether they want to play a gritty, shadowrun type of game. I would put some focus on the psuedo-realism of the game.

From there I would let the first session be for chargen and development. Take everyone through step by step. Then go through all the rules and gamesystem. Now everyone is on the same page and they have a good idea how you are going to run the game.

I tried this with my game group as they were all new to the game and it worked very well.