Greetings, I did not see a more suitible forum to post this in, if I should post it somewhere else, then please let me know.

I have not played shadowrun in about 10 or so years ago. Our group disbanded shortly after 2nd edition had come out. I think we may have made it a year or so into it before we all sort of broke off (moved away, etc). Anyway, a couple years ago I picked up a collection of 3rd and 2nd edition rule books and scenerios to add to my first edition (and partial 2nd editon collection). I am only missing a few books from the entire collection. Anyway, I have been calling around to a few of my freinds and trying to get the group back together along with some new players that have never even played an rpg before, lured with the promise of a good story, good conversation, and good beer. I have been scouring the net to try and find some things to aide me in my "quick" relearning of the rules (I know 4th edition is out now, I will pick it up, but I want to get going with what I have for now). I have came to impass with the following things however and I was hoping you all might be able to point me in the right direction. I appreciate all the help, and look forward to entering the shadows once again.

---Rules Question: Does the mage select what Damage Code they would like to use? Light, Medium, Serious, Deadly?
I am not seeing where that is selected, I see where drain is affected by this, but I for the life of me cannot where this is "spelled out" (pardon the pun).
Otherwise, I am good to go with the rules.

---When I use to GM Shadowrun I made folders (dossiers) for my players. Before I would just make a copy of the GM screen for all of the modfiers, so they could calculate their own "to hits", along with a skill default chart, and a damage track sheet so they did not have to wear holes in their character sheet. Does anyone have a download of a newbie player handout that I could print off for my players that might include this sort of thin, plus some background or other useful bitz? I could not find one.

I love to use visual aides for fights, I was curious if anyone has made a "game board" for maps to use with miniatures, I was thinking I would just take two posterboards, one side paint green, the other grey and then grid it off. I am thining about having a single square in the grid represent 2 meters. Does anyone else use miniatures in their games? IF so what do you use for a grid? squares hexes? What are the range equivelents?

I have some miniatures for it, but does anyone know where to find some equvilent downloadable post apocolypticish downloadable paper miniatures for use with the game?

Again, I appreciate all the input, if anyone has any suggestions or comments please feel free to let me know. Thanks again! and I look forward to prowling the boards with what appears to be a great online community of shadowrunners.

This would be better suited to the general Shadowrun forum, especially since that section gets a lot more traffic than this one. This section is more for projects to create aids for Shadowrun gaming.

In SR3 spells are cast at whatever damage level they want. They then have to resist that much drain (possibly modified by the spell, see spell descriptions for drain modifiers).

The NSRCG (a downloadable chargen program for SR3) has some "Lost Tables" as part of the download that has much of what is on the gm screen and some tables that aren't, but still are used alot. That program also has the ability to print out whole sheets of condition monitors as part of printing out the character sheets.

I do use minis, but I just use a whiteboard or mat with a grid on it for the mat. For miniatures I use metal ones I painted, but if i'm feeling lazy I also have the paper ones from the DMZ and Denver box sets (kind of rare since they have been out of print for a while). I don't know of any sites for downloading any paper miniatures, sorry.

Keep in mind, Shadowrun 4th ed. was just released at GenCon. You may want to wait for its release if you are starting new people in the world. The rules are supposedly more "streamlined" and theoretically easier to learn.

Thank you for the quick reply, I will download the character generator and check it out.

When using your miniatures what do you use for measuring range?

That is what is what I was trying to ask in to many words. Do you use a tape? Hex's? Grids? If you use Hex's or Grids what size is each hex or grid for comparison sake.

Thank you for the quick reply!

btw mod, if you could please move my post, I am very sorry for postinig in the wrong forum.

I am posting this at work and have a very small window open on my computer. I did not scroll down to see the general forum. I thought I had to go into one of the subforums.

I apologize, and thanks.

Typically, the classic mini selection is 1 inch repressenting 5 feet (roughly).
There are some games with odd-ball scales, but if you go with D&D scale mini's, that's the formula.
When I do maps, I draw it all in the 1in = 5ft scale but put in a grid of 1m squares to facilitate range calculations, though I may go to 1m hex grid.