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Supercilious
PROLOGUE: Due to the influx of new players, and a few requests, this is a tutorial on how to play Shadowrun. However, this is not from a rules perspective, but rather from a "what to do" perspective. I hope it is marginally helpful, feel free to tell me what additions I should make.

The Cast:
John (Drone Rigger).
Gabe (Street Samurai).
Chris (Combat Mage).
Marley (Weapons Specialist).
Nik (Hacker).

Frank (Fixer).
Jill (Face).
Mr. Smith (Johnson).
Frank Lin (Leader of the Ork Rights Committee).
Jack Lin (Son of Frank Lin).
Six bodyguards to Frank Lin (And reinforcements, should they be needed)..

The Setting: Downtown Seattle, Interbay, and your runners' doss.

The Time: 2070, August 2nd.

//Run demo, begin. (ASSUMPTIONS MADE: All players have their own apartments, and they all have the same fixer).

GM: The night is hot as hell, about 10:00PM; John, you get a call on your disposable cell phone.

John: Okay, I answer it.

(GM)Frank: Hey, how's it goin'.

John: Hot as drek, whatcha need?

(GM)Frank: I got a job you might want, somethin' right up your alley...

John: I'm interested...

(GM)Frank: You'se gonna be workin' with a few others, knockin' off some guy, that's all I know.

John: Okay, I am going to default to my charisma on Negotiate, and use my edge, to ask him if he might know a little bit more than he is telling about the job...

John: I got 2 hits!

(GM)Frank: Alright alright, the guys a member of the Ork Rights Committee, and pretty well connected from what I heard, but that really is ALL I know!

John: Thanks Frank! keep me informed.

John: I also want to wire frank 50 Nuyen for the tip.

---
PLEASING INTERLUDE: Now, at this point the fixer calls each of the other players, one after another, with pretty much the same offer, each of the players therefore would roll their respective negotiation skills to find out more (If they are smart). I am going to assume that no one else finds anything else new out, because Frank does not know any more than he is telling. We will now pick up right where we left off, with the crew all being informed of the mission, waiting for further contact. It is further assumed that this is a FIRST run, thus none of the characters know eachother. Also note that the names associated with each character are CHARACTER names, not player names. It is vital to address someone by their character name for all game-related events, except for arguments, then you refer to them by your favourite curse. This helps build up the in-character feel of the game, one of the best parts of Shadowrun. As we were.
---

GM: John, your cellular rings again, it is now about 10:30PM

John: I answer it.

(GM)Mr. Smith: Hello, is this John?

John: Who's asking?

(GM)Mr. Smith: This is Mr. Smith, if you ever happen to see John, tell him: Raging Pitt, 11AM sharp.

GM: You hear a click, and your call is disconnected.

---
ANOTHER PLEASING INTERLUDE: Notice how John did not answer his phone: 'Hello, John speaking?' This is because John is a smart man, and he is therefore a very PARANOID man. 9/10 Johnsons will leave you alone, but that tenth fragger, he's the one to watch out for. John probably lives every day in fear that one of his enemies may have found him out. Therefore John is very careful who knows where he is, and has a backup doss in the sprawl in case things get ugly and he needs to lay low. Also note how he uses a DISPOSABLE CELLPHONE. This is very smart as only a fool uses a hard line, too easy to trace and too hard to dump. As per last time the Johnson schedules everyone to meet him at the Raging Pitt at 11AM, individual conversations may vary a little bit, but nothing major happens so we will just fast forward to the meet the next day, 11AM sharp.
---

GM: Okay, since you all showed up early and mingled with the crowd, you are naturally watching the back table that everyone in the place knows is reserved for "Special Guests." And at 11AM exactly you see an Elf with a nice black suit walk over to the back table of the room, and look around the bar, the elf has no visible 'ware.

TEAM: Okay, we head over to the back table...

John: I pull out my white-noise generator, and turn it on after we are all seated.

(GM)Mr. Smith: Hello everyone, thank you for meeting me. I have a mission for you.

Marley: I want to take on a leadership role, I respond quickly and without hesitation (Rolls his Etiquette and gets... no hits) with: We are interested...

(GM)Mr. Smith: I see, then here are the details. I need you to kill Frank Lin by august 13th. Pay will be 13,000 Nuyen per person, with a 1,000 Nuyen bonus (each) if you can kill his son Jack, also. I have details on where he will be on August 4th, 5th, and 12th, I also have details of his standard security entourage.

Marley: Okay, I want to try and Negotiate him up to 15,000 Nuyen each, (Rolls his Negotiation skill and gets... 2 hits)!

(GM)Mr. Smith: Very well, deal.

Marley: I look from person to person, waiting to seem them nod or make some indictator that they accept.

TEAM: We do.

Marley: We accept, Mr. Smith.

(GM)Mr. Smith: Excellent, this is the number I can be reached at if you need anything. You may only call once. He then walks out of the bar.

---
THE NEXT PLEASING INTERLUDE: During this conversation, Mr. Smith downloaded the data that he offered during the meet to Nik's Pocket Secretary over his PAN. After the Johnson leaves, the party gets to know one another (Or as much as they are willing to share with one another). After that they decide to head to one of their dosses to plan out the mission, they decide that they should hit as early as possible. As they are driving back to John's doss (He was the only one willing to let anyone come to his house, but John has a backup pad just in case so he is not that worried) John realizes something, Frank Lin is the leader of the ORC! No wonder the pay was so high, John also hypothesizes that the elf my have come from Tir Tairngire. After John mentions this to the group, Nik immediately agree's, Nik is even planning to attend the ORC rally on the 14th, no wonder the Elf wanted Frank dead... We now pick up at the planning stage of the run, after most of the planning has been taken care off, and Marley is just summarizing it to the rest of the group before a vote is taken about whether or not the plan is good enough.
---

Marley: Okay, so to summarize the plan, we will be dividing into two teams and attacking Frank Lin and his security detail while they are going to the ORC planning meeting about their upcoming rally. We want to hit him in the parking garage right as he parks, then we can high-tail it out of the building through the maintenence elevator down to the bottom floor.

Nik, John, you will be on team 2 providing support and control for Team 1, which is Myself, Gabe, and Chris. Team 1 will be waiting in the garage, Team 2 will be in the van across the street from the parking garage hacking the elevator and the camera's, while the drones provide us with recon and supporting fire against any guards that might show up. If for any reason the guards are tipped off early, have the drones launch a fighting retreat into the trash bin in the alley behind the parking garage, and try not to let anyone see it, we want to pick the drone back up later. The rest of us will run out of there as fast as we can in the back-up car we will have in the garage.

Any questions?

TEAM: Nope, we like the plan. 8PM it is, shall we all meet up here at 7PM to get our gear ready?

John: Sure thing, I will let you all in at 7PM. Knock three times, then two times, then three times so I know it is one of you.

TEAM: Okay.

---
YET ANOTHER PLEASING INTERLUDE: John again displays his paranoia. Also not how Marley waited for everyones approval before demanding they follow his plan. They also have an escape plan in case things get shot to shit. Also notice how they are meeting up in advance, using another players unregistered car as a backup, and have the van parked across the street from the garage with people running overwatch. If all is successful this will be a VERY fast 15,000 Nuyen. This is also, however, a fairly difficult run for beginning players if they are not min-maxed. If this were a REAL run and the players screwed up the plan, odds are they would die. Of course, I like it that way. We will now pickup with the team preparing their gear, and opening fire. Note that during combats I am going to be showing very few of the rules, I am assuming you are still reading this because 1: You find my writing enjoyable, even if this is a pretty simple story, or 2: You need to know what kinds of things to put into a Shadowrun because you are a new player. If you do not know the rules, learn them, then come back and read this. This is not a tutorial on rules, other posts handle that better.
---

John: Thank god I got these APDS rounds, now I can handle the vehicular armour no problem!

Marley: I have Ex Ex, so we should both be dealing some pretty heavy damage to that car and the guards. The Dobermans should be able to rip through just about everything else.

John: And my Microdrones can give us some good Recon. This should be an easy ride...

Marley: Okay gang, mount up! Team 1, you are in the car, Team 2, you are in the Van.

---
SECOND TO LAST PLEASING INTERLUDE: We will now fast-forward through the ride, all the players are wearing all their applicable combat gear, loaded guns, etc. All of which is concealed from view just in case. Team 1 also has fake I.D.'s and plans to park in the garage, near the elevator and the stairs, then wait in ambush for Frank Lin's car. The players are all now waiting in ambush, BEGIN!
---

John(Comlink): Alright, I see the package. It is now entering the parking garage, it should read your level in just a few seconds...

Marley(Comlink): Roger, alright team, get ready. MARLEY LETS THE DOBERMANS OUT OF THE CARS TRUNK.

GM: Frank Lin's car is just now pulling up onto your level, and it is going to drive right past you on its way up to the next story...

Marley: I wait until it is in range, then I give the single to open fire!

BANG MANABALL BANG BANG BOOM BANG MANABALL BANG BANG KERSPLAM BOOM KERBLAM MANABALL! (20 seconds of full-auto later, alarm bells ringing, the car is a smoldering wreck, no one could possibley have survived. Thank god for Ex Ex ammo).

Marley: GO GO GO! Get into the Elevator! Nik, get the elevator open and working!

Nik: Yes yes, I almost have it cracked... THERE DONE! Go now, I am also erasing the camera footage and your check-in data...

Marley: Good, good! Excellent! We are almost down and out, get the van around over here.

John: I turn out and pick up the group and get us out of here, once we are a few blocks away I let everyone out and drive it home. If I get pulled over I will just say I was always alone.

Marley: Okay, I call the Johnson and get us payed![/b]

---
Last pleasing interlude... Notice how the planning payed off? Admittadley, security was light and etc, but this should outline how a run should go. Naturally, step up the difficulty and make them work for it. Also, 15,000 is a reasonabley high paymeny. 10,000 is average for a moderate job, 15,000 for a difficult job, 20,000+ for hard as hell jobs.
---

Marley: Okay, so I call the Johnson and ask for payment, what does he say?

GM: He tell you to meet him in the Raging Pitt in one hour, with the rest of the team, for the money transfer.

Marley: Can't he just do it digitally? Why do we need to meet him?

GM: He already hung up, you can ask him when you see him.

Marley: Fine. I call the rest of the team and tell them where we are all meeting to get payed, and I give them the time.

---
FAST FORWARD TO THE TEAMS ARRIVAL
---

Marley: Where the hell is he? I told him to be on time...

Gabe: Chill out, I bet he is just verifying that we did it.

GM: John, your cell phone rings.

John: I answer it...

(GM)Mr. Smith: Sorry that I am late, are you all there?

John: Yeah? How much longer is this gonna be?

(GM)Mr. Smith: Not long...

EPILOGUE: Just then a firebomb set earlier by a team of Tir ghosts goes off, gutting the whole building and killing the team instantly... It's that tenth fragger you gotta watch out for.

THE MORAL? Always get half up front, never trust a Johnson farther than you can see him, look for fishy situations all the time. If the party had lived, they would be earning their Karma right about now along with asking questions about the run.
Glyph
I guess the ending is good, as far as letting the players know what can happen when they have a lapse of paranoia. But since this is a tutorial, maybe you could add what they should have done to avoid it.

The only thing that I would add is that a shadowrunner should nearly always get some of the money in advance. I mean, even if the Johnson didn't betray them, nothing in that example would have stopped him from simply not showing up to pay them - and what could the team have done about it? Nothing!
Paul
Interesting. I can see some stylistic differences between our games, but it's nice to know that you have the basics down similar to us. I'd addone thing to that though-an after action report where the Game Master awards karma, and fields any questions or gives comments.
Supercilious
QUOTE (Glyph @ Sep 8 2005, 08:07 PM)
I guess the ending is good, as far as letting the players know what can happen when they have a lapse of paranoia.  But since this is a tutorial, maybe you could add what they should have done to avoid it.

The only thing that I would add is that a shadowrunner should nearly always get some of the money in advance.  I mean, even if the Johnson didn't betray them, nothing in that example would have stopped him from simply not showing up to pay them - and what could the team have done about it?  Nothing!

Nothing they could do to avoid that, except whine to the GM. A firebomb is really hard to dodge.

The solution, of course, is to trust no one. And insist on more money up front, I will amend that, though, so it is more clear.

As for stylistic differences, this is a bare-bones RP-lite way to play. My SR3 games rarely see combat until the one crucial point, with the whole adventure building up to one point. Along with satelite photo's, astral recon, all kinds of things that tend to muck up a first run. (I would put astral recon into this, but there was no reason for it really, they already had the blue-prints and the hacker had the cameras, along with Drone support).
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