Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Gamemasters' Lounge => Topic started by: darcdante on <08-09-11/2345:05>
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I have 4 players. We typically start at 8; however, this week only one player is available at that time. Another shows up at 9. The other 2 show up at 10.
I'm a new SR DM, running season 2 Denver missions (this is actually only our second session). I may delay the start of the game until 9, but I hate to delay it all until 10, so what can I do for the other two players that won't affect the plot and will only take an hour? Any ideas?
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What're the characters like? What do they do in the down-time between missions, what kind of contacts do they have that could use a quick favor?
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Well are you actually running missions or are you running a house game using the missions adventures?
If its the former I don't really have any suggestions for you other than some possible roleplaying with the characters contacts before the rest of the group show up.
If its the latter, you could always give the one a simple courier mission that won't take long and then the other three a something else simple. I often throw a couple easy runs into a session on top of the Meaty run during house games.
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A lot of games kinda run like an episode of CSI, they show up geared up with their gamefaces where the call told them to be. Then they precede to do their thing. This may give you some roleplaying chance to see what they are like before they get the call. Take their temperature of what the do to chill and run them through that for a bit with some interactions with a contact. Just flesh out what they do in down time. Paying back really helpful contacts, forensic proofing the van, blasting their music and imbibing, or surfing the Net, etc.
You can step that up a bit and squeeze some domestic stress on the players. Maybe he is fighting with his girlfriend (he will have no idea why) and Conswella can throw hard and speaks Spanish really fast when she is mad, helping get his brother ready for his wedding even though the rest of the family thinks he is too shady to come, he is in the drunk tank at KE making new gang contacts, he is at the vet with his sick dog, his mom has trapped him into a breakfast date with the nice girl next door when they came over to fix the sink since the super wont, or some other plotline to address a characters neg qualities or make them a little more normal having to scale some problems like everyone else. It makes the Shadowrunning that much more liberating for you and even your character.
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Critias, um...we've only played one session so it's hard to say. I have two written back stories, and those are from the two players showing up last lol. The first player to show up is a rigger who's lived in Denver his whole life. He only has one contact, and I can't remember what it is (but is there a generic idea that could get a one-man rigger to make a run for only half an hour game time?) Last time, we did character intros and then hopped right into the adventure. Given the times that people will be showing up, I'm planning on asking this time "So what does your character do between runs?" but don't have an answer at this point (though the rigger has a facility, so my guess is he's working on cars, drones, etc.).
Crash_00, Sorry for the confusion, I'm just running a house campaign using adventures. No way I'd GM a SR campaign at a con! Problem is I don't even have 2 players unless I wanna delay the session until 9 (which I just might for simplicity). I have Rigger from 8-9; rigger and mage from 9-10, and the whole group after that (rigger, mage, sniper, face), which is when I want to have the actual meet for SRM02-002.
John, do you really run such mundane tasks as a mom's phone call? Haha! I've never done that before in my D&D campaigns, but I like the idea of it. It'd help flesh out the character, and kill time, which is what I need (and I fear sending just one or even two characters on a run in case they get into too much trouble).
Thank you all for the feedback!
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My very first Shadowrun session I ran was having the group (only two of six showed up) deliver a stack of gods honest real meatlovers pizzas (none of that soy shit) to the Elementals practice warehouse in the barrens. They made 300¥ a piece and the only conflict was a gang fight along the way and an angry manager that realized his credit account had been used to charge the 6000¥ worth of pizza.
You can run missions adventures at your house for friends (and they can play missions legal characters at cons and such as well), you don't have to run missions at a con.
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Critias, um...we've only played one session so it's hard to say. I have two written back stories, and those are from the two players showing up last lol. The first player to show up is a rigger who's lived in Denver his whole life. He only has one contact, and I can't remember what it is (but is there a generic idea that could get a one-man rigger to make a run for only half an hour game time?) Last time, we did character intros and then hopped right into the adventure. Given the times that people will be showing up, I'm planning on asking this time "So what does your character do between runs?" but don't have an answer at this point (though the rigger has a facility, so my guess is he's working on cars, drones, etc.).
Crash_00, Sorry for the confusion, I'm just running a house campaign using adventures. No way I'd GM a SR campaign at a con! Problem is I don't even have 2 players unless I wanna delay the session until 9 (which I just might for simplicity). I have Rigger from 8-9; rigger and mage from 9-10, and the whole group after that (rigger, mage, sniper, face), which is when I want to have the actual meet for SRM02-002.
John, do you really run such mundane tasks as a mom's phone call? Haha! I've never done that before in my D&D campaigns, but I like the idea of it. It'd help flesh out the character, and kill time, which is what I need (and I fear sending just one or even two characters on a run in case they get into too much trouble).
Thank you all for the feedback!
Definitely do it. Characters home lives have value to those characters. Its what they are fighting for. It can even be more intense than their Shadowrunning sometimes. Think first season of the Sopranoes, Toney is running his organized criminal enterprises but the person who scares him the most is his twisted mom.
Don't get total soap opera but it is a good roleplaying to give context to the characters lives outside the dark deeds of daring do. It can be funny if a Street Sams girlfriend wont let him wear shoes in her house, Combat Mage wants to go to Comi-Con, Troll Tank is involved in getting the community center rebuilt in his old neihborhood, or Hacker has a shrine to an old girlfriend he cannot get over but wont admit it. It makes it like the characters are friends your hanging with, as well as the friends your actually hanging with.
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Spend the first hour getting player 1 kidnapped by (megacorp, Mafia, pirates, etc) and spend the second hour - once your second player arrives - having player 2 rescue player 1. Nothing too intense, obviously, what with the time limit, but maybe some goon they've run up against before is hurting and wants revenge, does a quick snatch and grab. It would probably be more humorous than dangerous, since you wouldn't want to put them in immense danger without the rest of the group to back them up.
But that's only if you'd prefer something a little more action-packed than roleplaying, or if you feel your characters don't have enough background to really roleplay yet. I would say take John's advice if at all possible, but don't try to push an hour of roleplaying on your players if you feel they're not ready for it.
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Another option, with the first arriving player being a rigger, is street racing. If the PC isn't the type to have a race-capable car, have their fixer or their contact give them an emergency call looking for someone willing to fill in for a driver that got taken out by the shenanigans of a rival.
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Check their contacts. One needs a minor favor. Done.
Gotta keep that Loyalty rating!
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If none of the players showing up early have backstories for their characters...
...I'd hash out those backstories with them.
As you're running canned adventures, it's not as critical, but running an RPG without character histories is like showing up to build a house with no hammer. :o
I mean, maybe you're one of those nice GMs I keep hearing about (*shudder*), but I like to know who my PCs have ticked off, who's mum to kidnap, which guy has bad blood with the local Triads, and who's most likely to fall for the Damsel-in-Distress ploy.
That way, when I have an hour to kill, my players are highly motivated. Nothing gets a character motivated like detonating his girlfriend.
-Jn-
Ifriti Sophist
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Or having your wife, accountant, and lawyer run off with your cash while you're in the hospital recovering from a major NASCAR pile-up.
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is one of the players that showup early the face? And has the team gotten where they trust each other?
basically, you could play out the meet, the 2 players get the info, and inform the rest of the team as they come in. It done well in the novels and short stories, at the game table not so much...
or work back stories or backup characters even...
work on a side mission until the rest of the players show up...
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Give the player the opportunity to make more contacts. The character could just be driving around and see somebody getting chased by a group of gangers, if they intervene they get a random contact. Low loyalty, but it can be built up.
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is one of the players that showup early the face? And has the team gotten where they trust each other?
Nah, the face and sniper are the last ones to show. And they're only had one run together, although the face and the mage worked their backstories to that they know each other (the mage doesn't even own a commlink, so the face handles all his communications and transactions for him).
I LOVE these ideas, BTW. Especially the street racing (though I also like the thought of building up families, though I doubt any of my players's characters have kids or wives). I'll go with the street racing for the first hour. When the mage shows up, I need something for them to do together. I may use Gerafin's suggestion and have the rigger kidnapped at the end of the race by the Fronts gang (which they ran into our previous, and thus far only, session). I ran SRM02-01 Parliament of Thieves last time, and they got one faction with the Fronts for killing 1, but still getting run off the road. This might be a way for the Fronts to test them again, now that they're a bit familiar, and also offer some "friendly payback" during the race.
I like the idea of families, but my group has never focused much on that (not now, and not in our decade of D&D 3.5 playing). But I might try to pull that in a bit too, just to test the waters. I like the thought of an ongoing gag where one of the characters has an annoying mom who always calls during run-planning.
Going back to Wylie, I originally thought of doing the meet and having the other two catch up, but I'm sticking with the missions for now since we're all new to the game. So I'm running SRM02-02 Best Served Cold, and the scene of the kidnapping is at the meet, so I need them all there. Especially the face, since he has the highest perception and, without him, I think they'd miss some of the clues they might need. It'd put them at an unfair disadvantage.
So yeah, I'll mix and match the suggestions to fit (contact needs a favor because a racer dropped out and they need a new one...fast! Race ends, rigger gets kidnapped, mage helps rigger escape just in time for the mission to start).
You all are awesome!
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is one of the players that showup early the face? And has the team gotten where they trust each other?
Nah, the face and sniper are the last ones to show. And they're only had one run together, although the face and the mage worked their backstories to that they know each other (the mage doesn't even own a commlink, so the face handles all his communications and transactions for him).
I LOVE these ideas, BTW. Especially the street racing (though I also like the thought of building up families, though I doubt any of my players's characters have kids or wives). I'll go with the street racing for the first hour. When the mage shows up, I need something for them to do together. I may use Gerafin's suggestion and have the rigger kidnapped at the end of the race by the Fronts gang (which they ran into our previous, and thus far only, session). I ran SRM02-01 Parliament of Thieves last time, and they got one faction with the Fronts for killing 1, but still getting run off the road. This might be a way for the Fronts to test them again, now that they're a bit familiar, and also offer some "friendly payback" during the race.
I like the idea of families, but my group has never focused much on that (not now, and not in our decade of D&D 3.5 playing). But I might try to pull that in a bit too, just to test the waters. I like the thought of an ongoing gag where one of the characters has an annoying mom who always calls during run-planning.
Going back to Wylie, I originally thought of doing the meet and having the other two catch up, but I'm sticking with the missions for now since we're all new to the game. So I'm running SRM02-02 Best Served Cold, and the scene of the kidnapping is at the meet, so I need them all there. Especially the face, since he has the highest perception and, without him, I think they'd miss some of the clues they might need. It'd put them at an unfair disadvantage.
So yeah, I'll mix and match the suggestions to fit (contact needs a favor because a racer dropped out and they need a new one...fast! Race ends, rigger gets kidnapped, mage helps rigger escape just in time for the mission to start).
You all are awesome!
It takes a village.
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A global village considering this group.