Shadowrun
Shadowrun General => General Discussion => Topic started by: jonathanc on <04-03-12/1833:28>
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...what would it be? I was just browsing around reddit after spending Lent away from the place (good riddance; I'm kind of glad to have broken my addiction to going there) and I noticed someone bemoaning the "playability" of Shadowrun.
His complaints struck me as pretty familiar to what I felt the first time I ran a game for people who knew the system better than I did: mages are overpowered, Spirits are too good, rules are too complex, etc. etc. Some of the complaints were things that I think all new GMs run into, regardless of the system.
In my case, the "one thing" I'd tell every Shadowrun GM to do is consider using a simple map to track player positions during combat. Nothing was so helpful to me as having a way to get players to commit to their positioning so there wasn't an argument about whether someone should have cover bonuses or not.
There are plenty of people here with more mastery of the system than I have (I've been playing since 3rd edition, but not consistently), so I'm curious to hear what suggestions you all might give to a new GM. I think it'd be a good resource for new visitors.
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My biggest suggestion?
"It's a game that has elves and dwarfs and humans and trolls and cyberware and magic. It has an Aztech nation fueling a world-spanning megacorporation with blood magic and a Dragon attempting to buy the world through a German megacorporation. A dragon ran for president, won, and then was assassinated. Evil bug spirits took over Chicago and the government tried nuking the city, and FAILED. A clown-faced immortal elf is almost single-handedly trying to stop cthulhu-like creatures from entering our world and destroying it. Keep all that in mind when I tell you: It's a game with some amazingly absurd ideas that are just completely and utterly ridiculous. So don't take the game too seriously, and never, ever forget that it is *just* a game. if you do that, you'll have a blast."
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Hopefully no one minds, but I'm just going to cross-post this from a seperate thread -Ajax
In the sadly out-of-print 7th Sea RPG players were given 100 Points to build their Heroes. Then they were given "The Other 100 Points" and asked to distribute these 100 points between five different campaign themes, according to preference. I've used this system very, very successful in games as diverse as Dungeons & Dragons, Mutants and Masterminds, and even Call of Cththlu. (Hell, I've even used it to help pick the next game we'd play!) GMs should feel free to adjust the categories, but are best always allowing at least four or five categories.
Here is what a sample group's spread might look like for a game of Shadowrun, if I was behind the screen:
Current Campaign Interest
| Interest | Alice | Bob | Chris | Dawn | Eric | Frank | Mean | Variance |
| Intrigue | 35 | 25 | 30 | 25 | 20 | 20 | 26 | 34 |
| Action | 30 | 25 | 50 | 25 | 25 | 30 | 31 | 94 |
| Romance | 15 | 25 | 5 | 10 | 25 | 25 | 17.5 | 78 |
| Exploration | 10 | 25 | 10 | 30 | 10 | 20 | 17.5 | 78 |
| Military | 10 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 20 | 5 | 8 | 47 |
At first glance, it looks like there is a marked preference for Action, but it's largely because of the very high score it received from Chris. If we look at the variance, though, we see that it's actually with Intrigue that we get the most agreement (lowest variance and second highest mean) and on Military (lowest mean, second lowest variance.) Romance and Exploration are practically indistinguishable in terms of interest from the group: middling and scattered.
So Intrigue and Action are probably equally fair bets for the GM to build his campaign around, followed by Romance and Exploration. Lagging far, far behind, is any interest in Military related adventures.
If none of these players had ever played much Shadowrun, it would behoove the GM to have them go through the "The Other 100 Points" exercise before they start to design characters, that way he can steer them towards concepts that fit their individual interest (For example, Chris will probably prefer a Street Sam or Adept to a Face; Alice might really enjoy a Face or a Hacker.)
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"Don't sweat the small stuff."
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"Whenever the players get too confident, remember chunky salsa rules."
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Never, ever let the rules slow you down from telling a good story or having a good time. USE the rules to guide you and keep it fair, but never, ever let them slow you down.
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Haha, it's funny because I had a game tonight with multiple rules arguments, and the sudden desire to kill at least one of the PC's (and/or the player). I'm trying to put that energy to better use, and think of some alternate challenges for them. I think one common mistake is to stick with bullets too much...there are chase rules, poison rules, spirits, etc.
I think my players are due for an encounter with poison gas.
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Or weaponized nanites.
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"It's not a competition."
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You can't plan for everything, you're players are going to think of something you didn't. Don't resent the fact celebrate it.
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Don't penalize your runners for good planning/rolls. If they manage to ace their way through a job with no complications, congratulate them and move on. Their day will come when they're running through the sewers to avoid the mixture of Knight Errant, Ghouls and Bugs chasing them and twelve rounds into shooting the lock off the maintenance access corridor they realize they still have SnS loaded.
Likewise, don't make it worse than it is. You aren't playing against the players, you just want them to think you're trying to gut, maim, and savage them, but in reality you want them to subtly win by the thinnest strand each time (or at least most of them). 8)
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"Don't go out of your way to kill your players. But don't go out of your way to save them, either."
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Start the story off small and grow it from there. It does not have to be this big massive world spanning conspiracy. One of my favorite stories by William Gibson is Johnny Mnemonic. Johnny was not out to save the world, just is own head. Also tell a good story and both you as well as the players will have a great time.
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I know this is more than one thing, but I'd suggest the following specific to SR advice...
- Try to keep everyone within 1 IP of each other for maximum fun and least boredom.
- Develop character spotlight time management.
- Make specific players in charge of being an expert in specific rules, particularly if they don't come up every session.
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Roleplaying is a collaborative effort. Sometimes it is easy to forget that when you sit behind a screen in the GM seat. So remember that you AND the players are telling this story together. Above all, have fun.
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jonathanc,
Running a Shadowrun game is kind of challenging, like any game. Here are my suggestions.
Magic: I’ve had this problem also so what I do is try and create adversaries who throw those same powers back at the mage/ shaman who creates them. This is easier said than done because you don’t want the other players on the side lines while the magic using character wages a magic war so I throw in a lot of grunts to keep the others busy.
At times, I also try and create situations where the party is separated. In shadowrun, during the legwork part of the run, it is a great time to try and corner players. While the matrix focused player is battling it out with a system to gain some vital info, I try and create a scene for the other players and run the combats simultaneously.
For example, recently my group’s technomancer had to get some access codes of the security team that they knew the players were going to throw down with. While he was doing that a spirit cornered the mage of the group and tried to get info about the group. Spells were flying in one scene while code was being slung in another.
The moral of the story is to keep your bad guys proactive about the shadowrunners. If they see them snooping around they are going to do the same research on the players to see if they are a threat because it will give them the information they need to stop them. At this stage of the mission the players may need to be subtle with the situation because if they just squash the scouting attempts it will just alert the true target of the mission.
Are you all ways going to be able to stop a fire elemental from taking down bad guys? No. But keep in mind if the mission requires stealth, these actions may blow the mission and result in failure.
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Magic: I’ve had this problem also so what I do is try and create adversaries who throw those same powers back at the mage/ shaman who creates them. This is easier said than done because you don’t want the other players on the side lines while the magic using character wages a magic war so I throw in a lot of grunts to keep the others busy.
So true. I've noticed, in Missions, that when there's an enemy Mage present we spend so much time trying to take each other out that we end up neutralizing each other until someone (usually the sniper) pegs the other guy in the head.
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Mine would be just this: Chances are, you have at least one number cruncher in your group. For this reason, don't try to challenge them on their strengths. If one is very very strong in one area of expertise, just let him win. Find the weak spots of each and every characters and challenge them fairly in these area. Isolate the Face and pitch in an NPC who's going to seduce the easiest PC. Isolate the Street Sam and force the hacker in a fist fight. Plan these challenges ahead. This will keep them busy and challenged while still giving them the satisfaction of being a badass in their area of expertise.
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My biggest suggestion?
"It's a game that has elves and dwarfs and humans and trolls and cyberware and magic. It has an Aztech nation fueling a world-spanning megacorporation with blood magic and a Dragon attempting to buy the world through a German megacorporation. A dragon ran for president, won, and then was assassinated. Evil bug spirits took over Chicago and the government tried nuking the city, and FAILED. A clown-faced immortal elf is almost single-handedly trying to stop cthulhu-like creatures from entering our world and destroying it. Keep all that in mind when I tell you: It's a game with some amazingly absurd ideas that are just completely and utterly ridiculous. So don't take the game too seriously, and never, ever forget that it is *just* a game. if you do that, you'll have a blast."
Ridiculous? See, I thought you just listed all of the coolest, most awesome elements of the game!!! ;D
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Mine would be just this: Chances are, you have at least one number cruncher in your group. For this reason, don't try to challenge them on their strengths. If one is very very strong in one area of expertise, just let him win. Find the weak spots of each and every characters and challenge them fairly in these area. Isolate the Face and pitch in an NPC who's going to seduce the easiest PC. Isolate the Street Sam and force the hacker in a fist fight. Plan these challenges ahead. This will keep them busy and challenged while still giving them the satisfaction of being a badass in their area of expertise.
Don't focus on this, Shadowrun is a team game, the PCs work together to have others to make up for their weaknesses. If you are constantly picking at characters weaknesses you will frustrate the players. There's not enough points for the characters to be good at everything and if you are constantly forcing the socially/physically/magically/technologically weak characters into the roles they aren't designed for it's not fair to them or the players.
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Yes, it's about team effort. That doesn't mean they have to be together all the time. In fact, most missions I played, either as a player or a GM, ended up with the team splitting up because of exactly that, to apply their strengths where it's needed. If you prepare a second challenge, a fair and fun one (not something that difficult, something he should statistically win), to test on one of their weakness (or force them to think of something clever to avoid it), then you can gauge the level of difficulty you want in your game more easily. Their strengths stay useful and they'll have original challenges to overcome too. Important to test both. Otherwise, you end up trying to design an ever biggest baddest evil guy for your Street Sam, the ever more secure node for your hacker, and so on, for each of you mission. That is the most difficult AND unimaginative way of designing challenges for missions. You'll force your players to stay (or become) one trick poneys and everything gets old pretty fast for both players and the GM.
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Have fun. Seriously, have fun. One of the things that I have seen over the years in ANY RPG is that when the game becomes work or basically your live, it stops being fun and its time to quit. Enjoy what you are doing, take it seriously, but not TOO seriously. This, ultimately is a game...treat it as such and you'll be better for it and enjoy it a lot more.
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I've noticed many of you are into team-splitting. Don't you know that the GM is waiting for the team to split-up so he can target the weaker members?? I know this is a little off -topic, but at least two of you talk about team-splitting here so I had to mention it. Don't you know that splitting the team up is an old cliche that leads to ruin in so many genres? LOL I don't mean to be rude but splitting my team up is usually the LAST thing I want to do. Just saying...
Back to the topic however, I say "bring it on." I'm not afraid to die for what my character believes in. I love a good challenge in an RPG, especially one where I have to use my noggin'! If I die as my character, at least I died for what I believed in. Give me a challenge! Plus, I can always make a new character if the one I currently play with gets blown away.
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I've noticed many of you are into team-splitting. Don't you know that the GM is waiting for the team to split-up so he can target the weaker members?? I know this is a little off -topic, but at least two of you talk about team-splitting here so I had to mention it. Don't you know that splitting the team up is an old cliche that leads to ruin in so many genres? LOL I don't mean to be rude but splitting my team up is usually the LAST thing I want to do. Just saying...
Back to the topic however, I say "bring it on." I'm not afraid to die for what my character believes in. I love a good challenge in an RPG, especially one where I have to use my noggin'! If I die as my character, at least I died for what I believed in. Give me a challenge! Plus, I can always make a new character if the one I currently play with gets blown away.
If the run requires you to be in 3 places at the same time to pull down securiy levers simultaneously, then you split up, no way around it :p (unless you got some cool gadgets laying around or stuff)
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Drones (with arms) or spirits can pull levers just as well as a person, with the added benefit of being expendable. I suppose you could use an npc as well.
Splitting up isn't a very good thing to do. It weakens your team, which is why divide and conquer is (what is it? a saying?).
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I will reiterate, based on what I've seen here: It's not a competition.
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my words of advice to a new gm? don't be afraid to take the game where you want it to go. all the resource books are great to have and use, but if you want say bug city to have happened in manhatten rather than chicago then go for it. remeber it is your vision that you are trying to bring across to your players and as long as every one is having fun than do it.
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Having fun is the most important thing.
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If the run requires you to be in 3 places at the same time to pull down securiy levers simultaneously, then you split up, no way around it :p (unless you got some cool gadgets laying around or stuff)
Yes, you're right. If the decker has to be on location for instance, he will have to be guarded or locked up safely while the other team members split-off to do something else. I'm just saying that this is something GMs rely on so they can exploit it when it happens. Especially when they are running a horror-themed mission. Isolation is one of those elements always found in missions/adventures such as this. But I agree with you. Sometimes you just don't have a choice. It's just that I don't want to split my team up unless I have to. It makes me nervous. My GM is particularly nasty when it comes to exploiting these situations. He's so MEAN!
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You won't get anywhere without communication, understanding and agreement.
Know what your players want and are interested in exploring.
Make sure both you and they understand how their character fits into the world and what they are capable of.
Agree on rules and interpretations where you can and as they come up. Make allowances for discrepancies.
The rest is window dressing.
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- Try to keep everyone within 1 IP of each other for maximum fun and least boredom.
IP? What is that? Inning Pitched?
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- Try to keep everyone within 1 IP of each other for maximum fun and least boredom.
IP? What is that? Inning Pitched?
Standard Shadowrun term. It means "Initiative Pass".
Everyone starts with 1 Initiative Pass per Combat Turn, which is defined as a period of 3 seconds. At this point, they're effectively the same thing. Everybody goes in turn, one after the other, then you roll Initiative for the next round and start from the top.
Things like Wired Reflexes give people extra Initiative Passes during the same 3-second Combat Turn. What happens then is that everybody goes once, then the people with 2 IPs go again, then the people with 3 IPs go a third time, etc, etc, until all the Characters have gotten to go as many times as they have IPs... then you roll the next round.
If there's people sitting around with 1 IP when others have 3 or 4, they're going to be doing absolutely nothing for most of the time.
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Standard Shadowrun term. It means "Initiative Pass".
Everyone starts with 1 Initiative Pass per Combat Turn, which is defined as a period of 3 seconds. At this point, they're effectively the same thing. Everybody goes in turn, one after the other, then you roll Initiative for the next round and start from the top.
Things like Wired Reflexes give people extra Initiative Passes during the same 3-second Combat Turn. What happens then is that everybody goes once, then the people with 2 IPs go again, then the people with 3 IPs go a third time, etc, etc, until all the Characters have gotten to go as many times as they have IPs... then you roll the next round.
If there's people sitting around with 1 IP when others have 3 or 4, they're going to be doing absolutely nothing for most of the time.
Awesome, thank you!
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If there's people sitting around with 1 IP when others have 3 or 4, they're going to be doing absolutely nothing for most of the time.
This is why a) every character I make has SOME form of Initiative Boost and b) I try to encourage everyone I play/gm with
to have an initiative boost. Then again, I remember back in 2nd Edition when the Street Sam would kill the gangers/guards
before anyone else even acted...(Hence why I still have the automatic equation of Street Sam=Dedicated Mass Murder Machine).
Many of my players, BTW, would probably weep unmanly tears if I ran them through a second edition game....
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Second ed wasn't hard, it just required a different kind of thought. You had to know if you were in a pink mohawk game, or a black trenchcoat game. And then make and run your characters in that style. If you were expecting Nueromancer, and got Transmetropolitan, then you would be a little out of your element.
Back to the OP:
I took a bunch of D&D and Pathfinder hardcores, who had never touched Shadowrun, and ran them through a few sessions. They enjoyed it a bit, but they haven't asked for a return. Most of what I got back from them was that there wasn't enough guidance from the books about what their "class" (they're words, not mine...) was supposed to be good at. I twitched a little bit, and told them they didn't have classes, that those archetypes were guides towards different ideas. They could do whatever they wanted.
What happened was that they couldn't figure out how to min/max, and when they did specialize, they were upset because not every situation they ran into was suited for their munchkinning. Three damned adepts. And a hacker. No, not even close to every situation is going to be geared towards that set-up. So, do yourself a favor, and help them all set up their characters separately. Ask generalized questions beforehand, and try to make sure there is overlap in the groups abilities, but not outright copying. And know your players. If someone isn't set up mentally for infiltrating a fortress alone to set up some hacker relays, so the hacker can shut down security and let the other members in more easily... Have them be the troll with a panther cannon. They'll have more fun that way.
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When my D&D DM decided to take a break from the big chair, I stepped in to introduce the group to Shadowrun. I started by handing out things like the "History for the Reality Impaired" section of the core book, "Anatomy of a Shadowrun", and other such things, to set the tone, months before the current campaign came to a stopping point. I gave them movies to use as inspiration, such as Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, and Johnny Mnemonic. This prepped the field, and allowed them to get a feel for the setting. I gave them a nice long talk about how in Shadowrun, you're not heroes. You might be good guys, or bad guys, or somewhere in between, but you're people who do jobs for money.
And then I gave them pre-gen characters, and explained the character's 'role' to each of them, and ran them through the Food Fight starter as a combat tutorial, moving on from there. After this run is over, I'll let them transfer the Karma and nuyen over to new characters, or let them redesign characters if they wish. The group isn't normally a fan of pregens, but this made them acceptable, as a learning device.
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To the OP:
Something I do as the GM is randomly pick up a hand full of dice and roll, then make a (not to suble) effort to sort out the successes.... The ask the player to make a perception test (with modifiers)
As they tell me their scores, I feed them the (USELESS!!) results from their rolls! Drives them nuts and amps up the tension :p
As for rules, I have a firm grasp of most of them, but still take a few minutes to skim things I think may come up during a game session. But if I get stumped, I wing it! But I apply the judgement call to both sides of the encounter fairly.
I base my "threats" on the median dice of my players (just to drive my 'Twinkie' players nuts) IE: if the AVG gun skill is 22 dice in the group, they can expect the baddies to be rolling 15 to 30 dice a shot (low for minor threats, high for major elites) I find that you get more realistic shadowrunners out of my players this way (no elf gun bunnies with gene twinked agility mods and a WIL/LOG/CHA at min levels)
Time spent on plot/setting is time WELL spent! Create a story and setting for your players! Fill it with twists, turns, red herrings, double crosses, and damsels in distress! So what if it survives exactly 0.0005 seconds of player interaction before they blow your plot all to hell, the players will have fun doing it, and you will have fun patching it up as you go!
Avoid "Betty-Sue"s. players can smell them a mile away and often resent them. If you absolutely NEED a team NPC make him good enough to fill his roll, and crappy at everything else (I use comedic ineptitude, IE: a hacker that can slice code well enough to do the job, but HAS actually dosed himself with his DSMO squirt gun..(twice!) in combat
Lastly, HAVE FUN!! If 80% of your group ain't smiling/laughing at the end of the night, find out why! Accept the criticism and make changes to your game style as warranted.
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I keep forgetting about comedic ineptitude. Damn.
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To answer the OP: Focus on the fun and play your first couple of games with SR4A core rules only (and ban stick n' shock ammo!)
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To answer the OP: Focus on the fun and play your first couple of games with SR4A core rules only (and ban stick n' shock ammo!)
Ignore what previous poster put in parentheses. There is absolutely no reason for a GM to do that. Despite what some people claim, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Stick-n-Shock, and my personal opinion is that the only reason to ban it is if one is the sort of GM who believes that it is their job to actively work against the players at all times and attempt to slaughter them.
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Wow, I thought you would be on the other side of the fence. With the electricity damage working the way it does (-2 and possibility of incapacitation), Stick and Shock is much more lethal to players than the enemy. That security mook was probably going to be out in one round anyway, but a player with a bad roll can drop like a rock from SnS ammo.
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Wow, I thought you would be on the other side of the fence. With the electricity damage working the way it does (-2 and possibility of incapacitation), Stick and Shock is much more lethal to players than the enemy. That security mook was probably going to be out in one round anyway, but a player with a bad roll can drop like a rock from SnS ammo.
It goes into what I think the perfect advice is. Ban nothing, allow all sourcebooks and drop karma-generation down the deepest darkest hole one can find.
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"GM, this is CanRay. Make him PLAY for his Karma!"
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"GM, this is CanRay. Make him PLAY for his Karma!"
Bastards the lot of you!!!
You just enjoy watching me suffer, don't you? :'(
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"GM, this is CanRay. Make him PLAY for his Karma!"
Bastards the lot of you!!!
You just enjoy watching me suffer, don't you? :'(
*dangles a game to play just out of CanRay's reach*
Hehehehe. ::) :P
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"GM, this is CanRay. Make him PLAY for his Karma!"
Bastards the lot of you!!!
You just enjoy watching me suffer, don't you? :'(
*dangles a game to play just out of CanRay's reach*
Hehehehe. ::) :P
You could have just said "Yes".
:'( :'( :'(
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"GM, this is CanRay. Make him PLAY for his Karma!"
Bastards the lot of you!!!
You just enjoy watching me suffer, don't you? :'(
*dangles a game to play just out of CanRay's reach*
Hehehehe. ::) :P
You could have just said "Yes".
:'( :'( :'(
But that's not as fun. :P
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"GM, this is CanRay. Make him PLAY for his Karma!"
Bastards the lot of you!!!
You just enjoy watching me suffer, don't you? :'(
Of course we do.
But i already said that if i had that kind of money, i would have paid 10k$ to get you a game :P
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"GM, this is CanRay. Make him PLAY for his Karma!"
Bastards the lot of you!!!
You just enjoy watching me suffer, don't you? :'(
*dangles a game to play just out of CanRay's reach*
Hehehehe. ::) :P
You could have just said "Yes".
:'( :'( :'(
Now CanRay, you know that if we did that, the fun would end. Of course, you could always just move somewhere that isn't a frozen wasteland, and actually find people to play with. Remember, it is your choices that make it so you can never play. Instead of fighting it, just accept it, and start running a game, with you as all the players.
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Now CanRay, you know that if we did that, the fun would end. Of course, you could always just move somewhere that isn't a frozen wasteland, and actually find people to play with. Remember, it is your choices that make it so you can never play. Instead of fighting it, just accept it, and start running a game, with you as all the players.
After breaking my arm, and a load of other issues, I can't move away from where I am.
Nearly killed me getting here in the first place. Might not be so lucky the next time. Much as I complain, it's better here than back home. :(
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I will reiterate, based on what I've seen here: It's not a competition.
My personal take on this would be; it's not a competition, but it must maintain the illusion of the competition. You are working together to enjoy yourself; most groups enjoy themselves most when they feel challenged.
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You can challenge your players without competing with them. You should challenge your players without competing with them. The second competition between GM and player happens, the game's already pretty much doomed. It stops being about telling an amazing story with your friends, and it becomes a game of spiraling one-up-manship that only ends badly. If I've learned nothing else in more than 30 years of doing this, it's that lesson right there.
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The problem with human nature is we like to compete, but this also is what makes games fun.
As a game master your goal should be to create a story that is as interesting as possible and allows your players to struggle and compete without competing with the players themselves.
You should ideally push each and every character to the depths of despair and to the heights of success.
You need to remember that it is not your world but yours and the players worlds and you should know what their goals are for their characters and give them challenges, that if passed, will further those goals.
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So much of the advice here has been system-agnostic - you could apply it to any RPG.
Overall: It's a roleplaying game - you win by being the most interesting and entertaining character, not by beating the bad guys every time. And reward good behaviors in your players, so that they'll want to keep doing more of the same.
As far as Shadowrun in particular goes? Don't let your players build characters in isolation. Force them to build them together, as a group, even if it costs you a full gaming session to do so. Force them to decide before you get very far into things, just why it is they're a team, why they work together, and why on earth they trust these other misanthropes with their lives. The biggest problems I have run into include a) finely tuned characters who have no weaknesses or are impossibly good at something important like combat, far outstripping the rest of the team and b) a group of characters who have no common bonds, and when played correctly wind up shooting one another because they're all a bunch of vicious bastards.
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So much of the advice here has been system-agnostic - you could apply it to any RPG.
Overall: It's a roleplaying game - you win by being the most interesting and entertaining character, not by beating the bad guys every time. And reward good behaviors in your players, so that they'll want to keep doing more of the same.
As far as Shadowrun in particular goes? Don't let your players build characters in isolation. Force them to build them together, as a group, even if it costs you a full gaming session to do so. Force them to decide before you get very far into things, just why it is they're a team, why they work together, and why on earth they trust these other misanthropes with their lives. The biggest problems I have run into include a) finely tuned characters who have no weaknesses or are impossibly good at something important like combat, far outstripping the rest of the team and b) a group of characters who have no common bonds, and when played correctly wind up shooting one another because they're all a bunch of vicious bastards.
A well made character (in my mind) would have only a few to no weaknesses... After all he was well made :p
But that usually means he's not the "king of the hill" in any one area. Sure he can shoot (reasonably) well, hack a little code, and schmooze his way past the guard he coildn't sneak past, (ESP with a nice bribe!) but he's not going to prance around anyone in a golden crown screaming "I'm da king baby!!"
On the other of the coin are the hyper specialized characters... You know the ones... Unless it involves (XXXX), they are drooling piles of mush.... Those are the easiest characters to deal with!!! Just throw the meat grinder at them and watch the chunks spew!
What I mean by that is hit them where they suck! Can't tell the number of 30+ dice gun bunnies, cybernuaghts and arch magi I have dusted over the years with a little common sense RPing of the situation.
The gun bunny got 100 dice in his gun skill and 4 IP? What is his willpower??
The arch magi throws 200 dice for that fireball and to resist drain? That is his body?
The cybernaughts got every piece of ware possible to have and still have a pulse? What's his defense against being hacked???
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A really good piece of advice? Don't be afraid of killing off characters if they do something stupid. Or, if you need to show the rest of the group that you are dealing with some serious stuff. Like, I don't see a group of Jaguar Warriors and a couple of blood mages going down without at least ONE of the characters biting it. Especially when the Aztlaners have the drop on the group.
But, if the hacker's player decides that his starting character is good enough to try to hack Horizon's Consensus servers in full VR, and no assistance... Well, concentrate on the rest of the group while he makes up a new character. *shrugs* Everyone at the tables I play with always has back-up characters rolled up in case their main bites it. If you are starting a new campaign, and actually want that level of grittiness, just suggest that everyone have a spare character so they don't waste the rest of the session writing up a new one. Of course, around here we're all used to playing Paranoia, CoC, and a host of other games that feature character death or insanity. So, it all seeps into our Shadowrun gaming as well.