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looking for some advice for a new GM

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brasso

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« Reply #15 on: <08-26-15/1009:31> »
Ditto what's been said here:

For all rpg's I tend to create my own screen: use an old one, print off images of my liking for the outside, then put my own cheatsheets on the inside. I use paperclips to fasten them on. There's an 'area' style map as an image on the runners' side - helped out alot. Although there are alot of option and rules in SR, you'll find that you only use a subset. For example, there's only 8 matrix actions that my group has used so far.

To help the players remember environmental modifiers, eg. dim light, wounds, etc. I have a pack of blank game cards, and I just write the modifier on and pass it out to the group (eg. dim light, very common) or the runner (wound).

For dice, I have about 20 small blue dice, with 1's coloured red (glitch), 2/3/4's coloured blue (blank, miss) left 5/6 white (hit)

Like Wayfinder's battle book, I have a 'campaign folder' - this has several dividers:

#/ PCs - their sheets if they leave them with me, plus their lifestyles, contacts, and any qualities (one runner of ours has alcohol addiction)

#/ Scenario - everything related to the current scenario, including the NPCs - I tend to use chummer to create them, then write them out short-hand, showing dice pools, to short cut me having to add up stat + skill + mod's each time. If it's a written scenario, I'll scan & print them out.

#/ NPCs - all the others. Every time I created an NPC, they go here - gangers, barflys, cops, deckers - they're all here. So if I need one in a hurry, I just grab one. The players don't know this doorman has the same stats as the one 5 weeks ago. Also the place for stat details of runner contacts.

#/ Places/ things - seattle map of Redmond Barrens, map of that Yakuza bar they went to, etc.

In addition to the campaign folder I have a 'blue book' - just a school exercise book, with each session's real and game date, who attended, and anything pertinent that happened. Did a PC's face get seen by a security guard? Did they slag off a barman? Did they drop their gun escaping? I live for the moment when they walk into a facility pretending to be cleaners, only to get made by the security guard who saw them 2 jobs ago... Ah the chaos, the blood.
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Mirikon

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« Reply #16 on: <08-27-15/1745:43> »
KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid. The more complicated you make things, the more likely you are to have horrible plot holes or other bad things happen. When you're just learning to play cards, you don't jump straight to Bridge. Instead, you start with something simpler, like Hearts. Same idea here. Don't go for something too complicated, or you'll be bound to fail. Look at some of the Missions for help in designing a run, and springboard from there.
Greataxe - Apply directly to source of problem, repeat as needed.

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All4BigGuns

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« Reply #17 on: <08-27-15/1749:42> »
Look at some of the Missions for help in designing a run, and springboard from there.

Just don't look too much at On the Run from 4th edition for designing a run...
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