[the.mitsui]

I've recently started running a Shadowrun 2050 campaign with a group of first time players.  Actually there's one player who has been in the shadows some time, but the other four are relative n00bs. So to get people up to speed, we got together and read through "And so it came to pass..." by the often mourned Captain Chaos. We discussed every section in depth. We talked about how events cascaded, one of top of the other, and how those events shaped the Sixth World to be what it is. My players really seemed to get a kick out of it. They asked a lot of questions, drew awesome conclusions, and really seemed to understand how our world became the Sixth.

Which brings me to my current dilemma. I'm trying to run these cats through some of the "iconic" runs (Super Tuesday, Missing Blood, Harlequinn's Back, etc.) to try and bring them into the collective experience that is Shadowrun. And so far they seem really excited about it, as am I. They're learning a lot about the world still, and getting to be involved in shaping the next decade of history. It's been a great experience thus far.

This brings me to my question though... Being first time players, without access to a huge library of books, what is the best way to introduce them to the Legendary Runners that post on the Shadowland BBS? These guys are the legends of the street. The Laughing Man, Captain Chaos, the Big D, Dodger, and the like are just as much a part of Shadowrun as the Seretech Decision, the Great Ghost Dance, and the rise of the policlub. They introduced us as players and GMs to the less public side of anything and everything. But how can I introduce them (and Shadowland) to these new players without making them find, borrow, beg, or steal a bunch of older edition SR books?

I really don't have any ideas, but I feel that ignoring (or glossing over) this part of the world could be a detriment to their enjoyment of the game, and understanding of the Sixth World.

Thanks for your help in advance. It's greatly appreciated.

[emsquared]

I really don't have any ideas, but I feel that ignoring (or glossing over) this part of the world could be a detriment to their enjoyment of the game, and understanding of the Sixth World.

Introducing your players to the legends may enrich their understanding of the Shadow-world and give them a feel for attitudes and types of personalities that permeate it, but it shouldn't be a detriment to their enjoyment if you gloss over it. There's plenty of ways to the exact same thing (enrich their understanding of the Shadow-world and give them a feel for attitudes and types of personalities that permeate it) without harkening to the specific original personalities.

If you want to do it out-of-character, you could just compile mini-dossiers on them.

If you want to do it in-character, have them come across old logs of Jackpoint discussions that are somehow relevant to their run or something.

If you're looking for an easy way to do it, where you wouldn't have to do your own leg-work of integrating it all, I can't help you there.

[GiraffeShaman]

Getting old novels should be cheap.

The Secrets of Power trilogy not only has Dodger in it, but also a cameo by Howling Coyote.

2XS is probaly the greatest of all novels and not only has the legend Derek Montgomery, but also has the famous street sam Argent.

Fastjack appeared in at least one of the older novels, but I can't seem to remembier which (Not in person, he appeared in his Matrix personae. I think he was doing Matrix overwatch for a runner team)

The Nyx Smith books don't really have legends in them, but are really damn good and have runners that should have been legends, like Bandit the Racoon shaman.

I'd love to read more about Captain Chaos myself.

[the.mitsui]

Introducing your players to the legends may enrich their understanding of the Shadow-world and give them a feel for attitudes and types of personalities that permeate it, but it shouldn't be a detriment to their enjoyment if you gloss over it. There's plenty of ways to the exact same thing (enrich their understanding of the Shadow-world and give them a feel for attitudes and types of personalities that permeate it) without harkening to the specific original personalities.

In the same vein as running iconic adventures, I think it's important to use the original personalities.  If you're sitting around talking with a bunch of SR fans the Laughing Man, the Big D, or any other of the Shadowland personalities is inevitably going to come up. You're right, it shouldn't hurt  their fun level if we ignore it completely. But it does leave a gap in the "collective" experience of Shadowrun.

If you want to do it out-of-character, you could just compile mini-dossiers on them.

I've thought of this, but to be honest find it a little lackluster. It's my "default idea", but it's not very exciting. I'm looking of for a more interesting way to present the information.

If you want to do it in-character, have them come across old logs of Jackpoint discussions that are somehow relevant to their run or something.

Something more like this was what I was thinking of I think. But I never would've thought of just syncing up the information from Shadowland BBS with current runs. That's a good idea. I'll have to look into that as a valid options. It provides context and ideas, feeds suspicions, and introduces players to the legends in the Shadow. I like it.

If you're looking for an easy way to do it, where you wouldn't have to do your own leg-work of integrating it all, I can't help you there.

I never said I was looking for an easy out. I don't mind legwork at all. I dedicate around two hours a day to prepping for Shadowrun. Be it emails to players about rules, translating modules into the edition we're playing, making character packets, or just generally reading up on material.  I'm not afraid of the legwork in the least. And I wouldn't ever ask someone to do the work for me. I just wanted an option to try to take the impetus off of the (mostly new) players.

[Belker]

Fastjack appears in the "Into the Shadows" anthology.

One thing you could try is for one of the legends to contact them about providing a distraction run. "Hey, chummers, I know you're getting started in the biz. Here's one - I need this

It's also not beyond the realms of possibility for them to run into some of the legends socially. Wolfgang Kies and Valerie Valkyrie frequently attended Seadogs (Mariners) baseball games, for example. Sally Tsung's post-run victory parties were, in Dodger's words, "legendary" (no "Wait for it!"), so characters based in the Redmond Barrens could easily get caught up in one of those.

[the.mitsui]

One thing you could try is for one of the legends to contact them about providing a distraction run. "Hey, chummers, I know you're getting started in the biz. Here's one - I need this..."

I can get behind this idea for the most part. I'd have to rework some of the modules to include it, but that shouldn't be too hard.

It's also not beyond the realms of possibility for them to run into some of the legends socially. Wolfgang Kies and Valerie Valkyrie frequently attended Seadogs (Mariners) baseball games, for example. Sally Tsung's post-run victory parties were, in Dodger's words, "legendary" (no "Wait for it!"), so characters based in the Redmond Barrens could easily get caught up in one of those.

I really like this idea as well. I'll for sure be using that sort of concept for some regular interactions with legends in the shadows.  I like that approach a lot.  Thanks.

[Crunch]

If you're comfortable with your writing abilities and the time commitment you might want to do a 250-500 word intro short story for each session giving background information couched as a story about one of the legendary runners...

[Warmachinez]

Isn't their a book called Street Legends that has all these NPC's info?

[the.mitsui]

Isn't their a book called Street Legends that has all these NPC's info?

There most assuredly is. The only thing holding me back from just handing it around to folks is that we're playing the 2050 setting. And I'm fairly sure (but far from positive) there's post 2050s information on the characters in the book. I don't wanna give away any secrets for the three new players we've got in our group.

[Valashar]

Another possibility is to involve them in the background runs that eventually became the Shadowland fiction sections of certain books. Such as actually getting the information about Aztlan smuggled out of that country before the Captain could even start to compile it on Shadowland (as I recall, there's mention of several attacks aimed at keeping that data offline). In line with the earlier suggestion about having legends pop up for runs as Johnsons, perhaps have Matador ask them to do a couple of runs shadowing a local small merc group or two as part of his Fields of Fire compilation. This works even if the group doesn't have a hot decker, as often the only way to smuggle out especially sensitive information is to use hard-copy.

A lot of those books give mention to the hard work done by always unidentified runners that made them possible for the information to be put up on Shadowland in the first place. Let your runners be those Unnamed Friends.

[Mirikon]

As a note, it is almost certain that the 'Espectro' that provided the lions share of the info in the Aztlan file was none other than the Great Dragon Dunkelzhan. Afterall, to get that level of info, one would have to have high level access to both Ares and Aztechnology servers. After his death, we discovered that Big D had a seat on the board of both megacorps, among others. The Aztlan file was Big D's way of getting some info out there that he thought needed to be known by his fellows, but without making it look like it was some plot of his. In the same way that many of KSAF's 'tips' likely came from the Big D.