[slagthedrek]

Hoi Chummers,
I briefly ran a Star Wars RPG campaign with a few close friends, and have been interested in the Shadowrun universe for years. Gearing up to GM my first campaign, and was wondering what books would offer crucial insight for a new GM? I know D&D 4e has a book set aside JUST for "DMs", but see nothing like that for Shadowrun. All (reasonable) suggestions appreciated! Thanks for reading!

[GiraffeShaman]

I've always found the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th edition Seattle guides extremely useful as a GM, both for better describing the world and for spawning numerous shadowrun and campaign ideas.

[Mantis]

If you don't have much GMing experience, I'd start off with just the core SR4A book and add the other books (Arsenal, Augmentation, Unwired, Street Magic and Runner's Companion) after you have a good grasp on the rules. This avoids overwhelming both you and the players with too much gear/options/etc. For world stuff, GiraffeShaman has a good suggestion and I'd add that just about any of the other fluff books are useful in that regard.

There is a GMing section in the SR4A book starting on pg 271 and going to pg 275. There is no real DMs guide a la D&D for Shadowrun as both players and GMs need most of the info contained in the books. There are mooks and some critters/spirits/etc in the SR4A book as well and a small guide for building important NPCs (Prime Runners) in the Friends & Foes section of SR4A to get you started off. You may want to run the starter adventure On the Run as a first off adventure to give you a feel for things. You could also run Food Fight to get a feel for combat.

One thing you need to get used to is that there is no encounter tables or CRs or any of that. Much of setting up a good adventure is going to depend on what your players make for characters and trying to balance the opposition against that. If they make a bunch of Samurai, giving them an adventure that requires a bunch of hacking isn't going to be much fun and vice versa (Hackers and an all fight adventure). You need to get used to the idea that death comes very easy in this game and there is no resurrection or anything like that. It is dark and gritty and the PCs need to use caution and smarts to avoid dying horrible deaths.

As well, since the whole "I am a new SR GM and I need advice" post comes up quite frequently, I'd check this forum and the Dumpshock forums for more advice than you can possibly use. There are plenty of posts and most of us are pretty friendly as far as offering advice goes.

[Mara]

Recommendations:

The Core Book
The Runner's Toolkit (the cheat sheets alone are worth it!)
Seattle 2070
6th World Almanac
While some people don't like it, I would also recommend Attitude.(ESPECIALLY for the 1st two chapters)

As you are a new GM, I would advise against, initially, getting any of the books like Augmentation, Arsenal, Street Magic,
Unwired, or Runner's Companion. Those, while great books, are filled with advanced rules that really can bog things down.
That said, I do recommend getting them, and introducing them one at a time, as you get comfortable with them.  Also,
the order I listed them? That is the order I would recommend introducing stuff from those books.

[Charasanya]

My first experience as a GM was the adventure "On the Run", which is extremely detailed and explains a lot of stuff that you might need. Not the most awesome adventure of all times, but quite solid. I recommend this highly to anybody that is starting out, both as GM and player.

[slagthedrek]

Recommendations:

The Core Book
The Runner's Toolkit (the cheat sheets alone are worth it!)
Seattle 2070
6th World Almanac
While some people don't like it, I would also recommend Attitude.(ESPECIALLY for the 1st two chapters)

As you are a new GM, I would advise against, initially, getting any of the books like Augmentation, Arsenal, Street Magic,
Unwired, or Runner's Companion. Those, while great books, are filled with advanced rules that really can bog things down.
That said, I do recommend getting them, and introducing them one at a time, as you get comfortable with them.  Also,
the order I listed them? That is the order I would recommend introducing stuff from those books.

Just got the 20th Anniversary Core rulebook, a few days ago, as well as the Runner's Toolkit (for the reasons you mentioned). Also, already had the Seattle 2070 & 6th World Almanac in my "to-buy list" because i was told they were pretty essential for helping set the scene  and giving the players a feel for the world.

[slagthedrek]

If you don't have much GMing experience, I'd start off with just the core SR4A book and add the other books (Arsenal, Augmentation, Unwired, Street Magic and Runner's Companion) after you have a good grasp on the rules. This avoids overwhelming both you and the players with too much gear/options/etc. For world stuff, GiraffeShaman has a good suggestion and I'd add that just about any of the other fluff books are useful in that regard.

There is a GMing section in the SR4A book starting on pg 271 and going to pg 275. There is no real DMs guide a la D&D for Shadowrun as both players and GMs need most of the info contained in the books. There are mooks and some critters/spirits/etc in the SR4A book as well and a small guide for building important NPCs (Prime Runners) in the Friends & Foes section of SR4A to get you started off. You may want to run the starter adventure On the Run as a first off adventure to give you a feel for things. You could also run Food Fight to get a feel for combat.

One thing you need to get used to is that there is no encounter tables or CRs or any of that. Much of setting up a good adventure is going to depend on what your players make for characters and trying to balance the opposition against that. If they make a bunch of Samurai, giving them an adventure that requires a bunch of hacking isn't going to be much fun and vice versa (Hackers and an all fight adventure). You need to get used to the idea that death comes very easy in this game and there is no resurrection or anything like that. It is dark and gritty and the PCs need to use caution and smarts to avoid dying horrible deaths.

As well, since the whole "I am a new SR GM and I need advice" post comes up quite frequently, I'd check this forum and the Dumpshock forums for more advice than you can possibly use. There are plenty of posts and most of us are pretty friendly as far as offering advice goes.

VERY informative, thank you!