[gfrobbin84]

Hey I am thinking of running the 5e quick start for my group as I love shadowrun and want to get my group into it, in hopes of one of them running it some day so I can play it.  I am a long time RPG player but rarely ever GMed, but I am the most knowledgable about shadowrun in my group most of them have heard of it but that's out about it our current GM made a rigger for 3e or 4e he can't remember but never got to play, I made an Adept for 4e and never got to play so no one has any play exp with shadowrun but we are all familiar with other rpgs with similar rule systems. 

Since we are all pretty new to shadowrun I was gonna run the quick start to let us all get a taste for it and introduce them to the setting and archtypes before sitting down to make their own characters and getting a real game going.  The problem is though we are a 6 man group 5 players and 1 GM and the quick start is designed for 4 players and a GM with only 4 premades.  So I figured I would turn to the experienced runners and johnsons of these forum to ask what changes if any you would make to the adventure, to keep it fun and challenging for 5 players and see if you could suggest and possibly make a 5th premade archtype to round out the group for 5 players.

Thank you in Advance

[gfrobbin84]

I am fine with making my own premade archtype or using one from the core book but some advice on how or if i should modify the mission would be greatly appreciated.

[GiraffeShaman]

I'm not familiar with the Quickstart, but I'll toss out a few ideas. Let me know if they don't apply as I'm kind of shooting blind.

Some ideas to livening a mission up, but without outright killing everyone:

1. Lower HTR/Police response times. Or add one if there isn't one.

2. Smoke grenades and thermal smoke to go with the rentacops. Add desks and such for cover. Just a good cheap way for the guards to delay runners and make combats go on much longer than they should. Even slows mages down.

3. Doors on a wired LAN. Card key to make it harder, with no outer guards having keycards to steal. Throw in 1, 2, and 3 together to make it really hard. Doors can really make things hard on Invisible people, too. (BTW barrier foam and other obstacles)

4. Doors again, but armored ones that  go down behind them after they are inside somewhere. This can be a really pain in the ass.

5. Magical security of some light nature. Maybe a Ward. Maybe a mage or two devoted to spell defense.

6. Open ground. Really tough on runners in general, has an impact both on stealth and fights.

7. Weapon scanners and weapon patdowns at a checkpoint.

8. Guard dogs. I like to use wired dobermans, personally because they freak people out.

9. Crowds of people. Works especially well on runners that don't want innocents killed, but it's a pain of ass in general to a team.

10. Have the Johnson demand they not kill anyone.

11. Bad weather or traffic complications.

12. Guard in their way spots them and demands a bribe (Social situation and just to see how they react)

13. Innocent spots them. Similar situation, but not demanding a bribe. Just a problem.

[gfrobbin84]

Thanks I will apply what I can to the quick start mission and remember the rest for making my own missions when the main game gets going.

[Walks Through Walls]

Something else that can make life more difficult for a team is if while using cover the rent-a-cops use suppression fire. It is great for delaying and when coupled with smoke/thermal smoke it can pin down a better force at least for a short time.

[Jafaro6]

I just grabbed the 5th Ed Quick Start rules to take a peak at what you're working with (they can be found here, btw, for anyone else that might be interested).

After a quick overview, it looks like the presented run is primarily a little bit of negotiations, some legwork, a major fight between the (four) players and a bunch of mob goons (five in total) and then resolution. If you're planning for this just to be a one off session to see if they'd be interested in doing more, I would probably just have one of the characters double up; ideally two Combat Adepts or two Street Samurais with the mage as a close third (two deckers probably is overkill for the run and won't give one a chance to shine during legwork). Its a one off, so there's not a lot of sense in spending a bunch of time statting out a unique fifth character.

To balance out the combat, I would just add an additional mobster, again just duplicating one of the existing stat boxes and giving him a new name. The rules mention that the security guard, "Lucy" is feeling a little nervous because his brother came down sick tonight, so maybe in your game his brother isn't sick and is hanging out in the back or in the bathroom at the time the runner's enter. That'll give you two security guards in addition to the other mobsters to throw at the team.

In the long run, I wouldn't worry about it being too easy, perse. It is supposed to be an introductory adventure, not an uber challenge of the player's skills. Make sure each player gets a chance to shine; let the decker excel at the legwork and tackling security systems, let the Street Shaman get into a magical battle with the Mob Mage, have the Adept(s) duke it out with some of the mob members and have the Street Sam(s) shoot it out with the guards. As long as everyone has fun, you'll be in a better spot to pitch a full on 5th Ed Shadowrun campaign and be designing new characters from scratch. 

[gfrobbin84]

Thanks Jafaro6 i was just mainly not wanting it to be too much of a cake walk if I added a 5th and was thinking I would just let them pick the 5th character out of the samples at the end of the character creation chapter in the 5e core book.  They have shown interest in playing a longer Shadowrun game just since they are all mostly clueless about the setting, besides what I have told them about it but there is so much to Shadowrun that I feel without setting down and reading the book or playing the game you can't truly grasp the setting.  But then again we are all pretty versed in lots of RPGs so maybe I am underestimating them.  Just wanted to let them cut their teeth on the setting and game some before making their own characters as I thought it would help them flesh their concept and groups in a more effective way then just throwing some characters together with a more limited understanding of the setting.