[Ergocorp]

Hi all,

Having a look round the forums, this community seems great, so I was wondering if you could help me with some decisions. Way back on 1999 to 2001 I used to play Shadowrun with a group of friends (8 players and a GM, was a crazy giant group, ended up with a blimp for a base and a dangerous AI plugged into a robot body that looked suspiciously like ED-209, but that's by the by). Since then I played a bit of D&D, Mage the Awakening and a few others minorly.

I recently picked up Shadowrun Returns and wait with baited breath for Shadowrun Online. Anyway, this got be incredibly nostalgic. Suffice to say, I now have a limited edition copy of the 5th Edition rule book and a copy of Sprawl Wilds. I've manged to wrangle up some friends to give it a go.

I've never really GMed before, but given my background knowledge of the world, it seems appropriate. They've never RPed before either, so it's become quite the experiment.

Last night we got half way through Fast Food 5.0. Whatever I knew about the rules back in 1999 (We played a hybrid of 1st and 2nd edition rules), well I may as well not have played as I can't remember a thing about how it worked, but anyway, we gave it a go. The quick start rules seemed to be missing quite a lot, so it was fortunate I had the big book near to refer to. Problem is, you end up slipping back and forward through the book. We spent most of the evening checking through rules!

I had explained before we began that as a test session, it was going to be a lot like that, and we started to really pick up some of the standard combat rolls as we got through (the guys had managed to start a fight with the security guard before they even spoke to Vic Fratelli), so I'm sure it will shore up after time.

Anyway, that's my story, here's my quandry.

Once we have finished Fast Food Fight 5.0, the next step will be for everyone to make their own characters. There seems to be a lot of options for pre-made adventures out there, so I'm really wondering what sort of order I should employ.

I plan on getting Firing Line and Splintered States once they go into print, and probably also pick up the Season 5 adventures as they are released.

I was thinking about starting in Sprawl Wilds - from what I gather this gets you outside of the usual elements of Seattle, I thought the idea of them proving themselves in the rougher more feral parts of the city and building up makes sense.

If I went through all of them, and then say, Splintered State, followed by Firing Line, I'm sure many of Season 5's adventures would be released. I'm not planning on convention play - we live in England, not sure what there's even about for Shadowrun, so they would be used solely for the fact it's a continuous campaign. Moving them to Chicago would be easy enough, but if I run out of adventures due to the release schedule, would I then be broken?

(apologies for the wall of text!)

Thanks for any input all!

[zekim]

Moving them to Chicago would be easy enough, but if I run out of adventures due to the release schedule, would I then be broken?

I wouldn't' bother with the Chicago adventures.  By the time that you finish Wild Sprawls, Firing Line, and Splintered States, you and your group should be well-versed in how SR works, so it will be easy to make up your own adventures.

If making up your own adventures doesn't appeal to you, there are plenty of adventures from previous editions that can be easily converted to 5th.  4th edition adventures would work best as they are closest to 5th in the timeline and tech assumptions.

[Mirikon]

Ergo, don't worry about going back and forth checking rules. That is natural when learning a new system. Hell, part of my role in my RL D&D group is to keep books on my laptop and a copy of the SRD open so I can serve as a rules reference, especially for situations that don't come up enough for everyone to have memorized the minutiae (grappling, trips, and turning, for instance). Also helpful for keeping a reference of any summoned creatures the people might be bringing out. Eventually your group will grow comfortable enough with the rules that you won't need to check things as often, but until then, treat it as a shared learning experience.

For the rest, Seattle is, and always has been the base setting. While the new season of Missions is in Chicago, don't remember that there were seasons of Missions set in New York, Hong Kong, and Denver before now, and still most of the adventures (especially non-Mission ones) were based in Seattle, or at least had good suggestions for how a group could go globe-hopping. No need to force a change in scene unless you want to.

[Ergocorp]

Thanks guys, I'll take that advice on board. Probably advisable to get some if the tables into a condensed format for easy viewing! The original campaign we played was set in New York, so I'm looking forward to digging into Seattle quite bit.

Do have plans for my own adventures once we've got going - with my original 1st campaign set in 2050, I've got some basic threads already for getting some if my old groups characters in as NPCs 25 years later

[Reaver]

ok, some general ground rules for GMs

1: it's not a contest pitting you against the players at your table. You are telling a story, and the Players are the protagonists (or at least the anti-heroes)

2: Shadowrun is complex! Feel free to break it down into smaller blocks to learn the runs. IE: focus on combat rules, and hand wave the matrix, rigging until you and players understand the combat system well. Then move on and bring Rigging more into focus... and so on and so on... (if you can that is...)

3: Use your common sense. Being new to SR and it's dynamics can cause issues. use your common sense to make a judgement call until you have time to revisit the actual rules later on... nothing kills the mood of a game then a 20 minute hunt for the rule on how long it takes for a PC to mow their lawn with a pair of steak knives. Just don't be afraid to reverse your judgement call if you find out you did it wrong the first time. (and you probably will!)

4: ITS A GAME!!! HAVE FUN!!!

[Lysanderz]

Question regarding Food fight: WHY DOES THE HACKER HAVE 4E programs?

[Michael Chandra]

If you take Sprawl Wilds and Firing Line, I strongly advise Manhunt(SW) as first go, Ashes(SW) is also nice, consider to then do Stormcrow Undone(FL) and Lost Islands Found(FL). Carbon Copy(SW) is rather heavy and requires NPC help if the group isn't really ready for it, Humanitarian Aid(SW) can be real dangerous for weaker dicepools (even if the boss sustains an Armor spell, he still has 17 dodge dice), while I haven't really read the 2 Bounty Hunter missions from Firing Line yet but I think you want the characters to be more familiar with the rules, and exercising decent paranoia, before doing those two.

Splintered State isn't a Mission, but that's okay if you don't intend to play Missions in itself. It does mean the characters can't eventually retire following Season 6 rules, but that's not a big deal. Emerging from the Wasteland 1 is out officially, dunno what the release speed of 2~6 will be and when the next Chicago storyline will be made. I am hoping for near-1 per month on average. If you play once per two weeks you'll run out, if you play once per month you should be fine for a long time thanks to filler missions.

I checked and can't really find any Shadowrun events in the UK, though the search function might simply be annoying. So far I've only found 3 active Shadowrun Agents in Europe.

[Wavefire]

1.  Read the rules a few extra times, don't need to know them by heart but i you know enough to fudge it you're golden.
2.  Defer all rules discussions to either the end of the night or the end of the encounter but give the players a Veto! option where they can ask for a real rules check if they believe that the wrong interpretation could get their character(s) killed.
3.  Print out relevant tables for quick reference and buy the GM screen when it comes out.
4.  Do a couple of "practice" games where bad stuff don't carry over to test out the different parts of the game. Everyone doesn't have to be involved in these, for a Matrix test only you and the decker needs to be present but it will help both of you. Ramp up the complexity for each test, adding more elements.
5.  If you have a pad you should look into buying some of the old adventures on pdf, some of them are pretty damn good. Should also be easily modifiable to 5th ed.
6.  Watch a lot of tv, lots of adventure ideas on the tube.

Remember to have fun and ask your players what they enjoyed with the game and if they have any suggestions.

Edit: Forgot to add something. Use the suggestion in the rules about asking your players if any subject is off topic, I had that come up with a new member and narrowly escaped a bad experience for her.

[Walks Through Walls]

With the group being new one of the things I institute with new players and characters is the player can tweak the skills and build of the character for the first three or four adventures. Because often they don't understand how a skill  works, why you really need to have perception, or forget something in their build, or heck find out their neat character concept doesn't work the way they thought it would. This allows them to fix these small flaws rather than feeling unhappy with the character or needing to build a new one.

Also look for ways to integrate the characters into the story. Not just giving everyone a chance to shine, but also use their character's background, negative qualities, and personality to become part of the world and how it interacts with them. With some  players this is easier than others but if you can do it I have found the players feel more involved and enjoy the game more.