[Bushw4cker]

Starting a new campaign with some players that are new to Shadowrun.

OK, long story short.. My friend's 15 year old son was talking about comics, then just randomly tells me he wants to buy some Dungeons & Dragons Books so him and his friends could play. Weird how I was first one of the guys we were with that he wanted to tell.. Gamer's must have something akin to Gaydar for other gamers....Gamdar??.... Anyways, I'm so glad he came to me.

"No! No! No! , You want to play Shadowrun!, it is way better, and way more fun!"  (No offense to D&D players, just not my cup of tea.) So, I got him the 5th Edition Shadowrun Book. I was kind of feeling good about myself at that point, kind of like I stopped a friends kid from experimenting with lillegal drugs just in the nick of time..

So my friend (Mid 30s), his son 15, and his two friends, both 15 or 16, are going to play Shadowrun, and I'm GMing.  As far as I know, only my friend has had any experience with roleplaying games, and no one in group has had experience with Shadowrun.

I have been GMing for almost 15 years. I have some good Runs, but most are for Players that have at least some experience with Shadowrun.  I have group of different friends that meets once or twice a month, about 30 minutes away from my house. Right now I am Not GMing with that group, and probably won't be for a while.

Some of the things I like to do in my games: I use a Giant Dry Erase board for maps. I use colored air dry modeling clay for NPCs, Drones, Critters, Grenades, ect, and then I will have each of  the players make their own characters, vehicles, spirits, ect. out of the clay. With my current Group, They all have same Fixer, and I'll message them days before we actually play (using Facebook), to help move things along.

Example:

Encrypted message from Smiley..

Password SM1LEM0TH3RFU@K3R ... ACCEPTED.. Running Decrypt....

OCT.10.2074 14:02:45

Hey Chummer, I got a couple business opportunities for you if you don't mind working with the same team, Mrs Johnson was quite pleased with the previous work you did for her...

I would like to keep the First Run kind of simple with the objectives. I want to keep it PG-13.. so no Troll Dick jokes... well.. maybe one would be OK, but no more than that!  But Seriously, I would be very uncomfortable if things got as adult as they get with my regular SR group.

Just from what I know of my friends son, I think run should have at least couple encounters with Paracritters. I was thinking about including some of the Iconic Seattle Shadowrun settings: Dante's Inferno, Redmond Barrens..

Any Idea's for character creation? Should I try to push them into playing, Not Street Level, but first time Shadowrunners.. Suggest they not take more than Priority 1 or 2 for Resources? Should I push my friend, the most experienced of the group, to play Decker or Technomancer?

I should have some Idea what everyone is interested in playing by next week.

Any Ideas, thoughts, suggestions?

I appreciate any feedback.

Thanks )

[Bushw4cker]

Some Random Encounters I have saved. Some I have used with my Regular Group. Some may or may not be appropriate for new group.. I think I will for sure use the Pizza Drone one.

You see a man running down the street. A pizza delivery MCT-Nissan Roto-Drone zooms after the man. The drones speaker, in a thick Italian accent, says "I got your Pizza right-a here!",
The man shouts "Leave me Alone!"
The drone catches up to the man, then when it's about 5 meters away, Tasers him in the back. He collapses, and the drone drops a pizza box on the man, and says "Enjoy your Pizza!"
The drone comes towards the Runners "I got your Pizza right-a here!"

The drone has been Hacked, or is possessed by a Machine Sprite. The owner would probably be happy to get the drone back or it could definitely be sold for some Nuyen.

A group of Gangers driving in a beat up Americar, speed pass the Runners (This encounter is assuming they are on foot) and crashes into a building a few meters away.  One Ganger goes right through the windshield and is a red stain on the building, his body is contorted in a way that leaves no doubt to his fate. The gangers look at their dead friend, then look at the Runners.
"Those %$^#@!ers killed Kenny!"
One Ganger pulls a pin on a Grenade and charges the Runners holding onto the Grenade like it's a melee weapon.
The rest of the Gangers charge pulling knives and clubs.

The Gangers are high on Kamikaze

This Encounter assumes character is not magically active.

Your meet with Mr. Johnson is in an hour. Suddenly you hear ..Theme Music?.. (Perception 3 test to see the Watcher in your Blind spot). A Watcher is following you providing you with your own Theme Music, you must have pissed off some mage.
"Going to see Mr. Johnson!, Going to make some Nuyen, probably going to screw him!" he sings.
People on the street start staring at you.

You see a dumpster lid slowly open, a man slowly peeks out, looks around, then sees you. He expression is full of fear, he looks at you pleadingly for help. In the distance you hear what sounds like a large group of people.
He looks at you and says "You got to help me, crazy bitch put a curse on me."
The noise from the crowd gets louder. "I think he went this way" you hear someone shout in a deep voice.
"whatever you see, it's not real!, it's a spell!" he tries to explain.
He climbs out of the dumpster, he's wearing a white shirt. In big black letters, on both sides it says "I HATE TROGS!"
You now see the crowd that you could only hear before, which would probably be better described as an angry mob. An Ork holding a club seems to be leading the mob. He points a finger at the man. "There he is!"

A wife has put a curse on her husband for cheating...A woman scorned and all that..

You see a Mime Desperately trying to escape a Physical Barrier Spell...

Is it an act? or someone doesn't like mimes?

[Tecumseh]

You sound like a good GM.

I started playing when I was 14. Based on my hazy recollections of my psychology back then, I would say to keep the game action-oriented, especially if they're not terribly familiar with the setting yet.

I like the pizza drone and the gangers on Kamikaze. Those are good because the players are forced into action; they can't (or shouldn't) sit back and watch things unfold. The first session or two can be a little more reactive as they learn the rules and explore the world. Once they have their feet underneath them, you can give them a more traditional Shadowrun so that they're in the driver's seat.

If you're basing the game in Seattle, a good mission might be talislegging. That gets them out of the city and into Salish-Shidhe. Play up the notion that Seattle is a frontier town surrounded by native territory that's full of strange and powerful magic. Oh yeah, and the forests are full of crazy paracritters and other megafauna that aren't afraid of you. I had a mission like that early in my Shadowrun career and it was a good cross-section of politics, criminality, magic, and nature.

Give them a bit of mystery too. Have one of their contacts hand them a gun/accessory/box of bullets and say, "Do me a favor and try this out and tell me how it goes." Or have payment for a mission be a vehicle with a personality of its own. Teens are going to be goofy so give them an opportunity to laugh.

[Bushw4cker]

Thanks for the Reply! and Ego boost 

Is there a specific Talislegging Adventure?

Would Love any ideas!

Any examples.of what you liked most about Talislegging run you did, ideas for encounters?

I was thinking about few Knight Errant encounters as well, I will post again later in more detail, when not at work, I just wanted to give response to an excellent reply.

Thanks!

[Tecumseh]

There wasn't a specific talislegging adventure; it was something my GM at the time developed. There were wendigos involved.

When I started playing I really threw myself into the setting, reading the background material and some of the available fiction. If your players aren't like that then you'll have to introduce the game world concepts and show how radically different the Sixth World is from our own. Magic, the Matrix, the metaraces, the corporate dystopia, the political fragmentation of North America (as well as the rest of the world), the fact that mythical beasts are now very real, and on and on.

I suggested talislegging because it's a good cross section of what's new and weird and exciting. You get out of the city and into the wilderness, maybe dealing with borders, or strange magic, or paracritters, or any number of the Sixth World's unique elements. There are plenty of other adventures which could achieve something similar. I like your pizza drone because it introduces the concepts of drones, plus hackers or technomancers. I like the gangers because it represents the dissolution of society, especially in the Barrens, and confronts the players with the restlessness of SINless street youth coupled with the insanity of combat drugs. The classic Food Fight encounters are great too, as they can convey the sense that nowhere in the city is safe, not even relatively innocuous locations like a Stuffer Shack or a McHugh's. Once they're taking their AK-97s into the shower with them, you'll know you're on the right track.

[Haywire]

I'd like to share with you a campaign I never got to play, it is for 3rd edition but could be Tth is you adapt wireless and other things. Basically, first run is escort of a van full of contraband goods, which is by the way attacked by some gangers. When they get it to the warehouse, a crate brokes and reveals some chip, which the guardian gives to runners. They can sell it, or analyze, and eventually find out it's a strange chip with some kind of magic for control people.
Then, runners get in touch with a priest in the Barrens who run an orphanage for SINless kids with his wife, and tells the runner that some kids are keeping disappearing, and he can pay them to solve the mystery. The priest is an ex-runner, and is no more close to God than them.
The kids are being kidnapped by an undercover magical lab to be experimented (blood magic).
Then one homeless living in the orphanage says to the runner that his friends disappear too. They are all junkies, so will the runners help?
Homeless are being experimented by a crazy shaman to get this chips work, and the chips can control a person's action but not mind. So, it can force them to kill and see all of it (think of murdering yourkids and being unable to stop). The shaman may be destroyed, but some chips have started their travel.
So, in the news there is an epidemic of muder-suicide, often in gruesome ways.
Who are this chips for? Some crazy experiment by a megacorp to have an army of soldiers? A dragon?

Hope you like it!

[Bushw4cker]

Thanks for your Replies Haywire and Tecumseh.

Haywire- I like it, but might be a little dark to be first run. I always like to wait to do the kid blood sacrifice ritual runs till my 2nd game... but seriously, I could definitely do that run with my Adult group. I'll keep in mind.  I also want to keep the first few runs kind of linear till the players get used to game.

Tecumseh - I just posted my Knight Errant Scenario I think I'm going to use. I can't believe I forgot food fight! I'll have to reread that scenario, it's been a while.

Any suggestions on Paracritters? I would really prefer NOT to kill anyone first run.. just fyi..

The Adult group I play with, our GM did Food Fight in LEGOs. Pic Attached

[Wavefire]

Going to do a mashup here:

1  Start with the escorting the van idea, go-gang encounter to try some fighting. If they don't do horrible have KE raid the warehouse while they are there. Let them fight their way clear and save the fixer.

2. Grateful fixer pays a bonus and asks if they want to do one more run for her. She needs some piece of a decently dangerous paracritter from SSC (don't have my book close by for a name but you can always make something up). Also hands them a box of ammo and ask them to try it out and give a report when they get back. Border security is heightened due to "unknown" smugglers fighting with KE at a warehouse....... Decker gets to flex his stuff. Contact (and tracker) in SSC is a native american runner (to help them understand that Seattle really is an island surrounded by unfriendly nations.

3. Camping trip through forests can be as unpleasant as you want, "random" encounters with wild life, natives and/or forest rangers. Eventually they find and defeat paracritter. Ambush! Ambushed by other runners working for "evil" group (make something up or pick one from Threats). Get back to Seattle, border calmed down. Cash in reward, grateful fixer becomes a new or better contact if you think they deserve it. Bonus if they write a report on the ammo.

Should let them try most of SR and feel important. Also leaves loose ends in the "evil" organisation and their motivations and the mysterious ammo.

[Bushw4cker]

Thanks for the response, not sure if team is going to have Decker..

I posted KE encounter I was thinking of using if anyone wants to check it out...

[AwesomenessDog]

Since your friend has played before, you might want to have him run more of a Co-GM role. Have him act as a Fixer or Johnson, help you run NPC grunts, and give advice to the newbies like lore, what those weird words you're using mean, and basically grant them free common sense. Ask them what they want to do first out of character, then create something quick as an introduction to how some of the more basic rules work. Then hit them up with their first real run. At this point it's probably better to challenge their creativity and understanding of the rules (as in having them make checks for smaller things just to make sure they know what to do when you say "roll perception") as opposed to challenging their characters abilities. Just the way i usually introduce people into a system.

As well you might even make their characters for them having them tell you what they want, then you keep the sheets during the game so they, being new to rpgs, treat it more like a narrative instead of a game. I know that worked for me once when i introduced a guy to PF and he made a cheese mage (he asked for a spell that could turn objects into cheese, basically a reflavored burning hands into queso spray, an instant fermentation spell (he decided to keep cows with him at all times), etc.). Don't be afraid to let them play outside the rules, just make sure they know its not actually in the book.

[Bushw4cker]

Since your friend has played before, you might want to have him run more of a Co-GM role. Have him act as a Fixer or Johnson, help you run NPC grunts, and give advice to the newbies like lore, what those weird words you're using mean, and basically grant them free common sense. Ask them what they want to do first out of character, then create something quick as an introduction to how some of the more basic rules work. Then hit them up with their first real run. At this point it's probably better to challenge their creativity and understanding of the rules (as in having them make checks for smaller things just to make sure they know what to do when you say "roll perception") as opposed to challenging their characters abilities. Just the way i usually introduce people into a system.

As well you might even make their characters for them having them tell you what they want, then you keep the sheets during the game so they, being new to rpgs, treat it more like a narrative instead of a game. I know that worked for me once when i introduced a guy to PF and he made a cheese mage (he asked for a spell that could turn objects into cheese, basically a reflavored burning hands into queso spray, an instant fermentation spell (he decided to keep cows with him at all times), etc.). Don't be afraid to let them play outside the rules, just make sure they know its not actually in the book.

Thanks for your Reply.  I have idea for what I'm going to do, something I've done in the past, I'll post details later today or tomorrow.

[cyclopean]

There's some really fun paracritter stuff in the 'elven blood' missions collection, you'd have to do a little work to convert it to 5e, but it could be a good jumping-off point.

[Faust]

Try a simple delivery run, have them bring Package from Point A to point B, throw some Gangers at them along the way.  If I have a group of new players i usually start out at street level. This make things a little harder but also gives them goals. The above Idea is to get them accustomed to the game setting and mechanics, make some ¥ and have fun. Then you can throw real stuff at them.