[TheDai]

Good Morning everyone,

the longer I lurk in this forum and any other SR related forums on the net, the more often I see outcries of desperate Players about their GM and desperate GMs on how to do stuff properly.

One of the most standardized answer for many game related problems has been: "Your GM should've considered this when creating this NPC/Building/Encounter and because he didn't things started to fall apart." or simply "Your GM is bad and should feel bad."

When creating a Run of any kind, you as the GM have to answer almost uncountable questions: "What do they have as Security measures? Are Devices inside or outside of the host? If an alarm is triggered, who responds in what time? When does the HTR arrive and if they do, how big of a threat are they? Where's the general "difficulty spike" between a B and a AA Con? Do they have Magic defenses? If yes, which ones on what power and where? How does the typical Conslave react to you? How does the typical Security Guard react to you? When do Hosts make sense? What's a usual line-up of IC he spawns? What's the typical Security for the private homes of the Super rich? Middle rich? Poor?

What's the general plan of a security mage? What's the general plan of a security Decker?" ... The list can go on and on. Now, I personally believe that after crawling through the net for countless and countless hours, I have a pretty good idea of what I should and shouldn't do as a GM. But I'm far from being the bestest GM out there. Far. FAR from it !

And all of that leaves me with the hope of getting one specific core book some time in the future. Let's call it: "HOW TO BLOODY GM THIS THING!" written by all the experts which do those 4-hour Mission stuff at Cons, by the masters and visionaires of all the cool stuff and gadgets in the book - by the experts. Make it 10 Bucks, make it 50 bucks - heck MAKE IT 100 BUCKS. I would buy it. I would buy it for me and a copy for everyone on my table.

Honestly, I'm getting wet-eyed just thinking of how amazing such a book could be. To have at least a few guidelines for starting GM's (more specific than what we have in the CRB).

How do you guys think about that?

Regards,
TheDai

[adzling]

I think what's needed is a corporate security book that lays this all out

[Shadowjack]

I have a pretty good grasp on how to run Shadowrun but I have also asked for a GM book. It's pretty much invaluable, even if you learn just one or two techniques it's going to enhance your game.

[Reaver]

There are said books out there in some systems.

DnD used to publish the GM rulebook. It was filled ideas and suggestions on how to GM, deal with unexpected rules questions, dealing with different player personalities... the shebang....


And it was consistantly the worst selling book. For whatever reason, people just do not buy books that tell them either how to roleplay, or how to GM.

Which is a shame, as these 'GM books' have some great info and ideas in them regardless of the systems they where written for.


I think the problem comes down to 'Vision'. We all (player or GM) envision the worlds we play in differently. We may all read the same books and the same words, but based on our life experiences, education, and imagination,  all picture something different with our mind's eye...

And this can be a problem if 2 people's vision is wildly different, and is probably where a lot of issues come from.

I've found that if I spend a little time with my players/GMs and ask pointed questions, I can generally suss out if they are a good match for my playstyle or not. (Which has cut down on my wasted time and nonenjoyment of games)

[All4BigGuns]

And it was consistantly the worst selling book. For whatever reason, people just do not buy books that tell them either how to roleplay, or how to GM.

More than likely the real reason for these books and the setting-only books not selling that well regardless of system, game or company is because just about every company puts a price tag on them that is the same as the more useful (more useful for more people that is) books. If all of those were cheaper, they'd sell more readily.

[TheDai]

DnD used to publish the GM rulebook. It was filled ideas and suggestions on how to GM, deal with unexpected rules questions, dealing with different player personalities... the shebang....

And it was consistantly the worst selling book. For whatever reason, people just do not buy books that tell them either how to roleplay, or how to GM.

Which is a shame, as these 'GM books' have some great info and ideas in them regardless of the systems they where written for.

Really? Wow ... I did not expect that. I guess my hopes and dreams are just a niche market? Because that would be just mandatory for me if I could push my group to play DnD. (Sadly, 5th Edition DnD doesn't get translated into german and we have players on the table, refusing to read english rulebooks)

I think what's needed is a corporate security book that lays this all out

I'd be happy with that, too.

[MijRai]

A security book of some kind would be awesome; detail response times, general levels of security for various levels of value, etc.  Throw in a bunch of security gear and drones too, to provide plenty of mechanics that would benefit everyone.  Maybe even do a write-up for building your own bolt-holes/strongholds. 

[Sphinx]

There's a 40+ page chapter in the SR5 core rulebook called "Gamemaster Advice," and it's actually pretty good.

[Wakshaani]

The player's guide for a game will sell quite a bit, as everyone needs the rules.

The "splatbooks" tend to sell well as both players who need Type X will buy it, those who are completeists will buy it, and often one or two more in the group will be their own, just in case they want to make a blank sometime.

The GM book, by definition, only sells to GMs. This means that about one fifth of your main book's sales, if that, will go that-a-way.

In general, this is a bad thing, but the books are normally important enough that publishers push through it for certain games (like D&D) but not for others.

Me?

I'd love to put together a PDF-release of a GM book. We have a published GM screen, true, but a book that could walk a GM through a bunch of situations, explain some options, lay out how to do stuff... I think that there's a market for it. (Mind you, I'd also expect a small tornado of complaints form people who play differently, but, that's to be expected.)

But I'm totally down for it.

[Hobbes]

Corporate Security book would be welcome.  Mix in a little Magic, a little Matrix, a Machine Gun, something for the whole family.  Really just expanding a bit on the GM section of the basic book would be great.  While there are some great "bare bones" in the GM section of the basic book, each page in the security measures and countermeasures section is covering several specific things.  Alarms get a paragraph.  The assorted sensors and detectors get two or three pages.

Some more meat and potatoes would be nice for the GM to work with.  A basic, you should start usually start with X, add some Y, and then flavor with Z as needed.  Some of the Extraction stuff from, whatever splat book that was, had some nice fluff, but didn't really spell it out for the GM, or at least left some fairly large gaps for the GM to fill in on his own.

Anyway, yeah, a generic Security book with a few crunchy bits for each sub-system for the GMs and Players to chew on.

[adzling]

The corpsec security book would attracts players and gms I suspect as players need to know how to penetrate said security.
I bet it would sell quite well.

Heck absent a catalyst product a community driven section in falars wiki would be useful IMHO.

[AJCarrington]

I thought that there was also some info in the Runners Toolkit (might be getting editions mixed up), that outlined an actual session...covering player and GM actions/rolls/etc. Hmmm...need to look that up.

That aside, I'm a huge proponent of GM books...love what Paizo did with the GMG. Unfortunately, as noted above, they font tend to be big sellers. I do like the idea of a digital release, as well as adzling's comment re the wiki. Perhaps this might be a good series of topics for Bobby and his Complex Action videos?

[Duellist_D]

The answers to a lot of your questions would probably vary, TheDai, depending on who GMs and what how dystopian and magical they want their shadowrun world.
The answers also vary a bit depending on the powerlevel of each group. What works as a HTR in a group that has maybe one MAG 4 Magicians + 3 Mundanes (which would be sorta fitting with the background) would be a sad joke with a group that packs 4 MAG 6 Arcanes.


Go with the general info in the books. If you need general advise on gamemastering, I'd advise you to try the book "Spielleiten" from Dominic Wäsch.
Should give you some decent hints.

[Dinendae]

DnD used to publish the GM rulebook. It was filled ideas and suggestions on how to GM, deal with unexpected rules questions, dealing with different player personalities... the shebang....

Wait, used to? They don't sell the D&D 5th edition GM book anymore? 

[Reaver]

DnD used to publish the GM rulebook. It was filled ideas and suggestions on how to GM, deal with unexpected rules questions, dealing with different player personalities... the shebang....

Wait, used to? They don't sell the D&D 5th edition GM book anymore? 

No idea.

I don't play DnD anymore. 4e killed it for me.
I moved on to pathfinder. (And they do have a GM book)