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Ask Bobby #13 - When the Team Fails

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GMFunkytown

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« on: <06-06-16/0933:38> »
Hey everyone!

Got another Ask Bobby for you. I answer some questions about how to handle the situation when your team fails at a run, what sort of tools I use to GM, and spirit armor.

Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/C4oGgUPkydg

Teknodragon

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« Reply #1 on: <06-07-16/1220:31> »
Great video!

As a player, I try to give my GM feedback after every game, especially if my character died again. Or almost died again.

Speaking of which, collaboration between players and GM should make the worst moments the most memorable. Everyone at the table remembers when Glitter, the messed-up Changeling mage, burned edge to not survive, but to reach into her satchel of grenades to pull a pin rather than be eaten by ghouls. The resulting explosion (Lessee, I've got this many of this grenade, this many of that grenade... um. Hey GM, I think this is pretty much a narrative event at this point). The blast took down part of the building, vaporized several nearby ghouls... and allowed the surviving members of the team to finish the mission of rescuing the folks the ghouls were 'farming'.

Another player had to burn edge to survive, and most of the table wanted me to burn edge to live through as well.

My response? No. It would have made the whole thing feel cheap. My advice there? If you hear the bell toll for your character, do not go quietly into the night, but rock out to the ringing. A good GM should give the character that great exit moment.
Life is short, the night is long, and we still have ammo.

TheWayfinder

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« Reply #2 on: <06-07-16/2251:17> »
Given the sandbox nature of the Shadowrun PDX campaign I run, runs fail all the time, and PCs are killed.  Most "runs" are conjured up organically, in that they're not the typical kinds of runs where you're raiding a corporate facility to steal some secret data or some new gizmo or whatever, but something a little more down-to-earth, and it's usually my players who decide they're going to do a raid on someone, and it's usually not a corp.  They get a tip about something, and they decide if they're going to handle it or not.  More often than not, they're intercepting smuggling boats, or heisting a semi-truck that's carrying something valuable, or the hacker is looking to pay his rent so he hacks some system that looks vulnerable enough to handle by himself. 

When bad things happen, when a PC dies, a new one is made, and the campaign continues. 

witchdoctor

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« Reply #3 on: <06-12-16/0159:46> »
Also keep in mind death isn't the only option you have if a team fails a run, depending on the circumstances it can be a plot hook. Depending on exactly how you fail the team could be forced to take a job for the people they were running against for example. You can get creative to keep the game going without killing characters. As a GM I HATE killing players because it feels too much like I'm fighting the players instead of presenting them a challenge to overcome.