[drjmoriarity@gmail.com]

To explain farther why i know that my players would not be receptive to this, the little sub culture around my table is that my players tend to absolutely despise improve games and off the cuff games, and this mentality has spread through the about 20 other people i intermittently play table top games with. They have also come to expect a certain quality of story telling in games, they are very put off by the more basic skeleton-outline type games that get shopped around in modules and such. Using D&D for example "You all meet in a tavern" Is seen as lazy and there is an expectation that every single member of the party will have 1 on 1 two to three hour introductions campaign and paced out way to join the game.
( And D&D Is only 1 of the games we play around the table, so I am not running this like i would a D&D Game i am running it how i would a hero-system game, a call of cthulu game, a GURPS game, a WAG game, a Sagas game, a savage worlds game, a vampire masquerade game, a pathfinder game, a starfinder game, a Interlock game, ect ect ect... and by that i mean well thought out and with a heavy focus on story telling and most definitely not off the cuff. So suggesting iv somehow been spoiled by D&D and that i am using bad habbits from that is... just assuming alot about me when you dont know me )

Looser more improvised games are seen as blande cause descriptions, atmosphere, pacing all take a hit... And run the risk of ending a session without some big thrilling moment.
Not to say my players dont drive the plot cause they do, iv become good at straddling that line. To create a world that is open and with no right answers but i use what i know of my players to prepare for or adapt to their decisions to create a story that feels natural and organic. Iv become very good at dangling the right incentives tailored to each of my players and preparing for what they are likely to do to create a well placed risk..

For example, one of my players has a habit of grabbing everything and being curious, so i put a book on a shelf about 8 feet up on the 12th shelf.. the book was larger than the others so if he inspects the shelf it will be something of note. however when he climbed that shelf as i knew he would, the book inside was a mimic.
Iv created a challange now tailored specifically to one of my players without making them feel pushed or guided in that direction, and simply put thats how my players like the game. I am not going to sit here and argue that my way is better like everyone else, hell the fact that i need to explain it at all is stupid, but that through over a decade of playing with this same group of friends I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt this is the right way FOR US.

[Sphinx]

Maybe you could ask some specific questions, or clarify what kind of feedback you're hoping for? Love that character sketch, BTW.

[drjmoriarity@gmail.com]

Maybe you could ask some specific questions, or clarify what kind of feedback you're hoping for? Love that character sketch, BTW.

Thank you Sphinx, mostly I just wanted to make sure everything checks out and i havent overlooked anything.
Like i cant find any information about Kansas city so any information to help me flesh out this location would be super cool.
Make sure iv got my Vampire lore all correct and if theres anything i should know about them. The one thing i figured would be expected to be a issue is inventing my own minor corporation, i dont know how friendly shadowrun is with smaller corporations running around.

Oh and if anyone has some sample mission ideas to help me flesh out the early parts of the game, I would be really excited to get a wide veriety of options to offer my players.

Some of the ealier stuff iv got planned is a request to assassinate a old man who runs the chinese food place under accuesations that he is a child molester, but if the players bother to look into this and dig up evidence they can find information that indicates her is a in a ugly legal battle with the man who hires the party who lied to get them to agree to do wetwork at low coste.

Or one ware the party have to kidnap a mid-tier wageslave to "Scare him" and the contact will request to meet the players at a secluded place after the job and will attempt to get away without paying if they agree to this secluded meeting place.  ( Also the wageslave kidnapping iv a relitively clever trick, that if they dont do proper leg work they wont realize his office autolocks down and can only be opened from the outside so they will be trapped till the police arrive )

Any interesting ideas to give my players a fun and interesting little job would be appreciated, iv never run a game ware the majority of the roleplaying was spent picking a job and hanging out with the other runners bonding over a trideo movie marathon and chinese food. So adapting to this change of pace is a fun and exciting concept.

[Sphinx]

1. Kansas City doesn't have much detail in the lore, which makes it sort of a backwater in shadowrunner circles, but leaves it wide open for development in your game. Kansas is the southwest corner of the UCAS, bordering the CAS, Pueblo Corporate Council (PCC), and Sioux Nation, so relations with those neighboring states are pressing concerns, affecting both legal commerce and illegal smuggling. But Kansas City is in the northeast corner of the state, straddling the border with Missouri (in fact, it's mostly on the Missouri side), so those borders are still comfortably remote. Browse Google Images to get a feel for the place, check out the Wikipedia article, then give it some Sixth World flavor. Such as: a trolltown on the waterfront, a dwarf district, a coven of vampires, some transplanted magical faction like a major Buddhist or Qabbalist temple, a notorious local dragon who's an art snob (self-appointed curator of the Nelson-Atkins museum, willing to hire runners to expand his private collection), and so on.

2. Vampires have plenty of info available, starting with the description in the core rules (p.406), then the chapters on Infected in Run Faster ("Into the Night," p.124-143) and Howling Shadows ("Whispers in the Blood," p.77-91).

3. A local corporation can be entirely your creation, and could potentially be very powerful on the local stage while staying below the corporate radar. Remember, there are only ten triple-A megacorps with a seat or two on the Corporate Court; but there are over a hundred double-A megacorps with extraterritoriality; and there are thousands of single-A corps that aren't big enough to call "mega" or claim extraterritoriality, but are still major multinational corporations. Below these, there are countless national (B-rating) and local (C-rating) companies that still have enough clout to own local politicians and form little corporate fiefdoms where they're the big fish in a relatively small pond. When you own the mayor, the sheriff, the district attorney, and a few judges, you can get away with pretty much anything. Maybe there's a construction company that's all mobbed up, or a tech factory that employs over 10% of the city, or a law firm with blackmail files on all the right people, or a pharmaceutical company that secretly operates local clinics as a front for testing new products on the disadvantaged and SINless. Or a chemical factory that uses ghoul workers off the books and bribes inspectors to skip their inspections.

4. Early missions should set the tone for your campaign, and introduce your players to the major locations of the city, major organizations (gangs, crime syndicates, religious groups, political factions, law enforcement, media personalities, sports teams, even popular bands), and major NPCs (some of whom should become contacts if they aren't already). Check out the list of basic shadowruns in the core rulebook ("Run Templates," p.336-338) and run a few examples to give players a feel for the game.

[Reaver]

1. Kansas City doesn't have much detail in the lore, which makes it sort of a backwater in shadowrunner circles, but leaves it wide open for development in your game. Kansas is the southwest corner of the UCAS, bordering the CAS, Pueblo Corporate Council (PCC), and Sioux Nation, so relations with those neighboring states are pressing concerns, affecting both legal commerce and illegal smuggling. But Kansas City is in the northeast corner of the state, straddling the border with Missouri (in fact, it's mostly on the Missouri side), so those borders are still comfortably remote. Browse Google Images to get a feel for the place, check out the Wikipedia article, then give it some Sixth World flavor. Such as: a trolltown on the waterfront, a dwarf district, a coven of vampires, some transplanted magical faction like a major Buddhist or Qabbalist temple, a notorious local dragon who's an art snob (self-appointed curator of the Nelson-Atkins museum, willing to hire runners to expand his private collection), and so on.

2. Vampires have plenty of info available, starting with the description in the core rules (p.406), then the chapters on Infected in Run Faster ("Into the Night," p.124-143) and Howling Shadows ("Whispers in the Blood," p.77-91).

3. A local corporation can be entirely your creation, and could potentially be very powerful on the local stage while staying below the corporate radar. Remember, there are only ten triple-A megacorps with a seat or two on the Corporate Court; but there are over a hundred double-A megacorps with extraterritoriality; and there are thousands of single-A corps that aren't big enough to call "mega" or claim extraterritoriality, but are still major multinational corporations. Below these, there are countless national (B-rating) and local (C-rating) companies that still have enough clout to own local politicians and form little corporate fiefdoms where they're the big fish in a relatively small pond. When you own the mayor, the sheriff, the district attorney, and a few judges, you can get away with pretty much anything. Maybe there's a construction company that's all mobbed up, or a tech factory that employs over 10% of the city, or a law firm with blackmail files on all the right people, or a pharmaceutical company that secretly operates local clinics as a front for testing new products on the disadvantaged and SINless. Or a chemical factory that uses ghoul workers off the books and bribes inspectors to skip their inspections.

4. Early missions should set the tone for your campaign, and introduce your players to the major locations of the city, major organizations (gangs, crime syndicates, religious groups, political factions, law enforcement, media personalities, sports teams, even popular bands), and major NPCs (some of whom should become contacts if they aren't already). Check out the list of basic shadowruns in the core rulebook ("Run Templates," p.336-338) and run a few examples to give players a feel for the game.

Perfect advice.

To expand on this and point 4:

I usually run about 8 to 12 "starter" runs with new players before I even get to the plot of the campaign. This usually gives both the players and myself a good idea of how i run things, what I can expect out of my players (their habits, play style, etc), how their characters are performing based on expectations, and a feel for the setting (after all, the setting is a product of the GM, and thus, with each GM the setting takes on a different feel, which can take people time to adjust).

From there, I start in with what ever over reaching plot arc I want. The advantage of so many "starter" runs is it also gives the players time to plant nuggets of info into my own head for a great plot arc! I hate to say it,  but some of my most memorable times GMing shadowrun came from plots that where started by simple PC investment into some JohnDoe/McBar/rusty tricycle I placed in just to add some color to the setting...







edit note: apparently drinking words and typing beer leads to many errors...