[Angel_Heart]

Subject: Fleshing Out the 6th World

I'm a long-long-long-time GM who uses props, different voices, a variety of personalities for NPCs, and basically anything else I can thing of to make my SR world more of an immersive experience for my players. Back in the days of 4th Ed., I started trying to expand the immersiveness of the SR world by doing two new things:
   (1) I started typing up text messages and cutting them out on slips of paper. I would BEEP-BEEP (or otherwise chirp) to indicate that a PC's commlink was trying to get his attention. Then I'd hand him the paper and it was a message of whatever worldly interaction. (Sometimes spam advertisements, joygirls or joyboys looking for a trick, pervs looking for dick pics, offers of employment for future runs, wrong numbers, people looking to sell wares or black market merc, and so on and so forth.)
   It actually worked out really well and as a prop helped to draw my players into the game more.
   (2) When a player stole the spotlight and ran off solo, instead of allowing my PCs to become bored by simply sitting there and waiting on said selfish-soloing player (hey, we all do it from time to time *shrug*), I would assign role-playing opportunities to my players to earn an extra karma point by assigning them as the quasi-important but ultimately irrelevant NPC that the soloing player would meet. (E.g., Watching Player is now the Used Car Salesman who gets bonus karma if he can manage to talk Solo Player into buying a car without going below the listed price I just scribbled down on the slip of paper I passed him; or Watching Player is the Lonestar Officer [now Knight Errant...] who's harassing Solo Player and if he can squeeze a bribe out of Solo Player then Watching Player played the NPC correctly.)
   This also worked out well as it gave each player a turn to rotate into and out of different personalities (especially for those crabby common who like to simply play themselves instead of taking on a new personality/role) and made these more antagonistically fun at the table all around.

So if anyone has any ideas like this that they used in their own games, then by all means share them! I'm always happy to five-finger someone else's ideas to implant into my own games as long as they're good ones.

[Michael Chandra]

Players will start to build up a reputation which will impact the way people deal with them. One player was Fame-ous enough for several bad guys to correctly assume the worst and open fire immediately. Another was rather a pacifist so people related to the mob would call him Bleeding Heart with contempt and spirits would call him that as if it was just A Name.

You also have contacts with personalities. There was a player with a Loyalty 5 contact who would act excessively motherly whenever the player needed info that revealed the team was in a dangerous situation. And one guy's friendly spirit with a personality would always try to flirt with another runner's wife, who actually was an Ally Spirit.

Trinity Carmack walks into a bar. The bartender opens fire.

[Reaver]

You use a lot of the tricks I do already.

It sounds like we run similar tables and games, so I will tell you a few of my immersion secrets.

1: Everyone the players interact with is unique. Different looks, different attitudes, different names. If they get a soycafe, they got it from "John, the pimple face Ork barista."
if they live in an apartment building, then they know their neighbors; It s not that troll couple, its " Sarah and mike Thompson, Trolls.... and that means you try to stay out late every Tuesday night, as that's the Thompson's 'Date night" and the walls in your place are paper thin!"

2: Know everything about the block on which the players live. what businesses are around there? what are the people like? is there a gang problem? are THEY the problem? All this matters, as it builds up the world in the player's minds, it pulls them into the world, and makes them care. And when players care, the fun really starts

3: Contacts are two way streets! Just as the players go to Contacts for help, Contacts should be coming to the Players! It makes that connection and loyalty rating a wonderful two edged sword So you have "Mario, the Mafioso" as a 6/6 contact huh? Well, guess who calls you at 3 am and says he needs you, 10 meters of tarp, a shovel, and a car in 60 minutes..."

4: If something grabs your players attention, focus on it! If a player shows an interest in some random NPC you threw in for color, then maybe that NPC should start playing a larger role in your game, even if that just in subtle little ways at first. Sammy really took an interest in that secretary from that job last week.. maybe she makes an appearance at the club just before or after a meeting?
The Plots and Missions you design are all well and good, but its the Missions your players create for themselves through the interactions with your world that will be the adventures they remember the most! And if you can take what they are (literally!!) Spoon feeding you and make it come out as something you planned all along, then your doing your job right  

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Sixty minutes.  Pfaugh.  You give them too much time.  Make them break the speed limit in order to get there.

[Sphinx]

1. Keep a "personalities" file on your computer. Wherever you go, watch the people. Whenever you see someone distinctive, make a note and add them to your file later. These people become your NPCs. When you need a description for an NPC, check your people-watching file for inspiration.

• A short fat woman in a pinstripe suit with orange converse sneakers.
• A tall bald guy with a vandyke beard wearing a denim jacket with only one sleeve.
• A dark-skinned girl with embroidered skinny jeans and a bare midriff showing off her navel piercing.
• An asian kid with cargo shorts and a T-shirt from a rock concert tour that happened before he was born.

2. When the magician summons a spirit, jot the stats on an index card and hand it to another player. That player runs the spirit, interpreting and carrying out the magician's instructions. Same when a technomancer compiles a sprite, or the rigger launches a drone. Let the other players take turns running the minions, so the summoner doesn't take up too much table time.

3. Use places you've actually been. Office buildings, schools, parks, malls, museums, monuments, zoos. Use them as locations in your games. Keep all the visitor maps and information brochures in a box; they make great visual aids.