[Talmor]

Hey guys,

I’m thinking of starting up a Shadowrun game sometime in the near future.  I’ve only ever played the game once, but I had a blast. 

Anyway, I’m hoping to run a game that’s focused more on the characters and the world around them.  They’ll still be runners, ‘cause that’s just fun, but I also want them dragged into adventures by/with other runners, family, friends, and neighbors.

I was also interested in them building up their own organization/agency.

Are there any books that I should be looking at?  I have the 4th Anniversary base book and the Runners book.  I don’t know much about the world, so I’d love to have a good city supplement.  Also, my players are mainly interested in physical characters vs. magic or deckers or the like.

Thanks!

[nakano]

Okay, if your guys are going to play physical focused characters, Arsenal and Augmentation would be top of the list for the Core Books.  They provide most of the tools that physically focused characters would need.

As to settings, there is a Seattle book out.

[Talmor]

Thanks, I'll check out Seattle. 

Random side question, but is there a book about space for Shadowrun?  I was thinking it'd be cool to do at least some runs on colonies on Mars and Io or something like that.  Some "Blade Runner" (attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion) or "Total Recall"--basically, Phillip K Dick style cyberpunk.

I know Catalyst publishes Battletech now, right?  Is there a Shadowrun/Mechwarrior crossover?

[KommissarK]

Arsenal has some rules on how to handle environmental hazards in space, but has no real setting information. There are a few stated Lunar and Mars bases, so go from there. I imagine they restrict travel, but physical security could be relatively light (big guns tend to put holes in colony walls).

As far as I know, there is no crossover with Battletech and Shadowrun (or at least, I don't recall magic in Battletech).

[The Doomed One]

Battlerun is the only crossover between Battletech and Shadowrun.  It was also for April Fool's Day so yeah...

[Sliver]

Random side question, but is there a book about space for Shadowrun?  I was thinking it'd be cool to do at least some runs on colonies on Mars and Io or something like that.  Some "Blade Runner" (attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion) or "Total Recall"--basically, Phillip K Dick style cyberpunk.

Shadowrun has no official space setting as far as I know, but you could very easily tweak your setting to include one.

Personally, I've never been one for using the game's standard settings. It would be very easy to just set it on a space station, or scatter space stations across the solar system and give your players a ship to explore them in. Just use your imagination, and you can tailor the Shadowrun setting to whatever your group wants

[baronspam]

Okay, if your guys are going to play physical focused characters, Arsenal and Augmentation would be top of the list for the Core Books.  They provide most of the tools that physically focused characters would need.

As to settings, there is a Seattle book out.

Arsenal and Augmentation are the key books for your combat monster characters, as well as drone riggers, pilots, drivers, etc.

If no one is going to play a mage skip Street Magic but if anyone is I would really suggest it.  Lots of magic traditions, more spells, more adept powers, more spirits, lots of good stuff.

Unwired is the hardest call.  A group without a matrix specialist is at a huge disadvantage.  You could always plug the hole with an npc that spends most of the time in the van, however, and succeeds and fails at things as the plot requires.  The expanded rules in Unwired are nice, but they are also very complex and add quite alot of record keeping.  Unless you have someone who really wants to be tracking the status of the updates on his comlink software and such things its probably more than you want to take on if no one is playing a hacker.

As for settings, there are quite a few books you might look at.  An older one (but still 4th edition) is Runner Havens.  Half of it is on Hong Kong and the other half is on Seattle.  There is also a full book on Seattle that is more recent that has the timeline up to 2072 I believe.  The new release Spy Games has a fair amount of details on Denver.  There is a PDF only on Manhattan that is less than 5 dollars, but its only about 32 pages and doesn't detail the city as a whole, just the island itself.   There is also a book out there called Feral Cities, with information on Chicago (what a dump) and some sh*thole in Africa (forget which one). 

If you feel like spending some money the 6th world Almanac has a year by year timeline and some basic information on various areas around the world.  Honestly, I was disappoint in this one.  It is more fluff and flavor text than actual game information.

[Talmor]

Unwired is the hardest call.  A group without a matrix specialist is at a huge disadvantage.

Well, the group is only going to be 2 players--I've had my fill of 6+ groups, and want to run a game with a smaller group.  My conceit for the game, and for Running in general, is that various groups and individuals come together for a specific job, then go their seperate ways.  So, I want my players to be the "generalists"/infiltration/assault team guys, while the driver, decker, sniper, etc. are NPC's.  If/when the NPC's skills come up, I'll have the players roll/play them out, but in general the "support" roles will be NPC's.

Diffferent Runs will have different teams, and ideally the NPC's will be different enough that they players will form some kind of connection with them--even better if it's a rivalry or the like.

Of course, if a PC dies during a run, then they can play one of the NPC's.  I'm not sure how I'll hand cases where the NPC choosen was planning on betraying the party the whole time--hopefully it'll come up rarely, if at all.

Basically, I'm inspired more by the film Ronin than, say, Ocean's 11 or Heist. 

And yes, you can tell my lack of knowledge of the Cyberpunk genre by my constant citing of movie sources over books, and many of those movies aren't even close to being Cuberpunk stories...

[baronspam]

Ronin is actually really close to the attitute.  Its just higher tech, and with trolls.

There are actually many different ways to play the game.  Some people run very action heavy games without alot of consequences or blowback for bad decision.  Some people run games where planning, sneaking, and subterfuge are all improtant, and if the bullets start flying you have already blown it.  Some games are very "powergame" heavy and emphasise the borderline superhuman nature of characters.  Other games are lower powered and focus more on characters and story.  There is no right or wrong way.  Just have a sense of what  you want to do, and try to have people on the same page.  Some people want to spend 3 hours planning the run and 30 minutes gaming it out.  Some people want the opposite.  Just make sure you know what your players expect and make sure you are comfortable giving them that.