[Mirikon]

I'm in a weekly D&D group, and as a favor to the DM, I've started alternating campaigns with him. He goes through a module in his campaign, and then I'll do a module to give him some time as a player. Its currently his turn in the big chair, but I thought that while he was still running things, I'd prep for my next turn at the reigns. I've talked it over with the players, and they're excited to learn some Shadowrun.

Now, this is my first time trying to DM Shadowrun. I'm very familiar with the rules, but there's a difference between that and running a game, obviously. I'm going to start them off with Food Fight, and was thinking about running with the job the mother/daughter on the run from her corp hubby.

What I'd love from the more experienced DMs out there is some advice on how to run the game, in general, and what to do with the rest of the group when the hacker is off in the astral, and the hacker is in full VR, getting into a system?

Any help you can give me would be much appreciated.

[Crash_00]

In my experience, usually the rest of the group is off doing legwork, buying ware, or casing the jobsite while the
mage and hacker are at work on their end doing the same.

Now, during a combat in which only the mage or hacker are involved, the rest of the group might get a little bored,
but combat runs quick enough in fourth edition, that it shouldn't be for too long. It'll give the rest of the group a chance
to take a break for a minute.

The key to remember is go slow and make sure that everyone understands the rules. Its worth it during the first few
sessions to take the extra time and explain to each player why they're rolling the dice that they're rolling as it will speed
up the game later on. Also remember, you're your worst critic. Even if you think the game sucked, if everyone had fun
then you did a great job.

[Charybdis]

Key issue is to keep things moving.

As a player, you often forget other people are involved and might try to get a spotlight for yourself, being justifiably proud of your PC's accomplishments.

As a GM, this mindset is reversed. All effort goes out to the players to make them feel involved and important, but must always remember that there are 4-5 people at the table who all want their turn to shine.

So, keep things moving, and keep things fair

If other PC's are segregated (VR, Astral or even just in a seperate room), just keep things moving turn by turn, minute by minute, or hour by hour (as appropriate for combat, conversations or legwork accordingly).

[FastJack]

Remember, in Shadowrun, it is even MORE likely that the players will throw you a curve ball on how they want to do a run. Even though the book may have it listed that this section will lead to a fight, or that section is where the runner should retreat, they may (ok, probably WILL) think of a different way to do it.

Just let them run and learn to think on the fly.

[Teknodragon]

As a player, I have a blast sometimes when a GM and an awakened or hacker character are on a roll, putting on a show of awesome for the rest of us. Heck, even a good RPer running a face. I can only hope I shine half as well when it's my character's turn in the spotlight. If everyone else at the table is quietly, raptly watching during a Matrix or Astral scene, you're doing it right.

[DireRadiant]

Everyone can do legwork.
Everyone can do things in the Matrix
Everyone can do stuff in the astral... oops. Not really.

Astral is everywhere, For some reason there are a lot of awakened Runners. The Matrix is everywhere. For some reason everyone, including shadowrunners, does stuff with the matrix.

Every scene has Matrix, Astral and Mundane view. They are integrated.

That locked room they team is trying to get into, it has Astral, Matrix and Mundane elements. Describe it that way as appropriate. Yeah it's three times as much, but you do want a rich wonderful environemtn all the PC can interact with? Need a variety of sol;utions to teh same problem? Need to find a loophole the team can take advantage of?

There are even ways for the Mundane to interact with the Awakened. Check out some of the new cool stuff they can get to have an idea of the awakened world.

Don't limit yourself and the players. There are many worlds out there. Have fun with it.

When I GM I always consider describing the scene in the terms of whomever is viewing it. Are the PCs using AR, VR, Astral sight, none of the above? Don;t forget reality Filters, they personalize the VR/AR view of a scene.

Once you integrate the views, there is the matter of getting people to realize they can influence things outside their normal sphere. Eveyrone can and should do legwork, it's not all matrix searches, there's talking to contacts, exploiting (PC) personal knowleddge and skills, and the actual surveillance and walking around. Anyone can do data searches, why not have several people do it? Why not use teamwork while Hacking? Yeah, astral scouting is kind of a personal thing, but there's no reason teamwork can't be used here as well.

It's a rich world with many layers, show it to teh players, make them interact with it. They know it's there, don't make it beyond their reach.

[John Shull]

Know your players and get their heads in the characters.  Keep game mechanics dialogue brief, you want the game to be about shooting up a Stuffer Shack not Math class.  Outline how the rolling die thing works and tell them that when you say 'roll 11' they do and give you their hits number right back.  Then just feed them through the simple story.  If they are really novice you can roll for them and just let them do story.  They may want pics of their weapons, gear, or commlinks, espically if they are new to the genre.  Have clear descriptions, maps, and it doesn't hurt to have a way to show equivalent items in Shadowrun to things in their life.  Commlinks are smartphones with apps that may edit and spoof, etc.

The simple version I encapsulate in these guides:

Keep working the story to the players, get them there and let them care.
Keep moving the story along.  A to B to C with lots of color, explosions, characters, and splendor.
Keep it simple.
Keep it fun.