[JustADude]

Something in another thread made me think of this, so I thought I'd put up a bit more detail here.

Basically, I thought I'd offer a few links to some articles from the website No Nonsense Self-Defense, which contains a huge wealth of information about the psychology behind confrontation and the realities of how people go from "upset" to "fighting", as well as all sorts of advice about martial arts, effective self defenses, and a variety of similar topics. The whole site is generally worth a gander, and not just for gaming, but here's some of the pages I think are especially relevant, some of which would be good to share with players and others to help with NPCs:

"Advice to Writers": An article that has some decent tips on how to portray a compelling bad-guy type, and how disposable minions generally really act when confronted with someone who can obviously slap them silly.

"Street Fighting": An insider view on the real world of high-stakes violence.

"Monkey Dance": How a 'typical' person tends to respond to an impending conflict without any benefit of crisis training.

"Violence Scale": An article about different severities of violence, how the game changes as the stakes rise, and how people handle getting thrown out of their depth.

"Kinds of Violence": The main motivations behind why someone would actually pursue premeditated violence. Several sub-pages with more detail on each.

"Types of Violence": Totally different topic; this page is a rough, front-lines guide to different types of agitated individuals and how to (and how to not) deal with them.

"Best Way To Get Attacked?": Actually an article on several 'no-duh' factors for avoiding physical altercation, and common reasons people don't do them.

"Shadow Dancing": A wonderfully explicit summation of the informal little ways people naturally check situations out. I'm almost totally sure the name is a coincidence.

There's dozens upon dozens more pages on the site, but those are some of the ones I've read that I think might be most directly beneficial to GMs.

Please feel free to offer up any commentary you might have, or any other resources you might feel would be useful to the subject.

[Argent]

I think this is a good resource. Nice to have on bookmarks. Thanks for the links!

[JustADude]

I think this is a good resource. Nice to have on bookmarks. Thanks for the links!

No problem at all; glad to share the wealth. 

As an aside, one of the things I find funny after having read through these resources is how some people criticize Shadowrun for having combat that's over in 3-12 seconds (depending on how Wired everyone is), saying that it's unrealistically fast, when that's about how long most "spontaneous" violence actually takes when there are trained professionals involved.

Essentially, the way most players react in violent situations (aka, exploding into instant, highly effective retaliation) actually is the proper, realistic response for a Shadowrunner, given the average character's background. The Negative Quality "Combat Paralysis" is there specifically for people who don't have the learned reflexes to drop the hammer without thinking when the excrement hits the oscillating air-flow enhancer.

Oh, and a couple other relevant articles:

"High Risk Behavior & When in Rome": All about the different rules of etiquette in different social strata, and what happens if/when you don't shift gears appropriately.

"Alpha Male Behavior": Discourse on how genuine dominant personalities behave, as opposed to people trying to bluster and be self-important. Also more discussions of the realities of street life.

That first article makes me want to, as a GM, have some schmuck of an office worker hanging out in an 'edgy' night spot get all up in the Main Battle Troll's face because he's used to dealing with janitors, mechanics, and other Trolls who aren't allowed to punch his nose down his throat.

The second one makes me want to replace the PFB (he explains the acronym in the article) from the story with some spoiled socialite that the runners are being hired to guard while she goes slumming.