[wolfrider66]

Well it's done....
Saturday night was my groups first game. Woosh I haven't tasked my brain like that since I crammed for my Florida PLS license. So many remembered rules rushing through my grey matter at the speed of light all at once...felt like a couple of locomotives were screaming through straight at each other until CRASH...brain lock up. The game was stop and go at best. I thought I had it down. At first I found myself leading the players along in a narrative. I was kind of showing them what they should be doing...then I realized I was doing it for them. Bad idea. So I pulled it together and said it's your run go for it. The technomancer went VR almost immediately so I asked him what his node was sculpted to look like. We already knew his living persona was an elf (Boxter is a dwarf that refuses to admit he is dwarven and has convinced himself he is elven. which is why he spends most time in VR as elf). He didn't know he could sculpt his home node and PAN. What's a PAN he says......  I told him his PANs stock terrain was an oceanside beach with objects on the beach in his PAN and stuff out in the ocean as links to nodes to outside "places" like other PANs, RFIDs etc. I asked if he read the rules at all and he said yes as far as getting his character sheet done but had no idea how to really run his technomancer. So it took us a while to figure out when to roll what test. It got to the point where we were in danger of wasting the others time so I started just  winging it.  Players being what they are did what they do. They made a plan that I was completely blindsided by. Making up metaphors for all the nodes to a building security system  in a store that had nothing to do with the run was fun but slow. I held it together and they had fun.  But there has to be some kind of chart that tells a technomancer when to roll what test because trying to learn from scratch is tough. WE spent too much time trying to guess when we needed to roll a test. It was as if the rules covered too much. We are going to meet this week between games to run a few practice battles to make sure that part of the game goes smoothly. also I'm going to reread the entire Matrix section of the SR4A. I have all of the 4th edition books even the stuff that just came out except Elven Blood I think. But I'm just sticking to the basic book for now. Luckily my group picked at least 95% of skills and qualities from the Big Book. I am also meeting with the techno's player to run some Matrix sims to get that down.

Help a brother out, are there charts that say when to roll what as a hacker or technomancer? ( I have the Runner's Toolkit, and the GM's screen has some tables and info.) The overlap with complex forms and programs was killing me. I am going to figure out what's what and see if those rules are really as over-complicated as they seem. Again any help from experienced GMs would be great.


I really hope the astral is easier. As a former DM for 30 years of AD&D at least I know exactly what the plane is like.

The player's heads are in a good place as they understand there will be growing pains and there was laughter and other good moments during our session. I hope session two goes far more smoothly. You know, I would love to watch a game get played just once to get the idea of how a session goes. I'll see what I can find.

That's all I have for right now, so good luck with your own runs, and have fun Chummers!

[foolofsound]

The Shadowrun Astral plane is totally unlike DnD Astral (at least Planescape Astral). Think spirit world: everything living gives off an aura, while "dead" things appear shadowy and insubstantial. Dual-natured creatures, such as spirits, appear with extraordinary clarity. For the most part, however, the Astral plane is a spiritual copy of the real world; think DnD Ethereal/Shadow planes.

Metaplanes are more like DnD inner/outer planes; each has it's own appearance, logic, and rules.

Complex Forms and Programs behave more-or-less identically.

A tip from my standpoint, have a general idea of how the rules for any given thing work, but have your players learn the specifics as they apply to their characters, and inform you as needed. If you feel that you can trust your players (and if you can't, why play with them?) this system tends to work wonders for taking work load off of you.

[Lightning Rod]

http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=8388.0   This post has a great cheat sheet for hacking and techno-ing

[Crimsondude]

Runner's Toolkit has cheat sheets for hacking and combat, etc. as well as the rules stated in the GM screen. Hence why it's so valuable.

But, yeah, see above.

[Walks Through Walls]

I'd echo what James just said, but also add it has great cheat sheets for all facets of the game. It also has a great GM screen and anatomy of a shadowrun which has the text of what is going on on one side of the sheet and the rules mechanics and what was rolled on the other to walk you through it.

Sounds like your group had fun which is the most important thing. Welcome to the world of running and let us know if you need any help.

[All4BigGuns]

The Shadowrun Astral plane is totally unlike DnD Astral (at least Planescape Astral). Think spirit world: everything living gives off an aura, while "dead" things appear shadowy and insubstantial. Dual-natured creatures, such as spirits, appear with extraordinary clarity. For the most part, however, the Astral plane is a spiritual copy of the real world; think DnD Ethereal/Shadow planes.

Metaplanes are more like DnD inner/outer planes; each has it's own appearance, logic, and rules.

Complex Forms and Programs behave more-or-less identically.

A tip from my standpoint, have a general idea of how the rules for any given thing work, but have your players learn the specifics as they apply to their characters, and inform you as needed. If you feel that you can trust your players (and if you can't, why play with them?) this system tends to work wonders for taking work load off of you.

As to the Astral Plane, I kind of view it as being something like the Umbra from Werewolf the Apocalypse. It just seems to be a better comparison, IMO.

[foolofsound]

As to the Astral Plane, I kind of view it as being something like the Umbra from Werewolf the Apocalypse. It just seems to be a better comparison, IMO.

I was using DnD comparisons because he was familiar with them. The Umbra is a better analogue, though.

[farothel]

I also made some matrix cheat sheets: http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=3269.msg35275#msg35275
As for descriptions on what VR looks like, read (or watch) Tom Clancy's Net Force series.  They have a sort of VR.

[wolfrider66]

I also made some matrix cheat sheets: http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=3269.msg35275#msg35275
As for descriptions on what VR looks like, read (or watch) Tom Clancy's Net Force series.  They have a sort of VR.

Hey thanks Farothel

[wolfrider66]

I also found help from an tutorial for hackers by Smoo.

Thanks to you all I really am glad I found this community. I guess later I'll change my photo to a more serene pic lol.