[Garrzira]

I will be GMing a shadowrun campaign soon, a rather sporadic one as i have kids and other games going on. The reason I will be GM is twofold
First: I am the most veteran GM/DM in our group
Second: I am the most experienced shadowrun player, i have exactly one game under my belt... over skype
 And there is my problem, one any way, so i need some advice on a few things
First: Helping people make characters, so far 2 of 4 players are created, one is a troll mage (wut?) and the other is a troll street samurai, but he wants to be mainly the get away driver, is this even very viable ?
Second: aside from about 15 cheat sheets to help me smooth over gameplay, what can i do to ensure the game is fun ? More than anything i am nervous because i love this game and system and i want the them to love it as well, any help is appreciated, and im sorry if this is in the wrong spot.

[ScytheKnight]

Nothing wrong with a Troll Mage, OK sure Drain is a little harder to mange, but "Geek the Mage!" becomes less viable against an armored troll. As for a wheelman, high reaction and initiative (something Street Sams often have) with driving and navigation skills... that's all you really need. Sure a dedicate rigger is 'better', but that's more about pushing things towards the extreme end of stunts.

As for making the game fun, discus with your players what they expect out of the game. Do they want to play Pink Mohawk or Mirrored Shades? Are they looking at an action or story focused game? Powerful runners or low lifes making ends meet? If you can sync up what you're doing, to what they players are wanting and expecting that will always help make things fun. Even if the response is "Anything, I just want to play." then make sure you still lay out the kind of game you're going to run so they know what to expect..

As for rulings, don't let them get in the way too much... sure take a quick look to make sure you're getting it right, but if it's going to take you 15 minutes to sort out the rules, then just wing it with what feels right to you at the time. Later on you can go back at your leisure and look over things, if you got it wrong then you can tell everyone how it should have gone down (WITHOUT retconning the result) before the next session. Just try to keep the game flowing.

Also I have a large group so mileage may vary, but I've found that when you're in combat taking a short break between combat rounds can really help against mental fatigue.

[All4BigGuns]

While there isn't anything intrinsically wrong with a Troll Magician, playing a character that goes so far against type is not really for someone with very little or no experience with the game. It takes a LOT of system mastery to pull that off and still be effective.

[Garrzira]

Thanks for the responses, like i said im not new to gming but man shadowrun is a complicated beast, now im assuming shadowrun is much more forgiving of splitting the party, far as i could tell when i played anyway. i remember
 decker in VR attacking the system or something, Mage astraly fighting spirits, two samurais fighting off security a rigger piloting the helicopter for extraction, and me (face) doing my best with my little hold out... any tips on making scene change a little smoother ?

[ScytheKnight]

If anything requires leaving the body, try to get that sorted before there's boots on the ground. Try to set things out so that once everyone is there the hacker can handle what needs doing in AR, the mage can handle thing via Astral Perception things like that. Once you start splitting up the game into people acting on 2 or even 3 realities at once, it can both fragment and bog down the game, ESPECIALLY if combat breaks out like that.

[Garrzira]

So if i understand you, let the hacker do his VR stuff first, then Mage in the astral plane, before the "main" group goes in ?
   or more so, let the Decker and Mage get set up, and flash to them when they need to do something ?

[ScytheKnight]

So if i understand you, let the hacker do his VR stuff first, then Mage in the astral plane, before the "main" group goes in ?
   or more so, let the Decker and Mage get set up, and flash to them when they need to do something ?

Either system can work.

This is of course discounting the "Get the hacker to the terminal and protect them while they dive into the host/database." scenario.

Just try to keep in mind that although the Matrix and Astral are 'separate' worlds, you don't need to leave your body to work in them most of the time.

[Garrzira]

Yeah i've been building a decker so i understand th AR VR and hot sim thing, is there an while still being in  equivalent for astral ? so a mage could offer that support "meatspace"

[ScytheKnight]

Mages can use Astral Perception to view the astral while still being int he physical world... it does have drawbacks of making you Dual Natured and thus vulnerable to Astral attacks, as well as imposing a penalty to meatspace actions. But from there mages can do anything short of going to another metaplane that they could Astrally Projecting.

If a Decker is in VR there's limits to how they can help out physically, Technomancers can do a little more with some of their Sprites. Mages are extremely limited as Mana spells cast from the Astral can only effect Astral or Dual Natured entities... and I don't know the the Manifestation spell allows use of physical spells in meatspace.

[Garrzira]

Ok cool, i think i have it, thanks for all the help, I will probably be frequenting these forums, like i said though this campaign will be sporadic... once a month at best once every three months at worst, probably all day sessions though.

[halflingmage]

While there isn't anything intrinsically wrong with a Troll Magician, playing a character that goes so far against type is not really for someone with very little or no experience with the game. It takes a LOT of system mastery to pull that off and still be effective.

Actually Troll Mage is far easier than a troll decker or rigger.  Magic A Meta B Attributes C Skills D Resources E.  Pick an Intuition tradition.  Put 10 starting karma into resources, buy up edge to 2 or 3.  You will probably be slightly behind a standard mage in drain pool, but you will be tougher, both in high body and a high str to allow for extra armor pieces.  You won't be good at much other than magic you have enough extra skill points from Magic A to have spell casting, counter spelling, and summoning at 6 as well as runner basics.  With a mentor spirit and a specialization or two you will have perfectly acceptable dice pools for your areas of focus. 

[Garrzira]

Intuitio NB tradition ? I only found logo and charisma... Where can I go to find this ?

[Medicineman]

Intuitio NB tradition ? I only found logo and charisma... Where can I go to find this ?

At your local FLGS (Fine Little Gaming Store) ! Go there and buy the Streetgrimoire



HokaHey
Medicineman

[Garrzira]

My flgs doesn't carry any shadowrun stuff. But I will have him order ot for me. Thanks for the help.

[Beta]

For the summary version, if you look on the main forums, the sticky thread of assembled SR lists, you will find one of magical traditions.  It includes drain stats, as well as what spirits each tradition can summon (and how they associate those to the different categories of magic).  Looking at it, you’ll find spirit types you are not familiar with from the core rules; you’ll also find those in Street Grimoire.  You absolutely don’t need it to play with a mage, but it does offer a lot more – more traditions, more spells, more initiation info and meta-magic options, more magical nastiness of various sorts for you to torture your players with, etc.

Regarding getting SG, it is also available as a pdf for about half the price of the dead trees version.  I’m using the pdf; it is a book where I think I’d prefer the physical version, but I’ve managed to wrestle out the information I need from the pdf. 

As to your question about dealing with decking/astral stuff separate from other activities, well, maybe.  They made a real effort in fifth edition to make deckers and technomancers come with the group, and to give them things to do in combat (reading through gear descriptions you’ll have noticed how many things have wireless bonuses?  If you have your wireless on (to get those bonuses) there is the potential for a hacker of some description to breach your personal network and do things to your gun, your communications, your cyber eyes …  Reviews of how useful that is seem to be mixed, but in general hackers won’t be sitting back in the apartment, doing their own thing, while the rest of the team is on a run because of the noise penalty for being far from your target (or so I’m told – no PC hacker in my game). 

Now, if they are doing a bunch of virtual legwork ahead of time, of course that needs to get run separately, ditto for mages doing astral exploration.  But for that matter:  ditto for the face schmoozing a bunch of people without the distraction of bunch of twitchy and violent people tagging along.  People may split up during legwork, but they should be back together for the main run, generally.

I wouldn’t worry too much about party composition or efficiency, so long as one PC won’t be eclipsing all of the others.  SR tends to be so evocative that most people seem to have little trouble getting into the game and having fun for the sheer joy of being a troll levitating through the air while shooting lightning bolts, being the manic dwarf with all the big guns, etc.  The challenge is in making events unfold in such a way that they can deal with the challenges with the abilities that they have (or can easily hire – NPC hackers show up with many groups, so that the GM can kind of hand-wave away much of the security issues.  If someone wants to play a hacker of some sort then great, but it doesn’t always happen).