[AricTheSpecialist]

Hi folks,

Aric here. I'm a new GM in regards to Shadowrun. In fact i've never played Shadowrun as a tabletop game before and am excited to jump in and get started. As the RPG Specialist of the game store I work at, it's my job to help the community and to promote material that doesn't see a lot of play in my store. We do a lot of business with the usual generic roleplaying games and recently I held a poll to see what would excite the player base the most. The winner of that poll was Shadowrun! I'd like to know how many players I should accept into each session for games being run out of the Beginner Box and then out of the Alphaware Toolkit that the store provided me to use for these demo sessions. Any advice on your part would be greatly appreciated guys, thanks!

I'm also aware of many of the drawbacks associated with the beginner box, etc. I've read the reviews on Amazon and whatnot. It just seems like a good jumping on point for myself and those in the store who have never interacted with Shadowrun before.

[ScytheKnight]

If you use the Alphaware Box there are 5 pregen characters covering all the metatypes and primary archetypes... even if it does lead to a Troll Face. 

Plots and Paydata I feel is actually a really good introduction to Shadowrun and Shadowrunning. The 'runs' start off extremely simple and slowly build in complexity, introducing new elements legwork and double-crosses along the way while running the gamut  of typical run types (Just frag these guys, Protection, Data Steal, Prototype Steal, Extraction) the later runs in the book offer players a lot more freedom about how they want to go about things.

It's not as super in-depth as most of the pre-written content, but definitely enough to introduce new people to the game and leave enough plot hooks dangling by the end for a GM to start up their own campaign.

[Spooky]

As the RPG guy in my store, I would keep tables limited to 5 players until I am comfortable with the system. I personally like running 6-7 players for my tables, as that gives me a cushion so that I don't inadvertantly TPK my table. in Shadowrun, 6 characters usually means everyone has a unique specialty (face, rigger, mage, adept, street sam, hacker). 7 usually means something is doubled up, which means that that area is the team's strongest area. I have also been playing/running Shadowrun since first edition, so I have lots of experience with it. If you are near Carson City in Nevada, come in to Nerdvana on Highway 50 and ask for Mark the DM. I not only run RPG tables, I teach classes on the games and how to GM them.

[Pap Renvela]

If you use the Alphaware Box there are 5 pregen characters covering all the metatypes and primary archetypes... even if it does lead to a Troll Face. 

Since a Giant could start with a 10 CHA, Troll Faces aren't a laughing matter anymore...

But in all seriousness- while the characters work, they're not optimized and have errors. For example the Ork has reaction enhancers[2] and wired reflexes[1] which gives a +3 augmentation bonus to REA but the sheet shows +4. So they're good enough to play the missions with but don't hold them up as how you should design characters.

[ScytheKnight]

If you use the Alphaware Box there are 5 pregen characters covering all the metatypes and primary archetypes... even if it does lead to a Troll Face. 

Since a Giant could start with a 10 CHA, Troll Faces aren't a laughing matter anymore...

But in all seriousness- while the characters work, they're not optimized and have errors. For example the Ork has reaction enhancers[2] and wired reflexes[1] which gives a +3 augmentation bonus to REA but the sheet shows +4. So they're good enough to play the missions with but don't hold them up as how you should design characters.

Never mentioned them being great characters... but certainly good enough to get into playing without encountering one of the biggest hurdles to playing Shadowrun, chargen.

[AricTheSpecialist]

If you are near Carson City in Nevada, come in to Nerdvana on Highway 50 and ask for Mark the DM. I not only run RPG tables, I teach classes on the games and how to GM them.

I deeply appreciate that offer, however i'm in Virginia. That'd be quite the drive

Thanks so much you guys! You've answered my questions, i'll be looking forward to running five person tables. I'll let you all know how the sessions went.

Also, the anti-spam system doesn't seem to appreciate my Fifth Element references when answering the question "Are you human?" Apparently, "Negative, I am a Meat Popsicle" is an unacceptable reply.

[Critias]

I hope you have fun with 'em, Aric.  I know they're not as hard-core optimized as they could've been, and I also know some revisions didn't make it in time (as the game was changing literally while I was statting them up, and some errors slipped through), but lots of folks have given good feedback about 'em and seem to dig 'em.  I hope you and your players like Ms. Myth and her crew, too.