[jonathanc]

...what would it be? I was just browsing around reddit after spending Lent away from the place (good riddance; I'm kind of glad to have broken my addiction to going there) and I noticed someone bemoaning the "playability" of Shadowrun.

His complaints struck me as pretty familiar to what I felt the first time I ran a game for people who knew the system better than I did: mages are overpowered, Spirits are too good, rules are too complex, etc. etc. Some of the complaints were things that I think all  new GMs run into, regardless of the system.

In my case, the "one thing" I'd tell every Shadowrun GM to do is consider using a simple map to track player positions during combat. Nothing was so helpful to me as having a way to get players to commit to their positioning so there wasn't an argument about whether someone should have cover bonuses or not.

There are plenty of people here with more mastery of the system than I have (I've been playing since 3rd edition, but not consistently), so I'm curious to hear what suggestions you all might give to a new GM. I think it'd be a good resource for new visitors.

[Bull]

My biggest suggestion?

"It's a game that has elves and dwarfs and humans and trolls and cyberware and magic.  It has an Aztech nation fueling a world-spanning megacorporation with blood magic and a Dragon attempting to buy the world through a German megacorporation.  A dragon ran for president, won, and then was assassinated.  Evil bug spirits took over Chicago and the government tried nuking the city, and FAILED.  A clown-faced immortal elf is almost single-handedly trying to stop cthulhu-like creatures from entering our world and destroying it.  Keep all that in mind when I tell you:  It's a game with some amazingly absurd ideas that are just completely and utterly ridiculous.  So don't take the game too seriously, and never, ever forget that it is *just* a game.  if you do that, you'll have a blast."

[Ajax]

Hopefully no one minds, but I'm just going to cross-post this from a seperate thread -Ajax

In the sadly out-of-print 7th Sea RPG players were given 100 Points to build their Heroes. Then they were given "The Other 100 Points" and asked to distribute these 100 points between five different campaign themes, according to preference.  I've used this system very, very successful in games as diverse as Dungeons & Dragons, Mutants and Masterminds, and even Call of Cththlu. (Hell, I've even used it to help pick the next game we'd play!) GMs should feel free to adjust the categories, but are best always allowing at least four or five categories.

Here is what a sample group's spread might look like for a game of Shadowrun, if I was behind the screen:

Current Campaign Interest

Interest	Alice	Bob	Chris	Dawn	Eric	Frank	Mean	Variance
Intrigue	35	25	30	25	20	20	26	34
Action	30	25	50	25	25	30	31	94
Romance	15	25	5	10	25	25	17.5	78
Exploration	10	25	10	30	10	20	17.5	78
Military	10	0	5	10	20	5	8	47

At first glance, it looks like there is a marked preference for Action, but it's largely because of the very high score it received from Chris.  If we look at the variance, though, we see that it's actually with Intrigue that we get the most agreement (lowest variance and second highest mean) and on Military (lowest mean, second lowest variance.)  Romance and Exploration are practically indistinguishable in terms of interest from the group: middling and scattered.

So Intrigue and Action are probably equally fair bets for the GM to build his campaign around, followed by Romance and Exploration. Lagging far, far behind, is any interest in Military related adventures.

If none of these players had ever played much Shadowrun, it would behoove the GM to have them go through the "The Other 100 Points" exercise before they start to design characters, that way he can steer them towards concepts that fit their individual interest (For example, Chris will probably prefer a Street Sam or Adept to a Face; Alice might really enjoy a Face or a Hacker.)

[Critias]

"Don't sweat the small stuff."

[Mirikon]

"Whenever the players get too confident, remember chunky salsa rules."

[Red]

Never, ever let the rules slow you down from telling a good story or having a good time. USE the rules to guide you and keep it fair, but never, ever let them slow you down.

[jonathanc]

Haha, it's funny because I had a game tonight with multiple rules arguments, and the sudden desire to kill at least one of the PC's (and/or the player). I'm trying to put that energy to better use, and think of some alternate challenges for them. I think one common mistake is to stick with bullets too much...there are chase rules, poison rules, spirits, etc.

I think my players are due for an encounter with poison gas.

[Mirikon]

Or weaponized nanites.

[Patrick Goodman]

"It's not a competition."

[Angelone]

You can't plan for everything, you're players are going to think of something you didn't. Don't resent the fact celebrate it.

[Crash_00]

Don't penalize your runners for good planning/rolls. If they manage to ace their way through a job with no complications, congratulate them and move on. Their day will come when they're running through the sewers to avoid the mixture of Knight Errant, Ghouls and Bugs chasing them and twelve rounds into shooting the lock off the maintenance access corridor they realize they still have SnS loaded.

Likewise, don't make it worse than it is. You aren't playing against the players, you just want them to think you're trying to gut, maim, and savage them, but in reality you want them to subtly win by the thinnest strand each time (or at least most of them). 

[Mirikon]

"Don't go out of your way to kill your players. But don't go out of your way to save them, either."

[freddieflatline]

Start the story off small and grow it from there.  It does not have to be this big massive world spanning conspiracy.  One of my favorite stories by William Gibson is Johnny Mnemonic.  Johnny was not out to save the world, just is own head.  Also tell a good story and both you as well as the players will have a great time. 

[Eugene]

I know this is more than one thing, but I'd suggest the following specific to SR advice...

- Try to keep everyone within 1 IP of each other for maximum fun and least boredom.
- Develop character spotlight time management.
- Make specific players in charge of being an expert in specific rules, particularly if they don't come up every session.

[shrike]

Roleplaying is a collaborative effort. Sometimes it is easy to forget that when you sit behind a screen in the GM seat. So remember that you AND the players are telling this story together. Above all, have fun.