[Vale]

Hey there chummers,
 So here's the deal: while I'm not new to tabletops in general, Shadowrun is a completely different ball game. I've been reading through the core books (Anniversary Core, Street Magic, the Almanac, etc) and feel fairly competent enough to start running a campaign.

As stated in the title, the primary focus of the campaign will be running guns in the pacific from Seattle to Shanghai. Most of my players are new to the system (well, newer than me) and I want to try and ease them into the setting as well as let them get a feel on how things are supposed to work in the shadows.

I know this is starting to get long, but I feel that the more information you have, the better you all will be able to help. So what I ask is this: Are there any supplements, media, etc that you would recommend for a gunrunning campaign? Any tips or tricks from your own sessions that might be beneficial? Any advice for a new GM in general? Anything and everything is appreciated as I want to give my players the best possible experience so that they want to continue playing.

Post Script: Also, is there a map of the world circa 2072? I've found one for the '60s, but nothing more 'recent'. Is that map still viable? Has anything changed?

[Walks Through Walls]

Welcome and I hope you and your group have as much fun as I do with mine.

For a group of new players and a new GM I would recommend the runner's Toolkit. It has cheat sheets that break down all of the active tests to help you walk through the mechanics. It also has a great GMs screen that I find very helpful too. In addition it has several other items for helping get run ideas and setting though it sounds like you have a good plan in mind for the campaign already.

If the game is going to revolve around guns Arsenal is probably a good thing to get if you don't already have it.
I usually allow the players to tweak their characters for the first couple sessions if they find they missed a skill they want or aren't using one they thought they had to have. Or if they just aren't happy with the character at all then start over and keep the karma.

As a GM I find it useful to have a broad outline of the plot for the run. Then I write up a detailed description of the meet and a couple other scenes I am pretty sure the characters will encounter. I also have the enemies made ahead of time and a general idea of what their tactics will be though I'm not afraid to change this on the fly.

Hope all of this helps

[JustADude]

WTW has a lot of good advice. My own little tidbit is this: find the Anime Black Lagoon and watch it. Great inspiration for anything going on in the SE-Asia area.

[ArkangelWinter]

For a fairly realistic treatment of professional arms dealing, watch Lord of War with Nicolas Cage. Also, read up on vehicles and real-world weapons regulations. While it may be illegal to transport that thing as a missile, it can be perfectly legal to transport a "display piece" in the same shipment as a "high grade demolitions ordinace" and "various rocket-enthusiast paraphernalia"

[Vale]

Hilariously, the two main inspirations for this campaign were Black Lagoon and Lord of War. The thing about my GMing style is that I usually end up winging entire sessions and they somehow turn out better than if I would have planned them. With what I'm reading of Shadowrun, this method can continue in the previous vein or be a horrific catastrophe, so I'm going to err on the side of caution and follow your advice, omae.

As to the characters, I did a little something different that I'm hoping won't backfire on me. I've allowed each player to make two characters; one of which they play for the duration of the mission, the other being under my control. If everything goes according to plan, it'll keep my players from getting bored playing the same character all the time while creating a healthy level of competition. If it backfires, it'll be quite the cluster-fuck of inter-party conflict with a dozen characters to keep track of. I trust most of my players with this responsibility.

I actually do have the Runner's Toolkit and the PACKs system has been a saving grace in the otherwise confusing snarl that is character-creation. I suppose a lot of that comes down to unfamiliarity, but to quote the friend of mine who got me into the game: "Here's the Core Rulebook, you have 400 BP to spend. Go."

[Zilfer]

Daunting the first time when someone says that no?

[Vale]

It's almost as bad as hearing someone say "it'll be easy" or "trust me".

[Crash_00]

Not as bad as my introduction to third edition. Which was here, make a character while we all play, here are the 8 billion books we have, oh  and try to make a street sam. Keeping in mind that all I had read were some second edition books and I'd never played anything other than the starwars rpg. The priority system was hell. Routing cyberware was hell. 4E characters are like taking a nap compared to that. And of course it's all better than World of Synnibarr.

[ArkangelWinter]

Palladium Rifts. "Here's the books we're using, make sure it can go underwater."

[Zilfer]

I'm afraid those last two i've never heard of so the referene is lost on me. Though I'm actually interested in the Star Wars System and hopefully I can get a game going for it.

[Crash_00]

I've got know idea what the current star wars system is (last one I played was some horribly cancerous version). The one I was referencing was the old awesome as hell West End Games D6 version complete with color advertisements throughout the book for blasters and spaceships.

[Zilfer]

Interesting .

Well regardless, I bet it was fun.

Btw Han Shot First.

[Laurentius]

Hoi Omae, glad you could make it here. I think the two characters per player idea is an interesting one, if potentially confusing. You're right it'll depend on your team. Since you use PACKs, there are some custom ones on this forum that are worth taking a look at. My recommendation for the campaign would probably have to do with travel. I'm going to assume that VTOL/VSTOLs are slightly out of reach, so you'll be traveling most likely by sea. That will offer you some interesting opportunities, such as mana storms, being cut off from the matrix, and a confined space forcing the team to live together like a safe house. It'll also make transition points and how you use SINs slightly more prevalent, as well as Languages. "Translator" might be a sub-role to be filled by a team member (most likely  your face), and customs will be an interesting challenge (well, I'm sure you'd rather avoid those, haha).

Of course, just running guns between lines in a single city is a challenge in and of itself. In that case etiquette would probably be more important than language skills. Gun running is as much about who you know as the big fire fights that happen when someone decides the deal isn't good enough.

[Vale]

I was wondering when you'd chime in, chummer. (Laur is one of my players and the aforementioned one who got me into the game.) I suppose it's a good thing I've yet to fully finish Stolichnaya yet, looks like I'm going to be redistributing a few skills.

What is the consensus on keeping the group in Seattle for a month before shipping them out to sea? Good idea, bad idea? The idea is to get them used to the system first and gradually introduce concepts like all-encompassing AR, data trails & tracking, and all the other little concepts that make this system so entertaining (and deadly) before throwing them to the sharks, both literally and metaphorically. I'm thinking that the NAVI program (an in-game tutorial program to help explain game concepts and common knowledge) will help smooth the transition a lot, but you never know.

[Laurentius]

Everybody needs a home port, if that's to be Seattle, then it would be good for them to get familiar with the area. Care to elaborate on NAVI?