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Hello All~ Asking for a Bit of Help

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CaptRory

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« on: <12-03-10/2314:34> »
I've run Rifts Ultimate Edition, Beyond the Supernatural 2e, Big Eyes Small Mouth 2e, and a few other games. I've never run Shadowrun before although I am rather familiar with the Cyberpunk Genre. As a matter of fact no one in my gaming group has ever played Shadowrun before.

My players consist of a hacker, a mage, and four assorted combat characters using the standard character generation rules.

I would appreciate any advice for creating a reasonably challenging first run for my group in the Fourth Edition rules. Having absolutely nil experience* with this game I lack a baseline for creating this sort of content. After the first adventure I'll have a little experience in this system.

Thank you kindly for taking the time to read this.



*Experience: Something you get only after you need it.   ;)

FastJack

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« Reply #1 on: <12-03-10/2359:22> »
Since you're just starting out, you might want to try a published adventure first (Food Fight is a classic and will familiarize everyone with the rules and is very fun).

Walks Through Walls

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« Reply #2 on: <12-04-10/0022:31> »
Food fight is a good first adventure to learn the rules and get familiar with things. For a first real run something like an extraction can be a good starting place, but some of it depends on the personalities of the players and their characters. Another good choice is where they have to steal (urr uhm I mean acquire something) depending how much you and the hacker want to dive into the hacking rules off the bat it could be a data steal or if you want a bit less then some physical item can be really cool. I especially like the idea of the item that will play importance later, but no one knows why it is important right now.

Hope this helps
"Walking through walls isn't tough..... if you know where the doors are."
"It's not being seen that is the trick."

Walks Through Walls

Nomad Zophiel

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« Reply #3 on: <12-04-10/0141:46> »
Food Fight is the stuff of which memories are made and its a great way to give everyone a chance to do their thing.

The_Gun_Nut

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« Reply #4 on: <12-04-10/1806:00> »
Yup, great stuff.

One thing I'd like to point out, though, as neither you nor your players have ever played Shadowrun before:  Combat characters are secondary support characters.

Seriously.  Being good at combat isn't of primary importance to Shadowrunners.  Sure, you need one of the combat monkeys along for when things go downhill, but one thing to remember about SR is that the world is our world with just some extra stuff thrown in.

A corporation's resources vastly outclass a team of runners by a few orders of magnitude.  The PC's have hundreds of thousands to spend on gear and what not, but the Corps have hundreds of millions to blow on security.  Even in a single facility for a small corp the security will outnumber the runners and have the homefield advantage.  If the runners go in there guns blazing they will get dead very, very quickly as the corp can always throw more guys at the runners or just lock down the place and call for back-up.  If the runners screw up bad enough the corp will send an official request for assistance from Lone Star (the corporation paid to be the cops).  Those guys have waaaay more guns and gear than the runners ever dreamed of.  Very bad news.

How the runners survive is by stealth and trickery.  There are many movies and TV shows to check out for inspiration about how a typical shadowrun works.  A couple of good ones are Leverage (TV show) and Ronin (movie, DeNiro stars).  In the former, combat is only used as part of a much larger scheme or as a last resort.  In the latter, combat is expected and planned for, but that isn't their primary focus, only a means to an end.  Also in Ronin is an example of something that happens often in Shadowrun:  a run gone bad (along with questionable alliances, betrayal, and skulduggery).

I highly recommend checking those shows out.  I think there is a list somewhere regarding which shows really capture the feel of the Shadowrun world and the basics of a run.
There is no overkill.

Only "Open fire" and "I need to reload."

CaptRory

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« Reply #5 on: <12-06-10/1202:41> »
Okie Dokie!
Thanks for the replies. Sorry my response has been slow in coming but I've been a bit under the weather lately. Blah~ Makes me a bit slower in getting around to everything and I wanted to read Food Fight before replying.


My players know to make well rounded characters for any game I run. I was asking about combat because that's the part I'm shakiest on for Shadowrun. Reading Foodfight gave me a great starting point though, thanks for the recommendation.


The_Gun_Nut

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« Reply #6 on: <12-06-10/1333:27> »
A team needs a broad base of skills.  Anyone can pick up some pistol skill (or a few points in the Firearms group) and suddenly they are good at shooting and making people dead.  It's the other skills that tend to be neglected when players make a bunch of combat-centric characters.  The Runner's Companion has a good breakdown of the roles that are useful to have in a team.  A quick rundown would be:

Face:  Someone who deals with people outside the team, social guru and hustler.
Combat:  People who kill other people for fun (and profit!)
Infiltration:  Someone who sneaks into somewhere they don't belong.
Technical:  The guy or gal who handles the big electronic or mechanical stuff to get what the team wants.
Hacking:  The ruler of the digital realm.  Also erases the team's digital trail.
Magic:  It's the Sixth World, do you know where your metaphysics are?

There's more details in the RC, but these are the basics.  Cross-training in skill-sets, so that the incapacitation of one person doesn't cripple the group, can make for very interesting character concepts.

Running a combat heavy game of Shadowrun is very doable, it just tends to go through PC's at a fairly high rate.  of course, regular Shadowrun is high risk, so YMMV.

Another good adventure is On the Run.  It covers all the basic rules that players of all types will use, and it has a call-back to an older edition's adventure.  Cool stuff.
There is no overkill.

Only "Open fire" and "I need to reload."

CaptRory

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« Reply #7 on: <12-10-10/2128:10> »
So let's say I run Food Fight for my group. Should I increase the amount of opposition because I have six players instead of four?

Nomad Zophiel

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« Reply #8 on: <12-10-10/2149:29> »
I wouldn't sweat it too much. Food Fight is supposed to be deflatable, fun and a low stress way for people to flex their character sheet.

CaptRory

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« Reply #9 on: <12-10-10/2158:42> »
Okie Dokie Smokie ^^

Thanks for the quick reply.

The_Gun_Nut

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« Reply #10 on: <12-11-10/0902:58> »
By the way, use the splatter table.

Best of times, baby!
There is no overkill.

Only "Open fire" and "I need to reload."

CaptRory

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« Reply #11 on: <12-11-10/1351:48> »
Oh Absolutely, that looks really fun.

The_Gun_Nut

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« Reply #12 on: <12-11-10/1357:53> »
And don't worry if some of the combinations look outrageous or unreal, well, fizzy meat is a real thing.

Google it, and prepare to have your mind blown!
There is no overkill.

Only "Open fire" and "I need to reload."