10 in Ten, Proper Nouns

This is dedicated to Glenn Royer over in the Shadowrunner’s Union Facebook group. In the post on creating immersive gaming through using Proper Nouns we discussed why to do it. Here is 10 simple ways to do it.

1. Start with one organization. It can be a Corp, a criminal group, security provider or gang. Decide which pistol they use, which SMG, which taser/stun baton and their patrol vehicle of choice. Then next run/next month do another. In a year you will have all the major groups for your campaign done.

2. Do 2-4 ads to beat your players over the head with. You can just do tag lines or graphics if you have skillz. Or copy mine. Then hit them again and again.Try a gun, a car, a clothing line/perfume, a food item, or an event/Trideo. And, as above, do a new set next run/month.

3. Use a date stamp* method to feed these ads. Mr. Black starts every game with a quick news update. A quick promo is slipped in. This small trick brings a lot to your GM repertoire. Starting every session with the same verbal bit helps to settle your players down, and lets them know the session has started. The promo creates mood and immersion. And the news can create foreshadowing, as can the ad promos. In just a few moments, you set up future arcs, entertain your players and invite them to the table to play, and embed their characters deeper  into your world.

4. Start naming NPC’s on a small scale. Pick a couple and give them names, a single trait and an appropriate dice pool or two. They can be contacts, enemies, or various dramatic personages. Use whatever filling system you prefer. Index cards, Google Docs, whatever program you like, as long as you can share it across platforms. Do 3-4 this month, and another 3-4 next month. 

5. Steal NPC’s, ads, promos, whatever you need and like. TV, film, books, anime, comics, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, whatever. Don’t be afraid or ashamed. You are trying to have a better time with your friends, not write The Great American Novel. You have limited time, so adapt what you need from the best and brightest creators in the world. If Picasso and Mr. Black can do it without a moral qualm, so can you.

6. Stealing concepts can come from various places. Here’s 2 on the cuff. Mr. Black likes his movies and TV shows on hard formats (DVD/Blu-Ray). Because of the extra features. On the Talladega Nights DVD is an extended riff of Ricky Bobby and Cal extended commercial promos and public service announcements. Not only are they hilarious, they can give you ideas, pitch and tones. The same is true of SNL’s ESPN Classics sketches. Pete Twinkle’s line reads inspire Mr. Black every time...

7. You don’t have to do it alone. Your players can help you out. We all know Shadowrun has its 20 Questions. Mr. Black has 100 in his 20 questions, and many are asking his players what their favorite foods and pop culture are. If you have 5 players, and each of them creates the names of 5 songs and TV shows and movies and ice cream flavors (and more!) you now have 25 of each to use in your game. And your players will feel included when you use them. Rewarding their players with Karma and Nuyen? That’s fair. Having their favorite song for 2080 blaring over the Crews earbuds during the action section of your game, and giving that character imaginary** front row tickets to their favorite imaginary** band? That is fragging priceless omae. And it shows you listen to your players, and makes your Mr. Johnson or fixer look omnipotent.

8. A good app on your phone can help, for when inspiration hits. Note down names, ideas, or quirky traits. Get it down somewhere, so you can expand on it later. You can do quick screenshots, take photos, and do internet dives, and save it all for later.

9. So you have named 3-4 key members of the Street Spiders, a local go-gang, decided they are all riding Suzuki Mirages (fast and cheap) and carrying Colt L36’s (just cheap. You lifted a street level blacklister from the Black List, did some screen captures of a graphitti you liked (or did a quick design in a graphics app) as their street tag to show the players, and created a small charity to help clean up the streets to hire the Crew (or is it a holding company for Brackhaven Investments, looking to clean up the neighborhood so they can flip it?) Now you have a nice little run for your players! Throw in some hangers talking about the trideos from last night (“Hoi butch, you scan that new Doctor Quinn trid? That Sarah Iron Bear is smootchie!” “Chip truth butch, but when Sully came out of that pond shirtless? I go ba-bootchie for Chrissy Kane!”) and you have got something chummer.

10. And steal from Mr. Black! Here are some ads to use. Mr. Black will load 3-5 every month just for all of you, dear readers! 😉

*Date Stamping is a technique for showing both the passage of time, and establishing mood and place through use of holidays, news feeds and more. See Part 2 of Creating Immersive Gameplay.

** Imaginary in that they are just part of your game. They cost you and the player nothing. No one got extra nuyen or karma. 

Creating Immersion in Shadowrun, Part 1 - Proper Nouns

In this series we will be looking at methods to increase the immersion of your gaming universe. While these methods are intended for the Shadowrun milieu, most will work in other games or settings. 

Why increase immersion? Shadowrun is set on Earth, our Earth, just different. Creating that difference is key to making your game come alive. More than that, Shadowrun is a “city” game. Most of the time, your adventures will take place in cities, and usually the same city. And just like the song, cities never sleep. Because cities are full of people, and everyone is doing something, and something is always happening. We will be looking at easy ways to simulate that “hustle and bustle”. So let’s dig in and make your gameworld sing!

The first method is to use proper nouns. What the heck, you say? The truth is that Shadowrun and our world are close. A little too close. So we will use proper nouns to help separate the two. Shadowrun is famous for all that sweet, sweet gear, the many Corporations, and so much more. So use the names for that gear. Any game can have mooks wielding big pistols. Only in Shadowrun do the Ancients pull Predator V’s on your Crew. A Colt 1911A1 in .45 caliber is not a Predator V. Just the name, the Predator, brings up images of Shadowrun’s most famous weapon, with decades of service. For over 30 years, runners' first choice in offensive weaponry has been putting chumps in the ground. Use the name, and bring the fame to your game.

This is the singular weapon of Shadowrun...

But using a piece of gear’s proper name does more than create separation. It can provide important clues for your players. A bunch of guys shooting at the Crew with SCK Model 100’s might be from Renraku, seeing as that model of sub machine gun is the choice of the Red Samurai. Perceptive players or their characters know that the Ares Predator has a Smartlink, and that the Colt Manhunter comes with built-in laser sight. Which means the former is the choice of the cybered and the later is the preference of the Awakened. And everyone knows  Chrysler-Nissan Jackrabbits are tiny subcompacts with pathetic acceleration (unless they have been heavily modified for high speed sewer heists.) Use brands and names to provide vital but subtle information for your players. Again, use the name.

It has a distinctive style...

Using these names will also fill your world, and help feed the over-capitalization of 2080’s Shadowrun to your players, and through them, to their characters. They don’t eat burgers, they dine on McHugh’s 150-Grammers (with Cheez, Pleez!) or feast on Frankenburger XL’s. They carry J-Pads or Fairlight LifeTec tablets (“For your life, on the go.”) Are they wearing classic Levi’s, hip Greenberg’s, or the new RedThreads styled by popular P2.0 star Jacob Histle? (“RedThreads are the only thing that gets this close, to this body…”) Are Choco-pops the candy of choice amongst young women in Seattle? Is that a steaming cup of SunHind’s soycaf in their hand, or an extra-large Stuffer Shack Morning Bru and a Spicy Kriller breakfast burrito? Hammer them with brands and their various products. 

New at Stuffer Shack!

Fill their world with music, trideo, and other entertainment by name. Remind your players of the ubiquitous of Neil the Ork Barbarian. Action figures, on tshirts, kids in parks screaming Neil’s trademark battle cry, Neil the Goddessed-damned Ork Barbarian on Ice! Surround them with pop culture: Karl KombatMage, Tyler Kwan’s Emerald City Urban Golf AR game series, Knight Errant’s NarcLine, KFRK’s Morning Music Pump, Orxanne’s newest #1 hit, the controversial “Breeder’s Bounce”, number 1, well everywhere, including all those P2.0 and MeTube trids of teens dancing to it, and commlink ringtones. (#2 ringtone this week is “Unicorn Splooge”, from the ‘teenty’ hit, ‘Corn Porn’) After all your players’ real life choices in entertainment are more informed that “some music” and “that TV show”.

Neil is large, Neil holds multitudes...

Use groups and organizations all have proper names as well. Locally, it is not football season, it is Seahawks Season! The footage of the car fire shutting down the 210? That’s not news, that’s KSAF news. That is not just some event in a hotel they are hiding their extraction target at. They are at The Regency On The Lake, and they walked past the “Fay McFadden Cooking Expo 2080” (And you can bet your hoop they are handing out free samples. How else are you going to distract the enemy Sammie when the Corp black ops team comes to retrieve “the package”?) Those aren’t “right wing” or “left wing” protesters, those are Archconservatives protesters and New Democrat protesters. Are those just some “Yaks” headed the Crew’s way, or are they Kanaga-gumi bagmen?

It’s a very distinctive tattoo....

Your players probably skipped over all this in their hunger for better dice pools when they created their characters. Giving a name to everything reminds them that they are strangers in this land, and that an entire world exists around their characters. 

It’s a very distinctive name...

People have proper names as well. As we talked about in the post on The Thing, using proper names for NPC’s is a powerful tool. Think about the closing of Venom. Eddy Brock walks into the bodega and greets the lady behind the counter. “Evening, Mrs. C!” She is not a nameless faceless non-person. Not only does Eddy know her well (he uses a nickname) but she is a “Mrs.” Mrs.Chen has a husband and family. The gangbanger, on the other hand, doesn’t even warrant a name. He is quickly disposed of while Venom quips. He gets  frakkin’ eaten. The “name v. no name” is a real life psychological technique. The FBI instructs kidnapped people to tell their names, and the fact that they have family who love them, to their kidnappers. It helps create empathy. Use this tool in your game. If you players begin to empathize with the NPC’s that populate your world, maybe their characters won’t go on sociopathic rampages killing them all and start role playing with them.

The guy on the right? “Shakedown Thug”
Is not a proper name...

And do this trick with your players as well. Never use the players names, or their characters’ archetype at the table. Always use their characters' names whenever possible. This helps with that separation again. “Bob, what are you doing now?” only helps to isolate the players from the milieu. “Okay, what is Shadow Wolf doing now?” is much more powerful. By using the characters’ names repetitively we help everyone at the table to remember those names, and encourage them to do so as well. And Bob is not doing anything in your world. Bob is an accountant, sipping Mountain Dew and munching on Flaming Hot Cheetos (see what I did there?), hanging out and rolling dice with friends. On the other hand, Shadow Wolf is a master Adept, his very body and mind magickally attuned to the Sixth World, trained in the arts of Shinobi-jitsu, and is about to unleash a magickal katana and an Ingram Smartgun upon some foes. Reinforce that difference at your table, and see the difference it makes with your players.

But there is another side to all this name calling. Mr. Black once played in a Dark Heresy game. At one point in the campaign, we spent about 4 months of real time on a planet doing investigations. But about half way through, we forgot the name of the planet. We all thought it was going to be a single quick mission, one night and done, so none of us wrote down the name. 2 months later, even the GM had forgotten the name, until it became important. So Mr. Black just started calling it, “Planet Whozifritz”, which stuck. So now the planet has a silly joke name. And the same will happen in your game. If you don’t name it, someone will step up with a quip. And that will stick. And every time someone uses the new name, your players will start laughing and cracking more jokes, which will kill the tension and pacing of your game. Nothing kills immersion in your game quicker than people making out of game jokes about it at the table. So make sure you do the naming, and make it stick.

It will make sense in a moment...

So give everyone and everything a name, and use them on your players. That’s not some food cart on the corner, it is Soy-Not Noodles, run by Joe. That is not the police, that is a Knight Errant, in a K-E Kruiser. That is a DocWagon/Crash Cart that just showed up, not some ambulance. That is BamBamBoom’s Jitter Fog playing in the elevator, not just some drab music. Those hard looking boys are members of the Yellow Lotus, not just Triads toughs. Keep reminding your players of those differences and enhance the immersion at your table, merely by using proper nouns.

Mr. Black's Guide for New Shadowrun Game Masters - Part 2, Let Them Simmer

In Part 1, we talked about getting out of the gates fast. In Part 2, we will be cooking the Crew like carnitas, low and slow. You (hopefully) brought them to a rapid boil in the first Run. Time to let off the heat and let them simmer.

Your Party had a great time (hopefully) and was successful (again, hopefully) on their first Run. But you can't stay at that high level of activity. Ideally, the characters in the Crew all have Contacts, Dependents, and even Day Jobs to maintain. You should give them the chance to do so. Additionally, you have a Grand Plot (still, hopefully) to start building on. This is the time to start the groundwork.

First, let your players make any adjustments to their character and their gear. They probably found some skills they needed and some they didn’t, some gear that is bad/redundant, and so on. Let them swap things around. If they really need a do over, let them work it out while their character is doing surveillance. It is really easy to take too much of a good thing/not enough of a needed thing, Qualities that don’t quite work for the character, either mechanically or otherwise, or a lack of day to day skills. Let them fix it now. We want clean, scrubbed down characters and happy players as early as possible.

He’s back!! And he has another job for the Crew...

Ideally, set up the second run. Have your fixer gather them up for a job. This job should have about a week to complete. This will allow the Crew to do by Legwork and run their Contacts, Dependants, Day Jobs, etc. Let them take their time and get everything done. After all, surveillance is boring. No one wants to roleplay sitting in the Van for 48 hours, pissing in old take out cups and crapping in a bucket. So let the surveillance happen in the background while you do some actual roleplay.

“Hello? Can we get some more soycaf?
We need the cups to urinate in...”

Start with their Contacts. Let the characters call them and set up deals, inquire on prices/availability, and generally shoot the breeze. This is the time to play up those quirks each contact has, and do some good role-playing. Use your arsenal of accents and funny voices. Take notes on which NPC’s resonate with the players. These will get more “stage time” in the future. Note which ones need a little something more. You can bump their cred later. 

Have those Dependents call up. Give it the full drama/guilt package. Channel the whole “Jewish Mother” trope. Give it to them hard, “When are you going to call, when are you going to visit, I’m sick and need a ride to the doctor, are you getting enough to eat when are you going to meet a nice person and settle down, when am I getting grandkids, I’m not getting any younger you know, when are you getting a real job, etc.” Do this for any and all Dependents. Child Dependents want to know why the character didn’t make it to that school event. Lovers remind them about the number of times they’ve been stood up. Parents remind them of missed family dinners and siblings who are more conventionally successful (“Your brother, the doctor, just got a senior position with DocWagon…”) And all of them want know when the character is going to stop by and visit, and whether they are coming for that holiday family meal. Apply it thick and heavy. Anyone can kidnap or threaten a Dependent. You want to force moral choices on characters. Make mom happy and show up for dinner or make the run? Hard choices are what we want. 

“Are you coming over for the Awakening Day barbecue?
You can bring your friends...”

Do the same with a Day Job. Maybe someone called in sick. Maybe the run needs to happen a day early because one of the characters works the best night to do it (if they don’t, they do now!) Remember, this and Dependent are Negative Qualities. So give them negative consequences! We are not trying to kill or hurt the characters, just make them live with the choices they made.

Sick those Enemies on them. We don’t want a fight just yet, just some foreshadowing. Start ramping up some paranoia. Is someone following the Crew? Maybe an Enemy is also casing the Crew’s target. Is a character Wanted? Then they get a call from a Contact saying someone is asking about them. Just start the conversation. There is plenty of time in later session for resolution. Save the fighting for later, you know, like during the run...

Remember to let everyone shine as well. Joe the Fixer may have dozens of people to talk to, but Stella the rigger needs some time as well. Give each player some time to schmooze and network. Give them little scares during legwork. Keep everyone occupied.

“But then that’s how it always starts, small.” - Egg Shen

Now is also the time to start dropping hints for future events. They should be small. A mention from a Contact. A snippet on the scream sheets. Just a little here or there. You want to seduce the Crew into your Vast Conspiracy. Smother them and they’ll bolt. So go lightly. After all this is only the second session! 

To recap, first session, boom-boom pow-pow. Second session, talky-talky walky-walky. First session fight and roll dice, second session talk and roleplay. That should settle everyone down for all your future wicked plans. You want them all relaxed when you clobber them later...

20+ Questions for GM's

It is all well and good that the players answer 20 questions about their characters. But what about the GM? Inspired by Dandy in the Underworld and the work he did on his Galbaruc campaign, Mr. Black copied/created a similar set of questions for his Shadowrun campaign. These are intended to help players new to Shadowrun adjust to the milieu, and to help old hands grasp changes and what is different. Below you can find the questions and their answers. Mr. Black challenges you to answer a set of questions for your players...  

1. Who are our characters? Your characters are “entry-level” Shadowrunners. Your character has been doing street-level work, gaining experience and a modest rep. He or she has now come to the attention of Big Mack, a Fixer of some renown.
2. What is a Fixer? A “Fixer” is a broker for those in the Shadows. He or She finds you work, and can find almost anything else you need in the Shadows, for a price. For jobs, your employer (traditionally called “Mr. Johnson”, regardless of sex or race) pays the Fixers cut. Your character will pay the cut for anything else you need.
3. What will our characters be doing? The job of Shadowrunners! A Shadowrunner is an independent, free-lance mercenary who generally does acts of Corporate Espionage for both the Major Corporations, and for smaller but still powerful organizations. Your Fixer will set your characters up with Mr. Johnson’s who have jobs. You and the other players will have to figure out how to do that job (i.e., Come Up With A Plan), taking into account everything you can find out about your targets and principals (AKA Legwork), yourselves. Think about every caper film or TV show you have ever seen. Occasionally you will take jobs that pay little-to-nothing but help out the downtrodden. Other times you will do jobs that pay little-to-nothing but give your character the piece of mind that only bloody revenge always gives.
4. Corporate Espionage? That sounds boring. If this was 2014 mundane corporate espionage, I might agree. But in magical 2075, major Corporations (and that capital “C” is intended) have the power and reach of first-world nations of 2014. These Corporations do not wish to go to War (again with the capital letters) and thus a Cold War of sorts is ongoing. Really a Shadow War. Those employers are looking for acts as hard and violent as any that took place in Russo-American Cold War of the last century. Kidnappings, acts of destruction, theft of information and assets, assassinations and are all jobs Shadowrunners are hired for.
5. Where on Earth is the campaign taking place? The campaign takes place in Seattle, the Berlin/Lisbon of 2075. (That is to say, the urban espionage capital!) The only part of the United Canadian American States that touches the West Coast (and does business on the Pacific Ocean), Seattle is surrounded on all sides by enemy nations, and inhabited by every major player/power in the changed world. Seattle offers divers employment opportunities unavailable elsewhere. The levels of espionage and conspiracy in Seattle are truly Byzantine.
6. What are the important parts of Seattle? All of the districts in Seattle are important. However, 5 parts stand out. Downtown Seattle is a glimmering beast, home to almost all of the Big Ten, including the Renraku Arcology and Aztechnology’s Pyramid. Bellevue is home to the rich, where a studio apartment will set your back $10,000 a month. Redmond Barrens and Puyallup both live up to their reputations. Not even Knight Errant has made a dent in Redmond, and gangs and ghoul rule the roost there. And Puyallup is not much better, full of pollution, radiation and volcanic ash falls. Lastly is Snohomish, which is really farm country. Yes, Seattle has dairy farms. Seattle also has a huge port facility, the largest on the West Coast, and a major military base, Fort Lewis.
7. Where does my character live? That depends on your lifestyle. Living a Luxury lifestyle? Then probably in Downtown or Bellevue. Both of those also accommodate High, though that is a bit gauche for Bellevue. Everett also has a lot of High rollers, but Middle too. Tacoma, Renton, Auburn and Snohomish are all solid Middle lifestyle districts, with some Low areas. Puyallup is pretty much all Low, and Redmond is (in)famously a Z-Zone.
8. Who are the major players in Seattle? First there is the Big Ten, the most powerful Mega-Corporations. Each has a presence in Seattle, but none like Renraku and its Arcology or Aztechnology and its pyramid. Next is the Government; City, District, and National. That includes the Army down at Fort Lewis and the Navy up in Everett. After that are probably the criminal syndicates. The Mafia, Yakuza, Triads, Vory, Seuolpa Rings, and Koshari all vie for power alongside the Ancients and Halloweeners go-gangs.
9. What Religions are there? Can my character be a priest/cleric? Firstly, your character totally could be a priest or cleric. But there is no divine magick in Shadowrun. So unless you take a religious organization as a Contact/Dependant, it won’t mean much. As for religions, all of the major faith groups of the mundane now are still active in 2075, though most have taken a kicking because of the return of Magick. It is hard to stay faithful when your church believes you are going to Hell because you were born with the ability to handle Magick, or born an orc or troll. There are many, many more religions in 2075. Pick one, or not. Or go a little crazy and create your own. Just don’t expect any parishioners.
10. Where do we go to buy things? Well, just as today, you could visit stores, malls or the Renraku Arcology for most everyday things. For other items, your Fixer can get you most things or put you in touch with someone who can get what you need. You character can also have “Contacts”. These are non-player characters that are known to your character and can get him/her items and/or information.
11. Who is the most powerful Mage/Shaman in Seattle? This is a matter of some conjecture and debate. The Master of the Yellow Lotus Triad (the Chinese Mafia) is rumored to be a warlock of intense power and darkness. Both the Shiawase and Wuxing Corporations are known to have advanced Magi in their employ. The University of Washington is on the forefront of magical research, and many Magi are among their faculty. And the Angel of Seattle is certainly an extremely powerful mage. On the Adept front, the Triads again have many, many powerful Adepts. And the Shadowrunner known as Lobo Verde has been making a name for himself. However, many would go with Tyonicus “Thunder” Jackson, power center of Seattle’s own Sonic Booms Full Contact Basketball League. His electrifying and fully electric dunks have changed the FCBL forever.
12. Who is the most powerful Street Samurai in Seattle? This is also a matter of some conjecture and debate. However, most consider the legendary Mr. Black has the lead for this title. He is rumored to have run the Shadows of Seattle for over 20 years. His infamous execution of General Saito, ex-dictator of San Francisco, is one of the highest streamed sim ever on MeTube™. It is said he has killed dragons, brought down Corporations, influenced elections, altered crime families, that he has never missed a shot, and is the only true living Master of Mono-Manriki-Jutsu. Crazier stories say he assassinated Dunkelzahn and destroyed the Tir Council of Princes. Who knows? What everyone knows is that you don’t want him hunting you, and if it has gone bad, dealing with dragons bad, you want him backing you up. That is, of course, assuming you believe he exists/is still alive.
13. Who is the Drek-Hottest Decker in Seattle? Assuming we are excluding AI’s, the Decker MeTube Meme may be the best. Leader of the Honey Badgers, he has been tearing up Seattle’s Grid. Those of a sentimental mind might go with Bull, an Ork Decker who was a contemporary of Mr. Black. Others look towards Charles Boufante, a young Decker rumored to live in the basement of Elliot Bay Book Company, living off of bags of McHugh’s™ Cheez-a-lots™ donated by older, less-talented hackers. His icon is a cartoonish nerdy looking kid with huge glasses. Too many Matrix security professionals spend their times removing his Cheez-a-lots™ wrapper Marks off their nodes.
14. Who is the best Shadowrunners in Seattle? Again, a lot of conjecture and debate. But ShadowSEA helps to pin things down. Some will say the Redmounts. They recently extradited a scientist from a Mitsuhama Zero-Zone, without any team casualties. Others go with the Honey Badgers, a drek-hot group led by the Decker MeTube Meme. The newer team Nuyen Hot, led by Lobo Verde himself has many thinking he may lead it to the top. But most say the Devil Rats, an old school runner crew hiding out in the Barrens are Seattle’s top Team.
15. Who is the richest being in Seattle? Some might say it is Kenneth Brackhaven, ex-Mayor of Seattle and arch-racist. Others believe it is Sean Telestrian, the local head of Telestrian Industries and scion of the wealthy Telestrian family of Tir Tairngire. But the smart money is on the AI Glittergulch. He (She? It?) made its play during Crash 2.0 and has never looked back.
16. Where can I get healed? Well, 2075 Seattle has hospitals, so you could go there. But you would need money upfront or good insurance, and a good SIN, fake or otherwise. A Doc Wagon™ or Crash Cart™ (among others) contract rated Gold or higher would suffice. Otherwise a good street doc is needed. There are many small 24-hour clinics to choose from. For magical healing you would need a Platinum-rated Doc Wagon contract. Or one could visit the Bear Doctor Society on Council Island, on NAN land.
17. Where can I find experts/information? Your Fixer is your first stop. Otherwise try asking appropriate Contacts. But just as in our Fifth World, your Contacts can lead you to masters of esoteric subjects. Or just Google it.
18. Where can I hire mercenaries? There are many professional mercenary companies one could hire, such as HardLine, MET2000, Tsunami, 10,000 Daggers or Black Star. If you are looking for just a couple of guys for back up, try your Fixer. He could certainly rustle up some muscle.
19. Are there places where weapons are prohibited? What about magic? Anything else about Johan Law I should know about? Most businesses and government buildings prohibit weapons. Many will allow a light pistol, but most will turn you away if you are packing anything bigger. Egress into such buildings comes with metal detectors and chem-sniffers. A bulletproof Plexiglas box will lock you in while the guards check you for weapons/explosives (including ammo)/unauthorized cyberware. Magic requires a legal permit, and is thus prohibited everywhere without the proper paperwork. The Renraku Arcology Shopping Plaza restricts ALL weapons, and therefore is very popular with parents. It is also popular with Mr. Johnson’s for the same reason. On the streets, light handguns and some level of body armor are expected, as Seattle can be a rough town. But carrying heavier weapons will get you cop attention, even if you have (fake) permits. And do you want to test the limits of your fake SIN over an assault rifle?
20. What monsters are terrorizing Seattle that I would become renowned for slaying? Toxic and Insect spirit killing is always a path to fame. And if one claimed enough ghoul bounties or devil rat pelts, I am sure some sort of fame/infamy would be warranted. However, it is people that are the most lucrative target in the Sixth World. It is well known that Shiawase has a multi-million nuyen bounty on Mr. Black. Many corporations and less savory organizations want a piece of Chucky Boufante and are willing to pay for it. The trideo hounds would pay major nuyen for hard data on the Angel of Seattle. One could always go low rent and troll Knight Errant’s Bounty Boards™. Or you could go through Dunkelzahn’s Will. Word is that the Room 1835 has not been claimed, among others.
21. Are there any wars I could go fight? There is a semi-Hot War in Bogotá between Aztlan and Amazonia. And the international military testing ground called Desert Wars is always looking for recruits. But neither of these is local. Around Seattle, the OCO’s (organized crime organizations) are pushing for war. To the East and North of Seattle the NAN nations have an uneasy peace going.
22. Are there any secret societies with sinister objectives I could join? The very nature of such organizations means your character would be aware of them only once their actions affect the character directly. If you survive such an encounter, you could try joining them. That is if they haven’t forced you into subservience through dark ritual pacts, hoodoo-VITAS infection, blood sample storage, or vampiric pawn induction.
23. Are there any dragons or super-monsters nearby? The closest Dragon would be Hestaby, Queen of Shasta Mountain. That is in southern Tir Tairngire, far from Seattle. Or maybe the Sea Dragon, if she is visiting. If you are looking to hit their lairs for the score of a lifetime, you better bring an army. Like the entire UCAS military, plus Aztlan’s, and maybe a few more. Good luck with that, chummer.
24. Is there any special guild or society my Magus character could join to learn more magic/initiate? The fore-mentioned Bear Doctor Society and the Hermetic Order of the Auric Aurora have semi-open enrollments. Assuming your want your name and address on their rolls of course. But you could wine and dine your Talismonger contact, and she might come up with something.

Mr. Black’s Guide for New Shadowrun Game Masters – Part 1, Start it Fast!

While experienced GM’s and players may gain some insights from this series, the articles all assume that both the GM and the players will be new to not only the Shadowrun rules, but also the Shadowrun milieu. Mr. Black assumes you will be using the current 5^th Edition rulebook. These articles also assume the game will take place in Seattle, in or about 2075. This series may be useful for those running and playing Missions, but they are written with the long immersive campaign in mind. Thus they will veer from certain guidelines in the Big Rule Book. Feel free to use any and all of the advice presented, or to ignore it either partially or completely. Mr. Black will not be coming to your house and extracting/assassinating anyone. Well, not outside of the gaming Table and pre-Imperial San Francisco anyways. And while Mr. Black is open to constructive criticism and maintaining an open dialogue with anyone having questions, doubts or concerns (please use the comment section below), he is not here to argue his opinions, nor the validity of his bizarre and arcane use of Capitalization or of his fondness for the Oxford comma. Nor does he care to get into word fights about the rules. He prefers to use them as presented, even if they seem not to make sense. That way at least everyone at the Table on the same page so to speak.

1: Start it Fast!

            You want the first session to start fast. The very first session is not a time to be coy, or spend a lot of time having characters chatting with NPC’s. It should be short, sharp, and fast. Ideally it should only last 1 session, 2 at most. You want to get in, get out, and leave your players victorious and hungry for more. Think of a favorite video game, a good one but with long annoying cut scenes. The screen shows your character running around, talking with people and doing exposition. You wait and wait to actual do something. You just want to try out the controls, to move, run and jump. You want to shoot something, hit something, just to see what it is like. You want to do something, anything. That is what the first session should be. Action, not cut scenes. Doing something, not waiting for the action to start. So skip the exposition and get your Crew moving.

It is not just you who wants to get moving. Your players will have spent a lot of time creating their characters. They have loaded their characters with enough guns, gear, spells, spirits, decking tricks and drones to challenge a Sherpa’s encumbrance. Your players will be dieing to try all that stuff out. They will want to stress test their characters and kick some hoop. Their character’s trigger fingers will be itching to see how much they can kill/destroy and how much damage they can take/evade and still keep going. You should give them the chance to do it. Do it now, before they start trying to shoot anything that moves and get into trouble. Remember, idle dice hands are the Devil’s own TPK tools. I don’t know about you, but if I have an Ingram Smartgun full of APDS ammo, I am going to want to make sure my Smartlink™ works by shooting the drek out of something. Maybe even my teammates. And that can lead to Run-ending, Character-ending distractions.

Now some of you may be thinking, “What about the Legwork?” I say forget about the Legwork on the first run. While Legwork is extremely important to Shadowrunning, you want to ease your players into it. It involves a lot of planning and thinking and talking with NPC’s, all things you want to avoid the first night. You want things to go boom, not go on and on. You also want every player to participate. Sometimes the Face character can get carried away, and 3 hours of wonderful improvisational theatre follows, with the GM and the Face entertaining everyone. Or sending the rest of the Party on a Trideo break. And then the session ends. There will be time for the Face later. He will, in fact, be negotiating with Mr. Johnson and the Fixer briefly. And investigative types may want to spend all session checking everything out. Their desire to know all, or their paranoia to prevent all, is commendable. But not in the first session. We need action, not 4 hours of reconnaissance and blueprint pulling. Give the Party and Crew sizzle, not fizzle. Keeping them focused will do this.

The key way to keep them focused is to structure the mission to have a very short time window. The crew needs to go somewhere now, and make something happen as soon as they get there. Have their Fixer call them and send them to the Meet site in an hour. Mr. Johnson wants them to leave right now and go get the MacGuffin. And take it someplace. Oh, and they need to grab it and get it to that place in 2 hours. Additionally, make the run simple to start, and simple to finish. You can set up that long incredibly awesome story arc later. Like in session 2 or 3. And don’t give them time-wasting outs. Their contacts? All busy. The Crew wants to buy some more gear? The Fixer will have it later, not now. Forgot their assault rifle? It is in the Van, of course, under the ammo bag. Get them moving and don’t let them stray.

Now that they have got to the Run part of the session, keep them on task and eliminate distractions. There is no need for police traffic stops, random go-gang drive-by attacks, or other shenanigans. Get the Crew “stuck in”, as our British cousins like to say. Show the players the path to the MacGuffin, show them the adversaries protecting the MacGuffin, and allow their characters to eliminate those adversaries and go get that MacGuffin. There should be some opposition of course, but this is not the time for vagaries or equivocating. Again, everyone at the table is new to Shadowrunâ, maybe even new to role-playing games. And you the GM may be one of those new people. Please no hellish puzzles, Holmesian murder mysteries or other nonsense. There is plenty of time for all of that later. Guide them through as much as you can without railroading them.

The opposition for this first run should be light. As in pushover light. You want 2 things here. Thing One, you want the characters to win. So set the opposition to roll 4-6 dice at a time, total. They may be lowly gangbangers, rent-a-cops, or low-end mobsters. Don’t make them tough; make them fragile and incompetent. Don’t worry about them, their buddies can get revenge later. And it is easy to learn the rules when you’re not afraid for your characters life. So Thing Two, you want the players (and you too!) to learn the basics of the rules. So let the characters shoot things, punch things, drive things, dodge things, spell things, and hack things. Get them used to figuring out dice pools. Remind them how glitches happen. Remind them to use Edge. And get them to use it. Just make sure their Edge returns in time for the next session, and that they know that.

Make sure they finish the Run. Fudge it a bit if you have to, but finish the Run. The last bad guy still standing? Have him fail that Defense test by just enough to drop. Those rent-a-guards pouring in fire upon the Crew? They miss. That last bullet that hits the Street Sammie? It does just enough damage to keep him on his feet, before he staggers into the Van and collapses. Failure on the first Run can destroy the Party. So do just enough Game Master Hand-Waving to get the Party and the Crew to the goal line. But no more than that. While finishing the first Run successfully is extremely important, player agency is just as important. Players always need to know that their decisions matter (more on that in a future post.) But for now, session one, get them through.

When they finish (and they will finish, see above), make the Swap simple. Mr. Johnson thanks them, hands the Crew the money, and off he goes. The Crew makes it home and everyone wins! The characters all have some more Rep, more money, and more Karma. And the players have more experience playing the game, and now know (sort of) what to expect. And so do you. And now you can up the ante, load up on all the NPC’s, lay in your story arcs, introduce your Big Bads, set in motion the repercussions of Mr. Johnson gaining that MacGuffin, and immerse your players and characters into the Sixth World. And have a great time jointly experiencing the immense fun that is playing Shadowrun.