So my group has asked me to GM shadowrun for them, except I've never done it before, so what's the best way to get started? IE what edition to use, and how do I get a feel for the fluff. Should I play the PC games, and how good of a simulation of the experience are they?
>>46151592
How long do you have to prepare? What kind of characters do they have in mind? Have they played before? If not, Food Fight is usually a fine starter for first-time runners.
Don't play the PC games, they fucking succ
>>46151592
Just don't ever say, "Hoi, chummers!"
Just don't.
>>46151592
If you like slow RPGs with a lot of reading and some tactical combat, Shadowrun Hong Kong and Shadowrun Dragonfall are both pretty solid (pick whichever one sounds more interesting to you. Dragonfall is in anarchist future Berlin.)
Some of the better writing video gaming has had in recent years desu.
Don't bother with Shadowrun Returns, though. It's weaker than the other two and they're all separate stories.
You could also play the classic Genesis game; it's what got me into /tg/ stuff to begin with.
>>46151630
They've never played before since they're new to RPGs, and sprung this on me today since they wanted to try something besides the usual 5e, so I don't think they have characters in mind yet. We meet weekly, so I have until next Saturday.
>>46151592
4th or 5th Edition are both fine. Don't let anyone be a decker at first. (Alternatively, make them all be deckers.) The PC games have very little to do with the mechanics of the TT, but are solid games in their own right. Fluffwise, as long as you're familiar with cyberpunk, it's really all the same tropes, just with magic stapled on. The corebooks all have a decent background on the particular historical and sociopolitical wrinkles you'll have to worry about.
>>46151800
Alright, so the first session will probably be character creation if they don't know the system. I recommend spending the time learning where necessary sections are for basic things like actions and skills. Spending the time together to make sure everyone understands what the others can and can't do will pay dividends.
If there's time after making a character, you can run a simple situation (Again, Food Fight works great for new players.)
Edition-Wise, I have a personal bias towards 4E for the multiple point-buy systems rather than 5E's priority, and it has a bigger collection of splat material.
>>46151800
>>46151917
Additionally, if you don't have the books, the /srg/ on here has links for you.
>>46151873
>>46151917
>>46152001
Cool, thanks. Do you know of any recordings of sessions I could watch/listen to to see how the tempo of play is? Also, what's the issue with deckers?
>>46152031
Deckers (One of the names for the setting's hackers) have their own sort of ruleset that is notorious for slowing down play if you can't think quickly. Regarding tempo, that's totally dependent on the playgroup and can vary wildly depending on when you call for checks.
>>46152031
ArcologyPodcast Actual Play for sessions to listen to (slow at first)
CriticalGlitch has a few "____ 101" episodes which are worth listening to
>>46152031
Basically, Decking is completely different from most of the core stuff, not to mention all the fluff about it, and turns boil down to the guys in the real world defending the decker, and the decker doing stuff in the system, which requires switching between the regular rules, and the decker rules every turn.
>>46152124
>>46152057
How would you justify a shadowrun crew doing anything without hacking taking care of all the security systems?
Just give them an NPC who gets it done off screen with no mechanics, just you throwing yes/no on whether he hacked it and occasionally a challenge to help the hacking (sneak in to plug thing into mainframe etc)?
>>46151713
Hoi, chummer, life's easier when you approach everything like it's null sweat.
