As everybody knows, a great
story is what makes a great game. In shadowrun, a
story usually keeps a typical look: encounter
with Johnson who gives the job, the run itself,
the aftermath. This you can change once in a
while, to give some variety to your games... So,
how do you make a great story?
The encounter with the Johnson
should never be normal( or maybe some times, when
the characters won't suppose it can be normal
anymore...), by this I mean there should always
be something different from what could be called
"the norm". The players may be attacked
while dealing with him, he might be late, etc. or
the very classical
"the-Johnson-is-doing-this-to-frag-us-up"
or "won't-tell-everything-he-knows" or
"is-actually-Lofwyr-in-human-shape",
etc... Anyway, be sure that this encounter itself
gives something to do, even if its searching info
on the Johnson. One final word, the Johnson
should never tell for whom he's working for
except in rare events where its better for him.
Of course he can lie...
The run itself is the most
important part of the game. It is where all the
action occur, and where all the fun usually is.
First of all, give the players a reason to check
before making the run how they will theorically
do it (of course it won't work but at least its a
start), some players just decide their plans
while making the run... If they don't plan ahead,
make them feel like they should have.
Another important thing is that
players must always have something to do. Never
leave them without anything to do or they'll get
bored, and the whole purpose of rpgs is to have
fun, not to get bored. Even if in reality there
are boring moments, don't put them in the game.
So, if there's long freetime, get through it fast
("after waiting for a week...") if the
players don't do anything special. It is
important too that everybody has something
to do. That can be tricky if players go out to do
something personnal and other people don't do
anything. To remdy to this situation, get the
period where the player do personnal affair
short, so other player won't get bored, or get
the other characters participate. Another way
(that I haven't tried yet but seems like it has
potential) is to let the other player play some
npcs (no too important ones, of course...), so
they do something meanwhile... (and you, the
almighty gm, have less work ;).
Finally, don't
"railroad" the characters. That is,
don't get them do what you want even if they have
different plans. Nobody likes to be manipulated,
so if the characters decide to do something
unexpected, let them. The key to this is
practicing with improvisation: if you don't have
anything ready, you won't get off balance (of
course, try to prepare at least the minimum,
because pcs rely a lot on the gm to decide what
to do...). I rarely write anything down before a
game but still make some good games (at least I
think... ;), but I don't recommend this to gms
with short memories (remembering all the npcs by
heart can get confusing...). I try to make some
npcs sheets and that's all (and I never
write any stats beforehand, I make them up as we
go).
Combat is an important part of Shadowrun, half
of the book concerns that and a lot of supplement
are made to improve the combat capacities of the
characters. Being important, it must be fun when
it happens. The worst kind of combat imaginable
is a combat where the players and gm have that
kind of conversation:
- I shoot him... I do 12D two
times. (player)
- He dies (gm)... Another goon
shoots at you full-auto. He does 13D.
- Damn, I get S...
That's really boring, but it happens all
too often. To remedy to this a couple otpions are
possible. The first is to make an intersting
setting, with lots of places to hide behind, to
sneak behind people and where there's lots of
glass (exploding windows are always cool...).
This enables pcs and npcs to move and hide a lot,
making the combats longer and more fun, with more
action (even Rambo doesn't stand still in a
firefight...). Some examples of this are grocery
stores (all the alleys are cool to hide between,
and there are tons of stuff that can fall and get
broken), places where there are a lot of tables
and walls (you hide around corners or behind
tables), etc.
If this is not enough to get your combat moving,
or if you already do it, then it's probably
because the players doon't "move"
enough and that the npcs they confront don't move
enough either. Of course you can't really do
anything for the players, but you can do
something for the npcs. Make them run, hide, make
cool moves and get hard to hit. When they will
realize that their character isn't as interesting
as the npcs and they are much easier to hit, they
will start moving and hiding, and things will get
interesting...
For example:
- I jump behind the boxes and
start shooting at the first goon until I'm
completely hidden by those crates. I miss the
first time, but do 12M the second.(player)
- The wall behind which is
hidden the goon gets the first shot, but the
second one hits him in the elbow. He tries to
shoot back at you... but you're already hidden,
so the crates get all the bullets.
Now that's much better...