NightLife’s Den

Are you an Amateur or a Pro?

Many games of Shadowrun consist of activities and behaviors that would make most Pros vomit on the ground if they had to stand by and watch what’s going on. Now you may tell yourself, well my character’s a pro. He’s survived a lot of jobs and has really high skills and a lot of money, plus he’s killed a lot of people. Well, a high body count means you’re a combat junkie; money often depends of how benevolent you gm is, and well, most GM’s including myself don’t like killing off PC’s. There is a substantial difference between some street thugs and a real pro. A street thug prides himself on the level of violence he can produce. A pro however avoids violence at a length and uses it sparingly. But fear not, I’ll tell you on how to begin this marvelous transformation from a slaughtering machine to a pro that all the Johnson’s want. And it doesn’t involve body counts or the number of times you’ve managed to survive by GM kindness. It relies on brains and thinking ahead. The attributes that separate a pro from a rookie are not only defined by the characters skills, but by his/her attitude and how they conduct themselves on a job. A rookie will sit there and heap a load of problems on his/her boss and basically run around and make as much trouble as the job was supposed to prevent, because they didn’t take it to an all new level. Many on the current SR fiction books illustrate just such a fiasco. There are however certain books which do offer a view of how pro’s might handle themselves. The best on I can currently think of is “Fade to Black” by Nyx Smith. This portrays the story of one Samurai who honestly deserves the title of Street Samurai. He dies to maintain the honor of the man he was. It may have cost him his life, but there are worse things than death. It doesn’t take any role-playing ability to play a combat junkie – pro’s follow a code and a set of rules that separate them from the gutter trash. There is a method to their madness, a set of procedures that they follow to make sure things go right and minimize the chances of things going wrong. The rules are too many to list out, but reading a few books should help you get a idea. I recommend Fade to Black by Nyx Smith, Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson and Preying for Keeps by Mel Oden. These books with give examples on how a group of pro’s handle themselves on a job vs. a bunch of combat junkies. Junkies relish the gunfight too much and they think it’s the ultimate gaming experience.

The truth of the matter is that any idiot can pull a trigger and it doesn’t take any brains and just a modicum of skill to kill somebody. Now let’s not debate firearms experience and those who make the impossible shot. That a issue best left to the police riflemen, the military sharpshooters and civilian gun enthusiasts. The gun fights in SR are similar to gang bangers who drive by a crowd of people and slaughter 20 innocents to get one target or they are simply group A shoots at group B and they exchange fire for a while. Way back when SR first hit the shelves it was based around the concept of get into the installation quietly and get out with no one the wiser. This concept was almost immediately lost by the hordes on munchies who said “WOW! Look at this, it has lots of cool guns, and magic, and cyber…..etc.” You get the idea. The powers that know I had to sit through and endure a bunch of slaughter sessions where the gm decided to pick on a bunch of kids or Gm’s who were too afraid of wanting to keep their friends, so they didn’t rock the boat when a group of morons needed to be reminded of their abilities and what game they were playing. I’ll give an example: A little while ago I was involved in a campaign in which the GM decided to make Cincinnati the capital of the UCAS (Yeah, right) Now, throughout corporate and yakuza intrigue it came to our attention that a corp was holding Dunkelzhan prisoner (Another Yeah, right) But we’ll step beyond this little idea. Now one of the players who wants to be the rigger/sammie/techie/negoiator of the group, unfortunately god didn’t give him the IQ of a flea. Now, he decided to rescue the dragon. For the people who remember me mentioning my PC Rico, you can skip the next bit. To keep it short, Rico’s an amoral drug dealer who’d sell his own mother if he knew who she was. While Jim, (Not his real name) kept on badgering us to rescue the dragon. The combat junkie was all for it. But as Rico, who had two of the other players as his employees, said, Rico:
” Why should I risk my neck for this piece of drek lizard?”
Jim: “Well because it’s a dragon and is such an awesome creature who should be respected.”
In my best deadpan voice I said,
“So it’s a fragging lizard, so what!”
“Well it’s Dunkelzhan!”
Let me be blunt.
So what! Unless it affects my trafficking, I don’t care.
But it’s Dunkelzahn!
So we don’t know that and the rest of us don’t care..
But a creature like this should be revered
The only thing I revere is my pocketbook..
But it’s Dunkelzahn!
Never mind,
Geez!
Needless to say, my click went our own way after that because we were left behind for two sessions that we didn’t have time to make. This illustrated my point entirely. Combat Junkies relish combat for the sake of combat. With the plethora of net publications and game magazines which just pump out bigger and better guns. More bang for your buck and a bigger clip too. These publications make it easier for the Junkie to survive when he should be slaughtered by the impossible odds These idiots also make it nearly impossible to enjoy a game with anything less than a combat monster. Anything remotely removed from that either dies, quits or transmogrifies into a combat monster forever playing catch up. Now for those reformed munchies and powergamers who want to try something else here’s a list of thing to begin the transformation from amateur to pro.

1.The motto that violence is a last resort. Guns are cool, but it takes brains to stay alive in a real SR campaign.

2.Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

3.Professional Gear for the Professional Man.

1.One black set of BDU’s
2.One urban camouflage set of BDU’s
3.Two balacalvas (That’s a swat mask for the rest of you.) Just in case one gets destroyed.
4.Goggles
5.Two sets of kevlar police gloves. To guard against prints and wounds on the hands.
6.One narcoject pistol.
7.One sidearm. Caseless
8.Weapons of choice. Caseless ( Leftover brass is evidence remember that! )
9.A pair of boot knifes.
10.One Swiss army knife, or a pocket tool, whichever.
11.Melee weapons, if you desire.

4.A plan and two back up plans.

5.A non-munchie group and GM.

After the gear is purchased it’s time for a list of how to act:

1.Your Johnson doesn’t give a damn about you. So don’t tick him off, or you might find your gluteus maximus twisting in the wind.

2.Remember that your objective is prepared for idiots so don’t act like one.

3.Loose ends have a way of creeping up on you; don’t let them hang, and executions aren’t the only answer.

4.Professionalism equals survival. Act like a pro and your boss may respect you. Don’t and he may have you killed if he thinks you can’t keep you mouth shut.

5.Organized Crime contacts own you. Remember that when you try to give attitude to your Mafia contact. Cement shoes are awful heavy.

6.Security workers are only doing their jobs, killing them is pointless. More than likely all he wants to do is go home at the end of the night.

7.Never kill a cop. Cops are vindictive, they never forget, and are more than willing to arrest you 50 years down the line. In Alabama you won’t even make it to trial.

8.Never kill a reporter. Reporters flock to the death of another reported and will cause you so much trouble that disappearing becomes your only option.

9.If a team member is a idiot never work with him again.

10.If he stills pops back into your life this maybe an exception to the motto about violence. After all this, if you can pull off an entirely bloodless job, you’re on your way to becoming a pro.

In the many games I’ve played in or gm’d there is at least one or more persons who have characters who are as deep as cardboard. A statement that I’m quite fond of saying. What this means, is that their characters have absolutely no personality or emotional content. They are as one dimensional as well, cardboard. This results for a couple of reasons. One: they are what gamers call munchkins: The biggest, the baddest with the best equipment and skills that a calculator and a liberal view of a game’s rules can get them. Two: there are also the Mini-Maxers, those who calculate out the best character they can get for the fewest points. I.E. Someone who takes unarmed combat, concentrates in boxing, then specializes in punching. They cram everything the can get legally into a character and use the rules and it’s loopholes to achieve a character who can squeeze every bit of an advantage they can get for the fewest penalties. Hence the name Mini-Maxer, the most advantages you can get at a minimum cost. After those two there are those who just don’t know how to role-play. While usually they try to make interesting characters that are alive and vibrant they always fall flat. You ask them what kind character they have and they reply with stats and gear. “Well I’m a Street Sam” O.K. What makes you a Samurai? “Well, I have wired reflexes 3 and dermal plating…..” No, what makes you a Street Sam? (The player flips over the character sheet.) “Well, I have a ingram valiant and a predator 2.” No, who are you and what made you into who you are? “I’ve got all these guns and, and…(blank stare)”. Never mind geez. They really try and just fall flat on their faces. Now that the problem has been stated let’s get onto the solution.

There are a few steps to handle this, while none of them alone promise success, the total combined with a modicum of acting ability will provide a role-playing experience. The most basic technique is to have the start by filling in the twenty questions in the main book. There are also more extensive versions of these questions The one that I use, I got off the Internet which is 50+ questions. I’ll post them at the end of this article. Now the mini-maxer and munchkin will give you one or two word answers. Which don’t add up to much. Send them back, until they have produced a version of these answers that are whole sentences. Also make sure none of the answers a cliché. Nothing like “Well, all my relatives have been killed off” or “My parent(s)/sister(s)/brother(s)/friend(s) don’t like me or believe me to be dead”. I’ve never encountered anybody with no family. They may hate each others guts or they may not even know that the other exists or they may not even seen them since they were three years old, but they exist.

Never settle for a PC that has no emotions. “I’m an ex-corporate solider or I’m a Mafia Leg Breaker” etc….who has had his ability to feel, totally destroyed by their employers. Everybody has emotions no matter how deeply they’re buried. I can’t tell you how sick I am of coming across Street Sammie wannabe’s with the attitude of “Nothing Bothers me” I can kill and kill all day long. Barbecue kids in front of their parents and napalm a school bus full on elderly nuns. These characters may have buried their feelings so deep they may have trouble finding them, but they do surface from time to time, usually late at night when they’re all alone. Remember that being all alone is what drives people to the brink of insanity and over it. The munchkins, who play these characters are just trying to get into a situation were power is the answer to everything. These munchkin style characters have no personality nor disadvantages. All they want is the pro’s of being two tons of death and none of the cons. They cram every bit of cyber/bioware they can into their bodies all they can fit at beta grade or better. They ignore the real cost of being two tons of death and destruction. They gleefully run past the price that they have paid with their humanity. That is if they bothered to have any. With this loss of their character’s humanity comes the lack of any real life. This loss precludes the chance they had to interact with the rest of the human race. When they get around to playing mages they always have a fire elemental or two on hand. Their personalities are always cold and calculating, devoid of any social graces, and they have a moral code that most mad scientists would call inhuman. When they are badgered into playing shamans they always pick combat totems and/or completely ignore the precepts of that totem. If they can’t find a totem they like, they will make their own. With all the bonuses they want and no disadvantages. Like some of the versions of Tiger and Panther I’ve seen on the internet.These are the gamers play the runners who have a 1.5 million on hand, and live in luxury penthouses, and only run for the thrill. Bull, no sane individual runs the shadows for longer than they absolutely have to. The shadows aren’t fun to live in and more characters have died there than can be counted. ( Now that was a little rant wasn’t it.? )

Back to the answering questions. After getting back answers that resemble whole sentences. Review the answers you get back and make sure that one of two things hasn’t happened. One they have just created a duplicate of themselves. These duplicates are only one step removed from the actual player. The only difference is that the character has more power than the actual player. Or two: The character is practically a clone of a previous one. With problem #1 make send them back until you’re sure the character that has been created is a separate entity from themselves. With option #2 send them back to make someone different. Supervise it if you have to, and hit them with a rolled up newspaper if they try it again. ( That’s a joke son. ) The next step is to turn the questions into a character biography. A story if you will, of how the character developed into who and what they are today. I’d suggest a length of no less than 3 typed single spaced pages. Anything less lets the munchkin and mini-maxer off the hook as all you will get is their two word answers fluffed out a bit to make the required length. Typo’s don’t matter unless they make the bio look like something a fifth grader would write. These Biographies should all have a strong starting point for the character. Now while it is not necessary for them to map out their entire childhood some major points of changes should be listed. Things like when they joined the gang in their neighborhood or when daddy shipped them off to military school. Next should come their adolescent year aged from 13 to about 17 that will entail how they begin to make the transformation from child to adult. It will include graduations, leadership roles, rising in a gang’s power structure of making those first fledgling steps to the world of the shadow going from being a fetch-it boy to a thug. The ages of 18+ are when the character finally steps into the lives they are going to lead. While this may sound cliché, most runners are in their 20′s, but there are always exceptions like on character in my campaign named Tool who went on his first run when he was 46.

In this process I’ve just elaborated on, make sure they note when they began to pick up their skills and how they learned them. List out when they got their cyber/bioware and why. Have them make up a story to describe how the first discovered their arcane powers. Did they intuitively toss a spell or manifest their physical adept’s powers spontaneously in some crisis or did some teacher see their hidden talent and shape them. Did your shaman’s totem choose you or have you always been in sync with it. Did your god tell you of your destiny or did you find an icon of power that told you of your path. These are the defining events I’ve been speaking about. This is what gives a sense of depth to a character and takes them beyond the numbers that give a player dice.

After you have the bio together it’s time to come up with a detailed character description. Flesh it out as much as possible, with things like favorite color schemes or styles that your character always likes to wear. How does your PC style his or her hair? Are you a jumpsuit type of character or do you favor the latest styles from Paris. Are you a wanna be cowboy or a gutter punk. How tall is your character? Is your character a man or a woman, and human or a troll or one of the many other metas and their variants. Is your character overweight of slender. Rail thin or all bulked up like Lou Ferrigno. What ethnicity is your character are you Italian or African American, Native American, Irish American or as German as it can get. ( Ve haff vays of making you talk.) Does your PC have an accent or a particular way of speaking. Do anything to add another level of detail to your PC. If you fancy yourself an artist draw a representation of your PC, if you have a buddy who can, bug him into drawing one you like. The list goes on and on.

As a gm always have these accessible to you so you can remind people of when they are acting vastly out of character. That way when they say I’m role-playing you can remind them of the very precepts they laid forth themselves. As a gm always be sure to reward those who role-play their characters correctly and well. If they have a deficiency that they role-play well and falter when they are supposed to without being reminded reward them. I had a situation in which my players had entered a building and proceeded to their objective. When they got there and found a nest of devil rats the mage panicked and launched a mana ball. Everybody except for the mage and the Decker fell over including the Street Sammie from Hell. The Decker who had always described himself as the ultimate pantywaist fell to the ground and started to suck his thumb, having decided now was a good time to go catatonic. Or like another time Tool the 46 year old techie who had never fired a shotgun in his life was assaulted by a giant spider. Firing at it he missed. The sammie blasted it and the pile of goo fell to the ground. He fired the shotgun on single shot mode at the puddle emptying of the clip of his gun. After he expended his 15 rounds he fell to the floor moaning and went almost completely catatonic because he had never been in a fire fight before in his life. Things like this always enhance the role-playing experience. Once the components of the questions with the bio and character description you should be ready to rock & roll or is it rock and troll ?

Now for the 50+ questions I told you about.

1. What is your characters Sex?

2. What is your characters physical size?

3. What is the color of the characters Hair, eyes, and skin?

4. What is the character’s general appearance (i.e., How does he dress, etc.)?

5. Where was the character born (City, State, Hospital Name)?

6. What is the characters date of birth?

7. What was the character’s family life like?

8. Has the character begun his own family?

9. Where or how was the character educated?

10. Has the character ever done anything else for a living?

11. What are the characters beliefs on church and state?

12. Describe the characters Moral code. Include how mercenary he is, whether or not he’ll kill innocents, etc.

13. What are the character have any goals?

14. Why does the character run the shadows? (Why does he run the shadows still, rather than getting a “real” job?)

15. What kind of personality does your character have? This should not necessarily be obviously stated in the background, as it is more important for actually playing the character, but it may color or add mood to the history.

16. What special qualities does the character possess? This does not refer to skills, but rather at other things, such as How he gets along with people, does he plan ahead, etc.

17. Are their certain things the character can’t or won’t do? Why?

18. What things, people, or ideas does the character hate?

19. What things people, or ideas does the character love?

20. What is the character’s name? Give both full birth name, as well as nicknames, street names, etc.

21. Determine what your character used to do, before becoming a shadowrunner (very important).

22. Decide why your character left his or her old job, if he had one. (also important).

23. Come up with a reason for why the character became a shadowrunner. (This very often will tie in with #22. This is not the same as #14, but rather why he started running the shadows originally. What led him to it?)

24. How did your character come to know his or her contacts? Contacts are an important part of Shadowrun, decide how and why you know them.

25. Does the character have a SIN? Does the character actually use it? Or is the character one of the SINless masses? This may be affected by the characters previous employment.

26. Is the character a full-time shadowrunner? Or does the character lead a Batman-like double existence?

27. Which person(s) or group(s) do you love the most?

28. Which person(s) or group(s) do you hate the most?

29. Which person(s) or group(s) do you respect the most?

30. Which person(s) or group(s) do you fear the most?

31. What is your favorite color?

32. What is your favorite food and/or drink?

33. What place would you most like to visit?

34. Which person(s) or group(s) are you most loyal to?

35. What pastime (that you participate in regularly) gives you the most enjoyment? (WARNING: Answering Sex for this question can and will result in penalties to your character!)

36. What pastime (that you participate in regularly) gives you the least enjoyment?

37. What annoys you the most? 38. What (if any) is your favorite form of art?

39. What is your greatest goal?

40. What do you think is your characters best quality?

41. What do you think is your characters worst quality?

42. What is the most important thing you have ever done?

43. Which religion (if any) do you follow?

44. What is your most treasured possession (and why)?

45. What are your three most common dreams?

46. What is the Characters current relationship with his family?

47. If the characters family is still alive, what do they do, and where do they live?

48. Where did the character learn his Skills?

49. Does the character have a good luck charm? What is it, and why?

50. What type of music does the character like? 51. List any past serious relationships that your character has had, and give a brief overview of the relationship.

52. Where does your character live? Why does he live there?

53. Remember, your Gamemaster likes detail, so if you can think of any other little details, quirks, or whatever that you think might please the almighty GM, then add them in as well. Oh, and your GM won’t use any of these details against you at a later date. trust me…:)

Questions originally produced by Bull at (chaos@ncweb.com)

Many players want to step into the role of gamemaster so they can have a turn at creating an exciting and eventful fantasy world for their other players to venture through. This article is dedicated to those who wish to make the leap from mere player to the vaunted role of gamemaster. It’s not a easy transition going from player to Gm it means that you have to have a whole new level of organization and imagination. For most of us this was to be what was in our minds a labor of love. We decided to tell a story for our gaming buddies to enjoy. And for the most part it is a rewarding experience, otherwise we wouldn’t do it.

Being a GM is a far cry from just being a player, it involves a whole new level of complexity and organization unprecedented in the hobby. GM’s must spend hours if not days working on the plots and stories for their players to frolic through. Time has to be spent writing up stories, making up NPCs, devising a host of cruel and unusual ways to torture our players and make their characters lives interesting. Now you may ask yourself am I ready to GM? By asking yourself this very question. it’s very likely you’re on your way to becoming a GM. But first it would be best to ask yourself a few questions first.

1. Are you ready to deal with all of the stuff you dealt out to your GM?

2. Can you create a long and drawn out story that can have a number of different endings?

3. Can you organize yourself on this nee level of gaming?

4. Are you a people person?

5. Can you come up with plots and story twists on the fly?

6. Can you handle personality conflicts?

7. Are you familiar with the types of players?

8. Do you enjoy creating and populating a whole universe?

9. Can you lose yourself in multiple characters

10. Could you pass a quiz on the game system you’ve chosen to run?

I’ have just such a quiz in this article. It’s Loki’s SR quiz, I had to modify it so it would be a vanilla quiz, many of the rules referred to house rules and such. It’s a good test that will get any SR gamemaster on the ball. My thanks to Loki for his permission to use this. This quiz was deigned as a tool to help new players familiarize themselves with the basics of the Shadowrun gaming system. I’ve tried to confine questions to info found in the Shadowrun Second Edition Sourcebook, Street Samurai Catalog, and Grimoire II. There is a decided lack of decking questions because our group tends to leave decking to NPC’s, and therefore doesn’t have a need for in depth PC decking knowledge. As GM, I offer a Karma award of 5% of the quiz score. In other words 100% gets 5 Good Karma, 80+% gets 4, 60+% gets 3, and so on. The quiz itself is 50 questions, with another 15 bonus questions. The majority of the bonus questions are specific to our group’s house rules and gaming environment. I’ve left them tagged on for novelty. I count bonus questions into the final score, up to 120%, allowing for a possible Karma payout of 6. Answers can be furnished, if you want to drop me an e-mail.

Shadow Quiz By Loki (gamemstr@primenet.com)

1. Where is the character creation priority table found?

2. Where is the skill defaults found?

3. Kyle gets 5 successes shooting you with a burst from his HK227 doing a base damage of 10S. You roll seven successes resisting the damage, two are from your Combat Pool. How much damage do you take?

4. If six of the seven successes above had been Combat Pool, how would damage have been affected?

5. How do flechette rounds affect a gun’s damage?

6. How do standard explosive rounds affect a gun’s damage?

7. How do stun rounds affect a gun’s damage?

8. How do APDS rounds affect a gun’s damage?

9. What concealability bonus does a secure long-coat give to a weapon?

10. Is armed or unarmed combat used when melee fighting with a cyber implanted weapon?

11. Raising your Charisma from 3 to 4 costs how much in Good Karma?

12. Raising your firearms from 5 to 6 costs how much in Good Karma? How much if you were just going to concentrate in Pistols at 6? How much if you were just going to specialize in the Ares Predator II at 6?

13. What four things can Karma Pool be used for? Which one won’t replenish?

14. What is the maximum from your Combat Pool that can be applied to any one combat skill test?

15. Mana based spells are resisted with what attribute?

16. Drain from spell casting is resisted with what attribute? How about drain from conjuring?

17. What are the basic differences between a mage conjuring an elemental and a shaman conjuring a spirit? How long will either be bound for?

18. Craig is creating a troll rocker. What is the minimum number of attribute points he must assign to his starting Charisma? What is the maximum he could assign to Body?

19. Tim has designed a Merc with B6 S6 Q4 C2 I3 W3. What would his Reaction be? What would his Combat Pool be?

20. Tim now adds Muscle Replacement Level II to the above character. What is his Essence Loss? What attributes are raised and by how much? How much is his Reaction raised?

21. What is the maximum number of foci a mage may have active at one time?

22. What are the fundamental differences between a locked spell and a quickened spell?

23. How much does a mid-lifestyle cost per month? How about if you wanted to permanently purchase this lifestyle?

24. How many free contacts does a starting character receive?

25. What is the difference between a buddy and a contact? How much does a buddy cost?

26. How much do contacts cost after the start of game play?

27. What is the standard damage code for a heavy pistol?

28. A Samurai with B6 S6 Q4 C2 I3 W3 has Armed Combat at 5. What is the max dice that could be rolled when using a sword against a manifested spirit?

29. Explain the knockdown rule when applied in combat?

30. Amanita and Talari are cat-fighting. Talari punches Amanita and gets 7 net success after the counterattack. How many successes must Amanita roll to take no damage?

31. In the above counterattack, Amanita had rolled 4 of her 7 Combat Pool dice. How many can she now apply to the damage resistance?

32. How many of each type of action can you have in a single Combat Turn?

33. Running blindly through the sewers, Chet comes upon a ghoul hunting party. He yells “Drek!” What kind of action was used? He then readies his Franchi Spas, what kind of action is used? Can he then fire a called shot to the head to finish off his combat turn?

34. What is the base target number for a heavy pistol firing at 12 meters? With a laser sight? With Smart Goggles? With a Smartgun Link?

35. How many times can you fire a fully loaded Ruger SuperWarhawk in a combat turn?

36. A roll of three means a grenade scatters in which direction?

37. Ook the Troll PhysAd swings his combat ax at your so far unharmed elven torso. If you were to attempt a barehanded counterattack what penalty would you receive to your target number? What bonus is Ook receiving to his?

38. What is the area of affect for a Manablast thrown by a Shaman with a magic attribute of 6?

39. What are the advantages and disadvantages of having an expendable fetish requiring spell?

40. What is an exclusive spell?

41. Tikon cast Barrier at force 4, his magic attribute is 5. What is the height and width of the wall he could form?

42. What bonuses would a street sam with reaction of 5 gain from Wired Reflexes Level 2?

43. Explain the effects of burst-fire when using a gun capable of it. How does full auto-fire differ?

44. How is initiative figured for the above street sam (no house rules)?

45. How is an astrally projecting mage’s initiative figured?

46. What is Street Index?

47. Explain the Magic Loss roll.

48. What penalties are there for natural low-light vision in a partially lit room? How about cybered low-light? How about natural thermo?

49. After getting a Vehicle Rig Level 2, Loki is thinking of getting Boosted Relfexes or Wired reflexes Level 1, which would give him the better bonuses?

50. After a run, Liquid Karma is looking to fence some of its loot. What is the base percentage negotiation starts at?