I have been watching, not many shadowrun games show up.  Are there any running but just not advertising?


As far as planning, just dont reward excessively detailed plans.  Maybe it is just the group i play with but we pink mohawk that stuff a lot, because the GM only punishes us when we get really stupid.   As long as we stay on track, advancing things for the mission, and have a general high level plan o help them prepare, he lets us get away with some things to keep the story moving.  especially as that was more fun for the GM and us.  (also as i was way better at planning and contingencies than the GM, after the first two missions went off without a hitch i stopped planning as that was no fun)

Even the other GM inrl who is more  a stickler, planning is fairly average, because again, the planning fails and we have to wing it most of the time.

In reply to Xeriph (msg # 190):

I'm pretty sure that it's because there just aren't that many games; search shows a total of 4 active (including this forum) and a total of 10 inactive.

There are two or three on dumpshock, but the tech is terrible there. Like you can't post pictures...

I'll keep an eye out.  I applied for one, but they didnt like my character i guess.

One problem with this is it doesn't work for every player. Having to break the session up into what is Player A doing now and going through that scene while the other players wait for theirs scenes drags on. It works best if the players all basically have the same social life. Then they can still act as a group with only a handful of moments that they have separate scenes with other friends. I have seen in some games, where the players each kept like a journal or private scenes folder, where they got to do their own scenes outside of the role play. For things like contacts, family, lovers, or something that was just between two chars that had nothing major to do with the plot. One small problem is these players tend to focus on these and soon lose interest in the rest of the game. I have seen a few games break because s group of players left to form their own RP, or they slowed down the main game becasue they just weren't paying much attention to the main.
It also depends on what type of game the players are looking for. Some really want that action move feel where the background stuff is quick and easy and settled with a few dice rolls. Some really want to RP the background stuff. You just need to find a mix or find a way to offer it that doesn't have players more focused on their background scenes than the main plot.

In reply to Daniel Essex (msg # 194):

I think you've hit on the difference between a Team and a Party.   IMO: Team is the group that's together just for the job; maybe there's some overlapping interests, but by and large everyone does their own thing.     A Party is about a step or two from family; you not only do the job, you tend to hang out at the same places, go to the same events, and generally are around when everything goes sideways for someone.

Team is much easier in this enviroment (PBP) because there's very little connecting the group and the players tend to leave it that way.   Party requires more of a concentration of rp time, and a fairly extensive discussion in session zero.


Edit: Your mileage may vary, of course.  ^_^
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:27, Thu 18 Jan.

I could see a family as a runner team to bridge the two and have that close knit group who watch each other’s backs and have a history.

As a suggestion...
Perhaps someone (who isn't me.   ^_^) could set up a board for people to run one shot games.    I'm suspecting that a fair number of people don't feel up to trying to do a full campaign (or otherwise feel unsure of their GMing ability) but are willing to do single sessions.

Well I got roped into running a SR game for my IRL group. Might be leaning on y'all a little bit.

We're here for ya!

I think that 'it's more natural to be a team than a party' is the style of game you run. In my games it would usually be the other way round. I never have 'just a combat thread' and make sure there are social interactions between the players as well as story. Because otherwise I find it's hard to get the character to be more than just their character sheet: I want them to feel 'real' to the players

on that note a mistake that I have made is starting the game and going directly into the first mission.

I think it's more that you need all the players on the same page.  If half the players want a 'team', and the other half want a 'party', you're going to have a hard time.

I have to say I don't find that either. See you can have more than one thread. One of them is of course the combat thread. Or 'the PLOT thread'. The others are for social stuff. The people that want social stuff engage in the social stuff. A few people just engage with the game in the PLOT stuff. All of them contribute to the game.

It's not a categorisation I use or have really experienced this 'party/team'. Maybe because in my games it's a non issue? Or maybe I have just had people that all wanted the same? Hard to tell. I can see other people have and its nice to see their experiences. It's certainly something I will keep an eye out for in the future

For me a much bigger problem is 'handling posting rate'. That's an unsolvable problem I think. Grouping people helps.... Making sure that no one thread has more than three or four people helps a lot.

I have seen some campaigns that have individual solo threads outside the main plot thread with side stories that allow the player to expand their character in non-combat or PVE situations at their own rate which keeps them interested in the campaign by diverting their extra energy to the solo one while waiting for the rest of the team to post in the main thread.

I had that in two of my games and it was great. Also, you could solve situations that only affected one character much faster than in the main thread

Agreed. That's how I run all my games

Organizing threads by theme I find really helps cut the clutter down and keep things focused. The issue is that players can be lazy or forgetful and not always check the appropriate threads or they check them, defer responding then forget they had something to respond to.

Any system has its issues but pacing is important and keeping players and GMs engaged is important. Keeping frustrations down is also important so gauging what a person wants and needs is important presuming they even know and can articulate that. Or as I have seen are able to even be honest about it. I've seen my share of players claim they want certain things and then do everything else but those.

One problem I have seen in the play-by-post is that the GM won't prod players or move things along when they slow down.

Timing is so hard.

My approach that I 'say' but still struggle with is 'If you don't post I will let you post twice next round' and I kind of blur the NPCs to handle it. It's not precise but it's better than everything grinding to a halt.

Games almost always die in mid combat I find. So the important thing is to stop them dying by means of some velocity.

And as you say: this is a really hard problem. My approach only 'works a bit'

There is a shadowrun anarchy game starting only has 3 players right now.

I don't actually know what anarchy is which is why I didn't apply; What version is it?

It is like a side shoot of SR5, not as detailed, only 5 stats and like 20 skills.

I wanted to join, but I don't have any experience with Anarchy and prefer SR5 as I'm too invested in it.

As much as REM keeps promoting it as an offshoot of SR5, it is its own system set in the Shadowrun Universe using the CUE system which was first introduced with the Valiant RPG. They also used that for MechWarrior: Destiny.

It focuses on Narrative play and while you can play it with a GM, it was designed not to be. As much as they promote the game as a great introduction to Shadowrun, I find you need a better grounding in the universe to fill in the gaps. It is rather free form and can work nicely for a variety of online play formats. If you don't care too much about the universal fluff and gear operating somewhat differently or you have at least one player who can help fill in what's needed, it can be a ton of fun.

I've played and run it as a campaign and it's a nice break for something more casual for me but I prefer crunch in my Shadowrun for the most part. That said, whatever brings you to the table, which ever edition you play that gets you running in the SRU, just enjoy it. We're here to have fun and our form of fun doesn't have to be the same.