Mustrum_Ridcully
Hero
One of the players in my group always says that in Shadowrun, it's not just important to have good equipment, it's to know how to use it. That can be as simple as knowing when to use a silencer instead of your underbarrel grenade launcher, or it can be about understanding what a Ballistic Shield can help you with.
Min-Maxing in Shadowrun is easy and important.
Initiative is king. If you want to spot a min-maxer, loot at how many actions he has per round. In a way, it can also be a equalizer in combat against mages - until they cast their initiative enhancing spells, at least.
Magic is per default very powerful, but I've seen a DM that liked to overuse magical background radiation. It's a tempting solution, but it is way too frustrating. If you don't want me to play a mage, say so, don't screw my character! (He did the same for a Technomancer..)
A big weakness of mages is the fact that they advance slowly. They need a lot of money and a lot of karma to get the cool stuff. They start on a high level, but getting further is a slow process.
At the same time, it seems far easier for a non-magician to just add more equipment (less so with high value cyberware, but definitely with weaponry) and expand his skills.
And in combat - a well-trained Ki Adept or Street Samurai has no problems dropping enemies left and right. It's more that you don't have much to do outside of combat that could be a problem. (But Stealth, Athletics and similar skills are still very important. They can be replaced by magical abilities, but sustaining spells is also not too easy)
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The Shadowrun equivalent of a D&D dungeon is a shadowrun, more specifically, entering corporate territory, getting to the target location (extracting someone, stealing information, sabotaging something or similar things) and getting out. Preferably in one piece, preferably unnoticed. Usually, at some point violence ensues, and that can be a lot of fun - unless the DM thinks that every corporate facility the runners enter comes with a High Thread Response teams armed to the teeth with rigger and magic support. In that case, it sucks.
Describing such a run as a "sandbox" is not too bad - the sandbox might be a little smaller (you still want to take a specific run), but how the runners try that can be very free-form. But you can also railroad this, the Johnson can offer suggestions, detailed information on weaknesses that make the process straightforward or just his grand plan.
The equivalent to "you are all in a tavern" is "you got a call from your fixer".
One unique element that I don't know from D&D is the saying "It isn't a Shadowrun if Johnson doesn't frack you twice". Typically, you get hired by the same guy for two runs, and the guy then screws you over. Not paying, trying to lure you into a death trap, whatever. Please, use this scenario no more then once. (But once can be effective)
The hardest part for me was always to find a motivation outside of "Your Fixer calls you with a job". Breaking and Entering scenarios can get repetitive, and motivating a team of mercenaries to do something beyond mercenary things is hard.
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On the rules front:
Multiple Actions (Initiative passes) per round thanks to the Initiative rules suck. I know it's Shadowrun standard since probably the 1st edition, but the rules just force anyone that wants to enter combat into getting reflex-enhancing items, spells or ki powers. Otherwise, combat will become incredibly boring and ineffective for your character - Combat is over in 9 seconds and you got to take 3 actions while your reflex-boosted comrades got 9, basically meaning you probably could kill 2 enemies while he killed 6. And you didn't do anything more interesting then he did - everything "interesting" you might have been able to do he could have also done.
Min-Maxing in Shadowrun is easy and important.
Initiative is king. If you want to spot a min-maxer, loot at how many actions he has per round. In a way, it can also be a equalizer in combat against mages - until they cast their initiative enhancing spells, at least.
Magic is per default very powerful, but I've seen a DM that liked to overuse magical background radiation. It's a tempting solution, but it is way too frustrating. If you don't want me to play a mage, say so, don't screw my character! (He did the same for a Technomancer..)
A big weakness of mages is the fact that they advance slowly. They need a lot of money and a lot of karma to get the cool stuff. They start on a high level, but getting further is a slow process.
At the same time, it seems far easier for a non-magician to just add more equipment (less so with high value cyberware, but definitely with weaponry) and expand his skills.
And in combat - a well-trained Ki Adept or Street Samurai has no problems dropping enemies left and right. It's more that you don't have much to do outside of combat that could be a problem. (But Stealth, Athletics and similar skills are still very important. They can be replaced by magical abilities, but sustaining spells is also not too easy)
---
The Shadowrun equivalent of a D&D dungeon is a shadowrun, more specifically, entering corporate territory, getting to the target location (extracting someone, stealing information, sabotaging something or similar things) and getting out. Preferably in one piece, preferably unnoticed. Usually, at some point violence ensues, and that can be a lot of fun - unless the DM thinks that every corporate facility the runners enter comes with a High Thread Response teams armed to the teeth with rigger and magic support. In that case, it sucks.
Describing such a run as a "sandbox" is not too bad - the sandbox might be a little smaller (you still want to take a specific run), but how the runners try that can be very free-form. But you can also railroad this, the Johnson can offer suggestions, detailed information on weaknesses that make the process straightforward or just his grand plan.
The equivalent to "you are all in a tavern" is "you got a call from your fixer".
One unique element that I don't know from D&D is the saying "It isn't a Shadowrun if Johnson doesn't frack you twice". Typically, you get hired by the same guy for two runs, and the guy then screws you over. Not paying, trying to lure you into a death trap, whatever. Please, use this scenario no more then once.
(But once can be effective)The hardest part for me was always to find a motivation outside of "Your Fixer calls you with a job". Breaking and Entering scenarios can get repetitive, and motivating a team of mercenaries to do something beyond mercenary things is hard.
---
On the rules front:
Multiple Actions (Initiative passes) per round thanks to the Initiative rules suck. I know it's Shadowrun standard since probably the 1st edition, but the rules just force anyone that wants to enter combat into getting reflex-enhancing items, spells or ki powers. Otherwise, combat will become incredibly boring and ineffective for your character - Combat is over in 9 seconds and you got to take 3 actions while your reflex-boosted comrades got 9, basically meaning you probably could kill 2 enemies while he killed 6. And you didn't do anything more interesting then he did - everything "interesting" you might have been able to do he could have also done.
