NOW GAMEMASTERING V

Of Overkilling PCs

A tendancy that seems to be basics of challenging runs for some gms seems to me to be based on something that is basically flawed: thinking that security guards of megacorps are cybered-up kickass war machines. This is ridiculous. The megacorp wouldn't waste money on every poor sob they've got, it just wouldn't be economical. Of course you might say that if they don't then cybered-up kickass war machines runners will be able to easilly enter their facilities. To remedy to this problem, the corp has two options involving its personnel:

Giving them special drugs that can boost the capacities of the guards (like Kamikaze, that drug some cops have (check LoneStar's book for more details, I can't quite remember the name) or the awakened drugs (although that is dangerous and costly) I came up with.

Giving them a radio so they could call the cybered-up kickass war machines part of the security forces so they would take care of the runners.

Usually, corporations (being paranoïd as they are about security, or anything else for that matter) use both of those methods at the same time, so if one fails, the other one works. Note that in the second option, since it is only a part of the corporation that are cybered-up kickass war machines, they tend to get much more money of gadgets into them than it could be possible to give to all the guards. That usually results in cybered-up kickass war machines of doom, which results in bad news for runners.

Of course in the case of highly sensitive data, forget all I've said and use as many of those cybered-up kickass war machines as you may want...

Of adding something more to your games

Ok, this paragraph is for those lucky enough to have a group of great players who play well and who want some new challenges (this is quite utopic, I know). This is an advanced technique of gamemastering. I take no responsability if you try this at home without being a trained professional.

What I'm talking about is adding some more depth to your games, making them starters of thoughts for your players. What I'm talking about is adding a second 'level' to your story, where a message you want to tell resides. Put simply, telling something more than a story when you gamemaster.

This is not easy as the interactivity involved in Shadowrun makes it hard to have something clear coming out of the story as a whole. What you can do is have recurring symbols of something or some important events preset in your story (of course they might be added or removed after the adventure has started, depending on the way your player act) that convey strong emotions.

But what message can a game like Shadowrun may contain as a message? Cyberpunk universes carry the same type of meaning as George Orwell's 1984 (didn't read it? Go rent it or buy it now! Have read it in highschool? Go read it again 'cause you forgot everything important since it was for school!), that is the fear of the coming of a bleak future for our real earth. Of course, you can come up with any other meaning to your stories, depending on who you are and what you want to say. The only limit is your imagination!