Shadowrun Los Angeles: From the Gutter to the Stars

Creating your character

Standard Sum to 10 Character Generation with an interest thematically in street concepts. I am open to a wide range of metatypes and niche characters, but would prefer to not work with Infected PC's at this time. Current book list is open to discussion: Shadowrun 5th Edition Core Run Faster Run & Gun Chrome & Flesh Kill Code Data Trails Cutting Aces Howling Shadows Street Magic Forbidden Arcana Rigger 5 The Complete Trog If you're a new player I will absolutely set a few hours aside to do a complimentary Character Creation session, or build with you as an ongoing conversation on my Discord server. I highly recommend using Chummer 5 which is a free open source SR5 Character Sheet engine. I can help you with it as well.

Preparing for the session

You'll need Discord and Roll20, as well as a Google Account. I highly recommend downloading Chummer5e as well, it makes character generation and management far simpler with this system. I intend to use a Camera and welcome all players to do so, but only a mic will be required.

What J.R. brings to the table

I bring a wealth of setting knowledge as well as system knowledge, and bells and whistles to the table. I've been playing Shadowrun for 30+ years at this point and I *love* bringing its unique locations and characters to life for a table. I also enjoy teaching this setting and this system very much, and am happy to make the time to integrate new players into the fun. I do tend to follow Rules as Intended with Shadowrun, and know the system is both tricky and suffers from design changes over the years, so I will work with you to make sure the rules *are* cool for what we are doing in terms of narrative storytelling. That isn't to say we will ignore the consequences of dice or PC decisions, but all the same while I am usually a "RAW" GM in the case of Shadowrun RAI an some house rules are essential to everyone having fun. I do use a lot of maps and tactical rules in systems like Shadowrun because there are systems for everything and I want to use this game to explore those rules and teach new and returning players aspects of the game they may not have seen. (Deep sea and deep space come to mind here!) I do utilize paid art from Etsy artists, create my own maps and setting art with a massive collection of Roll20 Resources, an I do my best to vet them for A.I. usage, vs photoshop rendering or the like. I also do use ambient and background music, hand outs and visual aids, a voice modulation program, and I am always working at getting better on my voices and NPC acting chops. Additionally, I plan on running on video and will likely put on a bit of a Suit and "Mr. Johnson" persona as your game master. If anyone is interested I am opening to streaming the game or putting it out as a podcast. (but not requirements!)

Homebrew rules

Shadowrun is not a perfectly balanced system, so I have some essential house rules listed here but may need to make slight alterations or modifications in play to make sure everyone feels included and involved in every mission. Getting into this too far here isn't going to help anyone as the balance issues often come from party makeup and dynamics.

How J.R. creates a safe table

First and foremost, I want to say that there are deeply adult and controversial/problematic topics dotting the landscape of this game, well before anything I detail or specify for this campaign. I have put a wide range of content warnings below to reflect this. I can and will absolutely work to remove some of these if they are something that players have a specific aversion to. These are not *all* intended for use in this campaign, just are common facets of the Sixth World. Shadowrun is a deeply dystopian game rooted in nuanced and sensitive topics, one that was written a long time ago by well meaning gamers who didn't always understand the groups and social dynamics they were trying to portray. This means, in short, we will sit down at session 0 and create lines and veils for each player's comfort zones and keep the game within those. Now, all of that said, onto more basic safety! I will have a player deck on table with a Green, Yellow, Red encoding that doubles as an X card. As well as a Green/Yellow/XMacro buttons in case the Card is visually glitchy or something. I encourage everyone to take breaks, just mute your mic to let me know. We will do end of session debriefs with stars and wishes as well as a bleed check and general check in. Session 0 will be free of charge due to the complex nature of the world and system and I want to use it to discuss tropes, goals and the your required lines and veils as players for this specific campaign, as well as integrate the character's backstories or at least get them familiar with the same contacts.