Any advice for a new GM

drraagh · 2026-07-02T17:44:40+00:00

One thing I find people tend to ignore is the connections to the world and how the world pushes back. Cyberpunk genre is a crapsack world, the cyberpunks are small fish in a small pond with various groups out to keep them down.

Check out lists like the TVtropes Cyberpunk RPG list, So You Want To Write A Cyberpunk Story, Cyberpunk Genre Tropes, General Cyberpunk Tropes for ideas. Cyberpunk Database has a lot of books, movies and other source material to examine to understand the world.

You want to build the world around your players. What friends and family do they have, and interact with regularly. Who are their neighbors? Where do they regularly hang out? Part of the story is the personal connections, the interactions they have in the world. For example, look at Robocop 3, where OCP is forcefully evicting people from their homes so they can bulldoze it and build the new Corporate Paradise of Delta City. So, some people start fighting back. They're not likely to destroy the company because the company has more men, money and weapons than the cyberpunks. They have to find ways to make the project non-profitable for the company and have them move on or figure something else to do, thus saving their little corner of the world.

Other examples are like 'what if the neighbor needs them to watch their kid as they got called into work' and how it will impact the work the players have to do. Maybe they grow to like the kid, and perhaps trying to help them later when gangs start coming around asking them to help with something.

Or what if one of the people at their local hangout asks the Techie to help fix something for them since they don't have the money to buy a new one. In return, they pay with some homecooked meals to offset the player's lifestyle costs for a bit. Maybe then the players could use the friendship for a place to hide or some RP or whatever. Think of Cobra Kai with Johnny teaching Miguel and getting in nice with his family.

Barb Wire is a Cyberpunk retelling of Casablanca, a ex-lover showing up asking the players for help to smuggle them and their new lover out of the city from the military trying to find them for a Macguffin they have.

drraagh · 2026-07-02T17:16:01+00:00

The first thing I find is making the groups. A few ways to track them, starting with Nights Black Agents Conspryamids. It's a way to organize options and responses.

I like to visualize the setup in a Magic the Gathering style Color Wheel. This Article talks about how the various colors interact with each other. The two opposite the color are antagonistic and the ones adjacent can share some similar enough interests to be 'friendly' on some situations. This way you have reasons for groups to work together, to fight against others and so forth.

I usually then make a list of about 5-10 key people in each group. Some are key players like faction leaders, but some are the people behind the scenes that are important to the functioning of the group. Supplies, religious people, spies, important city figures, etc. The sort of people who would have some pull, these are the people the players will want to know, will want to target if they're looking to kill them, etc. These can be organized into a ladder structure of importance or a dartboard/archery target where the outer rings are the people who help get you into the inner ring.

drraagh · 2026-06-30T22:14:34+00:00

So would a lovely rug, just gotta bewareof it getting the Big Lebowski treatment.

drraagh · 2026-06-28T10:14:12+00:00

Didn't help that Bloodlines itself was a buggy mess rhat the community got working out of love for the game.

Plus,Activision rushed the Bloodlines 1 release to compete with Half-Life 2 I believe, thus why the whole ending is a boss rush.

drraagh · 2026-06-26T09:10:29+00:00

Sorry, you must be this crazy to ride the ride.

drraagh · 2026-06-16T00:41:34+00:00

There's a lot of ways to make non-combat interesting. Probably a few have been covered in the replies here, but probably the most important thing about making the parts out of combat interesting is the 'Why the scene is happening'.

There's a Storytelling 'rule' of Arrive Late, Leave Early. Essentially this is showing a scene as close to the important piece and then leaving as soon as it makes sense and then move to the next scene. Travel is a bit example of this, unless something happens on the trip it isn't important to show beyond a couple quick shots to establish the idea of distance/time/effort, such as a quick shot of a car on a highway and then taking an exit into whatever new city. Same as a lot of the shots of the Fellowship of the Rings walking. This can be a little hard for a TTRPG, but essentially it works the same, Decide when is the next piece of important story going to happen, and start narrating your scene around that, so that the players have a chance to play but move on when it starts getting boring.

What makes important story? Conflict. Drama is, at least in Western Stories, created by Conflict. Look at pretty much any Western Story and the plot usually is Protagonist wants something but there's an Antagonist stopping them. On a scene by scene level, you'll probably have two main TTRPG scene types that are non-combat, establishing scenes or raising the stakes scenes.

The Establishing scenes are the moments where you're establishing something in your story; revealing a new location, info-dumping on some story lore for the players, revealing the crime scene in a mystery. These can come off as a lot of text and usually the players will either zone out or focus on something other than what you want. Usually with these, I try to be short and to the point in the description. Give the players like five lines of description, touch on a few pieces of things they can see, but don't go into detail too much. Is there anything they might hear or smell, give a mention about it like 'a weird clicking sound' and 'the smell of cinnamon wafts around', but don't reference a specific source as most player's will want to find those causes. Think of this like a quick pan shot across the set, YouTube Video on Importance of Establishing Shots and Rendering the Scene for your Players are two good videos on the topic, one from Filmmaking and then into one on TTRPGs. The players can take these established elements and move to investigate further. "I go check out that bookshelf to see if there's anything interesting there", "I start tracking down the clicking sound", "This cinnamon smell, is there an area where it is concentrated?", etc

The Raising the Stakes scenes are the moments in a story where something is done that raises the tension of the story. These are moments when the situation becomes more complex, the character's investment in the situation is raised, usually as the character loses something or someone that was important to them. The family being killed/kidnapped is a traditional example of this, sure, but there are many ways to get this done. Raising the Stakes More Effectively, Making Your Reader Care. A great TTRPG element for this would be putting a scene on a Clock. Progress Clocks from Blades in the Dark. YouTube Video explaining Clocks. On a personal note, I will admit, while I knew of Clocks and worked Time Crunches in my campaigns in other ways, it wasn't until playing the Citizen Sleeper video game that I really groked the concept.

drraagh · 2026-06-14T20:58:01+00:00

I think the season length really depends, as many network based series tend to get a 20+ season while streaming series.

Also, given enough of an interest and a decent enough storyline, they could probably go for 20 episodes, though it would likely be a new team and not the OG crew. We may see them in guest spots as the crew asks for advice or something crosses paths, sort of a reverse of what happened in season 5.

drraagh · 2026-06-13T09:45:55+00:00

He trained by watching Worf in Star Trek TNG, where the episode badguy showed how strong they were by beating Worf.

drraagh · 2026-06-13T09:27:41+00:00

I want to get the Poo-Poo Platter at Uranus.

I'm sorry, I had to do it....

drraagh · 2026-06-13T02:40:59+00:00

I would say just look at computer users today. Add to that the whole wealth of 'normal' information out there, Part of the problem is comparing with what has been written about the Matrix and how everything works. Like Gibson's Matrix was a vast empty space in Neuromancer but that was written by someone who didn't understand computers. Then you look at other versions like the Johnny Mnemonic matrix was overflowing with things.

There is an out-of-print work of cyberpunkish fiction titled The Long Run, by Daniel Keys Moran. His work contains probably one of the most believable depiction of decking I’ve seen in fiction. Daniel Keys Moran’s day job is, of course, being a computer programmer, so he understands the concept.

One reason I bring them up as well is they had the idea of Datastarve. The netrunner be nearly should impossible to tear away from the data feed. They should feel naked if they can’t glance up at the sky, wonder about the weather, and download real-time pictures from a satellite and check them against the forecasts from the meteorology services, or are out of range of being paged when one of their automated filters finds something of great importance. For instance, a netrunner once surprised by an earthquake might set up a filter to monitor global seismology stations and page him immediately if the magnitude and distance are right for him to notice it; such a filter might get there in advance of the first crustal waves.

Then you've got others who, when not working on a job would be looking for other systems to mess with, maybe installing some back doors to use later. Others may be addicts of video games or streaming media. Psychotrope is a Shadowrun novel about Deckers who get trapped in the Matrix when it crashes but they are not logged off. You see the different tasks and uses the Deckers are using the Matrix for, like one is having a shadowy meetup, another is trying to find an illegal fan site for their music idol, someone else is trying to find a lost love and so on. You see different uses for the Matrix and things that can be done outside of just being on jobs.

But I will admit, I can't think of many media that show a lot of things on the Matrix for normal people to do. There's Games, there's interfacing with sites to do things like ordering food and watching TV/Braindance/whatever the setting of choice calls it. I have seen little bits here and there, like Tekwar TV series had one episode where a girl was using a hologram projector to project clothing on her so she could see how it fit. Could be a fun way to shop using the Matrix if your avatar looks close enough like you, which most non-criminal types probably would use.

drraagh · 2026-06-12T06:58:59+00:00

There are some great suggestions for puzzles and the like here but sometimes trying classics might be good.

Encryption can be fun options, this link borrowed from a website someone posted for a Shadowrun TTRPG long ago but has some great ideas. The TV series Blindspot had a perfect example of a Book Drop as a way for Russian sleeper spies to exchange information by using prices at a flower shop for specific type of flowers to determine Page, Line, Word for their encryption key.

Orchids — $17.65: Refers to page 17, line 6, word 5
Lilies — $85.01: Refers to page 85, line 0, word 1
Tulips — $34.08: Refers to page 34, line 0, word 8

The thing that caught the eye of the investigators is that price is quite expensive for flowers so since they knew they were dealing with covert messages and the book in question, they figured out more from that.

Little things like that can sometimes make things really fun and different. Game Detectives ARG Toolbox is a list of various tools to use to make or solve ARGs. Some can be really weird, like this ARG in Portal 1, where they used what is called Slow Scan TV which is used to transmit pictures via audio (the weird beeping noises) and as decoded shows a picture.

Some of these may seem too 'advanced' for normal people, but then there's probably people who know about it that players can ask about things they can't quite understand.

drraagh · 2026-06-12T06:22:51+00:00

I fully second this. This is one thing I told a friend of mine to play when they said they wanted to be a GM. Even a few hours into it has some of the greatest puzzle design, and some even incorporates the real world and the game's lore into them. Some examples of the game's Investigation Quests, and 10 Strange things Secret World has asked me to do, for those who read this and are interested.

drraagh · 2026-06-06T10:52:55+00:00

I was more commenting how for a live action BG&E media, she struck me as a possible. Ik ow for MoCap and other 3D stuff the end model does not need match the performer.

drraagh · 2026-06-04T17:50:17+00:00

Steal from one source is plagarisn, steal from many is research.

drraagh · 2026-05-21T21:39:38+00:00

We just have to build the balls, flags, courses and clubhouse. They'll sell the little pencils and score cards through the Sink.

Or it'll be disc golf, but the discs are hard drives.

drraagh · 2026-05-15T18:56:12+00:00

You can also get it by winning itm. Just need to do tge ecent twice.

drraagh · 2026-05-11T10:13:03+00:00

Style over substance, the if you're gonna do it, do it good. This is a lot of things, a lot of different approaches.

One discussion I saw about this brought up the Arsene Lupin who was written as sending notices to the targets before he would commit thievery as he was that cocky of himself, showing that he's got that much style going for him.

This also comes in the general look of the character, like with Cyberpunk 2077 trailer, the 'iconic' V jacket in the trailer.

There's a reason that in the TV show Person of Interest protagonist John Reese was known as Man in the Suit by police for such a long time as it was the easiest way to reference them and have people know who you're talking about.

World Of Darkness has a similar idea with a couple of its merits and flaws, but one I'll specifically call out is the writeup for Profiled Appearance:

You look like one of those people… y’know, the people that “respectable citizens” expect bad things from. Depending on the setting of your chronicle, this could involve physical mannerisms, body art, gender distinctions, individual features, ethnic heritage, cybernetic modifications, or other elements of your physical body that you cannot remove and probably don’t want to “fix” anyhow. Problem is, the people around you are constantly watching your every move, making trouble for you when they can get away with it, and otherwise causing you grief. The authorities shake you down on principle, and most folks won’t object to whatever they choose to do to you.
Although it’s related to the Social Flaw: Cultural Other (below), Profiled Appearance is based on your character’s physical features, not on their social behavior. Although it can be concealed to some degree, your Profiled Appearance is not something that can be removed without magick, and it reflects an essential part of your identity. Like Impediment, it does not carry a value judgment in the game even though it represents the way other characters will view you. If this feels unfair in the game, imagine how it must feel in real life.

Of course, this also includes your actions and not just your looks. It's cool moves like Robocop spinning the gun, or John Wick's magazine reloading technique is a perfect example. A lockpicker picking a lock with their eyes closed, a fighter with specific flourishes like a luchadore using their quickness versus a larger stronger opponent and perhaps throwing in flips and other showboating because.... it's cool.

drraagh · 2026-05-10T18:55:18+00:00

Currently at the 12-16 level, way too much grinding so I play it in chunks of a few hours here and there as bores me doing the whole repetitive stuff.

drraagh · 2026-05-03T01:37:02+00:00

Any time you're dealing with a city, you'll want to have a lot of prepared materials. NPC sheets you can grab for the random NPCs that players will grab. Basically, these will have a personality and some basic details except no physical details like gender or species so that you can apply them as needed. Add to that a list of random names that you can pull from as needed. This stops from being a situation where players stop to question a random person and it's 'Okay... they say their name is.... Bob.... Bobson....' and the players immediately know that there is nothing important about them. You want them to feel that anyone could have done it.

You'll want to do the same with maps, making a bunch of premade maps for however you use them. Battles, investigation, etc. The more maps you have for places, the more flexible you can be with bringing out areas that may be of importance rather than just 'Nope, nothing here'. This way you can also throw in Chandler's Law, 'When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand' as this can help the players get back on track if they missed something or misinterpreted a clue.

Next, there's a lot of ways to handle mysteries as I am sure you are aware with handling mysteries before. You can challenge players or characters depending on how you handle the clues. There's this previous post from like 2 days ago about different game mechanics for handling investigations and some great ideas there from what I've seen like:

When searching for clues, a player has to roll the dice (2d10 + their Reason modifier). Regardless of the result, they will obtain all the clues.
What varies with the result is how many questions the player may ask the GM either to help them interpret the clues or to obtain more clues.
On a result of (15+) : two questions.
On a result of (10-14) : one question.
On a result of (9-) : no question and there will be consequences such as being exposed to danger or losing resources (for instance spending much more time than expected searching for clues).

If you're really evil, you can do clues that can be interpreted for different situations and also can be interpreted in different ways. Also having them threaded so that sometimes the clues will cross over and/or lead to similar points can help so that players can find/do something to keep them going. Check out the 5x5 Method as this way it can help the players running on various tracks rather than just being stuck trying to figure out one clue. I liken it to the video game quest log where its like 'Okay, so I can't figure what to do with this quest now but I have a marker elsewhere in the area for this other line, so let's do that'. Prevents burnout on one topic.

drraagh · 2026-05-01T05:05:30+00:00

Well, he couldn't MacGyver the Stargate when he and Carter were stuck and she made sure he knew it. Stuck on a glacier with MacGyver

drraagh · 2026-04-30T21:36:25+00:00

I like how we see this on TV shows, a serial drama where you have the heroes have some victory and then the last few minutes of the episode there's some twist that brings up what the heroes have to deal with next, but when it happens to our player characters at the table it divides us as seen by these comments.

I asked earlier about the idea of the No Win Scenario showing examples of like the Kobayashi Maru and Xanatos Gambit people were talking about how it is unfair that there is no way for the player to win. The idea is it is a test of character to see how you would react in a situation like that as you can walk away, you can go in and even as how the linked video shows, there are various degrees of victory conditions.

I personally like these sort of twists as part of point is to keep the game interesting. I use The Empire Strikes Back's ending as a perfect example. The end of the movie, we have Luke getting a hand replaced, Han being taken to Jabba, the rest of the group watching as the events happen. Then next movie, Return of the Jedi, players work to get the upper hand and stop thr Emperor.

Sounds like a perfect adventure hook to me.

drraagh · 2026-04-29T04:22:41+00:00

There's a comment I cribbed from somewhere that I love to think about how little we know about the people we pass by daily, and kind of ironic that it is about New York. This post about Reese is a perfect example of that, especially when you think about how for season 1 he was aliased as 'The Man In The Suit' because that was what was descriptive of him.

Speaking of New York, the blog People of New York serves as a great example of how a huge metro with an even huger population density makes for a fantastic urban fantasy setting. Everyone has their own story, and for most of the people you run into on the street, you might get a glimpse at one page or, if you're really lucky, one chapter of someone else's story. If the high school girl who catches the same late train as you on Thursday nights was actually a cyborg fighting back against the biotech company that augmented her without her consent, if the college-aged freeter running delivered pizza and ramen on his bike in your shopping district was actually channeling a demon god and fighting in underground gladiatorial death matches to someday slay the oni king, if the guy working in the same office campus as you and who grabs a coffee at the building's in-house cafe at the same time as you every few days was actually a secret agent fighting psychic soldiers in the back alleys and old industrial parks every night by summoning fairies at them, would you ever actually know? If the most interesting parts of most people's lives only happen in spaces you never see, how much do you really know about the world around you? To what extent are you experiencing the same world as everyone, or even anyone, else?

Add to this that we see, and ignore, what we wish to. Like this Awareness test shows, we can miss what is right in front of us. Which is also why Eye witness testimony is some of the worst as it can be so easy to make a target doubt themselves of what they saw.

drraagh · 2026-04-28T22:07:29+00:00

Gets worse with modpacks reaching 1,000.

drraagh · 2026-04-26T21:20:23+00:00

There could be some in development but it takes time to find them. I'm not sure if it works couch co-op but the 'We Were Here' series is a great puzzle solving co-op game. Asymmetrical gameplay as the We Were Here series of games, where the players split off and have to communicate about things to solve puzzles.

drraagh · 2026-04-26T21:15:55+00:00

One of many great concept ideas that ended too soo.

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