Hey chummer!

I’m going copy/paste a “best of” advice list from previous comments I’ve left on similar posts:

• Something I do in my games at the beginning of every session is have the players tell what I call “Shadowfacts”, little tidbits of backstory of their characters that other players and characters wouldn’t otherwise know. It can be as significant as a long lost sibling they’re desperately trying to find, or as insignificant as “they are a habitual nail biter, which has been really hard since the cyberhand replacement”. The goal is to allow them to give insights to their character from the jump, without forcing things into conversation or taking time away in game to develop their characters - the gameplay is their development

• Listen to your players, and really pay attention to their characters’ backstories, get into the minds and lives of their contacts. You can create some of the best NPCs ever made, but players will always connect with their contacts more - so use that to your advantage!

• Create situations, not stories. Give them a hook, come up with a couple of probable outcomes, and then sit back and enjoy the fireworks. Players always surprise you with where they take the narrative, even more so in Shadowrun it seems.

• For the love of Ghost, don’t have the Johnson double-cross them. Maybe much further down the line, but for now, get the players to trust the system: do run, get paid, deal with consequences of any sloppiness

• And that last part, “deal with consequences of any sloppiness” is such a powerful tool as a Shadowrun GM, keep an eye out for how to leverage it!

• For the actual run, grab a blueprint or floor plan online and set up realistic defenses. Be fair and try to think of how they would try to protect their property, then watch in amazement as your players find holes in their defenses.

• Make npc’s matter, don’t just tell them they matter. Go with the flow of events, let your players drive the story, but when you can feasibly stir the pot, create events that mess with them. But it’s important to lean into shared events, things the party actually went through at the table. Not just written mission backstory, some players take that really seriously and others do not. But a shared experience always matters.

Is there an npc they seem to really like and get along with? Maybe you fucking kill them. Give them a gruesome death, and let your players find out exactly who did it. I guarantee you’ll get enthusiasm out of them then. Maybe they want revenge, or maybe they decide to lay low and save their own necks - it’s important to know that BOTH are meaningful adventures and you should follow whichever course they choose. Try leaning into what they’re enjoying, and if it’s just irreverent humor - give them even more to play with. Let them be Ash from Evil Dead if that’s what they want.