From:	Jeroen de Wijn <J.Wijn@*********.NL>
Subject:	Re: Multi-player games / House rules (was: Re: Deckers and
Date:	Thu, 18 Sep 1997 22:50:00 +0100

Forrest wrote:

>> Yes, and believe me that's just about the only way you can play
>> it in multiplayer.
>> We play almost exclusively multiplayer between 3-6 player games.
(snip)
>>
>6 players! Wow... I was wondering about that the other day, how to
>handle more than 4 players (not that the situation has ever come up
>here).
Well, we have always between 6 and 14 people *at all times* willing
to play Shadowrun in the local game shop, so.....
If this schocks you, we even played 7 players once (!)

>With the way the rules are now you have either 3 or 4
>challenges on each objective. So with 6 does everyone get to play a
>challenge, leaving you with atleast 5 to face on each run?
Yes, this is in fact covered by the rules.

> If this is the case I can see where you would spend 2-3 hours/game.
And then you're not even near the bottom of your deck.
Time between turns with 5-6 players, and time spent on runs increases
exponentially it seems...

>It seems like it would almost be worth running through the draw deck once
to
>build "The Team" and accumulate some money. Then reshuffling the
>trash and actually play the game :-)
Never happened here.
I got once down to my last 20 cards after 3 hours. Wow.

>I would imagine that 3-4 challenges/objective is probably the optimum
>number. Unless you start looking at challenges before going on the
>run (recon, browse, etc) and can customize your team, typically 3 is
>when you really start to "feel it". Atleast that's what I've found in
>my experience.
Same here.
>Then again, as I've stated before, I prefer the muscle
>type decks. So it's not unusual to go on a run and attempt to just
>plow through the challenges, losing 1 or 2 runners along the way.
Using Shopping Cart Lady to save the gear, and Mr. Johnson to get
replacement runners for the next run :-)

:-) No chance bud.
If you go for the _plow_ tactic you lose your team.

Typical challenges faced on a run:
At least 12+/12+ A2 Lone Star patrol
Mage Security or strike force 10+/10+ A4+
Minefield

And then you hit a maglock, get Wild goose chased, No Way Out-ed,
GAQS-ed, Blindsighted.

No, the best strategy against that kind of opposition is:
Almost never run until the challenges on an objective have
been weakened by your predecessors and then go in with a good
chance of sleazing somethings as well.
I personally don't make runs any more without stealth and streetwise.
Luckily there are always the _big Guys_ players who
try to run before you, end up dividing 32 or so damage between
the runners and get stopped by a Hellish traffic or Minefield.
Then I come in and get the easy (well... easy) points.
Patient players win in big multiplayer games.
(And there's quite a lot of player interaction as well, which makes
it all the much fun... ;-)

me.
"As I learn the innermost secrets of the people around me,
they reward me in many ways to keep me quiet."