| From: | Andre' Selmer <031SEA@******.WITS.AC.ZA> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Everyone(almost) who plays Shadowrun is a Munchkin! |
| Date: | Thu, 14 Sep 1995 11:09:18 +0200 |
}to to just join an established shadowrun team without some kind of
}connecting plot. It just doesn't work-
No it doesn't. Generally when a new character joins a team that
character would usually be treated with a great deal of suspicion,
especially if the team has any unfriendly foes. In a recent game a
new character joined our team. Within the first five minutes of
meeting up he was almost killed. He snuck up on my dwarf (who also
hates mages using invisiblilty) and made some comment. Bad move, one
spin kick later he sat on Moderately physically wounded. (All the way
from 5L Stun). When he woke and tried to use magic he found a Force 6
Fire-elemental watching him.. The way that we finally intergrated the
character into our team was very simple. We took him a single run, a
once off, against the Mafia. For some peculiar reason he decided that
staying with us was a lot better than wondering the streets alone,
especially seeing as the Mafia knew who he was....<chuckle>
} "Uh, you bump into a decker named Chip and you realize that you
}share the same fixer..."
Well we used our contacts to make contact with our new 'team'
member. The remaining team decided that we required more magical
support.
} For realistic mergings the story just has to be deeper than that,
}at the very least to explain why the established team would trust this
}new guy on their backs in a firefight. The GM should definately be
}involved in this process, IMHO.
You don't have to trust your team mates, it just helps. Any way a
ritual sample does a lot to ensure loyalty. Apart from the coeherive
measures to prevent you being blow away from behind. The reason
usually why an established team wants a new member is because a
previous character had died. With a well balenced team, this creates
a 'hole' as certain characters naturally took and played certain
roles in the team. The new characters normally don't entirely fill
this vacency with the result that the team roles have to shift in
order to a) accomodate the style of the individual joining as well as
cover as many bases as possible. Starting characters wouldn't be
trusted at all, apart from the fact that unless they were members of
a previous team, they have no concept of how the team as such works
until after several runs, add to this the fact that the probable
enthusiasm of the new member might cramp the style of the more
established members. Until the new team member shows his colours,
what he is made of and an ability to work within the team structure
he / she / it won't be trusted. Heck in our campagin, the team as
such has been running together for about 5 years. The characters
still don't know the other characters true names, each of the
characters has several hideouts, backup of their own, as well as the
teams, contacts no-one else knows of (although this is diminshing
game by game).
Right I've typed myself out for now. So I'll agree and say team
intergration is difficult, but it is usually easier if the GM just
gives the settings, and the players the actual interaction in this
particular case. After all it is not up the the GM to state what the
characters think (unless under a mind control spell), that is the
players job (and fun)
Andre'
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|It has been said that the they who stay in the shadows have|
|no soul, no depth, no moral conviction. But how can one |
|say this when, it is they who have lost themselves in the |
|search utopia. We are the realists, we work from the |
|unseen corners of society, we do what no another has the |
|strength to do, with our cybered bodies and magic extreme |
|we prevent the corruption from spreading and destroying |
|your dreams, not through power, but bullets, sweat, tears |
|and blood. All of this we do for your sake, and few nuyen. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
-
|_|_
/ \ \ /~\/~~~~
| | | - \_/ + THUMP...Thump..thump = Boom ?
| | |
\___/
