From:	melchar@****.darkside.com (Melchar)
Subject:	Re: Gamemaster and Teams (was: Quickened ...)
Date:	Wed, 15 May 96 17:12:56 PDT

> For the SR game I run, I always make sure I have, at least, three runs "in
> the can" (so to speak). This is in addition to a bunch of unfinished
> business (the PC's or the NPC's :-) that is always out there that
> they like to work on instead of looking for work, sometimes.
>
> It seems to me that with a genre like Shadowrun, only having "one
> game in town" is a *terrible* way to go. Players have got to have
> the ability (and to realize it) to say 'no' to a bad-sounding
> run if they don't want it. And they need to know that it's not
> a choice of 'do this nasty, fatal run' or 'don't play tonight'.
> That would just suck...

Agreed, agreed. I learned several decades ago that gamers won't jump
the way the ref wants 'em on command. :) Being a frustrated skald at
heart, I coped then with a starting off-the-cuff adventure that hooked
them in and eventually ran for a few months. Since then I've always had
at _least_ half a dozen options for the players to check out in all the
games I ref. It adds verasimilitude to the world the PCs live in to have
options before them -- and when they hear (occasionally) about someone
else undertaking a 'run that they refused and either did well/or tanked
-- it adds more layers of realism. In my book, realism is good.