User:NotAProblemTiger

NotAProblemTiger’s GM Style Guide

Question: What should we call you?

Answer: You can call me Kirk, you won't wear it out and it's fun to say.

Question: What is your biggest weakness as a GM?

Answer: Definitely crunch familiarity - I'm far more interested in character development and what the runners do as the ones "in the room where it happens" than I am in being the impartial arbiter of how many bullets equal how much recoil less compensation. That's not to say I'm unwilling to do my duty, it's just not the part I'm passionate about.

Question: What is your biggest strength as a GM?

Answer: Being a fan of the players - I'm not here to punish players for not doing what I want, I'm here to provide them with a series of interesting choices to make.

Question: What is the most important stylistic thing we should know about you as a GM?

Answer: I always run games as Theatre of the Mind. I don't use Roll20 or battlemaps.

Question: Do you ever run street level or hooding runs?

Answer: Testing characters to find out what's more important than money is where the good drek is.

Question: Are you okay with players applying to jobs their character has a high chance of declining at the meet?

Answer: Nobody likes having their time wasted, but if there's going to be an interesting character moment, I'm fine with it.

Question: Are okay with players applying to jobs their character will actively attempt to thwart or derail?

Answer: Once the ball is in play, everything's fair game.

Question: What are your views on realism and seriousness of the setting?

Answer: I'd say we're a few miles away from "realistic" as soon as we open a book with the word "Shadowrun" on the cover. I enjoy the kind of spy-thriller type preparation and execution of mirrorshade-type runs and I like to reward players for forethought but I don't have any interest in punishing people for playing "the wrong way" - if a bunch of pink mohawks show up for the meet, it's gonna be a pink mohawk run.

Question: What are your views on consequences and failure?

Answer: That's what we're all here for, isn't it? We make choices in order to get the consequences! Failure is incredibly common, or should be - "the heroes walked straight to their objective and beat up everyone, then won!" is not a very interesting story. Failure generally means injuries, setbacks, and a degrading position - that is, the perfect ground for a dramatic reversal! Full-on crash-and-burn failure is generally something that isn't going to take a player by surprise.