User:Tyneman

Tyneman As A GM

Philosophy

When it comes to GMing, my core tenants and philosophy is simple - if the players had fun, and they enjoyed the run on anything more than a "laugh at how bad it is" level, then I succeeded as a GM. Games are meant to be fun, simple as. However, this doesn't mean I shy away from difficulty - nay, the victory earned tends to be the most fun, as opposed to "oh, yeah, for this deadly, you're punching 4 infants instead of 2".

Messing With Runs

Unless everyone's down with it (in which case, I'd say maybe prepare a secondary character who is down with the run concept at a base, in case they're not) then don't apply a PC to a run they'd be opposed to. If Keeb-Smasher 4000 applies to a job helping a Tir orphanage, I'd only accept it if this was a sudden change of heart, since the other players are most likely trying to not go against the J or anything of that sort. But, if everyone agrees, go for it.

When it comes to derailing them, I imagine that'll just happen naturally, but generally, don't go into a run hoping to derail it. It may just happen, because Shadowrun's a game about problems coming up to foil plans, but intentionally trying to do it - again, unless the other players are cool with it - might go against what other players want. But again, if other players are down, go for it.

Realism and Tonality

Everyone and their mother knows Shadowrun isn't realistic, and I'm not going to be an iconoclast - go outside and tell me when you see a dirtbike riding elf shooting lightning from his eyes at ork gangsters because they sicked a ghost on him to steal his drugs. But, of course, just because it's flagrantly laughing in the face of realism in some aspects doesn't mean it can't be deeply real in others, which leads to the next topic - tonality. I'm fine going either way, though when it comes to writing, I like to go for a bit of darker twists and making the best of bad situations - but I can also make silly and dumb runs, because that's fun. Runners, at least in my view, are beacons of light in the shadow, even if sometimes that light decides to burn down a house. They're forces of change in a world which needs it - but also can be forces of very bad change, who do horrible things just because the highest bidder wants it.

Consequences

Shadowrun is fun because of consequences, the mistakes that lead to stories that last forever. While I'm not Gygaxian - I'm a big fan of assumed competence because you're not a criminal mercenary who can hack computers with your brain out of character - I do have fail states and bad outcomes in my runs, you can mess up runs. Of course, if you prepare and preplan, you can do quite well, but without a keen mind, you can end up in a bad situation, and whether you get out of it unscathed or end up an ominously named trideo is up to your ability and how bad of a situation it is.