Five Take Aways From 1st Shadowrun Misssions of 2018

Tonight marks four milestones. First, this is the first installment of my Five Take Aways for 2018. Leads to the second milestone, which is first table-top role-playing session during 2018. Today's third milestone is playing fifth edition Shadowrun via Shadowrun Missions (SRM) organized play for the first time during the year 2018.


All leading to final fourth milestone and most important in terms of this blog. What you may ask? Why tonight is the very first Tuesday Night Game session that I have both played and blogged about in years. Since 2010 in fact. Every time I've gamed, it either wasn't on a Tuesday nor was it a part of regular gaming session held on Tuesday. As such, there was no Tuesday Game blogging at all. Tonight that all ends. For the forseeable  future, all organized play events, whether AL or SRM, at my FLGCS will occur on Tuesdays. For me, the Tuesday Game is back. Just in a radically different format.


Moving past all the milestone talk, here are my five take aways from the first Shadowrun Missions session I participated in during 2018.


We are never going to give a SRM module justice within a four hour window
As organized play occurs at a FLCGS during evening hours, we're limited by how long the store will allow us to play. In addition to moving the day to Tuesdays, the store decided it will firmer on how long organized events can run. SRM modules are billed as four events which include extra material for home games. Shadowrun 5th editions is a once a month game. As such, our group and GMs don't possess the mastery of the game to accurately gauge what can be cut, what can included, and what can be sped up. Basic rules mastery just isn't there. Tonight's GM stated he cut several things yet that wasn't enough. Several events toward the end required simplification. Otherwise, we never would have completed the module.


My understanding of the magic and spirit rules weakens magicians 
Frequently, I jest how little my magicians can do under the current rules. I'm starting to suspect much of that is due to both a limited knowledge of the total magic system and regimented interpretation of those rules. My strict interpretation may be too restrictive. Plus, I still need to reference basic rules. Unfortunately, I am the expert within my group. Really think the rules would benefit from more examples.


Need to bring my other rulebooks on either tablet or smartphone
In addition to the core book, I own both Rigger 5 and Street Grimoire as PDFs. However, neither Street Grimoire nor Rigger 5 are accessible on either tablet or smartphone. Only on computer. Which is at home. Not at game. So when I glance at a spell I am not familiar with I pretty much have to guess what it can do. Such as tonight.


Game play didn't suffer until we started rolling dice regularly
Reflecting on tonight's session, the game went much, much more smoothly when we weren't rolling dice as much. More role-playing. Less rules reference. More immersion. Then we started rolling dice and referencing the rules. Game slowed down. Arguments cropped up. We started what I would call the final combat encounter with an hour and half of game time remaining. Most of us got were cracking jokes about how important our characters were once the module was finished. Looking back, I feel the both the rules and dice roll results were a deciding factor in the 'my character didn't do much' perception.


Why not prep the modules as a four hour done-in-one-session home campaign fashion?
Once Lone Star reinforcements arrived (yeah the drek hit the fan chummers), I was like we're done for. Since we were short for time and the GM really didn't like the dancing on razor blades nature of the module, the scene wasn't ran as harsh as it could have been and much was glossed over. While driving home, I couldn't shake the sensation our group would have too much difficulty playing these modules at a convention. You know what's different between our group and a convention? One we play once a month and Shadowrun is an experimental game for us. We're not hardcore fifth edition Shadowrun players. This is once a month for us. Second, our group is fairly consistent and includes roughly the same PC mix. The GM knows the players, their play-styles, and the PCs. GM can adjust in advance for how we'll play and roughly what our PCs can do. As we're a close knit group, the GM isn't going to have the attitude of 'Oops because you didn't succeed at this one roll, you've failed the mission.' If something seems ridiculous to the GM about NPC opposition, then modify or don't use it. Double if the GM isn't sure how something works. On the other hand, failure and PC death/removal from game is a part of Shadowrun...


Those are my 5 take aways from tonight's session of Shadowrun Missions.