Are you Ready to GM?

Many players want to step into the role of gamemaster so they can have a turn at creating an exciting and eventful fantasy world for their other players to venture through. This article is dedicated to those who wish to make the leap from mere player to the vaunted role of gamemaster. It's not a easy transition going from player to Gm it means that you have to have a whole new level of organization and imagination. For most of us this was to be what was in our minds a labor of love. We decided to tell a story for our gaming buddies to enjoy. And for the most part it is a rewarding experience, otherwise we wouldn't do it.

Being a GM is a far cry from just being a player, it involves a whole new level of complexity and organization unprecedented in the hobby. GM's must spend hours if not days working on the plots and stories for their players to frolic through. Time has to be spent writing up stories, making up NPCs, devising a host of cruel and unusual ways to torture our players and make their characters lives interesting. Now you may ask yourself am I ready to GM? By asking yourself this very question. it's very likely you're on your way to becoming a GM. But first it would be best to ask yourself a few questions first.

1. Are you ready to deal with all of the stuff you dealt out to your GM?

2. Can you create a long and drawn out story that can have a number of different endings?

3. Can you organize yourself on this nee level of gaming?

4. Are you a people person?

5. Can you come up with plots and story twists on the fly?

6. Can you handle personality conflicts?

7. Are you familiar with the types of players?

8. Do you enjoy creating and populating a whole universe?

9. Can you lose yourself in multiple characters

10. Could you pass a quiz on the game system you've chosen to run?

I' have just such a quiz in this article. It's Loki's SR quiz, I had to modify it so it would be a vanilla quiz, many of the rules referred to house rules and such. It's a good test that will get any SR gamemaster on the ball. My thanks to Loki for his permission to use this. This quiz was deigned as a tool to help new players familiarize themselves with the basics of the Shadowrun gaming system. I've tried to confine questions to info found in the Shadowrun Second Edition Sourcebook, Street Samurai Catalog, and Grimoire II. There is a decided lack of decking questions because our group tends to leave decking to NPC's, and therefore doesn't have a need for in depth PC decking knowledge. As GM, I offer a Karma award of 5% of the quiz score. In other words 100% gets 5 Good Karma, 80+% gets 4, 60+% gets 3, and so on. The quiz itself is 50 questions, with another 15 bonus questions. The majority of the bonus questions are specific to our group's house rules and gaming environment. I've left them tagged on for novelty. I count bonus questions into the final score, up to 120%, allowing for a possible Karma payout of 6. Answers can be furnished, if you want to drop me an e-mail.

Shadow Quiz By Loki (gamemstr@primenet.com)

1. Where is the character creation priority table found?

2. Where is the skill defaults found?

3. Kyle gets 5 successes shooting you with a burst from his HK227 doing a base damage of 10S. You roll seven successes resisting the damage, two are from your Combat Pool. How much damage do you take?

4. If six of the seven successes above had been Combat Pool, how would damage have been affected?

5. How do flechette rounds affect a gun's damage?

6. How do standard explosive rounds affect a gun's damage?

7. How do stun rounds affect a gun's damage?

8. How do APDS rounds affect a gun's damage?

9. What concealability bonus does a secure long-coat give to a weapon?

10. Is armed or unarmed combat used when melee fighting with a cyber implanted weapon?

11. Raising your Charisma from 3 to 4 costs how much in Good Karma?

12. Raising your firearms from 5 to 6 costs how much in Good Karma? How much if you were just going to concentrate in Pistols at 6? How much if you were just going to specialize in the Ares Predator II at 6?

13. What four things can Karma Pool be used for? Which one won't replenish?

14. What is the maximum from your Combat Pool that can be applied to any one combat skill test?

15. Mana based spells are resisted with what attribute?

16. Drain from spell casting is resisted with what attribute? How about drain from conjuring?

17. What are the basic differences between a mage conjuring an elemental and a shaman conjuring a spirit? How long will either be bound for?

18. Craig is creating a troll rocker. What is the minimum number of attribute points he must assign to his starting Charisma? What is the maximum he could assign to Body?

19. Tim has designed a Merc with B6 S6 Q4 C2 I3 W3. What would his Reaction be? What would his Combat Pool be?

20. Tim now adds Muscle Replacement Level II to the above character. What is his Essence Loss? What attributes are raised and by how much? How much is his Reaction raised?

21. What is the maximum number of foci a mage may have active at one time?

22. What are the fundamental differences between a locked spell and a quickened spell?

23. How much does a mid-lifestyle cost per month? How about if you wanted to permanently purchase this lifestyle?

24. How many free contacts does a starting character receive?

25. What is the difference between a buddy and a contact? How much does a buddy cost?

26. How much do contacts cost after the start of game play?

27. What is the standard damage code for a heavy pistol?

28. A Samurai with B6 S6 Q4 C2 I3 W3 has Armed Combat at 5. What is the max dice that could be rolled when using a sword against a manifested spirit?

29. Explain the knockdown rule when applied in combat?

30. Amanita and Talari are cat-fighting. Talari punches Amanita and gets 7 net success after the counterattack. How many successes must Amanita roll to take no damage?

31. In the above counterattack, Amanita had rolled 4 of her 7 Combat Pool dice. How many can she now apply to the damage resistance?

32. How many of each type of action can you have in a single Combat Turn?

33. Running blindly through the sewers, Chet comes upon a ghoul hunting party. He yells "Drek!" What kind of action was used? He then readies his Franchi Spas, what kind of action is used? Can he then fire a called shot to the head to finish off his combat turn?

34. What is the base target number for a heavy pistol firing at 12 meters? With a laser sight? With Smart Goggles? With a Smartgun Link?

35. How many times can you fire a fully loaded Ruger SuperWarhawk in a combat turn?

36. A roll of three means a grenade scatters in which direction?

37. Ook the Troll PhysAd swings his combat ax at your so far unharmed elven torso. If you were to attempt a barehanded counterattack what penalty would you receive to your target number? What bonus is Ook receiving to his?

38. What is the area of affect for a Manablast thrown by a Shaman with a magic attribute of 6?

39. What are the advantages and disadvantages of having an expendable fetish requiring spell?

40. What is an exclusive spell?

41. Tikon cast Barrier at force 4, his magic attribute is 5. What is the height and width of the wall he could form?

42. What bonuses would a street sam with reaction of 5 gain from Wired Reflexes Level 2?

43. Explain the effects of burst-fire when using a gun capable of it. How does full auto-fire differ?

44. How is initiative figured for the above street sam (no house rules)?

45. How is an astrally projecting mage's initiative figured?

46. What is Street Index?

47. Explain the Magic Loss roll.

48. What penalties are there for natural low-light vision in a partially lit room? How about cybered low-light? How about natural thermo?

49. After getting a Vehicle Rig Level 2, Loki is thinking of getting Boosted Relfexes or Wired reflexes Level 1, which would give him the better bonuses?

50. After a run, Liquid Karma is looking to fence some of its loot. What is the base percentage negotiation starts at?

Nightlife - 2nd February 2001