Realm Works with Shadowrun

[Molash]

So I am using realm works within the shadowrun world. I was wondering if any other user is using it for shadowrun and what tips they can give me for creating and running campaigns in the shadowrun universe.

[Mmurphy]

I created a ShadowRun campaign using Realm Works but I mostly just added detail from the Seattle Source book. I started in Tacoma and then we stopped playing so did not do much more. Mostly what I did was review the Seattle source book and added all the 'locations' and 'people' they had listed.

For example, 'Gianelii's Restaurant, I added the text from the book (copy and paste was my savior), I then added a map of the restaurant (found a floor plan on the internet for a restaurant) and made up some information on the place itself (goods sold: food and drink, services sold: Food, Infobroker) and some basic additional text. If the characters ever visited the restaurant, I would add details that came out in the role-playing session such as waiters/waitresses or details that get made up as you go. I also used Google maps to approximate the location within Tacoma so I would put a 'pin' in the Tacoma map where the restaurant was found.

I then 'created' Tony Gianeli, for the most part, except where the Seattle Source book gives detail, I just made up stuff and found pictures on the internet to use as the person. For example, I have

Name: Tony Gianelli, Race: Human, Gender: Male, age: 63, Class: Commoner, Character Role: Neutral.

Story, Retaired mob 'leg breaker', good enough to survive a 30+ year career, Owner Gianelli's Restaurant, Gives balloons to children, will sing along during birthday songs and generally look and act happy and compasionte (my spelling is bad but I can usually figure out what I mean).

Professional Life: Pays employees very well and protects them like family. An ex-boyfriend of Mary Tate was sold to organ leggers because he was not paying child support. (this was added during a role-playing session where Tony hired the runners to collect child support and the runners could not find any way of 'making' the boy friend pay.

Resources: Contacts: Many within the underworld both part of the Mafia and 'hired help'. Cash: large sums and can get more if need.

Methods: Usually hires outside talent to perform any illegal actions and does not involve the restaurant in any illegal activities. Will leave Gianelli's Restaurant before talking about anything illegal.

[adzling]

I've been using it for about a month and a half now and have a big chunk of our runner's current base of operations entered in it (Hong Kong).

I mostly cribbed from the Hong Kong section of Runner's Havens and some bits of Jet-Set.

Maps were mostly taken from google maps and the web with map pins placed and content associated from the sourcebooks.

So far so good, ran our first run in Hong Kong yesterday using it and things went very well excepting my massive map of the Jialong nightclub crashed Realmworks VTT feature.

So I threw that up on our secondary monitor using photoshop and continued to access the rest of the content via Realmworks.

The real payoff of Realmworks so far has been having all of that information from various sourcebooks combining seamlessly with web content and being able to access it and share with the players easily.

It's been a real help and players loved the depth of background in-game for their players to explore.

So far so good.

[Molash]

Thank you Mmurphy and adzling, that is pretty much were I was heading with my own campaign and how I was going to run it.

Do you ever use the fog of world ability for the maps? the only reason I asked was with satellite access it would be almost useless to attempt.

[adzling]

Yeah I have used it for smaller maps I display on our TV battlemat (a 46" tv laid on it's back).

I tried to run a huge map that far exceeded Realmworks recommended maximum pixel dimensions and it crashed on load.

So I just tossed it up with photoshop and created an extra layer I filled with black to mask it. Then just erased the black layer as needed to expose the map.

[Mmurphy]

For the most part I do not use Realm Works right now. My GM style is very 'open world', meaning I don't know or care what the players do or how they accomplish the mission. Mr. J hires them to do 'X' and I leave it to them to do it. Sometimes they go in hard (bullets a flying) and sometimes they go in soft (sneaky).

Most of what I was using realm works for was after action notes. They meet a contact named X, who was this and that. If the players never saw or spoke to this contact ever again, it just cost me 5 minutes of data input but if they do use the person again, I have some basic notes. Also, many contacts end up dead after talking to them (I play in a dark world and allow the characters to be 'bad' so long as they can get along with other members of the party).

[Acenoid]

I use the realm as rule reference to find quickly documentation and details from the books. But I'm still in the process of entering it.

Then I use it of course for adventure mapping.

I am currently using the categories as defined by default, but slowly starting to redefine categories (copy -> move existing topics to the new layout) and re-tagging a lot of stuff.

Also began to use relationships more.

I think in the end, it should be enough to navigate & map via a single method otherwise it becomes to much work to enter everything and thing how to enter everything.

Basically I have divided up the history / recaps / actions from the players into handy topics and sorted them between quests and storyline topics containing each other. Via prefix & suffix I maintain the order and also display the duration of each event.

Incident/Event topics might be referenced to.

I also began to add "Rumor / Common Information" topics category references I think (this sheet of paper) and also linked to those form the storyline topics or relationships where feasible.

Also all the topics are tagged with an Id either "permanent" or one or multiple "name of the adventures" it came up.

I have topics to divide astral / meat and matrix space (dimension) and maybe more are needed if other entities like planets etc would be needed. Cities / Adventure Areas etc are grouped within.

Scene topics are either shown the storyline or if strongly linked to a location (e.g. scene triggered when adventure area is being visited) contained in there. Also the scene topics have a section that explain from where the runners could go next and what rewards they gained here if any.

Mission critical / quest items are always contained by the character who currently has them.

[adzling]

So where do you guys file Corporation info?

I have a few in "Sources" as background info for players and some in the actual "Organizations" under Corporations.

Not really sure what the role of "Sources" is as compared to other container groups.

[Acenoid]

Hi!

I create a group list and give it a certain name for example "Megakons" or "AAA-Corps" or just "Corporations" whatever you like, under that I contain it with suitable corps "Shiawase", "Ares" and whatnot.

Things that will be "forever" tied to the corp will be contained within. Other things like employees or temporary resources will be connected via links & relationships.

[adzling]

I guess I was looking for a bit more info on how you get that info into the players hands.
Do you expose it as they encounter it or just have much of it available for them to read at their leisure?

Sources would seem more suited to the latter while Organizations: Corporations would seem more suited to the former.

Thoughts?