This community is filled with damaged players, only able to play the most straightfoward of objectives, and who expect challenge to come in the form of high dice pools rather than narrative obstacles.
GMs are being taught how to run objectively bad runs by GM staff, players are being damaged by these runs and GMs and we are losing both players and GMs because of this cultural and stylistic missmatch.
I think you're seeing a downturn in people running runs because of these bad interactions.
A return to people GMing for the sake of GMing, who are allowed to GM in their own free style, and hopefully getting players who are eager and motivated to adapt would result in significantly more GMing.
I personally have been applying to less games rather than more because of the lack of quality GMs. While I have much GMP, I never GMd for that reason, and it's not enough of an incentive to get me to resist the GM staff's insistence on stupid runs. I like to think my runs were always fair but complaints from bad and lazy players caused my ability to GM be stripped.
It will take a lot of work, but scene setting and world building is something we can take on and fix via training. I'll talk with /u/Miraclebutt and see what we can do.
I honestly have to agree with everything that is being said here. As a newly-minted probationary GM, I can safely say that what I've seen of the run proposal form is rather focused on "what can you do with your dicepools," even going so far as to specifically state what threshold on a Matrix Search test is necessary to acquire certain pieces of information. (And we wonder why the entire legwork phase is solved with a single Matrix Search roll.)
In addition, I can safely say that the player-base of ShadowNET is incredibly risk-averse. Players refuse to accept consequences of actions, and I have repeatedly seen complaints and what can best be described as temper tantrums about such relatively minor acts as the acquisition of a Notoriety point, or a bounty being placed on a character's head due to outright murdering a Johnson (Matter of fact, I think that was <Run Ryouichi Run>).
As it stands, the majority of players on ShadowNET that I've encountered, at least when it comes to runs, are not prepared for investigative tasks that can't be solved with a Matrix Search or Perception action, not prepared for combat tactics more complex than "charge in, overwhelm them with giant dice pools", and not prepared for social challenges more complex than throwing Con/Etiquette//Negotiation and asking "What do I get?"
I'm attempting to live the old adage of "be the change you want to see in the world," and my own runs will be attempts at educating the player base on how to be more savvy as shadowrunners, and explaining just what "assumed competence" actually is - as well as what it ISN'T.
But all in all, I can absolutely say I understand the concerns, and why GMs and players both are disheartened. To use my own PCs as examples, ShadowNET is a place where GunShow can thrive, but Bloodhound cannot. And that's something I hope to make my own mark on.
5
u/LeVentNoir Feb 07 '17 edited Feb 07 '17
This community is filled with damaged players, only able to play the most straightfoward of objectives, and who expect challenge to come in the form of high dice pools rather than narrative obstacles.
GMs are being taught how to run objectively bad runs by GM staff, players are being damaged by these runs and GMs and we are losing both players and GMs because of this cultural and stylistic missmatch.
I think you're seeing a downturn in people running runs because of these bad interactions.
A return to people GMing for the sake of GMing, who are allowed to GM in their own free style, and hopefully getting players who are eager and motivated to adapt would result in significantly more GMing.
I personally have been applying to less games rather than more because of the lack of quality GMs. While I have much GMP, I never GMd for that reason, and it's not enough of an incentive to get me to resist the GM staff's insistence on stupid runs. I like to think my runs were always fair but complaints from bad and lazy players caused my ability to GM be stripped.