Hey chummers,

First of all, kudos to the designers. I think Anarchy 2.0 is a really good game, and I love the work that went into the rules. The overall approach is great.

However, I’m struggling with two aspects of the game, and I’d love to hear how more experienced GMs handle them before I run my first game tonight. For context, I’ve played Shadowrun 2nd Edition for several years and have about three years of GM experience with Shadowrun 6th Edition. Also played a lot of DnD and other games.

1. Character creation

There is so much freedom, so many nuyen to allocate, and so many possibilities to consider. Add the local rules and options, and character creation becomes a pretty overwhelming experience.

I have a group of experienced players, but we are looking for something easy to pick up, fast-paced and action-packed. We want to spend our time playing, not building characters for hours.

My solution so far has been to switch from the attribute point-buy approach to already calcultated tables in the book. It makes the initial choices easier, although it also creates some difficulties when allocating resources to equipment and ShadowAmps . Still, I appreciate that the game offers these different approaches and this "short-cut" one.

Any advise or feedback to help us there ?

2. Nuyen as karma feels like a really bad idea

I understand the intention of using a single resource to simplify character progression, but in practice, I find it confusing rather than simpler.

It also creates a potential incentive problem. A player might reasonably ask: why bother with dangerous runs when I could open a legitimate business and make money ? Or why not just pull off a small heist whenever I need cash ?

I don’t want to discourage creative thinking or tell players how their characters should make a living. But I also don’t want the campaign to turn into an economic optimisation exercise when what we really want is classic Shadowrun action. Also saying : heist is going to be punished feels like someone in SR wouldnt do.

I am already thinking of different approachs and have also questions :

• Have you changed how nuyen and character advancement work ?
• Do you separate money earned in-game from the resource used for progression (so actually having real money and XP money) ?
• How do you prevent players from finding more profitable alternatives to running the actual missions?
• Any advise how to run a 1st run smoothly, DOs and DONTs maybe ?

I am not looking to turn Anarchy into a more complicated game. Quite the opposite : I want to preserve what makes it great while making it easier to get started and keeping the focus on the action.

Thanks for any advice!

Xiao

I need something to laugh.

Whats the most ridiculous contact that appeared on your table?

I accept both silly characters and brazen power gaming attempts.

i have tried nullsheen and noobdragon's googledocs tables and both doesnt seems to work properly

Does your group role-play these out?