RunnerHub Quickstart Orientation

Hello and welcome to RunnerHub, a Shadowrun Living Community. This post should help answer some common questions and get you into a game.

What is a Living Community?

A Living Community is a group of Game Masters (GMs) and Players that have characters and games set in the same shared universe. GMs post one-shot style games to this subreddit for players with approved character sheets to apply to. What happens in these games happens in the shared setting, meaning your actions as players can affect the world and the other characters within it.

How Do I Get Started?

Your first step is to join the RunnerHub Discord server and read the #welcome channel in full.

For all of our communication in our community, both in and out of games, we use Discord. You need this in order to play on RunnerHub; there is no getting around it. You will need to make an account, and we would also recommend that you download the desktop app (while the web version works, the desktop app is a lot better, for voice chat in particular).

Discord is critical to the RunnerHub experience. Throughout this guide, we will continuously make reference to Discord, so please ensure you join the RunnerHub Discord server.

Getting the Books

In order to play Shadowrun, you will need to have access to any rulebook that you intend to use for your character. You only really need the 5th Edition Core Rulebook, but it can be very helpful to have access to the supplemental texts depending on the character you choose to create. It doesn't matter you access the books (PDF, physical books, HeroLab, etc.) as long as you have access to the rules text for any game mechanic you intend to make use of. You can easily purchase access to an official copy of the Shadowrun books as a digital PDF via DriveThruRPG.

Note: We are not affiliated with Catalyst Games, the company that owns Shadowrun, in any way. We make our best effort to respect Catalyst Games's rights as owners of the Shadowrun copyright so that our community can continue to operate without legal trouble. We do not, in any way, condone piracy - asking for, distributing, or discussing how to acquire copyrighted books without paying for them is strictly forbidden.

Making a Character

In order to play on RunnerHub, you must make a character and have them approved for play by our staff. You can make a character by following the instructions in the Core Rulebook, but all characters on RunnerHub must be thematically appropriate to the Shadowrun setting and also abide by our House Rules. To help out with creating a character, a Gear Guide has been made - this is not an end all be all, but a good starting point for making your first character. If you are not sure if something is thematically appropriate, rules appropriate, or simply want a bit more personal assistance, we encourage you to ask on Discord, and someone will most certainly know the answer to your question.

On RunnerHub, all characters must be created using one of two character creation softwares: Chummer or HeroLab. Chummer is completely free (open source), and HeroLab is a paid alternative. If you don't know which you'd prefer, we'd recommend that you download and use Chummer for your first character. HeroLab contains all the direct rules text from the books within the program, but forces you to pay for it and for each supplement book individually. Chummer does not contain any rules text within it (so you will need to get the books separately), but most players on RunnerHub are familiar with and use Chummer for their characters.

Since all of our sheet checkers are volunteers and HeroLab costs money, we have fewer active HeroLab sheet checkers than Chummer sheet checkers, so it may take longer for your character to be reviewed if you choose to use HeroLab over Chummer.

Your next step is to visit our House Rules and poke around - be sure to check for any bans or modifications to Qualities, Items, etc. that your character may use, and adjust accordingly.

After that, head to the RunnerHub Discord server, join, and go the the #chargen-discussion channel. In here, you should talk about your concept, post an example of your sheet, and get feedback from the community. We STRONGLY RECOMMEND doing this; sheets that never were discussed or shown on the chargen channel take 3 to 5 times as long to process, which can create a bottleneck for our volunteers. Also, discussing your character with the community at large helps garner perspective and insight from those already familiar with the game, and Runnerub in general. We want to make sure you have a character you're really happy with and don't waste your time or the checkers'.

Once you have finished creating your character, you can upload the finished files to some form of cloud storage, like Google Drive, and submit them for approval to the /r/hubchargen subreddit by following the instructions in the sidebar there. If you have any questions or concerns of any kind whatsoever about making your character, please feel free to ask questions or even drop your work-in-progress character sheet into the #chargen-discussion Discord channel and someone will be able to help you out.

Always remember to make backups of your character sheet files. If you lose your character sheet files, you will have to retire your character and make a new one. Don't do that to yourself!

Applying to Runs

All runs on the RunnerHub are posted to the /r/RunnerHub subreddit by the GM who is hosting the run on their table. Once you have gotten your character approved, you are free to apply them to any run listed as Help Wanted. Different GMs will require different information of their players, so make sure to fully read any job posting before applying to it so that you know what information the GM wants from you. While the specifics of what you post may vary on a GM-to-GM basis, all GMs will need a link to your approved character sheet in your application post for any run application.

Please be courteous and remember that you are not the only person at the table. Don't apply for runs that you will be late for or might not show up for. As with any tabletop game, by signing up for a run you are making a commitment of your time stating that you for sure will be at your desk and ready to hop on voice chat to play Shadowrun with the other players and the GM at the time of the run. If any issues do pop up, inform the GM immediately if able, so that they may be able to find a replacement.

Roll20

All games on RunnerHub are played via virtual tabletop on Roll20. In order to play on RunnerHub, you will need to make an account on Roll20, which is completely free. While Roll20 may look to be a very complicated tool, don't be overwhelmed! Most GMs on RunnerHub don't use it for much more than having their players roll dice, which is very simple and can be easily explained to you at the table. If you have any questions about any specific Roll20 functionality, please feel free to ask the GM of the game you're playing in and they should be able to help you figure it out.

Conclusion

If you have gone through and followed all the instructions on this page, you should be fully ready to start playing on RunnerHub. Remember, if you have any questions or concerns of any kind at any point, feel free to ask them on the RunnerHub Discord server and someone is sure to have an answer for you.

Welcome to the shadows!