Im baffled that after 5 editions the authors still advice the GM to make the game a railroad where he tells his favorite story for the players to jump from scene A to B to C.
No, really, take a look:
Shadowrun 5th edition core book, "Gamemaster Advice" wrote:Primarily, the gamemaster is responsible for bringing the initial story seed, or spark, on which the session will be built...
...Think of the game as being like a boat, with
the gamemaster controlling the rudder and the players
rowing the oars. The gamemaster sets the direction, the
players drive the game forward...
...Once you’ve talked to your players, spend some quality
time talking to yourself... What motivates you to tell these stories? What kind of stories do you want to tell?...
...An astute gamemaster
can have the best of both worlds: Allowing the
players to make their choice, while still having the story
go in roughly the same way as they had planned...
...a scene is written around
contributing one or more points to the overall plot of
the run. Building the overall plot of the adventure is
done by stringing together multiple scenes that make
up the whole..
...What needs to happen in a scene can be incredibly
varied and depends a lot on the story the gamemaster
is trying to tell...
...Having written (or at
least read and reviewed) the plot of a run, the gamemaster
should be familiar with the overall storyline and
where the points of greatest drama and excitement will
occur...
...if the players are really engaged in sneaking their characters
into a building, disabling sensors, and focused on
avoiding fights, then the gamemaster can take the scene
that they planned where a security team stumbles upon
the players and remove, or delay, it... Controlling pace is all about watching the players’
engagement in the story and adjusting the timing of
events to maximize it
...but then the GM is adviced to run it like a fucking Fighting Fantasy gamebook with a set plot and scenes and "pace" and climax and shit.
Am I the only one to see the paradox and amazingly wasted opportunity here ?