I may be running Psi Run this week, and I've got a few questions. These aren't really mechanical, more game flow and GM duties.
Psi Run has this mysery about who the runners are, who the chasers are, and what the big picture is. As GM, how much do I really participate in setting up and resolving the mystery? The players are in charge of framing their own questions and answering them as a group. As the GM, I don't have any direct answering powers. This implies to me that as GM, resolving the mystery isn't my job. Maybe my job is maintaining it, deepening it, flavoring it, and so on.
But then again, as GM I have these scene setting and narrative powers. Should I use them to set up and resolve elements of the mystery? The ashcan implies I should have some kind of theory about what the mystery is. Is that a bit of red herring?
Anyone else have some GM-ing experience with Psi Run? How did this work in your game?
I'm so sorry that I'm so late in replying to this. Here goes:
Yes, your job is deepening, flavoring, and suggesting things about the mystery. Now, you have no control over the mystery of who the players are. What you do have are complete scene framing powers, and you are always the one that describes the Chasers. Also, you set a lot of the tone of the game by framing and describing the Crash scene. Is it a spaceship crash with dead alien handlers, or a black van with two "Agent Smith" types dead in the front seat? When the Chasers move a scene closer to the Runners, what does that look like? Black helicopters, robot tanks, or is the kindly old neighbor lady an undercover agent? When the Chasers don't make progress toward their targets, what does that look like? Are they incompetent, are they dealing with red tape, or are they just missing that one detail that would lead them to the Runners? Also, while the player rolling has "first say" about things like goal success or failure, injuries, etc., the GM, like everyone else, gets to chime in with their ideas.
I hope this helps, I hope you have fun, and I hope you let us know how things went.
Thanks, that makes things a lot clearer. I did not end up running Psi-run do to some last minute changes in the group makeup. I've got the notes on my shelf the next time I get a chance to run a one shot, though. Maybe I'll run it at ConQuest.