I've played Shadowrun 2E (the Hebrew version of it), 3E and 4E; I've eventually sold most of the books but I want to get back to Shadowrun eventually.

The question is: is Shadowrun 5E worth my money? How good is its system? How much has it improved oner 4E?

Also, how does the 5E version of the Sixth World feel? I LOVED the 2E version of it, the 3E world was OK, but the 4E world felt a bit bland to me, especially since most of the cool plots (bug spirits, DEUS, Japanese occupation of California etc) were resolved and the cool Earthdawn crossover was more or less removed.

And how is the flavour? I loved the over-the-top pink-Mohawk retro-1980's feel of 2E...

Run as far as you can as fast as you can.

If what you liked about Shadowrun was the Sixth World, then play SR2/3, pour one out for the lost homies at FASA, and do 2064+ yourself.

Catalyst took the Sixth World, gave it a lobotomy, dressed it up in Transhumanist drag, curbstomped it, then raped the corpse and set it on fire.

I...like 5e more than 4e fluff-wise and mechanic wise(though 4e and 5e are quite similar in mechanics)-5e tried to go back to the old when it came to fluff.


However...after I really go back and revisit it? if you like 2e/3e fluff you're better off keeping with those. It's just so much more fun and honestly, even though some mechanics are certainly kludgy and dated(and some, like 3e's rigger/driving rules can make you pull your hair out), I actually kinda like *those* more as well at the end of the day. I love the old splats, and yeah-these days we're more 3e people(myself and my gaming buddies.) 2e fluff is definitely my all-time favorite; my favorite type of Shadowrun game uses 2e fluff and takes place between somewhere between 2050 and 2060, but 3e ruleset. (I do admit the 3e Comet times can be fun as well for some weird stuff. Beyond that though...)


I did give 5e a decent review as it did do some good things and it definitely fixed some of that 4e stuff and I really appreciate them trying to bring back some of the old stuff while adding some cool things like the Mentor Spirit bonuses for adepts-but at the end of the day, after really trying to mess with it, get into it, play it and think more about it I'm finding myself just floating more toward the 2e/3e days all out.

Quote from: CRKrueger;722446Run as far as you can as fast as you can.

If what you liked about Shadowrun was the Sixth World, then play SR2/3, pour one out for the lost homies at FASA, and do 2064+ yourself.

Catalyst took the Sixth World, gave it a lobotomy, dressed it up in Transhumanist drag, curbstomped it, then raped the corpse and set it on fire.

It's THAT bad? I almost purchased it!

No, really. Is it that bad?

There was a Hebrew version of 2e? That's...obscure

Quote from: Benoist;722484It's THAT bad? I almost purchased it!

No, really. Is it that bad?

5e is, again, IMO, better than 4e both fluff and mechanic wise.



That damage was done back in 4e, essentially. 5e basically tried to take the flaming corpse, extinguish it, and toss some nice shiny chrome limbs on it and give it a cyberdeck. It succeeded *somewhat*-about as good as it could given the extent of everything, but the 4e damage with the overall world, IMO, was already done at that point-which is why at the end I suggest 2e/3e. It all takes place 2065 and before-after that is when they decided to start newfangling the story and killing off all the old characters.

We've been playing it and the combat has so far seemed really slow and a bit too 'clever'... or something. There's some weird stuff with the way initiative works that nearly got half of us killed (it probably did kill us but our GM pulls his punches).
I'm not really enjoying it but I'm not yet sure why... I think I'd rather just be playing a straight cyberpunk game, or Eclipse Phase... this seems kinda in-between.

I'd suggest buying the Fourth Edition 20th Anniversary core rulebook and the Shadowrun 2050 supplement.  It's the best of both worlds... an improved ruleset with the 2050s cyberpunk.

Quote from: TristramEvans;722485There was a Hebrew version of 2e? That's...obscure

Only edition of SR translated into Hebrew. The translation was not perfect, but it was OK, and it made the game accessible for us in Israel in the late 1990's, when getting RPG books from other countries was difficult (before the days of easy internet ordering). Even Earthdawn got a Hebrew version.

I personally still prefer the older rulset even then, but that's my tastes.I  prefer the power level, the mechanics(Combat Pool and Karma Pool and all of that), as well as the old damage staging, and just the general overall feel of the system, even with its warts. I feel the attribute+skill method doesn't float my boat as much. (I will say 4e does cyberlimbs much better than the older editions.)

Quote from: Celestial;722508I'd suggest buying the Fourth Edition 20th Anniversary core rulebook and the Shadowrun 2050 supplement.  It's the best of both worlds... an improved ruleset with the 2050s cyberpunk.

Might be the correct solution, then. It might have been a mistake to sell off the 4E stuff; now I'll buy it again, as well as the 2050 sourcebook. Maybe run a Bug City game? I still have the Bug City module at hand...

I don't care for the 4E version of the Sixth World, especially regarding how the killed off the Matrix and gave everyone an iPhone, and also resolved all the plots. They also killed half the interesting characters.

2072 is System Shock. 2052 is Shadowrun.

Quote from: Benoist;722484It's THAT bad? I almost purchased it!

No, really. Is it that bad?

You asked earlier how they got rid of the decker problem?  They made deckers good in combat.  You see, in 207x, having your nervous system replaced with wires and sections of your spine that the wires travel through replaced with superconducting materials only work together if your nerves and spine can talk to each other wirelessly, so deckers can hack your cyberware.

The setting stuff really goes back to late 3rd, when FanPro was trying to keep it alive after all the old writers had gone.  The Shadowtalk is a pale reflection of the FASA days, JackPoint sucks compared to ShadowLand, even though apparently someone knows what an onion router is (wow).  It's gotta progressively worse when Catalyst almost went under, now the new blood writers don't even get right what Catalyst was doing with the reboot in 4e, let alone know what the hell was going on in the history.

Really, the end of 3rd, beginning of 4th is more like an alternate Earth in DC or Marvel or one of the many Hollywood remakes or TV reboots - the names are the same, but that's about it.

Imagine Salvatore getting the license to write 4th Age Middle Earth books.

Actually Ben, it's a lot like oWoD and nWoD in that everything is still there - kind of, it's just completely different.

The wireless rules were definitely not implemented well. Not fond of Limits either. If folk do play with 4e rukes, I suggest Karmagen for character creation-its much much better, IMO, than the 400 BP system which I found heavily flawed. Karmagen makes stuff cost the same out of the gate as later. You can easily use the Companion's karmagen system with 4A's costs.

And yeah, for me the omet was the cutoff, though 50-60 was the strongest. I didn't think Fanpro did terribly, but they started to run out of steam later. Which is why I still have all my old 2e splats.

"You asked earlier how they got rid of the decker problem?"  Back in 4th Edition, they made the Matrix as user-friendly as operating systems are NOW.

Not a big fan of Limits, though.

JG

I ran 2E, 3E and 4E. I think that 4E is the easiest to run as a GM, but I have three main problems with it. The first is the VERY bland flavour of the setting (the setting is the main drawing point of SR for me). The second is the fact that everyone has an iPhone with WiFi which could be hacked, hell, cyberlimbs could be hacked, everything could be hacked which is a hell of a headache to adjudicate (plus modern hacking of iPhones by WiFi flies in the face of the old Shadowrun flavour). The third is that mages tend to be quite overpowered, especially with spirits in tow.

So my problem with 4E (or 5E?) is not the basic mechanics but the setting and technology. So maybe 4E-Aniversary Edition plus the 2050 sourcebook would be the solution for me.