[David Chart]

What thought have people given to the necessary adaptations to the SR4A rules to fit the setting as it was in 2050? Obviously, dropping Technomancers is easy, but handling deckers is a bit harder. There's also the question of which tech is available at the earlier date, and how to handle technological advances. I'm sure that people have thought about it, but I can't find it on these forums, so I thought I'd ask.

[Doc Chaos]

Since these forums are pretty new, I think you have better chances of finding someone actually writing it down over at the dumpshock forums. off hand I don't think I remember seeing something like it over there, but I am not really a regular at DS

[Irian]

I had the some idea (as far as I know, many SR-GMs had) and personally I'm thinking about using the AR, comlinks, etc. in 2050, too. Modern day (2010) cell phones are more powerfull than 2050 mini computers were, the next logical step IS a comlink. And if I GM in 2050, I would have no intention go into 2070, thus having no problem there. I think I would require datajacks for decking, full sim, etc. to keep the flair.

[DarkLloyd]

Actually our group is doing that very thing right now. We are running thru all the published modules from the begining. And since it starts in 2050 thats where we are.
     We are using the hacking rules as is, (But I do like your "require datajacks for decking, full sim, etc. to keep the flair" comment. I think I'll pose that to them tp try) and as for what tech: we look in the 1st ed book and can only buy from there. We use the prices and stats from 4th and when there is something that does translate we mold the stats until it works.

I'm sure Casail will be thru here soon enough, ask him for details, he's the GM.

[FastJack]

The Hacking rules could remain the same. It's really easy to use the same stats for the Commlinks and just call them Cyberdecks, as well.

Regarding other historical stuff:

1) Restrict access to Physical/Mystic Adepts. They were very, VERY rare in 2050 and practically unknown.
2) Second-hand cyberware is not as easily available, since there really wasn't much 'used' cyber back in the day. Alpha, Beta and Delta cyberware was more restricted too.
3) Bioware, Nanotech and Genetech were not in the cards at the beginning of 2050.

Otherwise, everything else was pretty much the same. Have fun!

[David Chart]

The Hacking rules could remain the same. It's really easy to use the same stats for the Commlinks and just call them Cyberdecks, as well.

Regarding other historical stuff:

1) Restrict access to Physical/Mystic Adepts. They were very, VERY rare in 2050 and practically unknown.

Really? The original Grimoire says (p. 15) that the first publicly documented Physical Adept, Francis Daniels, was killed in the DC riots in 2030.

My assumption was that Adepts (and metavariants) didn't show up much in the early material because they hadn't been made up yet, but that in game continuity they did exist back then (unlike Bioware etc.; that's a good point for something else to drop).

Oh, and thanks everyone for all the ideas. Looks like it should be quite easy. I think I'll drop AR and require datajacks, for the feel of it, but it's nice to know that most people don't feel the rules need much alteration. I wasn't relishing ploughing through Unwired and Virtual Realities and trying to mesh things...

[FastJack]

Forgot about that... But they were exceedingly rare back then.

[Doc Chaos]

As was/is any magic user

[Welshman]

As was/is any magic user

But where as Magic Using "Norms" (The standard book Player races, we'll leave Dragons, Wendigos and so on to another discussion) might be 3-5% of the total population, Adepts in the 50's were something like less than 10% of the total Magic Using population.

It was a very different world back in SR1 and SR2.

[Irian]

A group would have to be very big to have any effect on the demographics :-) So who cares that there should, statistically, be only around 10 shapeshifters in Seattle 2050? Either the PC is numebr 8 or number 11, who cares? If the player wants to play an adept, who cares if there should statistically be only, let's say, 300 in Seattle? He can be number 212 or 301, who cares? As long as it exists in 2050, the question if a given character is suitable for your game should depend on other factors, imho.

[Doc Chaos]

A group would have to be very big to have any effect on the demographics :-) So who cares that there should, statistically, be only around 10 shapeshifters in Seattle 2050? Either the PC is numebr 8 or number 11, who cares? If the player wants to play an adept, who cares if there should statistically be only, let's say, 300 in Seattle? He can be number 212 or 301, who cares? As long as it exists in 2050, the question if a given character is suitable for your game should depend on other factors, imho.

/signed

[The_Gun_Nut]

As was/is any magic user

But where as Magic Using "Norms" (The standard book Player races, we'll leave Dragons, Wendigos and so on to another discussion) might be 3-5% of the total population, Adepts in the 50's were something like less than 10% of the total Magic Using population.

It was a very different world back in SR1 and SR2.

Actually, magically active people of all stripes took up (and still take up) less than 1% of the total population.  Of those, only a tiny percentage could use magic to its fullest extent (the mages and adepts we know today).

The reason there seem to be more now?  Well, it has been over 20 years.  Without major wars or pandemics, the population increases quite naturally.

EDIT:  As an example, the world population in 1990 was approx. 5.3 billion.  In 2010, 20 years later, it is approximately 6.8 billion.  An increase of ~1.5 billion peple.

[System]

I had the some idea (as far as I know, many SR-GMs had) and personally I'm thinking about using the AR, comlinks, etc. in 2050, too. Modern day (2010) cell phones are more powerfull than 2050 mini computers were, the next logical step IS a comlink.

Don't know if I totally agree with that.  Cyberdecks were entirely new technology, not simply an evolution of the home PC and smartphone.  Decking in the original Shadowrun harnessed the direct interface of the brain to give deckers a huge advantage over the users of normal terminals.  According to the established canon, an AR user on a commlink would be a turtle, even going full VR the way it is described wouldn't compare.  I think the decks were just fine as a believable progression of technology.  It's somewhat impossible to say what the "logical" progression would be for a technology that doesn't actually exist. 

4th edition went in a different direction to try to streamline and synchronize the game play of deckers versus the rest of the team, but I don't think it was necessarily more "realistic" or "logical" than the cyberdeck.  Sure, elements of 1e and 2e seem anachronistic given our understanding of modern technology, but in other ways, the Matrix and decking is an entirely different animal from the Internet.  Shadowrun told us what cyberdecks do.  And that's nothing at all like a modern computer except in the most basic of concepts. I like that 4th edition "modernized" the future, finally going into detail about how the normal person interfaces with the Matrix.  But removing the cyberdeck refutes a rule that has been constant since Shadowrun's inception.  And I think that took a little out of the universe.

[Julius Q Enderby]

We're doing this too, David.
We're 3 sessions into our campaign and still have a few things to iron out. We're starting in 2057, just prior to Big D's election. The bugs have only just recently been exposed.
No technomancers yet; the Otaku are still a weird setting feature rather than a PC option. In my game, the Renraku Arcology hasn't shutdown yet, but it's coming.

We've done just as Fastjack and Irian suggested also:
If you're a decker, get a high-end comlink and that's your cyberdeck. You want a datajack.
If you're not, get the cheapest comlink and that's your pocket secretary.

Back in the 50s, memory and load speed were limitations. Could you download all that juicy pay data before the black IC fried your brain?
The group's decker hasn't hacked incredibly much yet so I haven't really decided how much I wanted to bother tracking it. I might make the Signal rating somehow address that as it is not really that relevant without the global personal wifi wireless network.

Regarding cyberdeck obsolescence relative to our actual information technologies, I'm okay with that. In our take, the world was becoming wireless just as we actually are today. That's where the first Crash comes in. Tackling that brutal virus with human brains wired to the system was the only solution and even that was deadly for some members of the beleaguered Echo Mirage team. The reason the world has not yet gone globally wireless and even shied away from it by 2057 is because that would perpetuate the conditions that lead to the Crash in the first place. The resulting Matrix, hard-wired as it mostly was (satellite uplinks and rare private broacasts aside), was a security feature against that fearsome possibility.

I'm not familiar enough with the canon history behind the 2nd Crash so I'm not convinced it is necessary in our unofficial canon. AR and wireless society could "naturally" come to the fore come 2072 once secure upgrades have been developed.

Signal Rating can certainly continue to be a pertinent feature for remote rigging purposes. I'm suspending disbelief to allow that what is deadly for global information management is not deadly for remote control drones/vehicles. In 2050s I don't recall it being suggested that a decker could hack a rigger's drones but you can certainly play it either way.

Admittedly, we're still hashing this out so, yeah, I'll be following this thread. All the best in your game. 

[Casazil]

WELL.........................................

Aside from the fact that 3 people in my home game made magical types (Sigh) like Lloyd said I use the hacking from now I fudge the rolls in the mods to what I think is good depending on the system (I may have gone a little high last game but our hacker passed the tests)

Magic I said all spells /adept powers are available (who's to say player a didn't make/discover that spell/power back then and it just know became main stream available)

Guns/Ammo/Armor just easier to use whats in the books now I upgrade the NPCs the same if needed.

WE however 100% TOTAL disagree with 5x's the new attribute rules in SR4a to level attributes vs. the 3x's in SR4 so we use the 3x's rule

Technomancers you could allow it I don't think it was too far in before the otaku came out so no big just call the technomancer an otaku.

Other gear and items its your call use the old books or use the current.

Cyber I made them stick to the old books and Bio is not out yet. Nano/gene is as of yet unheard of.

Alpha/beta yes Delta NO again not even someones wet dream yet I would think.

Other questions ask away I'll let ya know what we as a group decided to do about it.