[Michael Chandra]

Our gaming club is currently looking into whether we'd want to try to host official Shadowrun sessions. Unfortunately we got a board crisis right now, so it's a bit of an iffy subject, but I really hope we'll be able to set something up. And the Missions only start with Core so no problem there. Sure, the finer details aren't available but it's a very good start.

As for my own campaign, the lack of extra fun toys means I'm sticking to 4e and simply intend to steal the occasional 5e rule, such as dodging and Initiative.

[Mirikon]

I'll probably get the PDFs as soon as they're out, and grab hard copies down the road.

Same here since the new edition won't really be playable for a few months (maybe a year depending on release schedule) until there are more sources out.

The core book's looking pretty robust, to me, honestly.  I plan on starting off a campaign as soon as my local gamers can get their paws on it.  We might do some retroactive adjustments after the fact (to include more advanced/specific options from splatbooks), but, honestly, I think you'll find the core book is enough to at least get a game started.

That's something that gets said about every game, and it doesn't work out that way. The more sources are available for a game, the more fun it is.

Well, that may be true once the edition is established, but I believe keeping things simple is best to people who are new to an edition/game until they learn the ropes. And if they put out a conversion guide from 4A to 5, then you can transfer over your material anyways.

[All4BigGuns]

I'll probably get the PDFs as soon as they're out, and grab hard copies down the road.

Same here since the new edition won't really be playable for a few months (maybe a year depending on release schedule) until there are more sources out.

The core book's looking pretty robust, to me, honestly.  I plan on starting off a campaign as soon as my local gamers can get their paws on it.  We might do some retroactive adjustments after the fact (to include more advanced/specific options from splatbooks), but, honestly, I think you'll find the core book is enough to at least get a game started.

That's something that gets said about every game, and it doesn't work out that way. The more sources are available for a game, the more fun it is.

Well, that may be true once the edition is established, but I believe keeping things simple is best to people who are new to an edition/game until they learn the ropes. And if they put out a conversion guide from 4A to 5, then you can transfer over your material anyways.

Assuming the conversion is complete enough to convert gear and vehicles.

[Critias]

That's something that gets said about every game, and it doesn't work out that way.

In your opinion.

The more sources are available for a game, the more fun it is.

Very much in your opinion.

The latter part, in particular, is something that's quite strongly a matter of personal taste.  Some people really enjoy the simplicity, almost the purity, of running games without much but the core book (for all sorts of games, not just SR).

[All4BigGuns]

Pretty much everything stated on these forums (or any forum) is an opinion.

[Patrick Goodman]

But you state them as fact. This is what a lot of us object to.

[Bull]

Personally, my opinion is the game gets a LOT less fun the more books there are for it.  The game and the players get more and more "fiddly" and it starts to become more and more about the gear and whacky new rules than it does about the, well, game.  The roleplay and the characters. 

I'm very much looking forward to Missions being "stripped bare" for a while, honestly.

[All4BigGuns]

Personally, my opinion is the game gets a LOT less fun the more books there are for it.  The game and the players get more and more "fiddly" and it starts to become more and more about the gear and whacky new rules than it does about the, well, game.  The roleplay and the characters. 

I'm very much looking forward to Missions being "stripped bare" for a while, honestly.

There are other games out there for those who think that the toys supposedly--though it is highly doubtful--"get in the way". The Unisystem games come to mind.

One of the best parts of this game IS the goodies.

[Michael Chandra]

Why chase people away because they prefer to play with less rules? I like the goodies, but it's still Shadowrun if you run with Core rather than Extended Core, just like it's still Shadowrun if you add War, Black Book and Black Book '74 and start toting Battle Rifles and Sheriffs in Seattle. It's an entirely different flavour of playstyle, but it's still Shadowrun.

[Black]

We have and in theory use all the books... But how much of them do we use?  Not much actually.
Arsenal - martial art rules and vehicle mods. Poison/drug rules.  This is the book we use the most, but we don't really use the guns, armor, drones, new vehicles very much.
Street magic - initiation, ally spirits.  As the gm, I use it extensively for bad guys material.
Unwired - only to make fake sins... And that's it.
Augmentation. - the guys don't use this at all.  I have dabbled with the cyberware suites for npc enemies, that's it.
Runners companion - karma generation rules.  That's it.  We did dabble in the alt character types... But found them unbalanced so at the request of the players, have banned them for player use for now.

Could we live without the additional books? Sure. Would we miss them? Maybe a little, specially street magic and arsenal.

[PeterSmith]

But you state them as fact.

This is a bit of a stretch. I don't see A4BG saying: "...and that's a fact." Is some variation "In my opinion..." needed every time he posts something that's pretty obviously an opinion?

[Warmachinez]

So if you dont trust amazon, where can we pre-order the book then? IS it even a good idea to do so at the moment?

Also do we know if a Campaign/fluff book will come out at the same time as SR5 rules?

[Anarkitty]

Personally, my opinion is the game gets a LOT less fun the more books there are for it.  The game and the players get more and more "fiddly" and it starts to become more and more about the gear and whacky new rules than it does about the, well, game.  The roleplay and the characters. 

I'm very much looking forward to Missions being "stripped bare" for a while, honestly.

There are other games out there for those who think that the toys supposedly--though it is highly doubtful--"get in the way". The Unisystem games come to mind.

For the record, the following reply is extremely sarcastic, and a little rude, but I feel ranty and need to say it.  I have put it behind a Spoiler tag, and if the mods want to take it down or tell me to take it down, I won't object.

[spoiler]Or...and I know this is a weird concept...they could play Shadowrun the way they want to play it.

Now hear me out here before angry rabble show up at my door with pitchforks: I know that the right way to play the game is to use every rule in every published book exactly as written, but no OPTIONAL rules of course, and optimize every possible aspect of every character so that they are built correctly.  I'm not arguing that your way of playing isn't the one and only true gospel of HOW TO PLAY SHADOWRUN^tm.
Some people, however, do prefer to play without a whole bunch of incredibly important additional books, but these deviant scum still want to play Shadowrun without access to the full catalog of holy "toys".  It is understandable that you might suggest another game system, like the heretical Unisystem, but I doubt that is going to satisfy these blasphemers.  They are going to continue playing Shadowrun wrong, and while I certainly know that the fact that there are individuals playing the game differently from you (and daring to even ENJOY doing it that way!) is ruining the sanctity of your game and slowly destroying the whole system of Role Playing, there is nothing we can do to stop them. [/spoiler]

[PeterSmith]

So if you dont trust amazon, where can we pre-order the book then?

I would go with the pre-order option at the BattleShop when it goes live.

http://www.battlecorps.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=28

[All4BigGuns]

The mention of Unisystem was just an example of one where gear isn't a necessary part of character creation and advancement.

As to the rest, why the hell shouldn't someone actually defend using multiple source books? Especially when there's <censored> types who go around making wild claims that every new piece of gear "destroys all balance in all games" and tries to force people into the view that the "Core Book Only" is the only way to play?