That.
Is fucking idiotic. Part of Critias' entire reasoning for this book is based on the objective fact that starting and low karma adepts are utterly neutered compared to street sams, especially compared to previous editions.
Nice how you try to understand the motivation behind such a request. But yeah, go on with advertising Adeptrun.
Grinder, there's a world of difference between the request for a new book, and the backhanded way in which the request was made. "AdeptRun" has been bandied about pretty much ever since the prices for the Adept Quality were first shown when SR4 hit shelves. "Magic trumps all" is a far cry from "Adepts trump all," though, at least in my opinion.
Do me a favor, in fact, and take a look at the actual page count allocated to Adepts (not Mages). I bet you'll be surprised just how little ink they get. Find me the number of threads arguing about how overpowered Adepts (not Mages) are . Find me all the qualities that lower the prices of Adept powers (the way Biocompatability or Type O System do for mundane gear), or the package deals and other options that let Adepts get more even as a starting character (the way Cyberware Suites or Alpha-Delta grade 'ware do). Find me the last time someone asked for Adept build advice on either major Shadowrun forum and they
weren't imemdiately told to suck it up and get some cyberware or bioware because it was cheaper, easier, and more effective than the magical alternative. Find me any characters that got hit harder by the change in attribute increase costs when SR4A hit (because now it wasn't just harder for Adepts to spend Karma and increase their stats the old fashioned way, it was much more expensive to increase Magic and try to increase their stats through their powers).
Compared to the amazing versatility and potential of full-on spellcasters (which is probably the number one complaint about the current state of the game) and the out-of-the-box versatility and ability of well-crafted mundane characters, Adepts -- Pornomancer silliness aside -- have really kind of been the redheaded stepchildren of SR4A, in my opinion.
So here's a book entirely full of
optional rules (which means we're certainly not cramming them down anyone's throat or fundamentally changing the nature of the game universe) that tries to rectify that, inasmuch as that's possible to do in less than 15 pages. The sad thing, to me, is that this 15 pages pretty much doubles the page count you'll find dedicated to Adepts (seriously, just go check the index in SR4A).
Now, you may not agree. You may not think Adepts need the help, you might have them completely overrunning your local gaming meta-scene, you might have 'em coming out your ears and think they're overpowered, and that's just fine! That's why these are entirely optional rules, so no one's gonna hold a gun to your head and force you or anyone you play with to use 'em.
You don't have to like the book. I wish people would, but I understand that it is, like any product, not for everyone and not everyone is gonna like it. I
do wish people would at least give it a shot, though, instead of just rolling their eyes and complaining about "AdeptRun" when, in my opinion and the opinion of quite a few other people, SR4 has been
anything but.