Mesh is also currently helping me out by providing proofing and editorial feedback on Missions.
Anyway... To aderess a couple points:
1) In Media Res. Yeah, overused. I don't mind it rarely... Once every 12 Missions or so, as it's a storytelling technique. And something like what happens in Mission 03-12 can be used to test the runners creativity and abilities. But, it has to be used carefully, and rarely. The important parts are that you cannot take away the players abilities too badly... If you strip them of their gear, you have to give them the opportunity to quickly acquire at least the basics..> A commlink and some hacking programs for the Hacker, a vehicle or drone for the rigger, and some guns for pretty much everyone.
But the other big thing is that you can't remove their ability to negotiate. That was a real flaw in the original 03-09 (the IMR stuff has been completely removed for the release, and a new intro with a meet put in it's place). Not only telling the runners that they did "X", but that they did something crazy/stupid willingly, and that they have already agreed to X Nuyen just takes too much away from the runners.
I won't say that In Media Res will never be used again. But if we do, it'll be done very carefully and very sparingly. 3+ times in 12 missions is a bit much though.
2) One of my goals with Season 4 is to provide some additional, optional material with the adventures, to beef them up for home use. I'd like to see a bit more done for options and alternate endings... Usually adventures only have one or two possible outcomes though, shy of "Runners go off on some wierd tangent", in which case the GMs just gonna have to wing it most of the time, because it'd be impossible for us to try to write for every contingency. I've found over the years that no matter how many variables I plan for, the players will ALWYAS find the one I didn't expect.
Plus, to be honest, it's a convention game. There's a certain amount of rails that come with a game like that. It's the only way to work a game so that it fits in a limited time block like taht.
3) Agreed about including stats in each scene. One thing I've been trying to hammer home is that GMs should have to look up very little, if anything. Rules references and the like are fine, since GMs should either know the rule already, or the rule is likely too cumbersome to repeat. But NPC, Critter, and Gear stats should all be included. And I'd like to do a little more with details... I'm a big fan of the Old School Matrix, so things like Matrix Topography, IC architecture, etc are all important to me. So every important node should have some basic description of what the node looks like, at the very least. Now, not every node needs descriptors. That can often be left up to the GM... But anything major, anything important, yes, that should have some detail.
Magic is a bit tougher, because the Astral is often just a reflection of the Mundane. There are unusual things that can be there though, so these should obviously be mentioned. But again, this one mostly falls under GM purview.
Bull