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
I'm sorry, I see now that I wasn't that clear when writing about this point. What I meant was that the details that the GM needs to run a scene should be broken out into three discrete sections. Here's an example:
Mundane:
3 guards, 2 human male, one female (stats below), 2 perform a full circuit every 5 minutes, 1 located in the security center
Shoji panels which provide some cover but not the full blind fire penalty since you can see shadows through them
2 doberman drones w/FN-FAL assault rifles (stats below) which can be controlled by the spider on call (see matrix section below)
Magic:
2 force 2 watchers patrolling the grounds. one complete circuit every 3 minutes; summoned by the security mage
1 force 4 air elemental on standby; summoned by the security mage
area 23 warded with a force 4 polarized ward
1 security mage, female dwarf (stats below)
Matrix:
location node (stats, access points, etc.)
security node (same)
security spider (stats below)
This way when the runners ask, "What are the magic defenses like? I scope them out astrally." The GM has a quick answer and doesn't have to go digging around in the descriptive text for an answer.