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6th Edition in 2019?

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Ajax

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« Reply #90 on: <03-13-19/1513:11> »
I have always loved life path systems. IMHO, the Modiphius’s Infinity and Conan RPGs both offer the best life path character creation systems out of any modern games. The classic Traveller has one that still holds up decades later... and no one will ever be able to top the incredibly detailed but easy to use system from Pendragon (you start with your character’s grandfather for crissakes!)

I think Shadowrun would be a great setting for such a system, but the SR5 life module system as published feels like a “rough draft” and not a final product.
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Mirikon

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« Reply #91 on: <03-13-19/1837:59> »
Do what I do, and line up the dice. 6 rows of 6 d6s is 36 d6. Doesn't take long to pull 20 d6 out of that, because three rows is 18, and grab 2 more. done and done.

That works but it involves constantly lining up dice and I find it to be a pain the ass, to be honest :P I also don't like the feeling of filling my hand with dice and rolling them, it also seems very antiquated.
Meh, I enjoy grabbing all those d6s and lining them up, and then rolling handfuls at a time. There is something deeply satisfying in having a visible, tangible example of your character's ability.

It is the same in D&D 3.X, when you have a Rogue on their sneak attack dice, or a wizard casting fireball. It is a little thing, but it makes you FEEL powerful, and that adds so much to the reward loop of the game, far, far more than doing a simple roll of a d20 (or a 3d6 in HERO), adding a modifier, and seeing if you beat the target. Adding another d6 to the pile feels better and more rewarding than adding another +1 or +2 to your d20 roll.
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PMárk

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« Reply #92 on: <03-18-19/1509:18> »
Well, I like the dice pool system. Generally, I prefer dice pools in games. I never got how it is too much of a logistical hassle for some people, to handle multiple dice, but hey, we're different. I get SR could be a bit silly, with high pools, compared, to, lt's say, WoD. but it has its charm, for me.

I also like that the game is complex as is. I don't want it to be rules light, there are plenty of rules light games out there nowadays. I like the options and the simulation. I think that it's good to have Anarchy, as a separate line for people who want that style (and I think it's important to not letting anarchy be neglected, as a line), but I don't think the core game should be like that.

Also, I actually like the priority system. It helped me as a new player. As it was mentoned, 5e has many cargen options, to satisfy those who don't like priority, so, I'm content. I can get teh argument that the progression is too slow, but I like the life-like system of increasing karma prices, though, the numbers could use some tinkering, or something like the Slow/normal/fast progression modes in Pathfinder.

I'd just like to mention, at the end, that I'm not an old-timer and not saying the above because of nostalgia. I'm with SR for 3-ish years only and I know just 3e and 5e.
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Michael Chandra

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« Reply #93 on: <04-01-19/0100:07> »
So a few details were released in a Reddit AMA to the new SR6 lead designer. Good news all, you don't have to worry about how annoying chargen is anymore:

5. Certain character generation options are causing trouble, so we've adopted a class based system, where you can enter into prestige classes like blood mage, or technomancer or pixie.
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Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #94 on: <04-01-19/0105:12> »
So a few details were released in a Reddit AMA to the new SR6 lead designer. Good news all, you don't have to worry about how annoying chargen is anymore:

5. Certain character generation options are causing trouble, so we've adopted a class based system, where you can enter into prestige classes like blood mage, or technomancer or pixie.

Yeahhhh....
« Last Edit: <04-01-19/1423:30> by Stainless Steel Devil Rat »
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Michael Chandra

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« Reply #95 on: <04-01-19/0644:10> »
So a few details were released in a Reddit AMA to the new SR6 lead designer. Good news all, you don't have to worry about how annoying chargen is anymore:

5. Certain character generation options are causing trouble, so we've adopted a class based system, where you can enter into prestige classes like blood mage, or technomancer or pixie.

Censored due to violating NDA
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Reaver

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« Reply #96 on: <04-01-19/2204:27> »
...

somehow I doubt it :P
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Michael Chandra

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« Reply #97 on: <04-02-19/0250:03> »
...

somehow I doubt it :P
April's Fools is over so we can confirm that it was a joke. :P There were plenty of tip-offs in the AMA, and JM Hardy even officially confirmed.
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Marcus

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« Reply #98 on: <04-02-19/1230:26> »
While I was totally sure this was April fools. I still think it's a dick move. You could easily have just said there would be a complete errata fix.
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PMárk

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« Reply #99 on: <04-03-19/1452:07> »
Well, i got a good laugh, but at the same time, a little feeling of dread, for SR ever going this way, truly.

 These days (talking from the esteemed age of 30 years...) there are not many rpgs out there, sadly, that I like as system goes, since I generally prefer classic rpg rules design. Many games I like just went down the drain for me, as the new editions rolled out, in the past several years. Shadowrun is one of the few remining and I hope it'll stay that way.
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Reaver

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« Reply #100 on: <04-05-19/2129:38> »
Well, i got a good laugh, but at the same time, a little feeling of dread, for SR ever going this way, truly.

 These days (talking from the esteemed age of 30 years...) there are not many rpgs out there, sadly, that I like as system goes, since I generally prefer classic rpg rules design. Many games I like just went down the drain for me, as the new editions rolled out, in the past several years. Shadowrun is one of the few remining and I hope it'll stay that way.

I agree.
4e dnd rules killed dnd for me.... (thankfully Pathfinder kept the favor going).

I have yet to check of pathfinder 2.0 as I am so busy, I haven't fully read the last 3 SR books yet :(

(Maybe a vacation is in order... when is DragonCon again??)
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Mirikon

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« Reply #101 on: <04-05-19/2346:40> »
Labor Day weekend (Thurs, Aug 29 - Mon Sep 2).

Yes, things are actually officially starting on Thursday now. Oh, and if anyone wants to help newbies out, the Newbie walking tours and Q&A sessions are on Thursday of the con.
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Michael Chandra

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« Reply #102 on: <04-06-19/0431:23> »
Well, i got a good laugh, but at the same time, a little feeling of dread, for SR ever going this way, truly.

 These days (talking from the esteemed age of 30 years...) there are not many rpgs out there, sadly, that I like as system goes, since I generally prefer classic rpg rules design. Many games I like just went down the drain for me, as the new editions rolled out, in the past several years. Shadowrun is one of the few remining and I hope it'll stay that way.

I agree.
4e dnd rules killed dnd for me.... (thankfully Pathfinder kept the favor going).

I have yet to check of pathfinder 2.0 as I am so busy, I haven't fully read the last 3 SR books yet :(

(Maybe a vacation is in order... when is DragonCon again??)
The ease of character creation/advancement in 4e allowed me to do an online campaign where people repeatedly ended up in their future L10 selves (which I had to make). But I disliked the lack of proper difference between a lot of classes. 5e and Pathfinder are both quite nice, 5e is better when playing with people that run into trouble with massive rulesets.
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Reaver

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« Reply #103 on: <04-06-19/0837:34> »
My issue with 4e, was simple: I couldn't make a character I wanted to play. 4e DnD was basically "lets take World of Warcraft, and make it a Pen and Paper game!"
Every class was locked into a particular armor and weapon set, no matter what you wanted to do...

Want a 2 weapon Fighter? Sorry, all the fighter feats revolve around "Sword and Board" or "2 handed weapon" - there is NO option to 2 weapon fight as a FIGHTER.

Want to a Rogue ranged attacker? Sorry, all the feats revolve around melee combat, with no option for ranged combat....

And on the list goes...

The sole reason I play pen and paper games is because I get to play characters I find interesting... If I wanted a cookie cutter character, I would play World of Warcraft, or any other CRPG.

Now, I haven't even looked at 5e dnd, so I'll take you word that its improved... but "improved" means different things to different people :D After all, 4e was supposed to be an "improved" DnD experience to 3.5... Yet seems to have fractured the player base and driven some customers away (like me)...
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Marcus

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« Reply #104 on: <04-06-19/2125:13> »
For the record all the build things (d/w warriors, ranged rogue) Reaver listed did eventually get added into 4e. It did take time.
4e Standardized and balanced D&D. The only edition where casters didn't eventually run the table in terms of balance.
It's also simplified a lot of things. Residium (Magic Item Creation), Rituals, Tiered Currency, even counting squares on the map, monsters and encounter design etc. Even reward progression was built into 4e. It accomplished what had been wanted from the early days of D&D, the ability make all character transferable.

It's addition of Skill challenges, scale able monsters, easy encounter design all made 4e a well built game. Monster design of 4e is particularly notable. Monster had category types that help modify their stats. Soldiers, Brutes, Lurkers, Minions, Solos. 5e's monster are all built following the 4e Brute rules, (Low Defenses, lots of Hit points).

Even combat in 4e was improved, Bloody (Being at or below half health), gave designed many more options. Monster often had effects that were trigger when they were bloody. This sort of created sort of scripted type encounters, which added interesting things to the 4e table. 

Now of course nothing is perfect  and ss with every Edition of D&D 4th did have trouble with scaling, as good as they were, C&C mechanics did eventually largely trivialize the epic tier (level 20+). (That said, Spells do that ever other edition of d&d generally around 11th level. So We got 9 more levels then we did previously).

The party of 4e Ended with the release of Essentials books. This tragic mistake was done to address the complaints, of those who just didn't like that you had multiple powers and had to make choices. This put the edition to into a book bloat death spiral, as they no longer continued to push the developed that most of it's fan's liked.

Another major failing of 4e, was how easy it was to build a very ineffective characters. This was a very serious issue. It required good level of system understanding  across both class, gear, feats, and stats to make a truly effective builds. Further to this, was power sources, 4e had power sources, for example, Arcane, Divine, Martial, and then a complete set of classes for each power source. (Class roles were Leader (Healer), Striker (DPS), Defender (Tank), and Controller.) While it wasn't necessary to build unified power sources it helped increased party synergy fairly well. Something that was fairly rare.

Just to help illustrate, what I mean when I say it was easy to build ineffective characters,  towards the end of 4e, a lot optimization was done around making characters that could carry a whole party through an adventure, to add insult to injury it was certainly possible to achieve that goal.

There was also no follower or strong hold systems in 4e. Something many old school players really liked.
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