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What is the best edition of Shadowrun?

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Michael Chandra

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« Reply #30 on: <05-24-19/1324:04> »
Quite understandable. I also stuck with 4e for a while before switching, to have more toys available. Magic, Guns and Lifestyles are a must before I'd consider a full campaign.
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Marcus

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« Reply #31 on: <05-24-19/1357:32> »
There are lots of games that use something like Life Paths to create characters.

Really? I'm not even sure what to think about that. Mind blown.
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Michael Chandra

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« Reply #32 on: <05-24-19/1358:49> »
Let's be nice shall we?
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Marcus

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« Reply #33 on: <05-24-19/1401:34> »
Let's be nice shall we?

There are lots of games that use something like Life Paths to create characters.

Really? I'm not even sure what to think about that. Mind blown.

Expressing surprise is rude?
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PMárk

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« Reply #34 on: <05-24-19/1457:25> »
Well, I'm relatively new for SR (2-3 years by now). I know only 3e and 5e. I prefer 5e, though 3e fluff is cool and a lot of things are just adorably retro in-setting. However, it's just so full of unnecessarily complex and weird rules. Maybe it's because I'm coming from WoD, but 5e felt a lot more intuitive and logical for me, albeit the ammount of rules could be a bit daunting.

As feeling goes, 3e has the feel of the '90s, which I like, but 5e is not that different, IMO, at least it felt pretty much the same setting for me. I suspect that's why staunch 4e fans are suspect to call it "nostalgia for nostalgia's sake", because it went back to how things were portrayed earlier and they liked the 4e portrayal more, as I think, based on what I gleaned from discussion, that was the most different-feeling of the editions. Based on the few fluff books I've read from 4e, I like 5e better.

Anarchy is not my cup of tea, I'm not a fan of rules-light narrative games like that in general.

6e, we will see, I don't want to jinx it, I still feel the burn from Vampire 5e, which was a huge disappointment for me, absolutely not the game and setting I loved, so I hope SR 6 won't be like that. Based on the info so far, I1m cautiously optimistic.
« Last Edit: <05-24-19/1503:35> by PMárk »
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Shadowjack

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« Reply #35 on: <05-24-19/1635:39> »
I played 2E and 3E when I was a kid, I remember almost nothing and definitely had no clue what I was doing. Here is how I view the rest:

4E: The best rules overall for regular Shadowrun. This is where I had the best experience as the player.
5E: Fun but riddled with editing errors which eventually made me stop playing it. I consider it a failure because of that.
6E: I suspect this will be the best. Pretty happy with most of what I've heard although GOD not being removed seems very suspect from my limited grasp of the system.
Anarchy: Better than 5E, competitive with 4E. This is where I had the best experience as the GM. Not a perfect system but overall fairly good, if just a few things were different I think it would have been top notch.
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Hobbes

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« Reply #36 on: <05-24-19/1850:43> »
There are lots of games that use something like Life Paths to create characters.

Really? I'm not even sure what to think about that. Mind blown.

Several Space Opera games (Traveler, a couple of Fantasy Flight Warhammer 40k RPGs) do something similar to Life Paths.  What Kind of Planet were you from, get these things, what sort of school did you go to, get these other things, Military service get those other things.  At least one version of Call of Cthulhu and some of the Twilight 2000 series have a life path lite.  Harn is a three or four step Life Path char gen system.

That's just off the top of my head.  It's not the most common char gen method in RPGs, but its been around for a very long time.

PiXeL01

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« Reply #37 on: <05-24-19/1903:39> »
Rolemaster did it from Standard system and forward with training packages and of course then Spacemaster did it as well.

It’s not a rare thing to be honest and add some flavor to be sure
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Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #38 on: <05-24-19/1907:08> »
A life path system is the default method of chargen in BattleTech's current RPG edition as well... although there's an optional point buy that is waaaaay easier to do. Heh.
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.

FastJack

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« Reply #39 on: <05-24-19/2222:42> »
There was also a Life Path for good ol' Cyberpunk and Traveller. I like them because they give you a story (with faults and not just positive qualities).

Marcus

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« Reply #40 on: <05-24-19/2259:52> »
I do recall life paths in traveler, and in mercenary version of battle tech. I guess you could call the rogue trader a life though I always thought about more as the means to tie characters together.   

I guess I missed that version of call I think delta green most in call.
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Tarislar

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« Reply #41 on: <05-25-19/0214:55> »
What is the best/your fave edition of Shadowrun? 1e? 2e? 3e? 4e? 5e? Anarchy? 6e (for those lucky few getting to try it out so far)?


Touch choice, but I'm going with 1ST  -  Because it was the edition that brought me into the game.

That said playing 5th the last few years has been fun, if confusing at times.

4th is my Least favorite, simply because its the one that I skipped completely.

kyoto kid

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« Reply #42 on: <05-26-19/0050:37> »
For me, 3e was so far the best edition.

It had the most "complete" feel to the system. Lots of options, gear, and choices to build your character with. Lots of optional rules for everything from custom spell design to optional damage overflow rules.
Yes, there were problems (and no internet support) but they were managable.

4e was.... a mess. Its like they took the "Todd Howard" approach to game design. ("You can do anything! Be anyone! AT THE SAME TIME!!") which left you with a team of generalists, as everyone could rig, hack, and fight with minimal investments.... And DON'T get me started on Technomancers! (Ypu can read my feeling on that epic failure in other threads)
...you hit the same nail squarely on the head that I did regarding 4E.  More than anything else, the hard skill caps turned me off and I went back to 3E.  The only characters who could keep advancing were awakened ones, though Adepts took forever to as you had to first initiate, then increase your Magic Attribute to get a new Power Point (something that was fixed in 5E).

While I liked the build point system (there was also an alternative build point system for both 2E and 3E as outlined in the Shadowrun Companion expansions which we usually used) the introduction of what was essentially a "luck" attribute (Edge) made me ask, "why?"  For the short time I played (and GM'd) in 4, I felt more like I was in a P&P version of a video game (extra lives, the "mega blaster button", etc).   It kind of hit me when I had my strapping Cajun boxer adept pre edge a punch and literally "knock an opponent's block off" with something like 23 or 25 net hits (I wondered if was I playing Shadowrun or GURPS Supers?).
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kyoto kid

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« Reply #43 on: <05-26-19/0136:59> »
...OK I've played every edition from 1E to the present and GM'd 1E through 4E. 

Favourite of all, a coin toss between 2E and 3E.   I loved the setting of the early editions, particularly the strong native American influence in 1E and 2E.  Yeah, the skill web was a bit wonky ("gee if I can get a really good roll I could blow up a building using my French Baking skill").   The setting and colour books were great though.  I loved Universal Brotherhood, Bug City, Denver, Shadowbeat (yeah, I actually played a trid reporter character), the London and TT Source Books.  3E gave us what I considered one of the best most comprehensive world settings to date, with lots of nice hooks and underlying intrigue as well as the most detailed customisation rules for vehicles, drones, and decks. 

As I mentioned in my post above, 4E just didn't hit it off with me because of some of the changes made and new mechanics introduced which didn't make it feel like the Shadowrun I knew and loved anymore.  I felt the transition (System Failure) was handled rather clumsily as so many good background plot threads were poorly tied up or simply went *poof*.  About the only feature that made sense was the wireless Matrix and "MoT" (Matrix of Things) as the real world was catching up fast and, in some ways surpassing the fictional one that was supposed to be another 5 decades in the future. 

I actually ended up going back to playing and GM-ing in 3E after I dumped 4E for several years.

As I briefly touched on above, 5E fixed some of what I didn't like but retained other things I disliked (such as Edge and the lower resources levels) as well as introduced new mechanics that I questioned (such as Limits).  The only reason I have been heavily involved with it right now is because I have been involved with Missions for nearly the last four years and that is the edition they are currently using (until Season 11).  Fortunately I have the PDF versions so at least I have bookmarks to the sections I need to consult frequently which helps a bit in dealing with how disorganised everything is.

6E? Well, for myself, the jury is still out on this.  I've watched the live play sessions and podcasts and the more I think about it the more it is beginning to feel like a slightly crunchier version of Anarchy.
« Last Edit: <05-26-19/0139:22> by kyoto kid »
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Singularity

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« Reply #44 on: <05-26-19/0212:16> »
... ("gee if I can get a really good roll I could blow up a building using my French Baking skill")...

What the heck were you baking?  ???