I have an area of concern I'm developing as I consider what I know about the new rules. I feel like I have seen enough this as an informed concern about the new system (though I'm asking because I might be wrong I suppose). I don't feel like I'm missing information that would make this concern vanish outright, but there might be things to consider that would help take the edge off it. I'm looking to see what people's take is on it who have seen, used, developed or written these rules.
The concern is about the flow of the game, specifically combat. While sure, it's faster (relative to 5E) to resolve a combat encounter (which I may discuss concerns about in another thread), my concern is what the changes translate to in terms of the pace and flow of combat.
The flow of the turn, which is not the same as the speed of a turn, is important to me. In any system, when the player declares an action, there is a process to go through to resolve it. That process either enables the emotional momentum to be sustained, or it inhibits that through shifting the attention to the mechanics for too long, minds wander, phones come out, etc. I am concerned that the emphasis on evaluating Edge for every single rolled action or defense may become disruptive to that momentum. This is probably easier to illustrate with an example.
I've recently GMed a few sessions of the old West End Games d6 Star Wars. It was a lot of fun because the dice support the sustaining of momentum. The player declares an action, my response is usually "okay, roll it". They roll it, and then I may need to roll, maybe not, but after that, and maybe a damage roll, we're done, and on to the next person. The flow moves right along, and the action of "I shoot at the stormtrooper" is resolved before the player's mind has to worry about anything more than adding up a couple of numbers. The emotional momentum is not usually disrupted by that and the energy in the room stays high in general.
Moving to the other extreme, take a game like D&D 4E. Players would declare an action, and then the player and GM would go through a drawn out process of checking effects, modifiers, reactions, etc. We still had fun on balance, but the time between declaration and resolution, not to mention full turn resolution was pretty high. Hence it's rep for 4 hour fights.
Translate to Shadowrun. In 6E, a player declares an action, and may even have the AR stat ready to go, but then the GM has to stop and adjudicate who gets an Edge, the player has to consult their character sheet, possibly even having to flip through the book to refer to a quality, or a piece of cyberware or gear that modifies Edge adjudication in some way, and then when the yes/no and what effect have been determined, we can roll to resolve, and then the player (and GM) still have to decide if they want to spend Edge again (assuming they didn't already).
This goes on every time someone is taking an action they need to roll for in combat.
With what I know so far, I don't feel like I can just tell the player, "ok roll for it, don't forget to do X". I flash back to SR2 and SR4, and I could definitely do that, eyeballing some modifiers as I went. No extra fuss to consider. Those types of systems are my favorite because as the GM its easy to sustain that emotional tension of a fight between characters, some of whom can do fantastical things and are playing to feel the high of describing and perpetrating those tasks. We cans till consider all the gear and uniqueness without the flow taking too bad a hit.
I'm not sure exactly how to phrase this, I suppose. How well does 6E meet a gamer like me where I want to be? I assume I will eventually learn AR/DR modifiers and memorize Edge charts, sure, but I have zero expectation my players will do that past a point. What is your experience and expectation from your own perspectives thus far? With a brand new group, did people get to this level by the end of the night? Or by the end of a couple sessions? What suggestions do you have so far (if any) for getting close to that ideal?
Here's my nightmare scenario:
Me: Okay, there are three guards aiming guns at you. You can tell you have just half a second to do something before they cut loose.
P1: OK, I shoot the first one with my SMG.
Me: Okay, single shot or burst or full auto?
P1: Lemme see, lemme check my attack ratings...*researches, does math*
Everyone Else: *waits*
P1: Lets do a burst
Me: OK, that's a (modifier), their DR is (X) so that's 1 Edge to you. Speaking of Edge, would you like to use any on the attack before you roll?
P1: Wait, what can I do with that again?
Me, probably: Take a look at the cheat sheet I printed up for you.
P1: Oh yeah.
P2: Oh, don't forget you have Qualities that might help too.
P1: Oh yeah!
P3: Oh and some of your cyberware and gear too.
P1: I didn't write that down, hang on, I think I have something that will help, let me look that up.
Everyone Else: *Waits for book to load to tablet, searching and scrolling. Other players start to do the same to try to get through this part*
Me: Okay, so next round you should be ready for that. Let's pick one and go.
P1: I'm almost there. One quick sec.
P2: Found it, page 211, (quotes gear rule), oh no wait, that's no help.
P4: *Makes snoring noise*
P1: Yeah, I've got nothing helpful. Let's just roll.
(We do)
Me: Okay that 2 net hits. Do you want to spend any Edge now?
P1: Hmm...
Me: *Dies inside*
It would be helpful to have a sense of what would be *typical* size for the menu of Edge choices from gear and Qualities combined, in addition to the standard menu of a dozen or so Edge options we've seen? What are the theoretical controls and tools in place to keep the choice points limited and keep things moving? What should I lean on to help prevent the nightmare from being a regular occurrence? Emu has 4 Qualities, and each has some impact on Edge. Added to the dozen or so standard ones, I'm up to 16 to review on each turn, only a few of which may apply, and that's before I consider any gear effects. Quality costs are certainly an opportunity to help constrain things, but is that typical or an outlier? Elsewhere it was stated that about 50% of the Qualities provide an Edge effect. What about for gear? Any insights of this nature would be super helpful. Any insights into countering unavoidable challenge points is helpful too.
LASTLY: I'd like to also request that people refrain from the obvious "if you want fast, just play FATE/Anarchy/Some narrative system". That's not what I'm looking for. I'm trying to evaluate the potential fit of this system to my ideal. I'd love to keep it on that topic. Thanks in advance.