Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Rules and such => Topic started by: Lipe82 on <07-11-19/0621:48>
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I recently picked up "Kill Code" and so far I'm impressed - the intro write up is amazing in wrapping up years of Matrix lore with an interesting text/narrative.
As SR5 concludes its cycle, I'd like to ask: what is your favorite SR5 supplement and why?
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For me, Run Faster.
Sum-to-Ten! Point-Buy (thank you, Chummer 5)! Metavariants! PACKS for making character creation simpler! Plus, the bits on metatypes, variants, HMHVV, and the perspective of Mr. Johnson all help GMs as well as players.
In a close second, Better Than Bad. Not for Blight, nor Instinctive Hack, nor even Special Modifications; because it took a long, hard, honest look at the question of how does one actually help improve the situation around them?
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Hands down: Hard Targets
It's the perfect model of what a supplement book should contain: except for Technomancers, there is useful stuff for every type of character, but giving mundane characters especially much to play with.
The location description is great and neatly tied to the crunchy parts.
And it has a working index.
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Whichever book it was that added the special swordcane because I loved the stuff in that book.
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Whichever book it was that added the special swordcane because I loved the stuff in that book.
The "Mortimer of London "Belgrave" Sword Cane?" If so, according to the wiki it was in a book called Cutting Aces.
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It took a while, but I came to really appreciate Chrome Flesh. It managed two things quite well I thought:
- it introduced a ton of new crunch which added options without overshadowing existing 'ware or drug (other than maybe custom drugs, when you dug into them they were pretty good). And yes some of that ware was of more interest to NPC than to PC, but that helps the setting too.
- it managed to do a reset on nanoware, and to some extent nanotech in general, to keep it from being god tech but not having CFD completely eliminate it.
I liked both Cutting Aces and Hard Targets for their combination of setting, fluff, and crunch. Each had some interesting crunch, gave the basics for a setting that really hadn't been touched before, and gave some ideas for different character types and even campaign types. There was some stuff that seemed a bit like filler, and I thought both could have used more GM advice for how to make these things (assassinations, cons) interesting. Cutting Aces falls a bit behind Hard Targets for me, because
I thought it spent way too much time describing classic cons for getting money, without discussing how to adapt them to things that 'runners are more apt to care about (access, leverage, information, etc). But still I thought both books were overall quite good and I would keep buying books that took this sort of combined approach.
And honorable mentions to Rigger 5 for delivering some very fun stuff and not being the final book to come out for 5th edition, and to pdf only publications like Aetherology and the Shadows in Focus books, which were a nice way to cover some more niche items at an appropriate length for the material. I hope these sold well enough that we'll more things like this in the future.
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Mine would have to be Complete Trog.
It gave a lot of background in an area that was, IMO, severally under-discussed.
The only grievance I had is Human Lifespan not being treated as a mutation like SURGE or HMHVV.
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My favorite would most likely be either Kill Code for making hackers work better,
But my top choice would be Dark Terrors because Threat books are the Stuff that really interesting! They are well written, and gives you amazing insight.
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Mine would have to be Run Faster, Hard Targets, and Dark Terrors. I would love to be able to include the multiple magic and combat books, but especially for the newer ones, the lack of errata and error feed back (spellblades anyone) makes it hard to include these books. Rigger 5 definitely gets honorable mention as does Howling Shadows.
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...a toss up between Kill Code and Cutting Aces.
Love the fact that non deckers can now loop cameras and mess with wireless or even hosts. Also like some of the new matrix actions that fit well with a mischievous decker like my character Violet.
Both books have something to offer any character not just the targeted ones (Deckers or Faces respectively).
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Run and Gun made me fall in love with SR all over again. It made a lot of really great choices that showed the base combat system in 5e had some magic to it and made me realize how much I disliked 4e's combat. Ammo actions and tactical called shots were just amazing on their own and while there was some roughness with T-pac (They will always be Tacnets in my heart...) and laser stats (Please stop printing cool things specifically to make them terrible ;-;) prices the book overall was excellent and together with the new core rules made me finally 100% abandon 4e (save for the 4e matrix which while problematic had some brilliance itself).
Run Faster was also great, and made bold choices that made the setting really pop. It turned shifters, a race I really didn't like or grok, into such a compelling PC type from a narrative perspective it makes me side eye dwarves and think "Do they really deserve the core metatype slot? What stories do they tell REALLY?" The quality of writing was just amazing and someone clearly did a lot of thinking about what a cyberpunk-fantasy protagonist should be like and hit the ball out of the park.
I also gotta give it up to Dark Terrors for similar reasons in terms of how good the Vampire/Infected stuff was. Never was really into it (Blood is icky) but after Red's little vacation I am sad that Asamando isn't accessible or relevant to the Seattle scene. Much like how someone did some deep thinking on how to make Changelings and Shifters really crazy compelling Cyberpunk protagonists, someone took the trite "Vampires are the 1% bloodsuckers" metaphor and did not shy or flinch at all away from what that means and how crazy compelling, creepy, upsetting, and inciting a vampire villain in power is. The 'vineyards' aspect legit gets me so mad in a good way that makes me want to take a PC to BURN IT ALL DOWN which is... really what you want a SR villain group to do. You should want to fight and hate them and all their unearned terrible power that lets them abuse people.
Also, minor conflict of interest, but I like Killcode and Better than Bad because I am in them :B
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Oh yeah, I also liked Hard Targets. Its depiction of the Carib League made me wish for a whole campaign set there!
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All the mentions towards Run Faster made me wanna give it a check.
Also wait - point buy creation rules?! I'm sold.
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I love the Life Modules in Run Faster.
And, since the Life Modules in No Future were converted to 6E, I'm hoping that means they put them in as a standard option (or replaced the standard?) with them.
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I love the Life Modules in Run Faster.
And, since the Life Modules in No Future were converted to 6E, I'm hoping that means they put them in as a standard option (or replaced the standard?) with them.
I'm pretty sure priority build is the CRB standard in 6th (there have been some mentions of how meta-humans are handled differently than in 5th). But hopefully we won't have to wait too long for a 'Run Faster' equivalent, and hopefully it will have an improved take on Life Modules (If anyone made Life Modules work for their group I'd like to know what they did. I've played with them a few times and ended up with extremely anemic characters -- perhaps it was from choosing based on character story instead of pre-scouting how attributes and skills will stack up?)
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I rebuilt my face using them (although I created a home-brew Aztlan nationality to go with her story), and she came out pretty well.
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I rebuilt my face using them (although I created a home-brew Aztlan nationality to go with her story), and she came out pretty well.
I'm considering the same now that I saw a Priest-Seminary module in Lifestyle just the other day.
In general Run Faster is simply a wonderful addition. The shine in the eyes of my sister when I handed her the printed copy, and her first remark ("I want to play something super sick and infecting!") alone were worth the money. And we're even playing with it.
Am I the only mage player here or why no love for the magic books...? ;D
Seriously, I know there is no love for them, elsewise there'd not be four limited copies of FA rotting in my rp shop guy's lowest shelf
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Am I the only mage player here or why no love for the magic books...? ;D
Seriously, I know there is no love for them, elsewise there'd not be four limited copies of FA rotting in my rp shop guy's lowest shelf
I think because neither Street Grimoire nor Forbidden Arcana were particularly well executed overall. They each had important information and options, and some very cool bits, but both had a lot of issues requiring errata, house rules, etc. They were more books that you needed than books that you appreciated, I think.
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I actually like the options in FA. Totem mask? Yes, please!
Admittedly some masteries were a tad OP (illusion master?)