[AJCarrington]

Shadowrun Introductory Box Set

Really like the sounds of this and extremely happy to see that Echo Chernik is doing the cover.

[Helping Bear]

This box set is really well done, and a great idea for Shadowrun. For people who never played Shadowrun before, this will help them out tremendously. It will definitely make Shadowrun a more enjoyable experience for new players.

[Crimsondude]

The goal of the set is simple: It should have everything you need to quickly and easily launch an adventure in Shadowrun’s Sixth World setting. It should be approachable, fun to use, eye-catching, and entertaining.

With those larger goals in mind, we set about planning the contents for the box. Here’s what’s going in:The Edge of Now: A world book introducing players to the madness, magic, and mean streets of the Sixth World, providing what they need to know to hit the streets at top speed.

• Rules of the Street: A simplified rulebook that includes the critical elements of Shadowrun—Matrix, magic, machines, and so on—in an easy-to-use fashion.
• Plots and Paydays: An adventure book with complete information on missions for the players; they can be played alone, or as a longer, inter-connected campaign.
• Character Booklets: Four pre-generated character sheets, with stats, background, favored tactics, and advancement possibilities—everything you need to pick a character and start earning some nuyen.
• Character sheets: Custom sheets for each character, with complete stats for easy reference, along with full-color character art.
• Maps: Modular maps of common areas shadowrunners may run into that can be arranged in different ways to suit a variety of missions.
• Spell and Gear Cards: Cards that list the stats spells and gear included in the game, so that players have an easy reference in front of them.

[Mara]

Some of the stuff in there, I can see, like the Runner's Toolkit, as being useful for experienced players, as well.

[Black]

Looking good and a really solid idea.

Think this ones a winner.

[RHat]

Intro sets are always a good idea.  From the table side, an aid for introducing players to the game can be a very useful thing.  From a business side, a starter kit is a great way to build market, which in turn means more money for the product line.

[AJCarrington]

I also hope that they follow this up with additional online materials/resources...much in the way Paizo has done for Pathfinder.  Really happy to see this as I've always felt the "gap" to introduce new players to SR was much greater than PF or D&D.

[Xzylvador]

I love the idea, though 4 pre-gen characters seems kind of low. It's not like it costs much to make characters... why not toss in ten or twenty, each with a different flavor.
It'll only help new players to find a character that 'fits' for them and that way get a closer bond to the character and, through it, the game itself. With only different 4 chars, there's the risk of choosing last and ending up playing some character you really don't like, which can just ruin the game for you before it even starts.
it'd also increases the re-playability. I understand the whole point is that after playing and liking this, they should buy the real game and books. But some people might want to try it more than once before making that decision but may get bored playing the same thing again.
And, of course, group with 5 or 6 players aren't exactly unheard of.

Edit/addendum: Maybe just a download link where some more free pre-gens can be found wouldn't be a bad idea.
And also, I hope these are built much better than the SR4A sample-characters. I'm not saying they should be optimized builds, but they should at least be somewhat decent in what they're supposed to do.

[RHat]

I love the idea, though 4 pre-gen characters seems kind of low. It's not like it costs much to make characters... why not toss in ten or twenty, each with a different flavor.

Note that there's materials for the characters in question which means it does cost.

And if it's the choice between putting effort into a smaller number of characters versus the sample characters in SR4A, well...

[Xzylvador]

Start a "Flavorful Character Building" contest, prize is that the winners get a sneak preview to the game's character development rules and get to build one of the ## characters for the SR5 starterbox, along with signing an NDA and the character getting their name.
Probably enough decent and free characters to fill an entire book.

[Dr. Meatgrinder]

I love the idea, though 4 pre-gen characters seems kind of low. It's not like it costs much to make characters... why not toss in ten or twenty, each with a different flavor.

Note that there's materials for the characters in question which means it does cost.

And if it's the choice between putting effort into a smaller number of characters versus the sample characters in SR4A, well...

It sounds a bit like what Fantasy Flight Games did with the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire beginner game.  Counters, dice, quick-start rules, and 4 pre-gens for $30, designed for one table to play a few times.

Seems like a good way to build market, especially if the main SR5 rulebook comes out soon enough after the intro box.  (FWIW, I think Fantasy Flight had too long a gap, though they sold like a pallet of EoE beta test rulebooks at Gen Con last year.)

The main thing that's annoyed almost everyone in my group is that it feels like the Hero Lab SR4 package just came out, and now we're going to have to wait a year and pay again for a SR5 package.

[Sichr]

Start a "Flavorful Character Building" contest, prize is that the winners get a sneak preview to the game's character development rules and get to build one of the ## characters for the SR5 starterbox, along with signing an NDA and the character getting their name.
Probably enough decent and free characters to fill an entire book.

This...
I believe Rhat had the price of the book on his mind, not the price of creating a few dozens of characters...

[RHat]

Start a "Flavorful Character Building" contest, prize is that the winners get a sneak preview to the game's character development rules and get to build one of the ## characters for the SR5 starterbox, along with signing an NDA and the character getting their name.
Probably enough decent and free characters to fill an entire book.

It's just a page for a character.  Each one gets a booklet with what sounds like a pretty substantive write-up.  Which means that each character added carries an increased materials cost.  Which makes the whole thing more expensive.  The more expensive the book gets, the fewer people will be saying "sure, lets try that out, doesn't cost too much".  Which is bad.

[All4BigGuns]

And also, I hope these are built much better than the SR4A sample-characters. I'm not saying they should be optimized builds, but they should at least be somewhat decent in what they're supposed to do.

And if it's the choice between putting effort into a smaller number of characters versus the sample characters in SR4A, well...

The sample characters in the book work fine. Just because the "optimization" crowd doesn't like them, doesn't mean they're not good.

[GiraffeShaman]

The sample characters in the book work fine. Just because the "optimization" crowd doesn't like them, doesn't mean they're not good.

The sample characters seem to get derided by players every edition, so much so that our players gave a bit of a hard time to a player for playing one out of the 3rd ed. book. I like them though for introducing players to the game. You can always let them rework them later, and they're really good for getting people into the world and giving them ideas for making archtypes.