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tegyriusPaladin recently reminded me that I purchased the PDF of Shadowrun 5th Edition a while ago and asked me for my opinion.
I'm disappointed.
Good things first: there are some interesting upgrades to magic - one notable one for me being that you now buy a spell formula at a flat rate (5 karma) and can cast it at any Force up to 2x Magic. No more buying to a specific Force rating. Spells also seem more balanced than before. The skill system seems unbroken. Combat mostly seems to work. Character creation, by and large, makes sense - though the amount of math will still turn off a lot of players who aren't you and me. The core system still involves bricks of d6s.
However, the cyberware and Matrix stuff makes me bleed from the eyes. Decks are stupidly expensive - so much so that you have to take Priority A for resources if you want to be a decker. This was obviously done to balance deckers against technomancers (the new name for otaku), but the problem is that if a decker ever loses his deck, he's completely hosed - no amount of runs will ever make enough money to buy a replacement.
The biggest problem I have, though, is the fact that so much cyberware now has tiered bonuses for normal and wireless operations. So to get the level of performance from, say, a smartlink that we got in previous editions from induction pads and DNI, we now have to turn on the smartlink's wifi and connect to the Matrix to download real-time weather data and open our cyberware up to hackers. Because adversaries hacking your cyberware and permanently bricking it in a shower of sparks and smoke is now a thing.
The thing with the smartlink? Not isolated. Wired reflexes are now wireless-enabled. The internal smuggling compartment is now wireless-enabled. Let me repeat that: Internal. Smuggling. Compartment. That has to be wireless-enabled and broadcasting to be optimally hidden.
What the fucking fuck.
Could I fix it with house rules? Yes. But I've written enough complete RPG equipment chapters in my time that I have no desire to do so again unless I'm getting paid for the work.
I'm sticking with 3rd edition. This is bullshit lunacy. If I'd bought hardcopy of 5th, I would take it to Half-Price Books and use the proceeds to acquire a nice battered copy of one of the 1st- or 2nd-edition sourcebooks I'm missing.
I'm disappointed.
Good things first: there are some interesting upgrades to magic - one notable one for me being that you now buy a spell formula at a flat rate (5 karma) and can cast it at any Force up to 2x Magic. No more buying to a specific Force rating. Spells also seem more balanced than before. The skill system seems unbroken. Combat mostly seems to work. Character creation, by and large, makes sense - though the amount of math will still turn off a lot of players who aren't you and me. The core system still involves bricks of d6s.
However, the cyberware and Matrix stuff makes me bleed from the eyes. Decks are stupidly expensive - so much so that you have to take Priority A for resources if you want to be a decker. This was obviously done to balance deckers against technomancers (the new name for otaku), but the problem is that if a decker ever loses his deck, he's completely hosed - no amount of runs will ever make enough money to buy a replacement.
The biggest problem I have, though, is the fact that so much cyberware now has tiered bonuses for normal and wireless operations. So to get the level of performance from, say, a smartlink that we got in previous editions from induction pads and DNI, we now have to turn on the smartlink's wifi and connect to the Matrix to download real-time weather data and open our cyberware up to hackers. Because adversaries hacking your cyberware and permanently bricking it in a shower of sparks and smoke is now a thing.
The thing with the smartlink? Not isolated. Wired reflexes are now wireless-enabled. The internal smuggling compartment is now wireless-enabled. Let me repeat that: Internal. Smuggling. Compartment. That has to be wireless-enabled and broadcasting to be optimally hidden.
What the fucking fuck.
Could I fix it with house rules? Yes. But I've written enough complete RPG equipment chapters in my time that I have no desire to do so again unless I'm getting paid for the work.
I'm sticking with 3rd edition. This is bullshit lunacy. If I'd bought hardcopy of 5th, I would take it to Half-Price Books and use the proceeds to acquire a nice battered copy of one of the 1st- or 2nd-edition sourcebooks I'm missing.
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no subject
Date: 2014-07-01 02:54 am (UTC)I'm surprised that SR5 goes back to decks for hacker-types. SR4/4A abandoned the "decker" term entirely, since hacks are done through personal commlinks, for the most part. Said commlinks can be modded and hot-rodded all to heck and back, of course.
4/4A has the wireless, everything-connected-all-the-time, augmented reality Matrix going, with (IIRC) similar differences in bonuses for online versus offline use.
Does SR5 put forth the surveillance/sousveillance state? That's pervasive in 4A, and it's part of the reason behind the always-online cyberware functions.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-02 09:48 pm (UTC)SR5 does indeed touch on sousveillance as an integral part of the setting, though not as comprehensively as Eclipse Phase does.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-03 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-03 10:57 pm (UTC)