Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #613237 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback

Customer Reviews

2070, oi, it's slick omae!
Well, I have some reservations about new, "improved" revisions of RPG Rulesets. Never got accustomed to the Rolemaster Standard Rules for that matter.
Now this, 4th edition of Shadowrun? what was wrong with the 3rd? Apparently a lot. The new system is in some fundamental ways different from the old system. And I like it! A LOT! Players have now a better way of understanding the difficulty of a task (try to get this within the old system) as the difficulty raises now more or less linear. The new Matrix makes a decker/rigger/technomancer (otaku) a viable addition to any team and not an other headache to the GM as most matrix/rigger actions can and have to be made on side and on the fly. And most importandly the Munchkinism has toned down considerably as Trolls with 30 strength are a thing of the past. No really, I am no fanboy, if FanPro/Fasa/Wizkids would have botched I would not considered even looking at anything 4th ed. but I highly recommend it. 5 Stars. Highlights include:
Every 5,6 is an success, difficulty is a modifcation to the dice pool.
Combat/Magic/whateverpool is a thing of the past: skill+attribut is the dicepool.
We are all family: Hermetic/shaman/druid/whatnot Magic system has been streamlined (so you CAN be a hermetic with the patron dragonslayer)
New Matrix system: Wireless has (finally) entered shadowrun: Decker/Rigger/Technomancer is all the same: Skills define you not the Cyberware. Added Bonus: Runners have to look sharp as Shadowrun mirrors some "real life" problems we are going to get thanks to Collin.
Overall streamlined gameplay.
It IS slick, you scan? Olaf

A whole new Game
The fourth edition rules make a major break from the Shadowrun games of the past. Over the years FASA had created a number of epic subplots which shaped the direction which games took. This game leaves these all behind and jumps another 10 years into the future. It also leaves the old gameplay behind.
Character from the other editions could be brought up to date with the new rules but that is no longer the case. Character creation is completely different, attributes and skills are different, bioware now costs essence (effectively halfing how much bio/cyberware a character can have) and there are absolute maximums now on how high skills and cybered attributes can get. The whole system is completely different but it is too early yet to say what holes this system might have.
There are still a lot of similarities to shadowrun as it was but the power and potential of the characters is limited, thus hopefully allowing experienced characters to have a challenge. One problem in the old days was that combat orientated characters would quickly get so good at their main skills that there was little point in getting any better. This isn't solved. Now they are in a system where they will reach a point at which they can not get better.
The continuity jump means that it is back to the business as usual adventures of the early days of Shadowrun. Forget the epic plot arcs of the past and get on with the run chummer because the shadows are just as dark but the people who run them have lost some of their edge.