Edition warring is for chumps, but isn't D&D specific

[Umbran]

Just an anecdote for y'all...

I had the first session of a new Shadowrun campaign I'm starting back on Saturday - just the Quick Start rules and pregen characters to start with, to give some players who have never seen the game a feel for the system before we went into character generation. The campaign is going to be based on the new 5th edition rules, because I was given them as a gift for X-mas.

After the session, one of my players went to Facebook to ask if any of her friends had a copy of the rules she could borrow, as she's on a bit of a tight budget.

Within *minutes*, she had folks commenting that she should burn the 5th edition book, or if she didn't have it, she should download the quickstart rules, and burn them instead. She was told, by no means should she spend money on 5th edition Shadowrun.

When she told her "friends" that really, she didn't care what rules she was playing under - she hadn't had tabletop gaming in her life for some years (she had a baby), and was just happy to be playing anything, and could they please just pack it in with the negativity, she was told, "No, I can only promise to bitch in a more entertaining fashion."

So, there you have it - D&D is not the only game about which people are jerks.

 

[SkidAce]

You could "almost" see some kind of negative reaction from her friends first reply. Too extreme for me and I agree with [MENTION=177]Umbran[/MENTION].

But that second reply "No, I can only promise to bitch in a more entertaining fashion." would make me question their "friendship" status completely. both in RL and on Facebook.


As to the original premise, yeah, edition warring is prevalent in everything. Sadly.

 

[Derren]

There is some pretty bad blood between the Shadowrun edition camps. From what I could pierce together it has more to do with CGL as publisher and some shady deals that happened when they took over. But its hard to get unbiased specifics about that.
Also, many of the older players (or the ones already seeing CGL negatively) complain about story retcons and "turning Shadowrun into D&D"

 

[Umbran]

Also, many of the older players (or the ones already seeing CGL negatively) complain about story retcons and "turning Shadowrun into D&D"

That sounds odd. Going through the book, I haven't seen any notable retcons in the history. They seem to have just advanced the timeline, so that changes happened going forward, without impact to established canon.

I'm a Shadowrun player of old - first and second edition, mostly. I see the majority of the changes as improvements. Okay, I'm taking out "technomancers" as cheesy, but otherwise, I like what they've done with the thing. I think I'll quickly learn how to convert older materials to fit quickly enough.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I've seen it in other RPGs, but rarely as bad as in D&D...

And the one other game in which I have personally felt an urge, the focus of my ire- HERO's Fuzion edition- has so few supporters as to not be worth discussing.

 

[Derren]

That sounds odd. Going through the book, I haven't seen any notable retcons in the history. They seem to have just advanced the timeline, so that changes happened going forward, without impact to established canon.

I'm a Shadowrun player of old - first and second edition, mostly. I see the majority of the changes as improvements. Okay, I'm taking out "technomancers" as cheesy, but otherwise, I like what they've done with the thing. I think I'll quickly learn how to convert older materials to fit quickly enough.

It are more about the changes from 4th to 5th, especially considering the Nanites and Cyberware cost. Another point are the Wireless bonuses which often do not make sense thematically and their aversion to any matrix enabled gear as they argue it is such a high security risk that no one would actually use it.

 

[pogre]

My experience with edition wars outside of D&D involves Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. The folks fighting about 2nd and 3rd mostly. It was pretty vehement at times. It has since died down as WFRP 3rd seems to be largely unsupported now.

 

[ExploderWizard]

When she told her "friends" that really, she didn't care what rules she was playing under - she hadn't had tabletop gaming in her life for some years (she had a baby), and was just happy to be playing anything, and could they please just pack it in with the negativity, she was told, "No, I can only promise to bitch in a more entertaining fashion."

Everytime I wonder if I'm missing out on anything by not joining any social media sites such as Facebook, something like this comes along and puts my mind at ease.

 

[Balesir]

Also, many of the older players (or the ones already seeing CGL negatively) complain about story retcons and "turning Shadowrun into D&D"

Aha - the megaplot is revealed! 5E Shadowrun was meant to turn Shadowrun into D&D while 4E D&D was meant to turn D&D into...er...something else. And so on, in a great circle with no end...

Um, yeah. I haven't played Shadowrun since 3rd edition, but I think I'll have to go check out 5e, now, just because

 

[Umbran]

It are more about the changes from 4th to 5th, especially considering the Nanites and Cyberware cost.

Ah. Of these I care little. Mind you, I would have probably hated "nanites" on principle.

Another point are the Wireless bonuses which often do not make sense thematically and their aversion to any matrix enabled gear as they argue it is such a high security risk that no one would actually use it.

Well, thematically correct or not, I see why wireless bonuses are there. In the past, Deckers proved to be a major pain in the neck, because all their real action took place in a completely different universe from the PCs. I hated it, to the point of simply saying, "no PC deckers" in my campaigns. I am by no means the only GM I knew who went that route with the game. Cutting out one of the major character types as unplayable in practice was the most common house-rule I knew of, and it probably didn't make the designers happy.

In order to make them playable, they needed something for them to do while with the party in meatspace. Enter wireless (which didn't exist as such in the real world when the game was first created). Give people some advantages to having their gear be wireless, and now we have a support role for deckers, as they battle over whether those advantages will be available.

And, dang, I can see why not have matrix-enabled gear. Having seen a decker in action - having the gear vulnerable to local wireless is bad enough. Having it *globally* vulnerable would just be stupid. Nobody would take that risk.

For all that, nobody in my party seems keen to play a decker anyway, so it may not be an issue. One person who wants to play a rigger wants to take some decking skills to take over other drone systems, but I think I have to walk through how difficult that is to do to see if it is worth the effort for her - to really fully own a drone takes several marks, which can be several rounds of action.