D&D 4E OT: Shadowrun 4E announced

[Inconsequenti-AL]

The Dice mechanics for D20 Shadowrun:

I've got half an idea. Have level of skill affect the threat range of your skill and the number of D20's you roll. Dice explode if they roll in the threat range. Hmm, I reckon there's something worth looking into there? Still it might involve a table and it's certainly not D20+Mod vs target number... I'm going to go away and think about it.


Back on topic.

Sanguinemetaldawn, is that hacker idea speculation or something you've seen elsewhere? IIRC, I've read a cyberpunk addon that sounded a lot like that (VR, 2050 or something like that?). Didn't like it much back then and it still sounds a little funny.

Still, I'll grab a copy of the new book when its out. Guess if I don't like it, then I can always revert to 3rd edition.

 

[Henry]

Does anybody feel like talking about the fact 4th edition is comming out instead of a pointless debate over d20 SR?

Any more pointless than the fact that we have no info about the game yet? Once we have some info over what "cleaned up" actually means, I'm on it. I was over at Dumpshock for an hour and a half today looking for info, and scanning about 80 threads that are doing pretty much the same thing we are, here.

I'm pretty excited. My GM says we'll be switching over for sure. Anybody know anything about what they're doing with the system besides what is stated on their website?

Absolutely nothing, other than they AREN'T going d20 (which I'm personally glad for its fans), and that they're "making a Gencon release date or die trying."

 

[Michelle Lyons]

Just as SR3's final rule expansion was done, FASA closed down, and the leadership and direction of SR shifted to a new group.

As a note, Rob Boyle is an old hand from FASA. Most of the primary freelancers were also freelancers for FASA. There are some new ones, naturally, but it isn't as though the personnel completely changed.

SR4 is their attempt to do away with that limitation. Most of these people either don't play the game, or play the game so differently from Core that it's not really SR anymore. They are now killing the old stuff, which they deride at each turn, then putting forth their new version of the world and the system.

With all due respect.... that's just silly. I accept that you don't like the turn the game line has taken and that it doesn't fit your vision of what the game should be. I also accept that you are not looking forward to 4th edition and expect nothing good from it. I don't agree, but milage is a known variable for everyone, as they say.

The fact is, though, that you don't know what anybody does or doesn't play or how they play it. This is wholly your opinion and an uninformed one in this respect as well. I've been playing on and off since 1st edition in both published modules and in adventures my GM created (or I did). I'll go on record as saying that there were aspects of all editions that have sucked. I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to fix those things. In general, personal speculation is just bad form. You want to not like the game, fine, but declaring things about the people who are involved with the production of the game is bad form.

SR is dead to me, FanPro put it in it's grave, and wasn't happy enough with alienating just us older players. Now they're coming after your games too.

Damn. I guess we need to put the Game Edition Ninjas back into training if they've been spotted this early in the process. They'll be really disappointed, too. Seriously, though, I wish you a world of enjoyment with whatever games you currently like and wish you well with them.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I dislike SR because generally if you have any skill, you wont' fail.

Not in my experience. Sometimes the target number can get rather high, and often your skill roll is resisted by a device or the skill roll of some other guy. Failure can happen quite often...

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Hackers is the worst term. It's not an evolution of the Decker term or anything, it's just an attempt to distance SR4 from previous editions. In my (admittedly cynical) view, they will systematically destroy every thing that made Shadowrun the fun gamne it used to be.

Gentlemen, we have a psychic among us.

Seriously, I'm not worried too much about that part of the rules. In pretty much all campaigns I have participated in, the decker was an NPC because his part of the run was entirely disconnected from the rest of the team. If they come up with some rules to allow the decker/hacker to stay with the team, as opposed to staying at home and playing matrix watchdog, then this might be a big improvement...

 

[Geron Raveneye]

As long as they still keep in the option of a decker still being the Ghost in the Machine rather than being the walking W-LAN hot spot, they can upgrade the tech aspect as much as they please. Of course, in the last 16 years there's been faster technical evolution than could have been foreseen back then, and of course some parts of SR tech can really use an update back to "what's just over the edge of what's possible today".

 

[Kestrel]

Well, welcome to the club of old-school runners, chummer.



I rather guess they want to make a decker..errrr...hacker a mobile wireless manipulator of electronic units...kinda a "look at it, hack it" philosophy that is far away from the deckers we know. Effectively, they want to keep the hacker in the group, and have him hack systems by proximity instead of by distance. Of course, it might make the electronics and security specialist obsolete...but it'll mean your hacker doesn't have to infiltrate the whole system to get at the cam controls...he probably only has to look at a cam, send an override code via W-LAN antenna and take control of that one cam. Or it will look kinda like an astral adept equivalent...peeking in at the Matrix at that one place and manipulate it so the electronic part obeys.

Not my cup of tea, but I'll certainly take a look at it to see how it really works.

I actually think this is a pretty cool concept. If they make the decker something besides a legwork npc, Ill be very happy.

 

[Henry]

Hey, not only is it more fun for the hacker/decker players, I would imagine, but it's more realistic. Thinking about the way wifi-hijacking works now, you DO have people doing neighborhood drive-bys, looking for unguarded Wireless "sweet spots" to hack in with and see anything interesting. It doesn't take much to predicate the same thing for futuristic corporate espionage, especially if the "good" sweet spots are deep inside the buildings physically past other security.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Of course, in the last 16 years there's been faster technical evolution than could have been foreseen back then, and of course some parts of SR tech can really use an update back to "what's just over the edge of what's possible today".

Anyone else remember 1st edition, when cell phones weighted five kilograms?

 

[Thanee]

In our games the Decker usually was quite capable in combat, too, and accompanied the team on the run, since often vital data or manipulation could not simply be done from outside, because the system was not accessible from the Matrix.

Also Matrix runs were often shortened to a single (or a few) Computer check(s), usually when it would be detrimental to the whole thing to switch over to the Decker and let the rest wait for an hour or so.

Of course, every now and then, the Decker got to hack into a larger system and the Matrix run was played out completely. It's also possible to let the Decker run parallel to the other runners, switching back and forth numerous times. That works well, too.

Bye
Thanee