Michelle Lyons said:
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.
Then why is my opinion silly?
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.
I may have painted with too broad a brush, but did not mean a universal truth that all the writers are identical. At the same time though, you seem to regard my opinions as unfounded and not based on experience. I have been involved in the SR community for years, and have seen the game styles of some of the freelancers. As well, it's come up before in other places and times. Most of them never played "normal" SR, and now SR is becoming more like that they played. So, what I know of their SR play style is what they've said, and now what the books contain.
It's like when folks tell you to critique a novel without critiqueing the writer. The toy are tied, and there's no way to seperate the person from the material. I'm not calling them bad people, or saying they rape goats in their spare times, I'm directly addressing the Shadowrun game and the way they have presented their opinion of it.
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.
That has always been a cop out. "Sure we are totally altering the game, but you still have your old stuff, we're not kicking in your door." I enjoy new products for my established games. Sure I could just download the SRD and make everything myself, but the game is more than that. Every time a new edition abandon's older players, it splits the player base into different groups.
Everything that happens to Shadowrun does affect me, if it's a game I play. Even if the effect is simply no new material for me.
But, as I said, if this new path for Shadowrun is the more profitable, then by all means the company should head that way, but be honest about it. Don't quip about Game Edition Ninja's, or (not you, but others) tell me the game hasn't changed. ("It's evolved" "isn't that change?" "no, it's the same game, just different.")
I don't consider the new FanPro folks evil, I just think they've altered Shadowrun into a game that is not what it was. I think you're trying to make the best game you can, it's just not Shadowrun anymore.
For the record, right now I'm in way too much D20 stuff. D&D, SW, and a neat near future psychic game. The SR game ended a couple months ago, due to the GM's style and the lack of inspiration new material was giving me. We've been looking for new systems to try, but Fireborn's dice were too odd, and Unknown Armies is mostly dead too.
