Shadowrun Anniversary Edition

Talking the PnP game here, not a video game.

Specifically the art work.

I just ordered the book, (Will have to try to find a group soon after) and the one thing that turned me off was the artwork. The new artwork reminds me alot of the old Traveller stuff, (which I did not like.) instead of the style-ized world and art from teh first edition and some of the later editions. Does anyone else have the anniversary book? What are your opinions about the art?

*happy dance* Thanks for posting this. I will hunt it up.

Here is a link to the game with a picture of the cover.

http://www.shadowrun4.com/wordpress/...-of-shadowrun/

Amazon has the game for $30.00.

The picture of the elf looks like a human. I did not even realize it was an elf until I saw the ears. Both the elf and mage look strung out. It's that faux realism. There is nothing I like about the samurai(?) in the lower part of the picture. Everything from his face, to his helmet, and his weird arms and armor, look like a low tech miner drawn from an anatomy course. If I had not really been looking forward to the game, I would be very disappointed in the art work alone not to buy the book. I can't speak for others, but the art work is one of the reasons I buy a gaming book. For a new game, if it looks cool, I am there.


edit: 12 day shipping from Amazon is pretty darn pathetic. Considering that they had it in stock and were offering immediate shipment if I paid extra. *shakes head in disgust* Let me rephrase that. It ships in 12 days, not how long it gets to me during the shipment.

Except that buying any Catalyst Game Labs product is actively supporting a liar, thief, and embezzler who robbed his own company so blind that none of their freelancers get paid and blew the money on a million dollar house. Completely leaving aside the fact the other big cheese there tried to force his accountant to falsify the books to avoid paying taxes and deceive the license owners.

20years already?

Shadowrun is the game that introduced me to my gaming group-- guys who went on to be my best friends, the best man at my wedding, godfather of my son, etc. Strangely enough, I also had a drean either last night or the night before, where I was discussing SR with someone and comparing game mechanics to the WoD storyteller system.

I'll have to look into this.

Dunno. I think they know how badly I have been wanting this and are teasing me.

*dons aluminium hat*

edit: Well they sent me an e-mail and it should be here Saturday. I won't repost in this again if this falls off the front page, but it would be interesting to hear others opinions on the artwork.

Unfortunately my only exposure to Shadowrun was the old SNES game. Had a blast and rank it as one of my personal favorites. There's going to be a Shadowrun character workshop at this years DragonCon and I'm going to make an attempt to attend that. Always interested in trying this game out, ordered the book just to see what it's like.

I'm gonna be at DragonCon to play a bunch of the Shadowrun Missions games.

It's fun! Just remember to bring fistfuls of D6 dice.

Also, it helps to cultivate a "cynical basterd" personality type for a character. Shadowrunners tend to end up that way.





-np

playing either a grumpy old cybermerc or a pixie rigger adept

I have been reading the book since I have gotten it, and I still have to say the new art work is rather off putting. I have noticed a larger number of orcs in all professions as compared to other editions, and really I do not like the look of the new orcs or trolls.

Sidestepping that, I am not sure what I think about the new mechanics. Yeah, the technomancers are cool, but were they really needed? The history surrounding them is very interesting so far.

The new point based system is interesting, and I find it interesting that elves, being a bit weaker that dwarves, cost more than dwarves or orcs. Ok interesting is the wrong word. I don't like it. The point system seems to be rather secure from min-maxing, and it gives you a place to grow with your character thats for sure. I just find it hard to believe some of the changes, such as the idea that your magic stat does not start at 6, or the difficulty it is making a max stat.

I have mentioned this before, but I do not like the new target numbers. A 5-6 on a d6 is pretty darn difficult. I have done some quick experiments, and most dice rolls I am lucky to get 1 success on 6 dice, with the 1's often numbering two or more. I had the same issue with White Wolfs targets of 7-10 on a d10. I recall playing Abberant, and having a toon with Forcefield, Mega Stamina, and Stamina up the yinyang, and still only getting an average of 3 successes for my forcefield. Fortunately they cover this in the game and give the option of having the target numbers be 4-6.

I need to find a group, and I know I want to pick up some more of the books, probably starting with the Runners Guide. I prefer Samurai, but the mages book will be needed as well. *Watches savings dwindle as I pick up more and more books.*

I don't mind the art. The game is definitely less "punk" than previous editions, but it's bearable.

I've also always preferred point buy systems. I dislike randomness in character creation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlackArachnia I just find it hard to believe some of the changes, such as the idea that your magic stat does not start at 6, or the difficulty it is making a max stat.

If it helps, think of it as "You can start with a 6, but you can also choose to put the points elsewhere."

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlackArachnia I have mentioned this before, but I do not like the new target numbers. A 5-6 on a d6 is pretty darn difficult. I have done some quick experiments, and most dice rolls I am lucky to get 1 success on 6 dice, with the 1's often numbering two or more. I had the same issue with White Wolfs targets of 7-10 on a d10. I recall playing Abberant, and having a toon with Forcefield, Mega Stamina, and Stamina up the yinyang, and still only getting an average of 3 successes for my forcefield. Fortunately they cover this in the game and give the option of having the target numbers be 4-6.

Here's the thing. You're not going to be throwing 6 dice on stuff your character has a focus in.

You're going to be throwing 12-16 dice.*

Your focus areas you will likely have an attribute of around 5, and a skill rating around 4-6. You will often also have 2-6 bonus dice from various sources.

Heck, my Merc character has mediocre social stats, but still rolls 12 dice when negotiating deals simply because of bonus dice.

Usually that will get you 3 to 6 his, which is usually enough in most cases.

If not, there's Edge. Many 'new' players don't realize the importance of Edge.

If you have an Edge of 5, that's 5 dice you can add to almost any test. Five times per game session. If you do it before you roll the test, ALL the dice can 'explode' - every Six rolled adds another die you can roll for the test. Added afterwards only the dice can explode, but that's pretty good too.

Alternately, you can use Edge to re-roll a failed test, or negate a critical glitch. You can even permanently burn Edge to get automatic successes, but this is rarely used.

It's not unusual to see a player rolling 20 dice for really important tests.

I myself modified a set of dark colored dice for Shadowrun. I colored the pips on the 2-4 sides the same color as the dice, the 1 side bright red, and left the 5 and 6 white. Makes it VERY easy to see the results even if there's a lot of dice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlackArachnia I need to find a group, and I know I want to pick up some more of the books, probably starting with the Runners Guide. I prefer Samurai, but the mages book will be needed as well. *Watches savings dwindle as I pick up more and more books.*

I went with buying only the PDFs. A bit cheaper, and I can quick-search for stuff.



-np

* - (Upwards of 20 before Edge if you're really min-maxed. Upwards of 30 for social skills if you're a Super-Face charisma character. Yes, the social-maxed character is disgusting in SR 4E, even if you cap the number of bonus Social dice)

Just a warning - decker is about the last type of character I would recommend to a new player.

The current Matrix and software rules are a mess.

And worse, they're generally not used a heck of a lot for one main reason: When it's not a "we need a Decker" situation, the Decker ends up feeling a bit gimped compared to everyone else. When it's the Decker's time to shine, everyone else at the table might as well go get a snack or something while the GM and the Decker's player roll dice at each other.

It's not as bad as it was in previous editions, but most games I see tend to avoid putting in extensive Decker-focused content.

If anything, I recommend having Decking ability as a side focus rather than a main focus. Like a street samurai/decker.




-np

Thanks for the advice, I'll look into a street samurai/decker hybrid and see what I pull up

It's just that I have awful luck NP, in regards to dice rolling. I understood that I would have more than 6 dice in a pool of course depending on what the skill was and I how I built the character.

I like your wall-o-dice there, I think I rolled that once in Champions. 90d6 move through.

edit My first post after a red name WooHoo!! *Waves at Castle from Chico, CA*

I've been playing Shadowrun since it hit the shelves (very literally), and I now that I've spent some time with 4th ed, (and 4a) I really, honestly think it's the best edition of Shadowrun to date. I hated the 'exploding sixes' from previous editions, Thresholds are much easier to predict and manage (from a Game Master PoV especially) than a high target number.

As far as the Art goes, I kinda like it. The Internal art especially I think is much improved. I still have my 1st edition, 2nd edition And 3rd Edition sets in storage, and when I first got the 4a book I had the chance to do a side by side comparison of 2nd and 3rd - the art is so much better (with the exception, maybe, of the cover; but Larry Elmore is iconic for RPG book art.)

Then again - I am a Huge Shadowrun fan. There are very few books I did not buy, and nothing from 3rd and 4th edition (by which time I'd crawled out of my parents basement and started working for my own money) I did not get. I even bought the shamefully overpriced and indulgent leather bound limited-and-numbered edition 20th anniversary book, in addition to a regular 4a book to use for normla use. The leather bound one stays on my shelf and I hiss at anyone who looks at it funny.

As a side note: Castle, the fact you played enough Shadowrun to ramble off that tid bit above just made me reup my CoH sub for another six months, (Or will when I get paid). I maintain City Of has the coolest frickin' gamer devs in the business.

(Also, GR was pretty good, and I am liking it a lot, /tangent off)

OMG - I just had the Coolest IDEA. EVER.

*clears throat*

So who thinks Paragon Studio's next project should be Shadowrun Online?



Eh? Eh?


*Groucho-Eyebrows*

I kind of like the new artwork. The whole game is leaning a bit away from pink mohawks and toward mirrored shades, and I think the art supports it. Since that's always been my favored approach, SR4A suits me well enough. (The artist who did the weapon specialist portrait might be a bit too interested in Claudia Black, but that's another matter.)

Art aside, I love the master index. It's handy when you play a character built from rules scattered across at least three books.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NinjaPirate And worse, they're generally not used a heck of a lot for one main reason: When it's not a "we need a Decker" situation, the Decker ends up feeling a bit gimped compared to everyone else. When it's the Decker's time to shine, everyone else at the table might as well go get a snack or something while the GM and the Decker's player roll dice at each other.

Our technomancer managed to keep pretty busy even in Lagos, which is largely dead to the Matrix. He has a habit of hacking enemies' commlinks and covering their AR with troll porn. When he's not doing that, he ejects their clips, turns their safeties on, and occasionally shoots them. He's looking into going dronomancer, too, since we just came into a fair wad of nuyen.

It probably helps that the rest of the team usually has as many initiative passes in meatspace as he has in the Matrix, so he just takes his turn along with the rest of us.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unknown_User Have 2, three if I make the attempt to go through my college stuff.

I rolled 19 on one test recently. My Voodoo priestess had occasion to make an auto-rickshaw fly across a stretch of ocean. Of course, I spent Edge and an Aid Sorcery service from one of her spirits for that; she normally only rolls 9 or so for spellcasting and 12 for summoning.