Shadowrun Edition Battle Poll, Centralized voting here! Options

[Azralon]

There, now peeps can voice their preferences and have a consolidiated place to debate the finer and grosser points.

My position:

SR1 had the merit of being first. True, back then it was viewed by some as little else than Tolkienized Cyberpunk, but no other game setting sparked my imagination more. I particularly liked some of the art. The rules were kludgy, but that's because they were trying some things that hadn't really been tried before.

SR2 had the best art, in my opinion. At this point the game had matured and gotten chock full of flavor. The rules tried to get a bit more streamlined, likely to support the additional options getting put in. Most of my Shadowrun career was spent in this edition. Understanding the Matrix became a part-time job unto itself, and repeated reincarnations of those rules hurt my brain. The rest of the game had a steep learning curve too, but we veterans considered the mastery of these difficult arts to be a badge of honor.

SR3 seemed promising, but didn't actually add too much as far as I could tell. I wasn't too pleased with the new art, and the system itself didn't seem to be any better. The fiction was able to build upon a very solid background at this point, and I liked that. The legacy rules and little fidgety complications overwhelmed me and my players to the point where a lot just got regrettably handwaved. Examples: decking and rigging.

SR4 holds the distinction of being a total rework for sake of sanity. Some regard it as "dumbed down," while some view it as "streamlined." Myself, I don't see the two labels as mutually exclusive nor undesirable. At the very least it lets the Matrix people sit at the table with everyone else now, and for that I'm happy.

My vote? SR4, mostly because it's the first edition in which I don't feel reluctant to recruit first-time players. Ease of play is a wise marketing strategy, as all of us old-timers are of course going to consider buying the new stuff, but no game survives for long without new blood.