Alternative Systems, Thank you sir, may i have another? Options

[PH3NOmenon]

While trawling through the boards a thought popped into my head, on which i'd like your input.


Considering the rampant use of houserules and alternative systems, how good is SR4 really? I preferred the SR4 rules to SR3 up until now, but when I actually sat down and thought about why, I only came up with 'the world feels alot fresher'. This isn't even a rules issue, this is a settings issue.

Look at what we've come to. There's dozens of ways to rework the Matrix (and you and I both know that this is neccesary). I don't know anyone that doesn't houserule combat to some degree (armor, IPs) and the magic system causes more than a few gripes in the community.

Don't read me wrong here, SR4 setting-wise is still excellent, but when I look at the pile of handouts of rules rewrites i have laying about for my players I start wondering if i'm still playing SR4 or some sort of community-developed (Ty, Dumpshock!) mutant offspring. There's hardly any need for them to actually buy the rulebooks, as 70% of their contents are obsolete. The fact that most of my players do own them says something about the quality of the fluff really.



So, what are your thoughts on this? How much do you houserule? Does it still feel like you're playing SR4? Who here plays 'core'? Was the ball dropped, and dropped hard, on the rules design? What parts are actually good?