Bizarre Idea: SR4 Student Manual Options

[Dissonance]

Well, given the utter lack of an FAQ for SR4 at the time being (while the errata for SR4 is still under 10 pages -- I decided to look at the FAQ for D&D 3.5 for a larf and I nearly suffered a stroke at the sheer, well. Girthiness) and a bunch of questions about stuff that people can't seem to agree on and so on and so forth.

Okay, I'm getting bogged down here. Forgiveness, as I'm suffering through a pretty nasty affliction right now, so I'm not in my best mind.

I remember Dash's guide to the Matrix and so forth. Both on the SR3 forum and the one that's currently being done on the SR4 forum. I think they're both good ideas and valuable resources. However, I can't help but think there ought to be some kind of resource for people trying to learn things.

This is an incredibly goofy, nerdy, and potentially retarded idea, but has anybody put any thought into creating a (potentially Officially-approved [ or at least proofed by someone in the know]) sort of guidebook? Something that goes through the list of things, gives examples, and actually asks a couple of questions about what the result of certain things would be?

It wouldn't have to be anything fancy, and it wouldn't be something you could use on your own to play the game with. It'd be more like the italics examples in the SR4 book, followed by a couple of Calculate The Dice Pool, Figure Out Threshold, and so on-so-forth kinds of things?

Just, y'know. A learning aid that covers various chapters. From combat to skill use to magic to rigging. Promoting Smartness on all Sides.

...Assuming you could get a group of two people to agree on rules interpretations around here.

[the_dunner]

Bull's demo talk was posted to a previous thread here. That's a pretty thorough introduction to the game, and a good starting point if someone were to expand it into an introductory guide.

[Aaron]

[hobgoblin]

well i have turned them into a handout for a potential future SR group. people are building characters, taking a bit longer then planed sadly as there is only one book and atleast 2 people thats creating a char from the ground up for the first time.

ie, i will not be using them as they are primary intended. but atleast people have a quick lookup collection for doing common combat tests.

that in combo with the unofficial GM screen pdf, and the book, i think im coverd...

in my view, i think one should wait for the official FAQ as there is a whole lot of vague areas right now where people basicly cant agree on how to read the rules. allso, there is a risk that the thread will cover stuff that later will be coverd by the FAQ, and where the FAQ and the thread have diffrent views on things...

[James McMurray]

An online player generated FAQ would be great, but if it tries to answer questions that aren't answered in the rules rather than just explain the things that are in the RAW but hard to understand then it'll just degenerate into a massive string of arguments. Perhaps if the vague questions were answered with a short "there is no perfectly defined answer, but here's what people think and why" it would work better.