Which version of Shadowrun are you playing?, Version Preference Poll (update June 2014) Options

[DamienKnight]

This question was asked last year, about preference. I am curious if preferences have changed. Also curious about, outside of preference, how many are actually playing active games and in what versions.

[Medicineman]

I definitely prefer SR4A
I'm playing currently in two SR4A and 1 SR5 Rounds and another SR5 Round is about to form
When I'm at a conventions its mostly SR4A that I'm playing


Hough!
Medicineman

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

SR4A is by far my Preferred System Edition.
Playing SR5/SR4A, dependent upon GM (Primary/Secondary).

[Uli]

I'm narrating a 4A group and I like it a lot, although it requires a lot of work/background knowledge/crunchy stuff for the whole group.

[Jaid]

heh, well if these statistics are anything close to accurate (which is not by any means an assured thing), catalyst should definitely be taking note (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

not that i expect them to actually respond to it, mind you. that would involve admitting their new version isn't all that great.


(of course, it's also possible they've actually done some research of their own and have reason to believe otherwise... but honestly, i doubt they actually bothered checking with their fans at all).

[Uli]

If I get to read through my 5e book from cover to cover, I might consider switching after my cyborg campaign has ended. It's always easier to have limited books and crunch for beginners. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[SpellBinder]

heh, well if these statistics are anything close to accurate (which is not by any means an assured thing), catalyst should definitely be taking note (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

I think they might have already considering that the latest batch of books have some material that is split between SR4a & SR5 and aren't all 100% exclusively SR5.

[psychophipps]

SR4/4A here as well. Best SR ruleset I have seen yet.

[Critias]

I think they might have already considering that the latest batch of books have some material that is split between SR4a & SR5 and aren't all 100% exclusively SR5.

Trying to stay out of the argument/whatever for a minute, but just FYI, the material that's been released lately (that's compatible with both editions) is stuff that was in the pipeline for SR4A, and was at/near completion, and then they took the time to make it compatible with SR5 to make sure folks could still get some use out of once the new edition hit. No one wants to write a "lame duck" sourcebook. What it certainly isn't is CGL somehow backpedaling and pretending the new edition was never released, or something.

[SpellBinder]

Ah well, wishful thinking. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/spin.gif)

[Blade]

I haven't played much recently. I've answered I prefer SR4/SR4A but truth to be told I actually prefer a heavily houseruled SR4A that is getting further and further away from SR4, and while some of these houserules address issues "fixed" in SR5, my fixes are very different (and in my opinion better) from the ones in SR5, so I don't see any point in switching to SR5.

[Surukai]

SR5 has done many things right, short list from the top of my head:

1. melee being useful (it is utter crud in SR4, totally broken).
2. Direct spells fixed
3. automatic fire fixed
4. regular guns do damage now instead of gimmick autofire SnS being only option.
5. Niche protection on matrix and to some extent drones.
6. Critters and dragons are actually dangerous without fudging their stats
7. Greatly reduced extended tests and bookkeeping.
8. Getting gear doesn't take months
9. Some diminishing returns on high dice pools via limits.

The list of things done right in SR5 is long!

Sadly, it is still not fully thought through and has a lot of holes in it. Navigating the book is a nightmare (why are drugs and foci not listed in gear but in some random page in the middle? Make buying stuff hard for example). And some concepts are completely waste of space, while others are just broken or pathetic. I'm thinking of aoe attacks, grenade damage, mystic adepts, to some extent alchemy,

SR4 is not that good. Matrix is broken (pirated software makes anyone a hacker and everyone got maxed out everything for no cost at all), Melee have never worked at all, perfect oneshot spells and attacks are way too easy to get and everyone always hits (defence is useless, not even Reaction 9 can stop even a mook from hitting every time), the meta of SR4 with the horrible splatbooks (expecially the matrix one) made the game pretty boring. It was so easy to get Dicepool of 20 in anything that it became de facto standard to have 20 or near 20 in everything to simply ignore what the world is about.
GM: "The ninja has good cover"
Player: "Whatever, +4 to his reaction won't matter, I got some 10+ dice advantage over his defences anyway. 9 hits, how does it take 23P AP -half? Thought so..."

You didn't even need to gimmick or take obscure things. 20 in anything came natural for even the most basic of characters. IT was so readily available that everyone got it, not just the super-optimizing munch-kins.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

You didn't even need to gimmick or take obscure things. 20 in anything came natural for even the most basic of characters. IT was so readily available that everyone got it, not just the super-optimizing munch-kins.

Take exception to this... Played MANY characters, some into the High 400's of Karma, and NONE of them had 20 Dice in ANYTHING. So please, do not lump me into your "Everyone does it " category, as that is simply not true.

[nezumi]

Still playing SR3R. Still loving it. I prefer the SR3 ruleset, but the SR2 books. Not sure how to vote on that (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

I try SR5 at conventions and enjoy it, but not enough for me to want to pay for it.

[AccessControl]

Not sure how much vote weight I should have...

I've only really experienced SR4A and SR5, and I've only really played SR5. I tried to run SR4A for a bit, but I couldn't get enough people to keep a game together past a single session.

I think SR5 has SOME bits that are cleaned up compared to SR4A, and I much prefer SR5's Matrix interpretation (apart from the weird things they did to Technomancers), however there are some things that look more polished in SR4A. I attribute that to the fact that SR5 is new and has very little in terms of errata right now, plus a combination of my only reading a bunch of stuff and not yet seeing how it works in practice.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Not sure how much vote weight I should have...

I've only really experienced SR4A and SR5, and I've only really played SR5. I tried to run SR4A for a bit, but I couldn't get enough people to keep a game together past a single session.

I think SR5 has SOME bits that are cleaned up compared to SR4A, and I much prefer SR5's Matrix interpretation (apart from the weird things they did to Technomancers), however there are some things that look more polished in SR4A. I attribute that to the fact that SR5 is new and has very little in terms of errata right now, plus a combination of my only reading a bunch of stuff and not yet seeing how it works in practice.

Heh, Heh... You said Errata. That's Funny

[Medicineman]

oh, by the way, I was bold and started the same Poll in Germany (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
Im curious to compare both results

with a bold Dance
Medicineman

[AccessControl]

Heh, Heh... You said Errata. That's Funny

I know, I'm such a kidder. I should really reign in my wit, lest I accidentally send someone into convulsions.

[Draco18s]

SR5 has done many things right, short list from the top of my head:
[snip]
The list of things done right in SR5 is long!

The cool part is that all of those changes can be ported into SR4 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

The cool part is that all of those changes can be ported into SR4 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Indeed... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[SpellBinder]

SR5 has done many things right, short list from the top of my head:

1. melee being useful (it is utter crud in SR4, totally broken).
2. Direct spells fixed
3. automatic fire fixed
4. regular guns do damage now instead of gimmick autofire SnS being only option.
5. Niche protection on matrix and to some extent drones.
6. Critters and dragons are actually dangerous without fudging their stats
7. Greatly reduced extended tests and bookkeeping.
8. Getting gear doesn't take months
9. Some diminishing returns on high dice pools via limits.

...

Some of the elements of SR5 I ported into an SR4a campaign, and they worked out very good. I also discussed with the players about the differences on Direct spells and their mechanics between SR4a & SR5 before starting, and all of them agreed to use the SR4a version as opposed to the SR5 rules, and only one of them was playing a magician.

[Sengir]

SR5 has done many things right, short list from the top of my head:

1. melee being useful (it is utter crud in SR4, totally broken).
2. Direct spells fixed
3. automatic fire fixed
4. regular guns do damage now instead of gimmick autofire SnS being only option.
5. Niche protection on matrix and to some extent drones.
6. Critters and dragons are actually dangerous without fudging their stats
7. Greatly reduced extended tests and bookkeeping.
8. Getting gear doesn't take months
9. Some diminishing returns on high dice pools via limits.

The list of things done right in SR5 is long!

...but the list of things fixed for worse is just as long (and often facepalm-provoking). It's not godawful but not an improvement, either, so the bottom line is that I'm not seeing any gain from switching editions.


I'd also contend that point 8. is not a feature of the edition itself, but merely of the lack of expansion books (and accordingly smaller item count) for now. And since CGL is firmly committed to the new old concept of spreading core gear of dozens of books, it will probably end up being worse.

[psychophipps]

Take exception to this... Played MANY characters, some into the High 400's of Karma, and NONE of them had 20 Dice in ANYTHING. So please, do not lump me into your "Everyone does it " category, as that is simply not true.

+100 here!

When Rob-fucking-Leatham, probably the best all-around shooter alive tosses 12 dice (Agility 5, Skill 7), where IN THE FUCK does "gotta have 15+ dice or you ain't shit" even enter the damn equation?

[Draco18s]

where IN THE FUCK does "gotta have 15+ dice or you ain't shit" even enter the damn equation?

When trying to figure out why 12 dice is the best you can ever be, when the system, mechanically, doesn't support that.

(Also, he's the best ever............without any technomagical aids)

[Stahlseele]

TECHNICALLY, i still play SR3.
Realistically, i guess i am going more into what CanRay plays.

Also, if you can get your attribute alone up to 11(elf at least can if i am not misremembering in which direction the rounding falls), then yes, i have no idea why 12 should be the best shooter in the world.
And that 11 is already two thirds of what you consider to be a big pool with 15 dice and still one half of what you consider a too big pool at 20 dice.
It's just how the system works.
In SR3, yeah, i would completely agree with you that dice-pools of 12 and above are overkill, but in SR4 (and probably 5), no, it simply does not hold true.