The only thing I could see now for some of my chars, was I jumped on the whole nanotech gear stuff from Man and Machine in 3e. As of now, in SR4 they did away with the nanogear, and some of the cyber/biogear as well, so the char I had quasi-converted using some DS conversions from 3 to 4, was redesigned without that stuff. But it would be nice to go back to nano/etc if the next sourcebook has that. So I guess it'd be a respec in that sense.

I'm imagining a PC/Console game analogy. Many games allow the players a choice between spending points on 'sucky' skills/spells/whatever at the beginning of the game, or savings their points until they can invest in nicer/more effective skills/spells/whatever when they get to be a higher level. You end up needing to take at least some 'sucky' spells in the beginning just to make it to the higher levels, but you save as much as you can, going through some pain in the beginning in order to be more 'leet' in the end game.

If the purpose of the 're-spec' is just to allow PCs to drop skills they no longer use in order to get 'free points' for more advancement (i.e. have their cake and eat it too), then I wouldn't allow it. I used to think of Geasa this way - physical adepts effectively got extra points to buy more powers this way, but in the long run they often ended up regretting the choice they made.

If, on the other hand, the 're-spec' is because you built a character based on rules that change, and the character sort of got the rug yanked out from under it, then I'd allow it.

it'd have to be a mighty big rug, the likes of which haven't been seen since... well, since 4th ed came out. i don't think even the change from SR1-style decking to SR2/3-style decking was so big a change that it would have necessitated rebuilding a character, unless they character was some kind of naked-decking specialist.

the introduction of tech implants to boost ya computer skills meaning I don't have to be a hackadept any more?


my biggest gripe with edition changes was when M&M came out and my troll samurai died
then when 4th came out and my Ork samurai died

yes a Gm could have let me respec them, but their ware was a large part of WHO they were, not just WHAT they were

hell the troll had Essence 5 but then M&M came out his Body index of 11 killed him

I have seen a lot of comments on SOTA. Those are not the type of books I was talking about. Nor was I talking about 1 or 2 pieces of gear that are in some other adventure/source books. I am talking about the 2nd tier main books, magic, man and machine, Matrix. We all know they are coming and 75% of what will be in there wont be a surprise to any of the old timers.

The idea of a respec is another option other then hacking in SR3 rules, having PCs hord Karma and cash, and/or having PCs feel reluctant to play because they want to wait for SR4 to grow up. In general I think respecing a PC is a very bad idea, but given the option of having any of the above or allowing a fair chance for the all the PC to use the new material I chose the later.

SR4 is a very good book. I am not nocking it in any way. In many ways it is a more complete and well rounded book then SR3, but it is still just a main book. To cover all the material that a PC really should be able to use in the SR setting the main book would need to be 600+ pages and cost $80+. Never going to happen nor should it.