Okay, I've been trolling around these boards for a while, and found some truly excellent material and made a couple cool online friends, but there are some questions I had about certain things.

1.) am I really losing out by not having Runner's Companions?

2.) what's the deal with this SURGE thing and am I doing something wrong for not having it?

3.) Were there any good changes made in SR4A?

... there were more questions, but, of course, when I start typing, I forgot them. Damn it.

1. Nope. The game is fun with just the base book. I would personally recommend Unwired before Runner's Companion if the issue is cash. If you don't want any matrix action, ignore the recommendation.

2. Its part of Shadowrun history that allowed freak characters. If you don't want freaks, ignore the SURGE.

3. Good is left to the minds of the group playing. I am not stepping in this tarpit.

Play, have fun, don't argue on Dumpshock.

BlueMax

No, not really. The main book really has everything you need to play. The other core books are nice, but not essential, in my opinion.


2061. Haley's Comet causes a mana surge. New metavarients and changelings are the end result. Whether or not to include it is a GM choice. Personally, I prefer to play without SURGE qualities.


Not touching that for fear of derailing the thread before it gets going.

-paws

1. No, not really. There are some nice things in Runner's Companion but I wouldn't call it essential by any stretch. Of all the other "expansion" books (Arsenal, Augmentation, Street Magic, Unwired, Runner's Companion) I would get it last. This is especially true if you are new to the game. Get used to the basic stuff first, then branch out into the the more exotic.

2. Previous posters answered what it is. No, there is nothing wrong with not having it.

3. Yes. Despite the volume of the flaming, they are only complaining about 2 of the many changes that were made. The rewrite of the Wireless World chapter (Matrix stuff) makes it much easier to understand and reference later. Many other things were clarified and cleaned up. Also, the book itself is a beautiful sight just to look at. The artwork has gone from "disappointed" to "inspiring."

As a side note, I was a proof-reader on the SR4A project and I can say that we (the "pool" of proofreaders) suggested a lot of wording changes to clear up ambiguity and confusion in general throughout the whole book. None of those changes were listed in the "differences document" as there would be just way too many to mention.

1) Not really .Its very Good to have it ,but not essentially
2) same with Surge (nice to have/know about it but not essentially)
3) Yes (but I'm not going to discuss this .There are more than enough Threads allready existing)

HeyaHeyaHeya
Medicineman

2. Books are important based on your style of play, or the group's style of play. If you love playing magic characters, pick up street magic. If you love weapons and combat, arsenal. (And so on.) Some groups have a little bit of everything while others ignore or don't take jobs that require certain skill sets. If your group was decker-less; then you likely don't take jobs that require that skill set or temp hire someone to fill the role. Either way, the GM wouldn't need complex rules to handle an NPC's success or failure. (I mean, NPC vs NPC actions can be resolved on one dice if needed.) If it was a player, that would be different.

Runner's Companion is nice because in really large groups it can provide more variety to characters. (Some normal, some not so much.) At the same time though it can open the door to strange possibilities. RC opens the doors to Drakes, Free Spirits, sapient critters, shifters, AI's, Infected (HMVV), SURGE, and/or meta-human variants. It's not bad to have some in a party, it's a little odd when that's the whole party. The rules for variant life-style are nice, but not necessary. The new positive and negative qualities are probably the thing that would see the most use. If you're players aren't happy with core options, then pick it up; but it's not at all required or needed for most games.