Hey all,

I'm looking to start playing SR for the first time and I have some questions on where to start. I'm planning on getting the SR4A and the Runner's Companion to begin, and see how it goes with my group before laying down the cash for the other core books. (Arsenal, Unwired, Augmentation, Street Magic...am I missing any?) Some friends and I are building the group from the ground up, and none of them have any real gaming experience. Since I'm the only one who's done any RPing and the one organizing (and buying the books), I'm also the default GM, which I'm really looking forward to. Do any of you have any advice or resources for a newborn band of runners?

I also had some questions about PDF versions of the rules. What kind of copy protection do they have and how easy is it to print them? I don't need to waste my entire toner cartridge printing out greyscale page backgrounds, thank you. Also, can they be updated as errata is published, or are we stuck with adding post-its like in the tree-killer versions?

Thanks for all your help!

I don't know if you want to get Runner's Companion. It has the most optional content, and also the most questionable content. Pixies and vampires and centaurs might be fun, but I think they have a lot of potential to wreck up a game of noobs. The new positive and negative qualities are fun, but I think some of them are possibly a bit prone to abuse. It's definitely not an important book to have when you're starting out.

The easiest thing to do is just start with the core book alone. After that, the important books are Arsenal and Augmentation. Street Magic doesn't change very much, it gives you some new traditions and spells and such, but it's less important than Arsenal and Augmentation. Arsenal is absolutely essential if you have a players who's interested in vehicles, the base book just doesn't cut it for vehicles. And everyone loves guns, and Arsenal is drooling with guns. Augmentation is less important than Arsenal because a lot of it is filled up with nanotech, genetech, cyborgs, and cyberzombies, none of which are very essential in chargen. And there's also cosmetic ware that you don't need. But the new cyberlimb rules, and the new cyber and bioware pieces are pretty sweet.

I probably wouldn't touch Unwired. I think the base book rules for hacking are short and sweet. Unwired adds lots of complexity that the system didn't need. It has some fun gear in it, but most of it is just fetish material for computer nerds (who hated it anyway because of how unrealistic it was).

Regarding the pdfs, they don't have copy protection, you can back them up however you want. They also let you download an updated copy every time there's a new printing of the book. I think the pdfs are all you need, as long as you have a few reasonably fast laptops available to have them in front of you while you play.

I'm going to second what Larme said. SR4A and Arsenal are where you want to spend your money to start. After that I'd look at where the group seems to be headed in terms of character preferences and purchase Augmentation, Street Magic and Unwired accordingly. If your players are hooked by that point you might suggest that they chip in to by the expansion book relevant to their character.

I'll agree with that as well. RC is really useful when a group wants even more stuff than the base game presents in terms of playable races and stuff, but it's not stuff that the game needs. SR4A will give you the ability to really get into the game, and Arsenal satisfies every group's (especially a new group's) lust for MOAR TOYS!

The one thing that the core book PDF seems to lack as far as being 100% awesome is layers that you can turn off for printing purposes. It's pretty annoying, I agree, to waste ink printing page backgrounds and stuff that you just don't need when you're trying to make yourself some table-friendly references. (For those of us that prefer not to have a laptop at the game table.)

With the other books, the pages don't have as much noise, so they're fairly print-friendly, although some pages still have that "grey fade" going on. You might still want to set up your print job manually so as to skip any full page art and the like.

Thanks for the tips!

Like UnhappyYak I'm looking to start some SR gaming. But in my case its a return to the fold as I used to play SR back in its earliest days. The Anniversary Edition really brought back some great memories. I was undecided between Arsenal and Runners Companion, but think I'll take your suggestions.

Yes, thank you all for the info. I'm thinking I'll have them all do chargen with the core book, then start sneaking in gear from Arsenal as they go...a little incentive to keep playing, if you will.

Also, what do you all think about settings? I know there are a lot of fleshed-out cities out there, but I think it'd be fun to construct something more local from the ground up. Are there any must-have resources that detail the known SR world?

In my opinion, Larme pretty much hit the nail right on the head. The one thing I might disagree with is only 1 small piece regarding the above post. Unwired is a great book for Technomancers. It adds a lot of flavor and variability for them. While I have said in other threads that I think that Technomancers are not the best choice for people new to Shadowrun, let alone new to gaming, that doesn't mean that someone won't fall in love with the concept. If they do, the section on them in Unwired can be great. Otherwise, I'd save this til the last splat book if you feel like buying them all. If you are buying in PDF form, make sure to buy the Anniversary edition, the Matrix chapter there is much better written and you can play the game just fine with the information within.

While the actual additional rules and so on in RC aren't really that necessary for new players, I'd argue the extra info on what it means to be a Shadowrunner is incredibly useful. The 'Starting Out', 'Survival Tips' chapters are great, and then just skip to the 'Life on the Run' section at the end. The only better way I can think of to get completely new people into the mindset of the setting other than actually playing is to find a bunch of the better novels.

Be carefull when you buy PDFs, if it's a FanPro edition of the book (SR4, Street Magic, GM screen) you won't get an update when Catalyst produces an new version, at least that's the way it has been since FanPro stopped and Catalyst took over.

Lars

I'd strongly recommend runner havens or another source book if you're not a veteran of the series ahead of any of the splat rule books. But I agree that arsenal is where to start after the main book as far as rules are concerned.

I recommend Unwired above all other other corebooks, regardless of what the others said. The description of the matrix and how everyday life works will be a great boon for your players and you can introduce the more complex stuff step by step. Remember, everyone uses the matrix most of the time, so you at least want to know some of the options and its not like SR3 that it turns into a whole other game.

As a GM, I'd definitely recommend Runner Havens as a starter book for the "world". You can do without it, but it's a nice GM read. Players have little to no need for it really.

It's got great info on Seattle and other cities. Even if you don't end up going with Seattle as your starter city, it will give you a lot of ideas.

I second Arsenal and Augmentation... although really 80% of Augmentation is really crazy way-out-there stuff that you'd really never need to use in a game. Your average razor boy should be pretty happy with all the cyberware options available in the core book.

If you have a lot of mages in your group or plan on having a VERY magic heavy campaign, Street Magic is a good resource. Otherwise, it's not needed.

Unwired has some pretty advanced stuff in it that really you don't need unless you've got a hacker, and a really advanced hacker at that. A hacker or a technomancer with a lot of Karma and Nuyen to spend might want to look at some of the really advanced hacking rules and program customizations, but new players would have no need for this.

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Comes with handy starter scenario as well.

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Core book's , unwired, and arsenal are really good ones to start. All you really need is the big book, players, and google earth to get started. Remember if money is an issue you can find a lot of free supplements on-line. But i agree with the fact that unwired is a really good book do to the fact it changes a lot of things in SR.

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Hopefully you already have dice, pen and paper, but otherwise, there's nothing else stopping you from having tons of FUN!

Thanks Dire. I had already found the quick-start rules, but I hadn't seen the free Catalyst SRMs. I'll definitely make use of them for our fledgling little group.

Played one of those at GenCon 07. Fun times. Caine's a crap GM though!

Ahh your gonna wanna buy em all anyways, pick out 2-3 ya really want and get the rest as you can!

Found a way to print PDF's without background but its a huge pain in the butt. Adam said all future PDF only releases will have black box backgrounds removed for ease of printing but books that go to print will not. (Already been fixed in digital grimore 1.5 pdf.)

I take all my .pdf printing to Staples. It costs a few dollars to have one printed in grey scale and bound with a nice plastic cover, but it saves you ink, paper and time, and still ends up costing less than the printed books (which I buy anyway because I'm an addict... I mean collector). And you don't have to worry about the backgrounds or black boxes. Just make sure the kid working the copy center does a good job on the contrast balance.