So I'm sitting here looking at buying S4A (I think that's what you guys call it) and I'm wondering what the other "must have" books are. I know, this is all based on opinion, so please share yours.

Oh lawd. It depends on what you want to do, chummer!

Arsenal has goodies that absolutely every character can use, so I'd put that high.

Augmentation also has some stuff for most people, but nothing too vital.

Street Magic: great for Awakened people, crap for everyone else. Yeah, you too, manatech. You suck.

Runner's Companion: MUNCHMUNCHMUNCH -- ahem, sorry. What I mean is, there are some great flavor choices in here, but expect dicepool inflation.

Unwired is incredibly detailed, but 3/4 of your characters will gain little or nothing from it, so I'd put that low unless you're a real 'Trix-rawker.

For GMing, I'd recommend Runner Havens. Even if you don't run in Tokyo or Seattle, it has great background type stuff.

As McAllister said, it depends on your style.

I would rank Augmentation high, simply because it gives surgery rules, but my group asks questions like "I want to get cerebral boosters, is that an out patient procedure?"

I would rank Arsenal on the lower end, it allows for customization and has lots of nifty toys but doesn't really offer more clarity to any of the systems.

If you have players who love magic, Street Magic ranks high.

If you have players who do a lot of Matrix stuff Unwired is alright.

Runners companion and Runners Haven are both somewhat optional. If you already have your ideas for the cities your campaign is being run in fleshed out Runners Havens might be unneeded but it also has some nice descriptions. If you are doing runs in Seattle this advice applies to the new PDF Seattle source book. Runners Companion has a ton of options, but many are unbalanced.

Running Wild, currently in PDF form, if you want to have more options for challenging things for your runners to encounter. Or if you want to flesh out your world with animals, plants, magical and mundane.

For my style I went with Unwired, Street Magic, and Augmentation because I felt they filled in some of the gaps left in the core book.

As a player:
Main Rulebook
Runners Companion
Arsenal
The others are optional, unless you're going to be a mage, street sam, or a hacker.

As a GM:
All core books (those Mcallister Listed).
Depending on your campaign:
RUnner Havens-Seattle, Hong Kong and a couple other settings. A mix of neighborhoods from barrens to high security.
Corporate Havens:Tokoyo, Detriot and a few others. High security areas, no lawless areas.
Feral Cities:Chicago and Lagos--4th world locations where the law is the AK-97 strapped to your back.

McAllister had a very good and comprehensive list.

SR4A core book (all round very good book)
Arsenal (equipment)
Augmentation (cyber and bioware)
Runners companion (for more detailed character creation rules)
Street Magic (for mages, but not much use unless it is a heavy magic game)
Unwired (at times incomprehensible adding more rules to the Matrix, but mostly already incorporated into SR4A)

All the core books for SR4 are great, and each vastly expands the range of possibilities in various aspects of the game, but I would encourage you to grab the SR4A rulebook and focus on really getting to know the core rules before you start to add all the other junk. The game balance is a little different than previous editions and there is a lot more grey area. In previous editions the grey areas were systematically filled in with more rules, but in SR4A those grey areas are left open to interpretation by the GM (hopefully with some thoughtful discussion with the group). I think a lot of the problems people run into with SR4 is that they don't fully appreciate the core rules before they add all the extra stuff, and players have a habit of finding their own ways to deal with the grey areas that sometimes break the system or otherwise make the system less wieldy.

In other words the system is designed to be streamlined (almost to a flaw) but all the extra options have a way of highlighting the ambiguity the streamlining left behind.

All of this is debatable (and will be I'm sure) but that is my current view.

I agree with Method. I'd stick to the main book at first until you get used to what's changed, etc.

If you're going to GM, a location book isn't bad either, especially since there's a lot of fun international locations to play with now. Good luck getting Runner Havens; it's out of print and goes for high prices on ebay. Corporate Enclaves is probably your best choice to start (LA is a lot of fun, neo-Tokyo isn't half bad either) since it's more 'standard' Shadowrun than the dark, dirty, crazy world of Feral Cities. You can also pick up Ghost Cartels for a ready-to-run campaign if prep time is an issue.

Don't forget Aaron Pavao's free "cheat sheets" , and DamienKnight's Excel character generator* (or other fine choices) in the Community Projects part of the forum.

*though beware that it includes options from all the supplements

Thanks for the advice, all. I think I'll stick with just the main book for now given the advice.

I would rank Street Magic, Unwired and one of the sourcebooks as the most needed 'expansions'. The reason is simple: they're extremely helpful to understand the everyday uses and implications of 2 aspects of the settings: the Wireless Matrix and the awakened world. Unwired, especially, gives insight about something almost every character uses DAILY. Also, they're great tools for plot creation.

The game runs just fine with the corebook. As your players want more challenges or things to work towards then buy the book as they need them.

The next books would really depend on the characters. I would probably go in this order, but the first three are probably what you need most in the game once it goes past the first few adventures.

I rank Augmentation high as it gives a plethora of rules from biodrones, to surgery/diseases and of course more cyberware and bioware.

Street magic is high as it fleshes out rules and allows the GM to deal with custom made spells, mentors and different traditions. It also includes thing link background counts, initiation, etc.

Unwired is highly useful if you have a technomancer and/or decker. Probably the least used book so far.

Arsenal's biggest advantage is the flexibility for weapon systems, optional rules for combat, gear and vehicles, etc. Nice book, but in the end just a gear book.

Runner's companion. This should be introduced later once the players are familiar with the rules and world. I think adding too much too soon spoils some of the mystery.

Running Wild: More advesaries for the book and animals to be used in the game. It includes more rules to flesh out the biodrones and adds newer critters. Really best to bring this on after you have the rest of the books.

As so many others have said, go with the core book...

however, after that,  Iwould pick up in the following order:

Arsenal: cause it's got goodies EVERYONE will use, be you mage or mundane or matrix. And more vehicles and rules for said vehicles. In fact, I would buy it along with the core book.

Then, it would depend on your game, but assuming you have at least one mage and one adept in your game:

Street Magic

then

Augmentation

I might be tempted to flop these two around if you don't run a high magic game.

I would only get Unwired if you are really running Matrix based characters or games.  I would, in fact, suggest not buying it and only allowing it to be used if you have a player that wants to use it.  And make that player kick in part of your purchase cost.

As far as fluff and setting books, that jsut really depends on your personal game.  Heck, you can jsut go grab the old setting and fluff books from previous editions or make up your own stuff.



Vlad

All goes on the style of your group, as everyone else has said before. I just felt the need to add to the redundancy.

Personally, I would place Augmentation, Arsenal and Street Magic near the top. But that's just our style.

I love the serious wound rules in Augmentation, makes things more interesting if you ask me.

Arsenal? Self-explanatory.

Street Magic because I have four awakened characters to work with.

And I leave out Unwired just because our matrix specialist is fine with things as is. I've told him to look through and if he sees anything he wants implemented to talk to me. He hasn't mentioned anything yet, so I haven't implemented anything.

That's pretty much how I implement things, with the exception of Augmentation, which I went out of the way to mention.

As for setting books? I think that mainly depends on how much your players care about the overall setting. If they just want to jump right in and play then just do that. Improvise your own setting. If they care then get one of the books.

When I started back up 2 years ago (has it been that long?), I found the Denver Missions (over here) to be a big big help. They let me start slow and get the hang of the rules and the Denver setting with a new group too. It went very well and my group is getting ready to move to New York here on Sunday.

And the Denver Missions are free. Can't beat that with a stick

Carl

I find it strange that most people consider unwired as the "hacker" book; I tend to see it as a *computers/software/network in shadowrun* book, and thus useful for every character, much more than Arsenal and Augmentation.

Lots of great advice here. Thanks all.

And thanks for the link to the free adventures, Freejack! I'll definately take a look!

I'm probably in the minority here, but I find Unwired an excellent read and great for fluff. It explains a lot about how everyone interacts with the Matrix from John Q Normal to Shadowfolk.

I don't think Arsenal is all that compelling, save for the vehicle mod and chem sections. My group doesn't really give much thought to the differences between weapon A and armor B, nor is that our focus.

Augmentation is also a sweet read. very interesting gear in that one, as well as cool fluff.

We don't play with Runner's Companion.

Keep in mind that both Street Magic and Runner's Companion include a lot of choices to be made at character generation.

In a running campaign, especially Runner's Companion is practically useles- i'd buy it before you start your second campaign, it will be a great appetizer for making new characters.

I'd get Street Magic a bit earlier, it offers a lot of new Metamagics, magical groups, adept powers and new spells, stuff that advanced awakened characters will like.
It's also great for the GM because of the magical threats, but they could be a little bit too dangerous if you have characters built only with the core rules.

Augmentation and Unwired are both a great book if you want to update certain character types.
Especially for the stuff in Augmentation, this requires some money on the side of the players, though.
The GM stuff in there is great to build really tough opposition, especially cyberzombies are a kind of opposition only experienced runners should get up against.

Unwired will certainly add more depht to the electronic aspects of the game, but i'd stick to the basic rules first.

Arsenal has a lot of fun, easily availbale things to play with, even though i personally found it to be the least interesting.
It's advantage is that you can integrate it into a running campaign with ease at practically any point.
It's great to bring to the table after the first few runs so the group can go for a shopping tour.

I'd stick with the core rules for the beginning, then pick up Arsenal, followed by Unwired and Street Magic (depending on wether your group leans more towards the technological or magical aspects of the setting).
Then i'd get Augmentation.
I'd pick up RC last, for the reasons lined out above.

I also echo the comments about dice pool inflation.
Every book will jack up the power level of the game, but this goes for the players as well as for the opposition.

It's readily available if you don't mind getting it as a PDF from DTRPG or Battlecorps.

1)Sr4A core book, definately.
2)Runners Companion, because, first, it has a good section for newer players and vets on the different roles in the
shadows, as well as extra qualities(not just the surge ones, mind you, but a number of ones that, if you
have veteran Role Players, they might be looking for). The other options(infected, SURGE, Sapient critters)
are more advanced, but, if you are GMing, they also make great tools for NPCs. Also, I will say: Advanced
Life Style allows more life-breathing into a character(PC or NPC)
3) Street Magic and Augmentation: Someone is going to want to be a mage, someone is going to want to be
augmented. I consider these at the same level because their rules are just that equal. Because you have
lots of non-mage stuff in Street Magic(stuff you can use for security, or NPCs), and Augmentation has
all the medical rules, as well as Gene-ware(some of which is quite useful...)
4) Arsenal and Unwired: These are the ones where I really feel the core book is "good enough" until you
can get them. Exception is if you have a technomancer, then Unwired moves up a level . But, basicly,
most people are not going to immediately need more guns, and rules for writing their own program.
5) Running Wild
Special Case: Setting Sourcebook: Honestly, you can just do your own if you are a good(or even average)
GM, but these make it easier if you want to run in the interesting, canon places. Unfortunately, I think
only Feral Cities is still in-print, with Seattle 2072 something only those at GenCon have right now, and due out
fully in print later this year.