I haven't played in over a year, but even then I found it impossible to have as much fun as I did back in the mid 90s. As new sourcebooks were released, and game information was updated, lots of fun-killers were introduced to the Shadowrun world. I am asking essentially what things you wish had never been implemented into Shadowrun. I'm not trying to be overly negative. My choices are:

Mnemonic Enhancer. I've read the errata, and it still makes things too powerful. Easily the biggest game-breaker I've ever encountered.

SURGE: Essentially pointless. I'm sure some freelancer who worked on it will chime in here and flame me about all of the wonderful benefits from using a SURGEd character, but I've never seen any benefits. Almost all of the positive surges can be done better with bio/cyber/edge/magic, and all the negative surges are stupid. Who is going to pay 15 BP to be an ork, as opposed to 5 through regular BP construction?

Build Points: I am a min/maxer, but this system totally promotes powergaming to the extreme. I haven't used ABCDE creation since the Shadowrun Companion came out.

Otaku: if you want to be a badass decker these days, you're going to be severely hindered unless you are an Otaku. Otakus also promote huge min/maxing.

Ghouls as player characters: negatives far outweight the positives. Same goes for shapeshifters. Just try to make a shapeshifter character who can hang with the rest of your starting group. Good luck.

Metavarients: Why?

Cyberlimbs: Totally underpowered and virtually useless, nobody who knows the rules will ever get these (unless you're cramming them full of rigger gear or whatever else).

I believe Nickolodeon put it best...

"Because we can."

Night-ones rule. They are not unbalancing. They are just different. To be honest your problem isn't the game, it is your gm, or if you are the gm your handle on the game. Fun is the goal, and if you don't like something that a rulebook puts out, do not allow it. So start having fun again!

Crap Stuff In Shadowrun:

Metavarients: Totally agree, they're all rubbish and don't really add anything to the game. At least the basic metahumans look okay, some of these guys look like total fannies.

Shapeshifter/Ghoul PC Rules: Totally underpowered compared to their NPC counterparts, and unnecessarily so - a well designed mage or sammie is still gonna whip them all day even with NPC style benefits.

The 'changes' to Aztechnology: The shift from Ultimate Evil wearing Megacorp guise to 'Just One of the Boys' in Corp Download was total rubbish.

Cyberlimbs: Totally agree. In my book a guy with cyberlimbs should be rocking! Why on earth does a guy with two cyberlegs, a dermal sheath and titanium bones hold up better to bullets than a full cyber replacement? Surely a metal body is equivalent to having titanium bones and more than just a dermal sheath! Titanium bone lacing has a better bonus to damage than full cyberlimb replacement as well! Ridiculous. These rules need a total overhaul. My basic house rule at the mo' (no PC has invested yet) is to halve the ECU's, costs and Essence costs of the improved Quickness and Strength whilst also having alpha, beta and deltaware proportionately increase the ECU available as opposed to decreasing it (which makes NO sense!)

The changes which reduced vehicle body scores down to the 2-5 range for most. Really stupid! Though you've got to go all the way back to RBB to find the more credible body scores!

The death of the ED/SR crossover stuff... okay, so it's not dead, but most of it was put on the shelf for a long time!

Cutting out a whole bunch of cool stuff in 3rd edition critters... off the top of my head they done over Alienation power, Megalodons and Wraiths. They added in some cool new spirit types, but nothing amazing. Admittedly rules for Wraiths have since been published elsewhere so I won't complain too much.

The total shafting magic users got in 3rd edition: Where to begin? How about the impossibility of learning high force spells (Double force TN!), the ludicrous changes to anchoring or the spell lock bumming (give them force ratings, yeah, but the system is screwy!)

Whilst on the topic of magic, how poor is the convenient and silly removal of the spell grounding rules! Nothing dissuaded ridiculous foci use like the threat of a spell blasting your team-mates to pieces through it. Now all you have to worry about is the focus taking a hit.

SURGE: The most pointless and silly thing I've ever seen. Somebody thought it was a good idea... I'd like to meet them and thank them for wasting a good bunch of pages in an otherwise pretty good sourcebook.

The change in format of the books... I probably would never have gotten into SR if it wasn't for eye-catching, exciting and downright cool books like Shadowtech, Paranormal Animals of Europe and the like. The new books might contain more, but I'd settle for less with a higher quality factor!

Most of the athletics rules in the SR Companion... toss them out and start again. If anybody at Fanpro has a copy of Fields of Fire they might start there - I can lend you my copy if it'll improve things!

Otaku: Essentially bumboys. I'd rather have a decker any day. Keep them as NPCs and I can just about handle them existing!

Tactical Computer: Okay, so it was ridiculous before... but now it's just combat sense but cyberware. Feels kinda pointless! Some halfway house was needed. In a prior campaign (2nd Edition) we had one cyberguy who's gimmick was pretty much that he had a tac comp - he had some other cyber, but that was it. It took up most of his essence and was installed in less than wholesome circumstance... but it made the character and made him unique from everyone else. In 3rd edition he'd not be much different from the rest of the boys, just with a few more combat pool.

Changes which are clearly ridiculous but designed for 'game balance' (urgh! gimme realism anyday!): Examples include the very silly 'Hauling the Load' rules and the totally harsh levels of strength needed for recoil compensation.

Ambidexterity: I do love dishing this out... but it's a bit ludicrous at the higher levels... a guy with this will always hammer a non-ambidextrous fighter of similar skill which just shouldn't really be the case.

The changes in the Tir: Oh, actually, we're not really this great, super-paranoid hard to bust into place that runners should be terrified of... in actual fact we've flopped and our economy is bust and you can cross our borders and bum us anytime. I liked it when the very name of Tir Tairngire terrified runners!

That's all that spring to mind at the moment... I'm sure there'll be more later! There are lots of good things too, but that's not what this thread is about!

Immortal elves & unbalanced magic...

Crap about how the Horrors are coming and stuff. It's made people at this forum care more about ED at times than SR...Made things whacktastic, imo.

It kinda annoys me that to use a rangefinder with my smartlink-2, i need both the cyber, and the extra .1 wt on the gun taking up the top mount of my pistol. and its the only way to get a bonus better that my mag 3 eyes at long range.

Encumberance rules are broken. definte houserule on that.

totaly agree on the screwyness of alphaware ECU. But at least it says round to nearest, so 1 ecu is still 1 for alpha. I rather like the cyberskull myself, despite its many shortcomings as a cyberlimb. and limbs dont give enough ECU to compensate for the essence cost of the limb.

metavarients are messed up, primarily in the stiff amount of racism they have to face.

ED stuff annoys me a bit, mosty because i dont care about ED and dont want to buy books for a game i dont play just to understand the metaplot.

Aye, Teulisch. I don't fragging CARE if the Horrors are coming in SR or not. LEAVE IT ALONE.

Besides, it's Yamatetsu who's the real bad guys. <_< >_> *flees*

As an artist, I'd say that one of the unfortunate changes over the years has been the artwork. The metavariants are fine as far as the rules are concerned, but I can't even think about making half of those characters due to me not being able to shake some of those dumbass drawings (don't get me started on that shapeshifter illustration.... blech). I'd agree with whomever said that they'd prefer more quality over quantity.

Yeah, SURGE is pretty lame. I don't understand decisions like that. I disregard SURGE in my games. It never happened. "Oh, so you want to play a tiger-striped troll with bat wings? right..."

Other than that, I love the rest of the world. I make my own changes to keep things dark and freaky for my players. When something seems a little too 'nancy', it gets balefired.

SURGE is good. We have a surprising amount of SURGErs in our game. Well, only one...But she's one of the central chars in the group. But it's mainly a flavor option for the harder-core RPers, I suppose.

Haven't Mnemonic Enhancers been around for a very long time. I have the Shadowtech book, it was printed n 1992.

The changes made in Man and Machine (1999) should be what you don't like. I don't see a problem with them any way, big deal you can learn Language and knowledge skills faster. Which seem to be neglected skills anyway, it seems most people I hear from and see choose a starting Language or 2 then a hand fulll of Knowledge skills and call it a day.

I think the point is, what some people hate, others quite like - you can't please all the people all of the time.

I like the fact that Aztech went back to being a more normal megacorp.

Shadowrun is slowly but surely turning into a comic book. I dislike SURGE because of that, but the one thing I cannot stand, which I truly loathe, and sadly few people agree with me, is the fact that Shadowrunners are supposed to be discrete. Corporate doctrine teaches us that they don't exist.

Read: I fucking hate shadowrunners having movies and shoe endorsements.

Part 1: Rebuttal

Otaku: Not worthless if you have a high money vs. karma game, a lot of which I see go around. Buy your way to the top, rather than spend Karma? Any day of the damn week, thank you. But wait... what if you're not in a money-grubbing game? Deep Resonance, here I come.

Ghouls as player characters: I love my ghoul. Sure, the benefits don't match the drawbacks, but jesus. If that's your take, why play Shadowrunners instead of mafiosi or an all-lonestar game, eh? Because it's *fun* to play a ghoul some days! Because it's neat! Because you have to wear a wristband that says, "DO NOT TOUCH MY BLOOD, CONTAINS HMHVV!"

The changes in the Tir: Maybe it's just me, having played such an anti-Tir, economics-major character for so long... but look at Tir Tairngire. With their original laws, their nearly-absolute Iron Curtain, their economic policies of total exclusion for non-Tir corporations... Their Empire of Grass and Steel couldn't have lasted more than 20 years, tops. Which is about how long those laws were in place. They were like the old USSR, except lacking a few vital things that made the USSR last for 50 years - an exploitable population base that was almost as large as the ordinary citizenry, absolute fear and obedience from the populace (almost all of whom were portrayed as loving their Gov't), semi-open trade with friendly nations (find me a nation, in canon that is openly friendly with them. Azzania. SOME NAN nations... Sort of... not many, eh?). The most important thing they lack, that the USSR had? The vast natural resources that come with owning nearly all of a continent. Tir has oregon. OREGON.

Sure, it made a great bad guy, but it would've been totally unrealistic to keep it going like it was any longer.

The 'changes' to Aztechnology: With Darke out of power, why would they be any more evil than say... Fuchi was? And Fuchi was plenty messed up, yo. This was taken care of *in* canon, through published adventures and sourcebooks.

Part 2: Agreements and Furthers.
Cyberlimbs. Yes, yes, yes. They should be more useful than they are, or be much cheaper. They're a staple of the genre, yet I made an NPC that paid more for one cyberarm than Wired Reflexes 2 Alpha'd. What was it? Oh, it just had strength 10 and Quickness 10, to match his bioware-raised natural stats. Oh, and a Gyro in the wrist. 's it.

DNA/DOA. While it's nice to see, every once in a while, a run that can't be beaten... that was just a BAD adventure.

The small print run of Universal Brotherhood. I couldn't find a copy of this to complete the arc until long after it'd been rendered irrelevant by the passage of time.

Rigger 3: I love riggers. I do. Especially drone riggers. But jesus on a pogo stick, could you please have eliminated the need for Rigger 3 revised? Some of those tables and scales are just insane. A motorcycle having a fuel tank max of like 5 liters, and only being able to get 15 km per liter? WHAT?

Im quite content wth SR as it is. I don't understand the "immature development" some seem to refer to.
My only "but" is that nearly every impact on the world or major event circles around or is heavily connected to magic in some way. Ok, the sixth world is an unpredictable and dangerous place, but politics, economics and technology is fun once and then, too.

Maybe I'm not doing it right, but Surge hasn't been an issue in our game. We use the random Surge Test rules on page 138 of YotC, even for new characters.

The Sammies usually don't Surge because of low essence. Theoretically possible, but hasn't happened yet.

The Magicians/Adept generally don't surge because of way too high T#'s

Out of 8 characters only 3 have Surged, I know that's way high "statistically" for the SR universe but so is the team's level of Magic (and Cyber for that matter).

Of those 3 these were the results:
Character 1: a -2 and a +1
Character 2: a -2 and a +2
Character 3: a -1 and a +3

Granted anyone could have got a +6 and a -6 allowing them to look like a bad Saturday morning cartoon, but you can also have the GM pick your positive or negatives or both.

let's see.....
Otaku: bleh, whatever, i don't allow them

SURGE: nonononononononono and once again: NO! surge is not allowed in my games, it's cyberpunk, not a fraggin' freakshow (hah! like it isn't already.... someone with more metal than soul that moves faster than god, a 3.5 meter tall monster, someone lobbing fireballs while being only 1.2 meters high....)

Ghouls: Hey, they are cool, and the "OHMIGODAGHOUL! RUN!" factor is fun! Watch those guards flee when you slash around with your claws..... fun, fun!

Cyberlimbs: IMG they cost 20k, and cost 0.5 essence for a obvious normal one..... so, cost cut in 5, essence cut in 2, that helps put cyberlimbs higher on a runners list.....

Mnemonic Enhanchers: Bleh, whuddeva, it's not allowed for starters anyway, and it's only a way for samurai to get more even with mages (i don't allow awakened people to use the ME, it messes with their magic for reasons yet unknown....) in mid to high karma games....

Metavariants: most are gay, the Night one is cool though.... i always wanted to play a drow in SR... dual wielding scimi-*is shot*

build point system: it's great, it allows for great control, and it slightly hoses the mages! you all know what i think about magic, right?

Changes in the Aztech: *shrugs* whuddeva, just run them as the great evil dominator with a booming voice in your games..... i do!

Changes to the tir: hah! the sissy elves get hosed! i love it, but i combine it, the tir is dissolved from inside, but it's also keeping it's bordersecurity on the top of their list! Runners still are afraid, but the tir gets hosed as well...... weeeee!

I don't get what the opposition to SURGE really is. I mean, it makes a nice back drop, but it's pretty rare that a character is going to roll himself SURGE'd. On top of that, there's probably like 10k people or less in Seattle that are SURGE'd. I don't remember the numbers, but the percent of the population was pretty damn low that did SURGE. Although, no one in my group seems to really care. Every so often when someone makes a new character they roll for it, but I think we've had maybe 1 or 2 SURGE characters tops. Which has been a pretty low percentage for the amount of characters we've gone through since YOTC.

I agree on the cyberlimbs cost, but it's never been an issue for us because none of us that play cyber monsters like the idea of them much. I guess it's just a taste thing. I might offer to the lower the cost of them if someone wants them in the future though, it seems like a fair idea.

The whole NAN issue has probably been my biggest dislike lately. Although it seems like some internal and external pressures have started to come to bear on them, we may see some collapse of some of the NAN nations, which would be a fine thing in my opinion.

I suppose I didn't really like the idea of the dome over London and other things that they tried doing in that sourcebook, it seemed a little forced. Along with the whole anti-nuclear power thing, but I suppose that's a product of the misinformation of the '80s.

Overall, I don't have any huge complaints and stick to canon about 98% or so. The minor differences coming in with some of the big NPCs and such in our game.

Aside from the cool SURGE beasties, it also allows for a new level of uncertainty. Many players (and all munchkins) have learned the lead tolerances of all races, metavariants, and critters. With a game mechanic that allows you to change a few of those variables at GM whim, they might be a bit more cautious.
Also, when that thorned troll physical adept just tore your buddy apart with his elbow...

Best case of SURGE I saw: a player wanted to roll the chance, got one success, etc. He wanted to roll for his pet snake, the snake got a bit better results. Astral sight, numerous sensory advantages, altered coloration and fur.

I don't really see what the problem is. I may be a relative new comer to the Shadowrun universe, but I like it the way it is. The rules mess with my head a little bit at times, but I like the setting that I have to work with.

SURGE/Metavariants: I love em. The way I see it is that it gives players options. And I'm all about giving my players options to do be as flexible as possible. For example one of my players plays a character who is half toxic. Someone who has a few minor toxic powers, but who is actively trying to stay away from a full blown toxic path. A complete and total rartity, and something that goes against the rules but it does give things a unique twist.

The Downfall of the Tir: I completely agree with the things some of the other people have said on this matter. The Tir displayed its elitist, holier than thou attitude for a long time. And the other countries that had to deal with that B.S finally had enough, and decided to smack the country with a very harsh lesson in economics. A lesson that they still don't quite seem to get in my opinion.

Aztechnology/Aztlan: I still see them as a rather evil force, perhaps not Sauron Lord of the Rings evil, but that country is still a facist dictaitorship and people still practice blood magic. It's like looking at Iraq back when Saddam was still in charge. It could have easily been seen as "evil".

Cyberlimbs: I do agree with this sticking point. Cyberlimbs do seem a tad bit expensive. But its not that hard to make them a bit cheeper.

Mnemonic Enhancers: Here I just upped the price a bit. But at the same time, I never let once peice of cyberware rule. Tactics can make or break any kind of cyber or bio enhancement.

Probably the only thing that I didn't care for was how fast the Bug City crisis was "solved" only two years of "game time". But then again when they used the whole "Betrayal" idea from Threats 2, I did feel they made up for it. All in all I think that perhaps we should all take it a bit easier. Worse things can happen than the Tir getting put in its place.

first i agreewith a lot of what was said as far as the problems, mainly surge and otaku pcs bug me out of that list, and the cyberlimb thing as well.

my big gripe:

where did the cyberpunk go?

what i mean by this is that i think the books and the metaplot have been increasing the share that the fantasy part of shadowrun holds over it, for instance everything released since fasa taht added new material (well not everything, but close...)

besides from magic taking over there is also the whole tech. advancement thing, the technology (biotech, nano, etc.) has passed up neuromancer levels (this happened in the sprawl series too, making the world change a bit to fast for me) in large part because the devs did not cut off the relationship between the real world and shadowrun back in 89 like the should have, that way they could have had tech. stagnate in certain areas and go faster in others in order to keep the vyberpunk atmosphere

shadowrun was always a cyberpunk game to me, the fantasy thrown in there to make it a game/fun/unique/more fictional, otherwise kids playing a super dark gritty realistic cyberpunk game might lose their grip on reality a little, this way you could laugh during a game session instead of getting pissed/depressed that the world sucks so much, and yeah this is probably what it will look like in the future, or something like it.

desclaimer: if i made little to no sense, dont blame me, blame my lack of sleep

good night

Shadowrun always came across as less than Cyberpunk-ish than other games.

-Siege

Yeah...But I have a habit of making chars that tend to resemble things out of CP2020. And thus, are mildly more anime-ish. 'tis weird.

Surge - well, it was over and done with, so unless you happen to have a handy chunk of Halley's hanging about, not many runners, or anyone else, are going to be scaled, tailed, feathered, poison-spitting dwarves.

And I thought the Metavarients are way cool - Cue "Betsy the Cow" Minotaur Pornstar.


Totally OT-

"Handy Hunk of Halley's" - That reminds me, was the mystery probe in "Wake of the Comet" ever identified?
Sounds like an interesting run idea - have someone try to auction off a "Genunie Chunk of Commet!" (Sic) on the shadowboards, then find that someone had mysteriously wasted everything even close to the anouncement, including a good chunk of the Shadowlands. So, using some discretionary funds, C'ptin Chaos sayeth, "GO forth, N00bs, and find mine defiler!" 'cause he's trying like hell to dig up the back-up copies and resurrect a good chunk of server at the same time.

Instant decker/Okatu/Mage/Street Runner Scavenger Hunt. Everyone wants a piece of the action, and it's open season on anything that looks remotely interesting.

Woooo...What prize? Cash/Magic and a genuine look-see at something that caused such massive pain to all?


L:~

Too ,much IE/dragons.

Okatu's are wrong...Remove them.

Sruge would be better if it was some how just related to the mana level..IE some people just expressed said taits,and it just started with YOTC.And to remove the point cost for being a changling.

What does everyone have against otaku? To me, it seems like a natural outgrowth to having a populace that plugs their bring directly into a computer. Eventually someone is going to come along and not need the computer, since the brain is quite adaptive as it is. Now the SR explanation might be a little funky, and the whole Resonance thing, etc., but at the same time, if a group of people sprung up like that I'd expect them to have some sort of mystical/werido explanation for their abilities.

Also, from what I remember reading about them, after an otaku gets into the mid-20's they start losing their otaku powers. I can't think of too many serious shadowrunners that would want some kid tagging along. I know there'd be exceptions, but I think otaku fit in quite well.

Just because something exists in the world doesn't mean every other player should be allowed to play it or play with it.

@Playing Games:
SURGE was tied to the mana level, at least sort of. The emotional state of the world, whether tied directly or indirectly to Halley's Comet raised the mana level to a degree in some places and activated the required genes for SURGElings to express. It's no different than goblinization in that respect.

It's just that after the Comet left people calmed down and things went back to 'normal'. Or at least, that's how I interpreted it all.

Otaku are, because of the possibilities that they represent, IMO one of the best additions. What we have here is another wild card, an area in which humans and GDs and IEs are all on the same level. No one knows how Otaku work; it's not a mystical Fourth-world thing that all the power-players from there know about.
The Otaku are the future. To destroy the future is to destroy yourself.

~J

To me it is an age thing.I mean, the whole,hit "18 " lose your power...Bla!


I mean,I can't think of a singel shadowrun team that would let a 13 year old ,no mater how well he hacked.To much a liability,both the meat world,and priorities.

That 13 year old can do things you never dreamed of, chummer. Hell, they ain't even entirely human anymore.
Some running teams would think like you. They would be outclassed by the teams that did use the kids.

~J

You should glance through the Matrix rules on them. It's a reflection of age on the mind. The powers just don't stop working one day. They slowly fade. So you could have a 50 year old dude who's still going strong or only slightly weakened. He's just be the rare otaku guy. I also have a feeling as the phenomenon grows and becomes more 'normal' or whatever the otaku will learn how to adapt to their powers as they age.

As Kagetenshi said, I think otaku are some of the best things to come out of the SR universe lately.

And some teams that used them would wind up dead,becuase that little kid was mad at not being taken to the meet,'cause he really wanted to go..He was off his game.Or worse in a meet he opens his mouth,and says something he shouldn't.Or maybe he brags about how cool he is,too the wrong person.

I know these are problems of everyone,but kids have more problems like that than grown ups.

And Deckers can get better/completely change by getting a new deck..IRRC Otaku,basically leave finger prints, that don't change.And it doesn't mater how good you are,CACTo has someone better.If they can track you,down,and know who did what,and put together who did it,that Otaku's head will have a whole new hole in it's head.

basically, a decker can miss-up,and even be trace.He can always get a new deck.Otaku,miss up once,and they are dead.

Otaku can't be identified by Deck MAC Address ##:##:##:##:##:##.
And it does depend on how you play Otaku, I admit, but my view on them is that quite literally they are barely human anymore. They're not acting like a 12-year-old kid, they're acting like... well, I don't even really have a basis for comparison. To these people, who by the way are typically far brighter than average (not all have 9/8/8 mental stats, but I think the implication is that 5s and 6s are pretty common), the real world is the Matrix, and the rest is only necessary insofar as it maintains the Matrix. They've got devotion, they've got reason, they've got logic, and they've got to constantly be using pretty much every aspect of their intelligence to survive, not just cunning. They are also typically known as quite antisocial, so I don't think you're going to find many mouthing off. Sullenly glaring, perhaps, but not mouthing off.
I don't know. Some of what I've said is, I think, supported in canon in the sections in which Otaku appear (though our view is skewed towards Deus-controlled Otaku), but I'm too tired at the moment to look up evidence. Maybe in the morning.

~J

Sheer force of personality. When an Otaku starts talking, you listen.

~J

My biggest gripe is the Matrix book's ass-load of knowledge skills necessary to be a good decker/programmer.

and computer today are more knowhow then reflexes. i have used years reading books and the web and still there are many people that know way more stuff about computers then i will ever have time to learn.

as for having kids along, kids have a bad habbit of handeling the rigors of places like the barrens easyer then many adults. the brat on the street will have to match his mouth with his fists or he will eat concrete long before he gets to join a runner team. most otaku will know when to speak and when to keep shut from the very fact that they grew up in areas like that. oh and who says they have to come in the flesh? have a phone with speaker function (and maybe a camera) and have him call in

yes there have been a lot of focus on magic lately, but magic is easy when it comes to creating nasty turns of events. cyberpunk comes from the very fact that people hook theyre body into machines. riggers, deckers and samurai all make the cyberpunk feel be very present.

now that the focus have been droped on the ED to SR crossovers we may well see the world of SR pull some fast and wild ones it could not do before (time will tell)

as for runners in the spotlight, i dont think they stamp themselfs as shadowrunners, maybe security consultants or soldiers for hire but not shadowrunners. think of it as a ruban myth that most of us will never run into unless they think we need to, just like the mafia or secret service

In no particular order...

Horrors/ED Crossover stuff
SURGE
Otaku (Magic in the matrix) (isn't that a rip off from a CP2020 thing anyway?)
Shapeshifter/Ghoul PCs (they're NPCs)
Metavariants as PCs (I don't care if different regions have different legends the thought of Cyclops and Minotaurs and Giants is ridiculous)
Too many metas (Priority A was better, Points system works well)
Too much cyber - who buys that crap in order for the corps to make it? (this ain't CP2020)
IEs
SINs (The whole way this works is utter rubbish)
Deus

I'm a 1st ed flavour junkie - Ghost-Who-Walks, Dodger and Sally Tsung are the three earliest runners I remember (that was a cool story). Back then it kind of made some sense.

However...

I liked what was done with Bugs/UB
I always knew Aztec was bad, even before knowing why...
I like the game better now - the rules are better AND the things I dislike are primarily 2nd edition things, which, one way or another aren't strictly relevant anymore. I'm starting to see that the more recent sourcebooks are getting back to the SR roots.

The one thing that is needed is a bit of stability - stop the major world shaking events happening every other day and get the focus back to running the shadows (I think this is actually happening)

@Xirces:

Cyberpunk is relatively short on mainstream cyberware. A lot of the stuff from the Chromebooks is clearly marked as strange/crazie/stupid back alley work


@all

The worst things to SR:

More Metamagic
Reduction in power/abilities of FAB, living organisms
Deletion of spell grounding through a focus
Trolls
SURGE
Drain rounding that benefits the mage
Immortal Elves that did everything important
Most stuff in the germany sourcebook, mainly:
The weapons
The dragon cloning/fast grow tanks[1]
The "Us to!" timeline[2]
Berlin Anarchy


Birdy


[1] Only way to explain the dragon inflation.
[2] Sure, germany goes back to pre 1871. Sure, Westfalia becomes Christian Conservative. Sure Berlin becomes an Anarchie. <Blerg>