So I have been dragooned into running SR4 some time soon™.

Its probably been 5 years since we did a SR game and I don't recall ever having played 4th ed.

So what as a long time gamer and GM need to know about 4th ed?

If there is a rules argument during a game, hash out a quick solution and stick to it for the rest of the current game , then look it up. Don't stop a game to look up a rule.

I would recommend you start with the Gamemaster Quickstart Rules They provide an excellent overview on how the rules changed and how to accomodate.

If you want to retain your previous SR group and characters, you might also find the SR3 to SR4 conversion guide useful.

Try to keep your first sessions pretty strait forward-let the players get
used to their characters.
This of course also allows you to slowly pick up the
rules and learn then through use as you go.
Unless you have a great understanding of the hacking rules,
try to dissuade players from hopping on the hacking boat
first go.
Most important rule-
have fun

edit:Also, you still need a crapton of 6 sides dice

It's questions like these that make me wish for a tip-filled DM's Guide to Running Shadowrun type publication...

Anyway, as D2F mentioned do check out the Quickstart Rules though you'll learn the game quickly just by playing it. The core rulebook gives you everything you need to know about the setting and the background changes that have occurred between 207x and whatever version you last played. I would suggest using the optional Matrix rules from Unwired and the 20th Anniversary Edition; they make a little more sense for a first-time or new 4th ed. player.

So just pick a location to start in and go!

My rule--going back to SR1, has always to discourage player deckers. More than either of the other planes (rigged and magic) cyber space is divorced from the meat plane that holds everything together and decker's actions, generally should be happening out of phase with the rest of the players. Even if your decker just runs wild through "security" 5 minutes before the run.

While this is great GMing advice, I was looking for stuff a bit nuts and bolty for SR4 vs the mismash of rules that I think I properly remember from the previous versions .

It's at most times smoother-especially combat-they cleaned up how damage
works IMO-in a way it's deadlier
AND
you don't have to use as much dice as previous editions

Yeah, I think most people missed the part in your opening post where you told them that you already had SR experience and were simply looking for a rules update on what changed with 4thED.

As I posted before, check out the quickstart rules. The changes aren't that drastic, but they are overall quite significant. It should be easy for you to adapt, though. The rules are now overall similar. They follow the same pattern for dice pools and action across all fields (Magic/Matrix/Combat). If you leave out player hackers, you're going to have to leave out player riggers as well, though as they are now the same. It is still possible to run a group without players in these roles, but it might meet a few bumps in the road on the way.

Not going to happen.

/I/ love riggers to much. Hardwired is (or was) such an awesome book and so uncredited in SR fandom. Riggers, T-Birds and Panzers are going to stay.

Not that any new players should be dealing with Panzers.

In 4th ed. hacking is handled simultaneously and can be a simple or as difficult as you choose. Unlike 1st - 3rd ed., a hacker doesn't need to go on a digital dungeon crawl. Hacking can be resolved in a few dice rolls if you choose... and that's what I would recommend to someone new to 4th ed.

You can balance meat/magic/digital to take up equal time in your game. That's probably the biggest difference (and some would say improvement) from previous editions.


Hacking and rigging rules are merged now. You can leave out hackers if you choose but there's no mechanical reason to do so.

Then you will have to break your rule of discouraging player deckers, as they are now not only essentially the same, but literally the same. Every decker can rig and every rigger can hack. Even standard rigging procedures like controlling drones and or vehicles will eventually involve matrix combat, viruses, IC, Spiders and hacking. It is probably one of the most fundamental changes in 4thED, that the Matrix is now not only wireless, but also intertwined with rigging and electronic warfare.
Considering that there are no longer specific cyberdecks but that commlinks are now what allows you access to the matrix, even your average streetsam or mage might be faced with IC, Programs and Data Search routines.


That and the rule functionality of "augmented reality", allowing for true "combat hackers"

You prolly wanna track down the anniversary edition of 4th then,
the vehicles rules as used with system for combat and the like
is covered much more than standard 4th

Also-Arsenal is where you get rules for tricking out your
vehicles

And yeah-sorry-i missed the part about your experience
with previous editions at first

morning haze...

SR4 did a better job than previous editions of making the hacking a part of the same game rather than at times seeming to be a different game that was played in parallel to whatever else was going on. I would however recommend you keep the magic and hacking basic for the first couple runs. There is a simple step by step way of dealing with maglocks and cameras that is outlined in the appropriate chapter (don't have the book in front of me so can't site exact page) of the core rulebook, and a blaster mage with a spirit or two is really easy to run.

To reaffirm what has been stated already, take a look at the quickstart rules available on the catalyst website. It will serve to give you some good context while you are reading through the more thorough but long-winded explanations of the rules in the books.

Hey if everyone can do it, that makes things easier for me in some ways. And searching and ice for everyone makes more sense--and I am grinning at the scene of the drek-hot decker banging on some ice only to have the groups mage give a valid user name and password to float on it.

It should be an interesting group. One of the players and I have been gaming for 30 years(ish, each) and the rest are new to face to face gaming.

Ignore them. I've been running SR4 for two months, having never run SR before at all, and I can handle Riggers just fine. The only Matrix rules you absolutely need for Riggers are cold/hot sim, dumpshock, and the table on p. 247 of SR4A. As your Rigger advances, xe'll want to add Stealth progs, Spoof and Sniffer, EW and ECCM, and as long as you can keep one step ahead of them on the learning curve or handwave them away, you'll be fine.

Only real difference between Hacking and the other systems is: It is program+skill(in essence, your program becomes the attribute). I, as a general rule for players, suggest very strongly that they have all their programs at the same rating, and use skill groups for their hacking skills starting off. That makes it easy, since then you can just say
"Roll X dice" for now, and, as you get more comfrtable with the hacking rules(which are really quick and dirty.
I mean, one game had the hacker go off and do something alone, and the old SR vets went to get the pizza for the night...When they came back me and the hacker's player were going "What took you guys so long! We're starving!"
Yeah..took 10 minutes to hack in, find the file he was looking for, beat the Black IC, and get out...Oh, and the hacker
made a backdooor with Super-User access...9 hours in-game time, 10 minutes RL time...)