QUOTE (Kyrel @ Jun 14 2013, 03:46 AM)

The only real problem you get, is if the different players aren't "on the same page", so to speak, and one shows up with a character with a high DP being 8 dice, another shows up expecting trenchcoat 'n mirrorshades, and a third one shows up with a hyper optimized character build for pink mohawk with DP's in the 25+ range on their specialties, and 1-2 in everything else. Nobody is going to be having fun at that table. But stuff like that should really be left up to the players and GM to address, because IMO you can't do it through the rules, and still have a game that can appeal to a wide selection of different player types.
/Kyrel
To me, the problem isn't so much power level as play style. Shadowrun lets you start out all up and down the power and experience scale. You can be a fresh-faced kid out to make his mark, or a middle-aged ex-corporate expediter who is burned out and on a downward spiral. You can be someone who is a Jack of all trades, or someone who is a master of one. To me, it is more important to have people playing together, and playing the same overall style of game, than it is to try enforcing some kind of parity in power. Especially for a game like Shadowrun, where breadth of ability is often more important than being awesome at just one or two things.
The guy with 8 dice and the guy with 25+ could hang together if they both fit into the same world. Maybe the guy with 8 dice is Sammy the Snitch, a weaselly guy with lots of friends in low places and a pug-nosed revolver that he would rather not have to use. Maybe the guy with 25+ dice is a hulking troll modelled after Marv from Sin City. But if they are both roleplaying their characters appropriately in a gritty noir-style game, then they could certainly work together. The problems come up when the play styles clash. If the GM envisions a game of up-and-coming pros, the guy with 8 dice is playing a street punk loser who is just starting out as a runner, and the guy with 25+ dice spins up the barrels of his Vindicator minigun any time the game gets bogged down in all of that boring talking stuff, then things won't go so well.
It remains to be seen how flexible SR5 is. To me, the two biggest strengths of Shadowrun were the ability to craft characters of bewildering variety, and the ability to accommodate a wide variety of different play styles (although not always all at once).