QUOTE (Laodicea @ Jul 8 2013, 05:53 AM)
Basically, I've houseruled my 4th edition into the kind of shape where I consider it to not only be playable, but I actually think it's a fantastic game.
I don't really feel the need to have a 5th edition. Particularly when it seems that the 5th edition is really just a 4.5. I'm already running a 4.5.
I want to try to be open minded about it. I honestly haven't ready every bit of data about 5th edition that has been released, so I may be missing some spectacular features.
Thoughts?
Generally speaking, the Matrix and Magic rules appear to have been sharpened.
Previously it was possible to be a magical superpower without ever having to worry about Drain, and now it appears Drain is back on the table in line as risk vs reward. You can still drop cheap direct spells on the enemy, but they're not going to trounce anyone like a high Force fireball will.
The Matrix rules get rid of the giant whopping mess that 'nodes' created. Nodes were a, to borrow someone else's term here, a very gamist approach to the Matrix. Basically, nodes were worthless as a place for actual functioning people, businesses, and corporations to get any work done, because of a combination of accessibility and subscriber limits. Even a nexus could only let some 30-odd people in, which would mean that a real business would have to have dozens or even hundreds of the things linked together just to make an average office work. This completely flew in the face of the described setting, as walking into a nightclub like Dante's Inferno with its hundreds of customers all interacting with the nodes via AR would be impossible without huge numbers of nexuses. But to actually do this in the game would mean that a hacker would have to sift through and hack dozens of nodes to get anything done.
Grid / Object / Host is just a better way of sorting things. The replacement of extended hacking tests and the largely-unexplained user/security/admin access levels with marks is a very efficient and tactile way of handling Matrix actions, as well. Overall, the Matrix will probably be an accessible system to all players, and not just the ones who want to learn the gigantic cluster of bizarre architecture they had to in SR4.
Combat-wise, Initiative seems to matter more, since that's how you get your IPs again. Restricting to 'one attack' (though that's really not quite accurate, as there appear to be ways to split attacks, requiring split dice pools) will speed things along turn to turn, and combined with the extra defense dice and options but higher damage, possibly making combat engagements lasting longer than 6 seconds game time a possibility. And a little less "I shoot I dodge."
From what's been said, burst fire will subtract from the defender rather than adding more damage (note: subtracting from the defender has the net effect of adding more damage by net hits). This improves the list of tactical options, and also makes things like vehicles more resilient (shooting a tank with a full auto machine gun should no longer wreck the tank).
All in all, the system appears much more usable than SR4. With SR4, I did what you did -- I house-ruled nearly every single system. But I eventually got frustrated with the amount of work that needed to be done to fix it (and with systems like the Matrix that just couldn't be fixed).