So...

I was overjoyed when Shadowrun 2050 came out. Now we're getting Shadowrun5, and it looks like my group will be picking up a few corebooks. I'm usually the GM, and I'm a die-hard fan of the original 2050s setting. Those of you more In The Know than I about Shadowrun 5 and the changes that got made, can you tell me how much conversion would be necessary to use the rules and equipment from Shadowrun 2050 with SR5?

A ton. The Shadowrun 2050 book was written solely for SR4A. I've also gone on record numerous times about SR2050 and how much I hate hate hate hate that book on every single level.

Now, if you want to play 2050s era in SR5, it's a whole hell of a lot easier since all you don't have to make nearly as many changes to the core rules of the game. First, all you really need to do with magic as far as I can tell is require shamen to take a Mentor Spirit and disallow mages from taking them. I haven't taken a good look at spirit summoning in SR5 yet, so you might need to tinker with that if you really care about the spirit vs. elemental thing (me, I'd just ignore it).

Matrix is FAR easier to fix than it was in SR4A because the system feels more like decking did back in the earlier editions from an in-world perspective. You don't even really need to change the rules for a lot of stuff. Eliminate bricking for anything you don't have a hardline connection to, remove the physical damage from using a hot sim and switch it back to stun, disallow any form of wireless hacking and instead refluff Noise to be just signal degredation. This puts deckers back in the comfy chair at home, takes away their ability to hack guns and cyberware, but also removes the biggest threat to them to balance against that nerf (they only take physical damage during cybercombat). You can keep or remove Convergence as you like, reskinning it to be "full system alert" or something instead.

Equipment is pretty easy too. Reset the availability for APDS to 16, remove any equipment that wasn't introduced in the specific era you're playing in (or fiddle with the Availability if it's something brand new, like bioware in 2050-2055 or so). I'd go so far as to reskin cyberware grades too. Used is still used, standard is "generic" or off-brand implants, alphaware is brand-name standard grade, betaware is alphaware, and deltaware is betawear (if you're playing post 2054, which is I think when betaware was introduced...?) Only other major change I can think of is that you might want to increase adept power points by 50% or so to reflect the lower magic levels and to help rebalance them against street sams with the loss of some key implants and bioware due to technology curve.

Now, I haven't actually tested any of these or done the math to see how it would affect the game, this is just me brainstorming what you'd need to change. I'd be very surprised if CGL doesn't release a SHADOWRUN 2053 or something to do what 2050 (tried and failed to) do for 4A, but I wouldn't expect that book for at least a year as they're going to focus on the new plotbook, Missions, and getting the core sourcebooks out (Matrix, Magic, Combat/Guns, Cyberware, and the Companion).

I'm running in 2055.
I've pretty much run it as SR4 and now I'm moving to SR5.
Wireless is everywhere but hard lines are used for any thing important.

A decker needs to jack in to a hard line to go Hot VR.
For a rigger you need a fiber optic link to a RCC for hot VR.

For SR5, I like where they have taken Shadowrun.

I just want to dial back a few things to more reflect 2050 and my own personal tastes.

For example, in my campaign, I've decided to halved the price of Cyberware and Decks.
So a standard data jack in 500 nuyen not 1000.

That leave Bioware new and very expensive (at the full listed price).
I also treat Bioware as one grade higher for detection purposes.

It also makes decks a lot more affordable and a lot less like finding the golden goose if you loot one.

I then basically doubled the ware grade multipliers to better reflect 2050.
So for example, so Alpha is 1.5 times, Beta is 2 times, and Delta is 5 times (rather than 2.5).
So a beta grade data jack is .7 essence and cost 1000 nuyen.


Beta Clinics are fairly rare.
A few Delta clinics do exists, but are very rare and hard to find.

All this helps to balance out the mundane/awaken game balance and put more cyberware in to a cyberpunk game.

For Shaman's and Mages I've tried a few things.

I play Shaman's need to make a connection to the local spirits to summon them.
They have to spend 1 day per force to work out a relationship with the local spirits.

If they have, then if the Spirit goes free, it will only attack the Shaman on a critical glitch.

Also for nature spirits, they are one point of force higher if in their home domain.
They are also one point less if outside their domain.
On area's that have mixed domains they are their normal force.

I play fairly loose on the spirits domains. A City spirit (Spirit of Man) covers all of the Seattle Metroplex public spaces and roads.
If the Shaman spends the time to build a relationship with a Hearth Spirit then all Hearth Spirits in the Seattle Metroplex are covered.
A river spirit covers all of the local rivers and its domain is any where the river has reached (like the flood plain around the river banks).
So on the river or by the river back a force five spirit will be treated as a force 6.
On a dry flood plain the are their normal force.
On the top of a near by hill, they are treated as force 4.
A Sea Spirit would be plus one force on the beach or ocean.
It would be normal force on a river that flows in to the ocean.
If in a museum then it would be minus 1 force.

I haven't found a good way to differentiate the Hermetic.

So, I've missed these discussions. Can you link me any of the threads? I don't want to ask you to retype the stuff, but sadly searching for "2050" or "Shadowrun 2050" is kinda useless...

I actually live-tweeted me reading the book. My account is @Abstruse. The TL;DR version is the rules mechanics were HORRID and felt like they were slapped together with zero playtesting whatsoever and I lost count on fluff canonical errors that were major problems (not even the nitpicky stuff) when I was in the 60s.

I am NOT going to get involved with combining multiple forms of the Matrix together.

Again.