Hi guys. I've been running SR on and off for about 20 years now – started at 2nd edition and upgraded to 3rd and then 4th.
I'm about to be afforded a gloriously rare opportunity to be a player for once in an upcoming campaign, but it's going to use 1st edition.

It would be amazingly helpful if anybody who can remember that far back and/or still has the books could outline the changes in rules and setting between SR1 and SR2, since that's the transition I never had to make. I don't need every little detail, as the GM has ALL the books (I'm told) and will be doing one-on-one chargens when the time comes, but it would be good to start planning my character and know what I'm getting into.

Please note – I'm fine with changes after 2nd edition (like the loss of variable TN), I just don't know how things were before it.

Many thanks!

The rules are similiar, but also have major changes.

First - damage codes. In SR1 a pistol may have a code of something like 6M3. This means the power is 6 (as 2nd), damage is moderate (as 2nd), but it takes THREE success to stage damage UP or DOWN. So some weapons can do more damage easily but are also resisted more easily.

Second - Armor. Armor in 1st did not reduce power, it granted a number of automatic successes for damage resistance. So a Lined Coat with 4 ballistic meant you had 4 successes in a DR test outside of your Body roll.

Third - Some of the die pools worked differently in calculation and such. I am fuzzy on remembering specifics.

Fourth - Spells You had to choose Force/Rating and damage codes. So a Fireball (Force 5 Moderate damage) was a completely different spell than Fireball (Force 4 Light damage). Treat 4 was a different spell than Treat 5. (This may have worked the same in 2nd but not certain.) Same with Matrix attack programs IIRC (Attack 6D vs Attack 4S).

I'm not 100 percent certain on all of these but that's what I recall without digging out books.


The setting I think is pretty much exactly the same, only 2nd edition was what, 5 years advanced?

In addition, SR 1 featured mandatory allergies for metas, and you were limited to one action per IP (meaning one shot unless you installed Reactive Triggers). Anybody from Germany have Die 6. Welt at hand? It has a great example of how combat changed across editions

The setting was still in the process of being invented between the first and second edition, so there's nothing that really changes. We rarely get to know about things changing because there was no prior information available on how it was before.

If anything, the authors of first and early second editions sourcebooks and adventures often made up corporations as they needed them, so you got a flurry of one-hit wonder. In the late second edition and basically ever since Corporate Shadowfiles set in stone a list of the Big Eight, the list of corporations that matter have been streamlined a lot. So one could imagine that corporations disappeared or were taken over by the dozens during those years.

Upvoting this thread. I've been playing 21 years too but never crossed paths with 1st edition. I've always wondered what the differences were between 1st and 2nd, including those mysterious damage codes they used in the Street Samurai Catalog. Never heard of the auto-successes for armor.

Aerospider, sounds like you have an awesome game on your hands. If you screw this up ... [vague threat]

I bough SR1 way back when, but only played SR3&4. So I can't tell you about the differences between 1 & 2. But I can tell you a bit about 1. The math doesn't work, for one. If you look at all the examples in the book they are way out on the right edge of the probability curve. The skill tree is a cool idea that doesn't work, but you you should abuse the hell out of it.

Another major difference was that you had to roll for each bullet you fired. The maximum burst length was 7 shots (10 with the minigun IIRC).
The initiative was rolled like in 2nd Ed., but it was -7 to calculate how often you could do an action.
A Combat pool didn't exist, instead some dodge pool, I can't remember how it is caculated (pure Quickness?).

And...Program Carriers, it was possible to run the matrix "naked".

Naked Matrix - Love the Idea of that.

It was all fun and games until you got I.C. Weiner

Initiative was different:
Roll 1D6 and add reaction ((quickness + intelligence)/2 round down).

If 1-10 you get one action at result
If 11-16 you get 2 actions, first at result, second at result-7
If 17-22 you get 3 actions, first at result, second at result-7, third at result-14
If 22+ you get 4 actions, first at result, second at result-7, third at result-14, fourth at result-21

Dice pools:
Astral pool =Magic + Intelligence + Sorcery. Used on astral Space where is Works as magic pool and defense pool.
Defense pool = Armed or unarmed combat skill, or applicable concentration/specialization. If no skill then equal to strength-4, minimum of 1. Used to counter attack in melee.
Dodge pol = Quickness. Used to limit damage done by ranged weapons.
Hacking pool = Computer skill (or software concentration, or decking specialization) + reaction, only used in the matrix.
Magic pool = Sorcery skill (or spellcasting concentration). Used to increase spellcasting or defense against magic.

No weapon could shoot more than once per action, unless you play with the updated rules in Street Samurai Catalog (reactive trigger for some pistols) or the Rigger Black Book (essential 2nd edition combat rules).

You can get the 1st edition SR book as PDF for $8 at http://www.battlecorps.com/catalog/product...roducts_id=2413 or http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/7887...n-First-Edition

*Sigh*

Did anyone mention Physical Adepts and the Auto Successes? I remember that one well.
I also think Turn to Goo was not a spell in 2e. Maybe it was and I blocked it from memory...

They also weren't in the core book. They were an addition in the Grimoire, the magic splat.



Turn to Goo and Petrify both. They showed up in 2nd ed again in Awakenings, I think, which was the second Magic book done for that edition, but taht was toward the end of the life cycle of the edition, so there were a few years without them.