So, my group is wrapping up some D&D 5e and I'm up to GM. I'm going to pitch SR but would like to bring in some of the early fluff. My constraints are as follows:

None of this group has ever played anything other than d20 stuff - mostly D&D. Thus I don't want to put them through 3rd edition's variable target number / variable dicepool. I wasn't always a fan of the 4th ed changes but it's easy to teach.

I didn't care for the 4A changes so I'm not sure how helpful 2050 will be.

Also, and here's the reason for the thread. I'd like to bring back wound levels in a 4th ed space. Not sure why, but I really liked them.

Am I nuts? Even if I am, how would you go about doing it?

For weapon damage or wound modifiers?

3rd Edition was a textbook with a dice pool fetish.
4th Edition is probably easiest to teach and fully fleshed out edition.
5th Edition is the game where playing at our table. Its merits and flaws have been discussed elsewhere. If you've run a 4th ed game then 5th wont be hard to pick up.

I've played off and on from 2nd to 4th; more off than on sadly. I agree that 4th is easier to teach. I never picked up 5th.

To answer the question: Weapons
I remember that some light pistols used to be 7L. The Panther Assault Canon was something like 17D if I'm remembering correctly. (Away from my books ATM.)

Obviously, the <Target Number><Wound Level> type can't use the same codes but that's reasonably easy, I think.

Think if you went back and looked at examples from previous editions, could add them back with an afternoon of prep. But think it adds extra work in the combat round and can slow things down unless everyone has good grasp on the math involved.

Fair point. Having it work like HP might make things easier...

Thanks

It doesn't look super hard to convert, but let your players know you're testing out the house-rule and reserve the right to tweak things up and down as the game progresses: so there's no point in them building a character specialising in blow-darts based on them doing insane damage one session, because they'll be rebalanced.

The 3rd Edition "HP" (ie Wound boxes) are:

• 1 box = Light (-1 Initiative and +1 Target Numbers) (SR3.125, SR3.126)
• 3 boxes = Moderate (-2 Initiative and +2 Target Numbers) (SR3.125, SR3.126)
• 6 boxes = Serious (-3 Initiative and +3 Target Numbers) (SR3.125, SR3.126)
• 10 boxes = Deadly (-4 Initiative and +4 Target Numbers) (M&M.132)
• 15 boxes = Light Naval (you get the pattern) (R3.57)
• 21 boxes = Moderate Naval (...) (R3.57)
• 28 boxes = Serious Naval (...) (R3.57)
• 36 boxes = Deadly Naval (...) (R3.57)

You can go through all the Weapons in your game and round their damage up or down to the nearest wound level as above. Whether to round up or down depends on just how effective you think that weapon seems in comparison to others that deal that wound level or the wound levels immediately above and below it.

Then when someone is hit by a weapon, vehicle, spell, drain, IC, or whatever, inflict the appropriate number of boxes on their damage track, based on that item's wound level. Then compare how many boxes (in total) they've taken relative to the wound levels above (someone who has taken five Light wounds (5 boxes) has a Moderate wound, but inflict one more Light wound and they have a Serious wound). Initiative reduced to zero means the character cannot act (SR3.102). You can play about with converting "add x to TNs" into "subtract x from dice rolled", "add x to Edge costs", or whatever works out for the effect you're looking for.

I agree that 4th is easier to teach. The maths in 3rd Edition boil down to:

• add a number
• subtract a number
• divide by two

I'm not convinced that such maths would challenge many roleplayers who've finished primary school.

Just as a quick Comment...

You really do not need wound levels in 4th Edition...
They are extraneous and not much use all things considered.

Since you have no real reason to use wound levels other than nostalgia, why not just use SR4 as presented and see how it flows...

If the group is coming from D&D, it seems that SR4's condition boxes would be closer to the "hit points" they are used to. I would stay away from SR5, even though it has some changes to appeal to the grognards (decks, priority character generation, etc.). The books are not only riddled with errors and inconsistencies, but also introduce a lot of complications to the base SR4 ruleset (like Limits). However, if you can get ahold of a cheap used copy of the main rulebook, or can borrow one from a friend, it does have a few good ideas that you can port over to an SR4 game (clearer rules on Edge and regeneration, free points for contacts, etc.).

In Runner's companion there is an alternate priority character generation system if I recall correctly. So you can use that in 4th as well.

Problem is, that does not account for power levels...

In this thread there was much work done to get wound levels into 4ed:
http://tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=51934&...c&start=375