This question might be kind of stupid but i know shadowrun since the 3rd edition and i wonder what happened to the old matrix system (i believe the Matrix 1.0), i mean, i´ve been playing the Sega Shadowrun videogame (rules!) and the matrix seems very nice to me (no sculpted hosts, i know). I guess it was based in 1st edition...

Anyway i´m working on a system that mixes the rules of both just por playtestsing and House Rule Appliance (but i must know what happened there first, and where i could download the old rules).

hey, isn´t here any topic of the SEGA SR game? i think i´ll post it cause i really like it and´d like to discuss about it a little.

The matrix changed between SR2 and SR3. However, in 2nd edition, there still were sculpted systems.

I'm not sure what encouraged the changes. I never really played the 2nd edition version, but I've heard the new version is a lot easier to run. However, the rules for 3rd edition still allow for a setup like what you had with 2nd edition. I generally still enforce that the CPU is pretty darn powerful, that there will be specific nodes guarded by proactive IC, etc. but I'll use the security tally as well, since that makes more sense from a realism standpoint.

There's no thread on the Sega game yet, just on games people are looking forward to. I wouldn't mind seeing one, I just started playing after I checked out the uber cool website, wiredreflexes.com . So I owe some thanks to the creator, who's name escapes me at the moment, for setting me up with an excellent computer game. I considered playing the SNES version, but after doing some research I realized the blatant rulebreaking would make me cry.

The reason for the change was to improve playability, i.e. to have faster rules, focused on action not on movements.
An analogy for the old Matrix rules would be that for combat rules, you had to make tests to see if you succeeded to cross the streets.

the first "beta" version of the 3rd edition Matrix rules can be found in an adventure set, IIRC Shadows of the Underworld (not sure, I would have to check my library). The rules were introduced to accompany an adventure in which the runners had to kidnap a kid in Denver.

The SNES version sucked. I didnt like that you had to stand in one spot to shoot things, and they seriously screwed up with the matrix. Plus the fact that there were only a very limited number of places you could get on, and systems to go to, AND only a few files you could get for cash. Sega did much better. Its just that the graphics in the non-matrix part of the world werent as good as the SNES version.

It also important to remember that the 1.0 system was probably writen in 1988 (assuming it was writen 1 year before publication) when the internet was barely hitting the scene.

I think the current system was redesigned to more accurately represent the way a world wide computer network would actually work, given our current understanding of things like the RL internet, file sharing, bandwidth, network security, etc.

I thought Matrix 1.0 was really cool, untill I played it. They also kind of pigeon-holded themselves into the "CPU/SPU" ideas that kinda just made the system more like a "giant computer" than the series of systems they really represent.

On top of that, you really needed to develop it ahead of time. It was slow, clumbsy and did not lend itself to "on-the-fly" type systems. It did look cool and the idea was ok, it just needed some re-work.

I really enjoy Matrix 2.0 and so do my players now that it's put into dice roles they can understand.