I was looking at the sample character sheets and I noticed a lot more stats than normal, what do they all mean? I haven't been following sr4 to closely till now and I"m completely clueless.

EDIT: What exactly do they do, and have they changed the regular stats at all, like what they affect, and what do the new stats affect.

EDIT2: Does that mean you have to put points into magic just like any other attribute or is it the same as in sr3 where you start at 6 then go up from there with initiations?

The new ones are Agility, Reaction, Intuition, Logic, and Edge.

~J

The only differences are that Quickness was split into Agility and Reaction, Intelligence into Intuition and Logic, and an Edge stat was added.

The first two are pretty self-explanatory, and Edge is effectively a Karma pool - you can add a # of dice equal to your Edge to a number of rolls equal to your Edge attribute (IIRC), and also use it to still try to roll on tests where the modifiers reduced your die pool to 0 or less.

Magic is also now a stat. It's, AFAIK, the M one.

Is magic limited to 6 at the start, and then you have to initiate or can you raise it higher from start?

EDIT: Wow, guess they are trying to get rid of high power chars in the beginning, so no more priority system?

Magic is equal to all stats. First point is free, every point except 6 after that costs 10 BP. 6 costs 25. For all stats, including Magic, you may have one 6 or two 5s with the rest being 4s. You can build it up to 6, but no higher.

I thought he said those limits existed.

The single 6 or 2 5's concerned skills. Attributes are only capped by the 50% of total BP limit. And that is for physical and mental attributes.

Kay. Thanks for the correction. I can imagine how this is going to confuse people for awhile.

Yeah it's really confusing so far, but hopefully I'll get the hang of it quick enough.


EDIT: So they are definetly using the build point system now instead of the priority system? So I should get used to it before I get a copy?

You can spend up to 50% of your starting build points on your Physical and Mental attributes. Your first point is free (along with any racial mods... for example, Dwarves start with a Willpower of 2 to represent their +1 Willpower mod), and each point above the starting value costs 10 BP each, EXCEPT for the last Maximum attribute point (which costs 25 BP). Purchasing Edge and Magic/Resonance does NOT count for the 50% limit (and several of the archetypes in the book reflect this). Yes, Magic Rating is bought just like any other attribute (which is one reason why being a Mage is so cheap), and so is Resonance (the linked attribute for Technomancer/Otaku powers).

What I'm not clear on is the Extraordinary Attribute positive trait (read: Edge). If you pick that edge, then do you pay 25 BP for the 6, or the 7, or both?

Bleh. I see me house ruling no caps in game, and making it a progressive buy system. Something along the lines of 55, 10, 10, 15, 15, 20, 20, 25, 25, etc...

I even see something like this coming out in a supplement. I don't mind a bit of math while making a character.

Derek

Edit: I mean for both skills and attributes, although I (obviously) haven't worked out the math, a progressive system is what I would use.

5, 5, 10, 10, 10, 25 works out better. Maybe have it increase by 15 every point after that.

I kind of like this

1: 0 0
2: 5 5
3: 10 15
4: 15 30
5: 20 50
6: 25 75
7: 30 105
8: 35 140

Thats for attributes. Read it as Attr:Incremental Cost:Total Cost

I also like progressive costs for skills, but I haven't really figured it out yet.

Also, I'm not going to set here and spend a lot of time defending why one system is better than another, I know whnat I have figured out so far is not perfect, but thats allright.

Meh. As long as it works, who cares?

Two observations on my part.
First ,humans finally have an attribute they have a bonus on: Edge
However, not all NPCs have the Edge attribute so not all humans get it. It almost reminds me of how second edition treated NPCs. That was one improvement I liked in 3rd edition. Does anyone know if spirits and critters have edge? I assume dragons have it. Are there freespirits in the main book or are we going to have to wait for the supplement or just houserule them until the supplement comes out?

I guess pissing off the Denver City free spirit is an even worse idea now?

Humans always had a bonus to Karma pool, which is what Edge replaces.

It looks like we will see the end of all gun-bunnies, street sams, gangers, ect... being geniuses in order to max out their reaction/inititive.