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Fox1
New to the board, hope I'm not getting into flamewar ground here..


I loved the older edition of the decking rules, those found in Virtual Realities. 3rd edition greatly simpified the rules in order to prevent the infamous Decker eats all gaming time.

Until now I've stuck with the older rules (but the costing/sizing/etc. of 3rd edition). And of course I'm wondering what 4th will bring (I'm waiting for my pre-order hard copy, don't care for PDFs all that much) because I've always liked the 'dungeon crawl' aspect of it. I avoid bored non-decker PC problems by allowing them to run agents as PCs in the matrix assisting the main Decker.

So, am I strange or does anyone else mix editions like this?


Are there some fans of the 3rd edition method that can give me some likes/dislikes besides the simple "less time spent on the decker PC" reason?

Bearclaw
Likes: The fact that you can really integrate the decker into the game. Design is also quicker and easier.

Dislikes: The fact that there's no costs built into security any more. The 2nd ed rules actually made you buy a certain level of system and that system could only run so much security. The more security stuff your matrix is doing the less anyone else on your matrix is doing.
I like the more free-form playing system, but I'd like a more detailed design system that takes power, cost and security levels all into account. I don't mind spending the kind of time it took to make a second ed matrix, as long as the playing part works out like the third ed system does.

Of course, I've not seen the fourth ed system yet. They may have made it perfect.
Fox1

Only one reply to this... looks like I'll have to assume that everyone is using the 3rd edition decking rules.

John Campbell
As a real-world computer/networking geek, I haven't yet seen a set of Shadowrun Matrix rules that didn't make me want to stab myself repeatedly in the brain to make the hurting go away. SR3's rules are better than previous editions', but only in the sense that having your arm hacked off with an axe is better than being forced to chew it off with your own teeth. It doesn't take as long and you don't have to pay quite so much attention to how fragged up it is.

I'm less and less optimistic about SR4 in general the more I hear about it, but I'm still hopeful that the designers... well, got onto the Internet sometime between 1998 and now, and have taken note of how people actually use a pervasive global telecommunications network that's gradually assimilating all media. And how little it resembles - and how little it's useful for it to resemble - Gibson's cinematically flashy but utterly impractical and implausible virtual reality.
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