It sounds like the only sane response is to do a 6.1 edition and make the print book cheap for those who bought the original release and (of course) the PDF free for current owners.
The Priorities system being broken seems like a particularly bad one.
Reading this thread makes me glad I kept my 1st edition rule books.
See, with all the problems of the recent editions, I do kind of want to go locate myself some of the older ones (maybe 2e/3e), but the problem is the farther back you go, the more the “decker problem” reveals itself. Y’know, the one where once the decker starts doing his thing, everybody else goes out for pizza for an hour.
That’s at least one thing the recent editions have TRIED to fix, and to a point have actually made progress towards.
I’ve kind of come around to just giving the ‘decker’ role in Cyberpunk games some vaguely-defined abilities to mess with anything network connected. Like an up-front roll/skill check that earns them credits to say, “OK, I’ll spend a point to disable all the cameras in this low-security zone.” as they group is traveling through said zone. Or spend a couple points to hack IFF on a turreted weapon or similar. Or spend up-front to download maps and such.
I would also do some weird stuff like saying only characters with the “Firearms Expert” edge/class feature/whatever get benefits from 90% of the more esoteric firearms accessories, special ammo, etc. that are a staple of Cyberpunk gaming. In my rules if you’re the team’s decker and don’t work to spread yourself, if the team’s firearms expert tosses you a rifle with a hundred attached sensors, special scopes, barometers, laser attachments, etc… It’s a normal rifle for your character.
It’s like a DSLR camera. If it’s the first time you’ve picked it up, you’re better off setting it to ‘A’ to get off a quick shot that will do the job most of the time.
Since there’s a few Shadowrun fans here, I thought you’d enjoy one of the earliest Shadowrun ads I have seen, from Dragon Magazine #145, May 1989. It’s a bit plain.
(Sorry for the scan artifacts… This is from archive.org’s collection of scanned magazines, so the price was right.)
I started playing around that time. Maybe a year later. From this distance it seems about right. I was fully familiar with the material when I joined the Army in 92, as I ran a game in basic training using a couple sheets my dad mailed me photo copied it and the rest from memory.
I wandered into this discussion over the weekend and did not realize how Shadowrun had been mismanaged for the last few years:
Kind of feels like they made changes for no real reason.
Wow, what a Charlie Foxtrot.
