Skyrock
t. Sgeyerog :DDDDD
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- 10. September 2003
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Da wir anscheinend noch keinen Thread dazu haben:
Auf SRRPG.com gibt es inzwischen ein FAQ zur 4. Edition. Ich stelle hier mal die Antworten rein die schon existieren - nicht zitiert, um das Zitieren zu erleichtern.
A few answers regarding SR4
In the aim of starting an SR4 FAQ, here are answers to a few of the questions we’ve received or seen posted on forums:
Q. What does this mean for my old books?
A. SR4 is a new rules set — simpler, streamlined, and more accessible, but new rules nonetheless. That means SR1, SR2, and SR3 rules will be obsolete in the new system. Source material, however — meaning background, plot, and world info — will still be relevant. We are advancing the timeline a slight bit in order to account for some new technology, but not so far as to completely sever ourselves from ongoing plots.
So … this means that core rulebooks like SR3, Magic in the Shadows, Cannon Companion, Man & Machine, Rigger 3, etc. will no longer be useful, unless you want to keep playing SR3. Any books that are primarily source material will still be useful.
Q. Are you killing the SR3 stories?
A. Some. Many of the major plotlines we have had ongoing for years will reach a climax or even an end in the upcoming System Failure book. A few others may be relegated to obscurity in the jump to 2070. But others will continue forward, mutating into new post-2070 plotlines in SR4.
Q. Are deckers called hackers in SR4?
A. Yes. We’re eliminating the clunky old cyberdeck in SR4, and with no ‘deck, it doesn’t make much sense to call them deckers. So we’re back to calling them hackers, since that’s what they do. (And, yes, we are aware that some hackers out there don’t like having the term associated with illegal activities — and SR hackers will primarily be criminals, like other runners. Realistically, however, “hacking” is the term used for exploring, learning, and exploiting, whether it’s legal or not, so it fits.)
Oh, and BTW — the product code for SR4 is 26000. Sorry about the extra zero, it was as close as I could get.
Q. What organs must I donate to become a playtester?
A. We’re chock full on extra organs right now, but thanks for the offer (I hear Tamanous is buying, though). We also have all of the playtesters we really need at this time. Sorry!
Keep posted for more SR4 answers next week!
---
SR4 FAQ, Part Two
Q. Will riggers be combined with deckers/hackers?
A. Yes, we are removing the distinction between them. This does not mean riggers will go away — there will still be hackers who specialize in drones, vehicle operations, or security systems. But the protocols, technology, and game mechanics behind them will be the same.
Q. Will character generation keep the priority system or be point-based?
A. It is a point-based system.
Q. Will Open Tests be kept?
A. Nope, they’re gone.
Q. Will there be rules for converting characters from SR3 to SR4?
A. Yes, we will publish a conversion guide on the website (not in the core rulebook).
Q. Has Mike Pondsmith abandoned CP203x to work on SR4?
A. *Blink* Uh, no.
---
SR4 FAQ Part III
Q. Will SR4 still use six-sided dice?
A. Yes.
Q. Will SR4 still have Dice Pools?
A. Yes, but not in the same sense as SR3. In SR4, any time you make a test, the dice you roll are considered your dice pool. Dice pools consist of skill + attribute, +/- any modifiers.
The Dice Pools from SR3–Combat, Hacking, Control, Magic–no longer exist in SR4.
Q. What is the basic mechanic?
A. Basic success tests are made rolling your dice pool against a fixed target number of 5. The target number never changes. So each 5 or 6 that you roll equals a “hit.” Success is determined by the number of hits rolled. More difficult tests require a higher number of hits to succeed.
Q. What are the average ratings for skills and attributes?
A. Skills and attributes range from 1 to 6, with 3 being average. So an average skill, average attribute dice pool is 6 dice. Purchasing above-average attributes and skills is limited at character creation and generally expensive. 6 is the maximum natural rating for attributes (before racial modifiers are applied).
---
SR4 FAQ, Part Four
Q. Are any of the attributes changing?
A. Yes. Specifically, we have expanded them:
— Intelligence has been split into Intuition and Logic
— Quickness has been split into Agility and Reaction
— Obviously, Reaction is no longer a derived attribute
— Karma Pool has been replaced by an Edge attribute. Edge is used in many similar ways as Karma Pool was–it is still a “luck factor,” but it is now an attribute rather than a mark of experience. This makes it especially useful to non-cyber and non-magic characters, as they will have a way of keeping ahead of the game.
— Magic no longer starts at 6. Magic must be bought up just like any other attribute. This means that magical characters are not as powerful right out of the box as they were in previous editions.
Q. What haven’t you changed in SR4?
A. Many things. There are still 5 basic metatypes to choose from in the basic rules. Contacts remain an integral part of the game. There will be 16 Sample Characters that you can start with. Karma is still used as the experience award. The focus of the game is still on teams of operatives combining skills and resources to accomplish criminal or psuedo-criminal missions. And so on.
Q. Who is designing SR4?
A. We have a team of people who have been working on Shadowrun for years: Rob Boyle, Elissa Carey, Brian Cross, Dan Grendel, Adam Jury, Steve Kenson, Christian Lonsing, David Lyons, Michelle Lyons and Jon Szeto. A few other freelancers will also be writing for the book.
Q. Who’s doing the cover artwork?
A. Mark Zug
---
SR4 FAQ, Part Five
Now to get back on track with SR4 FAQ updates. Here are a few answers regarding magic:
Q. Will Magic skills be broken up like firearms in SR3?
A. Magic is roughly divided into two categories for the core book, Sorcery and Conjuring. Rather than being skills of their own, however, those are general categories. The Sorcery skills are Spellcasting, Ritual Spellcasting, and Counterspelling. The Conjuring skills are Summoning, Banishing, and Binding. Those are the skills that do most of the heavy lifting for magic in SR4.
Q. Will there still be Metamagic?
A. Yes, though it’s not exactly the same. Rather than relying on a host of new additional skills, we’ve redesigned metamagic techniques to grant new abilities to skills the magician should already have access to. Metamagic does not make a huge appearance in the core book, however. There just isn’t enough room to include it all.
Q. Do we still have Mages and Shamans?
A. Yes. In addition, however, a flexible tradition design system has been included, allowing players to model existing traditions easily, or even to create their own along with their GM. Both Hermetic and Shamanic traditions have been created for the main book and are included as the default choices.
Q. What are you trying to do with Magic?
A. In setting out to design this, we had a few things in mind that we wanted to do as improvements over the old system. First, we wanted to make sure we were laying the groundwork for something we could expand upon later. One of the big problems with the Magic system up until now is that it simply didn’t accomodate additions. It was built to be what it was, and if anything got added, it had to be an entirely new method of doing things. Nothing was ever built upon the existing mechanics, in large part because the original existing mechanics weren’t built to accomodate other uses. The result was a system that accumulated rules detritus like a ship gathers barnacles. That’s not good design.
A second problem was that, despite three editions of the game, Magic was largely still a legacy system (to borrow a bit of computer terminology). Instead of using things that worked and discarding things that didn’t, we largely had just kept it all and tried using tweaks and bailing wire to hold it all together. With SR4, we had the luxury of taking it apart, seeing what worked and what didn’t, and reassembling it into a working whole, with new parts to replace the missing ones or damaged ones. We also didn’t want the mechanics of the core game to work in a substantially different manner than Magic did, so we tried to find new ways to handle rules issues that before had given rise to special cases, created just for Magic. This is true of design all throughout the game, though, not just for the Magic system.
The third goal we had for design with this part of the game was to eliminate unnecessary complexity. We didn’t want to do away with the aspects of magic that gave the game its feel, like traditions, spirit summoning, drain, and so forth, but we did want to make sure we didn’t have a dozen different systems trying to accomplish what one could do. I think we went a long way toward accomplishing that.
Auf SRRPG.com gibt es inzwischen ein FAQ zur 4. Edition. Ich stelle hier mal die Antworten rein die schon existieren - nicht zitiert, um das Zitieren zu erleichtern.
A few answers regarding SR4
In the aim of starting an SR4 FAQ, here are answers to a few of the questions we’ve received or seen posted on forums:
Q. What does this mean for my old books?
A. SR4 is a new rules set — simpler, streamlined, and more accessible, but new rules nonetheless. That means SR1, SR2, and SR3 rules will be obsolete in the new system. Source material, however — meaning background, plot, and world info — will still be relevant. We are advancing the timeline a slight bit in order to account for some new technology, but not so far as to completely sever ourselves from ongoing plots.
So … this means that core rulebooks like SR3, Magic in the Shadows, Cannon Companion, Man & Machine, Rigger 3, etc. will no longer be useful, unless you want to keep playing SR3. Any books that are primarily source material will still be useful.
Q. Are you killing the SR3 stories?
A. Some. Many of the major plotlines we have had ongoing for years will reach a climax or even an end in the upcoming System Failure book. A few others may be relegated to obscurity in the jump to 2070. But others will continue forward, mutating into new post-2070 plotlines in SR4.
Q. Are deckers called hackers in SR4?
A. Yes. We’re eliminating the clunky old cyberdeck in SR4, and with no ‘deck, it doesn’t make much sense to call them deckers. So we’re back to calling them hackers, since that’s what they do. (And, yes, we are aware that some hackers out there don’t like having the term associated with illegal activities — and SR hackers will primarily be criminals, like other runners. Realistically, however, “hacking” is the term used for exploring, learning, and exploiting, whether it’s legal or not, so it fits.)
Oh, and BTW — the product code for SR4 is 26000. Sorry about the extra zero, it was as close as I could get.
Q. What organs must I donate to become a playtester?
A. We’re chock full on extra organs right now, but thanks for the offer (I hear Tamanous is buying, though). We also have all of the playtesters we really need at this time. Sorry!
Keep posted for more SR4 answers next week!
---
SR4 FAQ, Part Two
Q. Will riggers be combined with deckers/hackers?
A. Yes, we are removing the distinction between them. This does not mean riggers will go away — there will still be hackers who specialize in drones, vehicle operations, or security systems. But the protocols, technology, and game mechanics behind them will be the same.
Q. Will character generation keep the priority system or be point-based?
A. It is a point-based system.
Q. Will Open Tests be kept?
A. Nope, they’re gone.
Q. Will there be rules for converting characters from SR3 to SR4?
A. Yes, we will publish a conversion guide on the website (not in the core rulebook).
Q. Has Mike Pondsmith abandoned CP203x to work on SR4?
A. *Blink* Uh, no.
---
SR4 FAQ Part III
Q. Will SR4 still use six-sided dice?
A. Yes.
Q. Will SR4 still have Dice Pools?
A. Yes, but not in the same sense as SR3. In SR4, any time you make a test, the dice you roll are considered your dice pool. Dice pools consist of skill + attribute, +/- any modifiers.
The Dice Pools from SR3–Combat, Hacking, Control, Magic–no longer exist in SR4.
Q. What is the basic mechanic?
A. Basic success tests are made rolling your dice pool against a fixed target number of 5. The target number never changes. So each 5 or 6 that you roll equals a “hit.” Success is determined by the number of hits rolled. More difficult tests require a higher number of hits to succeed.
Q. What are the average ratings for skills and attributes?
A. Skills and attributes range from 1 to 6, with 3 being average. So an average skill, average attribute dice pool is 6 dice. Purchasing above-average attributes and skills is limited at character creation and generally expensive. 6 is the maximum natural rating for attributes (before racial modifiers are applied).
---
SR4 FAQ, Part Four
Q. Are any of the attributes changing?
A. Yes. Specifically, we have expanded them:
— Intelligence has been split into Intuition and Logic
— Quickness has been split into Agility and Reaction
— Obviously, Reaction is no longer a derived attribute
— Karma Pool has been replaced by an Edge attribute. Edge is used in many similar ways as Karma Pool was–it is still a “luck factor,” but it is now an attribute rather than a mark of experience. This makes it especially useful to non-cyber and non-magic characters, as they will have a way of keeping ahead of the game.
— Magic no longer starts at 6. Magic must be bought up just like any other attribute. This means that magical characters are not as powerful right out of the box as they were in previous editions.
Q. What haven’t you changed in SR4?
A. Many things. There are still 5 basic metatypes to choose from in the basic rules. Contacts remain an integral part of the game. There will be 16 Sample Characters that you can start with. Karma is still used as the experience award. The focus of the game is still on teams of operatives combining skills and resources to accomplish criminal or psuedo-criminal missions. And so on.
Q. Who is designing SR4?
A. We have a team of people who have been working on Shadowrun for years: Rob Boyle, Elissa Carey, Brian Cross, Dan Grendel, Adam Jury, Steve Kenson, Christian Lonsing, David Lyons, Michelle Lyons and Jon Szeto. A few other freelancers will also be writing for the book.
Q. Who’s doing the cover artwork?
A. Mark Zug
---
SR4 FAQ, Part Five
Now to get back on track with SR4 FAQ updates. Here are a few answers regarding magic:
Q. Will Magic skills be broken up like firearms in SR3?
A. Magic is roughly divided into two categories for the core book, Sorcery and Conjuring. Rather than being skills of their own, however, those are general categories. The Sorcery skills are Spellcasting, Ritual Spellcasting, and Counterspelling. The Conjuring skills are Summoning, Banishing, and Binding. Those are the skills that do most of the heavy lifting for magic in SR4.
Q. Will there still be Metamagic?
A. Yes, though it’s not exactly the same. Rather than relying on a host of new additional skills, we’ve redesigned metamagic techniques to grant new abilities to skills the magician should already have access to. Metamagic does not make a huge appearance in the core book, however. There just isn’t enough room to include it all.
Q. Do we still have Mages and Shamans?
A. Yes. In addition, however, a flexible tradition design system has been included, allowing players to model existing traditions easily, or even to create their own along with their GM. Both Hermetic and Shamanic traditions have been created for the main book and are included as the default choices.
Q. What are you trying to do with Magic?
A. In setting out to design this, we had a few things in mind that we wanted to do as improvements over the old system. First, we wanted to make sure we were laying the groundwork for something we could expand upon later. One of the big problems with the Magic system up until now is that it simply didn’t accomodate additions. It was built to be what it was, and if anything got added, it had to be an entirely new method of doing things. Nothing was ever built upon the existing mechanics, in large part because the original existing mechanics weren’t built to accomodate other uses. The result was a system that accumulated rules detritus like a ship gathers barnacles. That’s not good design.
A second problem was that, despite three editions of the game, Magic was largely still a legacy system (to borrow a bit of computer terminology). Instead of using things that worked and discarding things that didn’t, we largely had just kept it all and tried using tweaks and bailing wire to hold it all together. With SR4, we had the luxury of taking it apart, seeing what worked and what didn’t, and reassembling it into a working whole, with new parts to replace the missing ones or damaged ones. We also didn’t want the mechanics of the core game to work in a substantially different manner than Magic did, so we tried to find new ways to handle rules issues that before had given rise to special cases, created just for Magic. This is true of design all throughout the game, though, not just for the Magic system.
The third goal we had for design with this part of the game was to eliminate unnecessary complexity. We didn’t want to do away with the aspects of magic that gave the game its feel, like traditions, spirit summoning, drain, and so forth, but we did want to make sure we didn’t have a dozen different systems trying to accomplish what one could do. I think we went a long way toward accomplishing that.
Ich bin zwar ein bekennender Meckerer und Kritiker in Sachen SR, aber ich gebe den Machern gerne die Chance die bestehenden Fehler zu beheben.
