| From: | "Faux Pas (Thomas)" <thomas@*******.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: SHADOWRUN, 3rd EDITION! |
| Date: | Wed, 2 Jul 1997 19:52:46 -0500 |
>It's been five years since Shadowrun's last edition in '92 and FASA felt it
>was time for Shadowrun to be updated to go for another ten years. The main
>rulebook is going to be cleaned up...
A few requests:
Put all the Archetypes and Contacts together. All the entries in
"Contacts" of SR2 really are shortened Archetypes.
Add a PhysAd Archetype.
Have a better layout of the main book: Put the "Intro to Shadowrun" stuff
up front with the Character Generation stuff, follow that with the
information players would be referencing during play, followed by the
information that GMs only would be referencing during play. Currently,
you've got the rules for combat, magic, and decking (used by characters and
GMs) followed by critters (used by GMs only) followed by gear (used by
both) ...
Remove the color plates or move them out of the way. They interrupt
different sections (Magic and Critters), and were the first pages to fall
out of my rulebook.
If FASA includes another introductory story, don't have it jump around from
narrator to narrator. And after the story, explain what the characters
were in SR archetypes for the new player. The new player might have
thought the female villain in Plus la Change was pretty neat and wanted to
play her as a character, but not knowing concepts like "decker",
"rigger",
or "physical adept", the player wouldn't know which character archetype to
play.
Lay out the magic rules in a better manner. The part that gets me is the
astral rules in the Big Black Book are scattered around. You should have
information on Spirit Initiative with Character Astral Initiative, which
should be tied into combat in astral space, which should be followed by
spells in astral space. Currently, astral initiative is in two areas, one
for PC/NPC and one for spirits.
(Well, looks like I can get a whole week's worth of columns out of this...)
-Thomas Deeny
Your Guide to Shadowrun -- http://shadowrun.miningco.com -- updated every
Wednesday!
Thomas's World is http://telltale.hart.org -- come visit!
"Extremely difficult. Virtually impossible. However, it should take me only
about ten seconds."
-Bryce Lynch, Max Headroom [ep. "Lost Tapes"]
