>>98036343
Shadowrun is a mess. A fun mess with one of the best settings ever made but mechanically it's a mess. It doesn't help that the books regardless of edition have some of the worst editing and layout over ever seen making them hard to reference on the fly for the GM.

I always preferred 4E. Specifically the Anniversary version of the core rulebook because it went through some much needed layout tweaking. If you play 4e the Technomancer archetype is tricky. Your are effectively a tech mage and it can get really broken.

I have no real advice for deckers besides if none of players like the idea of decking then give the party a NPC decker who does all the le haxxor bullshit off screen and talks to the party on coms.

>>98036403
This. Someone donated a bunch of Shadowrun books to my local library and they had me look at them because "I play those kinds of games" and I had no fucking clue where to begin with them

>>98036403
>>98036425
Jesus, is the editing and layout for these books really that bad?

I saw a few pages back circa 2014 but I didn't recall any of the nitty gritty.

>>98036444
The layout is an issue when looking up something that isn't used a lot. Like a rule that pertains to say cybernetics that can stash hidden weapons . Should it be in the cybernetics section? Or in the Weapons section? It could be in one of them or it could be in the combat section.. or just maybe on the rules for concealing hidden weapons. Or in the rules for spotting hidden weapons under one of the awareness skills. Honestly hunt down a searchable PDF of the rulebooks and ctrl+f your way to your desired answer you will thank me. (It's been years since I last played so forgive me if my example is retarded)

>>98036482
No worries, any help is appreciated.

>>98036343
>1) I am trying to decide on which edition to use/run and I've seen some divided opinions. Some lean on 4th, others on 5th, some say 6th is a disaster.
5e is the easiest to run. 4e is better but it's very much built to be an "upgrade" of 3e, so getting your fingers wet with a sort of "reset" of the changes will be appreciated. There's also a lot more support for 5e in the form of Chummer and content wikis.
>2) I've also heard the usual of "if you run it you'll need to memorize the X/Y/Z rules for the classes". How relevant do you consider this concern and have you had any ways to work around it / shortcuts?
There's a ton of cheat sheets, but really you don't need to know the abilities of too many classes. Players are good at self-regulation and understanding the surface-level abilities of a class and how they operate is all you need.
>3) I've heard having deckers can be a nightmare for time balance between players given how one handles things in-universe in seconds but out of character it can take 30-45 minutes exclusively. Is there any way to get around this time sink without penalizing the player essentially?
The only solution I've found is removing the Decker entirely, and having the PCs come upon a friendly AI construct that can serve as their hacker (ie, you wing it.) It's kinda stupid because playing the Decker is very fulfilling in Shadowrun, but unless you're comfortable with the system and setting then it's better you at least get a bit of dirt under the nails without Decking.

As I said before, there's a lot of support for Shadowrun. Complex Action is a very good YouTube channel that breaks down how all this works. There's also - check out Food Fight! It's legendary as the mandatory "first session" of any Shadowrun campaign, and for very good reason. The PDF you'll get explains rather succinctly how the system works, and there's tons of battlemaps online made by other chummers to set the mood.

>>98036484
Also the video games Dragonfall and Hong Kong aren't an exact translation of the any one edition of table top Shadowrun. The video games are mix of 2e and 4e mainly with some custom rules for the video games. Same with the lore if I recall because some stuff gets retconnes or starts to contradict so they kinda just said fuck it let it ride.

I recommend if you do play to rune some of the premade adventures. There isn't a classic Monster Manual like on D&D so the premade adventures can give you an idea of what your supposed to do when making enemies

>>98036530
>so the premade adventures can give you an idea of what your supposed to do when making enemies
I've found combat is so irregular in most Shadowrun campaigns that simply running with the stock enemy types that you generate in the back of the 5e book (or, more accurately, Mob Master: https://toktic.github.io/sr_gmt/) means you can focus all of your homebrew on the occasional freak and/or boss type that your campaign's story necessitates.

>>98036508
>a lot more support for 5e in the form of Chummer and content wikis
I'm pretty sure I have a 4e chummer saved that my GM sent me like a decade ago, so you'd still be covered there if you can find that, but yeah the wikis will be a mess

Wait for anarchy 2.0 to come out, hopefully in a few months. The PDF has been yo ho ho'd for awhile now.

>>98036343
what elfbuilding settingmagic?

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>>98036343
>which edition to use/run
5e is solid but 4e was also popular, but no matter which you chose the formatting is terrible. 6th is a complete disaster and borderline unplayable. I don't know anything about other editions as I have not even really skimmed 1e-3e.
>you'll need to memorize the X/Y/Z rules
Forget about even trying this for Shadowrun. You will learn as you go. Learn to love having multiple different pages up and get used to making GM calls on things to look them up later. I know that in 5e there are literally rules that send you into a loop because they reference eachother without ever explaining what they do, it's hilarious. IIRC I think taking enough damage to die was one of them, and it's never actually said that you die, or something like that.
>rules for the classes
No such thing in Shadowrun. Banish that from your mind. There are some subsystems that will be of varying importance but you'll have to farm some of that out to the people that are playing with those systems.
>having deckers can be a nightmare
You can ignore much of the decker subsystem by simply turning it into skill checks if you are bothered by it. Having a decker in Shadowrun is non-optional. A player needs to be a decker or you need to have an NPC perform the role, because the world of Shadowrun is largely a post-apocalyptic surveillance state in which everything is either air-gapped or wired into everything, with essentially no in-between.

I loved playing 5e, I really did. It is a fantastic game and a fantastic setting. But Shadowrun *is* a mess, and you must learn to love the mess and you must learn to wing it.

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>>98037213
>anarchy 2.0
>"Shadowrun Anarchy 2.0 is a streamlined, narrative-focused version of the Shadowrun tabletop RPG, designed for fast-paced gameplay while retaining the cyberpunk-fantasy setting. It simplifies mechanics to emphasize storytelling and action, making it accessible for new players"
>"streamlined"
>"narrative-focused"
>"fast-paced"
>"but totally retaining the thing"
>"simplifies mechanics"
>"accessible for le modern audience"
Yeah, no, fuck that and fuck you.

>>98036343
Can you read germann?
Kraut5 gets rid of most of the editing problems and some rule mishaps that 5th edition had, plus a lot of fun extra stuff because Pegasus Press actually gives a shit.

>>98037659
Calling you a retard would be an insult to the actually mentally challenged. But glad to see you’re eager to self-filter from a game that nobody would want you in to begin with.