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It's been available as a POD softcover on DTRPG for some time:

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preview.drivethrurpg.com preview.drivethrurpg.com

Of course, that version has the pages slightly missequenced. The POD has the odd numbered pages on the reverse pages rather than the facing pages as the original, so all the page numbers are in the gutters. And, of course, it doesn't have the color plates.

Like Lunar Ronin Lunar Ronin I've never understood either why 1st edition was the one that was available, but 2nd edition wasn't. DTRPG doesn't even offer 2e as PDF. I had heard for years that 2e was the "better" version (I didn't like it and never upgraded to that edition). And I believe it's also has more support than 1e.

A nice, newly printed SR1e HC with the color plates would be nice, though. But I have to admit that other than nostalgia, I can't see any benefit for myself. I look at my 1e stuff from time to time, but I have to admit that the thought of playing it seems so unlikely to be pretty much nil.
 
Lunar Ronin said:
I have no idea why CGL would reprint this over 2E or 3E. 1E had quite a few issues that 2E and 3E cleaned up.
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Totally agree. I assume they’re going for the ‘nostalgia’ vibe that Fantasy Flight got with the reprint of the 1st edition of D6 Star Wars. The difference is that 1e SW was already a fan favourite while most people I know prefer 2e or 3e (I’m personally in the 2e camp; 3e cleaned some things up but also added more complexity)
 
Gabriel said:
It's been available as a POD softcover on DTRPG for some time:

DriveThruRPG

preview.drivethrurpg.com preview.drivethrurpg.com

Of course, that version has the pages slightly missequenced. The POD has the odd numbered pages on the reverse pages rather than the facing pages as the original, so all the page numbers are in the gutters. And, of course, it doesn't have the color plates.

Like Lunar Ronin Lunar Ronin I've never understood either why 1st edition was the one that was available, but 2nd edition wasn't. DTRPG doesn't even offer 2e as PDF. I had heard for years that 2e was the "better" version (I didn't like it and never upgraded to that edition). And I believe it's also has more support than 1e.

A nice, newly printed SR1e HC with the color plates would be nice, though. But I have to admit that other than nostalgia, I can't see any benefit for myself. I look at my 1e stuff from time to time, but I have to admit that the thought of playing it seems so unlikely to be pretty much nil.
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Huh, yeah, 2e is a way better version, pretty much the 1e system after a few years of playtesting and revisions. I wasn't aware that it wasn't made available and 1e was. That's as bizarre to me as when WotC did those reprints of different editions of D&D rulebooks and they went with those horribly ugly 2e revised (skills & options-era) books instead of the original 2e rulebooks.

So when you say the Drivethru version doesn't have the colour plates, does that mean all the character templates are missing?
 
It's an improvement compared to current offerings, regardless. I'll take the middle ground of playability and far better editing. ... Nah, I'm still grumpy from Catalyst. :angry: Let people enjoy the nostalgia, I'd rather fire back up the 16-bit console games of Shadowrun. :madgoose: I'm still a salty goose from all this time.
 
Raleel said:
Yea, this is strictly a nostalgia run. It does have an archetype or two that didn’t make it into future editions.
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Seconded.

Playing and running Hackers and Riggers was a nightmare for both GMs and players alike at least before any edition past 4E.

As much as I’m tempted extreme hard pass due to the hacking and rigging rules.
 
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And as I say it is a nostalgia run, that’s not to put it down. You want that, go for it, I’m happy you get your thing. I’m happy you are getting the former wage mage and the rocker. Heck, I think those two are extremely cyberpunk.
 
TristramEvans said:
So when you say the Drivethru version doesn't have the colour plates, does that mean all the character templates are missing?
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The pages are still there, but they're reproduced as regular black and white pages instead of color plates.

opaopajr said:
Let people enjoy the nostalgia, I'd rather fire back up the 16-bit console games of Shadowrun. :madgoose: I'm still a salty goose from all this time.
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Same. Something I deleted from my post above was that I'd probably be a lot more excited about some kind of 16-bit Shadowrun Classics Collection for modern consoles and Steam containing the Genesis, SNES, and a newly translated Sega CD game. The Genesis game alone would be worth it.
 
Raleel said:
And as I say it is a nostalgia run, that’s not to put it down. You want that, go for it, I’m happy you get your thing. I’m happy you are getting the former wage mage and the rocker. Heck, I think those two are extremely cyberpunk.
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Pretty much this.

I was pretty much a collector SR books throughout the various editions, including some of the setting materials that were hanging around from 1e when 2e was released. I'm not so sure that I would get value in purchasing the 1e core book, though, but I'm stoked for people to have the opportunity to get it if that's going to float their boat.
 
Gabriel said:
Something I deleted from my post above was that I'd probably be a lot more excited about some kind of 16-bit Shadowrun Classics Collection for modern consoles and Steam containing the Genesis, SNES, and a newly translated Sega CD game. The Genesis game alone would be worth it.
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The Genesis game was really ahead of it's time. Probably the first open-world game I've played, well before GTA. The way it integrated a web of contacts and the Matrix over the city layer was superb.

About the TTRPG, I'd love to see a "Nu 2E" that tweaked 2E into a simpler, faster, more playable ruleset. While I admire 3E and 4E efforts into more comprehensivenes, looking now I feel it was a mistake. If anything, they should have went the opposite direction and make it more D&D-Shadowrun rather than the Gurps-Shadowrun it became, IMO.
 
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Silverlion said:
Looks like everything old is new again? This seems like an odd choice. Then again we're doing a lot of remakes these days.


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Yep, I caught that on their Instagram thread and thought to myself. "Good, they've finally grown some common sense and offered up the better editions of Shadowrun for print. In my opinion 1e/2e being the best editions of Shadowrun.
 
I think 3E is my favorite and I can't stand anything after that. 1E was interesting at the time but badly needed a rules tweak (which 2nd and 3rd provided) Though these days I'd be more likely to run Wetwired, Sprawlrunners*, or Cities Without Number than Shadowrun.


*I ran Shadowrun using Savage Worlds but Sprawlrunners is more than up to the task without my extra work.
 
Personally I'm waiting for a POD version of 2nd ed to materialize. Pink Fohawk sent Catalyst Games his own book so that they could scan it and publish it. Hope this will be done soon

My 1st ed is falling apart and I'd really like to replace it with a physical copy of 2nd ed. I also own 3rd, but that edition doesn't appeal to me at all.
 
What are the differences between 1e and 2e?
I have the 2e core book and it has the same cover. 2e is also the only edition I've played.
I also have the 20th Anniversary Edition book, which is 4e I believe. Didn't really like it. I love the old Matrix rules from earlier editions and it didn't have that.
 
The Mad Hatter said:
What are the differences between 1e and 2e?
I have the 2e core book and it has the same cover. 2e is also the only edition I've played.
I also have the 20th Anniversary Edition book, which is 4e I believe. Didn't really like it. I love the old Matrix rules from earlier editions and it didn't have that.
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2nd ed is in many ways 1st ed with errata, but there are a few new flourishes: damage staging on all weapons is set to 2 (much easier to run), increased initiative is mildly nerfed (you subtract 10 from your reaction score to decide your next action, not 7 like in 1st ed), armor is a lot less powerful (in 1st each level of armor counted as automatic body successes for the purpose of staging, while in 2nd ed the armor rating reduces the power level of the attack befor you roll body to stage down damage), and there are fewer pools in 2nd ed (Combat, Spell, Hacking and Rigging I believe).

They are similar enough for you to use first ed supplements without a lot of trouble, but there are very concrete improvements in 2nd ed that I wouldn't be without.
 
UnplayedRanger said:
I’ve always felt like I would love Shadowrun, but no one else in my group is interested in it.
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Only played it a handful of times myself and would love to give it a good run under a GM that knows how to make it purr. Love the background. Although I think my memory of it is stuck in the earlier editions. We tried the Anarchy ruleset a few years back but that was a broken mess of half-baked mechanics and typos. Should have gone with Savage Worlds, but then its not Shadowrun any more at that point but just another Savage Worlds game.
 
StonesThree said:
I noticed they just dropped a THIRD version of the 6e core book! Not bad for an edition thats just over 4 years old.
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You can blame the people that are going to buy it despite owning the previous covers...:grin:
 
StonesThree said:
Only played it a handful of times myself and would love to give it a good run under a GM that knows how to make it purr. Love the background. Although I think my memory of it is stuck in the earlier editions. We tried the Anarchy ruleset a few years back but that was a broken mess of half-baked mechanics and typos. Should have gone with Savage Worlds, but then its not Shadowrun any more at that point but just another Savage Worlds game.
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I went back to 1st and 2nd ed a few months ago, and I was surprised that the game I remembered being a flaming pile of complex rules, was in fact a pretty sleek engine.

There are broken parts (Matrix and Rigging, I'm looking at you!) but the core engine is simple as dirt. The skill system is a d6 pool where you normally won't roll more than 6 dice. Combat and spellcasting adds complexity, but never ridiculous ammounts.
 
Kardinal Tabbe said:
There are broken parts (Matrix and Rigging, I'm looking at you!) but the core engine is simple as dirt. The skill system is a d6 pool where you normally won't roll more than 6 dice. Combat and spellcasting adds complexity, but never ridiculous ammounts.
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Great way to put it!

Instead of going on a more expansive and unified (and sanitized?) "Gurpsfied" direction with 3e/4e, they should have focused on that simple, slightly idyosincratic (and fun!) d6 pool core, while simplifying the hacking & rigging sub-systems (to the degree of spellcasting and summoning would be nice, as you say). That's my dream 2.5E edition that never happened.

P.S: it's only me who see sparks of OSR in those 1E and 2E? CRKrueger CRKrueger ? Fenris-77 Fenris-77 , are there cyberpunk hacks for The Black Hack?
 
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The Mad Hatter said:
What are the differences between 1e and 2e?
I have the 2e core book and it has the same cover. 2e is also the only edition I've played.
I also have the 20th Anniversary Edition book, which is 4e I believe. Didn't really like it. I love the old Matrix rules from earlier editions and it didn't have that.
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in addition to Kardinal Tabbe Kardinal Tabbe 's excellent rundown, 1e has the rocker and the burned out mage. while seemingly a minor thing, I think that those two are very key to a tone that was lost from later editions. they left early, but the tribesman (in 1e and 2e, gone by 3e but some flavor with the tribal shaman), the detective (investigator in 3e, specialized to occult investigator in 4e and 5e), and the bodyguard (gone by 3e) held out until 4e when things became... different.

by 4e, you are looking at a lot of paramilitary, military, and folks defined almost exclusively by direct combat and few are defined by anything else. gone are most of the "cultural" adjectives (elven decker is gone by 2e, as is ork merc, dwarf merc is gone by 2e, radical eco shaman pops up and is gone almost immediately) except for "street" or "combat".

I think this goes a long way to flavoring the game, even though it is capable of a lot more. they don't give you any other examples though, and that's frustrating. 1e, for all its mechanical warts, has this flavor. You can see the rocker raising a crowd and inspiring the fight against the corps, you can see the burned out mage having a role as a magical advisor and a cyberpunk story, you can see the tribesman being able to call upon some friends to get stuff done.

by 6e, you got the adept (magic fight stuff with fists or guns), combat mage (fight stuff with spells), covert ops (sneaky fight stuff), decker (aka support), face (the roleplayer), rigger (watches fast and furious), street sammie (edgy fight stuff), street shaman (fight stuff with spells, but more like an angry hippy), technomancer (aka support, but i don't like having a deck), and weapon spec (fight stuff, with guns obviously).
 
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StonesThree said:
Only played it a handful of times myself and would love to give it a good run under a GM that knows how to make it purr. Love the background. Although I think my memory of it is stuck in the earlier editions. We tried the Anarchy ruleset a few years back but that was a broken mess of half-baked mechanics and typos. Should have gone with Savage Worlds, but then its not Shadowrun any more at that point but just another Savage Worlds game.
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I'm not here to tell you it will work for you, but I can say that Shadowrun felt more Shadowrunish in Savage Worlds to me than any of the Shadowrun editions I ran, even my personal favorite of 3rd. My Wetwired and Cities Without Number thoughts are more theoretical (though I'm interested to try both), but my experience using SW is actual. I liked the speed and deadliness of combat (yes, even with bennies, though Gritty Damage helps). Physical Adepts were harder to implement, but no player wanted one making it a GM problem I could handle by just giving them powers or reskinning some cyber. I would have worked them out had a player wanted one. Having since gotten Sprawlrunners, I'd use that and just keep the setting Shadowrun. While some game rules can help or hinder running a setting, Shadowrun's cyber and magic didn't feel too far removed from Savage Worlds for me. That all said, any of the rulebooks for 1st-3rd would be worth it for the setting info.
 
Brander said:
I'm not here to tell you it will work for you, but I can say that Shadowrun felt more Shadowrunish in Savage Worlds to me than any of the Shadowrun editions I ran, even my personal favorite of 3rd. My Wetwired and Cities Without Number thoughts are more theoretical (though I'm interested to try both), but my experience using SW is actual. I liked the speed and deadliness of combat (yes, even with bennies, though Gritty Damage helps). Physical Adepts were harder to implement, but no player wanted one making it a GM problem I could handle by just giving them powers or reskinning some cyber. I would have worked them out had a player wanted one. Having since gotten Sprawlrunners, I'd use that and just keep the setting Shadowrun. While some game rules can help or hinder running a setting, Shadowrun's cyber and magic didn't feel too far removed from Savage Worlds for me. That all said, any of the rulebooks for 1st-3rd would be worth it for the setting info.
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I've been toying with just about everything Brander brought up here here in Foundry planning a one-shot for my remote group and I concur with all of it. I tried the SR5 implementation for Foundry and STILL didn't like SR5, so I'm going ahead with SW for it, although I'm bringing in Zozer's excellent (and notably card-based) hacking system from Zaibatsu for it. I've got DNA/DOA just about done and we'll see how it goes once we play it.
 
Raleel said:
in addition to Kardinal Tabbe Kardinal Tabbe 's excellent rundown, 1e has the rocker and the burned out mage. while seemingly a minor thing, I think that those two are very key to a tone that was lost from later editions. they left early, but the tribesman (in 1e and 2e, gone by 3e but some flavor with the tribal shaman), the detective (investigator in 3e, specialized to occult investigator in 4e and 5e), and the bodyguard (gone by 3e) held out until 4e when things became... different.

by 4e, you are looking at a lot of paramilitary, military, and folks defined almost exclusively by direct combat and few are defined by anything else. gone are most of the "cultural" adjectives (elven decker is gone by 2e, as is ork merc, dwarf merc is gone by 2e, radical eco shaman pops up and is gone almost immediately) except for "street" or "combat".

I think this goes a long way to flavoring the game, even though it is capable of a lot more. they don't give you any other examples though, and that's frustrating. 1e, for all its mechanical warts, has this flavor. You can see the rocker raising a crowd and inspiring the fight against the corps, you can see the burned out mage having a role as a magical advisor and a cyberpunk story, you can see the tribesman being able to call upon some friends to get stuff done.

by 6e, you got the adept (magic fight stuff with fists or guns), combat mage (fight stuff with spells), covert ops (sneaky fight stuff), decker (aka support), face (the roleplayer), rigger (watches fast and furious), street sammie (edgy fight stuff), street shaman (fight stuff with spells, but more like an angry hippy), technomancer (aka support, but i don't like having a deck), and weapon spec (fight stuff, with guns obviously).
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1e sounds a hell of a lot more fun then later editions.
 
StonesThree said:
1e sounds a hell of a lot more fun then later editions.
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I also enjoy the actual layout and font size and page color with the first couple books as well. Makes them much easier to read and digest the material. The most recent editions were a real nightmare to read through. Dark pages and light or faded fonts are terrible to read, very much eye fatiguing.
 
Raleel said:
by 6e, you got the adept (magic fight stuff with fists or guns), combat mage (fight stuff with spells), covert ops (sneaky fight stuff), decker (aka support), face (the roleplayer), rigger (watches fast and furious), street sammie (edgy fight stuff), street shaman (fight stuff with spells, but more like an angry hippy), technomancer (aka support, but i don't like having a deck), and weapon spec (fight stuff, with guns obviously).
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This is perhaps the best--and maybe most cynical--breakdown of Shadowrun that I may have ever seen. I love it.

My only critique is that the Technomancer might have been more aptly described as "technomancer (aka support, but I'm special so there)..." ;)
 
UnplayedRanger said:
So I guess on the stream they did tease that 2E might also get a reprint down the line.

Saw it posted on Twitter.
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Wait. Isn't this available on DTRPG or at least used to be available on DTRPG?
 
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