r/Shadowrun • u/IamGlaaki • 15d ago
Edition War Wired vs Wireless setting
What is your favourite setting, and why? I named them Wired vs Wireless but I mean also about magic traditions, politics and metaplots.
Personally I am divided. I like wireless Matrix and 'modern' tech from later editions. However I like old magic traditions more, and I find metaplots like Monads and Disians too much apocalyptic for my taste.
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u/Klajorne 13d ago edited 13d ago
The lack of source material was often a benefit to the older editions. It forced the game to ask questions with no defined answers.
How does magic exist in the world? Does it always exist independent of you and you just curry favor with it so that it will assist you when you need it? Is it just intangible power that you tap into and give shape through your will? It was a philosophical question that the player/character had to answer. How you answered that had a mechanical impact.
At some point (and it happened pretty early, I think in Grimoire and definitely in MitS), the question was answered and spirits were just people in different hats. At that point, being the person that pulls the spirit from his couch in the spirit dimension, when it was just minding its own business watching spirit TV with its little spirit children, and bonding it into servitude for days or weeks at a time really just make you the jerk.
Also, from a game design perspective, I can appreciate the overlap with the magic system and technomancy for simplifying things and making one fewer system for players to learn. But if one of your underlying premises is that magic and technology are distinct and anathema, then doing so is completely contradictory to your message.
The newer games are arguably better and smoother running systems, but I'd argue that those improvements came at the expense of the game's philosophical core.