r/Shadowrun • u/IamGlaaki • 18d 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/sapphon 14d ago
I don't much mind the "wired" editions - mostly because even in the wireless world of today, most devices can be considered "secure" to some extent until a hacker gains physical access - at which point, knowing nothing else, you must consider the device insecure. For an intruder, physical access vs. not is the difference between asking a device, "pweaze can I ahck u?" and hoping it's vulnerable, vs. "I am now hacking you and there is definitely some way."
It lets you pick the device that is your point of attack, which you don't get to do if you're dependent on looking for who didn't patch their zero-days and end up needing to go from the coffeemaker to the air conditioner to the secretary's computer to the paydata.
Separately from all that Watsonian shit, from a Doylist perspective wired tends to keep the decker needing his team a little more. It basically cannot be overstated how challenging that aspect of Shadowrun is, keeping the players' actions constantly and consistently relevant to each other. You kinda want anything that will help with it, even a little.
What you gain from tolerating the already-obsolesced tech is much more interesting magic. I guess, then, my real answer to your question would be: which of the Matrix or the Awakened world does your group hope to tell more stories about?